Shaq O'Neal Retires Via Tout; Congrats To Michael Downing

On Wednesday, Shaq - or Shaquille O'Neal - retired via Twitter and Tout, but really, the big story is that the legendary NBA Center and most of all LA Laker, did it via Tout.

This blogger's introduction to Tout came in an email from a friend: Michael Downing. Michael's a serial entrepreneur best known for GoFish and for TransMedia Capital.

Until now.

I met Michael one late Thursday night four years ago at the Balboa Cafe in San Francisco's Marina District, and as many frequent readers of my blogs know, one of my favorite hangs.

Our conversation started with him asking me what business I was in, and my reply was "Internet." We proceeded to a talk so long we left after the Balboa closed.

Yep. After.

We stayed in touch, and then, on March 30th of 2010, I received an email from the man who's now "Entrepreneur in Residence at Stanford Research Institute." This one:

Zennie


I hope you are well – and my apologies for the random email coming end-of-day, but I wanted to reach out and personally invite you to a brief sneak-peek of Tout – the new company I co-founded in partnership with SRI (Stanford Research Institute) this last year.


Tout is all about delivering a new kind of social-communications-experience enabling people to share their unique perspective on life through simple, short video updates from their smartphones.


We are launching Tout.com to the world in less than 1 week, and in advance of that date, I am personally inviting about 100 of the most interesting people I know in technology, media and entertainment to give it a test-drive.


If you want to be a part of the Sneak-Peek before launch, here’s what you need to do:


1. You need an iPhone 3GS or 4… if your on Android or BlackBerry we will be launching those versions shortly


2. Go to (My Tracking URL) hit Sign-Up-Now in upper right of page


3. Once your register with an email address and password, you will get a verification email – be sure to click “confirm your account” link to verify


4. On your iPhone, go to the APP Store and get the TOUT application (from Tout Industries)

My problem was I had not an iPhone, but a Samsung Galaxy Variant Smartphone. Just the perfect Android phone that Tout wasn't yet ready for at the time. But, and this is a big "but," I could add a link from my YouTube videos, and, at 1,470 videos and counting, I've got a lot of them.

Michael wrote:

Zennie


We gotta get you going
let's talk tomorrow - we got some great blogger/celebrities prepping now, you would be perfect
'555-555-5555.'


Let me know when u can chat tomorrow

So I tried to track Michael down via phone, and in the interim joined, created a channel, and actually posted a Tout from my Georgia Down YouTube video.

Which for some reason that may be related to the slick new website design, isn't there any more; so I had to install new YouTube video links.   

But the Shaq announcement explains why I'd not got a call from Downing after the emails.

I was tossed for Shaq.

Wait. I was tossed FOR Shaq?!

Cool!

Nice work Michael!

Oakland Sideshow Still The Happening In East Oakland

Unless you've had some doubt, let this blog post put to rest the idea that the Oakland Sideshow is dead. It's not. It's alive and well on International Boulevard, as this video, made during the East Bay Dragons event, and uploaded today on YouTube by wbr510, shows:



The East Bay Dragons are the same group linked to sideshow activity, and were the focus of the murder of a San Leandro man on Sunday night. But But Phil Baker, the East Bay Dragons vice president, told the San Jose Mercury News that "the clubhouse was closed early in the evening and all their members had gone home or elsewhere."

That would seem to exonerate the Dragons from the Sunday night shooting, but the video above points to the Dragons as the producer of this sideshow.  And care must be taken not to associate that video with that incident simply because the SJ Mercury News account points to a night-time sideshow - the one captured in this video below.

Second Video Shows Dragons Sideshow at Night





The third video, below, uploaded May 31st, which would be Tuesday, shows the East Bay Dragons Party, which appears to have occurred indoors, in a large room, and by association connected with the sideshows of that Sunday.




The videos point to a sideshow that did occur on the East Bay Dragons watch.  Oakland Sideshows are associated with the rash of murders and violence in East Oakland, even though there have been fewer of them than in the past.

Stay tuned.

Springfield, MA Tornado Hampers Boston Weather In Year Of Deadly Twisters

Whatever the reason, it seems America's facing a number of lethal tornados in 2011, the latest in Springfield, MA, which is hampering weather conditions in Boston.

