So the vast majority of people are recommending to ditch Adobe Acrobat, which is not where I was wanting to focus the discussion, but I appreciate your advice. I do agree that using something like Sumatra would be a good part of a defense-in-depth approach, but that approach does not protect your organisation from inadvertently sending out an infected PDF to another organisation.
I did not know it was possible to detect javascript in a PDF, and I think this is possibly a better approach than a full rewrite (btw: I found this python script: http://blog.didierstevens.com/programs/pdf-tools/ ) So instead of rewriting every PDF, you just choose to delete any PDF attachments that are detected with JavaScript. I assume this will then not break any legitimate PDFs that have comments or forms, etc? It will need testing, I guess.
The mail relay can then be configured to detect and delete any javascript-containing PDFs and allow everything else through (including encrypted, which is more likely to be legit than not).
Once again, this is not the only protection against this malicious code, but just one facet. I found some recent exploits that don't need javascript at all, so it seems the safest, yet most likely to make you hated, approach is to rewrite the PDF completely or not allow PDFs at all.
As exciting as the idea is to me of exploring another world, I think if there are other intelligent beings out there they should stop us from leaving our world until we can learn to take care of it properly. Otherwise, we will just spread our destruction in search of profit.
I've used Myth for years. Since the 2.4 kernel days when you had to recompile the kernel to get DVB and ALSA working. It used to take hours and hours to get even the remote control working, but I perservered because it was far superior to anything out there.
But Myth has lagged too long and it has always looked godawful compared to its competors.
With the release of Windows 7, I have found that I am able to do all that I need and it looks a hell of a lot better. This latest release of Myth (which is pretty lame for taking so long for such a minor release) only convinces me further that I made the right choice of switching away from it.
Thanks for the memories, though. I'll think of you fondly.
Exactly. It is the "not good with tech" people that we would need to work on getting to switch. They are the ones with problems.
My opinion (I'm sure many will disagree) is that for desktop use, Linux is garbage as far as the masses are concerned.
Reasons uninitiated, not technical people don't like it:
It looks like crap out of the box. Linux needs to get some graphic designers with actual talent to make it look better. OpenOffice may work, but it look like crap.
It is confusing.
It works like crap for standard stuff like watching flash videos, movies, and other day to day stuff the average person expects.
There are no commercial versions of popular products available for native Linux (Adobe CS, MS Office, and lots of smaller apps people buy online. WINE is vastly improved, but you still have to introduce great instability.
The interdependencies on packages means that you have to upgrade EVERYTHING each time there's a new release. You should have applications and the OS separate from each other in that sense.
The installation process is crap. Sure "dependency hell" is no longer such a program with automated package managers, but compare other OS's. You just download an executable, double click and install. There are rarely dependencies to worry about.
I may want to install Amarok 2 and leave at that until they come up with a newer version that isn't as dummed down. Sure I can install from source, but isn't that missing the point of package management? And if there is a way to do that, it is not obvious.
I could go on with more examples, but my main point is that the majority of people don't LIKE LINUX as a desktop (statistically speaking, so don't bother telling me about how your grandma just loves it).
How is it that Apple was able to take BSD and make it look and work so well and gain wider acceptance in a shorter amount of time? I would be copying them in terms of the experience a normal user wants to have, and for the "not good with tech" people, I would be telling them to go buy a mac.
Maybe Apple did better because they all focused on one vision. Maybe Google is secretly already working on something that will improve things.
In the mean time, I have given up on Linux for desktop purposes. I have been disappointed for the last 13 or so years and have better things to do with my time now than try to compromise on functionality when I have a job to do.
At my organization, I've configured our DNS as split-split. Split-split means that the outside world only gets nonrecursive advertisements of our authoritative domains, separate servers are configured for the inside to do recursive queries(i.e. forwarders), and a last set is for our user land dns servers which forward to our recursive nameservers. Only these dns servers are allowed to talk to the forwarders, which sit in their own DMZ.
Now, my servers may have the same vulnerability as yours, but the risk of it being exploited is much lower. This buys me time to patch any given flaw without panicking too much.
To those that knock BIND, for its lack of security: if a system (i.e a group os servers meant to provide a service) is designed and then configured securely, even when flaws are discovered, the chances of getting hit can be vastly reduced.
