So the added complication is linking one of the existing captcha decoders and the gecko engine for example, maybe a half day's work. Do you have any references for this? I was wondering if there is there a library which can be linked to where you can simply say render http://www.google.com/ as an image in PNG format to filename "foo.png"?
"One of the pictures below is of a dog lying on a pile of newspaper headlines. What's on the dog's nametag?"
On second thought, I guess that could eventually be solved as well. Maybe add in a legend with "What kind of dog is it?" etc. The joys of a never-ending arms race.
Then again I am fly to the US in three weeks time for a skiing holiday, and I paid with a cheque or a check if you cannot spell:-). Why, well the holiday company wanted to make a 3% surcharge for paying by debit or credit card. In many cases, this violates their merchant agreement. I'd phone up your credit card company and ask if they authorize a merchant to implement this practice. If it's not, pay by credit card, accept the 3% surcharge (as long as it's itemized as such on the invoice) and then call your credit card company and have them refund the amount plus put some heat on the merchant.
I'll stick to languages that have at least a professional following, in use by real software engineers (that is, engineers who can legally call themselves engineers), not the run of the mill code monkeys. I'm dying to know... do you mean Fortran or Lisp?
What he says in that quote is simply not possible; you still need the keys, and that hack doesn't cover that problem. Any software player also needs keys in order to play it. Until the time comes that hardware decryption is done in the video card itself, it'll always be possible to hack the software and get the required decryption keys.
One thing I've always wondered is how darwinawards.com became the defacto source. The Darwin Awards were started long before that site came to exist and yet there's a movie called The Darwin Awards to which the rights were licensed by darwinawards.com. The name was in use before that site got started, so it shouldn't be a trademark issue. The stories are all based around ones which are covered by various media sources, so it shouldn't be a copyright issue. Why should someone producing a movie have to license the rights for what is effectively a community concept? It's like an anonymous coward licensing the rights to "F1RST PSOT!!!" to a movie studio.
Why do people make things up? To see how many people they can fool, perhaps? A few months back I received a forwarded email from my parents with the 2006 Darwin Awards. Naturally I was suspicious as not only was it a few months before the end of 2006, but a lot of those stories seemed really familiar. After checking into it, one of them was a Darwin Award from the late 90s, one from early 2000s, and assorted others. So they all were verified Darwin award winners, but someone felt the need to slap together a bunch and make themselves feel important by being the first one to produce the newest 2006 awards. I suppose it's the same cause as why some people make up stories about themselves that never happened. I don't get it either.
You didn't explain why you would want to migrate your shop to Linux in the first place. You even mention that the software you need is Windows-only stuff, but you want to make things complicated, difficult and expensive by running this Windows software on Linux virtual terminals instead of natively! Those first two sentences contained some great advice. It's too bad your post turned into what looked like a bunch of [independently researched] BS numbers.
However, if I were to add to that first bit as a reply to the submitter, I'd seriously consider the question of whether or not this small shop can continue on servicing a Linux deployment with a complex mix of Windows/Linux after you leave. After all, you don't plan to work there forever and given that you have to ask others for advice, how likely is it that:
A) you can seamlessly make the transition yourself; and B) someone else can easily pick up where you left off?
Unix-based servers are absolutely great and typically rock solid at doing server kind of stuff... much more so than Windows presently is. However, I'd actually advise you to stay with Windows. It's what a lot of people know, you know it currently works, and unless there is a serious compelling reason why you can't just continue with the status quo, it's the cheaper to use what you have than try and make changes with potentially unknown complications.
If anything, I'd setup a parallel network running Linux and host some services off of that, gradually migrating services one at a time over to it while you transition off. And if things go south and you run into issues you can't resolve, you could always pull the plug and you still have your original Windows network.
I agree with your assertion that he's not considering all the costs involved, but as I've already stated, multiple times, I'm not addressing that issue at all. Just your silly car analogy. Yes, it's a silly car analogy and cars don't have a perfect 1:1 mapping with software. Mea culpa.
This isn't about car alarms and anti-piracy in Windows. It's about the cost of distributing a physical DVD vs. the cost of distributing a physical car.
Cost of a car. Cost of a physical DVD. That's what this discussion is about. In terms of distribution, both have costs above and beyond simple materials. The suggestion that removing key management from Windows eliminates distribution costs for physical DVDs is as bizarre as suggesting that removing keys from cars will eliminate its distribution costs.
So now it's trespassing? The license keys in Windows were first equated to theft, now trespassing. Both of which are impossible with Windows. I never said anything about trespassing in relation to Windows -- you made that erroneous connection.
