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Slashback: Palace, Perl, Coastalism
007 would prefer not to be required to go reinstall Linux. You may recall that in addition to various other pieces of head-adornment, the members of Britain's Royal Family rely on Red Hat, by way of their webmaster, Mick Morgan.
Brian writes: "Looks to me as if the Queen's webmaster is pulling out. See the letter at http://www.open.gov.uk/services/letter201200.htm. Let's hope the new owners keep Linux eh?"
Yet another yet another. Pittsburgher Kevin Lenzo wants you to know that June 13-15 in Montreal marks yet another Yet Another Perl Conference. They're also looking for sponsors worthy enough to fund their deeds of derring-do. Suggested reading includes parent organization the Yet Another Society and YAPC Europe (which will be terrorizing Amsterdam sometime in early August, CFP soon), and darn-near required reading includes the (and I quote) "kick-ass" Damien diary going at the Joy of YAS.
Do you ever suspect that some people code Perl strictly for the interesting conferences?
Hey, is there good barbeque in Oakland? In a clever move which might have caused Sherman some consternation, one of the coolest things about the city of Atlanta will shortly be appearing in Oakland, CA. A notice sent out by Usenix announces that November 6-10th of this year will be the next manifestation of ALS. Maddog Hall is sure to be there, so play hookey from work or school to go visit. The announcement reads, in part:
The ALS 2001 Program Committee invites you to contribute your ideas, proposals, and papers for tutorials, invited talks program, refereed papers track, workshops, work-in-progress reports, and symposia tracks. We welcome submissions that address any and all issues relating to Linux and the Open Source world.The Call for Papers with submission guidelines and suggested topics is now available at http://www.linuxshowcase.org.
Submissions are due June 5, 2001
Revenge of the -- oh, I won't say it. A coward who failed to sign his name writes: "DirecTV stuck on Sunday a week before the Superbowl and wiped out 98% of hacked DSS cards. Supposedly DirecTV wrote to an area that is write once thereby making the cards go into an infinite loop. Now the hackers have found a way to bypass that sequence in the ROM in the form of a DPBB (Dead Processor Blocker Board). The board has a simple Atmel ROM that glitches pass the looped part of the ASIC on the DSS cards. DSS hacking is back."
For all the time and effort spent into developing a hack for DSS, they could buy a thousand subscriptions to the service.
Not if they're Canadian, they can't.
Up until 'black Sunday', I was a frequent viewer of a hacked DSS signal. Now, however, that our card is inoperative, have we become paying customers? The truth is that we have not, and are actively pursuing other means of beating the system. I certainly don't blame DirecTV for trying to put an end to our illicit viewing, but I do have to question how cost effective this strategy is. I highly doubt that there is much of, if any, marginal return on every dollar they spend trying to defeat pirates.
Just my take on the matter...
1st Law Of Networking: Loose ends are bad, termination is good.
WWJD? JWRTFM!!!
So the cards malfunctioned. They'll be replaced as quickly as possible, free of charge. Presumably, these cards are licensed, not sold, and they are supported by DirecTV.
--
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
Those of us in the *MIDDLE* of the country, that don't get any Linux conventions... Ugh!
So your taking advantage of my goodwill in releasing my IP by not paying me for it is mitigated by the fact I'm not really "losing" anything? Defend your moral stance here, please, I'm not certain I see your reasoning clearly. What you're saying is that people should not release IP and reasonably expect to get paid for it or make a living off of it, since it isn't "really" property and you're not "really" hurting me. Would that make it OK to steal the physical possessions of an artist, since they can always go out and create more art, thus bringing in money to re-purchase their stolen property? Oh, sorry, they can't, because it's ok for me to make copies of their art, since it isn't "real" property, it's only intellectual.
If I'm using an "unlicensed" SmartCard (btw I'm not, I actually rarely ever watch TV), I still own that card - it's my property. If DirectTV breaks it by any means, they are illegally tampering with something I own.
Ah, but you don't really own the card, at least not from a legal standpoint. The card's software was created by DirectTV and as such is licensed proprietary code. As with any software license, they have the right to terminate it at any time. (Read the EULA on your latest game, it's in there.) And since you are not the rightful licensee of the code, they are not required to offer any form of reimbursement.
Of course this is all a moot point since the software code on the card had already been illegally reverse-engineered and altered, and because of that violation of the license agreement is illegal to operate in the first place.
This is the case because in the USA, we're supposedly Innocent Until Proven Guilty.
You make a good argument, except for this... The tactics used by DirectTV only affected cards that had been illegaly hacked. Anyone who fell victim to the attack by DirectTV had already been "proven guilty" because had they not been breaking the law, no damage would have occured.
I know it sounds like a cheap argument, but in this day and age it would probably stand up in court.
In Minnesota, there's a specific law that deals with physical objects delivered onto property without the property owner's consent. These things are classified as "Unsolicited Gifts". The rub is that the object is now the property owner's to do whatever they want with it and no conditions or terms can be enforced by the person sending the "Unsolicited Gift". Given that transmissions are a physical phenomenon, I'd wonder if this applies.
(The original law was to keep people from "giving" you something you hadn't asked for and then charging you later.)
maybe they can pull a siggraph and alternate between the sites every year? Siggraph goes between Los Angeles, Orlando, and New Orleans.
