Basically, the question is, where do you draw the line? Terrorism is illegal, fascism is, well, alive and well, but there are laws protecting people from that as well. Poor driving, we put up with to a point. Spam is not illegal even though it costs us and is a violation of our right to privacy. Making spam illegal wouldn't stop it any more than making terrorism illegal stops terrorism, but it's a good first step. After we make spam illegal, we can go from there, but as long as it is legal, we will not be able to make headway on it.
How many people still send bogus virus alerts telling you to delete the file called xxxxx if you find it on the computer, and how many people still send chain e-mail? You think we can convince them not to open spam? All of them? There's a sucker born every minute.
Watch an episode of All in the Family on TV Land or whatever, and you'll really see how things used to be. The episodes are about 26 minutes long -- one commercial break in the middle of the show, and one between shows. They leave them uncut on TV Land. Meanwhile, modern TV is concerned with the money it can make by adding another 30 seconds' worth of commercial time?
Pretty soon, PVRs are going to catch on, and commercials are going to go the way of banner ads. People will be able to decide not to watch them, and when they do that, they will lose their value. But TV, like the internet, will endure. It will go back to the olden days, when TV wasn't made for the advertisers, but for the viewers. Like the internet will become again, when people realize that more ads isn't the solution.
And I would definately press the keys WASD more than any newspaper article statistics would suggest.
I'd also be interested to know the ratio of keypresses/mouse clicks, for different operating systems. Wouldn't that be something?
There are many possible solutions to spam, and it irks me to no end that I can't stop it. I can change my e-mail address, but the same way that spammers the world over have my address, friends, relatives, and legitimate companies have and use that address. I estimate that it would take me at least 6 months to find all these people and tell them of my new address. Meanwhile, I can't abandon the old address.
For every great idea, there are a thousand bad ideas. For every conclusion, there are a thousand hypotheses. Should we give them time based on how revolutionary they are, or how likely they are to be true?
In case you decide to respond, let me beat you and apologize for the fascist remark. You have a problem with the system, but you blame the people, and that kind've ticked me off. No hard feelings?
Seriously, the Marine Corps would have never gone in there with that small of a contingent and that few supporting arms. They needed at least double to triple the infantry and an armored tank column. I read the book, haven't seen the movie yet, and it seems to me that they simply planned to attack a building, accomplish the mission, and get out. I think where they failed, and in a big way, was in their lack of taking into consideration the rest of the city. They assumed that people would see a bunch of helicopters and decide not to get involved. They attacked this building as if it were in the middle of nowhere, with little concern or planning for possible external factors.
Of course, that's just me. The sum of my military experience is playing Counterstrike and Rogue Spear. So feel free to tell me I'm wrong.
You have just pointed out what the problem with democracy in America today is. For a democracy to truly work it requires an educated populace
Now this may come as a shock to you, mr. fascist citizen, but we're not a democracy. We're a constitutional republic. Our responsibility is not to be informed on every subject, as we do not vote on every subject. Our responsibility is to be informed about our elected officials. This is why there are scandals, and tabloids, etc. etc. We learn about these people, how they act, what they're made up of, and we decide whether we want *them* to make decisions for us. It's not a perfect system, but it really offloads some of the pressure from us, so we can remain ignorant if we want to, without causing too much damage in the long run.
This is why voting along party lines is popular, and while I find it morally irresponsible, it makes peoples' lives easier. If you can find a group whose moral beliefs mirror your own, being able to vote for that group enables you to make an easier decision, because you only have to check that group out to decide that you like them, and trust that they check out their candidates.
Think of it this way: if you're the CEO of a company, do you need to know how the sales database works, or do you just need to know that it does work, and trust your IT guys to do a good job.
So, you're right. A democracy requires a public that is informed on all the issues (or at least all the issues on which they vote), however, since the US is not a democracy, you're just blowing smoke.
Peace.
also OT: remember when they discovered that bug in Windows 98 where if it was up for something like 150 days straight, it would crash? Remember how that news came out in, like, 1999? That was funny. You just reminded me of it.
You make some good points, and I have a possible explanation as to the experience of MCSEs vs. Unix gurus: Unix doesn't change like MS OSes do. Get yourself an MCSE tomorrow, and in two years it might just be obsolete. Become a Unix guru tomorrow, and in five years, you'll still have a job. That leaves you a lot of time to get to know your OS through and through. I'm not making excuses, simply illustrating a point. This is actually an excellent selling point for aspiring techies to go linux/unix: their skills won't become obsolete if they go on vacation for a couple of weeks.
What I'd like to see is 30 year jail terms for the executive corps at Enron I'd personally rather see them stoned to death by the very employees whose life savings they stole. Then I'd like to see the auditors in a dark alley. We could play hide-and-go-get-your-ass-kicked.
