We did create unwritable registry keys and file names, by exploiting an "impedance mismatch" between the Win32 API and the NT API. Windows, ever since XP, is fundamentally built on top of the NT kernel. NT is fundamentally a Unicode system, so all the strings internally are 16-bit counter Unicode. The Win32 API is fundamentally Ascii. There are strings that you can express in 16-bit counted Unicode that you can't express in ASCII. Most notably, you can have things with a Null in the middle of it.
That meant that we could, for instance, write a Registry key that had a Null in the middle of it. Since the user interface is based on the Win32 API, people would be able to see the key, but they wouldn't be able to interact with it because when they asked for the key by name, they would be asking for the Null-terminated one. Because of that, we were able to make registry keys that were invisible or immutable to anyone using the Win32 API. Interestingly enough, this was not only all civilians and pretty much all of our competitors, but even most of the antivirus people.
because "teachers" really do get it nearly free... or at least not under per-pupil costs. Of course Universities pay big money in the name of "piracy" for site licensing.. but that goes under the IT or legal funds, not "teachers" funds.... see the difference.
You assume that I asked why the teacher used MS software -- in fact, I did not.
First some context on the person that I asked: The lecturer in this case had been with the university a long time (in the CS department). It was a university in the UK -- had the lecturer been at a US university, she would have been a professor with full tenure.
Secondly, I asked in the context of the CS department's use of MS software, not her personal use.
I'm reasonably certain that her response was on the lines of "the University gets it free", not "I get it free."
schools prefer to use Windows because it's what the vast majority of their faculty and staff know,...
A couple or so years ago, I asked a university lecturer why they used so much MS software, when the obviously had knowledge of Linux and Unix -- the reply was something like "we get it free" (or perhaps "almost free").
In this case, it is free as in beer trumping free as in speech.
Managers who expect that data will never be lost, yet are unwilling to authorize equipment purchase and hours required to install and maintain a proper backup system.
What UAC is designed to do is turn actions like reading an email or visiting a website into an action you made by forcing you to choose between "Cancel" or "Allow" and/or typing an Admin level password when a malware situation is encountered.
Almost every time someone hits "cancel", the OS has wasted that person's time. I should not have to tell the OS not to allow an action to happen, and I don't have to do this under Linux.
Now it really is your decision whether or not to install something. I've always been telling people that if they don't like UAC, they better not try Linux because it does basically the same thing.
WTF are you on? Yes, under Ubuntu Linux, a prompt may pop up asking for my password, however, this only happens in direct response to one of my overt requests to perform a task that requires root access -- not because I visited a website, or because I connected a photo frame to my PC. It also doesn't happen every time that I need those privileges, because if I make a series of actions, sudo remembers that I already gave permission for root priveleges to be used.
And if you aren't the one making decisions about which software to install on Linux, who is?
Of course I am. However, software only gets installed as a result of an act that I made -- not by visting some random website, or reading an email, or putting a CD into a drive, or any one of the multitude of ways that malware creeps onto Windows.
Family member: "My computer is getting pop-ups all the time"
Me: "Did you install anything recently?"
fm: "No."
Me: "It says here you installed on , just before you started complaining about things"
That's like living in a house where the driveway is littered with dog poo and adding a detector that, instead of stopping someone with dog poo on their shoes from getting into the house, it merely records the fact for later recall. Ultimately, it doesn't stop you from having to clean dog poo off the carpets.
I love UAC. On XP, I used to have to de-malware my [anonymized family member]'s computer every couple of months. On Vista, I'm watching them use their machine, and UAC pops up with some spyware wanting to install. Box read, permission declined, no infestation I have to clean up.
Which only shows how you have become conditioned to cr*p software. You and your family should not have to make such decisions (accept or decline installation of random software).
I use Linux as my desktop (both at home and at work). I don't have to make decisions about whether to allow installation of some random cr*p that I had not asked for. If your benchmark is XP, then yes, it's better (maybe --because people are conditioned to click "yes" anyway), but there are better benchmarks out there.
Does anyone think that these TVs are built in CA? Even that might not matter, based on the Supreme Courtdecisions that anything that affects interstate commerce is covered by the interstate commerce clause.
Re:TFA says Juniper is doomed. Not so fast.
on
Google Router Rumors
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Routers contain a lot of specialized hardware designed for rapid switching of packets. Google may have a lot of smart people working for them, but they certainly don't have the resources on board to design and build all of those ASIC's and other custom hardware, and it doesn't really make sense for them to get into that business during a recession just for an in-house project.
The questions really are: how many different types of ASICs and boards are in those routers plus how many of the ASICs cannot be replaced with FPGAs and how many of the different board types cannot be rationalized to a smaller number of types? Remember that Google probably doesn't need the level of flexibility offered across Juniper's product range. It is clear that Google already has expertise in chip design -- it's not hard to find board design expertise (either in-house or outsourced).
Re:In My Opinion, Cisco Should Be Worried
on
Google Router Rumors
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· Score: 5, Funny
But I suppose the "Google Router", if it exists, will put an end to Juniper and Cisco in the same way as Bigtable does for Oracle, PostgreSQL etc.: it doesn't because the technology is so fundamental for Google's success that they simply don't share it.
Reading TFA, It is basically saying that the loss of Google alone as a customer would doom Juniper. It doesn't matter if Google shares its technology or not as far as Juniper is concerned.
The Wii has perfect encryption and signing on hardware-assisting firmware and system software that can't be compromised.
Let me correct that for you:
The Wii has perfect ^H^H^H^H^H^H an encryption and signing on hardware-assisting firmware and system software that can't be ^H^H^H^H^H^H hasn't been compromised.
If Groklaw has the only complete record of the SCO ligitation then some court archivist should be looking for work.
It is not that original materials are not available -- rather Groklaw has collected the materials from multiple cases, multiple courts and converted documents to text.
Does this mean that US customs agents will now be searching kids' luggage more diligently, in order to prevent the illegal importation by kids of comic books that they legally bought in Europe?
Think of the kids! Just think of the harm those books could do in the US, probably they are supporting terrorism! </tongue in cheek>
The airline already apologized, refunded the money, and paid for the other flight the family took that trip. Just get over it.
The article does not say that the airline paid for the other flight. It says that the airline offered to pay for the other flight. I'm guessing that the offer requires the family to release the airline of all liability.
Also, other reports stated that the airline was refusing to pay the family's extra cost of taking the other flight, which implies that the offer only came after this became a national news issue. In other words, the offer of a refund only came about because people did not get over it.
Thinking further, this would suggest that you couldn't sell or give away a promotional CD given to you by a music label, which I'm sure you could. So I don't know if "free" is really material here...
There was a lawsuit about this and the eBay seller who was selling promotional CDs won the right to continue selling them.
Also, with such tactics, doesn't an ISP lose "common carrier" status
I can't recall how many times I have posted that ISP's don't have common carrier status. They don't need common carrier status for protection under the DMCA.
In order to become a resident alien (green card holder), fingerprints and photos are already taken by the DHS (was INS). So how is this going to help? Can't they digitize the existing fingerprints?
To such statements, I say "Ohh puhleeze!" I use generic power supplies for all my PCs, which I never switch off by the way. Apart from increased noise after about 3 years of constant humming, I have no complaints for a product that costs me about 18 dollars.
Your experience is clearly different to mine, since I have replaced many generic power supplies that had failed. Some of those failed power supplies also took out the motherboards they were attached to.
Adobe has announced a Linux version of its AIR 1.5 runtime environment that is supposed to allow rich web apps developed on it to run on Fedora Core 8, Ubuntu 7.10...
Isn't this release just in time for support of those 2 versions to be discontinued?
Slashdot Mirror
You assume that I asked why the teacher used MS software -- in fact, I did not.
First some context on the person that I asked: The lecturer in this case had been with the university a long time (in the CS department). It was a university in the UK -- had the lecturer been at a US university, she would have been a professor with full tenure.
Secondly, I asked in the context of the CS department's use of MS software, not her personal use.
I'm reasonably certain that her response was on the lines of "the University gets it free", not "I get it free."
A couple or so years ago, I asked a university lecturer why they used so much MS software, when the obviously had knowledge of Linux and Unix -- the reply was something like "we get it free" (or perhaps "almost free").
In this case, it is free as in beer trumping free as in speech.
Not the NSA (SELinux anyone?)
Managers who expect that data will never be lost, yet are unwilling to authorize equipment purchase and hours required to install and maintain a proper backup system.
Almost every time someone hits "cancel", the OS has wasted that person's time. I should not have to tell the OS not to allow an action to happen, and I don't have to do this under Linux.
WTF are you on? Yes, under Ubuntu Linux, a prompt may pop up asking for my password, however, this only happens in direct response to one of my overt requests to perform a task that requires root access -- not because I visited a website, or because I connected a photo frame to my PC. It also doesn't happen every time that I need those privileges, because if I make a series of actions, sudo remembers that I already gave permission for root priveleges to be used.
Of course I am. However, software only gets installed as a result of an act that I made -- not by visting some random website, or reading an email, or putting a CD into a drive, or any one of the multitude of ways that malware creeps onto Windows.
That's like living in a house where the driveway is littered with dog poo and adding a detector that, instead of stopping someone with dog poo on their shoes from getting into the house, it merely records the fact for later recall. Ultimately, it doesn't stop you from having to clean dog poo off the carpets.
Which only shows how you have become conditioned to cr*p software. You and your family should not have to make such decisions (accept or decline installation of random software).
I use Linux as my desktop (both at home and at work). I don't have to make decisions about whether to allow installation of some random cr*p that I had not asked for. If your benchmark is XP, then yes, it's better (maybe --because people are conditioned to click "yes" anyway), but there are better benchmarks out there.
New Task Bar? Do the words "Titanic" and "rearranging the deckchairs" come to mind here?
Does anyone think that these TVs are built in CA? Even that might not matter, based on the Supreme Courtdecisions that anything that affects interstate commerce is covered by the interstate commerce clause.
The questions really are: how many different types of ASICs and boards are in those routers plus how many of the ASICs cannot be replaced with FPGAs and how many of the different board types cannot be rationalized to a smaller number of types? Remember that Google probably doesn't need the level of flexibility offered across Juniper's product range. It is clear that Google already has expertise in chip design -- it's not hard to find board design expertise (either in-house or outsourced).
Reading TFA, It is basically saying that the loss of Google alone as a customer would doom Juniper. It doesn't matter if Google shares its technology or not as far as Juniper is concerned.
Let me correct that for you:
The Wii has perfect ^H^H^H^H^H^H an encryption and signing on hardware-assisting firmware and system software that can't be ^H^H^H^H^H^H hasn't been compromised.
It is not that original materials are not available -- rather Groklaw has collected the materials from multiple cases, multiple courts and converted documents to text.
Does this mean that US customs agents will now be searching kids' luggage more diligently, in order to prevent the illegal importation by kids of comic books that they legally bought in Europe?
Think of the kids! Just think of the harm those books could do in the US, probably they are supporting terrorism! </tongue in cheek>
Friendly -- T-Mobile will even unlock one phone every 90 days for you, for free.
The article does not say that the airline paid for the other flight. It says that the airline offered to pay for the other flight. I'm guessing that the offer requires the family to release the airline of all liability.
Also, other reports stated that the airline was refusing to pay the family's extra cost of taking the other flight, which implies that the offer only came after this became a national news issue. In other words, the offer of a refund only came about because people did not get over it.
There was a lawsuit about this and the eBay seller who was selling promotional CDs won the right to continue selling them.
I thought court proceedings were public records -- why did it take a year for the transcript to be available?
I can't recall how many times I have posted that ISP's don't have common carrier status. They don't need common carrier status for protection under the DMCA.
Whoever modded up the parent: YOU FAIL!
"Extension"? What is it about Permanent in "Permanent Resident Alien" that the USCIS (INS) doesn't understand?
In order to become a resident alien (green card holder), fingerprints and photos are already taken by the DHS (was INS). So how is this going to help? Can't they digitize the existing fingerprints?
Your experience is clearly different to mine, since I have replaced many generic power supplies that had failed. Some of those failed power supplies also took out the motherboards they were attached to.
Isn't this release just in time for support of those 2 versions to be discontinued?