An even worse invasion of privacy comes when trying to buy cheap flights online.
I've found some amazing deals online which I would love to have jumped on, but the tremendous amount of personal information was too much to give up for a little savings. I have set a price on my personal information, and saving a few hundred quid on a trip is not enough for me to give up my info. If you try to buy an online ticket, the number of "required" fields are too numerous and private just for a cheap ticket.
E-commerce sites have been abusing the information they obtain since the beginning. They commit the worst kinds of direct marketing and spamming, under the guise of "its better for the consumer". And then they wonder why E-commerce hasn't really started to take off, and why consumer confidence isn't there.
When the e-commerce sites gain a reputation for not insisting on private information, and never spamming or selling your info to direct marketers, then consumers will be more willing to use their services. Until then, business to user e-commerce will never take off.
The first registration period to be a Member-At-Large of the ICANN closed recently. Although their server was overloaded almost constantly, it seems they were continuously registering people slowly.
How many slashdotters bothered to sign up to be a member? That is the only way to vote on who you want to represent you in the wolves den of ICANN politics. Even though the whole process has been corrupted by greedy corporatism, a few good members elected could help a great deal to knowing what is really going on behind the scenes in ICANN meetings.
Even if you didn't sign up, then making your voice loud and clear on forums such as/. will let the voting members know how to vote. Lets try to keep the internet open and free of total corporate control. Sound off here with well reasoned research into each of the candidates background and corporate leaning.
The ability to send an email to a computer, have it erase its hard drive, send out additional emails so you know it was successful, and then stop the machine from working.
Oh, wait! We already have that:-)
Its called M$ Outlook.
I understand Pitr is working on a linux port this week:-)
It seems Vergil has stumbled across a very valuable resource on the web. First he writes a rambling story in serious need of some editing, and only about 20% finished. Then he gets Emmett to post it on/., with a birthday wish for a random female someone hopes to impress.
Then all the/.ers point out all the minor technical points (its a search warrant, dude, not an arrest warrant) and ask questions about the whole point of the exercise. After a few hours, there are 390 comments containing a lot of material for Vergil to use when he re-writes his story for hackedtobits. This random scribbling didn't even get to the Blue Room, which we can infer was a police holding cell he got thrown into later.
When the longer story gets published, Vergil will have answered many of his critics on this dry run. It will allow him to look like a clued-in protester with a cause rather than a society reject hoping to draw attention to himself and perhaps winning some easy cash from a wrongful arrest lawsuit.
Most of my appreciation of her comes from personal contact many years ago. She jumped into the philosophical end of the computer industry at the beginning, as sort of a counterbalance to all the hype going on. Since there are so few people doing what she does, she looks very good. I feel she is a bit out of touch, because over the last decade she is more in tune with big corps and never has time for street cred or leading edge research. Cringely is a rumour spreader, and he tends to rehash ideas he picks up elsewhere. Lots of IMNSHO for that paragraph.
I'd suggest poking around the web for illicit copies of Release X.0 or other works by her. I know there were some bootleg videos of some of her seminars floating around a few years ago, maybe someone MPEGed them.
the AC
[what papers carry her column? Are they on the web? I'm too lazy^H^H^H^Hbusy right now to search:-]
Esther has a lot of her father's intelligence. Much of what she comes up with does have some thought put into it. She makes her money from being very energetic and passing some of that energy to people in her talks and seminars. She is very dynamic and can think circles around most people in a discussion.
But quoting her out of context makes for better headlines. Isn't there a dilbert line "if it weren't for lack of context, there woudn't be any news"?
As Peter says, It may not be fair to judge the quote outside of the larger context of Dyson's thoughts. It is the Times article which takes a statement and turns it into an emotionally charged story. Reporting facts and bland opinion doesn't sell more newspapers, only preying on people's emotions sells more.
Since the RIAA takes its cut, and the major labels take their cut, and the distributors take a cut, the cost of raw materials takes a cut, and finally the artists get.003 cents for the sale, then you can see where the money goes. Note that the cut the RIAA takes does not go to the artists, they get to keep 99% of the collected artists royalties for overhead. Cut out the RIAA, and force the labels to use straight forward accounting practices for royalty distribution. Then the artists will see the money they deserve. A system like that would allow many more artists to make a living doing what they love, rather than have all the money get lost on the way to them.
