Slashdot Mirror
Slashback: Security, Telephony, Solicitude
A good oversight to correct. AndyMan! writes "Regarding yesterdays 'Building A Better Inbox,' I got the following email from support@mailblocks.com:
"'Our apologies, we picked up an old version of our TOS when we went live. We will NOT be allowing 3rd parties to send unsolicited email to our userbase. Please check the site this evening for the updated and correct TOS. We apologize for any confusion or inconvenience.'"
All the government you pay for. dunng808 writes "Despite frequent speculation to the contrary, Security Enhanced Linux is alive and well. Government Executive Magazine has a report from a conference on open-source software at which Peter Loscocco, a senior NSA scientist, revealed that the agency has continued to work on SE Linux despite efforts by Microsoft and the Initiative for Software Choice. "We spent a lot of time educating our managers, who accepted a lot of the flack that has come back to NSA about SE Linux," Loscocco said. For those readers trying to win acceptance of open-source software in the workplace, what effort have you undertaken to educate management, and what has worked?"
Also safe for now is GPS. As an anonymous reader writes, "Following last week's thread on GPS, and the possibility that the Pentagon might goof around with the civilian signal, Forbes checks in with the folks in charge and finds we have nothing to worry about."
OK, both of these things involve series of coherent vibrations in air ... A few months back, we mentioned that TheKompany was selling software to let Zaurus owners use Net2Phone for telephone service, and that they were working on a desktop version as well. Well, now it's ready. HeUnique writes "TheKompany just released tkcphone for the Linux desktop. This is the first product which lets Linux users to use their existing net2phone accounts to talk either through net2phone to net2phone or net2phone to standard POTS phone with the best audio quality (G.729 codec)."
And in almost-but-not-totally-unrelated news, jackjumper writes "Shawn Gordon of The Kompany fame has started his own record label, ProgRock Records. From the interview at Linux and Main: "The idea...is to provide progressive rock music to listeners at a low price while allowing more of that money to find its way to the artists' pockets than happens with conventional recording contracts and at the same time making a gesture -- you know the one -- to the established recording cartel." This sounds really cool."
A deadly pathogen by any other name. waytoomuchcoffee writes "The leading hypothesis for what is causing Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) is now thought to be a coronavirus, one of the virii that can cause the common cold. The New York Times (archive version for those non-members) has a story here. The global toll is now more than 750 stricken and 22 dead. Singapore is quarantining hundreds of people in an effort to stop the outbreak, while the head of the city's hospitals has taken ill with symptoms consistent with SARS. Both the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization have pages up now, which include FAQs and progression information."
How many times do we have to go over this? Vajsvarana writes "The major free Desktop Environment GNOME and KDE has released a common open statement on recent XFree86 troubles. 'Innovation should happen in the open, with all affected parties able to participate early in the process' seems a clear and strong request to XFree86 people."
GPS, with this war going on is going to change, even more than now
22 dead out of 750 infected is definitely not insignificant. Assuming a rate of 20 deaths out of 1000 infections, and a 30% infection rate, equals what, 150k deaths in the US? Not trivial.
This is only a test Sig. If this were a real Sig, it would be witty, pithy, or rude, just like all the other Sigs.
"STFU, not STFES.
Learn More." [reference.com]"
LOL! Burn!
Heh. That made my day. I'm tired of being corrected on stupid things like the difference between "viruses" and "virii". Normally I wouldn't mind, but once you've studied latin it's hard to avoid the urge to call it 'virii'. I wish people who use that term would be cut a little slack, it's not like we're all posting with spell and grammar checkers here. Afterall, this is just a forum. It's not a Scholastic Competition. When you correct somebody on use of a term that nobody could possibily mistake, you just sound like an arrogant ass, especially when done with such little tact.
Okay, I'm done ranting. Please spare me your ill-based theory that if people don't speak 100% correct English 100% of the time that we'll all end up communicating via a series of grunts and moans.
"Derp de derp."
Here goes:
.NET apps won't easily port, who says .NET is better than Java anyway? I'm no Java fan, but I've done some Java web app coding and some .NET development, and .NET is no better.
I told my manager Linux was free, and his eyes opened wide. I told my manager it was more stable than our NT 4 servers, and his eyes opened wider. I told my manager that I would have better, easier, remote management, and his eyes opened wider. I told my manager Linux would still run our Websphere software and that IBM provided a free migration path (no new licenses), and my bosses eyes finally popped out of their sockets.
I'm not being a Linux zealot. Everything there -- except for his eyes popping out -- is true. We just migrated 3 web servers to Redhat. It was an incredibly easy process and we're already seeing dramatic stability improvements despite a severe coding bug that cause us some downtime. I have never managed a Linux server before, but I'm not having any trouble learning it, with a bit of online help.
While your
The global economy is a great thing until you feel it locally.
Then you didn't tell well.
It's free, but you can pay for it.
You don't get support for free, but you can buy it, from RedHat for example.
Wine and vmware might be useful in *some* situations.
And, it's not a silver bullet. For example, I considered rewriting a VB app in PerlQt and running it on Linux. Turns out it wouldn't work because we'd have to migrate from SQL Server as well. So what to do? Very simple.
Tell your manager that while Linux is not currently a viable alternative for your business it's growing fast, and that you can make changes slowly to make moving to it easier if you ever need it, since vendor lock-in might mean serious problems for the company in the future. For example you could try Postgres for a small non-critial DB. You could try to make a database that could be moved to Postres with little effort. You could get Cygwin and/or use Perl to automate tasks. You could try using Linux on your mail server, DNS server or web server.
Then, if some day MS takes a way you don't like it'll be much easier to switch to Linux.
Even more disturbing to me is the following:
WE RESERVE THE RIGHT AT ANY TIME TO:
* Change the terms and conditions of this Agreement;
* Change the Services, including eliminating or discontinuing any Services; or
* Change any fees or charges for use of the Services.
Any changes we make will be effective automatically immediately after posting such changes on the Site. Your continued use of the Services following such changes will be deemed acceptance of such changes. Be sure to review this Agreement periodically to ensure familiarity with the most current version. You can determine when this Agreement was last revised by checking the "Last revised" legend at the top of the Agreement.
Basically, they're saying that without notice, they can do whatever the hell they want with your information and it's up to you to go and find out. Even if you happen to check a few minutes after they change the TOS, they've probably already sold all your info to 3rd parties. Since this probably contains your home address and phone number, it could affect you even after you stop using the service.
If they wanted to be reasonable, they could change their policy to allow them to make changes only if they notify you one week in advance via a message to your mailblocks account.
It's more dangerous because I can virtually assure myself not getting AIDS by not having sex, not sharing hypodermic needles, and avoiding other peoples' blood. I can sit next to an HIV positive person in an airplane without any danger of getting AIDS. The same CAN'T be said of SARS.
This is fairly standard in terms of corporate policy - check the terms on your yahoo, hotmail, mail.com, or any other "free" account. *Everything* in the TOA is subject to negotiation at any time - remember, they are in business to make a profit, not to guarantee your privacy. As soon as you give your information to *any* 3rd party, they can do what they want with it. Subject, of course, to your notification to the changes on their privacy page which may or not be updated regularly.
And for those who think I don't know what I'm talking about - I worked for 2 years for Intelliquest / Naviant (now owned by Equifax) where the goal was to tie people between *any* online registration and their real-world credit data.