Re:Would you quit driving
on
Safe Cigarettes?
·
· Score: 0, Troll
> Seems unreasonable doesnt it.
Seems reasonable to me. I've often dreamed about how wonderful the city would be if everyone had to park their cars outside the limits and take public transportation to get around inside. If banning smoking in public means we need to ban cars too, then excellent! I win double!
But let me ask you this -- how come I have an allergic reaction to a nearby smoker and not a nearby car?
(Both are "harmless" by your definition -- so why am I harmed by second hand smoke? Because you're lying to support your drug addiction. Get help.)
> I can understand if you were, say, working in an environment that was heavy with smoke.
So you don't think the smoking ban has anything to do with the fact that some non-smokers work in restaurants where they are forced to inhale smoke for 8 hours a day?
Oh that's OK, right. If they don't like it they should just quit their job...
Here's my view on banning smoking in public: do it. Maybe there isn't a health risk, but I, and plenty of people I know, are rather allergic to inhaling smoke. I'm sick and tired of not being able to breathe because some junkie needs his fix right now. I think smokers should do what the rest of the drug addicts do -- go home or to some dark corner and light up there.
You have the right to do whatever you want to yourself in private, but not in public. I don't want to inhale your fucking smoke.
My horseless carriage business faces ruin. We should outlaw these new-fangled "automobiles".
Riiight. That's just too bad, isn't it. If your business model is suddenly irrelevant, that's just way too damn bad for you.
Anyway, the real purpose of this bill is to prevent people from recording their own movies. Every camcorder made now will have to have DRM protection -- which will allow the movie industry to prevent you from recording independent films. With no independent films, the MPAA will be the only game in town for movies. Profit profit profit.
I wish Congress would tell the MPAA and RIAA that if they keep lobbying for this shit they'll repeal copyright completely. That would be so hilarious that I think I'd cry.
Excuse me? It is indeed a fucking rootkit. A rootkit is a program that hooks OS calls so that their behavior is "wrong" in some way. In this case, it hides files. That is, objects physically on the filesystem are no longer visible, thanks to this rootkit's intervention. That's a classic example of a rootkit. (Actually the classic example is hiding processes, and... this rootkit does that.)
And what the cheaters could do is modify their rootkit to detect the detection of their rootkit, and act accordingly. You can't stop the user from running code on his machine... he can execute what he wants, when he want, and for any reason he wants. That's how computers work.
Sorry, dude, but you, your credit unions, and your friends are dopes. Visa's own website tells merchants to confiscate unsigned cards, including ones that are signed "ASK FOR ID". I hope one of them follows up some time.
Back in the old days, people would post shit like that and it would make the page really really wide. This, of course, made reading the comments impossible, so taco added code to break up lines like that. The link was clickable anyway, so who cares?
Random data for the postercomment compression filter: p7F6m8cCw3MJiU6hdKlE9ef9h7iiJX2kjiWYlFwdVYKcWdyj3N a3lSOKbtpd9Kqe4YR00j0Ywu5TvBYiDOpHBycXY4OLK4DeQBqP yWB725v22zWCfMuswvoGP2Mfi64HAn5L3THTdzoVlQklRrdHM6 TExxPLe2K071TIugr739lLq1siImEDi59WXr1sOtB10b3ddlqR RKoQgiypgDHoZrhZn1rtLjOLLWw9265W0wyJzHuUUBzdDLxk4r d3ipumQKNZI4ohHMV8U2j74c4AKWQcMqc9pOI4PvVfQe3is6Sf t6J0sRaHUS0wRntkAFmlM5FIX7tmgfcMzRfLR2EdHtEOivR7hk 4WinzDXnWhlrT81hIAAp3OfVOtkIgVpZnXDxKY3QBp9o6ZcPqA RQoa2AoNDQ3OLeXezneVGUHA9PV14qlDNFfxirwhGDagiMBr7T wiiKeFtXmaIWgQWQSdazQtQ5NMPYUTHmC5XnOAfiiwwu4bVry1 vaeEgKUGs51bbxafhJOAMwBXExtvRKnWM
> end of text on current line: $ > beginning of non-whitespace on current line: ^
I will admit that that is pretty cool. Although in regular expressions, ^ and $ are beginning- and end-of-string matchers. Beginning and end of line are \A and \z... at least in perl (there are programming languages other than perl? pshaw:)
This is the first time I've ever actually said, "This is flamebait" aloud while reading a slashdot summary.:) "Hi there. I'm submitting `news' today. I wrote it in Vim. Vim is great. Vim, vim, vim." Flamebait.:)
Regarding the OPs comments on vi keybindings, he should realize that vi keybindings are a dirty hack in most applications because most applications don't have a command mode and an insert mode. I imagine it's difficult to treat the shell prompt like vi.
