I know Microsoft has been trying to turn a corner in the past year or so with the Open Source crowd; 'Promising' not to bludgeon people with their patent war-chest, 'opening' some of their sourcecode, 'playing nice' with the EU, not 'maiming' people that pirate their flagship product. But seriously, this is going too far.
This latest tactic really sounds like the "Installfests" I throw with my local Linux Users Group. We get a bunch of food/music/etc together, some guy brings the "Distro of the Month" and we invite about 100+ people to bring their computers in so we can set them up for dual-boots or a total "Window-Cleaning"..
And as funny as it sounds, I don't think MSFT would take kindly to us burning a hundred copies of the "Windows 7 Ultimate Signature U2 Laser-Etched Edition Now with 33% More Suck!" media they so graciously provided.
But what the hell, I'm game.
We're meeting at the Renaissance Festival, guys! Let's see the Microsoft Lawyer-Dogs try to fight a bunch of broadsword-wielding geeks tampering with WGA!!!
From TFA:
"This particular worm, like many before it, is clever: it registers a user, uses a security bug (fixed earlier in the year) to allow evaluated code to be executed through the permalink structure, makes itself an admin, then uses JavaScript to hide itself when you look at users page, attempts to clean up after itself, then goes quiet so you never notice while it inserts hidden spam and malware into your old posts."
So let me get this straight. If I have a blog that doesn't allow other people to register, say for example, one just for my personal note-taking use. Then I'm in the clear?
Sweet. Guess I don't need that Snake Oil after all....
Word. Although his toxicology report came back negative for PCP, anybody that's shot with a Taser and gets back up is on something in my opinion. He was clearly a danger to himself, the law enforcement officers on the scene, and countless others while he was behind the wheel.
Seriously, if you're going to steal something from the mail, why would you bother putting back the evidence? If a package to me from eBay wound up on my doorstep empty, and my postman was sporting a JailBreak'd iPod, I would be pissed!
However, I if I never receive an empty parcel in the first place, then I just take it to eBay:)
The actual probability that 2 random persons have the same DNA (based on standard testing) is only 1 in 3 trillion.
If you hadn't thrown that little comment in there on standardized testing, I wouldn't have mentioned that when most people think of DNA evidence putting someone in jail, they don't think about the type of "DNA testing".
For example; Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP), the theoretical risk of a coincidental match is 1 in 100 billion, far less than 3 trillion by an order of magnitude. although the practical risk is actually 1 in 1000 because monozygotic twins are 0.2% of the human population.
True, I'm at a loss to understand most somkers myself (warning: I somke, too).
I could never understand those that toss cigarette butts outside somewhere (the side of the road is typically justified by giving those serving community service something else to do).
I myself am a considerate somker; I don't somke inside (excluding bars where permitted), I don't somke in vehicles (unless it's an old jalopy and everyone else is somkeing).
However, I have to admit, I do indulge in blowing somke into a cops face after he stops me at 2AM "just to see if I have an open container of some sort" (Warning: I'm not a card-carrying minority member).
Really? Thank you for enlightening us. I happen to smoke, and get this; it was not due to peer pressure. Most of my peers and family smoked, I refrained from smoking for quite some time (till after I was 21) because of a personal choice. In fact, after enduring some tying years that would have made most people sick or quit, I still had not taken up the habit.
And one day I decided to start after a particularly long, nasty fall down a cliff face, and crawling my way back up. No one around me was smoking, no one offered me a cigarette. In fact, no one had smoked around me during the entire operation.
I just limped up to someone, wiped my bloody hands and face off on my shirt, and yelled "Gimme a damn smoke!"
And I can assure you that after 5 years in IT, it was that personal choice that has helped me make sure every one of my lusers went home unharmed...
I love it when two opposing ideas finally clash, and no one has yet to point it out. Sheesh. When the demand for something (like teachers) goes sky high, the level of quality that is deemed acceptable plummets. Allow me to expound upon my point with an outlined example of causality;
Cause: We have had an exponentially growing need for educational facilities and teachers since I was a wee lad (~1999). This results in more and more kickbacks, benefits, whatever-they-call-it for anyone willing to put up with 100+ kinder gardeners per day, but no massive increase in salary. The demand for teachers has gone up sharply and as a result, the standards for said educators have dropped.
