Actually, the 1 to 2 year sentence was way too light, IMO. Something more along the line of a public (televised) hanging or draw-and-quartering (or perhaps more toward your tastes, impalement.)
His misdeeds have to represent a potentially large percentage of SPAM sent across the wire, and the penalty should fit the crime.
Just a shady bit of disinformation for the American public - no doubt it was the dropbox for the server logs from the replacements for their CARNIVORE network.
Yup. The RIAA could have taken the case to court, and won. 700+ songs has got to be equal to at least 700 different albums at $15 each. The RIAA could have taken her entire burial fund, and left her a pile of (cremated) ashes in a cardboard box left at the curb. That'll teach those fileswappers.
These Chinese researchers MUST be working on a (PRC) government grant. By announcing their findings, they are letting the opposition (like Falun Gung) know that they are onto them. And since the PRC has adopted IPv6 (and largely banned IPv4 and NAT), they have a really good idea of who the "perps" are. So don't try slipping hidden messages through the Great (Internet Fire)Wall of China, okay?
Your PRC overlords and Google/Yahoo lacky allies thank you to mind your own business.
Actually, my neighborhood IS under constant threat of attack from roving mobs (of J.D.s and gangbanger-wannabes.) The local police are more interested in "political correctness" and "community relations" and the business hours of the local donut shop, thanks. Vandalism against property (homes & autos) is rampant, burglaries and muggings usually go unsolved, but the law always manages to make their quotas for speeding tickets. We have plenty of gangs - they reach right into the middle schools here. Underage sex, drugs, and booze are the recruiting tools of choice, and if that fails, intimidation.
I have alarmed and booby-trapped my house, I keep a loaded 12-guage shotgun under my bed, and a loaded (cocked-and-locked).45 auto under my pillow. I have a large enough quantity of plastic handcuffs (BIG tie-wraps) to hog-tie every J.D. and their irresponsible parents in the neighborhood, if necessary.
Oh, and I live less than 25 miles away from the White House in Washington, DC.
Yes, HST (Hubble Space Telescope) HAS done remarkably well, especially considering it's bumpy start.
Unfortunately, NASA's beauracraticly faultly reasoning for abandoning HST is that the Webb telescope will replace it -- which it cannot do. HST has broad spectral sensitivity, from IR to UV, with excellent results. The Webb telescope is strictly IR.
Your notion that the money saved on scrapping the HST (,with the repairs and upgrades that a manned mission would perform) could be plowed into a new replacement space telescope. There are several flaws in your thinking.
Another mission to HST is required whether to maintain it or to bring it down in a controlled crash -- HST does not have the retro rockets installed to enable de-orbiting. A manned or robotic mission would be required for this purpose. If you are going to perform a manned mission, why not go ahead and do the servicing mission as well? When, in 7 or 8 years after this servicing mission, the HST does fail, the now-installed retro rockets can safely de-orbit it.
The lead time for the design and construction of a true replacement for the HST is likely to be 5 to 8 years. The engineering costs can be guaranteed to exceed the $1 Billion USD required for the HST servicing mission. Neither the current political regime, nor NASA has the will to commit that much time and money on any "pure science" project. At a time when the USA has pissed away $200 Billion USD on a voluntary war, another (projected) $100 Billion USD on a non- functional ABM system, and getting ready to commit $2 Trillion USD to revamping SS, the Federal government "cannot" find $1 Billion USD for an HST rescue/servicing mission. Dubya and his Congressional cronies are not the "sharpest knives in the drawer", and obviously have some agendas that DO NOT INCLUDE SCIENCE. Science is actually antithetical to their neo-con right-wing militant Christian belief system, just as the "big bang" theory is antithetical to their "mythology" about creationism.
You left that 200 MIPS SparcStation over at my house, you twit. Don't you remember you brought it over to blow all the cobwebs out with my air compressor?
It's still here - I haven't pitched it out. When are you coming over to pick it up?
BTW: If it stays here until 2007, I'm
claiming it for myself - I have a
really great idea for a case mod
for that Mac Mini system board.
AFAIK, it is not just the USA (Un)Patriot Act (I) that the Canadians have to be concerned about if they are worried about their privacy. ECHELON, TIPPS, and MATRIX all threaten privacy across national boundaries as well. You don't have to share a border with the USA to get trapped in the TIA (Total Information Awareness) spiderweb. Australia and Britain (and the rest of the EU) all have to play by Uncle Sam's rules to travel or do business in the USA.
