Now I know about the "global warming" claims and Kyoto fuss... but old islands submerge, new ones pop up... and some lamer is going to scream the work is going to end because this was volcanic in nature...
But so what? Kyoto was a politicians dream, spend lots of money on something that 1) is not needed, 2) isn't effective, 3) has about as much confirmation as My Favorite Martian. Kyoto and global warming is a big con job. I just looked at a chart that said it was warmer in medieval times... cyclical changes like this are no big deal and have occurred millions of times.
Even if it is true, the polar and near regions might become more habitable. Me, I am sick of 6 months of winter.
I agree with everything you said. I too used to be quite the coder in C/C++, some big projects too. It comes down to having the time, the focus the management support but most errors can be removed. Not all mind you, just most. But many software coding places are slam it out, damn the torpedoes and make $$$ as fast as possible. Patch later... customers don't care they get a product that is full of holes...
Times will change though. Companies that don't write securable code and designs will eventually fail. Hackers will make a mockery of them otherwise.
My comments were not meant to slight coders, coders in fact are low on the political food chain and generally deliver just what management asks for. It is the consumer and management that needs the education. For example, a programmer cannot be blamed if a user puts SSNs on a poorly securable unprotected PC.... management just needs to get the discipline to say the dirty word "no damn way" to stupid users that load spyware along side of payroll apps. Stupid users is still the number one reason for getting hacked.
Other than that, I think existing trends will continue. More development will be shifted from unsafe languages like C and C++ to Java, the.NET languages, and the popular languages from the open source community. Exploits will continue to shift from buffer overflows and integer overruns to logic errors and injection vulnerabilities. More attacks will target web browsers. With increasing adoption of Unix-like OSes, perhaps we will see some exploits for these run wild, too.
Saying a language used to program a computer causes security issues is like saying that cars kill people.
Like cars, programming languages will perform just like they are driven. PCs too, it they are driven carelessly then there will be security accidents.
2007 in Security - I predict the new rumblings of a "Careless and Dangerous" computing law. Maybe eventually in 2010 a warning label on all new computers, "WARNING - Fines for Careless Use".
Lets face it, the number one cause of computer compromise is how people use them, followed by the quality (or lack of it) in the operating system.
It's not 'dragging this stuff home', it's people who go out in the field to do their job - One simple example is FEMA. When they go to a disaster they take along thousands of laptops in order to register people who need aid. There isn't a LAN they can "SSH into" and they can't phone this stuff in. Another example might be the IRS who would visit individuals and businesses to perform audits.... The list goes on.
With the wireless openly enabled no doubt.
Eventually all devices will need crypto on all of it's interfaces to be effective. Make a PC that can't talk off-board without crypto including floppy, USB, IEEE, CD/DVD, serial/parallel port etc. So even a malicious or stupid user can't get the information out or bot/worm/viruses in.
But why are they distributing the information in XLS files in the first place? How do we know if this isn't a new fangled way to add our PCs to the big bot net? I like Slashdot but if I see a DOC, XLS, EXE and others I am not going to click on it with a Windows PC I care about. That is where I use my Linux system...in a unprivileged account.
.... Right now companies write drivers for Windows, and maybe Mac Linux if they think its worth it. Its a catch 22, no one writes drivers for an OS with a relatively small number of users, and people don't like not being able to easily use their hardware on an unsupported OS.
Actually this is not true for most chip sets. Lets take Broadcom wireless chips for example, they did produce a "reference" design long before cards are mass produced for Windows. There reference designs use Linux. Thus Linux drivers existed BEFORE Windows drivers. Virtually all the Linksys, Netgear, D-Link and others that produce wireless internet firewalls all run Linux on the same chip sets, Linux inside and did so before Windows had drivers.
Hardware vendors don't really want to write drivers and source the software. They do so only because they have to. Their business is manufacturing and distribution of the hardware. But they do do reference designs and use Linux because of it's ease in development and troubleshooting. Microsoft will take the source and "port" it later to Windows.
