Not only does this company's website point to NeoAudio, which uses CDEx code, but NeoNapster, which is straight out of any of the Gnutella codebases, and is Yet Another Gnutella Client, but with spyware added.
I can't wait for their upcoming release: NeoLinux with the NeoGNOME desktop environment.
We've already seen something akin to this, at least on a small scale.
Working as a telephone tech support person for a non-tech sector company, Klez was particularly annoying as we would get angry telephone calls from our own corporate executives about how our server based antivirus program wasn't working, as they were getting angry emails from people at other companies telling them to stop sending them the Klez virus.
All because the damn thing sent false header information and someone outside both companies had been infected, people would continue to blame the wrong parties when their own antivirus program would point them at the wrong culprit, despite all the media stories explaining the damn thing in clear detail.
We had a number of execs refuse to believe us when we told them their machine was clean, as "obviously" we were wrong according to the people at the other company. Even had one high up try to install her own antivirus program because she didn't trust ours and ended up trashing her computer.
I just loved the whole telephone support deal during the peak Klez season.:P
Re:Other avenues of attack . . .
on
Network Hacking
·
· Score: 2
Oh, we have tried blocking Hotmail, Yahoo and AOL webmail.
It only took about two hours after the block for Human Resources to give us a frantic call to unblock those sites.
As I mentioned, my company is a non-tech sector based company, so the IT department is seen as an unwanted, but necessary evil. And of course, all but two of the higher level executives complained on end about not being able to check their AOL accounts at work.
And that's another area of attack. The number of executives who put a copy of AOL on their corporate laptops to access personal AOL accounts from home and on the road is insane. And then there's the small remote properties which have access to our network through Citrix, who invariably have a copy of AOL running, often with more spywared software than I care to think about.
It all comes back to the simple fact that human nature and social engineering are the weakest links.
Other avenues of attack . . .
on
Network Hacking
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Why even bother with physical access? The number of people here at work who screw their machines up due to email viruses received through checking their Hotmail, Yahoo and AOL webmail accounts at work is frightening.
Those viruses and trojans slip neatly by all the elaborate MS Exchance server based virus scanners we have.
And since this is a non-technology sector corporation, they try to cut costs where ever they can, which means McAffee virus scan on the local computers, which has caused so many conflicts between the latest virus definitions and programs like Microsoft Word that most end users tend to turn automatic virus checking off without permission.
In the end, social engineering will never be "obsolete".
One thing I noticed happening a couple of years ago was that as soon as a domain with even a minimum amount of traffic or visibility in search forums expired, it was quickly purchased by a porn site.
At one time, no doubt, that was a valid site about civil wars, but the domain owner let it expire, and it was snatched up because it probably came up high on a search engine for it's term.
I wouldn't be surprised to find out that several of the larger porn site chains either have deals with several domain registars to let them move in pretty quickly on bulk expired domain snatching, or that there's a small company out there that makes money with scripts that watch for new domain expirations, then checks to see what their google.com ranking is, calculates a set fee based on potential "accidental traffic" from people going to the site and then offers a large number of such site names to a porn chain.
Just more reason for me to go to google first for whatever I'm looking for, rather than bother with a "search by typing a term as a domain". And yet another reason why domain names are rapidly losing their value based on their name.
Many of the personal e-mails which I send are unsolicited and, while I am certainly not a spammer, could violate anti-spam laws because the recipient did not specifically request to be sent e-mail. I don't generally send mailing list removal instructions with my personal correspondance either. Does this mean that I am in violation of anti-spam laws?
Um... no... At least not unless your email qualifies as an "advertisement", defined under section 4931.55 of the Ohio Revised Code as "a message or material intended to cause the sale of realty, goods, or services." If your message didn't meet this test, then the rest of the requirements do not apply.
So no personal emails would qualify under this law, but advertisements would still be safe, provided they provide accurate email contact info and a clearly laid out method of opting out of future advertisements from that source.
Not that this law will really stop the flood of spam, but it also won't cause you to get fined for a single email to a person who's not particular fond of you.
Re:What I've done for my work's system admins ...
on
Sysadmin Day. Yay.
·
· Score: 1
Ah... You must be one of those people who thinks that a manual transmission is a bad thing in an automobile.
