Essentially, a TCPA compatible computer will refuse to run all code which hasn't been pre-approved by some "trusted" organisation. This would make not-for-profit software development almost impossible.
And yes, except for a few cases like blaster, viruses don't exploit a vulnerability in the OS. They exploit human stupidity and naivity. An OS which isn't "vulnerable" to viruses is an OS which doesn't obey the user and let them run arbitary programs. Such an OS is usless.
Exactly. The plugin could be fully open-source and intended for European users and other countries which don't (yet?) believe in software patents.
Better still, do away with the plugin, add the relevant code into the main project, and include something like:/* Comment out the following lines to cripple this software (legally required if you are in the US) */
However, I have moaned publicly about the lack of community in the OS in terms of software development. Some of the user groups, such as this one [modaco.com] do have a great and helpful community, it's just that the creators of the free apps don't embrace OSS at all.:-(
Shameless plug: www.spv-developers.com
Still small, but growing rapidly. We've worked on several interesting OSS projects, and have some revolutionary new stuff planned for the coming weeks:p
A solicitor is the last person you ask for advice. A solicitor will give you whatever 'advice' you need to hear to take the matter further, via the legal system, and pay them hefty consultation fees.
Slashdot is a good place to start. You will hear from people who may have been in a similar situation in the past. The average Slashdotter will give you an honest opinion as they have nothing to gain or lose from it. A solicitor will NOT tell you "the last thing you want is a court battle if you can resolve things peacefully".
[quote]Frankly, I don't really care if my attacker was caught on CCTV, or even brought to justice. What I care about is not being mugged in the first place, feeling safe and protecting my privacy.[/quote] If attackers were usually caught and brought to justice, it'd make you feel safer and reduce the risk of you being mugged in the first place.
Windows Mobile based smartphones are pretty close to being open. Yes, Microsoft does make the OS, but every API is well documented, and generally the platform is very developer friendly. Even if not all of the OS is open-source, the phone still supports standards like TCP, HTTP, and is more than open enough to let you design the kind of apps you mentioned.
If I say "Unicorns don't exist" I could, if I want to get trapped in the language game, dig myself a hole: by naming unicorns I'm referring to a concept with a name and that concept must then exist - that contradicts the rest of my statement that the thing I names doesn't exist.
Heh, a nice example from bash.org:
Let us assume AUT is a University. 2150km from AUT in Port Douglas, Queensland, there are many crocodiles. Crocodiles are wider than they are green: Let's look at the crocodile. It is wide on the top and on the bottom, but it is green only on the top. Therefore, the crocodile is wider than it is green. Crocodiles are greener than they are long: Let's look at the crocodile. It is green along its length and width, but it is long only along its length. Therefore, the crocodile is greener than it is long. Since crocodiles are wider than they are green, and greener than they are long, it follows that a crocodile must be wider than it is long. Experimental evidence contradicts this proof. As this proof has been contradicted, the initial assumption must be false. Therefore AUT is not a University.
Or try to view two spreadsheets on two different monitors.
I just tried this. I opened excel twice, loaded a seperate spreadsheet into each instance, and moved one to the other monitor. Worked no problem.
If you load two spreadsheets into the SAME Excel instance, you can't do it - because both spreadsheets become child windows in the container (MDI) window.
The only inconsistent thing about Office is that child MDI windows get their own taskbar buttons, making you think that they are seperate top-level windows. If the rest of Windows worked like this, it would be a lot better in fact - open documents don't become "hidden" easilly. However since the rest of Windows doesn't work this way, it gets confusing.
If you could simply stop the car, then surely you wouldn't have to choose the safest object to crash into.
Occassionally, something unexpected happens. A child runs onto the road, or whatever. You can apply the brakes, but they won't stop the car instantly. If you try to decellerate too quickly, the car will skid, and you will lose control.
A good driver will recognise when it's too late to attempt to stop the car, and will reduce the brake pressure, while making a split-second decision in which direction to swerve.
C:\Documents and Settings\Zone-MR>format c:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
WARNING, ALL DATA ON NON-REMOVABLE DISK DRIVE C: WILL BE LOST! Proceed with Format (Y/N)? y Verifying 38154M
Format cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. Format may run if this volume is dismounted first. ALL OPENED HANDLES TO THIS VOLUME WOULD THEN BE INVALID. Would you like to force a dismount on this volume? (Y/N) y Cannot lock the drive. The volume is still in use.
C:\Documents and Settings\Zone-MR>
Also, afaik Format C: doesn't take an IP address.
