Re:Why is this being "dignified" by Slashdot?
on
Stealth Force Beta
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· Score: 4, Interesting
A lot of "antics" (DMCA abuses, stupid M$ tricks) are reported here without neccessarily being condoned or encouraged. I see this more as a first hand account of what really constitutes a form of hacking. Thus, of interest to anyone who ever contemplated "exploring" an unsecured server, or wittily defacing a website to make a political point (and yes, misuse of university funds to unattractively landscape a campus area is a political issue). I have to agree that the elevator thing was ill-advised, but it's still interesting to read about.
Thank god your attempt to post a link to furry pr0n on slashdot has failed. "No website configured" = server crashed while the admin was off masturbating to "Lady and the Tramp"...
If you can get N OSS developers in a room, you're guaranteed to have N completely different opinions on what should be done in terms of any software strategy: technical, marketing, or other.
They're not *inherently* bad, but they have a collective history of essentially "buying results" that show their drugs are safe/effective/etc. when in fact they are not, and suppressing negative results (Google for "Nancy Olivieri"). Plus, if they funded all medical research we'd never cure anything, just get more drugs to treat symptoms...
It's just your sort of attitude that has forced me to give up on the political [right]. Anything that doesn't support your political prejudices is wrong/flawed/unscientific/["liberal"]/motivated by [atheists]/motivated by hate/greed/[communism]/power/evil. Well sometimes your political oppenents on the [left] are correct.
See how easy that was? This is why traditional left wing/right wing politics, especially with only two major parties, is so unproductive. And it's certainly why politics and science should NEVER mix. Politics is the opposite of true science - the truth is worthless and the lies keep changing.
In the current political climate (in all of North America, not just the US), teaching proper risk management in relation to contraception is near-impossible. And of course, it's the key to using "birth control" properly. Don't like the odds with just a condom? Use a condom and the Pill, or a condom and contraceptive foam together. The odds of both failing are (odds of method 1 failing) X (odds of method 2 failing). For two methods with a 1% failure rate there's a 1/10 000 risk of your contraception not working. That's a lot of sex;-) Of course, it's a little more complicated if you're worried about diseases, you have to educate yourself and know which methods work against infection as well. I say "educate yourself", because odds are you won't learn it in school:-(
As long as the scientist is producing results, his funding continues.
Yes, for most funding agencies (except openly biased ones) this is true. As long as a scientist produces results they get funding. Not neccessarily any particular experimental outcome, but results that stand up to peer review and are publishable. NSERC (the main Canadian gov't funding agency) for example, seems to have a "business model" that good science is worth the money. Of course, how much money that is varies with the political/economic tides, but it's generally sufficient, and as a result a lot of good research goes on here. Corporate funding sometimes sweetens the pot but it's not required to do basic research.
Don't become cynical about scientists and research just because of a few bad apples in the funding basket (*cough cough* pharmaceutical companies *cough cough*). Most of us publish the results we get, not just the ones we wanted, and still keep our funding. And those results usually turn out to be more interesting than the ones we wanted anyway...
See, despite what Hilary Rosen would have you believe, music fans WANT to support musicians.
A lot of music "fans" want whatever is cool at the moment, regardless of quality, tied to a carefully marketed star*. Until that star becomes uncool (ie. not the latest and most heavily played), and suddenly all their former "fans" are talking trash and pretending they never cared much for them. Refer to file labeled "Spice Girls". Groups like this can't market music the same way Phish (or any other truly good band) does, simply because Phish has nurtured a community for years, and their live shows are unique works of art which lend themselves to the bootleg scene. Phish's fans will be glad to pay a few bucks for a good live recording, they respect the band and know the band respects them.
Oh the irony. The music industry is so hooked on the fast heavy cash generated by the Britneys and P. Diddy's they hype, that they've effectively generated a fan base who care nothing for the shallow music they consume, and thus feel little guilt about "stealing intellectual property". Ah, Hilary, live and learn.
* arguably these people are barely "musicians", definitely not "Artists" and can legitimately be called "performers".
