On April 27, 1986, a Florida man with workplace access to a satellite transmission dish – and a financial beef with HBO -- pulled off the kind of audacious stunt that were it to happen today would likely land him in prison for a long, long time.From a 2011 Buzzblog post:
John MacDougall, then 25, was the lonely pamphleteer of lore, only instead of paper and ink he was armed with a 30-foot transmission dish, an electronic keyboard, and a burning objection to HBO's decision in 1986 to begin scrambling its satellite signal and charging viewers $12.95 a month.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
On April 27, 1986, a Florida man with workplace access to a satellite transmission dish – and a financial beef with HBO -- pulled off the kind of audacious stunt that were it to happen today would likely land him in prison for a long, long time.
From a 2011 Buzzblog post:
John MacDougall, then 25, was the lonely pamphleteer of lore, only instead of paper and ink he was armed with a 30-foot transmission dish, an electronic keyboard, and a burning objection to HBO's decision in 1986 to begin scrambling its satellite signal and charging viewers $12.95 a month.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Our next installment of “Geek-themed Meme of the Week” comes courtesy of the Twitter account of INE, Inc., and will be familiar to all network professionals. INE via Twitter
How familiar? https://twitter.com/SDNgeek/status/723644359099322369
If you’d like to catch up on past “Geek-Themed Memes of the Week,” you can find the archive here.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Our next installment of “Geek-themed Meme of the Week” comes courtesy of the Twitter account of INE, Inc., and will be familiar to all network professionals. INE via Twitter
How familiar? https://twitter.com/SDNgeek/status/723644359099322369
If you’d like to catch up on past “Geek-Themed Memes of the Week,” you can find the archive here.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Our next installment of “Geek-themed Meme of the Week” comes courtesy of the Twitter account of INE, Inc., and will be familiar to all network professionals. INE via Twitter
How familiar? https://twitter.com/SDNgeek/status/723644359099322369
If you’d like to catch up on past “Geek-Themed Memes of the Week,” you can find the archive here.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Jason Koebler at Motherboard has done the worlds of reading, writing and recycling a massive favor by clarifying – debunking, in many cases – a run-amok story from earlier this week that created the erroneous impression that Apple was profiting handsomely from the mining of millions of dollars worth of gold from old iGadgets. Koebler’s piece begins:
You may have seen a viral headline floating around over the last few days: Apple recycled $40 million worth of gold last year, which was extracted from iPhones. Almost none of what was reported is true.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
No one laughed more than I did when the Internet stepped up and voted overwhelmingly to name a British research ship Boaty McBoatface. The suggested moniker still made me giggle days later.But now comes word that the officials tasked with actually naming the ship are not that big on Boaty. From a story in the Guardian:
However, Jo Johnson, the science minister, signaled the government was preparing to activate its get-out clause. “The new royal research ship will be sailing into the world’s iciest waters to address global challenges that affect the lives of hundreds of millions of people, including global warming, the melting of polar ice and rising sea levels,” he said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
No one laughed more than I did when the Internet stepped up and voted overwhelmingly to name a British research ship Boaty McBoatface. The suggested moniker still made me giggle days later.But now comes word that the officials tasked with actually naming the ship are not that big on Boaty. From a story in the Guardian:
However, Jo Johnson, the science minister, signaled the government was preparing to activate its get-out clause. “The new royal research ship will be sailing into the world’s iciest waters to address global challenges that affect the lives of hundreds of millions of people, including global warming, the melting of polar ice and rising sea levels,” he said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
That didn’t take long.In an interview published only two days ago by Variety, the head of AMC Entertainment, Adam Aron, suggested that making his company’s theaters more “texting friendly” would be just the ticket to attract more moviegoers, particularly younger ones.As anyone other than Aron should have expected, reaction to the idea was almost universally negative.And so this morning, while many media outlets were just getting around to reporting on Aron’s texting trial balloon, AMC stuck a pin in it via Twitter: “NO TEXTING AT AMC. Won't happen. You spoke. We listened. Quickly, that idea has been sent to the cutting room floor.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
At least according to Google Chrome AutocompleteHaving long found Google Chrome’s Autocomplete feature useful, the thought was to have a little fun by combining its predictive capabilities with journalism’s “Most Powerful (Whatever)” list format by typing into the search box “Most powerful a” … “Most powerful b” … and on through the alphabet to “Most powerful z.” The results, primarily a byproduct of the public’s frequency of searching on those terms, are a mixture of what you might expect and some real head-scratchers. (Note: The slide images were created by one of our designers using a newly downloaded version of Chrome, so your mileage may vary.)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Continuing what should be but hasn’t been our weekly series highlighting the better tech-related memes … Reddit
