It sounds from TFA that Automatic Updates wasn't completely disabled, but probably set to 'notify me when new updates are available but don't download or install them'. In that case the service is still running and periodically phoning home to get the list of updates.
Presumably there's some sort of flag that can be set on an update which overrides the user's settings and installs it anyway. Reading the other comment from the article's author it sounds like there WERE entries in the event log about its installation, which would seem to indicate that it's a relatively "normal" update with a special flag set (or possibly a bug in WUAU), rather than some super-secret backdoor.
It's still inexcusable for them to have even put in that ability in the first place, much less be using it.
I wonder if this still happens even if you have set the Automatic Updates service to 'Disabled' in services, rather than using the control panel applet which tells it not to update but still leaves the service running.
Probably a good idea to disable the BITS service too.
We wouldn't want the kids to accidentally start wiping out entire races by accident, you know with those genocide machine schematics online. Exactly! It only took me about 30 seconds to find one. Scary!
No, that's a bad idea. If a worm does that it can easily be blamed on whoever wrote the worm. "Evil Hackers" and whatnot. Nothing changes.
When MS's validation servers screw up on their own and leave legitimate customers out in the cold, they have nobody else to blame. That's what will get people's attention.
Actually grep is GNU grep, but there have been some discussions on the lists recently about replacing it with a BSD rewrite. GNU tar was replaced not too long ago with a new BSD version that uses libarchive and is supposedly more efficient. Haven't noticed any performance difference personally, just new features like not having to specify 'z' and using tar to extract ZIP files and ISO9660 images.
Here's a list of some stuff that comes with FreeBSD which is probably GPL (it's in/usr/src/gnu/usr.bin)
bc binutils cc cpio cvs dc dialog diff diff3 gdb gperf grep groff man patch rcs sdiff send-pr sort texinfo
In my experience anyway, the FreeBSD VM subsystem has always seemed to manage memory / swap better than Linux under tight memory conditions, staying responsive longer so I can get in and kill the offending processes. YMMV.
Yes, the kernel being licensed under the GPLv3 could harm them, but Linus has stated that he's not interested. The only time he considered doing so was for ZFS support. But then FUSE came along and ended up providing the support for the filesystem under Linux. Do you have a link to a post on that by chance? I'm curious as to what changes in GPLv3 might make it more CDDL-friendly.
It's too bad there's so many individual contributors or he could just write a custom license that's mostly GPL but with a few tweaks. I can see why some projects require contributors to assign copyright to a central foundation -- though that has potential for abuse so you have to really trust who's in charge of it.
They'd just separate out the Tivo proprietary chunk and run it in another vm (on bsd or something) that is locked down, and communicate over shared mem, guess they could use TCP/IP too. The normal system side would just run some version of linux and users could probably modify to their hearts content. Its a win win in my book. So, "just" port your code to another kernel (or custom microkernel), write or license a VM hypervisor, and devise a method of communicating between the different parts of the system. Your system is now 3 times as complex and that makes maintenance on it harder, too. What would be the purpose of the Linux-based part if all your proprietary code runs elsewhere?
I think the point that Justin is trying to make is that if you have to go through the trouble to do that anyway, it's probably easier to just drop Linux altogether and either write your own custom kernel or use a BSD-derived one. Linux's only advantages in the embedded space are being free (of cost), and simplicity -- a lot of the work is already done for you. GPLv3 is threatening to take away the latter.
Fortunately Linus at least realizes this and is standing his ground.
If you look at those usage statistics, Firefox is only a fragment below IE6, and quite a bit above IE7. Of course, I have no way of knowing how accurate these are, but I tend to trust W3 content.
w3schools.com is not operated by the W3C.
The page you linked mentions that the usage stats for a site geared toward web developers will be skewed toward alternative browsers
There is a web browser inside the web browser! That's what I thought at first until I tried actually clicking on it and it just popped open a new firefox window. Lame.
I was able to get to the site and tried the demo. "Integrated" means that when you click on 'Browser' or 'eMail', it simply opens a new (native, not one of its ajax-pseudo-windows) browser window pointing to google.com or gmail.com...
Yes, and WinCE based phones connecting to Exchange servers have a dirty hack that does something similar. If you provide an email address for your provider's SMS gateway, the exchange server will send a dummy message to that address, which gets SMS'd to your phone and tells it that you have new mail and it should connect and synchronize.
In my experience, whatever system the blackberry uses is much faster and more efficient. We have a BES though, so I'm not sure how it compares to using RIM's servers.
As for the iPhone, I was under the impression that it just used normal mail protocols (IMAP) and polled at regular intervals. I don't have one, so I could be mistaken though.
I do agree with your suggestion, although the only thing I'd say is that every other phone seems to call their radio disable mode "Airplane Mode," and I'm sure Apple (for once) was just trying to abide by the norms in the industry. I dunno, on my blackberry the option is on the main screen and is simply labeled "Turn wireless off". The default settings also blink the status LED green every once in a while to let you know that it has cellular coverage, but I turned that off because I found it annoying.
The closest analogy I can think of is the Wii, and that isn't a mobile device attempting to use a quite likely charge-per-usage network constantly. Plus the Wii has an LED that stays lit to let you know that it's in standby mode, and the LED's color is different depending on whether or not the wireless is enabled. Not to mention that the whole CD tray starts pulsing blue whenever it downloads something.
