OK, then please provide a url which automatically downloads the cometcursor software without asking the user. I went to cometcursor.cometsystems.com and there was a big download button on the page. Nothing automatic there.
I would disagree that Comet Cursor is qualifies as custom software in the same class that the article is discussing. IE allows a web designer to specify a custom cursor through stylesheets. By that logic, someone could say that your browser automatically "installs" jpegs when a page is loaded that has image tags. So I still am not convinced that any software will actually auto-install.
The article makes a vague reference, but in fact, it does not give any details about software that auto-installs. What browser supports this? IE prompts you to install. This is not a javascript pop-up, as you say, but part of IE that can't be overridden or ignored by the site. Just because the article says that some software does this does not make it so. No one has offered up any proof of this behavior, they just keep pointing to the article which offers nothing more than rumor. I would be willing to accept your argument if you produce a site that causes auto-installation.
Nope. Read earlier in the article, where it refers to "drive-by downloads".
OK, here is that part:
In some cases, people are not even asked whether they want the software. It just installs on the hard drive--a particularly troublesome tactic that some have dubbed "drive-by download."
What cases are they referring to? Is this anything but rumor? This is the only bit in the whole article that mentions automatic downloads. I would say that you are relying on hearsay to form your argument. Show me a page that actually does this.
Actually, the article makes it clear that the user has to confirm by clicking Yes to download. This is no different than a "stranger with candy". If you don't know who's giving you the candy, eat it at your own risk. And you have the option to refuse.
Before we all go into full outrage mode, remember that the software can't install unless you click Yes. I'm sure if they could install without confirmation, they would, but they can't, so let's not have a fit about it. It's obnoxious, but not sleazy. Sleazy would be deceptive (kazaa-brilliant is sleazy). Obnoxious is just something that slows you down.
Shoot, a fella' could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff.
Interesting story about that line. The original line was "Shoot, a fella' could have a pretty good weekend in Dallas with all that stuff." But, apparently, due to the assassination of JFK, they changed the line. I haven't seen Dr. Strangelove since I found that out, but you are supposed to be able to tell that "Vegas" was dubbed over "Dallas".
I don't think the US Robotics Pilot sucked at all. I owned a Pilot 5000, which was one of the original models. The only necessary feature which that model was missing was the backlight. The Palm OS is not that much different than it was then. Sure, more memory, and slimmer models (Palm V and such) is great, but the core functionality hasn't changed that much.
So why would I want a device to slow me down? In addition, you have to pick up a pen, vs. being able to just drop your hand to a mouse and then back to the keyboard. I use a tablet for some graphics work, but I only use it when I need to because of the extra time to switch from the pen to the keyboard.
Incidentally, I use a trackball that I hacked to have an external box with the mouse buttons so I can operate the trackball with my right foot and the buttons with my left (due to RSI). So I never take my hands off the keyboard. I can't see myself going back to having to use a hand mouse, pen, or whatever as my primary pointing device.
A REAL, TRUE story - M$ anti-unix site runs BSD
on
CPAN Shifts Focus
·
· Score: 2
Netcraft results for site The site www.wehavethewayout.com is running Rapidsite/Apa-1.3.14 (Unix) FrontPage/4.0.4.3 mod_ssl/2.7.1 OpenSSL/0.9.5a on FreeBSD.
...CmdrTaco announced today that a new change in editorial policy at Slashdot will take effect. The following changes are being made:
All stories will be read by the editor before adding any comments such as "this has serious ramifications for quantum computing"
Editoral budget expanded to allow for the additional 3.2 seconds required to click the spell check button
When people e-mail CmdrTaco with a concern, complaint, or question, autorespond that says, "Fuck off. I run this site, you're just a loser." will be changed to, "Thank you for your feedback. We'll take your input into consideration of this important issue and let you know of any decisions."
