Slashdot Mirror

[citation needed]

http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2009_02_01_archive.html etc

The Righthaven/Stephens Media copyright trolling was covered by a lot of the conservative blogosphere a few weeks ago. Righthaven (the trolls) has a deal for all of Stephen Media's 70-odd newpaper properties (including the Las Vegas Review-Journal). Wired had a story about their business plan.

A trademark lawyer blogged about why their business plan isn't a good one (hint: most bloggers don't have deep pockets).

Finally, Clayton Cramer posted a blacklist plus some links to BlockSite and SiteBlock to block all Stephens Media properties from Firefox/Chrome.

It was a bit of a cause célèbre for about a week, but I'm sure this will kick it up again...

-pedant- what if the original artist chooses to distribute via P2P -/pedant-

Then the original artists aren't pretending to be the original artists. They ARE the original artists. Still no dishonesty involved.

Now if the original artists pretended to be someone else e.g. a fake fan in some astroturf campaign, then there's dishonesty involved.

Fraud = intentional deception for personal gain or damage to another.

Check this out for dishonesty and hypocrisy: http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2010/03/broadcast-yourself.html

I just read that Ubuntu is not going to use systemd
http://bheekly.blogspot.com/2010/08/systemd-in-gentoo.html

It is too early, I think. Gentoo is stuck between three systems at the moment. The stable is baselayout-1, the unstable is openrc and a heavily active systemd bug report. Apparently several init scripts don't like systemd and need adjustments, this takes time.

I am not heavily rebooting or stopping/starting services, so it's not really a problem to me and I am happy with openrc atm :)

So because a copyright troll sued a conservative it is somehow benign or OK? Nobody actually said that except you. Btw, Righthaven sued plenty of left wing sites too. They are apparently averaging several lawsuits per day so I don't really think there is a political agenda here.

Actually if you read the above comments, there's a few people saying that it's perfectly ok because she's a conservative - which is pretty much par for slashdot anymore.

So because a copyright troll sued a conservative it is somehow benign or OK?

Nobody actually said that except you. Btw, Righthaven sued plenty of left wing sites too. They are apparently averaging several lawsuits per day so I don't really think there is a political agenda here.

I'm just waiting to hear borked adoption rate numbers...it is integrated into iTunes 10, iTunes 101: How to set up Ping http://best-video-dvd-converter.blogspot.com/2010/09/itunes-101-how-to-set-up-ping.html

I'm just waiting to hear borked adoption rate numbers...it is integrated into iTunes 10,

iTunes 101: How to set up Ping
http://best-video-dvd-converter.blogspot.com/2010/09/itunes-101-how-to-set-up-ping.html

... what you're asking for sounds more like Dr. Strangelove.

Eh, exploitation at the Geysers in CA has resulted in increased seismicity. I'd really want to take care before tapping into Yellowstone - eruptions in the past have dumped up to a foot of ash as far away as Iowa. Other problem with generating juice in Yellowstone is that it's quite a ways away from the intended customers, so you'd need a mess of transmission lines to get it where it's going. Geothermal energy: too dangerous? - SmartPlanet

At least everyone in Cuba have access to medical care.
    http://www.hr676.org/

On your points:

"Go to work,"
http://www.whywork.org/rethinking/whywork/abolition.html
http://www.basicincome.org/bien/aboutbasicincome.html

"send your kids to school."
http://www.newciv.org/whole/schoolteacher.txt
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/16a.htm
http://www.holtgws.com/

"Follow fashion,"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-consumerism
http://www.alternativeratreatments.com/eat-to-live.html

"act normal."
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/11/the_war_on_the.html
http://www.lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm

"Walk on the pavements,"
http://www.bluezones.com/makeover-about (shows how unusual that is)

"watch T.V."
http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/
http://www.tvturnoff.org/
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/treatment.shtml

"Save for your old age,"
http://knol.google.com/k/paul-d-fernhout/beyond-a-jobless-recovery
http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2009/02/social-collapse-best-practices.html

"obey the law."
http://www.conceptualguerilla.com/?q=node/402
http://www.conceptualguerilla.com/?q=node/47
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_States
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_nullification

"Repeat after me: I am free."
http://www.amctv.com/videos/the-prisoner-1960s-video/
http://www.chomsky.info/articles/199710--.htm

Any more? :-)

Don't forget the machine that goes 'Ping!'.

