I saw a post on Discovery.Com this morning entitled My Favorite Hackers, written by a Ryan Draga.  In this article, Mr. Draga names a few well known hackers and suggests that while he is a new comer to the world of hacking, he is not a criminal when he engages in the practice of hacking into systems, suggesting rather that he is some kind of a technocrat who is just experimenting to see what happens.  In his closing paragraph -- which has now been deleted along with the ability to leave comments -- he said he just wants to know what happens when he pushes a button. "Turning all the Web sites you read upside down for a couple minutes is not a crime, it's a joke."

What a bunch of BS.  It may be a joke to him, and it may be fun to him, but it is neither to the millions of us who have to suffer so that he can play like a little child.  Even if he doesn't take our credit card numbers, he still costs us time and money.  Untold millions of dollars of revenue have been lost because of guys like him, who accidently took a sales site down.  
 
He goes into an unknown system, pushes a button, and emergency generators go down in a hospital, resulting in a blackout.  People may die.  He pushes another button and the Air Traffic Control system goes down for a hour with 6000 planes in the air.  People may die.  He pushes yet another button, and the New York stock exchange goes down.  Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of transactions are lost.  Why?  Because he wants to have fun.  He just wants to see what will happen!  It was just a joke! 

He may say that he is uncovering the holes in a system so that "bad guys" can't exploit them, but the rest of us say that if it wasn't for guys like him, there wouldn't be any bad guys to exploit us.

I don't mind his playing around so long as he does it on his own equipment in a closed environment that belongs exclusively to him; but when he moves into the public environment, or any environment where he is not authorized to go, he is a cyber criminal and needs to do a little time behind bars.

The Dictionary defines a hacker as
"Slang. a person who engages in an activity without talent or skill."

Christmas is almost upon us, so naturally my thoughts once again turn to the exchange of gifts.  This year, I have been thinking of Swiss Army Knives.  Not the cheap Chinese knock-offs mind you, but the real thing made by Victorinox.  

Most of them come with two cutting blades -- a longer one and a shorter one.  I have seldom had any need for the large blade, but the short 1 inch blade is probably the best in the business.  For me, it is the most frequently used of the tools available on the SAK, although the small nail file has come in handy at times, as has the awl, but that's just me.

The SAK comes in more configurations than I can count, but the most frequent one is a large cutting blade (with and without a serrated edge), a small straight edge cutting blade, a pair of scissors, a combination bottle opener and straight blade screwdriver, a can opener/small blade screwdriver, a cork screw, and an awl.  A toothpick and a small pair of tweezers are also standard issue.  From there, one can add other tools like a wood saw blade, a magnifier, a jewelers screwdriver, a pen to write with, a hook that can be used as a handle to help carry small packages, a small pair of pliers, a straight pin, and so much more.  Indeed, one can add so many different tools to the SAK that it becomes too big and heavy to be used as an everyday carry, pocket knife, and you need a belt pouch to carry it.  A tool that big, I think, is designed more for the gadget freak than the average guy (or gal) on the street.

I have carried one of these things in my pocket, purse, or bookbag/backpack for 60 years, and hardly a day has gone by that I haven't actually used it at least once or twice each day during that period of time.  I use it so much that it have become part of my wardrobe, like my watch, and I hardly think about it.  And as strange as it may sound, I can't think of a more useful gift.  In this day of built-in obsolesce, the SAK is one of the few products that is of such good quality that, if you don't lose it first, you may actually pass it on to your heirs before it wears out. 

So if you want to give something to your guy that will be useful and last at the same time, consider the Victorinox Swiss Army Knife in one of its many configurations.  I like it so much that you won't find me without one, except on an airplane.  Your gals might like one too, but here you have to use your own discretion and knowledge of the recipient.

I’ve found myself remembering little things lately that have annoyed me. For example, twenty years ago, the recording industry was just starting to introduce audio CDs. Their marketing folks painted a glowing picture about how the cost of albums would come down as a result of the new media because CDs were so much cheaper to produce than cassette tapes, and instead of paying $8 or $10 for an album, we would only have to pay about $2 or $3.

