Two. XML is good, because it's a format that parsers have been written for, so developers don't have to write yet another file format parser, but merely write some additional logic ontop of an existing XML parser.
I haven't found a universal XML parser, yet, that doesn't suck (callbacks are evil). I use EXPAT right now only because it sucks less than the others. But even it will crash and burn on pieces of XML it doesn't understand. Apparently one of the concepts of XML, specifically to die when anything even remotely hints at being not quite right, totally contradicts the concept of robustness.
Three. Microsoft using XML isn't bad. However, given the history of their actions with regards to standards, and common sense, it is highly probable they'll find some way to subvert XML into some bizarre format that only MS Office can handle. This is what some of us at Slashdot feel will happen. XML isn't bad, but Microsoft doesn't have a track record for following standards. They do however, have the high score for subverting them.
XML by itself is usless. It's simply (but really, it isn't simple at all, just look at the documentation while trying to write a parser) a syntax that provides for attaching tags and data to documents. You still have to have something that applies semantics. The problem is that the fuzzy boundary between syntax and semantics results in things breaking when unknown stuff is present (at least HTML didn't do that). It's been suggested that XML was created as this big obscure technological honeypot just to eventually snare and entrap Microsoft. Maybe it is doing the job intended.
So if a new protocol does the initial negotiation via TCP port 80, using HTTP to carry out that negotiation, which then switches to the agreed random UDP port, they'd have to block TCP port 80, or require all ISPs to proxy filter HTTP (assuming it was easy to detect inside HTTP), or block all of UDP (if they leave 53 open, use that).
The rumblings of civil war were going on well before Lincoln was even nominated. Talk of secession for various reasons had come up almost since the Union was formed, even in northern states, and has repeated a few times since the civil war as well. In fact, a small civil war actually took place in 1855 in Kansas. Lincoln was just the "last straw" in 1860, but more because the south felt it got shafted by the process (which vote plurality might well have changed). But the shafting was already going on and only getting worse. I doubt electing Douglas would have really changed it, but it might have been delayed and eventually happened anyway, and the Union might well not have stayed together. Of all the candidates in 1860, Lincoln was the most outspoken for keeping the Union together ("House Divided", 1858, at his nomination to the Senate). Don't forget that Lincoln's nomination by the Republican party came as a surprise, and more of a "everyone's 2nd choice", something plurality voting could result in. It was a hot sweaty summer in Chicago in 1860 and the delegates were couped up in a small (and obviously not air-conditioned) convention hall.
I'm not arguing that it would have been worse. But I am arguing that it could have been worse, and might well result in things being dramatically different than we know it. Other elections might well have swayed things in entirely different directions, too.
The point is, even if we end up with a more accurate representation of the will of the people in elections, it may not ultimately end up with what those people wanted, or what their future generations want, in the long run. Having the will of the people be more accurately represented could well be a very bad thing, too, considering the ignorance of the masses. Consider how many people are so readily influenced by things varying from internet scams to negative (but false in many cases) political ads. I distrust politicians, but I distrust the general public even more.
If it weren't for the plurality system, Abraham Lincoln might never have become president, Tabarrok says. In the four-candidate 1860 election, Lincoln was a polarizing figure, popular with many Northerners but abhorred by many Southerners. Stephen Douglas, Lincoln's closest competitor, was more broadly popular, and although he didn't get as many first-place rankings as Lincoln did, he was nearly everyone's second choice, historians hold. In 1999, Tabarrok and Lee Spector, an economist at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., calculated that if almost any other voting system had been used, history books would refer to President Douglas, not President Lincoln.
History books might also refer to the various subsequent presidents of both the United States of America as well as the Confederate States of America. That is, up until around the 1950's, where the names change to National Socialist States of America, with the primary political party being the National Socialist Workers Party of America, a branch of Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, after a political (but probably not too violent) conquest by an unchecked (because of a lack of power from North America) Nazi Germany that would have risen to control all of Europe by the mid 1940's, Russia and the Middle East by 1950, and set its sites on North America thereafter.
