Nonsense. If Big Champagne were competent (I will assume, as it is the most sensible thing to do, that they are), they are quite aware of Peerguardian and the likes and will have a normal, commercial broadband connection to "quietly" conduct research without obstruction.
Peerguardian is a useful tool but it provides a dangerous and false sense of security.
When an ISP is seen as capable of administering your traffic, an ISP can be seen as authorised to administer your traffic. When an ISP is authorised to administer your traffic, an ISP can be seen as responsible for administering your traffic. When an ISP is responsible for administering your traffic, they can be seen as responsible for turning you in to the authorities.
No thanks. I believe in free speech. But I believe some people need to use free thought before free speech.
If you don't know how this tool works, please resign and hire a high school MCSE who does. But just in case you do want to use/. as a means to make yourself appear more competent at support than you actually are, here's what you do with it. Place counter logs on servers experiencing poor performance. Observe any thresholds that are exceeded that shouldn't (poor disk, cpu, memory, network performance). Upgrade/fix deficient performers. If you don't see any problems, it is likely an issue with network infrastructure (But don't run straight to blaming the network if you haven't fully investigated server performance).
I don't mean to flame but monitoring performance is not complicated and certainly not something that should qualify for an Ask Slashdot.
What will we see next on Ask Slashdot?
"I am an Administrator for a medium sized busines with 100 workstations and 8 servers. We have a new employee starting next week, and I have been told this employee does not wish to use an existing user account, instead management wants the new starter to have an account with her own name on it. I have read through all the manuals but I want to know, is it possible to have a new user account on the network? Management don't want to spend any more money on licenses so this should be a cheap solution."
"I am running a local area network with about 10 desktops and 2 servers. Suddenly last week all the computers stopped communicating. I looked at the core network switch but it appears normal, although all the lights have turned off. Management would like this fixed as soon as possible but they are on a tight budget. Are there any open source solutions, or any readers who have seen similar problems?"
Go to X place and talk to Y NPC: Usually designed to provoke you to move to a new area for more quests.
Although, really, what reason does anyone have to play a MMORPG? It's all going to be either PvE (killing mobs), PvP (battlegrounds, ganking, whatever) or tradeskilling. Quests just provide a better framework for interacting with the world.
One of the big hooks for WoW for me has been the auction houses. That provides a very good way to interact with the game economy. The WoW economy is reasonably healthy and I have to say I have a lot of fun working within it, although I am not yet a maxxed out level 60 player.
GW should not be seen as a MMORPG, rather, Unreal Tournament with a Magic:The Gathering style deck selection for your weaponry. With a single player campaign tacked on that you can play co-operatively.
It would work much better if they took on the Horde vs. Alliance perspective that WoW took on. That way you could have lots of players playing Sith and Bounty Hunters hunting out and ganking all the Jedi. Sith and Bounty Hunters could be more powerful and have more resources, and the Jedi would have a more challenging game of trying desperately to stay alive.
Also, non-Jedi "rebel" players could earn lots of cash by turning in information leading to the capture and execution of Jedi to the Empire.
Of course, Jedi would still outnumber the Sith, much in the same way that Alliance generally tends to outnumber Horde in WoW - of course, generally the Horde players are older 20's whereas Alliance players are generally much younger, so there is a small skill advantage for the Horde players.
It's not about whether differently abled people should be able to play action games with twitch references and beat Fatal1ty at his own game and so on.
See, this guy used to be able to play SWG, but now he can't. What he *should* be able to do is go back and play the old version because that used to work. Why can't he do that?
Because Sony *owns* everything to do with SWG the game. They took the old version away and now this guy can't play it anymore. If it was an open source game, he could probably just grab and old version and play it. But Sony has a monopoly on both the game version and the servers it is played on. So play by their rules or hit the road.
It's the same with Valve and Steam. I think it would hilarious (okay, also a bit unfortunate) if Valve went out of business and shut down the Steam servers. Nobody would be able to play HL2 or CS:Steam anymore. At least, not without breaking the DMCA to allow the game to be played without Steam (which has already been done of course but we won't mention that because we like to stay within the bounds of the law).
