Brad Garlinghouse, formerly of Yahoo and AOL and author of the notorious Continue reading
Category Archives: Weather
CenturyLink Acquiring "Level 3" As Internet Transit Routes Consolidate
In a far lesser heralded acquisition than anything involving consumer recognizable names, CenturyLink began the process of buying Level 3 communications. Both providers mostly provide Internet pipes to smaller Internet service providers and other business customers though CenturyLink maintains a token number of residential customers.
Mainstream Media: Clinton Emails Already "Baked In" To Polls
On this day, the ninth day before the United States presidential election, the talking heads of the United States mainstream media-political complex are in concert adopting a single position on the damage from the latest revelation of Clinton Criminality. Apparently the political damage to Hillary Rodham-Clinton from this latest news is already "baked in" to Hillary Rodham-Clinton's polling numbers, and this damage has been for some amount of time, perhaps even since the beginning of time itself.
This "baked in" theory spontaneously emerged among several dozen "independent" mainstream talking heads simultaneously. Naturally there is *no way* that this introduction of the "baked in" line could have been coordinated.
Hack Forum Kicks DDoS Vendors
Hack Forums, one of the oldest and most well-known forums of its kind on the internet, has announced it will no longer allow vendors to offer DDoS services or "server stress testing" for sale in it's services section, in part due to the attack that left many sites unreachable last week.
Forum admin Jesse "Omniscient" LaBrocca (WoT:nonperson) explained:
"I do need to make sure that we continue to exist and given the recent events I think it's more important that the section be permanently shut down,"
The forums had been under pressure from online security researchers who claimed that forum users were likely responsible for the recent spate of attack using the Mirai malware. The source code for Mirai first appeared on the forums on September 30th when user Anna-senpai released a copy for public consumption. Omniscient denied that the forums promoted using the services for illegal purposes and that much like other user-generated content sites, "The content ….. reflects the topics they are interested in discussing,"
Not Quite News Roundup Xtend 12 (TM)(R)
Welcome to the twelfth edition of the Qntra Not Quite News Roundup Xtend (TM)(R). The below events are alleged to have happened, but they are decidedly innocent of newsworthiness.
- The price reported by fiat/Bitcoin interfaces has been bullish on the Bitcoin and bearish on the fiat sides with United States dollars sinking to less than 1/700th of a Bitcoin per and Chinese rembini to less than 1/4850th of a Bitcoin per.
- The United States Department of Defense was recently revealed to be the largest purchaser of Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey. The Department utilizes the distiller's "By the Barrel Program" which includes tours of the distilling facility and meetings with the taster and master distiller in order to select particular barrels for purchase. Barrel pricing varies from 9,000 to 12,000 United States dollars per barrel due to variations in volume and is related to the premium pricing in effect for bottled "single-barrel" whiskies. A barrel is roughly equivalent to 250 bottles of the traditional 750 ml volume commonly referred to as a "fifth" and is only enough whiskey to sustain a dedicated solo hard drinker for a period of four to nine months.
- Facebook may be in hot water with the Feds for playing a part in violations of the Fair Housing Act of 1968 through its practice of allowing any schmuck with a couple bucks to place a targeted advertisement. For its part Facebook protests that targeting people for their "ethnic affinity" in Facebook Ads is not that same thing as actually discriminating based on race. The timing of WaPo making a fuss of this is extremely suggestive.
- Polish fiat/Bitcoin interface Bitcurex moved to shut down after your loss.
- This week's altcoin drawing unwarranted attention is variably known as "Zooko Cash", "Z-Cash", and "ZEC" and drawing attention for having been released after substantial hype. ZEC is similar to Monero in that its privacy "features" fail against sufficiently panoptic observers. ZEC tokens found their way to markets soon after the Genesis block's minting and individual tokens are presently trading for more than individual Bitcoins due to scarcity though the exchange rate has been falling rapidly as more ZEC are mined and released to market. A full 10 percent of ZEC are set to be awarded to parties other than miners. With this kind of debut the stage is set for unprecedented levels of "your loss", we are very sorry for it.
- Aspersing "Bitcoin" news outlet CoinJournal is in full "your loss" coping mode after Barclays SFYL'd their fiat bank account.
- Vladislav Surkov's email was allegedly hacked. Mainstream sources are crediting "Ukranian activists" for the hack despite the CIA telling NBC News it was going to try this exact sort of thing on October 14th. Apparently Surkov used Microsoft Outlook.
- "Open Transactions", which is Ripple before Ripple was a thing, was finally attached to a n00b friendly interface. The interface is attached to the "Stash Bank In A Box" hardware product. Sorry but you're late.
- The United States and its coalition forces are continuing to support the Medes and other Persians in their effort to take Nineveh from the Assyrians.
- The strained relationship between the GOP and their Presidential candidate has yielded a most unfair benefit. In down ticket races nearly all of their attack ads against Democratic party candidates also get to contain anti-Hillary attack ads while few down ticket Democratic party advertisements dare to attack Donald Trump-Clinton and the down ticket candidate at the same time.
- In the mainstream media, the second most important political story of the week is receiving unsurprisingly little coverage.
FBI Reopens Investigation Of Hillary Rodham-Clinton's Emails After Wikileaks Reveals Deleted Emails Still Exist
News emerged today that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation is re-opening their investigation of Hillary Rodham-Clinton's email habits and sloppy sysadmin record during zher tenure as Secretary of State. Public justification for this decision is based on the revelation included in the Wikileaks leaks that the 30,000 or so "missing" emails which hindered the initial investigation were backed up in numerous separate physical locations. This fact was either undiscovered by the FBI earlier through their lesser competence than the Wikileaker or intentionally ignored.
