When DeCSS was released and caused the MPAA to get in such an uproar, we grabed the source code and binaries and mirrored it all over the world. Why not do the same here?
All we have to do is grab several formats of these documents, put them in tarballs (or just as is), and set up some places to keep track of the mirrors. This way, it will be near impossible for Microsoft to stop this.
To Microsoft: You can make crappy software. You can overcharge for your software. You can refuse to back it up with bug fixes. But this will/not/ be alowed.
I think there might be a few prior art issues here. I've never even heard of Microsoft making a package manager. The only package managers I know are Red Hat and Debian (perhaps a few others).
Microsoft: "We are doing this in order to fuel further innovation." Hackers: "Not again!"
I wish I could remember the name of this island, but I'm afraid I cannot. In any case, its a great story.
This little island had a native people living on it for years. In the middle of the island was a jungle area and lots of mountians. Nobody living on the edge of the island ever ventured inside, wether for religous resons or just the practicalities of staying near the sea.
In any case, eventualy the british came and took over the island in classic European ways. A few of them wanted to see if there was any gold in those mountians, so an expedision was started. They didn't find gold, but there was something else there that was even better.
What they found was a people living at the center of the island that were still living in the stone age. This primitave culture came up completely isolated from the rest of the human race.
Eighty years ago, these people never even saw a wheel. Today, they all have broadband Internet connections. While many people in our culture might say they should have been left alone and never have been exposed to western ideals (and indeed, perhaps some of their old ways should be kept), they have taken upon themselves to be a part of the rest of the world.
Just goes to show you that sometimes change is embraced by a culture and the result can be truly amazing.
Maybe this will make people realize that legislation and regulation are not nessarily bad things for software (or anything else, for that matter).
As another example: If a peice of regulation didn't exist, there would be no Internet as we know it, becuase small ISPs wouldn't be allowed to connect their equipment to MaBell's phone network, because MaBell would be a monopoly that wouldn't let them attach anything to the phone network. So only AT&T would be avilable as an ISP. You want connections over 9600 baud? Its gonna cost you. It'll be $5.95 an hour at 2400 baud, and you have to buy AT&T's modem for $400. You want broadband? Forget it; maybe in twenty years or so.
Regulation isn't bad; much of the legislation like the DMCA and the UCTIA aren't very good, but legislation can help things grow.
Most people (at least in the US) get a new computer at least once every ten years, but in less affluent countries, this may not be the case.
Yeah, Russia still uses Apple//e's in its space program:P
Although the shuttle has a computer equaly old, because it would cost so much to develop software for the new system. And you have to make sure its as bug-free as possible, or you risk having another Challenger ("Wow mommy! A shuttle launch AND a fireworks show!"). Maybe they ought to open source the shuttle. Apparently thats what the did for the ISS (International Space Station, which runs Linux).
Likewise, if there was the economic and political insentive to go to Mars, we would likely be there by now.
Definatly. I heard someone once say on/. that you could put people on Mars for the cost of the movie "Titanic."
Most likely, nobody would have made it to the moon if Kennedy hadn't died. The whole country felt it owed it to him that they should go to the moon, because thats what Kennedy wanted. So off to the moon they went, and did it before the decade was out, people put a stuipd little flag there, just like Kennedy wanted.
But then a funny thing happend. Nobody cared anymore. Man stomped around up on that rock for a while and then retreated home, and haven't gone back since. Earthbound people said you could be spending NASA's money on the poor (Fools! Do you really trust polotitions to spend that extra money wisely?).
Heres to hoping that the International Space Station will allow new missions to the moon, since the shuttle can now refuel there and move on, perhaps launching a module out of the cargo bay.
It would be a great service if companies could junk print, because it takes a longer time to print and bind the books then it does to burn the CDs, so the result is you often have out-of-date manules. Thats why you see so many README files that say "contians information that could not be put into the manuel."
Paper manuels aren't dead; nay, its much easier to look through a printed out HOWTO then an electronic one. So I say junk the paper manuels, put it in PDF format (and include the PDF reader just in case) and let the end user decide if they want a print-out or not.