Well, there are political obstacles to means-testing an entitlement program with its own dedicated tax. I suppose one advantage would be that it's an opportunity to replace the payroll tax with something that isn't so horribly regressive. One problem with means tests is that if not carefully designed, they can lead to poverty traps, where the implicit marginal tax rate exceeds 100%.

I still don't see how eliminating Social Security would necessarily greatly reduce costs of employing US labor. Without Social Security, workers would demand some replacement retirement program.

Government social programs don't necessarily result in greater costs to businesses. Businesses executives in Canada have praised the country's socialized health insurance, with the Canadian divisions of the big 3 auto companies even signing a joint letter (PDF) supporting the system:

The public health care system significantly reduces total labour costs for automobile manufacturing firms, compared to the cost of equivalent private insurance services purchased by U.S.-based automakers; these health insurance savings can amount to several dollars per hour of labour worked. Publicly funded health care thus accounts for a significant portion of Canada’s overall labour cost advantage in auto assembly, versus the U.S., which in turn has been a significant factor in maintaining and attracting new auto investment to Canada.

What I'm really interested in, however, is what makes you fear that the US might descend into Third World status.

You might be thinking of this, http://collegecallgirl.blogspot.com/

Regardless, it's a good read.

By family income and wealth. Compared to before 1980.

How do you arrive at your definition of income and wealth? Income has to be adjusted for inflation - which usually includes things like energy and health care. Energy is at least twice as expensive as it was in the '50s. Health care is many times as expensive. In both cases, it's not a fair comparison. Even the cheapest cars get many times the mileage as a '50s car, making gas prices a wash. And '50s health care was limited to antibiotics, mended bones, and minor surgeries. State of the art was the boom of vaccines. No replacement hips, knees, effective diabetes treatments, heart surgeries, stroke treatments, etc... to say nothing of cancer, which was a death sentence. I'd love to see someone compare the costs of health services that were actually available in the '50s with what they cost today. This article echos my sentiments. Certainly, manufactured goods are much less expensive.

So what's left? Housing. Housing has gotten more expensive, for sure... about double by most estimates I see. Of course, the houses are twice the size, so I'm not sure why this is a big mystery. Halve your square footage and live like the average person did in the '50s and you'll probably find a comparable price.

Ah, almost forgot education. This is another example of people demanding more. Take a look at any college campus and note the EXPLOSION of buildings with a cornerstone newer than 1980. For good or for bad, students are demanding a lot more out of colleges than they did in the '50s. I won't claim you get "more" or that the cost is worth it, but they are simply responding to demand and the costs have risen accordingly. For what it's worth, you can still go to a public school for about $5000 on average... that's a hell of a bargain, though it varies tremendously by state. Also, consider that in the '50s only about 6% of people actually got a college degree... your argument that the average person could send kids to college seems suspect given this statistic. I suspect you are thinking of a idealizing based on a very small portion of the population. Today over 16% go on to finish college, despite the cost increase.

In fact, you could say that the lower the cost of things at Wal-Mart, the lower the quality of life.

This statement is pretty vague... lower for who? Certainly the average person benefits from lower cost goods - but obviously the US factory workers suffer when goods are produced in another market for less money. Of course, those same workers are SOL when a robot takes their job - but I wouldn't argue against automation based on job impact. I think the move to China is a sham, but it will self-correct in time... and far sooner than it will get corrected by any political action or protectionist measures. Think about it... what are the Chinese going to do with trillions in US currency? Hold on to it forever, until inflation and devaluation render it worthless? Or buy stuff with it. When they buy stuff with it, who will benefit?

In 1956, a single breadwinner, earning the average wage, could expect to put a couple of kids through college and own a nice single-family home and provide health care to all the members of his family, even buying a new car every 5 years, all without having to use a credit card.

I'd love to see a source for this. Average salary in 1955 was around 4 grand. College seems to have cost about $1000. An "average" family in no way could have "a couple" of kids in college. As I said, 94% of people did not finish college. Health care only cost about $500/year but bought you virtually nothing except antibiotics, pain killers, and mended bones. You could probably still do that for $500/year if you could find a doctor willing to prescribe the crap they used in the '50s. And I'm glad you said "a

Google has hinted pretty strongly that Microsoft is behind these lawsuits . That wouldn't surprise me. My guess is that the real goal here is to force Google to make their ranking algorithm public.

As originally posted on Search Engine Land, These allegations are merely exploratory and it is difficult to determine exactly where the GA's office is headed in this investigation, or how Texas could claim jurisdiction. All the lawsuits in question are being raised by non-Texas corporations and against a California-based company.

