"For every positive use of secrecy is there not ten abuses."
I'd suggest the opposite ratio. For every ten positive uses of secrecy, there is probably one abuse. HOWEVER, this still begs the question of how much is too much?
It may have been less user friendly, but at least we didn't have to deal with all of this stupid legal shit and every jackass trying to make a buck on the "internet" (i.e. www).
I meant, of course, that Apache doesn't deserve much credit if any for the 'opening' of NSA. They deserve tons of credit for creating a stable, robust, cross-platform (!), and free app which runs the majority of the world's web sites; and successfully flies in the face of Microsoft. Kudos to them for that!
Good thoughts, except that Apache doesn't deserve much credit, if any.
The NSA has been using 'sort of open' code since several decades before the www even existed, let alone apache. Try looking at the long view, and you'll realise that the NSA has owned more computing power than just about anyone for most of the history of computers, and the very idea of proprietary software hasn't been around for very much of that time.
Open source as a concept is as old as computing. Open Source as an evangelical movement is the only thing that's new. (and usually quite annoying:-)
You post the same thing every single time someone mentions *BSD. Don't you get tired of being so repetitive?
Here's a fact for you: Market share doesn't matter for anything but profitability. If a product is free and distributable, it's going to continue to be used regardless of what the companies behind it do. (including go out of business)
In short, who CARES that FreeBSD went out of business? It's still available, and it's as good now as it was before. Marketing surveys are all pretty much shite.
Here's a good (slightly paranoid) scenario for you: They do BOTH! Publicly they release the Linux version with source code, and internally they use *BSD.
Realistically, they're not using any of the above internally for truly secure computing.
Free world, free world, free world!!! What the fuck is the free world? I'll tell you--the free world is the USA, and it allies of the week. That's what people mean when they use the term, and it all goes back to George Bush (sr.) claiming to be the Leader Of The Free World. (and we abuse Al Gore for his 'inventing the internet' slip, which was taken out of context???)
Well fuck the free world, the poor enslaved world (everyone else, presumably) and the lot of it. The irony of the US (of all places!) being the leader of the free world is just sickening. I propose we ban the phrase from common use.
I've gone all out in trying to eliminate spam over the years, and amazingly, it seems to be working!
Don't misunderstand--spam hasn't dissappeared, and it probably never will. Too many losers think they'll make money at it, or can at least convince other people that they can. However, the business model just doesn't work, and education has been a big part of the reason for that.
Right now I get two or three bits o' spam a week, across all of my email addresses. That's down significantly from the 15-20 per DAY that I used to get.
First of all, the movie industry makes the majority of their money off of after-theatre sales. (meaning videos, DVDs, and product tie-ins)
A pocket-change loss of less than $3 million isn't going to even touch them.
Secondly, the point was about taking a stand. It's simply a matter of taking a stand against DVDs with CSS, regional coding, and the MPAA all entrenched in them.
Of course, if you want to make a stand, you should refuse to buy the DVD, and then WRITE (on paper!) Disney & co., letting them know WHY you're not buying something they've done a very good job of. (and also that if they quit this stupidity, you'd support them)
Agreed, although I'm not so sure about never buying a DVD with CSS. Whether or not I do, I'll make sure that anyone who asks can get access to deCSS, LiVID, and any other 'illegal' decryption programs. In fact, ANY illegal programs, including PGP and "Catcher in the Rye." Oops, that last one wasn't a computer program--can't imagine how it popped to mind.
Honestly, I think the "kill CSS" fight is already lost.
"Why don't people assume *mundane* possibilities first?"
That should be obvious--because they're mundane! We don't want to see another boring glitch--we want aliens and space ships. We want to have bragging rights of, "I was there when it all started."
Excitement is...exciting! That's all there is to it.
