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Slashback: Gaping, Wristwear, Screenies 231

Posted by timothy from the happy-birthday-to-me dept.
Slashback with ever more on ... the massive bust of illegal software producers reported on last week, the gaping security hole moaned at by those confined to the Microsoft asylum, another review of the new Linux+Java Zaurus from Sharp, and how to get the binary watch you've always wanted. Enjoy!

Too bad there isn't a lot of good Free software. aka-ed writes: "A small update on the "Drink Or Die" busts: Apparently, the feds' move has borne preventative fruit. According to this post from one of the major commercial Usnet services, binaries traffic on Usenet has taken a noticeable hit since the bust, for reasons speculated upon in the post itself."

Open wide, and say "mmmmghrfgghfgr." atreus42 writes: "Microsoft has released a patch to fix the Gaping Security Hole(TM) in Internet Explorer 5.5 and 6.0. This security bulletin details the file extension/content header spoofing bug that would allow bad people to disguise a downloadable executable file as text. The internet isn't doomed after all..."

How to make my Visor look slow and lowly. Sindre Lia writes "Sharp's new Zaurus SL5500 is the first PDA device from a major manufacturer in a long time that uses a new operating system and a new user interface.

According to preliminary reports from infoSync staffers Larry Garfield and Janice Karin that attended the launch of the SL-5500 and got hands-on experience with the new device, the GUI still needs polishing and to some degree also the hardware, but the device has according to them a lot of potential if some first-generation problems can be fixed.

See all the pictures of the new OS here!"

At least this letter is not in binary ... Dog and Pony writes with a lengthy letter (informative, if you have odd taste in watches). "Slashdot recently ran a story about a pretty silly binary watch. Well, anyways, being a silly person, I thought one would be cool to have, even though I normally don't wear watches.

Problem was, they only shipped inside Norway... so I sent them a polite mail, asking them to notify me if they would start shipping internationally. And today I got an answer.

Too bad it seems a really cumbersome process to get that watch... have these guys never heard of PayPal? And offering payment via the www in 2003? 'Course, you gotta have goals...

Here is a copy of the mail:

> Dear Customer

> Please note the binary watch is released World-Wide Sale

> To be able to expedite your orders please follow instructions below

> 1.0
> Order Your watch by using or online home page:rsi-digital.com

> 2.0
> US$ 35 must be transfer from your local bank to

> ATT
> NORDEA BANK NORWAY
> Middelthuns Gt 17
> Postboks 1166.Centrum
> 0107 OSLO

> ACCOUNT NUMBER: 6527 05 04641
> Research & Supplier International A/S
> Postboks 236
> 4201 Sauda
> Norway

> 3.0
> Original receipt must be faxed to +47 52 78 88 01 or send scanned and send by mail to arramsta@online.no

> 4.0
> Your order will than be expedite from our sales office

> Delivery time is estimated to be 10 to 14 days after received confirmed payment by fax or mail as stated above

> 5.0
> Note: RSI will from 2003 offer payment by using WWW.

> 6.0
> Payment 35USD cover cost of watch 28 USD handling and postage 7 USD
> Total:
> =35 USD

> Best Regards

> Tone Yven
> Sales engineer

I am still thinking that black one....

On a side note, to us non-native English speakers, that has spent too much time in Dilbert-land, "Sales engineer" really sounds like an oxymoron."
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Slashback: Gaping, Wristwear, Screenies More

Slashback: Gaping, Wristwear, Screenies

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  • That M$ Patch... (Score:4, Informative)

    by Kris_J ( 10111 ) on Tuesday December 18, 2001 @07:07PM (#2723711) Homepage Journal
    ...Is only available to IE 5.5SP1 and 6. I have 5.5 and a 56k modem. It will take me about 5 hours and a version upgrade to fix a small security hole. I've already tried once and inital crapplet that is required to start the download of IE5.5SP1 failed to complete its 400k-ish download. I'm seriously considering swapping to another browser.

    • Why don't you order the CD? (Score:5, Informative)

      by SlashChick ( 544252 ) <erica@e[ ]a.biz ['ric' in gap]> on Tuesday December 18, 2001 @07:23PM (#2723823) Homepage Journal
      You're going to have just as many problems downloading another browser as you are downloading the patch. Instead, why don't you order the IE6 CD? [microsoft.com] It costs $10. There's also another one that includes Windows Media Player for $10.

