Regarding junk like this - are there legal ramifications? If a website's content is copyrighted and this software ALTERS the content before it is presented to the user - are they liable in any way for mucking up the web site content? Doesn't copyright law prevent alteration of copyrighted material?
The worst part about it he did have a personal firewall, but his young child's friend/cousin/other allowed SirCam access to the internet.
Well, thats what it was supposed to do. If the friend shut down port 25, the minister wouldn't be able to send email. Sircam acts just like any email client and there is no reason for a personal firewall to block that. In this instance, a personal firewall is useless since nobody is going to block port 25 outgoing.
I've gotten tons of these emails, mostly from customers I've sent or received email from.
A sampling of what I've seen:
My fav - a legal brief from a lawyer
Some customer lists (in Excel format)
One file was called 'codes.xls' I didn't open it but it could have been useful:)
I got a couple porn pictures
3 resumes (love it)
I've sent a reply to every single user I've gotten SirCam from with detailed info on how the virus works and how to get rid of it with links to SARC, etc. I've only had one person reply and apologize. Everyone else is strangely silent:)
Is how the media is approaching things these days. When Mitnick was arrested it was a huge news story because the gov't finally 'got a real hacker' It was a huge thing, the media could finally demonize something and in Mitnick they could trash hackers and indirectly the big bad Internet.
But now, they are quiet. Why? Because the intrigue of the story and the DMCA cannot be broken down into a 3 minute news segment. Besides that, most people who aren't geeks really don't understand whats at stake and whats involved. Call me elitest if you want but its true - most of my friends say they get the ol deer in headlights look when they try to explain why this is bad.
The only media that can do justice here is online media (which is redundant - the geeks already know) and print media which has more space to delve into the details. But even they are remainig quiet except for a few op-d pieces in the NY TImes and the like.
Plus, the fact that its 'some RUssian kid' instead of an all American honor student means most folks just don't care which is a shame. I'd love to see a news story where they talk with his wife (with children nearby of course) to try and humazine this. The other thing is the media needs to figure out a way to explain this to the average person - which is hard. Most of the analogies to lock picking tools, etc carry an inference of criminal intent - where most feel the DMCA restricts valid testing of encryption technologies to improve them.
So we're left with a bunch of Internet geeks vainly trying to cause an uproar about this but until the avvg Joe Sixpack can a) understand the issues and b) give a rats ass about them, Dimitri will conitnue to languish in jail.
This is great news. For too long TTS has been held back by questionable voice quality. Microsofts engine was a huge step forward, but still wasn't quite there. As the technology advances and requires less CPU power (or more CPU power is fit into a smaller space) I can imagine this will rapidly show up in places where voice prompts would be nice be are so critical as to deploy a bad sounding technology.
I can't figure out all this chicken little/sky is falling media coverage (well hey its yet another SCARY Internet story, but still). CNN had an article that kinda made me chuckle. It was a story on ISS founder and "worm splattering" "worm hunter" Chris Klaus. It talked about how the 'patch may not hold' What a great thing to be telling everyone. If a new version of the worm hits and spreads liek wildfire, it will be due to a new vulnerability I'd expect. Amazing how mainstream media tries to cover situations like this.
As for the real threat, I expect there will be a large # of infections tonight/tomorrow. Why? Just look at the analysis at CAIDA They found that the majority of servers infected were from domains used primarily by small businesses and residential users (@home, etc) While many of these will have patched themselves, I'm sure many just restarted when problems arose and the problem went away - problem solved. I mean that's standard MO with a Microsoft OS - if it starts acting strangely, reboot.
The good news is, perhaps ISPs have been able to put plans in place to try and block the worm from spreading. Only time will tell.
