Hacker, Crackers and Pirates, oh my

Last week Funimation (basically the Microsoft of US anime distribution), announced that the newest episodes of One Piece and Phantom got "leaked" from their site when a "hacker" broke into the server and downloaded them before they were even broadcast on TV in Japan (lol).

Now I'm not going to say I support what this (these?) "hacker(s)" did, but when I read an article and it says "A group discovered a copy of the Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~ anime's episode 10 on a publicly accessible server of the anime distributor Funimation," I just have to *facepalm*. A publicly accessible server, wow great job, why not just put a big ass flash banner with a direct link right to the file on your homepage while your at it. Seriously, it's computer security 101, DON'T PUT SHIT ONLINE YOU DON'T WANT STOLEN. It's like hosting a website and having a "private" folder on the server that you use to store your credit card number on, then when someone steals it and buy a bunch of shit you get all pissed that they "hacked" you. Just because something isn't directly linked on your site DOES NOT mean it's not accessible at all, it just means someone has to work a little bit to find it.

It's honestly not that hard to find "private" folders, you can use Google to find tons of "hidden" files, folders, webpages, etc. and it doesn't require any talent at all. Really, I'm about as non-hacker as they come, but even I've found private pages on peoples personal and buisness websites, it's REALLY simple (use keywords like "intitle:" and "site:" in your searches, and you can find all sort of things).

Now I suppose I could be misreading this, it's possible that this person(s) actually did some "hacking", and actually manipulate things to gain access to the file, but from the sounds of it it was nothing more than a little bit of URL guessing. No, they shouldn't have taken what they found and spread it all over the place. But this is how the internet works, and it's how most people on the internet act. Let's say I'm messing around on Myspace for instance (not that I would cause it sucks, but anyway), and I run across some girls "private" picture folder with a bunch of naked pics in it. You'd be god damn right I'm gonna link that shit to my friends, and they'll probably link it to their's and so on. Is it "right" no, I should just ignore it, or if I'm feeling extra nice, send her an e-mail saying her "private" photos aren't very private.

To me this all sounds like a case of "no one gonna find this here." on the part of Funimation, and they're blaming their lack of security on a "hacker" and his "leet skillz", instead of following the first rule of internet security, by not putting things you don't want stolen online in the first place.

GM will never learn...

So GM (General Motors), finally filed for bankruptcy a few days ago. I'm sure it honestly came as a suprise to no one, being that last year they claimed like a $30B+ loss (back when they were asking for some "bail out" money), and didn't really seem to change much about how the company worked or designed cars. Something American car companies haven't figured out yet (Chrysler going bankrupt a few weeks back and now GM as proof), that they don't know how to design cars people want. Here, lets break some things down so we can all get a good understanding of whats going on.

Say I'm a college student looking for a cheap car that gets good mileage so I can drive to work and school and home (assuming they don't live at home). I'll look at GM's line up, picking the cheapest thing I can (chevy's aveo5 LS) MSRP of ~12k that's decent (assuming you can find a base model that hasn't been "optioned up" at a dealership). Fuel milage 27 city/ 34 highway well that's ok, but really it's kinda low for a 4cyl car with 106HP. Weight: 2568(MT) 2557(AT), that's pretty heavy for a small econo car, and it also explains where all the gas milage went. You can't win, your power to weight ratio is 24:1, even with the manual it's probably a dog. Is acceleration a big deal? No, BUT, if someone gets in a car that takes a long time to get up to highway speed they're going to press on the gas harder, and thus get worse milage than a car that doesn't take as long.

Ok so lets say I think 27/34 isn't good enough milage, so lets look for what gets better milage in GM's line up...Impala 19/29(LS/LT), 17/27(2LT/LTZ), 16/24(SS) nope...Malibu 22/30 (LS/LT1) 22/33 (LT2/LTZ) nope...*sigh*...Malibu Hybrid 26/34 WOW REALLY a 4door sedan HYBRID that gets worse milage than your other 4 door sedan, awesome sign me up. On top of that, it's MSRP is $25,555, so even if you play the bargaining game and get a really good deal (like $21,500 and a blowjob from the salesman's wife) your still paying almost double the price for a hybrid car that gets worse milage than the standard gas version of another sedan in the line up.

To be fair there is 1 car in the line up that gets better (highway) milage, the cobalt with 25/35 (combined: 29mpg) (Base,LS,LT1, coupe or sedan) MSRP of $14,500-16,700 depending on the model you get. Yet again we run into the GM weight problem with the coupe (base) at almost 3000lb, and the sedan a fat assed 3200lb. Luckily it has that 155HP 2.2L engine to haul it's monsterous ass around or it'd be an even bigger dog than the Aveo. So here's the basic problem (yea, I realized it took me about 3 paragraphs too long to get to it :P), GM can't make a lightweight car, and because of that their gas milage will ALWAYS suck. It's simple physics and something Japanese, and European companies figured out long ago. If your car doesn't weigh very much, you don't need a big HP engine to push it down the road, and it still performs well and gets excellent MPG.

There's a reason why something like my Toyota Yaris consistantly gets 40+MPG (rated at 29/36 combined:32), and that's because it weighs 2295lb in stock form, it has almost a 300lb advantage on the Aveo (but has the same 106HP), and a 700-900lb advantage on the Cobalt.

If GM would just realize that a lot of people out there are just looking for basic transport and make a low weight/low power/high MPG car to meet that demand, they'd at least be making one step in the right direction. Yet the best they came up with so far is the Volt, another hybrid that should actually get good milage (somewhere around 50MPG if I remember right), but it's projected cost is ~$45,000. Who the fuck is going to buy that? Business people, or rich neo-hippies who want to "go green", not the people who could actually use a car that saved them some gas money.

Sources:
Yahoo autos (Chevy)
Yahoo Autos (Yaris specs)