Slashdot Mirror
Slashback: DRM, Eldred, Aridity
Looking sharp in their suits. Declan McCullagh writes: "Here are some photos from after the arguments, including activists who slept on the courthouse steps, an exhausted but optimistic Larry Lessig, and the Internet Archive bookmobile, which visited Washington DC for the event."
A new meaning for 'decimation.' Martin writes "Here is a good write-up on what happened with the whole sendmail hack a week or so back. Apparently every 10th copy of the source that was downloaded from sendmail.org received the trojan'd version. Nice to see a linux hack getting some attention for a change, instead of the usual MS bashing. Here is the write-up."
I won't be charging entrance fees to Shangri La, either. After a report posted the other day indicating that Microsoft was considering charging customers more for certain security features, Software writes "According to a little snippet from Yahoo News (look towards the bottom), Microsoft won't be charging for security updates after all. As Yahoo puts it, 'Microsoft, however, said Mundie was referring to an internal proposal to begin offering stand-alone security software in the future.' No confirmation of this on Microsoft's site for the press"
As denials go, that seems like a weak one.
Where is Deep Fritz's deep game? screenbert writes "In an exciting best-of-eight chess match-up, the human is leading the computer 2 1/2 to 1/2. I find the fractions of winning amusing, almost as amusing as seeing that the best-of-eight series will take at least nine games since one of those games was a draw. For a general overview there is a good review here(1) or here(2) or here(3). And to save the 38 mandatory karma whoring comments I'll say it: Imagine if Deep Fritz ran on a beowolf cluster."
So it's back to BYOB. gnarly writes "An earlier report of detection of water masers on extrasolar planets has been debunked."
Workaround: Get your congresspuppet hooked on Free software. Several readers wondered why (complained that) the post offering a link to the place where you can submit your comments on DRM technology to the Senate Judiciary Committee was posted section-only. So here's a reminder; if you live near D.C. (or get a chance to stop by a local office), perhaps you'll be able to stop to chat a bit about how you determine who gets your vote. (Maybe you should check out the sections, too.)
Official 4th game result annoucement (However the final position graphic is currently wrong).
P.S. To our troll wannabe: Beowulf is spelled BeowUlf.
Since they published his comment as is, I'll assume that this isn't as commonly understood as it should be. The match will end after eight games, period. If the remaining 5 games are drawn (which they won't) then the human wins, 5-3. There are no additional games to make up for draws. If it were to be 4-4 after eight games, the match would just end in a draw.
"You're never ready, just less unprepared."
It's 1 point for a win
0.5 points for a draw
0 points for a loss.
Some people think that a stalemate should count for something other than 0.5-0.5 (say, 0.75-0.25 favoring the player with the advantage when the stalemate happens), but I won't go into that.
well, the predecessor to Deep Blue was called Deep Thought. "Deep Thought" is the name of the computer in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series who concluded after many years of processing that the answer to life, the universe, and everything was 42.
I have seen the future, and it is inconvenient.
"... a reminder about your chance (well, if you're an American) to tell your elected representatives what you think about mandated DRM technology"
Yes, it's coming up this November 5th. Here's how to get involved.
If you're going to write your Congresscritter about DRM, be sure to also write his/her/its opponents in the upcoming election.
A new meaning for 'decimation'
Actually that was the original meaning.
Decimation -- killing one out of every ten soldiers -- was the favorite method of punishing mutinous legions in the ancient Roman army.