I thought the French resistance to change was due to their being French, kind of like the U.S. resistance to change. I blame the French culture of bureaucracy on influence of the Romans, not on the French language, since languages reflect the cultures that use them. But I don't think it means they won't adopt or create high-tech things. In my lifetime, I have seen the TGV and the Concorde, and I noted that when I was in France on vacation 10 years ago, all the pay telephones accepted smart cards and displayed electronic usage instructions in English as well as French, even in some pretty backwater towns that I visited. Also, they had/have this thing called Minitel, long before most of us had dial-up access to unnetworked bulletin boards. And, going further back, there was this French guy named Pasteur who did a great deal to improve public health worldwide.
As for the lack of distinction between download and upload, I've seen plenty of lack of clarity on that point in English.
The irony is that here I am defending the French, and I used to make jokes about them and not like them. Then I met a few of them and liked them. But I still make jokes, and I enjoy their jokes about us, too.
1 in 10? Holy cow! That's an incredibly great hit ratio. If it's that good, no wonder the average slimeball can't resist getting into the spam business. So I'd be surprised if it's that good.
I'm sure, though, that there's a good hit ratio, and one could probably sell manure using spam. Just printing advertisements costs more money for a large distribution than sending email. If you can get a sale out of every 1,000 contacts, you're going to be rolling in dough.
Basically, the way I understand it (IANAM*), if you expose a product that has some value to enough people, you will sell it, no matter how little value that is. A number of years ago, my kid's pre-school decided to raise money for a new playground by selling raffle tickets at $5 a pop. Grumbling, I took my turn in front of the grocery store selling them, and I sold a few, but I didn't think there was any way I would unload our quota.
One guy stopped by on the way into the store, looked at our sign and the tickets, and said, "You'll sell 1 in 50." (This isn't exactly the ratio he gave, but the closest that I can remember.) I started counting people going into the store and tickets I sold, and darned if he wasn't right!
I read a book, usually about something that has no relationship whatsoever to work. Of course, this means I have to take public transit, but it's less stressful and cheaper than the operational cost of my car, let alone parking.
I was thinking the "government worker" jibe, but you beat me to it. Unfortunately, it's not any better in private enterprise. I've worked in both environments, and I'm not impressed. When people stop sending their money to Obewan Kanobi or whoever it is in Nigeria, then I'll begin to have hope for the human race.
Unfortunately, that's not the only reason. A year ago, a firm providing electronic court filing services for one of the U.S. federal courts used an applet with an expired code signature. They didn't care in the least that the signature was no longer valid. I'm happy to say they no longer have that contract.
The author brushes aside "the social engineering aspects of the install", but the screen shots don't show anything other than the standard dialog that is triggered when Java encounters an applet that seeks to use privileged methods. This is hardly social engineering!
It's been a long time since I worked with Java code, but I recall that once the user tells Java he "trusts" the code, (signed or unsigned), he opens himself up to a number of risks, including accessing the local filesystem and making network connections to hosts other than the host from which the applet was downloaded. This would, of course, include HTTP calls, probably using the installed default browser. I don't know about executing local programs.
So, while this may have been an exploitation of MSIE, the fact remains that it would never have occurred had the user not agreed to trust the applet. This is why it's important for developers and sites to sign their code, but more importantly, it shows the importance of embedding into end-users' brains: "Never, never, never click 'yes' when the application tells you the code is untrusted."
I didn't get very far into the article yet, but from playing around with IR film in the 1970's, I learned that there are commercial filters available to filter out visible light, so it may be possible to do better than the author's suggestion to use a piece of underexposed photographic film for a filter.
To the best of my recollection, Internet Explorer spoofs Netscape by saying it's Mozilla in the HTTP User-Agent header, then adding parenthetical remarks that indicate it is really MSIE. So the notion of Opera pretending to be MSIE means that it has to pretend it's MSIE being Mozilla/Netscape. Microsoft introduced this spoofing because of some bug in web servers, I think that caused MSIE to fail.