      Also, I believe that the free 30-day trial CDs of Earthlink and such have the latest IE on them. You should be able to get this from an office supply store or computer store.

      Finally, if you have a friend with broadband, or you have a fast work connection, you can use the advanced option in IE's install to save the files to a disk instead of just installing it directly. Burn to a CD and you're all set.
      • Okay, I'm in Australia, not working and don't have any friends with broadband. Perth barely has broadband at all.

        What I thought I might do is find a secure older browser on a magazine cover CD and install it. Does anyone know which versions of Netscape are "safe" (no bugs, no holes, no need to upgrade)

        All I want is a browser, I have a separate email package (Eudora) and a separate news reader (Free Agent). I already kill a lot of Javascript with Proxomitron (which can also alter user-agent) and I don't have flash or shockwave installed, so I won't miss them -- perhaps someone could suggest a simple, fast, small, stable, secure browser other than the Big 2.

        • The Opera download (especially without the JVM) is teensy compared to an IE or mozilla download. Also, consider using GetRight or Download Accelerator, or practically anything that allows you to resume downloads - saved me from MUCH aggravation in my modem days (about a month ago :P)

        • Re:Why don't you order the CD? (Score:4, Funny)

          by daniel_isaacs ( 249732 ) on Tuesday December 18, 2001 @07:48PM (#2723945) Homepage
          Does anyone know which versions of Netscape are "safe" (no bugs, no holes, no need to upgrade)
          You have to be kidding me. :)

        • Opera is one alternative [karma is low; plz rate!] (Score:5, Interesting)

          by mccormick ( 40772 ) on Tuesday December 18, 2001 @08:00PM (#2723990)
          One quality alternative to Netscape and IE is Opera [opera.com]. It is on the larger side, as it is trying to compete with IE, but it is fast and secure. The gestures are especially useful; they make me feel like I'm a kid again painting with my hands. Opera is also available for a number of platforms, including your favourite forms of free Unix (i.e. Linux) and Windows. Could help to make your workspaces consistent, if you work on multiple platforms.

          Apart from the well known ones, the only other types of alternatives I can think of are the stripped down Gecko systems (Gecko being the HTML renderer built out of the Mozilla project.) They repackage the core technology, without the rest of the stuff would typically gives Mozilla its reputation for being slow, bloated or inefficient. Gecko, by itself, is a very small, fast and efficient core, comparable to the IE renderer. Most of the ones I've seen are for Linux-type systems, though, like Galeon [sourceforge.net]. And don't forget that Gecko, Mozilla, Netscape 4.7 and Netscape 6 are differnet beasts, but all closely related.

          Note! If a moderator would care to help me along in the karma department... I don't know what I did (I don't post often), but every time I post I get can automatic -1. Please see the value of my comments for whatever they are worth! Thank you!
          • Gecko is a steaming, slow pile of shit in everything that it has been packaged in that Ive seen. Galeon is incredibly slow when compared to Opera, and Galeon is the lightest Gecko based browser that I can find.

            i really wish that Evolution had the ability to load HTML mail into a different browser, because just hitting it in the preview pane with Gecko causes a 3-5 second lag time before Evolution starts responding again, and that's before it even gets the message displaying.
      • Yeah, because we all know that M$ instantly threw away all the IE CDs without the fix, and ran a new batch that don't have the issue, and will gladly send you one of those. Dream on. He is going to pay for a version where he will have to d/l the patch anyway.
    • don't just consider it .. download yourself a copy of mozilla 0.9.6 .. the tabbed browsing rawks .. & with the load on startup option, it'll feel just as fast as internet explorer.
      • Just so you all know, I downloaded IE6 (about 9MB), then I downloaded the Uber-patch (2-3MB). It took about 4 hours total including download and reboot time (2 reboots, plus a lot of system updates). And when I'd finished all that there's a note on Dshield of another stupid Java or Javascript security hole in IE. I have since downloaded Mozilla and so far so good. If I need IE for something I care about then I'll power it up, otherwise it's Mozilla unless something goes badly wrong.
    • I'm seriously considering swapping to another browser.
      Give Opera [opera.com] a try. Well worth it and it is nice you can switch between Linux and Windows (plus a ton other incl way cool QNX [qnx.com]) and still have the same interface.
      • opera kicks ass
        • Opera is cool. If you take a few minutes to explore it's nifty features, you'll be a happier person.
          Plus... it's small, fast, compatible with most webpages, and, not microsoft.
        • Indeed, I switched to Opera from IE on a /. suggestion a few days ago and there's no way I'll ever go back. The only real problem I've seen is that it tends to crash a bit on this machine, but then it has no problem starting up right where I left it. I swear, being able to save the window setup is friggin fantastic.
      • I use a hotmail addy (mostly because i've had it since the front page proudly explaimed something like _10000_ users, so I've got a good one) & hate the fact that they butcher all the links in an email. I read several forums, many of which can't cope with the fubar'd links. So surprise, surprise when I found that most of them _worked_perfectly_ if viewed with Konquerer rather then IE. I don't generally like to get on the "bashin' wagin'" but you'd think that a M$'s geberated page ('cause they butchered it, remember) with a M$'s browser should work.

