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Hailstorm: Changing Society's Privacy Infrastructure
chikanamakalaka writes: "I found an article at the Seattle Times about Microsoft's upcoming "Hailstorm" service and associated privacy concerns. The story is here."
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To place all your personal information and communication eggs in one basket, then rely solely upon an id/password pair for authentication is loopy.
johnpaulwallington.com
That humans would actually be willing to pay for Big Brother. I have a feeling that reality in 5-10 years will be worse than he ever imagined. How's this for a scenario: I go in for my yearly physical. The doctor runs some tests and finds I have colon cancer. At the speed of light my employer is notified, my insurance company is notified, my insurance is dropped, and I start receiving unsolicited spam from quacks trying to sell me 'miracle' cancer cures. Oh boy, I can't wait!
"If you are in a car accident, HailStorm could automatically send your medical history and insurance information to the hospital before the ambulance arrived. Then it could page your spouse and reschedule your appointments."
reminds me of the giddy plans that ermerged during
the height of the Bubble to have your fridge
know when you run low on milk and send the order
on to the grocery store.
Unwieldy, unnecessary, and just plain dumb.
Not everything needs to be automated.
Boneheds like Gates think that everything that is
not integrated into an all encompassing networked database is an ineffieciency.
Well, mountains are ineffiecencies ( to trains and farms) as are bathroom breaks to PHB.
Lets hear it for ineffiecency and limits on human
ambition and stupidity.
"Still, having a single company in control of so much information....." is absolute madness.
The stupidest idea I ever (bar none) heard of.
Ok, maybe it's not true that everything I needed to know I learned in Kindergarten.
I guess it wasn't till Grade 3 that I heard about
not putting all my eggs in one basket.
"Eventually, the service will be able to watch and listen to computer users in their homes and offices, so it knows when they are busy and when to...."
and when to squeal to the PHB, send you an email
that you are to report to the remotivation depot.
Plainly put, fuck you , Microsoft.
Who asked you to be the Grand Repository?
And the really irritating thing is that there are
problabley several dozen different better ways of delivering many of these so called benefits, which
respect an individual's privacy and
that don't require catering to MS insatiable
need to be all controlling.
Did I say Fuck You, Microsoft?
--
Simon
UIUC, like many other large universities, recently signed a "pouring rights" contract with a major soft drink vendor that essentially makes it illegal to sell any drink on campus unless it is a product of that vendor. In exchange for a cut of the loot, of course.
Now, when universities start selling "installing rights" contracts to software vendors, will your little group be outlawed?
sPh
It's called "Hailstorm" 'cause of the hailstorm of targeted spam that you'll be subjected to from Microsoft's "Enterprise Partners", or whatever they decide to call them.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Government employees who violate the privacy protections promised by the Bureau of the Census get to go to jail. Anybody think Microsoft and their accomplices in this will stand idly by while Congress passes laws that protect our info with jail for the humans and financial ruin for the corporations?
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Expression recognition software, combined with the top window's context, may someday post these for you. Aren't you glad?
Stop me if I missed anything, but Microsoft are proposing to monitor everything down to your very facial expressions, leaving George Orwell not so much awed as flabbergasted by the possibilities, and they're going to use your own hardware to do this, and it's all going through Microsoft's own centralised database, and, gee, people used to be worried about governments monitoring boring stuff like their emails, and the possibility of crackers getting copies...
They're going to know more about how you think and feel than you do yourself. Microsoft?
Think about this... the multi-billion-dollar company who can't even protect their own website against a script kiddie... the people who brought you Internet ``where did your data go today'' Explorer and the beloved ``I'm feeling lucky - let's run this'' Outlook... and I'm supposed to trust them with pictures of me, an intimate knowledge of my very thought patterns, every key I hit, every word I read?
Think about this... look interested in an image - or a competitor's product, Microsoft knows it; be angered or pleased by something, Microsoft knows it; do or say something technically illegal or embarrassing, Microsoft knows it; recieve unexpected cash income, Microsoft knows it; fart, and the camera/mike will forward your muscle patterns and noise to Microsoft; hop into the hammock with your SO and you'd better have remembered to switch off the pickups - and... will they really be off...?
