From TFA: "A spokesman for Sulake, the company that operates Habbo Hotel, said: "The accused lured victims into handing over their Habbo passwords by creating fake Habbo websites."
So this isn't *really* an arrest for theft of virtual property, it's an arrest for fraud (phishing).
Middle Eastern food is often favored by peace-loving American vegetarians, like me.:) So they get a list of "possible terrorists" which includes peace-loving vegetarians and possible PETA or Greenpeace activists/sympathisers, hey -- this may be one of the most successful security moves yet!
So win-dos users have just half a brain then?:)
Seriously though, the Bad Vista site is actually pretty accurate and appropriate. But it doesn't matter much, really -- Vista is destined to go the way of winME. MS is working feverishly on its replacement now.
Apple does have a sort of monopoly with it's own user base via vendor-lockin.
Most of the time it Just Works very well,and it has the cleanest, most robust
desktop on the market. The price Apple users pay for that is vendor lockin ($$$)
but many of us feel it's a reasonable trade-off. Plus of course, it contributes
a great deal to the reliability and consistency of the platform.
The Mac works like a consumer appliance (which is very nice when my brain is fried
after a long, hard day) or I can use it pretty much the same way as any *nix box.
But I certainly have complaints -- like *why* no tty0, tty1, etc? I can't see any
good reason for that one, I think it's just Jobs' obsession with dumbing everything
down. He occasionally goes too far IMO.
That said, I still tend to prefer FreeBSD for my main machine (a laptop) and use
OSX for my desktop machine, which is also my home entertainment center/digital recording
studio/video production box. Nothing can touch the Mac's sound quality. That was true even
in the classic reboot-every-two-hours days, and it's the main reason I like them.
I tried to do my recording and video in every desktop OS out there (even windoze) but frankly,
they all suck for that. Maybe IOKit should be ported to BSD and Linux as kernel modules?
IOKit is free software. If that happens, many multimedia pros will be free to use any *nix,
especially once compiz-fusion gets all the kinks out. We'd finally have a *real* free alternative
to the Mac.
Well, enough of my rambling, obviously I made my tea too strong this morning...:)
As a female geek (but a non-gaming geek) I am pretty sure that we are nearly as rare as hen's teeth in these MMORPGs. I have met exactly two women gamers in my entire life, and I know quite a lot of people.
So what are the relevant, usable exploits for that? Oh right, there are none. Thanks, but when it comes to security I definitely prefer my years of trouble-free experience to the wild "sky is falling" claims so frequently hurled at Mac users. I'm sure you have your reasons...:)
The main advantage is that if you are logged in as a normal user and you run third party binaries from your home directory your system files are safe from corruption should the worst occur. And in fact you get the same result running user-installed apps from ~/bin or wherever, I just leave them on the.dmg because I'm paranoid.
I've never had an app fail to run properly from a disk image file, and I've been doing this for years. And yes, it will write the prefs to ~/Library, so what? If you're running as a normal user it makes absolutely no difference.
No real geek gets their Gmail via web browser -- we use real MUAs (like mutt or sylpheed) and POP3.
And it appears that doing that renders one invulnerable to this hack.
Using a browser to check your Gmail is strictly luser behavior.
I handle most third party apps for the Mac (which are usually on a.dmg) like this : (1) Download.dmg to ~/noinstall/. (2) when I wish to use that app I mount the image and use app from the temporarily mounted image. (3) When done using app unmount.dmg. (4) Profit!
Of course there are quite a few GNU apps on my Mac which were built and installed from source, but I've never had a reason to feel leery of those. All the G-apps and all third party proprietary apps are in ~/noinstall. Always knew that would pay one day...
True. The web is getting filled with crap from these "web 2.0 designers". Webcast, podcast, webinar, blog, blogosphere, and now mashup. Will the stupidity end?
This is the result of today's impoverished educational systems. People have such small vocabularies they think they need to coin a new word every other week. Thank God I'm old enough to have had a decent education -- then again, there are people my own age who go to meetings to "get orientated", but it's just so much more common with the kids...
You mean the mac updates that I had to install immediately after buying a macbook, that took over four reboots, a dozen update "files", and downloaded almost 20 GB of data?
As a long-time Mac user, I know there is absolutely no way you are telling the truth. I have never seen a Mac OS update be that large or that troublesome. Not ever.
