The U.S. government is VERY corrupt. The roots of the corruption began when the government was allowed to have a Department of Break-the-Laws-Secretly called the CIA. Now there are many U.S. government controlled (and un-controlled) worldwide police forces, such as the FBI, NSA, and others for which we pay even though we are not allowed to know their names.
I did a review of a few of the books about the corruption. I found that there is far too much material for one person to know. My review is not perfect. It is somewhat out of date. It is, of course, the responsibility of every citizen to do his or her own review. Here is my review: Unprecedented Corruption: A guide to conflict of interest in the U.S. government
Typical Microsoft quality. Microsoft seems to have lost control of itself socially due to the stock no longer going up. People who can get jobs elsewhere, the most capable people, leave Microsoft because of the push to work long hours so that Gates and Ballmer can have even more billions.
It's nice that Gates gave millions of dollars to stop malaria, but that should not be allowed to be effective in public relations. The malaria money is a very small percentage of the losses due to the many Microsoft viruses and trojans and worms. The many, many vulnerabilities in Microsoft products make money for the company because many users with no technical ability simply buy another computer.
You said, "I used to work at Microsoft's PSS. I can tell you their support is nothing to write home about. They aren't someone you call because you need expert advice."
That reminded me of a comparison of Microsoft technical
support with Psychic Friends Network.
Neither know the answer, but Psychic Friends Network is more friendly and less
expensive.
We keep our water heater at almost boiling temperature. It's like learning to use a stove. We need to know that the hot water is HOT. In any case, there is no need to buy a special device; just turn up the thermostat on the water heater.
There is nothing special about Legionella bacteria. There are millions of kinds of bacteria, and they are everywhere.
The electric shower head water heaters, available everywhere in some countries for the equivalent of $10 U.S., boil the water next to the element, so I doubt that they harbor bacteria in the interior. Certainly there is always bacteria on the outside of anything moist.
However, many of the issues mentioned don't exist now. It is possible to buy router/firewalls for as little as $3 after rebate now (did that yesterday) that can be programmed to deliver specific ports to specific computers behind a NAT.
I don't think there is a problem with finding the other person, without using a network. Just have the other person send an email to you, and use their IP address, which is in the email header. That's what we did with free software called Dial something or something Dial, several years ago. It used software that displayed ads.
The OpenVPN home page says that OpenVPN can:
tunnel networks whose public endpoints are dynamic
such as DHCP or dial-in clients,
tunnel networks through connection-oriented stateful firewalls
without having to use explicit firewall rules,
tunnel networks over NAT,...
I don't see any limitation about needing one end of the tunnel to be directly addressable, but that makes sense. Otherwise how would they see each other?
UltraVNC has a module called a repeater which I understand also traverses NATs.
Slashdot editors seem to be taking money to run public relations press releases as stories. Here's a quote from the Slashdot story: "You can't heat water up quickly enough with conventional resistance-based electric elements, as it would require huge amount of electricity." ?????
The energy to heat water is fixed. Normal electric heaters, called "resistance-based electric elements" in this story, use 100% of the energy to make heat. They are 100% efficient.
A microwave device would waste energy in making microwaves. That wasted energy would be heat, but it might be difficult to put that heat into the water. And why spend more to get another kind of 100% efficiency?
In Brazil and New Zealand, for example, shower heaters are often 220 Volts at 25 Amps. They heat cold water instantly to shower temperature. The heating elements cost less than $10 local equivalent.
Disgusting nonsense quote from the referenced article: "The technology is designed to eliminate the deadly Legionella Pneumophila, since water will not stagnate, as it does with conventional hot water heaters."
Here is accurate information: "Legionella... requires complex nutritional requirements such as high cysteine levels and low sodium levels to grow. "
You don't get Legionaire's disease from water heaters! The high heat in water heaters kills bacteria. The linked article about Legionella says that it can live in shower heads, but that is at a cool temperature, on the outside.
Use AutoHotkey to make
keyboard shortcuts to run programs and enter text.
