As usual the summary killed the story for me. Here I thought it was about hard core sexy frag girls playing Duke Nukem: Forever... turns out its still in development. *sigh*
KEEP BREAKING MY HEART WHY DON'T YOU!!! *shawshank pose*
Hmm... you may be right... the stats tracker for my webpage indicates that MSN has indexed 104% of my site! I think they are up to something... Google may index the world's current information, but Microsoft indexes future information!
Yesterday it was mind control sharks, and today its collision course astroids. THis is getting to be a who's who of bad movie plots. What's next? A small group of hackers take down The Man? A government copmputer becomes hell bent on Global Thermonuclear War?
Typically to "whistle blow" you need to find something wrong. The course you speak of is an excellant one. You spend the semester learning how to secure, and setting up your own boxes. The final does involve attacking each other's box, but it's on a closed network. You can only attack people who are part of the class. Big difference from FORBIDDING them from attacking the class, and MAKING them focus on real-world servers.
Thanks for playing.
Perhaps it uses a RAM disc? I love booting *nix LiveCDs because they do all their work in swap space (no Hard Drives in there... I know). Blazing fast, why bother with "on disc" functions... work at RAM speed!
Actually, though I still dislike Windows, it is not hard to use good common sense and secure your Windows machine. I had my box behind two firewalls (one software, one hardware), and when I wasn't using the Internet, I turned it off. This box stayed virus free for a full semester. At the end of the semester, I reformatted for spring cleaning, but I'm sure it could have gone longer. I imagine the same could go for MacOS, and definately gopes for *nix.
Did the kids come up with a new, unbreakable ceramic? No.
Did they come up with something that can be used more then once? No
Did they come up with something that would retain its coffee if knocked off a table? No
When i read the summary I thought: A coffee mug that I can drop whenever, from whereeer, and it'll keep its coffee.
This article is nothing like the summary makes it sound like. These cups can be used a grand total of one time (after which you need a whole new crumple zone), and would hold coffee if dropped from straight up and down. However, if it landed at a tilt, I'm fairly certain it would spill everything. Who cares about saving the $0.50 worth of cheap coffee if you have to go buy another huge mug to hold it?
Better solution for those of you who continually drop your coffee. It's called a "Travel Mug", and is already designed NOT to spill upon drop, AND can be reused after said drop!
Ok, so yes, they solved that little competition. But if I won the "make a coffee mug out of used condoms that won't break if hurled at a freshman's head from 15 feet up" award, is that news?
So, what... everyone who works at the NSA is a "fuck"? Or is it everyone who works in the DoD? Perhaps anyone affiliated with the government at large? I think you should remember that there are a lot of small people all over that wouldn't be trying to fuck you over.
And as for #2, I think that taking their money (i.e. getting a contract) and not giving them anything, just *might* be a breach of contract. Might want to rethink that second bit.
Oh, no doubt about it, I much enjoyed Ubuntu's installation, it was right after I suffered through Gentoo's! And I completely agree about what you get as compared to the time. I will have to grab a copy of Slackware and put it to the test, I compete with myself for turnaround on a system rebuild. Open it, clean it, reformat it, restorre backups. My current going time (on a gaming XP machine) is 4 hours, which includes slicing my hand open on the case.
Ah... that makes a lot of sense. Thanks for letting me know it. I that case, I'm not as set against it, though I still don't see the point of so many bells-and-whistles on the desktop, I imagine it'll be a seeling point with Joe Computer Buyer.
Oh... well... its just not so funny if you didn't read it... but... He's thinking about quitting the botnet job and joining the Army. So.. Iraq... so... yea. Like I said, not as funny now. I hear ya on the removal though. I do about three tech calls a week (just to friends) to remove virii and the like.
Ironically I'm running Ubuntu right now, for that very reason. Fedora, unless it gets a major overhaul, and has something to offer me, is out of my *nix CD case. But the install was *not* 15 minute. It was quick, but not 15 minute. I have not tried the other two you mentioned though.
Not running everyone as admin does NOT constitute security. In fact, I would have no reason to switch from my *nix systems for this security. Gonna have to try harder then that.
