Opening i.e. the code for the Windows OS, making it free, open, maybe even GPL, could give finally the total global domination that they want.
Think about it, if the cost of the OS is gone one of the main reasons to swich to linux (not the biggest, but at least one of the more easily noted) is gone. If the source is open, will be no more security by obscurity, a lot of eyes will detect and fix the hundreds of remaining critical bugs in the code, maybe even make Win95 as stable as XP or Linux, or make really safe XP. If Windows now have almost the entire market share on the desktop and not so in the server market, with this not only expand even more their dominance in the desktop, but will have the same dominance in the the server market, and more than this, the market will expand with free/open windows.
What about Microsoft? How it will generate revenues? With services, support, not so free apps (i.e. Office), having their specific distribution, using it as a plataform of selling their own services (passport?).
The problem is that you are putting a precedent, and base on it whatever you want. The actual reasons for starting a war with iraq, doing a "preventive attack", are those, and look very important. But once you settled "legal" to do a preventive attack, the justifications will not need to be the identical to the ones that they are using now, just need to look as important.
In example, for a war with North Korea, a couple of reasons are that they have nuclear power, since 70's have problems with America, and whatever you want, in the right moment the justifications will look very important. And the arab countries? There is where all the terrorists come! you only need another big building taken down and US troops will invade what they want in that region. And, of course, France, they send those killer pretzels to Bush, what more you need for a war declaration? And about China, well, all the spam come from there, half of slashdot will say that is ok to invade china if that stop a bit the spam.
Also is to be worried that with a precedent, you say that this kind of reasons to invade a country are good, and anyone in the world can take this as a justification. Just after America invaded Afganistan looking for terrorists, Israel did the same with the palestinian territories, blowing all the peace efforts that were done till that moment, because America say that is ok to invade a country and change they government, religion, whatever, if they have terrorists inside.
Even if they succeed, the "surgical" attack goes well, this kind of things is good or bad?
Could be good because if this kind of things is very sucessful the war will end sooner and will be no more life loses.
In the other hand, if the war ends, was "easy" and without a lot of lost lives, and Bush feels sucessful and invincible, what will be next? North Korea? the rest of the arab countries? China? France?
and similars have an scheme of whitelisting and some sort of "validation" of the recipient if it is not in the whitelist. Replying for confirmation, or saying what word is in a graphic, or even do some cpu intensive task to enable the message to be sended are free ways to at least ensure that there is someone reading behind the email.
Asking for some kind of money (even for charity) for sending mail to something will stop a lot of people of sending email, even mail that you would want to receive. Suppose that I want to mail someone with this system because he have a worm, or an open relay, warn him about something or whatever that he wants to know. If I have to pay to do a favor to someone, well, I will forget about it. Worst than this, suppose that the author of this paper use the system, and I want to warn him of a problem there, well, in this case the problem will happen in the worst moment possible, but I will not warn him.
Don't laff so hard. You think that MS DRM implementation will be perfect? Without bugs and things like that? You will be lucky if you can access your own documents for long periods of time, and I wonder what would happen if you reinstall windows with all your data.
mmm a gallery of big microsoft bugs in the history could be nice also, but I will need a month to download all those screenshots.
The real threat right now is spammers, not file traders. Is something that affects and in some way or another harm or could harm us all.
Why not put them all in jails? or in pits, or use them as human shields on iraq, etc.
that Bush say bad things about Saddam, ok
that a lot of soldiers and bombs will go over Iraq in the next few hours, ok.
that the world seems to be against Iraq and/or Saddam, ok
But that they wake up Saddam 6am with the first misile even before a declared war was a BIG mistake. Now Saddam will get angry and take revenge on Bush! Who likes to get nice dreams interrupted in that way?
This one is more worm friendly than the other. You know, Klez, Sircam, etc, ARE worms, and some of the most sucessful email worms are so because IE vulnerabilities (like the iframe bug). So this, that can be activated by a html mail, is the perfect opportunity for a big mail worm, and maybe easier to do than an obscure buffer overflow.
From the Microsoft security bulletin --------------- How to Check Which Version You Have
If you are unsure whether a product you are running is affected by this issue, check the version.
To determine which version of Microsoft Windows you are running:
1. On the taskbar at the bottom of your screen, click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Run dialog box, type: winver
3. Click OK.
A dialog box displays the version that you are running. -------------
If it say "Microsoft " and something else, you are vulnerable.
