Re:this SMTP server vs Qmail and Sendmail
on
Postfix 2.1 Released
·
· Score: 3, Informative
It is also important to note that Postfix provides Maildir support for local delivery. This means you can have nested folders (containing both messages and more folders) on your IMAP server, where as with Sendmail's mbox format you can only have folders containing messages, and those folders are actually just long text files. Qmail provides the maildir format natively, but Postfix makes it free.
Or you can use Sendmail + Procmail for Maildir-style storage.
Wrong. Cryptonomicon, Quicksilver, and the Confusion is science-fiction.
Reason is ROT13'ed for spoilers.
Ubj znal cbyvgvpny rfcvbantr obbxf unir na vzzbegny punenpgre?
Rabpu Ebbg vf vzzbegny. Ur nyfb nccrnef gb unir gur cbjre gb envfr gur qrnq, ng yrnfg, Obool Funsgbr oryvrirf Rabpu unf guvf cbjre va Pelcgbabzvpba.
Va Dhvpxfvyire, ur unf nanpebavfgvp xabjyrqtr nobhg veba naq narzvn gung nccrnef gb or qryvorengr. Ur vf nyfb engure ybat yvirq naq va rkpryyrag pbaqvgvba sbe uvf ntr (fnzr nf va Pelcgbabzvpba.
Va gur Pbashfvba, Ybgune pbasvezf gung Rabpu vf vzzbegny nobhg unysjnl guebhtu gur obbx. (V unira'g svavfurq gur obbx, ohg gur pbire oyheo nyfb zragvbaf n cevrfg ergheavat sebz gur qrnq juvpu fbhaqf yvxr vg fubhyq vaibyir Rabpu.)
More importantly, I believe that Stephenson himself considers Cryptonomicon and the Baroque Cycle SF for the reasons given above.
Re:Whole machine as Linux + X or ASCII terminal
on
Making Use Of Old LCDs?
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
The parent poster wrote:
...that 486-66 laptop is now too slow and lame to run any games other than D00m or Nethack...
What more do you need?;)
Btw, 486-586 era laptops make kick-ass x86 firewalls. Energy consumption is a lot better then a desktop, and they tend to be compact, with
a built-in keyboard and video. 2 PCMCIA/Cardbus NICs and you're set.
People don't want to "see under the hood" or "download the GTK+ development library."
They just want it to work, hence the use of Internet Explorer. Many OSS advocates simply don't get it. The obsession with "choice" and "freedom" has produced difficult-to-use software that gets reinvented by about 20 other competing clones, all doing things differently. Somehow this is supposed to be good.
Did you ever think that many OSS advocates simply don't care?
Right now, I have an OpenBSD/FVWM desktop. Is my GUI difficult to use? Nope. Is it difficult to learn? Not really, but it does require knowledge beyond the 'point-and-click' phase. Is this a desktop I'd set my mother up with? Probably not. But does it work for me? Yes!
Next time on Slashdot: Why I drive a stick even though manual transmittions aren't 'user-friendly'.
I worked for an independent franchise chain of the Marco's Pizza restaurant a number of years ago as a delivery driver.
Pizza delivery jobs suck. I once had a job as a delivery driver for CosaNostra pizza, and they had a really strict policy that the pizza had to be delivered in 30 minutes or less. One day, the manager gave me a pizza that only had 8 minutes left for delivery, and I accidentally put the company car in a burbclave pool en route. Luckily, a Kourier was able to deliver the pizza within the remaining amount of time, so I wasn't totally screwed...
Now I'm doing anti-virus work. Much better fit for me.
In the end, this whole "us" versus "them" mentality causes exactly the kinds of problems described above, users being chided for asking "stupid" questions, people refusing to cooperate, etc.
I don't see it as an us-vs-them fight. Its more of a difference of opinion.
There's this idea that GNU/Linux has to become the Next Windows or Next OS X. There's the idea that GNU/Linux has to be User Friendly, that it has to Cater to Newbies, and every application needs to be Useable without Reading the Man Page.
There's nothing wrong with that idea, and Mandrake is moving nicely in that direction (as is Redhat, and a few other distributions).
However, that doesn't mean that all distributions need to go in the same direction. Let Debian be Debian.
Sometimes, the goals of a project are not to clone Microsoft Windows.
As for "people asking stupid questions", I have asked plenty of stupid questions in the Debian community without repercussions.
