All we need to do now is clone something and pantent it...
I can just imagine in a few years that purple-skinned people will be used for slavery, and sold under a pantented process. All you need to do is make a slight alteration to a life form in order to pantent it...such as adding a few miscolored hairs on a gorilla.
Then you've got to consider a large company selling them attempting to expand their pantent to ordinary people. "But your honor, it's just the skin thats a difference".
At least canadians have enough of a brain to figure out the difference between a lifeform and an electric circut.
Just another reason to use proxmitron and an ad-blocking firewall to me, and to take my TV apart and use it for spare parts...
Now, what I'm really interested in is the effect it would have on wierd people like me, as well as other people. For all they know, they could make a mistake and control people to buy the compeditors product or, when you start layering these commercials ontop of eachother, you may start making homicidal maniacs.
There is only so much garbage the human mind can handle before it begins to either learn to filter it out or the individual stops functioning normally. The subliminal mind isn't something these advertising agencies should be using to control consumers.
In the end, the idea of advertising is to get an entry into the consumers brain about your product and if they are interested, they buy it. It is not to control the consumer. especailly if they don't want what you are trying to sell them.
Make the book big and mostly useless, fill with so-called "useful information" and sell it at market price. - How to make decent money
This does 2 things:
A: It keeps good job security: Once an idiot(person with low intellect for my purpose) sees the 50+books on the shelf, each over 1k pages, he'll decide that it's a bad idea to go for an IT job. Or better, he shells out $500 for a class and finds out he's expected to read 2000 pages of text plus do a lab manual, plus tests. Makes more money for us who can endure it, or actually figure out how the stuff works.
B: Provides an invaluable recource for referencing to. You're in a bind and can't remember a prociedure, dive into that book and you can find what you need to know.
For example, I have 3 A+ cert books on my shelf. Each of them explain nada to me about the important stuff; how the processer works, how the busses work, basic electronics and binary, etc. eow most of the new stuff works becuase I never learned how the old stuff works in detail.
It's also partially dependance. If you get your cert on one line of books, you'll buy the new editions to keep upto date, ensuring the next book will sell well. However, anyone with half of a brain knows that you read reviews about the new prociedures with the new tech before it comes out. If you don't you are most likely an idiot technician, or the guy who broke the simm slot on my grandma's motherboard, called a better tech over to save your ass, and taped the sim into the slot with masking tape...then stole the dip ram out of it...
....
I feel the need to go down to best buy and open a can of whup-ass on their "techs"...
The only reason I don't hike is because I'm a lazy fatass, but the gorgeous sunsets on the mountains I'v seen when I'v hiked up them are more than worth the time and effort of not only hiking the mountain, but also keeping that forest preserve open.
But frankly, it really saddens me when my car gets splattered by a squirrel becuase some jackass in a SUV decided that going down a 20mph 1.5 lane street at 30mph was a good idea, and didn't have time to stop or dodge (which they could've too). It's not so much the fact that they ran over the squirrel, that saddens me right their. But it's the fact they can be so inconsiderate to not only the squirrel but also to their neighbors. Accidents happen becuase people are dumb, this is an understood fact, but when you just turn off your brain like that...it angers and saddens me at the same time. These jackasses get to have all the power they want but they don't know how to use it in a mutually beneficial way.
So, frankly, wiether I like it or not, I'm pretty much powerless to stop these cooks from tearing down the rainforests and polluting the air with CO2. Although, if I could stop them I would. We already have tons of power and all sorts of new energy sources; it's really the fault of monopolies that pretty much destory anyone who has a new, innovated idea. Essentailly, we all suffer in the end.
If we can keep the assholes and idiots out of places of power, then we'll be doing good. It's beginning to get really bad with so many of them. The scary fact is that a predicion I made a few years back of "we'll probably go into civil war within 50 years" may come true...
Mabye it's come time to move to canada? I hear they are nice people, and me and them share a mututal ideal: we don't like fighting...
There's still one big fundemental problem with their "software";
The user has to be dumb enough to execute it before they can figure out if they are using ad-blockers.
