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Comment Re:Whither 9%? (Score 1) 866

Actually, there IS a corporate income tax -- the B&O tax, which is paid out of GROSS, not NET income. As a former self-employed contractor I used to have to pay it quarterly.

Also, there's little wonder that Bill Gates Sr. is supporting this bull. He doesn't have a job, per se, and doesn't generate "income" the way the rest of us yahoos do.

Comment Re:This research is FALSE! (Score 1) 1657

So you're saying it's perfectly reasonable to make an assumption based on data collected from the last 150 (out of 4.5 BILLION) years. A sample size of 0.0000033%

Or even if you were to limit the scope to earliest known homo sapiens (in order to prove "man-made" glboal warming) from 195,000 years ago, you're still talking about a sample size of less than 0.077%.

Hardly "undeniable," or even conclusive.

Comment Re:An ounce of Prevention (Score 1) 691

It's amazing how many times that this is considered a Microsoft problem when in reality its an organizational problem. Most companies are unwilling to invest in proper training and implementing solid security practices until an attack occurs. While its easy to pick Windows-based malware as a prime example of why organizations should shift from closed-source to open-source technology, the fact of the matter is that the problem is with how the network environments are managed. By locking down user desktops, implementing anti-virus, anti-malware, and anti-spam solutions, in addition to inline IDS or IPS technologies, there is no reason something like this should be infecting any organization. I run multiple Windows PCs, and I don't have viruses running around rampant on my networks.

Comment Re:Virtualization is your friend, and also ... (Score 1) 189

Anything that lets Active X run, eg a Windows OS is an un-containable security risk. By that I mean that if you have a system that allows that stuff to run you have __NO__ security in that Logical Partition, and you have to be able to sacrifice the Image and start over.

What a load of crap. Can you actually prove what you just stated? Here are some facts for you to digest.

Any operating system / browser environment is just as secure as the users allow it to be. You can run Firefox with NoScript all day long, but how many of us have seen web pages that state "You must have JavaScript enabled to view these pages." A more savvy user would simply decide to either not use that website, or find an alternate way of doing what they need to without lowering the security on their system. However, less informed users might simply decide to create either a permanent or temporary exception for that site without considering the consequences. The same is true with Active X controls. I don't install any I don't trust, and most of the time, even if an application I installed adds an Active X control, I manually go into IE and disable any ActiveX controls I don't trust.

Secondly, anyone who runs their applications, or OS as either root or administrator opens him or herself up to attack regardless of the platform. The fact that there are many more Windows based attacks is because of two reasons. 1) Windows is easy to use, and therefore easier to manipulate, and 2) Windows still owns the lion's share of the desktop market, therefore attacks will have a broader impact. It is foolhardy and ignorant to suggest that any platform is inherently more secure than another. Each has their vulnerabilities, and each will have inexperienced users making bad decisions.

Security

Submission + - Webmail at Work

rtobyr writes: "I don't allow users at my organization to use any third party e-mail. When users complain, I point out that we can't control the security policies of outside systems. End users tend to think that big business will of course have good security; so I ran a test of the "Big Four:" Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL/AIM Mail, and GMail. Yahoo Mail was the only webmail provider to allow delivery of a VBS script. GMail was the only provider to block a zipped VBS script. End users also tend to think that a big business would never pull security features out from under their customers. We Slashdotters know that AOL and Microsoft have both compromised the security of their customers. I don't know of any security related bad press for Yahoo or Google. Three of my Big Four either allow VBS attachments or have a poor security track records. So my Ask Slashdot question is this: If you are a network administrator, do you limit your users' ability to use third party e-mail, and if so, do you allow for GMail or other providers that you've deemed to have secure systems and repuations?"

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