BSD can be used by anybody, for anything. The license generally requires some sort of credit be given to the authors, like about box line or manual entry.
Where are the credits for the original BSD coders of the IP tools used by Microsoft in Windows? for that matter, where are any credits displayed prominently in MacOS X?
If you want to release software under the BSD licence, that is fine. Any Open Source licence is better than nothing, I want to see the source.
But for my code, it's GPL all the way, so that no one can pervert the code and not let others look at it, like ms-kerberos among other things.
The DDOS attacks were caused by known vulnerabilities which could easily have been patched. However big companies like CNN.com,etc do not hire people who care about these things, they hire paper MCSE's.
Big companies very often have clueless admins who rely on the expertise of tech support from companies they have bought large support contracts from. The problem with this is that being bad admins they have no concept of maintenance.
Bottom line, a good admin is on the lookout for security announcements, especially when they come from site that post a script to take advantage of the exploit. If you can get it, the script kiddies can too. PATCH!
And don't use Microsoft on the DMZ/Firewall/etc because they take too long to release patches, sometimes years. Pointy haired bosses may care more about who the support contract is from than what security is available, but a good admin will care about security.
I'm sick of QuickTime movies I can't view in Linux and RealVideo movies I'd prefer not to download the player for
Apple released the source to their Quicktime Streaming Server as soon as it came out last year as part of the Darwin project. And this year Apple ported Darwin to X86 since no one else would take the source and "do it."
All someone has to do is write the player, I am surprised one is not already there, or at least a mozilla plug-in.
For the interested, the applicable necessary source should be here, and there may be further stuff being worked on with MkLinux or LinuxPPC, where these things were ported to the Mac Linux distros.
In your FAQ, there are several problems: The FAQ claims that a Linux DVD player is available. I have seen many other press releases where the MPAA states that there are many available licensed Linux DVD players. I am a user of Linux and Windows 2000 and am in pursuit of such software, I would like to purchase it immediately if possible.
However, these players do not seem to exist. The FAQ says that Sigma and Intervideo had announced Linux players, but on their pages there is no indication of this (by the way your sigma link is broken, it is missing the ".com" in the href). I have not read about any assertion that Linux players exist or will ever be developed except by the MPAA. The mainstream press does not have any story on it, the press releases on these sites do not contain any such announcement. In fact, as you may see from the following links, they announce the opposite:
== From Sigma Designs (hollywood plus page): Supports Windows 95, 98, NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 ==
From the Intervideo FAQ: == WinDVD currently supports Windows 95, Windows 98 (original and Second Edition versions), Windows NT4 and the upcoming Windows 2000. For further details on how to install WinDVD into the operating system of your choice, and Operating System specific issues follow the below links: Windows 95 Windows 98 Windows NT 4 Windows 2000 There have been many requests for a Mac, Linux, and Windows CE version of WinDVD. While none of these can be ruled out in the future, we currently do not support any of these alternative OSs. ==
I should also point out thatyour FAQ claims that the infamous DeCSS program is only used for piracy, and that the CSS encryption algorithm prevents copies from being made. However the CSS encryption algorithm never prevented copies from being made, it only prevents viewing the content. As your site admits, piracy would not require circumventing the CSS algorithm. In fact there is far more value to pirates in circumventing regional encoding. A pirated DVD MUST RETAIN the CSS encryption if it were to retain its value, since the DVD players would expect that.
The only value in circumventing CSS stems from the ability to create players. DeCSS was only created after the basic refusal to create Linux players by manufacturers of current DVD players, and the refusal of the MPAA to allow Linux coders the licensing/information they needed to do so themselves. The fact that DeCSS is for windows is a non-issue. DeCSS was developed in windows because the players the authors reverse-engineered ONLY RUN ON WINDOWS. To say this is a proof of its nefariousness is at best a circular argument.
The authors released the code so that people could quickly port this to Linux should they fail to do so. And as a result of their incarceration, they have failed to do so, the MPAA being responsible for said incarceration and the ensuing lawsuit which has scared Linux developers off from creating any players based on this code.
