I've gotten popped for every response I've given, but I have enough karma to buy Florida, so I don't care. (I post at 1 for fun.) But you seem genuine and intelligent, so you deserve some answers.
First of all, I run only one linux server. Everything else is OS X. So, no I'm not married to linux and I do run proprietary software when it is most useful to do so.
But I also have a problem with the semantics of "botnet" because the use of the word outside of the technical community has the connotation of an autonomously replicating system. I now understand technical people want to give the word a more relaxed meaning and they enforce that definition with negative mod points. But, outside of the technical community, the "generally accepted" definition is vague and if you asked Joe Regular Guy directly, you'd probably learn that autonomous propagation is implicit, once you explained the concept to him. "Botnet" ain't exactly in Funk and Wagnalls, by the way.
Also, my first linux box was rootkitted through the FTP server, and so I learned about the pitfalls of poor security on linux a long time ago. No one needs to explain to me that it can be vulnerable.
The lesson here is to not use the word "a*******f" and "M*******t" in the same sentence. That will get you popped by hidden forces and flamed by Anonymous Cowards.
I use pylab and scipy as a replacement for Matlab. But it's really frustrating because sometimes you do an update and everything can bust because this or that lib won't compile with your current compiler or this or that dependency is not available or it wont work with X or aqua term or whatever.
On OS X, matplotlib (pylab), numpy, and scipy are all single click installers now for python 2.5, which is itself a single click installer. I put all these through their paces daily and the newest installs are rock solid.
Just as you wouldn't buy OS X 10.6 and install it before the second point upgrade (e.g. 10.6.2), you shouldn't try to upgrade to python 2.6 before all of the other scientific packages are ready.
Maintaining a python 2.5 scientific environment has never been easier on OS X and ubuntu. I think it's even easy on windows with enthought.
Sorry, but by that logic, wouldn't you--explicitly--be one as well?
Astroturfers get paid. You decide.
If I had mod points, I'd mod you Troll.
You don't get mod points because when you get them you mod inappropriately.
Did you even read what I linked to? A botnet is a collection of compromised computers that share a Command and Control channel.
Ok. I went back and read the definitions.
I like this one:
The term often applies to groups of computer systems that have had malicious software installed by worms, Trojan horses or other malicious software.
And you like the one that fits your fiscal agenda. So I'm not the only one who selects their definitions, am I? You. Are. An. Astroturfer.
Because the generally accepted definitions don't suit your purpose?
Define "generally accepted".
"define: botnet"
I suspect you are astroturfing for MS here and so will want "botnet" to mean "any set of two or more compromised computers". But that definition means that the number of windows botnets would be astronomical, so be careful about your definitions.
Instead I propose the following definition:
botnet: an automated and self propagating network of compromised machines.
If "self propagating" is essential to the definition of "botnet" then the group of manually compromised linux machines is not a botnet.
Rather than the point-and-click convenience you'd expect on windows.
It's not that easy on MS windows. After you click the link to the tennis player nudie pix, your machine locks up. Then you have to *hard reboot* (without the help of the blue screen to let you know your computer crashed). Only after you hard reboot, usually by pulling the power cord all the way out, can you run the botnet software.
Windows really isn't as user friendly for botnets as everyone thinks it is. I hope 7 does better.
This isn't technically a botnet:
It's unclear exactly how the servers have become infected. Sinegubko speculates they belong to careless administrators who allowed their root passwords to be sniffed. Indeed, the part of the multi-staged attack that plants malicious iframes into legitimate webpages uses FTP passwords that have been stolen using password sniffers. It's likely the zombie servers were compromised in the same fashion, he explained.
These are simply rootkitted servers and they appear to have been done manually. The unique aspect of this is that it seems to be coordinated, so the MS astroturf team has decided to call it a "botnet".
No shit, Sherlock?
Sherlock was actually the sleuth from some fictional stories written long ago. So it's inaccurate to use "Sherlock" here.
If I hear one more person use "Sherlock" in the wrong context, my brain is going to explode because they don't know proper usage.
The term you are looking for is "fucktard".
Learn English.
That sill doesn't explain why placebos are now nearly twice as effective as ~1990, but this paragraph from the article might be a factor:
Because if you have an imaginary concocted ailment like restless leg syndrome or hyperactivity, then the imaginary effects of a sugar pill are going to work well to alleviate the imaginary symptoms of the imaginary disease.
Pharmaceutical companies define disease these days. They advertise diseases and they push doctors to prescribe their poisonous ineffective chemicals to treat the advertised diseases.
You could probably find a correlation between the number of advertised diseases like restless leg syndrome and this so called "placebo effect".
Anyone that thinks Jesus was some hippy "I'm OK, You're OK" kind of guy really has never read the Bible.
That's because any religion that doesn't aim to (1) convert others and (2) kill those who won't be converted is not going to make it in the long run. Over 2000 years, "I'm ok, your ok." looses to "I'm ok, you aren't, it's your kneecaps or my religion."
3) Make said songs available for ipod download.
Nice plan until Apple decides which songs can be downloaded onto their hardware. Try again.
With your bare hands?!?