The only people I've ever seen chided are those that are unwilling or unable to think and do for themselves. People who are unwilling to read a man page, or a section of the FAQ, who want step-by-step instructions on how to do a well-documented task.
It is? After about 15 apt-gets my system ties itself into a knot that looks something like this:
Sorry, but the following packages have unmet dependencies: xbase-clients: Depends: cpp-3.2 but it is not installable Depends: libfontconfig1 (>= 2.2.0) but it is not installable
Well, looking over at packages.debian.org, libfontconfig1 is not part of the stable debian release.
I suspect that you are either using one of the development branches of debian, or else using debian-stable with packages from the development branch. Perhaps you are using non-official packages that are outside of the three branches.
Btw, you might want to do a 'man apt-get' and look
at the difference between 'apt-get upgrade' and
'apt-get dist-upgrade'.
As for the link, the problem occured on debian unstable!
Unless you are comfortable with a system, do not use developmental branches -- use the main releases!
[ Btw, I've been using apt-get to maintain the same server for the last several years without a problem, even with an upgrade from potato to woody. I have another debian machine that has survived three different sets of PC hardware (including HDD migrations). If you don't kick it, debian works nicely. If you start installing applications without forethought, you get the same situation as with ever other OS -- things break. Windows does this. Linux does this. The BSDs do this. Damned if I know how, but if you try hard enough, even MacOS X will do it.]
Definitely. If you're a writer of some kind, install a KeyKatcher and you've got an instant backup of everything you've written. If your word processor crashes, no problem; fire up KeyKatcher and cut and paste everything you've lost. Beautiful stuff.
Vi and its clones (vim, nvi, elvis, etc) have a copy of the current text in a swap file. In event of a crash/power failure/etc, its easy to recover the swap file and resume your work.
That has nothing to do with the internal architecture of Windows. That's a bug in ZoneAlarm. There is no reason to blame Windows at all for a bug in a software product written to run on Windows.
First (as everyone else has been doing) you meant BlackIce, not ZoneAlarm. I'm sure it was a brain misthink.
Second, the OS or even the hardware architecture could have taken steps to limit the damage. Non-x86 systems (including AMD64) have a W^X implementation - memory can either be written to or be executed, but not both. This makes buffer overflows more difficult to exploit. OpenBSD implements the W^X idea under x86 in the kernel, and takes additional steps against smashing the stack.
OTOH, I agree -- BlackIce Exploit != Microsoft Windows Exploit.
Average time from start to finish to get a new drug from molecule to FDA approval is 15 years.
If you think that's bad, wait until you hear about the 16 years it takes from when the government entes you into the system (through social security) and finally gets around to giving you a drivers license!
It fails to write Word-compatible.doc format documents.
You are correct -- in a heterogenous environment,
MS Office is better then Open Office.
However, how many environments are running the same word processor, nevermind the same version?
This is more anecdotal then hard evidence, but have you tried to read a complex document written in an older version of word into a newer version? OO.o seems to get it more correct then the latest release of MS Office.
Have you ever tried to import a non-word format into word?
Now, consider this rebuttle:
By using Open Office.org, you have several benefits to promote a heterogenous environment. Due to the fact that its free, everyone can run the latest version. Since it runs on a variety of platforms, you are not locked into a single vendor of OS or hardware. Your employees can run the
same version at home without additional cost, and
transfer those files to the office without any compatibility issues.
Also, being a large commercial open source project backed by several large businesses, you recieve the quick bug and security fixes of OS, yet have the security of a fortune-500 company.
I hope the RIAA gets what they want -- the p2p networks free of their music.
Won't it be nice to log onto Kazaa, Gnutella, etc, and find only copyrighted mp3s by artists/owners who give permission to share their work?
Lets let the RIAA bitch and moan about how piracy is killing them -- when we can only share music by small, unknown bands outside of their control, we'll finally see if Brittany & Co. can survive the competition.
And, as always, a manditory iRATE
link -- because someone needs to seperate the chaff from the good stuff -- why not let it be you?
Also, we need to get ISPs to block most ports by default. If you want a port opened, you simply request it from your ISP.
Not that I have to solicit criticism here on slashdot, but I'll ask anyways. What am I missing and why wouldn't this work?
My major fear is as soon as most ISPs switch to a system like this, opening up additional ports will only be possible for an additional cost, or for a more expensive plan.