CD prices are even more outrageous here in Europe, with even less money going to the artists. I'd expect the EU to follow up with a similar investigation now that the US has shown the way.
Your problem is that you are in Paris, and everyone around you are tourists. Its august, and there isn't a Parisien left in Paris:-) They are coming in from all over the world, and their GSM phones just continue to keep working. That's what is nice about GSM, it works everywhere except the US.
Paris has one of the highest densities of GSM users of anyplace in the world (4.5 million users in 40 square kilometers), and the coverage can get a bit difficult down amongst the buildings. There are sometimes 2 or 3 cell sites on each block.
I've got both a US phone and a GSM phone (both nokia, 6160 and 6150, almost identical) for my travels. I'm amazed at the lack of features on my US phone. The GSM system is overloaded with all kinds of extra features, but the US PCS system has very few. I like SMS, it doubles as a 2 way pager. In the US, everyone seems to have both a pager and a phone.
The other big point about the GSM system is that the handsets and the service are completely separate. I noticed you said you had a SprintPCS phone, but you probably didn't have a choice of model when you signed up for the service. With GSM, when you sign up for service, you get a smartcard which you then put in any GSM phone you want. So outside the US, every compares phones feature for feature, and separately compares the competing service providers. All markets have at least 2 providers, most have 3 or more. England has many providers to chose from.
I like my GSM phone. I can use the IR port on it with the IR port on my PC, and check my email at any time or place. No need to haul a cable around to connect the phone to the PC. And if I want to send a quick SMS to someone, I can either do it from my phone keypad (slow and cumbersome) or put it in my palm and shoot it out the IR port and off it goes.
The french costs are 4 units for a connection and gives you 2 minutes. A unit is.85 FF, about 14 US cents. After the first 3 minutes, you get charged 1 unit about every minute you are on. The length of time before you use up your next unit depends on the plan you chose, but usually shorter units during daytime peak, and longer units night/weekend. Calls from GSM to GSM on the same provider are just 1 or 2 units for the first 3 minutes, which makes it essentially the same as landline to landline charges. And I want people to have to pay to call me, it keeps the telemarketers off. In the US, half of my calls are telemarketers trying to just take a minute of my time to sell me something.
Lots of things the commission does can be considered jokes. Problem is, nobody laughs at most of them. Occasionally they create a law so absurd everyone laughs along. I think this is what they strive for.
They are looking at making it economically impossible for a company to try and force distributors to offer only a single brand. That way car dealerships could offer competing brands if they wanted. Computer makers could offer alternates to M$, like linux and BeOS.
You have a very intelligent library system. This is the way all public access should be. Everyone over 18 (or 16 in real countries:) should have the access they want, filtered or raw. If you can't find something with the filters on, switch them off and try again.
All the minors should need permission to make that decision. And once a parent lets their kid have unlimited internet access, then they shouldn't complain about dog kennel sites using the word "bitches"
Typical German lawyers. When they send you a notice you are being sued, they include a demand for immediate payment for their services. Even if you win the case, you are still liable for their bill, but usually the court orders the loser in the case to pay both sides legal bills.
I hate German lawyers the most.
It will be very hard to tell which way this case will go. If they get a nationalistic judge, free software will lose out, and probably be asked to pay damages (its free, doh!). If they get a younger and better educated judge, the case will get thrown out. If they get a clued-in judge, the banking system will lose and be chastised for such a frivilous case. But clueful judges are rare in Germany, and the banking system will know which is the best court to file for their advantage.
The debates centre around whether the playing field should just be leveled, or should M$ be punished for their continuing lawlessness. Just leveling the playing field with an assortment of new laws will take years for any effects to be felt. A strong punishment is favored, because M$ is not the only company abusing its monopoly power, and many feel a message needs to be sent to the others.
Things are complex in the EU right now, with everyone worried about the changes brought on by the Euro. This new common currency is showing up all kinds of illegal dealings by many companies, such as car makers offering the same car for +-75% price depending on the market. It is worth your time to go to Italy and buy a car if you live in northern europe. The price is typically half, or approximately $10,000 savings on a mid-sized sedan. I bought my new Saab in Portugal and drove it back, for a savings of about $17,000 over local prices.
The commission is looking at R&D balances and many other factors. But everyone seems to agree something must be done, they just disagree on the degree of punishment.
