Anyone else wondering why Shawn Fanning is still hanging on? Heck I'd have jumped ship with whatever $$$ I could grab and start working on my next project. I know its his baby, but its looking pretty grim. Bail and work on the next 'piss off RIAA' project!
I am a student myself, so don't start bitching that I'm underestimating students. The potential for abuse is there, and abuse DOES happen in student-run IT departments. What type of abuse, you ask? Well, lets take a look at an example: [Description above]
Yes, well if you think this kind of thing doesn't happen in the real world too - you are naive. It may be more rampant in universities since students aren't worried about 'losing their job' but lets be realistic - the ONLY way you can have students in IT with possible access to sensitive material is to drive home the point that ANY abuse will not be tolerated and you'll be expelled, etc And enforce it. No exceptions.
You might be surprised to find that at many schools the architecture of their IT divisions fits student based IT nicely. Take the network for example. There is likely a campus wide network group. May not be the best place to have students running the show though it makes a great learning expereince! But each 'school' in the university may have its own IT group, on a more localized level where it is easier to use student resources. I don't think you'll find that students run teh whole show and as long as you manage to get them working with the employees, you'll always have folks available to fix tghe problems (and in teh middle of the night you'd be amazed how often its the students!)
And having gone through this - you are now 100% prepared for what lies ahead in the corporate world should you decide to pursue an IT position. Nothing is different.
I've found that many companies (except perhaps the eCommerce companies that RELY on their IT folks to make $$$) treat IT as a necessary evil, but nothing that would be worth spending serious $$$ on. The politics between camps gets worse. Trust me - I worked for a large telecom/networking company (one that has a decent bond rating:):) whose R&D labs were HP-UX for development and Macs for Management/Admin tasks. The CEO & CIO decided we had to migrate not just the Macs but also the Unix development stations to PCs. Switched ATM networking was canned in favor of Gigabit Ethernet (we used ATM for many reasons including the fact that we we had multiple subnets in the same building and the admin was killing us plus the switched ATM backbone was a godsend for our data center) The political infighting was a sight and having been on the losing side (notice I said 'worked for') I can tell you it wasn't pretty. I almost lost my job when I put together a white paper (which I published of course) showing how moving from our mainframe based email to Micro$oft Exchange vs a Unix based solution (iPlanet, etc) was going to cost tons of money. But our CEO wanted Microsoft since it would impress Bill Gates (it was a 80+K employee company = mega $$ for Microsquish) since he wanted to partner with Microsoft.
It goes on and on. But the parallels between what you see in academic life and the corporate world are scary in their similarity.
I personally think student run IT is something to be looked into and utilized where possible. Give students respect with some oversight and they will probably surprise you.
GRIN - Same here. I almost died laughing when that one came out. My clipping is frayed and yellow - but it follows me from cubicle to cubicle:) Laminated it after it started to fray.
I don't think he solkd out. He was facing mega lawsuits and charges from the fresk in the government. It seemed like he joined up with NAI to help shield the product from further attacks (since NAI had more resources than he did) Maybe my timing is off but it seemed like a good move to ensure PGP remained freely available (and he remained a 'free' man:) )
First, realize that these things have a VERY limited range. Thus you have to have readers in very close proximity. The best tag today can go about 15 feet. So its not like some big company is going to scan your house for everything inside.
So to be of any use for vendors from a personal use standpoint, they have to have readers all over the house. Not likely! No readers - no reading - no big brother. You don't want your stuff scanned, don't install a reader in the house. No need to swap tags.
As for these smart refrigerators everyone always talks about - give me a break! I'm in the Home Automation business. These things will never fly. Lord knows its hard enough to remember to put the milk in a glass vs drinking from the bottle. Whose gonna scan the code so the fridge knows when you use it? I didn't think so:)
As a Mozilla user (random nightly downloads when I thikn to do it), I'm happy to see things moving along and look forward to the day when the browser and mail are rock solid. They're getting close.
I really like that they have started to track performance. Especially when the numbers for some stuff like Mail & News are pretty bad (but getting better) I applaud their efforts and hope to see those performance metrics improve rapidly!
Yeah and Belgian police arresting Napster users? Yes, the US is going nuts with Copyright and IP and patent decisions, but leave it to the EU to come up with the most bizarre cases and decisions.
