Fixing a problem like this in Linux is trivial. Only libjpeg needs to be patched, and automagically, all apps that depend on that library are also rendered invulnerable.
What about programs that have been compiled statically? It wouldn't be a good thing to patch the library and then assume all of your apps are fixed. I realize that not many people do static compilations when they can avoid it, but it does happen in the name of portability, or maybe in the odd binary package where the packager didn't feel like writing in dependencies. I would think that unless you know FOR SURE your program is relying on the external library, it would be bad to put your faith in the fact that your programs are protected after updating it.
Picking locks is a pretty handy skill to have. How many of us have seen it where somebody accidentally locks the filing cabinet and no one has the key? Or maybe you or your neighbor got locked out of the house? Of course you need the right tools. This place is pretty good to find them. They have jigglers for car locks, standard pick sets, picks for combo briefcase locks, cylindrical locks...Well, just about everything.
Rejecting SenderID is a wise move on the part of Debian and Apache. Just because Microsoft has a warm and fuzzy document that says you can use SenderID for free doesn't mean it will stay that way forever, and doesn't detract from the fact that it's PATENTED TECHNOLOGY. I feel that Microsoft would have no qualms about using this Trojan horse to rain down hate on any OSS project it perceived as a competitor to one of their technologies by leveraging their adaptation of SenderID.
All it would take is for Microsoft to have an insane SCO moment. All they'd have to do is say the magic words - "You are using our PATENTED INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. As such, you will agree with these new terms or we will erase you out of existance." Of course, in that event the said OSS project could simply remove the technology, but then the question begs to be asked, "Then why put it in to begin with?" I'm sure this is the very question Debian and Apache asked themselves.
SCO is in a unique position...On one hand, they can't afford to keep paying their lawyers to drag out the case, which they must do because they don't have one. On the other hand, they can't wrap it up either because then they will be exposed.
And what happens when they reach this $31 million cap? Lawyers don't work well when you stop paying them, and IBM can afford to sit around until SCO runs out of money. This would certainly not please BayStar Capital.
With all of these new recording format options made available to the public, how can any consumer intelligently know which one to buy into?
It's easy...Don't be the first to buy in. When the dust settles, whatever format has the most compatibility and support will be the defacto standard. Then you buy it.
Language is used as a memory mechanism. I think to myself in my native language (English) all the time - it assists in cognition and memory. If I were to show you 10 objects, but you did not know the word "ten", how would you know exactly how many objects there were unless you had a photographic memory? In essense, thinking "ten" to yourself would be a mnemonic.
The creators of the Jetsons postulated that by the year 2000 we'd be buzzing around the skies in flying bubbles that fold up into suitcases and living on highrise platforms above the clouds. Vidphones and sentient robotic assistants would be abound. That's what this guy's predictions sound like. Some stuff holds water though.
What will probably happen: -Wrist PDA/Cell phone responsing to voice commands -Universal phone number good around the world with no per-minute charges, but a flat fee. -RFID checkout at grocery/retail stores -Video/movies on demand -Electronic ink -Expanded applications for biometrics
What will not happen: -Toilets and toothbruses that monitor your bodily fluids for problems. Besides being high on the spooky factor, I think people would opt for less expensive toilets and toothbrushes.
-An alarm clock that analyzes your brainwaves. Just make sure the electrodes don't fall off while you're sleeping. If they do, you'd better hope it doesn't synchronize itself to your husband/wife's jacked up sleeping patterns.
-Nanites running around your body fixing problems. Also a decent spooky factor. Imagine a software bug causes them to think that every living cell in your body is a cancer cell. Oops.
-Self driving cars. With 160,000 miles of highway in the US (not counting side streets) who, praytell, will put forth the cost to repave all of it with thousands of sensors for a tiny percentage of cars that will be able to take advantage of them? A lot of good your self piloting car will do against gridlock when 99% of the other cars on the road are still driver controlled.
-Automated kitchen complete with robot assistant. This guy IS a science fiction writer. Your fridge might be able to tell you you're running out of milk, but I just don't see a practical scenario where a kitchen can cook breakfast on its own, barring Star Trek food replicators. And besides, is it really that hard to turn on a stove and crack open two eggs onto a frying pan?
