He made the SW dominate the HW. You have to make HW that can run his SW or you are DOA. The rise of OSS was an unintended consequence, but there is a causal relationship.
Now that BG has this "little problem" with OSS, he has a solution: XBOX. If XBOX turns into a PC, it fragments the HW market which will allow BG to sell different versions of Windows for different architectures, providing a logical set of divisions for MSFT so that the next time the DOJ tries to break them up it can be done in a manner similar to the ATT breakup--very beneficial to shareholders who end up with shares in all the major industry players who must sell more product because competition leads to overlapping purchases. If XBOX does not become a PC, BG just sits on his existing market and/or reaps game and DVD profits. Either way, he wins. This guy is so smart he has you knocked out before you even know you are in the ring and that there is a boxing match. He's 50 moves ahead of your game. You are checkmated before the board is even set up. He makes the rules! The OSS people are foolish to think they have any chance of competing.
the average salary in Afghanistan is on the order of $10-20 USD equiv per month.
Whenever you see such stats, you always have to ask some other questions like: "what do things cost?" and "how important is the money economy over there?". Odds are the answers are "not much" and "not very" or some combination thereof.
If you are a Taliban, you were, until very recently, well fed. The food, weapons, and a little money were coming from outside. A lot of it is black market. Do you think these opium traders with mules loaded down with stash and AK-47s are reporting their incomes to the IMF and the UN, or whoever it is compiles the statistics?
Well, you know what they say about statistics...
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that life in the 3rd world isn't a turd sandwich. I'm just saying that there is some lettuce on that sandwich we don't see.
the temperature underground tends to remain constant. I don't know what ground temp is in Afghanistan, but usually they are less than room temp and higher than freezing. Condensation can be the kiss of death unless you are careful to dry out the components before power-up. If I were in such a situation, I'd be inclined to remove the boards and make sure they are dry before running it. I assume he had it in a sturdy box wrapped, and that the machine itself was wrapped in plastic to keep out dirt and moisture. At any rate, underground is more like a damp A/C environment, whereas the attic is more like an oven. I know what the attic does to vinyl. If you put anything with plastic parts in an attic, you might as well just save yourself the trouble and take it to a landfill.
There hasn't been enough time for the "little village" to be sent new computers
Sheesh... All you people saying things like this. Did you read the whole piece? He dug it out from under a chicken coop where it was hidden. Since he can watch movies with it, we should probably assume it's the more capable Amiga and not the C-64. A lot of people buried their contraband and waited out the Taliban. That itself is interesting--I'm sure some of those people died and left behind techno time capsules.
and how does he even know how to connect to the internet? Dial into his local IP? Junoweb?
It wouldn't surprise me if they were using some ancient phone system that was really easy to bluebox. The threat of losing your right hand has proven more effective than 128-bit encryption. Also, if he can dial Pakistan, he can probably dial a Pakistani ISP. Also, no FCC there! I bet they can amp their 802.11b all the way to Islamabad and back. If it were me though, I'd just waltz into what used to be the Taliban NOC and run CAT-5 from there.
Anyone who can "first post" from a former Taliban NOC should get some kind of a prize... Penguin mints or something.
Congress did NOT pass a law abridging free speech in this case.
Apparently, the materials are ON LOAN from the government to these "depository libraries". The government owns these materials. It can do what it wants with them. Having the librarian destroy them just saved the cost of shipping them back so the govt. could destroy them. Perhaps it would have made less waves if they had shipped them back and destroyed them themselves.
So, if you want to hire a bunch of guys, do a survey of all the water systems in the US and then publish it, go ahead. If the government then refuses to allow you to publish, then you have a 1st ammendment case.
As representatives of the people, the government determined that the people desired this information only to the extent that it would not jeopardize our lives.
You can hardly argue that the government fails to represent The People in this case. The vast majority would agree that we are better off without uncontrolled access to this information.
There is a fine line that must be walked. Take away too much information, and we end up with Chernobyl--a classic example of what happens without an informed, active environmental lobby. Give out too much information and we end up with terrorists knowing where the Cole is docked and just where to ram it.
