You mean like how they just handed the records over here in the US and claimed it was merely "following the law"? Or do you mean like how they didn't comply for privacy and trade secret issues and are now involved in court over it? I'm confused.
Honestly it wouldn't surprise me in the least. There were a couple US companies charged with war crimes IIRC. IBM seems to be the least malicious compared to the other 3 that I heard about. It is plausible that IBM didn't really know what was going on, and prisoner tracking could be percieved as a good thing (not letting people slip through the cracks and disappear). However, they could have also known what was going on and were looking to make a buck off of it. The others I remember reading about involved a oven making company that built the ovens for the Nazis ("We thought they were making really big loaves of bread" maybe the defense?), a company selling them the poisons used in the gas chambers ("We thought they had a really big rat problem" again...), and Bayer Asperin (I think) who made great use of the Nazi drug testing programs. That seems to be the problem with capitolism, you need some sort of system to stop companies from going too far in their quest for money. Free market won't stop that kinda junk, greed knows no bounds.
Well to begin with I don't use web based email for precisely that reason. I run my own email server on my DSL (My ISP is VERY friendly about that sort of thing, and I actually wound up in a 30 minute conversation about what linux distro I use when I signed up).
The problem with Google searching emails like that is basically the same problems with much modern information technology. The IBM census machines sold to Germany before the war are an excellent example. The census machine wasn't doing anything evil, it was the operators that eventually used the information it collected for evil. Generally it is a machine doing most of the listening, searching and catagorizing by whatever criteria it has. The machine itself won't do anything evil, and doesn't really care about any input you give it. The people you have to trust are the operators of said machine to not abuse the system.
Google in China is an odd beast. The more interweb savvy types have already pointed out that you can get around the censorship with the right searches. I think a large part of the motive is profit, but I think there is probably a decent understanding at Google (hell they own the thing and know its inner workings) that their search engine is likely to be abused to get around the censorship and isn't likely to do any more harm than is already there. I will be more concerned about Google when they start handing over dissenters to the Chinese authorities like Yahoo and MSN. I'm not saying Google is a giant benevolant company, but they really havn't done anything to show their malice towards their users like the others have.
One of my favorite arguments about linux on old hardware involved a 286 or 386. The MS fanboy declared that linux can't run on that either, so my argument about windows not working on it was invalid. He was using a relatively modern distro and declared his failure to install was proof. I put the disk in and just used a kernel setup for the older hardware instead of the default installed kernel and it worked peachy.
Are you trying to say that MS, the pinnacle of honesty and goodness on the internet, would go so far as to hide information about its competetors from its users?! I bet the top hit for every linux search will be their highly accurate and relavent Get The Facts page! How much more honest, accurate, and unbiased can you get?
They have hordes of MS fanboys that will flock to it. I got sent to a network security class where the instructor's answer to everything was how wonderful MS ISA server was and how it can do anything your firewall,proxy,etc can do and do it better. He also called unix/linux "silly". Mind you I work on enterprise quality firewall and proxy hardware...I can't believe any serious enterprise would replace a real firewall or proxy with MS ISA server.
I don't trust Microsoft with data of any type, regardless of how trivial it may seem. They can't seem to protect their own data (source), why would they be capable of protecting ANY data from me. They also have a financial incentive to protect there own and fail, yet there is a financial incentive to sell any information they gather from users. I'm not saying Google is the pinnacle of privacy and goodness, but they are certainly much better than MS established behavior.
I also don't trust MS marketing BS so I seriously doubt they have a better product. I remember an MS rep telling everyone in the audience "Now you have a use for all of those 486's and Pentiums in the closets" refering to the terminal services capabilities in Win2k. All those "smart" business folks in attendance thought it was an outstanding idea. So I asked the question if there was going to be a TS client for win9x and they just rattled on about how 9x is an unsupported code base now. So I asked them if they really expected me to install Win2k professional on a 486 given its minimum system requirements, and how exactly you are supposed to use Win2k + TS client on a 486. You could see the fear and panic in that poor rep, he had no answer, he just hit a brick wall in logic, and the whole room started muttering about how I was right and it suddenly didn't make sense anymore. I got a free MS Anti-Piracy T-shirt to quit poking holes in their marketing material.
