On that note. I tried using a large bulk tape eraser on a HD the other day. I passed over it, tried all angles of attack, held it on the drive for minutes at a time, and even tried some of the the above while the HD was running on a working system. It did not do any checksums of the data before and after but I really thought it would have caused some serious damage, it appeared to do nothing. It did demagnatize all the monitors within 10 feet though.
There was a myth busting style show on cable last month where they tested credit card magnetic stips in various magnetic fields. I don't recall the actual magnetic field required to cause data corruption to the cards but it was much higher then I would have thought.
In conclusion, don't be so smug with your Linux machine during the next round of Welchia or Klez, because if Linux had the desktop market share of Windows, then YOU'D be feeling the pain.
Bullshit. Could you describe how this would be possible? Is Pine or Balsa or [your email application here] integrated into the OS and have full access and scripting ability on your machine? Does it automatically run code and have the ability to add services to your computer that run automatically on startup? If this is possible I'd like to know how.
I guess all those chain letters and usenet messages flying around in the mid 90's about an email tax were actually correct? Damn, maybe I should have got in on some of those pyramid plans or even the questionable trapaziodal ones of the time.
United Airlines runs OS/2 for the backend of all ticket counters and gates at all of their major stations. The actual machines that the agents use are W3.11 but they are remote booted and given thier configuration from the OS/2 servers. To quote an Apple zealot.. It just works.
People poking around with stuff and wondering, "What else can I do with this?"
The fear by corporations and the reasons for thier lobby of lawmakers is because of the first word in your statement -- People. Existing corporations want to protect their existing profit on products and could miss out on the potential profit from new products. I see way to many rulings and laws and lawsuits for big business that support this theory. Region encoding, the broadcast flag, The entire RIAA business model, SCO's attack on OSS etc... The list goes on.. The laws are slowly changing in big business direction.
Dude, let's be realistic. Its not hard to place speakers where they are supposed to go. If your talking more technical like the right height, correct distance on axis, off axis blah blah etc, those same things would apply to this wonder speaker also as it will not magically compensate itself for your placement and specific characteristics in your room. Overall this seems like a neat idea but only for specific issues where space might be a concern. I see very little in the articles about the actual quality of the sound and nothing about how it sounds with regular audio. Both of which I think most people should consider for the $799 price.
The business model is flawed. The specific model here is choosing to sell something initally at a loss with the hopes of selling addons or additions later to make the profit. Plain and simple. What if people bought the camera's for $11 and did nothing with them, including never taking them back to extract the pictures? What if you took it home and smashed it? What if the price of a regular digital camera approaches $11? Would you consider those situations morally wrong and illegal also? Ritz can do something about it but they have made a business decision not to, it is called a deposit. Yes it would take some overhead and potentially cut into the potential profit and consumer acceptance but the law should not be there to protect that decision. Basically, they would be trying to use the law to increase the acceptance of their product which is not morally correct either.
I can second this. We use Ghost (Dos version only, nothing Ghost is installed on the workstations) and Sysprep with very few problems. We boot with a TCP boot CD (I used bart's for a starting point) pulling from a Samba server. Our DOS boot CD autodetects the type of network card, uses DHCP, and presents you with a menu system for you to pull a new image or backup an existing one to the server. We also have some basic recovery tools available on the mapped Samba drive that can be run on the workstation for reading NTFS from DOS, dos shells for recovery of files, and some partitioning tools for loss recovery. For the imaging, we have used the multicast method supplied with Ghost but not worth the effort IMHO. Our single P3 1GHZ Samba server with a ATA100 5400 rpm drive can sustain roughly 12MBytes/sec out a single eth interface and is more then enough to do 4 to 5 workstations in a reasonable time. Even for 20 or so sets, it took me longer to setup the multicast sessions and get it going then it does now the regular way. If you have a dedicated lab it might be benificial, anything else seems like a waste for multicast. YMMV. We also have a second eth interface on the same Samba machine hooked to a local 16 port switch for imaging off the main network if congestion is a concern, of course it must be moved over to the real network before actually booting it up so it can find and join our domain. We have 6 different models of computers and so far.. I've got it down to 2 images and only slight modifications required after imaging, one image for our laptop models and one for our desktops. I'm sure I'll eventually get it down to 2 perfectly working images but I am having some problems with sysprep that are inconsistant with the documentation or I simply misunderstand them, mostly with it detecting the wrong hardware and/or installing the wrong drivers for some harware even when I specify a driver path with updated drivers, like the modem and sound on some model laptops. There are numerous docs on this (some very vague) but I have not had time to mess with all the different methods.
