Whoops! Forgot to say that those commands go into/etc/system. Sorry for replying to my own post.:)
It's hard to exploit buffer overflows in Solaris..
on
Solaris, AIX Login Hole
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· Score: 4, Informative
Most modern Unices (I know firsthand for Solaris and FreeBSD) allow you to disable execution of the stack. In fact, on Solaris, any attempt to execute the stack is logged.
The inability to execute is enabled by default in Solaris 8. Logging is not. However, you can explicity enable both by entering:
set noexec_user_stack=1
set noexec_user_stack_log=1
and rebooting. Not a huge deal. For FreeBSD, read the 'sysctl' man page.
Besides, if you're running telnet, you're just asking to get hax0red...
...the masses of America, the Joe Sixpacks, the MCSE's, and the VB developers want you to remember just who it was that brough a GUI to America.
Yep. Remember everyone - it was Xerox, Apple, Commodore, Atari, Sun, SGI...er...just about everyone. But the first consumer-level GUI would be that of the Mac. (Yeah, ProDOS and Lisa were first, but they weren't consumer-level.)
The point is that the USA did not pay for everything. However when they cut back their budgets they also denied other parties access to the station that was jointly paid for by the USA and other nations. Canada paid $1.4 Billion for their part of the stations and now they don't get to use it. The changes that USA is proposing are in direct violation of an agreement they had signed.
Only because they lose access to the US space shuttle. They could ask the Russians to fly them up there. There's also the issue that the US had to pay quite a bit more than it originally intended to because the Russians reneged on a lot of their payments. The other signatory parties need to complain to Russia, not the US.
...which would be odd, considering I live in Luxembourg...I have the distinct impression everyone kind of expects the US to pay for everything. (For example, everyone's pissed that the US isn't paying what it's supposed to for the UN. That sounds bad, until you realize that the US was supposed to pay 25% of the operating costs by itself, with the other 200 some-odd members paying much, much less.)
The European Union is, if taken as a whole, the largest economy in the world. The European Space Agency could pony up some money for this. I don't see why the US should get suck with an unfair portion of the bills...
Well, I live in Luxembourg (Go Luxembourg! Woohoo!), and I seriously wonder to what they're running that line. Luxembourg (much to my chagrin) doesn't have an actual university. Makes me wonder. That, and the fact that that one line represents something like half the bandwidth running into the country...(actually, I think it's like a quarter. Either way, I'll never see any of it.:)
Well, Apple does have a fairly decent pay-by-month policy. I have a 600MHz iBook (with DVD/CD-RW, 384MB o' RAM, 20GB HD, FireWire, two USB, etc), all for around $110 a month for two years. I doubt this will be extremely obsolete in two years, and it's a damn good machine. Plus, I have the ability to carry it around with me and my portable camera. And it's nice and small.:)
Sorry for the second post. I also wanted to say that, in many cases, Macs are the best solution for consumer/prosumer-level artists. Apple knows their bread is buttered by the graphics and education markets, and they damn well make sure their machines are perfectly suited for them.
You can get color-matching software as part of most OSes, but it's integrated really well with the Mac. The - really good - FireWire support is also important. Digital cameras are a big deal. One-click DVD burning is a good thing, same with CDs. Free movie-making software and DVD-burning software - also good.
Sure, it's possible to get all this for another OS/platform, but it won't all be from one vendor, and it certainly won't be as well integrated. And iMovie is pretty nice for the (free) price. You might seriously want to consider a Mac - there're reasons other than "brand loyalty" that artists stay with them.
And I'm not being a Machead here. It depends on exactly what she needs. Is she upgrading a machine, or is this brand new? If this is brand new, no problem.
If this isn't brand-new - then you have a huge problem. What if she *needs* some Photoshop-only features? GIMP is nice, but it isn't Photoshop, and won't be for a while. (I'm not going to get involved with a flame war over that.)
