It's great to see a university have a monster like this for research use. And old universities you would think are well suited for these kinds of monsters. Their computer centers were built at a time when the computers really were filled with monster machines that your iPad would run circles around today performance-wise. They were replaced in the 1990s by servers that would fit into a closet. But they still have all this space that can be filled with racks upon racks of supercomputer nodes. However, I suspect that IU may have built a new building for these new and improved monsters. But anyway, these new monsters are nice to contemplate but they're not a pretty to look at. Computers in the old days were designed to be both functional and attractive to members of the unwashed masses who could gaze at them through the glass windows and drool, and be hypnotized at the blinking lights and the spinning tape drive reels spinning. And the glass windows were there to allow the institution to show the machine off as a kind of status symbol. There was no picture in the article of this new beast but I will bet $0.02 that it's pretty dull looking.
Ah, but not by the neck but by his gonads. More painful and less permanent.
But on a more serious note, no one has the right to do a DDoS attack regardless of whether a good guy or a bad guy is being attacked (and spam and the phishing that comes with it is bad). This kind of private cyber warfare is only counterproductive in the long term. The Internet is only successful because of cooperation between parties. When there is distrust it stops working. Maybe the governments will figure *that* out one of these days.
The article talked about the "priesthood" of the mainframes. This priesthood did not only extend to the people who worked in the air conditioned room with the raised floor, it also extended to the people who GRANTED you access to the computer itself. Even on the "ancient" mainframes of the 1960's, you still had to have an account created for you. What we use today to enforce security was then used to keep track of computer (CPU, disk and tape storage, and paper usage) so the "archbishop" who ran the computer room knew who to bill. Without that account you were doomed to only look at the computer through the glass windows and drool. What the introduction of the PC did is make it possible for anyone who wanted to hack^H^H^H^Hprogram and had enough money to buy it to do so. Today, thirty-five years later, used PCs are a dime a dozen. All one needs is to buy, borrow, or steal an Internet connection.
I frankly don't care what others want to use computers for; I want to program. It's what I love to do, it's what I'm best at, and I suspect that this is a sentiment shared by many of not most of the geeks here. I don't see the rebirth of the mainframe in the form of cloud computing to be any threat to that so long as the free software movement continues to exist and continues to produce high-quality compilers. In fact, if anything, the fact that the software engineering world is so highly specialized provides so many avenues for a true hacker^H^H^H^H^H^Hprogrammer to explore, from the very broad wastelands of the web app world all the way down to the machine level with embedded systems. In fact, any geek who wants to explore the mainframe world can do so. The Hercules emulator for IBM 360 and its derivatives (including the current Z series mainframes) is freeware and IBM wrote the operating systems and compilers for them before software could be copyrighted so those are in the public domain. So, this is a wonderful time to be a geek!
Surely you have better things to do in your life than troll around here and issue such nonsense. On that note, I'm going to get back to my life and go to sleep. You may continue to troll along as you choose.
Actually, the judge is incorrect in this case. Judges are interpret the law according to the way is worded. It is only when there is ambiguity or other problems that make the law difficult to understand is he then to look at the intent of the legislature. The wording of the statute is clear. Fortunately, since this case will probably not be published because it was in a Superior Court appellate court and not the Court of Appeals, it won't be a precedent and future people so afflicted by cops who can't read the vehicle code can continue to take their cases to court. But if the cop had cited him for plain old distracted driving....
Actually, the fact that distracted driving is illegal as well, the whole cell phone/texting ban is probably unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds. First Amendment rights usually cannot be infringed upon like this when there already exists a law that makes similar behavior illegal. It's the same idea as requiring a permit to solicit door to door in order to reduce the amount of fraud even though there are already laws on the books that made fraud illegal. Courts time and again have invalidated such laws for precisely that reason.
... I'm more interested in the fact that Annette Funicello died today as well. She was better looking and probably did more good in the world than a dozen Margret Thatchers could have done.
... rent (or own as I do) the movie "The Shoes of the Fisherman" from 1968. It shows in detail the process of a fictional papal conclave including the steps the cardinals take to ensure fairness. Quite revealing.
