Dead Man Standing

The body of deceased Angel Pantoja Medina stands erect and leans against a wall by his coffin during his own wake in his mother's home in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Monday, Aug. 18, 2008. The last wish of Medina , 24, who was found dead on Aug. 15, 2008 underneath a bridge in the capital, was to be standing at his own wake, and was embalmed for the occasion. (AP Photo/Juan Alicea Marcado, El Nuevo Dia)


This is utterly ridiculous. Sure we have seen people in the casket that looks like a car, or with their favorite team decoration, or even with the full ensemble of trickets inside the casket with them. But to be standing over the casket that you should be in? What if you didn't know that he was in the corner when you walk in the room? That would be the scariest and weirdest thing in the world. Or what if you looked in the casket and thought that he was missing?

Don't Eff with the IT Department

Link - A network administrator has locked up a multimillion dollar computer system for San Francisco that handles sensitive data and is refusing to give police the password, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Monday.

The employee, 43-year-old Terry Childs, was arrested Sunday. He gave some passwords to police, which did not work, and refused to reveal the real code, the paper reported.

The new FiberWAN (Wide Area Network) handles city payroll files, jail bookings, law enforcement documents and official e-mail for San Francisco. The network is functioning but administrators have little or no access.

Childs, who remains in custody, is accused of improperly tampering with computer systems and causing a denial of service, said Kamala Harris, San Francisco's district attorney, on Monday afternoon.

"The bail has been set at $5 million, and the exposure in this case if he were convicted on all counts would be seven years in prison," Harris said.

Harris said it's unknown why Childs tampered with the system. The Chronicle, however, reported that Childs was disciplined recently for poor performance. Childs worked in the Department of Technology for San Francisco, making close to US$150,000 a year, the paper reported.

City officials told the paper that Childs may have caused millions in damage while also rigging the network so that other third parties could monitor traffic, posing a huge data security risk. He is also alleged to have installed a tracing system to monitor communications related to his personnel case.

Let me say this - this guy is the epitome of gangsta. To hold the power of the city's payroll system in his hand and say no, "I'm not giving you the password" is the bomb. Then have a tracking system let him no what is being said about his case so he could possible go back and mess with the people that were against him some more....Priceless.

Report: NFL to review tape for evidence of on-field gang signs

ESPN.com news services
The NFL has hired experts to study game footage to determine whether players are displaying street-gang hand signals as part of their on-field celebrations, the Los Angeles Times reports.

"There have been some suspected things we've seen," said Milt Ahlerich, the league's vice president of security, according to the Times' report. "When we see it, we quietly jump on it immediately, directly with the team and the player or employee involved to cease and desist. Period."

There have been some suspected things we've seen. When we see it, we quietly jump on it immediately, directly with the team and the player or employee involved to cease and desist. Period.
-- Milt Ahlerich, NFL VP of security

Gang signs in pro sports gained a higher profile during the NBA playoffs, when Boston Celtics captain Paul Pierce was fined $25,000 for making "menacing gestures" toward the Atlanta Hawks' bench during a game.

"We were always suspicious that [gang-related hand signals] might be happening," said Mike Pereira, the NFL's vice president of officiating, according to the report. "But the Paul Pierce thing is what brought it to light. When he was fined … that's when we said we need to take a look at it and see if we need to be aware of it."

Ahlerich said he does not believe the problem is widespread, but added that the league has spoken to some players -- whom he declined to identify -- about their use of hand signals, according to the report.

First-year players were counseled on gangs at the league's recent rookie symposium, and a video on the dangers of gangs was required viewing for every player in the NFL last year, according to the report.

But differentiating between a gang sign and something less menacing can involve some guesswork, according to at least one player.

"Guys come from all over the country, and who knows what they're really doing?" Jacksonville Jaguars receiver Dennis Northcutt said, according to the Times' report. "People have got signs for their kids, signs for their fraternities. How do you differentiate who's really throwing up gang signs?

"This is a gang sign," he added, touching his index finger to his thumb to form a squished version of the hand sign for OK. "But at the same time, it's a sign for a personnel group."

Question - So are these 'experts' on gang signs up to date on every hand signal in America? So much stuff means so much different mess in different neighborhoods, it is impossible to interpret 90% of the crap. I can make up some gang signs tomorrow and it wouldnt make sense to no one outside my "gang". Unless these athletes are blatantly yelling their "sets" out after a big hit, this is almost pointless.

Halle Berry Strikes Again

No not really, but this guy must have went to defensive driving school to wipe out a whole marathon of bike riders. The driver was apparently drunk and fell asleep at the wheel pummelling riders at a bike race along the Mexican-American border.

Man Allegedly Milks E-trade, Schwab of $50,000 by Collecting Lots of Free 'Micro-Deposits'

Talking about getting over. He must have needed some extra gas money.

A California man has been indicted for an inventive scheme that allegedly siphoned $50,000 from online brokerage houses E-trade and Schwab.com in six months -- a few pennies at a time.

Michael Largent, of Plumas Lake, California, allegedly exploited a loophole in a common procedure both companies follow when a customer links his brokerage account to a bank account for the first time. To verify that the account number and routing information is correct, the brokerages automatically send small "micro-deposits" of between two cents to one dollar to the account, and ask the customer to verify that they've received it.


Michael Larchent allegedly used a script to open 58,000 online brokerage accounts in the names of cartoon characters, and other aliases.
Hank Hill courtesy Fox Broadcasting Largent allegedly used an automated script to open 58,000 online brokerage accounts, linking each of them to a handful of online bank accounts, and accumulating thousands of dollars in micro-deposits.

Largent's script allegedly used fake names, addresses and Social Security numbers for the brokerage accounts. Largent allegedly favored cartoon characters for the names, including Johnny Blaze, King of the Hill patriarch Hank Hill, and Rusty Shackelford. That last name is doubly-fake -- it's the alias commonly used by the paranoid exterminator Dale Gribble on King of the Hill.

The banks involved included Capital One, Metabank, Greendot and Skylight. Largent allegedly cashed out by channeling the money into pre-paid debit cards.

A May 7 Secret Service search warrant affidavit (.pdf) says Largent tried the same thing with Google's Checkout service, accumulating $8,225.29 in eight different bank accounts at Bancorp Bank.

When the bank asked Largent about the thousands of small transfers, he told them that he'd read Google's terms of service, and that it didn't prohibit multiple e-mail addresses and accounts. "He stated he needed the money to pay off debts and stated that this was one way to earn money, by setting up multiple accounts having Google submit the two small deposits."

The Google caper is not charged in the indictment. (.pdf)

According to the government, Largent was undone by the USA Patriot Act's requirement that financial firms verify the identity of their customers. Schwab.com was notified in January that more than 5,000 online accounts had been opened with bogus information. When the Secret Service investigated, they found some 11,385 Schwab accounts were opened under the name "Speed Apex" from the same five IP addresses, all of them tracing back to Largent's internet service from AT&T.

Largent is free on bail. He's charged in federal court in Sacramento with four counts each of computer fraud, wire fraud and mail fraud. He didn't return repeated phone calls Tuesday; Representatives of E-trade, Schwab.com and Google also didn't return phone calls.