That's why I don't write networking stacks. While I work on AI/Graphics, I get to enjoy the benefits of others advances in the field. Isn't Open-Source great?
Wow! I've had DeathStars die left and right. As a matter of fact, I just got my 20gb back, and it came 2 months late (carrier's fault), with [i kid you not] MAPQUEST directions to my house taped to it. Anyhow, I had a 80gb die 3 days after I got it (never even restarted the PC). I lost a IBM 20gb 2 weeks after installing it as my second drive, I lost a 40gb when the power went out - it was unplugged when the power came on, it wasn't a surge, and I lost the second one when someone bumped the PC.
Perhaps this could finally lead to the possibility of having a FPS (First Person Shooter) use TCP instead of UDP. If the latency issue can be adequitly addressed, it may be possible to have a sufficient transfer rate (and latency) to have a game use TCP packets as a means of client to server communication. This would greatly help with packet loss.
As a developer, I am interested in seeing the many potential _legal_ applications, although I definatly wouldn't mind faster filesharing.
Due to credit diffecency due in a large part to my taking every programming class available, I ended up in an alternative high school. This was where most of the potential dropouts were sent (so as not to hurt the others schools funding due to the number of dropouts). Let me just say that when improperly implemented, these systems set people up for failure.
Throughout the computer courses, it was specifically stated that "This program [the computer learning software] is a supplement to the book, and is NOT intended as a replacement for it." Well, because of the low funding (too many dropouts - imagine why), the books were not available. The courses mainly consisted of a page where it would have 30 or so possible answers, and a date,event or name. You were supposed to pick the associated answer (after all, you read the book already), then move on. Every time you got the wrong aswer, you had to answer 3 more correctly before you could continue. Fortunatly, I learned to take notes (selection window, alt, e, copy, alt-tab, ctrl+v), so I could continue at a decent pace. Note taking was allowed. So while most people failed out after just a few weeks (the courses were _impossible_ without notes), I passed my senior english class in under 24 hours (I did have to rent mcbeth, and write a report).
In short, if you are a die-hard student (or really hate the place like I did), or if the program is _properly_ implemented, it can be a great tool. In the wrong hands, it's just failure waiting to happen.
1) License pool. Have everyone bet on what percentage of the games/operating system is licensed. Then check. Hint: it's usually best to guess low. Especially where microsoft is concerned:)
2) "My other system". Go around, and have each person tell about their "other system", that's taken apart/broken/being upgraded/too big to bring. "My other system has a 1TB raid 0 array - 2 4x100GB arrays, and a 2x100, all Software raided into a 1TB array. I'd bring it, but it's too big, what with it's 3 power supplies and all...".
3) Hammer Time - Take a hammer, and a despised/useless item (AOL cds), and have fun. First one to lose an eye wins.
4) Burn In - Everyone overclocks their systems as fast as they can stabily do so, then removes their fans. Last PC to catch fire wins. It's kind of like russian roulette.
1) By the time you finish reading these laws, they will be hopelessly out of date
2) Don't use anything that Microsoft got near, even if the interaction was nothing more than an underling squinting at it over his morning coffee - It might be tainted, don't risk it.
3) The nice thing about being a security consultant is that if the customers knew enough to judge your work, they wouldn't need you in the first place.
4) "Security Consultant" is a important-sounding title that carries very little real responsibility.
5) It doesn't matter how good your security is, some manager will give out his password to his wife/kids/secretary/dog, and data _will_ be lost. Don't wait for it to happen, back up the data _now_.
Representing data is all fine and good, but how about a program that actually _derives_ data worth representing?. For me, being able to represent my sock drawer in a nice, organized manner doesn't do me much good.
I pirated Photoshop, as well as Visual Studio. You know what? I now am a licenced user of both photoshop and the whole MSDN library (yes, the really big expensive one:) ). I even used a pirated version for stuff I did for clients. My paychecks went to the "Software" fund. When I made enough money off a program to buy it, I did.
