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Just drop it already. It's over and done with. ...

Further on the point, Michael Sims broke legal trust, right before the CIPA trial. That's not ancient history. On-topic: What he did was a large factor in derailing the anticensorware work I had planned to coincide for CIPA. That matters.

Again, what would you DO in such a situation? Besides the name-calling, Michael Sims put material on the web which publicized to every censorware company every detail of every decryption he knew I'd done (it's on my site now because he publicized it, so I figured I might as well put it up too, in a positive context).

This was extremely destructive given that for the CIPA trial, one censorware company became very legally aggressive

How would you handle this? What's wrong in my Slashdot code proposal ? (besides failing, that's hindsight)

I don't say I'm good at politics. I just try to muddle through. I constantly ask people to take into account, in judging me, the pressures I face. And to consider, without facile moralizing, what they would do if they were in my place.

See IBM's research on the VLIW subject.

"We developed an experimental prototype of a VLIW processor, capable of performing multiway branching and conditional execution, which is currently operational. The prototype has helped us investigate some of the hardware constraints in building VLIWs.
This processor executes tree-instructions within a ``classical'' VLIW architecture, that is, fixed-length VLIWs with preassigned slots for the different operations. The register state consists of 64 32-bit general purpose registers, 8 single-bit condition code registers, 4 memory address registers, program status word register, and some special registers. Each Very Long Instruction Word is 759 bits, which include..."

Now, when we know the relationship between IBM and Transmeta, can you combine the results of these two 'projects'. :)

Re-read the article and determine whether it was written to draw some attention to a music genre, or as advertising for DigiDesign and Apple.

Reread the article and notice that it was posted in the Cult of Mac area of the site, hence the Mac focus.

Duh.

Wired has all their issues online. Kid06 is only mentioned in one article, from May 2002.

I was forced to work for this pervert for a few months . Everyone knew he was bad news, even before he entered a guilty plea for possession of child pornography including photos of infants.

Why are we letting pedophiles write software to catch criminals?

This guy is NO GENIUS! After all, he thought there really were young girls in an IRC chat room called "Dads & Daughters Sex" and he got caught!

Patrick was supposed to be an Internet Expert, yet he didn't even PGP his kiddie porn!

The Walt Disney Company lost $1Billion dollars investing in Patrick Naughton's company (his college roommate and best friend still works for Disney!). Now the FBI lost hard-earned evidence investing in Naughton's technology.

-Disney paid the price for Naughton's stupidity.

The FBI paid the price for Naughton's stupidity.

And THE AMERICAN PUBLIC did, too! By standing still while "pretty boy" Patrick was able to plea bargain by writing crappy software for the FBI, he got out of jail sooner and he's free to endanger more young girls, maybe even your son or daughter!

Gladwell's article does less to discount the successes of lone inventors than to support the successes of hackers, working alone or within an established research lab.

It is entirely possible to "invent" within a single, narrowly defined discipline. This happens most often in science as discoveries of fundamental principles or emergent phenomena. The inventor may or may not reduce the discovery to a technology, but he probably has a deep understanding of his discipline.

The successful hacker must not only be grounded in scientific fundamentals, but also have an archivists understanding of technology. Each technology can be seen as a potential member of a hacker's tool kit. The best hackers exploit multiple disciplines, crack finished technology into modular components, and rebuild to suite their vision.

We happen to living in an independent hacker's paradise: open access to science and "dumpsters" full of juicy tidbits. It isn't all hardware, either.

If so then Farnsworth is a bad example to use for the main point of this essay. Farnsworth's problems are as likely to stem from autism as anything else. Other lone geniuses have managed to create major inventions and use the patent system to do so. The Bell telephone is the obvious example.

Paul.

There is one flat rate ISP in Ireland. They charged a fairly expensive flat-rate for users, and signed up alot of users, becoming the largest in the country.

Then they just kicked off the people that were using it the most. They were allowed to get away with it, but the backlash from the disconnected customers (myself included) was high.

Here is the coverage on Wired from the incident:
Wired coverage of Ireland's flat-rate ISP kicking off its frequent users

Heres a link to the marines making marine doom: here.

The complete quote, which is referenced in this article, was, "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet." Vint Cerf says that Gore would "be quite correct to say 'I helped create the Internet' - because of his work to provide an environment of support for research ... so fundamental to the Internet today."

Argh...found this link seconds after I hit "Submit"

About 5 years ago there was a mod from the Marine Corps for Doom. Check out the story on Wired. I play it and it was actually more interesting than the original Doom. Me, I'm still waiting for Unreal Doom Quake, with Asia Carrera Skins.......

One problem with all of this is separating fact from hype when it comes to nanotechnology.

The money may come in, but the market has to correct sometime.

