But think of the industries that would move in - making cheaper and more open hardware to play DVDs, unencumbered MP3 players, legally reverse-engineered versions of software like ebook readers, etc. Businesses grow based on economic irregularities - finding new niches in the marketplace. If the rest of the world has more draconian laws, the economic utility of a free Texas just becomes stronger. The companies that do move there will be the ones that can compete without legal crutches like the DMCA, and so their products are likely to be some of the most innovative and advanced. The more I think about the idea, the more I like it. The only thing stopping me from moving to Texas now is, well, Texans:)
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",
Don't do it. I mean this very seriously, and I speak as a U.S. citizen who is so disappointed to see my nation deliberately turning away from the encouragement of science and technology. There is no way to predict what will happen in the future, but I wouldn't risk it until some changes to the U.S. law occur. I would hate to see anyone else go through the same sort of prosecution as Mr. Sklyarov in the U.S. courts, especially if it could have been avoided somehow.
And if you decide not to take the risk, make sure you let your U.S.-based university know the reasons that you've made this decision. Maybe that will lead the U.S. to understand the true consequences of this law.
I can understand your situation a little - for example, I wouldn't seriously consider traveling to China in the near future, mostly because of comments about the Chinese government I've made in the past online. Unfortunately, the quantity of liberty in the western world seems to be diminishing at just the time that we're trying to encourage the birth of liberty in the East.
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",
Nobody's saying the Samba project was a bad idea. But it would have been a better use of time overall if a better protocol than SMB had been developed in an open manner so that everyone could write equally-workable implementations.
If it's necessary, someone can reverse-engineer the Microsoft proprietary parts of.NET. But it's much better to get the whole thing out in the open to start with and fix any technical deficiencies up front before there's an installed base.
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",
Heck, I knew a guy in school who always coded better when somewhat sloshed; I could see how someone would do better work when high. I'm not too crazy about that person toking up and then immediately driving to work, but I agree with you that what you do on the weekend in your own home is really nobody else's business.
Of course, I don't think it's the government's business either, at least until you start holding up 7-11's to get money for your habit.
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",
One happy note: my company appears to have abandoned random drug testing because of the urgent desire to cut costs right now. I'm not sure why they were doing it in the first place if it wasn't worth it, but I'm not complaining too hard.
See, the slowing economy does have a silver lining:)
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",
Um, that's exactly how it works. If you write down an innovative new idea with pen and paper while at work, then your company probably owns that idea (unless you got a very liberal employment contract past them). Many companies even claim ideas that you have on your own time at home.
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",
My complaint in the "luring hackers" case was not so much the job offers that caused them to fly to this country. IMHO that's not really entrapment, since entrapment would require law enforcement to encourage you to undertake a criminal act that you would not normally do. They were being interviewed for a legitimate job, not for their haxoring skills.
I have a lot of problems with the FBI's hacking into their computers back in Russia to get the evidence, though. Even assuming that they had a warrant to capture the defendants' passwords, breaking into the defendants' computers in Russia was at the least breaking and entering and at worst an international incident, since no warrant that the FBI could have would cover seizing property located in the jurisdiction of another sovereign country. It's interesting that the FBI didn't acknowledge national borders on the Internet in that case - I can't wait until China does that to a U.S. citizen and the fur really starts to fly.
It's too bad that we have to have international incidents over Elian Gonzalez and a sunken Japanese fishing boat, when we could be having international incidents over much more interesting points of law:)
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",
You know, after you mentioned anime, I read "chains and manacles" as "chains and tentacles" and I was trying to figure out how BDSM tentacle porn was an indication of maturity (well, other than in the "Mature Content" sense:).
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",
The police and the FBI aren't bound to enforce such a law, but in general their job is to make the arrest and let the courts sort it out. Just save the explanations for the courtroom if you're going to be civilly disobedient, and for god's sake don't do anything that would cause the police to shoot you.
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",
Wow, that was incredibly informative and a topic that I'd never even thought of before. Thanks for broadening my horizons again. Although I imagine my other beliefs are already sufficient to prevent me from being chosen for a jury anyway:)
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",
A minor nitpick: the FBI didn't lure Sklyarov into this country, unless you mean they somehow staged an entire DefCon just for that purpose. They previously lured hackers to this country with promises of jobs, but that's not this case.