If you're willing to frighten, cheat, brutalize and hurt your fellow human beings, you can get a lot of goods and services you would otherwise have to pay for or spend a lot of effort to obtain legitimately. Need $50? Go rob a convenience store, the $6/hour clerk won't put up much of a fight. Want a Beemer? Car-jack some rich guy at a stop light. Shoot him in the head if he resists. Been a dry year in the bedroom? Rape a woman jogging in the park. It's as simple as that. If you can't bring yourself to do these things, congratulations, you may very well be a well-adjusted human being, regardless of how much "Cowboy Bebop" you watch:-)
Why should I have to pay to be on a "do not annoy me at dinnertime" list? Should I have to pay for people to not stand outside my house and shout advertisements at me through a bullhorn? Of course not, that would be silly. They chose this obnoxious marketing strategy, I say they pay for the damn thing. The CEO's $2000 blow jobs and eventual severance package are as likely to be "passed on to the consumer" as this, so there's no point in worrying about that aspect.
But you CAN make the penalties for being caught with one of these boxes so extreme that it's not worth the risk. Remember, in America you can go to prison just for possessing certain dried plant material, and hurting nobody but (possibly) yourself. Emerging YEARS later with bad Bic-ink tattoos, a permanently distended rectum, and a criminal record that makes you unemployable. Big Media can easily buy a comparable law for digital TV piracy. Free cable sounds less appealing now, doesn't it?
That makes two of us. The loudest thought that came into my head as I read this was "Well, I guess that If this sort of restrictive nonsense becomes the only TV/movie option I'll just stick to reading books". Hell, even if publishing paper books becomes illegal tomorrow, I'll still have two lifetimes' supply of reading - and that's only including the best books ever written.
Of course, there's always the chance that Joss Whedon will throw a big monkeywrench in my plan at some point...;-)
Imagine eBay had no feedback except a 1-10 numerical score for each seller/buyer. A fraud artist makes sure to make a number of 100% honest purchases/sales, delivered/paid for promptly. Then (s)he simultaneously bilks a bunch of people who haven't had a chance to see anything but the initial glowing feedback. A lot of damage has been done in a short period of time, the fraud artist starts again with a new user ID. As long as user ID's are not "tied" to the user, this system could work for "news credibility" or any similar system.
I have no sympathy for programmers who work on projects like spyware/scumware/adware etc. Yes, technically it's legal but it's the moral equivalent of those scams where you get a scratch-and-win card in the mail, and when you send it in to claim your "prize" they hijack your long-distance service (this is called "slamming").
I know the job market is tight, but if you work for a sleazy company like this in an "innocent" capacity (receptionists, custodians), you should start sending out resumes. If you work there in a "guilty" capacity (software dev, marketing, management), go **** yourself, because you are contributing to the degradation of our society and the corruption of the wonderful invention that is the Internet.
God, I'm not much of a believer in capitalism, but I admit the system has its good points. It's just that slime like this, who produce nothing of value and prey on the consumer, dilute those benefits to the point where they really aren't very helpful...
Speaking of slutty, Bond is not slutty enough in this movie. He only sleeps with two women in the whole movie. That is well below standard. I could even pull that off.
... if you weren't spending all your time posting on Slashdot, that is.
I suspect that the eventual use for this tech might be more along the lines of tattooing livestock etc, not people. I have no idea if livestock are tattooed for any reason (is branding still used?) but if you had to put tracking #'s on a large number of cows this might be the fastest way to do it. Needless to say, and at the risk of peripherally invoking Godwin's Law, I really hope nobody ever again wants to put tracking #'s on large numbers of people:-(
Actually, I'd bet that "most" (i.e. >half) of the people on this planet are STILL mainly concerned with finding enough food on a daily basis to stay alive. 3 billion live on less than $2/day, and 3 billion without proper sanitation - that's about half.
... that make me realize how much I'm failing to learn about technology by NOT having a cell phone... I mean, I understood about 1/4 of that: 3G? 2.5G? GPRS? 1XRTT? WTF?