I just wish that all the browsers would send what they really are, and that websites wouldn't deliberately kick out certain browsers because they aren't what the developers had in mind.
(I know, this is kind of like asking for world peace, but heck, it's a start!)
If you study history, you'll better understand the global forces that affect your life, gain some appreciation for dealing with other cultures, and be able to spout arcane bits of trivia that have absolutely NOTHING to do with bits and bytes, which may or may not be helpful in dealing with non-techies. You'll be better able to deal with the fact that computers are a means, not an end. Not that this will advance your career one whit, but at least you'll be wiser than some of the people with MBAs that are screwing up companies and nations.
I should give you the caveat that the only degree I have is a B.A. in languages granted over 20 years ago. I seem to be no more nor less employable than people my age with comp sci degrees. At a certain point, a job is a job, and what really matters is paying the mortgage and making it to the kid's class play.
... it's about damn time. Data General had a similar scheme, called ring memory, in AOS/VS about 20 years ago. You can read about it in Tracy Kidder's Soul of a New Machine.
Living in the Stone (or maybe Bronze) age helps: I have thus far avoided installing Macromedia's Flash plug-in because of my disagreement with some of Macromedia's terms of use (like the right to audit my use anytime they darn well please). So, yeah, I get annoying popups about not having Flash installed, but maybe your CSS solution will help me there, too. Thanks!
Based on what I read in the article, as a juror I would find for the plaintiff. A contract is a contract.
'Course, you may also find a binding arbitration clause in the contract, which would keep you from winning a court case, and probably a clause restricting the venue to a jurisdiction inconvenient to you. Then there's the question of whether you have standing, since the EULA was between the original purchaser and the software company, and it is his right to transfer everything guaranteed in the license that is impeded. As second-hand purchaser, your claim is against the person who sold it to you.
I think the best thing is to look up contact information for the company's officers and write them a civil, straightforward letter asking them to rectify the situation. Then, if you don't receive satisfaction, you can exact your pound of flash by noising it around on Slashdot and to reporters at your local newspaper/television station.
My 1989 VW, which had about 135,000 miles on it at the time, passed the Virginia emissions test last summer -- still operating on the original catalytic converter and the original fuel injection system. Va. emissions tests include testing at idle and on a treadmill at varying speeds up to 35 mph.
It did flunk two years before: the gas cap had a vapor leak. But not once, in biannual testing, has it ever failed. So I'm not convinced about the two-year claim or the traffic jam claim.
Warm-up is admittedly a problem, but all internal combustion engines have that same problem, and for most cars, the first fifteen or twenty minutes is the minority of the time.
But it's quite another to coerce the states into passing laws they don't want to pass, or that are contrary to their state constitutions, in order to receive highway funds.
Perhaps, but it is not without precedent. Threats to highway funding were used to get states to increase the minimum drinking age to 21 and to require vehicle emissions testing. Whether or not that is just, it is.
I find it ironic that the so-called proponents of transferring more power to the states are the ones behind this and any number of other issues where they want conformance to their ideology. But this hypocrisy was predictable even back in 1994.
"Meet the new boss/Same as the old boss..." -- The Who (?)
I would say that this is not a security hole in any browser but rather a demonstration of yet another way to trick human beings (particularly Anglophone humans in the U.S.) into thinking a URL is what it is not. Sure, the use of non-English characters is innovative, but how does this differ from me setting up a domain like pay-pal.com to fleece people expecting to see paypal.com? (I am sure it would be possible to come up with a more credible example, but I'm sticking with the theme here.)
I am curious, though, how the certificate authority of the SSL site would respond, and what their liability would be, to the people fleeced by the hypothetical scam.
I appreciate the efforts of the people who discovered and publicized this trick, but I'm standing pat with Mozilla. No way am I using MSIE unless I have to!
I have gotten one or two sales calls on my cell phone. I had made the mistake of giving it as a way to get hold of me for something or another I was buying or having done.
Since DNC was passed, we have had only one or two sales calls from rogue companies. Unfortunately, charities and politicians are exempt, and they still call.
