Well, only to a small extent (plus, I did concede that this was the closest to a valid argument he had).
But in the current trend of things, let's consider a mass mailing worm. $user executes the NudeTeenager script, which immediately creates the file $HOME/malware and chmod a+x it. Then it sticks a call to nohup $HOME/malware at the end of.bash_profile.
The worm then periodically mails itself, searching for addresses in the most popular client. Perhaps it wipes out $HOME on a certain date? Maybe it spawns a fork-bomb?
You can do lots of nasty stuff without being root.
I reiterate: preventing users from doing all their work as root is a good thing, but it is far from panacea.
Yup, the guy's a moron. I was expecting to have to work to dipute his claims, but he's really laid it on a plate - I don't know where to start, so I'll go randomly:
On MS software making social engineering more easy, he talks about how it's so easy to infect users through Outlook, because it allows immediate execution of attachments on preview, whereas Linux clients don't. Ex-fucking-quse me? Don't you think it a little disingenuous to strongly imply that this is a stupid MS feature rather than documented bugs? Shoddy coding undeniably, but what he's implying? No way.
In fact, the way he's written it, if I were to hack up a linux mail client that automatically set the executable bit of an attachment, but also contained a bug that meant it could be done in preview, I would have disproven the entire section. That should give an idea of the validity of that tripe.
Which leads onto the next thing. He's claiming that Linux is more secure because it forces users to jump through hoops; that's right, you can't infect yourself because you don't know how to set the executable bit. Does the man really not see that this fact is not statistically independent of the number of Linux boxes on users' desktops?
But despite this, he's wrong anyway. I saw a Windows virus that made users jump through hoops - I forget which one, but it was one of the recent biggies. You got an email with a zip attachment. You had to load the zip, extract the executable, then run it. And he's telling me that setting an executable bit is too much effort? And just to reiterate, were Linux to be on everyone's desktop, there's be mail clients just lining up to set that pesky bit for you.
Oh, but as he points out, the highly social community of linux users guarantee that people are well educated about these security issues.
I don't even...the man...Look, the whole point is that he's trying to argue that it would be just as secure if it dominated the desktops of the world. Does he think there's some chemical in RedHat's cellophane wrap that makes people permanently give secure computing tips to an installed base of half a billion people? And a second chemical that makes everyone's grandma actually fucking listen?
Root users. OK, he's actually getting dangerously close to something I can't outright mock him for. Yes, Windows does encourage, through indifference, users to do their work as root. Yes, Linux does the opposite. However, let's go back to when Linux is on these millions of grandparents' and managers' desktops: will they always work as a restricted user, having to switch user (and remember another, infrequently used password) in order to install the driver to their new scanner? Or will they just say "Oh, I don't bother with that fuss" and go round as root? Well, I think that Lindows, a distribution aimed at dumbing down Linux for the masses, and lambasted in the article for doing just that, might give us a clue.
Oh yeah - Windows is insecure because x86 is a popular chipset. Good thinking batman.
That's enough bullet points for the time being. Please, people, if you're going to post a story about this, try and concentrate on maybe OSS having fewer bugs or something, hence being more secure. Sure I won't necessarily go along with it, but at least it won't come across as the incoherent ramblings of a 14 year old zealot like this does.
If you really have worked in the field for 6 years, then I urge you to look deep inside your heart: you know that no project gets done in half a day. Once you've got the validation added, plus the administrative interface for when something needs changing, plus the sundry other things that a project like this invariably has to cover etc, etc, you know that it will take some time to get anything good enough that it's worth using.
Oh sure, in half a day you could create some web page that has two text boxes for username and password, and a submit button that writes the time to a database, but that is not good enough. It will take days to get a system that has any value over a punched card system.
Re:You could write your own...
on
How Do You Punch In?
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· Score: 2, Informative
Haha - half a day? It's beautiful hearing people who clearly don't do things as their profession talking about how it would take "half a day" to knock up.
If you did it in as week then you'd still find bugs for some time, plus you've just wasted 3k or so of developer time in order to get this amateurish, buggy system.
Slashdot is the wrong place not only for the driver, but also for you. You had a need, and used the open source philosophy to scratch your itch, and then released the code; Slashdot is designed for people who don't actually have coding skills, but instead like to talk about how great open source is because if they could code and if they ever actually needed to, then they could modify software.
