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User: L.+J.+Beauregard

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Comments · 426

  1. Re:Goes to Show You... on FBI: Massive MS Exploits Over Last Year · · Score: 2
    Yes, in theory a site that was cracked through a vulnerability that has an available patch is (or should be considered) negligent.

    (IA of course NAL and if you go to Slashdot for legal advice then you are insane.)

    Now, here are some practical hurdles that need to be overcome. Say I use my credit card at a web site, and then some strange debits appear on my statement. How do I prove that the web site was cracked? If the web site was cracked, how do I prove that the strange debits were due to the crack, and not to dishonest wait staff at the restaurant where I used the card the week before?

    The expense of proving liability probably exceeds recoverable damages for any one person, especially when the crackers are overseas. This could be overcome through class action lawsuits and punitive damages.
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  2. Spam spam spam spam lovely spaaam wonderful spaaam on More Australian Insanity: Forwarding Mail Illegal (updated) · · Score: 1
    So, I spam the bloody hell out of Australia.

    And I get LARTed.

    I then sue the John Does who LARTed me, subpoena my ISP for their names, and make a killing.

    Who says you can't MAKE MONEY FAST?
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  3. Tune out, turn off, drop out. on Cable Companies Free To Grow, Grow, Grow · · Score: 1
    ...if shows continue to be poor people will not watch them.

    I beg to differ. Mencken was right on when he said, "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public."

    Given that Gresham's Law has overtaken Sturgeon's -- bad shows are driving good ones off the screen -- I say let AOL/TW have their cable monopoly. They're not getting any of my money, anyway.
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  4. Re:what is wrong with people!? on Gnutella "Virus" Roams · · Score: 1
    What's wrong with these jerks that keep spreading viruses/trojans around.

    The same thing that's wrong with idjits here on /. with nothing better to say than "First Post!" Some people just delight in making trouble, just because they can.
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  5. Re:Look how mighty we are! on CueCat Seeks Simpsons Endorsement · · Score: 1
    [The Simpsons is] not the longest running series ever. It is, however, the longest running sitcom currently on in prime time.

    Remember, some soaps have been going for 30-40 years.

    The oldest American TV show (can't speak for the rest of the world) is probably Guiding Light. GL is older than TV itself, the lone survivor of the old radio soaps.
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  6. Re:Is This to be a Pattern? on CueCat Seeks Simpsons Endorsement · · Score: 1
    I say good riddance to Digital Convergence.

    They made a product that was too clumsy to use in the way they intended. Joe Sixpack doesn't give a damn about the CueCat: who reads Time magazine while sitting in front of a computer? The only people who cared were the geeks, and DC sicced the lawyers on the geeks. Thus they destroyed their own market. Instant karma's gonna get you.

    DC ought to just price the CueCat at a reasonable profit, tell Flying Butt Monkeys that all is forgiven, and forget about the ads that no one is going to answer anyway.
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  7. Fun with ShareSniffer kiddies.... on Peer-To-Victim File Sharing · · Score: 1
    If you put a file on my hard disk, you give me the power to alter it.

    So here's how to have fun with 31337 d00d2 who use ShareSniffer on your 'puter:

    • Share out some innocent-looking directory.
    • Post a fake ShareSniffer report to Usenet.
    • Run a background process that watches this directory for new files.
    • When new files appear, munge them:
      • Windows .EXEs: replace with a trojan that nukes the hard drive of the eedjit who downloads them.
      • MP3s: replace with one saying ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US.
      • Images: replace with one bearing the words PAY FOR YOUR OWN DISK SPACE.
    Other mischief is left as an exercise for the reader.
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  8. Re:This is where a Bush whitehouse will be helpful on New Coalition Formed to Fight UCITA · · Score: 1

    UCITA is a proposed state law, not a federal law. "States' Rights" would favor Washington doing nothing about this.
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  9. The Obligatory Dig at Microsoft on The Mystery of Capital · · Score: 1
    From the interview:

    ...in Peru there indeed exists a private sector, but it exists largely on the basis of competing for government favors, contracts, and privileges, and its economic approach is to try to exclude or marginalize competitors--not by outproducing them in quantity, quality, or prices, but through political means, from legislation to outright use of the many resources of legal coercion at the disposal of a modern state.

    If this weren't true in the States as well, we'd just laugh when a Jim Allchin calls open-source^W^WGPL'd software "un-American."


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  10. Re:leprosy humans and armadilos on Leprosy Genome Decoded · · Score: 1
    Body temperature. The leprosy bug can't live at 99 degress F. In humans, it keeps near the surface and extremities, where it is a few degrees cooler.

    Armadillos have a lower core temperature. The leprosy bug lives throughout their bodies, and quickly kills them.