Perhaps this will change with higher resolution displays that are much easier on the eyes for reading and devices made specificly to read stuff off of. There are already things like that, and if they can read PDFs (which is pretty much standered right now), these things could really kill off paper once and for all.
Yeah, but a little paranoia is healthy. And society needs a few groups who are really paranoid to scream out "Conspiracy!" all the time, because those few paranoid souls gotta be right at some point:).
One more tidbit; the homepage for this Recourse Technologies he works at is at http://www.recourse.com/, just in case anybody cares or couldn't figure it out on your own. In case your wondering, yes, this is the same company; look at the logo on Icee's shirt in the picture on his homepage and the logo on Recourse's homepage. They're the same
In all the mainstream Mafiaboy stories, they point to IRC logs. Where are these logs? Why aren't they linked to, if they exist? If they aren't allowed to, then why not? Shouldn't that be evidence to show the press? Or is the FBI worried that anyone viewing the logs might see holes in their case? Or do the logs not exist? Is some FBI lacky makeing fake logs now to show later?
What about Twinkies? When can I DoS a Twinkie? Will it work with fat free Twinkies? The people want to know!!!
If he actually did it, do you think he'd actually be "braggibg" about where he can be discovered?
Yes, actualy. Crackers (even bad ones like what the mainstream media says Mafiaboy is, which is fairly plausible) very often brag about their exploits. Legend has it that the really good crackers never say anything and are never known to the world. I don't know if thats really true or not (how could you verify it, really?), but everyone else brags a lot.
You are right about the government and media just needing someone to point a finger at, though.
You forget that Mafiaboy was being charged before 2600 did anything. Also, no one from Quebec was arrested in this case; the 2600 people used some French to imply someone from Quebec (as there are more people speak French in Quebec then anywhere else, except France). The "security expert" didn't catch on, apparently. Mafiaboy is from Montreal.
Remember L0pht's saying they could bring down the internet quickly? It's probably true..
I doubt it. Like all hackers/crackers, they are heavily inclied to braging. The Internet was very well designed to stop any one entity to do that. Its trivial to take down a few servers; its nearly impossible to take down the entire Internet, unless you have a good portion of the net working with you (we're talking 10%-40% or maybe more of the entire network).
I think L0pht was just trying to scare a cupple of big suits. Remember, L0pht is hired by buisnesses to do cracks on thier system.
I checked crowds.org and its not regestered. crowds.com is owned by some German guy who hasn't put much of anything up. And crowds.net is also regestered.
You allways are noted around the Free Software community as telling people to say "GNU/Linux", not just "Linux." I understand your reasons for it, but other OSes also use parts from other companies and development groups. Why shouldn't Linux systems be named by their kernel just like everything else?
Not nessarily. Thats only if the BabyBills have the same thinking as did the larger company. Since they no longer have the resources to act on things as they did when they were all together, they can't afford to think like they did when they were much larger.
Overall, splitting up MS would probably leave everyone much better off then before. With several smaller companies, no matter how they were split up (into apps, OS, internet, or some other way) it would be in their best interests to make better products and to broaden into other OSes. If every BabyBill can create an OS, then Windows will fork by default. That means a mess just as bad as the Unix fork of the '80s. Eventualy, someone might come around and pick up the pieces (as Linus did for Unix), but will anyone care by then? If anyone does care, it will surly make a much better OS then we see currently.
I'm more worried that MS will appeal and this thing will be draged on for another 2+ years.
"One World, one Web, one Program"-Microsoft promotional ad
Slashdot Mirror
When DeCSS was released and caused the MPAA to get in such an uproar, we grabed the source code and binaries and mirrored it all over the world. Why not do the same here?
All we have to do is grab several formats of these documents, put them in tarballs (or just as is), and set up some places to keep track of the mirrors. This way, it will be near impossible for Microsoft to stop this.
To Microsoft: You can make crappy software. You can overcharge for your software. You can refuse to back it up with bug fixes. But this will /not/ be alowed.