    • Re:That M$ Patch... (Score:5, Informative)

      by joebp ( 528430 ) on Tuesday December 18, 2001 @07:47PM (#2723941) Homepage
      I'm seriously considering swapping to another
      May I be the first to suggest Opera 6 [opera.com].

      A quick rundown of the pros and cons of moving:

      Good:

      • Not Microsoft -- doesn't have stupid holes, and the ones it does have are fixed quickly.
      • Not Microsoft -- they're a nice bunch of intelligent people who go about their business, selling their software through information rather than disinformation.
      • The browsing experience is absolutely delectable! For example, I wasn't sure whether 'delectable' was the right word just then... In IE I'd have to open a new window, go to dictionary.com or similar, type in delectable, click submit, read results... In Opera I double click on the word, and click 'Dictionary' from the dropdown menu.
      • Customize until you drop dead.
      • Built in Pop-up control.
      • Standards compliant
      • Use (BeOS|Linux/Solaris|Mac|OS/2|QNX|Symbian OS|Windows)? Then learn to use Opera for (BeOS|Linux/Solaris|Mac|OS/2|QNX|Symbian OS|Windows). Then you can switch to (BeOS|Linux/Solaris|Mac|OS/2|QNX|Symbian OS|Windows) and retain your browser UI.
      Bad:
      • Not free -- but you get what you pay for afterall, and if you don't want to pay, you can use an advert-ed version (not as painful as you might think).
      • Not open-source -- but neither is IE.
      • Not as forgiving as IE on bad coding -- but this is really not an issue with Opera at all, just people who don't understand HTML.

      • Re:That M$ Patch... (Score:1, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward
        In IE, I just select the word, right click and choose Dictionary from the menu. I can do the same for Google searches, and for google-image searches.

        In Opera, when you remove the scrollbar, why doesn't the page get resized to fill the space vacated by the scrollbar?
      • And although Opera isn't Open-Source, they're certainly open to ideas. I know that several of the ideas I've had -- show window size is one, IIRC -- have been implemented. It's delightful. :-)

      • Re:That M$ Patch... (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Kris_J ( 10111 ) on Tuesday December 18, 2001 @08:19PM (#2724061) Homepage Journal
        Choose between downloading the free ad-supported version with all features and functionality included, or download and purchase your copy of Opera for 39 USD.
        Uhh, no thanks. Choosing between ads and A$80 is not my idea of a good time, at least not until I'm working again.

        Ultimately, I think I use too many services that won't work on anything but the Big 2 (I have to bypass my proxy for things like Netbank, eBay, Blogger, etc). What I really need is a way of fixing this file type attachment hole without having to download a patch. Has anyone worked out a custom filter for Proxomitron [proxomitron.org] that detects malformed MIME type stuff...?

        • Re:That M$ Patch... (Score:2, Interesting)

          by TaxSlave ( 23295 )

          Uhh, no thanks. Choosing between ads and A$80 is not my idea of a good time, at least not until I'm working again.

          I used to think the same way. When Netscape on my Linux box died temporarily, I decided to live with the ads until I could fix Netscape. It was the best browser move I ever made.

          All the positive statements above are true. Opera is truly an improvement on the web experience offered by Netscape and IE. Tabbed windows (also in Galeon) are my favorite feature. Speed is a close second (I have 40 meg of memory on a Pentium 200mhz).

          What feature do I wish I had in Opera? (or any other browser, for that matter) Fool web pages into thinking I'm running Windows, and let me load them. What's with all the unloadable websites? Some sites, I can't load in ANY browser, but can load on a windows machine quickly.

