"Clam flags 100 to 200 emails A DAY on my domain mailserv as various..."
And most of those attachments are some form of Microsoft Office related trojans (very rarely is it a rogue javascript or some phishing / pharming trick).
The irony is that even in windows, the few exploits written for Open Office or others suites, are merely "screw with the app" exploits since the app doesn't hook so absolutely on the underlying OS (and also doesn't depend so badly upon certain "features" being present in a system). In the end, the extra bloat in ODT/ODF files may also be due to the fact that MS has shortcuts available that other formats must encapsulate. Not an impossibility. On the other hand, having less integrated applications also provides one major benefit... it keeps attacks from being so easy to carry out. Its like the current centralization of powers seen elsewhere. A totally integrated system allows for ease of control at all levels. Sadly it also allows for ridiculously easy hijacking of such a system by any agent, insider or outsider with any kind of interest in actually taking over.
Clam flags 100 to 200 emails on my domain mailserv as various W32, W95 or some VBS exploit. I open them up in Mutt to see which of my friends got hammered, write up a script and have it reply by default. So now if my AV catches what is occuring to my friends, it writes them a reply to let them know they have X virus or trojan and its "broadcasting".
Convenient links to ClamAV, WinClam, AVG, Kasperski, etc are included in each email. Usually plaintext emails if not PDF.
I don't miss college one bit. A big waste of cash, all things considered and only learned what I needed once I stopped wasting cash there and got out into the world and got some experience.
It also happens to contain that neat little "loader" tool that remains resident and then makes OO open just as fast as MS Office.
If you happen to not be a Windows user, then OO loads a LOT faster than M$ 0ffice. In fact, even with virtualizing enabled at the kernel level and a lot of tweaks, you cannot load M$ stuff nearly as quickly as you can OO or KO, or NO, or any of the other suites.
On the upside, since Open Office doesn't plug into the OS at all, it cannot directly be hijacked and therefore hijack your OS when those "crappy.doc attachments" get opened by someone with a click happy mouse finger.
Wow, you're still around. Still working on that Linux project you sent my way? I haven't seen much change last time I dropped by the site... any progress on the distro?
(as an update, been tooling around with puppy linux and minimizing a LFS install to fit on a USB stick, lemme know how your team's doing)
I've done some IT over the years along with other things.
I don't see how having paid for something that has drawbacks can actually cost me a damn thing. I took all the Office disks that my old man bought during my stay "away from the company" back to Staples Office Store, raised hell with the local management that I did NOT accept the licenses, and got back a good bit of cash. Do I run office? Why would I? The entire office runs Gentoo, BSD (various flavors) and one rig of Windows XP on a tripple boot arch.
Why would I pay for office again??
For the record, I've been messing with Open Office AND KOffice.
Both are nice, and neither in windows, nor linux are either worse than MSOffice.
As I do little business that can't be communicated in plaintext, PDF or webformat, I find that distributing my app to the net would result in forcing my clients to be logged in while in the field. Frankly I'd rather have them out there with a notepad, later transcribing data, than spending all their time connected.
Frankly, my best notes were actually done on napkins with a few friends at a late night coffee shop chat. I've scanned and printed a few to post script over the years. (Ghost script, if you would.)
Quite fun to mess with, and quite useful. Helps to NOT pay 5k for something that the IT shop doesn't even get a good markup from.
Had the state not been so absolute in its power, and unquestioned in its judgement, then these monopolies would've had a LOT of small players armed with both skill and arms (when skill in the market place fails) who could've cleaned house.
The government handed the fat contracts directly to the biggest player(s) and later pretended to break them down. Incorporating, and corporate personhood (complete with rights) is part of the reason that government is directly guilty of A) being and B) aiding the big corporation scam of today. It doesn't matter if its communists, capitalists or what have you. It is statism, that's the overall umbrella term that covers them all.
Had the state not been so absolute in its power, and unquestioned in its judgement, then these monopolies would've had a LOT of small players armed with both skill and arms (when skill in the market place fails) who could've cleaned house. But lets get real, you people bleat your way to the shears and the butcher block. Those who wish to rule would have to be STUPID to want to help you get free. And while I don't wish to rule you, I am getting sick of even discussing this topic, with everyone in question.
