The 56k limit on modems was because of the 64k circuits phone calls had to be routed through. The 8k difference is due to requirement of converting the signal from digital to analog and back to digital again. The 56k limit was imposed on the lines by the phone companies. Which was further knocked down to 53.3k due to FCC regulations or some bullshit like that.
Setting them up with Firefox (or probably any other non-IE browser) is one of the best things you can do to protect them. Additionally, Thunderbird (or another non-Outlook mail client) would probably be a good idea.
Set them up with Spybot S&D to clean up stuff that does get through. If for some reason you haven't yet explained to them about not opening attachments, make sure you do.
I was reluctant to switch my mom away from IE because I was concerned about her having problems with non-IE websites. I installed Firebird on her computer (for my own use) this past X-mas when I was visiting. She asked me what the icon was and I told her it was a browser with pop-up blocking and immediately she was ready to switch. I explained about the possibility of incompatible websites and she didn't hesitate to say "I don't care about that. I'll use that IE for sites like that if I have to."
She's been really happy with Firebird. I feel kind of stupid for worrying that adding a new browser would unnecessarily complicate her life--it did exactly the opposite.
At the risk of people calling me an anti-MS zealot, let me just recommend having them use as little of Microsoft's software as possible. It's just bad news--too many exploits. You can go ahead make the argument that possibly Firefox has holes too that no one has bothered to exploit because of it's smaller marketshare. If that's true, then its smaller marketshare is just one more benefit.
On Slashdot, potential misuses of new technology are always brought up. It's not a bad thing either, because if there is a way to abuse a new tech, someone will try to do it.
I knew a guy with a Civic that put a 12v computer P/S fan in his air intake ducting to "increase" airflow into the engine.
This was a waste of time. Everyone knows that a big wing is the biggest performance boost for a Civic. Also, a Type-R sticker is even cheaper and adds 20HP as well as improves handling.
But what I find amazing is that some call centers don't invest time and money in call monitoring technology.
It's funny you should mention it, because my story is from over 10 years ago, and even then they had the technology installed to monitor individual call lengths. But even though the data was in the system, management probably only printed out the totals and averages for everyone. There was an old Okidata dot matrix printer connected to the phone system that would print out the reports once a week. It was slow, it jammed, it was loud, it was right next to people taking calls, and it was generally annoying. They probably avoided printing detailed reports for those reasons. They also had some kind of serial-connected terminal to it where they could look up the details as well as see our real-time stats. But in the end, they didn't end up noticing me or anyone else dropping the calls. As I mentioned in my last post, I didn't stay there much longer after that. If I had, and continued to purposely mass-drop calls, maybe eventually they would've caught on.
For QA, though, management had to monitor live calls--recording absolutely everything back in those days was still cost prohibitive.
I worked briefly in a call center several years back. I got called into the manager's office because my average call time was too long. I pointed out that my average for successfully closed calls was higher than anyone else there, and that my average call times were only slightly higher than average for the call center.
His response was basically, "Yes, that's very nice and all, but you need to lower your average call time." The next day I was getting really frustrated about my call times and just said to myself "Fuck it, this job sucks." So I sat there for a couple minutes just hitting the hang-up button every time a call was routed to me until the queue was empty.
A week later I was called back into the manager's office. I thought to myself, "OK, this is it. Today I get fired." Instead I was congratulated on my much improved call times, given a cheesey award and told that I was being put in line for a minor promotion.
I quit and found another job a couple weeks later.
I think it would be relatively simple to have a whitelist for mailing lists, and people that you expect to receive a lot of e-mail from regularly. People on your whitelist wouldn't need to do any calculations to send you an e-mail.
BTW, I think using the processing time to strongly encrypt the e-mail would be a great idea. E-mail should be sent encrypted by default.
Anyone that's a peer in the torrent has your IP address. All they have to do is connect to the torrent and start collecting IP addresses of any peer that sends a piece of the file.
What do you know about who reviews the windows code?
Only that there are a limited number of people with access to that code (at least up until now.)
Also, what assumptions are you making about the number of people, and their qualifications, that are reviewing OSS code?
I think it's safe to assume that people reviewing OSS are coming from all different backgrounds--let's face it not every one of them is going to be an engineer, nor are all of them going to be kids hacking in their mom's basement.
But rather than just making assumptions, I'd recommend subscribing to the Linux kernel mailing list, and/or some of the *BSD mailing lists if you want to get an idea of the caliber of the people working on the code.
