Resistence is futile, prepare to be assimilated...
What is next? Embedded computers that control and monitor where we go and what we do? This may sound like paranoia but the problem with these type of changes is that they are so gradual that we don't realize what we have lost till its too late.
1. Review new software releases various vendors 2. Find obvious improvements 3. Patent said obvious improvements 4. Notify company of said improvements 5. Sue company when they implement any of these improvements 6. PROFIT!
-- My favorite question that I ask fellow programmers in hiring interviews: "Do you speak bachi or the binary language of moisture evaporators?"
I can understand that from a legal perspective that they may not be able to remove it but what they can do is:
1) Stop these types of software from being installed in the first place, and warning you that an attempt was made. 2) In the case that it finds these types of software on you computer, it should alert you about its existence and the danger therein.
Since 61% of all electricity in California is produced using fossil fuel how is this really helping us right now? Only 28% of the electricity is created using nuclear or hydro power sources. So if more and more people start driving electric cars in California we'll have to burn even more fossils and quite a bit of it is the good old polluter named coal.
Not that I have anything against a better car runs on renewable energy, but I think it would be better to start with creating more electricity that doesn't come from fossils.
-- Sir! I'm only telling you once, step down from the soap box. This is your last warning...
Quite a few respectable companies will put your precious project in the hand of the cheapest possible labor they can find, very often workers that are incompetent, lack training and have no real interest in the product they are making.
I don't give much for the argument that corporations would do a better job developing good quality software, instead in my experience cutting corners to save money seems to be way more important to the bean counters that control most corporations.
After reading the article (yes I actually read it) I decided that this article doesn't really say much about anything so I decided to not post anything.
Don't boycott IE7 just yet; there is an unsubstantiated rumor that the new version of IE7 has a really interesting new feature:
Instead of having to go to web sites and download spyware/trojans yourself, the new version of IE7 will look them up and download all of them for you automatically.
That's right automatically, just think about all the time this new feature will save you.
If the fix their CSS bugs they'll break web sites that is heavilly dependant on IE CSS. Too many developers have gotten dependant of the IE CSS quirks already.
A really sad situation, however it's the right thing to do though.
Does anyone realize that running a CPU at 100% takes more electricity than running a CPU at 10%? "wasted compute cycles" aren't free. I would assert they're not even "wasted".
And neither are the computer cycles reused as the slashdot article would have you believing.
How can you reuse something that was never used in the first place?
The "Windows Genuine Advantage of Microsoft" program is the best thing that ever happened to Linux and OS X. I know that there are a lot of users out there that are using windows without ever paying for all the licenses they need.
At one now defunct company that I know about they had 20 real licenses for about 150 work stations and servers. In my experience this isn't a very uncommon at all.
Once the real "cost" of running Windows is forced out into the open I'm sure we'll see increased usage of Linux and OS X.
All good things! I don't hate Windows but I would like to see more Linux and OS X computers out there.
The problem is that a lot of companies want/need to keep your credit card information on record so that for example they can charge you monthly for a service. For obvious reasons they can't ask you to resupply a pin every time.
If you follow the guide lines laid out by Visa and Mastercard, they tell you how to store credit card information encrypted and securely. For example you're never allowed to store the CVC (3-4 digits on the back side of your CC) number in your database. The credit card number must be encrypted and all access to it must be logged. Also the system should never give out more information than neccessary to support a specific function. If you're caught being a company that leaked credit card information the fines by Visa and MC are pretty steep.
It's obvious that in the case of this article these guidelines weren't followed.
In a properly devised system you will store credit card information securely and track who access the data and for what purpose. Also credit card information is entered into a system, but can typically never be retrieved, instead when the company need to charge a customer they will ask the system to do it on their behalf e.g. charge customer id 123 with a $100 charge (this can be done without ever providing a human being the credit card information).
This is of course not a perfect solution and I could point out several severe weaknesses that exists in most online commerce sites, but until someone comes up with a better solution this is what we'll have to live with.
I remember that we were three guys spending roughly two weeks each working on a very elaborate copy protection scheme for a game of ours. The copy protection was very nifty and used a lot of tricky code. It took less than two hours for a cracker to hack it. The lesson learned was that crackers who specialize in hacking software typically don't have any major issues removing crippling code. This pattern reoccured for other products. If you look around you will find that almost every product made has been hacked/cracked. Not even hardware dongles will protect you.
No I don't have any sympathy for Microsoft over this.
