How is a DOS attack anything like overwriting a hard drive? This is FUD.
From US Cert:
II. Impact
An unauthenticated, remote attacker could cause a denial of service in any application or system that uses a vulnerable OpenSSL SSL/TLS library.
I'll think about your comments tomorrow; right now I am trying to get Maple to do something, to get LaTeX to play nice with maple*.sty and to stay awake. I did not check carefully but your web page seemed to advertise M$ software. I should be sleeping but I want to finish this paper so I can write an abstract due during March for a conference in Pomona in June; besides, it is spring break and I can sleep in tomorrow:). Other (awake) people sould look at your web site; I cn trust their judgement (since they are on slashdot).
From your web page, it seems that your business depends completely on products that run on Windows; your job depends on people believing in M$ products. It is difficult to take your comments very seriously. Your web page says
Highest levels of security but I do not see any information (other than a suggestion to download a M$ security patch for IE) on security; did I miss something?
"Microsoft is in a good position to trounce the OSS crowd if they can come up with a software language and security system that allows for programming mistakes."
This is a silly claim. In the past, M$ has tied code "improvement" to profit improvement. If breaking standards and writing bad code bring in money, why change?
If M$ were to contribute to fair and reasonable standards and stick to them, I would have no objection to seeing Microsoft contribute to more secure languages.
I do not use any of "Office, MathCAD, JCreator, Canon scanner software, Palm Desktop software, and the occasional game of Rise of Nations." I do use LaTeX (&TeX), xfig, Gimp, etc. I do not know if OOS products exactly duplicate your software. However, I was judging an engineering competition (for "junior high" students) with an engineering professor (and an engineering graduate student) last Saturday and we discussed some of these issues (viruses, CAD software running only on Windows, etc.). We agreed that Engineering colleges often do a poor job when it comes to software. (Our "engineering graphics" course for freshpersons is a complete joke. Security is not taken seriously; the (new) Dean decided he did not need an assistant/associate dean dedicated to network/software security and removed him soon after the (old) Dean decided this was a good idea. The list of "issues" in engineering is long.)
I believe the US government gave M$ a "pass" on security and allowed it to sell software to, for example, the Navy. (I am too lazy to look up the details.) If Windows users were given the same "free ride", then this concept would be workable; only 5% (?) of users would be at risk to pay fines. (And we all know that the OSX, Linux, *BSD, BEOS, OS/2, etc. users are the problem:-).) The government will love this idea.
"Unfortunately, the machine I'm typing on here at the University of Virginia is directly connected and yes, it runs Windows."
Why?
UV has good people. Why do they let you (require you to (??)) use Windows? Are you in CS, Math or Applied Math?... Engineering? Business? What?
Based on the IPs of computers spreading virus, worms, etc. in the past, my impression is the engineering departments (& "institutes") are among the most common academic sources of this garbage. (Earlier today, unl.edu was a problem.)
Actually, I do not believe it "maximizes" for anything. (If you can point to sources in the biology or mathematical biology literature which supports the view that evolution optimizes anything, I would be interested.) I suspect that "randomness" plays a larger role than most people understand. However, one popular impression is "survival of the fittest" and I wrote from this point of view. The original idea that an optimal form of human organization exists is silly; only people like psychologists believe things like this:).
I am just curious; what university do (or did) you attend?
There is certainly tension between French and English speakers in Canada. In Alberta and BC, the Meech Lake (sp?) accords were very unpopular (in '93 ?). There is some bad feeling between the east and west and between various groups in Canada; French and English are (were) required on (some) signs in the west while only French was allowed on signs in the east. "Native Canadians" (... peoples ??) are very unhappy with the government there right now. (Also true in the US.)
In 1993, I received a ticket for going too slow in Oregon. (The Oregon car in front of me did not get a ticket, but I did.) Since I was on my way to Stanford, I just mailed in the cost of the ticket with objections (and they reduced the fine by half and refunded it to me). Bad things happen. They happen in the US. They also happen in Canada, the UK, Germany, Italy, etc. They even happen in third world countries. Life sucks. Get used to it. (Or try arguing if a utility in Ireland screws up your bill.)
You claimed this happened before 9/11 (so I guess I cannot blame "W"). When did it happen? How long were you held? Why does it matter that "Three white guys" made false claims? (Would it matter if they were green?)
Some of your story does not sound believable (which may only reflect your style of writing and not the facts of the case). For example, if you are in one room and your money, etc. are in another room, then how do you catch "them trying to steal my money (~400 cdn), burn my watch (newly gifted by my gf)"? If your story is true, then you were treated badly and I am sorry this happened. Since every single word written on Slashdot is true, I offer my appology for your treatment.)
I assume you also read Science Fiction (and Science writings). In a few million years, "human" will not mean what it means now even if we stay on this planet. My point was just that the previous poster could not know the optimal form of human organization.
