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Donald Trump revealed his Master Plan to fight and defeat ISIS in February 2015, and his plan is to basically "find a general in our armed forces who will beat them."

That was it.

I know, it's unimaginably brilliant. I'm surprised Trump isn't teaching an Advanced Military Strategy course at West Point. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66RR7Ka6ZyQ

Another installment of WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?

World leaders have fretted for years that terrorists may try to steal one of Pakistan's nuclear bombs and detonate it in a foreign country. But many Karachi residents say the real nuclear nightmare is unfolding here in Pakistan's largest and most volatile city.

Of all the possible bad places to locate a nuclear reactor, they argue, who could possibly make a case for this one: an earthquake-prone seafront vulnerable to tsunamis (http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/outcry-and-fear-as-pakistan-builds-new-nuclear-reactors-in-dangerous-karachi/2015/03/05/425e8e70-bc59-11e4-9dfb-03366e719af8_story.html) and not far from where al-Qaeda militants nearly hijacked a Pakistan navy vessel last fall.

When something doesn't pan out or live up to Google's standards, they quietly kill it off and it fades away.

Quentin Hugon, Benjamin Benoit and Damien Leloup have created a memorial page for projects abandoned by Google over the years (http://www.lemonde.fr/pixels/visuel/2015/03/06/google-memorial-le-petit-musee-des-projets-google-abandonnes_4588392_4408996.html), but who knew there'd be so many?

The list of now-defunct projects and products include:  Google Answers, Lively (http://computer.howstuffworks.com/10-failed-google-projects.htm#page=1), Reader, Deskbar, Click-to-Call, Writely, Hello, Send to Phone, Audio Ads, Google Catalogs, Dodgeball (http://computer.howstuffworks.com/10-failed-google-projects.htm#page=4), Ride Finder, Shared Stuff (http://computer.howstuffworks.com/10-failed-google-projects.htm#page=6), Page Creator, Marratech, Goog-411, Google Labs, Google Buzz (http://computer.howstuffworks.com/10-failed-google-projects.htm#page=7), Powermeter (https://gigaom.com/2011/06/26/5-reasons-google-powermeter-didnt-take-off/), Real Estate, Google Directory, Google Sets, Fast Flip (https://gigaom.com/2011/09/05/419-google-kills-its-fast-flip-news-reading-experiment/), Image Labeler, Aardvark (http://www.businessinsider.com/google-kills-aardvark-which-it-bought-for-50-million-last-year-2011-9), Google Gears, Google Bookmarks, Google Notebook, Google Code Search (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/fall-sweep.html), News Badges, Google Related, Latitude, Flu Vaccine Finder, Google Health, Knol (http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/news/2127299/google-shutting-knol-failed-products), One Pass, Listen, Slide, Building Maker, Meebo, Talk, SMS, iGoogle, Schemer (http://thenextweb.com/google/2014/01/11/google-confirms-will-shut-goal-sharing-service-schemer-february-7/), Notifier, Orkut, Hotpot (http://searchengineland.com/google-hotpot-going-away-but-in-name-only-72306), Music Trends, Refine, SearchWiki, US Government Search, Sparrow, Web Accelerator, Google Accelerator, Accessible Search, Google Video, and Helpouts. Missing from the list that we remember are Friend Connect, Google Radio Ads (http://computer.howstuffworks.com/10-failed-google-projects.htm#page=3), Jaiku (http://computer.howstuffworks.com/10-failed-google-projects.htm#page=5), SideWiki (http://computer.howstuffworks.com/10-failed-google-projects.htm#page=7), and Wave.

All gone except Kirk now....

Want, want want want want want want want

Did you hear about the homeopath who forgot to take his medicine?

He died of an overdose.

Dakota tribal wisdom says that "when you discover you're riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount." However in business we often try other strategies with dead horses, including the following;

Buy a stronger whip.

Change riders.

Threaten the horse with termination.

Say things like, "This is the way we have always ridden this horse."

Appoint a committee to study the horse.

Arrange to visit other sites to see how they ride dead horses.

Lower the standards so that dead horses can be included.

Appoint a tiger team to revive the dead horse.

Ride the dead horse "outside the box."

Buy a commercial off-the-shelf dead horse.

Create a training session to increase our riding ability.

Reclassify the dead horse as "living-impaired."

Compare the state of dead horses in today"s environment.

Change the autopsy report to declare that "This horse is not dead."

