Funny you should say that health care is non-existent in Canada. Because Canadians pay less per capita for health care then the people in the US. Americans pay 14% of GDP and don't cover everyone. Just the rich and those with corporate health plans can afford it. While in Canada we pay 12% GDP and everyone is covered on our health plan. Regardless of who you are and what you do for a living.
Non-Existent is an exageration. Thats what the ultra right wing fasists will have you believe so that they can consider installing a two tierd health care system.
As for affording to live in Canada. I don't believe its the taxes that are difficult to live with. Its the lack of work. Lets face it there are more opportunities in the US. Canadian companies are pansies and won't take a chance on someone if they have no experience. Have you looked at what the requirements are in Canada for working in the computer science field. I can safeley say that most job postings are unrealistic when it comes to the job requirements. But thats what Free trade got us companies moving down to the US because they don't want to pay into a public health care system even though they pay less.
Free trade is the problem not the high taxes. Since free trade came in Corporate Canada has been completely gutted. Even the Hudsons Bay Company is subject to an American take over bid. A 300 Year old company. Its been around longer then when IBM was selling Cheese Slicers. Yet its subject to a takeover bid. Thats just not right.
I remember when Free trade first came in to Canada. I personally witnessed a 20 year old company go out of business within a few months of an American big box store come in to the market in Vancouver. That big box store was Home Depot. They drove out a smaller company that served the Greater Vancouver area well for more then 20 years. And the list doesn't stop there. Eatons was purchased by Sears, Woodwards went out of business all together, and McMillan Blodel was bought up by Wearhouser. McMillan Blodel was the biggest logging company in Canada and one of the biggest in the world. That gives you an Idea of the negative impact free trade has had on Canada. The taxes are manageable. They'd be manageable if it wasn't for outside presures. Personally I hope our prime minister follows up on his threats and dumps the North American Free Trade Agreement. That would be the best thing that has ever happened to Canada.
This guy must not have much to do in his retirement years. I mean really. He must be subscribe to some pretty interesting magazines if this is waht he is worried about. I mean really. He was a minister in 1962. The guy must be 90 years old by now.
But really this is the story that slashdot posts. The one that I posted yesterday about the guy who stuck it to his bank. They don't post. At least my story comes from a credible news paper.
The problem I see with this is the bad PR that MySQL is getting over it. The money they got for this deal must be good if they are risking hurting their reputation in a community that helped them become a major player in business. I have no problems with MySQL. I think they created a decent piece of software that have facilitated alot of people and businesses on the Internet. Its a good example that the open source model works.
As for SCO... I hope MySQL is milking them for everything they can. This company should die a very quick and painful death. Maybe IBM should file the counter suite. Who knows they may end up with SCO's OpenServer which they can open source;). I think this would be a fitting end to the whole issue.
Ya.... If you have fruit trees in your back yard you can use the CD's that come in those CD cases to scare away the birds too. I see alot of people doing that to protect their cherry trees.
Actually, the rapid decline in AOL subscribers is because Time Warner is moving all their broad band customers over to Road Runner. It has little to do with thier retention department. And I know that for a fact because I heard it from management!!!!
So basically what your saying is that microsoft filed their patent at the same time Apple released the Ipod to the market place. That means Apple invented the Ipod before 2001 and then released it for christmas. A normal marketing ploy. So the ipod was most likely in heavy development in 2000 and testing began probably in January. Making it available in late 2001. Now this is what I'm assuming given normal development cycles. This means Apple had the product first and was years ahead of Microsoft.
The skills required to harden a system is beyond the capabilities of the average American. Most users even today don't have the know how or the smarts to harden their systems. I deal with many average users many times a day, many of them in fact are well below average. If it was possible to harden these peoples computers then I'd agree with you. But it isn't. They just don't understand why its important to protect their computers from such terrorist activities.
