Slashdot Mirror
Nominations Open For "Most Likely to be Shut Down By Government"
The corporate overlords at SourceForge asked me to name a Slashdot category for their upcoming
Community Choice Awards and to let you guys select the winner. I have named my category "Most Likely to be Shut Down by a Government Agency." We're going to run this like we do an Ask Slashdot call for questions — post your nominations into the comments here. Use moderation to send up good ideas. In the upcoming days we'll post another story where you can vote on the actual winner. Nominations need to include the project name, a link to some sort of official website, and a paragraph of why you think they deserve to win. The project that wins will gain fame, notoriety, and maybe a cease and desist order that they could print out and frame if they had that kind of time.
It's basically only a matter of time before the fear-mongers and political demagogues in the U.S. and elsewhere outlaw any form of encryption that doesn't include a backdoor for the NSA and other "trusted" government agencies. There has already been evidence of commercial encrytption (such as Windows encryption) including such backdoors. And when the commercial companies all cave, how long do you think it will be before the government comes after the open source projects too?
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
//wishful thinking...
The EFF's Patent Busing Project.
Or has it been shut down already?
The Republican Party.
The GNU software radio project
http://www.gnu.org/software/gnuradio/
is a good candidate. It proposes to let you make electromagnetic waves in a manner not subject to prior restraint by the FCC, and without the back-doors intelligence agencies have on many current means of communications.
This is naughty.
I would think just about any anti-government project in Zimbabwe, North Korea, China, Russia, Cuba, Syria or Iran would be about 100 times more likely to be shut down than one in the U.S....
don't give yourself too much credit taco... by and large the fear mongers on the left have been proven just as much a bunch of retarded flakes as the fear mongers on the right. neither side of the political fence in this arena has any real credit left at this point.
They're the next allofmp3 -- they're getting named by name in international treaty talks.
Done with slashdot, done with nerds, getting a life.
wikileaks, followed by cryptome.org for doing a better job and mirroring the same content
Matt
I would like to nominate Slashdot as being most likely to be shut down. After all, free thought is anathema to government control.
"Feel a glory in so rolling / on the human heart a stone" --E. A. Poe, "The Bells"
wikileaks - since it already was (sort of) shut down by government.
Hey, they've actually committed some crimes now, right?
Tor, Freenet, and I2P are probably on the top of the list. There is no way that government wants difficult to trace communication to be availble to the general public.
Lets be honest, Freenet is pretty much used only by pedophiles and E.L.F. terrorist wannabes.
I suspect that FreeNet is something that many, many governments would like to shut down. In the west, pretty much all they have to do is say "klddy pr0n" and it's gone. In China and other such countries, they don't really have to say anything at all.
If you look to the right, Microsoft is listed as a diamond sponsor of the event. Hopefully the government will shut them down soon.
Badass Resumes
Oh wait... I guess he was already shut down by the media.
I suppose that would include pretty much the entire open source community wouldn't it....
Like arts? Like cheesy little Indie mags? Check out www.artwerkmag.com, and don't laugh at the bad coding please.
Any Government?
Fiesta Online
Freenet, especially now that its reaching the point of widespread usability.
This website, supported by the states, offers its citizens affordable medications from Canada and Europe. I predict the federal government will shut it down, citing "safety issues" with foreign drugs.
Public use of any portable music system is a virtually guaranteed indicator of sociopathic tendencies. -- Zoso
I think the question then becomes which government? By now there are any number which have taken note of their existence (and some which have acted upon that knowledge), so my guess would be that more will do the same.
www.gao.gov
"I guess I'm gonna fade into Bolivian."
The once daily tablet for natural male enhancement!
I've read most of these fake non perscription miracle drugs make their money by giving a "free" 30 day trial for like $30 bucks or something and rake it in off the people who forget to cancel. Obviously this pill doesn't enhance penis size. I think there is another one for weight loss where they go on and on about how 76% of each pound lost was actual fat, but if you read the fine print the usual weight loss is 3 pounds (doubt it even does that).
www.trapster.com
It's an interactive thingy where you post where cops are hiding in speed traps.
I'm surprised it's still up, honestly.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
We already have loads of censoring going on. for example, the 60 minute interview with Sibel edmunds was immediately gagged and then the studio was told to hand over EVERYTHING. In addition, ALL news org have been warned ahead to not talk about her.
In terms of software, PirateBay/Cryptome/GnuRadio. Anything dealing with encryption will NOT be shutdown, unless it involves a brand new and interesting algo.
http://www.libertydollar.org/ This group has been bringing value back to money for 9 years. While in the past the government has confirmed the group's legallity and legitimacy, more recently the Treasury Dept. has begun claiming that they criminals. With the U.S. Dollar (Federal Reserve Note) falling harder and faster, prices soaring through the roof, the Liberty Dollar has held its value the entire time. This makes it a perfect scapegoat for the entire U.S. monetary system.
The Democratic Party. I wouldn't put it past them to try if McCain looks like he's on the ropes!
NEVER FORGET!!! 10-23-2007
Shouldnt anyone eligable (ie: those with +1, or +2) have been given at least 1 Mod Point so they could be included in the vote?
Which, is probably not possible with the current point system, but maybe in the future you could alot eligable people a mod point on a specific topic/poll/etc.
