The fact is that Microsoft is late to the party with their Microsoftized version of sudo. That's really what UAC is, after all: sudo with a fancy display mechanism (to make it hard to spoof) and extra monitoring to pick up on "suspicious" behavior.'"
No it's not! Not at all. First of all, let's define what sudo should do: Act as a barrier that data and application execution must pass. UAC does not fit the definition.
"Vista features such as UAC or Protected Mode Internet Explorer that are dependent on limited user privileges -- which Microsoft calls Integrity Levels (IL) -- are designed to allow some IL breaches.
Because the boundaries defined by UAC and Protected Mode IE are designed to be porous, they can't really be considered security barriers, he said. "Neither UAC elevations nor Protected Mode IE define new Windows security boundaries,"
I want more desktop OS options and my laptop is a dual-boot Kubuntu/Debian Testing install, so this isn't a troll.
The few users who are going to actively decide to buy a Ubuntu/Dell product (paying more for it) and haven't run Ubuntu before will be quite surprised to find out:
1. Ubuntu is buggy. What's worse is the bugs are big gotchas right on top. Buggier than Debian's Testing. 2. Windows is probably less cosmetically buggy and will only get better by the important Q4 sales. Meanwhile, Ubuntu has rushed onto the next version. (Like when I was prompted to upgrade to *beta* software last week.) 3. What's Mark's business model? 4. Is Mark going to have support minions waiting by the phone when they can't get their printers to work? Or will it be the usual "24-hour support" meaning those really thorough how-to's that kind of apply to your situation and unfinished threads in their forums. 5. What will Microsoft give to Dell to sweeten the pot and shut out Linux?
I would be very surprised if this is an instant financial jackpot for Dell. Will Ubuntu's warts become a big liability for Dell? "Profit or liability?" is how ubuntu lives/dies in corporate meetings in a few months time.
step children in the computer world. Especially web cams.
Add to that the misery of attempting to hack to every proprietary firmware variation on every camera and hunting down someone who knows something about the camera firmware/driver and the misery is tripled. I know I owe this guy for my webcam working like magic.
In theory with SIP (VOIP) video conferencing is ready for the masses, but I still don't see web cams taking off as a kind of must-have accessory. You still don't see brands like HP jumping in and flushing logitech out of the business.
Anyone have any insight as to why that is?
The best one I ever saw was a USB product that was sold under the Kodak brand. I was shocked at how bad the integrated web cam in the mac laptop is.
ow many non-/. reading, mainstream users are going to install another widget system on their computer?
Quite a few actually. Your family members will all have the same experience, clicking on setup.exe.
the reason that so many companies choose the Windows development? It just works
If you are trying to make another Solitiare (sp?) game, then yeah windows works. Microsoft's tools are limited. Very limited. That you have a problem with complexity outside Microsoft's use cases is very narrow-minded. There are so many use cases that fall outside Microsoft's development range, you simply haven't had any experience with them.
Instead of being content in Microsoft's walled garden, check out a Linux distro and see what it's like. It will be like going from AOL to a real ISP. Here's a good link to get you started on Debian. http://www.desktoplinux.com/articles/AT8143350649. html
The software update manager in Kubuntu asked me if I wanted to "upgrade" last week. End-users are asked to upgrade from not-so-good Edgy to Feisty which is *really* not working well compared to running Etch.
I'm using Edgy after using Debian Etch throughout its testing phase and *Edgy* is *still* buggier than Etch was in testing. It should not be asking me if I want an upgrade. The upgrade should be an optional meta-package at best.
There are definitely problems with KDE/beryl drawing some of the the kde dialog boxes right. I don't really know where the problem is, but I can confirm I've seen it on KDE. If there was complaints about kde's default wireless gui, it is very limited in use. Kwlan is much better.
The overall impression I get after using the installer and Edgy with KDE is the Canonical projects are running very quick and dirty for what is supposed to be "released" software.