In the area of country XYZ who doesn't comply with US laws then the solution is simple. Deny entry of their goods into the US. Encourage your friend nations to deny goods from that country into their countries. Convince them that it is in the best interest of that country to do so. Country XYZ will capitulate or they face an economic crisis. In any event you have reduced the threat. Your assuming that I'm talking about complete erradication using such methods. Thats impossible. Thats not what I'm talking about. But instilling a good solid fear is usually enough to stop much of would be activity unless there is some economic gain for the person doing it. And in some cases even if there is some econimic gain.
As for the person running the server. If the person knows their system is insecure and refuses to do anything about it I have no problem with that. They are no better then the hackers. However, this would be a far more proactive role in stopping such practices. But, keep in mind that most people aren't such bone heads and simply refuse. They just don't know any better. Take for instance email computer viruses, they aren't usually spread by people just simply opening an email with an attachment. The person actually opens the attachment. Thats how viruses spread in email.
Keep in mind there were concequences that were incured by bringing so many people on to the Internet by Microsoft. Those consiquences are that the people they brought in are too ignorant to take any sort of responsible action. They just don't know enough to keep the systems on the Internet safe. That coupled with the fact that Windows is inherantly insecure enhances those problems. If you think for one second that companies don't pay already for such security issues think again. Many PC manufacturers, Internet service providers and other companies pay anywhere from $4 - $10 per phone call to their tech support departments. As opposed to Microsoft who created this mess and charges $30 - $240 per phone call for tech support. The costs are real by going after the hackers your just shifting who pays for the problem. And since the hacker is commiting a crime and by stealing peoples information sometimes a felony these actions require real consequences.
My point is simply this. Simply hardening a computer system isn't enough. Although its a worth while endevour its not enough. I don't believe there is a magic bullet for security. There is no such thing as a magic bullet. I believe in a combination of approaches to be the most secure. Strong deterrents like laws to prosecute hackers, strong firewalls to help prevent breakins, strong anti malicious software packages (antivirus and anti spyware software), a set of trip wires, event loggers to log security breaches, and regular reviews of security. Such mesures are beyond the capabilities of the average user. This makes the use of deterents even more important.
As for Mr Bush. I don't call the war in Iraq the war on Terror. There are two wars going on right now that the US is involved in. The first is the war on terror which is happening primarily in Afghanistan and all over the world and then there is Bush's war in Iraq which is a completely different war altogether. The war on Terror is a noble cause and I support him on it. The war in Iraq is a war to control Oil resources in the world. Thats why Canada didn't join the effort in Iraq. Mr Bush tried to muddy the waters. He used the terrorist excuse to attack Iraq because he thought the rest of the world would follow him.
I don't believe the system designer should be punished for this. Alot of the times security boils down to education. I see it every single day in my line of work. Users call me up and say I can't get on the Internet. When I ask them what sort of antivirus they have they say Norton or Mcafee. Many people don't have any antivirus at all. Of course those are the two most popular antivirus's and firewalls out there. They are also the ones that are most often Cracked.
The idea of not punishing the cracker is a farce. It takes skills to hack a computer. Cracking security systems in computers is a skill, one that takes a long time to develope. As is the skill of a pick pocket. Only through punishment will such skills be discouraged. Lets face it. Someone running a windows machine with a firewall, antivirus, anti spyware and anti spam software do all they can do to prevent losing there data. However they still get hacked, they still get spyware, they still get viruses, and they still lose their data.
People have created elaborate shields to prevent the bad. Though bugs are still exploited. I think its time a good deterent needs to be put in place. Something that says if you break into a persons computer you get 10 years in prison. Something extreme. Deterents are also part of good security. It prevents more people from developing the skills of the pick pocket.
Lets face it, crackers, virus writers, and spyware writers are nothing more then high tech terrorists. They destroy the experience of every one on the internet and there isn't a single day that I work that I don't have to deal with the consequences of such actions. It probably keeps me employed but I'd rather be creating increadible software that will improve peoples experience on the Internet not fixing the bad experiences.
Winston Churchill once said " if you don't turn your back on danger and meet it head on you reduce it by half." I believe that this statement is absolutely true in the arena of internet security. Where would we be today if he had capitulated to Hitler. Where would we be today if President Bush hadn't gone after Bin Laden. The terrorism that Bin Laden provides is also a skill that also takes a long time to develope. I'll tell you where we'd be right where we are in the internet arena. Where virus writers, spyware writers, and Crackers owning the arena instead of business people, content providers, commercial developers and open source developers creating wonderful new software for everyone to enjoy.
