1. The Advertising Industry is greedily accepting money to push browser attacks on unsuspecting people.
2. They are out of control. When was the last time a website banned an ad service because of malware? Why are the suits in this product-propaganda chain so unresponsive?
3. Browsers and operating systems lack methods to reliably provide visual context cues for network objects (like web pages). Yes, the browser window is there with its untouchable bits (address bar etc), but a web page can contain an element that looks like another window.
3a. Even with that window-like appearance, they are limited to using either drive-by or trojan techniques and the user probably is already familiar with what download and run-program warning dialogs look like in the case of trojans. So we are probably not dealing so much with user naivete as with system shortcomings. For the record, most Windows techs I know periodically get malware on their own systems.
4. Cybercrime has become incredibly entrenched and resourceful.
The bulk of the market consists of laptop users now. That means addressing quality in portable displays, which has been a big issue. The accuracy of a typical 8 year old laptop display is horrendous.
Now we have low-power LED backlit LCD displays that are more accurate than most other laptop displays made before them. And the situation is so good that I can plug a cheap Hanns-G desktop display into my MacBook and the colors will match!
Also, remember that big problems with LCD in general were dynamic range (lack of contrast ratio) and speed. We've seen improvements in both in the last few years.
most people in the world don't have to worry about christians shooting up a school bus full of children in the name of hay-zoos.
No, they have to worry about being murdered by Christians for other reasons.
I don't think the rest of the globe is impressed that we prefer the "developed" and de-personalized mode of killing via remote pushbutton automation. Oh but we're "surgical" and all that... too bad about the high body count.
I really doubt anyone ever harassed by a real dictatorship would say anything remotely near what you just stated.
You are saying that because right now you wouldn't fit into any of the groups that threaten the legitimacy of the military-industrial complex.
Do you know what COINTELPRO was? It was the prototype operation for smearing and locking up dissident groups from the inner cities. The War On Drugs followed, turning many urban areas into intensive police surveillance zones and eventually putting over 17% of the US adult population behind bars at some point in their lives.
Read about the draconian exploits of Joe 'killer' Arpaio, Rudi Guiliani, and the small town judges that suck youth into the correctional system at the drop of a hat. Read about the states that remove "voting privilieges" after conviction, or the way that a "Papers Please!" pattern of fascism has set into Arizona and is spreading.
What about the practice of ripping the press IDs off Pulitzer prize journalists covering political demonstrations? Wait, I'm with the press. -RIP- Not anymore you're not! -HANDCUFS REPORTER-
The equipment confiscations from raids on independent media groups alone represent a significant burden.
Hardly anyone notices when its the US, partly because there is a huge flood of more entertaining things coming from the country.
The stuff that's going on here is growing more medieval (including domestic torture and summary execution of US citizens), and follows a strong pattern of criminalization of the population by a far-reaching police state -- a process that you don't take seriously.
Furthermore, why should anyone have to go out of their way to prove that oppression exists in the core of the US empire when so much of the empire's economic life (and labor) is imported from its hinterlands in exchange for military and police support to keep the local populations down?
Specifying the RPM file format is not enough. Without detailed spec of how packages are installed and managed, LSB is of little use. It also doesn't say much about which default settings are considered reasonable. Nor does it deal much with issues of vertical integration (without which a Linux distro can look like a pile of non-cooperating, user-hostile pieces).
Stating in effect ''insert Gnome or KDE here'' doesn't cut it. It leaves a design vacuum (esp. about device-UI and service-UI behaviors) that a desktop environment project on its own will never address.
Further, there are virtually no applications which state to the user: "LSB Compatible". This point alone-- the fact that app authors haven't been sold on LSB as a target platform-- speaks volumes.
That is the difference between a cell phone and a PC. My experience with consoles (going back to Atari) is that the firmware and contract terms do NOT get changed by the manufacturer's whim. What's more, they were considered modifiable by the owner.
OTOH, cell phones are generally regarded as neither owner-modifiable nor stable in terms of firmware and contracts. Because of this its no accident that governments consider cellphones, and not consoles, as an effective means to conduct surveillance. However I see that could be changing...
People who have lived under totalitarian governments are speaking up about how parts of the West (esp. the English-speaking parts) have more surveillance than the Eastern Block ever had, and how saddened they are that the War On Drugs and War On Terrorism are being used to promote a cycle of maximum incarceration.