The big problem with the closed source model (as we may be about to find out first hand) is that once the source gets leaked, all those holes are out in public. The security through obscurity design model kinda falls apart at that point.
The guy that wrote the original article is definately trolling. Unless he really is a fool. I think anyone with even a little insight into how OSS works understands why it's inherently MORE secure than close source. This "closed source is more secure" meme gets floated and shot down several times a year.
The Windows code hasn't had nearly as much peer review as open source OS's so I won't be suprised if this leads to a ton of exploits. The big problem here is that this source will be available to any black-hat that wants it--they obviously aren't going to be concerned about the legalities of obtaining leaked source code. But the businesses that use Windows aren't going to be able to audit the code for security leaks unless they obtain it illegally (or sign some agreements with Microsoft and shell out bundles of cash.)
I agree, but I also see where OSS could help games. If decent OSS game engines were freely available, game companies could dedicate more resources to the actual content of the games (textures, artwork, characters, sound effects, music, storyline, etc.)
Right now they keep their engines proprietary and duplicate a lot of each other's work.
...the rest of the money comes from corporate sponsors...
I've worked closely with our local PBS/NPR station on their online auction site. One of the things up for auction in their most recent auction was billboard space--donated by ClearChannel Outdoor.
Yes, it makes sense for ClearChannel from an advertising and PR standpoint. But it still struck me as humorous seeing ClearChannel donating to an unaffiliated TV/radio station in the same market. And also seeing ClearChannel's donation as a featured item on the PBS auction site.
We host the local NPR station using ffmpeg and everyone's been quite happy with it. When they initially consulted with us I recommended against RealPlayer for exactly the reasons stated in the summary.
The only 'problem' I have with ffmpeg is that it's been using 100% cpu on one of the processors. But since it's a dual-processor server that we are no longer using for anything major other than the streaming, it hasn't been a big enough issue to figure out why it's doing it.
I never really was impressed by the X-box until I played PGR2 on X-box live at my neighbor's place. Everything you've said, I agree with.
My neighbor is currently working at a pawn shop. They regularly sell used X-boxes there for $99. So if you don't mind a used one, you might want to check out a local pawn shop--that's where he got his. Works perfectly.
No, actually, I'm not. It doesn't just apply to data. It applies to information in the traditional definition, though I'm not sure if it does by yours. You can give someone an idea, or teach them how to produce a desired result, however you still have that idea or knowledge. This is more applicable since the discussion is of patents.
My dad used to read a lot of Alvin Toffler (futurist) books when I was a kid. I picked up a couple of them and read parts, but don't really remember much detail (nor the names of the books.) One of the things I do remember was him talking about how we were going to move from the Industrial Age to the Information Age. I suppose we were already in the transition at the time.
He talked about a triad of Power, Wealth, and Information. Any one or combination of the three could be used to aquire another. The interesting thing about information (and the information age) was that information could be expended, yet the provider of the information would still have it.
I'm not sure what my point is:) but being that it's the Information Age, information has become (and still is becoming) a commodity to be bought and sold. Companies are realizing this and focusing on how to capitalize on it. It's the Information Age. Unless you want to be stuck in the Industrial Age, this is what you have to do.
Maybe that's the point. If it's software, audio, video, text, or whatever, it's still information. This is what Information Age companies will make their money from. Figure out how to own or control of as much of it as you can now, and as we continue into the Information Age you will reap the rewards later.
Why is it that the PTT feature is always so loud? Is it simply a marketing gimic? If someone is using it anywhere in the vicinity, you can't help hearing it along with the signature beep that Nextel uses. Don't the people using the PTT feature realize what obnoxious idiots they sound like? I've seen people use this feature obnoxiously enough to make Dom Joly cringe.
...but then again, this could be really useful if my cell phone ever gets lost or stolen. I just don't like the idea of my daily wanderings being sold to other companies. I'm sure they'll promise not to do it, but later on will start giving the data up.
This Landspeeder based on an 88 Ford Escort is much better I think...well, maybe not for drivability, but I wouldn't be caught dead driving either of them anyway.
Slashdot Mirror
The 56k limit on modems was because of the 64k circuits phone calls had to be routed through. The 8k difference is due to requirement of converting the signal from digital to analog and back to digital again. The 56k limit was imposed on the lines by the phone companies. Which was further knocked down to 53.3k due to FCC regulations or some bullshit like that.
