Slashback: Disclosure, Maricopa, Telecoms

Slashback tonight with another round of updates and errata regarding recent Slashdot stories. Read on for more on domain slamming, the process behind fixing and revealing the recent OpenSSH vulnerability, early photography, and a special note for residents of Maricopa County, Arizona.

Quick work by smart people. ciaweb writes "The OpenSSH group has revised its security advisory about the recent OpenSSH vulnerabilities. In it, they describe their decision-making process for releasing the bug information. It is interesting to contrast their procedure, which appears designed to maximize user protection, against Microsoft's, which appears to maximize Microsoft's protection."

Pardon me, sir, would you mind if I SLAMMED THIS HAMMER ON YOUR FINGERS?! D0wnsp0ut writes "I thumbed through my mail today and found what appeared to be a renewal notice for my domain. This one came from "Domain Registry of America." Verisign attempted something similar back in March and Bulkregister.com fought back and won an injunction, against the mailings. So watch out if your domain is getting close to expiring. I talked to my registrar (Register.com) and they're aware of it.
I'll scan the letter but have no place to post the pictures. Can anyone lend some bandwidth?"

Half the world has never eaten a Krispy Kreme donut, either. cshirky writes "I've just written an essay on the phrase ' Half the world has never made a phone call'. It's more 'voice telephony-y' than the usual telecom stories here, but after seeing the interest in media and the market that surfaced during my /. interview, I thought it might be of some interest."

Please stop sending my money to Redmond, OK? TrumpetPower! writes "All that brouhaha over Maricopa County's policy prohibiting companies or persons convicted of antitrust violations has had an effect. I just received the following note announcing a public forum scheduled for this coming Monday.

You recently inquired about the County's use of Microsoft products and the manner in which we license their software. We appreciate your interest in the County's technology plans. To provide a forum in which to discuss our technology direction and address any questions you may have, we will have Information Technology staff members available to meet with citizens at 8:30 am on Monday July 8th. The meeting location will be the County Administration Building at 301 W. Jefferson in Suite 420. Please RSVP your attendance so we can ensure that adequate facilities are available for the meeting.

Thank you for your inquiry,
Paul Allsing
Deputy CIO
Maricopa County
301 W Jefferson, Suite 420
Phoenix, AZ 85003"

Ah, but what about the first annoying family photographer? 7h3_B055 writes: "Contrary to this article on Slashdot claiming the first photograph was created in 1826, much evidence is pointing to the fact that the Shroud of Turin may have been an earlier example (substantially earlier) of photography using ingredients as basic as egg-white for treating cloth (the photopaper) and urine for developing it. The camera itself could have been a simple box with a hole in it and the exposure time would have been lengthy."

Of course, there are a lot of theories about the Shroud of Turin, and a google search is likely to intrigue you for days.

Comments

'Half the world': Quantity _does_ matter

[brendano]

o snapshot of telephone penetration matters, because the issue is not amount but rate. If you care about the digital divide, and you believe that access to communications can help poor countries to grow, then pontificating about who has or hasn't made a phone call is worse than a waste of time, it actively distorts your view of the possible solutions because it emphasizes a statist attitude.

Wrong: it doesn't imply hopelessness, but rather encourages us to take action to change. Do you think that Kofi Annan wants us to throw up our hands and not care about the rate of improvement? No! By recognizing the magnitude of the problem, we can realize how important <i>more</i> improvement is. Just because things are improving doesn't mean we shouldn't be concerned about the huge inequalities that exist.

Re:Great news for Linux!

[Wildcat J]

I'm really really really excited to hear about that New Mexico county that has a rule against using Microsoft software.

I think we had this problem last time this subject came up, but Maricopa County is:

• in Arizona
• the 4th largest county in the US
• home of Phoenix, a major metropolitan area

Otherwise, I agree with your sentiments. As someone who grew up in the area, I just wanted to defend my turf ;)

-J

Re:Detailed analysis of the exploit?

[larry bagina]

here's some code that was posted to bugtraq:

sshutup-theo.tar.gz

See here for the corresponding message.

Are you out of your fucking mind?

[Kombat]

You're obviously not a parent. Policing your children? Duh! Hello! McFly!?! That's what parenting is. What, you think kids are born knowing right from wrong, and parents are just supposed to stay out of the way and occassionally put food on the table? What friggin' world are you living in???

When will people realise that the way to help your child grow up safely is not to forbid things Gee, maybe the same time they realise that if a pair of minors wants to have unprotected sex, then that's their business. I.e., NEVER, HOPEFULLY, BECAUSE YOU'RE TALKING FUCKING STUPID.

