"If it ain't broke, don't fix it". It's amazing that as many people upgrade as they do. The average user doesn't know his browser is broken. The average user doesn't care that his browser is broken. It displays web pages and that's all he cares about. He doesn't worry about botnets, and why should he?
Fellow nerds, a better job must be done! There are reasons for bugs and security holes, but no excuses. When I see slashdot posts saying "their going to loose all they're money" and "Its broken it's back" I see why software is so godawful - you guys are writing software like you write slashdot comments.
Someone's sig here says (not an exect quote) "If architects were like programmers, a woodpecker would destroy civilization." Please take that to heart!
I can take the downmodding this comment will certainly bring, but if it makes one programmer think about his software it will be worth it. Come on, guys, take a little pride in your work.
The lost state and local tax revenue from piracy would have been enough to save the lives of five hundred innocent kittens from being pulverized in our patented BSA Kitten Pulverizing Machine
I don't have anyone in my "foes" or "friends" lists. There have been a whole lot of people I have been sorely tempted to put in my empty "friends" list, but this is the first time I ever gave thought to adding a "foe".
I sincerely hope you're just trolling. First your user name - I was a victim of Sony's rootkit.
Second, and finally on topic, do you realise that you are a narc? A rat? A snitch?
And the worst kind of snitch; one who does it for filthy lucre. Judas. I don't care how bad someone mistreats you, only an evil asshole narcs for pay.
If you had any ethics or morals at all it wouldn't have taken a bad experience to get you to turn them in. You would have turned them in because you thought it was the right thing to do, or more intelligently not at all.
You really should consider just how loathed people like you are. I have no idea how you got modded insightful for stating the obvious, then saying you narced on someone, but it I see the comment you just made while I metamoderate, well, like they say on "My Name Is Earl", karma is a funny thing. Now go crawl back under your rock, troll.
Mods, I'm checking "no karma bonus" but mod me down further if you wish. The parent flamebait really pissed me off and I can easily take a downmodding.
When I tested, it was several years ago, but yes, I took a DRM file I'd downloaded from some promo site, and took a wav I converted to WMA. None of the players played the file with the renamed extension except WiMP.
I fear they may have added the same design flaw as WiMP.
If you read my (mostly nsfw; I see you're not at work but I got one poor fellow in trouble for not warning about it; the warning is for the less intoxicated who may stumble on this comment) journals you'll see that I'm a former butthead (gave it up in 1999 after 30 years) who's been smoking pot since 1971. Cocaine's biggest drawback is that it turns its users into total assholes if they snort/smoke/inject it long enough.
I didn't want to get into a religious war with the non-FOSS developers, who would surely (albeit wrongly) come up with seemingly intelligent counterargumants.
And my original UID was five digits (original user name was mcgrew), but changed emails and forgotten passwords fixed that.
Back then I was too busy playing Quake and running my Quake site to have much time for slashdot. Then I discovered K5 and forgot all about/. (user name there was mcgrew, too).
K5 and/. journals are mostly NSFW. K5 articles weren't. I stopped posting there around 2005.
If your OS can play a DRMed file, you're at risk. However, there's very little chance that Mac or Linux will be infected unless there's a Mac or Linux executable in the bogus codec.
In short, yes you're at risk from terrorists but you're far, far more at risk from cancer or heart disease. If you're not running Windows the risk is only theoretical. It's not enough of a risk to worry about.
How about since you can't possibly buy a CD from every artist out there, stop buying material from RIAA artists? If they lose sales because they're stupid enough to sign a contract with theiving scumbags, it's their own fault.
You have dozens of very talented independant musicians in your own city. Support them. Go to theie shows and buy their CDs. For every RIAA CD you buy, that's three or four independants' CDs you can't.
Noy user stupidity, but user ignorance. The differences betweeen stupidity and ignorace is ignorance is curable. We're all ignorant about more things than we're knowledgeable about.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
I hate to say "I told you so" but... Ok, I don't hate telling you that, but I hate that I was right. Damn it, I'm not a security professional, why could I see this coming but the professionals couldn't?
I've been warning people about using WMA files and Windows Media Player for years, the first I said of it was back when I had my old Quake site, the Springfield Fragfest. A security researcher who played Quake II saw the post, realised that I was right, and we had a rather scary email conversation. I've been preaching about it ever since.
