we shall pay for the Mandriva Software as agreed, but we shall replace it by Windows afterward.
I am curious what the Nigerian's side explanation is. Obviously this is a stupid decision, if they concluded that using Windows is better/cheaper, they should have figured this out it initially. Perhaps they'd get a better offer, or at least they could have avoided such a dramatic change of the set-up.
actually an optimist has only disappointments in his life.
compare that to a pessemist who has only happy surprises.
Yes, and generally that means that an optimist has more reasons not to be happy, because something is always wrong (i.e. not perfect). In contrast, a pessimist can relax, because they feel happy by preserving their state of "things are OK as they are" [I won't bother thinking about imporoving them, so I will never fail].
The final difference is that a pessimist has an epsilonic contribution to the progress of mankind. They are not likely to be mentioned in history books.
Hmm, that sounds very interesting, and very close to what I was thinking about this. I wrote a short story which summarizes the concept, it is called "Intelligence grows on trees". Basically, it is the same thing, but the difference is that I consider one's ability to "measure" possible outcomes to be proportional with one's intelligence, rather than one's level of optimism.
In other words, it's not a matter of feeling positive or negative about something, but a matter of being able to predict that event. Some things are "feeling-agnostic" and there is no reason for us to feel bad or good about them; emotions should not be involved.
Optimism or pessimism is a high-level protocol, stacked on top of other things. Reality does not care how you feel about it, so in the end you are a "winner" if you can rationally deal with things, rather than emotionally treat them as good/bad.
You might also be interested in this book, which is very good: The brain - a decoded enigma. And there are a couple of other examples on my site, which illustrate how math can be applied to life (most of the stories are about social relationships).
I've always considered myself an optimist, yet I always try to find potential flaws in all my plans which means (according to the author of the book you mentioned) that I am a pessimist. Could that be true? Or maybe we are dealing with different definitions for 'optimism' and 'pessimism'.
I thought this could have a connection with music; so I made a little experiment, and created an account on last.fm, to see what statistics says about my favourite music. It turns out that Moby's "Why does my heart feel so bad?" (along with other similar songs by Moby) is top rated in my list. Hmmm.. so... am I still an optimist?
And in my experience, there is no need to have an antivirus at all. Even though I have ClamWin and a script that updates its definitions every day automatically - I never actually scan anything.
Life with Windows without an antivirus is possible.
People already write their passwords and leave that on their desk, and leaving the physical usb key on the desk would be no better.
Take a look at this secure logon for Windows program. It brings multiple factors of authentication into the game, so a smart card or a token is also PIN protected. If you leave it on the desk and someone steals it, they'll block the key after 3 invalid PIN enter attempts. It's pretty secure, because even if the PIN is trivial, you only have three attempts to guess it, since brute-forcing is out of the question. The program also has an option which forces the user to remove the key from the PC once they are logged on (so that it is not forgotten in the reader, or in the USB port of the computer).
What could be really cool, however, is if the device doubled as your key-card to get into the office.
It is possible; we have a lock at the main entrance that can be unlocked either by entering a PIN, with a fingerprint, or with a contactless smart card. Now, if you have one of those smart cards with two interfaces, you can use it for both - the main entrance, and for Windows authentication.
If there is still free space on the smart card, you can use it with other programs too (ex: store your digital certificate on it and sign emails, etc)
I find it funny that all of us are so into this story and no one has bothered to verify it. The guy claims he heard the news on TV and decided to translate it for us. The thing is that if you speak Russian, and check out the TV channels, or the Russian news agencies - none of them mentions such a case. For instance, http://lenta.ru/internet/ is silent about it.
I must say this was a job well done by this bogus artist, he managed to spawn a classic slashdot dispute with many insightful posts, bravo! Well, maybe this will make spammers feel a bit uncomfortable...
Morale of the story: 10 thousand lemmings can be wrong.
I wouldn't promote this as THE most secure way to do online stuff. After all, besides keyloggers and spyware we still have sniffers that can be running elsewhere in the network and monitor the traffic; there is potential for man-in-the-middle attacks (if weak protocols are used), etc.