Use AutoIt to simulate keyboard entries and mouse clicks and when you
need complicated decision-making. Download AutoIt with the
SciTE auto-completion IDE. The SciTE editor makes writing and testing
AutoIt programs and compiling the finished results very easy.
Both these programs are very sophisticated, the best available, and
FREE. AutoHotKey comes with source code. Both are programmable.
For example, I've written an AutoHotKey program that uses a shortcut
to toggle between Windows shortcut keys and WordStar/Brief control-key editing
commands. I like to avoid taking the time to touch the mouse.
AutoIt is great for automating installations of software.
Tired of slow action and insufficient resolution? Becoming bored with the low creativity of modern games? Enlist in the U.S. Army and kill real people in Iraq!
First, manufacturers often sell things for less than the published prices, sometimes far less. Published prices are just that, published. They may be nothing more than public relations. Big companies always negotiate prices, and their negotiations are secret.
Second, consider Enron. The company was bankrupt, but thought by many to be extremely successful. How could that be? It happened because accounting laws in the U.S. are very, very loose. It is possible that Microsoft is not losing money on the X-Box, but merely reporting company losses and other expenses as due to the X-Box department.
It's good to remember that Public Relations has come to mean "telling any lie that people will believe".
MediaMax also "phones home" every time you play a protected CD with
a code identifying what music you're listening to.
... before users can even say yes or no to accepting the Sony EULA,
MediaMax has already installed a dozen files on their hard drive and started
running the copy protection code. The files remain even if the user rejects
the EULA, and the Sony CDs provide no option for uninstalling the files at a
later date.
... an e-commerce revenue generation "feature of dynamic on-line
and off-line banner ads. Generate revenue or added value through the placement
of 3rd party dynamic, interactive ads that can be changed at any time by the
content owner."
Ed Foster says Sony management has a "scum" profile. Quote: OK, so let's see what we've got here. A company that seems bent on
sneaking files onto unsuspecting users' computers, pretending they've gotten
permission to do so from a vaguely-worded EULA, transmitting a constant stream
of usage information back to their servers, and using that information for
who-knows-what revenue generating opportunities. Does this sound like a
familiar profile to you? Of course, it's the profile of all the spyware/adware
scum that have come very close to destroying the Internet just to make a few
bucks peddling their trash.
Issues that remain concerning Sony's rootkit software and other DRM
software:
As is shown by Ed Foster's analysis linked above, attacking customer
computers seems to be the kind of thing that is part of the Sony corporate
culture. There has been no apology, and Sony
management makes statements giving the impression they intend to continue
infecting customer computers.
A music retail store spokesman said that Sony's rootkit attack has
become public just before Christmas. Customers can easily choose some other
gift now that they are scared about computer attacks. Sony's attack has hurt
the entire music industry, not just Sony. Also, the damage will continue after
Christmas.
Few people are technically knowledgeable. The Sony rootkit CDs will be
causing problems for many, many years, as they are traded or borrowed or sold
to thrift stores.
The number of computers already corrupted by the Sony rootkit is
probably far larger than the 500,000 quoted in articles about the Sony attack.
That number is just the number of Domain Name Servers that show evidence that
a computer has tried to contact the Sony phone home address. The average
server would almost certainly service more than one corrupted computer.
Following Microsoft's lead years ago, some businesses treat all their
customers as crooks so that they can stop a few.
We use Startup Monitor and ZoneAlarm Security Suite software firewall. The
newest ZA pops up a window the first time anything suspicious happens. It's a
big problem convincing users to report the ZA popups, but if they do, Windows
is much safer.
However, it's a losing battle. The problem is that Microsoft
makes more money if its operating systems self-destruct. What you call
"vulnerabilities" billionaires call "maximizing shareholder value".
If rich people sold good operating systems, poor people would not buy
the next upgrade.
Using an operating system is like having a partner in your business.