Well, wasn't that the original poster's point? That not EVERYBODY lives and breathes computer games? Sure gaming is mainstream--it has been since the original Atari VCS (before the called it the 2600 even!) came out. It's even a relatively significant demographic, although doesn't touch TV yet. The point still remains that Jon DESPERATELY needs to get out more, and see that games (or even computing in general) are not the lynchpin of The Free World(tm).
"gaming has become a mainstream form of culture, if not the single most pervasive form of culture, in America."
Man, those are some heavy drugs Jon must be taking. Even in the Excited States, I don't see this as being anything less than outrageous exaggeration. What planet is he from anyways?
Oh yes, that's right--the planet where the only people who matter are the few hardcore nerds who were "victimised" in school, don't read, don't go out, don't socialise, and don't care. The other 90% of the population is irrelevant, and all bullies anyways.
It's nice, but you still need an installed version of Solaris to build it. "You must have the original Solaris 8 build environment in order to build the Solaris 8 Foundation Source code."
"But, if you're running a port scanner, then you'd be walking up to windows and doors and tapping on them, checking to find those that were open and/or unlocked."
Sometimes I think that people tend to forget the difference between an analogy and a direct parallel.
What if you stood in your living room and watched the neighbor's place with binoculars to see if he locked the windows or doors when he went out? In Canada at least, if you're on your own property and not using 'undue means of surveillance' (i.e. IR binoculars, etc.) then this is legal.
And yet, you're still scoping out the neighbor's place for a possible illegal action.
Regardless, it should be pretty obvious how things should be: Legitimate use of legitimate tools should be legal and accepted. Questionable or illegal use of tools should be punished, but it's the specific behaviour that's getting censured here--not the tool or the mere use of the tool.
OK, first the price. I should have been clear that that $175 was in local currency (Canadian dollars). $75 + shipping + GST + duty comes out to very very close to $175. (I think it was $172 and change)
And you must have a different meaning of free than I do. The right to use it on up to eight processor machines is free. There is no licensing fee for those computers. Sun throws the word "FREE!!!" around their site like popcorn, and yet you can't actually install it unless _you_ own the media. Can't borrow it from a friend, don't forget--that's a violation of the license agreement.
Believe me, I've read the FAQ.
For the record, I'm not running it on my own machines, legally or illegally. Once I get the console wired up, I'll be installing NetBSD until I acquire a legal copy of Solaris 8.
As for the six CDs of junk, they're junk. Why would I want to pay for a CD containing an OLD VERSION of a (crappy!) office suite? Besides, everything on those CDs is available for free and unrestricted download from one site or another. I've got the docs I need, I don't need a demo of Oracle 8i, and I will suffer through thumbscrews before using StarOffice 5.x (especially 5.1!) again.
My point is that it's a lot more expensive to get Solaris now that the license is free than it was when companies had to pay big bucks ($500--not that big!) for the license. Furthermore, claiming that the cost of the media is $75 is absurd. If they'd just be honest and say, "for a moderate fee" or the like, then I'd be happier.
Also, they've been promising a download option RSN, for about three months.
Call me an old curmudgeon if you will, and I won't necessarily deny it. However...
When is Sun going to get off their asses and allow Solaris to be downloaded, as they've been promising for months now? I know all about the 'free binary license' as long as you buy the media for $75USD plus shipping and handling. Up north of the US border, that amounts to about $175 by the time it gets to my door. That's a lot of money for a free OS on 2 CDs plus 6 CDs worth of junk that I don't want. Not bad for work, admittedly, but for my Sparc at home it's just silly, and a long ways from "FREE!!!"
Yeah, the HP calculator replaced the slide rule, and then the standard calculator replaced the HP, and now the laptop/PDA is replacing that.
I'm not convinced that it's for the better--Slide rules are blindingly fast, bombproof, and require the person to understand what results they're getting. It's the reason that pilots still almost universally use circular slide rules instead of calculators.
The disaster at Chernobyl was the final nail in the coffin of nuclear fission generators, and when the last one is shut down, I suspect that I'll be one of the only people not cheering.
