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User: SatanicPuppy

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  1. Re:Mo Money! Mo Money! Mo Money! on Windows ATMs by 2005 · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I'M RICH! I'M RICH!!!!! WOOOT!

    What kind of moron would use windows in an ATM? It's an OPERATING SYSTEM. Are ATM's so complex that they need a fricking OPERATING SYSTEM?

    This is a place for a nice, tight, standalone application, the kind of thing you can bug check and make very secure, not some damn bloated windows app. I don't care HOW stripped down they think it is. There are 32,000,000 lines of code in WIn2k. Stripped down could mean as few as TWENTY MILLION LINES OF CODE. Oh yea, that's going to be secure.

  2. Re:Mod the college student down... on New Microsoft Worm Coming Soon? · · Score: 1

    I've got an old database run by a client of mine which is running SQL Server 7. If you upgrade Win2k all the way up, SQL Server won't run at all unless you upgrade it. If you upgrade it, it bluescreens and core dumps on an application which has been running with relatively few bugs for years.

    There is NO WAY I'm rewriting a legacy app so I can patch a database server which will STILL be buggy and insecure when I'm done patching, especially when I could rewrite the whole thing to run on MySQL and save myself TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS worth of liscensing fees AND be FAR more secure.

    Pant. PAnt. PAnt. Whew. Pushed one of my buttons there.

  3. Re:My 486 DX/2 66mhz machine hardly push 200kbps on Finally: Broadband for the Commodore 64 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    That machine is a beast compared to a C64.

    The first box I had after the C64 was a 80286 cruising along at a blazing 16mhz, and that was a quantum leap upgrade. The C64 plodded along at a piddly 1mhz, with a whopping 64kilobytes of ram. I'd be real surprised if the C64 could utilize a fast connection, especially since all the data is running over serial cables for god's sake.

    Not to be a bastard, but I've got an obsolete TI-83 calculator sitting on my desk which can do anything a C64 can do, and I don't have to lug around a 30 pound floppy drive to use it.

    Just my opinion. Flame away.

  4. Re:It's not the size of your disk on Computer Makers Sued Over Hard Drive Size · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I've always had such problems with RAIDs, etc, of finding an identical drive to plug in when one dies, that I've gotten in the habit of buying a couple at a time, and just leaving them on a shelf. The one time a customer called me on it, I pointed out that, since I was billing at 150.00 an hour, buying a drive 200 dollar drive that would save me 3 hours of work was a bargain for them.

  5. Re:Mod the college student down... on New Microsoft Worm Coming Soon? · · Score: 1

    I agree. The patches break so much crap they're almost worse than the damn worms.

  6. Re:Worm's Target on New Microsoft Worm Coming Soon? · · Score: 1

    A fare maiden? Wouldn't that be like a prostitute? Come to think of it, you probably WOULD have to sacrifice a virgin prostitute to get the bugs out of your windows install, and some purple unicorns as well.

  7. Re:How about enforcing a time-based rule? on When Does Website Monitoring Go Too Far? · · Score: 1

    When the directory is a virtual drive set for 1 gig? 1 gig. Pardon me for my lack of precision.

  8. Re:How about enforcing a time-based rule? on When Does Website Monitoring Go Too Far? · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Here's my funny story: I was using Perfmon (NT monitoring utility) to monitor usage on this half dead database server, trying to get some compelling figures so I could argue for a new server.

    So it's got all these options, and I wasn't paying attention, so I just said, "Monitor EVERYTHING...At 5 sedcond intervals."

    Fortunately, I'm not a complete idiot, and it only filled up the directory I'd set for it, not the whole harddrive, but it did teach me an important lesson about log files: You can get a gig of useless information in less than an hour, OR you can monitor the IMPORTANT stuff, and get a gig of useful information in 2 or 3 days.

    In case anyone is wondering, my logs proved 2 things: 1) That they needed a new database server and 2) That the people who were bitching about it being slow ALL the time, were actually only working about an hour a day.

  9. Re:too bad on Yahoo Shutting Out Third-Party IM Clients? · · Score: 2, Interesting

    They aren't obliged, of course, but they're silly not to. It just ticks people off, and IM software is so simple it's impossible to weed out 3rd party software. I'm sure I'm not the only programmer who had to write an IM server/client in Networking 352.

    I can't really see any way they could have "Accidentally" broken backwards compatibility. I'm sure there could be a way, but at the heart it's about the most basic type of network communication. There really isn't much to change, unless they were going to try and make it secure, which, of course, is massively unlikely.

    Just one more futile attempt to keep people from improving on what you started. Give it up. It's human nature.

  10. Wow. on College Freshman Builds Fusion Reactor · · Score: 2, Interesting

    What I love is how the article is completely free of those "fact" things. All I see is a tv screen with some molecules on it. I wrote a program that put molecules on a tv screen when I was a freshman too.

    I don't know. If its real, that's excellent. But my BS-o-meter is screaming.

  11. Re:Yes, a cat's got my tongue, OK? on Can You Raed Tihs? · · Score: 1

    According to websters, the second definition for diphthong is digraph, which would seem to suggest that though they are different things, the term is commonly used to indicate both.

  12. Re:Welcome! on Canada Immune From RIAA? · · Score: 5, Funny

    We, of the United States, think Canada sucks because you have better health care, lower crime, and legal file sharing. If you're government embraces open source, we'll have to consider the nuclear option.

    Just a warning. =P

  13. Re:In Java's case ... on Does C# Measure Up? · · Score: 1

    Casting is ITSELF a safety measure. One of the easiest ways to exploit VB is to feed it binary executable data; it doesn't care. Java throws out ANYTHING that's not exactly what it's looking for.

    Wrappers are also safety features. Basic types are called "Primitives" for a reason.

