Check out Trillian, which claims to do this. Caveat: it's not open source, and I haven't looked to hard at its security features, but it does list encryption over ICQ and AIM as features. I use it more because it's a unified client that does ICQ, AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, and IRC all in one.
if every two bit middle manager stops demanding to be an exception to all the rules
If IT showed management the respect they're due as managers, maybe they wouldn't demand to be exceptions. Managers can smell condescension, and when directed towards them, it makes them hostile. Try a respectful, cooperative approach and you might see less of that.
The quote is from a MS rep that I reached on the phone in about 5 minutes. Gee... that was hard, huh? Of course, nobody really cares about the truth... enjoy your silly FUD.
I'll concede that the article is just FUD iff your MS rep is willing to put it in writing under his signature as a representative of the company. (A pointer to a scan of the letter will suffice as proof.)
By that logic, VMWare should really freak Microsoft out. Of course, it might have at one point. Earlier, VMware supported OS/2, then announced a bundling agreement to sell preloaded VMs with MS OSs. About that same time, OS/2 support was abruptly dropped.
VMware denies it, but I wouldn't be surprised to see that there was a quid pro quo along the lines of MS saying "Look, we won't sue you out of existence if you don't support some of these other operating systems."
...that you're only allowed to access XP workstations with Microsoft keyboards and Microsoft mice.
Which, to my amusement, come with "Certificates of Authenticity" which, when bundled, state that they are "for distribution only with a new PC." Holy restraint of trade, Batman!
OSS seems pretty good. Lots better than "SNAPSHOT, TUBE FOUR. MAN BATTLE STATIONS TORPEDO," followed by "Program FishGuide caused a General Protection Fault in module USER.EXE at F00DBEEF:DEADD00D" in white letters on a blue background.
ObTrivia: at a place I used to work, 246 out of 780 user accounts had a password of "", "pass", or "password". Before I convinced the IT director to let me implement strong passwords, anyway.
At which point your users finally found a password that the system would allow them to use, and, bitter and pissed off, wrote it on a Post-It note and stuck it to their monitor.
You'll pry my general purpose computer out of my cold, dead hands. But that probably wouldn't help. It could be because it's late and I'm tired, but I can't help but thinking that our opinions aren't going to matter, because our few votes are trumped by the millions our "representatives" in Congress can buy with the entertainment industry's brib^H^H^H^H campaign contributions.
How does the company stop a technically knowledgeable user from circumventing the policy by keeping a personal, offsite archive (say, by printing the emails to a LaserWriter on FILE: on a Windows machine, then copying them to removable media or emailing the resulting.PS files to a drop), besides the threat of termination.
Bonus points: if the hammer is threat of termination, how does the company catch the employee, save for pervasive, big brother type monitoring?
Back in the day, a team made it so SCO binaries could run on Linux. Maybe someone would do the same for either Slowlaris or HPucks so that we could bask in the glory that is IE:).
Uh, except that the SSSCA, in order to be effective, would have to outlaw the general purpose computer. I and probably most others here could give a good g*d damn about the *AA locking up their precious boy-band and brain-sugar "content," but when the technology to lock it down is mandatory and we can no longer directly access our hardware, it's time to become a bit concerned.
Hit it on the head. Every time I think of going over to the Mac to avoid giving money to the Evil Empire, I remember things like
o Apple licensed the nefarious Amazon one-click patent, giving Amazon a precedent with which to bludgeon smaller companies.
o Apple crippled their DVD writing software to disallow mastering for replication.
o Apple used legal threats on non-for-profit skinners.
o Apple screwed over the clone vendors.
And that's just off the top of my head. I'm not thrilled about buying Microsoft, but I wouldn't feel particularly good about supporting another company with a monopoly (can you get Mac OSX for a clone? No. Then they have a monopoly) which leverages their software to sell overpriced hardware. It's obvious that if Apple were sufficiently competent, they would be another Microsoft. But while Apple is ruthless, predatory, and sells out its users just like MS, they're not as good at it.
I didn't actually say she was a willing pawn for the RIAA. Heck, Jack Valenti could have pictures of her going down on a small-dicked, living in parent's basement, toothpaste-fetish scat masturbating little wannabe weblog lawyer like yourself. Maybe.
But I wouldn't want to libel you, so I won't come out and say that the best part of you rolled down the crack of your momma's ass and ended up as a stain on the mattress*, becuase then I'd be quaking in my penny loafers waiting for the subpoena to come from Mister High Powered Slashdot Anonymous Coward, JD (Slashdot), MBA (Cryptonomicon). So I'll be careful. Ha.
What's that? You don't? Not a single bit of evidence? None at all?
Her rulings are sufficient for me. And guess the news, sparky dickhead boy. I do have a right to say things like that, because she's a public figure, you know, like a politician?
But I guess you wouldn't give a rat's ass, since you're just a whiny little troll without even so much as a little karma to burn behind your misinformed opinion.
But bicycle-based computing is hardly a new idea. This guy was doing it back in the days of the TRS-80 Model 100, and has written extensively about it. IIRC, there was a column in Byte or Creative Computing chronicling his adventures in "Computing Across America."
Maybe not, but DMCA death squads could sure go a long way towards slowing it down. Unrealistic? Bet you didn't know that drug users were terrorists by proxy until the Superblow (ha, I made a funny). How hard would it be to blame the recession on an axis of evil software and music pirates?
I don't think it'd come back very big. Any user with a significant degree of knowledge and desire to trade music is already using IRC or one of the next generation P2P networks, such as Gnutella, Morpheus, or eDonkey2000. Some of these networks offer abilities Napster never had, such as aggregating the bandwidth and availability of multiple sources, ad hoc networking with no central server. And if the music "industry" succeeds in killing those, the market for residential broadband is dead, as well.
