Aside from being an avid FF AdBlock user myself....
In Chrome, what if the viewer then clicks on the link from a Google text ad but all the ads on the destination advertisers site are blocked. Surely Google's responsibility is at least not to encourage or outright build in an ad blocker that blocks the full ads on the website the advertiser paid Google to bring the viewers too in the first place !
Though I want to agree with you, and want what you want, I can't help but feel that that is a very puritanical viewpoint, almost on the same level what music/movie companies are being accused of.
Its not a right. Its is a business. Its an economy.
Sure I hate commercialism way more than the average bloke, but this boat has already sailed really. ISP's are already offering IPTV, VOIP, file repos and piles of other services that could be consider in conflict with a fair playing field. They are snooping, injecting, limiting our data already. You can't and won't stop them from absorbing new business models to get more revenue, which in turn should result in better infrastructure and consequently more bandwidth, cheaper prices and higher speeds for customers.
Sure there is an inherent risk of ISP's having vested interests or selling out to who gives them a truck load of money. But I dare you to name any industry or institution that isn't guilty of that.
The key is transparency and some regulation or legislation to keep in all in check.
Say an ISP accepts a deal to provide direct super speed fibre optic link to Redmond. So what. That deal may fund them to provide their customers with real cheap optic fibre to our door. One doesn't have to jump to the doom conclusion that a deal instantly means a sellout to the public. It can benefit it.
The cost of ISP's storing content may be way cheaper than constantly using their backdones to repetitively retrieve it. ISP's need to be afforded some trust as well. Services like streaming Video on Demand may really benefit from being hosted on an ISP. It just may be a possibility.
We can live in world where things are perfect and data transmitting nodes do nothing but, or we can accept some aspects of inevitability and allow for the possibility that the providers of the technology we love or rely on won't be run quite the way we want them to.
Yes that is one way of looking at it. But in this ever changing landscape of internet technology who dictates roles? The music/movie industry has been accused of not keeping pace with the times. Well that applies to all parties. Its not really anyone's place to dictate what services an ISP must be. They will be whatever the market and their customers (both sides) require.
A few weeks ago, on Insight (Australian forum TV program) they discussed this very topic. The music industry naturally wanted the ISP's to have the 3 strike policy then cutoff. For the record the ISP rep on the show was strongly against it. But another solution on the board was that ISP's would become more providers/sellers of content rather than a mere conduit. Your local ISP is the last point of contact to you. They already collect money from you. They physically closest to you. Its not a stretch to extend that model and make them the primary collector of fees for content they provide to you on behalf of content creators.
The ISP's could amass content or track content from known sources (hey the details are TBD:) and take a small cut. One of the interesting points brought up was that for the younger generation this has benefits. Say young Johnny at home wants a new ring tone, or lets ramp it up, ring video clip:) He's too young for a credit card or bank account. But Daddo allows a certain quota of web content to be purchased through their ISP. The ISP is already setup to simply debit old Daddo. It simplifies things for the customer and lets ISP's and content providers construct their own billing hierarchy behind the scenes.
I see potential in the idea. Who knows where it will lead.
But I do know that negative schemes that punish people just create animosity, mistrust and retaliation in customers.
Have to agree with you there buddy.
The game was a fantastic experience. The number of times I jumped out of my pants was tops.
It was just so immersive (with the excellent sound and visual effects) I couldn't play with all the lights off or I think I would have had a coronary.
So how it can be suggested it was a mistep is beyond me.
If someone has used that line, I think you've taken it out of context.
You are married to any package of any substance once you invest time and effort into it. MS Office. Any CMS. Any CRM. Its even worse if you roll your own - probably nothing standard in it then. What matters is things like ease of upgrade and good core and API. I think everybody here who's looked at CMS's spends a lot of time looking at the pros and cons, because its always an investment.
If you need a module that is not already available free for you there. You can always write your own using the decent API they provide or you can wait patiently for it to eventually materialise free from some generous developers -or- to meet your time demands you can pay someone hard working soul to knuckle down and do it under pressure for you.
What exactly is wrong with a consultant (affiliated or not) being paid to write free software at your request.
I find that with FF2, certain pages with Flash would crash the browser out right. Now FF3 seems to catch the exception gracefully and at worst maybe close that tab, leaving all other tabs perfectly ok. So a lot more efforts seems to have been put in to catering for 3rd party crashes.
Also for those must-have FF add-on that aren't yet tagged compatible with FF3, you can try the "Nightly Tester Tools" add-on.
It will allow "disable add-on compatibility check" and install add-on. For example "All-in-One-Gestures" is one I need like air now and I force it on and works 99.9% fine (only gesturing to close final page doesn't close browser - hardly a biggie:)
One suggestion tho. If you do use "Nightly Tester Tools", then I recommend enabling *one* "incompatible" add-on at a time.
One add-on did cause crashes (can't remember which). But in the end, I am using virtually all add-ons important to me without problems.
I agree, and let me add, it can take quite a while from when an exploit is advertised to the point when users either get the news or get around to doing something about it.
So the sooner the process of alerting can start, whether the vendor/author has analysed/fixed it or not, the sooner action will be take by the public. What type of action is up to the individual.
OK what exactly is the problem with using open source or free software in a service or rebadged product ?
"You" may not like it, but if their license permits it, what the hell is the issue here ?
Is it some kind of moral assault ?
On top of that. Just because someone or a company wants to make money to feed their kids, pay their employees, stay afloat, suddenly they are just out to rip the world off ? There are plenty of large and legit organisations that rip us off daily (banks, insurance companies, road and traffic authority... pleeeenty more).
Fight the obvious and big ones first hmmmm.
It is complete conjecture to say you know all about their operations.
I see it as a good thing if companies take opensource under their wing, and get money for it.
The opensource project gets recognition. The developers get respect and maybe future employment. The project may stay afloat because of its commercial use.