You must have missed the part where the internet was created/built/etc with taxpayer money. Aka, it was built BY a monopoly (the government) and it was sold/maintained on contract by the big bells. AT&T, Verizon, etc, being their offspring. These companies, in reality were originally billed as "stewards" not necessarily owners of this infrastructure. If not, then perhaps they should give every tax payer an outright return on our investments, so to speak, since those days.
We do not have a "free market". We haven't for a long time. Merit has little to do with profits nowadays since the regulatory and taxation agencies are having a field day with anyone that tries to play it straight (by their rules at least).
These monopolies, if you missed it, were GRANTED by government. The little guy is being squeezed out because the government granted these companies total monopoly on the infrastructure. The companies are doing what comes naturally to a 99% monopoly. Trying to get the other 1% of the control over their monopoly. Start looking at the governments as the problem, not the solution.
So you say... others say the same. Those I've known personally say different.
And I place little value in polls... I've participated, until I saw several of them with very leading questions. The questions are geared to get a certain response from a certain demographic.
Similar to how CNN polls CONSISTENTLY show the opposite of what FOX News polls CONSISTENTLY show. The questions are geared to a certain demographic.
Asking 10000 Swedes one thing is different than asking 1000 Swedes that same thing. Picking who gets the polls and then cherrypicking the data isn't unheard of (in fact as far as I've heard, from mainstream and underground news, it is quite the opposite.)
I was going to move out there, but did my research on taxes, and found that I'd rather not partake of that little bowl of worms. My friends getting out of there helped cement that. If I were to still pick a place, it'd probably be Iceland.
Reminds me of a friend of mine who visited a girlfriend of his (long distance) in Canada. He was going to move out there from the USA, and then while she was boasting about how wonderful the place was, they ran into a homeless jobless bum right there in the middle of nowhere, Canada, Christmas EVE!! And in such a "safe and happy" country, they didn't even give the poor bastard a ride. Guess maybe Canada was more dangerous than his girlfriend was selling it to him (especially with the majority being defenseless and disarmed by choice/vote.) He sharpened his ears and paid attention, and realized all wasn't as well as they claim it is in the land of socialized medicine... (his girlfriend needed a diagnosis and possible treatment for a potentially life threatening situation... socialized medicine put her on a 9 month waiting list, and she saw little wrong with it other than "I can't believe this". To her it was still better than withholding the payment of any further taxes and using that money to pay for another doctor.) Guess some sheep love the shears.
I'm glad you like the Norse lands, personally I just like hunting trips out there (and I hear the women in Iceland are gorgeous, but I've had no other priority to head out there yet.)
Getting voters involved doesn't help. That just gets the enlightened minority to squabble amongst themselves and with the unenlightened majority...
Majority of voters want the system to pay them free money that they steal from those who actually produce anything of any value. There are too many who vote for a living to be able to fight against this tide. Enlightenment and wisdom come to few. Then they either rant, or become tyrants upon the masses or self ruled freemen, going where they please..
Me, I got tired of ranting after predicting that Kerry would throw the match like Gore did. "Nolo contendere."
And that's what happened. Two predictions on major scale events and many predictions on smaller scale events have lead me to believe what I say because I've been right so far. As Marxist Hacker 42 would say, "its in the data", and it sure is... sadly his data is incomplete.
So now I've got a choice... the only one there is to make... and the one I'm pondering. Become a tyrant, and join the group always on the winning side in the "people vs tyrants" struggle... or become a self ruled freeman all the way... a group that isn't really a group, and doesn't really join in these foolish struggles that never go anywhere. Those are the only two groups that have always been untouched by these squabbles we call "wars" and "upheavals". They're both small, as they should be.
Mark Twain (Sam Clemens) is quoted to have said something to this effect. "Whenever your point of view coincides with that of the majority, it is time to step back, and rethink your point of view." Throughout my experiences, I have found Sam to be VERY astute in his observation.
You are taxed by consent, go read how governments are formed.
YE GODS!!
You have NO idea how right you are about that, but they don't teach that in school, and I've no interest to teach anyone. That would actually make me a target for the system:) And I've no interest to save you or others and end up dodging bullets. But I can do what I'm doing now, and snicker.
