Ask yourself this : WHY did Microsoft create yet-another-codec? Streaming is possible with many formats that already existed when ASF was introduced, including mp3.
Why must a media file contain anything other than data?
The problem with your logic, is that you forget why ASF/WMV/WMA files are so vulnerable
From wikipedia : "The ASF container provides the framework for digital rights management in Windows Media Audio and Windows Media Video."
So, the problem is not people who download (illegally or not.. think NIN) music/video via P2P or newsgroups, it's the companies pushing for harsher copyrights and stronger DRM. I'll agree that they wouldn't have to, if nobody pirated anything, but their answer is more akin to an atom bomb to get rid of a nest of cockroaches. It will probably NOT kill the roaches, but everybody else will feel the aftermath
About the "nifty" value, it's hard, when working for smaller companies (15 employees or less), not to become a primadona.
For example, at my previous job, I had to write with a colleague a LAMP application which was to show search results from a database with slightly less than half a million entries in real time (the results were being updated accordingly on the page while the user typed). We did it in a few hours and we were particularly proud that it was fast enough to go live right there and then. The boss came around, asked how far we were, we showed him.. and his only reaction was "I don't know, but the green bar on the side would look better in another colour" Mind you, he was a technically oriented boss generally, but he just didn't get the technical difficulties we had been facing, and we knew better than to try to explain them to him
After a few occurences like that, you really end up being what you call a "primadonna".
I can only talk about the distro I'm using, which is Ubuntu 8.04. The ~stupid code~ was fixed, but the stupid patch also tried to find all the keys on your system and generate new.
Still a pain, but as much as was humanly possible was fixed automatically.
I agree that the ssh bug was *VERY* bad and had a particularly stupid source, but the way it was handled was adequate.
Now, how do you think Apple or Microsoft would have handled a similar problem?
The longer answer : every OS is vulnerable one way or another. The difference lies mostly in the response and the response time by the vendors.
Linux : take the debian ssh disaster a few month ago as example. I read about it at Google News, head over here to check how the linux bashing was coming along, and while I was reading, the "update available" icon appeared. A few minutes later and the vulnerability was no more. Admitedly, it took a *VERY* long time to find out about the problem in the first place, but the response time from then on was very short, and the update contained concise information about the whole mess. Today's vulnerability will probably take a bit longer to be fixed, as it requires some primordial changes in the way packet manager work to be fixed. But I'm rather sure people are already looking for a solution (you know.. people who actually CAN fix this kind of problems, not your average/. reader)
Apple Mac : when Apple admits that there is a vulnerability in their products, they take their dear sweet time to fix it. As a matter of fact, Apple just released a security fix for Apple TV, covering vulnerabilities dating back to, at least, January 2008 (at which time it was fixed for OSX, but NOT for Apple TV). I can't comment on how detailed the security fixes are, as I don't own apple products
Microsoft : the Zero Day initiative still lists 12 issues concerning Apple product, classified as "high severity", but the oldest item is a Microsoft vulnerability dating from September 2006 (more or less quoted verbatim from the iWire article I'll link to a bit later). Microsoft updates are particularly obscure in their descriptions, and, if I remember correctly, they are sometimes even applied without asking the user first, and have a bad habbit of breaking other stuff.
So, is Linux 100% secure? No, and it will never be. But at least the devs react in a timely manner, and they don't just install something without telling you what it is or that they are patching at all. Therefore it is better secured than Apple and Microsoft products whose vulnerabilities are often left open, for the sake of obscurity I suppose.
"Superiority" is a highly subjective term, so I won't even start to thread on this subject. It is for me, but your mileage might vary
Once VIACOM has the data (that's email address, perhaps even your real name and adress (through the IP), your viewing preferences, etc) what's going to stop it from using it? How do you want to prove they used Youtube's data?
hmm.. wouldn't that rather be : Microsoft uses Intelligent Design, while Google uses Evolution?
(Sex and Mutations are not really mutually exclusive, you know;)
You mean, "The standard penalty for posting on slashdot and having actual children (aka. having have sex at least once in your lifetime) is castration"?
Damn... should have posted the first answer as AN I guess:P
Even for child porn, it can become a rather foggy issue. I, for one, have photos of naked kids on my HD. They are my own daughters, they are taking a bath or just waiting to get new diapers (and incredibly cute, but that's probably a father's pride talking:) and 2 years old.