The company (or its clients) may contribute back to the underlying opensource projects due to its demand.
Also the company often adds a lot of value that the original opensource project doesn't. Perhaps documentation, support, flashy front end, (win32) installers etc.
Bottom line: If you think they are lazy or immoral making money off opensource software, its the opensource project is the one that needs a reality check. Change the license if its not what you intended.
Sure I appreciate your position and resources, and that's fair enough.
In fact the successful ClamAV project is a good example of them taking no responsibility making binaries or ports.
They leave it to 3rd parties. Well there is some irony there, as it seems like some of their own team doing the W32 port, but their official stance seems draw a line.
Though it may seem counter to my position, but I quite like this model of 3rd parties being responsible for binaries.
To end users, as long as the main project links to an installer for the platform, they don't care:)
Which is kinda what you are saying about Windows/Mac users making installers.
But if your project wasn't lucky enough to have an almost symbiotic partnership project like that, (or is it more a branch with binaries ???). I think you would be missing out on a lot opportunity as I stated in prev post.
Agreed, many OSS projects are developed for Linux on Linux. But many, large and small projects, are developed for or are ported to Windows.
Take Miranda-IM for example (great little IM client btw - luv it for the Speech plugin). Windows only. They actually refuse to go cross-platform (their choice not to).
TortoiseCVS/SVN is also Windows only.
OOO, Gaim, Gimp, Blender, InkScape, Scribus, Latex, Lyx and many smaller apps/libraries have been ported. There's also things like Ogre3D which can debatably attribute quite a lot of success for supporting Windows (Direct3D).
I think the "helpful to me personally" thing is very subjective (obviously:).
If this software is just for you, why OSS it at all.
Once you start having a mob of people interested in it and contributing, its only a matter of time that someone will want it on other platforms, especially the largest Desktop platform out there. Sure if there is some strict technical reason why this is Linux only, like it has some Linux only library dependencies then sure, porting is not possible (now). Or maybe you have ethical reason not too.
You say in huge increase in userbase doesn't benefit you at all. Well I believe one of the benefits of OSS is, bigger userbase, more potential testers, contributors etc.
Whether or not you acknowledge or believe it, the Windows platform is full of developers, testers and savvy end users. Just because Windows OS isn't free or open, doesn't mean its applications or users need to be locked out from OSS.
You personally can do what you want, but OSS and free software is about choice, many have visions that you may not aspire to, that they see benefit them personally on a larger scale perhaps.
eg. Mums and Dad's can use it on their Windows/Mac box. The whole userbase/testing thing. Fame. Future job employment. Whatever.
So originally I was really responding to a comment that implied to me they that were referring to projects which they had ported enough to be used on windows but were too lazy/unskilled to make an installer for. My point was really, if you port at all, don't do a half arsed job about it, and winge that you're not an Windows guru. You're an engineer/programmer first, platform hugger second. Deal with it for the benefit of your end users AND fellow developers who are already knee deep in Makefile hell.
ooOOooOOooOoo a whole day hey ! Compared to the millennium it took to create the b*stard app.
That is the biggest cop out I've ever heard.
Same goes with doco. So you spend countless months/years developing some whiz bang piece of software and in the final throws you simply can't be arsed spending a day/days/weeks creating an Windows installer or doco ?!
These are the thing end users NEEEEEEED. Its not a luxury, its a basic necessity. My elderly parents can happily find and app and use an installer.
But they are lost at anything more complicated (like unziping to "somewhere" - or compiling ROFL).
For Linux there is some latitude, as there are many flavours (Gentoo ebuild, rpm etc) - but still pick some big target (like Ubuntu).
Its like spending a year building an iron house and not rust proofing it as a final step. Job done, NOT !! You may as well not have bothered. All you do is make life hard for anyone trying to deal with your creation. One (or few of you). Masses of "them".
You want kudos/money for your work. Complete the job.
It may be boring, but so is a lot in computing. Take pride in the challenge. You don't have to be "really hot" (unless you wanna stick a picture of yourself on the packaging;) to do anything. Just persistent and focused.
Also though there were cases of cookie vulnerabilities/exploits in various browsers, I believe most of them are fixed.
But I think all/most of the cookie exploits require you to visit a site with the exploit code.
Naturally, if users never upgrade/patch their browsers then they are always at risk.
Where-as if you use session id's in URL they are often logged in cache's and are often accessible by anybody anytime.
Any kind of session token (cookie or otherwise) should timeout rather quickly for highly secure environments like banks.
So the window of opportunity is rather small anyways.
Personally I think its complete paranoi to be worried about cookies. Browsers come with nice ways of viewing and managing your cookies. You can delete them anytime.
Hardware warantee is just that. Its acceptable (tho lame) that their support line only fully resolve software issues with Windows. That's their biz. But it is unacceptable that they relate that to hardware warantee (unless they state something specifically in their contract - which it seems they don't). So as an owner of their hardware, you should at least have the right to call them and be heard. If it sounds like an obvious hardware problem (eg. my CD player is smoking), then you should be able to bring it in and have it replaced. If its not Windows and its getting into software territory, well (cause they are so lame) you have no hope there.
Like parent said, its *their* problem if they don't supply customers with a clean boot windows rescue disk. Or at the very least have one in the shop *they* can use. Its a PC for godsake, people replace even hardware components. If I get a better keyboard, is suddenly the rest of the PC out of hardware warantee.
Wake the hell up, its ridiculous to refuse warantee on a strongly suspected hardware problem just because of the software installed, past or present. Get real !!
no seriously.... instant tan:)
oooor maybe its the big guy taking a picture of us all... say cheeeeeeeeeese !!!
