Slashdot Mirror

"My 'victim' (and this poor dork Rodona Garst) are low-life - nasty, but also pretty stupid. Many of the new generation of Net users simply don't appreciate how the net's resources can be used to collate information about them, how much about themselves they reveal."

I submit that ignorance of `the law' is no excuse. When you show up in a country that (despite what anyone says) is run like the Wild West, stealing a few horses is going to get you in trouble. No matter how normal it is in any other place you've done business.

The wider you spread the spam, the more likely someone is going to do something about it that isn't legal. You're asking for trouble.

Is it so hard to build legitimate e-mail lists of people who want info about your products? I have no problem with that type of e-mail solicitation.

Bad Mojo

"You know something. I find it very disgusting how so many people who advocate an anonymous internet when it comes to file sharing on Napster, and so forth, but the MINUTE they get spammed, they are all shouting about accountability and how we need better records of who is using the internt."

"You're making a common mistake. You're confusing insanity with style." - Quintin Stone

Basically, if someone wants an anonymous internet, too bad. No one (who is sane) wants that. What people want (that you don't seem to grasp) is Free Speech and privacy. These are not the same as anonimity. A handle or nick is not the same as being anonymous. The only time anonimity is good is when it contributes to Free Speech. Something spammers will try very hard to argue in their favor, as they have in the past.

Anyone who cries out to be anonymous on Napster or Gnutella is just wanting to not be held accountable. They are not trying to be anonymous to protect their rights.

In the end, a spammer is no different than a person who sends out 5000 faxes to people who didn't ask for them. Instead of paying for 5000 sheets of paper, the spammer is relying on someone else to foot the bill and pay for the fax paper their ad is printed on. This is nothing short of theft of resources in order to make a profit.

*DISCLAIMERS*
1) Yes, I know I make some assumptions in this post. I'm sure there are some people who want the internet to be totally anonymous. I think those people are crazy.
2) I know I can't spell. Sorry. I try.

Bad Mojo

"You know what's crazy? Majority rules. *THAT'S* crazy."


Bad Mojo

I am for a tougher stance by the public of their prospective elected officials. I say that we shoot them in the head with a .45. If they live, they were destined to rule. If they die, they obviously had poor constitution. Once no one wants to be an elected official, we could throw this method of doing things away and start from scratch.

I realize this wouldn't stop anything, but it would allow my to see some stupid people get shot in the head.

Bad Mojo

"I'm not terribly fond of RPMs. Half the time it seems to work but the program won't execute."

I'm willing to bet that this might be a problem with the system you are installing on, how you are installing the RPM, or the person making the RPM. I really don't think it's RPM. I have had very few (if any) problems with RPM. It's software and it tends to do its job very well as long as everyone along the way does theirs.


Bad Mojo

Hey, go find a post about environmentalism and post there instead of trying to read your inane views into a discussion on wether we should alter another planet's current state.


Bad Mojo

You don't seem to get my drift. I don't care about what we've done or not done to Earth. Why do we have to terraform Mars to live there? It's a waste of effort and time and (in my opinion) a perfectly good planet.

"I think terraforming Mars is a GOOD first step in our interplanetary expansions."

If we can't live on Mars without terraforming it, what makes you think we can terraform it? The science and knowledge required to terraform a planet are barely within our grasp. It's a much better concept to make Mars a home before we begin to re-decorate.

It's quite possible teraforming Mars could be the most dangerous thing we can do with Mars. Getting there and living there will do many positive things without us having to re-arrange Mars. We can learn about Mars. We can learn about new technologies that will help us be self sufficient on a new world. Then, and only then, should we start to think about teraforming. Here we are sureying a new entire branch of technology and seeing no drawbacks. Well, we also thought anti-bacterial soap was a good idea. Now we're over-run with bacteria that's resistant. Just because teraforming LOOKS like a sure thing, or APPEARS to be harmless doesn't mean it won't come back to bite us.

