The Wuhan coronavirus's genome was released, and is now available on Genbank. Looking at it...
1 attaaaggtt tataccttcc caggtaacaa accaaccaac tttcgatctc ttgtagatct
61 gttctctaaa cgaactttaa aatctgtgtg gctgtcactc ggctgcatgc ttagtgcact
121 cacgcagtat aattaataac taattactgt cgttgacagg acacg...
I follow big give aways on Twitter because I am currently in college debt and need money.
This guy direct messaged me asking me a few questions. One thing led to another and next thing you know he tells me that he wants to send me money
to help me out.
So I signed into my bank and he sent me $1...
It is amazing that in this day and age - with so much information around - folks still fall for basic scams like this. I mean, does anyone still fall for "Nigeria" scams? Maybe! Bummer. :/ — Fattieyesterday
You know, schools should really cover a subject called "Common Sense"
And the test is like: "A stranger contacts you online and offers to give you money. What is this scenario?" - a.) A scam - b.) A scam - c.) A scam - d.) All of the above - e.) A nice stranger who just wants to help me out
And anyone who ticks e.) will immediately be shot for the greater good of humanity
I saw an interesting video, where they were breaking hash tables using gaming GPUs. Basically, the greatest flaw is the users. Microsoft thinks 8 characters are enough https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/threat-protection/security-policy-settings/password-must-meet-complexity-requirements - then when you look at their complexity, you end up realising that Password01 meets their requirements and people use that.
They then just tried all the terrible passwords, using them they reverse the hashing, salting and anything else you throw at it. It is the people using weak passwords …
@M'vy I used to aim more for passphrases, but finally ditched it for password managers for just that reason.
@MechMK1 I'm glad you're probably okay! If you need it, let me know as I can suggest a number of options that are proven to kill cancer in a petri dish! (and yes, that's an intentional XKCD reference)
If I had suggested to shoot someone in the Tavern, I'd most certainly have been banned for 30 minutes. In the DMZ I just get a star and someone chuckles :D
Ironically, I found your comment funny but not Fatties
I was mildly tempted to sign up for that site just to comment on Fattie's comment
Because, you know, "Kids". This kid was obviously desperate and did something dumb, but scammers literally make a career out of finding desperate people.
The fact that he's there asking about it means that he will at least learn his lesson.
So I would personally be a bit more sympathetic to a particular person in a case like this. The kid is already learning an important lesson the painful way - no need to double down and insult him too (which, I think Fatttie's comment is mildly insulting)
Making fun of the general case though? Sure, absolutely. Especially today, people need to get better at recognizing scams, and sometimes the best way to do that is to move humanity forward by giving natural selection a little help!
@MechMK1 It really should be. And we really do teach the wrong things in school. Still, scammers literally making a living out of finding gullible people, getting them to turn off all the safety switches, and then asking them to do something that is clearly questionable. There is legitimately an aspect of, "Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me".
There are some people out there that are just vulnerable to this kind of thing. With some better education they might be able to avoid it. If that doesn't happen though, and they get found by the wrong person in the wrong time, it's like shooting fish in a barrel.
I mean, I'm not trying to excuse the guy all together. He made a bad choice and is going to learn an important lesson in a very painful way. This will not go well for him.
@MechMK1 wow. Talk about unrealistic expectations. Also, a complete waste of time anyway - that sort of skill is largely useless for just about everyone.
@ConorMancone Yes, I agree. It would have been much better to do something actually useful. Like, making a small thing, and actually plan everything from start to finish
Teach the kids how to measure stuff correctly, how to use a bandsaw, etc...
At the end of that course, the kids should be able to correctly assemble any furniture they might buy in the future
Or just, you know, do simple things around the house.
But our teachers(!) were absolute slackers. They thought we were all retards, didn't want to spend any time explaining anything, and instead insulted us when we did things wrong
Like, most kids only knew how to operate a jigsaw because that was the only tool they were taught to use. And then they tried to cut through a 1.5" thick, 5" wide wooden beam with a jigsaw. For HOURS
And for the teachers, that was fine. They didn't say "You are using the wrong tool for the job. You should use the correct saw for that". Instead, they considered that kid "occupied" and that was good
I mean, I am supportive of public schools
But the quality of education dropped so much in recent years
There was even a government funded report about how the influx of immigrants destroyed some schools
Literally, some teachers simply didn't show up anymore, because they were teaching classes that were 100% migrants that didn't speak german
So they just considered it a waste of time
The problem is that something as complex as public education has soooo many moving parts, and it's hard to get all of them right. And as I said before, people like easy solutions and being told that it's easy to fix something.
We homeschool to make sure our kids get an education that actually matters. There are plenty of failing schools in our area, and regardless some things that I consider most important are never even taught.
As I wanted to say before, the parents didn't want to hear it, and instead wanted to blame the school and the teachers for everything. Because they were convinced that the role of the parents in education is to bring the kid to school and buy school books and nohing else.
In another story, there was a kid who genuinely struggled with math, and his parents tried everything to help him understand. And when the kid asked the teacher, the teacher said verbatim "It's not my job to teach you math"
@ConorMancone I've been working with a password manager for a while, and it really gets painful to use when you are not allowed to plug your USB stick in your work computer.
So now, I'm passhprasing and using the password manager
I was fortunate enough to get a Cambridge colonial education. These days, kids apply to join my IT department, they supposedly have done A level IT and can't even tell me what OS they are running at home. Education has become a package that is sold as a result, not as an enrichment of the mind.
Would you use a neural link? I wouldn't trust it. If you can read information, it means they can put information into your head and alter your thoughts.
But if it has been on the market for like 5-10 years, maybe? Depends if there have already been Black Hat / DEFCON talks about the Shit4Brainz vuln or not
@MechMK1 Oh yeah, I understand. But if they can't even get simple devices connected securely, what are the odds they can do a brain link properly? I'll take the length of time until people only build secure IoT devices (hasn't happened yet, I'd give it another 50 years at least), triple that, and wait at least that long before I start using a neural link
The Wuhan coronavirus's genome was released, and is now available on Genbank. Looking at it...
1 attaaaggtt tataccttcc caggtaacaa accaaccaac tttcgatctc ttgtagatct
61 gttctctaaa cgaactttaa aatctgtgtg gctgtcactc ggctgcatgc ttagtgcact
121 cacgcagtat aattaataac taattactgt cgttgacagg acacg...
