Being 'tech-savvy' and knowing what is available are two different things. Or are you all knowing and instantly know all the best software out there to use?
If you have a book contract, the publisher has requirements for what they want. If you don't have a contract, you could write it in Notepad or vi for all that it matters....
....SOMEONE has to create the content. The blogosphere (and hell, even slashdot) mostly points to someone else's content. Joe Blogger isn't going to be doing any in-depth investigations and that is the foundation of journalism. One can look at how superficial how TV journalism is to print journalism...and then realize that the blogosphere offers insight and nothing else. Content isn't going to come with compensation.
Every ENCRYPTED BES packet flows through a foreign country. Fixed that for you.
No, you didn't. Encryption isn't an end unto itself. Every packet could have ROT13 encryption and your statement is still as valid.
Further, the blackberry platform has already been audited by the US government (and others, like NATO, UK, etc). The US government accepts blackberries for information that is "Sensitive But Unclassified". Some of the President's work falls into that category.
If you see what BushCo has done with security classifications during their past 7+ years, you'll see that "Sensitive but Unclassified" is a useless category--just about every communication as classified higher (so it doesn't have to be disclosed, not because it's intrinsically secret).
I'm frankly surprised that that is the case and I wonder if it isn't the law per se as much as a somewhat hidebound cya interpretation of the law.
Obviously, we can't have the president using some goofy webmail account loaded with cross site vulnerabilities and hosted god-knows-where, nor can we have him using the RNC mailserver, beyond the reach of document retention laws*cough*. That said, though, email security and retention are not exactly rocket surgery. Strong crypto is a consumer level technology at this point, and virtually every corporation of any size already has experience with massive email retention. If anything, it is easier to build a retention system for electronic documents than it is to build one for paper documents in equivalent volume.
You're missing the point--it's not that they can'tbuild a retention system, it's that they don't want one. They don't want every word or thought (or lobbyist/Abramoff buying them off) captured for posterity.
Plus, the NSA would probably shit a brick if the Pres had a Blackberry since every BES packet flows through a foreign country.
Cool dat. I use Adblock on my Firefox at work; last time I looked around this didn't exist for Safari. Wow...really helpful info on/.--what a concept!:-)
Apple forums across the Net are reporting frequent crashes in Safari 3.2, some possibly caused by 3rd-party add-on
Yep, PithHelmet (anti-ad plug-in) causes 3.2 (Mac, of course) to blow up every time when using multiple tabs. Removing its bundle from/Library/Application Support/SIMBL/Plugins/ made it stable as a rock again (no problems at with about 15 tabs open, with varying kinds of embedded content), but, sadly, I'm buried with ads again.
Ubuntu's pretty much got that one licked. You try to run something that isn't installed but is in the repository database, you get an error message along the lines of "$FOO is not installed. You can install it by typing sudo apt-get install $FOO."
"Type it? Type it where? HUH??" How many average (much less noob) Windows users know about the cmd shell, and Mac users the terminal? Much less a linux noob even knowing an xterm even exists? That message and you are presupposing a level of experience that the clueless don't have.
Even a noob can understand that "missing library blabla" means "I need to install library blabla".
And said noob would a) know what a library is? ("Gee, isn't that a place where I can get books?"), b) where to get it if they did, or c) how to/where to install it? Though I imagine if anyone can jump the extremely high hurdle which is b) they can do c), but your average home user isn't going to be able to do that on any platform.
Heh, and someone else said SpeakEasy is a competitor in his area, and they provide better service.
I moved and tried to bring my Speakeasy service with me...and ended up NOT being able to--not from being too far from the C.O., but because Verizon had a digital loop installed instead of copper coming into the neighborhood. Let me ask you this: Do you think they would have have taken that step if the area wasn't provisioned with FIOS? Doubtful.... So, in effect, by being a monopoly, they lowered the number of companies that can effectively compete for anyone here's Internet business to two: Verizon and Comcrap. And they both suck.
In a statement, Eben Moglen, Founding Director of the SFLC, said, "Free software licenses such as the GPL exist to protect the freedom of computer users. If we don't ensure that these licenses are respected, then they will not be able to achieve their goal."
At one point I found an screenshot of qmail vs. postfix code in similar areas for handling some condition. The qmail code was hardcoded, had nasty loops and was just plain unbearable. The postfix version, however, was exceedingly elegant and I knew right away what the code was doing.
And don't forget that postfix is well-commented, and with superb documentation. Re the comments about qmail, I've kept lying around in my mailbox Linus' thoughts about qmail. Couple of interesting points in there.
On Sun, 6 Jun 2004, Kalin KOZHUHAROV wrote:
Well, not exactly sure about my reply, but let me try.
The other day I was debugging some config problems with my qmail instalation and I ended up doing: # strace -p 4563 -f -F [...] (deleted to bypass lameness filter) qmail is a piece of crap. The source code is completely unreadable, and it seems to think that "getpid()" is a good source of random data. Don't ask me why.