The first time I listened to a WMA file and my browser opened I knew this was coming.
The wrapper isn't even necessary! If you use Windows Media player (WiMP) an MP3 or OGG file can infect you. Here's how.
Say you have a DRMed music file named VIRUS.WMA. You take your DRMed WMA file and have the "drm key" or whatever you call it send the victim to your malicious web site. You simply rename the file to "Outkast_Tribute.MP3" (or other popular tune) and put it in your "share" folder. For bonus points have the file be a recording of you saying "you've been pwned, n00b!" (or better, Maddonna saying "WTF are you doing?") with the same length as the outkast song.
People running any other player except WiMP that I tested (and lets hope that Winamp et al haven't "upgraded" the players to allow this infection) will not be vulnerable; I tested several different players (this was several years ago, Winamp was one) and none would open the file renamed like that except WiMP. You get an error message saying it is an unknown format.
WiMP will recognise the renamed file, however, and happily run the trojan. Note to Microsoft developers: PLEASE FIX THIS HORRIBLE DESIGN FLAW. Users: DON'T USE WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER! There are dozens out there.
Mac and Linux users aren't immune to wrapped WMA files unless DRMed files or WMA files won't play. Getting your files legally won't protect you, either, as Sony's rootkit proved. However, you CAN protect yourself.
One way is to put on your tinfoil hat and never play a music file you didn't rip yourself. A better way is, when you get a new music file, simply disable networking temporarily by unplugging the ethernet or shutting off your router, and play the file. If your browser doesn't start, the file is clean. If it starts, delete the file, empty the trash and thank yourself for remembering to do it.
DRM is what allows this exploit to work! This is one more example of why DRM itself is pure evil. All DRM does is inconvinience your honest customers without hampering commercial copyright infringers at all, and gives your customers another way to get infected.
If your company in any way, shape, or form has anything to do with DRM, it's evil. If you personally develop DRM, you know damned well DRM won't work and you are a thief who is conning the stupid evil companies who buy your evil garbage.
Sorry for the rant but I hate seeing evil disguised as good. DRM is evil pure and simple. PLEASE STOP USING DRM!
YMMV of course; I haven't tried to install on a laptop. I have read that laptops are a bit more problematic with Linux.
how many "normal people" know the difference btw MurderFS and ext3?
Normal people won't need to; like Windows they'll choose the default. With windows you also have to choose file systems, and in fact when I installed a new drive I chose the wrong one, because Mandriva thinks its subdirectories are files. I can't read any of the data on my large drive from Linux, which really sucks because I've set up the smaller drive for OS and apps and the larger drive for data.
Want to play MP3's?
There are several media players that come with both distros I've used. XMMS is my favorite. I
Or how about write to your already-existing NTFS partition?
That's Microsoft's fault, not Linux's. Microsoft should include a tool to convert it to FAT32 or other file system that other OSes can read. And Windows' installation process makes it look like NTFS is tha cat's meow. They do it on purpose I'm sure.
Compile source code?
Is that what you do at Microsoft, compile source code, or are you in their marketing department? I've used Linux since 2003 and never once compiled an application in Linux. The only compilers I've used were a long time ago when I used Clipper for DOS.
Thanks, I got a chuckle out of that. If you're installing Windows of course you'll be mad (at least angry and quite possibly insane) by the time you're done.
If I'm not mistaken Apples are easy; but I don't have one so I'm quite ignorant about them.
He was clearly insinuating that somehow the OS should be able to read your mind and autoconfigure itself.
No, I most certainly was not. With Linux distros I've used you configure from a single screen at the very beginning of the process. With Windows you are prompted for one thing, it churns a while, prompts, boots, churns, asks, churns, boots over and over for quite a few times, and when it's done you still have to go into Control Panel if (for example) you want the start menu bar at the bottom of the screen to auto-hide or if you want small icons, etc.
I've had to install XP several times (hardware problem; the thing finally died so I'll be installing again). It's a pain in the ass and takes forever. My machine is dual boot, so setting it up involves an afternoon for windows, then less than an hour to install Mandriva (which I prefer to Suse).