"You want port 22 opened? That will be an additional $7.95 a month."
I'm surprised he doesn't talk about orbital stabilty (around a star) as a potentially useful criteria.
He does discuss this:
Moreover, we know that planets can migrate around their planetary systems, changing orbits and therefore location for various reasons.
I haven't kept up with the theories of solar system formation, but last time I checked, one of the ideas was that a large jupiter-like planet could have an unstable orbit, and put the rest of the planets in rather strange orbits. Remember, our solar system might be the exception, rather then the rule. The typical 'earth-sized' planets might end up having an orbit as eliptical as pluto.
I like his idea "large enough to form a sphere due to gravity", but would like to add my own two cents to it. How about "large enough for form a sphere due to gravity" AND "With a layered, internal composition", similiar to earth crust-mantle-core, or mars crust-solid-mantle-core.
OTOH, we don't know if all the planets we'll find will be spherical. Close double-orbiting planets would be egg-shaped. Therefore, perhaps we should add "would normally be spherical shaped in the absence of outside gravitational influences."
I have no idea why someone hasn't put an imaginatively evil payload in a modern virus.
About 5 years ago, I thought of the 51-cards + 1 dupe virus for solitaire.:)
Modern day virus writers don't seem to be implimenting either cutting edge or distructive techniques. Perhaps, with MS Windows, virus writing is so easy that there is no more challenge in it. Why write a warhol worm and become the next Morris when a simple "I Love You" with an executable attachment will work?
The other hypothesis is that computer viruses have evolved to a point where they gain more by not killing the host. How many machines would remain unpatched if the next worm overwrote every.doc file with the text from Alice in Wonderland? How many servers would still be running unprotected if the next worm disabled every listening service and removed the binary? How many spam and trojaned boxes would we have if the next worm actively de-rootkitted its own host, then randomly checked for trojans and open relays on other machines, and either disabled or spammed the hell out of admin/root until the machine died?
Then again, perhaps we are in a nice, harmless-virus phase that won't last. The ideas written above are not new, and by searching, its easy to find ways to optimize virus transmittion rates and models on how to time the destructive phase of the virus in order not to hinder the transmittion. When some misguided soul finally writes the 'fuzzy-bunny-worm' worm using an unpatched recent exploit that spreads around the world in 15 minutes and destroys machines in the next hours, the 'fuzzy-bunny-worm' worm will get a ton of media coverage. [They will also be hunted down and killed by Microsoft's elite anti-virus ninja squad, but...] That media coverage will encourage more destructive worms.
Which is why I always tell people not to run unnecessary services and to keep themselves patched. Viruses may not always be as benign as they are now.
It's a scary world when you have to include a disclaimer such as "Yo, it's a joke -- no need to start a super-secret file on me." in a Slashdot post making parody of the president. The Patriot Act has proven far too powerful and unjust.
On Kuro5hin, there was a comment
during the anthrax scare about how to assassinate the president of the United States by infecting the vice president with an infectious disease.
The poster of that message received
a visit from the United States Secret Service.
From the analysis of that tale, it seems that if you are flagged as a dangerous individual (through, presumably, religion, association with certain political groups, region of origin, etc) and make a nasty comment on a monitored website, the powers that be will investigate.
I consider a single transplant or a tweak of an organ to justifiable, but isn't transplanting 8 organs in a 6 month old baby breaking some type of natural law?
Er, isn't using fire, flying to the moon, building global telecommunication networks, and living in North Dakota breaking some type of natural law?
How about using drugs to kill bacteria, radiation to kill cancer, metal and plastic to repair teeth, plastic and glass to correct vision?
We're human, and being humans, it means we use technology to survive in a world that seems indifferent to our survival. The science and technology that allows us to do an 8 organ transplant does not make us weak - it makes us stronger. This isn't the African savanna anymore -- we aren't selecting genes based on the ability to take down gazelles. Instead, we are selecting genes for the ability to acquire medical care and long term economic planning that allows a baby that needs 8 organs to be able to afford a transplant.
As a footnote: Are you an organ donar? I am, and I always carry a card that says so. My wife knows of my wishes as well.
There is a shortage of organs in this world, and that shortage is artificial -- too many people *don't* donate their organs upon death. What are you doing to help?
