I received an email tonight from the SANS Institute, one of the most widely known authorities on matters pertaining to network security and provider of some of the best information on the subject of computer security threats available online. The email is an invitation to a conference they'll be hosting. Since it's in Colorado and costs great scads of money between the attendance fee and the expenses, I won't be going.
I thought an excerpt from the email might interest this list, though.
"According to Wikipedia, "spyware consists of computer software that gathers and reports information about a computer user without the user's knowledge or consent." This can encompass a wide range of different types of malware that perform a variety of actions on computer systems. Some spyware delivers advertising, while other spyware gathers user information without his/her knowledge. Spyware can also install modem dialing software and redirect users to malicious Web sites."
That's the lead-in to the purpose of the conference. It seems like good news to see yet another recognized authority using Wikipedia to provide definitions of the terms for the foci of its trade.
Good night.
Chad Perrin wrote:
I received an email tonight from the SANS Institute, one of the most widely known authorities on matters pertaining to network security and provider of some of the best information on the subject of computer security threats available online. The email is an invitation to a conference they'll be hosting. Since it's in Colorado and costs great scads of money between the attendance fee and the expenses, I won't be going.
I thought an excerpt from the email might interest this list, though.
"According to Wikipedia, "spyware consists of computer software that gathers and reports information about a computer user without the user's knowledge or consent." This can encompass a wide range of different types of malware that perform a variety of actions on computer systems. Some spyware delivers advertising, while other spyware gathers user information without his/her knowledge. Spyware can also install modem dialing software and redirect users to malicious Web sites."
That's the lead-in to the purpose of the conference. It seems like good news to see yet another recognized authority using Wikipedia to provide definitions of the terms for the foci of its trade.
Good night.
That's cool :) Can you add this to [[WP:Media]]?
TBSDY
Chad Perrin wrote:
I received an email tonight from the SANS Institute, one of the most widely known authorities on matters pertaining to network security and provider of some of the best information on the subject of computer security threats available online. The email is an invitation to a conference they'll be hosting. Since it's in Colorado and costs great scads of money between the attendance fee and the expenses, I won't be going.
I thought an excerpt from the email might interest this list, though.
"According to Wikipedia, "spyware consists of computer software that gathers and reports information about a computer user without the user's knowledge or consent." This can encompass a wide range of different types of malware that perform a variety of actions on computer systems. Some spyware delivers advertising, while other spyware gathers user information without his/her knowledge. Spyware can also install modem dialing software and redirect users to malicious Web sites."
That's the lead-in to the purpose of the conference. It seems like good news to see yet another recognized authority using Wikipedia to provide definitions of the terms for the foci of its trade.
While I have no real complaint about the contents of the quote, someone familiar with the subject area could go to the article to tighten up the prose style. The phrase about gathering user information is repetitious.
Ec
Chad Perrin wrote:
That's the lead-in to the purpose of the conference. It seems like good news to see yet another recognized authority using Wikipedia to provide definitions of the terms for the foci of its trade.
This is a great thing, because it also showcases one of our strengths: We're becoming an authoritative source for summaries of consensus opinion. A common way of doing that is to find a few authors who have made statements, like "according to Foo, spyware is 'blah'; according to Foo2, it's 'blah2'". Wikipedia sort of collects and summarizes those sorts of things for them.
(For our good articles anyway. :-)
-Mark
Delirium wrote:
Chad Perrin wrote:
That's the lead-in to the purpose of the conference. It seems like good news to see yet another recognized authority using Wikipedia to provide definitions of the terms for the foci of its trade.
This is a great thing, because it also showcases one of our strengths: We're becoming an authoritative source for summaries of consensus opinion. A common way of doing that is to find a few authors who have made statements, like "according to Foo, spyware is 'blah'; according to Foo2, it's 'blah2'". Wikipedia sort of collects and summarizes those sorts of things for them. (For our good articles anyway. :-)
Our technical coverage has some gaps, but most of it is of sterling quality. If I want to learn WTF something I've barely heard of *actually is*, I look at Wikipedia first - a Google search tending to turn up mailing list posts (which I look to for tech support, not introductions) and Linux HOWTOs dated six years ago. I use and *recommend* Wikipedia for technical matters now.
- d.