system access has ability to access ALL non encrypted files reguardless of permissions
This isn't correct. SYSTEM is a member of the local administrators group and as such has access to everything that group does. Additionally, most files inherit permissions that give SYSTEM full control by default. That said, if you change the ACLs on a file and remove the Administrators group and SYSTEM user, then SYSTEM will be denied access to the file.
It can, of course, take ownership and reset the permissions, but so can any Administrator. Basically the same as root and chown on *nix.
not all that useful unless you have a system locked registry key
Even then, if you are an Administrator you can simply take ownership of the key and reset it's permissions as you'd like. I admit there are times when I've used the "at/interactive" trick to get a SYSTEM shell, but it usually has little to do access rights or security.
If your account has administrator rights then everything you just listed is a waste of time. Administrator == God. End of story. What you're talking about is like hot-wiring a car when you're holding the keys.
This is like those "hacking XP!!!" videos on YouTube. " NET USER administrator * " OMG I hacked the admin!!!1~
Then download norton removal tool and run it to make sure it's gone.
What irritates me is why the hell do they have an uninstaller if it, you know, doesn't uninstall the damn thing? I suppose if they're going to put removal tools for viruses on their site they may as well include one for their own "products".
The only people who write worse (un)installers than Symantec is Adobe. I truly think they have nothing but brain-dead chimps on their install team.
Another version of Solitaire that I play a lot of is TriPeaks. An early version was shipped with the now ancient Windows Entertainment Pack and you can still grab a copy of the original game (near the bottom of the page or direct link and manual). It's a great break from normal (Klondike) Solitaire because you're trying to accumulate points and streaks instead of just beating a clock. It's also pretty pretty cool (and depressing:) how it tracks your game stats over time. Besides, who doesn't like going back and playing games from the Windows 3.1 era?:)
Oh boy. I can understand people saying they prefer Win2000 over XP, or that they have no real need to upgrade (even 7 years after the fact!). The problem is when people are so blind or ignorant that they pretend/don't see the real improvements that XP (especially with 2 service packs) has over 2000.
In what way was XP an improvement over Windows 2000?
In a word? Multimedia. In more words? Security, GPO, native hardware support, support for newer versions of IE, Remote Desktop, etc. If you really don't see the myriad of ways XP improves on 2000 I'm not going to try and list them all. Besides, Wikpedia already has (more or less).
By artificially limiting the number of active connections?
Except that it doesn't. XP SP2 introduced a limit to the number of half-open connections you can have open at once. The limit (10 by default) is essentially never reached during normal use. Some poorly-configured Bittorrent clients can hit the ceiling, but it isn't that hard to disable the limit if you do a quick search.
By providing more bells and whistles slowing things down?
Yes, they improved the user interface. But by gosh, you can turn it off with a single checkbox!
Better support for hyperthreading and dual core is the only thing I can think of, but even that could easily have been implemented in a service pack for W2k.
Better yet, they should have just released Service Pack 7 for Windows NT 4. After all, what improvements did Windows 2000 offer over NT4? This same discussion happens every time a new version of Windows is released. If you don't see any reason for you to upgrade, that's fine, but it doesn't mean that nobody else needs or wants to update.
Everyone around here seems to hate tradition for tradition's sake unless it's a computer related tradition.
I don't know if that statement is accurate as "get off my lawn!" posts are so common, but in any case I think change for change's sake is worse.
The usage of K to mean 1024 has been around the computing industry essentially since there was a need for the term. It was simply understood that because computer hardware doesn't do base 10 (it can, but just creates waste) in computer circles and reference the SI prefixes were applied to a binary system. The only reason ambiguity entered into it is because of marketing. By playing pretend and going against decades of precedent they realized they could sell less bang per buck without consumers knowing the difference.
This thread from the other story does a great job of explaining this idea. In the computer industry, K, M, and G stand for slightly different values than their normal SI meaning. That's just how it is and snobby new prefixes (that are still ignored in all practical use) won't change it. I'm glad we're finally sticking it to manufacturers (though I hardly think Creative was punished here) for intentionally misleading consumers.
Finally, a way to combine the feature-rich capabilities of Javascript with the speed of Java!
Cynicism was my initial response as well, but reading TFA shows a pretty cool demo. The fact that they are able to convert Java's user input events, GUI, and multithreading to Javascript is pretty cool. Probably has no practical use, but still cool.