This is all because corporations are exerting much more control over the way we as consumers play the games they sell to us. This is a bad trend, as today, we have far less control over our own entertainment than ever before. I can only see it getting more worse in future.
I didn't see any mentions of these reasonably high quality games:
F.E.A.R. (better AI than Half-Life 2 for sure) NFS:MW
Now they may not be blockbusters, and they might not be revolutionary, but in terms of evolution they are extremely good examples of their respective breeds. Both games push my system very hard, and not because of poor coding but because of brilliant graphics capabilities.
Guild Wars did constitute a blockbuster game and was released this year I believe.
Also, as people have mentioned, we had the revolutionary new Civ IV this year, also a definate cult blockbuster.
The "local loop" refers to the copper connection from the exchange/street node to the residence. In Australia, this local loop is exclusively owned by a company called "Telstra".
The people who run Telstra display the kind of moral integrity you would expect if you took a record company executive, put him in a small dark box, and beat him soundly every day until he lost all semblance of humanity. Then you give him a monopoly on telecommunications in a country and ask him to try make as much profit as he can.
The format wars aren't won, they haven't even hit the shelves at Hardly Normal yet. What most of the slashbots here haven't recognised is that the XBox 360 architecture is quite extensible.
In fact, no matter how you look at it, the MS plan is to make the Core system upgradeable to match any other higher powered bundle. So no matter what support they add to the 360, it will be available for retrofit to older packages.
Given that there isn't a HD-DVD/BD player on the market yet, it seems wise for MS to not have any definite plans, instead to wait and see if HD wins, or BD wins, or if there's a deadlock and hybrid players start appearing, then decide to back the clearest winner.
I believe Sony is going to shove a BD player into the PS3. They, unlike MS, are certainly betting the farm on Blu-Ray winning the format war - the format war that isn't even properly started yet. Why take a risk you don't need to take? I think MS has got it right here.
Your kids are going to grow up despising you, since you'd be one of very few parents who do this to their kids.
I know this might sound unusual, but instead of assigning your kids the "30 minutes alotted compartmentalised computer enjoyment period", you could stay by the computer with them?
If you think they're spending too much time on the computer, why don't you just take them all outside and play an outdoor sport?
Another Slashbot troll submission (I'll say goodbye to my karma now).
The submission infers that MS Windows is at fault for this individuals negative experience.
Let's be a little more objective.
The environment: Individual has a computer running an OS. The computer is 2.5 years old. The user has placed the computer into an environment where the unfiltered power is unpredictable due to environmental causes, and cuts out often and without warning.
The problem: When the power is cut to the box, the OS (Windows in this case) no longer boots.
The cause (from the slashbot's perspective): "Windows is at fault, I am tired of rebuilding/reimaging this computer."
The more likely set of causes: The computer is not in a suitable environment. The hardware does not handle the poor power supply conditions very well (unsurprising, it is likely that the environment is outside of the parameters specified by the vendor, Gateway, for reliable operation).
The solution: Install Linux. Linux users are conditioned by.. something.. (please tell me what, I'm curious to know) to not complain when Linux doesn't work. So, when the power fails and uncommitted data corrupts the boot image on the physical disk of the Gateway box, the submitter won't think of posting to Ask Slashdot when he needs to reinstall/repair Linux. The general perception and philosophy with regards to Linux, a key end user difference, if you will, is as follows: When Windows fails, it is the fault of Microsoft. When Linux fails, it is your fault. This is, to some extent, fallacious. Whenever a Windows system I look after fails, I do not run to Microsoft for them to fix it, I fix it myself. If I looked after any Linux systems, I do not expect anyone but myself to fix it. It is true that more commercial shopfronts and computer repairers will be able to fix Windows problems, but this is simply an element of the Microsoft market presence.
We already have systems that work fine without this invasive technology - just like we already have MP3 technology for making nice MP3 files to listen to and download.
Why then would we pony up more cash or change the way we connect to the internet just for the sake of adopting this new technology?
These approaches for more DRM and more end-user-ownership by the corps is almost always stick and almost never carrot.
For those aussies who read/., TechTV was available through Foxtel. When G4 took over, they axed international distribution, so Fox replaced TechTV in Australia with C&I channel.
