Why isn't it enough then to very publicly publish something along the lines of:
"There is a gaping vulnerability in Software X. As paying customers of Company X, I encourage you to encourage Company X to fix the software, and discontinue use of Software X until it is fixed."
Where is the benefit to the general public in publishing the exact mechanics/methods of the vulnerability?
And those are all well and good (OK, I have some beefs with a few of those, but that's for another time) but they are by no means "freebies". Every function of government costs money, which is confiscated from citizens via a multitude of convoluted taxation methods.
What I would like to see, for now anyway, is a simpler tax code (such as a flat income or consumption tax) that would give citizens a much clearer picture of how much government really costs.
And calling any government service "free" is a flat-out lie.
"Social Programs reduce crime, they care for those who are unable to care for themselves (children, the very sick, the very old)."
You link the two, as if children, the very sick, and the very old are the ones out committing most of the crime.
Now if you said something more along the lines of "Social Programs care for those who are unwilling to care for themselves", you'd be a little closer to the mark.
Government wealth-redistribution programs do little besides punish success and reward laziness. Capitalism may be based on greed, but Socialism is grounded in envy.
I am making no other point than the inappropriate "blame the victim" mentality that pervades Slashbot groupthink. Any other inference you want to make from my post is entirely up to you.
Seems like the girl bears some responsibility for getting drunk and wearing revealing clothes. The cynic in me tells me that half the reason she is crying so loudly is to divert attention from her own safety failure.
"I get that it's open source, and work is done by individuals in their spare time, but that doesn't sound to me like you were really committed to fixing the bug. If you were, you would've tracked down the information you needed (it wasn't a design question requiring a committee vote), and continued with the work."
Developers shouldn't have to break their own necks to 'track down' the people who are responsible for fixing the code. The Firefox team , I submit, should be the ones out looking for help.
The fact that they have worked the problem, and have expressed desire to continue doing so should be more than enough proof of committment.
You can't, on one hand, lament a lack of user contributions while making it prohibitively difficult for users to contribute.
* Information wants to be free! * Down with the man! * It's not stealing, cause like they still had their copies! * Microsoft sucks! * Piracy is just another term for "fair use" * Software patents suck! * They should have made their money on customer service.
Are you suggesting that EA, Activision, and other giants of the gaming industry should bail out failing companies like Troika? Or perhaps the government should, for the sake of fair competition, ya know?
That's not how business works. Companies that produce the better product succeed; those that don't... well, don't. EA isn't successful because they are EVIL, they are successful because they produce games that people want to buy.
Face it: companies don't have a 'right' to exist. They must be able to produce a product that people want to buy. If they cannot accomplish that, then the business will fail. Simple as that.
So, negative moderators of the parent post, please explain to me how Mexican students are served by being force-fed a marginally-used OS in favor of one that is used by almost everybody in the business world?
Please set aside the "M$ is teh suck!" arguments for a moment. These are kids that likely don't have a lot of educational resources available to them. And while Linux is the less costly option, what will become of students who graduate and either get a job or go to college at a place that only uses Windows?
As others have suggested, teach students BOTH Windows and Linux. Excluding Windows from their education only serves OSS zealots with an agenda.
This story is brought to you by Apple,
on
Apple Updates iPod
·
· Score: 3, Funny
maker of cool gadgets for discerning geeks!
So, how much does a front-page advertisement on Slashdot cost these days?
Do you watch footage from D-Day and Pearl Harbor every night to remind you of the threat that Germany and Japan pose to the free world?
Yes, these events should be remembered, but we don't need to obsess over them.
You also conveniently ignore attacks on embassies. It's easy to move on when you ignore things isn't it?
I have enough things in my life that need my attention to waste time on things I have no control of. We elect politicians whose job it is to deal with these problems.
Living in constant fear of another attack is not a constructive use of my brief time on this earth. And people who sew the seeds of fear usually have something to gain from keeping people afraid and ignorant.
I don't know why you brought up the PATRIOT ACT. I never even mentioned it, nor do I really support it...
Just one of many examples of how politicians have used 9/11 as an excuse to take away our freedom in exchange for a false sense of security.
How can you just ignore the WTC attacks and tell me "nothing to see here, please go about your business?"
