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You mean like this?

Yeah but there are always web bugs. You'd better get yourself a hosts blocking list.

Personally, I swear by /etc/hosts or /winnt/system32/drivers/etc/hosts, wherever the circumstances apply.

Here's another story about it Nandotimes.com . I think that this is pretty neat. I'm glad to see how technology is able to detect stuff like this even deep under the sea.

please remember to proceed with caution when confronting the nerd.

Depending on the response time in your neighborhood, you might just want to call the cops and let them deal with the script kiddie.

Just remember to keep your low-light camcorder running, you might get some footage worthy of sale to CNN, or at least a good item for a "bloopers reel" (Or is that 8100P3R5 R331 in leet speak?) at the DEFCON film festival.

Or if you live in Brooklyn, just call on the Hasidim with shotguns.

This is not really that scary; the guy apparently expected a little common sense, and that's usually a mistake in dealing with the government

What's scary is the recent corporate crime bill recently passed by the house of representatives, which would make it illegal to attempt a federal crime, not just to commit it.

As attempt is obviously pretty subjective, this is awful scary. War Driving would be illegal. As someone else pointed out, just running a auto-discovery tool would be illegal, or could be made to appear as illegal.

I was looking for a quote from Orwell on the subject, something on the lines of make everyone a criminal, if you want control, but I'm sick of the whole subject.

Enjoy Freenet & Frost while you can.

Unfortunately smart bombs are no excuse for dumb people.

I always wonder... is Sony Music tearing their hair out, while Sony Electronics develops a way to copy music CDs?

-Berj

I'm not really sure this supports the point that Napster is OK.

The first three articles are these:
Grateful Dead ungrateful for song piracy
Grateful Dead takes no-nonsense approach to digital piracy
Pirating, Like the Doo-Dah Man

A sampling of other stories brings up discussions on O'Reilly and other places with some claims that the Dead encouraged bootlegging, but with the AP story saying "The band has never authorized bootlegged copies of its studio recordings." And again:

Under the April 1999 policy, though, the Dead declared that "no commercial gain may be sought by websites offering digital files of our music, whether through advertising, exploiting databases compiled from their traffic, or any other means."

That clearly rules out Napster, as (AFAIR) it was advertising-funded.

You are what you eat? Federal agents are tracking suspects tied to the Sept. 11 strikes through supermarket club cards that may give a hint of ethnic tastes. "Time was, this data was so disorganized nobody could make sense of it, but not anymore. They're looking for people based on their supermarket tastes," says consultant Larry Ponemon, head of the Privacy Council business consortium. "Trouble is, there's so much bad data out there, and how do your know if someone eats like a terrorist?" he asks.

Sig: What Happened To The Censorware Project (censorware.org)

Shhh...WinMX gets very little press/notice by the RIAA. Let's keep it that way, shall we.

Oh, yeah, v3.1 is pretty damn good. Anyone want Star Wars Episode II?

But in 1993, a Supreme Court decision required judges to take a more active role in deciding what scientific evidence to admit. In the case of fingerprints, the so-called "Daubert" guidelines would lead to questions such as: Has the practice of fingerprint identification been adequately tested? What's the error rate? Are there standards and controls?

So much for journalistic integrity...

"I'm not trying to be evasive," Stuart E. Madnick, a computer science professor at MIT, said at one point. "I'm just trying to be precise." (from the linked article).

Similarly,

Stuart Madnick, a computer science professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, backed up Microsoft's position that features like the Internet Explorer Web browser and its media player are not discrete programs. They are made up of many separate files that are dependent on each other, he said. (from Nando Times)

I'm guessing whoever did the basic research (AP is credited on the Nando article, didn't see an attribution on the CNN one) didn't do their homework, or else Madnick is claiming to be a CS prof. If the former is true, then it is a lesson to be careful accepting what journalists say. If the latter, it's entirely possible that Madnick is perjuring himself by asserting credentials he doesn't posses.

mass immigration of Third worlders

Either you're a Native American, or you're talking out of your ass.

Americans don't want those crap jobs you talk about. Well, the underclass who didn't graduate high school might want them, but the average american can make $6/hr as a hotel maid or $8/hr folding t-shirts at The Gap with their other high school friends. Which would you pick?

You seem concerned that the Great Unwashed are going to breed us White Folk right out of America. (Extrapolating from your steinreport web page.) Let me ask you, what was your response when President Bush barred U.S. aid to international groups that advocate abortion rights? Because if you don't want to be overrun by a horde of non-White Americans, you should support that kind of thing.

Did you ever think that maybe H1-B visas are a clever trick to skim the cream off of other countries' vat of talent, making sure that American Comanies remain dominant since all the clever Indians move to The States? So while it may fill our country up with Undesirables, it strengthens our strongest asset, the American economy.

More about this story at:

NandoTimes

You had a good idea, then you went all a-kilter there at the end.

Corporations are amoral. Their only purpose is to maximize shareholder value, i.e. sales and profits. If they act in a way that reduces their shareholder value, e.g. by acting "morally responsible", they can even be sued by their shareholders under certain circumstances.

