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WTH, Phone Scammer? What part of "F**k Off!" is hard to understand?

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  • #31
    Quoth Silent-Hunter View Post
    I suppose, but two extra digits doesn't take up that much space. They could have put all records from the same year under one entry, and then left out the year on each individual record.
    Okay... go waaaayyy back in the time machine! It's not just about storage space, it's about how the programs were originally written so long ago.

    Back in the Stone Ages, records were recorded on punch cards. These had a certain width (80 columns; a number picked by Herman Hollerith in the 1880's, and a standard that is still with us today on text-based computer displays 125 years later) and if you went over that width, you needed a second card for every record.

    Four digits for the year would have meant two columns less elsewhere on the card... it could have meant truncating the name, or losing two columns for some kind of code, whatever. In that context, dropping two digits of the year doesn't seem like a big deal.

    And "putting all the records under one year entry" doesn't work. In addition to only working on records with one date in them, even WITH single-date records, it now means you have to run that many more search operations to locate a particular record if what you are looking for wasn't originally sorted or indexed by date.

    Nowadays where a single database is usually indexed on multiple fields, (and, internally, aren't even sorted at all) none of this is a big deal. But for pre-modern databases running punch-card or tape-based data storage, it's a very big deal indeed. And re-computing what indexes you did choose to maintain was expensive. Nowadays, some ridiculous quantity of CPU cycles goes completely to waste. When many of these programs were written, CPU's were kept going at full capacity 24 hours a day, seven days a week... you scheduled computer time days in advance, and had to receive expense approval to use the scarce resource.

    If you are some programmer in the 1970's, having the computer record dates the same way you do (few of us use digit years in day-to-day use) is a pretty logical tradeoff vs. a very convoluted workaround. And I expect few programmers at the time thought their code would live that long anyway. In a way, this is all IBM's fault... they've kept complete and total binary compatibility for nearly 50 years on their computers. As in, a program originally written in the '60's can, through a succession of still-available interface adapters, be fed into a machine rolling off the line today in Poughkeepsie, and work without any modification (and not even an emulator!) It would be as if a brand-new Mac Pro could natively run programs meant for the original Apple I. Because writing software is so difficult, failure prone, and expensive, these ancient programs still live on today.

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    • #32
      I meant have a group of records for 1984, a group for 1985, and so on. I know about the cards and their limitations, I guess I'm just not smart enough to understand why that would be harder to do it that way.

      Back on topic, I hope once I get my new phone with unlimited minutes that I start getting these calls. I have Linux, and use CDE. I think THAT will confuse them!

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      • #33
        What the heck is CDE?
        My Guide to Oblivion

        "I resent the implication that I've gone mad, Sprocket."

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        • #34
          Quoth Tama View Post
          What the heck is CDE?
          Common Desktop Environment. It's the GUI most commonly associated with older UNIX workstations.

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          • #35
            I had a customer in today who was hit by this, luckily when the guy said he wanted £460-ish to clean her laptop and renew her licences, she just put the phone down on him and brought her laptop in, to check if it was genuine or not. I told her it wasn't and then cleaned her laptop of all the garbage put on it by the scammer (luckily no ransomware involved)

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            • #36
              If you're not patient with them (as I'm usually) just tell them they're committing a criminal act. They then flag you as a non-viable target.

              If you want to string them along you can say that you don't have the time and you have a little bit of knowledge with computers. Then tell them you'll give them your IP address and it's 127.0.0.1 (make sure it is that exact address). The dumber ones will take themselves out of the picture for a while as they screw up their own system.

              If you have good acting skills (I do but it's been a while and I don't think I could do this with a straight face) lead them on until they ask you do something. Pretend to type something in then give the most panicked response you ever could about how your computer is screwed up and start blaming them. If they try to deny it tell them that they've been watching your computer (this is a key phrase. If you try using jargon speak like monitoring your system or similar you'll tip your hand) so they MUST have done something. Then yell out you'll sue them and other garbage like that. Odds are good they'll hang up and put your number as a 'do not call'.
              I AM the evil bastard!
              A+ Certified IT Technician

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              • #37
                What does that address do?
                My Guide to Oblivion

                "I resent the implication that I've gone mad, Sprocket."

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                • #38
                  127.0.0.1 is the default local address of every computer, it's used for testing purposes. When they use that address they are trying to connect to their own computer, and hopefully mess it up.
                  No trees were killed in the posting of this message.

                  However, a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.

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                  • #39
                    Quoth sirwired View Post
                    Back in the Stone Ages, records were recorded on punch cards. These had a certain width (80 columns; a number picked by Herman Hollerith in the 1880's, and a standard that is still with us today on text-based computer displays 125 years later) and if you went over that width, you needed a second card for every record.
                    I don't know if it was Hollerith himself who chose 80 columns, but that's the most rows of holes that will fit on the size of card he chose without risking problems due to lack of structural integrity. Why did he choose that size? For his tabulator (to process census records in less than the 10 year interval between censuses), he needed trays and such to organize rectangular paper (cardboard actually) objects. Rather than re-invent the wheel, he chose a card size that matched sorting/storage trays that were already available - namely the size of U.S. paper money at the time.
                    Any fool can piss on the floor. It takes a talented SC to shit on the ceiling.

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