Does she use a Mac now? In that case, I doubt she'll want to move to a PC. She's an artist, not a computer person - she may have a lot of money invested in Mac-only software. She wouldn't want to take the time to retrain on all sorts of different stuff, not to mention the price.
But if she's never used a computer for art before, or doesn't use it very often, this shouldn't be a problem. But the fact that you said she was surprised by not getting a Mac recommendation makes me think that she uses a Mac already.
It's amazing how much innovation this caused...
on
Email Turns Thirty
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· Score: 2, Funny
I mean, really. In the 30 years since the first email message, scientists have figured out how to STOP HAIR LOSS NOW!!!, ADD INCHES IN MINUTES!!!, bypass Federal drug laws by GETTING VIAGRA IN YOUR OWN HOME!!!, and STOP YOUR SNORING INSTANTLY!!!
Really amazing when you think about it. None of those amazing scientific inventions would've been possible without email.
Well, convergence means different things in different contexts. I don't really want a fax/scanner/copier/printer, because I have room to have a seperate machine for each.
However, being a guy and therefore not carrying a purse, I don't have enough pocket space for a cellphone, PDA, GPS device, etc, etc, etc. In the portable market, convergence makes sense.
"No offense intended, but it's probably just a greedy jew thing." - And I'm not supposed to take offense at that? What the bloody hell?
Sorry, this is totally off-topic...but I had to say something. Well, that and that this post has been modded up...ah, well. Nothing I can do - I chose not to moderate. Hopefully for obvious reasons.:)
You have to give up your social life. Then comes the years of intense training, making sure they don't run away before it's been done. Then you want to make sure their voices are just perfect, and they speak fluent Latin. Then, one great day, you just *snip* *snip*, and it's done.
What? You said *UNIX*? Oh, sorry, thought you said eunuchs...
Well, according to state law, Texas *is* the only state that "officially" allows it. Texas has all sorts of interesting exceptions to laws, due to clauses in the treaty of annexation, for example:
1) Texas has the right to secede from the Union. In fact, we're the only state that could legally do that during the Civil War. Technically the North had to attack us not for seceding, but for aiding the rest of the South.
2) Texas has the right to split into five different states, if it so chooses. This was because Texas is such a large area that it was thought to be ungovernable.
3) Texas water boundries extend farthur than the rest of the country's, due to the old Spanish measurements used in the treaty.
4) Texas has all sorts of screwed-up wine import/export laws that technically tread on interstate commerce. Nobody care's though.
I'm sure there are plenty more, but those are the interesting ones.
1) I do 90% of my work from a terminal. The only reason I even run X is to have Netscape, XMMS, and SDtMail. I actually tried running just console for a while, and didn't notice any degredation in my productivity - it was just hard to read UserFriendly.
2) This is Solaris, and GNOME is very Linux-oriented. I don't care what anyone says, it is. I don't like not having access to some Sun-specific keys in the hotkey editor, or having all these "Unknowns" pop up in my sysid.
3) It's slower and less mature than CDE. GNOME is trying to hit a moving API, and there is the one problem with Open Source development: The second-system effect. CDE knows what it does, and does it well. GNOME tries to do everything - which I don't want. I like that it just manages my workspaces, windows, cut'n'paste buffers, etc...And doesn't browse the web, grab the weather report, make julienne fries...
Anyway, just my two cents. But CDE is a good desktop if you want a more UNIX-y (small tools doing one thing well, instead of Nautilis trying to be a web browser, file manager, PIM, etc.)
I'm sick of everyone saying "bin Laden didn't do the WTC attack, and we shouldn't be attacking Afghanistan because we don't have proof." Okay, I don't really care at this point whether or not bin Laden did the WTC attack - we've been trying to extradite him for YEARS for crimes he ADMITTED he was responsible for.
