How to play sudoku - all about Sudoku
Sudoku is a number placement puzzle, also known as Number Place in the United States. The name is Japanese; the kanji it is written with (??) imply "multiple isolations". The puzzle seems to have first been published in the U.S. (likely by Dell, which uses the Number Place name) before being noticed and then popularised in Japan by Nikoli, which created the Sudoku name. Wayne Gould of Hong Kong discovered the puzzle in Japan and was instrumental in The Times launching it in November 2004; it became an instant success in the United Kingdom, and has now been adopted by three other national newspapers in the UK. Bringing the process full-circle, Kappa reprints Nikoli Sudoku in GAMES Magazine under the name Squared Away. It is also often included in puzzle anthologies, such as The Giant 1001 Puzzle Book (under the title Nine Numbers).
The puzzle is played on a grid, most frequently a 9x9 grid made up of 3x3 subgrids - "regions" - and starting with various numbers in the range of 1 through 9 given in some cells - "givens". The goal is to fill in the empty cells, one number in each, so that every column, row, and region each contains the numbers 1 through 9 once. Therefore, each number in the solution is unique - or alone - in each of three "directions", hence "multiple isolations". The attraction of the puzzle is that the completion rules are so simple, yet the overall task can be difficult. Each puzzle can be ranked in terms of difficulty depending upon how many numbers are given and how easy it is to logically determine subsequent numbers once the puzzle has been started.
The description "number place" is somewhat misleading as there is nothing unique about the choice of numbers: the puzzle would still work if each specific number were to be substituted by another specific number (like swapping all the 8s and 4s, etc.) or to be replaced by an arbitrary non-numerical image. Indeed, Penny Press uses letters in their version called Scramblets.
|
How to protect yourself from Identity Theft:
Criminals commit identity theft by stealing your personal information. This is often done by taking documents from your rubbish or by making contact with you and pretending to be from a legitimate organisation.
Identity theft can result in fraud affecting your personal financial circumstances, as well as costing government and financial services millions of pounds a year. If your identity is stolen, you may have difficulty getting loans, credit cards or a mortgage until the matter is sorted out. Keep your personal information secure
Your identity and personal information are valuable assets. Keep them safe and secure by:
* regularly obtaining a copy of your personal credit file from one of the three credit reference agencies to see which financial organisations have accessed your details. It is particularly helpful to check your personal credit file 2-3 months after you have moved house.
* being extra careful if you live in a property where other people could have access to your mail. In some cases a bank or credit card company could arrange for you to collect valuable items such as new plastic cards or cheque books from a local branch.
* contacting the Royal Mail Customer Enquiry Line on 08457 740 740 if you suspect your mail is being stolen. Check whether a mail redirection order has been made in your name without your knowledge.
* telling your bank, card issuer and all other organisations that you deal with immediately if you move house. Ask the Royal Mail to redirect any mail from your old address to your new one for at least a year.
*
considering using the Mailing Preference Service to limit the amount of unwanted mail you receive.
credit cards:
f your plastic cards are lost or stolen, cancel them immediately. Keep a note of the emergency numbers you should call
When giving your card details or personal information over the phone, Internet or in a shop, make sure other people cannot hear or see your personal information.
Never carry documents or plastic cards unnecessarily. When not in use keep them in a safe place.
Keep your documents safe
Keep your personal documents in a safe place, preferably in a lockable drawer or cabinet at home. Consider storing valuable financial documents such as share certificates with your bank.
If your passport or driving licence has been lost or stolen contact the issuing organisation immediately.
Don't throw away entire bills, receipts, credit-or debit-card slips, bank statements or even unwanted post in your name. Destroy unwanted documents, preferably by using a shredder.
Check statements as soon as they arrive. If any unfamiliar transactions are listed, contact the company concerned immediately.
eep your passwords and PINs safe
Never give personal or account details to anyone who contacts you unexpectedly. Be suspicious even if they claim to be from your bank or the police. Ask for their phone number, check it is genuine and, if so, call them back. Be aware that a bank will never ask for your PIN or for a whole security number or password. Keep them secure.
Don't use the same password for more than one account and never use banking passwords for any other websites. Using different passwords increases security and makes it less likely that someone could access any other accounts.
Keep your passwords safe and never record or store them in a manner which leaves them open to theft, such as in your purse or wallet.
Companies and their directors can also fall victim to identity fraud. Criminals can seek to commit corporate identity fraud in a variety of different ways, including by fraudulently changing a company's registered details at Companies House. Companies House has a 3 point plan to help companies protect against corporate identity fraud and safeguard the personal information of their directors. This involves filing information online (WebFiling), signing up to submitting all papers online (PROOF), and subscribing to an alert system that notifies companies when changes to their details are made (Monitor). More information about these services and combating corporate identity fraud can be found at www.companieshouse.gov.uk.
Further information for businesses about avoiding scams, including identity theft, can be found at www.businesslink.gov.uk under the "IT and e-commerce" section.
Protecting the identity of deceased family members
Criminals sometimes use the identities of deceased persons to commit fraud, which can be very distressing for those close to the deceased. One way of reducing the chances of this happening is to register with services that remove the deceased's details from mailing lists.
|
n most cases, a criminal needs to obtain personally identifiable information or documents about an individual in order to impersonate them. They may do this by:
* Stealing mail or rummaging through rubbish containing personal information (dumpster diving)
* Retrieving information from redundant equipment, like computer servers that have been disposed of carelessly, e.g. at public dump sites, given away without proper sanitizing etc.
* Researching about the victim in government registers, internet search engines, or public records search services.
