I've heard this before. Sure some people will be happy with a little email web surfing machine. I wouldn't advise using wireless internet devices for anything else though.
The web is and probably always will be less secure then a home computer. Would you really want to have all of your personel information avaliable to any script kiddie that downloads the newest cracking program. At least on your home computer you are protected by the number of machines online.
Many places seem to think that most of our computing will be done online. Cnet has stated this repeatedly when talking about new online services. Who really wants to have to use online services to do day to day computing tasks. If you have a problem who do you call. Looks like pay per use will be the wave of the future if this type of thinking continues.
Sure the new devices will be cool and really handy. However don't look to be able to play the newest quake or Diablo on your wireless internet machine.
Most people don't have the large bandwidth that this type of machine would need avaliable. I look forward to having DSL about the same time that everyone in congress learns how to use linux. Broadband wireless should come about five years after that.
Btw how is anybody supposed to learn about programming on this type of machine. When all programs are ran on remote servers on the net it will create a situation where the people owning those servers decide what kind of software you need to run.
Just my two cents worth. I wouldn't trade my two networked computers for a web server with a dsl connection and online applications. I really wouldn't mind being able to download mp3's to play on my portable mp3 player with a nifty wireless connection, though.
I've had some trouble explaining to people why the debate over cracking the dvd encryption scheme is so important. I've been trying to explain it in my terms. What I should do is explain it in their terms.
When you buy a dvd player or a computer with a dvd-player built in you are also almost always given the software needed to run the player. So in reality anyone buying a DVD player has already paid for the software needed to run it.
All that this debate is about, is freedom of choice.
The DVD CCA is just descriminating against linux users. If a Linux user owns a DVD player that person has already payed for the use of DVD software. The Linux user has not been given working software for linux even though he has already paid for the software. So the DVDCCA is just descriminating against a philosophy. The OSS philosophy which is something that scares the DVD-CCA.
If this debate were about race, relegion, or sex then the outcome would be much more predictable. Instead it's about the fundamental freedom of thought.
They are not against the software. They aren't stupid they know that it is impractical to copy DVDs. They are against reverse engeneering because it allows others to gain information outside of their channels of control. They do not want a large group of people using a product that promotes free thought and free products. They want to stop the linux OSS movement while they can.
So how do they do that? They use the formula that this article is making fun of.
Sue! The more the better. Even if you don't win you hurt the person that you are litigating against. And you help keep people from doing anything that you would disaprove of in the future.
Use misinformation. Represent the situation in the most favorable light for your cause. Forget facts if you can sway opinion that will be enough.
Use misrepresentation. Anyone involved must be made to look like a criminal. Even if their intent was not criminal.
Use politics. Politicians are only human you can feed thim misinformation. You can buy them and they have the power to change things in your favor.
Use Law enforcement. Most law enforcment agencies are more then willing to accept the expert help of corperate officials. Back in the day Bell had their own agents that accompanied police to help in the arrest of suspected phreakers.
This article is funny, as it was intended to be, but it's also scary because it's so close to what's been happening. Sorry about the long post.
Football? Come on. The only good sports left are things like skateboarding, snowboarding, and sporting events like the X games. All the other sports that are spoon fed to you by television people, are mostly just a bunch of over payed jocks that got a free ride through highschool then college. Most, not all of these athletes can't do anything except play sports.
Don't get me wrong I love sports even football. But I love to play them not to watch them, except for those sports that money hasn't ruined.
I don't see anything wrong with posting the story here though. If you don't like it don't read it.
BTW FreeBSDrew, JavaDrew is shorter and consitent with java naming practices almost, javaDrew would be.:) If your not who I think you are sorry.
I'm not from india but I have a couple of ideas for representing directory structures.
Directories represented as 3d hallways with files represented by 3d objects.
Directories and files represented in html as links and lists. Basically what's being done on the web. Would definately make home computers more organized.
How about a library representation. Each book a directory with chapters and subchapters as subdirectorys and all linked back to an index. Also a very organized way to represent data.
Or for the virtual reality buffs how about a 3d representation organized using objects. A virtual notebook containing all your letters. A virtual tv with channels linked to your favorite videos. A library for all your ebooks and a museum for your artwork. You could take this kind of representation as far as you want. This type of representation would be easy for todays computers.
Just some ideas do what you want with them. I never think of directorys as folders anyway. I grew up using DOS.
