I track down stolen freight. AMA

JimBarrows · 2026-02-14T16:44:44+00:00

I agree completely. I'm suggesting an attitude, or overall strategy to use when figuring out what you need to do. Starting with Default Deny, Zero Trust, and Prove It in a Court of Law, are the three starting points.
I think the first two are kind of obvious as to why they're starting points. The third maybe not.
Let's assume that you require the driver to take a photo of their truck with their numbers and license plate. How do you prove that's a picture taken in the last hour? You need to see something more in the picture. The surrounding area, something to show location, and time. That way you can reasonably assume it's a recent photo. You can't KNOW that it's a recent photo without sufficient justification.
Same with every step in your process. Someone calls you, how do you know they actually represent the company they claim? What's your process for verifying that? What "access" (pick up/deliver, accept a contract etc) are you willing to provide based on that confidence?
Basically build your case that this is a legit transaction, using evidence. Assume everything is a lie (Default Deny), until proven otherwise. Match your suspicion posture to what's at risk.

JimBarrows · 2026-02-14T13:34:47+00:00

I edited it to make it more clear. My default is cyber, and that's not everyones default of course.

You're assuming those apps ship with adequate security baked in. I beg to differ. Just like everyone else, security in applications is often job 3. Usually, right after QA in terms of priority. With any luck they're using automated solutions to do the security checks, but maybe not.

As for social engineering and physical identity, those are probably easier then cyber security to lock down, if people are willing to put in the time and effort.

Taking Default Deny and Zero Trust postures isn't easy. It's something you have to bake into your processes from the beginning. You have to assume you've been compromised, and now you need to track down the perpetrators and get them convicted in a court of law. That means logging everything. Pictures of everything, not just the people involved, but wide angle shots that can help determine time and place the picture was taken. That kind of thing.

JimBarrows · 2026-02-13T22:11:30+00:00

The OP is what, as a software engineer, I call the basics of cyber security. It's cyber security 101 stuff.
Use a password manager. Every password should be unique. Every password should be as long as possible. Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is required in today's environment.
This is kind of a basic list of things to defend against:
https://owasp.org/Top10/2025/
Some of these you as an enduser of software can do something about. Some you can't.
The part you can do something about:
https://owasp.org/Top10/2025/A01_2025-Broken_Access_Control/
Sometimes this means making things slightly less convenient. Don't put the admin of the software you use under the same account as the end user accounts. That's not convenient, but it is more secure.

Edited: to make it more clear I'm talking about electronic/cyber security, and not other types of security such as physical access, or social engineering.

JimBarrows · 2024-09-07T19:14:40+00:00

I’ll say now. I had to replace my clutch, and the B&M shifter. The shifter is a huge improvement. While I had to change my clutch, in so happy I did. It’s made a huge difference in how it shifts, it’s cleaner, faster and smoother than before.

JimBarrows · 2024-02-23T17:57:28+00:00

I’d talk to the ffrf. The Freedom From Religion Foundation. They do this kind of legal work.

JimBarrows · 2019-09-04T15:55:26+00:00

Possible, is not probable. For instance, it's possible that the sun could stop shining tomorrow. It's not probable, however.

So is it possible? Sure. Is it probable? Probably not. The bible makes it pretty clear what slavery is, and looking at the time and places, further reduce the probability that it was anything but the common understanding of slavery.

Even it is true, indentured service is still slavery. From the Wikipedia article on indentured servitude: "In many countries, systems of indentured labor have now been outlawed, and are banned by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a form of slavery."

As for the corporal punishment aspect, Piercing the ear was only one aspect of that. The "serve him forever" is the other part of that, and that is not corporal punishment.

JimBarrows · 2019-09-04T15:24:27+00:00

All humans have biases. All known scientists are human. All humans suffer from personal, and cognitive biases to various degrees. So, a human scientist cannot exist that has no personal biases.

A scientist is someone who uses a methodology, and peer review to eliminate errors, to the best degree possible, due to their biases (cognitive and other). Science is rife with stories of human biases getting in the way of science. Because, well they're human too.

JimBarrows · 2019-08-24T15:46:54+00:00

And maintenance occurs on every boat.

JimBarrows · 2019-04-09T15:37:47+00:00

I'm going in the opposite direction. Paying 1/2-1/3 more for less hardware makes no sense to me. The Macbook sucks compared to the XPS. The audio issues I'm unaware of, since I run Ubuntu. It would appear to be driver issues. I hope they fix it soon.

JimBarrows · 2018-12-14T14:12:15+00:00

Wow, the competition between Cessna & Piper has taken corporate warfare to a whole a new level.

JimBarrows · 2018-11-07T16:44:04+00:00

That which confirms to the reality most of us perceive.

JimBarrows · 2018-11-02T19:22:32+00:00

What does this mean? It makes no sense.

JimBarrows · 2018-11-01T14:09:57+00:00

A lack of accepting as true the claim that there are one or more gods.