1. SIP client protocol has been implemented for every desktop. Windows/Mac/Gnome-ekiga/kde-twinkle and kphone. 2. Multiple SIP servers are open, and Free AND integrate with Google's IM platform. (openser being generally excellent, there are a number of others) 3. Conference bridges are open and Free and work nicely through most clients. 4. Nortel-style phone systems are still absurdly priced.
The SIP protocol should revolutionize communication. The thing holding everyone back in the U.S. is the telco patent portfolio. The message waiting indicator has been litigated, the claims AT&T successfully made against Vonage are ridiculous.
I predict Google will be in court with AT&T over VOIP-related patents in very short order.
Riight. It's a simple black-and-white issue. We know who the enemy is, let's "just" put them all in jail. We have one of the largest prison populations in the world and it hasn't done a thing to address "dangers to society."
We've got a long list of our enemies that seem to flourish despite harsh penalties: illicit drug users, terrists, gamblers and murderers. Put those damn liberals on the list and the world will be much safer!
As much as you may want it to work, legislating morality doesn't work.
As someone who used to look at the data from NPD in Apple's categories, they were #1 in laptops and 3rd-5th in volume depending on the month.
However, the way the stats are reported are normally strongly biased towards microsoft by lumping _all_ microsoft-based laptops/pc's from dell/hp/whatever together to create the illusion of a "tiny" mac market.
So, you've got apple holding their own at higher price points and the rest of them fighting each other over practically identical products.
tomorrow Microsoft will sell one hell of a lot of copies of Vista to all those Chinese pirates
Will they sell millions of copies at full-retail in China? No. That's not the point. The point is they make _much_ more money allowing pirated copies to flourish than they would otherwise get forbidding pirated copies.
Piracy directly benefits companies like Microsoft. It doesn't take an MBA to understand today's pirated copy is tomorrow's customer.
-Funny how Vista is somehow accidentally available as a download right now. (See another post in this discussion) Most Adobe titles are hacked and easily available too. This is _easily_ addressed in 2007, (DRM dongles) and yet, somehow nothing is implemented.
-Funny how it's these huge software conglomerates pushing this "pirating IP is BAD" agenda. They are using it to protect their market dominance at the expense of smaller competitors.
-What would happen if it was legal to duplicate and distribute any software? You would have more choices and dominant software vendors would have more competition.
They've got you and the legislators fooled with the false "deprivation" claim. They have sponsored laws that harm you. Please re-consider your position, it harms all of us.
2. Why is it suddenly the goal of OSS is to defeat MS? Can't we just keep making OSS for the sake of making software? This shit is too agenda-driven for me.
This is what the media does to draw in readers. To some extent, I'd say it's natural to pick a competitor to overtake if you are trying to make a business.
I wish the spirit of your comment would sink into nearly everyone with an interest in Linux. It would only lead to more innovation and an even more diverse linux/bsd ecosphere.
It's important to remember the typical Exchange-buying PHB won't even consider alternatives.
Today's lesson: making an exchange killer won't benefit many users. sticking to your knitting will make a great something. That's for sure. Case in point, xfce4 in debian etch. Surprised the hell out of me. Pretty intuitive, easy-ish to use.
Millions of people and businesses all buying the same software is economic insanity.
No, it's not. The people that spend the money on software more than once get at least as much value out of it as they gave to the entity selling the software. Economically, we are in a situation in the technology market where a monopoly has become a price maker. (look "price maker" up on wikipedia) There are severe limitations in the market for computer software and hardware as a result of this monopoly.
Instead of paying money to buy software, a company can instead choose to pay less money to modify an open source project to meet their needs and leverage the contributions other companies have made modifying the same project to their needs. This sounds good, but in my experience, it is a low-probability event. Rarely is the code base flexible enough to make a build decision. (versus the buy COTS)
Software really does fit the utility economic model better than a manufacturing model Some software does. Definitely not all. What's nice is that there's room for both.
