...then an upgrade to IE plus a reboot. followed by 42 system updates and then another reboot.
Apparently you've not spent any time on Windows 7 (don't know about Vista, never bothered with it) but 7 has improved the update process considerably over XP and earlier: no more use of Internet Explorer as the update vehicle (I'll cheerfully admit that that was not one of Microsoft's better ideas.) Doesn't need to reboot as often after an update either, so it's more competitive with your typical Linux distro in that regard.
As it happens, my entire household is Linux, and on the Ubuntu workstations and Debian server, I still receive plenty of updates (some of those require the occasional reboot.) Frankly, I don't have a problem with that, on any platform. Nobody is perfect, and I'm glad that an ongoing investment is being made in software security and stability, whether it be from Microsoft, Canonical or anyone else. Trying to blame Microsoft for regular system updates when every other vendor worth its salt does the same thing is disingenuous.
The only machine I have left that is still running Windows is the living room HTPC. It runs a stripped-down XP so we can use Netflix, and that will be gone the moment Netflix releases a version of their Silverlight-based player that works under Linux. If they ever do: I'll probably be dropping them at some point in the near future because their streaming selection isn't that good, frankly.
How can the US government keep doing stuff like... what, it isn't the US government? Then it must be for the good of the country since only the US does stuff like this with anything other than good intentions, carry on.
No, we're just the only ones that every one likes to complain about, or maybe we just get caught more often. I don't know, but it's not like every government on Earth doesn't do things like this, to one degree or another.
Communication uses the fixed banner string "C3PO-r2d2-POE" as handshake.
So, this could be the trojan we're looking for.
Also, the code contains a function called "_0zapftis_le_execute()".
"O'zapt is!" is the traditional opening phrase of the Munich October/Beer Festival, where the mayor taps the first barrel of beer with a hammer.
"I'm sure we're all surprised that it's opening security holes for third parties, and violates a related court verdict (and several laws in general)."
No not really...
Really, if the government (any government) is going to get into the malware game, they should hire people to create it for them who are at least as competent as the guys on the other side of the fence.
Yeah, because human progress was slower before patents were introduced!
Was it? That may be, but I think you're conflating a whole lot of things that aren't conflatable. The pace of human progress (e.g., the effective utilization of our best and brightest to advance the state of numerous arts) has very little to do with patents and far more to do with legal, cultural and societal norms that support the creative mind. America, for a long time, was seen as an attractive place to emigrate for those of other nations who had ability, but no means of expression in their countries of origin. Progress is not something for which you can account by using simple metrics such as number of iPhones sold.
It is not a given that ridiculously strong IP protection, of any kind, benefits human creativity and the creation of wealth. It's only one way to go about it, a way that has always had flaws and serious issues, and one which is overdue for major reform or replacement. What that will be I cannot say, but going on the way we are is not an option.
Here's one question: if strong IP laws are as closely tied to economic prosperity as our corporate overlords would have us believe, why is it that nations which have very little protection in comparison to us are experiencing exponential economic growth... while we are not? Is it possible that maybe we're doing something completely and utterly wrong in that area?
Patents on physical invention are on thing, if as you say they are truly novel and deserving of such protection. Patents on mathematical expression, algorithms, gene pairs and "business methods" (whatever the hell that is supposed to mean) are something else again, and it is rather obvious that they are dong nothing but hindering progress at every level. Furthermore, given the importance of software to virtually every aspect of our lives, ceding effective control of future progress in said software to a few large patent holders is a mistake.
So Google wants to come to the table with it's own pile of crap the other company might infringe. That's it.
Yes, I agree. Furthermore, it was probably Apple who taught them they needed to go down that route. You have "the world's most valuable company" threatening Google's own plans for the mobile (and other markets), intimidating their preferred vendors, and the reasoning behind Google's recent purchase of Motorola's physical and intellectual assets becomes clear. The thousand-odd IBM patents are just part of that overall defensive posture.
I remember spending many hours trying to figure out how I could get those last few kb of RAM freed up so that I could run my fancy new DOS game
Me too. It became sort of a game to me, in and of itself, to get everything loaded high. Using QEMM and a lot of fiddling I got ALL my drivers (network, mouse, whatever) into upper RAM, leaving only about 40 kbytes used of main memory. Yeah, I know, ridiculous waste of time, but it was entertaining
That's why. It doesn't just use 60M out of the box without any tweaking.
Even the stock XP isn't so bad, and what geek worth his salt is afraid of a little tweaking? Besides, you can grab a torrent of the XP Performance Edition where most of those have been done for you.