Oh, and for people who waste their lives gaming too.
Do you recall the parable of the Good Samaritan? Of course you do. Now bear with me here:
Well the context around it is he is telling it to a Pharisee in answer to the question "Who is your neighbour?"
Well, Jesus tells the story, and when he asks the Pharisee which of the three men was his neighbour, the Pharisee answers: "The one who helped him." Y'see, the thing is that the Pharisees despise the Samaritans so much that he couldn't bring himself to even say their name.
I was just wondering if you saw any parallels between this and the fact you insist writing the quotes around "Linux crash"? Whether it had occurred to you how ridiculous it was that your dogmatic fanaticism about Linux means you can't even bring yourself to write about it crashing?
Sounds great, except that I read somewhere else that this "upgrade" will take the hardware requirements up so that the *minimum* spec machine will be a P3 with 64MB of RAM.
Now for office apps I can understand needing that number crunching power and storage, but for a game? I can understand needing a good graphics card, which is why I bought an S3 Savage 4 for Unreal Tournament, but those specs will just price it out of the market for people like me.
With the increase in tech workers over the years has been the correlated increase in cases of ADD amongst adults. Whereas in the past people may have watched TV or read a book in their spare time, it's not surprising that these people find it too boring and their attention drifts quickly.
Hence they buy a board game instead of reading. I suspect that we will continue to see a strong correlation between the increase in tech jobs (and tech education) and board game sales.
That's because whilst everyone is quick to point out that Windows suffers from more viruses than Linux because it's so much more common, even Linux has like 5 times the market share of Macs.
Shit, if you want to set up a DDoS against a site you'd have better results telnetting in and typing really fast than relying on the 23 Macs in production use, connected to TCP over yogurt-pot-and-string.
Whats wrong with being American? Your obviously not but you think its ok to bash us?!? I think your just jelous like all the other country's that aren't as successfull as the USA. And what does being American have to do with anything anyway?!? I dont like swearing cuz im Christian and children shouldnt be seeing this sort of foul stuff.
But does Slashdot really think it's necessary to link to a pge with such foul language on it? It's not too bad if it's the S-word, but this site even has the F-word. Unless I missed the bulleting, Slashdot's supposed to be a family website, that children and young teens can read.
I know the troll post their foul language, but the moderation system takes care of that. But why does Slashdot feel the need to endorse such depravity?
Where did I say I didn't care about them? Could you be putting words into my mouth, hm?
As it happens, I don't care about the contents, but do care about the actual story very much. The stories are an advertisement of exactly how pathetic the slashdot populace is, how they like to take up the cause du jour and post exactly the same banal crap over and over and over.
Only do a phd if you really really want to research in that field. Many people spend a few years hating their lives because they have to work on a sucky dissertation that it turns out they weren't really very interested in.
But having done a phd, if you're concerned about it, just leave it off the CV. I doubt anyone will ask you to account for the missing years, but if they do it' not exactly hard to talk about your 3 years' work as a volunteer teacher in Mozambique.
Honestly though, I doubt a phd will have a negative effect on any applications. Equally, lack of a phd will have very little effect (except in very specialised roles), so I don't think you need to worry. The correlation is likely to be an extremely weak one, but newspaper just love publicising such reports, no matter how significant or otherwise the results are.
I'm sure that the world's disabled, whose main fight is acceptance as equals of their able bodied counterparts, will be thrilled to hear that you wept at the assistance will be able to offer them.
If anyone else wants to emotionally touch a disabled person in such a way, wait until someone goes into a public toilet in a wheelchair; offer to help then take their trousers down, and bask in the warm glow of helping your fellow humans.
Slashdot Mirror
That said, "analogy" isn't quite there either.
It has nothing to do with clipboards, that's what.
But in the current trend of things, let's consider a mass mailing worm. $user executes the NudeTeenager script, which immediately creates the file $HOME/malware and chmod a+x it. Then it sticks a call to nohup $HOME/malware at the end of .bash_profile.
The worm then periodically mails itself, searching for addresses in the most popular client. Perhaps it wipes out $HOME on a certain date? Maybe it spawns a fork-bomb?
You can do lots of nasty stuff without being root.