You'd have to be a nutter. A goldfish in a shopping mall would have more privacy. Millions of JenniCams plus the ability to fastforward to the juicy bits. If you happen to be pretty, expect to have a lot of hopefully secret admirers. If your personal beliefs aren't mainstream, maybe they soon will be. ``And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.'' - Revelation 13:16-18 - I wonder if the Passport ID has 666 coded into it somewhere? )-:
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
I presonally know that no_one@nowhere.com is getting a lot of spam that was intended for me
That's funny - I usually use someone@somewhere.com
ABSURDITY, n.: A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion.
OK, so if I get in a car accident, it'll call my spouse, send my medical records, and reschedule my appointments.
How do I tell it? Are we going to wire my car with Hailstorm, too? I drive a friggin 1991 Bronco II, not exactly a tremendous technology platform. OK, maybe my WinCE Pocket PC will do it for me; hope the paramedics know how. No, better yet, I'll let them spend their time keeping me out of shock.
I'm all for "changing society's infrastructure", but c'mon.
ZOMG I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS ON MACINTOSH VERSUS WINDOWS, VI VERSUS EMACS, AND HOW YOU'RE NOT A DORK
I'd be surprised -- very surprised -- if a medical records system based on a Microsoft-written OS or application could pass muster with regards to the access controls and tracking required by HIPAA. And that's not even getting into the problems related to the multitude of vulnerabilities that are built into the various versions of Windows. If I found out that my medical records were being accessed by a Microsoft computer? Well, that's about the time I'd think about becoming a Christian Scientist.
IMHO, Microsoft is years away from having a secure enough system for me to trust them with even my personal calendar let alone my family's financial and medical history.
--
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
I suggest using something that sends a message. I always use no_privacy_policy@<whatever their domain is>, or unacceptable_privacy_policy@<whatever>, or simply that_info_is_private@<whatever>. That way, the email isn't just bounced without an explanation, but there's a chance that someone at the company will see the objection and maybe even note it if it happens enough. Same with meatspace places like Radio Shack. When they ask for your name/address, don't waste everyone's time (especially your own) by giving out a made-up address, tell them flat out that you don't give that information out. Go further and tell them that you don't like being asked for it, if that's how you feel. At least someone there will know, and you eventually might never get asked again.
Cheers,
When I first read the article, it sounded like it would be incredibly convenient and make many tedious tasks very easy...
Then, what if someone hijacks your account... they now have your credit card numbers, your home phone, your wife's phone, your kids school info, your bosses office number and his birthday, your automobile information, etc...
Imagine the possabilities...
Maybe it's called HailStorm because, as they say, "When it rains, it pours" implying that if someone gets your password, they get your life.
Think about it, it can be scary as hell.
Or they could just use fake information. I presonally know that no_one@nowhere.com is getting a lot of spam that was intended for me, had I been stupid enough to give my real email address to every web site that asks for it. I never give more information to a web site than is actually required. Does NAI actually think I am going to give them my real name and mailing address before I download PGP? Same with the New York Times.
The MS Passport terms were only changed for those whose primary browser language is US English. Change your preference to have your preferred language be British English, Spanish, Portuguese, or whatever other languages you know...then go read the Passport Terms again.
The standard for a nonexistent address is "example.com", "example.net", or "example.org". RFC 2606
Rest assured that there are going to be plenty of systems that are going to sprout up that will do the same things. And when you stop and think about it, a lot of it is going to be pretty cool. I really would like a competent secretary I can pay $50-100 a year for! I'm sure the next big problem is going to be the interop of all of those systems.
Yep. Just imagine the happy funny talking clip. Dear Mrs HailStormUser, your husband has just been killed in a car accident, but dont worry, HailStorm has already arranged the funeral details and rescheduled your appointments for that day. MSDatingService has been notified of your profile and prospective new HailStormPartners are being scheduled for dates. You have 35 new automated condoleance messages waiting.
Your real choice isn't between Windows or another OS, it's between apathy or proaction, between slow poison made easy or the rewarding work of becoming more self-sufficient, between slowly draining your resources to pay "voluntary" taxes to Microsoft or taking real responsibility to become more capable and independant.
