That little item stood out like a nail in need of a bang.
Where does a Harvard academic body get off trying to set up a central authority over OSS?? Once you set up a regulatory committee to versee a bazaar, it ceases to be a bazaar and becomes a strip mall.
It sounds like a case of envy directed at the Regents of UC Berkeley, the MIT Athena project, and the X Consortium. All great and beneficial committee driven endeavors, but very commercialized.
The greatest strength and key to the sucess of OSS, has been it's independence from an opinionated and bribable ruling body. Yes, we have our focal-points, our heroes and the leaders we rally around, but we can tell them they're full of bull when they are. You just can't do that with a board of directors, who set priorities on certain projcts by mentioning them in the monthly newsletter, who receive grant money from corporate entities, and who seek personal prestige as a group.
Free Source software should stay the same as it is. An organic, semi-chaotic, self-correcting distributed development effort. And anyone who stakes claim or grabs for credit should be shown the door.
Is it just me, or is this a curious sequance of events...
M$ gets chastized for embedding UID#s in documents. An M$ product bourne macro virus gets international attention for it's unusual ferocity. The UID# feature is the means of catching the author of the nasty new virus.
Hmmm, all we need now is for that infamous M$ database of 'accidentally' gathered consumer information to serve as a key piece of evidence in convicting the guy.
I've read the article, and several of the response posts, and it seems that the thrust of the article has been sidestepped by the respondents.
Yes, the article claims that GUIs are a waste of time, that RH is a toy Linux, yadda, yadda... But that's not the point, that's the opinion of the author.
The point, to me at least, is this: Hackers appreciate Debian for the control and raw power it gives them. (I've never used it, I'm more the Slacker type) It is 'expert-friendly', and the shortcuts required to make is 'user-frindly' would require compromises to be made, that would take the control away from the hacker.
There is some 'need' to bring in new users - it's a Good Thing to make Linux popular. But that's RH's job. They have the spotlight, and they're willing to give support to the newbies.
The newbies will need LOTS of support before they can even hope to run Debian, without getting their eyebrows singed.
The ultimate point: Newbie education is in Linux's best interest. This does not mean hand-holding the school-marm whose 'cup-holder' is broken though. Direct those to www.apple.com and be done with it. There's no cure for the stupid - the ignorant we can save.
The Linux community needs to consider the newbie's predicament. Linux is complex, even in it's most user friendly incarnation. We need to rate the distributions. i.e. RH = Linux95, Debian = Linux Professional, Slackware = some assembly required, S.U.S.E = Sprachen sie Deutsch, Amigo?? We need to collate and make newbie accessible the wealth of Linux documentation that is out there. It would also be helpful if we got some good tech-writers to pore over it, and take it out of Hacker mode... A 'man' page, after all, is pretty hostile to a newbie.
Most importantly, we need to ask the potential Linux newbie "WHY?".. Most become interested because they hear the buzz. They hear it's better than Windows, so they want it. To them, better means easier - we live in a world made convenient. Linux is the greatest hobby a geek can have and/or it is the most powerful OS you will ever need. We must make it clear that Linux is an end in itself - for those who don't know any better. Those who know better, need not be educated.
Are they trying to make it appealing to the simple-minded Wintel crowd?? It's got the feel of Teva... I guess they're worried that a 3D illusion may cause their new target customers' heads to hurt. Pity.
Imagine if you will, being a less-violent than the typical male person. Imagine being, on average, of lesser physical strength than an average man. Imagine walking, unsuspecting, down a peaceful street. Minding your own, and thinking about your day just past, and the day to come.
Imagine being shoved begind a hedge, knocked down, bludgeoned and bloodied. Imagine having your clothing ripped off by someone you can not even see, because your own blood covers your eyes. Imagine feeling the penetration (anal in your case), forceful, brutal, unyielding. Imagine feeling your tissues tearing as it continues, with your own blood serving as the only lubrication against the force of someone bigger, stronger than you. Imagine your genitals bruised, bloodied and torn, for hours.