Kill all the other horses, so this one will look the same.

Name the dead horse "Paradigm Shift" and keep riding it.

Ride the dead horse "smarter" not harder.

Hire outside contractors to ride the dead horse.

Harness several dead horses together for increased speed.

Do a time management study to see if the lighter riders would improve productivity.

Declare that "No horse is too dead to beat."

Call the dead horse a "joint venture" and let others ride it.

Provide additional funding to increase the horse"s performance.

Do a cost analysis study to see if contractors can ride it cheaper.

Purchase an aftermarket product to make dead horses run faster.

Declare the horse is "better, faster, and cheaper" dead.

Form a quality circle to find uses for dead horses.

Declare that "This horse was procured with cost as an independent variable."

Get the horse a Web site.

Promote the horse to a supervisory position.

Too cool- A home was built in the 1950s, complete with appliances and furniture, but the owners never moved in. It's been sitting untouched all this time, like a time capsule waiting to be discovered. An amazing find.

"These vintage GE appliances are original to my house circa 1956. The house was never occupied and appliances were never used. The manuals were still taped to the appliances. I purchased the home in 2010 and I am selling: side-by-side wall refrigerator, wall oven, cooktop, double bowl washboard sink, and dishwasher."

Full set of images:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/27212557@N05/sets/72157623429185132/

This jar of peanut butter costs $761. This is Standard Reference Material No. 2387. It's the finest peanut butter in the world—from a purely scientific point of view.

The National Institute of Standards of Technology, an office of the US Department of Commerce, uses it as a baseline when analyzing the chemical properties of peanut butters.

https://www-s.nist.gov/srmors/view_detail.cfm?srm=2387 (https://www-s.nist.gov/srmors/view_detail.cfm?srm=2387)

[High irony all around.]

You were accepted by Carnegie-Mellon University? Wellllll, no, you weren't. Sorry.

As reported in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Carnegie-Mellon University mistakenly sent 800 acceptance (http://www.post-gazette.com/news/education/2015/02/19/Is-there-a-legal-case-for-students-spurned-by-Carnegie-Mellon/stories/201502190127) letters for its Master of Science in Computer Science program.

They're not saying it's a "computer error," but what are the other explanations? High irony all around.  The program accepts fewer than nine percent of more than 1,200 applicants, which places the acceptance level at about a hundred, so they're bad at math, too.

[Shirley MacLaine]

And it's official: Shirley MacLaine has lost what little was left of her mind. In her new book, What If, she pontificates on all sorts of crazy crap, but these two gems are notable for their unbridled insanity:

SHIRLEY MACLAINE UNLEASHED:  Were Holocaust victims paying for sins in past lives?

Did Stephen Hawking bring his devastating disease on himself? (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2951513/Outcry-Shirley-MacLaine-asks-Holocaust-victims-paying-sins-past-lives-Comments-attacked-offensive-wrong-Jewish-campaigners.html)

Yes, no doubt the 6 million jews murdered by Hitler brought it on themselves by doing naughty things in their "past lives".

And OBVIOUSLY Stephen Hawking's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=amyotrophic+lateral+sclerosis), why, that's his own fault too!

"Where did the universe come from?" That's a question theists frequently pose in an attempt to try and show  the existence of a god. And they often claim that since scientists don't know where the universe came from, then obviously "god musta done  it".

But now those pesky scientists may have an answer, and whaddya know, it doesn't include "god".



The universe may have existed forever, according to a new model (http://phys.org/news/2015-02-big-quantum-equation-universe.html) that applies quantum correction terms to complement Einstein's theory of general relativity. The model may also account for dark matter and dark energy, resolving multiple problems at once.

"In addition to not predicting a Big Bang singularity, the new model does not predict a "big crunch" singularity, either (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0370269314009381). In general relativity, one possible fate of the universe is that it starts to shrink until it collapses in on itself in a big crunch and becomes an infinitely dense point once again. ...

In cosmological terms, the scientists explain that the quantum corrections can be thought of as a cosmological constant term (without the need for dark energy) and a radiation term.

These terms keep the universe at a finite size, and therefore give it an infinite age. The terms also make predictions that agree closely with current observations of the cosmological constant and density of the universe."



It's far too early to say that this is a definitive answer, but step by step we're getting closer to figuring it out.

f*ck you, Samsung. I buy your product and it comes with a warning that it's listening to everything I say and transmitting it to some unknown company?

