I think the hard drive should be placed in oil and the motherboard should be placed in salt water. That would allow the system to run a lot more efficiently.
Proof: If, under normal circumstances, a computer will work for, say, twenty years before the motherboard stops working, and a hard drive will work for, say, five years, then by using the setup I described, you will be able to accomplish the same in the time it takes to plug it in and turn it on for the first time.
This likely means it will be five years before Google comes out with gmusic, which will have no subscription fee and will work by displaying ads or something. But by then, nobody will care.
What they ought to do is get rid of the Patriot Act completely, but hide the exact same language in a bill on, say, the sale of lettuce. Then, they can keep doing all this invasive stuff without people talking about it nonstop.
It will be excellent if IBM and other big players will participate in Wine.
First, this will mean that more programs will get support. (Applications like AutoCAD, which doesn't quite work yet.)
Second, since I started using the Mac, I've become interested in the Darwine project, which aims to make Windows programs run on the Mac without running Windows in an emulator; this project aims to combine Qemu and Wine to run the Wine code natively on the Mac iron while emulating only the application code. Big support behind Wine will likely mean a better Windows-like operating layer not only on x86 systems running, say, Linux, but also on non-x86 systems that are candidates for running the occasional Windows program.
Third, IBM has OS/2 code, which contains some of the same code as Windows itself. I'm not saying that IBM could submit that code directly into Wine, but IBM could have a clean-room implementation of some of the most important functions, using a plain-English specification written by programmers with access to the code. Not to mention that it means a lot of Wine bugs will get fixed. This is good news!
Rather than making these things thinner and cheaper all the time, I really wish they'd concentrate on keeping the prices about the same, or maybe a bit lower, as they are right now, while simultaneously increasing the resolution. It would be cool to have a 2048x1024 display the size of a PDA. That would mean that one of those cinema displays or whatever would have resolution measured in gigapixels or something like that. And that would be good for a variety of different types of work. Then, they can concentrate on lowering prices.
Their conclusion? Schools running OSS are saving 24% on average per pc versus those running proprietary systems.
Wait a week and you'll see an ad: "How did all the British schools lower their TCO? They dropped Linux in favor of Windows. Get the facts." (And then, they'll link to the article, only they'll modify it so Windows and Linux will be reversed. And then, they'll get sued and settle for a few hundred thousand, which they'll pay out of their marketing department's accounts, and Microsoft will consider that acceptable. What the hell do they care, as long as yet another PHB out there believes that Windows costs less than Linux.
Do what they did back in the good ol' days of the dot com bubble: Come up with an idea that nobody wants, needs, or cares about. Then, create a corporation that has no assets. Write a press release about your product, which doesn't exist yet. Be sure to include a wide variety of terms from the IT bullshit generator. Supposing your company is called Inventri, your press release might begin, "Inventri today announced plans to begin development of its new software product, codenamed Widehorn." Be sure to include plenty of meaningless phrases, such as, "By leveraging innovative technologies, content providers streamline compelling enterprise solutions." Make sure the bullshit-o-meter explodes. Describe, in colorful terms, how your company provides "solutions," but do not specify what kind of solutions or what they're for. Make sure this is printed on nice glossy paper with lots of whitespace and a variety of high-tech-looking colors. PHBs and other stupid people (hereinafter simply called "management") drool over this kind of crap. Then, a bunch of venture capitalists (hereinafter "rich idiots") will come along and dump millions of dollars on you, hoping to become the next Gill Bates. All you have to do at that point is take the money, buy a fancy office building, fill it with fancy mahogany office furniture, buy all the supplies, like post-it notes, kleenex boxes, refillable pens, and other such stuff, and then hire a bunch of MCSEs, pay them $200,000 a year, and buy a BMW for everyone, including yourself. Make sure your business practices are innovative, such as allowing nerf toys to be used at work, buying lunch for employees every friday, and providing all employees with a paid subscription to Slashdot. When them money runs out and no code has been written, simply close the company and start from the beginning. It's that simple!
Shouldn't Microsoft be working on a way to reduce the number of BSOD/RSOD through better kernel-land code and better handling of userland errors, instead of trying to create a more informative BSOD process? Darn... Wait a while, and Clippy the talking paperclip will show up during the BSOD to explain what all the gibberish in hexadecimal means, and why "Windows is busy waiting" or whatever the BSOD says nowadays.
Speaking of reliability, I was just thinking how Microsoft could reduce the complexity of the next version of Windows, Longtooth, due in 2009.
Longtooth will include a tremendous amount of new features implemented in completely new code. Many, but not all, existing features would be reimplemented in VisualBasic.NET just for the heck of it, even if mature versions are already implemented in C or C++. Programmers making the new VisualBasic.NET code would not be allowed to look at the code that already exists, so that new ideas might be better implemented. The features will be chosen by random for reimplementation.
