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You don't actually have a clue do you? And why did you switch to AC? Did you realise you were probably being clueless?

Offtopic, and I know I'll be modded down as fast as possible, but for anyone who hasn't heard, Apple Inc. have ripped off another developer. Not content with ripping off Watson, they've now stolen the features for another product without proper recompense and included it in their "Tiger" OS. Read the story here.

You know, I remember when Apple used to come up with their own GUI innovations. At least Microsoft tends to buy the companies whose technology it wants, Apple is fast becoming worse even thean them. A hideous creature behind a smiling mask, indeed.

Bad karma from mixing with Apple fanboys. Please, set aside your zealotry and mod fairly for once.

In a system where everyone pays their own legal fees, smaller parties are more likely to avoid lawsuits against bigger parties, because chances are the bigger party will continue the suit until the smaller one goes bankrupt.

You're assuming an open-and-shut case. For open-and-shut cases, this is probably true. But most cases are not open-and-shut. Loser-pays tends to discourage lawsuits whose favorable outcomes are not assured - i.e. most of them. Which I'll grant you includes most frivolous lawsuits, but some legitimate ones as well.

Case in point: guitar manufacturer Ernie Ball. When you get hit with a software EULA violation, you have to pay the SPA's legal fees if you fight it and lose. As Sterling Ball says in the linked interview, no one wants to fight it - everyone settles.

In terms of statistics, just compare the total number of lawsuits in the US and Europe. We have more suits of every kind, including more David vs. Goliath ones. Whether that's worth the price of ubiquitous litigation is open to question, but it is the case.

Unlike telephone companies, which simply created new area codes to cope with a surge in households, cell phones and fax machines, ...

Simply? Donchya just love it when a complex problem can be dismissed with that simp... er, ... single word? We're running out of area codes too.

Then there's large metro areas that have switched to 10 or even 11 digit dialing. Say you move to such a place and you take your phone with with you -- you know, the one with all your those numbers programmed into it by your wife -- and you need to add the area codes to all of them. Going the other way, some (many? most?) areas that only use 7 digit dialing and you gotta remove the area codes.

No big deal you say? Chances are it's her phone and she lost the manual. Or maybe it just seems to always happen that way.

Then there's area code splits. I'd hate to be responsible for any sizable contact database when that happens.

Good thing that phone numbers can be dealt with so simply.

:^j

OK, show of hands: how many of you know two or more VINs? Good. Now all you smart asses put your hands down. Ah. I see one hand up in ... I think that's Montana ... and there's three in North Carolina. OK, hands down.

Now, how many of you know three or more phone numbers?

[earth's orbit shifts slightly]

Thank you.

As was mentioned in this news.com article, Dell is unlikely to get many takers. With a variety of iPods from the mini to the 40GB, with music purchased from iTMS and with all of their songs in iTunes, not many people would probably be willing to put in the effort to transition to the DJ15. Not to mention the size and esthetic differences between the offerings.

"Both devices use Sony's ATRAC3 music format and also play back MP3, WAV and WMA audio formats."

Sloppy reporting on news.com.com, or an error for the Register?

Here are some. Some may be a year or so old, and I don't recall what links I sent as examples. Google should help you find all you need.

Microsoft software "riddled with vulnerabilities", trade body claims
30 unpatched holes in IE, says security researcher
Credit card theft feared in Windows flaw | CNET News.com
Microsoft Issues Five New Security Warnings
Microsoft WinXP Update spies on other PC software
Microsoft issues patch for "serious" XP hole
Microsoft Windows Insecure by Design (TechNews.com)
Server attacks stump Microsoft
Windows flaw threatens PC services
Gartner: Worms Jack Up the Total Cost of Windows
CERT recommends anything but IE
Exploiting design flaws in the Win32 API for privilege escalation
Worm Exploits Multiple Windows Vulnerabilities
Unpatched Internet Explorer Bugs

Here are some. Some may be a year or so old, and I don't recall what links I sent as examples. Google should help you find all you need.

