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Re:Hard to beat Count Zero by Mark4ST · 2003-02-11 10:06 · Score: 1 · on Pattern Recognition

It took me several times through Neuromancer to understand everything that is going on in the book in the grand sense of things thanks to unique verbal constructions and new terminology that only makes sense on multiple readings, and even then, there's probably small details that I'd catch on the next reading

I had much the same problem. I'm sot sure why, but one solution to comprehending Gibson's rather dense, James Joyceish prose is to suck up the book in audio format. There happens to be an excellent audiobook available for Neuromancer. It's read by the author. It features amazing, but subtle background music by U2 (sans Bono, thank the Maker), amongst others. It's slightly abridged, yet not butchered.

It's also quite interesting to hear Gibson do a Jamaican accent, starting from his Western Canada surfer drawl. Definitely worth a day in court.

Don't use NESticle by yerricde · 2003-02-11 03:45 · Score: 2, Informative · on NES PC

Turning them into a NESticle machine is their only salvation

NESticle is a disgustingly inaccurate emulator. FCE Ultra is much more accurate.

trail of tears? by Anonymous Coward · 2003-02-10 05:42 · Score: 0 · on Trail of Tears: MySQL, ODBC, & OpenOffice 1.0

It's just plain offensive to refer to setting up software as the "Trail of Tears." The Trail of Tears was a time of great suffering of people who were being kicked out of their homeland and decimated with infectious disease. 4000 deaths! Let's at least try to give respect to these innocent humans.

Re:Kudos to SA. by sporktoast · 2003-02-09 20:49 · Score: 1 · on NYTimes: Tangled Up in Spam

I can think of one vector you forgot.

Having friends or relatives who forward glurge, petitions, or chain emails without using BCC or chopping the headers.

Eventually they can get forwarded into the hands of a spammer who harvests all the addressess in the header.

Yes, it's legal by sql*kitten · 2003-02-08 10:34 · Score: 3, Interesting · on Circuit Court Okays Vote Swapping Site

Yes, it's legal, but is it a good idea? There is a loophole in representative democracy which leaves it open to manipulation by this type of vote-shuffling - in a population of 5^n, 3^n can outvote everyone else if they're well placed. I would say that this is far, far worse for democracy than the recent irregularities in Florida, because this is now institutionalized.

Re:hmm by SweetAndSourJesus · 2003-02-07 18:16 · Score: 1 · on Priest Brews in Washing Machine

There's a law in Germany, Reinheitsgebot.

God bless Germany.

Speakers? Pah! by DarklordJonnyDigital · 2003-02-07 01:15 · Score: 3, Interesting · on Logitech Z-680 Dolby 5.1 PC Speakers Reviewed

At the risk of being downvoted, I don't like speakers at all. Headphones are the way to go. Not those awful one-dollar piezoelectric crystal widgets that go into your ears and break after a week because the wire was too thin. I'm talking about those massive black headphones that totally cover your ears, muffle external sound and sound better than most cheesy OEM speakers. Good for hearing the direction of your opponents' footsteps in Counterstrike, too. I remember first trying a set of these headphones out on the glass-house demolition test map of Red Faction... mmm...

Manga is better... by DarklordJonnyDigital · 2003-02-07 01:02 · Score: 2, Interesting · on Why Does Manga Succeed Where American Comics Fail?

Because it's not an American comic.

Seriously. A lot of people will prefer Japanese stuff to similar American, simply because it's different. Why? Because it's more interesting. When we perceive something as different to what we're used to, we can either find it intimidating (if it scares us or we don't understand it) or interesting (if it seems harmless enough and there's a chance we'll grow to like it). When it comes to anime and manga, it's rare that a person will find themself frightened by a mere foreign comic book.

There's also the fact that anime and manga are gaining popularity, and with good reason - they're generally rather good. Anime is an art form - the drawing of the characters, colouring, shading, movement, balance, character design, sound and storyline are all well thought out and well implemented. Compare this to a western cartoons which are very often unsatisfying in their portrayals of characters - they're just too flat and hard to empathize with.

The best manga and anime are most often the ones ported to the english language, which reinforces the idea that anime is good. Not to mention its wide range and the huge audience it can reach. Once someone finds an anime they like (many people start on a dub of something like Dragonball Z), they are much more likely to gain an interest in other series of a similar style.