It goes without saying that Linux users would pay for a program that allowed them to play DVD's. However that brings up another sore point. Even the players available for Windows are incredibly clunky and buggy, and incredibly sensitive to corruption. It is clear that limiting the number fo developers who are allowed to make this software is not a good thing.
I imagine that this letter will be ignored, as will the facts, as they have been for some time. nevertheless I feel it is my duty to inform you in good faith that you are mistaken, and hope that the situation will be rectified in a civil manner, rather than becoming mired in all this inflammatory rhetoric and sabre-rattling, which is doing no one any good. For the first time in 70 years, America is taking a second look at the MPAA, and its value. This scrutiny cannot be doing your organization or the interests it represents any good. The opportunity yet exists for the MPAA to make this right.
So far, we have seen DOS attacks and router deaths... these are not/.'s fault. They are Exodus's fault. Not surprising, in my experience they have proven pretty clueless, and I was surprised Andover was going with them, of all people. Nevertheless they do host a lot of big sites... just very poorly.
First off, ads in general are generally fine, but the shockwave, streaming video, etc ads do more than "stretch it a bit." Sometimes they cause crashes and they generally cause slowdowns. That is not cool. I remember one site that had a rotating series of ads.
The site was important, but they really should have controlled their ads more. There were some ads that generated recurring pop-up windows, and the nasty animated movies with sound ads, poorly designed, with bad sound, that crashed my computer sometimes.
But the subject at hand, is really this feature of mozilla, which only disables "tracking" ads. We were all roped into using cookies because we were told they could not be used to nefariously invade privacy. Enter Doubleclick, who proved that wrong, but it was too late.
Now even if you block cookies, you can be tracked because of these web bug ads that are placed on different servers and connect back to a central location, where data can be collected on you against your will, and you have no control over it. It can also be used to generate spam for you, which is always a nice feature.
I don't care how cool your site is, you have no business having web bugs on it, or requiring us to participate in these "marketing surveys."
It seems that the drive to create PDC support was stalled by the desire to have Win2k compatable PDC support. They were almost there for NT4, but now you hear a lot about how Microsoft is maneuvering to cut off the Samba project from the ability to have Win2k PDC's.
I agree wholeheartedly. To be honest, these topics are not very well covered even w/r/t closed-source solutions. The open source projects, with few exceptions (mostly thanks to Oreilly) are fairly poorly documented, and most of the documentation that exists is in HOWTO's and such which rarely have much depth.
To get a full understanding, a person would have to read the HOWTO's, slashdot, newsgroups, FAQ's, and every text, PDF, and html file they could find, then experiment a lot. Even savvy users get sick of that.
The open source projects in general IMHO have grown to the point that they include feature sets comparable to or exceeding those of their closed source counterparts, mainly because there are a lot of people working on that stuff. Just think if even a small percentage of these coders worked on docs! And if they got published, they'd even get paid for their work, imagine that!
I guess the main problem is that programmers generally would rather program than write docs. Writing docs can be real boring for some people, and just as hard as writing efficient code.
I would imagine that the main reason would be that they include GPL'd software with the book. Since they are required to display the GPL with the software, putting the GPL in the book fulfills this requirement nicely.
Not only that, but IIRC their entire ip stack and tools are ostensibly from *bsd. Yet they fail to display any credits. Ditto for all of those wonderful tools from DOS and later that are poor copies of *nix proggies...
So the media would much rather use their own language to describe these groups than use the terms described in the proffesional jargon. Instead of going by what computer experts agree on, they'd rather listen to other journalists.
In that case, let's stop calling Podiatrists by their professional given name. Let's instead call them Foot Fetishists, since it is more obvious to the layman what they are about (who knows what a podiatrist is, anyway?). That's pretty much the same thing as calling hackers crackers and vice versa. Let's also call Journalists Buffoons, especially the non-technical who decide they are more qualified to cover hi-tech topics than the professionals to whom this is bread and butter.