TIA should be marked with "666". It is the sign of the beast...
I did RTFA, and I believe that your assessment is spot-on-target. There is an alternative, but it will never be adopted by the TCPA org because it does not support their DRM lock-down.
A separate memory storage (as a part of the BIOS) that is protected by strong encryption could be used to store "tripwire" type signing under the control of the end-user/administrator of the system. The purpose: to eliminate and/or prevent any trojans/viri from modifying the OS and data. As tripwire can be configured to test or ignore specific data regions, DRM issues can be mitigated. The remote access (as proposed by MSFT and Cisco) is not in the best interests of the end-users, but is for **AA.
Until TCPA is completely under the control of the owner/end-user of the computer, it is not something I would consider viable. Should Cisco move forward with their TCPA plans, either the Internet will be doomed to strict commercial interests, or be fractured into the "internets" of lore and legend.
The decision to make LSB modular basically boils down to the fact that each major Linux distribution ISV "agreed to disagree" on a unifying standard. This preserves their IP, their branding, and also their revenue stream. It does NOT forward a unifying LSB common standard for all to adhere to. Methinks it will also lead to chaos among the F/OSS application/tool suite ISVs to try and support different flavors of GNU/Linux. I can forsee a RedHat version of Apache (LAMP) competing with a different Suse version, etcetera.
All in all, I don't think this is very good news for the linux community as a whole, or for the struggle against the (un-named) 800 pound gorilla in the opposing corner.
so if NASA really wants a replacement for the SST (shuttle), they need to open up the competition quite a bit more.
Freightliner is one of the preeminent long haul truck manufacturers in the USA. I don't have the statistics, but a ballpark guestimate would be that Freightliner has transported goods the equivalent of a trip from Earth to the Moon 100 times, without having even one truck fall out of the sky and burn up.
I don't know how far along Freightliner is with their diesel/ion drive, but I would trust it more than some microwave-powered painted solar sail. Of course, the "Space Elevator" projects might someday become a viable alternative, if only Westinghouse got involved.
The only way any serious money will go to new space transort technologies under the current regime is if some of the "old-time" corporations can feed at the government tit. The major defense contractors wanted money for robotic development, and hence the "robotic" servicing mission to the HST (Hubble Space Telescope) was born. Coincidentally,/.ers hear about new robotic warrior drones that will be making their way into the Iraqi conflict. Maybe not such a big coincidence, heh?
It's really quite easy to follow. With a Palladium/Trusted Computing platform, MSFT can relinquish all responsibility for designing a secure OS to the hardware. After all, only MS certified viri, malware, and worms will be able to run on "Longhorn" sitting on the TC platform, right?
At least, that appears to be the MSFT plan. Since MSFT will not be releasing an "SDK for Viri Writers", their "Longhorn" will be just as safe as XP-SP2. I can hardly wait...
I absolutely agree - there aren't many companies bigger than IBM. If you look at the political side of current USA business practices, though, it is less to do with how big the company is, and far more to do with how much "love" those companies are willing to "share" with the ruling political party. Money is the "mother's milk" of politics. The more of that money that goes to the politicians, the more closely they listen to their "corporate friends".
And sometimes, it isn't only how much money gets spread around, it is also about close ties with in-state companies. There is also the possibility of such things as "school ties" that add much influence (membership in Yale's "Skull & Bones?). How much money has Halliburton contributed to specific political parties and persons, compared to what they have received off the government tit in return?
Most publically traded corporations are amoral, with their chief concern being the bottom line. A significant part of the problem with jobs disappearing overseas is that rising quarterly profits (and the bonuses they generate) mean more than allegiance to their country of origin, or to the longterm well-being of the economy or their corporation. (The business news has been full of such examples for more than a decade.)
so you can bet that both Intel and Microsoft would like to see SCO Group succeed in court. Sun is pushing Sparc and AMD processors, IBM is pushing (hard) with PPC processors, and even HP is courting AMD processors -- all three with their UNIX and GNU/linux.
Microsoft courted, and then dumped support for microcomputers based upon the Alpha, MIPS, and PPC processor. Intel's many mis-steps with the Itanium (ia64) processor may well be an issue that IBM would like to raise with the court, especially as regards IBM's short lived alliance with SCO.
