"What if I'm registering at eBay or PayPal or some other site which sends an automatically-generated email when I complete the first step?"
That's a good point, but the solution is simple: throw-away addresses.
If you are an earthlink subscriber, you get an email address like nanogator@earthlink.net. (Hey, that useta be my address!) Then, Earthlink could provide a service where you create a unique address that expires after x amount of time. so nanogator.dkaf3fj39@earthlink.net becomes active, and that's the one you use. From there, you can add them to your whitelist.
It's a bit round-about, but that's the beauty of Earthlink. They're a major ISP. Surely places like Ebay will have to stand up to comply with the upcoming standard. It'll never happen if some people don't have issues like this.
"Even if there was, the problem didn't stem from a defect in MS's software. The problem came when somebody wrote Slammer. A defect may have allowed the exploit, but somebody still had to do some work to turn it into something malicious.
Trust me dudes, you don't want MS to lose this one. The resulting ripples wouldn't be limited to MS. "
What's 'overrated' about bringing up an overlooked point?
"One could argue that software can be made perfect because it is based on logic. "
That argument doesn't work on a PC. Logic works under the assumption that nothing changes, that cannot possibly be true when you have other apps running.
If MS made the software, the hardware, and locked it down so NOTHING else (not even Notepad) could run at the same time, then maybe that argument would start to work.
"Either you're trolling, being sarcastic or just plain haven't noticed the NO WARRANTEE blurb in the MS EULA."
Even if there was, the problem didn't stem from a defect in MS's software. The problem came when somebody wrote Slammer. A defect may have allowed the exploit, but somebody still had to do some work to turn it into something malicious.
Trust me dudes, you don't want MS to lose this one. The resulting ripples wouldn't be limited to MS.
Umm.. Microsoft didn't launch the attack, the dude who write the Slammer exploit did. Sue the criminal for causing the damage, not the device he used. Might as well sue gun manufacturers for not making guns human friendly.
"Are we seeing the birth of a new site, SlashGossip, made up stuff for nerds to post shit about?? "
Yes, except it'll be called Slashfire. Just for to keep it interesting a new rule will go into place: Once you use the phrase "but it's a convicted monopoly!" you automatically lose. The fights are short, but brutal.
"Oh, and for those concerned, I'm sure MSNBC will give Microsoft plenty of fair reporting. "
You'd think MSNBC would be quite pro-Microsoft. However, a lot of negative stories about MS have been reported on Slashdot with MSNBC as the source. Want an example? How about reporting of MS product flaws?
I wouldn't have any doubt that MSNBC has its biases, but I doubt that your view of MSNBC would support the idea that they'd question the usefulness of TabletPCs.
"I'm still waiting for Halo to come out for the PC and ANY MS game to come out for an alternative OS. But I'm sure Microsoft will release those any day now because they certainly have no interest in maintaining a monopoly. "
Hate to break it to you, but if MS doesn't want to port their games to any other platforms, that's not a monopoly action. I mean, if you want to cry monopoly over that, then you also have to cry monopoly at Nintendo for not expanding their franchises to work outside of Nintendo built machines. Same complaint would go towards Sega and even Sony. There's a very significant difference between exclusivity and monopoly. Nobody has ever argued that Microsoft controls the game market because of the platform they keep Age of Empires on.
"Need I remind you that Microsoft was found, in a court of law, to have ABUSED THEIR MONOPOLY? Let me say that again, since your troll-ish ears are obviously too small: MICROSOFT ABUSED THEIR MONOPOLY. THEY WERE FOUND GUILTY IN A COURT OF LAW."
Oh I get it, this is satire. You're illustrating the point I made about crying wolf. Good job! You nailed it in a wonderful sarcastic tone. Kudos!
Heh! I'm 24. Good guess! I was like 12 when I was using Telemate. I didn't get into the scripts, though. My dad had a BBS-saavy friend that was teaching me.
"...why don't we applaud MS when they do something to try to fix it?"
Because the monopoly bell is fun to ring. Everybody here has a wild imagination about how MS plans to take over the world. I remember when the XBOX was getting close to launch, everybody was whining that MS was going to monopolize the game market, and then somehow use that to make Windows the dominant OS. Heh. Very imiaginitive BS.
They just can't face facts that MS is a very diverse company and not EVERY division of it is trying to control the world. They're always trying new ideas and getting standards through. (Optical Mice anyone?) They release new products all the time, and sometimes they're pretty cool despite the doom and gloom warnings by Slashdot anti-MS zealots.
I guess I'm just a bit jaded. Every time MS releases a new product, Slashdot goes on and on about how this is MS's attempt at ruling the computer market. Yet, none of these predictions has come true. For example, the XBOX hasn't monopolized the game market. The Community has a lot of growing up to do. They've cried wolf too many times. Now I see that stupid Borg icon for Mr. Gates and think geez, they still find that funny? Who can even trust that MS is getting fair reporting?
