Willisburg.org

Thanks to commenter Kilroy over at The Comics Curmudgeon for being on the same wavelength as me this morning on today’s For Better or For Worse.

Roll out the red carpet and blast the trumps, I’m posting for a record second time in 2007 and with a whole 34 days to spare! Today, I’m going to talk about the magic of the homebuilt sub $500 computer!

This may bounce down well worn ground and could likely be viewed as partly pointless as most computer geeks worth their salt already know what I’m about to write, but I’m going to do it anyway. Why? Because it’s been a while since I’ve flexed the old techernickel muscles, and TV’s Patrick Norton inspired me after viewing the latest episode of Tekzilla courtesy of the fine TechTV orphans of Revision3 and the video management and playback prowess of Miro. (ZOMG! YES! I’m one of those a-holes WHO ARE KILLING THE INTERNETS!!!

Anyway, good old Patrick Norton has started a project dubbed The Return of the Revenge of the $500 PC, which is a throwback to earlier days when $500 computers weren’t so commonplace. Granted, his tack on the use of the machine has a decidedly more HTPC vibe to it, but between the project and the latest Ars System Guide, I was finally inspired to come up with a similar project. My guidelines, however, are significantly different:

1. This should be a budget box with teeth. Powerful enough to allow people to dabble and play in multimedia creation if they want.
2. My definition of a complete computer is significantly broader than most others due to peripheral recommendations like uninterruptable power supplies to help protect the components and the data held within.
3. The parts must be higher quality than your average cheap-ass bargain box for longevity and stability. No cheap boards with capacitors that’ll blow out in 18 months, no feather light power supplies that leave the +12V power rail anemic and flaky, and no cheap hard drives.
4. Components must be Linux friendly and should work out of the box with minimal fuss, as we’ll be using OSS titles to help save money, and there’s a lot of really nice and mature applications now that make the platform appealing for more than just e-mail, web, and word processing.
5. Include everything mentioned plus add all the nuts, bolts, bells and whistles for under $700 from one location before shipping and handling, additionally be configurable as a vanilla system with everything that a Mom and Pop basics machine would need for under $500, and the core tower with nothing else for under $300 as a pure upgrade system for frugal people out there who don’t want a fully pimped out setup or want to reuse their monitor, keyboard, mouse and whatnot.

This is a steep order, especially with the mighty American Peso’s current buying power, but I like a good challenge… so I fired up the old web browser and wandered myself over to NewEgg. Let’s take a look at what I found, shall we?
Read the rest of this RANT! »

Real post later, honest. I also know it’s been months… sorry folks, it happens. Nutshell of the past few months? Sold house, new Batcave, free of Comcast. This post, oddly enough, deals with said new ISP. Chat log for your convenience!

As for the other guy who shares my birth namesake down there in Georgia? I’m trying to clean up the mess to help protect us both, but next time? Be more careful about what you sign up for and change your e-mail addresses with your accounts, dude! I’ve had your address for three days, and I’ve already gotten over twenty messages, mostly spam, but some of it a jackpot for identity theft if I were a douchebag like that.

Stated problem: The user name that was assigned to me is obviously used as I’m getting a massive amount of spam and personal messages sent to my account. Is there any way that I can change my primary account name and eliminate account ################?

Here’s the log:

user Willis has entered room

analyst AT&T Lackey has entered room

AT&T Lackey(Wed Aug 15 22:12:33 CST 2007)>Hello. Welcome to the new AT&T, now joined with BellSouth DSL eAgent Chat. My name is #######. I understand you want to change your email address?

Willis(Wed Aug 15 20:12:35 CST 2007)>For the primary account? Yes.

AT&T Lackey(Wed Aug 15 22:13:19 CST 2007)>I’ll be happy to assist you, May I verify your phone number as XXX-XXX-XXXX?

Willis(Wed Aug 15 20:13:09 CST 2007)>Ideally, I’d like to obliterate the need of using ################ for my user name with you people entirely.