Would the moderator who called P 'redundant' please read posting times??? P was only two minutes after the previous mention of Wikileaks. By the time you write your post, click though 'preview' and 'submit', two minutes can easily pass.
Well, it worked for jfk...
ID: the nose did not occur naturally, how would we wear glasses otherwise? (apologies to Voltaire)
... this is, for the powers that be.
B-)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Seems this will be a self-fulfilling category. Much like the notion that the best way to get an FBI record is to ask to see it (and you can -- if you really want to).
Posting this anonymously seems so fitting, some how...http://thememoryhole.org/
http://wikileaks.org/
http://cryptome.org/
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Is that the project to bus all of the patent trials away from the Marshall, Texas courts?
coding is life
They're getting closer all the time, it seems...
The Democratic Party. I wouldn't put it past them to try if McCain looks like he's on the ropes!
They're already the congress and they'll have more seats and the presidency next year. So they'll BE the government (or the necessary two branches out of three) by the time it could get around to shutting down a party.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Maybe I read this wrong, but isn't the field limited to SourceForge projects? Summary should be updated to make this clearer kplzthxbye
Did you name yourself after the beer or is it just how you describe yourself to others?
William of Ockham had no beard. The most likely explanation is that it was chewed off by squirrels every morning.
Dreamhost, for their 5 Terabyte bandwidth limit, where if you approach even 1/5 of the limit they cancel your account for "putting too much strain on the servers."
Story here
In the summary:
:)
er. I have named my category "Most Likely to by Shut Down by a Government Agency". W
should be :
er. I have named my category "Most Likely to be Shut Down by a Government Agency". W
You are welcome.
Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
Tor would be a good candidate for being outlawed by an overbearing government. I don't know much about it, but i can bet legal online anonymity will go if things keep going the way they are... -Taylor
Worldwide Military budgets: $2100 billion. Worldwide Space Exploration budgets: $38 billion. Really, world? Really?
Most likely to be Shutdown By Government? ... The Republican Party.
They don't need the government to shut them down. They're doing a fine job of it themselves. The neocons who took over the party are purging all the other factions, thus downsizing it to minor party status.
In fact the Democratic party (which will BE the government next year, after they pick up the presidency and a bunch more seats in the house and senate) will prop it up, if they're smart. That will help keep the ejectees from forming a new first-tier opposition party or building up one of the minors into ready-for-prime-time status.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Really asking what site you think is going to be taken down next by some government agency seems like fear mongering in it's self.
Most take down notices have come not from law enforcement but from companies not the government.
The vast majority of these are civil actions.
Isn't this heading into the tin foil hats and black helicopter area?
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
is the contest usa-centric?
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
http://cr.yp.to/export.html
Sad, but true.
Tudou.com is on my list to be shutdown by the Chinese government. More so to do with the popularity amongst the average Chinese Chin, lack of regulations with content submitted than to do with lack of enforced copyright standards.
Building Mind-Reading Computers.
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
It's not a software package so it doesn't count http://ratemycop.com/
www.goa.gov
4chan
All that music being played and nary a cent going to the RIAA is just begging for a court intervention. Now they also have the IRS looking into the Electric Sheep Company / CSI:NY promotion and whether or not the 'guides' income should be taxed and there are questions as to whether labour law should be getting involved with all the Slingo hosts and their employers. I give it two years tops.
The opinions expressed in this post are not necessarily those of my brain.
I haven't seen this listed yet and a lot of great ones have been mentioned but I'd just like to throw Tor out there.
http://www.torproject.org/
Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
They could go the way of PopularityDialer.com
Sorry dan, but wrong
Wikipedia - all it's lies and propaganda is a threat to national security!
Was this survey sponsored by the government from the beginning?
;)
Very nice way to cut costs on researching what needs to be closed
Nobody's said any porn sights. You all are wierd, wierd people.
Dunk'n Donuts! They are obviously just a front for Al-Qaeda with Rachel Ray as the master mind, I mean did you see that scarf!
http://www.timecube.com/
Sourceforge for funding Cowboy Neal's activities
Meh
RIM claims that their 3DES/AES encryption implementation is fully secure and does not contain any backdoors - we'll let the NSA see about that!
BitTorrent only offers a software package the enables user to share data with an ease rivaling that of an open share on a network but without all of the hassles of completely insecure connections. That doesn't seem to stop the RIAA and the MPAA from trying to shut down even the idea that people should be able to use the Internet for what it was intended for, a free exchange of information. The software package was and is quite novel in the way it handles traffic and allows it to be shared across multiple connections and multiple computers. This is load distribution at a level higher than "enterprise class data systems". This is a huge productivity tool that can be used for sharing information over any kind of distributed network. It allows freedom and power.
What's going to stop it? The RIAA, MPAA and giant ISP's like Comcast and Verizon that throttle back torrent traffic. They will make cases for costs in bandwidth and network maintenance. The fact that many people use these types of peer-to-peer networks successfully and almost untraceably to share copyrighted information only adds to the arguments that the RIAA and MPAA will make to get it shut down. Since there entire websites like The Pirate Bay, Mininova, IsoHunt and even the BitTorrent website that link users to a large number of seeds for the torrent swarms of information copyrighted and non-copyrighted and such, it doesn't bode well for the tool either.