All Microsoft code would assume that any Microsoft code (the OS and any Microsoft applications) is secure. This code will always execute with no checks to make it run faster. All other code will be subject to Longtooth's new security system, dubbed Microsoft Longtooth Security Center 2003. This feature will give users more control over processes that execute in their computers. I will explain some of its features here:
To maximize security, Microsoft Longtooth Security Center 2003 will make certain assumptions about the user. For example, users who use Microsoft products are assumed to know what they are doing. However, users of 3rd party applications not made by Microsoft are always assumed to be complete idiots. Therefore, all user interface events occurring outside of Microsoft applications will trigger a safety mechanism.
For example, each time the user moves the mouse in an area not controlled by a Microsoft application, the user will see crosshairs moving across the screen to indicate where the mouse will be located. When the user stops moving the mouse, an authentication window will appear and state: "The user has requested that the mouse be moved to the location on the screen indicated by the crosshairs. This area of the screen is controlled by untrusted code that may cause damage to your computer, your documents, or your network. Do you wish to allow the mouse to move to this location?" Buttons for "yes", "no", "details", and "help" will be displayed.
Selecting "no" will cause the mouse cursor to remain at its previous location. Selecting "yes" will bring up another window, requesting the user's password to authenticate the movement of the mouse. If the user enters the correct password, the mouse cursor movement will be authenticated to that user and the cursor will be placed at the new location. Selecting "details" will display the X and Y coordinates of the new position, followed by warnings against using untrusted rogue code such as Linux.
For additional protection, clicks, keys pressed on the keyboard, items selected in a menu, or other input events will trigger similar security mechanisms. Since Microsoft code is considered secure, these checks will not occur in windows owned by Microsoft code. Also, the mouse may be used to click on the above buttons and fields during mouse movement authentication. If any such movement of the mouse takes place during the authentication process, the mouse will still be moved to the location indicated by the crosshairs, but a bug in Windows will cause the cursor to immediately "bounce" back to the location where it was last used during authentication. Microsoft will refuse to fix the bug unless Linux is outlawed in all countries, even those countries that have no computers.
Many other authentication checks will be made by Windows. I'll return to this topic in a moment. First, let me mention that Clippy, the talking paperclip, along with other Microsoft characters, will appear during this proces
And if said hunter kills a human being, then any investigation involves interstate commerce and a whole mess of jurisdiction issues.
Nah. It's a federal crime. How 'bout 50 years in federal prison? There is no parole under the federal system. Hmmm... You'd better be firing that firearm from Venezuela. No extradition treaty.
No! Safari has an option, set by default, to automatically open "safe" files, including ZIPs. This means that if you download a ZIP file, it is automatically decompressed. If, say, JPG is considered safe, then it is opened in Preview.
C2 H5 OH. Not the chemical formula for water, but what a simulation!
What's wrong with One-Click Hunting? Did Amazon patent this or something? I think it's a good idea. Your dinner comes walking by... click, and it's ready for pickup. This is significantly better than having to duck behind some bushes, trying to be all quiet, and then shooting your dinner. What if a fellow hunter is on the other side and you get shot? This way, nobody has to be present when bullets get fired... nobody, that is, except your dinner.:-)
You would think that Apple, being such an innovative company, would learn from Microsoft's mistakes.
Yes, I know that Dashboard programs cannot (supposedly) affect the filesystem outside of their bundle. And I know that if you uncheck the "automatically open downloaded blah blah blah" then Safari won't do that.
But the default is not secure! And that's what will cause the computer to do "weird" stuff like the above; the same type of stuff that annoys Windows users and gets them thinking about buying a Mac next time. (Four people at work have already bought a new Mac specifically because of past problems with malicious code in Windows.)
Since OS X is based on UNIX, providing rock-solid security for non-security-conscious users shouldn't be any trouble at all. The mechanism is all there; all Apple needs to change is the policies of the default install, and nearly all users will be safe from crap like this.
First, downloaded files should, by default, not be opened automatically. If the user wishes to change this setting, it's the user's responsibility. Second, any downloaded files, bundles, scripts, etc., should not have the execute bit set by default. When the user tries to run it for the first time, OS X will ask for the password, like it does when you install X11 or Final Cut or something. Only then will the execute bit be set. This is not a small inconvenience; rather, it is a huge convenience. Sure, you have to type a password to run a downloaded program for the first time, but that's only as annoying as finding out the bank put an extra $10,000 in your account by mistake. And your computer won't suddenly acquire programs/spyware/malware/adware/viruses and other nice stuff that you didn't intend it to acquire. This is extremely convenient. It's an additional level of security for safety-conscious parents who use Tiger's new child-safety features. It's good for owners of computers with multiple users, who don't want people to run arbitrary code that came from God knows where.