-Low carb breakfast. The Atkins of today is the pet rock of yesterday. Move along, nothing to see here.
-Virtual/augmented reality - Ah the great promise of virtual reality. I can buy into having a device that "writes" details about objects in your field of vision, but that technology packed into contact lenses and being able to do facial recognition within 10 years is a bit hard to swallow.
-A "smart window" for every cubicle. When most people are lucky to get four walls?
The article definitely has more against it than going for it. I'll make sure to ring him up on his universal number in 10 years and tell him how full of BS he is.
It probably is. The article is too short on details and too long on claims. The biggest memory card I've heard of is 2GB IIRC, and these guys say they're going to have 2TB in the same form factor by October? When the biggest 3.5" HD they have is 512GB? And a 120MBps transfer rate? What's the fastest they can go now? 10? Maybe 20? So what you're telling me is that some company out in Taiwan has replaced Intel's flash technology with something that holds 1,000 times more data in the same physical space. The tech world would ordinarily go apeshit over an advancement of this magnitude, given the clear violation of Moore's Law. And yet this is the first we've heard of it. And instead of rolling out solid state hard disks, or mondo RAID arrays, they are making memory cards for PDA's and digital cameras out of these. And they are going straight to market in October. And they did it all before Intel and IBM, who spends billions on R&D developing this kind of thing.
Repeat after me, everyone. This.product.is.vaporware.
Perhaps, perhaps...I understand what you are saying, but I wonder...If what you are talking about came to pass, what would happen? If media was locked down that tight, and nobody could listen/watch anything without being nickel and dimed to death (Or if I know the RIAA, raped outright) who would buy media? People do not like being told what to do with items they've paid for. Remember the TurboTax revolt? How well do copy-protected CD's fly in the States? And now that Norton Antivirus has included product activation, I've seen that people are shying away from it because they can't install it on all of their home computers without paying through the nose. Why should it be any different for movies/CD's? People being told "No, you can't copy that to your MP3 player and no you can't make a backup or we'll put you in prison for a thousand years" is not going to sit well. I bet there would be a revolt in favor of publishers who choose NOT to use DRM, and would make it a selling point.
IMHO, I think DRM will be defeated on these grounds long before your doomsday scenario comes to pass. On the other hand, it would be a great day for society if they were forced to unplug from the endless stream of stupidity because they couldn't afford to watch it.
It looks like the article jumped the gun. I don't see Disney suggesting that the so-called "analog hole" should be plugged. It looks more like they are interested in DRM for DIGITAL BROADCASTS ONLY. Yeah, the whole idea of broadcast flags suck, but it's a far cry from Disney suggesting that any device capable of recording should be changed to suit Disney's demands, which is a conclusion the blog poster seems to have incorrectly jumped to.
This Groklaw report from SCOForum conference came down the pipes of one of the LUG mailing lists I belong to. Apparently they mentioned the IBM/AIX "bombshell" in private interviews during the same conference. I wonder why they didn't announce it on the stage?
I was thinking along the same lines, but then I thought insiders at Microsoft could easily do the same thing. Rogue programmers are found within as well as without. However, I'd be more worried of most of the ourtsourcing was going to China, since the government there would like to know a lot about what's going on in our networks. I'm sure they would take the opportunity to muscle in on a local company doing contract work for Microsoft with some suggestions on how to do some of their programming. Unless Microsoft has some pretty insane auditing practices, and somehow I doubt they do, this scenario is entirely plausible.
That being said, it amazes me that our government will run software from Microsoft, which is a company that doesn't have any sort of TS clearance or defense contracts to my knowledge, without demanding to see what's inside. I'm sure nowadays Microsoft lets them see some of the code, but I doubt they can see all of it. IMHO, the whole thing is a recipe for disaster.
I thought North Korea was more nationalistic than to host their site in Germany. I call shenanigans.
