48 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011

Is That My Dead Disk Drive Mr Apple Store Person?Our thanks to the Cult for Mac newswire

for reporting on the curious incident of a

Mac owner who, after picking up a repaired

machine from his local Apple Store in

Stamford, Connecticut, also picked up what

he thought was his dead hard drive lying

next to the machine.

After plugging in the drive back at home,

hoping to salvage some of his old files, he

discovered a complete Apple Retail Store

server ‘Time Machine’ backup disk full of

confidential files, including “confidential

docs, internal manuals, Apple’s sales

technics, an Apple store work checklist,

products layout, time schedules, pictures

and videos of Apple corporate activities

that only Apple employees can see, videos

of store meetings, business structure and

much much much more.”

Now it gets darker, as the newswire says

the man tried to flog the hard drive to Cult

of Mac staff. Cult of Mac then turned down

his kind offer, advising the Mac owner to

return the drive to Apple.

Well, it was accidental theft, after all.

“We strongly advised him to return the

hard drive to Apple, and even offered to

help facilitate the safe return of the disk

if he was nervous about the exchange.

We have not heard from him since”, the

newswire noted...

http://bit.ly/qTD5N4

Hacker Pinches Online Chocolate Recipe – And a Lot MoreOur thanks to The Register for reporting

on how the Hershey Company had its

website broken into and a baking recipe

stolen. The Hershey Company has warned

customers that their names, email

addresses, postal addresses, birthdates

and online passwords may have been

compromised.

Slack spac

e We’re wondering what on earth the

hacker would do with the password of a

Hershey website user. Order free samples

perhaps?

Hershey makes all sorts of lovely

chocolate bars and such, including the

amazing Reese’s peanut butter cup –

which comes in packs of three for those

chocolust moments.

In its email, Hershey said: “We have

no indication that any of this consumer

information was compromised. However,

given the nature of this incident, we are

acting out of an abundance of caution

and informing you that this server was

accessed. We are also outlining some

steps to help you ensure your security

whenever you use the internet and email.”

So there you have it – Willy Wonka, eat

your heart out...

http://bit.ly/qGn67C

Hungarian Tourist Apologizes for Twin Towers HoaxA Hungarian jokester who used Adobe

Photoshop to add a picture of a plane about

to crash into the building – to a tourist snap

of himself on the top deck of New York’s

Twin Towers – has publicly apologized after

the picture went viral again.

As the Croatian Times said, the snap

of Peter Guzli shows him standing on

the observation deck of the World Trade

Center and below him a jet plane can be

seen flying toward the building.

Because of its proximity and low

altitude, the paper notes that it seems

certain to collide with the tower. The

picture was time-tagged as taken a few

seconds before the attacks on the World

Trade Center back in 2001.

It now seems that Guzli, an IT worker,

falsified the date on the picture and then

sent the email to his friends, spoofing the

sender’s email to make it look as though it

came from the Hungarian chief of police,

with a request for identification.

Guzli, despite being an idiot, is now

famous. His picture again went viral this

September on the 10th anniversary of the

tragic Twin Towers attack, and his image

– known as the accidental tourist – has

been photo-shopped onto other disaster

pictures, such as the sinking of the Titanic,

the destruction of the White House in the

movie Independence Day, and as the bus

driver in the movie Speed.

No, we’re not making this up...

http://bit.ly/pP974a

The Not-so-Smart Smartphone Thief Photographs HimselfWhat don’t you do if you’ve nicked

someone’s smartphone? Take a picture

of yourself, that’s what, especially when

the smartphone is running a PhotoBucket

picture-sharing application.

According to the IDG newswire, Korey

Heess overlooked this when he was taking

a picture of himself, only to find out later

that police were able to identify him from

the PhotoBucket snap.

Seems like the horrible Mr Heess had

been snatching purses at local stores

in Salinas, California, and one of his

victims was amazed to see a picture of a

young man – with goatee and earrings –

appearing on her PhotoBucket account.

Heess had apparently snapped himself

while looking into the mirror using the

smartphone. Not only a stupid thief, but

also a narcissist, it seems.

The newswire quotes Commander

Terry Gerhardstein of the Salinas Police

Department as saying that the purse

owner said she looked at PhotoBucket,

told him that she never took the photo,

and that the pic is of the person that stole

her mobile phone.

Lisa Dilg, a PhotoBucket spokeswoman,

said she had never seen anything like the

case. “We thought it was pretty funny”,

she told the newswire.

http://bit.ly/nRxLaZ

Anyone who wants to share their grumbles, groans,

tip-offs and gossip with the author of Slack Space

should contact slackspace@elsevier.com.

Two is nice, but three is even better