Don't get me wrong - I think publicizing this issue is a good thing. But I expect that the problem will not be as awful as the media is trying to protray (Internet slowdown, websites knocked offline, etc)
Of course on the flip side - we know that the patch won't be applied to every IIS server out there - what will be done and by who to track down and irradicate the remaining servers that are still infected or are being re infected day after day? I'd expect hte ISPs but given the service level of many DSL and cable providers - you haev to wonder if they'll all pursue this diligently unless the courts get involved (yuck)
How can you say the AOL deal was wrong, but MS forcing their icons to remain (or all being removed) being right? The main idea here is MS forcing OEMs to do what MS says with teh desktop. Remember, OEMs see the desktop as a tool too and a revenue stream. I see nothing wrong with an OEM agreeing to make AOL the dominant ISP - same as some other OEM making MS the dominant ISP - so long as it is the OEMs choice because THEN you have competition, not a monopoly like MS forcing their will on EVERYONE.
Personally, I can't understand why AOL let this slip out before the release of XP - they knew Microsoft would pull this crap.
How can you not know what channel you're watching with those transparent (and sometimes opaque UGH!) station icons in the right lower corner all the time?
As for PVRs reducing ad revenue - it probably will, though perhaps NOT as much as folks think. Remember, with HIT shows, folks like to discuss the latest episode the next day at work. Worse, if you have a recent episode recorded and then folks start talking about the surprise ending - ugh! I plan to get a Tivo soon and I'm sure I'll use it lots, I doubt I'll ever record West Wing unless forced to - I want to watch the new episodes live. TO me PVRs are just another tool for my TV watching.
At some point, TV exces will get clued into this and ad rates for hit shows will go higher while adds for syndicated reruns and lesser known shows will go down.
Also, the networks will make up the ad revenue using the new product placement technology like they now use in ballparks and stuff to put brand name stuff in sets. The production companies will also work hrader to sell product placements than they do now. I honestly could care less if a guy takes a swig from a Bud bottle instead of the obviously fake label bottles they used to use (remember the cans that looked JUST like coke cnas without the trademark logos?) The thing that will turn me instantly off to a show, however, is if the plugs get REALLY obvious during dialog. Its too jarring.
Only time will tell, but I sincerely doubt PVRs will kill network or cable TV. What I fear is PVR vendors selling out and selling ads that you CAN'T skip when you watch shows or look at menus, etc.
If you're looking for system admin book or language references, you generally can't go wrong with O'Reilly books - Perl, Java, etc and sys amdin books on RedHat, Sendmail, DNS, Essential Sys Admin, etc.
Also, for Visual Basic, the Microsoft Refernece library for VB is quite extensive and well written, combine that with the VB Programmers guide
Embedded LInux is very real and is being worked on for all sorts of projects. Moving it into phones is no big surprise. Many embedded designers are often faced with a tough choice when it comes to an OS for complex embedded devices due to royalties. Many embedded OSes require royalties for any product sold with their OS in it (no surprise) Thus, embedded Linux offers an alternative that MAY be cheaper once you consider what it takes to develop custom drivers, etc. Mnay projects exist including Midori
It shoudl be interesting to see what RedHat brings to the table for EMbedded Linux.
I've known people who think PGP is invincable - I try to tell them otherwise. But the way teh FBI pulled this off is genius - why waste all those NSA CPU cycles tryin gto crack it - just grab teh passphrase. Of course, with biometric stuff getting so cheap, soon typed passphrases may only be part of the puzzle and even then the FI will somehow manage to succeed.
This is clearly a case of wiretapping though. My keystrokes are the same a talking (to me anyway, IANAL) so if they need a court order to bug my house, they damn well better need one to bug my keyboard.
Time to start putting tiny pieces of tape or those warranty type stickers on my keyboard and PC:) Can't be too paranoid;)
I'm a happy Ximian user and OSS advocate - there aren't any conflicts for me and I chuckle at the ire that Ximian can sometimes cause.
This is great stuff and I think it really puts Miguel's motives down in a clear manner. I think we should all thank them for even trying - I was amazed after all the anti Hailstorm and.NET stuff that's been posted, how folks reacted negatively to Ximian tryin gto start MOno because they were working with Microsoft.
