Untill I read this post and another similar one I didn't understand why the US was against this. It seemed perfectly inline with the current divide and conquer tactic the US has been using to try and regulate the internet with out raising to many questions. (its always for our own good, right?) But know it makes sense.
First, most major US politions are primarily backed by corprate lobbists who want access to that info for 'marketing' purposes.
Second, buying that information is easier and less problematic then spying on someone. You can really judge a person or a country by thier economic habbits.
I'm glad to see that atleast some countries are taking a hardline on the protection of personal information and privacy.
"By switching to subscriptions and using a new authentication system that forces users to register each copy of Office that is locked to the computer hardware, Microsoft hopes to combat overseas piracy."
I hope that this doesn't imply that each copy of office is registered to a specific machine, and non transferable. That would be business suicide.
I personally think they nerfed the release because they are having problems selling the idea of subscription based software. With Single-pay software, you buy it, and its more-or-less yours, to transfer between machines as long as only one copy is running at a time, for as long as you own the software. With subscription based software, you dont own the software, you are leasing it, meaning that when you quit paying, you quit getting to use it.
From a business standpoint, lets say a new copy (nonSubscript) of office runs an outstanding $100 USD (which may be off the mark by a lot but this is hypithetical). In order for a subscription based version to be available and worthwhile the subscription fee would have to be rediculously low to offer an incentive for businesses to go with it. If The subscription price were even $5 USD a month, you would be losing out after only the second year.
Now I'm thinking with about a 3-4 year half-life in software before an upgrade is needed, and then tacking on overhead for the nightmarish support logistics that any subscription based service comes with, that there is no way that that can make this happen and make it profitable, and still make it worthwhile for any buisness to go with over a nonsubscription based piece of software.
Closed Arcitecture Engineering results in a level of Instability, Insecurtity, Distrust, and Incompatibility that Open Arcitecture Engineering will never have to deal with.
While both Linux and Windows have both had security problems, Linux can be fixed within days as opposed to Windows which is fixed at MS discretion (which may be never if the problem isn't drawing enough attention).
While overly perinoid people could be suspicious of both Linux and Windows OS's. Linux source code is freely available to those that want to look in it to see whats going on, not windows.
Evolutionarily speaking, Windows is like the Neanderthal Man. NonAdaptable. Eventualy after it has had its day in the sun, it will die of like all the other closed arcitecture systems that couldnt adapt. While Linux is happily chugging away, slowly but surly, adapting to encompass every nook and cranny of Cyberspace.
"It will be interesting to see how the RIAA reacts, either by claiming that Denmark violates international law, or by trying to get.dk banned altogether, or both. Perhaps they will lobby to change the law in such a fashion that access to file sharing and MP3 sites / networks must be forbidden for foreigners."
Now I would like to see that. A private (oligopolic) organization asking for the US Govt to BAN an entire country from internet access to the US. I believe this would be the final nail in thier coffin.
Mayday, Mayday... fire coming from engine... RIAA going down...;P
I need to grab some popcorn, this is going to be interesting to watch at the least.
Microsoft is actully an advacate of free information, thats why they leave all those nifty backdoors and exploits in thier software. That way anyone who wants to can just waltz in to your server for free and learn what ever they want.;P
Of Course they could just save everybody a lot of trouble and rename IIS 'Internet Security Hazard', and get it over with.
Moral and legal implications aside, The MPAA and RIAA dont understand what thier up against. Thier not fighting a bunch of dirty ol digital pirates, thier fighting the Idea of the free flow of information.
They just dont understand that you cannot fight an idea with laws, or brute force bullying, or any of the other tactics they have tried.
Ideas can only be fought with better ideas. The harder they try and crack down on this the deeper the hole they dig for themselves.
Maybe if they (RIAA and MPAA) keep digging eventually they will get to China where theyre ideas might be accepted.:P
All forms of media, news, and entertainment (in China) are controlled by the Gov't of China, or subject to Chinese Gov't Censors. That way they have a good power base from which to control thier people. They only let them know what they want them to know, that way it makes it easier to lead them.
I'm not trying to down on the Chinese as a people, just the Gov't. If you are never given the chance to learn about something, how do you even know it exists. Also, it promotes isolationism and fear of other cultures. Both are propaigated by the Chinese Gov't
Know with the advent of these cyber-cafes, the Chinese Gov't stands to lose control of the flow Information to thier young people. I think this has alot less to do with Porn, and more to do with subversion. I think the Chinese Gov't is afraid that if there people find out just how jacked up thier political system is over there, they might have a revolt on thier hands.