No actually, I was referring to things like Google toolbar and Picassa which one downloads -- the whole web app thing is pretty recent and only works for people with good broadband. Most of us take our bandwidth for granted, but many households still have no broadband option in the U.S. short of expensive satellite shemes.
Well, it is true that without the desktop monopoly Google might have had a harder time coming up with software that runs on more than 90% of boxen... 'Course there's always vitual machine technology though, so even the monopoly probably hasn't helped Google all that much.
In the case of Linux that license grants a few more (limited) rights than Windows does, but its
entirely inaccurate to claim that you own your Linux copy.
While technically inaccurate, it is still a fact that the limitations of the GPL and BSD licenses are of a nature which
are exceedingly unlikely to ever limit or inconvenience any end user, which is a huge benefit no proprietary software can
claim. At least for those of us who value our freedom and our privacy...
Dirty Secret: Green Cars
Automakers Won't Sell You
by Lawrence Ulrich
On a recent run from Boston to Cape Cod, I test drove the 2008 Honda Accord, the latest version of this family favorite. The new Accord boasts an environmental first: a six-cylinder gasoline engine that's cleaner than many hybrid systems.
There's only one catch: You can't actually buy this ultra-green Accord, or the four-cylinder version that also produces near-zero pollution. That is, unless you live in California, New York or six other northeast states that follow California's tougher pollution rules. Only there can you buy this Accord, or the roughly two dozen other models that meet so-called Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle standards, PZEV for short.
Not only can't you buy one, but the government says it's currently illegal for automakers to sell these green cars outside of the special states. Under terms of the Clean Air Act--in the kind of delicious irony only our government can pull off--anyone (dealer, consumer, automaker) involved in an out-of-bounds PZEV sale could be subject to civil fines of up to $27,500. Volvo sent its dealers a memo alerting them to this fact, noting that its greenest S40 and V50 models were only for the special states.
So, just how green is a PZEV machine? Well, if you just cut your lawn with a gas mower, congratulations, you just put out more pollution in one hour than these cars do in 2,000 miles of driving. Grill a single juicy burger, and you've cooked up the same hydrocarbon emissions as a three-hour drive in a Ford Focus PZEV. As the California Air Resources Board has noted, the tailpipe emissions of these cars can be cleaner than the outside air in smoggy cities.
That's amazing stuff. But what's more amazing is how few people have a clue that the gas-powered, internal combustion engine could ever be this clean.
Naturally, no company wants to bring too much attention to a car that most people can't buy, unless it's Ferrari. And there's the catch. PZEV models are already available from Toyota, Ford, Honda, GM, Subaru, Volvo and VW. They're scrubbed-up versions of familiar models, from the VW Jetta to the Subaru Outback. But chances are, you've never heard of them.
These cars aren't the only green leaf that's being dangled over our heads. The sweet-looking, sporty-handling Nissan Altima Hybrid borrows its hybrid system from the Toyota Camry, and sipped fuel at 32 mpg during my week-long test drive here in New York. But once again, if you'd love to buy the Nissan and burn less fuel, you're out of luck--unless you live in California or the Northeast.
It's not all the fault of the car companies. The crazy quilt of environmental regulations is forcing carmakers to design and build two versions of the same cars. And it costs real money to make a car this green. So in states where there are no regulations to force their hand,automakers don't want to have to boost their prices for the green versions--or to simply eat the extra cost and make less profit.
Honda appears to be doing just that. It currently charges Californians and other green-staters about $150 extra for these solid-citizen models. But experts suggest that it costs carmakers closer to $400 a pop to install the gear.
Another issue: The PZEV cars don't get any better mileage than conventional versions. Would most self-interested Americans even pay a lousy 100 bucks for cleaner air that doesn't put fuel savings back in their pocket? "With hybrids, the selling point is fuel economy, so there's a dollar amount on that," said William Walton, Honda's product planning chief for U.S. cars. "We want to give people the cleanest vehicles we can produce, but how much are people willing to pay for clean air?"
Then again, so what if Honda or others lose a few million at first? Toyota clearly went into the red on every Prius it sold in the early years, but shrewdly viewed that cash as an investment to create buzz and build a loyal foll
The nature of our current government makes a mockery of
the FTC and anti-trust regulations.
How can we reasonably expect anti-trust regulation
from a federal government which is almost entirely
composed of corporate henchmen?
Slashdot Mirror
From TFA: "A spokesman for Sulake, the company that operates Habbo Hotel, said: "The accused lured victims into handing over their Habbo passwords by creating fake Habbo websites."