I can't say that I like Microsoft or their products. Ok... I have no repsect for the quality of their products what so ever. Well software generally. Hardware, I'm alot more forgiving.
In this situation Microsoft has my complete support. I hope they drive that other company that no one ever heard of before this out of business.
Interesting theory. I wonder how they came up with it. I happen to strongly disagree. This sounds more like microsoft trying to justify the poor job they've done in configuration management and quality assurance. Not an issue of software development tools.
Yes, although C and C++ has the capabilities to create such issues such as buffer overflow. Every good programmer I know understands the implications of using such functions and avoids it. If Microsoft programmers don't understand it then maybe microsoft should hire better programmers. In terms of the problems that exist in windows I don't believe this to be the case. And since I work in the tech support field I think I can call myself an authority on the subject. All the problems that I've ever seen in windows can not only be reproduced through testing they come up time and time again. They span multiple versions of windows and are never fixed despite the fact that microsoft knows about them. They've even created small patches to fix the problems when they crop up but have never worked to prevent the problems from occuring again.
This is why I don't buy your argument on the software Monoculture. One problem I see almost every day is a problem known by its error message "Operation was attempted on something that was not a socket.:" This problem has been around since microsoft created Windows NT and effects Windows 2000 and Windows XP also. Microsoft in all this time has not fixed the problem. They know about it. I mean I've personally sent customers to microsofts technical support department to have the problem repaired. Microsoft has an article on support.microsoft.com on how to fix the problem. If they can fix it then why don't they fix it so that it doesn't happen again? I'll tell you why. Because they can't be bothered. Every time someone calls Microsofts tech support for this problem its $30 and thats a major source of revenue.
The prevous problem is not the only problem I've seen on this issue. Take for instance the problem with spyware recently. Spyware is installed on peoples computers through security vulnerabilities in the Internet explorer browser. They know the exact security hole that causes the problem. Its the feature that allows you to place an Icon in the address bar with your website URL. They just recently published service pack two. You know what their solution was? They put a popup stopper into Intenet Explorer a solution that creates more problems then it fixes.
Lets take another problem and this one is the most damning of all. This problem has manifested itself in every version of windows since Windows 95. And It has been a problem since then. I mean you will run into this issue if you are running Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, and Windows XP. Microsoft knows about it. They even created a little function in windows to fix the problem in windows XP. Its having to reinstall the TCP / IP stack. Although fixing the problem has gotten easier in Windows XP. They have a nice menu item when you right click on Local Area Connection in the connection screen of the control panel. However, you still have to do it. Why haven't they fixed that. Its because they get paid $30 every time someone calls about this problem.
These aren't buffer overflow problems. They constitute for 90% of the problems I deal with every single day. They are problems that span multiple versions of Windows and have never been fixed. This argument is completely wrong I can't believe people are buying into it.
For anyone who is wondering what I am laughing about. The open source community has been working to take out Microsoft for the last five years. The anti-trust trial has done wonders to move our cause forward but that was just one battle that we knew would ultimatly have been lost. It did however help raise Linux's standing in the opinion of companies. Since Linux is for the most part free companies will probably not go back to paying Mircosoft thousands of dollars per Unit for software when they can equipt there machines for the price of a burned CD.
The next stage after wide exceptance is that they would offer some of there software for people to use. However this is just a token guesture and has no meaning. People will see right through it. But as a result of this Microsofts position will be weakened even more. In anycase they've now acknowledged that opensource exists and is a major threat. They just don't know how big.
The fact is Microsoft doesn't realize that the rules of the game have changed. We are no longer playing by their rules. We are playing by ours and these rules won't be changed any time soon.
Slashdot Mirror
What do you mean. I thought grapes for Ice Wine could only be picked at -15. Sheesh.