The RIAA and MPAA will use strong arm tactics and cite currently pending investigations in other parts of the world against such sites that employ the use of such software to cut the problem off at the head. It will likely lead to sweeping legislation that will outlaw many forms of file sharing. For references, look at what the RIAA and MPAA have managed to successfully do against those users with home media center looking to place digital copies of their license media on to online storage. Sure, selling the means to do the illegal act isn't illegal but that doesn't mean someone won't try to make it illegal.
sheesh! the 'corporate overlords' are what, 20-year-olds?
see 47 C.F.R. 15.121(a) (a) Except as provided in paragraph (c) of this section, scanning receivers and frequency converters designed or marketed for use with scanning receivers, shall:
(1) Be incapable of operating (tuning), or readily being altered by the user to operate, within the frequency bands allocated to the Cellular Radiotelephone Service in part 22 of this chapter (cellular telephone bands). Scanning receivers capable of âoereadily being altered by the userâ include, but are not limited to, those for which the ability to receive transmissions in the cellular telephone bands can be added by clipping the leads of, or installing, a simple component such as a diode, resistor or jumper wire; replacing a plug-in semiconductor chip; or programming a semiconductor chip using special access codes or an external device, such as a personal computer. Scanning receivers, and frequency converters designed for use with scanning receivers, also shall be incapable of converting digital cellular communication transmissions to analog voice audio.
(2) Be designed so that the tuning, control and filtering circuitry is inaccessible. The design must be such that any attempts to modify the equipment to receive transmissions from the Cellular Radiotelephone Service likely will render the receiver inoperable.
Youtube.com, but the RIAA has filled the courts for the next 10 years suing old ladies
gotta go, i think i see the big men with dogs now.
"If still these truths be held to be
Self evident."
-Edna St. Vincent Millay
Then why hide?
Seriously. If they want people to slow down, why hide behind billboards and bridges and other stuff and pop out and snag people?
If they honestly wanted everyone to slow down they'd just park on the side of the road in the very most visible spot. Watch your fellow drivers on the freeway sometime. They see a cop car, they hit the brakes. Even if he has someone pulled over and its obvious they could fly right by him.
They hide because it helps them write tickets. That's the goal of a speedtrap. Income. I'm sure the PR people love to smile at the camera and talk about how their just saving lives, but their actions simply do not agree. You can't tell me that having all this ticket revenue pouring in means nothing.
If they really want people to drive the speed limit, park out in the open.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
For those not familiar with how this scam works, here's a snippet from Wikipedia:
In Success-N-Life, Tilton regularly taught that all of life's trials, especially poverty, were a result of sin.... Tilton's ministry revolved around the practice of making "vows", financial commitments to Tilton's ministry. Tilton's preferred vow, stressed frequently on his broadcasts, was $1,000. Occasionally, Tilton would claim to have received a "word" for someone to give a vow of $5,000 or even $10,000. When a person made a vow to Tilton, Tilton preached that God would recognize the vow and reward the donor with vast material riches.If you post it, they will read.
DIY Drones: amateur Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and open-source Predators.
BCwipe would leave a simliar fingerprint if you used DoD wipe. All you'd have is an empty hard drive full of random characters in the interstices.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
http://www.democrats.org/ looks like a John McCain website.
AutoPilot: DIY Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
http://autopilot.sourceforge.net/
I wouldn't be surprised if... http://www.cutelittlekittens.com/ was shut down, although I must admit, muppets are far more dangerous
Perhaps not the first to go down, but I think the odds approach 100%. The peer-to-peer Internet, with its implicit equality for all servers, lacks the degree of barriers to entry that corporations need to "create" wealth. It is already dying through direct corporate action (protocol throttling, port blocking, etc), and there will be government intervention soon enough. Look for copyright, child porn, botnets, etc to be the excuses used to require licensing of servers.
Radio was unrestricted in its early days. Unrestricted mass communication is extremely detrimental to authoritarian governments. Net neutrality prevents ISPs and backbone providers from getting their vig. Nobody benefits from a peer-to-peer Internet except We The People, and most of us don't know that is the case, nor why. Show me something that does not have populist support, and does stand to allow profiteering and control if destroyed - and I'll show you a very tenuous place to stand.
Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
Ottawa warns on gold-backed Web trades
Ottawa warns on gold-backed Web trades FINTRAC sees potential abuse of electronic transactions tied to gold and silver KEVIN CARMICHAEL
Monday, May 26, 2008 OTTAWA -- Canada's financial intelligence agency warns that criminals may be exploiting Internet-based companies that convert cash into electronic gold, exposing a new front in the international effort to restrict terrorist financing and money laundering. While other channels of money laundering are successfully being shut down, authorities are increasingly worried about a proliferation of "digital precious metals operators" websites that offer clients a chance to conduct Internet business in units backed by gold and silver rather than paper currencies.
The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, or FINTRAC, says in a report these websites have "achieved critical mass on the Web" and are facilitating millions of transactions on the fringe of the international financial system - the equivalent of a Wild West where legitimate businesses, privacy-seeking individuals and criminals can mingle just out of reach of the law.