Is everyone like me? No, but enough people are to make a difference. I spend near 1/4 of my income each year on software/hardware purchases (mostly software), that's a fair amount of money for a product that cost (not in labor, but in materials) only a couple of dollars to produce, or in some cases I simply downloaded a pirate copy, then got a license. It's surprising how many companies are receptive to "Yeah, I have a pirate copy - I just want the license, not the media".
An alternative viewpoint.
on
SCO SCO SCO!
·
· Score: 1
SCO has an "interesting" way of looking at the world. I guess it just goes to show "There's no business like SCO business."
While a patch system overhaul is long overdue given the number of affected legacy systems, Microsoft should see this as an oppurtunity to save themselves some serious money (and, as a side effect, do some actual good). If they can learn from this experience, and use this as a learning experience on the importance of writing good code, this could be a great oppurtunity for them.
Instead of having the large full time support staff they do, as well as the crews of people scanning the web for new exploits, how much time, effort, and money could they save by hiring a couple of full time people to check _all_ buffers on all code after it's been committed to sourcesafe? Also, it would reduce data loss due to crashes and other problems. Wow, Microsoft increasing their bottom line in a way that actually helps consumers. What a thought.
Having a policy that OSS must compare favorably with Non-OSS is reasonable, and a good sign. Any policy other than "No OSS" is a good sign, as it shows they are considering it. I would say that OSS's biggest worry is simply not being noticed, not just failing to measure up. After all, most Open Source projects simply don't have the advertising budget their Closed-Source, Commercial competitors do.
Actually, no, it won't. As a software author, a "hacker", and the author of numerous cheats, including a fun little private QW client called "CheatWorld", it won't make the least bit of difference - in fact, it will probably _hurt_.
Systems like palladium will encourage programmers to be lazy. Because their code is "protected", they will most likely write code which is inherantly less secure. One of the "concessions" in palladium is that parts of it will be "open source". Of course, you can't modify them, but that is besides the point. Combined with good old-fashioned reverse engineering, it is not too hard to invision a specialized version of bochs (a PC emulator) with a virtual fritz chip (and a copy of a real system's private key). While such a system would not be useful for ripping of media (it WILL be watermarked, and that id WOULD be blacklisted), the simple extraction of a game would be fairly simple.
What does having an extracted.exe give you? After all, the autoupdate feature would probably kill off any pirated multiplayer versions you produced. Well, it does several useful things. One, it lets you run softice (a debugger) on it. Really handy for patching any CRC or Fritz Chip checks. If the chip is used for client->server communication, use the PC emulator to restore full functionality (change the stored key, sign the.exe with the new key). Also, it's a good time to figure out the protocol. If they don't encrypt the entire output stream (it's really CPU intensive to do good crypto, so it's unlikely), write a proxy. Heck, I'm not even above writing a wrapper network driver that patches all the packets on the fly. (Done it before - first network driver based autoaim I've seen:P Too bad it was so slow).
To put it simply, it will simply raise the bar for cheaters, (and the cheats). If it is that much effort to cheat, it's all the more of a challenge for hackers, and if they are going to spend that much time and effort, you can bet the cheats are going to be all the more spectacular.
The GPL basically says (oversimplicification, oh well) that if you distribute a binary copy to someone, you have to include the source. First off, if it's so "top secret" that it cannot have the source given out, they probably won't give the binary out either. Secondly, if they keep it internally, it's not "dissemminated", and as such, they are not bound by it either.
The GPL is a copyright license, and as such covers only _distribution_ and posession, not use or output. They don't distribute it - they don't have to give out the source.
The X-Box is a lot different than most other consoles when it comes to mods. When you mod a PS/2, PSX, or GameCube, you are left with a machine for the most part that only gets access to a import games, and pirate games. When you mod an XBOX, you have a windows (albeit a weird version) PC. Developers can support it, and there is the other software out there to run. You can get media players. emulators, frontends, media players, or any of a number of other types of apps. You get a Microsoft-Subsided PC. Tell me that isn't attractive in and of itself.
Thirdly, the entire idea of patents is to encourage invention. Invention means things actually being invented: ideas being implemented in reality. I can come up with an idea to make a UFO, that doesn't mean it should be patentable.
