You could type the letters out-of-order, then rearrange them using drag+drop. Someone with a keylogger probably wouldn't bother using the mouse input to figure it out. A good keystroke logger will also log mouse input. In that case, a replay attack would simply play back your mouse input, so it would drag and drop whatever you dragged and dropped.
Using a mouse does not necessarily make you invulnerable to hardware (or software) attacks. If the mouse actions are being logged (whether in addition to or rather than keystrokes, whether via hardware logging or via software logging), a replay attack using your exact mouse sequence is still possible.
Your points are correct to some extent. My method is indeed invalid if the following are simultaneously true: (1) the password field is using a fixed-width font, (2) all keystrokes and mouse activity are timestamped, (3) the password field coordinates on the screen are known.
Now, combine your method with booting from your own full OS on a CD (preferably an uncommon one*), plus entering the correct letters in a more clever fashion than all in a row with a few gibberish characters in between**, and you'll have a much better solution (invulnerable to any malware on the machine's installed OS, and a little less susceptible to hardware keystroke and mouse loggers). Of course, this assumes that you even have the ability to boot from a CD, which you may not always have.
---
* This could help prevent hardware keystroke and mouse loggers from being able to replay your sequence on more common live CDs. After the malicious third party wastes all kinds of time booting up from 2 or 3 popular live CDs and is unsuccessful at getting into your accounts by trying to replay your keystroke and mouse sequence, he or she will almost certainly give up, unless it's a targeted attack, in which case they attacker may be more determined.
** I don't like the idea of typing all characters in the correct order mixed with gibberish because it's possible that the password could be discerned by analyzing a hardware keystroke logger's output (a keen eye might pick out the right characters). Perhaps a safer way to type in your password might be something like this (assuming "X" is a random character and your password is something much more secure than "secret"):
XXXXXtXXsXcXXXeXeXXXXrXX
Memorize your sequence of random characters (in this example, 5 random can be deleted, skip 1, delete 2, skip 1, etc.) and your sequence of correct characters (in this example, "tsceer", so last, then first, then third, etc.), and then once you've deleted all the random characters you can use the mouse to highlight and drag the remaining characters into the correct order. (Note: One downside of this method is that if you use the same public terminal twice and use random instead of predetermined non-password characters, the keystroke logs could be compared and your password could be easily discerned. Maybe a better plan would be to use the same predetermined non-password characters every time.) Yeah, this example is rather complicated, but it's not necessarily infeasible to memorize your sequence ahead of time, and of course, you can greatly simplify this method to suit your personal preferences (for example, only enter 1 or 2 non-password characters, and/or only leave 1 or 2 password characters out of order). As long as you can memorize your sequence (and you should be able to if you can memorize a complex password already anyway), then this may help.
You can also combine methods for deleting characters, such as sometimes using Control+H (you may have seen it as ^H in Slashdot jokes) instead of backspace if your browser supports it (seems to work for me in Firefox), sometimes highlighting with the mouse and occasionally highlighting using the keyboard when deleting, sometimes using backspace, sometimes using the delete (forwards delete) key, etc. The more methods you use, the more complicated it will be if the attacker tries to analyze a keystroke/mouse log (although of course a replay attack using the same boot CD that you used may still be possible).
A user is asked to... annotate an image using a word selected from a list. These images shown to the users have fake colors, textures, and edges, based on a sequence of randomly-generated parameters. Computer vision and recognition algorithms, such as alipr, rely on original colors, textures, and shapes in order to interpret the semantic content of an image. Because of the endowed power of imagination... humans can still pass the tests with ease. What about colorblind humans? Roughly 7 percent of all males are colorblind. One would hope that with such a high colorblind population that the "words selected from a list" wouldn't be color-related, and that color would not be an essential factor in humans being able to interpret the new CAPTCHA images.
I wish apple would fix Safari (and Mail too) to better display the actual targets of links.
Mail doesn't need to be fixed. Roll your cursor over any link and it will display a tooltip showing the URL to which the link would take you if clicked.
I would tend to agree that by default Safari isn't very helpful in this regard, but as previous posters already mentioned, the fix for Safari is simple: go to the View menu and select "Show Status Bar", or hold the Command key and press the / button. You only have to do this once, and Safari will keep this setting forever unless you turn it off.
Great tip, but make sure that you don't overwrite your Leopard copy of Terminal. When you copy the Tiger version, be sure to rename it from "Terminal.app" to something else like "Terminal (Tiger).app". If you don't do this, you could potentially have issues with future patches that are released for Terminal (bug fixes, security updates, etc.) and the installer will naturally look for the Leopard version and might cause problems if the Tiger version was there instead.
Why not give users more control over their recommendations? Heck, even a bunch of checkboxes would be useful.
For example, Netflix frequently recommends rated R movies to my family, but we have never rented a single R-rated movie and have no desire to do so. Moreover, every time we get a recommendation for an R-rated movie, we rate it "Not Interested." I've probably marked dozens of R-rated movies "Not Interested," but they continue to be recommended. (Either Netflix is trying to tell me to just give in and rent one already, or they really don't understand my family's movie preferences.)
