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not to nit pick,

Yet you go ahead and do it. I'll play along:

but the plural of "antenna" is "antennas" when in reference to ariels

"aerials" not "ariels" (see also The Little Mermaid)

and "antannae" when in reference to bugs. :)

You misspelled "antennae." Yet, this story was about a bug, a bug in the design of the AirPort base station.

not to nit pick,

Yet you go ahead and do it. I'll play along:

but the plural of "antenna" is "antennas" when in reference to ariels

"aerials" not "ariels" (see also The Little Mermaid)

and "antannae" when in reference to bugs. :)

You misspelled "antennae." Yet, this story was about a bug, a bug in the design of the AirPort base station.

• I have to cook my heroin.
• My CPU gets too hot because I'm too cheap to buy a fan, plus my insurance business is all just a big fucking scam anyways.

So, all I do is install a spoon on top of my CPU socket. Then I put my dope there (I rig my spoon real tight, because I spent my rent check on that shit), cook it up, and shoot in into my scrotum (I ran out of veins to tap).

Then I listen to Better than Ezra and node all night. I love heroin.

What keeps CowboyNeal busy when he's not keeping Slashdot running, or mixing some tasty tunes in his recording studio?

--

Fortunately they have developed a substance which can protect the magic goo from unwanted current or immersion. However, personal safely during this "accident situations" is still a problem. :P

Furthermore, what is to prevent the problems that could come with inconsistent or degraded functioning in nano-parts as the parts age?

Well, aren't you just the go-getter? Why don't we sit down and see if we can iron out all the details of commercial uses of this project, and rush our ideas to market? ... Obviously magic goo needs to be employed in a useful application. It would seem we have an idea which might facilitate this as well.

...technology is not ALWAYS for the masses.

Science only shows us the how. It is for the marketriods to decide if we should.

"Like, chill out, or something." - Beavis

Fortunately they have developed a substance which can protect the magic goo from unwanted current or immersion. However, personal safely during this "accident situations" is still a problem. :P

Furthermore, what is to prevent the problems that could come with inconsistent or degraded functioning in nano-parts as the parts age?

Well, aren't you just the go-getter? Why don't we sit down and see if we can iron out all the details of commercial uses of this project, and rush our ideas to market? ... Obviously magic goo needs to be employed in a useful application. It would seem we have an idea which might facilitate this as well.

...technology is not ALWAYS for the masses.

Science only shows us the how. It is for the marketriods to decide if we should.

"Like, chill out, or something." - Beavis

Hmm, where did this list of things Microsoft finds disappointing about Sun come from? Must be from Festivus[?] -- seems like the "Airing of Grievances" is really catching on!

Really though, DoS (or DDoS) attacks don't do anything except spank the owners of the site for not protecting themselves as best as possible, no? It's expensive for them, yes, and nothing's perfect, but as far as I know, it doesn't cause other vulnerabilities; so it seems to be a matter of convenience for most sites.

Perhaps I'm just insanely naive?

...He was old
With years and wisdom, fifty winters
A king, when a dragon awoke from its darkness...(92)

Hey, don't say that: now at last we can have (slightly) more reliable floppies.

With more than 10 megs, you've got plenty of space to use Hamming codes[?], which means much better security.

Of course that will make floppy I/O slower, but hey, if you want speed, you don't use floppies !

I live in a country where full-time internet access is still far from widespread. Floppies are essential for us. It is the only tool we have to transport small amounts of data (e.g. documents) between two places (e.g. office and home).

Thomas Miconi

And MP3 players, I suppose... but even those don't use floppies. Mine (a Memorex MPD8505CP) uses CDRs, which hold a hella lot of MP3s, they're reasonably safe, and they're pretty darn cheap. Also, everyone has a CD-ROM drive anymore. As soon as (decent) burners break the $100 mark, I bet that they'll overtake floppies in popularity. Of course, then we'll be whining about "Only 640 megs! That's not NEARLY enough for a fully immersive tetraquadro-reality mindscape!"

-------

But computers are a big part of it, and an even bigger part of education these days. Why memorise when something's just a google or E2 search away? Why teach the multiplication tables when you have calculators (the theory of the Chicago public school system)?

