And the best thing is, I didn't have to lie, cheat, steal, or fuck anybody I didn't want to. Or even kiss a whole lot of ass. Well, a *little* ass kissing was required. But NO tongue. All I had to do was put in an honest day's work.
And, my company are not fucking bastards like Microsoft or Intel. They're actually relatively decent (wasn't always true), and even support Linux with some products. No, they're not Open Source, tho.
THIS is how capitalism is supposed to work for EVERYBODY. It's nice that it worked that way for me, too bad it doesn't work for everybody else.
Well, say I pirate Windows98, and it comes with IE 4.0, as we all know. Being a web surfer, I become a statistical support to the notion that IE 4.0 is the dominant web browser on the network (a value proposition for Microsoft, even if they didn't get my $99 for the Windows98 CD). Now, web sites everywhere start believing that the effort to design websites to be Netscape-friendly is too expensive for the other 5% of the surfers out there, so they omit that effort. Causing even more incentive for new computer buyers to buy Windows98, because they'll get IE and be able to surf this one more site. Does Microsoft get taxed on the copy I pirated because of the way it benefits them?
Charging would be illegal if what it was pointing to was a copyrighted work. Because then it would be shared for commercial purposes, not noncommercial purposes. But I guess that opens up an industrial-sized barrel of worms.
Well, I'm a relatively small-potato at a big software company, and the stock options I got were like, well, when we went public, and I saw what they were going to be worth, I said to my wife, I said "wife, holy shit!".
True, what I'm paying in taxes scares the SHIT out of me, but then again, after all that, I'm still stinkin' filthy rich beyond my wildest dreams ever. If my parent company pays no taxes, that's fine and dandy for me.
Kinda ticks me off that Microsoft gets to abuse this loophole for corporate welfare, but, oh well.
I guess I can argue against Mojonation in another way (really, I'm just trolling;-),
With Hotline, if you "share" your MP3 collection, yet collect banner revenue, it's illegal, because the sharing is not non-commercial, and therefore is not protected by "fair use".
With Napster, sharing your MP3's with the world IS legal, because it's non-commercial - protected by "fair use".
With Mojonation, you're in-effect, selling your MP3's that you share for Mojo. Which gives you the privilege to buy more MP3's. Which means Mojo is a form of currency (like Slashdot karma, ho ho ho!), I suppose enough ambiguity there to keep a whole BMW-dealership-full of lawyers in Armani socks for the next 5 years. Perhaps it's more of a commodity. Goodie, then the gummint can TAX it. (which is why I troll, because I'm afraid that if Gore's elected, I'll be paying the IRS for my high-karma next April).
Don't get me wrong, I'm not criticising Mojonation, I'm not trying to say it's a bad thing, it's just that, for a global (world-wide, earth-encompassing) search, fragmenting humanity's free-MP3 library under these various services will make certain rare bits harder to find, and, of course, there's that commercial ambiguity with Mojo.
True, the "genetic variety" issue makes it more survivable, as a whole. . . I guess it's an inevitable stage of evolution. (with the final stage being no further legal inhibitions, and all systems being interoperable such that a single point can be searched for that Bathroom recording of Wierd Al's "Another one rides the bus".
The more of these file-sharing systems we get, the less likely it is that they'll be shut down by "da man".
Unfortunately, when we splinter the "file-sharing community" like this, we get divergent standards, content, and we start to lose the appeal that a system like Napster had, where EVERYBODY was on it, and nothing else, therefore, if you were looking for something in particular, a search of Napster was always your best bet. Now if you were looking for something, chances are, if it's not on Napster, it's on Gnutella, or Freenet, or . . . etc.
Same thing happens with Online auctions. People were afraid to go to other auction houses, because Ebay had THE name. Therefore, they retain most of the business. Mindshare. It's all about mindshare.
Not to mention, about 10% of people are "allergic" to Argon gas. That is, the presence of Argon in significant quantities causes major irritation of the lungs and breathing passages. Don't know why. I just know that it makes me sneeze. And that also limits the amount of people you can find that can even do this kind of welding.
He would have been better off with a titanium shield. I built a shield from lexan (polycarbonate; ie. bulletproof glass) (as opposed to the plywood or steel, or aluminum most people use), and it was much lighter. Greatly reduced the time it took to get the shield into position to block. A large, lightweight sheild makes you nearly unstoppable. come to think of it, prolly lexan is better than titanium for that too.
I used lexan in the rest of my armor as well. I heat-formed it, painted it, and put in some decorative rivets, looked like hard-leather. Very light, extremely tough. Ah, those were the days. That suit is probably still out there somewhere, because I sold it when I quit.
I did use a very stout iron helmet though. The lexan was great at distributing force, but I was smart enough to protect my head well.
