The basic problem is that the whole idea of authenticating transactions with no more than static account information is fundamentally insecure. And that's why retailers love it.
It's easy for consumers to buy. It's easy for a retailer to set up a recurring charge. The sales process involves only the retailer.
There are many other ways this could work. When you attempted to buy something online, your bank would contact you in some online way, showing you the transaction details and requiring you to confirm them. Preferably using a hardware authentication token. That would bring online credit card fraud to a dead stop.
It would put a bank/consumer interaction in every sale. No more "One Click" purchases. It would also kill "automatic renewal" of services. Retailers would hate it.
Technically, what's needed is a very user friendly token. Something like an keyless entry remote.
But there's no easy to interface such a thing to the existing installed base of computers.
You can't just buy the application; you have to pay $5000 per run. That keeps people from figuring it out.
Otherwise, you could put a genetic algorithm and a synthesizer on the job. Use the HSS application as an evaluation function, and let it crank until it had composed an optimal song. Or just run every free MP3 on the web through. (Now that would be a good idea. Somewhere, there may be a garage band that doesn't suck.)
There's a similar program to predict Wine Advisor scores. If that were easily available, people would be synthesizing the optimal wine.
After a few years running Mozilla only, on the Windows, Linux, and QNX systems, I haven't found a website I need that requires Active-X. A few years ago, it showed up once in a while, but today, few sites seem to need it.
I know there's some use of Active-X within in-house applications, but as far as I can tell, Active-X for general web page use has declined substantially.
Major banking sites don't require it any more. Bank of America is Active-X free, and they're the biggest US bank. Other banks need to take a hint there.
NASDAQ's original advantage was not being digital, it was being a smaller operation at a time when NYSE's growth outstripped it's ability to cope.
No. NASDAQ was the first exchange without a trading floor. Everything was remote. Now, few exchanges have a trading floor. The NYSE is viewed as an anachronism for keeping theirs. The reason they keep it is because the NYSE is partially owned by the floor traders.
JetBlue's advantage was not being digital, it was about being a smaller operation in a cuthroat market.
PSA (now Southwest) was the first to make a budget airline work. They flew within California, a deregulated environment when interstate travel was regulated. In the 1970s, PSA didn't even bother with tickets. You went to the airport, paid your $13 at the cash register, and your register receipt was your boarding pass. No reservations. No paperwork at all. They didn't even ask your name. You walked out the door past the cash register, walked to the plane, and up the built-in stairs on the 727. They flew from LA to SF every hour, so if the plane was full, you waited for the next one. Less than ten minutes from parking lot to plane seat.
This thing may be marginal as a passenger plane, but as a freighter, it will be a big win. FedEx and UPS have each ordered ten. Most of the firm orders are for freighters.
A recent addition to the buzzword lexicon is "synchronized". That refers to Detroit-type assembly lines, where assembly steps really are synchronized and there's a fixed cycle time. The people using the term today probably mean something else, but it's not clear what it is.
When Episode I (or II, I forget which) opened in
Silicon Valley, the big Century Theater complex across from Silicon Graphics HQ ran it on half their screens and hired extra security guards.
Big mistake.
Didn't sell out even on day one. No lines. Bored security guards. Bored moviegoers.
"80 Billion Tons of Jar Jar Merchandise Now 70 Percent
Off" - remember last time?
Gunter Hefner, formerly Infineon's vice president of sales for memory products, is now US Inmate #98184-011, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. Heinrich Florian, former vice president for sales marketing
and logistics for memory products, is now US Inmate #98182-011.
Infineon had to pay $160 million in fines.
Samsung, Hynix, and Micron have also been implicated. The investigation continues.
I thought that one of the requirements for the DMCA takedown notices was that the party making the claim about copyright infringement had to declare, under penalty of perjury, that the works were being copied in violation of copyright.
No. The party making the claim only has to declare, under penalty of perjury, that they are the copyright holder or the agent of the copyright holder.