Editors now only have infinity minus one moderation points
Slave to a tradition that was never that funny in the first place
Fact checking on Slashdot has been so bad recently that he thought no one would notice the difference
CowboyNeal made him do it
Physical security maybe not as important
on
The Root of All E-Mail
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
According to the article, even if the NOC were blown to bits, it wouldn't impact the internet overall that much.
The last thing I'd want someone to think is that they could put a bomb around their waist and hug the A root and think they're going to significantly impact the Internet," Rippe said.
Rippe said that while such an attack could kill many employees, the Internet's addressing system is designed to withstand the destruction of much of the physical infrastructure that houses it.
So the threat of someone cracking the DNS server and screwing it up in such a way that it wouldn't get noticed immediately could be worse. Let's say you start altering the records. Once that starts to replicate from the root server on down, you can cause a lot of trouble. Do that to just eBay's or Amazon's domain (or gasp! Slashdot's), and you could cause quite a stir.
...people who use their thumbs more often have better coordination with their thumbs.
Can anyone say "slow news day" ?
Tomorrow on slashdot: "People who type a lot don't even have to look at the keys" "Study discovers that engineers better at factoring quadratic equations than grocery clerks" "Musicians who practice more often are better musicians"
That was my first reaction as well. A contract can be made over ordinary text e-mail if the identity and intention is clear. Yes, an e-mail can be forged, but that is covered the same way a forged signature or impersonation. There doesn't seem to be any question of identity or intent here. After all, e-mail is just communication. Signing something just helps ensure identity, but it is not the only way to establish it.
Are you confusing profits with markup? Markup is the amount the store adds to the wholesale cost. Profits is how much the store makes after all the costs are paid for. Typical retail markups often are 30-50% of the retail price. Profits, on the other hand, are often in the 5% range.
I had mono once, back in college. I caught it from some girl. No, it didn't kill me, and I was much less powerful than any gnome. Gnome'll have a sore throat and be real sleepy for a while, but he'll get over it. Don't worry.
This story reminds me of the summer I spent working for a lawn-mowing company and my fingers tingled all the time from the vibration. It can get really bad -- the British Health and Safety Executive has a document which describes hand-arm vibration injury, which normally affects stonemasons and people who operate vibrating machinery all day. The say that if you're getting more vibration than the equivalent of four hours of lawnmower action, you should be concerned about your health.
I think we've passed the point where product liability ends individual responsibility takes over. Perhaps they should have a warning label because little Johnny spends so much time on his PS2 that he doesn't eat properly, and that's bad for his health as well.
...from incidents of "space rage", when a Cosmonaut orders a lot of little bottles of spiked Tang, gets drunk and starts yelling and attacking people, and tries to open the airlock.
I know I'm sick of those people from ruining my space flights.
I had the site backed up on a CD-ROM, which they took.
Can you say "offsite backups"?
Though, I will admit that "FBI Raid" is not really one of the contingencies that I'm specifically thinking of when creating my company's database backup plan...
Ping statistics for 64.28.67.150:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms
I guess that means that slashdot is infinitely far away...I always suspected it
This whole thing is a major "duh". Of course businesses can be profitable using the web. And since investment money is no longer available for those that can't/don't make profits, businesses are starting out looking to be profitable, rather than letting profitability be "a detail to be worked out later."
This is the nature of the capitalist system. It adjusts and adapts to profitability, and is essentially agnostic regarding the means. Internet, fax, mail-order, customer service, whatever you need to do to sell your product or service.
When you boil it down, Jon Katz is telling us something that we all know, which is the basic fundamentals of a capitalist market system. Will he next go to the hospital maternity ward and tell us how "An amazing revolution is taking place where humans are reproducing other humans. My worries that the species will go extinct are over!"
One of the big problems is pack-rat syndrome, where everybody keeps everything "just in case". No one is sure whether they can safely delete/destroy the document.
The U.S Army uses a system called MARKS (Modern Army Recordkeeping System) which includes destruction procedures. Every record within the MARKS system is supposed to have a disposition which indicates when it is to be destroyed. The system is designed so that there is no ambiguity about when to destroy the file (e.g., "destroy 1 year after expiration"). Any half-awake clerk can follow the instructions.