Scuttlemonkey is a troll
OKay.. here's some logic...
I have a river on my property. I can certainly drink it, bottle it, use it to water my garden.. But if I am polluting and that pollution is unmanaged, then I am in the wrong.
Simularly, a radio signal that is on my property. I can certainly listen to it, record it, and show it to me friends and comrads. But if I am "pulluting" that radio signal, such as to affect my neighbors reception, then I am in the wrong.
Because a company decided to broadcast it's content onto the open airwaves.. doesn't mean that I don't have fair use!!! Just because they throw a little bit scrambling into it doesn't make it and more or less of the content. It is just a format. But out american politicians shield a company from loss by PASSING a law to say that it IS illegal?!
Pan
I said no... but I missed and it came out yes.
Unscrambling a signal has no affect on that signal in general, so it isn't even the equivalent of a trash can, more like a stove (utilizes the material present). If, however, you "pollute" the airwaves, by immitting a signal of your own which affectively blocks or prohibits others from receiving the original signal (much like dumping pollution into a stream running through your property), then you are definately breaking laws against jamming public airwaves.
I AM, therefore I THINK!
This is the case because in the USA, we're supposedly Innocent Until Proven Guilty.
I AM, therefore I THINK!
The point I make is that it is not legal in any manner you try to justify it as to deliberately break property not owned by another person/entity. It's called Malicious Destruction of Property, and is a definate criminal act.
I want to stress, I do not, have not, and will not use hacked cards for such a service. I don't watch enough TV to justify the cost of the hacked card. In fact, my TV hasn't even been turned on in over 8 months using plain old broadcast airwave local stations. I just have a problem with a company intentionally destroying property that doesn't belong to them because they feel, despite applicable laws (ie: Canada), that people using hacked cards are criminal and as such fair game for this type of destruction.
I AM, therefore I THINK!
Fine with me, if those Airport/pager/cell phone users wanted privacy, they would use strong crypto on the radio waves they're beaming to all and sundry. I reserve the right to do anything I want with elecromagnetic energy that people send me for free, as long as I don't generate any harmful interference for others. I have a right to be an RF receiver!
I'm sure someone will point out that decrypting a cell phone call is illegal, and I agree that this is currently the case. However, I don't agree with this law because it only provides the appearance of privacy protection, not the fact. I could sit in my shed and listen to my neighbors on the phone for years and no one would ever know. Thus, relying on such a law to keep your phone conversations private is a mistake, and I see no reason why I should support such a law.
Not that I've actually done this, but I would have no qualms in doing so if I wanted or needed to.
Your right to not believe: Americans United for Separation of Church and
If Jack Valenti sent you a free movie on a VHS cassette, would you watch it? Of course you would.
If Jack Valenti sent you a free movie on DVD, would you watch it? You might have to buy a DVD player, but sure you would.
If he sent it to you over the free radio waves, why wouldn't you watch it? You might have to get some equipment, but there's nothing wrong with watching it. Trust me, somebody already paid to shoot the movie.
Your right to not believe: Americans United for Separation of Church and
Actually, According to the CRTC the service cannot be sold in Canada, allowing the Bell Expressvue a near monopoly on Canadian satalite tv.
For anyone else in the east bay, where do you go late at night? I've spent two years in the area and still have yet to find anything decent/close open late at night (And you can forget about food.com, everything they list closed at 9pm).
And for anyone worried about how seedy oakland looks, it's really not that seedy. Sure, you have no troubles finding someone to sell you crack in a church's chicken box, or a hooker about any time of the night, but it's still a safe neighborhood. I've never had any qualms about walking through about any neighborhood at night, even when my skin is pasty white after 3 days of sitting in front of a terminal with the shades drawn.
When I was able to do my own spam-armoring, you got a chance to email me. Now you can only hope I see your reply.
A question, though. If the airwaves are public, what's illegal about using a signal that you didn't permit someone to send onto your property? I think that DirecTV is spending far too much money trying to stop the fraction of a percent of their viewers from stealing service. Is it really cost effective?
I don't think you can make an argument that you are not permitting the signal onto your property if you're making use of the signal.
All your base are belong to us.
Pretend there is some witty statement here.
However there is also a widely- recognized codicil that any intentional triggering of Godwin's Law in order to invoke its thread-ending effects will be unsuccessful.
you brought ww2 into this. really though to compare the loss or your precious cable to the lives lost at perl harbor is sad. thats the point when any rational discussion ended.
use LaTeX? want an online reference manager that
-- john
its nice that you compare the loss of cable tv to the bombing of perl harbor. this really makes a statement about how screwed up our society is. it like when seinfeld was canceled... it felt like the holocaust.
use LaTeX? want an online reference manager that
-- john
Why should it be illegal to decrypt something that is physically passing through me as I write this? I never asked them to broadcast their signal through me. Same with cellphones and all that. If the signal is passing through my body, then IMO I have every right to do what I want with that signal.
lets extend this a bit...
i'm a company who uses river water in a process. hey the company didnt ask the river to flow through the earth and if they want to take that water and add polutants to it then who are we to stop them.