Yes, they might get crushed, but again, they might just glean enough info that they can develop a working alternative without being sucked in. Lets give Ximian credit - they are OSS developers after all and I expect any 'agreement' Microsoft tried to get them sucked into would be picked apart with a fine tooth comb before it was signed to be sure they didn't back themselves into a corner.
Sure, right now Mono is only the.NET side of things - it doesn't deal with Passport. But you can bet that other folks are already working on it - Seems like a sweet deal to me. With Ximian working to develop Mono, more resources are available to work on Passport alternatives - seems like a good thing to me.
So lets not trash Ximian and Miguel for trying - at least they are - more power to them!
His Links Page was an excellent resource. After the beer cooler story, I found this and then spent most of Sunday reading about how various folks built their engines.
I highly recommend checking out some of the homebrew jet websites these guys have. Its wild to see the different approaches they take to reach the goal of self-sufficiency. One guy used plain old cast iron pipe you could buy at Home Depot and got it working. Another is working on an engine that uses a turbocharger from an M-60 tank! He's also got one that has an afterburner on it with some REALLY cool pictures.
This is quite the hobby. On guy built a really sweet engine that used a PLC to help start the engine which is a multi step process. His worked so well he sometimes had trouble keeping his cart braked. Interesting to see how folks also try various fuels from K-1 to LP gas to Diesel.
I honestly was blown away by the time and effort folks put into one of these just to have it run - but it really was a blast browsing all these sites all day - careful!! You might get hooked!:) Geeks with jet engines is a scary prospect!
Re:I've always wondered how they do that.
on
When A Cable Dies
·
· Score: 3
If live near Baltimore (or happen to drive I-95 through the city), North of the tunnel is a dock where two cable laying ships are docked. They used to belong to AT&T - not sure if they still do. Since you're up on a tall overpass you can get a good view of it - the spools they mount on these boats are MONSTERs (no surprise) Pretty cool sight - they look halfway normal till you see the huge hole in teh back with rollers on all sides!
Of course, look while driving at your own risk - better yet, pull over on the shoulder before looking so you don't kill somebody:)
Besides the semi cool factor of this (though it does look pretty normal for a Mars outpost from a geeks perspective), this is a smart way for NASA to build support for Mars exploration. FOlks obviously dig reality TV and some webcams (usually porn ones but not always) can hardly handle their load.
I figure they pay a few ladies in skimpy underwear to strip out of spacesuits once in a while and their viewership will skyrocket - then they can reel the suckers in as they do their serious work - when it comes time to spend the billions of dollars a manned mission woul dtake, they'll have better support me thinks because people are de-sensitized to the idea.
My favorite - Some ASP was looking for someone to manage their data center and was looking for someone with 10+ years in ISP data center management with a national ISP. Umm, gee ya think that narrows the pool down a bit?
SV, where the news media makes all its observations of the "IT industry", is the absolute WORST place on the planet now for finding programming jobs.
In case you missed it - my post said RTP (research Triangle Park in NC) other posts have also mentioned differnet places - the job market for information tech/computer workers SUCKS right now pretty much all around. SV probably got hit first and the sheer qty of folks is staggering, but its just as bad percentage wise all around it seems.
OK - So even 10% and I forgot to mention that there are hundreds of thousands of Anonymous COwards out there without accounts that will also hit a site So yes, 20% might be high - but when you factor in all the non account holders - then the number gets even higher. Bottom line is hundeds and hundreds of people hit that link at the same time for an extended period often overwhelming a poor APache server set to 150 concurrent connections.
You're off your rocker! As much as you'd like to believe its all the pseudo technical types being laid off - far from it.
Sure, a few years ago when companies laid folks off, it was usually the slackers and technical marketing types. But no longer!