You don't have to switch cold-turkey to another OS, GUI, set of apps, etc. PartitionMagic is not too expensive. If you have a fair-sized HD, most of it is likely unused (a full Win2K install with Office2000, MS Project, Lotus SmartSuite, Notes, etc. only takes about 3GB - most HDs are 8GB or larger now). Set up a dual boot system with more than one OS environment. Keep Windows around for the things you need it for. Use Linux (or OS/2, or BeOS, whatever) to learn how it works, become familiar with it, build your non-MS capabilities. You'll find you use Windows less and less as you get more comfortable with any better alternative, and that it will get better and easier for you to use over time, even as Microsoft progressively makes Windows more restrictive, feature bloated, and oppressive, with "content protection" and Hailstorm coming.
At a previous employer, I had a Dell notebook set up with the firm standard Windows system on one partition, OS/2 built on a second partition, and a shared data partition for Notes databases, etc. I did almost all my work under OS/2. They did not know the difference and I didn't have to reboot several times a day or redo work lost to Windows crashes. I was much more productive that way.... Now I run both OS/2 and Linux on my firewall box, and always have one to fall back on if the other develops a weird glitch.
Before long most mainstream Win32 apps will be running under both Linux and OS/2 using Wine or Odin. Linux software has been ported to OS/2 (Xfree86 and GIMP come to mind) and more will be in the future. BeOS runs most Linux apps natively, as do the *BSD environments. Software outside Windows is becoming available everwhere.
Windows is the dead end, proprietary, high cost alternative, and lots of people are slowly realizing this. Find a way out earlier rather than later, or pay the price repeatedly.
The problem is that MS will make you give your information to them if you want to use MS products. Having a monopoly they will have personal information on millions of people worldwide which will be very profitable to sell to whoever wants it.
When I buy an RCA Television I do not have to tell RCA who I am but when you buy MS software (I certainly don't) you are going to be forced to tell them who you are, not only that but you will be tagged and additional information about you will be collected and sold as well.
they will get away with it because they sell to the meaty stupid portion of the bell curve or computer users and those lusers who can't change their default homepages will happiliy divulge whatever MS wants to them. We saw it coming when the NY times insisted that they know your name before you read their paper online while the paper version was anonymous. Those of use who are not idiots used false names or partner but the MS users of the world happily typed in their names and adresses. It never occured to them that it was an odd thing to do when they could have picked up the paper in the subway for nothing AND kept their privacy at the same time. It's a stupid tax and MS will happily collect it from their stupid users.
War is necrophilia.
but before you could use them you'd have tell MS all about yourself.
War is necrophilia.
I quit smoking four years ago. it was the hardest thing I ever did. I am so happy now that I did it. Kicking any bad habit weather it's heroin, or windows is hard but it can be done and you'll have more freedom afterwards. Just like a junkie is a slave to the dealer and to heroin you are a slave to Bill Gates and windows. Kick the habit. It will be very hard and you'll be tempted to go back but in the end everything will be much better. Trust me I know.
War is necrophilia.
They played with our privacy?
How we know is more important than what we know.
...they made a server I could deploy on my hardware and control myself.
People could run of these for their own families, small business. Companies could deploy them for their employees.
It would also be nice if the different servers could talk to each other.
My devices would be updated by both my home server for essential personal information and my work server, for appointments and business data. This should be as seamless as receiving email from these separate people is now.
Naturally, if I wanted to I could pay someone to do this for me, and I'd have to give them my information. They could discount the service if I let them share my information for marketing.
So...anyone starting a project to this the right way ?
Don't post innacurate information
If you do, I swear by my pretty floral bonnet I will end you.
Hope I'm not replying to a joke here ("all your base")
Is that concept legal? It is an interesting idea, but doesn't some human representing the party of the second part (the company running the site) have to be at least aware of the license? The HTTP protocol is designed to ignore headers it does not recognize, and if you suddenly inject this into the stream nobody on the other end would even be aware of it. At best they might see it in their httpd logs later on. Doesn't sound like license acceptance to me at all.