And yes, I have tried to "change the system", but protesting doesn't and never has worked. Spartacus was a prime example of "hard line protesting"... and remember what happened to the slave revolt? I recall the Romans lined a whole road with crucified gladiators and slaves as a reprisal. The 60's were less brutal but I have plenty of hippie acquaintances who barely have teeth in their mouths, and they didn't lose them being gently acquiesced to by the system... nah, they were beaten to a pulp, spat upon, and then ignored.
"I believe in evolution, but humans shouldn't be allowed to evolve or vote themselves out of the gene pool, ALL humans should be kept safe ALL the time by government fiat!"
Sound like what you just said?
Also, please do not refer to it as liberalism, the term "liberalism" sounds too much like what is used today as a term to describe Authoritarian Statism / Socialism. I disapprove of this method of thought because it tends to force the rest of us to pay for the life, health and safety of those who neither take the trouble, nor desire to maintain their lives or health, but then pay us to repair them after they damage themselves (generally through sheer stupidity, and sometimes through plain ignorance).
Why should I, judging by the personal trouble I go through to maintain MY good health (cook own food, grow much of it, exercise, etc), pay for some fat schmuck who can't even be bothered to get off his fat ass and away from American Idol, and go for a walk each evening? Personally I hope he gets what he deserves, and I hope he does it BEFORE the government decides that I have to be taxed to pay for his funeral too!
Wow... you really buy what you just said?? You still vote and pretend you can actually make a difference?
When was the last time you saw an administration that REALLY cut taxes, or actually even pretended to stick to the Constitution? Regardless of which "party" won an election... did anything ever really change?
When did you ever actually see any administration that even keeps half its campaign promises (some of us actually know they're mostly lies, but lets pretend that they aren't just crap they say to get elected.)
When have voters actually gotten someone into office to do ANYTHING but vote more "largesse from the public treasury"?
Actually, the irony in this is lost on the majority.
How did a communally funded waste of money like the space project (apollo, etc) help fight communism?
So lets rephrase this. Taxes are forcefully appropriated fractions of a man or woman's property or just remuneration (payment) for services or products. Communists say that your labor is not your own, but the state's, and the state can use it to build, spend, destroy, dispose of it in any way it so desires, so long as they can pretend it is "for the good of the people", and the people are the state, and the state's desire is what the people desire (if you object, a "reeducation" team will escort you to your nearest gulag "resort").
Now, lets see, so in America, they taxed people, thus forcefully stealing the products of their labor (basically their labor itself!) and they used it to fund a feel good public project. They gave it a fancy Greek name. Eventually when it was done, it was done not to reimburse those it robbed, nor to produce anything of importance (except perhaps, Tom Hanks movies), but "for the greatness of the nation" or "to beat the Communists into space".
I don't see how "beating the communists at their own game" is "defeating communism"... did we succeed merely by "being more communist than the communists"???
Yep, the only things Russian computers will have in "closed source" will be the monitoring and surveillance modules. Those will be copyrighted NSA/KGB 2.0:)
Actually I have a friend researching fish breeding enhancements, whose IT departments are about as anal retentive (and incompetent) as those of various governments.
It has NOTHING to do with "top secret nuclear facility". I hate to tell you this, but if you're studying "the chance for testicular atrophiation in prairie dogs", there is a fair chance that A) your IT departments will still be idiots, B) terrorism or copyright infringement paranoia at your facility will STILL be off the wall/extreme, and C) you're still going to get screwed if so much as a peep of "unauthorized activity" is found coming from your computer/cubicle.
This is the world idiots have created, and slaves have accepted. Surprised?
Isn't it THEIR choice? If you don't like the way they do coffee, the logical choice is go accross the street to Burger King, Wendys, 7-11, gas station Food Mart, etc. But again, if you have a system to abuse so easily, then why not abuse it?
Meanwhile, unsafe drugs are released by drug companies, and pushed by doctors who are granted monopoly of the market by government licensing bureaus, etc. That's fine. But "hot coffee" is a legitimate reason to sue? You're not seeing the irony there?
Slashdot Mirror
I'll defer to the wisdom of wikipedia. Its infallibility crushes any vague memory I might have.
Cheers. Good show bud.
What I meant to say is this...
..."
"Clam flags 100 to 200 emails A DAY on my domain mailserv as various
And most of those attachments are some form of Microsoft Office related trojans (very rarely is it a rogue javascript or some phishing / pharming trick).