Usually the person creating the document knows it's proper scope, and can specify the disposition. Then anyone who receives the file just follows the instructions.
Necessary for any similar system for private companies would be
1) publish guidelines/SOPs/regulations for dispositions
2) make sure document authors specify destruction dispositions on all documents
3) publish SOPs for regularly purging documents
4) auditing to make sure that destruction dispositions are followed
The best way would to be to have some automation in there -- document creation tools modified to automatically insert this information, automated purging, automated auditing. Otherwise you're just adding a lot of workload to people who probably don't give a flying f--- about document destruction.
Slashdot Mirror
OK, then please provide a url which automatically downloads the cometcursor software without asking the user. I went to cometcursor.cometsystems.com and there was a big download button on the page. Nothing automatic there.
I would disagree that Comet Cursor is qualifies as custom software in the same class that the article is discussing. IE allows a web designer to specify a custom cursor through stylesheets. By that logic, someone could say that your browser automatically "installs" jpegs when a page is loaded that has image tags. So I still am not convinced that any software will actually auto-install.
The article makes a vague reference, but in fact, it does not give any details about software that auto-installs. What browser supports this? IE prompts you to install. This is not a javascript pop-up, as you say, but part of IE that can't be overridden or ignored by the site. Just because the article says that some software does this does not make it so. No one has offered up any proof of this behavior, they just keep pointing to the article which offers nothing more than rumor. I would be willing to accept your argument if you produce a site that causes auto-installation.
OK, here is that part:
In some cases, people are not even asked whether they want the software. It just installs on the hard drive--a particularly troublesome tactic that some have dubbed "drive-by download."
What cases are they referring to? Is this anything but rumor? This is the only bit in the whole article that mentions automatic downloads. I would say that you are relying on hearsay to form your argument. Show me a page that actually does this.
Actually, the article makes it clear that the user has to confirm by clicking Yes to download. This is no different than a "stranger with candy". If you don't know who's giving you the candy, eat it at your own risk. And you have the option to refuse.
Before we all go into full outrage mode, remember that the software can't install unless you click Yes. I'm sure if they could install without confirmation, they would, but they can't, so let's not have a fit about it. It's obnoxious, but not sleazy. Sleazy would be deceptive (kazaa-brilliant is sleazy). Obnoxious is just something that slows you down.
Interesting story about that line. The original line was "Shoot, a fella' could have a pretty good weekend in Dallas with all that stuff." But, apparently, due to the assassination of JFK, they changed the line. I haven't seen Dr. Strangelove since I found that out, but you are supposed to be able to tell that "Vegas" was dubbed over "Dallas".
I don't think the US Robotics Pilot sucked at all. I owned a Pilot 5000, which was one of the original models. The only necessary feature which that model was missing was the backlight. The Palm OS is not that much different than it was then. Sure, more memory, and slimmer models (Palm V and such) is great, but the core functionality hasn't changed that much.
Maybe he meant Logan's Run, where you were hunted down at the age of 30.
Incidentally, I use a trackball that I hacked to have an external box with the mouse buttons so I can operate the trackball with my right foot and the buttons with my left (due to RSI). So I never take my hands off the keyboard. I can't see myself going back to having to use a hand mouse, pen, or whatever as my primary pointing device.
news.com article
http://www.wehavethewayout.com/
Netcraft results for site
The site www.wehavethewayout.com is running Rapidsite/Apa-1.3.14 (Unix) FrontPage/4.0.4.3 mod_ssl/2.7.1 OpenSSL/0.9.5a on FreeBSD.
All stories will be read by the editor before adding any comments such as "this has serious ramifications for quantum computing"
Editoral budget expanded to allow for the additional 3.2 seconds required to click the spell check button
When people e-mail CmdrTaco with a concern, complaint, or question, autorespond that says, "Fuck off. I run this site, you're just a loser." will be changed to, "Thank you for your feedback. We'll take your input into consideration of this important issue and let you know of any decisions."
