If we don't fight, the "O'Reilly Open Source" will have in the future the same negative connotation that DefCon does now. Microsoft, that "upstanding shining star of American innovation and productivity" *cough*, has demonized Open Source, saying it "destroys intellectual property", and hence innovation.
The battle for mindshare as begun. We are being made out to be the bad guys. We react to laws and are always on the "law-breaking" side. Not from our perspective (freedom), but from THEIR perspective (they have the courts/police/gov't/guns on their side).
We need to act, not just react. We need to use the political process and get publicity where WE are taking an initiative, and aren't just fighting the ystem.
I'm in Las Vegas too. Over 10 miles from the MGM Grand, but I can still see a green glow from the clouds when I look that direction due to the reflected light. It takes a LOT of light to do that.
A serious question: How many broadband ISPs would both a) kick you off, and b) refuse to ever allow you to sign up with them again? Considering that that means they'd refuse to ever take money from you again? Anyone know of cases where this has happened? Which ISPs?
Also, couldn't one go through a reseller or
sign up under a different name if one has been
banned?
Static discharge is in the THOUSANDS of volts.
With people it's the "volts that jolt, but the mills (milliamps) that kill".
With electronics, even a low current, high voltage static shock is deadly.
If a static shock is enough to stimulate your nerve directly to cause sensation (after passing through a relatively high resistance of your skin), it is MORE than enough to punch a hole through the oxide layer of a CMOS chip, creating a new electrical connection (short) where one does not belong. This is permanent.
In addition, such a short can cause increased heat production which can cause thermal runaway (more heat and more current in a vicious cycle).
A static charge can cause small shorts in the chip, which draw current, which increases heat, which increases current draw, in a vicious cycle
(thermal runaway) which melts/burns the chip.
This shouldn't be news to you, "as a Quality & Reliability engineer for computer systems at a major manufacturer".
(one major manufacturer known for unreliability does come to mind though)
Even small surges or dips in power can melt/burn chips. I had a $12 FPGA-type chip fry in an electronics class when a lab partner connected a logic probe's power inputs in parallel with the chips power inputs (which is correct), but while the chip was on, which was not proper.
I gather the voltage instability on the power inputs could have either directly started a damaging effect or could have caused a state which both sink and source transistors in CMOS were on at the same time (halfway logic levels could do this).
Well, I'm not one for frivolous lawsuits, but
having hardware fry due to NORMAL EXPECTED USE of a product is NOT ACCEPTABLE.
P.S. MMR vaccine does indeed appear to cause autism. Children should get individual doses for measles, mumps, and rubella, not at the same time. This may reduce the risk.
Anyone permanently disconnected for running server
on
Broadband Crackdown
·
· Score: 2
Anyone here been disconnected permanently/account cancelled/banned for running a server?
Dynamic IPs are bad enough, but at least you are on the Internet when you have one.
A non-routable IP means you are not actually on the Internet, just connected to a device that is. You can not receive incoming connections at all, which affects more than servers (e.g. FTP clients not in passive mode).
Putting people on NAT by default seems extreme.
How much more do you charge for a REAL dynamic IP? For a real static IP?
Ah, but we (as a society) do legally require people to get vaccinated, because doing so benefits society as a whole sufficiently to justify the slight loss of personal freedom
Not so slight in the case of MMR vaccine which has caused much of the increase in autism cases lately.
Getting back to computers, what about where the anti-virus-virus causes inadvertant damage to the system because it has an unusual configuration, different software, etc. So instead of fixing the webserver, it utterly kills it. That could happen very easily if you binary patch even a slightly different version of the executable than you were expecting. Then what?
If you're going to call it a virus, think of the influenza virus. A medicine is widely available on the market. It is up to the infected party to take the medicine, and it would be
unethical to sieze the unwitting victim and force the medicine into their bodies.
Well with certain diseases, we DO force people to take medicine, even before they get the disease. FORCED immunizations. Do you agree that that is just as wrong?
The intellectual property cabal already has plans in place for "re-educating" the children in "how respecting intellectual property rights is good for us all".
Which is why they have the whole secured/trusted PC model they want to force us to use. Secure Audio Path, et al. You won't have root level access to your own hardware. Hacking into your own computer will be illegal.
That already happened with an etextbook on DVD at some public New York dental school. Yes, at a PUBLIC university, you read that right! I forget the details.
Without access to the patented technique, the content out there that uses it is indecipherable. No use of the patent = no ability to use a lot of content.
It is just like having a town where the ONLY way to get to it is a toll road, and they are allowed to charge anything they want, or even saying certain groups of people aren't allowed to use the road at all. And also make it illegal for anyone else to build a parallel road to the town, even with their own money.
He was NOT prosecuted for his speech (officially - the speech could very well have provoked Adobe/FBI). He was charged with a DMCA violation for selling, FROM RUSSIA a product which violated the DMCA. He was in RUSSIA at the time of activity which the US is officially prosecuting him for. It was legal there.
