Thompson sounds like the little kid that keeps poking his sister on the long car ride and then goes crying to mom and dad when his sister slaps him.
I am not a gamer, I haven't even played any retail computer games in several years, but Thompson is annoying the heck out of me.
I would hope that the judge would see the situation for what it is and would tell Thompson that he is getting what he is asking for and if he doesn't like it then he should find a new political platform to beat on.
The time needed to remove the rootkit, patch the security holes that the rootkit cleanup leaves, remove the DRM (maybe), clean up the malware that got in through the security holes, recovering from the identity theft that happened as a result, plus the lawyers fees.
Your best bet would be to have your professors call in a favor from former students or their contacts in the industry.
Most companies will consider this to be a security risk. They don't even want you to know the rough design of their backends let alone collect data from it.
Some companies wouldn't know how to gather what you want and wouldn't risk letting you touch their systems.
Most of these systems are probably messy, kludged together by former employees and hacked by current employees just enough to keep them running.
If you have some time, get an internship and do your research on the side.:)
Umm, can someone explain how and why the Central Intelligence Agency has Venture Capital?...or if they just contribute toward VC, how and why is this legal?
My employer has a locker room off of one set of bathrooms. The locker room has showers, so if I got that sweaty I could take a shower before starting my work day...but usually I don't get too sweaty and I cool off fairly quick in our lab.
I have also known people who get a gym membership just to use the showers.
I was already nuts before I moved to a big city. (hence my nic):)
Once I moved from a rural town to a big city, my biggest problem was my frustration at getting stuck in traffic. I stopped driving, started bicycling, and I now I don't get stuck in traffic anymore.
I have had some luck exploring my way through business parks and residential dead end roads. Maps usually don't show them, but there are often walking paths and cutouts that bicyclists can use to connect between sets of dead ends.
I keep reading and hearing complaints that people live too far away from their work to bicycle.
Well, maybe we don't all need to own a house and have yard. Maybe a condo with a nearby park would also fit your needs and you could live close enough to work to *gasp* walk to work.
Our idea of the american dream has pushed the market to create huge sprawling cities with inadequate public transportation. How much will that house in the outer suburbs be worth when gasoline is $6/gallon? Could fuel prices go higher than that?
I am living my american dream. I bicycle to work in 10 minutes, I don't even own a car anymore, and tomorrow I set off on 280 mile bicycle ride that includes a little over 4000 feet of climb in 3 days. Bicycling has given me a new sense of freedom. I lost 40 lbs in the first 4 months of bicycling and have kept it off over the following 6 months...how many SUV drivers would kill for that much weight loss?
By the way, how much does it cost for you to fill up that tank these days? I keep forgetting to look at the gas prices.
If Windows has flaws that Microsoft has known about for months but doesn't care enough to fix, and my business has many confidential documents entrusted to the 'security' of Windows, then I damn well have a right to know about it so that I can to something else rather, like Linux.
The problem with complex software (and I speak as a software tester who has worked on complex products) is that many problems are non-trivial to investigate, to fix, and to verify that the fix didn't break something else.
In a couple places where I have worked, a full test pass takes 4-12 weeks.
Now, if the company jumped immediately on the problem, the developer took a week to understand the problem, and immediately fixed it, the test pass found another bug caused by the fix toward the end of the pass, lather/rinse/repeat, it can easily take a few months to fix a problem if you are doing due diligence before you toss a fix out to the customers.
There will never be a simple hard and fast rule to follow here. Talk to the vendor and use your best judgement after listening to them. If it is going to take 2 years to fix a vulnerability because it is a critical design flaw, well, maybe you need to explain that there is a generic problem, but leave out the script kiddie details.
To be fair, I didn't have any inclination to travel when I was young and my parents didn't see it as a priority either.
On the flip side, I still don't travel but I live in a major city and I have friends from all over the world with dozens of different religious and cultural backgrounds.
Yeah, that can be a problem. Even though they're sincerely trying to help you, it can be uncomfortable, and zealous young people often don't realize just how uncomfortable it is.
Uncomfortable? I went from Idaho to being a linux fan working at Microsoft...and I didn't even notice the antagonism.:)
That can be an issue, but it's not hard to address, either. Lots of kids in the area end up going on LDS missions at 19, ...getting further off topic, but that assumes you are LDS.
Imagine that you are not LDS and don't have the opportunity to travel.
Imagine that all of your LDS friends who are preparing for their missions or who have returned from their missions try to convert you to Mormonism every few weeks.
Those "backward views" include the tendency to verbally bludgeon those with different religious beliefs.
I grew up in southern Idaho...the scenery is great, but I still have a hard time with a lot of the backward views that people have.