well until we pass laws they can do whatever they want. i realize you live in canada and our laws dont apply, hell i'm surprised that canada doesnt declare direct tv a natural resource. they could harvest it and resell it to the people in the us at a lower rate. they could even use nafta to strongarm the us govt into letting them do it. what a tangent... until laws are passed you can continue to live off of the direct tv tit if you will. just dont pretend you are doing something your not. you are taking advantage of service oriented buisness and not paying for the product you are consuming. the arguments here are mainly justification for taking something...
the truth of the matter is that people in the us are breaking the dmca i believe when they use these cards to decrypt the signals. do i agree with the dmca? not really. do i break the law? yes. am i going to pretend that it's ok to steal software, tv signals, etc because the people i am stealing from are wealthy? NO! people stop trying to justify what you are doing and admit that it is stealing. at the very least admit you are taking advantage of a company.
use LaTeX? want an online reference manager that
-- john
i agree with you on this. i believe the government is the place to go to bitch about these issues. i would think the corporations that produce the content do so based on laws (copyright). it's no secret that they are here to make money. if people are dissatisfied they should turn to the government and not the companies. wether or not i agree with the companies, they are just trying to protect their interests. this is to be expected-they are businesses.
i realize that the dmca was passed by lobbying by companies. if our sheep like population is happy to sit back and let their rights be taken away, what can we do?
my point is not to blame the companies. they are operating in their interests within the law. if you want to blame someone look at the corruption in washington (i like to imagine a huge fire personally). smile and feel that warm fuzzy feeling your senators leave in your belly when they pass bills in the wee hours of the night. dont say "i have the right to do..." you lost that right at 3:40 in the morning.
use LaTeX? want an online reference manager that
-- john
They should either broadcast their stuff in the clear, and rely on the law to protect them, or they should rely on technology, and have no copyright apply to their work. They shouldn't be able to have both, especially not when the law portion is as draconian as the DMCA.
lets apply this to your property: either you should lock your door and protect your property or rely on the law and not bother with the lock.
but wait this is information... its different than physical property...
really thought. whos to tell a person/company what they can and cannot do with their copyrighted information?
use LaTeX? want an online reference manager that
-- john
actually consider this: until laws were passed companies could (and did) do whatever they wanted to the environment. was it right? no, but they didnt care. i think you are right about confusing what is correct with what is lawful. i dont believe intercepting and decoding signals is right-there really isnt a way to justify it in my mind.
i also agree with you the dmca is seriously flawed, and i also believe it is unconstitutional. if it is repealed does it make intercepting and decoding tv signals right? i dont believe so. i still feel you are using a service that you havent paid for. alot of people think that just because you are screwing over a big corporation it is ok. it would be nice to see people protesting by not watching tv instead of stealing it.
kinda off topic: there really isnt that much on tv thats worth watching-imagine what would happen if people started reading again instead of watching tv. you would see nike sending books out with their swoosh surrounding the page numbers. people have turned into walking billboards. it's sad when people will pay more for clothing with advertisements.
use LaTeX? want an online reference manager that
-- john
sorry for the confusion. i was lumping all who use hacked boxes to get direct tv. no offense intended.
use LaTeX? want an online reference manager that
-- john
i didnt know until i looked it up on google. really thought godwins law aside-compareing the loss of your stolen cable to the bombing of perl harbor is pathethic. it really devalues those who lost their lives.
use LaTeX? want an online reference manager that
-- john
sorry. it's a habit, but i think you know what i mean.
use LaTeX? want an online reference manager that
-- john
Your analogy is flawed, because using the river changes the river in a way detremental to others. However, intercepting the satellite signals has absolutely no affect on the ability for others to intercept (use) the same satellite signal, nor on the ability for DirecTV to broadcast the signal.
I think it is foolish for the DirecTV people to stop a fringe minority of people from enjoying free service, but it is their right. I'm fine with it as long as they don't use the law as a heavy blunt instrument, like the DVD CCA did. Then, it's just a war of brains against brains, hackers versus DirecTV programmers. No one gets hurt, and it's fun.
I used to go to Flints back when old man Flint was there. I think it has gone downhill since he sold it to his kids.
Have you tried:
Rudy's Bar-B-Que Pit
4712 3rd St
San Francisco, CA 94124
(415) 282-4539
Best BBQ I've had in California.
The usual warnings about the neighborhood. This one makes me a little nervous, but I haven't had a problem beyond things getting thrown at my car. Probably because of the amount of foot traffic.
I'll be sure to try Bobby's. What makes BBQ Cajun?
Dan
He is probally refering to the Microsoft Halloween Documents and the launch of Windows 95.
Great, then I can just hack wireless networks at will. They shouldn't be broadcasting right? Those pagers and cell phones too.
Fsck cluebie moderators. I'll say what I want, offtopic or not. And fsck having to qualify every bloody statement just
The story (better to read the earlier stories referenced in several comments) is about the DirecTV company sending out signals in their broadcast stream that mess with hacked receivers. They have done this several times, but shortly before the Super Bowl, they sent out a signal which was physically damaging to hacked receivers. The "smart cards" these systems use to decode the signals have a write-once area on them, and if this area contains certain coding, the card just won't work.
The current story is about the users of hacked systems finding a way to use some sort of emulation intermediate to make their otherwise damaged-broken-dead cards work anyway.
