He seems to have had quite a trouble handling the FSF's many hoops to jump through. Were the problems he encountered caused by the FSF's focus on protecting the community, on protecting the original developer, or protecting itself? I hope that this could be clarified by a followup interview, or maybe Guido himself could post with his opinions in a bit more detail
The self-righteous posts of what constitutes "Hacking".
Much like 'virii' or 'cracking', everything is subjective. Let's all ignore the colloquialisms used and focus on the meat of the article; spammers need lives
Doesn't that mean you end up looking away from the screen?
It seems a bit unnatural that you have to look away from a screen to move a mouse:) But the other ideas are very practical...Aiming your finger is nice for those carpal tunnel syndromers
During the high times, the "Dotcom Bubble" if you will, the US government wouldn't dare legislate protection for consumers for fear of slowing the rapid growth and revenue from a seemingly giant potential. Protection for the large businesses in order to ensure jobs, wealth, etc etc.
Now that the industry in general has poo-pooed on itself, government may take steps, to correct the mistakes of late. It probably doesn't look too highly on a pampered industry, who lobbies furiously to protect its intellectual property, but then, at the first sign of potential revenue losses, lays off quite substantial amounts of staff.
The whole DSS submission makes little to no sense. I'm not quite sure what the meaning is behind it but I'll assume that DirecTV is doing something to prevent viewing of stuff during the Superbowl and hackers found a way of circumventing this anti-circumvention. Maybe someone could clear this up a bit as the link in the story seems to just go to a pay-for-hardware site or an overly technical page.
Excellent article Jamie..This is why I read Slashdot, not for Hellmouth propaganda, or Linux flame-baiting. I read it for well written pieces concerning matters that do interest me...Good thing I never purchased SlashdotSucks.com, even if now I actually have a right to have it.
CmdrTaco seems more frustrated than normal when commenting on this; and I don't really blame him.
I think the overall tone concerning patents is beginning to change. In the beginning, it seemed that patents were seen as a necessity, one of the only ways of protecting your work, your ideas, your income. Examples of this were of course, one of the main reasons behind the explosion of open source in the Pro-Information Information Technology industry. Later, Amazon's amazing "One-Click" patents and various other odd, but almost believable patents were reviewed and dismissed, but not with the animosity seen today. No longer is it just 'acceptable' to have a bad patent. People are becoming down right hostile about perceived rights to intellectual property and the supposed 'evolution' that companies stand behind when patenting such blatently general ideas.
It's actually comforting to see that, while stupid patents keep getting given, there is more of an uproar when they are passed, and bad press is certainly one of the major killers of companies in this new millenium
It's a sad state of affairs when an idea, product, technology can be patented without even the effort to prove prior art. It's an even SADDER state of affairs when, where prior art is not only proven, but obviously so; so obvious that it makes the US Patent Office look neanderthalic. If this isn't a case for improving or even reorganizing the Patenting methods currently in use, I don't know what is.
The Slashdot Patent Pending logo is looking more and more realistic every day.
Now, if their security systems stopped the intruders cold, why were 7500 credit cards then used fraudulently?
Possibly because they believe that those credit cards are fraudulently being used not from being stolen from their site but from just ordinary everyday credit card fraud. Their justification is so low a percentage of the credit cards seem to be fraudulently used that it's comparable to normal percentages of credit card fraud.
What's more likely is that the attackers haven't gotten to use all the credit cards yet;)
Okay, this has flamebait written all over it, but I'll respond just out of curiousity...
Case 1: We had one guy from Earthlink support apply to work at my company. I posed a VERY common ISP customer scenario, "When I was downloading my e-mail, my computer crashed and now after I reboot and reconnect, my mail program is telling me my password is incorrect". This guy looked at me with a blank stare then said he would ask them customer to retype their password, then check their DNS, then look for proxies, etc. then if that didn't work he would tell the customer to reinstall system software and reinstall the mail client. WRONG!! I asked him if he ever heard of a "popper". Again dumbfounded. At that point I thanked him for his time and kicked him out.
What's a 'popper'? I would think you would just ask the customer to wait 5 minutes and they'd be able to log back on after the POP server hits it's idle time-out....But I might be wrong....but coming at him with jargon like that is a bit much. Who are you trying to hire, experts? I mean, he was probably Tier 1 at Earthlink and you're expecting him to know all. Guess what, that's what training is for.
Case 2: One of our Flowpoint routers got fried (common occurance with the Flowpoints). I called tech.."Well sir, I need to ping your router to perform some tests and I can't right now" was the response, this after informing him that the whole unit is fried and is not working at all. "I'm sorry sir, I have to test the unit from here".
