Does this mean that if I have a process that is caught in an infinite loop, that this processor will reprogram itself to make the infinite loop process even faster?
My TiVo box, a loyal pal, a friend I truly care for. Because it guarantees I'll see, the shows I wasn't there for. Two-thousand shows I've 'taped' so far, each night I 'tape' a new one. Who knows, perhaps there'll come a day, I'll find the time to view one...
If you'd like to replicate the characteristics of this product for yourself, go to your kitchen and grab the corn starch.
Take corn starch and pour about 1 tablespoon into a small bowl, then add a small amount of cold water, about a teaspoon or so. These amounts are estimates, use more or less of each to reach a desired consistancy.
Mix it up, and you'll start to see the similarities.
If you let the 'mixture' sit, it will remain liquid, but the moment you stir it, it'll harden. Pour it into your hand and play with it, as you play with it you'll notice its a solid substance, the instant you stop playing with it, it'll turn back into a liquid and run through your fingers.
It appears that Diebold is doing a fine job of letting everyone know exactly who they are and what their *real* intentions are.
They are nothing but a bunch of criminals and liars that are doing a piss poor job of working to take control of our national elections systems and trying to keep it secret and/or unbiased.
These idiots spend more on lawyers and Public Relations experts than they do on programmers. I hope they rot in hell......and I'm a conservative!:)
I just re-read my post. It was typed as I was half asleep. Definately not MBR, but the only thing I could think of was the MFT, but thats NTFS. I should have waited till I had some sleep before posting that comment...
I used to do a lot of data recovery... lemme tell you whats happening here.
Remember the "Good old days" where hard drive sizes were sub 540mb - We addressed hard drives using C/H/S size (Cylinder/Heads/Sectors) - It was common to scandisk and start seeing bad blocks (sectors) on your hard drive...
When we broke the 540mb 'barrier' we quit using C/H/S mappings and started using LBA mode, Logical Block Addressing. What this effectively did was take control of the physical drive access, data storage and retrieval, away from the operating system. This was because the OS/Bios would only recognize a maximum of 512 Cylinders.
Quick facts about hard drives: 1) There are *ALWAYS* defects on the hard drive surface. There is no such thing as a flawless platter. 2) As hard drive sizes have increased, all the innovations have taken place in your head.:)
Yes, there have been minor changes in the platter structure. As rotational speeds increased, sector sizes decreased, and operating temperatures increased, manufacturers had to move away from aluminum platters as they would shrink/grow too much as the drive reached operating temp. So they moved to glass. -- The surface of the drive has always been coated using the same exact ionization process.
However, the read/write head is where all the innovations have taken place. Because the size of the bits are getting smaller and smaller, a surface defect that previously would only wipe out a single bit would now wipe out an entire sector. For this reason, drive manufacturers allocate plenty of extra space on the drive to move data from failing areas of the drive (which is happening all the time). This drive maintenance happens independant of the operating system on the PC. It is an operation of the hard drive firmware. IT IS AUTOMATIC.
After drive manufacture, there is an initial low-level format of the drive (platter) where the drive establishes its sector boundaries. This is when it maps out the defective areas of the drive and stores it in the eeprom. As the drive operates and sectors fail, the drive automatically moves the data to a different area of the drive. These areas where the data is moved to are typically adjacent to the defective area. Space allocated to compensate for defects can be as much as 100% of the original drive space.
If the drive didn't maintain itself, then you'd see TONS of surface defects whenever you run scandisk, even on a brand new drive.
Think about it, when is the last time you ran a scankdisk and had it come back with surface errors. It doesn't happen anymore.
Anyhow... What these guys did was use a utility that creates a quick and dirty MBR(Master Boot Record) that likely archives the legitamate MBR within the 8mb partition while it does its business. These bozo's have essentially wiped out the MBR (READ: Defect Map) and formatted the full capacity of the entire disk.
Sure, you can install an OS, even run it, but as the hard drive tries to manage itself... well... I've explained enough here, be it suffice to say that you're fsck3d.