From the looks of it, this is a no loss situation anyway. The old screensavers and call for help were great shows, though.
Further, if the latest rumors about the 7800GTX 512MB are true, it would mean that this CrossFire graphics subsystem would arguably stand alone at the top of the graphics benchmarking mountain."
So... if nVidia couldn't make/supply video cards (the rumour is that 7800GTX's are in short supply due to high demand), then ATI would have the fastest video cards...
Freakin' genius rocket scientists we have doing article submissions around here.
Of course, without SP2 and the patches that require it - is your PC really as secure as it could be? In which case was there a benefit to using Autopatcher at all?
I have no problem with IE being installed by default on Windows boxes. Microsoft can bundle any apps they like and that is never a problem for me. Why?
Because Linux and OS X installs do it as well. Every operating system out there comes with extra fluff nowadays, and yes it is bloaty, but it's acceptable for me because it increases my utility. I like that. I like that my OS of choice (whatever it may be) does heaps of stuff right out of the box.
The only problem is, with IE, there's no opt-out. You can't uninstall it, and you can't choose not to install it when you install the rest of Windows. That is a problem, as it is consistently demonstrated that IE is not required for Windows to function, it is just there as a legacy of the browser wars.
The banks want to completely scan every file on my PC before they will allow me to do business with them (to make sure I am not carrying any data they consider to be detrimental).
No way. Let's substitute some other businesses and see how it sounds.
Sony BMG wants to completely scan every file on my PC before they will allow me to play one of their CD's (to make sure I don't have any copyright infringement apps). Well actually I guess the rootkit does this kind of stuff for them anyway.
Disney wants to completely scan every file on my PC before they will allow me to play a DVD on my PC (to make sure I am not a copyright infringer) - if they do find something it will be easy to send the evidence upstream and initiate a lawsuit automatically.
I remember back in my day we used to have the illusion of privacy, and we liked it! Have corporations just given up trying to pretend they care about our own rights as individuals now?
How does he know? Because system performance would be impacted, and nobody has complained that Celine Dion's CDs, and Van Zant's "Getting it right with the man" aren't working. In fact, they're playing just fine!
Although you will also need the latest service pack (SP2) because Autopatcher won't install that for you, and it does require it.
Also, while Autopatcher is completely excellent within its scope, it is often a few months behind the latest MS fixes.
Recommended course of action:
1) Deploy SP2 2) Deploy Autopatcher XP 3) Enable firewall 4) Go online 5) Visit Windows Update
Also, having A/V software and antispyware software is a must. There are plenty of free AV and antispyware tools out there.
If you're plugging into a corporate IT environment, chances are they're running software like RRS, WSUS or HFNetCheck. These will automatically deploy patches for you without going to the interweb to find them. Check with your local helpdesk.
This has little or nothing to do with security and everything to do with Intel PR.
Intel has been smarting since AMD beat them to the punch with the NX bit.
The only thing a Rootkit will do that any other software install won't usually is over-write and modify a lot more system files than it should. Hardware can't be aware of which version of hal.dll you're supposed to be running (heck, it shouldn't even know you're running windows!). This really is something the O/S should be doing.
Which it does. If you follow best security practices, well, heck, you're not logged on with admin privelege anyway. So how is the rootkit going to overwrite your stuff anyway? Or has your system been compromised by a hacker through an open port exploit? So your firewall failed you and you haven't patched up your O/S, and if the hacker is installing the rootkit, there's no point stopping the rootkit, because he's already in and he's just installing his zombie housekeeping tools. It'll just slow him down a bit.
Slashdot Mirror
Nonsense. If Big Champagne were competent (I will assume, as it is the most sensible thing to do, that they are), they are quite aware of Peerguardian and the likes and will have a normal, commercial broadband connection to "quietly" conduct research without obstruction.
Peerguardian is a useful tool but it provides a dangerous and false sense of security.
A very short, but dire, slippery slope that is.
When an ISP is seen as capable of administering your traffic, an ISP can be seen as authorised to administer your traffic.
When an ISP is authorised to administer your traffic, an ISP can be seen as responsible for administering your traffic.
