You make somethign that costs 699 a liscence and someone else comes around makes a near identical product and charges nothign for it you would be pissed as well.
But the key here is that SCO, the SCO in this suit, the SCO that used to be Caldera, didn't make anything. They bought up some contracts a while back and the new batch of executives in charge are better at making lawsuits than they are at making products.
From my Netware 3.12 server (3.12 was released in September of 1993)...
F:\PUBLIC>revoke.exe
Usage: REVOKE rightslist* [FOR path] FROM [USER|GROUP] name [options] Options:/SubDirectories |/Files
286 Rights: 386 Rights: --------------- -------------------- ALL = All ALL = All R = Read S = Supervisor W = Write R = Read O = Open W = Write C = Create C = Create D = Delete E = Erase P = Parental M = Modify S = Search F = File Scan M = Modify A = Access Control
* Use abbreviations listed above, separated by spaces.
Novell is clearly still the holder of the right to revoke.
You got me there. Why XP Home has it on in the first place is baffling to me. So far, I know three people who've been hit by this...all of them running XP Home.
While I agree with most of what you say, I still think that Zone Alarm is fine for the average user of a home PC connected to a broadband ISP.
I usually keep a 486 box around that I can configure with Coyote or LEAF/Bering or similar for my friends so they don't have to mess with it. But for those who just need something quick, I've found (especially for home PCs not on an internal LAN) that Zone Alarm is fine. I'm not in love with it or anything, but it gets the job done...and while it can be a PITA at first, once you've got it set to remember which apps should be allowed to make and accept connections and which shouldn't, the pain is over.
Ummm... no it doesn't. RTFA. The worm uses TCP port 135. From the article:
An attacker could seek to exploit this vulnerability by programming a machine that could communicate with a vulnerable server over TCP port 135 to send a specific kind of malformed RPC message. Receipt of such a message could cause the RPC service on the vulnerable machine to fail.
My Grandma is definitely a keeper. She wouldn't touch a computer. She just found out there's this thing called "cable" for your TV...although she's not very fond of it.
To whom it may concern:
Why aren't you blocking stupid useless open ports from the Internet? There are freely available tools if you insist on running Windows. Then again, most electronics stores sell standalone broadband firewall/routers. If you used one of those, you could take your time and patch whenever you feel like it...
I tell all those in my circle of influence: never connect to the Internet without a firewall in place. It makes no difference what your host OS is. At the least, you should be running a host-based firewall like Zone Alarm or ipchains/ipfilter/etc. Even better is a standalone box that does nothing but firewall. It's just prudence...even on a simple home PC or LAN.
This isn't about hurting SCO's users. It's about causing trouble for SCO.
If the intention is to cause trouble for SCO, then the FSF should have some balls, step up to the plate, and sue them for violating the terms of the GPL. I don't know, but I'd think they could force them to disclose purchasers of their "license" and they may have some rights to sue those purchasers to get them to stop using Linux. I'm not sure about that though as I know the GPL's terms are pretty much all about distribution, not use.
oxymoron
Pronunciation: (ok"si-mor'on, -mOr'-), n., a figure of speech by which a locution produces an incongruous, seemingly self-contradictory effect, as in "virtuous politicians"
Really you cannot say much about tech support until you have worked the other end of the phone..
I have. I've worked positions at the help desk from Tier I answering the phones to Tier III to being the developer who designed and wrote the freaking software (not an official tier where I was but I had to be available to handle calls the highest tier couldn't) to being the Help Desk Manager. I got ya. I'm not pissed at the person on the other end of the phone. I understand the rules. And just because I throw an "F-ing" around here and there on slashdot, it doesn't mean I curse and yell at tech support people.
I'm not an idiot and I understand it's in my best interest NOT to piss off the support folk. We are both on the same side.
My frustration is with the POLICY. The management idiots who put in place a solution that is INFLEXIBLE.
Support is another part of Customer Relationship Management (tm). What most companies appear to be doing with their support is Cost Containment. That's what sucks.
I will totally second that. I've had better luck with Cisco support than any other support line I've ever called.
I have been on the phone with guys in Australia, India, California, and just all over the place and they're good.
And they've responded quickly and adequately to me in the past...even when the fix requires an upgraded IOS...they just e-mail it to me. Maybe they're not supposed to do that, but criminy it's nice.
3) Saavy people, who know what is going on and can describe the problem completely.
