Slashdot Mirror

• Lameness filters (It blocks a lot of legitmate posts)
• Unnessary posting delays. Hasnt taco learned to touch type? A lot of posts are typed in less than 20 seconds and it is a ANNOYING DELAY! 2 minute ban? Come on, so some are faster then others, big deal, some people have more to say than others
• Broken moderation system, The whole point is to sort the gems from the crap, yet a lot of posts designed to make a LIVELY DISCUSSION are MODERATED as flamebait! Come on, not everyone likes X, but just because some one bashes it dosent mean its Flamebait. Flame bait is more useful for DIRECT INSULTS and not legitmate discussions.

• Crapfloods, a meaningless flood of random letters or text, which the lameness filter does a crappy job at trying to stop, besides trolls have written tools using the opensource slashcode to generate crapfloods which bypass the filter
• Links to offensive websites, the most common one is known a http://www.goatse.cx, a awful site which shows a bleeding anus being stretched on the front page. Trolls sneak these links in by posting messages that look legitimate, but infact are sneaky redirects to the site. Common examples include rd.yahoo.com, www.linux-kernel.tk, goatsex.cjb.net, and googles "Im feeling lucky".
• Trying to break slashdot, this is actually a good thing, as it helps test slashdot for bugs. Famous examples include the goatse.cx javascript pop-up, the pagewidening post and the browser crashing post!

• Lameness filters (It blocks a lot of legitmate posts)
• Unnessary posting delays. Hasnt taco learned to touch type? A lot of posts are typed in less than 20 seconds and it is a ANNOYING DELAY! 2 minute ban? Come on, so some are faster then others, big deal, some people have more to say than others
• Broken moderation system, The whole point is to sort the gems from the crap, yet a lot of posts designed to make a LIVELY DISCUSSION are MODERATED as flamebait! Come on, not everyone likes X, but just because some one bashes it dosent mean its Flamebait. Flame bait is more useful for DIRECT INSULTS and not legitmate discussions.

• Crapfloods, a meaningless flood of random letters or text, which the lameness filter does a crappy job at trying to stop, besides trolls have written tools using the opensource slashcode to generate crapfloods which bypass the filter
• Links to offensive websites, the most common one is known a http://www.goatse.cx, a awful site which shows a bleeding anus being stretched on the front page. Trolls sneak these links in by posting messages that look legitimate, but infact are sneaky redirects to the site. Common examples include rd.yahoo.com, www.linux-kernel.tk, goatsex.cjb.net, and googles "Im feeling lucky".
• Trying to break slashdot, this is actually a good thing, as it helps test slashdot for bugs. Famous examples include the goatse.cx javascript pop-up, the pagewidening post and the browser crashing post!

For a second there, I was scared when I saw those pictures. Then I realized they were Halloween costumes.

They are Halloween costumes, right?

Can anyone pick out the virgin in this crowd.

You see that whole back row? The uber-dorks have matured!

How true. You may brush it off is a stereotype, but as this closeup pic of Alan Cox reveals, it's clear this guy hasn't washed in weeks. I've seen homeless guys that eat out of trashcans that are cleaner than this guy. RedHat should be embarrassed to employ such a filthy pig. He so does not fit the character of "British gentleman"... more like "British homeless guy."

this bastard ate my sister!

do you like this cowboi

why? maybe because you look like this?

The CowboyNeal Eating Club

The CowboyNeal Eating Club is a fun, exciting way to meet other portly Linux users in your area. Whether it's getting together to eat a bag of cookies or to down 3 extra large pepperoni pizza's, we guarantee the CowboyNeal Eating Club will be an Ass Widening Good Time (tm). Each month we will send your chapter TONS of coupons to buffets, pizza parlors! We will let you in on GOBS insider information, like the location to the local Hostess distributor in your area. You will also get Jonathan Paters fascinating monthly newslatter "FUCKING FAT". Each month we feature helpful columns such as:

• Is this fattening...ENOUGH?
• How to make pants from that old king sized sheet
• Wiping your ass...when you just can't reach!

If you sign up now you will recieve 75 LBS OF BOLOGNE FREE. All this and a whole lot more! Join the CowboyNeal Eating Club Today! Your ass will thank you!