Jack Thompson is the crazy guy who's on a personal crusade against video games. He thinks those young whipersnappers will imitate them and go around stealing cars and shooting hookers, or jumping on turtles or something. Involved in lots of high profile cases (Grand Theft Auto ring any bells?) and has tried to have legislation pushed in several states to restrict sales of certain games. Rants on national TV, interviews with the press. Was the inspiration for this song. Has been covered on Slashdot multiple times. Involved in a legal skirmish with Penny Arcade, threatening to have them arrested because they donated to a charity in his name. Much, much, more.
I'd link all that stuff to the relevant articles, but I'm feeling lazy today. I'll give you a head start, though.
But anyway, isn't ZFS under a license that can't be used in the Linux kernel, anyway? So it's incompatible with the GPL, not really 'free software'? <troll>That's the GPL's fault for being so narrow-minded, it has nothing to do with "free software". Other Free software, like FreeBSD for instance, has no problem using CDDL code.</troll>
Slashdot Mirror
It sounds from TFA that Automatic Updates wasn't completely disabled, but probably set to 'notify me when new updates are available but don't download or install them'. In that case the service is still running and periodically phoning home to get the list of updates.
Presumably there's some sort of flag that can be set on an update which overrides the user's settings and installs it anyway. Reading the other comment from the article's author it sounds like there WERE entries in the event log about its installation, which would seem to indicate that it's a relatively "normal" update with a special flag set (or possibly a bug in WUAU), rather than some super-secret backdoor.
It's still inexcusable for them to have even put in that ability in the first place, much less be using it.
I wonder if this still happens even if you have set the Automatic Updates service to 'Disabled' in services, rather than using the control panel applet which tells it not to update but still leaves the service running.
Probably a good idea to disable the BITS service too.
I'm very sensitive to bees.
LOL. Of course a true ninja can easily kill a man with a pair of chopsticks.
Um, wouldn't the international standard (ISO 8601) form be 2001-09-11? I don't see how you can be confused by that.
No, that's a bad idea. If a worm does that it can easily be blamed on whoever wrote the worm. "Evil Hackers" and whatnot. Nothing changes.
When MS's validation servers screw up on their own and leave legitimate customers out in the cold, they have nobody else to blame. That's what will get people's attention.
Oh, okay. Thanks harry. I mean larry.
Actually grep is GNU grep, but there have been some discussions on the lists recently about replacing it with a BSD rewrite. GNU tar was replaced not too long ago with a new BSD version that uses libarchive and is supposedly more efficient. Haven't noticed any performance difference personally, just new features like not having to specify 'z' and using tar to extract ZIP files and ISO9660 images.
/usr/src/gnu/usr.bin)
Here's a list of some stuff that comes with FreeBSD which is probably GPL (it's in
bc
binutils
cc
cpio
cvs
dc
dialog
diff
diff3
gdb
gperf
grep
groff
man
patch
rcs
sdiff
send-pr
sort
texinfo
In my experience anyway, the FreeBSD VM subsystem has always seemed to manage memory / swap better than Linux under tight memory conditions, staying responsive longer so I can get in and kill the offending processes. YMMV.
It's too bad there's so many individual contributors or he could just write a custom license that's mostly GPL but with a few tweaks. I can see why some projects require contributors to assign copyright to a central foundation -- though that has potential for abuse so you have to really trust who's in charge of it.
I think the point that Justin is trying to make is that if you have to go through the trouble to do that anyway, it's probably easier to just drop Linux altogether and either write your own custom kernel or use a BSD-derived one. Linux's only advantages in the embedded space are being free (of cost), and simplicity -- a lot of the work is already done for you. GPLv3 is threatening to take away the latter.
Fortunately Linus at least realizes this and is standing his ground.
I think you mean Javascript (the 'J' in AJAX). I just went to the site and opened the demo, and there are definitely no java_vm processes running.
I was able to get to the site and tried the demo. "Integrated" means that when you click on 'Browser' or 'eMail', it simply opens a new (native, not one of its ajax-pseudo-windows) browser window pointing to google.com or gmail.com...
Checked wikipedia, the iPhone does have "push", but only if you're using Yahoo mail.
Yes, and WinCE based phones connecting to Exchange servers have a dirty hack that does something similar. If you provide an email address for your provider's SMS gateway, the exchange server will send a dummy message to that address, which gets SMS'd to your phone and tells it that you have new mail and it should connect and synchronize.
In my experience, whatever system the blackberry uses is much faster and more efficient. We have a BES though, so I'm not sure how it compares to using RIM's servers.
As for the iPhone, I was under the impression that it just used normal mail protocols (IMAP) and polled at regular intervals. I
don't have one, so I could be mistaken though.
AT&T: Your world, delivered. To the NSA.
You could have had a +5 funny if only you had said "up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start"
Ummm, pretty sure that's how email works in general. It stays on the server and you can retrieve/delete it at your leisure.
Jack Thompson is the crazy guy who's on a personal crusade against video games. He thinks those young whipersnappers will imitate them and go around stealing cars and shooting hookers, or jumping on turtles or something. Involved in lots of high profile cases (Grand Theft Auto ring any bells?) and has tried to have legislation pushed in several states to restrict sales of certain games. Rants on national TV, interviews with the press. Was the inspiration for this song. Has been covered on Slashdot multiple times. Involved in a legal skirmish with Penny Arcade, threatening to have them arrested because they donated to a charity in his name. Much, much, more.
I'd link all that stuff to the relevant articles, but I'm feeling lazy today. I'll give you a head start, though.