I don't think I have to mention the fact that while American comics and cartoons target kids who are used to watching costumed superheroes and anthropomorphic animals in their daily six hours of watching TV, Japanese animation has Dragonball-style dirty humour, Evangelion's depth and confusingness, and Ghost in the Shell's commentary on what it means to be human.

Re:What kind? by SweetAndSourJesus · 2003-02-05 11:06 · Score: 1, Informative · on Carmack Needs Rocket Fuel

Hydrogen peroxide

HACKERS: EPISODE ONE: THE PHANTOM MITNICK by Randseed · 2003-02-05 09:28 · Score: 1 · on Kevin Mitnick Answers

Does anyone remember Hackers: Episode One: The Phantom Mitnick? :)

Re:Wha? by GNUman · 2003-02-04 15:57 · Score: 1, Interesting · on Digital Celebrities

That's where Everything2 comes into play, do a search for "In Soviet Russia" you get:

In Soviet Russia
(idea) by Andux (3.6 min) (print) ? 1 C! Sun Dec 08 2002 at 7:08:19

A joke originated by Russian comedian Yakov Smirnoff,* which, years later, turned into a meme on Something Awful (thanks, anotherone), and then spread to Fark, where it eventually attained a level of popularity great enough to necessitate filtering. In November of 2002, it was introduced to Slashdot, and by the end of the month had attained a level of popularity rivaling that of CowboyNeal.

Although the joke is often mangled by those looking for cheap laughs and easy karma (as was AYBABTU before it), it's quite possible to create a Soviet Russia for almost any occasion with just a few simple steps:

1. Take a sentence,
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
2. switch around the subject and the object (for second person imperative sentences (e.g., "Imagine a Beowulf cluster of those."), you will, of course, have to add the subject first),
The lazy dog jumps over the quick brown fox.
3. ensure that the verb(s) are in the proper tense,
The lazy dog jumps over the quick brown fox.
4. (optional) remove words and/or change spellink to create effect of Russian accent (or simply trim the superfluous crap),
lazy dog jumps over quick brown fox.
5. prepend "In Soviet Russia," and change punctuation and emphasis to taste.
In Soviet Russia, lazy dog jumps over quick brown fox!
6. Share and Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I am not responsible for any losses of karma, tarnished reputations, lynchings, atrocities, or global thermonuclear wars that occur as a result of the use, misuse, or disuse of this writeup.
In Soviet Russia, memes node YOU!

*There's some debate as to what the original "Soviet Russia" joke was. Augusta says it was "In Los Angeles, you can always find a party. In Soviet Russia, the Party can always find YOU," while BrooksMarlin remembers it being "...television watches YOU!" Google and Yakov.com both seem to be silent on the subject.

Re:64 bits? by GQuon · 2003-02-02 12:31 · Score: 1 · on The Battle in 64-bit Land, 2003 and Beyond

He has a milli-C64. Eh. millibi-C64. (What is the correct unit for 1 of 1024 anyway?) 1024 Bytes = 1 KiB.
Never mind...

Re:P2P Terrorists? by mkro · 2003-02-02 01:35 · Score: 5, Insightful · on E.U. Commission Suggests Permissive Copyright Rule

Yes, this is a little off topic, but still:

I sat browsing the Prelinger archive last night, and download three or four movies.

From "The Terrible Truth" (1951): "Some say the reds are promoting dope traffic in the United States to undermine national moral. They did it in China a few years back. It's certainly true that the increased use of narcotics plays right into their hands."

Oookay... Sounded a little paranoid, but I didn't think much more about it. After all, I've heard of McCartyism, and know it was blown out of proportions. The next movie was about pornographic litterature (Yeah, yeah, I know I downloaded some of the more sensational ones, but I wanted entertainment) :

"Perversion for Profit" (ca. 1964-1965): "This moral decay weakens our resistance to the onslaught of the Communist masters of deceit."

Uh. Two movies in a row, selected at (pretty much) random, made over 10 years apart. Both blaming communism for plotting to destroy the nation. If I've downloaded more movies from the archive, I'm sure I would have found more of the same.