Guess what, he's right! If a customer called up and said 'my modem is fried' he'd have to run it through tests still...And if you EVER screamed at a tech working for me, or myself working in tech support, there is no way, absolutely no way, I'd be talking to you for much longer. There's a limit for how much crap a tech has to put up with, but screaming is both stupid, immature, and essentially useless...I watched an old manager of mine put a person that was screaming at him on hold for 2 minutes, come back, ask him if he was ready to talk like a normal person...I would tell the next tech to talk to you to do the same.
I worked in tech support for 3 years at a fairly decent sized ISP, 15,000 people or so. And most of the time, I was alone in the call center (actually where I started reading slashdot)
At any rate, one customer called up and left the following voice mail
"...hello? Where are you guys? I seem to have be having some problems with my modem and *screeching like a girl* YOU GUYS JUST AREN'T THERE TO HELP ME! THIS IS THE MOST SH**TY SERVICE I'VE EVER HAD AND IF YOU GUYS WERE HERE I'D BEAT THE **** OUT OF YOU YOU B@$TARD @$$HOLES! TURN IT ON NOW!!!*/screeching*"
Well, I have to call him back:) Unfortunately, he wasn't available when I called him back (Had taken some time to write up the entire message and email it to the office manager, as well as record a copy just for personal reference).
His wife answered the phone and I explained to her that they hadn't paid their bill in the past couple months so their account had been locked.."WELL" she says, "Do we have to take you to small claims court to get our money back now??"
"I'll have my husband call you back!"
oh goodie
So, the guy calls back, and I'm just livid
"So, you won't turn our account on, huh?"
"That's right sir, and you're lucky I don't report you to the RCMP. I'm not paid enough to deal with jerks like you and your wife and I should never have to deal with it. so, the only way you'll EVER get service from us again is if you mail in a letter of apology to the office staff, pay your account, and never ever call us again"
"Ok"
Thank you sir, and have a nice day
My point, through that entertaining anecdote, is that, no, no ones paid enough to deal with stuff like that, and if management can't seem to deal with that fact, then you're better off at a new job where "Respect in the workforce" is not just a poster phrase
Not to be a starched shirt or anything, but aren't all programming languages inherently 'open source'. Or is this Timothy's favourite buzzword for posting articles?
Now, about the PS2, I'm thinking of buying one as a gift simply because it makes a cheap DVD player...What exactly is the quality like on them? Any experiences good/bad?
I'm still surprised by the apparent lack of interest in IBM's research concerning PAN applications. My senior year thesis in telecommunications I believe, was on applying PAN technology for every day use.
The simplified point is to create an external electric field that passes an incredibly tiny current through the body which is used to transmit data. Granted, AFAIK, the highest speed that it has reached is a 2400-baud modem, demonstrated wonderfully by Alan Alda of M*A*S*H fame. Interested really peaked around 1996, and has declined since, but it really was fascinating stuff....The ability to exchange information just by coming in close contact...exchanging business cards by shaking hands...Think of the possibilities:)
The industry as a whole only shoots itself in the foot by actively pursuing the younger programming staff while forestalling on the older generations. Experience is one thing, but in a job situation, there is SO much more than just being good at whatever job you will be doing...Social skills, people skills, sales/marketing skills, confidence, maturity, independance, trust...ALL of these can affect the ability to do ones jobs. I would seriously question a HR department's mandate that suggests pulling people right out of high school is a good thing
I was in a situation where an up-and-coming IP-telephony company was extremely interested in my skills while I was still being educated. Granted, there are benefits to being youthful...sex and programming are more enjoyable, not to mention can be endured for longer time periods, but it's still the "Old Sage" that would most benefit a company having growing pains.
My point is, I think, that while the industry matures, it perceives itself as still being youthful, and intends to keep that perception by continually pulling younger and younger people into it's web...Young, hip, trendy.....Not the geeks of yesteryear; Wozniak, Gates, etc
I propose a new method of security programming that takes the best from both models. Just imagine; the security and stability of Win2000 excellently obfuscated with the ease of use and proprietory extensiveness of all *nices.
What is it with the market and Linux stocks? Is it that they don't see how the future is open source yet? Do they not see how these companies can make money from free software?
To answer your questions........
1. Linux stocks go down = bad.....market like stocks up
2. Cannot see future, crystal ball cloudy, ask again later.
3. Cannot see profits still, don't need crystal ball
Re:Wishful and unrealistic thinking
on
Lineo Plans IPO
·
· Score: 1
There is a big problem in your logic....
You assume that the spread of FREE *as in beer* OS's (Let's get anal at this point, Open Source does not mean cheaper) will be sped up by the next economic recession, but your point before was that almost all new computers will run on an OSOS....
