Another good place to put them would be under a highway bridge, or an oceanside wall for catching waves...
Unfortunately, I don't see any indication that this would scale to something worthwhile on a larger scale; they haven't proven that this technology would scale to something more efficient than other green energy technologies, and I would guess that it does not.
That doesn't mean that this wouldn't be great for street lights and the like, powered by the people and cars moving by them, but I suspect solar power is more efficient. (Though this might be great for busy areas shaded by buildings or trees.)
For all the bad flack I've heard about MBNA, my treatment from Linux Fund has been absolutely amazing, reflecting not one bit of MBNA's bad press. I have been more satisfied with the service and benefits of this card than any of my others (and there is a LONG list). This started as a 0% APR promotion, but after the promotion ended and I paid off my debt, I started using it as a real card... I've used this card as my primary ever since, and now my APR is quite reasonably below prime and my available credit is enough to buy a car on. To top that off, I'm currently in a 1.99% APR promotional period.
I have been very very happy with this card... and that's even ignoring the fact that my use of this card has helped F/OSS AND has been a part of the WorldPoints program (I'm almost qualified for a cheap vacation...). Naturally, when I saw the letter, I decided to keep my membership with the Linux Fund card as long as possible and then request transition to a different WorldPoints program in May.... though the articles linked here seem to indicate that this won't help the Linux Fund charity any (is that even legal?).
There are other WorldPoints programs out there, but BofA doesn't list any of the cooler ones on their All Cards page. A quick search for worldpoints "bank of america" pulls up a very raw list showing that there are tons of them out there, though mostly for groups I am neither affiliated with nor care about (like the various alumni programs). The only promising one was their upcoming WorldPoints Rewards for the Environment card, which is slated for release later this year (I'm not sure if this will be before June).
To the Linux Fund folks: If you jump on the Mastercard/Visa bandwagon with another major bank, I will happily take up your new card. I wouldn't go with Chase, CapitalOne, or other bad-rep banks, but good bank with a Free Software fund would be my card of choice (and while rewards stuff is enticing, I operate under the assumption that it might get me some free stationary at some point).
I myself always thought that in order to be true sci-fi, you also had to make a commentary on political/sociological/religious subjects. The fact that they are set in other worlds was so the authors wouldn't get lynched by saying "Christianity is bad" - they can say "Mugwortism is bad" and then draw all the parallels they wanted.
Ah, but did not the original Star Trek series do just that? They created the Klingon Empire and used its interactions with Earth as an allegory for the Cold War, then showed the newfound USA-USSR unity in Next Generation with the inclusion of the Klingon Empire into The Federation. This safely flew under the radar of "inappropriate" thanks to constant distractions based on the technology (cue one of Scotty or Bones's trademark interjections). From its beginnings, the Star Trek franchise has promoted racial unity without criticism, just as you say fantasy does.
Also note that Tolkein wrote in the American edition of his Lord of the Rings trilogy: "It is neither allegorical nor topical... I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence." He has later stated that were the books an allegory to World War II (the One Ring being the Bomb), a significant portion of the text wouldn't make sense, and there would be easy points to make other alterations as well. Tolkien, and others in the fantasy genre, absorbed massive influences from myth, legend, and history, and then made them his own. There are many similarities between his work and history, but that merely suggests that his work was rich and realistic, the mark of a truly brilliant author.
I define the difference as the importance of science and technology in the story and world; technology in the foreground is sci-fi, technology in the background is fantasy. I spell this out in more detail in my post below.
I've always distinguished between the two genres by declaring:
Science Fiction places science and technology in a story's foreground, explained in detail with plausible extensions of real-life science.
Fantasy places "science" and technology in a story's background, explaining it with hand-waving (e.g. "magic") rather than in detail.
Wikipedia dubs Fantasy a sub-genre of Science Fiction that seems to otherwise agree with my own definition:
Fantasy is a genre of art that uses magic and other supernatural forms as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. The genre is generally distinguished from science fiction and horror by overall look, feel, and theme of the individual work, though there is a great deal of overlap between the three (collectively known as speculative fiction). In its broadest sense, fantasy comprises works by many writers, artists, filmmakers, and musicians, from ancient myths and legends to many recent works embraced by a wide audience today.