Microsoft software "riddled with vulnerabilities", trade body claims
30 unpatched holes in IE, says security researcher
Credit card theft feared in Windows flaw | CNET News.com
Microsoft Issues Five New Security Warnings
Microsoft WinXP Update spies on other PC software
Microsoft issues patch for "serious" XP hole
Microsoft Windows Insecure by Design (TechNews.com)
Server attacks stump Microsoft
Windows flaw threatens PC services
Gartner: Worms Jack Up the Total Cost of Windows
CERT recommends anything but IE
Exploiting design flaws in the Win32 API for privilege escalation
Worm Exploits Multiple Windows Vulnerabilities
Unpatched Internet Explorer Bugs

Here are some. Some may be a year or so old, and I don't recall what links I sent as examples. Google should help you find all you need.

Microsoft software "riddled with vulnerabilities", trade body claims
30 unpatched holes in IE, says security researcher
Credit card theft feared in Windows flaw | CNET News.com
Microsoft Issues Five New Security Warnings
Microsoft WinXP Update spies on other PC software
Microsoft issues patch for "serious" XP hole
Microsoft Windows Insecure by Design (TechNews.com)
Server attacks stump Microsoft
Windows flaw threatens PC services
Gartner: Worms Jack Up the Total Cost of Windows
CERT recommends anything but IE
Exploiting design flaws in the Win32 API for privilege escalation
Worm Exploits Multiple Windows Vulnerabilities
Unpatched Internet Explorer Bugs

Here are some. Some may be a year or so old, and I don't recall what links I sent as examples. Google should help you find all you need.

Microsoft software "riddled with vulnerabilities", trade body claims
30 unpatched holes in IE, says security researcher
Credit card theft feared in Windows flaw | CNET News.com
Microsoft Issues Five New Security Warnings
Microsoft WinXP Update spies on other PC software
Microsoft issues patch for "serious" XP hole
Microsoft Windows Insecure by Design (TechNews.com)
Server attacks stump Microsoft
Windows flaw threatens PC services
Gartner: Worms Jack Up the Total Cost of Windows
CERT recommends anything but IE
Exploiting design flaws in the Win32 API for privilege escalation
Worm Exploits Multiple Windows Vulnerabilities
Unpatched Internet Explorer Bugs

My thought, too. If the kiosk app had to be running Windows and not be able to run anything else, I'd probably look into Windows XP Embedded.

From what little I've heard, XP Embedded would even make a pretty good desktop OS because it doesn't have as much gratuitous intertangling with browsers and media players as plain XP.

Nice limited functionality; you add only components that you want. Technically a good way to go for the general desktop and not just kiosks and POS terminals, but the business and marketing people in Redmond have other objectives...

couldn't someone edit the smartcard and fake their info?

It's easier to fake the identifiers.

Everyone nods their heads solomly when someone argues that children need to be protected from the dangers of the net at all costs. But should they?

There is view that the net is predominatly a smut loving, pedophile and cracker infested den of iniquity. It isn't(for the most part anyway). That view is perpetuated by people who don't like the net and what it represents(i.e. change).

Lets get some facts straight.

1) Kids are not going to 'stumble' across pr0n. They are going to go out looking for it.
2) The primary responsibility for children who browse the net, lies not with the government, or lawmakers, or ISPs, or pr0n websites, or even the owner of the computer. It lies with their parents.
3) Pr0n is not the work of satan, despite what many(including 4 S.C. judges) believe. People need a more mature attidude towards sex.
4) No matter WHAT gets put on the net and no matter WHAT the children see and do on it, we should NEVER sacrafice our liberties for the sake of piece of mind.

The most shocking part of the entire article( apart from the fact that Fox reported on it :E) was that 4 of the justices thought that the Law, which really would have curtailed freedom of speech due to its obsurity(see this article), was a good thing. Who the hell are these judges and how the hell did they ever get to where they are, let alone law degrees.