Perhaps we need to colonize other planets (around other stars) and let evolution work its magic. Eventually we will discover the best type of human organization. (And, if you have not performed this experiment, you should not claim to know the "answer".)
I have visited U. Waterloo (and other places) over the years and the Canadian "custom" officials can be much worse than those in the US. I had to pay about $40 (and fill out a bunch of forms) one time (1995 or 97) at the border because U. Waterloo was going cover my expenses (and I said the wrong thing). Canadian friends make fun of Canadian customs. (To a Canadian citizen - "Sir, please tell me how many liters of petrol you had in your tank when you entered the US and how many you have now.")
I will agree that getting a US visa is now a royal pain and can take a long time. I also wonder why they (or their machines) want to smell my shoes or socks (e.g. Dec. 2003). (BTW: Why is security tighter at smaller places - e.g. College Station, Phoenix, Portland, Toledo, Wichita - than at larger places - e.g. Chicago, Dallas, DC (National), Frankfort, London (Heathrow), Milan, Rome ?)
Accounting (assistant) professors who begin at $90K at considered to be underpaid. (Apparently this is what we offer and it is difficult to get new PhDs in accounting for only 90K.) I suspect a lot of people in IT could earn such PhDs. (I'll take the lower pay of mathematics. I wonder why so many IT people skip graduate degrees in business, however.)
Try Gentoo. Once it is installed (say, up to stage3), it is easy to use. It works great: emerge kde, emerge apache, etc - no problem. It may take a little (or a lot of) time but with the 2.6 kernel on an AMD64, I do not notice any problem with speed. If your system slows down, use kvm to continue working. (In my case, my other computer is a 164 Alpha). Even on slower computers, it works well (once stage1 is done).
I will probably get modded down for this but
Would you just grow up?
I am sure you are correct about offices in Redmond. You might agree that it is interesting that the content in their web page has been removed. Does this mean anything? Probably not. However, what harm do you see in someone posting a link to an archive of their old website?
I am glad we are now protected by SDI; those Martians would be shooting down landers (aircraft) here if not for it.
Those silly scientists don't really know anything. We all realize Bush invented antibiotics, cell phones, nanotechnology, etc.
Slashdot Mirror
How is a DOS attack anything like overwriting a hard drive? This is FUD.
From US Cert:
II. Impact
An unauthenticated, remote attacker could cause a denial of service in any application or system that uses a vulnerable OpenSSL SSL/TLS library.
I'll think about your comments tomorrow; right now I am trying to get Maple to do something, to get LaTeX to play nice with maple*.sty and to stay awake. I did not check carefully but your web page seemed to advertise M$ software. I should be sleeping but I want to finish this paper so I can write an abstract due during March for a conference in Pomona in June; besides, it is spring break and I can sleep in tomorrow :). Other (awake) people sould look at your web site; I cn trust their judgement (since they are on slashdot).
From your web page, it seems that your business depends completely on products that run on Windows; your job depends on people believing in M$ products. It is difficult to take your comments very seriously. Your web page says Highest levels of security but I do not see any information (other than a suggestion to download a M$ security patch for IE) on security; did I miss something?
It's not about resources; it's about history and intentions.
"Microsoft is in a good position to trounce the OSS crowd if they can come up with a software language and security system that allows for programming mistakes."
This is a silly claim. In the past, M$ has tied code "improvement" to profit improvement. If breaking standards and writing bad code bring in money, why change?
If M$ were to contribute to fair and reasonable standards and stick to them, I would have no objection to seeing Microsoft contribute to more secure languages.
I think this was intended to be funny/sarcastic. At least, I took it this way.
I guess we all need to start using Secure Linux.
Come on, this is funny. (Sorry I am out of mod points and have posted here.)
Mod this up; I think readers will find these links interesting.
I do not use any of "Office, MathCAD, JCreator, Canon scanner software, Palm Desktop software, and the occasional game of Rise of Nations." I do use LaTeX (&TeX), xfig, Gimp, etc. I do not know if OOS products exactly duplicate your software. However, I was judging an engineering competition (for "junior high" students) with an engineering professor (and an engineering graduate student) last Saturday and we discussed some of these issues (viruses, CAD software running only on Windows, etc.). We agreed that Engineering colleges often do a poor job when it comes to software. (Our "engineering graphics" course for freshpersons is a complete joke. Security is not taken seriously; the (new) Dean decided he did not need an assistant/associate dean dedicated to network/software security and removed him soon after the (old) Dean decided this was a good idea. The list of "issues" in engineering is long.)
You might try Gentoo also. In our LUG lately, the merits of Debian and Gentoo have been of interest.
I believe the US government gave M$ a "pass" on security and allowed it to sell software to, for example, the Navy. (I am too lazy to look up the details.) If Windows users were given the same "free ride", then this concept would be workable; only 5% (?) of users would be at risk to pay fines. (And we all know that the OSX, Linux, *BSD, BEOS, OS/2, etc. users are the problem :-).) The government will love this idea.