Hey Genius, we're talking about minors here, doing illegal things. It's one thing if you want to try and make a point about the futility of the war on drugs among adults, and the government's assault on civil liberties by trying to regulate activites exclusive to one or more consenting grown ups, but geez, kid, get your head out of your ass and use some common sense. We're talking about kids here. I know in your little fantasy world it's the 10-year-olds who are hacking out the planet-saving patches keeping this fragile society together, while the Ph.d educated engineers at Microsoft scratch their heads in awe, so this may surprise you: kids DON'T know it all. Kids need guidance. They need discipline. And, to borrow a phrase from my father, as long as you're living under my roof, eating my food, and using my phone, you're going to follow MY RULES

Good Lord man, you take this all kids are good and can be trusted thing too far.

Re:Are you out of your fucking mind?

[G-funk]

Hahahaha! You (and probably your father) are an idiot.

I know in your little fantasy world it's the 10-year-olds who are hacking out the planet-saving patches keeping this fragile society together, while the Ph.d educated engineers at Microsoft scratch their heads in awe

What the fuck are you talking about? Who said anything about patches, or little kid geniouses or anything like that?

Were you even reading my post? The fact is You cannot stop your children from doing things they want to do. You know this. your parents tried it, and you did them anyway. So did your friends. All I said was that reaing your childrens' diary (a lot of my female friends had parents who liked to do this), reading his email, listening in on his phone calls, and stealing his pager and deciphering his "code talk" are not the way to go about things.

Policing children is not what parenting is about. Parenting is about _RAISING_ children, and teaching them: teach them how to make their own decisions about what's right and what's wrong, because by the time their desicions are life-threatening (unprotected sex, dui, drugs) they're going to make their own decisions wether you like it or not. Telling them what to do and what not to do is of course good - expecting them to do it "because i said so" is a fruitless and potentially damaging way of things.

Kids need guidance. They need discipline

I never said otherwise. And I never said kids can be trusted to do the right thing. But that doesn't make it right to go through their personal things looking for evidence just in case.

Re:Are you out of your fucking mind?

[The Grey Mouser]

Hey Genius, we're talking about minors here, doing illegal things. It's one thing if you want to try and make a point about the futility of the war on drugs among adults, and the government's assault on civil liberties by trying to regulate activites exclusive to one or more consenting grown ups, but geez, kid, get your head out of your ass and use some common sense. We're talking about kids here. I know in your little fantasy world it's the 10-year-olds who are hacking out the planet-saving patches keeping this fragile society together, while the Ph.d educated engineers at Microsoft scratch their heads in awe


I think the original posters' point is that children should be allowed to mistakes. Even dangerous ones, on occasion. A sterile, overprotective environment is anathema to a child's intellectual development. Indeed, this is observed in all primates, not just humans. The idea, I think, is to equip the child as best you can; to instill judgement and sense into their inchoate minds. Yes, punish them when they screw up. Yes, instill a healthy (not iron-fisted) discipline so they can grow up respecting themselves, and make intelligent choices. And, yes, sadly, you have to let them fall down once in a while. The risk you take in doing so is an investment in the child's psyche. Growing up is dangerous---it has to be, I think.

But where did you pull that 10-year-old hacker thing from, anyway? That was quite the non sequitur...

And, to borrow a phrase from my father, as long as you're living under my roof, eating my food, and using my phone, you're going to follow MY RULES


Well, that's fine. However, if you've done a proper job, one day your child will ask you where those rules come from, and their justification. You owe it to them to have a thought-out answer.

Cheers,

Michael

Phoenix residents-- this is your chance...

[VValdo]

If you live in the Phoenix Metro area, this is your big chance to make a great impression, show interest in your local government, and learn something too -- I mean, this is great-- the people who make important decisions about the county's technology are going to be LISTENING to you-- aside from the inevitable rips on Microsoft (easy to do), be sure to play up the cost-benefits and reliability of Linux and *bsd as viable alternatives. Have some printed materials (or CD-ROMs?) to give out.

If you seem too fanatical or "out there", you may scare them off-- it's easy to dismiss a lunatic, even when they're right. So please don't dress like Obiwan ;) A well-thought out, reasoned discussion about the benefits of open source software may make a tremendous difference if you can reach the right people and they are truly open to change.

Good luck everyone! Let us know how it works out Monday! Someone call the Arizona Republic and New Times. (And be on the lookout for a counter-offensive from Microsoft).

W

Bandwidth needed?

[Anonymous Coward]

"I thumbed through my mail today and found what appeared to be a renewal notice for my domain.... I'll scan the letter but have no place to post the pictures. Can anyone lend some bandwidth?"

Um, how about at your domain?

Oh, you're just hanging onto it for a rainy day? Naughty, naughty!