Or perhaps the history books might refer to a brilliant statesman that averted a possible civil war (something that Abraham Lincoln failed to do), only to see that possibility break out repeatedly every 20 or so years until the mid 1900's when slavery would finally be outlawed.
We really don't know for sure just how history would have played out.
So what if they did bounce it? She'd still not get the job, only this way they'd think she was a cheapskate who wouldn't pay her ISP bill, or didn't care because she changed ISP without telling them (the people who might have hired her).
While the Postal Service is obligated to make the same effort to return mail that is undeliverable (I've had this happen both as sender and as receiver), this is not the case for mail that has already been delivered to a PO Box. If I decline to renew a PO Box (and this is the closer analogy to a case where an ISP hosts a user email box for POP/IMAP/Web pickup), once they finally close out the box (some number of days after the payment is due), they are allowed to destroy (rather than return to sender) the contents of the box. I've actually had this happen twice when I moved (but it wasn't a problem for me). Let's not confuse the service of delivery and the service of hosting a mailbox (even if the same provider does both).
It is alleged in this case that the problem is not that she failed to pay for services, but that the ISP's accounting system overcharged her for services, which she refused to pay, and that the accounting department failed to address the situation. Having been on both sides of the border between customer and running an ISP, I do have to say that this is a very real problem, and can make ISPs liable.
I have too many times encountered people who simply assume that computer systems are 100% correct, and that if the computer says it, it must be so. And the sad fact is such concepts seem to be the rule in customer service and accounting departments. More often, accounting issues are directed by customer service to a different accounting department phone number or email address. My first such experience was with Netcom (before the Earthlink merger) where they had double charged my CC for one month. Customer service (which could never be reached any sooner than a 45 minute wait, though fortunately on a local phone number) referred me to a long distance number for accounting, which I wasted 30 minutes in long distance charges trying to reach and never could. I left a message and they they never called back. I emailed them several times and got automated responses about half the time, usually after 2-3 days. The problem was not resolved so 3 months later I tried to cancel. Customer service then said that I had to call accounting to cancel. I emailed my cancellation notice several times but the CC charges kept coming. Finally I called my CC company and they not only reversed all the charges all the way back to and including both postings of the double billing, they also blocked that merchant account on my CC account so future charges would not be posted. So NOW I get 2 messages left on MY answering machine from Netcom. I just never called them back.
So, *IFF* she can make the case that the ISP is at fault in having caused the account to be canceled or closed when it otherwise would not be, even though she switched to another ISP because of being unhappy with the situation, due to a failure of the accounting system combined with a failure of the staff to realize a problem and override the accounting system, then I think the ISP should be liable. But the ISP also has a defense depending on when the email regarding her potential employment was sent. If that email was sent sufficiently later than when she opened another account intended to replace her prior account, then she should have been responsible for notifying the sender that her email address had changed, as long as she had prior communications with that sender.
If the problem is in the accounting system software, the ISP then may be able to sue the provider of that accounting system for the losses, including customer losses and lost staff time dealing with it all. More often, I think, it's simply incorrect administration, setup, configuration, or the underlying OS.
The "No call" lists don't include businesses. They are only for residential lines. This is absurd. When I get a call at home I can let my asnwering machine say "Telemarketers fuck off, all others leave a message at the beep". I can't do that from a business phone. Yet the "No call" lists won't do business lines. Why is that? That's where I need it most.
I mostly use Linux, but occaisionally I need to use Windows for something. One of my peecees is designated for that, but it also does other stuff at other times. What I did was installed a clean copy of Windows with all the apps I might need (e.g. Office, Visio, etc). I separated My Documents over to D: (both C: and D: are 2GB each), verified I could get a couple of clean reboots after customizing everything, then shut down Windows and booted Linux from a CD I made. From there I made separate compressed backups of the first few sectors of the HD (up to the first partition), and the C: and D: partitions as raw block sector files. Gzip got my 2GB Windows install down to 700MB. I burned a couple CDs with it for backup and keep the compressed images on a couple Linux boxes. Whenever I need to run Windows, I boot Linux from that CD again, and download the image back to the HD. Voila, fresh unadulterated Windows (which happens to now days think it hasn't been booted for a couple years because I don't bother to back-set the CPU clock).