I predict a "nanotechnology" version of the web economy bullshit generator in the not-so-near future!

Dot-con business plans were hard enough to understand; I can only imagine how bad these nanotech ones are read...

When I saw those links I thought... "Oh man, people have been wrong about Gore saying he invented the Internet." I followed the links thinking I should learn the info there in case I needed to pass it on when someone brings it up in the future. I just want to thank you for wasting my time.

Let's see. According to the first link, Al Gore said:

During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country's economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system.

So... Al Gore never said he invented the Internet... he really said that he took the initiative to create the Internet. In fact, those are the exact words that appeared in the Wired story that was apparently among the first to start making fun of the claim. I see. Perhaps that interviewee BS phraseology was hard for people to remember. Maybe that's why they don't quote Gore saying, "I took the initiative in creating the Internet," they just say, accurately enough, that "Gore said he invented the Internet", without quoting his exact words. That's actually unfortunate for people who aren't big fans of Al Gore since the original manages to be more embarrassing in its awkwardness. Oh well, too bad for them.

According to the second link, Vint Cerf (who is presumed to know who invented the Internet) said:

VP Gore was the first or surely among the first of the members of Congress to become a strong supporter of advanced networking while he served as Senator. As far back as 1986, he was holding hearings on this subject (supercomputing, fiber networks...) and asking about their promise and what could be done to realize them. Bob Kahn, with whom I worked to develop the Internet design in 1973, participated in several hearings held by then-Senator Gore and I recall that Bob introduced the term ``information infrastructure'' in one hearing in 1986. It was clear that as a Senator and now as Vice President, Gore has made it a point to be as well-informed as possible on technology and issues that surround it.

So... he goes out of his way to point out that he and Bob Kahn developed the Internet design in 1973. He says they also were at hearings that Al Gore's committee held when he started showing interest in the Internet some 13 years later. It also seems that the term "information superhighway" may have been based on a term Bob Kahn brought to Gore's attention in 1986.

Well, gee, you really debunked that one and earned the right to tell someone else to shut up. Tool.

To be honest, I'm mainly just pissed off at myself that I wasted this time following and reading your links since I thought you actually had something there. Grrrr

This is old news. Sure it's finally been confirmed, but people were noticing this stuff as far back as February 8. Here is the mention from Feb 8 that started the articles that didn't show up until Feb 16 here and here's the old Wired article. So, if you missed it up until the final episode, it's because you weren't paying attention. In other words, yes, this is OLD NEWS.

Wiles did present the paper, then the errors were found but by the collegue he had checking it. But the idea of the proof was correct. I never stated that peer review was bad, just that in certain circumstances, revolutionary result require unconventional methods.

And Wolfram may not have submitted to Peer reviewed journals (as Newton did not) but he did communicate the work to collegues and friends (see here).

He wants to make sure people read the whole thing. According to a Wired interview:

his main concern is that people actually read the book, and he professes to fear not those who will attack him but bandwagon-riders who will scan a chapter or two and then generate garbage based on their misimpressions.

This would have been a problem had he published it in sections.

He wants to make sure people read the whole thing. According to a Wired interview:

his main concern is that people actually read the book, and he professes to fear not those who will attack him but bandwagon-riders who will scan a chapter or two and then generate garbage based on their misimpressions.

This would have been a problem had he published it in sections.

Pretty decent interview/story with him in this month's wired, mainly about the book.

Actually, this is EXACTLY the kind of tactics they like to use. Have you seen this article? They tried to get a law passed to hack someone's PC.

Cigarette companies kill millions of their own customers, Enron executives steal everyone's requirement accounts, and mostly these type of companies get off scot free. Not to mention all the investment advice companies with conflicts of interest, telling people to buy then selling after the price goes up, or vice versa.

Of course, with all the lobbyists and lawyers and paper shredders, it's not like anything would come of this.

There is an interesting Wired magazine article which provides some idea as to how much M$ is losing on it's XBox. The problem is that according to the article the goal was to bring production cost down to $100 per box. Since this article was published in September 2001 it would seem reasonable that most of the loss could have been the result of retooling the manufacturing plant to produce the Xbox instead of joysticks, and that in fact Microsoft's losses have been greatly reduced since then. It would be hard to believe that any company, even Microsoft would continue absorbing huge losses without pulling the plug.

Sorry pudge, you're wrong, look here.

Wired did a story a while back about why sending people to mars with a 40 year supply of gear is cheaper than sending a return vehicle. Henry Spencer (of regex and usenet fame) was even willing to go along for the one way trip.

Want to know why they lost? I think this link pretty well explains it all:


The DMCA Is the Toast of D.C.


NOTICE the older-than-time, uppercrust DC politicians who are close to retirement, and need to pad their pockets with as much industry money as possible ("we'll pass ANYTHING for a price!").