Erm, I hate the term "cloud computing". But a meaningless buzzword that started life on a hastily drawn chart has actually gotten some meaning. I wish that the less intelligent and less creative people would stop coining new words; blog and blogosphere come to mind. But Wikipedia actually says
Cloud computing refers to computing resources being accessed which are typically owned and operated by a third-party provider on a consolidated basis in Data Center locations. Consumers of cloud computing services purchase computing capacity on-demand and are not generally concerned with the underlying technologies used to achieve the increase in server capability. There are however increasing options for developers that allow for platform services in the cloud where developers do care about the underlying technology.
The applications of cloud/utility computing models are expanding rapidly as connectivity costs fall, and as computing hardware becomes more efficient at operating at scale. The economic incentives to share hardware among multiple users are increasing; the drawbacks in performance and interactive response that used to discourage remote and distributed computing solutions are being greatly reduced.
As a result, the services that can be delivered from the cloud have expanded past web applications to include storage, raw computing, or access to any number of specialized services.
I was going to ridicule the uglty term with an uncyclopedia link, but alas there is no entry there.
Unless I misunderstood you, you're confusing Linux with Windows or they've changed the install process considerably since XP. With Windows you must put the CD in, wait in front of the computer of five minutes, enter a very long string of alphanumeric characters including 1s and ls and Os and 0s and Bs and 13s, if you aren't on the internet you really get the "hitting yourself with a hammer" part as you authenticate, talking to a computer on your cell phone and entering another long string of alphanumerics.
Then you have to sit in front of the computer for another hour or two (or even longer) and tell it that it's OK to reboot itself several times.
When you finally get the OS installed you have to go into Control Panel to configure it like you want it (standard Windows or new kindergarten Crayon style, should the start menu pop up or cover part of the screen, etc.)
Then you have to install all your applications.
With Linux (with Suse or Mandriva, ymmv on other distros) you insert the first CD, choose how you want it to act in a single screen (LILO or GRUB, KDE or Gnome, etc) and what apps you want installed, and since it's all your apps as well as teh OS you have to change CDs when prompted. You don't have to sit there like with Windows, you don't have to install any apps (it's part of the installation process), you only have one reboot at the very end of the process, and your computer is able to do pretty much anything you would want a computer to do (except, of course, play Windows games).
IME Suse or Mandriva take less than an hour, while Windows takes all afternoon. It's easy and intuitive.
I'm not sure about Apple, but IINM you just buy one and plug it in.
Anybody who thinks Linux is hard hasn't tried Linux this century. Now I'll probably get downmodded by Linux geeks who want to keep their 133t cr3dz and don't want everyone to know that Linux installation is a piece of cake that your grandma could probably do.
I'm astounded at the number of people on a nerd site (of all places) who take "old sayings" unquestionably.
Whoever believes that "you get what you pay for" has never prepaid for sex, or used an unlicensed contractor for home repairs. You usually pay for what you get, but you don't always get what you pay for. Often a higher priced item will be inferior to a lower priced item. Only a fool buys item A because it costs more than item B. Seller B may be trying to get market share.
Money doesn't grow on trees, you know. Oh wait - yes, it does. It not only grows on trees, it grows on cornstalks and soybean bushes and all sorts of other plants.
There's no such thing as a free lunch... excuse me, grandma's calling. What, grandma? Sure, I'll come over for lunch.
Nothing free is worthwhile. Except maybe air. And rain. And those dandelion leaves in that expensive salad you just bought. Someone gave me some tomato plants, and guess what? Home grown tomatos are vastly superior to the ones I bought. Yes, It took fifteen minutes physical labor to plant them and I'll have to pick the tomatos, but that's not a cost, it's a benefit. I work at a desk job and don't get much exersize. Meanwhile I pay a fee for the gym.
My dad always said "don't believe anything you hear, and only half of what you see". I think he's right, and I think it goes double for those incredibly stupid old sayings. Don't take anything on face value; at least give it half a thought.
The thing is, I would guess that most people in prison have some sort of mental illness or other. Especially the non-violent drug criminals, who are likely taking the drugs in the first place because they're "self-medicating".
I would bet that if we were to institute universal health care like the civilized world does and include mental health care we would no longer incarcerate more prisoners per capita than any other nation in the world as we do now.
If I hadn't had insurance that covered "adjustment disoprder with depressed mood" (a temporary condition that often occurs after major life changes) after my wife of twenty seven years left my two daughters and me for another man, I might well have done something stupid anough to send me to prison.
Slashdot Mirror
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it". It's amazing that as many people upgrade as they do. The average user doesn't know his browser is broken. The average user doesn't care that his browser is broken. It displays web pages and that's all he cares about. He doesn't worry about botnets, and why should he?
