I'm sure this is review for most of us, but this is the end game right here, right now.
Microsoft has been hoarding patents, regardless of prior art, for some time now. The patent office will grant a patent, when it's not contested. They have 4000 or so now....
Now comes the fun.... litigate.... and do so against open source. Leaving the cost of this litigation with the large Linux vendors who's pockets are not nearly as deep as Microsoft.
And here's what they bank on: They can bankrupt the Linux movement financially, regardless of whether the patents would stand up, simply because there are so many of them.
Will it work?
It will work unless there is more pressure put on Microsoft than defensive litigation. There has to be a market reaction. There has to be people walking away from Microsofts product on large scale basis. There has to be PR from the linux side that's almost as dirty as FUD.
Sadly, I think we are going to lose this war for the time being. And that is not easy to say: Because it means that I will literally be out of a job and unable to continue in business. I'm an independent consultant and mini-ISP.
Imagine if Ford wasn't trumped by GM in the days of "Any color but black"?
In the Ford/GM days there was a corrective force in the marketplace through GM's product response. I'm not sure that today's consumer is ready/educated enough for that choice, I'm entirely sure that the courts really won't understand these issues for another generation, and I know Microsoft will not restrain itself based on the greater good.
Linux is in my mind equivalent to GM's product response in the Ford monopoly days.
If Microsoft is successful in a patent assault on Linux and FOSS in general, it will effectively remove FOSS from legal use in the United States, and probably many other western countries.
And here's the upshot: Countries like China, Tiawan, Thialand, pretty much the entire pacific rim and 3rd world countries are NOT going to respect US patent rulings. Leaving the USA at a competitive DISADVANTAGE as FOSS development moves OFFSHORE along with it's USAGE and REVENUE.
People need to really think about what is happening here. This is about more than business and patents. This is about freedom and the good of our markets.
What if Gutenburg took control of what was printed on the press? What if Gutenburg had absolute control over the press and it's design?
The computer is just another printing press. We all need to vote with our feet and dollars to prevent a catastrophe in the free market from happening- and if it happens, it will be in the name of Microsoft Shareholders.
I'm not picky. I'll use whatever doesn't have a major exploit against it at any given time. I really could care less who makes my browser. I generally like Firefox best, but there are times I run IE for a few compatibility reasons.
My primary concern is always my clients. Current and former clients who get news updates from me via e-mail number in the low 1000s. They don't know when there's a new exploit. Which is one of the reasons they pay me.
I think it boils down to this: Having multple browsers means people can use the browser that is not currently under attack. That is an advantage. Sure, if Mozilla had more users it might be targeted more, but right now it doesn't, and it probably won't for a couple of years.
The alternatives are just simply safer through obscurity.
Sometimes one wonders how Microsoft maintains it's customer base in the face of these kinds of security problems. It's truly scary. And I don't need a refresher in the market forces at work.
Over on the linux, and alternative browser side, where I live, I see patches coming out very quickly for any kind of exploit.
Sadly, the patch for the new IE flaw is scheduled for April 11th? This is according to a BBC report here:
Can't they do better than that? How about an emergency patch, followed by a fully tested one? Just something to knock the vulnerability into non-functional status? Hey, it's fine if the patch is imperfect- I'll beta test to save my banking information. Really.
I suppose I wouldn't have a problem with Microsoft's monopoly if they actually service me as a customer well enough that they deserved a monopoly position. I like a lot of their software. But these kinds of security issues need to be addressed better and faster.
Ironically, I pay a lot less for my linux servers and get better responses for both support and patches. That makes a difference to me.
Re:Don't miss the next theatrical masterpiece...
on
LOTR Jumps the Shark
·
· Score: 1
Well since very few people have seen Vista, I'll take the opinions and the comments.
You have to admit, the talking cell phone mail retrieval was very lame.
C'mon... it's talk to your cell phone and download your mail. That's funny! In fact it's better than any joke I've ever heard with the term "banana salesman" as the punch line.