I don't. In fact, most anyone who does driving as anything other than a casual driver tends to prefer them.
Microsoft Windows is the automatic transmission of the computing world, because it serves a similiar purpose for both casual users and casual drivers.
It hides the gear choices in a simple interface that's the same for nearly all automatics. It's easy to learn in the sense that, at least in the US, it's what everyone drives here (this is different in Europe from what I hear). However, the "ease of use" comes at the cost of performance and control.
Linux (and most other UNIX variants) are the manual transmissions, as they aren't as common for the casual driver (again, here in the US), and require a slight more of an initial learning curve. Mind you, the basics of either a stickshift or *nix aren't as complicated as non-users of either would think. But the real distinguishing factor is the better performance you can achieve due to the greater control. You can concentrate on better acceleration or better gas mileage or a combination. It's completely up to you.
That is why I use the relationship between the two. For me, going from Microsoft to Linux was very similiar to going from an automatic to a manual transmission. All four have their place. I just prefer the latter of each group now as it suits the way I drive / computer better.
Cheers.
Re:What I've done for my work's system admins ...
on
Sysadmin Day. Yay.
·
· Score: 2
The only reason we run only MS is because the admins refuse to look at anything but.
And yes, they all are the product of accellerated MCSE "boot camp" training.:P
What I've done for my work's system admins ...
on
Sysadmin Day. Yay.
·
· Score: 3, Funny
What have I done personally for our system administrators on SysAdminAppreciationDay?
Been the emotional punching bag for angry corporate users calling the technical support center here when they screwed up the MS Exchange server because their MCSE courses apparently didn't cover making it able to go a month without corrupting it's database.
Been the person people complain about the MS Proxy server setup which routinely times out when going to any site outside the company thanks to the fact that the server admins keep fighting over who knows how to set it up properly.
Been the person who gets all the fallout telephone calls from angry remote Citrix dial-up users, all because the network admin decided one night to change everything over to DHCP, versus the old static IPs, along with moving to a different IP class, causing every remote user to need their network settings changed.
Been the person who has all the system administrator's personal telephones forwarded to him when they feel "overburdoned" because I'm just lowly tech support, and can therefore answer all their calls for them.
Sure, the MPAA can argue that it's defending it's copyrights when it aggressively attacks some server with copyright infringed mp3's, but those packets have to travel from their servers to the target, and in that path there's no guarentee that it won't affect innocent bystanders who happen to be trying to use network resources in that path?
Let's take it to an extreme and imagine something crazy like the MPAA deciding to take down some kid's cable modem ftp server on your local neighborhood by DDoSing it. You don't think that's going to leave you uneffected with your shared bandwidth? Or what about the time wasted by your ISP when they try to slow down a DDoS attack, when they may not instantly know whether it's a supposedly "legal" MPAA tactic, or some script kiddies?
If the MPAA/RIAA get there way on this legislation, screw it, instead of being a legal purchaser of CDs and DVDs, I will start cracking and ripping their work just on principle.
Just what I need, another day for the system administrators here to claim all the glory, when I as a lowly telephone tech support person have to take all the angry calls when the paper MCSEs here screw up the email, web proxy and other servers.
Blah... I'd say more but the phone's ringing and it's probably another corporate executive who can't find the "on" button again.:P
The DMCA was designed to promote a safe and legal online world while advancing the dynamic change that is synonymous with the Internet. Since the DMCA's enactment the evidence of the abundance of creative content available online is proof that the DMCA is working.
Going through their press releases you'll even come across others promoting stricter legislation.
As for remembering the show, it was brought to you by the same guy responsible for Battlestar Galactica, so that should tell you of it's cultural importance.;)
Don't you remember that old television series Automan?
Between shows like that, in which a computer program given life could control any electrical device, and all the poorly done "hax0r" characters on film and television, why would you expect people NOT to believe things like this?
Well, the way I would see it is that in your example, the person creating the content could be tried under the laws of his country of residence for creating the content, but the server itself and content on such could only be touched by the laws of the country in which it is being hosted.
Article not about commercial spam . . .
on
Spam Doesn't Work?