There's nothing to gain by posting anymore, since MaxKarma was set to 50. I mean, I was often afraid of losing Karma back when I was at 120+, now I feel like I've got nothing to lose (hint, I'm at 96-ish now). Before, when I had something stupid to say, I'd post at 1, because that wouldn't attract the wrath of the moderators quite as much, probably because the moderators would moderate at +2, refusing to go down into the gutters of slashdot and rooting out the 0 and 1 first posters. But now, what good does having 96 Karma do me? Nothing. So I'll burn it down to 50, and if I last that long, maybe I'll change back into a good citizen. Until then however, it looks like there are a LOT of others out there like me who just don't give a crap anymore. Perhaps if Hemos would give me a blowjob if I stayed above 100, then I'd consider holding back my trollish ways.
I'm even considering reading slashdot at +3 now, because it's really taking up too much of my time reading all the +2 crap. I know that there are occasional pearls at +2, hell, even some very good stuff is at 0 or 1. I'm missing out. Oh well.
tsk. tsk. Another Slashdot suicide. How many more have to suffer this needless, senseless end, before they change the moderation rules? (User #140998 - that's a big loss).
I was a telemarketer for a short 2 weeks back in High School. Didn't have no pansy-ass laws protecting consumers back then. But after the THIRD time I called a dead person (grieving widow), I got up from my workstation, and walked out, saying nary a word to anybody. That has got to be the most fucked-up job there is. I'm glad I work on computers now.
Well, they're not just talking about recovering files whose entries are deleted from the FAT, but contents not yet overwritten from disk.
There's also the emails that were deleted, but backed up to tape and archived offsite for disaster recovery purposes (most companies I know with GOOD backup plans exclude their emails from DR backups, and back them up separately so archives can be purged).
Then there's also the issue I posted about earlier, where they can crack open a hard drive, and read the platters with a super-sensitive read-head, and extract data from the patterns - even when it's been overwritten. This is the really tricky stuff because most people don't know this is out there, so even when they try to use "shredder" programs, data can still be recovered.
Any data written to magnetic media can be recovered - well, there's a chance, anyway. Every time data is written to a magnetic domain, there will be SOME areas within that domain that remain biased the way it was previously written. For instance, you have a 1 in one spot, then you write a zero; some atoms are still biased towards 1. The reason for this is that the heads in your average ordinary everyday Hard Disk are designed to take an average over a relatively large area of the domain, and read that as the recorded value. The incorrectly biased atoms in that domain are tossed out as noise in your everyday mass-produced hard drive.
A forensics team can pop the platters out, and read them with an extremely sensitive head, and draw-out patterns of previous writes. It's probably extremely expensive, and AFAIK, largely theoretical; I do not know if they're actually doing this, or have ever done this. But I do know that it's possible. (as a former Seagate employee)
There was a/. article on this a while back about how some investigator recovered an erased portion of Nixon's watergate tapes using such a technique.
Now, as far as a single erasure goes, that's the way it works. Multiple-pass erasures increase your chances of obscuring the data, and overwriting with all 1's or all 0's is probably not the most effective means, nor is overwriting with noise, because it's randomness can be extracted by careful analysis. I would say that repeated overwriting of such data with other legitimate data, would be the best way to cover-up the residual domain biases from previous writes. How many rewrites, I couldn't say, because I'm not an expert. Maybe dozens? hundreds? thousands? It might also help to pre-load a drive with data, and overwrite it a few dozen or so times, BEFORE using it to store legitimate data. That way, there will be a noisy background on the disk prior to writing your kiddy porn.
The real danger here is when they charge for hours online, then the ISP has an incentive to provide crappy service - slower connections, slower servers, longer authentication protocols. They can even claim it's in the name of security, but the end result is, revenue goes up.
Re:The RIAA's problem began 15 years ago...
on
RIAA CEO Speaks
·
· Score: 2
iirc, there's no piracy tax on data-grade DAT tapes, that is stuff that's sold as computer-backup media. Which *can* be used for audio recording - though they're thinner and tend to break in audio players.
Re:Satan is not incarnate in the form of the RIAA
on
RIAA CEO Speaks
·
· Score: 1
Rights? I'll tell you what rights they have. Same rights as any of us. The right to TRY to survive to reproduce. The stronger ones succeed; the weaker ones fail. Everything else is made up bullshit. Which is what makes things like Porsches possible, and life so much fun.
Slashdot Mirror
And the best thing is, I didn't have to lie, cheat, steal, or fuck anybody I didn't want to. Or even kiss a whole lot of ass. Well, a *little* ass kissing was required. But NO tongue. All I had to do was put in an honest day's work.
And, my company are not fucking bastards like Microsoft or Intel. They're actually relatively decent (wasn't always true), and even support Linux with some products. No, they're not Open Source, tho.