That is why it is so important to fight for our freedoms in this country (USA), and everywhere else to for that matter. Even if those freedoms seem insignificant at the time, everyone we lose is one less that our grandchildren may have. If we don't fight for what we have here, one day all of our information will be coming from one source, who filters out the 'bad' stuff so we arnt allowed to make our own decisions. This already to some degree here.
this seems to me to be yet another attempt by the Recording Industry to strengthen thier waneing grasp on the control of music production and distribution. Im glad to see that this website/organization isn't just cowering in a corner at the waving fist of the RIAA.
Somebody needs to fight these bozos (legally, of course). Im thinking that the RIAA is starting to make to many enemies. Eventually, If this keeps up, all the toes they've steped on will come back to kick them in the arse at one time.
"Felten and colleagues declined the cash prize and its accompanying restrictions, but have been threatened anyway"
"To get the prize shout your mouth about your findings..."
"Well then we dont want the cash."
"Oh. Well then, shut your mouth or we'll sue you."
I'm saying the contest holders better fess up with that cash prize then. Of course we all know how likly this is. (Snowball + Hell, draw your own conclusion)
Hey maybe I could use this type scenario in the future.
Hold a contest and require the winner to not tell anyone. When the winner tells me about it to claim the prize, I'll just say they violated the rules by telling me, and skimp out on the prize!
on second thought, that would just make me a dirty rotten bastard like the people that held this contest...
I know a lot of people may not see it this way, but I think the US FBI actually played fair on this.
For one, when these Hacker/Crackers from russia started in on US Businesses they had to know they were opening up a can of worms.
Breaking in to a closed computer system is a violation of US, Soviet, and International Law. They must have know this too.
When the FBI did get involved, they requested (several times) that Russia arrest them (for breaking Soviet law) as is the usual custom. Russia declined for thier own reasons.
Reaching an impass of sorts, The FBI found one of thier resumes online through an EMail one of them sent to a US ISP requesting a job, after the guy hacked the ISPs System. (Im sorry but, this has arrest me written all over it.)
The FBI then lured the Hacker/Crackers to the US with a promise of a job from a Security company that DOES NOT EXIST. I looked online for the company, and found no information leading to it. Did they even check it out?
The FBI Arrested them once they set foot on US Soil, and then hacked in to their computers to find evidence. (Which I would guess is also the usual course in an FBI investigation when direct seizure of the hardware is imposible).
I feel I must state that the FBI didn't ever break or violate the Hackers/Crackers Rights, because they don't have any. They aren't US citizens, or nationals, and as such the constitution doesn't apply to them. (Sux, but its true)
The FBI didn't have to Issue a warrent, because US search and siezure laws don't apply to them. (Soviets don't really have any as far as I know)
Thankfully I believe that Miranda (Arrest) Rights still apply to them because you don't have to be a us citizen to benfit from them, you only have to be arrested in the US.
The only thing the FBI might have flubbed is breaking Soviet and International Law for cracking in to the overseas PC's. But that would be for Russia to push, and would have little bearing in this case.
I feel real bad for those two, no matter what they did. They are stuck in the US legal system, and have No Constitutional rights.
Either way I think the FBI played this one fairly, the two hacker/crackers choose the weapons, and the FBI won the duel.
I think from no on everytime I get a SPAM email, Im going to spam back the sender. I think my product will be something like Magic 1$ pennies, not actually proven to do anything of course, but reputed to -Cure Cancer/Cause Weight Loss/Fix Lower Back Pain/ Etc...-
If they try to take legal action, I'll just hang on to the original spam they sent me.
I think recent reaction of low resource applications is a reaction by the software community to the consumers disgust at having to upgrade thier pc everytime a new piece of software comes out.
Not to mention the fact that most software developers are using outdated pc's themselves. At my company we upgrade departments on a rotating schedule and while I'm due for an upgrade month now, I have been using a P2 266 for the last year.
Obviously if the development pc is slow and the market still demands nice easy to use, but very complicated software, the software needs to be streamed lined at every possible turn.
