If we bothered to think globally and start educating and feeding the world properly then we wouldn't need any kind of system at all -- at least not on this scale.
A third of the planet hasn't even made a telephone call yet, for fuck's sake.
Read Bruce Schneier: security is a people problem.
Yours,
Nalfy
Re:IT *WAS* sold on E-Bay - Today!
on
Project Plex-Box
·
· Score: 1
Well, according to the item description, which you apparently didn't read:
"...this project has cost me about $270 total, but it took me a good 30-40 hours of work to make this."
So, with the winning bid of $305.00 taken into account, as well as the work required, he made about $1/hour.
At that, I agree with you: the day job looks pretty secure.
The interview was pretty useless for Slashdot: the technologies should be clear to anyone with five minutes to research SIP or XMPP. I'd have been far more interested in the features side of things. THAT's the thing which interests most people. It's also pretty obvious that Allman -- for all his matchless credentials -- doesn't actually use IM.
For example: without altering my firewall config, I get far far better cam performance with MSN than I do with Yahoo. Interesting point, if one is talking about Microsoft's protocols. (And yes, I *do* use cam for exactly what you are suspecting.)
Secondly, what the fuck is this point ahout?:
EA The ability to queue messages, of course, is one of the great things about e-mail. You don't have to be there right now to read it. Do you see any kind of queuing happening in IM along the lines of "Gee, when I log in next, I'll see any messages that came in for me in the meantime"?
PF A lot of us call that the offline messaging scenario. Offline basically says you're not available. Where does the instant message go if you are offline? You could either queue in an intermediary node or you could actually queue at the source. Typically, SIP, as it's designed today, is pretty much an end-to-end protocol.
Yahoo has queued messages for years, it's one of the things which I love about Yahoo.
MSN is all about re-doing windows in a messenger: same crap all over again, with an improved NetMeeting (which as I said, really has very good video performance).
AOL is in my opinion just an add-on, for years rubbish and not much better now. It's just an extension to the AOL 'portal environment' and in its own way a logical extension of the same. OK, but not breathtaking.
ICQ and Yahoo though, are very very different: they build real communities, and are NOT JUST ABOUT IM.
Yahoo for one -- and yeah I just love this IM -- is just bursting with features, like IMvironments, Archived messages, Queueing, had Cam *way* before other clients even considered it, and has a thriving chat-mode which makes conferencing in NetMeeting look like something out of the Stone Age.
Whyowhy doesn't Yahoo *advertise* it's own brilliance? It has so much good stuff, and it behaves like Apple. Invent gobsmackingly cool apps, and then halfheartedly advertise them. And all the while Microsoft papers the planet with adverts which announce a 'brand! new! chat! system!' for windows.
I bought one of those plots at $25 or whatever, as a gift for a girl I wanted to impress. I forgot from whom. Maybe moonplot.com or whatever. And it worked: she got her Certificate of Ownership or some such bumf, with her 'property' (in the 'Sea of Nonesuch' or whatever) marked on a separate chart. All nice with a seal and what have you. Worked, too: "Oh, you bought me a piece of the mooooooon! Wow! Sweeeeeeet!" etc. I'll spare you guys the details:)
All in all, a well-invested $25 in some cases. But don't plan on actually doing this on property investment grounds. You ARE buying stuff from snake oil salesmen -- just that this snake oil does work in some circumstances.
Note: this works because the moon has obvious romantic connotations (Lovers' Moon, Harvest Moon, 'over the moon', and so forth). I wouldn't plan on impressing someone by buying them a plot on Io. Unless you really have a very cool girlfriend. Or unless you are female, and you want to impress one of US.
I'm reminded of the probably apocryphal story (but it's a good one anyway):
"When NASA first started sending up astronauts, they quickly discovered that ballpoint pens would not work in zero gravity. To combat the problem, NASA scientists spent a decade and $12 Billion to develop a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on almost any surface including glass and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to 300C...
"Thanks to the RIAA's oligopoly/monpoly/cartel, you can't go buy that one song. So, you get to pay $17.99 for that song you hear for free on the radio all the time."