This isn't like Intel that creates a single chip and labels it 3 different speeds (The pentium 75/90/100 comes to mind) where you can overclock it...
I'm sorry, but my cable bills are getting outrageous, and I just have basic cable. Cable costs me more and more every year for the same stupid basic channels I've had for the past 10 years.
Part of the reason these bills are skyrocketing is that companies like Viacom are burdened with huge debt.
They can't raise their advertising rates because they don't have the Nelson ratings... get this: Viacom brings us MTV and the likes of Howard Stern. There have been huge public outcries against such programming aired on MTV, Howard Stern and Viacom's other channels/shows. The media response has always been: "If you don't like what you see, change the channel." So that's exactly what people have done. They can't raise advertising rates without the ratings, so they're losing advertisers. Their debt is getting out of control, so they turn to the distributors.
Viacom has told its distributors, specifically Dish Network, that it is raising its rates by six cents per-channel, per-subscriber, per-month. If I were a subscriber to Dish Network, this would mean my monthly bill would need to go up nearly a buck. This is completely outrageous in an industry where 1/4 of a cent in increases is big.
Needless to say, this equates to millions of dollars per-year in added revenue without having to change a single business practice. [Read: easy money]
I say that if Viacom wants more money, they should start underwriting movies and television that people want to watch, just like everyone else.
I applaud Dish Network for putting their foot down.
Actually... I worked for WordPerfect in the early nineties. I was writing laser printer drivers for them at the time.
To respond to your well-written and accurate comment:
1) The ONLY thing that ANY printer company needed to do to get a WordPerfect printer driver, is send WP a printer on 'permanant loan' for us to write the driver for, then to subsequently troubleshoot those drivers on that printer. If any manufacturer wanted us to pull support for that printer, all they had to do is request their printer back - which N-E-V-E-R happened. For that reason, WP had a HUGE printer lab that I spent hundreds of hours in.
2) WordPerfect wasn't that late to the word processing market for Windows... When Win 3.1 came out, WP 5.1 for DOS was the reigning word processor. WordPerfect, in order to get into the market sooner, released WordPerfect 5.1 for Windows -- a horribly buggy version of WP.
The reason it was so bad was they stripped the user interface from the DOS version and put a Windows interface on it. At WordPerfect, we called this the WISIWYWA - What You See Is What You Want (As opposed to....What You Get) This was primarily due to WP5.1 Win still using the DOS print drivers. The Bug Fix for WP 5.1 Win was WordPerfect 5.2 -- still using the DOS print drivers.
A more accurate claim would be that WordPerfect was slow to market with a STABLE version of WPWin. WPWin 6.0 was a complete re-write of the code base to work within the 16bit Windows OS, of course by that time they were late to market.
3) One reason why WP was slow to market with WPWin 6.0 was a bitter debate taking place between the top brass at WP. Alan Ashton and Bruce Bastian (The Pres/VP) wanted to support Windows, whereas Pete Peterson wanted to support OS/2... heh heh. Anyone remember OS/2?
You really can't go wrong by shoping at Think Geek. My wife bought me a 'binary blanket' from there that says the word 'blanket' in binary over and over. I thought that was pretty cool.
I think the geek HTTPanties are a pretty cool thing - one pair (white) says "402 Forbidden" and the black pair says "200 OK". These are pretty cool as it gets the geek in your life some exposure to 3D pr0n as opposed to the 2D stuff that is readily available online.
This was a very poignant article - a pseudo interview that offers a unique commentary on the whole virus debate.
================== Why computer virus writers are useful and we should thank them.
The title is obviously a provocation. I am considered a balanced personality but sometimes, I like to stretch things to the extreme and to provoke reactions. This article is one of my rare attempts to provoke you... or not?
Today, after the alarm caused by the fast diffusion of the Sobig virus, we are all talking about the reasons why virus writers are coding more and more viruses.
"They should stop, somebody stop them!" I hear all the time but... is this right?
We try to answer to this question with an interview with Professor Samuel D. Forrester, one of the most famous immunologists in the world. Dr. Forrester is on the run this year to get the Nobel Prize for his recent discovery of the mechanisms of aggression of over-reacting immune cells and antibodies. He teaches at the Immunology faculty at the Konigsberg University since 1986.
