Linux is always Genuine. And with the open distros, it doesn't cost a cent. You can put copies of it on as many computers as you want. You have server functionality if you want it - for free.
As Microsoft keeps tightening up on people, I really have to wonder why anyone still puts up with it.
I understand that they are a company, entitled to sell licenses to their stuff, and to enforce those licenses. But this seems to be changing the rules on legitimate users after they already bought the licenses.
Doesn't matter to me. I run XP on a system not on a network and don't need to patch it for anything. Everything else I run is Linux and I haven't booted the XP box in over a year - probably more like two.
But it is hard to play a multiplayer board game if it is just you all by yourself. I think the place the iPad could be fun would be for games you can play across the network - be it a campus network or the whole of the Interwebs.
If you are by yourself but playing with people across a network, some of the other negatives people have mentioned go away. Nobody else can see you scroll around on the game board or zoom in on specific locations. Also, the iPad has a 1024 x 768 resolution. Not amazing resolution but plenty to take in the whole of a Scrabble board.
Since it has an 802.11a/b/g/n capability, it could also be fun for games and sims that would otherwise split the screen on a computer or TV display (like from a game console). A lot of possible functionality will depend on how fast it can draw on that screen and how much processing power it has. The CPU is a 1 GHz something or other, but if it and the graphics chip (if it has one) are up to it, with a fast wireless interface, you can give each player their own display into the game/sim from their own point of view. Then there is no "cheating" by looking over the split screen to see what the opponent is doing.
Also, with the 802.11 interface, there is the possibility to have a dedicated server in your favorite OS doing a lot of the heavy hauling and the iPads connected to it just work on displaying things from their user's point of view.
The networking aspect means not everyone has to be present. That's a big advantage over a cardboard game board. The big disadvantage would be that everyone would need an iPad or at least a computer running a version of the game that could use the same message passing protocol as the iPads.
I think they are basing the CO2 increases on fossil fuel use increases. I don't find the methodology in the article, but by looking at the number of new power plants going on line, and the number of existing ones, it should be pretty easy to get a fairly accurate number.
Regardless, it's a pretty depressing article. And it doesn't mention the methane hydrates that are starting to thaw and bubble up in the northern latitudes. That has the potential to push warming even higher and what is being forecast is already going to be disastrous to every living thing on the planet.
People around now are going to have things bad enough after the next few decades. After that, well, I hope you like Mel Gibson Road Warrior movies...
What about a web server's near cousin - file sharing applications (torrents and such)?
Hopefully you block the ports those use but you don't have to use the stock ports either.
And there are also neat packages that let users do all sorts of fun stuff over port 80 that essentially bypasses firewalls for all sorts of other applications.
If users can now install and run these apps,what shreds of security you had can disappear fast. I don't just care about users being able to escalate privs. I care about new connections to outside servers, home networks, file sharing (and the various legal liabilities and accidental leaving of important information), etc.
That was a very short period of time. As soon as Microsoft had established itself - even before Windows - they started their campaigns against any competitors.
"Afterwards, anonymous cowards and logged in individuals rallied for Kaspersky's impeachment by crucifixion at local online site:
Slashdot Pay-Per-View Live Free Crucifixion Event"
Just this one thing and now I really don't like the guy.
Certainly there is a lot of fraud and theft on the Internet, and people who do bad things. But the anonymity aspect to the Internet is one of its greatest assets. I prefer my identity to not be known when I post, read news stories, research things, and known only to those where I buy things.
As it is, if someone really wants to know who I am, they can find out. Link up IP address with logs from my ISP and I'm no longer anonymous.
Already, and it is just the nature of the beast, everything people do online can be sifted, sorted, mined, etc. People can be identified by their browsing habits. They can be profiled by their search histories. Governments everywhere have their unblinking robot minions scanning for any key words and actions that might indicate someone is a malcontent and worthy of monitoring more closely. There is no need to make it any easier to monitor people or to allow others to join in the fun.
Our largest local movie theater installed an electronic cellphone signal blocker some years ago. It worked very well and almost put them out of business.
Was this in the USA? The reason is that doing this, while so very nice to prevent the idiots who don't know how to put their phones on vibrate from bothering everyone else, is also highly illegal.
The reason is that it can interfere with emergency calls even outside the building. The FCC can impose fines on the order of thousands of dollars per day that such a system is active.