Years ago someone published a book (the name and author of which, ironically, I can't seem to remember right now) about memory as the fake intelligence of the middle ages. He was partly correct; yes, the days of glorifying memory are over, but not much seems to have replaced it. This to me is disturbing. You can't memorise Shakespeare, but you can do what now? Memorise the 30% of Perl you use 70% of the time? Remember the 20 some odd unix commands you use almost 90% of the time?

Just a little example of where I'm coming from; about a year ago, a brilliant professor by the name of Hans Gustav Guterbock died. By the end of his life, he was almost completely blind, and yet somehow had memorised almost the entirety of extant Hittite texts (his field), in addition to countless other in Akkadian and various other languages. He could in an instant draw parallels and see patterns which it would take most others even in the field hours of searching to see. Another, a palaeographer, could instantly recognise the origin and style of almost any text by remembering similarities in hundreds of others. Isn't this the 'good' kind of memory that's being lost?

Quit forwarding those damn jokes and chain mails and get your lazy ass back to work.

If you feel you need to forward that joke, feel free to write it up on Everything and forward the URL. Takes up a lot less bandwidth that way, and sending it as plain text excludes the possibility of malicious EcmaScripts.

On Slashdot:
Anonymous Coward will never be a moderator. From what I've read in the FAQ: Create an account, stay on about a year, browse an average amount, make sure "Willing to moderate" is checked, and keep your karma above +10, and you may get moderator points about once a month.

On Kuro5hin:
Create an account; bang, you're already a moderator with unlimited points. And you can moderate the stories also.

On Everything:
Create an account, write about 30 or so good write-ups, and you'll get 10 mod points per day. Continue adding content to the database and you'll get more mod points.

So run WIndows 2000 in a virtual box on VMWare and write a hardware emulation of an "approved" soundblaster soundcard (ie: with signed drivers).

It's almost always possible for programs to discern whether or not they are run under emulation (VMWare is a virtualizer, that is, a motherboard emulator). For example, check out this four-line 6502 assembly segment that determines to 99.x% certainty whether it's running on a real NES or the NESticle emulator. There will probably be several similar flaws in VMWare that Microsoft can detect, and Windows will refuse to enable the Secure Audio Path in those cases.

The initial set of rules in Mao is similar to Bartok. (Read more about Mao at Everything.)
Like Tetris? Like drugs? Ever try combining them?

In a large, free market, with all kinds of roughly interesting movies to choose from, this is no big deal. You don't do business with the movie studios that require lobotomies.

But what if 90% of the sheeple[?] do? The 10% of knowledgeable geeks (I'm overestimating) who boycott "lobo studios" won't be enough to put them out of business. The only way to win is to educate the sheeple. Join EFF and help fight the good fight.

www.perlmonks.com
I heard of this from everything2.com.

- email account is @hotmail.com
Discussion Never Hurt Anyone.

Yes,, yes it is :-)
Sadder
--------

HugeDisk apparently takes sole credit for this issue. I doubt only they could do it, seeing as how much more popular sites (like Everything2) use the same words. But they do take the credit in their story (use cached version in case of slashdot effect)

"The simplest Surrealist act consists of dashing down into the street, pistol in hand, and firing blindly, as fast as you can pull the trigger, into the crowd."
--André Breton, Second Manifesto of Surrealism

• The Elements of Style,
• the Obfuscated C contest, and even
• the Bulwer-Lytton bad fiction contest.

Bravo to the amici curiae[?] for giving the court (or at least its clerks) such fine reading material!

If proprietary formats are going to "prevent" people from copyright their own creations (such as the example "birthday party" video)

<IANAL>
At most birthday parties, the copyrighted musical work "Happy Birthday to You"[?] is performed. Thus, Warner-Chappell Music (a division of AOL Time Warner and the "Happy Birthday" copyright owner) has the right to claim your birthday party video (which includes a performance of "Happy Birthday") as a "derivative work" under copyright law. And no, the copyright on "Happy Birthday" hasn't expired; because it was copyrighted on or after January 1, 1923, it's under perpetual copyright in the US and WIPO states.
</IANAL>

The fair use agreement, which is something I use all the time as a journalist, gives me the right to use whatever tool I want

And any right can be waived in a contract, for example, one to which you agree by breaking the seal on the DVD. It only takes three words to destroy the first sale doctrine[?]: "licensed not sold." From there, they can take away any right you have. And because the sheeple[?] never read the fine print of the TOS or the EULA, they don't give a fsck.