Eventually, A piece of software will come out that is both important/cool enough to need, and is bloated enough to need to upgrade for, but I'm glad it isn't happening constantly.
It could potentially offset higher software prices. It could also give developers more money thus potentially leading to better design teams and better games.
And with any luck, it will mean less Ads when I surf the web;)
I dont know about you, but I only trust people and organizations that eran that trust. Something MS has never managed to do. In order for me to ever trust a company with resources as far reaching as MS they would have to extend some trust to me (as part of the general public). They're whole corprate structure, and buisness model/philosophy says to me "We don't want you to know anything we dont tell you, and we dont want to tell you anything." When any information does surface about thier business practices, they spin doctor it.
The MS spokesman in the article said something about people fearing creditcard use at first to. That is because people tend to resist change. Its only natural. But CC's didn't become very popular untill all the privacy fears were aleviated. (CC's can be used to track spending, but that is about it). Hailstorm intends on covering a great deal of information, not just spending habits, and I just read an article on/. a few days ago that noted that some Ms trusted Info product like Hailstorm(I dont remember the name) has a clause in the EULA that allows MS to do anything they want with the data, including Selling it or reproducing it with out consent.
MS and Trusted shouldn't even be in the same sentence togeather.
Sadly enough I think the general public will probably love HailStorm, because MS will underplay any potential problems as 'mad paranoid ramblings of a small anti-MS community' until something goes wrong that is. (and something will go wrong with this product, as something ALWAYS goes wrong with thier products).
my seven reasons not to trust Big Bill's old boys club.
1. The above mentioned EULA.
2. NSA_KEY
3. Strongarm business tactics
4. More security flaws and bugs (per product) then any other company.
5. A flagrant disreguard for the consumer.
6. they're support system is a racket. (make and sell a buggy product -WindowsXX-, Package the bugs up and sell them -TechNet-, Sell a Cert on using the Bug info -MSCE-)
7. Spokespeople who use phrases like "Open Source is unamerican". Last time i checked so are monopolies.
Im sure there are more, I just cant remember anymore.
In short they are a large company who are only out to make money and they don't care who or what they step on to do it. If you think for a second that they are going to protect your rights at the expense of a higher profit margin you are wrong. They have a consistant patter of behavior, and why would they change now?
since the US dollar isn't backed by anything but the faith of its holders, people moving to a gold back currency (whether its digital or not) could have a drastic effect on the US economy. It sounds like this effect is what the Secret Service is trying to investigate. After all the SS is still a branch of the US Treasury dept, not the Justice dept.
Hmm...
Its nice to know that Ignorance, Stupidity, and Racism are still alive in the Age of Informtion.
Somethings will never change I guess.
I have one question though.
With your rights crumbling away around your ears, and private companies trying to tell you that you no longer own all that new stuff you bought, and Goverments (seemingly) randomly turning in to near police states when it comes to the freedom of information, WHY ARE YOU STILL CONCERNED WITH WHAT COLOR SOMEONE IS? Or religion, or sexual orientation, etc.
Grow up or Die off already. Its a brave new world and views such as racism are archaic at best.
sorry for the rant, but stupidity like this in a forum like this really bothers me.
If the RIAA gets to decide what songs get to be distributed, they come one step closer to rebuilding thier fallen monopoly on mass distrbution of music and media.
artists with out RIAA recognition (which grow by the truckloads thanks to home recording software and such) will get pushed off to the side as so much rubish, so they wont be competition for the RIAA pop music slush.
Thank the fates that I know that the RIAA will never completly succeed in recreating their previous monoploy just do to the simple saying:
The bigger the wall, the more cracks in it.
the harder they try and squash the people trading the music, the more people they will have to squash (nothing draws a crowd like a crowd), and the more creative those people will get.
people should pay for the music they listen too, but people should also be able to do what they want with what they pay for.
Yup, nothing is gonna lower e-commerce fraud like telling everyone how to do it, and how easy it is.
Hate to see the/. ripple caused by this...
and as someone mentioned below, why in God's name would an ecommerce server allow a user to publish a page to it? Unless of course the article writer has his wires crossed. It would make more sense to me that the page isnt uploaded to the server, its utilized from the hackers saved copy and only the shopping data is sent back. (shrug)
anyway.
