I wish my real account still had mod points, that was excellent. Damn you for making me figure out the password I used on this yahoo account:)
I felt I had to respond on a couple points. First, minor points. I past my l33t h4x0r stage before the term existed, don't worry about hurting my feelings. No, I haven't finished my BS yet, but I'm already doing research towards a Master's. (Not in CS, btw. BS in Chemical Engineering, pursuing a Master's in Biomedical Engineering.) Purchasing an XBox would be supporting Microsoft whether they are losing money on them or not. For most of the rest of your post, I'm going to presume sarcasm over ignorance.
Second, there's a serious ambiguity in my original post, and you've construed it the wrong way. When I said I would add my intelligence to the efforts to stop them, I was not referring to the efforts to hack the XBox to run alternate software. That, last time I checked, was not an effort to stop Microsoft, particularly not at the strategic level I implied. (Or at least I thought I implied.) If you look around there are several groups trying, at various levels of subtlety, to remove Microsoft from the picture. There is a lot of vapour floating around (For every conspiracy theory there appears to be an equal and opposite conspiracy theory...) but some of them seem to be legitimate.
I was trying not to be so melodramatic as to say 'Mark my words...', but, well, mark my words.:) Trusted Computing won't make any dent in the market. And just maybe, if I manage to make as big a contribution as I'm planning, I may be the main cause of it. But that's too much to hope for, as long as trusted computing doesn't take root that's enough. (Although a serious competitor to Windows would definitely be nice...)
And I shouldn't be posting at 2:30AM, I'm probably not making as much sense as I wanted to. Oh, well, hopefully you got the gist of it.
I am fully qualified for the position you have listed. In fact, I may be one of the most qualified applicants around. I have been hacking copy protect mechanisms since I was 7. I have something to tell you. You have heard this before from people just like me, but you have not listened.
You do not seem to realize that what you are doing, in your attempts to introduce completely 'trusted' computers, is evil. I'm not referring to your usual misguided 'save the world by taking it over' style of evil, I'm talking more of a killing kittens for fun kind of evil. You are, whether it is your intention or not, going to remove general purpose computing from the hands of the non-experts, and they won't know enough to stop you. Depending on your success I forsee one of two final results. The likeliest option is that you go out of business in 80 years, because your 'innovations' stunt the technological development of an entire generation and alienate those few who are intelligent enough to have become programmers anyways. In this case, you will set back humanity's development by hundreds of years. Or, alternately, you drive your existing user base to other platforms and go out of business in 5 years. I doubt you will allow the second option to happen.
I have not participated in the efforts to hack your hardware (XBox) previously because I did not want to support you by purchasing one. Now, I see the light. I, with the help of other slashdotters, have realized that the XBox is just a test run of your trusted computing initiatives. It is a chance for you to find the bugs in your system and fix them on a platform which attracts hackers, yet presents no serious loss when it is hacked. I have no doubt in my mind that if you manage to perfect this architecture you will waste no time in implementing it in desktop PCs and using your monopoly power to force a significant number of users over to it.
Therefore, this is my notice to you. I will not let you succeed. I am qualified for your position, but I will not be applying. I will be adding my intelligence to the effort to stop you, and I will succeed. And if I do not, it does not matter. Because I am not alone. You may stop this individual, but you can't stop us all. And, in the end, you will lose. I promise.
-JM
101010
(Posted anonymously because Microsoft's lawyers are more expensive than mine.)
Slashdot Mirror
I felt I had to respond on a couple points. First, minor points. I past my l33t h4x0r stage before the term existed, don't worry about hurting my feelings. No, I haven't finished my BS yet, but I'm already doing research towards a Master's. (Not in CS, btw. BS in Chemical Engineering, pursuing a Master's in Biomedical Engineering.) Purchasing an XBox would be supporting Microsoft whether they are losing money on them or not. For most of the rest of your post, I'm going to presume sarcasm over ignorance.
Second, there's a serious ambiguity in my original post, and you've construed it the wrong way. When I said I would add my intelligence to the efforts to stop them, I was not referring to the efforts to hack the XBox to run alternate software. That, last time I checked, was not an effort to stop Microsoft, particularly not at the strategic level I implied. (Or at least I thought I implied.) If you look around there are several groups trying, at various levels of subtlety, to remove Microsoft from the picture. There is a lot of vapour floating around (For every conspiracy theory there appears to be an equal and opposite conspiracy theory...) but some of them seem to be legitimate.
I was trying not to be so melodramatic as to say 'Mark my words...', but, well, mark my words. :) Trusted Computing won't make any dent in the market. And just maybe, if I manage to make as big a contribution as I'm planning, I may be the main cause of it. But that's too much to hope for, as long as trusted computing doesn't take root that's enough. (Although a serious competitor to Windows would definitely be nice...)
And I shouldn't be posting at 2:30AM, I'm probably not making as much sense as I wanted to. Oh, well, hopefully you got the gist of it.
I am fully qualified for the position you have listed. In fact, I may be one of the most qualified applicants around. I have been hacking copy protect mechanisms since I was 7. I have something to tell you. You have heard this before from people just like me, but you have not listened.
You do not seem to realize that what you are doing, in your attempts to introduce completely 'trusted' computers, is evil. I'm not referring to your usual misguided 'save the world by taking it over' style of evil, I'm talking more of a killing kittens for fun kind of evil. You are, whether it is your intention or not, going to remove general purpose computing from the hands of the non-experts, and they won't know enough to stop you. Depending on your success I forsee one of two final results. The likeliest option is that you go out of business in 80 years, because your 'innovations' stunt the technological development of an entire generation and alienate those few who are intelligent enough to have become programmers anyways. In this case, you will set back humanity's development by hundreds of years. Or, alternately, you drive your existing user base to other platforms and go out of business in 5 years. I doubt you will allow the second option to happen.
I have not participated in the efforts to hack your hardware (XBox) previously because I did not want to support you by purchasing one. Now, I see the light. I, with the help of other slashdotters, have realized that the XBox is just a test run of your trusted computing initiatives. It is a chance for you to find the bugs in your system and fix them on a platform which attracts hackers, yet presents no serious loss when it is hacked. I have no doubt in my mind that if you manage to perfect this architecture you will waste no time in implementing it in desktop PCs and using your monopoly power to force a significant number of users over to it.
Therefore, this is my notice to you. I will not let you succeed. I am qualified for your position, but I will not be applying. I will be adding my intelligence to the effort to stop you, and I will succeed. And if I do not, it does not matter. Because I am not alone. You may stop this individual, but you can't stop us all. And, in the end, you will lose. I promise.
-JM
101010
(Posted anonymously because Microsoft's lawyers are more expensive than mine.)