When an ISP is responsible for administering your traffic, they can be seen as responsible for turning you in to the authorities.
No thanks. I believe in free speech. But I believe some people need to use free thought before free speech.
Start -> Programs -> Administrative Tools -> Performance
/. as a means to make yourself appear more competent at support than you actually are, here's what you do with it. Place counter logs on servers experiencing poor performance. Observe any thresholds that are exceeded that shouldn't (poor disk, cpu, memory, network performance). Upgrade/fix deficient performers. If you don't see any problems, it is likely an issue with network infrastructure (But don't run straight to blaming the network if you haven't fully investigated server performance).
If you don't know how this tool works, please resign and hire a high school MCSE who does. But just in case you do want to use
I don't mean to flame but monitoring performance is not complicated and certainly not something that should qualify for an Ask Slashdot.
What will we see next on Ask Slashdot?
"I am an Administrator for a medium sized busines with 100 workstations and 8 servers. We have a new employee starting next week, and I have been told this employee does not wish to use an existing user account, instead management wants the new starter to have an account with her own name on it. I have read through all the manuals but I want to know, is it possible to have a new user account on the network? Management don't want to spend any more money on licenses so this should be a cheap solution."
"I am running a local area network with about 10 desktops and 2 servers. Suddenly last week all the computers stopped communicating. I looked at the core network switch but it appears normal, although all the lights have turned off. Management would like this fixed as soon as possible but they are on a tight budget. Are there any open source solutions, or any readers who have seen similar problems?"
You forgot
Go to X place and talk to Y NPC: Usually designed to provoke you to move to a new area for more quests.
Although, really, what reason does anyone have to play a MMORPG? It's all going to be either PvE (killing mobs), PvP (battlegrounds, ganking, whatever) or tradeskilling. Quests just provide a better framework for interacting with the world.
One of the big hooks for WoW for me has been the auction houses. That provides a very good way to interact with the game economy. The WoW economy is reasonably healthy and I have to say I have a lot of fun working within it, although I am not yet a maxxed out level 60 player.
I do believe Warriors get 5 attribs, too.
GW should not be seen as a MMORPG, rather, Unreal Tournament with a Magic:The Gathering style deck selection for your weaponry. With a single player campaign tacked on that you can play co-operatively.
It would work much better if they took on the Horde vs. Alliance perspective that WoW took on. That way you could have lots of players playing Sith and Bounty Hunters hunting out and ganking all the Jedi. Sith and Bounty Hunters could be more powerful and have more resources, and the Jedi would have a more challenging game of trying desperately to stay alive.
Also, non-Jedi "rebel" players could earn lots of cash by turning in information leading to the capture and execution of Jedi to the Empire.
Of course, Jedi would still outnumber the Sith, much in the same way that Alliance generally tends to outnumber Horde in WoW - of course, generally the Horde players are older 20's whereas Alliance players are generally much younger, so there is a small skill advantage for the Horde players.
Ptht, WoW is only popular in the east because half the players think it's a new patch for Starcraft. (kekekekekeke ^__^ gnome rush)
The other half are teenagers locked up in sweatshops cash farming so the farm overlords can make $USD for selling virtual goods.
This is symptomn of a larger problem.
It's not about whether differently abled people should be able to play action games with twitch references and beat Fatal1ty at his own game and so on.
See, this guy used to be able to play SWG, but now he can't. What he *should* be able to do is go back and play the old version because that used to work. Why can't he do that?
Because Sony *owns* everything to do with SWG the game. They took the old version away and now this guy can't play it anymore. If it was an open source game, he could probably just grab and old version and play it. But Sony has a monopoly on both the game version and the servers it is played on. So play by their rules or hit the road.
It's the same with Valve and Steam. I think it would hilarious (okay, also a bit unfortunate) if Valve went out of business and shut down the Steam servers. Nobody would be able to play HL2 or CS:Steam anymore. At least, not without breaking the DMCA to allow the game to be played without Steam (which has already been done of course but we won't mention that because we like to stay within the bounds of the law).