-konstant
Yes! We are all individuals! I'm not!
-konstant
Yes! We are all individuals! I'm not!
I am in the process of working on a way to short circuit privacy policies on the Internet so it is the user is who is in control and not large companies like Microsoft. The DMCA and other US regulation now gives systems like Hailstorm rights to keep your information as a corporate asset. This would basically make systems like Hailstorm a wholesale violation of both the users rights on their *own* data and their privacy.
I have come up with a system so that the user who originates the request can maintain copyright on his data and so that the receiving site has a chance to either opt-out or accept and abide by the agreement. (of course all this will be Open Source).
Basically it works with the HTTP protocol and should support any server/browser combination. Right now I have hacked Mozilla 0.8.1 to support this.
The mechanism is *very* simple. Basically it add one more HTTP header *prior* to the request being transferred. A valid request would look like:
GET http://hailstorm.microsoft.com/ HTTP/1.0
User-Agent: GNU/Linux and Mozilla
User-License: All your base are belong to us!
The goal here is that the single click licenses that Amazon/Microsoft and every other site can also be used by users:
"By responding to this HTTP request, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Notice. You will not give my information out to other users and you understand that I maintain copyright" (this would have to be encoded so that it is an HTTP param)
Of course the above is not Lawyer talk but I am hoping that we can get some official licenses together. If anyone knows any lawyers who are interested in contributing please give them my e-mail (burton@openprivacy.org).
The goal is that users would standardize on icenses, if sites ever violated the user policy then they would file a class action suit.
I have the code local if anyone wants a copy. It is really raw right now but I am trying to add a control panel in Mozilla so that users can nable/disable it and also set their license.
Kevin
the one's who've joined the M$ world and the rest of us .... their goal of course is that you can't be part of the mainstream technical society unless you're part of M$'s
This strikes me as good and bad.
Bad because I don't want people to know when I'm looking at pr0n.
Good, because if it decides that me looking at pr0n is me being "busy", maybe it'll cut back on the damn pop-up ads.
- Jonathan
This may be redundant, but these quotes have to be seen to be believed (empahsis added in the following):
...Microsoft may be the only company in the world with the skill and clout to pull it off...
...the public will fully accept the HailStorm concept and Microsoft as a trusted repository within five to 10 years...
..Initially, HailStorm will consist of a universal password and a service...
...If you are in a car accident, HailStorm could automatically send your medical history and insurance information to the hospital before the ambulance arrived...
...Microsoft officials acknowledged the company has been vulnerable to attacks and system failures...
...They're the most attacked infrastructure there is on the Internet, they're the No. 1 target for hackers...
It'll never work. There is no fucking way I'd trust anyone, let alone microsoft, with that sort, or quantity, of private information.
There may be many reasons not to kill you, but among them is not that you'll be missed by NASA - The Long Kiss Goodnight
No, no, no. Fake addresses are the wrong answer. The correct solution is to look up the site's Admin Contact address from whois . Let the nosy bastards spam themselves. You can also use their own phone number and snail address if needed.
The idea of having this type of service is cool. Yes, we all like convenience.
The implementation of it's pretty dire. M$oft ? Do you trust them to get Son-of-Passport right ? Have M$oft ever produced a crypto-complex product without making a complete disaster of it ?
Secondly, the whole myFoo idea is the wrong approach. Forgive me for stating the obvious, but good ideas for improving personal privacy don't usually start by placing the whole lot on a great big server, owned by the antichrist and operated by the people who brought you Hotmail.
I predict that the most interesting exploits won't be ripping the lid off directly, but instead by buying the SDK and spoofing the B2C services. Why steal your medical history when I can claim to be Dr Viagra's Clinic and have you give it to me ?
The most disappointing part of HailStorm is how technically backward it is. Big server-based things and single point validation ? Get real guys. I'd much rather have the sorts of proof-based selective disclosure that smarter and more innovative companies are working on (OK, so I work for HP and so I'm biased). Why should Anne & Chris communicate their trust of each other for one small fact, by being forced to tell all their secrets to Bill first ? (esp. when Bill is the blabbermouthed village idiot) It's a much better approach if they communicate directly, and we already know how to do this. Where are M$oft on topics like anonymous verification, or an anonymous ePerson ? For as long as they persist with this notion that every minor disclosure to an on-line business requires me to make a full and traceable disclosure to them, then I won't touch it.
