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Moving To Italy: 7 Things I’d Do Differently The Second Time Around

Sadly, I’m not a time traveler. I know that now you all think less of me, and that sucks, but I just wanted to be honest with everyone. But IF I COULD go back in time there are no less than 4,543 things I would do differently. How I went about moving to Italy would  probably be in my top 10 because I could have done it a lot better and my life would have been so much easier for years and year.

Vantage Points

1.I Would Have Learned More About The Culture: Without a solid grasp of the culture you won’t be able to understand your surroundings, to communicate, or to really understand the people you’ll meet, your partner (if they’re Italian) or their family. Americans, more than anyone, will not understand why this is number one or they’ll be like, “they like spaghetti, I get the culture.” The reason that Americans have a difficult time grasping how culture impacts communication is that American communication is really straightforward. Note: This has nothing to do with honesty. Americans can lie just like anyone. Again, it’s not about honesty, it’s about how we communicate. There aren’t a lot of hidden meanings in American communication, there’s no double-speak (unless you’re a politician), and you don’t really need to understand the culture to understand what people are saying necessarily. Sure, there might be miscommunication, like how F used to always tell me, “well, nobody just says what they mean, so I don’t really understand what you’re trying to say.” And I was like, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!? Italy is not that way. Half of what people are saying is hidden below the surface and you have to understand the culture to get it. It’s not because everyone has some insidious intent, it’s just how the culture works. You can learn Italian, you can speak it fluently, but without a very solid grasp of the culture you will still be losing a huge amount of all communication. And, frankly, you’ll just be confused as shit all around. You’re thinking, “cool, I’ll just learn it from my husband or wife or nonna.” No, you won’t. Because they don’t often even know that what they’re doing is cultural or different from you. If you’re about to visit Italy, study in Italy, or move to Italy, you want to start reading, RIGHT NOW.

Resources For Learning About Italian Culture (From my Amazon Store)

2. I Would Have Learned Italian Months Before My Departure Date: Most likely you’re thinking like me and many of my friends who moved to Italy. “What better place to learn Italian than in Italy?” Trust me, no. You will learn Italian in Italy, for sure, and it is easier when you’re hearing it every day, but that first year that you’re there and unable to understand a goddamn thing is frustrating, isolating, and annoying as shit. Plus, people will expect you to speak the language even if you’ve been there for 20 minutes and the pressure certainly doesn’t help. Want to move to Italy? Great! But seriously, spend the money and buy Rosetta Stone, right now. No, you don’t have to buy it from my Amazon store, you can also buy it from Barnes And Noble. And, download Duolingo to your smart phone. The app is free, and even 15 minutes per day will be a lifesaver when you’re lost on an Italian street, unable to find your way home or your boyfriend’s mom is saying crazy shit to you and you need a classy response. You’re probably rolling your eyes at the Rosetta Stone, and so did I, until my roommate in Italy was able to speak Italian like a superstar 3 months into using it while I was barely able to name common household pets. It works. Use it.

Tips For Learning Italian While Still In The US

  • Rosetta Stone
  • Duolingo
  • Watch Italian films with English subtitles at least a few times per week (Sophia Loren films are a great place to start and work your way up to contemporary films).
  • Listen to Italian music, find the words in English, and it will help you memorize them by singing along.

3. I Would Not Have Spent Money On Dumb Shit. You’re moving to a new country and you’ll be tempted to buy 10,000 things before you go. Don’t. Italy has everything you could possibly need. And, their clothes are nicer and often cheaper than in the US. Save your money, get to Italy, and then buy all the shit you’ll need. The one exception might be makeup or skincare if you’re super particular. If you’re picky like me, then maybe you want to bring some of your favorite face stuff. Yes, Italy has great stuff but I like really specific stuff and the Sephora in Italy doesn’t carry any of the same shit that we have in ‘Merica.

4. I would have made it a point to do something new every day. I’m a habitual person. Really habitual. Like, when I wash my body in the shower I do it the same way every single day. When I find places I like, I tend to go there instead of trying new places. I travel a lot but I still tend to quickly find “my kind of places,” and go there. Last year when I was in Prague, I found a cookie shop that I liked and me and F would only buy cookies from THAT place. Mind you, it was the most adorable cookie shop in all the world. But still, I didn’t see any of the other cookies shops because of it. I did the same thing when I moved to Italy. While I definitely did a lot of stuff every year, I often found myself seeking the comfort of familiarity which prevented me from doing as much cool stuff as I could have. If you’re going to be spending a semester, year, or decade in Italy, I’d recommend forcing yourself to do something different at least every week, if not every day. Rent a car and drive around the country, try every cafe in the city, and every restaurant, too. Go tango dancing (I did, and it was SO FUN). The city has a lot to offer. If I could redo my student time there, that’s what I would have done differently. My friend and fellow blogger, Georgette, from Girl In Florence, is super awesome at getting out and doing EVERYTHING. She inspires me to be less boring.

5. Read the newspaper, follow current events, and pay attention. I got involved in this years after living in Florence and frankly it’s just embarrassing. If you live in any country for even a short amount of time it’s simply smart to know what the shit is going on in that country. TheLocal, is a great place to start to learn about what’s happening in Italy, in English. You’ll also look less dumb at dinner parties. For my first two years all that I knew was that Berlusconi was a douchebag. That’s where my knowledge ended and I really just reinforced the stereotype that Americans live in a bubble. You’d be surprised just how much you can learn about a culture, the people, and the history of the country by following politics and current events.

6. When dating, I would have set boundaries a lot sooner. My husband is a total badass but he’s also an enormous pain in the ass. And for a long time when I moved to Italy I forgave a lot based on “cultural differences.” Basically, I wrote off a lot of rude or stupid shit by justifying it in my head as “probably a cultural thing.”

No. Asshole behavior is the same in Italy as in the US. If someone is being an overbearing douche, you can say, “no thanks, asshat.”

Also, I spent years doing that American thing where I’m like, “well, I can’t very well be direct with his family because, geez, how rude. Tee-hee.” No. Italians, with all of their fashion and prettiness, are tough. They’re like bedazzled bombs. These are people who exist without air conditioning while wearing long sleeve button-ups and slacks. Don’t fuck with them. If you allow it, they’ll end you, and then the community widow will bake biscotti with your remains.

Also, Bella Figura. You know how high school girls are in movies where they’re like vicious monsters who are also perfect citizens and super polite in public and also sometimes to their enemies while they’re being horrible? A lot of that exists in Italy. Master that shit. Italians can insult you while smiling from ear to ear and being charming as fuck all the while. If you don’t understand the culture you won’t even know you’re being insulted. Also, if someone is opinionated, push back.  For example, my MIL will show up and be like, “yo, I’m decorating your house orange cause I don’t like how you did it!” And before I was like, “Oh, how kind,” while trying not to vomit. Now I’m like, “No, brown is ugly, no thanks.” And she’ll shrug and go, “ah, ok.” Stand up for yourself, family or friend, and lay down the law. Smile while you do it to add to the creepy factor. If you don’t have your own back, everyone will walk all over you, decorate your house hideously, dress you, and tell you that your dog is anorexic (the vet said he was the only dog of a healthy weight in all of Italy, the land of chubby poodles).

7. Spend more time asking question about others and less time observing them. I like to watch people. It’s a thing I do, often, in life. At parties I’ll usually be the person in the back, getting shitfaced while I uncomfortably stare at everyone. I did the same thing in Italy for a long time. I just watched people like a weirdo stalker instead of trying to get to know people and ask them about themselves, their culture, their family, etc. You can learn a lot about a place by paying attention, but you can learn a lot more by asking a lot of questions and getting to know people and getting their perceptions about their country. Find a language partner, or a cute barista, or bartender, and get to know them. Ask them endless questions about Italy. Maybe have sex with them if they’re into it (yay consent) and then ask them even more questions after the fact or during if you’re into that.

And there you have it! If you could move to Italy all over again, what would you do differently? I’d love to hear your stories in the comments below!

43 thoughts on “Moving To Italy: 7 Things I’d Do Differently The Second Time Around

      • As you wrote, I definitely wouldn’t have done so much shopping beforehand. The clothing available in Sweden is much nicer and affordable than Canada (and the local style is quite different from my hometown). Even though I moved at the start of August and the weather was quite warm during the day, I should have been more prepared for the significantly cooler nights (and brought warmer clothes). Knowing how certain parts of the health care system work (when you’re not a citizen) would have been useful too, since there are a few minor differences even once you get a Swedish ID.