Slashdot Mirror
A lot of "antics" (DMCA abuses, stupid M$ tricks) are reported here without neccessarily being condoned or encouraged. I see this more as a first hand account of what really constitutes a form of hacking. Thus, of interest to anyone who ever contemplated "exploring" an unsecured server, or wittily defacing a website to make a political point (and yes, misuse of university funds to unattractively landscape a campus area is a political issue). I have to agree that the elevator thing was ill-advised, but it's still interesting to read about.
Thank god your attempt to post a link to furry pr0n on slashdot has failed. "No website configured" = server crashed while the admin was off masturbating to "Lady and the Tramp"...
If you can get N OSS developers in a room, you're guaranteed to have N completely different opinions on what should be done in terms of any software strategy: technical, marketing, or other.
;-)
More like N+1 different opinions
They're not *inherently* bad, but they have a collective history of essentially "buying results" that show their drugs are safe/effective/etc. when in fact they are not, and suppressing negative results (Google for "Nancy Olivieri"). Plus, if they funded all medical research we'd never cure anything, just get more drugs to treat symptoms...
"The gun is good. The penis is evil. The penis shoots seeds, and makes new life, and poisons the earth with a plague of men, as once it was. But the gun shoots death, and purifies the earth of the filth of brutals. Go forth and kill!"
It's just your sort of attitude that has forced me to give up on the political [right]. Anything that doesn't support your political prejudices is wrong/flawed/unscientific/["liberal"]/motivated by [atheists]/motivated by hate/greed/[communism]/power/evil. Well sometimes your political oppenents on the [left] are correct.
See how easy that was? This is why traditional left wing/right wing politics, especially with only two major parties, is so unproductive. And it's certainly why politics and science should NEVER mix. Politics is the opposite of true science - the truth is worthless and the lies keep changing.
In the current political climate (in all of North America, not just the US), teaching proper risk management in relation to contraception is near-impossible. And of course, it's the key to using "birth control" properly. Don't like the odds with just a condom? Use a condom and the Pill, or a condom and contraceptive foam together. The odds of both failing are (odds of method 1 failing) X (odds of method 2 failing). For two methods with a 1% failure rate there's a 1/10 000 risk of your contraception not working. That's a lot of sex ;-) Of course, it's a little more complicated if you're worried about diseases, you have to educate yourself and know which methods work against infection as well. I say "educate yourself", because odds are you won't learn it in school :-(
As long as the scientist is producing results, his funding continues.
Yes, for most funding agencies (except openly biased ones) this is true. As long as a scientist produces results they get funding. Not neccessarily any particular experimental outcome, but results that stand up to peer review and are publishable. NSERC (the main Canadian gov't funding agency) for example, seems to have a "business model" that good science is worth the money. Of course, how much money that is varies with the political/economic tides, but it's generally sufficient, and as a result a lot of good research goes on here. Corporate funding sometimes sweetens the pot but it's not required to do basic research.
Don't become cynical about scientists and research just because of a few bad apples in the funding basket (*cough cough* pharmaceutical companies *cough cough*). Most of us publish the results we get, not just the ones we wanted, and still keep our funding. And those results usually turn out to be more interesting than the ones we wanted anyway...
See, despite what Hilary Rosen would have you believe, music fans WANT to support musicians.
A lot of music "fans" want whatever is cool at the moment, regardless of quality, tied to a carefully marketed star*. Until that star becomes uncool (ie. not the latest and most heavily played), and suddenly all their former "fans" are talking trash and pretending they never cared much for them. Refer to file labeled "Spice Girls". Groups like this can't market music the same way Phish (or any other truly good band) does, simply because Phish has nurtured a community for years, and their live shows are unique works of art which lend themselves to the bootleg scene. Phish's fans will be glad to pay a few bucks for a good live recording, they respect the band and know the band respects them.
Oh the irony. The music industry is so hooked on the fast heavy cash generated by the Britneys and P. Diddy's they hype, that they've effectively generated a fan base who care nothing for the shallow music they consume, and thus feel little guilt about "stealing intellectual property". Ah, Hilary, live and learn.
* arguably these people are barely "musicians", definitely not "Artists" and can legitimately be called "performers".
People kept mistaking DK for George W. Bush, and Pac Man went around eating everyone else's E.