SEE the big copyright holders wining and dining the aforementioned old politicians. Booze 'em up, then get them on board when they're tipsy.

EXPERIENCE the complete lack of anyone who has any opposing viewpoints.

Now, just for the record, I DO approve of copyright laws. That said, there NEEDS to be a fair use policy that allows users/owners to space/timeshift their information. Move it from DVD to HD to portable player without any restrictions other than making illegal copies.

The length of copyright terms needs to come WAY down if the studios/publishers want the kinds of control they are asking for.

Sure, make it an iron-clad copyright to protect all content without any space/timeshifting rights if you want - but if you, as a studio, DO want these rights, your copyright term drops to an absolute MAXIMUM of 5 years, after which it's opened up wide for all to see/shift/transfer as people see fit..

Apparently descrambling DVD is encyption As bad as sabotaging airplanes to crash. Gives you a idea just how much of a clue these judges have to what these programs do.(Granted, this was pre-9/11, but still)

-Henry

Well, when you consider the party that Rosen and Valenti threw for their favorite bought and paid for politicans yesterday, things certainly don't look promising, at least in the short-term.

I wonder why they didn't invite Boucher to the festivities? Frankly until there are more fair-use advocates like him in congress i will be very worried

2600's DMCA Challenge Blocked

All that's left is the Supreme Court...

(No, its not really on topic, but while we're talking about losing appeals, why not discuss one that matters)

From the poster: Seems to me that this is a controlled environment for the most part, and still they have problems this big? I wonder if this technology will ever be accurate enough to work properly.

A similar story on Wired indicates higher match rates (90%) at airports in Dallas Boston. The maker of the recognition system speculates that lighting was a factor in the Palm Beach for the low match rate. 90% still a bad rate (better than 99.9% or something like that would be ideal), but it shows how differences of environment can affect these things.

I don't think the First Amendment protects my right to publish a web page that truthfully states:

Slashdot.org poster "Kilroy" is actually John Q. Smith, who lives at 123 Main Street, Apartment 3B, in Anytown, Utah.[...]

A website called "The Nuremberg Files", which lists personal information about abortion doctors throughout America (with a strikeout font for ones who have been killed) won an appeal against the doctors trying to shut it down, and throwing out a $109m verdict against the site.

Looking at Trummel's site, it looks like the "personal information" was just people's names, replaced with pseudonyms like "Tall Pygmy".

--
Benjamin Coates

On Wired news there's a very brief history of Napster, from the cradle to the grave. Interesting read.

But despite these huge investments, and the enormous volume, console manufacturers and retailers stand to make little or no money from the systems. Published reports say Microsoft will lose $100 on every Xbox it sells. Instead, profits are reaped from the 12 games that are typically bought for every console.

There's an article in the newest wired article about Star Wars Galaxies and how it it taking control of the Star Wars universe away from Lucas & company and giving it to the fans. Very interesting read.

It was in Wired when the XBOX was the cover story I believe. I believe his quote was "I don't want to be in the razor business if I can't get in on the blades." Or something.

The story is here http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.11/flex.html? pg=1. It also discusses how much Microsoft was initially losing on the boxes ($100 - $110 I believe).

Typo in the story. Here is the actual URL:

However I decided to wait for now for two reasons. One is that Handspring recently announced that they will be supporting CDMA (logical considering Qualcomm just invested $10 Million in them). Thus I expect a CDMA Treo will come out some time this year.

The other reason I am waiting is that Sprint PCS is about to roll out their new 3G Network this summer. Among other things, this will offer data speeds up to 10 times faster than the current network can. In fact, Wired is running a story today on the demo roadshow that Sprint is running right now to show off applications of their new network.

Sprint isn't showing any new handsets for it yet, but one will presume they are forthcoming. In fact, I'm guessing thats why the price on the QCP-6035 has dropped so preciptously (from like $300 to $100 or so) in the last couple of months---I'm guessing Kyocera has a successor model waiting in the wings.

Hence I wait.

Wired is carrying an article here.

When Napster decided it was going to start filtering its mp3 files, it was doomed. The idea that Napster was costing people and business' money spread, overlooking the increasing sales of CD's. Napster should never had made a deal with the RIAA, as soon as 'subscription based' started getting tossed around, we all knew it was dead. Then you hear about the 5000 song database at the 2002 relaunch, and I nearly choked on the 'itoldyouso' of it all.

So what has the RIAA achieved from this victory?

For example, the May issue of Wired magazine had an article entitled Farming EU's Windy Coastlines about using wind turbines planted off the coast of Europe to generate power, some the size of the wing span of a 747. I'd like to see a self sufficient power grid built using this technology. Unlike many other renewable resources, this faces little opposition. Used effectively, it would be far cheaper than hydrogen.