Using our sysprep.inf, the computer on inital boot, will boot perform the mini setup (we use the -pnp switch), generate a new SID, join the domain under the correct OU, and will only require us to put in the new computer name and hit enter. We have chosen to name the computers manually but it can pick a random name or pull from a list if desired. Just before imaging, we remove the computer from the domain (suggested by MS) and manually put in some stuff in the runonce section of the registry that will call CMD files to install specific software on initial login that is "machine specific aware" and can not be worked around in other ways.
Using a well configured and tailored default user profile (less setup and config after install per user), sysprep with Ghost, and the DOS boot disk is a great system.
IBM has a very interesting point that I have seen mentioned before. The below is from the Groklaw link
Interrogatory No. 1 asks for the identification of files and lines of code from Unix that SCO contends IBM has misappropriated. It is Unix software, after all, not Linux software, that IBM is alleged to have misappropriated.
IBM is basically saying, show us "your" Unix code that you think we took. This makes more sense then the arguement I've been hearing by the Linux community of show us the Linux code that you think infringes, although the Linux community has no real right to see the SCO Unix code, IBM should have that right as a member of the lawsuit. That would make things even harder as SCO may not be able to turn up such code as it probably does not exist. From a legal standpoint, it makes asks SCO to prove infringment of their code in that manner and takes away thier shotgun approach of ifs, coulds, and resembles.
I know your only joking but one thing I learned WAY back in the 3.11 days was to use at least 2 partitions for Windows. C:\ as the OS root and minimal supporting files and D:\ and so forth for the rest including My Documents and Program Files and for 2K and above I also move Documents and Settings (Google can help with that). Even further off topic but still applies is to make any cd drives at least drive letter P from the start, they will not be pushed down a few letters automatically if you have add more disk partitions.
Google's text ads are a huge step in the right direction. Non-flash, minimally animated, unobtrusive banner ads are acceptable.
Not only that, but they actually apply to what you are searching for. Getting off topic here but the only time an ad appeals to me is when I am actively looking for something specific. Slashdot has been showing hosting site ads for years but I have never been looking for hosting. When I decide to look for hosting it will be on a search engine, I am not going to keep reloading/. hoping to see an ad. My last six online purchases came directly from Googles paid section. A K&N air filter, a radiator, a headlight assembly, a second headlight assembly, windshield replacement service (they even waived my insurance deductable), and a complete dual exhaust. All six were from different places and I was happy with everyone of them. I had better results from the paid section then the standard hits.
Maybe sites should create a link down at the bottom of thier pages along with the contact us and privacy policy links that lists their current advertisers and some simple banners. If I decide to search for a hosting company maybe I'd like to see who is currently advertising on/. and check them out.
--Why would you make a working VIRUS in the first place?
That is not really the point. The point was IS IT ILLEGAL and what laws are broken? At what point do you break this law through your process of writing this virus. The reseach phase? Example phase? Code piece stage? the final code? Releasing the final code? What if you only test it on your local network and want to release it for others to test on their network? Contacting the company responsible is not a legal right either. You have to think in extremes and remove all of your ideas of what YOU think is ethical and "right". You can not simply prosecute someone because they caused 100M in damages. You have to prosecute them for violating an existing law.
I totally disagree with your free speech theory but way to much to go into here.
That Apple takes care of the hard part and doesn't leave much control to the end user as a result. ie; It just works..
So, would you and the current +4 moderators say the same thing if MS disabled Netscape for you and put IE in its place? How about disabling Winamp and forcing you to use WMP? What about automatically wiping out and replacing your boot manager?
Let me rephrase your quote..
That MS takes care of the hard part and doesn't leave much control to the end user as a result. ie; It just works..
