I hate to say it, but what it will take is something truly vindictive. A worm on the scale of the ILOVEYOU virus, but with a truly destructive payload. The ILOVEYOU virus wasn't that destructive to most people. It targeted MP3s, and several Media files. Neat, okay. But it still left your computer usable.
Imagine a virus on this scale that does the following:
1) replicate itself through either e-mail attachment, or by forwarding a random encoded name (cut/paste algorythm from mailbox? past message with a "I'm not sure I sent you this" + Subject, replacing a link within the message for a poisened website/ftp site.
2) wipe all network attached drives
3) enter commands in the registries "RunOnce" section to remove the system files on the next reboot (these can only be done prior to their being loaded, otherwise the system tends to be persnickety about it). Don't forget things like the CMD/COMMAND shell.
4) (optional) attempt a remote access/infect of all machines within a given IP range (defined by SubnetMask?).
5) If you are using step 4 then move step 1 to here so recently hacked/poisoned web/ftp sites can be inserted into mail message preventing stagnation of link. For extra credit have the virus self-modify to include a running list of where its been (or what sites its tried to help cut down on duplicated effort. Short run log might also help trace back to source so the IP addresses should be normalized/sorted, not appended to the end. This will also help in updating the list as the worm moves).
6) You've done all the mischief you can. Now reboot the system to truly FSCK the end user.
This is just a broad outline, but seriously.
If this sort of thing happened, the results would be two-fold.
1) Definate: People would be calling for blood (most likely taken out of the cracker/script kiddie who did this, and rightly so in my opinion). The software industry/media would view this as the work of a "hacker" and not thier fault.
2) Less Likely: (but wishful) People might realize how security is iterative and valuable. It is much more tangeble than the social contract most of us assume it to be. We figure, "we're not worth it", or , "who would bother me?" and joke about security, but your average end user doesn't really care (ask the same person about 'air-bags' and see how much they do care if they feel vulnerable).
With the days of standard, High speed access in the homes, the scenario I outlined above is all to real and all too close to happening.
I guess this probably won't make much of a difference in MSFT server sales... unless the payloads are consistantly delivered via an MSFT server (or else the virus specifically targets MSFT servers by using some central warehouse of net accessable MSFT servers, like say netcraft).
P.S. I do not encourage AT ALL making the above virus. I think it would be a mallicious piece of garbage and would be the first on line to string the writer up by their anatomy. On the other hand I doubt I'm the first to think of this sort of thing so I have only slight quams about writing it down (the more who are concerned about it, the less likely it will come to pass), and there would (still) be major technical obsticles to be overcome, for a virus of this type to be created and released.
Judging by the content (sparse that it is) " Two security experts discovered the code, which was written during the dispute between Netscape and Microsoft over their versions of Internet-browser software", it seems like this might just be a rehash of the old NetscapeEngineersSuck (reversed) (or whatever the string actually was).
While its nice to see MS finally admitting to this, unless this is a new vulnerability, it seems almost like someone is trolling either Yahoo and/or Slashdot (and succeeding).
On the other hand I did find out about a wonderfull and relatively new (Posted may 02, 2001 to CIAC) bug involving IIS 5.0, Windows 2000, and a buffer overflow (what else:) in an ISAPI extension for submitting/controling print jobs via HTTP that is enabled by default.
In Microsoft's defense, more information (in easy bite size portions that were a tad too sickening for me) are available here. They also have a patch to fix the issue (assuming you wish to maintain the service and not remove it). The patch will supposedly be rolled into Win2K SP2.
One last thing, an interesting side note is that they recommend modifying group permissions instead of just unmapping the Internet Printing ISAPI extension in the Internet Services Manager. Their reason?
Group policy can override the settings in the Internet Services Manager, so disabling Internet Printing via group policy provides greater certainty.
Disabling Internet Printing via the Internet Services Manager can interfere with the operation of Outlook Web Access. Specifically, when you unmap the Internet Printing ISAPI extension via the Internet Services Manager on an Exchange 2000 server, you're prompted whether or not to apply the changes to the child folders, including Exchange, Public, and ExAdmin. If you choose to apply the setting to these child folders, Outlook Web Access will stop functioning until you restart the Exchange System Attendant.