This technology relies on html, php, java, and some server-side programming if I'm right(which I'm probably not). Not too tough to bypass with a little knowledge of html, or a filter designed to block it (proxomitron anyone?).
Until they can figure out a way to force the user to run code on their system they don't want to run, which isn't going to happen to the people who don't want it run, then they are essentially screwed. As we all know, this is going to be next to impossible.
Infact, I'm quite sure that I, an amatuer HTML coder, can quite easily script out their code using proxomitron. And even then, if they don't want to provide an experience at the level I want it to be at. If I don't want pop-ups, then I don't want popups. Why keep a consumer from accessing your page when they don't want to see the popup, when they are going to see all the banners and other ad's you've put up. Another thing you also need to realize is that by asking a person to turn off their ad-blocking software, you're also asking them to turn of their protection to certain things. I use proxomitron for a good deal of security, and to keep me protected against exploites to come (which it, interestingly, does). I wonder if this blocks anti-virus programs that activly scan html as well...or if you can use it to selectivly target systems...it just opens a whole new realm of malicious intent.
Another thought occured to me...what about blocking the major ad sites at your router? I have a decent router with a ad-blocking firewall and I can still use it to block the ad's from the major companies(and cookies).
Nonetheless, we're going to see more elaborate schemes. Eventually I'll bet you'll get some kind of webring that can only be accessed if you have X software installed, and you pay $$ a monthy to use that software. I wonder how many more buisness models are going to hit the smoking pile of rubble before they realize that it's impossible to wage war with their customers.
Alright, fine. College students getting their PC's taken away because someone bribed the cops and they had reasonable suspicion of some sort that they were running a server. I don't like it at all, but this world sometimes works in a crazy, unconstitutional way.
But our military? That just hits me over the head with a 9-iron.
Does the corruption really go this far? So far to turn the men and women who are willing and able to give and take lives for us into ordinary college students? You'd think these guys' numbers are going to come up faster than ours, and they are willing to do the dirty work: you give them the respect they deserve because of this.
I mean, really, if the media companies can pay off an officer or some higher-up guy to confiscate and interrogate without even decent suspicion; just on the magic word and call of some media company and some money on the side then how much money and magic words would it take for them to turn the military into their lap dogs? Or more concurrently, has it already happened?
Even more unruly: we don't know if it's illegal yet because there is so much debate going on. Copying us much different than theft, especially mass copying and when you have millions involved. The media companies are not just trying to protect their rights, they are trying to extend them and going this far is really getting me on my nerves.
The real reason all 3 companies are sueing Lik-sang is becuase they want to keep their regional game monopolies regional.
They sell more expensive in the US than in europe, or vice versa, or they may sell then in japan for 3x as much as in amercia. It's mostly statistics and how they can extract the optimum amount of money. As we all know the lower the price of an item, the more it well sell and vice versa, the more expensive an item is the less it will sell. Throwing all other factors aside, you'll notice that when you plot a graph of this you get a nice curve. Find the optimum point ont he curve, and estemate for those other factors, do some tricky math, and you find metroid prime should be selling at $49.99 in europe and $59.99 in the USA to make the maximum amount of money, even though they are the same game.
So, they regionalize their systems, which is inexpensive, and they increase their profits by fixing the market price of their units. Illegally, mind you.
Then, some guy comes along with a soddering iron, figures out how to bypass it. Some company starts selling chips becuase the guy figured he can save $20-40 a game by buying it in europe, or some european can get a game 5 months in advance of it's european release, and you start having problems with those statistics. In short, shops would literally spring up overnight to do this kind of thing if retailers didn't think they'd get the full wraith of hades forced upon them.
Another thing. The system is designed to play the game while the disk is in. They don't make nay fancy carrieing cases or fancy protective gear for the game when it's on CD. So, over time, the CD will become damaged to the point where it has to be rebaught. By making sure the person can't play the game in the future, and by making sure that you can force people to buy a new game when the original breaks, you can further increase your profit margins.
Then when someone questions them, they pay off the reporter or person, or tell them that they do it to ward off piracy then deny the fact that, statistically, they are completly incorrect. They then release the statistics at the end of the year, round off to some big number, and then publish it for joe-smoe's kid to use in his report.