On a completely different subject, for those movie geeks of you out there who love "2001: A Space Odyssey" as I do, this film is where Alex North recycled some of his rejected score for 2001.
Some of you are old enough to have experienced "modern math", the kind of math that was taught in many schools in the US. I personally experienced it in school in California. I once found a first-year algebra "new math" text book at a rummage sale once that had "extra for experts" sections that were lessons in PL/1 programming. Keep in mind this book was published in the early 1970s. You'd need access to an IBM mainframe (or other computer that had a PL/1 compiler) to actually run your own programs. It was sort of a crazy idea then because not many high schools had access to computers in 1970. (Yes, Bill Gates was very lucky!) But it makes a lot more sense today. Computers are everywhere, most kids have access to them somewhere, programming tools that cost no money are very common, and (this is probably the most important thing) the programming languages available today are far more powerful and, in many cases, simpler to write than any that I can think of available in 1970 with the exception of Basic. So, IMHO, not a bad idea.
... until members of the US Congress, the vast majority of whom fly on commercial flights regularly, accidently gets zapped by one of these things.
Personally, I think they all should be fitted with these things and zapped with these things on a regular basis, say, just before they vote on any bill. The quality of the work performed by the Congress will probably improve!
Does anyone know if sputnik 1 ( or any of it's sibblings ) contained any computer code ? Or maybe if they ever patched any of it? Or even more omportant is sputnik still active ? No. No. No.
There is no Fortran code floating around from 1954 because the IBM Fortran compiler wasn't released until 1957.;-) But the IBM Fortran II compiler is still around and runs in an emulator. The Computer History Museum has the source code in its collection and it's available online.
They do indeed have a hold on the market... in that the big guys listed in the question have their certificates in the main key store files of your browse, Java runtime installations, etc. which guarantees that they are trusted and cause the least amount of hassle.
I've thought for a long time that the answer to this problem is competition. What bugs me is why government hasn't gotten into the act. The purpose of an SSL certificate is to verify that the entity who owns the server you're communicating with is who they say they are. This is the role of a notary, a private individual who is commissioned by the government to verify that people are who they say they are when documents are signed. Sounds like a profit-making enterprise to me.
You haven't been watching enough Law and Order! There was an episode that dealt with something like this. The man had a bone marrow transfusion. The DNA from his blood had one set of DNA and the rest of his body had another. Thus he could rape with impunity.
I was in Paris on Euro Day on 1/1/2002 when the Euro was at US$0.88 and came home with about 40 euros. I still have them and they're worth a lot more now. I was in Canada two weeks ago and still have CN$30 in my wallet. I've made a little more profit that covered the conversion fee (I went to a credit union ATM and used my credit union ATM card so no ATM fee). I need to travel more so I can retire.;-)
Cyber 174 and later Cybers 170-730, -760, -860. I loved them. I managed to find on Amazon a used copy of the Grishman assembly language book for them. (I lent the one I had in school out and never got it back.)
Cyber's weren't particularly reliable (the 730) crashed about once a week on average) and if you had to do maintenance you usually had to shut it down.
This probably won't change much of the way retailers such as Amazon.com operate or big box stores like Wal-Mart and Best Buy operate. They are large enough to demand and get the discounts they already get PLUS not sign the contracts that were until recently illegal to sign. It will hurt the small retailers and the "boutiques". Indeed, it was one of these small retailers that sold a limited kind of expensive merchandise that was the plaintiff in this suit. Besides, the little guys could group together and gang up on the companies that are trying to force them to sign the minimum pricing contracts by forming a cartel. It might be considered illegal for them to do it because of anti-trust laws but the Supreme Court seems to be in an pro-trust mood these days. Who says the RIAA is the only evil cartel in this country?
Three cheers to this. Now perhaps I can buy video games (and other assorted hardware) from Amazon and not have it actually come from Toys 'R' Us and being stuck paying California sales tax on it because Toys 'R' Us has a physical presence (stores, warehoues, etc.) in California and Amazon.com doesn't. Also, to add insult to injury, I have to pay shipping because I'm not dealing with Amazon. Usually I use the "super saver" shipping that Amazon offers and save a few bucks by being patient for my order to arrive.