We should all wear our Sunday best for those years juuust in case:)
For sure! Sure its free-to-air commercial TV, and the cable TV market is doing well, but everyone I know who has cable says its mostly crap and they only watch one or two things. So money well spent there:| Still has ads aswell naturally AFAIK.
The thing is, its an understandable necessary evil to have commercial for something free, but what I don't accept is how far they have taken it. People's attentions spans are being shot to hell. This apparently doesn't mean anything to anyone. Its somehow acceptable. Its not called TV program for nothing, its programming.
Like the parent said, barely a full scene happens and you cut to a loud obnoxious commercial about fake hair, yeah yeah. Maybe some "TV shows" are structured for dramatic pauses for ad breaks, but lots aren't.
Some commercials are almost like mini-movies now, trying to make them almost the entertainment. But they aren't. They are commercials. They are selling us something. When a movie or series tries product placement, thankfully many of us see the cheap shot and the movie/series gets a bad rep and the makers usually learn not to try that crap on any more. Even after the ad break is over, you get overlay ads across the bottom of the program, just a bit more ad squeezing. Sometimes its handy, news flash, or program info for whats on next week. But its always at the expense of what you are watching.
I guess I am trying to say, many of us are sick to death of either commercials gone mad or having to pay a lot for not much.
The technology is there to allow us to circumvent this "like it or lump it" attitude, just as it is there for entertainment providers to accept a new model and charge a decent price for downloading content people want. They seem to forget through years of relentless programming, we now want everything. We are hooked on TV programs and they know it. Its like a cigaret company knowing its hooked all its smokers and upping their tar levels. But we know a guy who can get us low tar versions:) Sure we don't *have* to smoke em, but who's really the villan here.
I for one applaud the people who dare to risk persecution to fight for whats fair, over companies who hide behind the often outdated laws when convenient to them.
If a portion of the population wants to watch shallow sit coms reaking of commercialism and aren't bothered by endless ads, thats their biz, but there is a huge portion of the community that do mind. A new fair model aligned with available technology is needed, and needed now.
You have to know your programming language, and I don't just mean syntax. Know what it aims are.
There are always compromises to be made in programming. Some languages (eg. C/C++) allow low level platform dependent control, some (eg. Java) no pointers (use GC's) and cross platform, others (eg. Perl, PHP) allow RAD, massive library support.
When I first started dabbling in PHP I recall it being billed as an easy language to learn so non-hardcore programmers could ease into web design.
I've seen excellent graphic artists get by with enough PHP to get the job done.
They are pushing content and rely on popular CMS's to take care of the scary stuff.
PHP could probably use improvement, what can't, but people harp on about it needing typed variables etc, to me that raises the bar of entry and goes against some of PHP's strengths. Consider for a moment that not everyone has a mindset for typed variables and that their is power with untyped. There are other languages if this feature is a show stopper for you.
If there are bugs in CMS's (or whatever) written in PHP, then those (professional) programmers made errors. You really don't... go blaming your tools. You chose them.
Programming has always been been about finding better ways of dealing with gotchas in all programming languages, whether they be memory leaks or catching untyped variable issues.
Well I've never needed to use a anti-virus on my linux box, but there seems to be a few like ClamAV, bitdefender and f-prot.
I don't really see how it can be a nightmare when there are no viruses or malware for linux that I've ever heard of. But if they became prevalent I'm sure these products would spring forth.
Also your point about your desktop doesn't need to protect against different users is somewhat subjective. Maybe you are thinking of all the rich families out there where each family member has their own PC. In reality, they often share a single PC, and just because all family members aren't logged on at the same time like a mainframe doesn't mean they shouldn't all use separate accounts for convenience and to protect against contamination. Same goes for Windows. I would actually go as far as to say this is the way most home PC's should be setup. You set your kids up with their own accounts, to limit access and damage etc. For their protection and the protection of the entire PC. Its still pretty common for home Windows boxes to still all use a single Admin account, because its default and people don't know any better. At least Linux tends to encourage proper use of accounts.
As for root having absolute power, perhaps it might seem more restrictive, but really it simplifies things and probably offers more real protection. If you really want to grant other users super privileges then you can give them sudo access. But normally just having root for total control means there is only one way in. Knowing the root mighty password. If you started giving Admin right to a few users and their passwords were flaky then its game over.
As for users having to enter password all the time for things. Well I think people have been spoiled rotten by the lax way Windows lets you do things. The clock (or any hardware device) is an important security feature of entire computer. People can moan about it all they want, but its a crucial system resource that if tampered with could be used maliciously or simply break things. Like for some network services, if you PC clock is not within a certain range of the server's clock, you will not be allowed to interact.
As for users becoming overly used to entering their password all the time, well again, Linux and OS-X try and keep it to a minimum. For normal usage they shouldn't run into it too much. Yeah to install software and tamper with hardware, they are just going to have to get a tad more educated. It can be taught, and hopefully they will learn enough about seeing it in context to know what a popup window could be a fake. One extra mental aid I read about ages ago was that the root user would be encouraged to associate a personal photo with that root password popup, so it appears as background image. That way it would be a queue to be suspicious if the background was different. Don't know if this feature exists tho. I believe Vista is going in the same direction but with excessive password prompting. But alternatives like running in root/admin mode all the time is just a ticking time bomb.
Sure 'the system' stuff is quite true, but I think most other OS's contain damage done by malicious programs run under a single user account (not installed with root password) alot better than Windows. Its quite easy to clean/wipe a Linux user's home directory startup files etc than perhaps registry or random locations on Windows file system. But sure if you want to stop any virus/ad/spyware getting installed/executed for any user then these anti-whatever programs need to exist and be run.
Also I don't know the facts here, but Linux kernel may be more robust in terms vunerabilities for virus to bypass security and truely infect entire PC or root.But like I said, are there any actual cases of them for Linux/OS-X ???