So along comes the Microsoft - they say off the record support for your hardware with the OS will be slowed down if you open source your drivers for Linux or BSD.
So the vendors keep their licenses restrictive to hope they get Microsoft OS support and don't need to worry about drivers. In open source, give them the reference source and documents, it will be ported and cleaned up in the next distro at no cost to the vendor. But the reason they don't do it is because we are in a anti-competitive market.
It is also why I refuse to buy Broadcom and Linksys -- I know the drivers exist but they are not playing fair. I always only buy open source friendly parts as I know someday, even if it runs XP today it will run Linux/Solaris or BSD. Often I dual boot them.
I just bought a PC, "Vista Ready". I get to run XP Media edition, seems to rip MP3s quite nicely. So when Vista arrives I will shelf it for 2 years waiting until at least one major service pack, security and stability to be tested by others. By this time lets hope the DRM is disabled. If not, there is a reason why I use only MP2/3/4 formats.... it moves to Linux nicely.
I'm no MS fan, but I have to admit, a quick bit of maths show that Outlook gets over 95% of my spam. Gotta hand it to them.
Outlook didn't stop a thing, some add on anti-spam package that didn't come from Microsoft got it.
Microsoft's view on spam is simple. They LIKE spam because it makes people buy more mail systems to scan them ever more aggressively. There is not money in simple approaches. Just the complex ones.
If the RBLs go offline, will spammers shift back to using open relays? I suspect not; the bot-nets are harder to stop and, from the spammer's POV, probably more reliable. The dark side of distributed, highly redundant networks.
Botnets are trivial to stop, load up spamassassin and research how to tune the rules with SPF
Knock'em dead.
But ORDB will be sadly missed. It was in my 2 cents, the most reliable going. Every system it hit was because someone didn't configure it properly.
Am I missing something here, I was unaware that there was a stigma attached to being a web programmer using Windows.
I think the stigma comes from - "I clicked on Front Page, created a web page - now I am a senior web developer. What is Apache, an Indian?"
I am sorry, I deal with web developers where I work, xNIX and Microsoft. I just finished an argument with a Microsoft web developer of why DNS could not change the port numbers in a URL. I get this all the time. Some of these developers are dumb as nails.
I don't get the same lack of intelligence from the xNIX/Apache group.
It isn't to say there are not Microsoft web developers out there that are not sharp as a tack, but by average --- there is a clear difference.
I don't really get all that vista hype...I really don't. If you ask me, Microsoft lost this battle over the market, once Google stepped up and became what it is today. Google changed all the rules -...
Would it not be so kewl if Google came out software and games support, perhaps their own destop/Linux?
Google certainly is in a position to take on M$ for anything it wants, including OS.
It has been years since I have worked at an organization where they have been truly effective at dealing with Enterprise Documentation. More commonly it is a mix of emails, many dozens of shares in what seems like a billion diverse places all over including local PCs and home computer systems. All which are NOT friendly to new starts on a project or a company. Fragmented at best.
How this highly effective organization did it was simple:
everyone had the same set of tools, no exceptions. If they could afford the tools, they didn't use or endorse its use for anyone.
they used common formats, often just text files. The idea being they can be read 3-5 years later. Sometimes it changed, but a clear upgrade path was provided.
open discussions for all projects were available, and constructive input in writing from any concerned was encouraged.
spelling, formating, were not too brutal
writing skills were encouraged as the mentality was if you could write it, you likely don't know what you were doing.
people who did not comply with the culture were let go. Even if they were otherwise competent, not viewed as a team player.
people who said it was not documented enough, but really didn't know what they were doing were ether trained/mentored or let go.
No extra points for filler either. Cut and paste of vendor manuals was not encouraged.
everything, and I mean everything was posted into "nntp news groups". If a hard drive was replaced, it went into hardware maintenance section under the device/server. If it was proposed plans to change mail routing the discussion would be in software mail routing.
even non-I/T business used it. Sending mail to more than 2-3 recipients had better be considered very confidential or your manager would ask why it wasn't posted in the groups. Email blasting, a plag of todays culture was - well - severely dealt with. People missed raises for this.
even vendors had their news groups. Vendors hated this. If they screwed department A, when department B wanted something they would help out department A before dealing with them.
only discussion forums expired in 6 months, many never expired documents.
if MS-Word was used, a synopsis with an attachment was often posted.
each news group had a moderator for cleanup.
even the CEO and CIO often posted. Marketing would even jump in.
custom software used a version control system.
commercial software had a librarian who managed, filed and controlled all software that was bought. Surprising how many overbought licenses occur. You checked out the media and checked it back in.
Now the above could use the same tools today but a little modernization is in order. Pick a Wiki, pick a common version control system and perhaps Slashdot code for discussions -- and make the policies. More importantly, vigorously enforce the policies.
Be prepared, depending on your organizations discipline, expect 10% or more to quit or be fired. Many people are solo cowboys and will not document and participate. Take the most critical of progress and ask them to leave. Take the best of those that participate and send them on a week long course of their choice.
Like Slashdot, using a online discussion mechanism discouraged dysfunctional politics. After all, the CEO might read it. Better yet, if you were new you just pulled a list and subscribed to what was of interest skipping what was of no concern, often seeing history on a application or hardware going back years in one well known place for quick background on the reasons.
Enforcement was easy during budget time, no news group with online docs, no money.
Less phone calls too, operations often had the change in the groups and got the right support more often... was good to have worked there.
Like anyone believes that some Tool at Microsoft thought of this first. Seriously, does any Microsoft patent get an automatic stamp of approval by the bored patent examiner?
I don't know why you got marked troll. I guess we have a lot of M$ fanboys out there today.
The sad fact is anyone can file a patent on anything. The question is, can it be enforced and defended.
Since this was filed on June 14, 2005, it is likely not defend-able. People were doing exactly this with IM and emoticons that predate this by some time. In fact, this is a patent on prior art.
This does not stop predatory corporations like Micro$oft from using this to threaten other companies with expensive and protracted legal blackmail. This is actually why it is done. Sort of like loading the gun.
True story:
After begging and pleading with their parents for years, my friend Pete and his older brother finally got BB guns one Xmas.
Of course, the first thing they did was go into their room and had a shootout. Pete's brother nailed him direct in the eyebrow over the left eye. Pete scraped the BB our of his eyebrow, at which point a little fountain of blood began flowing. Pete's first words were "I'm going tell!"
Since they both knew that they would lose their precious armaments, negotiations ensued about how things could be amicably worked out. In the end, Pete settled out of court for the opportunity to shoot his brother in the ass three times.
I pity the poor kids who don't learn this until too late.
Kids will take chances, me, I did, but by making mistakes is how we learn. Depriving your child from making mistakes is MORE dangerous. Better a BB gun than a 9mm Glock or an ounce of nail polish than 5 gallons of gasoline.
We know this child from being born to 16, his current age. He has never had a chemistry set, has never tossed a lawn dart, has never been scorched by a toy or played with tommy guns -- the parents are overly protective. They will buy him every computer game toy out there though. His friends swap him games, and killing 45 people in 3 minutes is now fun. He gets his violence from computer games without the pain.
He is dysfunctional socially inept dropout. No social skills that don't start and end with with kill, f'ck or a7it. Kicked out of school - had the cops over dozens of times for willful car theft and destruction of property multiple times. Doesn't even have bad friends. Truly a Nintendo/TV product.
Parents need to buy the lawn darts, site down and TEACH the kids to use them safely, TEACH them how to take a ski-doo out on their own... TEACH them the safe use of a firearm... and lock them up until they they are mature enough.
Some kids are mature enough to hunt on their own at 12, while others aren't mature enough at 80.
Though I loath filenames with embedded spaces, his "good practices" fail to even mention the problem.
And I believe his xargs examples will not work with them.
This one should.
ls *\ * | xargs -l1 -i echo 'mv "{}" `echo {} | tr [\ ] [_]`' | sh
Have fun, when some Windoze user dumps all that garbage spaced files I fix it. The key is -l1 -- process by line not by spaces.
Everyone is talking a different language. No wonder why nobody but nobody uses this operating system.
To biased and pig headed to.
I always stress to new to xNIX types, learn the basics first before getting wrapped up in a perl/java/python or some other cult. Often these other languages are like taking elephants into china shops. And besides, they are not always on a system -- ditto vi versus emacs.
His example of good habit with mkdir did not convince me
$ cd tmp/a/b/c || mkdir -p tmp/a/b/c
If the directory exists you end up in the directory, if it does not it creates the directory but leaves you where you first started. Hence you don't know which directory you will be in after the command is executed!
Actually, the example is a good habit.
If the change directory fails, the script will not make the directory in the wrong place. It is a good practice.
Security is hard to get right because you have to get *everything* right.
You are assuming rational due diligence was in fact even attempted. These are institutions run by politicians.
Make one mistake and you've got no security.
Not if you have really done your homework. You NEVER rely on one system. When the second system catches a violation, you promptly deal with it.
One has to ask, why did it take so long to notice? Think about all the others that are not even watching?
Computer security is all about priorities, it isn't even technical. It is social/political.
Assume your SSN is public knowledge. The root cause of this issue is those that use SSN numbers f''k peoples lives up after they didn't verify it was being used correctly in the first place. The fundamental problem he is financial institutions are not making sure they deal with the correct person before handing over money.
Want to solve identity theft? Simple, put 100% of the onus on those that use it to make sure they are dealing with the right person when they use it. Make it a criminal offense with hefty fines and penalties for non-compliance. Make it cost ineffective for big credit to mess up. Because in reality, identity theft is a credit company issue. After a few dozen $10 million dollar settlements for incorrectly assigned $1000 collections the credit agencies will get the message.
Vista cannot be the last major OS of its type from microsoft. While it is likely that they might want to produce something significantly different, a major shift would take years to produce. A company that needs such a large team just to work on the shutdown menu isn't ready to innovate in the way they claim. Innovation is nothing more then a word they use to sound cool, they haven't managed it for years, all they do is patent minutiae
True, and not true. This will likely be the last message passing 1960's type kernel though. With each version of Windows, it is being adopted slower, and slower and slower as it offers less. Each iteration is just getting fatter and fatter and it is not necessary. Some radical redesign of Windows is needed as it is now too complex fatware. People can't support Windows complexities and companies are starting to get wise, Windows costs plenty.
M$ knows this, if they change the model T-Ford like kernel, applications will break. Worse yet, people will have to rewrite applications. Expensive in a business where people expect more for less with each passing year.
Microsoft is on the edge of a cliff.
Your next TV might come with a Linux OS inside, does cable, Internet, TV including HDTV, 500 GB storage with NFS/IPSec/Wireless, stereo with 30" wide flat panel for under $999. No Microsoft here... not needed.
Read this essay by Steve Albini, a producer with Sub Pop (the guy who produced Nirvana), for a typical breakdown of the numbers. It's depressing...
That is depressing. EVERYONE makes much more than they do and it looks geared towards that they take all the risk. Far too much useless overhead.
And artist would be better off to publish it themselves, say an advert attached to a mp4 and distribute it for free. The advertisers would pay them more and no overhead and less risk. Maybe Google might be interested....
Also, I know the entire generation of teenagers and young adults, who grew up downloading music off of p2p networks, and find everything cool on myspace. I am sure they are convinced that they want to buy Cd's with root kits on them. That they see the value added by the RIAA and the labels. That they will continue to support the many starving artists who are rapaciously stealing from the poor record execs by taking such a large percentage of the pie from ringtone downloads.
When the "starving" artist starves enough, they can sell it to me direct. We don't want the RIAA/Sony like companies messing with us. There is not one thing stopping an artist from using alternative delivery methods from the existing channels.
And at $15 CD, much more for DVD, I question how much the artist actually gets.
BTW - most of those P2P kids do P2P simply because they don't have $15 per CD.
If the RIAA start driving away the artists then it makes the RIAA even less of a player. Just think one day the artists and the fans might connect directly on the internet with no middle man in between to screw the artists and sue the fans.
Their greed will be their undoing. I wonder why it hasn't been their undoing in the past though?
Ever since Sony put out a root kit CD, I haven't bought a entertaiment CD or DVD since. It isn't just the artists, it is the consumer! If enough people do this, the industry, as monopolistic as it is will have to change. I can wait until they get their act together.
I figure the television industry is watching this too, the Internet seems to be more entertaining. I didn't even watch TV last week as one show I watch with religion is now on the Internet BEFORE it is broadcast.
Change will come, RIAA is going to be road kill sooner or later. If artists want me to listen/watch their stuff they had better get with the Internet and a good plan that does not root kit or DRM my PC.
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe the earth is cooling?
Now I know about the "global warming" claims and Kyoto fuss... but old islands submerge, new ones pop up... and some lamer is going to scream the work is going to end because this was volcanic in nature...
But so what? Kyoto was a politicians dream, spend lots of money on something that 1) is not needed, 2) isn't effective, 3) has about as much confirmation as My Favorite Martian. Kyoto and global warming is a big con job. I just looked at a chart that said it was warmer in medieval times... cyclical changes like this are no big deal and have occurred millions of times.
Even if it is true, the polar and near regions might become more habitable. Me, I am sick of 6 months of winter.
Now on with the green slam...
Oh, BTW a HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!
I agree with everything you said. I too used to be quite the coder in C/C++, some big projects too. It comes down to having the time, the focus the management support but most errors can be removed. Not all mind you, just most. But many software coding places are slam it out, damn the torpedoes and make $$$ as fast as possible. Patch later... customers don't care they get a product that is full of holes...
Times will change though. Companies that don't write securable code and designs will eventually fail. Hackers will make a mockery of them otherwise.
My comments were not meant to slight coders, coders in fact are low on the political food chain and generally deliver just what management asks for. It is the consumer and management that needs the education. For example, a programmer cannot be blamed if a user puts SSNs on a poorly securable unprotected PC.... management just needs to get the discipline to say the dirty word "no damn way" to stupid users that load spyware along side of payroll apps. Stupid users is still the number one reason for getting hacked.
Other than that, I think existing trends will continue. More development will be shifted from unsafe languages like C and C++ to Java, the .NET languages, and the popular languages from the open source community. Exploits will continue to shift from buffer overflows and integer overruns to logic errors and injection vulnerabilities. More attacks will target web browsers. With increasing adoption of Unix-like OSes, perhaps we will see some exploits for these run wild, too.
Saying a language used to program a computer causes security issues is like saying that cars kill people.
Like cars, programming languages will perform just like they are driven. PCs too, it they are driven carelessly then there will be security accidents.
2007 in Security - I predict the new rumblings of a "Careless and Dangerous" computing law. Maybe eventually in 2010 a warning label on all new computers, "WARNING - Fines for Careless Use".
Lets face it, the number one cause of computer compromise is how people use them, followed by the quality (or lack of it) in the operating system.
It's not 'dragging this stuff home', it's people who go out in the field to do their job - One simple example is FEMA. When they go to a disaster they take along thousands of laptops in order to register people who need aid. There isn't a LAN they can "SSH into" and they can't phone this stuff in. Another example might be the IRS who would visit individuals and businesses to perform audits.... The list goes on.
With the wireless openly enabled no doubt.
Eventually all devices will need crypto on all of it's interfaces to be effective. Make a PC that can't talk off-board without crypto including floppy, USB, IEEE, CD/DVD, serial/parallel port etc. So even a malicious or stupid user can't get the information out or bot/worm/viruses in.
But why are they distributing the information in XLS files in the first place? How do we know if this isn't a new fangled way to add our PCs to the big bot net? I like Slashdot but if I see a DOC, XLS, EXE and others I am not going to click on it with a Windows PC I care about. That is where I use my Linux system...in a unprivileged account.
But this is a good first step.
Actually this is not true for most chip sets. Lets take Broadcom wireless chips for example, they did produce a "reference" design long before cards are mass produced for Windows. There reference designs use Linux. Thus Linux drivers existed BEFORE Windows drivers. Virtually all the Linksys, Netgear, D-Link and others that produce wireless internet firewalls all run Linux on the same chip sets, Linux inside and did so before Windows had drivers.
Hardware vendors don't really want to write drivers and source the software. They do so only because they have to. Their business is manufacturing and distribution of the hardware. But they do do reference designs and use Linux because of it's ease in development and troubleshooting. Microsoft will take the source and "port" it later to Windows.
So along comes the Microsoft - they say off the record support for your hardware with the OS will be slowed down if you open source your drivers for Linux or BSD.
So the vendors keep their licenses restrictive to hope they get Microsoft OS support and don't need to worry about drivers. In open source, give them the reference source and documents, it will be ported and cleaned up in the next distro at no cost to the vendor. But the reason they don't do it is because we are in a anti-competitive market.
It is also why I refuse to buy Broadcom and Linksys -- I know the drivers exist but they are not playing fair. I always only buy open source friendly parts as I know someday, even if it runs XP today it will run Linux/Solaris or BSD. Often I dual boot them.
I just bought a PC, "Vista Ready". I get to run XP Media edition, seems to rip MP3s quite nicely. So when Vista arrives I will shelf it for 2 years waiting until at least one major service pack, security and stability to be tested by others. By this time lets hope the DRM is disabled. If not, there is a reason why I use only MP2/3/4 formats.... it moves to Linux nicely.
I'm no MS fan, but I have to admit, a quick bit of maths show that Outlook gets over 95% of my spam. Gotta hand it to them.
Outlook didn't stop a thing, some add on anti-spam package that didn't come from Microsoft got it.
Microsoft's view on spam is simple. They LIKE spam because it makes people buy more mail systems to scan them ever more aggressively. There is not money in simple approaches. Just the complex ones.
Maybe something to do with:
UNIX Sex
{look;gawk;find;sed;talk;grep;touch;finger;find;fl ex;unzip;head;tail;
mount;workbone;fsck;yes;gasp;fsck;more;yes;yes;eje ct;umount;makeclean;
zip;split;done;exit:xargs!!;)}
If the RBLs go offline, will spammers shift back to using open relays? I suspect not; the bot-nets are harder to stop and, from the spammer's POV, probably more reliable. The dark side of distributed, highly redundant networks.
Botnets are trivial to stop, load up spamassassin and research how to tune the rules with SPF
Knock'em dead.
But ORDB will be sadly missed. It was in my 2 cents, the most reliable going. Every system it hit was because someone didn't configure it properly.
Am I missing something here, I was unaware that there was a stigma attached to being a web programmer using Windows.
I think the stigma comes from - "I clicked on Front Page, created a web page - now I am a senior web developer. What is Apache, an Indian?"
I am sorry, I deal with web developers where I work, xNIX and Microsoft. I just finished an argument with a Microsoft web developer of why DNS could not change the port numbers in a URL. I get this all the time. Some of these developers are dumb as nails.
I don't get the same lack of intelligence from the xNIX/Apache group.
It isn't to say there are not Microsoft web developers out there that are not sharp as a tack, but by average --- there is a clear difference.
I don't really get all that vista hype...I really don't. If you ask me, Microsoft lost this battle over the market, once Google stepped up and became what it is today. Google changed all the rules - ...
Would it not be so kewl if Google came out software and games support, perhaps their own destop/Linux?
Google certainly is in a position to take on M$ for anything it wants, including OS.
It has been years since I have worked at an organization where they have been truly effective at dealing with Enterprise Documentation. More commonly it is a mix of emails, many dozens of shares in what seems like a billion diverse places all over including local PCs and home computer systems. All which are NOT friendly to new starts on a project or a company. Fragmented at best.
How this highly effective organization did it was simple:
Now the above could use the same tools today but a little modernization is in order. Pick a Wiki, pick a common version control system and perhaps Slashdot code for discussions -- and make the policies. More importantly, vigorously enforce the policies.
Be prepared, depending on your organizations discipline, expect 10% or more to quit or be fired. Many people are solo cowboys and will not document and participate. Take the most critical of progress and ask them to leave. Take the best of those that participate and send them on a week long course of their choice.
Like Slashdot, using a online discussion mechanism discouraged dysfunctional politics. After all, the CEO might read it. Better yet, if you were new you just pulled a list and subscribed to what was of interest skipping what was of no concern, often seeing history on a application or hardware going back years in one well known place for quick background on the reasons.
Enforcement was easy during budget time, no news group with online docs, no money.
Less phone calls too, operations often had the change in the groups and got the right support more often... was good to have worked there.
Like anyone believes that some Tool at Microsoft thought of this first. Seriously, does any Microsoft patent get an automatic stamp of approval by the bored patent examiner?
I don't know why you got marked troll. I guess we have a lot of M$ fanboys out there today.
The sad fact is anyone can file a patent on anything. The question is, can it be enforced and defended.
Since this was filed on June 14, 2005, it is likely not defend-able. People were doing exactly this with IM and emoticons that predate this by some time. In fact, this is a patent on prior art.
This does not stop predatory corporations like Micro$oft from using this to threaten other companies with expensive and protracted legal blackmail. This is actually why it is done. Sort of like loading the gun.
It is what makes software patents a farce.
A new emotiflag:
vMSv and open sourced.
I pity the poor kids who don't learn this until too late.
Kids will take chances, me, I did, but by making mistakes is how we learn. Depriving your child from making mistakes is MORE dangerous. Better a BB gun than a 9mm Glock or an ounce of nail polish than 5 gallons of gasoline.
We know this child from being born to 16, his current age. He has never had a chemistry set, has never tossed a lawn dart, has never been scorched by a toy or played with tommy guns -- the parents are overly protective. They will buy him every computer game toy out there though. His friends swap him games, and killing 45 people in 3 minutes is now fun. He gets his violence from computer games without the pain.
He is dysfunctional socially inept dropout. No social skills that don't start and end with with kill, f'ck or a7it. Kicked out of school - had the cops over dozens of times for willful car theft and destruction of property multiple times. Doesn't even have bad friends. Truly a Nintendo/TV product.
Parents need to buy the lawn darts, site down and TEACH the kids to use them safely, TEACH them how to take a ski-doo out on their own... TEACH them the safe use of a firearm... and lock them up until they they are mature enough.
Some kids are mature enough to hunt on their own at 12, while others aren't mature enough at 80.
Though I loath filenames with embedded spaces, his "good practices" fail to even mention the problem. And I believe his xargs examples will not work with them.
This one should.
ls *\ * | xargs -l1 -i echo 'mv "{}" `echo {} | tr [\ ] [_]`' | sh
Have fun, when some Windoze user dumps all that garbage spaced files I fix it. The key is -l1 -- process by line not by spaces.
Everyone is talking a different language. No wonder why nobody but nobody uses this operating system.
To biased and pig headed to.
I always stress to new to xNIX types, learn the basics first before getting wrapped up in a perl/java/python or some other cult. Often these other languages are like taking elephants into china shops. And besides, they are not always on a system -- ditto vi versus emacs.
I am so glad that he showed what a difference can make, because I was *really* getting annoyed at having to wait that extra .084 seconds.
But if in perl, python or java??? Worse yet, for for loop over 1 million files?
His example of good habit with mkdir did not convince me
$ cd tmp/a/b/c || mkdir -p tmp/a/b/c
If the directory exists you end up in the directory, if it does not it creates the directory but leaves you where you first started. Hence you don't know which directory you will be in after the command is executed!
Actually, the example is a good habit.
If the change directory fails, the script will not make the directory in the wrong place. It is a good practice.
When possible, avoid shell scripting: the language is flawed by design. Use a modern programming language, such as Python.
How did you get mod'ed up to 5 I don't know.
Python may not be on the system your managing.
Python, while not as heavy as Java, is an elephant in a china shop compared to shell script
Shell scripting is an essential basic admin skill, good admins don't need Python at all.
Java, Python, Perl -- sheshh... they have their places but not for everything. If any one tool could effectively do it all, there would be no others.
You are assuming rational due diligence was in fact even attempted. These are institutions run by politicians.
Not if you have really done your homework. You NEVER rely on one system. When the second system catches a violation, you promptly deal with it.
One has to ask, why did it take so long to notice? Think about all the others that are not even watching?
Computer security is all about priorities, it isn't even technical. It is social/political.
Assume your SSN is public knowledge. The root cause of this issue is those that use SSN numbers f''k peoples lives up after they didn't verify it was being used correctly in the first place. The fundamental problem he is financial institutions are not making sure they deal with the correct person before handing over money.
Want to solve identity theft? Simple, put 100% of the onus on those that use it to make sure they are dealing with the right person when they use it. Make it a criminal offense with hefty fines and penalties for non-compliance. Make it cost ineffective for big credit to mess up. Because in reality, identity theft is a credit company issue. After a few dozen $10 million dollar settlements for incorrectly assigned $1000 collections the credit agencies will get the message.
Vista cannot be the last major OS of its type from microsoft. While it is likely that they might want to produce something significantly different, a major shift would take years to produce. A company that needs such a large team just to work on the shutdown menu isn't ready to innovate in the way they claim. Innovation is nothing more then a word they use to sound cool, they haven't managed it for years, all they do is patent minutiae
True, and not true. This will likely be the last message passing 1960's type kernel though. With each version of Windows, it is being adopted slower, and slower and slower as it offers less. Each iteration is just getting fatter and fatter and it is not necessary. Some radical redesign of Windows is needed as it is now too complex fatware. People can't support Windows complexities and companies are starting to get wise, Windows costs plenty.
M$ knows this, if they change the model T-Ford like kernel, applications will break. Worse yet, people will have to rewrite applications. Expensive in a business where people expect more for less with each passing year.
Microsoft is on the edge of a cliff.
Your next TV might come with a Linux OS inside, does cable, Internet, TV including HDTV, 500 GB storage with NFS/IPSec/Wireless, stereo with 30" wide flat panel for under $999. No Microsoft here... not needed.
I would buy it.
So what good is the Computer Fraud and Abuse Title Act 18 Section 1030 if the FBI will not enforce it?
Read this essay by Steve Albini, a producer with Sub Pop (the guy who produced Nirvana), for a typical breakdown of the numbers. It's depressing...
That is depressing. EVERYONE makes much more than they do and it looks geared towards that they take all the risk. Far too much useless overhead.
And artist would be better off to publish it themselves, say an advert attached to a mp4 and distribute it for free. The advertisers would pay them more and no overhead and less risk. Maybe Google might be interested....
Also, I know the entire generation of teenagers and young adults, who grew up downloading music off of p2p networks, and find everything cool on myspace. I am sure they are convinced that they want to buy Cd's with root kits on them. That they see the value added by the RIAA and the labels. That they will continue to support the many starving artists who are rapaciously stealing from the poor record execs by taking such a large percentage of the pie from ringtone downloads.
When the "starving" artist starves enough, they can sell it to me direct. We don't want the RIAA/Sony like companies messing with us. There is not one thing stopping an artist from using alternative delivery methods from the existing channels.
And at $15 CD, much more for DVD, I question how much the artist actually gets.
BTW - most of those P2P kids do P2P simply because they don't have $15 per CD.
Ever since Sony put out a root kit CD, I haven't bought a entertaiment CD or DVD since. It isn't just the artists, it is the consumer! If enough people do this, the industry, as monopolistic as it is will have to change. I can wait until they get their act together.
I figure the television industry is watching this too, the Internet seems to be more entertaining. I didn't even watch TV last week as one show I watch with religion is now on the Internet BEFORE it is broadcast.
Change will come, RIAA is going to be road kill sooner or later. If artists want me to listen/watch their stuff they had better get with the Internet and a good plan that does not root kit or DRM my PC.