The problem is that if it only shows up on some machines then it's not something that they can do on their own. And it's not just the web browser that can lead to unreasonable memory consumption, poorly coded or bloated web pages, extensions are also possible problems that end up causing memory use.
Well, that's the thing, isn't it. Go to a site that runs Flash, for example, and you're invoking a large chunk of code over which the browser has little control. If people hadn't decided to turn the World Wide Web into a giant, animated color brochure but had stayed focused on content, we probably wouldn't be having this discussion.
This is America, lawyers don't bother with minor details like the law before filing lawsuits. There's lawyer fees to be made!
Yes, but if an attorney fails to perform due diligence and leads his client down a garden path for the express purpose of overbilling he can get in some hot water.
My first thought was that it was more of those "wireless/EM sensitive" nutters. If they have tangible proof though, well... this could turn out interesting.
Well, the odds are very high that they are nutters. Somebody send in a tech with a gaussmeter and a wideband spectrum analyzer and put this to rest.
"After moving into the homes the couples found that something was not quite right. Their TV screens were distorted. Cordless phones ran into interference. Computer hard drives were corrupted." And, their tinfoil hats were stuck to the ceiling.
... just how strong the magnetic field is, for it to affect the hard drive of a computer at any likely distance. It seems like metal objects would be flying through the air and sticking to the floor. Also, I have to wonder how a static magnetic field would affect most phones. Seems there would have to be an alternating field of some sort to do so. Finally, any links to the 'numbers' (field strength, gauss, whatever the proper term is)?
I'd love to know if they've checked the quality of the electricity supply in the house. Dirty power supplies can wreak havoc.
Personally, I think there's a strong RF source nearby. Neighbor with a shortwave transmitter or something like that.
They certainly do. One lady in my former workplace got a brand new 23" CRT monitor (bloody heavy and not missing CRTs of that size!) but when me and a co-worker installed it the picture was wonky at the top. We figured--new monitor, CRT, needs to warm up--but after a day or two it was still bad. Tried another--same thing.
I used to fix TVs back in high school. This was back in the days before many TV sets had built-in degaussers: over time the Earth's magnetic field would affect the picture. I wound myself a 120 VAC degaussing coil, and used that on a pretty regular basis when doing alignments. Makes a wonderful display when moved around near a color CRT.
I am very familiar with the effects of strong magnetic fields. To get such an effect you would have to have an active wide-band transmitter (to affect TV's, computers and everything else that's claimed) and the power consumption of the house alone (if it's even possible to create a magnet that size with the amount of ferro-magnetic material available) would be through the roof. A magnet with that power would require supercooling and at least a couple of residential power supplies from the power company to magnetize the space of a large living room.
Yes. I've seen the results of careless use of big magnets. Back in the early 1980's I was doing some contract programming at a local teaching hospital. At the time, they were installing a new MRI system (archaic by modern standards: the thing had an entire building just to itself, and another one for the power supply and liquid helium tanks.) One day a workman was carrying a big window air conditioner down a hallway that backed up against the real wall of the MRI facility. It turned out that they were testing the big magnets that afternoon, and chose that moment to fire them up. The field literally lifted that air conditioner out of his arms, and flung it down the hallway to tear through the wall and slam against the back of the magnet housing. Fortunately the worker was facing towards the magnet, and suffered only minor injuries when the A/C was torn out of his hands. Had he been facing the other way.... well. He was damn lucky.
The next time I stopped by I noticed that that entire section had been walled off.
Slashdot Mirror
...then an upgrade to IE plus a reboot. followed by 42 system updates and then another reboot.
Apparently you've not spent any time on Windows 7 (don't know about Vista, never bothered with it) but 7 has improved the update process considerably over XP and earlier: no more use of Internet Explorer as the update vehicle (I'll cheerfully admit that that was not one of Microsoft's better ideas.) Doesn't need to reboot as often after an update either, so it's more competitive with your typical Linux distro in that regard.
As it happens, my entire household is Linux, and on the Ubuntu workstations and Debian server, I still receive plenty of updates (some of those require the occasional reboot.) Frankly, I don't have a problem with that, on any platform. Nobody is perfect, and I'm glad that an ongoing investment is being made in software security and stability, whether it be from Microsoft, Canonical or anyone else. Trying to blame Microsoft for regular system updates when every other vendor worth its salt does the same thing is disingenuous.
