There's a simple solution for this (commonly used).
Allow the file to link if the referer is from your site OR is blank.
That way, Mr Deep Linker will find 99% of his audience will not be able to link to your content, because they won't be blocking referers. Of course, he could suggest people do that - and it entirely depends on the audience and the content as to whether they would bother. But it makes the deep linking less than elegant for them to do and more obvious to visitors that they're trying to access something they shouldn't be.
Other than maybe needing to get a new battery for an old cellphone, you'll be surprised how well some of the older phones work. My 6310i is the phone I had two "upgrades" ago. When I went back to it I had forgotten that I only ever used to charge it once every two weeks on average and, at least with mine, the battery still works well after 3 years.
It's a neat idea to have a feature-free phone. But seriously, there are millions of those going on ebay cheap because silly people are upgrading to a phone that does polyphonic catatonic ringtones, online horoscopes, and realtime 3d su-doku. That's got to be cheaper than buying any new Motorola phone.
... In a related story, DeBeers Inc have released a survey that shows that 39% of people won't buy a Playstation 3 because it isn't carved out of a solid diamond.
Hey Slashdot Editors! I know hunting for dupes takes up all your time, but how about occasionally NOT posting trash marketing pseudo-surveys as news stories?
Earthlink aren't providing meaningful information to customers - they're just trying to make money.
Of course, that's what businesses are for, so as you say, if they want to do it, they should be entirely entitled to do so. However:
a) It's not fair on those who have paid for an existing service to have the nature of this service changed on them without warning - many people feel they are now getting a poorer service.
b) They should at the very least have provided an opt-out system for those who prefer untainted DNS that works in the way the internet standards require it to work. Then people with firewall, anti-spam or other systems that this change breaks wouldn't be so up in arms.
If my ISP did this, I'd leave them. Luckily my ISP is more sane.
Ok. I just posted this to them as an example of why people should be very, very careful, but it's funny enough I should share it here.
A few years ago I was doing IT consultancy in London, and a client had a problem with her PC all acting funny.
I went along, it was the secretary/receptionist's PC so she moved over, and sat next to me watching what I was doing as I investigated.
I found a suspicious DLL beginning with 'S' running on the system, so I did what you would normally do, do a google search and see what it comes up with.
As soon as I typed the first 'S', up pops good old google autocomplete:
"STD clinic london"
I typed as fast as I could and hoped she didn't notice!
Please stop giving +1 Insightfuls to people who either a) haven't read the article or b) haven't undestood it. The moon could be reclassified as a planet EVEN IF IT STILL ORBITS THE EARTH. It depends on whether the center of gravity of the pair is inside the earth or not.
how will bone structure determine regional accent?
If you make assumptions about where someone was brought up and who by, this kind of thing could work - but let's see a blind test. Let someone do a recording of their voice, get these guys to analyse their facial structure (in silence) and see if their prediction matches reality. It's easy to say what dead people noone alive has heard sounds like.
As an employer I've know this for years... as have those companies big and small I have worked with. Thats why 'Must Consult Someone Experienced' initials after a candidate's name always set alarm bells ringing.
Jolyon (the only initials I proudly boast are for my Certified Unix Network Technician certificate)
As far as we can tell, Mars has far fewer pirates than the Earth - this may also be a factor in the planet's weak atmosphere. We believe there are no pirates at all on the Moon.
Perhaps the surface of Venus is covered in pirates - that could explain its thick dense atmosphere.
The biggest problem I see with users failing to accept a new system and reverting to old bad habits is a lack of real training in how to use the system, and more importantly, why it is better. People need to adjust to new ways of working, and not everyone is capable of being thrown in at the deep end and working things out for themselves. But time and time again I see projects where there is simply no budget allocated for user training, and when it all falls down us developers get blamed.
I was thinking before that I'd really love to be able to have a laptop with 9 hours of battery life - something I could use in the departure lounge waiting for my transatlantic flight (someone else always gets the seats near the power sockets before me) and then use on a 7hr flight without worrying about battery life.
That's why I got the IBM X41 - I have a 7 cell extra-life battery plugged into the back, and a second slim battery that plugs onto the base of the laptop. The two together give me between 7 and 10 hours of battery life, depending on what I'm doing (usually programming, so I'm not a 'power' user).
Buying the IBM was one of the best decisions I've ever made (no connection to the company, or to Levono who now own their PC business). After my recent flight from London Heathrow to Toronto I had 1.5hrs of battery life left on the machine when I shut it down as we were preparing to land.
So... this wasn't that expensive - the laptop and all batteries were less than 1000GBP including tax... is there really a genuine need for fuel cells?
You could get hit by a worm just as easily - they attack by IP address and are indescriminate about where they attack - they don't care how fast your connection is.
