"If the only port open to the public network is the one running the proxy software (or whatever it is), then there is very little attack surface."

1) Find buffer overrun hole in proxy URL parsing mechanism.

2) Craft website with appropriate URL

3) Browse your web site via the proxy

4) Profit

Yes, well, I am in my forties, and used to be an avid gamer. Not so much now but I still do play games that warrant my attention. Right now that would be Oblivion on the PC.

Anyway, we got ourselves a Wii just yesterday and you will not believe the game that has garnered our attention the most. Sure, Wii Sports Tennis and bowling are fun games, and we have played our fair share of both but the one that has taken the lions share of playtime is a game that is nearly 20 years old, and was purchased via the Wii store. In my opinion it is the best game ever produced, "Toe Jam and Earl" for the Sega MegaDrive from the "virtual console" department, (which is a great idea in itself)

Anyway,I'm not sure what my point is here. I guess it is that a nearly 20 year old game still shines amongst all the glitz and glamour of the modern hi-tech 3D rendered "mega games" that are produced these days.

At least the video game industry has not de-volved to the same depths as Hollywood. Yet. Although they sure are working on it.

I'm glad I got most of the urge to game out of my system in the golden years of gaming. I can't see a bright future from here on in, as corporate suits take over more and more of the positions of influence in the dev studios.

It's a terrible shame really.

He posted as AC. You fail at the internet

"TCP/IP was only adopted because there was a BSD-licensed implementation"

Bollocks. TCP/IP was around long before the BSD licence.

TCP/IP became popular because;

a) universities had been using it for years using various implementations, both free and closed source.

b) it was a published open standard (this has nothing to do with code licencing)

c) there was no other protocol around that could scale like it could.

It's rate of growth is literally tied to the sale of apple hardware. That will always be a limiting factor. You have to be careful when looking at growth rates. When you have a very small starting point it is easy to have phenomenal growth rates, as your share gets larger that growth rate becomes harder to sustain.

No. It might be the most widely sold commercial unix but that is a different thing altogether.

They are only against using GPL code in their own projects, not against using GPL "products".

Look, it is quite simple. If you want to put vast amounts of resources into developing a codebase that is 100% your own then do it. Nobody has a problem with that.

If you want to take other peoples work for free then you have to return your own additions to the peoples whose work you originally used. It's that simple.

I'll ask this again. What is the alternative licence that you people are suggesting be used?

I'd like to see a reference that shows that the BSD implementation of TCP/IP was the "original" one.

"Original" as in the very first ever.

Don't worry, I won't hold my breath.

"Many companies refuse to use GPL code because of its viral nature."

This would explain why BSD is so much more popular than Linux then.

"I know TCP/IP is a standardized protocol"

OK

"which was my point."

No, you compared a protocol to code.

"If it had been GPL software . . "

See you did it again.

Just to put a finer point on it, please let me rephrase your comment.

Many companies refuse to use other peoples proprietary code (in their own projects) because of the legal ramifications. That cripples adoption of proprietary software.

GPL is not about promoting "software adoption", it is about promoting collaborative development.

Lots of people currently enjoy that collaborative development model, as can bee seen by the rising popularity of many open source projects.

Anyway, I'm not sure what alternative licence you are promoting. Proprietary? Fully free as in BSD? Some other fantasy licence that nobody has heard of outside of your febrile imagination?

"The GPL is viral, and this prevents many commercial companies from adopting and using GPL code, crippling the movement."

Umm, how exactly does the GPL "cripple the movement"?

"If TCP/IP had been GPL, the Internet would be a different place today."

See, this is where you demonstrate your astounding lack of comprehension on this issue.

TCP/IP is a standardised protocol not a software product. There are closed source implementations of TCP/IP, GPL implementations and even completely free implementations today. The licence they are issued under makes no practical difference to anyone.

OTOH, if the TCP/IP standard was "owned" (ie patented) by a commercial company there would be NO internet today.