Now, when a hacker/virus/trojan attacks, maybe Microsoft will have to accept some accountability, after all I am paying for the security. >>>>>
I have the *strangest* feeling that Microsoft will have its lawyers slip in some kind of clause that says they cannot be held accountable for the flaws. I can't namy any current product which does not have a disclaimer of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose or any other obvious avenue by which they might be held liable. At best, *maybe* some state has some limitation on how much they can contractually write away that obligation, but even then, you're up against Microsoft's legal team...
Don't they already charge us (albeit in a different manner) when they give us new EULA terms for security updates?
This is not unlike the anti-virus companies who charge us for new virus definitions. Except that here, the mistakes they made shouldn't have been in there to begin with.
Unless they give us *some* kind of extra service beyond the patches, I can only see this developing into a *very* strong reason to use OSS instead of MS whenever security is important to what you're doing (essentially, always).
My guess? Someone will do this while they rob the 7-11, the technique will become "terrorist" (or whatever) & nobody will care [enough] about the Big Brother potential of the cameras.
I hope they didn't install MS Agent (FYI: the crappy piece of software that contains Clippy & co.) at any point. The EULA says that you can't use the agents to "disparage Microsoft" IIRC.
Of course, that *should* be unenforceable, but IANAL, so...
The problem is, that with anonymous people, you don't know just who you're talking to.
Why do you think there's an old 'hacker proverb' of "every third one is a fed"?
Yes, they do still keep their eyes on the "hacker community"; even those who aren't doing anything illegal. Don't take my word for it; use FOIA to request your files--the addresses & instructions you need to do so can easily be located online.
... still won't help if you tell people who you are.
Your nick + the personal information you give out, even inadvertently, is more than enough to let people figure out who you are. You can build rather complete profiles of most people, even the security concious, from nothing but public information. I should know...
He also voted the DMCA in to begin with. I think I had him confused with Sen. Disney when I wrote that, though. At least he's trying to fix some of his past mistakes...
Probably heard some anti-DMCA arguements from his constituents, so he decided to throw them a bone. This probably is already legal, anyhow--we all know that these purveyors of shiny disks could be sued for putting the 'CD' logo on things that do not conform to the standards...
In other words, he wants something to cover his rear, it would seem, so he offers us rights we already [should] have by law.
OTOH, if he's actually responding to our demands, please DO take the time to relay your concerns to him, if you happen to be one of his constituants. Who knows? Maybe if he gets enough popular opposition to what he's doing he'll start listening to the people... After all, the donations only buy ads, not votes [well, it's a bit more complicated than that, but it's pretty hard to buy an election if you have NO popular support, I should think] & he undoubtably wants to stay in office.
1) It doesn't *always* require your ZIP+4, it worked just fine for me with only my 5 digits. YMMV.
2) I just did so; I also made sure to encourage them to reply *before* the upcoming election... Hopefully, that will get more attention. That & the fact that I'm registered in the party of the incumbant will hopefully give my message a bit more weight.
3) While you're at it, why not take the time to address that "Hollywood Hacking Bill"? Be sure to tell them that you know that some of the descriptions of it are FUD, but that the attacks they describe are impossible--you can't just DoS people and not accidentally affect anyone else.
Remind them that that bill can affect two very important things:
A) DoSing users like that has a huge economic cost. The economy is hurting right now. We can't afford it (and will blame whoever passes such a stupid thing as that for any further downturn in the economy)...
B) They seem to want to DoS people in other countries. What they're doing is ILLEGAL over there (more likely than not). This will turn international sentiment AGAINST us. The USA *NEEDS* all the international support it can get right now; doing something like this would be just plain stupid.
Given those two points, if they can be put before congress in that light, I really don't think the bill will have a chance.
Zenomorph has been a friend of mine on CyberArmy.com for ages; that's his name, like it or not. Yes, things did get confusing for a while with two similar names, but now that everyone & their dog has an alias named '[xz]eno.*'... They've even knocked off my once trademark smiley:]
Sorry for this minor, OT rant. We now return to your regularly scheduled program...
According to Hawking's theory, "black holes give off radiation and therefore lose mass," Anderson explains. "So small black holes will basically kind of dry up and go away. In the moment of their disappearance, the theory predicts that they will give up a short burst of broad band radio radiation. Our data from Arecibo is an ideal place to look for that sort of thing."
Would someone explain exactly what they mean by "shriveling black holes?" Do they mean ones that are giving off Hawking radiation (don't they all do that)? How else can they "shrivel?"
Who needs voice recognition? Just give them shiny buttons to press with big pictures on them.
Drat, I wonder how long until someone patents this as a 'business method'? I hope that this post constitutes prior art or something!:) It's not fundamentally different than the technology in the cash registers at these places...
Perhaps the indication given is that no one here knows what to do to stop this bill, especially given Fritz' million dollars or so of special interest money from the MPAA & co.?
