Intellectual property laws came about as a way to balance public interest with private interest. Without some kind of copyright and patent protection, there is less incentive to create something intangible (like music, software, medicine, etc), especially it it involves significant up front costs and effort. However, to balance this against public interest, time limits were put into place and the concept of patents on non-physical items were not initially considered (that is what copyrights were for).
The last couple decades have seen a total removal of the concept of public interest in IP law, it is now 100% about maximizing profits for distribution middlemen (note: not the actual creators themselves, look who is doing all of the lobbying). Copyright for all intents and purposes is perpetual and dictated by the age of a cartoon mouse, I don't think anyone believes it is not going to be extended the next time it is up for renewal. Patents on non-tangible items (software patents) and on items that were not created but discovered (genetic patents) have further abused the system.
The idea of intellectual property is not inherently bad, but the current execution and the corruption around it now are more detrimental to society than helpful.
At the end of the day, all things being equal if the government has to step in and decide who it will legislatively favor, I’m hoping it is the tech industry. America is and for a long time has been losing its place in the world. We cannot compete with third world manufacturing, we have deliberately sacrificed our spot as a scientific leader by diverting funds away from a physics supercollider (The Large Hadron Collider in Europe is where future breakthroughs will occur while we now watch on the sidelines), we have given up NASA and future space exploration will be spearheaded by China and India, and we are dumbing down our science, math, and literacy education while the rest of the world ups their game.
We basically have two things left, we are leaders in information technology, and leaders in making Lady Gaga CDs and Chipmunk movie sequels. Which do you believe is doing to be the best industry to foster a friendly environment for to maintain the relevance of America in the world? The media industry exists on the whim of the US government and other governments going along with our endless copyright extensions. Should they decide to stop, there is no value in what they create. Media can be copied for free, there is no scarcity of resources in the distribution, the basic rules of economics don’t work here.
I’m not suggesting that the whole concept of intellectual property is null and void. It has its failings and certainly the way copyright is being handled is despicable (I also feel software patents are insane and detrimental to the information technology industry). But I do know that if this is to be a showdown between two industries, I want the one to win that actually produces something of economic, societal, and tangible value. If Hollywood and the music industry are simply incompatible with technology, then I think we can do without the next Pirates of the Caribbean sequel, but I don’t think we can do without the next Google, Microsoft, or IBM. Do we want to be a country of technical leaders advancing civilization along, or do we want to be the court jesters, a diversion for the Chinese and other emerging technologies to get some cheap laughs from while they surpass us in all other areas?
I didn't have that experience at all, it was just pointing it to a directory (or four) to back up and forget about it. Where it gets complicated is syncing across machines since ou basically have to define a link (this directory on machine A links to this directory on machine B). Without doing that you are just backing up to the cloud (which is also nice, as that is one of my primary uses of it and I didn't like that dropbox until recently forced you to have all files stored on all computers in your "cloud").
Ubuntu One isn't available on OSX which knocks it out for me.
And I happen to like that security principle. Why shouldn't everything be encrypted? If I desire stronger encryption (or a different passphrase) for more sensitive stuff I can encryption them in a truecrypt or other container. But it isn't hurting anything to keep them encrypted and makes it more transparent. Except for performance (which isn't an issue here) what possible argument could there be for NOT encrypting everything?
They don't use client side encryption, and can decrypt your data on their side if they so choose. Almost a year or so ago, they had a couple of hours where (due to a botched code deployment on their side) anyone could log into any dropbox account using any password. The fact that they CAN decrypt your data (in addition to apparently having very bad testing procedures internally) means that someday they may decide to follow Google and Facebook's model and troll it for information for targeted advertising, selling to whomever, etc.
They claim their employees need to be able to have access to your unencrypted data to comply with government regulations but this does not pass the smell test at all. SpiderOak and Wuala both use client side encryption and do not have access to your data.
Much more flexibility regarding what is synced (I don't need a dropbox directory, I can pick and choose directories or even individual files on each machine to be synced). Your solution to security is fine, except I want to be able to access my data on windows, linux, osx, android, and ios. It is also just easier to know everything is encrypted rather than needing to mentally track what should be as well as have to worry about opening sparsebundles (or opening truecrypt volumes, etc).
SpiderOak is a heck of a lot better (and unlike dropbox is actually secure). Of course with additional features it is a little more complex but that can be easily solved in time.