    • what do you mean "seriously considering"? not something you'd want to ponder over too long ;)
    • What about K-Meleon [sourceforge.net]? This is IMHO one of the best *browsers* (i.e. no mail client, no news client, no blot) out there. It uses the gecko [mozilla.org] (i.e. Mozilla's) rendering engine. It's open source (GPLed [gnu.org]). It's almost completely bug less (and the bugs are all UI, not the "I can delete your hard drive" variety). It's multi-lingual. It's secure. It's easy. And to your question it's small (3.89 mb [sourceforge.net]). It kicks butt.


      ----------
      SLEEP IS FOR THE WEAK.
      WHEN YOU SLEEP THEY EAT YOUR TOES.

  • resources (Score:5, Informative)

    by 4mn0t1337 ( 446316 ) on Tuesday December 18, 2001 @07:08PM (#2723718)
    Well, if the feds would just dedicate as much manpower to dealing with spammers as they do to pirates, it would make all our lives easier.

    Drop in usenet traffic? Howzabout a drop in mail traffic?

    And wasn't the microsoft "gaping security hole" patch covered a few days ago?

    • I would venture to guess that the amount of money lost to the resources used and stolen by spammers is probably close to or soon will top revenue lost to pirated software

      Its not just pipe, cpu, and diskspace, but think about all the productivity lost

      especially when people spend an extra five minutes around the water cooler bitching about the spam they get ;)
      • the amount of money lost to the resources used and stolen by spammers

        Yup. That was my point. But the thing is, M$, Adobe, Etc all have budgets for lobbiest. We don't. Who do you think they (law makers and law enforcement) are going to listen to?

        US$500M dollars lost to 1 company is a big deal.
        US$50 dollars lost to 10M people ain't no thing.

        Now, if congress could "feel our pain" (as an expression common to the time put it) things might change.
        To that end, I suggest that everytime you get a mail with a bogus "unsubscribe notice" at the bottom, I suggest you change the reply to the eddress of your elected reps.
        See how long they (Okay, thier staff and interns) think Spam *isn't* a problem...

        (oh, nice PJ quote.)

      • Spam's cost topped piracy's cost a long time ago. Spam costs real money in all the ways you mentioned. Piracy's cost is imaginary. Multiplying the retail price by the total number of copies found anywhere is a ludicrous way to calculate lost sales.

        Intellectual dishonesty from Washington? FUD from Redmond? What is this world coming to?

  • Gaping security holes (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    http://www.sans.org/topten.htm [sans.org]

    Unix and Linux are doing great!!!!!! None of those "gaping holes" that MS has. Yes, bash away, for everyone knows it's MICROSOFT that's responsible for all those gaping security holes. Really. Really. No kidding. Seriously.

    • Re:Gaping security holes (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      http://www.attrition.org/mirror/attrition/os.html

      From the latest month available (May 2001):
      Linux: 9.89% of total defacements
      Win NT/2000: 81.79%

      Now do you really believe that Windows is installed on 8 times as many webservers as Linux is? Take a look at netcraft.com. So it would appear that Windows based webservers are far more likely to be defaced than Linux.

      All software has bugs, and some bugs are exploitable. Linux and Unix just have fewer.

      • Re:Gaping security holes (Score:2, Informative)

        by Osty ( 16825 )

        Of course, web site defacements are pretty trivial compared to other things. How many linux boxes do you think are sitting out there on cable modems, with a default "install everything" redhat install, running BIND? Where do you think all the DDoS kiddies get their bandwidth? Hacked linux boxes on broadband connections. Personally, I'd much rather have a defaced web site, because even though I'd still have to do a reinstall to make sure the system was clean, at least I'd know about it. If instead my box was rooted and used in a DDoS, my only inclination something is wrong would be when I can't check my e-mail or my web browsing was going much slower than usual. Hell, the box could be rooted for months, or even years, and I'd never know. (note: "I" here is the "collective I", not me in particular.) Linux, or any unix for that matter, is much more dangerous when compromised than any Windows box.

    • I just thought of something... if there was a gunmaker that made a gun with a bug, and the bug was that if the gun is shot straight up in the air (not often but it happens), the bullet would actually come out of the back of the gun and kill the shooter.
      Now, imagine the same gunmaker telling people that there's nothign wrong with their guns, that the fault is with the people telling the shooters to shoot straight up in the air...

      True, these people would be malicious, and EVIL in the Bush sense, but they are utilizing a flaw in the gun that shouldn't be there to begin with.

