These users never had to install software or drivers, never had to do any configuration, and were certainly never allowed to use any software that didn't work flawlessly with Vista (almost everything).
Vista's appeal is that it looks nice on a computer in a store. It's only when you actually start using it for day-to-day computing that it shows its true colors.
I had the displeasure of using the business edition of Vista for 6 months on a major OEM computer that came with it pre-installed. Even during the first week my "Windows stability index" graph hovered near 3 out of 10. From day one I couldn't install any printers, couldn't install or uninstall Windows components, and experienced hourly crashes in everything from Firefox to Photoshop from ordinary, everyday use. I disabled Aero and reverted to the Windows Classic theme after the novelty wore off (a few days after I started using the machine), but that didn't stop Aero's dwm.exe from continuing to devour memory and CPU time. Everything crashed, over and over and over again. Vista sets a new record for lowest average uptime, even for a Microsoft OS. It wasn't until I made the mistake of trying to install Microsoft Virtual PC on Microsoft Windows Vista that it deleted all the NTFS permissions on my entire system drive, breaking everything. I nuked the drive and installed XP, and have been happily using it for months.
Keep in mind that this is a machine from a major OEM that came preloaded with signed Vista drivers. I can only imagine what my experience would have been had I installed Vista on an older machine without the proper hardware and drivers.
While playing with Vista for a few days (as the users in this blind test did) can be an enjoyable experience, actually using it for day-to-day computing is an utter nightmare.
"One important example is listed right in the summary: Google's PageRank patent. With that invalidated, other search engines can legally use PageRank, without giving Google a dime, which could give them the same searching power as Google."
Other search engines already have the searching power of Google. Yahoo and MSN results are comparable with Google's, their problem is presentation. Larry and Sergey stumbled upon the perfect user interface for a search engine while Google was still a research project at Stanford, while Yahoo and MSN stuck to their ugly, information-vomiting, 1997-style portals. Is it any wonder people prefer Google?
For all the hype, this attack is hardly groundbreaking. It strikes me as something that was used to coerce vendors into finally patching smaller flaws security people have been nagging about for years.
That last part is actually a very good point. With employers checking up on prospective hires' Facebook profiles, I don't find it a stretch to think that insurance companies would do the same thing. Here's hoping they quadruple the rates of everyone in that group.
"If your idea is so tired that the.com,.net,.org and.cx are already taken, I really don't care what you have to sell because I've seen it all before."
The trouble is, the squatters have taken EVERY 3-6 letter word in the English language (not to mention literally every 3 and 4-letter domain) and damn near every pronounceable combination of letters of those lengths. Even many words with single misspellings are taken, most people now have to use doubly misspelled words.
This can only reinforce my belief that the people at Microsoft have no ideas and no vision (whether they lost them or never had them to begin with, I'll leave to you) whatsoever. It almost makes me feel sorry for them to see them try so very hard to innovate. But ultimately they're just like the Chinese knock-off game console manufacturers, they see new products that are commercial successes and emulate them in every way but the one that counts. I liked Windows 2000, and I like Windows XP. Microsoft should stick to what they do best, not try to create the "next big thing".
This attack is ancient. It used to be done in Windows 2000 by replacing the logon screen saver with cmd.exe and waiting 5 minutes.
High resolution images up, slashdotted
on
The Phoenix Has Landed
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Dammit, the University of Arizona website (which hosts the high resolution images) has been slashdotted. A few of the photos are already up on Wikipedia though, so use that if you can't get through.
What do you expect? You can't have bandwidth hogs abusing the service by accessing web content not approved by the Comcastâ PremiumUltraProPlusPackageâ!
"This content is mine; you can't have it. If you want to access it for free, you have to let me track your activity."
That's basically the business model of the current web bubble. None of the services are really free, it's just that you're getting something in return for something you may not have known you had. There's still no such thing as a free lunch.
Static IPs are the closest thing to a silver bullet there is for spam but they will never get adopted, even with IPv6. Major ISPs back-asswardly see static addresses as an extra service they can charge extra money for, and as such will never offer them as standard with consumer broadband.
6. INFORMATION RIGHTS AND PUBLICITY . Google and its wholly owned subsidiaries may retain and use, subject to the terms of its Privacy Policy (located at http://www.google.com/privacy.html , or such other URL as Google may provide from time to time), information collected in Your use of the Service. Google will not share information associated with You or your Site with any third parties unless Google (i) has Your consent; (ii) concludes that it is required by law or has a good faith belief that access, preservation or disclosure of such information is reasonably necessary to protect the rights, property or safety of Google, its users or the public; or (iii) provides such information in certain limited circumstances to third parties to carry out tasks on Google's behalf (e.g., billing or data storage) with strict restrictions that prevent the data from being used or shared except as directed by Google . When this is done, it is subject to agreements that oblige those parties to process such information only on Google's instructions and in compliance with this Agreement and appropriate confidentiality and security measures.
...which translates to, Google can use any data collected by Analytics on your site for ANY (see their privacy policy) internal purpose and share it with third parties for broad, vaguely defined purposes. Google Analytics gives them a nearly complete copy of users' browsing history, what they looked at, read, clicked, hovered their mouse over, or submitted via GET request. If you think calling attention to that is trolling, you should move to North Korea.