The fair use agreement, which is something I use all the time as a journalist, gives me the right to use whatever tool I want

And any right can be waived in a contract, for example, one to which you agree by breaking the seal on the DVD. It only takes three words to destroy the first sale doctrine[?]: "licensed not sold." From there, they can take away any right you have. And because the sheeple[?] never read the fine print of the TOS or the EULA, they don't give a fsck.

The fair use agreement, which is something I use all the time as a journalist, gives me the right to use whatever tool I want

And any right can be waived in a contract, for example, one to which you agree by breaking the seal on the DVD. It only takes three words to destroy the first sale doctrine[?]: "licensed not sold." From there, they can take away any right you have. And because the sheeple[?] never read the fine print of the TOS or the EULA, they don't give a fsck.

I feel that Everything is approaching maturity, and as such the more active editorial presence is perhaps inevitable. There is a lot more quality content now than there was a year ago, but perhaps a corresponding increase in the amount of dross.

I also feel that the "pruning" is essential: consider what the place would be like if every flamebait, rambling writeup were allowed to stand. If anything, I feel that editorial control is exercised too laxly: most writeups which are deleted are short, inane ones. The real problem in my opinion is the longer inane ones. However, as these superficially seem to contain a lot of much-needed content, they are less likely, it seems to me, to be deleted.

However, Saige is right to say that it can be intimidating for newbies. More needs to be done to handhold new users and shield them from the righteous anger of more established users.

"I would love to see someone else do something with the Everything software, it seems like it has a lot of potential uses."

Everything2 is not the only site using the Everything code: check out The Everything Development Company for a list of examples. None of these are at the same stage of maturity as E2, most are pretty experimental.

I like the solution that Abbie Hoffman proposed for junk mail: When you get something with a reply-paid envelope in it, tape the envelope to a house brick and pop it in the post. The spammer has to pay for the weight.

Didn't you just describe everything2?

x86 PC doesn't mean a damned thing games wise unless it's x86 running a Win-32 derivative.

An x86-based machine can dual-boot between Wintendo (that's all it's good for) and a Real OS such as *BSD or GNU/Linux. PowerPC-based machines cannot dual-boot to Wintendo.

Linux people know the workarounds. Casual user does not.

By "casual user" do you mean the sheeple[?] who inhabit AOL? In that case, give them GNU/Linux, X, GNOME, an SNES emulator, and a pirated game library, and they'll be happy.

Everything, which (it appears) GNUPedia is trying to copy, allows no outward hyperlinks; otherwise, it would degrade into yet another Yahoo!.

Everything, which (it appears) GNUPedia is trying to copy, allows no outward hyperlinks; otherwise, it would degrade into yet another Yahoo!.

GNUPedia looks a bit like Everything. Everything is a flexible web database run by the people who used to run Slashdot and written and edited by the world. (Ever wonder what those [?]s are on /. articles? That's E2.) Copyright doesn't stop people from adding song lyrics to the database.

All information generated outside of the free software community is under perpetual copyright anyway.

GNUPedia looks a bit like Everything. Everything is a flexible web database run by the people who used to run Slashdot and written and edited by the world. (Ever wonder what those [?]s are on /. articles? That's E2.) Copyright doesn't stop people from adding song lyrics to the database.

All information generated outside of the free software community is under perpetual copyright anyway.

GNUPedia looks a bit like Everything. Everything is a flexible web database run by the people who used to run Slashdot and written and edited by the world. (Ever wonder what those [?]s are on /. articles? That's E2.) Copyright doesn't stop people from adding song lyrics to the database.

All information generated outside of the free software community is under perpetual copyright anyway.

GNUPedia looks a bit like Everything. Everything is a flexible web database run by the people who used to run Slashdot and written and edited by the world. (Ever wonder what those [?]s are on /. articles? That's E2.) Copyright doesn't stop people from adding song lyrics to the database.

All information generated outside of the free software community is under perpetual copyright anyway.

I'm sure the editors of Slashdot have never heard of this site, but there's a site called Everything2. The GPLed encyclopedia sounds an AWFUL lot like E2 while reading the description of what will go in to the encyclopedia. People submit articles about thier area of expertise. Sub-encyclopedias (meta-nodes), etc. make this sound like a souped of version of E2. I'm glad Nate already thought of this. Way to go, RMS

Everything is a good example of a well-connected, deep collection of linked documents. However, Everything does not much in the way of structure, nor is it easy to compare documents or change how the structure is seen. An encyclopedia for today's world, additionally, would really demand graphics and video for some of the concepts. Certainly animals should be shown, not described. (Nelson's hypertext is much closer to hypermedia in today's parlance. Since Nelson invented the term hypertext, the change is due to misuse of the term.)

