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This article should take you back to the dot-com glory days. The opening paragraph:

"After an uncomfortable pause, he looked straight into the eyes of the woman he'd loved for years. As he moved in for the kiss, he caught a whiff of her shoulder and immediately thought of his computer."

Excellent article on man-made diamonds via Wired Magazine">Wired Magazine.

However, the movie industry employees large numbers of people, from those who manufacture the films to those who distribute them, to those who work in theaters and video rental shops.

All of which is still paid for by theater customers.

And all of these people make money

And how many industry people have lost their jobs or even missed a pay raise because of camming in theaters? If its more than zero I would eat my hat.

So what is wrong with investing a tiny bit of their tax money in protecting their livelihoods?

Well, aside from the fact that this law is a draconian knee-jerk reaction to a vastly overstated problem, two reasons: 1) all the big content industries themselves were built on "piracy" and 2) that-nice-quote-that-I-can't-find about why should industries expect the government to insure their continued profits just because their business model is losing its effectiveness.

You are the one engaging in propaganda here.

Nope, just the facts, ma'am.

Copyright infringement has long been considered a form of theft

Only by the content industry (which itself was based on "Piracy", stick that in your pipe and smoke it) and those saps who buy their shpeal.

It is only in recent years, when technology made copying easy enough that obeying the law became inconvenient, that people started using the "I'm not taking anything physical so its not theft" argument to try to rationalize what they are doing.

Again, Bzzt. Copyright infringement has always been just that, infringement, just like trademark infringement or patent infringement. Not theft. If infringement is really theft, then why has it never been prosecuted as such?

You're wrong, we're right, and we proved it to you. If you keep arguing, either you are a troll, or belong in the same padded room as people who believe the sun revolves around a flat earth. In other words, a frikkin idiot.

I know this is a bit of a hairpin left turn, but it's along the same lines as life on Mars: does not finding it mean it's not there? if/when do you give up looking? what happens if you're wrong?

Aside from that, I agree with Moore on this whole Iraq war thing. I think we should take what's left of the $150,000,000,000 from the war, convert to a hydrogen economy as quickly and efficiently as possible - here's how - so we can forget the Middle East and their precious oil, spend as little as we can to get the Iraqis back on their feet and us out of their hair, then make a note to not play the World's Big Brother. We should not step into a war without a) UN support and b) a major human right being trampled, OR c) payment either in funds up front or promise of future economic returns.

In fact, you want a tyranny. No wonder you'll be voting for Bush.

The Wired article on the issue.[wired.com]

He is bland, a braggart, and doesn't know when to shut up, but what he is trying to do (namely, the profit off of intellectual property) cannot be ignored. The wired article makes a great point on the last page: "Darl McBride is right about one thing: There's a big problem with Linux. <snip> The problem is that the free operating system created by Torvalds and his collaborators is poorly documented."

To be honest, if it wasn't going to be McBride, it would be someone else down the line that would exploit this little problem. Most open source advocates would hate to say it, but with this kind of question looming over Linux as an operating system, some bigger companies won't look at it in the same light as they would, say, Microsoft Windows or Sun Solaris. It is good that, not unlike a band-aid, this is getting done now so that even the big corporations can know what most of us already do; without a question or a doubt, Linux is safe to use.

I see no windmills here, but a true dragon that needs to be slayed.

This sounds very much like Marine DOOM which was a WAD (mod) for DOOM II that the US Marine Corps Modeling and Simulation Management Office developed as a tactical training tool for four-man fire teams.

The mod is described as follows: "The game teaches concepts such as mutual fire team support, protection of the automatic rifleman, proper sequencing of an attack, ammunition discipline and succession of command."

I also remember watching an interview with a Marine officer who explained that playing the multiplayer game replicated the confusion and changes in situational awareness that soldiers experience in combat -- known as the fog of war -- as well as friendly fire and other important concepts.

Remember that Full Spectrum Warrior grew out of a combat simulation. Marine DOOM was a modification of a game that also served as a proof-of-concept training tool, which eventually led to the military version of FSW -- and was probably the precursor to it.

Unfortunately the site isn't online any longer, but thanks to Internet Archive, you can see the original Marine DOOM Homepage.

For more background you can also read "Doom Goes to War" by Rob Riddell which was the cover story in the Wired April 1997 issue.

This sounds very much like Marine DOOM which was a WAD (mod) for DOOM II that the US Marine Corps Modeling and Simulation Management Office developed as a tactical training tool for four-man fire teams.