      I would bet that only the incompetent and ignorant would buy that sort of gun (not that incompetent and ignorant people should be buying guns, mind you) and then shoot straight up in the air when the l33t says to.

      This is to say that both the virus writer and the software writer are to blame (in criminal court with fines and jail time), one for exploiting a flaw, the other for providing the means to.

      There should be a government mandated warning on all microsoft software, and all computers with microsoft software preistalled that reads, in 72 point red letters "Consumer Warning: This software can be used by criminals to steal and destroy your personal information. Exercise caution."

      That way, people who got a virus would blame microsoft ALONG with the virus writer.

      ==

      The reality is that nothing like that will ever happen. (sig-in-training)

      • Corollary: (Score:3, Funny)

        by Fat Casper ( 260409 )
        Gun manufacturers can legally be sued over the actions of criminals who happen to use their products. Using the new definition of terrorism, we should be able to lock up Bill & Co. and throw away the key.

        Of course, that also goes for the Linux distros that default install with everything enabled. All those helpless, rooted lusers would be giving the "I was cleaning it and didn't know it was loaded" line.

        "The idea that an arbitrary naive human should be able to properly use a given tool without training or understanding is even more wrong for computing than it is for other tools (e.g. automobiles, airplanes, guns, power saws)." -- Doug Gwyn

  • Northern Europeans and six-bit words (Score:5, Funny)

    by GlobalEcho ( 26240 ) on Tuesday December 18, 2001 @07:12PM (#2723749)
    On a side note, to us non-native English speakers, that has spent too much time in Dilbert-land, "Sales engineer" really sounds like an oxymoron."

    Leave it to a Nordic to apologize for their English, and then use a word that 1/2 the high school students in the USA couldn't define, all in the same sentence.
  • They sent me an email saying that they'll be accepting credit card payments on the binary watch in "ten days". that was about four days ago. I hope it's true. I want one so bad.
    • They sent me an email saying that they'll be accepting credit card payments on the binary watch in "ten days". that was about four days ago. I hope it's true. I want one so bad.

      Four days ago they said that they would be accepting credit cards in 10 days? Binary? Look again, they have probably started accepting credit card orders two days ago. You waited twice as long as necessary.

  • Disappointing link (Score:5, Funny)

    by victim ( 30647 ) on Tuesday December 18, 2001 @07:13PM (#2723759)
    When I see a link on the internet for massive bust [slashdot.org] I don't usually expect to get a page of text...
    • Lt. Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) introduces himself to chesty Monique De Carlo (Gina Mastrogiancomo) in Naked Gun 2 1/2. The Smell of Fear (1991): - Lt. Drebin: 'Lt. Frank Drebin of Police Squad.' - Monique: 'Is this some kind of bust?' - Lt. Drebin: 'Yes, it's very impressive, but we need to ask you some questions.'
  • what do you think that infared watch is? It'll be interesting to see what they mean by sending "virus" to each other. Is that actually virus in the sense of computers and M$ and all that, or is it just a game? ooh the suspense.
  • If this is the same one they showed at Java One last year (conspiciously playing high frame rate videos of bikini clad women dancing in the rain) it is very cool. The Java layer means a short dev cycle and a highly configurable UI and the back end stability's got to be pretty good.

    I was impressed back in June, i'm excited to see the final product (and for reasons other than the bikini videos)

    • Re:Sharp Zarus (Score:2, Informative)

      by jockm ( 233372 )
      The Zarus that was demoed at JavaOne was running Embeddix+AmigaDE. Somewhere along the line they dropped AmigaDE, now it is running Embeddix+QT+Jeode. Still very cool though...

  • MSIE Patch is Ineffective (Score:5, Informative)

    by Jeremiah Cornelius ( 137 ) on Tuesday December 18, 2001 @07:38PM (#2723900) Homepage Journal
    She and her beta team forgot about *the* most important Content-Type: The MSIE 'Patch' does little but obscure the problem - which was accurately described in the original Slashdot Rant [slashdot.org] as a natural consequence of Windows treating the browser as a shell extension.

    There is a thread on BugTraq [securityfocus.com] which explores this issue in depth:

    http-equiv@excite.com is quoted:
    Clearly what this so-called "patch" does is convert all embedded file types in MHTML documents viewed in patched Internet Explorer 6 into *.TMP files. Previously all file types and file names were retained and if accepted would run.

