Seriously, if I tell my friend to buy a new hard drive, I expect him to buy a hard drive. If he needs my help connecting it or installing the OS, sure, I can do that, but I like to avoid buying things for other people (because if I take exactly the amount of money I paid for the drive, I will lose some money that I paid for the gas (but I don't know the exact amount), if I take more money then I should better know exactly how much I paid for the gas, so that I don't take too much). Luckily all my friends know how a hard drive looks like. On the other hand, if he didn't know how a particular component looks like, but I have the old one, I can always give it to him and say "go to the store and buy one of this".
Because this could be prevented by having offline backups. This is the same as leaving your car with doors unlocked and the key on the passengers seat. If you do that, blame yourself if your car gets stolen. While doors and key are not major hurdles to a smart car thief, they still save you from the stupid ones. And offline backups save you from any hacker, because it is not possible to erase data from a tape that is not currently in the tape drive without having physical access to the tape.
1. You don't "own" your cellphone, it's licensed to you.
Yes I do. I paid a lot of money for my cell phone and I can sell it if I no longer want it. I can also disassemble the cell phone if I want to (for example to replace a broken screen).
2. You don't "own" your DVD player, and DVD's , they are licensed to you.
I may not own the movies, but I own the physical DVDs and the player (and my VCR too). I can sell them if I no longer need them.
3. You don't "own" your software, it's licensed to you.
Depends. If I bought a program in a retail store I can also sell it to someone else. On the other hand, I cannot make a copy and then sell it, but I can sell the original disk/floppy/whatever.
You pay "small monthly fees" for use of your cellphone and accessories, this model works.
I pay not for the cell phone, but for the cell service. The cell service, just like landline or electricity needs continously operating equipment (the cell towers, exchanges, generators) and people to maintain it, so I pay some fee to use them (I pay more if I use more, because if I use more power, that means that a power plant is using more fuel because of me and I have to pay for it, the same goes for cell and landline - I am using a limited resouce, while I talk, nobody else can use that channel). I do not pay monthly fees for my VCR, because the manufacturer made it once, I paid for it and it no longer needs any effort from the manufacturer (except for spare parts, but I do have to pay for them). I pay for the tapes, but then again, the tapes are mine until I sell, give away or destroy them.
I'm not aware of a way to play pirated xbox360 games or ps3 games in a way that doesn't void the warranty (very important with the RROD floating around) or online play.
Well, I don't have a console, but I helped my friend once to mod his xbox360 (I have a computer with a specific SATA chipset that the software needed to flash the DVDROM drive). I told him that this would void the warranty, he said that if he downloaded about 10 games instead of buying, he would save enough money for another xbox360 if this one broke.
If a game costs $35 and you downloaded 10 games, that means you saved $350 - probably worth the risk.
I suppose that they could collect the (I'm guessing) coins and haul it to them in wheelbarrows,
One person did this in Lithuania. At his friend's wedding, he called the police and told them that there was a bomb, when the police came, he said that he called them for fun (being drunk usually doesn't help you act wisely). He was fined 15000Lt and paid the fine with 1ct coins (1Lt=100ct). And they were forced to accept this payment, because, well, money is money.
That's nice. So, if I want to sell a defective VCR, all I need to do is to show you the schematic or the PCB. Then it's your responsibility if the device sends 220V to your TV. Too bad we both didn't see that one tiny wire or a solder glop between the output and 220V power.
I decide to put a knife in there and rattle it around, I decide to dump it in the bathtub, etc. and it still has to work. Well, software is somewhat like that. I'm putting all sorts of unknowns in there and so no one can certify that it will *just work*.
There is a difference. If a toaster cannot make toast in "normal use" then, if it's under warranty, you can get it fixed. If it electrocutes someone while being used "normally" the manufacturer may be liable for it.
Now, about software. You do say that it works in Windows, right? So, the software should work in Windows. The same if the toaster is certified to work underwater, it is expected to.
Also, I look forward to seeing an advertisement for software that "uses some CPU cycles". Since if you advertised it as capable of doing something else and it wasn't, you could be liable for false advertising.
Did the seller sell it as broken? Or did he put that calculator in a box together with other, working, calculators?
If he did not specify that this calculator is broken, that means the buyer expects it to work (well, you usually go to a store to buy working items) and the seller has to guarantee that it works at least immediately before/after purchase, even if no warranty is provided.