The mod is described as follows: "The game teaches concepts such as mutual fire team support, protection of the automatic rifleman, proper sequencing of an attack, ammunition discipline and succession of command."

I also remember watching an interview with a Marine officer who explained that playing the multiplayer game replicated the confusion and changes in situational awareness that soldiers experience in combat -- known as the fog of war -- as well as friendly fire and other important concepts.

Remember that Full Spectrum Warrior grew out of a combat simulation. Marine DOOM was a modification of a game that also served as a proof-of-concept training tool, which eventually led to the military version of FSW -- and was probably the precursor to it.

Unfortunately the site isn't online any longer, but thanks to Internet Archive, you can see the original Marine DOOM Homepage.

For more background you can also read "Doom Goes to War" by Rob Riddell which was the cover story in the Wired April 1997 issue.

EFF has shown how broad the Act is by writing a mock lawsuit [PDF] suing Apple (for making the iPod)

Ummm...that's not too far from reality. The RIAA tried to sue Rio for making MP3 players in the late 90's. I refer you to this wired article.

...if you want to be able to browse safely on the Internet.

That's the advice I give to my friends after I saw this page:
http://web.archive.org/web/20030603192725/http://w ww.pivx.com/larholm/unpatched/

(too bad that page now no longer host that information :(

There are more holes in IE than a piece of Swiss cheese, and Microsoft doesn't seem to be concerned if that will cause you to be accused of collecting child porn.

Full details of securing a WIndows workstation can be read here. HTH.

Try this!

Haha. Nooo...AOL doesn't throw these CDs out. They just mail them to everybody!

Hack Your Way to Hollywood

You know, the word "hack" above really bothers me.

The Body Bus
Tom Zimmerman has shown that the noncontact coupling between your body and weak electric fields can be used to create and sense tiny nano-amp currents in your body. Modulating these signals creates Body Net, a personal-area network that communicates through your skin.

Well, in that case it would be relevant to note that Microsoft has been associated with Scientology.

The federal government is examining whether a Windows 2000 utility developed by a Scientologist would prohibit public agencies from installing the new operating system released last month. German law bars state and federal governments from doing business with a member of the Church of Scientology.

The Federal Office of Security in Information Technology (BSI) is also looking into whether the tool in question -- DisKeeper, a disk fragmentation technology created by Glendale, California-based Executive Software -- poses a security threat to users.

Executive Software CEO Craig Jensen is a member of the Church of Scientology and has claimed his employees are schooled in the principles of Scientology's founder, L. Ron Hubbard.

There is a huge loop of fiber going all the way around Africa that was put there during the dotcom boom by a company called Africa One. Apparently it is mostly dark, because no one can pay to use it:

See here for a large pic.

More info:
Wired News
Lucent
Some interview

So this is interesting for wireless sake, but not interesting for the sake of Internet connectivity in Africa. This fiber loop needs to be put to use to enable cheap Internet in Africa. Many Internet connections are still done by satellite, which is expensive and slow.

There's a good Wired article on it here. You were on the money with your guess - some spam filters weigh rarely-used words more heavily (considering them more likely to be legitimate email) than commonly used ones. This also is why few emails will offer you "Viagra", but many offer "V1aGr/\" or "s1ld1nafr1l citr/\t3" - the spam filter is likely to view any stranger that emails you about erectile disfunction in their first email dimly :)

From the Wired link: "None of the cases has gone to trial. Hundreds of defendants have opted to settle with the industry for around $3,000 each."

The total thus far is 3,429. As for the number of pirates, it is in the millions and millions, for sure.

"No Cubes, lots of Windows" sounds like a Microsoft ad from 2000

If all I have to give is my name, then I'm not particularly concerned. Just make up a name that doesn't sound too suspiciously bland (like John Smith) I think my new police officer name just became Bryan Wendy.

Of course, I will continue to list my address as
1060 West Addison
Chicago, Illinois
60613

And my social...
078-05-1120

They can already trace you using your cell phone. Even if you turn your phone off, they could track your gas purchases if you use a credit/debit card. Even if they don't do these things, what's to stop them from installing cameras along the highway and using your license plate to track you? In fact, if you drive on toll roads (or toll bridges) they're already doing this.

I wouldn't worry about the government using wifi to track you. Unlike the other methods, all they could get would be your mac address (and maybe a list of the sites you visited) anyway. Of course you were joking :) Mod parent +1 funny.

