I think I speak for nearly every person as naive as I was five minutes ago when I say, "holy fucking shit!"
If true - and that's a big 'if' - I know a lot a lot of people who will soon stop using Intel compilers. This could lead to some significant changes across a large portion of the gaming industry, for starters.
In some ways it's worse than a dictatorship, if you think about it. Most people in nasty dictatorships have an all-to-clear a picture of exactly what kind of behaviors will get them 'disappeared.' It's not a guarantee or anything (you may be a government-critic's brother, for instance), but at least you have a sense of your position on the terrain.
In the United States the law is so hopelessly complex, the enforcement so arbitrary, and adherence to the concept of checks and balances is such a farce that very few people are entirely sure of the legality of all their actions. Or what the consequences would be. We have developed a culture of lawyers for precisely this purpose - we walk on pins and needles hoping to God we aren't crossing some local, state, or federal ordinance without realizing it.
To live in the United States without having a law degree or the money to employ someone with one full-time is to be a second-class citizen. --Ryv
The reason the Bush administration is concerned about legality in this matter is because they aren't going after individuals or impoverished nations filled with people the average idiot American distrusts and blames for gas prices.
They're stepping on the toes of large, multi-national corporations many of whom have major media holdings and could make life very, very painful for the US government. Translation: they ARE being watched on this one, so they have to cross the 't's and dot the 'i's.
This may surprise to the parent poster but quite a few Apache installations are on top of Windows simply because people don't trust IIS - ditto BIND (which people shouldn't trust either, but let's not get into that). It shouldn't come as a shock that IT managers aren't evaluating Linux for servers as much anymore when you look at what's available in Windows Server 2003 and *BSD. I'm not as big a user of Linux as I used to be, so stop me if I'm talking out my ass here, but stripping Linux down to operate strictly as a server simply isn't what it used to be (in terms of effort required if nothing else) due to kernel bloat and dependency hell. Why would you use it when there are other OSes that provide everything else a server needs with less kruft?
This sounds a lot more like the usual Slashdot panic-attack than anything actually factual, and unlike the SCO case I think testing this in court would result in a significant weakening of the GPL. That said, if we assume for the moment that this is the case, I would pay a metric fuckton of money to hear Stallman try and defend it.
The whole idea of "layers" (h/w, OS, apps) is so backward.
I hope by 2015 it'll all become seamless (brain-Google, brain-Gmail, etc. interfaces) and that Windows and Linux will become OS of the old generation.
It's hard for me to understand why anyone would want to see any of the following (examples): a) BIOS setup screen(s) b) boot dialogue c) login screen d) Start menu (or its equivalents) e) dial-up (xDSL or other) dialog box f) traditional interfaces and menus (File:: Save As...) h) Internet/Networking setup i) privacy and security options j) OS
It will be absolutely absurd if any of these things existed in 2015. Why would anyone have to deal with any of that or even know what OS (if any) the computer runs on?
We'll by then have 100 times (or more) more computing power at our disposal. If we still use today's interfaces to access it, that would be pathetic.
Why all of that?
Three simple answers:
1. Until general-purpose Turing-level AI is made manifest, no machine will be a match for human ingenuity at defeating security. Period.
2. Some problems require increasing amounts of computational power as time goes on (rendering technology, cryptography, etc.). Low-level optimization will always be in demand until, again, we have Turing-level AI to do it for us.
3. Some problems and operations are irreducibly complex. Period. There are some problems that cannot be solved save through addressing the hardware directly or through only a single layer of abstraction. This will never stop being the case until, again, AI renders it a moot point.
Just as the poor will always be with us (until someone actually works out a working true utopian socialist society - or resources become functionally infinite), low-level dialogues and optimizations will always be with us (until machines smarter than us can do it better than us for us).
One of the HUGE stumbling blocks of many languages is grammatical gender. In German "Der" for male, "Die" for female, and "Das" for neuter.
Every single noun has a gender association and in most cases this is UTTERLY random. The word for woman, "Fraulein," is neuter! Please explain the logic of that.