Nuclear power should have (and in almost all cases has) lived up to much of it's "great promise." Properly done, it is cheap, efficient, and safe.
Safe? That's right--it's hard to come up with a safer form of electricity than a good reactor. Coal? Not a chance! Hydropower? Maybe, but it's not very 'environmentally clean.'
But popular opinion matters more than facts, and one disaster like Chernobyl (which still hasn't killed a fraction as many people as coal) will push popular opinion over the edge.
Here's the problem: Chernobyl-class reactors are badly designed, lacking in a lot of safety features, and fairly scary. It STILL took years of substandard maintenance, lack of care, bad luck, and gross negligence on the part of several operators to kick off the meltdown. In a well maintained and properly designed reactor (CANDU!!!), an operator _couldn't_ cause that kind of disaster, no matter how they tried.
But it's pointless to argue the merits. Nuclear power is on its way out. Ah well. Hopefully we'll get serious about wind before long.
Note that I said 8-5, M-F _theoretically_. I was just suggesting that such things as flex hours and 4x10 M-R hours still weren't really common despite the fact that they've been about to take off RSN.
I believe in this case, if they had enough evidence to press charges against you (i.e. proof that you had the reader, had downloaded the text from them, etc. etc.) AND got you into court, it would come down to your legal duty to tell the truth about where you read it from.
Herein lies the problem of copyright. One does not obtain a copyright on the content of a work, but rather on the publication of it. I can, if I so desire, download a copy of Alice and publish it with the instructions that no one may read it unless standing with one foot in a bucket of water and a fish on their head. No one will buy it, but I can legally enforce that copyright on my copyrighted edition of a public domain text.
Slashdot Mirror
Oh yes, there are countries out there who ARE a threat to the US, but AREN'T able to reproduce or steal 20 year old technology.
Concisely speaking; get over yourself. You ain't that special as a country, nor that vulnerable.
"For every positive use of secrecy is there not ten abuses."
I'd suggest the opposite ratio. For every ten positive uses of secrecy, there is probably one abuse. HOWEVER, this still begs the question of how much is too much?
It may have been less user friendly, but at least we didn't have to deal with all of this stupid legal shit and every jackass trying to make a buck on the "internet" (i.e. www).
Oops--I was careless with my wording.
I meant, of course, that Apache doesn't deserve much credit if any for the 'opening' of NSA. They deserve tons of credit for creating a stable, robust, cross-platform (!), and free app which runs the majority of the world's web sites; and successfully flies in the face of Microsoft. Kudos to them for that!
Good thoughts, except that Apache doesn't deserve much credit, if any.
:-)
The NSA has been using 'sort of open' code since several decades before the www even existed, let alone apache. Try looking at the long view, and you'll realise that the NSA has owned more computing power than just about anyone for most of the history of computers, and the very idea of proprietary software hasn't been around for very much of that time.
Open source as a concept is as old as computing. Open Source as an evangelical movement is the only thing that's new. (and usually quite annoying
Blah blah BLAH blah blah!
You post the same thing every single time someone mentions *BSD. Don't you get tired of being so repetitive?
Here's a fact for you: Market share doesn't matter for anything but profitability. If a product is free and distributable, it's going to continue to be used regardless of what the companies behind it do. (including go out of business)
In short, who CARES that FreeBSD went out of business? It's still available, and it's as good now as it was before. Marketing surveys are all pretty much shite.
Here's a good (slightly paranoid) scenario for you: They do BOTH! Publicly they release the Linux version with source code, and internally they use *BSD.
Realistically, they're not using any of the above internally for truly secure computing.
OK, totally off topic rant here. Be forewarned...
Free world, free world, free world!!! What the fuck is the free world? I'll tell you--the free world is the USA, and it allies of the week. That's what people mean when they use the term, and it all goes back to George Bush (sr.) claiming to be the Leader Of The Free World. (and we abuse Al Gore for his 'inventing the internet' slip, which was taken out of context???)