Willis(Wed Aug 15 20:13:25 CST 2007)>That’s the number.

AT&T Lackey(Wed Aug 15 22:14:15 CST 2007)>Thank you.

AT&T Lackey(Wed Aug 15 22:15:44 CST 2007)>I show the ################@bellsouth.net account is still in pending status because this is a new account, we would have to wait until it changes to an active status before the name can be changed which should be within 24 - 48 hours.

Willis(Wed Aug 15 20:15:59 CST 2007)>So you’re telling me that I can’t change my account name yet?

AT&T Lackey(Wed Aug 15 22:16:42 CST 2007)>Not at this current time but you will be able to once it converts to “active” status.

Willis(Wed Aug 15 20:17:02 CST 2007)>…and once that happens, I’ll never have to deal with the user name of ################ ever again?

AT&T Lackey (Wed Aug 15 22:17:26 CST 2007)>Correct.

Willis(Wed Aug 15 20:17:41 CST 2007)>Mind if I ask a couple questions before letting you go and coming back in a day or two to try and fix this?

AT&T Lackey (Wed Aug 15 22:18:12 CST 2007)>Sure go ahead.

Willis(Wed Aug 15 20:18:30 CST 2007)>1) Why didn’t you let me pick a user name during sign up to begin with as it would have made things easier for all of us?

AT&T Lackey(Wed Aug 15 22:19:22 CST 2007)>I’m not sure why that isn’t an option in the ordering process.

Willis(Wed Aug 15 20:20:30 CST 2007)>2) It’s obvious that this username was used by a previous end user for a considerable amount of time. Why would your IT department allow this username to enter back into circulation seeing as how if I was a black hat, I’ve already gotten enough personal info off of this spam to know where the previous ####### ######### lives, his phone number, and some of his shopping habits and some account info?

AT&T Lackey(Wed Aug 15 22:21:49 CST 2007)>I don’t have control over the usernames being given out.

Willis(Wed Aug 15 20:21:59 CST 2007)>To be blunt, this is a phisher’s dream come true. However, from a sysadmin standpoint (which I can sympathize) this is an absolute nightmare.

Willis(Wed Aug 15 20:22:47 CST 2007)>I understand that you don’t have that control, but this is still a serious security risk to any of your customers, present or past, when using user names such as this.

AT&T Lackey(Wed Aug 15 22:23:50 CST 2007)>I do apologize, the system randomly generates usernames based on certain criteria.

Willis(Wed Aug 15 20:24:38 CST 2007)>Then perhaps I should close by requesting that you send a couple suggestions up the food chain, and I really would like feedback and answers regarding these questions sent back to me…

AT&T Lackey(Wed Aug 15 22:25:49 CST 2007)>You can email feedback@bellsouth.net regarding concerns with the usernames generated by the system.

Willis(Wed Aug 15 20:26:12 CST 2007)>The questions are obvious… I’ve already asked them. The comments are as follows: Security for your customers could be greatly increased if they are allowed to pick their own user names during sign up, and if you insist on generating user names off of real names, then a system needs to be put in place for user names to never be re-used between customers.

AT&T Lackey(Wed Aug 15 22:26:58 CST 2007)>Ok.

Willis(Wed Aug 15 20:26:49 CST 2007)>Noted. I’ll copypasta that into an e-mail.

AT&T Lackey(Wed Aug 15 22:27:52 CST 2007)>Is there anything else I can assist you with?

Willis(Wed Aug 15 20:27:55 CST 2007)>Nope, that’ll do it.

Willis(Wed Aug 15 20:28:01 CST 2007)>Thank you.

AT&T Lackey(Wed Aug 15 22:28:24 CST 2007)>Ok, Thank you for choosing AT&T.

…yes, because you’ve made it so easy for me to shop around and choose a competitor at a reasonable price in my area. THANKS AT&T! </sarcasm>