At the risk of being a "Me too!" poster, I agree. When I was in my senior year, I was taking a fourth-year microcontroller class, and it was painfully obvious my lab partner hadn't coded at all in his life. He would start a condition check with an "if", then indent once more for the "else if", then once more for the next "else if" until, ten "else if"s later the condition was occupying three lines on the text editor.
He wasn't a Comp Sci. major because he liked coding, that's for sure.
I read the Faded Sun trilogy, or at least that's what I think it was called. It was about a nomadic race of ninja-like people dying out, and the last survivors traveling to their original planet. It was really good in some parts, but really draaaaaged in others.
Re:Sorta agree with both points of view
on
Singularity Sky
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· Score: 1
I agree with your points too (I've read a lot of SF).
A lot of SF is crap (but it's still fun to read (and there's nothing wrong with that.))
You give some great examples like CJ Cherryh (who I read one time when I lost power for a couple days (although I didn't think it was the best thing ever (although one can only think of one thing as the best thing ever right? (unless one changes his (or her) mind after thinking something is the best thing ever)), still good though).
Either you're a Lisp programmer, or a character in a really long David Lynch movie.
How then would you suggest we separate the "S" which pluralizes a given acromyn from that acronym, so that is not mistaken for a different acronym
Freakin context. "What, the RIAA is price fixing CERN Document Servers now too?!"
Plus, there's no word I can think of that would require a lower case s in an acronym. If an acronym does end in lower case s, its plural ends in "es" anyway. I'm sure beings of reasonable intelligence can figure it out.
I'd argue the RIAA does have to pay the government for their abuse of monopoly power....in the form of campaign contributions.
But what makes you think that you are entitled to anything?
We are entitled to a country in which corporations obey the laws applicable to them because of their monopoly status. If we have to sue corporations as citizens because our law enforcement turns a blind eye, so be it.
Probably too late to get modded up, but if you haven't heard of it you may want to look up "Tragedy of the Commons" on google. The name comes from a major cause of famine in Europe, which promoted the creation of small town governments to prevent it from happening again. It's both an excellent general analysis and behavorial case study for why self governance doesn't work, even with relatively low populations without even considering crime.
My point is that the Windows' inherent insecurity is not the cause of MyDooom and, more specifically, the latest worms mentioned in the submission.
Yes, the question was rhetorical, and the point is an app can start accepting connections on a given port (which is how the latest worms are spreading) no matter what your OS. It's possible to firewall everything and require admin access to open ports on Linux and OSX, but hey, it's possible on Windows too. Bad sysadmins and clueless users are a problem on every platform.
Funny you suggest either buying a whole new machine, or using a whole different OS, when the MyDoom problem could just be solved by not opening attachments.
I'll just ask: is it possible for a binary file to open ports and send itself as an email attachment on a Mac? On a linux box? Are you sure you understand the problem?
So, if I send you a non-descript brown package with no return address, and you open it, you should be held liable for the resulting explosion? What if I use amazon's return address? Or your mom's return address?
If a letter arrived in your (real life) mailbox with a return address of "Your Secret Admirer" would you not open it? Should you be held liable for "causing" an anthrax outbreak if the letter contained it?
There is, for every single person, a level of social engineering that will get them to momentarily trust something you've sent them. It just so happens that level is low for a lot of unknowledgeable users when done over computers.
If the virus nukes the drive, the DDoS and/or backdoor is suddenly no longer effective. Computer viruses, unlike the biological kind, have a goal in mind in addition to mindless reproduction. If the point is to open a backdoor to allow spammers to use it, why kill off your host?
In addition to Spybot and Ad Aware, I also use HiJackThis! to scan for suspicious registry entries. It finds a lot of stuff that isn't spyware per se, but finds apps that have put themselves into right-click menus, IE plugins and helpers, run on start up entries, etc.
I have visited very few sites in the last couple years that couldn't handle alternate browsers, and most of them were small-business sites or MS sites. The most notable is the USPS package tracking page, which doesn't recognize Opera 7.11 as being higher than Opera 5.0 (which it says it supports).
Wells Fargo online banking works just fine with either Opera or Mozilla.
Firstly because it's a prisoner's dilemma, and corporations are always interested in short term gain (Enron, anyone?). It only takes one corporation to "cash in" on nano-tech's value to the average Joe while the others are all nervously holding back, eyeing the other potential distributors for a sign that they're going forward so they can jump in anytime. Sooner or later, one corporation will realize it's inevitable and go for the short term gain.
Secondly, some CEO's and Boards of Directors actually manage to attain their positions while remaining relatively human, and might turn their back, however briefly, on their lifelong pursuit of material gain to do something good at their own expense.
So what? If my brother eats a brazil nut, he'll keel over and die... Should we ban them? I can eat them till the cows come home and I'll just get fat(ter). Some people are allergic to some shit. Some people get sick/headaches/whatever if they eat msg, but to 99% of the population, it's just like salt with an evil name
Of course, if we were to grind up brazil nuts, load the powder into crop dusters, and spray nearly every vegetable produced in the U.S. with them I think there would be cause for complaint. The DDT controversy (whether valid or not) was concerned with all major agricultural companies employing it, not whether you chose to sprinkle a little on your salad.
If a significant percentage of our population suffers health problems if they ingest a particular chemical, maybe we should keep people from spraying vegetables with it. Maybe.