If nothing else it means that the next time (in about 3 minutes if today is a normal day) somebody gets Java and Javascript confused, I can say they really ARE "basically the same thing" now!
Actualy "Overrated" for me is always an unfair moderation. And I metamoderate accordingly.
Umm, not sure how you do that considering that Overrated and Underrated mods do not show up in metamoderation. How could they? The only way you could fairly metamoderate the mod would be if you knew the moderation score before the other user modded the comment.
This is why Overrated/Underrated really are the weasel mods of Slashdot. I only hope that the likelihood of a user getting points is based in part on how often they (ab)use those mod options.
You cannot force someone else to follow a particular coding practice when your coders do not do so themselves.
While what you said is true, it can be simplified: You cannot force someone else to follow a particular coding practice.
For a variety of reasons Windows users grew accustomed to running as full administrators. Large vendors (aka customers) made assumptions when developing for Windows. These assumptions cause problems for a Windows end user (aka the customer) trying to use the large vendor's (aka the other customer's) program. If the user calls the vendor the answer is "run as admin". This conflict is only bad for Microsoft because the end user will put usability over security every day and the large vendor may get sick of dealing with "Windows bugs" and choose a different OS to develop (develop, develop, develop) for.
Microsoft was really damned if they did and damned if they didn't. It may well be their own fault (due to the original design of DOS) but unless you have a time machine nobody can change that. It seems to me that, while I find UAC to be annoying as hell, they probably did the right thing. By making it pervasive it will help get the Windows security paradigm changed faster than if it was just a gentle suggestion. At the very least they are trying to put it back on the software vendors to focus on security when creating their products--something good for everybody.
Perhaps you can explain--exactly under what circumstances do nuclear weapons not help?
That said, those sound like fightin' words so I'd be careful. We might not have much up in Montana, but we do have nukes. Some 200 ICBMs with several MIRVs to be exact. You want our oil? Come and get it!
He was hired to do a job. He created the items to fit Lucas' vision. It wasn't as if he created them and them sold them to Lucas.
How do you know this? I actually RTFA and while I might have missed it, they seemed pretty light on pertinent details like this. I would imagine that it's quite common for a studio to outright purchase prop designs and rights the same way they do pretty much everything else related to a film. If the guy from Weta who created Andúril started selling exact duplicates of the sword don't you think NewLine would call him up for a chat?
It seems pretty straightforward - if Lucas bought the prop design then this guy is at fault. If Lucas only paid for him to come up with a design then it comes to a question of can the Stormtrooper be trademarked as part of the franchise? How about replica lightsabers?
Reminds me of Maddox. I check his page almost everyday for updates and get angry every time he hasn't posted new content. I only abstain from complaining due to fear of having my email posted!
The biggest difference is that Maddox doesn't, and hasn't ever, placed advertisements on his site. From what I understand it is hosted essentially for free by Xmission because they rock. His updates have become more and more sparse, but I figure that's what happens when Real Life catches up with you and demands attention.
I think the guy in TFS should just suck it up like a big boy, then take his millions and go home. Crying about needing to work for a living isn't going to get you very far with most people, especially when you're raking it in like that. The Internet, she is a harsh mistress; you will lose people's attention fast if there's nothing new for them to see. The story is appropriately tagged 'cry me a river'.
Microsoft, etc, that OOXML just has enough to get past?
Wait, are you suggesting that Microsoft didn't bribe a dozen counties, at a hundred or more people, and pull off the biggest corporate cover-up in history (aside from the brilliant and astute readers of Slashdot who have worked diligently to uncover this plot) just so they could get their document format adopted as an ISO standard--something which will yield them little to no gain because the market share of Office essentially requires competitive document compatibility?
You most obviously and certainly, as a very wise man once said (probably Cowboyneal), must be new here.
Nobody was able to hack into the systems on the first day of the contest when contestants were only allowed to attack the computers over the network, but on Thursday the rules were relaxed so that attackers could direct contest organizers using the computers to do things like visit Web sites or open e-mail messages.
Pretty much says it all.
Wow, at +4 already for just quoting the summary and tossing in a vague and meaningless sentence.
So anyway, what exactly is it saying? The only thing I see there is that a completely passive attack (that is, absolutely no user interaction, like many well-known worms worked) failed. Once this part of the test was passed they allowed interactive attacks (where the user must assist the attacker in some way). Since this is how nearly all malware and malicious software spreads these days, I don't see anything wrong with this. Aside from just attaching hardware to the network, a web browser and email client are the two applications with the most Internet "surface area". As all major operating systems come bundled with a primary browser (IE, Safari, Firefox) a flaw in the browser essentially amounts to a flaw in the OS. It seems natural and obvious to put them to the test.
