- It’s one of those stories that makes you stop, wonder and
ask, “If you’re skilled enough to hack an entire computer system, couldn’t you
find a better target?” That question goes out to the hacker or hackers who
elbowed their way into the San Francisco Municipal Transit Authority system and
decided to make use of the access they had granted themselves by shutting down
fare gates and allowing people to ride for free. According to sources close to
the situation, the hackers have had access to the system for several days, but
the public became aware of it over the weekend when people showed up to ride
the metro and were greeted by computer screens that read, ‘You Hacked, ALL Data
Encrypted.’ The grammatically butchered nature of the message suggests it’s
someone who doesn’t speak English very well, but SFMTA authorities insist the
hack hasn’t affected service. “There’s no impact to the transit service, but we
have opened the fare gates as a precaution to minimize customer impact,” said
Muni spokesperson Paul Rose. During the hack, the system hasn’t been able to
read riders’ payment cards and ticket kiosks were also out of service. The real
reason the hack was a top priority for the SFMTA to solve, though, is that
workers were unsure if their paychecks would be affected by the hack. If
workers’ dollar bills are affected, you can be damn sure they’re going to do
everything they can to make sure the issue is addressed and that it’s addressed
sooner rather than later……..
- The first of what will surely be many is on the way. Prince
is no longer with us and that assures us of a few things: plenty of suddenly
found, previously unreleased music he had stashed away, a tribute album or 10
and of course, lots of documentaries purporting to tell the true story of
various portions of his interesting life. “Prince: R U Listening?” is the first
in that surefire parade of documentaries and it will come out next year,
documenting the musician’s early years and his rise to one of the most
prominent recording artists and entertainers in the world. There are some big
names attached to the project, as it will feature interviews from friends,
family and collaborators like Shelia E as well as reflections from Mick Jagger,
Billy Idol, Bono, Lenny Kravitz. Producer Michael Kirk has done plenty of
big-name projected and will direct the documentary, which will also include
personal recollections of working with Prince as told by former bandmates
including Dez Dickerson, who toured with Prince during the’ 80s, and André
Cymone, who played bass in Prince’s teenage band Grand Central. Given that
Prince had decades in the music industry, released so many singles and albums
and had so many memorable performances, this film leaves plenty of additional
ground for future Prince-centric documentaries to explore, meaning that those
who’ve always wanted to know more about his mysterious existence - crazy adult
pajama party/concerts and all - should be in for some great viewing…….
- Wow, The Man certainly knows how to be ungrateful when
citizens actually make the effort to get involved in politics. For all of the
b*tching government officials do about the common man not voting and not taking
the time to participate in the democratic process, it’s funny to see security
officers in Australia’s Parliament evict some 30 loud, animated protesters
demonstrating against Australia's treatment of asylum seekers. These democracy
lovers exercised their right to free speech by sitting in a public gallery and
using the voices God gave them to drown out the House of Representatives, where
lawmakers had gathered for a combative, daily 90-minute session in which
opposition lawmakers questioned government ministers about their portfolios.
The protestors came prepared and in order to prevent security from getting rid
of them too easily, several of them actually glued their hands to a railing at
the front of the gallery. When it became clear that the protestors were not
going to be silenced when it came to Australia looking to permanently ban
anyone who had attempted to flee various refugee crises in Africa and Asia in
recent months and prevent them from ever becoming Australian citizens, Speaker
Tony Smith adjourned the meeting after the first question. In its aftermath, Government
Minister Christopher Pyne described the 40-minute disruption as "the most
serious intrusion into the Parliament" in 20 years and asked the speaker
to investigate. Given the way this turned out, the Australian government had
best not complain the next time it feels like too few people showed interest in
being a part of its democratic process………
- Bitter much, University of Houston board of regents? Just
a few months back, you were feeling pretty damn good about yourselves. You had
a football team that was ranked in the top five in the nation, you had the next
big thing in head coaches and you were expected to be one of the leading
candidates to be added to the Big 12 as part of the conference’s expansion
plans. Fast-forward to now and Houston is on the tail end of a disappointing
9-3 season that featured losses to three teams the Cougars were favored to
beat, head coach Tom Herman is on his way out the door and oh yeah, his new
school is one of the members of the Big 12 Conference that rejected you and other
expansion candidates when it decided to remain numerically incorrect with 10
teams. In that spirit of bitterness, Houston board of regents chairman Tilman
Fertitta lashed out at the Big 12 in the wake of Texas' hiring of Herman, who
went 22-4 in two season at Houston, including a 13-1 season in 2015 that
included a Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl victory over Florida State and six wins over
top-25 teams. "It's disappointing that the University of Texas -- who
wants to open a campus in Houston and said they would never do anything to harm
the University of Houston, with all the football coaches in America, who said
that they would stand up for us to get into the Big 12 and then didn't even
vote for us when they met with the commissioner and all the schools -- had to
come take our little football coach," Fertitta whined. “But that's
business and it's a great opportunity for Tom and I wish him the best. I hope
they all do well, but I just hope we do better." Hearing this guy whine
makes a lot more sense - and draws a lot less sympathy - when you know that
he’s a big-money booster who throws around millions of dollars to slap his name
on buildings and buy access to Houston athletic so he can be a glorified jock
sniffer, but hearing him bitterly call the Big 12's expansion vetting process
"a sham” is still amusing on some level………
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