I reiterate: preventing users from doing all their work as root is a good thing, but it is far from panacea.
In fact, the way he's written it, if I were to hack up a linux mail client that automatically set the executable bit of an attachment, but also contained a bug that meant it could be done in preview, I would have disproven the entire section. That should give an idea of the validity of that tripe.
I don't even...the man...Look, the whole point is that he's trying to argue that it would be just as secure if it dominated the desktops of the world. Does he think there's some chemical in RedHat's cellophane wrap that makes people permanently give secure computing tips to an installed base of half a billion people? And a second chemical that makes everyone's grandma actually fucking listen?
That's enough bullet points for the time being. Please, people, if you're going to post a story about this, try and concentrate on maybe OSS having fewer bugs or something, hence being more secure. Sure I won't necessarily go along with it, but at least it won't come across as the incoherent ramblings of a 14 year old zealot like this does.
I said nt.
Such as this revelation that the PS2 is primarily inteded for games use.
Presumably the major ones are actually real and not just because you don't know how to do them?
Oh sure, in half a day you could create some web page that has two text boxes for username and password, and a submit button that writes the time to a database, but that is not good enough. It will take days to get a system that has any value over a punched card system.
If you did it in as week then you'd still find bugs for some time, plus you've just wasted 3k or so of developer time in order to get this amateurish, buggy system.
What - you thought your subscriber dollars went on providing you with stuff you hadn't already seen?
Oh, and for people who waste their lives gaming too.
Well the context around it is he is telling it to a Pharisee in answer to the question "Who is your neighbour?"
Well, Jesus tells the story, and when he asks the Pharisee which of the three men was his neighbour, the Pharisee answers: "The one who helped him." Y'see, the thing is that the Pharisees despise the Samaritans so much that he couldn't bring himself to even say their name.
I was just wondering if you saw any parallels between this and the fact you insist writing the quotes around "Linux crash"? Whether it had occurred to you how ridiculous it was that your dogmatic fanaticism about Linux means you can't even bring yourself to write about it crashing?
Now for office apps I can understand needing that number crunching power and storage, but for a game? I can understand needing a good graphics card, which is why I bought an S3 Savage 4 for Unreal Tournament, but those specs will just price it out of the market for people like me.
Hence they buy a board game instead of reading. I suspect that we will continue to see a strong correlation between the increase in tech jobs (and tech education) and board game sales.
Shut the fuck up about SCO you tedious fuck.
Shit, if you want to set up a DDoS against a site you'd have better results telnetting in and typing really fast than relying on the 23 Macs in production use, connected to TCP over yogurt-pot-and-string.
Whats wrong with being American? Your obviously not but you think its ok to bash us?!? I think your just jelous like all the other country's that aren't as successfull as the USA. And what does being American have to do with anything anyway?!? I dont like swearing cuz im Christian and children shouldnt be seeing this sort of foul stuff.
Is this a bug/feature in the "BitTorrent" source control system that I hear Linux uses?
I know the troll post their foul language, but the moderation system takes care of that. But why does Slashdot feel the need to endorse such depravity?
As it happens, I don't care about the contents, but do care about the actual story very much. The stories are an advertisement of exactly how pathetic the slashdot populace is, how they like to take up the cause du jour and post exactly the same banal crap over and over and over.
Yes, it annoys me.
But having done a phd, if you're concerned about it, just leave it off the CV. I doubt anyone will ask you to account for the missing years, but if they do it' not exactly hard to talk about your 3 years' work as a volunteer teacher in Mozambique.
Honestly though, I doubt a phd will have a negative effect on any applications. Equally, lack of a phd will have very little effect (except in very specialised roles), so I don't think you need to worry. The correlation is likely to be an extremely weak one, but newspaper just love publicising such reports, no matter how significant or otherwise the results are.
I see my comment has been marked as redundant. I am pleased to see that today's moderators have a sense of irony.
Another SCO story. I love how these never contain any real information and yet we're subjected to about 6 a day.
Imagine how underwhelming it is to learn that...well, you know the rest.
If anyone else wants to emotionally touch a disabled person in such a way, wait until someone goes into a public toilet in a wheelchair; offer to help then take their trousers down, and bask in the warm glow of helping your fellow humans.