There are tools for removing Internet Explorer. IE is removed, system components that call it are adjusted, some icons disappear from the file browser, Windows File Protection is properly updated for the new no-IE state, and you have a system free of the IE nightmare.
I've always suspected close ties between the virus industry and the multibillion dollar anti-virus industry. Now we know they're real.
Most viruses are designed to be friendly to the anti-virus industry.
They rarely do anything really destructive.
"Propagate for 15 days, then erase hard drive" viruses are very rare.
They seldom do something that an anti-virus program can't undo. Think about that for a moment. Most viruses are uninstallable without having to reload applications or the operating system. That can't be entirely by accident.
They almost never attack the users data in subtle ways. We don't seem to see viruses that, say, make small changes to numbers in spreadsheets.
They don't even remove anti-virus programs much, which would seem to be an obvious feature.
There's always been an implicit synergy between the virus and anti-virus companies. They need each other. But now we know there's more than that.
The stats are from someone else's site, and the technology discussion is at a very low level. There's some naive economic discussion. The section on dealing with "griefing" is the strongest section.
There are many serious omissions. Issues like "how do we fill up a big world with content", "how do we keep everybody from piling up in the good areas", as well as the critical "what can people do in the world" are unaddressed.
There's a commercial product that removes Internet Explorer and Outlook. Not just hides, removes. A few Windows functions are replaced with stubs, apparently.
Despite what Microsoft says, you can get rid of IE.
Of course, you install Firefox and Thunderbird.
LitePC is too flexible for the typical home user, though. It's used mostly for configuring business desktops and embedded systems. Basically, it lets you turn off, selectively, most of what's in XP but not XP Embedded.
They really need a one-step CD product that cleans out adware, spyware, and viruses, removes Internet Explorer, and installs Firefox and Thunderbird.
There really aren't that many important web sites left that work only with IE. And you can usually find a competitor that sells the same thing. I haven't run IE in a year or so now.
Conductive surfaces don't block RF much unless they're grounded.
Wire mesh is effective if the joints are electrically bonded, which nobody does in ordinary construction. Otherwise, it's useless.
Anybody who has been involved with RF-tight enclosures or rooms will realize this. You need solid metal all the way around, with RF-tight gaskets at openings.
If you can receive any radio signals inside your "shielded room", it's not shielded.
Press Release Source: Technology Investment Capital Corp.
TICC Announces $15 Million Transaction With eXact Advertising, LLC
Monday November 29, 8:00 am ET
GREENWICH, CT--(MARKET WIRE)--Nov 29, 2004 -- Technology Investment Capital Corp. (NasdaqNM:TICC - News) announced today that it has completed a $15 million transaction with eXact Advertising, LLC, an Internet advertising company. TICC's investment consists of $5 million of senior secured notes with warrants and a commitment for an additional $10 million of senior secured notes with warrants upon satisfaction of certain conditions.
About eXact Advertising, LLC
eXact focuses on the delivery of a suite of online solutions that provide highly targeted advertising to customers based on real-time behavior. The company provides its customers with a suite of integrated performance-based marketing solutions. eXact maximizes advertisers' Internet marketing budgets through a robust set of results-driven products and services and accompanying return on investment ("ROI") management tools. More information on eXact Advertising can be found at www.exactadvertising.com.
Re:Registrars need to check with the spam lists
on
Spammers' Upend DNS
·
· Score: 1
ProtectFly now says "All verified spam complaints will result in your Protectfly service being terminated, consequently your domain ownership information will revert back to yours." They also have much tougher indemnification clauses.
They seem to have changed the terms of service shortly after I quoted the relevant section of the CAN-SPAM act to them.
Registrars who falsely list themselves as domain owners make themselves lawsuit targets. If there's a problem, the registrar ends up in court. Then they have to convince a judge that they're an innocent intermediary who just happened to sell some essential service to a criminal. This is not a good legal position to be in.
There does seem to be a major idea shortage at Mauschwitz, as Disney Animation in Burbank is known in the industry. Disney is currently shippping The Lion King 1.5, Mary Poppins, the rerelease, and Young Black Stallion.