Yes we should use massive retaliation. I'm a college student and colleges love to screw students out of any money that they can. Example my college sold twice the number of parking spaces as were avaliable then blamed the parking problems on the students. This guy is going to get what he deserves.
No one is going to make death threats over phone service but haveing people calling him from all over the country telling him what a bone head he is will be good for him.
If he wants privacy he will have an unlisted and private line for home use. Which I am quite sure is the case.
How about a utility that automatically goes through and randomizes some of the data in chosen cookies every so often. Then you could install that program and your grandmother would never have to even know what a cookie file was. Cookies are handy but they just aren't worth the loss of privacy.
But have any of you tried to surf the net after turning off the accept cookie feature in you favorite browser. You can't access many sites and others give you errors.
Most of us would be willing to live with having to log into our favorite sites each time we get online. Hell for me slashdot is the only site that I really need a cookie for. We are not given the choice anymore. Even though most of us would give up a little conveniance for our privacy we would still like to be able to see sites on the internet that require you to use a cookie.
Sorry to all you readers about the my other post. I wanted to respond to this under my nick. My earlier post was somewhat childish but it was truly the way I felt. Here is my response not posted AC. I just sent this to the person whom I am replying to and thought that maybe someone here would like to see what I had to say. BTW I used the caps for what they are supposed to be used for emphasis. This isn't a flame, I just thought that you would like a response to your post on slashdot. BTW my nick on/. is |deity| in case you were wondering. The only reason that the post was anonymous was that I didn't want to start a flame war. I've noticed that if you voice a strong opinion on slashdot under your nick moderators tend to moderate you down for little or no reason. Also people like yourself that have strong opinions about a subject tend, to judge you without cause based on one opinion. I'm quite sure that you are intelligent enough not to do this, though I know people who do. I would like to respond to some of the points you made in your comment. I would do this on slashdot but my comment was just moderated down to -1. The comment on it is troll(lol) I would have moderated it as flamebait, if I moderated it at all. One of the first things that you stated was that I was whining about Java crashing netscape on my linux box. I think you made a mistake one of the other comments above mine stated that. I have never had trouble with Java on netscape. I only use netscape when I'm running linux though. Under windows I run Internet explorer, sorry to say but in my experience on my computer I have had more trouble with Netscape then explorer. I noticed on your user info that you are a BSD person. I've followed BSD's progress for the last couple of years and it seems like a decent OS, I just wish it had more hardware/software support since I'm quite sure it's one of the most secure OS's around. Not to get off the subject. You questioned my knowledge of Java. Specifically why do I consider it overly verbose, bloated, and dead. First I'll answer why I believe it to be verbose, bloated, and dead, then I'll give you my credentials. verbose Pronunciation: (vur-bOs'), [key] --adj. characterized by the use of many or too many words; wordy: a verbose report Java borrowed many of the best concepts it uses from other languages. C++ and Pascal mainly. Any language that makes me type System.out.print ("whatever"); just to print out a single statement to the console, is in my opinion overly Verbose. Your response to my statement might be that "That's to be consistent with the rest of the language and using the dot operator to call specific packages." Or you might say that that statement makes the program more readable and organized. That would be true However their is no reason not to include a short syntax which it does for string declaration. Using basic's print or C printf would be much easier and not very hard to implement or confusing. Secondly you were wondering why I consider java to be bloated. However well written java is it was never intended to do what people are using it for today. Java was developed in 1991 as a part of the green project. The green project was trying to develop software to control consumer electronics. As a bit of trivia java was originally called Oak. I'm an emulator buff and I can with little trouble run emulations of games written for Nintendo 64 or sony playstation using an emulator written in C or C++. Java bytecode should be at least as efficient. Many interpreted languages run faster then java does. Java's garbage collecting ability is handy but it doesn't do that great of a job. A true platform independent language should have a separate compiler for each platform to make real applications run at decent speeds. I know that JIT compilers do exist but they were not implemented by the creators of the language. Java bytecode used for web applets is a great idea, although most nontrivial uses for it tend to be large and run slowly even on a relatively fast machine. You asked why I thought Java was dead. Mostly that is my wishful thinking. However Sun is losing the support of many people in the open source community because of recent bungles. Microsoft is also helping them along by making noncompliant/compatible java compilers. You suggested that I read a few books and maybe attend a few classes. I assume you mean a few books about java, because I have read everything from Plato's Republic to the Riftwar saga by Raymond E. Feist(A great set of books if you like fantasy ). I have read and am reading several books about the java programming language, because even though I don't like java it is used extensively and I like to be informed. As for attending classes I'm a Junior in college getting my computer science degree, I have finished all the classes required for a math minor and am considering going for a double major. Math and Computer Science with a minor in physics. I'm sorry if I offended you with my opinion. As Denis Miller would say "That's just my opinion I could be wrong." I will be sure to post this to slashdot under my nick. I STILL HATE JAVA.
