Bar codes and their scanners hasn't made life worse for anybody.
Most things I wear/carry don't have unique bar codes on them. And it's generally considered rude to run a scanner over someone's underwear without asking if you don't know them very well. And while I expect spooks and the local bar to know my name, I usually refused when the clerk at Radio Shack asked.
After-thought: If I was designing it, and my evil-bit was set, I'd have the door reader pay attention to those other tags on the way in. With a little inventory system sharing (perhaps involuntary), all the greeters and clerks would know that you bought shoes (black, evening) at Bucky's Shoes down the mall and suggest an outfit that would look good with them.
As part of the return process, the garment/tag will be re-added to the inventory. Most (cheap) tags are read-only and only say "I am tag {2575452E-E8D5-42CD-896D-2796C44D2EC6}". When the "customer [or agent thereof]" shoplifts it, the item record matching the tag will now have sold = false, and trigger the alarm. The door reader would only pass tags it doesn't know about or ones with sold = true. (If I was designing it.:^)
When a RFID reader "pings" an RFID tag, it will sing out. They could add a TheseRNotTagsULookingFor() function but that's going to have to read the tag and do the same db lookup.
I wouldn't call this a webmail problem. Won't this exploit work from any web page? The problem is that arbitrary strangers can send you email with this on a site that users might trust enough to turn on ActiveX. (Fat fscking chance I'd ever turn on ActiveX for Hotmail!)
I haven't looked at what their demo does in detail yet. (And now it's slashdotted!) It does depend on running ActiveX (normally turned off here), so it probably drags in something like XMLHTTP and exploits it. Nothing new there!
When it comes to XMLHTTP, ActiveX and security, the quote
"Whose teenage nephew designed that pair of clown pants?" comes to mind.
"The majority
of our customers use FrameMaker on Microsoft Windows and Sun Solaris
platforms."
Hmm, yes. There are certainly many more Solaris boxes than Macs. (I'm guessing that the Solaris customers are Big Companies and willing to pay through the nose for support?)
If they want to trust that RFID tags can't be duplicated, well, that's just so sweet and cute. I didn't think that there was so much trusting innocence left in this world.
Not only short range, but the current tags don't transmit. They have a circuit tuned to the signal that the reader puts out. The tag tunes/untunes the circuit to send data, and the reader catches the echo from its own signal.
To read tags from orbit would need one hell of a transmitter! (Maybe that's what the aliens in StarTrek IV: So Long and Thanks for the Fish were doing, trying to read whale RFID tags?)
I used to help run the Green Room for a science-fiction convention. We'd get a huge pile of groceries, discover no one in the group had a loyalty card ("Air Miles") and ask the person behind us if they wanted a bunch of points on their card.
We did that at the liquor store too. If there's tracking going on, I hope a couple hundred dollars of booze didn't set any red flags in that person's file...
In Europe, they don't hit the government reset button every four years. It may take five years, and there may be some bargaining, but it won't be like the "oh well, never mind" result of the US anti-trust ruling.
Nah, I think this insult needs a stronger response (like an oblig Simpsons ref):
Darl and his entire company must fly out to the land down under and apologize to the Australian people. Once there, Evan Conover, the Undersecretary of State for International Protocol, Brat and Punk Division, tells SCO that in Australia, the only acceptable apology is for the guilty party to receive a swift kick in the pants from the Prime Minister.
Quite possibly I'm wrong. Remembering the current system, as well as the American DMCA add-ons, is bad enough without having to dredge up how it all used to work.
So, to eliminate the problem of homophones, and the problem of accidental commands from room noise or conversation, all computer commands should be given in Klingon. Works for me!
I don't think Microsoft has had much luck. Otherwise they would have made use of the text-to-speech and voice command capabilities built into Clippy's agent software. (Or it was just even more a pain in the ass than now. Wow.. imagine, a Clippy even more annoying than it is now! Who says Microsoft doesn't advance the state of the art?)