At stake is the effectiveness of the financial reporting rules that countries such as the United States, Britain and Canada enacted in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. A network that allows individuals to move money around the world means criminals can avoid commercial banks and other financial institutions required to turn over their records to the government.
"As financial institutions and non-financial businesses increasingly deter money laundering and terrorism financing, adaptable and technology-savvy criminals and terrorist financiers will likely see other unregulated, exploitable avenues to further their nefarious purposes," concludes the report, which was made available under the Access to Information Act.
"Digital precious metals may become one of them."
Paper money is about to become worthless. The treasury will need to find a way to prevent people from using alternative currency. One big way will simply be to make owning other currency a crime. My vote is for an outright ban on gold or silver "hording" and jail terms for gold selling web site owners.
http://www.psystar.com/
"The highly extensible Open Computer is a configuration of PC hardware capable of running unmodified OS X Leopard kernels. If you purchase Leopard with your Open Computer we will not only include the actual Leopard retail package with genuine installation disc, but we also preinstall Leopard for free so you can begin to use your computer right out of the box."
what about wicrawl and all the other WiFi "security" testers
Calvin:Do you believe in the devil? Hobbes:I'm not sure man needs the help.
...most likely to be shut down by a President McCain.
Like the Jeffs compound in Texas.
All pass beyond reach of medicine. None pass beyond the reach of love.
"His biggest disappoint was that he never made the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List. It's all about who you know."
TIA.
How can you have a site that anyone can sell anything without any taxes being collected? Not to mention that it is a perfect place to get your enemies house looted just by posting a "free stuff" listing.
OK, I'll play along, although I fully realize that if I say something that someone else doesn't agree with I'll get marked down as a "troll". I suggest for the first target of this list SLASHDOT. This is a website that references individuals to all sorts of technology and information that is inconvenient to the government. It must be silenced.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
http://reactor1967.fortunecity.com/nuke.html
Seem pretty obvious to me. Of course if you are making substantial progress on this, you're going to get something a little more difficult to ridicule than a cease and desist letter from some lawyers.
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
Indymedia in the UK has already been shut down twice in the past few years e.g. http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/05/06/28/0113237.shtml?tid=153&tid=158&tid=149&tid=17
cogito ergo sig...
This is a fun exercise and all that, but really, do we need to go out of our way to create statements & lists that lawyers can enter into evidence? e.g., "Your honor, even open-source advocates largely thought this project would be shut down by the government, as I can demonstrate from the following poll..."
Ok, I'll take my "shh, They're listening" tinfoil hat off now; just wanted to ask, if one is for maximal freedom in software, is it really productive to draw this topic's sort of attention to "edgy" projects?
Pi Ran Out
you do understand how teh intartubes work, right? you do understand how sovereignty works, right?
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
RIAA / MPAA
www.riaa.org www.mpaa.org
Please?
ratemydowns [ratemydowns.com]
Having read through all the top-moderated suggestions so far, I find myself horrified to realize that I actually do believe that each and every one of these will be targeted in the next few years. It will be interesting to see just how many of these fears turn out to be justified if we look back at this topic some time down the road. Unfortunately, for those who think that the results of this or any election might have any effect on the direction our country is headed, I have news for you... nothing short of a major overhaul of the entire Federal government is going to change any of this.
Most likely to be shut down by govt...
Has anyone heard of Bill C-51 in Canada? The same ideals are coming to the US soon too...
http://www.healthcanadaexposed.com/
When C-51 becomes law government agents will be able to:
â Enter private property without a warrant
â Take your property at their discretion
â Dispose of your property at will
â Not reimburse you for your losses
â Seize your bank accounts without a warrant
â charge owners shipping and storage charges for seized property
â store your property indefinitely
â levy fines of up to $5,000,000.00 and/or seek 2 years in jail per charge
Bill C-51 will:
â Remove democratic oversight, bypassing elected officials to vote in laws and allow bureaucrats to adopt laws from other countries without our consent.
â Remove more than 70% of Natural Health Products from Canadians and many others will be available by prescription only.
â Restrict research and development of safe natural alternatives in favor of high risk drugs.
â Punish Canadians with little or no opportunity for protection or recourse for simply speaking about or giving a natural product without the approval of government. More than 70% of people in Canada use a Natural Health Product. The new law goes so far as to warrant action against a person who would give another person an unapproved amount of garlic on the recommendation that it would improve that
persons health.
http://www.wellnessresources.com/health/articles/weight_loss_health_freedom_under_serious_attack/
DIYDrones.com ... $100 homebrew autopilots ... need I say more?
I, for one, welcome our new Sourceforge corporate overlords.
// TODO: Insert Cool Sig
i bet The Consumerist http://consumerist.com/ has caused enough executive headaches that they are begging to have it taken down. i don't know how they will justify it, but they will probably try to convince with a slew of $15 rebate cards
If you use data from the same one-time-pad twice, it quickly turns from "a theoretically unbreakable cryptosystem" into "one of the weakest cryptosystems ever".
If you don't use data from the same one-time pad twice, then it's pointless to use one one-time pad to send another one-time pad, because every N bytes that you receive for the next key is just replacing N bytes of your last key that now can't be reused to send any other data.