Considering how much exploited was this particular flaw, I don't think that a lot of servers will remain unpatched, but, anyway, I still receiving so much hits from CodeRed and Nimda that I will not be surprised if such worm have a big success.
Knifes are a gray area too, because is used by killers to stab people. But also they are used by surgeons, to save lives, and for everyone else to eat, cut things and so on... so, they must be forbidden or not?
Anyway, I think that the main use of port scanning today, in internet (to contrast with internal lans, where it have some useful applications, from security audits to automatic configuration of things), is to find vulnerabilities, and even for lawful tries, is recomended to ask permision or be with the knowledge of the the remote administrator. If the ICE don't ask permission to the remote administrator for the scanning, well, I think that the "gray" area is actually pretty dark.
Where I work in the weekend someone hacked a web server with this, and just finished to check that was because something related with frontpage or dav when I saw this article. I was about to put on fire to the administrators of that server, but at least that was not entirely their fault.
That could count as a really big argument against not disclosing vulnerabilities as soon as possible? I don't know since when Microsoft is aware of this and making the patch, but if it have time to be developed an exploit could had happen enough time yet. If administrators were aware of that problem at least they could have been disabled specially WebDAV, even if they don't have a fix, instead of waiting blindly that someone hacks them.
I want to ask something to google and instead of returning a page that talks about what I asked, returns the answer, a comprehensive explanation, etc, and that could be based on where and who I am.
Imagine if google news don't return several link to the "same topic" article, but an article of their own, objetive, something made taking in account what say every source and makes its own version. And then, imagine that at internet level, not just for news (of course, giving they own version and links to the sites that it took to make their version).
This kind of things, used with wearable glasses+sound i/o+holoclock could make people of the future very informed (or at least very funny to watch, moving arms in the air to point to their point of view virtual interface).
Tell O'Reilly. They seems to think that the "Sample Chapter" that is in their book description helps to make people buy their books.
Ok, you can download the entire CD, there is no "sample song" that you download, but the entire thing. Buying the CD you have it with more quality, and more comfortable (what percent of file traders burn audio CDs with the themes they download?). And if they really think about what they download as a sample, a hope remains.
It could be benefical for big databases. With free and widely available databases more and more applications will rely in it, and for those applications that need to grow more than the actual database can, then there is where the big databases come. After all, all are SQL based, is easier to migrate an application from mysql/postgressql/msql/interbase to oracle/redbrick than, well, a non sql database to a sql one.
In a job I had to migrate an application done originally in clipper to web/sql/etc, and choosed mysql because I thinked that it will be enough, but if not, the migration to a new sql server will be a lot faster and less complex than the first one.
Children of Dune is a sort of fusion between the books Dune Messiah and Children of Dune. And if you are lucky, will not happen nothing very new compared to the books (well, more than the residual effects of making from those 2 books 1 tv adaptation)
Not sure if it would be practical, but once you can get music in whatever way, kazaa, friends, hear in the radio, a way to get everyone happy is some kind of honor system... you like something? enjoy some music, movie, book, whatever that you got without media associated? well, pay for it, have some clear way to send the money to who did that, without paying taxes several times, intermediaries, the media if you don't want/need it, etc.
If it have some kind of media associated, like CDs, cassetes, minidisks or other kind, well, it have a cost and that should be charged, maybe with a plus for ensuring that the author/producer/etc gets some of his pay.
It will have abuses, most people will not pay nothing at least at first, but with time, I think that things will be rentable and maybe more fair than actual system for all involved parties.
I know that this is a bit utopical, but looks that it have the shape of the right solution.
I think Kartoo also give a graphical view of search results, but I don't know if it do the kind of mapping or relationship that do the TouchGraph GoogleBrowser or anacubis.
Anyway, this seems to be a next step in the evolution of search engines, not giving URLs that matches queries, but relating them, showing the relationship between actual data and ubication in internet.
It could grow in width, reaching everywhere with appliances, internet enabled dispositives, ipv6 addresses even for your pencil, all enabled to access by voice, touch(for screens and things like that) and maybe more. I don't think that in 10 year we'll have holographic screens for clocks, a la Final Fantasy or Spy Kids 2, but is a nice goal.
It could grow in depth. Have a big amount of content, but is still far from having "everything" know by man, in every language, in every media.
And it could grow mature in other ways, being more self consistent, more consolidated. I think that will not be so far something that give a consolidated view of the web, something like data warehousing do for complex databases, but for the more complex database of all.
