I was just wondering, bcause I've heard of companies threatening to stop doing business in a specific nation in the past (for example, during the various Nazi auction scandals) and I know that some of the.com's specifically do not hold assets in certain states so they don't pay sales tax.
I can't help thinking that if it comes down to open-sourcing WIndows, MS may just stop distributing it in Europe. Let them all get the next outlook warm for 4 years for want of patches, and they'll be likely to change:(
After all, if MS doesn't do business there, nobody can allege that they have a monopoly.
Hmm. I just like that extra bit of security - if someone breaks my IRC client, or whatever, I don't want them to be able to force me to upgrade from *their* server.
Since all the servers are getting hammered pretty hard, this should be mentioned. If you have run
sudo emerge sync sudo emerge -uD world
in the past few weeks, there's nothing new out there for you. All you'll get is the new packages (like always) and bragging rights to run a "new version." There's not even a new minor 2.4 kernel version - I've been running 2.4.25 since it was released.
So, you do NOT need to sync up now. Especially not while half the slashdot userbase is doing so. You're pounding the living **** out of the servers, and for no good reason. If you must get new everything, whether to brag about running "version 2004" or what have you, su to root and set an at job to do so late tonight. Thank you for making Gentoo usable for people who actually NEED to update.
I remember a slashdot AC several years ago who said he was going to patent "the process of patenting dumb-ass shit and suing people who were already doing it."
So MS' specific innovation is the equivalent of taking an enlightenment window and enlarging it to fill all of the screen in a fifth desktop. Have any other slashdot users done this? If so, we have prior art. I just wish I could remember whether I ever made it that big...
Isn't there this little requirement about "obvious to a typical expert in the field" though?:)
Aren't there something like ten patents for various refinements on the concept of "maintaining an electric shopping cart via cookies to allow shopping over multiple sessions?" I remember hearing that once.
Well, to start with, Enlightenment has had this capability since I started using it.
I think *most* window managers actually have the ability to handle multiple desktops. I think maybe the very basic default ones don't, but there's definately prior art. What's next, MS patenting the concept of an instant messager that installs automatically with an operating system?
Of course, you still need to upload your exploit/rootkit code explicitely. Probably via something like piping an ASCII-armored file to unpack and redirecting to a file, so it would take more inguinity than your average 13-year-old kiddie hanging on efnet has, but it's interesting to know it's possible.
Corrupting data could crash a program. For example setting an internal pointer in a list to point out of the program's address space. I can see it happening. However, the page could never be executed - which would obviously prevent you from uploading code into the overflow and having it run.
Don't some Unixen have this protection even without AMD64? I know that Electric Fence does something very similiar, among others - though most real-world programs don't use it.
For that matter, writing all networking code in pascal/java/whatever (which isn't a HUGE slowdown unless you're sending tens of megs per second continiously) will protect you from this on any OS. People just need to use those languages, or make a point of using "safe" functions under C(++) and ASM.
Read my other comments on this article, since I'm tempted to repeat most of them.
What's needed is not just people who know how to tune. It's people tuning to some kind of accurate reference - which means NOT the entire band tuning to one instrument, ESPECIALLY a piano that was last tuned in the Clinton administration.
Granted, that's more of a problem with orchestras - but there's some people out there with really poor tuning ability, or who think that deliberate mistuning makes their stuff more "interesting."
I'll wager a computer can tune a lot better than most guitarists.
Also, the computer won't tune relative to one out-of-tune instrument, like most bands seem to. As I have absolute pitch, this is a rather familiar issue for me. Not to mention the folks that think that by deliberately tuning several half steps off they can sound lively or haunting... it makes them sound crappy is what it does.
Well, I have absolute pitch, so most attempts to transpose sound horrible to me. Not to mention the folks who thing that by playing 30-40 cents low they can sound more "haunting" - it sounds like a different song.
That, and I have yet to find a piano in any practice room in this school that's less than 10 cents off. I found one where the middle C is something like an A4 sharp.
1. are in a given orientation 2. are designed to be recognized automatically 3. aren't squirming around 4. won't die if you need to run them through the system 5 times.
The other thing is that if a vending machine rejects 50% of real bills, there's no real loss, so they can afford to up the sensitivity - the customer will just curse under his breath and shove the thing back in.
Try selling a system with that kind of false negative rate to the fishing industry.
How can fish get infected wounds? I thought it was next to impossible to get infected in salt water, due to the effects of osmosis on the germs (like sprinkling salt on a leech).
Re:I heard an interview on NPR with one of the
on
Diamond Age Coming Soon
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
They can only do that so long, though, quite seriously. Imagine trying to corner the aluminum market in 1850, or force everyone to keep using vacuum tubes in 1955, by making death threats against individuals. Sure, it might work for a year or two, but after awhile people might realize that paying a year's pay per pound for Natural Aluminum (tm) isn't worth it.
Slashdot Mirror
Interesting.
.com's specifically do not hold assets in certain states so they don't pay sales tax.
I was just wondering, bcause I've heard of companies threatening to stop doing business in a specific nation in the past (for example, during the various Nazi auction scandals) and I know that some of the
And what if they get angry enough to stop doing business in Europe at all, rather than honoring those conditions?
I can't help thinking that if it comes down to open-sourcing WIndows, MS may just stop distributing it in Europe. Let them all get the next outlook warm for 4 years for want of patches, and they'll be likely to change :(
After all, if MS doesn't do business there, nobody can allege that they have a monopoly.