So what is the situation? CDs still cost more than cassettes. And the sad thing is that there is no need, because they really are cheaper to manufacture. I can buy recordable CDs for about 25 cents each, and I can record them in less time than I can a tape. And because of its volume, the recording industry buys CDs much cheaper than I can, and automation results in thousands of hours saved in recording time.

I’m sure they would like to say that production and handling costs are up in the last 20 years, but the same is true for cassette tapes. The artists get paid the same amount regardless of the media I buy. Delivery costs are about the same. Warehousing space is reduced by CDs. So where’s the big savings they told me about all those years ago?

I think they are just making more money and justifying it to themselves with some song ‘n’ dance reasoning about how I’m paying more for the improved quality. Excuse me if that doesn’t wash down too well. They knew about the improved quality 20 years ago and were promising reduced costs to go with it.

Question: Do you feel as robbed as I do by the recording industry and marketing tactics in general?

From time to time, I have mentioned in these humble writings some of the guests at the hotel where I work, and in particular how some of them tend to be late for a scheduled departure of the hotel shuttle van to the airport.  But these are not the only guests that can be late.  There are also those guests who are left stranded because the group they were traveling with left them behind when they failed to show up for a scheduled departure..

Consider, for example, a group of Chinese Tourists that stayed with us this past Spring.  After several days of sightseeing, their tour guide checked them all out of their rooms and loaded them and their luggage on the tour bus.  But the final head count didn't add up.  It seems that three elderly gentlemen were missing.

Of course, the tour guide went to their rooms looking for them while I walked the grounds checking to see if they might have decided to sit on a bench under a tree to just take in the nice weather we were enjoying.  Neither the guide nor I could find the three missing tourists, and he (the guide) began to get very concerned, because nor of the three missing men could speak a word of English.  The driver in the mean time was waiting to leave for their next destination.

Finally, after many phone calls to who knows where or to whom, the guide was at the point of giving up, so I asked him for a number I could call if his three charges showed up.  He gave it to me, and the bus left our parking lot, an hour late, and I went about my business of shuttling other guests to and from the airport.

Two hours after the tour bus left, I arrived back from one of my shuttle runs to find three very confused, elderly, Chinese men sitting in the lobby looking as lost as any souls I have ever encountered.  Naturally I immediately called the number I had gotten from the tour guide and tried to convey to the three that help would arrive in about 45 minutes to an hour.  I did so by holding up fingers and by pointing to my watch etc.  I guess I got through to them because they smiled and nodded their heads and very patiently sat in the lobby and waited for their help to arrive.

Soon enough, someone showed up to "claim" the three and after smiling and nodding to me, they were driven away, but with what was now a three hour start, the bus was too far ahead of them to have any hope of catching up with it.  Even if they phoned the bus driver and he delayed his departure at the next couple of bio breaks and the lunch break, it would still be hard to over take the bus before evening, so I assume the men were taken to the airport and put on a plane for the closest airport to the bus's stop for the evening.  I further assume that arrangements were made for someone to meet their plane and drive them to their hotel. 

I can't really say.  Nor can I say where the three had disappeared to.  Had they just decided to go for a walk around area?  Who knows.  But the fact is that they caused a great deal of consternation and worry for the company providing for the group and their fellow travelers, not to mention all the added expense. 

I'm sorry to say that this is not an isolated case of tourists getting lost.  It happens all the time.  I had to put one French woman, who also spoke no English, in touch with her embassy to get help for her, but that's another story.

Folks, schedules exist for a reason.  You should always try to adhere to them, but all the more so in a foreign country where you don't speak the language and your welfare is, therefore, dependent solely on the intelligence and kindness of the people around you.  I've been in some areas of the world where being separated from your group is not something you want to be.  But if you don't care about yourself, do it just to show some courtesy, thoughtfulness, and respect for your fellow travelers.