As quoted from the linked article:
'Here's how it works: After choosing a product and receiving pricing information, a hacker can use a standard browser's "edit page" feature to show the hidden HTML code on the page. The thief then saves the page to his computer, alters the price information and then hits the "publish" key on the browser. In many cases, that page is then accepted by the shopping cart software - and that $999 watch becomes a $3 special.'
Wow, the Atty. Gen.'s Office really covered there arse fast on that one.
Thats some spindoctoring worthy of the Clinton Administration.
Seriously though, did anyone not see this happening in Aus.? There electronic communication laws have been getting more and more strict for years. The place has long been on its way to a digital police state. No offense to my aussy friends, but I think that your country is trying to avoid what is happening here in the States. The only problem is that they are heavy handing it.
I think that the Gov. down there is panicking to control something it can barely comprehend. I see this (not supprisingly) as a real bad thing. That kind of rapid clamp down ALWAYS causes a backlash reaction of somekind in the people (or nation) it affects. Only now that the ball is in motion, I doubt that the AU Gov. will be able to stop it. Speaking purely philsophicly, There's a storm acomin', and theres nothing to do now but sit back and watch.
Good luck you guys (and gals), I think your gonna need it.
You want to know how microsoft harmed the public? Hows this:
Imagine that instead of Software, MS made Cars. Now imagine that those cars had as many design flaws, engineering mistakes, shortcomings and crashes as Windows 95 did when it came out.
Now imagine that MS paid the teamsters to to specificly not haul cars from competitor companies, and the only other cars available to you (as an avg driver) were exotic, difficult to drive and hard to find cars.
Suddenly the picture gets a little clearer doesn't it?
Slashdot Mirror
Untill I read this post and another similar one I didn't understand why the US was against this. It seemed perfectly inline with the current divide and conquer tactic the US has been using to try and regulate the internet with out raising to many questions. (its always for our own good, right?) But know it makes sense.
First, most major US politions are primarily backed by corprate lobbists who want access to that info for 'marketing' purposes.
Second, buying that information is easier and less problematic then spying on someone. You can really judge a person or a country by thier economic habbits.
I'm glad to see that atleast some countries are taking a hardline on the protection of personal information and privacy.
the harder you press to stop the free flow of information in any form, the harder people will press back. This is the natural way of things.
Ther harder you try and conform people to a standard the more they will nonconform.
You take away thier books, they will write there stories in the streets.
You take thier pens and paint, and they will write there stories in thier music.
You take thier voices and they will write there stories with thier blood.
This will never stop, as it is the natural order of things.
RA7
-
from the article-
"By switching to subscriptions and using a new authentication system that forces users to register each copy of Office that is locked to the computer hardware, Microsoft hopes to combat overseas piracy."
I hope that this doesn't imply that each copy of office is registered to a specific machine, and non transferable. That would be business suicide.
I personally think they nerfed the release because they are having problems selling the idea of subscription based software. With Single-pay software, you buy it, and its more-or-less yours, to transfer between machines as long as only one copy is running at a time, for as long as you own the software. With subscription based software, you dont own the software, you are leasing it, meaning that when you quit paying, you quit getting to use it.
From a business standpoint, lets say a new copy (nonSubscript) of office runs an outstanding $100 USD (which may be off the mark by a lot but this is hypithetical). In order for a subscription based version to be available and worthwhile the subscription fee would have to be rediculously low to offer an incentive for businesses to go with it. If The subscription price were even $5 USD a month, you would be losing out after only the second year.
Now I'm thinking with about a 3-4 year half-life in software before an upgrade is needed, and then tacking on overhead for the nightmarish support logistics that any subscription based service comes with, that there is no way that that can make this happen and make it profitable, and still make it worthwhile for any buisness to go with over a nonsubscription based piece of software.
RA7
-
Closed Arcitecture Engineering results in a level of Instability, Insecurtity, Distrust, and Incompatibility that Open Arcitecture Engineering will never have to deal with.
While both Linux and Windows have both had security problems, Linux can be fixed within days as opposed to Windows which is fixed at MS discretion (which may be never if the problem isn't drawing enough attention).
While overly perinoid people could be suspicious of both Linux and Windows OS's. Linux source code is freely available to those that want to look in it to see whats going on, not windows.
Evolutionarily speaking, Windows is like the Neanderthal Man. NonAdaptable. Eventualy after it has had its day in the sun, it will die of like all the other closed arcitecture systems that couldnt adapt. While Linux is happily chugging away, slowly but surly, adapting to encompass every nook and cranny of Cyberspace.