Hitler fabricated a terrorist attack and blamed Poland. That was their pretext for invasion... a pre-emptive strike to protect Germany from terrorists. Look it up.

And 1984 is not just about communism, it is about dictatorship, totalitarianism and government surveillance and control in general.

"Side note: what is it with people conflating fascism, stalinism and (the comparatively *extremely* tame) current US rights restrictions as if they were all the same?"

They are all very authoritarian doctrines, which gives the government great power and control of the population. Bush & co. are much closer to fascist (right-wing authoritarian) than conservative.

Do you know that as we speak, your government is trying to sneak Patriot Act II in piece by piece?

The Patriot Act II is a recipe for secret arrests, with no due process. It also allows citizens to be stripped of their citizenship. ('the intent to relinquish nationality need not be manifested in words, but can be inferred from conduct.')

With this, the FBI could call your bank, your school, your library, whoever, and demand private information, and they don't even need to give a REASON (actually they already have that now with Patriot I), the different with Patriot II is that if any of these institutions try to speak up for your privacy, or even TELL anyone, they face automatic prison time.

As an example, with Patriot II, the neocons could declare Michael Moore a seditious traitor, and have him arrested in secret. Then they can do whatever they want with him, including stripping him of his citizenship and deporting him. It's McCarthyism+Salem Witch Hunts cubed.

Yeah.. NOTHING like 1984. Just be careful about your level of dissent after P2, or you might just go missing one day. Just think GoodThoughts and you'll be fine.

The Fendi Juke Box iPod case is $1500, although it's designed to hold up to 12 iPods. (Its creator claims to own 40 iPods.)

I have found a direct link to the article I was quoting in my previous post, The Electric Kool-Aid Bandwidth Test by Evan Ratliff. It is long but very interesting and enlightening. True eye opener. Enjoy.

Very true that sex sells, but will it sell the Xbox/components? I'm skeptical. Microsoft has tried these shenanigans before without much success.

Unfortunately, if we take that tact, then we have to be stong enough as a culture to accept the Nick Berg video and any similar video that comes our way in the future...

Yes, not to forget the Daniel Pearl video (non-graphical).

because such videos are being used as propaganda to try to convince us and our allies to give up the fight against anti-freedom terrorists.

I hate to disturb your American daydream, but these people want to get the US out of Saudi Arabia, which is by all means not a free country, or even a democracy, and out of Arabian countries in general. They are against freedom (as we understand it). That's true. But they are not on a crusade. In their eyes, they are trying to take back their own countries from the evil US infidels. From the statement the murderers of Nick Berg read:

They are bastards, and after viewing the video I had an urge to exercise my neck breaking skills on them (played too much Tenchu back then). But then I realized that no lasting good would come from retributing atrocities with atrocities.

Whatever punishment you want to inflict on them, saying "They hate us because we're a free country." is just simplicissistic crap. The world's not as easy to understand as you would like. Know your enemies.

Btw, do you think this kind of cruelty will win them sympathy? No more than Abu Ghareib has won the US sympathy.

I'm not sure if the world has that strong of a stomach sometimes...

Yes, but it's a huge difference whether you would force such images upon others (e.g. in TV) or just put them in the net for the interested citizen to see. You don't have to see it, but you can, if you want to know from first-hand sources what's going on. Imagine only choice people were allowed to see and evaluate things like that (and then comment upon them). Who should decide who may see them and who doesn't? Do you trust your government enough to decide it? Your next? Not only their goodwill, but also their good judgement?

From this link about MS Word 5.1:

"Indeed, for some, Word 5.1 was so flexible it became a one-stop shop for all their computer needs. It was used for writing, but also as an address book, a to-do list and a calendar."

So there ya' go.

Slashdot has for some reason ignored some big articles on Governmental Open Source. This is what I mean: Brazil has a government department bent on migrating all of the government's software into Open-Source software. This department already has 2,000 employees DEDICATED for migration operations. It's estimated that over 300,000 computers will migrate to Linux. As it stands it still is the largest government-backed program for Open Source. This is nothing new. This dept. was created back in December of 2003 and was covered by Wired. In any case, the most amusing consequence of this was Microsoft's response calling this program "ideologically motivated" in a veiled allusion to President Lula's left-leaning socialist tendencies. But of course, an instant loss of 6% in revenue for Microsoft makes them a bit, uhm, "twitchy". A few links if anyone's interested: Wired Article The Register Folha de São Paulo (in portuguese)

No "as if" there - what you mention has actually happened. Saw an interview in wired a long time ago, with Sony's head honcho of "portable music devices" or somesuch. Couldn't find the original interview, but the point was that Sony Music actually denied Sony Electronics to make hard-disk based MP3 players for fear of piracy.