Zone-H: ZH
Professor Samuel D. Forrester: SDF
ZH: Thanks for having accepted to release an interview to Zone-H
SDF: Thank you, even if it is quite unusual to be interviewed by a computer security website.
ZH: Dr. Forrester, can you tell us what is the branch of the immunology?
SDF: Immunology is the study of the complex and sophisticated immune system. The immune system is a network of cells and organs that work together to defend the body against attacks by "foreign" invaders or germs. The body provides an excellent environment for germs. When they do break into a system, it is the immune system's job to keep them out or to seek and destroy them.
ZH: What is the job of the immunologist?
SDF: Clinical immunologists research new tests and treatments involving allergic and immunologic disorders of the immune system. They work with physicians in general practice and in hospital-based specialties to treat diseases using complex and sophisticated clinical techniques. The science of clinical immunology is a fast developing area of the medical profession. The role of the immunologist is increasingly important, both in laboratory work and in patient care.
ZH: Have you heard about the recent Sobig-F virus deployment?
SDF: Yes, I read something on the newspapers. Even if computer science is not my science, the topic of the computer viruses is obviously of my interest. See, many aspects of the traditional immunology and the computer viruses are in common.
ZH: And this is the reason why Zone-H wanted this interview.... Dr. Forrester, what do you think about computer viruses, what do you know about them?
SDF: Computer viruses are exactly like the normal viruses. They can kill you if your immune system doesn't work, but at the same time, your body should thank them if your immune system is today capable to protect you from deadly illnesses.
ZH: Can you please develop the concept?
SDF: It's simple: every time you get a cold, you sneeze. But you could die, actually. The only reason why you don't die is because your immune system has been programmed to react to the "threat" posed by a germ. It's a paradox, but it's the same germ that could kill you that trained your immune system to react when invaded.
ZH: And what makes the difference? How is it possible that a germ can kill you and the same germ can train your immune system making you stronger?
SDF: It's just a matter of doses. Like with wine, one glass every day makes your heart stronger and lowers your blood pressure, one bottle every day can kill you. This is the concept on which vaccines are based.
ZH: We understand that. Can we stretch the concept saying that a constant flow of germs, if received in the proper dose, makes the body actually stronger?
SDF: Absolutely. If hypothetically we could take two n
A while ago they found a rock that they said came from the planet Mars. They found it up in the North Pole or something.
They analyzed this rock and determined that life exists on Mars because they found bacteria in the rock - except that in order to find these "life forms" they had to burn the rock up in a gas chromatograph.
So they fly this little spacecraft thingy off to Mars that can roam around and cook up some more soil by use of its miniatureized GC unit, and then they had the gall announce that life *does* exist on Mars!
WRONG!!
Life DID exist on Mars, until you KILLED IT! You Insensitive Clods!
So, you want to start a software company, and nobody is going to talk you out of it.
Here is what you do:
1) Come up with a solid idea for a software program that you know is marketable. 2) File your tax return 3) Take said tax return and hire 5 programmers in India for one full year. 4)... 5) PROFIT!
I can see it now; the $250,000 reward will be paid out to the informant in Linux licenses in the form of coupons for your choice of linux distribution...
True, but you can't discount the fact that Darl is now administering his own network [Darl: I swear the terminal told me to bash it] without having even a basic understanding of the GPL or who the hell wrote the Kernel in the first place.
Darl: Wasn't Linus the character in the Snoopy cartoon? I loved that cartoon. He seemed like a nice guy, not like someone that'd steal my code...
150,000 NOK (about 17,500 euros) or about $17 US dollars, I think.
Kidding... its actually $22k which I think is quite low. For all the time he spent on this he should be asking for at least 1m NOK (150k USD, 116 EUR).
According to the Financial Times, the EU will want to fine Microsoft heavily, and may demand that it stops forcing suppliers to include its own media software at the expense of competitors such as Real Networks[buffering...] and Apple.
