What kind of "freedom" does a citizen have in a communist country?
I'm sure that the poster was being sarcastic in this remark. When you can point at oppresive governments that give you more freedom in particular areas than your current freedom-loving government, it means it's either time to change or time to drop the land of the free banner altogether.
- microsoft.com runs windows. it's a website that gets more traffic than most. it stands up - microsoft, as a company and as a network entity, gets hit with more attacks than just about any other corporate or network presence. generally, it holds up
You're overestimating Windows. The fact that it stands up to attacks (generally, as you said) isn't necessarily because it's a superior product. It's more because Microsoft can, and does, pour millions of extra dollars to make it resistant to attacks.
Believe me, they have the money to make anything seem credible. Even Windows 3.11 if they still cared for it.
And while it seems like you have the inside knowledge on how things went from a Hotmail employee's point of view, I'd take any of those comments with a grain of salt. If Hotmail/MS were my employers and paid my salary, I'd probably favor Win2K without paying much tribute to actual stats.;)
I don't like the part about the fees. Palladium does seem to have one strong point in making its applications hard to exploit (even the badly-written ones).
So won't this hurt Linux and Open Source software in general? High fees would keep Microsoft's good competitors (Apache, for instance) away from Palladium, and then we'd have all the unbearable boasting about how IIS is more secure.
...because I'd love to have an idea of how many users went to the effort of borkifying MSN. I now I will; it's the only way to extract some usefulness out if that portal.
Now imagine if they send special HTML to block it:
Deer MSN veeseetor,
Thees browser ees not supported. Pleese-a downloed Internet Explorer, eet's free-a!
Sometimes I get the feeling that MS has been so dominant in the OS market for so long, some of the old-timers still in charge actually miss the days where they had any adversaries.
So they keep their eyes too open and attack even the tiny companies that fight over whatever MS leaves behind.
What exactly does MS expect to gain from its campaign...? 30, maybe 35 people crazy enough to switch? Maybe, ooh, a 1% sales increase in the most wildly optimistic aftermath?
And besides, to take on MacOs X in its current form, you either have to have an incredibly good piece of software, or you just have to be stupid enough to try and spin truths to gain consumer loyalty. Since MS never had any of the former, they have to try the latter.
Anonymous and cowardly, but nonetheless very wise. I'd like to elaborate on your short comment:
The problem isn't really with wysiwig. You can build your pages in Dreamweaver or even Mozilla Composer, check across multiple browsers for consistency, and still save time if pure HTML isn't your thing.
The main problem is FrontPage or anything MS. Needless, incomprehensible tags and something guaranteed to look ugly in anything except IE if you're not careful. They give wysiwyg a bad name, but not that they care anyway... just use Microsoft stuff and your problems are over. Right right?
If the GBA has enough CPU power to decode lossy audio, It would be rather cool to buy a cartridge with SmartMedia (or XD, whatever) that would let me listen to MP3's on it. Or maybe even -- God forbid -- Ogg Vorbis!
It wouldn't even matter if the thing cost about the same as a standalone player... I'd buy it. Having one machine as a music player and gaming device just means one less device to carry around, and I could even look just a little less nerdy in the process.
No, wait. I'll be carrying a GameBoy with an MP3 hack. Forget what I said about looking less nerdy.
Was this article supposed to be funny? Seems more like it was written by junior high school students.
Yeah, turning Q*Bert into a drug addict... the quick n' dirty way to get cheap laughs with little effort. To make that even funnier, they could have added:
1) Old ladies that say fuck off, and show their wrinkled middle fingers;
2) Someone getting kicked in the balls;
3) Someone getting still-framed and rotated matrix-like while kicking somebody in the balls.
At least the people at Wikipedia take the time to mention when a particular subject is sensitive to bias. Their articles on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict mention this before you get to the available information.
This is already better than most publisher-coordinated efforts, where the reader may be caught off guard and absorb heavily biased information without exercising much critical thinking. And if you disagree, you may always contribute with your own article.
