[Devils_Advocate begin] No, your right, security through obscurity doesn't work. But you've missed the point, thats not what they are doing, they are using the 'open source to finds bugs' princaple, and then not desclosing the details to the public until a fix is found. This is damage limitation, as there is a period of time that the bug exists, and a patch does not, and by limiting the people who have access to this information they are attempting to limit the amount of damage that can be done by 'script kiddies'. I makes some sense, how good an idea this is is debatable, but it is not security through obscurity, and to call it such is to muddy the issue with buzzword bingo. [end Devils_Advocate] Thad
You joke, I know, but there is a seriouse side to your 'point'.
Yes, your right, a deaf persion cannot access a audio recording of an artical online without assistance, but you seem to be forgetting (perhaps deliberatly) is that the blind have screen reader technology which gives them access to written material on line.
Moral beeing that they really should have transcribed it even if they thought the audio file was worth posting.
Well thats good then, I'd hate to be informative without beeing educational. Or Educational without beeing informative. That would be a real danger.:) Thad
unix has worked far more than any other OS and for ar longer because its the *right* way to do things
This is a dangerouse attitude, because not only does it assume that what is good for you is good for sombody else (theory of absolute truth), it assumes that what is good now cannot be bettered.
Unix *is* good, for you, for me, for many people, but no nesseserly good for everyone. No only that, but this assumption that *nix is *right* implies that everything else is *wrong*. Not only everything that has been, but everything that is to come. The simple truth is that at some point in the future, you, I, Linus, IBM, Apple, or, god forbid, Microsoft, might create something better, and we have to be able to accept that, and go with it, or hold back the state of the art, because of bigotry.
Really, why the excitement, a much 'slower' CPU could (theoretically) execute programs much faster by beeing better designed. We nead to get away from this oversimplified CPU centric mesures of performance. We all know that the CPU isn't the bottleneck on modern systems, so why is it the every improvment in CPU clock frequence is met with drooling addoration, when improvments in motherboard design, IO thoughput, memory chip speed, and so on are practially ignored.
The reason that stuff is cheaper on line isn't just because its not taxed, or because the retailers (or 'etailers' as the press now like to call them) save on rent, the reason you can buy stuff cheaper online is because they are selling at a loss!
Not only do I agree with the above posters comments, but I'd like to point out that the slashdot people (probably) judge the success of a story by the amount of discussion in prompts. If you ignore crap stories they will go away. If you post to every crap story saying "this is crap" and then people reply saying "no its not", "yes it is", "stop complaining", "stop complaining about the people who are complaining" and so on, then that is a discussion, and therfore, a popular story.
Take a look at the hall of fame, and see what's popular by this metric.
That's why Ford Motor's announcement last week was
potentially the most significant technology news in years, vastly more important than the river of hype about mergers and IPOs. Ford will offer each of its 350,000 employees worldwide, from factory workers in India to designers in Michigan, a high-speed desktop computer, a color printer and unlimited Internet access for just $5 a month. This announcement was potentially the most significant technology news in years, vastly more important than the river of hype about mergers, IPOs and stock prices.
Not all that strange, I meet loads of techys out clubbing, and loads of the techys I know are into clubbing (or metal).
On the other hand, I'd love to know if the dance floor is Java 2 compatiable and supports XML.
Its an escape from tech land, not and extension of it...
Personally, I think we might start to see more of this - people just getting fundamentally fed up and choosing whole new careers.
Too late, its already been happening for years. Why else is the industry full of young people? Computing is a burn out industry, most people give up and do something less stressfull instead - I've met plenty of people who used to be programmers (the carpenter that repaired the door after there was a break in where I used to work glanced at the computers we where working on and commented "computers eh? I used own a computer company, but I got sick of it, so I do this now." And go on with his work.
I'm amused how in English, "a fraction of" implies "a fraction less than zero", when of course "a fraction of" could be, for example, "eight thirds".