If it is a Microsoft OS, your "partners" want some things that are bad for
you. If you use Linux or BSD, you can breathe a huge sigh of relief; your
partners want what you want.
It's absurd that governments of countries use Microsoft products. It's
even absurd that state governments in the U.S. use Microsoft products. The
U.S. federal government spends more money on world-wide surveillance than any
country in the history of the world. Exploiting computer systems is now one of
the biggest new frontiers in surveillance.
The U.S. government's Echelonsurveillancesystem watches everyone all the time. (Echelon quote: "Since the close of
World War II, the US intelligence agencies have developed a consistent record
of trampling the rights and liberties of the American people.")
The biggest discretionary expense of the U.S. government is the cost of war. The
president and the vice-president of the U.S. are people who themselves and
their families and friends made their money through oil and weapons. Is it any
wonder that the price of oil is so high and we have war?
When a country uses Microsoft operating systems, it effectively has
the U.S. government as one of its partners. Given the present climate of
corruption and conflict of interest and adversarial behavior and using war as
a justification for anything, why do countries want the U.S. government and
U.S. billionaires as partners?
If volunteers can make a secure
operating system ("Only one remote hole in the default install, in more
than 8 years!") is it difficult to believe that the amazing number of
vulnerabilities we've seen in Windows are deliberately allowed?
Attacking customer computers seems to be the kind of thing that is
part of the Sony corporate culture. There has been no apology, and Sony
management makes statements giving the impression they will do it again if
they think they can without bad publicity.
A music retail store spokesman said that Sony's attack became public
just before Christmas. Customers can easily choose some other gift now that
they are scared about computer attacks. Sony's attack has hurt the entire
music industry, not just Sony. Also, the damage will continue after Christmas.
Few people are technically knowledgeable. The Sony CDs will be causing
problems for many years, as they are traded or sold to thrift stores.
The number of computers already corrupted is probably far larger than
the 500,000 quoted in articles about the Sony attack. That number is just the
number of Domain Name Servers that show evidence that a computer has tried to
contact the Sony phone home address. The average server would almost certainly
service more than one corrupted computer.
One kind of attack has received attention. However, Sony apparently
sells other CDs with other software that may also have negative consequences
for Sony customers.
Following Microsoft's lead years ago, some businesses treat all their
customers as crooks so that they can stop a few.
Basically, you want the surroundings to be chemically inert. We always put all our DVDs and CDs in ZipLock Freezer bags, Quart size. The package says they have a "FreezeGuard Seal", which means that you can expect that all moisture is excluded.
Freezer bags have extra thick plastic, which provides good, slippery, mechanical protection, too.
If you expect to store the DVDs and CDs for a long time, put the Quart size bags inside Gallon size Freezer bags.
For extreme protection, go to a shoe store and ask them for those little packets of dessicant (moisture remover) that are in each box of shoes. They'll give them to you free. Put one in each Gallon bag. I don't put them in the inner bag because the impurities in the dessicant granules might be abrasive.
Exactly. The story does NOT say "Richard Stallman Accosted For Tinfoil Hat". It says he wrapped his RFID card in aluminum foil, which is 100% effective in preventing reading the card without the card carrier's knowledge. The story also says that Mr. Stallman willingly took off the foil at checkpoints.
I agree. I would never buy anything from Sony, because I think the Sony corporate culture has become corrupt. Note that there have been no apologies from Sony for infecting more than 500,000 computers.
We have had major problems with reliability of Sony laptops. Our experience with Toshiba laptops has been much better.
Slashdot Mirror
The U.S. government is VERY corrupt. The roots of the corruption began when the government was allowed to have a Department of Break-the-Laws-Secretly called the CIA. Now there are many U.S. government controlled (and un-controlled) worldwide police forces, such as the FBI, NSA, and others for which we pay even though we are not allowed to know their names.