Yet another case of society being threatened by people not thinking past their next meal. We need intravinous feeding now

but I definitely think Apple should slow down and take their time a little more than they are.

So does Avie Tevanian, it appears, according to what he said at a recent conference.

Here's what happens when manufactures use Micro$hit's software in their products. BMW decided to use M$ Windows CE in their new 745i car. These cars are total lemons. Software for real-life devices needs to have much more reliability than what M$ can provide.

I don't know, but the proverbial shit is already hitting the fan.
I agree too... I think it's wrong to get pissed and cry Monopoly at Microsoft when they integrate ZIP technology, anti-virus, and photo software in to their software but let Apple get a free pass when they take something so obviously Konfabulator down to the JavaScript and bankrupt a company of their own.
Innovation never sleeps? Neither does the grabbing from smaller third party apps, I would seem.
Deep down inside, I think this is a vaporware thing.. something that will disappear in 10.4. I didn't see anything that great in 10.4, and I think a lot of neat things are still being worked on.. this was a smoke screen...
I do like the BSD kernel update and all, and Xcode is what made me jump out of my seat! Full scale object modeling! Holy Shit! Only pay-players like IBM's Websphere Studio (VisualAge) and JBuilder do that!
And it'll be free (relatively)
That I want now :-)

theres a massive difference, with MS you would have no choice , with *nix systems you wouldn't be forced into using it, it would just be a cool show off go faster stripe thats removed after a few days.

Actually, you're lying through your teeth about that - or are just plain ignorant.

You can turn off ALL of the flashy effects on Windows. See this web page for details.

And Yes, I know this doesn't make us any safer.

Yes, here is a news.com article on it.

The GFS software lets files be stored in a single file system shared by numerous servers. The information can reside on servers themselves or on a storage area network.

The software is used to speed data access and replicate information so it's still available even if individual machines fail. It's useful for the two conventional types of clusters: groups of machines linked so one can take over for another in case of a problem, and groups linked as part of a sprawling supercomputer.

Red Hat GFS is tuned to work with Oracle's 9i RAC, database software that can spread across multiple clustered machines, and work with Red Hat's cluster software for ensuring services remain available despite computer problems.

Uh... how about the fact that nothing even remotely like that is in the statute?

You're right and I noticed after posting this. Since the german copyright explicitely contains such a provision (par. 53(1) UrhG), I assumed that Americans had the same freedom. Obviously they don't.

Copies, yes. Perfect digital reproductions, no.

Actually, the fair use clause doesn't even guarantee the right to make analog copies. Neither does it explicitely prohibit perfect reproductions so it all boils down to a matter of interpretation.

Yes, that's right: it's a big conspiracy.

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not after you. Now that digital broadcasting is gaining momentum, they want legislation to make hometaping technically impossible. The copyright flag is just one step among others. E.g., the DMCA (1201 k) already requires manufacturers of analog recording devices to obey to copy control (i.e. prevention) mechanisms. The ultimate aim is that there will be no way to record a digital TV/radio broadcast if it has the copy control bit set, apart from building your own recorder. Note that the RIAA is lying again: Digital radio is - for bandwidth reasons - far from CD quality[1]. VCRs will go extinct and be replaced with devices like DVD players which aren't capable of any recording, and can be subjected to any DRM scheme from region code over expiring keys to the right to unilaterally terminate your license upon any activity which the MPAA disapproves of (this will probably be used rarely, but not be unheard of). Just take a look at the legislation, the RIAA and MPAA have pushed through in the recent years, and are now trying to establish. Here's an incomplete list:

Succeeded:

• The underestimated NET Act
• DMCA
• Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (of course this name obscures the involvement of The Walt Disney Company a little)

In progress:

• PIRATE Act
• INDUCE Act

More laws are waiting where these are coming from (well, that would be Hell, I guess). The goal is to give copyright holders (which are only rarely nowadays the actual artists) enormous power even beyond that which they already wield. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people that are too lazy, gullible or indifferent to defend their freedom.

