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ATMs running WinXP vulnerable via accessibility feature
User gets free reign of Russian bank's ATM by pressing shift five times.
http://blog.livedoor.jp/blackwingcat/archives/1960584.html
In the old, good Opera browser, holding down the shift key is used to select links within the page via the keyboard. I disabled Sticky Keys on my laptop(s) by removing the file SETHC.EXE so that I would stop triggering it unintentionally.
Miss America on Life Support
The Miss America Emails: How The Pageant’s CEO Really Talks About The Winners
In late August 2014, the CEO of the Miss America Organization, Sam Haskell, sent an email to the lead writer of the Miss America pageant telecast, Lewis Friedman, informing him of a change he wanted to make in the script: “I have decided that when referring to a woman who was once Miss America, we are no longer going to call them Forever Miss Americas....please change all script copy to reflect that they are Former Miss Americas!” Friedman replied, “I’d already changed “Forevers” to “Cunts.” Does that work for you?” Haskell’s short reply came quickly: “Perfect...bahahaha.”
[...] In December 2014, Friedman emailed Haskell to offer his condolences on the death of former Miss America Mary Ann Mobley, writing, “So sorry to hear about Mary Ann Mobley” The subject line of Friedman’s email read: “It should have been Kate Shindle.” Haskell replied, “Thanks so much Coach...even in my sadness you can make me laugh...how was the Kennedy Center Honors? Love you and appreciate you! Sam.”
[...] Haskell and Haddad also appeared to dislike Gretchen Carlson, who won the Miss America title in 1989 and was on the organization’s board of directors for many years. The root cause of their disdain, according to three sources, was Carlson’s push to modernize the organization and her refusal to attack former Miss Americas.
Haskell told Carlson not to have Hagan on her program, according to three sources familiar with the conversation. Carlson refused.
On Aug. 15, 2014, Weidner sent an email to a group of former Miss Americas, including Carlson, about Shindle’s book, saying, “Is it possible for each of you to speak out in defense of Sam and the organization?” Carlson replied, “It’s one thing to talk about your own personal experience as Miss America … but totally different to attack people individually.” Haskell forwarded Carlson’s response to Haddad, who replied to Haskell, “Snake but now u have not doubts as to her loyalty. Makes it easy not to respond. Right?”
Just before Shindle’s book came out, Haddad emailed Haskell and said, “Why don’t u read susan POWELL’s [former Miss America] email on the board call and say it’s a shame that only one miss america who has come forward to offer help in any way.” Haddad was referring to an email Powell had written that was supportive of Haskell. Haskell replied, “Brilliant…..fucking Brilliant!!!! That will drive Gretchen INFUCKINGSANE.” After the email exchange, Haskell did not feature Carlson in the next Miss America broadcast ― an unusual decision given her prominence.
[...] Adams recalled an encounter with Haskell at his home in which Haskell attempted to convince Adams to break up with Hagan and instead date his daughter. Haskell stretched out his arms and told Adams, “All of this can be yours,” ostensibly referring to his Oxford mansion and the family’s money. “You don’t need a piece of trash like Mallory. You need someone with class and money like my daughter,” he said, according to Adams.
[...] In August 2014, Haskell received an email from someone he knew, who said Hagan’s hairdresser in New York had been commenting on Hagan’s sex life while Hagan was living in Los Angeles, as well as her recent weight gain.
Haskell forwarded the email to Friedman saying, “Not a single day passes that I am not told some horrible story about Mallory.” Friedman replied, “Mallory’s preparing for her new career … as a blimp in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade As she continues to destroy her own credibility, her voice will attract less and less notice while she continues her descent to an unhappy pathetic footnote.” Friedman ended the email with, “Ps. Are we four the only ones not to have fucked Mallory?” Haskell replied and said, “It appears we are the only ones!”
Miss America CEO suspended over leaked emails revealed in story he calls 'unkind and untrue'
rDT summoned.
Holiday Recipes
Humanoid Robot Can Exercise and Break a "Sweat"
[Put here because it isn't substantially different than when the story ran last year.]
A robot designed to resemble the anatomy of a human boy can perform actions such as push-ups and sit-ups, and uses "sweat" to cool its motors:
The design of a new life-size bot named Kengoro closely resembles the anatomy of a teenage boy in body proportion, skeletal and muscular structure, and joint flexibility, researchers report online December 20 in Science Robotics. Compared with previous humanoid robots with more rigid, bulky bodies, Kengoro's anatomically inspired design [open, DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.aaq0899] [DX] gives the bot a wide range of motion to perform humanlike, full-body exercises.
Video (37s).
Also at Motherboard.
Previously: "Sweating" Robot can do More Push-Ups
Who will be remembered 1000 years from now
From the I-must-remember-to-start-a-major-war-and-mass-genocide dept.
Here's an interesting thought: who will be remembered 1000 years from now?
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20171220-how-to-be-remembered-in-1000-years/
I'd say Adolf Hitler, for one. But not Donald Trump or Hillary.
Churchill (Adolf's arch enemy)? Maybe by the British, but.....
Elon Musk?
Carrot Top?
Kim Kardashian for frell's sake???
Sexual Harassment in Indonesia's Cosplay Scene
And in other Indonesian news:
Gay Crackdown Continues in Indonesia Despite Court Ruling
Indonesia court jails men for two years over 'gay sex party'
Australian, American, Malaysian arrested in Indonesia's Bali for drugs
Vigilantes Stalk Indonesian Transgender Women
Indonesia is the world's 4th most populous country, behind the United States.