The unexplained technical properties of The Force are squarely in the realm of fantasy. In fantasy works, things just work; technical difficulties are addressed by an "expert" with methods that are either extremely vague or absent altogether (like Ben Kenobi from A New Hope or Aughra from Dark Crystal). This definition clearly marks Star Wars, Firefly, and similar "Space Westerns" (or "Space Operas," if you prefer) as fantasy rather than science fiction. When Obi-wan talks about Anakin's midi-chlorian count in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, many fans declared that Lucas had teetered too far towards the sci-fi genre.
Outer space and aliens are not definitive marks of a science fictional piece; you wouldn't call Dude, Where's my Car sci-fi, would you? (It's not fantasy, either.) Time travel is hard to imagine in fantasy context because we always associate it with some degree of technology, but if it's just an accepted part of the world, it would be fantasy and not sci-fi, as in stories which have modern-day characters inexplicably find themselves in different times.
The hard sf that you mention does not cover things like Star Trek, the big poster child of sci-fi vs fantasy; while many episodes of this series are indeed hard sf, many are not. The great thing about that series is that it used this other world to deal with hot-topic cold war political issues (wow, that's a weird line!), dipping into technical issues to break up the tension. (Perhaps this is why the franchise is flopping these days... there are STILL no Arabs in the series, and with the exception of the end of the short saga with the changelings, they've avoided the terrorism issue altogether.)
I'd consider Dark Crystal definitive fantasy; things are explained as mystical, guided by fate, there is technology but it is completely unexplained (levers, gears, and a magic crystal), and there is an imaginative world to illustrate the story. When Aughra (the "expert") was asked to explain things, she shrugs her shoulders, enticing imagination.
Perhaps the Stargate SG-1 television series is a good example of something with blurred lines. The movie is mostly fantasy (the stargate technology is completely unexplained -- it's just a method of transport), but as the series progresses, they get more and more technical, even from the start with how the Goa'uld work.
The Wikipedia article on Science fantasy makes for good further reading. It discusses a sub-genre merging the two and touches on the differences. I largely classify this as just fantasy, though much of its subjects dip heavily into technology while using hand-wavin
#1 - hmm, slashdot seems to have eaten my preemptive correction post (likely I hit preview and not submit)... in my excitement, i mentioned the wii and immediately added that bit about frantically buying one when rnr racing hits the platform without even realizing my error. oh well.
I will start frantically seeking out a wii once Rock N' Roll Racing is available. Otherwise, I will wait until it is in stock and it has taken a price hit.
Hello... I'm the IT Manager at a company that uses a LOT of GNU/Linux and Unix systems and publishes a big Open Source program. I'm hiring.
The things people like me look for in an applicant are:
Ability to learn, research, and document
Ability to design scalable systems
Social skills - you need to fit in!
A college degree that shows you are capable of both design and writing
(plus the expected list of technical skills)
College is extremely important. Without it, an applicant appears to be unorganized and less disciplined. How do I know you can meet deadlines, or work on projects with others? What about your writing skills (English, not perl)? Do you understand the difference between a heavily optimized script and a highly scalable and maintainable one? One of the most important aspects of a college education is not taught in classrooms: networking, the old fashioned way. Not MySpace or Facebook (or Slashdot), but actually knowing people in the field who can help you solve your more difficult assignments, keep you up to date in knowing about the field, and possibly even get recommended for me to hire them, too. These virtual networks are great, but the networking you get at college is far more powerful.
Go to school. Learn and network. There is no substitution. The money will solve itself in the long run. If you have extremely tight financial restrictions, cut your expenses -- a bag lunch every day at work, stop going to movies and eating out so often, and take night classes while working full time.
I work at a company with an Open Source product whose license was modeled after SugarCRM (modified MPL). We just made some key decisions on the direction of the company with respect to this product (not sure if it's kosher for me to mention its name, so I'll keep you guessing). There were two arguments in this decision-making:
Go full-out ASP (Application Service Provider) and close the doors on the source release (becoming like SalesForce.com or Google's services)
De-emphasize the ASP and merge the closed-source enterprise components of the program with the opened source as one product and instead charge for support.
Happily, we went for the latter.
My point is that this is the big challenge for F/OSS in the future. There is HEAVY incentive to close the source and go into the service industry, specifically from the developers' perspective as code maintenance and support is reduced to one managed block of machines that the company has full control over. ASP also appeals to executives that don't fully understand the advantages of F/OSS, due to a fear of a competetor using the same software.