As an ex-NORTEL employee (by choice long before they cratered) I can tell you I am absolutely blown away by the names I'm seeing come across the local mailing list for laid off NORTEL folks. These people were best in class programmers with excellent skills. The kind of people who got the top level review rating each year that only %5 of employees got. Thats because companies are now shedding entire projects and divisions. Before that used to happen on a small scale and most of the top coders got jobs elsewhere in the company. But in today's environment, theres nowhere else to go in a company laying off 30% of its work force - all open positions are GONE. So what happens? When a divison gets cut or a major project cancelled, EVERYBODY gets the ax.
Now you'd think they'd have jobs just lined up - well, as someone whose been looking for a halfway decent job for 7 months I can assure you its not always that easy, at least not here in RTP Many companies are laying folks off, not hiring. The # of job postings have gone down by at LEAST an order of magnitude. Even worse is the companies KNOW this and can hand pick the person that fits every single one of their requirements where before if a person fit 80% - it was a catch.
I've even noticed it in the job postings - an almost arrogant tone that basically says if you can't meet every single requirement (and they list tons) then don't even bother cause they won't even acknowledge they received your info.
During 1999 - there WAS a shortage in certain areas, no question. Totally unqualified people were getting hired because whatever work they could do was better than the job sitting unfilled for months. Now, its brutal and companies that can manage to get an opening approved are taking their time finding the gems - and then are paying them much less than they used to. I know excellent programmers who earned $80K getting offers of $65K
As for the middle maangers - yes they seem like incompetent dorks who serve no purpose, well, I can tell you that while sometimes they are, often they server a very important purpose, at least they did @ NORTEL. If they didn't exist, you'd probably spend more time dealing with customers and requirements, and release schedules which would drive you nuts - I've worn both hats and project managemednt can be a very difficult job, especially when you have to manage a project with hundreds of design teams who all say their feature is the most important (of course) So don't get too high on that pedistal because without project managers, your release would never make it out the door on time and without good technical marketing types, you'd have no customers for your product and no job.
Like a previous poster noted - this is a CLASSIC/. post that has nothing to do with technology politics and intrigue!
Of course - whats scary is someone operating a jet engine while drinking beer - shouldn't there be some sorta law? (KIDDING!)
I loved his tongue in cheek description of the project. But I'd really like to know, er, what caused him to want to do this? I mean it is really cool and I can imagine when he has parties, all the male folk and even some of the ladies flock to the shed to see his toy.
I also laughed to see the intake right behind the control panel - hmm the possibilities - pointy haird boss with tie visists "Here, sir, just stand at the control panel here and hit this red button. " Problem solved!
The phrase describes the pseudo distributed denial of service attack (dDOS) that occurs on a site that gets linked in a/. story Basically a site is slashdotted when people can't bring up the site because so many other/. people are trying to as well - Its from all the nerds clicking on the link at about the same time thus overwhelming the poor target webserver. If the bandwidth pipe isn't overwhelmed than the webserver is (often due to the server it runs on or Max # of processes being set to 100 or 150 or soemthing) There are almost half a million/. accounts - imagine if just 20% of them read/. in a 1 hour window and clicked that link - hating it!
First, I posted a rather long post on Hailstorm over at K5. Feel free to read if interested. But as I submitted it, a thought occurred to me....
Say that we're right and Hailstorm succeeds for Microsft - they are making decent money with a small market share on transaction 'taxes' via Hailstorm with.NET as the enabler. At the same time Linux is gaining ground because of its stability and robustness... Mono exists but doesn't really use Hailstorm, it has its own auth mechanism because the viral OSS software manged to peer with Hailstorm.
