Sure, but they've been collecting this information for what, at least 3 years? If they indeed haven't been filtering it out "later," and I would consider three years to be "later," then that would raise at least a yellowish-orange flag to me.
Java got a bad reputation, sure, but for good reasons. We used to deploy software to schools and it was a java web start app. If you had the right runtime, and you could deal with the mess of downloads and potential instability even in a compatible runtime, you'd get by. We finally decided to rewrite it in PHP and MySQL with Javascript for simple dynamic abilities and the process went pretty well, save for the XMLRPC calls that were dead integrated to the system and the poorly architecture'd database...but...
Even at work now I have to do some work with Java apps - not developing, just using - primarily Eclipse. It's slow, bloated and just not what I'd prefer, but Salesforce offers that or in-browser editing - ewwww.
Government should have no more say in how people's internet access can be regulated anymore than they should be part of sex education, video-game purchases or drug and alcohol education. Parents that don't know how to be proactive in their child's lives should have their licenses revoked - well they have to get licenses first - and then have them revoked. I understand that talking to your kids about certain topics is tough, but if you don't then you leave it in the hands of the state, and they'll more than likely "educate" your children in they way THEY want them to grow up, not in the way that you, the parent, might.
A Labor senator has called for the filter to be opt-in
I love it! "Yes, please monitor my Internet use and filter out content I know you know I won't like. Or agree with. Can you pick out my next car and decide on a good meal plan too? Do these jeans make my ass look fat?"
While a very valid point, there is nothing to stop someone from self-signing a cert. Of course, having something signed by a CA carries a lot more weight, but if I trust the site and the owner/author makes it clear as to why they self-signed and provided a means of ensuring some amount of trust, I would feel much better. And like I said, at least use a different username/combo for those kinds of sites than something you use in more secure situations.
I'm sorry, but while OP may be concerned about Facebook, it's naive of you to think that s/he has separate passwords for other sites vs. FB - remember, we're talking about someone on the internet. I even use the same password in some places, but regardless it's either SSL login or no login or, if its somewhere I really want to login (/. for example), I use a username/password combo that I don't use anywhere else. Security's role shouldn't be diminished just because of the site you're going to - if there is a login box, HTTPS should be offered, because some people, like their passwords, refuse to change.
You could, in theory, work around these issues in different ways. You could include fuel containers in the payload with parachutes - if we can give the robot some way to find them it can navigate to and attach them when ready. You could also send multiple rockets, some with fuel and one for the robot, but having them find eachother would be more challenging and landing areas would be much more prone to error in the proximity.
It's not that it gets "installed" by Firefox - it works by the fact that "If there is a dll in this folder, I'm going to load it." It's no different from having files in a library folder for any other application - if I find a library there I'm going to load it at startup.
They should make it impossible for anyone to install plugins/extensions without user interaction
Normally you're prompted to install extensions, and add-ons are usually by way of installer. The problem here is that the user DID interact - at some point they opted to receive an update from Microsoft. MS is COMPLETELY at fault here as they slipped a DLL into a folder where Firefox would find it and go "Geez, thats an add-on!" No install necessary in FF, just put the extension in the right place and bingo!
As far as not being able to uninstall it...if its a "plugin" like Shockwave or Flash, you should note that the ability to Disable/Enable ONLY is there because any user can and should have access to that plugin. Extensions, on the other hand, should have the ability to be uninstalled unless they fall into this "any user could and probably wants" this extension category.
Unfortunately, this presents an issue for the learning of important IT knowledge by the "lay person." It's generally easier to wait for something to break or "break" than to educate because IT staff are underpaid, not typically sociable (no offense, just a fact I've encountered), and the lay people are often unwilling to change or to really commit to learning. Until you can show them how to disable it, work without it and live in the workplace so that they can go home and do it themselves, no progress can be made really. It's a sad thing when part of IT's job is to lock everything down to the system clock settings so that no one breaks anything because they don't bother to learn how to fix it, and IT AIN'T HARD. (get IT?)
Someone mod this man up! I totally agree that blaming the OS is a bit passe, but Autorun is also the worst "feature" I've ever encountered - "Oh, you plugged something in that has a filesystem I understand? And an executable it wants me to run? Ok."
It's not an issue of whose hands the data is in now - Google shouldn't have had it in the first place, although maybe it WAS ok, depends on if they used the data. Also, the fact that they didn't do anything to filter it or destroy it after a certain period, or inform local authorities it would be collecting the data, are all probably at issue here.
But yeah, like OP says, you can't expect him to want to code just because he loves to game. Some of the best advice ever that I hope every parent/parent-to-be out there takes from the comment would be
Politely tell your friend to ask his son what *HE* wants to do with his life.
It took my parents years of coming around to this - they tried getting me into sports and music (I do love music, just not what I wanted to be doing back then) before finally realizing that I wanted to work with computers, both in hardware and software, and that their best bet was to support me so that I could grow up to do something I love, not something that they wanted me to do or hoped I would do. It's fine and dandy to explore different interests with your kids, but if you don't consider what THEY want then you're just being a jackass, no matter how good your intentions are.
Seriously, mod this man UP. I understand that every insect/alien/Ballmer thread has an "I for one" post, but to be labeled redundant as the first of it's kind in a thread is ridiculous.
I, for one, DO NOT welcome our redundant-modding moderators.
I have had two automatics but I love - LOVE driving manual. When I'm actually purchasing my next car (sa in, last two are hand-me-down style), it is going to manual. And I'm in the USA. I also think that more people in the USA prefer manual than GP suggested, out of the people in my neighborhood that I hang out with, 3/7 drive manual. Thats not shabby at all.
Well, if they packaged it and whatnot, as in removed personally identifiable information and formed bare demographics, go ahead and sell it. I'm as upset as anyone else when it comes to companies selling personal info, but there needs to be some leeway - if a company says (and can prove) that the information they're gathering is to sell but only when personal information is wiped, I don't care. Form a base demographic, it is how business is run, but you can do it while discarding personally identifiable information.
Okay, a gauntlet maybe not, but a few computers running different OSes/OS versions, installed with The Latest And Greatest anti-virus/spyware/malware/younameit is about all you would need to at least have SOME QA assurance. If McAfee throws a fit, it'd probably stop them from pursing the release of the crack anymore. Probably. Or not. They released a goddamn cracked game to begin with, so, who knows...but I do know that having some form of CYA is a Best Practice to most people who like their jobs.
Did anyone state that no QA had been done? I would assume (read: HOPE) that Rockstar had the brains to test the hell out of this binary before saying "Well, let's just release it and see what happens..." Granted, probably as much maybe a little more work than patching it themselves, but it would behoove them not to check the code or at least monitor the data paths of the executable before blindly putting it to market. Maybe they even worked WITH the cracking group to gain the source-code so they could ensure there was nothing malicious(er) going on.
Unbelievable there are no safeguards to protect against this.
Just listening to the story about this earlier, the safeguard worked, just not in the way we would expect it to. Things got really bad really fast for a minute there because there are safeguards in the computer systems that say "If stock X drops to price Y then sell." So P&G fell below that point and the computers compounded the problem by auto-selling the stock. Safeguards were in place, but who will safeguard the safeguards??
I keep my keys on two rings - ring one has my car key, car fob, and some shit for Food Lion and the like. The second has my house key, my friends' house key, my badge, a bottle opener, and my desk key maybe, can't remember. They both go on a carabiner, that in turn clips to my belt loop, usually on the left so I don't have to unhook it to get in the office (just give 'er the ol' side-ass). When I'm at work, I just remove the car-key ring and leave it at my desk, don't need it while I'm working and then my jingle reduces considerably. Unless I'm going out for a smoke, getting lunch or going to the bathroom and I don't keep my keys on me at all = ninja.
I just listened to a story on NPR with one of the head guys from Matter of Trust, and he mentioned nothing to this effect. In fact, he said there are warehouses all over the country helping store this, they use used stockings for the packaging, and from the sound if there are about 450,000 lbs of hair headed to the Gulf Coast right now. So who's right here? The guy on the radio sounded pretty calm, if not even stoked, about this whole thing, but TFA seems to say that Matter of Trust has no one and no way to help.
Slashdot Mirror
filter out the interesting parts later
Sure, but they've been collecting this information for what, at least 3 years? If they indeed haven't been filtering it out "later," and I would consider three years to be "later," then that would raise at least a yellowish-orange flag to me.
Java got a bad reputation, sure, but for good reasons. We used to deploy software to schools and it was a java web start app. If you had the right runtime, and you could deal with the mess of downloads and potential instability even in a compatible runtime, you'd get by. We finally decided to rewrite it in PHP and MySQL with Javascript for simple dynamic abilities and the process went pretty well, save for the XMLRPC calls that were dead integrated to the system and the poorly architecture'd database...but...
Even at work now I have to do some work with Java apps - not developing, just using - primarily Eclipse. It's slow, bloated and just not what I'd prefer, but Salesforce offers that or in-browser editing - ewwww.
Government should have no more say in how people's internet access can be regulated anymore than they should be part of sex education, video-game purchases or drug and alcohol education. Parents that don't know how to be proactive in their child's lives should have their licenses revoked - well they have to get licenses first - and then have them revoked. I understand that talking to your kids about certain topics is tough, but if you don't then you leave it in the hands of the state, and they'll more than likely "educate" your children in they way THEY want them to grow up, not in the way that you, the parent, might.
Best part of the article:
A Labor senator has called for the filter to be opt-in
I love it! "Yes, please monitor my Internet use and filter out content I know you know I won't like. Or agree with. Can you pick out my next car and decide on a good meal plan too? Do these jeans make my ass look fat?"
While a very valid point, there is nothing to stop someone from self-signing a cert. Of course, having something signed by a CA carries a lot more weight, but if I trust the site and the owner/author makes it clear as to why they self-signed and provided a means of ensuring some amount of trust, I would feel much better. And like I said, at least use a different username/combo for those kinds of sites than something you use in more secure situations.
I'm sorry, but while OP may be concerned about Facebook, it's naive of you to think that s/he has separate passwords for other sites vs. FB - remember, we're talking about someone on the internet. I even use the same password in some places, but regardless it's either SSL login or no login or, if its somewhere I really want to login (/. for example), I use a username/password combo that I don't use anywhere else. Security's role shouldn't be diminished just because of the site you're going to - if there is a login box, HTTPS should be offered, because some people, like their passwords, refuse to change.
blocking the offending members
lol. I still find it hilarious.
You could, in theory, work around these issues in different ways. You could include fuel containers in the payload with parachutes - if we can give the robot some way to find them it can navigate to and attach them when ready. You could also send multiple rockets, some with fuel and one for the robot, but having them find eachother would be more challenging and landing areas would be much more prone to error in the proximity.
Still, it isn't impossible.
I assumed you were using this as a chance to lampoon Apple with no real merit or actually following TFA's links but then...
Do the right thing. Get a PC.
If you mean one with Windows then I think you made a really good joke. We're proud of you.
It's not that it gets "installed" by Firefox - it works by the fact that "If there is a dll in this folder, I'm going to load it." It's no different from having files in a library folder for any other application - if I find a library there I'm going to load it at startup.
They should make it impossible for anyone to install plugins/extensions without user interaction
Normally you're prompted to install extensions, and add-ons are usually by way of installer. The problem here is that the user DID interact - at some point they opted to receive an update from Microsoft. MS is COMPLETELY at fault here as they slipped a DLL into a folder where Firefox would find it and go "Geez, thats an add-on!" No install necessary in FF, just put the extension in the right place and bingo!
As far as not being able to uninstall it...if its a "plugin" like Shockwave or Flash, you should note that the ability to Disable/Enable ONLY is there because any user can and should have access to that plugin. Extensions, on the other hand, should have the ability to be uninstalled unless they fall into this "any user could and probably wants" this extension category.
Unfortunately, this presents an issue for the learning of important IT knowledge by the "lay person." It's generally easier to wait for something to break or "break" than to educate because IT staff are underpaid, not typically sociable (no offense, just a fact I've encountered), and the lay people are often unwilling to change or to really commit to learning. Until you can show them how to disable it, work without it and live in the workplace so that they can go home and do it themselves, no progress can be made really. It's a sad thing when part of IT's job is to lock everything down to the system clock settings so that no one breaks anything because they don't bother to learn how to fix it, and IT AIN'T HARD. (get IT?)
Someone mod this man up! I totally agree that blaming the OS is a bit passe, but Autorun is also the worst "feature" I've ever encountered - "Oh, you plugged something in that has a filesystem I understand? And an executable it wants me to run? Ok."
Dumb.
It's not an issue of whose hands the data is in now - Google shouldn't have had it in the first place, although maybe it WAS ok, depends on if they used the data. Also, the fact that they didn't do anything to filter it or destroy it after a certain period, or inform local authorities it would be collecting the data, are all probably at issue here.
Or be qualified to run Activision?
But yeah, like OP says, you can't expect him to want to code just because he loves to game. Some of the best advice ever that I hope every parent/parent-to-be out there takes from the comment would be
It took my parents years of coming around to this - they tried getting me into sports and music (I do love music, just not what I wanted to be doing back then) before finally realizing that I wanted to work with computers, both in hardware and software, and that their best bet was to support me so that I could grow up to do something I love, not something that they wanted me to do or hoped I would do. It's fine and dandy to explore different interests with your kids, but if you don't consider what THEY want then you're just being a jackass, no matter how good your intentions are.
Seriously, mod this man UP. I understand that every insect/alien/Ballmer thread has an "I for one" post, but to be labeled redundant as the first of it's kind in a thread is ridiculous.
I, for one, DO NOT welcome our redundant-modding moderators.
I have had two automatics but I love - LOVE driving manual. When I'm actually purchasing my next car (sa in, last two are hand-me-down style), it is going to manual. And I'm in the USA. I also think that more people in the USA prefer manual than GP suggested, out of the people in my neighborhood that I hang out with, 3/7 drive manual. Thats not shabby at all.
Well, if they packaged it and whatnot, as in removed personally identifiable information and formed bare demographics, go ahead and sell it. I'm as upset as anyone else when it comes to companies selling personal info, but there needs to be some leeway - if a company says (and can prove) that the information they're gathering is to sell but only when personal information is wiped, I don't care. Form a base demographic, it is how business is run, but you can do it while discarding personally identifiable information.
Okay, a gauntlet maybe not, but a few computers running different OSes/OS versions, installed with The Latest And Greatest anti-virus/spyware/malware/younameit is about all you would need to at least have SOME QA assurance. If McAfee throws a fit, it'd probably stop them from pursing the release of the crack anymore. Probably. Or not. They released a goddamn cracked game to begin with, so, who knows...but I do know that having some form of CYA is a Best Practice to most people who like their jobs.
Did anyone state that no QA had been done? I would assume (read: HOPE) that Rockstar had the brains to test the hell out of this binary before saying "Well, let's just release it and see what happens..." Granted, probably as much maybe a little more work than patching it themselves, but it would behoove them not to check the code or at least monitor the data paths of the executable before blindly putting it to market. Maybe they even worked WITH the cracking group to gain the source-code so they could ensure there was nothing malicious(er) going on.
Even though Red Hat and Novell are also available for use on PCs
Yep, there certainly don't exist other Linux distros for PC - luckily however I have a personal computer, and this baby runs AAAALLLL kinds of Linux!
Unbelievable there are no safeguards to protect against this.
Just listening to the story about this earlier, the safeguard worked, just not in the way we would expect it to. Things got really bad really fast for a minute there because there are safeguards in the computer systems that say "If stock X drops to price Y then sell." So P&G fell below that point and the computers compounded the problem by auto-selling the stock. Safeguards were in place, but who will safeguard the safeguards??
I keep my keys on two rings - ring one has my car key, car fob, and some shit for Food Lion and the like. The second has my house key, my friends' house key, my badge, a bottle opener, and my desk key maybe, can't remember. They both go on a carabiner, that in turn clips to my belt loop, usually on the left so I don't have to unhook it to get in the office (just give 'er the ol' side-ass). When I'm at work, I just remove the car-key ring and leave it at my desk, don't need it while I'm working and then my jingle reduces considerably. Unless I'm going out for a smoke, getting lunch or going to the bathroom and I don't keep my keys on me at all = ninja.
I just listened to a story on NPR with one of the head guys from Matter of Trust, and he mentioned nothing to this effect. In fact, he said there are warehouses all over the country helping store this, they use used stockings for the packaging, and from the sound if there are about 450,000 lbs of hair headed to the Gulf Coast right now. So who's right here? The guy on the radio sounded pretty calm, if not even stoked, about this whole thing, but TFA seems to say that Matter of Trust has no one and no way to help.
Minefield isn't respecting my mod+ choice - someone mod this man up to, say, Informative. ZenCoding.vim and vim.org is pretty spiffy.