Here are two videos which shows the tornado itself as it makes its way through Springfield.



And in this video below, the camcorder operator, recording the action from his office window on Bridge Street in downtown Springfield, says "it's frikin' tearin shit apart. Oh my God."



According to a new Wikipedia page specifically created to track tornados, there have been 1,415 such events in the United States in 2011, and 1,007 of them confirmed.

Moreover, this year was described as an "exceptionally destructive and deadly" one for tornados, as 519 fatalities have been recorded in America alone. That's the largest number of deaths since 1936.

Springfield Tornado Causes "A Lot Of Damage"

This latest tornado struck at 4:30 EST this afternoon, and has, according to WTNH News 8 of New Haven, Connecticut, caused "extensive damage," with windows blown of out of cars and buildings.

An eyewitness, Carlos Alamo, explained to News 8's Sara Welch, that "strong winds started shaking the house." So he told his wife that they should "get into the bathroom" because there was no shelter. Here's the video from WTNH's YouTube page:



Stay tuned.

Paladinette’s Jobless Talk Takes June Hiatus - 99er EXLAX Attack Building Momentum

Last month it was announced that Paladinette’s Blog Talk Radio show “Jobless Talk” will take a June hiatus after this Friday’s broadcast, meanwhile the 99er EXLAX Attack is building momentum on the social networks.

“Unfortunately, it is unlikely any real MOVEMENT will take place in Congress (re: Unemployment issues, benefits or jobs) during June anyway. Hopefully, the unemployed masses will hop on the band wagon and flood Washington DC with tons of laxatives, coupons, emails and post cards in the 99ers “EX-LAX ATTACK”, sending Congress and Obama a clear message.”

We have a Facebook Event created PLEASE RSVP: EX-LAX ATTACK on Washington DC

You can find printable post cards at: http://twitpic.com/549is6 and http://t.co/8Ra7oy8

TWEET THESE:

#99ers: EX-LAX ATTACK - Print on card stock and mail to Washington http://t.co/RQPrEpK

#99ers: Mail EXLAX 2 Congress. GET THEM MOVING on HR 589! http://exm.nr/j4Q98N

Post cards you can print and send to congress for the Ex-LAX attack: http://t.co/8Ra7oy8

It is suggested that the emails, faxes, post cards, laxative mailers, etc. begin on June 6, 2011 [D-Day] and continue through Father’s Day or even the July 4th Holiday. The important thing is that as many people as possible participate. You do not need to be unemployed or even a 99er to help Washington GET THE MESSAGE: Get your constipated butts moving on HR 589 and a REAL Jobs Bill NOW! We cannot wait!

I suggest you Twitter bugs out there tweet these to all your media & Political contacts lists, celebrities and activists. Post all this information on your social networking sites and try to get as many folks as possible to join in this important effort.

By now we should have a willing army of advocates to step in and overwhelm Washington with tons of messages whenever the need arises. This would be proof of our political clout - but even with an estimated 7 million or more UI exhaustees out there, sadly the dedicated “show of force in numbers” has been sorely lacking during most of the past year. Exactly HOW BAD do YOU want to SURVIVE?

It is time to step things up Nation! August is right around the corner (and you know every August Congress takes the entire month off). July has yet another recess for a holiday and with Labor Day approaching - after this month (June) Washington DC will be in session maybe 15 days between mid-July and mid-September. Do you really want to go another winter with NOTHING?

It is really up to you. ‘You have NOT because you demand NOT.’ If you would only visibly and vocally swarm Washington by constantly pestering them to demand better - even from your own home town streets - we’d have had our solution by now and could be benefiting from that new job, paid training program, or benefits extension instead of dying a slow, painful desperation as we wait in limbo for poverty to consume our dreams as Congress lives the “GOOD LIFE” on the American Tax Payers’ money.

[Please donate so I can keep on fighting for the 99ers! Thank You!]

NBA Finals - Lebron James Was Right About The Miami Heat

Game One of the 2011 NBA Finals is history,  the Miami Heat prevailed 92 to 84, and this blogger's still shocked the Heat are even there, let alone winning over The Dallas Mavericks.

Look, the decision in this space was to root for LeBron James, because last year, when Mr. James was making a big media show of his decision to leave the Cleveland Cavs, the word here was to go to the Chicago Bulls.