OSS definitely has a multitude of benefits and is a beautiful counter-attack on the Microsoft's monopoly.
The guys pulling the strings in the White House cut their teeth in Nixon's cabinet. Why does this come as a surprise to anyone?
What I'd like to know at this point in time, is how many of these evil-administration stories are really evil or just the usual administration enemies highlighting some rule-breaking.
My short list of "really evil things" is: Domestic spying. AG Gonzalez (sp?) and his crack-pot unlimited executive powers theory. Tom Delay Deficit spending policy that's just putting off the a very bad day of reckoning that will harm everyone but the richest 2%.
There must be a couple of conservatives with an opinion.
More of the same, "Oh yeah? Ours will be better AND cheaper!" talk from Microsoft.
Someone needs to explain to me who is rushing to buy these things.
High-voltage lines into the box and having air-conditioning running 24-7 just sitting in a parking lot will probably inspire a visit from the local city inspector.
This will be the strategy that any company with a couple of lawyers of the world will pursue.
They've already legislated away some access to researching vulnerabilities with the DMCA.
Announcing security hole disclosure risks litigation in the U.S.
I'm most concerned about the American legislation that Microsoft will dream up to fight shops like this which will end up harming us all by limiting innovation.
I would prefer a university to hold a pattern any day than any corporate
You are operating under the assumption that a university will act differently (better) than the average corporation.
As this example points out, there is a direct link between patents and revenue generation for most universities. Why would a university miss an opportunity to generate revenue?
As other posts have already mentioned some aspects of the nonsensical summary, another one is feeding the rabid fans with a USB key is somehow a new business model.
There's no new business model selling music at shows. It's already been done. Some acts even sell the show the audience _just_ saw. (as in right off the sound board with no post-production)
Even when an act does the hard work of getting in the van and doing shows at small venues for decades, you can be pretty much assured if you want the CD in Walmart, it's coming through one of the major labels. The media conglomerates operate as a cartel (have been prosecuted as such) when it comes to traditional physical media distribution.
I agree with another post that mentions smart cards. Much more difficult to create fraudulent transactions when you _must_ insert the card into a reader for authentication.
But this is not about "banking" transactions. This is an almost unregulated gray area where the retailer is processing/managing it's own credit accounts. It sounds like those accounts stored individuals banking information along with their internal account info. (duhh!) This explains the ability for some bad guys to buy things elsewhere.
Some things to think about:
1. Did they write the software themselves? I suspect they didn't, but who knows. I'm sure there's hardly any reconciling/auditing features.
2. You will see more of these where accounts (ex. gift cards, store credit) will be fraudulently loaded with store credit for large-scale theft.
3. Since there is practically no regulation of this kind of financial activity (retailer-run credit accounts) expect quite a bit more theft. Both in dollars and banking info theft.
4. There's no way they have enough sysadmins/accountants doing the necessary auditing. Otherwise, they wouldn't have started what is a very profitable game for retailers. They operate as retailers, not banks.
Today's lesson: Don't get one of those store credit cards. You shouldn't be in debt to a retailer, ever.
Slashdot Mirror
The fact is that Microsoft is late to the party with their Microsoftized version of sudo. That's really what UAC is, after all: sudo with a fancy display mechanism (to make it hard to spoof) and extra monitoring to pick up on "suspicious" behavior.'"
o soft-uac-not-a-security.html
No it's not! Not at all. First of all, let's define what sudo should do: Act as a barrier that data and application execution must pass. UAC does not fit the definition.
"Vista features such as UAC or Protected Mode Internet Explorer that are dependent on limited user privileges -- which Microsoft calls Integrity Levels (IL) -- are designed to allow some IL breaches.
Because the boundaries defined by UAC and Protected Mode IE are designed to be porous, they can't really be considered security barriers, he said. "Neither UAC elevations nor Protected Mode IE define new Windows security boundaries,"
Thank you Mark Russinovich for stating what's been clear for quite some time. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/021407-micr
I wish, for once, everyone and their grandmother would stop assuming Microsoft's security proclamations are reliable information.
