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Slashback: Gaping, Wristwear, Screenies
Too bad there isn't a lot of good Free software. aka-ed writes: "A small update on the "Drink Or Die" busts: Apparently, the feds' move has borne preventative fruit. According to this post from one of the major commercial Usnet services, binaries traffic on Usenet has taken a noticeable hit since the bust, for reasons speculated upon in the post itself."
Open wide, and say "mmmmghrfgghfgr." atreus42 writes: "Microsoft has released a patch to fix the Gaping Security Hole(TM) in Internet Explorer 5.5 and 6.0. This security bulletin details the file extension/content header spoofing bug that would allow bad people to disguise a downloadable executable file as text. The internet isn't doomed after all..."
How to make my Visor look slow and lowly.
Sindre Lia writes "Sharp's new Zaurus SL5500 is the first PDA device from a major manufacturer in a long time that uses a new operating system and a new user interface.
According to preliminary reports from infoSync staffers Larry Garfield and Janice Karin that attended the launch of the SL-5500 and got hands-on experience with the new device, the GUI still needs polishing and to some degree also the hardware, but the device has according to them a lot of potential if some first-generation problems can be fixed.
See all the pictures of the new OS here!"
At least this letter is not in binary ...
Dog and Pony writes with a lengthy letter (informative, if you have odd taste in watches). "Slashdot recently ran a story about a pretty silly binary watch. Well, anyways, being a silly person, I thought one would be cool to have, even though I normally don't wear watches.
Problem was, they only shipped inside Norway... so I sent them a polite mail, asking them to notify me if they would start shipping internationally. And today I got an answer.
Too bad it seems a really cumbersome process to get that watch... have these guys never heard of PayPal? And offering payment via the www in 2003? 'Course, you gotta have goals...
Here is a copy of the mail:
> Dear Customer
> Please note the binary watch is released World-Wide Sale
> To be able to expedite your orders please follow instructions below
> 1.0
> Order Your watch by using or online home page:rsi-digital.com
> 2.0
> US$ 35 must be transfer from your local bank to
> ATT
> NORDEA BANK NORWAY
> Middelthuns Gt 17
> Postboks 1166.Centrum
> 0107 OSLO
> ACCOUNT NUMBER: 6527 05 04641
> Research & Supplier International A/S
> Postboks 236
> 4201 Sauda
> Norway
> 3.0
> Original receipt must be faxed to +47 52 78 88 01 or send scanned and send by mail to arramsta@online.no
> 4.0
> Your order will than be expedite from our sales office
> Delivery time is estimated to be 10 to 14 days after received confirmed payment by fax or mail as stated above
> 5.0
> Note: RSI will from 2003 offer payment by using WWW.
> 6.0
> Payment 35USD cover cost of watch 28 USD handling and postage 7 USD
> Total:
> =35 USD
> Best Regards
> Tone Yven
> Sales engineer
I am still thinking that black one....
On a side note, to us non-native English speakers, that has spent too much time in Dilbert-land, "Sales engineer" really sounds like an oxymoron."
...to try to buy anything if you don't live in the US!
Perhaps 25% of sites that offer online purchasing are so USA-centric it's crazy. I guess that's part of living in New Zealand, but come on US$35 to ship a paper back book!? I can send one to my sister in NYC for NZ$12 (US$5 ish)
gadgetophile.com
One quality alternative to Netscape and IE is Opera . It is on the larger side, as it is trying to compete with IE, but it is fast and secure. The gestures are especially useful; they make me feel like I'm a kid again painting with my hands. Opera is also available for a number of platforms, including your favourite forms of free Unix (i.e. Linux) and Windows. Could help to make your workspaces consistent, if you work on multiple platforms.
Apart from the well known ones, the only other types of alternatives I can think of are the stripped down Gecko systems (Gecko being the HTML renderer built out of the Mozilla project.) They repackage the core technology, without the rest of the stuff would typically gives Mozilla its reputation for being slow, bloated or inefficient. Gecko, by itself, is a very small, fast and efficient core, comparable to the IE renderer. Most of the ones I've seen are for Linux-type systems, though, like Galeon . And don't forget that Gecko, Mozilla, Netscape 4.7 and Netscape 6 are differnet beasts, but all closely related.
Note! If a moderator would care to help me along in the karma department... I don't know what I did (I don't post often), but every time I post I get can automatic -1. Please see the value of my comments for whatever they are worth! Thank you!
Pete
Ultimately, I think I use too many services that won't work on anything but the Big 2 (I have to bypass my proxy for things like Netbank, eBay, Blogger, etc). What I really need is a way of fixing this file type attachment hole without having to download a patch. Has anyone worked out a custom filter for Proxomitron that detects malformed MIME type stuff...?
Anyway, the details. He had around 10 machines just sitting underneath a table in the server room, with a combined storage of 2 terabytes. Apparantly, he was eating up 8-20 megabits of MIT's bandwidth a day. Needless to say, he is no longer employed by the institute...
I dont have a