At a time when unemployment in this country is running in double digits, the "China State Construction Engineering Corp, the largest contractor in China, has bagged a subway ventilation project worth about $100 million in New York's Manhattan area, marking the construction giant's third order in the United States' infrastructure space this year....

"The new project, along with the $410-million Hamilton Bridge project and a $1.7-billion entertainment project it won earlier this year, signals China State Construction's ambition to tap the American construction market....

"In the first three quarters of this year, the Chinese construction giant signed more than $2 billion worth of contracts in the US market," according to an article in The China Daily.

What about putting American American companies back to work?

"If you own any shares in alternative energy companies I should start dumping them NOW."  That's what is being revealed this day as the result of a hacker breaking into the computers at the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit (aka Hadley CRU) in England and releasing the 160 megabytes of files taken, including 1079 emails and 72 documents, onto the internet.  They reveal "Conspiracy, collusion in exaggerating warming data, possibly illegal destruction of embarrassing information, organised resistance to disclosure [of evidence supporting global cooling], manipulation of data, private admissions of flaws in their public claims and much more."

..."The tide is turning against Al Gore’s Anthropogenic Global Warming theory.  The so-called “sceptical” view is now also the majority view.  Unfortunately, we’ve a long, long way to go before the public mood (and scientific truth) is reflected by our policy makers. There are too many vested interests in AGW, with far too much to lose either in terms of reputation or money, for this to end without a bitter fight."

The Cap 'n' Trade issue may now take a new turn, especially in light of Senator Inhofe's call this day for a congressional investigation into the scientific integrity of the United Nations-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.  I can only hope that this will slow down the Obama administration's race to increase our cost of energy through higher taxes and limitations on use.

Back in October, Socrates_Cafe was looking for topics to discuss.  One of the suggestions was to discuss the meaning of life.  That topic was not then slected for discussion, but I thought I should come back to it and put this post up as a rather late response to the question.  My response does come at the question from a religious point of view, because in my opinion, life without God has no meaning.  It is accidental and random and ends without leaving any truly lasting mark on anything in the universe.  If life has meaning, it must exist within God, who creates each lifeform for a specific purpose.  Here then is my response to the question, "What is the meaning of life?"

===============

"What is man that thou art mindful of him" (Psa 8:4)? That question was asked about 3,000 years ago by David, king of Israel, as he considered "Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained." And it has been asked by men and women everywhere ever since.

In a prophetic passage in the Old Testament book of Daniel, God inspired a clue to our destiny overlooked by most for thousands of years. It, too, poetically ties our awesome potential to the night sky, speaking of the resurrection of the dead: "And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever" (Daniel 12:2, 3).

God "saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began" (2 Timothy 1:9).

God is "bringing many sons to glory" so that God and all humanity will be "of the same family" (Hebrews 2:10-11). That is God's incredible purpose for human life as revealed in His Word, the Bible.

You and I were created to be changed into spirit as the immortal children of God, to become younger siblings of Jesus Christ, who is "the firstborn among many brethren" (Romans 8:29). God has designed us to be members of His own family -- His very children -- possessing His own divine nature (2 Corinthians 6:18; 2 Peter 1:4).

Paul makes this awesome truth plain: "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together" (Romans 8:16-17).

The entire creation "eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God...because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God" (verses 19, 21). Paul said that our change from physical, mortal human beings to glorified, immortal children of God -- "the revealing of the sons of God" -- is the pivotal event of God's entire creation, and our ultimate destiny!

God will ultimately change our bodies from flesh to spirit (1 Corinthians 15:42-44) because "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption" (verse 50). To achieve our destiny we must be changed through a resurrection: "For this, corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality...Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: 'Death is swallowed up in victory'" (verses 53, 54).

