Remind me again of what form of strong encryption they were using for said data? Oh wait a minute... Really great when people who are trusted with info this sensitive (I'm glad they seem to be _mostly_ certain that it did not contain weapons information) are not held to certain standard security practices.
What is it with computers that they are magnets for incompetent people? Before everything was stored electronically somehow I doubt people obtained sensitive info just because someone forgot to lock a vault door...
Drugs like heroin can kill. It's a good thing that heroin is illegal.
No one has ever demonstrated (or so far, even detected the need to demonstrate) that outlawing inanimate objects because someone might hurt themselves with them is a good solution, especialy considering the black market culture that any form of prohibition fuels.
If someone wants to shoot up heroin until he chokes to death on his own vomit, this matter does not concern me and it does not concern the state. You have a right to completely ruin your own life if you want to, or you have no freedom at all. Hell, anyone who wants to be addicted to heroin should be given the stuff for free so he no longer has any incentive to steal from anyone to obtain it, therefore limiting the damage to the person who wanted the self-destruction to begin with.
You know why we don't really have much freedom? Because people are afraid of what real freedom would be like.
Parents do need to work at raising their children, but the government needs to give them the tools to do so.
This is where I have to disagree. Where does the government get its money? By taxing working adults. Where does it get its authority? Because adults put up with it. The government is absolutely nothing without the people it governs. Saying that parents need the government's help because they cannot handle raising their children on their own, is saying that these people should not be having children in the first place. Raise your own damned child, I resent even having to show ID to buy alcohol or cigarettes just because Mommy isn't confident she can tell if little Timmy has been drinking or smoking (I suppose parents are getting more and more stupid lately. When I was growing up, there was no way in hell I could have gotten away with either of those without my parents knowing.)
Government does three things better than most anyone else could do them - Law enforcement, public works, and foreign relations. Beyond that, quit being so damned helpless. The people who want you to be dependent on them are NOT your friends.
I'm really growing tired of this bit-by-bit slow progression. Let's go ahead and get it over with. Let's install the telescreens, make everything illegal, certainly ban anything that any person on the planet thinks might possibly harm or inconvenience anyone in any way, and live tied down to a bedpost for the rest of our lives to make sure we are nice and safe from all the nasties. Let's have all of this done by tomorrow, the wait is killing me.
The argument could be made that these students were the messenger and that the real fault was that the admins of said network did not apply enough security. You may disagree with this argument. Many here do. However, what the hell makes it offtopic, exactly? I'm not expecting a reply.
... but I doubt you can possibly hurt my karma any more than it already is (unless/. is working on a DDoS-on-sight karma level...). So here goes.
Has anyone ever noticed that once in a while, something like once every four or five times, slashdot pages (on FireFox anyway) load up totally blank. The tables are there, the little sidebars and icons are there, but no text, no article that you clicked on. Blank. Oh yes, and strangely enough, the advertisement banner at the top manages to survive this "bug" that is horridly fatal to the content you are actually trying to reach. Each and every time, actually. Oh well, I use AdBlock and never see your precious banner anyway, fuckers. *dons tinfoil hat*
Ok, time to moderate me into oblivion now. "Blindfold? Cigarette?"
When was the last time you saw a disclaimer on the Windows retail boxes that says "Warning - Some learning is required to use this without extreme hassles such as security problems with viruses, worms, and trojans giving anyone on the Internet complete and total access to your system and all of its data." ? Of course not.
Microsoft has oversold its software and computers in general to be just another appliance that your grandma can master in three seconds. What you most likely will see on the box (haven't checked one out in some time) are things like "Now easier to use than ever!" You need to not be lazy and bother to do some reading and some figuring out if you want to run most any OS that I have ever used in a secure fashion (I am curious how OSX deals with this, because I have not used it) and there is just no substitute for knowing the system and its capabilities. If Microsoft put something to that effect on the box then I would agree that the problem is the stupid users. But the way I see it, stupid people exist. There are many of them. And if you market specifically to them by talking about how easy your system is to use with no training and without suffering the horrible wounds of actually figuring things out, you are asking for these kinds of situations. What makes more sense? For the dumb machine of 0's and 1's to try and anticipate every stupid thing a user can do, or for the user, who is a versatile human being and (barring any disabilities of course) is perfectly capable of learning, to adapt to the machine? I think the real answer is somewhere in the middle, that the machine can be simplified to remove needless complexity but that ultimately the human using it has to know how it works, at least in abstract (I am not saying every user should be able to write an OS in assembly - what it would take to have "good enough" security on most modern OS's using freely available tools is quite a bit less know-how than that).
