Sorry for the confusion. At the time (1995-6), faculty and student e-mail accounts were accessed from Unix shell accounts. Locking an account meant munging the/etc/passwd entry or changing the login shell, so you couldn't log in to the account. So they locked his shell account, not the "e-mail account" per se.
Granted, this wouldn't stop a mailbomb (although mail sent to his address might eventually bounce once quotas were exceeded), but it quite neatly prevented him from using his UR account to threaten spammers.
I doubt the lock was permanent; it was probably just put into place for a few days to teach him a lesson (as would have been done for misbehaving students).
Just as a quick note from a UR alum, I seem to recall that the esteemed Dr. Landsburg was notable for having his e-mail account locked. It seemed that he threatened a spammer, who then threatened to mailbomb him in return. When Dr. Landsburg complained to the university staff, they locked his account to protect UR from the spammer's retaliation.
Of course, this is what I heard as a student there (and this was back around 1996 or so). If it's true, then we may want to take the original story's source (Dr. Landsburg) with a large grain of salt; he may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer when it comes to dealing with cyber-threats.:)
OmniWeb 5.1.1b2 loads "www.google.com" and gives me the pop-up, but the very top line of the pop-up reads "www.google.com.secunia.com". That's a pretty strong hint that the pop-up isn't really from Google.
Unfortunately, I didn't see OmniWeb mentioned in the Secunia advisory; I guess we don't have enough market share.:|
You're being sarcastic, but didn't they try to pull those sorts of shenanigans once? I seem to recall, a few years back, there was some sort of license agreement where, by looking at some Microsoft API, you weren't allowed to write code that used it or duplicated its functionality. Then someone managed to extract the files from the archive without using the standard installer, thereby bypassing the EULA and the restriction.
I just hope that the EU is still sufficiently pissed at Microsoft that they won't allow this sort of thing. Then again, politicians are politicians, regardless of country or continent.
Deep down, ISPs know that widespread consumer adoption of high speed internet is ONLY fueled by three things: video, music, and games.
This raises a point that I'm genuinely curious about. Most (okay, many) ads for high-speed net access advertise "downloading music" as one of the reasons to sign up. The odds are pretty good that said music downloading is not all legal, a la Napster-to-Go or the iTunes Music Store. Why isn't the RIAA going after the ISPs for condoning (or even encouraging) people to download music, most likely via Kazaa/Gnutella/what-have-you?
(Bad analogy time) I mean, wouldn't the government put a stop to Smith & Wesson advertising that, with their guns, you're more likely to collect money that you're owed (implying that they can also be used to rob banks)?
Don't forget the appalling-looking "movie(s) of the week" they keep trotting out. I thought it was a hoot when, in sequence, they aired something like "Dinosaur", "Crocodile", and "Dinocroc" (don't remember the exact names of the first two). I fully expected a fourth movie that added something else to the "dinosaur/crocodile" theme. For a second, I thought their programmers/movie people were trying to see how far they could go and still get a schedule approved.
Do I dare to be modded down for delurking to admit I actually like(d) "Enterprise"?
I have nothing against BG; it's definitely watchable, if a bit boring (to me). If you want truly craptastic, take a gander at "Stargate: Atlantis". SG-1 is steadily going down the tubes without RDA. Like an idiot, I keep hoping against hope that "Atlantis" will morph into something half as good as its title sequence.
"Enterprise" had a lot going against it: prequels are hard (think about the current "Star Wars" disasters), UPN didn't bother to promote it, it wound up being rescheduled against other geek-attracting shows, etc. The last two seasons have been pretty good, though, and we were finally getting some better writing. As another poster mentioned, replacing Berman with Moore would have made a huge difference.
I would definitely pay to keep "Enterprise" on the air. I don't think I would say the same if "Enterprise" had been renewed and the new BG was on the chopping block. But that's just lil' ol' me.:)
Aqua is really slick, but eventually it gets old, wheras there are dozens of really nice looking themes for KDE.
Plenty of themes exist for Mac OS X/Aqua; check out MacThemes, for example. The themes that are available range from awesome to awful, but that's true of KDE themes as well, I would imagine.
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Allowing for that sort of "abuse", VIM should be 994 (1000 - 6), not 1006. Or are you really using MVI? :)
Ethics investigations or special prosecutors?
Once it has its first linux kernel patch accepted?
Somebody get K'breel on the line. His agents let the rover escape again!
Viva La Roombalución!
WARNING: Do not read with a mouth full of coffee (or any other liquid)...
How about "packet profiling"?