English has none of this. It's "the boy" "the girl" "the dick in my ear" - which is actually an even better example because in German the 'my' (mein) must also reflect the gender of the word 'ear.' In addition to German, French, Spanish, and many many - both Indo-European and other - languages share this same problem. This is one of the major aspects of English that makes basic entry into the language incredibly easy. Mastery of English, as other posters have pointed out, is considerably more difficult.
I have 8 machines at my house, and the parts for another 3 lying around. I always have at least one system in some stage of being rebuilt lying around. I've been doing this since I was 16 and I consider Maxtor at least the equal of Western Digital and Seagate. Out of the twelve or so Maxtor drives I've bought over the years, one of those failed in less than three years. I have one that's been working for six years now with no data loss whatsoever. Out of five Western Digital drives, two failed prior to three years. As the guy says in the guide - maybe I just build my systems better (making sure airflow keeps the drives cool), but I have had far better luck with Maxtor than Western Digital.
Even if I don't hold out much hope for their success, I wish them the best of luck - consider the millions of spyware infested/trojan-infested hosts throwing out spam these days. Even if they only reduce that by 75% with these new efforts, it'll be a big, big help
I just wanted to compliment you on an intelligent response to a subject that seems to induce fits of irrational hysteria around here.
Environmental science in general and global warming in particular are among the topics that Slashdot simply seem incapable of producing *ANY* meaningful signal on whatsoever. The problem seems to be that most Slashdotters are aware of just how much their technological fetishes (which I admittedly share) are dependent on the very processes which drive environmentalists into fits of rage. Thus the local technophiles (which around here is everybody) are driven into vehemently denying what is an at best *potential* great danger - and at worst an impending catastrophe.
Intelligent, reasoned reactions which take into account both the uncertainty of the science involved and yet give appropriate weight to the possibility that our worst fears may be confirmed are all too rare around here.
The fact that most of my neighbors speak Portugese exclusively aside, I'm unable to discern which buildings - nevermind apartments - house the responsible parties. Even if I could find them, my experiences in this complex (surprisingly upscale, given that apparently nobody speaks a word of English) do nothing to foster a belief that we could communicate.
Interesting. I was not aware of this. I have no real desire to be 'socially irresponsible' with available channels, but for me part of it is that I want to lock the router to 108Mbps-only - in order to further bolster the security of the standard MAC-based ACL. I mean, if 99% of the hardware out there can't even use my WAP, period, that's another security layer on top of WEP, ACL . . .
Having this problem here as well. My new Netgear 802.11g works just fine on channel 11 - but this is one of their new products which has the ability to do 108Mbps. The problem is that the 108Mbps feature is only available on channel 6 - the router will not let you select another channel if you have 108Mbps enabled - and I have *TWO* neighbors with WAPs on channel six.
At this point I'm seriously considering returning my Xmas present and just getting the next model up, which does 108Mbps over 802.11a 5.8GHz, thus bypassing 2.4Ghz entirely . ..
I'm not terribly familiar with the latest in case-modding, so I have to ask - are these UV lights entirely safe for longterm exposure? Say, 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year?
Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said agents went to Pufferbelly based on a trademark infringement complaint filed in the agency's intellectual property rights center in Washington, D.C.
"One of the things that our agency's responsible for doing is protecting the integrity of the economy and our nation's financial systems and obviously trademark infringement does have significant economic implications," she said.
This sounds like really great news. What next? Every person who downloads MP3s is automatically branded a 'terrorist' because they might be threatening the integrity of the economy? Even if they own the CD in question (which is analogous here, because legally there's nothing wrong with the Majick Cube either now that the Rubik's patent has expired)?
The voting records of House/Senate Democrats and Republicans are equally horrifying - both are clearly sold out to big media in an all-too-sharp commentary on the current status of bribing (known as 'lobbying') lawmakers in America.