Any means of remotely deleting the contents of a drive will be unlikely to give a progress indication - as this would require enumerating the contents of the drive first, which is slooooooow.
Sony: "Want to play a great game? The objective is to give us as much money as you can afford. The player who buys the most 'virtual property' from us has a greater chance of winning."
I wonder how many idiots they'll find who are willing to trade real money for a virtual "you won our MMORPG (but lost in life)" certificate from Sony.
Heh, when I saw the title, I half expected it to be an "Ask Slashdot" question;)
"Me and a few inmates are attempting to set up a small web server inside our prison cell, using the neighbouring office's wi-fi for internet access. Could anyone recommend a good resource for cracking the router password, so we can direct incoming connections to our server?"
Last time I checked, the current version of the English wikipedia dump, is around 585MB. It should comfortably fit on one CD. Where did this figure of two DVDs come from?
s/me/of (I posted that message from my phone while at CeBIT, and the words 'of' and 'me' are typed the same way using T9). ---
To add a little more, there were a LOT of hot promo girls at CeBIT - and that isn't neccessarily a good thing.
When you first walk into CeBIT, you look around and see hot girls wearing little but AMD/Intel/Microsoft/Whatever bras. Superficially it seems like every geek's dream.
On the second day, you realise it's all rather depressing. You see stands where guys are trying to present genuinely interesting innovations. They are highly knowledgable, and appear to have spent many years actually working on the projects they are trying to demonstrate. Yet they are mostly ignored, and the crowd+cameras attention is stolen by the we-make-yet-another-standard-video-capture-card companies, who hired a few skankilly dressed ladies to dance around and hand out brochures.
On the third day, you begin to look at the promo-girls with a little disgust. They try and win the geeks over by wearing tight leather clothes with geek-lingo slogans, but you begin to realise that they usually don't even understand the product they are trying to advertise. Try asking them an in-depth technical question and you'll get a blank stare.
What makes their presence a bad thing, is that they create a stereotype which tarnishes the reputation of every woman at the event. It's difficult to tell appart the few geek girls who are genuinely fascinated by technology.
There were some hot and barely dressed ones doing shows occasionally. I didn't manage to take any decent pictures though as the view quickly became obstructed by a crowd me sweaty nerds;-)
Slashdot Mirror
TCPA = Trusted Computing Platform Alliance
Essentially, a TCPA compatible computer will refuse to run all code which hasn't been pre-approved by some "trusted" organisation. This would make not-for-profit software development almost impossible.
And yes, except for a few cases like blaster, viruses don't exploit a vulnerability in the OS. They exploit human stupidity and naivity. An OS which isn't "vulnerable" to viruses is an OS which doesn't obey the user and let them run arbitary programs. Such an OS is usless.
Exactly. The plugin could be fully open-source and intended for European users and other countries which don't (yet?) believe in software patents.
/* Comment out the following lines to cripple this software (legally required if you are in the US) */
Better still, do away with the plugin, add the relevant code into the main project, and include something like:
Dammit... I'm evil.
However, I have moaned publicly about the lack of community in the OS in terms of software development. Some of the user groups, such as this one [modaco.com] do have a great and helpful community, it's just that the creators of the free apps don't embrace OSS at all. :-(
:p
Shameless plug: www.spv-developers.com
Still small, but growing rapidly. We've worked on several interesting OSS projects, and have some revolutionary new stuff planned for the coming weeks
A solicitor is the last person you ask for advice. A solicitor will give you whatever 'advice' you need to hear to take the matter further, via the legal system, and pay them hefty consultation fees.
Slashdot is a good place to start. You will hear from people who may have been in a similar situation in the past. The average Slashdotter will give you an honest opinion as they have nothing to gain or lose from it. A solicitor will NOT tell you "the last thing you want is a court battle if you can resolve things peacefully".
[quote]Frankly, I don't really care if my attacker was caught on CCTV, or even brought to justice. What I care about is not being mugged in the first place, feeling safe and protecting my privacy.[/quote]
If attackers were usually caught and brought to justice, it'd make you feel safer and reduce the risk of you being mugged in the first place.
Windows Mobile based smartphones are pretty close to being open. Yes, Microsoft does make the OS, but every API is well documented, and generally the platform is very developer friendly. Even if not all of the OS is open-source, the phone still supports standards like TCP, HTTP, and is more than open enough to let you design the kind of apps you mentioned.
I've developed several geeky projects on this platform.
Heh, a nice example from bash.org:
Or try to view two spreadsheets on two different monitors.
I just tried this. I opened excel twice, loaded a seperate spreadsheet into each instance, and moved one to the other monitor. Worked no problem.
