I've always considered myself a savvy online consumer. I'm an IT professional, a software engineer and independent consultant. I make all my passwords strong, I don't click on popups or install suspicious software, I don't ever purchase anything from shady online dealers or web sites that don't use secure connections. I thought I was fairly vigilant and smart about how I conducted business online.

Apparently not!

Someone, somewhere managed to get the number of the debit card for my business. They went to PayPal and opened up a "one time use" account with my name and the debit card number. They then used this PayPal account to purchase about $450 worth of virtual goods (gold/items) from various sites that sell World of Warcraft junk, in eight separate transactions at eight different web sites. I imagine that the person responsible is quickly turning these unreal items around for real cash, likely at a discount which encourages gamers to buy fast and not ask too many questions. Highly effective money laundering! (Thanks, World of Warcraft!)

I blame PayPal one hundred percent for this. People should not be able to open up new PayPal accounts without some kind of in-person verification, even if it's just a phone call - there need to be more stringent requirements at sign up, especially for so-called "one time use" accounts. I wish PayPal lots of luck in tracking down the malefactor(s) behind this neat little theft... everyone thinks PayPal is "crazy secure" and it's the gold standard for online commerce, yet it is VERY easily compromised. The hackers didn't need any of my bank account numbers or info, they didn't have to decrypt anything, they didn't need any of my passwords or "key questions" regarding personal information, or special images that only I can verify by sight - none of the measures that supposedly make online transactions more "secure". They didn't have to "phish" me. They just obtained the number and my name, and maybe got my SSN and address from one of the big lists floating around the Internet that hackers trade with each other. Calling the person(s) responsible for this "hacker" may even be an insult to real hackers, considering how little effort they needed to expend. (Thanks, PayPal!)

Luckily for me, I check my bank account online on a daily basis. And also lucky that they decided to make a bunch of transactions all on the same day, making it blatantly obvious what was happening. The bank cancelled my debit card (now I have to get a new one and figure out how to readjust all my billing) and PayPal is aware of the situation, so all I have to do is sit back and wait for my money to be given back to me. Maybe it's even possible that I reacted fast enough to stop some of those transactions from going through and screw the "hacker" a little bit and also make the "vendors" selling WoW junk aware that they just got screwed too.

Moral of the story - I will no longer use my business debit card online, will not use it to pay bills, and will not attach it to PayPal. I'll just use my bank's bill paying utilities to pay off my vendors and send them checks for the bills; that should even help my cash flow a little bit because money won't be instantly deducted by them any more. Be very, very wary of PayPal folks! They're the weak link in the chain at this point.

Poll #1421166 Livejournal and Facebook
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Do you use Facebook?

Assuming you use Facebook, do you read the LJ entries I feed there?

Where would you prefer to read longer content posts from me?

Computers do math with electricity.

If you're familiar with the concept of an electrical circuit, you know that it involves electricity traveling in a circle on a wire between a power input and some output (like between a battery and a lightbulb). That is essentially all a computer is; it's millions and millions of circuits and they're all extremely tiny. Each microchip in your computer is a collection of "integrated circuits" and those are the business ends of your computer, where all the math happens.

Remember way back in kindergarten or first grade, when you were learning numbers? There were flash cards that showed a picture of two apples, then a plus sign, then two more apples, then an equals sign and question mark. That was math in its most basic form, 2 + 2 = 4. Your computer is doing the same thing inside its microchips (especially the Central Processor a.k.a. CPU), except it's doing math with electricity; different circuits and different amounts of electricity represent numbers and operations - a computer in kindergarten might see two lit up lightbulbs plus two lit up lightbulbs equals four lit up lightbulbs! At any given time, the electricity inside your computer's circuits is either "on" or "off" and that's why computers use binary representations of numbers for their math (1 for on and 0 for off). In short - when the electrical currents are combined, the logic built into the circuits changes it into different configurations, and new numbers are the result.