  1. I wish I would have learned to drive there. I mean, you and I had that amazing experience in F’s car in the center… only a few tickets and some major panic attacks 😛

  2. BEST.POST.EVER. You hit all my weak spots. Working on it as I’ve already been pinned down by the soon-to-be in-laws a time or two. Thanks for the inspiration and making me laugh out loud at the Italian experience when I often take it too seriously. Thank god for wine. XO

  3. Sono d’accordo! After two trips that ended with week long stays with family, understanding culture politics and history is a must. Having read most of the books on you list (and then some) I have had many an “Aha” or “D’oh!” moments.
    Language issues weren’t as bad the 2nd time as we took lessons used duo lingo (I recommend Italian for Dummies too). TV shows help a little. Grazie! Ciao Dave

  4. Your post made me laugh as I measured your comments with our last year when we bought a Villa in Rapallo Liguria where we now live for six months of each year. We had been visiting Rapallo each year for six years and met some wonderful locals who we kept in touch with. Being a tourist town many speak some English, particularly those who work in the tourist areas.
    My husband and I were very diligent with Duloingo which did allow us to get by in conversation with friends.
    Buying the villa took 12 months and that in itself is a long story. Our Australian family and friends kept reminding us of all the horror stories about getting ripped off by sharp Italians. Many thought we had taken leave of our senses but we pushed on as we had grown to love that little part of Italy so much and just pined to be there when we were back in Oz working.
    We struggle with the language with non English speaking Italians as they speak so fast and the words seem to run together. We can pick out words to know what they are speaking about but cannot decipher whether their story is good, bad, urgent or requiring an answer. So much more to learn.
    Being “tourists” or straineri has been difficult as we cannot have internet banking, buy a car, have SKY TV, a motorway prepaid pass or go to the rubbish dump! After many meetings, going to school to learn the law, the culture, a little about politics etc we finally received our Permesso Di Soggiorno (Permission to stay) which now will make it a lot easier for us to access these things.
    After a few months I did miss just sitting and having a drink and active conversation with English speaking people, rather than struggling with every conversation. We could not have English TV so hearing fluent English didn’t happen. Learning the language is a priority. Our Italian friends want to speak English to us as they want to improve their conversation skills.
    We had a very confusing few hours when the policeman came to ensure that we were living in the villa after we registered our Permesso Di Soggiorno . My husband answered the door to an elderly gentleman in casual clothes and thought for some unknown reason, that he was there to transfer the water to our name. He did not understand a word of English and we could not understand a word he was saying. After some time we decided to ring a friend and ask him to find out who he was. Yes he was the policeman and thankfully Stefano answered most of the questions on the phone for us. Finished well, he noticed our kitchen garden so I filled up a shopping bag of pomodori for him and he shook our hands many times as he left. Beautiful people – the majority of Italians.
    We are going to need a tutor to gain the confidence to build sentences for conversation from the many hundreds of words that we do know.
    I particularly laughed when you spoke of your MIL wanting to paint your house. When we settled the purchase of the villa a lot of work was to be done. The cleaner seemed to think I was entirely useless and took over with authority, telling me what needed to be thrown out and what could be kept. The villa was fully furnished with beautiful antique furniture which she obviously didn’t see value in. A constant tussle with her and finally had to let her go as she was so dominant. Lost a couple of items to the dump truck but look with pride at the furniture I saved and have had restored.
    For a while I even lost my confidence in cooking as the only way is the Italian way. A visit to the butcher is a nightmare for me. Their cuts of meat are so different to ours.
    Italian friends are generous to a fault, constantly bringing produce “from my cousin Gino in Sicily”, “my grandmother in Spain” “the boy with the fishing boat” . Wonderful amazing food.
    The major thing that I would do differently is learn the language to a sound conversation level. Italians have a strong network of family and are extremely protective and proud of their culture. We believe it is not our place to criticise their politics or way of life. We chose to adopt their country and they have welcomed us. Love every moment of being there.
    Gwynn Bridge

  5. Love this post! I moved to Lisbon 6 years ago and there are loads of things I wish I would have done differently! However, I am still here, still in love with this city, and so happy to have found my partner in crime in this lovely country…..American guys never had the patience for me and my “quirks”.

  6. Terrific tips, M.E.! Especially re: language. I have Rosetta Stone (need to start it all over again) and a handful of elementary language books. I’m hoping to spend the Fall of 2018 in Italy, so I’ll be starting up the language learning in Jan. 2017. I can’t wait!

  7. I’d like to know more about #6. I find it hard to know what should just be written off as “this will never work” and what is salvageable. From personal experience, the ease in which some Italian men lie is really something. Some people tell me this is “cultural” but I’m not sure. Any one tried to convince me that the more they lie to you the more they’re into you because they don’t want to hurt your feelings with the truth! WTF? Reminds me of the movie Designing Woman with Lauren Bacall and Gregory peck. I think the percentage of bullshit is higher in Pinocchio Land but then again I don’t think this should be an excuse. How did you get past the lying if I may ask? I know you’ve mentioned it in previous posts as something you encountered with F.

    • Personally? I hate lying more than anything. And I’m like a shameless CIA agent. Honestly, I acted like a detective and made his life hell until he realized that I will always catch him and end him.

      • Thanks for responding. I’ve done the same and he’s quietly scared of my P.I. abilities but I’m not sure that’s a way to live/be in a relationship. Will ponder this some more. Thanks.

      • LOL! Yes, I actually took that as a given. My issue is with lying about other stuff like past and not so past women. Particularly ex-shags that tend to loiter and circle around like hyenas.

      • I’ve caught my BF if a couple of rather innocuous lies (or those of omission), and have said that the issue about which he is lying in the first place, will ALWAYS come second to the lie itself. IOW, we can get past/deal with whatever issue he’s lying about in the first place, because grownups. But LYING about it, will simply make it worse. It’s unnecessary. I’ve promised that if I catch him in another lie, I’m outta here. His choice.

        (The hard part, is where do I draw the line? Do I leave the relationship for a small “I forgot” type of lie or only a whopper? If I stand by my credo and say ANY lying is worthy of leaving, then, what…I leave for something relatively small, even though it’s not the small “issue” at hand…it’s the LYING! Omg, I need to go lie down.)

      • I totally agree with you regarding it’s not always what the lie is about but the lying in the first place. But, in my experience, lying comes so second nature to some of these Pinocchios that they don’t even realise they’re doing it in the moment.

  8. I’ll be moving to Italy in the coming months, though I’ve been living with an Italian for 15 years. We met in the US, but have spent the last eight years in the Netherlands. I studied Italian on my own years ago, but honestly, I’ve used it less since I’ve met him. My Dutch is horrendous, so I do understand the difference it makes to learn the language. I’m trying to refresh my Italian knowledge now before we move and I’ll be able to manage basic outings, but real conversation is going to take some work.

    In some ways, this move will be easier than moving to the Netherlands, because at least the language isn’t such a barrier and we’re both more familiar with the culture. But that familiarity is also going to throw up some of its own difficulties.

  9. Great post, i really enjoyed it, good to hear others have the problem of trying to tease out what is cultural differences and what is mammoni, arrogant, asshole, selfish behaviour.

  10. I love everything about this post! I did some of these things when I moved to Qatar, but each country has its quirks. I wish I knew more Arabic. I am hoping to move to Italy one day, so I am going to file this post away for the future!

  11. Great post, my eyes have been opened and I am buying my Rossetta right now well! once I am done here. I always believed they were saying more than they were saying, does that make sense? choked on my tea again, laughing to much…. thank you. Your bloggs are the sun parting the grey clouds on a dark rainy day in England.

  12. Thanks! This posting is golden. We are *still* trying to make our move to Italy… lots of friction at work, etc. My wife is really concerned about going back as she never really fit in with the indirect sharks who “insult you while smiling from ear to ear”. I doubt I’ll be able to figure out what is going on as I’m the guy who doesn’t realize he’s being insulted even in English until I’m driving home from the party!
    Do you have any advice or insights on dealing with this behavior? Does calling it out work with Italians?

    • Yes, I’ve found that being super direct or making fi of someone works for me. Example, when my husband and I were engaged, one of his friends was like “no, you’ve only been dating a year. And you might by a house together? I think that’s a terrible idea.” Then she made a few asshole comments. I just laughed, “well, thank God it’s not up to you.”

  13. Language and it’s (mis)interpretations … below is a clip from a sixties Australian movie called ‘They’re a Weird Mob’ about an Italian journalist who travels to Australia. The scene demonstrates the inevitable confusion involved in words and their meanings – meanings not found in travel guides, but which are understood by the local culture. The main character (Giovanni) gets hopelessly lost trying to order a drink at a bar (in respect to the size of glass when drinking beer (a schooner – 15 oz, or a middy – 10 oz), ‘what (he) does for a crust’ (ie what is your job) and so on. A doe eyed, innocent version of mid ’60’s Australia, where everyone lives near Bondi beach, there is work and opportunity for all (even migrants, though they’re called ‘dagos’) and no-one has yet heard of globalisation or fiscal drag. I sometimes chortle quietly to myself when I read your blog – well done. I particularly like the the lack of PC and real-speak filters. Fucking love that, actually.

  14. I REALLY enjoyed this post. I must say that those who are not European and who are, to put it bluntly, American will always struggle with the humour. It’s a cliche to say that Americans don’t get irony but, nevertheless . . . . . Also, it is helpful to come from a Catholic background as so much of Italian culture revolves around the Church and when you are brought up a Catholic you stay a Catholic (even when you lose your faith!). I’m really grateful for your link to The Local . . . . . that is a GREAT resource. Great post. Many thanks.

