"Improvements would include dealing with sites that hijack your Back button to do a refresh or launch sixteen popups. Like maybe add them to a Ban-This-Damn-Site-From-My-Browser list"
Perhaps even would be a distributed ban-this-damn-site-from-everybodys-browser list. When you click a link, it could warn you "1380 slashdot users have rated this site annoying: do you want to continue?"
"Biggest reason not to use HTML mail. [web-beacons]"
Most decent email clients will display HTML email without downloading anything from the internet. I know that Mozilla and Kmail at least support this feature.
Of course, it's always worth deleting any email with HTML anyway, becuase it's such a distinctive way to identify spam.
"how often do I send mail from my account TO the same account"
All the time. It's a convenient way to write notes to yourself, and it's useful for transferring between linux and windows partitions, or for copying-and-pasting between work computers and home computers.
I do hope that writing emails to myself isn't like Mr Bean writing valentines' cards to himself;-)
"It [echelon] hardly affects privacy of the American people"
Interestingly, that was one of the reasons that PGP export was allowed: American companies operating abroad had to use easily-breakable encryption, becuase it was all they were allowed to take to their worldwide offices. Of course, that meant that the government of any country they operated in could decrypt their comms, and tip-off native companies in competition with them.
Not that the US would ever sink to such depths... *cough*arms-sales-contracts*cough*
"Most users are too clueless to realize it's really not coming from that address."
Or they're using Outlook/Exchange server, and will never get the chance to see who an email was from. At work, we use outlook, and whatever you put in the "From" field is what we see as the only information displayed about the sender
"At times in Ottawa (and Winnipeg) they may be as much as 5 minutes late. With the weather we have that's a hell of long time"
Not used UK trains have you? 5 minutes after scheduled arrival is considered "on time". They were recently having trouble even managing that, so they redefined "On time" as within 15 minutes of schedule, and still only get 80% of trains on time.
When it rains, they implement an 'emergency timetable', which gives them even more freedom, and "10:12, On time" on a display translates to "we think there'll be a train sometime this morning".
"Selling unlimited access to all comers for the same price just encourages people to imagine that an ISP is a public utility and that access to bandwidth is a right."
i.e. the very same "Broadband Britain" that our government is working so hard to promote. Shame for them that Britain's only cable company can't provide it.
And yes, internet usage does need to be fixed-price. Few people like to sign a blank cheque, which is what an "excess bandwidth" charge amounts to.
Uhm, if the BSA says that they have your permission to search your premises, they would have to produce the signed [by you] license agreement to prove it.
So if they have a copy of your license agreement, then there's the proof that you bought the software! duh!
Couldn't care less if a company I worked for got audited: would serve them right for agreeing to install proprietry software. Takes damned long as it is to setup a new WinXP machine at work, having to charge by the hour to read the license agreement all the way through, and that's being nice, and not calling the company lawyers to check before I enter the company into a "contract" by installing the machine.
"It's not unusual to see credit checks as part of a security clearance check..."
That's right, but it only applies to people who want to see Top Secret information, in which case they will interview anyone you ever met, so don't worry too much that they'll trust a known fraud such as [insert credit agency here] to supply them information.
For a normal job, there needs be no credit check, period. No need: you're trying to work there, not to borrow from them. If anything, you should want to check the credit of the company and its directors, to ensure that they are up to paying you. (being paid in arrears means that they're borrowing from you, so they get credit-checked)
And no, you can get a government job with secret material without a credit check. (UK)
"All of what you've said about markoff's libelous reporting is fine & dandy... But, do you have any way to prove it?"
Markoff needs to prove it's true, otherwise he loses the libel case by default. (That's certainly the case in English law, and we have the book published here in England)
"Giving "the enemy" free access to anti-virus code that is being used by the masses (because it is free) gives them the opportunity to figure out loopholes, how to sabatoge the anti-virus software, etc."
Could you imagine how many security exploits there would be for Windows if a million competant hackers could see the entire source code for it?
Burglar alarms are quite different: in many systems, the design may be fundamentally flawed. Not as seriously as in car locks, but vulnerable nonetheless. Perhaps this is why you don't want the manual lying on your doorstep.