I don't think Amazon.com will ever actually admit this publicly but a big part of their business model I suspect is the sales tax evasion that they allow us to easily perpetrate because they tend to maintain warehouses near major highways and close to an airport in cheap states that are close to large population centers (such as in Nevada and Kentucky). For California residents, it's anywhere from a 7.25% to 8.75% discount that costs Amazon nothing. It's for this reason why I thought that the Amazon/Toys 'R' Us partnership made little business sense to me.
A consumer boycott could possibly make SONY management act responsibly, meaning they actually admit responsibility for the rootkit, but I doubt it unless the boycott spreads outside of geekdom. Well, maybe. But if it doesn't here's what you can do personally: sue them yourself.
In California (where I live), we have a thing called "Small Claims" court. It's a civil court where an ordinary citizen can sue another ordinary citizen or a company for monetary damages. Punitive damages are not awarded and neither are "pain and suffering" damages. You actually have to have been damaged in a way that cost you money in order to collect in small claims court. The good thing about small claims court is that lawyers are not allowed. The bad thing is if you're suing a corporation they can send an employee (such as a laywer they have on the payroll). This this is a good thing in a way as you will see.
First of all, you need to be damaged by SONY. That's easy: put one of the XCD music CDs in your PC. Of course, you should not do this knowing about the rootkit. But if it happened before you learned about it or if you happened to get one of those XCD disks and didn't notice it then it's a different matter.
Second, you need to pay someone to clean your PC. Make sure you get a receipt.
Third, you need to follow the rules regarding filing a claim, getting court papers served, making sure you're prepared to present your case, etc. All this is here:
The neat thing about small claims court is that if the defendant (SONY in this case) doesn't show up, you are entitled to ask for a summary judgment which means you win your case by default. You can then proceed to collect your damages from SONY. Companies tend to pay such claims because the cost of having assets attached and liquidated (such as one of their bank accounts) exeeds the cost of just paying it. If they send someone it's an employee of the company which means they are paying wages for someone to be there. If you win your case, you've not only made SONY liable for your damages (plus your court costs) you've also cost them probably more than your damages especially if they send one of their legal department lawyers. If you lose, you've still won a moral victory that cost you no more than the cost of one of SONY's CDs and some of your time.
If enough people did this SONY will take notice. So if you've been damaged go for it. If you know someone whose been hit by the rootkit, perhaps they can be urged to do it. You can even make some money on the side if you're the one cleaning the PCs.
Let's not forget Glenn Gould's beloved piano that he hauled around with him wherever he went. The humming and the piano were the bane of recording engineers. But then the man was a true eccentric. But will the "performance" reflect accurately the eccentricies of his performance style? At least they need to put a guy wearing what looks like Gould's winter wardrobe (which he preferred to wear even in the summer) on stage in front of the piano to give it at least some authenticity.
First, I must point out my potential biases. I work as a software engineer for a particular prominent integrated library system company.
I've recently had the need to think about open-source library systems. They appear to be cheap but you need to consider the support implications. Library software, like all software, has bugs in it and library software is particularly complicated making it hard to rigorously test. Who are you going to call when something doesn't work right? Who's going to fix the bugs you discover? Who's going to patch your software once the bug is fixed? People are very expensive.
You say you work at a small institution. *ALL* library software contracts, regardless of company, are negotiated. Small libraries usually pay less than larger libraries for the same systems. The price negotiated in the contract is partially based upon what the vendor thinks you can afford, what it thinks other vendors you're talking to want you to pay, the kind of support you need, etc.
When you buying library software from someone, you're not buying software, you're buying a solution, complete with help desk support, some systems administration, upgrades, and customization. It's the only way to go with this I'm afraid.
Is it any accident that the new "privacy" czar made it his business to intrude on your privacy in order to sell you stuff or sell this information to others for "other" purposes? What would Orwell have called this bureaucracy? The Ministry of Freedom?