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",
It's tough with an infinitely long number, though. There's no requirement that the compression be done on the fly - I could write a compression algorithm which wouldn't work unless I had access to the entire number.
You could say that the first N digits of pi are random or not based on the compression test, and make some sort of argument that since so far every sequence of pi we've tested was random, it's likely that the whole thing is, but that wouldn't be a very rigorous proof.
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",
Dell wouldn't be giving it away for free - if they could offer a "better Windows than Windows" (that's not OS/2) they could charge more for it. People complain that there are a zillion different Linux distributions, but that's really a feature, not a failing - OEMs can put together a distribution targetted for a particular audience and use, charge a minor premium for that service, and retain a very loyal audience too.
Right now Dell and Gateway try to distinguish themselves on hardware price and by the quantity of worthless OEM crap that they shovel onto each machine. Wouldn't it be better for them to spend that energy actually making real improvements to things that are actually broken in Windows, rather than just throwing more junk on top of it?
Microsoft would never let this happen, but it's still a neat idea IMHO.
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",
That's just going to drive warez-monkies back into the real newsgroups and make it harder for anyone to actually communicate. Not that I have an alternative solution...
Oh wait, yes I do. How about content publishers actually do their own hard work of tracking down and prosecuting those who they feel have infringed their work? It shouldn't be SWBell or any other ISP's job to do so preemptively.
Owning a record company must be just like being 12 again - you know everything and nobody can tell you differently. Of course, a 12-year old with $millions worth of lawyers is a scary thought:)
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",
Get on the security mailing list for your distribution, and religiously update. Some distros are better than others at keeping you informed; Debian seems to do pretty well. I don't know about RedHat.
You can mount/usr and/usr/local read-only to avoid some simple automated attacks, but you have to first move the/share directories off of those onto your/var partition. I tried this strategy for a while but ultimately gave it up as too cumbersome to use in the long run. I'd be interested in seeing a distribution adopt that approach in general, though.
The 15-minute compromise was a little scary - at that rate, you don't have time to download RH 6.2 updates and apply them before your box is 0wn3d. Maybe start off with a more up-to-date distro so as to decrease the risk of attack during the install process? Or, you could download all the security updates onto an existing machine, then take down your external connection, install from the RH 6.2 CD, copy over and apply security updates, and only then bring up the link to the outside world.
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",
Maybe you should find a job where you feel that acquiring the skills of trade isn't just a waste of time - because it definitely sounds like you don't love what you do right now. If you think that an interviewer's ignorance of a particular tool is sufficient to justify your inexperience with it, and that the tools of the trade are a "necessary evil" so that you can pull down a big salary, you're exactly what's wrong with the industry today.
I'll admit that I don't know Ruby either, but I have better reasons for that:
I haven't had time in my ongoing process of self-education to pick it up yet, and
(possibly due to my lack of knowledge of the language) I haven't found a problem that I had to have Ruby to solve.
I can't understand someone who doesn't want to know everything about the work they do. Even if there was no attraction to learning new concepts, broadening your horizons, and just generally being the best at what you do, you could at least play off your new-found knowledge to make yourself seem more hacker-like than you currently seem to be. I'm pretty sure having one more language on the resume never hurt anyone, even if it didn't help.
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",
I sort of agree. The problem occurs when OEMs can no longer compete without getting those $35 payments from AOL. OEMs could have chosen not to sign restrictive contracts with Microsoft as well, but it would have hurt them enough financially that they would have been out of business. Eventually I could see this being the case with AOL's kickbacks as well.
In a certain sense AOL isn't the monopoly at this time that Microsoft was then, but in another way it is: AOL is the only way to get AOL-type services. If you want the incredibly simple interface that they provide, there is really no competition. I don't know how many OEMs are selling based on the simplicity and AOL-ness of their systems, but if they are doing so then they've got nowhere else to go. AOL is still nowhere near the monopoly that Microsoft is, though.