2. IE 7
I've gone of the "upgrade" list of IE 7 quite closely to find... nothing new. Everything they "add" is already in another major browser. As for that anti-phishing feature, as a student in IUs Applied Cryptography:Phishing course, I can tell you it's worthless. Because it relies on a file on disc, probably built into IE, this can be easily circumvented by malware. Sorry, I don't trust IE at all, just from the track record. Need a better reason? It's still built into the OS. Not... smart... at... all...
3. Eye Candy
Granted, I only have a Windows box for my gaming pleasures, but still it is stupid to require a high-end system for the desktop. Most users will not be playing games on it, so most won't automatically have the hardware to run this. What I'd like to know is if it comes on by default? I'll bet it does, which means that it'll run very slow before users realize to turn it off. Plus, why is this necessary? I realize I'm a little bit of a purist, and prefer a command line, but even when I use a desktop, this seems like overkill. Has anyone ever desired to see what's on a window without actually opening the window? Does it really save that much time?
4. Desktop Search
Ok, again this is a good thing to have, and one of my main beefs with Windows is the slow search feature (hard to find the virii on friend's coimputers). Now, my *nix box is damn quick thanks to how they do searches. I wonder if Microsoft has gone to that model. Also, will it search hidden and system files by default? Something it *needs* to do, and doesn't by default.
5. Better Updates
Nice to see them getting away from using IE for everything, but again, this is a feature in Mac OS, and *nix already. Not exactly a reason to "upgrade".
6. Media
Ok, I'll give 'em more media is gonna be a selling point for the average user. Good smart marketing *clap*. But my question is this. Are these going to be strand alone programs? Or Microsoft's usual anti-monopoly move, and built into the OS. If built in, as the DVD Maker sound like, why? All this is is a new way to add vulnerabilities. I think as little as possible should be "OS", and the rest offered as downloads that don't have root permissions in the OS.
7. Parental Controls
Now, this argument is personal, but hear me out. I don't like cencorship, and I think that a better parenting method is to teach kids how to use the computer correctly and trust them not to be going against your will. Locking it while you're at work, kinda petty. Some parents might agree with this, and I'm not a parent, but I definately don't like this practice or some of the stuff AOL is doing. I also think this could be a fun attack vector. Imagine blocking file downloads for the update client? Or locking out the admin account, then un-priviledged virii can have all day to scan the hard drive for information.
8. Backups
They tout the fact that the backup client is upgraded for the first time in years? Not a selling point.
9. Peer to Peer
I am willing to place $1000 on the fact that within a year of Vista going public, this feature is exploited in at least 5 virii. More than that, it will be used by Phishers to get people to join false workgroups, and steal information. Perhaps a SEPERATE program would be a better idea here? Something that doesn't come on, right out of the box?
10. Quick Setup
If it comes with this, awesome. No OS has quick setup right now, and even *nix is plauged by bloat (FC4 takes over an hour, 6.5 GB). However, I don't believe this number, "15 minutes". Is that like Windows 95 will run on 4 MB RAM? (For the record, it DOES, just barely... the mouse lags). Perhaps on a high end system.
But, this article is not about getting other OS users to switch, it's about getting XP users to upgrade
While I don't like Windows much either, I think you're missing the point. If there was no Windows, there might be less script kiddies (until good scripts came out) but hackers would then go after Linux. It's not that *nix is impervious to attacks, far from it. Go check out Slapper sometime.
This is merely a case of ease of use. If it's easy for someone to "0wn" a Windows machine, of which there are far more desktops, why go for anything else? That has no bearing on any other system being good, just that you can attack a majority of computers rather easily. Take away those computers, or make them "secure" (no such thing online, it's either security, or use, not both) and you'll get virii that target something else. Either a different OS, or a different way in.
On top of that, a lot of this is human error. The social aspect of worms is highly downplayed. How many of these virii do you think people get from clicking popups? Or on a link in someone's AIM profile? Or that attachment that says how much their significant other loves them? For that matter, if you got a letter from your would you suspect it first? Or open it up? What about on Valentine's Day, or your birthday? The point I'm trying to make is, even those who believe they're totally secure aren't. You can harden Windows all day, and if the user meeses up once, it's all negated. You can do the same for *nix, Mac OS, or any other OS. To not acknowledge that is ignorance, and blind faith in computers.
Yes, worms spread without human intervention, but so many virii are passed out through human error, the OS almost doesn't matter. And if Windows was secure, or gone, another OS would be hit, whatever's easiest. Tell me, if there were a rash of *nix virii, would you decry it's vulnerabilities? No, you'd probably praise how quick a patch comes out.
Don't blindly trust any OS, and don't blindly hate any.
It sounds like he wrote (or modified) the worm himself, so I'd imagine he has done some programming. From the article I got the feeling that he's not just a script kiddie, so, it could be that he'll work, get something that's good enough (only detected by two virus scanners), then relax. Makes sense to me.
I'd like to think you just answered your own question. To recap:
Can this potentially impact the gold farming/spawn camping industry in modern MMOs?
With the conditions that:
I know they're not all Chinese.
Yes, I know not every farmer is an adolescent.
Yes, I know a large number of farming outfits are run from private offices.
Well, now we have to play the odds. For this to affect gold farming, there needs to be a good percentage of gold farmers affected by this.
You concede they're not all Chinese. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, and say 30% are.
You also concede that they're not all adolescents. Lets further say that 50% are, random number, but seems generous enough.
Finally, we have that most farmers don't work out of public places, but somewhere where the boss can have complete control. I'll say 25% work in cafes.
Now, to add all that up. First, we have 30% (total is down to 30%), then 50% (total is down to 15%), and finally 50% (total goes to 7.5%). Now, I'd like to think I was generous in my numbers, I'm sure you could get much better estimates from stat websites (not sure where), but I'm willing to bet that these're decent (except for the 30%, that's so people don't yell at me).
Come on, if that was an honest question, and you *do* recognize everything you said, why bother asking it? Just to link gold farmers in? Come on... don't lie.
This is like telling a rapist he better "Cut it out now... its not funny anymore. Seriously... please? If... if you don't stop we'll have to give you a warning. I'm serious... hey.... HEY! Stop humping my leg! BAD RAPIST!!!"
How lax can they get?! When you hurt millions of people, you get punished. So, if Sony puts out another rootkit, will they be at all worried about repercussions? Hell no! They just got away with it.
I normally give them comperable support. For instance, I'm going to be going to school here for at least one more year, so I'll counter Dell's 1 year on site warrenty (about $100) with my own, for free. Most of the hardware I pick out has it's own warrenty, so all I need to cover is labor. Since I don't charge $30 an hour, like the school does for Tech work, I still consider it a better deal.
On the other hand, I do understand their argument, and wanting to go with a name brand. Yea, it's stupid, but bottom line is, its their choice.
And I can go to a real dealer... heck, forget the real dealer, just off Newegg alone last night I put together a system that had the same specs as certain Dells and HPs, yet was less than half the cost. If you're going to shoot down his argument, don't do it with a stupid exmaple.
Slashdot Mirror
KEEP BREAKING MY HEART WHY DON'T YOU!!! *shawshank pose*
hmm... *mutters* finally I'll find A g-spot, if it is the wrong one...
Hmm... you may be right... the stats tracker for my webpage indicates that MSN has indexed 104% of my site! I think they are up to something... Google may index the world's current information, but Microsoft indexes future information!
Yesterday it was mind control sharks, and today its collision course astroids. THis is getting to be a who's who of bad movie plots. What's next? A small group of hackers take down The Man? A government copmputer becomes hell bent on Global Thermonuclear War?
At least they have a sense of humor about it.
All the sharks need now is lasers, and we'll be all set!
Typically to "whistle blow" you need to find something wrong. The course you speak of is an excellant one. You spend the semester learning how to secure, and setting up your own boxes. The final does involve attacking each other's box, but it's on a closed network. You can only attack people who are part of the class. Big difference from FORBIDDING them from attacking the class, and MAKING them focus on real-world servers.
Thanks for playing.
Perhaps it uses a RAM disc? I love booting *nix LiveCDs because they do all their work in swap space (no Hard Drives in there... I know). Blazing fast, why bother with "on disc" functions... work at RAM speed!
Actually, though I still dislike Windows, it is not hard to use good common sense and secure your Windows machine. I had my box behind two firewalls (one software, one hardware), and when I wasn't using the Internet, I turned it off. This box stayed virus free for a full semester. At the end of the semester, I reformatted for spring cleaning, but I'm sure it could have gone longer. I imagine the same could go for MacOS, and definately gopes for *nix.
But this is retarded.
Did the kids come up with a new, unbreakable ceramic? No.