Funny you should say that health care is non-existent in Canada. Because Canadians pay less per capita for health care then the people in the US. Americans pay 14% of GDP and don't cover everyone. Just the rich and those with corporate health plans can afford it. While in Canada we pay 12% GDP and everyone is covered on our health plan. Regardless of who you are and what you do for a living.
Non-Existent is an exageration. Thats what the ultra right wing fasists will have you believe so that they can consider installing a two tierd health care system.
As for affording to live in Canada. I don't believe its the taxes that are difficult to live with. Its the lack of work. Lets face it there are more opportunities in the US. Canadian companies are pansies and won't take a chance on someone if they have no experience. Have you looked at what the requirements are in Canada for working in the computer science field. I can safeley say that most job postings are unrealistic when it comes to the job requirements. But thats what Free trade got us companies moving down to the US because they don't want to pay into a public health care system even though they pay less.
Free trade is the problem not the high taxes. Since free trade came in Corporate Canada has been completely gutted. Even the Hudsons Bay Company is subject to an American take over bid. A 300 Year old company. Its been around longer then when IBM was selling Cheese Slicers. Yet its subject to a takeover bid. Thats just not right.
I remember when Free trade first came in to Canada. I personally witnessed a 20 year old company go out of business within a few months of an American big box store come in to the market in Vancouver. That big box store was Home Depot. They drove out a smaller company that served the Greater Vancouver area well for more then 20 years. And the list doesn't stop there. Eatons was purchased by Sears, Woodwards went out of business all together, and McMillan Blodel was bought up by Wearhouser. McMillan Blodel was the biggest logging company in Canada and one of the biggest in the world. That gives you an Idea of the negative impact free trade has had on Canada. The taxes are manageable. They'd be manageable if it wasn't for outside presures. Personally I hope our prime minister follows up on his threats and dumps the North American Free Trade Agreement. That would be the best thing that has ever happened to Canada.
This guy must not have much to do in his retirement years. I mean really. He must be subscribe to some pretty interesting magazines if this is waht he is worried about. I mean really. He was a minister in 1962. The guy must be 90 years old by now.
But really this is the story that slashdot posts. The one that I posted yesterday about the guy who stuck it to his bank. They don't post. At least my story comes from a credible news paper.
sheesh
The problem I see with this is the bad PR that MySQL is getting over it. The money they got for this deal must be good if they are risking hurting their reputation in a community that helped them become a major player in business. I have no problems with MySQL. I think they created a decent piece of software that have facilitated alot of people and businesses on the Internet. Its a good example that the open source model works.
;). I think this would be a fitting end to the whole issue.
As for SCO... I hope MySQL is milking them for everything they can. This company should die a very quick and painful death. Maybe IBM should file the counter suite. Who knows they may end up with SCO's OpenServer which they can open source
I've seen Mac virus's They do exist. They are rare. But they do exist.
Ya.... If you have fruit trees in your back yard you can use the CD's that come in those CD cases to scare away the birds too. I see alot of people doing that to protect their cherry trees.
Actually, the rapid decline in AOL subscribers is because Time Warner is moving all their broad band customers over to Road Runner. It has little to do with thier retention department. And I know that for a fact because I heard it from management!!!!
So basically what your saying is that microsoft filed their patent at the same time Apple released the Ipod to the market place. That means Apple invented the Ipod before 2001 and then released it for christmas. A normal marketing ploy. So the ipod was most likely in heavy development in 2000 and testing began probably in January. Making it available in late 2001. Now this is what I'm assuming given normal development cycles. This means Apple had the product first and was years ahead of Microsoft.
The skills required to harden a system is beyond the capabilities of the average American. Most users even today don't have the know how or the smarts to harden their systems. I deal with many average users many times a day, many of them in fact are well below average. If it was possible to harden these peoples computers then I'd agree with you. But it isn't. They just don't understand why its important to protect their computers from such terrorist activities.
