> Is why any virus writers ever get caught. [...] they simply have to go down to their local library and/or cyber cafe wearing a wig and makeup, stick the floppy in, click, then leave, what's the problem?
I used to do that, but I got tired of having all the geeks try to pick me up while I was there.
> OK, I have a quick question. These worms and virii are hitting a ton of Microsoft vulnerabilities, and that's why they *exist*, but to me it seems like they only succeed because office workers, mom (my mom's comp was hit by Blaster), guy down the street, etc. *don't harden their computers*, or because they can't seem to stop clicking on attachments. [...] I'm tired, and cranky, and I love Linux. But I just don't know if I'd trust my mom to run a secure Mandrake box if she can't even do Windows fucking Update.
At some point someone with a misguided sense of "ease of use" will write a *n*x e-mail client that executes attachments at a click, and then the fun will begin.
This is an engineering problem - a failure to account for the human element in the process. The whole point of engineering, in any discipline, is to take precautions against the predictable stuff that will fux0r your system. The relevant behavior here is fully predictable, ergo it is an engineering error.
I plead with FOSS developers not to make the same mistake.
> Email programs should make it _hard_ to open any file that is executable.
The problem is that Microsoft saw fit to implement an EDI system without any of the safeguards required for EDI.
That's why I ultimately blame Microsoft for these things. You simply can't train this kind of problem out of a broad userbase, so you have to account for the human element in your software design.
> Anyone else think this sounds like a bad hollywood plot? We only have 48 hours to shut down 20 randomn computers or the internet is brought to it's knees.
Worm author sells movie rights to pay legal fees...
> But these hapless companies and also the public sector will eventually be forced to learn, and that's ultimately a good thing for all of us.
Essentially these have been serving as vaccinations rather than infections, because they're provoking an antibody response that will (should) reduce the impact of a genuinely hostile worm when it finally comes out.
The vaccination isn't completely effective, since so many people obviously aren't hardening their systems, but some are, and the experts are getting a lot of practice at trapping, analyzing, and defusing the worms on a tight schedule. If this had come out a couple of years ago the response might not have been quick enough to shut the 19 sites down.
> I'm inclined to believe in the "true believer" theory.
Your argument makes perfect sense, but what I can't understand is why it bolted on Friday. IIRC it opened around 10.5 and closed at about 13.5. Why Friday, after the "greek" had been decoded and discussed, rather than the day of the presentation? Usually it only jumps back up after McBride makes another noisy PR move, not after a few days of deconstructing the most recent one.
Lots of FRPGs operate on a concept of "levels" of challenge, so it seems like it should be possible to start with low complexity at "level 1", and add in the complexity incrementally as the player enters new levels and gets opportunites to do new things.
> The manual system is vulnerable to small human errors and small opportunistic fraud. It is totally immune to large systematic fraud.
And that, my friend, is probably the ultimate reason that electronic voting will replace all other systems, since the other systems are harder to coerce into giving the "right" result.
> One lobbyist, Emery Simon with the Business Software Alliance, said his group objected to the suggestion in the proposal that overly broad or restrictive intellectual-property rights might in some cases stunt technological innovation and economic growth.
Given that the US Constitution justifies IP on the basis of promoting progress, we can't be asking the question of whether our laws actually do that, now can we?
IP law has become nothing more than an authorization for a gold rush, as everyone hurries to stake their claims until there's nothing left that you can do for free.
> Regarding the interview with the lawyer, I got the impression he was largely spouting the party line for his client. It did feel rather incoherent and he honestly didn't seem to believe what he was saying.
What he says to the judge will surely be more relevant.
> I actually do wonder just how in touch with reality some of the SCO execs are. Now that they've committed to a business path based on lawsuits and dubious legal claims, they can't really back out, so it seems they're becoming wrapped up in the worlds they created to justify their claims.
Yeah, IBM didn't follow the script, and now they've pretty much got a tiger by the tail. Now that they've peeved 99% of the *n*x community the residual value of SCO without winning this suit is about $0.00.
They've only got one potentially profitable option left, which IIRC Connery demanded of Caine in The Man Who Would Be King: "Brass it out! Brass it out!"