As for spyware and the rest, if you're using a slower net then probability is that you'll browse less and be subjected to less risk, but in general the argument used is complete and utter rubbish - there's no additional security to be gained by dialup.
Of course the guy from IBM is going to reccommend tape for reliable data storage - he wouldn't have the nerve to suggest using a hard disk deskstar would he!
Anyway, I have a backup disk here dated September 12th 1992 (63 minute Philips CD-R) and it still reads fine - used it the other day to retrieve some old source code.
And seriously.... Every 5 years copy all your old digital media onto your new digital media, using 10% of its storage. By the time it fills up, do the same again. No problems!
Or just share your stuff on P2P and you can find hundreds of copies of it whenever you need it!
If I was a competitor, or somehow had an axe to grind and wanted to do this, I'd have to think very carefully because:
Whatever else happens, I'm generating publicity for the company, they may end up doing very well out this spam on their behalf.
If I tried to make the spam unappealing to negate the above effect, it'd be more obvious that it was a bogus campaign done without their knowledge.
Of course, the intelligent ones out there reading this will be sure to think of clever ideas that look like they would be good promotion for the company but would end up doing more harm than good - so it looks like a failed campaign rather than anything malicious - but would YOU risk it?
Because of this, this whole problem doesn't really exist.
And (you couldn't have scripted it better if you'd tried) - the initial response that wikipedians posted to the "Moral Responsibility" page was itself copied without permission from another site!
However.... the great strength of Wikipedia is in how quickly it is able to recover and self-heal from these sorts of problems. It's far from perfect, but it is damn useful nonetheless.
Beware - some companies such as Goodmans in the UK - have been using chips designeded for "ROM ONLY" use rather than continual rewrite cycles in their USB drives.
Slashdot Mirror
There's a simple solution for this (commonly used).
Allow the file to link if the referer is from your site OR is blank.
That way, Mr Deep Linker will find 99% of his audience will not be able to link to your content, because they won't be blocking referers. Of course, he could suggest people do that - and it entirely depends on the audience and the content as to whether they would bother. But it makes the deep linking less than elegant for them to do and more obvious to visitors that they're trying to access something they shouldn't be.
Jolyon
Other than maybe needing to get a new battery for an old cellphone, you'll be surprised how well some of the older phones work. My 6310i is the phone I had two "upgrades" ago. When I went back to it I had forgotten that I only ever used to charge it once every two weeks on average and, at least with mine, the battery still works well after 3 years.
Jolyon
How about I just stick with my old Nokia 6310i
It's a neat idea to have a feature-free phone. But seriously, there are millions of those going on ebay cheap because silly people are upgrading to a phone that does polyphonic catatonic ringtones, online horoscopes, and realtime 3d su-doku. That's got to be cheaper than buying any new Motorola phone.
Jolyon
Ok, so they have their standard disclaimer, but I saw a "Smiley of the Day" gadget from hotbar.com on offer on the first page of that.
Doesn't anyone at Google QC this stuff?
First thoughts are after seeing that - I'm not going to trust ANY of that stuff on websites I have anything to do with.
Jolyon
... In a related story, DeBeers Inc have released a survey that shows that 39% of people won't buy a Playstation 3 because it isn't carved out of a solid diamond.
Hey Slashdot Editors! I know hunting for dupes takes up all your time, but how about occasionally NOT posting trash marketing pseudo-surveys as news stories?
Jolyon
Earthlink aren't providing meaningful information to customers - they're just trying to make money.
Of course, that's what businesses are for, so as you say, if they want to do it, they should be entirely entitled to do so. However:
a) It's not fair on those who have paid for an existing service to have the nature of this service changed on them without warning - many people feel they are now getting a poorer service.
b) They should at the very least have provided an opt-out system for those who prefer untainted DNS that works in the way the internet standards require it to work. Then people with firewall, anti-spam or other systems that this change breaks wouldn't be so up in arms.
If my ISP did this, I'd leave them. Luckily my ISP is more sane.
Jolyon
Yep, and apparently Samuel L Jackson has already inquired about the film rights.
Jolyon
No, you overwrite files with random bytes, not zeros. Ideally several times.
Ok. I just posted this to them as an example of why people should be very, very careful, but it's funny enough I should share it here.
A few years ago I was doing IT consultancy in London, and a client had a problem with her PC all acting funny.
I went along, it was the secretary/receptionist's PC so she moved over, and sat next to me watching what I was doing as I investigated.
I found a suspicious DLL beginning with 'S' running on the system, so I did what you would normally do, do a google search and see what it comes up with.
As soon as I typed the first 'S', up pops good old google autocomplete:
"STD clinic london"
I typed as fast as I could and hoped she didn't notice!
Turned out her PC had a virus too.
Jolyon
The only extra character they need to add.