This was one tragic event. Should it be front-page news for the next decade? Should it be used to justify every new restriction on our freedom that our government puts into place?
I hate to use the cliched "the terrorists have already won", but look at our country post 9/11. People look upon every Arab with suspicion, due process for certain suspects are non-existant, the majority of the civilized world distrusts us, nuns and grandmothers are being frisked in airports, and our fellow citizens are at each other's throats.
Our government has responded with everything except an attempt to discover why Arab Islamic zealots hate us. They claim the terrorists "hate our freedom", yet it wasn't terrorists who signed the PATRIOT Act into law.
Here's something you won't find on CNN or Fox: Arabs don't hate our freedoms. They hate our meddling in their affairs, namely Israel. And while there is potential for some semblance of peace among Palestinians and Israelis in the works, our invasion of Iraq has given the zealots a new cause to rally behind. Good call, Bush.
9/11 was a tragedy that possibly could have been prevented (another discussion for another time). The appropriate response, however, is not to let the events of one day be used by politicians to further their careers.
Perhaps a weight class could be incorporated into the tax (and for the record, I think the way they want to implement this is a HORRIBLE idea, but the pay-per-mile concept is sound), but a hybrid Honda Civic weighs just as much as a standard model, and causes just as much wear and tear. The amount of fuel consumed shouldn't have any bearing on the amount of tax charged.
"After decades of pushing for more fuel efficient cars, now they want to punish you for owning them."
That's total bunk; nothing but FUD from people whose only concept of "tax reform" is raising them.
Please explain to me how this "punishes" you for owning a fuel-efficient vehicle? Unless of course, you define "punish" as "making people pay the same amount for traveling the same stretch of road".
Slashdot Mirror
Why isn't it enough then to very publicly publish something along the lines of:
"There is a gaping vulnerability in Software X. As paying customers of Company X, I encourage you to encourage Company X to fix the software, and discontinue use of Software X until it is fixed."
Where is the benefit to the general public in publishing the exact mechanics/methods of the vulnerability?
If you believe that Napoleon almost conquered the entire world, you have little room to question anyone's education.
Am I the only one who finds this whole "Fix this now or else I will publish the exploit!" business a little shady?
I know it's not QUITE the same as extortion, as the person with the vulnerability knowledge isn't seeking financial gain.
But what is the purpose of publishing the exploit? What if the developers can't come up with a patch in time to meet thier imposed deadline?
It just doesn't seem very professional to me at all.
But the question at hand is a financial one, so the free-ness of FOSS doesn't seem particularly relevant here.
Unless it's industry-backed media or software written by EVIL corporations. Then it's called "going after grandma and 12-year-old girls".
I'm sorry, but if you need to pay someone to install/maintain/use the software, it is NOT free.
You can use "cheaper" or "cost-efficient", or whatever other synonym for "it doesn't cost much" that you want, but "free" borders on deceptive.
It's good to know that European beaurocrats are every bit as ineffective and corrupt as our own here in the states.
Let's hear it for consistency!
And those are all well and good (OK, I have some beefs with a few of those, but that's for another time) but they are by no means "freebies". Every function of government costs money, which is confiscated from citizens via a multitude of convoluted taxation methods.
What I would like to see, for now anyway, is a simpler tax code (such as a flat income or consumption tax) that would give citizens a much clearer picture of how much government really costs.
And calling any government service "free" is a flat-out lie.
You link the two, as if children, the very sick, and the very old are the ones out committing most of the crime.
Now if you said something more along the lines of "Social Programs care for those who are unwilling to care for themselves", you'd be a little closer to the mark.
Government wealth-redistribution programs do little besides punish success and reward laziness. Capitalism may be based on greed, but Socialism is grounded in envy.
If by "freebies" you mean "my money", then yes, I believe I am entitled to freebies.
I am making no other point than the inappropriate "blame the victim" mentality that pervades Slashbot groupthink. Any other inference you want to make from my post is entirely up to you.
Seems like the girl bears some responsibility for getting drunk and wearing revealing clothes. The cynic in me tells me that half the reason she is crying so loudly is to divert attention from her own safety failure.
Developers shouldn't have to break their own necks to 'track down' the people who are responsible for fixing the code. The Firefox team , I submit, should be the ones out looking for help.