The only machine I have left that is still running Windows is the living room HTPC. It runs a stripped-down XP so we can use Netflix, and that will be gone the moment Netflix releases a version of their Silverlight-based player that works under Linux. If they ever do: I'll probably be dropping them at some point in the near future because their streaming selection isn't that good, frankly.
/etc/init.d/sarcasm start
Please. It used to be service sarcasm start but we've switched to systemctl start sarcasm.service now.
I use Windows. I don't know.
FTFY
{sigh} the Slashdot hive-mind can be so literal sometimes.
So what you're saying is that lawyers make so much money that they all have heated swimming pools at the end of their garden paths?
Something like that. It's one thing to charge a lot for your services, but if you're too egregious in ripping off your client you can get disbarred.
How can the US government keep doing stuff like ... what, it isn't the US government? Then it must be for the good of the country since only the US does stuff like this with anything other than good intentions, carry on.
No, we're just the only ones that every one likes to complain about, or maybe we just get caught more often. I don't know, but it's not like every government on Earth doesn't do things like this, to one degree or another.
Communication uses the fixed banner string "C3PO-r2d2-POE" as handshake. So, this could be the trojan we're looking for.
Also, the code contains a function called "_0zapftis_le_execute()". "O'zapt is!" is the traditional opening phrase of the Munich October/Beer Festival, where the mayor taps the first barrel of beer with a hammer.
Source: http://www.ccc.de/system/uploads/76/original/staatstrojaner-report23.pdf
What does the "POE" mean? Porn Over Ethernet?
"I'm sure we're all surprised that it's opening security holes for third parties, and violates a related court verdict (and several laws in general)."
No not really...
Really, if the government (any government) is going to get into the malware game, they should hire people to create it for them who are at least as competent as the guys on the other side of the fence.
/etc/init.d/sarcasm start
Please. It used to be service sarcasm start but we've switched to systemctl start sarcasm.service now.
I use Windows. I don't know how to be sarcastic.
As a licensed mathematician, I'm going to have to call foul on that. Leave the factoring to us. Union duties and such...
I propose "re-developing"
Ha ... with that I can see you're still in your prime.
Yeah, because human progress was slower before patents were introduced!
Was it? That may be, but I think you're conflating a whole lot of things that aren't conflatable. The pace of human progress (e.g., the effective utilization of our best and brightest to advance the state of numerous arts) has very little to do with patents and far more to do with legal, cultural and societal norms that support the creative mind. America, for a long time, was seen as an attractive place to emigrate for those of other nations who had ability, but no means of expression in their countries of origin. Progress is not something for which you can account by using simple metrics such as number of iPhones sold.
... while we are not? Is it possible that maybe we're doing something completely and utterly wrong in that area?
It is not a given that ridiculously strong IP protection, of any kind, benefits human creativity and the creation of wealth. It's only one way to go about it, a way that has always had flaws and serious issues, and one which is overdue for major reform or replacement. What that will be I cannot say, but going on the way we are is not an option.
Here's one question: if strong IP laws are as closely tied to economic prosperity as our corporate overlords would have us believe, why is it that nations which have very little protection in comparison to us are experiencing exponential economic growth
Patents on physical invention are on thing, if as you say they are truly novel and deserving of such protection. Patents on mathematical expression, algorithms, gene pairs and "business methods" (whatever the hell that is supposed to mean) are something else again, and it is rather obvious that they are dong nothing but hindering progress at every level. Furthermore, given the importance of software to virtually every aspect of our lives, ceding effective control of future progress in said software to a few large patent holders is a mistake.
People aren't afraid of patents.
They're afraid of protracted, expensive lawsuits to defend against the patents, no matter how valid or invalid the patents may be.
They aren't afraid of guns either. They're afraid of the holes they make.
So Google wants to come to the table with it's own pile of crap the other company might infringe. That's it.
Yes, I agree. Furthermore, it was probably Apple who taught them they needed to go down that route. You have "the world's most valuable company" threatening Google's own plans for the mobile (and other markets), intimidating their preferred vendors, and the reasoning behind Google's recent purchase of Motorola's physical and intellectual assets becomes clear. The thousand-odd IBM patents are just part of that overall defensive posture.
it would likely be enlightening about some of the misunderstands that people have about Windows.
Yes, but that would substantially reduce the number of entertaining rants on the subject.
I remember spending many hours trying to figure out how I could get those last few kb of RAM freed up so that I could run my fancy new DOS game
Me too. It became sort of a game to me, in and of itself, to get everything loaded high. Using QEMM and a lot of fiddling I got ALL my drivers (network, mouse, whatever) into upper RAM, leaving only about 40 kbytes used of main memory. Yeah, I know, ridiculous waste of time, but it was entertaining
... it took up a nice 60Mb or RAM after tweaking.
