The main difference is that, whereas there is a (financial) incentive to keep Explorer from having fine-grained security controls and ad filtering, the Mozilla developers can add whatever pleases them without worrying about angering the n companies out there making spyware/annoying ad technology, etc.
A clear example is how Explorer doesn't allow you to enable javascript but disable unauthorized new window launches. This gets rid of major sources of annoyance in Mozilla, while still retaining javascript functionality used for a lot of legitimate sites and web applications. Why is this feature not in Explorer? The explanation: Microsoft has to consider the neeeds of companies when developing the new versions of Explorer. Mozilla developers don't have to think of that, just what they want/need the browser to do for them. This is a general principle of open source projects, and accounts for much of their flexibility. --
With Debian, you only install the services you intend to use, then keep an eye out for security issues with those services
This got me thinking... It should be quite easy to program a small process to query the system, get the names of the services you're running and then, with a cron job, visit predefined security sites, grep them for mentions of said services and warn you when a new vulnerability you may have is discovered (when a service you have running is mentioned on the front page of a site). Perhaps make an html page with links to the news articles that mention the service. There may be something out there that does this... I'll search for it, and if there isn't I will program something myself. --
faked the manned missions because radiation levels in space were lethal to humans.
That's a lie! everyone knows when you are exposed to the space radiation you do not die! Instead you're likely to experience one (maybe more) of the following:
Your body will become elastic (Great at parties).
You'll gain the ability to become invisible at will and project indestructible force fields (want to keep those marketers at bay? this is the best way!)
Your body will burst in flames but you'll be able to control them and stuff! pretty cool, uh? (human Zippo! yipee!)
You may gain superstrength, but your body will be transmuted to rock and you'll get really ugly. Arguably, the only bad effect of space radiation (but hey, it's a one in four chance, right?)
Why was the parent moderated funny? I think it's interesting instead. I though about spontaneous combustion too when I read the article and saw some of the posts. There are enough documented cases of human combustion to at least give some credence to the phenomenon, and this certainly sounds like something that could cause such an effect.
There is a problem in that we don't know what the likelihood of one of these particles hitting earth is (much less of it hitting a person). The study registers very few cases, but it can hardly be said to be very extensive or conclusive (or even correct).
Anyways, when new, previously unknown phenomena is theorized or observed, it is always a good idea to look for prior evidence or see if it can explain other things, even if they were at some time dismissed as lunatics' ravings. An excellent example of this can be found in this recently posted article about a theory that would provide a reasonable explanation to the accounts of witnesses that said they heard sounds produced by meteorites instantly (when they saw them). --
I'm saying the government shouldn't subsidize project losses in a profitable company
How much subsidy is there? I'm not entirely familiar with US govt. economic policy on these things, but I believe unless a company files for chapter 11, it doesn't get many breaks from government. Losing money is part of the business. Can you provide a figure for the money the government will give them because of this "loss"? As I see it, they're just doing their responsibility to their shareholders (reporting income and current company status) not asking for government money. --
This reeks of the ability to undercut the console market.
Yeah, and with such underdogs as Nintendo and Sony in there, we should worry about the increased competition they'll have to face. God forbid they should be forced to lower prices and be competitive!
This is standard practice. To get into the console market, you have to build an installed consumer base. Nintendo did more devious things to take control of the industry when they entered the US market (although they did revitalize it after Atari went bust -- I'd highly recommend this book if you want to know more).
The console market is tough. Only well funded, resourceful companies stand a chance of making it, and currently the ones in the game are not to be pitied. They ALL can take multimillion dollar losses if necessary. This reflects on lower prices for the consumer and higher standards for games, which is how they will remain competitive. --
I was told that building from source makes the compiled code partially machine-specific. Thus an exploit that worked in the default binary might not work in the binary that I compiled
Nah. Doesn't work that way. The compiled code works for the architechture your compiler compiles for. There are certain optimizations that are made in compile time that are better in some compilers than others (hence all the gcc related flamewars going on in/. recently). I think that this is a valid reason to download and compile the code yourself. You can always use the latest upgrade to your compiler that uses optimizations you just *can't* live without. Doesn't have anything to do with security, though.