  • MS patch and unsupported OS (Score:3, Insightful)

    by LauraLolly ( 229637 ) on Tuesday December 18, 2001 @07:39PM (#2723902)
    I run Win 95 and IE 5.5. The patch doesn't work. It hangs. Apparently, it was created for Win 98 up, but I can't find any documentation to that effect.

    Aaaarrrrrgh! Senior moments are nothing to Microsoft Moments.

    Guess I'll be using Netscape exclusively from now on.

  • What about a UNIX watch? (Score:5, Funny)

    by MadCow42 ( 243108 ) on Tuesday December 18, 2001 @07:40PM (#2723908) Homepage
    Would YOU have been thrilled to see your watch roll over with the UNIX clock a few months back?

    "What time is it?"

    "Hmmm.... it says 1008722379... I'm not sure if that's AM or PM though."

    MadCow

  • Paying for the Binary Watch online.. (Score:5, Informative)

    by evel aka matt ( 123728 ) on Tuesday December 18, 2001 @07:42PM (#2723915)
    Actually, about 3 days after that letter went out, they sent one saying that you would be able to use a credit card online within 10 days, and also gave simplified payment instructions.

  • As unwilling as ever to accept blame. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Derek Pomery ( 2028 ) on Tuesday December 18, 2001 @07:45PM (#2723929)
    File Name Spoofing Vulnerability:

    * The determination on choosing to accept a file download from an Internet site should always be based on the trustworthiness of the source and not on the file type. File downloads should never be accepted from an untrusted source, no matter how harmless the type may appear to be.

    No, it was a stupid design that allowed quiet execution due to the combination of content-type and file extension checking. When I download a PDF, I should be confident that unless I try running it in some fashion, it should be perfectly safe to download it to my machine.
    Or just to make an extreme case, if I download an HTML usenet post, I don't want the browser trying to automatically convert the BASE64 to an executable and running that.
    Some common sense on MS' part would've been appreciated.

  • Now you know what it feels like... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by nzgeek ( 232346 ) on Tuesday December 18, 2001 @07:46PM (#2723933) Homepage Journal
    ...to try to buy anything if you don't live in the US!
    Perhaps 25% of sites that offer online purchasing are so USA-centric it's crazy. I guess that's part of living in New Zealand, but come on US$35 to ship a paper back book!? I can send one to my sister in NYC for NZ$12 (US$5 ish)
    • The cost depends on how it is shipped. AFAIK most US-based online purchasing shipment is done via UPS. Depending on what is shipped and how it is shipped (UPS ground, Next Day Air, 2nd Day Air, etc.) it can cost more or less than what it would cost to ship the same item via the US Post Office or Fedex.

      Many places only offer shipment to the continental US because dealing with UPS for international/overseas shipping is a huge pain in the ass in my experience, and AFAIK you need special authorization (so that customs doesn't have to open every box and see what's inside).

  • Not really OT.

    After /. posted the Uplink article [slashdot.org], the introversion server went down. But now the server came back up [introversion.co.uk] yesterday (Monday), so you may now place your orders.

  • Text Entry on the Zaurus? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by sterno ( 16320 ) on Tuesday December 18, 2001 @08:03PM (#2724003) Homepage
    The one thing that has kept me loyal to the Palm derivatives is Grafitti. It is a really excellent way to enter text quickly and accurately (for the most part). What are people's opinions of the Zaurus keyboard. It looks too small to be useful, so I was curious to know what people who have tried one think.
    • I thought that my huge thumbs would make typing on the Zaurus keyboard hard, but I find that I can type accurately and pretty quickly. It's very much like a blackberry keyboard.

      In addition to the keyboard, there's handwriting recognition (with a scrolling list of possible completion words) and a typewriter pick tool. I like that there are seperate entry areas for Uppercase, lowercase and numbers on the handwriting recognition tool.
      • Yeah, the auto-word completion is pretty nice.
        And the pickboard is really cool (imagine using
        a phone to type in words... as you press
        [ABC], [DEF], [GHI], etc., it displays all known
        words that can be made of those combinations
        (it's pretty much just regexp'ing for the letter
        combos)).

        Of course, I never use the on-screen stuff unless
        my Zaurus happens to be in its cradle
        (unfortunately, you can't slide open the keyboard
        in that situation).

        I'm hoping to see a plain USB->Sharp-I/O-port
        cable, so that I can have a connection to the
        desktop, but not be constrained to on-screen text
        entry, and trying to tap/write on the screen while
        it's sitting upright in the cradle.

