" For example, a local television station's site is hosted on the same machine as a spammer's site. I got calls from users wanting to visit that station's site so I had to unblock it.
If AOL blocks a local TV site for sharing an IP with a spammer, then the service provider will rush to close down the Spammer
This plan doesn't just stop AOL users seeing spam sites, it provides a powerful incentive for hosting firms to prevent spammers using them
I have commented several toimes about a need for providers of internet services to take more care of their customers
AOL is a family ISP - most techies wouldn't use it as it doesn't provide what we want, but all those kids surfing on it deserve to be protected from the people who target them with spam
It's been demonstrated over and over that there are enough people out there willing to buy from spammers to make it a highly profitable industry, but that most of those profits come from taking payment by fraud and never supplying the goods
I would not use an ISP that did this, but the marvel of free will means I don't have to. For AOL's target market (largely clueless and wanting an all-in-one service to supply services and protect them) this is the right action.
One final recommendation to AOL
Please supply the latest Windows service pack and the latest Internet Explorer update patches on your CDs and make them a prerequisite to going online. Microsoft would love you to do this, techies would love it too and it would close down a lot of spam relays by closing the holes.
For some months now I have been contemplating purchasing either a Creative Labs MuVO or an Apple iPod
I've now decided, definitely the iPod. I don't want to contribute to yet another Microsoft monopoly. I can't imagine the horror of being forced to use WMP to access my mobile device and being locked to a single platform.
If AOL, Comcast, freeserve etc all packed their ISP sign-up disks with the latest XP Service pack, the latest version of Internet Explorer (or even better, Mozilla) and all security updates to date of shipping, that would be a real help
Even better, they should require systems to be patched in order for their software to install, or apply the patches during install.
I work in system support. This conviction of mine that the numbers out stupid people outweigh the power users is borne of considerable experience and many thousands of hours of fixing things for those friends who only call when they have a problem.
There is a massive hard core of people who just DO NOT LEARN from their mistakes. Frankly if ISPs are going to let these dangerously ill-educated people onto the web they should have a duty to deal with the consequences
Anything ISPs do to protect these people or us techies from their side-effects is a good thing.
This isn't a whinger or an outsider speaking. I've got the T-shirt and it wasn't worth what they charged.
If users are too stupid to provide for themselves either a working AV or an infection-proof system (OSX) then they don't deserve internet access.
Most are probably incapable of finding and installing a free AV anyway. The ISPs are doing the right thing. They should make AV mandatory for use of their services.
You may not want the alternatives, but the logic goes that its easier to uninstall an optional component than to download a wanted one.
Freedom to install competing software is only available to those with internet connections.
In truth, its good for you to have them all on there anyway - competition in media player services give the public more choice of suppliers of premium media, and this reduces both the ability of Microsoft to be a majority toll-gate provider of software solutions, and of those services using microsoft's WMA technology to monopolise the new market.
Competition is needed not just in provision of media services but in provision of software which enables it...
Competition in the end user market leads to lower prices, competition in the DRM media player software leads to higher quality srvices, as Apple, Real and Microsoft will be forced to invest more in making their software better.
As an end-user, even if you use your right to uninstall (preferably a right to uninstall windows media player) you will benefit from this.
The Godzilla franchise is closing its doors and selling off their locks, stocks and barrels, however
A select group of original Godzilla developers have licences the genome and starting a new project, OpenGodzilla, which will allow the innocent victims of primeval sea-dwelling beasts to view and contribute genes to the monsters that destroy their lives.
Senior OpenGodzilla developer Owyabitme Muvathuka said that people have traditionally had no input into the supermonster design process leading to poor quality genetics and weaknesses to conventional weapons that proper review of the code would prevent, and hailed an era of free-as-in-beer, invincible terrors.
"They will work just fine until the mp3 format license requires the DRM add-ons"
There will be plenty of old copies of iTunes 4.x, Winamp and Windows Media Player in circulation - you can't kill a format, nor, with modern opensource activists and hackers, can you stop one being implemented.