There are moves afoot to try to get special exemptions to jam cell phone communications (prisons are another example) but so far it is still very illegal to run a jammer in the USA.
There are so many examples of social networking site biffs that you could have fun with just going over the highlights. Also discussing how employers now screen applicants with their facebook pages, blogs, and such, discussing how phishers use myspace and facebook to get baseline information for scams, and that there is a new application (looked for the link but can't find it) that examines your profile and your friend's profiles to infer information about you that you don't even say. Guilt by association but you have no control over who uses it and for what purposes.
And just for fun, if you have a computer and a projector display, you can show how easy it is to grep web proxy logs for key words then tell them bots scan logs, don't blink, and present tidy reports to management. Helping them stay out of trouble will be appreciated.
If you know some fun tricks with embedding malware in innocent looking things so you can pwn a demonstration computer, or just run some remote exploits and then run a keylogger, capture screens, change the remote desktop wallpaper to something cheesy just to drive home the point of how easy it is to take over someone's computer who opens a crafted attachment and such - any of the penetration tricks that can show them in real time what attackers have the power to do - and you might keep their attention.
Just be careful to not make things too technical or detailed so they don't glaze over, but still do some security shock and awe...
On the memory stick front, you could load it with an autorun or some such and plug it into your unsuspecting computer. Have it do something like play a video of an explosion then remind them that you probably wouldn't see an explosion. The software load would just quietly harvest everything they did and send it out to the attacker over the web.
It would be a really fun presentation to give if you do it right. Do it wrong, though, and you will leave the audience confused bored.
Slashdot Mirror
Linux is always Genuine. And with the open distros, it doesn't cost a cent. You can put copies of it on as many computers as you want. You have server functionality if you want it - for free.
As Microsoft keeps tightening up on people, I really have to wonder why anyone still puts up with it.
I understand that they are a company, entitled to sell licenses to their stuff, and to enforce those licenses. But this seems to be changing the rules on legitimate users after they already bought the licenses.
Doesn't matter to me. I run XP on a system not on a network and don't need to patch it for anything. Everything else I run is Linux and I haven't booted the XP box in over a year - probably more like two.
I voted with my feet a long time ago.
But it is hard to play a multiplayer board game if it is just you all by yourself. I think the place the iPad could be fun would be for games you can play across the network - be it a campus network or the whole of the Interwebs.
If you are by yourself but playing with people across a network, some of the other negatives people have mentioned go away. Nobody else can see you scroll around on the game board or zoom in on specific locations. Also, the iPad has a 1024 x 768 resolution. Not amazing resolution but plenty to take in the whole of a Scrabble board.
Since it has an 802.11a/b/g/n capability, it could also be fun for games and sims that would otherwise split the screen on a computer or TV display (like from a game console). A lot of possible functionality will depend on how fast it can draw on that screen and how much processing power it has. The CPU is a 1 GHz something or other, but if it and the graphics chip (if it has one) are up to it, with a fast wireless interface, you can give each player their own display into the game/sim from their own point of view. Then there is no "cheating" by looking over the split screen to see what the opponent is doing. Also, with the 802.11 interface, there is the possibility to have a dedicated server in your favorite OS doing a lot of the heavy hauling and the iPads connected to it just work on displaying things from their user's point of view. The networking aspect means not everyone has to be present. That's a big advantage over a cardboard game board. The big disadvantage would be that everyone would need an iPad or at least a computer running a version of the game that could use the same message passing protocol as the iPads.
318x.com is now in my hosts file. Can at least try to protect ourselves...
Magnifico!
The methane clathrates are melting and methane is actually bubbling up in places in the oceans. One notable source is north of Japan.
As the oceans warm, that rate of release also increases.
I think they are basing the CO2 increases on fossil fuel use increases. I don't find the methodology in the article, but by looking at the number of new power plants going on line, and the number of existing ones, it should be pretty easy to get a fairly accurate number.
Regardless, it's a pretty depressing article. And it doesn't mention the methane hydrates that are starting to thaw and bubble up in the northern latitudes. That has the potential to push warming even higher and what is being forecast is already going to be disastrous to every living thing on the planet.
People around now are going to have things bad enough after the next few decades. After that, well, I hope you like Mel Gibson Road Warrior movies...
What about a web server's near cousin - file sharing applications (torrents and such)?