Failing that, I think a few years in a nice, maximum security, fuck-me-in-the-ass prison would be an eye opener for those who think it's okay to do things like this.
The Content files are encrypted and the Player contains decryption technology. You agree to abide by U.S. and other applicable export control laws and not to transfer any material subject to restrictions under such laws to a national destination or person prohibited under such laws.
So now I can't take my CDs with me on vacation. That's okay, I'll just download the mp3s off of audiogalaxy. And if I'm going to do that, I may as well just return this CD, as it's pretty well useless to me now...
If they really do set their mind to security issues, I'm sure that they will be hammered out after several slow, unglamorous years
But do you really think that they'll have the staying power to do this? Or might they decide 6 months from now that it was "secure enough for the time being" and start piling on more insecure features?
The real question is, if they're going to do this right, and check all the code and eliminate most every security problem, and check all the code and eliminate most every virus problem(I'm convinced that they could take out Outlook virii in an hour, if there was market share in it for them), how long will that take? What would a secure Windows cost Microsoft? Would they have to start from the ground up in order to do this, or would they be able to insure the security of their existing code?
I think it's more likely they'll do it half-assed, get it secure enough for Joe User, and say to hell with all-out security. There's likely more money to be made if it's just good enough than if it was nigh on perfect. You're right, if they get off their ass and do this right, a la IE, they'll have great security, and quick. But I doubt they have the motivation to go that far.
If what he says is true, that you could generate 14 megs' worth of responses, what's to stop me from forging my IP address to be YOUR IP address, querying for the string mp3, and sitting back and watching the carnage? There would be almost no way to trace this, and it would certainly generate a significant amount of traffic, so what's to stop me? Maybe his statistics are a bit inaccurate, but all the same, you could cause a lot of data to be sent somewhere, while not causing yourself any significant lag at all.
And if you should decide that you no longer want to listen to the music, you should be able to permanently eliminate it in a highly satisfying manner, like putting it in the microwave and having it sparkle, crackle, and pop. "Are you sure you want to delete this file" just isn't satisfying enough for me.
I would, but after 7 weeks of trying to get them to honor the warranty, I got tired of not having it, so I went to Circuit City, bought the same model, and returned the broken one the next day--despite having a couple of scratches on it, it still looked like new. I felt bad about it, but I rationalize it by telling myself that Circuit City is better equipped to return faulty merchandise than I am, and if they get pissed at SonicBlue, SonicBlue feels it. The BBB's complaint resolution is no longer something I need to go through, although if I hadn't thought of this, I probably would have.
SonicBlue has joined ATI on my shitlist. My RioVolt, which is a great MP3 CD player, broke, and they WILL NOT honor the warranty. The don't even tell me they won't, but the e-mail address they tell you to use for technical support only responds with form letters, requests for RMA are ignored, and the customer support people, who you need to call 3 different numbers and wait on hold for 30 minutes to talk to, are unable to issue RMAs. What they do is they request RMA numbers, which are never issued. I've made multiple calls, and they are completely unable, or possibly unwilling, to honor my warranty. So I'll never buy their products again, and if I can convince somebody on/. to do the same, all the better.
How much money could you squeeze out of the US govt. if you live next door, and turn up with cancer or lose your hair or go impotent or whatever? Enough to make the remainder of your life and your kids' lives comfortable, I would assume.
And if you don't suffer any adverse effects, then what does it matter that there's nuclear waste next door?
I read more or less the whole thing, but I'm unclear on what this guy's major objection is. He send unsolicited e-mail, in bulk. They called him on it. He's talking about slander or something, making obviously empty threats, but I don't follow what grounds he claims to be able to sue on. Just vague threats of lawsuits, lots of pretend lawyers, and vulgarity. Now, he e-mailed his resume to this guy, which means that it's basically public domain, right? This is the only thing I'm not 100% certain is groundless. And there's certainly no law against linking to a page, even if some person may not want you to. I know about the 2600 case, but my point is, until spammer wins suit against spamee or some sort of preliminary injunction or whatever, linking the page is completely harmless. So if his request to the bulletin board to remove the links were BS, that pretty much removes all credibility. Not that he had any, after the fact that the entire episode came out of HIS UCE. Listening to those voicemail messages, you'd think this guy had a combination of some serious social defects, and a superiority complex. I hate those people. They're wrong all the time, but they get bitchy when you call them on it.
PS: IANAL, although I have watched My Cousin Vinny at least twice.
Slashdot Mirror
Haha!
You are a geek. I bestow honor upon you.