A simple checkbox for "Do not recommend R-rated movies" would be all Netflix needs to substantially improve its accuracy for my family. I imagine Netflix could add checkboxes for similar criteria as well. In any case, I think a key point is giving more control over recommendations to the users themselves.
"Your business model is not my problem". Somebody should make a t-shirt with that. I like it. We can advertise it with web advertisements!
*NEW!* T-shirts and bumper stickers with the slogan "Your Business Model is NOT My Problem"!Get yours today!!!
Done and done.;o)
(And yes, I am aware that the parent was being ironic about advertising the shirts with Web advertisements. My use of a Web advertisement builds upon that irony.)
[...] vote-swapping Web sites that let Al Gore and Ralph Nader fans support their chosen candidates in the 2000 presidential election.
The purpose of the sites, which included the now-defunct voteswap2000.com and votexchange2000.com, was to let a Nader supporter in a state where George Bush might win "swap" his vote with a Gore supporter in a state like Texas where Republican victory was practically assured.
There was no actual way to enforce the swap. [...]
Opera Mini 3 is a pretty good browser. Opera Mini 4 beta looks quite nice, and makes a fairly decent attempt at copying the iPhone browser's zooming functionality*, but parts of it are painfully unstable, requiring the user to remove the battery to reset the device (this is based on my testing with both the Treo 650 and 680). I just got finished sending some feedback to the Opera team about some of my experiences with Opera Mini 4 beta:
While Opera Mini 4 beta is certainly the nicest looking free browser for the Treo, its instability makes it unbearably frustrating and practically impossible to use.
The browser frequently locks up the Treo on multiple sites, requiring the battery to be pulled. Trying to press Stop doesn't do anything, nor does waiting well over a minute for the browser to say something other than "Loading 0/x kB". This has happened numerous times when trying to access a number of different Web sites, including the following:
* When clicking on "My Opera" in the "Bookmarks..." section of the main window
* When clicking on "Yahoo!" in the "Bookmarks..." section of the main window
* When clicking on Tech Pulse Podcast (http://techpulsepodcast.blogspot.com) in the "History..." section of the main window
* When trying to click on the link to the iPhone ad in the middle of the front page of www.apple.com
Most of the time, entering an address manually (e.g. www.techpulsepodcast.com) does work.
*Yes, I think it's fair to say that the Opera team copied the iPhone interface, even though Opera Mini 4 beta was released before the iPhone. Apple demoed the iPhone browser interface in January, and I don't think it's any coincidence that the new version of Opera's smartphone browser just happened to be released shortly before the launch of the iPhone and just happened to steal the double-tap zoom feature from the iPhone demo. (Not to mention the fact that Opera released an iPhone bash commercial on their site along with the new beta.)
In fairness, it's still a beta, and I think Opera can ultimately create a really good competitor to the iPhone browser if they work harder on stamping out the painfully irritating bugs. I don't have any plans to buy an iPhone, and I think my Treo is great... but it sure would be nice to have a good Web browser on it.
I've talked a bit more about Opera Mini 4 beta vs. the iPhone on the Tech Pulse podcast.
The harmony remote is one attempt at reducing the complexity - you trade complexity up front (you need to program the remote with your devices) for simplicity later. The above mentioned 65 year old had no problem watching TV with the harmony remote - on a system an order of magnitude more complicated than his.
I presume you're talking about one of these, most likely the Harmony 1000 since all the rest look as complicated as other remotes. The reason the designers were able to take away so many buttons from the device is that they stuck a giant full-color LCD screen on it and gave it an intuitive-looking GUI (sounds something like how the iPhone was designed, doesn't it?).
The above is supposed to disable Bonjour entirely (at least until you reset the mode to 555 or, presumably, repair permissions). Another alternate workaround is supposed to temporarily disable Bonjour until you restart:
Remove the space from mDNSResponder. To enable Bonjour again without restarting, change "unload" to "load".
Please note that I haven't tested these. Use at your own risk.
Frankly, though, I wouldn't try any system hacks just yet, for a number of reasons. First and foremost, there's no exploit code known to be in the wild right now. Second, I think it's kind of funny that all this hype surrounds one anonymous blog post. What reason do we have to believe that Mr./Ms. Anonymous is telling the truth, anyway? Everyone's so ready to jump on a Mac virus story that they don't even care what the source is. Correct me if I'm wrong.
We're going to be discussing the alleged new worm on the Tech Pulse podcast tonight around 8 PM Pacific, if anyone wants to listen live at talkshoe.com, or you can subscribe to the podcast at techpulsepodcast.com.
Ballmer: [whilst dancing around and sweating profusely] "HA HA, Software-Plus-Services! Your mom is dumb and ugly and stupid and everyone thinks you smell!!!"
You know, it sure is strange to hear about Ballmer teasing something. Isn't he usually the one getting teased?
Ohhh, wait, different kind of teasing. My mistake.