Ever since the rootkit fiasco, which BTW they were very stubborn and arrogant in their response for some time.
This is a company that wants to control the device in your house, the distribution channel, and the content itself (remember they "own" a lot of movies and music).
I won't buy an Xbox 360 either, because Microsoft looks like the example that Sony is trying to follow.
Criminalization is mainly aimed at the poor
on
ACTA Treaty Released
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· Score: 1
Therefore, it "needs work". As far as I can tell, the only outside group that has real sway with the kernel developers are the webserver crowd. Conversely most of what the kernel group have tried to address on the desktop (scheduling, audio and video issues) has been FUBAR.
Why the difference? Because the kernel devs are good at satisfying the wants of people who normally deal with technical complexity (like sysadmins), but are clueless when the technology has to integrate with an elegant, straightforward and still powerful UI. That is where designers come in, start to implement their goals, and then send emails to the kernel group saying X and Y need to be tweaked in a certain way to facilitate the designer's vision for the UI. This work well in a corporation like MS or Apple, but the dynamic that would allow this in FOSS is broken. First off, Linus says he doesn't want Linux to compete with MS and that's that; designers are relegated to being whiners instead of being in charge.
Second, discussing and pushing "Linux" for the desktop is a mass delusion in FOSS circles. Linux is a kernel, and if Apple tried to sell customers on XNU (and Hey Kids!! Mix and match any GUI you want and don't bother me!!) they would also have a vanishingly small market share. Google understands this problem which is why Android is simply "Android" with its own high-level SDK and not "Google's version of Linux -- go learn Linux + misc libraries on your own kiddos and cook us up some nice apps" (yeah right... that's not gonna happen very often).
I suggest you get acquainted with what a current mobo can do for security. The workarounds we are all familiar with would more likely put the machine into a brick-like state, at least until the correct password is entered.
Largely because they do not realise how useful it can be...
As someone who uses remote X regularly, I think the above is a really odd thing to say about a GUI.
Windows and Mac graphics have had network transparency for a while, but anyone using them who wants to explore in that direction can do so by clicking on icons with a mouse. This disparity is a reason why people like me hate the typical X11+whatever subsystem stacks: OS features (including features of the GUI subsystem itself) are seldom discoverable when using that self same GUI.
If I were the Xorg devs, I would be doing 2 things right now: 1) Change X11 config files to XML so there aren't 1,000+ ways to arrange and interpret them, while adding live set/load/save features to the API and make the Xorg program responsible for managing its own damn settings. 2) Getting on my knees if necessary, try to cut a deal with the Nomachine people to allow inclusion of NXserver tech in Xorg for free. 2a) Create proof of concept programs that allow average users to view & manipulate shared desktops and documents onscreen the way Mac and Window users can (without resorting to slow 1980s tech like VNC).
In summary: X11's vaunted net transparency isn't really GUI-accessible or discoverable, and the feature itself can be inefficient and restrictive (one user per window at a time) for modern use cases like collaborating over Internet, etc. So it ain't all its cracked up to be...
...because censorship is not a government-only phenomenon.
Here in the USA, corporations are free to monopolize the things we rely on and they use those monopolies to exert social and economic control. If they need a method of control to look 'proper', they'll push legislation through using their bought-and-paid-for politicians. But much of their control doesn't need this window dressing because large multinational corps are defined as "private" which makes their censorship and other exploits A-OK and even non-existent to many of us.
Censorship is often an abuse of power, but the power in this country resides mainly with corporate CEOs and boards of directors. It amounts to an inverted police state, where most functions of a repressive government (incl. voting, ever-expanding prisons, and even judiciary in the form of compulsory arbitration) are provided by the service sector. And with virtually everything else in our lives having been monetized by the service sector, private corps have become the ideal way for government (whether public servants or contractors) to spy on us.
And I shouldn't have to remind you this is the land of the BSA, RIAA and MPAA, organizations that hire people to raid your home or business and break into your computers when they've written you down as a suspect. Now they are pushing other countries hard for a secret and draconian IP treaty called ACTA. These people are rank authoritarians who view Internet freedom as a threat to their profits and privilege which I might add are based on their ability to handle our private information and creatively interpret history and current events unchallenged.
Intellectual Property enforcement has become the ultimate way to silence malcontents (and keep tabs on us) without the stain of totalitarian censorship and surveillance.