HTTPS is great, but let's not portray it as the holy grail of privacy. There was a vulnerability in Windows that allowed attackers to remotely install arbitrary CA certificates in the operating system's certificate store without users' knowledge. If an attacker could get on your LAN (a very big if) he could eavesdrop on every SSL connection through a combination of cache poisoning and replacing legitimate certificates with those signed by his bogus CA.
Slashdot Mirror
Here's the config:
block in all
block out all
These users never had to install software or drivers, never had to do any configuration, and were certainly never allowed to use any software that didn't work flawlessly with Vista (almost everything).
Vista's appeal is that it looks nice on a computer in a store. It's only when you actually start using it for day-to-day computing that it shows its true colors.
I had the displeasure of using the business edition of Vista for 6 months on a major OEM computer that came with it pre-installed. Even during the first week my "Windows stability index" graph hovered near 3 out of 10. From day one I couldn't install any printers, couldn't install or uninstall Windows components, and experienced hourly crashes in everything from Firefox to Photoshop from ordinary, everyday use. I disabled Aero and reverted to the Windows Classic theme after the novelty wore off (a few days after I started using the machine), but that didn't stop Aero's dwm.exe from continuing to devour memory and CPU time. Everything crashed, over and over and over again. Vista sets a new record for lowest average uptime, even for a Microsoft OS. It wasn't until I made the mistake of trying to install Microsoft Virtual PC on Microsoft Windows Vista that it deleted all the NTFS permissions on my entire system drive, breaking everything. I nuked the drive and installed XP, and have been happily using it for months.
Keep in mind that this is a machine from a major OEM that came preloaded with signed Vista drivers. I can only imagine what my experience would have been had I installed Vista on an older machine without the proper hardware and drivers.
While playing with Vista for a few days (as the users in this blind test did) can be an enjoyable experience, actually using it for day-to-day computing is an utter nightmare.
I voted for Harvey Dent.
"One important example is listed right in the summary: Google's PageRank patent. With that invalidated, other search engines can legally use PageRank, without giving Google a dime, which could give them the same searching power as Google." Other search engines already have the searching power of Google. Yahoo and MSN results are comparable with Google's, their problem is presentation. Larry and Sergey stumbled upon the perfect user interface for a search engine while Google was still a research project at Stanford, while Yahoo and MSN stuck to their ugly, information-vomiting, 1997-style portals. Is it any wonder people prefer Google?
For all the hype, this attack is hardly groundbreaking. It strikes me as something that was used to coerce vendors into finally patching smaller flaws security people have been nagging about for years.
That last part is actually a very good point. With employers checking up on prospective hires' Facebook profiles, I don't find it a stretch to think that insurance companies would do the same thing. Here's hoping they quadruple the rates of everyone in that group.
"If your idea is so tired that the .com, .net, .org and .cx are already taken, I really don't care what you have to sell because I've seen it all before."
The trouble is, the squatters have taken EVERY 3-6 letter word in the English language (not to mention literally every 3 and 4-letter domain) and damn near every pronounceable combination of letters of those lengths. Even many words with single misspellings are taken, most people now have to use doubly misspelled words.
Well, that's one way to increase broadband access. Drive everyone to lease their own T1s instead of putting up with this kind of crap.
This can only reinforce my belief that the people at Microsoft have no ideas and no vision (whether they lost them or never had them to begin with, I'll leave to you) whatsoever. It almost makes me feel sorry for them to see them try so very hard to innovate. But ultimately they're just like the Chinese knock-off game console manufacturers, they see new products that are commercial successes and emulate them in every way but the one that counts. I liked Windows 2000, and I like Windows XP. Microsoft should stick to what they do best, not try to create the "next big thing".
In a word: Cogent.
Now that you mention it...
They have a 9 gigabit connection dedicated to launching illegal DoS attacks. I wish I was joking.
Looks to me like MediaDefender is in clear violation of at least two subsections of 18 USC 1030. Where is the federal criminal investigation?
The idea is to boot to an external OS (which can freely access the Windows partition) and modify the file that way.
This attack is ancient. It used to be done in Windows 2000 by replacing the logon screen saver with cmd.exe and waiting 5 minutes.
Dammit, the University of Arizona website (which hosts the high resolution images) has been slashdotted. A few of the photos are already up on Wikipedia though, so use that if you can't get through.
The judge didn't take a higher court's ruling on what constitutes infringement into account when giving instructions to the jury.
Reverse engineering and (more) malicious usage in 3... 2... 1.
Would You Like To Know More?
What do you expect? You can't have bandwidth hogs abusing the service by accessing web content not approved by the Comcastâ PremiumUltraProPlusPackageâ!
Static IPs are the closest thing to a silver bullet there is for spam but they will never get adopted, even with IPv6. Major ISPs back-asswardly see static addresses as an extra service they can charge extra money for, and as such will never offer them as standard with consumer broadband.
Maybe they should patent their user tracking system instead, it makes the NSA look like a bunch of amateurs.
HTTPS is great, but let's not portray it as the holy grail of privacy. There was a vulnerability in Windows that allowed attackers to remotely install arbitrary CA certificates in the operating system's certificate store without users' knowledge. If an attacker could get on your LAN (a very big if) he could eavesdrop on every SSL connection through a combination of cache poisoning and replacing legitimate certificates with those signed by his bogus CA.