Actually, there are a variety of patents which do just that, including the use of a electron accelerator (I think it's called a Betatron, but am not sure), to utilize electrons as a sort of gyroscope to navigate throughout space (and, with only a few modifications, time).
In order to be successful, any boycott would have to be:
1) Well-Planned. Without sufficient planning, it would be too little to matter.
2) Big enough to matter. Remember, these are large companies. Fluctuation (both up and down)is nothing new to them, and your boycott would probably go unnoticed unotherwise.
3) Thourough. It doesn't do much good to boycott the RIAA, then turn around and give the money to them some other way.
4) Publicised. They would have to _know_ they were truly losing money, and why. Otherwise, any real loss could be considered a sign they need to _increase_ their stranglehold on the market. Let them know who they are losing money to, why they are, and what they can do to stop it.
I have yet to see any attempt which did not fail in at least one of these aspects.
> 4. You browse into that folder and you see see songs like "Britney's Latest.drm".
> 5. You say, "Boy I'd like to hear that!", so you open it.
> 6. They player comes up and says "You don't own this yet, I can't play it, would you like to buy it?"
7. You say "screw it", delete the file, fire up your favorite P2P application, download it in 30 seconds, and become yet another person sharing Britney's Latest.
My parents have insisted on buying Gateway PCs because they are so "reliable". They seem to forget that they come bloated and in 2 cases, broken to begin with, and are decent machines only after a good format. Needless to say, I would have reformatted a GateWay PC no more than 3 minutes after it's first turned on. This seems like a waste to me.
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That's why I don't write networking stacks. While I work on AI/Graphics, I get to enjoy the benefits of others advances in the field. Isn't Open-Source great?
Unfortunatly, Verizion is one of the few companies who (so far) was willing to stand up for consumer rights. It's sad; it just wasn't unexpected.
Wow! I've had DeathStars die left and right. As a matter of fact, I just got my 20gb back, and it came 2 months late (carrier's fault), with [i kid you not] MAPQUEST directions to my house taped to it. Anyhow, I had a 80gb die 3 days after I got it (never even restarted the PC). I lost a IBM 20gb 2 weeks after installing it as my second drive, I lost a 40gb when the power went out - it was unplugged when the power came on, it wasn't a surge, and I lost the second one when someone bumped the PC.
Good luck, hope you fare better than I did.
Perhaps this could finally lead to the possibility of having a FPS (First Person Shooter) use TCP instead of UDP. If the latency issue can be adequitly addressed, it may be possible to have a sufficient transfer rate (and latency) to have a game use TCP packets as a means of client to server communication. This would greatly help with packet loss.
As a developer, I am interested in seeing the many potential _legal_ applications, although I definatly wouldn't mind faster filesharing.
It has been announced that they have decided to follow in google's footsteps. The Pig Latin, Hacker(h4x04) and Klingon translations are coming soon.
Due to credit diffecency due in a large part to my taking every programming class available, I ended up in an alternative high school. This was where most of the potential dropouts were sent (so as not to hurt the others schools funding due to the number of dropouts). Let me just say that when improperly implemented, these systems set people up for failure.
Throughout the computer courses, it was specifically stated that "This program [the computer learning software] is a supplement to the book, and is NOT intended as a replacement for it." Well, because of the low funding (too many dropouts - imagine why), the books were not available. The courses mainly consisted of a page where it would have 30 or so possible answers, and a date,event or name. You were supposed to pick the associated answer (after all, you read the book already), then move on. Every time you got the wrong aswer, you had to answer 3 more correctly before you could continue. Fortunatly, I learned to take notes (selection window, alt, e, copy, alt-tab, ctrl+v), so I could continue at a decent pace. Note taking was allowed. So while most people failed out after just a few weeks (the courses were _impossible_ without notes), I passed my senior english class in under 24 hours (I did have to rent mcbeth, and write a report).
In short, if you are a die-hard student (or really hate the place like I did), or if the program is _properly_ implemented, it can be a great tool. In the wrong hands, it's just failure waiting to happen.