IANAL, but no matter how much code IBM reveals in court against SCO Group, SCO's main attacks center on (1) ownership of derivative works, and (2) legality of the GPL. Either could seriously damage F/OSS if the case goes to SCO.
I do not have very much faith in the USA's system of justice these days, particularly since the DoJ let MSFT off the monopoly hook so readily (after regime change).
H2SO4 -- sulfuric acid.
see also, battery acid. HCl ---- hydrochloric acid
see also, component of stomach acid.
I don't know what part of the world the parent poster is from, but these items are not likely to be available from any USA "hobby shop" I have seen. In the USA, either a chemical supply house or else a friendly local electro- plating company might be better choices.
However, it should be cautioned that acids (especially concentrated acids) are quite dangerous. Protective gear (heavy neoprene gloves and goggles are required, at a minimum.) Disposal of the used/waste reagent isn't good for the environment -- it should be neutralized to pH ~7 with Na2OH4 (sodium hydroxide) and then diluted with tap water before pouring down the drain. Your plumbing, and local water quality board, will thank you.
The electrolytic etching method is far more environmentally friendly, albeit slower. A somewhat more expensive, but reasonably earth- friendly method is to use ferric chloride.
Those for whom money is no object will prefer a 100 to 1000 watt CO2 laser for their metal cutting needs.
and I really hate to sound like an old timer, but I rather like SGI IRIX 6.5's "chkconfig" and separate "rc" scripts much better.
The interface is uniform, it's easy to program for, and everything is laid out by runlevel. But hey, back in the old days I used to walk uphill to school, both ways!
Why wouldn't Microsoft parlay vulnerabilities in their core OS (and the long delays in their providing patches) into a big push to adopt their "Trusted Computing" initiative?
With DRM in BIOS, and no ability to use any OS, application, or media file not explicitly approved by Microsoft, any/all of MSFT s/w vulnerabilities become a moot point. They will have no legal or moral compulsion to fix any of their s/w vulnerabilities, as all security concerns (and responsibility) will be passed on to the BIOS/M-B/Processor manufacturer.
What is really, truly needed is a class action lawsuit against MSFT in the USA court system for their EULA. The EULA the end user must agree to gives total absolution of any MSFT fuduciary responsibility for their crappy s/w.
Between neccessary 3rd party utilities like firewall, anti-virus, and anti-spyware tools, and the tens of millions of man-hours wasted in fixing vulnerabilities/exploits/etcetera in MSFT OSes/Apps, the true cost of TCO to endusers could easily drive MSFT into bankruptcy, should the courts find MSFT willfully negligent. IANAL, but findings of willfull negligence usually draws treble damages...
Of course they don't want to be hated. Who would (short of SCO Group and the **AA)?
Please tell me exactly what mistakes MSFT has made, because such a statement is confusing.
They have always made use of deep pockets, lawyers, and sufficient delays in court to win market share, even if they have failed subsequently in court. The old saying of "Time is money" has been parlayed by MSFT into either (1) market share, or (2) change in venue (in court) that has always been beneficial to their long term success. Even the recent EU ruling and penalties will have a beneficial influence on MSFT's bottom line. (Think EU software patents here.) Face it, MSFT has always strategized very well, even if they have taken some minor hits regarding PR or buggy vulnerable software.
After reading though the./er postings and GrokLaw's take on the CDDL, and the warning (blog) about Sun's 1600 patents, there have been enough issues exposed (IANAL) to stay away from ANY Sun CDDL code (so I am waste- binning the DTrace code I D/Led UNOPENED).
Sun, after wrestling with MSFT for more than 5 years (over Java, etcetera), has joined the Bill-Borg collective (IMHO). Their secret cross-licensing deal with MSFT regarding software patents SHOULD raise alarm bells with ALL F/OSS developers. Especially when you consider that very many (most) software patents issued by the USPTO are based upon a long background of "prior art". Corporations can ONLY be trusted to do whatever they judge to be in their self-interest AT THAT TIME, as it is in their nature. The deepest corporate pockets buys the most lawyers and the most "face-time" with the politicians, which puts F/OSS development efforts at a disadvantage in the courtroom -- the ONLY protections that F/OSS has is the GPL/LGPL. I predict that Sun's CDDL will morph only to the point that the F/OSS community will be placated/numbed into becoming Sun's unpaid "employees".