This is true, insofar as it goes. A corporation can act in a moral way, if the corporation is set up that way, i.e. the board or CEO has decision-making powers of some latitude. If the shareholders don't like the decisions made by the board and/or CEO (e.g. they don't mind kids stiching Nikes is Absurdistan; or they are appalled at the thought).

But then you lose it altogether:
That's why corporations need to be regulated. You just can't expect them to do the right thing, that would not only be idiotically naive, it would be fatal.

Speaking of idiotic naivité, assuming that the government can or will regulate a corporation any better than a corporation can regulate itself is pretty farfetched. The government can't even regulate itself, much less manhandle thousands of corporations in any sane or reasonable manner.

If you think "but we can elect representatives to enact the regulations we think are best", you're engaging in the worst form of blind faith. If you couldn't convince a few thousand shareholders to vote out a morally bankrupt CEO, what makes you think you can convice some 30 million citizens to vote for representatives that will do the "right thing"?

Luckily in the US of A, we have the protected right of free speech, and you can protest a corporation's actions in a TV or radio or newspaper ad. Though, if this is any indication, that may change at any time.

Rep. John Conyers questions Ashcroft's integrity in handling Microsoft case - guess who got money from Microsoft?

On a personal note, I'd like to take a moment to bitch about the consultant that told our engineering team yesterday that we'd be switching from good 'ol reliable SMTP Unix mail servers (last outage: well, actually I don't think there has been one...) to Exchange (home of the global address list shut-down-your-worldwide-business-for-a-week bug, remember?) and virus-a-minute Outlook "for reasons of security". Amazingly, this pronouncement was completed with a straight face.

Spam isn't costing you any precious resources. Don't bother me with the mindless argument about how valuable your time is, or the size of your mail spool.

Oh, I'm sorry. Discussing it would be "bothering" you? Bandwidth is a limited resource and it has a non-zero value. If marketers are allowed to shift the majority of their costs off themselves and onto me, they will do so.

If your ISP is getting DoSed by spammers, it's up to your ISP to sue the spammers. Of course they don't and won't do that --- here's the rub --- because they HAVE NO CASE.

Public networks are subject to public use, commercial content notwithstanding.

What "public network"? My ISP's network is private property. Sure, it's connected to the rest of the world, but so is my telephone. Marketers can't call me long-distance collect and expect me not to get ticked off.

Spam has the potential to end the days of email as an effective communication medium. I don't want to see that happen.

Tito would have been traned much more if NASA hadn't turned him away at the training-center gate. Literally. Then NASA had the balls to whine that he wasn't trained. Yeesh.

Human powered devices? Think of the Wall Street investment possibilities! With the stock price of old school bulk energy suppliers like Enron swan diving into the abyss, companies that provide fuel for the human machine will skyrocket. Of all the companies that seek to power the human machine, Taco Bell has to be the most efficient source as a catalyst for human produced methane gas. IANASP (I am not a Stock Broker) but if I had some extra cash lying around, I think I would sink it into Tricon Global Restaurants, Inc (YUM) -- parent company of Taco Bell and that chicken shop that supposably sells dead fried birds that never had bones, feathers or feet with the mascot that reminds you of the "Good Ole Days" before the Civil War (War of Northern Aggression for you Georgia boys). One stop everyday at Taco Bell could power your PDA, Cell Phone, AbTronics Belt, GPS, IBM's Digital Photo Linux Watch, iPod and a Madonna Vougeing Aibo via a rear mounted methane to electric converter. Plus, if Hollywood can predict the future, according to Sly Stallone's movie "Demolition Man", every restaurant is going to be a Taco Bell anyway...

Interesting. I'm still in favor of redundancy, though, at least in the data center. Sure, two power supplies means twice as many power supply failures, and twice as much power supply maintenance, but a single power supply failure doesn't result in a "catastrophic" system outage. And unless you're twice as unlucky[1], the chances of two power supplies failing at once are less than the chances of one power supply failing at once.

As long as either of the two engines can keep the craft airborne (e.g., the Fairchild A-10), I'd imagine the same "n points of failure" principle would apply to skycars as well.

[1] I pulled this value ("twice as unlucky") out of my ass. I'm sure the actual value is much less literarily satisfying.

nandotimes

Given the new attempts to hardwire copyright enforcement system in the SSSCA, the cynical attempts of the copyright cops to link piracy to September 11th and the continuing jihad against file-sharing systems, it is clear that unless serious political opposition is mounted the infotainment cartel will continue to press their advantage.

Some recent events give reason for optimism.

Firstly the 11th circuit result in the Wind Done Gone case put the use of copyright as a means of censorship right back into the jurisprudence. The opinion is worth reading.

We are still waiting for the result of Universal v Reimerdes (Eric Corley/2600/deCSS)on appeal, given that two of the three arguments made in May were essentially first amendment claims, the 11th circuit decision comes at just the right time.

The Sklyarov case shows just how dangerous this can all be. Traditionally, the threat of an injunction might have been a force to chill some speech, but criminal liability under the DMCA will silence a helluva lot more.