You know; if it looks like it's going to pass, perhaps we should push to make it *WORSE* -- otherwise, it'll get watered down like the DMCA & it'll become tolerable for most people (C'mon, how many of us run into DMCA restrictions daily? How many people know just how silly it is? Yes, it *HAS* been used in some very bad ways, but they're just not getting enough press--even if something like 'little Timmy' getting busted for playing DVDs in Linux, they'd just make him out to be an evil h4x0r... we haven't had enough high-profile exposure for that bad law). If it doesn't affect people's daily life enough, they just won't call for its repeal. You know what they say about bad laws--the best way to show them up is to enforce them. That said, I sure hope Fritz gets laughed out of office sooner or later. It's too bad we can't connect this in more people's minds to the "right to virus" the RIAA is asking for--the legislators seem pretty clued in that that's a bad idea (though we need to help keep them that way! the RIAA is trying to create a silly smoke screen as to what they actually plan to do & is making all sorts of crazy claims about their DDoS skills that I just don't buy; such as it not affecting anyone but "pirates"...)
In the mean time, how many people here are in Fritz' district? Can you vote him out this term (or even just threaten to, if there are no better candidates to be had)?
Of course I realize that the measuring units are pretty arbitrary (it must be 666 of *some* unit...) but you have to admit that it's *wierd* that huge blocks of ice are falling from the sky, whether or not you believe that the end of the world has anything to do with it...
Man, the trolls keep getting lazier and lazier; now they're giving us 300-in-1 troll posts, rather than going to the trouble to post that often...
Now, if only the spammers could do that & we could get 1 catch-all spam (instead of 30) offering to spam 1,000,000 people with length-enhancing herbal viagra that will repair your credit history and attract hot lesbian sluts, all while letting you know if your SO is cheating on you and giving you someone else's "nakked pics"... At least it'd be even easier to filter out...:]
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FPS is feet per second here, for all of you who are confused by the term.
Not that I wouldn't like a video card capable of 3100 fps, though I think it's well beyond overkill...
Now, when a hacker/virus/trojan attacks, maybe Microsoft will have to accept some accountability, after all I am paying for the security.
>>>>>
I have the *strangest* feeling that Microsoft will have its lawyers slip in some kind of clause that says they cannot be held accountable for the flaws. I can't namy any current product which does not have a disclaimer of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose or any other obvious avenue by which they might be held liable. At best, *maybe* some state has some limitation on how much they can contractually write away that obligation, but even then, you're up against Microsoft's legal team...
Don't they already charge us (albeit in a different manner) when they give us new EULA terms for security updates?
This is not unlike the anti-virus companies who charge us for new virus definitions. Except that here, the mistakes they made shouldn't have been in there to begin with.
Unless they give us *some* kind of extra service beyond the patches, I can only see this developing into a *very* strong reason to use OSS instead of MS whenever security is important to what you're doing (essentially, always).
My guess? Someone will do this while they rob the 7-11, the technique will become "terrorist" (or whatever) & nobody will care [enough] about the Big Brother potential of the cameras.
I hope they didn't install MS Agent (FYI: the crappy piece of software that contains Clippy & co.) at any point. The EULA says that you can't use the agents to "disparage Microsoft" IIRC.
Of course, that *should* be unenforceable, but IANAL, so...
The problem is, that with anonymous people, you don't know just who you're talking to.
Why do you think there's an old 'hacker proverb' of "every third one is a fed"?
Yes, they do still keep their eyes on the "hacker community"; even those who aren't doing anything illegal. Don't take my word for it; use FOIA to request your files--the addresses & instructions you need to do so can easily be located online.
... still won't help if you tell people who you are.
Your nick + the personal information you give out, even inadvertently, is more than enough to let people figure out who you are. You can build rather complete profiles of most people, even the security concious, from nothing but public information. I should know...
He also voted the DMCA in to begin with. I think I had him confused with Sen. Disney when I wrote that, though. At least he's trying to fix some of his past mistakes...
Probably heard some anti-DMCA arguements from his constituents, so he decided to throw them a bone. This probably is already legal, anyhow--we all know that these purveyors of shiny disks could be sued for putting the 'CD' logo on things that do not conform to the standards...
In other words, he wants something to cover his rear, it would seem, so he offers us rights we already [should] have by law.
OTOH, if he's actually responding to our demands, please DO take the time to relay your concerns to him, if you happen to be one of his constituants. Who knows? Maybe if he gets enough popular opposition to what he's doing he'll start listening to the people... After all, the donations only buy ads, not votes [well, it's a bit more complicated than that, but it's pretty hard to buy an election if you have NO popular support, I should think] & he undoubtably wants to stay in office.
Good idea--they *really* should sue him for the amount of goodwill they might lose to him, not to mention the obvious customer confusion.
For once, trademarks might be a good thing!
1) It doesn't *always* require your ZIP+4, it worked just fine for me with only my 5 digits. YMMV.
2) I just did so; I also made sure to encourage them to reply *before* the upcoming election... Hopefully, that will get more attention. That & the fact that I'm registered in the party of the incumbant will hopefully give my message a bit more weight.