Fun "alternative" things to do at a lan party.
:)
1) License pool. Have everyone bet on what percentage of the games/operating system is licensed. Then check. Hint: it's usually best to guess low. Especially where microsoft is concerned
2) "My other system". Go around, and have each person tell about their "other system", that's taken apart/broken/being upgraded/too big to bring. "My other system has a 1TB raid 0 array - 2 4x100GB arrays, and a 2x100, all Software raided into a 1TB array. I'd bring it, but it's too big, what with it's 3 power supplies and all...".
3) Hammer Time - Take a hammer, and a despised/useless item (AOL cds), and have fun. First one to lose an eye wins.
4) Burn In - Everyone overclocks their systems as fast as they can stabily do so, then removes their fans. Last PC to catch fire wins. It's kind of like russian roulette.
1) By the time you finish reading these laws, they will be hopelessly out of date
2) Don't use anything that Microsoft got near, even if the interaction was nothing more than an underling squinting at it over his morning coffee - It might be tainted, don't risk it.
3) The nice thing about being a security consultant is that if the customers knew enough to judge your work, they wouldn't need you in the first place.
4) "Security Consultant" is a important-sounding title that carries very little real responsibility.
5) It doesn't matter how good your security is, some manager will give out his password to his wife/kids/secretary/dog, and data _will_ be lost. Don't wait for it to happen, back up the data _now_.
Representing data is all fine and good, but how about a program that actually _derives_ data worth representing?. For me, being able to represent my sock drawer in a nice, organized manner doesn't do me much good.
I guess it's time for someone to write "Steal this Network" - a howto guide.
I pirated Photoshop, as well as Visual Studio. You know what? I now am a licenced user of both photoshop and the whole MSDN library (yes, the really big expensive one :) ). I even used a pirated version for stuff I did for clients. My paychecks went to the "Software" fund. When I made enough money off a program to buy it, I did.
Is everyone like me? No, but enough people are to make a difference. I spend near 1/4 of my income each year on software/hardware purchases (mostly software), that's a fair amount of money for a product that cost (not in labor, but in materials) only a couple of dollars to produce, or in some cases I simply downloaded a pirate copy, then got a license. It's surprising how many companies are receptive to "Yeah, I have a pirate copy - I just want the license, not the media".
SCO has an "interesting" way of looking at the world. I guess it just goes to show "There's no business like SCO business."
While a patch system overhaul is long overdue given the number of affected legacy systems, Microsoft should see this as an oppurtunity to save themselves some serious money (and, as a side effect, do some actual good). If they can learn from this experience, and use this as a learning experience on the importance of writing good code, this could be a great oppurtunity for them.
Instead of having the large full time support staff they do, as well as the crews of people scanning the web for new exploits, how much time, effort, and money could they save by hiring a couple of full time people to check _all_ buffers on all code after it's been committed to sourcesafe? Also, it would reduce data loss due to crashes and other problems. Wow, Microsoft increasing their bottom line in a way that actually helps consumers. What a thought.
Having a policy that OSS must compare favorably with Non-OSS is reasonable, and a good sign. Any policy other than "No OSS" is a good sign, as it shows they are considering it. I would say that OSS's biggest worry is simply not being noticed, not just failing to measure up. After all, most Open Source projects simply don't have the advertising budget their Closed-Source, Commercial competitors do.
Actually, no, it won't. As a software author, a "hacker", and the author of numerous cheats, including a fun little private QW client called "CheatWorld", it won't make the least bit of difference - in fact, it will probably _hurt_.
.exe give you? After all, the autoupdate feature would probably kill off any pirated multiplayer versions you produced. Well, it does several useful things. One, it lets you run softice (a debugger) on it. Really handy for patching any CRC or Fritz Chip checks. If the chip is used for client->server communication, use the PC emulator to restore full functionality (change the stored key, sign the .exe with the new key). Also, it's a good time to figure out the protocol. If they don't encrypt the entire output stream (it's really CPU intensive to do good crypto, so it's unlikely), write a proxy. Heck, I'm not even above writing a wrapper network driver that patches all the packets on the fly. (Done it before - first network driver based autoaim I've seen :P Too bad it was so slow).