"Hey RIAA, how about I just stop sharing files, and we call it even? I know I own most of the CDs for the files I listen to, but I stopped buying those too so you'll know where I stand."
Bollox, bollox, bollox.
Fact #1: we like getting music for free since it gives us money to spend on other things.
Fact #2: the RIAA likes high CD prices since it gives them money to spend on other things.
Yeah, and it could have come out exactly like another company which redid its corporate image relatively recently, with the RealOne player. Or indeed, the big hw/sw house which now calls itself SunOne for certain purposes.
How about The Sims? Another novel concept. My wife still plays that game for hours at a time. She's got her own little neighbourhood kicking where she can control everything and build up her characters etc. What do you call that kind of game? Role playing?
Backups. Consumer level PC need a VERY GOOD inexpensive method of backing up stuff... I'm talking the whole hard drive in a manner of minutes. Cheap. Often.
</deafening applause>
And no, I'm talking silliness like porn or MP3s. Most 'average' users simply go about their business without even *thinking* of a backup. And then, *boom* (all the more nowadays since IDE drives are NOT supposed to run 24x7, and lots of users with plenty of bandwidth DO run their PCs 24x7 for various reasons..). Suddenly, something like *40GB* of data are gone.
That no mainstream OS comes with an automatic backup set-up WHEN I INSTALL THE OS is a scandal. No, they'd rather ask you about pretty icons, and menus and shit.
I agree with all that, especially the open file thing. I just samba off to my linux box and give the windows share what for from there.
And another pet peeve: whyohwhy, whenever I look at my files in Explorer does the ferkin' CD drive have to be accessed? Does Explorer simply assume the CD must be checked in case I loaded a new one?
Not that my Explorer works anyway any more. It decided to start crashing on startup (i.e. when i start it, not the system itself) about a month ago, and does so with no apparent pattern. It also say -- which really gets my goat -- that it is writing an error log, which is doesn't actually do!! So I have no way to check what is actually going on.
And, as so often with windows, one simply gets around these problems by installing 3rd-party software. I installed a file explorer FREEWARE app (http://netez.com/2xExplorer/) which offers more features than the regular file explorer (e.g. I get three panes rather than two) and has not crashed to date once.
One really has to ask what is going on when a 3rd party software does the job better than the original OS.
I disagree: the issue is not signal-to-noise but a question of who is addressing which audience, which to my mind is an important element of what the 'free' in free speech actually means.
When I am being addressed via television, I am not being addressed specifically, hence it is free speech because it is said generally, non-specifically. The point about the telephone is also to be seen in this light: it is not that it is signal to noise (i might get too many calls I don't want), but that the telephone is a private medium, whilst the television is not.
For this reason email spam is not protected by any free speech laws. I do NOT have the right to find out your email and then send you stuff, because then my audience is *captive*.
I am perhaps not making complete sense, but this element of free as in 'said freely', in a 'public' sense, is important. This is an interesting area which is often overlooked, because many people see the point as only being 'I paid for my telephone, email, whatever, therefore they have no right to use it'. But there is a bigger, constitutional right at issue here which has nothing to do with onership. I have the right to be treated as an individual in my own private sphere, and spammers are treading all over this. Quite apart from anything else, the emails -- one should NOT forget -- are also highly denigrating to most individuals (either they offend women or anger men). Not all recipients of these spams are clued-up young male techies who see only the tech or funny side of the issue. In countries where hardcore pornography is actually illegal (kinda 'all muslim countries + britain) there would be considerable mileage in using THAT to stop spammers dead. You'd only need a few outraged senior citizens to do it.
Slashdot Mirror
Nixon was a wuss. You try an armed uprising against Bush and Rumsfeld and see where it gets you.
Hint: begins with 'Guantan..' and ends with '... AND NO FUCKING JUSTICE FOR ALL'.
Thanx and Merry Winterfest,
Nalfy
If we bothered to think globally and start educating and feeding the world properly then we wouldn't need any kind of system at all -- at least not on this scale.
A third of the planet hasn't even made a telephone call yet, for fuck's sake.
Read Bruce Schneier: security is a people problem.
Yours,
Nalfy
Well, according to the item description, which you apparently didn't read:
...this project has cost me about $270 total, but it took me a good 30-40 hours of work to make this."
