Divide by Null - undefined

Awhile ago, I put forth my view on MySpace from a web design standpoint. This will overview why myspace is not inherently bad.

You may have seen it on the news: Woman Raped by Man She Met on MySpace, Man Robbed by 14- and 15-year-old Girls He Met on MySpace, but is that really because of MySpace?

All personal information is optional. It's not necessary to put your name, age, location, income, favorite movie, job, school, and favorite type of smoothie. Would you just give out your social security number? Sure these pieces of information aren't as telling on their own, but by putting the pieces together, dedicated people can find out a lot of information.

So maybe you didn't put your city or true age on your profile. What if you put up a survey that asks your western and eastern astrological sign and your school. You've just given off enough information to guess age and city. Typing your full name backwards or with your nose, etc. just revealed your last name. Now they can try to look you up in the phone book. The problem is, people may not realize that they're giving this much information away.

You know the password request information on e-mails? "What's the name of your first pet?" Well, someone can start a conversation, lead it into animals, and stealthily ask that question. One probably won't remember that they put that question up. Now this social engineer has access to someone else's email.

That seems like a digression, but it's the same principle. People need to realize that trivial information in the hands of one that is dedicated can reveal too much information.

Now, is that the fault of MySpace? No. It's the same idea that follows when parents (who take no notice to the ESRB) blame video game developers that their 7 year old son is playing Grand Theft Auto. People need to learn to accept blame rather than rely on a scapegoat.

Now the educational section. How to have a safer myspace.

1. Make your profile private.
2. Don't accept friend request from strangers.
3. Don't send any personally identifyable information to the internet in (public) blogs, bulletins, and in the public profile.
4. Don't go over to the house of a person you just met online last week.

The reward of making new friends is accompanied by the risk of getting hurt. If you break these rules and wonder why you are the victim of robbery or rape, don't blame MySpace.

It seems that one person who tried to help reveal a security flaw to a large university was reprimanded for his actions. In turn, the university did nothing to correct the problem. A few years later, a few people with malicious intent discovered the same flaw and exploited it, extracting personal information (including SSNs) from over 367,000 files.

Those who accidentally encounter a security flaw are recommended to keep quiet about it.

Thus it becomes a question of personal or public safety. If one alerts the company, they may either thank them and fix it, punish them and fix it, or punish them and ignore it. If you keep quiet, you would be aiding the crime a la criminal negligence. Then again, no one would know.

This is definitely not the first time something like this has happened. It's all about ethics, pride, and suspicion. Telling them the flaw is ethical. You'd be helping them and potentially save them from problems in the future. If they have too much pride, they will disregard it and deny having any problem at all. Then, they may also be suspicious, thinking that the white-hat hacker has more to hide and has previously exploited the vulnerability.

Some companies actually employ people to hack into their system to uncover vulnerabilities so that the IT department can fix them. The difference here is that they were given permission.

Let's shift it to me. I know how to crack some Masterlocks. I haven't caused any serious problems aside from switching locks and such, merely in jest. I have not gone in to steal someone's personal items. I have the knowledge, but I don't abuse it. I haven't told anyone how I do it either. I merely point them to the internet, as that's how I found out. I have actually helped people by cracking locks that have found its way to the wrong locker or whose combination has been long forgotten.

The problem is, can we trust people to use such information only for good? Or rather, that they haven't already used it for evil?

And to companies who have been shown a security flaw and ignored it... what's wrong with you!? It's like leaving a time bomb in your office and hoping it won't explode (or say... a levee in New Orleans?). The effort to fix the problem before it's compromised might be time-consuming and tedious, but it's nothing in comparison to the effort required after it gets out of hand. Hey, some people like to gamble, I guess.

Net neutrality... what's all this commotion?

If you don't know what net neutrality is, Ask a Ninja!

So you still probably don't know.

Net neutrality is the idea that no information should be prioritized by the ISPs.

Should ISPs decide to charge more for certain content, or even for faster delivery, then Net Neutrality would definitely be a good thing. Of course, if an ISP was to charge extra for some content, I'm pretty sure that it would lose a lot of business.

Both sides put up a good argument for themselves, but they also assume a cataclysmic death to the internet should the other side win. Either the internet will be highly regulated by the government or by the telcos.

It's interesting to note that the large internet companies (Google, Yahoo, etc.) are in favor of Net Neutrality and the large telecommunication companies (Cingular, BellSouth, etc.) are against it.