But if that is security for you, how do you feel using a burglar alarm available from a retailer? If I were looking to break into your house, the first step would be to obtain a burglar alarm the same as yours, and figure out how it worked and how to break it. Or I could ask someone who's already done so. If the alarm then becomes vulnerable, perhaps it wasn't such a good choice to protect your home?
(As an aside, there are many competant hackers tho do have access to Windows' source code. They work for the NSA, and if your country uses Microsoft products for government functions, you'd better be thinking about that when you're expecting war with America -- Germany is safe. Peru is safe. How's everyone else doing?)
Could someone also explain why releasing the same virus on a weekday would have blocked access to 911?
Sounds a lot like unfounded scaremongering by people who should know a lot better to me. 911 not only runs on a separate network (telephone != internet), but is just as busy on a Saturday (if not more so) than weekdays.
In fact, sounds like the Mitnick fiasco, where any knowledge tangentially-related to the 911 system was assumed to have the power to prevent emergency calls from getting through.
How can journalists make such claims without losing their jobs?
The same unpatched Microsoft networks that Howard Schmitt was so recently quoted as dismissing irresponsible those who failed to apply the 6-mo old patch?
If you're worried about using Mozilla because of some sites not working, don't worry: you can still use Internet Explorer as normal when you come across a site which is unviewable on mozilla.
These sites are rare enough now that you shouldn't need to open IE much; it's mostly shopping sites, cinema sites, and things like that.
As an added bonus, you can install Mozilla without any flash, java, or shockwave plugins, which will give you an internet experience completely free from flashing adverts (you can disable animated images in Mozilla).
When you come across a site which requires flash or java, simply open IE to view that site. The added advantage is that if the microsoft JavaVM crashes your browser, you won't lose any of the other web pages you're viewing in mozilla.
And don't worry about the load-time of internet explorer -- it's already been loaded while you were waiting for the computer to boot up, so it should open almost instantly.
If you prefer the look and feel of Internet Explorer, you can emulate this perfectly using the IE skin for Mozilla, which keeps your familiar buttons and icons.
"that result in you getting some nice free government accomodations."
About $200-$500 per day, depending on security, paid for by you, the taxpayer. With 1% of US population in prison (16% of black people, I believe?), that's $200 * (1 prisoner / 99 taxpayers) of your tax bill, per day.
"What about the poor sods who have to use IE at work?"
If you have access to the internet, you have access to mozilla. It's the first thing you should do with a new computer after installing the operating system.
If you're not allowed to install mozilla at work, fine. Just let tech support fix anything that goes wrong, and make a note on your timesheets that you spent x hours removing a malicious program because of IE.
"What about technical neophytes?" Install Mozilla for them. Or Galeon, or Konqueror, or Safari. If they're technical neophytes, then you've probably had to setup their entire computer for them anyway, so part of that involves providing a browser.
"Should nobody be allowed to use a computer until they've studied CS for a couple of years and know who RMS is?"
At home, I suppose we can allow such infidels. But to use computers professionally? Whoa! If their CV comes in with "User-Agent: Microsoft Outlook Express" at the top, bin it before they damage your company permanently.
Oh, and RMS didn't write mozilla, these people did, all credit to them.
"I do not recall Redhat supporting any of their distro releases for 8 years."
The obvious difference is that you can update a RedHat installation for free, and that RedHat is backwardly-compatible.
As to comparing them with microsoft... they'd be more similar if you could download an ISO to upgrade your MS-DOS computer to a WindowsXP computer for free, and still run the same programs. Last I heard, this wasn't possible with Microsoft products, which makes the comparaison quite skewed.
Slashdot Mirror
"Improvements would include dealing with sites that hijack your Back button to do a refresh or launch sixteen popups. Like maybe add them to a Ban-This-Damn-Site-From-My-Browser list"
Perhaps even would be a distributed ban-this-damn-site-from-everybodys-browser list. When you click a link, it could warn you "1380 slashdot users have rated this site annoying: do you want to continue?"
"I would like to see a change in the Forward button, not the back button."
Basically, store the history in a tree format (like others have suggested), but don't display the history. Back buttons work as normal.
And then, if you press forward, it checks to see if there are multiple 'forward paths' and if so, prompts you for which one you'd like.
Sounds like an idea to me. Volunteers for starting a mozilla project?