Going back to the top of the thread (since this has gone off on multiple tangents) someone said that without Microsoft's various security features, the cost of distributing DVDs would ONLY be the cost of producing the media. Since distributing DVDs would likely involve some sort of shipping and packaging, that statement is trivially false. My analogy was to say that if you took various security features out of a car, would its cost simply be the car's raw materials? Of course not. Thus, it's an exercise to the reader to apply reductio ad absurdum and reach a conclusion about whether or not the statement about DVD cost is true.
Unfortunately, everyone focused solely on car/theft != software/infringement and stopped reading the sentence at that point.
WTF is "unauthorized use" of a car, and how is it different from stealing? If I'm able to enter your car (eg: if you left your door unlocked or I have a master key) and spend the night sleeping in it, leaving quietly in the morning having caused no damage, I have used your car without authorization and I have not stolen it. Alarm systems are meant to mitigate such unauthorized use as well as much more serious problems.
And the sleeping in the car overnight thing happened to a friend of mine two weeks ago. The only reason she noticed is that her seat was pushed all the way back to accomodate someone stretching out their legs. Nothing stolen, nothing touched.
However, Windows itself has never been stolen. Nor has someone's identity ever been stolen. However, identity theft is a convenient term for something we all understand.
1) Is that someone your friend or your enemy? I suppose I'm just a simple guy. If I make an agreement with a friend regarding their laptop, I'd honor that agreement. If it's an enemy, then I suppose I wouldn't be likely to make any agreements in the first place. However, if I did I'd make sure the agreement was surely in my favor... and then I'd honor it too. If the deal with Microsoft means that keeping it is an option, I'd probably do the same as you... wipe the drives and install some other OS onto it.
Economics lesson appreciated but not required. The initial comment that sparked this discussion:
"You do realize their ONLY production cost when giving out freebies on vista is the cost to press a dvd/cd/whatever it is stored on."
My analogy's intended statement was to point out that just as cars have costs above and beyond the raw materials (eg: labor), so too are there costs above and beyond simply pressing a DVD/CD/whatever -- the fact that the original comment spoke of physical media indicates that some kind of shipping and packaging is required which implies a cost.
As for the issue of cost of producing the first copy, _deal_ with it. You're the one bringing up the cost of the first copy. I'm not sure how that entered this discussion. But as many have pointed out, there are ongoing costs associated with producing each copy. Unless everybody donates all their time, resources, and materials and people transport at no charge your physical media to where you want to ship it, you are going to incur costs above and beyond the simple pressing of a DVD.
Also, you are welcome to send the machine back to us after you are done playing with it, or you can give it away on your site, or you can keep it.
OK, I decided to keep it. Now it's mine. End of contract. 5 minutes later, I decide to sell it on Ebay. Big deal. A valid point. However, to me it's like someone giving me their grandfather's antique watch and saying "I'm giving this to you, but only if you agree that you'll wear it." I accept and then I wear it for a day [fulfilling my obligation] and put it up on eBay the next day. Just doesn't seem right.
In other words, if someone (let's not dissemble, some corporation--you don't make a "gentlemen's" agreement with a corporation. It's not like the MS employee paid for the laptop himself) gives you a free laptop for review, you should not give your honest reaction? Where did I infer that an honest reaction should not be given?
That's like saying if it weren't for car thieves necessitating keys and alarm systems, then the price of cars would only be the cost of the materials that go into it. If I was going to buy a car, it would be in my best interest to have a good lock on the car. If I was going to buy an operating system, it would not be in my best interest to have loads of artificial restrictions in the operating system. No disagreement from me there. Now read the second half of what I wrote.
It's possible to steal a car (and it happens quite often). It's impossible to steal Windows (and has never happened, ever). That point of my comment is that key management for Windows is designed as a unauthorized use mitigation system much in the same way that a vehicle's keys and car alarm is designed as an unauthorized use mitigation system. I'm ignoring the distinction between copyright infringement and theft here because the point I was really trying to make (and obviously failed) is that even without key management the cost of producing software on media is *not* just the cost of the media. In the same way, the cost of a vehicle is not just the price of the parts that go into it. Unless you factor in all overhead and other costs and bundle that into one all-consuming "media cost", then the cost of the media alone doesn't even come close to what it would actually cost to send out copies of any software, be it Windows or Linux.
Slashdot Mirror
How about this:
"One of the pictures below is of a dog lying on a pile of newspaper headlines. What's on the dog's nametag?"