And when you realized the mistake, you reentered the URL (or horrors actually used a bookmark;) ) and went to the right site - big deal!
As long as eReferee.com has a prominent message saying "We are in no way affiliated with Referee Magazine, etc, etc" all is good. Seems like most companies come up with solutions like this.
Heck - I used to work for NORTEL when it was Northern Telecom and remember when they switched names. Some small outfit named Ortel in CA sued saying it was confusing. The result? NORTEL was forced to put "Nortel Networks" under the NORTEL name in small print on all sings, publications, etc.
Not a huge deal - simple enough and it avoids confusion. I wish others could do the smart thing istead of the 'sue for profit' thing:)
As opposed to some of these silly things like RAMBUS trying to sue everyone for profit, I think Tatu is right. And he handled it in a very professional and thoughtful manner. Customer confusion can be a major PIA.
He tried to be discreet, and he says he got no exposure, so he posted to all the developers.
I can relate sort of. A few years ago I developed a digital lock product using Dallas iButtons It was intended for residential customers to unlock their houses at the touch of a button. I searched the net extensively trying to see if my preferred name (DigiLock) was used elsewhere. I came up empty. I didn't trademark it myself because we were a small company and I just did want the trademark hassle.
Well, about a year later, I start getting emails and calls from people asking if I sold a DigiLock that would secure a gym locker or cabinet. At first I thought they were confused. Well, eventually, I got someone inquiring to tell me more and eventually found a company that sold locks you could mount on cabinet and locker doors that also used iButtons. They called it the DigiLock and TM was all over the website. Sure enough - a check of the trademark website (which wasn't nearly as useful when I first developed my product) turned up that that company had a trademark for that name and they got it like 6 months before our product was released.
Our products were too close and I honestly didn't want to deal with all the folks inquiring about a product I didn't sell. So I changed the name to something I knew wasn't trademarked. Simple enough and my customers accepted the change easily when we publicized it.
Bottom line is - he's dead on about the added aggrevation dealing with confused customers because of a name.
No Microsoft is not on the verge of insolvency, but Microsoft has fallen. They are no longer viewed as invincible. Sure they still dominate desktops, etc. But last year punidts expected Microsoft to rule everything. Notice how more and more 'set top boxes, etc" are running Linux? This was supposed to be Microsoft's next big thing.
I don't think Micro$oft will be broken up. I think our "President" will work to ensure the anti-trust suit is given 0 attention. But Microsoft is hurting. Windows 2000 is NOT taking the world by storm like folks expected. Linux IS making inroads into Microsoft's high profit server market. The desktop scene remains a cash cow for them, but I believe Linux WILL become a strong competitor to Microsoft in the coming years.
We geeks all talk about how 'the average user doesn't have a clue and uses Micro$oft/Intel because - they rule" While true to a point, at some point IF Linux desktop installs become more mainstream and easy to use, the box makers can't ignore it for long. It can wipe off a significant cost for each box (not just hte OS which Micro$oft sometimes gives away practically, but the other things like Office suites, anit virus (on Linux - NOT!:) 0, etc. If htis starts to happen - look out. The only catch here is games - but I see that changing soon too.
Will this result in Microsoft imploding - no way. But the might this giant once held is slipping away and they will soon become just another large software company hawking its wares. Sure they'll use every trick in teh book to stay on top, but instead of the straight up trajectory they are used to, I expect Microsoft will now have to 'work' for good earnings and market share - Just like Intel has since AMD started whipping their butts.
Seriously. When this first happened, many people were agahst that you could take down the big sites like that. But it happened, the sites came back, and life goes on. I think people (normal people;) ) are starting to realize that in their everyday life, if a site like Microsoft or Yahoo goes down, it'll be back up in a few hours. Its not life threatening. Even the investment brokers. Unless they are dying to trade at that instant (and most folks are LTBH investors) they don't care.
Its a dangerous attitude in some respects, but in others its not. Its dangerous because it makes folks think hacking is harmless (till their credit report gets ripped off, etc) But heck most people survive just fine if the power goes out for a bit, why not the Internet?
I'm not agreeing with them, I just see that in responses from folks I talk with that aren't/. readers. The scary part is, DDos attacks ARE the tip of the iceberg. Its kinda like a doofus with a gun. Someone fires one in the air, everyone runs for cover, life stops for a sec, and then folks go about their business, not caring if the bullet came down and killed some poor sap. It just leaves folks unprepared for the real deal like when hackers manage to cull sensitive info on many of the top public officials (or their comuter systems) and hold the government hostage. They'll be totally unprepared.