The CowboyNeal Eating Club

The CowboyNeal Eating Club is a fun, exciting way to meet other portly Linux users in your area. Whether it's getting together to eat a bag of cookies or to down 3 extra large pepperoni pizza's, we guarantee the CowboyNeal Eating Club will be an Ass Widening Good Time (tm). Each month we will send your chapter TONS of coupons to buffets, pizza parlors! We will let you in on GOBS insider information, like the location to the local Hostess distributor in your area. You will also get Jonathan Paters fascinating monthly newslatter "FUCKING FAT". Each month we feature helpful columns such as:

• Is this fattening...ENOUGH?
• How to make pants from that old king sized sheet
• Wiping your ass...when you just can't reach!

If you sign up now you will recieve 75 LBS OF BOLOGNE FREE. All this and a whole lot more! Join the CowboyNeal Eating Club Today! Your ass will thank you!

are you referring to me?

I am a meat spigot!

we never made it to the moon you boob. it was all a vast and deep penetrating conspiracy with key hitters such as RMS and the mexican government.

this guy ate them

you didn't see my panties anywhere did you? I think this guy ate them LOL! thx! huggggz! :)

I can't wait. "We searched you because the computer told us to." Trust the Computer.

I can't wait. "We didn't implement this system because chrisd said it would be bad." Trust crisd.

I can't wait. "We searched you because the computer told us to." Trust the Computer.

I can't wait. "We didn't implement this system because chrisd said it would be bad." Trust crisd.

At the heart of this issue is a student who struggled through a tough course, possiblby cheated and got caught, and whined about it. The journalist who gave this whining a public outlet is irresponsible and immature. There was a similar article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution a while back, but shoddy journalism is nothing new for the AJC. I was surprised to see a supposedly reputable newspaper run the story. My guess is that the journalist who wrote the Post story had a bad experience with cheating when he was a student and is simply using this case to vent his own frustrations. He certainly doesn't have all the facts. Ga Tech is an excellent school with high standards and a student body taken from the brightest high school graduates in the country. In this environment many high achieving students are somewhat dismayed at the difficulty after having a relatively easy time in high school. This was my experience at the Air Force Academy, and Ga Tech is a similar caliber school with similar caliber students. This student simply needs to learn that he won't always get As, especially at this level.

Having said this, I must admit that the CS1 course at Ga Tech is experiencing growing pains. The College of Computing (CoC) at Ga Tech recently revised the course and students and faculty alike are adjusting to the new material. However, it is important to consider the fact that the CoC revised the course after conducting research in CS education. The CoC is trying to make its CS curriculum as good as it can be. The execution of the change has been rocky, but the underlying reasons for it are sound. Note also that the CoC is well aware of the problems with the new course and started actively working to improve it long before any blow hard journalists blew the rather typical stories of college students out of proportion in order to create fodder for their columns.

Now, for anyone considering applying to Ga Tech , let's inject a little reality into this discussion. Ga Tech is the number 4 engineering school in the country behind M.I.T., Stanford, and Berkeley. Computer Science is ranked 12th, but the ranking is based on reputation, which always lags actual performance. By my own observations I would place Ga Tech's computer science program in the top ten, and Ga Tech is definitely headed there. Ga Tech is a very competitive school and is constantly growing and improving. Tech is so serious about making its computer science program a national powerhouse that it has its own college within the university, not just a department of another college as in most universities. I could go on extolling the many virtues of Ga Tech, but the bottom line is that it's an excellent school and should be on your short list if you want to attend one of the nation's top institutions.

Posted by chrisd on Tuesday December 11, @08:22PM
from the no-mention-of-peg-legs-and-eye-patches dept.
akiaki007 was among many who wrote in to say: "Check out this article on the New York Times(free reg, blah blah) site. The CmdrTaco have raided 27 cities in 21 states. Raid sites include MIT, UCLA , Purdue, Duke, UofO, all hot-beds of young tender assholes. Their main target was the group DrinkOrDie, an asshole appreciation club. 'This is a new frontier for crime,' Kenneth W. Dam, deputy secretary of the Treasury, said at a news briefing. 'The costs are enormous to both industry and consumers.' I better hide my asshole. They might think it's some weird fucking tool."

