From Bad To Worse?

Grok Headline matches for From Bad To Worse?

Women perform worse than men on average
but even worse when playing against men

Women perform worse than men on average
but even worse when playing against men 04/24/2004 06:22 AM
Notes from the paper Performance in Competitive Environments- Gender Differences

marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2004/04/politi cally_inc.html
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It's only going to get worse

It's only going to get worse 04/09/2004 04:08 PM

This analysis of the spread of the witty worm is fascinating for a whole bunch of different reasons.

Firstly, the analysis was made possible by USCD's Network Telescope, a network monitoring system on a massive scale which takes advantage of the fact that IP arranges were handed out like candy back when the 'net was in its infancy. USCD controls a huge chunk of all potential IPv4 addresses, and their network telescope tracks data sent to 1/256th of all IPv4 traffic. Since most worms target random IP addresses this makes the telescope a unique tool in analysing the spread of hostile code in the wild.

Next, Witty Worm was no ordinary worm. It targeted an exploit in ISS firewall products, which include the popular BlackICE product targeted at home users; this means the worm was actively attacking people who had made an effort to secure their machines! It also carried a destructive payload - a rarity for worms in the wild. Additionally, the exploit it used had only been publically announced the day before. It's possible the authors new of the vulnerability in advance, but it's far more likely they had already written the payload and were just waiting for a new vulnerability to use as the carrier.

From reading the report, it seems that the worm managed to infect virtually every one of its potential targets that were connected to the internet. This critical point is what makes the worm so interesting, because it destroys the idea that non-Windows users are made more secure by their relatively lesser numbers. If a worm came out with a similar methodology to Witty Worm but that targeted Linux, OS X or even something with a truly tiny statistical footprint like BeOS it could still achieve almost total infection of its chosen target audience.

The worm also appears to have used a number of techniques that had previously been hypothesized by the security communit, such as spreading from a number of pre-infected hosts.

If a worm can spread this fast, with this little notice, and infect almost all of the vulnerable population, we're in a pretty precarious state.

Related reading: The Peon's Guide to Secure System Development, Slashdot's thread on the Witty Worm analysis (some of the +5 comments are pretty good).

It was worse than you think. Also
better.

It was worse than you think. Also
better. 07/06/2004 06:43 AM
The cd of images from my running of the Marathon des Sables arrived this morning, just as the temperature here hit the low 90s. I'm starting to have flashbacks. I've been training for the my manhauling attempt on the North...

Two businesses that can only get worse

Two businesses that can only get worse 06/15/2004 08:32 AM
1. Perhaps your newspaper's funny pages includes Whatzit, the syndicated daily puzzle that takes some everyday phrase and presents it as a clever arrangement of words. For example, "nv emerald" is "green with envy" and "TTT" is "big tease." Imagine it runs for the next 40 years. That's 14,600 common phrases from now. Whatzit will be down to obscure taglines from the 1950s and hepcat cliches that were last uttered in 1928. 2. When a store makes a commitment to everything costing a dollar, it is guaranteeing that it will lose value precisely at the rate of inflation....

We've seen worse than Sasser - MS

We've seen worse than Sasser - MS 05/04/2004 03:06 PM
Clean up gets underway

it's even worse than we thought

it's even worse than we thought 09/15/2004 03:40 PM
Dan's Other Imploding Scoop, .. New York Post .. Eric Fettmann .. UH-OH:

nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/28563.htm
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403(b)etter or Worse?

403(b)etter or Worse? 03/31/2005 05:35 PM
Teachers and others stand to gain and lose with new retirement plan rules.

Security: From bad to worse?

Security: From bad to worse? 01/05/2004 12:19 PM

GAO: P2P Porn no Worse Than on Web

GAO: P2P Porn no Worse Than on Web 12/12/2003 11:35 AM
Internet News Dec 12 2003 10:38AM ET

New state, same as old but worse.

