Hey, wait a second. You mean Visa won't run my favourite viruses and bots? And I'll have the privilege of buying all new software because the only thing compatible will be the name on the box. So this Vista thing will cost me a whole lot of money, lock it's self into one computer, likely a new one because my old one won't be "Vista compatible" WHAT A DEAL! Here's my credit card now bend me over.
Should the headline then read "Government gives Microsoft billions and still has bot problem"? So much for the idea that paying for commercial software produces better software.
Why does Microsoft get off so easily in the media for all the problems caused by running its software?
I can't stop, some more good headlines. "Almost 100% of owned computers are running Windows" "Supporting Botnets is the cost of running Windows" "Goverment supports bots by running Windows"
And don't forget that once you use iTunes to burn your iTunes songs to a CD the DRM is gone. Therefore if you want to back up your iTunes paid music just burn it! If you want to move it to another computer or device you can.
I'm afraid the DRM is the first question I want an answer to when new formats and players arrive. I don't want to have to manage time limits on my music like some kind of software/seat license scheme.
Will Zune play my current music or will I have buy or beg for all my music to play? Then the terms might change.
Very unlikely there was a deliver to address as I'm sure he picked them up (I can't imagine an armored truck pulling up to a beat up car in a parking lot, but it is a very funny image).
What is likely is that he used his parents address, Not only for ID when signing for large cash transfers, (That's what a bank would require if the gold was worth over $10,000 per transaction) AND also for ID for his drivers license, Passport, credit cards, bank accounts.
Show a judge enough records with the spammer using his parents address and none of any other address and I don't think you would have too much trouble getting your warrant.
To test your first theory all you would have needed is to be at or to contact someone who was at the hearing, this would be good evidence to present.
Another funny one ArtStone, the NSA taps. If he was smart enough to make and hide millions of dollars using computers then I'm sure he was smart enough to use phones that are not easily taped. Only honest people and dumb criminals have to worry about NSA taping.
How he lived and the mechanics of how he spammed are less relevant as he was found guilty, too bad it's only a civil charge but he was guilty just the same. Now he's on the lamb. A fugitive hunted by Sheriffs, warrant officers, bounty hunters and the FBI. I can just imagine how all these agencies are pooling efforts in an attempt to rein in our perp. I'll exclude bounty hunters as if AOL really wanted to find him they could just spread a little money around this group and he would be found. I'll use the finding of Bin Laden as an example of what our government agencies/politicians are good for.
He was smart enough to buy gold and metals but he had so much cash he had to make bigger purchases which are recorded. You and I could go to coin dealers and buy a few coins and bullion every few days and hide them in our yards with no clues left behind but if you have millions you are going to leave some kind of trail somewhere.
I believe the "buried in the yard" story was just a cover set up by a smart man. Smart enough to buy gold in the first place, and smart enough to leave a phony cover story. Sure I support capital punishment for spammers such as him, I've even suggested cruel and evil punishments would be fitting for spammers but this story is starting to have a DB Cooper feel to it.
It makes an interesting story but I still would like to see a spammers fate closer to the final scenes of Frankenstein where the towns people carrying pitchforks and torches swarm his house and kill him in some really horrible fashion. I think I'm better what that than to think he's bought some tropical island and is enjoying himself.
I like the wheel analogy. How's this one? You can't afford a good car or you can't find a mechanic who can fix a good car so you go out and buy the same piece of crap that all the other poor stupid people have. Fine, now you're one of a hundred-million but your car is rusting and burning oil and there are still payments to be made. You've invested all this money in keeping it on the road but you know it's not safe but it's all you got. When something breaks you fix it with binder twine and duct tape and when you got a few bucks in your pocket you pay some "professional" to do exactly the same thing. It doesn't make you feel good but it's what everyone else is doing so it must be ok, you think.
The fixes you were promised never arrive or when they do they disable something you had enjoyed, needed or worse make your car to slow to go on the highway. Since you have to hold the doors closed with your arms and you can see the road beneath you from all the holes you don't feel safe on the highway but you must continue on because the fix is just around the corner. The latest recall fix arrives but there's nothing to address the problems your having it's all just bright shiny stickers and racing stripes and chrome stuff that gets glued over the rusty bits. Continue this for years with the only perceivable change being the version numbers.
I would like to thank all the documenters of windows vulnerabilities. They make my job easier when I reformat a former windows computer and install a custom linux/unix/GNU system. Why does everyone need the MS wheel anyway? Let's just keep windows around as a decoy to keep the virus and trojan people busy.