Posted by chrisd [dibona.com] on Tuesday December 11, @08:22PM
from the no-mention-of-peg-legs-and-eye-patches dept.
akiaki007 [mailto] was among many who wrote in to say: "Check out this article [nytimes.com] on the New York Times [nytimes.com] (free reg, blah blah) site. The CmdrTaco have raided 27 cities in 21 states. Raid sites include MIT [mit.edu], UCLA [ucla.edu], Purdue [purdue.edu], Duke [duke.edu], UofO, all hot-beds of young tender assholes. Their main target was the group DrinkOrDie [google.com], an asshole appreciation club. 'This is a new frontier for crime,' Kenneth W. Dam, deputy secretary of the Treasury, said at a news briefing. 'The costs are enormous to both industry and consumers.' I better hide my asshole. They might think it's some weird fucking tool."

Posted by chrisd
on Tuesday December 11, @08:22PM

from the no-mention-of-peg-legs-and-eye-patches dept.

akiaki007 was among many who wrote in
to say: "Check out this
article
on the New York Times (free reg, blah
blah) site. The CmdrTaco have raided 27 cities in 21 states. Raid sites include
MIT, UCLA,
Purdue, Duke,
UofO, all hot-beds of young tender assholes. Their main target was the group

DrinkOrDie, an asshole appreciation club. 'This is a new frontier for
crime,' Kenneth W. Dam, deputy secretary of the Treasury, said at a news
briefing. 'The costs are enormous to both industry and consumers.' I better hide
my asshole. They might think it's some weird fucking tool."

Posted by chrisd on Tuesday December 11, @08:22PM
from the no-mention-of-peg-legs-and-eye-patches dept.
akiaki007 was among many who wrote in to say: "Check out this article on the New York Times (free reg, blah blah) site. The CmdrTaco have raided 27 cities in 21 states. Raid sites include MIT, UCLA, Purdue, Duke, UofO, all hot-beds of young tender assholes. Their main target was the group DrinkOrDie, an asshole appreciation club. 'This is a new frontier for crime,' Kenneth W. Dam, deputy secretary of the Treasury, said at a news briefing. 'The costs are enormous to both industry and consumers.' I better hide my asshole. They might think it's some weird fucking tool."

Posted by chrisd on Tuesday December 11, @08:22PM
from the no-mention-of-peg-legs-and-eye-patches dept.
akiaki007 was among many who wrote in to say: "Check out this article on the New York Times (free reg, blah blah) site. The CmdrTaco have raided 27 cities in 21 states. Raid sites include MIT, UCLA, Purdue, Duke, UofO, all hot-beds of young tender assholes. Their main target was the group DrinkOrDie, an asshole appreciation club. 'This is a new frontier for crime,' Kenneth W. Dam, deputy secretary of the Treasury, said at a news briefing. 'The costs are enormous to both industry and consumers.' I better hide my asshole. They might think it's some weird fucking tool."

my chris.

Looks like we'll have to wait a little longer for a female /. editor.
Chris DiBona was one of the editors on open sources. So unless someone made a mistake with his gender there...

Looks like we'll have to wait a little longer for a female /. editor.
Chris DiBona was one of the editors on open sources. So unless someone made a mistake with his gender there...

I'm chrisd. I also go by Chris DiBona and Gamara on IRC. You can find me online that way pretty easily. A lot more about me can be found on my Webpage. Feel free to check that out. I work for OSDN. I used to work on the VA side of the house since late 1998. I've worked with Linux International for about 3 years too, I was the president of SVLUG for about a year and VP for about 2. I've been around slashdot for a long time as a poster and story author. I've done reviews of science fiction for /. and have written for Linux Journal, Linux Magazine and a buncho f other publications, both online and off.

Chris

"Yes...the former errand boy cum Sr. VP of Linux Promotion and SEC investigation was indeed the one who wrote the business plan that got them funding from Sequoia Cap, the same company that brought you Webvan.com. He promise them hype, and that is what he is good at. With Chris Dibona (last week he was still pushing VA's vaporware..do they still sell anything??) as his henchmen, the 2 basically hired every Linux developer in existence...promised them the moon and then fired them. In addition, they tried to malign and defame other Linux companies because that is how they do business. They even manage to destroy the quaint Silicon Valley Linux Group (SVLUG) into the hype machine that is VA LUG!"