I disagree with your statement, because the analogies, in my opinion, are not good. Not having an antivirus does not mean that you are not protected. If you can figure out which files not to run - the knowledge that helps you figure that out is your protection.
The problem is that this can't work for everyone, as this knowledge is harvested (you have to experiment, discuss security topics, read articles, etc) throughout the years. A typical slashdotter may survive without an antivirus, but a "simple human being" is likely to become a victim in no time.
Here is why I don't use an antivirus. It is interesting that my dad's computer, which runs Windows without an antivirus or antispyware is pretty reliable and there is no trace of malware on it. I conclude that a carefully configured firewall (besides some Windows components, only the browser (Opera), the IM client and the email client are allowed to make connections to the internet, other applications are silently rejected by default) can be quite effective, as long as some basic guidelines are respected.
That's a good idea; I know I registered when I stumbled upon a discussion about "overclocking vodka". That means that I can add a new line to my CV: 3 years of Slashdot experience.
I know one thing, if one of my interviewees had that in their CV, I'd definitely be more likely to give them an extra point!;-)
I only know two people in Moldova who have accounts on Slashdot. There is also a small number of people who regularly read discussions I forward to their email accounts. This sounds like a great opportunity to find out who else spends a lot of their time on this web-site.
Folks, I hope we'll be able to prove empirically that we are not a non-existing breed:-)
I've seen such a "square tattoo on paper". My guess is that they use the phone's built-in camera to photograph it, and some software to process the image and interpret it (like scanners do with bar-codes).
Some phones also come with swipe fingerprint sensors; can anyone provide technical details of these sensors? Do they comply with BioAPI or HA-API? Is there a way to interact with them via a computer?
I am aware of such a workaround, but it does not refute my argument, it is simply a special case - "the Russian Federation has friendlier^ citizenship procedures for one who was born on the territory of the Soviet Union". At that point you become Russian, and.ru is your new home.
I don't know whether this is the norm, or the cases above are just exceptions. Perhaps this is different from country to country (and you are a resident of a state which gets special treatment when it comes to such matters).
The second point is that the 'hack' you described does not resolve the problem entirely. Some people don't need Russian citizenship. Why would I need it if I was born in Uzbekistan, and then moved to Kazakhstan? (make it Ukraine -> Moldova, or vice-versa; or pick any other couple)
Ok, I see your point. The status of such people is 'apatride' ('patriae' = country, and 'a-' is the prefix which acts like a '-less' suffix); i.e. "without a home-country". This is especially easy if you speak Romanian, because 'apatrid' is in the Romanian vocabulary, and it does not feel like a foreign word because 'patria' means 'country' [although it is closer to 'rodina' than it is to 'strana' or 'gosudarstvo'])
The fact that the 'nationality' field says "Soviet Union"... Well, it should be treated as a system in an undefined state, the variable was not initialized, so whatever was stored in the memory a while ago is the current value of the variable:-)
The problem is that such people, if in trouble, cannot go to "Soviet Union" and ask for shelter, or demand things from their government.
If you look at the map, you'll see that the big red blob is now replaced by a smaller red blob - the Soviet Union is gone and you can't be officially a citizen of that state. Who modded that informative?!
You might be a citizen of an ex-Soviet country (me too), that makes sense.//Privet:-)
My guess is that the.su domain is just a fashion thing. Somehow exUSSRers are very 'nostalgic', so you still see people walking around in red T-shirts with "CCCP" on them - they think it's cool. The same applies to the domain, only it feels doublepluscool.
Since different users trust different software, it is obvious that end users should be the ones who manage their individual white-lists.
Symantec's idea is good, but it is bad if they think they are the ones who get to decide which programs are bad and which ones are good.
Computer users must decide for themselves what they trust, and what they do not trust. The problem is that a non-advanced person is not able to decide for themselves. For the rest of us, something like Disk Firewall's application verification can be a good tool.
Just in case - grasshoppers have eyes that can move independently, so they can focus each eye on different objects. Of course, humans can do that too, but the standard approach is that both eyes look at the same thing, to get "a better picture".