Recently M$ slid itself in as "technology partner". I noticed an immediate reduction of quality and found that the routing was constantly being forced around in circles inside the sympatico net and started to include trips via Washington state. I found communication with bell sympatico to always be poor and network changes and outages were never posted in advance. It was worse as Microsoft installed new web based services that would only work with windows products. EVEN THOUGH THE SERVICE WAS BILLED MAC COMPATIBLE!!! To make it all worse I was having a local telephone line noise problem that they were never able to remove.
I now have look.ca which is a smaller service that provides my net connection and TV over wireless microwave antenna.
look.ca offers a high speed service that does not use phone lines (dsl). It uses microwave towers and requires line of sight and a small antenna. This is kind of a secret as most people I tell either don't know about it or believe it's out of business. It's not. Being wireless it's not effected by power outages, I know as I've surfed during the last few. I just plug the modem and my laptop into a UPS. In a traceroute to my co-lo server I don't see any bell routers just a few owned by look then the big pipe. If you are lucky enough to be in view of one of the towers (one is on the CN Tower which should cover a lot of Toronto) They also offer TV and a higher speed, fixed IP service.
It might have, I'm sure the same vulnerability does not exist on Linux but why was that machine running a web browser in the first place? Why was it allowed to connect to the internet? Was this guy and his sysadmin manager fired? Was the VP of IT or CTO fired? Looks like if you run Windows you can avoid any responsibility. Microsoft sure has avoided any responsibility, have your read the EULA? There's a good example of how good they feel the software is. (slightly joking, all vendors have similar lines) --You can play the blame game with windows but you have to accept the responsibility to run Linux.
Any OS that can be reliably locked down and controlled would help if set up correctly.
Due to the undocumented nature of M$ products and their history of intentionally setting up situations that compromise security nobody should be using Windows for secure and sensitive data uses. Surfing porn fine but not my personal records.
How hard is it to build a system for secure uses? Not hard if you use an OS where secure uses were conceived of during its design. You have a choice from tiny systems like QNX to larger ones like Sun-Solaris or VMS as well as various BSD and LInux and even commercial Unix versions. There are plenty of companies that will build you a secure system and plenty of companies to review those systems. In fact most available OSes that run on modern hardware were designed for secure system use, the big exception is anything by Microsoft.
You don't need tcp/ip to network a computer. You don't need a web browser on every computer. You don't need to run systems where you can't control what software its running.
Why is this so hard? I worked in and ran shops that operated networks running up to ten different vendor OSes. I don't remember having any of the problems we have today with Windows, this is progress?
Now that PCs are so cheap there is no excuse to not build a system intentionally for the job at hand. If the job is to manage high value and sensitive date then why use a known flawed home OS? Just read down the "features" of XP-professional, how many people consider all that multimedia junk applicable to business uses?
People should start to get fired for running Windows!
The intent of the law is not to protect your precious data but to ensure that the bells and thier ilk gain unrestricted access to paying customers. If everyone put thier wifi routers outside of thier firewalls then the data on your home machines would be protected to the same level as they are protected from the internet. Do you really think this government cares about your security?
My bet is that this law was written by a lobyist for the telecomm industry and delivered to the law makers with a big fat cheque. On second thought, that never happens... Hey do your own search!
By continuation... The more gas you buy the more oil comes from Saudi Arabia, the more money goes to the terrorist (yes they are still funding them), the more money goes to buy weapons, the more money goes to Boeing, Haliburton and all, this way the money returns to the American leaders and power base.
Remember thirty years ago no oil was imported from the middle east. If a certain president had not reduced CAFE ratings and cut off alternative energy incentives that would have improved our efficencies and built new technologies who knows what tall buildings might still be standing?
Don't surf with windows. When you reboot unplug your ethernet while using windows. Unless you want to follow most of the recommendations for spyware and virus software. If you keep windows as a non networked machine you won't need most of the service packs and patches anyway. I'm not joking I ran a multi-platform demo center for a small R&D company and ONLY the windows machines caused any problems there. My policy for after a demo was to check the *nix machines for changed files and dd a fresh image into all the windows machines. Hey, there's a good idea. once you find your "ideal" windows setup make an image file of it and put it somewhere safe, you will need it.
