PHP and MySQL are not weak; faux programmers are weak.
"Nuclear weapons are not dangerous, people with nuckear weapons are dangerous".
Regardless of where the ultimate blame lies, the simple reality is that languages which encouraging the mixing of data and code encourage security-threatening bugs. SQL is a nasty example of this, Perl regular expressions are another.
Blame should be shared between coder and language
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PHP and SQL Security
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· Score: 1, Informative
Languages which encourage the mixing of code and data make it extremely easy to write insecure code, and no programmer is immune to bugs. Yes, the coder is to blame, but so is the language.
SQL is probably the most widespread example of this, closely followed by regular expressions in Perl. I am often amazed that more people aren't working towards programatic ways to express SQL queries and/or regular expressions (attempts exist for both, but rarely make much progress).
Indian law specifically protects PlayFair
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Update on Playfair
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· Score: 4, Informative
According to the FSF india post, Indian law specifically permits this kind of thing:
(ab)the doing of any act necessary to obtain information essential for
operating inter-operability of an independently created computer
programme with other programmes by a lawful possessor of a computer
programme provided that such information is not otherwise readily
available;
Moreover, it even deals with baseless threats such as Apple's:
Section 60. Remedy in the case of groundless threat of legal proceedings.-
Where any person claiming to be the owner of copyright in any work, by
circulars, advertisements or otherwise, threatens any other person with
any legal proceedings or liability in respect of an alleged infringement
of the copyright, any person aggrieved thereby may, notwithstanding
anything contained in section 34 of the Specific Relief Act, 1963 (47 of
1963), institute a declaratory suit that the alleged infringement of any
legal rights of the person making such threats and may in any such suit-
(a) obtain an injunction against the continuance of such threats; and
(b) recover such damages, if any, as he has sustained by reason of such
threats.
So PlayFair may even be able to take action against Apple for this!
+1 Insightful - Apple fans are hypocrites
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Update on Playfair
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· Score: 1
Of course, it really bothers me how many people want to step up to defend Apple here. Any other company, and we'd have a totally united front against this blatant use of the legal system to quash our rights. But blessed, inviolable Apple? No!
Absolutely. Some people here have their tongues so far up Apple's ass that they are even willing to defend their attacking a free software project using the DMCA (or its Indian equivolent).
Shame on anyone that is defending Apple here but didn't defend the MPAA's attack on DECSS, you are hypocrites the lot of you!
Apparently an early test went horribly wrong when the laser misfired, hitting the home of the project's director (who also runs a school for
gifted teenagers), and cooking a large amount of popcorn, which eventually expanded to destroy the house.
Anyone who gives a ton of interviews and appears all over the press talking about the revolutionary promise of some technology that never quite delivers ought to be ashamed of themselves!
Don't make me revoke your channel operator status you turncoat!
I spent a while looking through the "publications" section of your website to seek out the "hard
academic underpinnings" that Roblimo mentioned, but all I could find
there were a selection of puff-piece articles, vaguely gushing about a brave new robotic future
(without actually saying anything that Asmov didn't cover years ago, but he did it with infinitely
more elegance and forsight).
Which brings me to my question: Do you do any scientifically valuable research? I ask because you seem like just another shamelessly self-publicising cyber-pundit, much like the UK's Kevin Warwick (who, famously claimed to
be the world's first cyborg after implanting a dog-tracking chip in his arm).
If not, how do you justify the damage people like you your supposed fields of research
when your wild and glorious predictions fail to materialise? Aren't you just further widening the
credibility gap between the promises and realities of artificial intelligence?
a) You have still not said what, outside your personal morality and beliefs, makes this so.
If you are trying to start some kind of debate about moral nihilism then I suggest you do-so elsewhere, I find such philosophical navel-gazing tedious in the extreme.
b) So you are saying it is wrong to attack a country if the government has popular support?
No. Read up on the difference between "if" and "if and only if", or alternatively ask a 14 year old with a basic understanding of logic, they can probably help you out.
We do impose our culture on others. And we should. It is better (in our opinion).
Your assumption that political freedom is an inherent part of our culture is naively arrogant, I am sure there were many Germans in the 1920s that thought the same thing about their culture.
On the contrary, western culture has not prevented our governments from actively supporting oppression in other countries in many cases.
On some level, the concept of "human rights" is a claim that our cultural beliefs are better, and more right, then those that do not agree with them.
What a wonderful justification for oppression: People want to be oppressed! Lets see you explain that to the family of one of the Chinese students who died in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Every sane person, regardless of their culture, wants the right to express their own opinions and to exercise control over their own lives. Yours is just a pathetic excuse for the complicity our governments have in the oppression of those in other countries.
Because litigation is the government approved method of coercion. Threatening someone with physical violence (at least, when not applied by the government as when the death penalty is meted out) is NOT government approved.
Swinging baseball bats is legal too, its the context that matters - the same is true of litigation.
Fisher's lawyer... sued the company for extortion on behalf of seven clients who claimed to have ordered smart card
programmers and other equipment for legitimate purposes, and subsequently received DirecTV's threatening letter. But last year
a county judge ruled that DirecTV's mailings were connected with litigation, and were therefore privileged; he dismissed the case
and awarded DirecTV nearly $100,000 in attorney's fees.
This reminds me of the EFF's Sony V
Scimeca case against the RIAA's extortion tactics, and makes me wonder whether it is destined for a similar fate.