Anyway... This made me think of Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine", and what the movie says about fear being used to make the public act in certain ways or accept whatever are presented to them. Sample quote: "The media, the corporations, the politicans, have all done such a good job of scaring the American public, it has come to the point that they don't have to give any reason at all."
If this is how it works, can single words have the power to trigger these effects? Don't forget how hard it is to say no to a law that has "patriotic" as part of it's name (Because saying "no" would mean UNpatriotic, and you KNOW you either are with us or against us).
If shouting "communist" at things and people you wanted to get rid of worked in the 50's and 60's, certainly linking the word "terrorist" to illegal copying should have some effect on public opinion and lawmakers.

Seems to me like "terrorist" is the fnord of our time.

Re:Silver lining? by Renshi's+Girl · 2003-02-01 22:53 · Score: 1 · on Space Shuttle Columbia Breaks Up Over Texas

Or not. I was discussing this with a bus driver and some other passengers (who were married) today. The woman of the couple repeated her earlier statement to her husband I wonder if now they'll realize that we don't belong up there . This is frightening. You may not think so, but after more than a year on the bus in the Las Vegas, Nevada area, I have come to realize just how "Joe Sixpack" really thinks, and this is a fairly representative sample. Want further proof? Check out this write up by SharQ in the daylogs at Everything (about 2/3 of the way down the page).

I really wish that I could be more optomistic. It just seems that everyone is looking for any arugment/excuse, valid or otherwise, to cut, reduce, or otherwise remove any and preferably all scientific programs these days. It's been going on for quite sometime, and I fear it's only going to get worse...as a chemist geek, I regularly get to see first hand the abject fear and terror that science invokes in people. Knowledge and science are becoming the root of all evil. This saddens and scares me.

"Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground"

Re:Teleportation, destruction or movement? by Dan+Aloni · 2003-01-31 03:04 · Score: 1 · on Improvements in Teleportation

What people worry about is that the body might be more than a mere collection of particles, perhaps also contain some sort of a soul, that your being, and notion of 'self' is not only defined by the mass you are composed of. Think OOBE.

Imagine that the source of the teleportation was not destroyed - this means that an entirely new copy of the person was created. Which one of the people is considered the real person, if the duplicate is indistinguishable from the source? If we kill the source or the duplicate, did we affect in any way the alive-or-dead status of that person?

Perhaps only if the operation of creating the destination and destroying the source is being done in zero time, you can define it as movement.

more sick jokes by jedie · 2003-01-31 02:50 · Score: 1 · on Linux In Space: Red Hat Rides The Rocket

A leper walks into a bar and orders a drink. The bartender serves him, and then promptly throws up. The leper says, "Hey, look, if you're grossed out by me, just say so and I'll leave." and the bartender says, "No, it's not you, trust me." The leper orders a second drink, drinks it, and the bartender throws up again. The leper says, "Hey, I told you, I won't get offended, if it's me, just say so." and the bartender promises that it's not. After the leper's third drink, the bartender throws up a third time and the leper says, "All right, if it's not me making you throw up, then what is it?" and the bartender says, "It's not you, it's the guy behind you dipping his nachos into your back."
---------------

A guy goes to the pub, and says to his friend "You won't believe what happened. I was taking a short cut along the railway track, and I found a girl tied to it. I untied her, and then we had sex over and over again, all the positions, everything.
His friend replies, "That's great: did you get a blow job?"
"Oh, no: I never found her head."
-----------

Q: What's better than winning 4 gold medals in the special olympics?
A: not being RETARDED.
-----------

Billy and Jimmy come running down the stairs Christmas Morning. They race past the kitchen, where their mother is cooking up a delicious breakfast. Out the window they can see a perfect blanket of snow gently falling to the ground. Running to the living room, they are greeted by their father, who is stoking up a roaring fire. Then they see the tree, laden with gifts that spread across the floor. The paper starts flying. When the dust has settled, Billy has a huge mound of presents: G.I. Joe action figures, Nerf guns, a Playstation, and tons of candy. Then he looks over at Jimmy, who has recieved ONE MATCHBOX CAR and is pushing it back and forth across the floor in the corner.

"Gosh," says Billy, "I got a lot more presents than you did this year."

