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Slashback: Wireless, Gasoline, Prevarication
It's not a feature, it's a bug.
A representative from Macrovision writes "This statement is being issued to address some concerns that were recently aired on Slashdot with regards to the copy protection of some music CDs, the new Beastie Boys CD in Europe in particular.
Macrovision does NOT install any spyware, shareware, malware or any self-replicating code of any kind onto a user's PC.
When playing a (Macrovision CDS-200) copy-protected CD for the first time, playback software components may be installed, if needed. This software is used to enable the on-disc music player to load an on-screen user interface and to play back the audio. For further information, please contact: cds-info@macrovision.com."
Seems to me that a CD which that requires any software installed for it to be played by a standard CD drive is by definition at least "brokenware," or perhaps "meddleware." What if it's being used in a computer without an operating system supported by these "playback software components"?
Definitional evasion aside, so far CD "copy protection" is mostly about as effective as critics proclaim it to be: ptorrone writes "There has been a lot of talk about the copy protection on the new CD 'Contraband' from Velvet Revolver, but for us we didn't have any problems making MP3s for all our devices despite their efforts to stop us it seems. Here's our story..."
MSN Search pales next to Google, so far. An anonymous reader writes "Reported earlier today here on Slashdot, MSN is preparing a new search engine which is set to knock Google's socks off. However, early results show that not only is the new algorithm lacking enough smarts to knock Google as king, it doesn't even compete with the current MSN algorithm."
Open wide and say "ARRL!" dos4who writes "Well, the ARRL Field Day 2004 results are in, and posted on The The American Radio Relay League website. In the Single Operator High-Power class, congratulations to W5ZN for logging a score well over 600,000!
I had the opportunity to witness the Abbotsford, British Columbia club in action, and it was an awesome experience. Just the sight of all those massive antennae clustered on one field invoked visions of E.T. popping in for a visit."
And william_lorenz writes "Our own group from Ohio made contacts all over the United States and had a great time doing it, camping out in tents and running multiple battery-operated radios and make-shift antennas throughout the day and night. We even played with some Slow Scan TV! What are your stories?"
Seems unlikely it's the only country not to have done so ... bluethundr writes "On the flipside of a story from yesterday the Register reports today: 'Malam Nuhu Ribadu says Nigeria is the only country in the world that has failed to apply special laws or establish dedicated "front offices" to combat the crimes.'"
Are you pumping what you think you're pumping? couch_warrior writes "It was noted in a recent /. inquiry that EPA estimates of mileage vary from real-life experience. While there are several factors that can affect this, one major but often overlooked factor is that the amount of gasoline contained in a supposed 'gallon' varies by up to 10% due to gas pump fraud. Two illustrative stories show localized evidence of this scam, but few states regulate gas pumps effectively. The laws are on the books, but enforcement is typically lax. Cynics might speculate that this is because both the State and the Fed are getting a cut of the illegal proceeds. It is a way for them to increase the tax revenue on fuel, without taking the political hit for raising taxes. A challenge for /. readers -- go buy some gasoline in graduated containers, and check for yourself [avoid 1,5, and 10 gallon sizes; many states use these for testing purposes and the computers inside the pumps 'catch up' temporarily at these intervals]. Persons of conscience might feel motivated to flood their local state weights and measures bureau with complaints (if test results warranted :-)"
Never beam your secrets in a cornfield. bgumm writes "Hot on the heels of the Texas DOT's WiFi stories, here comes one from the corn state, Iowa. The Iowa DOT and an Iowan wireless network company, I-Spot Access, have partnered to offer WiFi at six highway rest stops across the state. USA Today picked up the story, as did the Des Moines Register..."
And for those in a state too backward to have rest-stop WiFi just yet, Porsupah writes "WirelessWeek is reporting that Ricochet has been sold on again; this time, to YDI Wireless. Bay Area readers may fondly remember the company as bringing flat-rate 28.8k wireless connectivity to all of the area several years ago for $30/mo, before expanding aggressively to cover several other major US metropolitan areas, financed by MCI, with a nominal 128kbps service at $75/mo. After bankruptcy, Aerie Networks bought some of the remnants, relaunched in San Diego and Denver, and then.. nothing. What next?"
If it's not redbook, it's not a CD!
This comment does not necessarily represent the views and opinions of the author.
...always gas up in 10-gallon increments.
I haven't seen the software myself, nor yet found a detailed technical analysis, so I can only speculate beyond that point. But from the descriptions I've seen, I would not doubt that it continues running, even when the CD is not actually playing, using some amount of memory and some small number of CPU cycles. Can you imagine if every audio CD you own installed its own little software in this manner? Personally, I own around 300 CDs, which is not nearly as many as some of my friends. I surely wouldn't want 300 such applications intalled on my system!
I've ALWAYS wondered whether or not I'm getting a full gallon, or how accurate those pumps are at gas stations. It doesn't really make me feel good to realize my paranoia was right. I mean it's SO easy, and can be done in such a way that's very hard to detect. If I cut 1 ounce on every gallon of gas I pump who is to say I did it and it isn't just the pump which is a bit inaccurate? Not that it matters, but there ought to be a way that our CARS can tell how much gas has been put into them.
