"Why on earth would there be a bug in Media player that allows uncontrolled access to the system. What we have here folks is a very good example of what a horribly designed OS Windows is..."
Why on earth would there be a bug in OpenSSH/Sendmail/Apache/BitchX that allows uncontrolled access to the system. What we have here folks is a very good example of a troll posting before it thinks, going with the crowd in its 'M$ sucks! Linux rules! Muahahha' mindset.
Software has bugs. Sometimes exploitation of those bugs, if they're severe enough, can allow an attacker to run code on the target system. This is not a flaw unique to Windows.
The article just adds that some ad-hoc organisation by the of Australian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society has given its 'approval' for a single Melbourne business to trial the machines. AMCOS doesn't hold any official form of power - its just a lobby group.
Guys... it's two too three streets being shut down, for a peroid no longer than two days. Buildings along George and Sussex streets are being evacuted for public safety reasons. Other than that, its business as usual in our fair city.
I repeat. They are *not* shutting down all of sydney.
Of course, the only reason VHS makes the studios money is because they get a licensing cut for each video sold. Doesn't apply to Kazaa, because *no-one* makes money.
Now, if you'd likened the current situation to one where Hollywood had a monopoly on P2P file sharing, then your analogy would have made more sense.
This is the Dutch Kazaa, NOT the Vanuatu one
on
KaZaA Collapses
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Kazaa no longer owns the client or the website. It sold them to a Vanuatan based company called Sharman Networks (originally thought to be based in Australia.)
So, basically, Kazaa BV sold the application to Sharman to sidestep the lawsuits. Action failes and Kazaa BV goes down anyway.
No, not dialup. Read the article. It works over broadband only. Hence the ethernet adapter Microsoft is releasing for the Xbox (at something like $50 US no less, PLUS subscription fees to the service).
Article refers to a GTA3 addon pack. The 'warez' version that just came out is the PC version of original GTA3.
Incidentally, three groups released it. None managed to do a proper release, as all three cracks included on the iso are buggy. Deviance has re-packed one thats *supposed* to work, but doesn't. You can't use savegame after more than four minutes of play.
So, SafeDisc3 is still secure. Just. Kinda. Maybe.
Re:OFMG I thought it could never happen...
on
Google Experiments
·
· Score: 1
Green really isn't your color, Mr AC.
OFMG I thought it could never happen...
on
Google Experiments
·
· Score: 5, Funny
...but you've Slashdotted google!#*(@Q$#^$
wow.
This will push development the tech we really need
on
China Plans Moonbase
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
This can only be a good thing, regardless of whether the Chinese Government ultimately succeeds. As I said in a bit more detail here,
'China's moon mining plan is perhaps one of the best things that could have happened as far as space exploration is concerned. The world's primary space organisation, NASA, is constantly having its budget chipped away by the US government. Hopefully, China's future successes in space missions will force the US, and other countries, back into research and development of technologies needed for space flight and colonization such as nuclear propulsion, terraforming and techniques for mining resources on off-earth locations such as the moon and asteroid belts.'
Who knows - three hundred years from now, our decendents could look back on this day and say 'thanks to China pushing the world into a new space race, we managed to develop the technologies that allowed us to get off that overcrowded and overpolluted chuck of rock that we called Earth, before it killed us all off for good.'
People think Instant Messages are like phone conversations - no record is kept, they can say pretty much what they like. People used to think the same about Corporate email too.
Nearly every company today has an Internet Acceptable Use Policy. Said policy covers allowed surfing habits (work related only, etc), as well as appropriate email useage (no sexist jokes, spamming of jokes). Once companies realise that IM traffic is essentially the same as email, they will need to incorporate policy on usage into their existing AUP.
Naturally there's privacy concerns here. People don't like their every word and action at work scruitinized. However, as Pamela Housley (director of compliance at Thomas Weisel Partners investment banking firm) said in the CNN article,'It's just easier to archive it all. I don't have the manpower to have somebody look at this all day long.' This will hold true in most cases.
