What I was getting at, which I think you are smart enough to realize, was the fact that we have habitually been presented with multiple formats that do the same thing, but with different methods, which are inherently incompatible with one another due to the companies desire to make more profit over the convenience of the users of their products.
The different companies are all attempting to come up with the NEXT format for digital media distribution and storage. Why wouldn't we want the manufacturers to come up with a unified format, instead of fractioning the market with multiple incompatible formats. Do you want to have to buy multiple devices to play your movies?
IE - Here's my Sony Pictures player. here's my Disney movie player. here's my Universal movie player. You get the idea. If each company develops their own standards, then produces movies to those differing standards, and due to patent laws, require that companies cannot make players capable of playing all formats, then we as the consumer are faced with the challenge of chosing which format (or formats) we wish to purchase players for.
Where, if we as consumers stand up for ourselves, and raise our voices (via our spending habits), to inform the manufacturers that we are sick of the lack of unity in the industry.
Let them excel via features, reliability, price, performance, etc... Not on what media we have to purchase or what devices we have to have in order to use said media.
When these mega-corps decide to release multiple formats, we as consumers must unite to inform them that they have erred, and that they must go back, throw out all their in-compatible CRAP, and come up with a SINGLE unified format, period.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I for one am tired of the mess these companies have made of the entire media industry.
DLT, SDLT, LTO, SLTO, 3480, 3490, 3590, QIC (and it's miriad of formats), VHS, VHS-C, 4mm, 8mm, DVC, CD-R, CD+R, CD-RW, CD+RW, DVD-RAM, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, dual layer, single layer, half inch, on and on, ad nauseum.
Let's see them come up with a single multi-purpose format, sans DRM and then get it into production.
Those people who download *undocumented* copies of music, or burn tracks to make their mixes (even if tracks come from friends CDs) are the ones who would have done similiar things in the old days.
Do you remember the cassette tape? Radios? Boom-boxes that combined both?
Remember all the crying and nashing of teeth that you used while predicting the *END* of the music industry because people could tape right off the air?
People who are going to try and obtain *FREE* copies of music are going to do so regardless of measures you take to try and prevent it from happening.
These are the same people, that if left with no means of copying, would *NEVER* buy your product to begin with.
You've lost *NOTHING* and pissed off most of us who have purchased every stitch of music that we've liked.
Remember that, the more difficult you make it for legal, law-abiding customers to use your product, the fewer law-abiding customers there will be, *PERIOD*.
It's your own throat that you're slitting, wake up before you choke on your own blood.
What are your plans to regain/retain casual players?
Your current implementation of *bonus* xp is totally ineffective once a player hits lvl 60. On PvP servers, casual players have no hope of becoming higher rank, regardless of skillsets. On PvE servers, casual players fall behind their guild mates/friends due to the fact that they cannot attend high level instance raids.
This essentially creates an environment hostile to the casual player, making those of us (yes, I have terminated my account due to these problems) leave an otherwise great game.
While they don't require a restriction to a 40 hour work week, that is to be an exception. Also, the converse applies. Let's say you put in 50 hours one week, and decide to take 10 hours off the next, your *boss* cannot make you take 10 hours of vacation, as you are salaried and are not tied to a 40 hour work week.
They are not allowed to have it both ways.
Most state laws that were written by other than corporate goons support this give and take methodology.
Until they make the WAPs silent, until they receive a request from a subscriber, I'd have to disagree with your statement, that the unit was not "inviting" people to connect.
Let's say that I have a WAP and you have a WAP. Mine is locked down to specific MAC addresses, pre-shared AES encryption key (40 characters), and I have reduced the range so that it cannot leave my premises.
Now let's say that your WAP is running with signal boosters, wide open, no encryption.
A friend drops by my house, with their laptop, and while I'm in the process of configuring my WAP to allow them access they say - whoa - i'm there dude. I look at their config and let them know that they're really on someone elses network and that they need to disconnect, and wait for my WAP to finish configuring.
