I find the broken forwarding to be the biggest problem with SPF. -- Their solution SRS, rewriting the Envelope addresses so that the middleman then handles all the bounces seem like a definite kludge. (You can read about it here
As someone who provides hosting for small companies and usually uses/etc/mail/virtusertable to forward mail for customer domains, I don't want my setup/setup tools broken by having to implement a more complex mechanism and in turn have a higher server load handling bounced messages when a client's mail box is filled.
While I haven't read the DomainKeys proposal, it has occurred to me before that a variation on SPF with encryption could be implemented without having to extend the ESMTP protocol. TTBOMK (To the Best of My Knowledge) ESMTP allows you to send parameters following the "MAIL FROM" command and these parameters would be preserved as part of the message envelope when forwarding. It would seem to me that an PGP/GPG, private key, encrypted string sent as a parameter would allow updated MTAs to verify the original source by decrypting the string with the orignating servers published public key. How does one publish their public key? Simple, use the TXT record in DNS (similiar to SPF's use of DNS). At the same time, this shouldn't in anyway break compatability with receiving SMTP servers that don't recognise the new parameter.
While I haven't RTFA, this has been on my mind for a while, as a "better than SPF" solution and I'm sharing it here. How do you think it stacks up to SPF/DomainKeys?
Actually it has been even longer. I remember my first Mac was running MacOS 6.5.1 and then there was a 6.5.3 upgrade os something like that. They continued the numbering conventian with 7.0, 7.0.1 etc.
Whole number upgrades came only with major new features that sometimes broke compatability with older proprams, or "drivers" what Apple called Extensions and control panels in the old days.
I never really figured out why MacOS 9 deserved a whole number upgrade from 8.6 but I suppose it was because of the availability of the Carbon API -- making it the transition OS to MacOS X.
I think Apple has actually slowed down its whole number upgrading scheme. From 1991 until 1999, Apple went from 6, to 7 to 8 to 9. Meanwhile, they've been sitting a X.x for five years.
I beleive that back in the old days they would have called X.3 "MacOS 11". It introduced enough substantially new features (Expose, fast user switching, X11 included on CD) and a new look (the brushed metal) that they could have justified the calling it MaxOS XI.
"Distro "XYZ" even costs roughly as much as a Windows XP upgrade, which suggests to me that it should be judged by the same standards, and not be granted the leniency that Linux sometimes merits when it's distributed for free or at very low cost. Full commercial price means full commercial expectations. "
He compares the cost of the unnamed commercial Linux distro to the cost of Windows XP _upgrade_ edition. While that may be the cost analysis that being done by many Windows users considering a switch to Linux -- it is not a fair basis for his comparison.
Of course the dead give away to his trolling effort is that he never names a single distro or specifies his sound card. I beleive most "desktop distros" have an entry level version that would be the best feature/price comparison point to an XP (Home version assumed) upgrade. At the entry level, most distros come in far below even the XP Home upgrade price.
" Until you can provide a tool to do simple database, query, forms, and reports all in one package, then you're not going to get the masses to migrate, even if you provide a solution by combining 2 or more technologies."
I agree with you, given the current state of things, people will not be migrating. However, I don't know that coming up with an Access clone for Linux is the way to go either. I think a sufficiently fleshed out frontend program can make the existence of a MySQL (or other RDBM) transparent to the user. If it's existence is transparent, then (1) the user won't care and (2) When that user needs something outside their current abilities (say making the DB accessable via a website) then they are already most of the way there.
THG writes: "Currently, no native Linux application will read the Access (.mdb) format."
He makes this statement and then never follows through with any suggestions for Window users looking to make the switch. It would have been nice if he put together a cookbook recipe for transitioning Databases from Access to say a MySQL+Rekall solution.
While there's plenty of advice out there
about migrating your data, (the easy part, IMHO) I have not seen any recipies for converting your forms and reports... (And as we're talking Desktop apps here, using MySQL as a backend with Access on the frontend isn't relevent)
Is there any way other than recreating the forms/reports?