Anyway, different compilers compiling for the same architechture will produce working trojan code from the source, unless the source uses something that is not supported in your machine, like assembler level instructions, for instance if you tried to use the extra set MMX introduced in the Intel x86 in a program and compile it for a 486 or pre-MMX pentium. In that case, however, the program just wouldn't compile at all. Assembler code *can* be embedded in c code, but it is unusual, since it can make the program dependent not only on a platform, but on a specific family of processors. --
C#.Net is the biz. But the slashdotters will knock it since it comes from Microsoft. Doesn't change the facts tho...
Slightly OT, but I have very seldom seen insightful pro-Microsoft comments modded down unfairly in here. Usually, it's this kind of comments that "challenge" the moderators that some times get modded down seemingly unfairly (but then again, no one likes to be called zealot all the time, right?). In this particular case, the point is valid, and I think that a good case for c# and.Net can be done, so why throw the "all slashdotters are a bunch of linux weenies and they won't dare mod my l33t post down!!!" reference? it may get modded down (not at the moment) for that, not for the lack of a valid point.
That said, c# and.Net do seem to be coming strong, but the adoption rate has been slow. I think it will capture a segment of the market and stay there (unlike most m$ initiatives). I mean, IBM is going strong into the e-business area, and has something of a personal grudge against Microsoft. Plus, the multiple open source alternatives have a strong foothold. --
We decide upon a solution and code that, generally much better than what someone would come up with alone. Ideas are questioned and assumptions are challenged.
In the place I used to work, we started doing XP and found the mentioned drawbacks soon (one programmer slows down the other one, etc.). After a while, we reverted to programming different areas of the system each. But when we had to program parts of the system that intersected modules by different programmers, we always held developer meetings to determine the best implementations, and often programmed those in pairs (of the affected developers). We found that to be an efficient method, since it allowed for specialization and also provided a good introduction to each module for extraneous developers (when in pair programming, one usually kept asking about the functions and variables the other one was using).
this guy managed to take such pics using obsolete camera equipmenmt.
What are you talking about? Photography technology cycles aren't as fast as computers'. Photography as we know it was there for most of the past century (The Lumiere brothers established the 35mm standard in 1907 according to this). Hasselblads have been around for quite a while, and most professional photographers still use theirs (some of these are the cameras that mount on a tripod, have a black cloth to cover the photographer and disposable flash). That is because the basic technology has not changed since maybe the 20's (and the negative is bigger, thus enhancing resolution). Digital photography is the biggest change there has been in this area, and is still not replacing film. --
Theres a LOT of great contemporary bands out there, and the internet has given them a voice. Too bad this is not a more used resource. If you want to expand your music library, Id recommend you to check out pitchfork magazine's mp3 list. Sample songs of a lot of independent artists. Updated frequently, some of them will blow your mind. Also, seeing your musical taste, I think you'll like Mark Kpnofler, The Beta Band (they're awesome), Tori Amos, The Smiths and the Velvet Underground (maybe you know these, just didn't mention them). Give them a spin, check their stuff out. If you feel adventurous, hear some Zappa. That man was a sick twisted genius. --
Make by a really qualified guy, too!
on
Landshark
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Not to diss self learning or practical experience and whatnot, but the info the guy puts on his website does not make me want to run and shell out 15000 quid for one of these things (when and if they're completed). An excerpt:
I became a stone carver with English Heritage after leaving school and have worked with various other materials during my career
Damn! Those are some impressive credentials, that'll give credibility to those land 200mph...
Below is a glass-fibre full size (8 ft tall) bull Indian elephant that I helped to sculpt for Harrods
Unless that thing sports an automatic transmission, 250hp motor and floaters, I don't see how it in any way makes him qualified enough to make the landshark claims. Seriously, shouldn't this guy be at least associated with someone who is a mechanichal engineer with years of background in the industry? (I know that's what I expected to find in the "about me" section at least). As it is, this thing sounds like an ellaborate pipe dream to me (sweeet! this thing has a sleek shape, it should do about.... mmmhh.. 200mph? yes that's about right). I haven't been able to find a reference to someone who actually has a clue working on this on their site (i.e. not an animator, clay modeller or graphic designer). --
Re:Why negative attacks don't work for MSoft
on
Halloween VII
·
· Score: 1
then we wouldn't have anything to flame about on slashdot anymore!