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· Score: 5, Insightful
If you haven't read the article yet, it's not about commercial spam at all, but the psychological effects of getting an email asking a question from someone you know, with more names in the cc: field resulting in more of a "someone else will answer it" effect.
It really has nothing to do with commercial spam, and the original post here did nothing to make that distinction.
Does anyone else realize that halflife being as old as it is can still bring a top of the line machine to it's knees?
That's not necessarily a good thing, though.
Yes, some mods do so because they add alot of extra gameplay depth and graphical wizardry, but others do so simply because they're badly written and poorly optimized.
There is a point beyond which the performance drops are enough that looking for a new engine as a base, or even simply writting the mod as a standalone game, would be better.
Debian, of course, is a non-commercial community supported distro.
Obviously, however, this doesn't mean it doesn't require an influx of money to support servers, website maintainence, bandwidth for downloads and so forth.
It would be interesting to see an article written up about the finances that go on behind a non-profit operating system, though.
I'm not quite sure where that quote came from, but it's an interesting look at some of the more.. enthusiastic.. OS supporters.
When you have supporters such as IBM's Linux program manager, Dan Frye saying "We think Debian is the most righteous distribution," and advocates referred to as "evangalists", it's ceased being a distribution to some people and started to become a religion.
Of course, every distribution (and general operating system for that matter) have their more fanatical supporters.
There have been several quotes from Linus that come basically say that he hopes Linux doesn't compete with Windows, but with itself.
And although the shallow side of me secretly pines for those small Linux victories over Redmond, Washington's monster, I very much realise that you are correct in that Linux doesn't have to "beat" Windows to be a success.
Really, our only concern with Microsoft should be when they're actively trying to make it difficult for Linux to grow through manipulation of the industry.
Otherwise, they can go off an plug Windows all they want to grandmothers and other computer users, as Linux and the other alternative OSs will continue to serve their purpose regardless.
"Aggressive Advocacy" actually annoys me, whether it be those people who insist on typing 'micro$oft' or people who take any and every opportunity to make the rest of us look like fools with their 'L1nux R00lz! W1ndows sUx0rs 4 evar!' rants.
You've forgotten the one, simple and probably most important thing that we [i]can[/i] blame Microsoft for.
The fact that PC and Mac users will end up with a warmed-over port that should have been out last year, but has been put on ice solely to benefit the XBox.
Add to this the fact that it's a port from Gearbox Software, which with their track record means it'll be supported for a few short months, then all updating will cease no matter how many critical bugs remain.
"Microsoft issued a media alert to formally announce the development of Halo for Windows and the Mac," says the press release.
Oh thank god, now development can start on ports to Windows and Mac of a game that was originally developed for Windows and Mac.
Slashdot Mirror
Try the first link on this page.
With the virtual armonica on the website, you can pretty much reproduce every cheap sci-fi "ethereal space" them ever created.
;)
I expect the MPAA and RIAA would be pissed about that fact.
Not only does this company's website point to NeoAudio, which uses CDEx code, but NeoNapster, which is straight out of any of the Gnutella codebases, and is Yet Another Gnutella Client, but with spyware added.
I can't wait for their upcoming release: NeoLinux with the NeoGNOME desktop environment.
We've already seen something akin to this, at least on a small scale.
:P
Working as a telephone tech support person for a non-tech sector company, Klez was particularly annoying as we would get angry telephone calls from our own corporate executives about how our server based antivirus program wasn't working, as they were getting angry emails from people at other companies telling them to stop sending them the Klez virus.
All because the damn thing sent false header information and someone outside both companies had been infected, people would continue to blame the wrong parties when their own antivirus program would point them at the wrong culprit, despite all the media stories explaining the damn thing in clear detail.
We had a number of execs refuse to believe us when we told them their machine was clean, as "obviously" we were wrong according to the people at the other company. Even had one high up try to install her own antivirus program because she didn't trust ours and ended up trashing her computer.
I just loved the whole telephone support deal during the peak Klez season.
Oh, we have tried blocking Hotmail, Yahoo and AOL webmail.
It only took about two hours after the block for Human Resources to give us a frantic call to unblock those sites.
As I mentioned, my company is a non-tech sector based company, so the IT department is seen as an unwanted, but necessary evil. And of course, all but two of the higher level executives complained on end about not being able to check their AOL accounts at work.