I see nothing here but an excuse and apology for Apple.
Is the writer the responsible party or is the person who deploys the virus?
What if I make a spreading virus that works with a known flaw in a MS product. I post this virus and code to say Bugtraq, IRC, or here on/. How can I be prosecuted? I wrote some code but did not use it or set it free on a network. You could take this to extremes on either side. What if I give code examples? What if I only documented HOW to write code to exploit an existing hole? What if I only describe the hole? I can make a machine gun and provide you with plans for a machine gun but unless I use it to kill people, I did nothing wrong. Seems to me that the prosecutors and MS are trying to hang someone as an example but that is a very fine line. Is there a law that clearly states that you can not knowingly write code that may cause millions of computers to crash? I know this is a touchy subject but I view this software as free speech.
Linux sucks with multimedia compared to windows. Windows I can play a DVD with any number of easily installable and functioning programs. Linux I killed myself getting 2 different programs to work.
Have you tried MoviX, the self booting Linux multimedia player? Don't even need an OS installed on the computer to play movies with Linux. I know, that was not your real point but MoviX is very cool and works with various media mounted from various locations.
You go in to Best Buy, you find the product you want with the specifications you want, it says "Windows compatible" and you buy it and it work
What do you mean by works. Yes they have drivers for it in Windows but if you are relying on the words on the box and advice from the BestBuy sales person to determine quality or capabilities, without doing even a 5 minute search on Google for reviews and potential problems, you get what you deserve on Windows or Linux. Would you walk into BestBuy blind and buy a motherboard or a video card for your machine? If not, why would you walk in there blind and buy a $200 digital camera or a $100 scanner without some research?
The only thing homogeneous about Apache is the name, not its implementation on the network. You can run Apache in thousands of different configurations on many different OS platforms. Yes, there are combinations of configurations and platforms that will exhibit the same characteristics but many combinations that make up an Apache installation can be far from "homogeneous".
I don't think so. Remember all the super deals you could get during Xmas of 1999 and 2000 when buying online? Startups thought that if you go there and buy once, you will always return. Boy were they wrong. People use Google because they like it. Google did not get where it is today because of advertising or by "force". MSN had the ability to be installed by default in IE, as did the MSN search page be default in every Windows OS since Win98, OEM's don't install links to Google in preconfigured workstations, AOL or any large ISP/or broadband provider is not using or referencing Google, spyware does not reference Google, software does not come with links to Google, Verisign was not using Google, I've never seen or heard any form of advertising for Google (other then their own site) but yet... It is by far the most popular search engine. As soon as it starts to change, so will the users. Maybe slowly at first but not something that I'd want to invest any money in. IMHO, it may be something to get in and out of quick but not a long term investment.
A similar situation came about when MCI had to rid itself of the residential ISP business when it merged into WorldCom. It basically sold its users to AOL. Well, the 10 or so people I knew with MCI, all quit before the actual change, or shortly there after. I don't know what price AOL paid for the userbase infusion or how many people left but it was definately not a source of long term users for them. They did not like it so they left.
Instead he suggests that users acquire and properly configure firewalls
Well that's odd, don't firewalls run using software code? What if that code is not secure? Doesn't XP and W2K come with firewall SOFTWARE to protect your computer? How is that software any different from any other software?
Not really related but.. On the way to work today, I heard a commercial on the radio about trying to get funding for bridge repair work in DC. The reason they need the funding and the purpose of the bridge repair projects was for none other than terrorism. The line was something like "to ensure the 300,000+ commuters and government officials could use the bridges to evacuate the city following an act of terrorism nearby. Hello!! those same 300,000 commuters and government officials already use those bridges twice a day every day of the year following an attack from the "end of workday". How is a fresh layer of asphalt/concrete and some rust repair going to change the situation for terrorism? I guess I need more bandwidth in case of a terrorism attack so I can reload CNN faster.
Slashdot Mirror
On that note. I tried using a large bulk tape eraser on a HD the other day. I passed over it, tried all angles of attack, held it on the drive for minutes at a time, and even tried some of the the above while the HD was running on a working system. It did not do any checksums of the data before and after but I really thought it would have caused some serious damage, it appeared to do nothing. It did demagnatize all the monitors within 10 feet though.