People use decimal numbers, the digits zero through ten; but because computers only use on and off it's easier to use just two numbers to represent all numbers - this is called binary notation. A binary digit is also called a "bit" and when you hear about a 64-bit processor that means it's a collection of circuits that can read 64 binary digits at the same time, a string of digits that could look something like this:

0010101010111001010100010011101101111110101010101101010101101001

It may not look like it means anything, but those numbers represent one or more instructions the computer has to execute - something along the lines of "Add 2 and 2" or some other step in a series of instructions that tells the computer to do things with other instructions. When someone says that a CPU is "Two Gigahertz" they're saying that the computer is doing two billion instructions every second (hertz just means "per second"). Your computer is doing something like "Add 2 and 2" TWO BILLION times every second! You can do a lot of really cool things when you can do that much math that quickly.

You can really tell that it's faster. The response time on tapping things like mail and photos has sped up quite a bit. The new camera makes images look great, though it doesn't seem like you can autofocus while you're recording a video - and the ambient sound recording during the video isn't half bad, I was worried I would need to get some kind of external mike in order to really catch sound.

The setup process was completely painless for me (I upgraded); I just synced all my info (all my photos and a bunch more of my audio) and went to AT&T's web site to confirm activation. It's all working very well so far... really the only differences I've noticed so far are response time and photos. The compass is a trinket by itself, but it also works well.

Not having MMS PISSES ME OFF. This is a huge feature, I want to be able to send locations and pictures and clips of things to other iPhones!! Not having tethering also pisses me off, but nowhere near as much as the lack of rich messaging. Screw you, AT&T.

I don't know if people really care about this sort of thing as much as I do... but as a New Yorker (and still a relatively new one, that may factor in) I find that I need to plan my trips around the city. Travel time on public transportation is an important variable to consider, as are schedules for said transportation options.

The thing is, even though applications like Google Maps allow you to make multiple "stops" on a trip, you still can't figure in the time you plan to spend at any particular stop. So for examples, let's say I'm going to run errands in Manhattan for a bit, then meet a friend for dinner, then need to hit the pet store in my neighborhood to get litter for my cat.

I want to be able to start my journey at a particular time and hit location A to make my first errand. I figure running that errand will take me 30 minutes - so I should be able to enter in that first stop, then add +30 to the arrival time to figure out when my start time is for the next leg of the journey, and that should then figure out the next best transportation option to location B based on the schedules. This feature of "added time" alone would make my life a bit easier. But let's also say that I'm scheduled to meet my friend at 5:00p.m. for dinner; wouldn't it be impressive for the application to figure out my current trajectory, and determine whether or not I'm going to be late, and then suggest sending a text message to my friend notifying them about my current position and revised ETA?

This too would be awesome.

Lastly, this application would also be alerting me when I'm spending too much time in one place - if I lose track of time while running an errand, it would be great to be reminded of when I need to catch the next transportation option. Or even whether or not it's still possible for me to make it home in time to get to the pet store before it closes; if I couldn't do that within the current calculations of time, maybe I'll go to a pet store in my current area that's still open instead.

All of this is within easy reach technologically. I want it.

It's good to be home.

I love my camera, I really do - it's convenient, good to use, and takes great pictures. But I HATE HATE HATE that you make me use a proprietary memory stick that I can't use in ANY OTHER DEVICE I own. It's just stupid and horribly inconvenient. It doesn't make me want to buy all Sony products, it makes me want to NEVER BUY SONY AGAIN. Why can't you morons learn?? UMD didn't work. Even Nintendo AND Apple have finally realized that having an SD slot is a huge boon to their hardware platform. I hate that I have to be bottlenecked by the USB cable that comes with the camera (or a card reader) and that I can't just move the memory stick around, ever.

What's wrong with you Sony bozos? Are you really that isolated from the consumer world? Do you truly believe that people will only buy Sony consumer electronics?

I have the feeling there is a quota at work - there has been at least one Really Crazy Motherfucker (tm) on board every time I've ridden the bus. It's like the city mandates that at least one nutjob must be on the public transportation at all times, and they have to either argue with the bus driver about why they don't need to pay, or stare at everyone with their creepy wide eyes, or must continue to write frenetic little stories in the margins of their chosen holy scriptures.