Yes, there are more secure versions of DNS out there, but BIND is the most popular. DJBDNS has a great reputation, but my solution works just fine and I don't have to learn yet another version of something that when passed on to the next person will go on neglected for years.
Yes, this would cause drag, however if these turbines were placed in areas where cars needed to brake (i.e. on a downfacing slope, or a tight turn), this could be a win-win situation.
I've had another idea like this for a while... what if you had a cable that went along bike paths and outfitted bicycles with strong magnets? The bicyclist would have to push a little harder, but it could help power the city. Then there's the propeller hats...
I've been a big fan of BeOS ever since I first used it years ago. I was so impressed to be able to load it up on my obsolete dual proc pentium pro system and see it come back to life. Any other operating system I put on it was way too slow.. even Linux. But BeOS truly did take advantage of having two processors. Suddenly it was like I had a 400MHz Pentium II. It was a PC resurrection!
But then, stupid Palm bought it and killed it. Development and especially interest in it all but died. This operating system was truly the best Operating system, potentially, for end users. This is what I wish the MacOS operating system evolved into, instead of OSX (not that OSX is half bad).
With the impending release of Haiku 1.0, though, I am left wondering.. is it too little too late? The look and feel of it are so dated now. There are very limited applications available for it compared to other operating systems.
Pooh on Palm for killing this OS. I hope it's not too late for it to make a comeback, but I wonder if the only way to make that happen is to open source it? Otherwise, I wonder if there will be the critical mass to modernize it.
This may be off topic, but I think that this is the perfect time to switch to a new operating system. The menus and interfaces are so different in Vista/O2K7 that we all need to relearn how to use them anyway. This time could be spent with new users on Linux(or OS X)/OpenOffice.
Pencils write upside down too. Just ask the Russians.
>>In all my travels the only thing I had stolen was one of those small space pens that can write upside down.
In all seriousness, I heartily agree with your recommendation for the Pacsafe. When you leave your backpack on your bunkbed all day, knowing it's secured to the bed and that it'd be quite difficult to get stuff out eases the anxiety levels of leaving your stuff behind.
I never leave anything in my backpack other than clothes, toiletries, and books. Valuables I either bring with me (hence why you must travel light) or have it locked in the safe (if there is one). Most of the valuables I bring I need to use during the day anyway (i.e camera, wallet, pda).
Like many others have said, pack as light as possible. A laptop is unnecessary for most people and internet cafes are in just about any city.
I even go as far as ripping the pertinent pages out of my travel books so I'm not weighed down (books are the biggest liability in terms of weight).
To put a technology slant on this, you could go as far as scanning your travel book (or buy an electronic version if you can find one) and loading it into your PDA.
The best all-in-one type of solution I've seen is an O2 Atom Exec. You can use this to keep all of your maps, contacts, take quick low quality photos. Get a think outside bluetooth keyboard and you'll be able to use it as a diary as well. Take it to an internet cafe and you _may_ be able to plug it in via USB (or at least the memory card), however I've been to places still running Windows 98 or NT and they don't 'plug and play' usb drives automatically. Because you've got to install Activesync for this type of PDA, you can be a bit clever and instead bring along your digital camera and copy stuff back and forth from your memory card(Make sure your PDA & Camera use the same type of memory). Bring along USB drivers for older operating systems. They'll fit on a business card CD.
As far as cameras go, you should look for something that uses AA batteries just in case you can't get access to a recharge. I am about to go around the world myself and have chosen the Canon S3 IS. It takes great photos and has better zoom/optics than a smaller camera, yet it's lighter and more compact than an SLR. If you're not fussed with printing your photos, you can get away with a smaller camera like the ELPH styled cameras.
I used to also take along a Jukebox Multimedia 20 (a few years back) which I could copy my photos to and play Mp3's with. Now adays you're better off just buying lots of cheap 4GB memory cards for photos and putting your mp3's on your PDA.
I still think you should bring along MP3's, plus super light travel speakers, because I've had lots of great experiences meeting people and putting on some tunes we could all listen to.
I love music and cant' live without it. If you're like that as well, you'll end up buying music CD's and then you'll want to play them somehow. You should be able to RIP 'em at an internet cafe and put them on your PDA, or you may consider bringing along a tiny CD player. This is more of a luxury item and I wouldn't normally recommend it unless you gotta have music.