"Yeah," replies Jimmy, "well, at least I don't have cancer."
----------------

hehe, sick jokes are so funny

Re:For the lamens among us... by jldrew · 2003-01-31 01:47 · Score: 1 · on OpenBSD Gets Even More Secure

The hacker's exploit isn't located on the stack - it just used the stack overflow to gain write access to the code segment, so making the stack non-executable hasn't actually affected what the program will do with the new code right ?

The hacker's code is on the stack. The whole point of a buffer overrun exploit is not, as you state, to write past the end of the stack. In fact, it's just to write past the end of the area of the stack allocated to some function.

For a long time, the whole buffer overflow idea seemed foreign, but after searching google and everything2, I realized that there's nothing magical happening,... the buffer overflow uses simple ideas I (you too probably) learned in early CS classes.

Here's my description of how the exploit works (as I understand it):

When you make a function call, space is allocated on the stack (memory available for programs to use) for: 1) the function's arguments, 2) the function's return address (where to go when the function is done), 3) the variables declared within the function. The idea is to use up the space for the variables within the function, and then use up enough extra space to overwrite the return address. Then, you can make the return address point wherever you want.

With that in mind, you fill the function's variable space with some code you'd like to execute. Then, you overwrite the return address to point to that code. Voila!

For example...

void myExploitableFunction() { <ECODE> // This is my buffer, it's just a char array. char buffer[16]; // Fill the buffer (and then some!) scanf("%s", buffer); return;

}
Of course, this example is only a simple example... but anyway... The malicious user would just supply scanf with more than 16 characters, and the buffer would overflow... yada yada yada

An obvious choice, when you think about it. by DarklordJonnyDigital · 2003-01-30 10:09 · Score: 2, Interesting · on IBM Calls Linux "Logical Successor" To AIX

This isn't even a new thing.

It's pretty obvious why IBM are taking a serious look at changing over to a whole new kind of *nix. Simply compare the two. Before you read this article how many of you - and honestly, now - how many of you didn't know what AIX was? At least a couple, I can be sure. On the other hand, who reading Slashdot has never heard of Linux?

AIX is an obscure, nasty system that costs IBM money to maintain. Linux, if I remember my first foray into the operating system correctly, cost me naught but a handful of blank CDs and every other IRC monkey could give me free techsupport for it.

I rest my proverbial case.

Re:Isn't this pointless? by Anonymous Coward · 2003-01-30 02:05 · Score: 0 · on Mac vs. PC Digital Photography Comparison Redux

Because it undoubtedly makes use of the G4's AltiVec

Apple propaganda here. They call AltiVec "The Velocity Engine" though, in a continued display of marketing department stupidity.

The terrorists have already won... by Anonymous Coward · 2003-01-29 11:24 · Score: 2, Funny · on Rambus Wins Case Against Infineon

