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Slashback: Python, Giveaway, Collection
Let's make this a closed collection, please. gmr2048 writes "In the WashTech section of the Washington Post there is a story about organizations (working with the Library of Congress) trying to catalogue and store web pages from the attacks of Sept 11, 2001. Towards the end of the article is this request for help: "...are developing a cataloguing system to help navigate the terrorist attack archives, and they are seeking the public's help in identifying Web pages that should be included. Their Web site is at www.webarchivist.org.
I thought slashdot'ers could lend a hand. I know I got most of my info the day of the attacks from /."
Hopefully, they will include Robert Liedlein's site. Lieblein writes: "Quick backstory, 4 or 5 years ago I shot footage for an IBM commercial down in the World Trade Center area. It was actually one of my favorite days that I ever spent in New York, just me and a camera. I kept thinking about that day after the tragic event. 5 years in New York city and only once was I right directly in the area that is ground zero, and I happened to have a camera and an objective of the day was to film the people, the energy, the life. A few days ago I finally found an old VHS tape that had about an hour of transfers of the footage. I knew I had that tape somewhere. I wanted to watch just for the reason of being able to go back there, to understand what it was like and what had happened. I realized that I had footage that was refreshing from the devastation we are all viewing and cut it into a 4 1/2 minute video. I hope the memory of the WTC alive and breathing life gives hope to a new day when that energy and vitality can thrive again."
Outliving the presumption of innocence. Keefe writes "I am sure that we all remeber the name Brian K. West. He is 24 year old sales and support employee for an internet service provider in SE Oklahoma. Mr. West alerted a local business to a serious security flaw in their website. The business had him investigated by the Justice Department for helping them fix a website security hole. The online community cried out to help him because of his innocence. It turns out that he actually was intending to modify the newspaper's Web applications -- written in the Perl language -- and modify them and market his own versions."
Patsy! Patsy! Patsy! (It's only a model.) Shere Ermilio wrote to point out that if you're interested in the Monty Python action figures hemos posted about not long ago, this could be your lucky month -- here's the link to Sideshow Toys' Monty Python giveaway for October. Those with spare cash and less hope can buy them the usual way. (And No, I'm not getting any free dolls ;))
He's not guilty. He's just pining for the fjords!
While just about everyone else was watching "Enterprise" on Wednesday, I was out seeing "The French Connection" (came out in 1971) at a local rep cinema. One interesting shot: a WTC tower under construction, with cranes on the roof and everything. Pretty weird in light of recent events...
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
Unlike "real world" theft, it is pretty easy for a company to protect itself against these kinds of problems, and it is pretty easy for it to collect and present its own evidence. And even in the real world, if you left your front door unlocked and put your cheap, fake diamond necklace out there for everybody to see (roughly the equivalent of having a Perl script on an IIS server), I think a prosecutor would see the sillyness of wasting lots of resources on your case.
As for guilty pleas in such cases, I think they are pretty meaningless. Faced with the threat of lengthy prison sentences, I suspect many people will plea guilty to minor offenses, whether they committed them or not. Do you really think West "intended" to modify someone else's messy Perl script and make a business out of it? Seems pretty unlikely to me.
I remember a story on /. a while back that expressed concern that there would be no electronic records from the 20th/21st century because of our reliance on computer technology (and the fact that things can be deleted/degrade over time) is a catalogue of webapages (I know they're not supposed to be a definitive record of eventss, but...) a little redundant?
I found this video very moving and powerful. Kudos to the filmmaker! The towers bustled with so much life now its all gone, for what? for nothing. Someday, life will return to that area and when it does we will be all better for it!
CDE open sourced! https://sourceforge.net/projects/cdesktopenv/
Actually, it is:
Wired
Someplace I have never heard of
And probably some others...
Posted from the wireless couch.
Anyone else struck buy the similarity of this plea and request for donations by the Red Cross?
Due to the recent terrorist atacks by Nimda and Code Red, hospitals and server farms are running dangerously low on Linux. If you are type Root negative, you are considered a universal superuser, and your donation is needed most. Please sign up with your local donation center and give a pint of Linux. The box you save may be your own.
P.S. I am NOT mocking blood donation. If you haven't yet, give blood.
I was searching for sites (don't ask) and this article came up.
www.ishipress.com/osamaint.htm
coincidence? stenography? idiocy? you decide
Transcript of Osama Bin Ladin interview by Peter Arnett The first-ever television interview with Osama Bin Ladin was conducted by Peter Arnett in eastern Afghanistan in late March 1997. Questions were submitted in advance. Bin Ladin responded to almost all of the questions. CNN was not allowed to ask follow up questions. The interview lasted just over an hour. ARNETT: Mr. Bin Ladin, could you give us your main criticism of the Saudi royal Family that is ruling Saudi Arabia today?
Osama bin Ladin
MR. BIN LADIN: Regarding the criticisms of the ruling regime in Saudi Arabia and the Arabian peninsula, the first one is their subordination to the US. So, our main problem is the US government while the Saudi regime is but a branch or an agent of the US. By being loyal to the US regime, the Saudi regime has committed an act against Islam. And this, based on the ruling of Shari'a (Islamic jurisprudence), casts the regime outside the religious community. Subsequently, the regime has stopped ruling people according to what God revealed, praise and glory be to Him, not to mention many other contradictory acts. When this main foundation was violated, other corrupt acts followed in every aspect of the country, the economic, the social, government services and so on.