I hope Hilary Rosen cries herself to sleep at night saying "God, if only I'd left those poor college kids alone back in 1996!" (OK, not really. I'd really rather see her visit the Sonny Bono memorial tree at about 100 miles/hr.)
Slashdot Mirror
Not to mention only one Fresh Prince of Bel Air.
Check out Trillian, which claims to do this. Caveat: it's not open source, and I haven't looked to hard at its security features, but it does list encryption over ICQ and AIM as features. I use it more because it's a unified client that does ICQ, AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, and IRC all in one.
/me imagines a Gridrunner port to a present-day console . . . Mmmmmm.
If IT showed management the respect they're due as managers, maybe they wouldn't demand to be exceptions. Managers can smell condescension, and when directed towards them, it makes them hostile. Try a respectful, cooperative approach and you might see less of that.
There's a less polite name for that. It's "extortion."
Damn you, you just reminded me that I'm jonesing for some Pinky and the Brain!
So true. Of course, the passwords don't actually have to be hard for the users to do that.
Of course, nobody really cares about the truth... enjoy your silly FUD.
I'll concede that the article is just FUD iff your MS rep is willing to put it in writing under his signature as a representative of the company. (A pointer to a scan of the letter will suffice as proof.)
Otherwise, his statement means nothing.
VMware denies it, but I wouldn't be surprised to see that there was a quid pro quo along the lines of MS saying "Look, we won't sue you out of existence if you don't support some of these other operating systems."
Which, to my amusement, come with "Certificates of Authenticity" which, when bundled, state that they are "for distribution only with a new PC." Holy restraint of trade, Batman!
OSS seems pretty good. Lots better than "SNAPSHOT, TUBE FOUR. MAN BATTLE STATIONS TORPEDO," followed by "Program FishGuide caused a General Protection Fault in module USER.EXE at F00DBEEF:DEADD00D" in white letters on a blue background.
At which point your users finally found a password that the system would allow them to use, and, bitter and pissed off, wrote it on a Post-It note and stuck it to their monitor.
You'll pry my general purpose computer out of my cold, dead hands. But that probably wouldn't help. It could be because it's late and I'm tired, but I can't help but thinking that our opinions aren't going to matter, because our few votes are trumped by the millions our "representatives" in Congress can buy with the entertainment industry's brib^H^H^H^H campaign contributions.
Bonus points: if the hammer is threat of termination, how does the company catch the employee, save for pervasive, big brother type monitoring?
I don't know, but the command prompt is the mother's tit. Methinks the Paladin was bottle-fed.
Back in the day, a team made it so SCO binaries could run on Linux. Maybe someone would do the same for either Slowlaris or HPucks so that we could bask in the glory that is IE :).
Uh, except that the SSSCA, in order to be effective, would have to outlaw the general purpose computer. I and probably most others here could give a good g*d damn about the *AA locking up their precious boy-band and brain-sugar "content," but when the technology to lock it down is mandatory and we can no longer directly access our hardware, it's time to become a bit concerned.
The building of and trafficking in which will be illegal if Jack Valenti, his minions, and his purchased legislators get their way.
o Apple licensed the nefarious Amazon one-click patent, giving Amazon a precedent with which to bludgeon smaller companies.
o Apple crippled their DVD writing software to disallow mastering for replication.
o Apple used legal threats on non-for-profit skinners.
o Apple screwed over the clone vendors.
And that's just off the top of my head. I'm not thrilled about buying Microsoft, but I wouldn't feel particularly good about supporting another company with a monopoly (can you get Mac OSX for a clone? No. Then they have a monopoly) which leverages their software to sell overpriced hardware. It's obvious that if Apple were sufficiently competent, they would be another Microsoft. But while Apple is ruthless, predatory, and sells out its users just like MS, they're not as good at it.
I didn't actually say she was a willing pawn for the RIAA. Heck, Jack Valenti could have pictures of her going down on a small-dicked, living in parent's basement, toothpaste-fetish scat masturbating little wannabe weblog lawyer like yourself. Maybe.
But I wouldn't want to libel you, so I won't come out and say that the best part of you rolled down the crack of your momma's ass and ended up as a stain on the mattress*, becuase then I'd be quaking in my penny loafers waiting for the subpoena to come from Mister High Powered Slashdot Anonymous Coward, JD (Slashdot), MBA (Cryptonomicon). So I'll be careful. Ha.
* with apologies to Stanley Kubrick
Her rulings are sufficient for me. And guess the news, sparky dickhead boy. I do have a right to say things like that, because she's a public figure, you know, like a politician?
But I guess you wouldn't give a rat's ass, since you're just a whiny little troll without even so much as a little karma to burn behind your misinformed opinion.
I guess you have that to keep you happy.
But bicycle-based computing is hardly a new idea. This guy was doing it back in the days of the TRS-80 Model 100, and has written extensively about it. IIRC, there was a column in Byte or Creative Computing chronicling his adventures in "Computing Across America."
Maybe not, but DMCA death squads could sure go a long way towards slowing it down. Unrealistic? Bet you didn't know that drug users were terrorists by proxy until the Superblow (ha, I made a funny). How hard would it be to blame the recession on an axis of evil software and music pirates?
So they're really more of an "I didn't do my research and bought a product that is intentionally crippled" tax.
I hope Hilary Rosen cries herself to sleep at night saying "God, if only I'd left those poor college kids alone back in 1996!" (OK, not really. I'd really rather see her visit the Sonny Bono memorial tree at about 100 miles/hr.)