And that's another area of attack. The number of executives who put a copy of AOL on their corporate laptops to access personal AOL accounts from home and on the road is insane. And then there's the small remote properties which have access to our network through Citrix, who invariably have a copy of AOL running, often with more spywared software than I care to think about.
It all comes back to the simple fact that human nature and social engineering are the weakest links.
Why even bother with physical access? The number of people here at work who screw their machines up due to email viruses received through checking their Hotmail, Yahoo and AOL webmail accounts at work is frightening.
Those viruses and trojans slip neatly by all the elaborate MS Exchance server based virus scanners we have.
And since this is a non-technology sector corporation, they try to cut costs where ever they can, which means McAffee virus scan on the local computers, which has caused so many conflicts between the latest virus definitions and programs like Microsoft Word that most end users tend to turn automatic virus checking off without permission.
In the end, social engineering will never be "obsolete".
One thing I noticed happening a couple of years ago was that as soon as a domain with even a minimum amount of traffic or visibility in search forums expired, it was quickly purchased by a porn site.
At one time, no doubt, that was a valid site about civil wars, but the domain owner let it expire, and it was snatched up because it probably came up high on a search engine for it's term.
I wouldn't be surprised to find out that several of the larger porn site chains either have deals with several domain registars to let them move in pretty quickly on bulk expired domain snatching, or that there's a small company out there that makes money with scripts that watch for new domain expirations, then checks to see what their google.com ranking is, calculates a set fee based on potential "accidental traffic" from people going to the site and then offers a large number of such site names to a porn chain.
Just more reason for me to go to google first for whatever I'm looking for, rather than bother with a "search by typing a term as a domain". And yet another reason why domain names are rapidly losing their value based on their name.
atrowe says: Um
So no personal emails would qualify under this law, but advertisements would still be safe, provided they provide accurate email contact info and a clearly laid out method of opting out of future advertisements from that source.
Not that this law will really stop the flood of spam, but it also won't cause you to get fined for a single email to a person who's not particular fond of you.
Ah ... You must be one of those people who thinks that a manual transmission is a bad thing in an automobile.
I don't. In fact, most anyone who does driving as anything other than a casual driver tends to prefer them.
Microsoft Windows is the automatic transmission of the computing world, because it serves a similiar purpose for both casual users and casual drivers.
It hides the gear choices in a simple interface that's the same for nearly all automatics. It's easy to learn in the sense that, at least in the US, it's what everyone drives here (this is different in Europe from what I hear). However, the "ease of use" comes at the cost of performance and control.
Linux (and most other UNIX variants) are the manual transmissions, as they aren't as common for the casual driver (again, here in the US), and require a slight more of an initial learning curve. Mind you, the basics of either a stickshift or *nix aren't as complicated as non-users of either would think. But the real distinguishing factor is the better performance you can achieve due to the greater control. You can concentrate on better acceleration or better gas mileage or a combination. It's completely up to you.
That is why I use the relationship between the two. For me, going from Microsoft to Linux was very similiar to going from an automatic to a manual transmission. All four have their place. I just prefer the latter of each group now as it suits the way I drive / computer better.
Cheers.
The only reason we run only MS is because the admins refuse to look at anything but.
:P
And yes, they all are the product of accellerated MCSE "boot camp" training.
- Been the emotional punching bag for angry corporate users calling the technical support center here when they screwed up the MS Exchange server because their MCSE courses apparently didn't cover making it able to go a month without corrupting it's database.
- Been the person people complain about the MS Proxy server setup which routinely times out when going to any site outside the company thanks to the fact that the server admins keep fighting over who knows how to set it up properly.
- Been the person who gets all the fallout telephone calls from angry remote Citrix dial-up users, all because the network admin decided one night to change everything over to DHCP, versus the old static IPs, along with moving to a different IP class, causing every remote user to need their network settings changed.
- Been the person who has all the system administrator's personal telephones forwarded to him when they feel "overburdoned" because I'm just lowly tech support, and can therefore answer all their calls for them.
NoSure, the MPAA can argue that it's defending it's copyrights when it aggressively attacks some server with copyright infringed mp3's, but those packets have to travel from their servers to the target, and in that path there's no guarentee that it won't affect innocent bystanders who happen to be trying to use network resources in that path?
