Problem is they are NOT the only offender.. most all browswers are in the same boat
It depends how the patent is approached. MS is the only one that integrated the OS/Browser/Plugin architecture. MS is also the only one who designs the browser in such a way that it controls the users desktop. Perhaps more free form designs will not be so susceptible.
Do nothing and watch the complaints roll in as folks bitch about lots of pop-up warning prompts; some will even think the warning dialogue boxes are pop-up ads themselves - geez!
This could be biggest problem with the patent dispute. I believe the big reason advertisers use flash is because the user has no control over it. If the plug in exists, then the flash animation controls the users machine
However if the user has a warning, then there is significant possibility the user can stop the flow. How hard would it be for OS browsers to force every javascript dialogue box to have a cancel button, or to disallow modal dialogue boxes.
In a sense this lawsuit may be more about user control of the browser.
I agree with you. This patent thing is getting out of hand. I disagree that a world without IE would be good. However, if a patent is granted, then the courts should go with the laws. This isn't a issue of constitutional rights, or state rights, or human rights, or anticompetitive behavior.
I haven't read much about this case, but i have seen two key facts. One is that MS was given the opportunity to license the technology ten years ago and they did not. The second is that the case of prior art presented by MS was a process that was developed contemporaneously with the process under question. It is not clear that one predates the other, and the other process was not patented. There are many examples of simultaneous developments throughout history, and the person who get the credit is often random. Therefore the judge reasonable ruled that no prior art could be specified.
The other two adjoining issues is that MS firmly believes in IP and in particular patents. It would be hypocritical to allow them to hold onto those beliefs only when it is convenient for them. That is what we call inappropriate consequences and is like a bully complaining that a kid who he has been beating up every day for the past year is now aiming a gun at his head. The second is that the browser/plug in model is part of the OS, a situation unique to MS.
I certainly hope that this mess will make the PHB realize that patenting these things is bad. I think at this point they see it as a game. Who can rack up the most frivolous patents, similar to who can screw the most secretaries, or have the youngest spouse. But it has serious consequences. Under the current rules, Eolas Technologies may have the power to stop the distribution of Windows, and god knows what else. That is scary.
I am thinking how many of the assholes that can't leave their cells phones off for 2 hours are going to make it for 10 hours.
"Yea dud I am here at the LOTR extended edition"...
"Oh nothing man, i be out of here in about 9 hours. you wanna hook up"...
"No, you know i seen this part. I just thought it would be cool to be here"...
"No, I couldn't get anyone to go with me to the party"...
"God I know. She is such a slut, and I can't ever get to kiss me"...
...
...
ad nauseum
I would take it even further. The Windows problems tends to be in apps that the average bussiness owner might use, or even the casual users, while the *nix problems tend to be those managed in a more centralised fashion.
For instance, the first four vulnerabilities in Windows are issues that almost every business owner, institution and government entity has to know how to protect themselves against. Yes, businesses do not have to run these, but given MS current business practices and corporate viewpoint, IE is the only browser that matters, and it is far simpler to just buy and the MS products than to mix and match than risk the wrath of the BSA. In fact IE affects almost every user of Windows.
OTOH, of the first four vulnerabilities in *nix, most users are only going to worry about the last two. And given the increasing responsiveness of *nix distributors, none of the four is going to directly affect the causal user.
We see the same thing with the remaining vulnerabilities in each list. Outlook and P2P, and to some degree the others, affects almost every casual user of windows. Even with proper updates these have a good potential to wreak havoc not only on the infected machine, but on the entire internet. But the other *nix problems, if they do affect the casual user, and some certainly do, are pretty much going to a problem for that casual user, and not expand to the general internet.
Which is just to say the MS needs to stop taking about secure computing and trying to secure content and sending programmers to workshop, and just take a top down look at their security model to see how it can be restructured to cause few overall problems.
Out of curiosity i went to the USPTO site. The first thing i notice is they, at least at the moment, are in the in business of building a ultra modern five building campus. From this critical news item on the front page we also learn the customers are the entities that file the patents. This certainly reinforces the view that they exist to grant patents, not review the validity of said documents, at least not beyond paper-pusher requirements.
In any case, there does seem to be a protest procedure. It appears to happen before the patent is granted, and the patent office can ignore it.