Yesterday, Google responded to the investigation, which has not been made public yet by the General Attorney's office. In it's response, Google states that they "listen carefully to people's concerns" and " we strongly believe our business practices reflect our commitment to build great products for the benefit of users everywhere". To some extent this sounds like the usual play from Google, invoking it's "do no evil" mantra.

Does Google manipulate results to thwart competitors and advance its own businesses? Some competitors to Google are concerned that the company lowers search results listings for certain firms and/or charging higher fees ads they place vs those of Google's partners.

Google has never revealed its search or ranking methodology for sites in detail, though it has published some papers on optimization and best practices.

Google's reply on a Friday night after business hours on the biggest 3-day summer weekend of the year is sure to draw little attention.

You always could have opted out via disabling cookies, but now they even have a plugin if cookie management isn't your thing.
http://analytics.blogspot.com/2010/05/greater-choice-and-transparency-for.html

Some of the comments on that blog post that think privacy is a horrible thing are kind of scary.

It's certainly easier than, you know, actually acknowledging and dealing with their ideas...

What ideas? You mean ideas like somehow thinking that Patrick Henry was a supporter of the US Constitution http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2010/09/patrick_henry_and_the_tea_part_1.php. Or maybe you mean Glenn Beck's pseudoscientific ideas about how the Smithsonian is involved in a massive conspiracy to cover up 19th century archaelogical facts?http://anthroslug.blogspot.com/2010/08/glenn-becks-pseudo-archaeology-part-1.html. Or maybe you mean the idea that Obama is going to put Republicans into concentration camps http://boingboing.net/2009/03/17/foxs-glenn-beck-says.html? You know, what? I'm sick of the notion that there is anything resembling worthwhile ideas coming from this man. At a certain point, it is a waste of time to actually respond to this paranoid nonsense in any other way than ridicule. And to the people who believe him or listen to him? Fuck 'em. Fuck every one of them for being too lazy or too stupid or too tribalistic to exercise their brains at all.

Now, if you just we're talking about the saner end of the Tea Partiers then there might be some argument that they have actual ideas, mainly resembling the form "I like government policies that make life better for me but not for other people." Do I need to address what's wrong with that also or are we done?

Linux can play fullscreen youtube clips smootly, just not by using Flash but the media player. Of course, only real geeks know this which is why Randy got it so terribly wrong, oh and this.

Option 1: ReadyNAS Duo (built in torrent client) + WD TV Live (simple remote)
Option 2: Ubuntu server on network + PS3MediaServer + Sony PS3 (enable HDMI CEC for use with TV remote)
Option 3: Fritz!Box 7270 + USB HDD + PS3 as DLNA client / built in DLNA client on TV
Option 4: ASRock ION330 + Ubuntu
Option 5: Mac Mini + Apple Remote + Plex / XBMC + NAS/USB HDD

The key bottle neck is the network, if you can run LAN cables no worries, if you decide to go wireless 802.11n will do fine for 720p, 1080p is pushing it

NTFS-3G has had read/write support since at least 2006, and if ext2fsx is bad, try the Fuse version. It shouldn't be harder than to double click a couple of .pkgs! :-)

But the work is underway to produce babes, right?

http://copyrightlitigation.blogspot.com/2010/09/software-programs-joint-authorship-work.html

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html

If designing a shutdown process is this complicated maybe it does deserve a patent.

Relax

The story of windows shutdown development:

http://moishelettvin.blogspot.com/2006/11/windows-shutdown-crapfest.html

All that work surely deserves a patent.

Android Rules...and Droid Does...hmmm.

If past confusingly-worded advertisements are any indication, we should look forward to:

Android: Try our new interface for waterproof phones: Slip and Slide Rules!

http://newzeal.blogspot.com/2009/09/obama-file-87-socialists-in-obama.html

Unlike the "Racist" tag tossed by the looney left, there are actual "socialists" all over Obama's Administration. Oh, and I bet Martin Luther King's Niece has never been called a racist before ...

What Beck's rally signifies is the new face of racism, in that it's insidious, but not in-your face racist.

Excerpt From http://www.blogher.com/glenn-becks-restoring-honor-rally-racist-or-just-free-speech.

http://img.chan4chan.com/img/2009-09-14/1252938242628.jpg

Heh, screwed up the link. The lit review is here.