I would be happy to use RealPlayer, except that a long time ago I equated Realplayer with Spyware and quit using it.
Media Player gives me the OPTION of having an autonomous system ID sent with my usage patterns, but I opt out of it. I have no such control with Realplayer. Any machine I own I make sure that Realplayer is removed and I will not use it.
Does Realplayer still include spyware with their distrobution? I don't know - and I really don't care to find out.
The DDoS against SCO.com doesn't start until the infected machine is rebooted any time after February 1, 2004 at 00:00:01 and will continue until the machine is rebooted after February 12, 2004. At that point in time, the DDoS will stop and the infected host will keep its back door open - listening on ports 3127 to 3198 TCP (It only listens on one port, but if 3127 isn't available it'll listen on the next port on up the chain). Presumably, after 12 Feb, the infected machine will be used as a spam relay as the virus obviously has Message Transfer capabilities encoded within it.
The graphs that are linked to in the/. story simply illustrate that SCO's shxt keeps on crashing - which is not really suprising after Darl had to fire the network admin to feed his Lawyer habit.
How can Bill Gates/M$ forecast the death of spam, when they can't even predict when their products will be 'secure', much less their product launch dates...
Under G.W. Bush's Amazon page: Amazon is actively seeking permission to accept contributions for this campaign. Until then, you may contribute using the campaign's Web site.
Google has apparently blocked sco.com from being the #1 hit for "litigious bastards". There is just no other way to explain why they don't appear on the list. It appears, however, that caldera.com is not so blocked (search for "litigious bastards sco" returns caldera.com as the first hit).
I've blasted some of the best CEO's out there for being too removed from their company's IT infrastructure.
Read what I wrote to a CEO about his disinterest in what goes on in the server room. The names have been changed to protect the... innocent? Otherwise, this is a verbatim excerpt from the document I delivered to the CEO and his VP. This company conducts about 2 Billion a year in business. After reading this, their attitude changed and I went on to consult with this company, and that consultancy continues to this day. They really appreciated my candidness. I hope this helps.
============
Back in December of 2002, I performed an Information Security assessment of the ABC Corp Network. At that time, I determined that the overall security posture was dangerously relaxed, and as a result the network was extremely insecure. Based upon my findings I gave ABC Corp a failing grade.
Given the nature and sensitivity of the information ABC Corp uses to conduct its business; ABC Corp should have a posture of Moderate-Restrictive.
Network security is fundamentally a management problem, not an information technology problem. The IT workers are not trying to build an insecure network, they are simply responding to the needs of the business. If executives fail to dictate the needs and requirements to the IT department, then the IT department is left to react to the changing business needs. The unfortunate result is a network that is lashed together with the proverbial chewing gum and baling wire. Therefore the IT staff is computer security janitors who clean up messes instead of preventing them.
This reactionary system is more common than not in small businesses. The Information Technology infrastructure of most companies grows out of necessity rather than a master plan. As a result, things get added, the network grows, and pretty soon nobody in the company knows what they have going on in the server room.
When I came in to perform the initial security audit, this is exactly what I found. The ABC Corp network grew out of necessity. It appeared that management failed to realize how much the network had grown in complexity. "After all, if we can still perform our work, access the internet and get our email, what could be wrong with the network?"
This apparent failure of management to realize the value of their company's information assets can jeopardize the future growth of the company. They fail to realize that their entire business hinges on the stability and integrity of what has been built up in that server room.
What further complicates issues is that the IT department is run without a set budget. This means that the IT staff must constantly approach management with every single expense request. The perception then becomes that IT always wants to spend money, and failing to see the value of the expenditure, management will axe the purchase of a requested item. Combine this with technicians that are constantly reacting to problems and management that fails to provide clear direction - It is easy to see that this is a recipe for disaster.
When I audited the network, it was clear that there was no set management structure guiding the design of the ABC Corp Network. This lack of management oversight created an environment where IT workers performed their jobs by their own initiative. Some of the IT workers either lacked that initiative, necessary skills, or management direction and oversight. As a result, nothing was ever done on a proactive basis.