Several have been discussed in the press recently.
First would be higher tarriffs on all M$ product, the problem being it is all produced locally inside the EU and that would make it difficult. M$ has plants in Ireland and local production in almost every country, and tarriffs are difficult to assess in such a case (which is why every american company does the same thing).
Another solution would be to alter the tax structure on any company offering a pure M$ solution, and normal taxes on any company with a mix of products. This isn't all that popular, but exclusionary licensing is not allowed in Europe and many M$ shops are 100% M$ because up until now there has been no enforcement of M$ abuses of power.
There is also talk of creating a European only M$, and not allowing any kind of investments or profit sharing between Euro-M$ and the US-M$. Effectively, the US-M$ would be banned from all markets, and would have to turn over a copy of all software and patents to the new Euro-M$. Then the Euro-M$ would be responsible to Euro courts, and the large revenue stream currently flowing to Redmond would stay within the EU. A lot of the far-right parties are quietly supporting this, and it may become an issue in elections if the court case goes against M$.
Keep an eye on the Euro news outlets for their local commentary. Some make a lot of revenue from M$ advertising, but many do not, and thus tend to print reasonably unbiased accounts of the ongoing action.
Micro~1.oft has been pulling the same games in Europe as in the US. This includes withholding Dos/Win/Nt from any PC manufacturer who doesn't exclusively sell only M$ products. This makes it impossible for any competitors such as SolarisX.86 from being offered or supported in the marketplace. That is just the start of the charges being brought against M$.
There are also ongoing investigations into the "Embrace - Extend - Extinguish" methodology in the open protocols arena. Kerberos, M$-CHAP, SMB, and some others are being investigated. It is possible the prosecutors will not shy away from the technical attacks the way the US prosecutors did. The issue is complex, but there is hope the court will take the time to understand the criminal aspects of micro~1.oft's behaviour, and that it extends into every area of their business.
The courts have also been asking companies for documented examples of FUD, vapor products which never made it to market, exclusionary licenses, and targeted advertising campaigns. There has apparently been an overwhelming response from companies fed up with M$ monopolistic behaviour.
The same thing in Paris. I know one of the computer people working on the paris traffic system. The french have thousands of sensors planted all over the place, as well as hundreds of surveillance cameras.
There have been a number of projects to examine knowledge based "AI style" traffic management. Many small companies offer controller systems which claim to have "fuzzy logic" and are able to learn about traffic patterns. Every single one of them fails when presented with a few basic external factors such as "weekend", "snow", "construction" or "accident". But given a perfect grid system (which Paris is NOT!), and perfect drivers, and the AI systems had no problem finding a perfect solution. But the slightest change threw the whole system into chaos, and quite often killed the system. None of the marketing claims survived even a small real world test.
So Paris has gone to its own system. The computers are doing what they do best, calculating. The humans do what they do best, adding intelligence to the chaos. Together, Paris traffic is only a mess, rather than a permanent gridlock:-)
In the same story on CNN, as soon as Napster won their stay, RIAA lawyers in several courts filed motions to have the stay lifted.
did so! did not! did so! did not! did so! did not! did so! did not! Hey you kids, stop your squabling, or you will both be sent to bed without any gnutella for desert.
You haven't been inside an old telephone company building. They are military fortresses. The new NAPs are fairly well protected, even if they don't have 6 foot thick granite walls.
The problems with any kind of coordinated military style attack is that it can be very easily detected by counterintelligence agencies. And after the attack, the perps have to go somewhere, they don't just disappear into thin air. If there was any kind of coordinated attack on the US, every border crossing and airport would be stitched up tight, and then it would just be a matter of time as the FBI and local LE did their good old fashioned police work and rounded up a majority of the force. They might not get all of them, but even 50% capture rate would make for some good headlines.
The result of any such attack, even if only against a few main nodes like MAE-east/west, would tighten up the whole system.
The early days are shrouded in confusion, myth, lies, half-truths, and blazing egos. For years nothing was very clear about the origins of RXC.
We'd like to know about the early days when R.X. Cringeley was used as a pseudonym for a gaggle of writers. Were you involved with the 'nym from the beginning, or did you join later? Who else wrote parts of those articles? Where did the source material come from? Any fun anecdotes?
Could you tell us about the early days without putting the 'nym spin on the facts? I would love to hear a single side to this story once and for all, and I consider you to be the only one who can give us the truth.