James selected the Miami Heat, saying he was going to South Beach, and making it sound like a vacation in the making. I wrote off LeBron at that point, figuring he was more interested in the honeys in the sand than getting a ring.

And LRMR Marketing's clients list potential in Miami? I really wrote that off. Chicago, with its incredible list of major corporations and marketing talent, is a hot bed for marketing companies - a perfect place for LRMR Marketing.

But what did I know? LRMR Marketing remained in Cleveland, not moving to Miami. And while LRMR exists, James, needing more fire-power, is with CAA.

Meanwhile instead of chlling on South Beach, LeBron put in hard work on the court. The result is not just the 2011 NBA Finals, but today's win. I'm rooting for him.

There's nothing wrong with wanting the best for yourself, and that's all James wanted for himself. James had the right idea in making a show of his decision to leave Cleveland, failing only at capturing the resultant web traffic revenue from the occurrence. Then James and the Heat caught hell for a flashy, smoky party to celebrate the merger of The Big Three.

I saw nothing wrong with it.

Then, Miami started out 9 wins and 8 losses, and this corner wrote them off for dead. But that's where the team found itself and its character, eventually playing better, and ultimately vanquishing the bully on the block, The Boston Celtics.

Anyone who can't like this story has something wrong with them.

Still, it's too early to crown the Heat. It's just Game One. But win or lose, at least applaud LeBron James for a job well done this year.

Homeless - Homeless Alcoholics Need A Wet House

Homeless alcoholics need a wet house.

When you sleep with your bottle, you've passed a milestone in your addiction. You've got to have it against your chest, all night, easy to reach. Your relationship to it is like other people's relationships with their smart phones; it's crucial to your existence, always clutched in your hand. You feel unsettled when you can't see it, until it's easier to just sleep with it.
But there are other, worse stages to come. As I ask my clinic patients about them, I hear a ding in my mind, like an elevator does each time a door opens, each time a patient answers yes.
Do you wake with the shakes? That means that you're so addicted that you begin to withdraw every night as you sleep. Ding.
Do you wake up in the night to take a drink? Your brain must be bathed in alcohol, awash in the acrid sea of it, at all times. You can no longer make it to morning. Ding.
Do you seize if you stop drinking? Deprived of alcohol, your tender brain begins to crackle and sizzle, and then ignites like a gas-explosion - ka-whoom - as a depth charge of neurons fires. Ding.
Can you remember how this happened? It looks like something hit you pretty hard, sir, the way your cheekbone is caved in here under all this blood. Do you remember? You never remember what happens when you're drinking. Ding. Ding. Ding.
At what point does society decide that someone has become a danger to himself because of his addiction? And what can be done about it?
The large numbers of public inebriates on our sidewalks represent a financial, ethical, and moral crisis in cities across America. These suffering humans also represent a public health crisis. Mortality rates are sky high, with life expectancies equal to, or worse than, those of people living in the most devastated, violence-riddled pockets of our globe.
The issue of people drinking themselves to death on a sidewalk is one that unites and divides us in unpredictable ways, crossing "normal" divisions of politics, compassion, and fiscal conservatism. There are those who want a person slowly dying in plain sight to at least have a roof over his head. There are the more law-and-order, throw-the-bums-out types, who just want public inebriates off the streets. And no one can look at the eye-popping cost of this public, drawn-out suffering and death without thinking that, at $8 million dollars a year in health care costs for 100 people, there has to be a better - and cheaper - way.
Disclaimer: Identifiable patients mentioned in this post were not served by R. Jan Gurley in her capacity as a physician at the San Francisco Department of Public Health, nor were they encountered through her position there. The views and opinions expressed by R. Jan Gurley are her own and do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the City and County of San Francisco; nor does mention of the San Francisco Department of Public Health imply its endorsement.
Photo credit: George Erws via Flickr
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PBS Website Hackers LulzSec Praise Zennie62, Media Misses Message

LulzSec is gaining fame for hacking into the website's of Fox, Sony, PBS, and it seems AT&T, by reading their Twitter tweets. Of course, the actions of the group of what Parmy Olson at Forbes.com says are four people (I think more) are lost on the mainstream media.