"ANY BREAKFAST BAGEL SANDWICH" at McDonald's!
Terrorist 1: "What are we doing here, Abdul?"
Terrorist 2: "It should be obvious, Mohammad. We are getting sandwiches."
Terrorist 1: "This place is a symbol of all that is evil about the West, Abdul. Simply being present here corrupts the soul. It is an abomination before Allah."
Terrorist 2: "The clown is indeed disturbing. But the large purple fungus-man amuses me."
Terrorist 1: "You know that is not what I am talking about. This place flaunts its degenerate Western values in the face of Heaven. It must be expunged from the Earth!"
Terrorist 2: "Keep your voice down, Mohammad."
Terrorist 1: "IT IS THE WILL OF--"
Terrorist 2: "SHUT UP, YOU FOOL! DO WANT TO BE ARRESTED BEFORE...ahh, before we can order our delicious food? No, no, fellow citizens, my friend is simply agitated about the--ahh--swill served at that Wendy's down the street. Not like this fine establishment. No, no."
Crew chief: "Welcome to McDonalds, sir, can I take your order?"
Terrorist 2: "Ahh, yes. I will have a Big Mac, regular fries, and a large orange drink."
Crew chief: "And you, sir?"
Terrorist 1: "Hmm. What is this 'Happy Meal' item?"
Crew chief: "That's a children's meal, sir. You'd probably prefer a larger sandwich."
Terrorist 1: "ZIONIST WHORE! YOU WILL BURN IN THE FLAMES OF HELL!"
Terrorist 2: "SHUT UP, YOU FOOL! He--He--He is a collector! He needs but one more Hot Wheels toy to complete his collection! Right, uh, uh, Sam?"
Terrorist 1: "Yes, fine."
Terrorist 2: "Right. Right. He will have the cheeseburger Happy Meal with a cold refreshing Coca-Cola. I am very sorry he became so agitated."
Crew chief: "That--That's okay, sir. Your order will be ready in just a moment."
Terrorist 2: "Mohammad, you fool. You must keep your mouth shut. Let me do the talking."
Terrorist 1: "My name is not Sam."
Terrorist 2: "I know that. We are supposed to blend with the Americans, remember?"
Terrorist 1: "Do not call me by degenerate Western names, Abdul."
Terrorist 2: "Did you pay no attention during training? Weren't you listening to--"
Crew chief: "Number 23!"
Terrorist 2: "Come on. That's our food."
Terrorist 1: "Hmm. This meal doesn't look very happy. And the portions are very small."
Terrorist 2: "Shut up, Mohammad."
Terrorist 1: "And this toy car appears to be cheaply constructed."
Terrorist 2: "Shut up, Mohammad."
Terrorist 1: "What is this?"
Terrorist 2: "Hmmm? Oh, that's the Monopoly scratch-off game. Scratch away the silver parts of the card and you win a prize, like food or money. Not like that, Mohammad. Use a quarter."
Terrorist 1: "Hmph. More tools for spreading blasphemous Western values."
Terrorist 2: "Use the edge of the quarter, Mohammad."
Terrorist 1: "Oh."
Terrorist 2: "Allah help me..."
Terrorist 1: "A-Abdul! Look! Look! I won!"
Terrorist 2: "Really? That's wonderful. What was your prize?"
Terrorist 1: "It says I won 'any breakfast bagel sandwich!' You see? What is a breakfast bagel sandwich?"
Terrorist 2: "They slice a bagel in half, then put eggs and meat inside it. It's fairly tasty. Better than the pancakes, I'll tell you that."
Terrorist 1: "I can't believe it! Can I get it now?"
Terrorist 2: "No, they only serve that for breakfast. We'll get one in the morning, alright?"
Terrorist 1: "I--I--Oh, alright. It cannot be helped. I still can't believe this, Abdul! I've never won anything before!"
Terrorist 2: "You'll have to try the sausage bagel. You'll love it."

Pinocchio by yerricde · 2003-01-29 04:11 · Score: 1 · on World's Most Accurate Lie Detector

Imagine if they were 100% perfect!

Carlo Collodi imagined it for you, in a novel called The Adventures of Pinocchio . An intelligent puppet is built (Spielberg's A.I. was based partly on this and partly on "Supertoys"), and a lie detector is implanted in the nose.

Re:Wow by ChrisTaylor2904 · 2003-01-29 02:01 · Score: 2, Informative · on [H|Cr]acker Insurance

I'm an actuary by training, and we call this issue "moral hazard".

One of the best ways to reduce the risk to the insurance company is to introduce "self-insurance" where the customer has claim to bear some of the cost of any claim - like the excess on your car insurance policy. For these policies, the customer's probably liable for something like the first $5 or $10 million of any claim.

I'd also expect the insurance company to follow up any large claims with another audit, to see if any of the security controls and procedures had become lax since the time the policy was taken out, and there'll be a standard clause to reduce/invalidate the claim if anything's found in this audit.

Re:Hypocrites by Anonymous Coward · 2003-01-27 17:45 · Score: 0 · on P2P File Sharing Could Cost You A Bundle

Your radical ideas about the RIAA have already occurred to others

Re:Here's Your Answer by Anonymous Coward · 2003-01-27 13:41 · Score: 0 · on Red Hat Announces Product EOL Calendar

gOOk?

Re:Java hype by thelen · 2003-01-27 07:54 · Score: 1 · on The Future of Java?

The guiding principle of Perl language design is to borrow whatever works from other languages. Rather than a regimented and legislated design like Java or Eiffel, Perl revels in its own freedom. It is ecclectic, and it does lack orthogonality in more than a few respects, but it has supported full object-oriented programming since version 5. Perl 6 will be much more amenable to academic types as a fresh rewrite of the language according to more standard "principles".