Where the article writeup is probably a little more correct is amongst the constituencies of these supposed representatives - most of the liberal people I've met both in the real world and online have been passionately against IP laws in their current form, even the musicians and the game developers. I can't say the same thing for many of my conservative friends - with some notable exceptions.
The point is - it may be true that there is something resembling a liberal/conservative divide on IP laws amongst the general populace (there are quite a few exceptions, as with everything - I'm a pro-gun liberal, a friend of mine is an anti-IP conservative) but that this stance has yet to be really reflected by either party's legislative representatives, both of which are having their pockets lined by the corporations. There's no profit for the representatives in actually, *gasp*, representing their constituency (you have to really screw up badly in order to get voted out), and so they don't.
--Ryv
Alternative solution
on
Freecache
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Create a file format that is basically just the web page plus dependent files tar'd and gzip'd - then release browser plugins that automatically take any file with the correct extention, and seamlessly ungzip/untar it to the local cache before displaying it like normal - I have yet to understand why nobody has combined this basic idea with BitTorrent. Seems like you could get a lot of mileage with it.
Think about some of the idiots out there on the road in their giant SUVs - and you want to give these same sycophants each the ability to cause their own little 9/11 with just a slight miscalculation in their laughable *judgement*?
Are you completely out of your mind?
The only way flying cars will ever 'get here' is if we have the computer flying them - and one that is capable of continuing to fly them in the case of single engine failure, etc. Since we can't get AI working well enough for mainstream use on the roads yet, this is a long ways off.
When it came down to Windows or OS/2, OS/2 did not have the advantage of being free as in beer, which for all practical purposes Linux is.
That alone will attract a LOT of people. Assuming Linux takes the high road on the topic of DRM, etc. - chances are good that it will definitely remain a competitive choice at the very least.
Slashdot Mirror
I think I speak for nearly every person as naive as I was five minutes ago when I say, "holy fucking shit!"
If true - and that's a big 'if' - I know a lot a lot of people who will soon stop using Intel compilers. This could lead to some significant changes across a large portion of the gaming industry, for starters.
--Ryv
You're thinking of the BSA (Business Software Alliance), I believe.
--Ryv
In some ways it's worse than a dictatorship, if you think about it. Most people in nasty dictatorships have an all-to-clear a picture of exactly what kind of behaviors will get them 'disappeared.' It's not a guarantee or anything (you may be a government-critic's brother, for instance), but at least you have a sense of your position on the terrain.
In the United States the law is so hopelessly complex, the enforcement so arbitrary, and adherence to the concept of checks and balances is such a farce that very few people are entirely sure of the legality of all their actions. Or what the consequences would be. We have developed a culture of lawyers for precisely this purpose - we walk on pins and needles hoping to God we aren't crossing some local, state, or federal ordinance without realizing it.
To live in the United States without having a law degree or the money to employ someone with one full-time is to be a second-class citizen.
--Ryv
The reason the Bush administration is concerned about legality in this matter is because they aren't going after individuals or impoverished nations filled with people the average idiot American distrusts and blames for gas prices.
They're stepping on the toes of large, multi-national corporations many of whom have major media holdings and could make life very, very painful for the US government. Translation: they ARE being watched on this one, so they have to cross the 't's and dot the 'i's.
--Ryv
This may surprise to the parent poster but quite a few Apache installations are on top of Windows simply because people don't trust IIS - ditto BIND (which people shouldn't trust either, but let's not get into that). It shouldn't come as a shock that IT managers aren't evaluating Linux for servers as much anymore when you look at what's available in Windows Server 2003 and *BSD. I'm not as big a user of Linux as I used to be, so stop me if I'm talking out my ass here, but stripping Linux down to operate strictly as a server simply isn't what it used to be (in terms of effort required if nothing else) due to kernel bloat and dependency hell. Why would you use it when there are other OSes that provide everything else a server needs with less kruft?
--Ryv
but the top states for servicemen were New Jersey, California and Texas.
Hello and well met! My name is Mr. Population Of A Given State As Defined By Percentage Of The Total US Population. What can I do for you today?