I hope that Microsoft and some other of the really big software companies has droves of this kind of lost patent fights in court because they will then have to realize that the current patent system does not work.
These guys can if they combine excert enough political power to have the system changed. Hopefully to something better.
Microsoft can't stand that any other company has something that people consider to be cool. They must/will release something similar while proclaiming that it will destroy the competition.
I think that in the end they will succumb to trying to do too many things at once while losing focus on what really matters.
-- I wanted to put my SIG here, but I was afraid that MS would copy it and call it their own.
For some software there is, but for other open software solutions there's almost none. I'm trying to point out that there's something that the open source community could pay more attention to in order to be more competitive to Windows and other commercial solutions in general.
I've written my share of documentation so I know it's not that easy to write.
At my company Linux is slowly making some advances. This is mostly due to that some of us developers having some Unix experience, I can see how Windows only shops would be very slow to use Linux due to that they would hesitate over whether they could maintain and manage these systems, even though there are cost savings.
One problem with running many Linux systems and software applications is documentation and support. Now with open source software there's not much free support, but this could be alleviated by really good documentation and how-to manuals. Yes, I know that there's a lot of documentation online for some of the open source software, however other projects has almost none, or only partially documentated. If open software wants to become heavilly adopted within organization dominated by Windows software it has to be better documented. Open source software documentation can not only be almost or as good as commercial counterparts, it has to raise the bar and set a new standard.
-- This would have been my two cents on the topic but I found that I only had one left.
Slashdot Mirror
Yep...
This is the wrong decision by Go-daddy for me as well.
They'll lose my 20 domains as well.
This is really too bad, they've been decent, not great, but decent and inexpensive compared to register.com.
I'll find a new provider as well.
We bought 10 used Dell servers that all had been running Windows and installed CentOS Linux on them. How does that show up in the statistics?
-- 92% of all statistics are made up on the fly...
I still have games for that computer. :)
Resistence is futile, prepare to be assimilated...
What is next? Embedded computers that control and monitor where we go and what we do?
This may sound like paranoia but the problem with these type of changes is that they are so gradual that we don't realize what we have lost till its too late.
1. Review new software releases various vendors
2. Find obvious improvements
3. Patent said obvious improvements
4. Notify company of said improvements
5. Sue company when they implement any of these improvements
6. PROFIT!
-- My favorite question that I ask fellow programmers in hiring interviews: "Do you speak bachi or the binary language of moisture evaporators?"
I can understand that from a legal perspective that they may not be able to remove it but what they can do is:
/\/\ -
1) Stop these types of software from being installed in the first place, and warning you that an attempt was made.
2) In the case that it finds these types of software on you computer, it should alert you about its existence and the danger therein.
This is the LEAST they can do.
-
Since 61% of all electricity in California is produced using fossil fuel how is this really helping us right now?
Only 28% of the electricity is created using nuclear or hydro power sources.
So if more and more people start driving electric cars in California we'll have to burn even more fossils and quite a bit of it is the good old polluter named coal.
Not that I have anything against a better car runs on renewable energy, but I think it would be better to start with creating more electricity that doesn't come from fossils.
-- Sir! I'm only telling you once, step down from the soap box. This is your last warning...
how male mice actually sing in the presence of females
And here all along I thought it was the other way around...
Quite a few respectable companies will put your precious project in the hand of the cheapest possible labor they can find, very often workers that are incompetent, lack training and have no real interest in the product they are making.
I don't give much for the argument that corporations would do a better job developing good quality software, instead in my experience cutting corners to save money seems to be way more important to the bean counters that control most corporations.
-- This SIG was handmade in a sweatshop
After reading the article (yes I actually read it) I decided that this article doesn't really say much about anything so I decided to not post anything.
Oh wait.... DOH!!!
Don't boycott IE7 just yet; there is an unsubstantiated rumor that the new version of IE7 has a really interesting new feature:
Instead of having to go to web sites and download spyware/trojans yourself, the new version of IE7 will look them up and download all of them for you automatically.
That's right automatically, just think about all the time this new feature will save you.
-- This SIG doesn't show up in IE7
If the fix their CSS bugs they'll break web sites that is heavilly dependant on IE CSS.
Too many developers have gotten dependant of the IE CSS quirks already.
A really sad situation, however it's the right thing to do though.
-- This SIG was created without the help of CSS
Does anyone realize that running a CPU at 100% takes more electricity than running a CPU at 10%?
"wasted compute cycles" aren't free. I would assert they're not even "wasted".
