But flash sticks are a good vector for spreading malware and an annoying proportion of the flash sticks I see are sandisk U3 devices. How long will it be until malware manages to insert itself into the "CD emulation" section of a U3 device?
The reason they can't is because either they have sold exclusive rights to show thier content in that country or they would like to retain the ability to do so.
Selling exclusive rights to show programs in a particular country is one of the BBCs main sources of revenue afaict.
There is also the bandwidth issue. Afaict the BBC get thier UK bandwidth free or low code through peering arrangements. Foreign bandwidth OTOH would cost real money.
But they are related. It just requires you to look at the neutrality of the netwok as a whole rather than just the IP subset of it.
Cableco networks are far from neutral and always have been. The cablecos TV service gets gauranteed broadcast bandwidth. Everything else (including third party TV services) has to put up with "best effort" IP unicast. Now they are making things even less neutral by capping the ammount of traffic a user can receive over that "best effort" IP unicast without paying (often extortionate) overage rates.
Professionally done applets are excellent and the best solution to web apps so far.
The one issue I have with applets is that afaict (and please do correct me if i'm wrong) the security model is all or nothing. Either you run in an extremely restricted (no way to copy things to the clipboard, no way to save files, no way to access servers other than those your applet was downloaded from) sandbox or you have a scary security popup and then the applet can do whatever it likes .
Java web start provides a way to ask the user for permission to do a number of things the sandbox would not normally allow. Why they didn't add similar functionality to applets I do not know.
But the people that use automatic updates will already have been forced to install IE7. IIRC even with updates on full auto the user is still asked if they want to install IE7 (it's listed in the critical updates but there is a popup when you actually try to install it asking if you want IE7)
Does anyone know if this will be the case again with IE8?
By my reading of that page it will probablly be getting updates for a lot longer than that.
"Support ends 24 months after the next service pack releases or at the end of the product's support lifecycle, whichever comes first"
Since it is unlikely that there will be another service pack for XP that means it should be supported until XP itself ends support (sometime in 2014 IIRC though it wouldn't entirely surprise me if they extended it).
Everyone who uses IE6 is a fucking idiot Some people have to use it.
Administrators way above us in our companies/institutions go out and buy expensive shitty web based software or contract custom development of web based software from firms that don't care about cross browser support.
While it is gradually being dealt with there are certainly webapps out there than depend on IE6.
Which version of XP? the new one (SP3)that comes on netbooks with IE7? SP3 does not come with IE7, if it's shipped by default on your netbook that means the OEM added it seperately.
ndependent analysts, i.e. IBM, researching vulnerability reports, have for the past 3 years pointed out how Windows XP and Windows Vista are actually the operating systems hit with the fewest vulnerabilities (but still most exploits). What is the defintion of operating system? linux distros tend to ship a lot pf software by default that users have to obtain seperately for windows.
What happened after that? did they go back to using conventional bombs? did they say they didn't agree with iraqs interpretation of unconvnetional? did they just ignore the issue entirely?
Look, an applet is a particular kind of Java application Actually it's more a type of AWT custom control than a type of application. All that really means though is you don't have to write a "public static void main" to create your main window since it's already provided by the environment creating your applet.
and you don't need a browser to run an applet, the JDK has come with an "appletviewer" right from the start afaict (the oldest version I could easilly find was 1.1.6 and that had it).
and JWS applications just aren't the same There are a few little bits of API that applets get that web start apps don't (mainly stuff for interacting with the browser) and a few little bits of API that only web start apps get (the stuff that allows untrusted web start apps to load/save from/to files the user selects) but the vast majority of the code in an applet or jws app is standard java/awt (and if you want it swing).
Trusted applets and trusted web start apps can both do whatever they like . Untrusted jws apps can do a few things that untrusted applets can't (which pisses me off because I see no good reason for it).
There isn't much applet specific API really, the applet class allows the applet to request a few things from the host but mostly it's just standard java APIs with security restrictions applied.
Afaict there are two types of applet, "untrusted applets" that just run and "trusted applets" that pop up a security warning with signature information asking if the user wants to run them or not.
Afaict the latter category can do pretty much whatever they want.
Similar things apply to web start apps afaict, there are both "trusted" web start apps that can do whatever they like and "untrusted" ones that can't.
One annoying thing is that sun created an api (under javax.jnlp) to allow users to give untrusted code the ability to (among other things) read or write a specific file without giving them full access to the system. But for some reason they only made it availible for web start apps not applets.
Man bank, safe! Where you been living recently. It's probablly safer than holding cash. If the government devalues the currency both cash and bank balances will lose thier value and there are governemnt "insurance" schemes that protect most of a normal savers money.
Still, you can reduce the role of the service and hence the risk considerablly. Just store the mail (or at least a backup copy of the mail) locally using a conventional mail client and use your own domain. The services role is reduced to just collecting mail off the internet and holding it until your client is ready to pick it up and in that role the service can be easilly replaced with dosens of alternative providers.
When evaluating any service you should always ask what your options are if the provider can no longer be bothered providing that service or the service changes in ways that make it shit.
According to TFA someone in the city government was told but they were also told to keep it confidential and the mayor didn't find out until it was too late.
Most closed-source apps for Linux are I think quite portable too, essentialy just a rebuild If opensource apps are anything to go by I wouldn't be so sure. Many architectures have gotchas and code that has only ever been built on x86 may well not port cleanly. The only reason most common FOSS software is as portable as it is is due to the efforts of porters for the likes of debian who understand theese issues and fix them.
For example on x86 unaligned accesses will work as expected (though they are slow), on some other architectures they will either result in a "bus error" or worse silent curruption.
Another gotcha is va_list handling. Different architectures handle it in different ways resulting in different outcomes when code breaks the rules.
Actually, that's exactly NOT the purpose of a netbook. A netbook (as its name implies) is suited for browsing the net and doing the occasional wordprocessing and perhaps even spreadsheet. Skype and some IM software, and a few games - but that's it for a netbook. Noone expects more from it. Afaict there are two groups of people buying netbooks. Those who do just want a machine for the handfull of tasks you metion and those who want a cheap and ultraportable but still general-purpose machine.
Just because software is specialised doesn't nessacerally mean it needs a high res screen or a fast processor or even a lot of storage (though some of the higher end netbooks actually have plenty of storage anyway)
The risk of a loan depends on a lot more than the borowers current ability to make thier payments. It depends on among other things.
1: the behaviour of the value of the asset that the loan is secured on. If an asset has risen in value since the loan was taken out then even if the person defaults the bank still gets their money back. If it's fallen in value (or didn't exist in the first place, unsecured loans have high rates for a reason) more than the person has payed off then the bank loses. 2: the likelyhood of the person getting fired/layed off 3: how much buffer the person has between being fired/layed off and defaulting on the loan 4: the persons likelyhood of finding another job quickly after being fired/layed off.
Afaict it was 1 that really bit in the mortage market, for years house prices had being going up (fueled by ever more daring mortgage deals), so many financial modellers assumed (explicitly or implicitly) they would continue to do so. When they stopped going up and started to dip in some areas the system crashed.
but you will still have to pay per minute for the phone call, just as you do with dial-up. Depends what package you get. There are dialup packages with freephone numbers. They didn't charge per the minuite but they did often have an AUP which prevented being dialled in 24/7 (I think the BT package I was on said 10 hours per day in the AUP though I dunno if they enforced it) and they also made you redial every so often.
ukfsn ( http://www.ukfsn.org/home/internet/friaco.html ) have several packages using this system though they don't seem to have a true unmetered package. They also have dual channel ISDN packages (at about twice the price of single channel packages).
My guess is that BT will be forced to provide sufficiant infrastructure to get a 2 megabit link to every home. BTs backbone network sometimes has some contention but it's generally not too bad. The worst contention typically comes on the connections between ISPs and BTs backbone network (which are very expensive)
Generally this means with ISPs that use the BT system you either get unlimited deals but with horrible contention or metered deals which perform well. There are also some very expensive packages (e.g. the IDNET "buisness premium" package ) which offer both good performance and no metering.
There are still some rural areas, particularly in Scotland, where the only 'high-speed' Internet access you can get is ISDN, at 128Kb/s (for two channels), charged per minute and very expensive. Well afaict you can use a single channel ISDN dialup with pretty much any dialup ISP (including unmetered packages). I think there are unmetered packages for dual channel too though I dunno how much they cost.
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But flash sticks are a good vector for spreading malware and an annoying proportion of the flash sticks I see are sandisk U3 devices. How long will it be until malware manages to insert itself into the "CD emulation" section of a U3 device?
We are talking about civil cases here, so the standard is only preponderance of evidence, not proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
The reason they can't is because either they have sold exclusive rights to show thier content in that country or they would like to retain the ability to do so.
Selling exclusive rights to show programs in a particular country is one of the BBCs main sources of revenue afaict.
There is also the bandwidth issue. Afaict the BBC get thier UK bandwidth free or low code through peering arrangements. Foreign bandwidth OTOH would cost real money.
But they are related. It just requires you to look at the neutrality of the netwok as a whole rather than just the IP subset of it.
Cableco networks are far from neutral and always have been. The cablecos TV service gets gauranteed broadcast bandwidth. Everything else (including third party TV services) has to put up with "best effort" IP unicast. Now they are making things even less neutral by capping the ammount of traffic a user can receive over that "best effort" IP unicast without paying (often extortionate) overage rates.
All the information from MS i've seen says that SP3 does not include IE7 and i've seen plenty of machines with SP3 but not IE7.
Either you missed something when going through the windows updates or MS is serving up different SP3 downloads to different people.
Professionally done applets are excellent and the best solution to web apps so far.
The one issue I have with applets is that afaict (and please do correct me if i'm wrong) the security model is all or nothing. Either you run in an extremely restricted (no way to copy things to the clipboard, no way to save files, no way to access servers other than those your applet was downloaded from) sandbox or you have a scary security popup and then the applet can do whatever it likes .
Java web start provides a way to ask the user for permission to do a number of things the sandbox would not normally allow. Why they didn't add similar functionality to applets I do not know.
looks like it is, details on the delivery process are given at the bottom of http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2009/01/06/ie8-blocker-toolkit-available-today.aspx
But the people that use automatic updates will already have been forced to install IE7.
IIRC even with updates on full auto the user is still asked if they want to install IE7 (it's listed in the critical updates but there is a popup when you actually try to install it asking if you want IE7)
Does anyone know if this will be the case again with IE8?
By my reading of that page it will probablly be getting updates for a lot longer than that.
"Support ends 24 months after the next service pack releases or at the end of the product's support lifecycle, whichever comes first"
Since it is unlikely that there will be another service pack for XP that means it should be supported until XP itself ends support (sometime in 2014 IIRC though it wouldn't entirely surprise me if they extended it).
Everyone who uses IE6 is a fucking idiot
Some people have to use it.
Administrators way above us in our companies/institutions go out and buy expensive shitty web based software or contract custom development of web based software from firms that don't care about cross browser support.
While it is gradually being dealt with there are certainly webapps out there than depend on IE6.
Which version of XP? the new one (SP3)that comes on netbooks with IE7?
SP3 does not come with IE7, if it's shipped by default on your netbook that means the OEM added it seperately.
ndependent analysts, i.e. IBM, researching vulnerability reports, have for the past 3 years pointed out how Windows XP and Windows Vista are actually the operating systems hit with the fewest vulnerabilities (but still most exploits).
What is the defintion of operating system? linux distros tend to ship a lot pf software by default that users have to obtain seperately for windows.
What happened after that? did they go back to using conventional bombs? did they say they didn't agree with iraqs interpretation of unconvnetional? did they just ignore the issue entirely?
They did copy a lot of text but it seems that TFA does have more than the /. summary
Look, an applet is a particular kind of Java application
Actually it's more a type of AWT custom control than a type of application. All that really means though is you don't have to write a "public static void main" to create your main window since it's already provided by the environment creating your applet.
and you don't need a browser to run an applet, the JDK has come with an "appletviewer" right from the start afaict (the oldest version I could easilly find was 1.1.6 and that had it).
and JWS applications just aren't the same
There are a few little bits of API that applets get that web start apps don't (mainly stuff for interacting with the browser) and a few little bits of API that only web start apps get (the stuff that allows untrusted web start apps to load/save from/to files the user selects) but the vast majority of the code in an applet or jws app is standard java/awt (and if you want it swing).
Trusted applets and trusted web start apps can both do whatever they like . Untrusted jws apps can do a few things that untrusted applets can't (which pisses me off because I see no good reason for it).
There isn't much applet specific API really, the applet class allows the applet to request a few things from the host but mostly it's just standard java APIs with security restrictions applied.
Afaict there are two types of applet, "untrusted applets" that just run and "trusted applets" that pop up a security warning with signature information asking if the user wants to run them or not.
Afaict the latter category can do pretty much whatever they want.