--Ryv
This sounds a lot more like the usual Slashdot panic-attack than anything actually factual, and unlike the SCO case I think testing this in court would result in a significant weakening of the GPL. That said, if we assume for the moment that this is the case, I would pay a metric fuckton of money to hear Stallman try and defend it.
--Ryv
The whole idea of "layers" (h/w, OS, apps) is so backward.
:: Save As...)
I hope by 2015 it'll all become seamless (brain-Google, brain-Gmail, etc. interfaces) and that Windows and Linux will become OS of the old generation.
It's hard for me to understand why anyone would want to see any of the following (examples):
a) BIOS setup screen(s)
b) boot dialogue
c) login screen
d) Start menu (or its equivalents)
e) dial-up (xDSL or other) dialog box
f) traditional interfaces and menus (File
h) Internet/Networking setup
i) privacy and security options
j) OS
It will be absolutely absurd if any of these things existed in 2015. Why would anyone have to deal with any of that or even know what OS (if any) the computer runs on?
We'll by then have 100 times (or more) more computing power at our disposal. If we still use today's interfaces to access it, that would be pathetic.
Why all of that?
Three simple answers:
1. Until general-purpose Turing-level AI is made manifest, no machine will be a match for human ingenuity at defeating security. Period.
2. Some problems require increasing amounts of computational power as time goes on (rendering technology, cryptography, etc.). Low-level optimization will always be in demand until, again, we have Turing-level AI to do it for us.
3. Some problems and operations are irreducibly complex. Period. There are some problems that cannot be solved save through addressing the hardware directly or through only a single layer of abstraction. This will never stop being the case until, again, AI renders it a moot point.
Just as the poor will always be with us (until someone actually works out a working true utopian socialist society - or resources become functionally infinite), low-level dialogues and optimizations will always be with us (until machines smarter than us can do it better than us for us).
--Ryv
One of the HUGE stumbling blocks of many languages is grammatical gender. In German "Der" for male, "Die" for female, and "Das" for neuter.
Every single noun has a gender association and in most cases this is UTTERLY random. The word for woman, "Fraulein," is neuter! Please explain the logic of that.
English has none of this. It's "the boy" "the girl" "the dick in my ear" - which is actually an even better example because in German the 'my' (mein) must also reflect the gender of the word 'ear.' In addition to German, French, Spanish, and many many - both Indo-European and other - languages share this same problem. This is one of the major aspects of English that makes basic entry into the language incredibly easy. Mastery of English, as other posters have pointed out, is considerably more difficult.
--Ryv
Obfuscated Perl? Contests are supposed to be hard. :-)
Oh, it would be hard, just not in the way you think. If none of the judges can figure out any of the entries, how would they be able to pick a winner?
--Ryv
I have 8 machines at my house, and the parts for another 3 lying around. I always have at least one system in some stage of being rebuilt lying around. I've been doing this since I was 16 and I consider Maxtor at least the equal of Western Digital and Seagate. Out of the twelve or so Maxtor drives I've bought over the years, one of those failed in less than three years. I have one that's been working for six years now with no data loss whatsoever. Out of five Western Digital drives, two failed prior to three years. As the guy says in the guide - maybe I just build my systems better (making sure airflow keeps the drives cool), but I have had far better luck with Maxtor than Western Digital.
Apparently an important factor is security.
/trojan-infested hosts throwing out spam these days. Even if they only reduce that by 75% with these new efforts, it'll be a big, big help
Even if I don't hold out much hope for their success, I wish them the best of luck - consider the millions of spyware infested
--Ryv
If we can read the state of two entangled atoms, is communication at greater-than-light speed now possible? Wouldn't this violate causality?
Just curious.
--Ryv
I just wanted to compliment you on an intelligent response to a subject that seems to induce fits of irrational hysteria around here.
Environmental science in general and global warming in particular are among the topics that Slashdot simply seem incapable of producing *ANY* meaningful signal on whatsoever. The problem seems to be that most Slashdotters are aware of just how much their technological fetishes (which I admittedly share) are dependent on the very processes which drive environmentalists into fits of rage. Thus the local technophiles (which around here is everybody) are driven into vehemently denying what is an at best *potential* great danger - and at worst an impending catastrophe.