"just 2 per cent of people use history, says some mid-1990s research"
And those two percent were snoops looking for information on someone they disliked. Does anyone actually use the history on their own computer?
"Why are address spoofing and open mail relays still a problem after over a decade of spam-related problems?"
Dammit, why is the FROM: field optional?
"Biggest reason not to use HTML mail. [web-beacons]"
Most decent email clients will display HTML email without downloading anything from the internet. I know that Mozilla and Kmail at least support this feature.
Of course, it's always worth deleting any email with HTML anyway, becuase it's such a distinctive way to identify spam.
"how often do I send mail from my account TO the same account"
;-)
All the time. It's a convenient way to write notes to yourself, and it's useful for transferring between linux and windows partitions, or for copying-and-pasting between work computers and home computers.
I do hope that writing emails to myself isn't like Mr Bean writing valentines' cards to himself
"It [echelon] hardly affects privacy of the American people"
Interestingly, that was one of the reasons that PGP export was allowed: American companies operating abroad had to use easily-breakable encryption, becuase it was all they were allowed to take to their worldwide offices. Of course, that meant that the government of any country they operated in could decrypt their comms, and tip-off native companies in competition with them.
Not that the US would ever sink to such depths... *cough*arms-sales-contracts*cough*
"Most users are too clueless to realize it's really not coming from that address."
Or they're using Outlook/Exchange server, and will never get the chance to see who an email was from. At work, we use outlook, and whatever you put in the "From" field is what we see as the only information displayed about the sender
"If you disagree with the EULA, you can't even sell the software on E-bay."
EBay are just naturally clue-less. They have removed Debian CDs from auction for the same reasons.
"At times in Ottawa (and Winnipeg) they may be as much as 5 minutes late. With the weather we have that's a hell of long time"
Not used UK trains have you? 5 minutes after scheduled arrival is considered "on time". They were recently having trouble even managing that, so they redefined "On time" as within 15 minutes of schedule, and still only get 80% of trains on time.
When it rains, they implement an 'emergency timetable', which gives them even more freedom, and "10:12, On time" on a display translates to "we think there'll be a train sometime this morning".
"What about people who use SSL to check their email, or in fact any private citizen (or 'subject' as they are here in the UK."
Do you know any decent email services in the UK which support TLS?
"Selling unlimited access to all comers for the same price just encourages people to imagine that an ISP is a public utility and that access to bandwidth is a right."
i.e. the very same "Broadband Britain" that our government is working so hard to promote. Shame for them that Britain's only cable company can't provide it.
And yes, internet usage does need to be fixed-price. Few people like to sign a blank cheque, which is what an "excess bandwidth" charge amounts to.
Uhm, if the BSA says that they have your permission to search your premises, they would have to produce the signed [by you] license agreement to prove it.
So if they have a copy of your license agreement, then there's the proof that you bought the software! duh!
Couldn't care less if a company I worked for got audited: would serve them right for agreeing to install proprietry software. Takes damned long as it is to setup a new WinXP machine at work, having to charge by the hour to read the license agreement all the way through, and that's being nice, and not calling the company lawyers to check before I enter the company into a "contract" by installing the machine.
"It's not unusual to see credit checks as part of a security clearance check..."
That's right, but it only applies to people who want to see Top Secret information, in which case they will interview anyone you ever met, so don't worry too much that they'll trust a known fraud such as [insert credit agency here] to supply them information.
For a normal job, there needs be no credit check, period. No need: you're trying to work there, not to borrow from them. If anything, you should want to check the credit of the company and its directors, to ensure that they are up to paying you. (being paid in arrears means that they're borrowing from you, so they get credit-checked)
And no, you can get a government job with secret material without a credit check. (UK)
"All of what you've said about markoff's libelous reporting is fine & dandy... But, do you have any way to prove it?"
Markoff needs to prove it's true, otherwise he loses the libel case by default. (That's certainly the case in English law, and we have the book published here in England)
"Giving "the enemy" free access to anti-virus code that is being used by the masses (because it is free) gives them the opportunity to figure out loopholes, how to sabatoge the anti-virus software, etc."
Could you imagine how many security exploits there would be for Windows if a million competant hackers could see the entire source code for it?