So what if he didn't do the WTC attacks? He's guilty of plenty of other things. As for suspending the Constitution in time of war - it clearly allows suspension of the writ of habeous corpus in the event of war/military action. And as for Executive Orders - all it takes to override them is Congress passing a law with enough majority to overrule a veto, and they cease to have an effect.
As for Bush "not negotiating" - Afghanistan has made offers, sure, but none of them are sane. They want to try bin Laden themselves - yeah, that'll be a fair trial. They want to hand over bin Laden to a third country - as long as that country is one of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, UAE, Pakistan, Indonesia, etc, etc. All countries whose populations (and probably judicial systems) are very bin Ladin-sympathetic. Once again, I'm sure he'd get a fair trial.
As for our "horrible" policies in the Middle East. Yes, I'll admit that some of the things we've done were horrible - but what about the other things that people so readily forget? Like the fact that Afghanistan's government's budget consists mostly of foriegn aid - and we provide most of that to them. And the sanctions in Iraq - they don't, as many people say, prevent food or medicine from getting in. They're deliver food and medicine to Iraq, and then have no idea if it's delivered to the appropriate places. Saddam was constructing weapons that could kill hundreds of thousands of people, in violation of international law, and then won't allow people in to see that he's complying with international law. Even though the US allows Russian and UN weapons inspectors in at least once a year to verify their chemical/bio weapons factories are shut down.
I'm sick of all these Americans deciding that America is wrong in this. I'm a freaking citizen of Luxembourg, and I think America's right in this. Why do its own citizens think that it's wrong to defend itself?
I work in the Managed Security Services department of Exodus (disclaimer: these opinions are my own, not Exodus's)...
I can say that fiscal policy was pretty lax for a while, and I'm afraid it still might be. The purchase of GlobalCenter was also probably the biggest nail in our coffin - it weighed us down with a lot of debt and didn't really accomplish anything. Sure GC was our biggest competitor, but they would've gone under without our help after the dot-com crash.
I hope to keep my job, at least for a while longer. The people are nice, the company pays for school, my boss is good on letting me schedule myself as I please...It's been a fun ride. I'm just surprised at the swiftness of the demise. I feel bad that I've kept my job, when several of my friends have been laid off all around me (I was unfortunate enough to witness several of the layoffs personally.)
Either way, I've got other job oppurtunities lined up, so I'm not too scared. However, anyone who sees a resume for someone with Exodus experience, please consider them - they'll be worth the money.
I was in no way defending Microsfot - I hate them as much as anyone. I do, however, want people in the Linux camp to not drive people off with their rabid fanaticism. Were I a potential convert to Linux, I would be put off by some of the rantings regularly heard from RMS, Slashdot, et al.
Ok, I have had it. From this point on, I'm going to moderate these "Slashdot hypocricy" posts as redundant. It has been said a million times, and it's true, but it's not news to anyone. If you have actual insightful comments, make them.
Then you might as well mod all of Slashdot as redudant. I was bitching about the hypocricy, true - but also about how we've said everything like this before. All BSD posts are going to be flooded with highly-modded BSD-sucks-Linux-rules! posts, all BSD-vs-GPL stories are going to be flooded with GPL-rules!
I may not have said anything new - but at least I reminded people that they weren't, either.
...is not that the code was "borrowed", but what people are saying about it. So far, the highest-modded comments say:
* If this had been included in WindowsXP he wouldn't have known, so he couldn't have complained. Yay GPL!
* Why post this on Slashdot if the issue is resolved?
* This code was reverse-engineered anyway, so why is he bitching when we leech it?
Lord almighty the hypocrites in this place.
My response:
* Microsoft *has* included BSD code, and they've done everything they're supposed to. Why can't we ever have a discussion like this where we admit we're wrong? Sometimes we can say something without promoting the GPL or Linux.
* Why post on Slashdot if it's resolved? Think about this: if MS had taken code from Linux and used it, and then it was resolved, it would still be posted on Slashdot and people would be ready to beat down Bill G's door and crucify him.