I'm not buying one of these f*ckin' things, or any "smart TV" for that matter.


http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-31296188 (http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-31296188)

Samsung is warning customers (https://www.samsung.com/uk/info/privacy-SmartTV.html?CID=AFL-hq-mul-0813-11000170) to avoid discussing personal information in front of their smart television set.

The warning applies to TV viewers who control their Samsung Smart TV using its voice activation feature.

Such TV sets "listen" to every conversation held in front of them and may share any details they hear with Samsung or third parties, it said.

Privacy campaigners said the technology smacked of the telescreens, in George Orwell's 1984, which spied on citizens.

In response to the widespread sharing of its policy statement, Samsung has issued a statement to clarify how voice activation works.

It said the privacy policy was an attempt to be transparent with owners in order to help them make informed choices about whether to use some features on its Smart TV sets, adding that it took consumer privacy "very seriously".

Samsung said: "If a consumer consents and uses the voice recognition feature, voice data is provided to a third party during a requested voice command search. At that time, the voice data is sent to a server, which searches for the requested content then returns the desired content to the TV."

It added that it did not retain voice data or sell the audio being captured. Smart-TV owners would always know if voice activation was turned on because a microphone icon would be visible on the screen, it said.

The third-party handling the translation from speech to text has not been named.

[ban paid prioritization]

Yay, this is GOOD for the internet and GOOD for you and I.

It's good for everyone except cable companies who want to squeeze every last f*cking nickel out of you.

Finally, a "Sudden Outbreak Of Common Sense".



FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has published an op-ed explaining how and why the FCC will "use its Title II authority to implement and enforce open internet protections (http://www.wired.com/2015/02/fcc-chairman-wheeler-net-neutrality/)."

He says, "These enforceable, bright-line rules will ban paid prioritization, and the blocking and throttling of lawful content and services. I propose to fully apply—for the first time ever—those bright-line rules to mobile broadband. My proposal assures the rights of internet users to go where they want, when they want, and the rights of innovators to introduce new products without asking anyone's permission.

To preserve incentives for broadband operators to invest in their networks, my proposal will modernize Title II, tailoring it for the 21st century, in order to provide returns necessary to construct competitive networks.

For example, there will be no rate regulation, no tariffs, no last-mile unbundling. Over the last 21 years, the wireless industry has invested almost $300 billion under similar rules, proving that modernized Title II regulation can encourage investment and competition."



Thank you, Tom Wheeler!

Project Chrome, a massive layoff that IBM is pretending is not a massive layoff, is underway. At more than 100,000* people, it is projected to be the largest mass layoff by any U.S. corporation in at least 20 years.

Alliance@IBM, the IBM employees' union, says it has so far collected reports of 5000 jobs eliminated (http://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/at-work/tech-careers/massive-worldwide-layoff-underway-at-ibm), but those are just numbers of those getting official layoff notices.

According to anecdotal reports, IBM appears to be abusing the performance appraisal system to cut additional employees without officially laying them off (http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertcringely/2015/01/22/next-weeks-bloodbath-at-ibm-wont-fix-the-real-problem/).



"Layoff" is the most disingenuous patronizing goddamned thing these rich a**holes could say.  Call it what it is: you don't want to give up a yacht this year, so you're firing a city the size of boulder Colorado. They are cutting top performers who are in their 50's and 60's and closing in on the longevity needed for certain insurance and pension benefits.

On the other hand, IBM has had 11 consecutive quarters (three years!) of falling sales.  If they don't take decisive action to turn things around, the company will be gone and everyone will be out of a job.  It sucks, but the truth is, IBM hasn't kept their customers happy, and with the customers leaving there isn't money to pay workers.

BUT, IBM instructed their management to give an "underperformance" review along with the termination date so they could cut the severance in half to 13 weeks or nothing when they put them on a "performance improvement needed in 30 days" plan. All of a sudden competent employees are being found incompetent, so that they can be fired.


* this number is in dispute. Some articles say 5,000, some say more. Robert Cringely (a guy who knows IBM inside and out) claims 26% (about 110,000).

Of course they will, because $$$$$$$$$.

I think if someone were to create a simulation model of a truly free market with no regulation, and seed it with hundreds (or thousands) of little businesses to start with, given enough time, you'll end up single monopoly that controls every industry, service, and product.



