Tag Archives: People

Phone Hacking

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The news of the moment in the UK is the News of the World Phone Hacking Scandal. With rumours that there are lists of 1000’s of celebrities, Government officials, criminals and victims who have had their phones hacked by journalists of the news of the world hysteria has hit the british press and the newspaper buckled under pressure and shut down.
Baffled by the reaction, I thought about the story, and suspect there is a fair amount of misunderstanding amongst the public. Especially when it comes to the question “What is Phone Hacking”. And the first thing to remember it is nothing like the underworld of computer hacking, virus writing, web page hijacking, or even phreaking to make free phone calls. No, what it is is simply playing off human lazyness and taking advantage of a functionality mobile phone networks introduced many years ago.
Almost every phone operator gives the option to check your mobile phone messages “remotely” ie from another phone when you do not have it with you. This is also the case for most modern answerphones for landlines.

For those who have not been following the stories, have a look on google news

For mobile phones it is simple:
1) You phone your mobile phone
2) Wait for the voicemail divert
3) Press the * key
4) Enter your PIN code

And your messages are read out as if you were accessing it from your own mobile phone.
The vast majority of users are (or until now) were unaware of this as they had no use for it and therefore would never go into their settings to change the PIN code.
Therefore, for most people the default will work – and this includes celebrities.
Clearly, you can’t initiate this plan if the person you are trying to get hold of answers the phone, so the ususal plan is to work in pairs where one person phones and if the person picks up the 2nd person immediately phones from another line and will immediately get through to voicemail. Meanwhile the original person phoning who got through to the person will give some excuse such as claim to be a sales person offering products that will be refused or that they have dialed an incorrect number opening the way for the other person who has got into the voicemail to listen through the messages saved, find out any numbers left by people who have left messages or even delete messages.

This BBC news site story has more info.
The guardian has a whole section of their website dedicated to it.

Out of curiosity I decided to try and hack my own phone having done a bit of googling to find the default pin codes.
The first problem i found was that I had actually disabled my voicemail which would explain why I hadn’t had any messages recently – not that i use it much. Next, having enabled it after 10 seconds of ringing I got through, followed the process only to find the default pins did not work, suggesting i had in fact changed the pin code at some point and have no idea what it is so good luck phone hackers getting into my voicemail!!

Music Snobbishness

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There are many times when I wonder whether I am being musically snobbish especially after seeing some of glastonbury on BBC 2 this weekend when I have no interest in U2, Coldplay or Beyonce.
Of course I have my music vices but largely I like to think that the music i like is of a decent standard. This doesn’t help me in pub quizzes in music rounds when I have no idea what Adele song is playing or even that it is Adele because I have no interest in the artist.
That being said, the one thing that always reassures me is that there are people more snobbish than me and that is epitomised in a post i read on metafilter 7 years ago:

“We Built this City” is a great song with a great hook by a band that had no right have such a terrific hit that late in its alcohol-sodden, drug-dulled career. “Corporate” (Blender’s comment) my butt. How anyone could call “We Built this City” a bad song while there is the whole catalog of Wilco to draw from is beyond me — not to mention every song by Tom Waite, Randy Newman, every rap and hip hop singer who ever lived, the entire “alternative” and grunge movement, Nine Inch Nails, Supergrass, “Peg O’ My Heart,” the theme songs from “Friends” and every other sitcom, the symphonic output of Anton Bruckner, fully three quarters of Bob Dylan’s work, one-quarter of Bruce Springsteen’s, every song on the Outkaast album except “Ai-Ya,” “Wipe Out,” every song by James Brown, two decades of jazz-rock fusion, everything by Joni Mitchell after and including the album “Blue,” “Symphonie Fantastique,” Sting, reggae, any song that’s used in a car commercial, anything involving Brian Wilson after “Good Vibrations,” anything on the Beatles “White Album” (except “Oh-Bla-Di” which the bozos at Blender are not hip enough to like), any song by John Lennon after meeting Yoko Ono, any song (it goes without saying) by Yoko Ono, anything by Paul McCartney or the Rolling Stones issued in the last 25 years (except for “My Brave Face”), fully three-quarters of Elvis Costello’s recorded ouvre, all contemporary classical music since Stravinsky, anything by Andrew Lloyd Webber, anything by Fabian, anything by Philip Glass, “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” everything by Prince except “Raspberry Beret,” I could go on…
posted by Faze at 1:53 PM on April 23, 2004

Parts of it I do agree with, but a lot of it is excessive, especially the part that says every song by prince except raspberry beret – can’t agree with that. On the other hand the classical stuff and andrew lloyd webber – have no objections.
It’s a shame the article on blender the comment relates to no longer exists, even on waybackmachine but hopefully the general gist comes through.