Also, bums here beg for change like it's their JOB. While I admire their tenacity on one level (just think what they could accomplish if they set their mind to it!), I also think they breach the rules of the mendicant/payee social contract. They're so aggro they practically mug people. And there's a really for real skid row here too, I walked all along it the other day. It's really sad; what the hell are they actually doing to people here? Does anybody here even care about these folks? I thought California was supposed to be all progressive and junk.

Looks like fingerprint smudging on iPhones was enough of a problem that Apple actually created a fingerprint resistant coating on the iPhone 3Gs. I wonder if they got requests from government and security people for that as well?

Holy crap... Google Maps at street view now lets you click on BUILDING SURFACES within the view and it zooms in and reorients the photo image to that resolution and surface?? CRAZY.

Now talking about improvements in Snow Leopard:

3D rendering of icons

AI in page layout structure

Character recognition for multitouch - specifically Chinese characters

Safari 4 is now being shipped for all OS's including Windows

Safari benchmarks for JavaScript outpace three other leading browsers and is 100 percent compatible with standards, included in Snow Leopard (this is a 32 bit benchmark - 64 bit is even faster)

Interesting note: browser plugins are the number one cause for crashes in the OS - Safari now sandboxes plugins so that crashes don't sink OS X

Quicktime is now using hardware acceleration, ColorSync and streams over HTTP - interface is now completely minimalist, all interface components disappear

OS Desktop functionality - improvements in Stacks, Finder; Stacks are scrollable, thumbnails are more interactive (paging through documents, viewing movies)

[Expose is getting a lot of attention, has had improvements, more drag and drop functionality makes workflow much easier]

["Nitro" JavaScript engine demos are extremely fast]

More Safari 4 demos - search history in Cover Flow (keyword searchable), tracking changes in Top Sites (multiple frequently used windows that update when things update on sites)

Quicktime demo - [WOW] now with "Trim" which is instant video editing and one-click video sharing. Demo shows a visual thumbnail timeline that allows a clip to be chosen and uploaded to any video site

Now reviewing 64 bit and Grand Central

Now talking OpenCL [this is the big stuff] - C-based, abstracted, optimized, numerically accurate GPU harnessing

Exchange support in Snow Leopard - built directly into Mail, iCal, Address Book

Live Exchange support demo; mail completely autodiscovered all Exchange info, pulled emails, folders, To Do and Notes - can search all exchange info with Spotlight, can QuickLook all Office documents in preview without having Office installed, can accept invitations and view in iCal. Search Exchange address lists via Address Book, can also schedule meetings into Exchange calendars with drag and drop of a Group in Address Book into iCal.

[All this Exchange support is GIGANTICLY HUGE for Trojan horse strategy into Microsoft IT - every user will want the ease of use that Mac delivers]

Paraphrased: "Ironic that we do not charge for Exchange support in Snow Leopard when you need to buy a product to use it for PCs"

Price of Snow Leopard?

$29!!!!!

$49 for family pack!

iPhone update next!!

1,000,000 SDK downloads, 50,000 apps in App Store, 40,000,000 iPhones and iPod touches, 1,000,000,000 apps downloaded in NINE MONTHS.

Now showing a video of developer testimonials

[Interesting choices of testimonial - game developer, game developer, entertainment/sports developer, healthcare developer]

iPhone OS 3.0

Cut, copy, paste, undo - talked about it before, reviewing it again

Landscape support, all native key apps use landscape keyboard now

MMS - audio, video, locations, all sendable via text message - AT&T is NOT ready to support it [maybe by August or September]

[29 other carriers in 76 countries can support MMS... why does AT&T suck so hard?? DAMN MONOPOLISTS]

Spotlight support, rent and purchase movies, TV, audiobooks, music videos directly to iPhone wirelessly

Parental controls! Support for movies, TV, content, and apps that are rated appropriately

TETHERING - Works on Mac or PC, USB or Bluetooth! [AT&T NOT SUPPORTING, 22 carriers in other countries do!!]