Imagine of you will a 224,000 square foot Shangri La of office.  An entire area devoted to a sea of elderly men browsing ink jet printers, remarking on how great a deal they're getting, and haggling the price of toner cartridges. Their revelry interrupted twice daily by the passing of a thunderous freight-train of 13-year olds wheeling through the store on castered office seating.  Imagine a copier the size of a two story house that still cant manage to fax correctly.  In one long aisle, a veritable modern art museum of Van Goghs who have tested billions of different markers and pens in search for the one true biro.  Picture a mountain of paper manned by khaki-clad teenage Sherpas who will guide the worthy to the perfect gloss of 8x11 in a 12 man expedition, using the bodies of the dead to guide their way.  This new realm of office will succor a distant memory of office stores of yore with its array of overly-lit fluorescent display stands and valleys of fake laptops and monitors perched upon particle board desks assembled by a small factory of hung-over college kids. And when at long last you think it can offer no more, this store will offer the most pointless of all selections of office treats and candies in 600 pound bulk Tyvek totes that can conveniently be stacked onto any customers shopping fork truck.  This office store will be visible for miles from the thick rolling smoke emanating from the innumerable propped doors featuring a staff of thousands competing in a veritable Olympic competition of cigarette consumption as they all collectively 'burn one' while having told a customer they will search a 'back room' that does not exist for a product that cannot be sold.

LOL!!  Too damn funny.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1S6nwCpO000

[No way this could ever be abused, right? Right? FCC May Permit Robocalls To Cell Phones -- If They Are Calling a "Wrong Number" (http://yro.slashdot.org/story/15/01/17/176248/fcc-may-permit-robocalls-to-cell-phones----if-they-are-calling-a-wrong-number)]

No way this could ever be abused, right? Right?


FCC May Permit Robocalls To Cell Phones -- If They Are Calling a "Wrong Number" (http://yro.slashdot.org/story/15/01/17/176248/fcc-may-permit-robocalls-to-cell-phones----if-they-are-calling-a-wrong-number)

There have been plenty of false rumors about cell phones being opened up to telemarketers, but now the FCC is actually considering it (http://www.dailyfinance.com/on/fcc-relax-robocall-rule/).

Consumers have long had the support of government to try to control these calls, chiefly through the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which actually allows consumers to file lawsuits and collect penalties (http://www.dailyfinance.com/2014/10/07/you-can-make-big-money-from-those-annoying-telemarketers/) from companies that pepper them with robocalls or text messages they didn't agree to receive.

But now the Federal Communications Commission is considering relaxing a key rule and allowing businesses to call or text your cellphones without authorization if they say they called a wrong number. The banking industry and collections industry are pushing for the change." 

In one case (http://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/x/344720/Telecommunications+Mobile+Cable+Communications/ATT+Mobility+Enters+into+45+Million+TCPA+Settlement) recently, AT&T called one person 53 times after he told them they had a wrong number...and ended up paying $45 million to settle the case.

Around 40 million phone numbers are "recycled" each year in the U.S. Twice, I've had to dump a number and get a new one because I was getting so many debt collection calls looking for someone else. Apparently the FCC commissioners may not be aware of the magnitude of the "wrong number" debt collection calls and aren't aware that lots of people still have per-minute phone plans.

Anyone can (AND SHOULD) file comments (http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/upload/begin?procName=02-278&filedFrom=X) on this proposal with the FCC. 

The f*cking pope shows his true colors...

Pope Francis said Thursday that "one cannot kill in the name of God," but freedom of expression has "limits," answering questions about the French magazine Charlie Hebdo during a flight from Sri Lanka to the Philippines.

No, my freedom of expression has no "limits", not for the pope, not for Islam, not for ANYTHING.

What the pope meant was, "One cannot kill in the name of God, BUT he said something mean about my special Holy Man so it's like he had it coming, ya know? But whaddya gonna do, right? And also, she was totally asking for it by running around dressed like that!"

One can't kill in the name of god...not without, like, you know, a reason. Then it's regrettable but justified. 

Acknowledging that free speech is a "fundamental human right," he added that "you cannot insult the faith of others." As an analogy, he gestured to his travel organizer Alberto Gasparri, who stood at his side, joking, "if Dr. Gasparri says a curse word against my mother, he can expect a punch."

Oh, so I "can't insult the faith of others"? Watch me.