Most companies already archive all email sent/received by work accounts as a matter of course. However, that's not to say people actually read all those emails. They're there with the sole intent of keeping a record to cover the company's ass if something goes wrong - such as a client accusing an employee of doing something they were not asked to do. If said employee can turn around and say 'I was asked to do it via email, and HERE IT IS!', the company is fine.
Face it - IM traffic sent/received at work will end up being logged as a matter of course. It has to if companies want to keep themselves out of a legal quagmire. However, just because your communication via IM is logged, doesn't mean someone is going to actually violate your privacy by reading it. In fact, most AUPs specifically prohibit the reading of another's work communications without the proper authorisation.
Keep in mind that you're using work assets. Keep in mind that you can, and will, be held responsible for abuse of said assets. Stick to the AUP, and everything will be rosy.
//disc: I am an Australian journalist who //works fulltime for an Ozzie PC magazine.
Articles like this really annoy me. They take the actions of several PR companies, the reactions of certain journalists/game reviewers/industry observers, pick one or two of the more outlandish *stories* and then proceed to generalise across the entire damned industry.
Let me tell you right now: the actions of PR companies, game publishers/distributors and other parties interested in getting favourable attention from gaming and hardware journalists does NOT have much of an affect on the majority of the PC mag industry. At least, thats the case here in Australia.
Case in point: A company holds a press party for their latest game. They invite a bunch of journalists, put on free drinks and food, throw a few PCs around with playable demos of the code and generally hold a shmooze-fest. People eat, drink, be merry and discuss everything under the sun - naturally including the product they are there for in the first place!
Party finishes. Journalists go home. A few weeks later, the gold code arrives. Editor picks a staffer to review the game, and he/she takes it home to play the S*#T out of for a week or more - whatever it takes to finish the game.
The journalist then proceeds to write his/her review. Said review passes through subedit and a few other misc publishing routines, and appears in the next issue of the magazine.
In my experience, parties and junkets are the norm when a company wants to promote its latest product - whether that be the latest router or the next hot FPS shootemup. However, these parties usually don't promote the product they are organised for!
Damn near every promotional party/trip i can remember had one affect and one only - networking. The entire reason journalists turn up to these events is simply because they meet new people, gain new contacts and thus extend their usefullness to their own company! We emphatically do NOT think to ourselves "wow, that party/trip overseas/weekend in a hotel rocked! I'm going to give this game/hardware/widget 90%!"
Anyhow, to sum up: the article is pure BS. Journalists possess something called ethics. Those who don't, aren't journalists for long. Once you lose credability in this industry, no-one - and I mean no-one - will touch you. In short: you're fucked.
Don't lable an entire industry corrupt because of a few over-extravegant parties/trips. Fine, if one or two individuals bias their reviews due to trips/parties, then they deserve all the ridicule in the world. It won't matter all that much anyway, as they will be out of a job before long if they continue on that tack.
We have ethics. We have morals. We do not bias reviews based on how good a time a company has shown us previous to sending us product. And don't you dare bloody insinuate that we do!
Actually you have your valuations mixed up. Sure, its costs $7 Australian to burn the CD - but it costs $29.95 Australian to buy it. Big difference for us, over the 16.95 you quoted.
*sniff* Most romantic thing I've seen in a long time. Damn near made me cry.
Best wishes for the future Taco and Kath, from all the Ozzie geeks Down Under!
Sharman Networks Limited does not exist as a company in Australia.
According to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (with which *every* Australian company must be registered), there is no such company as Sharman Networks Limited.
Furthermore, there is no company by that name in either the Yellow Pages nor the White Pages. Heck, I even checked Directory Assistence in case they had newly been added.
NSW Department of Fair Trading hasn't heard of Sharman Networks. Sharman Networks holds no patents. Sharman Networks is not listed as either an Australian company name or Australian business name. As far as I can tell, no Australian Gov. organisation (or indeed Industry organisation) has had contact with Sharman.
That leaves two possabilites.
#1 Sharman Networks is a newly formed shell company that is being used soley for this transaction (hence lack of web presence or reference). However, this is unlikely as the ASIC database carries information on companies who are registered under names different to those they trade under.