* Of course the code was reverse-engineered. And Jesus, how often do we bitch on here about how we should have the right to reverse-engineer? When someone else does it, it's low - when Linux does it (and trust me, a large number of Linux drivers are reverse-engineered), it's the best thing since sliced bread. Remember, kiddies - Linux does something, it's good; Anyone else does the *exact same thing* and it's bad.
Sometimes I just get sick of the people who bash religion and then follow Linus like he's God...*sigh*
Maybe not Los Angeles. I mean, come on, have you lived there?
Seriously, though, the ability to tap anyone's phone in the country is already there - having a carnivore-type system just gives them the ability to tap into Net communications. Would you advocate having them take away every phone switch in the world because "the government could tap into your phone conversation", even though it would mean not having a phone?
Sometimes the nature of the beast is that the government needs the ability to enforce laws. I would trade the chance that they would listen in to my conversation (especially since it would be illegal without a court-order), for the chance to stop something like the WTC disaster.
There's a problem that few people realize about lightweight standards - they encourage fragmentation. For example, both IRIX and Solaris confom to the UNIX spec, but the UNIX spec is so lightweight, it doesn't provide everything that a moden OS needs. The lighter-weight the standard, the lighter-weight the apps need to be to conform to that standard. IRIX and Solaris are as different as night and day - and I don't just mean binary compatibility. IRIX, Solaris, Tru64, hell even MacOS X all conform to UNIX, but they all have to extend it so much just to get some beyond-basic functionality out of it (and none of those extensions are standard!)
About the "search warrent problem": People are saying that, because the FBI cracked the computers in Russia and downloaded the data, but didn't view it until they got a warrent, this sets a precedent to say that breaking into computers is legal, just not reading their contents. What this actually says is:
1) FBI doesn't need a warrent to break into computers in another country - we are not a hegemony, our Constitution doesn't apply to Russia.
2) They had the suspects in the US. They downloaded the data (copied it) into the US. Suddenly the data and its owners are in the US - now they need a search warrent to view it, as both are in the US.
Slashdot Mirror
Whoops! Forgot to say that those commands go into /etc/system. Sorry for replying to my own post. :)
Most modern Unices (I know firsthand for Solaris and FreeBSD) allow you to disable execution of the stack. In fact, on Solaris, any attempt to execute the stack is logged.
The inability to execute is enabled by default in Solaris 8. Logging is not. However, you can explicity enable both by entering:
set noexec_user_stack=1
set noexec_user_stack_log=1
and rebooting. Not a huge deal. For FreeBSD, read the 'sysctl' man page.
Besides, if you're running telnet, you're just asking to get hax0red...
...the masses of America, the Joe Sixpacks, the MCSE's, and the VB developers want you to remember just who it was that brough a GUI to America.
Yep. Remember everyone - it was Xerox, Apple, Commodore, Atari, Sun, SGI...er...just about everyone. But the first consumer-level GUI would be that of the Mac. (Yeah, ProDOS and Lisa were first, but they weren't consumer-level.)
I specifically refer you to Gen 1:1. Considering this happened at 0+3 days, I have a feeling it's a bit older than anything they provide. ;)
The point is that the USA did not pay for everything. However when they cut back their budgets they also denied other parties access to the station that was jointly paid for by the USA and other nations. Canada paid $1.4 Billion for their part of the stations and now they don't get to use it. The changes that USA is proposing are in direct violation of an agreement they had signed.
Only because they lose access to the US space shuttle. They could ask the Russians to fly them up there. There's also the issue that the US had to pay quite a bit more than it originally intended to because the Russians reneged on a lot of their payments. The other signatory parties need to complain to Russia, not the US.
...which would be odd, considering I live in Luxembourg...I have the distinct impression everyone kind of expects the US to pay for everything. (For example, everyone's pissed that the US isn't paying what it's supposed to for the UN. That sounds bad, until you realize that the US was supposed to pay 25% of the operating costs by itself, with the other 200 some-odd members paying much, much less.)
