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Slashback: BBC, Crypto, Dummies [updated]
Let's get with it on those .ogg portables, OK?
rassie writes "Checking back at what used to be one of my most visited sites, I noticed that I might start using it again very soon. The BBC is returning to streaming in ogg format. From the page:
Update (2002-09-24): Yay, the legal issues have been resolved. We now have rights to all the of the BBC's radio output. Hopefully we should start kicking off these streams soon."
Your email is still (probably) safe. BitterOak writes "A recent Slashdot story reported that AES might have been broken by the new XL attack of Courtois and Pieprzyk. However, it appears there aren't enough linearly independent equations for this attack to work against AES. Cryptographer T. Moh has a brief explanation here, and Don Coppersmith posted a comment on the NIST AES discussion forum (under General Cryptanalytic Attacks), which comes to the same conclusion. Coppersmith is one of the world's greatest cryptographers, so it seems safe to assume that AES has not been broken at this point."
Hey, now it's just like most of the U.S.! yoink! writes "The BBC is running the following story detailing the end of the short-lived electronic gaming ban in Greece. The Government realised that (hopefully) relatively little gambling was involved with those playing computer, and console games all over the country. The decision to clarify those games which are, in fact, electronic gambling facilities are the only forms of electronic gaming with which the revised legislation now concerns itself."
The lawyers sound like ... dummies. Blue Aardvark House writes "I am an author for the Slash site Slackers Guild. Recently Nastard, the owner of Slackers Guild received a threatening letter from Wiley Publishing concerning the site's Slacking for Dummies document. Nastard's reply is here."
Update: 09/27 03:31 GMT by T : Note: the Slacker's Guild website seems to have slacked, and the links no longer work. For the text of the letter sent by Wiley to Nastard, search below for comment #4340698 by SiMac; for the response, see comment #4340840 by decaying. Also, the "Slacking for Dummies" document link now points to Google's cache.
It's not the first time that Wiley has hunted down obvious parody works; they've even fired off similar mail because someone used "Dummies" in the subject line of an email.
Your email is still (probably) safe.
Bah! Boring people should stop encrypting things anyway.
"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance" - Derek Bok
1. Ban electronic gaming
2. ???
3. Profit!!!
And put some reference like
:)
"It used to be called 'Slacking for Dummies' but since we realized it's a trademark, we renamed it to 'Slacking for Lawyers' just to keep consistent with the original idea..."
I remember seeing this book in bookstores a while back. Anyone else remember this?
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Since SlashBack is mostly just disparate posts, I thought I'd post a primer for those unfamiliar with the OGG format.
OGG is a music format created by Jan Vorbis in 1974. (Trivia: It was originally going to be called EGG, but Jan found out 'EGG' was already trademarked by Egg Corp.)
Jan initially developed the format to be a free source (and licence free) version of MP3. Using comp.lang.basic.misc, Jan rallied a large group of QBasic programmers into finalizing the protocol and releasing the first OGG encoder and player as QBasic source code (Trivia: This is why OGG encoding is so slow today as a simple BASIC -> C convertor was used to transvert the code for ports.)
The OGG format has since come on in leaps and bounds and is enjoying a reputation that only Pascal and the original Apple Mac once had.
In conclusion, most OGG users are quiche eating ponytailed geniuses who believe in free speech.
mogorific carpentry experiments
Ms. Skeel,
I apologize if there has been a misunderstanding. As any Dummy knows, certain words and phrases that originated as trademarks have become so integrated into our language that it becomes difficult to distinguish the two. Examples of this phenomenon include Kleenex, Frisbees, Xerox copies and some phrases I can't recall because no one remembers the companies with which they were once associated.
At issue here is a question of usage. We have not infringed upon your trademarks because your trademarks refer to guides for people who are genuinely stupid in a general, all-encompassing sense. Our guide, on the other hand, is intended for intelligent people who just happen to be ignorant in one particular area -- "slacking," in this case.
Again, I apologize if this was confusing for you, but I invite you to read my book, written just for people like you, entitled "Common Sense for Complete Imbeciles."
Have a pleasant day, and I wish you the best of luck in learning to read my book.
None of this would have happened had Wiley accepted my manuscript, covering the legalities of this issue, entitled "For Dummies For Dummies".
Unfortunately they felt that it was too complex, and have subsequently published "For Dummies For Dummies For Dummies", which describes my book in simpler terms, and outlines the lawsuit against me and Random House.
I have since begun work on a series of promotional literature, in which famously stupid people are interviewed on why they like a particular product or technology. "Dummies For Email" and "Dummies For the George Foreman Grill" are two titles currently in the works.
Mind you, it's probably easier for US doctors to transfer their quals than most European countries.
Just how does a European country transfer its qualifications as a medical doctor to New Zealand, anyway?
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Assume that this matter were to go to trial..."do you think it's possible for a reasonable person to confuse this work with the official Wiley trademark?"
"If you think so, then according to the defendant you must be 'severely lacking in mental capacity.'"
I think that that is not what the Nastard fellow meant, he simply wants to highlight the humorous connection between someone actually being stupid enough to confuse this as a Wiley publication and their [Wiley's] Dummies crowd. I doubt a jury would think they were being insulted...
I can just imagine the jury's sympathy to the defendant once they realize they've been labeled mental midgets.
Also, you are using a slur here and are a biggot. You should've said:
I can just imagine the jury's sympathy to the defendant once they realize they've been labeled mental little people.
;-)
why run from Vincenzo?
Subgenius sues for use of the word Slack
Posted by TacoJr on Thursday September 26, 2018 @07:59PM
from the didnt-you-know-they-were-the-next-scientologists dept.
Any sufficiently advanced man is indistinguishable from God