        (This is one thing Agenda did really smart: the
        cradle has no cord coming out of it... you simply
        plug the serial cord into the back of the cradle
        if you want to use it... otherwise, you can just
        plug it into the bottom of the PDA itself).

        Of course, at this point, us SL-5000D owners can't
        even get a spare charger or cradle (that I know
        of), so I'm not too concerned. These kind of
        niceity peripherals will come soon enough :)
    • I use the keyboard 99% of the time when I use my
      Zaurus. For me, it's far more efficient than
      anything else I've used (Grafitti on PalmOS,
      Xscribble and Xmerlin recognition engines on
      the Agenda, and even the really nice, trainable
      handwriting recognition on the Zaurus itself).

      If you really think your thumbs are too big for
      the keyboard, the handwriting is up to par, in my
      opinion. I haven't done any clinical studies :)
      but I'm guessing I can write about as quickly on
      the Palm, the Zaurus and the Agenda (running
      Xmerlin).
  • Although I am not an avid 'C' Programmer, I cannot comprehend how a security hole THAT LARGE could occur, oh, right.... M$ likes to reuse DLL's and API's as much as possible to reduse cost..

    Why isn't there a top-level authority to inform the public/community on such security issues? RedHat seems to make bug/hole info widely available, and quickly fixable.

    I think there should be more pressure on large corps in this matter to protect the community.

    What ever happened to quality assurance?
    • what the hell?

      you're actually trying to criticise people for code re-use?

      last i checked (and i admit that this was probably ooh... minutes ago) creating libraries of common functions was a credible, recommended, even applauded way of reducing clutter and inventing the wheel once, and only once.

      in fact, i think that everyone everywhere whenever they do anything on a computer (that isn't in machine-code or assembler) generally uses a library as part of their work. i know i do.

      it's amazing, but it reduces, complexity, effort and yes, even cost.

      and even his eminence mr. torvalds does it? astounding.

  • A bit on the MIT bust... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by neoptik ( 130091 ) on Tuesday December 18, 2001 @08:28PM (#2724099) Homepage
    Turns out it was a sys-admin in the economics department here. He was a student at another Boston area university, working for the MIT department of Economics, and he also happened to be second in command of a rather large warez ring.


    Anyway, the details. He had around 10 machines just sitting underneath a table in the server room, with a combined storage of 2 terabytes. Apparantly, he was eating up 8-20 megabits of MIT's bandwidth a day. Needless to say, he is no longer employed by the institute...

  • Someone is releasing a commodity platform with Linux preinstalled!

    Now where's the PS2 keyboard in and the XGA out?

  • They're going after the real terrorists! (Score:3, Informative)

    by Wesley Everest ( 446824 ) on Tuesday December 18, 2001 @08:52PM (#2724205)
    Now that it is clear that the mailed anthrax originated in the U.S. and is probably from a neo-Nazi or someone who has an interest in creating hysteria to build support for increased police powers, it's good to see that the FBI has turned their attention to the real terrorists!

    We don't really want to catch the guys that started the anthrax scare, but those warez kidz, now, they are a top priority. I understand Osama Bin Laden himself was able to plan the Sept 11th attacks using cracked software.

    It's time to crack down. Let's jam bamboo under their fingernails and put electrodes on their testicles [tripod.com] and make them scream so that we can all feel safe again.

  • Binary (Score:3, Funny)

    by Syberghost ( 10557 ) <.syberghost. .at. .syberghost.com.> on Tuesday December 18, 2001 @08:59PM (#2724216)
    At least this letter is not in binary ...

    Well, since it was emailed, technically it WAS in binary...
  • or does that watch deal sound incredibly fraudulent. I love the concept!

    "Hey Svenn! The foolish Americans want to buy that watch we photoshopped!"

    "Jah Olie? They're perfectly welcome to send as much money as they want to my account! International prosecutions for petty crimes are delightfully hard to pursue..."
  • hmm, it seems a lot of people are talking about the sharp running some java/amiga thing or something. what it actually appears to be running is qtopia (formerly qpe).

    you can find more screenshots here [trolltech.com]

    and more info here here [sourceforge.net]

    this runs on top of the familiar [handhelds.org] linux distribution. and works on a compaq ipaq as well (although, not the 3800 series).