I'm sure many Window users want to know.. and while I'm a seasoned Linux (as Desktop) user without any reliance on Access myself, I know of businesses that might convert if not for the Access hurdle. (So far I have had no useful advice for them)
So they have implemented a body scanning system which enables the car to automatically adjust seats, mirrors, steering wheels and pedals.
"It is minimal maintenance, really, because the customers have limited time and they don't want a car that gives them a lot of hassle," said Ms Christiansen.
Is there anyone else who finds these to statements oxymoronic? I'm thinking in a car with that many power adjustable thingies... there's going to be maitenance up to wazooo... What happens when the body scanning system goes on the fritz... while you're driving... and pulls you away from the pedals to setting for your 6"5' husband?
How is voting by printout so different than the mail in proxies for people who will not be in their jurisdiction on election day. The local party office could start offering to mail in your proxy for you and give you a six pack on your way out...
While this has been possible for some time we don't see it happening.
Obvioulsy it's a little different as to get a proxy , you usualy have to apply for it well in advance and submit it a while before election day.
However the potentiall to bribe people into using this method of vote is there.
It seems like this offers a way of embedding the device's driver. - Just having the driver doesn't bypass any other security mechanisms already in place. Depending upon how it's used, it may not open any new security holes. Being able to just plugin the latest printer and have it work without installing any drivers is not a Bad Thing.
If Microsoft had "innovated" this we'ld be seeing printers being distributed with Windows binaries drivers in firmware, that only Windows machines could make use of. Coming from Parc, it will be available for multiple platforms but unfortuantely they're not making this an open standard.
<Paranoid Speculation>: Microsoft will copy the idea, but their standard will only communicate with Windows (and it's mobile derivatives) and give it away to hardware vendors. Free stuff from MS that will make your device truly PnP for 95% of computer users is an eash choice.</Paranoid Speculation>
I don't think MS will go after the Linux kernel. Afterall, as others have pointed out, it's unlikely that WinNT code will be useful to Linux. (What techinical merits does it have that we need ?)
However, what it does have, the Win32 API is where Microsoft will attack. Wine, and it's commerical version from Code Weavers will be likely targets. Wine hits Microsoft where it hurts the most, the ability to run Office and other countless Windows programs that keep their customers locked into their products. It will only be a matter of time before MS suggests that any siginificant improvements to Wine's capabilities couldn't have been accomplished without access to the their source. Just as Wine is starting to
really shine.
I think it might also have something to do with the Dell utility partition (it may be called soemthing else) Anyway.. Dell systems I've used, have a small partition with Diagnostic utilites that can be booted into with the right key held down. This needs an OS. I'm taking a wild guess that they're using FreeDOS for that anyway... so now they just include it in the box and perhaps installedon the main boot partition too.
I wonder if the FreeDOS CD also has their utilites loaded on it and the ability to restore the utility partition if the HD is replaced?
"Remove from server after x days" has been implemented for POP3 mail accounts.
I have been yearning for this feature that I loved in Eudora in KMail. This is the first Linux mail client that I've seen that supports it.
Anyone know if Thunderbird has this option yet?
I'm now very tempted to install Mozilla and switch mail clients but I'd rather just have a stand-alone mail client like Thunderbird, and only have to transition mail clients once to get this feature.
I haven't had to do this myself - so this is just a random suggestion I'm pulling out of....
How about enabling MD5 hashing and then expiring your all your user's passwords, forcing them to choose a new pasword when they login? When they pick a new password it will be MD5 hashed. (only need a simple perl script to do this for all UID>1000)
Of course this only works if they have shell access. If they have only have POP access... then you have to use some other mechanism to allow your users to change passwords. (google for poppassd)
I'm a devoted KDE user but sadly, it looks like KDE is going to lose momentum to GNOME. - Let's look at the areas they're devoting more resources to:
Gnome: NOT KDE
Mozilla: NOT Konqueror
OpenOffice: NOT KOffice
My favorite part of KDE: Kio slaves. I find being able to tranparently edit/save files across sftp to be invaluable. (Of course I/O slaves do much more, such as allowing transparent access to a digital camera, a tar archive, smb shares, etc.)