Just for the record -- those of you running Red Hat can enjoy some apt-get benefits from freshrpms.net. You install apt (and optionally the GUI-oriented Synaptic), and just sit back and enjoy the world of easy rpms without dependency problems.
Not quite as complete as Debian, but fantastic for those who don't feel like starting over and making the switch.
For someone who is supposed to be an utmost authority in crypto...his article was very lacking in anything that remotely addressed the issue of the question at the heading 'Is open-source software better for security than proprietary software?'
Yep. I respect Mr. Diffie and still rely on part of his work (as most of us do), but this article is useless.
It would have made a great high school term paper, though.
Good points. Anyway, exchanging copyrighted files with other people isn't on my justice agenda. I much prefer the quality of DVD video over DivX (however good the format is), and I've been buying three times more CDs since the music-sharing world opened my ears to the rich content out there.
But never mind me -- I'm the kind of guy that proves that even filesharing is potentially good for the market and therefore pollute the MPAA/RIAA's righteous statistics.
On behalf of Warner Bros., owner of the exclusive rights to the copyrighted material at issue in this notice, we hereby state, pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Title 17 United States Code Section 512, that we have a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by Warner Bros., its respective agents, or the law.
If I were an Australian ISP owner on a good day, my reply would probably go along these lines:
Dear Sirs,
I appreciate your concerns regarding our user's private behavior on their own accounts. Your opinion is very important to us.
We are afraid, however, that your letter was mistakenly sent to the wrong continent.
Going back to cartridge-based systems will only make thinks a little harder for the pirates, but therein lies another problem: if a pirated cartridge costs more than a copied GameCube CD, wouldn't the effort be useless?
Please... If you were really that worried about adoption of your standard you would either A) Drop your license rate, B) Open your codec completely or C) Make a better product than MS' and the cost is a moot point.
This looks good in theory, but it's completely unsustainable in the Real Market. But I don't blame you for thinking this way; we're seeing so many frivolous lawsuits lately that it's not always easy to tell the cry-babies apart from those with legitimate concerns.
Microsoft can affort to licence their technology at a loss in pretty much any area. How, you ask...? Because you have to buy Windows XP at $400 (some $350 in pure, unadulterated profit) and thus give MS all the firepower they need to drive other competitors out of business.
Just wait and see if WM9 becomes industry standard. You'll be paying $300 for a $200 product, just to cover the WM licensing fees.
And then we'll be seeing the same kind of people complaining on Slashdot: Well, they have the RIGHT to charge as much as they want for the license... they have overwhelming market support, and it was SUPERIOR QUALITY that got them there in the first place!
Let me try to understand this: some spammer is charging money from other spammers to exploit and devalue Google's search service, and annoy Google's users at the same time with irrelevant results. When Google takes appropriate action against this, the spammer sues?!
Yeah, right. Next, I'll be sued by spammers for deleting their junk mail without reading it, and depriving them from their principal source of income.
DRM won't work because it _is_ the major flaw
on
Real DRM
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
Windows Media was the first DRM format to really catch on. It comes along with Windows and it's the default media format for anything produced by Microsoft software. (Ever try digital ripping through Media Player? Only wma, not even wave output!)
Anyone wonder why, after years of pressure and usually successful MS pushing of their formats, it still loses to good old MP3 by a ridiculously large margin in user preference? Three letters: DRM.
When you download a DRM-enabled wma file, it's far from obvious to the regular user. So when the file expires or the user upgrades his computer and tries to listen to his files burned onto an old CD-R, that'll be his last experience with the format. And voilá, another wma hater.
Not to mention wmv's and their 'features', such as popping up web links embedded into the media file. Irritating, to say the least!
And that's what DRM is all about. Even if Big Media backs it up, and even if it'll be the only way to get 'hot new content' (whatever that is), users will always revert to the best free media alternative when they have a choice.
