So long as they allow files that can contain executable content (benjamin uses a.scr file, for instance) then, yes.
There's nothing really special here. All they did was take Melissa, modify it a bit, then start sharing files named "naked gurlz.jpg.scr" Someone downloads it, clicks on it, and the rest is history.
This really just sounds like a modified version of the same stupid Outlook Express virii/worms we hear about every other day. The only difference is that this one is a bit more tailored for its environment.
How is this any different from someone sharing a virii labeled "Natalie Portman Nude.jpg.exe"?
Considering Kazaa already lets you filter out files based on their extension, I don't see this being a problem unless you're stupid enough to believe that that copy of Photoshop you downloaded really is only 216bytes large (or even 5mb with padded junk.)
It's an anime series (a rather trippy one, at that.) Deals with how a jr. high school girl (Lain) becomes involved with The Wired - their version of the internet. At the begining, Lain doesn't use the Wired very much, and just has a very simple terminal, called a Navi (even her friends tease her about using such a kiddie-model.)
As the series progresses, she starts upgrading her Navi, until her bedroom resembles a major data center...
Anipike lists a number of fan sites about it: http://www.anipike.com/lain.html
Email on your handheld/cellphone? Been there, done that. Check out NTT's DoCoMo service, and remember that cellphone penetration is much, much higher in Japan than it is in the US.
Email/information surfing interface? Check out Netscape. (what do you think "Navi" is short for?)
The Navi itself appears to be a Macintosh with limited voice recognition - both are technologies we have today...
Online multi-player games with avatars - yep.
I even noticed Wired-versions of chatrooms and usenet.
Give it a few more years, and we'll a Japan that is eerily similar to Lain's...
Marketeers don't tend to understand the tech they're pushing. They just regurgitate the tech-speak they get from engineering and sales.
Marketeers tend to understand applications pretty well. E-commerce, for instance, was pretty well understood by them.
But things like infrastructure, networking, IP numbers, etc. are usually not as interesting to them. While engineers and sales folk might be excited by the prospect of faster networks capable of carrying a variety of data through a single cable, most marketters will just look at you blankly until you start tying it to applications they use (eg. "This will make your porn faster.")
Unfortunatly, with the market where it is, there aren't a lot of "new" things out there. Most companies are retreating back to their core business. So, how do you sound excited about "Same old, same old"? Simple, give it to your marketeer and his buzzword generator, and voila - you've just re-engineered your business model by leveraging your core competancies against the customer's synergies.
(translation: We build the stuff our customers want.)
I have TCI, and I can't tell you the number of times I've seen TCI/AT&T cut an off in mid-stream to play one of their own for their telephone/long distance/dial-up ISP/broadband/cable TV services...
The PS2 have two optional enhancements for PS1 games - one is faster loading of data from PS1 discs, and the other is the ability to smooth (some) graphics a bit.
Since neither enhancement is 100% compatible with games, they're not turned on by default, and will revert to "off" each time you powercylce the system.
Your manual contains information on how to turn these enhancements on, but warns you that the games may become unstable.
Since Sony was seriously talking about making the Playstation the center of your entertainment unit, how long before you can simply call up your PS2 and tell it to record a TV program for you?
Of course, this might mean you might also start getting calls from the PS2...
Imagine having to tell your boss you have to go home to finish MGS3, because if you don't, the villian in the game will start deleting your MP3 collection.
While Tivo does work like a VCR in that it records shows, it's quite different from a VCR because you don't tell the Tivo *when* to record, just *what* to record.
It seems the big networks just love to change their schedules every week, or do things like have a show run late, start early, etc. With a VCR, you still have to read the schedule to find out when (or even *IF*) your shows are on and program your VCR accordingly.
With Tivo, you simply tell it to record a show by its title. That's all. It then goes and finds out when that show is on, and adjusts its schedule - not you. You can even tell Tivo to only record new episodes, so you don't end up with reruns.
Does your VCR do that?
Geeze, is this really slashdot? I thought folks here *liked* gadgets...
I consider the "Submit" button on the website equivelant to signing the credit card receipt - which, if you ever read it, says that you are agreeing to pay the amount indicated.
If the store says it costs $X, but charges your card something else, that's illegal.
If the store says it costs $X, and you sign the form/authorize the charge to your card, the store can't suddenly say "Nope, we changed our mind!"
It's a contract. You can't just go breaking contracts willy-nilly - I don't care if you're joe-sixpack or a Megacorp. That's the nifty thing about the law...it applies equally to everyone.
