Last Poster #6

[Xue Sheng]

8 years?

You get less time for manslaughter...

True, but sadly, you don't get a pension for manslaughter....

 

[Buka]

 

[Xue Sheng]

View attachment 22466

Watched this all live on TV in my office. I was tasked to get out to the internet for info, but everything was at a stand still. I had just left state security and when they evacuated the offices I went to my old office to see if I could help in any way. The sent me home because I no longer was in security. It was a strange trip home, I think I may have been the last one out of the building. The streets were empty, there were no cars and I was the only person on the bus going to my parking lot. And after that I saw only one other car on the road for my 40 mile trip home.

At this time, 18 years ago, I was home, because they closed all government offices in NYS in fear of further attacks. Feeling sad for all the people who were impacted by this, those that died, those that lost family members and those that were injured. I was also feeling mighty useless because I was no longer in State security and there was absolutely nothing I could do but sit at home and watch the news ad the whole thing just seemed surreal

 

[AngryHobbit]

Sounds like a baked potato without the skin. Cooking over/under the fire sound delicious.

It probably tasted exactly like any regular potato, but... you know how it is... Everything tastes different when you are not eating under ordinary circumstances. We usually did the whole fire thing back in Ukraine when we went to our "dacha" outside the city - so the air was better, we all worked like horses, so everyone's appetite was better. We usually brought, as Jerome K. Jerome would have said, "enough to eat and enough to wear, and a little more than enough to drink; for thirst is a dangerous thing".

 

[AngryHobbit]

OKAY! So I MAY have upped the intensity to 74.37%, so sue me!!!

That was alot of fun, even wore my old Kyokushin gi . Ended up 45 minutes total including a thorough warmup, but it's cool the little drills and combos you can come up with on the spot!

Katas I did in between were Pinan Yon, Gekisai Dai, Gekisai Sho, and Yantsu. Have not worked on these in ages!

There's nothing like getting some whole body movement goin... my SI joint is still irritated, but it held up okay, didn't go full force, but it's hard not to up the intensity when you're doing freestyle bagwork and you see you've got a minute left amiriiight ;D

My GRRRRRR face!

押忍!

Osu!

Get'em, tiger!

 

[AngryHobbit]

View attachment 22466

I was working for Bank of America in downtown Charlotte, NC - across the street from Bank of America headquarters, the tallest building in Charlotte and a major target in the world of finance. There were still airplanes unaccounted for.

There was a big B of A meeting in the second tower in NYC that day. We'd lost some people. Some made it out ok, but their families were calling us in a panic, because the cell phone reception was down and they couldn't reach anyone. I was manning the phones. I can't remember how many times I ended up repeating the same thing, "Yes, ma'am (or sir), I understand - we are trying to find your husband (son, daughter, father, wife) too. Please leave me your phone number - we'll call as soon as we hear something." All in a calm voice, very steady - because you cannot, you just. CANNOT show any panic at moments like this.

The mayor ordered evacuation - in stages, it was very well done, actually. I was the safety coordinator for my floor, so I couldn't just leave - I had to make sure everyone was gone, then report to the building superintendent and the rest of the security crew.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Shoulda got droid.

Does what you tell it - without questioning your motives and then deciding it knows better and doing something entirely different while pretending to humour your choice.

I find both platforms equally usable - and equally frustrating in some of their UI choices. I ditched Android for iPhone many years ago because of some usability and reliability issues. If I were buying today without already having one or the other, I'd probably get an Android because of the wider range of choices and better Windows integration.

And widgets. Widgets rock.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

I was working for Bank of America in downtown Charlotte, NC - across the street from Bank of America headquarters, the tallest building in Charlotte and a major target in the world of finance. There were still airplanes unaccounted for.

There was a big B of A meeting in the second tower in NYC that day. We'd lost some people. Some made it out ok, but their families were calling us in a panic, because the cell phone reception was down and they couldn't reach anyone. I was manning the phones. I can't remember how many times I ended up repeating the same thing, "Yes, ma'am (or sir), I understand - we are trying to find your husband (son, daughter, father, wife) too. Please leave me your phone number - we'll call as soon as we hear something." All in a calm voice, very steady - because you cannot, you just. CANNOT show any panic at moments like this.

The mayor ordered evacuation - in stages, it was very well done, actually. I was the safety coordinator for my floor, so I couldn't just leave - I had to make sure everyone was gone, then report to the building superintendent and the rest of the security crew.

I can't remember if I was in the same building you were that day, but I was in a BofA building in Charlotte, too. Our project was meant to be part of that big meeting in NYC, but some schedules changed and none of our teammates were at their desks. None. They were all off-site unexpectedly.