Sure, I may sound too much like some raving luddite, but when Mars is sitting in a super dense, poison filled, CO2 atmosphere because we made some mistake, don't say I didn't warn you.

Bad Mojo

I think the question was `wether a distributed.net system would do weather predection work well', but it was answered that running distributed.net type problems on the supercomputer would be a waste. It seems that there was a misunderstanding there. I'm still curious as to wether or not the weather prediction problem could benefit from a distributed.net style `fix'.

Bad Mojo

Carmack has, in the past, been a very even keeled, logical person. Maybe it's all an act, but I really don't think he is being untruthful in his representation of the situation.

It's also worth noting that Carmack seems to just want to code and work on something fun. There is much wonder as to wether id would be where it is without him. I don't think it would be for sure. To deny Carmack (and the others there) to work on a project they enjoy seems to be cutting into the way id has worked in the past. id is not a BIG company and they don't work like one. So any attitude that the major share holders are always right, is wrong.


Bad Mojo

Ok, go read the .plan update! Then come back and finish reading. Carmack explains things to a certain degree in the .plan file.

Basically, so far, is seems Kevin Cloud and Adrian Carmack (no relation) have had a fit over J. Carmack and gang wanting to work on a Doom remake. No matter what game id cranks out, it's going to sell at least marginally well. I can see no justification for two guys to fire Paul Steed just to get back at Carmack for doing what he and the development staff WANT to work on.

It reeks of arrogance so far and I really hope Steed gets back on the project. While he's known to be an asshole, I think he's the right guy to work on Doom 2000 models and animations. And in the end, I trust J. Carmack over Adrian and Kevin when it comes to what is a good game and who is good for the job.

And many people have been giving Carmack shit for exposing this publically. Well, good. I like to know why Steed is gone and what kind of position Carmack is in. I hope I'll be corrected if I'm wrong, but Carmack seems to be the kind of guy who just wants to be left alone to do his own thing and not deal with politcal business crap.

Until Kevin and Adrian have some kind of rational other than, "we don't want to do D2K", shame on them!

Bad Mojo

"Is it right or wrong? I don't know, but eventually it will happen."

"Let use redefine progress to mean that just because we CAN do a thing, does not mean that we MUST do that thing."

There is no reason why we couldn't just live on mars without trying to turn it into another Earth. At some point I would like to see us accept a planet for what it is and try to live there without bending it to our will. I think it would be nice to know that Mars will always be red and never be green or blue. To think that someday, we might have technology and not feel obligated to use it to destroy something that is pretty beautiful to begin with is a nice dream. Wouldn't that be a more difficult thing to do that teraforming? To NOT mess it up?


Bad Mojo

Does anyone else think (like myself) that maybe we shouldn't teraform Mars?


Bad Mojo

"Anything you transmit or post may be sued by Apogee or its affiliates for any purpose, including, but not limited to, reproduction, disclosure, transmission, publication, broadcast and posting."

I see, they are suing anything I transmit or post to Apogee. Can I send Microsoft to them? I would like Apogee to sue MS. ;)

BTW, while I'm at it, Duke Nukem(r) sucked big fat floppy donkey dicks.

Bad Mojo

The issue is not a LOVE for war or a DISTASTE for war. The issue is a lack of involvement and consequence. In WWII, there was a chance we could lose. In the Gulf war, there was NO chance we could lose. These things have drastic effects on HOW we end up winning and what it means to us.

And, BTW, it's nice to see that you consider honor and glory in battle to be `lightly taken' things.


Bad Mojo

"My skinny white ass, we're isolated. Can you say Selective Service?"

We ARE issolated. In the Gulf war, you were more likely to be killed by your OWN men than the enemy. What kind of war consequence is that on the personal level? Frankly, I'de feel pretty safe serving in the military right now.

Bad Mojo

"What's the difference? It cost us fewer lives than Korea or Vietnam, and was more successful. And you claim that makes it wrong? Or that we entered too easily?"