The European Union is, if taken as a whole, the largest economy in the world. The European Space Agency could pony up some money for this. I don't see why the US should get suck with an unfair portion of the bills...
Well, I live in Luxembourg (Go Luxembourg! Woohoo!), and I seriously wonder to what they're running that line. Luxembourg (much to my chagrin) doesn't have an actual university. Makes me wonder. That, and the fact that that one line represents something like half the bandwidth running into the country...(actually, I think it's like a quarter. Either way, I'll never see any of it.:)
Well, Apple does have a fairly decent pay-by-month policy. I have a 600MHz iBook (with DVD/CD-RW, 384MB o' RAM, 20GB HD, FireWire, two USB, etc), all for around $110 a month for two years. I doubt this will be extremely obsolete in two years, and it's a damn good machine. Plus, I have the ability to carry it around with me and my portable camera. And it's nice and small. :)
Sorry for the second post. I also wanted to say that, in many cases, Macs are the best solution for consumer/prosumer-level artists. Apple knows their bread is buttered by the graphics and education markets, and they damn well make sure their machines are perfectly suited for them.
You can get color-matching software as part of most OSes, but it's integrated really well with the Mac. The - really good - FireWire support is also important. Digital cameras are a big deal. One-click DVD burning is a good thing, same with CDs. Free movie-making software and DVD-burning software - also good.
Sure, it's possible to get all this for another OS/platform, but it won't all be from one vendor, and it certainly won't be as well integrated. And iMovie is pretty nice for the (free) price. You might seriously want to consider a Mac - there're reasons other than "brand loyalty" that artists stay with them.
And I'm not being a Machead here. It depends on exactly what she needs. Is she upgrading a machine, or is this brand new? If this is brand new, no problem.
If this isn't brand-new - then you have a huge problem. What if she *needs* some Photoshop-only features? GIMP is nice, but it isn't Photoshop, and won't be for a while. (I'm not going to get involved with a flame war over that.)
Does she use a Mac now? In that case, I doubt she'll want to move to a PC. She's an artist, not a computer person - she may have a lot of money invested in Mac-only software. She wouldn't want to take the time to retrain on all sorts of different stuff, not to mention the price.
But if she's never used a computer for art before, or doesn't use it very often, this shouldn't be a problem. But the fact that you said she was surprised by not getting a Mac recommendation makes me think that she uses a Mac already.
I mean, really. In the 30 years since the first email message, scientists have figured out how to STOP HAIR LOSS NOW!!!, ADD INCHES IN MINUTES!!!, bypass Federal drug laws by GETTING VIAGRA IN YOUR OWN HOME!!!, and STOP YOUR SNORING INSTANTLY!!!
Really amazing when you think about it. None of those amazing scientific inventions would've been possible without email.
Well, convergence means different things in different contexts. I don't really want a fax/scanner/copier/printer, because I have room to have a seperate machine for each.
However, being a guy and therefore not carrying a purse, I don't have enough pocket space for a cellphone, PDA, GPS device, etc, etc, etc. In the portable market, convergence makes sense.
"No offense intended, but it's probably just a greedy jew thing." - And I'm not supposed to take offense at that? What the bloody hell?
:)
Sorry, this is totally off-topic...but I had to say something. Well, that and that this post has been modded up...ah, well. Nothing I can do - I chose not to moderate. Hopefully for obvious reasons.
You have to give up your social life. Then comes the years of intense training, making sure they don't run away before it's been done. Then you want to make sure their voices are just perfect, and they speak fluent Latin. Then, one great day, you just *snip* *snip*, and it's done.
What? You said *UNIX*? Oh, sorry, thought you said eunuchs...