The fact that we are having this argument on/. and in the media is encouraging. When people are afraid to dialog like this; afraid to be controversial, that's when I'll be afraid.
Sheesh... what a pity you can't clone phones and steal service anymore. That was no different than saying that it is illegal to duplicate a skeleton key. If you've ever seen such a key, you might notice something on the key that says to the locksmith, effectively "don't duplicate this key or you could get in trouble".
The main problem with this kind of stuff is that the hacker's legitimate rights to experiment are running afoul of the need to translate the physical lock and key into the "virtual" realm. If hackers had a clue, they would have lobbied for something like a "student locksmith license" with a nominal fee and ethical guidelines as to how it could be used.
Instead they elevate their base desires to moral posturing and attempt to wrap themselves in the 1st ammendment. They refuse to recognize the need for people to protect their services; refuse to work with the authorities and insist on working against them. It's no wonder they get no respect.
Well, wouldn't you know. The sky was clear until about 4 AM, then clouds came in and by 4:30 we were socked in with clouds and fog. The humidity was 100% too. Rather ironic, when you consider that we are in the middle of a drought. It was almost as if the weather conspired to deprive us. There was no rain either.
I'd probably do the same, but my car is broken. Need new car. Hey... if this thing really hits hard, maybe I can get a special on a "meteor damaged" car.:)
1. The moderators are all watching for meteors.
2. The moderator got hit in the head with a meteor.
3. The moderators are aliens who just arrived on meteors.
4. Yo Mama is meteor.
I stepped out at approx 7 PM, Eastern time and not much more than 2 minutes went by before I saw one streaking towards Taurus. It covered about 10 degress over the course of what seemed like at least a second. It compared favorably to Aldebaran in brightness. Possibly it was a bit dimmer, but it was white whereas Aldebaran is orange. I live in Fairfax County, VA where the sky is full of city lights so this impresses me quite a bit. The peak isn't for several hours so I gather this bodes well for a spectacular event. Unfortunately I will be stuck here amidst the haze and skyglow all night.
What will it look like from there, and if it is really spectacular will there actually be people with a middle ages education thinking it's 1. another bombing run of some kind, or 2. a bad omen from Allah?
how the hell can they possibly get 5 gourmet dishes done in such a short period including masterful presentation. I can't seem to heat a can of soup in 1Hr
Ummm... because they're master chefs and you're not?
get safety from the vm like java does. that way you don't have to re-write all your code. even java still has null pointer exceptions at runtime and it is regarded as very safe.
i'd say more but i cut my right hand today and typing sucks.
They represent the kind of people who would gladly pay someone 500 bucks for "Louie Louie" and make millions of dollars from it without thinking of sharing it with the songwriter
Ummm... You think the guy that sold it to them knew it was going to be a hit? If he did and sold at that price he's got nobody to blame but himself.
Also, what about all the other junk they bought for $500 that didn't become a hit? Where do you think all those cut-outs that are being cleared for less than the value of a blank tape come from?
If the RIAA labels screw musicians that badly, it's the perfect opportunity for someone to start a better label and/or a better promotion system. Why has nobody done that? Could it be... oh my... don't tell me... that it's a difficult job and that promoters earn profit commensurate with the service they perform?
With enough lead time, we could mine down an Earth approacher until it was small enough to divert.
It's the 10 km comets coming out of nowhere with only months of lead time that are frightening. Of course, by establishing a continuous presence in interplanetary space, this will lead us to develop other technologies that will allow us to destroy asteroid/comet threats in a shorter time frame.
So, I'm all for it. I'd much rather grab methane ice from some space rock than blast the top off a mountain in West Virginia. Of course, I'm sure the environmentalist wackos will figure out some way to make asteroid mining politically incorrect. On the up side, maybe they will chain themselves to the asteroids.
1. A major component of globalization is free trade. That means there are no "duties" or taxes levied by countries importing goods.
2. International law and international courts are another component.
OK, those are facts that are hard to dispute. Here's where my opinion comes in:
Globalization, as defined above is bad because...
