It is a good analogy if you think about people controlling the kinds of language that can be used. There aren't many real-world examples of people doing this with 'human language'... except for the Academie Francaise. This part of the French government controls which words are 'officially' to be used in France, and has been very aggressive about keeping English terms (such as email and computer) out of the language. It is against the law to use the word 'email' in France.
But my point is that if language is controlled too tightly it really can be as oppressive as many of us think of proprietary software as being. Sure, for most people the lock-in is transparent (like it was in 1984) -- but is there, and it controls the way people communicate, and who they can communicate certain kinds of things with.
Personally, I find the whole thing highly obnoxious. Not that I think there shouldn't be a simple, intuitive user interface. That should be one of the main priorities of anyone trying to sell anything to consumers. I know I've quickly left web sites because they are cluttered and disorganized.
My problem is that I think the Windows interface has been counterintuitive from the beginning, and they have *NEVER* changed that clunky interface. They just pop up annoying little dialogue boxes or paperclips that try to guess what you are trying to do (most often unsuccessfully). Rather than designing an intuitive UI in the first place, they cover up poor design with annoying explanations.
If you want to know specifically what I'm talking about, I think Paul Siracusa's About the Finder... article at Ars Technica explains it well. While he is comparing MacOS 9 to MacOS X, much of the discussion easily applies to Windows.
plus maybe 30 automated msgs saying _I'd_ sent out such nastiness/bloat.
Yeah, I've seen this too. And I *know* I'm not infected. I'm trying to figure out if the worm is making emails it sends look like bounced messages, or if it is spoofing my email address. Actually, I'd like to see some better research (or reporting) done on this. Initial reports I read made it sound like it would only spoof 'well-known' domain names such as ibm.com or microsoft.com. I have seen it coming from friends of mine (who may or may not have been infected), as well as places like halliburton.com. I've seen the 'Wicked Screensaver' variation more than anything else.
Put your money where your heart is
on
Joining the ACLU?
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
I won't tell you not to send money to the ACLU, or where to send your money instead, but it sounds like you have pretty mixed feelings about it. Why not find an organization that you really feel strongly about? There are so many people out there trying to help other people in different ways, you could not possibly support all the good causes. So find one that you passionately support.
Yes, the business would be required to tell customers if the flaw was exploited. That is very different from someone no longer affiliated with the business telling customers that the data could be compromised, and then posting the info on his public web site.
Obviously the company sucks, and possibly even broke the law, but this guy did not need to tell everyone exactly *how* to exploit the flaw. He should not be in jail, granted, but as a few people have mentioned, he was out of line.
It would have been more like a vaccine had it been released *before* MSBlast appeared on the scene. If this does become a trend, I would hope that a) the 'white worms' are released before the 'black worms' cause much damage and that b) there is some sort of unofficial 'opt-out' method like checking a worms.txt file (like robots.txt) before 'fixing' unknowing users' computers.
It's good to see that some people are trying to help, although this kind of charity can often be destructive.
You can't count on anything being 'common knowledge' among many of today's office workers.
Example:
"My document won't open..."
"Type of file is it?"
"Huh?"
"Which application was the file made in?"
"Microsoft."
"Which Microsoft application?"
etc.
The user should be somewhat responsible for knowing how to use the machine, just like with any other machine. However, many of today's operation systems and applications were designed so that the user doesn't have to think or know about what they are doing. So be it. Who is going to think for them? Microsoft? Obviously in this case, Microsoft failed to think through what they were doing 'for the user.' This is a common problem with them... AutoCorrect in Word drives me nuts. I know I can turn that off, but many features like this cannot be turned off.
Go ahead, mod me down as stupid or whatever, but I know someone else has to read it that way.
(Score:5, Insightful)
Is it just me or do posters always get modded up whenever they dare the moderators to mod them down?
Please mod me down, I'm a redundant, trolling, flamebait-loving dogmatist and I was a pro-DMCA lobbyist. And I'm sleeping with Darl.
Re:I wonder if it's usefull
on
Absolute OpenBSD
·
· Score: 2, Informative
to have something like BSD out there at all, what is it that draws people to it? Is it 1337ism or what? Why don't people all use Linux or all use BSD? IS it to spite the other open sourceers or to make sure Linux doesn't reach monopoly status in the open source world, would that be bad in open source?
Although I've never used BSD (Open or Free), I did notice this page on netcraft.com the other day. Basically, the 50 web hosts with the longest uptimes are currently ALL running some form of BSD. Netcraft has some interesting things to say about BSD and its place in the market. There is also the lisence issue, but I'm sure some other slashdotters would be more than willing to fill you in on that.
First, don't know what OP meant by shredding and pulpifying docs, but that sounds a step overboard. The joke about outrunning the slowest target is on par here... unless you're rich, don't sweat things THAT much.
ID theft doesn't always have to do with credit fraud or bank account withdrawals. A friend of mine recently had his SS# stolen by an immigrant who wanted to work in the US. My friend got a letter from the IRS saying he owed them $5,000 unless he could PROVE that he didn't work for a certain contractor in Dallas during 2001. Keep in mind the IRS didn't have any dates, so unless he can get this shady contractor to sign a document saying he doesn't know my friend, and never hired him, he is basically screwed out of $5,000. Because there are certainly some days in 2001 that he was not working, or cannot prove he was working, in San Antonio (where he lived at the time) -- so he could have been in Dallas. Of course this kind of thing is going to happen more when you live near the border....
So there are other ID theft concerns besides the obvious credit / bank account issues. I've also heard business owners complain (on Slashdot) that credit card companies generally take the side of the consumer who says 'I didn't buy that' as opposed to the business that says 'I just sent out merchandise and I'm not getting paid for it???'
Slashdot Mirror
It is a good analogy if you think about people controlling the kinds of language that can be used. There aren't many real-world examples of people doing this with 'human language'... except for the Academie Francaise. This part of the French government controls which words are 'officially' to be used in France, and has been very aggressive about keeping English terms (such as email and computer) out of the language. It is against the law to use the word 'email' in France.
But my point is that if language is controlled too tightly it really can be as oppressive as many of us think of proprietary software as being. Sure, for most people the lock-in is transparent (like it was in 1984) -- but is there, and it controls the way people communicate, and who they can communicate certain kinds of things with.
Personally, I find the whole thing highly obnoxious. Not that I think there shouldn't be a simple, intuitive user interface. That should be one of the main priorities of anyone trying to sell anything to consumers. I know I've quickly left web sites because they are cluttered and disorganized.
My problem is that I think the Windows interface has been counterintuitive from the beginning, and they have *NEVER* changed that clunky interface. They just pop up annoying little dialogue boxes or paperclips that try to guess what you are trying to do (most often unsuccessfully). Rather than designing an intuitive UI in the first place, they cover up poor design with annoying explanations.
If you want to know specifically what I'm talking about, I think Paul Siracusa's About the Finder... article at Ars Technica explains it well. While he is comparing MacOS 9 to MacOS X, much of the discussion easily applies to Windows.
plus maybe 30 automated msgs saying _I'd_ sent out such nastiness/bloat.
Yeah, I've seen this too. And I *know* I'm not infected. I'm trying to figure out if the worm is making emails it sends look like bounced messages, or if it is spoofing my email address. Actually, I'd like to see some better research (or reporting) done on this. Initial reports I read made it sound like it would only spoof 'well-known' domain names such as ibm.com or microsoft.com. I have seen it coming from friends of mine (who may or may not have been infected), as well as places like halliburton.com. I've seen the 'Wicked Screensaver' variation more than anything else.
I won't tell you not to send money to the ACLU, or where to send your money instead, but it sounds like you have pretty mixed feelings about it. Why not find an organization that you really feel strongly about? There are so many people out there trying to help other people in different ways, you could not possibly support all the good causes. So find one that you passionately support.
Yes, the business would be required to tell customers if the flaw was exploited. That is very different from someone no longer affiliated with the business telling customers that the data could be compromised, and then posting the info on his public web site.
Obviously the company sucks, and possibly even broke the law, but this guy did not need to tell everyone exactly *how* to exploit the flaw. He should not be in jail, granted, but as a few people have mentioned, he was out of line.
It's good to see that some people are trying to help, although this kind of charity can often be destructive.
You can't count on anything being 'common knowledge' among many of today's office workers.
Example:
"My document won't open..."
"Type of file is it?"
"Huh?"
"Which application was the file made in?"
"Microsoft."
"Which Microsoft application?"
etc.
The user should be somewhat responsible for knowing how to use the machine, just like with any other machine. However, many of today's operation systems and applications were designed so that the user doesn't have to think or know about what they are doing. So be it. Who is going to think for them? Microsoft? Obviously in this case, Microsoft failed to think through what they were doing 'for the user.' This is a common problem with them... AutoCorrect in Word drives me nuts. I know I can turn that off, but many features like this cannot be turned off.
(Score:5, Insightful)
Is it just me or do posters always get modded up whenever they dare the moderators to mod them down?
Please mod me down, I'm a redundant, trolling, flamebait-loving dogmatist and I was a pro-DMCA lobbyist. And I'm sleeping with Darl.
Although I've never used BSD (Open or Free), I did notice this page on netcraft.com the other day. Basically, the 50 web hosts with the longest uptimes are currently ALL running some form of BSD. Netcraft has some interesting things to say about BSD and its place in the market. There is also the lisence issue, but I'm sure some other slashdotters would be more than willing to fill you in on that.
First, don't know what OP meant by shredding and pulpifying docs, but that sounds a step overboard. The joke about outrunning the slowest target is on par here... unless you're rich, don't sweat things THAT much.
ID theft doesn't always have to do with credit fraud or bank account withdrawals. A friend of mine recently had his SS# stolen by an immigrant who wanted to work in the US. My friend got a letter from the IRS saying he owed them $5,000 unless he could PROVE that he didn't work for a certain contractor in Dallas during 2001. Keep in mind the IRS didn't have any dates, so unless he can get this shady contractor to sign a document saying he doesn't know my friend, and never hired him, he is basically screwed out of $5,000. Because there are certainly some days in 2001 that he was not working, or cannot prove he was working, in San Antonio (where he lived at the time) -- so he could have been in Dallas. Of course this kind of thing is going to happen more when you live near the border....
So there are other ID theft concerns besides the obvious credit / bank account issues. I've also heard business owners complain (on Slashdot) that credit card companies generally take the side of the consumer who says 'I didn't buy that' as opposed to the business that says 'I just sent out merchandise and I'm not getting paid for it???'