It also appears that there is a procedure to cite prior art, as well as a request for reexamination, but that costs like $2500 to $8000.
Anyway, it looks like people can at least send prior art claims that will be included it a reexamination every happens
Drop Cygwin and Dev-C++. If you are going to dual boot into Linux, do development in Linux using Emacs and the Gnu or other OSS compilers. if your kids are learning programming in school, the best thing to do to help them is try to score a copy of Visual Studio. This what the lame windoze machine at school run.
Unless you are doing a lot of web development, I don't see the use for an FTP client.
Skip the AV program and get adaware. It will scrub the system of all the cookies, spyware, and sometimes even viruses that your family will inevitiable accidently let onto the system.
I would be very hesititant about putting some of the other stuff on family machine, unless you want your kids to join the l33t script.
Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. Much like the telephone psychic, it is not so much a matter that they are occasionally correct, but that it is difficult to predetermine which occasion that is.
You don't have to pay for it. You can live without it. Just like music or really cool sneakers, OS is not a life necessity, no matter what the propaganda wants you to believe.
And, if we use the MS argument against Linux, unless your time and bandwidth is worthless, you do pay or every incremental upgrade.
Some one tell me how we ended up three control keys. On Windows machines we have the window key, the control key, and the alt key. On Macs we have the Apple/Command/Flower key, the option/alt key and the control key. Of course, on most machines we have a ESC key, which is really there to escape out of, or switch, modes, but has been given other weird functions such as escaping out of application or whatever.
In fact the alt/option key is really just a replacement for the escape key, except one has to be dexterous enough to hold two keys down at once to use it.
And lets not even get started with delete/backspace key and the del key.
Just looking at my keyboard, which has as nearly as many function/command keys as character keys, I wonder if bloat stated with the keyboard and expanded into the software. I mean it looks cool and hi tech and all, but who needs to look hi tech in the 21st century?
Re:PVRs are already making TV unrecognizable
on
TV's Tipping Point
·
· Score: 1
OTOH, given the lack of of quality writing, acting, or production value in most televisions shows, I have noticed that commercials often are those things that provide entertainment in an otherwise drab, product driven landscape.
With an intrusion like this one can never be sure of the extent of the damage. My guess that they will
Roll back to a known secure codebase
Allow the programmers add back in code written since that date
revalidate the codebase
rewrite protocols to make the new release less vulnerable to the hacks created from the code leak
Then add in any functionality originally scheduled for this release and validate
Re:Like Most Other Hacking Competitions
on
Get Paid To Crack?
·
· Score: 1
Two obvious points:
1) The firewall can still be DDOS.
2) The real contest is tunneling through the firewall.
My big issue was what would this mean for typosquatting.
Sitefinder was essentially trying to make a profit of peoples typos, just like typosquatting. Typo squatting was equally innovative. I run bubba's books and register amozon.com. If I give the consumer better deals, where's the harm. Likewise, I have a licensed archive of naked people, and wonder how I can make money off it. I register disnay.com, put the pictures up for free. Again, consumers benefits because they get to look a free naked people, and when disney comes a knockin', I reluctantly give up my business for 100K.
It is true that sitefinder may be providing a service, and it is true that they have not yet put up pop up ads or links to porn sites, but if they are allowed to continue what is there to stop them?
Typosquatting probably isn't a a valid business model and clearly verisign should not be encouraging it. Unless of course part of their business model is to encourage typesquatting, transfer the domain name to victim, and then have the victim pay the registration fees into perpetuity.
Your analogy is a little flawed. While both UPS and the cable company use public property for their service, for example roads, conduit, the zip code, they differ in one important way. The cable companies generally have a monopoly in a certain area, while most areas are free to choose from a menu of delivery companies.
If this were not the case, if UPS has exclusive access to an area, then i would argue that they would have a methodology for accepting other companies packages and delivering it into the area. For instance, regulators might force UPS to make available a number of warehouses regularly spaced outside of the area for competing delivery services to use as transfer points. UPS could charge a fee at these transfer points to cover costs and maybe a little profit, but not a charge that would be anticompetitive. In exchange for the fee, UPS would deliver the packages to addresses inside the area in a reasonable amount of time, and take reasonable care for the safety of the packages.
Re:The one i hate most
on
Software Fashion
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· Score: 1, Flamebait
In most cases I have never needed a modern IDE to look up a varible definition. grep and egrep word just fine.