It's mentioned in the second paragraph of this story: Note to Sony: Skip iPod Knockoff

(so ok, you shouldn't take everything in wired for granted, but the fact that Sony didn't make any HD-based MP3-players a long time ago is a strong indication as well...)

I thought I'd add a few interesting ideas and resources to this discussion.

Check out the works of Amory Lovins / L. Hunter Lovins / Paul Hawken;
they have an interesting book which can be read free online or be purchased
in print depending on one's desire --
Read 'Natural Capitalism' free online or buy the book!
Read 'Natural Capitalism' free online
Read 'Natural Capitalism' free online

Amory Lovins has a lot to do with the Rocky Mountain Instutute
Rocky Mountain Instutute and there's a lot more information about efficient
technologies and industrial / social evolutions there.

"Natural Capitalism: Creating the next industrial revolution" is all about
paradigm shifts that evaluates efficiency and resource conservation as
being key factors both for environmental reasons as well as economic reasons --
economics is about the market prosperity of the most efficient products and
services, and surely there are disadvantages in inefficient use of one's
inputs.

"Achieve multiple benefits with single expendutures" -- and the book/ebook
is full of really thought provoking and compelling practical paradigms to
illustrate the power of that thinking!

Ok so my next salient point and resource on the subject of power supply efficiency is to look beyond the power supply to the load and realize that
computing itself can be as close to a "zero power needed" technology as one
cares to implement. Current digital circuits waste the vast majority of their
power by irreversably converting 1's to 0's and 0's to ones, basically charging
up capacitors to make a high voltage "1" where there was no voltage before
and then wasting all that energy a bit later shunting it to ground / zero volts
to make a "0" again. This isn't necessary to achieve the computing function!
And here are some interesting readings on that area:

"Reversible Logic" is one such practical approach to it --
Article At MIT

http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&q=%22rever si ble+logic%22+%2BMIT

And otherwise: Book Info: "Complexity, Entropy and the Physics of Information"
"Complexity, Entropy and the Physics of Information"
a great read on the relationship between information theory, computing,
and thermodynamic entropy's relationship to data entropy, even touching
on how many "bits" of information a black hole must accumulate based upon
the entropy of the infalling matter/energy!

Besides classical circuit theory implementations like "Reversible Logic"
to save power there are very exciting opportunities in other quantum-computing
technologies like "Spintronics" (e.g. using the spin-quantum of currents flowing between magnetized metals / semiconductors to represent "1", "0" or
multi-level logic which is basically related to the way a NMR device gets
its signals):
Spintronics
Google It ...and various other quantum-effect computing technologies.

As for efficient power supplies, how about one that's 99% efficient,
generally non-toxic, cheap to manufacture (actually it's self manufacturing!)
and generates perfectly 'clean energy'?
Wired: Algae based fuel cells!
How about using the same kinds of photosynthesis that every green plant
on earth uses to split Hydrogen apart from Oxygen and create a microscopic
electrochemical fuel cell complete with the option of integrated
efficient 'storage batteries' for holding power when the sun's no

There is a comment that the old URL will be redirected to a new URL. This could be very useful. When a provider stops providing, the change of URL can be a problem even if a new provider is found. Consider released software, etc. that contains a URL hyperlink. Copies of software with the now-invalid URL could continue to persist for a long time. It is not just web logs but also things like Web sites and e-mail addresses where the domain name or URL can be important. A while ago, there was a free webhosting service, Xoom.com but now Xoom.com leads to a money transfer service. Imagine all those with sites hosted at Xoom.com and who distributed the URLs... Keeping a local archived copy of the site could be important in case something unexpected happens. It could also be noted that when something is free it often implies a catch of some sort.

Some years ago, a law (COPPA) was passed that restricted Web sites from collecting information about young people. One unexpected effect was that a number of young people had their e-mail accounts cancelled by a company attempting to comply with the new law.

Why buy RFID tags? These 1. cost money 2. only work within a few feet. Instead install a Distributed.net client. They have caught thiefs before. Of course if the hard drive is wiped or replaced, it won't but how many lazy thiefs would do that?

Based on my own experience, this follow-on article is a more accurate portrayal of hybrid performance.