No way, if you want to believe in evil government, there's nothing better for them than TrueCrypt. See, it has deniable encryption, where you can have a 'real' drive and a 'fake' drive, so you give 'them' the keys to the 'fake' drive, and go about your secret business, right?
:) Seriously, though, deniable encryption is only useful against enemies who are dumb and cannot employ force against you. Governments don't have much to fear from it, vs. any other kind of encryption. They're all Tempest watching us anyway. ;)
Queue Jack Bauer, beating you up:
Bauer: Gimme your passwords, elrous0. *Whack*
elrous0: OK, fine, it's 'gimmesomeluv1n'
Bauer's Assistant: OK, we're in. Hrm, it's just a bunch of computer stuff, some saved articles from business websites, some 80's metal mp3's and random e-mails. Oh, wait, he's using TrueCrypt.
Bauer: What's that?
Bauer's Assistant: It means he can give us a fake password that gives us fake information, but still keeps the real information hidden.
Bauer: What's your real password, elrous0?
elrous0: No, seriously, I gave it to you. That's it.
Bauer: Don't give me that crap. *Whack* Give me the real password!
elrous0: Dude, I just hang out on Slashdot and have a normal job. I'm not the guy you're looking for!
Bauer: A million lives are at risk, and this isn't going to stop until you give me the real password: *whack*
elrous0: Seriously, I'm telling you the truth.
Bauer: *Whack* *Whack* *Whack* *Whack*
elrous0: Ugh! My nose!
Bauer: *Whack* *Whack* *Whack* *Whack*
Bauer's Assistant: Um, Jack, do you think he could be telling the truth?
Bauer: No, this one's a pro. He didn't crack the whole time, and his accent is impeccable. He must be a deep cover operative. We'll try this again when he wakes up.
Oh, wait, I just played into the Conspiracy Theory myself.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
All of these suggestions seem to be about things that government agencies might be against. What about the stuff they are supposed to be for, like basic science?
Off the top of my head, I'll suggest Fermilab, given their increasingly dire financial situation.
And of course there are plenty of things they very well should shut down, just because they cost us so much and gain so little, like the war on drugs and the Iraq war. Maybe these should go in the "least likely" category though.
With waaaaaay too much torque on tap, I'd expect big brother to start leaning on cobra manufacturers like Kirkham Motorsports.
Gov't agencies don't generally like people to have fun.
********* sig: If you don't like the law, get filthy stinking rich, and buy a better one.
You are one within a very small percentage of the connected world if you have not received a "Question It!" email in the last year. SMS.ac made a name for themselves, and over $100 million dollars in revenue, in the premium text messages. After incurring an undisclosed number of fines for their activities (SMS.ac fined 175,000 pounds by UK regulator), they renamed and rebranded themselves as FanBox. FanBox is attempting to generate revenue through premium applications using their SMS billing engine and ad revenue. Their single-minded approach to gaining users is through misleading emails that appear to be from people you know. Such "products" named "Question It!" and "Predict It!" are very familiar to your Junk folder if not your Inbox. Their continued business practices could raise accusations of violation of Federal Trade Commission ("CAN-SPAM Act of 2003"), Federal Communication Commission, and other Federal and State laws, as well as European Community and other international laws. Also, SMS.ac/FanBox.com treatment of their employees could find them in violation of long list of California-state employment laws. Additionally, they have an almost serial behavior of leasing and defaulting on equipment purchases. They are currently embroiled in a number of lawsuits brought against them by their former employees, creditors, and customers. The Question is: why hasn't the hammer come down on this company?
vote for powerpoint! If it gets enough votes the goverment will shut it down. That's the way it works, right?
Finally we will be free from those brainless "funny" chain emails that waste all your mail space.
http://hacksawru.narod.ru
Why would i want my pet project to be on the radar?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Most of the world are nowhere near the sorry state that the US is in, so they can't really shut it down. Might have to find a new server to host the project, but that is pretty much it.
NSA (or someone else) could try to include a back door, but let's say that people review the changes, so it becomes known. Fork, bad mouth truecrypt, recommend NoBackstabNewTrueCrypt instead.
I really think that there are enough FOSS zealots here for this to happen, so I am not particularly worried.
How about saving the content of some of these sites on Freenet instead of just trying to attract ( bad ) attention?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Anonymous electronic money transfers will not be allowed....Oh, there's no code in the CVS. Government has already been here and cleaned house.
wave's hand Nothing to see here, go about your business.
Every mans' island needs an ocean; choose your ocean carefully.
It is loosely related to ITAR restrictions, but the specific subject is Gore's backdoors. He used the relaxation of ITAR as a carrot to get the back doors built in.
LOL... *wipes away tear*... whew! That was a good one.
Resistance is futile. Your technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. You will become one with the morgue
The US tries and Tries to shut http://www.thepiratebay.org site down and has never succeeded.
www.thepiratebay.org says it all!!!
1. If you had to have a third party around for some reason or other, the libs are housebroken as far as the upper class is concerned, even if they can't be put in pocket right away. They may yap a lot but they know if they bite off too much of the social safety net, especially right now, they'll get more than a rolled-up newspaper across the nose.