However, Xanadu has never been implemented fully. So, instead, the project may have to work through some sort of versioned, checked HTML (to verify links), and provide some powerful tools to search and manage the data.

--

I would consider it well worth the reduced battery life to include some Peltier Devices just for the underside, so I don't go sterile!

Slashdot should open up an entire new area just for trolling and who can do the best flames.

You mean like sid=trolltalk? That's where trolls hang out, organize their activities, etc. There was another Slash-based site called Hotgrits.org that was essentially a troll playground, but that shut down. But let's get this straight: mentioning Natalie Portman on Slashdot is counterproductive.

The United States government uses "eminent domain" (nothing to do with Eminem[?]) to buy private property. "...nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." (US Constitution, Amendment V)
Like Tetris? Like drugs? Ever try combining them?

The investor-owned utilites made stupid investments in inefficient plants

The politicians in California haven't really deregulated - they created a very controlled, artificial market.

This "dergulation" - as the Reason article also points out - was passed unanimously by the state legilature in 1996. For reference here is the political makeup of the 1996 California State Legislature - Look for the heading "1996 State Legislature Results" about 4/5 of the way down the page.

For a less politically (Two Party) bent view on the general concerns facing California and other "dergulated" (or soon-to-be) states check out this, this, and this article.

One more energy-related article here.

To add my own $0.02.... Please don't take any of these articles as The Word on this or any issue. That would be dumb. Read! Read! Read!

Also, had either of these points not happened, it's at least possible that California would not be in the mess they are in. Given both points, this outcome should have been predicted.

Finally, unlike the goof-ball who penned the Reason article, please don't subscribe to the Two Party system of blaming a philosphy for the actions of our present Republicratic regime. Contrary to their notions, there is not only room for, but need for both Liberal as well as Conservative thinking in our govenmental bodies.

this is another reason I like Nebraska . Link provided by Everything2.com. Isn't it a wonderful place?

If you travel to the year 802,701, don't forget to say hi to the Precious Moments people who call themselves Eloi.
Like Tetris? Like drugs? Ever try combining them?

These books are free as in "free beer" but not free as in unfettered. The GNU Free Documentation License covers GNU manuals, but I don't see anything similar on the Baen site.
Like Tetris? Like drugs? Ever try combining them?

-------
I used to be a script kiddie, then I hit puberty.
You either understand that last statement or you dont. Kids are kids, and having worked with emotionally hadicapped (not retarded) in a highschool setting, I know what they do with computers. I'm the one who had to fix them. (macs, no less)....

There's 3 reasons I've found that kids like to break things

1. They don't own it, so they cannot comprehend that it has value to someone. This is perfectlly normal for kids between the ages of 2-6, it varies in it's severity, but it usually goes away before kids are injected into the social realm of dealing with other people in school, so it's not a big problem.

2. Kids between the ages of 6-18 more commonly express their destructive skills on something because they do not understand it, and feel that by breaking it they have power over someone who does know how to use it. Ownership isn't a factor in this, I've seen kids break their own things because they cant make it work (you see this very commonly with "broken" toys in younger children.

Again, most kids will stop, or mellow down by the time they've hit puberty.

The third case is most common in mentally or emotionally challenged children:

3. "If I can't have fun with it, no one can." This is more common among older kids and extends beyond material items. This is the only case where I've found that ownership REALLY matters, but not in all cases. most people, however, grow out of this phase as well.

So what is someone who hasn't outgrown this state well past the time they should have? The police and doctors call them Sadists and Sociopaths. In this case however i would feel reluctant to use either of those terms. I think in this case it's more a case of a pre-pubescent pissing match between himself and another channel.

Back in my own script kiddie days on IRC I witness MAJOR network wars included the disabling of about 50% of the @home network in san diego, cutting down telephone poles, cutting off power to NOC's, angry kids beating the SHIT out of the kid who nuked him at school, calling in bomb threats to places, ANYTHING and EVERYTHING they can do to disable an ISP even if only for a second.

just long enough

All that shit I saw, was _ALL_ related in one way or another to "channel takeovers" some of them over things as petty as who's allowed to flirt with the only girl in a channel, platform debates, music debates... rarely over anything more mature than a 6th or 7th grade level.