So yeah, especially if you have ever worked a phone-based technical support job, you know how incredibly stupid users can be. But these people did not become idiots the day they bought a computer, they always were. These are the people whose VCRs/DVD players still flash "12:00", who don't take care of their car until things start breaking down, who don't question the agenda behind an advertisement, and in general do not think critically and do not think for themselves.
I am waiting for this to reach a breaking point, when there are so many PEBKAC (problem exists between keyboard and chair) type of problems, so many DDoS and spam zombie networks, and so much wasted time and bandwidth, that the current way of doing things breaks down and users are either forced to learn very basic things, or forced to question just how badly they need to be using a machine as complex as a general-purpose computer. Usually, that's how things go - the signs are there, the handwriting is on the wall, and when things go BOOM everyone says "oh my god how could this have happened?!" 9/11, anyone? (Yeah, I am sorry, normally I hate politics and political references too, but I must say it does seem to me to make my point).
I am not saying, either, that I would love to see it the way it was in the old days when the guy who "knows computers" may as well be wearing a magician's hat and carry a wand, for all that most people understood of his or her really arcane knowledge. Nor should there be a very small elite and everyone else gets no computing power. I would very much love to see millions and millions of users online just like it is now, and every one of them someone who bothers to properly maintain their systems. Spam would probably disappear too, as I cannot imagine such a population would buy anything from a spammer. Quite a nice dream, isn't it? But as long as private interests (which are inherently very selfish, as any good and successful company needs to be) are the major players, we will never see this become a reality.
Unless of course the proliferation of the Open Source and its community values is a form of evolution. If that turns out to be the case then I guess I am merely impatient:).
However, ComCast also lives in the real world. While on paper they could make an argument, they're trying NOT to upset the technical folks in their customer base.
I wish it were the case that a large ISP's biggest concern was not upsetting the technical part of their customer base. Unfortunately they are probably more worried about the other 97% of their userbase.
Luckily for them this is great PR. In general people are sucks for "This is for your own good" reasoning but in this case it's a win because a solid policy on this will actually help the situation.
This will sound a lot like the question, "When is the best time to plant a tree?" because the best answer to that is "20 years ago" and the next-best answer to it is "right now". But...
Public schools, like it or not, are factories of socialization and indoctrination. Why not use this positively and at the same time get schools talking about the relatively new problems spam (of all forms) causes and encourage schools to instill in students the idea that any marketer who uses intrusive tactics is untrustworthy. Let the fact
that unsolicited marketing and other unpleasant business practices are a good sign that someone is trying to scam you be another thing that "everybody knows".
I prefer that to such well-known "facts" as: fluoride is good for your teeth, the government always has its citizens best interests at heart, the Patriot act is there to keep us safe, etc.
Yeah it'll probably never happen but I would love the idea of public schools doing a better job of equipping people for the real world because let's face it, the people who know what spam is about and what kind of people send it are not the people who buy products/services from spammers. This is why, although technical solutions can greatly help the spam problem, I do not believe that the heart of the matter is a technical issue so much as a social one.
Why is it top-40? It's the same phenomenon you see with Microsoft really. Microsoft is a marketing company first, and a software company second. A distant second at that. Same with assembly-line, cookie-cutter music like you get with most of the content of top-40. As long as listeners are more impressed with shiny flashy "YOU MUST HEAR THIS!" messages than they are with actual artistic ability, then yes you are right, top-40 will remain quite profitable and is here to stay.
well yeah, that's how the media shapes public opinion in order to slowly generate an atmosphere where it's easier for cops to get nosy, all of it done for our safety by a very caring group of people, of course.
it's like when you want to get a woman in bed. you don't (usually) just walk up to her and say "let's fuck right now" because this technique has a low success rate. Instead you make a series of smaller moves until "one thing leads to another" and you have sex with her.
Well there are people out there who are extremely power-hungry, and these people understand this principle. Like that line from Monty Python's _Life of Brian_, "blessed are those with a vested interest in the status quo."