On second thought, I guess that could eventually be solved as well. Maybe add in a legend with "What kind of dog is it?" etc. The joys of a never-ending arms race.
How very !y of you.
A quick Google turned up this Visa USA merchant rules PDF document (HTML google cache).
Yes, but what about the rights licensing?
Half-dupe. The last story said source coming in January. This one provides source.
Am I missing something? If you RTFA it's only 11 scanners, conveniently listed as 1 through 11:
1. ISS Internet Security Systems
2. SSS Shadow Security Scanner
3. Retina eEye
4. Nessus
5. GFI Languard Network Security Scanner
6. Qualys www.qualys.com
7. Nstealth Security Scanner www.nstalker.com
8. Nikto
9. Whisker
10. Infiltrator infiltration-systems.com
11. Nscan
One thing I've always wondered is how darwinawards.com became the defacto source. The Darwin Awards were started long before that site came to exist and yet there's a movie called The Darwin Awards to which the rights were licensed by darwinawards.com. The name was in use before that site got started, so it shouldn't be a trademark issue. The stories are all based around ones which are covered by various media sources, so it shouldn't be a copyright issue. Why should someone producing a movie have to license the rights for what is effectively a community concept? It's like an anonymous coward licensing the rights to "F1RST PSOT!!!" to a movie studio.
However, if I were to add to that first bit as a reply to the submitter, I'd seriously consider the question of whether or not this small shop can continue on servicing a Linux deployment with a complex mix of Windows/Linux after you leave. After all, you don't plan to work there forever and given that you have to ask others for advice, how likely is it that:
A) you can seamlessly make the transition yourself; and
B) someone else can easily pick up where you left off?
Unix-based servers are absolutely great and typically rock solid at doing server kind of stuff... much more so than Windows presently is. However, I'd actually advise you to stay with Windows. It's what a lot of people know, you know it currently works, and unless there is a serious compelling reason why you can't just continue with the status quo, it's the cheaper to use what you have than try and make changes with potentially unknown complications.
If anything, I'd setup a parallel network running Linux and host some services off of that, gradually migrating services one at a time over to it while you transition off. And if things go south and you run into issues you can't resolve, you could always pull the plug and you still have your original Windows network.
[...]
I agree with your assertion that he's not considering all the costs involved, but as I've already stated, multiple times, I'm not addressing that issue at all. Just your silly car analogy. Yes, it's a silly car analogy and cars don't have a perfect 1:1 mapping with software. Mea culpa.
This isn't about car alarms and anti-piracy in Windows. It's about the cost of distributing a physical DVD vs. the cost of distributing a physical car.
Cost of a car. Cost of a physical DVD. That's what this discussion is about. In terms of distribution, both have costs above and beyond simple materials. The suggestion that removing key management from Windows eliminates distribution costs for physical DVDs is as bizarre as suggesting that removing keys from cars will eliminate its distribution costs.
Going back to the top of the thread (since this has gone off on multiple tangents) someone said that without Microsoft's various security features, the cost of distributing DVDs would ONLY be the cost of producing the media. Since distributing DVDs would likely involve some sort of shipping and packaging, that statement is trivially false. My analogy was to say that if you took various security features out of a car, would its cost simply be the car's raw materials? Of course not. Thus, it's an exercise to the reader to apply reductio ad absurdum and reach a conclusion about whether or not the statement about DVD cost is true.
Unfortunately, everyone focused solely on car/theft != software/infringement and stopped reading the sentence at that point.
And the sleeping in the car overnight thing happened to a friend of mine two weeks ago. The only reason she noticed is that her seat was pushed all the way back to accomodate someone stretching out their legs. Nothing stolen, nothing touched.
Economics lesson appreciated but not required. The initial comment that sparked this discussion:
"You do realize their ONLY production cost when giving out freebies on vista is the cost to press a dvd/cd/whatever it is stored on."
My analogy's intended statement was to point out that just as cars have costs above and beyond the raw materials (eg: labor), so too are there costs above and beyond simply pressing a DVD/CD/whatever -- the fact that the original comment spoke of physical media indicates that some kind of shipping and packaging is required which implies a cost.
Also, you are welcome to send the machine back to us after you are done playing with it, or you can give it away on your site, or you can keep it.
OK, I decided to keep it. Now it's mine. End of contract. 5 minutes later, I decide to sell it on Ebay. Big deal. A valid point. However, to me it's like someone giving me their grandfather's antique watch and saying "I'm giving this to you, but only if you agree that you'll wear it." I accept and then I wear it for a day [fulfilling my obligation] and put it up on eBay the next day. Just doesn't seem right.