Let me just say, I fit into this category. My experience with tech support is that I know *more* than the person on the other end of the phone.
I don't call for support on easy problems. If I am up against something so gruesome that it requires a call to tech support, it will not be answered by Level I techs. I generally need to talk to the programmers who actually developed the software, the engineers who actually designed the hardware, or at the very least someone in a third or fourth level of escalation position.
What drives me nuts is calling support and being FORCED through the F-ing script before they'll escalate.
A prime example: we recently had a T1 outage. I call support. They want me to reboot the router. I tell the person to STFU and escalate me to someone who knows WTF they're talking about because the CARD IN THE SMARTJACK IS DEAD. I can reboot the router until Microsoft GPLs Windows and the circuit will not come back...yet they insist on leading me through the script.
I hung up and called my sales rep. Nine times out of ten, that gets me the support I need.
People will pay for online content with the following provisos:
Same or similar, comparable, slightly lower quality content cannot be available elsewhere for free
They have a meaningful value proposition (people will feel like they're getting what they're paying for)
The economy (and their current income level) allows them to have the disposable income for it...as most online content is not vital to have
A prime example (although it's not "online") is HBO. I pay an extra $10/month for it because its content is (imho) that much better than the rest of what TV has to offer. If an online service can get people to feel the same way (that their content is that much better than the rest of what the Internet has to offer) no doubt people will pay.
See...I take my gun and I put it -- point blank -- to the forehead of my latest musician victim. Then I say, "write me a song, now!" with a menacing little "...or else..." sometimes thrown in for good measure.
I gotta say, I love stealing music. But Ms. Rosen is right, the quality is dubious...you'd be surprised how bad a lot of musicians are at freestyle and adlib.
Microsoft doesn't make most of its money selling to retail users. It sells to OEMs. And they habitually PUNISH OEMs that try to bundle non-Microsoft software.
For instance, shouldn't an OEM be allowed to sell PCs bundled with Windows, Mozilla and WinAmp without fear of retribution from Microsoft?
What Microsoft does is create lock-in by taking choice away from OEMs, and by extension end-users. Sure, an end-user can go install Mozilla if they want, but you and I both know they won't. They'll just use whatever's in the box because that's easiest...whether they like it or not.
But, as an OEM, I might find I could sell a system to give users a better experience if I remove IE and WMP, and instead bundle Mozilla, WinAmp, and Open Office. Yet if I do this, Microsoft will charge me more so I cannot be competitive or flat refuse to sell me licenses.
For a non-Monopoly this may be OK but the laws make it illegal for a Monopoly to engage in tactics designed specifically to maintain its monopoly...which this is.
And people don't always have a choice. Try buying a major brand laptop without Windows pre-installed. Try buying it with Windows and getting a refund for not using it.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, but you're all gonna be hurting when they run penis32.exe
I have found datacenters can get considerably louder when the power goes out. The servers keep running and then you add all those beeping UPSes...oy!
Now if the power *stays* out...then it gets really quiet.
From my Netware 3.12 server (3.12 was released in September of 1993)...
/SubDirectories | /Files
F:\PUBLIC>revoke.exe
Usage: REVOKE rightslist* [FOR path] FROM [USER|GROUP] name [options]
Options:
286 Rights: 386 Rights:
--------------- --------------------
ALL = All ALL = All
R = Read S = Supervisor
W = Write R = Read
O = Open W = Write
C = Create C = Create
D = Delete E = Erase
P = Parental M = Modify
S = Search F = File Scan
M = Modify A = Access Control
* Use abbreviations listed above, separated by spaces.
Novell is clearly still the holder of the right to revoke.
Ahhh...thanks for the laughs. The OL kind even!
You got me there. Why XP Home has it on in the first place is baffling to me. So far, I know three people who've been hit by this...all of them running XP Home.
While I agree with most of what you say, I still think that Zone Alarm is fine for the average user of a home PC connected to a broadband ISP.
I usually keep a 486 box around that I can configure with Coyote or LEAF/Bering or similar for my friends so they don't have to mess with it. But for those who just need something quick, I've found (especially for home PCs not on an internal LAN) that Zone Alarm is fine. I'm not in love with it or anything, but it gets the job done...and while it can be a PITA at first, once you've got it set to remember which apps should be allowed to make and accept connections and which shouldn't, the pain is over.
My Grandma is definitely a keeper. She wouldn't touch a computer. She just found out there's this thing called "cable" for your TV...although she's not very fond of it.