I never said it was wrong. You should READ before you go and make assumptions. I said that when a war is too easily won, winning becomes a nebulous unsatisfying thing.

Bad Mojo

You're missing the point. In the past, war was something both sides did not take lightly. War used to be something serious that posed a legitimate threat to the sons and daughters of your country. It mattered wether you won or lost.

But now, war is so detached and distant that we're isolated from consequences. Thus, we are isolated from the effects of what winning or losing a war even means.

Bad Mojo

I *ONLY* wear wool from Venusian sheep. Nothing less will do, frankly.


Bad Mojo

If anyone cares to check out the NC LAN party, follow this URL.

Free Range Action Gaming


Bad Mojo

BTW - Redhat sponsors our LAN party out here, which is a big reason for the stickers all over my monitor.

LouZiffer

I'm not Metallica fan. I like a few of their songs. They seem to be somehwat talented. But I can't for the life of me, listen or read Lars. He's like a damned valley girl in post-op and his thought process is all over the place. It makes it very hard to even get what he's talking about other than a stream of consciencesness. Ugh!


Bad Mojo

No matter how bad Diakatana is, there is one thing you must remember. Ion Storm releases nothing but crappy games. Let's see. Dominion: sucked! Diakatana: sucked! Therefore, I reason that Ion Storm is a creater of crap. And BTW, LGS sold more copies of excellent games than Ion Storm did. All Ion Storm had was Boobies (KillCreek) and Dominion: Storm Over Gift 3. You can't honestly expect me to beleive that LGS didn't warrant some cash for System Shock 1 and Theif but Ion Storm did warrant $20M for Dominion?

Now, KillCreek might be worth $20M, but that's my personal sex craved opinion. ;)

Bad Mojo

"1) Everyone will. Because you won't be buying it from Joe Schmoe, but from companies like Dell or Gateway, or from places like Red Hat (when the PC maker outsources it's OS development)"

I beg to differ. Compaq is not going to hire a mess of coders to re-write Windows in some herculean Mozilla-esque rewrite to produce a better product. It'll simply make it easier to change refrences to MS into Compaq and release the same buggy, crappy code over and over.


Bad Mojo

"The writing is uninspired, the plot twists are predictable and mundane, and virtually all dialogs are so contrived that they are completely unbelievable."

I used to think about stuff like this. Then I started meeting people who actually talked and acted like someone who couldn't act or talk. Maybe actors and writers who seem bad, are really just doing really good jobs portraying badly done people?

Still, there's no excuse for Battlefield Earth.

Bad Mojo

"Country X in Europe comes with a new encryption. US and no one else can break it. They then decide to start taking over other countries. They have a unbreakable encryption method that no one can tell what they are doing. Morse code and other codes were used in previous wars to send messages, with an unbreakable encryption method it could be a new way to send secrete messages."

Been there, done that, cracked it. That little scenario took place during WWII. The Allies won out over the "unbreakable" code. There is NO SUCH THING as an unbreakable code in reality. There is always someone who will spill the beans. There is always someway to capture an encoding device. I'm more worried about Country X launching nuclear missiles than wether or not Country X can talk in private or not.


Bad Mojo

If books had to justify their existance in this world, this book would surely be one of the very few around. No other book that I have read has proved it's worth to be published so clearly.

I think everyone who can, should read this book. Reading it online will never do justice. Having it read will not be the same. And seeing the movie is almost blasphemous. If anything, it's a wonderful warning about how society can crush an individuals freedoms without vigilance. Not to mention a good story about a guy who is willing to fight the status quo for something as silly as some pressed wood and ink.

Fire is bright. Fire is clean. Burn all. Burn everything.


Bad Mojo

This is a very dangerous line to walk. There's a small step from a company helping it's employees make computer purchases and a company providing a computer and access. And once someone in the corporate world sees some potential for keeping their home employees under their thumb, perhaps corporate owned PCs and network access at home isn't such a bad idea. The corp will own the PC and the access and will have little trouble reading your e-mail and checking out your browsing habits. All, of course, to make sure you aren't violating the terms of your employement and conditions of use of their system.