1. Advocates for globalization are always saying that free trade is needed to spur economic development. The first major problem with this is that once trade is totally free, it can no longer be used as a tool to spur growth. If the cause for economic problems comes from some other area, they will eventually exhaust this resource and because they devoted so much effort to it, other potential resolutions will be neglected. This is similar to the interest rate problem with the Japanese economy. Another major problem with free trade is that there are hidden costs. For example, sea creatures carried in the holds of ships have had a devestating impact on the ecology of the Great Lakes in North America. Similar ecological problems have arisen with fruit flies, tree fungi, and various other pests. A tarrif is a logical way to protect against these issues because the revenue generated rises in proportion to the problem. The foolish assumption of free trade is to either ignore these losses in the economic equation or to assume that revenue to solve them can be readily obtained from some other source. This is no new problem. Expanded trade is widely credited for carrying the rats that spread black death throughout Europe in the middle ages. A tarriff to fund rat extermination at the port would have been a fantastic and foresighted action.
2. Global law is bad because it erodes the sovereignty of nations and deprives the citizens of a vote (where they have one). This could also lead to a "no where to hide" syndrome where legitimate dissenters cannot take refuge. In the 80s, the Shah of Iran took refuge in France. What if an international court had been required to allow him to be tried according to Iranian revolutionary laws? It doesn't take too much imagination to see such things being used to persecute all kinds of people.
In general, globalization is bad for the same reason that monoculture crops are bad: If The One System gets a disease, then the whole World gets a disease.
With multiple systems, one "diseased" country cannot infect the others too quickly. What if there was a world government, and it got taken over by Taliban?
Slashdot Mirror
That's Nothing. The other night the star quarterback and the head cheerleader created a practical DNA computer in the back of his Chevy pickup.
Talisman
Be on the lookout for dyslexic special forces.
Good thoughts except for this last one
I did launch into some hyperbole towards the end. Sorry, bad habit.
He made the SW dominate the HW. You have to make HW that can run his SW or you are DOA. The rise of OSS was an unintended consequence, but there is a causal relationship.
Now that BG has this "little problem" with OSS, he has a solution: XBOX. If XBOX turns into a PC, it fragments the HW market which will allow BG to sell different versions of Windows for different architectures, providing a logical set of divisions for MSFT so that the next time the DOJ tries to break them up it can be done in a manner similar to the ATT breakup--very beneficial to shareholders who end up with shares in all the major industry players who must sell more product because competition leads to overlapping purchases. If XBOX does not become a PC, BG just sits on his existing market and/or reaps game and DVD profits. Either way, he wins. This guy is so smart he has you knocked out before you even know you are in the ring and that there is a boxing match. He's 50 moves ahead of your game. You are checkmated before the board is even set up. He makes the rules! The OSS people are foolish to think they have any chance of competing.
the average salary in Afghanistan is on the order of $10-20 USD equiv per month.
Whenever you see such stats, you always have to ask some other questions like: "what do things cost?" and "how important is the money economy over there?". Odds are the answers are "not much" and "not very" or some combination thereof.
If you are a Taliban, you were, until very recently, well fed. The food, weapons, and a little money were coming from outside. A lot of it is black market. Do you think these opium traders with mules loaded down with stash and AK-47s are reporting their incomes to the IMF and the UN, or whoever it is compiles the statistics?
Well, you know what they say about statistics...
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that life in the 3rd world isn't a turd sandwich. I'm just saying that there is some lettuce on that sandwich we don't see.
the temperature underground tends to remain constant. I don't know what ground temp is in Afghanistan, but usually they are less than room temp and higher than freezing. Condensation can be the kiss of death unless you are careful to dry out the components before power-up. If I were in such a situation, I'd be inclined to remove the boards and make sure they are dry before running it. I assume he had it in a sturdy box wrapped, and that the machine itself was wrapped in plastic to keep out dirt and moisture. At any rate, underground is more like a damp A/C environment, whereas the attic is more like an oven. I know what the attic does to vinyl. If you put anything with plastic parts in an attic, you might as well just save yourself the trouble and take it to a landfill.