Until I was 21, I hadn't met anyone who was black. I also had not met anyone from the middle east, the far east, or even the east coast of the united states for that matter.
Don't forget about those hidden costs to car ownership.
Let's say you commute 30 miles each way with $3/gallon of fuel, get 30 mpg, buy a $10,000 car every 5 years, and pay $100/month in insurance.
$6/day for fuel * 52 weeks * 5 days/week = $1560 / year in fuel $100/month for insurance * 12 months = $1200 / year for insurance $10,000 for a car / 5 years = $2000 / year for the car Throw in car washes, repairs, and parking = $500 / year
So, that car is costing you $5,260.00 per year.
Next, what is your time worth? Does it really make sense to drive for 1-2 hours a day just to get to work?
For the past few years, Cascade bicycle club has conducted an experiment where two people do the same commute for one day, one by biycle and the other by car. For the 30 minute in-city drive, in the past few years, the bicyclist has arrived within a minute or so of the car.
For a while, my bicycle + bus commute from Seattle to Redmond over the 520 bridge was only about 15 minutes slower than by car.
That said, depending on the urban planning of your area and distance between your home and work, commuting by bicycle may not be feasible.
If you can bicycle, it can save you money, give you exercise, reduce your stress, possibly save you time, and help preserve the environment all at the same time.
When I added up car payments, fuel, repairs, insurance, and non-reclaimable time, and environmental impact, I decided that car ownership was too expensive for the little benefit that I got out of it.
Find a gym near your place of work. Bicycle to the gym, use their shower and locker room. Walk or bicycle the rest of the way.
I live in Seattle. Last year, I lost 5400 lbs in one day!
I traded in my car for a road bicycle, pedaled 40 lbs off of my body and I have been commuting by bicycle for almost a year. I love bicycling to work, even in the rain. My employers have locker rooms where I can shower and stow my sweaty clothes, and I save time by exercising while I commute.
BTW, when I started bicycling, I weighed in at over 280 lbs and I was in no way what anyone would describe as physically fit. Since then, I did a 200 mile bicycle ride from Seattle to Portland, and I have bicycled 60 miles with a 3300 foot climb in a morning.
Yes, Microsoft has a lot of money and could fund quite a few different projects.
Yes, Microsoft used to be a place where it is easy to move up through the ranks quickly.
I'm not so sure that it is easy to move up though the ranks anymore. After 5 years of experience in the Windows group, I only saw three people be promoted from within and moved up the management chain. They (I am not there anymore) were growing so quickly prior to 2000 that they frequently pushed a lot of individual contributers up into management and my sense is that the quality of management varies greatly from group to group.
As far as funding projects, that depends too. Profitable groups have a lot of money, other groups are cash starved. Some managers are willing to let you work on side projects, others are not.
At one time, I really enjoyed working there. Now, I am very glad that I don't work there. If it is still around, it might be a good place to work in another 5 years.
The idea that "National Security" can realistically prevent an individual intent on trading their life to kill a lot of citizens of the USA is very naieve.
Let's see, many migrant laborers routinely crossing the Mexican border illegally and making their way all the way north to Idaho farms every year.
People illegally cross down from the Canadian border too. I remember hearing one story of a stupid drug runner that was crossing the border in a canoe filled with drugs...when a forest service ranger was in sight, the drug runner called to the ranger and admitted to what he was doing....we only catch the stupid ones and the ones that want to get caught.
Finally, remember the damage that diesel fuel and fertilizer can do in the hands of a misguided citizen.
I wish that my tax dollars would not be wasted to give people a false impression of security because such power is inevitably going to be mis-used.
I have been watching a few teams who have had open positions that they urgently needed filled to replace someone that had left that sat open for 12 months or more. The managers were clamoring to get recruits into their door, offering $1000 bonuses for referrals that get hired, and yet they couldn't get anyone.
Somehow, the recruits and managers aren't meeting.
Slashdot Mirror
Thompson sounds like the little kid that keeps poking his sister on the long car ride and then goes crying to mom and dad when his sister slaps him.
I am not a gamer, I haven't even played any retail computer games in several years, but Thompson is annoying the heck out of me.
I would hope that the judge would see the situation for what it is and would tell Thompson that he is getting what he is asking for and if he doesn't like it then he should find a new political platform to beat on.
No, really, trust us, we will keep your computer safe.
...do you need medical help? You seem to be turning blue.
Stop laughing, we are serious. We even have a firewall and everything.
Why are you rolling on the floor?
No, the GUI interface wasn't designed by Disney, it is just easy to use.
Um...
$100,000 per incident sounds about right.