2. The libs are fixed too. It's common knowledge that the election system is designed to preserve and promote an existing duopoly. Barring a massive catastrophe just before an election such as that terrorist attack in Spain, a significant shift away from the duopoly parties is highly unlikely. In case such a state of emergency should arise, legitimate or otherwise, some three-letter agency or other has the force of law to reschedule elections. I just forgot which one.
3. When people clamor for a third party, the Establishment can point to them the same way that Verizon (was it?) wanted to point to their in-house P2P network and reject anyone still discontented as angry white kids or whatever.
The Greens, however, are dangerous. They will piss off the wealthy and do advocate downward redistributions of accumulated wealth as a social justice issue. That will not be allowed to happen, even if the Establishment have to pull an Adlai Stevenson on the winner. The line could be "Aw, someone got sore that this guy got elected. Some say ((C)(TM) Fox News) it was suicide. Oh well, how about our nice home-grown VP?"
/. -- the Free Republic of technology.
Maker^H^H^H^H^H advertiser of the "Phantom Lapboard", which continues to live up to its name. They'll be closed down by the government for SEC violations. I have no priviledged information, but, wow, the history to date looks bad.
... that they apparently defeated the 'weapons industry' for the title of 'most profitable industry in the world'.
Mind the frickin' laser...
SCO http://www.sco.com/
They are in Chapter 11 bankruptcy at the moment. The next stage is Chapter 7 hopefully when Kimball's ruling comes through. Then the Government through the agency of the Delaware court will terminate them.
Microsoft. I had to say it.
For those who seek perfection there can be no rest on this side of the grave.
Did thou hearest that whistle of an ether-fly? Get thee down from thy mount and hideth thy face in the Bushes! Worsted than an axe flying inches past thy headeth... It's raining vaginas and thee begot hit by a penis! Did thouest fvck!ng miss his joke? And no, the parent was a male, hence my implied use of "his post" in the previous sentence; because I know for certain that all tempted females on Slashdot are 13-year-old lipstick lesbians interning at the CIA and the FBI. Thou has wrot silliness in thy house. Washeth thy hands of thee and thou postest not again.
I didn't know about Sibel until I read it here. It may not have been your direct intent but spreading information the establishment does *not* want you to know is the only thing we can do to defeat those measures.
I must also commend you on doing it the right way, with just enough bias that it would make me want to look into it.
Keep up the good work, and may everybody else who reads this take it as a reminder to do the right thing while they still have enough freedom to do so.
"If we don't talk about it, it doesn't exist. Now *that's* the real power of the media" to loosely translate a movie quote.
Mind the frickin' laser...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrawideband
Infuriate left and right
Just announced yesterday: mySociety's House of Commons video site. Crowd-source some video timestamps today!
Why might the government seek to close the site down? After all, aren't mySociety "the biggest single catalyst for political change in this country"? (Lord Gould of Brookwood, House of Lords debate, 15/6/06)
Well, they may be, but they may have fractured, or at least bent, a copyright law or two.
You see, Parliamentary video exists under a draconian copyright license under which it "must not be hosted on a searchable website and must not be downloadable", apparently for fear of naughty citizens making humorous or satirical use of it; or indeed any use at all.
To which the mySociety guys and gals seem to have said a collective, "Well that's silly," and gone ahead and done it anyway. Good on you, people.
Seriously, do your bit for democratic transparency and go and timestamp a few videos now. It's curiously addictive.
NASA. Perhaps they aren't "shutting it down" but they're letting it bleed to death.
(...On a side note, it's actually managed to get crazier just in the past few months. Mr Ray is certainly not one to be crowned Wisest Human on Earth and then simply rest on his laurels.)
Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
... Anonymous Cowards
Nothin like a terrorist organization setting up shop in the middle of Washington DC devoted to the utter destruction of average white kids. www.dieyuppiekickball.com
Will be shut down for being to popular!
I'm surprised no one here has mentioned that one yet.
Sort of elitist and cute like Hasty Pudding, but only near-universal adoption for decades or hundreds of years will be considered. Since bananas are going the way of the dodo and the passenger pigeon as we speak (metaphorically, we're actually typing, of course), the category gets mixed in with the awful permanence in school lunches of tapioca cups that need no refrigeration and are, by definition, not cool.
Meanwhile, let's work on the idea that 4-dollar gas is a Bush-Cheney plot to MAKE Americans conserve gas.
``Tension, apprehension & dissension have begun!'' - Duffy Wyg&, in Alfred Bester's _The Demolished Man_
"This whole exercise is pointless and stupid."
Ah, did you forget typing "slashdot.org"? Of course it is.
acid needs to be stored away from oxygen, ultraviolet and chlorine. it should have a slightly bitter taste but be odorless and colorless. methinks it's time for you to replenish the old inventory with fresh.
What with their wanting to allow people at Gitmo access to something that resembles due process, they're obviously in league with the terrorists.
The men in black just took control of Slashdot and are wanting you to designate their next target !
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
b3ta Oh wait, it just happened...
the church of psychology Just as soon as I've written some material for it, scientology will have it pulled down...
It is serious nomination, not a troll.
Goatse.
It has been taken down already w three or four times.
Is this even illegal? In Belgium, we have every radio channel broadcasting where the 'falling stars' are hiding. It gets the job done: noone gets caught, and traffic is much safer around these areas.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/osmissile/
Might be in jeopardy, if they ever did anything!
