We need to remember that this is a complex system with several objectives. Every time we fail we learn something new, and when we meet one objective (even if the others are 'hard coded' or 'rigged') then we can move on to using real data for the hard coded or rigged objectives.
You would think that technical people, or at least programmers would understand this. I've never written a complete system from scratch without testing it with bogus or hardcoded data.
The developers could always follow the same path they currently do: develop for a medium-level (or just less than top-level) API and add extensions for cards that support them.
Ever hear the weather service worry about issuing a warning when one was not needed? You do. Why do they worry about it? The answer is because when a warning REALLY needs to be issued and that F5 tornado IS on the ground, people may loose their life because they ignore the warning.
My father works for the National Weather Service, and this is exactly the reason they have so many checks they have to go through before they issue a warning or a watch. (Not that it takes long to get through them, but they do check themselves on it very well.)
I suppose the big difference is that when people don't listen to the NWS they tend to die. (I still remember when my dad came home just devastated when some people in a national park were drowned in a flash flood that he put out a watch for.) Still, you're absolutely right.
The problem is that there's no central authority that most people know of to go to for this sort of accurate information. There's nobody competing with the NWS on the weather. The news states the information they get from the NWS exactly as it comes (with some embellishment to add entertainment value). If those media people could quote and point to actual security experts (not just the loudest), we'd be much better off.
It's a nice idea, but it would never work. There's a provision in copyright law that says that an illegal work cannot have protection. Just like you can't lock a nuke up in your house and claim that it can't be removed because it's inside your private property, you can't claim copyright protection for a virus.
Granted, it would have to be proven first that your code is malicious before they could break the encryption to study it, but that's easily done.
I'm sure somebody will complain that they require the GPL instead of a BSD or Apache style license...
They could never have done it that way - and if people complain, they'll just be blowing hot air. Borland needed to get exposure to their product without threatening their existing market. The only way to do that was to release a version that people could never make serious money from. A BSD license allows people to keep the source closed up, so that wouldn't have worked at all.
This way, people who need to make money pay for it, and people who don't still get to play with the cool stuff. It was a Darn Good Move(tm).
This is modded up as "funny," but the author actually has a good point. Why is it that we haven't seen a mass wave of Linux viruses? Yep, that's right - Microsoft desktop OSes are a much larger target.
Since you can't be 100% secure, security is all about being a very small target. Running a BeOS or Commodore 64 web server would definitely do that for you.
I think your dad is right, even though his reasons for his stance may be wrong. The DMCA needs this kind of publicity and public outcry if it's going to be changed. Just getting the issue to the Supreme Court won't be enough - we need enough people outraged by it to keep Congress from passing another one.
Remove your IE style desktop windows and install netscape style windows.
Stardock is already doing something like that. I've already tried WindowBlinds - it worked for nearly everything. (That was way back when it was sort of unstable.) Their latest is DesktopX. You can make your desktop look and act like a Mac. Does anybody out there know of a good impartial review on it?
Now, I thought that about the Linux-on-a-watch project that IBM did - until today. I finally found a use for it!
Doesn't it suck when your watch is 5 seconds off? But if you ran Linux on it, you could get NTP running, and never be more than a few milliseconds off!
Wouldn't it be a riot if they did this without considering the license, and always just assumed that they would be able to sell tons of copies? We'd have the egg-on-his-face CEO, the conniving developers who didn't bother to mention the GPL while they ported and hacked, and the shamed-out-of-work designers. "We didn't know!" they'd say.
They'd be the new poster child for the Microsoft anti-GPL FUD campaign.
Slashdot Mirror
We need to remember that this is a complex system with several objectives. Every time we fail we learn something new, and when we meet one objective (even if the others are 'hard coded' or 'rigged') then we can move on to using real data for the hard coded or rigged objectives.
You would think that technical people, or at least programmers would understand this. I've never written a complete system from scratch without testing it with bogus or hardcoded data.
The developers could always follow the same path they currently do: develop for a medium-level (or just less than top-level) API and add extensions for cards that support them.
Ever hear the weather service worry about issuing a warning when one was not needed? You do. Why do they worry about it? The answer is because when a warning REALLY needs to be issued and that F5 tornado IS on the ground, people may loose their life because they ignore the warning.
My father works for the National Weather Service, and this is exactly the reason they have so many checks they have to go through before they issue a warning or a watch. (Not that it takes long to get through them, but they do check themselves on it very well.)