The time needed to remove the rootkit, patch the security holes that the rootkit cleanup leaves, remove the DRM (maybe), clean up the malware that got in through the security holes, recovering from the identity theft that happened as a result, plus the lawyers fees.
Sony is in a lot of trouble over this one!
Here Here! I would love to see some Sony execs do jail time over this!
As long as you have documentation on the data structures coming out of the datalogger, you could probably build your own.
Disclaimer: I haven't actually used a datalogger before, but I have looked at documentation for one or two.
This is slashdot, what do you expect?
Your best bet would be to have your professors call in a favor from former students or their contacts in the industry.
:)
Most companies will consider this to be a security risk. They don't even want you to know the rough design of their backends let alone collect data from it.
Some companies wouldn't know how to gather what you want and wouldn't risk letting you touch their systems.
Most of these systems are probably messy, kludged together by former employees and hacked by current employees just enough to keep them running.
If you have some time, get an internship and do your research on the side.
Umm, can someone explain how and why the Central Intelligence Agency has Venture Capital? ...or if they just contribute toward VC, how and why is this legal?
My employer has a locker room off of one set of bathrooms. The locker room has showers, so if I got that sweaty I could take a shower before starting my work day...but usually I don't get too sweaty and I cool off fairly quick in our lab.
I have also known people who get a gym membership just to use the showers.
I was already nuts before I moved to a big city. (hence my nic) :)
Once I moved from a rural town to a big city, my biggest problem was my frustration at getting stuck in traffic. I stopped driving, started bicycling, and I now I don't get stuck in traffic anymore.
Daily commute cost
...or if you don't consider your time to be worth anything:
------------------
1.5 Hr time = $20.00
20 miles gas * 40mpg * $3/gal = $1.50
Wear and tear on a car $15000/5 years = $11.54
Daily commute cost = $33.04
Weekly commute cost = $165.19
Yearly commute cost = $8,590.00
$50k mortgage / yearly commute = 5.8 years
$50k mortgage / yearly commute = 14.7 years
I have had some luck exploring my way through business parks and residential dead end roads. Maps usually don't show them, but there are often walking paths and cutouts that bicyclists can use to connect between sets of dead ends.
I keep reading and hearing complaints that people live too far away from their work to bicycle.
Well, maybe we don't all need to own a house and have yard. Maybe a condo with a nearby park would also fit your needs and you could live close enough to work to *gasp* walk to work.
Our idea of the american dream has pushed the market to create huge sprawling cities with inadequate public transportation. How much will that house in the outer suburbs be worth when gasoline is $6/gallon? Could fuel prices go higher than that?
I am living my american dream. I bicycle to work in 10 minutes, I don't even own a car anymore, and tomorrow I set off on 280 mile bicycle ride that includes a little over 4000 feet of climb in 3 days. Bicycling has given me a new sense of freedom. I lost 40 lbs in the first 4 months of bicycling and have kept it off over the following 6 months...how many SUV drivers would kill for that much weight loss?
By the way, how much does it cost for you to fill up that tank these days?
I keep forgetting to look at the gas prices.
How wide is the shoulder on that road?
Could you take a slightly longer route through residential streets?
My commute is a wonderful 3 mile bicycle ride and my employer pays me for not using a parking space. I love bicycling to work, even in the rain.
If Windows has flaws that Microsoft has known about for months but doesn't care enough to fix, and my business has many confidential documents entrusted to the 'security' of Windows, then I damn well have a right to know about it so that I can to something else rather, like Linux.
The problem with complex software (and I speak as a software tester who has worked on complex products) is that many problems are non-trivial to investigate, to fix, and to verify that the fix didn't break something else.
In a couple places where I have worked, a full test pass takes 4-12 weeks.
Now, if the company jumped immediately on the problem, the developer took a week to understand the problem, and immediately fixed it, the test pass found another bug caused by the fix toward the end of the pass, lather/rinse/repeat, it can easily take a few months to fix a problem if you are doing due diligence before you toss a fix out to the customers.
There will never be a simple hard and fast rule to follow here. Talk to the vendor and use your best judgement after listening to them. If it is going to take 2 years to fix a vulnerability because it is a critical design flaw, well, maybe you need to explain that there is a generic problem, but leave out the script kiddie details.
To be fair, I didn't have any inclination to travel when I was young and my parents didn't see it as a priority either.
:)
On the flip side, I still don't travel but I live in a major city and I have friends from all over the world with dozens of different religious and cultural backgrounds.
Yeah, that can be a problem. Even though they're sincerely trying to help you, it can be uncomfortable, and zealous young people often don't realize just how uncomfortable it is.
Uncomfortable? I went from Idaho to being a linux fan working at Microsoft...and I didn't even notice the antagonism.