On the other hand, if I buy something like a calculator, the seller opens the box and tests it with my presence before I give him the money.
If you buy a cell phone and it explodes in your pocket, should the manufacturer be held liable?
If food makers used the same licenses as software makers, then in a opaque box, there would be a license agreement:
1. The manufacturer does not guarantee that this item can be used for food and is not liable if it is not suitable for eating. 2. The user is not allowed to examine the contents of this item (for example to look if it had rat tails in it). 3. The user has a right to use (eat) the product, but does not become its owner. 4. The right to use (eat) the product gets only one person. 5. The user does not have a right to sell of give away the product to third parties. 6. The manufacturer does not guarantee that the product is free of hazardous materials (for example, rat poison, dioxin etc). 7. The manufacturer is not liable for any health risk to the user because of the product. 8. The manufacturer guarantees that the box is made of high quality materials and, if there is a flaw in it, will replace the box. This does not extend to the product that is in the box. 9. By opening the box and reading this agreement the user automatically agrees to it.
I'm the same way. This usually happens for me when I am reading some long text with a lot of links in it. I see a link, open it in a background tab and continue reading...
Also, I usually keep a lot of tabs open to the sites I frequently visit, so I just select the tab and refresh the page to see if the site (a forum or/. main page) changed. On some sites I do not need to refresh, since they refresh automatically.
Yes, I know, I should use bookmarks, but maybe it's just a bad habit, but a lot of tabs is easier for me. So, if the new FF version has a process for each tab, my Task Manager list will be full of firefox.exe (now if Opera does this too, it will be bad).
Wow,I always assumed that RAW meant "without lossy compression", like a wav file for audio. A CR2 file (Canon format) is smaller than a 10mpx BMP file, so I assumed that it is just some lossless compression.
I did not like the CR2 format because you need a bloated application (the one supplied by Canon or Photoshop) to open it. A bmp file could be opened by any application.
First, there is a plug-in for MS Office 97, written by Sun, and available for free.
Good to know.
They might include wanting better ODF support for interoperability with governments moving to that as the standard or to ensure your files will open in 10 years without having to pay someone.
Not going to happen in my country in the foreseeable future. The government is busy making stupid decisions.
You might simply want to add more machines to your office and not want to pay a licensing fee to MS for a new version of MS Office. You might want to add new, low end machines, that cannot even run current versions of MS Office.
- Boss, I have an idea. For our new computer, we should use Linux and save some money by not buying Windows. - OK, but does Office work in it? - Well, there is OpenOffice, which is very similar to MS Office, so the employee will have no trouble using it. And by the way, it is also free, so we will save even more money. - Great, can it create and open Microsoft.doc files? - Yes - Do it then.
And yes, I hate lock-in. Be it software (any good camera has its own RAW format instead of using something like a compressed (rar or zip) BMP file) or hardware (printer manufacturers trying to make it so that only their overpriced cartridges could be used).
Well, those companies have already paid for Office 97-2003, so the new application (OpenOffice) has to be at least as fast as their old application or the company will start using it only when their old computers break down.
While I see now why an open standard would be better, unless someone makes a plugin for MS Office 97 to support it, it won't be used here, because, well, why use something else if what you have works?
I have some.doc files last modified in 1996 that are of "Microsoft Word 6.0/95 document" format and they open without problems with Word 2003. Those documents are simple though.
An open format is not always needed though. MP3 is supported by any device that supports reading audio off a file, but the "open" ogg format is not so supported. We'll just have to see abut ODF, since it's too soon to tell, but, at least in my country,.doc will be used for a long time, because everyone supports it. If they do not support.doc, they cannot send documents to their clients (and nobody in their right mind would tell a client "go download this program or I will not take your money"). When I suggested that we use Linux (cheaper) where I work, I was asked if it had a program that could open and save.doc and.xls files. Since it could, we use it. Otherwise we would have used Windows. And the files are saved as Word 97.doc.
Well, at least it works on OO and MSOffice 97 -2007. The new MS.docx format requires a converter to work on MSOffice 2003 (I don't know with what versions of Office it is compatible). I also do not know if the "better" ODF works on MS Office prior to 2007 at all (does it have a converter?). Seeing that in my country a lot of companies still use old computers (well, it was enough for writing documents 7 years ago, if it's not broken, then it's enough now).doc format is the one that is most compatible. Well, if I send a.doc file at least I know that almost everyone will be able to open it.
