It's funny, we elect a handful of people to decide for us, and call it "democracy".
Don't complain unless you know what you're talking about. The US system is called a "democratic republic" because we elect our representatives and do retain some democratic powers.
Athens was not only the first true democracy, but the last one of any real size.
Where do you get frozen Carbon Dioxide? And isn't that a little dangerous to handle? What happens if somehow it malfunctions and you get deadly carbon dioxide released into your room.
Carbon dioxide is not toxic unless you are exposed to insanely high levels; it's one of the most common gasses in our atmosphere. You're probably thinking of carbon monoxide, which is toxic. One of the most popular uses for carbon monoxide is for suicide-by-car-exhaust.
It will be interesting, and probably very important, to see how this turns out. So many legal battles are fought out by Big Guy vs. Little Guy, and that's just not a fair fight. Now we can see when happens when this sort of (imho) silliness gets aimed at someone with the money and reputation to defend themselves.
I won't lend my support to this sort of thing until I'm convinced that my government won't hold me accountable for anything illegal that goes on...
I can just imagine some pharmaceutical company infringing on a patent and poor me being sued because my computer was the one that deciphered that last block...
Yes, it's paranoid. But more and more lately, the paranoid people are turning out to be right.
Please note that I have no real-world knowledge of the NSA or governmental classified info practices, and my opinions should be weighed with that in mind.
I studied crypto at college last year and saw diagrams, algorithm analysis, and even photos of the Enigma machines. This information is not secret, or even hard to come by, and it hasn't been for a long time.
And yet this patent was only recently made public because of "classified" info.
This just illustrates that our own government intentionally restricts information and misleads us. FOIA my ass.
I played Final Fantasy 8 and went "ooh, pretty pictures" and "wow, a song".
I played FF5 on a SNES emulator. Three times, with two different translations. Each time through was punctuated with "oh wow, kickass", "this game is so great", and other corny expressions.
The hardcore Final Fantasy fans will verify the trend in that series, but it seems to be an industry-wide epidemic. New games seem to focus too much on showing off technology, not enough on making the damned good games of yesteryear.
But then, I said the same thing ten years ago, and I just spent a week playing Star Control 2.
I see one flaw in this argument, not all expression is protected by the first amendment! I can not say certain words and broadcast them over the television. Granted, posted to a web site is not the same as broadcasting, but it's getting awfully close
There's also the matter of what a set of words does. Using words to commit a crime (by trying to bribe an official, say) is illegal. Similarly, using code to commit a crime (by distributing, but hopefully not by writing, viruses) will not fall under the 1st amendment.
Of course this can be always be looked at in another light, that of the American entrepenurial (sic)spirit. If it ain't illegal then it must be legal, right?
Yes, right. That's exactly how the law works. Would you prefer that certain acts be illegal before a law is passed making it so? Perhaps retroactive laws, which are specifically banned by the US Constitution?
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for freedom and the Bill of Rights but not when it's destroying our society. Thank you and God bless.
First off, that post should not have been moderated down. It is probably intended as a troll, but it's one of the rare devils-advocate posts; these should be highlighted.
Second, you're an idiot. I could just as easily argue that credit cards caused this problem, or computers. And the fact that you used a computer to post means that you are going to Hell.
Imagine you have been operating a car theft ring for several years. Then you get caught. So you offer to return all the cars which you borrowed without authorization to their owners.
This is similar to the sweet deal SouthWestern Bell got several year ago over intentionally overcharging customers. They gave each of their customers a card/account worth $100 worth of free long distance.
The total amount of long distance given out was less than the profits they made overcharging. The accounts were notoriously unreliable and tedious to use; it took about five minutes just to make a call. And, to top it all off, they could only be used for calls that were long-distance but in the same area code (in 918, about half the population was in local call range).
The ruling they have made now could only be the beginning of a policy where customer databases are seen as any other form of capital, wich in case of bankrupcy can be sold off.
Uhm, no. In fact, the FTC has set a very different precedent. The database cannot be simply "sold off" for quick cash, it must be sold as part of the whole company.
It even makes sense. You send your private data to ToySmart. ToySmart as a whole is sold. Whoever owns ToySmart now has the data.
I did see one surprisingly intelligent thing in this mess. Part of the settlement is that if the buyer wants to change the privacy policy, it must be done with an opt-in strategy. I'm sick of having to "sign" agreements that are worthless because the other party can change them without notice.
It would be far beyond the regulartory powers of the FTC, and arguably beyond the legislative powers of Congress, but I would be overjoyed if those damned "subject to change without notice" clauses were ruled unenforceable.