Queue up Home Alone on Netflix, dude. Assuming you've got a kid (and yes, I realize that this is Slashdot, so that's quite an assumption), your best bet is to "accidentally" leave your kid at your house when you leave town. The benefits are substantial:
Your kid will have the time of his life
You'll get some "alone time" with your spouse
If Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern come a-knockin', your kid will kick their butts
Profit! (from not having to pay anyone to watch the place)
FWIW, I've worked as a school site technician in 3 different school districts and I'm currently a Network Specialist for the local County Superintendent of Schools. I, too, have used and highly recommend Deep Freeze, but it sounds like the person who submitted the question should probably implement some other ways to lock down the computers in addition to Deep Freeze.
security basically consists of a password on the admin account, a subscription to McAfee Security Center, and a free Internet filter.
If you have a filter and you're having problems with students downloading games and music, why not block game and music sites? Take a look at your Web access log and block the sites that are creating a problem. If all computers at your site (not just in your lab) access the network through your "free Internet filter," and if you have a domain,* you might benefit from setting up the proxy filter to only apply to a certain domain account, and then put your lab PCs on the domain and have the students log in via this restricted domain account. That way, teachers etc. can still get into whatever sites they need to, and they won't hate you because of your somewhat restrictive filter.
*Someone else suggested using a domain, and I wholeheartedly agree. I haven't set up a SAMBA domain, but if cost is an issue (which it sounds like it is since you're using a free filter), you might be able to set up a domain with a Linux server, although I admit I have no idea how to go about setting up account restrictions on a Linux domain.
Another great reason to use a domain is that you can set up your student account to be *very* limited; you can specify specific apps that they can't run, or if you want to be *really* restrictive you can even specify apps that they're allowed to run and everything else will be blacklisted by default. You can find some basic instructions in an article at my blog. (Sorry for the indirect link--ironically I'm behind a firewall and can't get the exact URL for you. Please look in the sidebar to find the Active Directory post.)
They have been going in and changing settings, downloading games and music, and generally screwing the computers up during class time, in many cases leaving them unusable. [...] Any suggestions on the best way to lock these systems down?"
Again, the specific music and game sites can be blocked individually, but it sounds like a big issue here is classroom discipline. I can't give you any tips on that. =) But another tech tip that I have is a free program suite: UltraVNC. You've probably heard of VNC before, but this particular implementation is really great for a school lab. You can set it up so there's no tray icon (making it easier to log into a student computer without them knowing or being able to shut down your connection), and you can actually lock down their ability to use the keyboard or mouse on an individual basis. So if you've got some kid that's really screwing around, take away their privilege of being able to use the computer until they decide they can behave. UltraVNC also lets you transfer files between the computers, which can come in handy.
As an aside, VNC also makes it a piece of cake to take screenshots of students accessing naughty sites. Just connect to their screen when they've got something inappropriate up, hit the Print Screen key on your keyboard, and paste into Paint. Save it, and you've got the hostname and IP address of that computer in the VNC Viewer app's header, the current time from your system tray, and a clear shot of what the naughty student was viewing at the time.
One more thing: someone suggested individual user accounts, stating that this was the only way to track which student used a particular computer at a particular time to do something bad. This is not such a great idea, however, for several reasons. To name just a
Interestingly, Sophos recently had a similar issue. An update to its antivirus software caused Mac OS X computers to delete system files or move them to a quarantine folder. And the best part? The "infection" that this update was supposed to prevent was a proof-of-concept that is not even in the wild.
One would think that all vendors would take note of competitors' mistakes and carefully test updates before publicly deploying them, if for no other reason than to maintain their reputation. What good is anti-virus software that does more damage than it prevents?
I just know someone is going to ask this, so I'm writing this as a preemptive strike.;o)
Yes, there really *are* people who have files greater than 2 GB. A perfect example is hard drive images. At a previous place of employment, we imaged entire iMac hard drives and put them on a server so that the HDs could be reimaged at any time. Seeing as the iMac HD was about 6 GB, it was absolutely essential to have support for 2+ gig files. Just one example.
The Portable Virtual Privacy Machine Home Page http://www.metropipe.net/ProductsPVPM.shtml
ABOUT
The MetroPipe Portable Virtual Privacy machine contains a complete portable virtual Linux machine with privacy-enabled Open Source Internet applications.
No installation needed - just plug the drive into any Windows or Linux computer, and click on the Virtual Privacy Machine icon and you're ready to go.
Carry your Internet applications, email, bookmarks, history, web cookies, download files in your pocket.
Carry your entire Internet communication system on a tiny USB drive.
Runs on any rewriteable media (USB drives, Flash Memory cards, Secure Digital devices, iPods, etc.)
Includes:
Mozilla Firefox Browser
Mozilla Thunderbird News/Email Client
Enigmail GPG (PGP Encrtytion program for Thunderbird)
Persistent home directory
Demo MetroPipe Tunneler
Perfect for travellers - nothing to be scanned, started, poked, or prodded at the airport.
Get English keyboard support no matter what computer you use.
The VPM's network connection will auto configure and run seamlessly on any machine with a working internet connection.
All Internet session data (cookies, history, downloads, etc.) are stored on the VPM, not the host computer.
This PR1 release runs on Windows and Linux - final release version will also run on OS X.
Includes Mozilla Firefox browser, Mozilla Thunderbird News/Email client (with Enigmail plugins for PGP email encryption), persistent Home directory, a demo version of the MetroPipe Tunneler.
Created from 100% Open Source GPL code and binaries.