This was discussed on NANOG recently. The resources to take out even a few NAPs would be enormous. Assuming this criminal element tried to do its damage with explosives or light arms, just the act of assembling such a large arsenal would stand a good chance of being detected by the FBI. Include into that the dozens or hundreds of personnel needed to cary out simultaneous attacks, and you have a very formidable force.
Then there is the problem of what happens after taking out a location such as MAE-East. Within hours the network engineers would be figuring out ways to reconnect to each other, and how to route around the damage.
Yes, a large scale attack would hurt the internet for a short period of time. But the internet is resilient and would bounce back in dozens of alternate routes, and all the network admins would be on alert for any more outages. Law enforcement would also be on a hightened state of alert, making it much more difficult for criminals or terrorists to continue attacting the internet.
This report has already been dissed as just so much FUD by someone selling something. And clueless media are now picking up on the report and spreading the FUD around. But to take out 4% of the routing nodes on the internet would require a large sized military force with excellent communications and coordination, who would immediately be the target of both law enforcement and the military.
As a homeowner with a Brand-X lock, you feel secure. The Brand-X lock has the most complicated key you have ever seen, and the lock is hardened steel with dozens of anti-tamper function. You feel really secure.
Brand-X locks have a defect which means they can be opened by anyone inserting a screwdriver and turning it. The manufacturer knows this, but doesn't say anything. This is security through obscurity.
Thieves (script kiddies) have discovered through experimentation the screwdriver trick. They occasionally wander down your street, looking for Brand-X locks.
If the manufacturer of Brand-X locks were responsible, they would put out a recall notice and replace all the defective locks. But they aren't, so thousands of homes are broken into by thieves who have learned this exploit. Many homeowners learn of the defect from the police after the fact.
Once a news report is published showing the fault with Brand-X, many of the consumers clamor for replacements. Eventually the manufacturer gives in and provides new locks to those who ask for them, putting a positive spin on the whole sordid affair. Draw your own parallels with this action:-)
Well the issues that "created" Nazism in Germany between the wars were massive poverty, hyper-inflation, a loss of national pride and rampant and institutionalized racism.
And many programs and laws created in the wake of the great war were designed specifically to tackle each of the issues which let nazism and fascism take power in the first place. To prevent hyperinflation and differences between neighboring countries, a common currency has been introduced with a strong central bank to regulate it without political sway (ok, so there is some political pressure, but it will recede). It took 45 years from when the first proposal for the Euro was agreed upon to being implemented, but most rational people agree it will be a great leap forward when we finally get some bills in our hands in a couple of years.
The easy-to-tackle issues have been tackled. Now what remains is problems like racism. Eliminating the root causes was easy, but there is still a long ways to go. Institutionalised racism got its start in Austria almost two centuries ago when a structured schooling system was created. Every student was taught that certain races were inferior, and professors had to back that up with bogus scientific research or lose their jobs. After several generations went through the programs, the whole society believed the lies. After the war, the allies created laws against the worship of nazi symbols in schools, and carefully purged the school systems of the most virulent racists. But it will take several more generations until the laws can relax. The ideal is to have a protected form of free speech like the US first amendment, but the patient has to be cured of the terrible disease before that can happen.
I'm not sure of the translation for "tough shit" tant pis! ou quelle dommage!
The website did have french content, just not equal amounts. It was for an intensive english language program, so the courts thought having a mostly english website was justified.
The rush back to the right and far-right ideals after elections a few years ago has corrected itself in France lately. But the french are so, well, french. "French" can be a noun, a verb, an adjective, an insult and a complement:-)
Information warfare includes a fairly broad range of activities... As one example, both physical and cyber attacks can result in system effects that are physical and cyber.... A bomb (physical) may be used to damage a company facility (physical).
I knew there was one aspect we've been leaving out of our security audits:-)
Hey, boss, can we include explosives in our hacking arsenal? Just little ones. Please?:-):-)
Slashdot Mirror
An even worse invasion of privacy comes when trying to buy cheap flights online.
I've found some amazing deals online which I would love to have jumped on, but the tremendous amount of personal information was too much to give up for a little savings. I have set a price on my personal information, and saving a few hundred quid on a trip is not enough for me to give up my info. If you try to buy an online ticket, the number of "required" fields are too numerous and private just for a cheap ticket.