  15. Your articles would be easier to enjoy if you could refrain from the use of excessive expletives. It really does not enhance your writing; it becomes tedious and feels like you are angry. Please don’t continue to offend your readers. Am I alone in thinking this?

  16. What would I do differently about buying a holiday home in Italy if I had my time over again? A lot! I’d have said we wanted to re-use the roof tiles for a start when the roof was repaired.We were so naive; our geometra certainly saw us coming.

  17. Molto grazie for sharing your “in-depth”experiences with us. Keep on writing. I do look forward to that.

    I have lived overseas for many years. Your writing really makes my day.

    Sue Hollender

  18. Interesting post – very wise, too! I like how you go beyond the obvious things, like “learn Italian”, although that’s the thing I most relate to. In an ideal world, you should get to a reasonable level of Italian before you move. I taught myself some Italian before I moved, so I could read a bit of Italian and knew some basic vocabulary, but I couldn’t string a sentence together. Being able to order in a restaurant is useful, but if you can’t communicate with your flatmate you feel like a bit of a failure…

    I found the first point interesting, though I’m not sure I relate to it as much. Perhaps because I’m British? Do the British have more cultural similarities to Italians? I think we also have a tendency to not say exactly what we mean. Now that I’ve been here three years and have good conversational Italian , I don’t feel that cultural differences get in the way of communication that often.

    Oh, and great point about keeping up with local news and politics. Following Italian political news can be challenging (especially if you’re reading in Italian), but it’s important.

  19. My American husband and I live here now (I’m a dual national – but Italians will never refer to me as such, only as “American”). I have learned that one thing that makes Italians absolutely mental is to ignore them or to withdraw when you are upset or have a disagreement with them. ABSOLUTELY MENTAL!! Their interpersonal boundaries are so “fluid” they cannot tolerate silence or the perception of being “shut out” of your life even if they hate you. It’s definitely best to tell them what they want to hear to resolve differences while smiling (even if you are lying) or risk retaliation by them ruining your reputation via insidious gossip (the national pastime). They’ll do this even if you are a nice, decent individual disinterested in their drama. They will fuck with you hard here. Trust me.

  20. I absolutely love your posts, adore the way you write with humor, your traightforward fearlessness, and that you are a woman not afraid to swear if you feel like it and you don’t bend to being politically correct. I love that you make me laugh out loud at almost every post and give specific, detailed advice, not just bullshit that one doesn’t know how to apply. AND you give advice based on your prersonal experiences about living in Italy and are not afraid to do that or to be judged by anything you say. You are a true inspiration. I am only live here here part-time, max 2 months at a time, coming and doing back and forth between Tuscany and the States, but it has been quite challenging starting a business here being a foreigner, with two other female business partners who are also from other countries…try THAT one and see how the men treat you! It can often be kind of like “isnt’ that cute…..those girls want to start a business here, haha…!!!” No it’s not really cute, we mean business about business. What a learning curve…..but that’s another story! So THANK YOU for the encouragement and help you provide! I am the only American among us 3 women starting our businesses here, but that has been my gut instinct to do as you have suggested….stand up and smile like you mean business’s so you will be respected, to not just silently accept when people are trying to take advantage of you or of the fact that you are a not Italain, as it will gain you no respect by them anyway…so learning as much as I can about how to connect culteraly in relation to business is very important….and in personal like too! :). Thanks for putting yourself out there and being an open book!! I am studying my ass off to get conversational in this language here in Italy and in the states, and I am so glad I started as you say BEFORE my first visit….but it was still not near enough, but I’m not giving up just buckling down! Grazie mile!!! Monika

  21. Hey my wife and I really enjoy your blog, but have even greater appreciation for you after learning of your depression and anxiety. It’s a real thing and not enough people talk about it, so bravo to you for sharing your experience. You’re going to be fine. That’s what I say. And you remain hilarious, no matter what you’re writing about!

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Saturday, August 13, 2011

Post fest activities rolling on!

Isn't that idyllic? That was last night.  What a beautiful evening on the water.  And moments after we got in the skies opened up and it POURED!  But the miserable weather seems to have broken (briefly?) because of it, and today is sunny and warm.  Wonder if summer is starting now???  It better not steal Fall!  There's no better season than that.

Well after the turmoil that was the Folk Festival last weekend, everything turned out all right in the end.  It was great to hear from customers, new and returning.  And to get such positive feedback on my new products.  The jewellery with Alexis' crystalline cabochons was very well received, which makes me excited to make more of it.  I've already picked up two new "stones" from her this week; they're a beautiful deep rich blue.  And my Investment Property brooches in silver and copper made many people smile.  I've just dropped some off at the Shop in Devon House.  It will be fun to do custom orders of them too, if people want a particular house done.  It's always great to chat with other crafters at the folk fest as well, and do a bit of trading.  It was a great surprise was to see one of my instructors from Haliburton there as well!

We had a house full of family as well, so the weekend turned into a week of activities.  I hadn't been on a bird/whale tour in many years, so that was fun.  Seriously: is there any bird cuter than those wee puffins?  I did, however, confirm that I do still get sea-sick.  Boo.  Some shopping with Mom, Tea in the Crypt, Folk Night at the Ship to hear Gordie Tentrees (since I missed his act last weekend), the quilt shop, finishing up a course at MUN, phew, we fit a lot in!
And now I'm working on a few little orders from the folk fest, looking ahead to new production, and getting my kiln up and running, but I need an electrician for that.  Ugh.  Small hurdles, small hurdles....

Hey can anyone tell me what kind of flower or weed this is?  It doesn't seem to be in any of my books....  Enjoy the warmth sunlovers....  Cheerio!  Oh and go on down to Middle Cove today, the clay studio is having their beach firing.  Bring a bit of money and bring home something truly one of a kind!

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Fabricating for the Folk Festival!!!!

What a whirlwind few weeks this has been! A great trip around the bay, caught some fish, rowed and rowed and rowed a punt, and in the spare moments worked on jewellery.  Only so many things are portable projects though, so this week has been a steady exercise in disciplining myself to work down through my list and get as much as possible ready for the Folk Festival this weekend.  I love having a booth in the craft tent there.  It's such a great venue, especially when the weather cooperates, and the bonus is getting to hear all the great music all day long!  And what an exciting line-up this year.  I've heard that Friday night is sold out already.

So I've got two new series of jewellery I'm excited to be launching at this year's folk festival: above is the series of pins I've titled Investment Properties.  They're etched silver and copper, each one unique, and I'm thinking of doing custom houses in this same vein.  The other series I've been working on in collaboration with Alexis Templeton (  She made porcelain cabochons and glazed them in her signature crystalline glazes.  Then I set them into jewellery: necklaces and brooches so far.  We'll see what comes next...  I'll also have a great selection of silver earrings in a variety of styles.  In copper, I've etched some earrings in new designs, along with some in my new popular cattails pattern.

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Annual Academic Awards

Academic awards are awarded to students to acknowledge their efforts and their performance during the academic year.

Class Prize – To recognise the top 3 positions per class in terms of their academic achievements throughout the year.

Subject Best – To recognise the student who shows excellence in his or her work in a particular subject.

Most Improved Student – To recognise the most improved student who put in a lot of hard work to achieve better results.

Scholarship Awards – To reward the top students who have achieved excellence both in and out of the classroom.

* Character and attendance conduct of students will taken into consideration.


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Putting the World in World Baseball Classic

The American performance in the World Baseball Classic has come as a surprise to nearly everyone. Wasn’t this the team favored to win the tournament? Weren’t these American All Stars, the top of the game playing America’s Pastime, supposed to show the rest of the World how classic baseball is to the United States?

Well, sure, but don’t sound the alarm yet. In my opinion, Team USA’s struggles in the WBC vindicate the tournament. Baseball is a worldly game, and as an All Star-laden Team USA plays on equal footing with the rest of the field, the games are showing that the World really belongs in the World Baseball Classic.

Not just an American pastime

Baseball is considered the quintessential American game. Along with apple pie and the Fourth of July, nothing is more evocative of America than a game of baseball played in a park on a sunny summer day. Yet, in our association with baseball, Americans often forget (or don’t know) that baseball has a history in other countries that stretches back nearly as long as it does here.

In the Caribbean and Latin American nations, baseball has been around since the middle of the 19th century. Cubans have been playing baseball since 1864 or nearly as long as Americans have. While the Major Leagues may be the oldest established professional baseball association, America was never the only place where baseball has been played.

Across the Pacific, the Japanese have played baseball for just as long as well. Some stories have baseball originating in Japan in 1872 thanks to an American sailor who brought the game with him on a visit. Other sources say the precursor to what we know of as baseball arrived in Japan in 1820. Similarly, baseball arrived in Korea in the mid-1800s and in Taiwan at the end of the 19th century.

While Japan, Korea, and Taiwan have become established talent pools for Major League Baseball with the past decade and a half, people on the western shores of the Pacific have been playing America’s pastime long enough for it to be Korea’s or Japan’s pastime as well.