"You're so right. I mean, everyone knows Telemate is the best option. "
Heh I have an OT question for ya. How old do ya think I am based on my Telemate comment? Just curious because I find myself assuming people are a certain age just because they remember using software from a particular era.
(Before ya mod me down, at least consider that I'm trying to be interesting!)
"So given all of this, why don't more people switch? Is it that most people just can't be bothered to make the change, even when its more efficient and more comfortable?" Is it mostly due to the fact that most people learn to type first on QWERTY due to its popularity, and hence don't bother to learn anything else?"
It's because nobody cares. It creates more problems than it solves. Do you really want to retrain your fingers just so you can type a little faster? Is your keyboard really your bottleneck? (Linux masochists excluded from that question.) Do you really want to move your keyboard shortcuts around? Do you really want to use a non-standard keyboard? What do you tell friends that come over and use your computer?
There may be benefits to it, but we're not excatly talking about a live issue here. I mean if we're going to discuss this, why don't we discuss why people should use Procomm instead of Telemate for visiting BBS's.
"Seriously, though, it's an Access Control List. The idea is, rather than apps being associated with a user and having all the permissions of said user, you have to give individual apps permissions/restrictions. You could thus give your browser read-only access to your files, for example, or you could prevent an app from accessing the network. "
Thank you! I especially appreciate the explanation, sure beats just getting the words that the acronymn stands for.:)
"... so have ACLs done the same in their own way. We should differentiate, but clinging on to a past which has outlived its usefullness wont do it. WinNT/2k/XP have ACLs too ya know... "
"I think it's critical that consumers have control over their computers and the ability to decide what software they want to utilize. I look at the Xbox as simply a personal computer. This is why I funded the Xbox reward."
"Coincidentally, when I put money up for a project like this, suddenly I become a good guy with the Slashdot Community. It's cheaper than a Superbowl ad! (Plus there's a chance I'll never have to pay! woot!)"
Slashdot Mirror
"What if I'm registering at eBay or PayPal or some other site which sends an automatically-generated email when I complete the first step?"
That's a good point, but the solution is simple: throw-away addresses.
If you are an earthlink subscriber, you get an email address like nanogator@earthlink.net. (Hey, that useta be my address!) Then, Earthlink could provide a service where you create a unique address that expires after x amount of time. so nanogator.dkaf3fj39@earthlink.net becomes active, and that's the one you use. From there, you can add them to your whitelist.
It's a bit round-about, but that's the beauty of Earthlink. They're a major ISP. Surely places like Ebay will have to stand up to comply with the upcoming standard. It'll never happen if some people don't have issues like this.
"I think this will create way too much hassle. There are some people who wouldn't mind..."
You mean like the millions of people that use ICQ?
"A New Generation Of MOOs"
MOO means "Master oF Orion". Thanks for getting my hopes up!
"Computer geeks monitoring nutrition? What's next? A toolbar app for KDE to track Microsoft's press releases? "
Troll? Oh c'mon guys it was a joke! We've all heard a million times before here that geeks live on Skittles and Dr. Pepper.
What's 'overrated' about bringing up an overlooked point?
"One could argue that software can be made perfect because it is based on logic. "
That argument doesn't work on a PC. Logic works under the assumption that nothing changes, that cannot possibly be true when you have other apps running.
If MS made the software, the hardware, and locked it down so NOTHING else (not even Notepad) could run at the same time, then maybe that argument would start to work.
"Unsurprisingly the makers of Dr. DOS lost their jobs, like many other victims of malicious code. "
Microsoft puts in a message that you're running Windows on top of a foreign OS that they cannot possibly support, and that's malicious?
"Either you're trolling, being sarcastic or just plain haven't noticed the NO WARRANTEE blurb in the MS EULA."
Even if there was, the problem didn't stem from a defect in MS's software. The problem came when somebody wrote Slammer. A defect may have allowed the exploit, but somebody still had to do some work to turn it into something malicious.
Trust me dudes, you don't want MS to lose this one. The resulting ripples wouldn't be limited to MS.
Umm.. Microsoft didn't launch the attack, the dude who write the Slammer exploit did. Sue the criminal for causing the damage, not the device he used. Might as well sue gun manufacturers for not making guns human friendly.
Capture it to MPEG and then change the name to "N_Portman.MPG". It'll never disappear off of Kazaa.
"Are we seeing the birth of a new site, SlashGossip, made up stuff for nerds to post shit about?? "
Yes, except it'll be called Slashfire. Just for to keep it interesting a new rule will go into place: Once you use the phrase "but it's a convicted monopoly!" you automatically lose. The fights are short, but brutal.
