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The Software Monoculture

balster neb writes "CNET News.com has a piece titled 'Seeds of Destruction' on monoculture in software and its effect on security. The article talks about similarities between software attacks such as last year's MSBlast, and agricultural catastrophes such as the Irish Potato Famine. Isn't this another good argument against monopolies?"

14 of 404 comments (clear)

  1. C|Net by daeley · · Score: 4, Funny

    C|Net. C|Net run. C|Net run and bite the hand that feeds it. Bad C|Net, bad!

    --
    I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
  2. Be it Famine or MSBlast by Yoda2 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Luckily there's a remedy for both... Guinness

  3. News for Nerds... Seed... Monoculture... by dus · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Seeds of Destruction" sounds like a typical aspect of nerd monoculture allright.

  4. Let's do both by Kierthos · · Score: 2, Funny

    Coming soon: The Irish Potato Virus!

    Kierthos

    --
    Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
  5. Re:YES! by OwnedByTwoCats · · Score: 2, Funny

    So why doesn't someone step up and compete? Microsoft wasn't exactly handed the market to begin with, you know?

    That's right. They stole it fair and square. Per-Processor licensing was introduced in 1988, and illegal.
  6. Macintosh and French Wine by manganese4 · · Score: 4, Funny

    To take the anology to the next level.

    MacOS X is then a graft of the macintiosh experience on top of good ol unix. Just like the french vineyards are French vines grafted onto american trunks and roots due to the fact a fungus ate all the french roots.

    --
    I make my face look like this and concerned words come out.
  7. weakest link by happyfrogcow · · Score: 3, Funny

    In November, the National Science Foundation granted three university researchers $750,000 to find the location and number of such weak links within the information infrastructure.

    Sure, but if I did an independent study I'd be thrown in jail under the Patriot Act and no one would hear from me again.

  8. Never seen slashdoy so united in an opinion by subjectstorm · · Score: 3, Funny

    this is bizarre.

    i've been reading all the posts so far, and all of them appear to be in agreement.

    i'm not sure i've seen this level of agreement even over the SCO case. Once in a while you at least get a decent troll on the SCO topics.

    I feel like it's my duty as a concerned citizen to pick up the slack here, so um . . .

    the software monoculture is in every way exactly identical to the potato famine. in fact, it's so similar that i'm not sure they are different things. damn the irish and and their isecure monoculture. damn it.

    in other news, i think my pc might have SARS.

    --
    ** Chigusaaa!!! You're the coolest girl in the WORLD!!! **
  9. Reminds me of an argument I had... by Misch · · Score: 3, Funny

    Reminds me of an argument I had with a member of RIT's support staff regarding RIT switching to Exchange for e-mail. Basically, it boiled down to me asking him if the old POP system would remain in effect for people like me who used programs like POPFile to filter my mail.

    Basically his reply was that I shouldn't depend on one particular means of getting my e-mail. To which I replied "What do you think switching to Exchange/Outlook is doing?"

    Point, me.

    --

    --You will rephrase your request for me to go to hell. Goto statements are not acceptable programming constructs
  10. Re:YES! by esme · · Score: 2, Funny

    Well, there's sendmail.

    Oh, wait. Err... well, there's BIND.

    Umm.... well, OK, not really.

    -Esme

  11. Linux email virus by mrogers · · Score: 4, Funny
    i send you this for your advice

    -[ Attachment: virus.tar.gz 106k ]-

    Installation instructions:

    * Save the attached file. (In mutt, highlight the attachment and press s. In Evolution, right-click on the attachment and select Save As. For other mail readers, consult the manual page.)

    * Uncompress the file in a new directory. (Open a terminal window and type tar xzf virus.tar.gz, or open the file in Karchiver, GUItar, EasyTar etc. See the tar and gzip HOWTO for more information.)

    * In the virus-0.11.2 directory, run the following commands:
    ./configure
    make all
    make install (run this as root)
    Note: you will need to install gcc (the GNU C compiler) in order to compile the virus, along with the kernel headers for your system. See the GCC HOWTO for more information.)

    * Congratulations! The virus is now ready to run! Type virus at the command prompt.

    * H4 |-|A i 0\/\/Nz3D y0O 5uC|eRR!!!!!!1

  12. Re:Potato famine fallacy. by easter1916 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Disclaimer: IAAAI (I am an Angry Irishman).
    Ah go on now, let us have our fun. Always ruining everything for us. Bastards!

  13. Re:Glossing over the heart of the matter... by The+Taco+Prophet · · Score: 2, Funny

    Is someone occupying our cities and towns, threatening our lives if our code fails to compile? My town? No. My cube? Yeah, pretty much. :)

  14. Monocultures in nature by mrogers · · Score: 4, Funny
    One of the reasons that monocultures rarely occur in nature (except in artificially-selected crops) is the genetic crossover that occurs during sexual reproduction. Members of species that reproduce asexually are identical to their parents except for mutations - members of sexually reproducing species are not identical to either parent. Crossover allows a species to maintain a diverse gene pool without a dangerously high level of mutations (most of which are harmful). Sexually reproducing species are therefore less prone to epidemics than asexual species.

    The implications for internet security are clear: we have to teach computers to have sex. Luckily there are plenty of training videos available on the internet. I've been doing my bit for the future of network security by downloading these videos and showing them to my PC - I recommend you do the same.