A programmer at school who did Pascal liked to have descriptive 40 character long variable names. His stuff was just unreadable.
We must remember that when we speak of 'cross platform' on wintel machine we are talking about the ability to run Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows 98, etc, not *nix, *bsd, Be, etc.
My understanding is that it is technically possible to run a dual boot Wintel machine. It has even been technically possible to run virtual machines or use something like Cygwin to run code for other OS.
So the issue is not technical. The issue is whether MS wants other OS run on the machines that through licensing terms it claims control over. The issue is also whether Intel is going to give up a relationship with a company that has created the requirement for it's CPU.
Bank robbers nowdays, if they manage to get out of the bank with some money, almost always get caught.
Actually I am not sure how true that statement is. As a matter of fact I have read that 'note robberies' are on the increase. These robberies only involve a not to the teller but no weapons. I read somewhere that the FBI is not even seriously pursuing these cases.
Take a look at this bank robber reward page and notice how many involve just notes to the teller.
This is not to say that many bank robbers do not get caught, but it is enough of a problem that some banks now do not allows hats in the bank.
It would be good for people to read an analysis of what the law actually says. I think they have a good one of either findlaw or groklow.
The gist is that fair use is decided on a case by case basis by the copyright owner and the courts. In some cases a substantial portion might be fair use if there are no commercial uses for it. In other cases, a duplicating a small amount might violate fair use if the copy is of a critically important section. Likewise, satire is may of may not be fair use and some pay for the ability to satire just to be sure.
Perhaps you prefer the good old days when you'd have to check half a dozen search engines and trawl through countless useless links until you found something that was useful.
The good old days really weren't so bad. It is true that a single search [not child or office safe] did not return such instant gratification, but there was only a briefly a time when one had to search several engines. First there was Yahoo, then Altavista, then, for many of us, Sherlock which did the searching and collating for us. Soon after google became good enough.
And I have had to trawl through many a useless links on Google to get to what I need. And i am not new to the web or web searching. Nor am I new to the art of index searching in general, having spent more time than i care to remember in the stacks.
Google is very good. But remember one of the reasons many of us started using it was the ad free pages, not the quality. The quality came later. As did the ads.
The structural force on the web exerted by google is of concern. It would be nice if another service came on line. Perhaps one that had the original focus of google. It would be a stress for spammers because they would have to manipulate thier pages for two services, but I think we could forgive them that problem.
As I mentioned before, the are two issues in utilities. One is the monopoly status and the other is reliability. If enough people go to unregulated services, then the reliability we take for granted might be compromised. The reality is that we are very fortunate in the US. Land line reliability is very high. There have several occasion where I had not electricity but had line land service. Cell phone service is not yet reliable enough to take the slack.
The thing is that these services are growing quickly. We can either take time now to calmly and logically regulate them, or wait for a major disaster and slap some random rules together.
I carry around a waterman fountain pen for everyday use. This pen is much more environmentally friendly than the plastic disposables. I also have a waterman roller ball for filling out forms. I occasionally find two pack gifts set for around $60 dollars. Waterman has a cheaper thicker pen, but i do not recommend those, unless you just want a cheap pen to use in places where it might get taken.
I used to have a mont blanc but I lost it. It really was not my favorite pen. I mostly used it to hand write notes and letters. I use a glass pen for that purpose now.
The best disposable pen is the bic or papermate roller ball. You really have to try the brands and find the one that fits you style. I know that the gel ink pens are all the rage, but I believe that is because the come in pretty colors
When you think about it, it takes only a few disposable high end roller balls to pay for a waterman. If you can avoid losing th pen for a year, it pays for itself.
Slashdot Mirror
It depends how the patent is approached. MS is the only one that integrated the OS/Browser/Plugin architecture. MS is also the only one who designs the browser in such a way that it controls the users desktop. Perhaps more free form designs will not be so susceptible.
This could be biggest problem with the patent dispute. I believe the big reason advertisers use flash is because the user has no control over it. If the plug in exists, then the flash animation controls the users machine
However if the user has a warning, then there is significant possibility the user can stop the flow. How hard would it be for OS browsers to force every javascript dialogue box to have a cancel button, or to disallow modal dialogue boxes.