It would be like me, here in beautiful Nevada, driving 75 in a 75 mph zone and travelling to Connecticut and getting a speeding ticket for having driven 75 because the maximum speed limit in Connecticut is only 55.
US law even apparently applies to Russian soil. Just ask Dmitry Sklyarov. The US gov't believes its law applies worldwide. And Russia isn't screaming blooddy murder about it! (Why not?!)
No one is safe, unless perhaps they decide to NEVER visit the US ever again. Even that might not be enough, just look at Manuel Noriega. Kidnapped by the US in a miltary raid and imprisoned in a US jail.
And the US would be very likely to bomb any rig out in international waters. We'd justify its destruction and the killing of its workers by saying we were protecting the US economy from economic terrorism and all our sheep/citizens will bleat their approval. And with it having been in international waters, we wouldn't be in trouble with any other country for violating its sovereignty.
Not that international law has ever (in practice) ever applied to the US... just look at how many treaties we violate.
By making it harder for application service providers (ASP) to operate, the price will go up. It will be more costly for a company to outsource its IT. Companies that outsource their IT layoff their IT staff.
The patent makes it less economical (or even uneconomical) to outsource IT, hence less layoffs, hence us IT people don't have to go around asking "Do you want fries with that?".
One ASP can serve many many companies. If ASPs became really prevalent a relative few overworked employees will be doing the work of many - some people will have murderous workloads, many will be unemployed. This patent ironically could prevent that.
You are assuming Microsoft acts rationally. That may be a mistake.
If Microsoft was always rational, they wouldn't have kept up their shenanigans DURING the court case, they'd gone on the straight and narrow for the duration of the trial, or at least been more sneaky, and then started up again with their mess after no one was looking.
The hardware is usually simply an embedded system with audio output, a filesystem and a way of downloading music data from a PC. It runs software which does the decoding.
It is a software change to add Ogg. Software changes are trivial compared to hardware development.
Plus the codec is already developed and available under a very open license.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, we definitely more than 2 channels, for those of us that have more than 2 ears. ;)
Given that he was giving a speech at Def Con, I'd say his English is fine.
If we don't fight, the "O'Reilly Open Source" will have in the future the same negative connotation that DefCon does now. Microsoft, that "upstanding shining star of American innovation and productivity" *cough*, has demonized Open Source, saying it "destroys intellectual property", and hence innovation.
The battle for mindshare as begun. We are being made out to be the bad guys. We react to laws and are always on the "law-breaking" side. Not from our perspective (freedom), but from THEIR perspective (they have the courts/police/gov't/guns on their side).
We need to act, not just react. We need to use the political process and get publicity where WE are taking an initiative, and aren't just fighting the ystem.
I'm in Las Vegas too. Over 10 miles from the MGM Grand, but I can still see a green glow from the clouds when I look that direction due to the reflected light. It takes a LOT of light to do that.
A serious question: How many broadband ISPs would both a) kick you off, and b) refuse to ever allow you to sign up with them again? Considering that that means they'd refuse to ever take money from you again? Anyone know of cases where this has happened? Which ISPs?
Also, couldn't one go through a reseller or
sign up under a different name if one has been
banned?
Static discharge is in the THOUSANDS of volts.
With people it's the "volts that jolt, but the mills (milliamps) that kill".
With electronics, even a low current, high voltage static shock is deadly.
If a static shock is enough to stimulate your nerve directly to cause sensation (after passing through a relatively high resistance of your skin), it is MORE than enough to punch a hole through the oxide layer of a CMOS chip, creating a new electrical connection (short) where one does not belong. This is permanent.
In addition, such a short can cause increased heat production which can cause thermal runaway (more heat and more current in a vicious cycle).
This can easily melt/burn a chip.
A static charge can cause small shorts in the chip, which draw current, which increases heat, which increases current draw, in a vicious cycle
(thermal runaway) which melts/burns the chip.
This shouldn't be news to you, "as a Quality & Reliability engineer for computer systems at a major manufacturer".
(one major manufacturer known for unreliability does come to mind though)
Even small surges or dips in power can melt/burn chips. I had a $12 FPGA-type chip fry in an electronics class when a lab partner connected a logic probe's power inputs in parallel with the chips power inputs (which is correct), but while the chip was on, which was not proper.
I gather the voltage instability on the power inputs could have either directly started a damaging effect or could have caused a state which both sink and source transistors in CMOS were on at the same time (halfway logic levels could do this).
The chip smoked. Afterwards it had a bump in it.
Well, I'm not one for frivolous lawsuits, but
having hardware fry due to NORMAL EXPECTED USE of a product is NOT ACCEPTABLE.
P.S. MMR vaccine does indeed appear to cause autism. Children should get individual doses for measles, mumps, and rubella, not at the same time. This may reduce the risk.