There hasn't been enough time for the "little village" to be sent new computers
Sheesh... All you people saying things like this. Did you read the whole piece? He dug it out from under a chicken coop where it was hidden. Since he can watch movies with it, we should probably assume it's the more capable Amiga and not the C-64. A lot of people buried their contraband and waited out the Taliban. That itself is interesting--I'm sure some of those people died and left behind techno time capsules.
and how does he even know how to connect to the internet? Dial into his local IP? Junoweb?
It wouldn't surprise me if they were using some ancient phone system that was really easy to bluebox. The threat of losing your right hand has proven more effective than 128-bit encryption. Also, if he can dial Pakistan, he can probably dial a Pakistani ISP. Also, no FCC there! I bet they can amp their 802.11b all the way to Islamabad and back. If it were me though, I'd just waltz into what used to be the Taliban NOC and run CAT-5 from there.
Anyone who can "first post" from a former Taliban NOC should get some kind of a prize... Penguin mints or something.
there should be a metadata standard allowing webmasters to manually decrease the relevance of their pages for specific search terms and phrases."
So, in other words... businesses will want to reduce their exposure on the web? I don't think so.
I really don't forsee any progress coming from an obviously half-assed website run by a bunch of teenagers.
And you're posting this... where?
How do you get it? I've always wanted to send them bills, but I always figured getting the real addrress would be too time consuming.
Congress did NOT pass a law abridging free speech in this case.
Apparently, the materials are ON LOAN from the government to these "depository libraries". The government owns these materials. It can do what it wants with them. Having the librarian destroy them just saved the cost of shipping them back so the govt. could destroy them. Perhaps it would have made less waves if they had shipped them back and destroyed them themselves.
So, if you want to hire a bunch of guys, do a survey of all the water systems in the US and then publish it, go ahead. If the government then refuses to allow you to publish, then you have a 1st ammendment case.
As representatives of the people, the government determined that the people desired this information only to the extent that it would not jeopardize our lives.
You can hardly argue that the government fails to represent The People in this case. The vast majority would agree that we are better off without uncontrolled access to this information.
There is a fine line that must be walked. Take away too much information, and we end up with Chernobyl--a classic example of what happens without an informed, active environmental lobby. Give out too much information and we end up with terrorists knowing where the Cole is docked and just where to ram it.
The fact that we are having this argument on /. and in the media is encouraging. When people are afraid to dialog like this; afraid to be controversial, that's when I'll be afraid.
Sheesh... what a pity you can't clone phones and steal service anymore. That was no different than saying that it is illegal to duplicate a skeleton key. If you've ever seen such a key, you might notice something on the key that says to the locksmith, effectively "don't duplicate this key or you could get in trouble".
The main problem with this kind of stuff is that the hacker's legitimate rights to experiment are running afoul of the need to translate the physical lock and key into the "virtual" realm. If hackers had a clue, they would have lobbied for something like a "student locksmith license" with a nominal fee and ethical guidelines as to how it could be used.
Instead they elevate their base desires to moral posturing and attempt to wrap themselves in the 1st ammendment. They refuse to recognize the need for people to protect their services; refuse to work with the authorities and insist on working against them. It's no wonder they get no respect.
By making the documents closed, we are promoting security through obscurity, which has been proved time and time again not to work.
Quick, what's my password?
I suppose what you really mean is that obscurity alone will not work.
Well, wouldn't you know. The sky was clear until about 4 AM, then clouds came in and by 4:30 we were socked in with clouds and fog. The humidity was 100% too. Rather ironic, when you consider that we are in the middle of a drought. It was almost as if the weather conspired to deprive us. There was no rain either.
I'd probably do the same, but my car is broken. Need new car. Hey... if this thing really hits hard, maybe I can get a special on a "meteor damaged" car. :)
Why has this been marked down to -1?
Possible explanations:
1. The moderators are all watching for meteors.
2. The moderator got hit in the head with a meteor.
3. The moderators are aliens who just arrived on meteors.
4. Yo Mama is meteor.
Take your pick.