E-commerce sites have been abusing the information they obtain since the beginning. They commit the worst kinds of direct marketing and spamming, under the guise of "its better for the consumer". And then they wonder why E-commerce hasn't really started to take off, and why consumer confidence isn't there.
When the e-commerce sites gain a reputation for not insisting on private information, and never spamming or selling your info to direct marketers, then consumers will be more willing to use their services. Until then, business to user e-commerce will never take off.
the AC
The first registration period to be a Member-At-Large of the ICANN closed recently. Although their server was overloaded almost constantly, it seems they were continuously registering people slowly.
/. will let the voting members know how to vote. Lets try to keep the internet open and free of total corporate control. Sound off here with well reasoned research into each of the candidates background and corporate leaning.
How many slashdotters bothered to sign up to be a member? That is the only way to vote on who you want to represent you in the wolves den of ICANN politics. Even though the whole process has been corrupted by greedy corporatism, a few good members elected could help a great deal to knowing what is really going on behind the scenes in ICANN meetings.
Even if you didn't sign up, then making your voice loud and clear on forums such as
the AC
The ability to send an email to a computer, have it erase its hard drive, send out additional emails so you know it was successful, and then stop the machine from working.
:-)
:-)
Oh, wait! We already have that
Its called M$ Outlook.
I understand Pitr is working on a linux port this week
the AC
It seems Vergil has stumbled across a very valuable resource on the web. First he writes a rambling story in serious need of some editing, and only about 20% finished. Then he gets Emmett to post it on /., with a birthday wish for a random female someone hopes to impress.
/.ers point out all the minor technical points (its a search warrant, dude, not an arrest warrant) and ask questions about the whole point of the exercise. After a few hours, there are 390 comments containing a lot of material for Vergil to use when he re-writes his story for hackedtobits. This random scribbling didn't even get to the Blue Room, which we can infer was a police holding cell he got thrown into later.
Then all the
When the longer story gets published, Vergil will have answered many of his critics on this dry run. It will allow him to look like a clued-in protester with a cause rather than a society reject hoping to draw attention to himself and perhaps winning some easy cash from a wrongful arrest lawsuit.
the AC
Most of my appreciation of her comes from personal contact many years ago. She jumped into the philosophical end of the computer industry at the beginning, as sort of a counterbalance to all the hype going on. Since there are so few people doing what she does, she looks very good. I feel she is a bit out of touch, because over the last decade she is more in tune with big corps and never has time for street cred or leading edge research. Cringely is a rumour spreader, and he tends to rehash ideas he picks up elsewhere. Lots of IMNSHO for that paragraph.
:-]
I'd suggest poking around the web for illicit copies of Release X.0 or other works by her. I know there were some bootleg videos of some of her seminars floating around a few years ago, maybe someone MPEGed them.
the AC
[what papers carry her column? Are they on the web? I'm too lazy^H^H^H^Hbusy right now to search
Esther has a lot of her father's intelligence. Much of what she comes up with does have some thought put into it. She makes her money from being very energetic and passing some of that energy to people in her talks and seminars. She is very dynamic and can think circles around most people in a discussion.
But quoting her out of context makes for better headlines. Isn't there a dilbert line "if it weren't for lack of context, there woudn't be any news"?
As Peter says, It may not be fair to judge the quote outside of the larger context of Dyson's thoughts. It is the Times article which takes a statement and turns it into an emotionally charged story. Reporting facts and bland opinion doesn't sell more newspapers, only preying on people's emotions sells more.
the AC
Since the RIAA takes its cut, and the major labels take their cut, and the distributors take a cut, the cost of raw materials takes a cut, and finally the artists get .003 cents for the sale, then you can see where the money goes. Note that the cut the RIAA takes does not go to the artists, they get to keep 99% of the collected artists royalties for overhead. Cut out the RIAA, and force the labels to use straight forward accounting practices for royalty distribution. Then the artists will see the money they deserve. A system like that would allow many more artists to make a living doing what they love, rather than have all the money get lost on the way to them.
CD prices are even more outrageous here in Europe, with even less money going to the artists. I'd expect the EU to follow up with a similar investigation now that the US has shown the way.
the AC
Your problem is that you are in Paris, and everyone around you are tourists. Its august, and there isn't a Parisien left in Paris :-) They are coming in from all over the world, and their GSM phones just continue to keep working. That's what is nice about GSM, it works everywhere except the US.
