The mere ability of the FBI to snoop POP3/SMTP traffic should not be a suprise. Any punk with a packet sniffer can pull this off.
What should concern us is the scope of Carnivore. Present indications are that it works like a fishing net and we simply trust the FBI to throw out the stuff they're not interested in. In order to be "interested in" traffic, the FBI must have a warrant. Right?
Wrong.
Having a warrant only permits the FBI to introduce the evidence in court. They can still listen in order to determine whether or not to continue an investigation on a suspect. This is a VERY common law enforcement technique. It saves a lot of resources and produces leads that can be followed up later without stepping all over the Fourth Amendment.
Warrantless wiretaps DO happen. Covert audio recordings ARE made. The results are just never introduced in court.
The old rule still applies -- don't say anything in email you wouldn't want your mother, your boss, or the police to hear.
(And yes, black helicopters do exist. My uncle used to paint them.)
As I understand it, in order to make this work, Microsoft undertook a significant porting effort. Anyone with more than 5 minutes in web development knows that BSD-based systems and Windows-based systems take very different approaches to architecture.
I can't find the link right now, but I recall reading that the developers were under a lot of pressure to get it to work on Win2000 and deviated quite a bit from MS's own recommendations for web development on Win2000. Hopefully, some more details on this will be forthcoming. If I find them, I'll be sure to post them to slashdot.
This is no longer simply about DVD's; it's about control. Really -- who is going to buy a T-Shirt just so they can copy the source code into their computer? Especially when you can download it for free off the net.
People who are buying the t-shirt are making a statement. Either these people want to completely stamp out any thought that they could ever be beaten, or they want to stamp out EVERY COPY EVERYWHERE. Why are they worried about a simple t-shirt when the code is all over the net? These people are (literally) making a federal case to demonstrate their ability to stamp out independent thought.
Maybe music-lovers could pay a flat fee to access music sites which share revenue with entertainment companies and artists.
Perhaps artists can use the Net to begin selling their work directly to fans and the public.
Maybe debit and other forms of transactional software can be used to charge small amounts of money for downloaded music, using some system that measures time or data.
Maybe college students could pay a fraction of a cent for each song they downloaded on college sites, the overall volume generating a fair amount of revenue for artists and corporations.
Well, this is great news for the community since like it or not, public perception of Linux comes from what RedHat are doing more than any other organisation - hence this'll be seen as Linux 7.0, which sounds better to the newbie than Linux 2.4.0-test3:)
It does seem that people who are long-term Linux users don't use RedHat anymore, maybe because it has been geared towards the "newbie", but at the end of the day surely Linux is Linux, and you can set up any distribution how you like given a bit of time.
Still Linux does need something aimed at helping newer users overcome the initial "fear factor" of running Linux. Whether you like it or not, by doing so they're doing everyone a favour in the long run. So although I don't use it, I wish them all the best and hope this release goes well for them.
It LOOKS like English. I know what most of the words mean....
But I can't for the life of me figure out what you're talking about. Everything after "shut up" is either a misquote or a rant against the corporate sanitization of/.
What corporate sanitization are you talking about?
Is it the corporate sanitization that has reduced the number of REAL technical articles. Instead, we have many more touchy-feely "let's talk about rights and social issues so EVERYONE can participate" articles.
Is it the corporate sanitization that has turned Slashdot into a parody of what it used to be?
Is it the corporate sanitization that has decided that "News for Nerds. Stuff that matters," is the same thing as, "Patting ourselves on the back for using Linux?"
Finally, is it the corporate sanitization that causes posters to take themselves so seriously that they get baited into long flamewars with trolls?
I can't. I'm disenfranchised. I'm also part of the greedy corporate infrastructure that is being trounced by the brave new net culture and all its freedoms. I can only scratch my head in confusion at the brash new netizens who are leading the way to a freer, more open world where information is traded freely and long rambling sentences don't make you look like a pretentious twit.
Oh, and my mommy won't let me look at etoy.com. They show boobies there.
I'd like to take a minute to break down michael's addendum:
> "Readers will notice that one of your fellow readers is abusing the system."
Right away, the tone is "us vs. them". "One of your fellow readers?" Remember when the Slashdot editors were part of the community that read their site? Now, we're "readers". They're "editors".
