Microsoft always gets blamed for these problems 100%, but what about the third party hardware and software manufacturers that also built shoddy products that weren't up to standard? Shouldn't they share at least some of the blame? Everyone and their brother can make PC hardware or Windows software with or without the blessing of Microsoft so what you get is a mixed bag, but at reasonable prices. Apple avoids the issue by making third party hardware illegal and maintaining an iron grip on third party software developers. This gives the perception of higher quality, but it also has the rather unfortunate side effect of driving up prices and reducing choices. The hardware choices are limited on linux too compared to Windows due to poor driver support by some manufacturers although it is more choice than Apple. I guess it is simply a matter of picking your poison.
Dell is famous for using cheap third party hardware wherever they can get away with it without the average consumer noticing. How many Dell owners could tell you the brand and model of their mainboard or even what a mainboard is? The major components (processor, video card, and sound card) are usually name brands, but the mainboard, hard drives, and other stuff is whatever they could get cheapest from third party resellers in Taiwan or China. I have not had any problems with SP2, but then again I assembled all of my machines or had them assembled from name brand aftermarket parts. You get what you pay for unfortunately. I had a bad experience with Dell during my college days and I have not bought anything from them since.
Music Industry Attorneys are on Retainer
on
EZTree Shuts Down
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The music industry attorneys are all on permanent retainer so it is costing them money whether the attorneys sit and do nothing or file lawsuits right and left. So given that the retainer fees have already been paid they, the music industry, prefer to use their legal team to go after infringers no matter how minor the offense because they are already paying for the attorneys anyway so why not have them do something? It is also an attempt to dissuade other potential infringers by making an example of grandma that will not soon be forgotten. These tactics raise the amount of fear and suspicion among consumers, reducing piracy at least in the short run, but in the long run they promote an atmosphere of distrust that is bad for both parties, but Arrrr! Everything has a cost matey.
That may have been true with the Apollo suits; however the space suits currently in use by NASA do not appear to have this problem. In fact, astronaut training sessions are frequently conducted submerged in large pools of water, this being the most cost effective method of simulating near weightless conditions within the confines of Earth's gravity. The astronauts are submerged in these pools while wearing their space suits, often for several hours, while practicing procedures that may be needed during a mission. It is therefore reasonable to suppose that an ultrasonic water bath could indeed be employed in a moon base situation for the purpose of dust removal from space suits and equipment, before they reenter the sealed environment, without ill effect.
The difference is that a convicted felon was denied his right to vote by due process of law, he was convicted of a federal crime. The founding fathers did not say that you could NOT be deprived of life or liberty under any circumstances, the only requirement is that you receive due process in the courts be you are deprived of these things.
The problem is that common double tax situations have become entrenched in federal and state budgets. They either have to leave the double taxes as they are, on stock dividends for example, or else cut spending. Which one do you think appeals more to politicians?
All services, goods, and fees which are mandated by any government entity are counted as taxes
In a sense they already are. The government is charging money, or taxing if you will, to cover the cost of basic public services as you use them. These services generally include civil court, motor vehicle licensing, and in some states toll highways. They are just counted separately from income taxes, meaning that you pay them with after income tax money, and imposed as the circumstances dictate.
total taxes paid, including all income taxes, fees, sales taxes, etc., cannot exceed a certain percentage of your income. Anything in excess of, say 40% (though I think 20% would be more reasonable) of gross income gets refunded.
It would not be possible to implement this without maintaining massive centralized databases containing all transactions engaged in by all citizens during the course of a typical year. This would be a massive increase in government power and a serious threat to any semblance of privacy that we still have left. The IRS is bad enough and you want to increase the scope of their auditors?
a flat tax rate instead of the ridiculous graduated tax rates. (Where I can actually make more money and end up with less because my tax percentage jumps.)
This is a misconception. Even if you are just barely in the next highest tax bracket you will never lose 100% of the money that is in that highest bracket so it is impossible to end up with less than you would have had if you were still entirely in the lower bracket. At least this is how it is in the United States, however at one time in the United Kingdom this WAS true and the highest bracket was actually paying 105% of income in that bracket, but even the most hardened socialist cannot claim that was fair so they fixed it back to 90%. With regard to graduated rates a more elegant smooth curve, possibly involving the natural logarithm, would have been more elegant than the crude bracket system, but then again most citizens, including politicians, never took calculus and so if they cannot understand the system then it must be unfair...sheesh
taxes are subject to jurisdictional delineations; if you are not using the services provided by a jurisdiction, you cannot be taxed by that jurisdiction (including the Federal government if you live outside the U.S.