Samuel Clemens is known to have said "the only truth in the newspapers is the advertisements". Sucks when you realize you really can't believe half of what you read.
Slashdot Mirror
Details!! We've got journalism going on, subjects to get a bunch of people to bitch about man!
Remind me again of what form of strong encryption they were using for said data? Oh wait a minute... Really great when people who are trusted with info this sensitive (I'm glad they seem to be _mostly_ certain that it did not contain weapons information) are not held to certain standard security practices.
What is it with computers that they are magnets for incompetent people? Before everything was stored electronically somehow I doubt people obtained sensitive info just because someone forgot to lock a vault door...
No one has ever demonstrated (or so far, even detected the need to demonstrate) that outlawing inanimate objects because someone might hurt themselves with them is a good solution, especialy considering the black market culture that any form of prohibition fuels.
If someone wants to shoot up heroin until he chokes to death on his own vomit, this matter does not concern me and it does not concern the state. You have a right to completely ruin your own life if you want to, or you have no freedom at all. Hell, anyone who wants to be addicted to heroin should be given the stuff for free so he no longer has any incentive to steal from anyone to obtain it, therefore limiting the damage to the person who wanted the self-destruction to begin with.
You know why we don't really have much freedom? Because people are afraid of what real freedom would be like.
This is where I have to disagree. Where does the government get its money? By taxing working adults. Where does it get its authority? Because adults put up with it. The government is absolutely nothing without the people it governs. Saying that parents need the government's help because they cannot handle raising their children on their own, is saying that these people should not be having children in the first place. Raise your own damned child, I resent even having to show ID to buy alcohol or cigarettes just because Mommy isn't confident she can tell if little Timmy has been drinking or smoking (I suppose parents are getting more and more stupid lately. When I was growing up, there was no way in hell I could have gotten away with either of those without my parents knowing.)
Government does three things better than most anyone else could do them - Law enforcement, public works, and foreign relations. Beyond that, quit being so damned helpless. The people who want you to be dependent on them are NOT your friends.
I'm really growing tired of this bit-by-bit slow progression. Let's go ahead and get it over with. Let's install the telescreens, make everything illegal, certainly ban anything that any person on the planet thinks might possibly harm or inconvenience anyone in any way, and live tied down to a bedpost for the rest of our lives to make sure we are nice and safe from all the nasties. Let's have all of this done by tomorrow, the wait is killing me.
The argument could be made that these students were the messenger and that the real fault was that the admins of said network did not apply enough security. You may disagree with this argument. Many here do. However, what the hell makes it offtopic, exactly? I'm not expecting a reply.
... but I doubt you can possibly hurt my karma any more than it already is (unless /. is working on a DDoS-on-sight karma level...). So here goes.
Has anyone ever noticed that once in a while, something like once every four or five times, slashdot pages (on FireFox anyway) load up totally blank. The tables are there, the little sidebars and icons are there, but no text, no article that you clicked on. Blank. Oh yes, and strangely enough, the advertisement banner at the top manages to survive this "bug" that is horridly fatal to the content you are actually trying to reach. Each and every time, actually. Oh well, I use AdBlock and never see your precious banner anyway, fuckers. *dons tinfoil hat*
Ok, time to moderate me into oblivion now. "Blindfold? Cigarette?"
When was the last time you saw a disclaimer on the Windows retail boxes that says "Warning - Some learning is required to use this without extreme hassles such as security problems with viruses, worms, and trojans giving anyone on the Internet complete and total access to your system and all of its data." ? Of course not.
:).
Microsoft has oversold its software and computers in general to be just another appliance that your grandma can master in three seconds. What you most likely will see on the box (haven't checked one out in some time) are things like "Now easier to use than ever!" You need to not be lazy and bother to do some reading and some figuring out if you want to run most any OS that I have ever used in a secure fashion (I am curious how OSX deals with this, because I have not used it) and there is just no substitute for knowing the system and its capabilities. If Microsoft put something to that effect on the box then I would agree that the problem is the stupid users. But the way I see it, stupid people exist. There are many of them. And if you market specifically to them by talking about how easy your system is to use with no training and without suffering the horrible wounds of actually figuring things out, you are asking for these kinds of situations. What makes more sense? For the dumb machine of 0's and 1's to try and anticipate every stupid thing a user can do, or for the user, who is a versatile human being and (barring any disabilities of course) is perfectly capable of learning, to adapt to the machine? I think the real answer is somewhere in the middle, that the machine can be simplified to remove needless complexity but that ultimately the human using it has to know how it works, at least in abstract (I am not saying every user should be able to write an OS in assembly - what it would take to have "good enough" security on most modern OS's using freely available tools is quite a bit less know-how than that).