I agree we should get together and show what we have done. Slashdot may or may not be the best place to do that though. Your idea of a metric is one that I agree with. We should have a page that gives a list of contacts and suggestions. We would also need a feedback page to allow people to show what they have done or heard about important issues to geeks and coders.
Sorry about the spelling and grammer. I went to public school. On a side note. I didn't want a seperate post. Mitnick may have been a criminal but the way he was treated shows a blatent disregard for cival liberties. Go get the full story at 2600 The companies involved gave false claims about the damage that mitnick did to their companies and then didn't report those losses to stockholders as they are required to do.
It's a matter of money. Look what OJ simpson got away with. If Mitnick had the kind of money that OJ did he would have been out of jail in months instead of years.
The more of us that slip through the cracks. If this law passes software prices will skyrocket. More people will switch to open source software and leave the software companies wondering where their customers went.
If such a law were passed I would move to all open source software. And I would devote a great deal of my time to writing programs that would be gpl'ed just to take money away from any software company that tried to use such a crummy liscense.
Thank god I still have enough freedom to move to another country if this one keeps going the way it's going.
I would never buy Britney Spears...!!!!!!! I never buy any of the music that gets played on the radio or mtv because it sucks. It's designed for the lowest common denominator. It has a catchy beat and is flashy but has no real content or meaning.
This is another thing that record companies fear. They fear that people will develope taste and quit buying into their mindless marketing schemes. Someday soon bands with real talant will be able to offer their music directly to the public so cheaply that we will never want to pirate music.
Who would want to go to the trouble of finding a perfect blind guardian mp3 when you could go to their website and download it for 50 cents. The artist would actually make more money and the consumer would save money as always happens when you get rid of the middle men.
If the bands that recorded the songs recieved all the profits for those cd's that are being recorded I would pay for every single song I listen to. However cds cost less then 50 cents each when pressed in quantity. And the artists get about 50 cents an album. Where do you think that other ten to fifteen dollars is going? Into the pockets of the people making a fuss over the mp3 format.
If I could download the one or two good songs that usually show up on an album then I would gladly pay the artist a dollar a song. They would be much better off, I would be much better off and the RIAA would be out of buisiness this is what really scares them.
They are not really losing money by people listening to mp3's. People can hear much of the same music for free over the radio. Just like everyone else if I find an album that I like I buy it. Then I can sit at home and listen to it on my cd player or in my car or when I go camping on a portable cd player.
I like certain bands and although I preview their songs on mp3 if I like them I buy them. And for all of you out there mp3's are not as high quality as cds.
Do you feel that science in general is to critical of new ideas. I've noticed that anything that doesn't agree with mainstream thought is flamed, for lack of a better description, by mainstream scientists. Shouldn't a scientist apply the scientific method. Wouldn't it be better if they would say this does not agree with current thought but until I see proof to the contrary I don't know if it is correct or not.
Maybe the good guys won't finish last this time. If anyone deserves to be recognized and to make money, in the field that they love, it's the guys from l0ft. They talked at one of the hope(hackers on planet earth conventions) and they convinced me that they are truly concerned with the internet community and the underground.
BTW if you would like to hear what they had to say check the 2600 website. Look for the hope archives.
No government should be able to get away with this. I'm an individualist I like to think that it is my job to keep myself out of trouble. I hate the kind of statistics that say if we crush peoples rights we can save their life.
The same kind of reasoning could be used on any large construction project. In general whenever you build a skyscraper or a dam a certain number of people will die in the process(can't remember exact numbers about 2 per project I think) we haven't stoped building these large scale projects although everyone would agree that none of them are worth a human life.
