I strongly support Freenet's goals/methods. Thanks to the informative posts above, I realize that its unlikely anyone can be faulted for the encrypted data they have on their computer.
However I must ask: Isn't it likely that once Freenet becomes popular, a law will be passed saying:
1.) You are responsible for what you are sharing on your computer.
2.) If you join with other people to collectively share data, then each of you is responsible for ALL content shared.
Under 2.) anyone running a freenet server could be busted as long as some illegal content is found on the system.
While law 2.) does not currently exist, I doubt those in control will have trouble pushing such a law, esp. if they raise the "terrorist documents" red herring. Wouldn't law 2.), if enacted, be the end of freenet?
The Fermi Paradox asks: If intelligent life is common, given the billions of years since the formation of our galaxy, why have E.T.'s not yet reached (and perhaps colonized) Earth?
One proposed resolution is the Zookeeper Hypothesis, ie, they could have contacted us but are just waiting and watching for us to evolve, a la 2001.
If so, then wouldn't they want to put a probe near the Earth, which swoops down every few centuries or so for a close look, to see if any thing interesting has happened?
Thanks to the nice folks at Emperor Linux, I bought C1VN 1.4 years ago with Linux fully pre-installed. The perfect option for someone like me who uses Linux for science (astronomy) but isn't into recompiling kernels.
After 1 year I'll say this:
I really like the long life, I get a total of ~8 hours of use between rechargings, with my spare double strength battery. (Ideal for 14 hour flights to Oz & other plane or outdoors trips I take). I think other laptops find this hard to beat.
I also like the size. I put in in the outer pouch of my backpack, don't even notice its there. Weight is 1 kilogram, 2.2 lb.
I like the pictures, but I have to admit it doesn't compete with a modern digital camera. Another downside is: If you see something cool, it takes a few minutes to boot up & you might have missed it already.:-(
Mine is 667 Mhz (down to ~300 Mhz when "crusoe" is invoked), but that's fine for Netscape, LaTeX, emacs, xboard, civ, etc. No CD. Ethernet is all I need. I've experimented with video (.avi file format, haven't used sound but it can be done) It looks good as long as the smaller size frames are used. With the larger frames it looks slow.
All in all, I'm very happy with it & glad I bought it.
Human and chimp DNA are about 90% the same, they say. So all human DNA must be AT least 90% identical, if not 99%. Its only that last 1% which differentiates one human from another. Once the Human Genome Project is done, and all this DNA-in-common becomes public, you can burn 99% of your DNA on a CD for the cost of media, ie 10 cents.
People will complain that such general DNA is "not me!". But neither is "your" DNA you. A CD containing "your" DNA would be identical to a CD containing your twin brother's DNA. Are you your brother?
ps. Thanks for posting this story twice, I didn't get to comment the first time.
Another problem is that one of the "planets" where water "may" have been found, isn't a planet, and the other is a "maybe planet".
Lalande 21185: No paper reporting a planet around this star has yet been published, although there was a "SORTA KINDA" statement made about 5 years ago.
The planets around Upsilon Andromedae are however not in question. But it is not clear from the article that they are detecting masers on each (or any) of the planets. They should be able to detect clear periodic doppler signals as each of the planets orbits.
Here is a list of religions in Australia for 1991 and 1996.
Comparing to the 1996 numbers, Jedi's ~70,000 puts it close to "Churches of Christ (75k), "Jehova's Witness" (83k), Salvation Army (74k) and Judaism (80k) and ahead of Hinduism (68k) and the ever popular "No religion" (69k)
I'm an American, and I happened to be in Oz at the time, so I filled in "JEDI". I have some questions for Australians:
Does the $1000 fine apply to foreigners?
Supposing people are really going to be fined (which I doubt) which agency would collect the fine? It would be amusing to turn myself into this agency on my next visit, as "guilty of being a Jedi". (If they are going to talk about fining people they should expect this). Perhaps we should ask Lucas to start a legal fund on our behalf...
I would love to see them try to collect the fines. Imagine if Aussie Jedi stuck to their guns (er, sabers), refused to pay, and went to jail for being a Jedi!
I made $20,000 per year or less for the first 32 years of my life. Last year, I got my PhD & now feel rich making over 40k/year as an astronomy postdoc, and yes I love my job. Most real working people are blown away when I tell them what I do for a living. They don't think its possible. Then they a sad look like "gee I wish I enjoyed my job that much." Luckilly I don't have any expensive habits like cars & TV.