I don't think that's right. A fraction of (since I do speak basically only English and it is my native tongue) refers to a part of. I have never heard that it means less than zero anywhere
I think the author you are quoting meant less than one, rather than less than zero.
When people say "I got it for a fraction of the retail cost!" they are implying that they got it for less than that normal cost, for example 1/2 price, when the litteral translation of "fraction" into most (?) languages would not nesseseryly imply this, but would mean any fraction - ie a number expressed as a/b, like 4/3 or 8/3. There are many numbers most accurately expressed as fractions.
Abstain when you don't know. Don't just go for the one that rings a bell, if you don't know, don't vote.
Most Improved Open Source Project / Most Improved Kernel Module
Have you benchmarked it? Done regression testing? Checked the source for comments? No? Then abstain, 'cos you don't know!
Unsung Hero
Do you know what each of these people has done? Have you done research to find out how "unsung" they actually are? (Alan Cox has been on TV - thats not unsung!)
Best Open Source-Related Book
Have you actually read *all* of these books? No? Well then don't vote, 'cos you don't know!
I could go on, but your smart people, you know what I'm getting at. Don't just vote off the cuff, vote for what you know, and let those who are in the know's votes count by reducing the "noise" and keeping your uninformed opinion out of it. Like me.
Oh, and before I get moderated down as an opiniated know it all, I've abstained on almost everyting, because I'm honest enough to say "I Don't Know".
What is Brazil and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas about?
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is based on the (autobiographical) book by gonzo journalist Hunter S Tompson. It tells the story of "Dr Duke" and his attorny who go to Vegas to cover a desert race, and then a police convention, with tonnes of drugs. The film a very good, my only critisism is off the portral of the traffic cop who stops Duke.
Incedentally, in the book (and the film) one of the drugs that they take is "adrenochrome", which is supposedly extracted from the addrenalin gland of a live human patent. Does any one know if such a drug, or anything like it, exists?
The number IV is apparently not used because it clashes (I'm not sure, either the glyph IV or the word/number 4) with a naughty word in some Oriental language.
"4" sounds like "death" in Chinese. Or was it Japanise... can't remeber... but its definitly because is sounds like death (or dead).
Most people still use a stock kernel from their distribution.
... ...a lot of the code will come out the same. It's not like the compiler puts some kind of unique fingerprint on the kernel you build.
I don't think thats what the author means. I think that hes talking about other common components, like web browsers, and email clients, which is what most modern viri exploit.
At the moment a viri author can make huge assumptions like, its a win32 os with Outlook, and winsock, and use small exploits in each of them to spread the virus.
The linux kernal may be mostly the same accross most intalls of a popular disribution, but the differences stack up when you consdier all the other permutations of mail client & server and html renderer/http server, java VM, etc, etc, it becomes very hard to create a virus that will work with them all!
Thad
WTO is evil, mega-corp serving monster
on
New Patent Treaty
·
· Score: 2
Find out why, visit any of the following:
http://www.greenpeace.org/politics/wto/index.htm l http://www.agp.org/agp/index.html http://www.tradewatch.org/gattwto/gatthome.html http://www.uaw.org/breaktime/news_to_you/news2u4 -98/seaturtle.htm http://www.etan.ca/news/etanott.5.19.98.html
The WTO is against trade sanctions that protect democracy, the environment, and apartate. They use psudo-science from the labs of corp funded research, blah, blah, blah, I am not an expert on it, but I've noticed it popping up again and again in news about the environment, freedom of speach, and on and on and on...
In the past I've worked for a comapany that gave good overtime rates, and some people (not me) would slack it during the day and then come in at the weekend and earn extra, and get kudos for 'putting in the effort'. A salary (with no overtime pay, no pressure to do overtime) means the managament are responsable for setting reasonable deadlines, the staff get time for a social life / to sleep, and that, in theory, makes them happier and more productive. Just my opinion... In the UK computer games industry most companies pay a salary + bonus, but no overtime. Thad
This would only tell them who plays online, not who buys units, and its shifting units that the publishers are interested in, because thats what makes the money.