#2 Sharman Networks does not exist, and Kazaa is up to some strange tricks in order to move juristiction of its matters out of Dutch hands, as their new ToS states.
This is a Whirlpool source from within Telstra who released the information, not some average paraniod anti-telstra/anti-MS/proWhateverIsSaidOnSlashdot nut.
From my experience (as both a whirlpool user and Australian IT journo), they are generally quite good as far as authenticity goes.
It does cost a fair bit to run DSL out to places where the company won't get much of a return. However, we do have Satelite, but it too is very expensive.
If you've ever seen a Telstra broadband ad, you will notice they claim to cover '98% of *Australians*', not 98% of Australia itself.
But either way, thats not why prices are high. Prices are high because Telstra is Australia's MS - here, Tel$tra hold the monopoly and may set prices as they see fit. Other resellers must set their pricing policy accordingly.
I'm an Ozzie, and yes im currently paying for a Telstra ADSL connection.
First off let me tell you all something; there has been absolutely NO corresponding level in broadband service (let alone customer service, but thats another rant) from Telstra to justify this price rise. I've had an account with them for just on 12 months, and aside from a two month period where their network attained something approaching 80% uptime, its been absolute shit.
Secondly, Ziggy and co. have obviously realised that they cannot continue to support the ADSL network. Why? Because they are incompetent, plain and simple. Its very easy to say 'ADSL isnt making us enough money', but it doesnt really hold up when you consider they made a *half yearly* in 2001 of $4 billion AU (about $30 US:P)
When telstra has a problem with their DSL network, their stockstandard response is 'due to the newness and complexity of the ADSL network, the current problem may take some time to fix' (or very close to that). Ahem, excuse me. ADSL may be new to Telstra, but it sure as heck isnt new to the IT world. That's excuse #1. Excuse #2 is also stock standard, 'its problems with the equipement of our provider.' Hmm, I know Alcatel may not have as good a rep as Cisco, but they're not exactly amature. After hearing this excuse for about the 50th time, I'm thinking its just one of about 10 excuses that all Telstra call centre staff have tacked on their cubicle walls.
As for any other form of residential broadband...well, there's Optus I suppose. However, the strength of Optus was always the fact that the nitty gritty of their network was managed by Excite. Now that Excite has exited the partnership, God only knows how their network will fair the next 12 months.
Other than that, this is just one more example of how Telstra couldn't give a toss about their users. Since they were partially privatised, their #1 priority has been share dividends. Service? They only give service if it will make them a greater profit. If they can screw the users and still make some kind of profit, they can and will.
"NASA Astronaughts aboard the International Space Station turn on new multibillion dollar Hybrid Astro-Computational K-rad Eratta Disseminator computer system only to be greeted by...
During the Vietnam war era, America had Conscription. Now im not too sure here but from what i can recall, selection was based on your date of birth. If you refused to go to Vietnam on behalf of your country when you were selected, you broke the law.
40 or so years down the track, no-one consides the draft dodgers to have committed a 'crime'
"Third, hold contributions in escrow until the novel is released, and if the limit is not reached by a certain time, give us our money back. As a contributor, this makes my cost negligible"
Two Points.
1) Say it takes King two years to write his novel. Im assuming this money will be put in a bank account or some form of investment (after all, its not likely that King will keep it all under his bed until the minimum amount is reached). What happens to the interest that this money generates? Will it come back to each contributer based on the amount that they paid, or will King keep the interest and justify it on the grounds that it is compensation for his time writing the novel?
2) If the interest is not returned to individual contributers, then they _do_ incur a cost; that of lost interest on the $X they paid King, that they would have received if they had invested that $X amount elsewhere (usually at the prevailing bank interest rate) for the same amount of time.
Slashdot Mirror
"Why on earth would there be a bug in Media player that allows uncontrolled access to the system. What we have here folks is a very good example of what a horribly designed OS Windows is..."
Why on earth would there be a bug in OpenSSH/Sendmail/Apache/BitchX that allows uncontrolled access to the system. What we have here folks is a very good example of a troll posting before it thinks, going with the crowd in its 'M$ sucks! Linux rules! Muahahha' mindset.