And neither are the computer cycles reused as the slashdot article would have you believing.
How can you reuse something that was never used in the first place?
The "Windows Genuine Advantage of Microsoft" program is the best thing that ever happened to Linux and OS X. I know that there are a lot of users out there that are using windows without ever paying for all the licenses they need.
At one now defunct company that I know about they had 20 real licenses for about 150 work stations and servers. In my experience this isn't a very uncommon at all.
Once the real "cost" of running Windows is forced out into the open I'm sure we'll see increased usage of Linux and OS X.
All good things! I don't hate Windows but I would like to see more Linux and OS X computers out there.
This SIG is properly taxed and licensed.
The problem is that a lot of companies want/need to keep your credit card information on record so that for example they can charge you monthly for a service. For obvious reasons they can't ask you to resupply a pin every time.
If you follow the guide lines laid out by Visa and Mastercard, they tell you how to store credit card information encrypted and securely. For example you're never allowed to store the CVC (3-4 digits on the back side of your CC) number in your database. The credit card number must be encrypted and all access to it must be logged. Also the system should never give out more information than neccessary to support a specific function. If you're caught being a company that leaked credit card information the fines by Visa and MC are pretty steep.
It's obvious that in the case of this article these guidelines weren't followed.
In a properly devised system you will store credit card information securely and track who access the data and for what purpose. Also credit card information is entered into a system, but can typically never be retrieved, instead when the company need to charge a customer they will ask the system to do it on their behalf e.g. charge customer id 123 with a $100 charge (this can be done without ever providing a human being the credit card information).
This is of course not a perfect solution and I could point out several severe weaknesses that exists in most online commerce sites, but until someone comes up with a better solution this is what we'll have to live with.
-- THis SIG was swiped and denied...
I look up book reviews on Amazon but I always end up bying the book in the book store. They have yet to make $1 from me.
-- Someone is trying to patent SIGs. Join the resistence, www.say-no-to-sig-patents.com
I remember that we were three guys spending roughly two weeks each working on a very elaborate copy protection scheme for a game of ours. The copy protection was very nifty and used a lot of tricky code. It took less than two hours for a cracker to hack it.
The lesson learned was that crackers who specialize in hacking software typically don't have any major issues removing crippling code.
This pattern reoccured for other products. If you look around you will find that almost every product made has been hacked/cracked. Not even hardware dongles will protect you.
-- This SIG was cracked like a nut.
No I don't have any sympathy for Microsoft over this.
I hope that Microsoft and some other of the really big software companies has droves of this kind of lost patent fights in court because they will then have to realize that the current patent system does not work.
These guys can if they combine excert enough political power to have the system changed. Hopefully to something better.
-- Don't even think of (C)opying this SIG
If this guy is the worlds biggest hacker, then the solution is easy:
Just put him on a diet
-- SIG along with me. "Nothing to see here..."
Can't help it but it just don't feel right with an Apple box with a "intel inside" sticker on it.
For some reason Apple OS X released for intel/amd hardware just has such a better ring to it.
-- This SIG is recursive (goto beginning of SIG)
Microsoft can't stand that any other company has something that people consider to be cool.
They must/will release something similar while proclaiming that it will destroy the competition.
I think that in the end they will succumb to trying to do too many things at once while losing focus on what really matters.
-- I wanted to put my SIG here, but I was afraid that MS would copy it and call it their own.
For some software there is, but for other open software solutions there's almost none. I'm trying to point out that there's something that the open source community could pay more attention to in order to be more competitive to Windows and other commercial solutions in general.
/.
I've written my share of documentation so I know it's not that easy to write.
-- Fire away, never use the preview button on
At my company Linux is slowly making some advances.
This is mostly due to that some of us developers having some Unix experience, I can see how Windows only shops would be very slow to use Linux due to that they would hesitate over whether they could maintain and manage these systems, even though there are cost savings.
One problem with running many Linux systems and software applications is documentation and support.
Now with open source software there's not much free support, but this could be alleviated by really good documentation and how-to manuals. Yes, I know that there's a lot of documentation online for some of the open source software, however other projects has almost none, or only partially documentated. If open software wants to become heavilly adopted within organization dominated by Windows software it has to be better documented. Open source software documentation can not only be almost or as good as commercial counterparts, it has to raise the bar and set a new standard.
-- This would have been my two cents on the topic but I found that I only had one left.
Yeah, :)
That's the one!
"It turned inside out and explodid..."