Or maybe, the same monkies they got to write Shakespear by random chance, wrote the same exact code in two different places. Let's think... the odd of randomly producing the same 1K of code have an upper-bound of about 1 in 64^1024, still not exactly zero. A Lower bound would be a big factorial expression. Ignoring the comments and differences in names and variables, most becomes VERY similar (hence OOP & patterns).
Why are mfgrs going to use Linux in appliances, etc. if they're going to have to release source code? They might as well try to use linux embedded and not tell anyone there's linux in it. Because if it's not a user-serviceable part, most people wouldn't know the difference. Creating a software download repository might be too much of a headache for them and revisions might become an IT nightmare. Screw it.. use vxWorks.
Considering the source: M$FT/intel... how likely is it to be a patent/royalty-free "open" standard? Who's on the technical committee? I love it when win/tel secretly develop a standard in a black-box environment, then get ISO/IEEE to rubber-stamp it. You get good things like DDE/DDX, OLE, OLE2, ATL, COM, ActiveX, and VBS. Well, I guess Sun is guilty for that too, w/ Java.
So is this thing pipelined? Branch-prediction? Speculative execution? How about a cache-consistency protocol? Darn, no out-of-order execution or completion units? I expected a tuned a 4-way SMP NUMA box w/ 128MB of on-die cache and dual-ported RAM. I coulda made that w/ light-switches, solar cells and duck-tape.;)
Once in comp arch class, we were asked on a final to design a 32-bit pipelined microprocessor out of twigs and bits of string. Beat that! JK. It just seems people have too much free time nowadays, whatever happened to the 90 hr work-week and sub-standard working conditions?
Silly, a few PALs and an FPGA would be alot cheaper, and there's even specs from Altera how to make a VGA or TV composite output single. Heck you can built your own programmer, and altera gives away the dev tools for free; less parts, less hassle. All you need is 2x the amount of ram you want for a framebuffer, and you can do synchronous double-buffering to avoid having dual-ported or SGRAM/WRAM.
A lot of R&D in the midwest and south is going to Mexico. There are a lot of well-qualified engineers and professionals in Mexico and the locality and timezone make for cheaper logistical support costs and responsiveness. Also, Spanish is relatively easy to learn for us gringos.
Rupurt Murdoch (the owner of Fox, DirecTV, SkyNews and too many newspapers) is laudering soft-money, to the tune of $12M, to Demos through Saban Entnmnt. Talk about bribery. Maybe he has the Repbs in his pocket already, now he's gunnin' for the Demos?
Ouch... you remind me of one of my russian friends, who seems eternally cursed. He once killed 3 cpus and 2 m/b's in the same day (dont ask). Me, I'm trying WD drives now, hoping the'll be slightly better. This IBM 9GB Ultra(pr0n?)Star 9ES LVD U2Wide seems to still want to work; it's slow as an ATA33 and it's 7 yrs old.
Segate, fujitsu and WD are the only ones I would consider buying. I believe maxtor and quatum have always been sorta budget not-so-reliable, but maybe more-reliable-that-ibm/hitachi as-of-late.
Btw, i have yet to have any of my 5 ibm hds fail due to mfgr defects. 1 ultrastar, 4 de(ath|sk)stars. But i did manage to kill one accidentially after the PoS Psu sorted and killed the on-board ctrlr of a 20 GB drive. After getting some really good "this will most definitely void your warranty, but...." advice from HGST tech support, I managed to get a similar drive off ebay for $50. LMAO, the replacement parts joints want $200 for it, and the DriveSaver types want $1000-5000 depending. (Damn, I should go into biz then, charge $300 each, GDR - Ghetto Data Recovery, "we do everything but open the drive") HGST/Fujistu/IBM said the only thing that mattered is that the MLC codes should match (on the label). There are 3-5 MLC's per model, equally distributed. I changed the ctrlr from the live to dead, and "It's alive!!!!" No data loss!:) Needless to say I imeddiately dd'ed that sucker. It still works, but I dont trust this drive anylonger for anything of value.