While the LutzSec folks say they're out to just have fun, their real intent in much greater, and necessary.

It was that observation I arrived at after reading a vast number of Twitter tweets, articles, and blog posts about LulzSec, then writing my own take that appears on Zennie62.com and on SFGate.com. After seeing it on Twitter (because I shared it with them), the group issued this tweet:

LulzSec The Lulz Boat

A fine article: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/abraham/detail?entry_id=89990 @Zennie62

13 hours ago

Cool.

Now at this point you might get the idea I'm egging LulzSec on. No, I'm not. They're going to do what they do regardless of my take. But, as a person who has intense disagreement with the way much of the media operates online, and an overall lack of understanding or interest in the Internet on their part, I see this as a much-needed cleansing.

What should come from these efforts are better and more secure website systems, and a lesser degree of corporate arrogance when matters of Internet operations are considered. What should also happen is the media should devote more time and effort to understanding and explaining what groups like LutzSec do.

Any one who thinks it's just for fun only sees what LutzSec wants them to see. The truth is, they do it because the website systems of many large companies allow them to do so. That goes for many news organizations.

If you think the PBS website hack was just playing around, don't think so. Every news website should look at what LulzSec has done and make sure their systems are secure so it doesn't happen to them. To think the unthinkable, imagine if the group had simultaneously hacked into three major news websites and posted the same Tupac story? Given the connections to Google News and other news aggregators, the damage to the media system would have been tremendous.

Yet, for now, this is possible.

It's possible, in part, because Google itself has subordinated blogs in favor of news websites, thus opening the public to such an effective attack. It's possible because a number of news websites are arguably not as secure as they could be.

This is a real problem. And look at it another way, LulzSec's not attacking websites where data exists that can really harm innocent people if it's compromised. These folks have a plan, and it's not about hurting society.

I'm not supporting what LulzSec is doing, I'm only explaining it's true implications to a public and a mainstream media that seems clueless. This idea of the hackers just having "fun" is only pablum, and the media's eating it up.

Stay tuned.

Subway Fights, NYC Naked Man Rants - How To Avoid Both

If you live in an urban area with a subway train system, chances are you've seen it, a subway fight. And maybe you've seen a naked man go on a rant on the subway system, as was true for a number of passengers on the #6 train in NYC in early May of this year. Well, if you've wondered what to do to avoid such calamities in the future, this video blog is for you.

Let's use three recent, real World examples - two from New York City.

In the first one, a young girl, black, is eating pasta out of a container, much to the displeasure of an adult white woman sitting across from her. Race is noted here, because the adult white woman uses racist terms and insults to verbally assault the obviously young girl. That alone was horrible, and some measure of understanding must be offered to the girl, who calls the woman by her overweight status.

But the best way for both to avoid these situations is, for the adult woman, to stop trying to control others. If she didn't like it, she could have moved - no one was stopping her.

The girl's not supposed to eat on the train, but let's face it, many people do. And I've seen some patrons and the police on San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit System make an issue of it if a person of color was doing the consuming of even a cup of coffee; it's OK if the person happens to be white.

But today, BART allows the sale of Starbucks Coffee in two stations: Berkeley and Powell Street. So, the BART Police should not even enforce such a "no eating" law and the BART Board should take it off their books, because it's not fair to maintain it, and sell food at the same time.

But I digress.

In the second example, an older Latina woman is singing on the Hollywood Subway. A man standing next to her doesn't like it. But rather than walk away, tries to control what she's doing. Another man takes offense to the, as I call him, "Angry Man's" behavior, and steps between them. The Angry Man sucker punches the other man and a fight breaks out.

The Angry Man had a problem and I personally hope he was charged with assault. He should have just walked away. The woman has a free speech right to sing on a public train, and at least one of the passengers enjoyed it.

Racism Is A Mental Illness

In the final example, a man in the video, obviously nuts, strips naked while yelling racial insults. What to do? Well, first get a camera or camcorder! Seriously. YouTube, for one video distribution company, pays well for viral videos. Second, get away from the guy and call the police, ASAP. Third, unless you like danger and think you can take him down without putting your hand in the wrong place, leave him alone.

The guy in the video had to be on something to act like that. Plus, he disobeyed a police officer, and then in one of the other videos it was said he tried to grab the cop's gun.