Rather popular in France and Germany, and growing a lot in the USA and elsewhere:
I2P is a general-purpose network anonymizer with built in web, email and bittorrent. You can download other apps for it, too, like a chat messenger and a distributed filing system. There is also a version of eMule available for it called iMule.
I2P was made to host data services in-network, so it is something of a darknet. It shares some of the concept behind TOR, but outproxies are the exception and it is quicker (though not nearly as quick as direct Internet access). If you have some patience and can live with 25KBytes/sec then it should fit the bill for you and provide peace of mind.
Name-calling aside, that would only make sense if Republicans weren't so overboard in subsidizing fossil fuels (and much else in the private sector that is considered "too big to fail") while slashing renewables research.
Government should back away from subsidizing the most polluting forms of energy first, if it is to back away at all. But you would never know it from most Republicans, from the tip of the corporate elite to the most grubby global warming denier.
BTW that free market right or wrong schtick of yours is tired.
Republicans drastically slashed funding for renewables research for decades, so I do think you protesteth too much on the basis of "premature technology". Their actions in this regard have been inexcusable.
Until recently, mandates have been extremely modest as a way of stimulating private sector research in the absence of direct government funding for research.
AFAIK the call to "make economic sense" is rhetoric that translates into "creates an obscene economic advantage for a handful of corporations over everyone else or at great cost to the environment". Renewables will never fit that bill.
Government can already disband corporations. But corps can essentially buy the loyalty of politicians partly because they are considered "persons" with a right to involve themselves in political campaigns.
Combined with the brainwashing of the public from being exposed to constant "freedom" propaganda in the context of corporate interests, this dynamic has sapped the will from our culture to keep corporations in check.
The whole idea that failure is not an option is itself a really bad idea.
So is the idea that "preventative war" can be rightfully waged. Pharma isn't the only industry pushing ideological bankruptcy.
Slashdot Mirror
1. The Advertising Industry is greedily accepting money to push browser attacks on unsuspecting people.
2. They are out of control. When was the last time a website banned an ad service because of malware? Why are the suits in this product-propaganda chain so unresponsive?
3. Browsers and operating systems lack methods to reliably provide visual context cues for network objects (like web pages). Yes, the browser window is there with its untouchable bits (address bar etc), but a web page can contain an element that looks like another window.
3a. Even with that window-like appearance, they are limited to using either drive-by or trojan techniques and the user probably is already familiar with what download and run-program warning dialogs look like in the case of trojans. So we are probably not dealing so much with user naivete as with system shortcomings. For the record, most Windows techs I know periodically get malware on their own systems.
4. Cybercrime has become incredibly entrenched and resourceful.
...you know, Trusted Computing?
A third area of improvement in LCD quality is viewing angle.
The bulk of the market consists of laptop users now. That means addressing quality in portable displays, which has been a big issue. The accuracy of a typical 8 year old laptop display is horrendous.
Now we have low-power LED backlit LCD displays that are more accurate than most other laptop displays made before them. And the situation is so good that I can plug a cheap Hanns-G desktop display into my MacBook and the colors will match!
Also, remember that big problems with LCD in general were dynamic range (lack of contrast ratio) and speed. We've seen improvements in both in the last few years.
most people in the world don't have to worry about christians shooting up a school bus full of children in the name of hay-zoos.
No, they have to worry about being murdered by Christians for other reasons.
I don't think the rest of the globe is impressed that we prefer the "developed" and de-personalized mode of killing via remote pushbutton automation. Oh but we're "surgical" and all that... too bad about the high body count.
I really doubt anyone ever harassed by a real dictatorship would say anything remotely near what you just stated.
You are saying that because right now you wouldn't fit into any of the groups that threaten the legitimacy of the military-industrial complex.
Do you know what COINTELPRO was? It was the prototype operation for smearing and locking up dissident groups from the inner cities. The War On Drugs followed, turning many urban areas into intensive police surveillance zones and eventually putting over 17% of the US adult population behind bars at some point in their lives.
Read about the draconian exploits of Joe 'killer' Arpaio, Rudi Guiliani, and the small town judges that suck youth into the correctional system at the drop of a hat. Read about the states that remove "voting privilieges" after conviction, or the way that a "Papers Please!" pattern of fascism has set into Arizona and is spreading.