Sure, it sounds like I'm an alarmist, but I really see this creeping in so slowly as such a benfit to employees, only to be used against them. Hopefully it'll continue to be corps helping employees buy computers and not some horrible 1984 infestation of speechless netizens.

Bad Mojo

In any conflict, as one side's evilness approaches infinity, the other side's "Good Guy" index increases at the same rate.


Bad Mojo

I'll run. I've allready got an overinflated self worth. Being president won't change me one bit. And I'm a total geek. And best of all, I'm not a liberal or a conservative. I'm a moderate!

Woo hoo! Vote for me!

Bad Mojo

"We have an MCSE in our group, he's a shining example. He asked me for the administrator password to get into a 95 box. I laughed at him and it took him 2 days to figure out how to bypass the security on the 95 machine."

While this certainly appears funny, this story once again raises a serious, IMO, side effect of the MS training machine. It's people like this who end up designing a network only to have it `h4X0red' and creating some giant `blame someone' game. Sure, this person might lose their job for being a moron, but the damage is usually allready done by that time.

Net result? The industry looks unstable, and insecure to the general non-technical crowd who aren't in the know. I know what a MCSE does to get that piece of paper, and I know that doing those things or getting the actual paper does nothing to actually guarantee anything except a minimal level of understanding.

But this might just be me holding NT admins to a level of excellence only uni* admins ever seem to strive for.


Bad Mojo

Of all the posts I've seen you make, this one is the MOST obtuse. ;)


Bad Mojo

Eventually mankind will create a board with a nail in it so big that he will destroy himself. Hahahahaha!


Bad Mojo

This bring a whole new meaning to being an Open Source advocate. I can't wait!

Bad Mojo

"That said, someone needs to stop running around yelling "The sky is falling, the sky is falling"."

And what sucks is, that if enough people do this, the sky just might fall.

Bad Mojo

I submit that when a sentient being is produced, it won't be classified as `technology' so much as `people'. At least in pertenance to the effect of technology in society. Perhaps I'll update this premise.

Technology doesn't solve problems. Sentient beings solve problems.

Bad Mojo

But we exist outside even our own rules. You might be a cog in a big machine, but I choose to be the wrench!


Bad Mojo

"Technology solves problems."

I remind you of the first rule of Technosociology. "Technology doesn't solve problems. People solve problems."

A flawed premise is no place to start an argument.


Bad Mojo

No one forces anyone to accept a beta version of Linux in order to be supported properly. I'm not even running the 2.2 kernel on my server and I feel no pressure to update from Linus. But I do know, that if I wanted to, I could download the latest developement kernel and help beta test Linux. Sure, the stable releases of Linux aren't always perfect, but they are very stable and have few problems. Something I rather enjoy rather than having no choice via MS.

Bad Mojo

I don't know if reading this article and resulting posts makes me sad or not. Someone stands up to voice the same opinion as many people on Slashdot hold and he gets attacked. No wonder OSS has such a lingering bad taste in people's mouths. Nothing like trying to help out and having the people on your side question your motives and character. Face value people. It still exists.

Bad Mojo

"The problem with air superiority is that it cannot translate into ground superiority for the very reason that you cannot monitor everything that's going on on the ground when you're a thousand feet up going 500 miles per hour."

Yes, we can. We have orbital superiority right now. Our spy satellites and communications satellites allow us to watch the ground and know what's going on. Our AWACs and other air based tactical planes allow the same capability.

The point is that when a ground unit moves in against another ground unit, the ground unit with air support wins. Especially if the other ground units air support was totally vanquished earlier in the conflict.

Bad Mojo

"One problem with aliens invading us is that never has air superiority ever translated to ground superiority--which means they eventually have to land on the ground."

