it checks if you are logged in as root and, if you are, installs a nasty payload. If not, it could simply start emailing every file it finds in your home directory, or delete them, or encrypt them.
And which one is worse? Why so many people don't understand that running as root doesn't solve anything in this case?
The days of nasty payloads are over. They were popular in the early '90's (remember Michelangelo?), but nowadays it's more profitable to steal data instead. Armies of zombie computers, stolen credit card data and passwords, that's what this is all about.
If I were a malware writer, I wouldn't want to kill my infected computers. I would nurture them instead so that they could provide me with as much information as possible for the longest time possible. Why would I format their hard drive or mess with the OS when I have access to their emails, passwords, documents, everything that really matters??
I don't know whether or not we're thinking about the same crash, but the one I know of, it was traffic controller's fault.
Two planes (one loaded with children going on vacation, going from aformer Soviet republic) were on a collion course somewhere near Switzerland. The traffic controller saw the problem very late; the autopilots on the planes reacted correctly, pointing one plane up and one down. However, the controller instructed the plane going up to go down instead. The pilot asked "are you sure?" and the controller repeated the instructions.
More details on BBC (I may have got some facts wrong, I didn't re-read it now)
Hmmm, de-synchronization occurs only if the video file is embedded in the flash (swf) file, it's a known issue. If the video is separate, in its own FLV file, everything should run smoothly.
I've worked with flash video and I can say with authority that the new On2 VP6 codec kicks Sorenson's ass; this means that you can get better quality at ower file size in flash than in Quicktime with Sorenson 3 Pro codec (most stuff published for QT)
Let me start by saying that since 2005 I've been using OO.o exclusively at home and at work (I convinced my boss that OO is good enough for what we need).
To write a quick one-page document, Open Office is adequate. However, installing dictionaries is a pain; it replaces MS Word's quircks with its own. The interface is not as efficient (I'm not saying MS Office is perfect, but this is definitely worse); last but nost least, Calc is a joke compared to Excel... sorry, but I had to say it. I needed to do some statistical stuff in Calc and I found it pain.
And what about the equation editor? Yes, you can get used to it, but it's still crude.
Yes, it's free. Yes, I can do with it about 90% of the things I need. But the other 10% are infuriating.
Nikon is adding a new layer of obscurity by encrypting the WB info (maybe so that they can sue using DMCA).
All RAW formats and Adobe DNG are basically TIFF files, but the tags are different. Of course, there no reason why there shouldn't be a standard format used by everyone.
So far, DNG is used natively by some medium format cameras such as Hasseblad's digital backs. DNG specs are open.
So, what are you saying is that penalty for rape should only be 5 years so that you may not want to kill the victim too? What kind of twisted mentality is that?
Back to the topic, I feel no sympathy for that guy. By burning files on a cd-rom, he demonstrated that he knew what he was doing - no "I accessed the files" by mistake". The files could've been for backup but maybe he wanted to resell them. So yes, he was creating more child pornography.
You have to realize that he was part of the system. Because of people like him, children are abducted, abused, sometimes murdered.
This is a valid point of view, and I wish more Americans would understand that. For anyone outside the US, the political spectrum is something like this:
From the press release: "In the future, Google plans to integrate dMarc technology into the Google AdWords platform, creating a new radio ad distribution channel for Google advertisers."
For the advertisers, it makes perfect sense: they can deliver the ads across the web, on print and radio. Expect TV support within 2007.
Let's see if they still group programs by vendor, and not by function.
This is hardly their fault. The installers/vendors can choose to place the programs anywhere; even if MS mandates what the stucture should be, many will ignore this. I still encounter programs that insist to install by default on C:\ObscureApp or that ignore users' Documents and Settings and require Administrative access just to open the program (Trillian and Winamp are two of them).
Anyway, my programs are neatly organized by function - it took me a minute to create folders for in the Start Menu for Graphics, Multimedia, Internet and Tools.
Competant developers have been using xhtml and css for 10 almost years
That's bullshit.
It's 2005; 10 years ago was 1995 - Netscape 2! I don't think CSS was even on the drawing board. Actually, I don't remember if Netscape 2 had the font tag.
XHTML and CSS-based layout have become viable somewhat since IE5 (painful but doable) and actually worth doing since IE6/Mozilla (2001?). (Netscape 4 and IE4 had CSS capabilities but doing a cross-browser table-less layout was not worth the effort).
Man, is Firefox slow on rendering SVG! I don't want to sound like a troll, but it's shockingly slow. rendering is slow, scrolling is slow... The firefox logo or the tiger head are not *that* complex; rendering should be instant! rendering should be much faster and scrolling shouldn't take a hit since the graphics are already there. Also, no zoom in/out?
Opera renders the same thing faster and scrolling speed isn't affected.
I know most/.-ers hate Flash, but that is the target speed. If browsers can't render animated stuff as fast as Flash, you have no hope of imposing SVG for real stuff.
I'm using a Athlon Xp 2600+, nVidia GeForce 4, 512 Mb RAM, Firefox 1.5 RC3, not the fastest system but don't tell me I need a new system for a tiger head to display properly.