Anyway I think the effort to find the key by throwing random numbers at it is practically impossible, however many clients you can muster. This is a 2048-bit number (256 bytes) that you need to factor correctly into two primes.
No question about that. It took three years for the RC5 effort to brute-force a 64-bit key!
Now, I am not a Real Programmer, but it appears the NT kernel used in the X-Box lacks a few features, including memory protection. Wouldn't this allow any running task to peek into any part of the X-Box memory space, and change things at will?
I like the project... but is this feasible? Wouldn't cracking the X-Box encryption key violate the DMCA and put a lot of people in trouble? Microsoft could afford the lawyers, you know.
Somehow, I don't think having access to cnn.com and cnet.com is what these people really need...
It all really comes down to what they want rather than what they need. Sure, they could hire a few teachers to improve their literacy rate, but even literacy could prove unnecessary for people living in a remote village.
Give them the prospect of phone calls to their distant relatives, and access to any kind of information of interest to them, and maybe they'll even have the first reasons to learn how to read and use a computer.
And you're right about the need for CNN though. It should prove about as useless to them as it is for me.
Yes, this is a good decision. Many places were pulling Java applets from their sites and switching to Javascript where they could or -- gasp! -- ActiveX. And everyone not running IE missed out on functionality and options.
Since Javascript is usually only programmed to look good (or work) in IE and ActiveX is insecure and MS-centric, it's nice to see Java back by default. Until someone comes along with a better idea, and one that works on as many platforms as Java does, we're much better off with it.
Debian isn't for newbies. However, I recommend Debian to newbies if they want to learn Linux and not be hand-held through the installation and configuration processes.
Recommending Debian (or Slackware, for that matter) to a newbie, from my personal experience, is sadistic. Don't get me wrong, they're sweet distributions, but you should start from the softer side of the learning curve, especially if you don't have a knowledgeable friend who's always around.
Even the easiest Linux distros nowadays can overwhelm some users. Let them learn with RH or Mandrake, and when they've seen it all and worked their way to the system's innards, they'll move naturally to the leaner distributions.
You're right -- it's a cultural thing. Multicart consoles were especially big during the Atari 2600 days, when you could pack 200+ games into a console. None of them was any larger than 4k, and most were mediocre clones of mediocre games, but having a 2600 with 200 games meant you were more hardcore than the kid next door with an original, licensed console.
The SFII port was for the SMS. As far as I know, it's the only 8-meg title ever made for the console, but unfortunately that's its biggest selling point. Nowhere near as brilliant as the Japanese port for the PC-Engine, but certainly better than the bootleg SFII that I played on the NES!
Tec Toy is a big name in Brazil, and has already sold millions of Master System units, going way back to the 8-bit fever days. In fact, Brazil was probably the best market in the world for the SMS, as it sold reasonably more than the NES. They even got brave enough to program a few games themselves for the Brazilian market, including the 8-meg port of Street Fighter II. Properly licensed by Capcom, I might add.
It seems highly unlikely that they would openly pirate SMS games in a bundle like that. Piracy really is big in Brazil, but I'd be surprised to see it coming from such a large company.
Slashdot Mirror
You're overestimating Windows. The fact that it stands up to attacks (generally, as you said) isn't necessarily because it's a superior product. It's more because Microsoft can, and does, pour millions of extra dollars to make it resistant to attacks.
Believe me, they have the money to make anything seem credible. Even Windows 3.11 if they still cared for it.
And while it seems like you have the inside knowledge on how things went from a Hotmail employee's point of view, I'd take any of those comments with a grain of salt. If Hotmail/MS were my employers and paid my salary, I'd probably favor Win2K without paying much tribute to actual stats.
I don't like the part about the fees. Palladium does seem to have one strong point in making its applications hard to exploit (even the badly-written ones).
So won't this hurt Linux and Open Source software in general? High fees would keep Microsoft's good competitors (Apache, for instance) away from Palladium, and then we'd have all the unbearable boasting about how IIS is more secure.