Instead of trying to figure out what's naughty and what's not, we can just whitelist all white-middle-class-evangelical-family-friendly content, put it in.PRUDE, and they can block everything else.
Advantages: the evangelicals are happy because they can be pure and clean without having to actually make any moral choices, and the rest of us can use this thing called "free will", which allows people to view and avoid whatever content they desire.
Warning: This falls under 'rants I never thought I'd write'
Yegads.
Do any of the non-religious have a clue about religion? Hell, why not take just one religion, Christianity, that is popular in some parts of the world. Do you have any idea what its about? About the theology behind it? About its concept of free will or the lack of free will?
Or are you so ignorant that you believe jesussave.us and landoverbaptist are real Christian websites?
From what I see of Slashdot, most of the users have no clue about even one religion, ne'ermind religion in general.
Instead, they are content to build up some Ned Flanders stereotype and propagate it. Why take the effort to think and learn about people not like yourself when you can dismiss and tease them? The actions of an individual apply to the group, don't they? Geeks just try to hack SCO and Microsoft, while they live in their parents' basement collecting porn while never seeing a nude woman in the flesh.
Why not open a book, read some history and theology, and learn a bit? It might even be interesting. For history buffs, the Cathars (a sect of Christianity who considered heterosexuality a sin, but homosexuality to be okay) are rather interesting, as are the Bogomils, the religious wars of Germany, and the rise of the early Christian church (ne'ermind the Aztecian gods, the spread of Islam, the introduction of Buddhism and Christianity to Japan, etc). For philosophy and theology buffs, theres the issues of original sin, free will or the illusion of free will, destiny, the world as illusion, etc.
Why not try learning for a change?
(Btw, other then 'middle-class', I'd consider myself an evangelistic Christian that likes to promote family-friendly fare.)
Slashdot Mirror
It is also important to note that Postfix provides Maildir support for local delivery. This means you can have nested folders (containing both messages and more folders) on your IMAP server, where as with Sendmail's mbox format you can only have folders containing messages, and those folders are actually just long text files. Qmail provides the maildir format natively, but Postfix makes it free.
Or you can use Sendmail + Procmail for Maildir-style storage.
I mean, the guy was describing the sound of a pipe organ for two pages.
He described how a pipe organ worked for two pages. Then he later used the analogy of how a pipe organ works to describe computers and cryptography.
But Cryptonomicon is not very science fiction-y.
Wrong. Cryptonomicon, Quicksilver, and the Confusion is science-fiction.
Reason is ROT13'ed for spoilers.
Ubj znal cbyvgvpny rfcvbantr obbxf unir na vzzbegny punenpgre?
Rabpu Ebbg vf vzzbegny. Ur nyfb nccrnef gb unir gur cbjre gb envfr gur qrnq, ng yrnfg, Obool Funsgbr oryvrirf Rabpu unf guvf cbjre va Pelcgbabzvpba.
Va Dhvpxfvyire, ur unf nanpebavfgvp xabjyrqtr nobhg veba naq narzvn gung nccrnef gb or qryvorengr. Ur vf nyfb engure ybat yvirq naq va rkpryyrag pbaqvgvba sbe uvf ntr (fnzr nf va Pelcgbabzvpba.
Va gur Pbashfvba, Ybgune pbasvezf gung Rabpu vf vzzbegny nobhg unysjnl guebhtu gur obbx. (V unira'g svavfurq gur obbx, ohg gur pbire oyheo nyfb zragvbaf n cevrfg ergheavat sebz gur qrnq juvpu fbhaqf yvxr vg fubhyq vaibyir Rabpu.)
More importantly, I believe that Stephenson himself considers Cryptonomicon and the Baroque Cycle SF for the reasons given above.
PS: ROT13 (de|en)coder link
The parent poster wrote:
What more do you need? ;)
Btw, 486-586 era laptops make kick-ass x86 firewalls. Energy consumption is a lot better then a desktop, and they tend to be compact, with a built-in keyboard and video. 2 PCMCIA/Cardbus NICs and you're set.
People don't want to "see under the hood" or "download the GTK+ development library."
They just want it to work, hence the use of Internet Explorer. Many OSS advocates simply don't get it. The obsession with "choice" and "freedom" has produced difficult-to-use software that gets reinvented by about 20 other competing clones, all doing things differently. Somehow this is supposed to be good.
Did you ever think that many OSS advocates simply don't care?
