Except for the fact that, at least in the US, no one without a plane ticket is allowed to pass through the security gates.
They could run their scanners in the ticketing area but they couldn't do it for long periods without looking suspicious. Guys standing around in bulky coats to hide the equipment will probably draw some notice.
Since these passport chips are claimed to have a very short range (inches) to be read, guys in bulky coats dry humping tourists trying to get a scan would draw even more notice.;)
I'm not saying everything (or even a measurable portion) that appears on the internet is worth keeping forever, but the worth of any of it is not something those in the present are qualified to judge on.
In a thousand years, provided humanity hasn't wiped itself out by then, the internet archive (and by extension, ourmedia.org) will be what archaeologists use to learn about us.
You damn lemming, the president isn't planning on this attack to aid the Solarians (though I'm sure he's not above milking it for his coming re-election), he's just doing it for the energy, to ensure our infastructure doesn't collapse.
WMD my ass, he just wants to build solar panels there so our country can get the sunlight first.
Sometimes I wonder if there's some secret society of geeks that scour geekly websites for neat stuff, who's only flaw is being several years old.
They make a contest of it.. whoever gets an old geek story posted on slashdot, wins the round.
It's such an obvious sport to invent, considering all the heckling slashdot editors recieve. I'm not quite prepared to accept that so many old stories get submitted out of ignorance.
Someone, somewhere, is toasting themselves to a beer right about now.
Which would be equivalent to soaking up the oceans with a single q-tip.
That junk is up there to stay, it's not something we can undo. Meteorites are "when not if" situation anyways so instead of trying to clean space up, energy should be invested in absorbing them.
> How do you expect them to actually release a CD key? The way these games work is you can come back > to it later and renew your account if you wish. How can they renew their account if the key has been > released for reuse?
It's not difficult, technically or logically. Non-MMO games have been doing it for years; you need a unique and not-currently used cd key to be able to play online.
All Blizzard has to do is dissassociate this key from the account. If someone wants to sell their WoW cd set, they lose the key and thus lose the capacity to play the game. Later if they want to resume play, they can buy another copy of the game (perhaps a brand new store bought one) and play with that key.
Accounts themselves should be free, or nearly so. Actually playing the game should be what costs you money, which would include owning a unique key and it's associated CD's.
> It's my understanding that you can look at the plugin and see that it's not sending any extra > information back to thottbot.org such as login or password.
Nope, because the bit that actually submits the data is a binary executable. Not within the reach of average users to identify what that program is doing.
> There's no advertising on the site, so they aren't directly making money from it.
They are ironing out an advertising system. I caught a banner ad a week or so ago, and whatever poor server was serving them up quickly choked because the whole site was grinding to a halt.
30 minutes later the ads were gone and thottbot was responsive again.
I know it's a wildly unpopular concept with a lot of the tech crowd, but that's the sort of thing that unions were created to prevent. You think EA would be raping it's employees if it's workers were unionized?
Not a fan of unions myself, but history suggests it'll get results.
They're not making money by making sales. They're making money by being paid to advertise (spam).
Response rate for junk-mail in the real world is something like 2%, maybe less. Yet advertisers throw piles of money into doing it, because the income that 2% brings them is worth it. To them.
Spam is even easier.. there's no material cost involved to print up paper. Assuming spammers charge normal advertising rates, their profits are up a considerable amount.
> Huh? If you have $100 in your wallet and it is > stolen, you're out $100. Sounds like being hurt to > me.
I seem to recall leaving a qualifier in my post that if one gets mugged, my advice is not sound. I know reading articles is a rare thing on slashdot.. but not reading the posts you're replying to?
> Which is why I now always pay at the pump, and try > to avoid any situation where my card will be in > the hands of someone else.
There's another option: pay in cash. People that try to steal that stuff generally get caught a lot quicker, and even if they don't get caught it doesn't hurt you in the slightest.
Credit cards are handy things, but using them to replace cash for day to day purchases is asking for trouble.
I suppose if one is constantly getting mugged the above may not be sound advice. For the rest of us, it's much safer.
I've had something that played on this same idea up for a few years now:
http://www.tru7h.org/projects/society2/
Obviously it's a bit crude, and someone had a fetish for pacman ghosts a ways back, but it's going on 3 years of accumulation now.. can't bear to take it down.;)
Or baoding balls. Not quite as precise an exercise as embroidery, but there's a lot less setup, it's as simple as picking them up and spinning them around.
Pushing them into new patterns will serve the same purpose of moving fingers in a variety of ways.
Have a set on my desk at work and at home, going on 15 years of 8+ hours a day of keyboard use.. wrists are still pain free.
Slashdot Mirror
> but then again I think rationally.
Christ man, cut that shit out. This is slashdot afterall.
Except for the fact that, at least in the US, no one without a plane ticket is allowed to pass through the security gates.
;)
They could run their scanners in the ticketing area but they couldn't do it for long periods without looking suspicious. Guys standing around in bulky coats to hide the equipment will probably draw some notice.
Since these passport chips are claimed to have a very short range (inches) to be read, guys in bulky coats dry humping tourists trying to get a scan would draw even more notice.
> Of hand, does anyone know of a WM that's relaly
> easy to customize, but also very flexible?
IceWM is pretty decent. In an afternoon I had redrawn all the window widgets, put them where I wanted, and gotten rid of ones I didn't want.
Yeah, and they apparently post on Slashdot.
Even so, to some extent it does need to be done.
I'm not saying everything (or even a measurable portion) that appears on the internet is worth keeping forever, but the worth of any of it is not something those in the present are qualified to judge on.