Brian Keefer came up with an idea for an MX Honeypot which takes note of mails blocked by nolisting a lowest-priority MX server in his email MX Honeypot theory. I had linked this writeup on the WikiPedia:Nolisting article (stub), but an anonymous user removed it on the premise that it would confuse users.
I composed an email to the FSF on this topic. Here is their response:
We appreciate your concern and the fact that you took the time to write
us. To address the issues you've raised:
There was an announcement about Java posted within two days of Sun's announcement.
We will be adjusting our priority project list as soon as details and for Sun's release are clear.
We always work hard to publicize our work, especially since we are
actually involved in all of these issues.
Wow, I would really like to see some evidence of that. As it stands, it's just an absurd claim with no support.
I put the "wild" preface there for a reason. The FSF is a great organization, but sometimes they are a bit nutty. Eben has some heavy insight into things from a legal and IBM perspective, and is tied directly to important figures in these matters. He likely heard a rumor or two and pieced it together as something far larger than it was. I have no sources other than what I heard at that meeting.
The Free Software Foundation has made no announcements on either of these developments.
So what? Dovecot is a really cool GPL-ed POP/IMAP server, and I don't recall the FSF making any announcement when it was released. Nor do I recall the FSF making any announcement when many other things were released under the GPL. It's not necessary because the GPL speaks for itself.
The FSF has been listing a Free version of Java as a top priority for the past few years, stating that it is the largest hole in the Free Software community. See http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority.html. The FSF shouldn't announce the GPL'ing of Java, but it should respond to the announcements by commending Sun, removing GCC/Java from it's priorities list, and/or getting Stallman to amend his Java rant.
Solaris is based on System V Unix from AT&T, not on BSD. Yes, Solaris 1.x (a/k/a SunOS 4.x) was based on BSD, but it was pretty much totally rewritten before Solaris 2.x
My bad, I got it backwards (which is odd, since I'm a Solaris admin). That was added as an afterthought.
I can't help but think that the MS-Novell deal was the inspiration for this going into completion; the final straw, so to speak (or at least, the reason for the timing of the announcement). Consider it; Novell uses Mono and just got in bed with Microsoft.
Sun is in trouble, and according to FSF Lawyer Eben Moglen's (wild) allegations in his talk at a recent Free Software Foundation Associate Membership meeting, they previously (2005?) took a bribe from Microsoft to keep OpenSolaris incompatible with the GPL (in exchange for financing they believed was desperately needed for miniaturizing CPU size with Fujitsu to compete with IBM(?) in the server market). Sun is now flip-flopping like a struggling politician; they caved to the pressure of GPL'ing Java despite (allegedly) accepting a bribe to keep Solaris less free. Like many on Slashdot, I consider the FSF and the F/OSS development community greater long-term allies than Microsoft, so maybe Sun will release Solaris 11 or 12 under the GPL.
The Free Software Foundation has made no announcements on either of these developments. What does this mean for the GCC/Java code, which is largely functional? How would GPL'ed Solaris utilities impact use and development of the GNU utilities? (Yes, I realize that the Solaris utilities share code with BSD utilities given their common ancestors, but Solaris has the shiny stamp-of-approval from major security auditors.)
I can't help but think that the MS-Novell deal was the inspiration for this going into completion; the final straw, so to speak (or at least, the reason for the timing of the announcement). Consider it; Novell uses Mono and just got in bed with Microsoft. That can't be good for the freedom of developemnt for/on C#, what with the aforementioned IP/patent barriers and secret control from an untrusted and biased source like MS. Java has always been similarly questionable and undesirable, especially (in my mind) with relation to portable devices being so dominated by Java in the US and EU. That left us purists with... C and C++, which are both rather out-dated despite their power and flexability (yes, we also have python, perl, ruby, and a slew of others, but these aren't as integral when it comes to graphical apps on desktop or mobile devices).
Before I'm criticized by C/C++ enthusaists, I should probably note that I prefer products written in C/C++, and I've always seen Java as horribly clunky and unusable UI and widget set. Disclaimer - I work for a company that sells widgets and consulting for Motif (C) and Qt (C++).
I don't know why these have never been proposed...
Color + Text: "Type the red word below"
Simple Math Word Problems: "If Jenny has two apples and Tim gives her one, how many does she have?"
Pictures: "What is this a picture of?" (use things with only one simple name, like cow, sandwich, hand)
Trivia: "What color is the sky on a clear day?"
Potential problems - cultural and language barriers, color-blindness
I really like the CSS idea; have extra form elements with style="display:none" and ignore entries that fill them in (watch out for auto-fill programs on legit users!)