I want more desktop OS options and my laptop is a dual-boot Kubuntu/Debian Testing install, so this isn't a troll.
The few users who are going to actively decide to buy a Ubuntu/Dell product (paying more for it) and haven't run Ubuntu before will be quite surprised to find out:
1. Ubuntu is buggy. What's worse is the bugs are big gotchas right on top. Buggier than Debian's Testing.
2. Windows is probably less cosmetically buggy and will only get better by the important Q4 sales. Meanwhile, Ubuntu has rushed onto the next version. (Like when I was prompted to upgrade to *beta* software last week.)
3. What's Mark's business model?
4. Is Mark going to have support minions waiting by the phone when they can't get their printers to work? Or will it be the usual "24-hour support" meaning those really thorough how-to's that kind of apply to your situation and unfinished threads in their forums.
5. What will Microsoft give to Dell to sweeten the pot and shut out Linux?
I would be very surprised if this is an instant financial jackpot for Dell. Will Ubuntu's warts become a big liability for Dell? "Profit or liability?" is how ubuntu lives/dies in corporate meetings in a few months time.
step children in the computer world. Especially web cams.
Add to that the misery of attempting to hack to every proprietary firmware variation on every camera and hunting down someone who knows something about the camera firmware/driver and the misery is tripled. I know I owe this guy for my webcam working like magic.
In theory with SIP (VOIP) video conferencing is ready for the masses, but I still don't see web cams taking off as a kind of must-have accessory. You still don't see brands like HP jumping in and flushing logitech out of the business.
Anyone have any insight as to why that is?
The best one I ever saw was a USB product that was sold under the Kodak brand. I was shocked at how bad the integrated web cam in the mac laptop is.
ow many non-/. reading, mainstream users are going to install another widget system on their computer?
. html
Quite a few actually. Your family members will all have the same experience, clicking on setup.exe.
the reason that so many companies choose the Windows development? It just works
If you are trying to make another Solitiare (sp?) game, then yeah windows works. Microsoft's tools are limited. Very limited. That you have a problem with complexity outside Microsoft's use cases is very narrow-minded. There are so many use cases that fall outside Microsoft's development range, you simply haven't had any experience with them.
Instead of being content in Microsoft's walled garden, check out a Linux distro and see what it's like. It will be like going from AOL to a real ISP. Here's a good link to get you started on Debian. http://www.desktoplinux.com/articles/AT8143350649
The software update manager in Kubuntu asked me if I wanted to "upgrade" last week. End-users are asked to upgrade from not-so-good Edgy to Feisty which is *really* not working well compared to running Etch.
I'm using Edgy after using Debian Etch throughout its testing phase and *Edgy* is *still* buggier than Etch was in testing. It should not be asking me if I want an upgrade. The upgrade should be an optional meta-package at best.
There are definitely problems with KDE/beryl drawing some of the the kde dialog boxes right. I don't really know where the problem is, but I can confirm I've seen it on KDE. If there was complaints about kde's default wireless gui, it is very limited in use. Kwlan is much better.
The overall impression I get after using the installer and Edgy with KDE is the Canonical projects are running very quick and dirty for what is supposed to be "released" software.
The entire summary is filled with misconceptions.
1. SIP client protocol has been implemented for every desktop. Windows/Mac/Gnome-ekiga/kde-twinkle and kphone.
2. Multiple SIP servers are open, and Free AND integrate with Google's IM platform. (openser being generally excellent, there are a number of others)
3. Conference bridges are open and Free and work nicely through most clients.
4. Nortel-style phone systems are still absurdly priced.
The SIP protocol should revolutionize communication. The thing holding everyone back in the U.S. is the telco patent portfolio. The message waiting indicator has been litigated, the claims AT&T successfully made against Vonage are ridiculous.
