Lol, I had a Vic-20 and later a Commodore 64. My friends and I would trade games and talk about the how cool devices like tape drives and floppy drives were.:) Not popular? They had their own friggin' magazine for the C64 ( I can't remember the title ).
Agreed. I tried writing a couple of small desktop apps and had to stop because each time there was something I needed that Java couldn't do natively. I have since decided to use Java for J2EE solutions, and C++/Trolltech QT for desktop solutions. I keep Perl around for scripting purposes. So far, it works.
Congratulations! You have just one a free vacation of undetermined length at our Guantanamo Bay resort, courtesy of Patriot Act Studios! Don't worry about travel plans, as several of our black-suited customer service specialists will be arriving at your door to escort you to the resort, all on our dime!
Exactly. I don't understand why so many people will counter an argument concerning non-tangible items ( like a file, its just a bunch of bits ) with tangible ones ( like a car ). Yes, at some level, say the storage of a file, its "tangible" as the pit s a laser a burns into a CD, but I believe my meaning is clear.
Copyright violation != theft, and people will be able to argue their points for or again P2P file sharing once they get that through their heads.
It is violating the owners copyright in many cases, but not all ( take sharing Opensource applications, for example ). And then one realizes that that is what the real issue is, they can start building a credible argument for or against ( music ) file sharing.
I like this idea. Its been brought up at my last three jobs, and the first time they *ALMOST* implemented it. The plan was even announced at a managers meeting ( I was invited, even though I wasn't a manager ). But, it never materialized.
This method of charging departments for the supported provided by IT would stem the flow of requests ( they would try much harder to figure something out if it cost them more then a phone call to the help desk ), and it would especially get those high maintenance users who just seem to have a problem or needs new programs because their job description just changed for the 3rd time in as many months.
We had one guy whose computer was rebuilt ( software-wise ) 3 times last December! I came into that one and worked very hard to t/s it because rebuilding the system seemed to only be a temporary solution. It finally turned out the email to fax software that was standard on all company systems was the problem. Reloading did not fix it, but since he said he didn't use it, I simply uninstalled it and closed the ticket.:)
I hear that. My current Network Administrator job matched the job description for the first three days, since then it has run the gamut from Inventory Specialist to Desktop Support to Web Developer to Software Developer to Janitor to Telephone Repair, and so on and so forth. I am waiting for it become "sit at you desk and get paid to do absolutely nothing", but I am not holding my breath.
One net admin I knew actually had to fix the coffee machine, and later became the real estate manager for the site he worked at, without losing his net admin responsibilities either.
Although I haven't researched myself, I believe I read here on/. that it was going to be possible to enable dual layer read/write on select existing DVD burners via a firmware update. Is this possible or not? FYI - I have a NEC-2500D burner.
While I use Evolution at home, at work we have to use the company standard email apps, but fortunately I have Outlook 2003, which lets you disable HTML email and image downloading. What you get after all that is stripped is a text email with a bunch of image links in it. For most emails this isn't a problem, as they are work emails with nothing but text in them. Sometimes a coworker will have a dumb animated gif in their signature which shows up as an attachement, or they try paste as screenshot of the error they are getting in some application, and I don't see that at all. I am like...what screenshot?
There was an Outlook plugin to disable html rendering in Outlook 2000 and below, but I don't have a link to it anymore.
Bon Chance to those of you who are stuck with email clients that let viruses through easily because of your employer's IT standards.
Re:Ebay has let users work to close these fakes do
on
eBay Fraud Vigilantes
·
· Score: 1
I second that. I tried to sell my old copy of Everquest on Ebay, and they took my advertisement down the next day with a letter from their legal department. Sheesh, I would like to get some return on all those hours I wasted killing spiders in EQ, but I guess I will just have to write them off:(
With a little help from me, I have gotten 10 or so Windows users at work to start using Mozilla, and one of them even tried out Firefox before I did! However, on the down side, I haven't gotten any of them to try Linux, though several have said "they should". I might just burn Knoppix to CD for them and hand it out.
