Pappy

Some stories make you loose traction from the mundane life, and makes you float through the rustic memory lanes. The lanes that are lit by the dim yellow amber lights, akin to an old fireplace. This story worth a read.

Pappy...

Pappy was a pleasant-looking old fellow. He had the whitest hair which he kept neatly cut and combed. His eyes were blue, though faded with age, and they seemed to emit a warmth from within. His face was quite drawn, but when he smiled, even his wrinkles seemed to soften and smile with him. He had a talent for whistling and did so happily each day as he dusted and swept his pawnshop; even so, he had a secret sadness, but everyone who knew him respected and adored him.
Most of Pappy's customers returned for their goods, and he did not do much business, but he did not mind. To him, the shop was not his livelihood as much as a welcome pastime.
There was a room in the back of his shop where he spent time tinkering with a menagerie of his own precious items. He referred to this back room as "memory hall." In it were pocket watches, clocks, and electric trains. There were miniature steam engines and antique toys made of wood, tin, or cast iron, and there were various other obsolete trinkets as well.
Spending time in memory hall delighted him as he recalled many treasured moments from his past. He handled each item with care, and sometimes he would close his eyes and pause to relive a sweet, simple childhood memory.
One day, Pappy was working to his heart's content reassembling an old railroad lantern. As he worked, he whistled the melody of a railroad tune and reminisced about his own past as a switchman. It was a typical day at the shop. Outside, the sun illuminated the clear sky, and a slight wind passed through the door. Whenever the weather was this nice, Pappy kept the inner door open. He enjoyed the fresh air--almost as much as the distinctive smell of antiques and old engine oil.
As he was polishing his newly restored lantern, he heard the tinkling of his bell on the shop door. The bell, which produced a uniquely charming resound, had been in Pappy's family for over a hundred years. He cherished it dearly and enjoyed sharing its song with all who came to his shop. Although the bell hung on the inside of the main door, Pappy had strung a wire to the screen door so that it would ring whether the inner door was open or not. Prompted by the bell, he left memory hall to greet his customer.
At first, he did not see her. Her shiny, soft curls barely topped the counter. "And how can I help you, little lady?" Pappy's voice was jovial. "Hello, sir." The little girl spoke almost in a whisper. She was dainty. Bashful. Innocent. She looked at Pappy with her big brown eyes, then slowly scanned the room in search of something special. Shyly she told him, "I'd like to buy a present, sir."
"Well, let's see," Pappy said, "who is this present for?"
"My grandpa. It's for my grandpa. But I don't know what to get."
Pappy began to make suggestions. "How about a pocket watch? It's in good condition. I fixed it myself," he said proudly.
The little girl didn't answer. She had walked to the doorway and put her small hand on the door. She wiggled the door gently to ring the bell.
Pappy's face seemed to glow as he saw her smiling with excitement.
"This is just right," the little girl bubbled. "Momma says grandpa loves music."
Just then, Pappy's expression changed. Fearful of breaking the little girl's heart, he told her, "I'm sorry, missy. That's not for sale. Maybe your grandpa would like this little radio."
The little girl looked at the radio, lowered her head, and sadly sighed, "No, I don't think so."
In an effort to help her understand, Pappy told her the story of how the bell had been in his family for so many years, and that was why he didn't want to sell it.
The little girl looked up at him, and with a giant tear in her eye, sweetly said, "I guess I understand. Thank you, anyway."
Suddenly, Pappy thought of how the rest of the family was all gone now, except for his estranged daughter whom he had not seen in nearly a decade.
Why not, he thought. Why not pass it on to someone who will share it with a loved one? God only knows where it will end up anyway.
"Wait...little lady." Pappy spoke just as the little girl was going out the door--just as he was hearing his bell ring for the last time. "I've decided to sell the bell. Here's a hanky. Blow your nose."
The little girl began to clap her hands. "Oh, thank you, sir. Grandpa will be so happy."
"Okay, little lady. Okay." Pappy felt good about helping the child; he knew, however, he would miss the bell. "You must promise to take good care of the bell for your grandpa--and for me, too, okay?" He carefully placed the bell in a brown paper bag.
"Oh, I promise," said the little girl. Then, she suddenly became very still and quiet. There was something she had forgotten to ask. She looked up at Pappy with great concern, and again almost in a whisper, asked, "How much will it cost?"
"Well, let's see. How much have you got to spend?" Pappy asked with a grin.
The child pulled a small coin purse from her pocket then reached up and emptied two dollars and forty-seven cents onto the counter.
After briefly questioning his own sanity, Pappy said, "Little lady, this is your lucky day. That bell costs exactly two dollars and forty-seven cents."
Later that evening as Pappy prepared to close up shop, he found himself thinking about his bell. Already he had decided not to put up another one. He thought about the child and wondered if her grandpa like his gift. Surely he would cherish anything from such a precious grandchild.
At that moment, just as he was going to turn off the light in memory hall, Pappy thought he heard his bell. Again, he questioned his sanity; he turned toward the door, and there stood the little girl. She was ringing the bell and smiling sweetly.
Pappy was puzzled as he strolled toward the small child. "What's this, little lady? Have you changed your mind?"
"No," she grinned. "Momma says it's for you."
Before Pappy had time to say another word, the child's mother stepped into the doorway, and choking back a tear, she gently said, "Hello, Dad."
The little girl tugged on her grandpa's shirttail. "Here, Grandpa.
Here's your hanky. Blow your nose."