Please Tell Me I'm Hallucinating
I just ordered an Antminer L3+ so I can mine LiteCoin. When used with an L3+ the APW3++ power supply can be plugged into 110V. The S9 BitCoin miner requires 220V.
I expected the L3+ to make me rich beyond my wildest dreams with its yield of $7000/year. The S9 profit is about the same but it uses 500W more.
But today I read somewhere that Ethereum can't be mined with ASICs. One must - "must" - use the CPU or GPU. It seems that Ethereum's Scrypt proof-of-work is designed to defeat ASICs. Rather than lots of arithmetic as in the case of BitCoin mining Scrypt requires a lot of memory.
I was puzzled by that so I looked into it when I got home this evening - and yes one can use a CPU or GPU.
But to gain the advantage of one's GPU it must have enough memory to fit the entire "DAG File" into video ram. Presently that file is somewhat less than 2 GB but it is slowly growing.
I found a review of the AMD Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 470 that claimed it could perform 2.9 MH/s.
Newegg's page on the 470 recommends a 500W power supply. My Linux box has a 1000W supply. But let's suppose it needs all those 500 watts.
An Ethereum mining profit calculator I discovered by praying to Google, with the 8.16 cents per kilowatt-hour here in the Pacific Northwest with its abundance of hydroelectric dams predict a yearly profit of one hundred thousand dollars per year.
I gotta get me some of that.
I expect that outrageous profit is not yet well-known because BitCoin is getting all the press.
I participated in NAGA's Initial Coin Offering on Friday. I bought 1,400 tokens at one dollar apiece. The company being NAGA is a regular finance firm - so its regulated. I didn't have time to read their whitepaper before the ICO closed but I trust the opinion of the wise old friend who recommended NAGA to me.
Presently I own approximately equal amounts of BitCoin, BitCoin Hash, LiteCoin, Ethereum, Dash and B2B.
The B2B will quite likely turn out to be a mistake because CoinMarketCap's All Cryptocurrencies table said that B2B was going rapidly upward in price.
It was only after I bought some when I looked at the table a second time only to find that B2B had a daily volume of roughly $50k. With such a low volume just one sale or purchase will alter its price by a significant amount.
Really the wise thing would have been to sell it all back but I decided to hold onto it. You know just like my LivePicture stock certificate - it sure is pretty!
LivePicture was the only company whose options have vested for me. That experience led me to avoid startups entirely.
But I'm working part-time for one since a couple weeks ago. Sorry it's in stealth mode so I can't give you a clue but I am convinced its business plan is sound.
Sex Harassment and the Office Christmas* Party
Holiday Parties Gone Wrong: Careful Where You Hang The Mistletoe
*Holiday Party #WarOnChristmas
Why corporations suck (or Is it just McDees)
Went to McDonald's for lunch today (shopping at WallyWorld) and waited FOREVER!
It's not like they were that busy; they could take your money faster than anything. But then you waited...and waited...and waited.
I believe it is all to try to force people onto their app and kiosk: order it and it will be ready ahead of time: meanwhile, we'll lay off more people! Yay, we win!
My wife doesn't like the 'order kiosk': she doesn't like it taking away jobs, and I don't like the app idea (or McDonald's period). Even as a person of autism who doesn't care for interacting with people, I prefer talking to a person ( I can then hold THEM responsible for a screwup, lol).
We finally get our food and the order is wrong, so we have to go back up and get it done again.
Meanwhile, people have had their money taken from them quickly and are lining up to get their food and the line just keeps getting longer and longer and people are waiting longer and longer....
(I prefer A&W: better food, great rootbeer, much better fries.)
So my guess is that McDonald's is willing to take a short term kick up the ass and make their customers wait longer and longer in order to make them order THEIR way.
Me, I'd just rather wait at A&W.
Facefook feature - creepy or not?
Well, I sat down at a computer which I haven't used in a long time. More than a year? I'm really not sure when I last logged into Facebook with it. For some reason, I thought I'd click on Facebook. Firefox has my saved password, I should just click and be in. Ooops - I'm not in. It wants me to enter a password, or click the "forgot password" thingy. Well - actually, I didn't want on Facebook very badly. It's far to much trouble to go to my own computer, and retrieve the password. I remember now that I changed the password about a year ago, give or take a little.
NOTE: I did NOT click the button to ask for a new password or anything. I loaded the login page, entered an invalid password, and was redirected back to the login page. End of story - the page was then closed.
So, a few days later - not minutes later, or hours later, but DAYS later - I check my email, and Facefook is offering to log me in. Hmmmm? Fact is, I've logged in, from this computer, since then. I wanted to check up on a group of veterans, and checked their Facebook page.
From: Facebook
Guy, get back on Facebook with one click
Hi Guy,
It looks like you're having trouble logging into Facebook. Just click the button below and we'll log you in.
Get Back on Facebook
If you weren't trying to log in, let us know.
Now, I might understand this email, had I received it within a few minutes of the failed login. The system noticed that someone failed a login, and automatically generated an email - that seems like it might be a "feature". But, this email is days, almost a week, after the fact. WTF? Doesn't look like an automagic script thing to me. Worse, as I say, I DID log in, and check the page that I was interested in, then logged out. That probably should have turned off any automagic actions that the system was working on.
The email APPEARS TO BE from Facefook, but I'm sure as hell not clicking the link provided.
So, who thinks that I'm being phished, and who thinks that Facefook (or someone at Facefook) has chosen to give me some personal attentio? Shit looks weird to me!
Oh, before anyone asks, I'll decline to provide the actual email with identifying information. True, those identifiers are false, but I'd rather not associate them with this, or other accounts using this username, etc.