I would have to say that if there is blame to be placed for the current state of the information technology infrastructure, that blame lies squarely at the feet of the senior management of ABC Corp. Management and oversight of the IT architecture needs to be done from the top down rather than the bottom up.
Slashdot Mirror
Does this mean that if I have a process that is caught in an infinite loop, that this processor will reprogram itself to make the infinite loop process even faster?
By: Joel Helgeson
My TiVo box, a loyal pal,
a friend I truly care for.
Because it guarantees I'll see,
the shows I wasn't there for.
Two-thousand shows I've 'taped' so far,
each night I 'tape' a new one.
Who knows, perhaps there'll come a day,
I'll find the time to view one...
If you'd like to replicate the characteristics of this product for yourself, go to your kitchen and grab the corn starch.
Take corn starch and pour about 1 tablespoon into a small bowl, then add a small amount of cold water, about a teaspoon or so. These amounts are estimates, use more or less of each to reach a desired consistancy.
Mix it up, and you'll start to see the similarities.
If you let the 'mixture' sit, it will remain liquid, but the moment you stir it, it'll harden. Pour it into your hand and play with it, as you play with it you'll notice its a solid substance, the instant you stop playing with it, it'll turn back into a liquid and run through your fingers.
Pretty cool stuff, pretty fun, and cheap to do!
It appears that Diebold is doing a fine job of letting everyone know exactly who they are and what their *real* intentions are.
...and I'm a conservative! :)
They are nothing but a bunch of criminals and liars that are doing a piss poor job of working to take control of our national elections systems and trying to keep it secret and/or unbiased.
These idiots spend more on lawyers and Public Relations experts than they do on programmers. I hope they rot in hell...
I just re-read my post. It was typed as I was half asleep. Definately not MBR, but the only thing I could think of was the MFT, but thats NTFS.
I should have waited till I had some sleep before posting that comment...
I used to do a lot of data recovery... lemme tell you whats happening here.
:)
Remember the "Good old days" where hard drive sizes were sub 540mb - We addressed hard drives using C/H/S size (Cylinder/Heads/Sectors) - It was common to scandisk and start seeing bad blocks (sectors) on your hard drive...
When we broke the 540mb 'barrier' we quit using C/H/S mappings and started using LBA mode, Logical Block Addressing. What this effectively did was take control of the physical drive access, data storage and retrieval, away from the operating system. This was because the OS/Bios would only recognize a maximum of 512 Cylinders.
Quick facts about hard drives:
1) There are *ALWAYS* defects on the hard drive surface. There is no such thing as a flawless platter.
2) As hard drive sizes have increased, all the innovations have taken place in your head.
Yes, there have been minor changes in the platter structure. As rotational speeds increased, sector sizes decreased, and operating temperatures increased, manufacturers had to move away from aluminum platters as they would shrink/grow too much as the drive reached operating temp. So they moved to glass. -- The surface of the drive has always been coated using the same exact ionization process.
However, the read/write head is where all the innovations have taken place. Because the size of the bits are getting smaller and smaller, a surface defect that previously would only wipe out a single bit would now wipe out an entire sector. For this reason, drive manufacturers allocate plenty of extra space on the drive to move data from failing areas of the drive (which is happening all the time). This drive maintenance happens independant of the operating system on the PC. It is an operation of the hard drive firmware. IT IS AUTOMATIC.
After drive manufacture, there is an initial low-level format of the drive (platter) where the drive establishes its sector boundaries. This is when it maps out the defective areas of the drive and stores it in the eeprom. As the drive operates and sectors fail, the drive automatically moves the data to a different area of the drive. These areas where the data is moved to are typically adjacent to the defective area. Space allocated to compensate for defects can be as much as 100% of the original drive space.
If the drive didn't maintain itself, then you'd see TONS of surface defects whenever you run scandisk, even on a brand new drive.
Think about it, when is the last time you ran a scankdisk and had it come back with surface errors. It doesn't happen anymore.