I did a review of a few of the books about the corruption. I found that there is far too much material for one person to know. My review is not perfect. It is somewhat out of date. It is, of course, the responsibility of every citizen to do his or her own review. Here is my review: Unprecedented Corruption: A guide to conflict of interest in the U.S. government
Typical Microsoft quality. Microsoft seems to have lost control of itself socially due to the stock no longer going up. People who can get jobs elsewhere, the most capable people, leave Microsoft because of the push to work long hours so that Gates and Ballmer can have even more billions.
It's nice that Gates gave millions of dollars to stop malaria, but that should not be allowed to be effective in public relations. The malaria money is a very small percentage of the losses due to the many Microsoft viruses and trojans and worms. The many, many vulnerabilities in Microsoft products make money for the company because many users with no technical ability simply buy another computer.
Excellent, clear analysis.
You said, "I used to work at Microsoft's PSS. I can tell you their support is nothing to write home about. They aren't someone you call because you need expert advice."
That reminded me of a comparison of Microsoft technical support with Psychic Friends Network. Neither know the answer, but Psychic Friends Network is more friendly and less expensive.
Yours seems to me to be a very good analysis.
We keep our water heater at almost boiling temperature. It's like learning to use a stove. We need to know that the hot water is HOT. In any case, there is no need to buy a special device; just turn up the thermostat on the water heater.
There is nothing special about Legionella bacteria. There are millions of kinds of bacteria, and they are everywhere.
The electric shower head water heaters, available everywhere in some countries for the equivalent of $10 U.S., boil the water next to the element, so I doubt that they harbor bacteria in the interior. Certainly there is always bacteria on the outside of anything moist.
Speak Freely End of Life Announcement posted by its original creator.
However, many of the issues mentioned don't exist now. It is possible to buy router/firewalls for as little as $3 after rebate now (did that yesterday) that can be programmed to deliver specific ports to specific computers behind a NAT.
Clearly, more developers are needed.
Speak Freely?
Speakfreely Speex Codec.
Old Home Page?
Current Home Page
"The actual windows product hasn't been updated in a long time..." I don't understand that. The Sourceforge page says "(2004-02-04 16:00)".
Does anyone have experience with Speak Freely?
I don't think there is a problem with finding the other person, without using a network. Just have the other person send an email to you, and use their IP address, which is in the email header. That's what we did with free software called Dial something or something Dial, several years ago. It used software that displayed ads.
The OpenVPN home page says that OpenVPN can:
I don't see any limitation about needing one end of the tunnel to be directly addressable, but that makes sense. Otherwise how would they see each other?
UltraVNC has a module called a repeater which I understand also traverses NATs.
Slashdot editors seem to be taking money to run public relations press releases as stories. Here's a quote from the Slashdot story: "You can't heat water up quickly enough with conventional resistance-based electric elements, as it would require huge amount of electricity." ?????
... requires complex nutritional requirements such as high cysteine levels and low sodium levels to grow. "
The energy to heat water is fixed. Normal electric heaters, called "resistance-based electric elements" in this story, use 100% of the energy to make heat. They are 100% efficient.
A microwave device would waste energy in making microwaves. That wasted energy would be heat, but it might be difficult to put that heat into the water. And why spend more to get another kind of 100% efficiency?
In Brazil and New Zealand, for example, shower heaters are often 220 Volts at 25 Amps. They heat cold water instantly to shower temperature. The heating elements cost less than $10 local equivalent.
Disgusting nonsense quote from the referenced article: "The technology is designed to eliminate the deadly Legionella Pneumophila, since water will not stagnate, as it does with conventional hot water heaters."
Here is accurate information: "Legionella
You don't get Legionaire's disease from water heaters! The high heat in water heaters kills bacteria. The linked article about Legionella says that it can live in shower heads, but that is at a cool temperature, on the outside.
The problem with PGP Phone is that it won't traverse NAT routers.
However, I understand that now there is other software for that. For example, Open VPN.
Any other suggestions?
Here's a complete solution for Windows:
Use AutoHotkey to make keyboard shortcuts to run programs and enter text.