Slashdot Mirror
No, it'd be a freakin airplane.
I don't think we really have to worry about naming this thing though. It's pretty obvious vaporware.
if(viscous.meansSameAs("oily") && !viscous.meansSameAs("adhesive")g etTheeTo("http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/ dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=viscous&x=0&y=0" );
{
this.parent.
}
And wash your hands before you go to the bathroom.
Trust me.
At the risk of being a "Me too!" poster, I agree. When I was in my senior year, I was taking a fourth-year microcontroller class, and it was painfully obvious my lab partner hadn't coded at all in his life. He would start a condition check with an "if", then indent once more for the "else if", then once more for the next "else if" until, ten "else if"s later the condition was occupying three lines on the text editor.
He wasn't a Comp Sci. major because he liked coding, that's for sure.
I read the Faded Sun trilogy, or at least that's what I think it was called. It was about a nomadic race of ninja-like people dying out, and the last survivors traveling to their original planet. It was really good in some parts, but really draaaaaged in others.
I agree with your points too (I've read a lot of SF).
A lot of SF is crap (but it's still fun to read (and there's nothing wrong with that.))
You give some great examples like CJ Cherryh (who I read one time when I lost power for a couple days (although I didn't think it was the best thing ever (although one can only think of one thing as the best thing ever right? (unless one changes his (or her) mind after thinking something is the best thing ever)), still good though).
Either you're a Lisp programmer, or a character in a really long David Lynch movie.
I did. It's from Strong Bad's email. Unfortunately, it wasn't funny when it was incorrect.
Actually, CD requires an apostrophe to show possession because it's a noun. "It" and "her" do not (other pronouns have their own possessive forms).
Plus, there's no word I can think of that would require a lower case s in an acronym. If an acronym does end in lower case s, its plural ends in "es" anyway. I'm sure beings of reasonable intelligence can figure it out.
We are entitled to a country in which corporations obey the laws applicable to them because of their monopoly status. If we have to sue corporations as citizens because our law enforcement turns a blind eye, so be it.
Some advice: Please re-tune your sarcasm detector before posting again.
Probably too late to get modded up, but if you haven't heard of it you may want to look up "Tragedy of the Commons" on google. The name comes from a major cause of famine in Europe, which promoted the creation of small town governments to prevent it from happening again. It's both an excellent general analysis and behavorial case study for why self governance doesn't work, even with relatively low populations without even considering crime.
My point is that the Windows' inherent insecurity is not the cause of MyDooom and, more specifically, the latest worms mentioned in the submission.
Yes, the question was rhetorical, and the point is an app can start accepting connections on a given port (which is how the latest worms are spreading) no matter what your OS. It's possible to firewall everything and require admin access to open ports on Linux and OSX, but hey, it's possible on Windows too. Bad sysadmins and clueless users are a problem on every platform.
Funny you suggest either buying a whole new machine, or using a whole different OS, when the MyDoom problem could just be solved by not opening attachments.
I'll just ask: is it possible for a binary file to open ports and send itself as an email attachment on a Mac? On a linux box? Are you sure you understand the problem?
Several, actually, but unfortunately they work for the RIAA.
So, if I send you a non-descript brown package with no return address, and you open it, you should be held liable for the resulting explosion? What if I use amazon's return address? Or your mom's return address?
If a letter arrived in your (real life) mailbox with a return address of "Your Secret Admirer" would you not open it? Should you be held liable for "causing" an anthrax outbreak if the letter contained it?
There is, for every single person, a level of social engineering that will get them to momentarily trust something you've sent them. It just so happens that level is low for a lot of unknowledgeable users when done over computers.
Can I come too?
If the virus nukes the drive, the DDoS and/or backdoor is suddenly no longer effective. Computer viruses, unlike the biological kind, have a goal in mind in addition to mindless reproduction. If the point is to open a backdoor to allow spammers to use it, why kill off your host?
That was a great way to duplicate the link in the story submission....you know, without the google referrer.
:)
A real service you did us there
In addition to Spybot and Ad Aware, I also use HiJackThis! to scan for suspicious registry entries. It finds a lot of stuff that isn't spyware per se, but finds apps that have put themselves into right-click menus, IE plugins and helpers, run on start up entries, etc.
Taking down an IIS server is like tripping a retarded kid.
You big meanie.
Funny, my boss just asked me how well mysql scales.
I have visited very few sites in the last couple years that couldn't handle alternate browsers, and most of them were small-business sites or MS sites. The most notable is the USPS package tracking page, which doesn't recognize Opera 7.11 as being higher than Opera 5.0 (which it says it supports).
Wells Fargo online banking works just fine with either Opera or Mozilla.
Firstly because it's a prisoner's dilemma, and corporations are always interested in short term gain (Enron, anyone?). It only takes one corporation to "cash in" on nano-tech's value to the average Joe while the others are all nervously holding back, eyeing the other potential distributors for a sign that they're going forward so they can jump in anytime. Sooner or later, one corporation will realize it's inevitable and go for the short term gain.
Secondly, some CEO's and Boards of Directors actually manage to attain their positions while remaining relatively human, and might turn their back, however briefly, on their lifelong pursuit of material gain to do something good at their own expense.
If a significant percentage of our population suffers health problems if they ingest a particular chemical, maybe we should keep people from spraying vegetables with it. Maybe.