Taxes are paid were the income is earned irrespective of whether you live there or not and this is how it should be. That is why New York is not wrong to tax this man for income that is earned inside the state of New York. However, it would be wrong for that income to be taxed by his home state too. Generally though this isn't a problem because income taxes go into the general fund rather than into more specific funds meant to maintain roads, buildings, and other infrastructure. Those funds are usually covered by other taxes such as gas taxes, property taxes, and the like.
The inheritance tax should be abolished altogether. It is simply unconscionable.
Inheritance is income just like any other source of income. It should be taxed as income. Taxes above and beyond income, just because it is inheritance, for example are unfair and should not be levied.
There have been many other space based sci-fi shows over the years, mostly on the sci-fi channel, including both original series such as Farscape and remakes of classic franchises including DUNE and BattleStar Galactica. However, the problem with sci-fi in general and quality sci-fi in particular is that it is very expensive to create on a weekly serialized television production schedule. This problem is compounded by the fact that sci-fi programming mostly appeals to a small, relative to the mainstream, and very demanding audience which is not very tolerant of any faults or perceived lack of quality in the programming. A smaller audience means that advertisers are not willing to pay as much for commercial slots and high production costs mean that a greater percentage of revenue is simply covering costs and not generating profit. Finally, because science fiction is a niche market there are fewer good writers with television production and script writing experience who also understand the special needs of the science fiction genre, particularly with regard to integration of technical details in their scripts. This killer combination has been the bane of even popular sci-fi franchises such as Star Trek and Stargate SG-1. For example, the original BattleStar Galactica was the number one show in 1978 with the highest ratings, but even then the advertisers were only willing to pay so much and the show was so expensive, because of the high expectations that people had after Star Wars that the show was costing one million dollars per episode to produce. Universal and ABC were making a profit, but not nearly as much as they could by producing several less popular shows for the same budget so the show was cancelled even though it was the highest rated show for that year. These factors have changed somewhat with the advent of cheaper and more powerful computer hardware, effects/editing software, and dedicated networks such as the Sci-Fi Channel which serve to concentrate the audience and maximize the advertising revenue. However, there is still quite some distance to go before this type of programming begins to approach the profitability of more mainstream television fare. So the long answer to your question is no, it is not impossible, but merely difficult to squeeze good science fiction programming into a weekly television production schedule and budget.
they steal it cuz it's worth nothing to them anyways.
Yes, but by the same token I cannot steal your car just because in my opinion it "wasn't worth anything anyway." This line of reasoning comes up often on Slashdot and it is based upon a flawed premise, namely that it is ok to steal something if one "wouldn't have bought it anyway". People like that are endagering the freedoms that we now enjoy under betamax because of their irresponsible behavior.
Why you yunngins gots no respect for yer elders these days there was a time boy when that kitchen gun was what put food on yer granpappy's table. There ain't nutin' but trouble in takin away our kitchen guns if ye ask me...hack now git and leave an old man to his afternoon nap...
The probability that Sony will appeal this decision is virtually one hundred percent. In the meantime they will simply file for a temporary injunction against the ruling being applied on account that it would cause irreparable harm to their business operations while their appeal is ongoing. In the event that the dispute is not settled out of court before the appeals are exhausted the plaintiffs could address the issue of retroactive damages after the original matter has been settled. Finally, before any lawyers out there accuse me of practicing law without a license let me state that I am NOT a lawyer, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night...just kidding.
Isn't the whole point of root kit to subvert the security system without having root privileges? If you have to know the root password before installing the root kit then what do you need the kit for?
I manage a group of offshore foreign software engineers and they will use VBScript to run FTP with the shared directory mapped to the root of the C drive using the domain administrator account over the Internet. I have tried to explain to them why this is not a good idea, but their argument is always, "We haven't had any [security] problems yet...if you don't like it then rewrite it [the software] yourself." One step that Microsoft is taking is to require Certified Partners to adhere to the best practices, which include not requiring root privileges to run the software (unless of course the program is an OS service or other administrative related application that requires root by definition). You are right though, plenty of developers are ignoring these best practices. However, there will come a day, and the day is fast approaching, when no serious company will be able to sell their Windows software if they do not get it certified and signed with a code-signing certificate. So at least in that regard the trusted computing initiative may be a good thing.