Damned skippy! The taxes, public trans, and healthcare are part of the price you pay for being the only nation to have remote control stealth sharks! How can you possibly be upset with this!? Every evil geek dreams of something like this! STEALTH SHARKS! Come on man! How cool is that?!
Maybe they could be used along our southeastern coastlines to help curb illegal immigration too! See, cost reduction for the tax payer. Free food for the sharks, less money lost to illegal immigrants not payin taxes on their illegal jobs, and less money spent on traditional enforcement of said immigration laws!
You are entirely correct sir. I am entertained that you have 2 other replies from ACs that have no clue what they are talking about. There was another recent story where, I believe, the Army dog handler gal was injured and the army retired her dog early so they could stay together. EVERY military dog/handler pair I have met are very attached to eachother. The dogs are extremely loyal, and the handlers are very protective and treat the animals very well, not as just weapons as the AC seems to think. I have known some units to keep older retired dogs around just because they like having them around. The official reason is often related to training the new pups and order in the pack kinda things, but if you actually talk to the people you can tell it has more to do with their connection with the animals.
Ok people here we go.. RTFA
Even more importantly, if an unauthorized person tries to record the knocking sequence and play it back in order to open the door, the lock will not open since the knocking sequence changes every time.
Straight from TFA... I just invalidated at least a dozen posts about how to record this, how it is only security through obscurity without the obscurity, and a few dumb jokes. Not that I think these things are a good idea, but for the love of god read the thing before you make stupid 'informed' comments. Yes I know...this is slashdot
I worked for a university computer support department, and I would put the numbers of the same thing well over 100. Most of it was due to ignorance, and I think ultimately they wound up with a site license to fix the issue.
There are pleny of free apps that don't work in Windows just like there are plenty of Windows apps that don't play well while using Wine. I have gotten educational packages running in linux that wouldn't run on XP because of 9x requirements. So more choice isn't entirely true, different sets of choices is more accurate. You also have a bit of a contradiction here.
Lots of edutainment, and regular educational software wont run on anything but DOS or Windows. They are the latest and hottest software, so Wine doesn't care about them.
latest and hottest software has no DOS requirement. Wine doesn't care about them doesn't make alot of sense. Wine is software and doesn't 'care' about anything, and its purpose is to run Windows based software on linux. The whole point of Wine is to be able to run normally Windows only software in a linux enviroment. So the Wine dev team may not care specifically about a package, but on a whole, their goal is to provide a system that lets most if not all software to run in linux.
Cept for that whole section where the fill out the make, model, color, etc of your car. Many that I have seen even include the VIN number when writing a ticket.
Another quick note on this. I have educational software for Windows that I have to use linux + wine to use because WinXP won't run it. Compatability mode is far from perfect, and often simply doesn't work at all. So yes, did you buy the educational software you need *ka-ching* still often applies.
I don't see why you think he doesn't know much about linux. I have been using it for years and I am not terribly aware of the educational software around for it, however, I am sure at least some exists. He also said he just won't be able to be around alot, which means he can't support the Windows systems either, and Windows systems typically require more administrative level interference to maintain than linux systems. Honestly, not being around alot makes a better case for systems that are easier to remotely admin.
I have worked in an enviroment of mixed Windows versions and it is a terrible experience. It is only less a royal pain in the ass when the mixed versions are all modern versions. Given that MS support for the 9x codebase is shoddy at best, I imagine the computers are still riddled with old unpached problems. Anti-virus only goes so far to stop problems from happening, it does more to stop them from spreading, and notifying you that the problem is even there.
I think you are ignoring the obvious to prop Windows up. I think Windows is ok for some things, but when you are talking about a school that can only afford a few computers, the price of an MS setup is a very large number. Assuming you can get 14 copies of XP for about $1k, and assuming that they have $1k to spend on this. I think it would be a better investment on their end to purchase 3 new computers or upgrade their existing hardware and use linux. Or maybe even books, or other more traditional supplies.
I bet they will think about making spammer mugshots public after this one. Hell it wouldn't surprise me if they think the slashdotting they are getting is an attack in response to his arrest. Or maybe their IT guys are choking back laughter as they try to explain to their bosses why the system has slowed to a crawl.
So..there is a concern about educational software available. So...those kids start learning on a *nix platform, known to be a very developer friendly enviroment. So sure, you probably aren't going to have your first generation of kids go through do much, but if they stick with learning on a *nix platform, you are potentially growing your own developers. I remember back in the days before the bloat, HS students were writing educational software for the grade school kids.
I think its abhorrent because of the way MS conducts business surrounding the educational world. They push their crap onto schools and such with "this great deal" and then stick them later with extra costs. Not to mention the motives in doing this include making sure the future students buy Windows instead of anything else in their own future. Look up the nambia school thing that turned down the MS offer because their "donation" in reality was going to cost them a fortune in extra MS crap to make the computers even remotely useful.
Sure you get a peachy keen deal...oh but did you buy Office? *ka-ching* Did you get the educational software you needed? *ka-ching* Did you buy the support contracts? *ka-ching* Did you buy the anti-virus software? *ka-ching* Oh and did you figure up how much a compromise would cost? *ka-ching*
Not saying Windows is the worst solution, but you oversimplify the issue grossly.
Is anyone aware of a site that compares the small name and big name stuff in one place? Also noting which of the small names belong to the big name companies and generally consist of rebranded identical products?
I know I have dealt with small name stuff that is considerably higher quality than the name brand stuff in terms of durability, reliability, and predictability as far as behaving with the standards. Smaller companies don't have the luxury to foist unwanted crap onto their consumers like the big ones, and they don't typically spend the big money on marketing. Sometimes they really are cheap crap, but sometimes they use better design and better components because their lack lumbering marketing department allows them to have a better profit margin.
I didn't say anything about MacOS or Linux or Unix or Windows. My point is the logic behind being a more popular target making them a more vulnerable target is wrong.
If you must relate the tank statement to specific OS, then understand that tanks aren't invulnerable, it just takes a different class of weapon to bring one down. Also understand that tanks don't use the same armor today that they did 40 years ago. It would be stupid not to update security to deal with new threats and discovered weaknesses.
Absolutely. While Windows is riddled with security problems, the biggest and most critical unpatched Windows vulnerability is the Windows User. At the same time though, the whole selling point for Windows has been ease of use, and when you make it easy for users to do stupid things, users will do stupid things.
Slashdot Mirror
You mean like how they just handed the records over here in the US and claimed it was merely "following the law"? Or do you mean like how they didn't comply for privacy and trade secret issues and are now involved in court over it? I'm confused.
Honestly it wouldn't surprise me in the least. There were a couple US companies charged with war crimes IIRC. IBM seems to be the least malicious compared to the other 3 that I heard about. It is plausible that IBM didn't really know what was going on, and prisoner tracking could be percieved as a good thing (not letting people slip through the cracks and disappear). However, they could have also known what was going on and were looking to make a buck off of it. The others I remember reading about involved a oven making company that built the ovens for the Nazis ("We thought they were making really big loaves of bread" maybe the defense?), a company selling them the poisons used in the gas chambers ("We thought they had a really big rat problem" again...), and Bayer Asperin (I think) who made great use of the Nazi drug testing programs. That seems to be the problem with capitolism, you need some sort of system to stop companies from going too far in their quest for money. Free market won't stop that kinda junk, greed knows no bounds.
Well to begin with I don't use web based email for precisely that reason. I run my own email server on my DSL (My ISP is VERY friendly about that sort of thing, and I actually wound up in a 30 minute conversation about what linux distro I use when I signed up).
The problem with Google searching emails like that is basically the same problems with much modern information technology. The IBM census machines sold to Germany before the war are an excellent example. The census machine wasn't doing anything evil, it was the operators that eventually used the information it collected for evil. Generally it is a machine doing most of the listening, searching and catagorizing by whatever criteria it has. The machine itself won't do anything evil, and doesn't really care about any input you give it. The people you have to trust are the operators of said machine to not abuse the system.
Google in China is an odd beast. The more interweb savvy types have already pointed out that you can get around the censorship with the right searches. I think a large part of the motive is profit, but I think there is probably a decent understanding at Google (hell they own the thing and know its inner workings) that their search engine is likely to be abused to get around the censorship and isn't likely to do any more harm than is already there. I will be more concerned about Google when they start handing over dissenters to the Chinese authorities like Yahoo and MSN. I'm not saying Google is a giant benevolant company, but they really havn't done anything to show their malice towards their users like the others have.
One of my favorite arguments about linux on old hardware involved a 286 or 386. The MS fanboy declared that linux can't run on that either, so my argument about windows not working on it was invalid. He was using a relatively modern distro and declared his failure to install was proof. I put the disk in and just used a kernel setup for the older hardware instead of the default installed kernel and it worked peachy.
Are you trying to say that MS, the pinnacle of honesty and goodness on the internet, would go so far as to hide information about its competetors from its users?! I bet the top hit for every linux search will be their highly accurate and relavent Get The Facts page! How much more honest, accurate, and unbiased can you get?
They have hordes of MS fanboys that will flock to it. I got sent to a network security class where the instructor's answer to everything was how wonderful MS ISA server was and how it can do anything your firewall,proxy,etc can do and do it better. He also called unix/linux "silly". Mind you I work on enterprise quality firewall and proxy hardware...I can't believe any serious enterprise would replace a real firewall or proxy with MS ISA server.
I don't trust Microsoft with data of any type, regardless of how trivial it may seem. They can't seem to protect their own data (source), why would they be capable of protecting ANY data from me. They also have a financial incentive to protect there own and fail, yet there is a financial incentive to sell any information they gather from users. I'm not saying Google is the pinnacle of privacy and goodness, but they are certainly much better than MS established behavior.
I also don't trust MS marketing BS so I seriously doubt they have a better product. I remember an MS rep telling everyone in the audience "Now you have a use for all of those 486's and Pentiums in the closets" refering to the terminal services capabilities in Win2k. All those "smart" business folks in attendance thought it was an outstanding idea. So I asked the question if there was going to be a TS client for win9x and they just rattled on about how 9x is an unsupported code base now. So I asked them if they really expected me to install Win2k professional on a 486 given its minimum system requirements, and how exactly you are supposed to use Win2k + TS client on a 486. You could see the fear and panic in that poor rep, he had no answer, he just hit a brick wall in logic, and the whole room started muttering about how I was right and it suddenly didn't make sense anymore. I got a free MS Anti-Piracy T-shirt to quit poking holes in their marketing material.
Damned skippy! The taxes, public trans, and healthcare are part of the price you pay for being the only nation to have remote control stealth sharks! How can you possibly be upset with this!? Every evil geek dreams of something like this! STEALTH SHARKS! Come on man! How cool is that?!
Maybe they could be used along our southeastern coastlines to help curb illegal immigration too! See, cost reduction for the tax payer. Free food for the sharks, less money lost to illegal immigrants not payin taxes on their illegal jobs, and less money spent on traditional enforcement of said immigration laws!
You are entirely correct sir. I am entertained that you have 2 other replies from ACs that have no clue what they are talking about. There was another recent story where, I believe, the Army dog handler gal was injured and the army retired her dog early so they could stay together. EVERY military dog/handler pair I have met are very attached to eachother. The dogs are extremely loyal, and the handlers are very protective and treat the animals very well, not as just weapons as the AC seems to think. I have known some units to keep older retired dogs around just because they like having them around. The official reason is often related to training the new pups and order in the pack kinda things, but if you actually talk to the people you can tell it has more to do with their connection with the animals.
Don't mind those offtopic mods...I got a chuckle out of it.
Just think what will happen when they start telling the freshmen what classes they have to take! The horror!
Ok people here we go.. RTFA Even more importantly, if an unauthorized person tries to record the knocking sequence and play it back in order to open the door, the lock will not open since the knocking sequence changes every time. Straight from TFA... I just invalidated at least a dozen posts about how to record this, how it is only security through obscurity without the obscurity, and a few dumb jokes. Not that I think these things are a good idea, but for the love of god read the thing before you make stupid 'informed' comments. Yes I know...this is slashdot
I honestly don't know what this means. Is this a bad joke, or do you not know what a VIN number is?
I worked for a university computer support department, and I would put the numbers of the same thing well over 100. Most of it was due to ignorance, and I think ultimately they wound up with a site license to fix the issue.
There are pleny of free apps that don't work in Windows just like there are plenty of Windows apps that don't play well while using Wine. I have gotten educational packages running in linux that wouldn't run on XP because of 9x requirements. So more choice isn't entirely true, different sets of choices is more accurate. You also have a bit of a contradiction here.