The parent is giving an accurate state of things: Firefox is getting slow and uses a lot of memory... have you tried Opera recently? It's very fast in all respects, so it's not just a matter of "M$ knows all the tricks, explorer is loaded at startup anyway.
You can't replace JPEG with PNG. For a photo, the PNG would be significantly larger. However, we could replace JPEG with JPEG2000, a much more powerful format, abeit slower.
How about a technology that runs on Win, Mac and Linux, embedded in IE, Firefox, Opera or standalone, has a small footprint and uses vectors for rendering?
I've just described Flash.
I can actually feel the anger rising in you, dear reader. Take a deep breath. You're supposed to be a geek, you should like all cool gadgets and technologies.
From experience, creating a web application is Flash versus "AJAX" is like creating a webside based on today's standards/CSS2 versus making it work in IE4 and NS4.
Flash may not be the ultimate technology, but right now it's what Java applets should have been.
I'm wondering the same thing... I installed Google Desktop 2 beta, and apart from being annoyed at its RAM usage I could think nothing of it.
So, the sidebar has a lot of useless utilities (if I need RSS or news, Firefox is a click away anyway; TODO list is OK; scrap pad is just another way to look at clipboard, and so on)
Search is cool, but I rarely need it (my documents are rather neatly organized) and the fact that Thunderbird has to be opened for GD2 to index emails is plain annoying.
Actually, I've found MSN Desktop Search to be more powerful and ligher on resources.
Anyway, after a week of playing with each one, I removed them.
Slashdot Mirror
Macromedia/Adobe have two in-depth solutions for this. At least one of the works for any ActiveX.
There's also plenty of information on MSDN.
The best autorun is human curiosity.
:-)
They didn't autorun, they simply made a bunch of executable with enticing names - I'd guess something like UndressMe.exe would do the trick
And which one is worse? Why so many people don't understand that running as root doesn't solve anything in this case?
The days of nasty payloads are over. They were popular in the early '90's (remember Michelangelo?), but nowadays it's more profitable to steal data instead. Armies of zombie computers, stolen credit card data and passwords, that's what this is all about.
If I were a malware writer, I wouldn't want to kill my infected computers. I would nurture them instead so that they could provide me with as much information as possible for the longest time possible. Why would I format their hard drive or mess with the OS when I have access to their emails, passwords, documents, everything that really matters??
I don't know whether or not we're thinking about the same crash, but the one I know of, it was traffic controller's fault.
Two planes (one loaded with children going on vacation, going from aformer Soviet republic) were on a collion course somewhere near Switzerland. The traffic controller saw the problem very late; the autopilots on the planes reacted correctly, pointing one plane up and one down. However, the controller instructed the plane going up to go down instead. The pilot asked "are you sure?" and the controller repeated the instructions.
More details on BBC (I may have got some facts wrong, I didn't re-read it now)
You're trolling, sorry. It may not be intentional, but you'reletting your hatred cloud your judgement.
How exactly do you propose to display video in a web browser?
use Quicktime? WMP? real? They're plugins too.
Hmmm, de-synchronization occurs only if the video file is embedded in the flash (swf) file, it's a known issue. If the video is separate, in its own FLV file, everything should run smoothly.
I've worked with flash video and I can say with authority that the new On2 VP6 codec kicks Sorenson's ass; this means that you can get better quality at ower file size in flash than in Quicktime with Sorenson 3 Pro codec (most stuff published for QT)
No, it's perfect. The Deception Point (I thik that's the name) uses the vey same plot.
The good thing is that I've only borrowed the books, IMHO they're not worth the money.
Also, if I'd have to rank them, Digital Fortress would be at the bottom and Deception Point at the top.
Let me start by saying that since 2005 I've been using OO.o exclusively at home and at work (I convinced my boss that OO is good enough for what we need).
To write a quick one-page document, Open Office is adequate. However, installing dictionaries is a pain; it replaces MS Word's quircks with its own. The interface is not as efficient (I'm not saying MS Office is perfect, but this is definitely worse); last but nost least, Calc is a joke compared to Excel... sorry, but I had to say it. I needed to do some statistical stuff in Calc and I found it pain.
And what about the equation editor? Yes, you can get used to it, but it's still crude.
Yes, it's free. Yes, I can do with it about 90% of the things I need. But the other 10% are infuriating.
You didn't read the link.
Nikon is adding a new layer of obscurity by encrypting the WB info (maybe so that they can sue using DMCA).
All RAW formats and Adobe DNG are basically TIFF files, but the tags are different. Of course, there no reason why there shouldn't be a standard format used by everyone.
So far, DNG is used natively by some medium format cameras such as Hasseblad's digital backs. DNG specs are open.
I wish there were an "-1 Uninformed" mod.
You can (and SHOULD if you're serious about photography) save in a lossless 12bit format - it's called RAW.
Decent optical zoom - buy a dSLR and you can get any zoom from fisheye to extreme telephoto, macro and more.
13MP - already exceeded by Canon and Kodak in their dSLRs. Hasselblad has 39 MP!