So far there are 2 moderations to the parent comment as flamebait (and 1 for insightful and 2 for interesting). The poster does have a valid point. He just happens to be wrong. Being wrong isn't flamebait.
There is a DANGER in NOT reporting this. This might be only the first step. The next step might be that they change the protocols and instead of using some kind of encapsulated ethernet, they layer the IP in something else that only their software can figure out (and they might encrypt it to be sure of this). I don't expect that to happen tomorrow, but if they don't see at least some resistance to taking over people's peecees now, they will keep moving to more control. They will try to find the point where they can get away with as much as possible because the more they can get away with, the more money they can get out of it. So when they they have IP encapsulated like that, you won't be able to access anything except from that one Windows machine. This would not be hard do. And as soon as they have the market softened up enough to believe they have to install all the software on your Windows computer, they will go for it. Then your Linux/BSD box won't have access anymore.
They might do this for many reasons, all related to them making more money at our expense (in some form). Possible reasons include:
Force more people to use the spyware platform. This ensures the maximum number of hits from their spy affiliates.
Restrict your use of certain communications such as a tunnel to work, or encrypted file trading that they can't spy on.
Prevent you from accessing from more than one computer (even if you only do it from one at a time). Cable companies already have long established pricing tiers for getting more money out of people with more TVs, so don't think they won't try it for more computers.
This is why we must:
Resist letting them install whatever they want. Use the self-install methods as much as possible. And have an "indemnity against damages contract" for the cable guy to sign if he wants to touch your peecee (just to scare him off of it).
Make sure the public is aware of the risks of invasion or privacy. They will get more spam and other forms of marketing, or worse. Imagine being turned down for health insurance because you visited certain sections of health websites about fatal diseases.
Make sure the public is aware of the risks of security. How do you know this software doesn't have tons of backdoors, known or even unknown (yet)?
Promote more widespread adoption of Linux/BSD/Unix as home desktop/workstation computers. The more presence Linux/BSD/Unix has in society, the more business has to acknowledge it and deal with it.
They didn't need to rewire the insides of my TV to hook up cable. Why the hell should they have to "rewire" my computer's software just to get internet connectivity?
Sheesh. At least VCRs have the courtesy to blink 12:00 if the clock isn't set or dies or something. But at least the programmer didn't do "set height = 120000" and cause pilots to nose down.
The money belongs to PAYPAL! So the theft was from PAYPAL, not ABIWORD. So it's PAYPAL that should be calling up the FBI. Why haven't they? Because maybe they'd end up being investigated for their shoddy business practices.
5. NEVER give paypal your bank account information. If they have it now, then open a new bank account and transfer all your money to the new account. Then close the old account.
And keep in mind that you can lose money in your Paypal account without having done anything wrong and without your password even being involved.
This is why we should not allow programmers to moonlight as system administrators. As a programmer, of course I expect you to never, ever, code up a buffer overflow exploit. But please leave system administration to professionals who know how to do the job. A system administrator of 2 years experience or less (usually way less) could do this with ease and correctly.
If the whole jail resided in its own actual virtual Linux machine, where nasty things cannot break the account, just the session, they would be quite a bit more effective.
You don't need/proc or even a device to get out of chroot. Just hang on to the current directory and move the chroot to a subdirectory below you. Then repeat chdir("..") until you are back at the real root and do chroot(".") and voila, you're out. The code is here.
The chroot environment is trivial to get out of if you're still running as root. Obviously if there's an exploit that lets you get root access even inside a chroot environment, then you can get out of that chroot environment.
