MITTests Million Sites || + BitBomet etc || And Pacifica -lame Left drained...
MIT Startup Tests Top Million Sites for Spyware: "Re:The major lesson of all this.
(Score:5, Insightful)
by BushCheney08 (917605) Alter Relationship on Saturday January 14, @08:06PM (#14473624)
In fact, if Windows were to fail commercially tomorrow and everyone runs *nix, you'll see spyware applications be written for these OSes immediately.
Agreed. Especially when you consider that all of the programs in TFA were installed after the user clicked the 'I Agree' button five, six, seven times. The OS could be totally secure and only allow the installed apps to affect the logged-in user. They'll still be there annoying that one user, though, since the user is the one who said it was okay to put them there. This is where informing the user comes in. And the user has already shown many times over that they don't care to be informed. This sort of crap is gonna be around for a long long time...
--
Be a real patriot: Question authority. Think for yourself. Formulate your own conclusions."
==============
No reason to be vulnerable to spyware.
(Score:5, Interesting)I was recently asked to set up some computer systems at a seniors home. Now, many of these people have never used a PC. So we were able to acquire several used PCs for almost no cost, and I installed Kubuntu on their systems. We got them set up so that they could check their email, browse the WWW, use various instant messengers to chat with relatives, and even play games (bridge and backgammon were big favourites).
Now, why did I go with Kubuntu? Mainly because it is free, and it is quality software that is quite easy to use. But more importantly, I wanted these systems to always be available to these people. I know that they might visit malicious sites. I wouldn't want that resulting in their systems being compromised just because of that.
You may deny it, but the fact of the matter is that Linux systems won't get infected with spyware at this time. Sure, that may change in the future, but I'm doubtful about that. The basic (yet significant) differences in code quality and architecture are enough to leave Linux (and other non-Microsoft) systems far more secure and usable, even in the fact of malicious software.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
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Re:The major lesson of all this.
(Score:5, Informative)People have been saying the same thing for IE vs. Firefox for a couple years now.
Guess what? I still don't see very many sites getting around Firefox's pop-up blocker, significantly exploiting it's weaknesses, or finding new security holes by the dozen. And yet... I continue to see it with IE. And don't be saying; "Firefox isn't popular, it'll happen eventually". My ass. It's been advertised into the ground.
Thus, the same concept with *nix vs. Windows. Windows is inherintly insecure, and by the nature of how it works and how it was designed, it makes it easier for advertisers to create software that'll mask itself from everything else. You simply CANT do this on Linux/Unix to the same degree, just as you simply CANT exploit Firefox the same way you can IE. Trust me, I've tried.
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http://marccooper.com/the-squandering-of-pacifica-radio/ ===
----The five-station, listener-sponsored, half-billion dollar Pacifica Radio network has just named a new executive director. Predictable enough that the new guy, Greg Guma, comes straight out of the pwogwessive bubble of Burlington. But what catches the eye is how Guma – who will now oversee the five stations—has written with enthusiasm about truly off-kilter conspiracy theorists like David Ray Griffin who argue that 9/11 was NOT caused by the four Al Qaeda—commandeered planes. Instead, Guma asks us to take seriously the proposition that the attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon were the product of a Reichstag-like plot engineered by the Bush Administration.
That proposition was described as “monstrous” by former CIA agent Bob Baer writing in The Nation magazine a couple of years ago (Baer’s story was the basis of the movie Syriana). Baer’s reaction to the same loon praised by Guma is the proper one: The Bushies may be liars but that is no reason to lie to ourselves and swoon over preposterous conspiracy theories.Unless, of course you are the new Executive Director of the Pacifica network. To be frank, for those of us who actually pay some attention to this matter, the selection of a non-credible fringie like Guma is hardly a surprise. Pacifica has been in accelerating decline for two decades – especially in the last five years (disclaimer: I did a daily drive-time show on Pacifica’s KPFK in Los Angeles from 1998-2001. I quit when an extreme know-nothing faction who believed that I and others were engaged in a darl "corporatist" conspiract to -gasp!- "mainstream" the programming took over the entire organization. My Radio Nation show, which was made available for free to hundreds of public radio stations and therefore to Pacifica, was also carried on KPFK until last month when the program moved –without me—to Air America). ----
This is a long, long, long way from the origins of the network. In its heyday – from the late 60’s and into the early 80’s—the bigger Pacifica stations were exciting and refreshing meeting points for artists, poets, musicians and free-thinkers. The air would be filled with live drama performances, poetry happenings, literary readings, world-class public affairs interviews, and quality music that ranged from the avant-garde to classical. While the programming always leaned decidedly left, you’d nevertheless find libertarians and Buddhists mixed in back to back with Communists, radicals, and liberals and even some odd conservatives (Caspar Weinberger was once a Pacifica commentator. Pauline Kael got her start reviewing movies for KPFA).