Actually, I am using the Australian website http://ingdirect.com.au/ and it only offers keyboard entry for your client number, but for the PIN you have to use the mouse.
(And i'm using Firefox - in case that is a factor).
I use ING Direct and noticed that recently. Its pretty much exactly as the first parent described.
Though I don't see anything about keyboard typing being allowed. Its pure mouse clicks only for me.
This is what I gather from using it and glancing at the page info and scripts:
The keypad numbers (are images) and are randomised (threw me first time, but no probs since) every login session.
Every time you login each number corresponds to a different image URL on the server. The URL's format is like http://mybank.ohyeah/?object=A2D04F..... (mega hash number). Every different login session the image URL's for the same number different. So it appears those generated image URL's only exist for the duration of the login sequence. So only the server knows the mapping of what it sent to your real PIN. So that coupled with encrypting the out of order PIN numbers makes it even harder to crack.
I guess it doesn't really offer any more protection against a trojan taking screenshots every mouse click. I mean you're kind boned if you got that kinda trojan on your PC anyway. Its virtually like someone video taping you:) You have to have something some degree of faith in your virus/trojan protection on your PC. If you use an internet cafe you are at their mercy a bit.
It certainly seems to offer some further protection against basic data sniffing, since only the server knows the order of the PIN.
But as for "hiding the image from any kind of snooping software", if the session number image data was sniffed and mouse click positions then that's as good as a screen capture.
I certainly hope this is just to fire the proverbial rocket up the arses of the policy makers, otherwise this is insane.
Its one thing to toy with nuclear particles in underground labs or swap super virii collections. But at least *when* mistakes are made they are relatively self contained within a small geographic area. Think about all the major industrial/mechanical "accidents" claiming countless human lives that could have been prevented in hindsight by humans.
If someone in my local area/state/country is allowed to do those things I usually get some right of say. A vote, a protest or a chance to move away.
But I think it is outrageous and unforgivable to allow a global experiment that can affect the entire human race.
We have enough man made catastrophes affecting entire countries without deciding to take the entire world out.
To simply add to a recognised problem is simply ludicrous.
There is NEVER a guarantee a solution will work, no matter how well intentioned or thought out. Especially of this scale.
But there always a very good chance it will have an adverse affect down the road. We always seem to justify its ok to fix something because we want it to work NOW, at the expense of LATER.
Only repetitive testing gives you a level of comfort with an outcome that you are willing to accept something as safe.
Pharmaceutical drugs go through many years of trials, and still sometimes they are withdrawn after years of common usage.
Lifting the haze (pun intended) on all the media and political hype, global warming is not cut and dried.
Even if it is 100% true (ie. a recent man made phenomenon), the earth, being the living organism it is, is healing itself the way it knows how. But if we go panicking and pouring more fuel on the fire, earth's backlash may be even more severe.
From years in the software biz, the correct solution is ALWAYS to fix the ROOT CAUSE. Anything else is just denial.
... I just got back from a few days with my folks in QLD Australia.
I myself have often pondered where documentation for computer novices would be and/or in what form it would be exactly.
I can't recall finding anything out there, I would direct my parents to.
There is simply too much under the hood of computers for older generations who didn't grow up with computers to grasp.
The other day an late aged friend, though she had done a Computer & Office 101 course, didn't really understand what a browser was or when you use it.
How are you supposed to explain things like phishing or encryption if they can't even grasp what they are interacting with.
Personally I think there is huge opportunity for someone to create an online education business directed at novices.
But again, the only implementation I can think of that I could see successful is via video. So YouTube style tutorials, but by professionals:)
You can get alot more analogies across alot quicker with well constructed video I beleive.
FORGET written documenation for non-tech/older-generation people. They just won't get into it for many reasons. Laziness, lack of interest, lack of ability. Time.
Its just a waste of both your time trying to flog that horse.
Naturally there are exceptions to the rule, like my aunt to was as inquisitive and sharp as a tack till the day she died.
As far as what is available and what approach to take right now, these are my feelings (and what I do).
1. Forget trying to educate them about every last thing (you think is even highly important), instead you (or your resident geek) make their PC as tight as you possibly can, so they are not led unto temptation. Such as:
- Firstly, if money is an issue (and perhaps even if not) my tact is to use free products well, and instead spend money on better hardware (especially broadband stuff).
The aim again being give them easier avenues for help. eg. faster broadband with higher quotas means you might be able to remotely manage (eg. via UltraVNC - reverse connect) their computer if they need it. And for godsake get off dialup.
- Don't let them use an account with Administrator privileges. If possible setup each family member with their own Windows account. Contains individual blunders.
- Use Firefox or some other browser that does not use ActiveX (the doorway to virus hell). Install Adblock extension for less ads, popups, viral paths and faster browsing.
- Install WinPatrol which easily allows you to manage (disable/remove) stuff that runs at Windows startup. Remove anything unnecessary that has potential to confuse/annoy them.
- Naturally you need antivirus, but you don't need an all-in-one beast (like Norton), just a good one that doesn't get in your face or slow things down. For free ones, I like Avast, AVG, BitDefender.
- Get a decent broadband router/modem/firewall and if you want to get paranoid install a better firewall software like ZoneAlarm or Kerio (esp if you don't have a hardware router/firewall). But again those can just add to more confusion so I'd avoid that if they got a decent hardware firewall.
2. Accept they will prob use the least appropriate tool for the job, but they will get by. If you've made things secure as you can, and they know not to enter their password at the drop of their hat (esp from email links), chances are good they will never do something overly silly. But really there are never any guarantees because of frustration with the way computer software and the internet operates. Its up to the tech heads to come up with better solutions/security IMO.
3. Though often laced with technical jargon, places like Webopedia and Wikipedia and are a good source of the facts and are usually quite comprehensive.