Emacs, OTOH, has a keybinding style that translates great to other apps. GNU apps all use emacs keybindings (I wonder why), and even IDEs like eclipse have compatibility modes. I'm glad I'm not a vi user because I know I would never be able to get things done in GUI programs like eclipse.
Anyway, if you use a GNU system like Linux, you should learn emacs. Bash (readline), info, etc. all work just like emacs. It will really save you time and effort when every app uses the same keystrokes. C-t is a great timesaver in both bash and emacs.
(I didn't know this until I learned emacs many years ago and realized that C-a and C-e worked in bash too. Then I noticed, hey, so does C-t, C-p, C-n, etc. C-r [isearch-reverse] is now my favorite bash feature, thanks to emacs. I always like it when learning one thing [emacs] makes another easier [bash].)
As for vi, I know how to do basic stuff in it, but it basically upsets me. I have a wrt54g that doesn't have emacs on it and editing config files is a PITA. Why doesn't vi let me go to the end of the line by pressing, say, end or going to the end of a shorter line and then pressing the up arrow? Irritating. I know a vi guru is going to explain how to do this now, but I don't really care about the answer. What am I going to do the next time I'm stuck in vi and have a problem? (Hint: ESC:q!
> Just because I search for "Linux Gentoo Grub SAN boot" doesn't mean that all I want to buy ever is iPods, Dell PC's, or High Speed Internet service.
You're absolutely right. And that's exavctly why Google wouldn't show you an iPod or Dell ad -- it would try to show you an ad for a consulting company that specializes in getting Gentoo to boot off of a SAN (hint: NFS root filesystem and a TFTP-enabled boot rom on your network card.)
If a plumber comes to your house to fix your toilet, is he allowed to unlock your filing cabinets, look through your financial documents, copy what he wants, and report that to his employer or the government? Hell no -- that's stealing. So why should Blizzard be allowed to do this on your computer? Preventing cheating is not a legal right. They should engineer their protocols so that cheating is not possible. Never (!) trust the client.
The real cheaters have written programs that run under UNIX and simulate the client. How does some virus^W anti-cheating software running on a Windows box help the situation? It doesn't. This is just designed to discourage n00bs -- who aren't the ones causing real problems.
Fine with me though, I don't play games. I do need to get myself a windows box though -- UNIX is just too boring nowadays. All the fun malicious software (and IDA pro) runs on Windows, after all.
If a user has the ability to overwrite/boot, then he probably has the ability to "mount/boot" and defeat your little scheme there. A better solution is to keep your kernel image (and modules!) on a CD-ROM (read-only being the operative words) and boot from that. But then again, there's nothing stopping an attacker from getting root and loading a rootkit module, or installing grub on your hard drive and bypassing your CD-ROM without you even knowing.
Once someone has root on your system, your computer is compromised. Completely.
NX doesn't help anything. It's trivial for an attacker to overwrite the return address with one that points to code that's in an executable section. For example, instead of injecting his own code to 'rm -rf/' (which NX might stop), he can just call the execv (that's already in the program and executable) and feed it 'rm * -rf'. This does require a bit more work, but it's pretty simple to inject text into an IM client (just send the user a few IMs -- "rm" "*" "-rf" -- and your strings are in the program).
I'm sure Windows has even more damaging system/library calls than execv.
How about the multitude of viruses that infect you without you having to click on anything? You must not have had an Internet connection back in the Slammer / CodeRed / etc. days.
I don't think this is entirely fair. I think the idea of ID deserves a mention -- at least in the "current events" context. Being unaware of the "alternatives" is not what eduction is about (that's called brainwashing). Science class might even be the place -- this provides a good context to talk about what a "scientific theory" is, etc.
All in all, I think kids could benefit from learning about ID, just not in the way the ID supporters want. (If you want your kids to be taught ID as fact, why not send them to Catholic school?)
Slashdot Mirror
> Seems unreasonable doesnt it.
Seems reasonable to me. I've often dreamed about how wonderful the city would be if everyone had to park their cars outside the limits and take public transportation to get around inside. If banning smoking in public means we need to ban cars too, then excellent! I win double!
But let me ask you this -- how come I have an allergic reaction to a nearby smoker and not a nearby car?
(Both are "harmless" by your definition -- so why am I harmed by second hand smoke? Because you're lying to support your drug addiction. Get help.)
> I can understand if you were, say, working in an environment that was heavy with smoke.