Similar things apply to web start apps afaict, there are both "trusted" web start apps that can do whatever they like and "untrusted" ones that can't.
One annoying thing is that sun created an api (under javax.jnlp) to allow users to give untrusted code the ability to (among other things) read or write a specific file without giving them full access to the system. But for some reason they only made it availible for web start apps not applets.
Man bank, safe! Where you been living recently.
It's probablly safer than holding cash. If the government devalues the currency both cash and bank balances will lose thier value and there are governemnt "insurance" schemes that protect most of a normal savers money.
Still, you can reduce the role of the service and hence the risk considerablly. Just store the mail (or at least a backup copy of the mail) locally using a conventional mail client and use your own domain. The services role is reduced to just collecting mail off the internet and holding it until your client is ready to pick it up and in that role the service can be easilly replaced with dosens of alternative providers.
When evaluating any service you should always ask what your options are if the provider can no longer be bothered providing that service or the service changes in ways that make it shit.
Do you have a source for that claim?
According to TFA someone in the city government was told but they were also told to keep it confidential and the mayor didn't find out until it was too late.
Most closed-source apps for Linux are I think quite portable too, essentialy just a rebuild
If opensource apps are anything to go by I wouldn't be so sure. Many architectures have gotchas and code that has only ever been built on x86 may well not port cleanly. The only reason most common FOSS software is as portable as it is is due to the efforts of porters for the likes of debian who understand theese issues and fix them.
For example on x86 unaligned accesses will work as expected (though they are slow), on some other architectures they will either result in a "bus error" or worse silent curruption.
Another gotcha is va_list handling. Different architectures handle it in different ways resulting in different outcomes when code breaks the rules.
Actually, that's exactly NOT the purpose of a netbook. A netbook (as its name implies) is suited for browsing the net and doing the occasional wordprocessing and perhaps even spreadsheet. Skype and some IM software, and a few games - but that's it for a netbook. Noone expects more from it.
Afaict there are two groups of people buying netbooks. Those who do just want a machine for the handfull of tasks you metion and those who want a cheap and ultraportable but still general-purpose machine.
Just because software is specialised doesn't nessacerally mean it needs a high res screen or a fast processor or even a lot of storage (though some of the higher end netbooks actually have plenty of storage anyway)
The risk of a loan depends on a lot more than the borowers current ability to make thier payments. It depends on among other things.
1: the behaviour of the value of the asset that the loan is secured on. If an asset has risen in value since the loan was taken out then even if the person defaults the bank still gets their money back. If it's fallen in value (or didn't exist in the first place, unsecured loans have high rates for a reason) more than the person has payed off then the bank loses.
2: the likelyhood of the person getting fired/layed off
3: how much buffer the person has between being fired/layed off and defaulting on the loan
4: the persons likelyhood of finding another job quickly after being fired/layed off.
Afaict it was 1 that really bit in the mortage market, for years house prices had being going up (fueled by ever more daring mortgage deals), so many financial modellers assumed (explicitly or implicitly) they would continue to do so. When they stopped going up and started to dip in some areas the system crashed.
but you will still have to pay per minute for the phone call, just as you do with dial-up.
Depends what package you get. There are dialup packages with freephone numbers. They didn't charge per the minuite but they did often have an AUP which prevented being dialled in 24/7 (I think the BT package I was on said 10 hours per day in the AUP though I dunno if they enforced it) and they also made you redial every so often.
ukfsn ( http://www.ukfsn.org/home/internet/friaco.html ) have several packages using this system though they don't seem to have a true unmetered package. They also have dual channel ISDN packages (at about twice the price of single channel packages).
My guess is that BT will be forced to provide sufficiant infrastructure to get a 2 megabit link to every home. BTs backbone network sometimes has some contention but it's generally not too bad. The worst contention typically comes on the connections between ISPs and BTs backbone network (which are very expensive)
Generally this means with ISPs that use the BT system you either get unlimited deals but with horrible contention or metered deals which perform well. There are also some very expensive packages (e.g. the IDNET "buisness premium" package ) which offer both good performance and no metering.
There are still some rural areas, particularly in Scotland, where the only 'high-speed' Internet access you can get is ISDN, at 128Kb/s (for two channels), charged per minute and very expensive.
Well afaict you can use a single channel ISDN dialup with pretty much any dialup ISP (including unmetered packages). I think there are unmetered packages for dual channel too though I dunno how much they cost.