Anyway, IE does have greater "marketshare", but all it took me was a few nudges to get Windows users to switch. Now if I can just get them to change their homepage to./ , then it can do the rest of the work ( converting )for me.:)
All this from a former MCSE who though Microsoft was the end-all be all and Linux was just a flash in the pan...
I just wanted to note that I tried Firefox.8 ( something with an "." and an "8" in it, along with Mozilla 1.6 on Windoze, and I found Firefox to be faster but Mozilla had all the features I wanted ( browser only, not email or IRC ), so I switched back to Mozilla.
Now, back on topic ( the articles topic ), seeing Mozilla getting a stronger foundation that is more stable and consumes fewer resources would be nice. On thing to keep in mind is the size of the task usually decides whether good code runs faster than sloppy code. e.g. good code completes a task 10 milliseconds faster than bad code, but that task is only run once...it doesn't make a noticeable difference. But in the case that task runs a million times, the difference is now 1,000,000 *.010 equals roughly 2.7 hours difference, which is noticeable:), especially for loading a web page. My point is that users who don't load down the application very much probably won't see a difference, while "power users" will definitely see an improvement.
Precisely. Where does HTTP_REFFER info come from? The client requesting the page! Since the info comes ( assumedly ) from your browser, you have control over it. Now, changing ( forging ) this information may take a bit of work with a standard browser, but assuredly it can be done. And it serves them right. Anyone have details on precisely how this can be done? Even better, could the linking site put something like HTTP_REFERRER= and change it from what it should be? That would be l337!
Weird, I had waited two weeks for an item to show up after I paid for it ( on eBay ), and I complained to paypal, showing them that I was did my due diligence of attempted to work it out with the non-responsive seller. They had my money back in my account in 3 days, no further questions asked.
The only problem with their system was the verification of bank accounts, but I was using NetBank at the time, and I guess the way NetBank funds get routed is quirky in itself. After I switched banks, they verified my account withing 2 days of my request..not bad at all.
Well, my take on it is that if the web site operator stops getting any return on the hypothetical $5000 investment, he will stop investing. That means the spammer just lost a customer, which means he is making less money from his spamming operation. If he loses enough customers, he may be put out of business ( or just choose to give up ).
However, what I would really like to see is technology that blocks people who click on spam links from accessing the Internet, or at least the WWW. It isn't going to happen, but I like to think it could.:)
LOL, it does equal intent...intent to what you don't know. Intent to reverse engineer the file they knew wasn't the real keygen because the md5 checksum didn't match, just to see how it ticked? Just curious as to if it was a virus or not ( they opened it on a computer they didn't care if it trashed just to see what it did ), opened it because their friend down the street renamed it to HotBabeScreenSave.exe and emailed it to them as a joke? Do you see the big picture now?
IRC is more protected from fraud by a trust network than a technical protection. You see, the way it works is the channel operators limit who can serve files to users who are voiced, and the only way a user can get voiced is to earn the trust of the highly untrusting operators.
Now, say the vigilante behaves well in the channel for a few months, and the operators meet and vote that the vigilante is trustworthy and therefore can be voiced. The channel protection bots are given the vigilante's IP/Host/Nick combo to identify the vigilante and give him voice when he enters the channel.
Ok, it's been several months and now finally the vigilante and run the channel approve fserve software and is still watched by the operators since he/she is still new. Once someone downloads the keygen from the vigi. and discovers it is fake, they msg the channel ops and report it. The vigi loses voice rights and the whole matter is investigated and a decision is made to permanently ban the vigi since the trojan was discovered.
Now, the vigi can try to get voiced in several channels at once, but most channels won't voice you if you serve in more than 2 other channels, and some won't give you voice if you serve even in one other channel. The vigi still has the option of changing IP/Host/Nick and starting the process all over, but it will again be months before they will be considered for voice again. And if someone figures out that this is the same guy they banned before, his new identify will also get banned from the channel.