Re:My legal-sense is tingling!
on
Worst Buy
·
· Score: 2
Problem is, the legal system tends to assume you're guilty until proven innocent if accused of certain things. Being racist is one of them.
Yes, the race card is a cheap way to put another zero on your settlement, but it's proven to be effective. I fully expect the guy to take Best Buy *and* the police to court for harrassment, false arrest because he's [fill in ethnicity here.]
It is then on Best Buy to prove that they haven't treated him any differentally than other customers (but have they had any Whites arrested?)
And you know as soon as someone starts calling for various ethnic groups to boycott Best Buy due to their racist treatment, things are REALLY going to get bad for Best Buy...
In this case, the customers and Best Buy have signed a contract regarding the sale of the video card at a specified price. Best Buy could certainly say "Oops, we screwed up, would you mind cancelling your order?" but the customers are under no obligation to do so.
BTW, this applies to person-to-person sales as well. A friend of mine accidentally listed an item on eBay for way too little money (eg. $10 instead of $100.) He tried to cancel the auction, but it had already ended, and he had to honor the contract to sell the item to the winner at the price he bid.
Mistakes happen. The best thing Best Buy could have done was to just silently honor the orders while correcting the listing on their website. By trying to reneg on the orders, Best Buy is begging to be dragged into court as the defendent in a class action lawsuit. Should be a very quick case as there's been plenty of other cases of this type involving other stupid companies. In each case, the company lost, BTW. IANAL, but that's a pretty clear and easy precedent...
They can say whatever they want, doesn't make it enforceable.
Once you click that "Submit" button, you are agreeing to buy Product X at Price Y.
Once the website says "Order accepted", they're aggreeing to sell you Product X at Price Y.
What Best Buy is essentially doing is chasing you down as you leave the store, and snatching your(!) purchase out of your hands saying "We decided not to sell it to you."
Personally, I hope Best Buy gets burned really badly by this. It's not like this is the first time a website has screwed up their pricing database, and whenever there was a disupte, the customers won - every time.
I guess the "niche" it fills is made up of people who are willing to risk losing their hard drive when this thing inevitably locks up.
I'm surprised no one's done a review or anthing, on the new iMac's capabilities. Seems to me, the best solution would be to use it to record, convert, and burn your favorite shows to DVD (not VCD, not SVCD, but *DVD*)
The last time Tivo rolled an update out, they took volunteers for an external beta program. I was a beta volunteer for one of the previous updates.
When the beta program ended, Tivo rolled the update to the rest of their customers.
Regardless of whether you were a volunteer or not, whenever you get an update, your Tivo gets a message for you with information about what's changed, etc.
Check out Tivo's privacy policy on their website. Tivo is very upfront about what sorts of information they collect from your Tivo unit - and also give instructions on how you can disable this if you wish.
Tivo only collects aggregate data, meaning they can say 10 customers in an area (zip code) watched a TV show last night, but not WHICH 10.
Neither 1st or 2nd generation Tivo hardware include an ethernet port, yet the 3.0 update includes ethernet support...
Does this mean that Tivo will be supporting folks popping their 1st gen. boxes open to install an ethernet card/kit like the one www.9thtee.com has been selling? Likewise, will Tivo be publishing a list of supported USB ethernet adapaters for the 2nd. gen boxes?
Or, is this simply Tivo being nice to the hacker community to by partially integrating ethernet support into their offical product?
I'm guessing the HD the Nomad uses is a laptop drive - much larger than the matchbox sized Microdrives from IBM that are used by iPod.
Microdrives don't hold as much as laptop drives...is there even a 20GB microdrive? If there were, I'd guess it'd cost Creative over $500 per device, meaning the Nomad would cost close to $1500 MSRP. I may love music, but that's a bit steep for a dedicated portable device, no?
So it comes down to price vs. capacity. Want big drives, buy a Nomad or other device that uses a laptop drive. Want a small device? Buy an iPod.
Slashdot Mirror
So long as they allow files that can contain executable content (benjamin uses a .scr file, for instance) then, yes.
There's nothing really special here. All they did was take Melissa, modify it a bit, then start sharing files named "naked gurlz.jpg.scr" Someone downloads it, clicks on it, and the rest is history.
Why does everyone assume that the owner of the website or whoever is getting the money from the advertising is the author?
If the worm opened up Playboy.com, would you be crying for Hugh Hefner to be arrested for writing the worm?
That's the thing that confuses me as well...
This really just sounds like a modified version of the same stupid Outlook Express virii/worms we hear about every other day. The only difference is that this one is a bit more tailored for its environment.