Wireless - already there in Canon 1DS Mark II I think.
Petty behaviour?
So, what are you saying is that penalty for rape should only be 5 years so that you may not want to kill the victim too? What kind of twisted mentality is that?
Back to the topic, I feel no sympathy for that guy. By burning files on a cd-rom, he demonstrated that he knew what he was doing - no "I accessed the files" by mistake". The files could've been for backup but maybe he wanted to resell them. So yes, he was creating more child pornography.
You have to realize that he was part of the system. Because of people like him, children are abducted, abused, sometimes murdered.
Why should I care for him?
The specs are open anyway. You can get the player source code too (I'm not sure wha the terms are though).
So, SWF is like PDF - not open but everyone can generate & read content.
This is a valid point of view, and I wish more Americans would understand that. For anyone outside the US, the political spectrum is something like this:
Communists -- Socialists -- Social-Democrats -- Liberals (US=Democrats)-- Christian-Democrats -- Conservators (US=Republicans)
It's not perfectly accurate (t's been a while), feel free to correct it, but the point it - Democrats/Liberals ARE NOT left wing!
From the press release: "In the future, Google plans to integrate dMarc technology into the Google AdWords platform, creating a new radio ad distribution channel for Google advertisers."
For the advertisers, it makes perfect sense: they can deliver the ads across the web, on print and radio. Expect TV support within 2007.
And $300 for a graphic card seems reasonable to you???
Is it me, or have the prices been going up for quite some time?
I certainly didn't pay $300 for the first GeForce when it was the hottest card on the market...
This is hardly their fault. The installers/vendors can choose to place the programs anywhere; even if MS mandates what the stucture should be, many will ignore this. I still encounter programs that insist to install by default on C:\ObscureApp or that ignore users' Documents and Settings and require Administrative access just to open the program (Trillian and Winamp are two of them).
Anyway, my programs are neatly organized by function - it took me a minute to create folders for in the Start Menu for Graphics, Multimedia, Internet and Tools.
Very interesting.
:-)
Here in Romania, everyone is using YIM, whereas I can confirm that everyone I now from U is on MSN...
I use Trillian
Are you sure the "unwanted software" doesn't run with Wine?
While technically you may be correct, you're still a troll for trying to bash Microsoft on this.
That's bullshit.
It's 2005; 10 years ago was 1995 - Netscape 2! I don't think CSS was even on the drawing board. Actually, I don't remember if Netscape 2 had the font tag.
XHTML and CSS-based layout have become viable somewhat since IE5 (painful but doable) and actually worth doing since IE6/Mozilla (2001?). (Netscape 4 and IE4 had CSS capabilities but doing a cross-browser table-less layout was not worth the effort).
FYI: flash text is highlightable and Flash 8 has a damn good font rendering engine.
Man, is Firefox slow on rendering SVG!
/.-ers hate Flash, but that is the target speed. If browsers can't render animated stuff as fast as Flash, you have no hope of imposing SVG for real stuff.
I don't want to sound like a troll, but it's shockingly slow.
rendering is slow, scrolling is slow... The firefox logo or the tiger head are not *that* complex; rendering should be instant! rendering should be much faster and scrolling shouldn't take a hit since the graphics are already there. Also, no zoom in/out?
Opera renders the same thing faster and scrolling speed isn't affected.
I know most
I'm using a Athlon Xp 2600+, nVidia GeForce 4, 512 Mb RAM, Firefox 1.5 RC3, not the fastest system but don't tell me I need a new system for a tiger head to display properly.
What are you trying to prove with a bad analogy?
The parent is giving an accurate state of things: Firefox is getting slow and uses a lot of memory... have you tried Opera recently? It's very fast in all respects, so it's not just a matter of "M$ knows all the tricks, explorer is loaded at startup anyway.
You can't replace JPEG with PNG. For a photo, the PNG would be significantly larger. However, we could replace JPEG with JPEG2000, a much more powerful format, abeit slower.
How about a technology that runs on Win, Mac and Linux, embedded in IE, Firefox, Opera or standalone, has a small footprint and uses vectors for rendering?
I've just described Flash.
I can actually feel the anger rising in you, dear reader. Take a deep breath. You're supposed to be a geek, you should like all cool gadgets and technologies.
Google uses Flash
Yahoo uses Flash
From experience, creating a web application is Flash versus "AJAX" is like creating a webside based on today's standards/CSS2 versus making it work in IE4 and NS4.
Flash may not be the ultimate technology, but right now it's what Java applets should have been.
I'm wondering the same thing... I installed Google Desktop 2 beta, and apart from being annoyed at its RAM usage I could think nothing of it.
So, the sidebar has a lot of useless utilities (if I need RSS or news, Firefox is a click away anyway; TODO list is OK; scrap pad is just another way to look at clipboard, and so on)
Search is cool, but I rarely need it (my documents are rather neatly organized) and the fact that Thunderbird has to be opened for GD2 to index emails is plain annoying.
Actually, I've found MSN Desktop Search to be more powerful and ligher on resources.
Anyway, after a week of playing with each one, I removed them.