These scriptures plainly show why we are here on earth. Many other verses also show that the destiny God intends for us is eternal life as His resurrected, immortal children in the family of God. If we remain faithful to God throughout our lifetimes, we will share with Christ the role of kings and priests in His coming Kingdom (Revelation 1:6). We can look forward to becoming spirit and living forever (1 Thessalonians 4:14-17; 1 Corinthians 15:50-54). As His resurrected children, we will inherit all things from God (Matthew 5:5; Revelation 21:1-7; Hebrews 2:6-8).

This is the answer to the question posed by King David in Psalm 8:4: "What is man that thou art mindful of him?"

According to an article in Google News, Obama now wants domestic spending cuts in the next budget, because after talking with China, he's concerned that a continued rise in debt will cause a "double dip" recession.  What the hey?  First a big bailout for large corporations, then a hugh stimulus package full of money which again reaches large corporations, supposedly to help get the economy going, and now he wants to stop domestic spending while unemployment is still in double digits and send what money we have left abroad. 

When Bush left office, the debt was about $10.6 Trillion dollars.  Nothing to brag about to be sure, but in one year, BO has raised that to over $12 Trillion, and in 10 years it is expected to be $19 Trillion.  Now for those who don't know, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the total market value of all final goods and services made within the borders of a country in a year.  It is a function of consumer spending + corporate investment + government purchases + net exports.  GDP is the dollar value of what we produce, and it is these dollars that we use to pay our debt.  It must be clear that when any one of these factors drops, so also does the GDP drop, and when the GDP drops, the nation's ability to pay off it's debt drops and the amount of the debt increases because of accumulating interest. 

When people are unemployed, consumer spending drops.  It also drops when new taxes are applied to goods and services.  As spending drops, corporate investment also drops, and inventories are allowed to dwindle, reducing the value of the corporations.  This compounds the problem of generating net profits from exports, further reducing corporate investment.  All of this we now have in place and contributing to the current recession.  Now along comes BO who wants to reduce domestic government spending on top of that, thereby contributing to the recession and our already reduced ability to pay our debts.

I'm for spending cuts, but before cutting domestic spending, how about we cut some foreign spending. But no!  BO and his administration don't want that. They want to bleed the American people for every dime we've got before they're through. This is just one more example of his transfer of wealth policy.   The idea is to take from those who have -- us, you and me -- and give it to those who don't have -- the poor in other nations.  That may help to reduce the poverty level in those countries for a little while, but it will also decrease the quality of our own life.  If our way of life is changed enough, we will no longer be able to support the other nations.  They will fall back into poverty, while we continue to slide deeper into it, with no way to ever pay off our debt.  As the government takes more and more from us, our ability and our desire to produce becomes less and less, and in the end, everyone loses. 

What president obama and his administration are doing is doing is criminal incompetence in my mind.  I knew he would make some things hard for us, but I never dreamed that one man could wreck so much havoc in such a short period of time.  I think the people who voted for him will soon learn that change is not always good.

"From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs." -- Karl Marx, Socialist, author of the Communist Manifesto

Our elected officials swore an oath to preserve and protect The Constitution of The United States.  Do you think they are really doing that?  If not, what are you going to do about it? 

We are either at war with the Taliban and al-Qaida or we are not.  If we are at war with them, then why in the world would we try prisoners of war in a civilian court?  That makes no sense to me.  They should be held until the war is over and then released back into their homeland, or tired as war criminals if their activities rise to the level of crimes against humanity.

On the other hand, if we are not at war with the Taliban and al-Qaida, then why are we sending troops to that area of the world?  And why are we sending remotely guided air to ground missiles at these people?  That makes no sense to me either.  That itself might be considered a crime, especially when all the collateral damage is factored into the equation.

But wait, it gets even better.  Only some of the prisoners currently held at Gitmo will be tried in civilian court;  others will be tried by the military; and some won't be tried at all.  Very strange.

We have a contradiction here that is going to backfire on the nation, and it is an Obama problem, because at least Bush called it a war and planned on using military trials where necessary.  Obama has change that, and frankly, I don't see how he can do anything under these conditions but stop all military action and withdraw.  But he can't do that. 

Catch-22? Not if he backs off of the civilian trials.  What do you think?