Apple could and should take this a step further. At some point, people will find ways to screw up Macs with programs/spyware/malware/adware/viruses, especially if they become pretty popular. Apple could prevent this before it happens. Provide an online database of MD5 sums of binaries for OS X, and provide a mechanism in the OS to report bad software and where it came from. Perhaps people could post a comment with their claim. The system would be moderated by the community, so good software won't end up listed as bad. There are plenty of Mac zealots who would participate. When you try to run any program for the first time, whether it comes from the Internet, a CD, or wherever, OS X might first compute the MD5 sum and compare it to the online database. If the MD5 matches, OS X will warn the user and perhaps allow the user to browse the comments posted about this program. Comments like, "This program sends all keystrokes to the goatse site!" The user can then decide whether to run the program or clean it off the system. Not connected to the Internet? The database shouldn't be that large... When you install OS X, the latest version could be placed on the HDD, and when you connect, it could automatically update it. Bam... Pretty good protection against the spyware problem, BEFORE it comes to the Mac. Proactive... not reactive like the Microsoft crowd.
...he has since starting making accusations of conspiracy, deceit, and has otherwise attempted to make me look bad in front of employees and long-time clients...
If you're being honest with yourself and the/. community as a whole, and if you didn't do anything to deserve the flamewar he is waging against you, then I have this to say about your soon-to-be-former boss: He's an idiot. My advice: Simply be respectful. Don't say anything bad about the boss or the job. If anyone asks (even in some sort of exit interview), tell them it was a good job and everything was fine, but you're leaving to make the next step in your career plans. Period. Believe me, in the future, when the topic comes up, people will know who was the wacky one and who was wise.
At our company, we don't have the best possible wages and benefits. What we have is good, but there are certainly other companies out there that offer something better. Every so often, employees find a "better" job and leave. I've heard what the "big boss" here says when someone gives him notice. He usually bids them farewell, invites them to come back and visit sometime, and generally gives them some advice. For example, if an employee is known around here for something detrimental, the boss will usually remind him (not to rub it in, but rather to help him out) to pay particular attention to that aspect of his work, so he will start the new job on a fresh page.
In 20 years, we only had one incident. A secretary, who was a complete wacko, got fired. She took customer lists and God only knows what other information with her, and she actually called all the customers and trashed us. She made threats, she did all kinds of stuff... Our boss, being the wise and learned man that he is, told us all not to worry about it. The ending of the story: Customers called and asked what was going on. We explained that we had fired this secretary. They all said things to the effect that, "You're better off without her." People are not stupid, and they understand who's on the up and up...
So this Hilf Bill (any relationship to Gates Bill?) is paid by Microsoft to troll Slashdot and other F/OSS sites, mailing lists, and blogs? So that's where all the pirst fost, goatse, "moderate" opinions, and pro-Microsoft posts come from!! The greatest mystery of the universe is finally solved!
Seriously, though, I think it's funny that Microsoft needs to have a position like this. Maybe they'd be better off letting all employees spend 20% of their paid time reading about Linux and the most popular F/OSS programs out there. They might learn a thing or two (probably two) about how to code software that actually works. And then Microsoft wouldn't be throwing their money away.
Personally, I think it's cool that everything is getting integrated into the mobo, with additional PCI and AGP slots still available to plug stuff in if you want to.
It means two important things: budget concerns and future planning. When I shop for a new computer, I pick out a mobo, cpu, ram, hard drive, and case, and I'm pretty much done. Contrast this to the good ol' days when I'd come home with a trunk full of small boxes and spent hours assembling it all and getting it to work.
More importantly, I don't have to spend all my money up-front. I generally pick up a case that's large enough for plenty of expansion, and a motherboard with lots of slots, with room for lots of ram, and room for the fastest processors out there. I can usually put together a decent box for $500, and it will do more up-front than any eMachines or whatever that you can get for the same price. As time goes by and I find new uses for the machine, I can always add those parts without too much trouble.
For my most recent box, I bought an Asus mobo, celeron, a gig of ram, and an 80 gig hard drive. Add a generously sized case with a capable power supply, and a heatsink and fan... It took me a whole day to buy and assembled that for just under $500, including tax. To top it off, I got it all at one store. I used an existing keyboard, mouse, and 19" CRT.
Today, that box has 160 gigs of HD space, two gigs of ram, a CD recorder, and a DVD recorder. Outside the box, I added a more comfortable USB keyboard, a wireless trackball, and a bitchen 19" LCD. I can't complain about the built-in video or sound; in fact, the mobo has either 5.1 or 7.1 sound, I can't remember which, and the video is quite fast. However, when funds permit, I plan to add a Firewire card and a SATA card (the only two things I can think of that this mobo doesn't have built-in). By now, I have a couple of thousand invested in this box. If I had to buy all those components at one time, I would have gotten a significantly less capable computer with significantly less options for future enhancements. Not to mention that it would have hurt a lot more to spend two grand at once.