For reference's sake, here is my own vehicle's performance. In my case, temperature seems to be the primary factor affecting my mileage; lower in the winter and higher in the summer.

A couple of years ago, Wired had an amazing article about F1 racing, particularly in terms of how it evolved yearly from the technological arms race. A team would develop something astounding, and others might copy it, and by the next year it would be outlawed. Innovation after innovation came and went like this, with few of them being allowed to remain. What I most liked about the article was the picture of a Mercedes-Benz F1 motor mounted to the dyno, looking utterly gorgeous (spotlessly clean, I should add) with its huge shiny exhaust pipes glowing cherry red. :)

A couple of years ago, Wired had an amazing article about F1 racing, particularly in terms of how it evolved yearly from the technological arms race. A team would develop something astounding, and others might copy it, and by the next year it would be outlawed. Innovation after innovation came and went like this, with few of them being allowed to remain. What I most liked about the article was the picture of a Mercedes-Benz F1 motor mounted to the dyno, looking utterly gorgeous (spotlessly clean, I should add) with its huge shiny exhaust pipes glowing cherry red. :)

It seems that with average driving they aren't quite what you'd expect. The published mileage figures aren't for real world conditions. My properly maintained and driven 2000 Chevy Lumina company car with 92,000 miles gets 26 MPG with a combination of highway and city driving.

Read this Wired's story

"Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain

PKD is so respected that no one in the film industry would even dare making a subpar movie.

Actually, that's not so far from the truth: Wired 11.12: The Second Coming of Philip K. Dick

Actually, scaling the text to the screen is difficult, but scaling the container size on a well-designed site is trivial. The web was designed with this standard in mind. If you fiddle with your window size right now, you will notice that the white space after the Slashdot logo compresses, text moves out of the way, and the main box shrinks down until the site is readable at 640 * 480 (though, lower than that and you get scroll bars).

This should be the norm, as it is the functional base which the web was designed for. Even hyperactive sites like wired exhibit this behavior. But if you look at salon, the layout has far fewer dependencies yet is fixed width. Why?

Because being in an insecure industry, web designers are very trend-conscious, and less technically inclined designers create sites that are fixed width. Boo to that.

C'mon Mr. Hamerly, if you're the one then step forward, receive the gold-plated bathroom tissue statuette, and defend yourself in your acceptance speech!

Here is a link concerning the situation in case any readers are not familiar: Caldera: MS Cheated in DOS War

If you are using Windows, then look at the link at the beginning of the article to see what might be causing your problems.

It's like that whole Al Gore invented the internet versus helped create the internet thing. He said the latter, but the former, which is only subtly different, sounds much worse.

No. It's not. Al Gore was making things up. Pure and simple. He stated that "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet". The funding for the ARPAnet was passed years before Al Gore got into congress. Email and file copying (UUCP primarily) were going on for YEARS before he was elected to congress.

It was not a misunderstanding, he got caught lying.

Just like when he claimed to have a hand in the creation of the strategic petroleum reserve, but that was established two years before he entered congress.

the end result was that most Americans thought the 9/11 hijackers were Iraqi citizens. This may actually be true but I'll be skeptical since I don't have a link to back it up, but anecdotally it demonstrates the point well.

Most of them were (Saudi) Arabian expatriots.

LK

Wired has an article up as well, with a bit more detail.

The idea hinges on carefully mimicking background lighting conditions to help render an object invisible, similar to how a chameleon blends in with its surroundings. The rear and front surfaces of an object are covered with a material containing an array of photodetectors and light emitters respectively.
The photodetectors on the rear surface are used to record the intensity and color of a source of illumination behind the object. The light emitters on the front surface then generate light beams that exactly mimic the same measured intensity, color and trajectory. The result is that an observer looking at the front of the object appears to see straight through it.

What timing. Wired just had an article on Friday about the RIAA warning that digital radio needs to have DRM built in or it "could lead to unfettered song copying".

I know it's not exactly the same thing, but what would happen if a garage band uploaded their song to the PRX website and then later signed a contract with the RIAA? What would happen to that song? Would it still be allowed to be played on PRX type sites?

I imagine that the contract would spell stuff like this out for the band and the RIAA, but what about the PRX that already had a copy of it? How would the contract apply to them?

But it ain't going to happen.

I personally think Dawkin's and your quest is hillarious. The only way make your smug arrogence any more transparent would be to use genius, or perhaps intellectual as the name of your group.