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  11. Re:We need corporate TLD's on WIPO Pushes for More Domain Restrictions · · Score: 4
    Much of the problem with the present system is that it allows only one firm to own a given 2LD. www.delta.com, for instance, is Delta Airlines. But what if you're looking for Delta Faucet?

    So let the various registrars control 2LDs under .com, referring to various business areas, and a business could register its name as a 3LD. Delta Airlines might be something like delta.airlines.com and Delta Faucet might be something like delta.plumbing.com.

    One problem, of course, is that not everyone speaks English.


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  12. Re:Funny line in here... on Dispute Over IP Sharing Escalates · · Score: 1

    True enough. But do you have even one instance of someone getting "bitchslapped" for any reason other than having nothing better to say than "first post"?

    Go check out what ends up in Minus One Hell. Most if not all of it belongs there.

    Have something to say that's not simply there to fill up Slashdot with bullshit, and then we'll talk about censorship.
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  13. Nethack on A "Vow of Chastity" For Game Designers · · Score: 1
    Let's see how Nethack does....

    1. The design documents shall contain no reference to any object which is installed inside the outer case of the target machine.

    Well, I dunno. I'm not privy to the DevTeam's workings.

    2. The use of hardware 3D acceleration of any sort is forbidden. Software 3D engines are not forbidden, but the game must run at 20 frames per second or better in 640 x 480 16-bit SVGA mode or the nearest available equivalent.

    You can run Nethack on a Unix box with a VT100 terminal. Check.

    3. Only the following input devices are allowed: on a console machine, the controller which normally ships with it. On a computer, a 2-axis joystick with two buttons, or a D-pad with two buttons; a standard 101-key PC keyboard; a 2-button mouse.

    All you need is the keyboard. All you can even use is the keyboard. Check.

    4. There shall be no knights, elves, dwarves or dragons. Nor shall there be any wizards, wenches, bards, bartenders, golems, giants, clerics, necromancers, thieves, gods, angels, demons, sorceresses, undead bodies or body parts (mummified or decaying), Nazis, Russians, spies, mercenaries, space marines, stormtroopers, star pilots, humanoid robots, evil geniuses, mad scientists, or carnivorous aliens. And no freakin' vampires.

    Well, uh....Nethack has knights, elves, dwarves, dragons, wizards, golems, giants, clerics, necromancers, thieves, gods, angels, demons, sorceresses, undead bodies and body parts (mummified or decaying), mercenaries, space marines, stormtroopers, star pilots, humanoid robots, an evil genius, and lots of freakin' vampires.

    But no wenches, bards, bartenders, Nazis, Russians, spies, space marines, stormtroopers, star pilots, humanoid robots, mad scientists, or carnivorous aliens.

    5. The following types of games are prohibited: first-person shooters, side-scrollers, any action game with "special attacks." Also prohibited are: simulations of 20th-century or current military vehicles, simulations of sports which are routinely broadcast live on television, real-time strategy games focussing solely on warfare and weapons production, lock-and-key adventure games, numbers-heavy role-playing games, and any card game found in Hoyle's Rules of Card Games.

    Well, lessee...Nethack has special attacks, I suppose. It could be called a lock-and-key adventure game.

    6. All cinematics, cut-scenes, and other non-interactive movies are forbidden.

    None of that. Just a quick note on startup.

    7. Violence is strictly limited to the disappearance or immobilization of destroyed units. Units which are damaged or destroyed shall be so indicated by symbolic, not representational, means. There shall be no blood, explosions, or injury or death animations.

    Kill something, and it leaves a "%" (a corpse) if anything at all, and whatever it was carrying. Check.

    8. There may be victory and defeat, and my side and their side, but there may not be Good and Evil.

    Well, Nethack has Good and Evil in spades.

    9. If a game is representational rather than abstract, it may contain no conceptual non sequiturs, e.g. medical kits may not be hidden inside oil tanks.

    Would a shop on Level 23 be a "conceptual non sequitur"?

    10. If a game is representational rather than abstract, the color black may not be used to depict any manmade object except ink, nor any dangerous fictitious nonhuman creatures.

    Oopsie. Nethack has black dragons. :-)

    Well, Nethack misses on a few points. But it's still one of the most addictive games around.
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  14. RTFC on Suing Over... Fans? · · Score: 1
    Read The Fucking Claims. The article names the patents in question. Remember that the claims are the "code" of the patent, and everything else is something more like comments.

    Here are the claims for the patents in question:

    These are for particular ways of building fans -- not miniature fans in general. How long have we been cooling 486s with miniature fans?
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  15. Re:This has to be the stupidest thing I've ever he on Suing Over... Fans? · · Score: 3
    It makes no more sense for them to go after Creative and nVidia than it would for them to go after the consumers that use the cards with the offending fans.