New state, same as old but worse. 12/02/2003 02:39 PM
The Miami Model... ["What is the Miami Model? It is several things: extremely violent police response to nonviolent demonstrators, embedded reporters behind police lines - and arresting and harassing "non-embedded" journalists...(and) mass arrests and an arsenal of "non-lethal" weapons.]...represents the next step in the criminalization and repression of dissent that is occurring in the United States right now." It is part of the newly emerging "Technologies of political control" (1.1m PDF) which are rapidly consuming American democracy from within. This is more than crowd control. This is the new Information Warfare. Oh - and thinking of protesting? - The FBI would like your name, please. (more inside)

The scene was a "massive police state," - John Sweeney, President of the United Steelworkers of America. At the Miami protest against provisions in the "Free Trade of the Americas Act", the massive police presence was paid for by $8.5 million from the 87 billion dollar "War on Terror" bill passed by Congress. 30 to 90 busloads of retirees were blocked from the protest by police, and Amnesty International has called for an investigation into allegations of widespread police brutality - over 100 protestors were injured. (some photos and some more, courtesy of Leif Utne) Bonus - Watch Miami police use a tazer on a peaceful protestor. (Quicktime/Video 14M)

It gets worse for the N-Gage

It gets worse for the N-Gage 11/11/2003 03:18 PM
We wouldn't keep kicking the N-Gage when it's down like this, but the bad news keeps on coming. The latest calamity: the encryption that prevents N-Gage games from being played on other cellphones has been cracked, so now there's no reason to buy Nokia's gamephone if you just want to play one of its games. Normally this wouldn't be such a big deal since Nokia would at least see some money from people buying the games, but copies of N-Gage games are already being swapped online. So Nokia is doubly screwed. Read [Thanks everyone who wrote in with this]...

Is it just me, or has Firefox gotten
worse with the last two releasese (since
0.7)?

Is it just me, or has Firefox gotten
worse with the last two releasese (since
0.7)? 06/11/2004 03:24 AM
I just finished reading Neil Turner's the review of the latest version of Firefox, and my first thought is, "I'm not installing that." Of course, I probably will end up doing so at some point, but it is so disappointing to see a project that started with such promise getting worse and worse with every release (although to be fair, it is also getting faster). Still, I'm still running Firebird .7 on one of my computers, and on the whole I prefer it to 0.8. If this review and the release notes are accurate, it looks like the situation just worsens with 0.9. The new download dialog foisted on users in 0.8 has been kept, the theme has been changed to one that looks quite ugly and is acknowledged as being worse than the current one, and the disregard for the most popular extensions and current users that was demonstrated when 0.8 was released is strikingly repeated. From the release notes, "when you run 0.9 for the first time all of your extensions will be automatically disabled." There were a lot of comments a year ago about all the problems with design by committee -- now we are starting to see some of the problems with design by dictatorship, and disregard of users. As someone said on the mozzilazine forum, "The capacity of this project to repeatedly shoot itself in the foot never ceases to amaze me." As a believer in open source, this is really disappointing. I hope that I am wrong, and that when the dust settles there is still a superior product to Internet Explorer in there somewhere, but the current direction isn't promising. At the moment I am considering returning to Mozilla as my default browser, or testing the Opera waters again....

"Pupils 'do worse with computers'"

"Pupils 'do worse with computers'" 03/26/2005 05:07 AM

BSA Wants To Make The DMCA Worse

BSA Wants To Make The DMCA Worse 01/06/2005 07:34 PM
While the BSA has mostly sat back and let the RIAA and MPAA take the brunt of the bad publicity for suing customers, you can be pretty sure that they're also freaking out over file sharing and avoiding any and all evidence about how it could help their member companies. Just as the RIAA lost yet another case saying they have to actually file lawsuits before sending subpoenas to ISPs for user info, the BSA is asking Congress to modify the DMCA to force ISPs to cooperate and give up user info without a lawsuit being filed. This is very problematic for plenty of reasons -- not the least of which is that it would turn ISPs into an enforcement arm that will be forced to monitor how people use their network. ISPs just provide the service. If companies have a problem with what an individual is doing, they should file a lawsuit and then request the info from the ISP. Without a lawsuit, it's all just a fishing expedition. At the same time, however, the BSA is at least interested in exploring some amount of patent reform -- including plans to make it easier to challenge granted patents. That might be a slight improvement -- but it could also lead to many frivolous challenges. It seems a much more reasonable idea is to open up the patent process so that people have an easy process to make prior art claims before a patent is granted.