The best we can do is a) spread the word to our less technically inclined friends that it IS a big deal, b) hacking is different from cracking, and c) contribute to hack prevention/detection systems like Snort (Not necessarily in that order!
Microsoft dismissed the criticism of its own.NET initiative to provide software for a more pervasive Internet and hit back at Sun for being late to the game.
"You can't have a standard just by unilaterally declaring something to be a standard," a Microsoft spokesman said by email. "How is this announcement not a belated and vaporous response to Microsoft.NET?"
ROFLMAO! Micro$oft tries to make its standards everyones standards just because it can! What a joke!
Informed sources tell me the NSA has been breaking PGP for years, but they'll generally only bother in cases where side-channel attacks are unfeasible, due to the required resources in time and labor
Yeah did you notice in each example, they broke the code anyway to foil the plot? SO why all teh Red scare tactics? Course it was interesting to see that one code took one year to break. (Where's distnet when you need it!)
I caught the Sunday games (was out Saturday night) and I liked what I saw. Sure the football was a bit poor in spots, but not horribly so. What did people expect? I'm sure things will improve over time. It was still football and the rule changes did add a little excitement. Is the punt returner gonna get killed because of no fair catch? No since the defenders can't cross the line of scrimmage till the ball is kicked (note they didn't make a big deal about that change) But it eliminates all the times you get to watch balls roll towards the end zone while the kicking team waits for it to stop right before the end zone. The scrum at the start is a little hokey - but I thought it was pretty cool.
As for technology - heck it was their first weekend. THe first sign the XFL will succeed is if they tweak things as the weeks progress. Yes, the player interviews before they could play was stupid. But I really liked hearing the huddle conversation and what the refs said to each other before they finalized the call. The on field cameras are great since in the NFL you rarely see what happens in the backfield once the ball moves forward. The stadium screens were amazing - when the camera caught them - it looked like a computer imposed image. Impressive!
I think they need to get the yellow 1st down line technology - that's great. But I also think teh NFL WILL borrow some ideas from teh XFL as well as use it as a new recruiting tool.
Besides, I kinda like watching players working to win some cash. The last second field goal to win the game for San Fransico was great.
So cut them a little slack. Yes they are overhyping things - but damn the Superbowl is hyped MUCh worse. The use of off field technology will go through some growing pains.
After all.. When was the last time YOU deployed a product and got it perfect the first time? I didn't think so.
Regardless, I'll be watching next week since I really like football and I can only watch so many college basketball games beyond those with my team (GO HEELS! #1 baby!)
Yeah - this is not new. I've seen many sites with PayPal donation buttons. Looks like Amazon is looking for more revenue and information they can later sell. "Wanna know what whacko causes your oponent donated to via our tip jar? Just fork over $100 and we'll tell you!"
Not a great hack (did they really use a Bungee cord?) - but cool none the less. For a little Canadian humor (and their view of us Americans!) - check out this Molson Ad then check out the spoof linked to Quebec You need Quicktime for these. You've got to watch the Molson one first!
Solve the California power (for us anyway) - convince them to secede along with Quebec!
The threat is more than you think. I worked for a big networking company (they should know better) whose internal network was completely firewalled from the Internet (they did a very good job in this area) However, they were falling over themselves to get wireless installed and guess where it went first? That's right - the executive suites tied right into the internal LAN. The execs HAD to have their laptops connected. We used high gain antennas to ensure the R&D building was completely covered. Anyone who parked near the building and intercepted an SSID or had the knowledge to hack in could have walked away with their email, passwords, you name it. I honestly don't think WEP was enabled because it was still 'in development' and we were waiting for firmware releases. But they wouldn't let us wait. I hear that the 2nd generation deployment is a little more secure, but you are kidding yourself if you think this was an isolated incident. The potential for commercial spying is huge since wireless (like all the other gizmos) hit the executives first. And those of you talking about limited range - not quite. I use 802.11 to share my pipe with the inlaws next door. Next door is about 500 feet away through the woods. But the signal strength is great and I'm just using the std antennas, not a high gain patch. So it goes farther than you think outside, even when it seems like its really weak inside at short distances.