In a thousand years, provided humanity hasn't wiped itself out by then, the internet archive (and by extension, ourmedia.org) will be what archaeologists use to learn about us.
Sounds like a lot of people upset over nothing.
Welcome to the internet!
You damn lemming, the president isn't planning on this attack to aid the Solarians (though I'm sure he's not above milking it for his coming re-election), he's just doing it for the energy, to ensure our infastructure doesn't collapse.
WMD my ass, he just wants to build solar panels there so our country can get the sunlight first.
Because it opens them up to lawsuits in the event that someone is not aware he is an asshole, and could have prevented the emotional trauma.
Most of 'em are text files stuck somewhere. Just grep them for phone numbers, email addresses, and if you're feeling clever, mailing addresses. ;)
Obviously their control extends deeper than any of us can imagine, for they conspired to mod my post insightful instead of the coveted +5 funny.
Sometimes I wonder if there's some secret society of geeks that scour geekly websites for neat stuff, who's only flaw is being several years old.
They make a contest of it.. whoever gets an old geek story posted on slashdot, wins the round.
It's such an obvious sport to invent, considering all the heckling slashdot editors recieve. I'm not quite prepared to accept that so many old stories get submitted out of ignorance.
Someone, somewhere, is toasting themselves to a beer right about now.
> I'm just saying...not where I'd put a data center.
;)
Well look where they built silicon valley.
Your argument is likely falling on deaf ears.
Which would be equivalent to soaking up the oceans with a single q-tip.
That junk is up there to stay, it's not something we can undo. Meteorites are "when not if" situation anyways so instead of trying to clean space up, energy should be invested in absorbing them.
> How do you expect them to actually release a CD key? The way these games work is you can come back
> to it later and renew your account if you wish. How can they renew their account if the key has been
> released for reuse?
It's not difficult, technically or logically. Non-MMO games have been doing it for years; you need a unique and not-currently used cd key to be able to play online.
All Blizzard has to do is dissassociate this key from the account. If someone wants to sell their WoW cd set, they lose the key and thus lose the capacity to play the game. Later if they want to resume play, they can buy another copy of the game (perhaps a brand new store bought one) and play with that key.
Accounts themselves should be free, or nearly so. Actually playing the game should be what costs you money, which would include owning a unique key and it's associated CD's.
> It's my understanding that you can look at the plugin and see that it's not sending any extra
> information back to thottbot.org such as login or password.
Nope, because the bit that actually submits the data is a binary executable. Not within the reach of average users to identify what that program is doing.
> There's no advertising on the site, so they aren't directly making money from it.
;)
They are ironing out an advertising system. I caught a banner ad a week or so ago, and whatever poor server was serving them up quickly choked because the whole site was grinding to a halt.
30 minutes later the ads were gone and thottbot was responsive again.
Do a dns query on 'ads.thottbot.com'.
Small Business section also makes available some great low end poweredge machines, with no windows tax. Great machines, usually from $274 to $500.
They update their deals once weekly.. keep an eye on it until they offer something you can't resist, get a good deal.
Suggest it to google. Ask them to make available a "non commercial" front to their engine (suggestions@google.com).
If they can make froogle, they should be able to make an anti-froogle.
I know I'd appreciate it, sometimes I want reviews for hardware but find it difficult to get past all the merchant sites.
I know it's a wildly unpopular concept with a lot of the tech crowd, but that's the sort of thing that unions were created to prevent. You think EA would be raping it's employees if it's workers were unionized?
Not a fan of unions myself, but history suggests it'll get results.
They're not making money by making sales. They're making money by being paid to advertise (spam).
Response rate for junk-mail in the real world is something like 2%, maybe less. Yet advertisers throw piles of money into doing it, because the income that 2% brings them is worth it. To them.
Spam is even easier.. there's no material cost involved to print up paper. Assuming spammers charge normal advertising rates, their profits are up a considerable amount.
> Huh? If you have $100 in your wallet and it is
> stolen, you're out $100. Sounds like being hurt to
> me.
I seem to recall leaving a qualifier in my post that if one gets mugged, my advice is not sound. I know reading articles is a rare thing on slashdot.. but not reading the posts you're replying to?
My hat's off to you for that, sir.
> Which is why I now always pay at the pump, and try
> to avoid any situation where my card will be in
> the hands of someone else.
There's another option: pay in cash. People that try to steal that stuff generally get caught a lot quicker, and even if they don't get caught it doesn't hurt you in the slightest.
Credit cards are handy things, but using them to replace cash for day to day purchases is asking for trouble.
I suppose if one is constantly getting mugged the above may not be sound advice. For the rest of us, it's much safer.
I've had something that played on this same idea up for a few years now:
;)
http://www.tru7h.org/projects/society2/
Obviously it's a bit crude, and someone had a fetish for pacman ghosts a ways back, but it's going on 3 years of accumulation now.. can't bear to take it down.
Think it gets like.. 5 hits a month.
Or baoding balls. Not quite as precise an exercise as embroidery, but there's a lot less setup, it's as simple as picking them up and spinning them around.
Pushing them into new patterns will serve the same purpose of moving fingers in a variety of ways.
Have a set on my desk at work and at home, going on 15 years of 8+ hours a day of keyboard use.. wrists are still pain free.
Ask your doctor about Lantis and humalog pens.. sends that old pump yours right into the trash bin where it belongs.
;)
Same quality of control, no needles twisting in your side every time you shift. And, no hassles at airports.