Anyhow... What these guys did was use a utility that creates a quick and dirty MBR(Master Boot Record) that likely archives the legitamate MBR within the 8mb partition while it does its business. These bozo's have essentially wiped out the MBR (READ: Defect Map) and formatted the full capacity of the entire disk.
Sure, you can install an OS, even run it, but as the hard drive tries to manage itself... well... I've explained enough here, be it suffice to say that you're fsck3d.
This isn't like Intel that creates a single chip and labels it 3 different speeds (The pentium 75/90/100 comes to mind) where you can overclock it...
I'm sorry, but my cable bills are getting outrageous, and I just have basic cable. Cable costs me more and more every year for the same stupid basic channels I've had for the past 10 years.
Part of the reason these bills are skyrocketing is that companies like Viacom are burdened with huge debt.
They can't raise their advertising rates because they don't have the Nelson ratings... get this: Viacom brings us MTV and the likes of Howard Stern. There have been huge public outcries against such programming aired on MTV, Howard Stern and Viacom's other channels/shows. The media response has always been: "If you don't like what you see, change the channel." So that's exactly what people have done. They can't raise advertising rates without the ratings, so they're losing advertisers. Their debt is getting out of control, so they turn to the distributors.
Viacom has told its distributors, specifically Dish Network, that it is raising its rates by six cents per-channel, per-subscriber, per-month. If I were a subscriber to Dish Network, this would mean my monthly bill would need to go up nearly a buck. This is completely outrageous in an industry where 1/4 of a cent in increases is big.
Needless to say, this equates to millions of dollars per-year in added revenue without having to change a single business practice. [Read: easy money]
I say that if Viacom wants more money, they should start underwriting movies and television that people want to watch, just like everyone else.
I applaud Dish Network for putting their foot down.
I say: SUPPORT DISH NETWORK, BOYCOTT VIACOM!
To respond to your well-written and accurate comment:
1) The ONLY thing that ANY printer company needed to do to get a WordPerfect printer driver, is send WP a printer on 'permanant loan' for us to write the driver for, then to subsequently troubleshoot those drivers on that printer. If any manufacturer wanted us to pull support for that printer, all they had to do is request their printer back - which N-E-V-E-R happened. For that reason, WP had a HUGE printer lab that I spent hundreds of hours in.
2) WordPerfect wasn't that late to the word processing market for Windows... When Win 3.1 came out, WP 5.1 for DOS was the reigning word processor. WordPerfect, in order to get into the market sooner, released WordPerfect 5.1 for Windows -- a horribly buggy version of WP.
The reason it was so bad was they stripped the user interface from the DOS version and put a Windows interface on it. At WordPerfect, we called this the WISIWYWA - What You See Is What You Want (As opposed to ....What You Get) This was primarily due to WP5.1 Win still using the DOS print drivers. The Bug Fix for WP 5.1 Win was WordPerfect 5.2 -- still using the DOS print drivers.
A more accurate claim would be that WordPerfect was slow to market with a STABLE version of WPWin. WPWin 6.0 was a complete re-write of the code base to work within the 16bit Windows OS, of course by that time they were late to market.
3) One reason why WP was slow to market with WPWin 6.0 was a bitter debate taking place between the top brass at WP. Alan Ashton and Bruce Bastian (The Pres/VP) wanted to support Windows, whereas Pete Peterson wanted to support OS/2... heh heh. Anyone remember OS/2?
Alas, WordPerfect was, in fact, Almost Perfect
You really can't go wrong by shoping at Think Geek. My wife bought me a 'binary blanket' from there that says the word 'blanket' in binary over and over. I thought that was pretty cool.
I think the geek HTTPanties are a pretty cool thing - one pair (white) says "402 Forbidden" and the black pair says "200 OK". These are pretty cool as it gets the geek in your life some exposure to 3D pr0n as opposed to the 2D stuff that is readily available online.
==================
Why computer virus writers are useful and we should thank them.
The title is obviously a provocation. I am considered a balanced personality but sometimes, I like to stretch things to the extreme and to provoke reactions. This article is one of my rare attempts to provoke you... or not? Today, after the alarm caused by the fast diffusion of the Sobig virus, we are all talking about the reasons why virus writers are coding more and more viruses.