So this guy's looking at a bit longer than the standard penalty for disorderly conduct.

BART Is Safer - But Not By Much

Thankfully the BART system doesn't have as many happenings like these, even though they do occur. Take the guy blowing his horn in the passenger's face after the Giants World Series Game last year:




That passenger did the right thing: he just went with it, and the drunk guy walked on.

One reason for the fewer fights than in Eastern cities, I think, is simply because the trains are much nicer than their New York counterparts.

But the quiet, clean, nice BART of the 20th Century, is giving way to a dirtier, louder version in the 21st Century.

If this is a budget issue, and it must be, then given the state's overall revenue problem, we're in for trouble. One way BART should mitigate that is to have a sponsored train. Here, revenue is generated by allowing a train to have logos of a sponsor.

Something has to be done. Else, BART's degeneration into the next venue for urban fight clubs will continue.

Stay tuned.

YouTube's Statement On Harrassment And Cyberbullying

As this blogger's effort to have YouTube install a channel filter to block, for me, the unwanted N-word continues, we have to look at what Google and YouTube say about this problem, which is called "Harassment And Cyberbullying.

But before we press on, here's my video message:



Now. Why examine what YouTube and Google say about the problem?

Because some commenters on my video don't get the problem. Here's one comment that illustrates my point:

What I don't understand is how this word is so hurtful. It's just a word, and I guarantee you that 95% of the people that use it aren't racist at all, they're just trying to make you angry, and you're letting them.

I don't think that they should add a word filter. What are they going to do, remove all the videos such as rap and movie clips that have the word too? It's not going to happen and your complaining about it is just going to make more people do it because they know it ticks you off.

In other words, according YouTuber CelebO1996 (well, YouTube account holder, since he or she doesn't post videos) I should just take it, right? Continue to be harassed, right?

This is what YouTube and Google explain in their policy statements, starting with a definition of harassment:

Harassment is when someone persistently troubles or attacks another. Online, this is called cyberbullying and is commonly seen in text comments, messages and videos. People who harass others are usually doing this to get attention or reactions from others online or in real life. Harassment can be mildly annoying or can pose very serious safety issues. It's important to know the differences between the two to know when you should just ignore the user or report to a trusted adult or authorities.

So people who use the N-word fall into this category, obviously. Well, er, it doesn't seem to be obvious to some people.

As to how to stop it, this is the Google / YouTube statement:

Not everyone online is nice. Comments can get pretty rough sometimes. One thing nearly all haters have in common is that they are trying to get a reaction out of you. If a user's comments are bothering you, it's probably not a good idea to reply back. Instead, try deleting the comments and blocking the user so they can't view your other videos or leave more comments. You can also turn comments off for any video or manage comments by requiring pre-approval before they get posted.

Now for a person who has 1,468 videos, and counting, and thousands of comments, deleting and blocking the N-word has become a job onto itself. As I've said, and will continue to say, I've had it.

YouTube has something called the Help & Safety Tool, but it's designed to report a single YouTube account holder. If I used that, YouTube would get about 30 to 50 reports from me per month. Does YouTube want that? 

Why not just save everyone the trouble and add a word filter?

I'm not saying I don't believe in free speech, but if this wasn't a problem, Google and YouTube would not bother to install pages and write procedures for how to deal with Harrassment And Cyberbullying.

So, since the organizations have gone that far, why not go the extra mile and add a word filter?

It's not too much to ask for.

On Memorial Day, Remembering My Fathers

At first I wasn't going to do this, because it's too hard. But I just knew I could not let the Memorial Day go by without honoring my father, Zenophon Abraham, Sr., and my stepfather Chester Yerger, Jr. Both served in World War II, and both received honorable discharges from it.

In my father's case he's now buried at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery and, as I show in my 2009 video, ...



I have his burial flag that was given to me after his ceremony, which included a 21-gun salute. Zennie Sr. passed away without a lot of money, and I was prepared to take on the debts he left behind, but it never came to that. We had a relationship that was on-and-off-and-on.

I think, as I grew and became 'my own man' as they say, he, at first, didn't know how to deal with that. He was used to me always agreeing with him; then I hit 18 years old, and that pretty much stopped. I remember the first time I took issue with his point-of-view, explaining to him that, even though I was a Dallas Cowboys fan, I believed that the then-Los Angeles Rams were going to beat them in a NFL First Round Divisional 1981 Playoff Game.