Gee... so if I undo something on the windows panel, it may not be undone because the group properties take precedence over the systemwide settings (doesn't make sense as an implimentation "feature"), and if I disable the option everything else that is bundled into the OS and that relies on that package will break (makes sense, but is equally scary). Makes me happy I run Win98SE and Linux.
Maybe those of us with the experiance should offer to do some pro-bono work for those schools (or other non-profit/low-profit orginizations) that could use our expertise?
Lots of other "professional" jobs have this sort of a requirement as part of their membership, or at least encourage it.
I'm not saying that this would solve the problem, but perhaps it could help.
or populate the moon or mars or at least something
I used to agree 100% with you. Get out into space, get more breathing room. Unfortunately somone pointed out, that based on the number of people being born every hour on Earth X amount of people would need to leave for an alternate planet/colony. Net effect is impossible, so the only way to reduce the overpopulation on Earth is by attrition/war.
Oh... BTW... I'm still all for space exploration but more for the resources/tourism/exploration itself than as a method of reducing overpopulation.
Re:Gee... I guess Perl was too Unambigious
on
Apocalypse 2
·
· Score: 2
I thought they were talking about multi-level abstractions (for instance the case of an array of a hash of a hash), and not just 'simple' indexing.
In that case I'm not talking about simple indexing and $foo[$bar] but perhaps something like ${${$foo[$bar]}{$foo2}}{$bar2}
While I'm sure there are probably better ways to write this, and while I wouldn't dream of putting a construct like this into quotes (for lots of reasons). I'm not quite sure I like the idea of the braces disapearing for 'clarity' sake. But then I would be fine with a mandatory "No variables in quotes" so I won't claim consistancy.
:)
Re:Gee... I guess Perl was too Unambigious
on
Apocalypse 2
·
· Score: 2
So then the syntax construction is not identical between refering to the variable within quotes or without quotes. Gee... that makes sense.
While I don't expect the syntax to be identical I would expect it to be rather similar.
Gee... I guess Perl was too Unambigious
on
Apocalypse 2
·
· Score: 3
Weird brackets
Use of brackets to disambiguate
"${foo[bar]}"
from
"${foo}[bar]"
will no longer be supported. Instead, the expression parser will always grab as much as it can, and you can make it quit at a particular point by interpolating a null string, specified by \Q:
"$foo\Q[bar]"
Okay, I'll admit it, I write Perl code.
I like writing perl code.
Why are they taking away something that let things be unambiguous and adding this? How can you provide nested unambiguous clues useing a two chatacter, non bracket combination?::sigh::
Maybe its time to go learn Python. I can get used to white space indentation. This? I'm not sure.
It would also fulfill the question of "When do you need access to a Full copy of the original Digital media".
Answer: When you wish to view that Digital media on a Digital platform that the original authors of the media do not directly support.
If I want to view a DVD on my laptop (running Linux), then I would need access to a full Digital copy(among other things).
At the Linux World Expo in NY one company was showing Ipaq handhelds with an IBM microdrive, running a movie. It could just as easily have been a copy of a DVD that was placed on there, and that I decided to watch durring my comute home (or during a flight).
Don't forget, these are people that have found a way to reduce the retail price of a keyboard from $100 to $5, yet that $5 model still has a special "Scroll Lock" light that nobody ever uses.
And yet you can get a HappyHacker keyboard, which removes the lights, the unused keys, and the numeric keypad, for $100:)
You'd think they could have passed some that savings on to the consumer instead of charging more for the same product. If a keyboard coasts $5, then a keyboard with 75% of the keys should cost $3.75 (or something like that).
Okay, I'll admit it. I thought your website was cute. But the link at the bottom to AOL's OpenSource (so they claim) free WebServer w/ built in TCL (http://www.aolserver.com/) totally floored me. I didn't even know they were putting something like that out.