If the above comes to pass - I would bet its an almost certainty that Microsoft would start to give the PERSONAL/Residential version of Windows away for free. Oh sure, they would develop some license that forced OEMs to pay to install it on PCs they sold - can't give up that revenue stream. But when it comes to users upgrading their desktop - they'd get it for free. Why? Because of call teh cash generating technologies we are beginning to see in Win XP and the potential fee generation of Hailstorm. Allowing users to upgrade to the latest wizbang windows OS from WIN 95 or higher to Win XYZ would only give them MORE market share and ensure their dominance of the customer home PC market. How scary is that? I knwo most people dont' bother upgrading from WIn 9x because it works fine for them and its not worth $100 to bother. But if Microsoft started sending out WIn XYZ upgrade CD ala AOL - you'd be amazed how many people would upgrade - bang instant new users with cash generating capability - a user they WEREN'T getting money from before cause they were happy with WIn 9x and Microsoft Works.
That's what makes Hailstorm so important to Microsoft and also makes it so scary.
I may be wrong, but the pit of my stomach tells me it'll happen. The freebies have to be the enabling tehchnologies for the cash generating architectures. IE did it for MSN and other MS websites - just wait till the OS becomes the next freebie to steer customers to Micro$oft's cash register.
I still am unconvinced about the whole.NET concept to begin wtih. No matter how powerful they are, Microsoft has had its share of failures over the years too. Everyone assumes.NET will take over the Internet and leave Linux in the dust. Well, I recall teh deatch knell for languages like Perl and Python when Java hit the scene. Turns out Java is just one of many choices out there.
Ximian's deal with Microsoft makes me nervous - sure. But if they manage to extract enough info from Microsoft to build a decent.NET project, even if it doesn't touch Hailstorm, that may be enough to convince some other folks to try and build a Hailstorm alternative since the Mono APIs/clients would be there. So long as the licensing wasn't a poison pill that is the usual Microsoft MO.
But if we as a community would stop running around yelling 'The Sky is Falling' because of.NET and instead worked on that latest bug OR perhaps a.Net alternative, it would sure be a more productive and effective use of time!
Slashdot Mirror
I realize that - I was talking about a firewall blocking connections to port 25 as the destination port.
Regarding junk like this - are there legal ramifications? If a website's content is copyrighted and this software ALTERS the content before it is presented to the user - are they liable in any way for mucking up the web site content? Doesn't copyright law prevent alteration of copyrighted material?
Well, thats what it was supposed to do. If the friend shut down port 25, the minister wouldn't be able to send email. Sircam acts just like any email client and there is no reason for a personal firewall to block that. In this instance, a personal firewall is useless since nobody is going to block port 25 outgoing.
A sampling of what I've seen:
I've sent a reply to every single user I've gotten SirCam from with detailed info on how the virus works and how to get rid of it with links to SARC, etc. I've only had one person reply and apologize. Everyone else is strangely silent :)
But now, they are quiet. Why? Because the intrigue of the story and the DMCA cannot be broken down into a 3 minute news segment. Besides that, most people who aren't geeks really don't understand whats at stake and whats involved. Call me elitest if you want but its true - most of my friends say they get the ol deer in headlights look when they try to explain why this is bad.
The only media that can do justice here is online media (which is redundant - the geeks already know) and print media which has more space to delve into the details. But even they are remainig quiet except for a few op-d pieces in the NY TImes and the like.
Plus, the fact that its 'some RUssian kid' instead of an all American honor student means most folks just don't care which is a shame. I'd love to see a news story where they talk with his wife (with children nearby of course) to try and humazine this. The other thing is the media needs to figure out a way to explain this to the average person - which is hard. Most of the analogies to lock picking tools, etc carry an inference of criminal intent - where most feel the DMCA restricts valid testing of encryption technologies to improve them.
So we're left with a bunch of Internet geeks vainly trying to cause an uproar about this but until the avvg Joe Sixpack can a) understand the issues and b) give a rats ass about them, Dimitri will conitnue to languish in jail.
