"Always be cautious when hiring an "expert" to optimize your site. A lot of "experts" recommend tactics that used to work but can now get you banned on Google."
It's probably stuff you already know, like filling pages up with keywords, generating link-farms, and such like. Thousands of domain names doesn't hurt either. Basically it's all junk, as you're selling access to someone else's resource, and any clients will end up pissed if google decides to change their algorithm and you've taken their money for nothing.
People have been asking for help with making their pages appear on Google, but my advice is always: just write a decent website - I don't want their crappy 3-page corporate brochure mucking up my search results.
Oh, and list the site on DMoz. That gets you the right targeted google searches fairly easily.
"The "knocking ports" could also be configured that if there are random hits to the standard port without the proper knock, the system could lock down for 30 seconds and even ignore the proper knock so that if somebody's trying to brute force all the possible knock"
So you can prevent someone getting access to their own service by doing random knocks every 30 seconds? (for the longest time, I couldn't use my yahoo account because people were locking it out with password-guesses every few seconds)
So if PINs have lockout because there's only 10000 combinations, what do you need for port-knocking with 2^32^KnockLength possible guesses?
"Just imagine how convienent it would be if every program came with it's own copy of the operating system, modified to work perfectly with that program!"
Well, plenty of people are releasing Knoppix CDs with their specific application pre-installed, as a demonstration that people can run with minimal fuss. Certainly things like OpenGroupware can come as a bootable CD, and lots of GIS and mapping software is starting to appear as "demonstration CDs"
It makes sense, when something is big and time-consuming to install or setup, just to put it onto a bootable CD with an operating system, then people can test it in the time it takes them to reboot a spare computer.
"I find that LED [binary] clocks are more intuitive. People who say they can't read them must just be stupid and unable to read the most intuitive clock in existence."
Well if binary is such a good concept (least number of LEDs per required time resolution etc.) then why have ThinkGeek gone for binary coded decimal? They're throwing away all the advantages, by using 6 LEDs for something which only needs to count to 12 (24?).
Could we modify it to display seconds since the epoch?
Of course, part of the reason why theft is considered serious is that, by definition, the original owner no longer has an item that they used to own. You might say it would be quite a consolation to most theft victims if they hadn't lost anything.
Do the publishers want to meet someone who's had their car stolen and say "well at least you only lost your car. I lost a potential sale."
"What's with the x86- and Linux-centric approach?"
For a real-world test, they should give up on identical hardware, and test a typical linux system (800MHz, 256MB ram...) with a typical WindowsXP system (3GHz, dual-processor, 2GB ram...)
How much is your SourceForge account going to cost when everyone on the email lists has the option of taking your two-cent postage and keeping it?
You think we'll see a new type of fraud, where someone signs up for a yahoo account, then tries to con people into sending them an email (I want information about your website shop, honest) and just collects postage? How soon before shops stop using email at all when the cost hits them?
"Asking the sender to process a quick math question seems a better solution to me."
Well, it might not stop spam, but it'll help me get some work done.
Your email has been held in a queue until you answer the following question: "Given the vector x,y,z, calculate the look-angles phi, theta, psi, formatting your answer as C++ code"
"Indymedia doesn't count them either. They just make up stuff for the hell of it: fiction writers masquerading as columnists. In the article linked to, they merely quoted some opinion pieces by political pressure groups (no accurate sources welcome at Indymedia)"
I'm guessing it's not the easiest job in the world, to do accurate investigations in a war zone, but their main source, iraqbodycount seems to be referencing news articles and reports of varying reliability, and they seem to be taking care to include their margins of errors in the report, and providing details of each case counted. They list some 20 or so people as working on the website, so you'd imagine they've got enough people. I'm not sure we can really critisize them for not carrying out inquiries and post-mortems though, especially if the reports of US army being actively hostile to such inquiries are founded.
"I use PayPal constantly, so I can't very well whine, but I do wish my contribution to Wiki hadn't been diluted by those fees. Almost $29k in US contributions, but almost $1.3k in PayPal fees!"
