Hacker News Reader

Comment by GonzoBytes | Hacker News Reader

IMHO this is just a newish type of marketing campaign by Comcast / NBC / tv.USA. Raising the level of geek creds is not unlike Big Bang Theory, but without the laugh tracks. It's very likely a new type of fandometric tracking utility is being honed by Comcast to engage and entertain the faithful. Why not, huh?

btw, having the mailware deliverable ia that auto-exec flash exe is really old school, no? I keep seeing this in plots of procedural crime shows where digital savvy techie or detective shoves a newly discovered victim usb into their working computers. Who does that?

View on HN

>btw, having the mailware deliverable ia that auto-exec flash exe is really old school, no? I keep seeing this in plots of procedural crime shows where digital savvy techie or detective shoves a newly discovered victim usb into their working computers. Who does that?

This is still a very real exposure and is used by penetration testers all the time. There are several ways to disable USB autorun across a domain, but there are definitely still a lot of big companies that don't prevent it.

There are also USB attacks that don't require autorun. See, for example: https://www.blackhat.com/us-14/briefings.html#badusb-on-acce...

if i wasn't running windows, linux or osx on my working computer, i probably wouldn't mind shoving a usb drive into it. security through obscurity.

> Raising the level of geek creds is not unlike Big Bang Theory

IMO, Big Bang Theory is effectively "nerd blackface". It doesn't treat its characters as particularly intelligent - they often lack empathy, common sense, etc. The laughs are frequently at their expense and I find it highly uncomfortable to watch.

Mr. Robot is far more respectful to its complex protagonists.

It isn't just effectively "nerd blackface". It is "nerd blackface". Every time one of my well meaning friends asks why I don't like Big Bang Theory I just direct them to a blog post [0] I came across a while ago that does a far better job explaining my feelings than I could. The only thing that differentiates me from the author of that post is that it took far less time watching the show for me to feel incredibly insulted and put down in a way I hadn't been since I was in middle school.

The tl;dr:

> And all this wouldn’t really matter if not for the fact that The Big Bang Theory targets nerds as part of its fan base. We’re used to being ridiculed on TV but it’s usually by shows which aren’t aimed at us. The Big Bang Theory goes to Comic-Con, it sells its merchandise at Forbidden Planet. The fact that it sells merchandise at all says that wants part of a cult nerd following. The Big Bang Theory is the worst kind of bully – the one that pretends to be your friend and then takes the piss out of you behind your back. It will take your viewership, it will take your money and it will laugh in your face as it systematically puts you down.

[0]: http://butmyopinionisright.tumblr.com/post/31079561065/the-p...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com