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Faking out hackers
Submitted by digitalbeachbum on February 6, 2014 - 7:57am.Roughly 15 years ago I suggested to friends in the IT department that the best way to defeat hackers is to decieve them. My suggestion to my boss at the time was to setup a fake network filled with bogus information. The company I worked for was a credit card company and we had constant issues with security being tested by outside attacks and were always looking for new ways to defend.
My boss, being the typical book learned, college grad, thinking inside the box idiot, told me no. It was a stupid idea.
I knew better.
I used to run a BBS during the 80's and 90's. I was a member of several different pirate groups and I was always afraid I'd get caught like so many others Sysops.
I tried many different BBS programs for security purposes but the best idea I ever came up with was not what I used, but how I presented it.
I had setup a fake login when you first connected to my BBS. You'd get a DOS prompt from a very unfriendly system. Type DIR and find a slew of .EXE's to run. As you sat there trying the .EXE's the system was keeping count of your trial and error. Unfortunately for the trouble maker, the .EXE never was there and the only way you knew about it was from "word of mouth".
Horrible journalism
Submitted by digitalbeachbum on February 3, 2014 - 6:35pm.I originally wasn't going to say any thing about the article I had saw on the NY Daily News, which is in my opinion a "rag" of a source of news.
The article is horrible because it is written in a format which leads people to the conclusion that "these possessions are real" and that "look at all these people who support the story because they never say anything negative about the demons".
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/haunting-indiana-home-leads-exorcism-levitation-report-article-1.1593169
Honestly? Do we still need to have this bullshit supported? Is it that slow of a news week that a reporter has no moral value left in them to post this shit?
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10,000 posts
Submitted by digitalbeachbum on January 31, 2014 - 12:40am.I can't believe this is my 10,000+ post. When I joined RRS back in 2007 I wouldn't have believed I would hang around here as long as I have; but here it is.
I never took the blasphmey challenge because I had done it so many times within my circle of family and friends. Even on private occasions I did it in many different forms. I didn't see a need for it again publically, though I am sure located in one of my 10,000 posts there is a comment or two saying the same thing.
As I look at the RRS extras, I see Brian sitting up there all alone with over 50,000+ posts. I'll just leave that item alone. I've said enough, but kudos to him for contributing so much to this site.
Atheism has grown so much since I first rejected all gods and creators, from all religions. I remember back in the 90's when I was in college. I was taking several classes which really focused on the history of religions. I think I told this story previously, but back then I defended my fellow students against a militiant professor who turned out to be a complete tool.
In the end, even though I ACED the final exam he gave me a C. I should have had an A, but the fucker wanted to try and put me in my place. I tracked him down after one of my classes and he threatened me. I wish I knew the fuckers name today. I think it would be interesting to see what happened to him.
Anyway, I'm off the subject.
Amanda Knox and Italy
Submitted by digitalbeachbum on January 30, 2014 - 6:22pm.#1 - The Italian justice system is fucked up worse than our justice system.
#2 - The information I have reviewed leads me to believe that the Rudy Guede is a low life criminal who has a record of breaking-in, using a knife and had his DNA, prints and more found at the site of the murder. He even admitted to the murder, first saying a stranger had committed it, then changing his story to say he did it, then including Amanda and Raffaele Sollecito did it.
WTF?
Really. The Italian courts can't figure this shit out? Are they completely fucked as a country? Are the toxic wastes being dumped by the mafia causing them to be completely void of any rational thinking?
As of today their courts ruled that Amanda and Raffaele were guilty of the murder, but they already have the murderer incarcerated.
I'm baffled that this is even happening.
A little victory against a squatter rationalresponders.blogspot
Submitted by Sapient on January 20, 2014 - 12:36am.A couple of haters grabbed the blogspot address that corresponds with this site address. It's recently come to my attention that Google has suspended the account. I'm not sure of the reason, just that it is no longer available to use.
This address used to be owned by Christian haters. http://rationalresponders.blogspot.com/ They used the site to tell misleading and usually dishonest interpretations of RRS. Often they came up high in google because of name similarity. Google took action. Nice of them.
People get away with telling lies about people online because most people aren't going to go through the costs or effort of taking it to court. We had built up tons of evidence to take that case to court and in the end I can only assume that submitting that info to google played a role in the name being taken away from the world.
If anyone ever sees it become available, I'll offer you a reward to let me know about it. I'll take you out to dinner when you come by Philadelphia.
Sorry our site was down for over 12 hours. Can you make a donation?