I don't live in the US but I live very close and almost all of my IP traffic travels through the US at some point and my worry is that any business information collected by the US/CIA/FBI or other US agency would be made available to US companies. There have been court cases in the past of US sponsored spying benefiting US companies. They say they are after terrorist but who knows? With the knowledge of past activities of US spies and the current computing power of the US agencies all foreign businesses would be well advised to encrypt all sensitive information.
CIA agents can't rat on thier bosses for being asked to break the law. instead they leave clues that can be used to expoes illegal and immoral activity. That kiddnapping case in the article is a good example.
I love the quote "Dyck declined to detail the remedies "since we don't want the bad guys to know what we're fixing."" Yea right, you can still call yourselves the good guys?
Unless the real reason for doing all this is to keep an eye on you!
Bin Laden belongs to one of the richest families of a country (Kingdom actually) that refused to help with the investigation of the money trail or the people involved in 9/11. Westeners don't realise how most of the world believes in family first and above all. I don't think he is pennyless and hiding in the snow covered mountains at all, I believe if he is anywhere it is in some deluxe private hospital, likely in Jeddah, and possibly in the exact same private hospital room that the former dictatorial leader of Uganda, Adi Amine occupied for years.
The rich Saudi's got pretty good treatment on the days after the attacks and the whole Kingdom has pretty much been given a pass, but common Americans like our retired Texas schoolteacher... (From the article) But the experience has been a reminder that a small piece of privacy has been surrendered. Walter Soehnge, who says he holds solid, middle-of-the-road American beliefs, worries about rights being lost.
And this is the most worrisome part of the story that you have a few more items to add to the growing list of reasons why you are less safe and less free now.
1. Innocent peoples money is being locked away for the most stupid reasons. 2. You are being watched by big brother.
Slashdot Mirror
All you have to do to "work around" iTunes DRM is to make a CD copy. How can you get less hassle then buying a song from iTunes and backing it up?
Hey, wait a second. You mean Visa won't run my favourite viruses and bots? And I'll have the privilege of buying all new software because the only thing compatible will be the name on the box. So this Vista thing will cost me a whole lot of money, lock it's self into one computer, likely a new one because my old one won't be "Vista compatible" WHAT A DEAL! Here's my credit card now bend me over.
Should the headline then read "Government gives Microsoft billions and still has bot problem"? So much for the idea that paying for commercial software produces better software.
Why does Microsoft get off so easily in the media for all the problems caused by running its software?
I can't stop, some more good headlines.
"Almost 100% of owned computers are running Windows"
"Supporting Botnets is the cost of running Windows"
"Goverment supports bots by running Windows"
And don't forget that once you use iTunes to burn your iTunes songs to a CD the DRM is gone. Therefore if you want to back up your iTunes paid music just burn it! If you want to move it to another computer or device you can.
I'm afraid the DRM is the first question I want an answer to when new formats and players arrive. I don't want to have to manage time limits on my music like some kind of software/seat license scheme.
Will Zune play my current music or will I have buy or beg for all my music to play? Then the terms might change.
Very unlikely there was a deliver to address as I'm sure he picked them up (I can't imagine an armored truck pulling up to a beat up car in a parking lot, but it is a very funny image).
What is likely is that he used his parents address, Not only for ID when signing for large cash transfers, (That's what a bank would require if the gold was worth over $10,000 per transaction) AND also for ID for his drivers license, Passport, credit cards, bank accounts.
Show a judge enough records with the spammer using his parents address and none of any other address and I don't think you would have too much trouble getting your warrant.
To test your first theory all you would have needed is to be at or to contact someone who was at the hearing, this would be good evidence to present.
Another funny one ArtStone, the NSA taps. If he was smart enough to make and hide millions of dollars using computers then I'm sure he was smart enough to use phones that are not easily taped. Only honest people and dumb criminals have to worry about NSA taping.
How he lived and the mechanics of how he spammed are less relevant as he was found guilty, too bad it's only a civil charge but he was guilty just the same. Now he's on the lamb. A fugitive hunted by Sheriffs, warrant officers, bounty hunters and the FBI. I can just imagine how all these agencies are pooling efforts in an attempt to rein in our perp. I'll exclude bounty hunters as if AOL really wanted to find him they could just spread a little money around this group and he would be found. I'll use the finding of Bin Laden as an example of what our government agencies/politicians are good for.
He was smart enough to buy gold and metals but he had so much cash he had to make bigger purchases which are recorded. You and I could go to coin dealers and buy a few coins and bullion every few days and hide them in our yards with no clues left behind but if you have millions you are going to leave some kind of trail somewhere.
I believe the "buried in the yard" story was just a cover set up by a smart man. Smart enough to buy gold in the first place, and smart enough to leave a phony cover story. Sure I support capital punishment for spammers such as him, I've even suggested cruel and evil punishments would be fitting for spammers but this story is starting to have a DB Cooper feel to it.
It makes an interesting story but I still would like to see a spammers fate closer to the final scenes of Frankenstein where the towns people carrying pitchforks and torches swarm his house and kill him in some really horrible fashion. I think I'm better what that than to think he's bought some tropical island and is enjoying himself.
I like the wheel analogy. How's this one? You can't afford a good car or you can't find a mechanic who can fix a good car so you go out and buy the same piece of crap that all the other poor stupid people have. Fine, now you're one of a hundred-million but your car is rusting and burning oil and there are still payments to be made. You've invested all this money in keeping it on the road but you know it's not safe but it's all you got. When something breaks you fix it with binder twine and duct tape and when you got a few bucks in your pocket you pay some "professional" to do exactly the same thing. It doesn't make you feel good but it's what everyone else is doing so it must be ok, you think.
The fixes you were promised never arrive or when they do they disable something you had enjoyed, needed or worse make your car to slow to go on the highway. Since you have to hold the doors closed with your arms and you can see the road beneath you from all the holes you don't feel safe on the highway but you must continue on because the fix is just around the corner. The latest recall fix arrives but there's nothing to address the problems your having it's all just bright shiny stickers and racing stripes and chrome stuff that gets glued over the rusty bits. Continue this for years with the only perceivable change being the version numbers.
I would like to thank all the documenters of windows vulnerabilities. They make my job easier when I reformat a former windows computer and install a custom linux/unix/GNU system. Why does everyone need the MS wheel anyway? Let's just keep windows around as a decoy to keep the virus and trojan people busy.
Let me guess sponsored by the people who sell internet access.
Recently M$ slid itself in as "technology partner". I noticed an immediate reduction of quality and found that the routing was constantly being forced around in circles inside the sympatico net and started to include trips via Washington state. I found communication with bell sympatico to always be poor and network changes and outages were never posted in advance. It was worse as Microsoft installed new web based services that would only work with windows products. EVEN THOUGH THE SERVICE WAS BILLED MAC COMPATIBLE!!! To make it all worse I was having a local telephone line noise problem that they were never able to remove.
I now have look.ca which is a smaller service that provides my net connection and TV over wireless microwave antenna.
look.ca offers a high speed service that does not use phone lines (dsl). It uses microwave towers and requires line of sight and a small antenna. This is kind of a secret as most people I tell either don't know about it or believe it's out of business. It's not. Being wireless it's not effected by power outages, I know as I've surfed during the last few. I just plug the modem and my laptop into a UPS. In a traceroute to my co-lo server I don't see any bell routers just a few owned by look then the big pipe. If you are lucky enough to be in view of one of the towers (one is on the CN Tower which should cover a lot of Toronto) They also offer TV and a higher speed, fixed IP service.
Me too, it's cancelled. And when they call back to see if I'll change my mind boy will they get an ear full.
It might have, I'm sure the same vulnerability does not exist on Linux but why was that machine running a web browser in the first place? Why was it allowed to connect to the internet? Was this guy and his sysadmin manager fired? Was the VP of IT or CTO fired? Looks like if you run Windows you can avoid any responsibility. Microsoft sure has avoided any responsibility, have your read the EULA? There's a good example of how good they feel the software is. (slightly joking, all vendors have similar lines) --You can play the blame game with windows but you have to accept the responsibility to run Linux.
Any OS that can be reliably locked down and controlled would help if set up correctly.
Due to the undocumented nature of M$ products and their history of intentionally setting up situations that compromise security nobody should be using Windows for secure and sensitive data uses. Surfing porn fine but not my personal records.
How hard is it to build a system for secure uses? Not hard if you use an OS where secure uses were conceived of during its design. You have a choice from tiny systems like QNX to larger ones like Sun-Solaris or VMS as well as various BSD and LInux and even commercial Unix versions. There are plenty of companies that will build you a secure system and plenty of companies to review those systems. In fact most available OSes that run on modern hardware were designed for secure system use, the big exception is anything by Microsoft.