So no, it's not hard work anymore. It's the fact that one guy is good at something, and another guy who isn't as good decided to take legal action so he can compete.
Game designers, on the other hand, I have a certain respect for. They do work hard and I bet they enjoy every moment of it.
I do think it is a good idea to keep cheaters off of servers, but it's an entirely different thing to ban people who've payed for the console, game, service, and equipment because of a mod chip. I haven't seen anyone argue that the EULA says "If you have modded your x-box, it is M$'s right to let you use the service or not", which may very well be hidden in a "Microsoft may boot you for any reason, at any time, etc etc etc."
If microsoft really wanted to give their customers what they paid for, they'd add an option to block modded x-boxes from joining a server someone is running or creat modded-box only servers that run x-box server side stuff only.
Then again, microsoft probably doesn't want people hacking in (which I am sure will happen anyway), so there is some logic to the arguement. In a buisness sense, it is a good move, but to the public it's a rather bad one.
If they give full, $ for $ refunds to people who get banned becuase of this, then they are fair, but otherwise let M$ burn in hell for all eternity.
And I knew crap like this would pop up, thats why I didn't want to spend my cash on an x-box. Instead, I built myself a machine: one that will soon be rid of win2k and be running suse 8.x or better. Actually, while we're on the linux vs windows crap...
MS debates that Linux will cost more overhead, but frankly, when a system goes tipsup and has palladium, won't it take some time and moolah for the tech to reinstall programs, somehow get the users data back, etc? And won't that be paid time?
Flip your compass around, and it's as good as new!...if you can read backwards.
I hate media hype, anyone mind linking to a decent non-profit driven science site or blog?
Cisco 806 Router
Nat+firewall
"Exec timeout 0" in exec mode
The most insecure thing in my network is the modem, and the boxes running win2k.
And people do try to break in, I have logs. Using various exploits including buffer overflow, and fail miserably each and every time.
But as for my buddies running linksys routers...they are about to get a real treat > : )
It should get quite interesting when their main consumer base, mostly dumb idiots, nt be able listen to their newly baught metallica album on their portable cd player or in their sterio...they will return that thing so quick claiming it doesn't work. And when they can't return it, they simply won't buy the music.
I doubt it will work.
And do note, the DMCA hasn't stood up in court yet...
Anyone seen Suse8.1?
Sw33t piece of software, mind you. With some more tweaking, it'll be better, as in more user friendly, than XP.
Personally, I think we, as a community, need to start pressuring companies to put out solid drivers for linux, make solid programs for linux, and just generally pressure hardware manufactuers to go with linux. Just bug their sales departments for support for the easier to use flavious of linux. Once we can start to get manufacturers and software makers supporting linux and windows, we'll see 2 things:
A: MS will start playing fair and compeditiove
B: MS will die
We've got staroffice for most of your office apps, plus the OS itself is a work of art and security. The only thing that is lacking is games; of which most are being made to support linux anyway as most online games need linux servers unless you like the server crashing every few hours.
As for palladium, it's a few years off. Linux has some time to get into manufactuer's PC's and get accepted at the storeshelfs of stores like best buy and Compusa. Especially when we start seeing PC's with suse on them. Dell will probably accept them fairly soon, seeing how they can undercut their competition another $100.
If this were all happenning a year ago, I'd be afraid. But since It's happening today, I'm planning to stick linux classes in my course schedule for the next few semesters.
The absolute only way microsoft is going to compete with linux is if they start competing, or if they outlaw it(not likely). And remember, people will do whatever the fuck they want, they will crack your programs. Remember, most hackers came from a bullied backround. When they are sick of it, they give the middle finger to the bully and go about their buisness.
Since it seems the majority of slashdots audience is 13 year olds....
If you want to make them sweat, ask the questions that are going to hurt the most. The General ones are too easy, you want to reinforce the pain with direct evidence as to their incompetance. I think I have a batch that
will make them squeam in pain and potentially give the poor representative a heart attack.
