Everybody STOP using the same computing platforms.
This sort of thing will always happen as long as one XXX box can be infected the same as any other.
Quite simply, this problem will be solved when people are using Intel x86, Merced, Alpha, M68K, PPC, ARM and every other platform in similar quantities depending on their specific needs. The same binary executables cannot be run on all of these very easily (Yes emulators, yes bytecode, but No, native binary). It can further be strenghtened if everyone does NOT run the same O/S on all these computers. Right now different versions and distributions of Linux are possible (not much different, but it's a start), and *BSD is an alternative.
You can easily see that this leads to the conclusion that distributing binaries for anything will become a nightmare, meaning that distributing the source becomes the only sane way of doing things (with a./configure ; make ; make install).
You might complain *oh no, everything will be incompatible* but that's what Apple said about others producing their computers and see how successful the IBM style PC is? There are a million different variations for every component, most of which can be used together successfully, and the status quo is that for every component there are a couple of standards one of which most things follow, and generally everything works. It may be a bit of a pain, but this sort of heterogeniety is a good security method.
Computer software should follow this model for maximum security, giving me a real choice of software, but knowing it will work with everything else, and I see this model being slowly being developed.
People have said above that this (worm) could happen to Linux users, but this is not wholly true - maybe all x86 linux users who ran the program could be affected, but for it to work on any other platform, it would have had to be a script, and though people might still run it, it would be possible for others (more sensible ppl) to find out what the script does by being able to look at it, instead of having to blindly run it. (For example, at work I routinely recieve random executable files from friends, which do amusing things, which I just run. There is not way for me to tell what a program does without running it, which I'd class as a security flaw.)
Problem is that messages can be posted from anywhere in the world, and from any ISP. Demon do not have any juristriction over these majority of posters.
Most harassing calls do not come from overseas because of the cost, but on the internet the cost to post overseas is exactly the same as posting in your own country.
Even if Linux currently makes up 5 - 6 % of home PC OSs, any company can still make money doing Linux games because the commercial Linux games market has so few competitors. In the WinXX world they have to compete with so many other games, but given the choice of Linux games, and the obvious want for them, they'd sell to a (relatively) large proportion of Linux users. Obviously this will help expand the market too.
So if it were, say, transmitted electronically to the UK Publishers to be printed, then that would be illegal and subject to export regulations, whereas the shipment of a large quantity of the book itself for export would be legal.
Well at least I can get the American edition of the book here now -- I've placed an order for it and look forward to reading it.
Well If they can't see the merit of non-optimal solutions, then they are not smart in any useful way. They must be able to see both. Smart people should try not to become so focused on their area that they cannot see what is obvious.
.. and cheaper will bring computers into many more homes. All networked, and soon, all running Linux - it's much easier to create a network 'appliance' mainly for net access using Linux than using MS anything. Set up scripts to automate everything, GUI desktops to run internet access programs, and it does become a family PC.
Imagine a future Netwinder type thing, with TV output, pre-configured to connect to the internet by your local dealer, etc., and you have an ideal internet access appliance you can pop into a shop any buy.
Now just sell 750 million similar things in the next 5 years and there you have it.
Been there, done that, shame about the blue smoke, on mine I heard a fuse go "pop".
Had to open the PSU (naturally marked 'do not open') remove a few bits, until, right at the bottom, I found the fuse wich had blown then spent 15 mins trying to get a new one back in cos it wasn't designed to be replaceable. -- 'duh'!
Heh, me too, lots of white smoke being expelled by the fan. Jeez, the speed at which I hit the power-off button...
There was a good reason though -- I was experimenting with making my own joystick with two potentiometers and a couple of microswitches. I had a load of wires plugged directly in to the little holes in the female joystick port on the SB card in my PC.
Made a little adjustment, plugged of the wires back into the wrong hole, and cay you say "short circuit":) -- well it was a long time ago when i was young
How is a poor student like me supposed to get that kind of dough?
Neal Stephenson is an amazing writer
on
Tuesday Quickies
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· Score: 1
I was fortunate to stumble across 'Snow Crash' in my local library a few years ago, and was amazed by that book, which (though not perfect) I then and still consider the best fiction I have read.
Now he has done it again with this essay. I have read a LOT of articles which cover linux / computer industry etc, (like all those which appear on/.) but this stands head, shoulders, knees and toes above all the rest. It's scope is so much more complete and fundamentally relevant to technology.