If you've never used KDE, picture being able to attach a file to an email from a remote machine without ever downloading it or mounting a share. I attach files stored on my remote webserver via sftp to emails with Kmail all the time and would sorely miss this ability if over time KDE lost ground to GNOME and I felt compeled to switch.
Apple can claim that they have the right to usurp this guys program based on the exclusion clause in the Labor Code -- (see a1) "which does not relate to the business of the employer". As Apple has become the significant application developer for thier own platform, they could claim that any application that enhances the MacOS X platform relates to thier business.
They could also make the more dubious claim that they anticipated developing such a program and the clause "a2" as well.
Is there a way integrate compression into the linux+dd scheme?
A install of a minimal Windows instaltion may only take 2 GB but if it is on a 20 GB partition, then your image is 20 GB, no?
I would like to be able to have system to restore public access computers to a virgin state very quickly and easily. - The idea of storing an image of the base install on another partition has occurred to me, but it's not an efficient use of space if the backup partition has to be as large as the primary partition when most of it is empty space.
Anyone have any ideas on using linux to store a _compressed_ image of a windows drive? (then booting linux off a live CD to restore it)
My PowerMac 7100 (66 MHz 32MB RAM) did voice recognition. I recently read on slashdot a post that I don't have time to find now that detailed the Apple Newton history. Apparantly, before they killed, they did have plans for voice recognition in it back around 1996.
It is news that someone has finally implemented it in a PDA. However, it's only interesting from social/marketing context, not a technical one. It will be interesting to see how/if peopke will use it once the novelty wears off.
I'm not disagreeing with your point but I think a little history is needed to here:
Anyone else remember the changes that took place between the Mac's System 7.0 to 7.6? There was a lot of changes and many, many programs that about the time 7.5 was released required System 7.5 or higher. It apears that Apple has a histroy of using dot releases to introduce significant changes. Bug fixes are double dot releases (i.e. 10.2.1) Conclusion: If you're a long time Apple user then you're used to this pattern. - Apple only changes the major version number when the way you interact and configure the system is overhauled, i.e. control panels, contextual menus, Quartz)
What's different today? Apple used to bend over backward to make sure old Apps worked on the new hardware/OS, and apparantly that's no longer the case. (Think about 680x0 apps running on PPCs)
ok, I registered for the local gig. Now I'd like to see a new slashdot post calling for Interview questions with a SCO exec. Everyone submit questions and they'll be moderated, etc - you know the routine. Then Linux advocates like myself, who plan on attending thier roadshow, will have a quality list of questions to try and ask on the floor.
I do plan on attending the conference. However, I don't think registering just for the sake of taking up a spot they then can't give someone else is a bad idea either.
When I saw the comment about mounting one of these into a 5.25" bay, I was reminded of yesterdays article about the 1.2 Terabyte "firewired" IDE drives... and I thought "Gee, pull one of the HDs and pop in a nano-PC and you have an inexpensive Terabyte network storage solution in one box or a gigantic MP3 server or {..fill in the blank... }"
Then I learned these things had no firewire... maybe it will in a future revision
In the authors previous post, he states that such Compulsory Tax would run the average family about $50/year and basiclly give them unlimited access to music, video and other artistic productions online.
Now, of that $50 he's allowing 20% to go to "bueracratic overhead" for this knew govt. agency to oversee this monstrosity. So, that leaves $40 to go towards the artists. If we assume that at present the average family's artistic download comprises of 75% music and 25% for all other media then _Music Artists_ would recieve about $30 per family in the US.
Now my point: If this $30/family tax is supposed to be sufficient to fairly compensate the Music Industry artists for their work, then why doesn't the RIAA open shop and allow unlimited downloads for $30/year for all their artists big and small?
What parent wouldn't pay $30/year to give their kids unlimited legal access to their favorite tunes? Certainly $30/year is worth not risking your kid making you the subject of a $$$ lawsuit!
Who needs another bueracratic govt. agency that will be subject to abuse, fraud, and internal waste? This also will not penalise those of us who do not download music and other art from the net, and don't want to be taxed for the behavior of others.