Besides, so many downloaded copies of iTunes, all capable of ripping to Mp3, the idea of being able to render all the archives of non-protected Mp3s on peoples computers unplayable, or prevent further creation, is ludicrous.
People use Mp3 to be free of the grip of any one player. I've already defected twice (Real ->Winamp -> iTunes) and may do so a third time. Reinstalls of my operating system will not affect my ability to play my music, and nobody will stop me from doing so.
Contacting SCO's European Office
on
Germany Muzzles SCO
·
· Score: 5, Informative
If any concerned people wished to contact SCO's European head office, to press them to abide by the terms of the German court throughout their European market, they can do so at the following address:
EUROPEAN HEADQUARTERS
The Santa Cruz Operation, Ltd.
Croxley Business Park, Hatters Lane
Watford WD1 8YN, United Kingdom
TEL: +44(0) 1923-816344
FAX: +44(0) 1923-813808
E-MAIL: info@sco.com
It would probably do no good but, well, you never know.
I'm asking a perfectly legitimate question. An odd-shaped object embedded in a rock on mars may be a chemical deposit, or it may be an organic product - or it may just be an anomalous rock.
Why not just use a high frequency transducer to clean the surface of the panels?
Tilting and vibrating them might, possibly, shake some of the dust off?. Obviously this has to be balanced against the wear caused by the vibration so it may not be possible...
Most European countries spam can be dealt with by blocking all the Top-Level Domains except the ones you deal with (Turkey, Germany and Italy in my case)
However so many European companies use the.com TLD as to make blocking it impossible due to the amount of essential email that would be stopped.
I wish that the USA had a TLD that was only used there - it would make things so much easier...
The BBC's choice to use a platform-restricted DRM file format can only have one certain consequence - more time and development being spent on breaking Windows Media DRM components.
I have a right to view this content, if I cannot do so on a platform of my choice then I'll strip the DRM from the files and watch them in a format of my choice. I can't see there being any difficulty in getting hold of software to defeat the restrictions....
IANAD (I am not a developer) but surely API's for things like the interface by which Internet Explorer passes webpage sounds to Media Player are only of use if you wish to design, from the ground up, a replacement for WMP
The truth is that the major "other" applications are pre-existing cross-platform apps (RealPlayer, Quicktime) and applications which don't handle the wide scope of formats used by WMP (iTunes, Musicmatch, Winamp)
My point is that to the developers of crossplatform apps or those for a limited range of file-types, the underlying API will not be as much a revelation as a small convenience, Crossplatform apps don't probably want large chunks of Win32 API to reimplement on their other platforms and limited-scope players cant handle everything the API passes anyway
A further concern is that Microsoft might NDA the API's in a fashion that makes the developers who see them incapable of working on Opensource projects or projects for other Operating Systems.
Ergo, my opinion, better to give the customer and the OEM builder freedom of choice for now and let the market develop from there. There are many mature Media Players already, the problem they face is having to be chosen by the end-user. Better API access won't change that.
The transmission cost/time for a 5-Gb file isn't the only problem they face
It just occurs to me that a lot of 32-bit Operating Systems won't like a file with a size of greater than 2Gb
Probably there's a hack that lets it be done... Is the film shipped as 3 video files which play consecutively? I would love the irony if the only mainstream machine that can play these Windows Media files was a Mac G5
For the movie industry to start issuing DivX copies of its films may prove regrettable
Re:32 bit only access 4MB of RAM at a time?????
on
AMD Back in the Black
·
· Score: 1
lol, actually I knew that, I was hoping that by putting a wrong date in there people would realise that I was updating his comment for the Windows 3.1 era
Slashdot Mirror
I won't do it until they offer .OGG files!
Well, someone had to say it.. now move along...
Hosts DOS YOU !
" For example, a local television station's site is hosted on the same machine as a spammer's site. I got calls from users wanting to visit that station's site so I had to unblock it.
If AOL blocks a local TV site for sharing an IP with a spammer, then the service provider will rush to close down the Spammer
This plan doesn't just stop AOL users seeing spam sites, it provides a powerful incentive for hosting firms to prevent spammers using them
It's brilliant.