"In the midst of all this, they forgot they needed to make money to pay the pension holders back for the IPO. Instead, JTH cashed 100MM out, without it being listed in Yahoo insider. Dibona bought a fancy new house and car, Larry has cashed $35 MM out, according to Yahoo insiders..."

"Yes, Marc Merlin, SVLUG's current president, even became a doomed VAer...Hall, Dibona and Augustin tried in their glory to create the "VA Linux machine." If you were not with them (and their overhyped IPO scheme to rob pension holders of money) then they would use eveything in their power, including the once neutral Slashdot.org or their fake news site, Newsforge to destroy you. If there is enough interest in this board, I will create a website, with facts to substatiate all statements made here...with even more facts on hypster of Hall, Dibona, & Augustin...please reply to post if you are interested..."

"Linux will never die because the foresight of RMS and Linus but VA must surely. If Linux is to ever win the server, desktop market...heck... the hearts of computer users all around the world, then the people behind the scene must be highly ethical and deserving of success."

"That being said, John T. Hall was fired, and is now hyping another start-up, writing another biz plan for Sequoia Cap, so more pensions can lose money."

"Tell these guys how you really feel directly at:"

John T. Hall
289 Fernando Ave
Palo Alto, CA 94306
ceo@sse.stanford.edu
650-494-0818

Chris Dibona
dibona@dibona.com
(He is the Linux Evangelist from day 1 since VC funding...basically selling Linux out)

and of course Larry...lma@valinux.com

also, email:
leone@sequoiacap.com
moritz@sequoiacap.com

Maybe it's different 'cuz of my business dealings, but Malda sure wasn't a whiny prima-donna. He's got his opinions and all, but doesn't take himself too seriously (really!). I now have the impression half the stupid article comments are meant to poke fun at himself.

Besides that, he bought a round of drinks one night and supper another. (Of course, he probably did it to pay back Jim Gettys for the years of work on X11.)

I still wouldn't hire him to write software that anyone else would ever maintain, though.

whoot!

What are you waiting for? Go sign the petition.

Hi there,

I usually don't like to send these sorts of things around, but this hits VERY close to home. A programmer has been arrested for analyzing encryption software and writing a tool for disabled people to be able to use their (legally purchased) Adobe eBooks. You may have heard reports about a Russian "hacker" being detained by the FBI. Don't be fooled by the pejorative used to describe him. He is a Ph.D. student (like me) with a wife and small children. He was arrested after giving a talk in Las Vegas about the software and the weaknesses in Adobe's encryption methods.

He was arrested under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) which makes development or possession of any software to circumvent encryption or copy protection measures on digital media illegal. This makes it illegal, for example, to develop a DVD player for operating systems such as Linux that vendors refuse to support their products on. DVD's contain encrypted data and it is therefore illegal to write or possess any software to legally watch your own DVD's unless that software has the approval of the content producers.

The encryption restrictions of the DMCA are particularly distasteful given the fact that copying and decryption are orthogonal issues. There is nothing inherent in the DVD format (as an example) to prevent copying. The encryption is there only to restrict USE. Your use. Your ability to watch movies when, where and on what devices you want.

When the DMCA was being debated, many researchers put forth arguments that it would have a chilling effect on speech. Such arguments were dismissed as unwarrented paranoia, but these proved to be quite accurate, as a Princeton professor was recently prohibited (through threat of a DMCA lawsuit by the Recording Industry Association of America) from presenting a research paper detailing an analysis of the SDMI digital watermarking method for audio media.

In general, the DMCA severely hinders the analysis of security protocols, greatly harming the very infrastructure it claims to protect. In addition, were the DMCA law 20 years ago, the personal computer revolution would have been harmed immensely and economic giants such as Compaq and Dell would not exist due to the "illegal" (under the DMCA) reverse engineering of the IBM PC BIOS back in the early '80's.