Finally, one last piece of techie you should get: noise cancelling headphones. I've got a pair that plug straight into my ear canals and are super lightweight. These things really make a difference on flights because they cancel out the background noise of the plane when you're trying to watch a movie or whatever. Don't forget to bring traditional earplugs as well.. you'll need 'em on the plane or when in a backpackers. Most backpackers will lock up your expensive stuff in a safe, but only so much, so you can lock up your larger camera and other stuff during the day if you're not going to use it and just take your PDA with you.
that we keep trying to think of clever ways to continue destroying our biosphere by massively consuming items that we don't really need and that we don't reuse. I've seen a crazy design to fight global warming by putting mirrors in orbit around the earth. How frigging stupid are we?
As humans, we need to come to terms with the fact that we don't have unlimited resources and that we are going to kill ourselves off if we don't change now.
The only way I can think of at least allowing for the fact that we're going to continue doing what we do until the temperatures get so hot that millions start dying is to at least use biodiesel. Biodiesel is carbon neutral, as the plants that are burned have converted C02 to O2 + plant material during their life. But the real problem is that the majority businesses will always do what is cheapest and provides the most profit instead of what's right, so we're basically screwed.
I'm doing my part by riding my bicycle, using a rainwater tank, using greywater, and buying local veggies or growing my own. But I still fly quite a bit, so in the end, I'm still making things worse.
Similar to what others have said, I worked in a record store when CD audio discs came out in full force. Back then, a brand new cassette tape of the latest top 40 cost about $10. When the same CD's came out, they were going for $15.
We were told that this extra cost was to offset the cost of setting up the new machinery to produce CD's and in about three years would drop back down to the price of tapes.
In fact, it costs far less to produce CD's than tapes, so you'd expect that this would be even cheaper at the relative price of the times.
But as greedy people go, once you get used to recieving $15 for a CD, there's no way in hell you're going to drop it down to $10.
These days, most discs cost so much and I just think of how I've been lied to by these record companies and thus rarely will buy albums anymore, where I used to buy several each month.
I am someone who left America in 2002 as I was disgusted with Bush and pals. I reasoned with myself that if I leave the country, I am not paying (as much) taxes and therefore I'm not contributing to the new world order of evil (okay, hot aussie girlfriend may have influenced me to move here as well).
I suppose my actions are better than just sitting around complaining, but since I've left I've seen the bill of rights become the 'bill of right' (seeing how there's only one right left preserved now), and our country now resembles what I was taught to despise as a schoolboy.
Now more than ever, it's important to stand against what is happening. Perhaps the question is not what country to move to, but what state? Maybe if enough people moved to the same state, it would create enough influence on the government to make a difference. Also, please don't come here, because you guys are really nasally sounding and loud.;)
Me and Bubba have been doing social networking from our prison cell way before this; only we use cigarettes and chewing gum instead of Java. We tried Java once, but it was kinda weird getting a coffee enema from my cell 'mate'.
I may be repeating what others have said, but this is the type of addiction where you have to admit the problem to yourself first and then decide to deal with it.
For me, it was the first release of Ultima Online. I trained up my character while I slept with some scripts and I found I was missing work a lot to play intead. I even missed an entire week due to the 'flu'.
I finally realized that I am a person that cannot ever again play MMORG. I uninstalled the software and then literally destroyed my disks.
I still end up playing online games such as BF1942 (haven't played the new one yet), but I am able to manage that, because it doesn't suck you in quite as much as role playing.
I suggest you avoid games where you befriend 'real' people and instead go out there to the real world and befriend real people.
Oh.. and now I have a girlfriend... no REALLY!
VMWare ESX Server 3 (currently in beta) will probably get as close as you can to having live fault tolarant servers. By sharing a storage such as SAN or iSCSI, it is able to instantly take over when it detects the failure of another physical box and should not lose any sessions or data. The other cool thing is that it can dynamically move a running virtual machine to a less loaded physical server.
Still, it is not running two virtual machines simultaneously like you've described.
You are very wise to recognise that if you are a geek and some hot chick starts hitting on you, there is probably a hidden agenda. Either that, or answering those penis enlargement spams is finally paying off.