The irony is that even in windows, the few exploits written for Open Office or others suites, are merely "screw with the app" exploits since the app doesn't hook so absolutely on the underlying OS (and also doesn't depend so badly upon certain "features" being present in a system). In the end, the extra bloat in ODT/ODF files may also be due to the fact that MS has shortcuts available that other formats must encapsulate. Not an impossibility. On the other hand, having less integrated applications also provides one major benefit... it keeps attacks from being so easy to carry out. Its like the current centralization of powers seen elsewhere. A totally integrated system allows for ease of control at all levels. Sadly it also allows for ridiculously easy hijacking of such a system by any agent, insider or outsider with any kind of interest in actually taking over.
Clam flags 100 to 200 emails on my domain mailserv as various W32, W95 or some VBS exploit. I open them up in Mutt to see which of my friends got hammered, write up a script and have it reply by default. So now if my AV catches what is occuring to my friends, it writes them a reply to let them know they have X virus or trojan and its "broadcasting".
Convenient links to ClamAV, WinClam, AVG, Kasperski, etc are included in each email. Usually plaintext emails if not PDF.
I don't miss college one bit. A big waste of cash, all things considered and only learned what I needed once I stopped wasting cash there and got out into the world and got some experience.
It also happens to contain that neat little "loader" tool that remains resident and then makes OO open just as fast as MS Office.
If you happen to not be a Windows user, then OO loads a LOT faster than M$ 0ffice. In fact, even with virtualizing enabled at the kernel level and a lot of tweaks, you cannot load M$ stuff nearly as quickly as you can OO or KO, or NO, or any of the other suites.
On the upside, since Open Office doesn't plug into the OS at all, it cannot directly be hijacked and therefore hijack your OS when those "crappy .doc attachments" get opened by someone with a click happy mouse finger.
Wow, you're still around. Still working on that Linux project you sent my way? I haven't seen much change last time I dropped by the site... any progress on the distro?
(as an update, been tooling around with puppy linux and minimizing a LFS install to fit on a USB stick, lemme know how your team's doing)
And if memory serves, it was AOL. Not Microsoft.
It was enough to be good until Claris was out of the picture. After that it was Microsoft or MainSoft... oh wait... that's redundancy :)
I've done some IT over the years along with other things.
I don't see how having paid for something that has drawbacks can actually cost me a damn thing. I took all the Office disks that my old man bought during my stay "away from the company" back to Staples Office Store, raised hell with the local management that I did NOT accept the licenses, and got back a good bit of cash. Do I run office? Why would I? The entire office runs Gentoo, BSD (various flavors) and one rig of Windows XP on a tripple boot arch.
Why would I pay for office again??
For the record, I've been messing with Open Office AND KOffice.
Both are nice, and neither in windows, nor linux are either worse than MSOffice.
As I do little business that can't be communicated in plaintext, PDF or webformat, I find that distributing my app to the net would result in forcing my clients to be logged in while in the field. Frankly I'd rather have them out there with a notepad, later transcribing data, than spending all their time connected.
Frankly, my best notes were actually done on napkins with a few friends at a late night coffee shop chat. I've scanned and printed a few to post script over the years. (Ghost script, if you would.)
Quite fun to mess with, and quite useful. Helps to NOT pay 5k for something that the IT shop doesn't even get a good markup from.
True, haven't watched the movie in years, but just went and checked. You're right. Thanks for reminding me to fix it. There, fixed.
Been saving in ODT, PDF and TXT for ages... add HTML to that.
Had the state not been so absolute in its power, and unquestioned in its judgement, then these monopolies would've had a LOT of small players armed with both skill and arms (when skill in the market place fails) who could've cleaned house.
"would have had to deal WITH"
Made a mistake there typing fast.
Laters, gotta run.
The government handed the fat contracts directly to the biggest player(s) and later pretended to break them down. Incorporating, and corporate personhood (complete with rights) is part of the reason that government is directly guilty of A) being and B) aiding the big corporation scam of today. It doesn't matter if its communists, capitalists or what have you. It is statism, that's the overall umbrella term that covers them all.
Had the state not been so absolute in its power, and unquestioned in its judgement, then these monopolies would've had a LOT of small players armed with both skill and arms (when skill in the market place fails) who could've cleaned house. But lets get real, you people bleat your way to the shears and the butcher block. Those who wish to rule would have to be STUPID to want to help you get free. And while I don't wish to rule you, I am getting sick of even discussing this topic, with everyone in question.