Using the power of the state to redirect wealth can be a good thing
If you really believe that then why not move to Cuba, you would probably be happier living there where they redirect wealth on a massive scale and the standard of living is among the lowest in the northern hemisphere. The use of state power to transfer wealth from one private group to another distributes only poverty and ultimately makes slaves of all people.
Would it be possible for google to modify their algorithms so that when the graph of all web pages is considered links from pages which are involved in a cycle of unrelated links are given a decreasing importance relative to the number of unrelated links involved in the cycle?
Nuclear gives much more bang for the buck than wind, solar, or tidal. Hydroelectric is already being done in those places where it makes sense. The Chinese have the right idea with their small helium cooled pebble reactor arrays where the total power output can be scaled with additional units and each unit is immune to meltdown and generates only low level radioactive waste.
This will certainly not be a popular move on Microsoft's part, especially in India, but it is probably for the best in the long run. I cannot think of one serious Computer Science program in the United States that teaches the introductory programming courses in Visual Basic. That is not to say that VB6 does not have it uses (VB.NET is really a different language now with first class support for objects, inheritance, polymorphism, and threads), but all to often it is used in entirely inappropriate development scenarios resulting in poor performance and scalability or worse. I have seen VB solutions that are the equivalent of hooking up a tractor trailer to your Honda civic and then wondering why the clutch just blew out when you tried to tow it. Additionally, poor design, indeterminate runtime types, and sloppy coding can make even a moderately sized VB project difficult to debug and a serious pain to modify or maintain. I once saw a VB source file where a large statically declared array was being passed by value between functions, resulting in several unnecessary copies, and Bubble Sorted to maintain order on inserts. Some may argue that this is not the fault of the language, but it has been my experience that quick and dirty is the rule when it comes to VB code rather than the exception.
You can do what you like, it is after all your life, just don't be shocked by the consequences of your choices and remember that in the real world you only get one life and no continues, game over really is game over. That being said there are some things that are worth risking life and limb for, but it is probably fair to say that most Afghans (many of the Gitmo detainees were captured in Afghanistan) weren't about to risk their necks to defend the Taliban and their Arab thugs. I was simply trying to suggest a way that the average Afghan, who wants to survive the demise of the Taliban, could go about doing that with the minimal chance of getting killed or detained as an unlawful combatant.
You shouldn't shoot back unless you want to be killed or captured and treated as an unlawful combatant. You should keep your head down and get the hell out of there as any real non-combatant would and do not under any circumstances pick up a weapon or shoot at anyone in the combat zone unless you want to be killed or have a real bad time of it when you are caught. The enemy forces will kill you whether you have a gun or not. If the US forces detain you then you will have a much better chance of being labeled as a non-combatant civilian and released to an area outside the combat zone if you do NOT have a weapon.
The Geneva Conventions do not apply to unlawful combatants. The detainees in Gitmo were captured while operating against our forces as civilians fighting without authorization of a sovereign nation and out of uniform and therefore they do not enjoy the privileges granted to lawful POWs under the Geneva Conventions.
An American military pamphlet on the law of war provides this definition: An unlawful combatant is an individual who is not authorized to take a direct part in hostilities but does.... Unlawful combatants are a proper object of attack while engaging as combatants.... If captured, they may be tried and punished. As examples, the pamphlet mentions civilians who engage in war without authorization; non-combat members of the military, such as medics or chaplains, who engage in combat; and soldiers who fight out of uniform. In the Second World War, the United States captured eight German saboteurs who were out of uniform and executed six of them.
If you have a router with the ability to restrict the IP ranges of incoming traffic as well as the ports then would it not be sufficient to block traffic from entire countries on the ports that your IP phone is using? For example, I do not normally receive calls from India, China, or Eastern Europe so would it not be a simple matter to set up the filter table so that incoming calls from these regions are entirely blocked? Alternatively, would I not also be able to create a whitelist of ranges from which I will accept calls and all others are blocked? As long as the phone is plugged in behind the router the router gets to enforce routing rules on all traffic, including traffic which is meant for the IP phone.