There was a myth busting style show on cable last month where they tested credit card magnetic stips in various magnetic fields. I don't recall the actual magnetic field required to cause data corruption to the cards but it was much higher then I would have thought.
In conclusion, don't be so smug with your Linux machine during the next round of Welchia or Klez, because if Linux had the desktop market share of Windows, then YOU'D be feeling the pain.
Bullshit. Could you describe how this would be possible? Is Pine or Balsa or [your email application here] integrated into the OS and have full access and scripting ability on your machine? Does it automatically run code and have the ability to add services to your computer that run automatically on startup? If this is possible I'd like to know how.
I guess all those chain letters and usenet messages flying around in the mid 90's about an email tax were actually correct? Damn, maybe I should have got in on some of those pyramid plans or even the questionable trapaziodal ones of the time.
United Airlines runs OS/2 for the backend of all ticket counters and gates at all of their major stations. The actual machines that the agents use are W3.11 but they are remote booted and given thier configuration from the OS/2 servers. To quote an Apple zealot.. It just works.
Possible translation: ;)
They found out you were completely whacked and it would take at least two people to fix it?
If this was a company in the US, they'd "find" exactly one candidate that qualifies and I bet he/she would just happen to be on a H1-B.
People poking around with stuff and wondering, "What else can I do with this?"
The fear by corporations and the reasons for thier lobby of lawmakers is because of the first word in your statement -- People. Existing corporations want to protect their existing profit on products and could miss out on the potential profit from new products. I see way to many rulings and laws and lawsuits for big business that support this theory. Region encoding, the broadcast flag, The entire RIAA business model, SCO's attack on OSS etc... The list goes on.. The laws are slowly changing in big business direction.
Dude, let's be realistic. Its not hard to place speakers where they are supposed to go. If your talking more technical like the right height, correct distance on axis, off axis blah blah etc, those same things would apply to this wonder speaker also as it will not magically compensate itself for your placement and specific characteristics in your room. Overall this seems like a neat idea but only for specific issues where space might be a concern. I see very little in the articles about the actual quality of the sound and nothing about how it sounds with regular audio. Both of which I think most people should consider for the $799 price.
The business model is flawed. The specific model here is choosing to sell something initally at a loss with the hopes of selling addons or additions later to make the profit. Plain and simple. What if people bought the camera's for $11 and did nothing with them, including never taking them back to extract the pictures? What if you took it home and smashed it? What if the price of a regular digital camera approaches $11? Would you consider those situations morally wrong and illegal also? Ritz can do something about it but they have made a business decision not to, it is called a deposit. Yes it would take some overhead and potentially cut into the potential profit and consumer acceptance but the law should not be there to protect that decision. Basically, they would be trying to use the law to increase the acceptance of their product which is not morally correct either.
I can second this. We use Ghost (Dos version only, nothing Ghost is installed on the workstations) and Sysprep with very few problems. We boot with a TCP boot CD (I used bart's for a starting point) pulling from a Samba server. Our DOS boot CD autodetects the type of network card, uses DHCP, and presents you with a menu system for you to pull a new image or backup an existing one to the server. We also have some basic recovery tools available on the mapped Samba drive that can be run on the workstation for reading NTFS from DOS, dos shells for recovery of files, and some partitioning tools for loss recovery. For the imaging, we have used the multicast method supplied with Ghost but not worth the effort IMHO. Our single P3 1GHZ Samba server with a ATA100 5400 rpm drive can sustain roughly 12MBytes/sec out a single eth interface and is more then enough to do 4 to 5 workstations in a reasonable time. Even for 20 or so sets, it took me longer to setup the multicast sessions and get it going then it does now the regular way. If you have a dedicated lab it might be benificial, anything else seems like a waste for multicast. YMMV. We also have a second eth interface on the same Samba machine hooked to a local 16 port switch for imaging off the main network if congestion is a concern, of course it must be moved over to the real network before actually booting it up so it can find and join our domain.