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I did not know it was possible to detect javascript in a PDF, and I think this is possibly a better approach than a full rewrite (btw: I found this python script: http://blog.didierstevens.com/programs/pdf-tools/ ) So instead of rewriting every PDF, you just choose to delete any PDF attachments that are detected with JavaScript. I assume this will then not break any legitimate PDFs that have comments or forms, etc? It will need testing, I guess.
The mail relay can then be configured to detect and delete any javascript-containing PDFs and allow everything else through (including encrypted, which is more likely to be legit than not). Once again, this is not the only protection against this malicious code, but just one facet. I found some recent exploits that don't need javascript at all, so it seems the safest, yet most likely to make you hated, approach is to rewrite the PDF completely or not allow PDFs at all.
As exciting as the idea is to me of exploring another world, I think if there are other intelligent beings out there they should stop us from leaving our world until we can learn to take care of it properly. Otherwise, we will just spread our destruction in search of profit.
total population 150,000 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuit
Yeah. don't they make Quicken?
since we have used to hold books in our hands for hundreds of years
Ahh, but we've been holding tablets for thousands of years.
I've used Myth for years. Since the 2.4 kernel days when you had to recompile the kernel to get DVB and ALSA working. It used to take hours and hours to get even the remote control working, but I perservered because it was far superior to anything out there.
But Myth has lagged too long and it has always looked godawful compared to its competors.
With the release of Windows 7, I have found that I am able to do all that I need and it looks a hell of a lot better. This latest release of Myth (which is pretty lame for taking so long for such a minor release) only convinces me further that I made the right choice of switching away from it.
Thanks for the memories, though. I'll think of you fondly.
Good. They can scan my middle finger when I leave the US for good.
Exactly. It is the "not good with tech" people that we would need to work on getting to switch. They are the ones with problems.
My opinion (I'm sure many will disagree) is that for desktop use, Linux is garbage as far as the masses are concerned.
Reasons uninitiated, not technical people don't like it:
It looks like crap out of the box. Linux needs to get some graphic designers with actual talent to make it look better. OpenOffice may work, but it look like crap.
It is confusing.
It works like crap for standard stuff like watching flash videos, movies, and other day to day stuff the average person expects. There are no commercial versions of popular products available for native Linux (Adobe CS, MS Office, and lots of smaller apps people buy online. WINE is vastly improved, but you still have to introduce great instability.
The interdependencies on packages means that you have to upgrade EVERYTHING each time there's a new release. You should have applications and the OS separate from each other in that sense.
The installation process is crap. Sure "dependency hell" is no longer such a program with automated package managers, but compare other OS's. You just download an executable, double click and install. There are rarely dependencies to worry about. I may want to install Amarok 2 and leave at that until they come up with a newer version that isn't as dummed down. Sure I can install from source, but isn't that missing the point of package management? And if there is a way to do that, it is not obvious.
I could go on with more examples, but my main point is that the majority of people don't LIKE LINUX as a desktop (statistically speaking, so don't bother telling me about how your grandma just loves it).
How is it that Apple was able to take BSD and make it look and work so well and gain wider acceptance in a shorter amount of time? I would be copying them in terms of the experience a normal user wants to have, and for the "not good with tech" people, I would be telling them to go buy a mac.
Maybe Apple did better because they all focused on one vision. Maybe Google is secretly already working on something that will improve things.
In the mean time, I have given up on Linux for desktop purposes. I have been disappointed for the last 13 or so years and have better things to do with my time now than try to compromise on functionality when I have a job to do.
It's a good thing Bush approved the illegal interception of domestic internet traffic. Now they can just ask the NSA for a copy.
At my organization, I've configured our DNS as split-split. Split-split means that the outside world only gets nonrecursive advertisements of our authoritative domains, separate servers are configured for the inside to do recursive queries(i.e. forwarders), and a last set is for our user land dns servers which forward to our recursive nameservers. Only these dns servers are allowed to talk to the forwarders, which sit in their own DMZ.
Now, my servers may have the same vulnerability as yours, but the risk of it being exploited is much lower. This buys me time to patch any given flaw without panicking too much.
To those that knock BIND, for its lack of security: if a system (i.e a group os servers meant to provide a service) is designed and then configured securely, even when flaws are discovered, the chances of getting hit can be vastly reduced. Yes, there are more secure versions of DNS out there, but BIND is the most popular. DJBDNS has a great reputation, but my solution works just fine and I don't have to learn yet another version of something that when passed on to the next person will go on neglected for years.