Use AutoIt to simulate keyboard entries and mouse clicks and when you need complicated decision-making. Download AutoIt with the SciTE auto-completion IDE. The SciTE editor makes writing and testing AutoIt programs and compiling the finished results very easy.
Both these programs are very sophisticated, the best available, and FREE. AutoHotKey comes with source code. Both are programmable.
For example, I've written an AutoHotKey program that uses a shortcut to toggle between Windows shortcut keys and WordStar/Brief control-key editing commands. I like to avoid taking the time to touch the mouse.
AutoIt is great for automating installations of software.
Both allow programming your own GUIs.
Don't forget to contribute to these efforts.
Tired of slow action and insufficient resolution? Becoming bored with the low creativity of modern games? Enlist in the U.S. Army and kill real people in Iraq!
First, manufacturers often sell things for less than the published prices, sometimes far less. Published prices are just that, published. They may be nothing more than public relations. Big companies always negotiate prices, and their negotiations are secret.
Second, consider Enron. The company was bankrupt, but thought by many to be extremely successful. How could that be? It happened because accounting laws in the U.S. are very, very loose. It is possible that Microsoft is not losing money on the X-Box, but merely reporting company losses and other expenses as due to the X-Box department.
It's good to remember that Public Relations has come to mean "telling any lie that people will believe".
Ed Foster provides more information that allows us to make a "behavioral profile of Sony":
... before users can even say yes or no to accepting the Sony EULA,
MediaMax has already installed a dozen files on their hard drive and started
running the copy protection code. The files remain even if the user rejects
the EULA, and the Sony CDs provide no option for uninstalling the files at a
later date.
... an e-commerce revenue generation "feature of dynamic on-line
and off-line banner ads. Generate revenue or added value through the placement
of 3rd party dynamic, interactive ads that can be changed at any time by the
content owner."
Sony has other DRM software. Here are quotes:
MediaMax also "phones home" every time you play a protected CD with a code identifying what music you're listening to.
Ed Foster says Sony management has a "scum" profile. Quote: OK, so let's see what we've got here. A company that seems bent on sneaking files onto unsuspecting users' computers, pretending they've gotten permission to do so from a vaguely-worded EULA, transmitting a constant stream of usage information back to their servers, and using that information for who-knows-what revenue generating opportunities. Does this sound like a familiar profile to you? Of course, it's the profile of all the spyware/adware scum that have come very close to destroying the Internet just to make a few bucks peddling their trash.
Issues that remain concerning Sony's rootkit software and other DRM software:
As is shown by Ed Foster's analysis linked above, attacking customer computers seems to be the kind of thing that is part of the Sony corporate culture. There has been no apology, and Sony management makes statements giving the impression they intend to continue infecting customer computers.
A music retail store spokesman said that Sony's rootkit attack has become public just before Christmas. Customers can easily choose some other gift now that they are scared about computer attacks. Sony's attack has hurt the entire music industry, not just Sony. Also, the damage will continue after Christmas.
Few people are technically knowledgeable. The Sony rootkit CDs will be causing problems for many, many years, as they are traded or borrowed or sold to thrift stores.
The number of computers already corrupted by the Sony rootkit is probably far larger than the 500,000 quoted in articles about the Sony attack. That number is just the number of Domain Name Servers that show evidence that a computer has tried to contact the Sony phone home address. The average server would almost certainly service more than one corrupted computer.
Following Microsoft's lead years ago, some businesses treat all their customers as crooks so that they can stop a few.
In my opinion, anyone considering Microsoft operating sytems should consider this: Self-destruction is a "feature".
We use Startup Monitor and ZoneAlarm Security Suite software firewall. The newest ZA pops up a window the first time anything suspicious happens. It's a big problem convincing users to report the ZA popups, but if they do, Windows is much safer.
However, it's a losing battle. The problem is that Microsoft makes more money if its operating systems self-destruct. What you call "vulnerabilities" billionaires call "maximizing shareholder value".
If rich people sold good operating systems, poor people would not buy the next upgrade.