.85 FF, about 14 US cents. After the first 3 minutes, you get charged 1 unit about every minute you are on. The length of time before you use up your next unit depends on the plan you chose, but usually shorter units during daytime peak, and longer units night/weekend. Calls from GSM to GSM on the same provider are just 1 or 2 units for the first 3 minutes, which makes it essentially the same as landline to landline charges. And I want people to have to pay to call me, it keeps the telemarketers off. In the US, half of my calls are telemarketers trying to just take a minute of my time to sell me something.
Paris has one of the highest densities of GSM users of anyplace in the world (4.5 million users in 40 square kilometers), and the coverage can get a bit difficult down amongst the buildings. There are sometimes 2 or 3 cell sites on each block.
I've got both a US phone and a GSM phone (both nokia, 6160 and 6150, almost identical) for my travels. I'm amazed at the lack of features on my US phone. The GSM system is overloaded with all kinds of extra features, but the US PCS system has very few. I like SMS, it doubles as a 2 way pager. In the US, everyone seems to have both a pager and a phone.
The other big point about the GSM system is that the handsets and the service are completely separate. I noticed you said you had a SprintPCS phone, but you probably didn't have a choice of model when you signed up for the service. With GSM, when you sign up for service, you get a smartcard which you then put in any GSM phone you want. So outside the US, every compares phones feature for feature, and separately compares the competing service providers. All markets have at least 2 providers, most have 3 or more. England has many providers to chose from.
I like my GSM phone. I can use the IR port on it with the IR port on my PC, and check my email at any time or place. No need to haul a cable around to connect the phone to the PC. And if I want to send a quick SMS to someone, I can either do it from my phone keypad (slow and cumbersome) or put it in my palm and shoot it out the IR port and off it goes.
The french costs are 4 units for a connection and gives you 2 minutes. A unit is
the AC
Does the TiVo run a straight forward linux implementation, or have they modified various GPLed drivers and applications for their own use?
/. before?
Shouldn't they be publishing the code they build on top of GPLed code? Or has this been hashed and rehashed to death on
the AC
Lots of things the commission does can be considered jokes. Problem is, nobody laughs at most of them. Occasionally they create a law so absurd everyone laughs along. I think this is what they strive for.
They are looking at making it economically impossible for a company to try and force distributors to offer only a single brand. That way car dealerships could offer competing brands if they wanted. Computer makers could offer alternates to M$, like linux and BeOS.
the AC
You have a very intelligent library system. This is the way all public access should be. Everyone over 18 (or 16 in real countries :) should have the access they want, filtered or raw. If you can't find something with the filters on, switch them off and try again.
All the minors should need permission to make that decision. And once a parent lets their kid have unlimited internet access, then they shouldn't complain about dog kennel sites using the word "bitches"
the AC
Typical German lawyers. When they send you a notice you are being sued, they include a demand for immediate payment for their services. Even if you win the case, you are still liable for their bill, but usually the court orders the loser in the case to pay both sides legal bills.
I hate German lawyers the most.
It will be very hard to tell which way this case will go. If they get a nationalistic judge, free software will lose out, and probably be asked to pay damages (its free, doh!). If they get a younger and better educated judge, the case will get thrown out. If they get a clued-in judge, the banking system will lose and be chastised for such a frivilous case. But clueful judges are rare in Germany, and the banking system will know which is the best court to file for their advantage.
the AC
The debates centre around whether the playing field should just be leveled, or should M$ be punished for their continuing lawlessness. Just leveling the playing field with an assortment of new laws will take years for any effects to be felt. A strong punishment is favored, because M$ is not the only company abusing its monopoly power, and many feel a message needs to be sent to the others.
Things are complex in the EU right now, with everyone worried about the changes brought on by the Euro. This new common currency is showing up all kinds of illegal dealings by many companies, such as car makers offering the same car for +-75% price depending on the market. It is worth your time to go to Italy and buy a car if you live in northern europe. The price is typically half, or approximately $10,000 savings on a mid-sized sedan. I bought my new Saab in Portugal and drove it back, for a savings of about $17,000 over local prices.
The commission is looking at R&D balances and many other factors. But everyone seems to agree something must be done, they just disagree on the degree of punishment.
the AC
Several have been discussed in the press recently.