Actually many customers have the same type of problems, though not necessarily so severe, when dealing with Value Added Resellers, Consultants, and the like. And yes, you can buy a Dell from a VAR or a Consultant can set you up, same with Macs and any number of machines, and even sometimes get a great service from them. The difference with Dell is that they give you that choice, and are definitely more partial to having you get everything you need from them. Sure they make money, but the idea is that the product has the backing of what is now a major company, with associated warranties, money-back guarantees, etc. You can bet the feathers would fly if one of these large OEM's actually ended up with remarked procs, and the customers would end up with some massive replacements. But if a tiny vendor in East Cougarbottom, USA ends up being the culprit or even the unwitting transmitter, and the problem is localized there, it is a different story. By the way Dell does not sell AMD CPU's anyway. However, this story is a good reason to buy from AMD authorized sources... should add some degree of extra protection against this sort of thing, and probably an easier avenue to AMD should something go awry with the process...
don't forget that these may have been procs that were purchased as 500-550mhz Athlons, according to the article. There is considerably more difference in price between 550 and 700mhz. Also previous posters have pointed out that this is probably being done on a large scale. Even modest gains in nefarious profits (not to mention that the procs would have been sold at a profit even normally) multiplied by a large stock of procs can get into serious bucks fairly quickly. The kind of work that is being described probably takes very little time/manpower when done by proffessional remarkers
Unfortunately Yahoo does not havethe story anymore. This is one reason why/. really should have articles, instead of just links to articles, even if they only reiterate/quote the original article. Whoever starts storing news on the net beyond the previous 5 minutes could not only become a great research site, but also cash in with the hits/impressions -> ad revenue equation...
If you'd tried the link you'd see it was broken. Perhaps it was initially due to slashdottedness, but the point is that access to the link is cut off. And try to avoid belittling everyone especially for firing off "rapid posts" after all you found the post important enough to reply to didn't you? Your post seems like flamebait to me...
>You bring this up but do a great deal of "hackers" own cats? I always thought so, though I guess the survey work is not done. I mean they should make great hacker pets, being low-maintenance and very independant, as well as pretty cool.
What annoys me about this ruling is the reiteration of the de facto standard such that minors do not posess constitutional rights. In this case the judge says that when the children grow up they will get free speech. What I dont understand is when it was in our history we decided that children are neither born nor naturalized until they are "of age..."
Just like Microsoft to make a big deal out of nothing. First off we have known for some time they were working on this, so much for the "unveiling." Now they announce that a year after they were supposed to have it they will finally finish. Where have we heard that before? And the specs are ridiculous. That kind of hardware will be obsolete by the time they make it available. Even so it is doomed to fail as Microsoft has no concept of the true power of the console market, just as they failed to understand palmtops. The whole point of the console is that the game is optimized for and directly controls the hardware (read ultra-low overhead) In other words, exactly the opposite of anything M$ has ever made. If it runs Windows, it is NOT going to work out. Also, M$ has had game divisions before. Its just that they did not stand behind them and did not consider gaming important; they never have. That is why they will not be able to attract the better game developers. Game developers tend to be mavericks and will probably not be attracted to working at Microsoft, especially under a manager who has no experience whatever with gaming.
That is where the name "Coca Cola" comes from, so they should not have any grounds to say that a site devoted to cocaine addiction damages/diminishes their mark.
If you think a product cannot feature a good user interface and still be stable, it is because you have never used a Mac, or BeOS even. And even Linux is becoming surprisingly easy to use at a remarkable rate. Remember Win3.x? DOS? How long was it before Microsoft finally got it right? Or did they ever? (I'd say win2k is the closest, for UI/Stability not for non-bloatedness, consistency or compatability though.) Compare that life cycle to the rise of the Gnome desktop and other Linux GUI's, and the admin tools. As for where the fault lies in stability, I would have to disagree with Mr. AC and lay the blame squarely at microsoft's feet. Certainly there are nasty programs that will kill Windows, but Windows is surprisingly fragile and once it starts going south, it's like a freight train. One glaring problem is the integration of the web browser with the OS. Who in their right mind puts a program that routinely goes out and runs foreign code at the heart of the operating system? Why should a web page be able to produce a BSOD?
Slashdot Mirror
Where are the credits for the original BSD coders of the IP tools used by Microsoft in Windows? for that matter, where are any credits displayed prominently in MacOS X?