FWIW, I think a cellphone is no guarantee of peace and quiet. I have heard of spam sent to phones via text messaging, and I am sure it's only a matter of time.
I like his discussion of the limitation of human brains. I see people write clever code in Perl, and it's wonderful that they're so smart. But what's going to happen when they've flown the coop and I'm stuck here trying to maintain it? My mantra for these people is: If you don't plan on being chained to this project for the rest of your career, then please be sure ordinary mortals can understand your code!
I punched in "restaurants" and "adams morgan" (an area of Washington, DC, with many excellent restaurants), and the first link I followed led to a 404 error. I think I'll stick to the Washington Post's restaurant guide or the time-honored technique of wandering around until my stomach tells me I've found the place it wants dinner from.
I'll worry about it when I can't get film.
From what I've seen of digital so far, you can get better images from film anyway, and under more challenging conditions, too.
But I'll bet there are executives in Rochester who are happy to hear this one.
Do we really have to think about this one? The administration has an agency that provides critical information needed by the public. The NWS does a fine job of it, and NOAA, in combination with NWS, delivers the data in a variety of ways that benefits everyone. You can pick up a weather radio for a few bucks at Radio Shack or elsewhere and then, free of charge, be warned of dangerous weather conditions in your area, or you can go to the NOAA web site to get the same information more rapidly, without having to look at advertising or having anyone monitor your surfing habits. Why fix what isn't broken?
Oh, that's right. Someone wants to do it for a profit and eliminate the free competition. I know where I'd put my wager!
Slashdot Mirror
As for the lack of distinction between download and upload, I've seen plenty of lack of clarity on that point in English.
The irony is that here I am defending the French, and I used to make jokes about them and not like them. Then I met a few of them and liked them. But I still make jokes, and I enjoy their jokes about us, too.
Salut!
For another thing that needed doing, read Catapult: Harry and I Build a Siege Engine. Sorry, I don't remember the author's name.
I'm sure, though, that there's a good hit ratio, and one could probably sell manure using spam. Just printing advertisements costs more money for a large distribution than sending email. If you can get a sale out of every 1,000 contacts, you're going to be rolling in dough.
Basically, the way I understand it (IANAM*), if you expose a product that has some value to enough people, you will sell it, no matter how little value that is. A number of years ago, my kid's pre-school decided to raise money for a new playground by selling raffle tickets at $5 a pop. Grumbling, I took my turn in front of the grocery store selling them, and I sold a few, but I didn't think there was any way I would unload our quota.
One guy stopped by on the way into the store, looked at our sign and the tickets, and said, "You'll sell 1 in 50." (This isn't exactly the ratio he gave, but the closest that I can remember.) I started counting people going into the store and tickets I sold, and darned if he wasn't right!
None of this, of course, helps the spam problem.
* I am not a marketer.
I read a book, usually about something that has no relationship whatsoever to work. Of course, this means I have to take public transit, but it's less stressful and cheaper than the operational cost of my car, let alone parking.
I was thinking the "government worker" jibe, but you beat me to it. Unfortunately, it's not any better in private enterprise. I've worked in both environments, and I'm not impressed. When people stop sending their money to Obewan Kanobi or whoever it is in Nigeria, then I'll begin to have hope for the human race.
Unfortunately, that's not the only reason. A year ago, a firm providing electronic court filing services for one of the U.S. federal courts used an applet with an expired code signature. They didn't care in the least that the signature was no longer valid. I'm happy to say they no longer have that contract.
It's been a long time since I worked with Java code, but I recall that once the user tells Java he "trusts" the code, (signed or unsigned), he opens himself up to a number of risks, including accessing the local filesystem and making network connections to hosts other than the host from which the applet was downloaded. This would, of course, include HTTP calls, probably using the installed default browser. I don't know about executing local programs.
So, while this may have been an exploitation of MSIE, the fact remains that it would never have occurred had the user not agreed to trust the applet. This is why it's important for developers and sites to sign their code, but more importantly, it shows the importance of embedding into end-users' brains: "Never, never, never click 'yes' when the application tells you the code is untrusted."
