Slashdot Mirror


Slashback: Banco, Warez, Fiction

For tonight's Slashback, eaders have submitted updates and corrections tonight on several recent stories, from the global raid on illegally copied software to ever-more software for your TI-89 to the confusing names (and ownership status) of Mexican banks. Read on for the details.

What about a Dvorak-layout program for the number keys? hex4def6 writes "Ticalc.org is back up for business after the unfortunate incident in which "inapropriate Content" was pressed onto the CD's that Texas Instruments included in their "Fun Kit" graphlink kit from the Ticalc archives. New things in the archives include a neat winamp plugin that allows you to control winamp from your Ti-89 webpage. Check it out here. All the archives are back up, but there is a backlisting of new files submited."

Many happy returns! Eileen Gunn writes "Last August, Slashdot ran a story about The Infinite Matrix, an online SF zine aimed at technogeeks, that posted its first and last issue in one fell swoop, after losing its funding (what's new?). The site was slashdotted, of course, and among those visiting it was a Slashdot reader who threw the zine a 6-month financial lifeline. The Infinite Matrix is now posting new material every day from both Bruce Sterling and Terry Bisson. Plus, there's a new story by SF giant Avram Davidson, more fiction by Richard Kadrey and Kathleen Goonan, columns by John Clute and David Langford. Thanks, Slashdot! You've made my life infinitely more complicated."

This is like reading Jules Verne when he was writing newspaper serials -- and no eBook reader is required.

The perils of translation and the world of international banking. Al Giordano of Narco News wrote from Cochabamba, Bolivia, with a correction of my (incorrect) correction on Yesterday's post about First Amendment protections granted online journalism. He provides a better explanation about nomenclature and the Mexican banking system:

"Banamex, or Banco Nacional de Mexico (the way the plaintiff's name appears on the now-dismissed complaint against us), is translated as National Bank of Mexico.

The 'Mexican Fed' that you refer to is titled Banco de Mexico, or Bank of Mexico.

So you got it right the first time!

The confusion stems from this: All Mexican banks were nationalized before becoming privatized. It's a long and bloody story and in fact my own story about it is one of the exhibits used by Banamex in its now-fracased SLAPP suit.

When Banamex filed suit against Mario Menendez, Narco News and me, it was still a Mexican bank. The Citibank merger wasn't announced until May 2001 and wasn't finalized until July 20, 2001, ironically, the same day we had our court hearing in New York."

Unfortunately, there's no monopoly on sketchiness. S^(2) writes "Here is a better rundown of the warez crackdowns across the globe. I guess people are running scared a bit and this page is hopping from mirrored site to site, but for now at least check out; http://www.cyberworld.ru/scenebusted/ It breaks down what groups were suspected to have been FEDs, which groups/members will be needing legal defense funds, which groups have shutdown, and a bit on the howto of the crackdown, such as agents raiding a house and watching what connections happened without pulling the plug. That can't be legal, can it? Should I hide my pc behind a wall of something benign, like say VHS bootlegs?"

Or, on the other hand, not distributing warez is an option.

9 of 397 comments (clear)

  1. Warez bust on my birthday by jkeyes · · Score: 1, Funny

    that was some present can I take it back to the store?

  2. Ticalc? TI-89s? by SumDeusExMachina · · Score: 3, Funny
    I'm sorry, but I draw the "geekiness" line at pissing away your time writing silly crap like that for a calculator. A calculator is a tool of science and business, not a gaming machine. I cannot begin to describe the problems that it has caused me as a high-school math teacher. Not only has the rampant Tetris-playing caused my students to stop paying attention in class, but the ability to store "notes" in the calculator is a major source of cheating on tests. It has gotten so far that we have had to require that only scientific calculators be used on the upcoming midterm exams.

    On an unrelated note, why don't you write about HP calculators some time? They are far superior from a technological and software standpoint, and RPN works a lot better than standard algebraic notation. Alas, I suppose now that HP's discontinuing them, they don't matter to the Slashdot crowd anymore...

    --

    Is your company running tools written by ma
  3. Re:Ticalc? TI-89s? by Samuel+Hughes · · Score: 5, Funny

    Since you mentioned tetris, I had to post this. At my high school, everybody was playing games on their calculators -- from Race to MARIO. However, the 83plus users couldn't play tetris, because it only worked on the 83. Anyway, I created a program called "TETRIS." What it did was displayed "Loading..." on the screen, while it archived every variable, including all of the unusual vars (such as the Str1 and Str2, etc.) except for the lists (I saved them for later). I put their screen in "split mode," while setting the graphing to Polar, with Xmin being larger than Xmax and Ymin larger than Ymax (resulting in a "Window Range" error screen). The program then filled a list named "SYS" up to 999 items, then going on to L1, L2, L3, etc.. until the program filled up the memory and threw an error.

    I gave this to another kid (a snobby kid who never stopped playing games on his calc), and it crippled his calculator. He had to pay me five bucks to get it fixed.

    I later lost my calculator, and I got it back two weeks with all of my games played repeatedly (with the high score list changed) and all my vars archived, lists filled, etc., resulting in it getting returned (they apparently thought it was broken). I lost it two more times, with the exact same results before it was returned to me.

  4. My gawd that's a lot of warez by Chagrin · · Score: 3, Funny
    From Wired's take on the warez crackdown:
    • Investigators served 56 search warrants and expect to grab about 130 computers.

      Customs agent Allan Doody said each computer has between one to two terabytes of stolen software.

    --

    I/O Error G-17: Aborting Installation

    1. Re:My gawd that's a lot of warez by shepd · · Score: 5, Funny

      >Customs agent Allan Doody said each computer has between one to two terabytes of stolen software.

      Wow! If each software came on a CD-ROM, holding an average of 600 MB, that means each computer was surrounded by 3333 1/3 shoplifted products.

      Now, if each box is about 10" x 7" x 2", and your average room has a ceiling height of 8 ft. (96") then the room would have to be 83.3" x 58.3" (7' x 5').

      I guess that's why they busted universities. University dorm rooms are just about that size.

      Now, if each software was new when it was shoplifted, and if the average software costs $100, that's $333,333.33 of stealing each!

      What I don't get is why these stores were stupid enough not to notice 3333 software titles missing from the shelves.

      I guess we'll never know...

      --
      If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
  5. Re:DOJ, just doing their part for the recession by istartedi · · Score: 4, Funny

    Warez kids are the best and the brightest?! Please explain. My notion of "best and brightest" doesn't associate itself with people who produce nothing, steal from those who do, and get caught doing it. This seems more like evolution in action to me.

    --
    For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
  6. Re:fp by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    kill yourself

  7. Re:Ticalc? TI-89s? by Bodero · · Score: 3, Funny
    I understand your frustration with calculator games in high school math. I believe my high school teacher put it best, however, in regards to what goes on in his class:

    "I don't care what you do, as long as you don't disturb others. Paint your nails or sleep for all I care. While you're in summer school, I'll be teeing off on the golf course at 9am."

  8. Re:Good honest New Zealand journalism. by Simon+Garlick · · Score: 5, Funny

    Of course, now that the source of 95% of the world's online pirated software has been shut down, big-name software companies will no doubt be dropping their exorbitant pricing -- the justification for which was the rate of online piracy.

    Right?

    *cough*