RA7
-
"It will be interesting to see how the RIAA reacts, either by claiming that Denmark violates international law, or by trying to get .dk banned altogether, or both. Perhaps they will lobby to change the law in such a fashion that access to file sharing and MP3 sites / networks must be forbidden for foreigners."
;P
Now I would like to see that. A private (oligopolic) organization asking for the US Govt to BAN an entire country from internet access to the US. I believe this would be the final nail in thier coffin.
Mayday, Mayday... fire coming from engine... RIAA going down...
I need to grab some popcorn, this is going to be interesting to watch at the least.
RA7
-
Microsoft is actully an advacate of free information, thats why they leave all those nifty backdoors and exploits in thier software. That way anyone who wants to can just waltz in to your server for free and learn what ever they want. ;P
Of Course they could just save everybody a lot of trouble and rename IIS 'Internet Security Hazard', and get it over with.
RA7
-
RA7
-
Moral and legal implications aside, The MPAA and RIAA dont understand what thier up against. Thier not fighting a bunch of dirty ol digital pirates, thier fighting the Idea of the free flow of information.
:P
They just dont understand that you cannot fight an idea with laws, or brute force bullying, or any of the other tactics they have tried.
Ideas can only be fought with better ideas. The harder they try and crack down on this the deeper the hole they dig for themselves.
Maybe if they (RIAA and MPAA) keep digging eventually they will get to China where theyre ideas might be accepted.
RA7
-
All forms of media, news, and entertainment (in China) are controlled by the Gov't of China, or subject to Chinese Gov't Censors. That way they have a good power base from which to control thier people. They only let them know what they want them to know, that way it makes it easier to lead them.
I'm not trying to down on the Chinese as a people, just the Gov't. If you are never given the chance to learn about something, how do you even know it exists. Also, it promotes isolationism and fear of other cultures. Both are propaigated by the Chinese Gov't
Know with the advent of these cyber-cafes, the Chinese Gov't stands to lose control of the flow Information to thier young people. I think this has alot less to do with Porn, and more to do with subversion. I think the Chinese Gov't is afraid that if there people find out just how jacked up thier political system is over there, they might have a revolt on thier hands.
That is why it is so important to fight for our freedoms in this country (USA), and everywhere else to for that matter. Even if those freedoms seem insignificant at the time, everyone we lose is one less that our grandchildren may have. If we don't fight for what we have here, one day all of our information will be coming from one source, who filters out the 'bad' stuff so we arnt allowed to make our own decisions. This already to some degree here.
RA7
-
this seems to me to be yet another attempt by the Recording Industry to strengthen thier waneing grasp on the control of music production and distribution. Im glad to see that this website/organization isn't just cowering in a corner at the waving fist of the RIAA.
Somebody needs to fight these bozos (legally, of course). Im thinking that the RIAA is starting to make to many enemies. Eventually, If this keeps up, all the toes they've steped on will come back to kick them in the arse at one time.
I cant wait.
RA7
-
"Felten and colleagues declined the cash prize and its accompanying restrictions, but have been threatened anyway"
"To get the prize shout your mouth about your findings..."
"Well then we dont want the cash."
"Oh. Well then, shut your mouth or we'll sue you."
I'm saying the contest holders better fess up with that cash prize then. Of course we all know how likly this is. (Snowball + Hell, draw your own conclusion)
Hey maybe I could use this type scenario in the future.
Hold a contest and require the winner to not tell anyone. When the winner tells me about it to claim the prize, I'll just say they violated the rules by telling me, and skimp out on the prize!
on second thought, that would just make me a dirty rotten bastard like the people that held this contest...
RA7
-
I know a lot of people may not see it this way, but I think the US FBI actually played fair on this.
For one, when these Hacker/Crackers from russia started in on US Businesses they had to know they were opening up a can of worms.
Breaking in to a closed computer system is a violation of US, Soviet, and International Law. They must have know this too.
When the FBI did get involved, they requested (several times) that Russia arrest them (for breaking Soviet law) as is the usual custom. Russia declined for thier own reasons.
Reaching an impass of sorts, The FBI found one of thier resumes online through an EMail one of them sent to a US ISP requesting a job, after the guy hacked the ISPs System. (Im sorry but, this has arrest me written all over it.)