*I* know they are my kids, and I also don't see anything wrong with those pictures. But what would a custom official who thinks pictures of grown up naked women are suspicious make of them?
Notice how they never say that it WAS child porn, but "that they believed [them] to be child pornography".
hmm... let's see. It's embedded on the mainboard, and as I understand it, they use that to encrypt the game key or whatever.
What happens if I have to change the mobo? Do I have to buy the game again? Do I have to re-register with a newly generated key? That would mean that there is some confirmation coming from some site, which, sorry Nolan, means someone from the intertubes will certainly be able to fake it.
Actually, it's called "Synaptic Package Manager" in the System->Administration menu. It is indeed similar to the name the company called Synaptics (notice the 's' at the end) but the "package manager" bit is kind of a giveaway, really.
Dude, you wrote "I just checked the Synaptics Package Manager and Apache isn't included in the Hardy Heron release of Ubuntu.", which, to my understanding, means "it's not in Synaptics" and not "I just installed a Desktop Linux Distro that's meant for the average clueless John Doe user's mom and it didn't install an HTTP server! OMGWTFBBQ!".
In other news, there is a SERVER version of Ubuntu. Never used it, but I'd bet a complete collection of American Idol Seasons DVDs that Apache2 is both
It's not on the ISO, but it's definitely in the repositories. The package is called "Apache2", version 2.2.8-1
So I guess you are indeed missing something.
My 63 year old mom uses it on her laptop, and she is NO rocket scientist (and never was). From her point of view, it doesn't matter what OS she is using, as long as it doesn't crash too often, is in french, she has WORD and Excel and she can play Mahjong, solitaire and similar games when there's nothing on TV.
Granted, I had to explain to her that OpenOffice is just the same as MS-Office with slightly different menus, but apart from that the move from XP to Ubuntu was completely painless. Now all her friends want the nifty carroussel screensaver and the great Scrabble clone (Quackle) on their computers too;)
What I should mention is that her laptop is a 5 year old 1ghz/256MB Toshiba laptop my previous employer sold to me for 150 euros, and whose hardware was faultlessly recognized by Gutsy.
Please show me where I can get any GUI application for Linux that will let me customize the action of every button on my 10-button Bluetooth Logitech mouse. I'd be willing to pay for a good one, even.
Using a Logitech MX Revolution (the one with the funky flywheel and the sub-par batteries) on Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy right now... and have been without any problems for 6 months or so. It worked out of the box (2 buttons and the flywheel). The rest of the myriad of buttons were set using BTNX
oh... and you don't even have to pay for it.
Re:Banks is not a good author
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Are you sure you're not mistaking him for somebody else?
once I had the misfortune of picking up a book in the middle of a series and he made no attempt to explain anything I thought I had read ALL of Iain Banks' Scifi books, and I can't recall any serie. "The Culture" is not a serie per se, but a setting in which most of his scifi books take place.
So, which serie was it you stumbled into?
By the way, if you had trouble with Iain Banks, don't even bother to start Dan Simmon's Illium. It requires that you have at least basic knowledge of Marcel Proust's "A la recherche du temps perdu" and of Homer's (the greek author, not the Simpsons character) "Iliad" and "Odissey".
Re:something I had trouble with
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just to take your example, there is at least ONE non humanoid alien in Use of Weapons. It ends up snoring on a tree after spending the night in a drinking binge with Zalakwe.
As others have pointed out : there are more, they just aren't proeminently displayed (generally)
Ravished By The Sheer Implausibility Of That Last Statement, and because I am a Reformed Nice Guy, I can only reply : Kiss This Then!
You'll Thank Me Later:P
by the way : I Blame Your Mother
It's definitely not a typical NIN album and not to everyone's taste. Don't you just love the fact that you were able to listen to the free tracks LEGALLY before deciding you didn't enjoy it, instead of having to buy the album based on 15 second samples or one single track you kind of liked and the buzz around the album?
Slashdot Mirror
Ask yourself this : WHY did Microsoft create yet-another-codec? Streaming is possible with many formats that already existed when ASF was introduced, including mp3.
Why must a media file contain anything other than data?