Systems like palladium will encourage programmers to be lazy. Because their code is "protected", they will most likely write code which is inherantly less secure. One of the "concessions" in palladium is that parts of it will be "open source". Of course, you can't modify them, but that is besides the point. Combined with good old-fashioned reverse engineering, it is not too hard to invision a specialized version of bochs (a PC emulator) with a virtual fritz chip (and a copy of a real system's private key). While such a system would not be useful for ripping of media (it WILL be watermarked, and that id WOULD be blacklisted), the simple extraction of a game would be fairly simple.
What does having an extracted
To put it simply, it will simply raise the bar for cheaters, (and the cheats). If it is that much effort to cheat, it's all the more of a challenge for hackers, and if they are going to spend that much time and effort, you can bet the cheats are going to be all the more spectacular.
The GPL basically says (oversimplicification, oh well) that if you distribute a binary copy to someone, you have to include the source. First off, if it's so "top secret" that it cannot have the source given out, they probably won't give the binary out either. Secondly, if they keep it internally, it's not "dissemminated", and as such, they are not bound by it either.
The GPL is a copyright license, and as such covers only _distribution_ and posession, not use or output. They don't distribute it - they don't have to give out the source.
- "It's the end of the world as we know it."
The X-Box is a lot different than most other consoles when it comes to mods. When you mod a PS/2, PSX, or GameCube, you are left with a machine for the most part that only gets access to a import games, and pirate games. When you mod an XBOX, you have a windows (albeit a weird version) PC. Developers can support it, and there is the other software out there to run. You can get media players. emulators, frontends, media players, or any of a number of other types of apps. You get a Microsoft-Subsided PC. Tell me that isn't attractive in and of itself.
...terrorism funds piracy.
Thirdly, the entire idea of patents is to encourage invention. Invention means things actually being invented: ideas being implemented in reality. I can come up with an idea to make a UFO, that doesn't mean it should be patentable.
:)
Actually, there are a variety of patents which do just that, including the use of a electron accelerator (I think it's called a Betatron, but am not sure), to utilize electrons as a sort of gyroscope to navigate throughout space (and, with only a few modifications, time).
The system is screwed, sorry
...but where is the hula hoop girl screensaver. :) That's for version 3.0
Please, no "where's the pr0n screensaver" replies
It's always nice to see a good security company pop up. I'd much rather companies address security than the US's often "overzealous" government.
Geez, death penalty for "cyberterrorists", a term that includes most twelve year old script kiddies? Like that won't be ab(used) by the prosecutors.
In order to be successful, any boycott would have to be: 1) Well-Planned. Without sufficient planning, it would be too little to matter. 2) Big enough to matter. Remember, these are large companies. Fluctuation (both up and down)is nothing new to them, and your boycott would probably go unnoticed unotherwise. 3) Thourough. It doesn't do much good to boycott the RIAA, then turn around and give the money to them some other way. 4) Publicised. They would have to _know_ they were truly losing money, and why. Otherwise, any real loss could be considered a sign they need to _increase_ their stranglehold on the market. Let them know who they are losing money to, why they are, and what they can do to stop it. I have yet to see any attempt which did not fail in at least one of these aspects.
> 4. You browse into that folder and you see see songs like "Britney's Latest.drm".
> 5. You say, "Boy I'd like to hear that!", so you open it.
> 6. They player comes up and says "You don't own this yet, I can't play it, would you like to buy it?"
7. You say "screw it", delete the file, fire up your favorite P2P application, download it in 30 seconds, and become yet another person sharing Britney's Latest.
No thanks, I'll just skip to #7.
My parents have insisted on buying Gateway PCs because they are so "reliable". They seem to forget that they come bloated and in 2 cases, broken to begin with, and are decent machines only after a good format. Needless to say, I would have reformatted a GateWay PC no more than 3 minutes after it's first turned on. This seems like a waste to me.