Having used the thumbprint reader on my iPhone for some time now, it has become a habit of the muscle-memory variety, meaning that I quite regularly have unlocked my phone before I have completed reading an alert that had caught my attention. So, too, a user of Reddit who submitted the above meme.I am guessing that there’s probably an easy solution. But since this certainly must be among the most First World of First World Problems ever encountered, I’ve yet to invest the time to search it out. Meanwhile, it’s oddly comforting to know that I am not alone.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Detailing a litany of blatant, widespread and systematic abuses, the FCC late yesterday announced its intention to fine wireless provider Total Call Mobile some $51 million for allegedly creating tens of thousands of phony Lifeline accounts that defrauded the Universal Service Fund of almost $10 million.The fine would be the largest ever levied against a Lifeline provider, according to the FCC. The Lifeline program, established in 1996, provides discounted and free landline and mobile phone service to low-income consumers. Derided as “Obama phones,” the program has been controversial and plagued by fraud.“We reserve the strongest sanctions for those who defraud or abuse federal programs,” said Enforcement Bureau Chief Travis LeBlanc. “Any waste, fraud, or abuse in the Lifeline program diverts scarce funds from the consumers they are meant to serve and undermines the public’s trust in the program and its stewardship.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The Federal Trade Commission is warning of “a new twist” on the old tech-support scam.From an FTC blog post:
Lately, we’ve heard reports that people are getting calls from someone claiming to be from the Global Privacy Enforcement Network. Their claim? That your email account has been hacked and is sending fraudulent messages. They say they’ll have to take legal action against you, unless you let them fix the problem right away.If you raise questions, the scammers turn up the pressure – but they’ve also given out phone numbers of actual Federal Trade Commission staff (who have been surprised to get calls). The scammers also have sent people to the actual website for the Global Privacy Enforcement Network. (It’s a real thing: it’s an organization that helps governments work together on cross-border privacy cooperation.)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The Federal Trade Commission is warning of “a new twist” on the old tech-support scam.From an FTC blog post:
Lately, we’ve heard reports that people are getting calls from someone claiming to be from the Global Privacy Enforcement Network. Their claim? That your email account has been hacked and is sending fraudulent messages. They say they’ll have to take legal action against you, unless you let them fix the problem right away.If you raise questions, the scammers turn up the pressure – but they’ve also given out phone numbers of actual Federal Trade Commission staff (who have been surprised to get calls). The scammers also have sent people to the actual website for the Global Privacy Enforcement Network. (It’s a real thing: it’s an organization that helps governments work together on cross-border privacy cooperation.)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The New York Times yesterday had an account of an ongoing effort to modernize the IT infrastructure and end-user equipment relied upon by those whose workplace address is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. In a sense, the story was rather alarming, as it turns out the White House was in sore need of just about new everything.There were a couple of networking nuggets worth noting in the story.First was the matter of old cabling … lots and lots of the stuff.
One of his first tasks was trying to map the miles of Ethernet cables and phone wires inside the walls of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The team of technicians eventually discovered and removed 13,000 pounds of abandoned cables that no longer served any purpose.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
These "free USB sticks" were left for the taking in our break room here at Network World headquarters.And, even though I’m reasonably certain I know who left them, there’s no way I’m falling for the old “No viruses! Honest!” trick.
To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The very first issue of Network World – 48 pages of glorious magazine print – was published on March 24, 1986. To mark the occasion we have assembled a number of reminiscences, including a collection of images from that debut edition, which you can see here.NETWORK WORLD TURNS 30: The networked world |9 ways technology will change within the next 10 years | The most momentous tech events of the past 30 years | 30 years of gadgets, computers and video games from my fabulous life | Network World celebrates 30 years
From having combed that first issue for those images, I can report that back then we were all concerned about network reliability, carrier shenanigans, hackers stealing proprietary information, email privacy and employees goofing off when they should be working. Nice to know we don’t have to worry about that stuff anymore.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Where it all began, 30 years agoNetwork world is turning 30. Don’t be fooled by the “Volume 3, Number 3” printed under the masthead, this was indeed the front page of the very first edition of Network World, dated March 24, 1986. Pre-Internet, of course, it was print-only. The featured front-page story – “Users force LU 6.2 issue” – was written by John Dix, then a senior editor, today our editor-in-chief. We’ve plucked a few other highlights from that issue, including ads, so enjoy the walk down Memory Lane.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Where it all began, 30 years agoNetwork world is turning 30. Don’t be fooled by the “Volume 3, Number 3” printed under the masthead, this was indeed the front page of the very first edition of Network World, dated March 24, 1986. Pre-Internet, of course, it was print-only. The featured front-page story – “Users force LU 6.2 issue” – was written by John Dix, then a senior editor, today our editor-in-chief. We’ve plucked a few other highlights from that issue, including ads, so enjoy the walk down Memory Lane.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
David Kaczynski has lived the unimaginable: His brother Ted, the Unabomber, did more than merely kill and maim those who were victims of his attacks, he exacted a terrible toll on his own family, as is always the case with those who commit evil acts.Now David Kaczynski has written a book -- Every Last Tie – that aspires to makes some sense of an otherwise senseless situation. From a review in the New Republic:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Paul McNamara