Since your WAP broadcast it's existance into my house, and placed packets on my friend's laptop, that would be seen as an attempt on your part to access his laptop's network interface - ie hacking. You've just broken the law because you did not restrict which devices your network would communicate with. If they are going to continue to look at "piggy backing" as criminal, then they will also have to start charging people for running unsecured WAPs as they *DO* send network traffic on to any and all wireless devices within range. Just because one of the devices does what Microsoft and or the user told them to, by accepting the connection and negotiating an IP address is inconsequential. The fact remains that my friend's laptop would not have known about your WAP unless you were sending broadcast packets to their wireless device.
In order to *fix* this problem, a couple of things need to occurr.
A change to the protocol is first up.
There needs to be a method for WAPs and AWDs to negotiate channels that have *nothing* to do with negotiating a connection. This would allow adhoc networks and wireless access points to determine which channels they can each use without causing problems with each other.
Secondly, the actual negotiation process needs to involve the user, and include some user interaction by which the user is informed of the source, and probable range from the source device, as well as a challenge response defined by the owner of said device.
If all WAP devices were modified so that if they are used with default settings, that any and all requests take them to the setup page, and are given a wizard that requires them to answer a few questions, which would then configure and harden the WAP settings, it would leave end-users with no excuse to run with wide-open connections.
After the configuration wizard is completed, the user would then be given the option to *save* the settings to a device, whether it be a USB drive, CD, floppy - whatever. From there on, configuring a client would be as easy as running a wizard on the client, read the device and bam - on the network. Once on the network the device could then lock that unit's MAC address into it's configuration for future reference.
I really don't think it would be *all that* difficult to re-work these protocols to make them secure by default as opposed to insecure.
As long as you don't have flaky memory, or hardware, which from the fact that you're running a *DELL* I'm shocked that you don't have at least 30 BSODs a day
Granted it's encrypted based on a password, but anyone technical enough to know that, will also know that the password is not the encryption key, and that they *don't have* the encryption key - just the encryption key's key.
Next up - someone jay-walks, and then the police hold them for the extended period by claiming that *terrorists* jay-walk, and then ask for all your encryption keys because they wanted to strip all your pr0n collection off your encrypted external hard drive.
I have to disagree with one *small* part of your statement.
Gateway was not *primarily* an engineering company, however, it did have an engineering group that did develop new products from the system boards up. They worked with designers, builders, fab companies to determine what they wanted, how they wanted it built, etc... I should know, I know several of their engineers personally, and have seen the fruits of their labors.
Actually it does. as each broadcast comes in through the antenna, a packet is generated, which is then analyzed by the network device which reads it as a *broadcast* packet and determines what to do with it.
Whether or not it's a packet intended to flow elsewhere via the WAP's transport, or intended as a "HERE I AM", is immaterial. A packet is a packet, and a packet flowing through the network *IS* networ access - there can be no other definition.
So, by this analogy, anyone who purchases a WAP has to contact all of their neighbors who live within range, and secure their permission, before turning on this device as it *WILL* flood their own wireless devices with signal, and could be construed as an attempt to gain access to their networks.
The fact that you installed, and turned on a WAP device, means that you are intentionally broadcasting a negotiable network signal.
The fact that that signal *INVADES* my network equipment (by the simple fact that radio waves, hitting an Antenna introduces electrical signals into the device that the antenna is attached to) implies your attempt to connect to my network device.
This would make *YOU* the criminal that would be punishable for the offense, even if you didn't intend to do it.
Your only recourse? Disconnect those antennas and power off the WAP device.
Now, do you really wish to pursue your lame analogies?
Again, someone who doesn't seem to have a flipping clue.
#1 - Wireless connectivity - FCC mandated/controlled - Public airwaves. No-one is going into *YOUR* area to do this. They are in their houses, doing their own thing. You are essentially pushing it in their faces, saying - come on, try me, you know you want to.
#2 - WAP - Devices by default are open, so that,you the consumer can configure them as you'd like to. The "get started quick" documentation, if you'd bother to read them, specifically state that they are open to everything, unless you lock it down.
#3 - Your computer - of course that's a different are to discuss. Your computer is not part of the WAP, and the WAP, by handing out an IP address, is not handing out an invitation to touch your computer. That requires additional snooping, above and beyond the simple protocol defined handshakes that occur at connection time. That WOULD be considered hacking.