I don't care for this tone at all. It sounds too much like an elementary-school teacher -- "One of you students has decided to spoil it for the rest...."
> "Take my word for it that CmdrTaco is well aware of the situation and is preparing to Take Steps."
"Take Steps" with capitalization -- are the editors about to send someone to the principal's office? Is someone going to have to grab ankles while CmdrTaco administers a spanking?
> "It is frankly a shame that Slashdot's loose authentication system which is designed to allow people to participate without providing your name, SSN and mother's maiden name like so many other forums is also subject to abuse."
Translation: "We've built a popular interactive site by not forcing participants to answer intrusive questions. We may have to change this policy now that we're big-time." This sentence is just dripping with anticipation of Bad Things.
Face it, folks. Slashdot is a big-money "portal" site now. The fact that the spambot is being treated as such a crisis is evidence. Slashdot is just like ZDNet or MSNBC with a pronounced pro-Linux bias. The ".org" extension is deceptive and should be dropped.
The spambot is just a simple shell script. It could have been written at any point in Slashdot's life. I'm sure many people who visit this site have had the idea of auto-posting at one point. So why did it happen now?
Slashdot has gone the way of much of the "alternative" media of the 80's/90's generation. It's alternative until it makes money. Then, it becomes mainstream. People didn't care about taking risks before because there was nothing to lose. Now, stockholders and managers depend on "alternative" and they learn to stick with what works.
There's very little that's alternative about Slashdot now.
"News for Nerds?" -- Only if you define "nerd" as a Linux zealot prone to knee-jerk outrage against corporations and government.
"Stuff that matters" -- If your entire life revolves around computers and the internet.
Welcome to the mainstream, Slashdot. It was fun but now it's time to grow up.
Too many Open-Source cheerleader stories. Too much psuedo-geek masturbation. Too many flames for people expressing opinions not SDC (SlashDot Correct).
Symptoms: Unmasked flaming, frustration with narrow-minded Linux zealots, not giving a flip about your "Karma" anymore.
Treatment: Abstain from Slashdot for a while. Take a vacation. Sharply limit future Slashdot visits. Let your old login die and create a new one with no traceable identifiers so you can flame freely. Post a well-crafted troll every now and then.
You've been reading Slashduh too long and too much, Foogle. The quality of the contributions around here is dropping. The good old days are over. Take a breather. When you come back, have some fun posting pure garbage with a default 2.
rellort -- President of Slashaholics Anonymous -- "Just because I use Linux doesn't mean I have to talk about it all damn day."
A friend recently asked me to visit the URL for her new company and comment on how cool the page was.
Totally Shockwave dependent. No text navigation, no image navigation, no "navigation" at all if you don't have the plug-in.
"Well, it's really cool. Our web developer is really proud of it. Can't you just get the plug-in?"
That's not really the point, it it? YOUR company is trying to sell something TO ME. Why should I have to go through a hassle just to view what amounts to a sales brochure?
Don't even get me started on someone who can't/won't provide a "dumb-browser" alternative calling himself a "web developer". Grrr....
What's really funny about this (to me, at least) is that the cutting-edge, latest-stuff web companies tend to be the WORST offenders. In their haste to prove they know stuff and have all sorts of flash (pun intended) they leave out all those boring INFORMATIVE parts.
"Programmers are no longer technicians working on the margins, but are the principal designers of the world's most ascendant culture, the ones who will determine its future."
Get over yourself.
If I'm the principal designer of any new cultural, I'm going to make sure that patronizing, self-congratulating, self-important twinks are first against the wall.
It comes with the moderation points. Selected moderators get the following welcome message:
Greetings! You have moderator access and 5 points. You also have 5 rocks which you may choose to smoke at any time. Please review the moderator guidelines as well as the Crack Guidelines before you go smoking that 8-ball.
Yeah, whatever. The music stores are just FILLED with music from *really talented* people. Where would we be without Courtney Love's Hole and Jennifer Lopez?
Here's a clue -- talent has NOTHING to do with it. Producers and engineers can make a hit record out of a sample of your fighting cats. Put enough studio magic on there and everyone thinks it's innovative. Alanis Morrisette is not a better harmonica player than you (or anyone else), but her tuneless bleating was all over Jagged Little Pill.
It's about what sells. If the artist is cute, sexy, or shocking, the music is just a bonus.