So you don't think the smoking ban has anything to do with the fact that some non-smokers work in restaurants where they are forced to inhale smoke for 8 hours a day?
Oh that's OK, right. If they don't like it they should just quit their job...
Here's my view on banning smoking in public: do it. Maybe there isn't a health risk, but I, and plenty of people I know, are rather allergic to inhaling smoke. I'm sick and tired of not being able to breathe because some junkie needs his fix right now. I think smokers should do what the rest of the drug addicts do -- go home or to some dark corner and light up there.
You have the right to do whatever you want to yourself in private, but not in public. I don't want to inhale your fucking smoke.
> I'd still rather the Yahoo engineers concentrate on making their servers exhibit at least a modicum of reliability.
Then don't buy their stock. You didn't? Then shut up, what do you care?
My horseless carriage business faces ruin. We should outlaw these new-fangled "automobiles".
Riiight. That's just too bad, isn't it. If your business model is suddenly irrelevant, that's just way too damn bad for you.
Anyway, the real purpose of this bill is to prevent people from recording their own movies. Every camcorder made now will have to have DRM protection -- which will allow the movie industry to prevent you from recording independent films. With no independent films, the MPAA will be the only game in town for movies. Profit profit profit.
I wish Congress would tell the MPAA and RIAA that if they keep lobbying for this shit they'll repeal copyright completely. That would be so hilarious that I think I'd cry.
Excuse me? It is indeed a fucking rootkit. A rootkit is a program that hooks OS calls so that their behavior is "wrong" in some way. In this case, it hides files. That is, objects physically on the filesystem are no longer visible, thanks to this rootkit's intervention. That's a classic example of a rootkit. (Actually the classic example is hiding processes, and ... this rootkit does that.)
Ever hear of "the sun" or "solar power"?
Report to the OS that that 90% is actually free (but cause writes to fail when someone writes to that space).
And what the cheaters could do is modify their rootkit to detect the detection of their rootkit, and act accordingly. You can't stop the user from running code on his machine... he can execute what he wants, when he want, and for any reason he wants. That's how computers work.
No, not portions of bits. It's just that it takes more than one second to send a bit when the link speed is 0.024bps.
Sorry, dude, but you, your credit unions, and your friends are dopes. Visa's own website tells merchants to confiscate unsigned cards, including ones that are signed "ASK FOR ID". I hope one of them follows up some time.
Here's the reason:
x xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
N a3lSOKbtpd9Kqe4YR00j0Ywu5TvBYiDOpHBycXY4OLK4DeQBqP yWB725v22zWCfMuswvoGP2Mfi64HAn5L3THTdzoVlQklRrdHM6 TExxPLe2K071TIugr739lLq1siImEDi59WXr1sOtB10b3ddlqR RKoQgiypgDHoZrhZn1rtLjOLLWw9265W0wyJzHuUUBzdDLxk4r d3ipumQKNZI4ohHMV8U2j74c4AKWQcMqc9pOI4PvVfQe3is6Sf t6J0sRaHUS0wRntkAFmlM5FIX7tmgfcMzRfLR2EdHtEOivR7hk 4WinzDXnWhlrT81hIAAp3OfVOtkIgVpZnXDxKY3QBp9o6ZcPqA RQoa2AoNDQ3OLeXezneVGUHA9PV14qlDNFfxirwhGDagiMBr7T wiiKeFtXmaIWgQWQSdazQtQ5NMPYUTHmC5XnOAfiiwwu4bVry1 vaeEgKUGs51bbxafhJOAMwBXExtvRKnWM
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Back in the old days, people would post shit like that and it would make the page really really wide. This, of course, made reading the comments impossible, so taco added code to break up lines like that. The link was clickable anyway, so who cares?
Random data for the postercomment compression filter:
p7F6m8cCw3MJiU6hdKlE9ef9h7iiJX2kjiWYlFwdVYKcWdyj3
> end of text on current line: $
:)
> beginning of non-whitespace on current line: ^
I will admit that that is pretty cool. Although in regular expressions, ^ and $ are beginning- and end-of-string matchers. Beginning and end of line are \A and \z... at least in perl (there are programming languages other than perl? pshaw
That would make mine ssh, ls, svn, perl, fg, cat, cp, rm, apachectl, and sudo. Guess what I do at work :)
This is the first time I've ever actually said, "This is flamebait" aloud while reading a slashdot summary. :) "Hi there. I'm submitting `news' today. I wrote it in Vim. Vim is great. Vim, vim, vim." Flamebait. :)
:q!