Every time this guy opens his mouth to try to defend himself, he makes it worse. He needs to just stop. We all get that he thinks his mistake was not knowing who Mike was and that it would have been perfectly ok to treat him like crap if he was nobody.
His apology can be summed up as "Normally I pride myself on knowing who I need to blow and who I can spit on, I made a mistake Mike (points to zipper), may I?"
Corporate America is rapidly shifting to support Android and iPhones (executives are demanding, and getting it). Two years ago, PwC was 36k some odd blackberries, today it supports iOS and Android and people are moving them in droves. Blackberry has nothing.
I don't know, they have their uses, even without an effective data input mechanism. Certainly not as a replacement to a laptop though. It would take some kind of direct mind interface for input to make them really work, and at that point we probably can lose the screen too.
But when I do, it is to say good bye to someone who created a site that let me find a "home" and figure out that there were more people like me back in 1998. Thanks Rob, and thanks for all the memories. The great Roblimo contraversies, OOG THE CAVEMAN, hot grits, naked and petrified. We had some good times:)
Tell where else you can spend as little as $800,000 or less to have a decryption engine that is probably capable of decrypting even the strongest of keys.
Not even every PS3 in existence could do this with AES256.
I'm not sure that is a good example to point to. Chandler is possible the best example at how to completely fail at an open source project (despite the money being tossed at it) in history.
Besides, Notes beats everything hands down as a groupware platform. The databases driven apps you can deploy rock and replication is amazingly useful. The email/calendar part does really suck though.
Slashdot Mirror
Nah, that cannot be too big of a industry when you think about it.
Music, Movies, & Microcode is where it is at my friend. We're making bucks here - Kongbucks and yen - and we can be flexible on pay and bennies.
Intellectual property laws came about as a way to balance public interest with private interest. Without some kind of copyright and patent protection, there is less incentive to create something intangible (like music, software, medicine, etc), especially it it involves significant up front costs and effort. However, to balance this against public interest, time limits were put into place and the concept of patents on non-physical items were not initially considered (that is what copyrights were for).
The last couple decades have seen a total removal of the concept of public interest in IP law, it is now 100% about maximizing profits for distribution middlemen (note: not the actual creators themselves, look who is doing all of the lobbying). Copyright for all intents and purposes is perpetual and dictated by the age of a cartoon mouse, I don't think anyone believes it is not going to be extended the next time it is up for renewal. Patents on non-tangible items (software patents) and on items that were not created but discovered (genetic patents) have further abused the system.
The idea of intellectual property is not inherently bad, but the current execution and the corruption around it now are more detrimental to society than helpful.
At the end of the day, all things being equal if the government has to step in and decide who it will legislatively favor, I’m hoping it is the tech industry. America is and for a long time has been losing its place in the world. We cannot compete with third world manufacturing, we have deliberately sacrificed our spot as a scientific leader by diverting funds away from a physics supercollider (The Large Hadron Collider in Europe is where future breakthroughs will occur while we now watch on the sidelines), we have given up NASA and future space exploration will be spearheaded by China and India, and we are dumbing down our science, math, and literacy education while the rest of the world ups their game.
We basically have two things left, we are leaders in information technology, and leaders in making Lady Gaga CDs and Chipmunk movie sequels. Which do you believe is doing to be the best industry to foster a friendly environment for to maintain the relevance of America in the world? The media industry exists on the whim of the US government and other governments going along with our endless copyright extensions. Should they decide to stop, there is no value in what they create. Media can be copied for free, there is no scarcity of resources in the distribution, the basic rules of economics don’t work here.
I’m not suggesting that the whole concept of intellectual property is null and void. It has its failings and certainly the way copyright is being handled is despicable (I also feel software patents are insane and detrimental to the information technology industry). But I do know that if this is to be a showdown between two industries, I want the one to win that actually produces something of economic, societal, and tangible value. If Hollywood and the music industry are simply incompatible with technology, then I think we can do without the next Pirates of the Caribbean sequel, but I don’t think we can do without the next Google, Microsoft, or IBM. Do we want to be a country of technical leaders advancing civilization along, or do we want to be the court jesters, a diversion for the Chinese and other emerging technologies to get some cheap laughs from while they surpass us in all other areas?
Am not!
