By Stephenie Crowley
It’s been a quiet month in Lake WobePhoenix ...
This month marks the debut of Susan Sackett’s movie review column, "Roll-M". She’s established an Owl rating, so don’t miss her dissection of Oliver Stone’s latest, filmed right here in Sunny Arizona. We’ll have her as a regular contributor, and glad of it!
David Fidelman continues his explanation of the Arts by dissecting opera (and leaving the messy severed parts all over the floor ...).
We’ve got some great parties coming up for the beginning of the Holiday season, including the annual Thanksgiving bash. The RG is also coming up apace. Be sure to get in your reservation. It’s cheap, it’s fun, and it’s in the dead of winter (which to everybody else looks like summer). Maybe El Niņo will bring some weather surprises to us this year.
And speaking of surprises ... I tried to sign on to my Internet provider (AOL) the other night, only to be told that I was already on. I immediately phoned the Secret AOL Trouble Number and bypassed the Ignore Function by pushing the button for "New Password" in the Billing Section (that seems to get their attention, or else not too many people call in about that. I was willing to push the "I want a weasel up my nose" option just to talk to a live person!)
The upshot was, somebody had hacked into our account and was busy using it. To make matters worse, they accessed our company screen name and deleted a bunch of saved business mail. They also left a virus that kept us from changing our password.
AOL was very nice and very responsive -- contrary to other stories I’ve heard. They immediately kicked our friends offline, gave us a new temporary password, and told me what software to download to search for the virus (which McAfee Viruscan had failed to find).
So, at the cost of lost business mail, 20 minutes’ download time, and an hour or so fiddling with pkunzip and setup programs, then scanning both computers, we’re back in business. And left feeling violated - just like being burglarized.
But why did it happen? I guess I’ve never understood vandalism at any level, and that’s all this is: vandalism. I can destroy what you’ve got ... just because I have the power to destroy it. If somebody’s bright enough to think up, and execute, the code and everything else involved in this, why do they have to hurt somebody with it? Are their egos so small that they have to "prove" to everybody how smart they are?
But, then, I suspect all of us spend at least part of every day doing much the same thing, in different ways. Cussing at "stupid drivers" ... putting down "rude salespeople" ... short-tipping an "inept waitress". Setting ourselves up as the arbiters of taste, intelligence, speed, or computer savvy.
There’s not much difference; it’s all vandalism of one form or another. Except this time I was on the receiving end. Hmmm.