The Academic environment provides a lot more freedom...just look at what D. Toresky has been able to do...(any Verizon employees want to try that on company time?). But yes there are ruts... if you aren't really excited about the kind of science you are doing, might as well to back to the corporate world.
WHO you work with is just as important as what you are doing. In most fields of science (especially the not-even-remotely-profitable ones like mine) you are expected to work hard, but if the results do not turn out as expected, or hoped, well that's part of the discovery process. This contrasts with the business world, where if expectations are not met, it is mandadory to find someone to blame.
PhD was required for my job, as with many, but there are some "loopholes" out there: for example part IT/admin and part research jobs which can evolve more in the research direction. These aren't easy to find, but you skip the 5 years+ of grad school...
I would tend to agree but remember that the RIAA is not responsible for enforcing federal law (via lawsuits) the FBI is responsible. What if an audiance member called the FBI during the presentation and reported a "Crime in Progress" at the hotel? They would have to respond, right?
Its still a crime, even if the "offended" party doesn't want the criminal prosecuted, right?
many passwords can be guessed if access to the subject's desk is allowed
Well, if access to desktop is allowed, couldn't the accesser just reboot the computer, say into single user mode, or otherwise use rebooting to infiltrate the system in nasty ways?
Actually actually... you've got it wrong. The total number of TRANSITS was 185. There are no multiple planets here, but 42 multiple transits. There were a handful of single tranists which are more iffy (can't compute an orbital period). By the way, the total number of planets is ZERO, so far in this experiment. Each of these transits could be caused by a non-planet (ie as star or brown dwarf.) Until information on the mass of the transiting object comes in, we don't have any planets yet.
Yup, our University network is sure behind the curve compared to this GEANT thing. Another comparison: Costa Rica gave free internet access to all citizens. US, with 100 (?) times the per capita income, is "too poor" to afford this.
On the bright side, you can do whatever you want if your name is Bill Gates (of Borg).
++++++++++++++
At the link above claims that
Olympus Mons is a "crater",
just like one of the craters on the Island. Actually it is a mountain, probably the largest in the Solar System. Yes it does have a volcanic caldera but that is different from the crater on the Devon Island, formed by a meteorite impact.
Also: In FVWM2 I have mapped SHIFT + arrow keys to move the cursor L/R. & Up/Down by small amount which lets me switch windows without reaching for the mouse. (CTRL + Arrows = switch desktops)
Sorry if I missed this but it seems like this ruling means he can continue to distribute DECSS
(in the US?) until the official trial. Is this true or was it also shut down by the MPAA, like so many others?
I agree completely. I know that I, like anyone, would become demoralized and fearful if I were constantly bombarded by those terrible images. So to thwart the terrorists, I have prevented myself
from seeing ANY of those images (..I must be the only person in America) I have COMPLETLY avioded any TV since I heard about this, though I rarely
watch anyway.
And yet, I am as informed as the rest of/. because I read all my on-line news sources using LYNX. It is hard(er) to get addicted/afflicted when all you read is text...
Well Put AC. In addition to the "ethical lapses" of the news media you mentioned consider this: The best way to demoralize, depress and terrify the American Populace is to constantly and repeatedly subject them with terrifying demoralizing IMAGES, which sadly is just what the TV media do at times like these. Is this not EXACTLY what the terrorists want?
I would also like to see a case where the GPL is tested. Better yet a case where the violator is not a super-huge company which can get whatever it wants from the courts like M$ or MPAA. If there is not a pro-GPL precedent set by a smaller case, then when a big Important Case comes along, with Billions of Dollars riding on it (Like the M$ anti-trust case), then money may win the day.
Project for a free-software subversive: Found a (non-free) software company which markets a word processor called "Cool-macs", based on Emacs, get sued by FSF, hire the cheapest lawyer you can find, and only present as your defence: "The GPL is not legally valid". Your loss in court would set a precedent which other more important cases could refer to.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++ +++++
Dear Citizens: The FBI wants your help. If you
suspect someone out there is hacking, or comitting any crime, please set up a sniffer and try to get their passwords, break into their computers and then send in the data (don't look at it) to us. Please do your part for uncle sam.
There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious,
makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part; you can't even
passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears
and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and
you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people
who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the
machine will be prevented from working at all!