How is this any different from someone sharing a virii labeled "Natalie Portman Nude.jpg.exe"?
Considering Kazaa already lets you filter out files based on their extension, I don't see this being a problem unless you're stupid enough to believe that that copy of Photoshop you downloaded really is only 216bytes large (or even 5mb with padded junk.)
It's an anime series (a rather trippy one, at that.) Deals with how a jr. high school girl (Lain) becomes involved with The Wired - their version of the internet. At the begining, Lain doesn't use the Wired very much, and just has a very simple terminal, called a Navi (even her friends tease her about using such a kiddie-model.)
As the series progresses, she starts upgrading her Navi, until her bedroom resembles a major data center...
Anipike lists a number of fan sites about it: http://www.anipike.com/lain.html
Er....
We already have a network like The Wired.
It's called the Internet.
Email on your handheld/cellphone? Been there, done that. Check out NTT's DoCoMo service, and remember that cellphone penetration is much, much higher in Japan than it is in the US.
Email/information surfing interface? Check out Netscape. (what do you think "Navi" is short for?)
The Navi itself appears to be a Macintosh with
limited voice recognition - both are technologies we have today...
Online multi-player games with avatars - yep.
I even noticed Wired-versions of chatrooms and usenet.
Give it a few more years, and we'll a Japan that is eerily similar to Lain's...
Marketeers don't tend to understand the tech they're pushing. They just regurgitate the tech-speak they get from engineering and sales.
Marketeers tend to understand applications pretty well. E-commerce, for instance, was pretty well understood by them.
But things like infrastructure, networking, IP numbers, etc. are usually not as interesting to them. While engineers and sales folk might be excited by the prospect of faster networks capable of carrying a variety of data through a single cable, most marketters will just look at you blankly until you start tying it to applications they use (eg. "This will make your porn faster.")
Unfortunatly, with the market where it is, there aren't a lot of "new" things out there. Most companies are retreating back to their core business. So, how do you sound excited about "Same old, same old"? Simple, give it to your marketeer and his buzzword generator, and voila - you've just re-engineered your business model by leveraging your core competancies against the customer's synergies.
(translation: We build the stuff our customers want.)
Geeks tend to work more than 40 hours a week anyways - or at least work at places that don't enforce a 9 to 5 schedule.
Besides, I've heard most of the folks who are already lining up are being sponsored by local businesses or radio stations.
$300M...yeah, whatever. Somehow, I think the opening day of Baseball does more "damage".
Try watching "Samurai Ninja Sluts From Outer Space" (I think that's the full name) and tell me there's no such thing as dreadful porn.
I think *all* cable companies do this...
I have TCI, and I can't tell you the number of times I've seen TCI/AT&T cut an off in mid-stream to play one of their own for their telephone/long distance/dial-up ISP/broadband/cable TV services...
TCI is its own best customer.
The PS2 have two optional enhancements for PS1 games - one is faster loading of data from PS1 discs, and the other is the ability to smooth (some) graphics a bit.
Since neither enhancement is 100% compatible with games, they're not turned on by default, and will revert to "off" each time you powercylce the system.
Your manual contains information on how to turn these enhancements on, but warns you that the games may become unstable.
Since Sony was seriously talking about making the Playstation the center of your entertainment unit, how long before you can simply call up your PS2 and tell it to record a TV program for you?
Of course, this might mean you might also start getting calls from the PS2...
Imagine having to tell your boss you have to go home to finish MGS3, because if you don't, the villian in the game will start deleting your MP3 collection.
You don't get it.
While Tivo does work like a VCR in that it records shows, it's quite different from a VCR because you don't tell the Tivo *when* to record, just *what* to record.
It seems the big networks just love to change their schedules every week, or do things like have a show run late, start early, etc. With a VCR, you still have to read the schedule to find out when (or even *IF*) your shows are on and program your VCR accordingly.
With Tivo, you simply tell it to record a show by its title. That's all. It then goes and finds out when that show is on, and adjusts its schedule - not you. You can even tell Tivo to only record new episodes, so you don't end up with reruns.
Does your VCR do that?
Geeze, is this really slashdot? I thought folks here *liked* gadgets...
I consider the "Submit" button on the website equivelant to signing the credit card receipt - which, if you ever read it, says that you are agreeing to pay the amount indicated.
If the store says it costs $X, but charges your card something else, that's illegal.
If the store says it costs $X, and you sign the form/authorize the charge to your card, the store can't suddenly say "Nope, we changed our mind!"