Now imagine reliving that, every time you close your eyes, for the rest of your life. Imagine feeling the repeated penetration, smelling the sweat of your assailant, and hearing your screams over his grunts, ALWAYS.
Imagine not being able to walk down that, or any dark street, without expecting it to happen again. Imagine never being able to trust a man again, to never be held by one without tensing at the possibility that he too may do this to you. Imagine fearing sex, and even if you manage to try, imagine never feeling safe and happy during. Imagine living everyday in fear of what might happen that night.
Hell, boy, given the choice, I'm sure most women would choose eviceration too. At least then the end is merciful.
You make a good point about wrongful accusation, and mistaken identity. But you don't know. You can't know. I don't KNOW either, but the number of times I hear her cry at night makes me believe that I am better informed than most.
Rape, wether violent and bloody, or 'less severe' as you say, leaves an indellible mark, a pain that goes right down to the bone.
It bruises the soul and it breaks the spirit. It is a crime so painful, emotionally, and so vile, that no amount of 'dignified' physical torture can compare. It is a violation on the most fundamental level - and nothing compares.
Here is something a little disjointed, but it fits into the discussion...
"On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog."
The point being, misrepresentation runs rampant on the Internet. To a great extent, this is a Good Thing - it's 'freedom of speach' to speak as the Anonymous Coward. But often, the implicit anonimity of the Internet is exploited, not just by rapists and pedophiles, but by undesirables of all sorts.
The alternative is full identity disclosure and complete accountability for all actions. A kerberos-enabled panopticon.
But it is not the technology that is to blame. A predator will use whatever means are available to further his predation.
Yes, rape is the worst crime. I know this as the significant other of a victim. She was raped by a member of her therapy group. She was betrayed by a peer, within a support system - where you are encouraged to let your guard down, and learn to trust other people.
But you're right, the mere accusation is enough to ruin the life of the accused. People are branded for life, by simple association with the word, and some (few) unkind and immature women take the word all too lightly.
Wow, this is truly depressing. To have education sink so low. Follow along if you will...
I've taken classes before, that claimed to be one thing, and turned out to be quite another. I've taken C++ programming and learned C and object oriented programming concepts - but not much actual C++. I then took Object Oriented Programming (easy, I already knew OOP from C++) and I learned Java/AWT instead.
I've taken a foreign language only to learn that the professor was working on his Doctorate, which required him to translate some obscure book in that language. Care to guess what my final was? Everyone had to translate a different chapter from this obscure book. Hmmm...
So, I've learned that personal interests of faculty often outweigh the course description - and few people do anything about it.
Also, I learned that many courses are accredited based primarily on what they claim to teach, no what they DO teach. So if the catalogue description looks good, and the syllabus clicks with the description, all's well. Too bad the session on the history of Operating Systems told me about the flavors of Windows. (Not knocking my education, for the most part it was good, and I made up for the gaps, but there were lapses.)
So my experience has been that either teachers slant the course to suit their interests (human failings), or the department will torque the description to make it's program look better, tougher and more prestigious..
But this is a first!! Making a course description such that the course apprears significantly easier than it is?? Why? Just to get people to enroll and spend their money??
Is this what education has become? An economy of scale business institution?? Get'em in the door, at any cost!! Get their cash!! Buy a B.S. degree, get 50% off on your Masters!!!
If academic institutions, and especially PUBLIC ones, have become 'for profit' business entities, and have begun to consider education a product, and a student a customer, then I am cutting up my alumnus card. Take me off your mailing list, I'm not doing BUSINESS with you! I'd rather eat an O'Reily each week, and feel that my education has enriched ME, not the corner QuickieMartU.
Yes, students are entitled to some respect by the educational system - we are paying for it after all.. But we are not paying for a blue-light special piece of parchment. We are there to learn, and we are (for the most part) eager to do so.