My rant is dragging on so I'll leave it there, but to summerise if you fortify the best you can, make it easy for them to get help (eg. from you) and reduce clutter they will surprise you with what they actually discover and master by themselves.
I lost my mobile 3 times over a period of a few years. Yes the same one.
Every time some saint returned it to the local police station and I'd get it back.
Quite amazing considering the inner city area I live in Sydney.
But I can just imagine them feeling all gooey inside about the good deed they are about to do... then suddenly this phone starts screaming like a Blitzkreig air raid, and in the panic they stomp my phone into a fine power and run off traumatised !! Fat lot of good THAT feature would do me:)
Slashdot Mirror
In Chrome, what if the viewer then clicks on the link from a Google text ad but all the ads on the destination advertisers site are blocked. Surely Google's responsibility is at least not to encourage or outright build in an ad blocker that blocks the full ads on the website the advertiser paid Google to bring the viewers too in the first place !
Though I want to agree with you, and want what you want, I can't help but feel that that is a very puritanical viewpoint, almost on the same level what music/movie companies are being accused of. Its not a right. Its is a business. Its an economy.
Sure I hate commercialism way more than the average bloke, but this boat has already sailed really. ISP's are already offering IPTV, VOIP, file repos and piles of other services that could be consider in conflict with a fair playing field. They are snooping, injecting, limiting our data already. You can't and won't stop them from absorbing new business models to get more revenue, which in turn should result in better infrastructure and consequently more bandwidth, cheaper prices and higher speeds for customers.
Sure there is an inherent risk of ISP's having vested interests or selling out to who gives them a truck load of money. But I dare you to name any industry or institution that isn't guilty of that. The key is transparency and some regulation or legislation to keep in all in check.
Say an ISP accepts a deal to provide direct super speed fibre optic link to Redmond. So what. That deal may fund them to provide their customers with real cheap optic fibre to our door. One doesn't have to jump to the doom conclusion that a deal instantly means a sellout to the public. It can benefit it.
The cost of ISP's storing content may be way cheaper than constantly using their backdones to repetitively retrieve it. ISP's need to be afforded some trust as well. Services like streaming Video on Demand may really benefit from being hosted on an ISP. It just may be a possibility.
We can live in world where things are perfect and data transmitting nodes do nothing but, or we can accept some aspects of inevitability and allow for the possibility that the providers of the technology we love or rely on won't be run quite the way we want them to.
Yes that is one way of looking at it. But in this ever changing landscape of internet technology who dictates roles? The music/movie industry has been accused of not keeping pace with the times. Well that applies to all parties. Its not really anyone's place to dictate what services an ISP must be. They will be whatever the market and their customers (both sides) require.
A few weeks ago, on Insight (Australian forum TV program) they discussed this very topic. The music industry naturally wanted the ISP's to have the 3 strike policy then cutoff. For the record the ISP rep on the show was strongly against it. But another solution on the board was that ISP's would become more providers/sellers of content rather than a mere conduit. Your local ISP is the last point of contact to you. They already collect money from you. They physically closest to you. Its not a stretch to extend that model and make them the primary collector of fees for content they provide to you on behalf of content creators.
The ISP's could amass content or track content from known sources (hey the details are TBD :) and take a small cut. One of the interesting points brought up was that for the younger generation this has benefits. Say young Johnny at home wants a new ring tone, or lets ramp it up, ring video clip :) He's too young for a credit card or bank account. But Daddo allows a certain quota of web content to be purchased through their ISP. The ISP is already setup to simply debit old Daddo. It simplifies things for the customer and lets ISP's and content providers construct their own billing hierarchy behind the scenes.
I see potential in the idea. Who knows where it will lead.
But I do know that negative schemes that punish people just create animosity, mistrust and retaliation in customers.
I'd place more money on the first boatload of passers-by nabbing it as a souvenir or an Xmas present for their kid. Tanks very mooch.
Have to agree with you there buddy. The game was a fantastic experience. The number of times I jumped out of my pants was tops. It was just so immersive (with the excellent sound and visual effects) I couldn't play with all the lights off or I think I would have had a coronary. So how it can be suggested it was a mistep is beyond me.
You are married to any package of any substance once you invest time and effort into it. MS Office. Any CMS. Any CRM. Its even worse if you roll your own - probably nothing standard in it then. What matters is things like ease of upgrade and good core and API. I think everybody here who's looked at CMS's spends a lot of time looking at the pros and cons, because its always an investment.
If you need a module that is not already available free for you there. You can always write your own using the decent API they provide or you can wait patiently for it to eventually materialise free from some generous developers -or- to meet your time demands you can pay someone hard working soul to knuckle down and do it under pressure for you.
What exactly is wrong with a consultant (affiliated or not) being paid to write free software at your request.
I find that with FF2, certain pages with Flash would crash the browser out right. Now FF3 seems to catch the exception gracefully and at worst maybe close that tab, leaving all other tabs perfectly ok. So a lot more efforts seems to have been put in to catering for 3rd party crashes.
Also for those must-have FF add-on that aren't yet tagged compatible with FF3, you can try the "Nightly Tester Tools" add-on. It will allow "disable add-on compatibility check" and install add-on. For example "All-in-One-Gestures" is one I need like air now and I force it on and works 99.9% fine (only gesturing to close final page doesn't close browser - hardly a biggie :)
One suggestion tho. If you do use "Nightly Tester Tools", then I recommend enabling *one* "incompatible" add-on at a time. One add-on did cause crashes (can't remember which). But in the end, I am using virtually all add-ons important to me without problems.
I agree, and let me add, it can take quite a while from when an exploit is advertised to the point when users either get the news or get around to doing something about it.
So the sooner the process of alerting can start, whether the vendor/author has analysed/fixed it or not, the sooner action will be take by the public. What type of action is up to the individual.
"You" may not like it, but if their license permits it, what the hell is the issue here ?
Is it some kind of moral assault ?
