India Call Center Staff Bribed to Release Confidential Account information

He said: 'We're seeing a significant increase in security problems associated with this type of outsourcing. Given that the majority of hacking originates from within organisations, outsourcing administrative responsibilities to an engineer making around £4,000 annually is asking for problems.

'The engineers employed by these firms are extremely skilled technicians and since they already possess the passwords and unrestricted access to the networks they service, they have quickly become targets for organised crime and private investigative firms looking to buy their way into a network.'

WWF at its best! Oh, wait no, that isn't a WWF clip. I'm sorry. (Play it and imagine a chainsaw revving in the background - that really enhances the experience).
ROTFLMAO

I love this site.
One of these days, when I get around to it, I'll buy this poster.

On Amazon

Hello, here is a better picture of the FlexStand(tm) in action for DHS
http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/index.jsp

Levitating Logitech Quickcam Pro 4000 - cool trick.

That is of course a FlexStand(tm) supporting the webcam.

http://www.gutenberg.net/find.shtml

The Gutenberg Project is awesome - if you read a lot like I do, this is the place for you. Books and writings that have come into the public domain are available here for downloading.

Update on areyougame.com: I got my stuff! And this makes me happy. Now all I've gotta do is wrap all the stuff I bought. Oh well, life isn't perfect, and while lazy, I have a distinctive way of wrapping that makes it imperative that I wrap presents myself (hasty, and little decoration :)).

If you want some equipment for networking - please check out www.milestek.com. This is a Texas based business, who delivers. They have a knowledgeable staff, who is more than willing to answer your questions (no matter how much or how little you know about networking). Check it out! I use them and end up paying sales tax on purchases from them - so if I'm willing to pay extra (there are a lot of companies who sell the same equipment outside of Texas) for their service, then they've gotta be pretty good.

Something that I obviously need to mention here is -

If you know someone who has a webcam - you need to buy them a FlexStand. You can purchase a FlexStand from amazon.com - or from strangesolutions.com.

They will be forever grateful for your thoughtfulness in resolving a problem that they knew they had, but didn't know how to fix.

If you are going to buy someone a webcam - the FlexStand is the perfect accessory (show the people you love, how much you care about them).

Yes, to see me in action, you should go here. Yes, I know - I have neglected my blog horrible for the past few months - reason being......well, while I don't have a life, I have been busy.

Did you know that Christmas is rolling down upon us? ACK! Well, I have avoided stores all together and done my shopping online. amazon.com, thinkgeek.com, and the latest addition has been areyougame.com. I purchase regularly from amazon - and they haven't let me down yet. Thinkgeek just got my first order, and responded like a champ. Areyougame.com was ordered from this Sunday - so we will see how they do (or don't do).

Shopping online is better than catalog shopping - because who has room for catalogs from every site on the internet? Could you imagine amazon's catalog? Probably about 5-6 phone book size books. I have decided to shop online, because the thought of standing in line & smelling other people's body odor churns my stomach.

Dave Barry has a wonderful gift guide available, and I highly recommend it. No, I haven't bought anything that is on his list (yet).

All right, well this is all that I have time to write right now. If you cannot stand the thought of not having something to read that I have written, then send me an e-mail at: info@strangesolutions.com (no - I'm not going to link it).

Hello. Yep still here. Still doing stuff. Yeah.

High bullshit meter:

http://www.etrafficsolutions.com/about/news/newsletters/may2003.html

"When the end users and the creators of content attempt to envision the complementary power of technology, they must understand that in order for content to be dynamically generated according to specific learning needs or criteria, elearning content is best produced using sizable chunks that are directly related to the instructional design of the elearning environment that is being developed. "

Talk about obfuscated language!

blogger sucks

Good site for young kids: http://www.funschool.com
(I like playing the games there too - don't tell anyone)

WOW! OK. Well, I guess we won't see another iteration of the so big virus - apparently they have enough slaves. Who knew? The ultimate answer is for people to stop responding to Spam...but then that kills "legitimate" marketing. Sad.

Grove: Competitive Crisis Looms In U.S.

The chairman of Intel (nasdaq: INTC - news - people ) says that the United States is facing a competitive crisis that puts the country is danger of losing its lead as the world's most innovative technology provider.

"I'm here to be the skunk at your garden party," Grove told a group of about 150 beltway types gathered here for the Global Tech Forum, hosted by lobbying group Business Software Alliance.

Why is the U.S. waning? Grove says it's because of offshore outsourcing, lack of federal support of sciences education and a "ho-hum" telecommunications infrastructure. "We've lost more than 500,000 tech jobs in the last two years to foreign competitors."

Indeed, many U.S.-based companies are either thinking about or have already sent white-collar jobs outside the country. Companies can often cut costs and boost productivity dramatically by hiring skilled labor in India and other countries. Much of that work lately has involved software development and professional services.

Could this be you? Instant messaging addiction.

Another Forbes.com article on TV advertising.

Here is a paragraph from a Forbes.com article on the impact of DVR (Digital Video Recorders - TiVo) on the broadcast industry:

No problem, net execs say: While DVRs and other gear may proliferate, most viewers won't use the gadgets as ad-killers or pay for commercial-free programs. "This is the big myth. The big majority of people are not commercial avoiders," says David Poltrack, the head of CBS research and strategic planning, who has heard predictions of the networks' demise for 20 years. At worst, he figures, DVRs will erode audience by just under 3% a year. Alan Wurtzel, NBC's research head, says that networks can survive such losses, pointing to the huge checks that advertisers just wrote: "Until you can find an alternative that's better, they really will have no choice."

What can you say about that? How about this one?:

"What I feel absolutely confident is going to happen is this: The traditional 30-second commercial will continue to prosper, and TiVo and Replay will never amount to much more than a minor irritant to the TV networks," Rance Crain, the editor-in-chief of Advertising Age, wrote in a column earlier this year.

Reminds me of these quotes on computers:

"Where a calculator on the ENIAC the original computer is equipped with 18,000 vacuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers in the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes and perhaps weigh 1 ½ tons" -- Popular Mechanics, March 1949

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." -- IBM Chairman Thomas Watson, 1943

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." -- DEC Chairman Ken Olson, 1977

"640K ought to be enough for anybody." -- Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, 1981

(Quotes from here)