I have commented several toimes about a need for providers of internet services to take more care of their customers
AOL is a family ISP - most techies wouldn't use it as it doesn't provide what we want, but all those kids surfing on it deserve to be protected from the people who target them with spam
It's been demonstrated over and over that there are enough people out there willing to buy from spammers to make it a highly profitable industry, but that most of those profits come from taking payment by fraud and never supplying the goods
I would not use an ISP that did this, but the marvel of free will means I don't have to. For AOL's target market (largely clueless and wanting an all-in-one service to supply services and protect them) this is the right action.
One final recommendation to AOL
Please supply the latest Windows service pack and the latest Internet Explorer update patches on your CDs and make them a prerequisite to going online. Microsoft would love you to do this, techies would love it too and it would close down a lot of spam relays by closing the holes.
For some months now I have been contemplating purchasing either a Creative Labs MuVO or an Apple iPod
I've now decided, definitely the iPod. I don't want to contribute to yet another Microsoft monopoly. I can't imagine the horror of being forced to use WMP to access my mobile device and being locked to a single platform.
Surely if Linux takes over the desktop, it'll be C:\ that's dead, replaced by hda1...
Ahh, commonsense solutions
If AOL, Comcast, freeserve etc all packed their ISP sign-up disks with the latest XP Service pack, the latest version of Internet Explorer (or even better, Mozilla) and all security updates to date of shipping, that would be a real help
Even better, they should require systems to be patched in order for their software to install, or apply the patches during install.
Oh, but I do
I work in system support. This conviction of mine that the numbers out stupid people outweigh the power users is borne of considerable experience and many thousands of hours of fixing things for those friends who only call when they have a problem.
There is a massive hard core of people who just DO NOT LEARN from their mistakes. Frankly if ISPs are going to let these dangerously ill-educated people onto the web they should have a duty to deal with the consequences
Anything ISPs do to protect these people or us techies from their side-effects is a good thing.
This isn't a whinger or an outsider speaking. I've got the T-shirt and it wasn't worth what they charged.
If users are too stupid to provide for themselves either a working AV or an infection-proof system (OSX) then they don't deserve internet access.
Most are probably incapable of finding and installing a free AV anyway. The ISPs are doing the right thing. They should make AV mandatory for use of their services.
You may not want the alternatives, but the logic goes that its easier to uninstall an optional component than to download a wanted one.
Freedom to install competing software is only available to those with internet connections.
In truth, its good for you to have them all on there anyway - competition in media player services give the public more choice of suppliers of premium media, and this reduces both the ability of Microsoft to be a majority toll-gate provider of software solutions, and of those services using microsoft's WMA technology to monopolise the new market.
Competition is needed not just in provision of media services but in provision of software which enables it...
Competition in the end user market leads to lower prices, competition in the DRM media player software leads to higher quality srvices, as Apple, Real and Microsoft will be forced to invest more in making their software better.
As an end-user, even if you use your right to uninstall (preferably a right to uninstall windows media player) you will benefit from this.
The Godzilla franchise is closing its doors and selling off their locks, stocks and barrels, however
A select group of original Godzilla developers have licences the genome and starting a new project, OpenGodzilla, which will allow the innocent victims of primeval sea-dwelling beasts to view and contribute genes to the monsters that destroy their lives.
Senior OpenGodzilla developer Owyabitme Muvathuka said that people have traditionally had no input into the supermonster design process leading to poor quality genetics and weaknesses to conventional weapons that proper review of the code would prevent, and hailed an era of free-as-in-beer, invincible terrors.
"They will work just fine until the mp3 format license requires the DRM add-ons"
There will be plenty of old copies of iTunes 4.x, Winamp and Windows Media Player in circulation - you can't kill a format, nor, with modern opensource activists and hackers, can you stop one being implemented.
Besides, so many downloaded copies of iTunes, all capable of ripping to Mp3, the idea of being able to render all the archives of non-protected Mp3s on peoples computers unplayable, or prevent further creation, is ludicrous.