You must have missed the part where the internet was created/built/etc with taxpayer money. Aka, it was built BY a monopoly (the government) and it was sold/maintained on contract by the big bells. AT&T, Verizon, etc, being their offspring. These companies, in reality were originally billed as "stewards" not necessarily owners of this infrastructure. If not, then perhaps they should give every tax payer an outright return on our investments, so to speak, since those days.
We do not have a "free market". We haven't for a long time. Merit has little to do with profits nowadays since the regulatory and taxation agencies are having a field day with anyone that tries to play it straight (by their rules at least).
These monopolies, if you missed it, were GRANTED by government. The little guy is being squeezed out because the government granted these companies total monopoly on the infrastructure. The companies are doing what comes naturally to a 99% monopoly. Trying to get the other 1% of the control over their monopoly. Start looking at the governments as the problem, not the solution.
So you say... others say the same. Those I've known personally say different.
And I place little value in polls... I've participated, until I saw several of them with very leading questions. The questions are geared to get a certain response from a certain demographic.
Similar to how CNN polls CONSISTENTLY show the opposite of what FOX News polls CONSISTENTLY show. The questions are geared to a certain demographic.
Asking 10000 Swedes one thing is different than asking 1000 Swedes that same thing. Picking who gets the polls and then cherrypicking the data isn't unheard of (in fact as far as I've heard, from mainstream and underground news, it is quite the opposite.)
I was going to move out there, but did my research on taxes, and found that I'd rather not partake of that little bowl of worms. My friends getting out of there helped cement that. If I were to still pick a place, it'd probably be Iceland.
Reminds me of a friend of mine who visited a girlfriend of his (long distance) in Canada. He was going to move out there from the USA, and then while she was boasting about how wonderful the place was, they ran into a homeless jobless bum right there in the middle of nowhere, Canada, Christmas EVE!! And in such a "safe and happy" country, they didn't even give the poor bastard a ride. Guess maybe Canada was more dangerous than his girlfriend was selling it to him (especially with the majority being defenseless and disarmed by choice/vote.) He sharpened his ears and paid attention, and realized all wasn't as well as they claim it is in the land of socialized medicine... (his girlfriend needed a diagnosis and possible treatment for a potentially life threatening situation... socialized medicine put her on a 9 month waiting list, and she saw little wrong with it other than "I can't believe this". To her it was still better than withholding the payment of any further taxes and using that money to pay for another doctor.) Guess some sheep love the shears.
I'm glad you like the Norse lands, personally I just like hunting trips out there (and I hear the women in Iceland are gorgeous, but I've had no other priority to head out there yet.)
Getting voters involved doesn't help. That just gets the enlightened minority to squabble amongst themselves and with the unenlightened majority...
Majority of voters want the system to pay them free money that they steal from those who actually produce anything of any value. There are too many who vote for a living to be able to fight against this tide. Enlightenment and wisdom come to few. Then they either rant, or become tyrants upon the masses or self ruled freemen, going where they please..
Me, I got tired of ranting after predicting that Kerry would throw the match like Gore did. "Nolo contendere."
And that's what happened. Two predictions on major scale events and many predictions on smaller scale events have lead me to believe what I say because I've been right so far. As Marxist Hacker 42 would say, "its in the data", and it sure is... sadly his data is incomplete.
So now I've got a choice... the only one there is to make... and the one I'm pondering. Become a tyrant, and join the group always on the winning side in the "people vs tyrants" struggle... or become a self ruled freeman all the way... a group that isn't really a group, and doesn't really join in these foolish struggles that never go anywhere. Those are the only two groups that have always been untouched by these squabbles we call "wars" and "upheavals". They're both small, as they should be.
Mark Twain (Sam Clemens) is quoted to have said something to this effect. "Whenever your point of view coincides with that of the majority, it is time to step back, and rethink your point of view." Throughout my experiences, I have found Sam to be VERY astute in his observation.
You are taxed by consent, go read how governments are formed.
:) And I've no interest to save you or others and end up dodging bullets. But I can do what I'm doing now, and snicker.
YE GODS!!