> Well, given the very pro Microsoft stances that many folks have here in response to anything critical of Microsoft, I have wondered if they are paying attention to Slashdot as well. Especially considering that many of the rabidly pro-MS posts are posted as AC.
Given MS's longstanding PR problems, if I were running the company and had what appears to be the typical ethics among CEOs these days, I'd be paying a few hundred people to astroturf Slashdot as full-time jobs.
No, that doesn't mean that MS is actually doing it.
> or something thats even older. BUt this is probably the oldest actual tree.
IMO reckoning up the age of a creosote ring is a dubious comparison, due to its clonal propagation. An analogous argument would say that microbes that "reproduce" by splitting are billions of years old, which might be true in some sense but not very interesting for comparing the "age" of a microbe to the age of a tree.
> Although i thought they found one in england that was older?
I vaguely recall hearing about a much older plant as well, though I can never seem to find the story when the subject comes up.
Given human nature, there's probably a lot of nationalistic spin on who has the oldest plant, so I always take "the world's oldest plant" to mean "the oldest one that has a good PR firm in my culture".
> The right to recive contributions is for everyone, whatever policy they have.
You overlook the rudimentary and obvious fact that those who cater to the well-heeled will get vastly more money for exercising that "right". The inexorable outcome of such a mechanism is a system, well, like the USA's, where the rich and the most vehement special interest groups completely dominate the governance of the country, at the expense of good government and public interest.
Slashdot Mirror
> Is why any virus writers ever get caught. [...] they simply have to go down to their local library and/or cyber cafe wearing a wig and makeup, stick the floppy in, click, then leave, what's the problem?
I used to do that, but I got tired of having all the geeks try to pick me up while I was there.
> OK, I have a quick question. These worms and virii are hitting a ton of Microsoft vulnerabilities, and that's why they *exist*, but to me it seems like they only succeed because office workers, mom (my mom's comp was hit by Blaster), guy down the street, etc. *don't harden their computers*, or because they can't seem to stop clicking on attachments. [...] I'm tired, and cranky, and I love Linux. But I just don't know if I'd trust my mom to run a secure Mandrake box if she can't even do Windows fucking Update.
At some point someone with a misguided sense of "ease of use" will write a *n*x e-mail client that executes attachments at a click, and then the fun will begin.
This is an engineering problem - a failure to account for the human element in the process. The whole point of engineering, in any discipline, is to take precautions against the predictable stuff that will fux0r your system. The relevant behavior here is fully predictable, ergo it is an engineering error.
I plead with FOSS developers not to make the same mistake.
> > That's what I don't get. How many people ever put their message in an attachment and say "please see the attachment for details".
> Hey, I've seen some pretty bad, lazy email that would fit your description
s/seen/sent/, and within the past 24 hours IIRC.
> At work, the mail is scanned for viruses first, then it is handed off for classification as ham or spam.
Don't those insensitive clods have any regard for your vegetarian employees?
> Email programs should make it _hard_ to open any file that is executable.
The problem is that Microsoft saw fit to implement an EDI system without any of the safeguards required for EDI.
That's why I ultimately blame Microsoft for these things. You simply can't train this kind of problem out of a broad userbase, so you have to account for the human element in your software design.
> Anyone else think this sounds like a bad hollywood plot? We only have 48 hours to shut down 20 randomn computers or the internet is brought to it's knees.
Worm author sells movie rights to pay legal fees...
> But these hapless companies and also the public sector will eventually be forced to learn, and that's ultimately a good thing for all of us.
Essentially these have been serving as vaccinations rather than infections, because they're provoking an antibody response that will (should) reduce the impact of a genuinely hostile worm when it finally comes out.
The vaccination isn't completely effective, since so many people obviously aren't hardening their systems, but some are, and the experts are getting a lot of practice at trapping, analyzing, and defusing the worms on a tight schedule. If this had come out a couple of years ago the response might not have been quick enough to shut the 19 sites down.
Still waitin' for the big one, though.
> I'm inclined to believe in the "true believer" theory.
Your argument makes perfect sense, but what I can't understand is why it bolted on Friday. IIRC it opened around 10.5 and closed at about 13.5. Why Friday, after the "greek" had been decoded and discussed, rather than the day of the presentation? Usually it only jumps back up after McBride makes another noisy PR move, not after a few days of deconstructing the most recent one.