It literally does things like
random = now() + (getpid() (two less than signs deleted) 16); and since there isn't a single comment in the whole source tree, it's pointless to wonder why. (In case you wonder, "now()" just does a "time(NULL)" call - whee.).
I don't understand why people bother with it. It's not like Dan Bernstein is so charming that it makes up for the deficiencies of his programs.
But no, even despite the strange usage, this isn't a performance issue. qmail will call "getpid()" a few tens of times per connection because of the wonderful quality of randomness it provides, or something.
This is another gem you find when grepping for "getpid()" in qmail, and apparently the source of most of them:
if (now() - when (less than sign deleted) ((60 + (getpid() & 31)) (two less than signs deleted) 6))
Don't you love it how timeouts etc seem to be based on random values that are calculated off the lower 5 bits of the process ID? And don't you find the above (totally uncommented) line just a thing of beauty and clarity?
Yeah.
Anyway, you did find something that used more than a handful of getpid() calls, but no, it doesn't qualify as performance-critical, and even despite it's peyote-induced (or hey, some people are just crazy on their own) getpid() usage, it's not a reason to have a buggy glibc.
I have to disagree. He's making a valid point that RMS approaches the entire "Open Source/Free Software" debate as not a legal or even ethical issue, but a moral issue. The use of the word "moral" isn't an invention of Linus, that's the word RMS uses to describe it himself. That means RMS is declaring himself a religious leader, which is patently absurd. We already have enough "holy wars" in hacker culture without someone actively pursuing religious agendas.
I wonder if he used vi or emacs to to write that.... /me ducks
Slashdot Mirror
Being 'tech-savvy' and knowing what is available are two different things. Or are you all knowing and instantly know all the best software out there to use?
If you have a book contract, the publisher has requirements for what they want. If you don't have a contract, you could write it in Notepad or vi for all that it matters....
...a "tech book" author presumably have enough tech-savvy to NOT have to Ask Slashdot?
....SOMEONE has to create the content. The blogosphere (and hell, even slashdot) mostly points to someone else's content. Joe Blogger isn't going to be doing any in-depth investigations and that is the foundation of journalism. One can look at how superficial how TV journalism is to print journalism...and then realize that the blogosphere offers insight and nothing else.
Content isn't going to come with compensation.
...and dispute the charge. No laptop = no payee.
Every ENCRYPTED BES packet flows through a foreign country. Fixed that for you.
No, you didn't. Encryption isn't an end unto itself. Every packet could have ROT13 encryption and your statement is still as valid.
Further, the blackberry platform has already been audited by the US government (and others, like NATO, UK, etc). The US government accepts blackberries for information that is "Sensitive But Unclassified". Some of the President's work falls into that category.
If you see what BushCo has done with security classifications during their past 7+ years, you'll see that "Sensitive but Unclassified" is a useless category--just about every communication as classified higher (so it doesn't have to be disclosed, not because it's intrinsically secret).
http://na.blackberry.com/eng/ataglance/security/certifications.jsp [blackberry.com]
Thanks. I've always been curious about that, but not quit curious enough to go digging.....
I'm sure the NSA could modify blackberries to be more secure, especially if the President really, really wants one.
The physical device is the safest piece of the chain, assuming that the admins have passwords/encryption set up.
I'm frankly surprised that that is the case and I wonder if it isn't the law per se as much as a somewhat hidebound cya interpretation of the law.
Obviously, we can't have the president using some goofy webmail account loaded with cross site vulnerabilities and hosted god-knows-where, nor can we have him using the RNC mailserver, beyond the reach of document retention laws*cough*. That said, though, email security and retention are not exactly rocket surgery. Strong crypto is a consumer level technology at this point, and virtually every corporation of any size already has experience with massive email retention. If anything, it is easier to build a retention system for electronic documents than it is to build one for paper documents in equivalent volume.
You're missing the point--it's not that they can'tbuild a retention system, it's that they don't want one. They don't want every word or thought (or lobbyist/Abramoff buying them off) captured for posterity.
Plus, the NSA would probably shit a brick if the Pres had a Blackberry since every BES packet flows through a foreign country.
Adblock for Safari
Cool dat. I use Adblock on my Firefox at work; last time I looked around this didn't exist for Safari. Wow...really helpful info on /.--what a concept! :-)
Apple forums across the Net are reporting frequent crashes in Safari 3.2, some possibly caused by 3rd-party add-on
Yep, PithHelmet (anti-ad plug-in) causes 3.2 (Mac, of course) to blow up every time when using multiple tabs. Removing its bundle from /Library/Application Support/SIMBL/Plugins/ made it stable as a rock again (no problems at with about 15 tabs open, with varying kinds of embedded content), but, sadly, I'm buried with ads again.
Windows NT 4 was much more stable than NT 3.x.
On what planet? It took til Vista to undo the damage that MS did moving the video subsystem from the executive layer to the kernel's.