Right now, I have an OpenBSD/FVWM desktop. Is my GUI difficult to use? Nope. Is it difficult to learn? Not really, but it does require knowledge beyond the 'point-and-click' phase. Is this a desktop I'd set my mother up with? Probably not. But does it work for me? Yes!
Next time on Slashdot: Why I drive a stick even though manual transmittions aren't 'user-friendly'.
I remember a mechanism that converts a lot of low pressure water into a little high pressure water.
Its a device called a 'water ram'.
I haven't really looked into hydro-electric power generation, but if most designs are for low-flow/high-pressure there might be a reason.
I worked for an independent franchise chain of the Marco's Pizza restaurant a number of years ago as a delivery driver.
Pizza delivery jobs suck. I once had a job as a delivery driver for CosaNostra pizza, and they had a really strict policy that the pizza had to be delivered in 30 minutes or less. One day, the manager gave me a pizza that only had 8 minutes left for delivery, and I accidentally put the company car in a burbclave pool en route. Luckily, a Kourier was able to deliver the pizza within the remaining amount of time, so I wasn't totally screwed...
Now I'm doing anti-virus work. Much better fit for me.
In the end, this whole "us" versus "them" mentality causes exactly the kinds of problems described above, users being chided for asking "stupid" questions, people refusing to cooperate, etc.
I don't see it as an us-vs-them fight. Its more of a difference of opinion.
There's this idea that GNU/Linux has to become the Next Windows or Next OS X. There's the idea that GNU/Linux has to be User Friendly, that it has to Cater to Newbies, and every application needs to be Useable without Reading the Man Page.
There's nothing wrong with that idea, and Mandrake is moving nicely in that direction (as is Redhat, and a few other distributions).
However, that doesn't mean that all distributions need to go in the same direction. Let Debian be Debian.
Sometimes, the goals of a project are not to clone Microsoft Windows.
As for "people asking stupid questions", I have asked plenty of stupid questions in the Debian community without repercussions.
The only people I've ever seen chided are those that are unwilling or unable to think and do for themselves. People who are unwilling to read a man page, or a section of the FAQ, who want step-by-step instructions on how to do a well-documented task.
We have a Republican president and they control half of Congress.
Since this proposal would extend the reach and powers of the Gov't, it will never pass. Republicans are for a smaller government, remember?
Wait. Why are you laughing?
Odd... I thought they lowered it by $33 dollars.
Bad power? Dirty power? Explain that one please. I love it when the clueless try to explain things.
Here's the more technical explanation of it:
Ba d/Dirty Power: When you plug an arc welder into the same extension cord as your computer.-- Sincerly, the Clueless
When you go to the grocery, do you ask for 'meat', or do you specify species and cut?
I'm a vegan you insensitive...
I wish that google would add an ability to limit their usenet archive searches by # of messages in a thread.
Many times, I only find one solitary question (1 message) posted, without any answers. :(
Dependency Hell Is A Solved Problem
It is? After about 15 apt-gets my system ties itself into a knot that looks something like this:
Well, looking over at packages.debian.org, libfontconfig1 is not part of the stable debian release.
I suspect that you are either using one of the development branches of debian, or else using debian-stable with packages from the development branch. Perhaps you are using non-official packages that are outside of the three branches.
Btw, you might want to do a 'man apt-get' and look at the difference between 'apt-get upgrade' and 'apt-get dist-upgrade'.
As for the link, the problem occured on debian unstable!
Unless you are comfortable with a system, do not use developmental branches -- use the main releases!
[ Btw, I've been using apt-get to maintain the same server for the last several years without a problem, even with an upgrade from potato to woody. I have another debian machine that has survived three different sets of PC hardware (including HDD migrations). If you don't kick it, debian works nicely. If you start installing applications without forethought, you get the same situation as with ever other OS -- things break. Windows does this. Linux does this. The BSDs do this. Damned if I know how, but if you try hard enough, even MacOS X will do it.]
Definitely. If you're a writer of some kind, install a KeyKatcher and you've got an instant backup of everything you've written. If your word processor crashes, no problem; fire up KeyKatcher and cut and paste everything you've lost. Beautiful stuff.
Vi and its clones (vim, nvi, elvis, etc) have a copy of the current text in a swap file. In event of a crash/power failure/etc, its easy to recover the swap file and resume your work.