Ah, sharing responsibilities, politically correct titles that obfuscate the apparent chain of command. Who is in charge? The article makes Fils-Aime look like just a COO, not President...
I actually suggested this strategy in a recent ask slashdot post, but that was adivce to a two-man operation... a huge corporation like Nintendo of America should probably not be playing that kind of game, especially if they have nothing to hide and no investigations to dodge.
Forget "inflation". If you really want to compare values, line up the cost of the consoles against the cost of computing hardware.
I used the Mac, because it's conventient to look up past prices on "lowendmac.com", admitedly, Apple pricing has historically been downright goofy compared to commodity PC's, but this is just let's check it out.
You've made a comparison that may have some merit. I don't see it, but maybe you can help me there. 8-bit $200 NES vs 32-bit $3300 Mac 512k, 16-bit $200 SNES vs 32-bit $9900 Mac IIfx, 64-bit $200/250 Wii vs 64(?)-bit $600 Mac Mini. I'll fill in the hole using your own site (references cited): 64-bit $200 N64 vs 32(?)-bit $5000 Power Mac 9500, 64-bit $200 GC vs 64-bit $1600 Mac G4. So, now we have very rough approximations for Apple systems that came out at about the same time. What does comparing these Macs vs Nintendo (and others) indicate?
I included inflation adjustments in my other post to illustrate that the PS3's price point was a heavier load on consumers' wallets than any past system (though the Sega Saturn got close). I also had a conclusion: a cheap system with an early release stands far stronger than more expensive systems released later on... being the last one out of the gates and releasing at the highest initial price doesn't bode well for the PS3, especially since Nintendo will be sharing their release window. Another note I made was that Sega made it big by releasing the Genesis long before the SNES, and Sony did the same with the PSX.... Microsoft's Xbox stands tall with a year's lead over the PS3 and Wii.
Inflation adjustments give us an estimate of what those systems cost in terms of modern cash equivilance. It weights the upward trend of console costs with the downward trend of the value of American cash. I did not use inflation as the comparative rate, only a bias to compare console prices overall.
There was a time when console gaming was THE gaming solution for those who could not afford to just buy a game computer.
These days, if you want to sell a console, you need some other hook besides price to set it apart. Sony and Microsoft are betting on selling you an uber-fast PC dressed like a console and taking a loss on each unit. Nintendo is hoping their "sideways TV remote" controller will dazzle people.
Console gaming is still the definitive low-budget gaming solution. A computer that can play games has always required far more money than the standard desktop computer: Ask any gamer about the Mac Mini and you'll find it can't do much; slow drives, horrible graphics, average processor, not upgrade-friendly, and you'll need a new mouse at least. On top of that, Macs don't run most games; you'll need Windows.
Most video game consumers are NOT technical in terms of computing; they want something affordable and specialized to the purpose of playing games. Take a look at the success of iPods, for example. Simple and specialized. I do not think that comparing the relative cost of computers to consoles is a good measure; video game consoles are always on a strict budget, and they'll cram in as much technology (be it GPU power or clever interfaces) as possible within that budget.
For those of you that don't know, EVERY Nintendo (non-portable) console system has been priced the same on initial release, $200.
I priced out all the systems from NES to Wii, Master System to Dreamcast, PSX to PS3, and Xbox to Xbox 360, including inflation and release dates in another slashdot post.
That depends on the nature of the exploit and the intelligence of the spamming element. I would guess that one of those two will lend itself to something a regular expression can pick up.
I'm considering an actual modification of all incoming word attached emails to my workplace... just a little something-or-other, like zipping the attachment and including an aptly named readme-first note to remind users of my email and link to an article on the problem.... of course, I don't know how to dissect the MIME-packaged attachment and replace the.doc with a.zip on the fly (and it might hammer the email server to do this to an email sent to every employee). If I implement this, it would probably just be an extra bit on the end rather than a.zip replacement.
There is a painfully simple solution to this... filter email, but not like the article says... blocking ALL.doc attachments is just stupid.
Symantec is recommending that Microsoft Word document e-mail attachments be blocked at the network perimeter.
Give me a sample of the code and I'll write a procmail and/or spamassassin filter that either/dev/null's infected messages or assigns it a zillion points.... I can't find the exploit code. Maybe it's not that simple... damn politics... <grumble>...