Well... there's always emacs and vi, right? --
Re:Next Up in the Obvious Category...
on
Design Patterns
·
· Score: 1
Maybe those models are not so common usage, but there are some in that book that should always be taught as part of every OO class in college, such as singleton and factory. I didn't know but passing references about patterns when I finished college, and in the work environment found these to be basic tools for a bunch of things we were developing, and thus became more interested in these issues.
Want a database connection pool manager? try to do it without a singleton. Factories provide a lot of flexibility and extensibility to program modules. All in all, I think there are a lot of things any programmer can learn from this book and online resources of patterns. --
nothing like satire that only a small group will truly grok
Yeah, wouldn't it be cool to find that small group?... Oh, you meant Slashdot readers? mmmhh... keep looking.
note: Apparently the moderation system does work, since most of the knee-jerk reactions from people who didn't read the article are buried in this thread =) --
AFAIK, for two devices with bluetooth to automatically "do their thing" they have to be authenticated. For instance, when you want your palm to automatically synchronize with your laptop whenever they're nearby, you have to register each one with the other, assign passwords and configure the communication (you can set it to ask you each time if you want to synchronize or to do it automagically, etc.).
What could happen in your scenario, I think, is that the dialog of "bluetooth device detected, want to do something about it?" pops up in the middle of the presentation. Maybe that can be disabled of configured to stay in the background? You can set your device to "listen" only when you want it to, also (otherwise it may become a battery drain maybe) --
VRML never took off. Too many problems and difficulties with the implementation. I did some work with it and it was pretty cool at the beginning, but its handling of textures and lighting left much to be desired (a moderately complex scenario with more than 5 point lights tended to degrade performance very quickly, even with fast video cards).
I think that the later versions were much better, but by then the hype had faded. There are some other projects with more promising standards for easy 3d world creation out there I think. --
Batman has done this before!!
on
Superhero Smackdown
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Batman is easily the most driven, clever and obsessed human being in the face of the earth. He never goes into a fight unprepared, and anticipates most of his fights. When he's about to do something that could be misinterpreted, like maybe kick some senator's ass or something (always to good reason, only no one else knows) he prepares for the possible confrontation with the local group of superheroes. For Superman, he keeps a dossier with all his battle moves, alternative methods of destroying him (yes, he CAN be hurt, and not just with kryptonite). He does the same for every member of the Justice League.
In Dark Knight, by Frank Miller, Batman kicked Superman's ass big time. Then, in JLA, R'as Al'Ghul (correct sp?) stole batman's profiles of the JLA with the ways of neutralizing each of them, and proceeded to swiftly remove them from the picture (for Batman he stole his parent's bodies, and he went nuts). In short: Batman will beat anyone you care to throw at him (well, he may have some trouble with Lobo, if only because he is more Bugs Bunny like in that he takes a lickin' and keeps a' kickin) --
I have had problems with my cable modem (no TV line related, just screwed up my access to the internet). I wouldn't recommend buying your cable modem, especially in Mexico, where the voltage varies wildly. I have a spike eliminator connected to all my stuff, but no UPS. The guys at the cable company replaced it very fast and the install guy told me they had been getting calls for the same kind of problem all over the place (the modem wasn't burnt, but it wasn't sending the signal correctly. If that had been my modem I'd be 300 dollars short and renting the new modem anyway...
And about the linux threads: the guy who installed it noticed I had linux in my computer and got all enthusiatic and helped me set everything up (a few years ago, it was still somewhat difficult to set up my network card). --
Can you suggest a better option for use in installing software you download from the internet? I think that this is sleazy, and EULAS are terrible for a number of things, but the click through license idea is not that flawed, just abused (no one's going to read through 50 page agreements before clicking on "yes"). --
As other posters have stated, it sports a GeForce 4, which is better than the ATI 7500 that comes with the tiBook (the 7500 is roughly comparable to a GeForce 2/3 I believe). That aside, I still find the tiBook much more endearing, and OS X must make a great development platform (plus, it's just sexier). --
Slashdot Mirror
Given that your comment is now moderated 5-Insightful, I guess we can deduce that to solve this problem we should Ask Slashdot. Wow. That works!