Please, can someone explain why we need to force this down the throat of every American - to give music fans unfettered access to their music - when the music industry, if they choose, can make their works available at rates cheap enough that most people will not steal?
As others have already pointed out, hard coding their IP address into your fix is foolish because it can change.
A config file for IP addresses may also be too burdensome. Verisign has the capacity to rotate in new IP addresses for their wild card as frequently as they please. (Their server will, of course, still respond to previous IP assignments to account for records cached on other servers.)
The only solution I see to prevent this from becoming a cat and mouse game between SAs and Verisign is as follows:
Have your DNS server generate a series of random domain queries and heuristicly determine Verisign's latest wildcard IP address, and add it to the "no such domain" list.
This interval at which this process is repeated should be configurable.
It seems to me that adding this element of automation to the DNS server shouldn't be too difficult and will save the SA a lot of trouble in the event that Verisign chooses to aggressivly keep this "service" alive.
I don't mean to be petty, and I don't usually complain about the minor errors that slip by on/. but...
The use of the logo of a company once known as the Digital Equipment Corporation for an article that discusses IEEE 1394 video cameras for data backup seems like a glaring lack of knowledge about the computer industry before 1998. (DEC was bought by Compaq in 1998)
While I wouldn't suggest striking the trademark Digital logo from the library as it may be appropriate for some articles on legacy systems, care should be taken that it isn't mistaken as a generic image for anything "digital" - in the opposite of analog sense.
I wrote a Mac program that initiated shutdown without any warning dialog box. Not a big deal really - until you add it to someone's StartUp Items folder:)
I "enhanced" it to check the date and if it wasn't April 1, it quietly quit; on April 1 it shutdown the system. Since a Mac allows you to easily name a file with just spaces, and make entirely transparent icons... this can be a challenge for even an experienced Mac user. Needless to say, i had some fun with friends - the ones who'ld call me when they had computer trouble anyway.
Ahhh... the immature games of my youth, now I know better- id:0:initdefault
I got a better idea: let's just convince everyone to design their sites just for lynx and we'll have all the speed we could want on an ASCII display. To top it off -- we don't even have to reconfigure our servers, and for the same effort all sites will work with all current and future browsers too.
Sorry for being so cynical, but I felt it had to be said.
Slashdot Mirror
I find the broken forwarding to be the biggest problem with SPF. -- Their solution SRS, rewriting the Envelope addresses so that the middleman then handles all the bounces seem like a definite kludge. (You can read about it here
/etc/mail/virtusertable to forward mail for customer domains, I don't want my setup/setup tools broken by having to implement a more complex mechanism and in turn have a higher server load handling bounced messages when a client's mail box is filled.
As someone who provides hosting for small companies and usually uses
While I haven't read the DomainKeys proposal, it has occurred to me before that a variation on SPF with encryption could be implemented without having to extend the ESMTP protocol. TTBOMK (To the Best of My Knowledge) ESMTP allows you to send parameters following the "MAIL FROM" command and these parameters would be preserved as part of the message envelope when forwarding. It would seem to me that an PGP/GPG, private key, encrypted string sent as a parameter would allow updated MTAs to verify the original source by decrypting the string with the orignating servers published public key. How does one publish their public key? Simple, use the TXT record in DNS (similiar to SPF's use of DNS). At the same time, this shouldn't in anyway break compatability with receiving SMTP servers that don't recognise the new parameter.
While I haven't RTFA, this has been on my mind for a while, as a "better than SPF" solution and I'm sharing it here. How do you think it stacks up to SPF/DomainKeys?
Actually it has been even longer. I remember my first Mac was running MacOS 6.5.1 and then there was a 6.5.3 upgrade os something like that. They continued the numbering conventian with 7.0, 7.0.1 etc.
Whole number upgrades came only with major new features that sometimes broke compatability with older proprams, or "drivers" what Apple called Extensions and control panels in the old days.
I never really figured out why MacOS 9 deserved a whole number upgrade from 8.6 but I suppose it was because of the availability of the Carbon API -- making it the transition OS to MacOS X.