Uhm yeah it took me all of two minutes to disable it on my box at work, even though it was locked down. The fact that TrendMicro put a backdoor (a default password for when you forget the real one) in it helped quite a bit.
The windows boxes I administer are protected by an old version of Officescan (from three or so years ago, with renewed support, of course). Disabling the protection isn't really an issue with me as long as it's hard to do unless you know what you're doing (in which case you should be entitled to it anyway, imho).
Looks like the backdoor you are referencing is three years old: Secunia Advisory 7881. That said, vulnerabilities like this tend to get fixed quickly. The 2003 advisory linked above mentions that up-to-date versions at the time were already immune to these problems.
Seems like a good cover to use a Russian-esque name if Russian-speaking nations are notoriously bad at apprehending criminal computer hackers. A cracker who appears more likely American or Western European would be more actively pursued.
Slashdot Mirror
Another good place to put them would be under a highway bridge, or an oceanside wall for catching waves ...
Unfortunately, I don't see any indication that this would scale to something worthwhile on a larger scale; they haven't proven that this technology would scale to something more efficient than other green energy technologies, and I would guess that it does not.
That doesn't mean that this wouldn't be great for street lights and the like, powered by the people and cars moving by them, but I suspect solar power is more efficient. (Though this might be great for busy areas shaded by buildings or trees.)
For all the bad flack I've heard about MBNA, my treatment from Linux Fund has been absolutely amazing, reflecting not one bit of MBNA's bad press. I have been more satisfied with the service and benefits of this card than any of my others (and there is a LONG list). This started as a 0% APR promotion, but after the promotion ended and I paid off my debt, I started using it as a real card ... I've used this card as my primary ever since, and now my APR is quite reasonably below prime and my available credit is enough to buy a car on. To top that off, I'm currently in a 1.99% APR promotional period.
I have been very very happy with this card ... and that's even ignoring the fact that my use of this card has helped F/OSS AND has been a part of the WorldPoints program (I'm almost qualified for a cheap vacation...). Naturally, when I saw the letter, I decided to keep my membership with the Linux Fund card as long as possible and then request transition to a different WorldPoints program in May. ... though the articles linked here seem to indicate that this won't help the Linux Fund charity any (is that even legal?).
There are other WorldPoints programs out there, but BofA doesn't list any of the cooler ones on their All Cards page. A quick search for worldpoints "bank of america" pulls up a very raw list showing that there are tons of them out there, though mostly for groups I am neither affiliated with nor care about (like the various alumni programs). The only promising one was their upcoming WorldPoints Rewards for the Environment card, which is slated for release later this year (I'm not sure if this will be before June).
To the Linux Fund folks: If you jump on the Mastercard/Visa bandwagon with another major bank, I will happily take up your new card. I wouldn't go with Chase, CapitalOne, or other bad-rep banks, but good bank with a Free Software fund would be my card of choice (and while rewards stuff is enticing, I operate under the assumption that it might get me some free stationary at some point).
I had to stop using scroogle's search scraper and go to google directly to get the spelling correction. I am sure there are others with this problem.
Also note that Tolkein wrote in the American edition of his Lord of the Rings trilogy: "It is neither allegorical nor topical... I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence." He has later stated that were the books an allegory to World War II (the One Ring being the Bomb), a significant portion of the text wouldn't make sense, and there would be easy points to make other alterations as well. Tolkien, and others in the fantasy genre, absorbed massive influences from myth, legend, and history, and then made them his own. There are many similarities between his work and history, but that merely suggests that his work was rich and realistic, the mark of a truly brilliant author.
I define the difference as the importance of science and technology in the story and world; technology in the foreground is sci-fi, technology in the background is fantasy. I spell this out in more detail in my post below.
Wikipedia dubs Fantasy a sub-genre of Science Fiction that seems to otherwise agree with my own definition:
The unexplained technical properties of The Force are squarely in the realm of fantasy. In fantasy works, things just work; technical difficulties are addressed by an "expert" with methods that are either extremely vague or absent altogether (like Ben Kenobi from A New Hope or Aughra from Dark Crystal). This definition clearly marks Star Wars, Firefly, and similar "Space Westerns" (or "Space Operas," if you prefer) as fantasy rather than science fiction. When Obi-wan talks about Anakin's midi-chlorian count in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, many fans declared that Lucas had teetered too far towards the sci-fi genre.
... there are STILL no Arabs in the series, and with the exception of the end of the short saga with the changelings, they've avoided the terrorism issue altogether.)