People have to start taking responsability for their actions. It's not the governments job to protect people from themselves. I hate seatbelt laws for the same reason. Everyone should wear a seatbelt but they should do it because it's their choice to be safe not because it's the law.
If I decide to wear a seatbelt and it causes me to be trapped in a burning vehicle then that was my decision not a choice made for me by a law.
This device being considered for use, is a clear message to the people of Britain. You are not able to make mature decisions so we are going to do it for you.
If your willing to trade your rights for safety then you would be perfectly safe strapped to a bed in a concrete bunker with someone to wait on you all day.
I'm more then willing to live with the decisions that I make in life. Even if those decisions are wrong. To have a free democratic society we must be willing to accept that all people are basically able to make the best decisions for themselves. How else can any country have a government by the people for the people.
As tech people we should never make fun of someone we are trying to help. PERIOD.
As a cartoonist anyone should be free game. From god to the lowest form of life on earth(bill gates). If a cartoonist wants to make fun of newbies let him. Don't you think that an exteacher writing a comic strip might make fun of students?
fuck pc(big brother wants you to conform) I'll say what I want to say.
BTW for those of you with no taste those comic strips are funny.
I agee most people are just ignorant not stupid. We all were newbies at one time or another. None of us know all their is to know about computers.
However, if I were working tech support and someone called me asking where the anykey was I would have to turn off my headset and laugh.
One of my friends that works tech. support for company that writes insurance software, told me about a women that broke her cd rom by using it for a coffee cup holder. He was of course polite and professional. Seems the women thought that the cd-rom was a high tech coffee cup holder. If you don't think he laughed after he got off the phone with that lady your wrong.
We should all try and help newbies but it doesn't hurt to have a little fun while we're doing it. Hell all of us are newbies at something. How many of you know how to canoe, rock climb, parachute, repel, shoot a bow program in c/c++, java, basic, or any of a million different other things. And as you can tell I'm still a newbie at grammer and spelling.
Hell I've been a newbie in all those things and still am in many more. Some very kind people were their to help me more often then not with biting humor but it was good natured humor and I joined in when I reached a level of expertise that allowed me to see my many humorous mistakes.
1. The guy that invented the wheel. 2. The person who discovered fire. 3. The person who invented speech. 4. The person who invented writting. 5. The person who invented math.
I know this is a little off topic. I'm a student, working on a degree in computer science I would like to work in the security field where should I start? What kind of things should I be doing to prepare myself for a job in this field. I've been programming for about nine years in various languages.
Many people who call themselves hackers today are quick to say "I'm a hacker not a cracker." These same people in years past wrote cracking tutorials and in some cases cracked computers. My question is why are these people so interested in trying to look like the good guys? L0pht is fairly open about what it does. You find security holes and post cracks so that the holes get fixed by embarassed software companies.
Slashdot Mirror
The web is and probably always will be less secure then a home computer. Would you really want to have all of your personel information avaliable to any script kiddie that downloads the newest cracking program. At least on your home computer you are protected by the number of machines online.
Many places seem to think that most of our computing will be done online. Cnet has stated this repeatedly when talking about new online services. Who really wants to have to use online services to do day to day computing tasks. If you have a problem who do you call. Looks like pay per use will be the wave of the future if this type of thinking continues.
Sure the new devices will be cool and really handy. However don't look to be able to play the newest quake or Diablo on your wireless internet machine.
Most people don't have the large bandwidth that this type of machine would need avaliable. I look forward to having DSL about the same time that everyone in congress learns how to use linux. Broadband wireless should come about five years after that.
Btw how is anybody supposed to learn about programming on this type of machine. When all programs are ran on remote servers on the net it will create a situation where the people owning those servers decide what kind of software you need to run.
Just my two cents worth. I wouldn't trade my two networked computers for a web server with a dsl connection and online applications. I really wouldn't mind being able to download mp3's to play on my portable mp3 player with a nifty wireless connection, though.
When you buy a dvd player or a computer with a dvd-player built in you are also almost always given the software needed to run the player. So in reality anyone buying a DVD player has already paid for the software needed to run it.
All that this debate is about, is freedom of choice.
The DVD CCA is just descriminating against linux users. If a Linux user owns a DVD player that person has already payed for the use of DVD software. The Linux user has not been given working software for linux even though he has already paid for the software. So the DVDCCA is just descriminating against a philosophy. The OSS philosophy which is something that scares the DVD-CCA.