In a sense this lawsuit may be more about user control of the browser.
I haven't read much about this case, but i have seen two key facts. One is that MS was given the opportunity to license the technology ten years ago and they did not. The second is that the case of prior art presented by MS was a process that was developed contemporaneously with the process under question. It is not clear that one predates the other, and the other process was not patented. There are many examples of simultaneous developments throughout history, and the person who get the credit is often random. Therefore the judge reasonable ruled that no prior art could be specified.
The other two adjoining issues is that MS firmly believes in IP and in particular patents. It would be hypocritical to allow them to hold onto those beliefs only when it is convenient for them. That is what we call inappropriate consequences and is like a bully complaining that a kid who he has been beating up every day for the past year is now aiming a gun at his head. The second is that the browser/plug in model is part of the OS, a situation unique to MS.
I certainly hope that this mess will make the PHB realize that patenting these things is bad. I think at this point they see it as a game. Who can rack up the most frivolous patents, similar to who can screw the most secretaries, or have the youngest spouse. But it has serious consequences. Under the current rules, Eolas Technologies may have the power to stop the distribution of Windows, and god knows what else. That is scary.
"Yea dud I am here at the LOTR extended edition"...
...
...
"Oh nothing man, i be out of here in about 9 hours. you wanna hook up"...
"No, you know i seen this part. I just thought it would be cool to be here"...
"No, I couldn't get anyone to go with me to the party"...
"God I know. She is such a slut, and I can't ever get to kiss me"...
ad nauseum
For instance, the first four vulnerabilities in Windows are issues that almost every business owner, institution and government entity has to know how to protect themselves against. Yes, businesses do not have to run these, but given MS current business practices and corporate viewpoint, IE is the only browser that matters, and it is far simpler to just buy and the MS products than to mix and match than risk the wrath of the BSA. In fact IE affects almost every user of Windows.
OTOH, of the first four vulnerabilities in *nix, most users are only going to worry about the last two. And given the increasing responsiveness of *nix distributors, none of the four is going to directly affect the causal user.
We see the same thing with the remaining vulnerabilities in each list. Outlook and P2P, and to some degree the others, affects almost every casual user of windows. Even with proper updates these have a good potential to wreak havoc not only on the infected machine, but on the entire internet. But the other *nix problems, if they do affect the casual user, and some certainly do, are pretty much going to a problem for that casual user, and not expand to the general internet.
Which is just to say the MS needs to stop taking about secure computing and trying to secure content and sending programmers to workshop, and just take a top down look at their security model to see how it can be restructured to cause few overall problems.
In any case, there does seem to be a protest procedure. It appears to happen before the patent is granted, and the patent office can ignore it.
It also appears that there is a procedure to cite prior art, as well as a request for reexamination, but that costs like $2500 to $8000.
Anyway, it looks like people can at least send prior art claims that will be included it a reexamination every happens
Drop Cygwin and Dev-C++. If you are going to dual boot into Linux, do development in Linux using Emacs and the Gnu or other OSS compilers. if your kids are learning programming in school, the best thing to do to help them is try to score a copy of Visual Studio. This what the lame windoze machine at school run.
Unless you are doing a lot of web development, I don't see the use for an FTP client.
Skip the AV program and get adaware. It will scrub the system of all the cookies, spyware, and sometimes even viruses that your family will inevitiable accidently let onto the system.
I would be very hesititant about putting some of the other stuff on family machine, unless you want your kids to join the l33t script.
Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. Much like the telephone psychic, it is not so much a matter that they are occasionally correct, but that it is difficult to predetermine which occasion that is.
And, if we use the MS argument against Linux, unless your time and bandwidth is worthless, you do pay or every incremental upgrade.
In fact the alt/option key is really just a replacement for the escape key, except one has to be dexterous enough to hold two keys down at once to use it.
And lets not even get started with delete/backspace key and the del key.
Just looking at my keyboard, which has as nearly as many function/command keys as character keys, I wonder if bloat stated with the keyboard and expanded into the software. I mean it looks cool and hi tech and all, but who needs to look hi tech in the 21st century?
OTOH, given the lack of of quality writing, acting, or production value in most televisions shows, I have noticed that commercials often are those things that provide entertainment in an otherwise drab, product driven landscape.