Fellow nerds, a better job must be done! There are reasons for bugs and security holes, but no excuses. When I see slashdot posts saying "their going to loose all they're money" and "Its broken it's back" I see why software is so godawful - you guys are writing software like you write slashdot comments.
Someone's sig here says (not an exect quote) "If architects were like programmers, a woodpecker would destroy civilization." Please take that to heart!
I can take the downmodding this comment will certainly bring, but if it makes one programmer think about his software it will be worth it. Come on, guys, take a little pride in your work.
The lost state and local tax revenue from piracy would have been enough to save the lives of five hundred innocent kittens from being pulverized in our patented BSA Kitten Pulverizing Machine
There's a new way to huff kittens? Count me in!
Also about the gritty ex-cops that got fired for being a child molester or planting evidence or beating a petite woman bartender for not serving him.
Stellar employees, those ex-cops.
I don't have anyone in my "foes" or "friends" lists. There have been a whole lot of people I have been sorely tempted to put in my empty "friends" list, but this is the first time I ever gave thought to adding a "foe".
I sincerely hope you're just trolling. First your user name - I was a victim of Sony's rootkit.
Second, and finally on topic, do you realise that you are a narc? A rat? A snitch?
And the worst kind of snitch; one who does it for filthy lucre. Judas. I don't care how bad someone mistreats you, only an evil asshole narcs for pay.
If you had any ethics or morals at all it wouldn't have taken a bad experience to get you to turn them in. You would have turned them in because you thought it was the right thing to do, or more intelligently not at all.
You really should consider just how loathed people like you are. I have no idea how you got modded insightful for stating the obvious, then saying you narced on someone, but it I see the comment you just made while I metamoderate, well, like they say on "My Name Is Earl", karma is a funny thing. Now go crawl back under your rock, troll.
Mods, I'm checking "no karma bonus" but mod me down further if you wish. The parent flamebait really pissed me off and I can easily take a downmodding.
When I tested, it was several years ago, but yes, I took a DRM file I'd downloaded from some promo site, and took a wav I converted to WMA. None of the players played the file with the renamed extension except WiMP.
I fear they may have added the same design flaw as WiMP.
If you read my (mostly nsfw; I see you're not at work but I got one poor fellow in trouble for not warning about it; the warning is for the less intoxicated who may stumble on this comment) journals you'll see that I'm a former butthead (gave it up in 1999 after 30 years) who's been smoking pot since 1971. Cocaine's biggest drawback is that it turns its users into total assholes if they snort/smoke/inject it long enough.
Windows 98 had hidden file extensions. I gave up preaching about it long ago, nobody listens.
I didn't want to get into a religious war with the non-FOSS developers, who would surely (albeit wrongly) come up with seemingly intelligent counterargumants.
And my original UID was five digits (original user name was mcgrew), but changed emails and forgotten passwords fixed that.
Back then I was too busy playing Quake and running my Quake site to have much time for slashdot. Then I discovered K5 and forgot all about /. (user name there was mcgrew, too).
K5 and /. journals are mostly NSFW. K5 articles weren't. I stopped posting there around 2005.
If your OS can play a DRMed file, you're at risk. However, there's very little chance that Mac or Linux will be infected unless there's a Mac or Linux executable in the bogus codec.
In short, yes you're at risk from terrorists but you're far, far more at risk from cancer or heart disease. If you're not running Windows the risk is only theoretical. It's not enough of a risk to worry about.
How about since you can't possibly buy a CD from every artist out there, stop buying material from RIAA artists? If they lose sales because they're stupid enough to sign a contract with theiving scumbags, it's their own fault.
You have dozens of very talented independant musicians in your own city. Support them. Go to theie shows and buy their CDs. For every RIAA CD you buy, that's three or four independants' CDs you can't.
Does it still depend on user stupidity? Well, yes
Noy user stupidity, but user ignorance. The differences betweeen stupidity and ignorace is ignorance is curable. We're all ignorant about more things than we're knowledgeable about.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
Though I don't even think Satan himself could do that to anyone!
I asked her, she said you're fuX0red.
I hate to say "I told you so" but... Ok, I don't hate telling you that, but I hate that I was right. Damn it, I'm not a security professional, why could I see this coming but the professionals couldn't?