Yes, this would cause drag, however if these turbines were placed in areas where cars needed to brake (i.e. on a downfacing slope, or a tight turn), this could be a win-win situation.
I've had another idea like this for a while... what if you had a cable that went along bike paths and outfitted bicycles with strong magnets? The bicyclist would have to push a little harder, but it could help power the city. Then there's the propeller hats...
I've been a big fan of BeOS ever since I first used it years ago. I was so impressed to be able to load it up on my obsolete dual proc pentium pro system and see it come back to life. Any other operating system I put on it was way too slow.. even Linux. But BeOS truly did take advantage of having two processors. Suddenly it was like I had a 400MHz Pentium II. It was a PC resurrection! But then, stupid Palm bought it and killed it. Development and especially interest in it all but died. This operating system was truly the best Operating system, potentially, for end users. This is what I wish the MacOS operating system evolved into, instead of OSX (not that OSX is half bad). With the impending release of Haiku 1.0, though, I am left wondering.. is it too little too late? The look and feel of it are so dated now. There are very limited applications available for it compared to other operating systems. Pooh on Palm for killing this OS. I hope it's not too late for it to make a comeback, but I wonder if the only way to make that happen is to open source it? Otherwise, I wonder if there will be the critical mass to modernize it.
This may be off topic, but I think that this is the perfect time to switch to a new operating system. The menus and interfaces are so different in Vista/O2K7 that we all need to relearn how to use them anyway. This time could be spent with new users on Linux(or OS X)/OpenOffice.
Pencils write upside down too. Just ask the Russians. >>In all my travels the only thing I had stolen was one of those small space pens that can write upside down. In all seriousness, I heartily agree with your recommendation for the Pacsafe. When you leave your backpack on your bunkbed all day, knowing it's secured to the bed and that it'd be quite difficult to get stuff out eases the anxiety levels of leaving your stuff behind. I never leave anything in my backpack other than clothes, toiletries, and books. Valuables I either bring with me (hence why you must travel light) or have it locked in the safe (if there is one). Most of the valuables I bring I need to use during the day anyway (i.e camera, wallet, pda).
Like many others have said, pack as light as possible. A laptop is unnecessary for most people and internet cafes are in just about any city. I even go as far as ripping the pertinent pages out of my travel books so I'm not weighed down (books are the biggest liability in terms of weight). To put a technology slant on this, you could go as far as scanning your travel book (or buy an electronic version if you can find one) and loading it into your PDA. The best all-in-one type of solution I've seen is an O2 Atom Exec. You can use this to keep all of your maps, contacts, take quick low quality photos. Get a think outside bluetooth keyboard and you'll be able to use it as a diary as well. Take it to an internet cafe and you _may_ be able to plug it in via USB (or at least the memory card), however I've been to places still running Windows 98 or NT and they don't 'plug and play' usb drives automatically. Because you've got to install Activesync for this type of PDA, you can be a bit clever and instead bring along your digital camera and copy stuff back and forth from your memory card(Make sure your PDA & Camera use the same type of memory). Bring along USB drivers for older operating systems. They'll fit on a business card CD. As far as cameras go, you should look for something that uses AA batteries just in case you can't get access to a recharge. I am about to go around the world myself and have chosen the Canon S3 IS. It takes great photos and has better zoom/optics than a smaller camera, yet it's lighter and more compact than an SLR. If you're not fussed with printing your photos, you can get away with a smaller camera like the ELPH styled cameras. I used to also take along a Jukebox Multimedia 20 (a few years back) which I could copy my photos to and play Mp3's with. Now adays you're better off just buying lots of cheap 4GB memory cards for photos and putting your mp3's on your PDA. I still think you should bring along MP3's, plus super light travel speakers, because I've had lots of great experiences meeting people and putting on some tunes we could all listen to. I love music and cant' live without it. If you're like that as well, you'll end up buying music CD's and then you'll want to play them somehow. You should be able to RIP 'em at an internet cafe and put them on your PDA, or you may consider bringing along a tiny CD player. This is more of a luxury item and I wouldn't normally recommend it unless you gotta have music. Finally, one last piece of techie you should get: noise cancelling headphones. I've got a pair that plug straight into my ear canals and are super lightweight. These things really make a difference on flights because they cancel out the background noise of the plane when you're trying to watch a movie or whatever. Don't forget to bring traditional earplugs as well.. you'll need 'em on the plane or when in a backpackers. Most backpackers will lock up your expensive stuff in a safe, but only so much, so you can lock up your larger camera and other stuff during the day if you're not going to use it and just take your PDA with you.