"he drew his sword Ringil that glittered like ice... and he wounded Morgoth with seven wounds..."
That CD protection software doesn't sound like malware, but more like a step behind in programming by using proprietary software. Hopefully one day we can rid ourselves of proprietary things and get to using standards. I bet those CD decryptor programs are Windows-only also. Blargh...
'Yes, firefox is indeed greater than women. Can women block pops up for you? No. Can Firefox show you naked women? Yes.'
That's tracking the user's habits, thus spyware.
I don't think this would hold up in any court anywhere. I think that the company can assume that when you buy a DVD you view it at least one time(s). It isn't spyware unless this information is sent somewhere.
"he drew his sword Ringil that glittered like ice... and he wounded Morgoth with seven wounds..."
It would be hypocritical, but they will probably try it anyway. "Trust the butterfly!"
Seriously, though, as long as we are willing to allow "free" portals to have access to all of our personal information, how can we get upset when they have access to our personal information?
MS can hold on to your CC# and passwords and automatically fill them in on sites that require it, if you use hotmail they have your email, and they're trying to improve their crappy search engine that few people use. Oh, and if you use MSN, they've got you that way too.
Yahoo has shops and stores that I find somehow already know my credit card number (past purchase, no doubt), they have my email (one of my account anyway), and they offer searching, tv-listings, a calendar, etc.
That's just a few examples of what MS and Yahoo! aleady have from millions of customers. The fact that Google (which has proven itself less scuzzy than its competition) is trying to expand is welcomed by myself and nearly all my friends.
If you give all your info to a site, don't be surprised if they have all your info at a later date. Convenience and privacy are hard to simultaneously maintain with current services.
I'll make sure to buy exactly 5.000 gallons :-)
Not necessarily good enough. In the article's KCBS link, the DWM agent used a 5 gallon measure. That was enough to catch 4 of the 5 stations he and the reporter visited. Given the situation, it's apparently not necessary to be any more clever than this.
I think you are forgetting something- most casual computer users are either too stupid or too lazy to learn proper search technique. Therefore, you should get accurate results even with slight grammatical errors/mispellings (Google suggests the proper spellings for you) and using words such as "the," "is," etc.
--- At my sig, unleash hell.
It only makes sense that pages that have been sitting around for years would have been viewed more, thus having a higher page rank.
Now, was adding the year that hard?
And outside of the courts, that definition has nothing to do with the usual use of "spyware" in the computer world. I've never heard anyone suggest that, say, KDE's running kpersonalizer on first startup constitutes "spyware".
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
I like the old fashioned way of doing it. Just watering down the gas. No gimicky reprogramming of gas pump electronics.
Leave your graduated cylinder at home -- It is illegal to pump gas into a non-approved container. A better idea would be to fit a flow meter on the end of the nozzle while you're filling your car. Then you can not only track discrepancies, but you can find out if the pump "makes up for it" at the 5- or 10-gallon mark.
You'd better know what you're doing, or you're wasting your time. According to the article:
I have a feeling that most "graduated containers" that people have are going to have the same issue. Then again, I imagine that the Slashdot community just might be made up of a slightly higher percentage of scientifically-minded individuals. ;-) So, perhaps a few of you might actually have a realistic chance at accuracy. Just bear in mind that the state is going to be using precisely-calibrated instruments, and know how to use them. You'd best do the same, or you'll just look like an idiot.
The only issue here is that the gas station can and will call the police on you for pumping gas into an unlicensed container, and if you happen to get away before they do... they already have your license plate, photo, and likely depending on how you paid your name, address and phone number. Anyone see any 2,3,4,6,7,8, or 9 gallon graduated cylinders lately licensed to hold gasoline?
What an awful idea. The main reason people want to listen to CDs on their computer is so they can have music on while they work. If they have to reboot the machine to play the CD, how do I get any work done?
I've no affiliation with Costco, but how many gallons it takes to fill up until the auto-shutoff is triggered is not necessarily a good indication of whether you are being short-changed. There could easily be a gallon difference in shutoff levels between two gas stations. While filling a gas tank higher does add some risk of it expanding (see other comments about gas expanding up to two percent for a reasonable temperature range) and overflowing, most people drive enough soon after filling up to make the spill risk from thermal expansion a nonissue.
However, mom and pop stores may have determined it was cheaper to give you more gas than it was to try and get the calibration closer and risk fines for dispensing too little. Sort of like bakers giving out 13 instead of a dozen to avoid serious penalties for shortchanging their customers.
An interesting sidenote, this article has encouraged me to buy gas in the morning while it is cool instead of afternoons and has given me another reason (the dispensed fuel is typically hotter than that in the tanks at the gas station) to not visit a gas station right after it has received more fuel from a tanker truck (the primary reason not to fill up at a station that just received more fuel is that sediment in the tank is stirred up).