Someone wrote a little bit about this a few issues ago in 2600. If your 
computer was obtained under a government contract, call them up.  Tell 
them the hard drive failed but they can't inspect and you can't return 
it because it was classified. They are more than happy to send you a new 
drive, they just tell you to destroy the old one. After my last job I 
tried this, and I am using a few destroyed drives right now!

Waltman

On Friday, May 25, 2001, at 01:54 PM, Spuds wrote:

> Don't EVEN get me started on Dell's parts distribution... I had a 
> failing HD
> on my hands in a Dell, and because Dell's 'analysis' software didn't 
> detect
> any problems, they wouldn't send me a new one...
>
> After talking to several levels of management, they sent a new drive...
>
> ...refurbished...
>
> ...on a warrantied machine...
>
> ..buncha bull if you ask me.
>
> Spuds
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-h2k2@2600.com [mailto:owner-h2k2@2600.com]On Behalf Of Jason
> Byrons
> Sent: Friday, May 25, 2001 12:18 PM
> To: h2k2@2600.com
> Subject: [h2k2] Extended Social Engineering Panal
>
>
> My one meger request is that, this year, H2K2 does an extended social
> engineering panal.  I've never had a chance to attend any of the
> previous HOPEs, being in Texas and all, but I remember being in college
> (before I dropped out) and listening to the Beyond HOPE Social
> Engineering panal over and over again and laughing my ass off every
> time.  But H2K's SE panal seemed to lack a lot of that.  There was only
> one phone call made, and the rest of the time was Kevin Mitnick
> speaking, which is barely audible on the downloadable file.  While it
> was great to be able to have Kevin call in, the panal kinda turned into
> a "Kevin Mitnick" panal rather than an SE panal.
>
> The reason I'm so up about this is that I've been working on a
> documentary about social engineering for about 3 years now (still in the
> research and planning stages).  It's dual purpose is to educate people
> about common scams that social engineers use to help prepair them, and
> to educate people about how to get free shit.  I figured it'd make a
> nice movie I could get a grant for, depending on how well I can bullshit
> in my application letter.
>
> Anyway, THREE HOUR SOCIAL ENGINEERING PANAL!!  Social engineering
> contest!!  Whoever can get Dell to admit they make shitty computer gets
> a Dimension Desktop and gets 5 minutes alone with that kid in the
> commercials and a baseball bat!!  Damn, I've only been a sell-out to
> Dell tech support for 2 weeks now and I'm already bashing the company!
> (BTW Emmanuel, has anyone written an article on Dell's internal
> policies, esp about parts distrobution?  There's some juicy stuff in
> there...)
>
> Jason Byrons
> The Abstruse One
>