Submitted by Sapient on January 19, 2014 - 8:37pm.Our site goes down from time to time but we usually resolve it within an hour. This time it was 12 hours. Sorry for any inconvenience, frustration, sadness, or depression that you dealt with as a result. It lasted so long this time because was our amazing volunteer server admin was away from the computer.
It gives me a chance to be frank with you. I hate doing fundraisers, as I want to believe that this site can be sustained on ad/amazon/subscriber revenue. Many a months, it can. RRS costs a few hundred dollars per month to operate and right now, we're not quite making that back. Actually one of our awesome board members recently sent us our largest single donation of the year and it got us to about even.
Another reason I haven't made a public request for donations in over 2 years is that I feel I let you down on the last public appeal for money to buy a server. I assure you we got a new server to upgrade our sites to the next era of web utilization. I am sorry I can't enjoy it's spoils with you quite yet. I don't want to throw anyone under the bus, but for the most part it's delay was beyond my control. I could have avoided it if I had 10-15k to spend on professional help. I don't work off a budget that large, we're dealing in hundreds here.
RIP Tim
Submitted by Vastet on December 22, 2013 - 9:33pm.My best friend died a few minutes ago of a brain tumour. I already miss him. I've never known anyone I could trust as much as him. Noone else I could comfortably talk to about anything at all. Politics, religion, girls, life, death, stupid shit, important shit.
It was just a few years ago I met him. The time we had was too short. I loved him as I would a brother. Probably more than a brother.
I couldn't be at his side when he passed. The ice storm made that impossible. The taxi companies said they weren't travelling out of town, and I was unwilling to risk anyone else I care for. I know he would have been horrified if anyone got hurt trying to see him when he was sedated and unable to even recognise it, but I still feel like shit for not being there.
I take some solace knowing that the rest of his friends and family were with him. He was not alone.
He was 28 years old. A couple years after we became friends he was diagnosed with the tumour when he started having seizures.
This Winter Solstice buy stuff via our links to Amazon!
Submitted by Sapient on December 1, 2013 - 10:27pm.Want to help support online atheism while buying Grandmom a necklace for the Winter Solstice? Shop at Amazon through our affiliate account! This really works and it's a huge help. This is a great way to help the cause while buying cool stuff. The customer service at Amazon is incredible, they won't let you down.
Please make your purchases by clicking any of these links and starting your Amazon shopping experience there. If you are concerned about giving us credit, you can strip the amazon link to it's simplest form and add this code to the end after a slash: ?tag=httpwwwration-20
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theses on humanity
Submitted by iwbiek on November 28, 2013 - 6:52pm.i cannot claim complete originality with any of these ideas. these short statements comprise my general worldview after a humble thirty-one years of existence. i post them here to invite comment and also to clarify and systemize these thoughts for my own convenience.
1. everything that a human is capable of exists in him already: just as matter can neither be created nor destroyed, no part of human nature can be created nor destroyed. external stimuli may serve as catalysts, though said stimuli will not be catalysts for the same reactions in all humans, and in many humans said stimuli will not be catalysts at all. these reactions are possible to predict only in the most general way, and even that only after great effort and with no small measure of talent. regardless, at base, every human is capable of every possible act.
2. nothing is more important for the greater part of humanity, subjectively speaking, than preserving as much human life as possible. there being no more logical standard of determining "right" and "wrong," this standard is the most expedient to adopt.
3. clarity in communication is the most important factor in moving toward a world that is generally more tolerable. it is also difficult to obtain because it requires a great deal of both effort and humility, two things of which humanity is in chronically short supply.
I'm sick of death
Submitted by digitalbeachbum on November 25, 2013 - 1:21am.I'm up late tonight as one of my favorite dogs is getting ready to pass. He was doing really well for the last few months then about three weeks ago it all started south for him.
In dog years he is almost 14, 98 human years old. He has heart problems, tumors, voice box issues and a problem with his hips. We have him on meds hoping he could make it to Thanksgiving when my sister in law would be home from out of the country. She helped raise him from a pup so it's kind of important for us that she is here.
The weird thing is that you'd never know he was sick by looking at him. If he moves around too much you can see he is out of breath, so most of the time he just lays down. When it is time to eat he has a full appetite and looks for more when he is done. He also drinks water, poops and pees normal.
It sucks... death that is... but when I think about it I wouldn't want to live forever. These thoughts of being like a vampire and living for a 1,000 years is like worse than death. I don't think I would want to live more than 100 years if I was unlucky enough to live that long.
Either way, if his situation worsens I'll need to put him down humanely.
Which still makes me wonder. Why are we humanely putting down dogs? but forcing humans to suffer? Doctor assisted suicide is humane and should be legal in every state. Is it the same delusion we have to believe in a god as it is to let our loved ones to suffer?