--
Always trust content from Microsoft Corporation ?
Hailstorm sounds fantastic as a concept
So did Bob.
Dahlmann tightly grips the knife, which he may have no idea how to use, and steps out into the plain.
If this goes anywhere, it will be because Microsoft finds some way to cram it down everybody's throats, like building it into the Windows registration process. They'll probably make it free at first, then later change the customer agreement to take a cut on every transaction.
Ever worried if a waiter in a restaurant would use your creditcard number, exp date etc for fraud? I don't think so.
Then again, why are you so paranoid when a (not 'the') service is provided by a company? you don't HAVE TO use that service. And if you do, would it be any more risky than using a creditcard and give a lot of your financial information to a creditcardcompany?
--
Never underestimate the relief of true separation of Religion and State.
If you are in a car accident, HailStorm could automatically send your medical history and insurance information to the hospital before the ambulance arrived. Then it could page your spouse and reschedule your appointments.
Honey, I'm in the ER bleeding like a sieve. Could you pick up the kids at soccer practice today?
Sure. No problem.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Information is as marketable as any currency on the market today. Trading information you want (data) for the information the company wants (personal, marketable data) is a logical extension of the old horse-trader ideal.
If people really wanted this to stop, all they would have to do is not divulge any personal information at all. That will not happen though, as people will think, this site wants my address, that site wants my age, the other site wants my gender, but it will not occur to the typical surfer that those sites are all on the same database and will compile an entire background, shopping history and link through-click and target them for what the companies believe they will want.
People, do not give out personal information on the 'net, in person, or anywhere else if you do not want it to become public information by default.
DanH
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
UNIX - Not just for Vestal Virgins anymore
I can't believe they're calling it hailstorm.... what a stupid name. I mean c'mon, aren't hailstorms those things that crop up during severe thunderstorms, destroying huge amounts of property....
oh, ok, maybe hailstorm isn't such a bad name after all. My bad.
---
Is there a way to do this in such a way that only the people who really should have your information can get to it?
I know it sounds impossible, hell, it may be. Just making it so phenomenally difficult that you have to have, say, three or four of the smartest people in the nation (The five percent nation of Casiotone, of course) to actually make it happen might be enough. Hell, that way we could make a movie about it, sort of like Sneakers, and use that cash to finance any infrastructure needs we have. I'm not sure who to trust to run them - Probably two bastions of the Tech community who hate each other. They'll keep each other honest. RMS and Bill Gates come to mind. Think about it.
Anyway, where was I? We need a system that has seperate entities entirely for each stage of the system. Data is stored by one firm, carried by another (preferrably completely government-controlled, believe it or not) and then licensed by whoever. Only certain people should have access to certain types of information. I (sadly) don't know enough about encryption to design a scheme without unnecessary steps, but it seems to me that you could do it with the current system of cryptologically signed certificates, and public key encryption. Data would be stored encrypted, would require some sort of key and passphrase for decryption (I like physical devices for the key, something like the iButton for example) and would then be signed using the recipient's public key.
The catch is, the public key has to be signed by a third party, like (yuck) Verisign. You could always sign your own, but if it's known that you sign your keys with your own provider, most people will not choose to trust you with anything but the most insignificant data. Again, all of this should be possible with the basic software we already use today, with a few minor modifications. Why not just implement our own?
Here's the deal: Allow creation of arbitrary categories. Then allow creation of arbitrary rules. The rules will check arbitrary properties. If someone says they want a certain kind of data, then they have to meet certain criteria. Maybe the forward and reverse DNS have to match, and they have to have a certain signature; Maybe you only allow someone who encrypts their request to you, using their private key, et cetera. Some pieces of information you will want to be as closely restricted as all of those at once; That's the restriction on your medical records, maybe, and perhaps to allow someone to grab your resume, they just have to have matching A and PTRs.
