Very nice ideas (a little unix oriented, but that shouldn't be the issue). Unfortunately they both suffer the same problem:
If a user receives an executable and it won't run either because it is in a sandbox, or it is flagged as non-executable (when you open an attachment in Outlook it gives a warning and the option to save it or run it, default being run. Wouldn't this be the same as just greying out the Run option in effect, if not implementation?) then the user will simply save it, then execute it with full permissions. Remember, these are the users who are still sending requests for my linux box's cmd.exe webpage, who open files asking for their advice, and who try several times to look at Anna Kournikova's breasts before giving up.
You can either make it impossible for a user to run an attachment (and lose functionality) or let them burn themselves, and unfortunately others. I used to think the third option was to educate the users, but I've given up on that one.
Did you read the article? They send an executable file, and ask the recipient to execute it. WTF are Microsoft going to do about that, short of hooking in a virus scanner by default into Outlook that auto-updates behind the user's back every time they connect to the Internet, and refuses to display mails that have a virus?
Oh, and before you say that they *should* do this, firstly think about people who may have a legitimate reason to want to download a virus[1] and secondly, think of the accusations of monopolistic practices - I can't see Norton, McAffee et al taking that without a fight.
Back to the subject, what else can Microsoft do about blatant user stupidity in the face of so much publicity about email viruses over the past year?
[1] I wrote a website that allowed users to upload documents available for public download. Being a community spirited sort of chap I included a server side virus scan, and needed a copy of a virus in order to test it was working. I was sent a copy of I Love You in the end by a friend. See, I really did mean there are legitimate reasons.
No, I don't hate slashdot. The [slashdot] bit is put there automatically as the domain the link points to. I'm actually trying to drum up hatred of mentifex, that insane tit who think's he's created a self aware lifeform in Javascript.
Probably for the same reason as kids have invisible friends.
Oh, well. If it was done at MIT it must have been impressive. As a non MIT graduate I would find it impossible to put some electronics inside something else.
Actually I'm going to start a new project: given raw materials of a computer and a box, I will put the computer inside the box. Clever eh?
Actually no. It'll never be interesting because I'm not at MIT.
Problem with CSI
on
The Rise of CSI
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
They do incredibly clever, incredibly observant things. They make huge logical leaps.
We don't make the same leaps, so they have to explain them all, and find some excuse to do so; this gets tired after a while, when sombody performs a bit of a monologue - they may as well turn to the camera and say 'And for the folks at home...'
..and fp..
Please could you help me
on
iWarez
·
· Score: -1, Offtopic
Dear sirs,
I am having a computer related problem, and was hoping that you, being mainly technically minded could help.
Up until recently I was a proficient Java programmer, and the code that I released for my company earned us a significant revenue. I used the various coding tools available to me on the robust platform of Microsoft Windows 2000 and all of the user friendliness and support it has to offer.
Recently, I was involved in an accident which left me immobile in hospital for a couple of months. In this time, without the ability to excercise, I began to gain weight, and would now go as far as to say I am fat. Also, because I could not get a haircut easily, my hair is long and unkempt. Fortunately, I have made a full recovery and since left hospital and gone back to work.
Here is the problem:
Now at work, I refuse to use Java, instead prefering to use what I used to think was a garbled mess of inefficiency - perl. Not only that, but once I have completed any code (which takes a lot longer than it used to with Java - but it can't be perl's fault because perl is perfect) I now genuinely believe that giving away the past few months worth of work for free is a valid business model! Equally, my productivity has plummeted because I have switched from Windows to Linux, as I now realise that it is better to write a 75 line bash script to copy files than to drag and drop in explorer - I think it has something to do with being l337 and having control, not like you M$ Windoze lusers LOL!!
Clearly something is wrong with me and I would love to know what it is. Does anybody know why I have lost all common sense, personal hygiene, business sense and instead gained the ability to program in a rune like language?
Please, I need all of the help I can get.
--gazbo
PS. I can't add any more details, as I have an irrepressible to learn to play the GNU/flute. PPS. FP
Muchos apologies if I misinterpreted. The link claims it is to his project, and his page is titled as though it were his thesis. I read that sentence as meaning that he had only included a subset of the entire results (graphs) rather than meaning he had left 60 pages of analyses out.
They are pretty pictures though - my dissertation didn't look nearly as pretty.