Coming up, Mulan 2, another Pokemon movie, another ice skating movie, another Pooh movie, Bambi Special Edition, Aladdin II and III Collection, a remake of "Kindergarten Cop" with Vin Diesel, and all the Disney princess movies in one box. Not a new idea in a carload.
Registrars need to check with the spam lists
on
Spammers' Upend DNS
·
· Score: 1
This should be easy to fix. Domain registrars should be required to check the spam databases during domain registration. If a domain has been recently associated with spam, extra validation of the ownership of the domain should be required.
ICANN can require this. They've been tightening up on phony domain registration info already.
Incidentally, any "domain hiding" service which assists a spammer could find themselves liable under the "conspiracy" clause in the CAN-SPAM act. CAN-SPAM is weak on spamming but tough on identity forgery.
Monitor extra. Keyboard extra. Mouse extra. That's another $200 or so. Much more if you buy an Apple display. The Apple Mini comes in somewhere around $700.
Yahoo requires a court order, and they're right. The parents aren't necessarily the heirs. That's for a court to decide.
There's probably a will. Service members are strongly encouraged to make out a will before going into a combat zone. And it might not name the parents.
Slashdot Mirror
It's easy for consumers to buy. It's easy for a retailer to set up a recurring charge. The sales process involves only the retailer.
There are many other ways this could work. When you attempted to buy something online, your bank would contact you in some online way, showing you the transaction details and requiring you to confirm them. Preferably using a hardware authentication token. That would bring online credit card fraud to a dead stop.
It would put a bank/consumer interaction in every sale. No more "One Click" purchases. It would also kill "automatic renewal" of services. Retailers would hate it.
Technically, what's needed is a very user friendly token. Something like an keyless entry remote. But there's no easy to interface such a thing to the existing installed base of computers.
Otherwise, you could put a genetic algorithm and a synthesizer on the job. Use the HSS application as an evaluation function, and let it crank until it had composed an optimal song. Or just run every free MP3 on the web through. (Now that would be a good idea. Somewhere, there may be a garage band that doesn't suck.)
There's a similar program to predict Wine Advisor scores. If that were easily available, people would be synthesizing the optimal wine.
But not, sadly, the stewardesses.
I know there's some use of Active-X within in-house applications, but as far as I can tell, Active-X for general web page use has declined substantially. Major banking sites don't require it any more. Bank of America is Active-X free, and they're the biggest US bank. Other banks need to take a hint there.
No. NASDAQ was the first exchange without a trading floor. Everything was remote. Now, few exchanges have a trading floor. The NYSE is viewed as an anachronism for keeping theirs. The reason they keep it is because the NYSE is partially owned by the floor traders.
JetBlue's advantage was not being digital, it was about being a smaller operation in a cuthroat market.
PSA (now Southwest) was the first to make a budget airline work. They flew within California, a deregulated environment when interstate travel was regulated. In the 1970s, PSA didn't even bother with tickets. You went to the airport, paid your $13 at the cash register, and your register receipt was your boarding pass. No reservations. No paperwork at all. They didn't even ask your name. You walked out the door past the cash register, walked to the plane, and up the built-in stairs on the 727. They flew from LA to SF every hour, so if the plane was full, you waited for the next one. Less than ten minutes from parking lot to plane seat.
This thing may be marginal as a passenger plane, but as a freighter, it will be a big win. FedEx and UPS have each ordered ten. Most of the firm orders are for freighters.
A recent addition to the buzzword lexicon is "synchronized". That refers to Detroit-type assembly lines, where assembly steps really are synchronized and there's a fixed cycle time. The people using the term today probably mean something else, but it's not clear what it is.
Big mistake. Didn't sell out even on day one. No lines. Bored security guards. Bored moviegoers.
"80 Billion Tons of Jar Jar Merchandise Now 70 Percent Off" - remember last time?
Gunter Hefner, formerly Infineon's vice president of sales for memory products, is now US Inmate #98184-011, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. Heinrich Florian, former vice president for sales marketing and logistics for memory products, is now US Inmate #98182-011.