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",
Slashdot Mirror
But think of the industries that would move in - making cheaper and more open hardware to play DVDs, unencumbered MP3 players, legally reverse-engineered versions of software like ebook readers, etc. Businesses grow based on economic irregularities - finding new niches in the marketplace. If the rest of the world has more draconian laws, the economic utility of a free Texas just becomes stronger. The companies that do move there will be the ones that can compete without legal crutches like the DMCA, and so their products are likely to be some of the most innovative and advanced. The more I think about the idea, the more I like it. The only thing stopping me from moving to Texas now is, well, Texans :)
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",
Don't do it. I mean this very seriously, and I speak as a U.S. citizen who is so disappointed to see my nation deliberately turning away from the encouragement of science and technology. There is no way to predict what will happen in the future, but I wouldn't risk it until some changes to the U.S. law occur. I would hate to see anyone else go through the same sort of prosecution as Mr. Sklyarov in the U.S. courts, especially if it could have been avoided somehow.
And if you decide not to take the risk, make sure you let your U.S.-based university know the reasons that you've made this decision. Maybe that will lead the U.S. to understand the true consequences of this law.
I can understand your situation a little - for example, I wouldn't seriously consider traveling to China in the near future, mostly because of comments about the Chinese government I've made in the past online. Unfortunately, the quantity of liberty in the western world seems to be diminishing at just the time that we're trying to encourage the birth of liberty in the East.
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",
Nobody's saying the Samba project was a bad idea. But it would have been a better use of time overall if a better protocol than SMB had been developed in an open manner so that everyone could write equally-workable implementations.
If it's necessary, someone can reverse-engineer the Microsoft proprietary parts of .NET. But it's much better to get the whole thing out in the open to start with and fix any technical deficiencies up front before there's an installed base.
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",
Heck, I knew a guy in school who always coded better when somewhat sloshed; I could see how someone would do better work when high. I'm not too crazy about that person toking up and then immediately driving to work, but I agree with you that what you do on the weekend in your own home is really nobody else's business.
Of course, I don't think it's the government's business either, at least until you start holding up 7-11's to get money for your habit.
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",
One happy note: my company appears to have abandoned random drug testing because of the urgent desire to cut costs right now. I'm not sure why they were doing it in the first place if it wasn't worth it, but I'm not complaining too hard.
See, the slowing economy does have a silver lining :)
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",
Um, that's exactly how it works. If you write down an innovative new idea with pen and paper while at work, then your company probably owns that idea (unless you got a very liberal employment contract past them). Many companies even claim ideas that you have on your own time at home.
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",
My complaint in the "luring hackers" case was not so much the job offers that caused them to fly to this country. IMHO that's not really entrapment, since entrapment would require law enforcement to encourage you to undertake a criminal act that you would not normally do. They were being interviewed for a legitimate job, not for their haxoring skills.
I have a lot of problems with the FBI's hacking into their computers back in Russia to get the evidence, though. Even assuming that they had a warrant to capture the defendants' passwords, breaking into the defendants' computers in Russia was at the least breaking and entering and at worst an international incident, since no warrant that the FBI could have would cover seizing property located in the jurisdiction of another sovereign country. It's interesting that the FBI didn't acknowledge national borders on the Internet in that case - I can't wait until China does that to a U.S. citizen and the fur really starts to fly.
It's too bad that we have to have international incidents over Elian Gonzalez and a sunken Japanese fishing boat, when we could be having international incidents over much more interesting points of law :)
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",
You know, after you mentioned anime, I read "chains and manacles" as "chains and tentacles" and I was trying to figure out how BDSM tentacle porn was an indication of maturity (well, other than in the "Mature Content" sense :).
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",
The police and the FBI aren't bound to enforce such a law, but in general their job is to make the arrest and let the courts sort it out. Just save the explanations for the courtroom if you're going to be civilly disobedient, and for god's sake don't do anything that would cause the police to shoot you.