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Microsoft always gets blamed for these problems 100%, but what about the third party hardware and software manufacturers that also built shoddy products that weren't up to standard? Shouldn't they share at least some of the blame? Everyone and their brother can make PC hardware or Windows software with or without the blessing of Microsoft so what you get is a mixed bag, but at reasonable prices. Apple avoids the issue by making third party hardware illegal and maintaining an iron grip on third party software developers. This gives the perception of higher quality, but it also has the rather unfortunate side effect of driving up prices and reducing choices. The hardware choices are limited on linux too compared to Windows due to poor driver support by some manufacturers although it is more choice than Apple. I guess it is simply a matter of picking your poison.
Dell is famous for using cheap third party hardware wherever they can get away with it without the average consumer noticing. How many Dell owners could tell you the brand and model of their mainboard or even what a mainboard is? The major components (processor, video card, and sound card) are usually name brands, but the mainboard, hard drives, and other stuff is whatever they could get cheapest from third party resellers in Taiwan or China. I have not had any problems with SP2, but then again I assembled all of my machines or had them assembled from name brand aftermarket parts. You get what you pay for unfortunately. I had a bad experience with Dell during my college days and I have not bought anything from them since.
The music industry attorneys are all on permanent retainer so it is costing them money whether the attorneys sit and do nothing or file lawsuits right and left. So given that the retainer fees have already been paid they, the music industry, prefer to use their legal team to go after infringers no matter how minor the offense because they are already paying for the attorneys anyway so why not have them do something? It is also an attempt to dissuade other potential infringers by making an example of grandma that will not soon be forgotten. These tactics raise the amount of fear and suspicion among consumers, reducing piracy at least in the short run, but in the long run they promote an atmosphere of distrust that is bad for both parties, but Arrrr! Everything has a cost matey.
That may have been true with the Apollo suits; however the space suits currently in use by NASA do not appear to have this problem. In fact, astronaut training sessions are frequently conducted submerged in large pools of water, this being the most cost effective method of simulating near weightless conditions within the confines of Earth's gravity. The astronauts are submerged in these pools while wearing their space suits, often for several hours, while practicing procedures that may be needed during a mission. It is therefore reasonable to suppose that an ultrasonic water bath could indeed be employed in a moon base situation for the purpose of dust removal from space suits and equipment, before they reenter the sealed environment, without ill effect.
The difference is that a convicted felon was denied his right to vote by due process of law, he was convicted of a federal crime. The founding fathers did not say that you could NOT be deprived of life or liberty under any circumstances, the only requirement is that you receive due process in the courts be you are deprived of these things.
You cannot be taxed twice on the same income.
The problem is that common double tax situations have become entrenched in federal and state budgets. They either have to leave the double taxes as they are, on stock dividends for example, or else cut spending. Which one do you think appeals more to politicians?
All services, goods, and fees which are mandated by any government entity are counted as taxes
In a sense they already are. The government is charging money, or taxing if you will, to cover the cost of basic public services as you use them. These services generally include civil court, motor vehicle licensing, and in some states toll highways. They are just counted separately from income taxes, meaning that you pay them with after income tax money, and imposed as the circumstances dictate.
total taxes paid, including all income taxes, fees, sales taxes, etc., cannot exceed a certain percentage of your income. Anything in excess of, say 40% (though I think 20% would be more reasonable) of gross income gets refunded.
It would not be possible to implement this without maintaining massive centralized databases containing all transactions engaged in by all citizens during the course of a typical year. This would be a massive increase in government power and a serious threat to any semblance of privacy that we still have left. The IRS is bad enough and you want to increase the scope of their auditors?
a flat tax rate instead of the ridiculous graduated tax rates. (Where I can actually make more money and end up with less because my tax percentage jumps.)
This is a misconception. Even if you are just barely in the next highest tax bracket you will never lose 100% of the money that is in that highest bracket so it is impossible to end up with less than you would have had if you were still entirely in the lower bracket. At least this is how it is in the United States, however at one time in the United Kingdom this WAS true and the highest bracket was actually paying 105% of income in that bracket, but even the most hardened socialist cannot claim that was fair so they fixed it back to 90%. With regard to graduated rates a more elegant smooth curve, possibly involving the natural logarithm, would have been more elegant than the crude bracket system, but then again most citizens, including politicians, never took calculus and so if they cannot understand the system then it must be unfair...sheesh
taxes are subject to jurisdictional delineations; if you are not using the services provided by a jurisdiction, you cannot be taxed by that jurisdiction (including the Federal government if you live outside the U.S.