INSTRUCTIONS: Unzip the file, and read the README
Runs in full screen mode (press SHIFT-CTRL-F. SHIFT-CTRL captures and releases focus.)
Core Ingredients:
Damn Small Linux - Business Card Sized Live Linux based on Knoppix http://www.damnsmalllinux.org
QEMU - CPU Emulator http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/
iPod Your BMW. Apple has links to pages on BMW's site showing how they're integrated as well. Says Apple, this is "The first seamless integration of iPod and automobile."
Others had made similar homebrew iPod and non-iPod solutions before (and iPod and non-iPod after) Apple/BMW's solution.
At this point, it doesn't look like Apple has any official plans to unveil further integration of Apple technology with automobiles. Of course, Apple almost always "does not comment on unreleased products."
iPod Your BMW. Says Apple, this is "The first seamless integration of iPod and automobile."
Others had made similar homebrew iPod and non-iPod solutions before (and iPod and non-iPod after) Apple/BMW's solution.
At this point, it doesn't look like Apple has any official plans to unveil further integration of Apple technology with automobiles. Of course, Apple almost always "does not comment on unreleased products."
They got the Tooth Fairy too??
on
Security Alert
·
· Score: 1
Hell, tell them that without a good firewall, (Osama || Saddam || tooth fairy) will break into their computers and terrorists will win.
Geez, the Tooth Fairy has become one of them now?? Holy crap, I really do need a firewall!!
My first instinct was, "Wait a minute... they want to add a third wheel to solar energy?" We already have silicon solar panels that convert sunlight into energy. So why add something in between? Wouldn't that be less efficient?
The more I researched, though, the more I realized that my initial reaction was somewhat rash. Think about it: if nature already has a time-proven method, why not harness that rather than reinventing the wheel? Especially if the "reinvented" (silicon) method is less efficient.
I found a CNN article from 2 October 2003 where this idea was explained. Back then, less than a year ago, it was estimated that the efficiency would reach 10 percent by the end of 2004. According to one source referenced by another poster, we're already at 12 percent, and now achieving 20 percent is expected! (According to the CNN article, 20 percent is the efficiency of our current silicon solar power.) If the technology continues to develop at this rate, it could become more energy-efficient than silicon and allow for some very cool technology in the not-too-distant future.
(What exactly that technology might be, I'm not too sure. Who wants a disposable cell phone battery when current ones can be recharged in a couple hours? Anyone have any thoughts on how this tech could be best used?)
Disclaimer: I realize that this is likely to get flamed, as happens in any Mac vs. Windows PC debate. If you think it's really worth your time to flame... well, it's your time. =)
I found this/. article interesting because earlier today I was looking though a site I recently discovered on this very subject -- schools switching from Macs to PCs and not being able to give a rational justification for it.
I personally have worked in two different school districts who haved phased out Macs for the same silly reasons... "businesses use Windows so kids should too" and "we're on a budget so we need to purchase computers that are inexpensive [i.e. not taking TCO of Windows machines into consideration]." John Droz, the guy responsible for macvspc.info, has referenced over 500 articles debating Macs vs. PCs, mainly focusing on arguments of which platform should be used by school districts. While he obviously has a Mac bias, he brings up a lot of very good points (parts summarized below since most of us don't have time to read).
For the TCO argument, Droz suggests that district IT managers make a table and list all aspects relevant to operation in a school district, and then fill in estimated costs for Windows or Mac, including (at least) the following criteria:
a) initial hardware cost, b) annual maintenance expenditures, c) usable lifetime of the computer, d) software costs (license, support, upgrades), e) networking expenses (hardware, software, licenses, maintenance, etc.), f) operating costs (e.g. electricity), g) teacher training costs, h) teacher preferences, satisfaction and efficiency, i) ability to provide student with an enjoyable and productive learning environment.
Droz also recommends that IT managers write a list of "discernible benefits" of Windows PCs over Macs:
a) for the students b) for the teachers c) for the technical support staff d) for the taxpayers.
This will really give a school district a much better idea of whether it's worth it to "standardize" on Windows (i.e. eliminate all else). See his article on this subject.
On the "students should use Windows because businesses do" argument, Droz agrees that students should become familiar with Windows in school, but suggests that Macs with Virtual PC would be a more cost-effective solution because it's two computers in one, for a very small per-computer investment in VPC. However, Droz goes on to disprove the claim that students should use Windows PCs exclusively because businesses do. One argument is that businesses and schools are significantly different environments and have much different purposes:
Business __ __ __ __ __ School adults __ __ __ __ __ _ children get paid to work__ __ _ pay (taxes) to be educated all year long__ __ __ _ part of the year one supervisor __ __ __ multiple supervisors (teachers) providing a service (or product)__ __ __ __ receiving a service to generate a profit __ to learn
He also argues that while Windows may be dominant now, there's no telling what OS a student will end up using in business. I would be remiss to not personally mention the gradual rise of the popularity of Linux as it becomes more mainstream and familiar to the masses. Let's say Linux reaches a 10 percent OS marketshare by the time a student graduates from college, and the student gets hired by a company that uses a Linux distro. Does it really matter that he/she learned a different OS in school? To some extent, yes, but the GUI is so familiar that it's not at all hard to get used to it. So why force kids to use Windows?