I've been warning people about using WMA files and Windows Media Player for years, the first I said of it was back when I had my old Quake site, the Springfield Fragfest. A security researcher who played Quake II saw the post, realised that I was right, and we had a rather scary email conversation. I've been preaching about it ever since.
The first time I listened to a WMA file and my browser opened I knew this was coming.
The wrapper isn't even necessary! If you use Windows Media player (WiMP) an MP3 or OGG file can infect you. Here's how.
Say you have a DRMed music file named VIRUS.WMA. You take your DRMed WMA file and have the "drm key" or whatever you call it send the victim to your malicious web site. You simply rename the file to "Outkast_Tribute.MP3" (or other popular tune) and put it in your "share" folder. For bonus points have the file be a recording of you saying "you've been pwned, n00b!" (or better, Maddonna saying "WTF are you doing?") with the same length as the outkast song.
People running any other player except WiMP that I tested (and lets hope that Winamp et al haven't "upgraded" the players to allow this infection) will not be vulnerable; I tested several different players (this was several years ago, Winamp was one) and none would open the file renamed like that except WiMP. You get an error message saying it is an unknown format.
WiMP will recognise the renamed file, however, and happily run the trojan. Note to Microsoft developers: PLEASE FIX THIS HORRIBLE DESIGN FLAW. Users: DON'T USE WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER! There are dozens out there.
Mac and Linux users aren't immune to wrapped WMA files unless DRMed files or WMA files won't play. Getting your files legally won't protect you, either, as Sony's rootkit proved. However, you CAN protect yourself.
One way is to put on your tinfoil hat and never play a music file you didn't rip yourself. A better way is, when you get a new music file, simply disable networking temporarily by unplugging the ethernet or shutting off your router, and play the file. If your browser doesn't start, the file is clean. If it starts, delete the file, empty the trash and thank yourself for remembering to do it.
DRM is what allows this exploit to work! This is one more example of why DRM itself is pure evil. All DRM does is inconvinience your honest customers without hampering commercial copyright infringers at all, and gives your customers another way to get infected.
If your company in any way, shape, or form has anything to do with DRM, it's evil. If you personally develop DRM, you know damned well DRM won't work and you are a thief who is conning the stupid evil companies who buy your evil garbage.
Sorry for the rant but I hate seeing evil disguised as good. DRM is evil pure and simple. PLEASE STOP USING DRM!
Thanks to your sig we're even!
YMMV of course; I haven't tried to install on a laptop. I have read that laptops are a bit more problematic with Linux.
how many "normal people" know the difference btw MurderFS and ext3?
Normal people won't need to; like Windows they'll choose the default. With windows you also have to choose file systems, and in fact when I installed a new drive I chose the wrong one, because Mandriva thinks its subdirectories are files. I can't read any of the data on my large drive from Linux, which really sucks because I've set up the smaller drive for OS and apps and the larger drive for data.
Want to play MP3's?
There are several media players that come with both distros I've used. XMMS is my favorite. I
Or how about write to your already-existing NTFS partition?
That's Microsoft's fault, not Linux's. Microsoft should include a tool to convert it to FAT32 or other file system that other OSes can read. And Windows' installation process makes it look like NTFS is tha cat's meow. They do it on purpose I'm sure.
Compile source code?
Is that what you do at Microsoft, compile source code, or are you in their marketing department? I've used Linux since 2003 and never once compiled an application in Linux. The only compilers I've used were a long time ago when I used Clipper for DOS.
Thanks, I got a chuckle out of that. If you're installing Windows of course you'll be mad (at least angry and quite possibly insane) by the time you're done.
If I'm not mistaken Apples are easy; but I don't have one so I'm quite ignorant about them.
He was clearly insinuating that somehow the OS should be able to read your mind and autoconfigure itself.
No, I most certainly was not. With Linux distros I've used you configure from a single screen at the very beginning of the process. With Windows you are prompted for one thing, it churns a while, prompts, boots, churns, asks, churns, boots over and over for quite a few times, and when it's done you still have to go into Control Panel if (for example) you want the start menu bar at the bottom of the screen to auto-hide or if you want small icons, etc.
I've had to install XP several times (hardware problem; the thing finally died so I'll be installing again). It's a pain in the ass and takes forever. My machine is dual boot, so setting it up involves an afternoon for windows, then less than an hour to install Mandriva (which I prefer to Suse).