Lots of edutainment, and regular educational software wont run on anything but DOS or Windows. They are the latest and hottest software, so Wine doesn't care about them. latest and hottest software has no DOS requirement. Wine doesn't care about them doesn't make alot of sense. Wine is software and doesn't 'care' about anything, and its purpose is to run Windows based software on linux. The whole point of Wine is to be able to run normally Windows only software in a linux enviroment. So the Wine dev team may not care specifically about a package, but on a whole, their goal is to provide a system that lets most if not all software to run in linux.
Cept for that whole section where the fill out the make, model, color, etc of your car. Many that I have seen even include the VIN number when writing a ticket.
Another quick note on this. I have educational software for Windows that I have to use linux + wine to use because WinXP won't run it. Compatability mode is far from perfect, and often simply doesn't work at all. So yes, did you buy the educational software you need *ka-ching* still often applies.
I don't see why you think he doesn't know much about linux. I have been using it for years and I am not terribly aware of the educational software around for it, however, I am sure at least some exists. He also said he just won't be able to be around alot, which means he can't support the Windows systems either, and Windows systems typically require more administrative level interference to maintain than linux systems. Honestly, not being around alot makes a better case for systems that are easier to remotely admin.
I have worked in an enviroment of mixed Windows versions and it is a terrible experience. It is only less a royal pain in the ass when the mixed versions are all modern versions. Given that MS support for the 9x codebase is shoddy at best, I imagine the computers are still riddled with old unpached problems. Anti-virus only goes so far to stop problems from happening, it does more to stop them from spreading, and notifying you that the problem is even there.
I think you are ignoring the obvious to prop Windows up. I think Windows is ok for some things, but when you are talking about a school that can only afford a few computers, the price of an MS setup is a very large number. Assuming you can get 14 copies of XP for about $1k, and assuming that they have $1k to spend on this. I think it would be a better investment on their end to purchase 3 new computers or upgrade their existing hardware and use linux. Or maybe even books, or other more traditional supplies.
I bet they will think about making spammer mugshots public after this one. Hell it wouldn't surprise me if they think the slashdotting they are getting is an attack in response to his arrest. Or maybe their IT guys are choking back laughter as they try to explain to their bosses why the system has slowed to a crawl.
So..there is a concern about educational software available. So...those kids start learning on a *nix platform, known to be a very developer friendly enviroment. So sure, you probably aren't going to have your first generation of kids go through do much, but if they stick with learning on a *nix platform, you are potentially growing your own developers. I remember back in the days before the bloat, HS students were writing educational software for the grade school kids.
I think its abhorrent because of the way MS conducts business surrounding the educational world. They push their crap onto schools and such with "this great deal" and then stick them later with extra costs. Not to mention the motives in doing this include making sure the future students buy Windows instead of anything else in their own future. Look up the nambia school thing that turned down the MS offer because their "donation" in reality was going to cost them a fortune in extra MS crap to make the computers even remotely useful.
Sure you get a peachy keen deal...oh but did you buy Office? *ka-ching* Did you get the educational software you needed? *ka-ching* Did you buy the support contracts? *ka-ching* Did you buy the anti-virus software? *ka-ching* Oh and did you figure up how much a compromise would cost? *ka-ching*
Not saying Windows is the worst solution, but you oversimplify the issue grossly.
Is anyone aware of a site that compares the small name and big name stuff in one place? Also noting which of the small names belong to the big name companies and generally consist of rebranded identical products?
I know I have dealt with small name stuff that is considerably higher quality than the name brand stuff in terms of durability, reliability, and predictability as far as behaving with the standards. Smaller companies don't have the luxury to foist unwanted crap onto their consumers like the big ones, and they don't typically spend the big money on marketing. Sometimes they really are cheap crap, but sometimes they use better design and better components because their lack lumbering marketing department allows them to have a better profit margin.
I didn't say anything about MacOS or Linux or Unix or Windows. My point is the logic behind being a more popular target making them a more vulnerable target is wrong.
If you must relate the tank statement to specific OS, then understand that tanks aren't invulnerable, it just takes a different class of weapon to bring one down. Also understand that tanks don't use the same armor today that they did 40 years ago. It would be stupid not to update security to deal with new threats and discovered weaknesses.
Absolutely. While Windows is riddled with security problems, the biggest and most critical unpatched Windows vulnerability is the Windows User. At the same time though, the whole selling point for Windows has been ease of use, and when you make it easy for users to do stupid things, users will do stupid things.