"Oh, and for those concerned, I'm sure MSNBC will give Microsoft plenty of fair reporting. "
You'd think MSNBC would be quite pro-Microsoft. However, a lot of negative stories about MS have been reported on Slashdot with MSNBC as the source. Want an example? How about reporting of MS product flaws?
I wouldn't have any doubt that MSNBC has its biases, but I doubt that your view of MSNBC would support the idea that they'd question the usefulness of TabletPCs.
"I'm still waiting for Halo to come out for the PC and ANY MS game to come out for an alternative OS. But I'm sure Microsoft will release those any day now because they certainly have no interest in maintaining a monopoly. "
Hate to break it to you, but if MS doesn't want to port their games to any other platforms, that's not a monopoly action. I mean, if you want to cry monopoly over that, then you also have to cry monopoly at Nintendo for not expanding their franchises to work outside of Nintendo built machines. Same complaint would go towards Sega and even Sony. There's a very significant difference between exclusivity and monopoly. Nobody has ever argued that Microsoft controls the game market because of the platform they keep Age of Empires on.
What's next? A toolbar app for KDE to track Microsoft's press releases?
"Need I remind you that Microsoft was found, in a court of law, to have ABUSED THEIR MONOPOLY? Let me say that again, since your troll-ish ears are obviously too small: MICROSOFT ABUSED THEIR MONOPOLY. THEY WERE FOUND GUILTY IN A COURT OF LAW."
Oh I get it, this is satire. You're illustrating the point I made about crying wolf. Good job! You nailed it in a wonderful sarcastic tone. Kudos!
Heh! I'm 24. Good guess! I was like 12 when I was using Telemate. I didn't get into the scripts, though. My dad had a BBS-saavy friend that was teaching me.
"...why don't we applaud MS when they do something to try to fix it?"
Because the monopoly bell is fun to ring. Everybody here has a wild imagination about how MS plans to take over the world. I remember when the XBOX was getting close to launch, everybody was whining that MS was going to monopolize the game market, and then somehow use that to make Windows the dominant OS. Heh. Very imiaginitive BS.
They just can't face facts that MS is a very diverse company and not EVERY division of it is trying to control the world. They're always trying new ideas and getting standards through. (Optical Mice anyone?) They release new products all the time, and sometimes they're pretty cool despite the doom and gloom warnings by Slashdot anti-MS zealots.
I guess I'm just a bit jaded. Every time MS releases a new product, Slashdot goes on and on about how this is MS's attempt at ruling the computer market. Yet, none of these predictions has come true. For example, the XBOX hasn't monopolized the game market. The Community has a lot of growing up to do. They've cried wolf too many times. Now I see that stupid Borg icon for Mr. Gates and think geez, they still find that funny? Who can even trust that MS is getting fair reporting?
You really deserved a +5 for that.
"You're so right. I mean, everyone knows Telemate is the best option. "
Heh I have an OT question for ya. How old do ya think I am based on my Telemate comment? Just curious because I find myself assuming people are a certain age just because they remember using software from a particular era.
(Before ya mod me down, at least consider that I'm trying to be interesting!)
I can't believe this submission beat my "Why did some people prefer Gobots to Transformers?" story.
"So given all of this, why don't more people switch? Is it that most people just can't be bothered to make the change, even when its more efficient and more comfortable?" Is it mostly due to the fact that most people learn to type first on QWERTY due to its popularity, and hence don't bother to learn anything else?"
It's because nobody cares. It creates more problems than it solves. Do you really want to retrain your fingers just so you can type a little faster? Is your keyboard really your bottleneck? (Linux masochists excluded from that question.) Do you really want to move your keyboard shortcuts around? Do you really want to use a non-standard keyboard? What do you tell friends that come over and use your computer?
There may be benefits to it, but we're not excatly talking about a live issue here. I mean if we're going to discuss this, why don't we discuss why people should use Procomm instead of Telemate for visiting BBS's.
"Seriously, though, it's an Access Control List. The idea is, rather than apps being associated with a user and having all the permissions of said user, you have to give individual apps permissions/restrictions. You could thus give your browser read-only access to your files, for example, or you could prevent an app from accessing the network. "
:)
Thank you! I especially appreciate the explanation, sure beats just getting the words that the acronymn stands for.
"... so have ACLs done the same in their own way. We should differentiate, but clinging on to a past which has outlived its usefullness wont do it. WinNT/2k/XP have ACLs too ya know ... "
What's an ACL?
"I think it's critical that consumers have control over their computers and the ability to decide what software they want to utilize. I look at the Xbox as simply a personal computer. This is why I funded the Xbox reward."
"Coincidentally, when I put money up for a project like this, suddenly I become a good guy with the Slashdot Community. It's cheaper than a Superbowl ad! (Plus there's a chance I'll never have to pay! woot!)"
I just wanted to let you know I learned from your post. Thank you for taking the time to write it.
Nano