Personally, I don't think absolute network neutrality would be the optimum solution. Instead, providers should transmit data without discriminating between companies and should charge equal prices for equal service. Something of a reverse for equal pay for equal work, then. People already pay more for, say, FiOS than DSL (and why people still use dial-up at the prices of DSL now... err), so charging for faster lines isn't that much different. That sort of prioritization, however, is all about profit, not really about the consumer. Slowing down transfers doesn't promote progress as much as trying to discover faster methods.

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Edit: I have discovered this long debate. It goes through both sides rather in-depth. I still stand by my idea that ISPs should not discriminate based on source/destination for packets, but I shall make an addendum. They can discriminate by types of packets, so VoIP services get more priority over e-mail, as it's worse to get a shaky VoIP connection than a slow e-mail.

And where's our cheap fiber optic connections? In Japan and Korea, they have widespread 100 MBit connections for the price that some people pay for Cable, DSL, even Dial-up. (I can't believe some people pay $50 for dial-up...)

Today, I went into the kitchen hoping to find a quick snack. A quick peek in the refrigerator revealed nothing that would satisfy this weird craving I had. I tried the freezer and a small package piqued my curiousity. It was a container filled with corn and cheese ice cream.

Yes... corn and cheese ice cream.

My mom seemed to have gotten some at the local Filipino store. Cheese ice cream is a rather popular flavor in the Philippines. In fact, it was my mother's childhood favorite.

I've tried some cheese ice cream, myself, when I was in the Philippines. We were out eating at a restaurant and it was time for dessert. They had something of a dessert bar with ube, halo-halo, and three flavors of ice cream. The ice cream was not the standard vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. The colors were, instead, yellow-orange, purple, and... a darker yellow-orange? I knew that two flavors were mango and ube, but I didn't know what the second yellow one was.

I was about to find out.

Mango ice cream is one of my favorite flavors. Interesting, though, as I dislike the actual fruit. Anyway, I scooped some of the yellow ice cream into the tiny provided cone. Excited, I brought it to my mouth, eager to savor the...

... what is this?

The ice cream tasted disgusting. I inquired my mom, and she told me "Oops!" It appeared that I got some cheese ice cream instead of mango. So that's what the other yellow-orange was.

I was a bit confused, though. Cheese ice cream? Uhh... sounds... unappetizing. I handed the cone to my mom and consulted her to find the mango.

Since then, I've always been wary to get mango and not cheese when eating ice cream in the Philippines.

It's interesting how different cultures can have very different tastes. I'm sure most foreign to the Philippines would be amazed that cheese ice cream is actually popular somewhere.

I'm still amazed at that as well.

One may recall a previous post, labeling myself as a gregarious introvert, and this man's experience with paxil was a nice segue for me to further expand.

I am naturally a gregarious introvert; I am shy, but I enjoy interacting with others. At least, I would enjoy it if I wasn't quite so shy. The author of the article, Seth Stevenson, seemed to be similar. He was shy, but always curious for a personality that wasn't.

I came across the article on digg, whereby many users castigated his recklessness of using the medication when it was unnecessary. Nevertheless, I gained much insight from both his story and the responses that accumulated.

It wasn't until high school that I became (at least semi-) comfortable in social situations. Prior to this time, if in a group, I would normally be found listening, watching, thinking. Even as the number of people in the group fell, I would hardly be the one to instigate conversation. I would always reply when spoken to, however. In most cases, I was a bit of a wallflower. Maybe a few self-confidence issues, but nothing I couldn't overcome.

And indeed I have. Perhaps it's just teenage hormones, but my time in high school has completely changed my personality. I'm much more confortable with being in a room with strangers. Sure, that doesn't mean I like being in a room with strangers, but I force myself to cope. I simply need to take the initiative.

Also, the author (and some digg commentors) talked how they had become "social zombies", how they felt no true emotions, but always looked forward to being in a social situation. I will focus on the second part. I am a bit of a "zombie", though likely not in such of an extreme as mentioned. I can fake being happy, but other emotions aren't quite as easy. On the other hand, I can hide most emotions rather well. Maybe it's because I'm not truly experencing those emotions. I know some people of whom one would be easily able to detect their mood. It would take a bit more psychoanalsys to do the same for me.

You know, (being shy,) I really don't like talking about myself, so what am I doing here!? I do guess that this *is* a personal blog, so talking about myself is bound to happen. But in any case...

It is a very interesting read, especially for anyone who has been curious of seeing the world through the eyes of another person. Just watch out for the zaps.

Extroverted Like Me: How a month and a half on Paxil taught me to love being shy.