That would be a cheap trick... but one to expect.
...because I'd love to have an idea of how many users went to the effort of borkifying MSN. I now I will; it's the only way to extract some usefulness out if that portal.
Now imagine if they send special HTML to block it:
Deer MSN veeseetor,
Thees browser ees not supported. Pleese-a downloed Internet Explorer, eet's free-a!
bork!bork!bork!
Sometimes I get the feeling that MS has been so dominant in the OS market for so long, some of the old-timers still in charge actually miss the days where they had any adversaries.
So they keep their eyes too open and attack even the tiny companies that fight over whatever MS leaves behind.
What exactly does MS expect to gain from its campaign...? 30, maybe 35 people crazy enough to switch? Maybe, ooh, a 1% sales increase in the most wildly optimistic aftermath?
And besides, to take on MacOs X in its current form, you either have to have an incredibly good piece of software, or you just have to be stupid enough to try and spin truths to gain consumer loyalty. Since MS never had any of the former, they have to try the latter.
The problem isn't really with wysiwig. You can build your pages in Dreamweaver or even Mozilla Composer, check across multiple browsers for consistency, and still save time if pure HTML isn't your thing.
The main problem is FrontPage or anything MS. Needless, incomprehensible tags and something guaranteed to look ugly in anything except IE if you're not careful. They give wysiwyg a bad name, but not that they care anyway... just use Microsoft stuff and your problems are over. Right right?
If the GBA has enough CPU power to decode lossy audio, It would be rather cool to buy a cartridge with SmartMedia (or XD, whatever) that would let me listen to MP3's on it. Or maybe even -- God forbid -- Ogg Vorbis!
It wouldn't even matter if the thing cost about the same as a standalone player... I'd buy it. Having one machine as a music player and gaming device just means one less device to carry around, and I could even look just a little less nerdy in the process.
No, wait. I'll be carrying a GameBoy with an MP3 hack. Forget what I said about looking less nerdy.
1) Old ladies that say fuck off, and show their wrinkled middle fingers;
2) Someone getting kicked in the balls;
3) Someone getting still-framed and rotated matrix-like while kicking somebody in the balls.
That, my friends, would have been hilarious.
At least the people at Wikipedia take the time to mention when a particular subject is sensitive to bias. Their articles on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict mention this before you get to the available information.
This is already better than most publisher-coordinated efforts, where the reader may be caught off guard and absorb heavily biased information without exercising much critical thinking. And if you disagree, you may always contribute with your own article.
Very democratic!
Just for the record -- those of you running Red Hat can enjoy some apt-get benefits from freshrpms.net. You install apt (and optionally the GUI-oriented Synaptic), and just sit back and enjoy the world of easy rpms without dependency problems.
Not quite as complete as Debian, but fantastic for those who don't feel like starting over and making the switch.
It would have made a great high school term paper, though.
Good points. Anyway, exchanging copyrighted files with other people isn't on my justice agenda. I much prefer the quality of DVD video over DivX (however good the format is), and I've been buying three times more CDs since the music-sharing world opened my ears to the rich content out there.
But never mind me -- I'm the kind of guy that proves that even filesharing is potentially good for the market and therefore pollute the MPAA/RIAA's righteous statistics.
Dear Sirs,
I appreciate your concerns regarding our user's private behavior on their own accounts. Your opinion is very important to us.
We are afraid, however, that your letter was mistakenly sent to the wrong continent.
Sincerely,
The Abuse Team
Not yet, but I suspect it's just a matter of time. The Dreamcast had its own format, and that didn't stop the brave Chinese entrepreneurs. ;)
Going back to cartridge-based systems will only make thinks a little harder for the pirates, but therein lies another problem: if a pirated cartridge costs more than a copied GameCube CD, wouldn't the effort be useless?