#4 - Broadcasting SSID does not mean anything, other than you are allowing WAPs and AWNs to negotiate who's going to use which channels.
#5 - Let's take a look at the property side of things. What *property* exactly, is being stolen? Nothing. Nothing is missing, taken or gone. It's all still there. Did something end up carrying a few more packets than it normally would have? Yes. Does that hurt the device in question? No. Does it mean a possibly higher charge from a service provider? Only if you were already on probation from an ISP due to exceptionally high bandwidth usage already.
#6 - If you really intend to look at it as theft, then here's your analogy. You take your car to the mall (a public area), and park it. You leave the car running (you're going in and coming right back, and it's hot out, so you leave the AC running) with the radio turned on. Someone comes over by your car to listen to the radio (you have it turned up really loud). Do you yell at the person who listened to your car stereo, without your permission? Or do you just get in your car, and drive away? You would just drive away, unless you were an absolute prick.
Anyway, I digress.
The AP is doing it's intended function. The fact that it wasn't secured, means it was left in an open state - usable by anyone. The fact that the radio range exceeded your property lines is your responsibility. Most network drivers, and vendor software will be pre-configured to hop on the nearest/strongest signal, many times without notifying the user that it's changing WAPs.
The same users who are *UNINFORMED* enough to leave everything unlocked / unsecured, are the same ones who are *UNINFORMED* enough to let it use whatever network is available.
Since the network is by default open, and the documentation informs the owner of that fact, the onus is on the owner to secure the network, or it's tantamount to saying - anyone who wants to, can use this network. PERIOD. There is no other way to interpret this.
If you choose not to read the documentation, then the onus is still on you, the owner. Just because you chose to remain ignorant of the default settings, doesn't release you from your responsibilities. This would be the same thing as saying - I didn't read the speed limit sign officer, so I don't get a speeding ticket, right? WRONG!
In other news, the number of reported calls to MS and other vendor support centers has been seen to plummet after MS purchased the leading spyware/adware vendor and ground all the bits into dust.
The creationism story, as far as it goes, as written in many theological texts is valid, as far as it goes.
What most of the people who take these texts as given fact, don't take into consideration, is that they were intended for ignorant people.
Consider, at the time of writing, did anyone have a clue in regards to genetics, biology, cellular structure, dna, rna, chemistry?
No, they were, for the most part, simple shepherds, slaves, manual laborers...
If these stories had been written explaining, in detail, the processes used to "create" the animals from "dirt" (aka carbon), people would have zoned out and forgotten, not believed.
If the stories stated that a partial genetic leg taken from the not quite X not quite Y chromosome of early man was removed from the male side of the species, and attached to the female side, making XY and XX chromosome pairs to differentiate, the original hermaphroditic version of man, the people would have tuned out, not believed, failed to follow.
So the stories were simplified, homogenized, and all the "science" removed, until such time that it simply became "creation", because nothing could be explained in terms that humans at the time would understand.
Let's just say, that if your chosen deity's representative were to show up today, instead of then, the stories, sermons, explanations given would not be so simplistic.
However, you can be proud to be the kind of American that you are.
If you take the time and effort to be kind and courteous to others.
If you take the time to make certain that the environment around you is safe for others.
If you take the time to ensure the safety of others through some form of civil service. Volunteering for Red-Cross, Civil Defense, Military service, Law Enforcement, Fire Department, etc...
Keep an eye out for your friends, family and neighbors.
Assume the best about people, until they've proven otherwise, then assume that they can improve.
These and other actions, beliefs like these can make you a better person, making you a better American. Something you CAN take pride in.
I'm sure I've missed a lot of things, and I do not mean to exclude them because of omission.
Slashdot Mirror
Nice attempt at trolling.
What I was getting at, which I think you are smart enough to realize, was the fact that we have habitually been presented with multiple formats that do the same thing, but with different methods, which are inherently incompatible with one another due to the companies desire to make more profit over the convenience of the users of their products.
The different companies are all attempting to come up with the NEXT format for digital media distribution and storage. Why wouldn't we want the manufacturers to come up with a unified format, instead of fractioning the market with multiple incompatible formats. Do you want to have to buy multiple devices to play your movies?