I drove into Charlotte that morning, listening to CD's in my truck. I got to the floor I was working on, having no idea anything had happened. It was some time after the first plane hit, and I just walked in talking about ordinary stuff, asking project-related questions. Folks asked if I knew what had happened, showing me the footage they're watching on the big monitors. As they're explaining it, the second plane hit.

Everything else that day was surreal. I drove back to our offices 90 minutes away and spent the rest of the work day in a mild state of shock, helping track down the other consultants (three of whom were in NYC that day, and two who were in the air during the attacks) and just being together with the office staff.

I still feel a little of that state of shock when I remember the day.

 

[AngryHobbit]

I can't remember if I was in the same building you were that day, but I was in a BofA building in Charlotte, too. Our project was meant to be part of that big meeting in NYC, but some schedules changed and none of our teammates were at their desks. None. They were all off-site unexpectedly.

I drove into Charlotte that morning, listening to CD's in my truck. I got to the floor I was working on, having no idea anything had happened. It was some time after the first plane hit, and I just walked in talking about ordinary stuff, asking project-related questions. Folks asked if I knew what had happened, showing me the footage they're watching on the big monitors. As they're explaining it, the second plane hit.

Everything else that day was surreal. I drove back to our offices 90 minutes away and spent the rest of the work day in a mild state of shock, helping track down the other consultants (three of whom were in NYC that day, and two who were in the air during the attacks) and just being together with the office staff.

I still feel a little of that state of shock when I remember the day.

Yes, you were in the same building - the little dinky, five-story one with Queen Charlotte's statue in the front. International Trade Center it was called at the time. You told me you were working on the second floor - I was on the fourth.

To clarify y'all, that was before we met. We didn't actually meet until February 2002.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Yes, you were in the same building - the little dinky, five-story one with Queen Charlotte's statue in the front. International Trade Center it was called at the time. You told me you were working on the second floor - I was on the fourth.

To clarify y'all, that was before we met. We didn't actually meet until February 2002.

Yep, that's the building.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Well, its Thursday

 

[AngryHobbit]

Yay! Our Healthy Aging Day dance demo photos are finally up. Unfortunately, none of the actual dance for belly dancing, but some when we tried to share our moves with the masses and some from the zumba demo.

Our belly dance instructor Melanie, one of Y employees William, and a belly dance classmate Gwynnie. Gwynnie actually did something amazing when we were dancing. She'd forgotten to tie her hip scarf properly and it fell off. She just kicked it away and kept going like a pro.

Judging by how my belt is moving, I'd just switched from a hip shimmy to a spiral shimmy. The girl in the green t-shirt is my Barre and yoga instructor Natalie. She also teaches Zumba. She's amazing - we are friends.

This is funny - SOMEHOW they caught me in mid-rolldown.

My favorite - a circle of fabulousness and fun. If you ever want to take on belly dancing, all my stuff is from BellyDance.com. They do sell some full-blown expensive professional costumes, but also some nice, affordable stuff for beginners of both genders.

The Zumba demo. The guy on the left is the one I'd browbeat into coming to belly dancing class the following day. I asked him why he wouldn't want to be in a room with a bunch of lovely women undulating seductively, and he didn't have a good answer - so he just showed up in class.

Natalie leading the pack.

 

[dvcochran]

I could be connected 24/7 with my magical smartphone, but I found a brilliant way to avoid that.

I put the phone down and go do something else.

I do however use online services wherever possible - have been for nigh on 20 years now.






Quite possibly the absolute worst insecurity 'solution' available anywhere.

Doesn't really do what it's supposed to and behaves like a virus itself. Clogs up and slows down everything.

I get offered the premium version for free every month or so - I wouldn't take that offer even if they paid me.

Well, I would, but it'd get stuck on a win98 box and ignored.

Good job you don't do online finances and such.


Please don't tell me you use photobucket too...

We used Norton for probably 15 years with no issues. Then after one of the Windows updates
(I forget which one, 8 maybe)we started have computer problems. Uninstalled Norton and installed McAfee a and things have been running fine. No bugs, no viruses.

 

[granfire]

Yay! Our Healthy Aging Day dance demo photos are finally up. Unfortunately, none of the actual dance for belly dancing, but some when we tried to share our moves with the masses and some from the zumba demo.

Our belly dance instructor Melanie, one of Y employees William, and a belly dance classmate Gwynnie. Gwynnie actually did something amazing when we were dancing. She'd forgotten to tie her hip scarf properly and it fell off. She just kicked it away and kept going like a pro.

Judging by how my belt is moving, I'd just switched from a hip shimmy to a spiral shimmy. The girl in the green t-shirt is my Barre and yoga instructor Natalie. She also teaches Zumba. She's amazing - we are friends.

This is funny - SOMEHOW they caught me in mid-rolldown.

My favorite - a circle of fabulousness and fun. If you ever want to take on belly dancing, all my stuff is from BellyDance.com. They do sell some full-blown expensive professional costumes, but also some nice, affordable stuff for beginners of both genders.