Our Librarian (at UCLA) just sent out a notice saying she was cancelling Nature. I wrote congratulating her for standing up to Nature's bogus tactics.
The problem w/ Nature is that they are a FOR PROFIT magazine with all kinds of ads for DNA equipment. Also they only accept stories which are "stunning, groundbreaking research", which has the effect of requiring scientists to hype their discoveries far beyond what normal scientific skepticism requires. Nature=Bad Science.
Journals which tend to stick most rigorously to scientific principles are those which require their authors to pay page charges. (ie, the don't have ads). Most scientists put in a request for page charges when they apply for grants.
I do astronomy research for a living. Of course this is completely dependent on computers nowadays. (In addition to telescopes & detectors).
Most of my job involves coding (in a high-level
language), and the people in my reaserch group can easily be described as software & hardware hackers.
But this isn't computer science because our goal is to learn about astronomy, not to learn how computers work.
Slashdot Mirror
I strongly support Freenet's goals/methods. Thanks to the informative posts above, I realize that its unlikely anyone can be faulted for the encrypted data they have on their computer.
However I must ask: Isn't it likely that once Freenet becomes popular, a law will be passed saying:
1.) You are responsible for what you are sharing on your computer.
2.) If you join with other people to collectively share data, then each of you is responsible for ALL content shared.
Under 2.) anyone running a freenet server could be busted as long as some illegal content is found on the system.
While law 2.) does not currently exist, I doubt those in control will have trouble pushing such a law, esp. if they raise the "terrorist documents" red herring. Wouldn't law 2.), if enacted, be the end of freenet?
One proposed resolution is the Zookeeper Hypothesis, ie, they could have contacted us but are just waiting and watching for us to evolve, a la 2001.
If so, then wouldn't they want to put a probe near the Earth, which swoops down every few centuries or so for a close look, to see if any thing interesting has happened?
Any way to rewire them to the same frequency and use the throw-aways as free walkie-talkie's?
After 1 year I'll say this:
I really like the long life, I get a total of ~8 hours of use between rechargings, with my spare double strength battery. (Ideal for 14 hour flights to Oz & other plane or outdoors trips I take). I think other laptops find this hard to beat.
I also like the size. I put in in the outer pouch of my backpack, don't even notice its there. Weight is 1 kilogram, 2.2 lb.
I like the pictures, but I have to admit it doesn't compete with a modern digital camera. Another downside is: If you see something cool, it takes a few minutes to boot up & you might have missed it already. :-(
Some of my photos can be found here: montage1 montage2 full list
Mine is 667 Mhz (down to ~300 Mhz when "crusoe" is invoked), but that's fine for Netscape, LaTeX, emacs, xboard, civ, etc. No CD. Ethernet is all I need. I've experimented with video (.avi file format, haven't used sound but it can be done) It looks good as long as the smaller size frames are used. With the larger frames it looks slow. All in all, I'm very happy with it & glad I bought it.
Human and chimp DNA are about 90% the same, they say. So all human DNA must be AT least 90% identical, if not 99%. Its only that last 1% which differentiates one human from another. Once the Human Genome Project is done, and all this DNA-in-common becomes public, you can burn 99% of your DNA on a CD for the cost of media, ie 10 cents.
People will complain that such general DNA is "not me!". But neither is "your" DNA you. A CD containing "your" DNA would be identical to a CD containing your twin brother's DNA. Are you your brother?
ps. Thanks for posting this story twice, I didn't get to comment the first time.
Lalande 21185: No paper reporting a planet around this star has yet been published, although there was a "SORTA KINDA" statement made about 5 years ago.
Eps Eri: Is a maybe planet. See here
The planets around Upsilon Andromedae are however not in question. But it is not clear from the article that they are detecting masers on each (or any) of the planets. They should be able to detect clear periodic doppler signals as each of the planets orbits.
Comparing to the 1996 numbers, Jedi's ~70,000 puts it close to "Churches of Christ (75k), "Jehova's Witness" (83k), Salvation Army (74k) and Judaism (80k) and ahead of Hinduism (68k) and the ever popular "No religion" (69k)
I'm an American, and I happened to be in Oz at the time, so I filled in "JEDI". I have some questions for Australians:
Does the $1000 fine apply to foreigners?
Supposing people are really going to be fined (which I doubt) which agency would collect the fine? It would be amusing to turn myself into this agency on my next visit, as "guilty of being a Jedi". (If they are going to talk about fining people they should expect this). Perhaps we should ask Lucas to start a legal fund on our behalf...