Built-in stuff on mobos helps make this possible; I can buy a computer with pretty damn good performance for $500, and add more performance and capabilities with time as money permits. Good deal.
Proprietary screw arrangement pissing you off? I work in a machine shop. I'm a programmer, not a machinist, but I've seen these things happen a few times. I also have some tools at home. That means that if I ever have to put a drive into a Dell that's like that, it'll be about ten minutes (to locate the motor and bit, to measure, and drill) before there's one where I want it to be.
The lesson to be learned here is: If you need a hole somewhere, put one there.:-)
Given that technology always reliable, what they should do is pass a law that makes it illegal to make noise. If you make noise, a police car will suddenly screech to a halt, jumping the curb, and two police officers will jump out, grab you, and take you to some dungeon, where you will spend the rest of your life.
Yeah, this is a big huge exploit. But Firefox on its worst day is still infinitely more secure than anything Microsoft is capable of producing even on their best day. Let me explain:
If this were Microsoft Firefox, I'd give it four to ten years before Microsoft even addressed the problem. Then, the problem would be "fixed", meaning that Microsoft wouldn't repair the code that causes it, but would instead slap another 10,000 lines of buggy code on top of the problem to detect whether each web page accessed is going to do this, and then display a window that asks the user some obscure technical question with a "do you wish to continue? yes/no", to which, of course the user will answer "yes" (without even reading the question) and then it's not Microsoft's fault anymore. And then Norton, Symantec, McAfee, and ten other companies will release software that runs in the background, slows your computer to a crawl, detects the same problem, and puts up a similar warning.
But this is not Microsoft Firefox. And the vulnerability wasn't posted on firefox-security or some obscure mailing list or blog. The vulnerability is posted all over the front page of Slashdot, where a million programmers are going to see it within the next fifteen minutes.
I give it a couple of hours and Firefox 1.0.4 is out.
And that, my friends, is why Firefox is more secure than MSIE. Microsoft. Where do you want to go today?
Interestingly, patched machines are not vulnerable to the exploits used by this worm. What are we going to have to do to convince "ordinary users" to visit WindowsUpdate once in a while?
You just wait... I just know that some asshole will make up a virus that affects all Windows versions with all patch levels, and it will disable Norton, Symantec, McAfee, and all those anti-spyware programs, and then, while the user is browsing the web or something, it will download, piece by piece, the source to Gentoo, which it will quietly compile in the background while the user isn't paying attention, and then, one day, the user will turn on the machine and find that Windows is gone and Linux is there instead.
And then, Microsoft, SCO, the RIAA, and the MPAA will unleash an ad campaign costing in excess of $50 BILLION to tell the world that Linux is a spyware virus made by rogue hackers to destroy the world's computing resources and steal your credit card numbers.
Five years later, after a long and difficult court battle in which thousands of companies and millions of individuals who support Linux will have donated money to pay the lawyers, it will finally be proven, through secret emails and other documents found at Microsoft headquarters, that Microsoft made that virus (the one that deletes Windows and installs Linux), and it was so effective because only Microsoft knows enough about every single version of Windows to pull it off, but by then, the damage to Linux' reputation will have been done. That's the sad ending.
Either that, or Microsoft will have shot themselves in the foot because people will be in a hurry to get stuff done and since Linux is on their computer, they'll use that and realize that it's better. At the same time, all the publicity from this huge court battle will get thousands more companies to find out what this Linux is and why Microsoft is fighting so hard to discredit it. That's the happy ending.
The even happier ending is if the government decides to forcefully disolve Microsoft, SCO, the RIAA, and the MPAA, giving all their assets to schools and making all their intellectual property available for download for free under the public domain. That's the happier ending.
Over a year ago, the Israeli government did a buyout on their contract with Microsoft - and it was hailed as a great opportunity for OSS. It is now being reported that the Israeli government is back in the Microsoft fold - and again licensing software - not outright purchasing.
And you think a state that is SO STUPID as to pull out of the Gaza Strip has even 1/10th of the brainpower needed to realize that it shouldn't use Microsoft?
Yes. Pulling out of Gaza is stupid. Hey, why not give the terrorists what they want? The terrorists terrorize. Israel permanently gives them land. They behave temporarily. Then the terrorists terrorize again. Israel permanently gives them land again. They behave temporarily again. Then the terrorists terrorize again. Israel permanently gives them land again. They behave temporarily again. Then the terrorists terrorize again. Israel permanently gives them land again. They behave temporarily again. Then the terrorists terrorize again. Israel permanently gives them land again. They behave temporarily again. Do you see a pattern here?
You know, I really wish they'd bring back the BOFH (Bastard Operator From Hell) in a new series of comic strips. Those were some of the greatest stories, and I have to say that unfortunately, they have shaped the way I deal with computers that are completely hosed.
