So they're saying that a poorly designed application can take down the entire operating system? The OS should be resilient enough to handle application crashes and keep on running, who cares who causes the crash? It's the OS's responsibility to handle it.
Also I would like to see where they got these numbers? If they are using the new 'feature' that notifies microsoft of application crashes then I'd be skeptical... If the OS crashes then the notices won't be sent to Microsoft.
Also, it is likely that MORE than half of the applications run on a Windows box are non-microsoft applications, that would mean that statistically MS apps crash more often than third party apps.
It's interesting that SCO is taking such drastic measures such as the license termination and licensing linux to end users before they even go to trial. The logical conclusion one draws from such measures is that they do not have a case, and do not think they can win. I can't believe that the court system is allowing this to occur, but I am willing to bet that IBM will not honor SCO's license termination and there will likely be either an addition to the current IBM suit against SCO, or a new one regarding thies termination.
Also, aren't the NUMA and RCU multi-processor patents owned by IBM? SCO might own some of the code, but since they are licensing IBM's patents IBM could sue them for infringing on their patents. Is this part of the current IBM v SCO lawsuit?
they'll be chosen randomly, more like a 'you fit our demographics for a lieing bastard lie detector test.' Isn't this an illegal detainment/unjust search? What are the search/seizure laws in the UK anyways?
IMO this is just another case of the media sesationalizing news to drive up ratings. The article you cited only proves my theory, it reads like one of those community interest pieces on local TV telling the whole sad life story of Michael Berry... like i give a damn.
use unique passwords on all of my online financial accounts. I shred and pulp-ify all documents. I order periodic copies of my credit reports...
I really don't think all of this is necessary. And where did you hear that there were 750,000 cases of identity theft anually? I think this is a stretch. How is identity theft being defined in this report? Would you clasify credit card fraud as identity theft? In that case the number might be accurate, but cc fraud is mostly just a hassle for you as the credit card company and their insurance company are the ones who are liable.
"Would one dare do anything so risky as carouse, drive a car, hit the ski slopes, if three hundred years of life would be thereby imperiled?"
I think this is a stupid comment, why would anybody be less likely to risk their life just because of their potential logevity? Are people in third world countries more likely to endager their lives because their life expectancy is only half that of the first world?
I think the more interesting point, and one the article failed to mention, is where are all these people going to live, what are they going to eat, and who is going to pay for 240 years of retirement? With the population of earth already increasing rapidly extending lifespans to three times their current level would have a huge impact.
Oh yea! And what's going to happen when we run out of IPs for them all!?
Transmeta is the "number two" vendor in the ultraportable mainstream notebook market
Is that why nobody knows about them? Maybe they should focus some attention on advertising, I don't think many people outside the tech industry knows about Transmeta. Intel spends a rediculous amount of money on product marketing, and when many people get a new computer they want "Intel Inside" because it's what they know. I think if any competitor really wants to break into the chip industry and compete with the big boys they are going to have to get their name out, the real differences between one chip versus another are not very obvious to the consumer, brand recognition is what drives sales.
This is one of the major problems with the DMCA. By negating the need for a court order to be allowed to send these orders they have opened the door to thousands of frivolous and invalid claims. Companies that have made invalid claims such as this one should be punished. At least they should be held liable for any damages if an ISP removes contents that they claim are infringing. Are these letters totally automated? Didn't somebody actually try to download the file and see if it was indeed an unauthorized copy of pacman?
Also,
>Note: The information transmitted in this Notice is intended only for the
>person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential
>and/or privileged material. Any review, reproduction, retransmission,
>dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon,
>this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient
>is prohibited.
What is this all about? They are trying to hide the fact that they are sending out these letters?
My friend was getting hit constantly by this worm yesterday. The box wouldn't stay up long enough for him to install the patches:P. Just a tip for those of you who are getting hit a lot and having your box reboot: To stop those pesky reboots try:
shutdown/a
That should abort the shutdown and give you enough time to install patches. This also works well when you install a piece of software that trys to force you to reboot. (Why he hadn't fixed it already is a mystery, especially since slashdot.org is his homepage.)
This reminds me of a recent article about an internet millionaire who is sueing the government regarding privacy issues while flying. I think it is great that we techies are finally getting a voice in the government. Hopefully some of the issues we have been worried about, (patents, trademark, copyright, privacy, etc.) will begin to change.
A legal test of the GPL is a good thing no matter how it turns out. If the court case fails that just means that revisions need to be made, it would go against the philosophy of the open source community NOT to test the license. I don't know how much of a landmark case this is, it is kind of a gray area, not straight infringement.
Schools have been given, under U.S. law, the right to act in place of parents while children are in attendance. Sometimes they take it too far. The one group of citizens in the U.S. that has the least rights and is oppressed and discriminated against the most are children. When I was in high school I had a friend tell once she was asked to take a breathalizer at a gas station while refilling her car by a police officer. When she asked what she had done wrong the officer replied that it was night time, she was under age, and she was chewing gum. He said that was enough of a reason for him to force her to take a breathalizer.
Anyways, back on-topic. If your boss threatened to point cameras at you in your workplace and fire employees who he observed slacking wouldn't you be concerned? If your employer did so at least you would have the option of leaving due to privacy concerns, schoolchildren do not have this option.
I would also like to know how secure this system is. The article claims that the video can be viewed from any computer on the internet with proper authentication. There are serious security implications here, and schools have had notoriously lax security policies in the past.
The security team at my office has been scrambleing to secure all of our systems before such a worm was developed. I hope they are done!
Will blocking port 135 at the router stop this worm? Seems like a simple solution for the short term. I would like to see the source for the worm, does anybody have it?
And if you look at the statistics the reason for this number is that Perot got 19% of the votes. Clinton still got the majority of votes by more than 5 percentage points. In the scenario I describe Davis would get the majority of votes and would still lose the election.
But each vote to not recall Davis is essentially a vote for Davis. Which means if he is recalled with 60% of votes 40% of voters voted for him. If the candidate who then wins only got 25% of votes then how is this justified?
Do you think the california recall election is fair? I understand that a lot of Californians are unhappy with Gray Davis' performance, but he WAS elected by the people, if people dislike him then they can vote him out of office when his term is up. It seems unfair that Davis needs a majority of votes to remain in office, but a replacement candidate could be selected by a plurality. It is possible, and quite likely, that Davis will be voted out with 60% or fewer votes. That would mean 40% or more voters essentially voted for Davis, but he would not be the winner, one of the 400+ other candidates on the ballot would and in all liklihood that candidate will have received far fewer than 40% of the votes.
This whole situation seems like a gross abuse of a recall system that relies on honesty and virtuous politicians. Unfortunately California is no such utopia. By running in the election you have shown your support for it, how do you justify this support given the evident problems.
But when bloggers comment on and link to news stories, is that journalism? Usually no -- but it depends. When the blogger adds personal commentary that relies on original research, or if it is done by someone considered an authority on the subject, some would consider it journalism.
I think that this is the most interesting thing that has come out of the web. In the past people relied on relatively few sources to form their opinions on politics and world affairs. With the advent of the internet comes the ability to discuss events with people all over the world instantaneously. We no longer have to rely on large organizations to provide us with news that is usually biased due to personal or corporate agendas.
Slashdot is an excellent example. Stories are posted here every day, and for those of you who RTFA you may notice, as I have, that the comments on slashdot often provide far more interesting insight. The article argues that blogging is not really journalism because there is no editor, I would argue that every reader of the blog is, in fact, an editor. If someone writes something in their blog that is obviously biased or not based on fact people will undoubtably pick up on it and reply.
Currently, Holman said, the robot can sniff out passwords sent through protocols such as Telnet and POP
If anyone is still using plaintext to send passwords over their lan they are insane. I know there are a lot of stupid admins out there, but getting ssl and ssh installed should be a priority. Before you try and secure your wireless network segment you need to begin using secure protocols.
So when a hard drive fails is it typically the board that has gone bad? I always assumed that a dead hard drive usually meant something had gotten on one of the platters and corrupted some data. I am not really a "hardware guy" though, so in all likelihood I am wrong. If it is usually the board that goes bad why hasn't anybody capitalized on this idea and offered a service that would attempt to restore broken hard drives for a nominal fee (say 2x the cost of a new one)?
It's interesting how he found that the same brand and model of hard drive can have a vast array of different firmware configurations. This seems like it is a bit dishonest to the consumer who assumes he/she is purchasing the same thing that was recommended to them.
Interesting technology
on
NASA's Sensor Web
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
Yet another new development from NASA that could have a huge impact on daily life. If these devices were strategically located worldwide it seems like much more accurate weather pattern predictions could be made. Low cost weather stations that can communicate back to a central node could automatigically predict and track weather patterns around the globe. Maybe one day we will actually be able to rely on the local weather forcasts!
If a large corporation like ebay can't win a case brought up against them for infringing an obviously frivolous patent then what chance do the rest of us have? Drastic reform in the uspto is necessary. Since the government started cutting federal funding they have started looking at the organization as a corporation in place to serve their "customers." This is a horrible model for a patent organization, their customers should be every citizen of the country, not just those who file patents. The patent clerks are overburdened and they are rewarded on the basis of how many patents they accept and file, which means any patents they find not suitable are not beneficial to their careers.
Also, how does the court system justify an award of $29.5 million? This seems like a huge amount for such a simple patent. Does the defendant own his own auction house? Is ebay's use of buy it now seriously impacting him financially? This is just absurd.
In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Jerome Friedman said he would not require eBay to abandon the disputed technology, saying Woolston's lawyers failed to show that he would suffer irreparable harm if the court did not issue an injunction.
If they failed to show that there would be irreparable harm from future use than how did they show that there was harm from prior use? I guess they don't need to prove any harm, they just need to show they own the patent and they get a huge sum of money. Wired's article says that both sides plan to appeal, maybe ebay can get a better deal in this process.
The government needs to back off on lifestyle issues, especially when it comes to adults. If a person is making a positive contribution to society (not in jail, has a job, pays taxes, etc.) what right does anybody else have to tell them what they can and cannot say, do, smoke, eat, drink when it does affect other people. I am hoping there is more to this case than just buying an adult magazine, but according to the article the offense took place in Texas, which makes it less surprising that such a rediculous case is even being considered. I also find it interesting that his appeal was denied because obcenity charges were a state issue. Doesn't the federal court system have a certain responsiblity to step in when a state is being accused of infringing on a constitutional right?
Good job, finally a good book review on slashdot that I actually read completely and enjoyed. This book seems like it would be good for a lot of slashdoters who come online and complain about corporate politics and stressful situations in the workplace. I think a lot of tech people have trouble dealing with business types who don't understand the technical difficulties they face daily. I am still in college, and I have spent this summer as an intern in an IT department and have learned a lot about corporate politics, it's a bitch. I'm buying my copy now.
Slashdot Mirror
So they're saying that a poorly designed application can take down the entire operating system? The OS should be resilient enough to handle application crashes and keep on running, who cares who causes the crash? It's the OS's responsibility to handle it.
Also I would like to see where they got these numbers? If they are using the new 'feature' that notifies microsoft of application crashes then I'd be skeptical... If the OS crashes then the notices won't be sent to Microsoft.
Also, it is likely that MORE than half of the applications run on a Windows box are non-microsoft applications, that would mean that statistically MS apps crash more often than third party apps.
It's interesting that SCO is taking such drastic measures such as the license termination and licensing linux to end users before they even go to trial. The logical conclusion one draws from such measures is that they do not have a case, and do not think they can win. I can't believe that the court system is allowing this to occur, but I am willing to bet that IBM will not honor SCO's license termination and there will likely be either an addition to the current IBM suit against SCO, or a new one regarding thies termination.
Also, aren't the NUMA and RCU multi-processor patents owned by IBM? SCO might own some of the code, but since they are licensing IBM's patents IBM could sue them for infringing on their patents. Is this part of the current IBM v SCO lawsuit?
they'll be chosen randomly, more like a 'you fit our demographics for a lieing bastard lie detector test.' Isn't this an illegal detainment/unjust search? What are the search/seizure laws in the UK anyways?
IMO this is just another case of the media sesationalizing news to drive up ratings. The article you cited only proves my theory, it reads like one of those community interest pieces on local TV telling the whole sad life story of Michael Berry... like i give a damn.
use unique passwords on all of my online financial accounts. I shred and pulp-ify all documents. I order periodic copies of my credit reports...
I really don't think all of this is necessary. And where did you hear that there were 750,000 cases of identity theft anually? I think this is a stretch. How is identity theft being defined in this report? Would you clasify credit card fraud as identity theft? In that case the number might be accurate, but cc fraud is mostly just a hassle for you as the credit card company and their insurance company are the ones who are liable.
"Would one dare do anything so risky as carouse, drive a car, hit the ski slopes, if three hundred years of life would be thereby imperiled?"
I think this is a stupid comment, why would anybody be less likely to risk their life just because of their potential logevity? Are people in third world countries more likely to endager their lives because their life expectancy is only half that of the first world?
I think the more interesting point, and one the article failed to mention, is where are all these people going to live, what are they going to eat, and who is going to pay for 240 years of retirement? With the population of earth already increasing rapidly extending lifespans to three times their current level would have a huge impact.
Oh yea! And what's going to happen when we run out of IPs for them all!?
From the article:
Transmeta is the "number two" vendor in the ultraportable mainstream notebook market
Is that why nobody knows about them? Maybe they should focus some attention on advertising, I don't think many people outside the tech industry knows about Transmeta. Intel spends a rediculous amount of money on product marketing, and when many people get a new computer they want "Intel Inside" because it's what they know. I think if any competitor really wants to break into the chip industry and compete with the big boys they are going to have to get their name out, the real differences between one chip versus another are not very obvious to the consumer, brand recognition is what drives sales.
This is one of the major problems with the DMCA. By negating the need for a court order to be allowed to send these orders they have opened the door to thousands of frivolous and invalid claims. Companies that have made invalid claims such as this one should be punished. At least they should be held liable for any damages if an ISP removes contents that they claim are infringing. Are these letters totally automated? Didn't somebody actually try to download the file and see if it was indeed an unauthorized copy of pacman?
Also,
>Note: The information transmitted in this Notice is intended only for the >person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential >and/or privileged material. Any review, reproduction, retransmission, >dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon, >this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient >is prohibited.
What is this all about? They are trying to hide the fact that they are sending out these letters?
He was connecting to it remotely. Also, it's hard to download patches when you aren't connected to the net.
My friend was getting hit constantly by this worm yesterday. The box wouldn't stay up long enough for him to install the patches :P. Just a tip for those of you who are getting hit a lot and having your box reboot: To stop those pesky reboots try:
/a
shutdown
That should abort the shutdown and give you enough time to install patches. This also works well when you install a piece of software that trys to force you to reboot. (Why he hadn't fixed it already is a mystery, especially since slashdot.org is his homepage.)
This reminds me of a recent article about an internet millionaire who is sueing the government regarding privacy issues while flying. I think it is great that we techies are finally getting a voice in the government. Hopefully some of the issues we have been worried about, (patents, trademark, copyright, privacy, etc.) will begin to change.
A legal test of the GPL is a good thing no matter how it turns out. If the court case fails that just means that revisions need to be made, it would go against the philosophy of the open source community NOT to test the license. I don't know how much of a landmark case this is, it is kind of a gray area, not straight infringement.
Schools have been given, under U.S. law, the right to act in place of parents while children are in attendance. Sometimes they take it too far. The one group of citizens in the U.S. that has the least rights and is oppressed and discriminated against the most are children. When I was in high school I had a friend tell once she was asked to take a breathalizer at a gas station while refilling her car by a police officer. When she asked what she had done wrong the officer replied that it was night time, she was under age, and she was chewing gum. He said that was enough of a reason for him to force her to take a breathalizer.
Anyways, back on-topic. If your boss threatened to point cameras at you in your workplace and fire employees who he observed slacking wouldn't you be concerned? If your employer did so at least you would have the option of leaving due to privacy concerns, schoolchildren do not have this option.
I would also like to know how secure this system is. The article claims that the video can be viewed from any computer on the internet with proper authentication. There are serious security implications here, and schools have had notoriously lax security policies in the past.
The security team at my office has been scrambleing to secure all of our systems before such a worm was developed. I hope they are done!
Will blocking port 135 at the router stop this worm? Seems like a simple solution for the short term. I would like to see the source for the worm, does anybody have it?
And if you look at the statistics the reason for this number is that Perot got 19% of the votes. Clinton still got the majority of votes by more than 5 percentage points. In the scenario I describe Davis would get the majority of votes and would still lose the election.
Bill Clinton was elected with like 40% of the popular vote. Was that fair to you?
Care to provide a source for that statement?
But each vote to not recall Davis is essentially a vote for Davis. Which means if he is recalled with 60% of votes 40% of voters voted for him. If the candidate who then wins only got 25% of votes then how is this justified?
Do you think the california recall election is fair? I understand that a lot of Californians are unhappy with Gray Davis' performance, but he WAS elected by the people, if people dislike him then they can vote him out of office when his term is up. It seems unfair that Davis needs a majority of votes to remain in office, but a replacement candidate could be selected by a plurality. It is possible, and quite likely, that Davis will be voted out with 60% or fewer votes. That would mean 40% or more voters essentially voted for Davis, but he would not be the winner, one of the 400+ other candidates on the ballot would and in all liklihood that candidate will have received far fewer than 40% of the votes.
This whole situation seems like a gross abuse of a recall system that relies on honesty and virtuous politicians. Unfortunately California is no such utopia. By running in the election you have shown your support for it, how do you justify this support given the evident problems.
From the article:
But when bloggers comment on and link to news stories, is that journalism? Usually no -- but it depends. When the blogger adds personal commentary that relies on original research, or if it is done by someone considered an authority on the subject, some would consider it journalism.
I think that this is the most interesting thing that has come out of the web. In the past people relied on relatively few sources to form their opinions on politics and world affairs. With the advent of the internet comes the ability to discuss events with people all over the world instantaneously. We no longer have to rely on large organizations to provide us with news that is usually biased due to personal or corporate agendas.
Slashdot is an excellent example. Stories are posted here every day, and for those of you who RTFA you may notice, as I have, that the comments on slashdot often provide far more interesting insight. The article argues that blogging is not really journalism because there is no editor, I would argue that every reader of the blog is, in fact, an editor. If someone writes something in their blog that is obviously biased or not based on fact people will undoubtably pick up on it and reply.
Currently, Holman said, the robot can sniff out passwords sent through protocols such as Telnet and POP
If anyone is still using plaintext to send passwords over their lan they are insane. I know there are a lot of stupid admins out there, but getting ssl and ssh installed should be a priority. Before you try and secure your wireless network segment you need to begin using secure protocols.
So when a hard drive fails is it typically the board that has gone bad? I always assumed that a dead hard drive usually meant something had gotten on one of the platters and corrupted some data. I am not really a "hardware guy" though, so in all likelihood I am wrong. If it is usually the board that goes bad why hasn't anybody capitalized on this idea and offered a service that would attempt to restore broken hard drives for a nominal fee (say 2x the cost of a new one)?
It's interesting how he found that the same brand and model of hard drive can have a vast array of different firmware configurations. This seems like it is a bit dishonest to the consumer who assumes he/she is purchasing the same thing that was recommended to them.
Yet another new development from NASA that could have a huge impact on daily life. If these devices were strategically located worldwide it seems like much more accurate weather pattern predictions could be made. Low cost weather stations that can communicate back to a central node could automatigically predict and track weather patterns around the globe. Maybe one day we will actually be able to rely on the local weather forcasts!
If a large corporation like ebay can't win a case brought up against them for infringing an obviously frivolous patent then what chance do the rest of us have? Drastic reform in the uspto is necessary. Since the government started cutting federal funding they have started looking at the organization as a corporation in place to serve their "customers." This is a horrible model for a patent organization, their customers should be every citizen of the country, not just those who file patents. The patent clerks are overburdened and they are rewarded on the basis of how many patents they accept and file, which means any patents they find not suitable are not beneficial to their careers.
Also, how does the court system justify an award of $29.5 million? This seems like a huge amount for such a simple patent. Does the defendant own his own auction house? Is ebay's use of buy it now seriously impacting him financially? This is just absurd.
In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Jerome Friedman said he would not require eBay to abandon the disputed technology, saying Woolston's lawyers failed to show that he would suffer irreparable harm if the court did not issue an injunction.
If they failed to show that there would be irreparable harm from future use than how did they show that there was harm from prior use? I guess they don't need to prove any harm, they just need to show they own the patent and they get a huge sum of money. Wired's article says that both sides plan to appeal, maybe ebay can get a better deal in this process.
The government needs to back off on lifestyle issues, especially when it comes to adults. If a person is making a positive contribution to society (not in jail, has a job, pays taxes, etc.) what right does anybody else have to tell them what they can and cannot say, do, smoke, eat, drink when it does affect other people. I am hoping there is more to this case than just buying an adult magazine, but according to the article the offense took place in Texas, which makes it less surprising that such a rediculous case is even being considered. I also find it interesting that his appeal was denied because obcenity charges were a state issue. Doesn't the federal court system have a certain responsiblity to step in when a state is being accused of infringing on a constitutional right?
Good job, finally a good book review on slashdot that I actually read completely and enjoyed. This book seems like it would be good for a lot of slashdoters who come online and complain about corporate politics and stressful situations in the workplace. I think a lot of tech people have trouble dealing with business types who don't understand the technical difficulties they face daily. I am still in college, and I have spent this summer as an intern in an IT department and have learned a lot about corporate politics, it's a bitch. I'm buying my copy now.