Effect: Absolutely asinine crap like this happens, and starts to happen more frequently over and over and over and over. Let's throw out a few predictions here;
Sometime this summer, a high school volleyball coach will host a topless car wash to raise money so the girls can go to state. She will insist that all participating students were over 18, and that her intentions were good, yet she will be fired. Media will drudge up "evidence" about her sexual orientation.
There will be another school shooting, this time by a teacher/coach/superintendent trying to breakup a fight by firing into the air/crowd and maiming a student/bum/policeman. If the assailant is a middle-aged white guy, he will have enough money to bury this and fade away from the media. When he dies of old age, his memoirs will be published and he will be remembered as a hero. Teachers will finally be able to carry guns to class.
Somewhere a teacher will finally have had it with childish dress codes and zero tolerance policies in public schools. Will be arrested for giving out free condoms for every dime bag of weed sold during his classes. I'm going to guess this one will be an art/music instructor of some sort.
You may now slap me with some Matrix jokes, maybe a few dated references to actual events outlined here./rant
Dear Sweet $DIETY, I sincerely hope your head doesn't pop-up over a cubicle wall in my building. I recently met a gentleman in a Starbucks, who started a conversation with me regarding IT after seeing my purchases from the adjoining bookstore.
His philosophy was quite similar; "IT is by no means important, it's just a necessary evil. A means to an end." He then went on about how no one is even truly dependent on IT, computers, or information.
I mentioned my point of views differ, as I have made a career of IT, and I don't see myself as a "glorified secretary". Then I steered the conversation towards his laptop, a rather beat-up looking Dell, with an 802.11 PCMCIA card sitting next to it. Turns out my new friend is a writer, been in my hometown for almost two weeks, and hasn't been able to upload his work off of the laptop the whole time (PCMCIA card not working, Dial-in line for his company was always busy, etc).
Long story short; there was an "incident" involving my recently topped-off 20oz coffee thermos, and his laptop, which was aptly on his lap at the time. Not only did the poor Dell unleash the magic smoke the instant my thermos slipped, but it's display didn't survive the fall off of his lap as he started hopping up and down like, well, someone who's "valuables" were drenched with hot coffee.
Something tells me that he spent the better part of the evening begging a physician to be gentle with him, and begging a "glorified secretary" to recover two weeks of his work off of his Almond-Morning-Expresso soaked hard drive.
P.S: Yes, I am aware of the fact that I am a bastard. Thank you.
You're my hero. There's just something about our Windows Admin that I just can't get over; Maybe it was the idea he pitched to the boss about switching over the network to DHCP "To make managing the DNS easier". Funny part is, I MANAGE THE DNS!! He must have still been pissed when I caught him on the Sun Blade 150 that runs the DNS and threw him out of the server room, screaming "Bad Windows Admin! Bad!". Thank $DIETY for backups...would have been a long day otherwise.
Props, DesertWolf0132. The ads pushed out were not reflective of race, merly the color of the respective consoles. Pointing out racist overtones in an advertisement for a freaking game console only comes from a select group of short-sighted sheep, who's bleeting is repeated by those that cannot form an opinion on their own. $DEITY help us if Apple ran the same ad with Nano's, but reversed the dominant and submissive roles (hey, Apple's product lines are bone-white by majority, the slick black stuff usually comes later, if at all). Would we see anyone tripping over themselves to call Apple's campaign racist? Anyone remember the 1984 superbowl ad? (Why 1984 won't be like 1984) I don't recall anyone pointing at them and accusing them of endorsing anarchy, or printing pamplets that Apple had an issue with the current U.S. Presidency...nowadays it'd be a different draw I suppose. Perhaps something along the lines of a G5 slamming headlong into some guy's shrubbery might draw some criticism... End rant.
Hear! Hear! A cool-million $$$ worth of electronics were kept in a windowed, unlocked "lab" before we had a mag-lock installed on the entryway to the server lab, and some fricken blinds! We'd have people come in and just wander around. And I can't tell you how many times I saw the ass of some Ph.D running down the hallway with an armful of blank media (CD-Rs, DVD-Rs, Zip disks, etc).
We caught one n00b with over $300 worth of zip250s (that was a few years back), she said she just wanted to have some in her office......we're a gov't outfit, her boss explained what grand theft was, and how misappropiration of gov't equipment was a felony...and how she just tried to steal from the guys responsible for her life's work...(she quit shortly after that)
But really, the sign of a competent IT guru. Look for the guy that didn't freak out about the McAfee problem.