Example: I'm not a fan of folk music, but I spent a Saturday night at a folk music festival. It didn't take me long to figure out that the musicians there had more talent than 90% of what gets on played on the radio. Of course, most of them will never get the $$BIG DEAL$$ because they look like the guy on the corner asking for a dollar (even the girls!).
That's right, you should not engage in promiscuous browsing on sites you hardly know. If you do, you should practice safe surfing and use an HTTProphylactic.
(Look ma! I can spell "prophylactic"! Can you believe the college man said I was dumb because I couldn't make a Lego robot?)
Maybe I'm being overly cynical, but I've always had a problem with some of the ethics of an organization which not only defines a standard, but also sells pieces of the only implementation of the standard.
I believe that aptitude test should be devised using an "open source" methodology. Lest you think I'm just trying to drop the phrase "open source" for karma points, I'll explain:
Aptitude/intelligence tests are typically devised behind closed doors. A small committee gets together and creates questions. The questions are then tested on students. Questions with a high miss rate are considered "hard". Questions with a low miss rate are considered "easy".
This methodology has very real flaws. First of all, the elite group which gets to create the questions is too small. They are very rarely questioned. The fact is that SAT questions have been proven to contain questions which could be misunderstood. Sometimes, the "correct" answers are just wrong. Lawsuits have been filed over this and ETS (the company who creates the SAT) has been forced to change scores. This is kept quiet, of course. We can't have people questioning the almighty SAT.
Since the elite group is too small and closed to rule out the possibility of group error, we should open up the question-writing to everyone. Let educators from around the country create the questions. We have the technology to do this right now.
In fact, it should go beyond just the educators. The process should be open to students, as well. How about a pilot program where Slashdot members devise an aptitude test? I have no doubt that the combined intelligence of this site could produce a far more informative and perceptive test than anything in use today.
I did not say that I couldn't keep track of my pointers. What I said was that programmers who make mistakes with pointers and memory management create buggy software. If you disagree with that then obviously you are not very well informed.
Are you seriously telling me that you have never goofed and used an uninitialized pointer or forgot to free allocated memory? If that's the case, I think you should quit programming and consider a career in either water-walking or faith healing. For most mortals, it is a pain.
Please spare me the "well, we just need better programmers". They aren't out there. When you find them, they cost too much. Most companies aren't looking to hire Alan Cox, Linus, or even vyesue. They want to grab some kid with a couple of years of CompSci undergrad work, pay him a dirt cheap intern's salary, and get him to write their high-traffic web portal. Perl is ideal for this.
Look at Slashdot, for crying out loud! It's a perfect example of this! Young guys hack together some scripts, make an interactive message site, and collect a few million from the IPO. That's what it's all about, man!
And, despite your snotty elitist comment, I don't see Rob and Co. pumping gas anywhere but at the self-service pump when their new gas-guzzling SUVs run dry.
Slashdot Mirror
The mere ability of the FBI to snoop POP3/SMTP traffic should not be a suprise. Any punk with a packet sniffer can pull this off.
What should concern us is the scope of Carnivore. Present indications are that it works like a fishing net and we simply trust the FBI to throw out the stuff they're not interested in. In order to be "interested in" traffic, the FBI must have a warrant. Right?
Wrong.
Having a warrant only permits the FBI to introduce the evidence in court. They can still listen in order to determine whether or not to continue an investigation on a suspect. This is a VERY common law enforcement technique. It saves a lot of resources and produces leads that can be followed up later without stepping all over the Fourth Amendment.
Warrantless wiretaps DO happen. Covert audio recordings ARE made. The results are just never introduced in court.
The old rule still applies -- don't say anything in email you wouldn't want your mother, your boss, or the police to hear.
(And yes, black helicopters do exist. My uncle used to paint them.)
As I understand it, in order to make this work, Microsoft undertook a significant porting effort. Anyone with more than 5 minutes in web development knows that BSD-based systems and Windows-based systems take very different approaches to architecture.
I can't find the link right now, but I recall reading that the developers were under a lot of pressure to get it to work on Win2000 and deviated quite a bit from MS's own recommendations for web development on Win2000. Hopefully, some more details on this will be forthcoming. If I find them, I'll be sure to post them to slashdot.
This is no longer simply about DVD's; it's about control. Really -- who is going to buy a T-Shirt just so they can copy the source code into their computer? Especially when you can download it for free off the net.
