Let's be honest and call AdCritic what it was... a place to waste time during the day.
This is really nothing more than a small site, that got popular, found out it couldn't pay the bills with ads and dropped out.
When did they become the archive of television commercials? Does it strike anyone else as odd that archives are typically academic pursuits suported by trusts, grants and donations and not commercial ventures?
And abou the archiving... did you ever try to watch an older commercial on AdCritic? It was horribly slow and most times you would give up.
Yes, it was a cool idea. I used to send folks URLs to the ads I liked.
Is it a money maker? Nope.
Where they really archiving television commercials? Well, if you call picking out the funniest, most outlandish and humor filled then yes.
What will it take for the stranglehold on Microsoft Office to be overcome?
Many people have suggested that the "new" offices have to have complete file compatibility with Office, but I don't think that's it.
Others have said that it is necessary for businesses to adopt the suites.
What do other think?
I am really interested in this because for three years or so there were four office products you could choose from: Lotus SmartSuite, WordPerfect Office, Microsoft Office and Microsoft Works.
Then boom... it was over. Microsoft ruled.
The reach of the internet ... How this started ...
on
Bert Is Evil
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
Think about it... Someone posts a picture of Ernie and the Binnie boy. From what I can tell it came from http://www.j-roen.net/bert/how/how.htm.
Someone in Bangledish picked this up and ran with it. This is amazing.
First it shows the reach of the internet. It's unreal that this is how it is. What a great feather in the cap for the internet to be out on the forefront.
Second what an amazing rub that things we look at as cultural icons aren't perceived as such in foreign countries. I mean what were they thinking?
I don't necessarily miss the BBS action. I was a fan of PC Pursuit. The PC Pursuit service allows you to dial through local modems, across a packet switched network, to a bank of modems in a far away city for $30.00 a month. It support 2400 baud modems and was awesome.
What I really miss, and I mean this in all sincerity, are the message networks. Fido, WWIVnet, Ilink, PC Relay, RIME, InterLink, etc. The idea was that the local messages on your BBS were packaged and sent to another BBS to be distributed. This could be hub and spoke or it could be chained.
What was great about the message areas is that they were moderated and the moderation was supported by the public at large. Moderators were appointed by the networks.
This worked out well because unlike USENET you had real, meaningful messages that were on topic. I could literally get an answer to any question I had in a matter of hours.
Since the communication was back and forth it was interactive with a slight delay. You could lobby your sysop to add the channels you wanted and you could read your mail offline! Who remembers EZReader or QMail?
Offline mail reading allowed you to grab all your messages in a packet, download them, read them offline, then upload replies. It rocked!
Interesting... just look and RIME is still alive: http://www.relaynet.org/. Wow and I found Ilink as well:-) http://www.fonix.org/public/ilink/index.html
I like NASA's new approach to things. My primary concerns about the mission though are the following:
1) What can we do by inspecting the rocks in person we can't do remotely? We should be able to do everything except touch it.
2) What other benefits do we get out of the mission?
3) Will there be additional scientific study accomplished on the ground? I mean NASA's track record on landing things on Mars hasn't been great... this doesn't even include shooting things back.
As Paul Harvey says, Now for the rest of the story
on
Brian West Update
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
It's great that the truth according to the prosecuter came out. Anyone with any sense can understand that we he did wasn't noble nor helpful. It was wrong and illegal.
But... wouldn't you love to know if the paper understood what happened to it? Wouldn't you love to know what happened to their webmaster? Their network administrator?
In the IT world mistakes like this are often glossed over and not taken seriously. One would expect to be fired over something like this, but alas, they are not.
The best example of this is the Code Red and NIMDA fiasco. I can't tell you how many admins should have been terminated for not properly patching their systems. It is amazing.
I guess I am really tired of hearing people say this.
Yes, Outlook is prone to leaving gaping holes to run these things through, but let's not blame the responsibility.
Someone, an IT Manager, a Network Administrator, a tech, has made the decision that their company, group or department will use Outlook. That is where the blame rests.
No one puts a gun to their head and forces them to use Outlook. No one. Someone makes the final decision.