"could the Boston Herald be any worse?"

"could the Boston Herald be any worse?" 08/22/2004 03:41 PM

Is it just me, or has Firefox gotten
worse with the last two releases (since
0.7)?

Is it just me, or has Firefox gotten
worse with the last two releases (since
0.7)? 06/11/2004 06:51 AM
I just finished reading Neil Turner's the review of the latest version of Firefox, and my first thought is, "I'm not installing that." Of course, I probably will end up doing so at some point, but it is so disappointing to see a project that started with such promise getting worse and worse with every release (although to be fair, it is also getting faster). Still, I'm still running Firebird .7 on one of my computers, and on the whole I prefer it to 0.8. If this review and the release notes are accurate, it looks like the situation just worsens with 0.9. The new download dialog foisted on users in 0.8 has been kept, the theme has been changed to one that looks quite ugly and is acknowledged as being worse than the current one, and the disregard for the most popular extensions and current users that was demonstrated when 0.8 was released is strikingly repeated. From the release notes, "when you run 0.9 for the first time all of your extensions will be automatically disabled." There were a lot of comments a year ago about all the problems with design by committee -- now we are starting to see some of the problems with design by dictatorship, and disregard of users. As someone said on the mozzilazine forum, "The capacity of this project to repeatedly shoot itself in the foot never ceases to amaze me." As an open source enthusiast, this is really disappointing. I hope that I am wrong, and that when the dust settles there is still a superior product to Internet Explorer in there somewhere, but the current direction isn't promising. At the moment I am considering returning to Mozilla as my default browser, or testing the Opera waters again....

It's Not Rocket Science -- It's Worse

It's Not Rocket Science -- It's Worse 12/22/2004 01:13 AM

The iPod is brilliant. I don't understand why they're not more popular. By Deborah Ross, The Independent

New Forecast Says Inflation May Get
Worse (AP)

New Forecast Says Inflation May Get
Worse (AP) 05/24/2004 07:52 AM
AP - Fed by escalating energy prices and a rebounding economy, inflation will pick up more this year than previously thought, a group of economic forecasters says.

Is spim worse than spam?

Is spim worse than spam? 04/09/2004 04:13 PM
No.. but shonky IM throws up new set of issues

Spam epidemic gets worse

Spam epidemic gets worse 12/04/2003 04:53 AM
But you knew that already

2004: How could it be worse than last
year?

2004: How could it be worse than last
year? 01/02/2004 09:30 AM
San Jose Mercury News Jan 2 2004 8:29AM ET

Wildfire Forecast Goes From Bad to Worse
(AP)

Wildfire Forecast Goes From Bad to Worse
(AP) 05/23/2004 03:08 PM
AP - Months ago, national fire managers predicted the 2004 wildfire season would be a bad one in the West. Now, they're changing their forecast: It's going to be worse.

YUKOS: From Dismal to Worse

YUKOS: From Dismal to Worse 07/28/2004 04:30 PM
The Russian government claims it doesn't want to take down YUKOS, but that's what it's doing.

Can Janus' News Get Worse?

Can Janus' News Get Worse? 07/23/2004 02:34 PM
The company's latest report was unfavorable. Are more dreary days ahead, or is Janus readying for a revival?

MIT Presidency worse than feared

MIT Presidency worse than feared 08/27/2004 01:40 PM

Catching up on the mail I read through the latest Technology Review, MIT's alumni magazine.  Things are far worse than feared.  One letter calculates the cost of the $283 million new computer science building as $17 million in 1916 dollars.  The main buildings, which are enormous by comparison, were completed in 1916 at a cost of $7 million.