If a teacher's motivation is filling seats, rather than filling minds, we need a new method. How would OSS translate into an educational system? It obviously works better in Software Engineering than the traditional business methods. Could we use it to rebuild the Ivory Tower?
I admit it, I'm a sucker for lofty prose. I love cunning linguistics on most occasions. But this tastes of a well thumbed dictionary, and pseudo-intelligentia posturing as content.
The article makes a good point, but it could have been summed up in a single sentence, and more clearly at that. "Explaining a computer-lifestyle to someone who doesn't know, is like explaining colors to a blind person."
No faceplated divers, no spook-clairvoyants, no unnecessary verbiage and no over-inflated hyperbolic metaphor.
Really, do we need this drivvel?/. has always served as a funnel for valuable content, and as a litmus test for the fluffy and politically correct press. Why contaminate it with a sanctioned version of the same?
I've written my share of English papers and critical essays. I know the amount of BS required for a B.S. This was a weekly writing assignment in a junior college.
I check in briefly but frequently from work. I look for "news for nerds - stuff that matters". This article was "posturing by an academic - stuff that's fluffy".
Having worked at a school for some time, this point really hit home. Teachers refuse to be taught, especially by someone they percieve as working for them.
A support staffer, telling me - a professor / dean / dept chair - how to run MY system?? The gall!!
Tread lightly, and use words such as 'administration approved standard' and 'uniform networked systems interface' as opposed to 'the right way to do things' and 'RTFM!'...
- As my father taught me, diplomacy is a way of telling someone to go to hell, in a way that makes them look forward to the trip.:)
I may be confusing the terms and technologies, but would setting up an internal subnet or VPN, with it's own firewall protection, help the situation? Can it even be effectively done?
If so... this way, the trusted and managed machines are protected from the unmanaged internal machines, which are in turn protected from the outside by the campus-wide firewall.
Yes, it's layering protection on top of protection, but it should reduce the problem to the typical "US vs THEM" situation.
Also, stated and public policy is very important. It won't prevent internal problems rooted (no pun int) in these unmanaged hosts, but it will give the perpetrators due warning of consequences.
While a certain level of knowledge and indoctrination into the inner workings of computers is necessary to be either a cracker, or a hacker, this level of common knowledge is not enough to blurr the line between the two.
A hacker is someone who hacks code, who writes programs and tools for the sheer enjoyment of the experience, the furthering of the 'hacker' society (i.e. GNU) and the status derived from gifting his hacker peers with the fruits of the labour - if you subscribe to the 'gift culture' view of OSS.
A cracker is motivated by the benefits of getting something 'the easy way' as in the case of pirated software, of flaunting his 'expertise' in front of his cracker peers, and the thrill of breaking the 'rules'.
A skilled cracker may have the same creative capacity as a skilled hacker, but the difference in the fundamental ethics of the two groups will keep the cracker breaking into other cracker's computers to get already existing tools, rather than writing his own. Should a cracker feel that doind this is too much effort, he may write his on tool to do the crack for him, but the tool is only beneficial to him and other's like him. It does benefit his community - but only his community.
A skilled hacker, while enjoying the status that comes with having developed a useful tool, will prefer to collaborate with others of his ilk, if he does not find the necessary tool already available. Subsequently, he (the development group) will release the tool to the general public - thereby benefitting his community a'la the cracker. However, the nature of the tool is benevolent to all who are touched by it - contrast this with the effect of the cracker tool on those cracked by it.
So from a certain perspective, crackers can be seen as a subset of hackers, but with a fundamental difference in their ethical fabric and intent.
But it's truly sad to see a business website take pride in having been compromised. A simple text message admitting the unfortunate fact (from their POV) is appropriate; a full collor, full page graphic, that still manages to push their product, is a marketting ploy.