Slashdot Mirror
It's great to see a university have a monster like this for research use. And old universities you would think are well suited for these kinds of monsters. Their computer centers were built at a time when the computers really were filled with monster machines that your iPad would run circles around today performance-wise. They were replaced in the 1990s by servers that would fit into a closet. But they still have all this space that can be filled with racks upon racks of supercomputer nodes. However, I suspect that IU may have built a new building for these new and improved monsters. But anyway, these new monsters are nice to contemplate but they're not a pretty to look at. Computers in the old days were designed to be both functional and attractive to members of the unwashed masses who could gaze at them through the glass windows and drool, and be hypnotized at the blinking lights and the spinning tape drive reels spinning. And the glass windows were there to allow the institution to show the machine off as a kind of status symbol. There was no picture in the article of this new beast but I will bet $0.02 that it's pretty dull looking.
Ah, but not by the neck but by his gonads. More painful and less permanent.
But on a more serious note, no one has the right to do a DDoS attack regardless of whether a good guy or a bad guy is being attacked (and spam and the phishing that comes with it is bad). This kind of private cyber warfare is only counterproductive in the long term. The Internet is only successful because of cooperation between parties. When there is distrust it stops working. Maybe the governments will figure *that* out one of these days.
The article talked about the "priesthood" of the mainframes. This priesthood did not only extend to the people who worked in the air conditioned room with the raised floor, it also extended to the people who GRANTED you access to the computer itself. Even on the "ancient" mainframes of the 1960's, you still had to have an account created for you. What we use today to enforce security was then used to keep track of computer (CPU, disk and tape storage, and paper usage) so the "archbishop" who ran the computer room knew who to bill. Without that account you were doomed to only look at the computer through the glass windows and drool. What the introduction of the PC did is make it possible for anyone who wanted to hack^H^H^H^Hprogram and had enough money to buy it to do so. Today, thirty-five years later, used PCs are a dime a dozen. All one needs is to buy, borrow, or steal an Internet connection.
I frankly don't care what others want to use computers for; I want to program. It's what I love to do, it's what I'm best at, and I suspect that this is a sentiment shared by many of not most of the geeks here. I don't see the rebirth of the mainframe in the form of cloud computing to be any threat to that so long as the free software movement continues to exist and continues to produce high-quality compilers. In fact, if anything, the fact that the software engineering world is so highly specialized provides so many avenues for a true hacker^H^H^H^H^H^Hprogrammer to explore, from the very broad wastelands of the web app world all the way down to the machine level with embedded systems. In fact, any geek who wants to explore the mainframe world can do so. The Hercules emulator for IBM 360 and its derivatives (including the current Z series mainframes) is freeware and IBM wrote the operating systems and compilers for them before software could be copyrighted so those are in the public domain. So, this is a wonderful time to be a geek!
Seriously
Surely you have better things to do in your life than troll around here and issue such nonsense. On that note, I'm going to get back to my life and go to sleep. You may continue to troll along as you choose.
Actually, the judge is incorrect in this case. Judges are interpret the law according to the way is worded. It is only when there is ambiguity or other problems that make the law difficult to understand is he then to look at the intent of the legislature. The wording of the statute is clear. Fortunately, since this case will probably not be published because it was in a Superior Court appellate court and not the Court of Appeals, it won't be a precedent and future people so afflicted by cops who can't read the vehicle code can continue to take their cases to court. But if the cop had cited him for plain old distracted driving....
Actually, the fact that distracted driving is illegal as well, the whole cell phone/texting ban is probably unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds. First Amendment rights usually cannot be infringed upon like this when there already exists a law that makes similar behavior illegal. It's the same idea as requiring a permit to solicit door to door in order to reduce the amount of fraud even though there are already laws on the books that made fraud illegal. Courts time and again have invalidated such laws for precisely that reason.
... I'm more interested in the fact that Annette Funicello died today as well. She was better looking and probably did more good in the world than a dozen Margret Thatchers could have done.
... rent (or own as I do) the movie "The Shoes of the Fisherman" from 1968. It shows in detail the process of a fictional papal conclave including the steps the cardinals take to ensure fairness. Quite revealing.
On a completely different subject, for those movie geeks of you out there who love "2001: A Space Odyssey" as I do, this film is where Alex North recycled some of his rejected score for 2001.