5 24 ms 21 ms 17 ms bur-core-01.inet.qwest.net [205.171.13.29]
6 18 ms 48 ms 48 ms bur-brdr-01.inet.qwest.net [205.171.13.10]
7 25 ms 20 ms 29 ms sl-bb22-ana-6-2.sprintlink.net [144.232.9.237]
8 50 ms 52 ms 61 ms sl-bb22-fw-10-1.sprintlink.net [144.232.9.250]
9 79 ms 83 ms 85 ms sl-bb22-chi-11-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.18.121]
10 88 ms 100 ms 89 ms sl-bb24-chi-8-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.26.109]
11 215 ms 195 ms 135 ms sl-bb25-nyc-5-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.9.157]
12 90 ms 139 ms 100 ms sl-bb21-nyc-15-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.13.2]
13 110 ms 100 ms 104 ms sl-bb23-nyc-3-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.7.109]
14 169 ms 160 ms 201 ms sl-bb20-par-11-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.20.44]
15 233 ms 213 ms 291 ms sl-bb21-fra-13-0.sprintlink.net [213.206.129.66]
16 170 ms 171 ms 193 ms sl-gw20-fra-1-1.sprintlink.net [217.147.96.227]
17 210 ms 191 ms 201 ms sle-globacc-1-0.sprintlink.net [217.147.111.62]
18 182 ms 199 ms 183 ms pos2-0.ef1.de.gatel.net [212.20.151.41]
19 220 ms 205 ms 190 ms pos2-0.b1.de.gatel.net [212.20.151.69]
20 307 ms 213 ms 225 ms ipb-gw.de.gatel.net [212.20.156.251]
21 208 ms 196 ms 214 ms kcc.cust-gw.ipberlin.com [194.29.225.46]
22 207 ms 191 ms 195 ms 194.29.229.125
It's no secret that most university networks are swiss cheese as far as security goes. Normally it's because they hire students at cutrate wages to maintain the network. Most students' personal PC's are absolute spyware/virus/mass mailer heaven. I have done many a cleanup job on laptops that were once connected to campus networks. I've also talked to friends going to different schools about infected lab computers and switches saturated with spam traffic. In an environment like that, it's no surprise the servers never get patched. It's an accident waiting to happen.
The other thing I get from this article is that it's a good idea to expect to get nailed to the wall by your balls if you break into a system even if your cause is noble. It seems that most people with authoritah are more worried about how embarrassing the situation is than actually getting the problem fixed. So they want to nail the guys who made them look like a doof. I'll tell you this, if I ever find a vulnerability in any system I'm keeping it to myself.
I think Ballmer is forgetting that you need something important which makes or breaks a console. Now what was it?... Oh yeah, a huge library of good games, which Sony has been pretty consistent at getting.
So far most of what I've seen on the Xbox is unplayable FPS shovelware. There are, of course, a few good games, like Panzer Dragoon and DOA3. But for the most part, the Xbox library is rent-only.
Now granted, the Xbox itself has a lot of advantages - Networking, most power on the market, and built in HD. Unfortunately to take advantage of most of that you have to chip it (I've always said mod chips make the Xbox what it should have been), otherwise you have a locked down PC that plays crappy games.
I think I can say that Sony will have learned a few lessons from the Xbox and they won't be screwing around with the PS3. I'm sure Microsoft has a harder fight ahead of it than Ballmer thinks it does.
Dude...Wouldn't it have been easier to just show them the receipt? I understand "principle", but jeez...Save it for when the cops show up at your door and want to search your house for no apparent reason.
Put the shoe on the other foot here for a minute. You are a joe working for BB (which sells big money in small packages) and you've been told by management to stand at the door and ask for receipts to match up the items in the bag with what's on the paper. Then some guy walks up, you ask him for his receipt, and you say "no". You might think "hmmm, what's this guy hiding?".
Now, I don't agree with this dude walking up and trying to snatch the DVD from you, which eventually resulted in them actually charging it back to your card (totally lame...) and a battery charge, but such is the way of slippery slopes. I think by the time it got to the point when the manager came out, it was about a vendetta against you, not checking to make sure you weren't shoplifting.