IE - Here's my Sony Pictures player. here's my Disney movie player. here's my Universal movie player. You get the idea. If each company develops their own standards, then produces movies to those differing standards, and due to patent laws, require that companies cannot make players capable of playing all formats, then we as the consumer are faced with the challenge of chosing which format (or formats) we wish to purchase players for.
Where, if we as consumers stand up for ourselves, and raise our voices (via our spending habits), to inform the manufacturers that we are sick of the lack of unity in the industry.
Let them excel via features, reliability, price, performance, etc... Not on what media we have to purchase or what devices we have to have in order to use said media.
When these mega-corps decide to release multiple formats, we as consumers must unite to inform them that they have erred, and that they must go back, throw out all their in-compatible CRAP, and come up with a SINGLE unified format, period.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I for one am tired of the mess these companies have made of the entire media industry.
DLT, SDLT, LTO, SLTO, 3480, 3490, 3590, QIC (and it's miriad of formats), VHS, VHS-C, 4mm, 8mm, DVC, CD-R, CD+R, CD-RW, CD+RW, DVD-RAM, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, dual layer, single layer, half inch, on and on, ad nauseum.
Let's see them come up with a single multi-purpose format, sans DRM and then get it into production.
Until they can learn to treat their employees like human beings, instead of slaves, they don't deserve, nor will they get, any of my money.
Just calling it what it is.
Just like gaming on a PC with insufficient resources available. frames get dropped, in order to keep things moving.
Again, I state to RIAA...
Wake up and smell what you're shoveling.
Those people who download *undocumented* copies of music, or burn tracks to make their mixes (even if tracks come from friends CDs) are the ones who would have done similiar things in the old days.
Do you remember the cassette tape? Radios? Boom-boxes that combined both?
Remember all the crying and nashing of teeth that you used while predicting the *END* of the music industry because people could tape right off the air?
People who are going to try and obtain *FREE* copies of music are going to do so regardless of measures you take to try and prevent it from happening.
These are the same people, that if left with no means of copying, would *NEVER* buy your product to begin with.
You've lost *NOTHING* and pissed off most of us who have purchased every stitch of music that we've liked.
Remember that, the more difficult you make it for legal, law-abiding customers to use your product, the fewer law-abiding customers there will be, *PERIOD*.
It's your own throat that you're slitting, wake up before you choke on your own blood.
What are your plans to regain/retain casual players?
Your current implementation of *bonus* xp is totally ineffective once a player hits lvl 60. On PvP servers, casual players have no hope of becoming higher rank, regardless of skillsets. On PvE servers, casual players fall behind their guild mates/friends due to the fact that they cannot attend high level instance raids.
This essentially creates an environment hostile to the casual player, making those of us (yes, I have terminated my account due to these problems) leave an otherwise great game.
Tell your boss to *read* up on the actual laws.
While they don't require a restriction to a 40 hour work week, that is to be an exception. Also, the converse applies. Let's say you put in 50 hours one week, and decide to take 10 hours off the next, your *boss* cannot make you take 10 hours of vacation, as you are salaried and are not tied to a 40 hour work week.
They are not allowed to have it both ways.
Most state laws that were written by other than corporate goons support this give and take methodology.
I've been in the industry for over 20 years. I have yet to see a reliable piece of equipment with the DELL name on it.
Until they make the WAPs silent, until they receive a request from a subscriber, I'd have to disagree with your statement, that the unit was not "inviting" people to connect.
Let's say that I have a WAP and you have a WAP. Mine is locked down to specific MAC addresses, pre-shared AES encryption key (40 characters), and I have reduced the range so that it cannot leave my premises.
Now let's say that your WAP is running with signal boosters, wide open, no encryption.
A friend drops by my house, with their laptop, and while I'm in the process of configuring my WAP to allow them access they say - whoa - i'm there dude. I look at their config and let them know that they're really on someone elses network and that they need to disconnect, and wait for my WAP to finish configuring.
Since your WAP broadcast it's existance into my house, and placed packets on my friend's laptop, that would be seen as an attempt on your part to access his laptop's network interface - ie hacking. You've just broken the law because you did not restrict which devices your network would communicate with. If they are going to continue to look at "piggy backing" as criminal, then they will also have to start charging people for running unsecured WAPs as they *DO* send network traffic on to any and all wireless devices within range. Just because one of the devices does what Microsoft and or the user told them to, by accepting the connection and negotiating an IP address is inconsequential. The fact remains that my friend's laptop would not have known about your WAP unless you were sending broadcast packets to their wireless device.