Well, I don't see a problem with.doc (and.xls) format. It works in both MS Office and OpenOffice, so can be used to send documents between Linux and Windows systems.
And my desk is made such that the monitor is in the corner, so I have no problem with my 21" Dell P1130. If I replaced it with a LCD I would only have free space behind the monitor (but no, I like CRTs, so I'll use this monitor at least until it fails or I buy a better CRT).
Autorun is already disabled on Flash drives, at least in Windows XP and Vista.
Don't know about Vista, but on XP, the autorun.inf file is still processed and you can get infected by double clicking the drive icon or right clicking and selecting Open or Explore.
for things that start up before a user logs on - put them with services.
for things that are part of the OS - well, they are part of the OS, so the OS should know what applications are critical for the OS to work, there should be a read-only list somewhere.
Well, some years ago, applications were more behaving - they put themselves in the StartUP.
And, in case you didn't know, you can disable autorun and still keep the "doubleclick on drive icon -> autorun" functionality in windows.
Which is as insecure as the "normal" autorun, since the worm can be the program that is launched on doubleclick on the drive icon. It can also make right click->Open or Explore options do the same thing - activate the worm.
Autorun.inf can do that. You can create additional commands to the right-click menu, so you can say to the user: "right click on the CD Drive (S:) and choose 'install software'". The problem is, that autorun.inf file can be made such that it replaces "Open" and "Explore" commands with its own. So, you doubleclick on the drive and...
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What are friends for?
Seriously, if I tell my friend to buy a new hard drive, I expect him to buy a hard drive. If he needs my help connecting it or installing the OS, sure, I can do that, but I like to avoid buying things for other people (because if I take exactly the amount of money I paid for the drive, I will lose some money that I paid for the gas (but I don't know the exact amount), if I take more money then I should better know exactly how much I paid for the gas, so that I don't take too much). Luckily all my friends know how a hard drive looks like. On the other hand, if he didn't know how a particular component looks like, but I have the old one, I can always give it to him and say "go to the store and buy one of this".
Because this could be prevented by having offline backups. This is the same as leaving your car with doors unlocked and the key on the passengers seat. If you do that, blame yourself if your car gets stolen. While doors and key are not major hurdles to a smart car thief, they still save you from the stupid ones. And offline backups save you from any hacker, because it is not possible to erase data from a tape that is not currently in the tape drive without having physical access to the tape.
But he still can use a zombie computer as a proxy, so if there are any logs remaining, his IP wouldn't be in them.
Which ones?
Does the uploader get money?
Does the person who (I assume) scanned the book get money?
Do the tracker(s) get money?
Do seeders get money?
So, which ones are "in it for the money" and which ones are doing this for free?
1. You don't "own" your cellphone, it's licensed to you.
Yes I do. I paid a lot of money for my cell phone and I can sell it if I no longer want it. I can also disassemble the cell phone if I want to (for example to replace a broken screen).
2. You don't "own" your DVD player, and DVD's , they are licensed to you.
I may not own the movies, but I own the physical DVDs and the player (and my VCR too). I can sell them if I no longer need them.
3. You don't "own" your software, it's licensed to you.
Depends. If I bought a program in a retail store I can also sell it to someone else. On the other hand, I cannot make a copy and then sell it, but I can sell the original disk/floppy/whatever.
You pay "small monthly fees" for use of your cellphone and accessories, this model works.
I pay not for the cell phone, but for the cell service. The cell service, just like landline or electricity needs continously operating equipment (the cell towers, exchanges, generators) and people to maintain it, so I pay some fee to use them (I pay more if I use more, because if I use more power, that means that a power plant is using more fuel because of me and I have to pay for it, the same goes for cell and landline - I am using a limited resouce, while I talk, nobody else can use that channel).
I do not pay monthly fees for my VCR, because the manufacturer made it once, I paid for it and it no longer needs any effort from the manufacturer (except for spare parts, but I do have to pay for them). I pay for the tapes, but then again, the tapes are mine until I sell, give away or destroy them.