Anyone here been disconnected permanently/account cancelled/banned for running a server?
Dynamic IPs are bad enough, but at least you are on the Internet when you have one.
A non-routable IP means you are not actually on the Internet, just connected to a device that is. You can not receive incoming connections at all, which affects more than servers (e.g. FTP clients not in passive mode).
Putting people on NAT by default seems extreme.
How much more do you charge for a REAL dynamic IP? For a real static IP?
We said it was free of VIRUSES, we never said it was free of worms. ;)
Ah, but we (as a society) do legally require people to get vaccinated, because doing so benefits society as a whole sufficiently to justify the slight loss of personal freedom
Not so slight in the case of MMR vaccine which has caused much of the increase in autism cases lately.
Getting back to computers, what about where the anti-virus-virus causes inadvertant damage to the system because it has an unusual configuration, different software, etc. So instead of fixing the webserver, it utterly kills it. That could happen very easily if you binary patch even a slightly different version of the executable than you were expecting. Then what?
If you're going to call it a virus, think of the influenza virus. A medicine is widely available on the market. It is up to the infected party to take the medicine, and it would be unethical to sieze the unwitting victim and force the medicine into their bodies.
Well with certain diseases, we DO force people to take medicine, even before they get the disease. FORCED immunizations. Do you agree that that is just as wrong?
The intellectual property cabal already has plans in place for "re-educating" the children in "how respecting intellectual property rights is good for us all".
Scary indeed, but true.
Which is why they have the whole secured/trusted PC model they want to force us to use. Secure Audio Path, et al. You won't have root level access to your own hardware. Hacking into your own computer will be illegal.
My standard ruler is the King James Bible, about 1000 pages, 5 megabytes. One CD-ROM is equivalent to some 130 Bibles, about 5 meters of bookshelf.
Yeah, but who is going to drag their laptop into church?
Oh wait, this is Slashdot, don't answer that!
That already happened with an etextbook on DVD at some public New York dental school. Yes, at a PUBLIC university, you read that right! I forget the details.
And it would "enhance" the text, and make it say Bill Gates is God.
(The punishment for something like that makes the DMCA look like a picnic by comparison. The gov't can't lock you up for eternity.)
Without access to the patented technique, the content out there that uses it is indecipherable. No use of the patent = no ability to use a lot of content.
It is just like having a town where the ONLY way to get to it is a toll road, and they are allowed to charge anything they want, or even saying certain groups of people aren't allowed to use the road at all. And also make it illegal for anyone else to build a parallel road to the town, even with their own money.
Umm, what do you consider taxes then?
He was NOT prosecuted for his speech (officially - the speech could very well have provoked Adobe/FBI). He was charged with a DMCA violation for selling, FROM RUSSIA a product which violated the DMCA. He was in RUSSIA at the time of activity which the US is officially prosecuting him for. It was legal there.
It would be like me, here in beautiful Nevada, driving 75 in a 75 mph zone and travelling to Connecticut and getting a speeding ticket for having driven 75 because the maximum speed limit in Connecticut is only 55.
US law even apparently applies to Russian soil. Just ask Dmitry Sklyarov. The US gov't believes its law applies worldwide. And Russia isn't screaming blooddy murder about it! (Why not?!)
No one is safe, unless perhaps they decide to NEVER visit the US ever again. Even that might not be enough, just look at Manuel Noriega. Kidnapped by the US in a miltary raid and imprisoned in a US jail.
And the US would be very likely to bomb any rig out in international waters. We'd justify its destruction and the killing of its workers by saying we were protecting the US economy from economic terrorism and all our sheep/citizens will bleat their approval. And with it having been in international waters, we wouldn't be in trouble with any other country for violating its sovereignty.
Not that international law has ever (in practice) ever applied to the US ... just look at how many treaties we violate.
By making it harder for application service providers (ASP) to operate, the price will go up. It will be more costly for a company to outsource its IT. Companies that outsource their IT layoff their IT staff.
The patent makes it less economical (or even uneconomical) to outsource IT, hence less layoffs, hence us IT people don't have to go around asking "Do you want fries with that?".
One ASP can serve many many companies. If ASPs became really prevalent a relative few overworked employees will be doing the work of many - some people will have murderous workloads, many will be unemployed. This patent ironically could prevent that.
You are assuming Microsoft acts rationally. That may be a mistake.
If Microsoft was always rational, they wouldn't have kept up their shenanigans DURING the court case, they'd gone on the straight and narrow for the duration of the trial, or at least been more sneaky, and then started up again with their mess after no one was looking.
The hardware is usually simply an embedded system with audio output, a filesystem and a way of downloading music data from a PC. It runs software which does the decoding.
It is a software change to add Ogg. Software changes are trivial compared to hardware development.
Plus the codec is already developed and available under a very open license.