Editors now only have infinity minus one moderation points
April Fools jokes permanently stopped
He loves annoying others
Slave to a tradition that was never that funny in the first place
Fact checking on Slashdot has been so bad recently that he thought no one would notice the difference
CowboyNeal made him do it
The last thing I'd want someone to think is that they could put a bomb around their waist and hug the A root and think they're going to significantly impact the Internet," Rippe said.
Rippe said that while such an attack could kill many employees, the Internet's addressing system is designed to withstand the destruction of much of the physical infrastructure that houses it.
So the threat of someone cracking the DNS server and screwing it up in such a way that it wouldn't get noticed immediately could be worse. Let's say you start altering the records. Once that starts to replicate from the root server on down, you can cause a lot of trouble. Do that to just eBay's or Amazon's domain (or gasp! Slashdot's), and you could cause quite a stir.
...people who use their thumbs more often have better coordination with their thumbs.
Can anyone say "slow news day" ?
Tomorrow on slashdot:
"People who type a lot don't even have to look at the keys"
"Study discovers that engineers better at factoring quadratic equations than grocery clerks"
"Musicians who practice more often are better musicians"
That was my first reaction as well. A contract can be made over ordinary text e-mail if the identity and intention is clear. Yes, an e-mail can be forged, but that is covered the same way a forged signature or impersonation. There doesn't seem to be any question of identity or intent here. After all, e-mail is just communication. Signing something just helps ensure identity, but it is not the only way to establish it.
Are you confusing profits with markup? Markup is the amount the store adds to the wholesale cost. Profits is how much the store makes after all the costs are paid for. Typical retail markups often are 30-50% of the retail price. Profits, on the other hand, are often in the 5% range.
I had mono once, back in college. I caught it from some girl. No, it didn't kill me, and I was much less powerful than any gnome. Gnome'll have a sore throat and be real sleepy for a while, but he'll get over it. Don't worry.
...then you wouldn't have to worry about any of this. Happy litigating!
I think we've passed the point where product liability ends individual responsibility takes over. Perhaps they should have a warning label because little Johnny spends so much time on his PS2 that he doesn't eat properly, and that's bad for his health as well.
I know I'm sick of those people from ruining my space flights.
Can you say "offsite backups"?
Though, I will admit that "FBI Raid" is not really one of the contingencies that I'm specifically thinking of when creating my company's database backup plan...
------------
D:\WINNT\system32>ping slashdot.org
Pinging slashdot.org [64.28.67.150] with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Ping statistics for 64.28.67.150:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms
I guess that means that slashdot is infinitely far away...I always suspected it
This is the nature of the capitalist system. It adjusts and adapts to profitability, and is essentially agnostic regarding the means. Internet, fax, mail-order, customer service, whatever you need to do to sell your product or service.
When you boil it down, Jon Katz is telling us something that we all know, which is the basic fundamentals of a capitalist market system. Will he next go to the hospital maternity ward and tell us how "An amazing revolution is taking place where humans are reproducing other humans. My worries that the species will go extinct are over!"
The U.S Army uses a system called MARKS (Modern Army Recordkeeping System) which includes destruction procedures. Every record within the MARKS system is supposed to have a disposition which indicates when it is to be destroyed. The system is designed so that there is no ambiguity about when to destroy the file (e.g., "destroy 1 year after expiration"). Any half-awake clerk can follow the instructions.
Usually the person creating the document knows it's proper scope, and can specify the disposition. Then anyone who receives the file just follows the instructions.
Necessary for any similar system for private companies would be
1) publish guidelines/SOPs/regulations for dispositions
2) make sure document authors specify destruction dispositions on all documents
3) publish SOPs for regularly purging documents
4) auditing to make sure that destruction dispositions are followed
The best way would to be to have some automation in there -- document creation tools modified to automatically insert this information, automated purging, automated auditing. Otherwise you're just adding a lot of workload to people who probably don't give a flying f--- about document destruction.