Software has bugs. Sometimes exploitation of those bugs, if they're severe enough, can allow an attacker to run code on the target system. This is not a flaw unique to Windows.
Please, think before you post.
Slashdot has covered this.
The article just adds that some ad-hoc organisation by the of Australian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society has given its 'approval' for a single Melbourne business to trial the machines. AMCOS doesn't hold any official form of power - its just a lobby group.
Explain to me again how this is news?
Urp. Lameness of replying to myself aside, replace Sussex with Pitt
Guys... it's two too three streets being shut down, for a peroid no longer than two days. Buildings along George and Sussex streets are being evacuted for public safety reasons. Other than that, its business as usual in our fair city.
I repeat. They are *not* shutting down all of sydney.
The Dans Data article was originally written by Dan for our magazine, Atomic Maximum Power Computing.
As we're an Australian mag with a (mostly - we sell in New Zealand, Singapore and a few other places) Australian audience, its setup for 240V.
The UPS D-I-Y article appeared in AtomicMPC Issue 13 (latest issue is 18)
Damn straight. Whether you're talking US troops, Australian troops or troops from *any* country.
They deserve respect, not ridiclue.
Mod this parent up.
Of course, the only reason VHS makes the studios money is because they get a licensing cut for each video sold. Doesn't apply to Kazaa, because *no-one* makes money.
Now, if you'd likened the current situation to one where Hollywood had a monopoly on P2P file sharing, then your analogy would have made more sense.
Kazaa no longer owns the client or the website. It sold them to a Vanuatan based company called Sharman Networks (originally thought to be based in Australia.)
So, basically, Kazaa BV sold the application to Sharman to sidestep the lawsuits. Action failes and Kazaa BV goes down anyway.
I spose they've just put Sharman on notice.
Ack. Ok. 'Xbox communicator'. Which, in all fairness, is just a voice comms thing.
:) Blame it on the my tiredness, and the time here.
Must have confused it w/ the PS2 ethernet adapter. Mybad
No, not dialup. Read the article. It works over broadband only. Hence the ethernet adapter Microsoft is releasing for the Xbox (at something like $50 US no less, PLUS subscription fees to the service).
Article refers to a GTA3 addon pack. The 'warez' version that just came out is the PC version of original GTA3.
Incidentally, three groups released it. None managed to do a proper release, as all three cracks included on the iso are buggy. Deviance has re-packed one thats *supposed* to work, but doesn't. You can't use savegame after more than four minutes of play.
So, SafeDisc3 is still secure. Just. Kinda. Maybe.
Green really isn't your color, Mr AC.
...but you've Slashdotted google!#*(@Q$#^$
wow.
This can only be a good thing, regardless of whether the Chinese Government ultimately succeeds. As I said in a bit more detail here,
'China's moon mining plan is perhaps one of the best things that could have happened as far as space exploration is concerned. The world's primary space organisation, NASA, is constantly having its budget chipped away by the US government. Hopefully, China's future successes in space missions will force the US, and other countries, back into research and development of technologies needed for space flight and colonization such as nuclear propulsion, terraforming and techniques for mining resources on off-earth locations such as the moon and asteroid belts.'
Who knows - three hundred years from now, our decendents could look back on this day and say 'thanks to China pushing the world into a new space race, we managed to develop the technologies that allowed us to get off that overcrowded and overpolluted chuck of rock that we called Earth, before it killed us all off for good.'
People think Instant Messages are like phone conversations - no record is kept, they can say pretty much what they like. People used to think the same about Corporate email too.
Nearly every company today has an Internet Acceptable Use Policy. Said policy covers allowed surfing habits (work related only, etc), as well as appropriate email useage (no sexist jokes, spamming of jokes). Once companies realise that IM traffic is essentially the same as email, they will need to incorporate policy on usage into their existing AUP.