If you're interested in the subject of school conversion to Windows, I highly recommend
Here's the scary thing: the longer you go without watching, the more all the shows REALLY SUCK when you try to start again. I once swore off TV for a month (the second week was the hardest). When the month was over, I found that all the shows were stupid, the laugh-tracks were annoying, and there were no good, original stories. Since then, I pretty much only watch Discovery/History channels with a rare forray into the SciFi channel. When we move in the next few months, I won't be taking cable with me (except the Roadrunner part).
How true this is. I voluntarily went without TV for two years, believe it or not. I honestly didn't watch all that much TV beforehand, but being without it for so long made me realize what a waste of time TV really can be. I now watch a lot less than I used to, and I really don't miss it any.
TV definitely has its advantages, don't get me wrong. The occasional educational show can be entertaining and informative. What's more, it's great to just be able to spend time with a significant other after a long day, and when it's too late to go out, an hour of TV can be a nice way to unwind together (especially when The Simpsons is on, natch).
Seems to me like giving up TV for a week (even if TiVoing/taping episodes) is a really good idea. It could really help people realize how dependent they might really be on their TVs. I encourage anyone who's never done it to give it a try. You might wind up cutting out some of the less important (or utterly pointless) shows, increase your productivity, and become a marginally happier person because of it.
Slashdot Mirror
Using a mouse does not necessarily make you invulnerable to hardware (or software) attacks. If the mouse actions are being logged (whether in addition to or rather than keystrokes, whether via hardware logging or via software logging), a replay attack using your exact mouse sequence is still possible.
Now, combine your method with booting from your own full OS on a CD (preferably an uncommon one*), plus entering the correct letters in a more clever fashion than all in a row with a few gibberish characters in between**, and you'll have a much better solution (invulnerable to any malware on the machine's installed OS, and a little less susceptible to hardware keystroke and mouse loggers). Of course, this assumes that you even have the ability to boot from a CD, which you may not always have.
---
* This could help prevent hardware keystroke and mouse loggers from being able to replay your sequence on more common live CDs. After the malicious third party wastes all kinds of time booting up from 2 or 3 popular live CDs and is unsuccessful at getting into your accounts by trying to replay your keystroke and mouse sequence, he or she will almost certainly give up, unless it's a targeted attack, in which case they attacker may be more determined.
** I don't like the idea of typing all characters in the correct order mixed with gibberish because it's possible that the password could be discerned by analyzing a hardware keystroke logger's output (a keen eye might pick out the right characters). Perhaps a safer way to type in your password might be something like this (assuming "X" is a random character and your password is something much more secure than "secret"):
XXXXXtXXsXcXXXeXeXXXXrXX
Memorize your sequence of random characters (in this example, 5 random can be deleted, skip 1, delete 2, skip 1, etc.) and your sequence of correct characters (in this example, "tsceer", so last, then first, then third, etc.), and then once you've deleted all the random characters you can use the mouse to highlight and drag the remaining characters into the correct order. (Note: One downside of this method is that if you use the same public terminal twice and use random instead of predetermined non-password characters, the keystroke logs could be compared and your password could be easily discerned. Maybe a better plan would be to use the same predetermined non-password characters every time.) Yeah, this example is rather complicated, but it's not necessarily infeasible to memorize your sequence ahead of time, and of course, you can greatly simplify this method to suit your personal preferences (for example, only enter 1 or 2 non-password characters, and/or only leave 1 or 2 password characters out of order). As long as you can memorize your sequence (and you should be able to if you can memorize a complex password already anyway), then this may help.
You can also combine methods for deleting characters, such as sometimes using Control+H (you may have seen it as ^H in Slashdot jokes) instead of backspace if your browser supports it (seems to work for me in Firefox), sometimes highlighting with the mouse and occasionally highlighting using the keyboard when deleting, sometimes using backspace, sometimes using the delete (forwards delete) key, etc. The more methods you use, the more complicated it will be if the attacker tries to analyze a keystroke/mouse log (although of course a replay attack using the same boot CD that you used may still be possible).
Mail doesn't need to be fixed. Roll your cursor over any link and it will display a tooltip showing the URL to which the link would take you if clicked.
I would tend to agree that by default Safari isn't very helpful in this regard, but as previous posters already mentioned, the fix for Safari is simple: go to the View menu and select "Show Status Bar", or hold the Command key and press the / button. You only have to do this once, and Safari will keep this setting forever unless you turn it off.
Great tip, but make sure that you don't overwrite your Leopard copy of Terminal. When you copy the Tiger version, be sure to rename it from "Terminal.app" to something else like "Terminal (Tiger).app". If you don't do this, you could potentially have issues with future patches that are released for Terminal (bug fixes, security updates, etc.) and the installer will naturally look for the Leopard version and might cause problems if the Tiger version was there instead.
Why not give users more control over their recommendations? Heck, even a bunch of checkboxes would be useful.
For example, Netflix frequently recommends rated R movies to my family, but we have never rented a single R-rated movie and have no desire to do so. Moreover, every time we get a recommendation for an R-rated movie, we rate it "Not Interested." I've probably marked dozens of R-rated movies "Not Interested," but they continue to be recommended. (Either Netflix is trying to tell me to just give in and rent one already, or they really don't understand my family's movie preferences.)