I predict Google will be in court with AT&T over VOIP-related patents in very short order.
Microsoft can do all the printing they want, but the retailers point-of-sale and logistics systems actually would need to adopt this.
In the POS software market, that smells like a current-version-+1 feature
Riight. It's a simple black-and-white issue. We know who the enemy is, let's "just" put them all in jail. We have one of the largest prison populations in the world and it hasn't done a thing to address "dangers to society."
We've got a long list of our enemies that seem to flourish despite harsh penalties: illicit drug users, terrists, gamblers and murderers. Put those damn liberals on the list and the world will be much safer!
As much as you may want it to work, legislating morality doesn't work.
And Microsoft wants you to never forget what they did, for a while. Now?
-Abandoned the hackish but oh-so-popular visual basic.
-Abandoned Visual Studio backward compatibility
-Plays For Sure?????
I could go on an on, but this is 1995
than some politicians want to make them sound, it's a thinly veiled attempt to legislate morality. (again)
How about the politicians concentrate on some more important issues? Trade balance? Fiscal policy.
As someone who used to look at the data from NPD in Apple's categories, they were #1 in laptops and 3rd-5th in volume depending on the month.
However, the way the stats are reported are normally strongly biased towards microsoft by lumping _all_ microsoft-based laptops/pc's from dell/hp/whatever together to create the illusion of a "tiny" mac market.
So, you've got apple holding their own at higher price points and the rest of them fighting each other over practically identical products.
Of course the former exec got "a little bonus" from the vendor.
Practically every software vendor with some money in the bank does the same thing. I assure you the former employee is not the only one.
Judging by the comments posted so far, many of you need to buy a clue and cash in.
tomorrow Microsoft will sell one hell of a lot of copies of Vista to all those Chinese pirates
Will they sell millions of copies at full-retail in China? No. That's not the point. The point is they make _much_ more money allowing pirated copies to flourish than they would otherwise get forbidding pirated copies.
Piracy directly benefits companies like Microsoft. It doesn't take an MBA to understand today's pirated copy is tomorrow's customer.
-Funny how Vista is somehow accidentally available as a download right now. (See another post in this discussion) Most Adobe titles are hacked and easily available too. This is _easily_ addressed in 2007, (DRM dongles) and yet, somehow nothing is implemented.
-Funny how it's these huge software conglomerates pushing this "pirating IP is BAD" agenda. They are using it to protect their market dominance at the expense of smaller competitors.
-What would happen if it was legal to duplicate and distribute any software? You would have more choices and dominant software vendors would have more competition.
They've got you and the legislators fooled with the false "deprivation" claim. They have sponsored laws that harm you. Please re-consider your position, it harms all of us.
2. Why is it suddenly the goal of OSS is to defeat MS? Can't we just keep making OSS for the sake of making software? This shit is too agenda-driven for me.
This is what the media does to draw in readers. To some extent, I'd say it's natural to pick a competitor to overtake if you are trying to make a business.
I wish the spirit of your comment would sink into nearly everyone with an interest in Linux. It would only lead to more innovation and an even more diverse linux/bsd ecosphere.
It's important to remember the typical Exchange-buying PHB won't even consider alternatives.
Today's lesson: making an exchange killer won't benefit many users. sticking to your knitting will make a great something. That's for sure. Case in point, xfce4 in debian etch. Surprised the hell out of me. Pretty intuitive, easy-ish to use.
Millions of people and businesses all buying the same software is economic insanity.
No, it's not. The people that spend the money on software more than once get at least as much value out of it as they gave to the entity selling the software. Economically, we are in a situation in the technology market where a monopoly has become a price maker. (look "price maker" up on wikipedia) There are severe limitations in the market for computer software and hardware as a result of this monopoly.
Instead of paying money to buy software, a company can instead choose to pay less money to modify an open source project to meet their needs and leverage the contributions other companies have made modifying the same project to their needs.