Re:Someone is looking at this page and...
on
Modelling P2P Networks
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
A) No, they are not.
B) That is a masters dissertation? Fuck me, I wish I could have written my dissertation as a couple of pages of HTML. Education must be a damned site easier over that side of the pond.
Re:South Effrica
on
Biohackathon
·
· Score: -1, Offtopic
Hmm...Are you English? I can't see how a Yank would know that song.
Or maybe that program was more popular than I thought.
I feel it is well worth burning 2 units of karma by way of penance for incorrect use of words. It has never happened before (AFAIK) and it will never happen again - Slashdot has too much of this already.
Anyone else out there think pumping large numbers of mutant insects into the environment might be a bad idea?
I'd have thought that the dangers of pumping a large number of sterile insects into an environment is a lot less scary than simply introducing a non-engineered fertile animal into a foreign environment. I'm sure we can come up with several cases where that's gone wrong, but sterile insects? Doesn't scare me I'm afraid.
Thank you for that, I just had a great 10 minutes worth of laughing reading that. My personal favorite was not the index.dat story (that was clearly written by a 12yr old who had just discovered regedit) but was the story about find-fast. The genuine horror he expressed when he revealed that the text indexing program 'find-fast' actually indexed text files! Just imagine the forensic capabilities - if only there were some way of disabling it
Oh, wait, I have done - and without help from that uselesss site. I just told it not to start up (not that I'm paranoid about my text being indexed, just that it made the system sluggish while indexing)
So thanks for the idea, I shall browse whenever I get bored at work and need to feel superior to somebody.
Yep, I can't believe the things they do behind my back. They made this option mandatory because it is only possible to turn it off using an assembly-level hack known as a 'check box' that is hidden at offset 0x4F02B sometimes nicknamed 'Front tab of the options menu'
Please, if you're going to try and terrify people with closed-source deception, choose something sensible.
PS. I've just discovered an exploit in EVERY IP implementation (I call it the IP tracking exploit) I have discovered that because of the evil closed source corporation that wrote and patented this protocol, it is possible for the computer you are talking to to uniquely identify your computer! Death of the Internet!
Sorry, no intention to blame you (notice that you were only in my foes list for the duration of my tests.
You're right, it should be a bug report, but I'm too lazy to email anyone or submit a report, so I just publicised it and figured that somebody less pathetic than me would deal with it:-S
Congratulations, sir. My limited investigation seems to conclusively demonstrate that you are an inadvertant page widener.
If anyone else wants to try this, mark him as a foe, set a huge penalty for foes, then browse at 0. Normal width page.
OK, this is a fair comment. I agree that there is something of a distinction between these mass producers and the general public who as you say, give away a few free copies.
It's like in the bad old days, when we gave away tape copies of music to friends - I don't even think that the industry cares about this (I read this in so many words from a representative of Jeepster records somewhere)
So yes, there is a distinction. Perhaps you choose to draw the line at whether there is money charged for the copying, or the scale of the copying. Indeed you've really said that it's unfair to call these users 'pirates' because it equates them with the major criminals (dare I use that word?) who produce thousands of copies and sell them.
What I argued with was the sentiment that calling somebody a pirate equated him with a pirate of the high seas.
FWIW, when I have Limewire running, I must transfer (upload) dozens of songs a day (I don't leave it running permanently) which is around 30660 a year. I realise it almost certainly won't scale up like that for me - some days I do not turn my PC on at all, let alone for Limewire - but I think it puts the scale of P2P networks in perspective.
Oh, and I'm not being hypocritical by calling this sharing illegal and then partaking myself; I freely admit that I am breaking the law, and have no God given right to do this.
Ah. Now I see the light - I just needed to hear it from somebody who knows better.
Just think, all of the times there has been a problem in the OS that caused it to stop responding, and I've been calling it a crash! How could I compare something that is fixed by power cycling to an accident that involves injury or death.
And Bugs! To think my slightly incorrectly oriented magnetic particles on my disk that I like to call 'code' could be equated to an organism that causes illness! Oh the fiendish powers that be, brainwashing us simple minded fools.
Thank you for knowing better than me and opening my eyes - before I used the computing-era and widely (in the computing community) accepted definitions of these terms, but now I see I have just had language manipulated in front of my eyes....possibly by the NSA, RIAA, MPAA, and I don't even live in America!