Wow. "You Fail it" doesn't even begin to cover just how bad you failed it. What happened, you typed it out, went for a soda, and came back to submit? Daym.
Protests != Education
Just a thought; Letters to the Editor in your local newspaper are taken more seriously than protestors. Where I work, there were two people who stood at the intersection, claiming sexism at the workplace. I would have written them off as nutcases, if it hadn't been two reeeealy ugly chicks holding up the signs. I'm sure most of the people that drove into work that day thought the same thing.
But if those same two chicks had written (and got published) letters to the editor, then I would have took more notice. Things just look more impressive when there in black and white, rather than when theyre in Neon Purple and Green and stapled to a wooden stick (held up by and ugly chick).
Of course, we could always enlist the local Project Mayham chapter...
Although I've been endowed with Modpoints, I'm forfeting the right to use them on this article to bring out a particual point....
Sadly, I don't have the answer either -- I would guess we should start a campaign modeled after the Civil Rights Movement
I think I speak for everyone when I say that we don't have 50 years to wait for sit-down protests to wait. These large corporate entities are trying to affect us digitally, and are only motivated by what they think will make them money. The answer is simple; if the Corps. lose enough money due to a venture, they either axe it, or bite the dust trying to keep it alive. Translation: If we educate ourselves on what they throw at us, and publish the "un-publishable" research, we win.
Who's footing most of the bill for that free food? That's right, me and my U.S. Homies. I'd beat the drek otta an old man for an iBook, given that I can pick the old man. I'd even get it on tape and send it to Adam Sandler if he's still doing those bits.... "And now, we present to you; The sound beating of an elderly man to obtain an iBook...
Slashdot Mirror
I know Microsoft has been trying to turn a corner in the past year or so with the Open Source crowd; 'Promising' not to bludgeon people with their patent war-chest, 'opening' some of their sourcecode, 'playing nice' with the EU, not 'maiming' people that pirate their flagship product. But seriously, this is going too far. This latest tactic really sounds like the "Installfests" I throw with my local Linux Users Group. We get a bunch of food/music/etc together, some guy brings the "Distro of the Month" and we invite about 100+ people to bring their computers in so we can set them up for dual-boots or a total "Window-Cleaning".. And as funny as it sounds, I don't think MSFT would take kindly to us burning a hundred copies of the "Windows 7 Ultimate Signature U2 Laser-Etched Edition Now with 33% More Suck!" media they so graciously provided. But what the hell, I'm game. We're meeting at the Renaissance Festival, guys! Let's see the Microsoft Lawyer-Dogs try to fight a bunch of broadsword-wielding geeks tampering with WGA!!!
From TFA: "This particular worm, like many before it, is clever: it registers a user, uses a security bug (fixed earlier in the year) to allow evaluated code to be executed through the permalink structure, makes itself an admin, then uses JavaScript to hide itself when you look at users page, attempts to clean up after itself, then goes quiet so you never notice while it inserts hidden spam and malware into your old posts."
So let me get this straight. If I have a blog that doesn't allow other people to register, say for example, one just for my personal note-taking use. Then I'm in the clear? Sweet. Guess I don't need that Snake Oil after all....
Word. Although his toxicology report came back negative for PCP, anybody that's shot with a Taser and gets back up is on something in my opinion. He was clearly a danger to himself, the law enforcement officers on the scene, and countless others while he was behind the wheel.
Seriously, if you're going to steal something from the mail, why would you bother putting back the evidence? If a package to me from eBay wound up on my doorstep empty, and my postman was sporting a JailBreak'd iPod, I would be pissed!
However, I if I never receive an empty parcel in the first place, then I just take it to eBay :)
Of course I'm assuming that the guy didn't bother to get the horse drunk.
I couldn't find anything illegal about getting a horse drunk. However, getting a moose in Alaska drunk is a different matter.
The actual probability that 2 random persons have the same DNA (based on standard testing) is only 1 in 3 trillion.
If you hadn't thrown that little comment in there on standardized testing, I wouldn't have mentioned that when most people think of DNA evidence putting someone in jail, they don't think about the type of "DNA testing".
For example; Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP), the theoretical risk of a coincidental match is 1 in 100 billion, far less than 3 trillion by an order of magnitude. although the practical risk is actually 1 in 1000 because monozygotic twins are 0.2% of the human population.