    You're not talking about anything but potential memory leaks, which has nothing to do with safety or security.

    Sounds like the same crying everybody gives when they have to learn java for the first time. Just because you've got sloppy programming habits doesn't mean it's a bad language. And after having to warp my brain to figure out damn pointers, I've no sympathy if you can't get casting and garbage collection.

  14. Re:Yes, a cat's got my tongue, OK? on Can You Raed Tihs? · · Score: 1

    They're dipthongs (or Digraphs as someone else put in) which sounds like it ought to have something to do with scantily clad women and hottubs...Or maybe I've just been coding for too long.

    I don't think this has any actual practical application, though it's an interesting insight into how our brains work. I mean, you could register all those sites, but most of these things couldn't be typed by even the worst speller: most spelling mistakes these days come from the way the keys are placed on a standard keyboard.

  15. Whoa. on Ruling on GPS Tracking Devices · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It freaks my brain that they WEREN'T required before. Somewhere in Washington there is a guy with a reciver capable of plotting every stupid thing you do in a day. If he's got a floor plan of your house, he can tell how many times a day you take a leak.

    Any kind of serious survelliance without a warrant...The only possible reason you'd want to be able to do that is so you could track people for whom a judge would refuse to give a warrant. I had my property searched WITH a warrant which had been issued because I TALKED to someone who was indicted in a crime. Guess that was too much bother for old Ashcroft. Bastard. I think he should be required to submit AT ALL TIMES to every violation of civil liberties outlined in the so-called Patriot Act...especially the one about "enemies of the state" being held in Cuba with no trial, forever. I think the founding fathers would have named him an enemy of the state.

  16. Licenses should be required for a lot of things on License to Surf, Take Two · · Score: 1

    Like having children, buying bullets, etc. I can certainly see it for net usage; I've ranted about people who don't bother securing their junk before. It's annoying as hell.

    On the other hand, I rank net usage as a basic right deeply connected with free speech and freedom of information. I'd be willing to regulate a LOT of things before I even touched the internet.

    If you did require a license, it would end up like a drivers license...anyone who wants one could easily obtain it. People scream and yell at the number of idiots on the road all the time, and presumably, they have all passed the test. Which goes to show that, like the MCSE, a license doesn't mean crap.

    In conclusion, I think it's a bad idea, and I'm glad it will never fly. Can you imagine the poor sap who'd have to go around explaining to people that they're too stupid to use the Internet?

  17. Re:Active or passive attacks? on Linux Most Attacked Server? · · Score: 1

    Ummmm...Assume?

  18. Seems wierd. on Linux Most Attacked Server? · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I mean, certainly part of it could be attributed to the fact that there really aren't that many windows servers. And it's pretty obvious that he's not counting viri as hacks. Could be they're counting web site compromises as "Hacks", which would explain the numbers, but which is completely misleading. It's hard as hell to totally secure a website, but a properly configured webserver should default you to "Nobody" even if it gets hacked, which would allow a theoretical intruder little leeway.

    Even so, I don't know about their numbers. I mean, hypothetically speaking, if I were to go after a server, would I try a linux box, which is at least middlin secure right out of the box, or would I go after an NT box, usually hopelessly insecure, admin'd by some silly MCSE who's probably not going to notice, and not going to be able to catch me, using any one of a number of common script tools to exploit any one of a number of massive windows security flaws?

    I do security for at least part of my living, and I've always found windows to be laughably insecure. I broke the security on this one box 20 TIMES in 2 weeks, and every time it was a new flaw. (And a new check for me. Mmmmmmm. Windows money.) I've never managed to do that to a linux box.

    I'd really want to see their data. I mean, sure you can crack a linux box, but the easiest ways are 1) Social engineering and 2) physical access.
    I've had MS guys give me their admin passwords OVER the fricking phone.

    Bah. Anyway. This sounds like FUD to me.

  19. Hehehehehe on Back To SCO · · Score: 1

    Welcome to the wonderful world of /.

    You'll never randomly click a link again.

  20. Re:Click bang !! on RIAA Sues 12-Year Old Girl · · Score: 1

    In my experience, rich people are enormous cheapskates, so I don't see any reason why one wouldn't be using a p2p network. At the same time, there are so few of them, that it seems unlikely that the RIAA will hit one of them, unlike, apparently 12 year old girls.

  21. Re:Automated is good. on Essay Grading Software For Teachers · · Score: 1

    Hmmmmm.

    I think crypto might be a better comparison in this case. It might not be possible...well, easy, at least, to recreate the exact paper which spawned the rule.

    On the other hand, as with cryptography, while it's hard to recreate the exact message, it's easy to create more messages with the same rules which would be acceptable to the decrypter on the other end.

  22. Re:Take that emacs zealots! on Linux Distro For Linksys WRT54G · · Score: 1

    Well, at least ONE distro is 95% perfect.

    Heh.

  23. Re:Why the vow? on RIAA Sues 261 Major P2P Offenders · · Score: 1

    Makes it easier to sue you. If it does get thrown out in court, then they can still hit you if you've signed some agreement with them saying you won't.

    That's the only reason I can think of why they'd do it. That or as part of the amnesty, to get you to turn yourself in.

  24. My ISP already filters ports. on Should ISPs Be The Little Man's Firewall? · · Score: 1

    Mostly they do it so people like me don't set up websites and leach the living hell out of their bandwidth, but they've recently cut port 25: all mail has to be sent through THEIR mail server. If you want to set up one of your own, you have to switch the default ports.

    Not too pleased, but it's cheap and I'm broke so it'll have to do for now.

  25. Re:Buddy, you're dangling on Essay Grading Software For Teachers · · Score: 1

    Hee hee hee.
    I couldn't resist.