What about the practice of ripping the press IDs off Pulitzer prize journalists covering political demonstrations? Wait, I'm with the press. -RIP- Not anymore you're not! -HANDCUFS REPORTER-
The equipment confiscations from raids on independent media groups alone represent a significant burden.
Hardly anyone notices when its the US, partly because there is a huge flood of more entertaining things coming from the country.
The stuff that's going on here is growing more medieval (including domestic torture and summary execution of US citizens), and follows a strong pattern of criminalization of the population by a far-reaching police state -- a process that you don't take seriously.
Furthermore, why should anyone have to go out of their way to prove that oppression exists in the core of the US empire when so much of the empire's economic life (and labor) is imported from its hinterlands in exchange for military and police support to keep the local populations down?
...the functional definition of what is a "system library" and what is "other" in a typical Linux-based distro doesn't really exist.
Specifying the RPM file format is not enough. Without detailed spec of how packages are installed and managed, LSB is of little use. It also doesn't say much about which default settings are considered reasonable. Nor does it deal much with issues of vertical integration (without which a Linux distro can look like a pile of non-cooperating, user-hostile pieces).
Stating in effect ''insert Gnome or KDE here'' doesn't cut it. It leaves a design vacuum (esp. about device-UI and service-UI behaviors) that a desktop environment project on its own will never address.
Further, there are virtually no applications which state to the user: "LSB Compatible". This point alone-- the fact that app authors haven't been sold on LSB as a target platform-- speaks volumes.
That is the difference between a cell phone and a PC. My experience with consoles (going back to Atari) is that the firmware and contract terms do NOT get changed by the manufacturer's whim. What's more, they were considered modifiable by the owner.
OTOH, cell phones are generally regarded as neither owner-modifiable nor stable in terms of firmware and contracts. Because of this its no accident that governments consider cellphones, and not consoles, as an effective means to conduct surveillance. However I see that could be changing...
People who have lived under totalitarian governments are speaking up about how parts of the West (esp. the English-speaking parts) have more surveillance than the Eastern Block ever had, and how saddened they are that the War On Drugs and War On Terrorism are being used to promote a cycle of maximum incarceration.
Oh, BTW, welcome to the War On Piracy.
Ever since the rootkit fiasco, which BTW they were very stubborn and arrogant in their response for some time.
This is a company that wants to control the device in your house, the distribution channel, and the content itself (remember they "own" a lot of movies and music).
I won't buy an Xbox 360 either, because Microsoft looks like the example that Sony is trying to follow.
...people who pay little in taxes.
Therefore, it "needs work". As far as I can tell, the only outside group that has real sway with the kernel developers are the webserver crowd. Conversely most of what the kernel group have tried to address on the desktop (scheduling, audio and video issues) has been FUBAR.
Why the difference? Because the kernel devs are good at satisfying the wants of people who normally deal with technical complexity (like sysadmins), but are clueless when the technology has to integrate with an elegant, straightforward and still powerful UI. That is where designers come in, start to implement their goals, and then send emails to the kernel group saying X and Y need to be tweaked in a certain way to facilitate the designer's vision for the UI. This work well in a corporation like MS or Apple, but the dynamic that would allow this in FOSS is broken. First off, Linus says he doesn't want Linux to compete with MS and that's that; designers are relegated to being whiners instead of being in charge.
Second, discussing and pushing "Linux" for the desktop is a mass delusion in FOSS circles. Linux is a kernel, and if Apple tried to sell customers on XNU (and Hey Kids!! Mix and match any GUI you want and don't bother me!!) they would also have a vanishingly small market share. Google understands this problem which is why Android is simply "Android" with its own high-level SDK and not "Google's version of Linux -- go learn Linux + misc libraries on your own kiddos and cook us up some nice apps" (yeah right... that's not gonna happen very often).
Think of I2P as an onion-routed (Tor-like) anonymous network with web, email and bittorrent services built in.
I suggest you get acquainted with what a current mobo can do for security. The workarounds we are all familiar with would more likely put the machine into a brick-like state, at least until the correct password is entered.
No matter what kind of video it is, on my Mac Flash uses nearly 10x the amount of CPU to play the same video clip as VLC.
Largely because they do not realise how useful it can be...
As someone who uses remote X regularly, I think the above is a really odd thing to say about a GUI.
Windows and Mac graphics have had network transparency for a while, but anyone using them who wants to explore in that direction can do so by clicking on icons with a mouse. This disparity is a reason why people like me hate the typical X11+whatever subsystem stacks: OS features (including features of the GUI subsystem itself) are seldom discoverable when using that self same GUI.