I think Apple has actually slowed down its whole number upgrading scheme. From 1991 until 1999, Apple went from 6, to 7 to 8 to 9. Meanwhile, they've been sitting a X.x for five years.
I beleive that back in the old days they would have called X.3 "MacOS 11". It introduced enough substantially new features (Expose, fast user switching, X11 included on CD) and a new look (the brushed metal) that they could have justified the calling it MaxOS XI.
Maybe they like the OS X nemonic?
He compares the cost of the unnamed commercial Linux distro to the cost of Windows XP _upgrade_ edition. While that may be the cost analysis that being done by many Windows users considering a switch to Linux -- it is not a fair basis for his comparison.
Of course the dead give away to his trolling effort is that he never names a single distro or specifies his sound card. I beleive most "desktop distros" have an entry level version that would be the best feature/price comparison point to an XP (Home version assumed) upgrade. At the entry level, most distros come in far below even the XP Home upgrade price.
" Until you can provide a tool to do simple database, query, forms, and reports all in one package, then you're not going to get the masses to migrate, even if you provide a solution by combining 2 or more technologies."
I agree with you, given the current state of things, people will not be migrating. However, I don't know that coming up with an Access clone for Linux is the way to go either. I think a sufficiently fleshed out frontend program can make the existence of a MySQL (or other RDBM) transparent to the user. If it's existence is transparent, then (1) the user won't care and (2) When that user needs something outside their current abilities (say making the DB accessable via a website) then they are already most of the way there.
THG writes: "Currently, no native Linux application will read the Access (.mdb) format."
He makes this statement and then never follows through with any suggestions for Window users looking to make the switch. It would have been nice if he put together a cookbook recipe for transitioning Databases from Access to say a MySQL+Rekall solution.
While there's plenty of advice out there about migrating your data, (the easy part, IMHO) I have not seen any recipies for converting your forms and reports... (And as we're talking Desktop apps here, using MySQL as a backend with Access on the frontend isn't relevent)
Is there any way other than recreating the forms/reports?
I'm sure many Window users want to know.. and while I'm a seasoned Linux (as Desktop) user without any reliance on Access myself, I know of businesses that might convert if not for the Access hurdle. (So far I have had no useful advice for them)
Anyone else find it ironic that Microsoft is now paying out millions to enrich their former adversary David Boise (sp??)
I guess they felt he did a really good job prosecuting them in the DoJ case.... why not have him on your side next time around.
So they have implemented a body scanning system which enables the car to automatically adjust seats, mirrors, steering wheels and pedals.
"It is minimal maintenance, really, because the customers have limited time and they don't want a car that gives them a lot of hassle," said Ms Christiansen.
Is there anyone else who finds these to statements oxymoronic? I'm thinking in a car with that many power adjustable thingies... there's going to be maitenance up to wazooo... What happens when the body scanning system goes on the fritz... while you're driving... and pulls you away from the pedals to setting for your 6"5' husband?
How is voting by printout so different than the mail in proxies for people who will not be in their jurisdiction on election day. The local party office could start offering to mail in your proxy for you and give you a six pack on your way out...
While this has been possible for some time we don't see it happening.
Obvioulsy it's a little different as to get a proxy , you usualy have to apply for it well in advance and submit it a while before election day.
However the potentiall to bribe people into using this method of vote is there.
Just my $0.02
It seems like this offers a way of embedding the device's driver. - Just having the driver doesn't bypass any other security mechanisms already in place. Depending upon how it's used, it may not open any new security holes. Being able to just plugin the latest printer and have it work without installing any drivers is not a Bad Thing.
If Microsoft had "innovated" this we'ld be seeing printers being distributed with Windows binaries drivers in firmware, that only Windows machines could make use of. Coming from Parc, it will be available for multiple platforms but unfortuantely they're not making this an open standard.
<Paranoid Speculation>: Microsoft will copy the idea, but their standard will only communicate with Windows (and it's mobile derivatives) and give it away to hardware vendors. Free stuff from MS that will make your device truly PnP for 95% of computer users is an eash choice.</Paranoid Speculation>
I don't think MS will go after the Linux kernel. Afterall, as others have pointed out, it's unlikely that WinNT code will be useful to Linux. (What techinical merits does it have that we need ?)