that we keep trying to think of clever ways to continue destroying our biosphere by massively consuming items that we don't really need and that we don't reuse. I've seen a crazy design to fight global warming by putting mirrors in orbit around the earth. How frigging stupid are we? As humans, we need to come to terms with the fact that we don't have unlimited resources and that we are going to kill ourselves off if we don't change now. The only way I can think of at least allowing for the fact that we're going to continue doing what we do until the temperatures get so hot that millions start dying is to at least use biodiesel. Biodiesel is carbon neutral, as the plants that are burned have converted C02 to O2 + plant material during their life. But the real problem is that the majority businesses will always do what is cheapest and provides the most profit instead of what's right, so we're basically screwed. I'm doing my part by riding my bicycle, using a rainwater tank, using greywater, and buying local veggies or growing my own. But I still fly quite a bit, so in the end, I'm still making things worse.
Similar to what others have said, I worked in a record store when CD audio discs came out in full force. Back then, a brand new cassette tape of the latest top 40 cost about $10. When the same CD's came out, they were going for $15. We were told that this extra cost was to offset the cost of setting up the new machinery to produce CD's and in about three years would drop back down to the price of tapes. In fact, it costs far less to produce CD's than tapes, so you'd expect that this would be even cheaper at the relative price of the times. But as greedy people go, once you get used to recieving $15 for a CD, there's no way in hell you're going to drop it down to $10. These days, most discs cost so much and I just think of how I've been lied to by these record companies and thus rarely will buy albums anymore, where I used to buy several each month.
I am someone who left America in 2002 as I was disgusted with Bush and pals. I reasoned with myself that if I leave the country, I am not paying (as much) taxes and therefore I'm not contributing to the new world order of evil (okay, hot aussie girlfriend may have influenced me to move here as well). I suppose my actions are better than just sitting around complaining, but since I've left I've seen the bill of rights become the 'bill of right' (seeing how there's only one right left preserved now), and our country now resembles what I was taught to despise as a schoolboy. Now more than ever, it's important to stand against what is happening. Perhaps the question is not what country to move to, but what state? Maybe if enough people moved to the same state, it would create enough influence on the government to make a difference. Also, please don't come here, because you guys are really nasally sounding and loud. ;)
but horn.ie will do
That's because they named it after the apperatus that protects YOUR groin. Hey, don't feel bad. They named the femtocup after me. :(
Me and Bubba have been doing social networking from our prison cell way before this; only we use cigarettes and chewing gum instead of Java. We tried Java once, but it was kinda weird getting a coffee enema from my cell 'mate'.
I may be repeating what others have said, but this is the type of addiction where you have to admit the problem to yourself first and then decide to deal with it. For me, it was the first release of Ultima Online. I trained up my character while I slept with some scripts and I found I was missing work a lot to play intead. I even missed an entire week due to the 'flu'. I finally realized that I am a person that cannot ever again play MMORG. I uninstalled the software and then literally destroyed my disks. I still end up playing online games such as BF1942 (haven't played the new one yet), but I am able to manage that, because it doesn't suck you in quite as much as role playing. I suggest you avoid games where you befriend 'real' people and instead go out there to the real world and befriend real people. Oh.. and now I have a girlfriend... no REALLY!
VMWare ESX Server 3 (currently in beta) will probably get as close as you can to having live fault tolarant servers. By sharing a storage such as SAN or iSCSI, it is able to instantly take over when it detects the failure of another physical box and should not lose any sessions or data. The other cool thing is that it can dynamically move a running virtual machine to a less loaded physical server. Still, it is not running two virtual machines simultaneously like you've described.
Now when Americans say their car runs on 'gas', they'll actually be correct! :)
I shudder to think what you mean by "intensive usage".
You are very wise to recognise that if you are a geek and some hot chick starts hitting on you, there is probably a hidden agenda. Either that, or answering those penis enlargement spams is finally paying off.