I sent a bankers draft, and though the fees were probably higher, at least it didn't go to PayPal.
It's probably easier if you have a bank account in US dollars -- then you'd just be able to write a cheque or something.
"I invite people to do a Google search on William Safire and assess for themselves his credbility and impartiality. I'm dubious about the first, but certain that he's not impartial."
"There's the biggest difference. When Americans sit down to plan about blowing things up, they actually put potential casualties and/or collateral damage on the agenda for discussion prior to doing so."
Compared to what happens when you use a function from other companies' proprietry code?
We could do a deal. A fair deal.
You could do a deal with the GPL author too. They "own" the copyright, so you could negotiate to get a license for your own use. You don't have to accept the GPL, although it is offered to you, and many people would consider it a fair deal.
You probably don't want to wait until afterwards to make the deal though... once you're distributing code illegally, then the GPL people will ask you to release the source-code, and the proprietry people will sue you for millions of pounds and try to send you to jail.
"Use a single GPL'd function and have to give away my entire source base" is another matter.
Compared to what happens when you use a function from other companies' proprietry code?
Anyway, you don't have to give away the whole codebase. Just re-write the function. If you've got gazillions of lines of secret code, why would you want to save 10 seconds by copying a GPL function?
Slashdot Mirror
"To me, this looks like security through obscurity."
Well my password is secure because it's obscure, does that count?
"The Government must play a greater role in punishing those who conceal their identities online - Lamar Smith"
Excuse me?
People who are anonymous must be punished?
Are all Texans as offensive as their elected representative?
Lookie what I got when I searched for Litigious bastards
Damn, I'm not on top of the cybernetic demon nazis search any more... gotta go make another link to it.
"Always be cautious when hiring an "expert" to optimize your site. A lot of "experts" recommend tactics that used to work but can now get you banned on Google."
It's probably stuff you already know, like filling pages up with keywords, generating link-farms, and such like. Thousands of domain names doesn't hurt either. Basically it's all junk, as you're selling access to someone else's resource, and any clients will end up pissed if google decides to change their algorithm and you've taken their money for nothing.
People have been asking for help with making their pages appear on Google, but my advice is always: just write a decent website - I don't want their crappy 3-page corporate brochure mucking up my search results.
Oh, and list the site on DMoz. That gets you the right targeted google searches fairly easily.
"The "knocking ports" could also be configured that if there are random hits to the standard port without the proper knock, the system could lock down for 30 seconds and even ignore the proper knock so that if somebody's trying to brute force all the possible knock"
So you can prevent someone getting access to their own service by doing random knocks every 30 seconds? (for the longest time, I couldn't use my yahoo account because people were locking it out with password-guesses every few seconds)
So if PINs have lockout because there's only 10000 combinations, what do you need for port-knocking with 2^32^KnockLength possible guesses?
Daily things of interest
like this?
Did they make similar speculations as to the authors of the virus which attacked anti-spam sites?
"Just imagine how convienent it would be if every program came with it's own copy of the operating system, modified to work perfectly with that program!"
Well, plenty of people are releasing Knoppix CDs with their specific application pre-installed, as a demonstration that people can run with minimal fuss. Certainly things like OpenGroupware can come as a bootable CD, and lots of GIS and mapping software is starting to appear as "demonstration CDs"
It makes sense, when something is big and time-consuming to install or setup, just to put it onto a bootable CD with an operating system, then people can test it in the time it takes them to reboot a spare computer.
"Actually, they're only known as the French Press in America --- the rest of the world knows 'em as cafetieres."
Thanks, this discussion was getting pretty confusing. So will they become Freedom Presses next?
(b.t.w. the double-walled cafetieres are good if you want to make a few cups of coffee -- they'll still be warm an hour later)
"I find that LED [binary] clocks are more intuitive. People who say they can't read them must just be stupid and unable to read the most intuitive clock in existence."
Well if binary is such a good concept (least number of LEDs per required time resolution etc.) then why have ThinkGeek gone for binary coded decimal? They're throwing away all the advantages, by using 6 LEDs for something which only needs to count to 12 (24?).