This is all because corporations are exerting much more control over the way we as consumers play the games they sell to us. This is a bad trend, as today, we have far less control over our own entertainment than ever before. I can only see it getting more worse in future.
I didn't see any mentions of these reasonably high quality games:
F.E.A.R. (better AI than Half-Life 2 for sure)
NFS:MW
Now they may not be blockbusters, and they might not be revolutionary, but in terms of evolution they are extremely good examples of their respective breeds. Both games push my system very hard, and not because of poor coding but because of brilliant graphics capabilities.
Guild Wars did constitute a blockbuster game and was released this year I believe.
Also, as people have mentioned, we had the revolutionary new Civ IV this year, also a definate cult blockbuster.
The "local loop" refers to the copper connection from the exchange/street node to the residence. In Australia, this local loop is exclusively owned by a company called "Telstra".
The people who run Telstra display the kind of moral integrity you would expect if you took a record company executive, put him in a small dark box, and beat him soundly every day until he lost all semblance of humanity. Then you give him a monopoly on telecommunications in a country and ask him to try make as much profit as he can.
Badly phrased, but a smart move by MS.
The format wars aren't won, they haven't even hit the shelves at Hardly Normal yet.
What most of the slashbots here haven't recognised is that the XBox 360 architecture is quite extensible.
In fact, no matter how you look at it, the MS plan is to make the Core system upgradeable to match any other higher powered bundle. So no matter what support they add to the 360, it will be available for retrofit to older packages.
Given that there isn't a HD-DVD/BD player on the market yet, it seems wise for MS to not have any definite plans, instead to wait and see if HD wins, or BD wins, or if there's a deadlock and hybrid players start appearing, then decide to back the clearest winner.
I believe Sony is going to shove a BD player into the PS3. They, unlike MS, are certainly betting the farm on Blu-Ray winning the format war - the format war that isn't even properly started yet. Why take a risk you don't need to take? I think MS has got it right here.
Your kids are going to grow up despising you, since you'd be one of very few parents who do this to their kids.
I know this might sound unusual, but instead of assigning your kids the "30 minutes alotted compartmentalised computer enjoyment period", you could stay by the computer with them?
If you think they're spending too much time on the computer, why don't you just take them all outside and play an outdoor sport?
Because there are only two companies that control the last mile in your area
I beg to differ, I am in Australia, where there is only one company that controls the last 1.6 km's.
Another Slashbot troll submission (I'll say goodbye to my karma now).
The submission infers that MS Windows is at fault for this individuals negative experience.
Let's be a little more objective.
The environment: Individual has a computer running an OS. The computer is 2.5 years old. The user has placed the computer into an environment where the unfiltered power is unpredictable due to environmental causes, and cuts out often and without warning.
The problem: When the power is cut to the box, the OS (Windows in this case) no longer boots.
The cause (from the slashbot's perspective): "Windows is at fault, I am tired of rebuilding/reimaging this computer."
The more likely set of causes: The computer is not in a suitable environment. The hardware does not handle the poor power supply conditions very well (unsurprising, it is likely that the environment is outside of the parameters specified by the vendor, Gateway, for reliable operation).
The solution: Install Linux. Linux users are conditioned by.. something.. (please tell me what, I'm curious to know) to not complain when Linux doesn't work. So, when the power fails and uncommitted data corrupts the boot image on the physical disk of the Gateway box, the submitter won't think of posting to Ask Slashdot when he needs to reinstall/repair Linux. The general perception and philosophy with regards to Linux, a key end user difference, if you will, is as follows: When Windows fails, it is the fault of Microsoft. When Linux fails, it is your fault. This is, to some extent, fallacious. Whenever a Windows system I look after fails, I do not run to Microsoft for them to fix it, I fix it myself. If I looked after any Linux systems, I do not expect anyone but myself to fix it. It is true that more commercial shopfronts and computer repairers will be able to fix Windows problems, but this is simply an element of the Microsoft market presence.
This is a lot like the MP3 market -
We already have systems that work fine without this invasive technology - just like we already have MP3 technology for making nice MP3 files to listen to and download.
Why then would we pony up more cash or change the way we connect to the internet just for the sake of adopting this new technology?