You don't need tcp/ip to network a computer.
You don't need a web browser on every computer.
You don't need to run systems where you can't control what software its running.
Why is this so hard? I worked in and ran shops that operated networks running up to ten different vendor OSes. I don't remember having any of the problems we have today with Windows, this is progress?
Now that PCs are so cheap there is no excuse to not build a system intentionally for the job at hand.
If the job is to manage high value and sensitive date then why use a known flawed home OS?
Just read down the "features" of XP-professional, how many people consider all that multimedia junk applicable to business uses?
People should start to get fired for running Windows!
More people are forced to use windows than any other operating system.
The intent of the law is not to protect your precious data but to ensure that the bells and thier ilk gain unrestricted access to paying customers. If everyone put thier wifi routers outside of thier firewalls then the data on your home machines would be protected to the same level as they are protected from the internet. Do you really think this government cares about your security?
My bet is that this law was written by a lobyist for the telecomm industry and delivered to the law makers with a big fat cheque. On second thought, that never happens... Hey do your own search!
By continuation... The more gas you buy the more oil comes from Saudi Arabia, the more money goes to the terrorist (yes they are still funding them), the more money goes to buy weapons, the more money goes to Boeing, Haliburton and all, this way the money returns to the American leaders and power base.
Remember thirty years ago no oil was imported from the middle east. If a certain president had not reduced CAFE ratings and cut off alternative energy incentives that would have improved our efficencies and built new technologies who knows what tall buildings might still be standing?
Don't surf with windows. When you reboot unplug your ethernet while using windows. Unless you want to follow most of the recommendations for spyware and virus software. If you keep windows as a non networked machine you won't need most of the service packs and patches anyway. I'm not joking I ran a multi-platform demo center for a small R&D company and ONLY the windows machines caused any problems there. My policy for after a demo was to check the *nix machines for changed files and dd a fresh image into all the windows machines. Hey, there's a good idea. once you find your "ideal" windows setup make an image file of it and put it somewhere safe, you will need it.
Hence we are back to steganography.
Thanks,
I don't live in the US but I live very close and almost all of my IP traffic travels through the US at some point and my worry is that any business information collected by the US/CIA/FBI or other US agency would be made available to US companies. There have been court cases in the past of US sponsored spying benefiting US companies. They say they are after terrorist but who knows? With the knowledge of past activities of US spies and the current computing power of the US agencies all foreign businesses would be well advised to encrypt all sensitive information.
r eyfuss.html
. pdf
t m
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/1994/05/d
http://web.nps.navy.mil/~relooney/4141_Spring2002
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines/070200-02.h
Not using encryption is to believe GWB when he says "Trust me"
Hence we are back to stenography.
Here's another reason Bush is making America safer.
Every time you loose a freedom it's one less reason
for Bin Laden to hate you.
CIA agents can't rat on thier bosses for being asked to break the law. instead they leave clues that can be used to expoes illegal and immoral activity. That kiddnapping case in the article is a good example.
I love the quote "Dyck declined to detail the remedies "since we don't want the bad guys to know what we're fixing."" Yea right, you can still call yourselves the good guys?
Hello, WIRETAPPING!!!! done illegally and admitted now oversight requirements are being removed. Transparent as mud.
Unless the real reason for doing all this is to keep an eye on you!
Bin Laden belongs to one of the richest families of a country (Kingdom actually) that refused to help with the investigation of the money trail or the people involved in 9/11. Westeners don't realise how most of the world believes in family first and above all. I don't think he is pennyless and hiding in the snow covered mountains at all, I believe if he is anywhere it is in some deluxe private hospital, likely in Jeddah, and possibly in the exact same private hospital room that the former dictatorial leader of Uganda, Adi Amine occupied for years.
The rich Saudi's got pretty good treatment on the days after the attacks and the whole Kingdom has pretty much been given a pass, but common Americans like our retired Texas schoolteacher... (From the article) But the experience has been a reminder that a small piece of privacy has been surrendered. Walter Soehnge, who says he holds solid, middle-of-the-road American beliefs, worries about rights being lost.
And this is the most worrisome part of the story that you have a few more items to add to the growing list of reasons why you are less safe and less free now.
1. Innocent peoples money is being locked away for the most stupid reasons.
2. You are being watched by big brother.
And Bin Laden is still free.
Isin't that funny you can be freer in Afghanistan than in the US.