If you happen to be in The Netherlands, visit Museon in The Hague, they have a nice interactive model of a grasshopper's vision system, among many other cool things. If you have children, they'll love it there!
Slashdot Mirror
There is a German movie called 'Das Experiment', it is about a similar experiment, and in the movie things too ran out of control.
I recommend it to those who are interested in studying the human psyche.
The final difference is that a pessimist has an epsilonic contribution to the progress of mankind. They are not likely to be mentioned in history books.
Hmm, that sounds very interesting, and very close to what I was thinking about this. I wrote a short story which summarizes the concept, it is called "Intelligence grows on trees". Basically, it is the same thing, but the difference is that I consider one's ability to "measure" possible outcomes to be proportional with one's intelligence, rather than one's level of optimism.
In other words, it's not a matter of feeling positive or negative about something, but a matter of being able to predict that event. Some things are "feeling-agnostic" and there is no reason for us to feel bad or good about them; emotions should not be involved.
Optimism or pessimism is a high-level protocol, stacked on top of other things. Reality does not care how you feel about it, so in the end you are a "winner" if you can rationally deal with things, rather than emotionally treat them as good/bad.
You might also be interested in this book, which is very good: The brain - a decoded enigma. And there are a couple of other examples on my site, which illustrate how math can be applied to life (most of the stories are about social relationships).
I've always considered myself an optimist, yet I always try to find potential flaws in all my plans which means (according to the author of the book you mentioned) that I am a pessimist. Could that be true? Or maybe we are dealing with different definitions for 'optimism' and 'pessimism'.
I thought this could have a connection with music; so I made a little experiment, and created an account on last.fm, to see what statistics says about my favourite music. It turns out that Moby's "Why does my heart feel so bad?" (along with other similar songs by Moby) is top rated in my list. Hmmm.. so... am I still an optimist?
And in my experience, there is no need to have an antivirus at all. Even though I have ClamWin and a script that updates its definitions every day automatically - I never actually scan anything.
Life with Windows without an antivirus is possible.
The program also has an option which forces the user to remove the key from the PC once they are logged on (so that it is not forgotten in the reader, or in the USB port of the computer).
It is possible; we have a lock at the main entrance that can be unlocked either by entering a PIN, with a fingerprint, or with a contactless smart card. Now, if you have one of those smart cards with two interfaces, you can use it for both - the main entrance, and for Windows authentication.
If there is still free space on the smart card, you can use it with other programs too (ex: store your digital certificate on it and sign emails, etc)
I hope that soon this story will be covered on his blog. Previously he described other weird things happening during file copy procedures, as well as the Vista network performance issue. Hopefully, his story will provide enough low-level details for the hungry minds.
I find it funny that all of us are so into this story and no one has bothered to verify it. The guy claims he heard the news on TV and decided to translate it for us. The thing is that if you speak Russian, and check out the TV channels, or the Russian news agencies - none of them mentions such a case. For instance, http://lenta.ru/internet/ is silent about it.
I must say this was a job well done by this bogus artist, he managed to spawn a classic slashdot dispute with many insightful posts, bravo! Well, maybe this will make spammers feel a bit uncomfortable...
Morale of the story: 10 thousand lemmings can be wrong.
Too bad, that won't allow you to see http://www.slashdot.ru/ ;-)
This program was probably built with BHS SDK, the Bank Hacking System; a very advanced kit which can do many other things automagically.
I wouldn't promote this as THE most secure way to do online stuff. After all, besides keyloggers and spyware we still have sniffers that can be running elsewhere in the network and monitor the traffic; there is potential for man-in-the-middle attacks (if weak protocols are used), etc.
You can use Miro to download streaming videos and watch them later; I have the same problem as you do, this tool is a good solution.
I disagree with your statement, because the analogies, in my opinion, are not good. Not having an antivirus does not mean that you are not protected. If you can figure out which files not to run - the knowledge that helps you figure that out is your protection.
The problem is that this can't work for everyone, as this knowledge is harvested (you have to experiment, discuss security topics, read articles, etc) throughout the years. A typical slashdotter may survive without an antivirus, but a "simple human being" is likely to become a victim in no time.
