"They [CCTV cameras] hardly track my every move - they're primarily used after the fact to identify people or to follow people attempting to evade the police."
To identify thieves, and then completely ignore them, in the usual manner of UK police. (yes I've got clear CCTV footage of a theft including peoples' faces, no nothing was ever investigated)
And no, they don't track your every move unless you happen to be interesting|drunken|funny enough that they'll film you and show it on national television for a laugh! Turn to ITV any weekday evening for yet more CCTV footage of people you know walking down the street.
"That is my single BIGGEST gigantic annoyance with Windows: focus-stealing. You're busy reading a webpage, and another web window open in the background decides it wants attention. BAM! It's there, right in your face."
Open two web-mail pages in different Mozilla tabs. Start typing your username and password into one. Moments later, the second page will finish loading, it'll have a textbox on it which will receive the keyboard focus (without switching to the associated web-page) and the remainder of what you type will end up in the other page's textbox.
"So I'm peeved that he feels all proud and manly by stating that programmers are being lazy about validation. Sometimes, a drop down is what is needed. After all, the countries of this planet aren't in a constant flux. There is a domain of acceptable values, so using a drop down is legit."
Consider a region imagemap followed by a detail imagemap? Textbox for 2-digit codes (hint: they're standard) with a list of common ones? List of 5 countries with "Other" which displays the full list below?
Look at ISO 3166. Measure how long it takes someone to type "US" compared to how long it takes them to locate "US" at the bottom of a 239-item checkbox (only to find that you put it at the top)
Dropdowns may seem legit until you waste 5 minutes wondering whether you need to look in U for UK or B for britain or E for england or G for great britain or whether they've put US and UK at the top (or bottom) completely out out of alphabetical order. Why, thankyou for the tour of the world within your 1x1-inch scrollbox, but either get something usable, or detect the country my IP is in and suggest something, it's not that difficult. Can a student of information theory tell us why it should be easier to specify Afghanistan than the USA in your application. When did you last get a visitor from there?
"Suppose this new system has only one key per disc, coded for a particular private player, using 256-bit Rijndael encryption. It will indeed be uncrackable given only the disc, which is what the quote said."
What they didn't say was that it would be crackable given the disk and the player, which is what will be available to those whom the Academy considers untrustworthy (i.e. the Academy members and voters)
"Most of the time, I hate "rich, interactive" websites. I want the freakin' thing to sit still and give me the information I came for."
Flash based websites are great. As far as I can tell, they all consist of a single page saying "you've got to download this program to continue"
And that's that. Their website is just a single page. It doesn't even have their company location, or anything about their products, or anything about how to contact them, or anything about which exhibitions they'll be at...
I did try installing flash once, on a sacrificial computer at work. I'd forgotten how much I missed the entire screen blinking and swirling and flashing all around every website I went to... Much more productive than the tranquil calm of a mozilla browser with image-animation turned off.
I might even have it installed on this computer... I installed it for the "flash-user" user or something so that I can use flash when there's a particular site I wanted to view, and not have it there when I just wanted to browse. Surprisingly, I've never logged in as the "flash-user" since. (but the "click to play" flash blocker and privoxy are both great for stopping the "do you want to download (shockwave|flash|java)" messages that would otherwise keep popping up)
"ViewSonic's specs says theirs offers 3840x2400 pixels, quite a bit higher than Apple's -- but it's only 22.2" diagonal compared to Apple's 30". Whether higher resolution or larger workspace is more important depends on the individual, of course, but I personally would prefer fewer pixels in a larger screen"
We've got a 4800x2400 pixel monitor at work (several of them, for aircraft cockpits), and you're not going to be able to read any text in any program or OS on that screen.
Even moving the mouse from side of the screen to the other takes about a minute of dragging...
"Of coure it would be possible to do something similar for NASA's lunar-camper. It would just add to the weight"
So take a set of hollow walls and fill it up with dirt when you get there... maybe even pump dirt in like you do for the insulation (paper-mash) on some terran houses.