It's a contract. You can't just go breaking contracts willy-nilly - I don't care if you're joe-sixpack or a Megacorp. That's the nifty thing about the law...it applies equally to everyone.
Problem is, the legal system tends to assume you're guilty until proven innocent if accused of certain things. Being racist is one of them.
Yes, the race card is a cheap way to put another zero on your settlement, but it's proven to be effective. I fully expect the guy to take Best Buy *and* the police to court for harrassment, false arrest because he's [fill in ethnicity here.]
It is then on Best Buy to prove that they haven't treated him any differentally than other customers (but have they had any Whites arrested?)
And you know as soon as someone starts calling for various ethnic groups to boycott Best Buy due to their racist treatment, things are REALLY going to get bad for Best Buy...
No, Best Buy is just being stupid.
In this case, the customers and Best Buy have signed a contract regarding the sale of the video card at a specified price. Best Buy could certainly say "Oops, we screwed up, would you mind cancelling your order?" but the customers are under no obligation to do so.
BTW, this applies to person-to-person sales as well. A friend of mine accidentally listed an item on eBay for way too little money (eg. $10 instead of $100.) He tried to cancel the auction, but it had already ended, and he had to honor the contract to sell the item to the winner at the price he bid.
Mistakes happen. The best thing Best Buy could have done was to just silently honor the orders while correcting the listing on their website. By trying to reneg on the orders, Best Buy is begging to be dragged into court as the defendent in a class action lawsuit. Should be a very quick case as there's been plenty of other cases of this type involving other stupid companies. In each case, the company lost, BTW. IANAL, but that's a pretty clear and easy precedent...
They can say whatever they want, doesn't make it enforceable.
Once you click that "Submit" button, you are agreeing to buy Product X at Price Y.
Once the website says "Order accepted", they're aggreeing to sell you Product X at Price Y.
What Best Buy is essentially doing is chasing you down as you leave the store, and snatching your(!) purchase out of your hands saying "We decided not to sell it to you."
Personally, I hope Best Buy gets burned really badly by this. It's not like this is the first time a website has screwed up their pricing database, and whenever there was a disupte, the customers won - every time.
I guess the "niche" it fills is made up of people who are willing to risk losing their hard drive when this thing inevitably locks up.
I'm surprised no one's done a review or anthing, on the new iMac's capabilities. Seems to me, the best solution would be to use it to record, convert, and burn your favorite shows to DVD (not VCD, not SVCD, but *DVD*)
Considering how crappy these PC solutions sound, you probably NEED a beowulf cluster....
Just do what I did: buy a cheap (used, even) TV and place it near your computer. Voila.
There have been a few hacks developed in the past for Tivo that involved ethernet. Your best bet is to read the Tivo AV Forums:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/
In particular, check out the tivo-underground board there.
I don't know where they got that from...
The last time Tivo rolled an update out, they took volunteers for an external beta program. I was a beta volunteer for one of the previous updates.
When the beta program ended, Tivo rolled the update to the rest of their customers.
Regardless of whether you were a volunteer or not, whenever you get an update, your Tivo gets a message for you with information about what's changed, etc.
Check out Tivo's privacy policy on their website. Tivo is very upfront about what sorts of information they collect from your Tivo unit - and also give instructions on how you can disable this if you wish.
Tivo only collects aggregate data, meaning they can say 10 customers in an area (zip code) watched a TV show last night, but not WHICH 10.
Neither 1st or 2nd generation Tivo hardware include an ethernet port, yet the 3.0 update includes ethernet support...
Does this mean that Tivo will be supporting folks popping their 1st gen. boxes open to install an ethernet card/kit like the one www.9thtee.com has been selling? Likewise, will Tivo be publishing a list of supported USB ethernet adapaters for the 2nd. gen boxes?
Or, is this simply Tivo being nice to the hacker community to by partially integrating ethernet support into their offical product?
I'm guessing the HD the Nomad uses is a laptop drive - much larger than the matchbox sized Microdrives from IBM that are used by iPod.
Microdrives don't hold as much as laptop drives...is there even a 20GB microdrive? If there were, I'd guess it'd cost Creative over $500 per device, meaning the Nomad would cost close to $1500 MSRP. I may love music, but that's a bit steep for a dedicated portable device, no?
So it comes down to price vs. capacity. Want big drives, buy a Nomad or other device that uses a laptop drive. Want a small device? Buy an iPod.
Well, of course Creative would love it if you bought an Audigy...but that shouldn't be required.
If nothing else, this thing also says it has a USB interface, and 1394 is 1394 - no matter what marketting name is applied to it.