However, there are some computer illiterate people on IRC, so if the vigi spams people randomly with private messages ( spamming a channel can be easily blocked ) with the connection info to their server with the fake keygen, saying 'go here here to get UT2004 keygen;, I am sure some will fall for it. But if the vigi is reported to the IRCOPS and they can track home down, its kline time for him. Kline means he cannot connect to the IRC network at all, which is different than banning, which only excludes him from one IRC channel.
So you can see how the IRC system presents unique challenges to the vigilante that P2P applications current do not have. That said, I use the eMule client on the Overture network, and it autoblocks clients for various reasons, and it does have a system for both rating and commenting on shared files. Something very useful that is does is track files by md5 checksum, so you can actually see a file that is shared under several names. Its funny to see "Hardware Wars.mpg" was renamed to "Star Wars Episode 2:Attack of the Clones" and other names, flagging it as a fake.
Well, I feel like just wrote a term paper on IRC and P2P networks, so I am calling it a night(11PM here ).
And you know this how? Answer: You don't. It's entirely possible to download a keygen/serial/etc. without having the associated program in your possession. If you doubt this, just give me access to your hard drive, tell me a program that you do not have, then tell me where to download a keygen for that program from, and I will transfer it to your hard drive. La voila, keygen but no program!
Good question, on one hand, no one will get a copy of the file you are sharing unless your computer sends it to them ( in the form of data packets ), on the other hand, you have named the file in such a way as to imply that others should not ask you for it. By ask, I mean "request", because if the file is shared, your computer will send it upon request.
Assume I did a lot of hand waving to handle things like IP blocking, request queues, etc, that would interfere with what I said above.
And actually, since the downloaders never got an illegal copy of the software, they didn't even get to violate copyright law. Now, the plaintiff may try to prove the downloaders had the intent of violating copyright, but there is no way you can violate copyright law without copying. At least, I don't see how it could be done.
There is a short tutorial available both on Trolltech's web site http://doc.trolltech.com/3.2/tutorial.html and in the documentation that comes with the QT libraries.
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Lol, I had a Vic-20 and later a Commodore 64. My friends and I would trade games and talk about the how cool devices like tape drives and floppy drives were. :) Not popular? They had their own friggin' magazine for the C64 ( I can't remember the title ).
Agreed. I tried writing a couple of small desktop apps and had to stop because each time there was something I needed that Java couldn't do natively. I have since decided to use Java for J2EE solutions, and C++/Trolltech QT for desktop solutions. I keep Perl around for scripting purposes. So far, it works.
I thought M$ made C# because Sun would not sell Java to them? At least, that is how I heard it.
Dear KDE Freedom Fighter,
Congratulations! You have just one a free vacation of undetermined length at our Guantanamo Bay resort, courtesy of Patriot Act Studios! Don't worry about travel plans, as several of our black-suited customer service specialists will be arriving at your door to escort you to the resort, all on our dime!
Exactly. I don't understand why so many people will counter an argument concerning non-tangible items ( like a file, its just a bunch of bits ) with tangible ones ( like a car ). Yes, at some level, say the storage of a file, its "tangible" as the pit s a laser a burns into a CD, but I believe my meaning is clear.
Copyright violation != theft, and people will be able to argue their points for or again P2P file sharing once they get that through their heads.
It is violating the owners copyright in many cases, but not all ( take sharing Opensource applications, for example ). And then one realizes that that is what the real issue is, they can start building a credible argument for or against ( music ) file sharing.
I like this idea. Its been brought up at my last three jobs, and the first time they *ALMOST* implemented it. The plan was even announced at a managers meeting ( I was invited, even though I wasn't a manager ). But, it never materialized.
:)
This method of charging departments for the supported provided by IT would stem the flow of requests ( they would try much harder to figure something out if it cost them more then a phone call to the help desk ), and it would especially get those high maintenance users who just seem to have a problem or needs new programs because their job description just changed for the 3rd time in as many months.
We had one guy whose computer was rebuilt ( software-wise ) 3 times last December! I came into that one and worked very hard to t/s it because rebuilding the system seemed to only be a temporary solution. It finally turned out the email to fax software that was standard on all company systems was the problem. Reloading did not fix it, but since he said he didn't use it, I simply uninstalled it and closed the ticket.