THIS is how capitalism is supposed to work for EVERYBODY. It's nice that it worked that way for me, too bad it doesn't work for everybody else.
and Cisco wants an educated workforce and market in California
either that, or increased H1B visas. You figure it out.
Well, say I pirate Windows98, and it comes with IE 4.0, as we all know. Being a web surfer, I become a statistical support to the notion that IE 4.0 is the dominant web browser on the network (a value proposition for Microsoft, even if they didn't get my $99 for the Windows98 CD). Now, web sites everywhere start believing that the effort to design websites to be Netscape-friendly is too expensive for the other 5% of the surfers out there, so they omit that effort. Causing even more incentive for new computer buyers to buy Windows98, because they'll get IE and be able to surf this one more site. Does Microsoft get taxed on the copy I pirated because of the way it benefits them?
Charging would be illegal if what it was pointing to was a copyrighted work. Because then it would be shared for commercial purposes, not noncommercial purposes. But I guess that opens up an industrial-sized barrel of worms.
Well, I'm a relatively small-potato at a big software company, and the stock options I got were like, well, when we went public, and I saw what they were going to be worth, I said to my wife, I said "wife, holy shit!".
True, what I'm paying in taxes scares the SHIT out of me, but then again, after all that, I'm still stinkin' filthy rich beyond my wildest dreams ever. If my parent company pays no taxes, that's fine and dandy for me.
Kinda ticks me off that Microsoft gets to abuse this loophole for corporate welfare, but, oh well.
I guess I can argue against Mojonation in another way (really, I'm just trolling ;-),
With Hotline, if you "share" your MP3 collection, yet collect banner revenue, it's illegal, because the sharing is not non-commercial, and therefore is not protected by "fair use".
With Napster, sharing your MP3's with the world IS legal, because it's non-commercial - protected by "fair use".
With Mojonation, you're in-effect, selling your MP3's that you share for Mojo. Which gives you the privilege to buy more MP3's. Which means Mojo is a form of currency (like Slashdot karma, ho ho ho!), I suppose enough ambiguity there to keep a whole BMW-dealership-full of lawyers in Armani socks for the next 5 years. Perhaps it's more of a commodity. Goodie, then the gummint can TAX it. (which is why I troll, because I'm afraid that if Gore's elected, I'll be paying the IRS for my high-karma next April).
Don't get me wrong, I'm not criticising Mojonation, I'm not trying to say it's a bad thing, it's just that, for a global (world-wide, earth-encompassing) search, fragmenting humanity's free-MP3 library under these various services will make certain rare bits harder to find, and, of course, there's that commercial ambiguity with Mojo.
True, the "genetic variety" issue makes it more survivable, as a whole. . . I guess it's an inevitable stage of evolution. (with the final stage being no further legal inhibitions, and all systems being interoperable such that a single point can be searched for that Bathroom recording of Wierd Al's "Another one rides the bus".
The more of these file-sharing systems we get, the less likely it is that they'll be shut down by "da man".
Unfortunately, when we splinter the "file-sharing community" like this, we get divergent standards, content, and we start to lose the appeal that a system like Napster had, where EVERYBODY was on it, and nothing else, therefore, if you were looking for something in particular, a search of Napster was always your best bet. Now if you were looking for something, chances are, if it's not on Napster, it's on Gnutella, or Freenet, or . . . etc.
Same thing happens with Online auctions. People were afraid to go to other auction houses, because Ebay had THE name. Therefore, they retain most of the business. Mindshare. It's all about mindshare.
Not to mention, about 10% of people are "allergic" to Argon gas. That is, the presence of Argon in significant quantities causes major irritation of the lungs and breathing passages. Don't know why. I just know that it makes me sneeze. And that also limits the amount of people you can find that can even do this kind of welding.
He would have been better off with a titanium shield. I built a shield from lexan (polycarbonate; ie. bulletproof glass) (as opposed to the plywood or steel, or aluminum most people use), and it was much lighter. Greatly reduced the time it took to get the shield into position to block. A large, lightweight sheild makes you nearly unstoppable. come to think of it, prolly lexan is better than titanium for that too.
I used lexan in the rest of my armor as well. I heat-formed it, painted it, and put in some decorative rivets, looked like hard-leather. Very light, extremely tough. Ah, those were the days. That suit is probably still out there somewhere, because I sold it when I quit.
I did use a very stout iron helmet though. The lexan was great at distributing force, but I was smart enough to protect my head well.
Hell, the only reason I post anymore is to Troll.