This sounds good, but in my experience, it is a low-probability event. Rarely is the code base flexible enough to make a build decision. (versus the buy COTS)
Software really does fit the utility economic model better than a manufacturing model
Some software does. Definitely not all. What's nice is that there's room for both.
OSS definitely has a multitude of benefits and is a beautiful counter-attack on the Microsoft's monopoly.
Do not bury your head in the sand hoping patents will go away, go out there and look at them and learn from them.
And then when the judge finds out that you did actually research patents, the patent owner has you by the short curlies.
Damned if you, damned if you don't.
The guys pulling the strings in the White House cut their teeth in Nixon's cabinet. Why does this come as a surprise to anyone?
What I'd like to know at this point in time, is how many of these evil-administration stories are really evil or just the usual administration enemies highlighting some rule-breaking.
My short list of "really evil things" is:
Domestic spying.
AG Gonzalez (sp?) and his crack-pot unlimited executive powers theory.
Tom Delay
Deficit spending policy that's just putting off the a very bad day of reckoning that will harm everyone but the richest 2%.
There must be a couple of conservatives with an opinion.
More of the same, "Oh yeah? Ours will be better AND cheaper!" talk from Microsoft.
Someone needs to explain to me who is rushing to buy these things.
High-voltage lines into the box and having air-conditioning running 24-7 just sitting in a parking lot will probably inspire a visit from the local city inspector.
Certainly after the neighbors complain.
This will be the strategy that any company with a couple of lawyers of the world will pursue.
They've already legislated away some access to researching vulnerabilities with the DMCA.
Announcing security hole disclosure risks litigation in the U.S.
I'm most concerned about the American legislation that Microsoft will dream up to fight shops like this which will end up harming us all by limiting innovation.
I would prefer a university to hold a pattern any day than any corporate
You are operating under the assumption that a university will act differently (better) than the average corporation.
As this example points out, there is a direct link between patents and revenue generation for most universities. Why would a university miss an opportunity to generate revenue?
As other posts have already mentioned some aspects of the nonsensical summary, another one is feeding the rabid fans with a USB key is somehow a new business model.
There's no new business model selling music at shows. It's already been done. Some acts even sell the show the audience _just_ saw. (as in right off the sound board with no post-production)
Even when an act does the hard work of getting in the van and doing shows at small venues for decades, you can be pretty much assured if you want the CD in Walmart, it's coming through one of the major labels. The media conglomerates operate as a cartel (have been prosecuted as such) when it comes to traditional physical media distribution.
But, I thought windows was secure?
http://it.slashdot.org/it/07/03/30/1311247.shtml
What's this? A story that methodically reviews OS's for network security and finds Linux good and Windows uhh, lacking.
1 7234
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/29/17
It's reasonable to state windows XP/Vista the most vulnerable OS when comparing windows and Linux. No FUD necessary.
I agree with another post that mentions smart cards. Much more difficult to create fraudulent transactions when you _must_ insert the card into a reader for authentication.
But this is not about "banking" transactions. This is an almost unregulated gray area where the retailer is processing/managing it's own credit accounts. It sounds like those accounts stored individuals banking information along with their internal account info. (duhh!) This explains the ability for some bad guys to buy things elsewhere.
Some things to think about:
1. Did they write the software themselves? I suspect they didn't, but who knows. I'm sure there's hardly any reconciling/auditing features.
2. You will see more of these where accounts (ex. gift cards, store credit) will be fraudulently loaded with store credit for large-scale theft.
3. Since there is practically no regulation of this kind of financial activity (retailer-run credit accounts) expect quite a bit more theft. Both in dollars and banking info theft.
4. There's no way they have enough sysadmins/accountants doing the necessary auditing. Otherwise, they wouldn't have started what is a very profitable game for retailers. They operate as retailers, not banks.
Today's lesson: Don't get one of those store credit cards. You shouldn't be in debt to a retailer, ever.