"Unfortunately, the machine I'm typing on here at the University of Virginia is directly connected and yes, it runs Windows."
... Engineering? Business? What?
Why?
UV has good people. Why do they let you (require you to (??)) use Windows? Are you in CS, Math or Applied Math?
Based on the IPs of computers spreading virus, worms, etc. in the past, my impression is the engineering departments (& "institutes") are among the most common academic sources of this garbage. (Earlier today, unl.edu was a problem.)
Actually, I do not believe it "maximizes" for anything. (If you can point to sources in the biology or mathematical biology literature which supports the view that evolution optimizes anything, I would be interested.) I suspect that "randomness" plays a larger role than most people understand. However, one popular impression is "survival of the fittest" and I wrote from this point of view. The original idea that an optimal form of human organization exists is silly; only people like psychologists believe things like this :).
I am just curious; what university do (or did) you attend?
... peoples ??) are very unhappy with the government there right now. (Also true in the US.)
There is certainly tension between French and English speakers in Canada. In Alberta and BC, the Meech Lake (sp?) accords were very unpopular (in '93 ?). There is some bad feeling between the east and west and between various groups in Canada; French and English are (were) required on (some) signs in the west while only French was allowed on signs in the east. "Native Canadians" (
In 1993, I received a ticket for going too slow in Oregon. (The Oregon car in front of me did not get a ticket, but I did.) Since I was on my way to Stanford, I just mailed in the cost of the ticket with objections (and they reduced the fine by half and refunded it to me). Bad things happen. They happen in the US. They also happen in Canada, the UK, Germany, Italy, etc. They even happen in third world countries. Life sucks. Get used to it. (Or try arguing if a utility in Ireland screws up your bill.)
You claimed this happened before 9/11 (so I guess I cannot blame "W"). When did it happen? How long were you held? Why does it matter that "Three white guys" made false claims? (Would it matter if they were green?)
Some of your story does not sound believable (which may only reflect your style of writing and not the facts of the case). For example, if you are in one room and your money, etc. are in another room, then how do you catch "them trying to steal my money (~400 cdn), burn my watch (newly gifted by my gf)"?
If your story is true, then you were treated badly and I am sorry this happened. Since every single word written on Slashdot is true, I offer my appology for your treatment.)
I assume you also read Science Fiction (and Science writings). In a few million years, "human" will not mean what it means now even if we stay on this planet. My point was just that the previous poster could not know the optimal form of human organization.
Perhaps we need to colonize other planets (around other stars) and let evolution work its magic. Eventually we will discover the best type of human organization. (And, if you have not performed this experiment, you should not claim to know the "answer".)
I have visited U. Waterloo (and other places) over the years and the Canadian "custom" officials can be much worse than those in the US. I had to pay about $40 (and fill out a bunch of forms) one time (1995 or 97) at the border because U. Waterloo was going cover my expenses (and I said the wrong thing). Canadian friends make fun of Canadian customs. (To a Canadian citizen - "Sir, please tell me how many liters of petrol you had in your tank when you entered the US and how many you have now.")
I will agree that getting a US visa is now a royal pain and can take a long time. I also wonder why they (or their machines) want to smell my shoes or socks (e.g. Dec. 2003). (BTW: Why is security tighter at smaller places - e.g. College Station, Phoenix, Portland, Toledo, Wichita - than at larger places - e.g. Chicago, Dallas, DC (National), Frankfort, London (Heathrow), Milan, Rome ?)
Accounting (assistant) professors who begin at $90K at considered to be underpaid. (Apparently this is what we offer and it is difficult to get new PhDs in accounting for only 90K.) I suspect a lot of people in IT could earn such PhDs. (I'll take the lower pay of mathematics. I wonder why so many IT people skip graduate degrees in business, however.)
"I get a shocking number of people through the store who never, ever use Windows Update."
I have to confess that I never use Windows Update. I feel terrible; I'm really sorry. Now how do I use it; is it "emerge Windows Update" or what?
This assumes that the current prices of Microsoft products reflect their "costs". I have seriously doubt that this is true.
Try Gentoo. Once it is installed (say, up to stage3), it is easy to use. It works great: emerge kde, emerge apache, etc - no problem. It may take a little (or a lot of) time but with the 2.6 kernel on an AMD64, I do not notice any problem with speed. If your system slows down, use kvm to continue working. (In my case, my other computer is a 164 Alpha). Even on slower computers, it works well (once stage1 is done).
I will probably get modded down for this but
Would you just grow up?
I am sure you are correct about offices in Redmond. You might agree that it is interesting that the content in their web page has been removed. Does this mean anything? Probably not. However, what harm do you see in someone posting a link to an archive of their old website?
I am glad we are now protected by SDI; those Martians would be shooting down landers (aircraft) here if not for it.
Those silly scientists don't really know anything. We all realize Bush invented antibiotics, cell phones, nanotechnology, etc.