Directories like yahoo did a first step, so the same did the first search engines. Google advanced a bit more, consilidating a bit the web giving weight to more linked things. But there still a lot of work to do in that direction, something that answer my mostly free form questions not giving me a collection of links that could talk about what I'm searching for, but an answer, something really like the old oracle, but for now and mostly for real.
The last part is what I see more probable for the next years, still a lot needs to be developed, but there is a more or less clear path to reach it, search engines already have a big chunk of the www to start, and some legislation maybe will be needed (extractind data from web pages for that of things will be very similar to screen scraping).
Of course, all of this could happen if nothing avoid this, like war, global economic problems, patents and IP in general don't put obstacles, famine, diseases, extintion levels events or Microsoft.
I don't remember it this was posted already in previous discussions, but in this
interview with IBM Kernel Hackers from last year, some points are raised, some good and some bad for IBM, specially in the 2nd question. In short, the people at IBM that was into the linux kernel development can't take parts of i.e. AIX code and put into Linux and viceversa, but some interchange of ideas could have been happened if a developer of one team talks with one of another.
Slashdot Mirror
Think about it, if the cost of the OS is gone one of the main reasons to swich to linux (not the biggest, but at least one of the more easily noted) is gone. If the source is open, will be no more security by obscurity, a lot of eyes will detect and fix the hundreds of remaining critical bugs in the code, maybe even make Win95 as stable as XP or Linux, or make really safe XP. If Windows now have almost the entire market share on the desktop and not so in the server market, with this not only expand even more their dominance in the desktop, but will have the same dominance in the the server market, and more than this, the market will expand with free/open windows.
What about Microsoft? How it will generate revenues? With services, support, not so free apps (i.e. Office), having their specific distribution, using it as a plataform of selling their own services (passport?).
now it have 4 new themes! Finally something that I can say clearly that is better in the new model!
In example, for a war with North Korea, a couple of reasons are that they have nuclear power, since 70's have problems with America, and whatever you want, in the right moment the justifications will look very important. And the arab countries? There is where all the terrorists come! you only need another big building taken down and US troops will invade what they want in that region. And, of course, France, they send those killer pretzels to Bush, what more you need for a war declaration? And about China, well, all the spam come from there, half of slashdot will say that is ok to invade china if that stop a bit the spam.
Also is to be worried that with a precedent, you say that this kind of reasons to invade a country are good, and anyone in the world can take this as a justification. Just after America invaded Afganistan looking for terrorists, Israel did the same with the palestinian territories, blowing all the peace efforts that were done till that moment, because America say that is ok to invade a country and change they government, religion, whatever, if they have terrorists inside.
Could be good because if this kind of things is very sucessful the war will end sooner and will be no more life loses.
In the other hand, if the war ends, was "easy" and without a lot of lost lives, and Bush feels sucessful and invincible, what will be next? North Korea? the rest of the arab countries? China? France?
Asking for some kind of money (even for charity) for sending mail to something will stop a lot of people of sending email, even mail that you would want to receive. Suppose that I want to mail someone with this system because he have a worm, or an open relay, warn him about something or whatever that he wants to know. If I have to pay to do a favor to someone, well, I will forget about it. Worst than this, suppose that the author of this paper use the system, and I want to warn him of a problem there, well, in this case the problem will happen in the worst moment possible, but I will not warn him.
mmm a gallery of big microsoft bugs in the history could be nice also, but I will need a month to download all those screenshots.
The real threat right now is spammers, not file traders. Is something that affects and in some way or another harm or could harm us all. Why not put them all in jails? or in pits, or use them as human shields on iraq, etc.
that a lot of soldiers and bombs will go over Iraq in the next few hours, ok.
that the world seems to be against Iraq and/or Saddam, ok
But that they wake up Saddam 6am with the first misile even before a declared war was a BIG mistake. Now Saddam will get angry and take revenge on Bush! Who likes to get nice dreams interrupted in that way?
Please, people, a bit of ettiquette, even on war.
This one is more worm friendly than the other. You know, Klez, Sircam, etc, ARE worms, and some of the most sucessful email worms are so because IE vulnerabilities (like the iframe bug). So this, that can be activated by a html mail, is the perfect opportunity for a big mail worm, and maybe easier to do than an obscure buffer overflow.
From the Microsoft security bulletin
---------------
How to Check Which Version You Have
If you are unsure whether a product you are running is affected by this issue, check the version.
To determine which version of Microsoft Windows you are running:
1. On the taskbar at the bottom of your screen, click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Run dialog box, type: winver
3. Click OK.
A dialog box displays the version that you are running.