In the Caribbean and Latin American nations, baseball’s popularity far surpasses that of the American version of the game. The Dominicans, the Puerto Ricans, the Cubans, and the Venezuelans live and breathe baseball. Major League Baseball has the World Series in name only. Baseball truly is an international phenomenon.

The Worldly Reach of the World Baseball Classic

In considering baseball’s rich international history, it is interesting to see how little Americans know about the global reach of the game. For many, baseball is America co-opted by the Japanese and brought back here in such timely classics as Mr. Baseball. We tend to view the game as something borrowed by foreign countries without realizing that these foreign countries have developed and contributed to the game just as much as Americans have.

At the same time, fans in foreign countries view American baseball traditions as neglectful of international traditions. As Bobby Valentine demonstrated in challenging the White Sox to a truly global World Series last November, fans in other parts of the world scoff at the term World Series. America’s championship series isn’t a World Series, they argue. It involves teams from just one country.

From this conflict arises the reason for the World Baseball Classic. The brainchild of Bud Selig, a divisive figure among the baseball literati, the WBC is supposed to promote baseball as an international game. Ostensibly a marketing campaign for Major League Baseball, it serves as an outreach tool for Americans and an educational tool for everyone else. The World is showing American fans that they can not only play baseball but beat the Americans at what we consider to be our own game.

Viewing the WBC through this prism, the tournament so far can be seen as an unqualified success. The games have been so popular that ESPN has dumped programming to fit more of the WBC games on TV, and it is only because March Madness lingers on the horizon that every tournament game isn’t available on ESPN or ESPN2. (This is a point of conflict for the tournament. In the future, the WBC organizers should schedule it so that it avoids the crush of the NCAA tournaments.)

The games themselves contain all of the drama of October baseball. Last night’s Dominican/Venezuela contest came down to the very last pitch in the 9th inning. Venezuela had the tying and go-ahead runs on base in an elimination game. The last American victory came with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th. The pitching in the second round has been stellar and the hits timely.

When we add the patriotic dimensions, we see players celebrating as though they’ve just won the World Series. The Dominican team ran onto the field to celebrate a World championship last night after downing Venezuela, one of their regional rivals. The fans show an outpouring of national pride and the players do too. The World Baseball Classic is truly Worldly in its appeal and in its outcomes. But what of America?

The American Baseball Conundrum

While we’ve seen Puerto Rican fans go nuts in the stands, Cuban fans become embroiled in deep-seated political tensions, and Dominican fans showing their undying love for Big Papi, Albert Pujols and others, in America, the outpouring of support has been more like a trickle. Americans seem to be the least enthusiastic of all supporters. While Jim Caple tried to rally the troops today, American support for Team USA has been lukewarm at best.

As best as I can tell, Americans were expecting this tournament to be boring. They expected to trample the competition, and watching Team USA – a team made up of not quite the best players in the country – struggle has turned many people off from the team. While Americans may watch the Dominican Republic and Cuba battle it out in the semifinals, we can’t get too excited by Al Leiter and Randy Winn playing the Canadians.

The twist to the tale is that American disinterest in the event is not a bad thing. The World Baseball Classic was meant to be an international event. As long as people are watching the other games, the tournament is a success.

Furthermore, the problem of American disinterest may fix itself before the next WBC in a few years. Already big names are expressing their regret at dropping out, and Barry Bonds has even said he may play in the next round. I would be that in 2009, many fewer players will opt out of the tournament. Those that do will have legitimate excuses.

So as the tournament enters its final week, Bud Selig has a legitimate success on his hands, and the World Baseball Classic has proven to be better than I or anyone else thought it would be. If Major League Baseball can turn the success of the WBC into a greater international appeal for baseball, the level of play in the Major Leagues could see a huge influx of talent for overseas markets. While it is much to early to proclaim this victory, the World Baseball Classic could go a long way toward putting the World in Major League Baseball and putting the World into the World Series.

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The date for the closure of Oriental City has been set – May 2008. I learned this from the man selling the Malaysian kuehs and curry puffs this past Saturday and I’ve also found an article on the BBC News confirming this. To make a long story short, developers want to knock down Oriental City to make way for flats, a B&Q, and a gym, I think.

Oriental City is a unique shopping centre in North London (Colindale) with, you guessed it, Oriental shops and restaurants. There are a couple of large Chinese restaurants with dim sum, a Chinese jewelry shop, a martial arts store, Utsuwa (the Japanese tableware shop), a Japanese housewares shop, beauty salons, a large supermarket, and smaller cafes and Chinese shops. There’s even a Sega game centre…where we have whiled away some time in the past – that time between lunch and dinner!

The main highlight of the mall (to me, at least) is the food court, with Chinese, Malaysian, Singaporean, Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, and Korean food stalls. I bet I’ve missed out on a country too. The Roti Stall sells authentic Malaysian-Indian roti canai, a flaky bread; stand in front of the stall and watch the man twirl the dough until it’s paper thin. There’s a relatively new handmade noodle stall where you can watch the noodles being stretched and thumped right in front of you. The Malaysian/Singaporean food at Yong Tofu is extremely authentic with lots of rice and noodle dishes to choose from. As I mentionned before, there’s a stall only on weekends that sells Malaysian cakes (kueh), curry puffs and a couple of other dishes. There’s also a stall outside, by the car park, that sells delicious (but fiery hot!) Malaysian food – they also grill satay on charcoal there! Not every dish is perfect though but I’ve never had a downright bad meal; usually, it’s a terrific meal! Most dishes average about £5 and portions are large! Be warned but my eyes always seem to be bigger than my stomach…

This Saturday saw a friend and I head over to Oriental City. I’d been planning yet another visit for a while and now that I had roped in a partner-in-crime, it was time to go! We’re terrible for each other – always buying something the other recommends and ending up with giant baskets full. We had each brought a backpack along in anticipation of the goodies we’d get from the supermarket. First stop though, lunch at the food court!

She had homemade noodles with five-spice braised beef…

Five-Spice Braised Beef with Handmade Noodles

…with a side of tasty fried prawns that could be eaten shells and all.

Fried Prawns

I succumbed again to greed and had rice with both fish curry and beef rendang from the Malay stall outside. Now…I’ve learned my lesson – when they say it’s hot, it’s really hot. I mean, it was a challenge to eat hot. Tasty though!

Beef Rendang and Fish Curry with Rice

Second stop was the Japanese housewares shop where I couldn’t decide between bento boxes and came away with nothing. Third stop was the supermarket where we loaded up with ingredients for dinner throughout the week – Japanese grilled wild eel, thinly sliced pork, Korean pork kalbi marinade, Yan-Yans (biscuit sticks with chocolate dip), mango gummies, … there was a lot, trust me! Fourth and final stop(s) was the food court again, where we ran around to various stalls ordering takeaway dishes to share with our respective partners (who dislike the long journey out there; it takes me three buses to get there) at home.

So if you still haven’t been – go! Go now and support them! Honestly, there’s nowhere else in London like it – and it’s the only place I know to get fresh roti canai. Knocking it down for a B&Q (as if there are no home hardware shops in London! ha!) and destroying the community within is a real shame. There’s a website for the official campaign to Save Oriental City and if you need more persuading to go, photos from my previous trips are on my Flickr photostream.

Oriental City
399 Edgware Road
London NW9 0JJ

May 8, 2008: An update here.


text:
CN Blue Touches on the ′Infinity Challenge′ Music Issue

Amidst a giant controversy surrounding the MBC Infinity Challenge singles that won′t cool down, CN Blue recently opened up on the issue in an interview with enews.

promotional picts8

When asked about the issue, the members seemed to agree that the public′s choice is the most important above all.

Jung Yong Hwa said, “If you look at the ranks the Infinity Challenge singles have been landing in, you can see what kind of music the public wants. I don′t see it as a bad thing just because it affects the ranks of singers, as it′s the music the public likes and it′s the music the public chose.”

“Even people who work in music like us want to listen to fun music, and it′s probably the same with the public,” he added. “I think it′s great that it′s bringing in more genres as well as energy to the market.”

He also said, “They often split between major music, minor music, indie bands and major bands, but all these categories come together to make up Korea′s music. I hope more varieties of music become popular with the K-Pop boom.”

The controversy centers around songs comedian Park Myung Soo composed for an Infinity Challenge special. The songs landed on the top ranks of charts, pushing out other singers.

Many, including the Korea Entertainment Producer′s Association, voiced negative opinions on the music, pointing at the quality of the songs and a possible monopolization of the music market by a large and well-funded broadcasting channel.

Lee Jong Hyun said, “There′s a reason the public likes Infinity Challenge′s music. If people listen to the music and it makes them feel good, that is good music. I don′t believe they harmed us in the music market in any way.”

Bassist Lee Jung Shin also said, “Rather than care for our ranks on the charts, we′re happy if we can perform our music in front of as many people as possible make them feel happy.”