Windows 7 Testers Find 2000 Bugs: Be Proud You Found One

 

It's been nearly two months since the beta of Windows 7 was officially released, and you will be awestruck hearing this- 2000 unique bugs reported and fixed in windows 7!

This happened because in every Windows 7 program, the title bar has a “Send Feedback” option. So Microsoft is listening to lots of people who are clicking the button!

According to Steve Sinofsky (the sin-of-sky effect is not intentional), senior vice president, Windows live engineering group, Microsoft received over 500,000 reports- that means over 500 reports per developer. During a "peak week in January," they were receiving one report about every fifteen seconds.

Sinofsky goes on to describe what a "bug" really is for a developer. It sounds rather broad, especially with that phrase, "any one of dozens of different ways that the software can behave in a way that isn't expected."

Though, I want to be more exact, a bug is anytime a cosmetic issue, a consistency issue, a crash, a confusing user experience, a compatibility issue, a missing feature, or any one of dozens of different ways that the software can behave in a way that isn't expected!!!

A bug for us is not an emotional term, but just shorthand for an entry that was not made correctly. Nothing to be taken to heart.

Bugs are reported by a human using the various forms of “telemetry” built into Windows 7.

Microsoft has already fixed 2,000 bugs in Windows 7, and I'll bet that there'll be plenty more before this beta is finished in August. Go, go, Windows.

As a side note, don't you think I'm entitled to 1/250,000th of the profits made on 7 for my two Send Feedback items… what do you say?

2008’s biggest tech crime stories

 

Here is the collection of biggest 2008 tech crime stories, grilled out from the darkest corners of the internet…

Read the self-confessions of hackers below and feel the chills running through your spine.

1. The spam King

In a boon for email users everywhere, the man whom prosecutors had dubbed "The Spam King" was sentenced to 47 months in prison earlier this year after he pleaded guilty to fraud, spamming and tax evasion in July. Described as one of the world's 10 worst spammers at the time of his arrest by a Microsoft attorney, Soloway, 28, was first sued for spamming by Microsoft in 2003. Despite losing a $7 million civil judgment to Microsoft back in 2005, Soloway continued to send out massive spam up until his arrest in May 2007. In addition to being sentenced to nearly four years in jail, Soloway will also have to serve three years of probation and perform 200 hours of community service.

2. 40 million credit card numbers stolen using SQL Injection

The US Department of Justice revealed this summer that a group of hackers used a combination of wardriving(act of searching for Wi-Fi wireless in a moving vehicle using a laptop or PDA), sniffer software and SQL injection attacks to steal over 40 million credit and debit card numbers from TJX, OfficeMax, Barnes & Noble and other companies and store them on underground server systems in the US, Latvia and the Ukraine. The DOJ(Department of Justice) has indicted 11 alleged hackers on charges of computer fraud, wire fraud, access device fraud, aggravated identity theft. So far only one of the 11 people charged by the DOJ has pleaded guilty.