-------------
If it say "Microsoft " and something else, you are vulnerable.
Considering how much exploited was this particular flaw, I don't think that a lot of servers will remain unpatched, but, anyway, I still receiving so much hits from CodeRed and Nimda that I will not be surprised if such worm have a big success.
Anyway, I think that the main use of port scanning today, in internet (to contrast with internal lans, where it have some useful applications, from security audits to automatic configuration of things), is to find vulnerabilities, and even for lawful tries, is recomended to ask permision or be with the knowledge of the the remote administrator. If the ICE don't ask permission to the remote administrator for the scanning, well, I think that the "gray" area is actually pretty dark.
That could count as a really big argument against not disclosing vulnerabilities as soon as possible? I don't know since when Microsoft is aware of this and making the patch, but if it have time to be developed an exploit could had happen enough time yet. If administrators were aware of that problem at least they could have been disabled specially WebDAV, even if they don't have a fix, instead of waiting blindly that someone hacks them.
Or the classic how many * does it take to change a light bulb
Imagine if google news don't return several link to the "same topic" article, but an article of their own, objetive, something made taking in account what say every source and makes its own version. And then, imagine that at internet level, not just for news (of course, giving they own version and links to the sites that it took to make their version).
This kind of things, used with wearable glasses+sound i/o+holoclock could make people of the future very informed (or at least very funny to watch, moving arms in the air to point to their point of view virtual interface).
Ok, you can download the entire CD, there is no "sample song" that you download, but the entire thing. Buying the CD you have it with more quality, and more comfortable (what percent of file traders burn audio CDs with the themes they download?). And if they really think about what they download as a sample, a hope remains.
In a job I had to migrate an application done originally in clipper to web/sql/etc, and choosed mysql because I thinked that it will be enough, but if not, the migration to a new sql server will be a lot faster and less complex than the first one.
"sweeping the planet" sounds a bit exaggerated confronted with 150 affected, and only 9 dead. Anyway, this is a bit offtopic.
Children of Dune is a sort of fusion between the books Dune Messiah and Children of Dune. And if you are lucky, will not happen nothing very new compared to the books (well, more than the residual effects of making from those 2 books 1 tv adaptation)
If it have some kind of media associated, like CDs, cassetes, minidisks or other kind, well, it have a cost and that should be charged, maybe with a plus for ensuring that the author/producer/etc gets some of his pay.
It will have abuses, most people will not pay nothing at least at first, but with time, I think that things will be rentable and maybe more fair than actual system for all involved parties.
I know that this is a bit utopical, but looks that it have the shape of the right solution.
that music industry realizes that they should charge the music, not for the media where it could be.
Anyway, this seems to be a next step in the evolution of search engines, not giving URLs that matches queries, but relating them, showing the relationship between actual data and ubication in internet.
... if are discovered reading my emails, surely will be spammers and mailing list administrators.
It could grow in width, reaching everywhere with appliances, internet enabled dispositives, ipv6 addresses even for your pencil, all enabled to access by voice, touch(for screens and things like that) and maybe more. I don't think that in 10 year we'll have holographic screens for clocks, a la Final Fantasy or Spy Kids 2, but is a nice goal.
It could grow in depth. Have a big amount of content, but is still far from having "everything" know by man, in every language, in every media.
And it could grow mature in other ways, being more self consistent, more consolidated. I think that will not be so far something that give a consolidated view of the web, something like data warehousing do for complex databases, but for the more complex database of all.
Directories like yahoo did a first step, so the same did the first search engines. Google advanced a bit more, consilidating a bit the web giving weight to more linked things. But there still a lot of work to do in that direction, something that answer my mostly free form questions not giving me a collection of links that could talk about what I'm searching for, but an answer, something really like the old oracle, but for now and mostly for real.
The last part is what I see more probable for the next years, still a lot needs to be developed, but there is a more or less clear path to reach it, search engines already have a big chunk of the www to start, and some legislation maybe will be needed (extractind data from web pages for that of things will be very similar to screen scraping).
Of course, all of this could happen if nothing avoid this, like war, global economic problems, patents and IP in general don't put obstacles, famine, diseases, extintion levels events or Microsoft.
I don't remember it this was posted already in previous discussions, but in this interview with IBM Kernel Hackers from last year, some points are raised, some good and some bad for IBM, specially in the 2nd question. In short, the people at IBM that was into the linux kernel development can't take parts of i.e. AIX code and put into Linux and viceversa, but some interchange of ideas could have been happened if a developer of one team talks with one of another.