In the area of country XYZ who doesn't comply with US laws then the solution is simple. Deny entry of their goods into the US. Encourage your friend nations to deny goods from that country into their countries. Convince them that it is in the best interest of that country to do so. Country XYZ will capitulate or they face an economic crisis. In any event you have reduced the threat. Your assuming that I'm talking about complete erradication using such methods. Thats impossible. Thats not what I'm talking about. But instilling a good solid fear is usually enough to stop much of would be activity unless there is some economic gain for the person doing it. And in some cases even if there is some econimic gain.
As for the person running the server. If the person knows their system is insecure and refuses to do anything about it I have no problem with that. They are no better then the hackers. However, this would be a far more proactive role in stopping such practices. But, keep in mind that most people aren't such bone heads and simply refuse. They just don't know any better. Take for instance email computer viruses, they aren't usually spread by people just simply opening an email with an attachment. The person actually opens the attachment. Thats how viruses spread in email.
Keep in mind there were concequences that were incured by bringing so many people on to the Internet by Microsoft. Those consiquences are that the people they brought in are too ignorant to take any sort of responsible action. They just don't know enough to keep the systems on the Internet safe. That coupled with the fact that Windows is inherantly insecure enhances those problems. If you think for one second that companies don't pay already for such security issues think again. Many PC manufacturers, Internet service providers and other companies pay anywhere from $4 - $10 per phone call to their tech support departments. As opposed to Microsoft who created this mess and charges $30 - $240 per phone call for tech support. The costs are real by going after the hackers your just shifting who pays for the problem. And since the hacker is commiting a crime and by stealing peoples information sometimes a felony these actions require real consequences.
My point is simply this. Simply hardening a computer system isn't enough. Although its a worth while endevour its not enough. I don't believe there is a magic bullet for security. There is no such thing as a magic bullet. I believe in a combination of approaches to be the most secure. Strong deterrents like laws to prosecute hackers, strong firewalls to help prevent breakins, strong anti malicious software packages (antivirus and anti spyware software), a set of trip wires, event loggers to log security breaches, and regular reviews of security. Such mesures are beyond the capabilities of the average user. This makes the use of deterents even more important.
As for Mr Bush. I don't call the war in Iraq the war on Terror. There are two wars going on right now that the US is involved in. The first is the war on terror which is happening primarily in Afghanistan and all over the world and then there is Bush's war in Iraq which is a completely different war altogether. The war on Terror is a noble cause and I support him on it. The war in Iraq is a war to control Oil resources in the world. Thats why Canada didn't join the effort in Iraq. Mr Bush tried to muddy the waters. He used the terrorist excuse to attack Iraq because he thought the rest of the world would follow him.
In the end the war in Iraq wa
I don't believe the system designer should be punished for this. Alot of the times security boils down to education. I see it every single day in my line of work. Users call me up and say I can't get on the Internet. When I ask them what sort of antivirus they have they say Norton or Mcafee. Many people don't have any antivirus at all. Of course those are the two most popular antivirus's and firewalls out there. They are also the ones that are most often Cracked.
The idea of not punishing the cracker is a farce. It takes skills to hack a computer. Cracking security systems in computers is a skill, one that takes a long time to develope. As is the skill of a pick pocket. Only through punishment will such skills be discouraged. Lets face it. Someone running a windows machine with a firewall, antivirus, anti spyware and anti spam software do all they can do to prevent losing there data. However they still get hacked, they still get spyware, they still get viruses, and they still lose their data.
People have created elaborate shields to prevent the bad. Though bugs are still exploited. I think its time a good deterent needs to be put in place. Something that says if you break into a persons computer you get 10 years in prison. Something extreme. Deterents are also part of good security. It prevents more people from developing the skills of the pick pocket.
Lets face it, crackers, virus writers, and spyware writers are nothing more then high tech terrorists. They destroy the experience of every one on the internet and there isn't a single day that I work that I don't have to deal with the consequences of such actions. It probably keeps me employed but I'd rather be creating increadible software that will improve peoples experience on the Internet not fixing the bad experiences.
