This is why I will not use any machine that changes the content of my brain. I will be happy to use artificial limbs and mind-controlled computers, but not mind-altering computers.
You remember incorrectly. The purpose of receipts is so that they can verify that you have purchased the merchandise in your cart on exiting the store. Forcing you to do so before exiting is rather draconian, but they have every right to do so, should they choose.
Actually, I think it's a whoosh to those that modded him funny. The person who modded him redundant was doing his part for a +5 redundant mod, which I think we can all agree was the correct mod.
Well, for an interstellar ship, large reserve stores of air for a relatively small craft are not that strange, even assuming you have a CO2 scrubber of some sort, you want a goodly reserve should it stop working.
Sticky noted passwords isn't really that much different from keypairs, which the article mentions as an even less user friendly option.
Really, the end solution will have to be something along the lines of a USB key with an API to allow secure interchanges. Of course, the patent nightmare would be huge, which is why it will take a few decades to catch on (to speak nothing of getting people to switch from passwords to keys.)
I suspect that the developers of this code were not only paid for their work, but paid well, and will continue to be paid for future work.
If they had refused to let others profit from it, it is likely their employer that would have profited, not them, since they would not have retained the rights to use it themselves.
I switched my home desktop a little over two years ago.
However, Windows has been my constant companion at work, and at my parents house, and anywhere else.
And the thing is, it has nothing to do with usability. It's the simple fact of Window's convoluted and completely ineffectual security system that force a lot of applications to require admin priviledges. Granted, MS has taken some steps to alleviate it, but they're mostly smoke, with UAC being very easily subverted and rendered useless.
Furthermore, though I will generally install everything but the kitchen sink, Windows is only recently moving to a sufficiently modular architecture to allow removal of unimportant pieces, which causes a host of stability and space concerns.
I happen to hate Apple's interface decisions, but their OS itself is solid. The only reason Windows functions is well as it does is the billions of dollars being thrown at it by every company on the planet (even Apple.) The underlying system could be GNU Hurd and it would be just fine if it had that many people working on it.
I'm fairly fond of Link Widgets myself. It allows (ALT+ Page Up / Down) to cycle to the previous / next page. I mostly use it for sites where I appreciate the pagination (webcomics primarily.)
Sites with lots of superfluous pages like this one I just skim the first and last pages.
I would like to see how you manage to smoke pot on the internet. Likewise with crossing the line from peep show to prostitution (which seems physically impossible.) An interesting limitation to rule 34 (though perhaps a video of prostitution... that's still just porn in my book. Probably not particularly good porn either.)
And though they were hosting the stuff in the US, they were in the UK, as well as presumably their intended audience. So for all intents and purposes, it was in the UK. They were extradited after fleeing the country, the charges were brought against them while they were in the UK, so the court in no way overstepped their bounds.
Actually, I think there are municipalities that offer free WiFi in an area roughly the size of Venice.
Venice proper is basically a city that has been turned into a theme park. The article isn't entirely clear, but I don't think this extends to the cities surrounding the lagoon (where most of the work that isn't tourism gets done), which would be very significant.
It's a browser, e-reader, and ssh client. If the Flash support is sufficient, it's a TV. So it's not a phone. You try to cram too much crap into one device, all you get is something that does none of its intended tasks well. I would probably just use this thing around the house so I don't have to bother with my more power-hungry computers.
The only time I've had a serious spyware infestation (on my parents' computer, about 4 years ago):
Installed AdAware, SpyBot, spent hours poring over internet explanations (on an uncompromised computer.) Went out and bought them a Norton subscription. Problem solved.
I know it's just one case, and it somewhat predates true free AV becoming widespread, but the fact is that Symantec's products do work as designed (they bring your system grinding to a halt so someone trying to steal your information won't.)
I think the incidents where overpopulation actually manages to wipe out a species are very rare. All individuals lose equally in an overpopulation situation (with the possible exception of predators.)
Since all lose equally, the breediest still have a net benefit with respect to all other organisms.
Yeah, when I went to Nicaragua a few months back (to learn Spanish) I had to stop myself from digging into my WordPress blog to play around with the formatting and make things display nicely.
I did end up spending a blog post talking about the difference between image scaling with sampling and image scaling by averaging pixels. It was curious how the difference would probably not be noticeable at home, but on the 8 year old laptop I was using, the averaging method took a good 10 seconds per image, while the sampling method was like 1 or 2.
But I released the code to this application; it was open source from the very start. So it was pretty easy for them to take it and to port it to the OLPC.
Already done.