I think there might be a few prior art issues here. I've never even heard of Microsoft making a package manager. The only package managers I know are Red Hat and Debian (perhaps a few others).
Microsoft: "We are doing this in order to fuel further innovation."
Hackers: "Not again!"
I wish I could remember the name of this island, but I'm afraid I cannot. In any case, its a great story.
This little island had a native people living on it for years. In the middle of the island was a jungle area and lots of mountians. Nobody living on the edge of the island ever ventured inside, wether for religous resons or just the practicalities of staying near the sea.
In any case, eventualy the british came and took over the island in classic European ways. A few of them wanted to see if there was any gold in those mountians, so an expedision was started. They didn't find gold, but there was something else there that was even better.
What they found was a people living at the center of the island that were still living in the stone age. This primitave culture came up completely isolated from the rest of the human race.
Eighty years ago, these people never even saw a wheel. Today, they all have broadband Internet connections. While many people in our culture might say they should have been left alone and never have been exposed to western ideals (and indeed, perhaps some of their old ways should be kept), they have taken upon themselves to be a part of the rest of the world.
Just goes to show you that sometimes change is embraced by a culture and the result can be truly amazing.
First, we make the incorrect generalization that all Open Source code is innately better than all proprietary code
And what makes you say that? Want to elaberate a little?
I really feel that Open Source code is at least as good as propriety, if not better. It isn't allways better, of course, but nearly allways it is.
Maybe this will make people realize that legislation and regulation are not nessarily bad things for software (or anything else, for that matter).
As another example: If a peice of regulation didn't exist, there would be no Internet as we know it, becuase small ISPs wouldn't be allowed to connect their equipment to MaBell's phone network, because MaBell would be a monopoly that wouldn't let them attach anything to the phone network. So only AT&T would be avilable as an ISP. You want connections over 9600 baud? Its gonna cost you. It'll be $5.95 an hour at 2400 baud, and you have to buy AT&T's modem for $400. You want broadband? Forget it; maybe in twenty years or so.
Regulation isn't bad; much of the legislation like the DMCA and the UCTIA aren't very good, but legislation can help things grow.
Most people (at least in the US) get a new computer at least once every ten years, but in less affluent countries, this may not be the case.
Yeah, Russia still uses Apple //e's in its space program :P
Although the shuttle has a computer equaly old, because it would cost so much to develop software for the new system. And you have to make sure its as bug-free as possible, or you risk having another Challenger ("Wow mommy! A shuttle launch AND a fireworks show!"). Maybe they ought to open source the shuttle. Apparently thats what the did for the ISS (International Space Station, which runs Linux).
Likewise, if there was the economic and political insentive to go to Mars, we would likely be there by now.
Definatly. I heard someone once say on /. that you could put people on Mars for the cost of the movie "Titanic."
Most likely, nobody would have made it to the moon if Kennedy hadn't died. The whole country felt it owed it to him that they should go to the moon, because thats what Kennedy wanted. So off to the moon they went, and did it before the decade was out, people put a stuipd little flag there, just like Kennedy wanted.
But then a funny thing happend. Nobody cared anymore. Man stomped around up on that rock for a while and then retreated home, and haven't gone back since. Earthbound people said you could be spending NASA's money on the poor (Fools! Do you really trust polotitions to spend that extra money wisely?).
Heres to hoping that the International Space Station will allow new missions to the moon, since the shuttle can now refuel there and move on, perhaps launching a module out of the cargo bay.
I don't suppose this would help Linus get a new kernel out the door, would it? :)
It would be a great service if companies could junk print, because it takes a longer time to print and bind the books then it does to burn the CDs, so the result is you often have out-of-date manules. Thats why you see so many README files that say "contians information that could not be put into the manuel."
Paper manuels aren't dead; nay, its much easier to look through a printed out HOWTO then an electronic one. So I say junk the paper manuels, put it in PDF format (and include the PDF reader just in case) and let the end user decide if they want a print-out or not.
Perhaps this will change with higher resolution displays that are much easier on the eyes for reading and devices made specificly to read stuff off of. There are already things like that, and if they can read PDFs (which is pretty much standered right now), these things could really kill off paper once and for all.