Well fuck the free world, the poor enslaved world (everyone else, presumably) and the lot of it. The irony of the US (of all places!) being the leader of the free world is just sickening. I propose we ban the phrase from common use.
Whew! OK, end of rant.
I've gone all out in trying to eliminate spam over the years, and amazingly, it seems to be working!
Don't misunderstand--spam hasn't dissappeared, and it probably never will. Too many losers think they'll make money at it, or can at least convince other people that they can. However, the business model just doesn't work, and education has been a big part of the reason for that.
Right now I get two or three bits o' spam a week, across all of my email addresses. That's down significantly from the 15-20 per DAY that I used to get.
First of all, the movie industry makes the majority of their money off of after-theatre sales. (meaning videos, DVDs, and product tie-ins)
A pocket-change loss of less than $3 million isn't going to even touch them.
Secondly, the point was about taking a stand. It's simply a matter of taking a stand against DVDs with CSS, regional coding, and the MPAA all entrenched in them.
Of course, if you want to make a stand, you should refuse to buy the DVD, and then WRITE (on paper!) Disney & co., letting them know WHY you're not buying something they've done a very good job of. (and also that if they quit this stupidity, you'd support them)
Remember DIVX.
Agreed, although I'm not so sure about never buying a DVD with CSS. Whether or not I do, I'll make sure that anyone who asks can get access to deCSS, LiVID, and any other 'illegal' decryption programs. In fact, ANY illegal programs, including PGP and "Catcher in the Rye." Oops, that last one wasn't a computer program--can't imagine how it popped to mind.
Honestly, I think the "kill CSS" fight is already lost.
"Why don't people assume *mundane* possibilities first?"
That should be obvious--because they're mundane! We don't want to see another boring glitch--we want aliens and space ships. We want to have bragging rights of, "I was there when it all started."
Excitement is...exciting! That's all there is to it.
Well, wasn't that the original poster's point? That not EVERYBODY lives and breathes computer games? Sure gaming is mainstream--it has been since the original Atari VCS (before the called it the 2600 even!) came out. It's even a relatively significant demographic, although doesn't touch TV yet. The point still remains that Jon DESPERATELY needs to get out more, and see that games (or even computing in general) are not the lynchpin of The Free World(tm).
Just a small correction. UO didn't get you kicked out of college--YOU got you kicked out of college!
"gaming has become a mainstream form of culture, if not the single most pervasive form of culture, in America."
Man, those are some heavy drugs Jon must be taking. Even in the Excited States, I don't see this as being anything less than outrageous exaggeration. What planet is he from anyways?
Oh yes, that's right--the planet where the only people who matter are the few hardcore nerds who were "victimised" in school, don't read, don't go out, don't socialise, and don't care. The other 90% of the population is irrelevant, and all bullies anyways.
*shrug*
It's nice, but you still need an installed version of Solaris to build it. "You must have the original Solaris 8 build environment in order to build the Solaris 8 Foundation Source code."
"But, if you're running a port scanner, then you'd be walking up to windows and doors and tapping on them, checking to find those that were open and/or unlocked."
Sometimes I think that people tend to forget the difference between an analogy and a direct parallel.
What if you stood in your living room and watched the neighbor's place with binoculars to see if he locked the windows or doors when he went out? In Canada at least, if you're on your own property and not using 'undue means of surveillance' (i.e. IR binoculars, etc.) then this is legal.
And yet, you're still scoping out the neighbor's place for a possible illegal action.
Regardless, it should be pretty obvious how things should be: Legitimate use of legitimate tools should be legal and accepted. Questionable or illegal use of tools should be punished, but it's the specific behaviour that's getting censured here--not the tool or the mere use of the tool.
OK, first the price. I should have been clear that that $175 was in local currency (Canadian dollars). $75 + shipping + GST + duty comes out to very very close to $175. (I think it was $172 and change)
And you must have a different meaning of free than I do. The right to use it on up to eight processor machines is free. There is no licensing fee for those computers. Sun throws the word "FREE!!!" around their site like popcorn, and yet you can't actually install it unless _you_ own the media. Can't borrow it from a friend, don't forget--that's a violation of the license agreement.
