3 ms·

Public shaming? Are you joking? The manufacturers advertise these capabilities openly! There are hundreds of them, maybe thousands, and they are in intense comp

Public shaming? Are you joking? The manufacturers advertise these capabilities openly! There are hundreds of them, maybe thousands, and they are in intense competition for your business. Contact a few USB stick vendors on Alibaba and see for yourself.

TeMPOraL 12y ago
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. Hijacking keyboard with something that pretends to be a pendrive is distasteful in my book.
- pjlegato 12y ago
  I personally agree that it is distasteful. I didn't say it was tasteful. I was pointing out that your 'public shaming' suggestion would be totally ineffective as a means of addressing the problem, since the people who do these things obviously don't conform themselves to your moral schema in which suffering the reprobation of society is an undesirable outcome. They are not doing this secretly, consumed by fear and guilt, manufacturing these devices in the backroom of some disreputable bar in the nasty part of town and then furtively selling them from a van in a back alley, living in constant dread of exposure. They do this quite openly. They manufacture these things in many of the same boring factories that make the reputable brands. If you ask them, they'll cheerfully mail you some free glossy promotional material detailing fake USB drives and many other nefarious electronic things that they'll sell to anyone with a credit card, and your order will be delivered to your doorstep quite openly via FedEx or DHL. They don't care (at all, on any level) what we or anyone else think about the moral propriety of their operation, surprising though that fact may be. Indeed, a public shaming campaign would benefit them greatly as free advertising, by bringing their very existence to the attention of many new customers.
  - TeMPOraL 12y ago
    You're right, and I agree with what you wrote. The apparent disagreement might come from me not expressing myself clearly enough. I didn't mean to shame manufacturers. They have plausible deniability anyway - "it's a keyboard emulator that looks like a pendrive!". I think that companies that buy these devices and use them for marketing on trade shows should be shamed and blamed.
- PakG1 12y ago
  I believe the comment was explaining why public shaming would be a moot effort, not that the practice was justifiable.

TeMPOraL 12y ago

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. Hijacking keyboard with something that pretends to be a pendrive is distasteful in my book.

pjlegato 12y ago
I personally agree that it is distasteful. I didn't say it was tasteful. I was pointing out that your 'public shaming' suggestion would be totally ineffective as a means of addressing the problem, since the people who do these things obviously don't conform themselves to your moral schema in which suffering the reprobation of society is an undesirable outcome. They are not doing this secretly, consumed by fear and guilt, manufacturing these devices in the backroom of some disreputable bar in the nasty part of town and then furtively selling them from a van in a back alley, living in constant dread of exposure. They do this quite openly. They manufacture these things in many of the same boring factories that make the reputable brands. If you ask them, they'll cheerfully mail you some free glossy promotional material detailing fake USB drives and many other nefarious electronic things that they'll sell to anyone with a credit card, and your order will be delivered to your doorstep quite openly via FedEx or DHL. They don't care (at all, on any level) what we or anyone else think about the moral propriety of their operation, surprising though that fact may be. Indeed, a public shaming campaign would benefit them greatly as free advertising, by bringing their very existence to the attention of many new customers.
- TeMPOraL 12y ago
  You're right, and I agree with what you wrote. The apparent disagreement might come from me not expressing myself clearly enough. I didn't mean to shame manufacturers. They have plausible deniability anyway - "it's a keyboard emulator that looks like a pendrive!". I think that companies that buy these devices and use them for marketing on trade shows should be shamed and blamed.
PakG1 12y ago
I believe the comment was explaining why public shaming would be a moot effort, not that the practice was justifiable.