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GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor

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Re: GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor

#221

Post by didibus »

surement wrote: post #128
maxerickson wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can just as well say that property is coercion. Like I get that you won't agree, but you are asserting a value system when you do that.

taking something with the threat of force is not the same as owning something that you traded for in a mutually agreed upon transaction

Property is enforced by the government and its social contract exactly the same way that taxation is.

You didn't actually agree in a mutual contract with everyone when you "traded" your property, except for the agreements the government upholds with its system of laws that forms the social contract and taxation is a clause in that contract.

Re: GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor

#222

Post by MathCodeLove »

dontbenebby wrote: post #94
goshx wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve met tons of script kiddies over the years and none of them were concerned about employment. They do what they do just to show that they can.

>I’ve met tons of script kiddies over the years and none of them were concerned about employment. Your sample is probably biased in some way. I've met many who feel trapped in wage slavery, here in the USA.

I question the bias of your sample. Almost every one I've known who possesses any self-taught coding knowledge has gotten there specifically because they don't buy the "wage slavery" narrative and wanted a valuable skill. I'm from a very low income community and family so I imagine that if the type of person you're claiming exists were so predominant I'd have run into at least a few of them.

Re: GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor

#223

Post by pault »

cupofpython wrote: post #193
867-5309 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

agree. the freelancer / gig economy is dominate by script kiddie / template churner companies in India for whom $2/hr is a good wage. there's no competing with that

this is a feature, not a bug, of globalization. Work that can be done in cheaper countries is allocated there. On a related note (and I get negative feedback whenever i say this, but) this is the future of all software developers as i see it. If you can do your entire job remotely, then "remote" is going to get optimized over time. It does not make sense to spend your time in USA (for example) coding when you can sto…

"Just" sending it overseas to be coded is more likely to end in failure than success, unless you have a lot of experience and know what the pitfalls are (which is a very expensive education). I'm not picking on developing countries; the same goes for big enterprise contractor providers in the U.S. They have no incentive to write stable, maintainable code. Their incentive is to make it just stable enough to not get sued and get it out the door as quickly as possible. An employee that will have to live with that code for several years will focus on maintainability purely out of self interest if nothing else. As to whether overseas firms are able to undercut domestic firms, it's a possibility, but anyone that has dealt with time zone issues and cultural barriers most likely knows what they are sacrificing to get that discounted rate.

Re: GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor

#224

Post by klibertp »

cupofpython wrote: post #193
867-5309 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

agree. the freelancer / gig economy is dominate by script kiddie / template churner companies in India for whom $2/hr is a good wage. there's no competing with that

this is a feature, not a bug, of globalization. Work that can be done in cheaper countries is allocated there. On a related note (and I get negative feedback whenever i say this, but) this is the future of all software developers as i see it. If you can do your entire job remotely, then "remote" is going to get optimized over time. It does not make sense to spend your time in USA (for example) coding when you can sto…

> when you can stop at developing the specs and send it overseas to be coded for half the cost or less.

Good luck with that. Please, do try it and report back to tell us how it went. My prediction:

No matter what you do, the spec will be incomplete, and if it's large enough, it will contain contradictions. The culture of not questioning superiors in many of "overseas" will make it hard to notice and only after substantial time without progress someone will realize the problem. That person or group of people will start communicating with clients and overseas to work out the problems in the spec, accumulating additional overhead. The changes and additions to the spec will render a lot of work already done unusable, so the overseas team will have to start from scratch. Then, they will work on the code, while you will be wondering if they're working or not. If it turns out they do, sooner or later they will provide you with some results. The result is going to be pretty bad, because competent people don't want to work for $2/h, no matter where you go. But you will get some result, and will begin testing it. You will discover a lot of bugs, and then you will have to fight tooth and nail to have them fixed, because nobody will want to take responsibility for the failures. At this point, the project will be a year late, and will have flown past all reasonable estimates in terms of required funding. In the end, you're forced to contract consultants - you'll have to sell your kidney to pay them - who will make the product barely-usable some 2 years after anticipated launch date.

Re: GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor

#225

Post by throwaway576 »

dontbenebby wrote: post #77
jeroenhd wrote: post #68

I can see a younger version of myself making something like this and intentionally letting it slip to the media for attention. I th8nk this line is telling: "Since there are no known victims/ targets for the ransomware group, their Tactics, Techniques and Procedures remain unknown." I don't think there's a risk if any great outbreak here. A bunch of scriptkiddies took some open source project and modified it with som…

Don't be dismissive of script kiddies, they can cause a lot of chaos, and often do it because they feel like no amount of self education or self improvement will improve their chances of stable full time employment. (Hence many of them operating out of the former USSR.)

No post body was provided.

Re: GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor

#227

Post by kodah »

throwaway576 wrote: post #225
dontbenebby wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't be dismissive of script kiddies, they can cause a lot of chaos, and often do it because they feel like no amount of self education or self improvement will improve their chances of stable full time employment. (Hence many of them operating out of the former USSR.)

Quoted post unavailable.

There's a line in the guidelines that touches on the nature of this comment.

Since you have 1 karma: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor

#228

Post by nemo44x »

boondaburrah wrote: post #93
nemo44x wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re probably just helping poor people acquire diabetes faster. In the USA poor people are more likely to be fat suggesting food access is not a problem.

Access to quality food is a problem. Unhealthy food is far cheaper than healthy food.

Perhaps but it’s really that fat people eat too much. If you’re going to eat a rich meal then limit the amount you eat. Don’t drink soda all day. Avoid snacking all day.

It’s really an issue with personal responsibility more than food choice.

Re: GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor

#229

Post by dheera »

paulgb wrote: post #6

I was expecting them to want you to make a donation and send the receipt, but they want you to actually round up less fortunate kids and take them out for pizza. Bizarre.

I think one of the truly bizarre issues with helping the less fortunate is that many affluent people don't want to be seen helping people on the street. They'd rather discreetly put money in a box for "someone else" to do the "dirty" work.

Re: GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor

#230

Post by dheera »

amalcon wrote: post #148
nvr219 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody gets arrested for buying pizza for a bunch of kids.

Maybe not arrested, but you are pretty likely to have an unpleasant interaction with the police at a minimum if you're walking up to kids and asking them to come with you. Honestly the best way to do this (as in least likely to interact with the police) in the U.S. would be to hire actors -- which would feel awfully scummy to me, but that's honestly the safest way to do it. Now, if it asked you to buy some pizzas and…

Just invite the parents along, or deliver the pizza to them. Problem solved
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