"Right. So, rather sensibly, they've imposed the status quo as a temporary measure, and the judge will use that time to find out the background to the case"
and in the meantime their old ISP shoulders legal responsibility for a network they have no control over, they are forced to break their IANA contract, and the customer will probably get their IP space blackholed by most networks, that's if their new ISP even agrees to announce it. As you say, they're only temporary causing chaos, nothing to see here, move along...
Until the ISP either gets sued by IANA for transferring the block, or gets done by the court for not transferring the block, or until the customer sues everyone in sight when their network becomes unreachable.
NANOG discussion said it best -- the best solution would be to charge the customer for actual costs, which would be ridiculously high, and the customer can't complain because they asked the court to order that it be so.
"Is this just an asshole with a axe to grind who found a stupid/ignorant judge?"
Someone who can't be bothered to renumber? Someone who wondered "what if..."? Someone who's pissed at phone companies and is taking it out on their ISP?
"Everyone is entitled to their opinion. But hey guess what; With the new Open Source GPL version everyone who thinks that Real is crap can now take the source code and improve it; making it so its not crap anymore."
The realaudio codec isn't going to be GPL is it? How about the streaming-network stuff (cause of all problems) -- probably that won't be GPL either. We've got a GPL framework, and Real are probably hoping that we will all install their proprietary codecs into it, against which nobody will have any protection.
"There are first malicious programmers that try to infiltrate mozilla users. An example ist http://xxxtoolbar.com/ (sexually explicit!) that tries to install an "toolbar" per XPI."
As you say, this XPI contains only a zip file with a windows executable in it. Most such sites even have a popup warning mentioning that the page (i.e. their trojan) won't work on your computer if a Linux browser is detected.
And of course Mozilla asks for confirmation of whether you want to install the software, not that that's always enough to protect you (whether you click OK through ignorance, or just because you were about to press the Enter button somewhere else when the XPI warning popped up)
"Yes. Coz IE's really dying. really dying, it is."
Some people look at 95% usage of an insecure browser as a bad thing. Why not think of it as a way to remotely control any computer you like, to access confidential files on the machines of your IE-using HR department, or even downloading porn from the convenience of your competitors' hard-disks.
If you're really businesslike, you could get your competitors' computers to start frantically emailing each other at a critical time (say, just before their product launch or a merger). Or even better, emailing their own customers. "We've sent you this file detailing the terms and conditions we offer to other customers"
"Unfortunately, some sites require Internet Explorer even to contact the site admin, leading to a catch-22."
The fix to this vulnerability is to list the site on RFC-Ignorant.org, mentioning that the webmaster@ email address is bouncing, thus depriving users of that domain from email connectivity to many parts of their internet world.
The theme works for Mozilla, Netscape, and Firebird. All that's left to do is change the Windows icon (use the one from iexplore.exe), and if you want to be really compatible, turn off popup blocking and tabbed browsing;-)
"One site that I host (FreeBSD/Apache) has many banner ads and popups. The logic of the site layout though, loads the ads first, then the site, so we appeared to be down."
Sorry to say it, don't mean to be unkind, but...
HA! HA!
Score -1 to websites that force people to download the entire advertisement section before sending any real content...
Slashdot Mirror
"They [CCTV cameras] hardly track my every move - they're primarily used after the fact to identify people or to follow people attempting to evade the police."
To identify thieves, and then completely ignore them, in the usual manner of UK police. (yes I've got clear CCTV footage of a theft including peoples' faces, no nothing was ever investigated)
And no, they don't track your every move unless you happen to be interesting|drunken|funny enough that they'll film you and show it on national television for a laugh! Turn to ITV any weekday evening for yet more CCTV footage of people you know walking down the street.
"That is my single BIGGEST gigantic annoyance with Windows: focus-stealing. You're busy reading a webpage, and another web window open in the background decides it wants attention. BAM! It's there, right in your face."