My guess is DRM, yours is probably different
The problem with your logic, is that you forget why ASF/WMV/WMA files are so vulnerable
From wikipedia : "The ASF container provides the framework for digital rights management in Windows Media Audio and Windows Media Video."
So, the problem is not people who download (illegally or not .. think NIN) music/video via P2P or newsgroups, it's the companies pushing for harsher copyrights and stronger DRM. I'll agree that they wouldn't have to, if nobody pirated anything, but their answer is more akin to an atom bomb to get rid of a nest of cockroaches. It will probably NOT kill the roaches, but everybody else will feel the aftermath
About the "nifty" value, it's hard, when working for smaller companies (15 employees or less), not to become a primadona. .. and his only reaction was "I don't know, but the green bar on the side would look better in another colour"
For example, at my previous job, I had to write with a colleague a LAMP application which was to show search results from a database with slightly less than half a million entries in real time (the results were being updated accordingly on the page while the user typed). We did it in a few hours and we were particularly proud that it was fast enough to go live right there and then.
The boss came around, asked how far we were, we showed him
Mind you, he was a technically oriented boss generally, but he just didn't get the technical difficulties we had been facing, and we knew better than to try to explain them to him
After a few occurences like that, you really end up being what you call a "primadonna".
I can only talk about the distro I'm using, which is Ubuntu 8.04. The ~stupid code~ was fixed, but the stupid patch also tried to find all the keys on your system and generate new.
Still a pain, but as much as was humanly possible was fixed automatically.
I agree that the ssh bug was *VERY* bad and had a particularly stupid source, but the way it was handled was adequate.
Now, how do you think Apple or Microsoft would have handled a similar problem?
The short answer : yes
The longer answer : every OS is vulnerable one way or another. The difference lies mostly in the response and the response time by the vendors.
Linux : take the debian ssh disaster a few month ago as example. I read about it at Google News, head over here to check how the linux bashing was coming along, and while I was reading, the "update available" icon appeared. A few minutes later and the vulnerability was no more. .. people who actually CAN fix this kind of problems, not your average /. reader)
Admitedly, it took a *VERY* long time to find out about the problem in the first place, but the response time from then on was very short, and the update contained concise information about the whole mess.
Today's vulnerability will probably take a bit longer to be fixed, as it requires some primordial changes in the way packet manager work to be fixed. But I'm rather sure people are already looking for a solution (you know
Apple Mac : when Apple admits that there is a vulnerability in their products, they take their dear sweet time to fix it. As a matter of fact, Apple just released a security fix for Apple TV, covering vulnerabilities dating back to, at least, January 2008 (at which time it was fixed for OSX, but NOT for Apple TV). I can't comment on how detailed the security fixes are, as I don't own apple products
Microsoft : the Zero Day initiative still lists 12 issues concerning Apple product, classified as "high severity", but the oldest item is a Microsoft vulnerability dating from September 2006 (more or less quoted verbatim from the iWire article I'll link to a bit later). Microsoft updates are particularly obscure in their descriptions, and, if I remember correctly, they are sometimes even applied without asking the user first, and have a bad habbit of breaking other stuff.
So, is Linux 100% secure? No, and it will never be. But at least the devs react in a timely manner, and they don't just install something without telling you what it is or that they are patching at all. Therefore it is better secured than Apple and Microsoft products whose vulnerabilities are often left open, for the sake of obscurity I suppose.
"Superiority" is a highly subjective term, so I won't even start to thread on this subject. It is for me, but your mileage might vary
Apple TV fix article
Zero Day Initiative upcoming advisories
You must have missed Yesterday's News
Once VIACOM has the data (that's email address, perhaps even your real name and adress (through the IP), your viewing preferences, etc) what's going to stop it from using it?
How do you want to prove they used Youtube's data?
hmm .. wouldn't that rather be : Microsoft uses Intelligent Design, while Google uses Evolution?
(Sex and Mutations are not really mutually exclusive, you know;)
I didn't know wearing a Che T-Shirt or being against war was a proof of intelligence ... but now that you say it, it actually makes sense.
(yep ... I have a heart and feed the trolls from time to time)
And of course, how detrimental to the environment is the manufacturing and recycling of those membranes?
Even if I know that most people only see the financial aspect of this thing, should it be true, the environmental effect shouldn't be ignored
You mean, "The standard penalty for posting on slashdot and having actual children (aka. having have sex at least once in your lifetime) is castration"?