But since you are in the mess, I wish you the best of luck. But in the future, try to stay inconspicuous and flash the receipt:)
I believe Spyware Blaster is a program that adds this key, as well as several others that will protect your system.
The bonus about this program is that it doesn't run resident in memory. It just changes some regkeys and the hosts file to confuse/prevent spyware from running. Installing/uninstalling changes are just a click away, too.
Many critics, of course, believe that Attorney General John Ashcroft took a dive on the case which was originally filed by former Clinton Administration Attorney General Janet Reno."
Well OBVIOUSLY he was busy fighting one of the greatest scourges of society for all the people's benefit - The exposed female breast.
Like the article says the laptops are shipped to a central facility where the laptops are worked on. Radio Shack does the same thing, as they take Compaq laptops for repair. I should have trusted my gut on Radio Shack and stayed far away, but I brought an out-of-warranty Compaq to them that had problems turning on without a battery. So I give them the laptop and the bobo at the repair facility says they have to replace the mobo to the tune of $800. I explained to him that I thought the problem was probably with the charging unit and to try that first, but he wouldn't have any of it. I told him to pack it up and send it back.
After that I went in search of a way to repair it myself, and I found Impact Computers, which stocks just about every laptop component under the sun for a decent price (including replacement plastic covers for your more clutzy co-workers) I ordered a new charging board and sure enough it worked for a fraction of the price even if they had made a correct diagnosis in the first place. Suck on that you so-called technician!
Ok, so they pull this info out of the air? I wonder if it is encrypted, and if not, how hard would it be to sniff that traffic and use what you find to get access to all those records yourself?
Regardless of whether it's encrypted or not, having that type of information accessible on a wireless network is ASKING for trouble. All it takes is one guy to snag a misplaced Blackberry. I feel so much more safe and secure now!
Slashdot Mirror
Can this be much farther behind?
While I applaud what Freenet is trying to do, unfortunately, the fact is that it's so slow it's practially worthless.
Fixing a problem like this in Linux is trivial. Only libjpeg needs to be patched, and automagically, all apps that depend on that library are also rendered invulnerable.
What about programs that have been compiled statically? It wouldn't be a good thing to patch the library and then assume all of your apps are fixed. I realize that not many people do static compilations when they can avoid it, but it does happen in the name of portability, or maybe in the odd binary package where the packager didn't feel like writing in dependencies. I would think that unless you know FOR SURE your program is relying on the external library, it would be bad to put your faith in the fact that your programs are protected after updating it.
Picking locks is a pretty handy skill to have. How many of us have seen it where somebody accidentally locks the filing cabinet and no one has the key? Or maybe you or your neighbor got locked out of the house? Of course you need the right tools. This place is pretty good to find them. They have jigglers for car locks, standard pick sets, picks for combo briefcase locks, cylindrical locks...Well, just about everything.
Rejecting SenderID is a wise move on the part of Debian and Apache. Just because Microsoft has a warm and fuzzy document that says you can use SenderID for free doesn't mean it will stay that way forever, and doesn't detract from the fact that it's PATENTED TECHNOLOGY. I feel that Microsoft would have no qualms about using this Trojan horse to rain down hate on any OSS project it perceived as a competitor to one of their technologies by leveraging their adaptation of SenderID.
All it would take is for Microsoft to have an insane SCO moment. All they'd have to do is say the magic words - "You are using our PATENTED INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. As such, you will agree with these new terms or we will erase you out of existance." Of course, in that event the said OSS project could simply remove the technology, but then the question begs to be asked, "Then why put it in to begin with?" I'm sure this is the very question Debian and Apache asked themselves.
SCO is in a unique position...On one hand, they can't afford to keep paying their lawyers to drag out the case, which they must do because they don't have one. On the other hand, they can't wrap it up either because then they will be exposed.
And what happens when they reach this $31 million cap? Lawyers don't work well when you stop paying them, and IBM can afford to sit around until SCO runs out of money. This would certainly not please BayStar Capital.
With all of these new recording format options made available to the public, how can any consumer intelligently know which one to buy into?