And Tommy Hilfiger? (However he's spelled)... Sorry I'm not cool enough for this dude and his powerful combinations. When I go to a tech seminar I usually see other engineers and that impresses me. Balmer sweating and Hilfy huffing doesn't get me going.
I write code. I maintain servers. I know my shit.
I don't need Barney in my cellphone retrieving my mail for me while a Tickle Me Elmo recites my playlist of MP3s (DRM Enabled) and some lame ass gadget moving my addressbook between 9 other applications.
Geez.
Reading the comments on this story leads to me to think that people are either very ignorant, or astroturfing.
I can't see how CentOS is a negative in any manner whatsoever, or that they are ripping anyone off. I'd recompile the Redhat distro for my own use, but I don't have the time to do that and manage 30 servers facing the internet.
I pay for a number of licenses from Redhat, and also use CentOS in some situations. That's bad? Redhat doesn't think so- and have said so publicly.
Living in a world of soundbites and Maureen O'Gara must equal "ignorance is bliss".
I had a rude awakening after years in the bull market of 90's tech: I gave 3 months notice to a long time contractor and employer out of respect and deference.
Sadly, that was a hard lesson to learn, as the company car, expense accounts, server access, cell phone, customer list, and anything else they gave me was pulled. Then, while I was an "officed at home" road warrior engineer (who also managed to handle a good bit of IT from remote) I was told I was now an "hourly employee", had to report to the service department, and was issued a (gulp) UNIFORM.
Lesson learned:
It's business. Meet the standard of two weeks notice. Move on.
Second lesson learned:
This treatment is not indicative of what the company thinks of you. It's generally what the lawyers recommend happen when key people are dumped. I learned this one, because after I left them (early- I am not wearing a uniform!!), they called me with a massive contract with enough $$ to keep MY company going for about 2 years.
That has been my experience. IT people are considered if not "key" to be in very sensitive positions. Thus the reaction.
Like flat-earthers before them, their ill informed idea will pass away.
Once the genome gets pulled apart sufficiently, in enough species, you'll be able to verify conclusively evolution and the exact relationships of species.
Sadly... I'm not sure these people will change their ideas. Beliefs are hard to change. Ideas... are easier.
Evolution does have reproducable results via experimentation. Biologists, Geneticists, Medical Doctors, and many others have been documenting it for years.
"Intelligent Design", while not distastful to me in light of my religious background, is an idea with no support from reproducable study. It's just an idea that has been shoehorned into our gaps in knowledge, and thus when those gaps in knowledge change, it will have to change too.
So while bacteria are mutating to be antibiotic resistant, animals are changing both form and social function due to human impact on the environment, and scientists in laboratories are using evolution principles to alter DNA- psuedo-scientists take advantage of the fact that verifying first hand the effects of macroevolutionary process would require a study over a million years or more.
So while the scientific community withdraws it's wisdom from the school system, the luddite get to have their day in the sun.
Shame for the widthdrawal of copywrite. Shame on the Intelligent Design proponents for being so stuck on a belief that they have no problem being discriminatory.
I think it was Corel Draw that was released as a Java port a bunch of years ago. That was a bloat and a half from the standards at that time (I think I had 64 MB of RAM on a Mac 7100.
New York NY
A crowd of roughly 100,000 terrorists, mostly Genome Classification -2z commited an act of genocide on Park Avenue. Authorities say they are stymied by the lack of police officers who still meet the genetic qualifications of the National Genome Classification Act.
A source at the NYPD noted that "Since the enforcement of the act, 2/3 of our police force are now working in the food service industry. Of course crime rates have dropped to zero at Denny's, but it looks like the genetically perfect will have to fend for themselves.".......
In our networked world, local community standards are a nice thing. Except when under the CDA (Communications Decency Act) a community in California could legally take issue with a website in Florida.
Net result?
The net result is that the law is structured so that conservatives have a legal advantage, and can censor through litigation *anything* on the net.