People have more time for leisure activities in the year 2008. The average work day is about four hours." As if any society would ever let its plebes goof off that much!
Ah, but you didn't finish the paragraph! A closer look reveals startling truths:
People have more time for leisure activities in the year 2008. The average work day is about four hours. But the extra time isn't totally free. The pace of technological advance is such that a certain amount of a jobholder's spare time is used in keeping up with the new developments--on the average, about two hours of home study a day.
Closer than you would guess! The average person works 4 hours, and spends at least 2 hours reading Slashdot (though admittedly not at home. You can't fault the guy too much for that error). The other 2 hours are split between Wikipedia bingeing, blog reading, and Fark.
Dwellings for the most part are assembled from prefabricated modules, which can be attached speedily in the configuration that best suits the homeowner. Such modular homes easily can be expanded to accommodate a growing family. A typical wedding present for the 21st century newlyweds is a fully equipped bedroom, kitchen or living room module.
Ah, a depiction of the epitome of 21st century living: The modern trailer park!
The housewife simply determines in advance her menus for the week, then slips prepackaged meals into the freezer and lets the automatic food utility do the rest. At preset times, each meal slides into the microwave oven and is cooked or thawed. The meal then is served on disposable plastic plates.
Just plain scary how close this is. If I had a nickel for every time dinner was a Kid's Cuisine or Hungry Man I'd have a lot of nickels.
Students visit a campus once or twice a week for personal consultations or for lab work that has to be done on site. Progress of each student is followed by computer, which assigns end term marks on the basis of tests given throughout the term.
Again, a vision of the future! I probably go to class once or twice a week and my end grade is indeed determined by the Scantron sheets I fill with Rorschach inkblots.
Besides school lessons, other educational material is available for TV viewing. You simply press a combination of buttons and the pages flash on your home screen. The world's information is available to you almost instantaneously.
Al Gore couldn't have said it better himself. Maybe vague, but it does fit the Internets and associated tubes pretty well.
TV screens cover an entire wall in most homes and show most subjects other than straight text matter in color
True enough. I'm sure I don't need to elaborate the "other matter". Or so I've heard anyway.
Mariculturists have turned areas of the sea into beds of protein-rich seaweed and algae. This raw material is processed into food that looks and tastes like steak and other meats. It also is cheap; families can have steak-like meals twice a day without feeling a budget pinch.
Ah ha, Kraft Foods! This amazing fellow was able to predict the rise of "processed cheese food" and "mechanically separated meat products". Brillant!
Heart disease has virtually been eliminated by drugs and diet.
Nobody bats a thousand I guess.
No need to worry about failing memory or intelligence either. The intelligence pill is another 21st century commodity. Slow learners or people struck with forgetful-ness are given pills which increase the production of enzymes controlling production of the chemicals known to control learning and memory.
He couldn't have been closer if he'd just given us the name of the wonder drug Ritalin!
Anyway, he was spot on. Finally a reviewer who didn't have flying cars in their list.
My laptop actually is slower with a standard Ubuntu install than with Vista
I don't really have a hard time believing this. Between video acceleration (non-restricted drivers) and things like networking support (ndiswrapper aka the spawn of satan) it might be easy to get a situation where some things are or just feel more speedy on Vista. I have Vista on a desktop at home just trying it out and performance (aside from file copying) has never been a problem. While I think there are some serious design issues with Vista I do not find any fault with response time or performance on moderately new hardware.
An extreme case is startup/shutdown/hibernate times. On XP/Vista it takes about 30-45 seconds goes from off to usable and about 8 seconds when in hibernation. I may as well shut down the Ubuntu partition since coming out of hibernation is no faster than just starting it up normally (which takes a lot longer than 30 seconds) and occasionally hibernation fails to resume correctly.
Any third-rate engineer or researcher can increase complexity; but it takes a certain flair of real insight to make things simple. -E. F. Schumacher
And a stripped-down non-existent API is a way to make things simple? Pretty much all modern languages have very detailed and complete API/framework, and all for the same reason: Why should a programmer have to re-write common routines and data structures for every program? Why bother using a big external library (which can just becomes another dependency) when it can be built into the runtime?