Anyway, don't let microsoft do this to us! We already know that we, the internet community, can do a better job than Microsoft at damn near anything except Feeding FUD - And we're a damn close second there. We rock! And we definitely rock more than Microsoft. And tell me, do you want this shit to use SOAP? Please, stop the insanity!
--
ALL YOUR KARMA ARE BELONG TO US
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
You know, my concerns having little to do with privacy for privacy's sake. Instead, I'm just worried that we're being forced into more and more "choices" that don't really involve any choice. Microsoft can leverage it's marketshare to make me do all sorts of things I certainly wouldn't want to do otherwise. Saying that something is "optional" is only as good as having a viable choice.
I know it's probably blasphemy here (flamebait, even!), but I don't consider linux to be a viable desktop OS choice for me. Sure, it's an alternative to windows but I'd have to sacrifice functionality to switch over (not only in terms of some of my more unusual peripherals that still lack working linux drivers, but also all the software that I actually purchased instead of "liberated"). For all intents and purposes, Microsoft has me like a dealer has a junkie. I'm too used to the desktop feel, for example, to switch to something else compeltely...
So, basically, Microsoft is the only game in town and if they want to move in a particular direction, I'm forced to follow. I may not like their point of view on how society's "infrastructure" should be changed (subscription-based software, "Hailstorm", etc..), but what practical choice do I have?
I MAY technically have a choice, but I, like most other lay-people out there, don't really see it that way... Follow the herd, follow the herd...
Centralizing data is a huge problem with HailStorm but also consider the innate problems of storing data on the service. You are going to put your data into HailStorm and Microsoft is going to get a firsthand peek at whatever you put in. They encrypt and protect your information but there is nothing to stop them from giving it away to the government or selling it!
To make matters worse they are inplementing HailStorm into everything they sell including Windows XP, Office XP, the X-Box, and Hotmail. People will be able to link their Windows XP login with the HailStorm service.
A group of concerned University of Illinois students has started an organization called !NET (Not Net) to spread awareness of the problems with handing all your personal information to a company like Microsoft to be stored in a centralized datacenter. If Microsoft gets their way they will have the keys to this huge collection of information. We respectfully submit that handing control of this kind of information to one company, organization, or government is a horrible idea.
We are gathering people and ideas and coding an open source, alternative method of doing HailStorm where the user encodes their data with PGP keys and allows other users or companies access to that data only by signing their data with those companies or individuals' public keys. We have considered a variety of delivary mechanisms including peer to peer networks such as FreeNet. Peer to peer distribution would give the advantage of not consolidating everyone's data in one place and would also ensure that the person who stored the information, the rightfull keyholder, will be the only one that chooses who else can view that information, not Microsoft. More information on our at present unrefined ideas is located at our website www.notnet.org.
Shortly afterwards a group of University of Illinois students formed an organization, !NET (Not Net). www.notnet.org
We plan on spreading awareness about HailStorm as well as designing an open source alternative for it. It involves using SOAP and XML and encrypting data inside XML tags with PGP public keys. You choose what information you want to make available to companies by encrypting your entries with their public keys. Then your encrypted information is stored in an existing peer to peer system which is completely decentralized (possibly freenet) so the whole system can't break down or get hacked. In this way you encrypt your data and an unencrypted copy isn't even stored on your local machine.. no one organization, government or company (Microsoft) has access to your data.
If Microsoft is not an Evil Empire(TM), I don't think there ever was one!
-----
Thing is, stopping smoking is actually not as hard as we lead ourselves to believe.
:)
Smokers are addicted to nicotine. Hicotine doesn't do anything for a healthy person, only for an addict. So the first cigarette doesn't do anything for the novice smoker. But after a while, when the nicotine starts to leave the system, they start to feel slightly bad. A tiny little bit depressed.
Another cigarette alleviates the bad feeling a bit; not completely, just a bit. But it's enough to make the smoker think, that cigarette made me feel better. Only, a while later, they are feeling just a little more depressed than the first one made them. Just an imperceptible amount, but the desire for the next cigarette is now stronger than ever before.
And so it goes on.