This particular thread points out that a large number of the hackers using hacked receivers/cards to get DirecTV are in Canada, where Canadian laws (probably the "Canadian content" laws) prohibit DirecTV from selling the service. The signal reaches into parts of Canada near the border, but DirecTV is prohibited from providing legit systems for decoding and viewing it. So these people are taking things into their own hand, and we have a bit of a hack war.
Actually, the A has (at least unofficially) been changed to Annual.
> (If) DirectTV figures out a way to send a signal that will prevent them from working, that shouldn't be illegal either.
It's not, at least according to them. On each card it states that it is owned by someone else (I forgot who) and is merely loaned to you, subject to recall at any time. It's not illegal to destroy property you own. I don't know how this would stand up to a court challenge, but that's the way things stand right now.
1.5 hrs? I had a 15 minute drive. Sad, sad, sad. Yes, it really does constitute a swift kick to the nads to all of us in the area who appreciated having some good regional Linux action. Apart from the LWE that showed up in Raleign, NC (RedHat country) one year, the ALS (ATLANTA Linux Showcase) was one of the best thing Southern Linux users had going. I say it's time we band together and start our own Linux show in the southeast. Atlanta's a good city, but then so are Charlotte, Raleigh, Nashville, Birmingham, etc, etc, ad nauseum. I mean, the most popular distro in the US is headquarted in the southeast. Why must everything cater to the f***ing left coast or NYC? Surely there are craploads of Linux users who don't reside in either of those two areas. Is there anyone else out there who thinks that the southeast still needs a good Linux expo? Enough griping, I guess I'll hop down from my soap box...but I'm still pretty pissed off at those bastards for making our ALS go away...
Windows is going the way of phlogiston...
The DSS broadcasters are not allowed to do business in Canada. The signal reaches them just fine. So there is a *huge* motivation to unscramble the signal. I believe if it hits your house, you own it, whether it's an orange from the neighbor's tree, or a tv signal from another country. One thing I don't get about people with this attitude: You dont seem to thing it is right to own airwaves, yet you think it is perfectly natural for people to own land and property. Do you honestly believe that land is inherently more ownable than airwaves or anything else?
I only hope that the hackers at DirecTV are having as much fun defeating the (supposedly mostly)canuck hackers efforts as the canucks are at defeating the DirecTV hackers.
I like to imagine some DirecTV technicians and engineers in a dark corner of DirecTV headquarters watching and waiting thinking "damn they got that one qucik. what should we do now." and someone suggesting death rays to peals of laughter.
-
Don't forget Microsoft too. That's right, if you want to listen to CRTC hearings over the net, you'll need to have a WiMP supported OS. So much for a commision who's mandate includes evaluating and approving open standards (NTSC, FM, etc) to "ensure that all Canadians have access to a wide variety of high quality Canadian programming."
I guess that doesn't include their programming and the internet (ok, hearings aren't "high quality", but still, there some hypocrisy here, no? ).
Flint's: I second the motion.
This only applies in the United States, but here is the simple explanation. Some years ago we decided through our bicameral national legislature that the electromagnetic spectrum within our borders was sole property of the US. So they passed a law saying, we own it and you have to pay us to use it. Shortly thereafter radio stations, then later TV stations began paying fees to the government so they could use frequencies on the broadcast medium. At the time no one was sure what the business model would be for recouping the costs of purchasing the license. Ultimately TV and radio became supported through advertising, and so they never got to charge a fee. Then one day people got tired of bad reception and someone said, maybe I can make money by launching a couple of billion dollars in satelights into orbit and then charging customers a monthly fee to get hundreds of channels. But to do this I'll need to use that electromagneticthingamajiggy, so they went to the governmnet and bought a big chunk of it. now they can sell their service and make money. If you don't like it you can call up your congressman and ask them to change the law so that no-one can buy a frequency. Just be prepared to give back the billions of dollars cell phone companies, directTV, TV stations, and everyone else has paid you government for it. Also lacking an economic incentive Hughes will probably stop broadcasting anything to their satalights and deorbit, hopefully right into your living room. Frankly I think people who steal cable or DSS are the worst kind of theives. At least if you steal money you could reasonably say that you might need it to eat, or clothe yourself. If you're stealing so you can have 600+ channels and wack off at 3am to the Spice channel; well thats just the kind of self-centered hedonism that makes me fevently wish some barbarian hordes would come and kill the whole fuckin lot of us.
Why not? "I am giving no permission for or even acceptance of their sending this signal onto my property, but since they did it anyway, I am going to use it as I wish. Whatever use I make of the signal, my top preference is that they keep their signal off of my property." What is so hard to understand about that?
Edward Burr
Edward Burr
Having a smoking section in a restaurant is like having a peeing section in a swimming pool.
you know right in the back yard
you think Bill would come out w the shot gun and start bussin'?
back in the day we didnt have no old school
The whole DSS submission makes little to no sense. I'm not quite sure what the meaning is behind it but I'll assume that DirecTV is doing something to prevent viewing of stuff during the Superbowl and hackers found a way of circumventing this anti-circumvention. Maybe someone could clear this up a bit as the link in the story seems to just go to a pay-for-hardware site or an overly technical page.
"Anybody who tells me I can't use a program because it's not open source, go suck on rms. I'm not interested." (LT 2004)
December 7, 1995, the day Microsoft announced it's Internet strategy, should live in Infamy far more than the launch of Windows 95. At last report, Netscape is still working on that A-Bomb comeback.