"They should stop, somebody stop them!" I hear all the time but... is this right?
We try to answer to this question with an interview with Professor Samuel D. Forrester, one of the most famous immunologists in the world. Dr. Forrester is on the run this year to get the Nobel Prize for his recent discovery of the mechanisms of aggression of over-reacting immune cells and antibodies. He teaches at the Immunology faculty at the Konigsberg University since 1986.
Zone-H: ZH
Professor Samuel D. Forrester: SDF
ZH: Thanks for having accepted to release an interview to Zone-H
SDF: Thank you, even if it is quite unusual to be interviewed by a computer security website.
ZH: Dr. Forrester, can you tell us what is the branch of the immunology?
SDF: Immunology is the study of the complex and sophisticated immune system. The immune system is a network of cells and organs that work together to defend the body against attacks by "foreign" invaders or germs. The body provides an excellent environment for germs. When they do break into a system, it is the immune system's job to keep them out or to seek and destroy them.
ZH: What is the job of the immunologist?
SDF: Clinical immunologists research new tests and treatments involving allergic and immunologic disorders of the immune system. They work with physicians in general practice and in hospital-based specialties to treat diseases using complex and sophisticated clinical techniques. The science of clinical immunology is a fast developing area of the medical profession. The role of the immunologist is increasingly important, both in laboratory work and in patient care.
ZH: Have you heard about the recent Sobig-F virus deployment?
SDF: Yes, I read something on the newspapers. Even if computer science is not my science, the topic of the computer viruses is obviously of my interest. See, many aspects of the traditional immunology and the computer viruses are in common.
ZH: And this is the reason why Zone-H wanted this interview.... Dr. Forrester, what do you think about computer viruses, what do you know about them?
SDF: Computer viruses are exactly like the normal viruses. They can kill you if your immune system doesn't work, but at the same time, your body should thank them if your immune system is today capable to protect you from deadly illnesses.
ZH: Can you please develop the concept?
SDF: It's simple: every time you get a cold, you sneeze. But you could die, actually. The only reason why you don't die is because your immune system has been programmed to react to the "threat" posed by a germ. It's a paradox, but it's the same germ that could kill you that trained your immune system to react when invaded.
ZH: And what makes the difference? How is it possible that a germ can kill you and the same germ can train your immune system making you stronger?
SDF: It's just a matter of doses. Like with wine, one glass every day makes your heart stronger and lowers your blood pressure, one bottle every day can kill you. This is the concept on which vaccines are based.
ZH: We understand that. Can we stretch the concept saying that a constant flow of germs, if received in the proper dose, makes the body actually stronger?
SDF: Absolutely. If hypothetically we could take two n
Okay, let me get this straight...
A while ago they found a rock that they said came from the planet Mars. They found it up in the North Pole or something.
They analyzed this rock and determined that life exists on Mars because they found bacteria in the rock - except that in order to find these "life forms" they had to burn the rock up in a gas chromatograph.
So they fly this little spacecraft thingy off to Mars that can roam around and cook up some more soil by use of its miniatureized GC unit, and then they had the gall announce that life *does* exist on Mars!
WRONG!!
Life DID exist on Mars, until you KILLED IT! You Insensitive Clods!
Does this mean we get to bring back the old, venerated "Turbo" button?
Ahhhhh, those were the good old days...
So, you want to start a software company, and nobody is going to talk you out of it.
...
Here is what you do:
1) Come up with a solid idea for a software program that you know is marketable.
2) File your tax return
3) Take said tax return and hire 5 programmers in India for one full year.
4)
5) PROFIT!
I can see it now; the $250,000 reward will be paid out to the informant in Linux licenses in the form of coupons for your choice of linux distribution...
Darl: Wasn't Linus the character in the Snoopy cartoon? I loved that cartoon. He seemed like a nice guy, not like someone that'd steal my code...
150,000 NOK (about 17,500 euros) or about $17 US dollars, I think.
Kidding... its actually $22k which I think is quite low. For all the time he spent on this he should be asking for at least 1m NOK (150k USD, 116 EUR).