Hey! How is it my fault? You're the one showing me dirty pictures! :)
Jenny? Is that you?
[Shamelessly stolen from somewhere else]
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Give a man a case of dynamite and soon his village will experience a rain of unidentifiable fish parts.
Maybe I lack numeric literacy (numeracy?), but shouldn't 13.7 + 7 be 20.7, not 19.7? You just shorted your server a buck...
Sorry for the confusion. At the time (1995-6), faculty and student e-mail accounts were accessed from Unix shell accounts. Locking an account meant munging the /etc/passwd entry or changing the login shell, so you couldn't log in to the account. So they locked his shell account, not the "e-mail account" per se.
Granted, this wouldn't stop a mailbomb (although mail sent to his address might eventually bounce once quotas were exceeded), but it quite neatly prevented him from using his UR account to threaten spammers.
I doubt the lock was permanent; it was probably just put into place for a few days to teach him a lesson (as would have been done for misbehaving students).
Just as a quick note from a UR alum, I seem to recall that the esteemed Dr. Landsburg was notable for having his e-mail account locked. It seemed that he threatened a spammer, who then threatened to mailbomb him in return. When Dr. Landsburg complained to the university staff, they locked his account to protect UR from the spammer's retaliation.
:)
Of course, this is what I heard as a student there (and this was back around 1996 or so). If it's true, then we may want to take the original story's source (Dr. Landsburg) with a large grain of salt; he may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer when it comes to dealing with cyber-threats.
OmniWeb 5.1.1b2 loads "www.google.com" and gives me the pop-up, but the very top line of the pop-up reads "www.google.com.secunia.com". That's a pretty strong hint that the pop-up isn't really from Google.
:|
Unfortunately, I didn't see OmniWeb mentioned in the Secunia advisory; I guess we don't have enough market share.
You're being sarcastic, but didn't they try to pull those sorts of shenanigans once? I seem to recall, a few years back, there was some sort of license agreement where, by looking at some Microsoft API, you weren't allowed to write code that used it or duplicated its functionality. Then someone managed to extract the files from the archive without using the standard installer, thereby bypassing the EULA and the restriction.
I just hope that the EU is still sufficiently pissed at Microsoft that they won't allow this sort of thing. Then again, politicians are politicians, regardless of country or continent.
Deep down, ISPs know that widespread consumer adoption of high speed internet is ONLY fueled by three things: video, music, and games.
This raises a point that I'm genuinely curious about. Most (okay, many) ads for high-speed net access advertise "downloading music" as one of the reasons to sign up. The odds are pretty good that said music downloading is not all legal, a la Napster-to-Go or the iTunes Music Store. Why isn't the RIAA going after the ISPs for condoning (or even encouraging) people to download music, most likely via Kazaa/Gnutella/what-have-you?
(Bad analogy time) I mean, wouldn't the government put a stop to Smith & Wesson advertising that, with their guns, you're more likely to collect money that you're owed (implying that they can also be used to rob banks)?
Don't forget the appalling-looking "movie(s) of the week" they keep trotting out. I thought it was a hoot when, in sequence, they aired something like "Dinosaur", "Crocodile", and "Dinocroc" (don't remember the exact names of the first two). I fully expected a fourth movie that added something else to the "dinosaur/crocodile" theme. For a second, I thought their programmers/movie people were trying to see how far they could go and still get a schedule approved.
Do I dare to be modded down for delurking to admit I actually like(d) "Enterprise"?
:)
I have nothing against BG; it's definitely watchable, if a bit boring (to me). If you want truly craptastic, take a gander at "Stargate: Atlantis". SG-1 is steadily going down the tubes without RDA. Like an idiot, I keep hoping against hope that "Atlantis" will morph into something half as good as its title sequence.
"Enterprise" had a lot going against it: prequels are hard (think about the current "Star Wars" disasters), UPN didn't bother to promote it, it wound up being rescheduled against other geek-attracting shows, etc. The last two seasons have been pretty good, though, and we were finally getting some better writing. As another poster mentioned, replacing Berman with Moore would have made a huge difference.
I would definitely pay to keep "Enterprise" on the air. I don't think I would say the same if "Enterprise" had been renewed and the new BG was on the chopping block. But that's just lil' ol' me.
Aqua is really slick, but eventually it gets old, wheras there are dozens of really nice looking themes for KDE.
Plenty of themes exist for Mac OS X/Aqua; check out MacThemes, for example. The themes that are available range from awesome to awful, but that's true of KDE themes as well, I would imagine.