It's easy...Don't be the first to buy in. When the dust settles, whatever format has the most compatibility and support will be the defacto standard. Then you buy it.
Is anyone else deliberately NOT watcing the Olympics in light of this corporate assholery?
;)
You mean the Olympics have started already?
Language is used as a memory mechanism. I think to myself in my native language (English) all the time - it assists in cognition and memory. If I were to show you 10 objects, but you did not know the word "ten", how would you know exactly how many objects there were unless you had a photographic memory? In essense, thinking "ten" to yourself would be a mnemonic.
The creators of the Jetsons postulated that by the year 2000 we'd be buzzing around the skies in flying bubbles that fold up into suitcases and living on highrise platforms above the clouds. Vidphones and sentient robotic assistants would be abound. That's what this guy's predictions sound like.
Some stuff holds water though.
What will probably happen:
-Wrist PDA/Cell phone responsing to voice commands
-Universal phone number good around the world with no per-minute charges, but a flat fee.
-RFID checkout at grocery/retail stores
-Video/movies on demand
-Electronic ink
-Expanded applications for biometrics
What will not happen:
-Toilets and toothbruses that monitor your bodily fluids for problems. Besides being high on the spooky factor, I think people would opt for less expensive toilets and toothbrushes.
-An alarm clock that analyzes your brainwaves. Just make sure the electrodes don't fall off while you're sleeping. If they do, you'd better hope it doesn't synchronize itself to your husband/wife's jacked up sleeping patterns.
-Nanites running around your body fixing problems. Also a decent spooky factor. Imagine a software bug causes them to think that every living cell in your body is a cancer cell. Oops.
-Self driving cars. With 160,000 miles of highway in the US (not counting side streets) who, praytell, will put forth the cost to repave all of it with thousands of sensors for a tiny percentage of cars that will be able to take advantage of them? A lot of good your self piloting car will do against gridlock when 99% of the other cars on the road are still driver controlled.
-Automated kitchen complete with robot assistant. This guy IS a science fiction writer. Your fridge might be able to tell you you're running out of milk, but I just don't see a practical scenario where a kitchen can cook breakfast on its own, barring Star Trek food replicators. And besides, is it really that hard to turn on a stove and crack open two eggs onto a frying pan?
-Low carb breakfast. The Atkins of today is the pet rock of yesterday. Move along, nothing to see here.
-Virtual/augmented reality - Ah the great promise of virtual reality. I can buy into having a device that "writes" details about objects in your field of vision, but that technology packed into contact lenses and being able to do facial recognition within 10 years is a bit hard to swallow.
-A "smart window" for every cubicle. When most people are lucky to get four walls?
The article definitely has more against it than going for it. I'll make sure to ring him up on his universal number in 10 years and tell him how full of BS he is.
It probably is. The article is too short on details and too long on claims. The biggest memory card I've heard of is 2GB IIRC, and these guys say they're going to have 2TB in the same form factor by October? When the biggest 3.5" HD they have is 512GB? And a 120MBps transfer rate? What's the fastest they can go now? 10? Maybe 20? So what you're telling me is that some company out in Taiwan has replaced Intel's flash technology with something that holds 1,000 times more data in the same physical space. The tech world would ordinarily go apeshit over an advancement of this magnitude, given the clear violation of Moore's Law. And yet this is the first we've heard of it. And instead of rolling out solid state hard disks, or mondo RAID arrays, they are making memory cards for PDA's and digital cameras out of these. And they are going straight to market in October. And they did it all before Intel and IBM, who spends billions on R&D developing this kind of thing.
Repeat after me, everyone.
This.product.is.vaporware.
Perhaps, perhaps...I understand what you are saying, but I wonder...If what you are talking about came to pass, what would happen? If media was locked down that tight, and nobody could listen/watch anything without being nickel and dimed to death (Or if I know the RIAA, raped outright) who would buy media? People do not like being told what to do with items they've paid for. Remember the TurboTax revolt? How well do copy-protected CD's fly in the States? And now that Norton Antivirus has included product activation, I've seen that people are shying away from it because they can't install it on all of their home computers without paying through the nose. Why should it be any different for movies/CD's? People being told "No, you can't copy that to your MP3 player and no you can't make a backup or we'll put you in prison for a thousand years" is not going to sit well. I bet there would be a revolt in favor of publishers who choose NOT to use DRM, and would make it a selling point.