Microsoft can affort to licence their technology at a loss in pretty much any area. How, you ask...? Because you have to buy Windows XP at $400 (some $350 in pure, unadulterated profit) and thus give MS all the firepower they need to drive other competitors out of business.
Just wait and see if WM9 becomes industry standard. You'll be paying $300 for a $200 product, just to cover the WM licensing fees.
And then we'll be seeing the same kind of people complaining on Slashdot: Well, they have the RIGHT to charge as much as they want for the license... they have overwhelming market support, and it was SUPERIOR QUALITY that got them there in the first place!
Sigh.
Let me try to understand this: some spammer is charging money from other spammers to exploit and devalue Google's search service, and annoy Google's users at the same time with irrelevant results. When Google takes appropriate action against this, the spammer sues?!
Yeah, right. Next, I'll be sued by spammers for deleting their junk mail without reading it, and depriving them from their principal source of income.
Windows Media was the first DRM format to really catch on. It comes along with Windows and it's the default media format for anything produced by Microsoft software. (Ever try digital ripping through Media Player? Only wma, not even wave output!)
Anyone wonder why, after years of pressure and usually successful MS pushing of their formats, it still loses to good old MP3 by a ridiculously large margin in user preference? Three letters: DRM.
When you download a DRM-enabled wma file, it's far from obvious to the regular user. So when the file expires or the user upgrades his computer and tries to listen to his files burned onto an old CD-R, that'll be his last experience with the format. And voilá, another wma hater.
Not to mention wmv's and their 'features', such as popping up web links embedded into the media file. Irritating, to say the least!
And that's what DRM is all about. Even if Big Media backs it up, and even if it'll be the only way to get 'hot new content' (whatever that is), users will always revert to the best free media alternative when they have a choice.
Now, I am not a Real Programmer, but it appears the NT kernel used in the X-Box lacks a few features, including memory protection. Wouldn't this allow any running task to peek into any part of the X-Box memory space, and change things at will?
I like the project... but is this feasible? Wouldn't cracking the X-Box encryption key violate the DMCA and put a lot of people in trouble? Microsoft could afford the lawyers, you know.
Anyways, good luck to them.
Give them the prospect of phone calls to their distant relatives, and access to any kind of information of interest to them, and maybe they'll even have the first reasons to learn how to read and use a computer.
And you're right about the need for CNN though. It should prove about as useless to them as it is for me.
Yes, this is a good decision. Many places were pulling Java applets from their sites and switching to Javascript where they could or -- gasp! -- ActiveX. And everyone not running IE missed out on functionality and options.
Since Javascript is usually only programmed to look good (or work) in IE and ActiveX is insecure and MS-centric, it's nice to see Java back by default. Until someone comes along with a better idea, and one that works on as many platforms as Java does, we're much better off with it.
Even the easiest Linux distros nowadays can overwhelm some users. Let them learn with RH or Mandrake, and when they've seen it all and worked their way to the system's innards, they'll move naturally to the leaner distributions.
You're right -- it's a cultural thing. Multicart consoles were especially big during the Atari 2600 days, when you could pack 200+ games into a console. None of them was any larger than 4k, and most were mediocre clones of mediocre games, but having a 2600 with 200 games meant you were more hardcore than the kid next door with an original, licensed console.
The SFII port was for the SMS. As far as I know, it's the only 8-meg title ever made for the console, but unfortunately that's its biggest selling point. Nowhere near as brilliant as the Japanese port for the PC-Engine, but certainly better than the bootleg SFII that I played on the NES!
Tec Toy is a big name in Brazil, and has already sold millions of Master System units, going way back to the 8-bit fever days. In fact, Brazil was probably the best market in the world for the SMS, as it sold reasonably more than the NES. They even got brave enough to program a few games themselves for the Brazilian market, including the 8-meg port of Street Fighter II. Properly licensed by Capcom, I might add.
It seems highly unlikely that they would openly pirate SMS games in a bundle like that. Piracy really is big in Brazil, but I'd be surprised to see it coming from such a large company.