Some of you are old enough to have experienced "modern math", the kind of math that was taught in many schools in the US. I personally experienced it in school in California. I once found a first-year algebra "new math" text book at a rummage sale once that had "extra for experts" sections that were lessons in PL/1 programming. Keep in mind this book was published in the early 1970s. You'd need access to an IBM mainframe (or other computer that had a PL/1 compiler) to actually run your own programs. It was sort of a crazy idea then because not many high schools had access to computers in 1970. (Yes, Bill Gates was very lucky!) But it makes a lot more sense today. Computers are everywhere, most kids have access to them somewhere, programming tools that cost no money are very common, and (this is probably the most important thing) the programming languages available today are far more powerful and, in many cases, simpler to write than any that I can think of available in 1970 with the exception of Basic. So, IMHO, not a bad idea.
... until members of the US Congress, the vast majority of whom fly on commercial flights regularly, accidently gets zapped by one of these things.
Personally, I think they all should be fitted with these things and zapped with these things on a regular basis, say, just before they vote on any bill. The quality of the work performed by the Congress will probably improve!
Or maybe if they ever patched any of it?
Or even more omportant is sputnik still active ? No. No. No.
There is no Fortran code floating around from 1954 because the IBM Fortran compiler wasn't released until 1957. ;-) But the IBM Fortran II compiler is still around and runs in an emulator. The Computer History Museum has the source code in its collection and it's available online.
They do indeed have a hold on the market... in that the big guys listed in the question have their certificates in the main key store files of your browse, Java runtime installations, etc. which guarantees that they are trusted and cause the least amount of hassle.
I've thought for a long time that the answer to this problem is competition. What bugs me is why government hasn't gotten into the act. The purpose of an SSL certificate is to verify that the entity who owns the server you're communicating with is who they say they are. This is the role of a notary, a private individual who is commissioned by the government to verify that people are who they say they are when documents are signed. Sounds like a profit-making enterprise to me.
Actually, there is:
http://www.ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/Movies-n-Sounds.html
You will see the thing running!
You haven't been watching enough Law and Order! There was an episode that dealt with something like this. The man had a bone marrow transfusion. The DNA from his blood had one set of DNA and the rest of his body had another. Thus he could rape with impunity.
I was in Paris on Euro Day on 1/1/2002 when the Euro was at US$0.88 and came home with about 40 euros. I still have them and they're worth a lot more now. I was in Canada two weeks ago and still have CN$30 in my wallet. I've made a little more profit that covered the conversion fee (I went to a credit union ATM and used my credit union ATM card so no ATM fee). I need to travel more so I can retire. ;-)
Cyber 174 and later Cybers 170-730, -760, -860. I loved them. I managed to find on Amazon a used copy of the Grishman assembly language book for them. (I lent the one I had in school out and never got it back.)
Cyber's weren't particularly reliable (the 730) crashed about once a week on average) and if you had to do maintenance you usually had to shut it down.
This probably won't change much of the way retailers such as Amazon.com operate or big box stores like Wal-Mart and Best Buy operate. They are large enough to demand and get the discounts they already get PLUS not sign the contracts that were until recently illegal to sign. It will hurt the small retailers and the "boutiques". Indeed, it was one of these small retailers that sold a limited kind of expensive merchandise that was the plaintiff in this suit. Besides, the little guys could group together and gang up on the companies that are trying to force them to sign the minimum pricing contracts by forming a cartel. It might be considered illegal for them to do it because of anti-trust laws but the Supreme Court seems to be in an pro-trust mood these days. Who says the RIAA is the only evil cartel in this country?
I think that God was trying to blast Jack Thompson with his lightning bolts and got Jerry Fallwell instead. A pity.
Three cheers to this. Now perhaps I can buy video games (and other assorted hardware) from Amazon and not have it actually come from Toys 'R' Us and being stuck paying California sales tax on it because Toys 'R' Us has a physical presence (stores, warehoues, etc.) in California and Amazon.com doesn't. Also, to add insult to injury, I have to pay shipping because I'm not dealing with Amazon. Usually I use the "super saver" shipping that Amazon offers and save a few bucks by being patient for my order to arrive.