People use Mp3 to be free of the grip of any one player. I've already defected twice (Real ->Winamp -> iTunes) and may do so a third time. Reinstalls of my operating system will not affect my ability to play my music, and nobody will stop me from doing so.
If any concerned people wished to contact SCO's European head office, to press them to abide by the terms of the German court throughout their European market, they can do so at the following address:
EUROPEAN HEADQUARTERS
The Santa Cruz Operation, Ltd.
Croxley Business Park, Hatters Lane
Watford WD1 8YN, United Kingdom
TEL: +44(0) 1923-816344
FAX: +44(0) 1923-813808
E-MAIL: info@sco.com
It would probably do no good but, well, you never know.
Troll???
I'm asking a perfectly legitimate question. An odd-shaped object embedded in a rock on mars may be a chemical deposit, or it may be an organic product - or it may just be an anomalous rock.
I fail to see what is trollish about my question.
"and even an oddly shaped object that looks like Rotini pasta."
Could it be a fossil?
When someone combines a CD walkman that plays Mp3s (already cheaply available) with a DVD drive..
then the iPod will have real competition... 4Gb of Mp3s on an optical disk, might be read-only but it'd be all most people ever need....
Why not just use a high frequency transducer to clean the surface of the panels?
Tilting and vibrating them might, possibly, shake some of the dust off?. Obviously this has to be balanced against the wear caused by the vibration so it may not be possible...
No, exactly the opposite
My employers are a major European firm with no presence in the USA and no trade with US firms.
I want to block all US-originated email... (On top of my Bayesian spam filters.. by blocking TLDs as well I get maximum spam-stopping power
Most European countries spam can be dealt with by blocking all the Top-Level Domains except the ones you deal with (Turkey, Germany and Italy in my case)
.com TLD as to make blocking it impossible due to the amount of essential email that would be stopped.
However so many European companies use the
I wish that the USA had a TLD that was only used there - it would make things so much easier...
The BBC's choice to use a platform-restricted DRM file format can only have one certain consequence - more time and development being spent on breaking Windows Media DRM components.
I have a right to view this content, if I cannot do so on a platform of my choice then I'll strip the DRM from the files and watch them in a format of my choice. I can't see there being any difficulty in getting hold of software to defeat the restrictions....
I can see a lot of scams making use of the service if the email addresses end "@ google.com"
The possibilities to scam people to "sell" higher pagerank posing as a Google employee, for instance.
However if the URL googlemail.com is for the mail service this shouldn't be an issue.
Not convinced
IANAD (I am not a developer) but surely API's for things like the interface by which Internet Explorer passes webpage sounds to Media Player are only of use if you wish to design, from the ground up, a replacement for WMP
The truth is that the major "other" applications are pre-existing cross-platform apps (RealPlayer, Quicktime) and applications which don't handle the wide scope of formats used by WMP (iTunes, Musicmatch, Winamp)
My point is that to the developers of crossplatform apps or those for a limited range of file-types, the underlying API will not be as much a revelation as a small convenience, Crossplatform apps don't probably want large chunks of Win32 API to reimplement on their other platforms and limited-scope players cant handle everything the API passes anyway
A further concern is that Microsoft might NDA the API's in a fashion that makes the developers who see them incapable of working on Opensource projects or projects for other Operating Systems.
Ergo, my opinion, better to give the customer and the OEM builder freedom of choice for now and let the market develop from there. There are many mature Media Players already, the problem they face is having to be chosen by the end-user. Better API access won't change that.
The transmission cost/time for a 5-Gb file isn't the only problem they face
It just occurs to me that a lot of 32-bit Operating Systems won't like a file with a size of greater than 2Gb
Probably there's a hack that lets it be done... Is the film shipped as 3 video files which play consecutively? I would love the irony if the only mainstream machine that can play these Windows Media files was a Mac G5
Oddly enough, that's the first thing I thought
For the movie industry to start issuing DivX copies of its films may prove regrettable
lol, actually I knew that, I was hoping that by putting a wrong date in there people would realise that I was updating his comment for the Windows 3.1 era