“We work hard to release our singles and perform in front of the public; you can′t say that Park Myung Soo hyung (big brother) didn′t put in the same effort,” Kang Min Hyuk said. “I believe the controversy started up because he′s a comedian rather than a singer, but I hope everyone sees it the same way they see singers act as actors.”

CN Blue recently released its fourth mini album Re:BLUE, full of the members′ self-written tracks.

Posted by  @blue plum blossoms decoded

3 thoughts on “CN Blue Touches on the ′Infinity Challenge′ Music Issue

  1. never heard park myungsoo’s song, but i love infinity challange eventough didnt follow it like running man. only watch some episode and cuts. i respect this show just because yoo jaesuk and haha (from running man) were fix member of this show 😛

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Why Anonymous Can't Take Down 392

suraj.sun writes "The website-attacking group 'Anonymous' tried and failed to take down on Thursday. The group's vengeance horde quickly found out something techies have known for years: Amazon, which has built one of the world's most invincible websites, is almost impossible to crash.... Anonymous quickly figured that out. Less than an hour after setting its sights on Amazon, the group's organizers called off the attempt. 'We don't have enough forces,' they tweeted."
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Why Anonymous Can't Take Down

Comments Filter:
  • FFS (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Captain Splendid ( 673276 ) * <capsplendid@gmai[ ]om ['l.c' in gap]> on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @03:40PM (#34550680) Homepage Journal
    Well done anonymous, you've just handed Amazon their marketing for their hosting services for the considerable future.

    And even if you haven't, there's still a ton of suited fatcats chortling merrily about the concomitant stock price rise as they stuff their faces with expensive food and drink this holiday season.

    Y'all better step it up, or this might be your Waterloo.
    • Yeah, seriously. If there's ever been a case for the "haha" tag, this is it.

    • Re:FFS (Score:5, Funny)

      by oldspewey ( 1303305 ) on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @03:42PM (#34550720)
      Wasn't Waterloo exactly like this, except for the fact it was completely different?
    • Re:FFS (Score:5, Insightful)

      by tuffy ( 10202 ) on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @03:50PM (#34550860) Homepage Journal

      Have these guys ever disrupted any company significantly? TFA mentions they've taken down the RIAA, MPAA and Mastercard front pages, but none of those have affected their core businesses. It seems like in order to have a Waterloo, they would first need to have some real accomplishments beforehand.

      • they would first need to have some real accomplishments beforehand.

        In this day and age, it's all about column inches, innit?
      • Re:FFS (Score:4, Insightful)

        by HungryHobo ( 1314109 ) on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @04:05PM (#34551068)

        It got the issue on the front pages again, it got lots of attention and they drew enough attention to mastercard that icelandic regulators are dragging them over the coals as to exactly why they cut off an icelandic company.

        in many ways the "hacktivism"(I know, I shudder when I use the word too) actually seems to have achieved at least as much as most regular protests.

        Trying to DDoS amazon though was always going to be like pissing at a thunder storm, you can't saturate pipes that thick with a few bored teenagers.

      • they have been wreaking havoc with paypal, which pressurized paypal to come around and spill the beans saying they shut wikileaks down due to political pressure. and then they released their funds.
      • I've been told that the DDOS to Mastercard affected for a while to their 3d-secure authentication servers, ie, it stopped mastercard from being able to do online transactions, which is certainly part of their core bussiness.

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by tuffy ( 10202 )
          Is there a source for this? According to the article,

          "Mastercard and Visa's transaction networks -- which run completely independently of their websites -- were unaffected."

          • by plaukas pyragely ( 1630517 ) on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @04:51PM (#34551828)

            We are using online payment services from SagePay in UK and almost all Mastercard transactions during the DDOS failed. Mastercard SecureCode was affected. No doubt they deny it to the press since it's quite a shame compared to Visa which had no problems with payments during DDOS.

          • by Firehed ( 942385 )

            The 3d-secure stuff is a web-based API. I don't know the details on what the DDOS affected, but if it took down everything on Mastercard's servers, then any website which has opted into using that enhanced security tool would have either failed to make the payments or fallen back to the less secure (and far more typical) approach of skipping that step completely. Assuming sites that a) handle their own payments and b) use that extended auth system were built right, it should have degraded fairly gracefully

        • 3D-Secure is not widely used (which is probably why the authentication servers for it do not have a lot of spare power to handle an attack). Same goes for VISA's equivalent. Most security experts consider it a joke, and since it is opt-in most consumers have not bothered. It's been ages since I have seen a major ecommerce site that supported it.

          • Re:FFS (Score:5, Insightful)

            by xaxa ( 988988 ) on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @06:05PM (#34553186)

            Most large British retailers use 3D Secure (or Visa's thing), in my experience.

            It annoys me -- every time I log in to my online banking I'm reminded not to put my banking passwords into other websites, but that's exactly what the 3D Secure system requires.

            • by PRMan ( 959735 )
              Actually, they are sending you to Visa or Mastercard's servers. That's why it didn't work during the DDOS.
    • Re:FFS (Score:5, Insightful)

      by morgauxo ( 974071 ) on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @03:52PM (#34550902)
      That's true. A much better strategy would be to single out Amazon's customers and target them one at a time as they probably don't have as much server resources allocated to them.
    • Too bad I spent all my mod points just now.

      Regardless, the resources marshaled by Anonymous and other botnet operators reside at the farthest, smallest nodes of the internet, while the beefy commercial entities like Google and Amazon are cozied right up to the trunks and branches at the most strategic distributed locations. Due to that simple fact alone it would require a disproportionately greater amount of resources to take down one of these mammoth operations.

    • Re:FFS (Score:5, Insightful)

      by ChaosDiscord ( 4913 ) * on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @03:59PM (#34550982) Homepage Journal
      I can see the slogan. " EC2: Rock solid stability. Provided Joe Lieberman likes you."
    • Does it really matter if goes down? Resources cost money, and if they succeeded in wasting a significant part of them (putting extra load on their servers) even if amazon stayed online... it might have been partially "successful".

      • Amazon is making money on the order of a $1M per minute at the peak. Amazon rents out Quadruple Extra Large cluster computer servers for $1.60 per hour. The cost of resources is insignificant compared to the sales. I would love to see what, if any, disturbance was actually made on the Amazon's servers. Negligible? Barely noticeable? Significant?
    • You mean their Austerlitz. Amazon is a battle lost, when a larger war is won (all the other sites they took down).

      Now everyone notices that freedom of information on the Internet is something popular enough that spontaneous unpredictable forces can be marshalled against you if you oppose the concept of freedom of information. So it figures in decision making when it comes to siding with bullshit authoritarian and corporate pronouncements about certain information being "verboten" for public consumption.

      • Unless all these other websites decide to hitch up with Amazon's hosting services.

        Also, you're looking at this from a technical point of view. This is as much about the media and their perception of events as it is about what machinery and software was being used.
    • by vadim_t ( 324782 )

      I don't think it the implications are that impressive unless you're very big yourself.

      I mean, it wouldn't necessarily be a good idea to get hosting at amazon based on this. Your site might stay up, but I bet that Amazon will charge you for all that traffic, and anonymous can use quite a bit of it. So instead of your site going down you'll get a huge bill. For a small site, that's very likely to kill it. Even for a small/medium size business it could do very appreciable damage.

      This is only impressive if you

  • by Haedrian ( 1676506 ) on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @03:45PM (#34550766)
    They used the wrong tactic. The only thing that will bring down a beast like Amazon is a hardware malfunction

    They should be tossing hamsters or other small rodents into their server rooms. That'll show em.
  • But the collateral damage would be too high and piss off far too many other people. Plus it they would have to use a different tool.

    • But the collateral damage would be too high and piss off far too many other people.

      Yeah that's it they're concerned about collateral damage... damned morals will get you every time!

      Plus it they would have to use a different tool.

      It's called a bunker buster...

      • Yeah that's it they're concerned about collateral damage... damned morals will get you every time!

        The masses don't have to have morals. Just the individuals in that mass who have the knowledge need to have enough intelligence to know that it might not be such a good idea.

  • by KublaiKhan ( 522918 ) on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @03:46PM (#34550800) Homepage Journal
    Considering the volume of traffic that Amazon is designed to handle normally, it's no real surprise that an 'attack' that amounts to a slight bump in traffic for them would barely be noticed.

    Further, unlike Gawker-clan, Amazon is likely to have actual IT people working on securing their servers from just such events.

    They are a -much- harder target than most places.

    That being said, they are far from invincible. There's always a way in, and if Anonymous and allied entities really worked on it for a long time, they would likely find a way to at least deface the site.

    That would be rather beyond the usual level of patience that Anonymous exhibits, though.

    A more effective (and more 'lulzy'--hence, more interesting for Anonymous) way of 'poisoning' Amazon would be to leverage the review process, injecting more noise than signal, and thus crippling one of the key selling points that Amazon has as a purchasing platform.

    Other effective methods might be to 'punish' Amazon-affiliated sellers' websites, interfering with their ability to do business based on their association with Amazon. This might be insufficiently visible, though, unless they did so in a manner which caused many of them to complain to news organizations.

