“Like NYC threw up on LA”
July 3rd, 2009The above phrase is how one Brazilian described Sao Paulo to me. I’d say it’s a fair characterization. You have insane traffic, valet parking and beautiful people similar to Los Angeles, but also towering skyscrapers, business/financial heft and arrogance reminiscent of New York.
This photo gives some sense of how large and built-up Sao Paulo is. You basically have skyscrapers and high-rises all the way out to the horizon, and then mountains way in the distance. Oh, and from the center, the view looks like this in all directions. Sadly, this photo was not taken from a helicopter, but rather from the observation deck of the Banespa Building, which was inspired by the Empire State Building and remained the tallest building in Sao Paulo for many years.
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Pirate Linux
July 1st, 2009To say Brazil has a problem with piracy would be an understatement. With one exception (that I’ll get to) I haven’t seen a single legal movie, album or piece of software for sale since arriving here. Mostly the bootlegs are sold by shady-looking street vendors, but you can also pick up a copy of Windows or Office at a newsstand for 10 reals (about 5 USD).
Avast! Thar be pirates!
However, yesterday, I noticed one street vendor selling the first non-pirated piece of software I’ve seen:
Yes, that is a shady, bootleg-looking copy of Kurumin Linux. I bought it, mostly for the novelty factor, and as a souvenir. But also on the theory that I was supporting free software in some minor way (although probably more directly supporting shady street vendors).
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How to fix The Problem of Evil?
June 30th, 2009Why, by cleaning up your Windows registry, of course! [OBVIOUS WARNING: NOBODY DOWNLOAD THEIR WORTHLESS SOFTWARE]
Ok, so this is kind of a stupid little phishing scam that one of my friends pointed out to me, but I found it pretty amusing. Basically, you can put anything you want in the URL after the “?k=”, and it will generate a page pretending to have a magical solution to your problem (one which just happens to involve downloading and running their obviously malware-ridden software). Some of the more amusing suggestions I’ve seen or come up with include:
http://errornerds.com/errors/?k=My-Marriage
http://errornerds.com/errors/?k=Human-Nature
http://errornerds.com/errors/?k=Cancer
http://errornerds.com/errors/?k=The-Tragedy-of-the-Commons
http://errornerds.com/errors/?k=Time-travel-paradoxes
http://errornerds.com/errors/?k=The-Nameless-Horror
http://errornerds.com/errors/?k=The-yawning-void-within-my-soul
http://errornerds.com/errors/?k=Radioactive-Robot-Holocaust-of-2029
Phishing scams like this one are interesting because they remind me just how little effort goes into most malicious computer attacks. Social engineering can be a form of hacking in some cases, but this page doesn’t even come close to the level of actual hacking.
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Cyberstalk me
June 27th, 2009The last week has been pretty cool. There turned out to be enough space, so I did get a chance to attend most of the presentations at the You Shot the Sheriff conference. It was at an Australia/New Zealand-themed bar, which was slightly random. But they had a really delicious catered lunch of crepes, and a pretty extensive open bar. So props for the venue choice. I’ll try to write about some of my favorite presentations later. There were a lot of interesting people in attendance, from both Americas. The crowd did tend toward white-hat/IT security professional types—”we’re the sellout hackers,” one guy told me—rather than more underground people. I discovered one way you can tell when a hacker’s going mainstream: they tuck their t-shirts in. Although, I did meet a guy who started one of the first e-zines about the hacker scene in Brazil back in the early 1990s. There was even an American representative from Microsoft’s Security Response Team at the conference. He seemed pleasantly indulgent about the fact that everyone else in attendance spent all their time breaking his software.
Tuesday, there was an afterparty at a Cuban bar, with similar open bar. Wednesday, I went out for drinks with the conference organizers, I recorded a brief interview I’ll try to type up later. Thursday, I got drinks (again) with a really cool Brazilian hacker/security researcher guy. So basically, my liver probably hates me (I took Friday night off), but I’ve been having an awesome time.