"
So, with the winning bid of $305.00 taken into account, as well as the work required, he made about $1/hour.
At that, I agree with you: the day job looks pretty secure.
Cheers,
Nalfy
Probably pointed out before, but the   "God of   Modding" is no   "God of   HTML".
*G
Nalfy
For example: without altering my firewall config, I get far far better cam performance with MSN than I do with Yahoo. Interesting point, if one is talking about Microsoft's protocols. (And yes, I *do* use cam for exactly what you are suspecting.)
Secondly, what the fuck is this point ahout?:
Yahoo has queued messages for years, it's one of the things which I love about Yahoo.
MSN is all about re-doing windows in a messenger: same crap all over again, with an improved NetMeeting (which as I said, really has very good video performance).
AOL is in my opinion just an add-on, for years rubbish and not much better now. It's just an extension to the AOL 'portal environment' and in its own way a logical extension of the same. OK, but not breathtaking.
ICQ and Yahoo though, are very very different: they build real communities, and are NOT JUST ABOUT IM.
Yahoo for one -- and yeah I just love this IM -- is just bursting with features, like IMvironments, Archived messages, Queueing, had Cam *way* before other clients even considered it, and has a thriving chat-mode which makes conferencing in NetMeeting look like something out of the Stone Age.
Whyowhy doesn't Yahoo *advertise* it's own brilliance? It has so much good stuff, and it behaves like Apple. Invent gobsmackingly cool apps, and then halfheartedly advertise them. And all the while Microsoft papers the planet with adverts which announce a 'brand! new! chat! system!' for windows.
Great.
Nalfy
!!MOD THIS UP!!
Totally agree. And it was a pretty fawning interview as well.
Nalfy
I wish I could find sigs like yours. Which is why I steal them when I find them :=)
Not yet, anyway. Wait for China to catch up. Then we'll have a Space Race AND an Arms Race.
Can't wait, personally.
Nalfy
Gentlemen!
:)
;)
I bought one of those plots at $25 or whatever, as a gift for a girl I wanted to impress. I forgot from whom. Maybe moonplot.com or whatever. And it worked: she got her Certificate of Ownership or some such bumf, with her 'property' (in the 'Sea of Nonesuch' or whatever) marked on a separate chart. All nice with a seal and what have you. Worked, too: "Oh, you bought me a piece of the mooooooon! Wow! Sweeeeeeet!" etc. I'll spare you guys the details
All in all, a well-invested $25 in some cases. But don't plan on actually doing this on property investment grounds. You ARE buying stuff from snake oil salesmen -- just that this snake oil does work in some circumstances.
Note: this works because the moon has obvious romantic connotations (Lovers' Moon, Harvest Moon, 'over the moon', and so forth). I wouldn't plan on impressing someone by buying them a plot on Io. Unless you really have a very cool girlfriend. Or unless you are female, and you want to impress one of US.
And no, we're not still together
YM -- as with everything -- MV.
Cheers,
Nalfy
Smoothwall is a fine piece of software from a fine group of people.
:)
Download it, try it out, and if you like it, DONATE to their charity.
Nalfy.
I'm reminded of the probably apocryphal story (but it's a good one anyway):
"When NASA first started sending up astronauts, they quickly discovered that ballpoint pens would not work in zero gravity. To combat the problem, NASA scientists spent a decade and $12 Billion to develop a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on almost any surface including glass and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to 300C...
The Russians used a pencil.
*G
Nalfy
Fun, fun, fun.
In the sun, sun, sun...
this has a lot of merit:
"Thanks to the RIAA's oligopoly/monpoly/cartel, you can't go buy that one song. So, you get to pay $17.99 for that song you hear for free on the radio all the time."
this is the only reason why i would d/l stuff.
Nalfy
Calling this Insightful is deeply insulting to insight.
You guys crack me up.
"there are also people out there who don't want you to download their music -- and there isn't any way to tell which music is which."
OK, i'll give you a rule of thumb:
99.99% of people don't.
now go figure out how much of your 30TB of DSL-downloaded MP3s are stolen.