1: If Microsoft is going to implement any autonomous updating mechanisms in Palladium or any future operating
system, will those autoupdating mechanisms be protected against the attacks that, for example, allowed the virus,
Nimda, to slip into a help file in the korean release of.net, or allowed previous viruses to slip into updates Microsoft publicly released? If Microsoft was hacked and someone was able to execute a DDOS attack with however many millions of PC's a Micrsoft had autoupdated, what kinds of recovery mechanisms and schemes would be in place to recover from such of a disaster? And finally, would these recovery mechanisms include saving a users data if the virus hadn't already wiped it out?
-To give them a heart attack. Point out the biggest, baddest, most major flaw in their system that can indeed be exploited.
2: If Microsoft is to compete with linux and other open-source operating systems, what portions of code would microsoft be willing to release to the public so modifications of the operating system would be possible?
-To catch them completly off guard.
3: Will there be any central-verification of ownership with Palladium much like that implemented with XP that would require the dissemination of user identifiable data to Microsoft as a verification of purchase mechainism? If so, will this automatically sign users up for passport? Also, would such data be protected against dissemination out of Microsofts computer system much like the accidental posting of Passports users PI on Infospace's Internet White Pages which attributesd to Hotmails spam problem? In addition, will users be opted out of all advertising and any security features and/or extras by default?
-To make sure that they will keep our data safe and secure. I especially like the last line =)
4: Will Microsoft's palladium enabled software, such as the Office Suite, have proper, GPL'd lisencing for at least 1 file format so that users may opt-out of having their data stored in a properietary format?
-A bit more aggressive, but it's something they won't be ready for either.
5: What will a palladium-enabled operating system consider "secure" software? Will it be anything of the users choosing or will software only be allowed to run if it has the proper securities approved by some external party?
- This is nailing the coffin shut, frankly. They will be prepared for this one, but unless they answer "users will be able to do what they want with palladium enabled" then they are directly answering that something is amiss.
Slashdot Mirror
But their plumming would be a complete disaster in a matter of minutes...
Get ADSL, setup a linux box, point it at his ipstack and domain name, and spam website systems with e-mail addresses pointed at that domain....
Soo...very...tempting...
All we need to do now is clone something and pantent it...
I can just imagine in a few years that purple-skinned people will be used for slavery, and sold under a pantented process. All you need to do is make a slight alteration to a life form in order to pantent it...such as adding a few miscolored hairs on a gorilla.
Then you've got to consider a large company selling them attempting to expand their pantent to ordinary people. "But your honor, it's just the skin thats a difference".
At least canadians have enough of a brain to figure out the difference between a lifeform and an electric circut.
Just another reason to use proxmitron and an ad-blocking firewall to me, and to take my TV apart and use it for spare parts...
Now, what I'm really interested in is the effect it would have on wierd people like me, as well as other people. For all they know, they could make a mistake and control people to buy the compeditors product or, when you start layering these commercials ontop of eachother, you may start making homicidal maniacs.
There is only so much garbage the human mind can handle before it begins to either learn to filter it out or the individual stops functioning normally. The subliminal mind isn't something these advertising agencies should be using to control consumers.
In the end, the idea of advertising is to get an entry into the consumers brain about your product and if they are interested, they buy it. It is not to control the consumer. especailly if they don't want what you are trying to sell them.
I was like, watching TV...and all of a sudden it was like...bleep bleep bloop bleep...and it start showing me gay porn.
Tivo devoured my tv show...
And it was a very good TV show too. And, now because of it...I'm like, watching gay porn 24/7...
Make the book big and mostly useless, fill with so-called "useful information" and sell it at market price. - How to make decent money
....
This does 2 things:
A: It keeps good job security: Once an idiot(person with low intellect for my purpose) sees the 50+books on the shelf, each over 1k pages, he'll decide that it's a bad idea to go for an IT job. Or better, he shells out $500 for a class and finds out he's expected to read 2000 pages of text plus do a lab manual, plus tests. Makes more money for us who can endure it, or actually figure out how the stuff works.
B: Provides an invaluable recource for referencing to. You're in a bind and can't remember a prociedure, dive into that book and you can find what you need to know.