PS. Don't even get me started on the Blue Screen of Death, it took me long enough to stop weeping last time.
The term piracy has been around for so long that when somebody uses the term 'pirate' my first instinct is to think of software piracy. People do not hear the word piracy and equate the people involved to murderers on the high seas - I do not know where the word originally came from, but I do know that it is now ubiquitous, and accepted by the public to mean the illegal distribution of software.
Whinging about the use of the word piracy is as bad as the people who moan bitterly about the use of the word 'hacker' to mean 'he who breaks into systems' Most people wouldn't care in the least, and my personal opinion is that they only whinge about it so much because ESR told them to. I don't know what he has to say about the use of the word piracy or its etymology, but it wouldn't surprise me if most people who complain about the word only do so because it was suggested by somebody influential.
In short, stop being petty. Oh, and stop using words like 'koans' or 'MIT hacks' - these may be used at MIT, but nowhere else. If you use them, be aware that you are only doing so because the almighty Jargon File (peace be upon it) told you so.
</rant>
Well, I guess that's why they released info about a potential terrorist attack - it was to get the ignorant public to think this was a good idea.
[ot] Am I the only one who's read so many dumb and irrelevant Slashdot references to the DMCA that now even appropriate uses seem redundant?
Re:AT&T has been doing this for a while
on
TuVox Voice Interface
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
I assume you mean Wildfire? Never have I laughed so much as when a friend of mine in a pub attempted to manage his voicemail. It must have taken 10 minutes to delete a message 'THROW IT AWAY!' Oh god, he looked such a fool.
And voice activated dialing - same person (this time at a club) tried to voice dial another friend - ended up calling his parents at 2:00am. They were not happy bunnies.
In the club this could be expected, but the pub was not too loud. The technology that Orange is using for Wildfire is just not up to scratch for normal use.
PS. There are some interesting 'features' in Wildfire (these phrases will not be exact, but play around with them): 'Do me a favour' gets the response 'What kind of favour?' you can then say 'I'm feeling depressed' which gets the response 'Why don't you tell someone who cares' or 'What does a cow say?' which gets the response 'MOOOOO!'
Slashdot Mirror
Very nice ideas (a little unix oriented, but that shouldn't be the issue). Unfortunately they both suffer the same problem:
If a user receives an executable and it won't run either because it is in a sandbox, or it is flagged as non-executable (when you open an attachment in Outlook it gives a warning and the option to save it or run it, default being run. Wouldn't this be the same as just greying out the Run option in effect, if not implementation?) then the user will simply save it, then execute it with full permissions. Remember, these are the users who are still sending requests for my linux box's cmd.exe webpage, who open files asking for their advice, and who try several times to look at Anna Kournikova's breasts before giving up.
You can either make it impossible for a user to run an attachment (and lose functionality) or let them burn themselves, and unfortunately others. I used to think the third option was to educate the users, but I've given up on that one.
Did you read the article? They send an executable file, and ask the recipient to execute it. WTF are Microsoft going to do about that, short of hooking in a virus scanner by default into Outlook that auto-updates behind the user's back every time they connect to the Internet, and refuses to display mails that have a virus?
Oh, and before you say that they *should* do this, firstly think about people who may have a legitimate reason to want to download a virus[1] and secondly, think of the accusations of monopolistic practices - I can't see Norton, McAffee et al taking that without a fight.
Back to the subject, what else can Microsoft do about blatant user stupidity in the face of so much publicity about email viruses over the past year?
[1] I wrote a website that allowed users to upload documents available for public download. Being a community spirited sort of chap I included a server side virus scan, and needed a copy of a virus in order to test it was working. I was sent a copy of I Love You in the end by a friend. See, I really did mean there are legitimate reasons.
No, I don't hate slashdot. The [slashdot] bit is put there automatically as the domain the link points to. I'm actually trying to drum up hatred of mentifex, that insane tit who think's he's created a self aware lifeform in Javascript.
Probably for the same reason as kids have invisible friends.
Oh, well. If it was done at MIT it must have been impressive. As a non MIT graduate I would find it impossible to put some electronics inside something else.
Actually I'm going to start a new project: given raw materials of a computer and a box, I will put the computer inside the box. Clever eh?