Someone brings me a computer... I don't know why this is so slow! So what do I do? Realize there's some spyware or something, because they use Windows... And then blow everything off the system, write zeroes all over the hard drive, and reinstall from scratch using my custom install disc that produces a "proper" Windows installation, if you can call Windows proper at all.
Of course, I have a bit of a soft spot, so I back up their data files first.
... Some of the public domain is only so good and not supported...
I meant whoever said Linux is public domain. Obviously it's not. It's copyrighted and protected by the same laws that will protect Microsoft Longtooth, it and when it's released. (Of course, by then quantum computing will be the norm, and Microsoft will have to delay Longtooth even longer to make it work on quantum computing processors, while Linux will have long had support for them. And PHBs will still think that Microsoft is the way to go.)
The report shows an average saving of 24% per computer in schools using Open Source over those using Microsoft systems.
Heh. Tomorrow I'll see one of those ads: "How did all the British school districts lower their TCO? They switched from Linux to Windows." The finer print will say, "British school districts conducted a study to find which had a lower TCO, Windows or Linux. The study found that those districts using Windows achieved an average TCO savings of 24% over using Linux. Blah blah blah." Then Microsoft will get sued, and they'll get a slap on the wrist, and in the meantime, thousands of PHBs will learn that Windows costs less than Linux. The damage will be done.
Slashdot Mirror
Proof: If, under normal circumstances, a computer will work for, say, twenty years before the motherboard stops working, and a hard drive will work for, say, five years, then by using the setup I described, you will be able to accomplish the same in the time it takes to plug it in and turn it on for the first time.
Efficiency is, after all, the wave of the future.
This likely means it will be five years before Google comes out with gmusic, which will have no subscription fee and will work by displaying ads or something. But by then, nobody will care.
What they ought to do is get rid of the Patriot Act completely, but hide the exact same language in a bill on, say, the sale of lettuce. Then, they can keep doing all this invasive stuff without people talking about it nonstop.
First, this will mean that more programs will get support. (Applications like AutoCAD, which doesn't quite work yet.)
Second, since I started using the Mac, I've become interested in the Darwine project, which aims to make Windows programs run on the Mac without running Windows in an emulator; this project aims to combine Qemu and Wine to run the Wine code natively on the Mac iron while emulating only the application code. Big support behind Wine will likely mean a better Windows-like operating layer not only on x86 systems running, say, Linux, but also on non-x86 systems that are candidates for running the occasional Windows program.
Third, IBM has OS/2 code, which contains some of the same code as Windows itself. I'm not saying that IBM could submit that code directly into Wine, but IBM could have a clean-room implementation of some of the most important functions, using a plain-English specification written by programmers with access to the code. Not to mention that it means a lot of Wine bugs will get fixed. This is good news!
Rather than making these things thinner and cheaper all the time, I really wish they'd concentrate on keeping the prices about the same, or maybe a bit lower, as they are right now, while simultaneously increasing the resolution. It would be cool to have a 2048x1024 display the size of a PDA. That would mean that one of those cinema displays or whatever would have resolution measured in gigapixels or something like that. And that would be good for a variety of different types of work. Then, they can concentrate on lowering prices.
Wait a week and you'll see an ad: "How did all the British schools lower their TCO? They dropped Linux in favor of Windows. Get the facts." (And then, they'll link to the article, only they'll modify it so Windows and Linux will be reversed. And then, they'll get sued and settle for a few hundred thousand, which they'll pay out of their marketing department's accounts, and Microsoft will consider that acceptable. What the hell do they care, as long as yet another PHB out there believes that Windows costs less than Linux.
Do what they did back in the good ol' days of the dot com bubble: Come up with an idea that nobody wants, needs, or cares about. Then, create a corporation that has no assets. Write a press release about your product, which doesn't exist yet. Be sure to include a wide variety of terms from the IT bullshit generator. Supposing your company is called Inventri, your press release might begin, "Inventri today announced plans to begin development of its new software product, codenamed Widehorn." Be sure to include plenty of meaningless phrases, such as, "By leveraging innovative technologies, content providers streamline compelling enterprise solutions." Make sure the bullshit-o-meter explodes. Describe, in colorful terms, how your company provides "solutions," but do not specify what kind of solutions or what they're for. Make sure this is printed on nice glossy paper with lots of whitespace and a variety of high-tech-looking colors. PHBs and other stupid people (hereinafter simply called "management") drool over this kind of crap. Then, a bunch of venture capitalists (hereinafter "rich idiots") will come along and dump millions of dollars on you, hoping to become the next Gill Bates. All you have to do at that point is take the money, buy a fancy office building, fill it with fancy mahogany office furniture, buy all the supplies, like post-it notes, kleenex boxes, refillable pens, and other such stuff, and then hire a bunch of MCSEs, pay them $200,000 a year, and buy a BMW for everyone, including yourself. Make sure your business practices are innovative, such as allowing nerf toys to be used at work, buying lunch for employees every friday, and providing all employees with a paid subscription to Slashdot. When them money runs out and no code has been written, simply close the company and start from the beginning. It's that simple!
