What I haven't seen mentioned is very important: even in BCL classes that are covered by ECMA-335, the members you find might not be what you expect. For example, there are no TryParse methods for any of the primitive types, which forces exception handling as flow control. "No one" uses the regular Parse methods in the face of unknown inputs. Honestly, there are a surprising number of items "missing" in the ECMA-335 standard. Originally I wanted to implement it precisely but I found it was hindering my ability to code with good practices. Where do you draw the line.
There are also some errors in the documentation in the standard. Not some large number of them, but certainly enough to make you wonder how flexible the promise is. Errors range from omissions to ambiguities to a couple instances of clearly incorrect/contradictory statements.
Isn't this the definition of a vulnerability or weakness in the client software? Just because you don't see xxxx as a threat in advance doesn't mean someone won't eventually use it as one.
Microsoft and Best Buy agreed to promote each other's services as a trade. This is fine, and common. Ads are everywhere, and in retail stores is certainly no exception. Best Buy promotes things that are created by other companies because that's what they sell. Microsoft paid for additional advertising (ads aren't free you know) by offering advertising in return at the software giant's site.
The MSN service does not sit on a shelf in a box. It's not a book, and it's not something that changes the way a computer looks. It's a service that the customer never sees until they are home. So they sell it by encouraging (embarrassingly) naive purchasers that they want it. "It's a free for 6 months." The fine print says you have to pay when the 6 months are over, and it's right there on the paper.
What happened to TINSTAAFL? Why does every ad have to end in legalese? OF COURSE there are terms & conditions on EVERY "free" offer. Every last damn one. Why should this be an exception. Besides... it's not like the fine print on TV ads is legible. The consumer is responsible for reading over the paperwork with a purchase. If the papers are too long, just leave, don't sign [up for?] something without reading it.
If this was your average customer (which if he bought anything but a stellar once a year deal and bought it for use at home), then the conversation probably went something like this:
[Other conversation...] Seller: And do you want a free 6 months of the MSN online service? Buyer: Uhhh... what's that? S: They offer news, games, and [insert other things they offer, albeit other places offer similar things for cheaper, that's not what they advertise]. *You can always cancel it before then and you don't get charged anything.* B: Umm... ok...
Naivety is not an excuse in a situation like that. If in fact the seller signed the user up without getting that "uhhh ok" out of the buyer, then this should be handled as such. Since it's not Best Buy's policy to sign people up without mentioning it to them and getting the ok (literally), they should not be held responsible for the actions of an employee acting out of line (hey, they'll never fine out [evilgrin]). They handle situations by firing such employees. Fact: large companies will eventually hire a dishonest worker. Fact: everyone, even dishonest people, start without a criminal record. And if all they do is deceive, maybe they won't get one either. It is absolutely impossible to guarantee that all hires will be the right ones. Ever heard of a provisional employee status?
The person (or people) that need to be held responsible for this are the employees who acted out of line. No one (read: the plaintiffs) these days is willing to accept responsibility themselves (for agreeing to a service without reading the fine print). But they'll gladly say Best Buy must take responsibility for the actions of someone acting against them so they can get a better payout at the end. Plaintiffs: a) stop being moron and read the fine print (or realize things at a store aren't free, durr) or b) sue the employee, not the store.
The general population's notion of responsibility is completely out of whack, and we all see it every day. This actions resulting in this case are likely the direct fault of the plaintiffs, and even if they aren't, they're blaming the wrong target and charging way, way too much.
VLD is highly underrated. It's so easy to use, some of my students were using it without help in a first semester programming class.
http://dmoulding.googlepages.com/vld
Maybe they're avoiding it and looking for something that's been around longer and/or less buggy? Or maybe they like ODF because it has free tools for editing it?
Hmm, I'd say he's got a good point - there's simply not a culture of privilege awareness in Windows developers.
Perhaps Microsoft should set up an audit unit and start giving software a 'UAC-compatible' tick if a piece of software has minimised how much UAC approval is required if its turned on, allowing the publisher to put it on their box so that the customers can tell. Who knows, perhaps one day the UAC system might actually be viable. That is actually THE first requirement listed in the Certified for Windows Vista Logo Technical Requirements
It will be interesting to see if developers actually pay attention. Just think about how many poor programming practices you see today*. Books have been out for 10 years about good coding... UAC is but 1 year old. I hope we're not in for the long haul, and yet I know we are...
* Today I ran across a stack class that used for its push function... an overloaded operator new...
I noticed a different and (possibly) serious issue:
First few times: What is this annoying thing?
Next few times: Well I guess it's better than not knowing
After that (without reading) click ok...
So does that mean it's not working, wasting my time, AND training me to ignore security warnings? Honestly I don't have a better solution except for the rhetorical question "why can't people who exploit users just/themselves......"
Oh, but if you copy an album, the artist doesn't get his 80 cents. Wait, remind me again when did the RIAA started giving part of the booty to the artists? I must have missed that memo.
But more malicious = forcing me to uninstall the A/V I know and trust and install some crap before I can access the #1 source of malware (the internet)?! I'm doing just fine on my own, thank you. Congrats to the student for not tolerating that crap.
It looks like people are finally starting to get it. Big fish can't be allowed to attack the little fish without facing risk.
Now, if only the general public realized they bring this on themselves by continuing to fund the **AAs with their purchases, maybe it'd actually make a difference...
I prefer desktop development. Web development gets frustrating with its nooks and crannies of brokenness. If standardized Javascript and CSS were as ubiquitous as C/C++/[anything else desktop], that might someday change... but probably not.
TI makes graphing calculators. Anyone who's spent a decent amount of time with an HP scientific calculator would agree that there was never a comparable product from another company... not even close.
Why can't we have an anniversary edition of the 32S/32SII? Considering where things went after they stopped production of those, the last thing I want to see is some "Innovative new calculator design." Scientific calculators definitely hit their peak in 1991 followed by a giant letdown from the only company that figured out how to make real calculators (in 2002, HP discontinued the 32SII).:(
People hate on all degrees that aren't the one they chose. It's just part of the college "game." If a small company has 15 employees with 2 game degree holders and 13 various cs, engineering, business/management, etc. degrees, then the 2 game degree holders are an easy common target to the 13 others.
PNG was "supposed to replace" GIF when Unisys made a move to collect unexpected royalties on GIFs used on the web. And for many designers, it has replaced it with smaller file sizes and lossless compression options. Unfortunately it doesn't support animation and MNG never gained the steam PNG did, so GIF will still be around for a while.
Nail in the coffin? Pretty bold thing to say about Microsoft Office. OpenOffice is a great, free product, but IMO it's no replacement for Office in a never-look-back sense. Yes, they should keep putting pressure on MS regarding open formats, but I'm not about to switch from Office 2007 after my [wonderful] experience with it so far.
Techies love to complain about things like the ribbon, but everyone I see actually use it loves it.
MS Office isn't going anywhere. Neither is OpenOffice. And apparently neither is the Drama Llama.
The RIAA has a responsibility to bring more money for the music artists. Unfortunately they misread "going above and beyond to help the people you represent" as "going above and beyond anything... hey Bob who is it we say we're representing again? Yes, we are only here to help 'music artists'."
"Hey Bob, you hear my youngest started playing the recorder in Kindergarten today? I filled out another WTF1337 form today and we should start seeing the revenues next month.:woot:"
Re: DRM Causes Piracy? I agree....
on
DRM Causes Piracy
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· Score: 1
DRM forces me to pirate every DVD movie I watch, whether or not I paid for it. I use ffdshow to handle volume normalization (so I can watch at 2AM, hear the talking, and not wake the neighbors when a bomb goes off) and brightness/contrast adjustments (my room isn't always at theater brightness levels). Apparently these features aren't useful for any legal purpose... at least that's what I gather from a system that only allows these A/V processors on pirated versions of the movie (works for nearly any format except DVD video).
Slashdot Mirror
What I haven't seen mentioned is very important: even in BCL classes that are covered by ECMA-335, the members you find might not be what you expect. For example, there are no TryParse methods for any of the primitive types, which forces exception handling as flow control. "No one" uses the regular Parse methods in the face of unknown inputs. Honestly, there are a surprising number of items "missing" in the ECMA-335 standard. Originally I wanted to implement it precisely but I found it was hindering my ability to code with good practices. Where do you draw the line.
There are also some errors in the documentation in the standard. Not some large number of them, but certainly enough to make you wonder how flexible the promise is. Errors range from omissions to ambiguities to a couple instances of clearly incorrect/contradictory statements.
Something along those lines took first place in the Renewable Energy category at this year's Conrad Awards. (MoTGen (Motionless Thermal Generator))
Isn't this the definition of a vulnerability or weakness in the client software? Just because you don't see xxxx as a threat in advance doesn't mean someone won't eventually use it as one.
The CIA wants to make the personal information of everyone public. At least that's what I get from a previous article and this one.
http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/11/204231
It's time for Ron Paul. Cause none of the others are going to do a dang thing about it.
It hurt watching this:
http://ivorytowerz.blogspot.com/2007/11/wolf-blitzer-is-human-rights-more.html
I'll go ahead and play the devil's advocate.
Microsoft and Best Buy agreed to promote each other's services as a trade. This is fine, and common. Ads are everywhere, and in retail stores is certainly no exception. Best Buy promotes things that are created by other companies because that's what they sell. Microsoft paid for additional advertising (ads aren't free you know) by offering advertising in return at the software giant's site.
The MSN service does not sit on a shelf in a box. It's not a book, and it's not something that changes the way a computer looks. It's a service that the customer never sees until they are home. So they sell it by encouraging (embarrassingly) naive purchasers that they want it. "It's a free for 6 months." The fine print says you have to pay when the 6 months are over, and it's right there on the paper.
What happened to TINSTAAFL? Why does every ad have to end in legalese? OF COURSE there are terms & conditions on EVERY "free" offer. Every last damn one. Why should this be an exception. Besides... it's not like the fine print on TV ads is legible. The consumer is responsible for reading over the paperwork with a purchase. If the papers are too long, just leave, don't sign [up for?] something without reading it.
If this was your average customer (which if he bought anything but a stellar once a year deal and bought it for use at home), then the conversation probably went something like this:
[Other conversation...]
Seller: And do you want a free 6 months of the MSN online service?
Buyer: Uhhh... what's that?
S: They offer news, games, and [insert other things they offer, albeit other places offer similar things for cheaper, that's not what they advertise]. *You can always cancel it before then and you don't get charged anything.*
B: Umm... ok...
Naivety is not an excuse in a situation like that. If in fact the seller signed the user up without getting that "uhhh ok" out of the buyer, then this should be handled as such. Since it's not Best Buy's policy to sign people up without mentioning it to them and getting the ok (literally), they should not be held responsible for the actions of an employee acting out of line (hey, they'll never fine out [evilgrin]). They handle situations by firing such employees. Fact: large companies will eventually hire a dishonest worker. Fact: everyone, even dishonest people, start without a criminal record. And if all they do is deceive, maybe they won't get one either. It is absolutely impossible to guarantee that all hires will be the right ones. Ever heard of a provisional employee status?
The person (or people) that need to be held responsible for this are the employees who acted out of line. No one (read: the plaintiffs) these days is willing to accept responsibility themselves (for agreeing to a service without reading the fine print). But they'll gladly say Best Buy must take responsibility for the actions of someone acting against them so they can get a better payout at the end. Plaintiffs: a) stop being moron and read the fine print (or realize things at a store aren't free, durr) or b) sue the employee, not the store.
The general population's notion of responsibility is completely out of whack, and we all see it every day. This actions resulting in this case are likely the direct fault of the plaintiffs, and even if they aren't, they're blaming the wrong target and charging way, way too much.
VLD is highly underrated. It's so easy to use, some of my students were using it without help in a first semester programming class. http://dmoulding.googlepages.com/vld
Maybe they're avoiding it and looking for something that's been around longer and/or less buggy? Or maybe they like ODF because it has free tools for editing it?
Perhaps Microsoft should set up an audit unit and start giving software a 'UAC-compatible' tick if a piece of software has minimised how much UAC approval is required if its turned on, allowing the publisher to put it on their box so that the customers can tell. Who knows, perhaps one day the UAC system might actually be viable. That is actually THE first requirement listed in the Certified for Windows Vista Logo Technical Requirements
It will be interesting to see if developers actually pay attention. Just think about how many poor programming practices you see today*. Books have been out for 10 years about good coding... UAC is but 1 year old. I hope we're not in for the long haul, and yet I know we are...
* Today I ran across a stack class that used for its push function... an overloaded operator new...
- First few times: What is this annoying thing?
- Next few times: Well I guess it's better than not knowing
- After that (without reading) click ok...
So does that mean it's not working, wasting my time, AND training me to ignore security warnings? Honestly I don't have a better solution except for the rhetorical question "why can't people who exploit users justOh. You can't. Ever.
3sat
OK, but that's what interfaces are for.
Your post is like someone slamming XHTML for not having a font element.
But more malicious = forcing me to uninstall the A/V I know and trust and install some crap before I can access the #1 source of malware (the internet)?! I'm doing just fine on my own, thank you. Congrats to the student for not tolerating that crap.
Start drinking before you set your password!
It looks like people are finally starting to get it. Big fish can't be allowed to attack the little fish without facing risk.
Now, if only the general public realized they bring this on themselves by continuing to fund the **AAs with their purchases, maybe it'd actually make a difference...
Sure I have. It even used to be on my resume. :)
I prefer desktop development. Web development gets frustrating with its nooks and crannies of brokenness. If standardized Javascript and CSS were as ubiquitous as C/C++/[anything else desktop], that might someday change... but probably not.
TI makes graphing calculators. Anyone who's spent a decent amount of time with an HP scientific calculator would agree that there was never a comparable product from another company... not even close.
Why can't we have an anniversary edition of the 32S/32SII? Considering where things went after they stopped production of those, the last thing I want to see is some "Innovative new calculator design." Scientific calculators definitely hit their peak in 1991 followed by a giant letdown from the only company that figured out how to make real calculators (in 2002, HP discontinued the 32SII). :(
People hate on all degrees that aren't the one they chose. It's just part of the college "game." If a small company has 15 employees with 2 game degree holders and 13 various cs, engineering, business/management, etc. degrees, then the 2 game degree holders are an easy common target to the 13 others.
PNG was "supposed to replace" GIF when Unisys made a move to collect unexpected royalties on GIFs used on the web. And for many designers, it has replaced it with smaller file sizes and lossless compression options. Unfortunately it doesn't support animation and MNG never gained the steam PNG did, so GIF will still be around for a while.
Nail in the coffin? Pretty bold thing to say about Microsoft Office. OpenOffice is a great, free product, but IMO it's no replacement for Office in a never-look-back sense. Yes, they should keep putting pressure on MS regarding open formats, but I'm not about to switch from Office 2007 after my [wonderful] experience with it so far.
Techies love to complain about things like the ribbon, but everyone I see actually use it loves it.
MS Office isn't going anywhere. Neither is OpenOffice. And apparently neither is the Drama Llama.
The RIAA has a responsibility to bring more money for the music artists. Unfortunately they misread "going above and beyond to help the people you represent" as "going above and beyond anything... hey Bob who is it we say we're representing again? Yes, we are only here to help 'music artists'."
:woot:"
"Hey Bob, you hear my youngest started playing the recorder in Kindergarten today? I filled out another WTF1337 form today and we should start seeing the revenues next month.
DRM forces me to pirate every DVD movie I watch, whether or not I paid for it. I use ffdshow to handle volume normalization (so I can watch at 2AM, hear the talking, and not wake the neighbors when a bomb goes off) and brightness/contrast adjustments (my room isn't always at theater brightness levels). Apparently these features aren't useful for any legal purpose... at least that's what I gather from a system that only allows these A/V processors on pirated versions of the movie (works for nearly any format except DVD video).
Take care of the few pedestrians in danger from this, along with the hundreds of others killed because they were in the road a car. We all win!