Nonsense. Macrovision doesn't even come close to meeting the definition of "access control mechanism" given in Title 17. The courts have so held, despite civil suits alleging differently.

You haven't got references? I have.

Before you can "recompress" you must "decompress," which is the same as making a perfect digital copy of the original work.

Yes, that's why even viewing a DVD is illegal. D'oh! Seriously though, at least German courts have ruled that making a transient copy of copyrighted material in order to exercise fair use rights is fair use itself. So of course this is a BS argument.

Someone want to confirm or deny this? Was the PIRATE Act passed "unanimously"?

Priceless! I was trying to figure out how the hell this could possibly work, until I hit the last paragraph.... Somebody mark the parent as the best troll of the year!

Sorry I wasn't able to respond sooner (I really was asleep), but I didn't make that up.

Here are some links about it the hairdryer attack.

CNet News

Some professor's lecture notes (Google Cache)

It's quite real. If you deny that such attacks exist, you're living in a fantasy world.

Pretty logic Canadians are not afraid....
File sharing is legal here...

http://news.com.com/2100-1027-5182641.html

These rules of egoless programming have been circulating on various sites:

The Ten Commandments of Egoless Programming

1. Understand and accept that you will make mistakes. The point is to find them early, before they make it into production.

2. You are not your code. Remember that the entire point of a review is to find problems, and problems will be found. Don't take it personally when one is uncovered.

3. No matter how much "karate" you know, someone else will always know more. Such an individual can teach you some new moves if you ask. Seek and accept input from others, especially when you think it's not needed.

4. Don't rewrite code without consultation. There's a fine line between "fixing code" and "rewriting code." Know the difference, and pursue stylistic changes within the framework of a code review, not as a lone enforcer.

5. Treat people who know less than you with respect, deference, and patience.

6. The only constant in the world is change. Be open to it and accept it with a smile.

7. The only true authority stems from knowledge, not from position.

8. Fight for what you believe, but gracefully accept defeat.

9. Don't be "the guy in the room." Don't be the guy coding in the dark office emerging only to buy cola. The guy in the room is out of touch, out of sight, and out of control and has no place in an open, collaborative environment.

10. Critique code instead of people -- be kind to the coder, not to the code.

Like most platitudes, they apply in some situations and not in others and there are plenty of valid exceptions.

For instance: Treat people who know less than you with respect, deference, and patience -- but don't let them tell you how to do your job.

Or: Fight for what you believe, but gracefully accept defeat -- and when you turn out to have been right, don't let anyone forget it.

For example to get the patches for the IE hole announced a week or two ago? Oh wait, MS still hasn't released a patch and people's PCs are being "infected" by some big-name web sites. At least according to this article.

yahoo news had this article from zdnet.
In this article, it says (towards the bottom)
"Meanwhile, the average Internet surfer is left with few options. Windows users could download an alternate browser, such as Mozilla or Opera, and Mac users are not in danger."

What I found somewhat funny was this quote (from NetSec's chief technology officer)
"I told my wife, unless it is absolutely necessary and unless you are going to a site like our banking site, stay off the Internet right now"
Does that mean he forsees a time in the near future when this kind of problem will go away? I don't.

Once again it's UNPATCHED USERS who are having problems

Not sure what article you are reading (maybe it's changed?).

This one (from ZDNET, which is the one linked to in the story) states:

"This time, however, the flaws affect every user of Internet Explorer, because Microsoft has not yet released a patch."

*Hits Google*

one story and another

If my friends ever get an RIAA suit I'll just suggest they settle, then pay in "Dave Recites Computer Code" CDs valued at $1000 each. That's 150 per violation at the full price, or only 2 if they drop it down.