So this isn't *really* an arrest for theft of virtual property, it's an arrest for fraud (phishing).
Looks like a pretty bad joke to me....at this rate, by the time yesterday's big media companies get it right we'll have all forgotten who they are.
Offtopc? Harsh crowd. I thought it was pretty funny...
Middle Eastern food is often favored by peace-loving American vegetarians, like me. :) So they get a list of "possible terrorists" which includes peace-loving vegetarians and possible PETA or Greenpeace activists/sympathisers, hey -- this may be one of the most successful security moves yet!
So win-dos users have just half a brain then? :)
Seriously though, the Bad Vista site is actually pretty accurate and appropriate. But it doesn't matter much, really -- Vista is destined to go the way of winME. MS is working feverishly on its replacement now.
Apple does have a sort of monopoly with it's own user base via vendor-lockin. Most of the time it Just Works very well,and it has the cleanest, most robust desktop on the market. The price Apple users pay for that is vendor lockin ($$$) but many of us feel it's a reasonable trade-off. Plus of course, it contributes a great deal to the reliability and consistency of the platform. The Mac works like a consumer appliance (which is very nice when my brain is fried after a long, hard day) or I can use it pretty much the same way as any *nix box. But I certainly have complaints -- like *why* no tty0, tty1, etc? I can't see any good reason for that one, I think it's just Jobs' obsession with dumbing everything down. He occasionally goes too far IMO.
:)
That said, I still tend to prefer FreeBSD for my main machine (a laptop) and use OSX for my desktop machine, which is also my home entertainment center/digital recording studio/video production box. Nothing can touch the Mac's sound quality. That was true even in the classic reboot-every-two-hours days, and it's the main reason I like them.
I tried to do my recording and video in every desktop OS out there (even windoze) but frankly, they all suck for that. Maybe IOKit should be ported to BSD and Linux as kernel modules? IOKit is free software. If that happens, many multimedia pros will be free to use any *nix, especially once compiz-fusion gets all the kinks out. We'd finally have a *real* free alternative to the Mac.
Well, enough of my rambling, obviously I made my tea too strong this morning...
Why, so the people who come in late and don't RTFA can get modded up too?
Supercow power is no longer just a cute little joke!
Yes, that is most likely true. How many people keep quiet about their gaming habit? Could be quite a few I suppose...
As a female geek (but a non-gaming geek) I am pretty sure that we are nearly as rare as hen's teeth in these MMORPGs. I have met exactly two women gamers in my entire life, and I know quite a lot of people.
Well, isn't it a small world? I pass by there all the time on my way home to 1313 Mockinbird Lane.
So what are the relevant, usable exploits for that? Oh right, there are none. Thanks, but when it comes to security I definitely prefer my years of trouble-free experience to the wild "sky is falling" claims so frequently hurled at Mac users. :)
I'm sure you have your reasons...
The main advantage is that if you are logged in as a normal user and you run third party binaries from your home directory your system files are safe from corruption should the worst occur. And in fact you get the same result running user-installed apps from ~/bin or wherever, I just leave them on the .dmg because I'm paranoid.
I've never had an app fail to run properly from a disk image file, and I've been doing this for years. And yes, it will write the prefs to ~/Library, so what? If you're running as a normal user it makes absolutely no difference.
No real geek gets their Gmail via web browser -- we use real MUAs (like mutt or sylpheed) and POP3. And it appears that doing that renders one invulnerable to this hack.
Using a browser to check your Gmail is strictly luser behavior.
I handle most third party apps for the Mac (which are usually on a .dmg) like this : .dmg to ~/noinstall/. .dmg.
(1) Download
(2) when I wish to use that app I mount the image and use app from the temporarily mounted image.
(3) When done using app unmount
(4) Profit!
Of course there are quite a few GNU apps on my Mac which were built and installed from source, but I've never had a reason to feel leery of those. All the G-apps and all third party proprietary apps are in ~/noinstall. Always knew that would pay one day...
This is the result of today's impoverished educational systems. People have such small vocabularies they think they need to coin a new word every other week. Thank God I'm old enough to have had a decent education -- then again, there are people my own age who go to meetings to "get orientated", but it's just so much more common with the kids...
I haven't had occasion to reinstall Tiger actually, but still 20GB is pretty hard to believe.
:)
I know what you mean about the fan bois, we have every variety here, not just the Apple crowd. I dare you to say something nasty about Amiga.