Damn ... should have posted the first answer as AN I guess :P
Do you have any Torrent Tracker for it?
Even for child porn, it can become a rather foggy issue. I, for one, have photos of naked kids on my HD. They are my own daughters, they are taking a bath or just waiting to get new diapers (and incredibly cute, but that's probably a father's pride talking:) and 2 years old.
*I* know they are my kids, and I also don't see anything wrong with those pictures. But what would a custom official who thinks pictures of grown up naked women are suspicious make of them?
Notice how they never say that it WAS child porn, but "that they believed [them] to be child pornography".
hmm .. you're not the only one who thinks WoW is not good, though answering as AC makes you quite a turd yourself I'm afraid.
hmm ... let's see. It's embedded on the mainboard, and as I understand it, they use that to encrypt the game key or whatever.
What happens if I have to change the mobo? Do I have to buy the game again? Do I have to re-register with a newly generated key? That would mean that there is some confirmation coming from some site, which, sorry Nolan, means someone from the intertubes will certainly be able to fake it.
Though I seriously can't believe she missed her error in the 2nd part. Too bad, she was really doing well until that.
Actually, it's called "Synaptic Package Manager" in the System->Administration menu. It is indeed similar to the name the company called Synaptics (notice the 's' at the end) but the "package manager" bit is kind of a giveaway, really.
Dude, you wrote "I just checked the Synaptics Package Manager and Apache isn't included in the Hardy Heron release of Ubuntu.", which, to my understanding, means "it's not in Synaptics" and not "I just installed a Desktop Linux Distro that's meant for the average clueless John Doe user's mom and it didn't install an HTTP server! OMGWTFBBQ!".
In other news, there is a SERVER version of Ubuntu. Never used it, but I'd bet a complete collection of American Idol Seasons DVDs that Apache2 is both
It's not on the ISO, but it's definitely in the repositories. The package is called "Apache2", version 2.2.8-1 So I guess you are indeed missing something.
My 63 year old mom uses it on her laptop, and she is NO rocket scientist (and never was). From her point of view, it doesn't matter what OS she is using, as long as it doesn't crash too often, is in french, she has WORD and Excel and she can play Mahjong, solitaire and similar games when there's nothing on TV.
Granted, I had to explain to her that OpenOffice is just the same as MS-Office with slightly different menus, but apart from that the move from XP to Ubuntu was completely painless. Now all her friends want the nifty carroussel screensaver and the great Scrabble clone (Quackle) on their computers too ;)
What I should mention is that her laptop is a 5 year old 1ghz/256MB Toshiba laptop my previous employer sold to me for 150 euros, and whose hardware was faultlessly recognized by Gutsy.BTNX
Using a Logitech MX Revolution (the one with the funky flywheel and the sub-par batteries) on Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy right now ... and have been without any problems for 6 months or so. It worked out of the box (2 buttons and the flywheel). The rest of the myriad of buttons were set using BTNX
ohonce I had the misfortune of picking up a book in the middle of a series and he made no attempt to explain anything I thought I had read ALL of Iain Banks' Scifi books, and I can't recall any serie. "The Culture" is not a serie per se, but a setting in which most of his scifi books take place.
So, which serie was it you stumbled into?
By the way, if you had trouble with Iain Banks, don't even bother to start Dan Simmon's Illium. It requires that you have at least basic knowledge of Marcel Proust's "A la recherche du temps perdu" and of Homer's (the greek author, not the Simpsons character) "Iliad" and "Odissey".
just to take your example, there is at least ONE non humanoid alien in Use of Weapons. It ends up snoring on a tree after spending the night in a drinking binge with Zalakwe.
As others have pointed out : there are more, they just aren't proeminently displayed (generally)
Ravished By The Sheer Implausibility Of That Last Statement, and because I am a Reformed Nice Guy, I can only reply : Kiss This Then! You'll Thank Me Later :P
by the way : I Blame Your Mother
I generally don't bitch about being modded down ... but *TROLL*??????? In what way was THAT trolling?????
It's definitely not a typical NIN album and not to everyone's taste. Don't you just love the fact that you were able to listen to the free tracks LEGALLY before deciding you didn't enjoy it, instead of having to buy the album based on 15 second samples or one single track you kind of liked and the buzz around the album?