So 10 mbps with a handshake? What kind of bandwidth could I get with sexual intercourse? Enough, given the time, to transfer a full movie? Talk about peer-to-peer trading. No more Napster or Kazaa... the world's oldest profession makes a come-back in the digital age. Jack is sure gonna be pissed.
At the rate things like Microsoft Windows and X Windows and KDE and Gnome and all that other bloatware are growing, in just a few years almost everything will need 64-bit just to load up.
The fee is way less than $5000. I've heard of businesses paying as little as $1300. This may be a function of how big the business is and how experienced it is with the processes. As for recruiting fees, they vary from 5% to as high as 25% of a year salary. One recruiter told me his average is 12.5%. It all depends on how much extra service, such as pre-screening, that is done. These days they are making less due to depressed salaries and fewer placements. And they get it spread over a year; if the placed candidate leaves early, their fee is at least pro-rated, and in some cases even forfeited.
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I haven't found a universal XML parser, yet, that doesn't suck (callbacks are evil). I use EXPAT right now only because it sucks less than the others. But even it will crash and burn on pieces of XML it doesn't understand. Apparently one of the concepts of XML, specifically to die when anything even remotely hints at being not quite right, totally contradicts the concept of robustness.
XML by itself is usless. It's simply (but really, it isn't simple at all, just look at the documentation while trying to write a parser) a syntax that provides for attaching tags and data to documents. You still have to have something that applies semantics. The problem is that the fuzzy boundary between syntax and semantics results in things breaking when unknown stuff is present (at least HTML didn't do that). It's been suggested that XML was created as this big obscure technological honeypot just to eventually snare and entrap Microsoft. Maybe it is doing the job intended.
So if a new protocol does the initial negotiation via TCP port 80, using HTTP to carry out that negotiation, which then switches to the agreed random UDP port, they'd have to block TCP port 80, or require all ISPs to proxy filter HTTP (assuming it was easy to detect inside HTTP), or block all of UDP (if they leave 53 open, use that).
That's an interesting line, and I'd agree, a very viable one.
The rumblings of civil war were going on well before Lincoln was even nominated. Talk of secession for various reasons had come up almost since the Union was formed, even in northern states, and has repeated a few times since the civil war as well. In fact, a small civil war actually took place in 1855 in Kansas. Lincoln was just the "last straw" in 1860, but more because the south felt it got shafted by the process (which vote plurality might well have changed). But the shafting was already going on and only getting worse. I doubt electing Douglas would have really changed it, but it might have been delayed and eventually happened anyway, and the Union might well not have stayed together. Of all the candidates in 1860, Lincoln was the most outspoken for keeping the Union together ("House Divided", 1858, at his nomination to the Senate). Don't forget that Lincoln's nomination by the Republican party came as a surprise, and more of a "everyone's 2nd choice", something plurality voting could result in. It was a hot sweaty summer in Chicago in 1860 and the delegates were couped up in a small (and obviously not air-conditioned) convention hall.
I'm not arguing that it would have been worse. But I am arguing that it could have been worse, and might well result in things being dramatically different than we know it. Other elections might well have swayed things in entirely different directions, too.
The point is, even if we end up with a more accurate representation of the will of the people in elections, it may not ultimately end up with what those people wanted, or what their future generations want, in the long run. Having the will of the people be more accurately represented could well be a very bad thing, too, considering the ignorance of the masses. Consider how many people are so readily influenced by things varying from internet scams to negative (but false in many cases) political ads. I distrust politicians, but I distrust the general public even more.
History books might also refer to the various subsequent presidents of both the United States of America as well as the Confederate States of America. That is, up until around the 1950's, where the names change to National Socialist States of America, with the primary political party being the National Socialist Workers Party of America, a branch of Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, after a political (but probably not too violent) conquest by an unchecked (because of a lack of power from North America) Nazi Germany that would have risen to control all of Europe by the mid 1940's, Russia and the Middle East by 1950, and set its sites on North America thereafter.