I'm not aware of a way to play pirated xbox360 games or ps3 games in a way that doesn't void the warranty (very important with the RROD floating around) or online play.
Well, I don't have a console, but I helped my friend once to mod his xbox360 (I have a computer with a specific SATA chipset that the software needed to flash the DVDROM drive). I told him that this would void the warranty, he said that if he downloaded about 10 games instead of buying, he would save enough money for another xbox360 if this one broke.
If a game costs $35 and you downloaded 10 games, that means you saved $350 - probably worth the risk.
I suppose that they could collect the (I'm guessing) coins and haul it to them in wheelbarrows,
One person did this in Lithuania. At his friend's wedding, he called the police and told them that there was a bomb, when the police came, he said that he called them for fun (being drunk usually doesn't help you act wisely). He was fined 15000Lt and paid the fine with 1ct coins (1Lt=100ct). And they were forced to accept this payment, because, well, money is money.
That's nice. So, if I want to sell a defective VCR, all I need to do is to show you the schematic or the PCB. Then it's your responsibility if the device sends 220V to your TV. Too bad we both didn't see that one tiny wire or a solder glop between the output and 220V power.
I decide to put a knife in there and rattle it around, I decide to dump it in the bathtub, etc. and it still has to work. Well, software is somewhat like that. I'm putting all sorts of unknowns in there and so no one can certify that it will *just work*.
There is a difference. If a toaster cannot make toast in "normal use" then, if it's under warranty, you can get it fixed. If it electrocutes someone while being used "normally" the manufacturer may be liable for it.
Now, about software. You do say that it works in Windows, right? So, the software should work in Windows. The same if the toaster is certified to work underwater, it is expected to.
Also, I look forward to seeing an advertisement for software that "uses some CPU cycles". Since if you advertised it as capable of doing something else and it wasn't, you could be liable for false advertising.
Alternately, if you give away for free a DVD player which skips, ignores every other button and dies after 4 weeks, you can't be sued for damages.
Yes, but if it explodes in someones face, you can.
Did the seller sell it as broken? Or did he put that calculator in a box together with other, working, calculators?
If he did not specify that this calculator is broken, that means the buyer expects it to work (well, you usually go to a store to buy working items) and the seller has to guarantee that it works at least immediately before/after purchase, even if no warranty is provided.
On the other hand, if I buy something like a calculator, the seller opens the box and tests it with my presence before I give him the money.
If you buy a cell phone and it explodes in your pocket, should the manufacturer be held liable?
I know a joke based on this:
If food makers used the same licenses as software makers, then in a opaque box, there would be a license agreement:
1. The manufacturer does not guarantee that this item can be used for food and is not liable if it is not suitable for eating.
2. The user is not allowed to examine the contents of this item (for example to look if it had rat tails in it).
3. The user has a right to use (eat) the product, but does not become its owner.
4. The right to use (eat) the product gets only one person.
5. The user does not have a right to sell of give away the product to third parties.
6. The manufacturer does not guarantee that the product is free of hazardous materials (for example, rat poison, dioxin etc).
7. The manufacturer is not liable for any health risk to the user because of the product.
8. The manufacturer guarantees that the box is made of high quality materials and, if there is a flaw in it, will replace the box. This does not extend to the product that is in the box.
9. By opening the box and reading this agreement the user automatically agrees to it.
I'm the same way. This usually happens for me when I am reading some long text with a lot of links in it. I see a link, open it in a background tab and continue reading...
Also, I usually keep a lot of tabs open to the sites I frequently visit, so I just select the tab and refresh the page to see if the site (a forum or /. main page) changed. On some sites I do not need to refresh, since they refresh automatically.
Yes, I know, I should use bookmarks, but maybe it's just a bad habit, but a lot of tabs is easier for me. So, if the new FF version has a process for each tab, my Task Manager list will be full of firefox.exe (now if Opera does this too, it will be bad).
Wow,I always assumed that RAW meant "without lossy compression", like a wav file for audio. A CR2 file (Canon format) is smaller than a 10mpx BMP file, so I assumed that it is just some lossless compression.
I did not like the CR2 format because you need a bloated application (the one supplied by Canon or Photoshop) to open it. A bmp file could be opened by any application.
First, there is a plug-in for MS Office 97, written by Sun, and available for free.
Good to know.