Well, that's what happened.

We didn't talk much after that.

Dad remarried during the 80s, then in 1993, first informed me of my three young half-sisters. I didn't actually meet them until the year my father passed away: 2005. The oldest and I communicate often, but not quite as much as I'd prefer.

My father and I reconnected in 1999. It was my first NFL Owners Meeting, the Fall Meeting that was then commonly held at the Hyattt Regency O'Hare. It was my first such meeting during the effort to bring the Super Bowl to Oakland, and I was jazzed to say the least. Attending such an event, let alone being asked to make a presentation, is a rare happening for anyone. 

I even remember talking with this guy who would literally hang out in the lobby by himself, waiting to talk to the NFL Owners as they came out of whatever meeting was being held.  He was an NFL junkie in a black shirt - a guy who looked like a kid at a candy store.   Now, he's on Fox Sports and his name's Jay Glazer. 

Since I knew that Dad lived 15 minutes away from the Hyatt, I invited him to have lunch with me. It was a moment I will never forget, because it was the day after the day that Chicago Bears Running Back Walter Payton passed away: November 1, 1999. My father said "I want to talk with you as a father talks to his son." And he did.

I don't care what anyone says, or how this is taken, you can't replicate the impact a father has on the growth of a child - son or daughter. You just can't. He said things to me that I will never forget or recount here.

Later, after my successful Super Bowl Policy Committee Meeting, where I was the only person representing Oakland (a long story) to talk before a group that consisted of then-NFL exec Neil Austrian, then-NFL SVP and "Mr. Super Bowl" Jim Steeg, Indianapolis Colts Owner Jim Irsay, the late NY Giants Co-Owner Bob Tisch, and the late Kansas City Chiefs Owner Lamar Hunt (and where Irsay said my presentation was "outstanding" and you can ask him today), I called my father.

I just wanted to meet Dad for a drink; he wanted to go out and into Downtown Chicago to a club! Man, I just couldn't see doing that with my old man. Boy, was I a square! Well, not really. I just think there are some activities that a young man should not do with his father, and that's one of them!

My father, like my stepfather Chester Harding Yerger, Jr., was full of life. In Chester's case, he was married to my Mom for 18 years before passing away the same year as my father - 2005.

Chester loved to talk with everyone, especially about the War, and about his legendary Arkansas family. The Yergers were one of the largest tax payers in the State of Arkansas, and have a history remembered today in the form of Yerger Middle School in Hope, Arkansas. He was proud of the legacy of a great African American family that was paced by Henry Clay Yerger, Chester's grandfather.

Mr. Yerger started the Henry Clay Yerger School System in Hope, in 1886, with one building and one teacher - him. It grew steadily and became the first training school for Blacks west of the Mississippi River, and then in 1931 called Yerger High School.

After re-reading that, it's not hard to brag, eh?

I lost both my father and Chester in 2005 and in October and on St. Patrick's Day, respectively. That same year, in January, my mother was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. Thanks to early detection, an early-stage drug called Femara, a great diet, and friends, and me, Mom beat it and was declared Cancer-free on April 17, 2005.

She's still giving me lectures today; I love every one of them.

Happy Memorial Day.

PBS, Sony, Fox Websites Hacked By LulzSec's Lulz Boat, AT&T Next?

A new group of web pirates is making itself known, as it sails the high seas of The Internet in search of what it describes on Twitter as #fun #fun #fun.

The Lulz Boat, or what the group really calls itself: LulzSec, has hacked into the websites of PBS, Sony, and Fox, in reverse order over the last two months - and AT&T appears to be next on their list.

The Sony Hacks

The series of Sony hacks (not just one), and reported to be the largest in Internet history, caused the Japanese icon to shut down its PlayStation servers for a month. And LulzSec left this tweet:

LOL @Sony, nice Japanese website dumbasses: http://pastebin.com/NyEFLbyX

Which leads to this message containing the Sony website pages that contains two links to Sony's database structure:

@LulzSec was here you sexy bastards!

This isn't a 1337 h4x0r, we just want to embarrass Sony some more. Can this be hack number 8? 7 and a half?!