The Zumba demo. The guy on the left is the one I'd browbeat into coming to belly dancing class the following day. I asked him why he wouldn't want to be in a room with a bunch of lovely women undulating seductively, and he didn't have a good answer - so he just showed up in class.

Natalie leading the pack.

They should pay you, or at least send you free stuff!
you are the walking, talking advertisement for the sport!

 

[_Simon_]

Well, its Thursday

IT IS NOT HOW DARE YOU SPREAD SUCH VICIOUS RUMOURS!

 

[pdg]

We used Norton for probably 15 years with no issues. Then after one of the Windows updates
(I forget which one, 8 maybe)we started have computer problems. Uninstalled Norton and installed McAfee a and things have been running fine. No bugs, no viruses.

How are you verifying you have no bugs or viruses?

 

[dvcochran]

How are you verifying you have no bugs or viruses?

Everything is working as we need it to. Pretty straightforward.
After the issues with Norton I am pretty anal about data backup as well.

 

[Xue Sheng]

On a serious note:

There appears to have been a spike in e-mail attacks, both social engineering and with payload. I have dealt with both this week and am still dealing with one today.

1) an email, possibly from a source you know, asking you to click a link and fill out a form. This is data collection to used to take over your e-mail account, use for suture attacks, and possibly ID theft. The original attack that started this was 5 months ago and they held on to the data and e-mial account for 5 months before stacking virtually everyone in the compromised e-mial's address book.

2) Also possibly from a source you know, asking you to click the link, which takes you to what looks like a legitimate site, be that DropBox or something similar. Here you are to click a second link that comes back with you do not have access or rights to the site. This drops a payload. Not sure what yet, still working on it. It does however disable your antivirus. It makes it appear as if it is running, but it actually is not. Not exactly sure when the original e-mail compromise was just yet, but my suspicion was fairly recently

Just wanted to throw that out there.

 

[dvcochran]

On a serious note:

There appears to have been a spike in e-mail attacks, both social engineering and with payload. I have dealt with both this week and am still dealing with one today.

1) an email, possibly from a source you know, asking you to click a link and fill out a form. This is data collection to used to take over your e-mail account, use for suture attacks, and possibly ID theft. The original attack that started this was 5 months ago and they held on to the data and e-mial account for 5 months before stacking virtually everyone in the compromised e-mial's address book.

2) Also possibly from a source you know, asking you to click the link, which takes you to what looks like a legitimate site, be that DropBox or something similar. Here you are to click a second link that comes back with you do not have access or rights to the site. This drops a payload. Not sure what yet, still working on it. It does however disable your antivirus. It makes it appear as if it is running, but it actually is not. Not exactly sure when the original e-mail compromise was just yet, but my suspicion was fairly recently

Just wanted to throw that out there.

One rule we have is Never open attachments or click links unless the email address is in our known sender list. It is so easy now a days to keep communication with a customer open enough to know when to expect an attachment or such. The best virus protection I know of.
In a large office environment this has to be tough.
We have done integration where we read the packet before landing and kick them out if they do not fit the correct profile. Nothing elegant. An example is when sending product profile information. The header and footer had to be in the right format. Since the specific file information has to go several different directions (plants/lines/machines) it is verified before it ever really goes anywhere. Saves a lot of headaches.

 

[Xue Sheng]

One rule we have is Never open attachments or click links unless the email address is in our known sender list. It is so easy now a days to keep communication with a customer open enough to know when to expect an attachment or such. The best virus protection I know of.
In a large office environment this has to be tough.
We have done integration where we read the packet before landing and kick them out if they do not fit the correct profile. Nothing elegant. An example is when sending product profile information. The header and footer had to be in the right format. Since the specific file information has to go several different directions (plants/lines/machines) it is verified before it ever really goes anywhere. Saves a lot of headaches.

Interesting part of these, they are known senders, all work for the department and all are legit e-mails. It is the link in the email that takes you someplace else that is the issue. The thing that gets me is the folks that opened the email, and clicked the link, when the person it was allegedly coming from (although a legitimate employee) would never be sending them anything and most certainly the e-mail subject had absolutely nothing to do with them.

The email boxes were compromised and in the case of the form, it was about 5 months ago, and there is a man in the middle now. Send an email to the person it is from (another employee actually) and you get a response, but it is not from the actual person you think the e-mail is from.

Our problems began with they centralized IT services, basically took us all out of the departments we worked for and stuffed us in one gigantic office. Then took away all the offices e-mail systems and went to a cloud based system that centralized everything. Originally they had no idea how to secure it and those in charge of it were not listening to the old e-mail admins that did. Heck they cut ours out of the e-mial admin circle because he was making them look bad by applying his years of experience to the issues they were having.