I can't really imagine a free piece of software that will undoubtedly render some people's motherboards totally unusable.
Admittedly, not many people actually screw up their motherboards today because of company-supplied BIOS updates, but in my opinion the most likely reason for that is that most people don't update their motherboard's BIOS.
I think this is a necessary problem to solve for a host of reasons (the most pressing in my mind being removing "Trusted Computing Initiatives" or DRM) but I can't imagine who might be willing to distribute such a thing because of the liability concerns.
You may recall the recent Choicepoint security breach. Apparently there's profit to be made in between finding out about a security breach and actually announcing it!
ChoicePoint execs sold shares before theft news
ChoicePoint Inc.'s top two executives made a combined $16.6 million in profit from selling company shares in the months after the data warehouser learned that people's personal information may have been compromised and before the breach was made public, regulatory filings show. ChoicePoint's stock has dropped about 10 percent since last week when the company announced that criminals had duped it into allowing them access to its massive database. Alpharetta, Ga.-based ChoicePoint says the stock trading was pre-arranged under a plan approved by the company's board. Corporate governance experts say the pattern and timing of the trading by chief executive Derek Smith and president Douglas Curling raises questions. Smith and Curling did not respond to repeated requests through a spokesman for comment Friday.
This really isn't China's fault. I used to do this kind of thing too when I was playing marbles around the age of 4. If things didn't go my way, I'd round up all my marbles and stomp off on my way home.
John Dvorak has been in the computer industry about as long as Univac, but I really disagree with him on his points in TFA.
The first thing I disagree with is his assertion of how useful Linux would be when running under Windows. Is anyone crying for this?
His second assertion that Microsoft could create a flavor of Linux with their driver-base that people would adopt is just as loony. Beyond its quality nature, isn't one of the reasons people switch to Linux to get rid of Microsoft and their business practices and high prices?
How many internet marketers would, if the technology were available, opt to have a physical hand come out of someone's monitor and slap them in the face until they read your ad?
Each transmission between card and reader has a unique code that cannot be reused even if it is intercepted, a key security feature, he said.
What protects consumers from fraudulent merchants waving some kind of electronic cash-sucking wand by your back pocket which contains your wallet which contains your RFID Visa card? There's no mention of this in the article at all!
It's a standard scam now for an unscrupulous merchant to charge millions of people a small amount of money fraudulently with the hopes that the vast majority won't even notice. Imagine what they will do when all they have to do is walk around a mall waving something at people purse's and backpockets!
Step 1: Company implements some sort of copy protection.
Step 2: Legitimate users are hampered by the copy protection while illegitimate users breeze by it through various means.
Step 3: Company either ultimately removes copy protection with a black mark on its reputation or people just stop buying its products.
I know of no historical case that deviates from this for a major software release. Of course, you have various vertical applications that use dongles and other such things, but anything that is mass-distributed (like Lotus Notes or Turbo Tax) that has used copy protection either removed said copy protection or stopped selling their product.
We've seen hand cranking chargers, now windmill charging... How long until someone packages and sells a DIY Dam & Hydroelectric Cell Charging kit?
Also, I understand that Iran is currently importing plutonium from Russia in an attempt to make a personal, portable nuclear reactor capable of charging cell phones.
They could come up with a color-coded "Virus Threat Advisory System". Just off the top of my head, they could use something like:
Low = Green
Guarded = Blue
Elevated = Yellow
High = Orange
Severe = Red
Who the hell knows what users should do at each of these levels, but at least they'd be using techniques that have been used in other successful alert systems.
"Selling televisions is not what the FCC is in the business of."
Amazing they needed a three-judge panel to tell them that. It's obviously not over yet with the appeals court still yet to rule whether the consumer groups that brought the suit have standing, but it's a fantastic sign! Both for this decision as well as upcoming decisions on whether the government can force PC makers to implement DRM and "Trusted Computing" initiatives.
Not hard wares that sticks an comprehension of talks by scanning on thousands of fish translated papers has been vomited by US scientists.
Many existing translation not hard wares uses palm rules for botching words and phrases. But the new software, snarked by Kevin Knight and Daniel Marcu at the Information Sciences[...]
Do a Google search for "web traffic" and look at all the AdWord advertisements. Almost all of them are sites that buy expired domain names or common misspellings of domain names, and for the low-low price of $2 they'll send thousands of people to your web site via such domains.
Also, for anyone that has used the site... www.whatismyip.com was up for an EBay auction that ended at about 11:00 pm EST last night. Last I checked the bidding was $55,000. Not sure what it ultimately sold for.
I agree that they'll make a mint if it's true! But if these super-Lions ever escape from whatever zoo or nature preserve we put them in, it will mean a heap of trouble!
Slashdot Mirror
I can't really imagine a free piece of software that will undoubtedly render some people's motherboards totally unusable.
Admittedly, not many people actually screw up their motherboards today because of company-supplied BIOS updates, but in my opinion the most likely reason for that is that most people don't update their motherboard's BIOS.
I think this is a necessary problem to solve for a host of reasons (the most pressing in my mind being removing "Trusted Computing Initiatives" or DRM) but I can't imagine who might be willing to distribute such a thing because of the liability concerns.
I'm a little embarrassed that I still measure things in pounds, ounces, feet, inches, yards, etc.
I'd take the gram, kilogram, meter, centimeter, etc. over that any day, regardless of how it's calibrated!
It really is fascinating though how much thought 18th and 19th century scientists put in to accurate weights and measures.
What Jon Udell calls a "List of Unsung Heroes", Microsoft calls a "Hit List".
The FAQ for this endeavor can be seen here.
One glaring ommission from the FAQ is "Why participate in this?" I guess if you have to ask why, there's no point in asking.
You may recall the recent Choicepoint security breach. Apparently there's profit to be made in between finding out about a security breach and actually announcing it!
ChoicePoint execs sold shares before theft news
ChoicePoint Inc.'s top two executives made a combined $16.6 million in profit from selling company shares in the months after the data warehouser learned that people's personal information may have been compromised and before the breach was made public, regulatory filings show. ChoicePoint's stock has dropped about 10 percent since last week when the company announced that criminals had duped it into allowing them access to its massive database. Alpharetta, Ga.-based ChoicePoint says the stock trading was pre-arranged under a plan approved by the company's board. Corporate governance experts say the pattern and timing of the trading by chief executive Derek Smith and president Douglas Curling raises questions. Smith and Curling did not respond to repeated requests through a spokesman for comment Friday.
Full Story: Twincities.com (Subscription Requred - use bugmenot.com)
"Microsoft offers $5 windfall for errant software"
Did anyone else find it extremely funny to see such flagrant sarcasm in this news.com.com headline?
This really isn't China's fault. I used to do this kind of thing too when I was playing marbles around the age of 4. If things didn't go my way, I'd round up all my marbles and stomp off on my way home.
Will all of us be permitted to prepare and recite a victim's impact statement during the hearing?
John Dvorak has been in the computer industry about as long as Univac, but I really disagree with him on his points in TFA.
The first thing I disagree with is his assertion of how useful Linux would be when running under Windows. Is anyone crying for this?
His second assertion that Microsoft could create a flavor of Linux with their driver-base that people would adopt is just as loony. Beyond its quality nature, isn't one of the reasons people switch to Linux to get rid of Microsoft and their business practices and high prices?
How many internet marketers would, if the technology were available, opt to have a physical hand come out of someone's monitor and slap them in the face until they read your ad?
I just wonder where some marketers draw the line.
From TFA:
Each transmission between card and reader has a unique code that cannot be reused even if it is intercepted, a key security feature, he said.
What protects consumers from fraudulent merchants waving some kind of electronic cash-sucking wand by your back pocket which contains your wallet which contains your RFID Visa card? There's no mention of this in the article at all!
It's a standard scam now for an unscrupulous merchant to charge millions of people a small amount of money fraudulently with the hopes that the vast majority won't even notice. Imagine what they will do when all they have to do is walk around a mall waving something at people purse's and backpockets!
Step 1: Company implements some sort of copy protection.
Step 2: Legitimate users are hampered by the copy protection while illegitimate users breeze by it through various means.
Step 3: Company either ultimately removes copy protection with a black mark on its reputation or people just stop buying its products.
I know of no historical case that deviates from this for a major software release. Of course, you have various vertical applications that use dongles and other such things, but anything that is mass-distributed (like Lotus Notes or Turbo Tax) that has used copy protection either removed said copy protection or stopped selling their product.
Anyone else have an image of a person cautiously backing away from a wire that is engulfed in flame after reading the story's headline?
Lack of bandwidth appears to have stopped him already. Here's Google's cache:
Google Cache
Is there something more to this than an uninteresting thought experiment in regard to IP and DRM?
We've seen hand cranking chargers, now windmill charging... How long until someone packages and sells a DIY Dam & Hydroelectric Cell Charging kit?
Also, I understand that Iran is currently importing plutonium from Russia in an attempt to make a personal, portable nuclear reactor capable of charging cell phones.
Now all we need to do is get Microsoft to adopt the GroupDAV protocol in Exchange/Outlook.
I feel confident this can be done on February 30th of this year.
Before you buy one of these dual-core processors for your server, make sure that your software vendor isn't going to double your price on you.
Oracle and others have announced plans to increase their revenue by charging people for multiple cores in their single processor.
They could come up with a color-coded "Virus Threat Advisory System". Just off the top of my head, they could use something like:
Low = Green
Guarded = Blue
Elevated = Yellow
High = Orange
Severe = Red
Who the hell knows what users should do at each of these levels, but at least they'd be using techniques that have been used in other successful alert systems.
From TFA:
"Selling televisions is not what the FCC is in the business of."
Amazing they needed a three-judge panel to tell them that. It's obviously not over yet with the appeals court still yet to rule whether the consumer groups that brought the suit have standing, but it's a fantastic sign! Both for this decision as well as upcoming decisions on whether the government can force PC makers to implement DRM and "Trusted Computing" initiatives.
Teach Software translating on scanning up
Not hard wares that sticks an comprehension of talks by scanning on thousands of fish translated papers has been vomited by US scientists.
Many existing translation not hard wares uses palm rules for botching words and phrases. But the new software, snarked by Kevin Knight and Daniel Marcu at the Information Sciences[...]
Read More...
Any bored attorneys want to send a cease and desist letter to iDownload in regard to them sending cease and desist letters?
Of course, it will be meaningless and unenforceable, but no more so than their such letters.
Every time I try to go to www.sysinternals.com to find the new Rootkit removal application, my system shuts down automatically.
Probably nothing to worry about.
Sorry to reply to myself... I just found the EBay auction site again:
Whatismyip.com Auction
The final price? $386,100.00.
Do a Google search for "web traffic" and look at all the AdWord advertisements. Almost all of them are sites that buy expired domain names or common misspellings of domain names, and for the low-low price of $2 they'll send thousands of people to your web site via such domains.
Also, for anyone that has used the site... www.whatismyip.com was up for an EBay auction that ended at about 11:00 pm EST last night. Last I checked the bidding was $55,000. Not sure what it ultimately sold for.
I agree that they'll make a mint if it's true! But if these super-Lions ever escape from whatever zoo or nature preserve we put them in, it will mean a heap of trouble!