Stupid Sony, so very stupid:

SQLi #1: http://www.sonymusic.co.jp/bv/cro-magnons/track.php?item=7419
SQLi #2: http://www.sonymusic.co.jp/bv/kadomatsu/item.php?id=30&item=4490

(two other databases hosted on this boxxy box, go for them if you want)

And LulzSec does it all with the interesting tagline "Laughing at your security since 2011!"

And that seems to be the point of their hacks: taking advantage of apparent and simple gaps in system design. The LulzSec refers to the "seven processes" in their Twitter account, as if they were the "seven seas" that pirates would sail on.

But by "seven processes," and linked to reference to their actions as being pirate boat attacks, then the "seven processes" seems to be the approaches they use to enter a website and database.

The SQL Injection Method

Generally, what LulzSec seems to be doing is using something called The SQL Injection Method.  What this is starts with the use of the "Structured Query Language," or SQL programming approach, like C, or HTML, or any other language, but that is used to create managing data in a website's database. The technique of "convince the application to run SQL code that was not intended," is described in detail at Steve Friedl's website at unixwiz.net, where he provides a way to "mitigate" against such approaches as the ones used by The LulzSec. You can see that with a click and scroll here: FIX.

Tupac and LulzSec Fame

The LulzSec group gained recent fame by hacking into the PBS website and posting a report that legendary rapper Tupac Shakur is "alive and well" in New Zealand, along with Biggie Smalls, aka The Notorious BIG.

Which is interesting, because history tells us of a feud between them that resulted in their deaths. But I digress.

Why PBS?

Reportedly, The LulzSec hacked into the PBS website because of the public television giant's Frontline programs on Wikileaks and Private Bradley Manning. But personally, I don't think that's the reason: LulzSec just did it because PBS was vulnerable. So, they hacked in, made up a reason for the action after it was successful, then turned their attention to Tupac and Biggie.

Think about it.  Why would a group announce it was going to hack into a website and state its motives before the action unless they had reason to believe they were going to be successful?

Bragging On Twitter

The programmers are particularly active on Twitter, and not shy about their future objectives, or their present conquests. Here's sample from their Twitter page https://twitter.comLulzSec:

LulzSec The Lulz Boat
Hey @PBS admins, you still trying to regain control? The Lulz Boat sails through your horrendously-outdated kernels! #Sownage next, folks.
5 hours ago Favorite Retweet Reply

LulzSec The Lulz Boat
Sony happens when Sony happens - we're celebrating our victory right now. The fun will never stop!
6 hours ago Favorite Retweet Reply

LulzSec The Lulz Boat
We dominate their entire stupid website. Selling custom blog.pbs.org domains, php/user included, lulzsec@hushmail.com - 2 BitCoins each!
6 hours ago Favorite Retweet Reply

LulzSec The Lulz Boat
Oh yes, that's right... #Sownage tomorrow. We hope. We decided to obliterate @PBS instead out of distraction. *heads off to the Lulz Cabin*
9 hours ago Favorite Retweet Reply

LulzSec The Lulz Boat
@
@ShiverMeTimbres PBS can't recover much, all their base are belong to us. They only broke the file that lets you read articles.
11 hours ago Favorite Retweet Reply


LulzSec The Lulz Boat
We're working on another Sony operation. We've condensed all our excited tweets into this one: this is the beginning of the end for Sony.
26 May Favorite Retweet Reply

As of this writing, it looks like PBS has regained control of the articles section of website: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/a and Newshour reports on Twitter:

FYI: None of our visitors' personal information or emails were compromised during last night's incident ^TG

But LulzSec says that's the only part that PBS controls, so while all may seem OK, it's not. The PBS website is still largely under LulzSec's control, according to LulzSec.

(An observation: what's good about Twitter, is that PBS Newshour was able to use it not just to report the hack, but to explain the false Tupac news.)

Chester Wisniewski's Annoying Blog Post.

A network security specialist named Chester Wisniewski posted a rather annoying blog entry at his Naked Security blog site. This set of paragraphs Mr. Wisniewski wrote below was particularly troublesome to this blogger:

While PBS is the victim here, the passwords disclosed for most affiliates are embarrassingly predictable.