Let's take it to an extreme and imagine something crazy like the MPAA deciding to take down some kid's cable modem ftp server on your local neighborhood by DDoSing it. You don't think that's going to leave you uneffected with your shared bandwidth? Or what about the time wasted by your ISP when they try to slow down a DDoS attack, when they may not instantly know whether it's a supposedly "legal" MPAA tactic, or some script kiddies?
If the MPAA/RIAA get there way on this legislation, screw it, instead of being a legal purchaser of CDs and DVDs, I will start cracking and ripping their work just on principle.
Just what I need, another day for the system administrators here to claim all the glory, when I as a lowly telephone tech support person have to take all the angry calls when the paper MCSEs here screw up the email, web proxy and other servers.
... I'd say more but the phone's ringing and it's probably another corporate executive who can't find the "on" button again. :P
Blah
As for remembering the show, it was brought to you by the same guy responsible for Battlestar Galactica, so that should tell you of it's cultural importance. ;)
Don't you remember that old television series Automan?
Between shows like that, in which a computer program given life could control any electrical device, and all the poorly done "hax0r" characters on film and television, why would you expect people NOT to believe things like this?
Well, the way I would see it is that in your example, the person creating the content could be tried under the laws of his country of residence for creating the content, but the server itself and content on such could only be touched by the laws of the country in which it is being hosted.
If you haven't read the article yet, it's not about commercial spam at all, but the psychological effects of getting an email asking a question from someone you know, with more names in the cc: field resulting in more of a "someone else will answer it" effect.
It really has nothing to do with commercial spam, and the original post here did nothing to make that distinction.
Yes, some mods do so because they add alot of extra gameplay depth and graphical wizardry, but others do so simply because they're badly written and poorly optimized.
There is a point beyond which the performance drops are enough that looking for a new engine as a base, or even simply writting the mod as a standalone game, would be better.
Debian, of course, is a non-commercial community supported distro.
Obviously, however, this doesn't mean it doesn't require an influx of money to support servers, website maintainence, bandwidth for downloads and so forth.
It would be interesting to see an article written up about the finances that go on behind a non-profit operating system, though.
I'm not quite sure where that quote came from, but it's an interesting look at some of the more .. enthusiastic .. OS supporters.
When you have supporters such as IBM's Linux program manager, Dan Frye saying "We think Debian is the most righteous distribution," and advocates referred to as "evangalists", it's ceased being a distribution to some people and started to become a religion.
Of course, every distribution (and general operating system for that matter) have their more fanatical supporters.
There have been several quotes from Linus that come basically say that he hopes Linux doesn't compete with Windows, but with itself.
And although the shallow side of me secretly pines for those small Linux victories over Redmond, Washington's monster, I very much realise that you are correct in that Linux doesn't have to "beat" Windows to be a success.
Really, our only concern with Microsoft should be when they're actively trying to make it difficult for Linux to grow through manipulation of the industry.
Otherwise, they can go off an plug Windows all they want to grandmothers and other computer users, as Linux and the other alternative OSs will continue to serve their purpose regardless.
"Aggressive Advocacy" actually annoys me, whether it be those people who insist on typing 'micro$oft' or people who take any and every opportunity to make the rest of us look like fools with their 'L1nux R00lz! W1ndows sUx0rs 4 evar!' rants.
I had a Tandy 1000. That's more than enough reason for me to be wary of them. ;)
Radio Shack based on technology?
My god, man, we're talking about the people behind Tandy computers!
Why would you want them screwing around with Linux?
You've forgotten the one, simple and probably most important thing that we [i]can[/i] blame Microsoft for.
The fact that PC and Mac users will end up with a warmed-over port that should have been out last year, but has been put on ice solely to benefit the XBox.
Add to this the fact that it's a port from Gearbox Software, which with their track record means it'll be supported for a few short months, then all updating will cease no matter how many critical bugs remain.
"Microsoft issued a media alert to formally announce the development of Halo for Windows and the Mac," says the press release.
Oh thank god, now development can start on ports to Windows and Mac of a game that was originally developed for Windows and Mac.
*sigh*