Saturday, May 14, 2011

ETS LRT scheduling. Is it rapid transit.

What insanity, the LRT may be early and you'll miss it, or it will be late and you'll miss your connection.  The help you'll get when reporting issues is simply a reiterating of the schedule they can't keep.  If ETS can't keep a train on schedule I doubt buses will ever be scheduled properly.  Pay more for lesser service, way to go ETS.  Got to platform at 11:17PM its 11:40 and two trains have gone by the other way, I guess 15 minute service takes ETS a little longer to achieve.  The schedule says 11:26 & 11:41,.holy shit its !1:43, 26 minutes and 3 trains heading other way.

Next day at train 11:37PM, scheduled for 11:41, 11:45 now ... guess train is off schedule another day... EVERYDAY.

How can they claim it's rapid transit.  I'll be mising my connection again, can I use Mandel's EXPO logic and take a cab and send the bill to the city.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

PS3 - Playstation

77,000,000 million users... Sony's sorry, but it happens to everyone, so they say.
Text below edited from SN298 show notes.
Sony PlayStation Network, had a compromise.  They posted an FAQ, a Frequently Asked Questions.  And I'm going to quote from two questions.
Question #6, they're asking themselves, "Does that mean all users' information was compromised?  Tell us more details of what personal information leaked.And the response is:  "In terms of possibility, yes.  We believe that an unauthorized person" - this is Sony speaking - "an unauthorized person has obtained the following information that you provided:  name, address (city, state/province, zip or postal code), country, email address, birth date, PlayStation Network password, login, password security answers, and handle/PSN online ID.  It is also possible that your profile data may have been obtained, including purchase history and billing address (city, state/province, zip or postal code).  If you have authorized a sub-account for your dependent, the same data with respect to your dependent may have been obtained.  If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or" - what is this, Qriocity, I guess, is their audio.
It's related.  "So it is possible" - continuing from Sony - "that your credit card number and expiration date may also have been obtained." 
And then Question #9 is:  "I want to know if my account has been affected."
Sony says, "To protect against possible identity theft or other financial loss" - love that opening - "we encourage you to remain vigilant to review your account statements and to monitor your credit reports.  Additionally, if you use the same username or password for your PlayStation Network or Qriocity service account for other unrelated services or accounts" - elsewhere on the Internet, they mean - "we strongly recommend that you change them.  When the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services are back on line, we also strongly recommend that you log on to change your password" at that time.
Steve: Yeah.  Sony says, "To protect against possible identity theft or other financial loss" - love that opening - "we encourage you to remain vigilant..."
Leo: [Laughing] Unlike us, apparently.Steve: Yeah, we haven't, but we want you to.
Leo: So now you have to.Steve: "...to review your account statements and to monitor your credit reports.  Additionally, if you use the same username or password for your PlayStation Network or Qriocity service account for other unrelated services or accounts" - elsewhere on the Internet, they mean - "we strongly recommend that you change them.  When the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services are back on line, we also strongly recommend that you log on to change your password" at that time.
Steve: Yeah.  Sony says, "To protect against possible identity theft or other financial loss" - love that opening - "we encourage you to remain vigilant..."
Leo: [Laughing] Unlike us, apparently.Steve: Yeah, we haven't, but we want you to.
Leo: So now you have to.Steve: "...to review your account statements and to monitor your credit reports.  Additionally, if you use the same username or password for your PlayStation Network or Qriocity service account for other unrelated services or accounts" - elsewhere on the Internet, they mean - "we strongly recommend that you change them.  When the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services are back on line, we also strongly recommend that you log on to change your password" at that time.
End edit from SN298 notes.

So the network is still offline on May 4 2011, been down over a week, even so a few days ago I got the PSN newsletter trying to sell stuff with no mention of the network issues.
Sony will now spend more on lawyers than they ever did on security.
Update: credit card data also stolen.
So Sony locks down the PS3, and movies with Cinavia; I saw Social Network in the theater, bought the blu-ray, Sony's Cinavia won't let me make a back up.  You can't count on Sony to protect your info and Sony won't let you protect yourself.  So Sony has locked down their stuff, or tried to, all the while ignoring locking down customers stuff. As a side note, while Sony has done many updates on the PS3 the browser still remains the worst you can find "Do you want to install the plug-in" - users will know what I mean.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

RE: Can't connect Legend as disc drive after Froyo update.

If you have an HTC Legend and can't access your computer as hard drive after updating from Eclair (2.1) to Froyo (2.2);  here's how I fixed this issue on my phone:

Go to settings.  Applications.
Select the "running" tab at top.
Scroll until you find "connect to PC" and select it.
When it opens tap the "force close" button.  Now tap the "clear data button"; when the warning pops up select OK.

Now make sure you default connection is set in "Applications / Connect to PC" to NOT "only charge"... and check the box that says "Ask me everytime".

Now connect your phone to your PC and it can again be accessed as a disc drive.
Fantastic phone aside from the smallest albeit stunning looking screen.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Check your mail carefully. Spear phishers out again.

From: Security Now! with Steve Gibson, Episode 295, recorded April 6, 2011

Steve: Okay.  So Epsilon is the world's largest permission-based email marketing services company.

Leo: Who knew?Steve: I know, never heard of them before.
Leo: Who knew, yeah.

Steve: 2,500 clients, including seven of the Fortune 10.  So seven of the largest 10 corporations in the United States use Epsilon to do their customer emailings.  So when we get email from, well, from 1-800-Flowers, AbeBooks, Air Miles, Ameriprise Financial, Barclays Bank, Beachbody, bebe stores, Best Buy, Brookstone, Capitol One, City Market, Citi, Dillons, Disney...
Leo:Steve: ...Destinations, Eileen Fisher, Ethan Allen, Food 4 Less, Fred Meyer, Fry's, Hilton Honors Program, Home Shopping Network, Jay C, JPMorgan Chase, King Soopers, Kroger, Lacoste, LL Bean Visa Card, Marriott Rewards, McKinsey & Company, MoneyGram, New York & Company, QFC, Ralphs, Red Roof Inn, Ritz-Carlton Rewards, Robert Half, Target, The College Board, TD Ameritrade, TiVo, US Bank, and Walgreens.  They were all breached.  That is, Epsilon is saying that 2 percent of its email clients, which 2 percent of 2,500 would be, what, 50, were affected.  Well, I just read the list of known clients who are now vulnerable to a much heightened level of spear-phishing.  The problem is that what was lost was the email databases for those companies.

Leo:Steve: Well, and names.
Leo: And names.

Steve: And that's the problem is that there's now - there's a much greater chance that you will click on a Hilton Honors Program email that knows your name.
So, I mean, the real news is read the email, then manually go to the website, entering the URL yourself, logging in, not through email, but using LastPass or whatever you use for logging in, and arrange to achieve the same end, but not clicking something that you receive in email.  Treat the email as just the information that something is important that they're bringing to your attention, like, oh, look, your miles are about to expire unless they hear from you immediately.Generally the phishing emails use an emergency of some sort to get people to act.  They're not saying, hi, we just wanted to make sure you're happy with the service we're providing you because people go, yeah, yeah, yeah, fine, delete.  No, it's that there's a call to action in spear-phishing emails that is presenting you with some dire event unless you take action.  And people go, ooh.  And in the moment of worry, they hit that, they click on that link without - even if they know better, it's like, oh, I'd better do this right now.

Listen to whole episode:
http://media.GRC.com/sn/SN-295.mp3

Get more:
http://twit.tv/sn