For example, I have 3 A+ cert books on my shelf. Each of them explain nada to me about the important stuff; how the processer works, how the busses work, basic electronics and binary, etc. eow most of the new stuff works becuase I never learned how the old stuff works in detail.
It's also partially dependance. If you get your cert on one line of books, you'll buy the new editions to keep upto date, ensuring the next book will sell well. However, anyone with half of a brain knows that you read reviews about the new prociedures with the new tech before it comes out. If you don't you are most likely an idiot technician, or the guy who broke the simm slot on my grandma's motherboard, called a better tech over to save your ass, and taped the sim into the slot with masking tape...then stole the dip ram out of it...
I feel the need to go down to best buy and open a can of whup-ass on their "techs"...
The only reason I don't hike is because I'm a lazy fatass, but the gorgeous sunsets on the mountains I'v seen when I'v hiked up them are more than worth the time and effort of not only hiking the mountain, but also keeping that forest preserve open.
But frankly, it really saddens me when my car gets splattered by a squirrel becuase some jackass in a SUV decided that going down a 20mph 1.5 lane street at 30mph was a good idea, and didn't have time to stop or dodge (which they could've too). It's not so much the fact that they ran over the squirrel, that saddens me right their. But it's the fact they can be so inconsiderate to not only the squirrel but also to their neighbors. Accidents happen becuase people are dumb, this is an understood fact, but when you just turn off your brain like that...it angers and saddens me at the same time. These jackasses get to have all the power they want but they don't know how to use it in a mutually beneficial way.
So, frankly, wiether I like it or not, I'm pretty much powerless to stop these cooks from tearing down the rainforests and polluting the air with CO2. Although, if I could stop them I would. We already have tons of power and all sorts of new energy sources; it's really the fault of monopolies that pretty much destory anyone who has a new, innovated idea. Essentailly, we all suffer in the end.
If we can keep the assholes and idiots out of places of power, then we'll be doing good. It's beginning to get really bad with so many of them. The scary fact is that a predicion I made a few years back of "we'll probably go into civil war within 50 years" may come true...
Mabye it's come time to move to canada? I hear they are nice people, and me and them share a mututal ideal: we don't like fighting...
There's still one big fundemental problem with their "software";
The user has to be dumb enough to execute it before they can figure out if they are using ad-blockers.
This technology relies on html, php, java, and some server-side programming if I'm right(which I'm probably not). Not too tough to bypass with a little knowledge of html, or a filter designed to block it (proxomitron anyone?).
Until they can figure out a way to force the user to run code on their system they don't want to run, which isn't going to happen to the people who don't want it run, then they are essentially screwed. As we all know, this is going to be next to impossible.
Infact, I'm quite sure that I, an amatuer HTML coder, can quite easily script out their code using proxomitron. And even then, if they don't want to provide an experience at the level I want it to be at. If I don't want pop-ups, then I don't want popups. Why keep a consumer from accessing your page when they don't want to see the popup, when they are going to see all the banners and other ad's you've put up. Another thing you also need to realize is that by asking a person to turn off their ad-blocking software, you're also asking them to turn of their protection to certain things. I use proxomitron for a good deal of security, and to keep me protected against exploites to come (which it, interestingly, does). I wonder if this blocks anti-virus programs that activly scan html as well...or if you can use it to selectivly target systems...it just opens a whole new realm of malicious intent.
Another thought occured to me...what about blocking the major ad sites at your router? I have a decent router with a ad-blocking firewall and I can still use it to block the ad's from the major companies(and cookies).
Nonetheless, we're going to see more elaborate schemes. Eventually I'll bet you'll get some kind of webring that can only be accessed if you have X software installed, and you pay $$ a monthy to use that software. I wonder how many more buisness models are going to hit the smoking pile of rubble before they realize that it's impossible to wage war with their customers.