Infineon had to pay $160 million in fines.
Samsung, Hynix, and Micron have also been implicated. The investigation continues.
No. The party making the claim only has to declare, under penalty of perjury, that they are the copyright holder or the agent of the copyright holder.
I think they plugged that hole, too.
Good point. How did someone make it through an Ivy League school without learning to write? That's embarassing, both for the student and the school.
There are tools for removing Internet Explorer. IE is removed, system components that call it are adjusted, some icons disappear from the file browser, Windows File Protection is properly updated for the new no-IE state, and you have a system free of the IE nightmare.
Most viruses are designed to be friendly to the anti-virus industry.
There's always been an implicit synergy between the virus and anti-virus companies. They need each other. But now we know there's more than that.
Because the Direct Marketing Association lobbied Congress to weaken the CAN-SPAM act to prevent that.
There are many serious omissions. Issues like "how do we fill up a big world with content", "how do we keep everybody from piling up in the good areas", as well as the critical "what can people do in the world" are unaddressed.
Of course, you install Firefox and Thunderbird.
LitePC is too flexible for the typical home user, though. It's used mostly for configuring business desktops and embedded systems. Basically, it lets you turn off, selectively, most of what's in XP but not XP Embedded. They really need a one-step CD product that cleans out adware, spyware, and viruses, removes Internet Explorer, and installs Firefox and Thunderbird.
There really aren't that many important web sites left that work only with IE. And you can usually find a competitor that sells the same thing. I haven't run IE in a year or so now.
Anybody who has been involved with RF-tight enclosures or rooms will realize this. You need solid metal all the way around, with RF-tight gaskets at openings.
If you can receive any radio signals inside your "shielded room", it's not shielded.
-
Press Release Source: Technology Investment Capital Corp.
These are the people behind Bargain Buddy, eXact Match, Cash Back, PhotoGizmo, etc.TICC Announces $15 Million Transaction With eXact Advertising, LLC
Monday November 29, 8:00 am ET
GREENWICH, CT--(MARKET WIRE)--Nov 29, 2004 --
Technology Investment Capital Corp. (NasdaqNM:TICC - News) announced today that it has completed a $15 million transaction with eXact Advertising, LLC, an Internet advertising company. TICC's investment consists of $5 million of senior secured notes with warrants and a commitment for an additional $10 million of senior secured notes with warrants upon satisfaction of certain conditions.
About eXact Advertising, LLC
eXact focuses on the delivery of a suite of online solutions that provide highly targeted advertising to customers based on real-time behavior. The company provides its customers with a suite of integrated performance-based marketing solutions. eXact maximizes advertisers' Internet marketing budgets through a robust set of results-driven products and services and accompanying return on investment ("ROI") management tools. More information on eXact Advertising can be found at www.exactadvertising.com.
They seem to have changed the terms of service shortly after I quoted the relevant section of the CAN-SPAM act to them.
Registrars who falsely list themselves as domain owners make themselves lawsuit targets. If there's a problem, the registrar ends up in court. Then they have to convince a judge that they're an innocent intermediary who just happened to sell some essential service to a criminal. This is not a good legal position to be in.
Coming up, Mulan 2, another Pokemon movie, another ice skating movie, another Pooh movie, Bambi Special Edition, Aladdin II and III Collection, a remake of "Kindergarten Cop" with Vin Diesel, and all the Disney princess movies in one box. Not a new idea in a carload.
Incidentally, any "domain hiding" service which assists a spammer could find themselves liable under the "conspiracy" clause in the CAN-SPAM act. CAN-SPAM is weak on spamming but tough on identity forgery.
Broacast spectrum could be rented. TV stations should have to go back and re-rent it every year. That would shake up the broadcast industry.
Monitor extra. Keyboard extra. Mouse extra. That's another $200 or so. Much more if you buy an Apple display. The Apple Mini comes in somewhere around $700.
There's probably a will. Service members are strongly encouraged to make out a will before going into a combat zone. And it might not name the parents.