Open two web-mail pages in different Mozilla tabs. Start typing your username and password into one. Moments later, the second page will finish loading, it'll have a textbox on it which will receive the keyboard focus (without switching to the associated web-page) and the remainder of what you type will end up in the other page's textbox.
"Welcome to Bizzaro World where MS wants you to use Firefox""
Or perhaps, where they want a target for their MSIE developers to aim at?
"So I'm peeved that he feels all proud and manly by stating that programmers are being lazy about validation. Sometimes, a drop down is what is needed. After all, the countries of this planet aren't in a constant flux. There is a domain of acceptable values, so using a drop down is legit."
Consider a region imagemap followed by a detail imagemap? Textbox for 2-digit codes (hint: they're standard) with a list of common ones? List of 5 countries with "Other" which displays the full list below?
Look at ISO 3166. Measure how long it takes someone to type "US" compared to how long it takes them to locate "US" at the bottom of a 239-item checkbox (only to find that you put it at the top)
Dropdowns may seem legit until you waste 5 minutes wondering whether you need to look in U for UK or B for britain or E for england or G for great britain or whether they've put US and UK at the top (or bottom) completely out out of alphabetical order. Why, thankyou for the tour of the world within your 1x1-inch scrollbox, but either get something usable, or detect the country my IP is in and suggest something, it's not that difficult. Can a student of information theory tell us why it should be easier to specify Afghanistan than the USA in your application. When did you last get a visitor from there?
"Suppose this new system has only one key per disc, coded for a particular private player, using 256-bit Rijndael encryption. It will indeed be uncrackable given only the disc, which is what the quote said."
What they didn't say was that it would be crackable given the disk and the player, which is what will be available to those whom the Academy considers untrustworthy (i.e. the Academy members and voters)
"when you set high security you cannot even use windows update"
So this fix had better be permanent because it's the last?
"$0 and I plan to keep it that way."
free-as-in-freeloading
So GNU/Windows does everything you want?
"If the SATAN missiles allow for organizations to get their satellites into orbit at a cheaper price, this is a very good idea"
But does it scan for vulnerabilities in the rocket?
"No-one is accusing this thief of being a witch"
What was stolen exactly?
"Most of the time, I hate "rich, interactive" websites. I want the freakin' thing to sit still and give me the information I came for."
Flash based websites are great. As far as I can tell, they all consist of a single page saying "you've got to download this program to continue"
And that's that. Their website is just a single page. It doesn't even have their company location, or anything about their products, or anything about how to contact them, or anything about which exhibitions they'll be at...
I did try installing flash once, on a sacrificial computer at work. I'd forgotten how much I missed the entire screen blinking and swirling and flashing all around every website I went to... Much more productive than the tranquil calm of a mozilla browser with image-animation turned off.
I might even have it installed on this computer... I installed it for the "flash-user" user or something so that I can use flash when there's a particular site I wanted to view, and not have it there when I just wanted to browse. Surprisingly, I've never logged in as the "flash-user" since. (but the "click to play" flash blocker and privoxy are both great for stopping the "do you want to download (shockwave|flash|java)" messages that would otherwise keep popping up)
"2) Many software assumes a specific DPI"
Software? How about websites?
Read your news in 416 pixels of width, no matter how many pixels your monitor supports!!
"ViewSonic's specs says theirs offers 3840x2400 pixels, quite a bit higher than Apple's -- but it's only 22.2" diagonal compared to Apple's 30". Whether higher resolution or larger workspace is more important depends on the individual, of course, but I personally would prefer fewer pixels in a larger screen"
We've got a 4800x2400 pixel monitor at work (several of them, for aircraft cockpits), and you're not going to be able to read any text in any program or OS on that screen.
Even moving the mouse from side of the screen to the other takes about a minute of dragging...
"Of coure it would be possible to do something similar for NASA's lunar-camper. It would just add to the weight"
So take a set of hollow walls and fill it up with dirt when you get there... maybe even pump dirt in like you do for the insulation (paper-mash) on some terran houses.