First would be higher tarriffs on all M$ product, the problem being it is all produced locally inside the EU and that would make it difficult. M$ has plants in Ireland and local production in almost every country, and tarriffs are difficult to assess in such a case (which is why every american company does the same thing).
Another solution would be to alter the tax structure on any company offering a pure M$ solution, and normal taxes on any company with a mix of products. This isn't all that popular, but exclusionary licensing is not allowed in Europe and many M$ shops are 100% M$ because up until now there has been no enforcement of M$ abuses of power.
There is also talk of creating a European only M$, and not allowing any kind of investments or profit sharing between Euro-M$ and the US-M$. Effectively, the US-M$ would be banned from all markets, and would have to turn over a copy of all software and patents to the new Euro-M$. Then the Euro-M$ would be responsible to Euro courts, and the large revenue stream currently flowing to Redmond would stay within the EU. A lot of the far-right parties are quietly supporting this, and it may become an issue in elections if the court case goes against M$.
Keep an eye on the Euro news outlets for their local commentary. Some make a lot of revenue from M$ advertising, but many do not, and thus tend to print reasonably unbiased accounts of the ongoing action.
the AC
Micro~1.oft has been pulling the same games in Europe as in the US. This includes withholding Dos/Win/Nt from any PC manufacturer who doesn't exclusively sell only M$ products. This makes it impossible for any competitors such as SolarisX.86 from being offered or supported in the marketplace. That is just the start of the charges being brought against M$.
There are also ongoing investigations into the "Embrace - Extend - Extinguish" methodology in the open protocols arena. Kerberos, M$-CHAP, SMB, and some others are being investigated. It is possible the prosecutors will not shy away from the technical attacks the way the US prosecutors did. The issue is complex, but there is hope the court will take the time to understand the criminal aspects of micro~1.oft's behaviour, and that it extends into every area of their business.
The courts have also been asking companies for documented examples of FUD, vapor products which never made it to market, exclusionary licenses, and targeted advertising campaigns. There has apparently been an overwhelming response from companies fed up with M$ monopolistic behaviour.
the AC
The same thing in Paris. I know one of the computer people working on the paris traffic system. The french have thousands of sensors planted all over the place, as well as hundreds of surveillance cameras.
:-)
There have been a number of projects to examine knowledge based "AI style" traffic management. Many small companies offer controller systems which claim to have "fuzzy logic" and are able to learn about traffic patterns. Every single one of them fails when presented with a few basic external factors such as "weekend", "snow", "construction" or "accident". But given a perfect grid system (which Paris is NOT!), and perfect drivers, and the AI systems had no problem finding a perfect solution. But the slightest change threw the whole system into chaos, and quite often killed the system. None of the marketing claims survived even a small real world test.
So Paris has gone to its own system. The computers are doing what they do best, calculating. The humans do what they do best, adding intelligence to the chaos. Together, Paris traffic is only a mess, rather than a permanent gridlock
the AC
In the same story on CNN, as soon as Napster won their stay, RIAA lawyers in several courts filed motions to have the stay lifted.
did so! did not! did so! did not! did so! did not! did so! did not!
Hey you kids, stop your squabling, or you will both be sent to bed without any gnutella for desert.
the AC
More powerful than a Temporary Restraining Order...
:-)
Its the slashdot effect
[ now choking servers anywhere a DnD movie is rumoured to be posted ]
the AC
You haven't been inside an old telephone company building. They are military fortresses. The new NAPs are fairly well protected, even if they don't have 6 foot thick granite walls.
The problems with any kind of coordinated military style attack is that it can be very easily detected by counterintelligence agencies. And after the attack, the perps have to go somewhere, they don't just disappear into thin air. If there was any kind of coordinated attack on the US, every border crossing and airport would be stitched up tight, and then it would just be a matter of time as the FBI and local LE did their good old fashioned police work and rounded up a majority of the force. They might not get all of them, but even 50% capture rate would make for some good headlines.
The result of any such attack, even if only against a few main nodes like MAE-east/west, would tighten up the whole system.
the AC
The early days are shrouded in confusion, myth, lies, half-truths, and blazing egos. For years nothing was very clear about the origins of RXC.