Horse and buggy carriages were much simpler than complex modern cars. We should probably go back to those.
If that's the case then several other people should feel "flattered". What I haven't seen posted anywhere is that this isn't some kind of isolated coincidental instance of theft. The creator of Snow Day has a blog entry in which he talks about the theft and points out that several (original) other (original) games have been stolen from others. They can all be found on the Olympics Fun Page. How many others besides these three are rip-offs?
(As an aside, the stolen games are all significantly inferiors to the originals. You'd think if they were going to go to the effort of taking another person's game they would at least improve it. That said, I personally found Winter Bells' graphics and music strangely addictive. My high score right now is around 120,000. Anyone else?:)
Normally this wouldn't wouldn't amount to all that much as I'm sure this kind of "borrowing" happens on a regular basis, however the hypocrisy in this astounds me. As others have pointed out, the Beijing Olympics committee has been merciless over infringement of their trademarked/copyrighted materials (including the name Olympics). Ironically they even have a form where you can snitch on people that are guilty of infringement. I urge all of Slashdot to go there and give them an earful.
I don't want to go look at the open web using an integral part of my OS, thanks.
Er, what? That doesn't even make any sense. How does the IE rendering engine being used for other parts of Windows (help, media player, etc) make it any more of a security risk? The Gecko engine is used by many other OSS programs, does that make it inherently less secure?
It doesn't matter what browser you use: they all have security holes. What matters is the context of the user running the browser. If you run Firefox as Administrator/root then your system is just as (potentially) vulnerable as running IE as Administrator.
I know, this is Slashdot. "IE is NOT an integral part of Windows! They're lying!" = Insightful. "IE is an integral part of Windows and that makes it more vulnerable!" = Insightful. Finally there's a place where you can have your cake and eat it too.
And still being used occasionally. The most recent one I recall is Welchia which used the same RPC exploit as Blaster but tried to help the user by installing patches to prevent further use of the exploit.
It's an interesting idea, but still causes some of the big collateral problems that worms cause. Welchia brought university and corporate networks to their knees because of high traffic just as well as Blaster did - perhaps even moreso since it was also doing a lot of HTTP requests to Microsoft's servers. I think a better solution would be a more surefire way to make sure users get patched when such a critical vulnerability is found. That's the ironic part of the Blaster/Welchia RPC exploit, there was a patch available for months before the worm was released.
Well it appears they are attacking an MS box, by the Program Files part of the filename string. I doubt this would do much on a *nix box with proper access permissions set up.
root@box:/# ls -l drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Mar 19 2007 bin drwxr-xr-x 69 root root 8192 Dec 4 11:40 etc drwxr-xr-x 11 root root 80 Mar 19 2007 usr
Hmm, look pretty similar to me. Maybe that because it makes no sense if normal users cannot read and execute applications and their associated data? Program Files on Windows being readable by everyone has nothing to do with what is a Firefox vulnerability.
On the other hand I guess you're right. No "Program Files" directory on the Linux machine, it must be safe!
Slashdot Mirror
system access has ability to access ALL non encrypted files reguardless of permissions
This isn't correct. SYSTEM is a member of the local administrators group and as such has access to everything that group does. Additionally, most files inherit permissions that give SYSTEM full control by default. That said, if you change the ACLs on a file and remove the Administrators group and SYSTEM user, then SYSTEM will be denied access to the file.
It can, of course, take ownership and reset the permissions, but so can any Administrator. Basically the same as root and chown on *nix.
not all that useful unless you have a system locked registry key
/interactive" trick to get a SYSTEM shell, but it usually has little to do access rights or security.
Even then, if you are an Administrator you can simply take ownership of the key and reset it's permissions as you'd like. I admit there are times when I've used the "at
Also if you are an admin in windows xp...
If your account has administrator rights then everything you just listed is a waste of time. Administrator == God. End of story. What you're talking about is like hot-wiring a car when you're holding the keys.
This is like those "hacking XP!!!" videos on YouTube. " NET USER administrator * " OMG I hacked the admin!!!1~
Then download norton removal tool and run it to make sure it's gone.
What irritates me is why the hell do they have an uninstaller if it, you know, doesn't uninstall the damn thing? I suppose if they're going to put removal tools for viruses on their site they may as well include one for their own "products".
The only people who write worse (un)installers than Symantec is Adobe. I truly think they have nothing but brain-dead chimps on their install team.