When Pacifica was once a magical place that taught you how to think it is now a dreary drumbeat telling you what to think. Its air is filled with shrill, clumsy and dogmatic denunciations of “fascism.” Any trace of high culture, meanwhile, has been ruthlessly rooted out and expunged. The program schedule is divvied up among self-appointed “community leaders”///////////////////////////
Re:BitComet anyone?
(Score:5, Insightful)Also of note, many people have replied and likely will continue to reply with propaganda that BitComet doesn't work with many "private trackers". This is laughable for a couple reasons.
First, BitComet's most recent release made this complaint irrelevant (clients don't identify).
Second, DHT networking is a truly peer to peer protocol meaning you are slightly safer with your illegal downloading from the autorities. DHT is used as a secondary downloading method, if say the tracker goes down.
Which leads to the third laughable reason, this pisses off "private trackers" because they don't get to keep stats on you (you think those stats are going to help you or hurt you?). Sure that's a little fucked up if you are "cheating" on ratios but guess what? These private trackers only exist to download illegal software, porn and media. These are hypocrites trying to make a _moral_ arguement about the use of bittorrent. Please join me in laughing these idiots off the internet. thx
Re:BitComet anyone?
(Score:5, Informative)WRONG!!!! In order for you to download content, you must be able to find other peers. And likewise, other peers must be able to find you. DHT does not magically make this requirement disappear. It's actually easier to find peers within DHT because there's no restrictions on accessing the swarm. With a private tracker, one must access that tracker to find the peers within the swarm. With DHT, anyone can find the peers for a swarm. DHT is more easily monitored making it much more dangerous.
The entire problem with BitComet was it's turning to DHT when the tracker was unavailable despite the torrent being marked as private. Some may call that a bug. But those that know bitvomit will suspect it was intentional...
You are completely mistaken about the reasons for a private tracker... illegal content is just as easily found on public trackers as well. The motive for a private tracker is fostering a community where people give back instead of take, take, take, and take some more. Remember suprnova, where there were swarms with thousands of peers yet the best anyone could download was a few kbps? Yet even on small "private"[*] trackers where swarms are just a few dozen peers (at best) download speeds were hundreds of kbps.
[*] "private" as in "registration required", but anyone can sig
Ugh, that's annoying.
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on Sunday January 22, @05:42PM (#14535070) (Last Journal: Thursday January 27, @07:41PM)
Once again, using BitTorrent in and of itself is not in the least bit illegal. Of course, neither is using a VCR to tape a television show. However, a huge number of people use BitTorrent to share materials that are copyrighted. The array is vast, from MP3s to first-run movies, and even entire seasons of TV shows zipped up into a single large file. And once again (say it with us), downloading copyrighted material without the permission of the copyright holder is illegal.
Replace BitTorrent with http, ftp or the web and you see how tiresome this kind of comment is. A huge number of people die driving. A huge number of people are murdered with pointy pieces of steel. A large number of people might not give the world's big publishers their money, with or without another internet protocol. The vast majority of musicians get ripped off.
Let me see if I can say it clearly. Sharing with your friends is not dirty. Cooperative systems add value.
People in the non free world just don't get it and covet all the wrong things. The value of source code is much greater than that of a binary file. The value of a live performance is much greater than a recording. A movie is worth about four dollars. What he values is something that's dead, things with greedy owners. The value of the internet is the exchange of free information, not dead stuff.
I've got a closet full of old crap he might consider valuable. I've got CDs, albums and tapes, which were worthless to me until I ripped them and stuck them on an sftp server. I've got shelves of DOS, Win3.1, Win95 and Windoze 98 software, all good for painful installations on obsolete hardware. The actual content made has been moved to free software systems when I was no longer able to access it with non free software. I keep it, some old books and even a working system or two around like museum pieces. The cost of replacement for my non free software is about 1 hour of install and download time, or a $500 trip to CompUSA. Mobility adds value to information and exposes the true value of non free information.
Will I use bt to share music and movies? Sure, if they are free. Those that are free are worth much more than those I can't share.
Do I share my own work? You bet I do.--
Friends don't help friends install MS junk.
sharing is good
(Score:5, Insightful) on Sunday January 22, @07:34PM (#14535554) (Last Journal: Thursday January 27, @07:41PM)
If I can't share it with my friends, it's not free.
If it's the latter, it's copyright infringement - meaning taht, yes, "Sharing with your friends" is, indeed, "dirty."
You asking me not to share with my friends is the dirty part and a good enough reason to avoid your work. A library is not dirty. A few copies are not a republication. The end of physical media is going to be difficult for people who think they own ideas because they put them on dead trees. Copyright has gone far beyond it's original intention and purpose of promoting the sciences and useful arts. People who insist that sharing is dirty should be shunned.