(Better yet)
To whom it may concern:
Why aren't you blocking stupid useless open ports from the Internet? There are freely available tools if you insist on running Windows. Then again, most electronics stores sell standalone broadband firewall/routers. If you used one of those, you could take your time and patch whenever you feel like it...
I tell all those in my circle of influence: never connect to the Internet without a firewall in place. It makes no difference what your host OS is. At the least, you should be running a host-based firewall like Zone Alarm or ipchains/ipfilter/etc. Even better is a standalone box that does nothing but firewall. It's just prudence...even on a simple home PC or LAN.
oxymoron
Pronunciation: (ok"si-mor'on, -mOr'-), n., a figure of speech by which a locution produces an incongruous, seemingly self-contradictory effect, as in "virtuous politicians"
I'm not an idiot and I understand it's in my best interest NOT to piss off the support folk. We are both on the same side.
My frustration is with the POLICY. The management idiots who put in place a solution that is INFLEXIBLE.
Support is another part of Customer Relationship Management (tm). What most companies appear to be doing with their support is Cost Containment. That's what sucks.
I will totally second that. I've had better luck with Cisco support than any other support line I've ever called.
I have been on the phone with guys in Australia, India, California, and just all over the place and they're good.
And they've responded quickly and adequately to me in the past...even when the fix requires an upgraded IOS...they just e-mail it to me. Maybe they're not supposed to do that, but criminy it's nice.
Yeah, but bugs don't have lobbyists and besides...bugs are...you know...gross and stuff.
I don't call for support on easy problems. If I am up against something so gruesome that it requires a call to tech support, it will not be answered by Level I techs. I generally need to talk to the programmers who actually developed the software, the engineers who actually designed the hardware, or at the very least someone in a third or fourth level of escalation position.
What drives me nuts is calling support and being FORCED through the F-ing script before they'll escalate.
A prime example: we recently had a T1 outage. I call support. They want me to reboot the router. I tell the person to STFU and escalate me to someone who knows WTF they're talking about because the CARD IN THE SMARTJACK IS DEAD. I can reboot the router until Microsoft GPLs Windows and the circuit will not come back...yet they insist on leading me through the script.
I hung up and called my sales rep. Nine times out of ten, that gets me the support I need.
Thank you. I had never read that and found it was good.
- Same or similar, comparable, slightly lower quality content cannot be available elsewhere for free
- They have a meaningful value proposition (people will feel like they're getting what they're paying for)
- The economy (and their current income level) allows them to have the disposable income for it...as most online content is not vital to have
A prime example (although it's not "online") is HBO. I pay an extra $10/month for it because its content is (imho) that much better than the rest of what TV has to offer. If an online service can get people to feel the same way (that their content is that much better than the rest of what the Internet has to offer) no doubt people will pay.See...I take my gun and I put it -- point blank -- to the forehead of my latest musician victim. Then I say, "write me a song, now!" with a menacing little "...or else..." sometimes thrown in for good measure.
I gotta say, I love stealing music. But Ms. Rosen is right, the quality is dubious...you'd be surprised how bad a lot of musicians are at freestyle and adlib.
Maybe I need to stick with Jazz musicians.
The point you're missing is this:
Microsoft doesn't make most of its money selling to retail users. It sells to OEMs. And they habitually PUNISH OEMs that try to bundle non-Microsoft software.
For instance, shouldn't an OEM be allowed to sell PCs bundled with Windows, Mozilla and WinAmp without fear of retribution from Microsoft?
What Microsoft does is create lock-in by taking choice away from OEMs, and by extension end-users. Sure, an end-user can go install Mozilla if they want, but you and I both know they won't. They'll just use whatever's in the box because that's easiest...whether they like it or not.
But, as an OEM, I might find I could sell a system to give users a better experience if I remove IE and WMP, and instead bundle Mozilla, WinAmp, and Open Office. Yet if I do this, Microsoft will charge me more so I cannot be competitive or flat refuse to sell me licenses.
For a non-Monopoly this may be OK but the laws make it illegal for a Monopoly to engage in tactics designed specifically to maintain its monopoly...which this is.
And people don't always have a choice. Try buying a major brand laptop without Windows pre-installed. Try buying it with Windows and getting a refund for not using it.
I'll just send the Monopoly money.
Even better: just e-mail me your credit card number and expiration date...and I'll take care of it for you.
Buy a lotto ticket. Your odds of making money are better that way.