I hear that. My current Network Administrator job matched the job description for the first three days, since then it has run the gamut from Inventory Specialist to Desktop Support to Web Developer to Software Developer to Janitor to Telephone Repair, and so on and so forth. I am waiting for it become "sit at you desk and get paid to do absolutely nothing", but I am not holding my breath.
One net admin I knew actually had to fix the coffee machine, and later became the real estate manager for the site he worked at, without losing his net admin responsibilities either.
Actually, the last part should read -
$25 Million to the 'support f0rt0r' fund. You can just put that in my Swiss bank account. Thank You.
Although I haven't researched myself, I believe I read here on /. that it was going to be possible to enable dual layer read/write on select existing DVD burners via a firmware update. Is this possible or not? FYI - I have a NEC-2500D burner.
While I use Evolution at home, at work we have to use the company standard email apps, but fortunately I have Outlook 2003, which lets you disable HTML email and image downloading. What you get after all that is stripped is a text email with a bunch of image links in it. For most emails this isn't a problem, as they are work emails with nothing but text in them. Sometimes a coworker will have a dumb animated gif in their signature which shows up as an attachement, or they try paste as screenshot of the error they are getting in some application, and I don't see that at all. I am like...what screenshot?
There was an Outlook plugin to disable html rendering in Outlook 2000 and below, but I don't have a link to it anymore.
Bon Chance to those of you who are stuck with email clients that let viruses through easily because of your employer's IT standards.
I second that. I tried to sell my old copy of Everquest on Ebay, and they took my advertisement down the next day with a letter from their legal department. Sheesh, I would like to get some return on all those hours I wasted killing spiders in EQ, but I guess I will just have to write them off :(
With a little help from me, I have gotten 10 or so Windows users at work to start using Mozilla, and one of them even tried out Firefox before I did! However, on the down side, I haven't gotten any of them to try Linux, though several have said "they should". I might just burn Knoppix to CD for them and hand it out.
./ , then it can do the rest of the work ( converting )for me. :)
Anyway, IE does have greater "marketshare", but all it took me was a few nudges to get Windows users to switch. Now if I can just get them to change their homepage to
All this from a former MCSE who though Microsoft was the end-all be all and Linux was just a flash in the pan...
I just wanted to note that I tried Firefox .8 ( something with an "." and an "8" in it, along with Mozilla 1.6 on Windoze, and I found Firefox to be faster but Mozilla had all the features I wanted ( browser only, not email or IRC ), so I switched back to Mozilla.
.010 equals roughly 2.7 hours difference, which is noticeable :), especially for loading a web page.
Now, back on topic ( the articles topic ), seeing Mozilla getting a stronger foundation that is more stable and consumes fewer resources would be nice. On thing to keep in mind is the size of the task usually decides whether good code runs faster than sloppy code. e.g. good code completes a task 10 milliseconds faster than bad code, but that task is only run once...it doesn't make a noticeable difference. But in the case that task runs a million times, the difference is now 1,000,000 *
My point is that users who don't load down the application very much probably won't see a difference, while "power users" will definitely see an improvement.
Precisely. Where does HTTP_REFFER info come from? The client requesting the page! Since the info comes ( assumedly ) from your browser, you have control over it. Now, changing ( forging ) this information may take a bit of work with a standard browser, but assuredly it can be done. And it serves them right. Anyone have details on precisely how this can be done? Even better, could the linking site put something like HTTP_REFERRER= and change it from what it should be? That would be l337!
Weird, I had waited two weeks for an item to show up after I paid for it ( on eBay ), and I complained to paypal, showing them that I was did my due diligence of attempted to work it out with the non-responsive seller. They had my money back in my account in 3 days, no further questions asked.
The only problem with their system was the verification of bank accounts, but I was using NetBank at the time, and I guess the way NetBank funds get routed is quirky in itself. After I switched banks, they verified my account withing 2 days of my request..not bad at all.
Amen Brother.
And by competing with products, not slave labor. This applies to all countries ( including U.S.A. ), not just India.