However, I'm not sure that I want precisely what this iPhone app is. It strips out references, and from the sound of things also the discussion pages. I'd say about 1/2 of articles I check the discussion pages to see what's really going on. Also he says he strips a lot of the metadata, and obviously images, none of which are things I"d want to give up (some of the metadata might be superfluous, but if I'm copying Wikipedia onto my computer, I want to copy Wikipedia onto my computer.)
I understand there are licensing issues with images, but even so, the SVG ought to be safe. And that wouldn't add as much of a disk space hit as the gifs, etc.
One of the other issues is the timing of Wikipedia dumps. They only do text-only dumps, and according to the article they only happen once every few months. It would be nice to implement an image review policy, and figure out a way to allow for mirrors (or just some increased bandwidth at Wikipedia HQ) so that we can actually have the entire English Wikipedia, regularly snapshotted and compressed, available for download. And really, for that kind of thing a 3-month or even yearly turnaround would be well worth the wait.
The second link describes a general vulnerability in the SMS protocol. It sounds like you may need to have a wireless transmitter in general proximity to the phone. You then send a spoofed ("fuzzed") message which the phone interprets poorly, with the end result that it executes some code you have chosen.
It also doesn't necessarily look like this would result in the sort of viral behavior we usually see from exploits, since the SMS does not show up on the carrier's radar (which I interpret to mean that it cannot pass through the carrier tower.)
Though I don't know if phone-to-phone direct could be used to do this.
I suspect the iPhone format uses exactly the same space for data about the message. Number of messages, message id, something else. Those two should only take 8 characters tops, but I'm sure they're going to need all 20 of them by the time they're done patching this exploit.
Or they could just ditch this stupid distinction between data and SMS. But that would take up entirely too much bandwidth...
We haven't had a clear-cut antitrust case against them since... I'm not really sure. I mean the TomTom vfat issue is pretty close...
Anyway, TFA didn't explicitly determine that MS was responsible, and at this point I find it difficult to believe that MS is this stupid. Still, we can hope. Maybe MS will get that antitrust watch rescinded.
Slashdot Mirror
This is why I will not use any machine that changes the content of my brain. I will be happy to use artificial limbs and mind-controlled computers, but not mind-altering computers.
You remember incorrectly. The purpose of receipts is so that they can verify that you have purchased the merchandise in your cart on exiting the store. Forcing you to do so before exiting is rather draconian, but they have every right to do so, should they choose.
Actually, I think it's a whoosh to those that modded him funny. The person who modded him redundant was doing his part for a +5 redundant mod, which I think we can all agree was the correct mod.
Well, for an interstellar ship, large reserve stores of air for a relatively small craft are not that strange, even assuming you have a CO2 scrubber of some sort, you want a goodly reserve should it stop working.
Yes, and a coastguard cutter is just a bigger version of a recreational speedboat.
Clearly, attempting a trans-oceanic voyage in the speedboat is a much better use of our time than learning how to build a cutter.
Sticky noted passwords isn't really that much different from keypairs, which the article mentions as an even less user friendly option.
Really, the end solution will have to be something along the lines of a USB key with an API to allow secure interchanges. Of course, the patent nightmare would be huge, which is why it will take a few decades to catch on (to speak nothing of getting people to switch from passwords to keys.)
I suspect that the developers of this code were not only paid for their work, but paid well, and will continue to be paid for future work.
If they had refused to let others profit from it, it is likely their employer that would have profited, not them, since they would not have retained the rights to use it themselves.
I switched my home desktop a little over two years ago.
However, Windows has been my constant companion at work, and at my parents house, and anywhere else.
And the thing is, it has nothing to do with usability. It's the simple fact of Window's convoluted and completely ineffectual security system that force a lot of applications to require admin priviledges. Granted, MS has taken some steps to alleviate it, but they're mostly smoke, with UAC being very easily subverted and rendered useless.
Furthermore, though I will generally install everything but the kitchen sink, Windows is only recently moving to a sufficiently modular architecture to allow removal of unimportant pieces, which causes a host of stability and space concerns.
I happen to hate Apple's interface decisions, but their OS itself is solid. The only reason Windows functions is well as it does is the billions of dollars being thrown at it by every company on the planet (even Apple.) The underlying system could be GNU Hurd and it would be just fine if it had that many people working on it.
No, their slogan is in fact "don't be evil." It doesn't actually say anything about taking evil actions.
I'm fairly fond of Link Widgets myself. It allows (ALT+ Page Up / Down) to cycle to the previous / next page. I mostly use it for sites where I appreciate the pagination (webcomics primarily.)