This is the one such essay I will be recommending to all my friends to read.
CmdrTaco/other editors: this link/essay must be posted as its own article - it more than deserves it.
USB Proprietary?-No, that's IEEE 1394 aka FireWire
on
Linux 2.2.5 Released
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· Score: 1
It is a straightforward essay, and should therefore read easily, even though it deals with an abstract (though not technical) subject.
There were too many complex sentence structures (call me stupid) which were tedious to read and added nothing in their complexity. Next time, write your article, then go back and cull all the pointless drivel from it. (Luckily I'd say this is not the whole article.)
It's not really about what %age of a linux system is GNU. RMS wants people to know that software must be FREE, and to recognise that Linux systems are created only because of people writing Free software.
I meant there is an interlinked network of people who have signed each others' keys.
Of course they have to verify fingerprints before signing, pref. by face to face contact, but over the phone is okay if you know that person.
The random bit is the *network* of interlinked signatures ( - this is obvious, you cannot expect to know who on the internet knows each other beforehand).
Isn't there a problem with lots of people all randomly signing each others' keys?
It becomes a nightmare trying to backtrace all signatures back to a key you know is trustworthy
- Is there any software to do this? ie If you tell it who you trust/know, something that will follow all links to tell you if you can trust a particular signed key?
Linux Wins if even M$ decide it's a viable OS
on
MS Office for Linux
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· Score: 1
Seriously, what would porting anything to Linux say about MS windows? It would confirm that Linux is a real alternative to Windoze, and this recommendation would come from none other than the makers of Windows!!
Slashdot Mirror
Everybody STOP using the same computing platforms.
./configure ; make ; make install).
This sort of thing will always happen as long as one XXX box can be infected the same as any other.
Quite simply, this problem will be solved when people are using Intel x86, Merced, Alpha, M68K, PPC, ARM and every other platform in similar quantities depending on their specific needs. The same binary executables cannot be run on all of these very easily (Yes emulators, yes bytecode, but No, native binary).
It can further be strenghtened if everyone does NOT run the same O/S on all these computers. Right now different versions and distributions of Linux are possible (not much different, but it's a start), and *BSD is an alternative.
You can easily see that this leads to the conclusion that distributing binaries for anything will become a nightmare, meaning that distributing the source becomes the only sane way of doing things (with a
You might complain *oh no, everything will be incompatible* but that's what Apple said about others producing their computers and see how successful the IBM style PC is? There are a million different variations for every component, most of which can be used together successfully, and the status quo is that for every component there are a couple of standards one of which most things follow, and generally everything works. It may be a bit of a pain, but this sort of heterogeniety is a good security method.
Computer software should follow this model for maximum security, giving me a real choice of software, but knowing it will work with everything else, and I see this model being slowly being developed.
People have said above that this (worm) could happen to Linux users, but this is not wholly true - maybe all x86 linux users who ran the program could be affected, but for it to work on any other platform, it would have had to be a script, and though people might still run it, it would be possible for others (more sensible ppl) to find out what the script does by being able to look at it, instead of having to blindly run it. (For example, at work I routinely recieve random executable files from friends, which do amusing things, which I just run. There is not way for me to tell what a program does without running it, which I'd class as a security flaw.)
I say we need more computing choice.
Problem is that messages can be posted from anywhere in the world, and from any ISP. Demon do not have any juristriction over these majority of posters.
Most harassing calls do not come from overseas because of the cost, but on the internet the cost to post overseas is exactly the same as posting in your own country.
The defamatory messages were (I think) posted in Canada, obviously from a completely different service provider.
Demon were just carrying the messages as they spread round the world.
So forcing liability to users of demon internet would not stop or solve the problem of libellous posts.
I use the Vesa framebuffer, which allows my ATI Rage LT Pro graphics chip to work with X.
>Hacking into FBI site
>as to
>Cracking into FBI site
try:
Cracking the FBI site
this sounds better.
Even if Linux currently makes up 5 - 6 % of home PC OSs, any company can still make money doing Linux games because the commercial Linux games market has so few competitors. In the WinXX world they have to compete with so many other games, but given the choice of Linux games, and the obvious want for them, they'd sell to a (relatively) large proportion of Linux users. Obviously this will help expand the market too.
This is an extremely dry book that is about as fascinating to read as a man page
Am I the only one, even amongst fellow nerds, who finds man pages interesting, contrary to what is implied in the review ?