How long has it been out?
Is it based on Apache, or is it their own brew?
Anyone have more info?
They got most of the Upper West Side and Midtown also. If you get a chance, check out the billboard on the corner of 7th (or 8th) and 42nd. Takes up 2 sides of a building. Way cool:)
Speed of light in glass is what, about 1/3rd speed of light in vacuum? So it's only a threefold increase anyway; you get more than that with clever use of multiple frequencies down the same fibre etc.
Just checking, but I hope you mean you can get a better bandwith increase by using multiple frequencies (than by increasing the speed of transmission). I deal with Network Performance on a regular basis and most people keep forgeting that there are always two numbers to think about:
Bandwidth (how thick your pipe is)
and Latency (how long it takes to get from point A to point B).
We did some work for a company (who shall remain nameless) who moved all their servers to an East Coast data center and were trying to figure out why their Dallas branch office was having poor responce times. The final report to them included a sentance to the effect that "The top speed of this application is limited by the speed of light. There is no way to make this application go faster short of altering physics as we know it."
The customer was a bit angry (lots of dollars spent) and the DB Consultants from one of the BIG houses (won't say who but it starts with an "O"::grin::) were rather sheepish (after having told the company to do this in the first place).
Personally,
I'm going to cancel my subscription to Forbes, and when they ask why (magazines usually do), I'm going to say that it was because of this particular article. The non-factual nonsense with no semblence to reality shows they don't care about fact-checking stories. If their authors aren't fact checking the one story I can verify, then I can no longer trust the magazine as a whole to be anything other than so many pages of drivel.
I suggest people who are truly incensed about this also, to cancel their subscriptions (if you have them) or else pass along their lack of quality control to those you know who do.
This is great! Reverse engineered Borg built with animal brains! hehe.
We are the Borg.
It has recently be brought to our attention that you are attempting to reverse engineer proprietary Borg Technology. This will cease immediately. Failure to do so will result in nasty letters being sent by Legal Unit iii of paragraph 6 subsection MMCMXVII, calling for a cease-and-decist of this function.
Failure to comply with Legal Unit iii of paragraph 6 subsection MMCMXVII's request will result in immediate assimilation and subsequent assignment to the Legal Unit pool of Drones.
Further. We request that you immediately destroy all sites containing Electrospace Conduits to your site. Failure to do so will reault in immediate assimilation and subsequent assignment to the Legal Unit pool of Drones.
We additionally require that you direct us to any associates that are similarly engaging in the illegal reverse engineering of Borg Technology. Failure to do so will result in immediate assimilation and subsequent assignment to the Legal Unit pool of Drones.
Thank you for your co-operation and we look forward to working with you in the future.
Please prepare for assimilation,
ii of III of the party of the first part
Legal Contact Unit
Unimatrix 0
Borg Space
You might be able to get customers to buy into it if you can properly defend your position (pass along savings to customers, large amount of clustering and redundancy of machines for the same $$$, etc.). On the other hand, what about the High Site-to-Server sites? (ie. we'll put 2700 websites for a user and each one gets miniscule amount of traffic).
In that case, the sites are often either low or no cost (so the Customer is less likely to complain, especially if you can be cost competitive). Also, in those cases the customer is less likely to actually see the physical site. If they query the machine then it would still probably be Linux (or BSD) running on x86. Perhaps they might not recognize the distribution (or else they might, in which case they either will think its cool, or a terrible idea).
But it doesn't necessarily follow that its a bad move to use them as web servers. Heck, what about for the burgeoning home market? Suddenly everyone and his brother is getting a Cable Modem or a DSL line. More and more kids now a days are experimenting with Linux, webs servers, etc. While the idea of cheap, and most likely non-secure, boxes in proliferation is a bit scary, I can see the market for a 'Linux X-Box setup kit' that includes a pre-compiled version of Linux (and some standard utils on a DVD/CD), perhaps a plug converter if the USB port has a different shape (assuming the Protocol changes are reverse engineered), and perhaps a partition utility for dual booting. Suddenly your game console could host your web-site (or you could develope games on it, transfer them to your PC w/CD-R, and pass them to your friends). It would be verry funny if the X-Box became what the Indrema aspired to:)
Lisa Gurry, a Microsoft Office product manager, said Clippy has lived a useful life but is no longer needed. "We think Office has so many new features for making it easier to use that Clippy is no longer useful. This is definitely in response to user feedback. We asked ourselves what we could do to help users find features" with the least amount of confusion.
OH my GHOD.... its the SON OF CLIPPY!!!
Is anyone besides me shuddering at what these "New Useful Features(tm)" might be? Didn't they say the same thing about Clippy originally?
And in case we thought he was really gone...
Gurry said if people miss Clippy, they can turn him back on by clicking the "help" tag on the Office XP task bar.
So all they've really done is change the default ('bout time).
Boss: Install Windows on those 20 new Laptops for the boys in sales.
IT Dept: Uh, boss? The authentication server at Microsoft is not responding...
Of course it could be that the largest DDoS attack in history is being AIMed at the MS Authentication servers. Gee... I wonder if that would make people notice the inherent flaws in the system (probably not).
(and yes, I know that you can make generic Gnome applications within KDevelop, and that you can probably run KDevelop on Gnome, if you have the KDE libraries loaded, but thats the point of Linux, that everything should be able to play together).
The last expo I went to was the Linux World Expo in NYC.
I figured the reason to go was to miss work and try to accumulate as much free vendor stuff as you could (I think I had 6 t-shirts at the end of the day). You mean that wasn't the reason?
Actually, I also picked up some great info, talked to a number of representatives about thier Linux based firewalls, noticed some interesting work that Corel is doing in the Client management space (as well as a number of other people... and if you want Linux to succeed in the desktop space, the first place it needs to go is at the office, and tools to help manage all those desktops will help that happen).
Of course I also picked up a copy of Mandrake 7.2 so I didn't need to download it.
Now, a few months later, I'm still using the mandrake CD, I've picked up one of those Linux Firewalls, and I just got a few other pieces of software/hardware.
Now, about Comdex.
Windows/MS killed Comdex.
That aside, you'll always have an "orgy of dorks" looking for shit. The job of the vendor is to sell their product, if this includes "toys" to get our attentions, great. If not, they better have a product that will make us go "HMMMM". A lot of us notice when a company is all hype, or some substance. We just like playing to the carnival like atmosphere these things seem to have developed into now.
Lately I've been looking at CrystalSpace for a cross platform game environment.
Its a cross-platform GPL 3D Engine that rocks.
Warning: The whole structure is a major state of flux right now, as the codebase is in the process of moving into a much more modular and extensible state, and its probably 6-12 months to the 1.0 release (although the 0.18 release is very nice to play with).
The DirectX Redering library is undergoing a complete revision (from supporting DX6.0 to DX8.0, and cleaning up/speeding up the code).
It also includes a cross platform GUI/Widget set which was really neat to me since it means that an application can look the same no matter where it runs, since everything is within the app. Don't let the fact that its billed as a 3D engine fool you, its alot more then just that:)
(and it has a rather active/friendly/helpfull mailing list that you can join at SourceForge)
The key will probably be a combination of a CD key (like with 98/2000 where the key only works for that CD) and the machine config.
After the CD key is used X number of times, they just start charging the user an 'administrative fee' of say $20 to generate a new key. (although I bet key generators make the rounds on warez sites rather rapidly).
When I first started working in the workplace I ended up doing a lot of travelling. Having just gotten out of college I only had a credit limit of $600 (don't get me started).
Most of the hotels chains I stayed at (Marriott, Doubletree, Sheriton, etc.) were perfectly happy to accept Greenbacks in place of a creditcard. They sometimes fumbled through it a little (since they weren't used to it), but I never had a second glance. Most hotels will, at most, require a deposit. If they take a credit card imprint this covers them on the deposit.
Don't know about Car rentals, since I was under 25 and they wouldn't rent to me:)
Slashdot Mirror
I hate to say it, but what it will take is something truly vindictive. A worm on the scale of the ILOVEYOU virus, but with a truly destructive payload. The ILOVEYOU virus wasn't that destructive to most people. It targeted MP3s, and several Media files. Neat, okay. But it still left your computer usable.
Imagine a virus on this scale that does the following:
1) replicate itself through either e-mail attachment, or by forwarding a random encoded name (cut/paste algorythm from mailbox? past message with a "I'm not sure I sent you this" + Subject, replacing a link within the message for a poisened website/ftp site.
2) wipe all network attached drives
3) enter commands in the registries "RunOnce" section to remove the system files on the next reboot (these can only be done prior to their being loaded, otherwise the system tends to be persnickety about it). Don't forget things like the CMD/COMMAND shell.
4) (optional) attempt a remote access/infect of all machines within a given IP range (defined by SubnetMask?).
5) If you are using step 4 then move step 1 to here so recently hacked/poisoned web/ftp sites can be inserted into mail message preventing stagnation of link. For extra credit have the virus self-modify to include a running list of where its been (or what sites its tried to help cut down on duplicated effort. Short run log might also help trace back to source so the IP addresses should be normalized/sorted, not appended to the end. This will also help in updating the list as the worm moves).
6) You've done all the mischief you can. Now reboot the system to truly FSCK the end user.
This is just a broad outline, but seriously.
If this sort of thing happened, the results would be two-fold.
1) Definate: People would be calling for blood (most likely taken out of the cracker/script kiddie who did this, and rightly so in my opinion). The software industry/media would view this as the work of a "hacker" and not thier fault.
2) Less Likely: (but wishful) People might realize how security is iterative and valuable. It is much more tangeble than the social contract most of us assume it to be. We figure, "we're not worth it", or , "who would bother me?" and joke about security, but your average end user doesn't really care (ask the same person about 'air-bags' and see how much they do care if they feel vulnerable).
With the days of standard, High speed access in the homes, the scenario I outlined above is all to real and all too close to happening.
I guess this probably won't make much of a difference in MSFT server sales... unless the payloads are consistantly delivered via an MSFT server (or else the virus specifically targets MSFT servers by using some central warehouse of net accessable MSFT servers, like say netcraft).
P.S. I do not encourage AT ALL making the above virus. I think it would be a mallicious piece of garbage and would be the first on line to string the writer up by their anatomy. On the other hand I doubt I'm the first to think of this sort of thing so I have only slight quams about writing it down (the more who are concerned about it, the less likely it will come to pass), and there would (still) be major technical obsticles to be overcome, for a virus of this type to be created and released.
While its nice to see MS finally admitting to this, unless this is a new vulnerability, it seems almost like someone is trolling either Yahoo and/or Slashdot (and succeeding).
On the other hand I did find out about a wonderfull and relatively new (Posted may 02, 2001 to CIAC) bug involving IIS 5.0, Windows 2000, and a buffer overflow (what else
In Microsoft's defense, more information (in easy bite size portions that were a tad too sickening for me) are available here. They also have a patch to fix the issue (assuming you wish to maintain the service and not remove it). The patch will supposedly be rolled into Win2K SP2.
One last thing, an interesting side note is that they recommend modifying group permissions instead of just unmapping the Internet Printing ISAPI extension in the Internet Services Manager. Their reason?
Group policy can override the settings in the Internet Services Manager, so disabling Internet Printing via group policy provides greater certainty.
Disabling Internet Printing via the Internet Services Manager can interfere with the operation of Outlook Web Access. Specifically, when you unmap the Internet Printing ISAPI extension via the Internet Services Manager on an Exchange 2000 server, you're prompted whether or not to apply the changes to the child folders, including Exchange, Public, and ExAdmin. If you choose to apply the setting to these child folders, Outlook Web Access will stop functioning until you restart the Exchange System Attendant.
Gee... so if I undo something on the windows panel, it may not be undone because the group properties take precedence over the systemwide settings (doesn't make sense as an implimentation "feature"), and if I disable the option everything else that is bundled into the OS and that relies on that package will break (makes sense, but is equally scary). Makes me happy I run Win98SE and Linux.
Maybe those of us with the experiance should offer to do some pro-bono work for those schools (or other non-profit/low-profit orginizations) that could use our expertise?
Lots of other "professional" jobs have this sort of a requirement as part of their membership, or at least encourage it.
I'm not saying that this would solve the problem, but perhaps it could help.
I believe the Gene-ie is officially out of the bottle.
(apologies to David Weber from whom I first learned the term Gene-ie for a genetically engineered human)
or populate the moon or mars or at least something
I used to agree 100% with you. Get out into space, get more breathing room. Unfortunately somone pointed out, that based on the number of people being born every hour on Earth X amount of people would need to leave for an alternate planet/colony. Net effect is impossible, so the only way to reduce the overpopulation on Earth is by attrition/war.
Oh... BTW... I'm still all for space exploration but more for the resources/tourism/exploration itself than as a method of reducing overpopulation.
I thought they were talking about multi-level abstractions (for instance the case of an array of a hash of a hash), and not just 'simple' indexing.
:)
In that case I'm not talking about simple indexing and $foo[$bar] but perhaps something like ${${$foo[$bar]}{$foo2}}{$bar2}
While I'm sure there are probably better ways to write this, and while I wouldn't dream of putting a construct like this into quotes (for lots of reasons). I'm not quite sure I like the idea of the braces disapearing for 'clarity' sake. But then I would be fine with a mandatory "No variables in quotes" so I won't claim consistancy.
So then the syntax construction is not identical between refering to the variable within quotes or without quotes. Gee... that makes sense.
While I don't expect the syntax to be identical I would expect it to be rather similar.
Weird brackets
::sigh::
Use of brackets to disambiguate
"${foo[bar]}"
from
"${foo}[bar]"
will no longer be supported. Instead, the expression parser will always grab as much as it can, and you can make it quit at a particular point by interpolating a null string, specified by \Q:
"$foo\Q[bar]"
Okay, I'll admit it, I write Perl code.
I like writing perl code.
Why are they taking away something that let things be unambiguous and adding this? How can you provide nested unambiguous clues useing a two chatacter, non bracket combination?
Maybe its time to go learn Python. I can get used to white space indentation. This? I'm not sure.
It would also fulfill the question of "When do you need access to a Full copy of the original Digital media".
Answer: When you wish to view that Digital media on a Digital platform that the original authors of the media do not directly support.
If I want to view a DVD on my laptop (running Linux), then I would need access to a full Digital copy(among other things).
At the Linux World Expo in NY one company was showing Ipaq handhelds with an IBM microdrive, running a movie. It could just as easily have been a copy of a DVD that was placed on there, and that I decided to watch durring my comute home (or during a flight).
Don't forget, these are people that have found a way to reduce the retail price of a keyboard from $100 to $5, yet that $5 model still has a special "Scroll Lock" light that nobody ever uses.
:)
And yet you can get a HappyHacker keyboard, which removes the lights, the unused keys, and the numeric keypad, for $100
You'd think they could have passed some that savings on to the consumer instead of charging more for the same product. If a keyboard coasts $5, then a keyboard with 75% of the keys should cost $3.75 (or something like that).
Okay, I'll admit it. I thought your website was cute. But the link at the bottom to AOL's OpenSource (so they claim) free WebServer w/ built in TCL (http://www.aolserver.com/) totally floored me. I didn't even know they were putting something like that out.
How long has it been out?
Is it based on Apache, or is it their own brew?
Anyone have more info?
They got most of the Upper West Side and Midtown also. If you get a chance, check out the billboard on the corner of 7th (or 8th) and 42nd. Takes up 2 sides of a building. Way cool :)
Speed of light in glass is what, about 1/3rd speed of light in vacuum? So it's only a threefold increase anyway; you get more than that with clever use of multiple frequencies down the same fibre etc.
Just checking, but I hope you mean you can get a better bandwith increase by using multiple frequencies (than by increasing the speed of transmission). I deal with Network Performance on a regular basis and most people keep forgeting that there are always two numbers to think about:
Bandwidth (how thick your pipe is)
and Latency (how long it takes to get from point A to point B).
We did some work for a company (who shall remain nameless) who moved all their servers to an East Coast data center and were trying to figure out why their Dallas branch office was having poor responce times. The final report to them included a sentance to the effect that "The top speed of this application is limited by the speed of light. There is no way to make this application go faster short of altering physics as we know it."
The customer was a bit angry (lots of dollars spent) and the DB Consultants from one of the BIG houses (won't say who but it starts with an "O"
Personally,
I'm going to cancel my subscription to Forbes, and when they ask why (magazines usually do), I'm going to say that it was because of this particular article. The non-factual nonsense with no semblence to reality shows they don't care about fact-checking stories. If their authors aren't fact checking the one story I can verify, then I can no longer trust the magazine as a whole to be anything other than so many pages of drivel.
I suggest people who are truly incensed about this also, to cancel their subscriptions (if you have them) or else pass along their lack of quality control to those you know who do.
This is great! Reverse engineered Borg built with animal brains! hehe.
We are the Borg.
It has recently be brought to our attention that you are attempting to reverse engineer proprietary Borg Technology. This will cease immediately. Failure to do so will result in nasty letters being sent by Legal Unit iii of paragraph 6 subsection MMCMXVII, calling for a cease-and-decist of this function.
Failure to comply with Legal Unit iii of paragraph 6 subsection MMCMXVII's request will result in immediate assimilation and subsequent assignment to the Legal Unit pool of Drones.
Further. We request that you immediately destroy all sites containing Electrospace Conduits to your site. Failure to do so will reault in immediate assimilation and subsequent assignment to the Legal Unit pool of Drones.
We additionally require that you direct us to any associates that are similarly engaging in the illegal reverse engineering of Borg Technology. Failure to do so will result in immediate assimilation and subsequent assignment to the Legal Unit pool of Drones.
Thank you for your co-operation and we look forward to working with you in the future.
Please prepare for assimilation,
ii of III of the party of the first part
Legal Contact Unit
Unimatrix 0
Borg Space
You might be able to get customers to buy into it if you can properly defend your position (pass along savings to customers, large amount of clustering and redundancy of machines for the same $$$, etc.). On the other hand, what about the High Site-to-Server sites? (ie. we'll put 2700 websites for a user and each one gets miniscule amount of traffic).
:)
In that case, the sites are often either low or no cost (so the Customer is less likely to complain, especially if you can be cost competitive). Also, in those cases the customer is less likely to actually see the physical site. If they query the machine then it would still probably be Linux (or BSD) running on x86. Perhaps they might not recognize the distribution (or else they might, in which case they either will think its cool, or a terrible idea).
But it doesn't necessarily follow that its a bad move to use them as web servers. Heck, what about for the burgeoning home market? Suddenly everyone and his brother is getting a Cable Modem or a DSL line. More and more kids now a days are experimenting with Linux, webs servers, etc. While the idea of cheap, and most likely non-secure, boxes in proliferation is a bit scary, I can see the market for a 'Linux X-Box setup kit' that includes a pre-compiled version of Linux (and some standard utils on a DVD/CD), perhaps a plug converter if the USB port has a different shape (assuming the Protocol changes are reverse engineered), and perhaps a partition utility for dual booting. Suddenly your game console could host your web-site (or you could develope games on it, transfer them to your PC w/CD-R, and pass them to your friends). It would be verry funny if the X-Box became what the Indrema aspired to
Actually I ment the Lemmings... not the people pushing the drivel of "Subscription Software" :)
Lisa Gurry, a Microsoft Office product manager, said Clippy has lived a useful life but is no longer needed. "We think Office has so many new features for making it easier to use that Clippy is no longer useful. This is definitely in response to user feedback. We asked ourselves what we could do to help users find features" with the least amount of confusion.
OH my GHOD.... its the SON OF CLIPPY!!!
Is anyone besides me shuddering at what these "New Useful Features(tm)" might be? Didn't they say the same thing about Clippy originally?
And in case we thought he was really gone...
Gurry said if people miss Clippy, they can turn him back on by clicking the "help" tag on the Office XP task bar.
So all they've really done is change the default ('bout time).
Boss: Install Windows on those 20 new Laptops for the boys in sales.
IT Dept: Uh, boss? The authentication server at Microsoft is not responding...
Of course it could be that the largest DDoS attack in history is being AIMed at the MS Authentication servers. Gee... I wonder if that would make people notice the inherent flaws in the system (probably not).
One word.
KDevelop
What free IDE does Gnome have?
(and yes, I know that you can make generic Gnome applications within KDevelop, and that you can probably run KDevelop on Gnome, if you have the KDE libraries loaded, but thats the point of Linux, that everything should be able to play together).
Hmmmm
The last expo I went to was the Linux World Expo in NYC.
I figured the reason to go was to miss work and try to accumulate as much free vendor stuff as you could (I think I had 6 t-shirts at the end of the day). You mean that wasn't the reason?
Actually, I also picked up some great info, talked to a number of representatives about thier Linux based firewalls, noticed some interesting work that Corel is doing in the Client management space (as well as a number of other people... and if you want Linux to succeed in the desktop space, the first place it needs to go is at the office, and tools to help manage all those desktops will help that happen).
Of course I also picked up a copy of Mandrake 7.2 so I didn't need to download it.
Now, a few months later, I'm still using the mandrake CD, I've picked up one of those Linux Firewalls, and I just got a few other pieces of software/hardware.
Now, about Comdex.
Windows/MS killed Comdex.
That aside, you'll always have an "orgy of dorks" looking for shit. The job of the vendor is to sell their product, if this includes "toys" to get our attentions, great. If not, they better have a product that will make us go "HMMMM". A lot of us notice when a company is all hype, or some substance. We just like playing to the carnival like atmosphere these things seem to have developed into now.
Interesting, and I'll have to check it out.
:)
Lately I've been looking at CrystalSpace for a cross platform game environment.
Its a cross-platform GPL 3D Engine that rocks.
Warning: The whole structure is a major state of flux right now, as the codebase is in the process of moving into a much more modular and extensible state, and its probably 6-12 months to the 1.0 release (although the 0.18 release is very nice to play with).
The DirectX Redering library is undergoing a complete revision (from supporting DX6.0 to DX8.0, and cleaning up/speeding up the code).
It also includes a cross platform GUI/Widget set which was really neat to me since it means that an application can look the same no matter where it runs, since everything is within the app. Don't let the fact that its billed as a 3D engine fool you, its alot more then just that
(and it has a rather active/friendly/helpfull mailing list that you can join at SourceForge)
What makes you think MS will have to pay for it?
The key will probably be a combination of a CD key (like with 98/2000 where the key only works for that CD) and the machine config.
After the CD key is used X number of times, they just start charging the user an 'administrative fee' of say $20 to generate a new key. (although I bet key generators make the rounds on warez sites rather rapidly).
Any bets on how long it will be until we're back at "Microsoft's inability to deliver" again?
.NET and WindowsXP will be out? :)
I don't know. What are the latest guesses on when
Most places will take cash quite happily.
:)
When I first started working in the workplace I ended up doing a lot of travelling. Having just gotten out of college I only had a credit limit of $600 (don't get me started).
Most of the hotels chains I stayed at (Marriott, Doubletree, Sheriton, etc.) were perfectly happy to accept Greenbacks in place of a creditcard. They sometimes fumbled through it a little (since they weren't used to it), but I never had a second glance. Most hotels will, at most, require a deposit. If they take a credit card imprint this covers them on the deposit.
Don't know about Car rentals, since I was under 25 and they wouldn't rent to me