Here is why I don't use an antivirus. It is interesting that my dad's computer, which runs Windows without an antivirus or antispyware is pretty reliable and there is no trace of malware on it. I conclude that a carefully configured firewall (besides some Windows components, only the browser (Opera), the IM client and the email client are allowed to make connections to the internet, other applications are silently rejected by default) can be quite effective, as long as some basic guidelines are respected.
That's a good idea; I know I registered when I stumbled upon a discussion about "overclocking vodka". That means that I can add a new line to my CV: 3 years of Slashdot experience.
;-)
I know one thing, if one of my interviewees had that in their CV, I'd definitely be more likely to give them an extra point!
I only know two people in Moldova who have accounts on Slashdot. There is also a small number of people who regularly read discussions I forward to their email accounts. This sounds like a great opportunity to find out who else spends a lot of their time on this web-site.
:-)
Folks, I hope we'll be able to prove empirically that we are not a non-existing breed
Japan is not the most densely populated country of the world, see this map of population density; or this list of countries by population density. There has to be something else that causes this.
I've seen such a "square tattoo on paper". My guess is that they use the phone's built-in camera to photograph it, and some software to process the image and interpret it (like scanners do with bar-codes).
Some phones also come with swipe fingerprint sensors; can anyone provide technical details of these sensors? Do they comply with BioAPI or HA-API? Is there a way to interact with them via a computer?
I am aware of such a workaround, but it does not refute my argument, it is simply a special case - "the Russian Federation has friendlier^ citizenship procedures for one who was born on the territory of the Soviet Union". At that point you become Russian, and .ru is your new home.
^http://www.newsru.com/russia/17oct2003/grazhdanstvorf.html
* I've heard it in various discussions, but found no official document that formally describes the procedure. In fact, if I dig around, I find out that theory is different from practice:
http://www.svobodanews.ru/Transcript/2007/06/11/20070611140011877.html
http://www.ppl.nnov.ru/?doc=956
I don't know whether this is the norm, or the cases above are just exceptions. Perhaps this is different from country to country (and you are a resident of a state which gets special treatment when it comes to such matters).
The second point is that the 'hack' you described does not resolve the problem entirely.
Some people don't need Russian citizenship. Why would I need it if I was born in Uzbekistan, and then moved to Kazakhstan? (make it Ukraine -> Moldova, or vice-versa; or pick any other couple)
IANAL
Ok, I see your point. The status of such people is 'apatride' ('patriae' = country, and 'a-' is the prefix which acts like a '-less' suffix); i.e. "without a home-country". This is especially easy if you speak Romanian, because 'apatrid' is in the Romanian vocabulary, and it does not feel like a foreign word because 'patria' means 'country' [although it is closer to 'rodina' than it is to 'strana' or 'gosudarstvo'])
:-)
The fact that the 'nationality' field says "Soviet Union"... Well, it should be treated as a system in an undefined state, the variable was not initialized, so whatever was stored in the memory a while ago is the current value of the variable
The problem is that such people, if in trouble, cannot go to "Soviet Union" and ask for shelter, or demand things from their government.
You might be a citizen of an ex-Soviet country (me too), that makes sense.
My guess is that the
Since different users trust different software, it is obvious that end users should be the ones who manage their individual white-lists.
Symantec's idea is good, but it is bad if they think they are the ones who get to decide which programs are bad and which ones are good.
Computer users must decide for themselves what they trust, and what they do not trust. The problem is that a non-advanced person is not able to decide for themselves. For the rest of us, something like Disk Firewall's application verification can be a good tool.
Just in case - grasshoppers have eyes that can move independently, so they can focus each eye on different objects. Of course, humans can do that too, but the standard approach is that both eyes look at the same thing, to get "a better picture".
If you happen to be in The Netherlands, visit Museon in The Hague, they have a nice interactive model of a grasshopper's vision system, among many other cool things. If you have children, they'll love it there!
I guess there's no use in that, you can take a 'standard' movie and apply a filter - you're done.