Or perhaps the history books might refer to a brilliant statesman that averted a possible civil war (something that Abraham Lincoln failed to do), only to see that possibility break out repeatedly every 20 or so years until the mid 1900's when slavery would finally be outlawed.
We really don't know for sure just how history would have played out.
So what if they did bounce it? She'd still not get the job, only this way they'd think she was a cheapskate who wouldn't pay her ISP bill, or didn't care because she changed ISP without telling them (the people who might have hired her).
While the Postal Service is obligated to make the same effort to return mail that is undeliverable (I've had this happen both as sender and as receiver), this is not the case for mail that has already been delivered to a PO Box. If I decline to renew a PO Box (and this is the closer analogy to a case where an ISP hosts a user email box for POP/IMAP/Web pickup), once they finally close out the box (some number of days after the payment is due), they are allowed to destroy (rather than return to sender) the contents of the box. I've actually had this happen twice when I moved (but it wasn't a problem for me). Let's not confuse the service of delivery and the service of hosting a mailbox (even if the same provider does both).
Mostly I agree with you.
It is alleged in this case that the problem is not that she failed to pay for services, but that the ISP's accounting system overcharged her for services, which she refused to pay, and that the accounting department failed to address the situation. Having been on both sides of the border between customer and running an ISP, I do have to say that this is a very real problem, and can make ISPs liable.
I have too many times encountered people who simply assume that computer systems are 100% correct, and that if the computer says it, it must be so. And the sad fact is such concepts seem to be the rule in customer service and accounting departments. More often, accounting issues are directed by customer service to a different accounting department phone number or email address. My first such experience was with Netcom (before the Earthlink merger) where they had double charged my CC for one month. Customer service (which could never be reached any sooner than a 45 minute wait, though fortunately on a local phone number) referred me to a long distance number for accounting, which I wasted 30 minutes in long distance charges trying to reach and never could. I left a message and they they never called back. I emailed them several times and got automated responses about half the time, usually after 2-3 days. The problem was not resolved so 3 months later I tried to cancel. Customer service then said that I had to call accounting to cancel. I emailed my cancellation notice several times but the CC charges kept coming. Finally I called my CC company and they not only reversed all the charges all the way back to and including both postings of the double billing, they also blocked that merchant account on my CC account so future charges would not be posted. So NOW I get 2 messages left on MY answering machine from Netcom. I just never called them back.
So, *IFF* she can make the case that the ISP is at fault in having caused the account to be canceled or closed when it otherwise would not be, even though she switched to another ISP because of being unhappy with the situation, due to a failure of the accounting system combined with a failure of the staff to realize a problem and override the accounting system, then I think the ISP should be liable. But the ISP also has a defense depending on when the email regarding her potential employment was sent. If that email was sent sufficiently later than when she opened another account intended to replace her prior account, then she should have been responsible for notifying the sender that her email address had changed, as long as she had prior communications with that sender.
If the problem is in the accounting system software, the ISP then may be able to sue the provider of that accounting system for the losses, including customer losses and lost staff time dealing with it all. More often, I think, it's simply incorrect administration, setup, configuration, or the underlying OS.
Solar powered web site? No wonder I can't get any response ... it's night time.
The "No call" lists don't include businesses. They are only for residential lines. This is absurd. When I get a call at home I can let my asnwering machine say "Telemarketers fuck off, all others leave a message at the beep". I can't do that from a business phone. Yet the "No call" lists won't do business lines. Why is that? That's where I need it most.