The FBI then lured the Hacker/Crackers to the US with a promise of a job from a Security company that DOES NOT EXIST. I looked online for the company, and found no information leading to it. Did they even check it out?
The FBI Arrested them once they set foot on US Soil, and then hacked in to their computers to find evidence. (Which I would guess is also the usual course in an FBI investigation when direct seizure of the hardware is imposible).
I feel I must state that the FBI didn't ever break or violate the Hackers/Crackers Rights, because they don't have any. They aren't US citizens, or nationals, and as such the constitution doesn't apply to them. (Sux, but its true)
The FBI didn't have to Issue a warrent, because US search and siezure laws don't apply to them. (Soviets don't really have any as far as I know)
Thankfully I believe that Miranda (Arrest) Rights still apply to them because you don't have to be a us citizen to benfit from them, you only have to be arrested in the US.
The only thing the FBI might have flubbed is breaking Soviet and International Law for cracking in to the overseas PC's. But that would be for Russia to push, and would have little bearing in this case.
I feel real bad for those two, no matter what they did. They are stuck in the US legal system, and have No Constitutional rights.
Either way I think the FBI played this one fairly, the two hacker/crackers choose the weapons, and the FBI won the duel.
RA7
-
I see two (simplified) ways of looking at this.
1. Kids made violent from playing video games shoot up school.
2. Violent kids that shot up school played video games.
well, in the realm of logic and reason you would have to conclude #2 was correct because
1. Millions (maybe billions) of Kids (Violent and nonviolent) play video games.
2. Millions (maybe billions) of Kids that play video games are NOT made violent and are NOT shooting up thier schools.
RA7
-
I think from no on everytime I get a SPAM email, Im going to spam back the sender. I think my product will be something like Magic 1$ pennies, not actually proven to do anything of course, but reputed to -Cure Cancer/Cause Weight Loss/Fix Lower Back Pain/ Etc...-
If they try to take legal action, I'll just hang on to the original spam they sent me.
I wonder if this would actually work?
RA7
-
I think recent reaction of low resource applications is a reaction by the software community to the consumers disgust at having to upgrade thier pc everytime a new piece of software comes out.
Not to mention the fact that most software developers are using outdated pc's themselves. At my company we upgrade departments on a rotating schedule and while I'm due for an upgrade month now, I have been using a P2 266 for the last year.
Obviously if the development pc is slow and the market still demands nice easy to use, but very complicated software, the software needs to be streamed lined at every possible turn.
Eventually, A piece of software will come out that is both important/cool enough to need, and is bloated enough to need to upgrade for, but I'm glad it isn't happening constantly.
RA7
-
Indecent/Decent/Indecent/Decent...
that was clear as mud.
RA7
-
It could potentially offset higher software prices. It could also give developers more money thus potentially leading to better design teams and better games.
;)
And with any luck, it will mean less Ads when I surf the web
RA7
-
I dont know about you, but I only trust people and organizations that eran that trust. Something MS has never managed to do. In order for me to ever trust a company with resources as far reaching as MS they would have to extend some trust to me (as part of the general public). They're whole corprate structure, and buisness model/philosophy says to me "We don't want you to know anything we dont tell you, and we dont want to tell you anything." When any information does surface about thier business practices, they spin doctor it.
/. a few days ago that noted that some Ms trusted Info product like Hailstorm(I dont remember the name) has a clause in the EULA that allows MS to do anything they want with the data, including Selling it or reproducing it with out consent.
The MS spokesman in the article said something about people fearing creditcard use at first to. That is because people tend to resist change. Its only natural. But CC's didn't become very popular untill all the privacy fears were aleviated. (CC's can be used to track spending, but that is about it). Hailstorm intends on covering a great deal of information, not just spending habits, and I just read an article on
MS and Trusted shouldn't even be in the same sentence togeather.
Sadly enough I think the general public will probably love HailStorm, because MS will underplay any potential problems as 'mad paranoid ramblings of a small anti-MS community' until something goes wrong that is. (and something will go wrong with this product, as something ALWAYS goes wrong with thier products).
my seven reasons not to trust Big Bill's old boys club.