This is great news. For too long TTS has been held back by questionable voice quality. Microsofts engine was a huge step forward, but still wasn't quite there. As the technology advances and requires less CPU power (or more CPU power is fit into a smaller space) I can imagine this will rapidly show up in places where voice prompts would be nice be are so critical as to deploy a bad sounding technology.
I can't figure out all this chicken little/sky is falling media coverage (well hey its yet another SCARY Internet story, but still). CNN had an article that kinda made me chuckle. It was a story on ISS founder and "worm splattering" "worm hunter" Chris Klaus. It talked about how the 'patch may not hold' What a great thing to be telling everyone. If a new version of the worm hits and spreads liek wildfire, it will be due to a new vulnerability I'd expect. Amazing how mainstream media tries to cover situations like this.
As for the real threat, I expect there will be a large # of infections tonight/tomorrow. Why? Just look at the analysis at CAIDA They found that the majority of servers infected were from domains used primarily by small businesses and residential users (@home, etc) While many of these will have patched themselves, I'm sure many just restarted when problems arose and the problem went away - problem solved. I mean that's standard MO with a Microsoft OS - if it starts acting strangely, reboot.
The good news is, perhaps ISPs have been able to put plans in place to try and block the worm from spreading. Only time will tell.
Don't get me wrong - I think publicizing this issue is a good thing. But I expect that the problem will not be as awful as the media is trying to protray (Internet slowdown, websites knocked offline, etc)
Of course on the flip side - we know that the patch won't be applied to every IIS server out there - what will be done and by who to track down and irradicate the remaining servers that are still infected or are being re infected day after day? I'd expect hte ISPs but given the service level of many DSL and cable providers - you haev to wonder if they'll all pursue this diligently unless the courts get involved (yuck)
Personally, I can't understand why AOL let this slip out before the release of XP - they knew Microsoft would pull this crap.
As for PVRs reducing ad revenue - it probably will, though perhaps NOT as much as folks think. Remember, with HIT shows, folks like to discuss the latest episode the next day at work. Worse, if you have a recent episode recorded and then folks start talking about the surprise ending - ugh! I plan to get a Tivo soon and I'm sure I'll use it lots, I doubt I'll ever record West Wing unless forced to - I want to watch the new episodes live. TO me PVRs are just another tool for my TV watching.
At some point, TV exces will get clued into this and ad rates for hit shows will go higher while adds for syndicated reruns and lesser known shows will go down.
Also, the networks will make up the ad revenue using the new product placement technology like they now use in ballparks and stuff to put brand name stuff in sets. The production companies will also work hrader to sell product placements than they do now. I honestly could care less if a guy takes a swig from a Bud bottle instead of the obviously fake label bottles they used to use (remember the cans that looked JUST like coke cnas without the trademark logos?) The thing that will turn me instantly off to a show, however, is if the plugs get REALLY obvious during dialog. Its too jarring.
Only time will tell, but I sincerely doubt PVRs will kill network or cable TV. What I fear is PVR vendors selling out and selling ads that you CAN'T skip when you watch shows or look at menus, etc.
Also, for Visual Basic, the Microsoft Refernece library for VB is quite extensive and well written, combine that with the VB Programmers guide
It shoudl be interesting to see what RedHat brings to the table for EMbedded Linux.
what am I since I still prefer good old pinball :)
This is clearly a case of wiretapping though. My keystrokes are the same a talking (to me anyway, IANAL) so if they need a court order to bug my house, they damn well better need one to bug my keyboard.
Time to start putting tiny pieces of tape or those warranty type stickers on my keyboard and PC :) Can't be too paranoid ;)
This is great stuff and I think it really puts Miguel's motives down in a clear manner. I think we should all thank them for even trying - I was amazed after all the anti Hailstorm and .NET stuff that's been posted, how folks reacted negatively to Ximian tryin gto start MOno because they were working with Microsoft.
Yes, they might get crushed, but again, they might just glean enough info that they can develop a working alternative without being sucked in. Lets give Ximian credit - they are OSS developers after all and I expect any 'agreement' Microsoft tried to get them sucked into would be picked apart with a fine tooth comb before it was signed to be sure they didn't back themselves into a corner.