Well, my take on it is that if the web site operator stops getting any return on the hypothetical $5000 investment, he will stop investing. That means the spammer just lost a customer, which means he is making less money from his spamming operation. If he loses enough customers, he may be put out of business ( or just choose to give up ).
:)
However, what I would really like to see is technology that blocks people who click on spam links from accessing the Internet, or at least the WWW. It isn't going to happen, but I like to think it could.
LOL, it does equal intent...intent to what you don't know. Intent to reverse engineer the file they knew wasn't the real keygen because the md5 checksum didn't match, just to see how it ticked? Just curious as to if it was a virus or not ( they opened it on a computer they didn't care if it trashed just to see what it did ), opened it because their friend down the street renamed it to HotBabeScreenSave.exe and emailed it to them as a joke? Do you see the big picture now?
IRC is more protected from fraud by a trust network than a technical protection. You see, the way it works is the channel operators limit who can serve files to users who are voiced, and the only way a user can get voiced is to earn the trust of the highly untrusting operators.
.
Now, say the vigilante behaves well in the channel for a few months, and the operators meet and vote that the vigilante is trustworthy and therefore can be voiced. The channel protection bots are given the vigilante's IP/Host/Nick combo to identify the vigilante and give him voice when he enters the channel.
Ok, it's been several months and now finally the vigilante and run the channel approve fserve software and is still watched by the operators since he/she is still new. Once someone downloads the keygen from the vigi. and discovers it is fake, they msg the channel ops and report it. The vigi loses voice rights and the whole matter is investigated and a decision is made to permanently ban the vigi since the trojan was discovered.
Now, the vigi can try to get voiced in several channels at once, but most channels won't voice you if you serve in more than 2 other channels, and some won't give you voice if you serve even in one other channel. The vigi still has the option of changing IP/Host/Nick and starting the process all over, but it will again be months before they will be considered for voice again. And if someone figures out that this is the same guy they banned before, his new identify will also get banned from the channel.
However, there are some computer illiterate people on IRC, so if the vigi spams people randomly with private messages ( spamming a channel can be easily blocked ) with the connection info to their server with the fake keygen, saying 'go here here to get UT2004 keygen;, I am sure some will fall for it. But if the vigi is reported to the IRCOPS and they can track home down, its kline time for him. Kline means he cannot connect to the IRC network at all, which is different than banning, which only excludes him from one IRC channel.
So you can see how the IRC system presents unique challenges to the vigilante that P2P applications current do not have. That said, I use the eMule client on the Overture network, and it autoblocks clients for various reasons, and it does have a system for both rating and commenting on shared files. Something very useful that is does is track files by md5 checksum, so you can actually see a file that is shared under several names. Its funny to see "Hardware Wars.mpg" was renamed to "Star Wars Episode 2:Attack of the Clones" and other names, flagging it as a fake.
Well, I feel like just wrote a term paper on IRC and P2P networks, so I am calling it a night(11PM here )
Until next post....
I am still setting up the spyware port project on sourceforge, I'll email you when it is up!
And you know this how? Answer: You don't. It's entirely possible to download a keygen/serial/etc. without having the associated program in your possession. If you doubt this, just give me access to your hard drive, tell me a program that you do not have, then tell me where to download a keygen for that program from, and I will transfer it to your hard drive. La voila, keygen but no program!
Good question, on one hand, no one will get a copy of the file you are sharing unless your computer sends it to them ( in the form of data packets ), on the other hand, you have named the file in such a way as to imply that others should not ask you for it. By ask, I mean "request", because if the file is shared, your computer will send it upon request.
Assume I did a lot of hand waving to handle things like IP blocking, request queues, etc, that would interfere with what I said above.
I need more coffee before I tackle this one...
And actually, since the downloaders never got an illegal copy of the software, they didn't even get to violate copyright law. Now, the plaintiff may try to prove the downloaders had the intent of violating copyright, but there is no way you can violate copyright law without copying. At least, I don't see how it could be done.
There is a short tutorial available both on Trolltech's web site http://doc.trolltech.com/3.2/tutorial.html and in the documentation that comes with the QT libraries.