One year I signed up for a sourceforge project on Open Source Missile Control Systems. I did not notice that it was April 1. The project died before it was born. I thought it was a great idea.
Not for any real reason, just to keep us on our toes.
I am trolling
There should also be the category "Most Likely to Shut Down the Government", though the former may be slightly more posslible. sigh. Any candidates?
if so how about .ir
I don't think your reply is justified in tone and I don't think the name-calling is reasonable. If I understand things correctly, the GP was essentially correct.
Yes, freenet works by having individual nodes cache parts of files. Every user, when installing Freenet, sets a max size for the cache on their machine. When caches fill up, the least-used fragments get bumped off by the new stuff. This is important; I'll come back to it later.
No one, as far as I know, is DDOSing with any kind of porn. The DDOS that's going on is (perhaps among other things; I don't know all about it) targeting Frost boards. For those that don't know, Frost is, from a user interface perspective, kind of like a mashup of Usenet and webboards, all running inside Freenet. Frost has "boards" that you can access as long as you know the name of the board. Getting the names is easy; just ask. If you ask, you'll find there are a couple of well known KP boards. Ask on them and you'll get directed to dozens more. Only a few have any appreciable activity.
The DOS attack targets Frost by flooding with garbage. If you post garbage to Frost, the clients that are set up to auto-update will download it. If users add enough garbage to their node via an auto-updating Frost installation, their caches will fill with new but useless junk and the files that people actually want will no longer have cache space in which to reside. Thus, the DOS attack on Frost is, by extension, an attack on Freenet itself.
The request to target the KP boards is, to my understanding, a plea of "If you're gonna attack us, why not attack the worst of us first and leave us legit users alone?" If the DOSers just attack the Frost kp boards, they'll tend to overfill and cleanse *first* the nodes of people that collect that stuff, so basically the request seeks to point the DOS at nodes/caches with evil content first, minimizing the collateral damage to innocent users while the devs work on preventing future DOS attacks. The request is an attempt to salvage some good and buy time. (This is the third-hand impression I get. I haven't seen the actual request. Can anyone point me to it?)
Some final notes - First, I can't understand why anyone would expect a DDOS attacker to respect a request to "Please attack the network in the least negative way possible." If someone is DDOSing you, they want to hurt you. If you want to hurt Freenet, DDOSing the legit content and leaving the KP alone would more effectively accomplish that goal. So the motivations and successes of the people involved really leave me confused. Maybe someone out there is monitoring Frost closely enough to understand exactly what's being attacked and what the effects are but the whole thing seems weird and mysterious to me. Second, I don't think this is really as much a Freenet attack as a Frost attack. Putting lots of messages on Frost causes problems in Frost but since the message sizes are small, I don't see this as an effective way to fill caches and hurt Freenet proper. I'm technically weak on all this and if someone could tell me how this observation is in error (if it is), I'd be highly appreciative. Finally, I've been on Freenet for just a week and I may be completely wrong about everything. But I just wanted to make it clear that, AFAIK, no one is asking anyone to do anything that would spread porn of any kind, especially the worst of it.
I forget where I got most of this list, but here is a handy reference to check your own thought processes:
Bandwagon effect: n. The tendency to do (or believe) things because many other people do (or believe) the same. Related to Groupthink.
Bias blind spot: n. The tendency not to compensate for one's own cognitive biases.
Choice-supportive bias: n. The tendency to remember one's choices as better than they actually were.
Confirmation bias: n. The tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions.
Congruence bias: n. The tendency to test hypotheses exclusively through direct testing.
Contrast effect: n. The enhancement or diminishment of a weight or other measurement when compared with recently observed contrasting object.
Disconfirmation bias: n. The tendency for people to extend critical scrutiny to information which contradicts their prior beliefs and accept uncritically information that is congruent with their prior beliefs.
Endowment effect: n. The tendency for people to value something more as soon as they own it.
Focusing effect: n. Prediction bias occurring when people place too much importance on one aspect of an event; causes error in accurately predicting the utility of a future outcome.
Hyperbolic discounting: n. The tendency for people to have a stronger preference for more immediate payoffs relative to later payoffs, the closer to the present both payoffs are.
Illusion of control: n. The tendency for human beings to believe they can control or at least influence outcomes which they clearly cannot.
Impact bias: n. The tendency for people to overestimate the length or the intensity of the impact of future feeling states.
Information bias: n. The tendency to seek information even when it cannot affect action.
Loss aversion: n. The tendency for people to strongly prefer avoiding losses over acquiring gains.
Neglect of Probability: n. The tendency to completely disregard probability when making a decision under uncertainty.
Mere exposure effect: n. The tendency for people to express undue liking for things merely because they are familiar with them.
Color psychology: n. The tendency for cultural symbolism of certain colors to affect affective reasoning.
Omission Bias: n. The tendency to judge harmful actions as worse, or less moral than equally harmful omissions (inactions).
Outcome Bias: n. The tendency to judge a decision by its eventual outcome instead of based on the quality of the decision at the time it was made.
Planning fallacy: n. The tendency to underestimate task-completion times.
Post-purchase rationalization: n. The tendency to persuade oneself through rational argument that a purchase was good value.