"Look at US! We're SO POPULAR that k00l kidz broke our server!!!"
Yah know... The first time I tried to install Linux, I had a choice of Slackware (Unleashed book '96 version) and RedHat 5.0..
RH would just NOT install right. Slackware went in on try 1. Sure, it took a bit more thinking to get it there, but DAMN!
And besides, there's a certain satisfaction to bucking the trend that's bucking the trend..
-- Proud member of the intra-Linux counter-culture.
Now THAT sounds like a gauntlet hitting the floor!
on
Wired on Kipling
·
· Score: 1
"The Kipling 'Hacker' luggage debacle gets coverage in Wired, along with slightly derogatory references to the Slashdotters' ability (or rather lack of it) to 'crack the site'..."
Well, just how 'secure' is wired?? Now that they cater to MBA wannabe twerps, instead of people who understand (or at least want to) the technology..
I, for one, would LOVE to see the WIRED site on the 2600 'recently hacked' milk carton.
The reorg lines being drawn around customer groups will serve M$ in the DOJ trial - only! None of the resultant groups can survive on their own, they still share the same tech pool. But, being separate on paper, the DOJ can't bitch about monopolistic practices.
M$ is admin heavy, and this is either a bad decision, or a legally driven one.
If/when M$ redraws the reorg lines around Operating Systems, Developer Tools, Application Software, and Other (hardware, media, content); then we'll be looking at real news.
As for LinuxOffice - do we really want to introduce closed source turnkey application suites into our open pasture??
one of the canonical texts on Internet/Unix security
In the beginning, there was nothing, and then God said "let there be light" and there was light..
While speaking of canonical texts, let's remember to take them for what you're worth, question our sources, and never let our heroes rest too long on thir laurels. And if they stick their foot in their mouth, let's make sure they know we know.
Can someone 'splain to me how a new CPU - faster, slower or indifferent - is going to speed up Internet access?? Can it cram more bits into the phone line? Can it speed up electricity?
We need someone in the public eye (someone to whom the media listens) to break through the public ignorance that makes these damn PIII commercials look good to the average shmoe. We need the public to know that Wintel preys on the public's lack of technical knowledge.
An informed customer is a wannabe monopolists worst nightmare. All my chips thus far have been Intel's, but the next one won't be, unless this PIII abomination dies in pain.
A GIFTED monkey can ace a CS class
on
Salary Histories
·
· Score: 1
To the people with panchant for CS, it's an easy major. Just as natural-born bean-counters excell at accounting and statistics; and people with a flair for the written word excell at literature courses.
Innate ability does have a lot to do with your statement. Drop a humanities major into a CS class, and watch them turn inhumane right quick.
But to further the discussion: Some people have an inborn talent for Academia (myself included), but the real world (as it's called) has nothing to do with term papers or GPA. Remember kiddies, the open book tests are always the hardest, and you can read all you want in the real world.
Go git'em! I remember thinking I knew it all, back when I was graduating college. Man! I was a steaming hot shit!! I was even hotter then I was as a high-school senior. Boy! The world was my oyster!!
Just make sure you look both ways before crossing 'easy street', chumm!:)
Slashdot Mirror
That little item stood out like a nail in need of a bang.
Where does a Harvard academic body get off trying to set up a central authority over OSS?? Once you set up a regulatory committee to versee a bazaar, it ceases to be a bazaar and becomes a strip mall.
It sounds like a case of envy directed at the Regents of UC Berkeley, the MIT Athena project, and the X Consortium. All great and beneficial committee driven endeavors, but very commercialized.
The greatest strength and key to the sucess of OSS, has been it's independence from an opinionated and bribable ruling body. Yes, we have our focal-points, our heroes and the leaders we rally around, but we can tell them they're full of bull when they are. You just can't do that with a board of directors, who set priorities on certain projcts by mentioning them in the monthly newsletter, who receive grant money from corporate entities, and who seek personal prestige as a group.