3. Alcatel official pays $2.5 Million in bribes to Costa Rican Officials

Facing an increasingly competitive telecom market, former Alcatel official Christian Sapsizian decided to secure lucrative telecom contracts the old fashioned way: through bribes. Sapsizian, who worked as Alcatel's deputy vice president for the Latin American region from 2000 to 2004, was convicted in September of paying out $2.5 million in bribes to Costa Rican officials over a four-year period to help Alcatel nail down a $149 million cellular network deal. As punishment, Sapsizian, 62, will have to pay a $261,500 fine and serve three years of supervised release.

4. Thousands of company computers transformed to botnets

Robert Matthew Bentley needed a large network of computers to help him distribute adware. To this end, he hacked into the computer system at Newell Rubbermaid, the plastic-ware company that makes Sharpie markets, and transformed hundreds of its computers into a botnet(A botnet is a network of zombie computers under the remote control of a master). From there, the network was used to infect computers throughout the world with adware on behalf of DollarRevenue, a notorious adware producer that was fined over $1.5 million by the Dutch government for distributing adware in 2007. Bentley, a 21-year-old hacker based in Florida, was paid 0.15 Euros for each European computer he infected with adware and $0.25 for every US PC he infected with adware, investigators said. Bentley pleaded guilty to charges of computer fraud and conspiracy to commit computer fraud. He was sentenced to 41 months in prison and must pay $65,000 restitution.

5. Fraud with internet kiosks

Lillian Glaubman's business propositions were akin to the business plan of South Park's legendary Underpants Gnomes. In other words:

Step 1: Set up Internet kiosks

Step 2: ?????

Step 3: Profit!

This Miami woman was the administrator for Internet kiosk vendor Pantheon Holdings. According to investigators, Pantheon sold businesses Internet kiosks for $18,000 a pop by persuading them that they would reap substantial rewards from both Internet connection access and for advertisements that would appear on the kiosks. Additionally, Pantheon promised to find high-traffic areas for the kiosks and to get advertisers to place ads on the screens.

Predictably, Pantheon never did any work to attract advertisers and the kiosks were more likely to be placed in tumbleweed farms than in well-trafficked zones. In addition to serving jail time, Glaubman was also ordered to pay a whopping $18.2 million in restitution.

6. China made equipments sold as Cisco’s

It's a scam so simple: import a bunch of cheap no-name network equipment from China, pass it off as Cisco gear in the U.S. and walk away with a fortune. Charles Lacy-Thompson, the 52-year-old former owner of the New York-based Coletronic Computer electronics sales company, actually implemented such a scheme over a four-year period from 2003 through 2007. In that time, his company generated sales between $4 million and $5 million per year, and an FBI investigation found that Coletronic possessed more than 3,500 pieces of fake Cisco gear valued at $3.5 million. Despite the best efforts of Lacy-Thompson's lawyer to paint his client as a great guy - say, did you know he's an inspirational youth sports coach and that he volunteers at a local food pantry? - Lacy-Thompson was sentenced to 30 months in prison. He also has agreed to fork over $2.2 million in cash and property to the federal government.

7. Vice-President’s email hacked by a 20-year old lad

In addition to the big convictions for tech-related crime this year, there were several arrests in high-profile cases that are currently awaiting trial. The biggest was that of David Kernell (shown here), a 20-year-old Tennessee man who has been indicted for hacking into former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin's email account. He has pleaded not guilty to accessing a protected computer. Other notable arrests include Francis Janosko, a former inmate at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility in Massachusetts who was arrested by the FBI for allegedly hacking into his former prison's computer network and stealing prison workers' Social Security numbers; Viktor Savtyrev, a systems administrator from New Jersey who was arrested for allegedly trying to extort money from a company that had recently laid him off; and Biswamohan Pani, a former Intel employee who has been indicted for allegedly stealing $1 billion worth of trade secrets from his former company.