A simple checkbox for "Do not recommend R-rated movies" would be all Netflix needs to substantially improve its accuracy for my family. I imagine Netflix could add checkboxes for similar criteria as well. In any case, I think a key point is giving more control over recommendations to the users themselves.
*NEW!* T-shirts and bumper stickers with the slogan "Your Business Model is NOT My Problem"! Get yours today!!!
Done and done. ;o)
(And yes, I am aware that the parent was being ironic about advertising the shirts with Web advertisements. My use of a Web advertisement builds upon that irony.)
From the freakin' article:
Opera Mini 3 is a pretty good browser. Opera Mini 4 beta looks quite nice, and makes a fairly decent attempt at copying the iPhone browser's zooming functionality*, but parts of it are painfully unstable, requiring the user to remove the battery to reset the device (this is based on my testing with both the Treo 650 and 680). I just got finished sending some feedback to the Opera team about some of my experiences with Opera Mini 4 beta:
While Opera Mini 4 beta is certainly the nicest looking free browser for the Treo, its instability makes it unbearably frustrating and practically impossible to use.The browser frequently locks up the Treo on multiple sites, requiring the battery to be pulled. Trying to press Stop doesn't do anything, nor does waiting well over a minute for the browser to say something other than "Loading 0/x kB". This has happened numerous times when trying to access a number of different Web sites, including the following:
* When clicking on "My Opera" in the "Bookmarks..." section of the main window
* When clicking on "Yahoo!" in the "Bookmarks..." section of the main window
* When clicking on Tech Pulse Podcast (http://techpulsepodcast.blogspot.com) in the "History..." section of the main window
* When trying to click on the link to the iPhone ad in the middle of the front page of www.apple.com
Most of the time, entering an address manually (e.g. www.techpulsepodcast.com) does work.
*Yes, I think it's fair to say that the Opera team copied the iPhone interface, even though Opera Mini 4 beta was released before the iPhone. Apple demoed the iPhone browser interface in January, and I don't think it's any coincidence that the new version of Opera's smartphone browser just happened to be released shortly before the launch of the iPhone and just happened to steal the double-tap zoom feature from the iPhone demo. (Not to mention the fact that Opera released an iPhone bash commercial on their site along with the new beta.)
In fairness, it's still a beta, and I think Opera can ultimately create a really good competitor to the iPhone browser if they work harder on stamping out the painfully irritating bugs. I don't have any plans to buy an iPhone, and I think my Treo is great... but it sure would be nice to have a good Web browser on it.
I've talked a bit more about Opera Mini 4 beta vs. the iPhone on the Tech Pulse podcast.
I presume you're talking about one of these, most likely the Harmony 1000 since all the rest look as complicated as other remotes. The reason the designers were able to take away so many buttons from the device is that they stuck a giant full-color LCD screen on it and gave it an intuitive-looking GUI (sounds something like how the iPhone was designed, doesn't it?).
Here are some potential alternative workarounds based on suggestions at Ars Technica:
The above is supposed to disable Bonjour entirely (at least until you reset the mode to 555 or, presumably, repair permissions). Another alternate workaround is supposed to temporarily disable Bonjour until you restart:
Remove the space from mDNSResponder. To enable Bonjour again without restarting, change "unload" to "load".
Please note that I haven't tested these. Use at your own risk.
Frankly, though, I wouldn't try any system hacks just yet, for a number of reasons. First and foremost, there's no exploit code known to be in the wild right now. Second, I think it's kind of funny that all this hype surrounds one anonymous blog post. What reason do we have to believe that Mr./Ms. Anonymous is telling the truth, anyway? Everyone's so ready to jump on a Mac virus story that they don't even care what the source is. Correct me if I'm wrong.
We're going to be discussing the alleged new worm on the Tech Pulse podcast tonight around 8 PM Pacific, if anyone wants to listen live at talkshoe.com, or you can subscribe to the podcast at techpulsepodcast.com.
(Not FTA...)
Ballmer: [whilst dancing around and sweating profusely] "HA HA, Software-Plus-Services! Your mom is dumb and ugly and stupid and everyone thinks you smell!!!"
You know, it sure is strange to hear about Ballmer teasing something. Isn't he usually the one getting teased?
Ohhh, wait, different kind of teasing. My mistake.
Queue up Home Alone on Netflix, dude. Assuming you've got a kid (and yes, I realize that this is Slashdot, so that's quite an assumption), your best bet is to "accidentally" leave your kid at your house when you leave town. The benefits are substantial:
FWIW, I've worked as a school site technician in 3 different school districts and I'm currently a Network Specialist for the local County Superintendent of Schools. I, too, have used and highly recommend Deep Freeze, but it sounds like the person who submitted the question should probably implement some other ways to lock down the computers in addition to Deep Freeze.
If you have a filter and you're having problems with students downloading games and music, why not block game and music sites? Take a look at your Web access log and block the sites that are creating a problem. If all computers at your site (not just in your lab) access the network through your "free Internet filter," and if you have a domain,* you might benefit from setting up the proxy filter to only apply to a certain domain account, and then put your lab PCs on the domain and have the students log in via this restricted domain account. That way, teachers etc. can still get into whatever sites they need to, and they won't hate you because of your somewhat restrictive filter.