Finally, even Java Junkies runs on the Perl/DBI/MySQL Everything Engine.

Good history at everything2... by douglips · 2003-01-27 06:49 · Score: 1 · on Using gzip As A Spam Filter

This node at everything2 has a good description of the catfight this paper generated.

A few things better than anyone else... by Anonymous Coward · 2003-01-26 21:55 · Score: 0 · on Why VHS Was Better

The Sony Aibo toys.

The Sony Clie PalmOS devices.

PS1, PS2, PS3...

No, I don't own any Sony... Wait, I don't think I do. Ah, yes, I do. That damnable 17" CRT Sony Trinitron tube wrapped in a Dell-branded case that refuses to die. (Nice tube. Don't ask, it was a freebie!) ARGH! I bet I have some Sony hiding elsewhere in random chips and designs as well.

Someday you will drive your Sony to the Sony to pick up some more Sony. "Honey? We're all out of Sony again!"

"Sony? Err, honey?"...

Re:RMS??? by Anonymous Coward · 2003-01-26 16:08 · Score: 1, Informative · on Mac OS X Sessions at LinuxExpo

RMS.

Re:McDonalds by internic · 2003-01-25 15:48 · Score: 1 · on Attorney Sues eBay over Negative Feedback

You can find a thorough discussion of the facts here

As to the amount of the damages, if you accept the premise that McDonalds was at fault then suggesting that she got too much is foolish if you have any idea what the hell punitive damages are for. Punitive damages are not determined by what the plaintif deserves but as punishment for the defendant to deter him from such behavior. McDonalds is a huge corporation, so it would take a huge amount of money (say, hmmm, a million dollars) to make any difference to them and deter them from keeping their coffee so rediculously hot.

Re:Who needs XML? by Anml4ixoye · 2003-01-25 08:17 · Score: 1 · on DTD vs. XML Schema

Well great. I am glad your job is as easy as that. Hope it stays that way.

We are dealing with pulling data from disparate data sources such as HP3000 and HP9000 mainframes, state-mandated databases, Oracle, Informix, SQL, DB2, etc. Often we need to combine information from two or more of these datasources into a common interface so that the people who are making the decisions can see what they need to see.

XML for us is a great benefit in that we can write programs based on XML information, then have specialists write separate programs to pull the information out of those datasources and parse them into the expected format.

In addition, sometimes you don't have a choice but to use what is presented for you. For example, over at Everything2 they provide XML tickers that you can create programs for. It allows developers to write interfaces into the site without the site having to give up DB access.

Generally speaking, if you are pulling your data from one database, and generally have control over the programming environment, XML probably won't make a lot of sense. But for situations outside of that it can be a very useful tool in pulling together information.

Re:SOHO? by Rojo^ · 2003-01-25 07:23 · Score: 2, Funny · on SOHO Strikes Back

hehe or an area in New York. Actually, There is a pretty good definition of this particular SOHO here.

Re:How to pronounce? by loteck · 2003-01-24 09:15 · Score: 2, Informative · on .org TLD Now Runs on PostgreSQL

as usual..

everything has your answer.

Along with the answer to, you betcha, everything else!

Re:Right On! by MatthewB79 · 2003-01-23 15:57 · Score: 1 · on Nintendo Confirms New Console In 2005

Remember when Mortal Kombat II was released on the SNES with all the blood intact? Nintendo took a beating on MK I and lost ground to Sega with that one. I guess mom and pop's moral righteousness fell by the wayside when it affected the almighty yen, huh?

I don't believe Nintendo's policy of self-imposed censorship over MK and subsequent non-censorship of MK2 warrants making them the bad guy. Especially considering that Acclaim Entertainment waited to release MK2 after the ESRB rating system was in place. I'm not trying to defend any mom/pop argument, just hoping to add some insight. I don't know if you can call this link "research" but at least I sighted something before I spouted off..

Re:DO IT NOW OR ELSE. by Artifex · 2003-01-23 08:16 · Score: 1 · on MonsterHut Jammed for Spam

Touch the puppy, son.