On top of that. Just because someone or a company wants to make money to feed their kids, pay their employees, stay afloat, suddenly they are just out to rip the world off ? There are plenty of large and legit organisations that rip us off daily (banks, insurance companies, road and traffic authority ... pleeeenty more).
Fight the obvious and big ones first hmmmm.
It is complete conjecture to say you know all about their operations.
I see it as a good thing if companies take opensource under their wing, and get money for it.
The opensource project gets recognition. The developers get respect and maybe future employment. The project may stay afloat because of its commercial use.
The company (or its clients) may contribute back to the underlying opensource projects due to its demand.
Also the company often adds a lot of value that the original opensource project doesn't. Perhaps documentation, support, flashy front end, (win32) installers etc.
Bottom line: If you think they are lazy or immoral making money off opensource software, its the opensource project is the one that needs a reality check. Change the license if its not what you intended.
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=426412&cid=22144738
In fact the successful ClamAV project is a good example of them taking no responsibility making binaries or ports. They leave it to 3rd parties. Well there is some irony there, as it seems like some of their own team doing the W32 port, but their official stance seems draw a line.
http://www.clamav.org/download/packages/
Though it may seem counter to my position, but I quite like this model of 3rd parties being responsible for binaries. To end users, as long as the main project links to an installer for the platform, they don't care :)
Which is kinda what you are saying about Windows/Mac users making installers.
But if your project wasn't lucky enough to have an almost symbiotic partnership project like that, (or is it more a branch with binaries ???). I think you would be missing out on a lot opportunity as I stated in prev post.
OOO, Gaim, Gimp, Blender, InkScape, Scribus, Latex, Lyx and many smaller apps/libraries have been ported. There's also things like Ogre3D which can debatably attribute quite a lot of success for supporting Windows (Direct3D).
I think the "helpful to me personally" thing is very subjective (obviously:). If this software is just for you, why OSS it at all. Once you start having a mob of people interested in it and contributing, its only a matter of time that someone will want it on other platforms, especially the largest Desktop platform out there. Sure if there is some strict technical reason why this is Linux only, like it has some Linux only library dependencies then sure, porting is not possible (now). Or maybe you have ethical reason not too.
You say in huge increase in userbase doesn't benefit you at all. Well I believe one of the benefits of OSS is, bigger userbase, more potential testers, contributors etc. Whether or not you acknowledge or believe it, the Windows platform is full of developers, testers and savvy end users. Just because Windows OS isn't free or open, doesn't mean its applications or users need to be locked out from OSS.
You personally can do what you want, but OSS and free software is about choice, many have visions that you may not aspire to, that they see benefit them personally on a larger scale perhaps. eg. Mums and Dad's can use it on their Windows/Mac box. The whole userbase/testing thing. Fame. Future job employment. Whatever.
So originally I was really responding to a comment that implied to me they that were referring to projects which they had ported enough to be used on windows but were too lazy/unskilled to make an installer for. My point was really, if you port at all, don't do a half arsed job about it, and winge that you're not an Windows guru. You're an engineer/programmer first, platform hugger second. Deal with it for the benefit of your end users AND fellow developers who are already knee deep in Makefile hell.
Same goes with doco. So you spend countless months/years developing some whiz bang piece of software and in the final throws you simply can't be arsed spending a day/days/weeks creating an Windows installer or doco ?!
These are the thing end users NEEEEEEED. Its not a luxury, its a basic necessity. My elderly parents can happily find and app and use an installer. But they are lost at anything more complicated (like unziping to "somewhere" - or compiling ROFL).
For Linux there is some latitude, as there are many flavours (Gentoo ebuild, rpm etc) - but still pick some big target (like Ubuntu).
Its like spending a year building an iron house and not rust proofing it as a final step. Job done, NOT !! You may as well not have bothered. All you do is make life hard for anyone trying to deal with your creation. One (or few of you). Masses of "them". You want kudos/money for your work. Complete the job.
It may be boring, but so is a lot in computing. Take pride in the challenge. You don't have to be "really hot" (unless you wanna stick a picture of yourself on the packaging ;) to do anything. Just persistent and focused.
Also though there were cases of cookie vulnerabilities/exploits in various browsers, I believe most of them are fixed. But I think all/most of the cookie exploits require you to visit a site with the exploit code. Naturally, if users never upgrade/patch their browsers then they are always at risk. Where-as if you use session id's in URL they are often logged in cache's and are often accessible by anybody anytime. Any kind of session token (cookie or otherwise) should timeout rather quickly for highly secure environments like banks. So the window of opportunity is rather small anyways. Personally I think its complete paranoi to be worried about cookies. Browsers come with nice ways of viewing and managing your cookies. You can delete them anytime.
I agree totally.
Hardware warantee is just that. Its acceptable (tho lame) that their support line only fully resolve software issues with Windows. That's their biz.
But it is unacceptable that they relate that to hardware warantee (unless they state something specifically in their contract - which it seems they don't).
So as an owner of their hardware, you should at least have the right to call them and be heard. If it sounds like an obvious hardware problem (eg. my CD player is smoking), then you should be able to bring it in and have it replaced. If its not Windows and its getting into software territory, well (cause they are so lame) you have no hope there.
Like parent said, its *their* problem if they don't supply customers with a clean boot windows rescue disk. Or at the very least have one in the shop *they* can use. Its a PC for godsake, people replace even hardware components. If I get a better keyboard, is suddenly the rest of the PC out of hardware warantee.
Wake the hell up, its ridiculous to refuse warantee on a strongly suspected hardware problem just because of the software installed, past or present. Get real !!
no seriously .... instant tan :)
oooor maybe its the big guy taking a picture of us all ... say cheeeeeeeeeese !!!