Well, I googled and found that previous 2004 study, but now, just seconds later when I click on it, it's behind a paywall of some sort. Here's another link from 2007 showing the same graph

From what I recently read in regards to DEP/ASLR testing, the Apple Devs are simply being effen lazy or stupid as quicktime doesn't even use ASLR according to the graphic on this page http://taosecurity.blogspot.com/2010/07/secunia-survey-of-dep-and-aslr. html

Note that I'd seen this graphic last week (don't recall if Eweek or other). I hate to say it but it's really bad when Adobe is actually responding to the issue by fixing their software unlike Apple. My understanding is that followin an ASLR design standard does not prevent software from using known address spaces. All it does is ensure that the software does not break when thrown into a mandatory ASLR environment.

Just google for Indian Information Technology act amendments 2008 and read it yourself. It is much worse than any of you even think. Probably the worst IT act in the world ! If you are lazy to read the whole stuff, just read my personal blog about the same http://nasirudheen.blogspot.com/2010/02/in-name-of-terrorists.html

The tyrants and evil men of this world always start by dehumanizing someone.

They also often anthropomorphize. Figure 1.

You're talking about dehumanizing, we're talking about the definition of human, and whether human life is sacred at all.

If you're saying that, then you've already couched a scientific and ethical discussion in religious terms. That makes it essentially meaningless to those of us who don't believe in God, and equally worthless in determining the proper course of action. Is life "sacred"? Does God give a damn whether we survive or not, whether we suffer or not? I don't know. No one does (although many claim to have some special knowledge in this regard.) Given how cheap life is in most parts of the world, how much death, misery and destruction the human race experiences on a daily basis, my guess is He lost interest in us a long time ago. If not, if He is watching and expecting us to climb out of the muck on our own, well, we'd better get busy. We have a long way to go.

I do know this: if human life is sacred to the Lord, he sure has a funny way of showing it. I've lost too many people who were important to me, watched them suffer and die of conditions that a supreme being could cure with a snap of His heavenly fingertips. The only answers (and I use the term loosely) that religion has ever offered me is "well, it's God's will", "the Lord moves in mysterious ways" and similar platitudes that just made me feel worse than ever (mainly because I knew the real answer was: we just hadn't figured out how to treat it yet.) Still, maybe they're right. But God didn't invent sulfa drugs, God didn't invent penicillin, God didn't invent surgical forceps, fact is, God hasn't done squat to alleviate human suffering ... at least, not for a long, long time. I rather get the impression that He fully expects us to grow up, stop depending upon His largess, and start taking care of ourselves. You know, like any good parent would do. We've had untold thousands of years to figure out the meaning of life and get civilized, to stop brutalizing each other ... but we're still working on it. Frankly, I'm surprised He hasn't just wiped the slate clean and started over. Yes yes, I know some of you believe that's imminent, but you're also irrelevant to this discussion.

In any event, instead of framing the question as "are we sacred to God?" which invariably results in a negative when dealing with such research programs, try asking "do we have value to each other?" I think you'll find that answer much more useful, and truly relevant to the topic at hand.

Here are some pictures showing the effects of the disruption, including a 6x or more increase in messaging over the "background chatter" on the Internet, and a description of what went wrong.

The tyrants and evil men of this world always start by dehumanizing someone.

They also often anthropomorphize. Figure 1.

You're talking about dehumanizing, we're talking about the definition of human, and whether human life is sacred at all.

You think you have oil consumption problems? Meet the Lycoming R-7755, a 36-cylinder, 5000-hp, turbosupercharged monster displacing 7,755 cubic inches (bore/stroke 6.375 X 6.75 in.) and weighing a mere three tons, give or take a beer keg.

Two of these babies were built in 1946 (one carbureted, one fuel-injected), for the Convair B-36. Pratt & Whitney won the engine contract, ultimately, with its 28-cylinder R-4360 after the Lycoming proved too unreliable. Had Lycoming gotten the contract, the B-36 would have gone into the air with 216 cylinders and 432 spark plugs. Imagine trying to keep 432 spark plugs clean, operating on postwar 115/145 avgas.

The R-7755 was innovative in a number of ways. It was liquid-cooled, which is why the cylinders line up in a perfect line (in 9 rows of 4). Each bank of cylinders had an overhead camshaft. (I don't know of another radial with an overhead cam, do you?) Each cam, in turn, had two sets of lobes: one for high power, the other for long-distance economy cruise. When the pilot chose a different setting, the entire cam would slide lengthwise a couple inches to engage the other set of lobes.

The Air Force spent 10 years battling engine problems in the B-36, many of them related to poor cylinder cooling, others involving carb ice and carburetor fires. None of which would have been a problem with the Lycoming R-7755. Largest Lycoming

OK, I'll bite. What do you think is wrong with a charity combatting disease in Africa?

