Like normal, I logged into my bank account this morning, but not like normal, I mis-typed my password. But it let me in anyways. Howcome? They're NOT CASE-SENSITIVE.

Wells,
Fix this now.

So my DSL at home is only getting sync at 768k. I've called it in to AT&T but had issues which I was hoping to be able to resolve online...

Barbie Brown: Hi. Mark LaCore.☺
Barbie Brown: I see that you are have issues with regard to your connection. Is that correct?
Mark LaCore: hello
Mark LaCore: yes
Mark LaCore: I called the support center earlier and we have a line issue
Mark LaCore: there was a ticket sent to the local office which called but the automated system said the phone number only once so I need to get that again
Barbie Brown: I am terribly sorry to hear you are experiencing this kind of issue right now. We value you as a member and will be happy to assist you with this.☺
Barbie Brown: So you want to know the trouble ticket number again?
Mark LaCore: That would be great, do you also have their phone number?
Barbie Brown: Nope, it is okay. But before I give you the trouble ticket number, I need to ask a security question first, would that be fine?
Mark LaCore: yes
Barbie Brown: Who is your favorite childhood hero?
Mark LaCore: i don't recall what my answer to that might be
Barbie Brown: Can you please try to guess?☺
Mark LaCore: can I verify a different piece of information?
Barbie Brown: I see. Then it would be better if you will speak to one of our voice specialist agents to assist you with this issue.
Mark LaCore: I have my ticket number at home, can you just give me the telephone number to the local line office?
Barbie Brown: Please call us at 1-877-722-3755. We look forward to speaking with you to resolve this issue.

And Yes, Barbie Brown is really the name from the chat thingy.

Anyone?

...to learn Unix you learn to understand and apply a small set of key ideas and achieve expertise by expanding both the set of ideas and your ability to apply them - but you learn Windows by working with the functionality available in a specific release

Nice...

Why MCSEs won't (can't) learn Linux

Okay Exchange and Notes admins, do you want to know HOW our government lost their own emails?

By laughing in the face of basic best practices.

During the Clinton Administration, a lot of thought was put into constructing a solid mail system, with Lotus Notes, where everything is tracked, backed up, and archived appropriately.

Fast-forward into the current Bush Administration. Notes was starting to look a bit dated. If you are familiar with the system, it looks a bit like CompuServe, circa 1992. The desire for change was there, and they got it. But boy was it poorly executed.

The Bush Administration made a move to Microsoft Exchange. Yes, the same system you probably use for your small business. While backups and recovery are a snap, the system is rather self-healing (when you back it up regularly and do the correct things with the transaction logs)...

So to make a long story shorter, the admins didn't put an effective archiving solution in place. There was a system, but it didn't go into production.

Without a good solution in place, what do people do? Create PST files of course, and that's where things of course get messy.

I'm disgusted by the amount of negligence that had to take place for this to happen. Their entire IT team needs to be tarred and feathered, like any IT department who has failed a simple SOX audit.

Come on guys, publically traded companies get shut down completely for lesser offenses. Of course, the cynic in myself tells me this was all intentional.

I'm positive the NSA could rebuild every single message sent to and from their systems, with the big email wiretap system they're using these days...

White House reveals e-mail backups missing - The Bush administration has disclosed that back-up tapes of e-mail messages with dates that coincide with the invasion of Iraq have not been preserved.

[Mark's Tech Feed]

word

So occasionally I will let my Firefox remember my passwords. It's okay, everyone does it.

Not too long ago, I was making changes to my router's config, and on the config page is the place where you define the http admin's username and password.

Well, Firefox plugged in something it had remembered in the past, and for the life of me I couldn't crack myself back in.

BUT, I do have SSH access. The default user on the current DD-WRT series is root, not whatever it likely set. So since I have root access, somehow I must be able to do something about reverting my password faux-pas..

Google to the rescue, I quickly found that you can reset the http password via the following commands:

~ # nvram set http_passwd=
~ # nvram commit

That's it! Log back in to the http interface with admin/blank password, go to the Administration page to set a new password, and you're set. No need to reset to factory.

Today McCain mentioned a silly plan about eliminating gas tax from between Memorial Day and Labor Day. This would save most of us a whopping $0.18 per gallon.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/04/21/mccain_gas_tax/

"The effect of this 'gas tax holiday' will be an immediate economic stimulus -- taking a few dollars off the price of a tank of gas every time you fill up," McCain wrote in a fundraising e-mail to campaign supporters on April 17. "And because the cost of gas affects the price of food, packaging and just about everything else, this immediate step will spread economic relief to every family in America."

Wait, a couple bucks a fill is going to stimulate the economy? Just how exactly is an extra couple bucks a week going to stimulate anything? A "Dollar Menunairre" could barely buy a "meal" from this, and that's not even a healthy one.

The $600/person refund isn't enough. Pumping fake and free money into the marketplace is not the answer, honestly I doubt many people would even use this money to benefit themselves, as it will most go to Wal-Mart, or to the banks in the form of interest on debts. This is hardly a solution. You will be diluting our dollar even more.

Your stance needs to change, and real underlying problems need to be corrected. These problems are the banks, politicians like yourself, and the rest of the greedy capitalist/fascist cronies in Washington. The disconnect between personal income and housing prices must end. The corporations and banks need to be exposed locked up, and we need to bring our troops home.

This is the only thing us Americans want, but instead your answer is a fucking pile of worthless money. Money that if we save, will immediately lose its value thanks to your Republican limp dick economy.

McCain will not fix our problems.

Woman pleads guilty in Craigslist Murder-for-hire -

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A Michigan woman who advertised online for a hitman to kill her lover's wife pleaded guilty to the murder-for-hire scheme, prosecutors said on Friday. ...

[Mark's Tech Feed]

Oh, come on. You can't use that service on CL anymore?