The problem is that during an economic recession, people are less willing to go out and BUY new computers, let alone any new software, and the computers that they are running now are going to be more protected from experimenting with new OS's. If anything, a recession would further MS's hold on the market by lowering people's willingness to educate themselves about OS's....
Education is the key to the Linux future, not economics or marketplaces.
No, being overtly intellectual is a part of being boring..Being a geek involves having fun doing stuff one loves, even if one doesn't understand the mechanics behind it
Slashdot Mirror
He seems to have had quite a trouble handling the FSF's many hoops to jump through. Were the problems he encountered caused by the FSF's focus on protecting the community, on protecting the original developer, or protecting itself? I hope that this could be clarified by a followup interview, or maybe Guido himself could post with his opinions in a bit more detail
Much like 'virii' or 'cracking', everything is subjective. Let's all ignore the colloquialisms used and focus on the meat of the article; spammers need lives
It seems a bit unnatural that you have to look away from a screen to move a mouse :) But the other ideas are very practical...Aiming your finger is nice for those carpal tunnel syndromers
During the high times, the "Dotcom Bubble" if you will, the US government wouldn't dare legislate protection for consumers for fear of slowing the rapid growth and revenue from a seemingly giant potential. Protection for the large businesses in order to ensure jobs, wealth, etc etc.
Now that the industry in general has poo-pooed on itself, government may take steps, to correct the mistakes of late. It probably doesn't look too highly on a pampered industry, who lobbies furiously to protect its intellectual property, but then, at the first sign of potential revenue losses, lays off quite substantial amounts of staff.
You're so SMOOOOOOTH
The whole DSS submission makes little to no sense. I'm not quite sure what the meaning is behind it but I'll assume that DirecTV is doing something to prevent viewing of stuff during the Superbowl and hackers found a way of circumventing this anti-circumvention. Maybe someone could clear this up a bit as the link in the story seems to just go to a pay-for-hardware site or an overly technical page.
Excellent article Jamie..This is why I read Slashdot, not for Hellmouth propaganda, or Linux flame-baiting. I read it for well written pieces concerning matters that do interest me...Good thing I never purchased SlashdotSucks.com, even if now I actually have a right to have it.
I think the overall tone concerning patents is beginning to change. In the beginning, it seemed that patents were seen as a necessity, one of the only ways of protecting your work, your ideas, your income. Examples of this were of course, one of the main reasons behind the explosion of open source in the Pro-Information Information Technology industry. Later, Amazon's amazing "One-Click" patents and various other odd, but almost believable patents were reviewed and dismissed, but not with the animosity seen today. No longer is it just 'acceptable' to have a bad patent. People are becoming down right hostile about perceived rights to intellectual property and the supposed 'evolution' that companies stand behind when patenting such blatently general ideas.
It's actually comforting to see that, while stupid patents keep getting given, there is more of an uproar when they are passed, and bad press is certainly one of the major killers of companies in this new millenium
...They got paid to play Missle Command all day?
The Slashdot Patent Pending logo is looking more and more realistic every day.
Possibly because they believe that those credit cards are fraudulently being used not from being stolen from their site but from just ordinary everyday credit card fraud. Their justification is so low a percentage of the credit cards seem to be fraudulently used that it's comparable to normal percentages of credit card fraud.
What's more likely is that the attackers haven't gotten to use all the credit cards yet ;)
Case 1:
We had one guy from Earthlink support apply to work at my company. I posed a VERY common ISP customer scenario, "When I was downloading my e-mail, my computer crashed and now after I reboot and reconnect, my mail program is telling me my password is incorrect". This guy looked at me with a blank stare then said he would ask them customer to retype their password, then check their DNS, then look for proxies, etc. then if that didn't work he would tell the customer to reinstall system software and reinstall the mail client. WRONG!! I asked him if he ever heard of a "popper". Again dumbfounded. At that point I thanked him for his time and kicked him out.
What's a 'popper'? I would think you would just ask the customer to wait 5 minutes and they'd be able to log back on after the POP server hits it's idle time-out....But I might be wrong....but coming at him with jargon like that is a bit much. Who are you trying to hire, experts? I mean, he was probably Tier 1 at Earthlink and you're expecting him to know all. Guess what, that's what training is for.
Case 2: .."Well sir, I need to ping your router to perform some tests and I can't right now" was the response, this after informing him that the whole unit is fried and is not working at all. "I'm sorry sir, I have to test the unit from here".