However, what it does have, the Win32 API is where Microsoft will attack. Wine, and it's commerical version from Code Weavers will be likely targets. Wine hits Microsoft where it hurts the most, the ability to run Office and other countless Windows programs that keep their customers locked into their products. It will only be a matter of time before MS suggests that any siginificant improvements to Wine's capabilities couldn't have been accomplished without access to the their source. Just as Wine is starting to really shine.
It will be another SCOing
I think it might also have something to do with the Dell utility partition (it may be called soemthing else) Anyway.. Dell systems I've used, have a small partition with Diagnostic utilites that can be booted into with the right key held down. This needs an OS. I'm taking a wild guess that they're using FreeDOS for that anyway... so now they just include it in the box and perhaps installedon the main boot partition too.
I wonder if the FreeDOS CD also has their utilites loaded on it and the ability to restore the utility partition if the HD is replaced?
Anyone know if Thunderbird has this option yet?
I'm now very tempted to install Mozilla and switch mail clients but I'd rather just have a stand-alone mail client like Thunderbird, and only have to transition mail clients once to get this feature.
Thanks Mozilla team!
I haven't had to do this myself - so this is just a random suggestion I'm pulling out of....
How about enabling MD5 hashing and then expiring your all your user's passwords, forcing them to choose a new pasword when they login? When they pick a new password it will be MD5 hashed. (only need a simple perl script to do this for all UID>1000)
Of course this only works if they have shell access. If they have only have POP access... then you have to use some other mechanism to allow your users to change passwords. (google for poppassd)
I'm a devoted KDE user but sadly, it looks like KDE is going to lose momentum to GNOME. - Let's look at the areas they're devoting more resources to:
Gnome: NOT KDE
Mozilla: NOT Konqueror
OpenOffice: NOT KOffice
My favorite part of KDE: Kio slaves. I find being able to tranparently edit/save files across sftp to be invaluable. (Of course I/O slaves do much more, such as allowing transparent access to a digital camera, a tar archive, smb shares, etc.)
If you've never used KDE, picture being able to attach a file to an email from a remote machine without ever downloading it or mounting a share. I attach files stored on my remote webserver via sftp to emails with Kmail all the time and would sorely miss this ability if over time KDE lost ground to GNOME and I felt compeled to switch.
Does GNOME offer a similiar feature?
While I don't agree with Apple's actions...
Apple can claim that they have the right to usurp this guys program based on the exclusion clause in the Labor Code -- (see a1) "which does not relate to the business of the employer". As Apple has become the significant application developer for thier own platform, they could claim that any application that enhances the MacOS X platform relates to thier business.
They could also make the more dubious claim that they anticipated developing such a program and the clause "a2" as well.
Is there a way integrate compression into the linux+dd scheme?
A install of a minimal Windows instaltion may only take 2 GB but if it is on a 20 GB partition, then your image is 20 GB, no?
I would like to be able to have system to restore public access computers to a virgin state very quickly and easily. - The idea of storing an image of the base install on another partition has occurred to me, but it's not an efficient use of space if the backup partition has to be as large as the primary partition when most of it is empty space.
Anyone have any ideas on using linux to store a _compressed_ image of a windows drive? (then booting linux off a live CD to restore it)
thanks
-Aaron
My PowerMac 7100 (66 MHz 32MB RAM) did voice recognition. I recently read on slashdot a post that I don't have time to find now that detailed the Apple Newton history. Apparantly, before they killed, they did have plans for voice recognition in it back around 1996.
It is news that someone has finally implemented it in a PDA. However, it's only interesting from social/marketing context, not a technical one. It will be interesting to see how/if peopke will use it once the novelty wears off.