Speaking of reliability, I was just thinking how Microsoft could reduce the complexity of the next version of Windows, Longtooth, due in 2009.
Longtooth will include a tremendous amount of new features implemented in completely new code. Many, but not all, existing features would be reimplemented in VisualBasic.NET just for the heck of it, even if mature versions are already implemented in C or C++. Programmers making the new VisualBasic.NET code would not be allowed to look at the code that already exists, so that new ideas might be better implemented. The features will be chosen by random for reimplementation.
All Microsoft code would assume that any Microsoft code (the OS and any Microsoft applications) is secure. This code will always execute with no checks to make it run faster. All other code will be subject to Longtooth's new security system, dubbed Microsoft Longtooth Security Center 2003. This feature will give users more control over processes that execute in their computers. I will explain some of its features here:
To maximize security, Microsoft Longtooth Security Center 2003 will make certain assumptions about the user. For example, users who use Microsoft products are assumed to know what they are doing. However, users of 3rd party applications not made by Microsoft are always assumed to be complete idiots. Therefore, all user interface events occurring outside of Microsoft applications will trigger a safety mechanism.
For example, each time the user moves the mouse in an area not controlled by a Microsoft application, the user will see crosshairs moving across the screen to indicate where the mouse will be located. When the user stops moving the mouse, an authentication window will appear and state: "The user has requested that the mouse be moved to the location on the screen indicated by the crosshairs. This area of the screen is controlled by untrusted code that may cause damage to your computer, your documents, or your network. Do you wish to allow the mouse to move to this location?" Buttons for "yes", "no", "details", and "help" will be displayed.
Selecting "no" will cause the mouse cursor to remain at its previous location. Selecting "yes" will bring up another window, requesting the user's password to authenticate the movement of the mouse. If the user enters the correct password, the mouse cursor movement will be authenticated to that user and the cursor will be placed at the new location. Selecting "details" will display the X and Y coordinates of the new position, followed by warnings against using untrusted rogue code such as Linux.
For additional protection, clicks, keys pressed on the keyboard, items selected in a menu, or other input events will trigger similar security mechanisms. Since Microsoft code is considered secure, these checks will not occur in windows owned by Microsoft code. Also, the mouse may be used to click on the above buttons and fields during mouse movement authentication. If any such movement of the mouse takes place during the authentication process, the mouse will still be moved to the location indicated by the crosshairs, but a bug in Windows will cause the cursor to immediately "bounce" back to the location where it was last used during authentication. Microsoft will refuse to fix the bug unless Linux is outlawed in all countries, even those countries that have no computers.
Many other authentication checks will be made by Windows. I'll return to this topic in a moment. First, let me mention that Clippy, the talking paperclip, along with other Microsoft characters, will appear during this proces
Nah. It's a federal crime. How 'bout 50 years in federal prison? There is no parole under the federal system. Hmmm... You'd better be firing that firearm from Venezuela. No extradition treaty.
C2 H5 OH. Not the chemical formula for water, but what a simulation!
What's wrong with One-Click Hunting? Did Amazon patent this or something? I think it's a good idea. Your dinner comes walking by... click, and it's ready for pickup. This is significantly better than having to duck behind some bushes, trying to be all quiet, and then shooting your dinner. What if a fellow hunter is on the other side and you get shot? This way, nobody has to be present when bullets get fired... nobody, that is, except your dinner. :-)
The parent was obviously posted by this Hilf Bill, (any relationship to Gates Bill?)...
Yes, I know that Dashboard programs cannot (supposedly) affect the filesystem outside of their bundle. And I know that if you uncheck the "automatically open downloaded blah blah blah" then Safari won't do that.
But the default is not secure! And that's what will cause the computer to do "weird" stuff like the above; the same type of stuff that annoys Windows users and gets them thinking about buying a Mac next time. (Four people at work have already bought a new Mac specifically because of past problems with malicious code in Windows.)
Since OS X is based on UNIX, providing rock-solid security for non-security-conscious users shouldn't be any trouble at all. The mechanism is all there; all Apple needs to change is the policies of the default install, and nearly all users will be safe from crap like this.
First, downloaded files should, by default, not be opened automatically. If the user wishes to change this setting, it's the user's responsibility. Second, any downloaded files, bundles, scripts, etc., should not have the execute bit set by default. When the user tries to run it for the first time, OS X will ask for the password, like it does when you install X11 or Final Cut or something. Only then will the execute bit be set. This is not a small inconvenience; rather, it is a huge convenience. Sure, you have to type a password to run a downloaded program for the first time, but that's only as annoying as finding out the bank put an extra $10,000 in your account by mistake. And your computer won't suddenly acquire programs/spyware/malware/adware/viruses and other nice stuff that you didn't intend it to acquire. This is extremely convenient. It's an additional level of security for safety-conscious parents who use Tiger's new child-safety features. It's good for owners of computers with multiple users, who don't want people to run arbitrary code that came from God knows where.