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",
Ah, if only we could drop giant rocks from orbit onto Congress :)
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",
Wow, that was incredibly informative and a topic that I'd never even thought of before. Thanks for broadening my horizons again. Although I imagine my other beliefs are already sufficient to prevent me from being chosen for a jury anyway :)
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",
A minor nitpick: the FBI didn't lure Sklyarov into this country, unless you mean they somehow staged an entire DefCon just for that purpose. They previously lured hackers to this country with promises of jobs, but that's not this case.
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",
It's tough with an infinitely long number, though. There's no requirement that the compression be done on the fly - I could write a compression algorithm which wouldn't work unless I had access to the entire number.
You could say that the first N digits of pi are random or not based on the compression test, and make some sort of argument that since so far every sequence of pi we've tested was random, it's likely that the whole thing is, but that wouldn't be a very rigorous proof.
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",
Dell wouldn't be giving it away for free - if they could offer a "better Windows than Windows" (that's not OS/2) they could charge more for it. People complain that there are a zillion different Linux distributions, but that's really a feature, not a failing - OEMs can put together a distribution targetted for a particular audience and use, charge a minor premium for that service, and retain a very loyal audience too.
Right now Dell and Gateway try to distinguish themselves on hardware price and by the quantity of worthless OEM crap that they shovel onto each machine. Wouldn't it be better for them to spend that energy actually making real improvements to things that are actually broken in Windows, rather than just throwing more junk on top of it?
Microsoft would never let this happen, but it's still a neat idea IMHO.
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",
[Dilbert] Not so good, you just authored IIS.
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",
That's just going to drive warez-monkies back into the real newsgroups and make it harder for anyone to actually communicate. Not that I have an alternative solution...
Oh wait, yes I do. How about content publishers actually do their own hard work of tracking down and prosecuting those who they feel have infringed their work? It shouldn't be SWBell or any other ISP's job to do so preemptively.
Owning a record company must be just like being 12 again - you know everything and nobody can tell you differently. Of course, a 12-year old with $millions worth of lawyers is a scary thought :)
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",
Maybe the monitoring boxes, just like windowsupdate.com, were infected too?
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",
"Never go in against a Sicilian, when death is on the line!"
OK, probably not.
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",
If the bear skins don't fit, you must acquit!
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",
Not an "emacsitor". Not a "viitor". Those aren't even words!
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",
The SDMI consortium? No, wait, that was something else...
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",
Some ideas:
The 15-minute compromise was a little scary - at that rate, you don't have time to download RH 6.2 updates and apply them before your box is 0wn3d. Maybe start off with a more up-to-date distro so as to decrease the risk of attack during the install process? Or, you could download all the security updates onto an existing machine, then take down your external connection, install from the RH 6.2 CD, copy over and apply security updates, and only then bring up the link to the outside world.
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",
Maybe you should find a job where you feel that acquiring the skills of trade isn't just a waste of time - because it definitely sounds like you don't love what you do right now. If you think that an interviewer's ignorance of a particular tool is sufficient to justify your inexperience with it, and that the tools of the trade are a "necessary evil" so that you can pull down a big salary, you're exactly what's wrong with the industry today.
I'll admit that I don't know Ruby either, but I have better reasons for that:
I can't understand someone who doesn't want to know everything about the work they do. Even if there was no attraction to learning new concepts, broadening your horizons, and just generally being the best at what you do, you could at least play off your new-found knowledge to make yourself seem more hacker-like than you currently seem to be. I'm pretty sure having one more language on the resume never hurt anyone, even if it didn't help.
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",
Best. Solution. Ever.
mod up, please
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",
I sort of agree. The problem occurs when OEMs can no longer compete without getting those $35 payments from AOL. OEMs could have chosen not to sign restrictive contracts with Microsoft as well, but it would have hurt them enough financially that they would have been out of business. Eventually I could see this being the case with AOL's kickbacks as well.
In a certain sense AOL isn't the monopoly at this time that Microsoft was then, but in another way it is: AOL is the only way to get AOL-type services. If you want the incredibly simple interface that they provide, there is really no competition. I don't know how many OEMs are selling based on the simplicity and AOL-ness of their systems, but if they are doing so then they've got nowhere else to go. AOL is still nowhere near the monopoly that Microsoft is, though.
Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus",