"Yes, hello, I need to talk to someone in counterterrorism...?"
"One moment, I'll connect you." *BEEP BOOP BOOP*
"Counterterrorism task force, this is agent Smith, how may I help you?"
"Yeah, this is Mark Chambers with the INS. I'm calling about this guy, Mohammed Atta. He's applied for a visa for flight school, but he keeps raving about jihad and the Great Satan. You know anything about this guy?"
"Maybe. I'll have to look through some files. If you leave your address, I can put together a packet and FedEx it to you. Shouldn't take more than a week."
"A week!"
"Yeah, well, I've got to file the pink half of an A-21 form with the Records office to get access to his file. Then Cheryl will have to check if we've got a file on this guy, plus cross-check any aliases he might have, but Cheryl's out sick today. She should be back Tuesday. Anyway, once Cheryl finds his file, I've got to review it for anything important. Sometimes the guys get sloppy and they leave classified stuff in these files, and I can't very well ship that to some INS guy I don't even know, can I?" *chuckles* "But that's just his main file; those aren't updated with the recent stuff. So after that I have to go to Intelligence Gathering and give them the canary copy of the A-21 with them, and they'll look for anything recent we've picked up about your guy on the wires. And then, I have to Xerox his file, right, and then I send the copy to you. Sorry I can't FAX it; machine's broke. Anyway, I get like fifteen of these a day, and I've got a backlog right now. Cheryl's been sick since last Thursday, see. So give me a good week."
"...okay...um, nevermind...look, I'm sure this Atta guy's okay, just fooling around. Don't bother."
I'd expect that the "target market" is neither the typical Slashdot reader nor the 30-year-old-woman-Potter-Fanatic. I'd expect that the target market is children aged 7-13, and their parents.
The fact that Lego Group's best customers now include 30-year-old-women, and Slashdot readers are the only people who care, strongly suggests that the Group has a problem.
What, exactly, does a Harry Potter-branded Lego set offer your acquaintance that a regular action figure doesn't? Does she play with them? Disassemble and reassemble them to re-enact Potter stories, or make up her own?
Or did she just buy the product because it had a Harry Potter logo on it? If so, she's not a Lego customer, she's just a Harry Potter fan who happens to buy some Lego products every now and then. And that's not a healthy target market for any company.
Immigration is mainly by people in the lower class, where they stand to benefit by moving to the USA.
Illegal immigration is mainly by people in the lower class. Legal immigration strongly favors those with knowledge or skills that are considered beneficial (ie, profitable) to the US. (Even the much-derided H-1B visa holders pay taxes, for example.)
no code can "take over" the computer without the user specifically giving admin privileges.
That's the definition of a "privilege escalation" vulnerability.
Malicious user A, who does not have root privileges, writes a bit of code to take advantage of a bug in application X, which has been legitimately given root privileges. The bug allows her code to run with root privileges as well, so it can then do anything it wants.
This is the kind of bug that allows a low-level but legitimate user to take control of a system.
However, that's not what the eEye report says. The iTunes bug is merely a "remote execution" vulnerability.
A remotely exploitable flaw exists that allows arbitrary code to be executed in the context of the logged in user.
The iTunes bug, it seems, is of the sort that allows an illegitimate attacker to run code on a system.
Meaning, if the "logged in user" does not have admin privileges, then the damage that this could do is more limited. (It could spy on that user's eMail, or run a server only while that user is logged in, etc.)
The really bad vulnerabilities are those that combine remote execution with privilege escalation, and allow an outside attacker to take total control of a system.
It takes around 60-90 seconds to place your bag on an x-ray belt, step through the detector, and collect your bag afterward, depending on how crowded the scanners are, and how efficient the screeners are.
Somehow those airports manage to do that to every passenger.
Again, how do you know? It is not available in public records.
I pay attention to the quarterly conference calls, which Apple makes available.
I don't doubt for a second that the labels could cut off iTunes without affecting their revenue stream. It wouldn't hurt Apple's revenue stream, either. Existing iTunes customers wouldn't be happy. And who would they be angry with, Apple, which tried to hold down prices? Or the record companies, who demanded more money?
"Hello iTunes customer. Want to enjoy 99-cent downloads again? Call EMI Music Customer Relations and let them know..."