Of course, the notion that just because something is connected with litigation it should be immune to anti-racketeering laws is
rediculous, the threat of being bankrupted by an legal battle can be at least as coercive as the threat of having your legs
broken with a baseball bat, so why should one be legal, and the other not?
Moreover, lot of stuff the GNOME usability test turned up was stuff that anyone with any kind of background in HCI would have been able to know was a problem without usability testing.
Hindsight is always 20:20 where usability is concerned.
So Sun did one usability test in 2001 - that is 100% meaningless. Proper usability testing is a continuous process, not something you do once ever few years.
Your original comment makes it appear that you have not used a recent version of Gnome (2.4 or 2.6) because it that project a very prominent example of how free software can have a focus on usability and still provide useful applications. You really ought to try it out if you haven't lately.
And your comments make it appear that you aren't reading my comments properly. Please explain exactly when popular Gnome applications receive ongoing usability testing (which consists of the passive observation of people using the software within the experimental circumstances I have previously described).
Re:Free software lacks usability testing
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GNOME for Grandma
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· Score: 1
Right. So your system would test GUI usability... for people who are comfortable setting up Virtual Network Computers... and own and can hook up PC microphones... and are capable of recording to their PC... and can ship everything over the network to a usability engineer... using the very GUI you are usability testing.
It doesn't have to be grandma, it just has to be a user unfamiliar with the software.
Re:Free software lacks usability testing
on
GNOME for Grandma
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· Score: 1
Well, the GNOME Human Interface Guidelines are built on this.
No they aren't, they do suggest usability reviews, but these are a far cry from proper usability testing (a bunch of geeks chatting via IRC is no substitute for passive observation of a newbie trying to use the software).
Free software lacks usability testing
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GNOME for Grandma
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· Score: 5, Interesting
In my research on software usability, one thing I have realized is that usability testing is almost essential. This basically means sitting someone down, and watching passively as they try to use the software you want to test. It is much more akin to a psychological experiment than to engineering.
Perhaps one explanation for the poor usability of many open source apps is that while open source may be a great way to engineer software, the lone hacker collaborating via the Internet is ill-equipped to do anything even approaching proper usability testing.
All may not be lost, perhaps a software tool could be written to make such usability testing easier. It could record a user's desktop(perhaps using something like VNC), while also recording their audio commentary on what they are doing.
Since you have raised the issue, and thus few can argue that it is offtopic, perhaps this is a good time to remind people that/. editor Michael Sims has been squatting on censorware.org, a domain previously used by successful anti-censorship group Censorware, who were forced to move to censorware.net. You can find the full story here, but basically he was their webmaster but took the site down after a nasty argument with one of the other participants. Irrespective of the rights and wrongs of that argument, it hardly justifies denying the public such a valuable anti-censorship resource.
Of course, what is particularly interesting is that/. editors (possibly including Sims himself) routinely use their unlimited moderation points to moderate any discussion of this as offtopic.
It will be interesting to see whether they will do this on this thread since it is pretty relevant to its parent which was moderated quite highly. Hell, I am even happy to risk getting bitchslapped to find out.
Slashdot Mirror
Regardless of where the ultimate blame lies, the simple reality is that languages which encouraging the mixing of data and code encourage security-threatening bugs. SQL is a nasty example of this, Perl regular expressions are another.
SQL is probably the most widespread example of this, closely followed by regular expressions in Perl. I am often amazed that more people aren't working towards programatic ways to express SQL queries and/or regular expressions (attempts exist for both, but rarely make much progress).
Shame on anyone that is defending Apple here but didn't defend the MPAA's attack on DECSS, you are hypocrites the lot of you!
Apparently an early test went horribly wrong when the laser misfired, hitting the home of the project's director (who also runs a school for gifted teenagers), and cooking a large amount of popcorn, which eventually expanded to destroy the house.
Doh!
Which brings me to my question: Do you do any scientifically valuable research? I ask because you seem like just another shamelessly self-publicising cyber-pundit, much like the UK's Kevin Warwick (who, famously claimed to be the world's first cyborg after implanting a dog-tracking chip in his arm).
If not, how do you justify the damage people like you your supposed fields of research when your wild and glorious predictions fail to materialise? Aren't you just further widening the credibility gap between the promises and realities of artificial intelligence?
On the contrary, western culture has not prevented our governments from actively supporting oppression in other countries in many cases.
Every sane person, regardless of their culture, wants the right to express their own opinions and to exercise control over their own lives. Yours is just a pathetic excuse for the complicity our governments have in the oppression of those in other countries.
Of course, the notion that just because something is connected with litigation it should be immune to anti-racketeering laws is rediculous, the threat of being bankrupted by an legal battle can be at least as coercive as the threat of having your legs broken with a baseball bat, so why should one be legal, and the other not?
Perhaps one explanation for the poor usability of many open source apps is that while open source may be a great way to engineer software, the lone hacker collaborating via the Internet is ill-equipped to do anything even approaching proper usability testing.
All may not be lost, perhaps a software tool could be written to make such usability testing easier. It could record a user's desktop(perhaps using something like VNC), while also recording their audio commentary on what they are doing.
Wasn't that the chemical that made minced-meat of the ozone layer?
Of course, what is particularly interesting is that /. editors (possibly including Sims himself) routinely use their unlimited moderation points to moderate any discussion of this as offtopic.
It will be interesting to see whether they will do this on this thread since it is pretty relevant to its parent which was moderated quite highly. Hell, I am even happy to risk getting bitchslapped to find out.