Some members of the programming/computer science/research community have drafted a statement that will be sent to Congress and anyone else that can help change this situation. Please take a moment to read this and become educated about the DMCA. Most reasonable people agree that protection is needed for digital intellectual property. In fact, it already exists in the form of current copyright law. The DMCA grants no new rights to IP owners while taking away many rights from everyone, including previously court-upheld fair use rights (i.e. the right to make backup copies of your legally purchased materials, the right to parody, etc.).

The DMCA is something that threatens all of us, but in my case, it threatens the very industry in which I work. It severly limits what I can do with my skills and provides incentive for much research and development (and associated economic benefits) to move outside the United States. If you agree with the community statement, please consider adding your name to the list of signatories. The statement can be found at

http://www.dibona.com/dmca/

Please pass this information on to others if, like me, you feel things ought to be changed.

Thanks for your time.

--

Boston write-up and pictures, Wired article on the protests, On-line petition, IDG story, CNN copy of the original Reuters story (better late than never!), ironic page on the AAP website (the AAP issued a press release defending Adobe and the DMCA).

Right after I signed Dibona's Free Speech, Free Sklyarov petition...

- grunby

You're forgetting maddog!

He has a great image!

He looks like santa claus.

Children would switch to linux if santa said so.

Btw, this is John "Maddog" Hall. Picture references are great!

----------

I can't follow the link you provided (though I see he has the same link on his home page at Stanford, so it must have been there at some point...).

However, I remember reading about demos where it was running Java bytecode directly. Here's an extract from one review:


After this Q&A was complete, we moved to the other hall to look at the goods. There were a number of machines running the TM processors. The most impressible demo was a chopped up version of doom that ran it's main loop as PICO Java and the graphics routines and such at an x86 machine. There was a graph above the screen where it showed the machine swithcing between instruction sets in the middle of the VM.


The page I got that from is here.

" ...it seems downright stupid to make the default behavior of ol2000 to send it's e-mail only in MS's proprietary TNEF format."

This whole article is "downright stupid" to borrow a phrase. You can send email in just about any typical format from outlook. I can send stuff in UTF-8 plain ascii dullness with a twitch of a mouseclick. I can send it in HTML as rendered by Outlooks wysiwyg HTML encoder, or I can type the HTML in directly. I can send a Word doc, RTF, etc. If someone complains that they couldn't decifer my email, it is a simple thing to switch down to a lower format and re-send. motherfscking duh.

The real problem here is blind mean rabble rousing antagonism from the Linux-OSS-AntiMicro$oft biker gang. A nation or culture cannot endure a rabble-rousing element for any extended length of time. Sooner or later, by whatever justification or means, this rohdiculous yacking that causes so much FUD with lies and purposful mis-interpretations and mis-representations of things like a 'MS app's features' will trigger society's rejection of such an unpleasant element as mindless zealot vitriol. We've seen it all before, society lashes out and cauterizes an unpleasant and obnoxious vocal element to retain some semblance of stability. It is the Law of Pragmatism. We as a culture cannot endure this baited nastiness forever. No matter how unjust it seems from the perspective of those directly involved in the of vocal mayhem, to silence the voices that only cause trouble, in the long run, history and the future will thank us for laying the smack down on a bunch of whiney small fry like Chris DiBona and his 'outrage' over oulooks's default format.

What I'm more concerned about is that nobody is railing over the fact that the *nix filesystem is wrapped around a 40-year old structure of dubious practicality. Nobody is railing over the fact that Linux degenerates the general computing climate and the march toward ultra-super tech with its lack of centralized culpability and abysmal hardware support. Nobody is complaining that zealotry is running unchecked and undermining the OSS movement with every whack-assed article like this.

I should mention that the future Operating Systems will eventually attain a state wherein any software, from any platform written against any API will run without any attention from the user. not that this will be relavant, as future software will make antique software (what we have today) seem an excersize in masochism compared to the latest offering. Software is divided into genres now, and every few years there'll be a killer app written to dominate the respective genre and nullify the value of ALL prior offerings. Nowhere in this vision is there room for whining and pouting like zealots do today. If you continue down this path, oh zealots, there'll be dire consequences. remember the McCarthy/Kohn era? If this zealot crap continues, questions like "have you now or ever been a memeber of the OSS movement?" will be a serious fucking question with your personal fortune and social standing hanging in the balance. I guess you could say that when society gears uup for the next big snap in one direction or the other, you zealots will be first against the wall, even before the traditionally reviled lawyers and politicians.