We should all wear our Sunday best for those years juuust in case :)
The thing is, its an understandable necessary evil to have commercial for something free, but what I don't accept is how far they have taken it. People's attentions spans are being shot to hell. This apparently doesn't mean anything to anyone. Its somehow acceptable. Its not called TV program for nothing, its programming. Like the parent said, barely a full scene happens and you cut to a loud obnoxious commercial about fake hair, yeah yeah. Maybe some "TV shows" are structured for dramatic pauses for ad breaks, but lots aren't.
Some commercials are almost like mini-movies now, trying to make them almost the entertainment. But they aren't. They are commercials. They are selling us something. When a movie or series tries product placement, thankfully many of us see the cheap shot and the movie/series gets a bad rep and the makers usually learn not to try that crap on any more. Even after the ad break is over, you get overlay ads across the bottom of the program, just a bit more ad squeezing. Sometimes its handy, news flash, or program info for whats on next week. But its always at the expense of what you are watching.
I guess I am trying to say, many of us are sick to death of either commercials gone mad or having to pay a lot for not much. The technology is there to allow us to circumvent this "like it or lump it" attitude, just as it is there for entertainment providers to accept a new model and charge a decent price for downloading content people want. They seem to forget through years of relentless programming, we now want everything. We are hooked on TV programs and they know it. Its like a cigaret company knowing its hooked all its smokers and upping their tar levels. But we know a guy who can get us low tar versions :) Sure we don't *have* to smoke em, but who's really the villan here.
I for one applaud the people who dare to risk persecution to fight for whats fair, over companies who hide behind the often outdated laws when convenient to them. If a portion of the population wants to watch shallow sit coms reaking of commercialism and aren't bothered by endless ads, thats their biz, but there is a huge portion of the community that do mind. A new fair model aligned with available technology is needed, and needed now.
You have to know your programming language, and I don't just mean syntax. Know what it aims are. There are always compromises to be made in programming. Some languages (eg. C/C++) allow low level platform dependent control, some (eg. Java) no pointers (use GC's) and cross platform, others (eg. Perl, PHP) allow RAD, massive library support.
When I first started dabbling in PHP I recall it being billed as an easy language to learn so non-hardcore programmers could ease into web design. I've seen excellent graphic artists get by with enough PHP to get the job done. They are pushing content and rely on popular CMS's to take care of the scary stuff.
PHP could probably use improvement, what can't, but people harp on about it needing typed variables etc, to me that raises the bar of entry and goes against some of PHP's strengths. Consider for a moment that not everyone has a mindset for typed variables and that their is power with untyped. There are other languages if this feature is a show stopper for you.
If there are bugs in CMS's (or whatever) written in PHP, then those (professional) programmers made errors. You really don't ... go blaming your tools. You chose them.
Programming has always been been about finding better ways of dealing with gotchas in all programming languages, whether they be memory leaks or catching untyped variable issues.
Also your point about your desktop doesn't need to protect against different users is somewhat subjective. Maybe you are thinking of all the rich families out there where each family member has their own PC. In reality, they often share a single PC, and just because all family members aren't logged on at the same time like a mainframe doesn't mean they shouldn't all use separate accounts for convenience and to protect against contamination. Same goes for Windows. I would actually go as far as to say this is the way most home PC's should be setup. You set your kids up with their own accounts, to limit access and damage etc. For their protection and the protection of the entire PC. Its still pretty common for home Windows boxes to still all use a single Admin account, because its default and people don't know any better. At least Linux tends to encourage proper use of accounts.
As for root having absolute power, perhaps it might seem more restrictive, but really it simplifies things and probably offers more real protection. If you really want to grant other users super privileges then you can give them sudo access. But normally just having root for total control means there is only one way in. Knowing the root mighty password. If you started giving Admin right to a few users and their passwords were flaky then its game over.
As for users having to enter password all the time for things. Well I think people have been spoiled rotten by the lax way Windows lets you do things. The clock (or any hardware device) is an important security feature of entire computer. People can moan about it all they want, but its a crucial system resource that if tampered with could be used maliciously or simply break things. Like for some network services, if you PC clock is not within a certain range of the server's clock, you will not be allowed to interact.
As for users becoming overly used to entering their password all the time, well again, Linux and OS-X try and keep it to a minimum. For normal usage they shouldn't run into it too much. Yeah to install software and tamper with hardware, they are just going to have to get a tad more educated. It can be taught, and hopefully they will learn enough about seeing it in context to know what a popup window could be a fake. One extra mental aid I read about ages ago was that the root user would be encouraged to associate a personal photo with that root password popup, so it appears as background image. That way it would be a queue to be suspicious if the background was different. Don't know if this feature exists tho. I believe Vista is going in the same direction but with excessive password prompting. But alternatives like running in root/admin mode all the time is just a ticking time bomb.
Sure 'the system' stuff is quite true, but I think most other OS's contain damage done by malicious programs run under a single user account (not installed with root password) alot better than Windows. Its quite easy to clean/wipe a Linux user's home directory startup files etc than perhaps registry or random locations on Windows file system. But sure if you want to stop any virus/ad/spyware getting installed/executed for any user then these anti-whatever programs need to exist and be run. Also I don't know the facts here, but Linux kernel may be more robust in terms vunerabilities for virus to bypass security and truely infect entire PC or root.But like I said, are there any actual cases of them for Linux/OS-X ???
Also my other Australian bank (Westpac) ages ago switched to forcing us to use only mouse click buttons (alpha and numeric) for full password.
Actually, I am using the Australian website http://ingdirect.com.au/ and it only offers keyboard entry for your client number, but for the PIN you have to use the mouse.
(And i'm using Firefox - in case that is a factor).
This is what I gather from using it and glancing at the page info and scripts:
The keypad numbers (are images) and are randomised (threw me first time, but no probs since) every login session.