This conference will be an opportunity for those of us at the wrong end of 'campaign finance' to get a strategy together. Rather than bleating on about the industry, it's about positive arguments in support of the public domain and for the commons (and exploring the difference between the two - think GPL). That means expressive freedom, autonomy and open systems.

Time for some intellectual self-defense training my friends.

Benkler's paper is great.

Yeah, we know how seriously governments listen to Greenpeace

They didn't need to smuggle, they were sent some!

my favorite:

When the Mir crew ran out of alcohol reserves, they would often go on "treasure-seeking" expeditions for more, tearing down interior panels to find bottles hidden by previous crews, said Alexander Poleshchuk, who spent six months on board Mir in 1993.

Heh....have seen some similar rantings today following Hawking's recent remarks.

Why is there always so much FUD when scientists mention genetics and the like? I personally have a hereditory skin disorder (psoriasis) - so I am very much looking forward to the day when my genes can be modified to get rid of it!

I was starting to believe in Viacom, the owner of Comedy Central and, thus, Battlebots. Though I had my doubts, at first, Viacom actually seemed to be doing non-evil things with Comedy Central.

But, maybe I should have seen this coming. After all, Viacom owns such atrocities as MTV. Even worse, in my mind, is that they also own Blockbuster, which is driving out mom-n-pop video stores through unfair practices with the movie studios (Blockbuster gets the physical videos for wicked-cheap in exchange for profit sharinng with the studios). So, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised.

. . . I do recognize value of organized religion ( as a glue for a society.)

But they have to be derived from something and if majority of citizens opt for values based on their religious beliefs there is NOTHING wrong with that. They can do it because it is their country.
The bottom line: nobody is asking you to stop doing what you are doing but to simply to consider the fact that if you are being founded by citizens of this country and consequently you have to adhere to rules set by them.

• "We've got to have some common sense about a disease transmitted by people deliberately engaging in unnatural acts."
• "All Latins are volatile people. Hence, I was not surprised at the volatile reaction."
• "The fact is that the American people are sick and tired of this whole foreign aid concept anyhow"

Hate to argue, but I think your NASA figures are way off the charts. The AP reported that the shuttle costs upwards of 1 billion/mission including development costs. NASA quoted the number at 490 million/launch in 1999. The simple math is that the human flight budget plus mission support is budgeted for a bit over 8 billion FY2001 and they are planning 8 missions. This doesn't included NASA's non-shuttle costs, nor amorization of costs already spent.

Rep. Bob Barr, others challenge House bill to reduce junk e-mail.

No they don't do that at all ...

...Or do they?

Check out this story.
"However, confessing that even his parents and sister prefer Windows -- which is compatible with far more software programs -- over Linux, Torvalds predicted Linux will not "catch up" with Windows for "perhaps five or 10 years." "

Ralph Nader has some suggestions about reserving domain names. Create new TLDs like .customer, .protest and .sucks, where it would be forbidden for the company referenced in the domain name to register it. See Nando Times article

Allan Konrad, the owner of this patent, is suing GM in Texas (Why Texas? The guy lives in California.)

In an unrelated news story about Toshiba pulling a dammage-control move by settling a class-action suit in the states, Toshiba vice-president Masaichi Koga was quoted:

"U.S. law is not the same as elsewhere," Koga said. "The United States and especially Texas are very high risk zones for litigation. We feared that in the worst case this could imperil our company's chances of survival, so we made the extremely hard decision to pay the settlement." [emphasis added]

Short answer: because he can. Texas is, apparently, known to be a lucrative area for litigation.

For just the frame with the story in it, click here.
--

It's pretty scary when Wired slams you with the headline, "Alternative Net Protects Pirates", which contained in the story gems such as:

"
Eric Scheirer, a music technology researcher at MIT's Media Lab, said Freenet is an interesting experiment, but said it would likely be
used only by a small community of pirates and "privacy nuts."
"

And, failing Monday's piece in the Nando Times(http://www.nandotimes.com/opinions/story/bod y/0,1096,500188504-500253045-501284316-0 ,00.html) , that's actually been the best article so far. The New Scientist
is running "Out of control: The Internet is about to get even harder to police" in their current issue at
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news_223135.htm l , and ABCNews.com
did a one-paragraph style summary of this article at
http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/tech/dailyne ws/freenet000322.html
, with the lead of "An Internet system designed to guarantee anonymous free speech on the Web could be used by child pornographers and terrorists, according to New Scientist magazine, " which then
proceeds to all but call You and the other programmers pedophiles in a grammatical burp.

My question is, if this is to be successful (which I for one am all in favor of, I'm in close contact with Brandon and Steven, two of the FreeNet programmers, and am very much in support of the existence of this), FreeNet can't come off as a tool for criminals and miscreants, lest you attract more attention than you'd like from the Fed-types. Now, you may say that because it's open-source and already available etc. that the Feds can't put it down, but if it is branded as an evil tool for child pornographers (like it is currently), it will never gain the popularity and user-base needed to make it sufficiently robust against machine removals.

To get something called a tool for privacy nuts by Wired is pretty bad--and the rest of the press has been worse; is there any plan to get this project out of the gutter?

Was your submission handled by one of those new fluor escent monkeys?