Erm, I hate the term "cloud computing". But a meaningless buzzword that started life on a hastily drawn chart has actually gotten some meaning. I wish that the less intelligent and less creative people would stop coining new words; blog and blogosphere come to mind. But Wikipedia actually says
I was going to ridicule the uglty term with an uncyclopedia link, but alas there is no entry there.
In the Army we had a variant we call missile tape which we used to cover the leading edges of the missiles elevons.
That would be "OH SHIT! DUCK!!!!" tape!
A Nerd's Guide to Getting Laid Warning - it's NSFW, as are most of my /. journals.
Unless I misunderstood you, you're confusing Linux with Windows or they've changed the install process considerably since XP. With Windows you must put the CD in, wait in front of the computer of five minutes, enter a very long string of alphanumeric characters including 1s and ls and Os and 0s and Bs and 13s, if you aren't on the internet you really get the "hitting yourself with a hammer" part as you authenticate, talking to a computer on your cell phone and entering another long string of alphanumerics.
Then you have to sit in front of the computer for another hour or two (or even longer) and tell it that it's OK to reboot itself several times.
When you finally get the OS installed you have to go into Control Panel to configure it like you want it (standard Windows or new kindergarten Crayon style, should the start menu pop up or cover part of the screen, etc.)
Then you have to install all your applications.
With Linux (with Suse or Mandriva, ymmv on other distros) you insert the first CD, choose how you want it to act in a single screen (LILO or GRUB, KDE or Gnome, etc) and what apps you want installed, and since it's all your apps as well as teh OS you have to change CDs when prompted. You don't have to sit there like with Windows, you don't have to install any apps (it's part of the installation process), you only have one reboot at the very end of the process, and your computer is able to do pretty much anything you would want a computer to do (except, of course, play Windows games).
IME Suse or Mandriva take less than an hour, while Windows takes all afternoon. It's easy and intuitive.
I'm not sure about Apple, but IINM you just buy one and plug it in.
Anybody who thinks Linux is hard hasn't tried Linux this century. Now I'll probably get downmodded by Linux geeks who want to keep their 133t cr3dz and don't want everyone to know that Linux installation is a piece of cake that your grandma could probably do.
The cheapest sex I ever had cost me a draft Budweiser. The most expensive cost me a house, a car, and part of my pension!
I'm astounded at the number of people on a nerd site (of all places) who take "old sayings" unquestionably.
Whoever believes that "you get what you pay for" has never prepaid for sex, or used an unlicensed contractor for home repairs. You usually pay for what you get, but you don't always get what you pay for. Often a higher priced item will be inferior to a lower priced item. Only a fool buys item A because it costs more than item B. Seller B may be trying to get market share.
Money doesn't grow on trees, you know. Oh wait - yes, it does. It not only grows on trees, it grows on cornstalks and soybean bushes and all sorts of other plants.
There's no such thing as a free lunch... excuse me, grandma's calling. What, grandma? Sure, I'll come over for lunch.
Nothing free is worthwhile. Except maybe air. And rain. And those dandelion leaves in that expensive salad you just bought. Someone gave me some tomato plants, and guess what? Home grown tomatos are vastly superior to the ones I bought. Yes, It took fifteen minutes physical labor to plant them and I'll have to pick the tomatos, but that's not a cost, it's a benefit. I work at a desk job and don't get much exersize. Meanwhile I pay a fee for the gym.
My dad always said "don't believe anything you hear, and only half of what you see". I think he's right, and I think it goes double for those incredibly stupid old sayings. Don't take anything on face value; at least give it half a thought.
The thing is, I would guess that most people in prison have some sort of mental illness or other. Especially the non-violent drug criminals, who are likely taking the drugs in the first place because they're "self-medicating".
I would bet that if we were to institute universal health care like the civilized world does and include mental health care we would no longer incarcerate more prisoners per capita than any other nation in the world as we do now.
If I hadn't had insurance that covered "adjustment disoprder with depressed mood" (a temporary condition that often occurs after major life changes) after my wife of twenty seven years left my two daughters and me for another man, I might well have done something stupid anough to send me to prison.
but i'll play one on slashdot and come up with all kinds of rubber band and duct tape solutions
You mean like the ones that saved Apollo 13? IIRC the solution to the problem of running out of breathable air involved rubber bands and duct tape.