Outer space and aliens are not definitive marks of a science fictional piece; you wouldn't call Dude, Where's my Car sci-fi, would you? (It's not fantasy, either.) Time travel is hard to imagine in fantasy context because we always associate it with some degree of technology, but if it's just an accepted part of the world, it would be fantasy and not sci-fi, as in stories which have modern-day characters inexplicably find themselves in different times.
The hard sf that you mention does not cover things like Star Trek, the big poster child of sci-fi vs fantasy; while many episodes of this series are indeed hard sf, many are not. The great thing about that series is that it used this other world to deal with hot-topic cold war political issues (wow, that's a weird line!), dipping into technical issues to break up the tension. (Perhaps this is why the franchise is flopping these days
I'd consider Dark Crystal definitive fantasy; things are explained as mystical, guided by fate, there is technology but it is completely unexplained (levers, gears, and a magic crystal), and there is an imaginative world to illustrate the story. When Aughra (the "expert") was asked to explain things, she shrugs her shoulders, enticing imagination.
Perhaps the Stargate SG-1 television series is a good example of something with blurred lines. The movie is mostly fantasy (the stargate technology is completely unexplained -- it's just a method of transport), but as the series progresses, they get more and more technical, even from the start with how the Goa'uld work.
The Wikipedia article on Science fantasy makes for good further reading. It discusses a sub-genre merging the two and touches on the differences. I largely classify this as just fantasy, though much of its subjects dip heavily into technology while using hand-wavin
#2 - it's available on GBA?! whoa...
I will start frantically seeking out a wii once Rock N' Roll Racing is available. Otherwise, I will wait until it is in stock and it has taken a price hit.
An attitude like that will not help you get hired (especially if you are already underqualified). Note the bullet point regarding social skills.
The things people like me look for in an applicant are:
- Ability to learn, research, and document
- Ability to design scalable systems
- Social skills - you need to fit in!
- A college degree that shows you are capable of both design and writing
- (plus the expected list of technical skills)
College is extremely important. Without it, an applicant appears to be unorganized and less disciplined. How do I know you can meet deadlines, or work on projects with others? What about your writing skills (English, not perl)? Do you understand the difference between a heavily optimized script and a highly scalable and maintainable one? One of the most important aspects of a college education is not taught in classrooms: networking, the old fashioned way. Not MySpace or Facebook (or Slashdot), but actually knowing people in the field who can help you solve your more difficult assignments, keep you up to date in knowing about the field, and possibly even get recommended for me to hire them, too. These virtual networks are great, but the networking you get at college is far more powerful.Go to school. Learn and network. There is no substitution. The money will solve itself in the long run. If you have extremely tight financial restrictions, cut your expenses -- a bag lunch every day at work, stop going to movies and eating out so often, and take night classes while working full time.
- Go full-out ASP (Application Service Provider) and close the doors on the source release (becoming like SalesForce.com or Google's services)
- De-emphasize the ASP and merge the closed-source enterprise components of the program with the opened source as one product and instead charge for support.
Happily, we went for the latter.My point is that this is the big challenge for F/OSS in the future. There is HEAVY incentive to close the source and go into the service industry, specifically from the developers' perspective as code maintenance and support is reduced to one managed block of machines that the company has full control over. ASP also appeals to executives that don't fully understand the advantages of F/OSS, due to a fear of a competetor using the same software.
Brian Keefer came up with an idea for an MX Honeypot which takes note of mails blocked by nolisting a lowest-priority MX server in his email MX Honeypot theory . I had linked this writeup on the WikiPedia:Nolisting article (stub), but an anonymous user removed it on the premise that it would confuse users.
I put the "wild" preface there for a reason. The FSF is a great organization, but sometimes they are a bit nutty. Eben has some heavy insight into things from a legal and IBM perspective, and is tied directly to important figures in these matters. He likely heard a rumor or two and pieced it together as something far larger than it was. I have no sources other than what I heard at that meeting.
The FSF has been listing a Free version of Java as a top priority for the past few years, stating that it is the largest hole in the Free Software community. See http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority.html. The FSF shouldn't announce the GPL'ing of Java, but it should respond to the announcements by commending Sun, removing GCC/Java from it's priorities list, and/or getting Stallman to amend his Java rant.My bad, I got it backwards (which is odd, since I'm a Solaris admin). That was added as an afterthought.