You have NO idea how right you are about that, but they don't teach that in school, and I've no interest to teach anyone. That would actually make me a target for the system
And yes, I have tried to "change the system", but protesting doesn't and never has worked. Spartacus was a prime example of "hard line protesting"... and remember what happened to the slave revolt? I recall the Romans lined a whole road with crucified gladiators and slaves as a reprisal. The 60's were less brutal but I have plenty of hippie acquaintances who barely have teeth in their mouths, and they didn't lose them being gently acquiesced to by the system... nah, they were beaten to a pulp, spat upon, and then ignored.
You know what I like about geeks?
"I believe in evolution, but humans shouldn't be allowed to evolve or vote themselves out of the gene pool, ALL humans should be kept safe ALL the time by government fiat!"
Sound like what you just said?
Also, please do not refer to it as liberalism, the term "liberalism" sounds too much like what is used today as a term to describe Authoritarian Statism / Socialism. I disapprove of this method of thought because it tends to force the rest of us to pay for the life, health and safety of those who neither take the trouble, nor desire to maintain their lives or health, but then pay us to repair them after they damage themselves (generally through sheer stupidity, and sometimes through plain ignorance).
Why should I, judging by the personal trouble I go through to maintain MY good health (cook own food, grow much of it, exercise, etc), pay for some fat schmuck who can't even be bothered to get off his fat ass and away from American Idol, and go for a walk each evening? Personally I hope he gets what he deserves, and I hope he does it BEFORE the government decides that I have to be taxed to pay for his funeral too!
Wow... you really buy what you just said?? You still vote and pretend you can actually make a difference?
When was the last time you saw an administration that REALLY cut taxes, or actually even pretended to stick to the Constitution? Regardless of which "party" won an election... did anything ever really change?
When did you ever actually see any administration that even keeps half its campaign promises (some of us actually know they're mostly lies, but lets pretend that they aren't just crap they say to get elected.)
When have voters actually gotten someone into office to do ANYTHING but vote more "largesse from the public treasury"?
Actually, the irony in this is lost on the majority.
How did a communally funded waste of money like the space project (apollo, etc) help fight communism?
So lets rephrase this. Taxes are forcefully appropriated fractions of a man or woman's property or just remuneration (payment) for services or products. Communists say that your labor is not your own, but the state's, and the state can use it to build, spend, destroy, dispose of it in any way it so desires, so long as they can pretend it is "for the good of the people", and the people are the state, and the state's desire is what the people desire (if you object, a "reeducation" team will escort you to your nearest gulag "resort").
Now, lets see, so in America, they taxed people, thus forcefully stealing the products of their labor (basically their labor itself!) and they used it to fund a feel good public project. They gave it a fancy Greek name. Eventually when it was done, it was done not to reimburse those it robbed, nor to produce anything of importance (except perhaps, Tom Hanks movies), but "for the greatness of the nation" or "to beat the Communists into space".
I don't see how "beating the communists at their own game" is "defeating communism"... did we succeed merely by "being more communist than the communists"???
My friends who left Sweden (and one still stuck in Finland) gave me a different impression.
My acquaintances in those places were either government worshippers (and parasites) or they were on their way out of there.
Yep, the only things Russian computers will have in "closed source" will be the monitoring and surveillance modules. Those will be copyrighted NSA/KGB 2.0 :)
Actually I have a friend researching fish breeding enhancements, whose IT departments are about as anal retentive (and incompetent) as those of various governments.
It has NOTHING to do with "top secret nuclear facility". I hate to tell you this, but if you're studying "the chance for testicular atrophiation in prairie dogs", there is a fair chance that A) your IT departments will still be idiots, B) terrorism or copyright infringement paranoia at your facility will STILL be off the wall/extreme, and C) you're still going to get screwed if so much as a peep of "unauthorized activity" is found coming from your computer/cubicle.
This is the world idiots have created, and slaves have accepted. Surprised?
Isn't it THEIR choice? If you don't like the way they do coffee, the logical choice is go accross the street to Burger King, Wendys, 7-11, gas station Food Mart, etc. But again, if you have a system to abuse so easily, then why not abuse it?
Meanwhile, unsafe drugs are released by drug companies, and pushed by doctors who are granted monopoly of the market by government licensing bureaus, etc. That's fine. But "hot coffee" is a legitimate reason to sue? You're not seeing the irony there?