As a long-time Mac user, I know there is absolutely no way you are telling the truth. I have never seen a Mac OS update be that large or that troublesome. Not ever.
No actually, I was referring to things like Google toolbar and Picassa which one downloads -- the whole web app thing is pretty recent and only works for people with good broadband. Most of us take our bandwidth for granted, but many households still have no broadband option in the U.S. short of expensive satellite shemes.
Well, it is true that without the desktop monopoly Google might have had a harder time coming up with software that runs on more than 90% of boxen... 'Course there's always vitual machine technology though, so even the monopoly probably hasn't helped Google all that much.
While technically inaccurate, it is still a fact that the limitations of the GPL and BSD licenses are of a nature which are exceedingly unlikely to ever limit or inconvenience any end user, which is a huge benefit no proprietary software can claim. At least for those of us who value our freedom and our privacy...
Here's the text of TFA:
Dirty Secret: Green Cars Automakers Won't Sell You by Lawrence Ulrich
On a recent run from Boston to Cape Cod, I test drove the 2008 Honda Accord, the latest version of this family favorite. The new Accord boasts an environmental first: a six-cylinder gasoline engine that's cleaner than many hybrid systems.
There's only one catch: You can't actually buy this ultra-green Accord, or the four-cylinder version that also produces near-zero pollution. That is, unless you live in California, New York or six other northeast states that follow California's tougher pollution rules. Only there can you buy this Accord, or the roughly two dozen other models that meet so-called Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle standards, PZEV for short.
Not only can't you buy one, but the government says it's currently illegal for automakers to sell these green cars outside of the special states. Under terms of the Clean Air Act--in the kind of delicious irony only our government can pull off--anyone (dealer, consumer, automaker) involved in an out-of-bounds PZEV sale could be subject to civil fines of up to $27,500. Volvo sent its dealers a memo alerting them to this fact, noting that its greenest S40 and V50 models were only for the special states.
So, just how green is a PZEV machine? Well, if you just cut your lawn with a gas mower, congratulations, you just put out more pollution in one hour than these cars do in 2,000 miles of driving. Grill a single juicy burger, and you've cooked up the same hydrocarbon emissions as a three-hour drive in a Ford Focus PZEV. As the California Air Resources Board has noted, the tailpipe emissions of these cars can be cleaner than the outside air in smoggy cities.
That's amazing stuff. But what's more amazing is how few people have a clue that the gas-powered, internal combustion engine could ever be this clean.
Naturally, no company wants to bring too much attention to a car that most people can't buy, unless it's Ferrari. And there's the catch. PZEV models are already available from Toyota, Ford, Honda, GM, Subaru, Volvo and VW. They're scrubbed-up versions of familiar models, from the VW Jetta to the Subaru Outback. But chances are, you've never heard of them.
These cars aren't the only green leaf that's being dangled over our heads. The sweet-looking, sporty-handling Nissan Altima Hybrid borrows its hybrid system from the Toyota Camry, and sipped fuel at 32 mpg during my week-long test drive here in New York. But once again, if you'd love to buy the Nissan and burn less fuel, you're out of luck--unless you live in California or the Northeast.
It's not all the fault of the car companies. The crazy quilt of environmental regulations is forcing carmakers to design and build two versions of the same cars. And it costs real money to make a car this green. So in states where there are no regulations to force their hand,automakers don't want to have to boost their prices for the green versions--or to simply eat the extra cost and make less profit.
Honda appears to be doing just that. It currently charges Californians and other green-staters about $150 extra for these solid-citizen models. But experts suggest that it costs carmakers closer to $400 a pop to install the gear.
Another issue: The PZEV cars don't get any better mileage than conventional versions. Would most self-interested Americans even pay a lousy 100 bucks for cleaner air that doesn't put fuel savings back in their pocket? "With hybrids, the selling point is fuel economy, so there's a dollar amount on that," said William Walton, Honda's product planning chief for U.S. cars. "We want to give people the cleanest vehicles we can produce, but how much are people willing to pay for clean air?"
Then again, so what if Honda or others lose a few million at first? Toyota clearly went into the red on every Prius it sold in the early years, but shrewdly viewed that cash as an investment to create buzz and build a loyal foll
The nature of our current government makes a mockery of the FTC and anti-trust regulations. How can we reasonably expect anti-trust regulation from a federal government which is almost entirely composed of corporate henchmen?
Damn, you made me laugh so hard I lost my tea through my nose. If I had points you'd get one for that.