as i said, there is no such thing as a secure system. so, i really don't understand why news like this make it to the front page. to warn people? as an admin, you better follow these things and if you don't, you deserve to be vulnerable anyways
i develop cross-platform code for windows, linux and solaris so i am quite aware of many of these security issues. there is no such thing as a secure system; there are only secure admins
it might come as a surprise to you and all the computer savy crowd of/. but there are people out there who has no idea what piracy is; yet, they still need nav and thus go out to purchase it ( typically, suggested by the geek next door ). this probably happens less often in us and europe but in other countries, especially in developing countries, i have seen people selling cracked versions of nav in an ugly, brown box for about the same price as the original boxed version, calling it the oem version. and, no, i am sure it's not a legitimate practice symantec is conducting in such countries because i was asked to install one such copy myself, just to find a dir called "crack" buried deep within an "install" dir ( yes, yes, i was also the geek next door many years ago ). so, there is actually some need to let the consumer know that his/her copy is truly authentic; especially for such basic software that is probably needed by anyone with some sort of internet connection
if you think about it, it's the same deal as buying a rolex knock up and thinking it's original. the sad part is, of course, i am not sure if symantec's implementation of product activation is the answer to that; in fact, any sort of product activation might not be the answer
disclaimer: this post is based on an experience dating way back to 1998. may be people are overall more computer savy nowadays and thus the original idea might not be true anymore
"Meanwhile, C++ is being abandoned for Java, C#, C, and scripting languages."
ya'know, this is my problem with people trying to bash c++. what they don't realize is, people do abandon c++ not because it's a bad language but because it does not have a feature-rich standard library. with java, you get so many apis out of the box, it's overwhelming. but once you master them, then the tool is pretty powerful because you can write certain apps in just a small number of lines, whereas c++ would require you to buy 3rd party libraries ( which are, obviously, not 'standard' ) or develop thousands of lines of code
the thing is, there is *NO* single language on this world that's good for everything. if you need to rapidly develop stuff, go and use java, c# or, say, perl. that's what i do. when i need to write a backend that needs to link two software communicating via text files, i don't grab c++, i grab perl. when i need to write a cross-platform gui where the slickness of gui is not important, i grab java; just like when doing network-related stuff. c# is good if you are aiming only windows boxes, etc.
people do switch to other languages because they don't need the power of c++, a power that comes with its own troubles. this is just like driving a bmw versus a f1 car. if you need to go somewhere without having too much trouble, buy the freaking bmw. it has everything you need in it, out of the box. yet, if you need to go there fast, you have to spend time training yourself how to handle a f1 car, live without a/c or soda holder but you'll go there faster
i have seen people trying to write elaborate guis and network applications using c++. what a poor choice! even if you have tons of 3rd party tools ( my standard set includes boost, wxwindows and ace ), it's still far more easier to use a rad. but, i have also seen crunching software that's written in java. that's even worse
the moral of the story: know your language and use it properly. there are things c++ can do, while other languages will just watch silently from far and there are things other languages can do, which will take 10 times more lines of code in c++
Slashdot Mirror
actually, i also meant to give this link:
http://www.sunsolve.sun.com/pub-cgi/search.pl?mod
as i said, there is no such thing as a secure system. so, i really don't understand why news like this make it to the front page. to warn people? as an admin, you better follow these things and if you don't, you deserve to be vulnerable anyways
-- ng
> "Which is a moot point as everyone knows you don't get security holes in linux"
really? http://www.linuxsecurity.com/advisories/index.htm
i develop cross-platform code for windows, linux and solaris so i am quite aware of many of these security issues. there is no such thing as a secure system; there are only secure admins
-- ng
it might come as a surprise to you and all the computer savy crowd of /. but there are people out there who has no idea what piracy is; yet, they still need nav and thus go out to purchase it ( typically, suggested by the geek next door ). this probably happens less often in us and europe but in other countries, especially in developing countries, i have seen people selling cracked versions of nav in an ugly, brown box for about the same price as the original boxed version, calling it the oem version. and, no, i am sure it's not a legitimate practice symantec is conducting in such countries because i was asked to install one such copy myself, just to find a dir called "crack" buried deep within an "install" dir ( yes, yes, i was also the geek next door many years ago ). so, there is actually some need to let the consumer know that his/her copy is truly authentic; especially for such basic software that is probably needed by anyone with some sort of internet connection
if you think about it, it's the same deal as buying a rolex knock up and thinking it's original. the sad part is, of course, i am not sure if symantec's implementation of product activation is the answer to that; in fact, any sort of product activation might not be the answer
disclaimer: this post is based on an experience dating way back to 1998. may be people are overall more computer savy nowadays and thus the original idea might not be true anymore
-- null
"Meanwhile, C++ is being abandoned for Java, C#, C, and scripting languages."
ya'know, this is my problem with people trying to bash c++. what they don't realize is, people do abandon c++ not because it's a bad language but because it does not have a feature-rich standard library. with java, you get so many apis out of the box, it's overwhelming. but once you master them, then the tool is pretty powerful because you can write certain apps in just a small number of lines, whereas c++ would require you to buy 3rd party libraries ( which are, obviously, not 'standard' ) or develop thousands of lines of code
the thing is, there is *NO* single language on this world that's good for everything. if you need to rapidly develop stuff, go and use java, c# or, say, perl. that's what i do. when i need to write a backend that needs to link two software communicating via text files, i don't grab c++, i grab perl. when i need to write a cross-platform gui where the slickness of gui is not important, i grab java; just like when doing network-related stuff. c# is good if you are aiming only windows boxes, etc.
people do switch to other languages because they don't need the power of c++, a power that comes with its own troubles. this is just like driving a bmw versus a f1 car. if you need to go somewhere without having too much trouble, buy the freaking bmw. it has everything you need in it, out of the box. yet, if you need to go there fast, you have to spend time training yourself how to handle a f1 car, live without a/c or soda holder but you'll go there faster
i have seen people trying to write elaborate guis and network applications using c++. what a poor choice! even if you have tons of 3rd party tools ( my standard set includes boost, wxwindows and ace ), it's still far more easier to use a rad. but, i have also seen crunching software that's written in java. that's even worse
the moral of the story: know your language and use it properly. there are things c++ can do, while other languages will just watch silently from far and there are things other languages can do, which will take 10 times more lines of code in c++
-- null