Free Source software should stay the same as it is. An organic, semi-chaotic, self-correcting distributed development effort. And anyone who stakes claim or grabs for credit should be shown the door.
Is it just me, or is this a curious sequance of events...
M$ gets chastized for embedding UID#s in documents.
An M$ product bourne macro virus gets international attention for it's unusual ferocity.
The UID# feature is the means of catching the author of the nasty new virus.
Hmmm, all we need now is for that infamous M$ database of 'accidentally' gathered consumer information to serve as a key piece of evidence in convicting the guy.
You know Rob... On any other day...
I've read the article, and several of the response posts, and it seems that the thrust of the article has been sidestepped by the respondents.
Yes, the article claims that GUIs are a waste of time, that RH is a toy Linux, yadda, yadda... But that's not the point, that's the opinion of the author.
The point, to me at least, is this: Hackers appreciate Debian for the control and raw power it gives them. (I've never used it, I'm more the Slacker type) It is 'expert-friendly', and the shortcuts required to make is 'user-frindly' would require compromises to be made, that would take the control away from the hacker.
There is some 'need' to bring in new users - it's a Good Thing to make Linux popular. But that's RH's job. They have the spotlight, and they're willing to give support to the newbies.
The newbies will need LOTS of support before they can even hope to run Debian, without getting their eyebrows singed.
The ultimate point: Newbie education is in Linux's best interest. This does not mean hand-holding the school-marm whose 'cup-holder' is broken though. Direct those to www.apple.com and be done with it. There's no cure for the stupid - the ignorant we can save.
The Linux community needs to consider the newbie's predicament. Linux is complex, even in it's most user friendly incarnation.
We need to rate the distributions. i.e. RH = Linux95, Debian = Linux Professional, Slackware = some assembly required, S.U.S.E = Sprachen sie Deutsch, Amigo??
We need to collate and make newbie accessible the wealth of Linux documentation that is out there. It would also be helpful if we got some good tech-writers to pore over it, and take it out of Hacker mode... A 'man' page, after all, is pretty hostile to a newbie.
Most importantly, we need to ask the potential Linux newbie "WHY?".. Most become interested because they hear the buzz. They hear it's better than Windows, so they want it. To them, better means easier - we live in a world made convenient. Linux is the greatest hobby a geek can have and/or it is the most powerful OS you will ever need.
We must make it clear that Linux is an end in itself - for those who don't know any better. Those who know better, need not be educated.
Are they trying to make it appealing to the simple-minded Wintel crowd?? It's got the feel of Teva... I guess they're worried that a 3D illusion may cause their new target customers' heads to hurt. Pity.
R.I.P. SGI
** GRAPHIC CONTENT DISCLAIMER **
Imagine if you will, being a less-violent than the typical male person.
Imagine being, on average, of lesser physical strength than an average man.
Imagine walking, unsuspecting, down a peaceful street. Minding your own, and thinking about your day just past, and the day to come.
Imagine being shoved begind a hedge, knocked down, bludgeoned and bloodied.
Imagine having your clothing ripped off by someone you can not even see, because your own blood covers your eyes.
Imagine feeling the penetration (anal in your case), forceful, brutal, unyielding. Imagine feeling your tissues tearing as it continues, with your own blood serving as the only lubrication against the force of someone bigger, stronger than you.
Imagine your genitals bruised, bloodied and torn, for hours.
Now imagine reliving that, every time you close your eyes, for the rest of your life.
Imagine feeling the repeated penetration, smelling the sweat of your assailant, and hearing your screams over his grunts, ALWAYS.
Imagine not being able to walk down that, or any dark street, without expecting it to happen again.
Imagine never being able to trust a man again, to never be held by one without tensing at the possibility that he too may do this to you.
Imagine fearing sex, and even if you manage to try, imagine never feeling safe and happy during.
Imagine living everyday in fear of what might happen that night.