Regarding the OPs comments on vi keybindings, he should realize that vi keybindings are a dirty hack in most applications because most applications don't have a command mode and an insert mode. I imagine it's difficult to treat the shell prompt like vi.
Emacs, OTOH, has a keybinding style that translates great to other apps. GNU apps all use emacs keybindings (I wonder why), and even IDEs like eclipse have compatibility modes. I'm glad I'm not a vi user because I know I would never be able to get things done in GUI programs like eclipse.
Anyway, if you use a GNU system like Linux, you should learn emacs. Bash (readline), info, etc. all work just like emacs. It will really save you time and effort when every app uses the same keystrokes. C-t is a great timesaver in both bash and emacs.
(I didn't know this until I learned emacs many years ago and realized that C-a and C-e worked in bash too. Then I noticed, hey, so does C-t, C-p, C-n, etc. C-r [isearch-reverse] is now my favorite bash feature, thanks to emacs. I always like it when learning one thing [emacs] makes another easier [bash].)
As for vi, I know how to do basic stuff in it, but it basically upsets me. I have a wrt54g that doesn't have emacs on it and editing config files is a PITA. Why doesn't vi let me go to the end of the line by pressing, say, end or going to the end of a shorter line and then pressing the up arrow? Irritating. I know a vi guru is going to explain how to do this now, but I don't really care about the answer. What am I going to do the next time I'm stuck in vi and have a problem? (Hint: ESC
Emacs forever. </rant>
> Just because I search for "Linux Gentoo Grub SAN boot" doesn't mean that all I want to buy ever is iPods, Dell PC's, or High Speed Internet service.
You're absolutely right. And that's exavctly why Google wouldn't show you an iPod or Dell ad -- it would try to show you an ad for a consulting company that specializes in getting Gentoo to boot off of a SAN (hint: NFS root filesystem and a TFTP-enabled boot rom on your network card.)
Assuming this is legal.
If a plumber comes to your house to fix your toilet, is he allowed to unlock your filing cabinets, look through your financial documents, copy what he wants, and report that to his employer or the government? Hell no -- that's stealing. So why should Blizzard be allowed to do this on your computer? Preventing cheating is not a legal right. They should engineer their protocols so that cheating is not possible. Never (!) trust the client.
The real cheaters have written programs that run under UNIX and simulate the client. How does some virus^W anti-cheating software running on a Windows box help the situation? It doesn't. This is just designed to discourage n00bs -- who aren't the ones causing real problems.
Fine with me though, I don't play games. I do need to get myself a windows box though -- UNIX is just too boring nowadays. All the fun malicious software (and IDA pro) runs on Windows, after all.
If a user has the ability to overwrite /boot, then he probably has the ability to "mount /boot" and defeat your little scheme there. A better solution is to keep your kernel image (and modules!) on a CD-ROM (read-only being the operative words) and boot from that. But then again, there's nothing stopping an attacker from getting root and loading a rootkit module, or installing grub on your hard drive and bypassing your CD-ROM without you even knowing.
Once someone has root on your system, your computer is compromised. Completely.
NX doesn't help anything. It's trivial for an attacker to overwrite the return address with one that points to code that's in an executable section. For example, instead of injecting his own code to 'rm -rf /' (which NX might stop), he can just call the execv (that's already in the program and executable) and feed it 'rm * -rf'. This does require a bit more work, but it's pretty simple to inject text into an IM client (just send the user a few IMs -- "rm" "*" "-rf" -- and your strings are in the program).
I'm sure Windows has even more damaging system/library calls than execv.
How about the multitude of viruses that infect you without you having to click on anything? You must not have had an Internet connection back in the Slammer / CodeRed / etc. days.
Actually, cron is part of the OS. The OS is UNIX. The kernel is BSD/Linux/Hurd/etc. If you don't have cron, it's not UNIX.
> anything running in the background
Like Apache or cron?
> mmap() is for those who don't know how to read() and write()
Come to think of it, how do you write to one of these things? Even M$ realized that this was a bad idea.
Here's an article about proving software:
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/sep05/1454
If you read that whole issue (Sep2005 IEEE Spectrum), you'll see that the industry realizes they can't afford shitty software anymore. Finally.
What happens when you mmap one of these suckers?
I don't think this is entirely fair. I think the idea of ID deserves a mention -- at least in the "current events" context. Being unaware of the "alternatives" is not what eduction is about (that's called brainwashing). Science class might even be the place -- this provides a good context to talk about what a "scientific theory" is, etc.
All in all, I think kids could benefit from learning about ID, just not in the way the ID supporters want. (If you want your kids to be taught ID as fact, why not send them to Catholic school?)