As for word processing, that's what LaTeX is for.
That has nothing to do with the internal architecture of Windows. That's a bug in ZoneAlarm. There is no reason to blame Windows at all for a bug in a software product written to run on Windows.
First (as everyone else has been doing) you meant BlackIce, not ZoneAlarm. I'm sure it was a brain misthink.
Second, the OS or even the hardware architecture could have taken steps to limit the damage. Non-x86 systems (including AMD64) have a W^X implementation - memory can either be written to or be executed, but not both. This makes buffer overflows more difficult to exploit. OpenBSD implements the W^X idea under x86 in the kernel, and takes additional steps against smashing the stack.
OTOH, I agree -- BlackIce Exploit != Microsoft Windows Exploit.
Average time from start to finish to get a new drug from molecule to FDA approval is 15 years.
If you think that's bad, wait until you hear about the 16 years it takes from when the government entes you into the system (through social security) and finally gets around to giving you a drivers license!
OO.o doesn't provide basic functionality.
It fails to write Word-compatible .doc format documents.
You are correct -- in a heterogenous environment, MS Office is better then Open Office.
However, how many environments are running the same word processor, nevermind the same version?
This is more anecdotal then hard evidence, but have you tried to read a complex document written in an older version of word into a newer version? OO.o seems to get it more correct then the latest release of MS Office.
Have you ever tried to import a non-word format into word?
Now, consider this rebuttle:
By using Open Office.org, you have several benefits to promote a heterogenous environment. Due to the fact that its free, everyone can run the latest version. Since it runs on a variety of platforms, you are not locked into a single vendor of OS or hardware. Your employees can run the same version at home without additional cost, and transfer those files to the office without any compatibility issues.
Also, being a large commercial open source project backed by several large businesses, you recieve the quick bug and security fixes of OS, yet have the security of a fortune-500 company.
I hope the RIAA gets what they want -- the p2p networks free of their music.
Won't it be nice to log onto Kazaa, Gnutella, etc, and find only copyrighted mp3s by artists/owners who give permission to share their work?
Lets let the RIAA bitch and moan about how piracy is killing them -- when we can only share music by small, unknown bands outside of their control, we'll finally see if Brittany & Co. can survive the competition.
And, as always, a manditory iRATE link -- because someone needs to seperate the chaff from the good stuff -- why not let it be you?
Also, we need to get ISPs to block most ports by default. If you want a port opened, you simply request it from your ISP.
Not that I have to solicit criticism here on slashdot, but I'll ask anyways. What am I missing and why wouldn't this work?
My major fear is as soon as most ISPs switch to a system like this, opening up additional ports will only be possible for an additional cost, or for a more expensive plan.
"You want port 22 opened? That will be an additional $7.95 a month."
I'm surprised he doesn't talk about orbital stabilty (around a star) as a potentially useful criteria.
He does discuss this:
Moreover, we know that planets can migrate around their planetary systems, changing orbits and therefore location for various reasons.
I haven't kept up with the theories of solar system formation, but last time I checked, one of the ideas was that a large jupiter-like planet could have an unstable orbit, and put the rest of the planets in rather strange orbits. Remember, our solar system might be the exception, rather then the rule. The typical 'earth-sized' planets might end up having an orbit as eliptical as pluto.
I like his idea "large enough to form a sphere due to gravity", but would like to add my own two cents to it. How about "large enough for form a sphere due to gravity" AND "With a layered, internal composition", similiar to earth crust-mantle-core, or mars crust-solid-mantle-core.
OTOH, we don't know if all the planets we'll find will be spherical. Close double-orbiting planets would be egg-shaped. Therefore, perhaps we should add "would normally be spherical shaped in the absence of outside gravitational influences."
I have no idea why someone hasn't put an imaginatively evil payload in a modern virus.
About 5 years ago, I thought of the 51-cards + 1 dupe virus for solitaire. :)
Modern day virus writers don't seem to be implimenting either cutting edge or distructive techniques. Perhaps, with MS Windows, virus writing is so easy that there is no more challenge in it. Why write a warhol worm and become the next Morris when a simple "I Love You" with an executable attachment will work?
The other hypothesis is that computer viruses have evolved to a point where they gain more by not killing the host. How many machines would remain unpatched if the next worm overwrote every .doc file with the text from Alice in Wonderland? How many servers would still be running unprotected if the next worm disabled every listening service and removed the binary? How many spam and trojaned boxes would we have if the next worm actively de-rootkitted its own host, then randomly checked for trojans and open relays on other machines, and either disabled or spammed the hell out of admin/root until the machine died?