Hopefully you block the ports those use but you don't have to use the stock ports either.
And there are also neat packages that let users do all sorts of fun stuff over port 80 that essentially bypasses firewalls for all sorts of other applications.
If users can now install and run these apps,what shreds of security you had can disappear fast. I don't just care about users being able to escalate privs. I care about new connections to outside servers, home networks, file sharing (and the various legal liabilities and accidental leaving of important information), etc.
Do you really want your users installing and running things like Wireshark and nmap?
Or, maybe compilers so they can turn exploit code into executables all that much easier?
The problem goes way beyond disk space.
That's crap. You do too take something away - you take away the renumeration you should have paid.
That was a very short period of time. As soon as Microsoft had established itself - even before Windows - they started their campaigns against any competitors.
I ran a FIDONet node before and I can do it again ;-)
The current added text is also kind of funny:
"Afterwards, anonymous cowards and logged in individuals rallied for Kaspersky's impeachment by crucifixion at local online site: Slashdot Pay-Per-View Live Free Crucifixion Event"
I couldn't agree more.
Better to keep your mouth shut and let people think you might be an idiot than to open it wide and remove all doubt. Kaspersky has removed all doubt.
Just this one thing and now I really don't like the guy.
Certainly there is a lot of fraud and theft on the Internet, and people who do bad things. But the anonymity aspect to the Internet is one of its greatest assets. I prefer my identity to not be known when I post, read news stories, research things, and known only to those where I buy things.
As it is, if someone really wants to know who I am, they can find out. Link up IP address with logs from my ISP and I'm no longer anonymous.
Already, and it is just the nature of the beast, everything people do online can be sifted, sorted, mined, etc. People can be identified by their browsing habits. They can be profiled by their search histories. Governments everywhere have their unblinking robot minions scanning for any key words and actions that might indicate someone is a malcontent and worthy of monitoring more closely. There is no need to make it any easier to monitor people or to allow others to join in the fun.
Our largest local movie theater installed an electronic cellphone signal blocker some years ago. It worked very well and almost put them out of business.
Was this in the USA? The reason is that doing this, while so very nice to prevent the idiots who don't know how to put their phones on vibrate from bothering everyone else, is also highly illegal.
The reason is that it can interfere with emergency calls even outside the building. The FCC can impose fines on the order of thousands of dollars per day that such a system is active.
There are moves afoot to try to get special exemptions to jam cell phone communications (prisons are another example) but so far it is still very illegal to run a jammer in the USA.
Please mod the above funny!
Yeah, let's see China knock those off!
There are so many examples of social networking site biffs that you could have fun with just going over the highlights. Also discussing how employers now screen applicants with their facebook pages, blogs, and such, discussing how phishers use myspace and facebook to get baseline information for scams, and that there is a new application (looked for the link but can't find it) that examines your profile and your friend's profiles to infer information about you that you don't even say. Guilt by association but you have no control over who uses it and for what purposes.
And just for fun, if you have a computer and a projector display, you can show how easy it is to grep web proxy logs for key words then tell them bots scan logs, don't blink, and present tidy reports to management. Helping them stay out of trouble will be appreciated.
If you know some fun tricks with embedding malware in innocent looking things so you can pwn a demonstration computer, or just run some remote exploits and then run a keylogger, capture screens, change the remote desktop wallpaper to something cheesy just to drive home the point of how easy it is to take over someone's computer who opens a crafted attachment and such - any of the penetration tricks that can show them in real time what attackers have the power to do - and you might keep their attention.
Just be careful to not make things too technical or detailed so they don't glaze over, but still do some security shock and awe...
On the memory stick front, you could load it with an autorun or some such and plug it into your unsuspecting computer. Have it do something like play a video of an explosion then remind them that you probably wouldn't see an explosion. The software load would just quietly harvest everything they did and send it out to the attacker over the web.
It would be a really fun presentation to give if you do it right. Do it wrong, though, and you will leave the audience confused bored.
And what do you think Afghanistan has lots of... (Hint: It isn't oil.)
Do you really expect a country that at least used to charge families for the bullets used to execute family members to act in a humanitarian way?
Why not just 'engineer' them to have no brain at all
It worked for republicans!
So very true!
I think I finally figured out which analog hole they really want to close... (and with what...)
It's too logical. ;-)
Not drugs... Spice.
He who controls the spice controls the universe. Didn't you know?