Sites with lots of superfluous pages like this one I just skim the first and last pages.
Actually, I think we also need a +1 whoosh mod, which that definitely deserved.
I would like to see how you manage to smoke pot on the internet. Likewise with crossing the line from peep show to prostitution (which seems physically impossible.) An interesting limitation to rule 34 (though perhaps a video of prostitution... that's still just porn in my book. Probably not particularly good porn either.)
And though they were hosting the stuff in the US, they were in the UK, as well as presumably their intended audience. So for all intents and purposes, it was in the UK. They were extradited after fleeing the country, the charges were brought against them while they were in the UK, so the court in no way overstepped their bounds.
Actually, I think there are municipalities that offer free WiFi in an area roughly the size of Venice.
Venice proper is basically a city that has been turned into a theme park. The article isn't entirely clear, but I don't think this extends to the cities surrounding the lagoon (where most of the work that isn't tourism gets done), which would be very significant.
It's a browser, e-reader, and ssh client. If the Flash support is sufficient, it's a TV. So it's not a phone. You try to cram too much crap into one device, all you get is something that does none of its intended tasks well. I would probably just use this thing around the house so I don't have to bother with my more power-hungry computers.
The only time I've had a serious spyware infestation (on my parents' computer, about 4 years ago):
Installed AdAware, SpyBot, spent hours poring over internet explanations (on an uncompromised computer.) Went out and bought them a Norton subscription. Problem solved.
I know it's just one case, and it somewhat predates true free AV becoming widespread, but the fact is that Symantec's products do work as designed (they bring your system grinding to a halt so someone trying to steal your information won't.)
I think the incidents where overpopulation actually manages to wipe out a species are very rare. All individuals lose equally in an overpopulation situation (with the possible exception of predators.)
Since all lose equally, the breediest still have a net benefit with respect to all other organisms.
I know, isn't it ironic?
Yeah, when I went to Nicaragua a few months back (to learn Spanish) I had to stop myself from digging into my WordPress blog to play around with the formatting and make things display nicely.
I did end up spending a blog post talking about the difference between image scaling with sampling and image scaling by averaging pixels. It was curious how the difference would probably not be noticeable at home, but on the 8 year old laptop I was using, the averaging method took a good 10 seconds per image, while the sampling method was like 1 or 2.
FTFA:
Already done.
However, I'm not sure that I want precisely what this iPhone app is. It strips out references, and from the sound of things also the discussion pages. I'd say about 1/2 of articles I check the discussion pages to see what's really going on. Also he says he strips a lot of the metadata, and obviously images, none of which are things I"d want to give up (some of the metadata might be superfluous, but if I'm copying Wikipedia onto my computer, I want to copy Wikipedia onto my computer.)
I understand there are licensing issues with images, but even so, the SVG ought to be safe. And that wouldn't add as much of a disk space hit as the gifs, etc.
One of the other issues is the timing of Wikipedia dumps. They only do text-only dumps, and according to the article they only happen once every few months. It would be nice to implement an image review policy, and figure out a way to allow for mirrors (or just some increased bandwidth at Wikipedia HQ) so that we can actually have the entire English Wikipedia, regularly snapshotted and compressed, available for download. And really, for that kind of thing a 3-month or even yearly turnaround would be well worth the wait.
I assume you take a transmitter, and you send it to the phone. I don't know what sort of proximity that would require.
The second link describes a general vulnerability in the SMS protocol. It sounds like you may need to have a wireless transmitter in general proximity to the phone. You then send a spoofed ("fuzzed") message which the phone interprets poorly, with the end result that it executes some code you have chosen.
It also doesn't necessarily look like this would result in the sort of viral behavior we usually see from exploits, since the SMS does not show up on the carrier's radar (which I interpret to mean that it cannot pass through the carrier tower.)
Though I don't know if phone-to-phone direct could be used to do this.
I suspect the iPhone format uses exactly the same space for data about the message. Number of messages, message id, something else. Those two should only take 8 characters tops, but I'm sure they're going to need all 20 of them by the time they're done patching this exploit.
Or they could just ditch this stupid distinction between data and SMS. But that would take up entirely too much bandwidth...
We haven't had a clear-cut antitrust case against them since... I'm not really sure. I mean the TomTom vfat issue is pretty close...
Anyway, TFA didn't explicitly determine that MS was responsible, and at this point I find it difficult to believe that MS is this stupid. Still, we can hope. Maybe MS will get that antitrust watch rescinded.
Python?
The article said he took some liberties. I'm rather interested to know if those were in any way interesting.
Anyone have a copy of the actual paper?