Basically, the question is, where do you draw the line? Terrorism is illegal, fascism is, well, alive and well, but there are laws protecting people from that as well. Poor driving, we put up with to a point. Spam is not illegal even though it costs us and is a violation of our right to privacy. Making spam illegal wouldn't stop it any more than making terrorism illegal stops terrorism, but it's a good first step. After we make spam illegal, we can go from there, but as long as it is legal, we will not be able to make headway on it.
How many people still send bogus virus alerts telling you to delete the file called xxxxx if you find it on the computer, and how many people still send chain e-mail? You think we can convince them not to open spam? All of them?
There's a sucker born every minute.
And your time to order, receive, check, assemble, test, install, update, find drivers, and tweak is worth how much, exactly...?
It's something we do because we enjoy it. Not just to save money. If you want something done right, you do it yourself.
And if you don't need a Mac, $1200 can get you top-of-the-line.
Watch an episode of All in the Family on TV Land or whatever, and you'll really see how things used to be. The episodes are about 26 minutes long -- one commercial break in the middle of the show, and one between shows. They leave them uncut on TV Land. Meanwhile, modern TV is concerned with the money it can make by adding another 30 seconds' worth of commercial time?
Pretty soon, PVRs are going to catch on, and commercials are going to go the way of banner ads. People will be able to decide not to watch them, and when they do that, they will lose their value. But TV, like the internet, will endure. It will go back to the olden days, when TV wasn't made for the advertisers, but for the viewers. Like the internet will become again, when people realize that more ads isn't the solution.
And I would definately press the keys WASD more than any newspaper article statistics would suggest.
I'd also be interested to know the ratio of keypresses/mouse clicks, for different operating systems. Wouldn't that be something?
There are many possible solutions to spam, and it irks me to no end that I can't stop it. I can change my e-mail address, but the same way that spammers the world over have my address, friends, relatives, and legitimate companies have and use that address. I estimate that it would take me at least 6 months to find all these people and tell them of my new address. Meanwhile, I can't abandon the old address.
For every great idea, there are a thousand bad ideas. For every conclusion, there are a thousand hypotheses. Should we give them time based on how revolutionary they are, or how likely they are to be true?
It's genius! Clash of the titans.
It'll make for some great news stories, and maybe, just maybe, it'll make a real difference.
In case you decide to respond, let me beat you and apologize for the fascist remark. You have a problem with the system, but you blame the people, and that kind've ticked me off. No hard feelings?
Seriously, the Marine Corps would have never gone in there with that small of a contingent and that few supporting arms. They needed at least double to triple the infantry and an armored tank column.
I read the book, haven't seen the movie yet, and it seems to me that they simply planned to attack a building, accomplish the mission, and get out. I think where they failed, and in a big way, was in their lack of taking into consideration the rest of the city. They assumed that people would see a bunch of helicopters and decide not to get involved. They attacked this building as if it were in the middle of nowhere, with little concern or planning for possible external factors.
Of course, that's just me. The sum of my military experience is playing Counterstrike and Rogue Spear. So feel free to tell me I'm wrong.
You have just pointed out what the problem with democracy in America today is. For a democracy to truly work it requires an educated populace
Now this may come as a shock to you, mr. fascist citizen, but we're not a democracy. We're a constitutional republic. Our responsibility is not to be informed on every subject, as we do not vote on every subject. Our responsibility is to be informed about our elected officials. This is why there are scandals, and tabloids, etc. etc. We learn about these people, how they act, what they're made up of, and we decide whether we want *them* to make decisions for us. It's not a perfect system, but it really offloads some of the pressure from us, so we can remain ignorant if we want to, without causing too much damage in the long run.
This is why voting along party lines is popular, and while I find it morally irresponsible, it makes peoples' lives easier. If you can find a group whose moral beliefs mirror your own, being able to vote for that group enables you to make an easier decision, because you only have to check that group out to decide that you like them, and trust that they check out their candidates.
Think of it this way: if you're the CEO of a company, do you need to know how the sales database works, or do you just need to know that it does work, and trust your IT guys to do a good job.
So, you're right. A democracy requires a public that is informed on all the issues (or at least all the issues on which they vote), however, since the US is not a democracy, you're just blowing smoke.
Peace.
also OT: remember when they discovered that bug in Windows 98 where if it was up for something like 150 days straight, it would crash? Remember how that news came out in, like, 1999? That was funny. You just reminded me of it.
You make some good points, and I have a possible explanation as to the experience of MCSEs vs. Unix gurus: Unix doesn't change like MS OSes do. Get yourself an MCSE tomorrow, and in two years it might just be obsolete. Become a Unix guru tomorrow, and in five years, you'll still have a job. That leaves you a lot of time to get to know your OS through and through. I'm not making excuses, simply illustrating a point. This is actually an excellent selling point for aspiring techies to go linux/unix: their skills won't become obsolete if they go on vacation for a couple of weeks.