Taxes are paid were the income is earned irrespective of whether you live there or not and this is how it should be. That is why New York is not wrong to tax this man for income that is earned inside the state of New York. However, it would be wrong for that income to be taxed by his home state too. Generally though this isn't a problem because income taxes go into the general fund rather than into more specific funds meant to maintain roads, buildings, and other infrastructure. Those funds are usually covered by other taxes such as gas taxes, property taxes, and the like.
The inheritance tax should be abolished altogether. It is simply unconscionable.
Inheritance is income just like any other source of income. It should be taxed as income. Taxes above and beyond income, just because it is inheritance, for example are unfair and should not be levied.
There have been many other space based sci-fi shows over the years, mostly on the sci-fi channel, including both original series such as Farscape and remakes of classic franchises including DUNE and BattleStar Galactica. However, the problem with sci-fi in general and quality sci-fi in particular is that it is very expensive to create on a weekly serialized television production schedule. This problem is compounded by the fact that sci-fi programming mostly appeals to a small, relative to the mainstream, and very demanding audience which is not very tolerant of any faults or perceived lack of quality in the programming. A smaller audience means that advertisers are not willing to pay as much for commercial slots and high production costs mean that a greater percentage of revenue is simply covering costs and not generating profit. Finally, because science fiction is a niche market there are fewer good writers with television production and script writing experience who also understand the special needs of the science fiction genre, particularly with regard to integration of technical details in their scripts. This killer combination has been the bane of even popular sci-fi franchises such as Star Trek and Stargate SG-1. For example, the original BattleStar Galactica was the number one show in 1978 with the highest ratings, but even then the advertisers were only willing to pay so much and the show was so expensive, because of the high expectations that people had after Star Wars that the show was costing one million dollars per episode to produce. Universal and ABC were making a profit, but not nearly as much as they could by producing several less popular shows for the same budget so the show was cancelled even though it was the highest rated show for that year. These factors have changed somewhat with the advent of cheaper and more powerful computer hardware, effects/editing software, and dedicated networks such as the Sci-Fi Channel which serve to concentrate the audience and maximize the advertising revenue. However, there is still quite some distance to go before this type of programming begins to approach the profitability of more mainstream television fare. So the long answer to your question is no, it is not impossible, but merely difficult to squeeze good science fiction programming into a weekly television production schedule and budget.
they steal it cuz it's worth nothing to them anyways.
Yes, but by the same token I cannot steal your car just because in my opinion it "wasn't worth anything anyway." This line of reasoning comes up often on Slashdot and it is based upon a flawed premise, namely that it is ok to steal something if one "wouldn't have bought it anyway". People like that are endagering the freedoms that we now enjoy under betamax because of their irresponsible behavior.
Why you yunngins gots no respect for yer elders these days there was a time boy when that kitchen gun was what put food on yer granpappy's table. There ain't nutin' but trouble in takin away our kitchen guns if ye ask me...hack now git and leave an old man to his afternoon nap...
The probability that Sony will appeal this decision is virtually one hundred percent. In the meantime they will simply file for a temporary injunction against the ruling being applied on account that it would cause irreparable harm to their business operations while their appeal is ongoing. In the event that the dispute is not settled out of court before the appeals are exhausted the plaintiffs could address the issue of retroactive damages after the original matter has been settled. Finally, before any lawyers out there accuse me of practicing law without a license let me state that I am NOT a lawyer, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night...just kidding.
Just wait until it says, "I'm sorry Dave, but I'm afraid that I just can't do that..."
Isn't the whole point of root kit to subvert the security system without having root privileges? If you have to know the root password before installing the root kit then what do you need the kit for?
I manage a group of offshore foreign software engineers and they will use VBScript to run FTP with the shared directory mapped to the root of the C drive using the domain administrator account over the Internet. I have tried to explain to them why this is not a good idea, but their argument is always, "We haven't had any [security] problems yet...if you don't like it then rewrite it [the software] yourself." One step that Microsoft is taking is to require Certified Partners to adhere to the best practices, which include not requiring root privileges to run the software (unless of course the program is an OS service or other administrative related application that requires root by definition). You are right though, plenty of developers are ignoring these best practices. However, there will come a day, and the day is fast approaching, when no serious company will be able to sell their Windows software if they do not get it certified and signed with a code-signing certificate. So at least in that regard the trusted computing initiative may be a good thing.