Well, according to state law, Texas *is* the only state that "officially" allows it. Texas has all sorts of interesting exceptions to laws, due to clauses in the treaty of annexation, for example:
1) Texas has the right to secede from the Union. In fact, we're the only state that could legally do that during the Civil War. Technically the North had to attack us not for seceding, but for aiding the rest of the South.
2) Texas has the right to split into five different states, if it so chooses. This was because Texas is such a large area that it was thought to be ungovernable.
3) Texas water boundries extend farthur than the rest of the country's, due to the old Spanish measurements used in the treaty.
4) Texas has all sorts of screwed-up wine import/export laws that technically tread on interstate commerce. Nobody care's though.
I'm sure there are plenty more, but those are the interesting ones.
And I'll tell you why...Three reasons:
1) I do 90% of my work from a terminal. The only reason I even run X is to have Netscape, XMMS, and SDtMail. I actually tried running just console for a while, and didn't notice any degredation in my productivity - it was just hard to read UserFriendly.
2) This is Solaris, and GNOME is very Linux-oriented. I don't care what anyone says, it is. I don't like not having access to some Sun-specific keys in the hotkey editor, or having all these "Unknowns" pop up in my sysid.
3) It's slower and less mature than CDE. GNOME is trying to hit a moving API, and there is the one problem with Open Source development: The second-system effect. CDE knows what it does, and does it well. GNOME tries to do everything - which I don't want. I like that it just manages my workspaces, windows, cut'n'paste buffers, etc...And doesn't browse the web, grab the weather report, make julienne fries...
Anyway, just my two cents. But CDE is a good desktop if you want a more UNIX-y (small tools doing one thing well, instead of Nautilis trying to be a web browser, file manager, PIM, etc.)
I'm sick of everyone saying "bin Laden didn't do the WTC attack, and we shouldn't be attacking Afghanistan because we don't have proof." Okay, I don't really care at this point whether or not bin Laden did the WTC attack - we've been trying to extradite him for YEARS for crimes he ADMITTED he was responsible for.
So what if he didn't do the WTC attacks? He's guilty of plenty of other things. As for suspending the Constitution in time of war - it clearly allows suspension of the writ of habeous corpus in the event of war/military action. And as for Executive Orders - all it takes to override them is Congress passing a law with enough majority to overrule a veto, and they cease to have an effect.
As for Bush "not negotiating" - Afghanistan has made offers, sure, but none of them are sane. They want to try bin Laden themselves - yeah, that'll be a fair trial. They want to hand over bin Laden to a third country - as long as that country is one of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, UAE, Pakistan, Indonesia, etc, etc. All countries whose populations (and probably judicial systems) are very bin Ladin-sympathetic. Once again, I'm sure he'd get a fair trial.
As for our "horrible" policies in the Middle East. Yes, I'll admit that some of the things we've done were horrible - but what about the other things that people so readily forget? Like the fact that Afghanistan's government's budget consists mostly of foriegn aid - and we provide most of that to them. And the sanctions in Iraq - they don't, as many people say, prevent food or medicine from getting in. They're deliver food and medicine to Iraq, and then have no idea if it's delivered to the appropriate places. Saddam was constructing weapons that could kill hundreds of thousands of people, in violation of international law, and then won't allow people in to see that he's complying with international law. Even though the US allows Russian and UN weapons inspectors in at least once a year to verify their chemical/bio weapons factories are shut down.
I'm sick of all these Americans deciding that America is wrong in this. I'm a freaking citizen of Luxembourg, and I think America's right in this. Why do its own citizens think that it's wrong to defend itself?
Why buy one when you a build it for half the price?
I work in the Managed Security Services department of Exodus (disclaimer: these opinions are my own, not Exodus's)...
I can say that fiscal policy was pretty lax for a while, and I'm afraid it still might be. The purchase of GlobalCenter was also probably the biggest nail in our coffin - it weighed us down with a lot of debt and didn't really accomplish anything. Sure GC was our biggest competitor, but they would've gone under without our help after the dot-com crash.