If this debate were about race, relegion, or sex then the outcome would be much more predictable. Instead it's about the fundamental freedom of thought.
They are not against the software. They aren't stupid they know that it is impractical to copy DVDs. They are against reverse engeneering because it allows others to gain information outside of their channels of control. They do not want a large group of people using a product that promotes free thought and free products. They want to stop the linux OSS movement while they can.
So how do they do that? They use the formula that this article is making fun of.
Sue! The more the better. Even if you don't win you hurt the person that you are litigating against. And you help keep people from doing anything that you would disaprove of in the future.
Use misinformation. Represent the situation in the most favorable light for your cause. Forget facts if you can sway opinion that will be enough.
Use misrepresentation. Anyone involved must be made to look like a criminal. Even if their intent was not criminal.
Use politics. Politicians are only human you can feed thim misinformation. You can buy them and they have the power to change things in your favor.
Use Law enforcement. Most law enforcment agencies are more then willing to accept the expert help of corperate officials. Back in the day Bell had their own agents that accompanied police to help in the arrest of suspected phreakers.
This article is funny, as it was intended to be, but it's also scary because it's so close to what's been happening. Sorry about the long post.
Don't get me wrong I love sports even football. But I love to play them not to watch them, except for those sports that money hasn't ruined.
I don't see anything wrong with posting the story here though. If you don't like it don't read it.
BTW FreeBSDrew, JavaDrew is shorter and consitent with java naming practices almost, javaDrew would be. :) If your not who I think you are sorry.
Directories represented as 3d hallways with files represented by 3d objects.
Directories and files represented in html as links and lists. Basically what's being done on the web. Would definately make home computers more organized.
How about a library representation. Each book a directory with chapters and subchapters as subdirectorys and all linked back to an index. Also a very organized way to represent data.
Or for the virtual reality buffs how about a 3d representation organized using objects. A virtual notebook containing all your letters. A virtual tv with channels linked to your favorite videos. A library for all your ebooks and a museum for your artwork. You could take this kind of representation as far as you want. This type of representation would be easy for todays computers.
Just some ideas do what you want with them. I never think of directorys as folders anyway. I grew up using DOS.
No one is going to make death threats over phone service but haveing people calling him from all over the country telling him what a bone head he is will be good for him.
If he wants privacy he will have an unlisted and private line for home use. Which I am quite sure is the case.
How about a utility that automatically goes through and randomizes some of the data in chosen cookies every so often. Then you could install that program and your grandmother would never have to even know what a cookie file was. Cookies are handy but they just aren't worth the loss of privacy.
But have any of you tried to surf the net after turning off the accept cookie feature in you favorite browser. You can't access many sites and others give you errors.
Most of us would be willing to live with having to log into our favorite sites each time we get online. Hell for me slashdot is the only site that I really need a cookie for. We are not given the choice anymore. Even though most of us would give up a little conveniance for our privacy we would still like to be able to see sites on the internet that require you to use a cookie.
oops I meant to preview that and hit submit instead. I wanted to post it as text not html.
Sorry I must be getting tired.