That's why. It doesn't just use 60M out of the box without any tweaking.
Even the stock XP isn't so bad, and what geek worth his salt is afraid of a little tweaking? Besides, you can grab a torrent of the XP Performance Edition where most of those have been done for you.
re-engineering?
Re-factoring.
Hey-- 640K is all you're every going to need. You have my word on that.
Come back to bed, Mr. Gates, it's time for your nap.
The problem is that if it only shows up on some machines then it's not something that they can do on their own. And it's not just the web browser that can lead to unreasonable memory consumption, poorly coded or bloated web pages, extensions are also possible problems that end up causing memory use.
Well, that's the thing, isn't it. Go to a site that runs Flash, for example, and you're invoking a large chunk of code over which the browser has little control. If people hadn't decided to turn the World Wide Web into a giant, animated color brochure but had stayed focused on content, we probably wouldn't be having this discussion.
Exactly. It's where some guy named the Earl of Sandwich invented the sandwich....
Yes. I hear that, contrary to popular belief, you can't die of starvation in the desert because of all the sandwiches there.
This is America, lawyers don't bother with minor details like the law before filing lawsuits. There's lawyer fees to be made!
Yes, but if an attorney fails to perform due diligence and leads his client down a garden path for the express purpose of overbilling he can get in some hot water.
People will see you laughing and enjoying movies and TV shows on what is apparently a blank screen.
But its difficult to operate the remote control once they put you into one of those jackets with the sleeves that buckle in the back.
Yeah. I hadn't thought of that.
My first thought was that it was more of those "wireless/EM sensitive" nutters. If they have tangible proof though, well... this could turn out interesting.
Well, the odds are very high that they are nutters. Somebody send in a tech with a gaussmeter and a wideband spectrum analyzer and put this to rest.
"After moving into the homes the couples found that something was not quite right. Their TV screens were distorted. Cordless phones ran into interference. Computer hard drives were corrupted." And, their tinfoil hats were stuck to the ceiling.
Ha ... my kingdom for a mod point.
... just how strong the magnetic field is, for it to affect the hard drive of a computer at any likely distance. It seems like metal objects would be flying through the air and sticking to the floor. Also, I have to wonder how a static magnetic field would affect most phones. Seems there would have to be an alternating field of some sort to do so. Finally, any links to the 'numbers' (field strength, gauss, whatever the proper term is)?
I'd love to know if they've checked the quality of the electricity supply in the house. Dirty power supplies can wreak havoc.
Personally, I think there's a strong RF source nearby. Neighbor with a shortwave transmitter or something like that.
They certainly do. One lady in my former workplace got a brand new 23" CRT monitor (bloody heavy and not missing CRTs of that size!) but when me and a co-worker installed it the picture was wonky at the top. We figured--new monitor, CRT, needs to warm up--but after a day or two it was still bad. Tried another--same thing.
I used to fix TVs back in high school. This was back in the days before many TV sets had built-in degaussers: over time the Earth's magnetic field would affect the picture. I wound myself a 120 VAC degaussing coil, and used that on a pretty regular basis when doing alignments. Makes a wonderful display when moved around near a color CRT.
It's surrounded by a Faraday's Cage... twice.
I am very familiar with the effects of strong magnetic fields. To get such an effect you would have to have an active wide-band transmitter (to affect TV's, computers and everything else that's claimed) and the power consumption of the house alone (if it's even possible to create a magnet that size with the amount of ferro-magnetic material available) would be through the roof. A magnet with that power would require supercooling and at least a couple of residential power supplies from the power company to magnetize the space of a large living room.
Yes. I've seen the results of careless use of big magnets. Back in the early 1980's I was doing some contract programming at a local teaching hospital. At the time, they were installing a new MRI system (archaic by modern standards: the thing had an entire building just to itself, and another one for the power supply and liquid helium tanks.) One day a workman was carrying a big window air conditioner down a hallway that backed up against the real wall of the MRI facility. It turned out that they were testing the big magnets that afternoon, and chose that moment to fire them up. The field literally lifted that air conditioner out of his arms, and flung it down the hallway to tear through the wall and slam against the back of the magnet housing. Fortunately the worker was facing towards the magnet, and suffered only minor injuries when the A/C was torn out of his hands. Had he been facing the other way .... well. He was damn lucky.
The next time I stopped by I noticed that that entire section had been walled off.