Nalfy
Thankyou. At least some people here realise the hollowness of saying 'but i only download songs i own'.
:)
My views entirely, although I am a moral level lower than you: I also don't steal music, but I *do* share and download pr0n.
Thanx,
Nalfy
"Hey RIAA, how about I just stop sharing files, and we call it even? I know I own most of the CDs for the files I listen to, but I stopped buying those too so you'll know where I stand."
Bollox, bollox, bollox.
Fact #1: we like getting music for free since it gives us money to spend on other things.
Fact #2: the RIAA likes high CD prices since it gives them money to spend on other things.
Um, wouldn't it be easier to block everything, and then allow certain types through?
Best security policy always dictates a "default deny" stance.
Thanx,
Nalfy
Yeah, and it could have come out exactly like another company which redid its corporate image relatively recently, with the RealOne player. Or indeed, the big hw/sw house which now calls itself SunOne for certain purposes.
Oh, shit.
*g
Nalfy
Hear, hear.
:)
Try NannyMUD.
Nalfy
Megalomania?
*g
Nalfy
Backups. Consumer level PC need a VERY GOOD inexpensive method of backing up stuff... I'm talking the whole hard drive in a manner of minutes. Cheap. Often.
</deafening applause>
And no, I'm talking silliness like porn or MP3s. Most 'average' users simply go about their business without even *thinking* of a backup. And then, *boom* (all the more nowadays since IDE drives are NOT supposed to run 24x7, and lots of users with plenty of bandwidth DO run their PCs 24x7 for various reasons..). Suddenly, something like *40GB* of data are gone.
That no mainstream OS comes with an automatic backup set-up WHEN I INSTALL THE OS is a scandal. No, they'd rather ask you about pretty icons, and menus and shit.
Thanx,
Nalfy
I agree with all that, especially the open file thing. I just samba off to my linux box and give the windows share what for from there.
And another pet peeve: whyohwhy, whenever I look at my files in Explorer does the ferkin' CD drive have to be accessed? Does Explorer simply assume the CD must be checked in case I loaded a new one?
Not that my Explorer works anyway any more. It decided to start crashing on startup (i.e. when i start it, not the system itself) about a month ago, and does so with no apparent pattern. It also say -- which really gets my goat -- that it is writing an error log, which is doesn't actually do!! So I have no way to check what is actually going on.
And, as so often with windows, one simply gets around these problems by installing 3rd-party software. I installed a file explorer FREEWARE app (http://netez.com/2xExplorer/) which offers more features than the regular file explorer (e.g. I get three panes rather than two) and has not crashed to date once.
One really has to ask what is going on when a 3rd party software does the job better than the original OS.
Just my 0.02
Nalfy
Dudes, make the friggin link shorter, will ya?
http://www.makeashorterlink.com
Thanx,
Nalfy
I disagree: the issue is not signal-to-noise but a question of who is addressing which audience, which to my mind is an important element of what the 'free' in free speech actually means.
When I am being addressed via television, I am not being addressed specifically, hence it is free speech because it is said generally, non-specifically. The point about the telephone is also to be seen in this light: it is not that it is signal to noise (i might get too many calls I don't want), but that the telephone is a private medium, whilst the television is not.
For this reason email spam is not protected by any free speech laws. I do NOT have the right to find out your email and then send you stuff, because then my audience is *captive*.
I am perhaps not making complete sense, but this element of free as in 'said freely', in a 'public' sense, is important. This is an interesting area which is often overlooked, because many people see the point as only being 'I paid for my telephone, email, whatever, therefore they have no right to use it'. But there is a bigger, constitutional right at issue here which has nothing to do with onership. I have the right to be treated as an individual in my own private sphere, and spammers are treading all over this. Quite apart from anything else, the emails -- one should NOT forget -- are also highly denigrating to most individuals (either they offend women or anger men). Not all recipients of these spams are clued-up young male techies who see only the tech or funny side of the issue. In countries where hardcore pornography is actually illegal (kinda 'all muslim countries + britain) there would be considerable mileage in using THAT to stop spammers dead. You'd only need a few outraged senior citizens to do it.
OK that's my 0.02 for today.
Thanx,
Nalfy