I suspect that DirectX 8 or so will provide a way to verify over TCP/IP that a driver is running in "Non-cheat mode", and it will be easy to keep multiplayer games free us this.
Other 3D rendering thingies, those that communicate more directly to the hardware or come in more flavors, will be much trickier to deal with. As for open source drivers...
Well, on linux, God Mode will finally include omniscience.
Realistically, we have to aknowledge that there needs to be a way for the government to gather evidence for legitimate criminal investigations. Criminal law as a whole depends on this.
And "evidence" can include communication. The government can open your mail and trace or listen to your phone calls, legally, if you are a suspect of a crime and a warrant is issued.
Technically, opening mail and tapping wires is easy. Intercepting e-mail is hard. There is sometimes not a perfect solution for hard problems.
I'm not saying Carnivore is the right way to do things; based on the short blurbs that are out there, it sifts through everybody's mail to get the bad guys'. That would be pretty wrong. And like many Slashfolk, I do not trust closed-source software for this sort of application. But there may be no perfect solution, and there has to be some technology for legitimate surveilance.
I'm not familiar with the UK's state of affairs, but I assume it is similar to here in the US. Which is to say that the government was already snooping as they saw fit.
Now, with the keys, they can do it more quickly and more easily. That should reduce the expense of invading privacy significantly.
So you see, it's all just to save the taxpayers' money.
that way all the crazy stuff that's not good for "normal healthy americans" can hang out there unmolested.
I think you've neglected to consider that the internet is more politics than tech these days. It might be more convenient for everyone with a.alt TLD, but a few things would happen right away:
Public schools and libraries have censorware installed to block access to.alt web sites. Since this strategy would work quite well, with few good clean sites unfairly blocked, there is no public outrage.
ISPs regularly refuse to host.alt sites unless you pay extra. Again, since there is a quick-and-easy way to identify sketchy sites, it is effective and noncontroversial.
Much of the wild-ass speculation (also known as Slashdot groupthink) is that AMD is doing this because unstable overclocked systems are damaging their brand name. I think this is a plausible explanation, although none of us really know the motiviation.
If this is the reason, I'd suggest an alternative. Don't impose restrictions on motherboard designs, impose restrictions on vendors. They could make their licensing such that in order to sell AMD products, overclocked systems must be clearly labeled.
Selling an overclocked system that's not labeled could be penalized simply by making the vendor liable for repairs, or by having to pay AMD a crapload of $$.
Poof, no more (especially) unstable systems with the AMD name on them, and no more angry overclockers.
Or am I smoking crack? I'm basing this on the way Smith & Wesson is handling their vendors after the lawsuit, but processors are not handguns.
There are plenty of very good arguments about whether or not this sort of thing can be copyrighted. But it's moot in this case; there's no copyright notice for the data or even the HTML pages.
Slashdot Mirror
My mom is not a Karma whore!
Don't complain unless you know what you're talking about. The US system is called a "democratic republic" because we elect our representatives and do retain some democratic powers.
Athens was not only the first true democracy, but the last one of any real size.
My mom is not a Karma whore!
eom
My mom is not a Karma whore!
Carbon dioxide is not toxic unless you are exposed to insanely high levels; it's one of the most common gasses in our atmosphere. You're probably thinking of carbon monoxide, which is toxic. One of the most popular uses for carbon monoxide is for suicide-by-car-exhaust.
My mom is not a Karma whore!
It will be interesting, and probably very important, to see how this turns out. So many legal battles are fought out by Big Guy vs. Little Guy, and that's just not a fair fight. Now we can see when happens when this sort of (imho) silliness gets aimed at someone with the money and reputation to defend themselves.
My mom is not a Karma whore!
I hearby demand that we make "download" a euphemism for "screw"*. Then we can be pissed off at Wired for using dirty language.
* Insert your favorite pre-existing euphemism: bop, fuck, fsck, fork, shag, etc...
My mom is not a Karma whore!
I can just imagine some pharmaceutical company infringing on a patent and poor me being sued because my computer was the one that deciphered that last block...
Yes, it's paranoid. But more and more lately, the paranoid people are turning out to be right.
My mom is not a Karma whore!
Would suing over the SAMBA name seem so clueless in Germany?
My mom is not a Karma whore!
I studied crypto at college last year and saw diagrams, algorithm analysis, and even photos of the Enigma machines. This information is not secret, or even hard to come by, and it hasn't been for a long time.
And yet this patent was only recently made public because of "classified" info.
This just illustrates that our own government intentionally restricts information and misleads us. FOIA my ass.
My mom is not a Karma whore!
I played FF5 on a SNES emulator. Three times, with two different translations. Each time through was punctuated with "oh wow, kickass", "this game is so great", and other corny expressions.