Dizzee Rascal on Barack Obama’s Victory

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As we all know now Barack Obama is going to be the first black US president, but I’m not going to talk about the in’s and out’s of the election or the merits of his victory.
Instead I give you
Dizzee Rascal
Dizzee Rascal on newsnight interviewed by Jeremy Paxman – the result is rather comical

Link for those who want to view it on youtube.com

(in the next section i’ve completely copied the transcript of the interview into chunks in case the link isn’t available in the future and to highlight certain parts. DR is Dizzee Rascal, JP is Jeremy Paxman)

The highlights of the interview are:

• When asked if the UK could have a black president it went as follows:

JP: … could you see this happening in Britain?
DR: Yeah. In time.
JP: You’re rather positive!
DR: Yeah, man. Why not, man? There’s a first time for everything, isn’t there? …
if you believe you can achieve, innit?

Radio One have been mocking this final line but at the same time it almost is something the “yoof” of today could take to heart.

• When asked on political parties he acknowledged they existed but little else:

JP: Dizzee Rascal, do you believe in political parties in Britain?
DR: Yeah, they exist. I believe in ’em … I don’t know if it makes a difference. But you know what I mean. It is what it is. Politicians … say what they say – you might get every now and again a genuine one, innit? But I think people, like, as a whole make the difference …

• When asked if he considered himself British, Paxman calls him “Mr Rascal”. Dizzee then comes out with a classic on who could run the country:

JP: Dizzee Rascal, Mr Rascal, do you feel yourself to be British?
DR: Of course I’m British, man! You know me! … what’s good. I think it don’t matter what colour you are, it matters what colour your heart is and your intentions. I think a black man, purple man, Martian man can run the country … as long as he does right by the people.

• And finally, Dizzee reckons he could run for PM and that Obama’s victory couldn’t of happened if he hadn’t embraced hip hop:

JP: Well why don’t you run for office?
DR: See, that’s a very good idea. I might have to do that one day. Dizzee Rascal for prime minister, yeah! Wassappenin’! Barack Obama embraced hip-hop, man. That’s the way he got through to kids. There was a more young vote ever. And it was through hip-hop!

It’s Just Harmless Fun

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There’s a new “drug” also known as a Herbal Powder going round called Akuz (sorry, best link i could find in 2 minutes).

sniffing akuz /><br /> <img decoding=

Apparently they had problems with people switching the powder for cocaine when it first launched, but the bottle is now tamper proof so you won’t be sold coke inadvertently.

The company who makes it has been saying it’s all “Just Harmless Fun” when asked whether it encourages young people to take drugs that like Akuz are sniffed up the nose. It’s an orange powder which apparently makes your nose burn and gives a bit of a sugar-rush like sensation. It turns your snot orange.

London Mayor Election

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LONDON MAYORAL RESULTS
Overall results

Name Party Votes
Boris Johnson CON 1,168,738
Livingstone LAB 1,028,966

It is a sad day today seeing the results
The people of London have voted out the first mayor
Out goes a man who has done more for London than any before
Ken Livingstone

But as you depart, Ken, we thank you for what you’ve done

It seems that 8 years is long enough for some and they have chosen a bumbling blundering buffoon in the form of Boris Johnson.

I think those that have voted for him find him funny thinking that would be a good thing, but they are forgetting that the man’s an idiot. They are also letting their political thoughts get in the way of things. Just because Gordon Brown (Labour) is making a hash of things in the government, doesn’t mean that a Labour Mayor is also making a hash of things. So there are people who think that by making a protest vote for the Mayor is going to make an impact on the government… think about it before you do something like that because if the mayor is largely doing a good job what’s the point!

boris johnson

Can people really be that stupid? And vote in someone who for example was quoted as saying

My friends, as I have discovered myself, there are no disasters, only opportunities. And, indeed, opportunities for fresh disasters”

Admittedly Ken hasn’t been without mistakes, but he’s turned things around in public transport reducing the cost of bus fares, introducing the oyster card which speeds things up, and ensured that tube strikes have been kept to a minimum by negotiating with the unions.

Can the people who voted for Boris seriously see this good work continued? I’m going to give it 6 months before we have a tube strike after Boris bumbles through a negotiation and screws it up

I just hope that things aren’t completely ruined for London, but the way it’s going we’re going to have at least 4 years of Boris and it’s looking likely that David Cameron is going to force his way into government without really doing anything, just by sitting back watching Gordon Brown make mistakes.