What I'd like to see is 30 year jail terms for the executive corps at Enron
I'd personally rather see them stoned to death by the very employees whose life savings they stole. Then I'd like to see the auditors in a dark alley. We could play hide-and-go-get-your-ass-kicked.
Failing that, I think a few years in a nice, maximum security, fuck-me-in-the-ass prison would be an eye opener for those who think it's okay to do things like this.
BTW, love the Half Baked reference.
The Content files are encrypted and the Player contains decryption technology. You agree to abide by U.S. and other applicable export control laws and not to transfer any material subject to restrictions under such laws to a national destination or person prohibited under such laws.
So now I can't take my CDs with me on vacation. That's okay, I'll just download the mp3s off of audiogalaxy. And if I'm going to do that, I may as well just return this CD, as it's pretty well useless to me now...
If they really do set their mind to security issues, I'm sure that they will be hammered out after several slow, unglamorous years
But do you really think that they'll have the staying power to do this? Or might they decide 6 months from now that it was "secure enough for the time being" and start piling on more insecure features?
The real question is, if they're going to do this right, and check all the code and eliminate most every security problem, and check all the code and eliminate most every virus problem(I'm convinced that they could take out Outlook virii in an hour, if there was market share in it for them), how long will that take? What would a secure Windows cost Microsoft? Would they have to start from the ground up in order to do this, or would they be able to insure the security of their existing code?
I think it's more likely they'll do it half-assed, get it secure enough for Joe User, and say to hell with all-out security. There's likely more money to be made if it's just good enough than if it was nigh on perfect. You're right, if they get off their ass and do this right, a la IE, they'll have great security, and quick. But I doubt they have the motivation to go that far.
If what he says is true, that you could generate 14 megs' worth of responses, what's to stop me from forging my IP address to be YOUR IP address, querying for the string mp3, and sitting back and watching the carnage? There would be almost no way to trace this, and it would certainly generate a significant amount of traffic, so what's to stop me? Maybe his statistics are a bit inaccurate, but all the same, you could cause a lot of data to be sent somewhere, while not causing yourself any significant lag at all.
And if you should decide that you no longer want to listen to the music, you should be able to permanently eliminate it in a highly satisfying manner, like putting it in the microwave and having it sparkle, crackle, and pop. "Are you sure you want to delete this file" just isn't satisfying enough for me.
I would, but after 7 weeks of trying to get them to honor the warranty, I got tired of not having it, so I went to Circuit City, bought the same model, and returned the broken one the next day--despite having a couple of scratches on it, it still looked like new. I felt bad about it, but I rationalize it by telling myself that Circuit City is better equipped to return faulty merchandise than I am, and if they get pissed at SonicBlue, SonicBlue feels it. The BBB's complaint resolution is no longer something I need to go through, although if I hadn't thought of this, I probably would have.
SonicBlue has joined ATI on my shitlist. My RioVolt, which is a great MP3 CD player, broke, and they WILL NOT honor the warranty. The don't even tell me they won't, but the e-mail address they tell you to use for technical support only responds with form letters, requests for RMA are ignored, and the customer support people, who you need to call 3 different numbers and wait on hold for 30 minutes to talk to, are unable to issue RMAs. What they do is they request RMA numbers, which are never issued. I've made multiple calls, and they are completely unable, or possibly unwilling, to honor my warranty. So I'll never buy their products again, and if I can convince somebody on /. to do the same, all the better.
How much money could you squeeze out of the US govt. if you live next door, and turn up with cancer or lose your hair or go impotent or whatever? Enough to make the remainder of your life and your kids' lives comfortable, I would assume.
And if you don't suffer any adverse effects, then what does it matter that there's nuclear waste next door?
I read more or less the whole thing, but I'm unclear on what this guy's major objection is. He send unsolicited e-mail, in bulk. They called him on it. He's talking about slander or something, making obviously empty threats, but I don't follow what grounds he claims to be able to sue on. Just vague threats of lawsuits, lots of pretend lawyers, and vulgarity. Now, he e-mailed his resume to this guy, which means that it's basically public domain, right? This is the only thing I'm not 100% certain is groundless. And there's certainly no law against linking to a page, even if some person may not want you to. I know about the 2600 case, but my point is, until spammer wins suit against spamee or some sort of preliminary injunction or whatever, linking the page is completely harmless. So if his request to the bulletin board to remove the links were BS, that pretty much removes all credibility. Not that he had any, after the fact that the entire episode came out of HIS UCE. Listening to those voicemail messages, you'd think this guy had a combination of some serious social defects, and a superiority complex. I hate those people. They're wrong all the time, but they get bitchy when you call them on it.
PS: IANAL, although I have watched My Cousin Vinny at least twice.