Under the "traditional" system merely sticking a copyright notice on something didn't mean anything unless you registered it. Retroactive registration didn't protect you either. A number of works and movies slipped into public domain because someone goofed the paperwork.
Under the current system (in line with the Berne Convention). Under the old system, if you didn't register, that copyright notice isn't valid and means sweet richard all.
Slashdot Mirror
Never mind watching and tracking politicians all the time. Breathalyzers just before voting would be fine.
Most things I wear/carry don't have unique bar codes on them. And it's generally considered rude to run a scanner over someone's underwear without asking if you don't know them very well. And while I expect spooks and the local bar to know my name, I usually refused when the clerk at Radio Shack asked.
After-thought: If I was designing it, and my evil-bit was set, I'd have the door reader pay attention to those other tags on the way in. With a little inventory system sharing (perhaps involuntary), all the greeters and clerks would know that you bought shoes (black, evening) at Bucky's Shoes down the mall and suggest an outfit that would look good with them.
As part of the return process, the garment/tag will be re-added to the inventory. Most (cheap) tags are read-only and only say "I am tag {2575452E-E8D5-42CD-896D-2796C44D2EC6}". When the "customer [or agent thereof]" shoplifts it, the item record matching the tag will now have sold = false, and trigger the alarm. The door reader would only pass tags it doesn't know about or ones with sold = true. (If I was designing it. :^)
When a RFID reader "pings" an RFID tag, it will sing out. They could add a TheseRNotTagsULookingFor() function but that's going to have to read the tag and do the same db lookup.
I am, and so's my wife!
Mmmm, deep fried Deep One! "There are things that go Bloop in the deep, and we're the ones that Bloop back!"
I wouldn't call this a webmail problem. Won't this exploit work from any web page? The problem is that arbitrary strangers can send you email with this on a site that users might trust enough to turn on ActiveX. (Fat fscking chance I'd ever turn on ActiveX for Hotmail!)
When it comes to XMLHTTP, ActiveX and security, the quote "Whose teenage nephew designed that pair of clown pants?" comes to mind.
And patched over a year ago (twice!) according to something I read elsewhere.
Hmm, yes. There are certainly many more Solaris boxes than Macs. (I'm guessing that the Solaris customers are Big Companies and willing to pay through the nose for support?)
For those of us not members of Adobe's forums.
If they want to trust that RFID tags can't be duplicated, well, that's just so sweet and cute. I didn't think that there was so much trusting innocence left in this world.
To read tags from orbit would need one hell of a transmitter! (Maybe that's what the aliens in StarTrek IV: So Long and Thanks for the Fish were doing, trying to read whale RFID tags?)
Besides, what if I put the six pack in my trunk where it can't be read? (Remember: tags don't transmit.)
We did that at the liquor store too. If there's tracking going on, I hope a couple hundred dollars of booze didn't set any red flags in that person's file...
In Europe, they don't hit the government reset button every four years. It may take five years, and there may be some bargaining, but it won't be like the "oh well, never mind" result of the US anti-trust ruling.
Quite possibly I'm wrong. Remembering the current system, as well as the American DMCA add-ons, is bad enough without having to dredge up how it all used to work.
So, to eliminate the problem of homophones, and the problem of accidental commands from room noise or conversation, all computer commands should be given in Klingon. Works for me!
I don't think Microsoft has had much luck. Otherwise they would have made use of the text-to-speech and voice command capabilities built into Clippy's agent software. (Or it was just even more a pain in the ass than now. Wow .. imagine, a Clippy even more annoying than it is now! Who says Microsoft doesn't advance the state of the art?)
Umm, GPL copyright licences are to protect against other people's greed.
Yes, but this seems to be something Kahle wants to change.
Under the "traditional" system merely sticking a copyright notice on something didn't mean anything unless you registered it. Retroactive registration didn't protect you either. A number of works and movies slipped into public domain because someone goofed the paperwork.
Under the current system (in line with the Berne Convention). Under the old system, if you didn't register, that copyright notice isn't valid and means sweet richard all.