When I hear the word 'innovation', I reach for my pistol.
I for one am glad to see that DirecTV is fighting back not with threats and lawyers, but with some pretty clever hacking on their part. I'm actually quite impressed that they pulled off what they did -- slowly building up the necessary code, piece by seeminly innocuous piece, until they struck. (Having it occur a week before the superbowl was a masterful stroke as well.) Many hackers consider what they do a sort of game, and DirecTV decided to actively participate.
This is in contrast to most other companies and organizations, such as the Microsoft and the RIAA/MPAA... even companies such as Rambus, Apple, Fraunhoffer, etc. who attempt to enforce what they feel is 'their' property not by any technical means, but by patents and lawsuits.
Now, I'm disgusted by, for example, what the MPAA is trying to do with DeCSS; however, I would have a lot more respect for them if they took a more DirecTV-type approach, and tried to figure out technical means to 'throw a wrench in the works'. If they think some of their.. property (? content? data? I'm not even sure exactly...) is being violated, they should be able to protect it themselves. They don't have the luxury of being able to update the embedded software on all existing DVD players; maybe they could just declare that they screwed up, and that DVDs can't offer the kind of content control that they want. (Of course, it's a bit late to propose any kind of alternative, but still.)
In any case, DirecTV's being a good guy throughout this, I would think -- and I might even be buying their systems in the future. (This in contrast to other satellite networks that will be locking out some HD content from being viewed with HDTV equipment that doesn't have media access control capabilities!)
Godwin's law...you lose! Thank you, drive through.
Hurrah for the hackers! Black Sunday will not take its place alongside Halloween 1998; August 24, 1995; December 7, 1941; and other famous disastrous dates.
I dunno why not ask Taco.
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I'm wondering who is going to run it. I thought it was the hard work of ALE
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Just one quickie question for anyone who can answer this, how does the DMCA directly affect Canadians? I realize the US does have alot of power but the DMCA was passed in the US, not here in Canada to my knowledge. Are there similar laws in Canada preventing us from descrambling dss signals from a US company's transmissions or is this another example of Canada enforcing something because of American pressure?
I send you this message in order to have your advice.
Can you link me to some information as to why they cant get it legaly?
I am interested to see why they cant, perhaps its an excuse to pirate it?
Fight censors!
"Not my manner of thinking but the manner of thinking of others has been the source of my unhappiness." - M
When VideoCypher was the technology used to protect content, which had been hacked so you could install keys for whatever channel you wanted, they also started changing the keys more often. First weekly, then daily, then several times a day. Since you had to manually enter those keys if you had a hacked board it helped improve their sales ;)
Chris Kuivenhoven is a thief, beware
A prerequisite for being a geek is a high degree of interest in a technical field (electronics, programming) at a young age. This is both the cause and effect of a rather introverted personality. Hence, as JonKatz will tell you, geeks are poorly socialized in their early formative years, and feel outcast and rejected from society.
Since they are poorly socialized, they do not learn the necessity of civic behaviour, and as a result consider economics and law to be irrelevant, compared to raw technical knowledge.
Therefore, as a geek matures, they feel that they are owed something by society, as retribution for some perceived mistreatment in their youth. Combined with the lack of knowledge of and respect for the basic principals that society works on, this leads them to dabble in illegal or marginally legal areas.
Since geeks are generally of high intellect, they are able to construct arguments to justify this behaviour to themselves and others through a little spurious logic and idealism. ("Information wants to be free", etc.) Thus they illogically draw a line of distinction between what they are doing (Software and DSS piracy, cracking, file sharing) and the acts of "real criminals." (Thieves, murderers, rapists)
If you can find the flaw in geek logic and air it in a public forum such as this, you will be attacked as either a troll, or an unwitting tool of the man.
So in short, yes, geeks honestly believe that anything they own is legitimate property, whereas corporations, Bill Gates, and pretty much anyone else who they choose to attack because of their personal insecurities deserve to own nothing.
It's pretty much an immature life philosophy which is reinforced by the mob "slashbot" mentality seen on fora such as these, and the arrogance a geek develops soon after entering the job market, when they learn that they can make $15-20 and hour sitting on their ass because of their technical knowledge, whereas their peers who spent time in their youth socializing and gaining life skills have to bust their hump for minimum wage initially.
Does that explain it, cunt?
Love,
Slashfucker
Gee, looks like somebody doesn't want
Sorry if this is redundant.
If you're jonesing for Texas bobbercue, and you can afford a couple of hours, cruise south to one of the many Armadillo Willy's locations from San Jose to San Mateo.
If you're from Texas, you won't be impressed, but if it's been a while since your last trip to Sonny Bryan's, Sammy's, or Railhead, this'll do ya. (And no, don't flame me for not mentioning North Main; I just never got around to going; next time I'm in Dallas, we'll see...)
The Sunnyvale location is the best; more volume means better chance of getting bones fresh out of the smoker.
--Blair
[...] one of the coolest things about the city of Atlanta will shortly be appearing in Oakland, CA. A notice sent out by Usenix announces that November 6-10th of this year will be the next manifestation of ALS.