*Someone else suggested using a domain, and I wholeheartedly agree. I haven't set up a SAMBA domain, but if cost is an issue (which it sounds like it is since you're using a free filter), you might be able to set up a domain with a Linux server, although I admit I have no idea how to go about setting up account restrictions on a Linux domain.
Another great reason to use a domain is that you can set up your student account to be *very* limited; you can specify specific apps that they can't run, or if you want to be *really* restrictive you can even specify apps that they're allowed to run and everything else will be blacklisted by default. You can find some basic instructions in an article at my blog. (Sorry for the indirect link--ironically I'm behind a firewall and can't get the exact URL for you. Please look in the sidebar to find the Active Directory post.)
Again, the specific music and game sites can be blocked individually, but it sounds like a big issue here is classroom discipline. I can't give you any tips on that. =) But another tech tip that I have is a free program suite: UltraVNC. You've probably heard of VNC before, but this particular implementation is really great for a school lab. You can set it up so there's no tray icon (making it easier to log into a student computer without them knowing or being able to shut down your connection), and you can actually lock down their ability to use the keyboard or mouse on an individual basis. So if you've got some kid that's really screwing around, take away their privilege of being able to use the computer until they decide they can behave. UltraVNC also lets you transfer files between the computers, which can come in handy.
As an aside, VNC also makes it a piece of cake to take screenshots of students accessing naughty sites. Just connect to their screen when they've got something inappropriate up, hit the Print Screen key on your keyboard, and paste into Paint. Save it, and you've got the hostname and IP address of that computer in the VNC Viewer app's header, the current time from your system tray, and a clear shot of what the naughty student was viewing at the time.
One more thing: someone suggested individual user accounts, stating that this was the only way to track which student used a particular computer at a particular time to do something bad. This is not such a great idea, however, for several reasons. To name just a
Interestingly, Sophos recently had a similar issue. An update to its antivirus software caused Mac OS X computers to delete system files or move them to a quarantine folder. And the best part? The "infection" that this update was supposed to prevent was a proof-of-concept that is not even in the wild.
http://www.sophos.com/pressoffice/news/articles/20 06/02/inqtanafix.html
One would think that all vendors would take note of competitors' mistakes and carefully test updates before publicly deploying them, if for no other reason than to maintain their reputation. What good is anti-virus software that does more damage than it prevents?
I just know someone is going to ask this, so I'm writing this as a preemptive strike.
Yes, there really *are* people who have files greater than 2 GB. A perfect example is hard drive images. At a previous place of employment, we imaged entire iMac hard drives and put them on a server so that the HDs could be reimaged at any time. Seeing as the iMac HD was about 6 GB, it was absolutely essential to have support for 2+ gig files. Just one example.
Here's the full text of http://pvpm.metropipe.net/ in case of the Slashdot effect (it took me a couple tries to get in):
---
MetroPipe - Portable Virtual Privacy Machine - Technology Preview PR1.0
Mirror Node: pvpm.metropipe.net
MetroPipe High Speed Bittorrent Tracker and Dedicated Seed
pvpm.metropipe.net http://pvpm.metropipe.net/metropipe.net-portable-
Size: 82M
HTTP Mirrors
pvpm.metropipe.net metropipe.net-portable-virtual-privacy-machine-PR
Size: 82M
The Portable Virtual Privacy Machine Home Page
http://www.metropipe.net/ProductsPVPM.shtml
ABOUT
The MetroPipe Portable Virtual Privacy machine contains a complete portable virtual Linux machine with privacy-enabled Open Source Internet applications.
No installation needed - just plug the drive into any Windows or Linux computer, and click on the Virtual Privacy Machine icon and you're ready to go.
Carry your Internet applications, email, bookmarks, history, web cookies, download files in your pocket.
Carry your entire Internet communication system on a tiny USB drive.
Runs on any rewriteable media (USB drives, Flash Memory cards, Secure Digital devices, iPods, etc.)
Includes:
Mozilla Firefox Browser
Mozilla Thunderbird News/Email Client
Enigmail GPG (PGP Encrtytion program for Thunderbird)
Persistent home directory
Demo MetroPipe Tunneler
Perfect for travellers - nothing to be scanned, started, poked, or prodded at the airport.
Get English keyboard support no matter what computer you use.
The VPM's network connection will auto configure and run seamlessly on any machine with a working internet connection.
All Internet session data (cookies, history, downloads, etc.) are stored on the VPM, not the host computer.
This PR1 release runs on Windows and Linux - final release version will also run on OS X.
Includes Mozilla Firefox browser, Mozilla Thunderbird News/Email client (with Enigmail plugins for PGP email encryption), persistent Home directory, a demo version of the MetroPipe Tunneler.
Created from 100% Open Source GPL code and binaries.
INSTRUCTIONS:
Unzip the file, and read the README
Runs in full screen mode (press SHIFT-CTRL-F. SHIFT-CTRL captures and releases focus.)