These approaches for more DRM and more end-user-ownership by the corps is almost always stick and almost never carrot.
For those aussies who read /., TechTV was available through Foxtel. When G4 took over, they axed international distribution, so Fox replaced TechTV in Australia with C&I channel.
From the looks of it, this is a no loss situation anyway. The old screensavers and call for help were great shows, though.
Further, if the latest rumors about the 7800GTX 512MB are true, it would mean that this CrossFire graphics subsystem would arguably stand alone at the top of the graphics benchmarking mountain."
So... if nVidia couldn't make/supply video cards (the rumour is that 7800GTX's are in short supply due to high demand), then ATI would have the fastest video cards...
Freakin' genius rocket scientists we have doing article submissions around here.
Of course, without SP2 and the patches that require it - is your PC really as secure as it could be? In which case was there a benefit to using Autopatcher at all?
I have no problem with IE being installed by default on Windows boxes. Microsoft can bundle any apps they like and that is never a problem for me. Why?
Because Linux and OS X installs do it as well. Every operating system out there comes with extra fluff nowadays, and yes it is bloaty, but it's acceptable for me because it increases my utility. I like that. I like that my OS of choice (whatever it may be) does heaps of stuff right out of the box.
The only problem is, with IE, there's no opt-out. You can't uninstall it, and you can't choose not to install it when you install the rest of Windows. That is a problem, as it is consistently demonstrated that IE is not required for Windows to function, it is just there as a legacy of the browser wars.
The banks want to completely scan every file on my PC before they will allow me to do business with them (to make sure I am not carrying any data they consider to be detrimental).
No way. Let's substitute some other businesses and see how it sounds.
Sony BMG wants to completely scan every file on my PC before they will allow me to play one of their CD's (to make sure I don't have any copyright infringement apps). Well actually I guess the rootkit does this kind of stuff for them anyway.
Disney wants to completely scan every file on my PC before they will allow me to play a DVD on my PC (to make sure I am not a copyright infringer) - if they do find something it will be easy to send the evidence upstream and initiate a lawsuit automatically.
I remember back in my day we used to have the illusion of privacy, and we liked it! Have corporations just given up trying to pretend they care about our own rights as individuals now?
Yes, that's right. We all rely on Microsoft and Intel for serious business. IBM is just for games.
Who stole my freakin' reality!?!?
How does he know? Because system performance would be impacted, and nobody has complained that Celine Dion's CDs, and Van Zant's "Getting it right with the man" aren't working. In fact, they're playing just fine!
Although you will also need the latest service pack (SP2) because Autopatcher won't install that for you, and it does require it.
Also, while Autopatcher is completely excellent within its scope, it is often a few months behind the latest MS fixes.
Recommended course of action:
1) Deploy SP2
2) Deploy Autopatcher XP
3) Enable firewall
4) Go online
5) Visit Windows Update
Also, having A/V software and antispyware software is a must. There are plenty of free AV and antispyware tools out there.
If you're plugging into a corporate IT environment, chances are they're running software like RRS, WSUS or HFNetCheck. These will automatically deploy patches for you without going to the interweb to find them. Check with your local helpdesk.
At least trusty ol' firefox has never let me down. And it's not integrated irrevocably with my desktop OS!
Kinda helps a whole lot really.
Though, MS is going a long way to "fixing" the problems with IE - we'll never get the option to uninstall it.
This has little or nothing to do with security and everything to do with Intel PR.
Intel has been smarting since AMD beat them to the punch with the NX bit.
The only thing a Rootkit will do that any other software install won't usually is over-write and modify a lot more system files than it should. Hardware can't be aware of which version of hal.dll you're supposed to be running (heck, it shouldn't even know you're running windows!). This really is something the O/S should be doing.
Which it does. If you follow best security practices, well, heck, you're not logged on with admin privelege anyway. So how is the rootkit going to overwrite your stuff anyway? Or has your system been compromised by a hacker through an open port exploit? So your firewall failed you and you haven't patched up your O/S, and if the hacker is installing the rootkit, there's no point stopping the rootkit, because he's already in and he's just installing his zombie housekeeping tools. It'll just slow him down a bit.