Does anybody have any ideas on what's next?
:) how it tracks your game stats over time. Besides, who doesn't like going back and playing games from the Windows 3.1 era? :)
Another version of Solitaire that I play a lot of is TriPeaks. An early version was shipped with the now ancient Windows Entertainment Pack and you can still grab a copy of the original game (near the bottom of the page or direct link and manual). It's a great break from normal (Klondike) Solitaire because you're trying to accumulate points and streaks instead of just beating a clock. It's also pretty pretty cool (and depressing
Oh boy. I can understand people saying they prefer Win2000 over XP, or that they have no real need to upgrade (even 7 years after the fact!). The problem is when people are so blind or ignorant that they pretend/don't see the real improvements that XP (especially with 2 service packs) has over 2000.
In what way was XP an improvement over Windows 2000?
In a word? Multimedia. In more words? Security, GPO, native hardware support, support for newer versions of IE, Remote Desktop, etc. If you really don't see the myriad of ways XP improves on 2000 I'm not going to try and list them all. Besides, Wikpedia already has (more or less).
By artificially limiting the number of active connections?
Except that it doesn't. XP SP2 introduced a limit to the number of half-open connections you can have open at once. The limit (10 by default) is essentially never reached during normal use. Some poorly-configured Bittorrent clients can hit the ceiling, but it isn't that hard to disable the limit if you do a quick search.
By providing more bells and whistles slowing things down?
Yes, they improved the user interface. But by gosh, you can turn it off with a single checkbox!
Better support for hyperthreading and dual core is the only thing I can think of, but even that could easily have been implemented in a service pack for W2k.
Better yet, they should have just released Service Pack 7 for Windows NT 4. After all, what improvements did Windows 2000 offer over NT4? This same discussion happens every time a new version of Windows is released. If you don't see any reason for you to upgrade, that's fine, but it doesn't mean that nobody else needs or wants to update.
Everyone around here seems to hate tradition for tradition's sake unless it's a computer related tradition.
I don't know if that statement is accurate as "get off my lawn!" posts are so common, but in any case I think change for change's sake is worse.
The usage of K to mean 1024 has been around the computing industry essentially since there was a need for the term. It was simply understood that because computer hardware doesn't do base 10 (it can, but just creates waste) in computer circles and reference the SI prefixes were applied to a binary system. The only reason ambiguity entered into it is because of marketing. By playing pretend and going against decades of precedent they realized they could sell less bang per buck without consumers knowing the difference.
This thread from the other story does a great job of explaining this idea. In the computer industry, K, M, and G stand for slightly different values than their normal SI meaning. That's just how it is and snobby new prefixes (that are still ignored in all practical use) won't change it. I'm glad we're finally sticking it to manufacturers (though I hardly think Creative was punished here) for intentionally misleading consumers.
Finally, a way to combine the feature-rich capabilities of Javascript with the speed of Java!
Cynicism was my initial response as well, but reading TFA shows a pretty cool demo. The fact that they are able to convert Java's user input events, GUI, and multithreading to Javascript is pretty cool. Probably has no practical use, but still cool.
If nothing else it means that the next time (in about 3 minutes if today is a normal day) somebody gets Java and Javascript confused, I can say they really ARE "basically the same thing" now!
Actualy "Overrated" for me is always an unfair moderation. And I metamoderate accordingly.
Umm, not sure how you do that considering that Overrated and Underrated mods do not show up in metamoderation. How could they? The only way you could fairly metamoderate the mod would be if you knew the moderation score before the other user modded the comment.
This is why Overrated/Underrated really are the weasel mods of Slashdot. I only hope that the likelihood of a user getting points is based in part on how often they (ab)use those mod options.
I dunno. I hear that Fedora 9 is really lacking in important functionality. Why would I want to install something so obviously half-baked like this?
With serious issues like this, obviously 2008 won't be The Year of the Linux Desktop (Really This Time, We Mean It).
You cannot force someone else to follow a particular coding practice when your coders do not do so themselves.
While what you said is true, it can be simplified: You cannot force someone else to follow a particular coding practice.
For a variety of reasons Windows users grew accustomed to running as full administrators. Large vendors (aka customers) made assumptions when developing for Windows. These assumptions cause problems for a Windows end user (aka the customer) trying to use the large vendor's (aka the other customer's) program. If the user calls the vendor the answer is "run as admin". This conflict is only bad for Microsoft because the end user will put usability over security every day and the large vendor may get sick of dealing with "Windows bugs" and choose a different OS to develop (develop, develop, develop) for.
