181–190 of 279 posts
I did really enjoy this post, but is it just a tiny bit weird how casual he is about repeatedly committing fraud? Not asking for some grand apology (lord knows the crap I did as a kid), but the post is written like defrauding an ISP is just a normal and fine thing to do. Am I off base here?
Check out any history of phreaking [0]
That's a really awesome story with a great opening, middle, and especially the end, if one ignores the adolescent fraud. I think it really highlights the simple joy that technology that literally just works can bring. I'm around the same age as the author, a little younger in fact, but there's just something about today's Internet and a lot of the overwhelming amount of technology that just isn't fun or memorable. Fr…
I think the technology itself is 100x better in just about every way(Except for pure novelty, smartphones largely killed true gadgets) The lack of fun, to me, is mostly because of how everything changed around it. I can make a basic website now, no problem, everything is easier than it was aside from the fact we pretty much have to have HTTPS. But, nobody will read it, because it will be lost in a sea of clickbait. I…
My GFs blog is like in its 6th year now and every year its more visitors. Its not that much in internet terms (we are at ~700 visitors a day) but its serious content (dogs and science around dogs). No clickbaits, no cookies, no nothing.
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If every human being alive today (~8 billion) had a valid Visa card (14 digits not counting the beginning 4 and the check digit), there would be a 0.008% chance of a collision.
I kinda agree with the low probability, but you also ignored the article (he’s faking mastercard), and I see 12 digits not 14. Also, not every valid number will be used (e.g. all 0s won’t be an option), and every number don’t need to be valid at the same time. If I renew 25 cards, their numbers are burned with no reuse. That’s a long way to say, I’m not a fan in general of throwing in naive probability calculations a…
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I am not sure credit card fraud is innocent pranks or misbehavior... I can tell you with certainty that most teenagers have never committed that sort of crimes tbh.
Credit card fraud was really common in the 80 among "hacker" types. I knew of several in Lake Tahoe that were high-school kids at the time in the late 80s - someohow managed to get credit cards and would order deliveries to "vacation homes" in lake tahoe where they knew the owners lived in the bay area and wouldnt be at the house - and would have things dropped off to the vacant houses to go get them. Also, in 1980 -…
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Credit card fraud was really common in the 80 among "hacker" types. I knew of several in Lake Tahoe that were high-school kids at the time in the late 80s - someohow managed to get credit cards and would order deliveries to "vacation homes" in lake tahoe where they knew the owners lived in the bay area and wouldnt be at the house - and would have things dropped off to the vacant houses to go get them. Also, in 1980 -…
Late 1980 was when criminality was going up and right before its peak. It is quite lower now ... and people who were teenagers in late 1980 are almost 60 now.
That's a really awesome story with a great opening, middle, and especially the end, if one ignores the adolescent fraud. I think it really highlights the simple joy that technology that literally just works can bring. I'm around the same age as the author, a little younger in fact, but there's just something about today's Internet and a lot of the overwhelming amount of technology that just isn't fun or memorable. Fr…
I think the technology itself is 100x better in just about every way(Except for pure novelty, smartphones largely killed true gadgets) The lack of fun, to me, is mostly because of how everything changed around it. I can make a basic website now, no problem, everything is easier than it was aside from the fact we pretty much have to have HTTPS. But, nobody will read it, because it will be lost in a sea of clickbait. I…
Welcome to the 21st century! One of the 20th century's main themes was humans having to learn how to live in a world of infinite sugar, fat and salt.
Here in the 21st century, we have to learn how to live in a world of infinite information.
What will you do with your attention today? Will you consume the mental equivalent of broccoli or snickers bars?
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Very true. The old-fashioned telephone handset was a masterpiece of human engineering. I bet with state-of-the-art mic and speakers, it would still be way better than a smartphone for actual phone calls. Of course, I have to admit that my Bluetooth headset is pretty good, and a first-class gaming headset would be even better.
I converted an old rotary phone into a mobile phone ( https://www.stavros.io/posts/irotary-saga/ ), and the quality is much better than a mobile. Even just the sidetone makes it SO much better to talk on. I have no idea why modern mobile phones have no (or very low volume?) sidetone. It makes the UX orders of magnitude better.
I did really enjoy this post, but is it just a tiny bit weird how casual he is about repeatedly committing fraud? Not asking for some grand apology (lord knows the crap I did as a kid), but the post is written like defrauding an ISP is just a normal and fine thing to do. Am I off base here?
You have to remember how expensive this stuff was in the 80's and 90's, how low risk this type of fraud was, and how us teens didn't really think about it. ISPs billed by the hour, something a teen could not afford.