Intelligent, reasoned reactions which take into account both the uncertainty of the science involved and yet give appropriate weight to the possibility that our worst fears may be confirmed are all too rare around here.
So, thanks.
The fact that most of my neighbors speak Portugese exclusively aside, I'm unable to discern which buildings - nevermind apartments - house the responsible parties. Even if I could find them, my experiences in this complex (surprisingly upscale, given that apparently nobody speaks a word of English) do nothing to foster a belief that we could communicate.
Interesting. I was not aware of this. I have no real desire to be 'socially irresponsible' with available channels, but for me part of it is that I want to lock the router to 108Mbps-only - in order to further bolster the security of the standard MAC-based ACL. I mean, if 99% of the hardware out there can't even use my WAP, period, that's another security layer on top of WEP, ACL . . .
Having this problem here as well. My new Netgear 802.11g works just fine on channel 11 - but this is one of their new products which has the ability to do 108Mbps. The problem is that the 108Mbps feature is only available on channel 6 - the router will not let you select another channel if you have 108Mbps enabled - and I have *TWO* neighbors with WAPs on channel six.
.
At this point I'm seriously considering returning my Xmas present and just getting the next model up, which does 108Mbps over 802.11a 5.8GHz, thus bypassing 2.4Ghz entirely . .
--Ryv
I'm not terribly familiar with the latest in case-modding, so I have to ask - are these UV lights entirely safe for longterm exposure? Say, 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year?
--Ryv
This sounds like really great news. What next? Every person who downloads MP3s is automatically branded a 'terrorist' because they might be threatening the integrity of the economy? Even if they own the CD in question (which is analogous here, because legally there's nothing wrong with the Majick Cube either now that the Rubik's patent has expired)?
--Ryvar
So it sounds like AMD is going without HT.
Damn.
They may not have a choice (patents).
The voting records of House/Senate Democrats and Republicans are equally horrifying - both are clearly sold out to big media in an all-too-sharp commentary on the current status of bribing (known as 'lobbying') lawmakers in America.
Where the article writeup is probably a little more correct is amongst the constituencies of these supposed representatives - most of the liberal people I've met both in the real world and online have been passionately against IP laws in their current form, even the musicians and the game developers. I can't say the same thing for many of my conservative friends - with some notable exceptions.
The point is - it may be true that there is something resembling a liberal/conservative divide on IP laws amongst the general populace (there are quite a few exceptions, as with everything - I'm a pro-gun liberal, a friend of mine is an anti-IP conservative) but that this stance has yet to be really reflected by either party's legislative representatives, both of which are having their pockets lined by the corporations. There's no profit for the representatives in actually, *gasp*, representing their constituency (you have to really screw up badly in order to get voted out), and so they don't.
--Ryv
Create a file format that is basically just the web page plus dependent files tar'd and gzip'd - then release browser plugins that automatically take any file with the correct extention, and seamlessly ungzip/untar it to the local cache before displaying it like normal - I have yet to understand why nobody has combined this basic idea with BitTorrent. Seems like you could get a lot of mileage with it.
Here.
--Ryv
Think about some of the idiots out there on the road in their giant SUVs - and you want to give these same sycophants each the ability to cause their own little 9/11 with just a slight miscalculation in their laughable *judgement*?
Are you completely out of your mind?
The only way flying cars will ever 'get here' is if we have the computer flying them - and one that is capable of continuing to fly them in the case of single engine failure, etc. Since we can't get AI working well enough for mainstream use on the roads yet, this is a long ways off.
--Ryv
When it came down to Windows or OS/2, OS/2 did not have the advantage of being free as in beer, which for all practical purposes Linux is.
That alone will attract a LOT of people. Assuming Linux takes the high road on the topic of DRM, etc. - chances are good that it will definitely remain a competitive choice at the very least.