Core Ingredients:
Damn Small Linux - Business Card Sized Live Linux based on Knoppix http://www.damnsmalllinux.org
QEMU - CPU Emulator http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/
Released by MetroPipe
MetroPipe Network Services - http://www.metropipe.net/
MetroPipe Tunneler - Encrypted Anonymous Web Browsing
The Portable Virtual Privacy Machine Home Page
iPod Your BMW. Apple has links to pages on BMW's site showing how they're integrated as well. Says Apple, this is "The first seamless integration of iPod and automobile."
Others had made similar homebrew iPod and non-iPod solutions before (and iPod and non-iPod after) Apple/BMW's solution.
At this point, it doesn't look like Apple has any official plans to unveil further integration of Apple technology with automobiles. Of course, Apple almost always "does not comment on unreleased products."
iPod Your BMW. Says Apple, this is "The first seamless integration of iPod and automobile."
Others had made similar homebrew iPod and non-iPod solutions before (and iPod and non-iPod after) Apple/BMW's solution.
At this point, it doesn't look like Apple has any official plans to unveil further integration of Apple technology with automobiles. Of course, Apple almost always "does not comment on unreleased products."
Geez, the Tooth Fairy has become one of them now?? Holy crap, I really do need a firewall!!
My first instinct was, "Wait a minute... they want to add a third wheel to solar energy?" We already have silicon solar panels that convert sunlight into energy. So why add something in between? Wouldn't that be less efficient?
The more I researched, though, the more I realized that my initial reaction was somewhat rash. Think about it: if nature already has a time-proven method, why not harness that rather than reinventing the wheel? Especially if the "reinvented" (silicon) method is less efficient.
I found a CNN article from 2 October 2003 where this idea was explained. Back then, less than a year ago, it was estimated that the efficiency would reach 10 percent by the end of 2004. According to one source referenced by another poster, we're already at 12 percent, and now achieving 20 percent is expected! (According to the CNN article, 20 percent is the efficiency of our current silicon solar power.) If the technology continues to develop at this rate, it could become more energy-efficient than silicon and allow for some very cool technology in the not-too-distant future.
(What exactly that technology might be, I'm not too sure. Who wants a disposable cell phone battery when current ones can be recharged in a couple hours? Anyone have any thoughts on how this tech could be best used?)
Disclaimer: I realize that this is likely to get flamed, as happens in any Mac vs. Windows PC debate. If you think it's really worth your time to flame... well, it's your time. =)
I found this /. article interesting because earlier today I was looking though a site I recently discovered on this very subject -- schools switching from Macs to PCs and not being able to give a rational justification for it.
I personally have worked in two different school districts who haved phased out Macs for the same silly reasons... "businesses use Windows so kids should too" and "we're on a budget so we need to purchase computers that are inexpensive [i.e. not taking TCO of Windows machines into consideration]." John Droz, the guy responsible for macvspc.info, has referenced over 500 articles debating Macs vs. PCs, mainly focusing on arguments of which platform should be used by school districts. While he obviously has a Mac bias, he brings up a lot of very good points (parts summarized below since most of us don't have time to read).
For the TCO argument, Droz suggests that district IT managers make a table and list all aspects relevant to operation in a school district, and then fill in estimated costs for Windows or Mac, including (at least) the following criteria:
Droz also recommends that IT managers write a list of "discernible benefits" of Windows PCs over Macs:
This will really give a school district a much better idea of whether it's worth it to "standardize" on Windows (i.e. eliminate all else). See his article on this subject.
On the "students should use Windows because businesses do" argument, Droz agrees that students should become familiar with Windows in school, but suggests that Macs with Virtual PC would be a more cost-effective solution because it's two computers in one, for a very small per-computer investment in VPC. However, Droz goes on to disprove the claim that students should use Windows PCs exclusively because businesses do. One argument is that businesses and schools are significantly different environments and have much different purposes:
He also argues that while Windows may be dominant now, there's no telling what OS a student will end up using in business. I would be remiss to not personally mention the gradual rise of the popularity of Linux as it becomes more mainstream and familiar to the masses. Let's say Linux reaches a 10 percent OS marketshare by the time a student graduates from college, and the student gets hired by a company that uses a Linux distro. Does it really matter that he/she learned a different OS in school? To some extent, yes, but the GUI is so familiar that it's not at all hard to get used to it. So why force kids to use Windows?
If you're interested in the subject of school conversion to Windows, I highly recommend
For those wondering what the heck a 419 Scam is, Wikipedia explains.
How true this is. I voluntarily went without TV for two years , believe it or not. I honestly didn't watch all that much TV beforehand, but being without it for so long made me realize what a waste of time TV really can be. I now watch a lot less than I used to, and I really don't miss it any.
TV definitely has its advantages, don't get me wrong. The occasional educational show can be entertaining and informative. What's more, it's great to just be able to spend time with a significant other after a long day, and when it's too late to go out, an hour of TV can be a nice way to unwind together (especially when The Simpsons is on, natch).
Seems to me like giving up TV for a week (even if TiVoing/taping episodes) is a really good idea. It could really help people realize how dependent they might really be on their TVs. I encourage anyone who's never done it to give it a try. You might wind up cutting out some of the less important (or utterly pointless) shows, increase your productivity, and become a marginally happier person because of it.