I'm not disagreeing with your point but I think a little history is needed to here:
Anyone else remember the changes that took place between the Mac's System 7.0 to 7.6? There was a lot of changes and many, many programs that about the time 7.5 was released required System 7.5 or higher. It apears that Apple has a histroy of using dot releases to introduce significant changes. Bug fixes are double dot releases (i.e. 10.2.1) Conclusion: If you're a long time Apple user then you're used to this pattern. - Apple only changes the major version number when the way you interact and configure the system is overhauled, i.e. control panels, contextual menus, Quartz)
What's different today? Apple used to bend over backward to make sure old Apps worked on the new hardware/OS, and apparantly that's no longer the case. (Think about 680x0 apps running on PPCs)
ok, I registered for the local gig. Now I'd like to see a new slashdot post calling for Interview questions with a SCO exec. Everyone submit questions and they'll be moderated, etc - you know the routine. Then Linux advocates like myself, who plan on attending thier roadshow, will have a quality list of questions to try and ask on the floor.
I do plan on attending the conference. However, I don't think registering just for the sake of taking up a spot they then can't give someone else is a bad idea either.
Then I learned these things had no firewire... maybe it will in a future revision
In the authors previous post, he states that such Compulsory Tax would run the average family about $50/year and basiclly give them unlimited access to music, video and other artistic productions online.
Now, of that $50 he's allowing 20% to go to "bueracratic overhead" for this knew govt. agency to oversee this monstrosity. So, that leaves $40 to go towards the artists. If we assume that at present the average family's artistic download comprises of 75% music and 25% for all other media then _Music Artists_ would recieve about $30 per family in the US.
Now my point: If this $30/family tax is supposed to be sufficient to fairly compensate the Music Industry artists for their work, then why doesn't the RIAA open shop and allow unlimited downloads for $30/year for all their artists big and small?
What parent wouldn't pay $30/year to give their kids unlimited legal access to their favorite tunes? Certainly $30/year is worth not risking your kid making you the subject of a $$$ lawsuit!
Who needs another bueracratic govt. agency that will be subject to abuse, fraud, and internal waste? This also will not penalise those of us who do not download music and other art from the net, and don't want to be taxed for the behavior of others.
Please, can someone explain why we need to force this down the throat of every American - to give music fans unfettered access to their music - when the music industry, if they choose, can make their works available at rates cheap enough that most people will not steal?
As others have already pointed out, hard coding their IP address into your fix is foolish because it can change.
A config file for IP addresses may also be too burdensome. Verisign has the capacity to rotate in new IP addresses for their wild card as frequently as they please. (Their server will, of course, still respond to previous IP assignments to account for records cached on other servers.)
The only solution I see to prevent this from becoming a cat and mouse game between SAs and Verisign is as follows:
Have your DNS server generate a series of random domain queries and heuristicly determine Verisign's latest wildcard IP address, and add it to the "no such domain" list.
This interval at which this process is repeated should be configurable.
It seems to me that adding this element of automation to the DNS server shouldn't be too difficult and will save the SA a lot of trouble in the event that Verisign chooses to aggressivly keep this "service" alive.
My $0.02
-Aaron
I don't mean to be petty, and I don't usually complain about the minor errors that slip by on /. but...
The use of the logo of a company once known as the Digital Equipment Corporation for an article that discusses IEEE 1394 video cameras for data backup seems like a glaring lack of knowledge about the computer industry before 1998. (DEC was bought by Compaq in 1998)
While I wouldn't suggest striking the trademark Digital logo from the library as it may be appropriate for some articles on legacy systems, care should be taken that it isn't mistaken as a generic image for anything "digital" - in the opposite of analog sense.
I wrote a Mac program that initiated shutdown without any warning dialog box. Not a big deal really - until you add it to someone's StartUp Items folder :)
I "enhanced" it to check the date and if it wasn't April 1, it quietly quit; on April 1 it shutdown the system. Since a Mac allows you to easily name a file with just spaces, and make entirely transparent icons... this can be a challenge for even an experienced Mac user. Needless to say, i had some fun with friends - the ones who'ld call me when they had computer trouble anyway.
Ahhh... the immature games of my youth, now I know better- id:0:initdefault
I got a better idea: let's just convince everyone to design their sites just for lynx and we'll have all the speed we could want on an ASCII display. To top it off -- we don't even have to reconfigure our servers, and for the same effort all sites will work with all current and future browsers too.
Sorry for being so cynical, but I felt it had to be said.