[Go to hell AT&T!!!]

Safari on iPhone is faster, has better autofill for webforms

More support for languages on iPhoneOS 3.0 - 30 languages!

MobileMe service - Find My iPhone! [Good for Sol! Shows you on a map where your phone is] Send it a message, makes it play an alert sound to locate it. Can also send remote wipe command - just plug back into iTunes again and restore from backup

More review - in app purchase, peer to peer connection (Bluetooth wireless), external accessories

iPhoneOS 3.0 developer demos

Gameloft racing car demo, uses iPod interface to play music in game, uses better graphics, peer to peer Bluetooth multiplayer, worldwide network play via WiFi, in app purchase of cars and game packs.

Airstrip healthcare demo, Airstrip critical care - push notification of chosen clinical parameters, live monitor of patients vital signs via iPhone in real time with waveforms [didn't seem to be any 3.0 features, but looks cool]

Scrollmotion demo, (Iceberg reader) using in app purchase, copy and paste, automatically puts in bibliographic information, has made deals with a ton of content providers for books, textbook publishers, magazines, newspapers... [Kindle killer???]

TomTom [???] demo, plans a route using iPhone, turn by turn directions with audio and has an external dock accessory TomTom connector that allows for portrait and landscape turning, microphone and speaker for handsfree calls and music to stereo, charges phone, enhances GPS signal. TomTom car kit!

ngMoco demo, Star Defense game - tower defense 3D game with in app purchase, scores, push to play head to head over WiFi

Pasco demo, science education [Oops, broken demo!]

Zipcar demo, maps embedded for Zipcar locations - make reservation in app, MAKE CAR HORN HONK and UNLOCK from iPhone... no more ZipCard needed!!!

[Another broken demo]

iPhoneOS 3.0 - June 17th - Developer seed available today! [9 DAYS!!]

Here it comes... big iPhone announcement

[10x more apps on iPhone than in Android store]

NEW VERSION iPhone 3GS [no front facing camera?? Is iPod VIDEO A TRULY SEPARATE PRODUCT?]

New 3MP autofocus camera - tap to focus! Improved light sensitivity, auto macro zoom to 10cm

Video capture! Auto focus, white balance, exposure - same "Trim" functionality and editing with one tap

[It's so embarrassing that our country's exclusive phone provider can't send MMS video]

Voice control of iPhone - issue any command by voice, even picking songs or playlists, iPhone will speak back!!

Digital compass in iPhone, includes longitude and latitude, MAP ORIENTATION

[OMG WHEN CAN I BUY THIS PHONE]

iPhone hardware encryption [?? Hm... I wonder if there's a backdoor key in there somewhere. Watch this space to see who hacks this and discovers the secret government mandated hack there...

iPhone 3Gs price?

$199

for 16G, $299 for 32G

iPhone 3G - $99 for 8GB AVAILABLE TODAY AT THIS PRICE

6/19 for iPhone 3Gs!!!

Is there one more thing? Nope... guess all that front-facing camera stuff was faked...

Busy bee!

A short day, seeing as how I slept for about eleven hours. I really needed the sleep!

I farted around the apartment for a while, got dressed, then walked around Alamo Square taking pictures of the "painted ladies" (the Victorian houses around the neighborhood that are painted in traditional bright colors). Next took the train back over to Berkeley and had dinner with Rhette at the (in)famous wicked hippie-ass vegan Cafe Gratitude. I like the food there, but it's way too easy to spend far too much money. I split a spring roll, and had miso soup and what was basically a "bibim bap" bowl of Asian greens and veggies. We proceeded back to my apartment to enjoy baked greats from Citizen Cake - sadly, they only had two varieties of cupcake by the time I got there... serves me right for not going first thing in the day!

Today Rhette and I are going to Napa to put booze and foods in our mouths, and we've got dinner reservations at the Culinary Institute of America's restaurant. HOW AWESOME IS THAT. The answer you're looking for is "very".