Apparently my free speech is a "fundamental human right" except when I push his particular hot button, eh? So it's a "fundamental human right", but not really. I mean, c'mon. All that freedom is dangerous!

http://dailycaller.com/2015/01/15/pope-francis-limits-needed-on-free-expression-you-cannot-insult-the-faith-of-others/ (http://dailycaller.com/2015/01/15/pope-francis-limits-needed-on-free-expression-you-cannot-insult-the-faith-of-others/)

Wanna feel old?

"Elly May Clampett" (Donna Douglass) passed away yesterday. She was 82.

Me and every kid I knew had a crush on Elly May (and on Barbara Eden too, but that's another story).

RIP, Elly May, we'll see you at the big ol' Cee-ment Pond in the sky.

Yeah yeah, happy new year etc etc meaningless platitudes and general unspecified wishes for nebulous things and events.

[cod]

This has to be the lamest, most unconvincing phishing email I've ever gotten. (The URLs have been defanged so they're not clickable.) Spelling, formating, and punctuation have all been retained in their original form and glory. Marvel at this incredibly pathetic attempt to collect passwords.

Seriously, if you're dumb enough to fall for this you're probably too dumb to use a computer.




The current notification to all Mail users,
Dear Mail Users
This is to inform you that your mailbox quota is 98.1%
Damage & needs to be updated in order to avoid suspension of your account
before 24 hours.
Click the link below and submit the form To
Re-update your e-mail account to avoid
Losing any important messages in your e-mail.
"The cost is free"


http://Secure170000911100.yolasite (http://secure170000911100.yolasite).cod


LOGIN WITH SERIA NUMBERS TO RE-VERIFY YOUR ACCOUNT:

001: -  Email
002: -  Password
003: - Re-verify Password.
004: - Comment.
       Submit.

Regards,
Mail clients
Service Team center (c) 2014.


=====================================================================
===================================================================


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http://Secure170000911100.yolasite (http://secure170000911100.yolasite).cod


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Mark my words...every bit of this story will be found to be complete and utter bullshit. I'd bet money that virtually none of what she describes so horrifically in her story turns out to be true.

Rolling Stone simply took her at her word and never even bothered to talk to or interview any of the alleged attackers- not a single one of them. That's not journalism, that's bullshit.

Key elements of Rolling Stone's U-Va. gang rape allegations in doubt (http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/u-va-fraternity-to-rebut-claims-of-gang-rape-in-rolling-stone/2014/12/05/5fa5f7d2-7c91-11e4-84d4-7c896b90abdc_story.html)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/u-va-fraternity-to-rebut-claims-of-gang-rape-in-rolling-stone/2014/12/05/5fa5f7d2-7c91-11e4-84d4-7c896b90abdc_story.html (http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/u-va-fraternity-to-rebut-claims-of-gang-rape-in-rolling-stone/2014/12/05/5fa5f7d2-7c91-11e4-84d4-7c896b90abdc_story.html)

tl;dr: College student alleges that she went to a frat party and was gang-raped by seven men. Upon closer inspection of the story, none of what she says is panning out, not a single bit of it. Virtually every detail that's been investigated so far has been found to be wrong or flatly untrue.

So mark my words, this will all turn out to be a load of bullshit by an attention-seeking psycho-bitch with mental problems.

[Take a movie title and change one word to "slut". For example....]

(Disclaimer: I like sluts and always have. Nothing in this post is intended to disparage sluts, hold them in disrepute, or portray sluts in a negative or condescending manner. Added on the advice our our attorney's legal firm, Ditcher, Quick, and Hyde))

Take a movie title and change one word to "slut". For example....

"12 Years A Slut"

"Batman: The Dark Slut"

"Back to the Slut"

"Harry Potter and the Chamber of Sluts"

"The Slut Locker"

This holiday shopping season, kicking off with post-Thanksgiving deals, millions of Americans will almost certainly have their credit or debit card information stolen by overseas hackers.

Just like last year.

     Twelve months after data from 40 million cards were stolen from Target, beginning a year of escalating hacks of retailers' payment card systems, not much has changed beyond awareness.

The absence of federal action reflects the difficulty of improving cybersecurity. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle agree on the goal of improving the security of the nation's networks, but disputes over even small details can sidetrack progress. Congressional action has been bogged down in side fights, and industry-led changes have been slow and narrow. Executive action, and power, on the issue is limited, and most administration efforts have been designed to encourage retailers to take extra precautions against theft, rather than apply new regulations.

...