The thing is, all a smoker has to do to stop is:
1. Understand that cigarettes do NOTHING for you; you are not giving anything up, you are not making any sacrafice.
2. Don't smoke another cigarette
3. Relish being a non-smoker. Understand that you will quickly be healthier, fitter, more attractive, wealthier.
Quite easy really, and step 3 makes it fun.
Now, this may seem off topic, but ditching Windows in favour of Freedom is much easier than people are led to believe.
1. Understand that Windows does NOTHING for you; you are not giving anything up, you are not making any sacrafice.
2. Don't run Windows again
3. Relish being free. Understand that you will quickly be more satisfied, you will reap more reward from life, you get to go around with a smug internal grin all the time.
That's it
Yours Sincerely, Michael.
Uh, there isn't a single thing in the article about MS violating our privacy. Did you read it?
- I don't care if they globalize against free speech. All my best free thoughts are done in my head.
You'll have to watch yourself if you leave the house when .NET starts growing, but it can be done.
OR, better yet, help produce open source SOAP solutions for FreeBSD/Linux/name your OS. Fight the power if you feel like it.
Myself, I honestly don't care. If it's not Microsoft it'll be someone else, and I'm not like most nerds who cower in the corner of their dim apartments, fearing social interaction and a "violation" of some uber-innate privacy. I also happen to like and use a few Microsoft products regularly (Notably IE and Win2K. I use StarOffice for word processing, g++ and the development tools in Linux). To each his own.
- I don't care if they globalize against free speech. All my best free thoughts are done in my head.
Of course, your '85 probably has that nice feature of sticking a coat hanger down the side of the window to unlock it too.
- I don't care if they globalize against free speech. All my best free thoughts are done in my head.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
it might be unreal, but you got to make plans to cover the possibillities.
:)
Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Now, If you just toss a frog straight into a pot of boiling water, this is not going to to anything but upset the frog and make the frog jump out of the pot. BUT, if you put the frog into the pot when tha water is cool, the frog will like it. If you then very gradually raise the temperature of the water the frog will not notice it. You can eventually raise the temperature of the water until it is boiling, and you now have one cooked frog dinner. NOTE, California bullfrogs, weighing in at about 3 or 4 pounds, have enough meat to make a decent meal.
How does this relate? Simple.
The long term strategy of MS is to slowly increment changes in the way things worked so that in the end, everything works they way they want, and they can dictate how it goes together. If they got greedy and tried to do it all in a year or so, then they would never get agreeement. But by implementing it bit and piece, they can continue to carve a large and larger section of the pie for themselves. All they have to do is think longer term than their opponents.
Actually, I am sure they have on a wall someplace their equivalent of a 5 or 10 year plan to conquer the known (software) world, subject to revision and new discoveries, etc. They likely planned killing off Windows about 3 to 5 years ago when it became obvious that the legal suites were beginning to be a real pain. They are not there yet, but they needed an escape plan. Part of the move to taking over the Internet was part of this escape plan, which is why Gates made sure it was the equivalent of a oceanliner coming to a halt and turning on a dime.
How to we handle this?
We need as far reaching an effort and long range vision as they do. A competitive Argument that resonates. Microsofts's sells to the inherently lazy streak in people, even if the PR is twisted. They sell to "we make it easier for you".
What competitive meme do we offer to fight this Microsoft meme virus?
Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Evidently MS has no sense of reality when it comes to its #1 problem: the company's public image is a total disaster. While most of us may use MS products, this is not because we trust them, but rather in spite of the fact that we don't.
Microsoft's Hailstorm is another manifestation of the American "I want my mommy" society. Consider, for instance, a currently-running commercial for the Chevy Suburban, wherein some dumb cluck locks his keys in the truck whilst ruining tundra in the Rocky Mountains. He calls out on his cell phone, and Chevy unlocks his car remotely .
Holy Big Brother, Batman!
It sure makes me appreciate my 1985 4x4 Chevy Suburban; the most technologically-advanced priginal equipment feature on my truck is the electric windows. Now, I have some communication doodads onboard, and I'm adding a few other James Bond features, but I'll be damned if I want some anonymous corporate cog accessing to my doorlocks!