"They already tried. They already failed for much the same reasons, except i believe it was also interfering with LW and AM radio signals"
Yet the other "broadband over power line" (optical fibers on the earth wire) seems to be doing quite well, and not causing much interference at all.
"Right. So, rather sensibly, they've imposed the status quo as a temporary measure, and the judge will use that time to find out the background to the case"
and in the meantime their old ISP shoulders legal responsibility for a network they have no control over, they are forced to break their IANA contract, and the customer will probably get their IP space blackholed by most networks, that's if their new ISP even agrees to announce it. As you say, they're only temporary causing chaos, nothing to see here, move along...
Until the ISP either gets sued by IANA for transferring the block, or gets done by the court for not transferring the block, or until the customer sues everyone in sight when their network becomes unreachable.
NANOG discussion said it best -- the best solution would be to charge the customer for actual costs, which would be ridiculously high, and the customer can't complain because they asked the court to order that it be so.
"Is this just an asshole with a axe to grind who found a stupid/ignorant judge?"
Someone who can't be bothered to renumber? Someone who wondered "what if..."? Someone who's pissed at phone companies and is taking it out on their ISP?
"I am not quite sure what state the infrastructure of Iraq is in"
Why, the Iraqi state of course...
"Everyone is entitled to their opinion. But hey guess what; With the new Open Source GPL version everyone who thinks that Real is crap can now take the source code and improve it; making it so its not crap anymore."
The realaudio codec isn't going to be GPL is it? How about the streaming-network stuff (cause of all problems) -- probably that won't be GPL either. We've got a GPL framework, and Real are probably hoping that we will all install their proprietary codecs into it, against which nobody will have any protection.
"come on people. Don't base your opinions on software 2 years old."
I'm basing my opinion on the spam they sent me less than a day ago... Besides, it takes a long time to wear off a reputation that bad..
"There are first malicious programmers that try to infiltrate mozilla users. An example ist http://xxxtoolbar.com/ (sexually explicit!) that tries to install an "toolbar" per XPI."
As you say, this XPI contains only a zip file with a windows executable in it. Most such sites even have a popup warning mentioning that the page (i.e. their trojan) won't work on your computer if a Linux browser is detected.
And of course Mozilla asks for confirmation of whether you want to install the software, not that that's always enough to protect you (whether you click OK through ignorance, or just because you were about to press the Enter button somewhere else when the XPI warning popped up)
"Yes. Coz IE's really dying. really dying, it is."
Some people look at 95% usage of an insecure browser as a bad thing. Why not think of it as a way to remotely control any computer you like, to access confidential files on the machines of your IE-using HR department, or even downloading porn from the convenience of your competitors' hard-disks.
If you're really businesslike, you could get your competitors' computers to start frantically emailing each other at a critical time (say, just before their product launch or a merger). Or even better, emailing their own customers. "We've sent you this file detailing the terms and conditions we offer to other customers"
"Unfortunately, some sites require Internet Explorer even to contact the site admin, leading to a catch-22."
The fix to this vulnerability is to list the site on RFC-Ignorant.org, mentioning that the webmaster@ email address is bouncing, thus depriving users of that domain from email connectivity to many parts of their internet world.
"Is there an IE theme available for Mozilla or better yet Firefox?"
;-)
Of course, it's very famous. As with all famous things, a google search reveals it as the first result:
http://themes.mozdev.org/themes/ie.html
The theme works for Mozilla, Netscape, and Firebird. All that's left to do is change the Windows icon (use the one from iexplore.exe), and if you want to be really compatible, turn off popup blocking and tabbed browsing
"One site that I host (FreeBSD/Apache) has many banner ads and popups. The logic of the site layout though, loads the ads first, then the site, so we appeared to be down."
Sorry to say it, don't mean to be unkind, but...
HA! HA!
Score -1 to websites that force people to download the entire advertisement section before sending any real content...