Actually no. It'll never be interesting because I'm not at MIT.
They do incredibly clever, incredibly observant things. They make huge logical leaps.
We don't make the same leaps, so they have to explain them all, and find some excuse to do so; this gets tired after a while, when sombody performs a bit of a monologue - they may as well turn to the camera and say 'And for the folks at home...'
..and fp..
Dear sirs,
I am having a computer related problem, and was hoping that you, being mainly technically minded could help.
Up until recently I was a proficient Java programmer, and the code that I released for my company earned us a significant revenue. I used the various coding tools available to me on the robust platform of Microsoft Windows 2000 and all of the user friendliness and support it has to offer.
Recently, I was involved in an accident which left me immobile in hospital for a couple of months. In this time, without the ability to excercise, I began to gain weight, and would now go as far as to say I am fat. Also, because I could not get a haircut easily, my hair is long and unkempt. Fortunately, I have made a full recovery and since left hospital and gone back to work.
Here is the problem:
Now at work, I refuse to use Java, instead prefering to use what I used to think was a garbled mess of inefficiency - perl. Not only that, but once I have completed any code (which takes a lot longer than it used to with Java - but it can't be perl's fault because perl is perfect) I now genuinely believe that giving away the past few months worth of work for free is a valid business model! Equally, my productivity has plummeted because I have switched from Windows to Linux, as I now realise that it is better to write a 75 line bash script to copy files than to drag and drop in explorer - I think it has something to do with being l337 and having control, not like you M$ Windoze lusers LOL!!
Clearly something is wrong with me and I would love to know what it is. Does anybody know why I have lost all common sense, personal hygiene, business sense and instead gained the ability to program in a rune like language?
Please, I need all of the help I can get.
--gazbo
PS. I can't add any more details, as I have an irrepressible to learn to play the GNU/flute.
PPS. FP
Muchos apologies if I misinterpreted. The link claims it is to his project, and his page is titled as though it were his thesis. I read that sentence as meaning that he had only included a subset of the entire results (graphs) rather than meaning he had left 60 pages of analyses out.
They are pretty pictures though - my dissertation didn't look nearly as pretty.
A) No, they are not.
B) That is a masters dissertation? Fuck me, I wish I could have written my dissertation as a couple of pages of HTML. Education must be a damned site easier over that side of the pond.
Hmm...Are you English? I can't see how a Yank would know that song.
Or maybe that program was more popular than I thought.
I feel it is well worth burning 2 units of karma by way of penance for incorrect use of words. It has never happened before (AFAIK) and it will never happen again - Slashdot has too much of this already.
>hangs head in shame<
Anyone else out there think pumping large numbers of mutant insects into the environment might be a bad idea?
I'd have thought that the dangers of pumping a large number of sterile insects into an environment is a lot less scary than simply introducing a non-engineered fertile animal into a foreign environment. I'm sure we can come up with several cases where that's gone wrong, but sterile insects? Doesn't scare me I'm afraid.
Thank you for that, I just had a great 10 minutes worth of laughing reading that. My personal favorite was not the index.dat story (that was clearly written by a 12yr old who had just discovered regedit) but was the story about find-fast. The genuine horror he expressed when he revealed that the text indexing program 'find-fast' actually indexed text files! Just imagine the forensic capabilities - if only there were some way of disabling it
Oh, wait, I have done - and without help from that uselesss site. I just told it not to start up (not that I'm paranoid about my text being indexed, just that it made the system sluggish while indexing)
So thanks for the idea, I shall browse whenever I get bored at work and need to feel superior to somebody.
Yep, I can't believe the things they do behind my back. They made this option mandatory because it is only possible to turn it off using an assembly-level hack known as a 'check box' that is hidden at offset 0x4F02B sometimes nicknamed 'Front tab of the options menu'
Please, if you're going to try and terrify people with closed-source deception, choose something sensible.
PS. I've just discovered an exploit in EVERY IP implementation (I call it the IP tracking exploit) I have discovered that because of the evil closed source corporation that wrote and patented this protocol, it is possible for the computer you are talking to to uniquely identify your computer! Death of the Internet!
"Space Data would use un-tethered weather balloons launched...
I know some people can't be bothered to read articles, but this is the first sentence of the submission.
Sorry, no intention to blame you (notice that you were only in my foes list for the duration of my tests.