And don't forget to bring along a flashlight and extra batteries.Erm... Where did I say I was doing this? I, unfortunately, have Starchoice (for lack of a decent cable company), and I haven't even SEEN any DirecTV let alone hacked it myself... Not sure if you're using "You" to refer to those who do or "You" to refer specifically to me, but I just wanted to point out that I'm innocent of all charges:) Just merely commenting.
Synchronized cocks!
Likewise on the off topic, but it deserves comment: I agree about there being nothing of interest on TV. Alas I am mad addicted to F1 racing and since the only way to see that is through TV I'm kinda screwed. I watch that, re-runs of Babylon 5, Iron Chef and that's about it. Oh yeah, and Buffy:) And Charmed, though only because of my perverse desires to do naughty things to those girls...:) As for people paying more for clothing with logos on, right on! They did a piece on TV the other day, comparing skateboarding clothes. The logo'ed stuff with the non logo'ed. For a full outfit (hat, pants, shirt etc...), the logo'ed came to about $269 CDN, the non logo'ed version which, aside from the logo, looked identical, was $89 or thereabouts.
There is actually a group, can't remember their name but they give away stickers and the like to post over the logos that say "This space not for sale". It's insane. Sure, promote a TV show or show your musical preference with a Manson shirt or whatever (Gotta get the shirt that says "I am the god of fuck!"), but paying $50 for a Hilfiger shirt... Well, anyone who does that and thinks they're getting a good deal, I have a nice plot of land to sell you. No, honestly, it's perfectly stable, the ground is just a little soft... No... No... Whoever said it was swamp was wrong... Sign here...
Synchronized cocks!
There's also Flint's Bar-B-Q. Also in a seedy part of town (there are lots of those in Oakland).
There's also Everett and Jones.
If you want excellent Korean wood-charcoal BBQ, try Koryo.
> Hey, is there good barbeque in Oakland?
flint's barbecue
Hey, is there good barbeque in Oakland? In a clever move which might have caused Sherman some consternation, one of the coolest things about the city of Atlanta will shortly be appearing in Oakland, CA. A notice sent out by Usenix announces that November 6-10th of this year will be the next manifestation of ALS.
Yeah, and those of us on the east coast are jumping for joy that there are now 141 Linux shows on the other side of the continent instead of 140; we can rest easy knowing California finally has a Linux expo, at the expense of Georgia. I felt bad they were being left out. Now I can rest easy.
1st Law Of Networking: Loose ends are bad, termination is good.
WWJD? JWRTFM!!!
Unfortunately, by the tenets of the DMCA, decrypting the DirecTV signal is illegal, at least for now.
- A.P.
--
* CmdrTaco is an idiot.
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
Info on the move
Here is some info on why ALS moved, directly from Marc Torres himself.
"Oh...Oh...we've had a good conference in Atlanta for 4 years - lets say screw you to all the locals that helped us out and supported us and run it to California to kiss up."
Just a we bit bitter that ALS is moving and it's no longer just a 1.5hr drive.
It's not Joe 6-Pack who is behind all this.
It's Pierre Litre in Canada who cannot possibly
get the service any other way.
The DSS broadcasters are not allowed to do business in Canada. The signal reaches them
just fine. So there is a *huge* motivation
to unscramble the signal. I believe if it hits
your house, you own it, whether it's an orange from the neighbor's tree, or a tv signal from
another country.
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
NYC
I'd agree that a lot of people are turned off by NYC. My personal opinion is that it is a noisy, crowded, filth ridden cesspool with an overabundance of rude and/or dangerous people.
My favorite city for big shows is Las Vegas. San Francisco is also most excellent. Other places that have had a pretty good track record include Chicago and Atlanta. Other places I'd rather visit than NYC... just about any other large US City... San Diego, Orlando, Dallas, Denver... Heck I think even Los Angeles would rank higher in my view than NYC.
I'm not advocating theft in any way, but I found this to be amazing, that rogue codewarriors had enough diligence to be able to figure a way around what everyone (Hughes included) thought was permanent.
That's not amazing. If anything, it's extremely sad. Would these same people expend as much effort getting and retaining a job as they do stealing DSS, they'd have more than enough money to be able to PAY for DSS. People like this make me sick.
I agree. In fact, in this new digital age we're in, I think companies should have to make a choice when it comes to protecting their "intellectual property," or, more accurately, their recently produced IP. They should either broadcast their stuff in the clear, and rely on the law to protect them, or they should rely on technology, and have no copyright apply to their work. They shouldn't be able to have both, especially not when the law portion is as draconian as the DMCA.
Silly signature limit . . .
Goat. Gaaaahhhhhh. I grew up eating goat, and so I've always had an aversion to it, although Doug's was edible. The turkey was excellent, I'd forgotten their menu since its been quite a while since I was there. I don't even know what E&J is, but Flints was great until it got sold off a few years ago. La plus ca change....
:-)
OnTopicPost: Is anyone going to this linux conference? Here in europe, we've just had a couple back to back, in Paris and Brussels. Good stuff, but no late night barbeque
the AC
Hemos is like...sci-fi fans;he thinks technology is cool, but he hasn't bothered to understand the science it's based on
Your analogy is braindead. Since when does receiving radio signals the "pollute" or "divert" or "dam up" the signal?? You are not harming *anybody* in *any* manner by merely decrypting signals you are already receiving. Talk about pollution and diversion are rubbish.