Using an operating system is like having a partner in your business. If it is a Microsoft OS, your "partners" want some things that are bad for you. If you use Linux or BSD, you can breathe a huge sigh of relief; your partners want what you want.
It's absurd that governments of countries use Microsoft products. It's even absurd that state governments in the U.S. use Microsoft products. The U.S. federal government spends more money on world-wide surveillance than any country in the history of the world. Exploiting computer systems is now one of the biggest new frontiers in surveillance.
The U.S. government's Echelon surveillance system watches everyone all the time. (Echelon quote: "Since the close of World War II, the US intelligence agencies have developed a consistent record of trampling the rights and liberties of the American people.")
The biggest discretionary expense of the U.S. government is the cost of war. The president and the vice-president of the U.S. are people who themselves and their families and friends made their money through oil and weapons. Is it any wonder that the price of oil is so high and we have war?
When a country uses Microsoft operating systems, it effectively has the U.S. government as one of its partners. Given the present climate of corruption and conflict of interest and adversarial behavior and using war as a justification for anything, why do countries want the U.S. government and U.S. billionaires as partners?
If volunteers can make a secure operating system ("Only one remote hole in the default install, in more than 8 years!") is it difficult to believe that the amazing number of vulnerabilities we've seen in Windows are deliberately allowed?
The slim case will add strength, if you need that.
However the chemicals in ZipLock bags are acceptable to be next to our food. I doubt they will be a problem for DVDs and CDs.
I agree with you. However, the chemicals in ZipLock bags don't seem to affect DVDs or CDs.
A laptop with large identifying markings is less likely to be stolen.
Issues that remain:
Attacking customer computers seems to be the kind of thing that is part of the Sony corporate culture. There has been no apology, and Sony management makes statements giving the impression they will do it again if they think they can without bad publicity.
A music retail store spokesman said that Sony's attack became public just before Christmas. Customers can easily choose some other gift now that they are scared about computer attacks. Sony's attack has hurt the entire music industry, not just Sony. Also, the damage will continue after Christmas.
Few people are technically knowledgeable. The Sony CDs will be causing problems for many years, as they are traded or sold to thrift stores.
The number of computers already corrupted is probably far larger than the 500,000 quoted in articles about the Sony attack. That number is just the number of Domain Name Servers that show evidence that a computer has tried to contact the Sony phone home address. The average server would almost certainly service more than one corrupted computer.
One kind of attack has received attention. However, Sony apparently sells other CDs with other software that may also have negative consequences for Sony customers.
Following Microsoft's lead years ago, some businesses treat all their customers as crooks so that they can stop a few.
He's just joking.
Basically, you want the surroundings to be chemically inert. We always put all our DVDs and CDs in ZipLock Freezer bags, Quart size. The package says they have a "FreezeGuard Seal", which means that you can expect that all moisture is excluded.
Freezer bags have extra thick plastic, which provides good, slippery, mechanical protection, too.
If you expect to store the DVDs and CDs for a long time, put the Quart size bags inside Gallon size Freezer bags.
For extreme protection, go to a shoe store and ask them for those little packets of dessicant (moisture remover) that are in each box of shoes. They'll give them to you free. Put one in each Gallon bag. I don't put them in the inner bag because the impurities in the dessicant granules might be abrasive.
I agree, and the Slashdot editor DELIBERATELY wrote a misleading title.
Exactly. The story does NOT say "Richard Stallman Accosted For Tinfoil Hat". It says he wrapped his RFID card in aluminum foil, which is 100% effective in preventing reading the card without the card carrier's knowledge. The story also says that Mr. Stallman willingly took off the foil at checkpoints.
You are ignoring the fact that the bug is very easy to reproduce, and that it is difficult for non-programmers to characterize.
I agree. I would never buy anything from Sony, because I think the Sony corporate culture has become corrupt. Note that there have been no apologies from Sony for infecting more than 500,000 computers.
We have had major problems with reliability of Sony laptops. Our experience with Toshiba laptops has been much better.