So yeah, especially if you have ever worked a phone-based technical support job, you know how incredibly stupid users can be. But these people did not become idiots the day they bought a computer, they always were. These are the people whose VCRs/DVD players still flash "12:00", who don't take care of their car until things start breaking down, who don't question the agenda behind an advertisement, and in general do not think critically and do not think for themselves.
I am waiting for this to reach a breaking point, when there are so many PEBKAC (problem exists between keyboard and chair) type of problems, so many DDoS and spam zombie networks, and so much wasted time and bandwidth, that the current way of doing things breaks down and users are either forced to learn very basic things, or forced to question just how badly they need to be using a machine as complex as a general-purpose computer. Usually, that's how things go - the signs are there, the handwriting is on the wall, and when things go BOOM everyone says "oh my god how could this have happened?!" 9/11, anyone? (Yeah, I am sorry, normally I hate politics and political references too, but I must say it does seem to me to make my point).
I am not saying, either, that I would love to see it the way it was in the old days when the guy who "knows computers" may as well be wearing a magician's hat and carry a wand, for all that most people understood of his or her really arcane knowledge. Nor should there be a very small elite and everyone else gets no computing power. I would very much love to see millions and millions of users online just like it is now, and every one of them someone who bothers to properly maintain their systems. Spam would probably disappear too, as I cannot imagine such a population would buy anything from a spammer. Quite a nice dream, isn't it? But as long as private interests (which are inherently very selfish, as any good and successful company needs to be) are the major players, we will never see this become a reality. Unless of course the proliferation of the Open Source and its community values is a form of evolution. If that turns out to be the case then I guess I am merely impatient
- causality
Knee-jerk reaction: 5, funny.
Hindsight-is-20/20 reaction: -1, Predictable.
My $0.02.
This will sound a lot like the question, "When is the best time to plant a tree?" because the best answer to that is "20 years ago" and the next-best answer to it is "right now". But...
Public schools, like it or not, are factories of socialization and indoctrination. Why not use this positively and at the same time get schools talking about the relatively new problems spam (of all forms) causes and encourage schools to instill in students the idea that any marketer who uses intrusive tactics is untrustworthy. Let the fact that unsolicited marketing and other unpleasant business practices are a good sign that someone is trying to scam you be another thing that "everybody knows".
I prefer that to such well-known "facts" as: fluoride is good for your teeth, the government always has its citizens best interests at heart, the Patriot act is there to keep us safe, etc.
Yeah it'll probably never happen but I would love the idea of public schools doing a better job of equipping people for the real world because let's face it, the people who know what spam is about and what kind of people send it are not the people who buy products/services from spammers. This is why, although technical solutions can greatly help the spam problem, I do not believe that the heart of the matter is a technical issue so much as a social one.
Why is it top-40? It's the same phenomenon you see with Microsoft really. Microsoft is a marketing company first, and a software company second. A distant second at that. Same with assembly-line, cookie-cutter music like you get with most of the content of top-40. As long as listeners are more impressed with shiny flashy "YOU MUST HEAR THIS!" messages than they are with actual artistic ability, then yes you are right, top-40 will remain quite profitable and is here to stay.
well yeah, that's how the media shapes public opinion in order to slowly generate an atmosphere where it's easier for cops to get nosy, all of it done for our safety by a very caring group of people, of course.
it's like when you want to get a woman in bed. you don't (usually) just walk up to her and say "let's fuck right now" because this technique has a low success rate. Instead you make a series of smaller moves until "one thing leads to another" and you have sex with her.
Well there are people out there who are extremely power-hungry, and these people understand this principle. Like that line from Monty Python's _Life of Brian_, "blessed are those with a vested interest in the status quo."
Samuel Clemens is known to have said "the only truth in the newspapers is the advertisements". Sucks when you realize you really can't believe half of what you read.