Apple could and should take this a step further. At some point, people will find ways to screw up Macs with programs/spyware/malware/adware/viruses, especially if they become pretty popular. Apple could prevent this before it happens. Provide an online database of MD5 sums of binaries for OS X, and provide a mechanism in the OS to report bad software and where it came from. Perhaps people could post a comment with their claim. The system would be moderated by the community, so good software won't end up listed as bad. There are plenty of Mac zealots who would participate. When you try to run any program for the first time, whether it comes from the Internet, a CD, or wherever, OS X might first compute the MD5 sum and compare it to the online database. If the MD5 matches, OS X will warn the user and perhaps allow the user to browse the comments posted about this program. Comments like, "This program sends all keystrokes to the goatse site!" The user can then decide whether to run the program or clean it off the system. Not connected to the Internet? The database shouldn't be that large... When you install OS X, the latest version could be placed on the HDD, and when you connect, it could automatically update it. Bam... Pretty good protection against the spyware problem, BEFORE it comes to the Mac. Proactive... not reactive like the Microsoft crowd.
I use Macs, Linux, and the BSDs.
If you're being honest with yourself and the /. community as a whole, and if you didn't do anything to deserve the flamewar he is waging against you, then I have this to say about your soon-to-be-former boss: He's an idiot. My advice: Simply be respectful. Don't say anything bad about the boss or the job. If anyone asks (even in some sort of exit interview), tell them it was a good job and everything was fine, but you're leaving to make the next step in your career plans. Period. Believe me, in the future, when the topic comes up, people will know who was the wacky one and who was wise.
At our company, we don't have the best possible wages and benefits. What we have is good, but there are certainly other companies out there that offer something better. Every so often, employees find a "better" job and leave. I've heard what the "big boss" here says when someone gives him notice. He usually bids them farewell, invites them to come back and visit sometime, and generally gives them some advice. For example, if an employee is known around here for something detrimental, the boss will usually remind him (not to rub it in, but rather to help him out) to pay particular attention to that aspect of his work, so he will start the new job on a fresh page.
In 20 years, we only had one incident. A secretary, who was a complete wacko, got fired. She took customer lists and God only knows what other information with her, and she actually called all the customers and trashed us. She made threats, she did all kinds of stuff... Our boss, being the wise and learned man that he is, told us all not to worry about it. The ending of the story: Customers called and asked what was going on. We explained that we had fired this secretary. They all said things to the effect that, "You're better off without her." People are not stupid, and they understand who's on the up and up...
Seriously, though, I think it's funny that Microsoft needs to have a position like this. Maybe they'd be better off letting all employees spend 20% of their paid time reading about Linux and the most popular F/OSS programs out there. They might learn a thing or two (probably two) about how to code software that actually works. And then Microsoft wouldn't be throwing their money away.
It means two important things: budget concerns and future planning. When I shop for a new computer, I pick out a mobo, cpu, ram, hard drive, and case, and I'm pretty much done. Contrast this to the good ol' days when I'd come home with a trunk full of small boxes and spent hours assembling it all and getting it to work.
More importantly, I don't have to spend all my money up-front. I generally pick up a case that's large enough for plenty of expansion, and a motherboard with lots of slots, with room for lots of ram, and room for the fastest processors out there. I can usually put together a decent box for $500, and it will do more up-front than any eMachines or whatever that you can get for the same price. As time goes by and I find new uses for the machine, I can always add those parts without too much trouble.
For my most recent box, I bought an Asus mobo, celeron, a gig of ram, and an 80 gig hard drive. Add a generously sized case with a capable power supply, and a heatsink and fan... It took me a whole day to buy and assembled that for just under $500, including tax. To top it off, I got it all at one store. I used an existing keyboard, mouse, and 19" CRT.
Today, that box has 160 gigs of HD space, two gigs of ram, a CD recorder, and a DVD recorder. Outside the box, I added a more comfortable USB keyboard, a wireless trackball, and a bitchen 19" LCD. I can't complain about the built-in video or sound; in fact, the mobo has either 5.1 or 7.1 sound, I can't remember which, and the video is quite fast. However, when funds permit, I plan to add a Firewire card and a SATA card (the only two things I can think of that this mobo doesn't have built-in). By now, I have a couple of thousand invested in this box. If I had to buy all those components at one time, I would have gotten a significantly less capable computer with significantly less options for future enhancements. Not to mention that it would have hurt a lot more to spend two grand at once.
Built-in stuff on mobos helps make this possible; I can buy a computer with pretty damn good performance for $500, and add more performance and capabilities with time as money permits. Good deal.