--
A clear example is how Explorer doesn't allow you to enable javascript but disable unauthorized new window launches. This gets rid of major sources of annoyance in Mozilla, while still retaining javascript functionality used for a lot of legitimate sites and web applications. Why is this feature not in Explorer? The explanation: Microsoft has to consider the neeeds of companies when developing the new versions of Explorer. Mozilla developers don't have to think of that, just what they want/need the browser to do for them. This is a general principle of open source projects, and accounts for much of their flexibility.
--
This got me thinking... It should be quite easy to program a small process to query the system, get the names of the services you're running and then, with a cron job, visit predefined security sites, grep them for mentions of said services and warn you when a new vulnerability you may have is discovered (when a service you have running is mentioned on the front page of a site). Perhaps make an html page with links to the news articles that mention the service. There may be something out there that does this... I'll search for it, and if there isn't I will program something myself.
--
My guess is "The crying game". I guess that one would fit the bill.
--
That's a lie! everyone knows when you are exposed to the space radiation you do not die! Instead you're likely to experience one (maybe more) of the following:
--
There is a problem in that we don't know what the likelihood of one of these particles hitting earth is (much less of it hitting a person). The study registers very few cases, but it can hardly be said to be very extensive or conclusive (or even correct).
Anyways, when new, previously unknown phenomena is theorized or observed, it is always a good idea to look for prior evidence or see if it can explain other things, even if they were at some time dismissed as lunatics' ravings. An excellent example of this can be found in this recently posted article about a theory that would provide a reasonable explanation to the accounts of witnesses that said they heard sounds produced by meteorites instantly (when they saw them).
--
Sorry... couldnt resist. And its from Pinochio =)
--
How much subsidy is there? I'm not entirely familiar with US govt. economic policy on these things, but I believe unless a company files for chapter 11, it doesn't get many breaks from government. Losing money is part of the business. Can you provide a figure for the money the government will give them because of this "loss"? As I see it, they're just doing their responsibility to their shareholders (reporting income and current company status) not asking for government money.
--
Yeah, and with such underdogs as Nintendo and Sony in there, we should worry about the increased competition they'll have to face. God forbid they should be forced to lower prices and be competitive!
This is standard practice. To get into the console market, you have to build an installed consumer base. Nintendo did more devious things to take control of the industry when they entered the US market (although they did revitalize it after Atari went bust -- I'd highly recommend this book if you want to know more).
The console market is tough. Only well funded, resourceful companies stand a chance of making it, and currently the ones in the game are not to be pitied. They ALL can take multimillion dollar losses if necessary. This reflects on lower prices for the consumer and higher standards for games, which is how they will remain competitive.
--
Nah. Doesn't work that way. The compiled code works for the architechture your compiler compiles for. There are certain optimizations that are made in compile time that are better in some compilers than others (hence all the gcc related flamewars going on in /. recently). I think that this is a valid reason to download and compile the code yourself. You can always use the latest upgrade to your compiler that uses optimizations you just *can't* live without. Doesn't have anything to do with security, though.
Anyway, different compilers compiling for the same architechture will produce working trojan code from the source, unless the source uses something that is not supported in your machine, like assembler level instructions, for instance if you tried to use the extra set MMX introduced in the Intel x86 in a program and compile it for a 486 or pre-MMX pentium. In that case, however, the program just wouldn't compile at all. Assembler code *can* be embedded in c code, but it is unusual, since it can make the program dependent not only on a platform, but on a specific family of processors.
--
Slightly OT, but I have very seldom seen insightful pro-Microsoft comments modded down unfairly in here. Usually, it's this kind of comments that "challenge" the moderators that some times get modded down seemingly unfairly (but then again, no one likes to be called zealot all the time, right?). In this particular case, the point is valid, and I think that a good case for c# and .Net can be done, so why throw the "all slashdotters are a bunch of linux weenies and they won't dare mod my l33t post down!!!" reference? it may get modded down (not at the moment) for that, not for the lack of a valid point.
That said, c# and .Net do seem to be coming strong, but the adoption rate has been slow. I think it will capture a segment of the market and stay there (unlike most m$ initiatives). I mean, IBM is going strong into the e-business area, and has something of a personal grudge against Microsoft. Plus, the multiple open source alternatives have a strong foothold.
--
In the place I used to work, we started doing XP and found the mentioned drawbacks soon (one programmer slows down the other one, etc.). After a while, we reverted to programming different areas of the system each. But when we had to program parts of the system that intersected modules by different programmers, we always held developer meetings to determine the best implementations, and often programmed those in pairs (of the affected developers). We found that to be an efficient method, since it allowed for specialization and also provided a good introduction to each module for extraneous developers (when in pair programming, one usually kept asking about the functions and variables the other one was using).