Naturally there's privacy concerns here. People don't like their every word and action at work scruitinized. However, as Pamela Housley (director of compliance at Thomas Weisel Partners investment banking firm) said in the CNN article,'It's just easier to archive it all. I don't have the manpower to have somebody look at this all day long.' This will hold true in most cases.
Most companies already archive all email sent/received by work accounts as a matter of course. However, that's not to say people actually read all those emails. They're there with the sole intent of keeping a record to cover the company's ass if something goes wrong - such as a client accusing an employee of doing something they were not asked to do. If said employee can turn around and say 'I was asked to do it via email, and HERE IT IS!', the company is fine.
Face it - IM traffic sent/received at work will end up being logged as a matter of course. It has to if companies want to keep themselves out of a legal quagmire. However, just because your communication via IM is logged, doesn't mean someone is going to actually violate your privacy by reading it. In fact, most AUPs specifically prohibit the reading of another's work communications without the proper authorisation.
Keep in mind that you're using work assets. Keep in mind that you can, and will, be held responsible for abuse of said assets. Stick to the AUP, and everything will be rosy.
//disc: I am an Australian journalist who
//works fulltime for an Ozzie PC magazine.
Articles like this really annoy me. They take the actions of several PR companies, the reactions of certain journalists/game reviewers/industry observers, pick one or two of the more outlandish *stories* and then proceed to generalise across the entire damned industry.
Let me tell you right now: the actions of PR companies, game publishers/distributors and other parties interested in getting favourable attention from gaming and hardware journalists does NOT have much of an affect on the majority of the PC mag industry. At least, thats the case here in Australia.
Case in point: A company holds a press party for their latest game. They invite a bunch of journalists, put on free drinks and food, throw a few PCs around with playable demos of the code and generally hold a shmooze-fest. People eat, drink, be merry and discuss everything under the sun - naturally including the product they are there for in the first place!
Party finishes. Journalists go home. A few weeks later, the gold code arrives. Editor picks a staffer to review the game, and he/she takes it home to play the S*#T out of for a week or more - whatever it takes to finish the game.
The journalist then proceeds to write his/her review. Said review passes through subedit and a few other misc publishing routines, and appears in the next issue of the magazine.
In my experience, parties and junkets are the norm when a company wants to promote its latest product - whether that be the latest router or the next hot FPS shootemup. However, these parties usually don't promote the product they are organised for!
Damn near every promotional party/trip i can remember had one affect and one only - networking. The entire reason journalists turn up to these events is simply because they meet new people, gain new contacts and thus extend their usefullness to their own company! We emphatically do NOT think to ourselves "wow, that party/trip overseas/weekend in a hotel rocked! I'm going to give this game/hardware/widget 90%!"
Anyhow, to sum up: the article is pure BS. Journalists possess something called ethics. Those who don't, aren't journalists for long. Once you lose credability in this industry, no-one - and I mean no-one - will touch you. In short: you're fucked.
Don't lable an entire industry corrupt because of a few over-extravegant parties/trips. Fine, if one or two individuals bias their reviews due to trips/parties, then they deserve all the ridicule in the world. It won't matter all that much anyway, as they will be out of a job before long if they continue on that tack.
We have ethics. We have morals. We do not bias reviews based on how good a time a company has shown us previous to sending us product. And don't you dare bloody insinuate that we do!
Actually you have your valuations mixed up. Sure, its costs $7 Australian to burn the CD - but it costs $29.95 Australian to buy it. Big difference for us, over the 16.95 you quoted.
*sniff* Most romantic thing I've seen in a long time. Damn near made me cry. Best wishes for the future Taco and Kath, from all the Ozzie geeks Down Under!
Sharman Networks Limited does not exist as a company in Australia.
According to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (with which *every* Australian company must be registered), there is no such company as Sharman Networks Limited.
Furthermore, there is no company by that name in either the Yellow Pages nor the White Pages. Heck, I even checked Directory Assistence in case they had newly been added.
NSW Department of Fair Trading hasn't heard of Sharman Networks. Sharman Networks holds no patents. Sharman Networks is not listed as either an Australian company name or Australian business name. As far as I can tell, no Australian Gov. organisation (or indeed Industry organisation) has had contact with Sharman.
