Geek Wannabe – Page 10

Teeny Tiny Flight Simulator

Geek Wannabe, General Comments Off

Jan 102010

Alpha Geek: Push this slider on the left to increase throttle, then tip it to steer left and right or up and down.

Bertha: That’s pretty neat.

Alpha Geek: “Pretty neat?” Look at the level of detail in the graphics!

Bertha: I’m not quite sure what to do with it.

Alpha Geek: Everybody says they’re not sure what to do with it. I don’t understand why people aren’t more impressed that I have a fully-functioning flight simulator on my phone.

Bertha: How do I go faster?

Alpha Geek: Dive.

(On the nearby couch, The Director started giggling.)

Bertha: Wheeee!

Alpha Geek: And it’s a good flight simulator. The physics are very realistic.

Bertha: I just did a loop-the-loop!

Alpha Geek: In a Cessna 172?! How did you do that without crashing?

Bertha: Maybe not completely realistic.

The Director cracked up.

Basic Security? Whassat?

Geek Wannabe, General 2 Responses »

Dec 192009

Dear job.com:

Thank you for sending the information for my new account to me in clear text. It’s good to know you’re not remotely serious about protecting my personal information from being compromised.

Fortunately I a) did not mis-type my e-mail address when giving it to you, or b) have my e-mail account accessed by a third party, so my username and password did not wind up in someone else’s hands.

Sheesh. In this day and, you’d think anyone who runs any kind of network service would know better than to send passwords and login information together like that, with no encryption or verification.

But then, I’ve seen network servers that have their root password set to “password,” so I guess security is not an issue on everyone’s mind.

Damn Scammers

Geek Wannabe Comments Off

Dec 122009

The CraigsList job boards are inundated with scammers these days. It gets very frustrating for those of us trying to find work, as we wade through the bogus ads looking for the legit job offers.

When I first started looking for work (a year ago!), they were fairly easy to spot. Vague, unspecific ads promising suspiciously high salaries for applicants with no job experience. Overly-enthusiastic ads exhorting you to apply for their great career opportunity.

The marks must be wising up, because these days the scammers are putting a little more effort into making their ads look real:

Looks pretty legit, right? I thought so, anyway, so I sent over a resumé. I soon got a reply from “Jerry” asking me to send my phone number so we could schedule an interview. There were a couple of cautionary flags:

the From: address was a .info domain
“Jerry” claimed I was the most qualified out of 23 applicants (even though I have no experience in this field)

They made me wary but they weren’t show-stoppers, so I sent over my phone number.

An hour or so later I got another reply—same From: address, but this time it was signed “Richard:”

“One more thing and I am sorry I didn’t mention this in the first email but I just got off the phone with my manager and she said that before we go any further and schedule an interview you must complete a credit check.
I recommend getting one at:
http://[scammer site deleted].info
I looked it up and its free to check your credit there. I personally don’t understand why you have to get this done but she said that he needs to know your financial state and wants to make sure you are a wise spender or something like that.
Well get back to me as soon as possible with that and I will give you a call.
Thanks for your understanding,
Richard”

Yeah. I’ll get right on that.

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