In order to *fix* this problem, a couple of things need to occurr.
A change to the protocol is first up.
There needs to be a method for WAPs and AWDs to negotiate channels that have *nothing* to do with negotiating a connection. This would allow adhoc networks and wireless access points to determine which channels they can each use without causing problems with each other.
Secondly, the actual negotiation process needs to involve the user, and include some user interaction by which the user is informed of the source, and probable range from the source device, as well as a challenge response defined by the owner of said device.
If all WAP devices were modified so that if they are used with default settings, that any and all requests take them to the setup page, and are given a wizard that requires them to answer a few questions, which would then configure and harden the WAP settings, it would leave end-users with no excuse to run with wide-open connections.
After the configuration wizard is completed, the user would then be given the option to *save* the settings to a device, whether it be a USB drive, CD, floppy - whatever. From there on, configuring a client would be as easy as running a wizard on the client, read the device and bam - on the network. Once on the network the device could then lock that unit's MAC address into it's configuration for future reference.
I really don't think it would be *all that* difficult to re-work these protocols to make them secure by default as opposed to insecure.
As long as you don't have flaky memory, or hardware, which from the fact that you're running a *DELL* I'm shocked that you don't have at least 30 BSODs a day
They are changing the color of the screen for critical failures and crashes to Red in the next generation windows.
Death to BSODs, long live RSODs...
Just google the site name, then read the cached copy...
Granted, I feel it's verging on the criminal to block the site, however, are they going to block google too?
Then use your preferred shell scripting environment...
Windows XP - encrypted file?
Granted it's encrypted based on a password, but anyone technical enough to know that, will also know that the password is not the encryption key, and that they *don't have* the encryption key - just the encryption key's key.
Next up - someone jay-walks, and then the police hold them for the extended period by claiming that *terrorists* jay-walk, and then ask for all your encryption keys because they wanted to strip all your pr0n collection off your encrypted external hard drive.
I have to disagree with one *small* part of your statement.
Gateway was not *primarily* an engineering company, however, it did have an engineering group that did develop new products from the system boards up. They worked with designers, builders, fab companies to determine what they wanted, how they wanted it built, etc... I should know, I know several of their engineers personally, and have seen the fruits of their labors.
Actually it does. as each broadcast comes in through the antenna, a packet is generated, which is then analyzed by the network device which reads it as a *broadcast* packet and determines what to do with it.
Whether or not it's a packet intended to flow elsewhere via the WAP's transport, or intended as a "HERE I AM", is immaterial. A packet is a packet, and a packet flowing through the network *IS* networ access - there can be no other definition.
So, by this analogy, anyone who purchases a WAP has to contact all of their neighbors who live within range, and secure their permission, before turning on this device as it *WILL* flood their own wireless devices with signal, and could be construed as an attempt to gain access to their networks.
Let's use your laws that you quoted.
The fact that you installed, and turned on a WAP device, means that you are intentionally broadcasting a negotiable network signal.
The fact that that signal *INVADES* my network equipment (by the simple fact that radio waves, hitting an Antenna introduces electrical signals into the device that the antenna is attached to) implies your attempt to connect to my network device.
This would make *YOU* the criminal that would be punishable for the offense, even if you didn't intend to do it.
Your only recourse? Disconnect those antennas and power off the WAP device.
Now, do you really wish to pursue your lame analogies?
And you think I don't have a flippin' clue?
Yes!
Again, someone who doesn't seem to have a flipping clue.
#1 - Wireless connectivity - FCC mandated/controlled - Public airwaves. No-one is going into *YOUR* area to do this. They are in their houses, doing their own thing. You are essentially pushing it in their faces, saying - come on, try me, you know you want to.
#2 - WAP - Devices by default are open, so that,you the consumer can configure them as you'd like to. The "get started quick" documentation, if you'd bother to read them, specifically state that they are open to everything, unless you lock it down.