Get over yourself. Just because someone isn't a computer guru, that doesn't mean they're retarded.
You obviously have never done IT support.
How do you propose a user run something from the GUI that hasn't been installed?
Ah, okay, so that makes the previous poster's comment a non-sequitur in which case my first point stands. :-)
Ubuntu's pretty much got that one licked. You try to run something that isn't installed but is in the repository database, you get an error message along the lines of "$FOO is not installed. You can install it by typing sudo apt-get install $FOO."
"Type it? Type it where? HUH??" How many average (much less noob) Windows users know about the cmd shell, and Mac users the terminal? Much less a linux noob even knowing an xterm even exists? That message and you are presupposing a level of experience that the clueless don't have.
Even a noob can understand that "missing library blabla" means "I need to install library blabla".
And said noob would a) know what a library is? ("Gee, isn't that a place where I can get books?"), b) where to get it if they did, or c) how to/where to install it? Though I imagine if anyone can jump the extremely high hurdle which is b) they can do c), but your average home user isn't going to be able to do that on any platform.
What should truly paranoid user do?
Pull the tinfoil hat down tighter....
Heh, and someone else said SpeakEasy is a competitor in his area, and they provide better service.
I moved and tried to bring my Speakeasy service with me...and ended up NOT being able to--not from being too far from the C.O., but because Verizon had a digital loop installed instead of copper coming into the neighborhood. Let me ask you this: Do you think they would have have taken that step if the area wasn't provisioned with FIOS? Doubtful.... So, in effect, by being a monopoly, they lowered the number of companies that can effectively compete for anyone here's Internet business to two: Verizon and Comcrap. And they both suck.
If you'd read Lars' treatise years ago, his main point was (paraphrased) it is the band's choice whether or not to participate in file sharing or not.
That's still just as true today.
...he thought this about the BSD license, too:
In a statement, Eben Moglen, Founding Director of the SFLC, said, "Free software licenses such as the GPL exist to protect the freedom of computer users. If we don't ensure that these licenses are respected, then they will not be able to achieve their goal."
See for yourself.
And get rid of the Aqua on my Mac? Heathen!
Is it as good as KDE yet?
you must have missed the word "six"
thanks for playing, please try again
What part of the word "subnet" can you not understand?
ok maybe not quit 1500 but we do have six class c subnets for a reason.
You're right. 254 is not quite 1500....
Where on earth will those dweebs find 1500 Macs on the same subnet to test this on?
Right.
At one point I found an screenshot of qmail vs. postfix code in similar areas for handling some condition. The qmail code was hardcoded, had nasty loops and was just plain unbearable. The postfix version, however, was exceedingly elegant and I knew right away what the code was doing.
And don't forget that postfix is well-commented, and with superb documentation. Re the comments about qmail, I've kept lying around in my mailbox Linus' thoughts about qmail. Couple of interesting points in there.
On Sun, 6 Jun 2004, Kalin KOZHUHAROV wrote:
Well, not exactly sure about my reply, but let me try.
The other day I was debugging some config problems with my qmail instalation and I ended up doing:
# strace -p 4563 -f -F
[...] (deleted to bypass lameness filter)
qmail is a piece of crap. The source code is completely unreadable, and it
seems to think that "getpid()" is a good source of random data. Don't ask
me why.
It literally does things like
random = now() + (getpid() (two less than signs deleted) 16);
and since there isn't a single comment in the whole source tree, it's
pointless to wonder why. (In case you wonder, "now()" just does a
"time(NULL)" call - whee.).
I don't understand why people bother with it. It's not like Dan Bernstein
is so charming that it makes up for the deficiencies of his programs.
But no, even despite the strange usage, this isn't a performance issue.
qmail will call "getpid()" a few tens of times per connection because of
the wonderful quality of randomness it provides, or something.
This is another gem you find when grepping for "getpid()" in qmail, and
apparently the source of most of them:
if (now() - when (less than sign deleted) ((60 + (getpid() & 31)) (two less than signs deleted) 6))
Don't you love it how timeouts etc seem to be based on random values that
are calculated off the lower 5 bits of the process ID? And don't you find
the above (totally uncommented) line just a thing of beauty and clarity?
Yeah.
Anyway, you did find something that used more than a handful of getpid()
calls, but no, it doesn't qualify as performance-critical, and even
despite it's peyote-induced (or hey, some people are just crazy on their
own) getpid() usage, it's not a reason to have a buggy glibc.
Linus
I have to disagree. He's making a valid point that RMS approaches the entire "Open Source/Free Software" debate as not a legal or even ethical issue, but a moral issue. The use of the word "moral" isn't an invention of Linus, that's the word RMS uses to describe it himself. That means RMS is declaring himself a religious leader, which is patently absurd. We already have enough "holy wars" in hacker culture without someone actively pursuing religious agendas.
/me ducks
I wonder if he used vi or emacs to to write that....
D'oh! The editor edited it out! I had it in there. I swear!