Then again, perhaps we are in a nice, harmless-virus phase that won't last. The ideas written above are not new, and by searching, its easy to find ways to optimize virus transmittion rates and models on how to time the destructive phase of the virus in order not to hinder the transmittion. When some misguided soul finally writes the 'fuzzy-bunny-worm' worm using an unpatched recent exploit that spreads around the world in 15 minutes and destroys machines in the next hours, the 'fuzzy-bunny-worm' worm will get a ton of media coverage. [They will also be hunted down and killed by Microsoft's elite anti-virus ninja squad, but...] That media coverage will encourage more destructive worms.
Which is why I always tell people not to run unnecessary services and to keep themselves patched. Viruses may not always be as benign as they are now.
It's a scary world when you have to include a disclaimer such as "Yo, it's a joke -- no need to start a super-secret file on me." in a Slashdot post making parody of the president. The Patriot Act has proven far too powerful and unjust.
On Kuro5hin, there was a comment during the anthrax scare about how to assassinate the president of the United States by infecting the vice president with an infectious disease.
The poster of that message received a visit from the United States Secret Service.
From the analysis of that tale, it seems that if you are flagged as a dangerous individual (through, presumably, religion, association with certain political groups, region of origin, etc) and make a nasty comment on a monitored website, the powers that be will investigate.
Scary thought indeed.
I consider a single transplant or a tweak of an organ to justifiable, but isn't transplanting 8 organs in a 6 month old baby breaking some type of natural law?
Er, isn't using fire, flying to the moon, building global telecommunication networks, and living in North Dakota breaking some type of natural law?
How about using drugs to kill bacteria, radiation to kill cancer, metal and plastic to repair teeth, plastic and glass to correct vision?
We're human, and being humans, it means we use technology to survive in a world that seems indifferent to our survival. The science and technology that allows us to do an 8 organ transplant does not make us weak - it makes us stronger. This isn't the African savanna anymore -- we aren't selecting genes based on the ability to take down gazelles. Instead, we are selecting genes for the ability to acquire medical care and long term economic planning that allows a baby that needs 8 organs to be able to afford a transplant.
As a footnote: Are you an organ donar? I am, and I always carry a card that says so. My wife knows of my wishes as well.
There is a shortage of organs in this world, and that shortage is artificial -- too many people *don't* donate their organs upon death. What are you doing to help?
Instead of trying to figure out what's naughty and what's not, we can just whitelist all white-middle-class-evangelical-family-friendly content, put it in .PRUDE, and they can block everything else.
Advantages: the evangelicals are happy because they can be pure and clean without having to actually make any moral choices, and the rest of us can use this thing called "free will", which allows people to view and avoid whatever content they desire.
Warning: This falls under 'rants I never thought I'd write'
Yegads.
Do any of the non-religious have a clue about religion? Hell, why not take just one religion, Christianity, that is popular in some parts of the world. Do you have any idea what its about? About the theology behind it? About its concept of free will or the lack of free will?
Or are you so ignorant that you believe jesussave.us and landoverbaptist are real Christian websites?
From what I see of Slashdot, most of the users have no clue about even one religion, ne'ermind religion in general.
Instead, they are content to build up some Ned Flanders stereotype and propagate it. Why take the effort to think and learn about people not like yourself when you can dismiss and tease them? The actions of an individual apply to the group, don't they? Geeks just try to hack SCO and Microsoft, while they live in their parents' basement collecting porn while never seeing a nude woman in the flesh.
Why not open a book, read some history and theology, and learn a bit? It might even be interesting. For history buffs, the Cathars (a sect of Christianity who considered heterosexuality a sin, but homosexuality to be okay) are rather interesting, as are the Bogomils, the religious wars of Germany, and the rise of the early Christian church (ne'ermind the Aztecian gods, the spread of Islam, the introduction of Buddhism and Christianity to Japan, etc). For philosophy and theology buffs, theres the issues of original sin, free will or the illusion of free will, destiny, the world as illusion, etc.
Why not try learning for a change?
(Btw, other then 'middle-class', I'd consider myself an evangelistic Christian that likes to promote family-friendly fare.)