If you want to release software under the BSD licence, that is fine. Any Open Source licence is better than nothing, I want to see the source.
But for my code, it's GPL all the way, so that no one can pervert the code and not let others look at it, like ms-kerberos among other things.
this is a famous troll... and people fall for him all the time
The DDOS attacks were caused by known vulnerabilities which could easily have been patched. However big companies like CNN.com,etc do not hire people who care about these things, they hire paper MCSE's.
Big companies very often have clueless admins who rely on the expertise of tech support from companies they have bought large support contracts from. The problem with this is that being bad admins they have no concept of maintenance.
Bottom line, a good admin is on the lookout for security announcements, especially when they come from site that post a script to take advantage of the exploit. If you can get it, the script kiddies can too. PATCH!
And don't use Microsoft on the DMZ/Firewall/etc because they take too long to release patches, sometimes years. Pointy haired bosses may care more about who the support contract is from than what security is available, but a good admin will care about security.
I'm sick of QuickTime movies I can't view in Linux and RealVideo movies I'd prefer not to download the player for
Apple released the source to their Quicktime Streaming Server as soon as it came out last year as part of the Darwin project. And this year Apple ported Darwin to X86 since no one else would take the source and "do it."
All someone has to do is write the player, I am surprised one is not already there, or at least a mozilla plug-in.
For the interested, the applicable necessary source should be here, and there may be further stuff being worked on with MkLinux or LinuxPPC, where these things were ported to the Mac Linux distros.
In your FAQ, there are several problems: The FAQ claims that a Linux DVD player is available. I have seen many other press releases where the MPAA states that there are many available licensed Linux DVD players. I am a user of Linux and Windows 2000 and am in pursuit of such software, I would like to purchase it immediately if possible.
However, these players do not seem to exist. The FAQ says that Sigma and Intervideo had announced Linux players, but on their pages there is no indication of this (by the way your sigma link is broken, it is missing the ".com" in the href). I have not read about any assertion that Linux players exist or will ever be developed except by the MPAA. The mainstream press does not have any story on it, the press releases on these sites do not contain any such announcement. In fact, as you may see from the following links, they announce the opposite:
== From Sigma Designs (hollywood plus page): Supports Windows 95, 98, NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 ==
From the Intervideo FAQ: == WinDVD currently supports Windows 95, Windows 98 (original and Second Edition versions), Windows NT4 and the upcoming Windows 2000. For further details on how to install WinDVD into the operating system of your choice, and Operating System specific issues follow the below links: Windows 95 Windows 98 Windows NT 4 Windows 2000 There have been many requests for a Mac, Linux, and Windows CE version of WinDVD. While none of these can be ruled out in the future, we currently do not support any of these alternative OSs. ==
I should also point out thatyour FAQ claims that the infamous DeCSS program is only used for piracy, and that the CSS encryption algorithm prevents copies from being made. However the CSS encryption algorithm never prevented copies from being made, it only prevents viewing the content. As your site admits, piracy would not require circumventing the CSS algorithm. In fact there is far more value to pirates in circumventing regional encoding. A pirated DVD MUST RETAIN the CSS encryption if it were to retain its value, since the DVD players would expect that.
The only value in circumventing CSS stems from the ability to create players. DeCSS was only created after the basic refusal to create Linux players by manufacturers of current DVD players, and the refusal of the MPAA to allow Linux coders the licensing/information they needed to do so themselves. The fact that DeCSS is for windows is a non-issue. DeCSS was developed in windows because the players the authors reverse-engineered ONLY RUN ON WINDOWS. To say this is a proof of its nefariousness is at best a circular argument.
The authors released the code so that people could quickly port this to Linux should they fail to do so. And as a result of their incarceration, they have failed to do so, the MPAA being responsible for said incarceration and the ensuing lawsuit which has scared Linux developers off from creating any players based on this code.
It goes without saying that Linux users would pay for a program that allowed them to play DVD's. However that brings up another sore point. Even the players available for Windows are incredibly clunky and buggy, and incredibly sensitive to corruption. It is clear that limiting the number fo developers who are allowed to make this software is not a good thing.