Despite the attention that the record companies are giving them, other online music vendors are small potatoes, and show no signs of stealing iTunes' market. They don't have Apple's "buying power" and, without Apple to compete with, will probably raise prices as the record companies demand. I don't think a price increase will do much to grow their customer base. The very-small-but-growing town would turn into a ghost town.
The record companies will go back to selling CDs, and tell everyone "We tried online music sales, and it doesn't work." Apple will go back to making iPods, and remind everyone that iTunes can rip CDs, too. Not to mention playing MP3s from P2P networks , which some users would inevitably (re)turn to.
1. The iTMS has been operating at a profit for two years now. Small profits, certainly, but profits.
2. Steve Jobs has shown that he is willing to stonewall until he gets a contract that is acceptable. Witness: - QuickTime 6 and MPEG-4 patent licensing - iTunes Music Store in Europe - iTunes Music Store in Japan (launched without Sony) - Disney and Pixar distribution agreement
As it applies to iTunes, Steve Jobs is essentially the only game in the download business. Something like 80% market share among digital downloads. Nobody, not Napster, not BuyMusic, not Rhapsody, not Yahoo, has been as successful at selling bits over a network as Apple. Meanwhile, sales of physical CDs have been dropping steadily for years.
What sensible industry would eliminate the only retailer with a potential for growing your business?
The built-in screen reader on Mac OS X can read text in PDF (or postscript) documents in Preview. (Not in Adobe Reader, though.)
Ideology has nothing to do with it. It's how much effort the developers are willing to put into it. (Which is mostly a matter of how motivated they are.)
Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Windows: Expensive, dangerous, and remarkably difficult to wean a high-paid corporate executive off of.
How, exactly would that have helped?
"FBI switchboard operator."
"Yes, hello, I need to talk to someone in counterterrorism...?"
"One moment, I'll connect you." *BEEP BOOP BOOP*
"Counterterrorism task force, this is agent Smith, how may I help you?"
"Yeah, this is Mark Chambers with the INS. I'm calling about this guy, Mohammed Atta. He's applied for a visa for flight school, but he keeps raving about jihad and the Great Satan. You know anything about this guy?"
"Maybe. I'll have to look through some files. If you leave your address, I can put together a packet and FedEx it to you. Shouldn't take more than a week."
"A week!"
"Yeah, well, I've got to file the pink half of an A-21 form with the Records office to get access to his file. Then Cheryl will have to check if we've got a file on this guy, plus cross-check any aliases he might have, but Cheryl's out sick today. She should be back Tuesday. Anyway, once Cheryl finds his file, I've got to review it for anything important. Sometimes the guys get sloppy and they leave classified stuff in these files, and I can't very well ship that to some INS guy I don't even know, can I?" *chuckles* "But that's just his main file; those aren't updated with the recent stuff. So after that I have to go to Intelligence Gathering and give them the canary copy of the A-21 with them, and they'll look for anything recent we've picked up about your guy on the wires. And then, I have to Xerox his file, right, and then I send the copy to you. Sorry I can't FAX it; machine's broke. Anyway, I get like fifteen of these a day, and I've got a backlog right now. Cheryl's been sick since last Thursday, see. So give me a good week."
"...okay...um, nevermind...look, I'm sure this Atta guy's okay, just fooling around. Don't bother."
If he didn't, would he have even decided to do a Slashdot interview? The flameproof suit only goes so far...you have to be able to laugh at the burns.
I think you've hit the nail on the head.
I'd expect that the "target market" is neither the typical Slashdot reader nor the 30-year-old-woman-Potter-Fanatic. I'd expect that the target market is children aged 7-13, and their parents.
The fact that Lego Group's best customers now include 30-year-old-women, and Slashdot readers are the only people who care, strongly suggests that the Group has a problem.
What, exactly, does a Harry Potter-branded Lego set offer your acquaintance that a regular action figure doesn't? Does she play with them? Disassemble and reassemble them to re-enact Potter stories, or make up her own?
Or did she just buy the product because it had a Harry Potter logo on it? If so, she's not a Lego customer, she's just a Harry Potter fan who happens to buy some Lego products every now and then. And that's not a healthy target market for any company.
A good salesperson never lets details like "lack of an actual product" interfere with the pitch.
Once you get enough orders, you can outsource development to India. Right?
Immigration is mainly by people in the lower class, where they stand to benefit by moving to the USA.
Illegal immigration is mainly by people in the lower class. Legal immigration strongly favors those with knowledge or skills that are considered beneficial (ie, profitable) to the US. (Even the much-derided H-1B visa holders pay taxes, for example.)
The brick separator doesn't work effectively on smaller pieces. (For example, separating two 1x2 flat pieces.)
And it's always the smallest ones that are the hardest to get apart with your hands.
Go ahead and laugh at the state school kids who run the checkout counters for the Ivy League B-schoolers. Laugh all you want.
What the parent said about failing you and kicking you out? That's real. It happens. It's a tough place to get an engineering/compsci degree.
They may not be driving BMWs, but the boys (and the handful of girls) out of Atlanta earn their geek cards.
no code can "take over" the computer without the user specifically giving admin privileges.
That's the definition of a "privilege escalation" vulnerability.
Malicious user A, who does not have root privileges, writes a bit of code to take advantage of a bug in application X, which has been legitimately given root privileges. The bug allows her code to run with root privileges as well, so it can then do anything it wants.
This is the kind of bug that allows a low-level but legitimate user to take control of a system.
However, that's not what the eEye report says. The iTunes bug is merely a "remote execution" vulnerability.
A remotely exploitable flaw exists that allows arbitrary code to be executed in the context of the logged in user.
The iTunes bug, it seems, is of the sort that allows an illegitimate attacker to run code on a system.
Meaning, if the "logged in user" does not have admin privileges, then the damage that this could do is more limited. (It could spy on that user's eMail, or run a server only while that user is logged in, etc.)
The really bad vulnerabilities are those that combine remote execution with privilege escalation, and allow an outside attacker to take total control of a system.
It takes around 60-90 seconds to place your bag on an x-ray belt, step through the detector, and collect your bag afterward, depending on how crowded the scanners are, and how efficient the screeners are.
Somehow those airports manage to do that to every passenger.
Again, how do you know? It is not available in public records.
I pay attention to the quarterly conference calls, which Apple makes available.
I don't doubt for a second that the labels could cut off iTunes without affecting their revenue stream.
It wouldn't hurt Apple's revenue stream, either. Existing iTunes customers wouldn't be happy. And who would they be angry with, Apple, which tried to hold down prices? Or the record companies, who demanded more money?
"Hello iTunes customer. Want to enjoy 99-cent downloads again? Call EMI Music Customer Relations and let them know..."
Despite the attention that the record companies are giving them, other online music vendors are small potatoes, and show no signs of stealing iTunes' market. They don't have Apple's "buying power" and, without Apple to compete with, will probably raise prices as the record companies demand. I don't think a price increase will do much to grow their customer base. The very-small-but-growing town would turn into a ghost town.
The record companies will go back to selling CDs, and tell everyone "We tried online music sales, and it doesn't work." Apple will go back to making iPods, and remind everyone that iTunes can rip CDs, too. Not to mention playing MP3s from P2P networks , which some users would inevitably (re)turn to.
1. The iTMS has been operating at a profit for two years now. Small profits, certainly, but profits.
2. Steve Jobs has shown that he is willing to stonewall until he gets a contract that is acceptable. Witness:
- QuickTime 6 and MPEG-4 patent licensing
- iTunes Music Store in Europe
- iTunes Music Store in Japan (launched without Sony)
- Disney and Pixar distribution agreement
As it applies to iTunes, Steve Jobs is essentially the only game in the download business. Something like 80% market share among digital downloads. Nobody, not Napster, not BuyMusic, not Rhapsody, not Yahoo, has been as successful at selling bits over a network as Apple. Meanwhile, sales of physical CDs have been dropping steadily for years.
What sensible industry would eliminate the only retailer with a potential for growing your business?
The built-in screen reader on Mac OS X can read text in PDF (or postscript) documents in Preview. (Not in Adobe Reader, though.)
Ideology has nothing to do with it. It's how much effort the developers are willing to put into it. (Which is mostly a matter of how motivated they are.)