Roll back to a known secure codebase
Allow the programmers add back in code written since that date
revalidate the codebase
rewrite protocols to make the new release less vulnerable to the hacks created from the code leak
Then add in any functionality originally scheduled for this release and validate
1) The firewall can still be DDOS.
2) The real contest is tunneling through the firewall.
Sitefinder was essentially trying to make a profit of peoples typos, just like typosquatting. Typo squatting was equally innovative. I run bubba's books and register amozon.com. If I give the consumer better deals, where's the harm. Likewise, I have a licensed archive of naked people, and wonder how I can make money off it. I register disnay.com, put the pictures up for free. Again, consumers benefits because they get to look a free naked people, and when disney comes a knockin', I reluctantly give up my business for 100K.
It is true that sitefinder may be providing a service, and it is true that they have not yet put up pop up ads or links to porn sites, but if they are allowed to continue what is there to stop them?
Typosquatting probably isn't a a valid business model and clearly verisign should not be encouraging it. Unless of course part of their business model is to encourage typesquatting, transfer the domain name to victim, and then have the victim pay the registration fees into perpetuity.
If this were not the case, if UPS has exclusive access to an area, then i would argue that they would have a methodology for accepting other companies packages and delivering it into the area. For instance, regulators might force UPS to make available a number of warehouses regularly spaced outside of the area for competing delivery services to use as transfer points. UPS could charge a fee at these transfer points to cover costs and maybe a little profit, but not a charge that would be anticompetitive. In exchange for the fee, UPS would deliver the packages to addresses inside the area in a reasonable amount of time, and take reasonable care for the safety of the packages.
A programmer at school who did Pascal liked to have descriptive 40 character long variable names. His stuff was just unreadable.
Wow, you have time to patch a single box and keep it running. Is that your full time job?
can anyone speak to the number of artists and labels listed on cdbaby that are affiliated with the RIAA
My understanding is that it is technically possible to run a dual boot Wintel machine. It has even been technically possible to run virtual machines or use something like Cygwin to run code for other OS.
So the issue is not technical. The issue is whether MS wants other OS run on the machines that through licensing terms it claims control over. The issue is also whether Intel is going to give up a relationship with a company that has created the requirement for it's CPU.
Actually I am not sure how true that statement is. As a matter of fact I have read that 'note robberies' are on the increase. These robberies only involve a not to the teller but no weapons. I read somewhere that the FBI is not even seriously pursuing these cases.
Take a look at this bank robber reward page and notice how many involve just notes to the teller.
This is not to say that many bank robbers do not get caught, but it is enough of a problem that some banks now do not allows hats in the bank.
The gist is that fair use is decided on a case by case basis by the copyright owner and the courts. In some cases a substantial portion might be fair use if there are no commercial uses for it. In other cases, a duplicating a small amount might violate fair use if the copy is of a critically important section. Likewise, satire is may of may not be fair use and some pay for the ability to satire just to be sure.
opus waddles off in a huff and exits stage left.
The good old days really weren't so bad. It is true that a single search [not child or office safe] did not return such instant gratification, but there was only a briefly a time when one had to search several engines. First there was Yahoo, then Altavista, then, for many of us, Sherlock which did the searching and collating for us. Soon after google became good enough.
And I have had to trawl through many a useless links on Google to get to what I need. And i am not new to the web or web searching. Nor am I new to the art of index searching in general, having spent more time than i care to remember in the stacks.
Google is very good. But remember one of the reasons many of us started using it was the ad free pages, not the quality. The quality came later. As did the ads.
The structural force on the web exerted by google is of concern. It would be nice if another service came on line. Perhaps one that had the original focus of google. It would be a stress for spammers because they would have to manipulate thier pages for two services, but I think we could forgive them that problem.
The thing is that these services are growing quickly. We can either take time now to calmly and logically regulate them, or wait for a major disaster and slap some random rules together.
I used to have a mont blanc but I lost it. It really was not my favorite pen. I mostly used it to hand write notes and letters. I use a glass pen for that purpose now.
The best disposable pen is the bic or papermate roller ball. You really have to try the brands and find the one that fits you style. I know that the gel ink pens are all the rage, but I believe that is because the come in pretty colors
When you think about it, it takes only a few disposable high end roller balls to pay for a waterman. If you can avoid losing th pen for a year, it pays for itself.