THAT is why community standards don't work, and won't work until PARENTS go back to PARENTING!
Sorry... I get excited over this issue.
However, I think that censorship is bad, and parenting is good.
How the heck do you define what is too violent?
We cannot even define "pornography" in a global sense- except by an ill defined "community standard".
CDA on the internet, Patriot Act in the USA, and California on Crack.
I'm not making a value judgement. I am commenting on the way things are. If you access a computer not administratively owned by you, or do not have a release to do so, in the eyes of the law, access other than intended (regardless of intent or level of information leak) will probably be seen by a court as a violation of the law.
If you do security, infrastructure, and/or server integration that is the standard you have to adhere to avoid the "appearance of impropriety" and any snafu's that might come up in western law.
Additionally, he also should have taken note of this:
Although I do them with a fully endorsed and NOTARIZED release!
Rule number one:
"Thou shalt not perform any invasive activity against IPs that you do not have defacto administrative control over or have legal release (in hard copy) to do so."
I have no sympathy for the guy.
The comment at the end of the article is crap IMHO: "I've run into a lot of people in the penetration test community over the past few months, and they're all sympathetic to Dan. Their view was that he merited a ticking off, not losing his job. The police need the help of penetration testers and this won't help"
Outside of publicly available DNS and ARIN information there's not much more you can do to a remote host to find out whatever information you are looking for. At least if you want to stay out of hot water.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm sure this is review for most of us, but this is the end game right here, right now.
Microsoft has been hoarding patents, regardless of prior art, for some time now. The patent office will grant a patent, when it's not contested. They have 4000 or so now....
Now comes the fun.... litigate.... and do so against open source. Leaving the cost of this litigation with the large Linux vendors who's pockets are not nearly as deep as Microsoft.
And here's what they bank on: They can bankrupt the Linux movement financially, regardless of whether the patents would stand up, simply because there are so many of them.
Will it work?
It will work unless there is more pressure put on Microsoft than defensive litigation. There has to be a market reaction. There has to be people walking away from Microsofts product on large scale basis. There has to be PR from the linux side that's almost as dirty as FUD.
Sadly, I think we are going to lose this war for the time being. And that is not easy to say: Because it means that I will literally be out of a job and unable to continue in business. I'm an independent consultant and mini-ISP.
Imagine if Ford wasn't trumped by GM in the days of "Any color but black"?
In the Ford/GM days there was a corrective force in the marketplace through GM's product response. I'm not sure that today's consumer is ready/educated enough for that choice, I'm entirely sure that the courts really won't understand these issues for another generation, and I know Microsoft will not restrain itself based on the greater good.
Linux is in my mind equivalent to GM's product response in the Ford monopoly days.
If Microsoft is successful in a patent assault on Linux and FOSS in general, it will effectively remove FOSS from legal use in the United States, and probably many other western countries.
And here's the upshot: Countries like China, Tiawan, Thialand, pretty much the entire pacific rim and 3rd world countries are NOT going to respect US patent rulings. Leaving the USA at a competitive DISADVANTAGE as FOSS development moves OFFSHORE along with it's USAGE and REVENUE.
People need to really think about what is happening here. This is about more than business and patents. This is about freedom and the good of our markets.
What if Gutenburg took control of what was printed on the press? What if Gutenburg had absolute control over the press and it's design?
The computer is just another printing press. We all need to vote with our feet and dollars to prevent a catastrophe in the free market from happening- and if it happens, it will be in the name of Microsoft Shareholders.
Think about it.
Serious answer:
I'm not picky. I'll use whatever doesn't have a major exploit against it at any given time. I really could care less who makes my browser. I generally like Firefox best, but there are times I run IE for a few compatibility reasons.
My primary concern is always my clients. Current and former clients who get news updates from me via e-mail number in the low 1000s. They don't know when there's a new exploit. Which is one of the reasons they pay me.
I think it boils down to this: Having multple browsers means people can use the browser that is not currently under attack. That is an advantage. Sure, if Mozilla had more users it might be targeted more, but right now it doesn't, and it probably won't for a couple of years.