Sun is in trouble, and according to FSF Lawyer Eben Moglen's (wild) allegations in his talk at a recent Free Software Foundation Associate Membership meeting, they previously (2005?) took a bribe from Microsoft to keep OpenSolaris incompatible with the GPL (in exchange for financing they believed was desperately needed for miniaturizing CPU size with Fujitsu to compete with IBM(?) in the server market). Sun is now flip-flopping like a struggling politician; they caved to the pressure of GPL'ing Java despite (allegedly) accepting a bribe to keep Solaris less free. Like many on Slashdot, I consider the FSF and the F/OSS development community greater long-term allies than Microsoft, so maybe Sun will release Solaris 11 or 12 under the GPL.
The Free Software Foundation has made no announcements on either of these developments. What does this mean for the GCC/Java code, which is largely functional? How would GPL'ed Solaris utilities impact use and development of the GNU utilities? (Yes, I realize that the Solaris utilities share code with BSD utilities given their common ancestors, but Solaris has the shiny stamp-of-approval from major security auditors.)
Before I'm criticized by C/C++ enthusaists, I should probably note that I prefer products written in C/C++, and I've always seen Java as horribly clunky and unusable UI and widget set. Disclaimer - I work for a company that sells widgets and consulting for Motif (C) and Qt (C++).
- Color + Text: "Type the red word below"
- Simple Math Word Problems: "If Jenny has two apples and Tim gives her one, how many does she have?"
- Pictures: "What is this a picture of?" (use things with only one simple name, like cow, sandwich, hand)
- Trivia: "What color is the sky on a clear day?"
Potential problems - cultural and language barriers, color-blindnessI really like the CSS idea; have extra form elements with style="display:none" and ignore entries that fill them in (watch out for auto-fill programs on legit users!)
I actually suggested this strategy in a recent ask slashdot post, but that was adivce to a two-man operation ... a huge corporation like Nintendo of America should probably not be playing that kind of game, especially if they have nothing to hide and no investigations to dodge.
I included inflation adjustments in my other post to illustrate that the PS3's price point was a heavier load on consumers' wallets than any past system (though the Sega Saturn got close). I also had a conclusion: a cheap system with an early release stands far stronger than more expensive systems released later on ... being the last one out of the gates and releasing at the highest initial price doesn't bode well for the PS3, especially since Nintendo will be sharing their release window. Another note I made was that Sega made it big by releasing the Genesis long before the SNES, and Sony did the same with the PSX. ... Microsoft's Xbox stands tall with a year's lead over the PS3 and Wii.
Inflation adjustments give us an estimate of what those systems cost in terms of modern cash equivilance. It weights the upward trend of console costs with the downward trend of the value of American cash. I did not use inflation as the comparative rate, only a bias to compare console prices overall.
Console gaming is still the definitive low-budget gaming solution. A computer that can play games has always required far more money than the standard desktop computer: Ask any gamer about the Mac Mini and you'll find it can't do much; slow drives, horrible graphics, average processor, not upgrade-friendly, and you'll need a new mouse at least. On top of that, Macs don't run most games; you'll need Windows.Most video game consumers are NOT technical in terms of computing; they want something affordable and specialized to the purpose of playing games. Take a look at the success of iPods, for example. Simple and specialized. I do not think that comparing the relative cost of computers to consoles is a good measure; video game consoles are always on a strict budget, and they'll cram in as much technology (be it GPU power or clever interfaces) as possible within that budget.
I priced out all the systems from NES to Wii, Master System to Dreamcast, PSX to PS3, and Xbox to Xbox 360, including inflation and release dates in another slashdot post.
I'm considering an actual modification of all incoming word attached emails to my workplace ... just a little something-or-other, like zipping the attachment and including an aptly named readme-first note to remind users of my email and link to an article on the problem. ... of course, I don't know how to dissect the MIME-packaged attachment and replace the .doc with a .zip on the fly (and it might hammer the email server to do this to an email sent to every employee). If I implement this, it would probably just be an extra bit on the end rather than a .zip replacement.
Looks like the backdoor you are referencing is three years old: Secunia Advisory 7881. That said, vulnerabilities like this tend to get fixed quickly. The 2003 advisory linked above mentions that up-to-date versions at the time were already immune to these problems.
Seems like a good cover to use a Russian-esque name if Russian-speaking nations are notoriously bad at apprehending criminal computer hackers. A cracker who appears more likely American or Western European would be more actively pursued.