Hell, boy, given the choice, I'm sure most women would choose eviceration too. At least then the end is merciful.
You make a good point about wrongful accusation, and mistaken identity. But you don't know. You can't know. I don't KNOW either, but the number of times I hear her cry at night makes me believe that I am better informed than most.
Rape, wether violent and bloody, or 'less severe' as you say, leaves an indellible mark, a pain that goes right down to the bone.
It bruises the soul and it breaks the spirit. It is a crime so painful, emotionally, and so vile, that no amount of 'dignified' physical torture can compare. It is a violation on the most fundamental level - and nothing compares.
The unknowing have no right to rationalize it.
Here is something a little disjointed, but it fits into the discussion...
"On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog."
The point being, misrepresentation runs rampant on the Internet. To a great extent, this is a Good Thing - it's 'freedom of speach' to speak as the Anonymous Coward. But often, the implicit anonimity of the Internet is exploited, not just by rapists and pedophiles, but by undesirables of all sorts.
The alternative is full identity disclosure and complete accountability for all actions. A kerberos-enabled panopticon.
But it is not the technology that is to blame. A predator will use whatever means are available to further his predation.
Yes, rape is the worst crime. I know this as the significant other of a victim. She was raped by a member of her therapy group. She was betrayed by a peer, within a support system - where you are encouraged to let your guard down, and learn to trust other people.
But you're right, the mere accusation is enough to ruin the life of the accused. People are branded for life, by simple association with the word, and some (few) unkind and immature women take the word all too lightly.
Now all we need is 100+MB cellular thruput, translucent lenses, and embedded or motion generated power to drive the things...
Oh what a great b-day present for William Gibson that would make.
Wow, this is truly depressing. To have education sink so low. Follow along if you will...
I've taken classes before, that claimed to be one thing, and turned out to be quite another. I've taken C++ programming and learned C and object oriented programming concepts - but not much actual C++. I then took Object Oriented Programming (easy, I already knew OOP from C++) and I learned Java/AWT instead.
I've taken a foreign language only to learn that the professor was working on his Doctorate, which required him to translate some obscure book in that language. Care to guess what my final was? Everyone had to translate a different chapter from this obscure book. Hmmm...
So, I've learned that personal interests of faculty often outweigh the course description - and few people do anything about it.
Also, I learned that many courses are accredited based primarily on what they claim to teach, no what they DO teach. So if the catalogue description looks good, and the syllabus clicks with the description, all's well. Too bad the session on the history of Operating Systems told me about the flavors of Windows. (Not knocking my education, for the most part it was good, and I made up for the gaps, but there were lapses.)
So my experience has been that either teachers slant the course to suit their interests (human failings), or the department will torque the description to make it's program look better, tougher and more prestigious..
But this is a first!! Making a course description such that the course apprears significantly easier than it is?? Why? Just to get people to enroll and spend their money??
Is this what education has become? An economy of scale business institution?? Get'em in the door, at any cost!! Get their cash!! Buy a B.S. degree, get 50% off on your Masters!!!
If academic institutions, and especially PUBLIC ones, have become 'for profit' business entities, and have begun to consider education a product, and a student a customer, then I am cutting up my alumnus card. Take me off your mailing list, I'm not doing BUSINESS with you! I'd rather eat an O'Reily each week, and feel that my education has enriched ME, not the corner QuickieMartU.
Yes, students are entitled to some respect by the educational system - we are paying for it after all.. But we are not paying for a blue-light special piece of parchment. We are there to learn, and we are (for the most part) eager to do so.
If a teacher's motivation is filling seats, rather than filling minds, we need a new method.
How would OSS translate into an educational system? It obviously works better in Software Engineering than the traditional business methods. Could we use it to rebuild the Ivory Tower?
I admit it, I'm a sucker for lofty prose. I love cunning linguistics on most occasions.