Pseudocertainty effect: n. The tendency to make risk-averse choices if the expected outcome is positive, but risk-seeking choices to avoid negative outcomes.
Rosy retrospection: n. The tendency to rate past events more positively than they had actually rated them when the event occurred.
Selective perception: n. The tendency for expectations to affect perception.
Status quo bias: n. The tendency for people to like things to stay relatively the same.
Von Restorff effect: n. The tendency for an item that "stands out like a sore thumb" to be more likely to be remembered than other items.
Zeigarnik effect: n. The tendency for people to remember uncompleted or interrupted tasks better than completed ones.
Zero-risk bias: n. Preference for reducing a small risk to zero over a greater reduction in a larger risk.
Ambiguity effect: n. The avoidance of options for which missing information makes the probability seem "unknown".
Anchoring: n. The tendency to rely too heavily, or "anchor," on one trait or piece of information when making decisions.
Anthropic bias: n. The tendency for one's evidence to be biased by observation selection effects.
Attentio
For fear of becoming one of the many ex-employees that SMS.ac has thrown a lawsuit at for opening their mouths after the fact, I will anonymously add my vote.
OPen source voting software would probably draw the ire of the government.
Us Canajans just had a rule that contact mssages were sent at FLASH priority in the clear... as the enemy who is currently shooting at you knows where he is, it is pretty easy for him to guess where you are.
Come to think of it, that allows a known-plaintxt attack on BATCO (;-))
--dave
davecb@spamcop.net
...and other peer to peer software.
Actually, I think that the *AA's would not like this, as it is their only source of income.
Oh, wait... They have a media industry!? I completely forgot!! I was under the impression that their only job in the world was to sue people!
Were did i leave that tinfoil hat?
Weren't they enacting a law that removed EFF's right to challenge patents?
A law that permitted only direct-competitors, only for a limited time, to challenge, thereby turning bogus patents into market-controlling extortion?
When is that law hitting, or is it already, or did it get denatured by the corporate predators' failure to vote it in without scrutiny?
I agree. Everybody taking the side of a majority, while in the best interest of the short term, is promoting exactly what we are complaining about. Everyone being told by the GOP or DNC who to vote for to give that party "the power" seems very similar to the way government works, in the bureaucratic sense. This arguing over what one person has the best chances over some "opponent" certainly has the best strategic advantage. I think Obama is good, but I really want to throw my vote to Ron Paul. People love him, but the media will always support big government (Our copyright law makes me physically ill at times thinking about it, and I will always be grateful to Lessig for opening my eyes to the real potential of the internet). The internet may be an integral part of our lives and infrastructure, but this election has been amazing with respect to the kind of influence the internet has had, and not had, so far on society ass a whole.
Maybe I have become cynical, but for all the complaints about the government, I believe more and more that it is the sum of what we all believe, contradictions, paranoia, and all; a government of the people, by the people, and for the people that can't hardly agree on anything, and scared everything.
Want Big Business out of government? Take away the incentive and start by getting government out of big business!
I was familiar with California law and had friends who were lock smiths; one in particular had just moved to California and was having issues because the state license was not transferable from Montana.
From what I have been told, and from what I have seen / encountered with police at least with respect to guns, knives, and swords you really need to kiss ass in order for the police no not make your day a nightmare. My wife frequently carries a sword (if you ask, you will get a story, you've been warned) and on a very regular basis she is explaining to security and police about both the law and safety precautions she takes.
When what you are doing could be legal, and could be illegal, be prepared to know your rights very well, have a story (a true one), and a lot of time to explain yourself while being very polite.
I live in California, and I would be surprised if your rights in any state would give you the benefit of the doubt that you are a locksmith student if you don't have your paperwork in order. In most all those laws, you need to be the one to prove you DIDN'T have intent, not the other way around. You are left with the burden of proof that you did not break the law, and had no intent of breaking the law either.
Is it really unfair to say that locksmith tools are de facto illegal?
Want Big Business out of government? Take away the incentive and start by getting government out of big business!
2600
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
It's an interactive thingy where you post where gas is the cheapest.
I'm surprised it's still up, honestly.
http://www.orangecountygasprices.com/
I swear when I read that I thought you were kidding. Then I actually went to www.lp.org, and you WEREN'T. Bob Barr as the Libertarian candidate? Bloody hell, isn't that parody enough?! "The Party of Principle" nominates an anti-drug, anti-abortion candidate for president?
/. -- the Free Republic of technology.
The real question is: how many governments will wikileaks take down before it is taken down by a government? Today, Wikileaks exists only in /. people's minds... "that shit is cooool"!
Until a bomb comes along.
Then the entire globe will be talking about it, and government(s) will take action. Wikileaks should start seeding its "catalogue" on .torrent DVD files.
I wonder if anyone has tried to set up something on sourceforge....
Songza will be shut down by the government. Songza allows free access to arbitrary MP3 songs, which have been scrubbed from YouTube videos. This violates the spirit and letter of Copyright law. So state violence at the request of the media companies will be used to end the service. http://www.songza.com/
Unfortunately for the pro-copyright folks, exponential growth of bandwidth means that renting out fixed chunks of information for profit is impossible to enforce with state violence in the long term. - Connelly