Opps . . . sorry, slept through Geography 101.
Yeah, but a little paranoia is healthy. And society needs a few groups who are really paranoid to scream out "Conspiracy!" all the time, because those few paranoid souls gotta be right at some point :).
One more tidbit; the homepage for this Recourse Technologies he works at is at http://www.recourse.com/, just in case anybody cares or couldn't figure it out on your own. In case your wondering, yes, this is the same company; look at the logo on Icee's shirt in the picture on his homepage and the logo on Recourse's homepage. They're the same
In all the mainstream Mafiaboy stories, they point to IRC logs. Where are these logs? Why aren't they linked to, if they exist? If they aren't allowed to, then why not? Shouldn't that be evidence to show the press? Or is the FBI worried that anyone viewing the logs might see holes in their case? Or do the logs not exist? Is some FBI lacky makeing fake logs now to show later?
What about Twinkies? When can I DoS a Twinkie? Will it work with fat free Twinkies? The people want to know!!!
If he actually did it, do you think he'd actually be "braggibg" about where he can be discovered?
Yes, actualy. Crackers (even bad ones like what the mainstream media says Mafiaboy is, which is fairly plausible) very often brag about their exploits. Legend has it that the really good crackers never say anything and are never known to the world. I don't know if thats really true or not (how could you verify it, really?), but everyone else brags a lot.
You are right about the government and media just needing someone to point a finger at, though.
You forget that Mafiaboy was being charged before 2600 did anything. Also, no one from Quebec was arrested in this case; the 2600 people used some French to imply someone from Quebec (as there are more people speak French in Quebec then anywhere else, except France). The "security expert" didn't catch on, apparently. Mafiaboy is from Montreal.
Remember L0pht's saying they could bring down the internet quickly? It's probably true..
I doubt it. Like all hackers/crackers, they are heavily inclied to braging. The Internet was very well designed to stop any one entity to do that. Its trivial to take down a few servers; its nearly impossible to take down the entire Internet, unless you have a good portion of the net working with you (we're talking 10%-40% or maybe more of the entire network).
I think L0pht was just trying to scare a cupple of big suits. Remember, L0pht is hired by buisnesses to do cracks on thier system.
Well, if your so skeptical, why don't you log onto IRC yourself as Mafiaboy and see what happens.
Mind posting a link; this sounds intresting.
I checked crowds.org and its not regestered. crowds.com is owned by some German guy who hasn't put much of anything up. And crowds.net is also regestered.
Yeah! OOG rules!
I say that Slashdot should change their program to give OOG a (5: Funny) by default.
I heard from one of my Mac freinds that the G4 can already do software DSL. Anybody have any more info on this?
You allways are noted around the Free Software community as telling people to say "GNU/Linux", not just "Linux." I understand your reasons for it, but other OSes also use parts from other companies and development groups. Why shouldn't Linux systems be named by their kernel just like everything else?
Sorry, should have been "Microserf."
. . . that Linux is insecure because its Open Source and a "hacker" could put a security flaw in it, pull out this article and start to laugh.
Don't bother with CD-MP3 combos or even a stand-alone portable MP3 player; go for Minidiscs. They hold just as much as CDs and can play MP3s anyway.
Not nessarily. Thats only if the BabyBills have the same thinking as did the larger company. Since they no longer have the resources to act on things as they did when they were all together, they can't afford to think like they did when they were much larger.
Overall, splitting up MS would probably leave everyone much better off then before. With several smaller companies, no matter how they were split up (into apps, OS, internet, or some other way) it would be in their best interests to make better products and to broaden into other OSes. If every BabyBill can create an OS, then Windows will fork by default. That means a mess just as bad as the Unix fork of the '80s. Eventualy, someone might come around and pick up the pieces (as Linus did for Unix), but will anyone care by then? If anyone does care, it will surly make a much better OS then we see currently.
I'm more worried that MS will appeal and this thing will be draged on for another 2+ years.
"One World, one Web, one Program"-Microsoft promotional ad