The hardcore Final Fantasy fans will verify the trend in that series, but it seems to be an industry-wide epidemic. New games seem to focus too much on showing off technology, not enough on making the damned good games of yesteryear.
But then, I said the same thing ten years ago, and I just spent a week playing Star Control 2.
My mom is not a Karma whore!
There's also the matter of what a set of words does. Using words to commit a crime (by trying to bribe an official, say) is illegal. Similarly, using code to commit a crime (by distributing, but hopefully not by writing, viruses) will not fall under the 1st amendment.
My mom is not a Karma whore!
Great, let's give the UN one more reason to invade...
My mom is not a Karma whore!
Yes, right. That's exactly how the law works. Would you prefer that certain acts be illegal before a law is passed making it so? Perhaps retroactive laws, which are specifically banned by the US Constitution?
My mom is not a Karma whore!
First off, that post should not have been moderated down. It is probably intended as a troll, but it's one of the rare devils-advocate posts; these should be highlighted.
Second, you're an idiot. I could just as easily argue that credit cards caused this problem, or computers. And the fact that you used a computer to post means that you are going to Hell.
Now this post should be moderated down...
My mom is not a Karma whore!
This is similar to the sweet deal SouthWestern Bell got several year ago over intentionally overcharging customers. They gave each of their customers a card/account worth $100 worth of free long distance.
The total amount of long distance given out was less than the profits they made overcharging. The accounts were notoriously unreliable and tedious to use; it took about five minutes just to make a call. And, to top it all off, they could only be used for calls that were long-distance but in the same area code (in 918, about half the population was in local call range).
Ah, justice.
My mom is not a Karma whore!
Uhm, no. In fact, the FTC has set a very different precedent. The database cannot be simply "sold off" for quick cash, it must be sold as part of the whole company.
It even makes sense. You send your private data to ToySmart. ToySmart as a whole is sold. Whoever owns ToySmart now has the data.
My mom is not a Karma whore!
It would be far beyond the regulartory powers of the FTC, and arguably beyond the legislative powers of Congress, but I would be overjoyed if those damned "subject to change without notice" clauses were ruled unenforceable.
My mom is not a Karma whore!
Other 3D rendering thingies, those that communicate more directly to the hardware or come in more flavors, will be much trickier to deal with. As for open source drivers...
Well, on linux, God Mode will finally include omniscience.
My mom is not a Karma whore!
And "evidence" can include communication. The government can open your mail and trace or listen to your phone calls, legally, if you are a suspect of a crime and a warrant is issued.
Technically, opening mail and tapping wires is easy. Intercepting e-mail is hard. There is sometimes not a perfect solution for hard problems.
I'm not saying Carnivore is the right way to do things; based on the short blurbs that are out there, it sifts through everybody's mail to get the bad guys'. That would be pretty wrong. And like many Slashfolk, I do not trust closed-source software for this sort of application. But there may be no perfect solution, and there has to be some technology for legitimate surveilance.
My mom is not a Karma whore!
Now, with the keys, they can do it more quickly and more easily. That should reduce the expense of invading privacy significantly.
So you see, it's all just to save the taxpayers' money.
My mom is not a Karma whore!
The ACLU has it's take on this issue, along with an easy way to fax your representative with a customizeable form letter.
My mom is not a Karma whore!
that way all the crazy stuff that's not good for "normal healthy americans" can hang out there unmolested.
I think you've neglected to consider that the internet is more politics than tech these days. It might be more convenient for everyone with a .alt TLD, but a few things would happen right away:
Public schools and libraries have censorware installed to block access to .alt web sites. Since this strategy would work quite well, with few good clean sites unfairly blocked, there is no public outrage.
ISPs regularly refuse to host .alt sites unless you pay extra. Again, since there is a quick-and-easy way to identify sketchy sites, it is effective and noncontroversial.
My mom is not a Karma whore!
If this is the reason, I'd suggest an alternative. Don't impose restrictions on motherboard designs, impose restrictions on vendors. They could make their licensing such that in order to sell AMD products, overclocked systems must be clearly labeled.
Selling an overclocked system that's not labeled could be penalized simply by making the vendor liable for repairs, or by having to pay AMD a crapload of $$.
Poof, no more (especially) unstable systems with the AMD name on them, and no more angry overclockers.
Or am I smoking crack? I'm basing this on the way Smith & Wesson is handling their vendors after the lawsuit, but processors are not handguns.
My mom is not a Karma whore!
It's all public domain now.
My mom is not a Karma whore!
Basically this is just a way of automating something that people may want to do anyway. It's not for everyone, but not everyone has to use it.
In conclusion, it's a good thing.
My mom is not a Karma whore!