I would be happy to use RealPlayer, except that a long time ago I equated Realplayer with Spyware and quit using it.
Media Player gives me the OPTION of having an autonomous system ID sent with my usage patterns, but I opt out of it. I have no such control with Realplayer. Any machine I own I make sure that Realplayer is removed and I will not use it.
Does Realplayer still include spyware with their distrobution? I don't know - and I really don't care to find out.
The graphs that are linked to in the /. story simply illustrate that SCO's shxt keeps on crashing - which is not really suprising after Darl had to fire the network admin to feed his Lawyer habit.
How can Bill Gates/M$ forecast the death of spam, when they can't even predict when their products will be 'secure', much less their product launch dates...
Under G.W. Bush's Amazon page:
Amazon is actively seeking permission to accept contributions for this campaign. Until then, you may contribute using the campaign's Web site.
If I contribute over $25, does that qualify for FREE Super Saver Shipping?
Google has apparently blocked sco.com from being the #1 hit for "litigious bastards". There is just no other way to explain why they don't appear on the list. It appears, however, that caldera.com is not so blocked (search for "litigious bastards sco" returns caldera.com as the first hit).
Read what I wrote to a CEO about his disinterest in what goes on in the server room. The names have been changed to protect the... innocent? Otherwise, this is a verbatim excerpt from the document I delivered to the CEO and his VP. This company conducts about 2 Billion a year in business. After reading this, their attitude changed and I went on to consult with this company, and that consultancy continues to this day. They really appreciated my candidness. I hope this helps.
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Back in December of 2002, I performed an Information Security assessment of the ABC Corp Network. At that time, I determined that the overall security posture was dangerously relaxed, and as a result the network was extremely insecure. Based upon my findings I gave ABC Corp a failing grade.
Given the nature and sensitivity of the information ABC Corp uses to conduct its business; ABC Corp should have a posture of Moderate-Restrictive.
Network security is fundamentally a management problem, not an information technology problem. The IT workers are not trying to build an insecure network, they are simply responding to the needs of the business. If executives fail to dictate the needs and requirements to the IT department, then the IT department is left to react to the changing business needs. The unfortunate result is a network that is lashed together with the proverbial chewing gum and baling wire. Therefore the IT staff is computer security janitors who clean up messes instead of preventing them.
This reactionary system is more common than not in small businesses. The Information Technology infrastructure of most companies grows out of necessity rather than a master plan. As a result, things get added, the network grows, and pretty soon nobody in the company knows what they have going on in the server room. When I came in to perform the initial security audit, this is exactly what I found. The ABC Corp network grew out of necessity. It appeared that management failed to realize how much the network had grown in complexity. "After all, if we can still perform our work, access the internet and get our email, what could be wrong with the network?"
This apparent failure of management to realize the value of their company's information assets can jeopardize the future growth of the company. They fail to realize that their entire business hinges on the stability and integrity of what has been built up in that server room.
What further complicates issues is that the IT department is run without a set budget. This means that the IT staff must constantly approach management with every single expense request. The perception then becomes that IT always wants to spend money, and failing to see the value of the expenditure, management will axe the purchase of a requested item. Combine this with technicians that are constantly reacting to problems and management that fails to provide clear direction - It is easy to see that this is a recipe for disaster.
When I audited the network, it was clear that there was no set management structure guiding the design of the ABC Corp Network. This lack of management oversight created an environment where IT workers performed their jobs by their own initiative. Some of the IT workers either lacked that initiative, necessary skills, or management direction and oversight. As a result, nothing was ever done on a proactive basis.
I would have to say that if there is blame to be placed for the current state of the information technology infrastructure, that blame lies squarely at the feet of the senior management of ABC Corp. Management and oversight of the IT architecture needs to be done from the top down rather than the bottom up.
I've been using Photoshop for years to create fake... Hang on, is that the Secret Service at my door?
Look for my follow up post to this comment in 5-15 years.
They've made their bed, and now they're finding they don't want to sleep in it?
Why, thats just awful...