If my friends ever get an RIAA suit I'll just suggest they settle, then pay in "Dave Recites Computer Code" CDs valued at $1000 each. That's 150 per violation at the full price, or only 2 if they drop it down.

Is it just me, or does this sound scarily familiar to Microsoft's failed attempts to "settle" by giving free copies of Windows to schools? I hope that no more companies are allowed to "atone" for their sins by giving out freebies to further secure their footholds in the marketplace. Not that Will Smith was going to do much for that anyways, but its the principle of the matter.

• http://news.com.com/2102-1032_3-5245821.html

Now my question, didn't the gov't come out with a law a while ago forcing AOL to share their IM standards so third party software could integrate with it? And if so, wouldn't this apply to all IM software, including Yahoo?

Yes, and yes. AOL had restrictions placed on IM i January 2001, but they were lifted in Aug. 2003 because that decision had largely rendered them unable to compete in the video conferencing scene that MSN and Yahoo had built up.

A good article summarizing this seems to be this one.

NOW, note that Yahoo! is cozy with the DSL and telephone service provider SBC. Given the news that SBC is laying fiber for residential DSL, your question is completely relevant.

From the CNET article in the second link. Thanks for digging those up, btw.

Sony open for retail business

Seems people like Sony and others are following Apple's lead and opening their own retail stores.

I cannot blame them, look at the success of NikeTown and the Apple retail stores. A lot of smaller home theater companies (Cambridge Soundworks, and others) already do that as well.

Of course, one can look at the Gateway retail stores as an example of a failure of this market.

From the SBC press release:

The recent decision by the Bush Administration to allow unlawful telephone wholesale rules to lapse and let stand the FCC's decision not to unbundle broadband is a positive step

As much as I disagree with the administration on many issues, last year's decision by the FCC to deregulate fiber networks was a positive step in the right direction. Loosening broadband rules will restore some competition in the industry; and we may see lowering prices for telephone and internet services.

However, although I look forward to fiber-to-the-curb, it'll be awhile, at least in my subdivision.

Only in certain markets, and not for much longer.

For instance, did you know that Windows on an Intel box is up to 5 TIMES cheaper than Linux on an S390?

Or that NTL (see also here) found Microsoft software to be considerably cheaper than open source?

"The most unfortunate thing is that India still seems to believe in proprietary solutions," he said in the speech. "Further spread of IT, which is influencing the daily life of individuals, would have a devastating effect on the lives of society due to any small shift in the business practice involving these proprietary solutions. It is precisely for these reasons open-source software needs to be built, which would be cost-effective for the entire society. In India, open-source code software will have to come and stay in a big way for the benefit of our billion people."

He pointed to Apache's solid dominance in the Web server market as evidence of the power of the Internet-based open software model. Apache, a freely available Web server based on the Linux operating system, accounts for over half of all servers on the World Wide Web. "I am opposed to Microsoft's way of dominating the industry. But at the same time, I think the U.S. lawsuit against Microsoft's anti-competitive practices is a waste of time," said Barlow.

The writing is on the wall - Microsoft as a centralised company cannot hope to compete with de-centralised and distributed models of development like the Open Source movement.

Well, let me first say that I'm glad I'm living in Canada where it for the time being, downloading music is legal.

But for you unfortunate ones south of the border, the law is the law, and just because you don't agree with it, doesn't make it legal.

I know that here on /., there's a large percentage of people who will use excuses such as "well, the RIAA is stealing from the artists" ... well, maybe there are, but ...
1) These artists signed the contracts, without a gun to their head
2) If the RIAA is "stealing" from the artists, how does stealing from the RIAA make it better? You're basically reducing the little amount of money that the artist should have gotten.

And yes, I personally think that the greatest form of advertisement is word of mouth, and what better way to do so than p2p and filesharing? But once again, for the time being, the law is the law ... and everthing doesn't run around the linux business model.

