Your answer is well-reasoned but ultimately boils down to: it's bad to have arbitrary code received over the internet running in your system.
Well DUH.
If a pirate site sends an exe down my "pipe";) and I click Run, I become t3h pwn3d. If only people understood that allowing an AX IS effectively allowing its code to run free, we would have less trouble with it. Anyway, your line of thought applies to anything that is made to run on your system by a remote party. Java has a sandbox, AX doesn't, fine. Sandboxing is not the answer... Or I'd be surfing in a virtual machine and have a different system for every program.
The problem lies in turning the browser into a platform.
Frankly, I've never understood the demonizing of ActiveX technology. Actually, I've never even understood why people seem to concentrate only on the embedded controls in MSIE when ActiveX is about COM integration on the whole Win32 platform... Anyway, assuming we only care about browsers: the reason why you might want ActiveX is the same why you might want plugins or extension: to make the browser do something MORE than render (D)HTML. Unless you also hate Java applets, plugins, FF extensions and Opera widgets, how can you hate ActiveX? Its only problem is that people blindly click on "Yes please install this dialer". How is that a tech problem? I call PEBKAC! Besides, when a java applet pops up and asks for permission to elevate its privileges, how come that's good and holy, yet when an ActiveX control does the same that's so disgusting?
All this coming from someone who DOES dislike the my-broswer-makes-coffee-too mentality so common today. But really, why do you single ActiveX out?
Well, if that is what floats your boat, go for it. If someone else wants TotalAutomationVeryLikelyToTakeOverTheHouse, more power to them. I don't see how your different desires affect each other's.
Not everyone agrees that gardening, cooking and browsing/. makes for a wonderful life. Some people, like me, find some activites, such as gardening or cooking, a waste of time that could be devoted to something enjoyable, maybe gaming or going to the gym or... There's a reason why they are called "house chores".
The stuff in the taskbar usually runs under your account; the problem is that the Network DDE service always runs as system and owns a transparent window on the desktop that can be passed arbitrary params by any other app on the same desktop - such as that nifty little hack you wrote...
I agree 100% with yur point. However I was criticizing my PP for saying "I use it out of principle to avoid pirating the music". If THAT is his reason, he might just as well use P2P.
Honestly, WHY do you think buying music on allofmp3 is different then pirating it? Why do you want to buy the music? I see two possibilities: 1. you want to thank the artist and give him some money 2. you feel guilty if you use eMule, so you go to allofmp3 and download the songs for a very cheap price.
You know full well the artist is seeing NO compensation when you buy his stuff from allofmp3. If you still want his songs, just steal them yourself already, instead of hiring goons to do it for you.
VMWare does run on Linux, however the performance hit would be noticeable (though not Linux-specific), eg the Windows GUI would be somewhat slow, and wrt gaming, that's simply out of the question. As long as you wish to run apps you'll be fine, unless you want a micro-second reaction time when you pull down a menu, but gaming-wise, no way. You'd be better off running Windows natively and Linux virtualized - then your gaming experience wouldn't be affected negatively.
I am a humanities student AND a computer geek and I can attest that you are BOTH idiotic know-it-alls who think they're so much better than everyone else. How about you both go down your own road and mind your own business? How about you spend your time LEARNING what you like instead of convincing yourself that it's worth learning in the first place? If you were so sure of your superiority you wouldn't be arguing about it.
Do not underestimate the power of the Wiimote. Powergloves, P5 gloves and countless (?) others have failed where the Wiimote might succeed. What other input devices do we use while playing a console game, beside the gamepad? Maybe a gun... I can't think of anything else. So this MIGHT be a significant innovation.
Oh and here's a hug - now get ready to be flamed to a crisp:D
The internet would be controlled, regulated and censored by AT&T and Verizon and other large corporations. That means no more free speech on the internet!
As opposed to a "neutral net", regulated and censored by the *government*?! The same one that turns into a wreck everything it touches? The government that enjoys censorship so much it built Echelon and who knows what else? YOU are the one out of your mind. Thanks, I'll have my net FREE from your "friends" and other people like you.
While your analysis is quite correct, overall, I can't help remind you that 1. the "2nd world" does not exist, 2. the EU was quite rich last time I checked and had the highest quality of life, 3. the Euro is beating the Dollar to a pulp.
But as I said, everything else is correct.
Virtualization is one of the best things since sliced bread and I believe it's here to stay. First of all, it spells an end to multi-booting. I have erased my secondary OSs and I run them in VMs under my main system. A performance hit does definitely occur by I am willing to pay such price for the greater ease of use. Secondly, just think of the possibility to move server images from a physical server to another one, literally freezing it here and awakening it over there - InstaScaleOut(tm) must be a server admin's wet dream.
Of course, as with all abstraction layers, it introduces complexity and takes a toll in the form of performance - but we all know absraction layers have been increasing all the time since the beginning of time.
Happened to a girl coworker of mine, too. We heard her scream and then she rushed into our office shrieking and saying "nonsense" like "My CD just blew up!". Turned out a CD had shattered inside the drive and pretty much destroyed it. Some smoke came out, too. Maybe the broken pieces cut somw wires inside and there was a minor short, I dunno. Pretty funny, overall.
Search engines can be used to search for possibly illegal stuff. Mail can be used to send possibly illegal objects. Roads can be used to go to some possibily illegal destination. Weapons can be used to kill someone, possibly in an illegal way. Phones can be used to call someone and say possibily illegal things.
Unless we want to take care of all the above mentioned "problems", I don't see why we should be concerned with search engines and specifically single them out.
Oh wait, they have lotsa money. Now I understand.
Slashdot Mirror
My family.
Now get the fuck off of my property, you earthling.
*loads shotgun
Your answer is well-reasoned but ultimately boils down to: it's bad to have arbitrary code received over the internet running in your system. ;) and I click Run, I become t3h pwn3d. If only people understood that allowing an AX IS effectively allowing its code to run free, we would have less trouble with it. Anyway, your line of thought applies to anything that is made to run on your system by a remote party. Java has a sandbox, AX doesn't, fine. Sandboxing is not the answer... Or I'd be surfing in a virtual machine and have a different system for every program.
Well DUH.
If a pirate site sends an exe down my "pipe"
The problem lies in turning the browser into a platform.
Frankly, I've never understood the demonizing of ActiveX technology. Actually, I've never even understood why people seem to concentrate only on the embedded controls in MSIE when ActiveX is about COM integration on the whole Win32 platform... Anyway, assuming we only care about browsers: the reason why you might want ActiveX is the same why you might want plugins or extension: to make the browser do something MORE than render (D)HTML. Unless you also hate Java applets, plugins, FF extensions and Opera widgets, how can you hate ActiveX? Its only problem is that people blindly click on "Yes please install this dialer". How is that a tech problem? I call PEBKAC! Besides, when a java applet pops up and asks for permission to elevate its privileges, how come that's good and holy, yet when an ActiveX control does the same that's so disgusting?
All this coming from someone who DOES dislike the my-broswer-makes-coffee-too mentality so common today. But really, why do you single ActiveX out?
ActiveX controls. Some people might, you know, want to use them.
Well, if that is what floats your boat, go for it. If someone else wants TotalAutomationVeryLikelyToTakeOverTheHouse, more power to them. I don't see how your different desires affect each other's. /. makes for a wonderful life. Some people, like me, find some activites, such as gardening or cooking, a waste of time that could be devoted to something enjoyable, maybe gaming or going to the gym or... There's a reason why they are called "house chores".
Not everyone agrees that gardening, cooking and browsing
Mac person = Goth look?! Where did that come from?
It is not, I suppose. Your point?
Hey you know what - it is disabled on my box too! AFTER I disabled manually.
Please, learn about the Network DDE service. Thanks.
The stuff in the taskbar usually runs under your account; the problem is that the Network DDE service always runs as system and owns a transparent window on the desktop that can be passed arbitrary params by any other app on the same desktop - such as that nifty little hack you wrote...
Oh yeah it is sooo "kind of" sad that people disagree with you. Cry me a river.
I would like to know If the so-called shatter attack still works in Vista. If it does, no amount of privilege limitation can help you.
I don't know how to say this without being blunt, so I'll be blunt: I'm not interested in the opinion of such an unintelligible post's author.
I agree 100% with yur point. However I was criticizing my PP for saying "I use it out of principle to avoid pirating the music". If THAT is his reason, he might just as well use P2P.
Honestly, WHY do you think buying music on allofmp3 is different then pirating it? Why do you want to buy the music? I see two possibilities: 1. you want to thank the artist and give him some money 2. you feel guilty if you use eMule, so you go to allofmp3 and download the songs for a very cheap price.
You know full well the artist is seeing NO compensation when you buy his stuff from allofmp3. If you still want his songs, just steal them yourself already, instead of hiring goons to do it for you.
VMWare does run on Linux, however the performance hit would be noticeable (though not Linux-specific), eg the Windows GUI would be somewhat slow, and wrt gaming, that's simply out of the question. As long as you wish to run apps you'll be fine, unless you want a micro-second reaction time when you pull down a menu, but gaming-wise, no way. You'd be better off running Windows natively and Linux virtualized - then your gaming experience wouldn't be affected negatively.
I am a humanities student AND a computer geek and I can attest that you are BOTH idiotic know-it-alls who think they're so much better than everyone else. How about you both go down your own road and mind your own business? How about you spend your time LEARNING what you like instead of convincing yourself that it's worth learning in the first place? If you were so sure of your superiority you wouldn't be arguing about it.
Do not underestimate the power of the Wiimote. Powergloves, P5 gloves and countless (?) others have failed where the Wiimote might succeed. What other input devices do we use while playing a console game, beside the gamepad? Maybe a gun... I can't think of anything else. So this MIGHT be a significant innovation. :D
Oh and here's a hug - now get ready to be flamed to a crisp
I'm cool with that. So just get your hands off the net and everything will be fine. No regulation, thanks.
The internet would be controlled, regulated and censored by AT&T and Verizon and other large corporations. That means no more free speech on the internet!
As opposed to a "neutral net", regulated and censored by the *government*?! The same one that turns into a wreck everything it touches? The government that enjoys censorship so much it built Echelon and who knows what else? YOU are the one out of your mind. Thanks, I'll have my net FREE from your "friends" and other people like you.
Was that... was that a POPUP on Slashdot just a second ago?
While your analysis is quite correct, overall, I can't help remind you that 1. the "2nd world" does not exist, 2. the EU was quite rich last time I checked and had the highest quality of life, 3. the Euro is beating the Dollar to a pulp.
But as I said, everything else is correct.
Virtualization is one of the best things since sliced bread and I believe it's here to stay. First of all, it spells an end to multi-booting. I have erased my secondary OSs and I run them in VMs under my main system. A performance hit does definitely occur by I am willing to pay such price for the greater ease of use. Secondly, just think of the possibility to move server images from a physical server to another one, literally freezing it here and awakening it over there - InstaScaleOut(tm) must be a server admin's wet dream.
Of course, as with all abstraction layers, it introduces complexity and takes a toll in the form of performance - but we all know absraction layers have been increasing all the time since the beginning of time.
Happened to a girl coworker of mine, too. We heard her scream and then she rushed into our office shrieking and saying "nonsense" like "My CD just blew up!". Turned out a CD had shattered inside the drive and pretty much destroyed it. Some smoke came out, too. Maybe the broken pieces cut somw wires inside and there was a minor short, I dunno. Pretty funny, overall.
Search engines can be used to search for possibly illegal stuff.
Mail can be used to send possibly illegal objects.
Roads can be used to go to some possibily illegal destination.
Weapons can be used to kill someone, possibly in an illegal way.
Phones can be used to call someone and say possibily illegal things.
Unless we want to take care of all the above mentioned "problems", I don't see why we should be concerned with search engines and specifically single them out.
Oh wait, they have lotsa money. Now I understand.