1. The above mentioned EULA.
2. NSA_KEY
3. Strongarm business tactics
4. More security flaws and bugs (per product) then any other company.
5. A flagrant disreguard for the consumer.
6. they're support system is a racket. (make and sell a buggy product -WindowsXX-, Package the bugs up and sell them -TechNet-, Sell a Cert on using the Bug info -MSCE-)
7. Spokespeople who use phrases like "Open Source is unamerican". Last time i checked so are monopolies.
Im sure there are more, I just cant remember anymore.
In short they are a large company who are only out to make money and they don't care who or what they step on to do it. If you think for a second that they are going to protect your rights at the expense of a higher profit margin you are wrong. They have a consistant patter of behavior, and why would they change now?
RA7
-
since the US dollar isn't backed by anything but the faith of its holders, people moving to a gold back currency (whether its digital or not) could have a drastic effect on the US economy. It sounds like this effect is what the Secret Service is trying to investigate. After all the SS is still a branch of the US Treasury dept, not the Justice dept.
RA7
-
Hmm...
Its nice to know that Ignorance, Stupidity, and Racism are still alive in the Age of Informtion.
Somethings will never change I guess.
I have one question though.
With your rights crumbling away around your ears, and private companies trying to tell you that you no longer own all that new stuff you bought, and Goverments (seemingly) randomly turning in to near police states when it comes to the freedom of information, WHY ARE YOU STILL CONCERNED WITH WHAT COLOR SOMEONE IS? Or religion, or sexual orientation, etc.
Grow up or Die off already. Its a brave new world and views such as racism are archaic at best.
sorry for the rant, but stupidity like this in a forum like this really bothers me.
RA7
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If the RIAA gets to decide what songs get to be distributed, they come one step closer to rebuilding thier fallen monopoly on mass distrbution of music and media.
artists with out RIAA recognition (which grow by the truckloads thanks to home recording software and such) will get pushed off to the side as so much rubish, so they wont be competition for the RIAA pop music slush.
Thank the fates that I know that the RIAA will never completly succeed in recreating their previous monoploy just do to the simple saying:
The bigger the wall, the more cracks in it.
the harder they try and squash the people trading the music, the more people they will have to squash (nothing draws a crowd like a crowd), and the more creative those people will get.
people should pay for the music they listen too, but people should also be able to do what they want with what they pay for.
Coffee pot and all. It is a piece of history isnt it?
RA7
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Yup, nothing is gonna lower e-commerce fraud like telling everyone how to do it, and how easy it is.
/. ripple caused by this...
Hate to see the
and as someone mentioned below, why in God's name would an ecommerce server allow a user to publish a page to it? Unless of course the article writer has his wires crossed. It would make more sense to me that the page isnt uploaded to the server, its utilized from the hackers saved copy and only the shopping data is sent back. (shrug)
anyway.
As quoted from the linked article:
'Here's how it works: After choosing a product and receiving pricing information, a hacker can use a standard browser's "edit page" feature to show the hidden HTML code on the page. The thief then saves the page to his computer, alters the price information and then hits the "publish" key on the browser. In many cases, that page is then accepted by the shopping cart software - and that $999 watch becomes a $3 special.'
RA7
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Wow, the Atty. Gen.'s Office really covered there arse fast on that one.
Thats some spindoctoring worthy of the Clinton Administration.
Seriously though, did anyone not see this happening in Aus.? There electronic communication laws have been getting more and more strict for years. The place has long been on its way to a digital police state. No offense to my aussy friends, but I think that your country is trying to avoid what is happening here in the States. The only problem is that they are heavy handing it.
I think that the Gov. down there is panicking to control something it can barely comprehend. I see this (not supprisingly) as a real bad thing. That kind of rapid clamp down ALWAYS causes a backlash reaction of somekind in the people (or nation) it affects. Only now that the ball is in motion, I doubt that the AU Gov. will be able to stop it. Speaking purely philsophicly, There's a storm acomin', and theres nothing to do now but sit back and watch.
Good luck you guys (and gals), I think your gonna need it.
RA7
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You want to know how microsoft harmed the public? Hows this:
Imagine that instead of Software, MS made Cars. Now imagine that those cars had as many design flaws, engineering mistakes, shortcomings and crashes as Windows 95 did when it came out.
Now imagine that MS paid the teamsters to to specificly not haul cars from competitor companies, and the only other cars available to you (as an avg driver) were exotic, difficult to drive and hard to find cars.
Suddenly the picture gets a little clearer doesn't it?
RA7
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