Blame Canada!

Note that HP and Intel are playing both ends against the middle on this one.

I'm all for having big tough friends against the DCMA, I just wish the big tough friends could decide whether or not they're my friends.

Colsa will use Mac OS X as the primary operating system, though it will evaluate other options including Red Hat Linux and Yellow Dog Linux, Whitlock added.

Both c|net and Mac Rumors say 15, though, which is as you say much more plausible. Given the degree of confusion, I wouldn't be too sure about other details such as interconnects or price tags... or even number of nodes; perhaps 1566 is an initial confuguration, later growing signifigantly larger to account for the 25TF figure.

Jean-Marie Messier, the former chief of Vivendi Universal, the French telecommunication and media conglomerate, was questioned by authorities on Monday and then held in custody overnight by the French financial police as part of an investigation into stock price manipulation.
Messier, who appeared for questioning early Monday morning, can be held for up to 48 hours before prosecutors decide whether to place him under formal investigation, the last step before being charged. Messier had requested that he be placed under investigation in March to be granted access to the evidence against him and others in the case, his lawyer said.

http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/Microsoft_Xbox/4518-6 464_16-7853769.html
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2000/Mar0 0/XBoxPR1.asp
http://www.activewin.com/faq/x-box.shtml#The%20Big %20Three%20Players

All make reference to a Pentium III processor, not a celeron, anyone got a cat /proc/cpuinfo from their linux xbox?

Machines read your email all the time. If they didn't, you wouldn't be able to get it. You certainly wouldn't be able to have it checked for spam. Thinking your message is "private" just because the machines don't explicitly tell you they read it is very naive.

So very true. I remember back in the days when we were using MS Mail, I could watch the messages scroll on by the MS Mail Internet Connector, from the initial "Hello" to the text of the message. There never has been any privacy in email. Just read the terms of use of your corporate or college account.

But is anyone reading /. really surprised to see the internet and inter-operability fracturing because corporate interests are squabbling? Or are we so quick to forget this recent example? I'm just wondering how long until this becomes a "feature" in Exchange Server...

The more spyware/malware laws we get the better. It's so frustrating trying to use a computer with tons of spyware and spyware trojans. Ugh. And they say the average PC has 28 spyware programs running on it! This needs to stop.
It took me about 8 hours to clean out a friends computer the other day. He had about 15 viruses all installing spyware daily.
Here's some suggestions for cleaning your computer:

Grisoft's AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition - this is key. Free auto-updates too
http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php

Lavasoft's Ad-Aware - run it every so often, and always be sure to update it manually.
http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10045910.html?pa rt=69274&subj=dlpage&tag=button

CWShredder - removes only a few trojans that give you tons of ads, but does a better job of fully removing them than ad-aware.
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html

Spybot-Search & Destroy - Similar to Ad-Aware. You should run both.
http://download.com.com/3000-8022-10122137.html

I would expect this from Microsoft. They can blame the spam filters, to try and save face, but the simple fact is, they are simply taking a page from their own rulebook; they don't want to lose advertising revenue from people switching to Gmail, so they are breaking the law and interfering with email. If Microsoft had successfully bought Google to trash it, Gmail would not have existed at all. For those of you just tuning in, Hotmail is owned and operated by Microsoft, after they bought the service in 1998. I was a Hotmail member prior to Microsoft being involved and the service has declined significantly since the old days. Although many of the features have improved since then, the bulk of the Hotmail service is becoming increasingly unreliable for email that just "has to get there".

In other news, we've got lots of Gmail invites for military folks here, so if you want Gmail for large files and you are a soldier, or if you want to donate your invites to soldiers, check us out. This is not just for American military, but any democratic military, such as Canada or the UK.

On the one hand, virus writers are aggressively pursued and prosecuted with claimed damages of billions of dollars; on the other hand, these losses are not included in the TCO of Windows! What gives?