I hope to keep my job, at least for a while longer. The people are nice, the company pays for school, my boss is good on letting me schedule myself as I please...It's been a fun ride. I'm just surprised at the swiftness of the demise. I feel bad that I've kept my job, when several of my friends have been laid off all around me (I was unfortunate enough to witness several of the layoffs personally.)
Either way, I've got other job oppurtunities lined up, so I'm not too scared. However, anyone who sees a resume for someone with Exodus experience, please consider them - they'll be worth the money.
I was in no way defending Microsfot - I hate them as much as anyone. I do, however, want people in the Linux camp to not drive people off with their rabid fanaticism. Were I a potential convert to Linux, I would be put off by some of the rantings regularly heard from RMS, Slashdot, et al.
Then you might as well mod all of Slashdot as redudant. I was bitching about the hypocricy, true - but also about how we've said everything like this before. All BSD posts are going to be flooded with highly-modded BSD-sucks-Linux-rules! posts, all BSD-vs-GPL stories are going to be flooded with GPL-rules!
I may not have said anything new - but at least I reminded people that they weren't, either.
...is not that the code was "borrowed", but what people are saying about it. So far, the highest-modded comments say:
* If this had been included in WindowsXP he wouldn't have known, so he couldn't have complained. Yay GPL!
* Why post this on Slashdot if the issue is resolved?
* This code was reverse-engineered anyway, so why is he bitching when we leech it?
Lord almighty the hypocrites in this place.
My response:
* Microsoft *has* included BSD code, and they've done everything they're supposed to. Why can't we ever have a discussion like this where we admit we're wrong? Sometimes we can say something without promoting the GPL or Linux.
* Why post on Slashdot if it's resolved? Think about this: if MS had taken code from Linux and used it, and then it was resolved, it would still be posted on Slashdot and people would be ready to beat down Bill G's door and crucify him.
* Of course the code was reverse-engineered. And Jesus, how often do we bitch on here about how we should have the right to reverse-engineer? When someone else does it, it's low - when Linux does it (and trust me, a large number of Linux drivers are reverse-engineered), it's the best thing since sliced bread. Remember, kiddies - Linux does something, it's good; Anyone else does the *exact same thing* and it's bad.
Sometimes I just get sick of the people who bash religion and then follow Linus like he's God...*sigh*
Maybe not Los Angeles. I mean, come on, have you lived there?
Seriously, though, the ability to tap anyone's phone in the country is already there - having a carnivore-type system just gives them the ability to tap into Net communications. Would you advocate having them take away every phone switch in the world because "the government could tap into your phone conversation", even though it would mean not having a phone?
Sometimes the nature of the beast is that the government needs the ability to enforce laws. I would trade the chance that they would listen in to my conversation (especially since it would be illegal without a court-order), for the chance to stop something like the WTC disaster.
There's a problem that few people realize about lightweight standards - they encourage fragmentation. For example, both IRIX and Solaris confom to the UNIX spec, but the UNIX spec is so lightweight, it doesn't provide everything that a moden OS needs. The lighter-weight the standard, the lighter-weight the apps need to be to conform to that standard. IRIX and Solaris are as different as night and day - and I don't just mean binary compatibility. IRIX, Solaris, Tru64, hell even MacOS X all conform to UNIX, but they all have to extend it so much just to get some beyond-basic functionality out of it (and none of those extensions are standard!)
About the "search warrent problem": People are saying that, because the FBI cracked the computers in Russia and downloaded the data, but didn't view it until they got a warrent, this sets a precedent to say that breaking into computers is legal, just not reading their contents. What this actually says is:
1) FBI doesn't need a warrent to break into computers in another country - we are not a hegemony, our Constitution doesn't apply to Russia.
2) They had the suspects in the US. They downloaded the data (copied it) into the US. Suddenly the data and its owners are in the US - now they need a search warrent to view it, as both are in the US.
Just my two cents.