Sure, right now Mono is only the .NET side of things - it doesn't deal with Passport. But you can bet that other folks are already working on it - Seems like a sweet deal to me. With Ximian working to develop Mono, more resources are available to work on Passport alternatives - seems like a good thing to me.
So lets not trash Ximian and Miguel for trying - at least they are - more power to them!
I highly recommend checking out some of the homebrew jet websites these guys have. Its wild to see the different approaches they take to reach the goal of self-sufficiency. One guy used plain old cast iron pipe you could buy at Home Depot and got it working. Another is working on an engine that uses a turbocharger from an M-60 tank! He's also got one that has an afterburner on it with some REALLY cool pictures.
This is quite the hobby. On guy built a really sweet engine that used a PLC to help start the engine which is a multi step process. His worked so well he sometimes had trouble keeping his cart braked. Interesting to see how folks also try various fuels from K-1 to LP gas to Diesel.
I honestly was blown away by the time and effort folks put into one of these just to have it run - but it really was a blast browsing all these sites all day - careful!! You might get hooked! :) Geeks with jet engines is a scary prospect!
Of course, look while driving at your own risk - better yet, pull over on the shoulder before looking so you don't kill somebody :)
I figure they pay a few ladies in skimpy underwear to strip out of spacesuits once in a while and their viewership will skyrocket - then they can reel the suckers in as they do their serious work - when it comes time to spend the billions of dollars a manned mission woul dtake, they'll have better support me thinks because people are de-sensitized to the idea.
Or not - its 6AM, blame father time for my post :0
My favorite - Some ASP was looking for someone to manage their data center and was looking for someone with 10+ years in ISP data center management with a national ISP. Umm, gee ya think that narrows the pool down a bit?
In case you missed it - my post said RTP (research Triangle Park in NC) other posts have also mentioned differnet places - the job market for information tech/computer workers SUCKS right now pretty much all around. SV probably got hit first and the sheer qty of folks is staggering, but its just as bad percentage wise all around it seems.
OK - So even 10% and I forgot to mention that there are hundreds of thousands of Anonymous COwards out there without accounts that will also hit a site So yes, 20% might be high - but when you factor in all the non account holders - then the number gets even higher. Bottom line is hundeds and hundreds of people hit that link at the same time for an extended period often overwhelming a poor APache server set to 150 concurrent connections.
Sure, a few years ago when companies laid folks off, it was usually the slackers and technical marketing types. But no longer!
As an ex-NORTEL employee (by choice long before they cratered) I can tell you I am absolutely blown away by the names I'm seeing come across the local mailing list for laid off NORTEL folks. These people were best in class programmers with excellent skills. The kind of people who got the top level review rating each year that only %5 of employees got. Thats because companies are now shedding entire projects and divisions. Before that used to happen on a small scale and most of the top coders got jobs elsewhere in the company. But in today's environment, theres nowhere else to go in a company laying off 30% of its work force - all open positions are GONE. So what happens? When a divison gets cut or a major project cancelled, EVERYBODY gets the ax.
Now you'd think they'd have jobs just lined up - well, as someone whose been looking for a halfway decent job for 7 months I can assure you its not always that easy, at least not here in RTP Many companies are laying folks off, not hiring. The # of job postings have gone down by at LEAST an order of magnitude. Even worse is the companies KNOW this and can hand pick the person that fits every single one of their requirements where before if a person fit 80% - it was a catch.
I've even noticed it in the job postings - an almost arrogant tone that basically says if you can't meet every single requirement (and they list tons) then don't even bother cause they won't even acknowledge they received your info.