IMHO, I think DRM will be defeated on these grounds long before your doomsday scenario comes to pass. On the other hand, it would be a great day for society if they were forced to unplug from the endless stream of stupidity because they couldn't afford to watch it.
It looks like the article jumped the gun. I don't see Disney suggesting that the so-called "analog hole" should be plugged. It looks more like they are interested in DRM for DIGITAL BROADCASTS ONLY. Yeah, the whole idea of broadcast flags suck, but it's a far cry from Disney suggesting that any device capable of recording should be changed to suit Disney's demands, which is a conclusion the blog poster seems to have incorrectly jumped to.
This Groklaw report from SCOForum conference came down the pipes of one of the LUG mailing lists I belong to. Apparently they mentioned the IBM/AIX "bombshell" in private interviews during the same conference. I wonder why they didn't announce it on the stage?
This is great...It's my birthday today. I get double presents now!
Or is that presents and a weekend at work fixing a MyDoom infection?...
I was thinking along the same lines, but then I thought insiders at Microsoft could easily do the same thing. Rogue programmers are found within as well as without. However, I'd be more worried of most of the ourtsourcing was going to China, since the government there would like to know a lot about what's going on in our networks. I'm sure they would take the opportunity to muscle in on a local company doing contract work for Microsoft with some suggestions on how to do some of their programming. Unless Microsoft has some pretty insane auditing practices, and somehow I doubt they do, this scenario is entirely plausible.
That being said, it amazes me that our government will run software from Microsoft, which is a company that doesn't have any sort of TS clearance or defense contracts to my knowledge, without demanding to see what's inside. I'm sure nowadays Microsoft lets them see some of the code, but I doubt they can see all of it. IMHO, the whole thing is a recipe for disaster.
I thought North Korea was more nationalistic than to host their site in Germany. I call shenanigans.
5 24 ms 21 ms 17 ms bur-core-01.inet.qwest.net [205.171.13.29]
6 18 ms 48 ms 48 ms bur-brdr-01.inet.qwest.net [205.171.13.10]
7 25 ms 20 ms 29 ms sl-bb22-ana-6-2.sprintlink.net [144.232.9.237]
8 50 ms 52 ms 61 ms sl-bb22-fw-10-1.sprintlink.net [144.232.9.250]
9 79 ms 83 ms 85 ms sl-bb22-chi-11-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.18.121]
10 88 ms 100 ms 89 ms sl-bb24-chi-8-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.26.109]
11 215 ms 195 ms 135 ms sl-bb25-nyc-5-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.9.157]
12 90 ms 139 ms 100 ms sl-bb21-nyc-15-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.13.2]
13 110 ms 100 ms 104 ms sl-bb23-nyc-3-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.7.109]
14 169 ms 160 ms 201 ms sl-bb20-par-11-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.20.44]
15 233 ms 213 ms 291 ms sl-bb21-fra-13-0.sprintlink.net [213.206.129.66]
16 170 ms 171 ms 193 ms sl-gw20-fra-1-1.sprintlink.net [217.147.96.227]
17 210 ms 191 ms 201 ms sle-globacc-1-0.sprintlink.net [217.147.111.62]
18 182 ms 199 ms 183 ms pos2-0.ef1.de.gatel.net [212.20.151.41]
19 220 ms 205 ms 190 ms pos2-0.b1.de.gatel.net [212.20.151.69]
20 307 ms 213 ms 225 ms ipb-gw.de.gatel.net [212.20.156.251]
21 208 ms 196 ms 214 ms kcc.cust-gw.ipberlin.com [194.29.225.46]
22 207 ms 191 ms 195 ms 194.29.229.125
It's no secret that most university networks are swiss cheese as far as security goes. Normally it's because they hire students at cutrate wages to maintain the network. Most students' personal PC's are absolute spyware/virus/mass mailer heaven. I have done many a cleanup job on laptops that were once connected to campus networks. I've also talked to friends going to different schools about infected lab computers and switches saturated with spam traffic. In an environment like that, it's no surprise the servers never get patched. It's an accident waiting to happen.