Microsoft was really damned if they did and damned if they didn't. It may well be their own fault (due to the original design of DOS) but unless you have a time machine nobody can change that. It seems to me that, while I find UAC to be annoying as hell, they probably did the right thing. By making it pervasive it will help get the Windows security paradigm changed faster than if it was just a gentle suggestion. At the very least they are trying to put it back on the software vendors to focus on security when creating their products--something good for everybody.
No, Montana doesn't have "nukes", there are "nukes" in Montana.
Pfft. Everybody knows that possession is 9/10ths of the law!
I wonder if nuclear weapons would help.
Perhaps you can explain--exactly under what circumstances do nuclear weapons not help?
That said, those sound like fightin' words so I'd be careful. We might not have much up in Montana, but we do have nukes. Some 200 ICBMs with several MIRVs to be exact. You want our oil? Come and get it!
He was hired to do a job. He created the items to fit Lucas' vision. It wasn't as if he created them and them sold them to Lucas.
How do you know this? I actually RTFA and while I might have missed it, they seemed pretty light on pertinent details like this. I would imagine that it's quite common for a studio to outright purchase prop designs and rights the same way they do pretty much everything else related to a film. If the guy from Weta who created Andúril started selling exact duplicates of the sword don't you think NewLine would call him up for a chat?
It seems pretty straightforward - if Lucas bought the prop design then this guy is at fault. If Lucas only paid for him to come up with a design then it comes to a question of can the Stormtrooper be trademarked as part of the franchise? How about replica lightsabers?
Reminds me of Maddox. I check his page almost everyday for updates and get angry every time he hasn't posted new content. I only abstain from complaining due to fear of having my email posted!
The biggest difference is that Maddox doesn't, and hasn't ever, placed advertisements on his site. From what I understand it is hosted essentially for free by Xmission because they rock. His updates have become more and more sparse, but I figure that's what happens when Real Life catches up with you and demands attention.
I think the guy in TFS should just suck it up like a big boy, then take his millions and go home. Crying about needing to work for a living isn't going to get you very far with most people, especially when you're raking it in like that. The Internet, she is a harsh mistress; you will lose people's attention fast if there's nothing new for them to see. The story is appropriately tagged 'cry me a river'.
Microsoft, etc, that OOXML just has enough to get past?
Wait, are you suggesting that Microsoft didn't bribe a dozen counties, at a hundred or more people, and pull off the biggest corporate cover-up in history (aside from the brilliant and astute readers of Slashdot who have worked diligently to uncover this plot) just so they could get their document format adopted as an ISO standard--something which will yield them little to no gain because the market share of Office essentially requires competitive document compatibility?
You most obviously and certainly, as a very wise man once said (probably Cowboyneal), must be new here.
Wow, at +4 already for just quoting the summary and tossing in a vague and meaningless sentence.
So anyway, what exactly is it saying? The only thing I see there is that a completely passive attack (that is, absolutely no user interaction, like many well-known worms worked) failed. Once this part of the test was passed they allowed interactive attacks (where the user must assist the attacker in some way). Since this is how nearly all malware and malicious software spreads these days, I don't see anything wrong with this. Aside from just attaching hardware to the network, a web browser and email client are the two applications with the most Internet "surface area". As all major operating systems come bundled with a primary browser (IE, Safari, Firefox) a flaw in the browser essentially amounts to a flaw in the OS. It seems natural and obvious to put them to the test.
Ah, but you didn't finish the paragraph! A closer look reveals startling truths:
Closer than you would guess! The average person works 4 hours, and spends at least 2 hours reading Slashdot (though admittedly not at home. You can't fault the guy too much for that error). The other 2 hours are split between Wikipedia bingeing, blog reading, and Fark.
Ah, a depiction of the epitome of 21st century living: The modern trailer park!
Just plain scary how close this is. If I had a nickel for every time dinner was a Kid's Cuisine or Hungry Man I'd have a lot of nickels.
Again, a vision of the future! I probably go to class once or twice a week and my end grade is indeed determined by the Scantron sheets I fill with Rorschach inkblots.
Al Gore couldn't have said it better himself. Maybe vague, but it does fit the Internets and associated tubes pretty well.
True enough. I'm sure I don't need to elaborate the "other matter". Or so I've heard anyway.