I suppose the big difference is that when people don't listen to the NWS they tend to die. (I still remember when my dad came home just devastated when some people in a national park were drowned in a flash flood that he put out a watch for.) Still, you're absolutely right.
The problem is that there's no central authority that most people know of to go to for this sort of accurate information. There's nobody competing with the NWS on the weather. The news states the information they get from the NWS exactly as it comes (with some embellishment to add entertainment value). If those media people could quote and point to actual security experts (not just the loudest), we'd be much better off.
He'd get slammed down in court, easily. No intellectual property law of any kind covers illegal property.
It's a nice idea, but it would never work. There's a provision in copyright law that says that an illegal work cannot have protection. Just like you can't lock a nuke up in your house and claim that it can't be removed because it's inside your private property, you can't claim copyright protection for a virus.
Granted, it would have to be proven first that your code is malicious before they could break the encryption to study it, but that's easily done.
...Microsoft, Symantec, and UGS - works to educate teh public on the importance of software compliance...
That settles it in my mind. It was written by script kiddies.
"Excruciatingly?" That bad, huh?
I have studied random numbers quite a bit, and have worked on the assumption that any thing that can be calculated is not truely random.
Maybe Pi is interesting because it passes every test for randomness except that one.
What if you pick just the starting point randomly?
You can find any of those in Pi...
So what you're saying is that Pi was created by an infinite number of monkeys?
What if I wish to modify and redistribute my own version of kylix?...I think I'll stick with gcc.
When was the last time you modified gcc and redistributed your own version?
I'm sure somebody will complain that they require the GPL instead of a BSD or Apache style license...
They could never have done it that way - and if people complain, they'll just be blowing hot air. Borland needed to get exposure to their product without threatening their existing market. The only way to do that was to release a version that people could never make serious money from. A BSD license allows people to keep the source closed up, so that wouldn't have worked at all.
This way, people who need to make money pay for it, and people who don't still get to play with the cool stuff. It was a Darn Good Move(tm).
Isn't the PS2 a computer?
Yep. I think IBM made them. We had a whole computer lab full of them. They were pretty spiffy, in an underpowered sort of way.
This is modded up as "funny," but the author actually has a good point. Why is it that we haven't seen a mass wave of Linux viruses? Yep, that's right - Microsoft desktop OSes are a much larger target.
Since you can't be 100% secure, security is all about being a very small target. Running a BeOS or Commodore 64 web server would definitely do that for you.
Oh, come on. Do they have to say "shan't?"
Are you really bemoaning the fact that today's lazy kids don't work as hard at playing games?
I say, this deserves at least ONE "+1 Funny." I haven't laughed this hard for a long time.
Sun is a hardware business.
I think your dad is right, even though his reasons for his stance may be wrong. The DMCA needs this kind of publicity and public outcry if it's going to be changed. Just getting the issue to the Supreme Court won't be enough - we need enough people outraged by it to keep Congress from passing another one.
Remove your IE style desktop windows and install netscape style windows.
Stardock is already doing something like that. I've already tried WindowBlinds - it worked for nearly everything. (That was way back when it was sort of unstable.) Their latest is DesktopX. You can make your desktop look and act like a Mac. Does anybody out there know of a good impartial review on it?
slahsdot need is good grammerer like me 2 help spel befor thnisg post & all wil be wel
Just because you can doesn't mean you should.
Now, I thought that about the Linux-on-a-watch project that IBM did - until today. I finally found a use for it!
Doesn't it suck when your watch is 5 seconds off? But if you ran Linux on it, you could get NTP running, and never be more than a few milliseconds off!
Wouldn't that be cool?
Wouldn't it be a riot if they did this without considering the license, and always just assumed that they would be able to sell tons of copies? We'd have the egg-on-his-face CEO, the conniving developers who didn't bother to mention the GPL while they ported and hacked, and the shamed-out-of-work designers. "We didn't know!" they'd say.
They'd be the new poster child for the Microsoft anti-GPL FUD campaign.
DOH! s/Konqueror/KIllustrator
If that doesn't kill a good joke, I don't know what does.
I still think it should have been TAFKAK - The Application Formerly Known As Konqueror.
THANK YOU!
I've heard it said that the biggest problem with Microsoft is that they play the business game like it's a war. Everyone else plays it like a game.