Jolyon
Please stop giving +1 Insightfuls to people who either a) haven't read the article or b) haven't undestood it. The moon could be reclassified as a planet EVEN IF IT STILL ORBITS THE EARTH. It depends on whether the center of gravity of the pair is inside the earth or not.
... surely an increase in piracy will help reverse global warming?
Jolyon
how will bone structure determine regional accent?
If you make assumptions about where someone was brought up and who by, this kind of thing could work - but let's see a blind test. Let someone do a recording of their voice, get these guys to analyse their facial structure (in silence) and see if their prediction matches reality. It's easy to say what dead people noone alive has heard sounds like.
Jolyon
As an employer I've know this for years... as have those companies big and small I have worked with. Thats why 'Must Consult Someone Experienced' initials after a candidate's name always set alarm bells ringing.
Jolyon (the only initials I proudly boast are for my Certified Unix Network Technician certificate)
As far as we can tell, Mars has far fewer pirates than the Earth - this may also be a factor in the planet's weak atmosphere. We believe there are no pirates at all on the Moon.
Perhaps the surface of Venus is covered in pirates - that could explain its thick dense atmosphere.
Jolyon
The biggest problem I see with users failing to accept a new system and reverting to old bad habits is a lack of real training in how to use the system, and more importantly, why it is better. People need to adjust to new ways of working, and not everyone is capable of being thrown in at the deep end and working things out for themselves. But time and time again I see projects where there is simply no budget allocated for user training, and when it all falls down us developers get blamed.
Jolyon
I was thinking before that I'd really love to be able to have a laptop with 9 hours of battery life - something I could use in the departure lounge waiting for my transatlantic flight (someone else always gets the seats near the power sockets before me) and then use on a 7hr flight without worrying about battery life.
That's why I got the IBM X41 - I have a 7 cell extra-life battery plugged into the back, and a second slim battery that plugs onto the base of the laptop. The two together give me between 7 and 10 hours of battery life, depending on what I'm doing (usually programming, so I'm not a 'power' user).
Buying the IBM was one of the best decisions I've ever made (no connection to the company, or to Levono who now own their PC business). After my recent flight from London Heathrow to Toronto I had 1.5hrs of battery life left on the machine when I shut it down as we were preparing to land.
So... this wasn't that expensive - the laptop and all batteries were less than 1000GBP including tax... is there really a genuine need for fuel cells?
Jolyon
No, is the simple answer.
You could get hit by a worm just as easily - they attack by IP address and are indescriminate about where they attack - they don't care how fast your connection is.
As for spyware and the rest, if you're using a slower net then probability is that you'll browse less and be subjected to less risk, but in general the argument used is complete and utter rubbish - there's no additional security to be gained by dialup.
Jolyon
That's assuming the company making your flash drive doesn't try to cheat you by using unsuitable chips - as happened to me:
Why Goodmans USB keys should not be trusted
And they're still refusing to answer any of my emails on this subject!
Jolyon
Of course the guy from IBM is going to reccommend tape for reliable data storage - he wouldn't have the nerve to suggest using a hard disk deskstar would he!
Anyway, I have a backup disk here dated September 12th 1992 (63 minute Philips CD-R) and it still reads fine - used it the other day to retrieve some old source code.
And seriously.... Every 5 years copy all your old digital media onto your new digital media, using 10% of its storage. By the time it fills up, do the same again. No problems!
Or just share your stuff on P2P and you can find hundreds of copies of it whenever you need it!
Jolyon
Whatever else happens, I'm generating publicity for the company, they may end up doing very well out this spam on their behalf.
If I tried to make the spam unappealing to negate the above effect, it'd be more obvious that it was a bogus campaign done without their knowledge.
Of course, the intelligent ones out there reading this will be sure to think of clever ideas that look like they would be good promotion for the company but would end up doing more harm than good - so it looks like a failed campaign rather than anything malicious - but would YOU risk it?
Because of this, this whole problem doesn't really exist.
Jolyon
And (you couldn't have scripted it better if you'd tried) - the initial response that wikipedians posted to the "Moral Responsibility" page was itself copied without permission from another site!
However.... the great strength of Wikipedia is in how quickly it is able to recover and self-heal from these sorts of problems. It's far from perfect, but it is damn useful nonetheless.
Jolyon
Beware - some companies such as Goodmans in the UK - have been using chips designeded for "ROM ONLY" use rather than continual rewrite cycles in their USB drives.
More information about the one I found at:
http://www.mways.co.uk/rom_use_only_usb_key.html
Jolyon
I have the extended 12" edition!
Jolyon
So here, for your illegal enjoyment, are the lyrics for Daft Punk's track 'Around the World', encoded in a C style language for your benefit.
for(i=0;i<143;i++)
{
printf("Around the World\r\n");
}
Jolyon
Am I an illegal now?