Much more depressing than the backwards slide of the American construction industry in terms of efficiency is an article about Chuck Vest's 14 years running MIT.  The article touches briefly on Vest's achievements in increasing research funds between 1990 and 2003, which sound very impressive due to the lack of inflation-adjustment (the actual increase in 2003 dollars was from $430 million to $472 million).  Nothing having to do with innovation in research or education is mentioned.  If the article is accurate, Vest's major focuses turned out to have been

1. fighting with the Federal Government over MIT's price-fixing arrangement with the Ivy League colleagues.  This agreement was predicted to be illegal by Stanford, which refused to join the cartel, and deemed illegal by a Federal District Court Judge but we ultimately beat the rap in the Court of Appeals (see my tuition-free MIT article for more)
2. studying the extent to which female faculty members had less lab space than male faculty members and whether this was due to discrimination
3. pursuing sex- and race-based discrimination in student admissions and faculty recruitment and promoting such discrimination nationwide in briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court in affirmative action cases

I guess Phil Sharp, the Nobel Prize-winning biologist who turned the job down is feeling pretty good about his decision to stay in the lab.

The only encouraging news in the magazine concerned Erika Ebbel, MIT Class of 2004 in Chemistry, who as Miss Massachusetts will compete in the Miss America pageant on September 18.

Data Breach Much Worse Than Feared

Data Breach Much Worse Than Feared 04/19/2005 09:25 AM
CBS News Apr 19 2005 2:10PM GMT

Mitnick: corporates are their own worse
enemy

Mitnick: corporates are their own worse
enemy 09/16/2004 03:05 PM

TIME.com: "I've Been in Worse
Situations" -- Sep. 20, 2004

TIME.com: "I've Been in Worse
Situations" -- Sep. 20, 2004 09/13/2004 03:42 AM

IRAQ'S BASIC SERVICES WORSE NOW THAN
BEFORE WAR, GAO SAYS

IRAQ'S BASIC SERVICES WORSE NOW THAN
BEFORE WAR, GAO SAYS 07/01/2004 03:42 AM
latest installment of hand-wringing and self-flagellation .. From the Seattle Times comes an article .. sheer incompetence

seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2001968744_g ao30.html
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Beagle worm variant getting worse

Beagle worm variant getting worse 07/17/2004 01:39 AM
Sunday Times South Africa Jul 17 2004 5:16AM GMT

TCS: Tech Central Station - How Much
Worse Off Are We?

TCS: Tech Central Station - How Much
Worse Off Are We? 07/16/2004 03:17 AM

Picture messaging - it's worse than you
thought

Picture messaging - it's worse than you
thought 09/15/2004 03:23 PM
But might get better

Intel's Numbers Worse Than Feared

Intel's Numbers Worse Than Feared 09/03/2004 12:10 PM
osOpinion Sep 3 2004 3:58PM GMT

Kids' Obesity May Be Worse Than Thought
(AP)

Kids' Obesity May Be Worse Than Thought
(AP) 06/03/2004 03:43 PM
AP - Forty percent of public schoolchildren in Arkansas are overweight, and nearly one in four is obese, a sign that obesity among children nationwide is probably far worse than health officials had thought.

LexisNexis Breach May Be Worse Than
Thought (AP)

LexisNexis Breach May Be Worse Than
Thought (AP) 04/12/2005 11:50 AM
AP - Up to 10 times as many people as originally thought may have had their profiles stolen from a LexisNexis database in the United States, publisher and data broker Reed Elsevier Group PLC said Tuesday.

US Checking to See if Flu Season Worse
Than Usual

US Checking to See if Flu Season Worse
Than Usual 12/19/2003 08:44 PM
Reuters via Wired News Dec 19 2003 8:33PM ET

LexisNexis Breach Worse Than Thought

LexisNexis Breach Worse Than Thought 04/12/2005 10:20 AM
LexisNexis said on Tuesday that a security breach which resulted in personal information of thousands its customers potentially being compromised could be ten times worse than originally thought. An investigation has discovered that 310,000 U.S. citizens may have had their addresses and Social Security numbers accessed.

LexisNexis Breach Worse Than Believed

LexisNexis Breach Worse Than Believed 04/12/2005 01:30 PM

Lottery Millionaire's Troubles Get Worse
(AP)

Lottery Millionaire's Troubles Get Worse
(AP) 02/18/2004 04:07 PM
AP - Michael Carroll picked up his $18 million lottery check wearing a court-issued electronic tracing tag.
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From Bad To Worse?

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