We have 6 different models of computers and so far.. I've got it down to 2 images and only slight modifications required after imaging, one image for our laptop models and one for our desktops. I'm sure I'll eventually get it down to 2 perfectly working images but I am having some problems with sysprep that are inconsistant with the documentation or I simply misunderstand them, mostly with it detecting the wrong hardware and/or installing the wrong drivers for some harware even when I specify a driver path with updated drivers, like the modem and sound on some model laptops. There are numerous docs on this (some very vague) but I have not had time to mess with all the different methods.
Using our sysprep.inf, the computer on inital boot, will boot perform the mini setup (we use the -pnp switch), generate a new SID, join the domain under the correct OU, and will only require us to put in the new computer name and hit enter. We have chosen to name the computers manually but it can pick a random name or pull from a list if desired. Just before imaging, we remove the computer from the domain (suggested by MS) and manually put in some stuff in the runonce section of the registry that will call CMD files to install specific software on initial login that is "machine specific aware" and can not be worked around in other ways.
Using a well configured and tailored default user profile (less setup and config after install per user), sysprep with Ghost, and the DOS boot disk is a great system.
I own a Nokia Symbian phone and would really hate to see this happen
;)
You'll be fine. I don't think this change is going to effect the phones already in circulation
IBM has a very interesting point that I have seen mentioned before. The below is from the Groklaw link
Interrogatory No. 1 asks for the identification of files and lines of code from Unix that SCO contends IBM has misappropriated. It is Unix software, after all, not Linux software, that IBM is alleged to have misappropriated.
IBM is basically saying, show us "your" Unix code that you think we took. This makes more sense then the arguement I've been hearing by the Linux community of show us the Linux code that you think infringes, although the Linux community has no real right to see the SCO Unix code, IBM should have that right as a member of the lawsuit. That would make things even harder as SCO may not be able to turn up such code as it probably does not exist. From a legal standpoint, it makes asks SCO to prove infringment of their code in that manner and takes away thier shotgun approach of ifs, coulds, and resembles.
I know your only joking but one thing I learned WAY back in the 3.11 days was to use at least 2 partitions for Windows. C:\ as the OS root and minimal supporting files and D:\ and so forth for the rest including My Documents and Program Files and for 2K and above I also move Documents and Settings (Google can help with that). Even further off topic but still applies is to make any cd drives at least drive letter P from the start, they will not be pushed down a few letters automatically if you have add more disk partitions.
Google's text ads are a huge step in the right direction. Non-flash, minimally animated, unobtrusive banner ads are acceptable.
/. hoping to see an ad. My last six online purchases came directly from Googles paid section. A K&N air filter, a radiator, a headlight assembly, a second headlight assembly, windshield replacement service (they even waived my insurance deductable), and a complete dual exhaust. All six were from different places and I was happy with everyone of them. I had better results from the paid section then the standard hits.
/. and check them out.
Not only that, but they actually apply to what you are searching for. Getting off topic here but the only time an ad appeals to me is when I am actively looking for something specific. Slashdot has been showing hosting site ads for years but I have never been looking for hosting. When I decide to look for hosting it will be on a search engine, I am not going to keep reloading
Maybe sites should create a link down at the bottom of thier pages along with the contact us and privacy policy links that lists their current advertisers and some simple banners. If I decide to search for a hosting company maybe I'd like to see who is currently advertising on
--Why would you make a working VIRUS in the first place?
That is not really the point. The point was IS IT ILLEGAL and what laws are broken? At what point do you break this law through your process of writing this virus. The reseach phase? Example phase? Code piece stage? the final code? Releasing the final code? What if you only test it on your local network and want to release it for others to test on their network? Contacting the company responsible is not a legal right either. You have to think in extremes and remove all of your ideas of what YOU think is ethical and "right".
You can not simply prosecute someone because they caused 100M in damages. You have to prosecute them for violating an existing law.
I totally disagree with your free speech theory but way to much to go into here.
That Apple takes care of the hard part and doesn't leave much control to the end user as a result. ie; It just works..
So, would you and the current +4 moderators say the same thing if MS disabled Netscape for you and put IE in its place? How about disabling Winamp and forcing you to use WMP? What about automatically wiping out and replacing your boot manager?