Just saying "descrambling dss signals is illegal" doesn't *explain* anything. We know it's illegal. But why?? These signals are already passing through our very bodies. It's ridiculous.
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
Someone that helps with ALS said they could not get a spot in Atlanta this year. Everything is just full. I'd be happy to see them bring it to Raleigh, but we don't have enough room.
As for NYC...I was at LWE and it was *DEAD*. People don't like to go there for shows..maybe it's better in the summer but it was about 1/3 as busy as LWE in San Jose.
They're transmitting bits. You're interpreting them. Get used to it. If you don't like the bits they're sending, because they're too confusing for your bootleg-hacked not-smart-enough-card, :-) or find some better reverse engineers.
buy the real thing (ok, smuggle it from your US Mailboxes Etc. box
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
When I first saw this, my mind translated it into this:
For all the time and effort spent into developing Linux, they could buy a thousand copies of Windows.
Aw, come on. Even presuming that all the people that were using hacked cards were doing so in the US, where it is illegal, as opposed to some/most being in Canada, where it's (according to previous comments) perfectly legal, your argument is still flawed.
Why do you climb a mountain? Because it's there. Half of the purpose of hacking like this [and it is hacking, not cracking, when you actually develop a new workaround like this] is the fun. Sure, these people are probably spending more in development than they'd spend on a full subscription, but that's like driving around the mountain.
"Evil company X is threatening to restrict our rights! Let's all get together to stop--OOOH! SHINEY!!!" -- AC
Why is this column called Slashback anyway? Wouldn't "Backslash" or "Backslashdot" be a bit more appropriate?
The local cable company here (Las Vegas, NV) alludes to that danger in its anti-cable theft ads.
Just because it CAN be done, doesn't mean it should!
For one thing, canadians can't buy the service at all, it's more illegal there then it is to 'steal' it. And in the US, the amout of channels you get by 'stealing' the signal is far greater then any of the packages, especialy when you figure in pay per view movies and porn
Amber Yuan 2k A.D
"and dear god does this website suck now." -- CmdrTaco
Here's a Related Link For "learning" about watching illegal Cable TV on your linux box. Haven't tried it yet mostly because My TV tuner card sucks.
Also, I could be wrong, but suppose a guy (not me I swear!) wanted to steal cable signals. If they wanted to go with the DSS method, they wouldn't have to pay ANY monthly service fee. The guy stealing Signals from his local cable company would likely have to pay for the "basic" package while his little black box would be considered the "upgrade".
For all the time and effort spent into developing a hack for DSS, they could buy a thousand subscriptions to the service...that said, I always find the disclaimers on these sites amusing:
/.s they've been getting recently. I'm a bit surprised they don't make enough in advertising to have to ask for PayPal donations (or maybe they really don't need them, and are just looking to feed themselves).
You understand that www.HackHu.com does not promote nor condone signal theft of any kind and you do not hold www.HackHu.com responsible for the actions of any of their users as it is the users' responsibility to comply with all local and State laws of their territory and country.
This site is for educational and informational purposes ONLY. It is not our intention to assist you in committing fraud or performing any illegal acts
The news page mentions how much traffic the site will be getting this month. I'm sure everyone who's downloading these programs are using them completely lawfully. Yeah, right. Ah well, I bet the site just loves these
"The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent." --Carl Sagan
IANAL (as usual) but as far as I know, the law states that receiving airwaves is legal, but receiving encrypted airwaves then decrypting them isn't.
For the last time, PIN Number and ATM Machine are redundancies!
I've got 2 futons and 120 ft of CAT-5 waiting for anyone coming to my home town of Montreal for the YAPC!
Click here to become buddies with a budding perl lover up north! (yes Cam, you can come too!)
I'm a writer, a poet, a genius, I know it. I don't buy software, I grow it.
You're receiving encrypted signals, you've got to go through an extra step to decrypt them. This should be legal (and probably isn't, but I don't write laws). In my opinion its also in the companies rights (and good judgement) to try to use technology to prevent this. That's what DirectTV did. They could've easily done a sting operation but they didn't. Wait till the dumb SOB's call in and complain they can't see the SuperBowl, give them a choice, a five year fully loaded DirectTV contract or a visit from the police. This has been done before.
Was it cost effective? Probably, most of the people with affected boxes probably weren't 'hackers', they just bought hacked boxes. A lot of them would gladly purchase a DirecTV to get their football fix.
I still think the DirectTV hack was beautiful, even if I would've been pissed off (sort of, but laughing) had I been one of the ones affected by it.
Chris Kuivenhoven is a thief, beware
www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/16377.html
Interestingly, DirecTV's method of defeating the hackers seems at least as ingenious as the hacker's methods of circumvention.
So nice to be reminded that his royal highness, Linus, selected his subjects, the Queen and her family, to use his OS. It's good to know that someone of such great stature as Linus was gracious enough to let his lesser rival, the Queen use his system. Maybe he'll knight her, one day.
I think that the DSS people knew that the ECM wouldn't work forever, but, a lot of people would subscribe legitimately to watch the superbowl in frustration.
Here, in Calgary, AB, Canada, dealers offered credits for turning in your grey market system (dish, receiver, AND smart card) towards a locally sold system.