If you load two spreadsheets into the SAME Excel instance, you can't do it - because both spreadsheets become child windows in the container (MDI) window.
The only inconsistent thing about Office is that child MDI windows get their own taskbar buttons, making you think that they are seperate top-level windows. If the rest of Windows worked like this, it would be a lot better in fact - open documents don't become "hidden" easilly. However since the rest of Windows doesn't work this way, it gets confusing.
If you have done some legitimate research into this, and have some useful findings, please post them here.
;)
If you are one of the many people who believe all "Radiation" is inherently harmful, and GSM/WiFi/WiMAX is bad, I hate you
http://www.zone-mr.net/?act=cellrant
If you could simply stop the car, then surely you wouldn't have to choose the safest object to crash into.
Occassionally, something unexpected happens. A child runs onto the road, or whatever. You can apply the brakes, but they won't stop the car instantly. If you try to decellerate too quickly, the car will skid, and you will lose control.
A good driver will recognise when it's too late to attempt to stop the car, and will reduce the brake pressure, while making a split-second decision in which direction to swerve.
Nope, let's give it a go:
Also, afaik Format C: doesn't take an IP address.
Any means of remotely deleting the contents of a drive will be unlikely to give a progress indication - as this would require enumerating the contents of the drive first, which is slooooooow.
247.73274987316083206494165398275 I could live with.
;)
Yeah, and if you factor leap years into your calculation, the number is 247.56318604710117372677263163232
If you're only using the internet for an hour or two a day (and who among us doesn't?)
;)
I think you're posting this on the wrong site
Sony: "Want to play a great game? The objective is to give us as much money as you can afford. The player who buys the most 'virtual property' from us has a greater chance of winning."
I wonder how many idiots they'll find who are willing to trade real money for a virtual "you won our MMORPG (but lost in life)" certificate from Sony.
Heh, when I saw the title, I half expected it to be an "Ask Slashdot" question ;)
"Me and a few inmates are attempting to set up a small web server inside our prison cell, using the neighbouring office's wi-fi for internet access. Could anyone recommend a good resource for cracking the router password, so we can direct incoming connections to our server?"
From the bottom of the "Overview" page:
:o hacked already, or a mistake on CalTech's part?
"As a side note, denial of service attacks are lame. Anybody can do that. Wouldn't your time be better spent trying to put a '1' on the scoreboard?"
The scoreboard on the Home page:
Caltech - 6 | MIT - 1
Yeah, I know, but...
1.5GB for current revisions would still fit on one DVD.
Also, that 1.5GB is for all languages. The English version only uses 0.5GB of that.
Last time I checked, the current version of the English wikipedia dump, is around 585MB. It should comfortably fit on one CD. Where did this figure of two DVDs come from?
Hmmm, judging by his short writeup it seems he's doing everything right.
I want to build one of these now... Except I'm in Northern England. I'd be lucky if it could melt marshmallows :p
no boothe babes ?
They were there, but IMHO it's a bad thing.
I saw this demonstrated last weekend, on my trip to CeBIT.
Here's a close up picture I took.
My impressions of it were that it seemed very big - would have been a lot more impressive had they miniaturised it a bit.
s/me/of (I posted that message from my phone while at CeBIT, and the words 'of' and 'me' are typed the same way using T9).
---
To add a little more, there were a LOT of hot promo girls at CeBIT - and that isn't neccessarily a good thing.
When you first walk into CeBIT, you look around and see hot girls wearing little but AMD/Intel/Microsoft/Whatever bras. Superficially it seems like every geek's dream.
On the second day, you realise it's all rather depressing. You see stands where guys are trying to present genuinely interesting innovations. They are highly knowledgable, and appear to have spent many years actually working on the projects they are trying to demonstrate. Yet they are mostly ignored, and the crowd+cameras attention is stolen by the we-make-yet-another-standard-video-capture-card companies, who hired a few skankilly dressed ladies to dance around and hand out brochures.
On the third day, you begin to look at the promo-girls with a little disgust. They try and win the geeks over by wearing tight leather clothes with geek-lingo slogans, but you begin to realise that they usually don't even understand the product they are trying to advertise. Try asking them an in-depth technical question and you'll get a blank stare.
What makes their presence a bad thing, is that they create a stereotype which tarnishes the reputation of every woman at the event. It's difficult to tell appart the few geek girls who are genuinely fascinated by technology.
There were some hot and barely dressed ones doing shows occasionally. I didn't manage to take any decent pictures though as the view quickly became obstructed by a crowd me sweaty nerds ;-)