Did they come up with something that can be used more then once? No
Did they come up with something that would retain its coffee if knocked off a table? No
When i read the summary I thought: A coffee mug that I can drop whenever, from whereeer, and it'll keep its coffee.
This article is nothing like the summary makes it sound like. These cups can be used a grand total of one time (after which you need a whole new crumple zone), and would hold coffee if dropped from straight up and down. However, if it landed at a tilt, I'm fairly certain it would spill everything. Who cares about saving the $0.50 worth of cheap coffee if you have to go buy another huge mug to hold it?
Better solution for those of you who continually drop your coffee. It's called a "Travel Mug", and is already designed NOT to spill upon drop, AND can be reused after said drop!
Ok, so yes, they solved that little competition. But if I won the "make a coffee mug out of used condoms that won't break if hurled at a freshman's head from 15 feet up" award, is that news?
So, what... everyone who works at the NSA is a "fuck"? Or is it everyone who works in the DoD? Perhaps anyone affiliated with the government at large? I think you should remember that there are a lot of small people all over that wouldn't be trying to fuck you over.
And as for #2, I think that taking their money (i.e. getting a contract) and not giving them anything, just *might* be a breach of contract. Might want to rethink that second bit.
Oh, no doubt about it, I much enjoyed Ubuntu's installation, it was right after I suffered through Gentoo's! And I completely agree about what you get as compared to the time. I will have to grab a copy of Slackware and put it to the test, I compete with myself for turnaround on a system rebuild. Open it, clean it, reformat it, restorre backups. My current going time (on a gaming XP machine) is 4 hours, which includes slicing my hand open on the case.
Ah... that makes a lot of sense. Thanks for letting me know it. I that case, I'm not as set against it, though I still don't see the point of so many bells-and-whistles on the desktop, I imagine it'll be a seeling point with Joe Computer Buyer.
Oh... well... its just not so funny if you didn't read it... but... He's thinking about quitting the botnet job and joining the Army. So.. Iraq... so... yea. Like I said, not as funny now. I hear ya on the removal though. I do about three tech calls a week (just to friends) to remove virii and the like.
Ironically I'm running Ubuntu right now, for that very reason. Fedora, unless it gets a major overhaul, and has something to offer me, is out of my *nix CD case. But the install was *not* 15 minute. It was quick, but not 15 minute. I have not tried the other two you mentioned though.
Not running everyone as admin does NOT constitute security. In fact, I would have no reason to switch from my *nix systems for this security. Gonna have to try harder then that.
2. IE 7
I've gone of the "upgrade" list of IE 7 quite closely to find... nothing new. Everything they "add" is already in another major browser. As for that anti-phishing feature, as a student in IUs Applied Cryptography:Phishing course, I can tell you it's worthless. Because it relies on a file on disc, probably built into IE, this can be easily circumvented by malware. Sorry, I don't trust IE at all, just from the track record. Need a better reason? It's still built into the OS. Not... smart... at... all...
3. Eye Candy
Granted, I only have a Windows box for my gaming pleasures, but still it is stupid to require a high-end system for the desktop. Most users will not be playing games on it, so most won't automatically have the hardware to run this. What I'd like to know is if it comes on by default? I'll bet it does, which means that it'll run very slow before users realize to turn it off. Plus, why is this necessary? I realize I'm a little bit of a purist, and prefer a command line, but even when I use a desktop, this seems like overkill. Has anyone ever desired to see what's on a window without actually opening the window? Does it really save that much time?
4. Desktop Search
Ok, again this is a good thing to have, and one of my main beefs with Windows is the slow search feature (hard to find the virii on friend's coimputers). Now, my *nix box is damn quick thanks to how they do searches. I wonder if Microsoft has gone to that model. Also, will it search hidden and system files by default? Something it *needs* to do, and doesn't by default.
5. Better Updates
Nice to see them getting away from using IE for everything, but again, this is a feature in Mac OS, and *nix already. Not exactly a reason to "upgrade".
6. Media
Ok, I'll give 'em more media is gonna be a selling point for the average user. Good smart marketing *clap*. But my question is this. Are these going to be strand alone programs? Or Microsoft's usual anti-monopoly move, and built into the OS. If built in, as the DVD Maker sound like, why? All this is is a new way to add vulnerabilities. I think as little as possible should be "OS", and the rest offered as downloads that don't have root permissions in the OS.