There's nothing to gain by posting anymore, since MaxKarma was set to 50. I mean, I was often afraid of losing Karma back when I was at 120+, now I feel like I've got nothing to lose (hint, I'm at 96-ish now). Before, when I had something stupid to say, I'd post at 1, because that wouldn't attract the wrath of the moderators quite as much, probably because the moderators would moderate at +2, refusing to go down into the gutters of slashdot and rooting out the 0 and 1 first posters. But now, what good does having 96 Karma do me? Nothing. So I'll burn it down to 50, and if I last that long, maybe I'll change back into a good citizen. Until then however, it looks like there are a LOT of others out there like me who just don't give a crap anymore. Perhaps if Hemos would give me a blowjob if I stayed above 100, then I'd consider holding back my trollish ways.
I'm even considering reading slashdot at +3 now, because it's really taking up too much of my time reading all the +2 crap. I know that there are occasional pearls at +2, hell, even some very good stuff is at 0 or 1. I'm missing out. Oh well.
tsk. tsk. Another Slashdot suicide. How many more have to suffer this needless, senseless end, before they change the moderation rules? (User #140998 - that's a big loss).
I was a telemarketer for a short 2 weeks back in High School. Didn't have no pansy-ass laws protecting consumers back then. But after the THIRD time I called a dead person (grieving widow), I got up from my workstation, and walked out, saying nary a word to anybody. That has got to be the most fucked-up job there is. I'm glad I work on computers now.
about the firestone thing; why don't you watch the movie "Fight Club" and try to figure out where that "strong rumor" came from.
in fact, it IS how these things work in corporations. Bean counters make the decisions.
This just confirms what everyone's been saying about Hemos for a while now. Hemos sucks!
(just kidding) -
and it's not "State AG's", it's "State A'sG". The plural of Attorney General is Attorneys General.
Well, they're not just talking about recovering files whose entries are deleted from the FAT, but contents not yet overwritten from disk.
There's also the emails that were deleted, but backed up to tape and archived offsite for disaster recovery purposes (most companies I know with GOOD backup plans exclude their emails from DR backups, and back them up separately so archives can be purged).
Then there's also the issue I posted about earlier, where they can crack open a hard drive, and read the platters with a super-sensitive read-head, and extract data from the patterns - even when it's been overwritten. This is the really tricky stuff because most people don't know this is out there, so even when they try to use "shredder" programs, data can still be recovered.
It's DOCTOR Evil to you. I didn't go through 6 years of medical school for nothing.
Unfortunately, this IS true.
/. article on this a while back about how some investigator recovered an erased portion of Nixon's watergate tapes using such a technique.
Any data written to magnetic media can be recovered - well, there's a chance, anyway. Every time data is written to a magnetic domain, there will be SOME areas within that domain that remain biased the way it was previously written. For instance, you have a 1 in one spot, then you write a zero; some atoms are still biased towards 1. The reason for this is that the heads in your average ordinary everyday Hard Disk are designed to take an average over a relatively large area of the domain, and read that as the recorded value. The incorrectly biased atoms in that domain are tossed out as noise in your everyday mass-produced hard drive.
A forensics team can pop the platters out, and read them with an extremely sensitive head, and draw-out patterns of previous writes. It's probably extremely expensive, and AFAIK, largely theoretical; I do not know if they're actually doing this, or have ever done this. But I do know that it's possible. (as a former Seagate employee)
There was a
Now, as far as a single erasure goes, that's the way it works. Multiple-pass erasures increase your chances of obscuring the data, and overwriting with all 1's or all 0's is probably not the most effective means, nor is overwriting with noise, because it's randomness can be extracted by careful analysis. I would say that repeated overwriting of such data with other legitimate data, would be the best way to cover-up the residual domain biases from previous writes. How many rewrites, I couldn't say, because I'm not an expert. Maybe dozens? hundreds? thousands? It might also help to pre-load a drive with data, and overwrite it a few dozen or so times, BEFORE using it to store legitimate data. That way, there will be a noisy background on the disk prior to writing your kiddy porn.
Maybe the solution isn't metering to prevent light users from subsidizing heavy users.
/. and start a-trollin'!
maybe the solution is for the light users to become heavy users, so we're all getting the same for our $!.
Duh!
Tell gramma to log into
If only that kind of logic held true for Income Tax. . .
The real danger here is when they charge for hours online, then the ISP has an incentive to provide crappy service - slower connections, slower servers, longer authentication protocols. They can even claim it's in the name of security, but the end result is, revenue goes up.
How about charging people more for using incorrect grammar and spelling?
for that kind of money, I'd rather get a pet like Real Doll
(www.realdoll.com)
love-puppy sounds so much better!
iirc, there's no piracy tax on data-grade DAT tapes, that is stuff that's sold as computer-backup media. Which *can* be used for audio recording - though they're thinner and tend to break in audio players.
Rights? I'll tell you what rights they have. Same rights as any of us. The right to TRY to survive to reproduce. The stronger ones succeed; the weaker ones fail. Everything else is made up bullshit. Which is what makes things like Porsches possible, and life so much fun.