Or perhaps the decision to reopen the investigation was made because along with a certain humorous question being raised by the latest batch of Wikileaks, emails related to Doug Band's work for "Bill Clinton, Inc"(TM)(R) showed that some high ranking FBI officials had questionable relations with the Clinton family business.
Hillary Rodham-Clinton's electoral rival Donald Trump-Clinton today shockingly managed to stay on point in a speech where he repeatedly hammered Hillary on the stump for inhering the transcendental concept of corruption on Earth.
UPDATE: The official story is now that the new emails were found while investigating Clinton family friend Anthony Weiner for sexting a minor child.
Lawyer For Militia Heroes Tazed For Demanding Release of Said Heroes After Acquittal
Marcus Mumford, the lawyer for Ammon Bundy and the other heroes of the Oregon liberation, was reportedly tazed and detained by US Marshals for sensibly requesting that Ammon Bundy be able to leave the court room as a free man after his acquittal. U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown denied the request over a pending but unrealized indictment that may eventually be levelled against the now acquitted Ammon Bundy in Nevada. Brown allegedly repeated the popular US "law" enforcement catchphrase "Stop Resisting" as six United States Marshals restrained and repeatedly tazed Mumford.
No Justice, No Peace. Right Power!
Buggered Bitcurex Tries To Selectively Hide SFYL Based On Customer Language Skills
Polish "Bitcoin exchange" Bitcurex.com1 has announced a 2300 BTC Sorry For Your Loss, finally admitting that the exchange was hacked after a recent spate of technical issues. Naturally, officials with the company have no idea who or how the breach occurred, only stating that on Oct. 13 unknown perpetrators broke into their servers and liberated the 5 million US dollars worth of Bitcoin. The website zaufanatrzeciastrona.pl, which broke the story of the hack, reports that the company has not released any information in the English language leading some to believe they wish to limit the amount of customers seeking refunds due to the theft. The same exchange was also robbed of 18,000 Bitcoin in 2014. Sorry for your loss.
Association with Vircurex is uncertain at this time. ↩
Chicom "Internet Of Things" Confirms No One Gives A Fuck About Securing "Internet Of Things"
Chinese electronics manufacturer Hangzhou Xiongmai Technology has admitted that weak security in its line of webcams and DVRs were the likely culprit for the DDoS attack that left a portion of the internet without service on Friday. The Mirai malware used in the attack likely took advantage of the fact that customers purchasing these products would fail to change their login details from the default settings, and as a result upwards of a half-million devices could be infected. A botnet powered by the same malware is suspected in the 665 Gbps attack that took down Brian Krebs website last month.
Not Quite News Roundup Xtend 11 (TM)(R)
Welcome to the eleventh edition of the Qntra Not Quite News Roundup Xtend (TM)(R). The below events are alleged to have happened, but they are decidedly innocent of newsworthiness.
- The United States Department of State has rejected offers for international elections observers to oversee the Untied States Presidential election on November 8th. The Department of State was headed by candidate Hillary Rodham-Clinton until she stepped down to focus on her campaign. Traditionally the US Department of State has been a huge fan of sending international observers to oversee other countries elections.
- A free trade deal between the European Union and Canada is being blocked by the brave Parliament of Wallonia. This French speaking region of Belgium is sticking it to the socialist Merkel led European government in Brussels by executing veto power over the treaty which would end 98% of the current tariffs between Merkel's 4th Reich and Canada. For their bravery the Walloons are being slandered in the mainstream press as "The Detroit" of Europe.
- Thousands of former members of the United States armed forces who served in the past decades' misadventures in Southwest Asia are being compelled to repay their enlistment bonuses. These financial incentives were used to lure the affected veterans to fight in these wars in the first place as enthusiasm to fight in the desert was low when these bonuses were offered. Apparently all these years later the Department of "Defense" has decided it didn't really need these people fighting after all. This desperate financial move by the Department of "Defense" is not bullish for their ability to attract future volunteers during times where manpower is needed.
- Donald Trump-Clinton was booed by New York elites at a fundraising dinner for Catholic charities after brining up anti papist positions espoused by Hillary Rodham-Clinton and her advisers in wikileaked communications.
- ViaBTC continues to both exhibit unwarranted self importance and draw an excess of media attention. The Marshall Long affiliated mining operation bills itself as the "most professional" mining pool.
- Blockstream is setting a target for this November to activate Jim Crow for transaction signatures.
- Russia Today had their British bank accounts closed.
- Accidental gay spat / pussy grabbing at random starlet's home.
- Hillary Rodham-Clinton's fundraisers were further revealed to despair of ever receiving support from Bitcoin due to the fact the other team takes Bitcoin and the inherently conservative nature of Bitcoin.
- Ecuador cut off internet access for their guest Julian Assange.
- In a headline this week CoinTelegraph asked:
What Stands in the Way of Bitcoin Mass Adoption in Africa?
The answer continues to be the impossibility of mass adoption. Also Africa.
- R3, the fiat effort that Mike Hearn quit pretending to be a part of Bitcoin to join admitted it has substantial budget difficulties. For details refer to the third bullet point of this Roundup Xtend (TM)(R).
- The University of Missouri football team lost their homecoming game against unranked non-conference opponent Middle Tennessee. Last year the University's Board of Curators surrendered to demands placed by members of the football team in order to resolve a strike. The University has been rewarded so far this year with a two win five loss record with no wins in conference play. The 51 points allowed by Missouri were the most against a non-conference opponent at home since 1944.