I don't think Amazon.com will ever actually admit this publicly but a big part of their business model I suspect is the sales tax evasion that they allow us to easily perpetrate because they tend to maintain warehouses near major highways and close to an airport in cheap states that are close to large population centers (such as in Nevada and Kentucky). For California residents, it's anywhere from a 7.25% to 8.75% discount that costs Amazon nothing. It's for this reason why I thought that the Amazon/Toys 'R' Us partnership made little business sense to me.
A consumer boycott could possibly make SONY management act responsibly, meaning they actually admit responsibility for the rootkit, but I doubt it unless the boycott spreads outside of geekdom. Well, maybe. But if it doesn't here's what you can do personally: sue them yourself.
s cbasics.htm
In California (where I live), we have a thing called "Small Claims" court. It's a civil court where an ordinary citizen can sue another ordinary citizen or a company for monetary damages. Punitive damages are not awarded and neither are "pain and suffering" damages. You actually have to have been damaged in a way that cost you money in order to collect in small claims court. The good thing about small claims court is that lawyers are not allowed. The bad thing is if you're suing a corporation they can send an employee (such as a laywer they have on the payroll). This this is a good thing in a way as you will see.
First of all, you need to be damaged by SONY. That's easy: put one of the XCD music CDs in your PC. Of course, you should not do this knowing about the rootkit. But if it happened before you learned about it or if you happened to get one of those XCD disks and didn't notice it then it's a different matter.
Second, you need to pay someone to clean your PC. Make sure you get a receipt.
Third, you need to follow the rules regarding filing a claim, getting court papers served, making sure you're prepared to present your case, etc. All this is here:
http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp/smallclaims/
The neat thing about small claims court is that if the defendant (SONY in this case) doesn't show up, you are entitled to ask for a summary judgment which means you win your case by default. You can then proceed to collect your damages from SONY. Companies tend to pay such claims because the cost of having assets attached and liquidated (such as one of their bank accounts) exeeds the cost of just paying it.
If they send someone it's an employee of the company which means they are paying wages for someone to be there. If you win your case, you've not only made SONY liable for your damages (plus your court costs) you've also cost them probably more than your damages especially if they send one of their legal department lawyers. If you lose, you've still won a moral victory that cost you no more than the cost of one of SONY's CDs and some of your time.
If enough people did this SONY will take notice. So if you've been damaged go for it. If you know someone whose been hit by the rootkit, perhaps they can be urged to do it. You can even make some money on the side if you're the one cleaning the PCs.
Let's not forget Glenn Gould's beloved piano that he hauled around with him wherever he went. The humming and the piano were the bane of recording engineers. But then the man was a true eccentric. But will the "performance" reflect accurately the eccentricies of his performance style? At least they need to put a guy wearing what looks like Gould's winter wardrobe (which he preferred to wear even in the summer) on stage in front of the piano to give it at least some authenticity.
First, I must point out my potential biases. I work as a software engineer for a particular prominent integrated library system company.
I've recently had the need to think about open-source library systems. They appear to be cheap but you need to consider the support implications. Library software, like all software, has bugs in it and library software is particularly complicated making it hard to rigorously test. Who are you going to call when something doesn't work right? Who's going to fix the bugs you discover? Who's going to patch your software once the bug is fixed? People are very expensive.
You say you work at a small institution. *ALL* library software contracts, regardless of company, are negotiated. Small libraries usually pay less than larger libraries for the same systems. The price negotiated in the contract is partially based upon what the vendor thinks you can afford, what it thinks other vendors you're talking to want you to pay, the kind of support you need, etc.
When you buying library software from someone, you're not buying software, you're buying a solution, complete with help desk support, some systems administration, upgrades, and customization. It's the only way to go with this I'm afraid.
And RotK (in case this knowing this adds purpose to your life)
I use a tame black hole as a filing system.
Is it any accident that the new "privacy" czar made it his business to intrude on your privacy in order to sell you stuff or sell this information to others for "other" purposes? What would Orwell have called this bureaucracy? The Ministry of Freedom?