I stepped out at approx 7 PM, Eastern time and not much more than 2 minutes went by before I saw one streaking towards Taurus. It covered about 10 degress over the course of what seemed like at least a second. It compared favorably to Aldebaran in brightness. Possibly it was a bit dimmer, but it was white whereas Aldebaran is orange. I live in Fairfax County, VA where the sky is full of city lights so this impresses me quite a bit. The peak isn't for several hours so I gather this bodes well for a spectacular event. Unfortunately I will be stuck here amidst the haze and skyglow all night.
What will it look like from there, and if it is really spectacular will there actually be people with a middle ages education thinking it's 1. another bombing run of some kind, or 2. a bad omen from Allah?
how the hell can they possibly get 5 gourmet dishes done in such a short period including masterful presentation. I can't seem to heat a can of soup in 1Hr
Ummm... because they're master chefs and you're not?
get safety from the vm like java does. that way you don't have to re-write all your code. even java still has null pointer exceptions at runtime and it is regarded as very safe.
i'd say more but i cut my right hand today and typing sucks.
If there's a mob connection then we should be hearing more about RICO and less about RIAA. :)
They represent the kind of people who would gladly pay someone 500 bucks for "Louie Louie" and make millions of dollars from it without thinking of sharing it with the songwriter
Ummm... You think the guy that sold it to them knew it was going to be a hit? If he did and sold at that price he's got nobody to blame but himself.
Also, what about all the other junk they bought for $500 that didn't become a hit? Where do you think all those cut-outs that are being cleared for less than the value of a blank tape come from?
If the RIAA labels screw musicians that badly, it's the perfect opportunity for someone to start a better label and/or a better promotion system. Why has nobody done that? Could it be... oh my... don't tell me... that it's a difficult job and that promoters earn profit commensurate with the service they perform?
Yeah, buddy! Karma suicide!!! Pound it in.
Don't fear the Karma reaper. Another 40000 mod points everyday!!!!
With enough lead time, we could mine down an Earth approacher until it was small enough to divert.
It's the 10 km comets coming out of nowhere with only months of lead time that are frightening. Of course, by establishing a continuous presence in interplanetary space, this will lead us to develop other technologies that will allow us to destroy asteroid/comet threats in a shorter time frame.
So, I'm all for it. I'd much rather grab methane ice from some space rock than blast the top off a mountain in West Virginia. Of course, I'm sure the environmentalist wackos will figure out some way to make asteroid mining politically incorrect. On the up side, maybe they will chain themselves to the asteroids.
1. A major component of globalization is free trade. That means there are no "duties" or taxes levied by countries importing goods.
2. International law and international courts are another component.
OK, those are facts that are hard to dispute. Here's where my opinion comes in:
Globalization, as defined above is bad because...
1. Advocates for globalization are always saying that free trade is needed to spur economic development. The first major problem with this is that once trade is totally free, it can no longer be used as a tool to spur growth. If the cause for economic problems comes from some other area, they will eventually exhaust this resource and because they devoted so much effort to it, other potential resolutions will be neglected. This is similar to the interest rate problem with the Japanese economy. Another major problem with free trade is that there are hidden costs. For example, sea creatures carried in the holds of ships have had a devestating impact on the ecology of the Great Lakes in North America. Similar ecological problems have arisen with fruit flies, tree fungi, and various other pests. A tarrif is a logical way to protect against these issues because the revenue generated rises in proportion to the problem. The foolish assumption of free trade is to either ignore these losses in the economic equation or to assume that revenue to solve them can be readily obtained from some other source. This is no new problem. Expanded trade is widely credited for carrying the rats that spread black death throughout Europe in the middle ages. A tarriff to fund rat extermination at the port would have been a fantastic and foresighted action.
2. Global law is bad because it erodes the sovereignty of nations and deprives the citizens of a vote (where they have one). This could also lead to a "no where to hide" syndrome where legitimate dissenters cannot take refuge. In the 80s, the Shah of Iran took refuge in France. What if an international court had been required to allow him to be tried according to Iranian revolutionary laws? It doesn't take too much imagination to see such things being used to persecute all kinds of people.
In general, globalization is bad for the same reason that monoculture crops are bad: If The One System gets a disease, then the whole World gets a disease.
With multiple systems, one "diseased" country cannot infect the others too quickly. What if there was a world government, and it got taken over by Taliban?