Ah ha, Kraft Foods! This amazing fellow was able to predict the rise of "processed cheese food" and "mechanically separated meat products". Brillant!
Nobody bats a thousand I guess.
He couldn't have been closer if he'd just given us the name of the wonder drug Ritalin!
Anyway, he was spot on. Finally a reviewer who didn't have flying cars in their list.
My laptop actually is slower with a standard Ubuntu install than with Vista
I don't really have a hard time believing this. Between video acceleration (non-restricted drivers) and things like networking support (ndiswrapper aka the spawn of satan) it might be easy to get a situation where some things are or just feel more speedy on Vista. I have Vista on a desktop at home just trying it out and performance (aside from file copying) has never been a problem. While I think there are some serious design issues with Vista I do not find any fault with response time or performance on moderately new hardware.
An extreme case is startup/shutdown/hibernate times. On XP/Vista it takes about 30-45 seconds goes from off to usable and about 8 seconds when in hibernation. I may as well shut down the Ubuntu partition since coming out of hibernation is no faster than just starting it up normally (which takes a lot longer than 30 seconds) and occasionally hibernation fails to resume correctly.
Any third-rate engineer or researcher can increase complexity; but it takes a certain flair of real insight to make things simple. -E. F. Schumacher
And a stripped-down non-existent API is a way to make things simple? Pretty much all modern languages have very detailed and complete API/framework, and all for the same reason: Why should a programmer have to re-write common routines and data structures for every program? Why bother using a big external library (which can just becomes another dependency) when it can be built into the runtime?
Horse and buggy carriages were much simpler than complex modern cars. We should probably go back to those.
And the in-flight movie?Executive Decision
Ah, I remember Executive Decision. As I recall it was the first Steven Seagal movie that was any good!
Plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery.
:)
If that's the case then several other people should feel "flattered". What I haven't seen posted anywhere is that this isn't some kind of isolated coincidental instance of theft. The creator of Snow Day has a blog entry in which he talks about the theft and points out that several (original) other (original) games have been stolen from others. They can all be found on the Olympics Fun Page. How many others besides these three are rip-offs?
(As an aside, the stolen games are all significantly inferiors to the originals. You'd think if they were going to go to the effort of taking another person's game they would at least improve it. That said, I personally found Winter Bells' graphics and music strangely addictive. My high score right now is around 120,000. Anyone else?
Normally this wouldn't wouldn't amount to all that much as I'm sure this kind of "borrowing" happens on a regular basis, however the hypocrisy in this astounds me. As others have pointed out, the Beijing Olympics committee has been merciless over infringement of their trademarked/copyrighted materials (including the name Olympics). Ironically they even have a form where you can snitch on people that are guilty of infringement. I urge all of Slashdot to go there and give them an earful.
I don't want to go look at the open web using an integral part of my OS, thanks.
Er, what? That doesn't even make any sense. How does the IE rendering engine being used for other parts of Windows (help, media player, etc) make it any more of a security risk? The Gecko engine is used by many other OSS programs, does that make it inherently less secure?
It doesn't matter what browser you use: they all have security holes. What matters is the context of the user running the browser. If you run Firefox as Administrator/root then your system is just as (potentially) vulnerable as running IE as Administrator.
I know, this is Slashdot. "IE is NOT an integral part of Windows! They're lying!" = Insightful. "IE is an integral part of Windows and that makes it more vulnerable!" = Insightful. Finally there's a place where you can have your cake and eat it too.
Very, very old idea.
And still being used occasionally. The most recent one I recall is Welchia which used the same RPC exploit as Blaster but tried to help the user by installing patches to prevent further use of the exploit.
It's an interesting idea, but still causes some of the big collateral problems that worms cause. Welchia brought university and corporate networks to their knees because of high traffic just as well as Blaster did - perhaps even moreso since it was also doing a lot of HTTP requests to Microsoft's servers. I think a better solution would be a more surefire way to make sure users get patched when such a critical vulnerability is found. That's the ironic part of the Blaster/Welchia RPC exploit, there was a patch available for months before the worm was released.
Well then, let's see!
Hmm, look pretty similar to me. Maybe that because it makes no sense if normal users cannot read and execute applications and their associated data? Program Files on Windows being readable by everyone has nothing to do with what is a Firefox vulnerability.
On the other hand I guess you're right. No "Program Files" directory on the Linux machine, it must be safe!