Don't get me wrong - I love 802.11b and use it all the time. But I use WEP and my access points are on an isolated LAN tied to an IPSec box which allows me to get to my internal firewalled LAN. Sure, throughput is an issue, but in those cases, I get my ass off the couch and sit at my desktop!:)
Slashdot Mirror
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Better make sure RamBus doesn't join!
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Yes, well if you think this kind of thing doesn't happen in the real world too - you are naive. It may be more rampant in universities since students aren't worried about 'losing their job' but lets be realistic - the ONLY way you can have students in IT with possible access to sensitive material is to drive home the point that ANY abuse will not be tolerated and you'll be expelled, etc And enforce it. No exceptions.
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I've found that many companies (except perhaps the eCommerce companies that RELY on their IT folks to make $$$) treat IT as a necessary evil, but nothing that would be worth spending serious $$$ on. The politics between camps gets worse. Trust me - I worked for a large telecom/networking company (one that has a decent bond rating :) :) whose R&D labs were HP-UX for development and Macs for Management/Admin tasks. The CEO & CIO decided we had to migrate not just the Macs but also the Unix development stations to PCs. Switched ATM networking was canned in favor of Gigabit Ethernet (we used ATM for many reasons including the fact that we we had multiple subnets in the same building and the admin was killing us plus the switched ATM backbone was a godsend for our data center) The political infighting was a sight and having been on the losing side (notice I said 'worked for') I can tell you it wasn't pretty. I almost lost my job when I put together a white paper (which I published of course) showing how moving from our mainframe based email to Micro$oft Exchange vs a Unix based solution (iPlanet, etc) was going to cost tons of money. But our CEO wanted Microsoft since it would impress Bill Gates (it was a 80+K employee company = mega $$ for Microsquish) since he wanted to partner with Microsoft.
It goes on and on. But the parallels between what you see in academic life and the corporate world are scary in their similarity.
I personally think student run IT is something to be looked into and utilized where possible. Give students respect with some oversight and they will probably surprise you.
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What a cool interview.....
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So to be of any use for vendors from a personal use standpoint, they have to have readers all over the house. Not likely! No readers - no reading - no big brother. You don't want your stuff scanned, don't install a reader in the house. No need to swap tags.
As for these smart refrigerators everyone always talks about - give me a break! I'm in the Home Automation business. These things will never fly. Lord knows its hard enough to remember to put the milk in a glass vs drinking from the bottle. Whose gonna scan the code so the fridge knows when you use it? I didn't think so :)
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I really like that they have started to track performance. Especially when the numbers for some stuff like Mail & News are pretty bad (but getting better) I applaud their efforts and hope to see those performance metrics improve rapidly!
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As long as eReferee.com has a prominent message saying "We are in no way affiliated with Referee Magazine, etc, etc" all is good. Seems like most companies come up with solutions like this.
Heck - I used to work for NORTEL when it was Northern Telecom and remember when they switched names. Some small outfit named Ortel in CA sued saying it was confusing. The result? NORTEL was forced to put "Nortel Networks" under the NORTEL name in small print on all sings, publications, etc.
Not a huge deal - simple enough and it avoids confusion. I wish others could do the smart thing istead of the 'sue for profit' thing :)
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He tried to be discreet, and he says he got no exposure, so he posted to all the developers.
I can relate sort of. A few years ago I developed a digital lock product using Dallas iButtons It was intended for residential customers to unlock their houses at the touch of a button. I searched the net extensively trying to see if my preferred name (DigiLock) was used elsewhere. I came up empty. I didn't trademark it myself because we were a small company and I just did want the trademark hassle.
Well, about a year later, I start getting emails and calls from people asking if I sold a DigiLock that would secure a gym locker or cabinet. At first I thought they were confused. Well, eventually, I got someone inquiring to tell me more and eventually found a company that sold locks you could mount on cabinet and locker doors that also used iButtons. They called it the DigiLock and TM was all over the website. Sure enough - a check of the trademark website (which wasn't nearly as useful when I first developed my product) turned up that that company had a trademark for that name and they got it like 6 months before our product was released.
Our products were too close and I honestly didn't want to deal with all the folks inquiring about a product I didn't sell. So I changed the name to something I knew wasn't trademarked. Simple enough and my customers accepted the change easily when we publicized it.