I would love to see them try to collect the fines. Imagine if Aussie Jedi stuck to their guns (er, sabers), refused to pay, and went to jail for being a Jedi!
I made $20,000 per year or less for the first 32 years of my life. Last year, I got my PhD & now feel rich making over 40k/year as an astronomy postdoc, and yes I love my job. Most real working people are blown away when I tell them what I do for a living. They don't think its possible. Then they a sad look like "gee I wish I enjoyed my job that much." Luckilly I don't have any expensive habits like cars & TV.
The Academic environment provides a lot more freedom...just look at what D. Toresky has been able to do...(any Verizon employees want to try that on company time?). But yes there are ruts... if you aren't really excited about the kind of science you are doing, might as well to back to the corporate world.
WHO you work with is just as important as what you are doing. In most fields of science (especially the not-even-remotely-profitable ones like mine) you are expected to work hard, but if the results do not turn out as expected, or hoped, well that's part of the discovery process. This contrasts with the business world, where if expectations are not met, it is mandadory to find someone to blame.
PhD was required for my job, as with many, but there are some "loopholes" out there: for example part IT/admin and part research jobs which can evolve more in the research direction. These aren't easy to find, but you skip the 5 years+ of grad school...
In anycase, I for one will wear my DCMA violating T-Shirt in Bruce's honor.
many passwords can be guessed if access to the subject's desk is allowed Well, if access to desktop is allowed, couldn't the accesser just reboot the computer, say into single user mode, or otherwise use rebooting to infiltrate the system in nasty ways?
Actually actually... you've got it wrong. The total number of TRANSITS was 185. There are no multiple planets here, but 42 multiple transits. There were a handful of single tranists which are more iffy (can't compute an orbital period). By the way, the total number of planets is ZERO, so far in this experiment. Each of these transits could be caused by a non-planet (ie as star or brown dwarf.) Until information on the mass of the transiting object comes in, we don't have any planets yet.
On the bright side, you can do whatever you want if your name is Bill Gates (of Borg). ++++++++++++++
Weta has a "major" research and development effort under way at the moment into running more Linux-based workstations.
Ironic that Linux was used to make this movie & DVD but Linux users would be prevented (in the US) from distributing the software to watch the movie.
Also: In FVWM2 I have mapped SHIFT + arrow keys to move the cursor L/R. & Up/Down by small amount which lets me switch windows without reaching for the mouse. (CTRL + Arrows = switch desktops)
Sorry if I missed this but it seems like this ruling means he can continue to distribute DECSS
(in the US?) until the official trial. Is this true or was it also shut down by the MPAA, like so many others?
And yet, I am as informed as the rest of /. because I read all my on-line news sources using LYNX. It is hard(er) to get addicted/afflicted when all you read is text...
Well Put AC. In addition to the "ethical lapses" of the news media you mentioned consider this: The best way to demoralize, depress and terrify the American Populace is to constantly and repeatedly subject them with terrifying demoralizing IMAGES, which sadly is just what the TV media do at times like these. Is this not EXACTLY what the terrorists want?
Project for a free-software subversive: Found a (non-free) software company which markets a word processor called "Cool-macs", based on Emacs, get sued by FSF, hire the cheapest lawyer you can find, and only present as your defence: "The GPL is not legally valid". Your loss in court would set a precedent which other more important cases could refer to.+ ++ +++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Dear Citizens: The FBI wants your help. If you suspect someone out there is hacking, or comitting any crime, please set up a sniffer and try to get their passwords, break into their computers and then send in the data (don't look at it) to us. Please do your part for uncle sam.
"My connection is super secure. Other than the CIA and the KGB nobody can trace me!!!!"
Our Librarian (at UCLA) just sent out a notice saying she was cancelling Nature. I wrote congratulating her for standing up to Nature's bogus tactics.
The problem w/ Nature is that they are a FOR PROFIT magazine with all kinds of ads for DNA equipment. Also they only accept stories which are "stunning, groundbreaking research", which has the effect of requiring scientists to hype their discoveries far beyond what normal scientific skepticism requires. Nature=Bad Science.
Journals which tend to stick most rigorously to scientific principles are those which require their authors to pay page charges. (ie, the don't have ads). Most scientists put in a request for page charges when they apply for grants.
But this isn't computer science because our goal is to learn about astronomy, not to learn how computers work.