I think this is something of a hybrid method.
What are you talking about? Photography technology cycles aren't as fast as computers'. Photography as we know it was there for most of the past century (The Lumiere brothers established the 35mm standard in 1907 according to this). Hasselblads have been around for quite a while, and most professional photographers still use theirs (some of these are the cameras that mount on a tripod, have a black cloth to cover the photographer and disposable flash). That is because the basic technology has not changed since maybe the 20's (and the negative is bigger, thus enhancing resolution). Digital photography is the biggest change there has been in this area, and is still not replacing film.
--
Theres a LOT of great contemporary bands out there, and the internet has given them a voice. Too bad this is not a more used resource. If you want to expand your music library, Id recommend you to check out pitchfork magazine's mp3 list. Sample songs of a lot of independent artists. Updated frequently, some of them will blow your mind. Also, seeing your musical taste, I think you'll like Mark Kpnofler, The Beta Band (they're awesome), Tori Amos, The Smiths and the Velvet Underground (maybe you know these, just didn't mention them). Give them a spin, check their stuff out. If you feel adventurous, hear some Zappa. That man was a sick twisted genius.
--
I became a stone carver with English Heritage after leaving school and have worked with various other materials during my career
Damn! Those are some impressive credentials, that'll give credibility to those land 200mph...
Below is a glass-fibre full size (8 ft tall) bull Indian elephant that I helped to sculpt for Harrods
Unless that thing sports an automatic transmission, 250hp motor and floaters, I don't see how it in any way makes him qualified enough to make the landshark claims. Seriously, shouldn't this guy be at least associated with someone who is a mechanichal engineer with years of background in the industry? (I know that's what I expected to find in the "about me" section at least). As it is, this thing sounds like an ellaborate pipe dream to me (sweeet! this thing has a sleek shape, it should do about.... mmmhh.. 200mph? yes that's about right). I haven't been able to find a reference to someone who actually has a clue working on this on their site (i.e. not an animator, clay modeller or graphic designer).
--
Well... there's always emacs and vi, right?
--
Want a database connection pool manager? try to do it without a singleton. Factories provide a lot of flexibility and extensibility to program modules. All in all, I think there are a lot of things any programmer can learn from this book and online resources of patterns.
--
Yeah, wouldn't it be cool to find that small group?
note: Apparently the moderation system does work, since most of the knee-jerk reactions from people who didn't read the article are buried in this thread =)
--
What could happen in your scenario, I think, is that the dialog of "bluetooth device detected, want to do something about it?" pops up in the middle of the presentation. Maybe that can be disabled of configured to stay in the background? You can set your device to "listen" only when you want it to, also (otherwise it may become a battery drain maybe)
--
I think that the later versions were much better, but by then the hype had faded. There are some other projects with more promising standards for easy 3d world creation out there I think.
--
In Dark Knight, by Frank Miller, Batman kicked Superman's ass big time. Then, in JLA, R'as Al'Ghul (correct sp?) stole batman's profiles of the JLA with the ways of neutralizing each of them, and proceeded to swiftly remove them from the picture (for Batman he stole his parent's bodies, and he went nuts). In short: Batman will beat anyone you care to throw at him (well, he may have some trouble with Lobo, if only because he is more Bugs Bunny like in that he takes a lickin' and keeps a' kickin)
--
And about the linux threads: the guy who installed it noticed I had linux in my computer and got all enthusiatic and helped me set everything up (a few years ago, it was still somewhat difficult to set up my network card).
--
Can you suggest a better option for use in installing software you download from the internet? I think that this is sleazy, and EULAS are terrible for a number of things, but the click through license idea is not that flawed, just abused (no one's going to read through 50 page agreements before clicking on "yes").
--
As other posters have stated, it sports a GeForce 4, which is better than the ATI 7500 that comes with the tiBook (the 7500 is roughly comparable to a GeForce 2/3 I believe). That aside, I still find the tiBook much more endearing, and OS X must make a great development platform (plus, it's just sexier).
--
Still... it would be interesting to take a peek at the code and see how they do it, don't you think?
--