This is a good step; any action that diminishes the powers of the evil oil empires is what I would call a good one. Perhaps it will even lead to more developement of hydrogen powered fuel cells and the like.

While I agree that such a configuration would not rival ASCI White, if he is in fact right that this would cost 1/20 of ASCI White, you could buy a whole lot of these things and network them with gigabit enet (or i hear that there will be support for networking over firewire in OSX soon...and speed increases in firewire).

Obviously this machine was not meant to compete with ASCI white, but for companies who would want apple for renderfarms, data processing, data storage, etc. It looks as if Apple is going after the digital video effects market or other people who will have lots of mac workstations (eg scientists) but also have data warehousing and mass data processing needs. this is a very nice first offering in the rack server market!

see these guys and this article for further applications of this new server.

Yeah, I really couldn't believe the whole RIP thing in the UK - especially as it happened so close to home(Ireland) with virtually no comment from the general media.
So the UK not only demands ISPs to provide the ablitiy to intercept and store any private e-mails, it also makes it illegal to withold your encryption keys, even providing for jail time and fines if you 'lose' your key and can't prove that the loss is genuine. At the same time the power of enforcement is altered significantly and a minister or local authority, among others, can issue a warrent to police to seize your encryption keys.
While the RIP was being passed in Britain, in Ireland the legality of electronic signatures, the privacy of encryption key etc... were being legislated for. Also e-mails are not intercepted/stored.


This link has the - now very old - story regarding the differences between Ireland and Britain.

Given the relative closeness of the two countries, that the people (mostly) speak the same language, watch the same tv, read the same books etc... it's amazing how different we are. It would be interesting to find out how different other EU countries are with respect to encryption/stored e-mails etc.



8)

I always thought it was Flextronics, I know they make the Xbox. This Wired article discussed their business relationship.

Apple probably have a point that these are not really CDs. Philips seems to agree with them. Remember, Philips control licenses for the Compact Disc logo. I was wondering, are these new discs labeled as compact discs or not?

Any group that records images into music . Can't be that bad

Sorry boys and girls, you have to buy the CD if you want to see it

or you could just look at the top of the linked story -- Picture Gallery (3)

S

This reminds me of an old Wired article that talked about the Brookhaven Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. In the article they discuss some of the possible "down sides" to the experiments... "In theory, RHIC could trigger the runaway formation of a poorly understood breed of subatomic particle known as a strangelet, which 'eats' all matter it encounters, a chain reaction that would consume everything everywhere."

Then comes what I think is one of the funniest quotes of all time. "MIT physicist Bob Jaffe says that the chances of RHIC-induced Armageddon are 'exceedingly rare' bordering on nil, but as he admits, 'you never know.'"

That's comforting Bob. Glad to see that we aren't all about to be eaten by runaway particles, but hey... you never know.

May be a different country, but the economics and usability issues are very similar indeed:

Wired talks about it, and there's a lot more info over on Google.

And, since I'm already ranting, why don't companies/advertisers make their commercials available for download as well? You would think they would enjoy all the free advertising from people passing their commercials around on the internet. Last year I searched for some of the funny commercials that aired during the superbowl and I couldn't (legitimately) find them available anywhere. Remember that these companies paid millions of dollars to have these commercials aired on TV, but they refuse to let people download and enjoy them on their own time. Are they afraid I'll profit from their commercials? Perhaps they fear parody? Maybe it scares them that their commercials might come back to haunt them when they don't live up to their claims....

Anyway, to stop ranting and get back to the original post, you might want to interview Bill Joy. I'm not sure if he lives close enough for you to meet with him but he might have some interesting counterpoints to the "information must be free" opinions that you are bound to hear a lot of.

-Derek

.. linguistic input.

The may issue of Wired has this story on battlefield bots. On page 2, a custom glove for controlling them via American Sign Language is mentioned.

Things in favor of sign language might be it's low noise emission and existing work on using gestures as macros?

J

On the one hand, Ebay's backend is now based on some very cool, open source technology.

On the other hand, they use Microsoft Passport, which raises a whole bunch of privacy and security issues.

Are they good or evil? Seems more like a shade of grey to me.

There's a growing concern over WiFi and its health effects since it operates so close to the microwave oven frequencies.

All we need to do is let the soccer moms and paranoids of the world know there'll be microwave light bulbs cooking the brains of our children in our local schools. That'll pretty much take care of the problem. And fsck up Fusion Lighting's chance for a killer IPO.

I love it -- the article quotes Jamie from Alchemy (which is owned by pr0n company Babenet) as saying their policy is shut down first, ask questions later, but witness an article at Wired which discusses the gohip virus Alchemy was installing on peoples computers two years ago!