The alternatives are just simply safer through obscurity.
Sometimes one wonders how Microsoft maintains it's customer base in the face of these kinds of security problems. It's truly scary. And I don't need a refresher in the market forces at work.
Over on the linux, and alternative browser side, where I live, I see patches coming out very quickly for any kind of exploit.
Sadly, the patch for the new IE flaw is scheduled for April 11th? This is according to a BBC report here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4849904.stm
Can't they do better than that? How about an emergency patch, followed by a fully tested one? Just something to knock the vulnerability into non-functional status? Hey, it's fine if the patch is imperfect- I'll beta test to save my banking information. Really.
I suppose I wouldn't have a problem with Microsoft's monopoly if they actually service me as a customer well enough that they deserved a monopoly position. I like a lot of their software. But these kinds of security issues need to be addressed better and faster.
Ironically, I pay a lot less for my linux servers and get better responses for both support and patches. That makes a difference to me.
tralaaaa tralaaaa....
Jeez...
There's another upgrade to download.
Yeesh... Damned you Taylor!!
Well, if you did call him. That was stupid.
You are aware that his publicly posted salary is in the mid $60,000 range?
At least he is not cheap.
With one caveat:
The press is his town might not be savvy enough to understand what he did.
Overheard at the city council meeting:
"Someone unplugged my keyboard- Call the FBI Alice!!!"
Well since very few people have seen Vista, I'll take the opinions and the comments.
You have to admit, the talking cell phone mail retrieval was very lame.
C'mon... it's talk to your cell phone and download your mail. That's funny! In fact it's better than any joke I've ever heard with the term "banana salesman" as the punch line.
And Tommy Hilfiger? (However he's spelled)... Sorry I'm not cool enough for this dude and his powerful combinations. When I go to a tech seminar I usually see other engineers and that impresses me. Balmer sweating and Hilfy huffing doesn't get me going.
I write code. I maintain servers. I know my shit.
I don't need Barney in my cellphone retrieving my mail for me while a Tickle Me Elmo recites my playlist of MP3s (DRM Enabled) and some lame ass gadget moving my addressbook between 9 other applications.
For God's sake! I KNOW how to use a computer!
Heh,
I have 20 Linux servers pointed towards the internet. Six of them carry mail via sendmail. One rootable vulnerability in 2.5 years is FREAKING HEAVEN.
And I've not looked into this, but is this vulnerability even out in the open?
It appears I'm replying to someone who has never run CentOS...
Redhat's Up To Date is GPL'd and in the distro. Along with Yum. Both work great.
Geez. Reading the comments on this story leads to me to think that people are either very ignorant, or astroturfing. I can't see how CentOS is a negative in any manner whatsoever, or that they are ripping anyone off. I'd recompile the Redhat distro for my own use, but I don't have the time to do that and manage 30 servers facing the internet. I pay for a number of licenses from Redhat, and also use CentOS in some situations. That's bad? Redhat doesn't think so- and have said so publicly. Living in a world of soundbites and Maureen O'Gara must equal "ignorance is bliss".
What you did was all you could do.
I had a rude awakening after years in the bull market of 90's tech: I gave 3 months notice to a long time contractor and employer out of respect and deference.
Sadly, that was a hard lesson to learn, as the company car, expense accounts, server access, cell phone, customer list, and anything else they gave me was pulled. Then, while I was an "officed at home" road warrior engineer (who also managed to handle a good bit of IT from remote) I was told I was now an "hourly employee", had to report to the service department, and was issued a (gulp) UNIFORM.
Lesson learned:
It's business. Meet the standard of two weeks notice. Move on.
Second lesson learned:
This treatment is not indicative of what the company thinks of you. It's generally what the lawyers recommend happen when key people are dumped. I learned this one, because after I left them (early- I am not wearing a uniform!!), they called me with a massive contract with enough $$ to keep MY company going for about 2 years.