Burglar alarms are quite different: in many systems, the design may be fundamentally flawed. Not as seriously as in car locks, but vulnerable nonetheless. Perhaps this is why you don't want the manual lying on your doorstep.
But if that is security for you, how do you feel using a burglar alarm available from a retailer? If I were looking to break into your house, the first step would be to obtain a burglar alarm the same as yours, and figure out how it worked and how to break it. Or I could ask someone who's already done so. If the alarm then becomes vulnerable, perhaps it wasn't such a good choice to protect your home?
(As an aside, there are many competant hackers tho do have access to Windows' source code. They work for the NSA, and if your country uses Microsoft products for government functions, you'd better be thinking about that when you're expecting war with America -- Germany is safe. Peru is safe. How's everyone else doing?)
Could someone also explain why releasing the same virus on a weekday would have blocked access to 911?
Sounds a lot like unfounded scaremongering by people who should know a lot better to me. 911 not only runs on a separate network (telephone != internet), but is just as busy on a Saturday (if not more so) than weekdays.
In fact, sounds like the Mitnick fiasco, where any knowledge tangentially-related to the 911 system was assumed to have the power to prevent emergency calls from getting through.
How can journalists make such claims without losing their jobs?
The same unpatched Microsoft networks that Howard Schmitt was so recently quoted as dismissing irresponsible those who failed to apply the 6-mo old patch?
"Because they don't want to have to support them [linux and BSD]"
Well, if they don't support *nix, they're going to have a damned hard time selling to banks and insurance companies.
Seriously, if someone cared enough about security to want a hardware encryption device, why would they still be using Windows??
"Windows 98 also was launched [svlug.org] into space"
Too bad they can't launch all the other copies too...
Simple tip for Windows users:
If you're worried about using Mozilla because of some sites not working, don't worry: you can still use Internet Explorer as normal when you come across a site which is unviewable on mozilla.
These sites are rare enough now that you shouldn't need to open IE much; it's mostly shopping sites, cinema sites, and things like that.
As an added bonus, you can install Mozilla without any flash, java, or shockwave plugins, which will give you an internet experience completely free from flashing adverts (you can disable animated images in Mozilla).
When you come across a site which requires flash or java, simply open IE to view that site. The added advantage is that if the microsoft JavaVM crashes your browser, you won't lose any of the other web pages you're viewing in mozilla.
And don't worry about the load-time of internet explorer -- it's already been loaded while you were waiting for the computer to boot up, so it should open almost instantly.
If you prefer the look and feel of Internet Explorer, you can emulate this perfectly using the IE skin for Mozilla, which keeps your familiar buttons and icons.
If you want to send any notes to help@xupiter.com, you can always use an anonymous remailer:
Remailer
That's help@xupiter.com
"that result in you getting some nice free government accomodations."
About $200-$500 per day, depending on security, paid for by you, the taxpayer. With 1% of US population in prison (16% of black people, I believe?), that's $200 * (1 prisoner / 99 taxpayers) of your tax bill, per day.
"What about the poor sods who have to use IE at work?"
If you have access to the internet, you have access to mozilla. It's the first thing you should do with a new computer after installing the operating system.
If you're not allowed to install mozilla at work, fine. Just let tech support fix anything that goes wrong, and make a note on your timesheets that you spent x hours removing a malicious program because of IE.
"What about technical neophytes?"
Install Mozilla for them. Or Galeon, or Konqueror, or Safari. If they're technical neophytes, then you've probably had to setup their entire computer for them anyway, so part of that involves providing a browser.
"Should nobody be allowed to use a computer until they've studied CS for a couple of years and know who RMS is?"
At home, I suppose we can allow such infidels. But to use computers professionally? Whoa! If their CV comes in with "User-Agent: Microsoft Outlook Express" at the top, bin it before they damage your company permanently.
Oh, and RMS didn't write mozilla, these people did, all credit to them.
"I do not recall Redhat supporting any of their distro releases for 8 years."
The obvious difference is that you can update a RedHat installation for free, and that RedHat is backwardly-compatible.
As to comparing them with microsoft... they'd be more similar if you could download an ISO to upgrade your MS-DOS computer to a WindowsXP computer for free, and still run the same programs. Last I heard, this wasn't possible with Microsoft products, which makes the comparaison quite skewed.