I mostly use Linux, but occaisionally I need to use Windows for something. One of my peecees is designated for that, but it also does other stuff at other times. What I did was installed a clean copy of Windows with all the apps I might need (e.g. Office, Visio, etc). I separated My Documents over to D: (both C: and D: are 2GB each), verified I could get a couple of clean reboots after customizing everything, then shut down Windows and booted Linux from a CD I made. From there I made separate compressed backups of the first few sectors of the HD (up to the first partition), and the C: and D: partitions as raw block sector files. Gzip got my 2GB Windows install down to 700MB. I burned a couple CDs with it for backup and keep the compressed images on a couple Linux boxes. Whenever I need to run Windows, I boot Linux from that CD again, and download the image back to the HD. Voila, fresh unadulterated Windows (which happens to now days think it hasn't been booted for a couple years because I don't bother to back-set the CPU clock).
So far there are 2 moderations to the parent comment as flamebait (and 1 for insightful and 2 for interesting). The poster does have a valid point. He just happens to be wrong. Being wrong isn't flamebait.
There is a DANGER in NOT reporting this. This might be only the first step. The next step might be that they change the protocols and instead of using some kind of encapsulated ethernet, they layer the IP in something else that only their software can figure out (and they might encrypt it to be sure of this). I don't expect that to happen tomorrow, but if they don't see at least some resistance to taking over people's peecees now, they will keep moving to more control. They will try to find the point where they can get away with as much as possible because the more they can get away with, the more money they can get out of it. So when they they have IP encapsulated like that, you won't be able to access anything except from that one Windows machine. This would not be hard do. And as soon as they have the market softened up enough to believe they have to install all the software on your Windows computer, they will go for it. Then your Linux/BSD box won't have access anymore.
They might do this for many reasons, all related to them making more money at our expense (in some form). Possible reasons include:
This is why we must:
They didn't need to rewire the insides of my TV to hook up cable. Why the hell should they have to "rewire" my computer's software just to get internet connectivity?
Sheesh. At least VCRs have the courtesy to blink 12:00 if the clock isn't set or dies or something. But at least the programmer didn't do "set height = 120000" and cause pilots to nose down.
The money belongs to PAYPAL! So the theft was from PAYPAL, not ABIWORD. So it's PAYPAL that should be calling up the FBI. Why haven't they? Because maybe they'd end up being investigated for their shoddy business practices.
5. NEVER give paypal your bank account information. If they have it now, then open a new bank account and transfer all your money to the new account. Then close the old account.
And keep in mind that you can lose money in your Paypal account without having done anything wrong and without your password even being involved.
This is why we should not allow programmers to moonlight as system administrators. As a programmer, of course I expect you to never, ever, code up a buffer overflow exploit. But please leave system administration to professionals who know how to do the job. A system administrator of 2 years experience or less (usually way less) could do this with ease and correctly.
You can use User Mode Linux to do that.
You don't need /proc or even a device to get out of chroot. Just hang on to the current directory and move the chroot to a subdirectory below you. Then repeat chdir("..") until you are back at the real root and do chroot(".") and voila, you're out. The code is here.
You don't even need a device to get out of chroot. See my other comment to this story.
The chroot environment is trivial to get out of if you're still running as root. Obviously if there's an exploit that lets you get root access even inside a chroot environment, then you can get out of that chroot environment.
The C source code is here.
So 10 mbps with a handshake? What kind of bandwidth could I get with sexual intercourse? Enough, given the time, to transfer a full movie? Talk about peer-to-peer trading. No more Napster or Kazaa ... the world's oldest profession makes a come-back in the digital age. Jack is sure gonna be pissed.
Oh great, more spam, just lovely. And they'll say I opted-in, too ... with my handshake.
At the rate things like Microsoft Windows and X Windows and KDE and Gnome and all that other bloatware are growing, in just a few years almost everything will need 64-bit just to load up.
The fee is way less than $5000. I've heard of businesses paying as little as $1300. This may be a function of how big the business is and how experienced it is with the processes. As for recruiting fees, they vary from 5% to as high as 25% of a year salary. One recruiter told me his average is 12.5%. It all depends on how much extra service, such as pre-screening, that is done. These days they are making less due to depressed salaries and fewer placements. And they get it spread over a year; if the placed candidate leaves early, their fee is at least pro-rated, and in some cases even forfeited.