=====================http://slyck.com/guides.php [slyck.com]
end of http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=174724&threshold=5&mode=thread&commentsort=0&op=Change
posted by USSSlavebation @ 1/24/2006 11:09:00 am
0 comments
January 24th, 2006 at 7:06 am
Wow! Pacifica Radio has so much in common with Pajamas Media. Loads of money and fuckwits at the top.
January 24th, 2006 at 7:08 am
There are days when your stuff reads just the same way. These are your people. Have another glass of kool aid.
January 24th, 2006 at 6:08 am
Of course, President Bush is not a liar. Repeating information that you believe is true is not lying. Bush is, in fact, one of the most "honest", straight-talking presidents of the modern era. Calling him a liar is not that far removed from believing in crazy conspiracies; it’s simply a matter of degree. The left has truly become unhinged, in my opinion, and that really is a shame.
MORE ON IRAN, and what to do.
UPDATE: Sorry, that link was open when I posted it, but the Weekly Standard folks seem to have closed it down now; I guess it wasn't meant to be publicly available yet. My apologies to all concerned.
posted at 11:22 AMCARNIVAL-O-RAMA: The Carnival of the Capitalists and the Blawg Review are up. Also the Tangled Bank, the Carnival of Cars, and Haveil Havalim. Want more carnivals? They're all right here, at BlogCarnival.com.
And, with today's elections in Canada, you'll want to check out the Canadian Red Ensign Standard carnival.
UPDATE: Plus, the Carnival of the Cats!
posted at 10:54 AM by Glenn ReynoldsHOWARD KURTZ offers some advance notice for An Army of Davids.
He also mentions Kos's new book (coauthored with Jerome Armstrong) and this passage sounds like something I could agree with:
I don't think I'd like a Democratic party remade in Kos's image, but admitting you have a problem is the first step to dealing with it. And here's more evidence that reality can transcend partisanship at times:
BRAD RUBENSTEIN is blogging from Digital Life Day in Munich. Excerpt:
Indeed.
VIDEOGAMES: Defending the American way of life!
Heh. Indeed.
TEJU COLE is blogging from Lagos.
Meanwhile, here's some unfortunate information from elsewhere in Nigeria:
Corruption and bad government -- a recipe for disaster. And, God knows, Nigeria has both in copious quantities. On the other hand, if you put this together with trouble in Iran, and Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, it almost looks as if somebody is trying to put a lot of oil sources under pressure simultaneously.
UPDATE: A troubling email from James Egan:
Perhaps the hostage taking and the threats on oil production in Nigeria is motivated by pollution, corruption or poverty or... Maybe... it's more complicated than that.
Nigeria has the largest Muslim population in Africa after Egypt -- about 50% of the country. 12 states have already implemented shari'ah and there's pressure on others to do the same. (Link)
While most of the Muslims live in the north, the dude leading up the insurrection in the delta region (where the oil is), from the Ijaw tribe, is a Muslim. In fact, he is a great admirer of bin Laden, so much so he's named one of his kids Osma in the terrorist's honor. Saying "...in admiration of the courage of Osama I named my child Osama. But that is my own personal belief. I admire Osama." (Link)
Nice t-shirts too. (Link)
This is an ever more important region and our military has it on radar but recent events there, along with the antics in Iran and the recent bin Laden tapes makes me wonder what's grand scheme is under foot (Link).
It is said that the brilliance in Reagan's B team was that it identified the Soviet economy as their weak spot thereby enabling us to defeat them without firing a shot. Perhaps the Islamists have been good students. Maybe they see a kink in our armor and are in the final days of preparing to pry it open.
If the Iranians can get the dollar to collapse by tying their oil sales to the Euro (Link) as is planned for March, if bin laden can successfully attack us at home again as he threatened, if oil climbs above $100 a barrel and if the Mid-East become a tinderbox, could we manage better than the Soviets did in the 80's?
Certainly the Muslim world is aware of the opportunity.
(Link)
What did the recent bin Laden tape state, "diamonds cut diamonds". Boy that has a strange and eerie ring to it.
Maybe we need take a wider view of recent events? I'm just saying, that's all.
Read the whole thing. I told you it was going to be big!
UPDATE: In short order, numerous readers sent variations on this comment, from reader Byron Matthews:
To be fair to the Times Book Review, it's in quotes (indicating that it's what the writer thinks others might think) -- and the passage explodes a view that is, I suspect, overrepresented among NYT readers. That's a good thing.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Here's more on the term "white trash," from Ed Driscoll.
MORE: Read this insightful observation from Shannon Love, too.
bah
(Score:5, Funny)(http://westernesse.net/)
filter: +3. Hey, look! all the trolls went away!
Re:bah
(Score:5, Interesting)(http://www.darkside.no/)