REPORTER: Mr. Bin Ladin, if the Islamic movement takes over Arabia, what kind of society will be created and will Saudi Arabia, for example, return to the laws of the Qur'an at the time of the Prophet?
BIN LADIN: We are confident, with the permission of God, Praise and Glory be to Him, that Muslims will be victorious in the Arabian peninsula and that God's religion, praise and glory be to Him, will prevail in this peninsula. It is a great pride and a big hope that the revelation unto Muhammad, Peace be upon him, will be resorted to for ruling. When we used to follow Muhammad's revelation, Peace be upon him, we were in great happiness and in great dignity, to God belong credit and praise.
REPORTER: Mr. Bin Ladin, if the Islamic movement takes over Saudi Arabia, what would your attitude to the West be and will the price of oil be higher?
BIN LADIN: We are a nation and have a long history, with the grace of God, Praise and Glory be to Him. We are now in the 15th century of this great religion, the complete and comprehensive methodology, has clarified the dealing between an individual and another, the duties of the believer towards God, Praise and Glory be to Him, and the relationship between the Muslim country and other countries in time of peace and in time of war. If we look back at our history, we will find there were many types of dealings between the Muslim nation and the other nations in time of peace and in time of war, including treaties and matters to do with commerce. So it is not a new thing that we need to come up with. Rather, it already, by the grace of God, exists. As for oil, it is a commodity that will be subject to the price of the market according to supply and demand. We believe that the current prices are not realistic due to the Saudi regime playing the role of a US agent and the pressures exercised by the US on the Saudi regime to increase production and flooding the market that caused a sharp decrease in oil prices.
I thought to myself, "If they had a paypal account, I could send 'em ten bucks. That would be easier than running to the local computer store and buying cd's and sending them in the mail. Also, they could prolly make that ten bucks stretch further by making bulk purchases."
SO, I did some research and found
http://www.freelinuxcd.org/donate.php
I'll send my ten bucks and you can too.
Thanks,
mr.
The CD-giveaway thing was a great thing once, because Linux was still relatively experimental and there was a need to find inventive ways to distribute Linux to anyone who might try it.
At this point, I think Linux has been around long enough, maybe it's time that people with slowband connections actually shell out for at least a CheapBytes CD or actually keep the companies that make distributions alive by buying a $40 box once a year. Is that really so much to ask?
Several companies still sell the cheap CDs, and I can't imagine too many people who can afford a computer that can't afford six bucks for the CD-ROM plus shipping. (Or whatever the total cost is...) Granted, there may be some "under-developed" countries who could use them, but the average teen or LUG member can afford to actually shell out a few bucks to help support the commercial efforts that support the software development.
It's one thing to buck insane licensing fees and want access to source code, it's another just to be a cheap-ass who is out to get everything for free. (This isn't a dig on the Free CD effort itself, they're trying to do the Right Thing. But I'd bet a lot of people sucking up the CDs could afford to buy one but instead take advantage of the generosity of others.)
I don't think they are asking for you to go out and mass-produce Linux CDs. Usually, the idea is to pass on CDs that you have used and no longer need, so that they can be spread to others. Sort of the same idea as donating to a charity. Most charities will take used clothes. They don't expect you to go out and buy a new wardrobe and put it in one of those collection bins. (I realize some charities only take new clothes, but just work with me here.)
I, for instance, have tons of Linux CDs sitting around collecting dust, which I am going to package up and send out.
First you say: Do you really think West "intended" to modify someone else's messy Perl script and make a business out of it? Seems pretty unlikely to me.
Then you say: I never defended the guy or made assumptions about his guilt or innocence.
Can you see why readers might be confused here? In the first statement you appear to be defending him and suggesting he didn't intend to commit a crime. In the second statement you are denying defending him.
If he's innocent, as you imply in the first statement, then the issue isn't whether it is a waste of money to prosecute him. The issue is that a miscarriage of justice occurred.
If he's guilty, which implies intent, then that intent becomes as big an issue as the value of what he stole. For instance, attempted murder receives a heavy sentence even though the victim may have suffered no actual harm.
In addition, this prosecution may have a deterent effect upon his future behavior, thus saving the cost of a more expensive prosecution in the future.
I'd say the taxpayers got good value for their money. Now if you were to argue that jail time in this case would be a waste of money, you might have a point.
Here's mine.
...stupid lameness filter.
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
I think we should have a public archive law. All media that is distributed with copyright protection desired must make an archivable version of it available after N years. If the big money can shove stupid laws at us, we don't we shove some useful laws right back at them.
t.
I wanted to watch just for the reason of being able to go back there, to understand what it was like and what had happened
A few days ago, I walked by a local picture-framing store. They were selling a large framed picture of the skyline with the WTC towers intact and distributing profits to charity. As people walked by many of them, myself included, stood there transfixed by the image. Otherwise busy people stared at it for as long as 5 minutes. It seems like when you look at it, you can almost live in the yesterday for just a few more minutes.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
The biggest problem here is that we really don't know who to believe. Given the choice between believing a U.S. district attorney and some slightly scummy small-time crook, we really don't know which to take. The U.S. government has a long history of bad behavior. (Think about the secret experiments (also here and here) in the '50s, in which people were exposed to radiation
The good scenario here is that West is a petty crook who's getting a break because it's his first offence. The bad scenario is that the DA realised that if he dropped this, he'd look like an idiot, so he's threatened a poor innocent guy into pleading guilty to a crime he didn't commit, just to save the DA some embarassment. And it looks as if we'll never be sure.
See what I've been reading.