If I were the Xorg devs, I would be doing 2 things right now: 1) Change X11 config files to XML so there aren't 1,000+ ways to arrange and interpret them, while adding live set/load/save features to the API and make the Xorg program responsible for managing its own damn settings. 2) Getting on my knees if necessary, try to cut a deal with the Nomachine people to allow inclusion of NXserver tech in Xorg for free. 2a) Create proof of concept programs that allow average users to view & manipulate shared desktops and documents onscreen the way Mac and Window users can (without resorting to slow 1980s tech like VNC).
In summary: X11's vaunted net transparency isn't really GUI-accessible or discoverable, and the feature itself can be inefficient and restrictive (one user per window at a time) for modern use cases like collaborating over Internet, etc. So it ain't all its cracked up to be...
See Ultratron and Titan Attacks at puppygames.com
These are a bit closer to original than 'spiritual successor' but so well executed they're hard to ignore.
It means stop adding new features and bear down on the core mission:
Make it more reliable, secure and faster.
...because censorship is not a government-only phenomenon.
Here in the USA, corporations are free to monopolize the things we rely on and they use those monopolies to exert social and economic control. If they need a method of control to look 'proper', they'll push legislation through using their bought-and-paid-for politicians. But much of their control doesn't need this window dressing because large multinational corps are defined as "private" which makes their censorship and other exploits A-OK and even non-existent to many of us.
Censorship is often an abuse of power, but the power in this country resides mainly with corporate CEOs and boards of directors. It amounts to an inverted police state, where most functions of a repressive government (incl. voting, ever-expanding prisons, and even judiciary in the form of compulsory arbitration) are provided by the service sector. And with virtually everything else in our lives having been monetized by the service sector, private corps have become the ideal way for government (whether public servants or contractors) to spy on us.
And I shouldn't have to remind you this is the land of the BSA, RIAA and MPAA, organizations that hire people to raid your home or business and break into your computers when they've written you down as a suspect. Now they are pushing other countries hard for a secret and draconian IP treaty called ACTA. These people are rank authoritarians who view Internet freedom as a threat to their profits and privilege which I might add are based on their ability to handle our private information and creatively interpret history and current events unchallenged.
Intellectual Property enforcement has become the ultimate way to silence malcontents (and keep tabs on us) without the stain of totalitarian censorship and surveillance.
Rather popular in France and Germany, and growing a lot in the USA and elsewhere:
I2P is a general-purpose network anonymizer with built in web, email and bittorrent. You can download other apps for it, too, like a chat messenger and a distributed filing system. There is also a version of eMule available for it called iMule.
I2P was made to host data services in-network, so it is something of a darknet. It shares some of the concept behind TOR, but outproxies are the exception and it is quicker (though not nearly as quick as direct Internet access). If you have some patience and can live with 25KBytes/sec then it should fit the bill for you and provide peace of mind.
Name-calling aside, that would only make sense if Republicans weren't so overboard in subsidizing fossil fuels (and much else in the private sector that is considered "too big to fail") while slashing renewables research.
Government should back away from subsidizing the most polluting forms of energy first, if it is to back away at all. But you would never know it from most Republicans, from the tip of the corporate elite to the most grubby global warming denier.
BTW that free market right or wrong schtick of yours is tired.
Republicans drastically slashed funding for renewables research for decades, so I do think you protesteth too much on the basis of "premature technology". Their actions in this regard have been inexcusable.
Until recently, mandates have been extremely modest as a way of stimulating private sector research in the absence of direct government funding for research.
AFAIK the call to "make economic sense" is rhetoric that translates into "creates an obscene economic advantage for a handful of corporations over everyone else or at great cost to the environment". Renewables will never fit that bill.
Government can already disband corporations. But corps can essentially buy the loyalty of politicians partly because they are considered "persons" with a right to involve themselves in political campaigns.
Combined with the brainwashing of the public from being exposed to constant "freedom" propaganda in the context of corporate interests, this dynamic has sapped the will from our culture to keep corporations in check.
The whole idea that failure is not an option is itself a really bad idea.
So is the idea that "preventative war" can be rightfully waged. Pharma isn't the only industry pushing ideological bankruptcy.
Perhaps. But then you could be bought and made a slave.