Lots of FRPGs operate on a concept of "levels" of challenge, so it seems like it should be possible to start with low complexity at "level 1", and add in the complexity incrementally as the player enters new levels and gets opportunites to do new things.
Are we supposed to welcome the cell phones as our new overlords, or the off-brand batteries?
> The manual system is vulnerable to small human errors and small opportunistic fraud. It is totally immune to large systematic fraud.
And that, my friend, is probably the ultimate reason that electronic voting will replace all other systems, since the other systems are harder to coerce into giving the "right" result.
> What big business seems to be doing here is using process rather than product to beat down the barbarian hordes.
Neo-mercantilism, I name thee.
> One lobbyist, Emery Simon with the Business Software Alliance, said his group objected to the suggestion in the proposal that overly broad or restrictive intellectual-property rights might in some cases stunt technological innovation and economic growth.
Given that the US Constitution justifies IP on the basis of promoting progress, we can't be asking the question of whether our laws actually do that, now can we?
IP law has become nothing more than an authorization for a gold rush, as everyone hurries to stake their claims until there's nothing left that you can do for free.
> Just want to remind everyone that a lot of the rankings are quite subjective
My alma tends to crow when ranked high and dismiss the system entirely when ranked low.
The human mind is a wonderfully flexible thing.
> Regarding the interview with the lawyer, I got the impression he was largely spouting the party line for his client. It did feel rather incoherent and he honestly didn't seem to believe what he was saying.
What he says to the judge will surely be more relevant.
> I actually do wonder just how in touch with reality some of the SCO execs are. Now that they've committed to a business path based on lawsuits and dubious legal claims, they can't really back out, so it seems they're becoming wrapped up in the worlds they created to justify their claims.
Yeah, IBM didn't follow the script, and now they've pretty much got a tiger by the tail. Now that they've peeved 99% of the *n*x community the residual value of SCO without winning this suit is about $0.00.
They've only got one potentially profitable option left, which IIRC Connery demanded of Caine in The Man Who Would Be King : "Brass it out! Brass it out!"
> IBM paid me $699 to criticise SCO
Paid you in bootleg copies of Linux, eh?
> What is the sound of one hand slapping?
Put your ear to the door at a Canopy Group board meeting and you'll hear several guys with one hand slapping.
> Because it is technology, it is "magic" and therefore above reproach.
Only if it's sufficiently advanced technology.
> Wayback Machine would work, but Google doesn't cache binaries.
Put source code on Google and have the worm compile it.
You should be getting about a dozen e-mails a day telling you how to get SoBig. Don't you read your mail?
>
But oddly enough, no one is welcoming our new Microsoft overlords.
> On comp.os.*.advocacy I'm {5-11}of12.
Does the Twelve series have bosoms like the Nine series?
> Well, given the very pro Microsoft stances that many folks have here in response to anything critical of Microsoft, I have wondered if they are paying attention to Slashdot as well. Especially considering that many of the rabidly pro-MS posts are posted as AC.
Given MS's longstanding PR problems, if I were running the company and had what appears to be the typical ethics among CEOs these days, I'd be paying a few hundred people to astroturf Slashdot as full-time jobs.
No, that doesn't mean that MS is actually doing it.
> or something thats even older. BUt this is probably the oldest actual tree.
IMO reckoning up the age of a creosote ring is a dubious comparison, due to its clonal propagation. An analogous argument would say that microbes that "reproduce" by splitting are billions of years old, which might be true in some sense but not very interesting for comparing the "age" of a microbe to the age of a tree.
> Although i thought they found one in england that was older?
I vaguely recall hearing about a much older plant as well, though I can never seem to find the story when the subject comes up.
Given human nature, there's probably a lot of nationalistic spin on who has the oldest plant, so I always take "the world's oldest plant" to mean "the oldest one that has a good PR firm in my culture".
> The right to recive contributions is for everyone, whatever policy they have.
You overlook the rudimentary and obvious fact that those who cater to the well-heeled will get vastly more money for exercising that "right". The inexorable outcome of such a mechanism is a system, well, like the USA's, where the rich and the most vehement special interest groups completely dominate the governance of the country, at the expense of good government and public interest.