If you're willing to frighten, cheat, brutalize and hurt your fellow human beings, you can get a lot of goods and services you would otherwise have to pay for or spend a lot of effort to obtain legitimately. Need $50? Go rob a convenience store, the $6/hour clerk won't put up much of a fight. Want a Beemer? Car-jack some rich guy at a stop light. Shoot him in the head if he resists. Been a dry year in the bedroom? Rape a woman jogging in the park. It's as simple as that. If you can't bring yourself to do these things, congratulations, you may very well be a well-adjusted human being, regardless of how much "Cowboy Bebop" you watch :-)
Why should I have to pay to be on a "do not annoy me at dinnertime" list? Should I have to pay for people to not stand outside my house and shout advertisements at me through a bullhorn? Of course not, that would be silly. They chose this obnoxious marketing strategy, I say they pay for the damn thing. The CEO's $2000 blow jobs and eventual severance package are as likely to be "passed on to the consumer" as this, so there's no point in worrying about that aspect.
This is _hardly_ a deterrant ;-)
But you CAN make the penalties for being caught with one of these boxes so extreme that it's not worth the risk. Remember, in America you can go to prison just for possessing certain dried plant material, and hurting nobody but (possibly) yourself. Emerging YEARS later with bad Bic-ink tattoos, a permanently distended rectum, and a criminal record that makes you unemployable. Big Media can easily buy a comparable law for digital TV piracy. Free cable sounds less appealing now, doesn't it?
That makes two of us. The loudest thought that came into my head as I read this was "Well, I guess that If this sort of restrictive nonsense becomes the only TV/movie option I'll just stick to reading books". Hell, even if publishing paper books becomes illegal tomorrow, I'll still have two lifetimes' supply of reading - and that's only including the best books ever written.
;-)
Of course, there's always the chance that Joss Whedon will throw a big monkeywrench in my plan at some point...
That is all :-)
Imagine eBay had no feedback except a 1-10 numerical score for each seller/buyer. A fraud artist makes sure to make a number of 100% honest purchases/sales, delivered/paid for promptly. Then (s)he simultaneously bilks a bunch of people who haven't had a chance to see anything but the initial glowing feedback. A lot of damage has been done in a short period of time, the fraud artist starts again with a new user ID. As long as user ID's are not "tied" to the user, this system could work for "news credibility" or any similar system.
I have no sympathy for programmers who work on projects like spyware/scumware/adware etc. Yes, technically it's legal but it's the moral equivalent of those scams where you get a scratch-and-win card in the mail, and when you send it in to claim your "prize" they hijack your long-distance service (this is called "slamming").
I know the job market is tight, but if you work for a sleazy company like this in an "innocent" capacity (receptionists, custodians), you should start sending out resumes. If you work there in a "guilty" capacity (software dev, marketing, management), go **** yourself, because you are contributing to the degradation of our society and the corruption of the wonderful invention that is the Internet.
God, I'm not much of a believer in capitalism, but I admit the system has its good points. It's just that slime like this, who produce nothing of value and prey on the consumer, dilute those benefits to the point where they really aren't very helpful...
Or to paraphrase Douglas Adams, as a fun party trick, to transport every molecule in the hostess' undergarments 3 feet to the right...
I suspect that the eventual use for this tech might be more along the lines of tattooing livestock etc, not people. I have no idea if livestock are tattooed for any reason (is branding still used?) but if you had to put tracking #'s on a large number of cows this might be the fastest way to do it. Needless to say, and at the risk of peripherally invoking Godwin's Law, I really hope nobody ever again wants to put tracking #'s on large numbers of people :-(
Actually, I'd bet that "most" (i.e. >half) of the people on this planet are STILL mainly concerned with finding enough food on a daily basis to stay alive. 3 billion live on less than $2/day, and 3 billion without proper sanitation - that's about half.
... that make me realize how much I'm failing to learn about technology by NOT having a cell phone... I mean, I understood about 1/4 of that: 3G? 2.5G? GPRS? 1XRTT? WTF?
While I want my hard drive backup to be an exact copy, I'd prefer it if my face backup looked a little more like Bruce Campbell, thanks.
OK, I'm clearly biased to games where you can all go for beer afterwards ;-)