Bottom line is - he's dead on about the added aggrevation dealing with confused customers because of a name.
I vote for secsh.
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He may be yours, but I'll never accept him as mine until a true and fair recount is performed - which is currently getting underway.
If the quotes bother you, I can always write it President*
LOL
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I don't think Micro$oft will be broken up. I think our "President" will work to ensure the anti-trust suit is given 0 attention. But Microsoft is hurting. Windows 2000 is NOT taking the world by storm like folks expected. Linux IS making inroads into Microsoft's high profit server market. The desktop scene remains a cash cow for them, but I believe Linux WILL become a strong competitor to Microsoft in the coming years.
We geeks all talk about how 'the average user doesn't have a clue and uses Micro$oft/Intel because - they rule" While true to a point, at some point IF Linux desktop installs become more mainstream and easy to use, the box makers can't ignore it for long. It can wipe off a significant cost for each box (not just hte OS which Micro$oft sometimes gives away practically, but the other things like Office suites, anit virus (on Linux - NOT! :) 0, etc. If htis starts to happen - look out. The only catch here is games - but I see that changing soon too.
Will this result in Microsoft imploding - no way. But the might this giant once held is slipping away and they will soon become just another large software company hawking its wares. Sure they'll use every trick in teh book to stay on top, but instead of the straight up trajectory they are used to, I expect Microsoft will now have to 'work' for good earnings and market share - Just like Intel has since AMD started whipping their butts.
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Its a dangerous attitude in some respects, but in others its not. Its dangerous because it makes folks think hacking is harmless (till their credit report gets ripped off, etc) But heck most people survive just fine if the power goes out for a bit, why not the Internet?
I'm not agreeing with them, I just see that in responses from folks I talk with that aren't /. readers. The scary part is, DDos attacks ARE the tip of the iceberg. Its kinda like a doofus with a gun. Someone fires one in the air, everyone runs for cover, life stops for a sec, and then folks go about their business, not caring if the bullet came down and killed some poor sap. It just leaves folks unprepared for the real deal like when hackers manage to cull sensitive info on many of the top public officials (or their comuter systems) and hold the government hostage. They'll be totally unprepared.
The best we can do is a) spread the word to our less technically inclined friends that it IS a big deal, b) hacking is different from cracking, and c) contribute to hack prevention/detection systems like Snort (Not necessarily in that order!
Microsoft dismissed the criticism of its own .NET initiative to provide software for a more pervasive Internet and hit back at Sun for being late to the game.
"You can't have a standard just by unilaterally declaring something to be a standard," a Microsoft spokesman said by email. "How is this announcement not a belated and vaporous response to Microsoft .NET?"
ROFLMAO! Micro$oft tries to make its standards everyones standards just because it can! What a joke!
Yeah did you notice in each example, they broke the code anyway to foil the plot? SO why all teh Red scare tactics? Course it was interesting to see that one code took one year to break. (Where's distnet when you need it!)
As for technology - heck it was their first weekend. THe first sign the XFL will succeed is if they tweak things as the weeks progress. Yes, the player interviews before they could play was stupid. But I really liked hearing the huddle conversation and what the refs said to each other before they finalized the call. The on field cameras are great since in the NFL you rarely see what happens in the backfield once the ball moves forward. The stadium screens were amazing - when the camera caught them - it looked like a computer imposed image. Impressive!
I think they need to get the yellow 1st down line technology - that's great. But I also think teh NFL WILL borrow some ideas from teh XFL as well as use it as a new recruiting tool.
Besides, I kinda like watching players working to win some cash. The last second field goal to win the game for San Fransico was great.
So cut them a little slack. Yes they are overhyping things - but damn the Superbowl is hyped MUCh worse. The use of off field technology will go through some growing pains.
After all.. When was the last time YOU deployed a product and got it perfect the first time? I didn't think so.
Regardless, I'll be watching next week since I really like football and I can only watch so many college basketball games beyond those with my team (GO HEELS! #1 baby!)
No Thanks!
Solve the California power (for us anyway) - convince them to secede along with Quebec!
Don't get me wrong - I love 802.11b and use it all the time. But I use WEP and my access points are on an isolated LAN tied to an IPSec box which allows me to get to my internal firewalled LAN. Sure, throughput is an issue, but in those cases, I get my ass off the couch and sit at my desktop! :)