Google turned up a very fine article on digital IR photography that lists specific visible light filters.
... news for parrots!
I just wish that all the browsers would send what they really are, and that websites wouldn't deliberately kick out certain browsers because they aren't what the developers had in mind. (I know, this is kind of like asking for world peace, but heck, it's a start!)
I should give you the caveat that the only degree I have is a B.A. in languages granted over 20 years ago. I seem to be no more nor less employable than people my age with comp sci degrees. At a certain point, a job is a job, and what really matters is paying the mortgage and making it to the kid's class play.
"King" or "Emperor" seems to be more the title he's aiming for.
... it's about damn time. Data General had a similar scheme, called ring memory, in AOS/VS about 20 years ago. You can read about it in Tracy Kidder's Soul of a New Machine.
Living in the Stone (or maybe Bronze) age helps: I have thus far avoided installing Macromedia's Flash plug-in because of my disagreement with some of Macromedia's terms of use (like the right to audit my use anytime they darn well please). So, yeah, I get annoying popups about not having Flash installed, but maybe your CSS solution will help me there, too. Thanks!
'Course, you may also find a binding arbitration clause in the contract, which would keep you from winning a court case, and probably a clause restricting the venue to a jurisdiction inconvenient to you. Then there's the question of whether you have standing, since the EULA was between the original purchaser and the software company, and it is his right to transfer everything guaranteed in the license that is impeded. As second-hand purchaser, your claim is against the person who sold it to you.
I think the best thing is to look up contact information for the company's officers and write them a civil, straightforward letter asking them to rectify the situation. Then, if you don't receive satisfaction, you can exact your pound of flash by noising it around on Slashdot and to reporters at your local newspaper/television station.
Um. Did you write this yourself, or should you have added a note of attribution?
It did flunk two years before: the gas cap had a vapor leak. But not once, in biannual testing, has it ever failed. So I'm not convinced about the two-year claim or the traffic jam claim.
Warm-up is admittedly a problem, but all internal combustion engines have that same problem, and for most cars, the first fifteen or twenty minutes is the minority of the time.
Perhaps, but it is not without precedent. Threats to highway funding were used to get states to increase the minimum drinking age to 21 and to require vehicle emissions testing. Whether or not that is just, it is.
I find it ironic that the so-called proponents of transferring more power to the states are the ones behind this and any number of other issues where they want conformance to their ideology. But this hypocrisy was predictable even back in 1994.
"Meet the new boss/Same as the old boss..." -- The Who (?)
Exactly! You know, like if a tree falls in a forest and there is no one there, there's no sound.
I am curious, though, how the certificate authority of the SSL site would respond, and what their liability would be, to the people fleeced by the hypothetical scam.
I appreciate the efforts of the people who discovered and publicized this trick, but I'm standing pat with Mozilla. No way am I using MSIE unless I have to!
Since DNC was passed, we have had only one or two sales calls from rogue companies. Unfortunately, charities and politicians are exempt, and they still call.
FWIW, I think a cellphone is no guarantee of peace and quiet. I have heard of spam sent to phones via text messaging, and I am sure it's only a matter of time.
Just one more reason to move to Lincoln, Montana.
I like his discussion of the limitation of human brains. I see people write clever code in Perl, and it's wonderful that they're so smart. But what's going to happen when they've flown the coop and I'm stuck here trying to maintain it? My mantra for these people is: If you don't plan on being chained to this project for the rest of your career, then please be sure ordinary mortals can understand your code!
I punched in "restaurants" and "adams morgan" (an area of Washington, DC, with many excellent restaurants), and the first link I followed led to a 404 error. I think I'll stick to the Washington Post's restaurant guide or the time-honored technique of wandering around until my stomach tells me I've found the place it wants dinner from.
But I'll bet there are executives in Rochester who are happy to hear this one.
Oh, that's right. Someone wants to do it for a profit and eliminate the free competition. I know where I'd put my wager!