:-S
You're right, it should be a bug report, but I'm too lazy to email anyone or submit a report, so I just publicised it and figured that somebody less pathetic than me would deal with it
I like to think of it as delegation...
Congratulations, sir. My limited investigation seems to conclusively demonstrate that you are an inadvertant page widener.
;-)
If anyone else wants to try this, mark him as a foe, set a huge penalty for foes, then browse at 0. Normal width page.
But don't leave him as a foe, that'd be nasty
OK, this is a fair comment. I agree that there is something of a distinction between these mass producers and the general public who as you say, give away a few free copies.
It's like in the bad old days, when we gave away tape copies of music to friends - I don't even think that the industry cares about this (I read this in so many words from a representative of Jeepster records somewhere)
So yes, there is a distinction. Perhaps you choose to draw the line at whether there is money charged for the copying, or the scale of the copying. Indeed you've really said that it's unfair to call these users 'pirates' because it equates them with the major criminals (dare I use that word?) who produce thousands of copies and sell them.
What I argued with was the sentiment that calling somebody a pirate equated him with a pirate of the high seas.
FWIW, when I have Limewire running, I must transfer (upload) dozens of songs a day (I don't leave it running permanently) which is around 30660 a year. I realise it almost certainly won't scale up like that for me - some days I do not turn my PC on at all, let alone for Limewire - but I think it puts the scale of P2P networks in perspective.
Oh, and I'm not being hypocritical by calling this sharing illegal and then partaking myself; I freely admit that I am breaking the law, and have no God given right to do this.
Ah. Now I see the light - I just needed to hear it from somebody who knows better.
Just think, all of the times there has been a problem in the OS that caused it to stop responding, and I've been calling it a crash! How could I compare something that is fixed by power cycling to an accident that involves injury or death.
And Bugs! To think my slightly incorrectly oriented magnetic particles on my disk that I like to call 'code' could be equated to an organism that causes illness! Oh the fiendish powers that be, brainwashing us simple minded fools.
Thank you for knowing better than me and opening my eyes - before I used the computing-era and widely (in the computing community) accepted definitions of these terms, but now I see I have just had language manipulated in front of my eyes....possibly by the NSA, RIAA, MPAA, and I don't even live in America!
PS. Don't even get me started on the Blue Screen of Death, it took me long enough to stop weeping last time.
Oh, please. Don't start this crap again.
The term piracy has been around for so long that when somebody uses the term 'pirate' my first instinct is to think of software piracy. People do not hear the word piracy and equate the people involved to murderers on the high seas - I do not know where the word originally came from, but I do know that it is now ubiquitous, and accepted by the public to mean the illegal distribution of software.
Whinging about the use of the word piracy is as bad as the people who moan bitterly about the use of the word 'hacker' to mean 'he who breaks into systems' Most people wouldn't care in the least, and my personal opinion is that they only whinge about it so much because ESR told them to. I don't know what he has to say about the use of the word piracy or its etymology, but it wouldn't surprise me if most people who complain about the word only do so because it was suggested by somebody influential.
In short, stop being petty. Oh, and stop using words like 'koans' or 'MIT hacks' - these may be used at MIT, but nowhere else. If you use them, be aware that you are only doing so because the almighty Jargon File (peace be upon it) told you so.
</rant>
Well, I guess that's why they released info about a potential terrorist attack - it was to get the ignorant public to think this was a good idea.
[ot] Am I the only one who's read so many dumb and irrelevant Slashdot references to the DMCA that now even appropriate uses seem redundant?
I assume you mean Wildfire? Never have I laughed so much as when a friend of mine in a pub attempted to manage his voicemail. It must have taken 10 minutes to delete a message 'THROW IT AWAY!' Oh god, he looked such a fool.
And voice activated dialing - same person (this time at a club) tried to voice dial another friend - ended up calling his parents at 2:00am. They were not happy bunnies.
In the club this could be expected, but the pub was not too loud. The technology that Orange is using for Wildfire is just not up to scratch for normal use.
PS. There are some interesting 'features' in Wildfire (these phrases will not be exact, but play around with them): 'Do me a favour' gets the response 'What kind of favour?' you can then say 'I'm feeling depressed' which gets the response 'Why don't you tell someone who cares' or 'What does a cow say?' which gets the response 'MOOOOO!'