The lesson to be learned here is: If you need a hole somewhere, put one there. :-)
Given that technology always reliable, what they should do is pass a law that makes it illegal to make noise. If you make noise, a police car will suddenly screech to a halt, jumping the curb, and two police officers will jump out, grab you, and take you to some dungeon, where you will spend the rest of your life.
If this were Microsoft Firefox, I'd give it four to ten years before Microsoft even addressed the problem. Then, the problem would be "fixed", meaning that Microsoft wouldn't repair the code that causes it, but would instead slap another 10,000 lines of buggy code on top of the problem to detect whether each web page accessed is going to do this, and then display a window that asks the user some obscure technical question with a "do you wish to continue? yes/no", to which, of course the user will answer "yes" (without even reading the question) and then it's not Microsoft's fault anymore. And then Norton, Symantec, McAfee, and ten other companies will release software that runs in the background, slows your computer to a crawl, detects the same problem, and puts up a similar warning.
But this is not Microsoft Firefox. And the vulnerability wasn't posted on firefox-security or some obscure mailing list or blog. The vulnerability is posted all over the front page of Slashdot, where a million programmers are going to see it within the next fifteen minutes.
I give it a couple of hours and Firefox 1.0.4 is out.
And that, my friends, is why Firefox is more secure than MSIE. Microsoft. Where do you want to go today?
You just wait... I just know that some asshole will make up a virus that affects all Windows versions with all patch levels, and it will disable Norton, Symantec, McAfee, and all those anti-spyware programs, and then, while the user is browsing the web or something, it will download, piece by piece, the source to Gentoo, which it will quietly compile in the background while the user isn't paying attention, and then, one day, the user will turn on the machine and find that Windows is gone and Linux is there instead.
And then, Microsoft, SCO, the RIAA, and the MPAA will unleash an ad campaign costing in excess of $50 BILLION to tell the world that Linux is a spyware virus made by rogue hackers to destroy the world's computing resources and steal your credit card numbers.
Five years later, after a long and difficult court battle in which thousands of companies and millions of individuals who support Linux will have donated money to pay the lawyers, it will finally be proven, through secret emails and other documents found at Microsoft headquarters, that Microsoft made that virus (the one that deletes Windows and installs Linux), and it was so effective because only Microsoft knows enough about every single version of Windows to pull it off, but by then, the damage to Linux' reputation will have been done. That's the sad ending.
Either that, or Microsoft will have shot themselves in the foot because people will be in a hurry to get stuff done and since Linux is on their computer, they'll use that and realize that it's better. At the same time, all the publicity from this huge court battle will get thousands more companies to find out what this Linux is and why Microsoft is fighting so hard to discredit it. That's the happy ending.
The even happier ending is if the government decides to forcefully disolve Microsoft, SCO, the RIAA, and the MPAA, giving all their assets to schools and making all their intellectual property available for download for free under the public domain. That's the happier ending.
And you think a state that is SO STUPID as to pull out of the Gaza Strip has even 1/10th of the brainpower needed to realize that it shouldn't use Microsoft?
Yes. Pulling out of Gaza is stupid. Hey, why not give the terrorists what they want? The terrorists terrorize. Israel permanently gives them land. They behave temporarily. Then the terrorists terrorize again. Israel permanently gives them land again. They behave temporarily again. Then the terrorists terrorize again. Israel permanently gives them land again. They behave temporarily again. Then the terrorists terrorize again. Israel permanently gives them land again. They behave temporarily again. Then the terrorists terrorize again. Israel permanently gives them land again. They behave temporarily again. Do you see a pattern here?
Someone brings me a computer... I don't know why this is so slow! So what do I do? Realize there's some spyware or something, because they use Windows... And then blow everything off the system, write zeroes all over the hard drive, and reinstall from scratch using my custom install disc that produces a "proper" Windows installation, if you can call Windows proper at all.
Of course, I have a bit of a soft spot, so I back up their data files first.
I meant whoever said Linux is public domain. Obviously it's not. It's copyrighted and protected by the same laws that will protect Microsoft Longtooth, it and when it's released. (Of course, by then quantum computing will be the norm, and Microsoft will have to delay Longtooth even longer to make it work on quantum computing processors, while Linux will have long had support for them. And PHBs will still think that Microsoft is the way to go.)
Heh. Tomorrow I'll see one of those ads: "How did all the British school districts lower their TCO? They switched from Linux to Windows." The finer print will say, "British school districts conducted a study to find which had a lower TCO, Windows or Linux. The study found that those districts using Windows achieved an average TCO savings of 24% over using Linux. Blah blah blah." Then Microsoft will get sued, and they'll get a slap on the wrist, and in the meantime, thousands of PHBs will learn that Windows costs less than Linux. The damage will be done.
Microsoft. Where do you want to spend more today?
Boom. Instant buffer overflow. You're a rogue hacker.