Computer viruses are dealt with not by evolution,
but by code review and patching the system.
Nothing to do with evolution.
Evolution takes place in human society. For example
many people switch from MSIE to Mozilla.
Other from Windows to Apple or Linux.
People start treating security much more serious these days.
And good indicator of such "rate of evolution"
may be web site log statistic of web broser and operating system usage change.
But this have nothing to do with applying biological principles to computer systems.
I believe the right way to work with NAT is to use UnPnP router (most modern routers support UnPnP).
This way the device (VoIP or other) tells the router what ports to open during getting DHCP settings of IP and etc. In few years I expect this would probably be the most common way to work pass NAT.
You were trying to do very intrinsic things to Linux
and then complaint. Such low level changes are hard to do on any system. The good thing - they are unnecessary for novice user.
For you, as an inexperienced linux user, I would recommend to use FC2 installer and then just use the system. It has web browser/office suite/etc.
Read Fedora support site - some things(NTFS) you were trying to do are not supported by Fedora yet. This would save you some time.
By the way, if you want to sell
software you wrote - GPL is a better option than BSD style license.
This way you (as the author)
can sell your software
to commertial entity for some $$$
without any requirement to open their sources.
With BSD license they can just take
your software away without paying anything.
There is a
NYTimes article
which states that geeks blame
non-so-computer-savvy users
for opening e-mail attachments. quote:
The virus spreads when Internet users ignore a basic rule of Internet life: never click on an unknown e-mail attachment. Once someone does, MyDoom begins to send itself to the names in that person's e-mail address book. If no one opened the attachment, the virus's destructive power would never be unleashed.
end of quote.
Even simplier example.
Just imagine: all e-mails you receive marked by
a flag "sent by human" or "generated automatically". This way most people
whould have NO SPAM PROBLEM.
Read messages from humans every hour
and automatically generated messages from unknown sources (such as online retailers) either when you expect such message or once a month.
Even more. Some people (me) would
even agree to receive
ONLY messages from humans on main e-mail account.
Image recognition (OCR) is just an example.
There exist many other tasks which can be done
only by humans:
Show a picture and ask a question:
whether this is a man or a women.
Image recognition is just an example, there are many problems which are
easy for humans and hard for computers.
To have human=computer you should have artificial intelligence.
Automated messages from BugTraq (or banking statement notification) is not a big deal, because I already know where they are coming from and it is very easy to whitelist such messages.
This is what most people do anyway
before passing e-mail to filters such as spamassasin.
The problem arise specifically with messages from
random people. You can not whitelist them,
and blacklist solution, as it was dicussed many times on slashdot, would never work well.
I think that proposed solution:
whitelist for automatically generated messages and
requiring to perform "can be done only by human" task
would solve most of SPAM problem.
I think the way to go in fighting SPAM is to make
person sending a message to perform some task,
which is easy for humans and is hard for computers.
The approaches (like 10 secs CPU intensive task
proposed by Microsoft Research) or micropayment
system
does not distinguish between humans and computers.
An example of such approach would be to
modify SMTP protocol in a way that during a process
of sending e-mail mail server
would show you some image which and await
a response from mail client of the same thing typed as text.
I think the key to fight SPAM
is to distinguish messages sent by humans
and generated automatically.
Usually it is pretty hard to contribute back.
We use a number of havily patched GPL
programs and submitted a number of patches back to mantainer.
Some of them were rejected because
the mantainer had a different sense of
direction for development. Some were
rejected because of low quality.
The only contributions which came through
were bug reports.
Bug reports is the easiest way to contribute.
You are not supposed to do porting and compilation.
The vendor (RedHat/BSD team/SUN/IBM/etc.)
supposed to take care of this, and they do
porting well.
If you have enough resources to build a new CPU it should not be a problem for you to take care about headers and #ifdefs.
Is intermedia language really that useful for Open Source Software?
To run on any CPU
is one of the biggest opportunities for Linux/Apache/Emacs/etc.
the only thing which changes - a compiler.
Open Source software gives a good chance
for a new computer architecture.
May be an intermedia language is not that
useful after all?
For example something like this:
every ISP in PA
setup their DNS servers not to resolve
specific host names. This way
every user using ISP's DNS server
will not have an access to specified sites.
And if a user does not use ISP's DNS -
this is not ISP's problem.
Slashdot Mirror
Computer viruses are dealt with not by evolution, but by code review and patching the system. Nothing to do with evolution.
Evolution takes place in human society. For example many people switch from MSIE to Mozilla. Other from Windows to Apple or Linux. People start treating security much more serious these days. And good indicator of such "rate of evolution" may be web site log statistic of web broser and operating system usage change.
But this have nothing to do with applying biological principles to computer systems.
I believe the right way to work with NAT is to use UnPnP router (most modern routers support UnPnP). This way the device (VoIP or other) tells the router what ports to open during getting DHCP settings of IP and etc. In few years I expect this would probably be the most common way to work pass NAT.
You were trying to do very intrinsic things to Linux and then complaint. Such low level changes are hard to do on any system. The good thing - they are unnecessary for novice user. For you, as an inexperienced linux user, I would recommend to use FC2 installer and then just use the system. It has web browser/office suite/etc. Read Fedora support site - some things(NTFS) you were trying to do are not supported by Fedora yet. This would save you some time.
By the way, if you want to sell software you wrote - GPL is a better option than BSD style license. This way you (as the author) can sell your software to commertial entity for some $$$ without any requirement to open their sources.
With BSD license they can just take your software away without paying anything.
Looks a little bit long to me.
Also do not forget to say about different media opinions on the same subject. Such as NYTimes article
There is a NYTimes article which states that geeks blame non-so-computer-savvy users for opening e-mail attachments. quote:
The virus spreads when Internet users ignore a basic rule of Internet life: never click on an unknown e-mail attachment. Once someone does, MyDoom begins to send itself to the names in that person's e-mail address book. If no one opened the attachment, the virus's destructive power would never be unleashed. end of quote.
Even simplier example. Just imagine: all e-mails you receive marked by a flag "sent by human" or "generated automatically". This way most people whould have NO SPAM PROBLEM.
Read messages from humans every hour and automatically generated messages from unknown sources (such as online retailers) either when you expect such message or once a month.
Even more. Some people (me) would even agree to receive ONLY messages from humans on main e-mail account.
Image recognition (OCR) is just an example. There exist many other tasks which can be done only by humans:
Show a picture and ask a question: whether this is a man or a women.
Image recognition is just an example, there are many problems which are easy for humans and hard for computers. To have human=computer you should have artificial intelligence.
Automated messages from BugTraq (or banking statement notification) is not a big deal, because I already know where they are coming from and it is very easy to whitelist such messages. This is what most people do anyway before passing e-mail to filters such as spamassasin.
The problem arise specifically with messages from random people. You can not whitelist them, and blacklist solution, as it was dicussed many times on slashdot, would never work well.
I think that proposed solution: whitelist for automatically generated messages and requiring to perform "can be done only by human" task would solve most of SPAM problem.
I think the way to go in fighting SPAM is to make person sending a message to perform some task, which is easy for humans and is hard for computers. The approaches (like 10 secs CPU intensive task proposed by Microsoft Research) or micropayment system does not distinguish between humans and computers. An example of such approach would be to modify SMTP protocol in a way that during a process of sending e-mail mail server would show you some image which and await a response from mail client of the same thing typed as text.
I think the key to fight SPAM is to distinguish messages sent by humans and generated automatically.
Computers consume significant power. Leaving a 100 Watt computer running all the time would cost you extra 21c a day electricty bill, about $75/year.
Electicity cost of leaving computer all day power on
Not that little, compared to say $40/month vonage bill.
Currently Internet in Russia is expensive:
Dialup: $0.30 to $1.00 per hour
DSL: $30 to $100 per 1Gb
The $10/hour WiFi is not that expensive by Russian standards
Usually it is pretty hard to contribute back. We use a number of havily patched GPL programs and submitted a number of patches back to mantainer. Some of them were rejected because the mantainer had a different sense of direction for development. Some were rejected because of low quality. The only contributions which came through were bug reports.
Bug reports is the easiest way to contribute.
You are not supposed to do porting and compilation. The vendor (RedHat/BSD team/SUN/IBM/etc.) supposed to take care of this, and they do porting well. If you have enough resources to build a new CPU it should not be a problem for you to take care about headers and #ifdefs.
Is intermedia language really that useful for Open Source Software? To run on any CPU is one of the biggest opportunities for Linux/Apache/Emacs/etc. the only thing which changes - a compiler. Open Source software gives a good chance for a new computer architecture. May be an intermedia language is not that useful after all?
Currently Internet in Russia is rather expensive:
Dialup: $0.30 to $1.00 per hour
DSL: $30 to $100 per 1Gb
I do not know about Chinese prices, but probably also much more costly than in the US.
In Russia typical DSL costs about $100 for 1Gb. A $30 per 1 Gb is considered EXTEREMLY CHEAP.
This List is russian ISPs list with typical prices.
I think the "Web Services" is not a buzzword any more.
What slashdot readers feel about "Web Services", is it still cool?
For more than 20 years people talked about "Interactive TV". Interactive TV did not take off at all.
What really became the way to go is The Internet.
I feel that "virtual cinema" is going to repeat "Interactive TV".
Check chandra images:
m l
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/chronological.ht
Regiser.com has a good service (especially DNS service), but they started looking a little bit expensive.
Is there a cheaper alternative to Regiser.com which provide similar level of service (DNS & etc.).
For example something like this:
every ISP in PA setup their DNS servers not to resolve specific host names. This way every user using ISP's DNS server will not have an access to specified sites. And if a user does not use ISP's DNS - this is not ISP's problem.
And how about to block a site on DNS server or domain registar?
This may be a better fit for WWW architecture.
Try this:
http://www.sitebits.com/2000/SIG/
You will find a lot about yourself.
There is a much fannier one (java required). Try it and you will find a lot about yourself
http://www.sitebits.com/2000/SIG/
It is available since 2000.