Using the power of the state to redirect wealth can be a good thing
If you really believe that then why not move to Cuba, you would probably be happier living there where they redirect wealth on a massive scale and the standard of living is among the lowest in the northern hemisphere. The use of state power to transfer wealth from one private group to another distributes only poverty and ultimately makes slaves of all people.
Would it be possible for google to modify their algorithms so that when the graph of all web pages is considered links from pages which are involved in a cycle of unrelated links are given a decreasing importance relative to the number of unrelated links involved in the cycle?
Nuclear gives much more bang for the buck than wind, solar, or tidal. Hydroelectric is already being done in those places where it makes sense. The Chinese have the right idea with their small helium cooled pebble reactor arrays where the total power output can be scaled with additional units and each unit is immune to meltdown and generates only low level radioactive waste.
Because train locomotives have a lot fewer limitations with respect to size and weight than cars.
like a spider, instead of focusing on bipedal bots for uses requiring ambulation
If controlling two legs is complex then controlling eight should be a snap right? Please...
This will certainly not be a popular move on Microsoft's part, especially in India, but it is probably for the best in the long run. I cannot think of one serious Computer Science program in the United States that teaches the introductory programming courses in Visual Basic. That is not to say that VB6 does not have it uses (VB.NET is really a different language now with first class support for objects, inheritance, polymorphism, and threads), but all to often it is used in entirely inappropriate development scenarios resulting in poor performance and scalability or worse. I have seen VB solutions that are the equivalent of hooking up a tractor trailer to your Honda civic and then wondering why the clutch just blew out when you tried to tow it. Additionally, poor design, indeterminate runtime types, and sloppy coding can make even a moderately sized VB project difficult to debug and a serious pain to modify or maintain. I once saw a VB source file where a large statically declared array was being passed by value between functions, resulting in several unnecessary copies, and Bubble Sorted to maintain order on inserts. Some may argue that this is not the fault of the language, but it has been my experience that quick and dirty is the rule when it comes to VB code rather than the exception.
You can do what you like, it is after all your life, just don't be shocked by the consequences of your choices and remember that in the real world you only get one life and no continues, game over really is game over. That being said there are some things that are worth risking life and limb for, but it is probably fair to say that most Afghans (many of the Gitmo detainees were captured in Afghanistan) weren't about to risk their necks to defend the Taliban and their Arab thugs. I was simply trying to suggest a way that the average Afghan, who wants to survive the demise of the Taliban, could go about doing that with the minimal chance of getting killed or detained as an unlawful combatant.
You shouldn't shoot back unless you want to be killed or captured and treated as an unlawful combatant. You should keep your head down and get the hell out of there as any real non-combatant would and do not under any circumstances pick up a weapon or shoot at anyone in the combat zone unless you want to be killed or have a real bad time of it when you are caught. The enemy forces will kill you whether you have a gun or not. If the US forces detain you then you will have a much better chance of being labeled as a non-combatant civilian and released to an area outside the combat zone if you do NOT have a weapon.
The Geneva Conventions do not apply to unlawful combatants. The detainees in Gitmo were captured while operating against our forces as civilians fighting without authorization of a sovereign nation and out of uniform and therefore they do not enjoy the privileges granted to lawful POWs under the Geneva Conventions.
... Unlawful combatants are a proper object of attack while engaging as combatants. ... If captured, they may be tried and punished. As examples, the pamphlet mentions civilians who engage in war without authorization; non-combat members of the military, such as medics or chaplains, who engage in combat; and soldiers who fight out of uniform. In the Second World War, the United States captured eight German saboteurs who were out of uniform and executed six of them.
An American military pamphlet on the law of war provides this definition: An unlawful combatant is an individual who is not authorized to take a direct part in hostilities but does.
Unless the certificate holder is ClickYesToContinue LLC
If you have a router with the ability to restrict the IP ranges of incoming traffic as well as the ports then would it not be sufficient to block traffic from entire countries on the ports that your IP phone is using? For example, I do not normally receive calls from India, China, or Eastern Europe so would it not be a simple matter to set up the filter table so that incoming calls from these regions are entirely blocked? Alternatively, would I not also be able to create a whitelist of ranges from which I will accept calls and all others are blocked? As long as the phone is plugged in behind the router the router gets to enforce routing rules on all traffic, including traffic which is meant for the IP phone.
Yeah, but then the IRS guy makes a mistake typing it in and it is still YOUR fault.