Setting them up with Firefox (or probably any other non-IE browser) is one of the best things you can do to protect them. Additionally, Thunderbird (or another non-Outlook mail client) would probably be a good idea.
Set them up with Spybot S&D to clean up stuff that does get through. If for some reason you haven't yet explained to them about not opening attachments, make sure you do.
I was reluctant to switch my mom away from IE because I was concerned about her having problems with non-IE websites. I installed Firebird on her computer (for my own use) this past X-mas when I was visiting. She asked me what the icon was and I told her it was a browser with pop-up blocking and immediately she was ready to switch. I explained about the possibility of incompatible websites and she didn't hesitate to say "I don't care about that. I'll use that IE for sites like that if I have to."
She's been really happy with Firebird. I feel kind of stupid for worrying that adding a new browser would unnecessarily complicate her life--it did exactly the opposite.
At the risk of people calling me an anti-MS zealot, let me just recommend having them use as little of Microsoft's software as possible. It's just bad news--too many exploits. You can go ahead make the argument that possibly Firefox has holes too that no one has bothered to exploit because of it's smaller marketshare. If that's true, then its smaller marketshare is just one more benefit.
Cracking RSA encryption keys is processor intensive, not memory intensive. I bet some of the machines they have for that are pretty amazing though.
On Slashdot, potential misuses of new technology are always brought up. It's not a bad thing either, because if there is a way to abuse a new tech, someone will try to do it.
Would someone actually sue over a project codename?
I knew a guy with a Civic that put a 12v computer P/S fan in his air intake ducting to "increase" airflow into the engine.
This was a waste of time. Everyone knows that a big wing is the biggest performance boost for a Civic. Also, a Type-R sticker is even cheaper and adds 20HP as well as improves handling.
But what I find amazing is that some call centers don't invest time and money in call monitoring technology.
It's funny you should mention it, because my story is from over 10 years ago, and even then they had the technology installed to monitor individual call lengths. But even though the data was in the system, management probably only printed out the totals and averages for everyone. There was an old Okidata dot matrix printer connected to the phone system that would print out the reports once a week. It was slow, it jammed, it was loud, it was right next to people taking calls, and it was generally annoying. They probably avoided printing detailed reports for those reasons. They also had some kind of serial-connected terminal to it where they could look up the details as well as see our real-time stats. But in the end, they didn't end up noticing me or anyone else dropping the calls. As I mentioned in my last post, I didn't stay there much longer after that. If I had, and continued to purposely mass-drop calls, maybe eventually they would've caught on.
For QA, though, management had to monitor live calls--recording absolutely everything back in those days was still cost prohibitive.
I worked briefly in a call center several years back. I got called into the manager's office because my average call time was too long. I pointed out that my average for successfully closed calls was higher than anyone else there, and that my average call times were only slightly higher than average for the call center.
His response was basically, "Yes, that's very nice and all, but you need to lower your average call time." The next day I was getting really frustrated about my call times and just said to myself "Fuck it, this job sucks." So I sat there for a couple minutes just hitting the hang-up button every time a call was routed to me until the queue was empty.
A week later I was called back into the manager's office. I thought to myself, "OK, this is it. Today I get fired." Instead I was congratulated on my much improved call times, given a cheesey award and told that I was being put in line for a minor promotion.
I quit and found another job a couple weeks later.
I think it would be relatively simple to have a whitelist for mailing lists, and people that you expect to receive a lot of e-mail from regularly. People on your whitelist wouldn't need to do any calculations to send you an e-mail.
BTW, I think using the processing time to strongly encrypt the e-mail would be a great idea. E-mail should be sent encrypted by default.
Anyone that's a peer in the torrent has your IP address. All they have to do is connect to the torrent and start collecting IP addresses of any peer that sends a piece of the file.
What do you know about who reviews the windows code?
Only that there are a limited number of people with access to that code (at least up until now.)
Also, what assumptions are you making about the number of people, and their qualifications, that are reviewing OSS code?
I think it's safe to assume that people reviewing OSS are coming from all different backgrounds--let's face it not every one of them is going to be an engineer, nor are all of them going to be kids hacking in their mom's basement.
But rather than just making assumptions, I'd recommend subscribing to the Linux kernel mailing list, and/or some of the *BSD mailing lists if you want to get an idea of the caliber of the people working on the code.
Past performance is also a good indicator.