That leaves two possabilites.
#1 Sharman Networks is a newly formed shell company that is being used soley for this transaction (hence lack of web presence or reference). However, this is unlikely as the ASIC database carries information on companies who are registered under names different to those they trade under.
#2 Sharman Networks does not exist, and Kazaa is up to some strange tricks in order to move juristiction of its matters out of Dutch hands, as their new ToS states.
This is a Whirlpool source from within Telstra who released the information, not some average paraniod anti-telstra/anti-MS/proWhateverIsSaidOnSlashdot nut.
From my experience (as both a whirlpool user and Australian IT journo), they are generally quite good as far as authenticity goes.
It does cost a fair bit to run DSL out to places where the company won't get much of a return. However, we do have Satelite, but it too is very expensive.
If you've ever seen a Telstra broadband ad, you will notice they claim to cover '98% of *Australians*', not 98% of Australia itself.
But either way, thats not why prices are high. Prices are high because Telstra is Australia's MS - here, Tel$tra hold the monopoly and may set prices as they see fit. Other resellers must set their pricing policy accordingly.
I'm an Ozzie, and yes im currently paying for a Telstra ADSL connection.
:P)
First off let me tell you all something; there has been absolutely NO corresponding level in broadband service (let alone customer service, but thats another rant) from Telstra to justify this price rise. I've had an account with them for just on 12 months, and aside from a two month period where their network attained something approaching 80% uptime, its been absolute shit.
Secondly, Ziggy and co. have obviously realised that they cannot continue to support the ADSL network. Why? Because they are incompetent, plain and simple. Its very easy to say 'ADSL isnt making us enough money', but it doesnt really hold up when you consider they made a *half yearly* in 2001 of $4 billion AU (about $30 US
When telstra has a problem with their DSL network, their stockstandard response is 'due to the newness and complexity of the ADSL network, the current problem may take some time to fix' (or very close to that). Ahem, excuse me. ADSL may be new to Telstra, but it sure as heck isnt new to the IT world. That's excuse #1. Excuse #2 is also stock standard, 'its problems with the equipement of our provider.' Hmm, I know Alcatel may not have as good a rep as Cisco, but they're not exactly amature. After hearing this excuse for about the 50th time, I'm thinking its just one of about 10 excuses that all Telstra call centre staff have tacked on their cubicle walls.
As for any other form of residential broadband...well, there's Optus I suppose. However, the strength of Optus was always the fact that the nitty gritty of their network was managed by Excite. Now that Excite has exited the partnership, God only knows how their network will fair the next 12 months.
Other than that, this is just one more example of how Telstra couldn't give a toss about their users. Since they were partially privatised, their #1 priority has been share dividends. Service? They only give service if it will make them a greater profit. If they can screw the users and still make some kind of profit, they can and will.
"NASA Astronaughts aboard the International Space Station turn on new multibillion dollar Hybrid Astro-Computational K-rad Eratta Disseminator computer system only to be greeted by...
"j00 r 0w3nd b|47h"
Think about this:
:P
During the Vietnam war era, America had Conscription. Now im not too sure here but from what i can recall, selection was based on your date of birth. If you refused to go to Vietnam on behalf of your country when you were selected, you broke the law.
40 or so years down the track, no-one consides the draft dodgers to have committed a 'crime'
Now apply to DeCSS hosting.
"Third, hold contributions in escrow until the novel is released, and if the limit is not reached by a certain time, give us our money back. As a contributor, this makes my cost negligible"
Two Points.
1) Say it takes King two years to write his novel. Im assuming this money will be put in a bank account or some form of investment (after all, its not likely that King will keep it all under his bed until the minimum amount is reached). What happens to the interest that this money generates? Will it come back to each contributer based on the amount that they paid, or will King keep the interest and justify it on the grounds that it is compensation for his time writing the novel?
2) If the interest is not returned to individual contributers, then they _do_ incur a cost; that of lost interest on the $X they paid King, that they would have received if they had invested that $X amount elsewhere (usually at the prevailing bank interest rate) for the same amount of time.