Happy to answer that: Hand Relief International.

Yes, it's satire. But it's true in the same way the Daily Show is true. Having worked in development these last 7 years, I can tell you from experience that most large-scale aid projects are just as fucked up as most large-scale software development projects - astoundingly inept bureaucracies whose sole interest is wringing more dollars from (sometimes) well-intentioned dupes.

http://the-discourses.blogspot.com/2007/12/ron-paul-and-slavery.html

What he's doing is marketing and targeted lobbying even bribery. It's only philanthropy in name and then only in front of the cameras.

It's pathetic that you give him credit where credit is not due.

That's because Linux is 100% as vulnerable to ... Linux uses security by "obscurity"...

You really have things backwards. Linux source code is GPL freely available for anyone to inspect. Windows source is proprietary and secret, which Gates testified before Congress was necessary because it was a national resource that should be kept secret for security reasons ... until Gates gave the Chinese copies of the XP source because it was their price for Microsoft to do business in China. So, it is Microsoft that practices "security by obscurity".

Actual security? The 1,000,000 + zombies that are appearing on the giant bot farms discovered every so often are compromised Windows boxes, not Linux or Mac OS X boxes. Ballmer himself put the Linux desktop market share at around 10% and called Linux a greater competitive threat than Apple. With that percentage and, according to you Linux is equally as vulnerable, then why isn't 100,000 of those zombies Linux boxes?

And, if Linux is so easy to compromise then why did professional hackers spend more than 6 months last year just to capture only 700 Linux boxes using brute force password cracking when, according to you, all they had to do was spend a day or two to lure a few hundred thousand Linux users to their porn site honey pot?

Morons are those who drink Microsoft's Kool-aide and become brainless human zombies chanting MS Technical Evangelists astroturf postings as if they are fact.

New punctuation: "~" at the end of a line to indicate 'Snarky'. http://harns.blogspot.com/

You forgot to put a tilde at the end of that last sentence...

I've been following software patent issues closely for a long time and I still haven't seen any patent promise that was 100% to my liking. So what the FSF says could also be said about Red Hat's patent promise and many other patent promises and "pledges". The TurboHercules exampled showed how little IBM cares about its patent pledge when it wants to defend its mainframe monopoly. But the worst of all patent licenses is the OIN's patent agreement.

I don't mean to say anyone should trust Microsoft's patent promise blindly, but one should look at the promise in connection with obvious business interests. I can't see how Microsoft would do anything that would run counter to its strategic interest, as a platform company, to maximize developer support.

Actually, even though this sub-contract has been enthusiastically supported by Republicans all along the way, the original privatization of the Virginia IT infrastructure was spear-headed by Democratic governor Mark Warner (now the senior senator from Virginia), and has been supported just as enthusiastically by Democrats. Also, it will be very hard to "crack the whip" on Northrop Grumman, since the present Virginia administration bent over backwards to get NG to locate their world headquarters in Virginia rather than Maryland, both of which are near Washington DC, where the real money lives, as opposed to the chump change 2.4 billion contract with VA. "Incestuous" in this case is far too mild a word for what is actually going on.

Craig Jenness I believe I possess the vision and the technical and operational management qualities that can help to elevate your organisation to the next level.

I think this sums it up perfectly.

There's a video about that:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/video/2010/may/20/language-usa

Neutrino capture should also occur, if a anti neutrino strikes a beta-decaying nucleus, (even a very low energy anti neutrino), the process, anti-v+n->p+e will occur. The cross section is low though, so we would have to postulate a very large number of low energy anti-neutrino passing though substance to see a sizeable change to the decay rate. I have examined what would happen if neutrinos and quarks, both felt an additional force, an axial force, this would lead to a background sea of neutrinos or anti-neutrinos around any element, except those with the same number of protons as neutrons. Pauli-exclusion would prevent most of these being the correct type, electron-neutrinos, in ordinary conditions. But special conditions would liberate enough extra electron-neutrinos to increase decay rates. I'll rate this up on my blog Axitronics, just as soon as I can put some definite maths, behind the above.

I think this sums it up perfectly.

Must be an extremely slow news day when you have to copy the content from Wikipedia and
UVB-76. Aren't there more interesting stories ( ie. Petraeus' admission of
a U.S. negotiated settlement in Afghanistan) or were the Slashbot editors consumed with shorting their S & P 500 futures contracts?

Yours In Minsk,
Kilgore Trout