The fact that they have worked the problem, and have expressed desire to continue doing so should be more than enough proof of committment.
You can't, on one hand, lament a lack of user contributions while making it prohibitively difficult for users to contribute.
* Information wants to be free!
* Down with the man!
* It's not stealing, cause like they still had their copies!
* Microsoft sucks!
* Piracy is just another term for "fair use"
* Software patents suck!
* They should have made their money on customer service.
So that makes it OK to download movies you haven't paid for, right?
Just verifying my Slashbot groupthink baseline.
Are you suggesting that EA, Activision, and other giants of the gaming industry should bail out failing companies like Troika? Or perhaps the government should, for the sake of fair competition, ya know?
That's not how business works. Companies that produce the better product succeed; those that don't... well, don't. EA isn't successful because they are EVIL, they are successful because they produce games that people want to buy.
Face it: companies don't have a 'right' to exist. They must be able to produce a product that people want to buy. If they cannot accomplish that, then the business will fail. Simple as that.
So, negative moderators of the parent post, please explain to me how Mexican students are served by being force-fed a marginally-used OS in favor of one that is used by almost everybody in the business world?
Please set aside the "M$ is teh suck!" arguments for a moment. These are kids that likely don't have a lot of educational resources available to them. And while Linux is the less costly option, what will become of students who graduate and either get a job or go to college at a place that only uses Windows?
As others have suggested, teach students BOTH Windows and Linux. Excluding Windows from their education only serves OSS zealots with an agenda.
maker of cool gadgets for discerning geeks!
So, how much does a front-page advertisement on Slashdot cost these days?
Do you watch footage from D-Day and Pearl Harbor every night to remind you of the threat that Germany and Japan pose to the free world?
Yes, these events should be remembered, but we don't need to obsess over them.
You also conveniently ignore attacks on embassies. It's easy to move on when you ignore things isn't it?
I have enough things in my life that need my attention to waste time on things I have no control of. We elect politicians whose job it is to deal with these problems.
Living in constant fear of another attack is not a constructive use of my brief time on this earth. And people who sew the seeds of fear usually have something to gain from keeping people afraid and ignorant.
I don't know why you brought up the PATRIOT ACT. I never even mentioned it, nor do I really support it...
Just one of many examples of how politicians have used 9/11 as an excuse to take away our freedom in exchange for a false sense of security.
This was one tragic event. Should it be front-page news for the next decade? Should it be used to justify every new restriction on our freedom that our government puts into place?
I hate to use the cliched "the terrorists have already won", but look at our country post 9/11. People look upon every Arab with suspicion, due process for certain suspects are non-existant, the majority of the civilized world distrusts us, nuns and grandmothers are being frisked in airports, and our fellow citizens are at each other's throats.
Our government has responded with everything except an attempt to discover why Arab Islamic zealots hate us. They claim the terrorists "hate our freedom", yet it wasn't terrorists who signed the PATRIOT Act into law.
Here's something you won't find on CNN or Fox: Arabs don't hate our freedoms. They hate our meddling in their affairs, namely Israel. And while there is potential for some semblance of peace among Palestinians and Israelis in the works, our invasion of Iraq has given the zealots a new cause to rally behind. Good call, Bush.
9/11 was a tragedy that possibly could have been prevented (another discussion for another time). The appropriate response, however, is not to let the events of one day be used by politicians to further their careers.
I'm still waiting for the part where you tell me how not invading Iraq in 2003 would have prevented the terrorist attack in 2001.
Using your scenario, the current pay-per-gallon-of-fuel system is just as unfair.
Perhaps a weight class could be incorporated into the tax (and for the record, I think the way they want to implement this is a HORRIBLE idea, but the pay-per-mile concept is sound), but a hybrid Honda Civic weighs just as much as a standard model, and causes just as much wear and tear. The amount of fuel consumed shouldn't have any bearing on the amount of tax charged.
That's total bunk; nothing but FUD from people whose only concept of "tax reform" is raising them.
Please explain to me how this "punishes" you for owning a fuel-efficient vehicle? Unless of course, you define "punish" as "making people pay the same amount for traveling the same stretch of road".
Nothing new or seedy here, sorry pal. O are you prepared to deride every automobile manufacturer other than Ford for the same reasons?