Doug's, Flint's and Everett & Jones are all good, but if you're willing to go up San Pablo to Richmond, Bobby's Backdoor Cajun BBQ is unparalleled. Another local Southern highlight is Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles (only 2 things on the menu!) near Lake Merritt. (Roscoe's was better before they moved, but still first rate.)
anticypher didn't mention the BBQ goat and turkey at Doug's, both of which are excellent.
-Tom Duff
Hey, is there good barbeque in Oakland?
I couldn't have made it through school without Doug's Barbeque, open until 3:00 AM most nights, 3600 San Pablo Blvd, Oakland. Not recommended for pasty white solitary geeks at 3:00 AM, due to its location under the freeway on the north edge of the seedier part of Oaktown. But worth it for the best ribs, fried chicken, roast lamb and slabs o'beef around.
the AC
Hemos is like...sci-fi fans;he thinks technology is cool, but he hasn't bothered to understand the science it's based on
You analogy is seriously flawed. You can look at the river all you like. Within certain boundaries, you can do whatever you want with a river flowing through your property. What you cannot do is dump polution in the river that travles downstream, or divert the river, or dam it up. Likewise, my braodcast of radio waves is regulated by the FCC. But as far as I know, there is no government regulation on radio receivers.
The DMCA makes it illegal to make devices to decrypt these transmissions. So yes, dss cards are illegal under the DMCA.
Now, I personally believe that the DMCA is *wrong* (never confuse the law with what is right), and possibly unconstitutional (which would mean it was not merely unjust, but illegal as well). But until it is demonstrated unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, or otherwise repealed, descrambling
dss signals is illegal.
Someone mentioned wireless LANs. This falls into the same category. It is NOT illegal to intercept wireless LAN traffic on your own property. However, what you do with the information gained may or may not be illegal.
There would be huge risks if DirecTV accidentally destoryed several subscribers cards an hour before the Superbowl. With it happening a week beforehand, it's soon enough so that the pirate community didn't get free Superbowl coverage, and long enough to replace accidentally destoryed cards. Also, the goal was to get those people that were pirating to subscribe, and a week allows DTV to send a new card to those people.
Doh!
If DirecTV wanted to be bastards they would have done the infinite loop thing an hour before Super Bowl. A few people would have been pissed of and hacking faster than you can believe :)
--- I used to moderate, then I read the -1 articles and decided having to filter through them was not worth it.
Actually, another advancement has been made that some view better than DPBB boards. By flashing a card unlooper device with some new code, it can be turned into a card programmer that can bypass said area on the card.
I'm not advocating theft in any way, but I found this to be amazing, that rogue codewarriors had enough diligence to be able to figure a way around what everyone (Hughes included) thought was permanent.
If you ask me, the main goal of wiping out the H cards was because it simply became too easy to pirate the service - my estimate is at least 100,000+ people were pirating DirecTV this way. It is still impossible to use these cards as they were before, but they can now be used in emulation set-ups. Most people don't want to be bothered to do that though, and the population of people who will do that is a small enough number for Hughes to be able to call their H card strike a success, because at most there will be 5,000-10,000 people using said emulation setups.
For the last time, PIN Number and ATM Machine are redundancies!
I assume that's British Civil Service Speak for "You're Out of the Loop, Sucker!" One of my favorite TV characters is Sir Humpherey Applebee, who once said:
Why can't American bureaucrats be that entertaining?__________________
The whole DirecTV thing, I say more power to the hackers out there. The broadcast monopoly in Canada is ridiculous, and anyone who circumvents the absolute garbage CRTC regulations deserves a pat on the back, a hearty handshake, and a nice beer.
BTW, the signals that are broadcast are penetrating my body and passing through me with no permission. Why should it be illegal to decrypt something that is physically passing through me as I write this? I never asked them to broadcast their signal through me. Same with cellphones and all that. If the signal is passing through my body, then IMO I have every right to do what I want with that signal.
Synchronized cocks!
I consider myself fairly literate when it comes to technical matters, but the sheer volume of information on the subject of DSS hacking makes me wonder how Joe 6-pack could ever commit $300-$400 to purchase something that could become unusable literally overnight, unless he is willing to keep on top of updates and patches and unloopers and reprogrammers.
Compare that to cable theft...you buy a box and it works and it always works. Cable companies can't change encryption schemes overnight. In truth, in the five years I've been in my home location we are still using the same Jerrold/GE boxes. A one time fee of $200 for five years of unlimited cable seems like a worthy temptation.
I am honestly surprised that there isn't a bigger market for these digital cable black boxes. Almost as many channels as DSS plus the local stuff plus many people feel they can rationalize it by paying for the basic cable connection.
So I think that part of the effort that goes into the DSS hacking scene must truly be the hacking spirit, the doing something difficult to see if it can be done. I can see that modivation but at best that could only be a couple thousand dedicated souls. Where the other 98,000 customers are coming from I just can't understand.
-JoeShmoe
-- I wonder which will go down in history as the bigger failure: the War on Drugs or the War on Filesharing
You know, it's things like this that make me question what exactly we own. The airwaves are public property, at least, they were the last time I checked. Yet, I think a company has a right to reclaim its investment in some satellites. Launching those things isn't cheap.
A question, though. If the airwaves are public, what's illegal about using a signal that you didn't permit someone to send onto your property? I think that DirecTV is spending far too much money trying to stop the fraction of a percent of their viewers from stealing service. Is it really cost effective?