Every time you login each number corresponds to a different image URL on the server. The URL's format is like http://mybank.ohyeah/?object=A2D04F..... (mega hash number). Every different login session the image URL's for the same number different. So it appears those generated image URL's only exist for the duration of the login sequence. So only the server knows the mapping of what it sent to your real PIN. So that coupled with encrypting the out of order PIN numbers makes it even harder to crack.
I guess it doesn't really offer any more protection against a trojan taking screenshots every mouse click. I mean you're kind boned if you got that kinda trojan on your PC anyway. Its virtually like someone video taping you :) You have to have something some degree of faith in your virus/trojan protection on your PC. If you use an internet cafe you are at their mercy a bit.
It certainly seems to offer some further protection against basic data sniffing, since only the server knows the order of the PIN.
But as for "hiding the image from any kind of snooping software", if the session number image data was sniffed and mouse click positions then that's as good as a screen capture.
I certainly hope this is just to fire the proverbial rocket up the arses of the policy makers, otherwise this is insane.
Its one thing to toy with nuclear particles in underground labs or swap super virii collections. But at least *when* mistakes are made they are relatively self contained within a small geographic area. Think about all the major industrial/mechanical "accidents" claiming countless human lives that could have been prevented in hindsight by humans.
If someone in my local area/state/country is allowed to do those things I usually get some right of say. A vote, a protest or a chance to move away.
But I think it is outrageous and unforgivable to allow a global experiment that can affect the entire human race. We have enough man made catastrophes affecting entire countries without deciding to take the entire world out. To simply add to a recognised problem is simply ludicrous.
There is NEVER a guarantee a solution will work, no matter how well intentioned or thought out. Especially of this scale. But there always a very good chance it will have an adverse affect down the road. We always seem to justify its ok to fix something because we want it to work NOW, at the expense of LATER.
Only repetitive testing gives you a level of comfort with an outcome that you are willing to accept something as safe. Pharmaceutical drugs go through many years of trials, and still sometimes they are withdrawn after years of common usage.
Lifting the haze (pun intended) on all the media and political hype, global warming is not cut and dried. Even if it is 100% true (ie. a recent man made phenomenon), the earth, being the living organism it is, is healing itself the way it knows how. But if we go panicking and pouring more fuel on the fire, earth's backlash may be even more severe.
From years in the software biz, the correct solution is ALWAYS to fix the ROOT CAUSE. Anything else is just denial.
... I just got back from a few days with my folks in QLD Australia.
:)
You can get alot more analogies across alot quicker with well constructed video I beleive.
FORGET written documenation for non-tech/older-generation people. They just won't get into it for many reasons. Laziness, lack of interest, lack of ability. Time.
Its just a waste of both your time trying to flog that horse.
Naturally there are exceptions to the rule, like my aunt to was as inquisitive and sharp as a tack till the day she died.
I myself have often pondered where documentation for computer novices would be and/or in what form it would be exactly. I can't recall finding anything out there, I would direct my parents to.
There is simply too much under the hood of computers for older generations who didn't grow up with computers to grasp. The other day an late aged friend, though she had done a Computer & Office 101 course, didn't really understand what a browser was or when you use it. How are you supposed to explain things like phishing or encryption if they can't even grasp what they are interacting with.
Personally I think there is huge opportunity for someone to create an online education business directed at novices. But again, the only implementation I can think of that I could see successful is via video. So YouTube style tutorials, but by professionals
As far as what is available and what approach to take right now, these are my feelings (and what I do).
1. Forget trying to educate them about every last thing (you think is even highly important), instead you (or your resident geek) make their PC as tight as you possibly can, so they are not led unto temptation. Such as:
- Firstly, if money is an issue (and perhaps even if not) my tact is to use free products well, and instead spend money on better hardware (especially broadband stuff). The aim again being give them easier avenues for help. eg. faster broadband with higher quotas means you might be able to remotely manage (eg. via UltraVNC - reverse connect) their computer if they need it. And for godsake get off dialup.
- Don't let them use an account with Administrator privileges. If possible setup each family member with their own Windows account. Contains individual blunders.
- Use Firefox or some other browser that does not use ActiveX (the doorway to virus hell). Install Adblock extension for less ads, popups, viral paths and faster browsing.
- Install WinPatrol which easily allows you to manage (disable/remove) stuff that runs at Windows startup. Remove anything unnecessary that has potential to confuse/annoy them.
- Naturally you need antivirus, but you don't need an all-in-one beast (like Norton), just a good one that doesn't get in your face or slow things down. For free ones, I like Avast, AVG, BitDefender.
- Get a decent broadband router/modem/firewall and if you want to get paranoid install a better firewall software like ZoneAlarm or Kerio (esp if you don't have a hardware router/firewall). But again those can just add to more confusion so I'd avoid that if they got a decent hardware firewall.
2. Accept they will prob use the least appropriate tool for the job, but they will get by. If you've made things secure as you can, and they know not to enter their password at the drop of their hat (esp from email links), chances are good they will never do something overly silly. But really there are never any guarantees because of frustration with the way computer software and the internet operates. Its up to the tech heads to come up with better solutions/security IMO.
3. Though often laced with technical jargon, places like Webopedia and Wikipedia and are a good source of the facts and are usually quite comprehensive.
My rant is dragging on so I'll leave it there, but to summerise if you fortify the best you can, make it easy for them to get help (eg. from you) and reduce clutter they will surprise you with what they actually discover and master by themselves.
I lost my mobile 3 times over a period of a few years. Yes the same one. Every time some saint returned it to the local police station and I'd get it back. Quite amazing considering the inner city area I live in Sydney.
... then suddenly this phone starts screaming like a Blitzkreig air raid, and in the panic they stomp my phone into a fine power and run off traumatised !! Fat lot of good THAT feature would do me :)
But I can just imagine them feeling all gooey inside about the good deed they are about to do