Um, once someone has orbit superiority, they can blow up any of our air planes. Then they have air superiority and they can blow up any of our ground troops. Then they have ground superiority and they won. Why do you think the US works so hard to obtain air superiority in modern warfare? It is the KEY to ground superiority.

Bad Mojo

Thanks for enlightening us all with your bitterness. Now I know more and am a better person for it.

Next time you feel like bringing up a point, try to keep in mind that not all of us know everything. You seem to think I do know everything but that I somehow oppress the black man. Spout your hateism someplace else.

Bad Mojo

"If the same thing were planned today, there would be tons of protests... back then it would have probably been "Yay for us!"..."

I think that back then, the general public felt the government was noble and honorable and would do no wrong. Today, I think we know better. How would you feel about your government blowing up atom bombs on the moon after they killed 4 students at Kent State.

Bad Mojo

I know others have made this point, but I have something so say about this.

"Your analogy is bad, because the air has no control over what sound it transmit, no will of its own. Thus, it cannot be sued anymore than the ocean. If you can't understand that difference, then I seriously pity you."

Exactly the point I was trying to make. The air has no control over what sound it transmits and Slashdot and Andover have no control over what is posted. It's that simple. Even if Slashdot removes the posts, it won't change the fact that they were posted. What you are suggesting is that Slashdot can prevent someont from posting news based on the content. If that were true, we wouldn't even be having this conversation, I'm sure.

So, as you can see, my analogy does work. Slashdot == Air.

Bad Mojo

"Another time, he had some none-too-favourable comments about OpenGL, claiming that Carmack was the only one who could 'afford' to take an ideological stand.

To me, this seems to intone that Tim Sweeney thinks Carmack can choose The Right Thing because he's got a legion of Quake-Heads who will buy anything he writes. But maybe, just maybe, Carmack has a legion of Quake-Heads who will purchase anything he writes BECAUSE he takes a stand and uses The Right Thing instead of bowing to pressure from other companies.

IIRC, Carmack was told many times that his ideas for Castle Wolfenstein couldn't possibly be done on a modern PC (486 at the time). Had Carmack decided to go with the flow, I don't think Tim Sweeney would even be listened to. IMO of course.

Bad Mojo

"I'm not surprised if Epic arrived at this decision as a result of lackluster enthusiasm from their Linux port of Unreal Tournament."

Yes, a lack of enthusiasm on THEIR part. I run a rather large LAN party and I try very hard to run Linux for my game servers. But when the guy doing the Linux ports doesn't give a fucking shit about the port, what do you do? Epic has EARNED their Linux enthusiasm, not had it dumped on them.

Bad Mojo

I don't know. I tend to see Slashdot as a digital manifestation of the toothpaste tube analogy of free speech. Once you say something, it's out. You said it and you are responsible. You can't (easily) put the paste back into the tube. If that means MS sues some Slashdot posters for violating their EULA, that's fine. And if that means the penalties are worse for making their code available for all time in the anals of Slashdot, so be it. Slashdot is no different (in my eyes) than the air that carries my words from my mouth to the ears of those who are near me. Can MS sue the air? They can try, I'm certain.

Free Speech is something we all say we want. Well, those people who posted the material that MS owns (supposedly) have got Free Speech and they used it. Good or bad, that's the extent of it. DMCA, Copyright law, EULAs all mean crap when applied to the air, so why should it mean anything to Slashdot? This is a good time, IMHO, to show people that the DMCA should not apply to forums of Free Speech in any circumstance.

Now, take a deep breath of Slashdot. ;)

Bad Mojo

When it comes to Karma on Slashdot, it's the getting, not the having that matters. ;)


Bad Mojo

"... this might signal a new phase in the human utilization of space."

I wonder what the load average of space is now?

[root@space /root]#w

1:02pm up 71 days, 3:33, ALOT users, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00


Bad Mojo

And if he's not available, I am a great lawyer. I've never lost a case! And I'll work for almost nothing!

"It does NOT make sense!"


Bad Mojo