/. has always served as a funnel for valuable content, and as a litmus test for the fluffy and politically correct press. Why contaminate it with a sanctioned version of the same?
But this tastes of a well thumbed dictionary, and pseudo-intelligentia posturing as content.
The article makes a good point, but it could have been summed up in a single sentence, and more clearly at that.
"Explaining a computer-lifestyle to someone who doesn't know, is like explaining colors to a blind person."
No faceplated divers, no spook-clairvoyants, no unnecessary verbiage and no over-inflated hyperbolic metaphor.
Really, do we need this drivvel?
I've written my share of English papers and critical essays. I know the amount of BS required for a B.S. This was a weekly writing assignment in a junior college.
I check in briefly but frequently from work. I look for "news for nerds - stuff that matters". This article was "posturing by an academic - stuff that's fluffy".
Having worked at a school for some time, this point really hit home. Teachers refuse to be taught, especially by someone they percieve as working for them.
:)
A support staffer, telling me - a professor / dean / dept chair - how to run MY system?? The gall!!
Tread lightly, and use words such as 'administration approved standard' and 'uniform networked systems interface' as opposed to 'the right way to do things' and 'RTFM!'...
- As my father taught me, diplomacy is a way of telling someone to go to hell, in a way that makes them look forward to the trip.
I may be confusing the terms and technologies, but would setting up an internal subnet or VPN, with it's own firewall protection, help the situation? Can it even be effectively done?
If so... this way, the trusted and managed machines are protected from the unmanaged internal machines, which are in turn protected from the outside by the campus-wide firewall.
Yes, it's layering protection on top of protection, but it should reduce the problem to the typical "US vs THEM" situation.
Also, stated and public policy is very important. It won't prevent internal problems rooted (no pun int) in these unmanaged hosts, but it will give the perpetrators due warning of consequences.
Whenever I hear the word cracker, my mouth gets dry and salty... But that's just me.
It's more than semantics.
While a certain level of knowledge and indoctrination into the inner workings of computers is necessary to be either a cracker, or a hacker, this level of common knowledge is not enough to blurr the line between the two.
A hacker is someone who hacks code, who writes programs and tools for the sheer enjoyment of the experience, the furthering of the 'hacker' society (i.e. GNU) and the status derived from gifting his hacker peers with the fruits of the labour - if you subscribe to the 'gift culture' view of OSS.
A cracker is motivated by the benefits of getting something 'the easy way' as in the case of pirated software, of flaunting his 'expertise' in front of his cracker peers, and the thrill of breaking the 'rules'.
A skilled cracker may have the same creative capacity as a skilled hacker, but the difference in the fundamental ethics of the two groups will keep the cracker breaking into other cracker's computers to get already existing tools, rather than writing his own. Should a cracker feel that doind this is too much effort, he may write his on tool to do the crack for him, but the tool is only beneficial to him and other's like him. It does benefit his community - but only his community.
A skilled hacker, while enjoying the status that comes with having developed a useful tool, will prefer to collaborate with others of his ilk, if he does not find the necessary tool already available. Subsequently, he (the development group) will release the tool to the general public - thereby benefitting his community a'la the cracker. However, the nature of the tool is benevolent to all who are touched by it - contrast this with the effect of the cracker tool on those cracked by it.
So from a certain perspective, crackers can be seen as a subset of hackers, but with a fundamental difference in their ethical fabric and intent.
-- God, we're bombing people again...
It does say 'cracked' at the site at this time.
But it's truly sad to see a business website take pride in having been compromised.
A simple text message admitting the unfortunate fact (from their POV) is appropriate; a full collor, full page graphic, that still manages to push their product, is a marketting ploy.
"Look at US! We're SO POPULAR that k00l kidz broke our server!!!"
Maybe if we ignore them, they'll go away.
The best way to control a population is to take away their awareness of freedom, to deprive them of their identity, and to take away their hopes.
Without the Constitution, the Declaration and the religion, what have you??
