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“Subject: Urgent Warning”

daniel.haxx.se

111–120 of 184 posts

Re: “Subject: Urgent Warning”

#112
post #79

I think I might try to explain it this way: It's like he makes paint. He mades this really cool shade of red paint that everyone likes. One day, some really mean dude used this guy's paint to paint his car red. He then used that car to go on a crime spree. The victims of the crime then went to the guy who made the paint demanding their stolen money back.

Wait, are you saying the bad dude is Facebook, or the hackers who got into her account?

Re: “Subject: Urgent Warning”

#113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I fear she's labeling herself as a photographer because she uses Instagram to post photos taken with her iphone...

And why the snark about what tools the photographer is using? Do they have to fool around in a darkroom with chemicals to be a 'real photographer'? Note that their phone camera is better equipment than a generation of 'real' digital photographers had to make do with.

I think they are pointing out that just because you call yourself a photographer doesn't mean you are a professional photographer. You can't assume familiarity with copyright law from someone who calls themselves a photographer, but you can assume that familiarity from a professional photographer.

Re: “Subject: Urgent Warning”

#114
post #31

Lest Stenberg get tangled up too much in the email-sender's unfortunately troubles, he should likely refer the emailer to Instagram and Spotify's customer support. As an aside, hopefully someone can recommend to the emailer as well to use a different service to host high-quality versions of her photography so that potential clients can evaluate critical clarity in her technique. I'm not sure I'd want to rely on Insta…

> As an aside (#2), who hacks Spotify accounts? My first guess when reading the article is that her Facebook account is compromised and that she uses facebook login for both spotify and instagram.

That makes a great deal of sense, as there's no obvious benefit to the data you would get from a compromised Spotify.

Older people also use the word "hacked" to mean a too-wide set of things, from "broken" to "locked out" to actually owned.

Re: “Subject: Urgent Warning”

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you bellow at a stranger because you don't understand something, you're an idiot, sorry. I'd like to hope an "average" person would not gloss over gaps in their knowledge and jump to a hostile conclusion. In your scenario, say you're the phone company - would you think it reasonable if the customer who called in your example blames you for their having made a call and placed an order, because the phone line must h…

> If you bellow at a stranger because you don't understand something, you're an idiot, sorry. But the thing is, does the bellower know they don't understand something? Few people are mature enough (especially when angry) to admit they really don't understand something (and this is probably prevalent in software development circles / communities, too)

"But the thing is, does the bellower know they don't understand something?"

No, they don't, that's what makes them an idiot.

A non-idiot doesn't have to know everything, but they do need to be aware of what they don't know.

Re: “Subject: Urgent Warning”

#116
post #74

I think you are misusing the phrase "nothing to do with." It seems to me that you in fact did have something, however indirect and misunderstood by the emailer, to do with these products. I, on the other hand and for example, had nothing.

I think you must have missed the end of his sentence:

"...I also have nothing to do with Instagram other than that they use software I’ve written."

I think that's an adequate description of his relationship with Instagram.

Re: “Subject: Urgent Warning”

#117
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Anyway. When you have a conversation with an idiot, nobody watching can tell which one of you is the idiot. A friend of mine who works as a college professor has a fun approach to deal with the kinds of random cranks who contact him out of the blue seeking someone to validate their wild Time-Cube-style theories and "research": he responds to each one by providing an introduction to the previous one. Apparently, he…

That seems a bit... I want to say cruel, but maybe it's not? I'm sure most of these mathematical cranks have various kinds of mental illnesses. Perhaps referring them to each other is creating an ad-hoc support group, or perhaps it's just ridiculing them.

Agreed. However, at some point in time remember Galileo was also called a crank. Be careful in that respect.

Re: “Subject: Urgent Warning”

#118
post #30

Ah, this sort of thing is as old as the moon. We run an eCommerce platform, have a variety of clients using it, they have a number of customers. At least once a week we get an accusation either from a client or an end-user of some outlandish nefarious behaviour, usually due to some complete lack of understanding of the nature of technology. Way back when, we responded, tried to help, tried to explain, but it tends to…

"When you have a conversation with an idiot, nobody watching can tell which one of you is the idiot". They are not idiots, they are average people, tech is complex, I wonder if people who have to be told or explain things to represent a market to attend? Imagine, something were you call a number ask for something to be bought; later someone go picking up the money, you perform the purchase and you later deliver. No c…

Some are regular people

Most are people that should not have stopped taken what their Psychiatrist has given them (or should go to one given the chance)

And let's not forget the scammers, of course

Re: “Subject: Urgent Warning”

#119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you bellow at a stranger because you don't understand something, you're an idiot, sorry. But the thing is, does the bellower know they don't understand something? Few people are mature enough (especially when angry) to admit they really don't understand something (and this is probably prevalent in software development circles / communities, too)

A mark of intelligence is the ability to be objective about what you do and don't know. If I don't understand something, I don't jump down someone's throat based on the limited information I have and try to extrapolate from there. I try to learn more about the issue, listen to experts, evaluate the merits of their argument to the best of my ability, and form an opinion.

I agree. But I'd also say that it requires a bit of domain knowledge to know what you don't know.

That is to say: I know what I don't know in the fields that I study/practice in. I don't know what I don't know about the fields I don't.

Re: “Subject: Urgent Warning”

#120
post #28

This reminds me of the case when some state or local agency got the default CentOS / Apache page and they contacted them as if they were hackers. EDIT (thanks mariuolo): http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/24/tuttle_centos/

That was the city manager of Tuttle, Oklahoma.

You're sure it wasn't Buttle?
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