7. Parental Controls
Now, this argument is personal, but hear me out. I don't like cencorship, and I think that a better parenting method is to teach kids how to use the computer correctly and trust them not to be going against your will. Locking it while you're at work, kinda petty. Some parents might agree with this, and I'm not a parent, but I definately don't like this practice or some of the stuff AOL is doing. I also think this could be a fun attack vector. Imagine blocking file downloads for the update client? Or locking out the admin account, then un-priviledged virii can have all day to scan the hard drive for information.
8. Backups
They tout the fact that the backup client is upgraded for the first time in years? Not a selling point.
9. Peer to Peer
I am willing to place $1000 on the fact that within a year of Vista going public, this feature is exploited in at least 5 virii. More than that, it will be used by Phishers to get people to join false workgroups, and steal information. Perhaps a SEPERATE program would be a better idea here? Something that doesn't come on, right out of the box?
10. Quick Setup
If it comes with this, awesome. No OS has quick setup right now, and even *nix is plauged by bloat (FC4 takes over an hour, 6.5 GB). However, I don't believe this number, "15 minutes". Is that like Windows 95 will run on 4 MB RAM? (For the record, it DOES, just barely... the mouse lags). Perhaps on a high end system.
But, this article is not about getting other OS users to switch, it's about getting XP users to upgrade
*ponder*
This is merely a case of ease of use. If it's easy for someone to "0wn" a Windows machine, of which there are far more desktops, why go for anything else? That has no bearing on any other system being good, just that you can attack a majority of computers rather easily. Take away those computers, or make them "secure" (no such thing online, it's either security, or use, not both) and you'll get virii that target something else. Either a different OS, or a different way in.
On top of that, a lot of this is human error. The social aspect of worms is highly downplayed. How many of these virii do you think people get from clicking popups? Or on a link in someone's AIM profile? Or that attachment that says how much their significant other loves them? For that matter, if you got a letter from your would you suspect it first? Or open it up? What about on Valentine's Day, or your birthday? The point I'm trying to make is, even those who believe they're totally secure aren't. You can harden Windows all day, and if the user meeses up once, it's all negated. You can do the same for *nix, Mac OS, or any other OS. To not acknowledge that is ignorance, and blind faith in computers.
Yes, worms spread without human intervention, but so many virii are passed out through human error, the OS almost doesn't matter. And if Windows was secure, or gone, another OS would be hit, whatever's easiest. Tell me, if there were a rash of *nix virii, would you decry it's vulnerabilities? No, you'd probably praise how quick a patch comes out.
Don't blindly trust any OS, and don't blindly hate any.
It sounds like he wrote (or modified) the worm himself, so I'd imagine he has done some programming. From the article I got the feeling that he's not just a script kiddie, so, it could be that he'll work, get something that's good enough (only detected by two virus scanners), then relax. Makes sense to me.
With the conditions that:
Well, now we have to play the odds. For this to affect gold farming, there needs to be a good percentage of gold farmers affected by this.
Now, to add all that up. First, we have 30% (total is down to 30%), then 50% (total is down to 15%), and finally 50% (total goes to 7.5%). Now, I'd like to think I was generous in my numbers, I'm sure you could get much better estimates from stat websites (not sure where), but I'm willing to bet that these're decent (except for the 30%, that's so people don't yell at me).
Come on, if that was an honest question, and you *do* recognize everything you said, why bother asking it? Just to link gold farmers in? Come on... don't lie.
I love it when I don't have to wait for some Anonymous Coward to evoke Godwin's Law... This article's gonna save a TON of Flame Time.
How lax can they get?! When you hurt millions of people, you get punished. So, if Sony puts out another rootkit, will they be at all worried about repercussions? Hell no! They just got away with it.
Oh, and an exmaple is a type of gun used in the South Phillipenes that never works right. Hence the allusion to it here.
On the other hand, I do understand their argument, and wanting to go with a name brand. Yea, it's stupid, but bottom line is, its their choice.
Ha!
And I can go to a real dealer... heck, forget the real dealer, just off Newegg alone last night I put together a system that had the same specs as certain Dells and HPs, yet was less than half the cost. If you're going to shoot down his argument, don't do it with a stupid exmaple.