I imagine that this letter will be ignored, as will the facts, as they have been for some time. nevertheless I feel it is my duty to inform you in good faith that you are mistaken, and hope that the situation will be rectified in a civil manner, rather than becoming mired in all this inflammatory rhetoric and sabre-rattling, which is doing no one any good. For the first time in 70 years, America is taking a second look at the MPAA, and its value. This scrutiny cannot be doing your organization or the interests it represents any good. The opportunity yet exists for the MPAA to make this right.
So far, we have seen DOS attacks and router deaths... these are not /.'s fault. They are Exodus's fault. Not surprising, in my experience they have proven pretty clueless, and I was surprised Andover was going with them, of all people. Nevertheless they do host a lot of big sites... just very poorly.
First off, ads in general are generally fine, but the shockwave, streaming video, etc ads do more than "stretch it a bit." Sometimes they cause crashes and they generally cause slowdowns. That is not cool. I remember one site that had a rotating series of ads.
The site was important, but they really should have controlled their ads more. There were some ads that generated recurring pop-up windows, and the nasty animated movies with sound ads, poorly designed, with bad sound, that crashed my computer sometimes.
But the subject at hand, is really this feature of mozilla, which only disables "tracking" ads. We were all roped into using cookies because we were told they could not be used to nefariously invade privacy. Enter Doubleclick, who proved that wrong, but it was too late.
Now even if you block cookies, you can be tracked because of these web bug ads that are placed on different servers and connect back to a central location, where data can be collected on you against your will, and you have no control over it. It can also be used to generate spam for you, which is always a nice feature.
I don't care how cool your site is, you have no business having web bugs on it, or requiring us to participate in these "marketing surveys."
It seems that the drive to create PDC support was stalled by the desire to have Win2k compatable PDC support. They were almost there for NT4, but now you hear a lot about how Microsoft is maneuvering to cut off the Samba project from the ability to have Win2k PDC's.
I agree wholeheartedly. To be honest, these topics are not very well covered even w/r/t closed-source solutions. The open source projects, with few exceptions (mostly thanks to Oreilly) are fairly poorly documented, and most of the documentation that exists is in HOWTO's and such which rarely have much depth.
To get a full understanding, a person would have to read the HOWTO's, slashdot, newsgroups, FAQ's, and every text, PDF, and html file they could find, then experiment a lot. Even savvy users get sick of that.
The open source projects in general IMHO have grown to the point that they include feature sets comparable to or exceeding those of their closed source counterparts, mainly because there are a lot of people working on that stuff. Just think if even a small percentage of these coders worked on docs! And if they got published, they'd even get paid for their work, imagine that!
I guess the main problem is that programmers generally would rather program than write docs. Writing docs can be real boring for some people, and just as hard as writing efficient code.
I would imagine that the main reason would be that they include GPL'd software with the book. Since they are required to display the GPL with the software, putting the GPL in the book fulfills this requirement nicely.
Not only that, but IIRC their entire ip stack and tools are ostensibly from *bsd. Yet they fail to display any credits. Ditto for all of those wonderful tools from DOS and later that are poor copies of *nix proggies...
So the media would much rather use their own language to describe these groups than use the terms described in the proffesional jargon. Instead of going by what computer experts agree on, they'd rather listen to other journalists.
In that case, let's stop calling Podiatrists by their professional given name. Let's instead call them Foot Fetishists, since it is more obvious to the layman what they are about (who knows what a podiatrist is, anyway?). That's pretty much the same thing as calling hackers crackers and vice versa. Let's also call Journalists Buffoons, especially the non-technical who decide they are more qualified to cover hi-tech topics than the professionals to whom this is bread and butter.