Could we modify it to display seconds since the epoch?
Of course, part of the reason why theft is considered serious is that, by definition, the original owner no longer has an item that they used to own. You might say it would be quite a consolation to most theft victims if they hadn't lost anything.
Do the publishers want to meet someone who's had their car stolen and say "well at least you only lost your car. I lost a potential sale."
"downloaded (stolen) MP3's"
That's stolen as in, the publisher doesn't have it anymore?
"Personally I just want one that has a ring tone that sounds like a damn phone ringing instead playing really annoying songs...."
And some way of bluetooth-uploading it to all your managers' phones without giving them the opportunity to opt-out.
"What's with the x86- and Linux-centric approach?"
For a real-world test, they should give up on identical hardware, and test a typical linux system (800MHz, 256MB ram...) with a typical WindowsXP system (3GHz, dual-processor, 2GB ram...)
How much is your SourceForge account going to cost when everyone on the email lists has the option of taking your two-cent postage and keeping it?
You think we'll see a new type of fraud, where someone signs up for a yahoo account, then tries to con people into sending them an email (I want information about your website shop, honest) and just collects postage? How soon before shops stop using email at all when the cost hits them?
"Everyone, please go home and open your mailbox."
One letter, from the electricity supplier. 800 spam emails, dunno who from. 300 virus emails. What's it supposed to mean again?
"Asking the sender to process a quick math question seems a better solution to me."
Well, it might not stop spam, but it'll help me get some work done.
Your email has been held in a queue until you answer the following question: "Given the vector x,y,z, calculate the look-angles phi, theta, psi, formatting your answer as C++ code"
"How is this different from video monitoring ATMs, Banks, Gas Stations and the like?"
Do you publish your thoughts and controversial political opinions on ATMs, Banks, and Gas Stations?
"Indymedia doesn't count them either. They just make up stuff for the hell of it: fiction writers masquerading as columnists. In the article linked to, they merely quoted some opinion pieces by political pressure groups (no accurate sources welcome at Indymedia)"
I'm guessing it's not the easiest job in the world, to do accurate investigations in a war zone, but their main source, iraqbodycount seems to be referencing news articles and reports of varying reliability, and they seem to be taking care to include their margins of errors in the report, and providing details of each case counted. They list some 20 or so people as working on the website, so you'd imagine they've got enough people. I'm not sure we can really critisize them for not carrying out inquiries and post-mortems though, especially if the reports of US army being actively hostile to such inquiries are founded.
"I use PayPal constantly, so I can't very well whine, but I do wish my contribution to Wiki hadn't been diluted by those fees. Almost $29k in US contributions, but almost $1.3k in PayPal fees!"
I sent a bankers draft, and though the fees were probably higher, at least it didn't go to PayPal.
It's probably easier if you have a bank account in US dollars -- then you'd just be able to write a cheque or something.
"I invite people to do a Google search on William Safire and assess for themselves his credbility and impartiality. I'm dubious about the first, but certain that he's not impartial."
Start editing, now that you know
"There's the biggest difference. When Americans sit down to plan about blowing things up, they actually put potential casualties and/or collateral damage on the agenda for discussion prior to doing so."
We don't count civilian casualties
Compared to what happens when you use a function from other companies' proprietry code?
We could do a deal. A fair deal.
You could do a deal with the GPL author too. They "own" the copyright, so you could negotiate to get a license for your own use. You don't have to accept the GPL, although it is offered to you, and many people would consider it a fair deal.
You probably don't want to wait until afterwards to make the deal though... once you're distributing code illegally, then the GPL people will ask you to release the source-code, and the proprietry people will sue you for millions of pounds and try to send you to jail.
"Use a single GPL'd function and have to give away my entire source base" is another matter.
Compared to what happens when you use a function from other companies' proprietry code?
Anyway, you don't have to give away the whole codebase. Just re-write the function. If you've got gazillions of lines of secret code, why would you want to save 10 seconds by copying a GPL function?