One of our Flowpoint routers got fried (common occurance with the Flowpoints). I called tech
Guess what, he's right! If a customer called up and said 'my modem is fried' he'd have to run it through tests still...And if you EVER screamed at a tech working for me, or myself working in tech support, there is no way, absolutely no way, I'd be talking to you for much longer. There's a limit for how much crap a tech has to put up with, but screaming is both stupid, immature, and essentially useless...I watched an old manager of mine put a person that was screaming at him on hold for 2 minutes, come back, ask him if he was ready to talk like a normal person...I would tell the next tech to talk to you to do the same.
I worked in tech support for 3 years at a fairly decent sized ISP, 15,000 people or so. And most of the time, I was alone in the call center (actually where I started reading slashdot) At any rate, one customer called up and left the following voice mail "...hello? Where are you guys? I seem to have be having some problems with my modem and *screeching like a girl* YOU GUYS JUST AREN'T THERE TO HELP ME! THIS IS THE MOST SH**TY SERVICE I'VE EVER HAD AND IF YOU GUYS WERE HERE I'D BEAT THE **** OUT OF YOU YOU B@$TARD @$$HOLES! TURN IT ON NOW!!!*/screeching*"
Well, I have to call him back :) Unfortunately, he wasn't available when I called him back (Had taken some time to write up the entire message and email it to the office manager, as well as record a copy just for personal reference).
His wife answered the phone and I explained to her that they hadn't paid their bill in the past couple months so their account had been locked.."WELL" she says, "Do we have to take you to small claims court to get our money back now??"
"I'll have my husband call you back!"
oh goodie
So, the guy calls back, and I'm just livid "So, you won't turn our account on, huh?" "That's right sir, and you're lucky I don't report you to the RCMP. I'm not paid enough to deal with jerks like you and your wife and I should never have to deal with it. so, the only way you'll EVER get service from us again is if you mail in a letter of apology to the office staff, pay your account, and never ever call us again" "Ok"
Thank you sir, and have a nice day
My point, through that entertaining anecdote, is that, no, no ones paid enough to deal with stuff like that, and if management can't seem to deal with that fact, then you're better off at a new job where "Respect in the workforce" is not just a poster phrase
Oooh...damn. Nothing worse than getting LART-ed Thanks though
Not to be a starched shirt or anything, but aren't all programming languages inherently 'open source'. Or is this Timothy's favourite buzzword for posting articles?
Now, about the PS2, I'm thinking of buying one as a gift simply because it makes a cheap DVD player...What exactly is the quality like on them? Any experiences good/bad?
For those who aren't versed, visit here
The simplified point is to create an external electric field that passes an incredibly tiny current through the body which is used to transmit data. Granted, AFAIK, the highest speed that it has reached is a 2400-baud modem, demonstrated wonderfully by Alan Alda of M*A*S*H fame. Interested really peaked around 1996, and has declined since, but it really was fascinating stuff....The ability to exchange information just by coming in close contact...exchanging business cards by shaking hands...Think of the possibilities :)
I was in a situation where an up-and-coming IP-telephony company was extremely interested in my skills while I was still being educated. Granted, there are benefits to being youthful...sex and programming are more enjoyable, not to mention can be endured for longer time periods, but it's still the "Old Sage" that would most benefit a company having growing pains.
My point is, I think, that while the industry matures, it perceives itself as still being youthful, and intends to keep that perception by continually pulling younger and younger people into it's web...Young, hip, trendy.....Not the geeks of yesteryear; Wozniak, Gates, etc
Could you at least try a bit harder to be an entertaining troll :)
I propose a new method of security programming that takes the best from both models.
Just imagine; the security and stability of Win2000 excellently obfuscated with the ease of use and proprietory extensiveness of all *nices.
I call it "Steve"
Teach them how to learn on their own.
Teach them how to spell
And then, go on to programming
Whoa, remind me not to read /. so late at night...For a second there, I thought that AOL/Mozilla was thinking of buying up the British Secret Service.
To answer your questions........
1. Linux stocks go down = bad.....market like stocks up
2. Cannot see future, crystal ball cloudy, ask again later.
3. Cannot see profits still, don't need crystal ball
You assume that the spread of FREE *as in beer* OS's (Let's get anal at this point, Open Source does not mean cheaper) will be sped up by the next economic recession, but your point before was that almost all new computers will run on an OSOS....
The problem is that during an economic recession, people are less willing to go out and BUY new computers, let alone any new software, and the computers that they are running now are going to be more protected from experimenting with new OS's. If anything, a recession would further MS's hold on the market by lowering people's willingness to educate themselves about OS's....
Education is the key to the Linux future, not economics or marketplaces.
Easy, it's called........money
Oh, and btw, a similar agreement is also signed with OpenSRS....;)
No, being overtly intellectual is a part of being boring..Being a geek involves having fun doing stuff one loves, even if one doesn't understand the mechanics behind it