Good point, but I tend not to select distributed storage solutions only on the name. If I did, I would have easily gone with "clownfucker storage"
That kinda sucks. Still happier with SpiderOak it seems.
I would understand that better if Dropbox were not twice as expensive as other comprable services that DO client side encryption.
I didn't have that experience at all, it was just pointing it to a directory (or four) to back up and forget about it. Where it gets complicated is syncing across machines since ou basically have to define a link (this directory on machine A links to this directory on machine B). Without doing that you are just backing up to the cloud (which is also nice, as that is one of my primary uses of it and I didn't like that dropbox until recently forced you to have all files stored on all computers in your "cloud").
Ubuntu One isn't available on OSX which knocks it out for me.
And I happen to like that security principle. Why shouldn't everything be encrypted? If I desire stronger encryption (or a different passphrase) for more sensitive stuff I can encryption them in a truecrypt or other container. But it isn't hurting anything to keep them encrypted and makes it more transparent. Except for performance (which isn't an issue here) what possible argument could there be for NOT encrypting everything?
They don't use client side encryption, and can decrypt your data on their side if they so choose. Almost a year or so ago, they had a couple of hours where (due to a botched code deployment on their side) anyone could log into any dropbox account using any password. The fact that they CAN decrypt your data (in addition to apparently having very bad testing procedures internally) means that someday they may decide to follow Google and Facebook's model and troll it for information for targeted advertising, selling to whomever, etc.
They claim their employees need to be able to have access to your unencrypted data to comply with government regulations but this does not pass the smell test at all. SpiderOak and Wuala both use client side encryption and do not have access to your data.
Much more flexibility regarding what is synced (I don't need a dropbox directory, I can pick and choose directories or even individual files on each machine to be synced).
Your solution to security is fine, except I want to be able to access my data on windows, linux, osx, android, and ios. It is also just easier to know everything is encrypted rather than needing to mentally track what should be as well as have to worry about opening sparsebundles (or opening truecrypt volumes, etc).
SpiderOak is a heck of a lot better (and unlike dropbox is actually secure). Of course with additional features it is a little more complex but that can be easily solved in time.
Every time this guy opens his mouth to try to defend himself, he makes it worse. He needs to just stop. We all get that he thinks his mistake was not knowing who Mike was and that it would have been perfectly ok to treat him like crap if he was nobody.
His apology can be summed up as "Normally I pride myself on knowing who I need to blow and who I can spit on, I made a mistake Mike (points to zipper), may I?"
(analogy seen on reddit)
Go check out a playbook, and prepare to be disappointed. They botched like a bunch of, well, hardware manufacturers who know nothing about software.
Corporate America is rapidly shifting to support Android and iPhones (executives are demanding, and getting it). Two years ago, PwC was 36k some odd blackberries, today it supports iOS and Android and people are moving them in droves. Blackberry has nothing.
I don't know, they have their uses, even without an effective data input mechanism. Certainly not as a replacement to a laptop though. It would take some kind of direct mind interface for input to make them really work, and at that point we probably can lose the screen too.
But when I do, it is to say good bye to someone who created a site that let me find a "home" and figure out that there were more people like me back in 1998. Thanks Rob, and thanks for all the memories. The great Roblimo contraversies, OOG THE CAVEMAN, hot grits, naked and petrified. We had some good times :)
Tell where else you can spend as little as $800,000 or less to have a decryption engine that is probably capable of decrypting even the strongest of keys.
Not even every PS3 in existence could do this with AES256.
It's been like 7 years, how's everyone doing? :)
The last Adams penned HHG2G was not really funny either. Cool, but not funny.
http://itookthisonmyphone.com/
http://qik.com/
There are probably some others, but these are the two I have messed with.
I'm going to give it 4 months before Oracle sells it to HP.
Watch our for that Andrew Loeb, he is a goddammed nutcase.
Yes, preventing food supplies to Gaza is the only reason to deploy US soldiers on Egypt border with Gaza.
Of course not, preventing food supplies and aid is just one of the perks.
I'm not sure that is a good example to point to. Chandler is possible the best example at how to completely fail at an open source project (despite the money being tossed at it) in history.
Besides, Notes beats everything hands down as a groupware platform. The databases driven apps you can deploy rock and replication is amazingly useful. The email/calendar part does really suck though.