Ok there are some poor ones, but most Linux man pages are quite good.
So if it were, say, transmitted electronically to the UK Publishers to be printed, then that would be illegal and subject to export regulations, whereas the shipment of a large quantity of the book itself for export would be legal.
Well at least I can get the American edition of the book here now -- I've placed an order for it and look forward to reading it.
Can someone point me to this article?
I had a pre-order for Cryptonomicon here from Amazon.co.uk, then a few weeks ago I got an e-mail saying it is not going to be published in the UK.
I haven't yet asked the publishers what their reason for cancelling publication in the UK was, but could it be because of this algorithm ???
Or am I too suspicious of US export laws?
Well If they can't see the merit of non-optimal solutions, then they are not smart in any useful way. They must be able to see both. Smart people should try not to become so focused on their area that they cannot see what is obvious.
.. and cheaper will bring computers into many more homes. All networked, and soon, all running Linux - it's much easier to create a network 'appliance' mainly for net access using Linux than using MS anything. Set up scripts to automate everything, GUI desktops to run internet access programs, and it does become a family PC.
Imagine a future Netwinder type thing, with TV output, pre-configured to connect to the internet by your local dealer, etc., and you have an ideal internet access appliance you can pop into a shop any buy.
Now just sell 750 million similar things in the next 5 years and there you have it.
Given your .sig works, I think I believe you can do 100 hour coding sessions!!
Been there, done that, shame about the blue smoke, on mine I heard a fuse go "pop".
Had to open the PSU (naturally marked 'do not open') remove a few bits, until, right at the bottom, I found the fuse wich had blown then spent 15 mins trying to get a new one back in cos it wasn't designed to be replaceable. -- 'duh'!
Heh, me too, lots of white smoke being expelled by the fan. Jeez, the speed at which I hit the power-off button...
:) -- well it was a long time ago when i was young
There was a good reason though -- I was experimenting with making my own joystick with two potentiometers and a couple of microswitches. I had a load of wires plugged directly in to the little holes in the female joystick port on the SB card in my PC.
Made a little adjustment, plugged of the wires back into the wrong hole, and cay you say "short circuit"
Not to post a pointless comment, but:
yes
How is a poor student like me supposed to get that kind of dough?
I was fortunate to stumble across 'Snow Crash' in my local library a few years ago, and was amazed by that book, which (though not perfect) I then and still consider the best fiction I have read.
Now he has done it again with this essay. I have read a LOT of articles which cover linux / computer industry etc, (like all those which appear on /.) but this stands head, shoulders, knees and toes above all the rest. It's scope is so much more complete and fundamentally relevant to technology.
This is the one such essay I will be recommending to all my friends to read.
CmdrTaco/other editors: this link/essay must be posted as its own article - it more than deserves it.
subject says it all
This stuff needs to be readable!
:)
It is a straightforward essay, and should therefore read easily, even though it deals with an abstract (though not technical) subject.
There were too many complex sentence structures (call me stupid) which were tedious to read and added nothing in their complexity. Next time, write your article, then go back and cull all the pointless drivel from it. (Luckily I'd say this is not the whole article.)
You never know, us readers might like it then
That is what GNU/Linux is about.
It's not really about what %age of a linux system is GNU. RMS wants people to know that software must be FREE, and to recognise that Linux systems are created only because of people writing Free software.
I didn't know this - Cool
I hope you were being slightly sarcastic :)
I meant there is an interlinked network of people who have signed each others' keys.
Of course they have to verify fingerprints before signing, pref. by face to face contact, but over the phone is okay if you know that person.
The random bit is the *network* of interlinked signatures ( - this is obvious, you cannot expect to know who on the internet knows each other beforehand).
Isn't there a problem with lots of people all randomly signing each others' keys?
It becomes a nightmare trying to backtrace all signatures back to a key you know is trustworthy
- Is there any software to do this? ie If you tell it who you trust/know, something that will follow all links to tell you if you can trust a particular signed key?
Seriously, what would porting anything to Linux say about MS windows? It would confirm that Linux is a real alternative to Windoze, and this recommendation would come from none other than the makers of Windows!!
maybe I'll try again tomorrow
I was annoyed when my company replaced unix workstations with NT workstations, but NT workstations are generallly cheaper.
Give it a bit of time and companies will realise they can have reliable unix workstations on cheap x86 hardware by running linux (etc)