Here in Texas we don't need any fancy license-plate-scanning computers to notice our judges.
We just put "State Judge" on their license plates!
It especially helps them find their ride after a few drinks.
Heck, they're even kind enough to return the favor :)
True, I'm at a loss to understand most somkers myself (warning: I somke, too).
I could never understand those that toss cigarette butts outside somewhere (the side of the road is typically justified by giving those serving community service something else to do).
I myself am a considerate somker; I don't somke inside (excluding bars where permitted), I don't somke in vehicles (unless it's an old jalopy and everyone else is somkeing).
However, I have to admit, I do indulge in blowing somke into a cops face after he stops me at 2AM "just to see if I have an open container of some sort" (Warning: I'm not a card-carrying minority member).
Really? Thank you for enlightening us. I happen to smoke, and get this; it was not due to peer pressure. Most of my peers and family smoked, I refrained from smoking for quite some time (till after I was 21) because of a personal choice. In fact, after enduring some tying years that would have made most people sick or quit, I still had not taken up the habit.
And one day I decided to start after a particularly long, nasty fall down a cliff face, and crawling my way back up. No one around me was smoking, no one offered me a cigarette. In fact, no one had smoked around me during the entire operation.
I just limped up to someone, wiped my bloody hands and face off on my shirt, and yelled "Gimme a damn smoke!"
And I can assure you that after 5 years in IT, it was that personal choice that has helped me make sure every one of my lusers went home unharmed...
I'm curious, what field do you and your peers work in? IT (low/high level programming, security), Call Center Support, Medical, Engineering?
I love it when two opposing ideas finally clash, and no one has yet to point it out. Sheesh. When the demand for something (like teachers) goes sky high, the level of quality that is deemed acceptable plummets.
/rant
Allow me to expound upon my point with an outlined example of causality;
Cause: We have had an exponentially growing need for educational facilities and teachers since I was a wee lad (~1999). This results in more and more kickbacks, benefits, whatever-they-call-it for anyone willing to put up with 100+ kinder gardeners per day, but no massive increase in salary. The demand for teachers has gone up sharply and as a result, the standards for said educators have dropped.
Effect: Absolutely asinine crap like this happens, and starts to happen more frequently over and over and over and over. Let's throw out a few predictions here;
Sometime this summer, a high school volleyball coach will host a topless car wash to raise money so the girls can go to state. She will insist that all participating students were over 18, and that her intentions were good, yet she will be fired. Media will drudge up "evidence" about her sexual orientation.
There will be another school shooting, this time by a teacher/coach/superintendent trying to breakup a fight by firing into the air/crowd and maiming a student/bum/policeman. If the assailant is a middle-aged white guy, he will have enough money to bury this and fade away from the media. When he dies of old age, his memoirs will be published and he will be remembered as a hero. Teachers will finally be able to carry guns to class.
Somewhere a teacher will finally have had it with childish dress codes and zero tolerance policies in public schools. Will be arrested for giving out free condoms for every dime bag of weed sold during his classes. I'm going to guess this one will be an art/music instructor of some sort.
You may now slap me with some Matrix jokes, maybe a few dated references to actual events outlined here.
Dear Sweet $DIETY, I sincerely hope your head doesn't pop-up over a cubicle wall in my building. I recently met a gentleman in a Starbucks, who started a conversation with me regarding IT after seeing my purchases from the adjoining bookstore.
His philosophy was quite similar; "IT is by no means important, it's just a necessary evil. A means to an end." He then went on about how no one is even truly dependent on IT, computers, or information.
I mentioned my point of views differ, as I have made a career of IT, and I don't see myself as a "glorified secretary". Then I steered the conversation towards his laptop, a rather beat-up looking Dell, with an 802.11 PCMCIA card sitting next to it. Turns out my new friend is a writer, been in my hometown for almost two weeks, and hasn't been able to upload his work off of the laptop the whole time (PCMCIA card not working, Dial-in line for his company was always busy, etc).
Long story short; there was an "incident" involving my recently topped-off 20oz coffee thermos, and his laptop, which was aptly on his lap at the time. Not only did the poor Dell unleash the magic smoke the instant my thermos slipped, but it's display didn't survive the fall off of his lap as he started hopping up and down like, well, someone who's "valuables" were drenched with hot coffee.