Let me rephrase your quote..
That MS takes care of the hard part and doesn't leave much control to the end user as a result. ie; It just works..
I see nothing here but an excuse and apology for Apple.
Is the writer the responsible party or is the person who deploys the virus?
/. How can I be prosecuted? I wrote some code but did not use it or set it free on a network. You could take this to extremes on either side. What if I give code examples? What if I only documented HOW to write code to exploit an existing hole? What if I only describe the hole? I can make a machine gun and provide you with plans for a machine gun but unless I use it to kill people, I did nothing wrong. Seems to me that the prosecutors and MS are trying to hang someone as an example but that is a very fine line. Is there a law that clearly states that you can not knowingly write code that may cause millions of computers to crash? I know this is a touchy subject but I view this software as free speech.
What if I make a spreading virus that works with a known flaw in a MS product. I post this virus and code to say Bugtraq, IRC, or here on
Linux sucks with multimedia compared to windows. Windows I can play a DVD with any number of easily installable and functioning programs. Linux I killed myself getting 2 different programs to work.
Have you tried MoviX, the self booting Linux multimedia player? Don't even need an OS installed on the computer to play movies with Linux. I know, that was not your real point but MoviX is very cool and works with various media mounted from various locations.
You go in to Best Buy, you find the product you want with the specifications you want, it says "Windows compatible" and you buy it and it work
What do you mean by works. Yes they have drivers for it in Windows but if you are relying on the words on the box and advice from the BestBuy sales person to determine quality or capabilities, without doing even a 5 minute search on Google for reviews and potential problems, you get what you deserve on Windows or Linux. Would you walk into BestBuy blind and buy a motherboard or a video card for your machine? If not, why would you walk in there blind and buy a $200 digital camera or a $100 scanner without some research?
Well, I paid $69 for mine and it does. Looks like you got burned.
The only thing homogeneous about Apache is the name, not its implementation on the network. You can run Apache in thousands of different configurations on many different OS platforms. Yes, there are combinations of configurations and platforms that will exhibit the same characteristics but many combinations that make up an Apache installation can be far from "homogeneous".
I don't think so. Remember all the super deals you could get during Xmas of 1999 and 2000 when buying online? Startups thought that if you go there and buy once, you will always return. Boy were they wrong. People use Google because they like it. Google did not get where it is today because of advertising or by "force". MSN had the ability to be installed by default in IE, as did the MSN search page be default in every Windows OS since Win98, OEM's don't install links to Google in preconfigured workstations, AOL or any large ISP/or broadband provider is not using or referencing Google, spyware does not reference Google, software does not come with links to Google, Verisign was not using Google, I've never seen or heard any form of advertising for Google (other then their own site) but yet... It is by far the most popular search engine. As soon as it starts to change, so will the users. Maybe slowly at first but not something that I'd want to invest any money in. IMHO, it may be something to get in and out of quick but not a long term investment.
A similar situation came about when MCI had to rid itself of the residential ISP business when it merged into WorldCom. It basically sold its users to AOL. Well, the 10 or so people I knew with MCI, all quit before the actual change, or shortly there after. I don't know what price AOL paid for the userbase infusion or how many people left but it was definately not a source of long term users for them. They did not like it so they left.
Who is this "Slashdot" person you speak of in this and your first post in the thread? Are you not really here?
Instead he suggests that users acquire and properly configure firewalls
Well that's odd, don't firewalls run using software code? What if that code is not secure? Doesn't XP and W2K come with firewall SOFTWARE to protect your computer? How is that software any different from any other software?
Not really related but..
On the way to work today, I heard a commercial on the radio about trying to get funding for bridge repair work in DC. The reason they need the funding and the purpose of the bridge repair projects was for none other than terrorism. The line was something like "to ensure the 300,000+ commuters and government officials could use the bridges to evacuate the city following an act of terrorism nearby. Hello!! those same 300,000 commuters and government officials already use those bridges twice a day every day of the year following an attack from the "end of workday". How is a fresh layer of asphalt/concrete and some rust repair going to change the situation for terrorism? I guess I need more bandwidth in case of a terrorism attack so I can reload CNN faster.