We'd like to know about the early days when R.X. Cringeley was used as a pseudonym for a gaggle of writers. Were you involved with the 'nym from the beginning, or did you join later? Who else wrote parts of those articles? Where did the source material come from? Any fun anecdotes?
Could you tell us about the early days without putting the 'nym spin on the facts? I would love to hear a single side to this story once and for all, and I consider you to be the only one who can give us the truth.
the AC
This was discussed on NANOG recently. The resources to take out even a few NAPs would be enormous. Assuming this criminal element tried to do its damage with explosives or light arms, just the act of assembling such a large arsenal would stand a good chance of being detected by the FBI. Include into that the dozens or hundreds of personnel needed to cary out simultaneous attacks, and you have a very formidable force.
Then there is the problem of what happens after taking out a location such as MAE-East. Within hours the network engineers would be figuring out ways to reconnect to each other, and how to route around the damage.
Yes, a large scale attack would hurt the internet for a short period of time. But the internet is resilient and would bounce back in dozens of alternate routes, and all the network admins would be on alert for any more outages. Law enforcement would also be on a hightened state of alert, making it much more difficult for criminals or terrorists to continue attacting the internet.
This report has already been dissed as just so much FUD by someone selling something. And clueless media are now picking up on the report and spreading the FUD around. But to take out 4% of the routing nodes on the internet would require a large sized military force with excellent communications and coordination, who would immediately be the target of both law enforcement and the military.
the AC
As a homeowner with a Brand-X lock, you feel secure. The Brand-X lock has the most complicated key you have ever seen, and the lock is hardened steel with dozens of anti-tamper function. You feel really secure.
:-)
Brand-X locks have a defect which means they can be opened by anyone inserting a screwdriver and turning it. The manufacturer knows this, but doesn't say anything. This is security through obscurity.
Thieves (script kiddies) have discovered through experimentation the screwdriver trick. They occasionally wander down your street, looking for Brand-X locks.
If the manufacturer of Brand-X locks were responsible, they would put out a recall notice and replace all the defective locks. But they aren't, so thousands of homes are broken into by thieves who have learned this exploit. Many homeowners learn of the defect from the police after the fact.
Once a news report is published showing the fault with Brand-X, many of the consumers clamor for replacements. Eventually the manufacturer gives in and provides new locks to those who ask for them, putting a positive spin on the whole sordid affair. Draw your own parallels with this action
the AC
Well the issues that "created" Nazism in Germany between the wars were massive poverty, hyper-inflation, a loss of national pride and rampant and institutionalized racism.
And many programs and laws created in the wake of the great war were designed specifically to tackle each of the issues which let nazism and fascism take power in the first place. To prevent hyperinflation and differences between neighboring countries, a common currency has been introduced with a strong central bank to regulate it without political sway (ok, so there is some political pressure, but it will recede). It took 45 years from when the first proposal for the Euro was agreed upon to being implemented, but most rational people agree it will be a great leap forward when we finally get some bills in our hands in a couple of years.
The easy-to-tackle issues have been tackled. Now what remains is problems like racism. Eliminating the root causes was easy, but there is still a long ways to go. Institutionalised racism got its start in Austria almost two centuries ago when a structured schooling system was created. Every student was taught that certain races were inferior, and professors had to back that up with bogus scientific research or lose their jobs. After several generations went through the programs, the whole society believed the lies. After the war, the allies created laws against the worship of nazi symbols in schools, and carefully purged the school systems of the most virulent racists. But it will take several more generations until the laws can relax. The ideal is to have a protected form of free speech like the US first amendment, but the patient has to be cured of the terrible disease before that can happen.
the AC
I'm not sure of the translation for "tough shit"
:-)
tant pis! ou quelle dommage!
The website did have french content, just not equal amounts. It was for an intensive english language program, so the courts thought having a mostly english website was justified.
The rush back to the right and far-right ideals after elections a few years ago has corrected itself in France lately. But the french are so, well, french. "French" can be a noun, a verb, an adjective, an insult and a complement
the AC
Information warfare includes a fairly broad range of activities ... As one example, both physical and cyber attacks can result in system effects that are physical and cyber. ... A bomb (physical) may be used to damage a company facility (physical).
:-)
:-) :-)
I knew there was one aspect we've been leaving out of our security audits
Hey, boss, can we include explosives in our hacking arsenal? Just little ones. Please?
the AC