During 1999 - there WAS a shortage in certain areas, no question. Totally unqualified people were getting hired because whatever work they could do was better than the job sitting unfilled for months. Now, its brutal and companies that can manage to get an opening approved are taking their time finding the gems - and then are paying them much less than they used to. I know excellent programmers who earned $80K getting offers of $65K
As for the middle maangers - yes they seem like incompetent dorks who serve no purpose, well, I can tell you that while sometimes they are, often they server a very important purpose, at least they did @ NORTEL. If they didn't exist, you'd probably spend more time dealing with customers and requirements, and release schedules which would drive you nuts - I've worn both hats and project managemednt can be a very difficult job, especially when you have to manage a project with hundreds of design teams who all say their feature is the most important (of course) So don't get too high on that pedistal because without project managers, your release would never make it out the door on time and without good technical marketing types, you'd have no customers for your product and no job.
Of course - whats scary is someone operating a jet engine while drinking beer - shouldn't there be some sorta law? (KIDDING!)
I loved his tongue in cheek description of the project. But I'd really like to know, er, what caused him to want to do this? I mean it is really cool and I can imagine when he has parties, all the male folk and even some of the ladies flock to the shed to see his toy.
I also laughed to see the intake right behind the control panel - hmm the possibilities - pointy haird boss with tie visists "Here, sir, just stand at the control panel here and hit this red button. " Problem solved!
The phrase describes the pseudo distributed denial of service attack (dDOS) that occurs on a site that gets linked in a /. story Basically a site is slashdotted when people can't bring up the site because so many other /. people are trying to as well - Its from all the nerds clicking on the link at about the same time thus overwhelming the poor target webserver. If the bandwidth pipe isn't overwhelmed than the webserver is (often due to the server it runs on or Max # of processes being set to 100 or 150 or soemthing) There are almost half a million /. accounts - imagine if just 20% of them read /. in a 1 hour window and clicked that link - hating it!
Say that we're right and Hailstorm succeeds for Microsft - they are making decent money with a small market share on transaction 'taxes' via Hailstorm with .NET as the enabler. At the same time Linux is gaining ground because of its stability and robustness... Mono exists but doesn't really use Hailstorm, it has its own auth mechanism because the viral OSS software manged to peer with Hailstorm.
If the above comes to pass - I would bet its an almost certainty that Microsoft would start to give the PERSONAL/Residential version of Windows away for free. Oh sure, they would develop some license that forced OEMs to pay to install it on PCs they sold - can't give up that revenue stream. But when it comes to users upgrading their desktop - they'd get it for free. Why? Because of call teh cash generating technologies we are beginning to see in Win XP and the potential fee generation of Hailstorm. Allowing users to upgrade to the latest wizbang windows OS from WIN 95 or higher to Win XYZ would only give them MORE market share and ensure their dominance of the customer home PC market. How scary is that? I knwo most people dont' bother upgrading from WIn 9x because it works fine for them and its not worth $100 to bother. But if Microsoft started sending out WIn XYZ upgrade CD ala AOL - you'd be amazed how many people would upgrade - bang instant new users with cash generating capability - a user they WEREN'T getting money from before cause they were happy with WIn 9x and Microsoft Works.
That's what makes Hailstorm so important to Microsoft and also makes it so scary.
I may be wrong, but the pit of my stomach tells me it'll happen. The freebies have to be the enabling tehchnologies for the cash generating architectures. IE did it for MSN and other MS websites - just wait till the OS becomes the next freebie to steer customers to Micro$oft's cash register.
Ximian's deal with Microsoft makes me nervous - sure. But if they manage to extract enough info from Microsoft to build a decent .NET project, even if it doesn't touch Hailstorm, that may be enough to convince some other folks to try and build a Hailstorm alternative since the Mono APIs/clients would be there. So long as the licensing wasn't a poison pill that is the usual Microsoft MO.
But if we as a community would stop running around yelling 'The Sky is Falling' because of .NET and instead worked on that latest bug OR perhaps a .Net alternative, it would sure be a more productive and effective use of time!