* Stealing payment or identification cards, either by pickpocketing or surreptitiously by skimming through a compromised card reader
* Remotely reading information from an RFID chip on a smart card, RFID-enabled credit card, or passport
* Eavesdropping on public transactions to obtain personal data (shoulder surfing)
* Stealing personal information from computers and computer databases (Trojan horses, hacking and Zero day attacks)
* Data breach that results in the public (i.e. posted on the internet) or easily-obtainable (i.e. printed on a mailing label) display of sensitive information such as a Social Security number or credit card number.
* Advertising bogus job offers (either full-time or work from home based) to which the victims will reply with their full name, address, curriculum vitae, telephone numbers, and banking details
* Infiltration of organizations that store large amounts of personal information
* Impersonating a trusted company/institution/organization in an electronic communication to promote revealing of personal information (phishing)
* Obtaining castings of fingers for falsifying fingerprint identification.
* Browsing social network (MySpace, Facebook, Bebo etc) sites, online for personal details that have been posted by users
* Changing your address thereby diverting billing statements to another location to either get current legitimate account info or to delay discovery of fraudulent accounts.
* Using false pretenses to trick a business (usually through a customer service representative) into disclosing customer information (pretexting)
* Use of 'contactless' credit card skimming technology to acquire data recorded on special RFID enabled cards
* Stealing checks to acquire banking information, including account numbers and bank routing numbers [12]
|
|
As for theft vs fraud: I believe when the term was coined, it really was meant to evoke a criminal taking an identify from a victim such that the victim no longer had it. It's the idea that you can't use your own name anymore because the reputation associated with that name is now that of a whole different person -- one who doesn't pay his bills, no less. I mention that in my rewrite.
Unfortunately, the term is widely used now to mean something as simple as using someone else's credit card number. That hardly justifies the wording "identity theft." Is it identity theft if someone uses my laundry room key? If he drives my car? But I left existing paragraphs that talk about these misuses of the term.
Incidentally, I don't believe there is a legal definition because it isn't a crime per se anywhere. Taking confidential information is often a crime; defrauding people is a crime. Laws have been written to combat identity theft, but they aim at more specific behaviors.
|
|
Identity theft occurs when someone wrongfully acquires or uses another person's personal data, typically for their own financial gain
|
|
How to Create a Great Blog. AKA How to make a popular Blog. A successful blog must be interesting and unique. Don't just write words - make a point. Would you find it interesting in a magazine page?
|
How to use Wordpress. Wordpress made Easy!
WordPress is a blog publishing system written in PHP and backed by a MySQL database. WordPress is the official successor of b2\cafelog, developed by Michel Valdrighi. The name WordPress was suggested by Christine Selleck, a friend of lead developer Matt Mullenweg.b2\cafelog, more commonly known as simply b2 or cafelog was the precursor to WordPress. b2\cafelog was estimated to have been employed on approximately 2000 blogs as of May 2003. It was also written in PHP for use with MySQL by Michel Valdrighi, who is now a contributing developer to WordPress. Though WordPress is the official successor, another project, b2evolution, is also in active development.
WordPress first appeared in 2003 as a joint effort between Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little to create a fork of b2.[2]
In 2004 the licensing terms for the competing Movable Type package was changed by Six Apart, and many of its users migrated to WordPress - causing a marked, and continuing, growth in WordPress's popularity. WordPress releases are named after well known jazz musicians. WordPress 1.0 was codenamed Mingus (after Charles Mingus).
WordPress 1.5 was released mid-February 2005 and codenamed Strayhorn after Billy Strayhorn. It added a range of new vital features. One such is being able to manage static pages. This allows content pages to be created and managed outside the normal blog chronology and has been the first step away from being simple blog management software to becoming a full content management system. Another is the new template/theme system, which allows users to easily activate and deactivate "skins" for their sites. WordPress was also equipped with a new default template (codenamed Kubrick after the late Stanley Kubrick[4]) designed by Michael Heilemann.
WordPress 2.0 was released in December 2005 and codenamed Duke after jazz pianist and composer Duke Ellington. This version added rich editing, better administration tools, image uploading, faster posting, an improved import system, and completely overhauled the back end. WordPress 2.0 also offered various improvements to plugin developers.[5]
On 22 January 2007, another major upgrade, WordPress 2.1, codenamed Ella after jazz vocalist Ella Fitzgerald, was released. In addition to correcting security issues, version 2.1 featured a redesigned interface and enhanced editing tools (including integrated spell check and auto save), improved content management options, and a variety of code and database optimizations.
WordPress 2.2, codenamed Getz after tenor saxophonist Stan Getz, was released on 16 May 2007. Version 2.2 featured widget support for templates, updated Atom feed support, and speed optimizations.[6] Wordpress 2.2 was initially slated to have a revised taxonomy system for categories, as well as tags, but a proposed revision led to the feature being held back from release.n January 2007, many high profile Search engine optimization (SEO) blogs, as well as many low-profile commercial blogs featuring Adsense were targeted and attacked with a WordPress exploit.[8]
A separate vulnerability on one of the project site's web servers allowed an attacker to introduce exploitable code in the form of a back door to some downloads of WordPress 2.1.1. The 2.1.2 release addressed this issue; an advisory released at the time advised all users to upgrade immediately.[9]
In May 2007, a study revealed that 98% of WordPress blogs being run are exploitable.[10]
In a June 2007 interview, Stefen Esser, the founder of the PHP Security Response Team, spoke critically of WordPress's security track record, citing problems with the application's architecture that make it unnecessarily difficult to write code that is secure against SQL injection vulnerabilities, as well as other problems. WordPress supports one weblog per installation, though multiple concurrent copies may be run from different directories if configured to use separate database tables.
WordPress MU is a fork of WordPress created to allow simultaneous blogs to exist within one installation. Wordpress MU makes it possible for any one with a website to host their own blogging community, control and moderate all the blogs from a single dashboard. Notable communities that use MU are WordPress.com and Harvard University.
|
