Fella faked Cisco, Microsoft gear death – then sold replacement kit for millions, say Feds A US bloke allegedly defrauded Cisco and Microsoft by faking problems with computing and networking gear he didn't own to trick the tech giants into sending him replacements. The suspected crook then sold the gear online and through New Jersey-based resellers for millions of dollars, prosecutors claim. Justin David May, 28, …
"He faces a theoretical maximum sentence of 1,029 years in prison [etc.]"
And I have a lottery ticket that could theoretically be worth tens of millions of dollars. It can be yours for $20. Law enforcement likes to total up the potential sentences of all the costs, somewhat in the same way that it likes to report the street value of seized contraband without going on to consider distribution costs. By the time his attorney has worked out the plea bargain with the Feds, the likely time behind bars will be in the lower single digits.
I'm assuming Jabba the Hutt was in charge of sentencing:
"You will therefore be taken into the Dune Sea and cast into The Pit of Carkoon, the nesting place of the all power Sarlacc. In his belly you will find a new definition of pain and suffering as you are slowly digested over a thousand years."
Let me fix that for you:
I'm assuming Jabba the Hutt was in charge of sentencing:
"You will therefore be taken into the CCNA Sea and cast into The Pit of CCIE, the nesting place of the all power UCS. In his belly you will find a new definition of pain and suffering as you are slowly digested over a thousand years."
Though probably we should replace UCS with ASR9k if we REALLY want to make it THAT slow and painful.
To be truly pedantic about such things, you get 0 years (rounded down, as set by the rules of conversion from floating point to integral types) until the midnight before first anniversary of whatever event you are counting from. So, 1023 years would be either forever (if the counter does not have enough bits and hence keeps rolling over at some smaller value, like 255 + 1) or 1024 years less some arbitrary, usually small, quantum of time.
Common sense tells that you issue new kit only after you have received the broken/defective/BOFH'd piece of kit...
This kind of shenanigans will make some vendor lock their processes down, making it more difficult for honest IT types to make a living, especially with a client (and large network base) down due to a borked server/switch/whatever which need to be exchanged first for a replacement before everything can be fixed, instead of getting a replacement first, getting the client up and running, and then sending the borked POS kit back to the supplier....
Normally you would also need your customer support contract details as well as system serial numbers to RMA kit.
Also, SLA's are often written to expedite kit replacement and the broken stuff to be sent back is taken on trust. Nothing wrong with that process, but the verification of the customer is *definitely* broken.
With kit of the prices involved I'd be expecting an engineer to deliver the replacement and complete the swap out.
In reality the cost of the kit is irrelevant as support contracts cost money on top, so if you've paid for 'engineer delivered' then that's what you'll get, regardless of how much you paid for the equipment itself.
You might also see $5000 as a list price for a cisco router or switch, but depending on who is doing the buying (and how much you are buying) you can probably get up to 65% discount (on the hardware - not so much on the support contracts ;) ).
I once tried to convince a small firm that it would be much cheaper to buy their networking kit off the grey-market and buy double what they needed. That way they can have a fully configured device on standby should one of the primaries fail. This would be a)much cheaper and b)much quicker.
Needless to say they didn't go down that route and spent hundreds of thousands on support contracts they would hardly ever use. Oh well :)
I once tried to convince a small firm that it would be much cheaper to buy their networking kit off the grey-market and buy double what they needed. That way they can have a fully configured device on standby should one of the primaries fail. This would be a)much cheaper and b)much quicker.
I've seen this done, and yes, it works. Unless you need absolutely top-shelf current gen kit, eBay can be your preferred channel partner. Just keep a fully configured spare on the shelf.
Obviously this only works if you have enough in-house talent to fix any issue less severe than a hardware failure. Some companies prefer to hire total noobs who only know how to call TAC when they forget the location of the power switch.
"I once tried to convince a small firm that it would be much cheaper to buy their networking kit off the grey-market and buy double what they needed. That way they can have a fully configured device on standby should one of the primaries fail. This would be a)much cheaper and b)much quicker."
We actually do that here. When we buy some major new piece of network gear, we usually get at least a year of warranty with it. By the time we purchase it, it's usually been out for a year or more. So, by the time the warranty is out, I can find a used one on ebay for less than the cost of an extended service contract. When the used one gets here, I load the current config image for the device it's meant to replace. Then, I have a drop-in replacement! Much easier than having to overnight a new unit with systems down.
I have found that even with supposed same day support contracts, the techs usually have to overnight in a part anyway. So much for same day support. If you question it, they point out that the contract only promises that a tech will be on site the same day.
The best part is that I usually get to take home the ebay purchased item once it's determined that we don't need a spare anymore.
The rationale is to make you pay for each crime you commit. e.g., you steal a $10,000 product, you get 10 years. you do it two separate times, you get 20 years; etc.
If you are only charged for one crime, and you get off on a technicality, they would have to convict you for the second crime before you were jailed. By combining them all into one trial, you would have to find something wrong with each conviction to avoid jail. In the above case, if your appeal voided the first crime, you would still be sitting in jail for ten years for the second conviction since each conviction gets its own sentence. Saves us a lot of trouble since few people found guilty in cases like this find it worthwhile to appeal.
It's kind of like MSRP or list price on a high end router... it's a start for negotiations, nobody actually pays that price/serves that sentence.
There's also the magic phrase "sentences to be served concurrently." So the crimes may add up to 100 years in jail, but they are served "at the same time" so you're really out in 10, less for good behavior.
That's media hype el reg bull shit. What happens this you get charged with 10 counts of a crime. Now the punishment is is 10 years for the crime. What media whore sits do is says well 10 years for each count so that means he could do a 100 years. No He will be convicted on on all counts and do the time currently. If you notice towards the bottom el reg said it's most likely he will do 10-14. Now for crimes like murder and rape the point of giving 120 years so the do life with out the chance of parole
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