Thank you very much.

-=(V)0(V)0cr0(V)3=-

Anyhow, stop reading this right now and go check out EFM from CVS. It's awesome. Be sure to check it out of CVS, the tar ball is oldish.

Chris
--
Grant Chair, Linux Int.
Pres, SVLUG

First off, please read Mark Stone's post above regarding the web/asp issues and the gpl, they are -very- important. This represents one of the biggest problems for us (by us I mean all of us) right now. That said, we do releases based on the gpl every couple of months, so I'm fine with that.

While I understand the frustration the AC felt with the patch and documentation systems (more on this later) the AC should realize that when a group does work on an open souce project many people choose to go the route of tarballs every few months. You may not like this method, I don't. I asked myself last week why the cvs tree wasn't public, and while I did not agree with the SF team, the fact is, since they have tarballs coming out often (and I tell you, every two or three months is a completely reasonable interval) I'm not going to tell them how to run thier project. Any more than I would tell mandrake or raster how to run enlightenment.

It sounds awful, and counter intuitive, but many of the OSS worlds best projects are run with an iron fist without external cvs servers. Not that I wish to equate SF with the importance of the Kernel, but when was the last time anyone saw a cvs server from Linus?

Now, the patches and the rest, I'll take a look at what's up and see that they pay greater attention to them, but again, a few procedural mistakes in the early stages of an OSS project is common and forgivable.

So what I'm trying to say in a nutshell is, if SF is only released every three months, and if they choose to completely ignore outside help, that's fine, that's a choice they are making. I don't think it's the most efficient, but it's thier choice to make and I'm not going to interfere with how they practice what so many others don't even have the courage to preach.

Anyhow, if anyone would like to contact me personally about this, please email me at chris@valinux.com (or chris@dibona.com).

One last thing, I can't stress enough the importance of Mark's post. IF you didn't read it , you should. The GPL as written basically allows people to write an ASP like SF and put it out under the GPL. At that point, another person can take the code and set up thier own public SF, which is fine, but any changes they make don't have to be redisributed, which is not. This is a -big- problem, and if the GPL is not fixed, there will need to be a new licence made to address it. We'd rather just use a GPL that covers this contingincy. I'm of the opinion that a clause in the next version of the GPL that says that "public distribution as defined includes use on a public web site" thereby introducing the redistribution requirements for such uses, but I'm not sure that this sort of language will work to promote GPL'd software in the right way.

Anyhow, any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

Chris DiBona
VA Linux Systems
--
Grant Chair, Linux Int.
Pres, SVLUG

By mirroring this and putting up somewhere visible, you will be helping out big time. I don't know if this is being said, but this will both cost time, money and lead to frustration for the MPAA/DVD CCA lawyers, which is a good thing :-)

Again, a copy is Here. Mirror early! Mirror Often! Post your link here and muddy up their searches!

Chris DiBona
VA Linux Systems

--
Grant Chair, Linux Int.
Pres, SVLUG

Chris DiBona
VA Linux Systems
--
Grant Chair, Linux Int.
Pres, SVLUG

Chris DiBona (better known to CNN reporters as "DiBona.com") has put up a page reporting on the hearing. Not much you don't see elsewhere, but some of the comments are priceless.

My favorite:

Probably the best part was when they did "Big lawyer fu" and tried to make it seem like unless they acted now, more and more people would take the code and put it on their sites. And that a TRO would stop it. Which, if you were a bunny rabbit who had been eating carrots in a salt mine for a decade and hadn't ever seen much less used a mouse, would make sense. But I mean -jeez- the judge had obviously seen that mahir guys web site or something, because his eventual ruling to quash the TRO showed he understood the velocity of information on the net.

Ah yes, the juxtaposition of the DVD crack and Mahir. Don't think too much about it, you might get sick at your stomach...