Sorry to all you readers about the my other post. I wanted to respond to this under my nick. My earlier post was somewhat childish but it was truly the way I felt. Here is my response not posted AC. I just sent this to the person whom I am replying to and thought that maybe someone here would like to see what I had to say. BTW I used the caps for what they are supposed to be used for emphasis. This isn't a flame, I just thought that you would like a response to your post on slashdot. BTW my nick on /. is |deity| in case you were wondering. The only reason that the post was anonymous was that I didn't want to start a flame war. I've noticed that if you voice a strong opinion on slashdot under your nick moderators tend to moderate you down for little or no reason. Also people like yourself that have strong opinions about a subject tend, to judge you without cause based on one opinion. I'm quite sure that you are intelligent enough not to do this, though I know people who do. I would like to respond to some of the points you made in your comment. I would do this on slashdot but my comment was just moderated down to -1. The comment on it is troll(lol) I would have moderated it as flamebait, if I moderated it at all. One of the first things that you stated was that I was whining about Java crashing netscape on my linux box. I think you made a mistake one of the other comments above mine stated that. I have never had trouble with Java on netscape. I only use netscape when I'm running linux though. Under windows I run Internet explorer, sorry to say but in my experience on my computer I have had more trouble with Netscape then explorer. I noticed on your user info that you are a BSD person. I've followed BSD's progress for the last couple of years and it seems like a decent OS, I just wish it had more hardware/software support since I'm quite sure it's one of the most secure OS's around. Not to get off the subject. You questioned my knowledge of Java. Specifically why do I consider it overly verbose, bloated, and dead. First I'll answer why I believe it to be verbose, bloated, and dead, then I'll give you my credentials. verbose Pronunciation: (vur-bOs'), [key] --adj. characterized by the use of many or too many words; wordy: a verbose report Java borrowed many of the best concepts it uses from other languages. C++ and Pascal mainly. Any language that makes me type System.out.print ("whatever"); just to print out a single statement to the console, is in my opinion overly Verbose. Your response to my statement might be that "That's to be consistent with the rest of the language and using the dot operator to call specific packages." Or you might say that that statement makes the program more readable and organized. That would be true However their is no reason not to include a short syntax which it does for string declaration. Using basic's print or C printf would be much easier and not very hard to implement or confusing. Secondly you were wondering why I consider java to be bloated. However well written java is it was never intended to do what people are using it for today. Java was developed in 1991 as a part of the green project. The green project was trying to develop software to control consumer electronics. As a bit of trivia java was originally called Oak. I'm an emulator buff and I can with little trouble run emulations of games written for Nintendo 64 or sony playstation using an emulator written in C or C++. Java bytecode should be at least as efficient. Many interpreted languages run faster then java does. Java's garbage collecting ability is handy but it doesn't do that great of a job. A true platform independent language should have a separate compiler for each platform to make real applications run at decent speeds. I know that JIT compilers do exist but they were not implemented by the creators of the language. Java bytecode used for web applets is a great idea, although most nontrivial uses for it tend to be large and run slowly even on a relatively fast machine. You asked why I thought Java was dead. Mostly that is my wishful thinking. However Sun is losing the support of many people in the open source community because of recent bungles. Microsoft is also helping them along by making noncompliant/compatible java compilers. You suggested that I read a few books and maybe attend a few classes. I assume you mean a few books about java, because I have read everything from Plato's Republic to the Riftwar saga by Raymond E. Feist(A great set of books if you like fantasy ). I have read and am reading several books about the java programming language, because even though I don't like java it is used extensively and I like to be informed. As for attending classes I'm a Junior in college getting my computer science degree, I have finished all the classes required for a math minor and am considering going for a double major. Math and Computer Science with a minor in physics. I'm sorry if I offended you with my opinion. As Denis Miller would say "That's just my opinion I could be wrong." I will be sure to post this to slashdot under my nick. I STILL HATE JAVA.
Sorry about the spelling and grammer. I went to public school. On a side note. I didn't want a seperate post. Mitnick may have been a criminal but the way he was treated shows a blatent disregard for cival liberties. Go get the full story at 2600 The companies involved gave false claims about the damage that mitnick did to their companies and then didn't report those losses to stockholders as they are required to do.
It's a matter of money. Look what OJ simpson got away with. If Mitnick had the kind of money that OJ did he would have been out of jail in months instead of years.
hell.com the smell of burning flesh and brimstone this is at least one website that could use the sence of smell for dramatic purposes.
If such a law were passed I would move to all open source software. And I would devote a great deal of my time to writing programs that would be gpl'ed just to take money away from any software company that tried to use such a crummy liscense.
Thank god I still have enough freedom to move to another country if this one keeps going the way it's going.
This is another thing that record companies fear. They fear that people will develope taste and quit buying into their mindless marketing schemes. Someday soon bands with real talant will be able to offer their music directly to the public so cheaply that we will never want to pirate music.
Who would want to go to the trouble of finding a perfect blind guardian mp3 when you could go to their website and download it for 50 cents. The artist would actually make more money and the consumer would save money as always happens when you get rid of the middle men.
If I could download the one or two good songs that usually show up on an album then I would gladly pay the artist a dollar a song. They would be much better off, I would be much better off and the RIAA would be out of buisiness this is what really scares them.
They are not really losing money by people listening to mp3's. People can hear much of the same music for free over the radio. Just like everyone else if I find an album that I like I buy it. Then I can sit at home and listen to it on my cd player or in my car or when I go camping on a portable cd player.