Maybe I can finally play cs w/o worrying about haxoring or stupid bunny-jumpers or crouching-whores. Now if my team mates just dont shoot me.... Damn AWPhores, now ill get picked off and not have an excuse to blame it on. Oh shit, i guess that means playing CS in my underwear is out then.;)
So, is this thing going to have the sky-walking hack too? Maybe they need to paint the sky the same as de_dust on a big dome covering "the map" and have a big plexi-glass or glass platform above the level so u can be a skywalker too. =)
Man, these people have way to much free time. Maybe I should make an IRL version of Commander Keen or Doom levels.
China has almost nothing to fear from the US (except nukes and imports). But, increasingly, China is rapidly becoming a self-sufficient country (Three Gorges Project) and a global exporter (EU, etc.). The US is soon to be the next Japan post "Made in China" or UK post-imperialism. The US really doesnt have anything to offer the rest of the world is why the US NET EXPORTS - NET IMPORTS To the/. editors for yesterday's story, it's spelled NUCLEAR (NU'CLE-AIR), *not* NUCULAR (NUK-U-LAR), dumbshits. If u cant say it right, or pronounce it right, then maybe you dont know what you're talking about?? new motto -- "/. , Where un-professional journalism goes unchallenged and unpunished." cp -Rf / CmdrTaco
Stipulative Definitions: "Bug" - a serious flaw or unforseen condition that results in unexpected or unintended consequences or actions.
"Exploit" - a creative use of a "bug" to utilize a program for uses not intended by it's user and/or developer.
Premises: (1) If we assume that every networkable and sizable program contains is not perfect; meaning, it contains one or more bugs. (2) That bugs are the basis most exploits.
Conclusion:
Every networkable, sizable program is likely to contain one or more bugs, resulting in an possible exploit.
The sad truth is that OSes that use unsentry'ed stacks for method invocation are inherently susceptible to stack overflow xploits. Btw, everyone STOP USING strcmp() && gets() in your programs!!!!!!! use strncmp() && fgets() damnit !!!!! Buffers (fixed & malloc()ed) must NEVER be exceedable from command-line or other user actions!!! In fact, there should be no way to exceed a buffer, though u ALWAYS have the first byte available AFTER the end of an array as a safe place. Write defensive code!!! Code as you would drive in Oakland, CA. assert() never hurt anyone (just never put any code w/ side-effects inside asserts()). I've ran sec audits on so much source, there's always some little util around somewhere that checks argv's with these suckers. Instant buffer-overflow exploit, no water neccessary! There are modified linux kernels that check the stack pointers and the integrity of stack w/ so-called "canaries" random, magic bytes on either size of the stack frame to check for stack overflows. For buffer overflows, it's a little harder, since u need something checks array indicies and malloc(). Even then, there are some exploits that write to valid portions of a user-space app to gain some privileges. My solution: use a language w/ tons of security already in it -- Java.;) No stack or buffer-overflows there... and u can SetSecurityManager's all over the place, and java applets are sandbox'ed anyhow (except microsoft's JVM is an insecure PoS.) I'm wondering if a POSIX && a Secure UNIX && a Trusted OS would be any better. I hear they use the "root-isnt-root" trick, everything is encryptable (mem, process name even), and memory has ACLs everywhere.
Oh, man... i feel for ya.... i suggest using the "repair" feature or manually uninstalling IE. It's called dont buy microsoft anymore, until they fix their shit, winex == free. =) Btw, my guess is that probably 9 out of 10 copies of Winbloze in are pir8d. Not that that makes a moral equivocation, but I wonder what would happen if windows actually worked; would more people would actually pay money for it? Or are people generally going to try to get something for nothing regardless? (My guess is the later of the two.)