    35 USC section 271(a):

    Except as otherwise provided in this title, whoever without authority makes, uses, offers to sell, or sells any patented invention, within the United States or imports into the United States any patented invention during the term of the patent therefor, infringes the patent.

    (emphasis added)

    Yes, if this patent holds up in court, Sunonwealth could theoretically sue you for using one of the cards with one of the fans in question! It's just not usually practical to sue the end users.


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  16. Re:Gemeni - Found the source code on The Apollo 11 Guidance Computer · · Score: 1
    You can GPL it, but are you prepared to incorporate the patches that people submit in the next version?

    Anything created by the US Government is uncopyrighted. So sayeth 17 USC Sec. 105.
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  17. Re:Recent security holes? on Linux Industry Calls It Quits · · Score: 1
    Ok, I'm sick of these "recent security problems" with Linux. Have I been out of the loop here?

    Following the links reveals the "security problems with Linux" to be the BIND hole, which isn't even relevant to your desktop because you're not likely to use a desktop computer as a name server.

    (As though Microsoft has any room to talk about security holes....)
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  18. An aerial image...and how to get there on Astronomers Revel In Former NSA Site · · Score: 2
    Here's a shot of the area from the air, courtesy of the US Geological Survey.

    The squiggly gray line running north-south through the center of the image is NC Highway 215. The splotch at center-left, with features that look like terraces at this scale, is your destination: the former Rosman Research Station. Mapquest identifies the east-west road running toward the station as Macedonia Church Road, and the last turn into the station as Neil Armstrong Road.

    So here are complete directions:

    From Asheville, take I-26 east; or, fly to the Asheville Airport.

    From either I-26 or the airport, turn right onto NC Highway 280, toward Brevard. If you came from I-26, NC 280 will pass the airport.

    NC 280 ends just inside the Brevard city limits, near a shopping center with a Wal-Mart and a Pizza Hut. Go straight through the light. You are now westbound on US Highway 64.

    Follow US 64 through Brevard. An alternate route is to turn right onto Caldwell Street near the Brevard Motor Lodge; it rejoins US 64 at its other end.

    Past Brevard, US 64 passes a Conoco station and then goes over a mountain. Stay on US 64 for about a half mile past the mountain, until you reach a right turn onto NC Highway 215.

    Now here's where my recall is rather fuzzy; Mapquest to the rescue. After about five miles on NC 215 (drive carefully!) turn left onto Macedonia Church Road, and then onto Neil Armstrong Road.

    You're there.
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  19. You probably want to wait till spring anyway.... on Astronomers Revel In Former NSA Site · · Score: 1

    It does snow there sometimes, and they're a little slow to clear the roads. That "long, twisting road through the Pisgah National Forest," NC Highway 215, can be quite dangerous in icy conditions.

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  20. Re:So many questions... on RSA Released Into The Public Domain · · Score: 1
    RSA was never patented outside the USA because it was published before any of R, S, and A thought to apply for a patent. In the USA there's a 12 month grace period if you do that; elsewhere, it was tough cookies.


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  21. Re:RSA and GPG on RSA Released Into The Public Domain · · Score: 1
    It may be possible to sign with a PGP 2.x key, but GnuPG still can't encrypt compatibly with PGP 2.x because IDEA is still patented.


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  22. The T-shirts and bumper stickers aren't patented. on RSA Released Into The Public Domain · · Score: 1
    The patent doesn't cover the RSA algorithm, strictly speaking; it covers a device that does RSA encryption and/or decryption, or the process of using it.

    T-shirts and bumper stickers are not capable of doing RSA (well, not yet ^_^) and they no more infringe the patent than does a copy of the patent itself.

    IA of course NAL. But that should be the default.


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  23. Slashdot needs killfiles on The History of UNIX · · Score: 1
    I don't think its him guys.... He spelled his name wrong.

    He spelled it "Torllvalds." Perhaps he meant "Trollvalds."

    An idjit in Minus One Hell where s/h/it belongs, and yet another reason why Slashdot needs killfiles.


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  24. "Opt-in" Yesmail itself. on MAPS RBL Challenged In Court Case · · Score: 1
    I have half a mind to sign up postmaster@yesmail.com for a couple of Yesmail lists.

    Maybe then they'll get the point.
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  25. Damn you Linus.... on Linux 2.4.0 Test2 Almost Ready for Prime Time · · Score: 1
    Why'd you have to announce this right while I was compiling 2.2.16 with the USB patch installed?

    Now I gotta go back and do it all again. Dagnabbit!


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