Winston Churchill once said " if you don't turn your back on danger and meet it head on you reduce it by half." I believe that this statement is absolutely true in the arena of internet security. Where would we be today if he had capitulated to Hitler. Where would we be today if President Bush hadn't gone after Bin Laden. The terrorism that Bin Laden provides is also a skill that also takes a long time to develope. I'll tell you where we'd be right where we are in the internet arena. Where virus writers, spyware writers, and Crackers owning the arena instead of business people, content providers, commercial developers and open source developers creating wonderful new software for everyone to enjoy.
I can't say that I like Microsoft or their products. Ok... I have no repsect for the quality of their products what so ever. Well software generally. Hardware, I'm alot more forgiving.
In this situation Microsoft has my complete support. I hope they drive that other company that no one ever heard of before this out of business.
Interesting theory. I wonder how they came up with it. I happen to strongly disagree. This sounds more like microsoft trying to justify the poor job they've done in configuration management and quality assurance. Not an issue of software development tools.
Yes, although C and C++ has the capabilities to create such issues such as buffer overflow. Every good programmer I know understands the implications of using such functions and avoids it. If Microsoft programmers don't understand it then maybe microsoft should hire better programmers. In terms of the problems that exist in windows I don't believe this to be the case. And since I work in the tech support field I think I can call myself an authority on the subject. All the problems that I've ever seen in windows can not only be reproduced through testing they come up time and time again. They span multiple versions of windows and are never fixed despite the fact that microsoft knows about them. They've even created small patches to fix the problems when they crop up but have never worked to prevent the problems from occuring again.
This is why I don't buy your argument on the software Monoculture. One problem I see almost every day is a problem known by its error message "Operation was attempted on something that was not a socket.:" This problem has been around since microsoft created Windows NT and effects Windows 2000 and Windows XP also. Microsoft in all this time has not fixed the problem. They know about it. I mean I've personally sent customers to microsofts technical support department to have the problem repaired. Microsoft has an article on support.microsoft.com on how to fix the problem. If they can fix it then why don't they fix it so that it doesn't happen again? I'll tell you why. Because they can't be bothered. Every time someone calls Microsofts tech support for this problem its $30 and thats a major source of revenue.
The prevous problem is not the only problem I've seen on this issue. Take for instance the problem with spyware recently. Spyware is installed on peoples computers through security vulnerabilities in the Internet explorer browser. They know the exact security hole that causes the problem. Its the feature that allows you to place an Icon in the address bar with your website URL. They just recently published service pack two. You know what their solution was? They put a popup stopper into Intenet Explorer a solution that creates more problems then it fixes.
Lets take another problem and this one is the most damning of all. This problem has manifested itself in every version of windows since Windows 95. And It has been a problem since then. I mean you will run into this issue if you are running Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, and Windows XP. Microsoft knows about it. They even created a little function in windows to fix the problem in windows XP. Its having to reinstall the TCP / IP stack. Although fixing the problem has gotten easier in Windows XP. They have a nice menu item when you right click on Local Area Connection in the connection screen of the control panel. However, you still have to do it. Why haven't they fixed that. Its because they get paid $30 every time someone calls about this problem.
These aren't buffer overflow problems. They constitute for 90% of the problems I deal with every single day. They are problems that span multiple versions of Windows and have never been fixed. This argument is completely wrong I can't believe people are buying into it.
What he should do is allow every one except Microsoft to use it.
For anyone who is wondering what I am laughing about. The open source community has been working to take out Microsoft for the last five years. The anti-trust trial has done wonders to move our cause forward but that was just one battle that we knew would ultimatly have been lost. It did however help raise Linux's standing in the opinion of companies. Since Linux is for the most part free companies will probably not go back to paying Mircosoft thousands of dollars per Unit for software when they can equipt there machines for the price of a burned CD. The next stage after wide exceptance is that they would offer some of there software for people to use. However this is just a token guesture and has no meaning. People will see right through it. But as a result of this Microsofts position will be weakened even more. In anycase they've now acknowledged that opensource exists and is a major threat. They just don't know how big. The fact is Microsoft doesn't realize that the rules of the game have changed. We are no longer playing by their rules. We are playing by ours and these rules won't be changed any time soon.
Excellent, the opensource plan is working perfectly. It's just a matter of time before we take them down now. wahahahahahaahahaha!->