The other thing I get from this article is that it's a good idea to expect to get nailed to the wall by your balls if you break into a system even if your cause is noble. It seems that most people with authoritah are more worried about how embarrassing the situation is than actually getting the problem fixed. So they want to nail the guys who made them look like a doof. I'll tell you this, if I ever find a vulnerability in any system I'm keeping it to myself.
I think Ballmer is forgetting that you need something important which makes or breaks a console. Now what was it? ... Oh yeah, a huge library of good games, which Sony has been pretty consistent at getting.
So far most of what I've seen on the Xbox is unplayable FPS shovelware. There are, of course, a few good games, like Panzer Dragoon and DOA3. But for the most part, the Xbox library is rent-only.
Now granted, the Xbox itself has a lot of advantages - Networking, most power on the market, and built in HD. Unfortunately to take advantage of most of that you have to chip it (I've always said mod chips make the Xbox what it should have been), otherwise you have a locked down PC that plays crappy games.
I think I can say that Sony will have learned a few lessons from the Xbox and they won't be screwing around with the PS3. I'm sure Microsoft has a harder fight ahead of it than Ballmer thinks it does.
...They'll pass a resolution against spam and that's the last we'll hear of it.
Dude...Wouldn't it have been easier to just show them the receipt? I understand "principle", but jeez...Save it for when the cops show up at your door and want to search your house for no apparent reason.
:)
Put the shoe on the other foot here for a minute. You are a joe working for BB (which sells big money in small packages) and you've been told by management to stand at the door and ask for receipts to match up the items in the bag with what's on the paper. Then some guy walks up, you ask him for his receipt, and you say "no". You might think "hmmm, what's this guy hiding?".
Now, I don't agree with this dude walking up and trying to snatch the DVD from you, which eventually resulted in them actually charging it back to your card (totally lame...) and a battery charge, but such is the way of slippery slopes. I think by the time it got to the point when the manager came out, it was about a vendetta against you, not checking to make sure you weren't shoplifting.
But since you are in the mess, I wish you the best of luck. But in the future, try to stay inconspicuous and flash the receipt
I believe Spyware Blaster is a program that adds this key, as well as several others that will protect your system.
The bonus about this program is that it doesn't run resident in memory. It just changes some regkeys and the hosts file to confuse/prevent spyware from running. Installing/uninstalling changes are just a click away, too.
Many critics, of course, believe that Attorney General John Ashcroft took a dive on the case which was originally filed by former Clinton Administration Attorney General Janet Reno."
Well OBVIOUSLY he was busy fighting one of the greatest scourges of society for all the people's benefit - The exposed female breast.
Anyone else here think he's still a virgin?
Like the article says the laptops are shipped to a central facility where the laptops are worked on. Radio Shack does the same thing, as they take Compaq laptops for repair. I should have trusted my gut on Radio Shack and stayed far away, but I brought an out-of-warranty Compaq to them that had problems turning on without a battery. So I give them the laptop and the bobo at the repair facility says they have to replace the mobo to the tune of $800. I explained to him that I thought the problem was probably with the charging unit and to try that first, but he wouldn't have any of it. I told him to pack it up and send it back.
After that I went in search of a way to repair it myself, and I found Impact Computers, which stocks just about every laptop component under the sun for a decent price (including replacement plastic covers for your more clutzy co-workers) I ordered a new charging board and sure enough it worked for a fraction of the price even if they had made a correct diagnosis in the first place. Suck on that you so-called technician!
Ok, so they pull this info out of the air? I wonder if it is encrypted, and if not, how hard would it be to sniff that traffic and use what you find to get access to all those records yourself?
Regardless of whether it's encrypted or not, having that type of information accessible on a wireless network is ASKING for trouble. All it takes is one guy to snag a misplaced Blackberry. I feel so much more safe and secure now!