DVDs provide high quality images, such as motion pictures, digitally formatted on a convenient 5-inch disc that is resistant to wear and damage and allows for many attractive consumer features not presently available in other video formats. DVD video discs containing data comprising motion pictures in encrypted form can be played either on special purpose machines (?DVD Players?) or personal computers (?PCs?) equipped with DVD drives. Encryption is necessary to prevent copying of the copyrighted material on the DVD. In order that the copyrighted motion picture can be played, either form of player device requires implementation of the CSS algorithm and ?master keys? to carry out the decryption of the data stored on the disc. The implementation that provides this decryption function is developed by the licensees of DVD CCA using the detailed specifications which is provided by DVD CCA to such licensees.

and wondered about the non-metric (thus certainly non-ISO) language there. A 5-inch DVD-ROM won't even fit into my Toshiba notebook's drive! A quick Google search for dvd diameter shows the standard diameter to be 120mm, not 5 inches. Indeed, the third link (as of a few minutes ago) was to Compaq's DVD-ROM and had 4.7 inches right in the summary, no additional clicking required for the non-DVD-owning public! On my calculator, 120/25.4 is about 4.7244 which is closer to 4.5 than 5.0.

Would bringing a "live" DVD drive to the courthouse help, I wonder? (No, I'm not volunteering, I'll be in Washington state that day.)

Silly me, I always heard DVD stood for Digital Versatile disc.

Pinheads.

Chris DiBona
--
Grant Chair, Linux Int.
VP, SVLUG

here.

I might be there.. let's go!

I mean, many of us actually went so far as to provide real websites, email addresses, and other identifiers. Guess we wanted to be really hard to identify.

I somehow don't think that any questions need to be asked of /. to identify, for instance, Chris Dibona. Oops, I just posted a link to a link, perhaps I should link the code directly. Ack, perhaps an email would help them. Whoops, that is an anonymous address, ah well, if they ask me at that address I will be willing to give them a more direct contact. (Hint, I live in New York City.)

My point? The USA was founded on the idea that citizens have the right to protest unfair legal actions. Posting code and links here is a form of protest. Protesters usually don't mind being identified, after all if they cannot be identified, what is the point of having protested?

Right.

They can claim the law is on their side. They can claim that the algorithm was secure. They can claim that what I did is unfair to them.

That doesn't make them right.

Another example. Sign a lease for an apartment in New York City. It says that your landlord can enter any time. In fact that is false, no matter what the paper says, that is a right you cannot sign away. But they are allowed to try to convince you that you have signed away that right, even though you have not. And you are free to tell them to get lost.

Well guess what?

I don't think they have a case.

Even if they did, I do not agree with the substance of their position and would not agree with the laws that they could possibly have the case under.

And if forcing the point brings DVDs to Linux sooner, well so much the better.

Regards,
Ben Tilly

I mean, many of us actually went so far as to provide real websites, email addresses, and other identifiers. Guess we wanted to be really hard to identify.

I somehow don't think that any questions need to be asked of /. to identify, for instance, Chris Dibona. Oops, I just posted a link to a link, perhaps I should link the code directly. Ack, perhaps an email would help them. Whoops, that is an anonymous address, ah well, if they ask me at that address I will be willing to give them a more direct contact. (Hint, I live in New York City.)

My point? The USA was founded on the idea that citizens have the right to protest unfair legal actions. Posting code and links here is a form of protest. Protesters usually don't mind being identified, after all if they cannot be identified, what is the point of having protested?

Right.

They can claim the law is on their side. They can claim that the algorithm was secure. They can claim that what I did is unfair to them.

That doesn't make them right.

Another example. Sign a lease for an apartment in New York City. It says that your landlord can enter any time. In fact that is false, no matter what the paper says, that is a right you cannot sign away. But they are allowed to try to convince you that you have signed away that right, even though you have not. And you are free to tell them to get lost.

Well guess what?

I don't think they have a case.

Even if they did, I do not agree with the substance of their position and would not agree with the laws that they could possibly have the case under.

And if forcing the point brings DVDs to Linux sooner, well so much the better.

Regards,
Ben Tilly

Ah ha...elsewhere in this massive thread, it looks like Chris DiBona is meeting with others at 8 AM tomorrow. Here's more info.

Chris DiBOna
--
Grant Chair, Linux Int.
VP, SVLUG