There was absolutely no skill involved in this attack, as it used freely available tools to exploit the databases. The attackers represent nothing more than what many historically thought of as hackers: people creating chaos with no other purpose than gaining fame, irrespective of the damage caused.


The attack is nearly identical to the recent attack against SonyMusic.co.jp. LulzSec used the same tool to attack the Sony website, although far less sensitive information was disclosed in the Sony attack.


Several other databases were disclosed, some including plain text passwords, others using hashes. It is unfortunate that PBS was vulnerable to this kind of attack and even worse that so many passwords were stored in clear text. Revealing this information is criminal and there are certainly more respectable ways of disclosing flaws than exposing so many users' passwords.

To write that there was "absolutely no skill involved in this attack" is nothing more than one programmer dissing another, and helping no one. The fact is, LulzSec did it, and is ways that aren't familiar to the general public. That makes them what? A specialist with a skill - a dangerous and effective one that impacts millions of people.

If what LulzSec did called for "no skill" then Chester Wisniewski should have posted the mathods to fix the gaps in their website security. He did not do that. If the problem is an SQL injection flaw, which is how LulzSec entered both the PBS and Sony website systems, then why not show how to spot the problem and fix it - as I did here, noting Steve Friedl's website? 

Facebook, Twitter, Safe

That LulzSec was able to easily hack into the websites of large, traditional brands, means that new media companies with far more secure website systems are safe, specifically Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, to name some of them.

The point of all this really should be to work with Internet entrepreneurs who build large, database-driven website companies, and not just any programmer on the block, in developing website protection systems that are extremely secure.  As LulzSec claims, "no one is safe" and that may be,  but you can make your website more safe than the next website.

Stay tuned. 

Golden State Warriors To Get Bigger Under Jerry West?

In a Sunday evening interview with Lawrence Scott of KNTV NBC Bay Area Channel 11, San Francisco, Golden State (Oakland) Warriors new "executive board member," NBA Legend Jerry West, said the one set of words this blogger has wanted to hear for years: the Warriors "need to get bigger."

The Golden State (Oakland) Warriors of owner Chris Cohan and Team President Robert Rowell were known as a small, fast team without the "towers" necessary to compete in tough games down the stretch. And in much of their history since the late 80s, the Warriors were never known for that 'big guy in the middle.'

The last person with the ability required to wear that tag was "The Chief," Center Robert Parish, who left in what was described as a trade that cemented Celtics President, the legendary Red Auerbach's "reputation for thievery," at the expense of The Warriors.

Auerbach dealt the first and 13th picks in the 1980 NBA Draft to The Oakland Warriors and the third pick in the 1980 Draft and Mr. Parish. The Warriors used that pick to get Purdue's Joe Barry Carroll at center.

Joe Barry Carroll never lived up to the lofty expectations set for him, and that was magnified by the success of Parish, paired with then-rookie Kevin McHale with a Celtics team that already had Larry Bird, and went on the be the NBA Champions that year.

That same year, Parish has the same points per game average as Joe Barry Carroll, but Parish had 777 rebounds that year, compared to 437 for Carroll. It wasn't just that Parish was taller, he was only that by an inch. But the observation was that Carroll wasn't 'into' the game, and so didn't play to his seven-foot height.

But I digress.

Warriors new owner Joe Lacob said that West would be "broadly involved in the organization" when he was interviewed by Tim Roye, the voice of the Warriors, last week. That will include marketing, sponsorship, and even arena issues.



And when Roye talked with West, Jerry said that he wasn't there to step on anyone's toes, but he reiterated Labob's statement that West is there to be an adviser.



West, from his conversation with NBC Bay Area and the Warriors interviews, will have a key role in selecting the next coach for the Warriors, and dictating the team's overall characteristics. But from Roye's interview, it's obvious that West will play a large roll in the very shape of the Warriors for years to come.

Yeah!!

Stay tuned.

Side note: If KNTV NBC Bay Area had a real social media strategy, it could have got a lot more mileage out of this Jerry West interview. They put tweets out about the West interview, but without a link to any other type of content. So, when the TV segment is gone, that's it.

KNTV suffers from the same "inny" view of the use of social media that seems to have infected local television stations, causing them to lose out on thousands of dollars in ad revenues.