  • Um... What the FBI Did was Illegal I think (Score:4, Informative)

    by beefstu01 ( 520880 ) on Tuesday December 18, 2001 @11:37PM (#2724725)
    This is in reference to the link off of the message- the DoJ press release

    No, it really doesn't make sense, but I guess this is the only way to have charges dropped from the Warez rings.

    Remember the last moments of the Clinton Presidency? When he made a slew of laws? Well one of these was called the McDade Act(s), which specifically states that no agent undercover may lie. That was one of the dumbest laws passed, considering that it could have prevented 9-11, but it applies to this case. The DoJ prides itself on it's "year-long" undercover investigation, but they should have known that its a big no-no to lie. I'd bet that some of these people "undercover" were asked "are you w/ the feds" in which their answer would obviously be "NO." Thats a lie, and goes against whath the (retarded) McDade act states. Boom, thats it- they were found illegally.

    Please don't flame this, because all I'm doing is bringing to light something that most people didn't know. This is like the old police searching a random student at a HS dance, then arresting him for Marijuana possession. THe kid gets off totally free afterwards because the police had no warrant (etc...). I guess that the McDade act is the only trump card that the Warez rings have. I personally believe that McDade is totally stupid, and it will be really sad if they are used to throw out the case.
    • Actually, I can see how the feds can use McDade to HELP them.
      create some bots, send them to the suspected sites, and IRC channells. thats say Hi! my name is Investigator Smith, I am with the FBI.
      BAM, channel goes empty. do this intelligently in enough channels, they'll never know whos the bot and whos real.

      yes there are some technicall details, but they cn easily be worked out.

      This is like the uproar about radar detectors.
      Don't out law them, just build box that peridically trigger them, that way the drivers would never know if its really safe to speed or not.

  • better watch for europeans (Score:3, Interesting)

    by 20011207 ( 542225 ) on Wednesday December 19, 2001 @12:22AM (#2724836)
    hi,
    there's a much better watch for europeans (i own one myself (since more than 5 years)) and it's really cool!
    i admit: in the beginning it's difficult, but due to the design (using diagonal slashes instead of 0s and 1s) you find patterns quite rapidly and then the watch is great.
    link: museumsmarket.de [museumsmarket.de]

  • The difficulty of paying remotely in Europe... (Score:3, Informative)

    by Dimwit ( 36756 ) on Wednesday December 19, 2001 @04:01AM (#2725047)
    I don't know about the binary watch, but I know here in Luxembourg it is next to impossible (and, sometimes, quite illegal) to pay remotely. If I want to pay my doctor, I have to go to my bank and sign a paper transferring money from one person to another.

    I could do web banking, but there are two problems: One, it's Windows only (and not due to a limitation in the browser - you get a smart-card reader that only works with Windows. It is *really* secure, though), and two: it's *really* expensive.

    So, it's not that odd that they don't take credit cards...
    • Hrm, in the UK, as long as you know the payee's branch number and sort code, it's easy to make payments either through online banking or by phoning your bank, and has been for years.

      This is why it was so frustrating when I made my first eBay purchase from an American, before PayPal went international: for a while I had a policy of not bidding unless the seller took Visa.

      I'm surprised... I thought our system was Europe-wide, maybe I'm wrong.

  • It's ethier time or it isn't? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Zero__Kelvin ( 151819 ) on Wednesday December 19, 2001 @06:33AM (#2725259) Homepage

    "how to get the binary watch you've always wanted"

    Hey Jed ... what time is it? One or zero?

  • And here I thought this was illegal: (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Legion303 ( 97901 ) on Wednesday December 19, 2001 @11:43AM (#2726517) Homepage
    Operation Bandwidth:

    On December 11, 2001, the longest-running of the undercover operations culminated with the execution of over 30 search warrants across the United States and Canada. This undercover operation, code-named 'Bandwidth,' was a two-year covert investigation established as a joint investigative effort to gather evidence to support identification and prosecution of entities and individuals involved with illegal access to computer systems and the piracy of proprietary software utilizing 'warez' storage sites on the Internet.

    Bandwidth, through the joint efforts of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), the Environmental Protection Agency Office of Inspector General (EPA-OIG), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), supervised by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Nevada, created a 'warez' site, controlled and monitored by the undercover operation, as a means of attracting predicated targets involved with the distribution of pirated software. The undercover 'warez' site has been accessed to transfer over 100,000 files, including over 12,000 separate software programs, movies and games.

    If it looks like entrapment, walks like entrapment, and quacks like entrapment....

    Any lawyers want to comment?

    -Legion

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