They might include wanting better ODF support for interoperability with governments moving to that as the standard or to ensure your files will open in 10 years without having to pay someone.
Not going to happen in my country in the foreseeable future. The government is busy making stupid decisions.
You might simply want to add more machines to your office and not want to pay a licensing fee to MS for a new version of MS Office. You might want to add new, low end machines, that cannot even run current versions of MS Office.
- Boss, I have an idea. For our new computer, we should use Linux and save some money by not buying Windows. .doc files?
- OK, but does Office work in it?
- Well, there is OpenOffice, which is very similar to MS Office, so the employee will have no trouble using it. And by the way, it is also free, so we will save even more money.
- Great, can it create and open Microsoft
- Yes
- Do it then.
And yes, I hate lock-in. Be it software (any good camera has its own RAW format instead of using something like a compressed (rar or zip) BMP file) or hardware (printer manufacturers trying to make it so that only their overpriced cartridges could be used).
Well, those companies have already paid for Office 97-2003, so the new application (OpenOffice) has to be at least as fast as their old application or the company will start using it only when their old computers break down.
While I see now why an open standard would be better, unless someone makes a plugin for MS Office 97 to support it, it won't be used here, because, well, why use something else if what you have works?
I have some .doc files last modified in 1996 that are of "Microsoft Word 6.0/95 document" format and they open without problems with Word 2003. Those documents are simple though.
An open format is not always needed though. MP3 is supported by any device that supports reading audio off a file, but the "open" ogg format is not so supported. We'll just have to see abut ODF, since it's too soon to tell, but, at least in my country, .doc will be used for a long time, because everyone supports it. If they do not support .doc, they cannot send documents to their clients (and nobody in their right mind would tell a client "go download this program or I will not take your money"). When I suggested that we use Linux (cheaper) where I work, I was asked if it had a program that could open and save .doc and .xls files. Since it could, we use it. Otherwise we would have used Windows. And the files are saved as Word 97 .doc.
Well, at least it works on OO and MSOffice 97 -2007. The new MS .docx format requires a converter to work on MSOffice 2003 (I don't know with what versions of Office it is compatible). I also do not know if the "better" ODF works on MS Office prior to 2007 at all (does it have a converter?). Seeing that in my country a lot of companies still use old computers (well, it was enough for writing documents 7 years ago, if it's not broken, then it's enough now) .doc format is the one that is most compatible. Well, if I send a .doc file at least I know that almost everyone will be able to open it.
Well, I don't see a problem with .doc (and .xls) format. It works in both MS Office and OpenOffice, so can be used to send documents between Linux and Windows systems.
And my desk is made such that the monitor is in the corner, so I have no problem with my 21" Dell P1130. If I replaced it with a LCD I would only have free space behind the monitor (but no, I like CRTs, so I'll use this monitor at least until it fails or I buy a better CRT).
No, there is a single Open and a single Explore entry. The bad ones replace the good ones.
Just try it:
[autorun]
open=autorun.exe
shell=explore
Shell\open=&Open
Shell\open\Command=autorun.exe
Shell\explore=&Explore
Shell\explore\Command=autorun.exe
Autorun is already disabled on Flash drives, at least in Windows XP and Vista.
Don't know about Vista, but on XP, the autorun.inf file is still processed and you can get infected by double clicking the drive icon or right clicking and selecting Open or Explore.
- the things that run for all users
Put them in Start Menu ->Start Up for all users
- the things that run for the current user only
Put them in Start Menu ->Start Up for that user
for things that start up before a user logs on - put them with services.
for things that are part of the OS - well, they are part of the OS, so the OS should know what applications are critical for the OS to work, there should be a read-only list somewhere.
Well, some years ago, applications were more behaving - they put themselves in the StartUP.
And, in case you didn't know, you can disable autorun and still keep the "doubleclick on drive icon -> autorun" functionality in windows.
Which is as insecure as the "normal" autorun, since the worm can be the program that is launched on doubleclick on the drive icon. It can also make right click->Open or Explore options do the same thing - activate the worm.
Autorun.inf can do that. You can create additional commands to the right-click menu, so you can say to the user: "right click on the CD Drive (S:) and choose 'install software'". The problem is, that autorun.inf file can be made such that it replaces "Open" and "Explore" commands with its own. So, you doubleclick on the drive and...