    DDoSing Amazon itself is, and has been for years, a waste of time--there's nothing that an entity like Anonymous can do to it with LOIC that they don't get on Black Friday anyway.
    • way of 'poisoning' Amazon would be to leverage the review process

      Almost impossible, since comments are meta-moderated so junk would go to the bottom, and an automated comment poster would be easily detected and blocked.

      As for punishing the affiliates, that's probably even harder than Amazon itself since there are so many...

      I was thinking the same thing about Black Friday, Amazon did go a bit slow at times then. That was probably an exiting day for IT.

  • Amazon is one of the biggest (if not the biggest) shops on the internet. They need to stand up while taking a hammering every Xmas. If anyone is going to have a superior infrastructure it will be Amazon.
    • Amazon is one of the biggest (if not the biggest) shops on the internet. They need to stand up while taking a hammering every Xmas. If anyone is going to have a superior infrastructure it will be Amazon.

      I agree, however if they (or anyone else) is ever going to try this is the time.

      If their servers are already under high volume load, then you're already half-way there.

      (not that I expected them, or anyone else to be able to take down Amazon)

  • EC2 Standard On-Demand Instances Pricing
    Linux/UNIX Usage Small (Default) $0.095 per hour Windows Usage $0.13 per hour
    Features of Elastic Load Balancing
    Using Elastic Load Balancing, you can distribute incoming traffic across your Amazon EC2 instances in a single Availability Zone or multiple Availability Zones. Elastic Load Balancing automatically scales its request handling capacity in response to incoming application traffic.
    Elastic Load Balancing can detect the health of Amazon EC2 instances. When
  • "impossible" (Score:5, Insightful)

    by aBaldrich ( 1692238 ) on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @03:50PM (#34550848)
    In the black hat jargon impossible means that nobody has done it yet.
  • by Megahard ( 1053072 ) on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @03:50PM (#34550850)
    Death by snu-snu
  • misguided attack (Score:5, Interesting)

    by retech ( 1228598 ) on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @03:53PM (#34550906)
    Dear ANON;

    Why not try a simple well organized boycott? I know, it sounds grossly old fashioned and just too far beneath your considerable talent, skill and angst. But, as you have found, these companies are actually trying to stay in business because they enjoy their revenue stream. If you could, say, interrupt that revenue you could get some attention. And it wouldn't be all negative attention. No one likes a screaming child, but they are soon forgot. A well mannered articulate child is remembered forever. The longer you can interrupt their revenue the more they're going to want to discuss this quibble. So... perhaps you may wish to think about a worldwide boycott? Try it for a day. If it's moderately successful, try it out for a week. Shut down Amazon, VISA and MC's money for a month and the entire globe will listen.
    • I rather doubt that Amazon would notice the blip in sales. There might be, to be generous, a few million Anonymous, of which only a fraction would normally be buying from Amazon on any particular day; Amazon does on the order of $50 million in sales daily.

      Any such action--unless coordinated with numerous other "legit" groups--would be lost in the noise.
    • Successful boycotts are incredibly difficult to pull off. You need to have a large mass of highly dedicated, might motivated well organized people to do it. Since Anonymous is highly decentralized, I don't think they would have the chops to do it. VISA & Mastercard pretty much control the international credit card market. Some areas just do not have alternatives. You can't ask people to give up, what they don't control.

      A well mannered articulate child is remembered forever.

      Not really. The internet is full of intelligent & articulate people that fe

      • There ARE successfull boycotts in history, for example the boycott of south african products by european customers. Brought down a whole Government.
        • Yes but that depended on European customers initially being part of their income. The script kiddies of ANON need to be a contributing factor to Amazon's revenue stream before a boycott will even register an effect. Ceasing to do business where it was rarely done to begin with would look like business as usual to Amazon.

    • "Why not try a simple well organized boycott?"

      Asking non reading people not to buy a book?

      As I said before, buy stuff, unpack it and return it the next day, that actually hurts if millions of people would do it.

      • Amazon sells more than just books.

        For instance, I tend to buy video games rather than books from them.

        Possibly because they keep throwing $20 gift certificates at me if I pre-order certain ($50-60) games.

    • It would seem to me that it's a bit counter-intuitive for a group who wishes to remain anonymous to give their information to these companies to let them know they're no longer willing to business because of their business practices.

      Furthermore, I'd be willing to bet a good portion of anonymous is under the age of 18, and unable to have a Visa or MC, making "protest" rather irrelevant.
    • Please. If these people had a lot of money, and did a lot of shopping, they probably wouldn't be huddled over a computer in their parents basement plotting DOS attacks over IRC.

    • Seem like a large number of anon are younger kids and the "basement dweller" types. They are not really the sorts who spend a lot of money and thus not the sort who matter much in terms of a boycott. I doubt they'd be noticed. In terms of organizing larger groups, good luck with that. For that you need respect which is something they sorely lack. The people who inhabit /b/ are not the sorts that most people are going to be going to for advice.

    • 4chan's "Slacktivism" efforts don't really cost the participants any money. A boycott might, as some dude in Iowa is forced to set up an account at Barnes and Noble to buy his comic books.
    • by Minwee ( 522556 ) <> on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @04:52PM (#34551838) Homepage

      Why not try a simple well organized boycott?

      Good idea. That really worked with Modern Warfare [].

  • by Rhacman ( 1528815 ) on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @04:05PM (#34551080)
    ...for sufficiently small values of 'legion'.
  • Wrong weapon (Score:5, Insightful)

    by gmuslera ( 3436 ) on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @04:07PM (#34551106) Homepage Journal
    Probably Slashdot stories about Amazon denying hosting to Wikileaks harmed more the company than the combined Anonymous attack. There is no firewall against social attacks.
    • Re:Wrong weapon (Score:5, Insightful)

      by onefriedrice ( 1171917 ) on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @04:18PM (#34551282)

      Probably Slashdot stories about Amazon denying hosting to Wikileaks harmed more the company than the combined Anonymous attack. There is no firewall against social attacks.

      Except most people probably agree with Amazon's decision. It probably helped them. Surely you have noticed that Slashdot is not very representative of what we might call the "general population," falling somewhere to the left of where most people are, at least in the United States, Amazon's largest market.

      • Re:Wrong weapon (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Spy Handler ( 822350 ) on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @04:37PM (#34551570) Homepage Journal

        Except most people probably agree with Amazon's decision. It probably helped them. Surely you have noticed that Slashdot is not very representative of what we might call the "general population," falling somewhere to the left of where most people are, at least in the United States, Amazon's largest market.

        I agree for the most part. However I am not sure that the /. mantra of "a US liberal would be considered a right wing fascist in Europe" is true or not... I'm starting to think that's a myth.

        Just this morning I read this story [] about the pretty crappy way immigrants are treated in Germany. And I know for a fact that in Italy it's even worse, they are very draconian in that regard. And lately in the news are all those budget cuts in Ireland France UK and other EU countries, due to their huge government debt problem... cuts in SOCIAL BENEFITS! Reduced wealth redistribution. This is actually happening in Europe as we speak. It would be UNIMAGINABLE in the USA still, there is no way in hell there will ever be any reduction in welfare or unemployment or healthcare benefits..... at least not while Obama and Pelosi and Reid are still alive. So all in all I would say in many respects, USA is quite liberal even compared to Eurozone.

        • Re:Wrong weapon (Score:5, Interesting)

          by quanticle ( 843097 ) on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @05:08PM (#34552150) Homepage

          ... cuts in SOCIAL BENEFITS! Reduced wealth redistribution. This is actually happening in Europe as we speak. It would be UNIMAGINABLE in the USA still, there is no way in hell there will be ever be any reduction in welfare or unemployment or healthcare benefits.... at least not while Obama and Pelosi and Reid are still alive.

          You seem to be missing how much more in social benefits Europeans get compared to Americans. Single payer healthcare. Subsidized child care. Actual pensions rather than 401(k)/IRA plans that leave the majority of your benefits to the whims of the stock market. Even with the cuts, Europeans nations redistribute significantly more wealth using these programs than America does.

          Then there's the fact that a lot of social programs that would be administered federally in Europe are administered on a state-by-state basis here in the 'States. Things like welfare and Medicaid have been hit substantially. Essentially the reason we're not seeing the federal government cut is because the responsibility for cutting has been pushed onto individual states by virtue of the balanced budget provisions in state constitutions.

        • Re:Wrong weapon (Score:4, Interesting)

          by matt4077 ( 581118 ) on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @06:24PM (#34553478) Homepage
          To nitpick a bit, your idea might be true, but your arguments don't necessarily hold up. Firstly, the discrimination against immigrants is mostly a social problem, not a political one. The policies in most of Europe are quite liberal, but people seem to be racists. In the US it's the other way around (at least to a certain degree). Reasons for that might be higher experience with immigration, the diversity of immigrants to the US which makes it harder for them form communities closed to the outside, and a positive feedback loop that starts with integration (giving them jobs etc.) leading to wealth and education which then leads to even more willingness to integrate immigrants. The success in the US also seems to be highly divergent for different groups, i. e. asians are much better integrated (at least economically) than blacks, even though the former immigrated more recently and therefore had less time to adjust.