The big problem with the closed source model (as we may be about to find out first hand) is that once the source gets leaked, all those holes are out in public. The security through obscurity design model kinda falls apart at that point.
The guy that wrote the original article is definately trolling. Unless he really is a fool. I think anyone with even a little insight into how OSS works understands why it's inherently MORE secure than close source. This "closed source is more secure" meme gets floated and shot down several times a year.
It's one thing if there's an NDA involved. But if there isn't, then I don't see how Microsoft could tell people what they can and can't write.
The Windows code hasn't had nearly as much peer review as open source OS's so I won't be suprised if this leads to a ton of exploits. The big problem here is that this source will be available to any black-hat that wants it--they obviously aren't going to be concerned about the legalities of obtaining leaked source code. But the businesses that use Windows aren't going to be able to audit the code for security leaks unless they obtain it illegally (or sign some agreements with Microsoft and shell out bundles of cash.)
I agree, but I also see where OSS could help games. If decent OSS game engines were freely available, game companies could dedicate more resources to the actual content of the games (textures, artwork, characters, sound effects, music, storyline, etc.)
Right now they keep their engines proprietary and duplicate a lot of each other's work.
...the rest of the money comes from corporate sponsors...
I've worked closely with our local PBS/NPR station on their online auction site. One of the things up for auction in their most recent auction was billboard space--donated by ClearChannel Outdoor.
Yes, it makes sense for ClearChannel from an advertising and PR standpoint. But it still struck me as humorous seeing ClearChannel donating to an unaffiliated TV/radio station in the same market. And also seeing ClearChannel's donation as a featured item on the PBS auction site.
We host the local NPR station using ffmpeg and everyone's been quite happy with it. When they initially consulted with us I recommended against RealPlayer for exactly the reasons stated in the summary.
The only 'problem' I have with ffmpeg is that it's been using 100% cpu on one of the processors. But since it's a dual-processor server that we are no longer using for anything major other than the streaming, it hasn't been a big enough issue to figure out why it's doing it.
I never really was impressed by the X-box until I played PGR2 on X-box live at my neighbor's place. Everything you've said, I agree with.
My neighbor is currently working at a pawn shop. They regularly sell used X-boxes there for $99. So if you don't mind a used one, you might want to check out a local pawn shop--that's where he got his. Works perfectly.
You are confusing information with data.
No, actually, I'm not. It doesn't just apply to data. It applies to information in the traditional definition, though I'm not sure if it does by yours. You can give someone an idea, or teach them how to produce a desired result, however you still have that idea or knowledge. This is more applicable since the discussion is of patents.
My dad used to read a lot of Alvin Toffler (futurist) books when I was a kid. I picked up a couple of them and read parts, but don't really remember much detail (nor the names of the books.) One of the things I do remember was him talking about how we were going to move from the Industrial Age to the Information Age. I suppose we were already in the transition at the time.
:) but being that it's the Information Age, information has become (and still is becoming) a commodity to be bought and sold. Companies are realizing this and focusing on how to capitalize on it. It's the Information Age. Unless you want to be stuck in the Industrial Age, this is what you have to do.
He talked about a triad of Power, Wealth, and Information. Any one or combination of the three could be used to aquire another. The interesting thing about information (and the information age) was that information could be expended, yet the provider of the information would still have it.
I'm not sure what my point is
Maybe that's the point. If it's software, audio, video, text, or whatever, it's still information. This is what Information Age companies will make their money from. Figure out how to own or control of as much of it as you can now, and as we continue into the Information Age you will reap the rewards later.
Why is it that the PTT feature is always so loud? Is it simply a marketing gimic? If someone is using it anywhere in the vicinity, you can't help hearing it along with the signature beep that Nextel uses. Don't the people using the PTT feature realize what obnoxious idiots they sound like? I've seen people use this feature obnoxiously enough to make Dom Joly cringe.
...but then again, this could be really useful if my cell phone ever gets lost or stolen. I just don't like the idea of my daily wanderings being sold to other companies. I'm sure they'll promise not to do it, but later on will start giving the data up.
This Landspeeder based on an 88 Ford Escort is much better I think...well, maybe not for drivability, but I wouldn't be caught dead driving either of them anyway.
Microsoft made a Z-80 card for the Apple ][+ way back in the day for CPM apps as well. I used to own one.
That way they don't have to keep coming over here and asking me to play it for them. ;)