There is a new form of credit card fraud going around New Zealand. It involves customers using fraudulent cards made overseas that either, not linked to a bank account or the bank does not exist at all. They have been hitting retailers throughout New Zealand. Their modus operandi is to be friendly, chatty, well dressed as well as talking on a cellphone. Primarily they are of Asian decent, and use credit cards link to Asian banks.
The credit cards have all of the signs of being genuine, embossed numbers match front and back, signature matches for of ID (which is usually and passport) as well as the name matching. They always know what they are after, and do not mind mixing and matching goods if certain colours are not available.
The retailer will not know what has happened until they find that a few weeks later the funds are never transferred into their bank account.
They are confident enough to ask for goods to be put aside if their card declines, and then come back with a different card. Transactions can vary between just under $1000 to just under $2000.
Purchases can include Apple products, Playstation products and prepaid mobiles. To help ease the retailer into the suspicious looking sale, they will ask for a cheap mobile, stating that it is to be used as a spare. The perpetrators are usually Asian, and are dressed very well. They are usually using a high end cellphone to talk to their mates in a near by vehicle.
Intelligent Assistance for Desktop User Tasks. Google Video.
I have been watching this a few times as so much of it makes scene. I like how he displays a learning system, that with time/more samples it get better. I found this inspiring in regards to some concepts I have been learning, regarding the design of expert systems for (tag cloud)/categorisation development of forums.
Is Security Over or Under-Estimated?
According to the results of an RSA survey, 54% of respondents have addressed a security incident but only 11% reported it. Based on what we see reported in the news,...
HP invites to Software Business Technology Optmisation Tour in Wellington
Today I received an invitation that I am able to extend to you. HP is running the HP Software BTO Tour 2008 in Wellington, 2nd September 2008.
This half day event is ahppening at the Museum of New Zealand - Te Papa Tongarewa from 8:30am through 1:30pm.
There will be conference streams during the day, designed to give IT Professionals a more practical approach to IT Management.
I won't be attending the event though, because I will be in Auckland attending the Microsoft Tech Ed, and writing the Unofficial Tech Ed Blog while there...
Mobile Me - Or is it?
Mobile Me - good in practice, not so sure about the execution.
My wife has been without email for 3 days now, missing out on business-critical communications. No useful explanation has been provided by Apple, Support is virtually impossible to contact and to claim that only 1% of users are affected seems disingenuous given the vast numbers of irate posts on Apple Support!
The theory is great but a better tagline might be "Exchange For (Some Of) The Rest of Us"!
Apple may well become a victim of their own success, I think.
What is ASLR?
Windows Vista includes a variety of security features not found in previous operating systems such as Windows XP. One of these features is ASLR. ASLR is like a shell game...
File format standards getting sorted!
It has taken a flippin long time, but it is good to see these issues sorted/being sorted:
- Adobe PDF ratified by ISO as standard - finally let go of proprietary format last year and put it up for ratification
- Microsoft OOXML ratified by ISO as standard - although the ISO version won't be incorporated until Office 14 comes out next year, and the approval is being challenged by 4 governments . .. .
- ODF being supported by Microsoft - in an Office 2007 Service Pack to be released in 2009
Good article here on Computerworld.
Microsoft Windows Mojave
So you complain about Windows Vista but actually never used it? Maybe what you need is Microsoft Windows Mojave.
In summary, a set of people were asked what they think is bad on Windows Vista. Their answers were recorded. They were then shown "Microsoft Windows Mojave".
One of the subjects in the study even said "Wow", the word Microsoft used in the "The wow starts now" campaign for Windows Vista.
Microsoft then revealed "Windows Mojave" and "Windows Vista" are the same one.
I know a lot of Linux and Mac OS X users who bash Windows Vista without ever having touch a computer running the OS. How can they "know" so much? Or perhaps they don't.
Isn't this a big perception problem?
All the details here.
UPDATE: The Mojave Experiment results are coming on-line!
What makes life? (Kinstens Interpretation)
Is it a rose that opens in the morning light?
A new leaf upon each twig, that grew from humble beginnings?
The branch that broke will turn into the scar for life.The scar of emotion runs deep within us all, this injures everyone slowly but surely. Until the only way out of your own emotion turns to destruction. Destruction turns to chaos. Chaos turns to the way the world is operating at present with only a small amount of reason and intelligent thought.
Don’t believe everything that you see,
Because seeing isn’t believing,
Feeling is.
If I was to die today,
Would I be remembered tomorrow?
Would life go on without me?
Or does someone else’s existence end with mine?
If truth is letting people know the details of something real,
Does that mean reality is a truth only known to you?
Or is truth and reality far more complicated than that?
You could believe anything that someone tells you,
Or decide to think they are lying.
Either way your own decision is what you choose to believe.
Which in turn makes reality your own creation of thoughts comprised of facts given by not only yourself, but other people as well. How these facts are interpreted depends on the translator. You!
If something is too difficult, would you try your best to solve it, or simply give in and let someone else figure it out.
Thought, emotion, truth, justice, wisdom, creation, intellect, visualisation, hands on experience.
Does everything come down to what the individual is capable of, or rather what the individual is willing to accomplish.
You have to experience happiness to know sadness. You have to experience love to know hate. If there is one thing that lives alone in this world, without needing to relate to another. Show me this thing, for it will be a beautiful thing indeed.
To fly is to fall,
To swim is to run,
To walk is to crawl,
To speak is to be silent,
To create is to imitate,
To build is to destroy,
To make peace is to make war!
Everything exists for a reason, and there is always balance. When there is too much of one thing there has to be an equal amount of the other to compensate for the balance lost with the first.
Begin your day with birds in mind,
Never let the dawn show its face,
You will crawl upon any road given to you,
And you will find the path that suits you.
Am I going insane or is it just a figment of my imagination. If I was going insane, would I be trying to figure it out, or would I just ignore it and let things happen as they do. Because when thoughts take over my life, I feel responsible for all the thoughts that are approaching my life.
Never get too involved.
Never hold a grudge.
Never begin something if you do not intend to finish it.
Executives Claim Insider Threat Biggest Security Concern
According to a recent study commissioned by security software vendor CA, as the threat of attack from outside the corporate newtork perimeter declines, the threat posed by internal security breaches...
SBS 2008 RC1 and EBS 2008 RC1 finalised (updated with all download links)
Last Friday, Microsoft finalised the code for the RC 1 (Release Candidate 1) prerelease versions of both Windows Small Business Server 2008, and Windows Essential Business Server 2008. See below for download links.Rumour has it that organis... (more in the full post)
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