Something tells me that he spent the better part of the evening begging a physician to be gentle with him, and begging a "glorified secretary" to recover two weeks of his work off of his Almond-Morning-Expresso soaked hard drive.
P.S: Yes, I am aware of the fact that I am a bastard. Thank you.
You're my hero. There's just something about our Windows Admin that I just can't get over; Maybe it was the idea he pitched to the boss about switching over the network to DHCP "To make managing the DNS easier". Funny part is, I MANAGE THE DNS!!
He must have still been pissed when I caught him on the Sun Blade 150 that runs the DNS and threw him out of the server room, screaming "Bad Windows Admin! Bad!". Thank $DIETY for backups...would have been a long day otherwise.
Props, DesertWolf0132. The ads pushed out were not reflective of race, merly the color of the respective consoles. Pointing out racist overtones in an advertisement for a freaking game console only comes from a select group of short-sighted sheep, who's bleeting is repeated by those that cannot form an opinion on their own. $DEITY help us if Apple ran the same ad with Nano's, but reversed the dominant and submissive roles (hey, Apple's product lines are bone-white by majority, the slick black stuff usually comes later, if at all). Would we see anyone tripping over themselves to call Apple's campaign racist?
Anyone remember the 1984 superbowl ad? (Why 1984 won't be like 1984) I don't recall anyone pointing at them and accusing them of endorsing anarchy, or printing pamplets that Apple had an issue with the current U.S. Presidency...nowadays it'd be a different draw I suppose. Perhaps something along the lines of a G5 slamming headlong into some guy's shrubbery might draw some criticism...
End rant.
Does anyone else hate 3.x Edition of AD&D just a little more now because of posts like this?
Hear! Hear! ...we're a gov't outfit, her boss explained what grand theft was, and how misappropiration of gov't equipment was a felony...and how she just tried to steal from the guys responsible for her life's work...(she quit shortly after that)
A cool-million $$$ worth of electronics were kept in a windowed, unlocked "lab" before we had a mag-lock installed on the entryway to the server lab, and some fricken blinds! We'd have people come in and just wander around. And I can't tell you how many times I saw the ass of some Ph.D running down the hallway with an armful of blank media (CD-Rs, DVD-Rs, Zip disks, etc).
We caught one n00b with over $300 worth of zip250s (that was a few years back), she said she just wanted to have some in her office...
But really, the sign of a competent IT guru. Look for the guy that didn't freak out about the McAfee problem.
Wow. "You Fail it" doesn't even begin to cover just how bad you failed it.
What happened, you typed it out, went for a soda, and came back to submit?
Daym.
Sorry, d00d. You're just not as funny as the original. You fail it.
Protests != Education
Just a thought; Letters to the Editor in your local newspaper are taken more seriously than protestors.
Where I work, there were two people who stood at the intersection, claiming sexism at the workplace.
I would have written them off as nutcases, if it hadn't been two reeeealy ugly chicks holding up the signs.
I'm sure most of the people that drove into work that day thought the same thing.
But if those same two chicks had written (and got published) letters to the editor, then I would have took more notice. Things just look more impressive when there in black and white, rather than when theyre in Neon Purple and Green and stapled to a wooden stick (held up by and ugly chick).
Of course, we could always enlist the local Project Mayham chapter...
I think I speak for everyone when I say that we don't have 50 years to wait for sit-down protests to wait. These large corporate entities are trying to affect us digitally, and are only motivated by what they think will make them money. The answer is simple; if the Corps. lose enough money due to a venture, they either axe it, or bite the dust trying to keep it alive.
Translation: If we educate ourselves on what they throw at us, and publish the "un-publishable" research, we win.
"I'm Feelin Lucky"
They were so cocky about it, they even put it on a button...those bastard!!
Who's footing most of the bill for that free food?
That's right, me and my U.S. Homies.
I'd beat the drek otta an old man for an iBook, given that I can pick the old man.
I'd even get it on tape and send it to Adam Sandler if he's still doing those bits....
"And now, we present to you; The sound beating of an elderly man to obtain an iBook...
Dammit! Where are my Mod points?! I just shot my afternoon frapachino out my nose!!
Oh God! Why does it burn?!
You know what this means? Dutiful SysAdmins like myself will make sure that every system on campus has a copy of Mozilla running by the week's end.