#3 - Your computer - of course that's a different are to discuss. Your computer is not part of the WAP, and the WAP, by handing out an IP address, is not handing out an invitation to touch your computer. That requires additional snooping, above and beyond the simple protocol defined handshakes that occur at connection time. That WOULD be considered hacking.
#4 - Broadcasting SSID does not mean anything, other than you are allowing WAPs and AWNs to negotiate who's going to use which channels.
#5 - Let's take a look at the property side of things. What *property* exactly, is being stolen? Nothing. Nothing is missing, taken or gone. It's all still there. Did something end up carrying a few more packets than it normally would have? Yes. Does that hurt the device in question? No. Does it mean a possibly higher charge from a service provider? Only if you were already on probation from an ISP due to exceptionally high bandwidth usage already.
#6 - If you really intend to look at it as theft, then here's your analogy. You take your car to the mall (a public area), and park it. You leave the car running (you're going in and coming right back, and it's hot out, so you leave the AC running) with the radio turned on. Someone comes over by your car to listen to the radio (you have it turned up really loud). Do you yell at the person who listened to your car stereo, without your permission? Or do you just get in your car, and drive away? You would just drive away, unless you were an absolute prick.
Anyway, I digress.
The AP is doing it's intended function. The fact that it wasn't secured, means it was left in an open state - usable by anyone. The fact that the radio range exceeded your property lines is your responsibility. Most network drivers, and vendor software will be pre-configured to hop on the nearest/strongest signal, many times without notifying the user that it's changing WAPs.
The same users who are *UNINFORMED* enough to leave everything unlocked / unsecured, are the same ones who are *UNINFORMED* enough to let it use whatever network is available.
Since the network is by default open, and the documentation informs the owner of that fact, the onus is on the owner to secure the network, or it's tantamount to saying - anyone who wants to, can use this network. PERIOD. There is no other way to interpret this.
If you choose not to read the documentation, then the onus is still on you, the owner. Just because you chose to remain ignorant of the default settings, doesn't release you from your responsibilities. This would be the same thing as saying - I didn't read the speed limit sign officer, so I don't get a speeding ticket, right? WRONG!
In other news, the number of reported calls to MS and other vendor support centers has been seen to plummet after MS purchased the leading spyware/adware vendor and ground all the bits into dust.
It was determined that terrorists make use of modern means of transportation as well.
Soon to be passed, a law banning automobiles, motorcycles and airplanes.
There. That should make us safe.
EULA: By clicking this, you hereby grant said software vendor fully authorized user status.
Nuff said...
The creationism story, as far as it goes, as written in many theological texts is valid, as far as it goes.
What most of the people who take these texts as given fact, don't take into consideration, is that they were intended for ignorant people.
Consider, at the time of writing, did anyone have a clue in regards to genetics, biology, cellular structure, dna, rna, chemistry?
No, they were, for the most part, simple shepherds, slaves, manual laborers...
If these stories had been written explaining, in detail, the processes used to "create" the animals from "dirt" (aka carbon), people would have zoned out and forgotten, not believed.
If the stories stated that a partial genetic leg taken from the not quite X not quite Y chromosome of early man was removed from the male side of the species, and attached to the female side, making XY and XX chromosome pairs to differentiate, the original hermaphroditic version of man, the people would have tuned out, not believed, failed to follow.
So the stories were simplified, homogenized, and all the "science" removed, until such time that it simply became "creation", because nothing could be explained in terms that humans at the time would understand.
Let's just say, that if your chosen deity's representative were to show up today, instead of then, the stories, sermons, explanations given would not be so simplistic.
JM2CW....
However, you can be proud to be the kind of American that you are.
If you take the time and effort to be kind and courteous to others.
If you take the time to make certain that the environment around you is safe for others.
If you take the time to ensure the safety of others through some form of civil service. Volunteering for Red-Cross, Civil Defense, Military service, Law Enforcement, Fire Department, etc...
Keep an eye out for your friends, family and neighbors.
Assume the best about people, until they've proven otherwise, then assume that they can improve.
These and other actions, beliefs like these can make you a better person, making you a better American. Something you CAN take pride in.
I'm sure I've missed a lot of things, and I do not mean to exclude them because of omission.