Alright, fine. College students getting their PC's taken away because someone bribed the cops and they had reasonable suspicion of some sort that they were running a server. I don't like it at all, but this world sometimes works in a crazy, unconstitutional way. But our military? That just hits me over the head with a 9-iron. Does the corruption really go this far? So far to turn the men and women who are willing and able to give and take lives for us into ordinary college students? You'd think these guys' numbers are going to come up faster than ours, and they are willing to do the dirty work: you give them the respect they deserve because of this. I mean, really, if the media companies can pay off an officer or some higher-up guy to confiscate and interrogate without even decent suspicion; just on the magic word and call of some media company and some money on the side then how much money and magic words would it take for them to turn the military into their lap dogs? Or more concurrently, has it already happened? Even more unruly: we don't know if it's illegal yet because there is so much debate going on. Copying us much different than theft, especially mass copying and when you have millions involved. The media companies are not just trying to protect their rights, they are trying to extend them and going this far is really getting me on my nerves.
The real reason all 3 companies are sueing Lik-sang is becuase they want to keep their regional game monopolies regional. They sell more expensive in the US than in europe, or vice versa, or they may sell then in japan for 3x as much as in amercia. It's mostly statistics and how they can extract the optimum amount of money. As we all know the lower the price of an item, the more it well sell and vice versa, the more expensive an item is the less it will sell. Throwing all other factors aside, you'll notice that when you plot a graph of this you get a nice curve. Find the optimum point ont he curve, and estemate for those other factors, do some tricky math, and you find metroid prime should be selling at $49.99 in europe and $59.99 in the USA to make the maximum amount of money, even though they are the same game. So, they regionalize their systems, which is inexpensive, and they increase their profits by fixing the market price of their units. Illegally, mind you. Then, some guy comes along with a soddering iron, figures out how to bypass it. Some company starts selling chips becuase the guy figured he can save $20-40 a game by buying it in europe, or some european can get a game 5 months in advance of it's european release, and you start having problems with those statistics. In short, shops would literally spring up overnight to do this kind of thing if retailers didn't think they'd get the full wraith of hades forced upon them. Another thing. The system is designed to play the game while the disk is in. They don't make nay fancy carrieing cases or fancy protective gear for the game when it's on CD. So, over time, the CD will become damaged to the point where it has to be rebaught. By making sure the person can't play the game in the future, and by making sure that you can force people to buy a new game when the original breaks, you can further increase your profit margins. Then when someone questions them, they pay off the reporter or person, or tell them that they do it to ward off piracy then deny the fact that, statistically, they are completly incorrect. They then release the statistics at the end of the year, round off to some big number, and then publish it for joe-smoe's kid to use in his report. So no, it's not hard work anymore. It's the fact that one guy is good at something, and another guy who isn't as good decided to take legal action so he can compete. Game designers, on the other hand, I have a certain respect for. They do work hard and I bet they enjoy every moment of it.
I do think it is a good idea to keep cheaters off of servers, but it's an entirely different thing to ban people who've payed for the console, game, service, and equipment because of a mod chip. I haven't seen anyone argue that the EULA says "If you have modded your x-box, it is M$'s right to let you use the service or not", which may very well be hidden in a "Microsoft may boot you for any reason, at any time, etc etc etc." If microsoft really wanted to give their customers what they paid for, they'd add an option to block modded x-boxes from joining a server someone is running or creat modded-box only servers that run x-box server side stuff only. Then again, microsoft probably doesn't want people hacking in (which I am sure will happen anyway), so there is some logic to the arguement. In a buisness sense, it is a good move, but to the public it's a rather bad one. If they give full, $ for $ refunds to people who get banned becuase of this, then they are fair, but otherwise let M$ burn in hell for all eternity. And I knew crap like this would pop up, thats why I didn't want to spend my cash on an x-box. Instead, I built myself a machine: one that will soon be rid of win2k and be running suse 8.x or better. Actually, while we're on the linux vs windows crap... MS debates that Linux will cost more overhead, but frankly, when a system goes tipsup and has palladium, won't it take some time and moolah for the tech to reinstall programs, somehow get the users data back, etc? And won't that be paid time?
And I'm still waiting for some guy(or gal) to come out of the blue with a killer virus and wipe the internet clean....
Flip your compass around, and it's as good as new!...if you can read backwards. I hate media hype, anyone mind linking to a decent non-profit driven science site or blog?