"Investing in the Win32 platform is a foolish bet." -- some old, wise-ass once said
Forgot to mention.... MUY IMPORTANTE!!! run URLscan if u have IIS installed!!! And for god's sake, if u run a server, install & USE M$FT lockdown tool and their security audit tool. might be a good idea to install a proxying firewall and get a *real* sec audit tool.
Oops! I forgot to mention that those m$ft retards wont let you get some of their patches unless u call tech suppt. How fucking lame! If I want to break my system w/ an very BETA un-regression-tested blah blah hotfix, that's my mother-fuckin' right! In fact, I had to scour google for some patch (I cant remember, there's 19481094+ patches). Oh, btw, I used wininstaller + unattended batchfile to basically roll-my own "unofficial pre-SP2" compresses MSI. It's like 40MB + u need sp1a. Or, u can start from nothing and make your own full --> pre-sp2.//#define INSTALL_WINDOWS 1 #define INSTALL_GENTOO_LINUX 1
well, critical updates are *mostly* distributed by the ever-popular windowsupdate service. I recently created a slip-streamed, unattended CD-R for XP Pro that has SP1a && corp activation (via corp $erial) && m$ft jvm && every critical update & patch. And, if you want, you can download WinINSTALLER to create.MSI files from any/all your programs and automagikally install those too. It's basically what the dell "repair" disks. See this, this, this, this, and this
Sounds like some GPS company is trying to sell more product. Maybe a gas tax would be a positive incentive to buy a more efficient vehicle? Bigger trucks 1) use more gas 2) Do more damage to roads. Taxes bases on weight empty, carrying capacity, and fuel efficiency would be most logical. Draconian laws that dont do any measurable good undermine the credibility of government, and this GPS thing is at best, another burden, at worst a possible invasion of privacy to be exploited by advertisers (see: Tivo). Example: Calfornia's ridiculous smog check II program. Here I am trying to get a late-70's chev truck to pass smog when the bozo at the station runs a vacuum test on the gas cap. Honestly, how many mL of gas does that save the entire country? Maybe they should be checking the tires for proper inflation. And particulate emissions.. I mean, come on... diesels AREN'T EVEN CHECKED AT ALL in this state, and I KNOW FOR A FACT they produce 1000x what the average vehicle on the road does. And then there's the issue of those nice tax write-offs for super-sized SUVs, that was originally intended for small businesses to afford to buy big trucks and farm equipment. Maybe most laws should have an automatic sunset clause? Maybe we should stop electing laywers and commercial puppets to office Who knows, I guess there's plently of blame to go around, but fixing the inadaquacies of current laws is more important.
More hair-brained laws like this will put us on a road to being another UK. Let's mandate cameras that record everything we do implanted into everyone's forehead, so we can be sure no one does anything illegal. Or, maybe the "thought police" should be allowed to search our minds w/o a warrant.
The funny thing is that GPS doesnt work through tunnels or any significant obstacles... maybe I'll just make a Farady Cage and paint some silver paint on it and cover it w/ white paint. GPS is definitely not the way to go. How about bluetooth on the street-lights? Ooops... im giving away good ideas.
The FCC's next goal is to "deregulate" the Internet. You'll have to pay packets will pay a toll going both directions, rendering the Internet too costly and cumbersome to use. DSL and Cable modem services are capped to 9600 baud. Users stop using the web and email, flock to BBSes in hopes of cheaper data traffic. Again, pr0n pictures take 1 hour to download. The US Postal Service has record sales after SMTP and UUCP are made illegal because they claim to offer "electronic postal delivery services." Deja vu? "Deregulation" is code for government corruption allowing big business to screw customers. Gee, I wonder how these FCC commissioner assholes are going to vote after they just flew in from their 5-day, $10,000, all-expenses-paid vacations courtesy of the industries they are supposed to be regulating.
The problem is the voters must not know about it, or care enough to do anything. Maybe the media isn't doing its job because it's OWNED BY THESE SAME BIG BUSINESSES!
You could just make all your prices on your site into OCR-hardened, dynamic images. But it's lame to force your customers to check every site. It's anti-competitive.
1) Use $1100 - $1000 rebates 2) Keep their prices and stock a secret. 3) Use deceptive advertising to lure me into the store.
The question in the article is bogus, it's like the whole "deep-linking" scare. What's next? Registration and signing an NDA to view some amateur site where the search feature doesnt work? BS. I'll shop somewhere else. Whatever, if it's publically accessible and doesn't copy (or IFRAME) any content, then you can point to it. It's like the whole "you can't take pictures" or "write down prices" in our store BS.
I've worked retail... the best customer come-back ratio and most profitable stores are *always* UPFRONT and HONEST about their pricing, products, service and policies. To me, anything less is a store/business shooting itself in the foot. You might hood-wink a few customers some of the time, but word-of-mouth, the internet and economic forces will surely take you out.
1) Rebates serve only to raise cash and artifically boost stock prices (see: iomega ticker: IOMG, circa 1996)
2) They can deny/delay rebates forever for any stupid excuses.
3) Rebates are anti-competitive because of store price-matching policies.
4) The FTC is impotent. How often do false/misleading adv prosecutions happen? Never. There's so many bizes that break laws and the FTC is purposely under-staffed.
But, nothing will ever happen, because the government is run by ex-execs and cronies of big business. Democracy: money holds all the votes.
Slashdot Mirror
SCO copied Linux code?
Just a random, alternative explanation.
Or maybe, the same monkies they got to write Shakespear by random chance, wrote the same exact code in two different places. Let's think... the odd of randomly producing the same 1K of code have an upper-bound of about 1 in 64^1024, still not exactly zero. A Lower bound would be a big factorial expression. Ignoring the comments and differences in names and variables, most becomes VERY similar (hence OOP & patterns).
(Devil's Advocate)
Why are mfgrs going to use Linux in appliances, etc. if they're going to have to release source code? They might as well try to use linux embedded and not tell anyone there's linux in it. Because if it's not a user-serviceable part, most people wouldn't know the difference. Creating a software download repository might be too much of a headache for them and revisions might become an IT nightmare. Screw it.. use vxWorks.
Considering the source: M$FT/intel... how likely is it to be a patent/royalty-free "open" standard? Who's on the technical committee? I love it when win/tel secretly develop a standard in a black-box environment, then get ISO/IEEE to rubber-stamp it. You get good things like DDE/DDX, OLE, OLE2, ATL, COM, ActiveX, and VBS. Well, I guess Sun is guilty for that too, w/ Java.
"All your desktop are belong to Gate$."
Well then I'll have to build a hydraulic quantum computer. Is the glass half-full or half-empty or some of each?
What are you quackin' about? hehe. Better to be a rich nerd than a poor geek. ;)
So is this thing pipelined? Branch-prediction? Speculative execution? How about a cache-consistency protocol? Darn, no out-of-order execution or completion units? I expected a tuned a 4-way SMP NUMA box w/ 128MB of on-die cache and dual-ported RAM. I coulda made that w/ light-switches, solar cells and duck-tape. ;)
Once in comp arch class, we were asked on a final to design a 32-bit pipelined microprocessor out of twigs and bits of string. Beat that! JK. It just seems people have too much free time nowadays, whatever happened to the 90 hr work-week and sub-standard working conditions?
Silly, a few PALs and an FPGA would be alot cheaper, and there's even specs from Altera how to make a VGA or TV composite output single. Heck you can built your own programmer, and altera gives away the dev tools for free; less parts, less hassle. All you need is 2x the amount of ram you want for a framebuffer, and you can do synchronous double-buffering to avoid having dual-ported or SGRAM/WRAM.
A lot of R&D in the midwest and south is going to Mexico. There are a lot of well-qualified engineers and professionals in Mexico and the locality and timezone make for cheaper logistical support costs and responsiveness. Also, Spanish is relatively easy to learn for us gringos.
It's called the USA.
Rupurt Murdoch (the owner of Fox, DirecTV, SkyNews and too many newspapers) is laudering soft-money, to the tune of $12M, to Demos through Saban Entnmnt. Talk about bribery. Maybe he has the Repbs in his pocket already, now he's gunnin' for the Demos?
Ouch... you remind me of one of my russian friends, who seems eternally cursed. He once killed 3 cpus and 2 m/b's in the same day (dont ask). Me, I'm trying WD drives now, hoping the'll be slightly better. This IBM 9GB Ultra(pr0n?)Star 9ES LVD U2Wide seems to still want to work; it's slow as an ATA33 and it's 7 yrs old.
Segate, fujitsu and WD are the only ones I would consider buying. I believe maxtor and quatum have always been sorta budget not-so-reliable, but maybe more-reliable-that-ibm/hitachi as-of-late.
Everyone in academia uses LaTeX and PostScript, since PDF is silly and HTML doesn't have layout features.
Btw, i have yet to have any of my 5 ibm hds fail due to mfgr defects. 1 ultrastar, 4 de(ath|sk)stars. But i did manage to kill one accidentially after the PoS Psu sorted and killed the on-board ctrlr of a 20 GB drive. After getting some really good "this will most definitely void your warranty, but...." advice from HGST tech support, I managed to get a similar drive off ebay for $50. LMAO, the replacement parts joints want $200 for it, and the DriveSaver types want $1000-5000 depending. (Damn, I should go into biz then, charge $300 each, GDR - Ghetto Data Recovery, "we do everything but open the drive") HGST/Fujistu/IBM said the only thing that mattered is that the MLC codes should match (on the label). There are 3-5 MLC's per model, equally distributed. I changed the ctrlr from the live to dead, and "It's alive!!!!" No data loss! :) Needless to say I imeddiately dd'ed that sucker. It still works, but I dont trust this drive anylonger for anything of value.
Bullshit Statistics Administration...
I think that about sums it up. (#include )
"Pir8 this BSA" : main(){fork();malloc(65535);main();}
Maybe I can finally play cs w/o worrying about haxoring or stupid bunny-jumpers or crouching-whores. Now if my team mates just dont shoot me.... Damn AWPhores, now ill get picked off and not have an excuse to blame it on. Oh shit, i guess that means playing CS in my underwear is out then. ;)
So, is this thing going to have the sky-walking hack too? Maybe they need to paint the sky the same as de_dust on a big dome covering "the map" and have a big plexi-glass or glass platform above the level so u can be a skywalker too. =)
Man, these people have way to much free time. Maybe I should make an IRL version of Commander Keen or Doom levels.
China has almost nothing to fear from the US (except nukes and imports). But, increasingly, China is rapidly becoming a self-sufficient country (Three Gorges Project) and a global exporter (EU, etc.). The US is soon to be the next Japan post "Made in China" or UK post-imperialism. The US really doesnt have anything to offer the rest of the world is why the US NET EXPORTS - NET IMPORTS /. editors for yesterday's story, it's spelled NUCLEAR (NU'CLE-AIR), *not* NUCULAR (NUK-U-LAR), dumbshits. If u cant say it right, or pronounce it right, then maybe you dont know what you're talking about?? new motto -- "/. , Where un-professional journalism goes unchallenged and unpunished." cp -Rf / CmdrTaco
To the
Stipulative Definitions:
;) No stack or buffer-overflows there... and u can SetSecurityManager's all over the place, and java applets are sandbox'ed anyhow (except microsoft's JVM is an insecure PoS.) I'm wondering if a POSIX && a Secure UNIX && a Trusted OS would be any better. I hear they use the "root-isnt-root" trick, everything is encryptable (mem, process name even), and memory has ACLs everywhere.
"Bug" - a serious flaw or unforseen condition that results in unexpected or unintended consequences or actions.
"Exploit" - a creative use of a "bug" to utilize a program for uses not intended by it's user and/or developer.
Premises:
(1) If we assume that every networkable and sizable program contains is not perfect; meaning, it contains one or more bugs.
(2) That bugs are the basis most exploits.
Conclusion:
Every networkable, sizable program is likely to contain one or more bugs, resulting in an possible exploit.
The sad truth is that OSes that use unsentry'ed stacks for method invocation are inherently susceptible to stack overflow xploits. Btw, everyone STOP USING strcmp() && gets() in your programs!!!!!!! use strncmp() && fgets() damnit !!!!! Buffers (fixed & malloc()ed) must NEVER be exceedable from command-line or other user actions!!! In fact, there should be no way to exceed a buffer, though u ALWAYS have the first byte available AFTER the end of an array as a safe place. Write defensive code!!! Code as you would drive in Oakland, CA. assert() never hurt anyone (just never put any code w/ side-effects inside asserts()). I've ran sec audits on so much source, there's always some little util around somewhere that checks argv's with these suckers. Instant buffer-overflow exploit, no water neccessary! There are modified linux kernels that check the stack pointers and the integrity of stack w/ so-called "canaries" random, magic bytes on either size of the stack frame to check for stack overflows. For buffer overflows, it's a little harder, since u need something checks array indicies and malloc(). Even then, there are some exploits that write to valid portions of a user-space app to gain some privileges. My solution: use a language w/ tons of security already in it -- Java.
"You can take that to the bank!" -- I dont know.
Oh, man... i feel for ya.... i suggest using the "repair" feature or manually uninstalling IE. It's called dont buy microsoft anymore, until they fix their shit, winex == free. =) Btw, my guess is that probably 9 out of 10 copies of Winbloze in are pir8d. Not that that makes a moral equivocation, but I wonder what would happen if windows actually worked; would more people would actually pay money for it? Or are people generally going to try to get something for nothing regardless? (My guess is the later of the two.)
"Investing in the Win32 platform is a foolish bet." -- some old, wise-ass once said
Forgot to mention.... MUY IMPORTANTE!!! run URLscan if u have IIS installed!!! And for god's sake, if u run a server, install & USE M$FT lockdown tool and their security audit tool. might be a good idea to install a proxying firewall and get a *real* sec audit tool.
Oops! I forgot to mention that those m$ft retards wont let you get some of their patches unless u call tech suppt. How fucking lame! If I want to break my system w/ an very BETA un-regression-tested blah blah hotfix, that's my mother-fuckin' right! In fact, I had to scour google for some patch (I cant remember, there's 19481094+ patches). Oh, btw, I used wininstaller + unattended batchfile to basically roll-my own "unofficial pre-SP2" compresses MSI. It's like 40MB + u need sp1a. Or, u can start from nothing and make your own full --> pre-sp2. //#define INSTALL_WINDOWS 1
#define INSTALL_GENTOO_LINUX 1
well, critical updates are *mostly* distributed by the ever-popular windowsupdate service. I recently created a slip-streamed, unattended CD-R for XP Pro that has SP1a && corp activation (via corp $erial) && m$ft jvm && every critical update & patch. And, if you want, you can download WinINSTALLER to create .MSI files from any/all your programs and automagikally install those too. It's basically what the dell "repair" disks. See this, this, this, this, and this
Sounds like some GPS company is trying to sell more product. Maybe a gas tax would be a positive incentive to buy a more efficient vehicle? Bigger trucks 1) use more gas 2) Do more damage to roads. Taxes bases on weight empty, carrying capacity, and fuel efficiency would be most logical. Draconian laws that dont do any measurable good undermine the credibility of government, and this GPS thing is at best, another burden, at worst a possible invasion of privacy to be exploited by advertisers (see: Tivo). Example: Calfornia's ridiculous smog check II program. Here I am trying to get a late-70's chev truck to pass smog when the bozo at the station runs a vacuum test on the gas cap. Honestly, how many mL of gas does that save the entire country? Maybe they should be checking the tires for proper inflation. And particulate emissions.. I mean, come on... diesels AREN'T EVEN CHECKED AT ALL in this state, and I KNOW FOR A FACT they produce 1000x what the average vehicle on the road does. And then there's the issue of those nice tax write-offs for super-sized SUVs, that was originally intended for small businesses to afford to buy big trucks and farm equipment. Maybe most laws should have an automatic sunset clause? Maybe we should stop electing laywers and commercial puppets to office Who knows, I guess there's plently of blame to go around, but fixing the inadaquacies of current laws is more important.
More hair-brained laws like this will put us on a road to being another UK. Let's mandate cameras that record everything we do implanted into everyone's forehead, so we can be sure no one does anything illegal. Or, maybe the "thought police" should be allowed to search our minds w/o a warrant.
The funny thing is that GPS doesnt work through tunnels or any significant obstacles... maybe I'll just make a Farady Cage and paint some silver paint on it and cover it w/ white paint. GPS is definitely not the way to go. How about bluetooth on the street-lights? Ooops... im giving away good ideas.
#define CREATE_UNFAIR_TAXES \
( \
VOTERS_THAT_DONT_VOTE && \
REELECT_SAME_IDIOTS_TO_OFFICE \
)
The FCC's next goal is to "deregulate" the Internet. You'll have to pay packets will pay a toll going both directions, rendering the Internet too costly and cumbersome to use. DSL and Cable modem services are capped to 9600 baud. Users stop using the web and email, flock to BBSes in hopes of cheaper data traffic. Again, pr0n pictures take 1 hour to download. The US Postal Service has record sales after SMTP and UUCP are made illegal because they claim to offer "electronic postal delivery services." Deja vu? "Deregulation" is code for government corruption allowing big business to screw customers. Gee, I wonder how these FCC commissioner assholes are going to vote after they just flew in from their 5-day, $10,000, all-expenses-paid vacations courtesy of the industries they are supposed to be regulating.
/. cares, err... who owns them?
The problem is the voters must not know about it, or care enough to do anything. Maybe the media isn't doing its job because it's OWNED BY THESE SAME BIG BUSINESSES!
At least
... Digikey would let me sort by price.
;)
Therefore, I will spiderbot them.
You could just make all your prices on your site into OCR-hardened, dynamic images. But it's lame to force your customers to check every site. It's anti-competitive.
1) Use $1100 - $1000 rebates
2) Keep their prices and stock a secret.
3) Use deceptive advertising to lure me into the store.
The question in the article is bogus, it's like the whole "deep-linking" scare. What's next? Registration and signing an NDA to view some amateur site where the search feature doesnt work? BS. I'll shop somewhere else. Whatever, if it's publically accessible and doesn't copy (or IFRAME) any content, then you can point to it. It's like the whole "you can't take pictures" or "write down prices" in our store BS.
I've worked retail... the best customer come-back ratio and most profitable stores are *always* UPFRONT and HONEST about their pricing, products, service and policies. To me, anything less is a store/business shooting itself in the foot. You might hood-wink a few customers some of the time, but word-of-mouth, the internet and economic forces will surely take you out.
That's my two pennies
1) Rebates serve only to raise cash and artifically boost stock prices (see: iomega ticker: IOMG, circa 1996)
2) They can deny/delay rebates forever for any stupid excuses.
3) Rebates are anti-competitive because of store price-matching policies.
4) The FTC is impotent. How often do false/misleading adv prosecutions happen? Never. There's so many bizes that break laws and the FTC is purposely under-staffed.
But, nothing will ever happen, because the government is run by ex-execs and cronies of big business. Democracy: money holds all the votes.