Monday, April 23, 2007

Vietnam Myths

Op-for has a good recap of some common Vietnam myths.
Some highlights (emphasis mine):
Isolated atrocities committed by American Soldiers produced torrents of outrage from anti-war critics and the news media while Communist atrocities were so common that they received hardly any media mention at all. The United States sought to minimize and prevent attacks on civilians while North Vietnam made attacks on civilians a centerpiece of its strategy. Americans who deliberately killed civilians received prison sentences while Communists who did so received commendations. From 1957 to 1973, the National Liberation Front assassinated 36,725 Vietnamese and abducted another 58,499. The death squads focused on leaders at the village level and on anyone who improved the lives of the peasants such as medical personnel, social workers, and school teachers. - Nixon Presidential Papers Common Myths Dispelled: Myth: Common Belief is that most Vietnam veterans were drafted. Fact: 2/3 of the men who served in Vietnam were volunteers. 2/3 of the men who served in World War II were drafted. Approximately 70% of those killed in Vietnam were volunteers.

Myth: The United States lost the war in Vietnam.
Fact: The American military was not defeated in Vietnam. The American military did not lose a battle of any consequence. From a military standpoint, it was almost an unprecedented performance. General Westmoreland quoting Douglas Pike, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley a major military defeat for the VC and NVA.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Coach

My wife got me a Coach wallet for my birthday a long time ago. Over the years, it has started to wear along the spine. The Coach site describes their lifetime warranty, so I sent it in for repair. A few weeks later, the wallet was returned untouched. The response letter said that it was unrepairable; in exchange, they gave me 40% off any item. The discount isn't bad, especially if I get something pricey, but they should have sent me a new wallet. Maybe I will get one of these, or these.

Monday, April 02, 2007

Trojan Horse

I got this bizarre email at work from our IT department:
Someone received an envelope from:

OCE'
5729 LEBANON RD
STE. 144-275
FRISCO, TX 75034

The envelope contained a plastic horse, about 2" long and 1"
high. Around the waist of the horse was an Avery label with the word
WORK on it. The envelope also contained a piece of white card stock, 5"
x 2" , with the following url:

"some url"

When my guy went to the url, ( using his laptop
computer) his screen tuned blue and he received over 150 pieces of spy
ware. The program then started collecting data.
It looks like the program collected about 40 different excel
files before he disconnected his computer from the internet.

Please let me know if you receive anything like this ASAP,
remember to try to save the envelope and toy (or whatever is in the
package) for finger printing and tell your IT guy to be on the lookout
as well.

I hadn't heard of this before. It must be a very specifically targeted attack since the senders had to know that the target had something of value on his PC. My guess is Chinese government hackers.