I like how a commenter is sarcastic about "uncensored public opinion" bothering certain people then censors himself from saying hell by saying heck, makes you laugh that, with a weary smile.

As for not allowing 'unapproved' programs, it's a bit hard to do since so much malware, like vista for instance, is 'approved' as being 'good' for money's sake alone already.

And to 'Brad', on a perhaps too personal a note, boy do you have the perfect name, you are so much a 'brad'

OK, maybe it IS as silly as it seems, but the Internet as it stands today is a shining example of why anarchy is not a sustainable system.

Pascal and Scott make references to roads and cars and that seems like a handy opportunity for me to promote my own belief, which is that Internet access should be licensed, requiring basic tests to be passed before granting access and establishing liability for damages caused to others.

Womprat's argument makes wonderful sense by the way, if you can ignore the obligatory pro-penguin epilogue, but solution #2 fails to mention some resulting side-effect... As platform diversity improves, the difficulty in developing code for those platforms increases, and the difficulties supporting those platforms increases, immediately negating any gained economic opportunity.

It's the evil bit!
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3514.txt

Oh no! the internet is over AGAIN? How many times are idiots going to cry that the internet is doomed and that we need to radically change it. The internet is constantly changing and adapting to what happens to it. You're an idiot, chicken little.

You know, if we executed spammers (yeah, I know you can't completely kill the cockroaches), we could use that spare bandwidth to pick up the slack from this "malicious code."

"The Internet Needs To Die" seems to be the latest talking point put out by think tanks. All that messy, uncensored public opinion is really making it difficult for official propaganda to work the way it used to do... heck we might even start believing the lies if we didn't have anywhere else to turn.

... is to add a new internet use tax at the global level. I think that $1 / kB is fair. Use the money to pay Microsoft to take over the internet and put their security expertise on it.

Jim

Well, I needed a good laugh anyway.

It's got nothing to do with taking the 'net down and trying to sort out problems offline... it's got a lot more to do with rolling out new techs like IPv6 and suchlike. Let's not forget, the web wasn't designed for what it's used for today. Implementing new technologies which move it closer to what we want is obviously the way to go...

Plus, what security risks? He must have never heard of *nix... oh how I pity those folks still *trying* to use Winblows...

In nature where a species lacks genetic diversity across it's population it becomes vulnerable to disease. Growing one kind of crop densly on a massive scale means farmers are constantly at war with disease and pests.

This is what we are seeing when old world monopolies tried to do their thing in the internet space. The same rules apply in the software/cyberspace ecosystem We all have near identical windows builds across hundreds of millions of pcs. This is a perfect environment for disease to flourish. Even if windows was the most secure piece of software on earth, it would never be perfect and still be vunerable from being so common and interconnected.

Two solutions to the problem with two consequences:

Create a SHE - Secure Hardware Environment where everything is locked down and verified monitored by big brother. Content is DRMed to hell and even looking at something copyrighted twice sends you to jail without parole. 

Result: Find that the internet slowly dies, mankind's inexorable technological progress stalls and we walk right into the worst kind of long term global recession you never dreamed could happen and we enter a new creepy kind of dark age of information if not a precursor the collapse of our civilisation.

2: Do away with windows and other monopolies, push open source, create a diverse range of platforms with good interoperability between them instead of a shoddy universal platform with poor interoperability with anything else. Watch self-replicating viruses and worms become marginalized and billions of dollars of economic opportunity come out of nowhere

Dare I say that linux and the OSS movement is probably the only holding the internet together....

What? The tubes are insecure? Oh my, yes we should definitely cork all the tubes until we can make certain these nasty malcontents don't use our "Internets" like a giant dump truck. I'll just have to explain to all 130 of my VPN using employees that they won't be able to work this year until we can be certain they aren't using dirty tubes. Hey if this guy's security firm goes belly up, I'm certain he could get a job as Senator Steven's technology advisor.

I propose that all code uploaded to any web server be sent through a government proxy to be manually vetted for safety and the protection of mankind from terrorist malware. The US government, being the world police should take up this role.

How about we make vendors of broken and insecure wares legally responsible for peddling dangerous and defective goods?

It works fairly well for autos and medical devices...

sj

And we should close down all the roads until there are no more accidents.

None of that will ever happen. All those 2.0 folks are just pumping the "2" and trying to make everyone forget the "0" that follows.

This links to an article on Groklaw which JZ asked for input on.

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20060725152958389&query=Zittrain

Hey, all I said was that malware was becoming a serious problem that was. unfortunately, driving many users away from an open PC and into locked down platforms.

I have no idea who Andrew Clarke is and don't endorse what Nick reports to be his suggestion. (!) ...JZ

There's a reason this bloke is working in education rather than industry...

I advocate bringing back capital punishment for anyone who says something as stupid as this.


How about special space with all malware locked into it, with explanation of each, whom sent it & auto complaint forms.

Better yet, How about 15 years minimum imprisonemnt for owners of malware factories.

Malware is expression of Malcontent Mind, often in Security at large cable & internet providers & ill willed servers. 
CLOP FEW HEADS OFF, much better.
Drashek