Slashdot Mirror
Hisory repeats itself. Why? Because socity fails to learn from its mistakes. Why? I'll leave that as an exersise for the reader.
Thad
[Devils_Advocate begin]
No, your right, security through obscurity doesn't work. But you've missed the point, thats not what they are doing, they are using the 'open source to finds bugs' princaple, and then not desclosing the details to the public until a fix is found. This is damage limitation, as there is a period of time that the bug exists, and a patch does not, and by limiting the people who have access to this information they are attempting to limit the amount of damage that can be done by 'script kiddies'. I makes some sense, how good an idea this is is debatable, but it is not security through obscurity, and to call it such is to muddy the issue with buzzword bingo.
[end Devils_Advocate]
Thad
Of course all sound bites over simplify, but there catchy and they stick in peoples brains. Somehow.
Thad
You joke, I know, but there is a seriouse side to your 'point'.
Yes, your right, a deaf persion cannot access a audio recording of an artical online without assistance, but you seem to be forgetting (perhaps deliberatly) is that the blind have screen reader technology which gives them access to written material on line.
Moral beeing that they really should have transcribed it even if they thought the audio file was worth posting.
Thad
The Microsoft Certified Software Engineers are revolting!
revolting
adj.
revolt
He he he he he hev. revolted, revolting, revolts.
v. intr.
Thad
Thad
Zurk wrote:
This is a dangerouse attitude, because not only does it assume that what is good for you is good for sombody else (theory of absolute truth), it assumes that what is good now cannot be bettered.
Unix *is* good, for you, for me, for many people, but no nesseserly good for everyone. No only that, but this assumption that *nix is *right* implies that everything else is *wrong*. Not only everything that has been, but everything that is to come. The simple truth is that at some point in the future, you, I, Linus, IBM, Apple, or, god forbid, Microsoft, might create something better, and we have to be able to accept that, and go with it, or hold back the state of the art, because of bigotry.
ThadI think I already said that, except less sarcastically ... oh no, that was Intel, not AMD.
See: Hz not a good mesure of performance (Score:2, Insightful) posted to 1-GHz Pentium III Due This Month
Anywho, peas out, or whatever, ThadReally, why the excitement, a much 'slower' CPU could (theoretically) execute programs much faster by beeing better designed. We nead to get away from this oversimplified CPU centric mesures of performance. We all know that the CPU isn't the bottleneck on modern systems, so why is it the every improvment in CPU clock frequence is met with drooling addoration, when improvments in motherboard design, IO thoughput, memory chip speed, and so on are practially ignored.
The reason that stuff is cheaper on line isn't just because its not taxed, or because the retailers (or 'etailers' as the press now like to call them) save on rent, the reason you can buy stuff cheaper online is because they are selling at a loss!
ThadNot only do I agree with the above posters comments, but I'd like to point out that the slashdot people (probably) judge the success of a story by the amount of discussion in prompts. If you ignore crap stories they will go away. If you post to every crap story saying "this is crap" and then people reply saying "no its not", "yes it is", "stop complaining", "stop complaining about the people who are complaining" and so on, then that is a discussion, and therfore, a popular story.
Take a look at the hall of fame, and see what's popular by this metric.
ThadThad
Nead I say more?
ThadNot all that strange, I meet loads of techys out clubbing, and loads of the techys I know are into clubbing (or metal).
Its an escape from tech land, not and extension of it...
Too late, its already been happening for years. Why else is the industry full of young people? Computing is a burn out industry, most people give up and do something less stressfull instead - I've met plenty of people who used to be programmers (the carpenter that repaired the door after there was a break in where I used to work glanced at the computers we where working on and commented "computers eh? I used own a computer company, but I got sick of it, so I do this now." And go on with his work.
Thad"The medias" already know about the problem. They are part of the problem. A part of the problem, controlled by and profiting from the "Big Corps".
ThadIMHO Blah Blah Blah
I think the author you are quoting meant less than one, rather than less than zero.
When people say "I got it for a fraction of the retail cost!" they are implying that they got it for less than that normal cost, for example 1/2 price, when the litteral translation of "fraction" into most (?) languages would not nesseseryly imply this, but would mean any fraction - ie a number expressed as a/b, like 4/3 or 8/3. There are many numbers most accurately expressed as fractions.
I appologise for my spelling - ThadAbstain when you don't know. Don't just go for the one that rings a bell, if you don't know, don't vote.
Most Improved Open Source Project / Most Improved Kernel Module
Have you benchmarked it? Done regression testing? Checked the source for comments? No? Then abstain, 'cos you don't know!
Unsung Hero
Do you know what each of these people has done? Have you done research to find out how "unsung" they actually are? (Alan Cox has been on TV - thats not unsung!)
Best Open Source-Related Book
Have you actually read *all* of these books? No? Well then don't vote, 'cos you don't know!
I could go on, but your smart people, you know what I'm getting at. Don't just vote off the cuff, vote for what you know, and let those who are in the know's votes count by reducing the "noise" and keeping your uninformed opinion out of it. Like me.
Oh, and before I get moderated down as an opiniated know it all, I've abstained on almost everyting, because I'm honest enough to say "I Don't Know".
Thankyou for your time
ThadFear and Loathing in Las Vegas is based on the (autobiographical) book by gonzo journalist Hunter S Tompson. It tells the story of "Dr Duke" and his attorny who go to Vegas to cover a desert race, and then a police convention, with tonnes of drugs. The film a very good, my only critisism is off the portral of the traffic cop who stops Duke.
Incedentally, in the book (and the film) one of the drugs that they take is "adrenochrome", which is supposedly extracted from the addrenalin gland of a live human patent. Does any one know if such a drug, or anything like it, exists?
Thad"4" sounds like "death" in Chinese. Or was it Japanise ... can't remeber ... but its definitly because is sounds like death (or dead).
ThadI don't think thats what the author means. I think that hes talking about other common components, like web browsers, and email clients, which is what most modern viri exploit.
At the moment a viri author can make huge assumptions like, its a win32 os with Outlook, and winsock, and use small exploits in each of them to spread the virus.
The linux kernal may be mostly the same accross most intalls of a popular disribution, but the differences stack up when you consdier all the other permutations of mail client & server and html renderer/http server, java VM, etc, etc, it becomes very hard to create a virus that will work with them all!
ThadFind out why, visit any of the following:
m l 4 -98/seaturtle.htm
http://www.greenpeace.org/politics/wto/index.ht
http://www.agp.org/agp/index.html
http://www.tradewatch.org/gattwto/gatthome.html
http://www.uaw.org/breaktime/news_to_you/news2u
http://www.etan.ca/news/etanott.5.19.98.html
The WTO is against trade sanctions that protect democracy, the environment, and apartate. They use psudo-science from the labs of corp funded research, blah, blah, blah, I am not an expert on it, but I've noticed it popping up again and again in news about the environment, freedom of speach, and on and on and on...
In the past I've worked for a comapany that gave good overtime rates, and some people (not me) would slack it during the day and then come in at the weekend and earn extra, and get kudos for 'putting in the effort'. A salary (with no overtime pay, no pressure to do overtime) means the managament are responsable for setting reasonable deadlines, the staff get time for a social life / to sleep, and that, in theory, makes them happier and more productive.
Just my opinion...
In the UK computer games industry most companies pay a salary + bonus, but no overtime.
Thad
Some other financial schenanigans and giggery pokery is explained here:d ex.html
http://users.netmatters.co.uk//startingout/xat/in