          Regarding social security, every EU country spends more (as % of GDP) than the US on welfare, thus making cuts more likely. If unemployment benefits are cut, the unemployed have to switch to cheaper cigarettes. In the US, they die. In numbers: the unemployed in Germany get 60% of their last income (67% with children) for up 36 months. After that, they get about 400$+rent+heating+ electricity. In the US it's 3x% for a few months, and apparently not even food stamps after that.
    • Hell, I read Slashdot and I'm firmly with Amazon on this one.

      You can't yell "freedom!" with one breath, then say, "A private company can't take us offline" in the next without being a huge hypocrite. I hate hypocrites. It doesn't matter why Amazon took the site down, or if someone else told them to, it's well-within their right to do so. You're exercising your right to freedom speech, and Amazon's exercising their right to freedom of association.

    • There is no firewall against social attacks.

      Yes, there is. It's called research, honesty and being knowledgeable about the field and about what areas you don't know much about. The problem is that these things are a lot more expensive to implement than a regular Internet firewall.

  • by mseeger ( 40923 ) on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @04:07PM (#34551108)

    Any victory of Anonymous would have been a phyrric one. It would have alienated tons of people they can now still win over. If i try very hard, i can come up with something more stupid than attacking Amazon shortly before Christmas, but it would be quite a challenge. For >50% of all people their christmas presents are more important than the fate of Julian Assange (even if he is shot "trying to escape"). Unluckily they've got a vote too. So converting them from indifference to hostile would neither help Assange nor Wikileaks.

    CU, Martin

  • Don't forget Akamai (Score:4, Interesting)

    by GillBates0 ( 664202 ) on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @04:12PM (#34551186) Homepage Journal

    Akamai had a role to play in the defense as well. []

    Akamai says it can defend against Anon attacks

    Read more: []
    Akamai managers say they could have bolstered the Web sites that buckled under attacks launched recently by Internet vigilantes.

    The world's largest content delivery network says it has enough servers and the right kind of network to "mitigate distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks," Neil Cohen, Akamai's senior director of product marketing told CNET. DDoS describes the practice of overwhelming a Web site with traffic so that it can't be accessed.

    Some well-known sites were the targets of DDoS attacks launched by a loosely connected group of WikiLeaks supporters who call themselves Anonymous or Anon for short. The group lashed out at companies they consider to be hostile to WikiLeaks, the service responsible for publicizing an enormous amount of classified U.S. government documents. Some of those attacked were MasterCard, Visa, PayPal, and Amazon.

    MasterCard, Visa, and PayPal stopped processing donations made to WikiLeaks while Amazon stopped hosting WikiLeaks servers. At this point it appears that Amazon was able to withstand the attack while MasterCard and Visa's sites were inaccessible for extended periods.

    Cohen said few other companies have as much experience as his with defending Web sites from this kind of threat. He said that late last month, a number of U.S. retail sites came under DDoS attack from multiple different countries. Cohen said he was unaware of who was behind it or why, but he said that Akamai helped some of the retailers withstand the onslaught of hits to their sites, which in some cases reached to 10,000 times the normal daily traffic to some of these sites. None of the sites went down, he said.

    "What we did over the last decade was built out our network and we now have 80,000 servers in 70 countries," Cohen said. "We can mitigate DDoS attacks by having a server extremely close to the court rather than try to absorb the attack in one centralized location. As an attack grows in size and distributes out to more bots, we have a server near the compromised machines. As the attack gets bigger, our network scales on demand."

    While there are reports that Anonymous is giving up on DDoS attacks related to the WikiLeaks case, it is unlikely that we've seen the end of them. In retaliation against the entertainment industry's antipiracy attempts, Anonymous knocked out the Web sites belonging to the Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording Industry Association of America, Hustler magazine, and the U.S. Copyright Office.

    Read more: []

  • Not going to happen (Score:5, Informative)

    by Mullen ( 14656 ) on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @04:12PM (#34551188)

    I worked there from 2000 - 2002 and, yes, my knowledge might be a little dated, I can tell you one thing about that was just as true today as it was 10 years ago; they don't mess around when it comes to server capacity and bandwidth.

    Their whole online infrastructure is built to handle the busiest hours of the busiest days of online Christmas shopping. Anonymous could never ever get enough people to make a noticeable dent in's ability to take orders.

    • by Jerrith ( 6472 )

      Funny. I *just* went to the main page, and after 30 seconds of waiting, when all the page (text and images) hadn't come up, I gave up and left.

      Someone seems to have done something to slow them down.

  • by Sigma 7 ( 266129 ) on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @04:26PM (#34551408)

    Amazon stated why on their blog [] - Wikileaks doesn't technically "own" the data, and Amazon doesn't want to be involved in distributing unauthorized material. Amazon also mentioned that there wasn't much attempt at redaction for purposes of keeping individuals safe (which is debatable). Why attack them when they aren't comfortable hosting the data?

    Also, why not extend this to attacking those who aren't willing to host the data themselves? (e.g. harass random users until they setup a mirror, or at least distribute one page of a document.)

  • by Doc Ruby ( 173196 ) on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @04:33PM (#34551512) Homepage Journal

    Assange is being called a terrorist by prominent government types, and not just in the US. He's not, even if the US or other countries have laws prohibiting publishing leaked classified material - whether or not he's bound by those laws. Terrorism is an effort to make political change by credibly threatening violence, typically by actual violence followed by explicit or implied threats to repeat it. Assange does not threaten violence, and the only change his (and Wikileaks behind him) efforts try to make is to reduce secrecy. Terrorism is arguably underwritten by violence against noncombatants, and only actual state actors (and their direct partners) are exposed in these Wikileaks releases. To call Assange a terrorist for that is to call any journalist who ever publishes a secret leaked to them a terrorist, even though Assange is not as recognizable a journalist. Indeed, it's because our journalists, especially in the US, have become nearly unrecognizable as people who would tell the public what many of these leaks reveal that Assange is not as recognizable as a journalist; if "real" journalists were busier exposing America's state secrets that Americans should know about, Assange would be more clearly one of them. But then he probably wouldn't be leaking these secrets, since others would be, and he wouldn't have an audience.

    But now Anonymous "defends" Assange by actually terrorizing corporations and some (ie. Sweden and Switzerland) governments. That's terrorism: the violence and the threat (do what you did to Assange, and you get hit again) is designed to counteract the political activity that harassed Assange, which makes it equally political action - that's terrorism. Those targets might have had it coming. But now it's easy for the people calling Assange a terrorist to get people to believe it. Many won't distinguish between Assange and Anonymous; many will believe that Anonymous is really Assange; many will be unable to distinguish between "Assange the leaker" (which he isn't; he's the publisher) and "Anonymous the terrorist", especially as many think Assange is a "computer hacker" (which he isn't).

    Geeks are becoming familiar with the "Streisand effect" when some controller tries to suppress some released info, which draws attention to it. But that's closely related to the effect where Assange's "defenders" make public perception of Assange worse, because his "allies" are what Assange's enemies call him. You're known by the company you keep, and Anonymous has now made Assange known as a terrorist.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by BitZtream ( 692029 )

      Terrorism is about causing fear to get your way.

      That doesn't imply violence, but violence is an easy way to achieve fear.

      Threatening to force someone out of their job and into financial hardship is just as much terrorism as shooting their mother, though the later is far more likely to get a response than the first, both are still terrorism even though one contains no violence.

      Its pretty easy to argue that Assange is a terrorist as he clearly is attempting to put fear into 'corrupt organizations' as he deems

  • Twitter is another one there was talk of them going for, which would have been futile. Recent data suggests that around 8% of internet users on any given day visit Twitter. Twitter is handling an average of 50000 requests/second (combined website users and API requests from programs).

    You can't DDoS a site whose normal load from its customers is orders of magnitude more than what your 500-1000 participants can generate.

    This is also why they failed to cause any serious damage to the credit card companies and

  • by Khyber ( 864651 ) <> on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @05:25PM (#34552438) Homepage Journal

    They're just not smart enough to use them.

    Should have used Amazon's EC cloud to attack Amazon itself, morons.

    Classical Trojan Horse. Why bother storming the walls when once you've snuck inside you can wreak far more havoc?

    • by Doomdark ( 136619 ) on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @09:15PM (#34555470) Homepage Journal
      Should have used Amazon's EC cloud to attack Amazon itself, morons.

      Yeah, that would be REALLY cost-effective -- pay AWS for cpu time and traffic ( itself is not within AWS realm so traffic between EC2 and is not free) in order to try to hurt the retail web site. Doing that would have been colossally stupid; and quite profitable for Amazon.

      I guess this is based on common mis-conception that itself runs on AWS systems. This is not true; ask any Amazonian and they can explain separation (which is due to historical reasons more than anything else; but there are strong security concerns too).