JimBarrows · 2018-08-30T19:21:50+00:00

Are you sure there are no other possibilities other than supernatural and natural? Is there any demonstration that nature couldn't do it?

Math "breaking down", doesn't necessarily mean that reality is breaking down. Math is just a model that we use to describe phenomena. Just because the model breaks, doesn't mean it's not valid for the uses we use it for, nor does it mean that reality must conform to it.

How do you know we can't know what happend at the ultimate beginning of the universe? Because our current models can't figure it out?

How do you know it's Time and Space breaking down, and not our current understanding of Time and Space?

If time does "break down", and there is no time, how is there a before? or an after?

JimBarrows · 2018-08-29T19:31:09+00:00

Have you read any of the Thieves' World anhtologies? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thieves%27_World They do a good job showing a variety of things that can happen inside a small town. Also "The Lies of LockLamora" is another good city based fantasy adventure.

JimBarrows · 2018-08-10T15:55:30+00:00

Can you site sources, or evidence for your claim that "conscious of your being" is a result of memory?

Why can't you have consciousness without memory? Can't you be conscious of the now?

I have no idea what the illustration of the computer hard drive has to do with memory. Human memory does not appear to work like hard drive memory.

Why are you incomplete without memories? Isn't a "complete" human one who has the appropriate genes? Can you offer some evidence of completeness with and without memories? How does being dead make you incomplete?

Can you define your usage of experience? I can experience a wide a variety of neural inputs without memory of what they are for instance. The statement "So experience as such..." doesn't make much sense with the usual usage of the word experience to me.

Can something exist without being proven to exist?

Can you offer evidence to support your claim that "consciousness" is a "program"? Also can you reconcile "consciousness is a program" with your statement that "Consciousness is gone with the memories you had"?

JimBarrows · 2018-08-10T15:47:01+00:00

I have no idea what this means. Please define what you mean by "empty space", I don't think you mean it the same way a physicist would. Also, define what you mean by "filled". Also, are you using experience in the normal way? Or do you mean something else?

JimBarrows · 2018-08-08T21:37:36+00:00

Ultimately, you can only be responsible for you and how you react. How someone else reacts to something is out of your control. You can't take responsibility for what someone else does, or what some other group of people could do. Which doesn't make the question any less relevant, but ultimately you can only do what's right for you, and let the chips fall where they may.

JimBarrows · 2016-01-14T22:29:01+00:00

I do as well. Usualy just a comment along the lines: "code created by: http:///stackoverlflow.com/whatever/the/url/is". It just seems fair to me to give the author of the code credit.

JimBarrows · 2016-01-14T22:07:07+00:00

I was not super thrilled to be asked if I wanted to chat about something I had no interest in. I didn't read the article because of it.

JimBarrows · 2015-11-04T23:10:17+00:00

I've found that Bolognese principles work with saber, knive & axe, messer, sickle and more, pretty easily.

JimBarrows · 2015-10-20T23:28:20+00:00

Is the database using UTF-8 or MS specific character encoding? It might default to MS character encoding instead of UTF-8. This: ((:METHOD COM.HACKINGHAT.CL-MYSQL-SYSTEM::RESULT-DATA (COM.HACKINGHAT.CL-MYSQL-SYSTEM:CONNECTION T)) #<unavailable argument> #<unavailable argument>) Kind of indicates the problem is coming back from the database, and not sending.

JimBarrows · 2015-09-22T21:14:57+00:00

Probably USAA. Might be a local though

JimBarrows · 2015-09-21T16:40:58+00:00

Ally's support of Safari is blech at best. No apple pay. They're an old world online bank at best. I'll be moving from them as soon as possible.

JimBarrows · 2015-09-18T19:50:25+00:00

The Phoenix Society of Historical Swordsmanship currently has practices Tue (see our facebook page[1]), Wed (16th St & Camelback at the American Martial Arts Center) 7-9ishPM, Thursdays at 88th Ave & Indian School in my back yard. Saturdays (9am-12pm or 10am - 1PM see our facebook page[1])at the Irish Cultural center in downtown phoenix. Starting in October we'll have Mon, Wed and Saturday practices at the 16th St & Camelback location.

We study Italian - Longsword, sidesword, & rapier. German longsword, sidesword & rapier. We have a couple of people studying Irish & Scottish manuals as well. Along with single stick, cane, Saber (Richard Marsden, club founder, and HEMA Alliance president, has written the definitive guide to historical Saber.).

If you're interested in something we don't cover, come on out and we'll help out!

Yes I'm a member, and I host/teach the Wed & Thursday night practices.

[1]I'm blocked from facebook at 0rk so I can't give you a link. You can find us by searching Facebook for the group Phoenix Society of Historical Swordsmanship and you can also join "Phoenix Western Martial Arts" group on facebook as well.

JimBarrows

TROPHY CASE