A hard working middle class who lives to work and works to live.
Be productive, pay your taxes, watch television, drink Pepsi.
-- This message sponsored by the Psi Corps.
Yah know...
The first time I tried to install Linux, I had a choice of Slackware (Unleashed book '96 version) and RedHat 5.0..
RH would just NOT install right.
Slackware went in on try 1. Sure, it took a bit more thinking to get it there, but DAMN!
And besides, there's a certain satisfaction to bucking the trend that's bucking the trend..
-- Proud member of the intra-Linux counter-culture.
"The Kipling 'Hacker' luggage debacle gets coverage in Wired, along with slightly derogatory references to the Slashdotters' ability (or rather lack of it) to 'crack the site'..."
Well, just how 'secure' is wired??
Now that they cater to MBA wannabe twerps, instead of people who understand (or at least want to) the technology..
I, for one, would LOVE to see the WIRED site on the 2600 'recently hacked' milk carton.
I'd love to see one of those, maybe with nice rosewood inlays, like an expensive luxury car.
Or maybe one that looks as though it were rough-hewn stone, with all sides except one polished to a high luster.
How about bumper chrome, or pearized laquer, like a '57 Chevy..
Would be expensive as hell to get started, but a custom case business would clean up, and do wonders for customization freaks.
This reorg has been in the news for weeks now.
The reorg lines being drawn around customer groups will serve M$ in the DOJ trial - only! None of the resultant groups can survive on their own, they still share the same tech pool. But, being separate on paper, the DOJ can't bitch about monopolistic practices.
M$ is admin heavy, and this is either a bad decision, or a legally driven one.
If/when M$ redraws the reorg lines around Operating Systems, Developer Tools, Application Software, and Other (hardware, media, content); then we'll be looking at real news.
As for LinuxOffice - do we really want to introduce closed source turnkey application suites into our open pasture??
one of the canonical texts on Internet/Unix security
In the beginning, there was nothing, and then God said "let there be light" and there was light..
While speaking of canonical texts, let's remember to take them for what you're worth, question our sources, and never let our heroes rest too long on thir laurels. And if they stick their foot in their mouth, let's make sure they know we know.
I wonder how M$NT would stand up to this 'flaw'.
Guess what? If you're root, and type rm -rf / you could earase files. There's no warning and no "Are you REALLY REALLY sure?" message!!! Wow!
THIS JUST IN --- Ginsu issued a recall of it's best selling kitchin knife. Apparently, you could cut yourself with it.
Leave it to ZDanything to start a panic.
Hoard food and ammo, Y2K is nigh!
Can someone 'splain to me how a new CPU - faster, slower or indifferent - is going to speed up Internet access?? Can it cram more bits into the phone line? Can it speed up electricity?
We need someone in the public eye (someone to whom the media listens) to break through the public ignorance that makes these damn PIII commercials look good to the average shmoe.
We need the public to know that Wintel preys on the public's lack of technical knowledge.
An informed customer is a wannabe monopolists worst nightmare. All my chips thus far have been Intel's, but the next one won't be, unless this PIII abomination dies in pain.
To the people with panchant for CS, it's an easy major. Just as natural-born bean-counters excell at accounting and statistics; and people with a flair for the written word excell at literature courses.
Innate ability does have a lot to do with your statement. Drop a humanities major into a CS class, and watch them turn inhumane right quick.
But to further the discussion: Some people have an inborn talent for Academia (myself included), but the real world (as it's called) has nothing to do with term papers or GPA. Remember kiddies, the open book tests are always the hardest, and you can read all you want in the real world.
Go git'em! I remember thinking I knew it all, back when I was graduating college. Man! I was a steaming hot shit!! I was even hotter then I was as a high-school senior. Boy! The world was my oyster!!
:)
Just make sure you look both ways before crossing 'easy street', chumm!
(Is that YOU Linus??)