"The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who, in times of moral crisis, preserved their neutrality." -- Dante


text:
Business Data Connectivity Service - BDC is disabled - Event 3017 (Duet Enterprise)

Duet 1.0

Applies to: Duet Enterprise for Microsoft SharePoint and SAP

Topic Last Modified: 2010-12-27

Alert Name:   Business Data Connectivity Service - BDC service is unavailable

Event ID:   3017

The Duet Enterprise SharePoint Add-on and Duet Enterprise SAP Add-ons utilize the Microsoft Business Connectivity Services to enable communication between SharePoint Server 2010 and the SAP environment. Microsoft Business Connectivity Services could not be found on this farm.

The following symptoms might appear:

  • On the workflow site, new tasks cannot be created for an SAP workflow application and existing tasks cannot be approved.

  • This event appears in the event log:

    Event ID: 3017 Description: Business Data Connectivity Service could not be found on this farm. Business Data Connectivity Service might be disabled or incorrectly configured.

The Business Data Connectivity service application is not installed or is not started.

  1. On the Central Administration Home page, click Application Management.

  2. On the Application Management page, in the Service Applications section, click Manage service applications.

  3. On the Service Applications page, find the Business Data Connectivity Service Application, and in the Status column, verify that the service proxy status is Started.

  1. On the Central Administration Home page, in the System Settings section, click Manage servers in this farm.

  2. On the Servers in Farm page, verify that the status of the server on which the Business Data Connectivity service runs is No Action Required.


text:
EVO – Electronic Village Online offering free courses and starting Jan 14th

Have a go at one of the EVO free training sessions this year. Here is the list of sessions you can join. I’ll be in the “Becoming a webhead 2013” sessions if any of you want to join me.

But, you can also do:

teaching english through drama
digital storytelling for kids
designed for business – course design for BE
neuroscience in education
multiliteracies for social networking
making second life conversation videos

It runs from Jan 14th – Feb 17th

It’s not often you can get training for free so have a look at the link below to join a course:

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text:
ProTac 2L
  • ProTac 2L

ProTac 2L

This product () will either be drop-shipped directly from our supplier or it is on back order. We will contact you immediately if there is a delivery delay longer than 3 business days.

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text:
Wimbledon 2016: Gentlemen’s Singles Round of 16 Predictions

Predicted Winners in BOLD

This tournament will be shaken up in the round of 16 and settle into some sort of pattern when the quarterfinal round emerges.

[3] Roger Federer (SUI) v Steve Johnson (USA) – Johnson could win this match.  Federer however has to be happy with his path to the final 8.

[2] Andy Murray (GBR)[15] Nick Kyrgios (AUS) – Andy needs to make sure Kyrgios doesn’t get a lead.  If Murray can front run, I think he wins in 3 or 4 sets.  If Murray falls behind, the pressure of being the highest seed remaining

[7] Richard Gasquet (FRA) v [12] Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) – What does Tsonga have left after a long match with Isner?  Otherwise, each man has strengths that make advancing likely, but each has some weaknesses that make a loss likely.

[5] Kei Nishikori (JPN) v [9] Marin Cilic (CRO) – Kei has dominated their head-to-head. The exception was his 2014 loss to Cilic in a 3 of 5 set Grand Slam final.  I think Cilic’s form at Queen’s Club and his overall power advantage help him advance.

[6] Milos Raonic (CAN) v [11] David Goffin (BEL) – Again, I take the bigger hitter versus a smaller baseline hugger who takes the ball early.  If Milos takes care of his serve, he should be able to bully a few breaks out of Goffin and advance.

[10] Tomas Berdych (CZE) v Jiri Vesely (CZE) – Berdych typically wins the matches he is supposed to win.  If Berdych gets a break or two of serve, he should beat Vesely.

[19] Bernard Tomic (AUS) v [32] Lucas Pouille (FRA) – Tomic seems to be on the rebound. I could see Pouille winning this match, but I think he is the underdog.

[28] Sam Querrey (USA)  v Nicolas Mahut (FRA) – Querrey could have a letdown after the biggest win of his life.  Mahut has a recent win over Querrey on grass.  Mahut also won a title on grass in 2016.  I think this points toward a 4 set Mahut victory.

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text:
Lucky Dog 1 translations 04 Luchino Route 04

Part 2: Escape

Chapter 04

Restful Night

We all leave the car behind and head over to the mountain hut that Giulio’d spotted.  We also gathered edible-looking stuff like fruits and tubers.

By the time the sun’s below the horizon, we’ve already reached the hut.

We wash our hands and face with the hand-pumped well behind the house and also quench our thirst to our heart’s desire.  I feel refreshed.  Now we won’t have to worry about drinking water anymore…

Now that we’re in a better mood, we scour through the small house.

There’s no furniture, just an empty house.  Doesn’t feel like anyone’s visited in a long time.  Spider webs all over the place.

Still, there’s some broken down mini-machetes in the corner, along with some men’s clothing that stink of mold.

There’s some smoking equipment and woodchips, too, but they’re of no use to us now.

The place looks like a hut that was used on-off by a hunter, or at least someone interested in hunting.  And it looks like it’s currently off-season.

Luchino: …Is there anything else?
Giulio: There is a flashlight hidden by the wooden beam.
Gian: Whoohoo, it’s our lucky day!  It still have some juice left?

Unfortunately, we couldn’t find any food stores, but we can still make a dinner out of the boon of the mountain we’d been collecting.  We had some chocolate in the morning, too, so we’ll just have to bear with what we’ve got.

We set night shifts and decide to keep watch the entire night…

After the truly miserable entree of mountain taters, we separate and do whatever we want near the cabin until tomorrow morning rolls by.

A half-moon hangs in the night sky.  It’s light enough so I can walk without tripping, but there’s nothing to do right now other than rest up.

To catch up on lost sleep, everyone other than the current watch is sprawled out over the cabin floor.

Even without a fire, the inside of the hut isn’t cold.  There’s nothing to sleep on, but, oddly enough, it feels better than the cell.

I hear the sound of bodies stirring continuously.

I can only turn restlessly as well.  Even though sleepiness had been running rampant all day, no one’s nodding off straight away, probably because of anxiety.

The door opens quietly and the first watch, Bernardo, enters.

Bernardo: …Giulio, you’re next.

Giulio: Understood.

Has that much time passed already…?  Perhaps the thought flits across everyone else’s mind, too, because when Bernardo lies down on the floor, it’s quieter in the hut than before.

View this scene if Ivan Affection < 5 and if Bernardo Affection < 3.

Now that it’s quiet, the rustling of the trees outside is unexpectedly loud. There’s a slight breeze blowing outside.

gianescape107 Gian: …Ngh…

I lay curled on my side, still in the dark as my eyes slowly got used to the lack of light

Curious if I can hear Giulio’s footsteps, I reach out with my ears, but it’s a no-go.

I should get to sleep soon…

I can hear Luchino’s breaths steadying down into sleep from the corner on the other side of the hut. It’s not a deep sleep, though. Wonder if he’s just faking it.

Bernardo had just laid down earlier. I can’t really hear his breathing, so I can’t tell if he’s awake or asleep. I say he’s still up.

Mm, and the one all the way on the other end … ‘s been rustling about and making a ruckus for a while now…

Ivan, the doofus, keeps shifting around.

The hell is he doing? Pipe down over there! I start getting annoyed. Naturally, all the nerves in my ear concentrate on Ivan.

I hear steady stirring.

…It’s not long before I figure out the reason behind the slowly accelerating sound of something rubbing another.

Ivan: …Haa… Nn…

Give me a break…

Ivan: Gh … Haa…

There’s no mistaking that tone of someone trying to muffle their voice.

Ivan the bastard… He’s jerking off.

In the darkness, I pull my lips back and bare my teeth with displeasure before I realize it.

…I get what it’s like – both the horniness and the relief from getting out of jail. I mean, I’ve got a lot dammed up, too. I even explained all this earlier in the day. But…

…if you’re gonna do it, do it so no one notices!!

Ivan: …Ah … ngh… Gh…

I don’t want to know when others are making merry with themselves… I shut my eyes tight and stick my fingers in my ears to pass the time.

After a while, I pull my fingers out. He’s probably done by now.

…But, oh unlucky of unlucky, I do it just as he’s climaxing.

Ivan: Mgh…! Haaaghaa…!! …Haa…

Some groaning, and I hear the sound of rustling around as he finishes the job. And then I feel Ivan stop moving…

‘Finish up and get to sleep already,’ I snap and curse in my mind.

Ivan: …Ghaaa… Ghuaaaao…

…And now snoring?! Is it your hobby wreaking havoc on other’s shuteye time?!

God, you won’t punish me if I strangle him, will you?!

As I silently count the number of vile curses my mind can conjure, I drift off at some point in time.

It was an awful lullaby to send me off to sleep…

<< Back to Chapter 4 – Sexy Potato

Onto Chapter 5 – Woman Sighted? >>

The next chapter may be kind of not safe for work.

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