That can be an issue, but it's not hard to address, either. Lots of kids in the area end up going on LDS missions at 19, ...getting further off topic, but that assumes you are LDS.
Imagine that you are not LDS and don't have the opportunity to travel.
Imagine that all of your LDS friends who are preparing for their missions or who have returned from their missions try to convert you to Mormonism every few weeks.
Those "backward views" include the tendency to verbally bludgeon those with different religious beliefs.
I grew up in southern Idaho...the scenery is great, but I still have a hard time with a lot of the backward views that people have.
Until I was 21, I hadn't met anyone who was black. I also had not met anyone from the middle east, the far east, or even the east coast of the united states for that matter.
Don't forget about those hidden costs to car ownership.
Let's say you commute 30 miles each way with $3/gallon of fuel, get 30 mpg, buy a $10,000 car every 5 years, and pay $100/month in insurance.
$6/day for fuel * 52 weeks * 5 days/week = $1560 / year in fuel
$100/month for insurance * 12 months = $1200 / year for insurance
$10,000 for a car / 5 years = $2000 / year for the car
Throw in car washes, repairs, and parking = $500 / year
So, that car is costing you $5,260.00 per year.
Next, what is your time worth? Does it really make sense to drive for 1-2 hours a day just to get to work?
For the past few years, Cascade bicycle club has conducted an experiment where two people do the same commute for one day, one by biycle and the other by car. For the 30 minute in-city drive, in the past few years, the bicyclist has arrived within a minute or so of the car.
For a while, my bicycle + bus commute from Seattle to Redmond over the 520 bridge was only about 15 minutes slower than by car.
That said, depending on the urban planning of your area and distance between your home and work, commuting by bicycle may not be feasible.
If you can bicycle, it can save you money, give you exercise, reduce your stress, possibly save you time, and help preserve the environment all at the same time.
When I added up car payments, fuel, repairs, insurance, and non-reclaimable time, and environmental impact, I decided that car ownership was too expensive for the little benefit that I got out of it.
Find a gym near your place of work.
Bicycle to the gym, use their shower and locker room. Walk or bicycle the rest of the way.
I live in Seattle. Last year, I lost 5400 lbs in one day!
I traded in my car for a road bicycle, pedaled 40 lbs off of my body and I have been commuting by bicycle for almost a year. I love bicycling to work, even in the rain. My employers have locker rooms where I can shower and stow my sweaty clothes, and I save time by exercising while I commute.
BTW, when I started bicycling, I weighed in at over 280 lbs and I was in no way what anyone would describe as physically fit. Since then, I did a 200 mile bicycle ride from Seattle to Portland, and I have bicycled 60 miles with a 3300 foot climb in a morning.
You think that is bad? Remember the article posted a while back on the codes for our nuclear missles? It was something like: 000000
Yes, Microsoft has a lot of money and could fund quite a few different projects.
Yes, Microsoft used to be a place where it is easy to move up through the ranks quickly.
I'm not so sure that it is easy to move up though the ranks anymore. After 5 years of experience in the Windows group, I only saw three people be promoted from within and moved up the management chain. They (I am not there anymore) were growing so quickly prior to 2000 that they frequently pushed a lot of individual contributers up into management and my sense is that the quality of management varies greatly from group to group.
As far as funding projects, that depends too. Profitable groups have a lot of money, other groups are cash starved. Some managers are willing to let you work on side projects, others are not.
At one time, I really enjoyed working there. Now, I am very glad that I don't work there. If it is still around, it might be a good place to work in another 5 years.
Yeah, but Windows NT 6.0 just doesn't sound as impressive as Windows Vista...and, well, Windows NT 6.0 is kinda boring.
The idea that "National Security" can realistically prevent an individual intent on trading their life to kill a lot of citizens of the USA is very naieve.
...we only catch the stupid ones and the ones that want to get caught.
Let's see, many migrant laborers routinely crossing the Mexican border illegally and making their way all the way north to Idaho farms every year.
People illegally cross down from the Canadian border too. I remember hearing one story of a stupid drug runner that was crossing the border in a canoe filled with drugs...when a forest service ranger was in sight, the drug runner called to the ranger and admitted to what he was doing.
Finally, remember the damage that diesel fuel and fertilizer can do in the hands of a misguided citizen.
I wish that my tax dollars would not be wasted to give people a false impression of security because such power is inevitably going to be mis-used.
I have been watching a few teams who have had open positions that they urgently needed filled to replace someone that had left that sat open for 12 months or more. The managers were clamoring to get recruits into their door, offering $1000 bonuses for referrals that get hired, and yet they couldn't get anyone.
Somehow, the recruits and managers aren't meeting.