And Satan will be dodging snowballs in Hades before Microsoft pries the personal data from my cold, dead fingers. Just don't be surprised if Hailstorm is a success, especially among the people who desperately want to be wet-nursed through life...
--
Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
All about me
...is an arrogant asshole.
:)
His daughter went to Colorado College, while I was working in the Computing department. He came to spread M$ propoganda to the Computing Director and other "decision makers" at the college. With a not-so-subtle tone of "if you get your students to use M$ software, I'll arrange a sweet deal for you (or make a big contribution to the college)".
Anyways, I got to sit in on a few meetings with him, and discuss some campus issues with him. He's totally arrogant and elitist and everything you'd expect from the way M$ does business. I tried really hard not to be prejudiced against him just because of where he works, but I think he's a total asshole.
I doubt this is shocking news to anyone, but I felt the need to share. Thanks for letting me vent a little hostility
K45
This signature has eleven vowels.
Didn't they learn from the flap over Carnivore? Hell, if they are going for truth in advertising maybe they should have called it eCancer.
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We want some answers and all that we get
Some kind of shit about a terrorist threat
- Ministry
The first is that privacy is sometimes an impediment. If I am trying to find a loved one, or get in contact with someone of note, then it is difficult if that person has clothed the details of their life in privacy.
For example, I am desperately in love with Heidi Wall. I cherish her sweet voice and her sonsy face as those of Athene. However, were the world a private, paranoid place, I would have no hope of ever meeting her - I would not even know that she exists.
Love is the base of the world, and all of our drives. Greater privacy destroys love, by reducing the circle of people in whom we can fall in love to just those we know personally.
I urge Microsoft to consider their actions carefully. They could be breaking peoples hearts.
I am not some stalker, like shoeboy - I am an honest Virgin, reserving his true passions for The One.
I won't let microsoft get in my way.
KTB:Lover, Poet, Artiste, Aesthete, Programmer.
KTB:Lover, Poet, Artiste, Aesthete, Programmer.
There is no
Setting, A dark windly night in a small town... AlienChaos "I wish I has a soda" Hail Storm "I have orderd a Coke for you" AlienChaos "I don't need one I have pespi in the frige cancel order' Hail Storm "I'm sorry, Pespi is not a choice" Alien Choas "Hail storm Cancel last order" Hail Storm "Look Alien Chaos, I know where you live what you look like, and much more from my nifty camers and voice software. You want to order the COKE!" Alien Chaos "Damn..." Next day, A large crate of Coke is delivered. AlienChoas proceds to try to uninstall hailstorm from his home...All your world belong to MicroSoft... Hail Storm "Alien Chaos, resistance if futile" Alien Chaos "No!!! I don't want you to invade my home and watch my every move and hear every thing." Hail Storm "It's too late Alien Chaos how can you stop us? Not even the (insert three letters) could manage to get into every home in the US, let alone the world." to be continued...
.. . . . . . . . .
You've obviously never been a victom of identity theft. It takes forever to get cleared up and is neither easy or fun. You will find your credit screwed six ways from Sunday and have to refight the same battle every month for months. See, Credit Reporting Agencies get information from each other and you'll get it cleared off of some and then they will exchange information and one of the ones you didn't get cleared off of will resubmit it to the ones you did. Start over and repeat for months.
"If there is nothing you are willing to die for, then you are not really alive." Myself
What Microsoft is doing is convenient: centralize it all on Microsoft servers and Microsoft standards. Forget about federation, server-to-server protocols and all that. What Microsoft is doing is also cheaper in the short run an quicker to market (which is why it will likely beat open standards). Nobody but Microsoft can deliver this, not because they have any better technology, but because they have the market position.
The loser is the consumer, who will be denied any kind of market choice again: your choice may be to buy Microsoft or not schedule any appointments with your doctor, dentist, or insurance broker.
On the bright side: there is a good chance that this will not fly. With always-on Internet connections, people can control their data themselves. Even without any privacy incentives, answering machines still sell well, despite personal voice mail offerings. Many people will probably prefer to keep their personal data in cheap, secure Internet servers in their home, no larger and no more complex than an answering machine.