The rest of the week is pretty much planned out - Sunday is beer and board games with George & co., and the WWDC takes up most of my days. I'll have a half day on Friday and all day Saturday to do stuff, and I think I want to hit the cartoon museum and the Asian art museum before leaving; Asian art has a brand new exhibit opening Friday called "Lords of the Samurai" so I definitely want to check that out.

It was an easy flight from JFK to SFO - I love that I can cross the entire country in about 11 hours without ever needing a car; it was just walking from my apartment in Williamsburg to an apartment in San Francisco, and public transport between airports. My hands got kind of swollen from the air pressure on the plane though, that was kind of annoying.

I puttered around the civic center for a little while this afternoon, then took a nap at the apartment near Alamo Square. Rhette and I then met up for dinner and conversation in Berkeley, and we ate at a tasty Himalayan joint in the "gourmet ghetto" section of town. We then drove up to her campus at UCB, checked out Lawrence Berkeley Labs from afar, then appreciated the view of the city at night from up on the mountain. She wants to take me out to Napa this weekend and wine and dine me at the Culinary Institute of America. How can I say no to that??

I'm totally sleeping in tomorrow. I love not having to think about anything or worry about work or feeding the cat. These next few days will be nice and casual. Also... MUST GET CUPCAKES. That may be part of my plan tomorrow after I wake up, depending on the rain situation.

I'm going to set up a link for WWDC liveblogging as well, stay tuned for that.

I'm traveling from JFK to SFO tomorrow morning; here's my itinerary:

Flight 641
New York City, NY (JFK)

Departure
Scheduled: 8:35AM, Jun 04

Arrival
Scheduled: 12:09PM, Jun 04

Flight Duration: 6h 34min

It took them nine months (thanks to pointless corporate welfare), but GM finally bit it, as I thought it would.

The world is changing. The economy is changing. People and companies need to make changes to work with it, or die.

Another set of pundits likes the idea of Apple creating a video recording/editing device with iPhoneOS along the lines of the FlipHD:

http://blogs.computerworld.com/ipod_point_and_click_camera_in_the_works

I really hope I'm right about this, because it would be awesome.

** 2001 September 15
**
** The author disclaims copyright to this source code. In place of
** a legal notice, here is a blessing:
**
** May you do good and not evil.
** May you find forgiveness for yourself and forgive others.
** May you share freely, never taking more than you give.


Nice sentiment. A little odd that this is in the most widely distributed database in existence, but okay, fine.

I have a hard time "believing" in something that rarely works and often leads to misery and heartache. Do I believe in commitment? Yes. Do I believe in special relationships between two people? Absolutely. But it seems to me to be completely naive to not recognize that "cheating" is rampant and causes so much difficulty, and it's quite obvious that the whole concept of cheating goes away when people realize that love is not a scarce commodity, that it's better to share, and that, even when time and energy are limited, that being with more than one person at once can enhance the quality of life for all people involved. Monogamy comes from insecurity and jealousy, and both of those feelings are very negative and self-destructive. If you have a true commitment with a person, even if that person is being shared with other people, you shouldn't feel insecure or jealous. When that person demonstrates his or her commitment to you over and over (the same way it would happen with monogamy) what more evidence do you require - and why would it matter that he or she spends time with another person as long as you get what you need from him or her?

Saw it. Was asked to rate it numerically, so I gave it 3 out of 5 stars.

It's basically the same movie as Terminator 2. No really, it is. Same kind of chase scenes, same overall plot, same methods of killing terminators... really not much new ground covered here. But because it's formula, it works, and ends up being passingly exciting due to some superior directing and cinematography. The effects are great, stunning in some cases; ILM clearly earned its paycheck for this one.

It's better than Suck Trek!!

Oh, and if you hadn't heard, it's meant to be part of a trilogy, so even though there's Star Wars Episode IV type closure, be prepared for two more movies ahead. I predict that in one of the future films John Connor will lose a hand/arm and have it replaced with a robotic one. Maybe he'll even get a robotic eye, ooh creepy.