Mr. Tierney,

Firstly, I’d like to say that the Death Penalty is not a deterent in any way, shape or form. It never has been and it never will be.

Secondly, I think you are taking this “attack” a little out of proportion. At worst this is a crime, at best a nuisance. Hackers who write worms and viruses do so to exploit loop holes and damaged areas in programs and system security. They have found a weakness and they have written a program to use that weakness. People who complain about the effects these viruses and worms have on systems are burying their heads in the sand and hiding from the truth.

As an analogy: Let’s say that a company makes a lock out of butter. The company says the lock is secure until some “hacker” comes along and melts the lock. Should you blame the “hacker” or the company that made the lock?

See, in reality no company would ever make a lock out of butter. However the question still exists, do you blame the person who found the weakness, or the company who set up the system security.

I quote Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos: “Since it first emerged a week ago, the Sasser worm has been bombarding vulnerable computer systems with the most significant virus attack of 2004,”

What you may have not noticed, which I find extremely pertinent is his use of the word “vulnerable”. Vulnerable Computer Systems. Why were these systems vulnerable? Who was doing quality control on them to ensure system integrity?

As another analogy: If the mouse gets away, don’t blame the mouse, build a better mouse trap.

Thank You for your time,
Crypto(/)aniac

(unfortunately, I think I misspelled several words, which will have the effect of reducing the impact of my letter.)

Hm. Actually, I’d go so far to say that you are him. He sounds awfully afraid of hackers. =D

Nice try though.

The NYT article was a *joke*! Funny hah-hah, not funny peculiar! Tongue-in-cheek! It was an op-ed, not something written under the guise of real news. Oi.

Go outside, guys. Get a little taste of reality and then come back and play on the computer.

Then, as you, I started to dissect the details and it fell apart.
But until that point it was hysterical.

Goodevening Mr. Tierney,

First of all, I would like to congratulate you on making yourself the single biggest ass on the face of the planet.
There are so many reasons why your article “Worse Than Death” amounts to little more, rather much less, than the
binary code enabling the display of your text. I will start with my favorite:

“I’m tempted to say that the correct answer is D, and not just because of the man-years I’ve spent running virus scans and reformatting hard drives. I’m almost convinced by Steven Landsburg’s cost-benefit analysis showing that the spreaders of computer viruses and worms are more logical candidates for capital punishment than murderers are.”
What you are saying here is that you put a monetary value on human life. How painfully stoic. You kiss your mother with that mouth? I mean, that has got to be the single most in-human thing I’ve ever heard. How could you say that someone whos intellect outweighs your own be murdered by the state, for the mere fact that your numbers don’t look good. I’d like to think human life is worth more than a mineral [gold, in case that went over your over-inflated head]
Secondly, your hardly sparing use of the term “hacker” is another obvious red flag portraying your ignorance. The term “hacker” has no certain definition, rather it is a media buzz-word [you would know all about this hmm?] used as a symbol to give a faceless “problem” an identity thus enabling you to give other members of the uneducated populace another object to hate. Those in “the know” usually consider the term “hacker” to mean [I wont quote this because I wouldn't say things I can't recall perfectly and without a doubt, unlike certain people] one who uses an existent technology for a purpose other than what it was intended for. There are actually many large and successful companies in the field of electronics who hold this philosophy.
On another note, you have outdone yourself yet again with a blatently sexist remark, once again a shining beacon of your lack of knowledge on the subject:
“I see his logic, but I also see practical difficulties. For one thing, many hackers live in places where capital punishment is illegal. For another, most of them are teenage boys, a group that has never been known for fearing death. They’re probably more afraid of going five years without computer games.”
You know there are quite a few programmers,

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Oh, and re: number 11: I have made my own better one. I’ll try and take some pics and send them in soon. It’s based on a Wallstreet PowerBook G3… a 250MHZ pictureframe. It also has a PCMCIA video-in card on it so you can watch TV on it too!

http://www.applefritter.com/node/2364
http://www.applefritter.com/node/4971
http://www.applefritter.com/hacks/duodigitalframe/

By comparison his picture frame ‘hack’ is weak.

I’ve made my own, but don’t have hosting for a page about it, nor did I take in-progress pictures, so a writeup on it’s construction is kinda useless.

Pong?

Seriously, how many retro applications can you think of that’d still be useful today for school, work, reading and such? I’d think that it’s picture quality would be total crap, but I bet I can find at least one hundred uses for it. Hell, I’ve got a few for you.

You’ve probably GOT an old version of word if you have this machine, but if not there’s still dozens of free word processors that you could find to work on it. Ditto for spreadsheets.

A few retro pc games might still entertain the kids (or yourself) and why use a 3ghz machine for solitare. Tablets are awesome for board games between you and a friend because you can just plop it down on the table or pass it around.

Use it as the controller for a robot/rover.

If it has an Ifrared port, mount the thing on or in your coffee table and use it as a multi-purpose remote. Use eye-candy apps and repaint/modify the casing to dress it up. It can run a photo slideshow or any cool screensaver while not in use. Hell, you can keep a few games on it too *duh*.

How about mounting it in the car. It can’t play movies and it’s probably not much good for mp3′s either, but you could take fast notes, keep directions and other important info handy, and collect statistics on the car with the right instrumentation. Again, load up some eye candy screensavers/themes/backgrounds for when it’s not in use.