In that decision there may be mitigating factors such as software investments, training costs, etc. so if they find themselves in a situation where they feel Outlook is their best decision they then need to protect themselves.
After the first Outlook specific virus everyone should have realized this simple fact: anit-virus products exist for a reason.
A good anti-virus product will override your email and not allow it to happen. Automated updates to DAT files can be handled locally or over the internet.
There is no use in blaming Microsoft. You blame the people who handle IT for the organization.
If you read the article it says, "The fact that no damage claims have been filed with the prosecutor's office is one of the reasons the prosecutor isn't asking for heavier sentencing. However, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a fax to the prosecutor it identified 55 victims of the Kournikova worm with a total damage of $166,827. That claim wasn't specific enough, the prosecutor said."
That is exactly right. No one stepped up to claim damages.
In light of that the defense attorney attacked the prosecution.
In terms of right or wrong it is obvious that the right thing wasn't done. In terms of judicial process and law, it was a success.
Maybe there needs to a better way to determine losses during a virus/worm incident. Are there any standard formulas not based on Anti Virus company PR?
The only thing I could find was this:
http://www.vibert.ca/prevbus.htm
It breaks time down on support efforts and totals it.
The Community Was Served.
on
Handling the Loads
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
Slashdot did provide a very valuable service the day of the attack.
Take into consideration that during the day at some point all major media web sites died.
Many people found Slashdot as their only source of updated information that was staying up.
This sentiment was echoed in pieces by Salon and Wired writers that mentioned Slashdot specifically as a site that had what people were looking for.
You should be proud and satisfied that what you have created did provide a needed service. Thanks, again.
I am amazed at how well the internet has helped disseminate information. I am surprised by the lack of rumors and the amazing compilation pages of information.
What was really heartening was this:
http://www.worldtradecenter.com
Usually it's some jerk looking to make money. This person looks to be really trying to help.
Although some may snicker at the kicthen aspect of the phone, this really does provide a nice platform for Linux telephony.
Strides are being made in the telephony arena using linux. Bayonne is making great progress:
http://www.gnu.org/software/bayonne/news.html
One of the interesting things that people forget is that while VOIP is cool, you can't forget about the phone/automated system interaction for transacation based systems. Lots of market there.
The things about this is that they have you where it hurts... your broadband internet access.
In the days of dialup you could literally call and open another account the same day. No issues. Who cared if your ISP cut your access.
With the advnet of ISDN you were a little more locked into your ISP, but you could still move your ISDN account to another provider.
With cable and DSL you can't do that. Your broadband provider is still your ISP. What you end up with is that wait. Oh, the wait. It is agonzing when a DSL line goes down or a cable modem won't sync for more than two minutes. You don't have the ability to tranport your account to another ISP.
To make matters worse, it's usually a one horse town. Most people don't have access to DSL, so cable is the next step. If you lose cable access you are pretty much dead in the water.
What can be done about seperating the ISP and broadband provider issue? I don't know, but I know it's going to get worse as the combo abuses it's power. Yes, I know about TOS, but look at what's happened lately:
1) Access to incoming port 80 cut off.
2) Bandiwdth limitations without notice.
3) Access to external SMTP servers cut off.
It's going to get worse until it gets better.
Of course, I am trying to get the household CFO to sign off on a cable connection as a backup, but I'm not having much luck...
Gathering the information from the reports is a tough nut to crack. If all Brian did was open the page using the EDIT command then I don't know why it would show hundreds of accesses.
On the other hand, if he opened the site in Front Page -- which is a natual extension to see how far the site was compromised -- the log files would show hundreds of access if he went to all the pages especially if the Front Page bots were being used.
Either way it is sort of humorous that a paper would leave the ability to edit the pages open. I didn't see any comments that said otherwise. It looks like someone didn't enable the basic user/password challenge for accessing Front Page in administrator mode.
What a topic! I do miss BBS. I was a sysop, remember PCBoard, and what I miss most is the interconnected mail networks. I ran a BBS just so I could get the conferences I wanted. I was a member of PCRelay (RIME), InLink, InterLink, Fido and many more specialized networks. I miss two things about this: 1) I miss the ability to download mail that is threaded with everyone having an identity. 2) I miss moderated conferences. You can say UseNet is similiar, but it is nothing like the old conferences.
Remember QMail? Remember the QWK format? I miss it. Any newsreader today can't hold a candle to the tight integration and features of QMail. I wonder what happened to Sparky?
Some say moderation is censorship, but I don't. Someone was in charge of making sure the boards talked only about their topics. I knew I could send a message out in say, the Boyan conference, and get a message back in a couple of hours from someone. No spam. No xrated garbage. I loved it. Now, if someone tries to keep a board on topic they can't.
I also miss the local flavor of a BBS. You pretty much knew everyone on the board and developed true online relationships past email.
Don't even start me on the cool doors available like tradewars, etc.
Specific technology aside, but let's look at this thing with an eye towards the future. What happens when the appropriate software is developed that can learn personality traits? What happens when it can use those personality traits in new situations? Can you imagine that? If the program was so good it could have conversations in your absence. Would we ever truly die then? I understand we still have a long, long way to go before we understand how our brains functions, but once we do what is to prevent brain functionality from being "ported" to a computer?
Slashdot Mirror
Hey how often are those stats refreshed? Do they include only items that have been posted or items that have been submitted and rejected?
I submitted the same news item minutes after it hit NYTIMES site.
2001-12-29 06:44:40 Internet Law Review for 2001 (articles,news) (rejected)
24 hours later someone else posts it and it's accepted.
How does the approval queue for Slashdot work? I imagine it's multiple people looking at stories and then deciding to post them. Is that right?
Is there a guide to the whole submissions process?
The article references this. Here are a couple of URLS on it:
0 24 01.html
s m_ militias/20011031_eff_usa_patriot_analysis.html
Full Bill:
http://www.politechbot.com/docs/usa.act.final.1
EFF Analysis:
http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Surveillance/Terrori
Let's be honest and call AdCritic what it was ... a place to waste time during the day.
... did you ever try to watch an older commercial on AdCritic? It was horribly slow and most times you would give up.
This is really nothing more than a small site, that got popular, found out it couldn't pay the bills with ads and dropped out.
When did they become the archive of television commercials? Does it strike anyone else as odd that archives are typically academic pursuits suported by trusts, grants and donations and not commercial ventures?
And abou the archiving
Yes, it was a cool idea. I used to send folks URLs to the ads I liked.
Is it a money maker? Nope.
Where they really archiving television commercials? Well, if you call picking out the funniest, most outlandish and humor filled then yes.
Congrats to all involved!
... it was over. Microsoft ruled.
What will it take for the stranglehold on Microsoft Office to be overcome?
Many people have suggested that the "new" offices have to have complete file compatibility with Office, but I don't think that's it.
Others have said that it is necessary for businesses to adopt the suites.
What do other think?
I am really interested in this because for three years or so there were four office products you could choose from: Lotus SmartSuite, WordPerfect Office, Microsoft Office and Microsoft Works.
Then boom
Think about it ... Someone posts a picture of Ernie and the Binnie boy. From what I can tell it came from http://www.j-roen.net/bert/how/how.htm.
Someone in Bangledish picked this up and ran with it. This is amazing.
First it shows the reach of the internet. It's unreal that this is how it is. What a great feather in the cap for the internet to be out on the forefront.
Second what an amazing rub that things we look at as cultural icons aren't perceived as such in foreign countries. I mean what were they thinking?
Man o man ...
... just look and RIME is still alive: http://www.relaynet.org/. Wow and I found Ilink as well :-) http://www.fonix.org/public/ilink/index.html
I don't necessarily miss the BBS action. I was a fan of PC Pursuit. The PC Pursuit service allows you to dial through local modems, across a packet switched network, to a bank of modems in a far away city for $30.00 a month. It support 2400 baud modems and was awesome.
What I really miss, and I mean this in all sincerity, are the message networks. Fido, WWIVnet, Ilink, PC Relay, RIME, InterLink, etc. The idea was that the local messages on your BBS were packaged and sent to another BBS to be distributed. This could be hub and spoke or it could be chained.
What was great about the message areas is that they were moderated and the moderation was supported by the public at large. Moderators were appointed by the networks.
This worked out well because unlike USENET you had real, meaningful messages that were on topic. I could literally get an answer to any question I had in a matter of hours.
Since the communication was back and forth it was interactive with a slight delay. You could lobby your sysop to add the channels you wanted and you could read your mail offline! Who remembers EZReader or QMail?
Offline mail reading allowed you to grab all your messages in a packet, download them, read them offline, then upload replies. It rocked!
Interesting
The bandwidth growth is great, but that doesn't mean it is being used.
What would be great is if we could see the comparative stats on increased bandwidth vs. the usage of clients.
Increased bandwidth doesn't necessarily mean an expansion of access to everyone in the world.
I like NASA's new approach to things. My primary concerns about the mission though are the following:
... this doesn't even include shooting things back.
1) What can we do by inspecting the rocks in person we can't do remotely? We should be able to do everything except touch it.
2) What other benefits do we get out of the mission?
3) Will there be additional scientific study accomplished on the ground? I mean NASA's track record on landing things on Mars hasn't been great
It's great that the truth according to the prosecuter came out. Anyone with any sense can understand that we he did wasn't noble nor helpful. It was wrong and illegal.
... wouldn't you love to know if the paper understood what happened to it? Wouldn't you love to know what happened to their webmaster? Their network administrator?
But
In the IT world mistakes like this are often glossed over and not taken seriously. One would expect to be fired over something like this, but alas, they are not.
The best example of this is the Code Red and NIMDA fiasco. I can't tell you how many admins should have been terminated for not properly patching their systems. It is amazing.
Exactly. Risks are everywhere. There are risks associated with all choices people make. The idea is to minimize your risks if you want.
It's a balance. No one should be surprised at this point that running Windows and Office is riskier.
Again, a decision was made to use the product. Period.
Microsoft didn't force the person to use it. You informed the person of the ramifications of using it and he decided to.
People make decisions that seem stupid, perilous and ill informed everyday.
That does not mean the tools they use as a result of those decisions should be held responsible.
I mean if someone uses gasoline to clean their water heater and then relights the pilot light should the gasoline company be held accountable?
I guess I am really tired of hearing people say this.
Yes, Outlook is prone to leaving gaping holes to run these things through, but let's not blame the responsibility.
Someone, an IT Manager, a Network Administrator, a tech, has made the decision that their company, group or department will use Outlook. That is where the blame rests.
No one puts a gun to their head and forces them to use Outlook. No one. Someone makes the final decision.
In that decision there may be mitigating factors such as software investments, training costs, etc. so if they find themselves in a situation where they feel Outlook is their best decision they then need to protect themselves.
After the first Outlook specific virus everyone should have realized this simple fact: anit-virus products exist for a reason.
A good anti-virus product will override your email and not allow it to happen. Automated updates to DAT files can be handled locally or over the internet.
There is no use in blaming Microsoft. You blame the people who handle IT for the organization.
If you read the article it says, "The fact that no damage claims have been filed with the prosecutor's office is one of the reasons the prosecutor isn't asking for heavier sentencing. However, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a fax to the prosecutor it identified 55 victims of the Kournikova worm with a total damage of $166,827. That claim wasn't specific enough, the prosecutor said."
That is exactly right. No one stepped up to claim damages.
In light of that the defense attorney attacked the prosecution.
In terms of right or wrong it is obvious that the right thing wasn't done. In terms of judicial process and law, it was a success.
Maybe there needs to a better way to determine losses during a virus/worm incident. Are there any standard formulas not based on Anti Virus company PR?
The only thing I could find was this:
http://www.vibert.ca/prevbus.htm
It breaks time down on support efforts and totals it.
Slashdot did provide a very valuable service the day of the attack.
Take into consideration that during the day at some point all major media web sites died.
Many people found Slashdot as their only source of updated information that was staying up.
This sentiment was echoed in pieces by Salon and Wired writers that mentioned Slashdot specifically as a site that had what people were looking for.
You should be proud and satisfied that what you have created did provide a needed service. Thanks, again.
I am amazed at how well the internet has helped disseminate information. I am surprised by the lack of rumors and the amazing compilation pages of information.
What was really heartening was this:
http://www.worldtradecenter.com
Usually it's some jerk looking to make money. This person looks to be really trying to help.
Although some may snicker at the kicthen aspect of the phone, this really does provide a nice platform for Linux telephony.
Strides are being made in the telephony arena using linux. Bayonne is making great progress:
http://www.gnu.org/software/bayonne/news.html
One of the interesting things that people forget is that while VOIP is cool, you can't forget about the phone/automated system interaction for transacation based systems. Lots of market there.
I have wanted to try this on my own at home, but wanted to know if the Xterminal setup will support the following:
1) Sound. Streaming MP3s, etc.
2) Internet browsing.
3) Plug ins like Real Audio.
Thanks!
The things about this is that they have you where it hurts ... your broadband internet access.
...
In the days of dialup you could literally call and open another account the same day. No issues. Who cared if your ISP cut your access.
With the advnet of ISDN you were a little more locked into your ISP, but you could still move your ISDN account to another provider.
With cable and DSL you can't do that. Your broadband provider is still your ISP. What you end up with is that wait. Oh, the wait. It is agonzing when a DSL line goes down or a cable modem won't sync for more than two minutes. You don't have the ability to tranport your account to another ISP.
To make matters worse, it's usually a one horse town. Most people don't have access to DSL, so cable is the next step. If you lose cable access you are pretty much dead in the water.
What can be done about seperating the ISP and broadband provider issue? I don't know, but I know it's going to get worse as the combo abuses it's power. Yes, I know about TOS, but look at what's happened lately:
1) Access to incoming port 80 cut off.
2) Bandiwdth limitations without notice.
3) Access to external SMTP servers cut off.
It's going to get worse until it gets better.
Of course, I am trying to get the household CFO to sign off on a cable connection as a backup, but I'm not having much luck
Gathering the information from the reports is a tough nut to crack. If all Brian did was open the page using the EDIT command then I don't know why it would show hundreds of accesses.
On the other hand, if he opened the site in Front Page -- which is a natual extension to see how far the site was compromised -- the log files would show hundreds of access if he went to all the pages especially if the Front Page bots were being used.
Either way it is sort of humorous that a paper would leave the ability to edit the pages open. I didn't see any comments that said otherwise. It looks like someone didn't enable the basic user/password challenge for accessing Front Page in administrator mode.
What a topic! I do miss BBS. I was a sysop, remember PCBoard, and what I miss most is the interconnected mail networks. I ran a BBS just so I could get the conferences I wanted. I was a member of PCRelay (RIME), InLink, InterLink, Fido and many more specialized networks. I miss two things about this: 1) I miss the ability to download mail that is threaded with everyone having an identity. 2) I miss moderated conferences. You can say UseNet is similiar, but it is nothing like the old conferences.
Remember QMail? Remember the QWK format? I miss it. Any newsreader today can't hold a candle to the tight integration and features of QMail. I wonder what happened to Sparky?
Some say moderation is censorship, but I don't. Someone was in charge of making sure the boards talked only about their topics. I knew I could send a message out in say, the Boyan conference, and get a message back in a couple of hours from someone. No spam. No xrated garbage. I loved it. Now, if someone tries to keep a board on topic they can't.
I also miss the local flavor of a BBS. You pretty much knew everyone on the board and developed true online relationships past email.
Don't even start me on the cool doors available like tradewars, etc.
Specific technology aside, but let's look at this thing with an eye towards the future. What happens when the appropriate software is developed that can learn personality traits? What happens when it can use those personality traits in new situations? Can you imagine that? If the program was so good it could have conversations in your absence. Would we ever truly die then? I understand we still have a long, long way to go before we understand how our brains functions, but once we do what is to prevent brain functionality from being "ported" to a computer?