They did: Check out http://www.amd.com/products/cpg/bin/ It is Open Sourced as well. So have fun /.'ers
Actually many customers have the same type of problems, though not necessarily so severe, when dealing with Value Added Resellers, Consultants, and the like. And yes, you can buy a Dell from a VAR or a Consultant can set you up, same with Macs and any number of machines, and even sometimes get a great service from them. The difference with Dell is that they give you that choice, and are definitely more partial to having you get everything you need from them. Sure they make money, but the idea is that the product has the backing of what is now a major company, with associated warranties, money-back guarantees, etc. You can bet the feathers would fly if one of these large OEM's actually ended up with remarked procs, and the customers would end up with some massive replacements. But if a tiny vendor in East Cougarbottom, USA ends up being the culprit or even the unwitting transmitter, and the problem is localized there, it is a different story. By the way Dell does not sell AMD CPU's anyway. However, this story is a good reason to buy from AMD authorized sources... should add some degree of extra protection against this sort of thing, and probably an easier avenue to AMD should something go awry with the process...
don't forget that these may have been procs that were purchased as 500-550mhz Athlons, according to the article. There is considerably more difference in price between 550 and 700mhz. Also previous posters have pointed out that this is probably being done on a large scale. Even modest gains in nefarious profits (not to mention that the procs would have been sold at a profit even normally) multiplied by a large stock of procs can get into serious bucks fairly quickly. The kind of work that is being described probably takes very little time/manpower when done by proffessional remarkers
Unfortunately Yahoo does not havethe story anymore. This is one reason why /. really should have articles, instead of just links to articles, even if they only reiterate/quote the original article. Whoever starts storing news on the net beyond the previous 5 minutes could not only become a great research site, but also cash in with the hits/impressions -> ad revenue equation...
If you'd tried the link you'd see it was broken. Perhaps it was initially due to slashdottedness, but the point is that access to the link is cut off. And try to avoid belittling everyone especially for firing off "rapid posts" after all you found the post important enough to reply to didn't you? Your post seems like flamebait to me...
>You bring this up but do a great deal of "hackers" own cats? I always thought so, though I guess the survey work is not done. I mean they should make great hacker pets, being low-maintenance and very independant, as well as pretty cool.
What annoys me about this ruling is the reiteration of the de facto standard such that minors do not posess constitutional rights. In this case the judge says that when the children grow up they will get free speech. What I dont understand is when it was in our history we decided that children are neither born nor naturalized until they are "of age..."
Finally incontrovertable proof that security on the basis of obscurity is a complete illusion
Just like Microsoft to make a big deal out of nothing. First off we have known for some time they were working on this, so much for the "unveiling." Now they announce that a year after they were supposed to have it they will finally finish. Where have we heard that before? And the specs are ridiculous. That kind of hardware will be obsolete by the time they make it available. Even so it is doomed to fail as Microsoft has no concept of the true power of the console market, just as they failed to understand palmtops. The whole point of the console is that the game is optimized for and directly controls the hardware (read ultra-low overhead) In other words, exactly the opposite of anything M$ has ever made. If it runs Windows, it is NOT going to work out. Also, M$ has had game divisions before. Its just that they did not stand behind them and did not consider gaming important; they never have. That is why they will not be able to attract the better game developers. Game developers tend to be mavericks and will probably not be attracted to working at Microsoft, especially under a manager who has no experience whatever with gaming.
That is where the name "Coca Cola" comes from, so they should not have any grounds to say that a site devoted to cocaine addiction damages/diminishes their mark.
If you think a product cannot feature a good user interface and still be stable, it is because you have never used a Mac, or BeOS even. And even Linux is becoming surprisingly easy to use at a remarkable rate. Remember Win3.x? DOS? How long was it before Microsoft finally got it right? Or did they ever? (I'd say win2k is the closest, for UI/Stability not for non-bloatedness, consistency or compatability though.) Compare that life cycle to the rise of the Gnome desktop and other Linux GUI's, and the admin tools. As for where the fault lies in stability, I would have to disagree with Mr. AC and lay the blame squarely at microsoft's feet. Certainly there are nasty programs that will kill Windows, but Windows is surprisingly fragile and once it starts going south, it's like a freight train. One glaring problem is the integration of the web browser with the OS. Who in their right mind puts a program that routinely goes out and runs foreign code at the heart of the operating system? Why should a web page be able to produce a BSOD?
hey I missed that.. what happened to her? does anyone have a link? what are they going to do or the sheila brofslovski (sp?) character now?
um, "theme from shaft" is just a wee bit older than pearl jam, so I would imagine you have this backwards