3) While you're at it, why not take the time to address that "Hollywood Hacking Bill"? Be sure to tell them that you know that some of the descriptions of it are FUD, but that the attacks they describe are impossible--you can't just DoS people and not accidentally affect anyone else.
Remind them that that bill can affect two very important things:
A) DoSing users like that has a huge economic cost. The economy is hurting right now. We can't afford it (and will blame whoever passes such a stupid thing as that for any further downturn in the economy)...
B) They seem to want to DoS people in other countries. What they're doing is ILLEGAL over there (more likely than not). This will turn international sentiment AGAINST us. The USA *NEEDS* all the international support it can get right now; doing something like this would be just plain stupid.
Given those two points, if they can be put before congress in that light, I really don't think the bill will have a chance.
I'm beginning to think all the producers have to do to find ideas for taglines and commercials for a Simpsons movie are read this thread.
:]
>>>>>
Most of the comments I see here are quotes from various episodes. Why would they want to 'steal' their own material?
You have to sell blood to pay your lawyers? I thought they just sucked it right out of you... :]
B.) Its a Xenomorph, not a Zenomorph.
... They've even knocked off my once trademark smiley :]
>>>>
Zenomorph has been a friend of mine on CyberArmy.com for ages; that's his name, like it or not. Yes, things did get confusing for a while with two similar names, but now that everyone & their dog has an alias named '[xz]eno.*'
Sorry for this minor, OT rant. We now return to your regularly scheduled program...
Guess I should've read the article first:
According to Hawking's theory, "black holes give off radiation and therefore lose mass," Anderson explains. "So small black holes will basically kind of dry up and go away. In the moment of their disappearance, the theory predicts that they will give up a short burst of broad band radio radiation. Our data from Arecibo is an ideal place to look for that sort of thing."
Would someone explain exactly what they mean by "shriveling black holes?" Do they mean ones that are giving off Hawking radiation (don't they all do that)? How else can they "shrivel?"
1) That's not a text adventure.
2) That's gross.
If you don't like scat, do NOT click that link; you have been warned.
Who needs voice recognition? Just give them shiny buttons to press with big pictures on them.
:) It's not fundamentally different than the technology in the cash registers at these places...
Drat, I wonder how long until someone patents this as a 'business method'? I hope that this post constitutes prior art or something!
... and this one is now "insightful" ...
...)
Perhaps the indication given is that no one here knows what to do to stop this bill, especially given Fritz' million dollars or so of special interest money from the MPAA & co.?
You know; if it looks like it's going to pass, perhaps we should push to make it *WORSE* -- otherwise, it'll get watered down like the DMCA & it'll become tolerable for most people (C'mon, how many of us run into DMCA restrictions daily? How many people know just how silly it is? Yes, it *HAS* been used in some very bad ways, but they're just not getting enough press--even if something like 'little Timmy' getting busted for playing DVDs in Linux, they'd just make him out to be an evil h4x0r... we haven't had enough high-profile exposure for that bad law). If it doesn't affect people's daily life enough, they just won't call for its repeal. You know what they say about bad laws--the best way to show them up is to enforce them. That said, I sure hope Fritz gets laughed out of office sooner or later. It's too bad we can't connect this in more people's minds to the "right to virus" the RIAA is asking for--the legislators seem pretty clued in that that's a bad idea (though we need to help keep them that way! the RIAA is trying to create a silly smoke screen as to what they actually plan to do & is making all sorts of crazy claims about their DDoS skills that I just don't buy; such as it not affecting anyone but "pirates"
In the mean time, how many people here are in Fritz' district? Can you vote him out this term (or even just threaten to, if there are no better candidates to be had)?
Bleh, I just delete their cookies.
:]
Or you can have fun & enter crap into them, instead.
I wonder what they'd think if the web server met someone with the MS GUID "TuX 0wnz j00@!#!@"?
Bleh, posted too quickly.
Of course I realize that the measuring units are pretty arbitrary (it must be 666 of *some* unit...) but you have to admit that it's *wierd* that huge blocks of ice are falling from the sky, whether or not you believe that the end of the world has anything to do with it...
Random ice blocks falling from the sky, though? Golf ball sized hail is rare enough...
No kidding :(
There's *NO* way I could let someone cut up my eyeball with a knife... I just couldn't hold still for it...
Man, the trolls keep getting lazier and lazier; now they're giving us 300-in-1 troll posts, rather than going to the trouble to post that often...
... At least it'd be even easier to filter out... :]
Now, if only the spammers could do that & we could get 1 catch-all spam (instead of 30) offering to spam 1,000,000 people with length-enhancing herbal viagra that will repair your credit history and attract hot lesbian sluts, all while letting you know if your SO is cheating on you and giving you someone else's "nakked pics"
I thought LRH died in 1983 or so (the exact date eludes me, ATM)? Isn't it life+50 or life+70? That'd make it 2033 or 2073...