Believe me, I've read the FAQ.
For the record, I'm not running it on my own machines, legally or illegally. Once I get the console wired up, I'll be installing NetBSD until I acquire a legal copy of Solaris 8.
As for the six CDs of junk, they're junk. Why would I want to pay for a CD containing an OLD VERSION of a (crappy!) office suite? Besides, everything on those CDs is available for free and unrestricted download from one site or another. I've got the docs I need, I don't need a demo of Oracle 8i, and I will suffer through thumbscrews before using StarOffice 5.x (especially 5.1!) again.
My point is that it's a lot more expensive to get Solaris now that the license is free than it was when companies had to pay big bucks ($500--not that big!) for the license. Furthermore, claiming that the cost of the media is $75 is absurd. If they'd just be honest and say, "for a moderate fee" or the like, then I'd be happier.
Also, they've been promising a download option RSN, for about three months.
Call me an old curmudgeon if you will, and I won't necessarily deny it. However...
When is Sun going to get off their asses and allow Solaris to be downloaded, as they've been promising for months now? I know all about the 'free binary license' as long as you buy the media for $75USD plus shipping and handling. Up north of the US border, that amounts to about $175 by the time it gets to my door. That's a lot of money for a free OS on 2 CDs plus 6 CDs worth of junk that I don't want. Not bad for work, admittedly, but for my Sparc at home it's just silly, and a long ways from "FREE!!!"
Yeah, the HP calculator replaced the slide rule, and then the standard calculator replaced the HP, and now the laptop/PDA is replacing that.
I'm not convinced that it's for the better--Slide rules are blindingly fast, bombproof, and require the person to understand what results they're getting. It's the reason that pilots still almost universally use circular slide rules instead of calculators.
The disaster at Chernobyl was the final nail in the coffin of nuclear fission generators, and when the last one is shut down, I suspect that I'll be one of the only people not cheering.
Nuclear power should have (and in almost all cases has) lived up to much of it's "great promise." Properly done, it is cheap, efficient, and safe.
Safe? That's right--it's hard to come up with a safer form of electricity than a good reactor. Coal? Not a chance! Hydropower? Maybe, but it's not very 'environmentally clean.'
But popular opinion matters more than facts, and one disaster like Chernobyl (which still hasn't killed a fraction as many people as coal) will push popular opinion over the edge.
Here's the problem: Chernobyl-class reactors are badly designed, lacking in a lot of safety features, and fairly scary. It STILL took years of substandard maintenance, lack of care, bad luck, and gross negligence on the part of several operators to kick off the meltdown. In a well maintained and properly designed reactor (CANDU!!!), an operator _couldn't_ cause that kind of disaster, no matter how they tried.
But it's pointless to argue the merits. Nuclear power is on its way out. Ah well. Hopefully we'll get serious about wind before long.
Prodigy ain't that big and rich right now--they've lost over 90% of their traded value in the last year.
Which of course is exactly why BT probably went after them.
Note that I said 8-5, M-F _theoretically_. I was just suggesting that such things as flex hours and 4x10 M-R hours still weren't really common despite the fact that they've been about to take off RSN.
I believe in this case, if they had enough evidence to press charges against you (i.e. proof that you had the reader, had downloaded the text from them, etc. etc.) AND got you into court, it would come down to your legal duty to tell the truth about where you read it from.
Practically speaking it's absolutely assinine.
Herein lies the problem of copyright. One does not obtain a copyright on the content of a work, but rather on the publication of it. I can, if I so desire, download a copy of Alice and publish it with the instructions that no one may read it unless standing with one foot in a bucket of water and a fish on their head. No one will buy it, but I can legally enforce that copyright on my copyrighted edition of a public domain text.
That's what Adobe's done, the silly gits.