Which brings up this point: most of the people who do this are still kids (under 18) so unless they nuke a military server or something, all their gonna get in most cases is a warning, maybe a fine.

So, what's to be done? I say it's time that the more mature half of the internet joins together to fight this in a way that younger kids have no controll over. I've had AMAZING success tracking down script kiddies and calling their parents. People who are clueless, or who have something to lose by being related to a kiddie, are VERY helpful.

Here's some ideasI've used and had VERY good success with.

1. Fight back online - Pro: it's fast and can be effective. Con: lowers you to their level.

2. Call their parents/employer/school*** - Pro: Can be VERY effecting in the long term. I've had people fired, grounded, suspended, and reprimanded with one phone call. Con: Can take a while, or you get someone who just doesn't care.

3. Call the ISP from which the attacks orginate.* - Pro: Admin's will always know what you're talking about, and they're usually helpful as DDOS through their systems reflects badly upon them, costing them dollars. Con: most dialup/residential ISP's dont really care or log things, so it's hit or miss.

4. Shut it all down, and walk away for awhile. - Pro: Best idea if you can afford this option. Most kiddies get bored after a few days, or when school starts. Con: depending on who you are, shutting down your system and doing something else may not be possible.

So, there you go... those are my loosely compiled thoughts and ramblings on the subject of Script Kiddies.... ciao
-Doug

To vote against it with your pocket book, don't buy any digital TV.

You mean "don't buy any TV." All US analog television broadcasts will go silent on January 1, 2006, when the FCC reclaims all analog television frequencies (as is its right; the Supreme Court has ruled that the Ninth and Tenth Amendments do not imply a right to broadcast). All television will be digital, encrypted, and non-recordable.

It's true this will set back the introduction of digital TV if nobody buys it

The law does have a provision for this, to push back the introduction of digital TV if it has not yet caught on, but Hollywood knows how to market to the sheeple[?], and the sheeple follow the rule "Do what you're told; buy what you're sold."

There's also something nice about not having 30 cubic feet of space in a dorm room taken up by VHS tapes, cds, encyclopedia volumes, DVDs and other so called meatspace products. I doubt that you can accurately say that everyone or at least a critical number of people value a jewel case that's 5x the thickness of a cd taking up so much room. Trying to reduce the bulk of meatspace products?

• VHS? Try Hi8 instead; the tapes are much smaller, and the resolution is remarkably better.
• CD and DVD cases? There are CD wallets for that.
• Encyclopedia? Why bother? Britannica is already online and supported by ads.
• Mouse pad? Use a trackball.
• CD/DVD/etc? Try reading free books online. In fact, The Time Machine by H. G. Wells[?] is what led me to start collecting those blasted Precious Moments figurines, but that's another node.

There's also something nice about not having 30 cubic feet of space in a dorm room taken up by VHS tapes, cds, encyclopedia volumes, DVDs and other so called meatspace products. I doubt that you can accurately say that everyone or at least a critical number of people value a jewel case that's 5x the thickness of a cd taking up so much room. Trying to reduce the bulk of meatspace products?

• VHS? Try Hi8 instead; the tapes are much smaller, and the resolution is remarkably better.
• CD and DVD cases? There are CD wallets for that.
• Encyclopedia? Why bother? Britannica is already online and supported by ads.
• Mouse pad? Use a trackball.
• CD/DVD/etc? Try reading free books online. In fact, The Time Machine by H. G. Wells[?] is what led me to start collecting those blasted Precious Moments figurines, but that's another node.

This sounds pretty much like the good old Minitel [?] pricing system. : you access some service/content, the ISP charges you some price and gives back a part of it to the service/content provider.
This "redistribution" model has been around for decades (the minitel system being only the most prominent application of it).

The only question is whether such a thing is possible in a business landscape where zillions of players coexist. Since the Internet relies on open standards, anybody with a computer and a communication line can become an ISP. The minitel system was, on the other hand, a proprietary system, so its owner (France Telecom) could control anything that went through it.

Have a nice time trying to apply such a model to the internet jungle, lads :o)