At some point in the not-too-distant future, the Sun-MSFT Alliance will turn (in the courts) against GPL/LGPL, in effect supporting SCO Group lawsuits. This future event is both predictable and inevitable.
Short of re-designing the battery internally, this faus device isn't worth $00.02. Apparently, the "inventor" ran out of "perpetual motion machine" and "cold fusion" marks, hence the new "invention".
The poster used far too many buzz words and far too little science to make any valid case --
Especially when monopolistic corporate entities switch from using civil lawsuits to employing the Federal government to use "conspiracy to commit" in order to enforce their God-given right to gouge their customers.
Attacking BitTorrent server operators expressly in the enforcement of copyright for proprietary media (eg. movies) is one thing, but when it effects perfectly legal usage for F/OSS D/L, then it's time for the revolution against the staus quo to begin. (And I can't think of any better place to start than on this issue...)
They should also be hiring some new PR people, because any future G5 based notebook cannot be called (or used as) a LAPTOP..., at least not unless Apple starts making use of NASA's SST (shuttle) thermal tile technology.
Dubya has used 9-11-2001 as his excuse for a lot of things, but real counter- measures against further domestic terrorism is NOT one of them. "Voluntary measures", hells-bells. There IS A REASON why Dubya and his cronies have kept stating "...it isn't a matter of IF terrorists will attack again, but of WHEN...". And Dubya's lack of proper attention to homeland security IS WHY.
BTW: The only qualification you need in order to become a member of the Dubya Cabinet is to be a loyal neo-con Bushie. If you have THAT, you probably should have posted AC...
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, the 1 to 2 year sentence was way
too light, IMO. Something more along the
line of a public (televised) hanging or
draw-and-quartering (or perhaps more toward
your tastes, impalement.)
His misdeeds have to represent a potentially
large percentage of SPAM sent across the wire,
and the penalty should fit the crime.
Just a shady bit of disinformation for the
American public - no doubt it was the dropbox
for the server logs from the replacements for
their CARNIVORE network.
Yup. The RIAA could have taken the case
to court, and won. 700+ songs has got to
be equal to at least 700 different albums
at $15 each. The RIAA could have taken her
entire burial fund, and left her a pile of
(cremated) ashes in a cardboard box left at
the curb. That'll teach those fileswappers.
It would have been an absolute PR disaster.
These Chinese researchers MUST be working on
a (PRC) government grant. By announcing their
findings, they are letting the opposition (like
Falun Gung) know that they are onto them. And
since the PRC has adopted IPv6 (and largely
banned IPv4 and NAT), they have a really good
idea of who the "perps" are. So don't try
slipping hidden messages through the Great
(Internet Fire)Wall of China, okay?
Your PRC overlords and Google/Yahoo lacky
allies thank you to mind your own business.
Now go away. There's nothing to "see" here.
Actually, my neighborhood IS under constant
.45 auto under my
threat of attack from roving mobs (of J.D.s
and gangbanger-wannabes.) The local police
are more interested in "political correctness"
and "community relations" and the business
hours of the local donut shop, thanks. Vandalism
against property (homes & autos) is rampant,
burglaries and muggings usually go unsolved,
but the law always manages to make their quotas
for speeding tickets. We have plenty of gangs -
they reach right into the middle schools here.
Underage sex, drugs, and booze are the recruiting
tools of choice, and if that fails, intimidation.
I have alarmed and booby-trapped my house, I keep
a loaded 12-guage shotgun under my bed, and a
loaded (cocked-and-locked)
pillow. I have a large enough quantity of
plastic handcuffs (BIG tie-wraps) to hog-tie
every J.D. and their irresponsible parents
in the neighborhood, if necessary.
Oh, and I live less than 25 miles away from
the White House in Washington, DC.
Yes, HST (Hubble Space Telescope) HAS done
remarkably well, especially considering it's
bumpy start.
Unfortunately, NASA's beauracraticly faultly
reasoning for abandoning HST is that the Webb
telescope will replace it -- which it cannot
do. HST has broad spectral sensitivity, from
IR to UV, with excellent results. The Webb
telescope is strictly IR.
Your notion that the money saved on scrapping
the HST (,with the repairs and upgrades that
a manned mission would perform) could be plowed
into a new replacement space telescope. There
are several flaws in your thinking.
Another mission to HST is required whether to
maintain it or to bring it down in a controlled
crash -- HST does not have the retro rockets
installed to enable de-orbiting. A manned or
robotic mission would be required for this
purpose. If you are going to perform a manned
mission, why not go ahead and do the servicing
mission as well? When, in 7 or 8 years after
this servicing mission, the HST does fail, the
now-installed retro rockets can safely de-orbit
it.
The lead time for the design and construction of
a true replacement for the HST is likely to be
5 to 8 years. The engineering costs can be
guaranteed to exceed the $1 Billion USD required
for the HST servicing mission. Neither the
current political regime, nor NASA has the will
to commit that much time and money on any "pure
science" project. At a time when the USA has
pissed away $200 Billion USD on a voluntary war,
another (projected) $100 Billion USD on a non-
functional ABM system, and getting ready to
commit $2 Trillion USD to revamping SS, the
Federal government "cannot" find $1 Billion USD
for an HST rescue/servicing mission. Dubya and
his Congressional cronies are not the "sharpest
knives in the drawer", and obviously have some
agendas that DO NOT INCLUDE SCIENCE. Science
is actually antithetical to their neo-con
right-wing militant Christian belief system,
just as the "big bang" theory is antithetical
to their "mythology" about creationism.
You left that 200 MIPS SparcStation over at
my house, you twit. Don't you remember you
brought it over to blow all the cobwebs out
with my air compressor?
It's still here - I haven't pitched it out.
When are you coming over to pick it up?
BTW: If it stays here until 2007, I'm
claiming it for myself - I have a
really great idea for a case mod
for that Mac Mini system board.
AFAIK, it is not just the USA (Un)Patriot Act (I)
that the Canadians have to be concerned about if
they are worried about their privacy. ECHELON,
TIPPS, and MATRIX all threaten privacy across
national boundaries as well. You don't have to
share a border with the USA to get trapped in
the TIA (Total Information Awareness) spiderweb.
Australia and Britain (and the rest of the EU)
all have to play by Uncle Sam's rules to travel
or do business in the USA.
TIA should be marked with "666". It is the sign
of the beast...
I did RTFA, and I believe that your assessment
is spot-on-target. There is an alternative,
but it will never be adopted by the TCPA org
because it does not support their DRM lock-down.
A separate memory storage (as a part of the
BIOS) that is protected by strong encryption
could be used to store "tripwire" type signing
under the control of the end-user/administrator
of the system. The purpose: to eliminate and/or
prevent any trojans/viri from modifying the
OS and data. As tripwire can be configured to
test or ignore specific data regions, DRM issues
can be mitigated. The remote access (as proposed
by MSFT and Cisco) is not in the best interests
of the end-users, but is for **AA.
Until TCPA is completely under the control of
the owner/end-user of the computer, it is not
something I would consider viable. Should
Cisco move forward with their TCPA plans, either
the Internet will be doomed to strict commercial
interests, or be fractured into the "internets"
of lore and legend.
The decision to make LSB modular basically
boils down to the fact that each major
Linux distribution ISV "agreed to disagree"
on a unifying standard. This preserves their
IP, their branding, and also their revenue
stream. It does NOT forward a unifying LSB
common standard for all to adhere to. Methinks
it will also lead to chaos among the F/OSS
application/tool suite ISVs to try and support
different flavors of GNU/Linux. I can forsee
a RedHat version of Apache (LAMP) competing
with a different Suse version, etcetera.
All in all, I don't think this is very good
news for the linux community as a whole, or
for the struggle against the (un-named) 800
pound gorilla in the opposing corner.
so if NASA really wants a replacement for
/.ers hear about
the SST (shuttle), they need to open up
the competition quite a bit more.
Freightliner is one of the preeminent
long haul truck manufacturers in the USA.
I don't have the statistics, but a ballpark
guestimate would be that Freightliner has
transported goods the equivalent of a trip
from Earth to the Moon 100 times, without
having even one truck fall out of the sky
and burn up.
I don't know how far along Freightliner is
with their diesel/ion drive, but I would
trust it more than some microwave-powered
painted solar sail. Of course, the "Space
Elevator" projects might someday become a viable
alternative, if only Westinghouse got involved.
The only way any serious money will go to new
space transort technologies under the current
regime is if some of the "old-time" corporations
can feed at the government tit. The major
defense contractors wanted money for robotic
development, and hence the "robotic" servicing
mission to the HST (Hubble Space Telescope)
was born. Coincidentally,
new robotic warrior drones that will be making
their way into the Iraqi conflict. Maybe not
such a big coincidence, heh?
It's really quite easy to follow. With a
Palladium/Trusted Computing platform, MSFT
can relinquish all responsibility for designing
a secure OS to the hardware. After all, only
MS certified viri, malware, and worms will be
able to run on "Longhorn" sitting on the TC
platform, right?
At least, that appears to be the MSFT plan.
Since MSFT will not be releasing an "SDK for
Viri Writers", their "Longhorn" will be just
as safe as XP-SP2. I can hardly wait...
I absolutely agree - there aren't many companies
bigger than IBM. If you look at the political
side of current USA business practices, though,
it is less to do with how big the company is,
and far more to do with how much "love" those
companies are willing to "share" with the ruling
political party. Money is the "mother's milk"
of politics. The more of that money that goes
to the politicians, the more closely they listen
to their "corporate friends".
And sometimes, it isn't only how much money gets
spread around, it is also about close ties with
in-state companies. There is also the possibility
of such things as "school ties" that add much
influence (membership in Yale's "Skull & Bones?).
How much money has Halliburton contributed to
specific political parties and persons, compared
to what they have received off the government tit
in return?
Most publically traded corporations are amoral,
with their chief concern being the bottom line.
A significant part of the problem with jobs
disappearing overseas is that rising quarterly
profits (and the bonuses they generate) mean
more than allegiance to their country of origin,
or to the longterm well-being of the economy or
their corporation. (The business news has been
full of such examples for more than a decade.)
so you can bet that both Intel and Microsoft
would like to see SCO Group succeed in court.
Sun is pushing Sparc and AMD processors, IBM
is pushing (hard) with PPC processors, and even
HP is courting AMD processors -- all three
with their UNIX and GNU/linux.
Microsoft courted, and then dumped support
for microcomputers based upon the Alpha, MIPS,
and PPC processor. Intel's many mis-steps
with the Itanium (ia64) processor may well be
an issue that IBM would like to raise with
the court, especially as regards IBM's short
lived alliance with SCO.
IANAL, but no matter how much code IBM reveals
in court against SCO Group, SCO's main attacks
center on (1) ownership of derivative works,
and (2) legality of the GPL. Either could
seriously damage F/OSS if the case goes to SCO.
I do not have very much faith in the USA's
system of justice these days, particularly
since the DoJ let MSFT off the monopoly hook
so readily (after regime change).
H2SO4 -- sulfuric acid.
see also, battery acid.
HCl ---- hydrochloric acid
see also, component of stomach acid.
I don't know what part of the world the parent
poster is from, but these items are not likely
to be available from any USA "hobby shop" I
have seen. In the USA, either a chemical
supply house or else a friendly local electro-
plating company might be better choices.
However, it should be cautioned that acids
(especially concentrated acids) are quite
dangerous. Protective gear (heavy neoprene
gloves and goggles are required, at a minimum.)
Disposal of the used/waste reagent isn't good
for the environment -- it should be neutralized
to pH ~7 with Na2OH4 (sodium hydroxide) and
then diluted with tap water before pouring
down the drain. Your plumbing, and local water
quality board, will thank you.
The electrolytic etching method is far more
environmentally friendly, albeit slower. A
somewhat more expensive, but reasonably earth-
friendly method is to use ferric chloride.
Those for whom money is no object will prefer
a 100 to 1000 watt CO2 laser for their metal
cutting needs.
and I really hate to sound like an old
timer, but I rather like SGI IRIX 6.5's
"chkconfig" and separate "rc" scripts
much better.
The interface is uniform, it's easy to
program for, and everything is laid out
by runlevel. But hey, back in the old
days I used to walk uphill to school,
both ways!
(...putting on my tinfoil hat...)
...
Why wouldn't Microsoft parlay vulnerabilities
in their core OS (and the long delays in their
providing patches) into a big push to adopt
their "Trusted Computing" initiative?
With DRM in BIOS, and no ability to use any
OS, application, or media file not explicitly
approved by Microsoft, any/all of MSFT s/w
vulnerabilities become a moot point. They will
have no legal or moral compulsion to fix any
of their s/w vulnerabilities, as all security
concerns (and responsibility) will be passed on
to the BIOS/M-B/Processor manufacturer.
What is really, truly needed is a class action
lawsuit against MSFT in the USA court system
for their EULA. The EULA the end user must
agree to gives total absolution of any MSFT
fuduciary responsibility for their crappy s/w.
Between neccessary 3rd party utilities like
firewall, anti-virus, and anti-spyware tools,
and the tens of millions of man-hours wasted
in fixing vulnerabilities/exploits/etcetera
in MSFT OSes/Apps, the true cost of TCO to
endusers could easily drive MSFT into bankruptcy,
should the courts find MSFT willfully negligent.
IANAL, but findings of willfull negligence
usually draws treble damages
Of course they don't want to be hated. Who
would (short of SCO Group and the **AA)?
Please tell me exactly what mistakes MSFT has
made, because such a statement is confusing.
They have always made use of deep pockets,
lawyers, and sufficient delays in court to
win market share, even if they have failed
subsequently in court. The old saying of
"Time is money" has been parlayed by MSFT
into either (1) market share, or (2) change
in venue (in court) that has always been
beneficial to their long term success. Even
the recent EU ruling and penalties will have
a beneficial influence on MSFT's bottom line.
(Think EU software patents here.) Face it,
MSFT has always strategized very well, even if
they have taken some minor hits regarding PR
or buggy vulnerable software.
and additional concern about US Govt efforts
regarding the use of RFID tags in official
documents, like passports.
Want to bet that the same/similar RFID chips
are being used on new passports, with similar
vulnerabilities?
After reading though the ./er postings and
...
GrokLaw's take on the CDDL, and the warning
(blog) about Sun's 1600 patents, there have
been enough issues exposed (IANAL) to stay
away from ANY Sun CDDL code (so I am waste-
binning the DTrace code I D/Led UNOPENED).
Sun, after wrestling with MSFT for more than
5 years (over Java, etcetera), has joined the
Bill-Borg collective (IMHO). Their secret
cross-licensing deal with MSFT regarding
software patents SHOULD raise alarm bells
with ALL F/OSS developers. Especially when
you consider that very many (most) software
patents issued by the USPTO are based upon
a long background of "prior art". Corporations
can ONLY be trusted to do whatever they judge
to be in their self-interest AT THAT TIME, as
it is in their nature. The deepest corporate
pockets buys the most lawyers and the most
"face-time" with the politicians, which puts
F/OSS development efforts at a disadvantage
in the courtroom -- the ONLY protections that
F/OSS has is the GPL/LGPL. I predict that
Sun's CDDL will morph only to the point that
the F/OSS community will be placated/numbed
into becoming Sun's unpaid "employees".
At some point in the not-too-distant future,
the Sun-MSFT Alliance will turn (in the courts)
against GPL/LGPL, in effect supporting SCO Group
lawsuits. This future event is both predictable
and inevitable.
Just my ever depreciating $00.02 worth
Short of re-designing the battery internally,
..."
this faus device isn't worth $00.02. Apparently,
the "inventor" ran out of "perpetual motion
machine" and "cold fusion" marks, hence the new
"invention".
The poster used far too many buzz words and far
too little science to make any valid case --
"Nothing to see here. Move on
yes, but is it available in PDF format?
What, indeed, is this country coming to?
...)
Especially when monopolistic corporate entities
switch from using civil lawsuits to employing
the Federal government to use "conspiracy to
commit" in order to enforce their God-given
right to gouge their customers.
Attacking BitTorrent server operators expressly
in the enforcement of copyright for proprietary
media (eg. movies) is one thing, but when it
effects perfectly legal usage for F/OSS D/L,
then it's time for the revolution against the
staus quo to begin. (And I can't think of any
better place to start than on this issue
They should also be hiring some new PR people, ..., at least
because any future G5 based notebook cannot
be called (or used as) a LAPTOP
not unless Apple starts making use of NASA's
SST (shuttle) thermal tile technology.
Please mod parent up.
...". And Dubya's lack
...
Dubya has used 9-11-2001 as his excuse
for a lot of things, but real counter-
measures against further domestic terrorism
is NOT one of them. "Voluntary measures",
hells-bells. There IS A REASON why Dubya
and his cronies have kept stating "...it
isn't a matter of IF terrorists will attack
again, but of WHEN
of proper attention to homeland security
IS WHY.
BTW:
The only qualification you need in order
to become a member of the Dubya Cabinet
is to be a loyal neo-con Bushie. If you
have THAT, you probably should have posted
AC