I like certain bands and although I preview their songs on mp3 if I like them I buy them. And for all of you out there mp3's are not as high quality as cds.
Do you feel that science in general is to critical of new ideas. I've noticed that anything that doesn't agree with mainstream thought is flamed, for lack of a better description, by mainstream scientists. Shouldn't a scientist apply the scientific method. Wouldn't it be better if they would say this does not agree with current thought but until I see proof to the contrary I don't know if it is correct or not.
In your opinion what major advance in physics in the last few years will lead to some new technology. Quantum computing? Something else?
Sorry about the number of posts I really like these guys.
I would buy some of that stock. Hard to keep trade secrets from these guys.
If anyone deserves to be recognized and to make money, in the field that they love, it's
the guys from l0ft. They talked at one of the hope(hackers on planet earth conventions) and
they convinced me that they are truly concerned with the internet community and the underground.
BTW if you would like to hear what they had to say check the 2600 website. Look for the hope archives.
No government should be able to get away with this. I'm an individualist I like to think that it is my job to keep myself out of trouble. I hate the kind of statistics that say if we crush peoples rights we can save their life.
The same kind of reasoning could be used on any large construction project. In general whenever you build a skyscraper or a dam a certain number of people will die in the process(can't remember exact numbers about 2 per project I think) we haven't stoped building these large scale projects although everyone would agree that none of them are worth a human life.
People have to start taking responsability for their actions. It's not the governments job to protect people from themselves. I hate seatbelt laws for the same reason. Everyone should wear a seatbelt but they should do it because it's their choice to be safe not because it's the law.
If I decide to wear a seatbelt and it causes me to be trapped in a burning vehicle then that was my decision not a choice made for me by a law.
This device being considered for use, is a clear message to the people of Britain. You are not able to make mature decisions so we are going to do it for you.
If your willing to trade your rights for safety then you would be perfectly safe strapped to a bed in a concrete bunker with someone to wait on you all day.
I'm more then willing to live with the decisions that I make in life. Even if those decisions are wrong. To have a free democratic society we must be willing to accept that all people are basically able to make the best decisions for themselves. How else can any country have a government by the people for the people.
As tech people we should never make fun of someone we are trying to help. PERIOD.
As a cartoonist anyone should be free game. From god to the lowest form of life on earth(bill gates). If a cartoonist wants to make fun of newbies let him. Don't you think that an exteacher writing a comic strip might make fun of students?
fuck pc(big brother wants you to conform) I'll say what I want to say.
BTW for those of you with no taste those comic strips are funny.
I agee most people are just ignorant not stupid. We all were newbies at one time or another. None of us know all their is to know about computers.
However, if I were working tech support and someone called me asking where the anykey was I would have to turn off my headset and laugh.
One of my friends that works tech. support for company that writes insurance software, told me about a women that broke her cd rom by using it for a coffee cup holder. He was of course polite and professional. Seems the women thought that the cd-rom was a high tech coffee cup holder. If you don't think he laughed after he got off the phone with that lady your wrong.
We should all try and help newbies but it doesn't hurt to have a little fun while we're doing it. Hell all of us are newbies at something. How many of you know how to canoe, rock climb, parachute, repel, shoot a bow program in c/c++, java, basic, or any of a million different other things. And as you can tell I'm still a newbie at grammer and spelling.
Hell I've been a newbie in all those things and still am in many more. Some very kind people were their to help me more often then not with biting humor but it was good natured humor and I joined in when I reached a level of expertise that allowed me to see my many humorous mistakes.
Had to add a couple.
William Gibson for his book Neuromancer.
And the whole greek civilization. For things like art, mathmatics, geometry, and architecture.
I nominate the geeks with no name.
1. The guy that invented the wheel.
2. The person who discovered fire.
3. The person who invented speech.
4. The person who invented writting.
5. The person who invented math.
6. And just so I fit in Tesla.
I know this is a little off topic. I'm a student, working on a degree in computer science I would like to work in the security field where should I start? What kind of things should I be doing to prepare myself for a job in this field. I've been programming for about nine years in various languages.
Many people who call themselves hackers today are quick to say "I'm a hacker not a cracker." These same people in years past wrote cracking tutorials and in some cases cracked computers. My question is why are these people so interested in trying to look like the good guys? L0pht is fairly open about what it does. You find security holes and post cracks so that the holes get fixed by embarassed software companies.