Cisco 806 Router Nat+firewall "Exec timeout 0" in exec mode The most insecure thing in my network is the modem, and the boxes running win2k. And people do try to break in, I have logs. Using various exploits including buffer overflow, and fail miserably each and every time. But as for my buddies running linksys routers...they are about to get a real treat > : )
It should get quite interesting when their main consumer base, mostly dumb idiots, nt be able listen to their newly baught metallica album on their portable cd player or in their sterio...they will return that thing so quick claiming it doesn't work. And when they can't return it, they simply won't buy the music. I doubt it will work. And do note, the DMCA hasn't stood up in court yet...
Anyone seen Suse8.1? Sw33t piece of software, mind you. With some more tweaking, it'll be better, as in more user friendly, than XP. Personally, I think we, as a community, need to start pressuring companies to put out solid drivers for linux, make solid programs for linux, and just generally pressure hardware manufactuers to go with linux. Just bug their sales departments for support for the easier to use flavious of linux. Once we can start to get manufacturers and software makers supporting linux and windows, we'll see 2 things: A: MS will start playing fair and compeditiove B: MS will die We've got staroffice for most of your office apps, plus the OS itself is a work of art and security. The only thing that is lacking is games; of which most are being made to support linux anyway as most online games need linux servers unless you like the server crashing every few hours. As for palladium, it's a few years off. Linux has some time to get into manufactuer's PC's and get accepted at the storeshelfs of stores like best buy and Compusa. Especially when we start seeing PC's with suse on them. Dell will probably accept them fairly soon, seeing how they can undercut their competition another $100. If this were all happenning a year ago, I'd be afraid. But since It's happening today, I'm planning to stick linux classes in my course schedule for the next few semesters. The absolute only way microsoft is going to compete with linux is if they start competing, or if they outlaw it(not likely). And remember, people will do whatever the fuck they want, they will crack your programs. Remember, most hackers came from a bullied backround. When they are sick of it, they give the middle finger to the bully and go about their buisness.
I wonder who they bribed....
Since it seems the majority of slashdots audience is 13 year olds.... If you want to make them sweat, ask the questions that are going to hurt the most. The General ones are too easy, you want to reinforce the pain with direct evidence as to their incompetance. I think I have a batch that will make them squeam in pain and potentially give the poor representative a heart attack. 1: If Microsoft is going to implement any autonomous updating mechanisms in Palladium or any future operating system, will those autoupdating mechanisms be protected against the attacks that, for example, allowed the virus, Nimda, to slip into a help file in the korean release of .net, or allowed previous viruses to slip into updates Microsoft publicly released? If Microsoft was hacked and someone was able to execute a DDOS attack with however many millions of PC's a Micrsoft had autoupdated, what kinds of recovery mechanisms and schemes would be in place to recover from such of a disaster? And finally, would these recovery mechanisms include saving a users data if the virus hadn't already wiped it out?
-To give them a heart attack. Point out the biggest, baddest, most major flaw in their system that can indeed be exploited.
2: If Microsoft is to compete with linux and other open-source operating systems, what portions of code would microsoft be willing to release to the public so modifications of the operating system would be possible?
-To catch them completly off guard.
3: Will there be any central-verification of ownership with Palladium much like that implemented with XP that would require the dissemination of user identifiable data to Microsoft as a verification of purchase mechainism? If so, will this automatically sign users up for passport? Also, would such data be protected against dissemination out of Microsofts computer system much like the accidental posting of Passports users PI on Infospace's Internet White Pages which attributesd to Hotmails spam problem? In addition, will users be opted out of all advertising and any security features and/or extras by default?
-To make sure that they will keep our data safe and secure. I especially like the last line =)
4: Will Microsoft's palladium enabled software, such as the Office Suite, have proper, GPL'd lisencing for at least 1 file format so that users may opt-out of having their data stored in a properietary format?
-A bit more aggressive, but it's something they won't be ready for either.
5: What will a palladium-enabled operating system consider "secure" software? Will it be anything of the users choosing or will software only be allowed to run if it has the proper securities approved by some external party?
- This is nailing the coffin shut, frankly. They will be prepared for this one, but unless they answer "users will be able to do what they want with palladium enabled" then they are directly answering that something is amiss.