"We called [2013] the year of the data breach. Then we had 2014," said Atlantic Council expert Jay Healey, a former White House and financial sector official. "Now 2014 is ... the year of the data breach. We're not seeing any diminishing of the numbers of stories, so certainly you can imagine that 2015 will also be year of the data breach."

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/black-friday-cybercrime-113192.html?hp=t2_r

It turned up on eBay but the seller won't pay for shipping.

This isn't really how much luggage my wife brings, but it's close...

http://www.scs.stanford.edu/~dm/home/papers/remove.pdf

A scientific paper titled "Get Me Off Your F****** Mailing List" was actually accepted by the  International Journal of Advanced Computer Technology (http://www.ijact.org/). As reported at Vox and other web sites, the journal, despite its distinguished name, is a predatory open-access journal (http://www.vox.com/2014/11/21/7259207/scientific-paper-scam).

These sorts of low-quality journals spam thousands of scientists, offering to publish their work for a fee. In 2005, computer scientists David Mazières and Eddie Kohler created this highly profane ten-page paper as a joke, to send in replying to unwanted conference invitations. It literally just contains that seven-word phrase over and over, along with a nice flow chart and  (https://cdn3.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/hrm30a38prDE7l-d__bfK_pJHJo=/800x0/filters:no_upscale%28%29/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/2478224/Screen_Shot_2014-11-21_at_9.53.24_AM.0.png) scatter-plot graph (https://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/4_LB344F5HeedF2cByiWsgYqt98=/800x0/filters:no_upscale%28%29/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/2478226/Screen_Shot_2014-11-21_at_9.53.39_AM.0.png).

More recently, computer scientist Peter Vamplew sent it to the IJACT in response to spam from the journal, and the paper was automatically accepted with an anonymous reviewer rating it as "excellent," and requested a fee of $150. Over the years, the number of these predatory journals has exploded.

Jeffrey Beall, a librarian at the University of Colorado, keeps an up-to-date list (http://scholarlyoa.com/publishers/) of them to help researchers avoid being taken in; it currently has 550 publishers and journals on it."

http://www.scs.stanford.edu/~dm/home/papers/remove.pdf

From the well-this-isn't-good department....


http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/nov/21/e-cigarettes-malware-computers?CMP=share_btn_tw



An operative who is reportedly a "very senior in the US intelligence community" claims that a huge proportion of USB devices ship with malware loaded on them, and said that the security protocols practiced by the entities he worked in prohibited the use of USB drives except those from a single, US-based, certified vendor.

But both that conversation and an article from the Guardian hinge on a view of Chinese manufacturers as untrustworthy, serving as de facto arms of the Chinese surveillance apparatus, a Trojan horse for both military and industrial espionage. But as the management of China's Huawai have pointed out (http://boingboing.net/2013/10/21/huawei-unlike-western-compani.html), there is no public evidence that this is so -- indeed, if anyone is hacking anyone, it's US spy-agencies hacking (http://boingboing.net/2014/03/23/nsa-hacked-huawei-totally-pen.html) Huawei (http://boingboing.net/2014/01/15/headwater-nsa-program-for-sab.html) -- and US-made gear (http://boingboing.net/2014/05/12/nsa-sabotaged-exported-us-made.html), like that from Cisco.

In other words, the governments responsible for a $250,000,000/year program (http://boingboing.net/2013/09/05/report-nsa-slices-through-mos.html) of technological sabotage against the technology that we all rely upon every day are the loudest voices in the chorus warning us against Chinese state-industrial malware. Perhaps it takes one to know one?

Production line malware has been around for more than a few years, infecting photo frames, MP3 players and more. As far back as 2008 a photo frame produced by Samsung shipped with malware on the product's install disc. And this is just one that we know about, it's very, very likely that there have been other instances of this...perhaps many instances. We just don't know.

Basically any electrical device that uses a USB charger could be targeted in this way, and just about every one of these electrical devices will come from China.

For now it's probably safe to assume that one or more of the USB devices you use shipped with built-in malware. This malware can run and infect a device even if you just plug it in for charging.

You can get a gadget that disables the data pins on a USB device that makes any USB port safe for charging (it's charmingly called a "USB condom (https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#safe=off&q=USB+condom)"), but the problem comes when you actually need to transfer data. Then all bets are off unless you're running on Linux. If it's a Windows device, however, you can count on getting infected.

LOL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAIbvlobWDM