I can't see a problem giving some of the brightest young people in society discounted or free college educations. I wish I had such an opportunity at the University of Maryland. However, the government service part may simply not be that helpful. The way inwhich many Computer Science students think, from my experience anyway (Your mileage may vary) is that they really don't trust the Government and would like to avoid coming to their notice, much less work for them. Also Government salarys, for the most part, are horrid. Not all are that bad, but some of the job postings I saw, I almost died of laughter. "Where are they going to get someone with that skill set to take that large a pay cut?" Well, I suppose we can fill those possitions with fresh college grads. However, you run into the problem where these students are green. Mostly, there is no real world experience, and their work ethic is sometimes questionable. (Heh, mine has been questioned.:)
In short I like the money for school, but if the government wants talent in their ranks, pump up those salary numbers. The best are worth more than $30,000 a year... Also, the government should stop scaring our youth. I don't know how they do it, but they do..
Morality is certainly not an issue. It's closer to finding a chink in the looming enemy's armor and exploiting it to win the good battle. Besides, lets look at some things that cost atleast $400 dollars which Microsoft has caused.
1. Man hours installing Windows (initally) 2. Man hours looking at Blue Screen (yearly) 3. Man hours spent rebooting broken machine. (monthly) 4. Defimation and Discredidation of another OS. 5. Intrusive commercials on TV. Damn they are annoying. 6. Bill's Haircut. (oops, wrong Bill.) 7. The movie "Pirates of Sillicon Valley." Damn that was a bad flick. 8. Rent for space taken up by my stack of unused MSN disks and CDs. 9. Taking a good Rolling Stones song and linking it to them. 10. Listening to the BS about the Antitrust crap in the news. Hey! Call me when Microsoft loses, but until then, shut up! Kinda reminds me of OJ.
Taking from Microsoft is morally justified. If you don't agree, than you simply haven't experenced enough pain from Microsoft yet. Give it time, you will... Mike
My uptime on one machine was up to 154 days until my UPS died a painful death this morning in the face of a power outage. While this isn't a too impressive uptime, I was none the less disheartened. Well, I suppose now is as good a time as any to upgrade.
Aside from the salary issue, perks never hurt, like a free T1. However, the most important thing I have found in picking an area is OPTIONS. I'm in the Washington DC area working for a major Internet backbone provider. They are a great company, and I really like working there, except for a few minor HR blunders. (insert Dilbert Quote here) However, with the market in this area, there are hundreds of other companies in the area where I could go instead should I ever get disgruntled. With this kind of high-tech job market, the employee wins with higher pay, longer vacations, and whatever given your level of experience. That's what to look for.
Well, look for what makes you happy. This makes me happy.:)
You really won't get busted for what you leave open with Microsoft Networking. Usually, these people don't want to leave their desks, and aren't technically proficient. They watch for IP based traffic that actually passes to/from your Resident Hall's subnet. Now, if you piss off enough people that a dozen or so complain, well then, they may look into it.:) Otherwise, nada.
This isn't something new, really. At the University of Maryland, College Park, they have been cracking down (or trying to) on the distribution of MP3s and pirated software for years. Unfortunatly, their detection has been rather limited, since all they really look for are student machines using significant bandwidth, which, in of itself, isn't proof of wrong doing. What you'll find on these college campuses, however, is a staff of people who enforce these "Acceptable Use Policies," and these staffs are usually made up of beaurocrats, and not techies. You are usually tried, convicted, and sentenced on even the most circumstancial of evidence. Hell, I know someone who got kicked out of Resident housing over LEGAL MP3s. And when the more serious network intrusions take place, they do it based on your IP address. It doesn't matter if your machine is owned, your IP hijacked, or the address simply spoofed. Basicly, there's a new kind of fascist in town. While they may not be smart enough to catch you, they may accuse you anyway and run you through. Be careful.
So, why do all these "reputable" news organizations look to slashdot for analysis? There are several reasons, I suppose.
1. The speed at which analysis is collected. Usually, Slashdot posts news before it hits ALL of the mainstream outlets, and has been commented on by members of the Slashdot community.
2. The value of the analysis. Except for the flamebait and Anonymous Coward posts, people from all walks of life add valuble comments. Remember, many of us work in the industry. It's almost like instant insider analysis.
3. Slashdot is focused. For the most part, Slashdot reports on only the High Tech news, or things related to it. Granted, there is a spin to it, but that's life on any web site. People know they can get good info on Tech here, so they come.
4. Slashdot isn't boring. There's more than enough humor here that our would-be journalist won't go back with a dry, boring article. Maybe that's where those flamebait posts fit in.
Maybe I'm looking into this too much, and they just like CmdrTaco's style. It's entirely possible.:) But the effect is obvious, Slashdot is very important in Tech reporting.
1. Break into the machines, and do as we will. -or- 2. Drop a big bomb on said machine, which is certainly more destructive and more annoying to an admin.
Since option 2 is already used, there is no excuse for not being able to use option 1 and save a couple bombs.
The SANS confrence is the only conference worth going to. Sys Admins, and Network Security gurus have plenty to learn here. Stephen Northcutt is speaking at the one in December, and he, IMHO, is the foremost in network security, these days.
Point is, I don't *need* their little toy. My machine at home will continue to meet the current level of technology, and if it breaks, oh, well. I'll go to my Super Nintendo and play F-Zero for a while. I'm not a picky man.
Why buy a product I already have? An x86 based game system sounds a bit lame to me. Heh, I'm sure someone will write a game interpretor for Windows and probably Linux. Buy all the games you want, but never the system... Microsoft, if there is any truth to this, is really going off the deep end.
Why is it that the anaylists keep saying that we can't continue to shrink transisters fast enough anymore to keep up with Moore's law? The relentless quest to make Quake run faster is enough for most engineers to make the impossible happen. This is a big step in microprocessor design, and when combined with the insulating properties of aerogells, will allow us to pack more and more transisters into tighter areas. Before too long, we'll be manipulating the state of a Quark to turn switches on and off. It's a wonderful time. Well, the quantum computer won't be available this quarter, unfortunatly.:) However, one day.... In the mean time, sit tight and wait for the 10 cent processor.
Hmm, Gates is now using his billions to influence the Federal government. Funny how something similar started this in the first place, like using his billions to influence or bully competitors and distributors. This is a really stupid idea. Like people *won't notice*. Well, then again, if they become immune from procecution, we may be screwed anyway. What's next? Senator Gates? I'm not liking this patern. Fear any company who can influence the outcome of a trial by draining the Procecuter's budget. Fight the future.
Re:Lack of productivity software? - uh, wrong.
on
Gartner Slams Linux
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· Score: 1
And StarOffice, which has a similar look and feel as Microsoft Office, has a happy install wizard to satisfy those who don't know what a command line is. Coupled with SUSE Linux, the overall install process is shorter and just as easy as Windows 98. The only difference is that SUSE Linux works write the FIRST time, and anyone can do it. Really!
Accelerated X is all well and good. I have used it before, and while it may be more stable than that put out by XFree, who wants to pay for it?
Lets take a look at the facts. Accelerated X servers range in price from $100 to $300 depending on your setup, with higher prices for the "Developer's edition." What does this mean? Well, A nice OEM copy of Win98 runs around $89 or less. If I thought AcceleratedX was the only way to fly on Linux, I'd trot back to Microsoft. Why pay 4 times as much, even if it is 4 times better. I don't have a problem rebooting once a day.;)
In any event, the XFree project is doing an exelent job creating good, stable X servers. They are keeping up with vendors when it comes to display drivers, and seems fast and stable. Until I see my X server crash, Accelerated-X won't even cross my mind as anything of value. And as long as it's priced to kill, I'll never buy it.
Damn, I'm about ready to bust this guys nut. There is more than enough good productivity software available for Linux, and more is always on the horizon. For the lazy of us who don't want to go downloading stuff, we can usually find pico, emacs, joe, or whatever for word processing. Maybe some people don't like those apps very much, but the output is more portable than a stupid.DOC file. Then for your more powerful environment, look at StarOffice. Now that is a nice office suit without too much of the BS Microsoft has. Quick and functional, mostly.:)
There's something about this that just seems kind of rediculous. It's a little far out from the sun to be thought of as the 10th planet. Next, we'll find one that does a figure 8 with Sol and Proxima Centauri. The only thing that kind of interests me is the thought of it being a rogue planet, one that didn't originate from the same matter pool from which the Solar System was created. Or maybe the oort cloud out there has condenced over the years into larger balls of matter from collisions, and creating their own local gravity wells to pull in more, and make themselves larger. Who knows. As a side note, I think it's laughable that Pluto is even thought of as a planet. There are identified asteroids that are more planetlike than Pluto. It's tough to call this 'new' discovery the 10th planet, when the 9th is little more than a free floating rock, with a nearly as large orbiting rock. Hell, Pluto orbits Charon almost as much as Charon orbits Pluto. It's just nuts.
Now that I've gone completely off the deep end, I'll return to work.:) Mike
I have seen plenty of advertising over the years reguarding items are 100% compatible. Very little of it has ever been true. Look at all of the software that claims to be 100% Compatible with Windows 95/98? Many of them increase your rate of system crashes substantially, and are unstable. Sounds more like it's partially Win95 compatible.
Also, with computers being 100% Windows compatible. How often have you installed a fresh copy of Windows on your laptop or desktop just to realize that none of your peripherals work, even after downloading the latest drivers for them? That WinModem that could change IRQs at will is now a Hayes 2400 on IRQ 7 and won't move. That's why I gave up getting preassembled machines and construct my own. The preassembled ones with all of their cheap/proprietary BS just hork what they claim to be compatibe with.
Once I see a machine consistantly have no hardware issues after a reinstall (aside from general configuration), I'll buy into this 100% compatibility thing.
Mike
Re:Security 101... Not offered on campus.
on
Linux Lite?
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· Score: 1
A good place to start would be in the following two files: /etc/inetd.conf - Turn off the services you don't use. /etc/hosts.deny - Limit the IP address that connect to your machine.
That'll keep most of the losers out. Remember that programs like sendmail and sshd, which are generally run as a daemon, and not from inetd.conf do not have the protection offered by hosts.deny. Well, there are man pages for both, so read up.:)
Mike
Security 101... Not offered on campus.
on
Linux Lite?
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· Score: 5
So you arrive at college to move your junk into your dorm room. You notice a little jack in your wall that is too big to stick your telephone plug into and see the word DATA above it. After asking someone, you find out that it's an Internet connection. Not only that, it's *Really* fast and always connected. A sence of freedom and superiority overcomes you as you think of all of your friends with little modems. You can't wait, and run to the bookstore to get the "Network startup kit." Opening your machine for the first time made you nervous, but after all, you have "ethernet" now, so you can't possibly go wrong. Magicly enough, Windows properly finds your new 3C509 and sets it up. You begin playing around with the network settings based on the little numbers you find on your dorm network setup paper. After a reboot, you fly into Netscape and get lost in the web, watching things come at you with blinding speed. But you want more. You meet this scruffy, withdrawn student down the hall. You know he's the resident computer guru, so you ask him what else you can do to have fun on the internet. He gives you a long hard look, not sure just how bright you are. Unknown to you, he has been evaluating your intellegence since day one, along with the rest of the incoming freshman. He sighs when he realizes you are the least annoying person in your pack. "Linux," he says. You turn to him with a quizical look on your face. He points you to linux.org and tells you to look around. You jump to it. Around 2 AM, your Debian install is complete. You had another hard drive lying around from when you had your machine upgraded, and an engineering major installed it and made it go. You choose debian because of the FTP install. You wanted everything to work without waiting, too impatient. Once it's set up, you leave your machine on as you go to bed. You logged out, and felt important doing so. The morning brings around the first day of classes. You give your friends your 'New' email address and brag about being able to get your own email without having to use the Campus system. You don't know or care how sendmail works. You know, however that it works, and that pine is rather nifty. As you walk in at night, exhausted from a full day of work and play, you hear your hard drive going a mile a second. You walk over to log in, and find your password changed. You're completely lost and have no idea what to do. You yank the magic cable out of the wall and turn off the machine. You remember that you can still boot to Windows, so you do. Ahh, safe, you sigh. A week later, the scruffy geek comes back to your room with your hard drive. He had taken it, at your request, to find out what had happened. He snorted, and asked you what business did you have running NCSA HTTPD. You shrugged. He looks over at the wall. He looks confused and exasperated. Unbenounsed to you, he's having a chicken and egg argument with himself. "He needs to learn before he can use this stuff. However, he can't learn without using Linux." He turns back to you. "Ok, I'll secure this system for you. However, this is a one time deal. I'll answer your questins, in brief, but I will not do anymore for you. Do you understand?" You nod. He returns your harddrive the next day. You're happy as a clam that everything, as far as you can tell, is just as you left it. What did he do? You let it escape your mind as you look at this neat thing called IRC. Two weeks later, your hard drive is wiped. Unknown to you, another daemon, this time sendmail, had a Cert advisory posted, and you pissed someone off on IRC. The wrong person.
I hope you enjoied that little tidbit. This happens way too often. However, in reality, people's college boxes just become hideouts for script kiddies. I believe a condenced Linux Workstation would be extreamly useful. I wish I had one when I started. I, instead, was baptized by fire.
The YRO is a wonderful idea and I hope it brings valuble information to people's desktops across the world. However, don't consider it the end all of computer or computer related laws. There's more mumbojumbo out there than I'm sure Hemos has hard disk space for.:) If you are starting a computer company or, god forbid, get into trouble with CIA mainframes, please don't use this as your only resource. It's only a guide. Some of you may think this comment is common sence, but sometimes people just decide that they know everything on a certain subject. Also, as far as I'm concerned, I'd understand a mess of C code much faster than I could muddle my way through US laws. Leave the specifics to the lawyers, and leave the coding to us.
Bargin laptops are the antichrist to anyone who has ever worked IT. Not to long ago, a company I worked for got in a bunch of Toshibas and Compaq laptops who's Windows 98 installs where horked. I mean the sound was not quite SB compliant, the Video was detected at 512Kb or ram when I can *see* both megs on the board. I won't even start on the built in ether. The truth is, these laptops aren't that well put together. SuperProbe would probably throw an absolute fit trying to determine what the Video was doing. The ethernet, which was supposedly NE2000 compliant ended up being a derivative of the 3C509.
What it boils down to is these machines shouldn't even be marketed as x86 compatible. Since I have never tried to install Linux on anything other than a lame laptop, I can't speak for the "good ones". I sincerely hope they are better.
And to leave you with a question, who actually makes this lame hardware? The company who printed those boards ought to be smacked with a wet salmon.
The Federal Government has been making aliances et al for years now. For example, the NSA can get new credit cards for agents at will legally giving the company false info, ie the agent's alias or what have you. Corperate alliances are what have made groups like the CIA and the NSA what they are today. I'm sorry I'm cutting this short, but I'm at work. More detail laiter in the day.
Come on... Like the guys in Finland don't have all of the commonly available encryption packages. It isn't that hard to get them over the internet and out of the country. What's the point in writing more legislation that says "No exporting Encryption" when all you need is a US based shell to get all of the encryption software you want? Idiots.
Slashdot Mirror
I can't see a problem giving some of the brightest young people in society discounted or free college educations. I wish I had such an opportunity at the University of Maryland. However, the government service part may simply not be that helpful. The way inwhich many Computer Science students think, from my experience anyway (Your mileage may vary) is that they really don't trust the Government and would like to avoid coming to their notice, much less work for them. Also Government salarys, for the most part, are horrid. Not all are that bad, but some of the job postings I saw, I almost died of laughter. "Where are they going to get someone with that skill set to take that large a pay cut?" Well, I suppose we can fill those possitions with fresh college grads. However, you run into the problem where these students are green. Mostly, there is no real world experience, and their work ethic is sometimes questionable. (Heh, mine has been questioned. :)
In short I like the money for school, but if the government wants talent in their ranks, pump up those salary numbers. The best are worth more than $30,000 a year... Also, the government should stop scaring our youth. I don't know how they do it, but they do..
Mike
Morality is certainly not an issue. It's closer to finding a chink in the looming enemy's armor and exploiting it to win the good battle. Besides, lets look at some things that cost atleast $400 dollars which Microsoft has caused.
1. Man hours installing Windows (initally)
2. Man hours looking at Blue Screen (yearly)
3. Man hours spent rebooting broken machine. (monthly)
4. Defimation and Discredidation of another OS.
5. Intrusive commercials on TV. Damn they are annoying.
6. Bill's Haircut. (oops, wrong Bill.)
7. The movie "Pirates of Sillicon Valley." Damn that was a bad flick.
8. Rent for space taken up by my stack of unused MSN disks and CDs.
9. Taking a good Rolling Stones song and linking it to them.
10. Listening to the BS about the Antitrust crap in the news. Hey! Call me when Microsoft loses, but until then, shut up! Kinda reminds me of OJ.
Taking from Microsoft is morally justified. If you don't agree, than you simply haven't experenced enough pain from Microsoft yet. Give it time, you will...
Mike
My uptime on one machine was up to 154 days until my UPS died a painful death this morning in the face of a power outage. While this isn't a too impressive uptime, I was none the less disheartened. Well, I suppose now is as good a time as any to upgrade.
Aside from the salary issue, perks never hurt, like a free T1. However, the most important thing I have found in picking an area is OPTIONS. I'm in the Washington DC area working for a major Internet backbone provider. They are a great company, and I really like working there, except for a few minor HR blunders. (insert Dilbert Quote here) However, with the market in this area, there are hundreds of other companies in the area where I could go instead should I ever get disgruntled. With this kind of high-tech job market, the employee wins with higher pay, longer vacations, and whatever given your level of experience.
:)
That's what to look for.
Well, look for what makes you happy. This makes me happy.
You really won't get busted for what you leave open with Microsoft Networking. Usually, these people don't want to leave their desks, and aren't technically proficient. They watch for IP based traffic that actually passes to/from your Resident Hall's subnet. Now, if you piss off enough people that a dozen or so complain, well then, they may look into it. :) Otherwise, nada.
Probably Leichner again. Tell him I say high.
This isn't something new, really.
At the University of Maryland, College Park, they have been cracking down (or trying to) on the distribution of MP3s and pirated software for years. Unfortunatly, their detection has been rather limited, since all they really look for are student machines using significant bandwidth, which, in of itself, isn't proof of wrong doing.
What you'll find on these college campuses, however, is a staff of people who enforce these "Acceptable Use Policies," and these staffs are usually made up of beaurocrats, and not techies. You are usually tried, convicted, and sentenced on even the most circumstancial of evidence. Hell, I know someone who got kicked out of Resident housing over LEGAL MP3s.
And when the more serious network intrusions take place, they do it based on your IP address. It doesn't matter if your machine is owned, your IP hijacked, or the address simply spoofed.
Basicly, there's a new kind of fascist in town. While they may not be smart enough to catch you, they may accuse you anyway and run you through. Be careful.
So, why do all these "reputable" news organizations look to slashdot for analysis? There are several reasons, I suppose.
:) But the effect is obvious, Slashdot is very important in Tech reporting.
1. The speed at which analysis is collected. Usually, Slashdot posts news before it hits ALL of the mainstream outlets, and has been commented on by members of the Slashdot community.
2. The value of the analysis. Except for the flamebait and Anonymous Coward posts, people from all walks of life add valuble comments. Remember, many of us work in the industry. It's almost like instant insider analysis.
3. Slashdot is focused. For the most part, Slashdot reports on only the High Tech news, or things related to it. Granted, there is a spin to it, but that's life on any web site. People know they can get good info on Tech here, so they come.
4. Slashdot isn't boring. There's more than enough humor here that our would-be journalist won't go back with a dry, boring article. Maybe that's where those flamebait posts fit in.
Maybe I'm looking into this too much, and they just like CmdrTaco's style. It's entirely possible.
I suppose there are two options.
1. Break into the machines, and do as we will.
-or-
2. Drop a big bomb on said machine, which is certainly more destructive and more annoying to an admin.
Since option 2 is already used, there is no excuse for not being able to use option 1 and save a couple bombs.
The SANS confrence is the only conference worth going to. Sys Admins, and Network Security gurus have plenty to learn here. Stephen Northcutt is speaking at the one in December, and he, IMHO, is the foremost in network security, these days.
Point is, I don't *need* their little toy. My machine at home will continue to meet the current level of technology, and if it breaks, oh, well. I'll go to my Super Nintendo and play F-Zero for a while. I'm not a picky man.
Why buy a product I already have? An x86 based game system sounds a bit lame to me. Heh, I'm sure someone will write a game interpretor for Windows and probably Linux. Buy all the games you want, but never the system... Microsoft, if there is any truth to this, is really going off the deep end.
Why is it that the anaylists keep saying that we can't continue to shrink transisters fast enough anymore to keep up with Moore's law? The relentless quest to make Quake run faster is enough for most engineers to make the impossible happen. This is a big step in microprocessor design, and when combined with the insulating properties of aerogells, will allow us to pack more and more transisters into tighter areas. Before too long, we'll be manipulating the state of a Quark to turn switches on and off. It's a wonderful time. :) However, one day.... In the mean time, sit tight and wait for the 10 cent processor.
Well, the quantum computer won't be available this quarter, unfortunatly.
Mike
Hmm, Gates is now using his billions to influence the Federal government. Funny how something similar started this in the first place, like using his billions to influence or bully competitors and distributors.
This is a really stupid idea. Like people *won't notice*. Well, then again, if they become immune from procecution, we may be screwed anyway. What's next? Senator Gates? I'm not liking this patern.
Fear any company who can influence the outcome of a trial by draining the Procecuter's budget.
Fight the future.
And StarOffice, which has a similar look and feel as Microsoft Office, has a happy install wizard to satisfy those who don't know what a command line is. Coupled with SUSE Linux, the overall install process is shorter and just as easy as Windows 98. The only difference is that SUSE Linux works write the FIRST time, and anyone can do it. Really!
Accelerated X is all well and good. I have used it before, and while it may be more stable than that put out by XFree, who wants to pay for it?
;)
Lets take a look at the facts.
Accelerated X servers range in price from $100 to $300 depending on your setup, with higher prices for the "Developer's edition." What does this mean? Well, A nice OEM copy of Win98 runs around $89 or less. If I thought AcceleratedX was the only way to fly on Linux, I'd trot back to Microsoft. Why pay 4 times as much, even if it is 4 times better. I don't have a problem rebooting once a day.
In any event, the XFree project is doing an exelent job creating good, stable X servers. They are keeping up with vendors when it comes to display drivers, and seems fast and stable. Until I see my X server crash, Accelerated-X won't even cross my mind as anything of value. And as long as it's priced to kill, I'll never buy it.
Damn, I'm about ready to bust this guys nut. There is more than enough good productivity software available for Linux, and more is always on the horizon. For the lazy of us who don't want to go downloading stuff, we can usually find pico, emacs, joe, or whatever for word processing. Maybe some people don't like those apps very much, but the output is more portable than a stupid .DOC file. Then for your more powerful environment, look at StarOffice. Now that is a nice office suit without too much of the BS Microsoft has. Quick and functional, mostly. :)
There's something about this that just seems kind of rediculous. It's a little far out from the sun to be thought of as the 10th planet. Next, we'll find one that does a figure 8 with Sol and Proxima Centauri.
:)
The only thing that kind of interests me is the thought of it being a rogue planet, one that didn't originate from the same matter pool from which the Solar System was created. Or maybe the oort cloud out there has condenced over the years into larger balls of matter from collisions, and creating their own local gravity wells to pull in more, and make themselves larger. Who knows.
As a side note, I think it's laughable that Pluto is even thought of as a planet. There are identified asteroids that are more planetlike than Pluto. It's tough to call this 'new' discovery the 10th planet, when the 9th is little more than a free floating rock, with a nearly as large orbiting rock. Hell, Pluto orbits Charon almost as much as Charon orbits Pluto. It's just nuts.
Now that I've gone completely off the deep end, I'll return to work.
Mike
I have seen plenty of advertising over the years reguarding items are 100% compatible. Very little of it has ever been true. Look at all of the software that claims to be 100% Compatible with Windows 95/98? Many of them increase your rate of system crashes substantially, and are unstable. Sounds more like it's partially Win95 compatible.
Also, with computers being 100% Windows compatible. How often have you installed a fresh copy of Windows on your laptop or desktop just to realize that none of your peripherals work, even after downloading the latest drivers for them? That WinModem that could change IRQs at will is now a Hayes 2400 on IRQ 7 and won't move. That's why I gave up getting preassembled machines and construct my own. The preassembled ones with all of their cheap/proprietary BS just hork what they claim to be compatibe with.
Once I see a machine consistantly have no hardware issues after a reinstall (aside from general configuration), I'll buy into this 100% compatibility thing.
Mike
A good place to start would be in the following two files:
/etc/inetd.conf - Turn off the services you don't use.
/etc/hosts.deny - Limit the IP address that connect to your machine.
:)
That'll keep most of the losers out. Remember that programs like sendmail and sshd, which are generally run as a daemon, and not from inetd.conf do not have the protection offered by hosts.deny. Well, there are man pages for both, so read up.
Mike
So you arrive at college to move your junk into your dorm room. You notice a little jack in your wall that is too big to stick your telephone plug into and see the word DATA above it. After asking someone, you find out that it's an Internet connection. Not only that, it's *Really* fast and always connected. A sence of freedom and superiority overcomes you as you think of all of your friends with little modems. You can't wait, and run to the bookstore to get the "Network startup kit."
Opening your machine for the first time made you nervous, but after all, you have "ethernet" now, so you can't possibly go wrong. Magicly enough, Windows properly finds your new 3C509 and sets it up. You begin playing around with the network settings based on the little numbers you find on your dorm network setup paper. After a reboot, you fly into Netscape and get lost in the web, watching things come at you with blinding speed. But you want more.
You meet this scruffy, withdrawn student down the hall. You know he's the resident computer guru, so you ask him what else you can do to have fun on the internet. He gives you a long hard look, not sure just how bright you are. Unknown to you, he has been evaluating your intellegence since day one, along with the rest of the incoming freshman. He sighs when he realizes you are the least annoying person in your pack. "Linux," he says. You turn to him with a quizical look on your face. He points you to linux.org and tells you to look around. You jump to it.
Around 2 AM, your Debian install is complete. You had another hard drive lying around from when you had your machine upgraded, and an engineering major installed it and made it go. You choose debian because of the FTP install. You wanted everything to work without waiting, too impatient. Once it's set up, you leave your machine on as you go to bed. You logged out, and felt important doing so.
The morning brings around the first day of classes. You give your friends your 'New' email address and brag about being able to get your own email without having to use the Campus system. You don't know or care how sendmail works. You know, however that it works, and that pine is rather nifty.
As you walk in at night, exhausted from a full day of work and play, you hear your hard drive going a mile a second. You walk over to log in, and find your password changed. You're completely lost and have no idea what to do. You yank the magic cable out of the wall and turn off the machine. You remember that you can still boot to Windows, so you do. Ahh, safe, you sigh.
A week later, the scruffy geek comes back to your room with your hard drive. He had taken it, at your request, to find out what had happened. He snorted, and asked you what business did you have running NCSA HTTPD. You shrugged. He looks over at the wall. He looks confused and exasperated. Unbenounsed to you, he's having a chicken and egg argument with himself. "He needs to learn before he can use this stuff. However, he can't learn without using Linux."
He turns back to you. "Ok, I'll secure this system for you. However, this is a one time deal. I'll answer your questins, in brief, but I will not do anymore for you. Do you understand?" You nod. He returns your harddrive the next day. You're happy as a clam that everything, as far as you can tell, is just as you left it. What did he do? You let it escape your mind as you look at this neat thing called IRC.
Two weeks later, your hard drive is wiped. Unknown to you, another daemon, this time sendmail, had a Cert advisory posted, and you pissed someone off on IRC. The wrong person.
I hope you enjoied that little tidbit. This happens way too often. However, in reality, people's college boxes just become hideouts for script kiddies. I believe a condenced Linux Workstation would be extreamly useful. I wish I had one when I started. I, instead, was baptized by fire.
Mike
The YRO is a wonderful idea and I hope it brings valuble information to people's desktops across the world. However, don't consider it the end all of computer or computer related laws. There's more mumbojumbo out there than I'm sure Hemos has hard disk space for. :)
If you are starting a computer company or, god forbid, get into trouble with CIA mainframes, please don't use this as your only resource. It's only a guide.
Some of you may think this comment is common sence, but sometimes people just decide that they know everything on a certain subject. Also, as far as I'm concerned, I'd understand a mess of C code much faster than I could muddle my way through US laws. Leave the specifics to the lawyers, and leave the coding to us.
Mike
Bargin laptops are the antichrist to anyone who has ever worked IT. Not to long ago, a company I worked for got in a bunch of Toshibas and Compaq laptops who's Windows 98 installs where horked. I mean the sound was not quite SB compliant, the Video was detected at 512Kb or ram when I can *see* both megs on the board. I won't even start on the built in ether. The truth is, these laptops aren't that well put together. SuperProbe would probably throw an absolute fit trying to determine what the Video was doing. The ethernet, which was supposedly NE2000 compliant ended up being a derivative of the 3C509.
What it boils down to is these machines shouldn't even be marketed as x86 compatible. Since I have never tried to install Linux on anything other than a lame laptop, I can't speak for the "good ones". I sincerely hope they are better.
And to leave you with a question, who actually makes this lame hardware? The company who printed those boards ought to be smacked with a wet salmon.
Mike
The Federal Government has been making aliances et al for years now. For example, the NSA can get new credit cards for agents at will legally giving the company false info, ie the agent's alias or what have you. Corperate alliances are what have made groups like the CIA and the NSA what they are today. I'm sorry I'm cutting this short, but I'm at work. More detail laiter in the day.
Come on... Like the guys in Finland don't have all of the commonly available encryption packages. It isn't that hard to get them over the internet and out of the country. What's the point in writing more legislation that says "No exporting Encryption" when all you need is a US based shell to get all of the encryption software you want?
Idiots.