That has been my experience. IT people are considered if not "key" to be in very sensitive positions. Thus the reaction.
Give it time...
Like flat-earthers before them, their ill informed idea will pass away.
Once the genome gets pulled apart sufficiently, in enough species, you'll be able to verify conclusively evolution and the exact relationships of species.
Sadly... I'm not sure these people will change their ideas. Beliefs are hard to change. Ideas... are easier.
The scary part:
Evolution does have reproducable results via experimentation. Biologists, Geneticists, Medical Doctors, and many others have been documenting it for years.
"Intelligent Design", while not distastful to me in light of my religious background, is an idea with no support from reproducable study. It's just an idea that has been shoehorned into our gaps in knowledge, and thus when those gaps in knowledge change, it will have to change too.
So while bacteria are mutating to be antibiotic resistant, animals are changing both form and social function due to human impact on the environment, and scientists in laboratories are using evolution principles to alter DNA- psuedo-scientists take advantage of the fact that verifying first hand the effects of macroevolutionary process would require a study over a million years or more.
So while the scientific community withdraws it's wisdom from the school system, the luddite get to have their day in the sun.
Shame for the widthdrawal of copywrite. Shame on the Intelligent Design proponents for being so stuck on a belief that they have no problem being discriminatory.
Noo.... It hooks into it for a GREAT many things.
Could be...
I think it was Corel Draw that was released as a Java port a bunch of years ago. That was a bloat and a half from the standards at that time (I think I had 64 MB of RAM on a Mac 7100.
Java... is bloat. But somehow... I still love it.
New York NY A crowd of roughly 100,000 terrorists, mostly Genome Classification -2z commited an act of genocide on Park Avenue. Authorities say they are stymied by the lack of police officers who still meet the genetic qualifications of the National Genome Classification Act. A source at the NYPD noted that "Since the enforcement of the act, 2/3 of our police force are now working in the food service industry. Of course crime rates have dropped to zero at Denny's, but it looks like the genetically perfect will have to fend for themselves." .......
Dig this:
In our networked world, local community standards are a nice thing. Except when under the CDA (Communications Decency Act) a community in California could legally take issue with a website in Florida.
Net result?
The net result is that the law is structured so that conservatives have a legal advantage, and can censor through litigation *anything* on the net.
THAT is why community standards don't work, and won't work until PARENTS go back to PARENTING!
Sorry... I get excited over this issue.
However, I think that censorship is bad, and parenting is good.
How the heck do you define what is too violent? We cannot even define "pornography" in a global sense- except by an ill defined "community standard". CDA on the internet, Patriot Act in the USA, and California on Crack.
I'm not making a value judgement. I am commenting on the way things are. If you access a computer not administratively owned by you, or do not have a release to do so, in the eyes of the law, access other than intended (regardless of intent or level of information leak) will probably be seen by a court as a violation of the law.
If you do security, infrastructure, and/or server integration that is the standard you have to adhere to avoid the "appearance of impropriety" and any snafu's that might come up in western law.
Additionally, he also should have taken note of this:
http://www.sage.org/ethics.mm
Your company used the police to deal with this?
I would have gone to the Cyber Crimes Division of the FBI. They'll get involved when there is more than $5000.00 in documentable damages.
I do security audits for a living.
Although I do them with a fully endorsed and NOTARIZED release!
Rule number one:
"Thou shalt not perform any invasive activity against IPs that you do not have defacto administrative control over or have legal release (in hard copy) to do so."
I have no sympathy for the guy.
The comment at the end of the article is crap IMHO: "I've run into a lot of people in the penetration test community over the past few months, and they're all sympathetic to Dan. Their view was that he merited a ticking off, not losing his job. The police need the help of penetration testers and this won't help"
Outside of publicly available DNS and ARIN information there's not much more you can do to a remote host to find out whatever information you are looking for. At least if you want to stay out of hot water.
"If you scan the port you go to court"
Hmmm...
Seems to me we fling things at each other that are far more destructive.