A jet engine with full afterburners could just about do it, but you'd get sucked in or toasted before you heard 180 dB.
Hmm. I just like that extra bit of security - if someone breaks my IRC client, or whatever, I don't want them to be able to force me to upgrade from *their* server.
Since all the servers are getting hammered pretty hard, this should be mentioned. If you have run
sudo emerge sync
sudo emerge -uD world
in the past few weeks, there's nothing new out there for you. All you'll get is the new packages (like always) and bragging rights to run a "new version." There's not even a new minor 2.4 kernel version - I've been running 2.4.25 since it was released.
So, you do NOT need to sync up now. Especially not while half the slashdot userbase is doing so. You're pounding the living **** out of the servers, and for no good reason. If you must get new everything, whether to brag about running "version 2004" or what have you, su to root and set an at job to do so late tonight. Thank you for making Gentoo usable for people who actually NEED to update.
Yes, very trippy effect.
So if you changed the #define's for pager size in enlightenment, would that be enough to infringe MS' patent?
Well, there's prior art on this one.
I remember a slashdot AC several years ago who said he was going to patent "the process of patenting dumb-ass shit and suing people who were already doing it."
Does MS' patent infringe his?
So MS' specific innovation is the equivalent of taking an enlightenment window and enlarging it to fill all of the screen in a fifth desktop. Have any other slashdot users done this? If so, we have prior art. I just wish I could remember whether I ever made it that big...
:)
Isn't there this little requirement about "obvious to a typical expert in the field" though?
Aren't there something like ten patents for various refinements on the concept of "maintaining an electric shopping cart via cookies to allow shopping over multiple sessions?" I remember hearing that once.
Well, to start with, Enlightenment has had this capability since I started using it.
I think *most* window managers actually have the ability to handle multiple desktops. I think maybe the very basic default ones don't, but there's definately prior art. What's next, MS patenting the concept of an instant messager that installs automatically with an operating system?
Very interesting, heh.
Of course, you still need to upload your exploit/rootkit code explicitely. Probably via something like piping an ASCII-armored file to unpack and redirecting to a file, so it would take more inguinity than your average 13-year-old kiddie hanging on efnet has, but it's interesting to know it's possible.
Corrupting data could crash a program. For example setting an internal pointer in a list to point out of the program's address space. I can see it happening. However, the page could never be executed - which would obviously prevent you from uploading code into the overflow and having it run.
Wouldn't surprise me - I believe X needs to directly access hardware resources to a degree found in very few other programs.
I do wonder whether those patches could be applied to only be enforced against a given set of other programs (apache but not X, etc).
I wouldn't be surprised if Linux had this in a year or two, actually - or at least a combination of build flags to force the same sort of protection.
Don't some Unixen have this protection even without AMD64? I know that Electric Fence does something very similiar, among others - though most real-world programs don't use it.
For that matter, writing all networking code in pascal/java/whatever (which isn't a HUGE slowdown unless you're sending tens of megs per second continiously) will protect you from this on any OS. People just need to use those languages, or make a point of using "safe" functions under C(++) and ASM.
So in other words code that overflows can, at worst, crash itself - and not root a system?
Read my other comments on this article, since I'm tempted to repeat most of them.
What's needed is not just people who know how to tune. It's people tuning to some kind of accurate reference - which means NOT the entire band tuning to one instrument, ESPECIALLY a piano that was last tuned in the Clinton administration.
Granted, that's more of a problem with orchestras - but there's some people out there with really poor tuning ability, or who think that deliberate mistuning makes their stuff more "interesting."
Also, the computer won't tune relative to one out-of-tune instrument, like most bands seem to. As I have absolute pitch, this is a rather familiar issue for me. Not to mention the folks that think that by deliberately tuning several half steps off they can sound lively or haunting... it makes them sound crappy is what it does.
Well, to be fair, some voices (like Dylan's) just naturally drift a good amount.
Others (Sinatra) don't. That's not caused by poor pitch. That said, I've also heard entire churches singing in perfect tune with an off-tune organ.
Heh...
Well, I have absolute pitch, so most attempts to transpose sound horrible to me. Not to mention the folks who thing that by playing 30-40 cents low they can sound more "haunting" - it sounds like a different song.
That, and I have yet to find a piano in any practice room in this school that's less than 10 cents off. I found one where the middle C is something like an A4 sharp.
The bank notes (bills here in America)
1. are in a given orientation
2. are designed to be recognized automatically
3. aren't squirming around
4. won't die if you need to run them through the system 5 times.
The other thing is that if a vending machine rejects 50% of real bills, there's no real loss, so they can afford to up the sensitivity - the customer will just curse under his breath and shove the thing back in.
Try selling a system with that kind of false negative rate to the fishing industry.
How can fish get infected wounds? I thought it was next to impossible to get infected in salt water, due to the effects of osmosis on the germs (like sprinkling salt on a leech).
They can only do that so long, though, quite seriously. Imagine trying to corner the aluminum market in 1850, or force everyone to keep using vacuum tubes in 1955, by making death threats against individuals. Sure, it might work for a year or two, but after awhile people might realize that paying a year's pay per pound for Natural Aluminum (tm) isn't worth it.
Granted, this is a flawed analogy.
Yeah, they won't let them call the artifical ones LinDiamonds (tm) :)