People who are buying the t-shirt are making a statement. Either these people want to completely stamp out any thought that they could ever be beaten, or they want to stamp out EVERY COPY EVERYWHERE. Why are they worried about a simple t-shirt when the code is all over the net? These people are (literally) making a federal case to demonstrate their ability to stamp out independent thought.
Patricia can call me "honey" any time she wants. :P
How can artists rights be protected on the Net?
Maybe music-lovers could pay a flat fee to access music sites which share revenue with entertainment companies and artists.
Perhaps artists can use the Net to begin selling their work directly to fans and the public.
Maybe debit and other forms of transactional software can be used to charge small amounts of money for downloaded music, using some system that measures time or data.
Maybe college students could pay a fraction of a cent for each song they downloaded on college sites, the overall volume generating a fair amount of revenue for artists and corporations.
Just some ideas....
Well, this is great news for the community since like it or not, public perception of Linux comes from what RedHat are doing more than any other organisation - hence this'll be seen as Linux 7.0, which sounds better to the newbie than Linux 2.4.0-test3 :)
It does seem that people who are long-term Linux users don't use RedHat anymore, maybe because it has been geared towards the "newbie", but at the end of the day surely Linux is Linux, and you can set up any distribution how you like given a bit of time.
Still Linux does need something aimed at helping newer users overcome the initial "fear factor" of running Linux. Whether you like it or not, by doing so they're doing everyone a favour in the long run. So although I don't use it, I wish them all the best and hope this release goes well for them.
A blatant advertisement posted as a comment, moderated up for being informative.
Why bother paying for banner ads on Slashdot? I'll just post a full fscking press release and count on the moderators to do their thing.
Sorry, Wah. I think I understand what you meant by corporate sanitization now.
It LOOKS like English. I know what most of the words mean....
/.
:-)
But I can't for the life of me figure out what you're talking about. Everything after "shut up" is either a misquote or a rant against the corporate sanitization of
What corporate sanitization are you talking about?
Is it the corporate sanitization that has reduced the number of REAL technical articles. Instead, we have many more touchy-feely "let's talk about rights and social issues so EVERYONE can participate" articles.
Is it the corporate sanitization that has turned Slashdot into a parody of what it used to be?
Is it the corporate sanitization that has decided that "News for Nerds. Stuff that matters," is the same thing as, "Patting ourselves on the back for using Linux?"
Finally, is it the corporate sanitization that causes posters to take themselves so seriously that they get baited into long flamewars with trolls?
Have a nice day.
I can't. I'm disenfranchised. I'm also part of the greedy corporate infrastructure that is being trounced by the brave new net culture and all its freedoms. I can only scratch my head in confusion at the brash new netizens who are leading the way to a freer, more open world where information is traded freely and long rambling sentences don't make you look like a pretentious twit.
Oh, and my mommy won't let me look at etoy.com. They show boobies there.
"It has also empowered the disenfranchised (*cough*) to make their voices heard both far and wide."
Please stop reading so much JonKatz.
I'd like to take a minute to break down michael's addendum:
> "Readers will notice that one of your fellow readers is abusing the system."
Right away, the tone is "us vs. them". "One of your fellow readers?" Remember when the Slashdot editors were part of the community that read their site? Now, we're "readers". They're "editors".
I don't care for this tone at all. It sounds too much like an elementary-school teacher -- "One of you students has decided to spoil it for the rest...."
> "Take my word for it that CmdrTaco is well aware of the situation and is preparing to Take Steps."
"Take Steps" with capitalization -- are the editors about to send someone to the principal's office? Is someone going to have to grab ankles while CmdrTaco administers a spanking?
> "It is frankly a shame that Slashdot's loose authentication system which is designed to allow people to participate without providing your name, SSN and mother's maiden name like so many other forums is also subject to abuse."
Translation: "We've built a popular interactive site by not forcing participants to answer intrusive questions. We may have to change this policy now that we're big-time." This sentence is just dripping with anticipation of Bad Things.
Face it, folks. Slashdot is a big-money "portal" site now. The fact that the spambot is being treated as such a crisis is evidence. Slashdot is just like ZDNet or MSNBC with a pronounced pro-Linux bias. The ".org" extension is deceptive and should be dropped.
The spambot is just a simple shell script. It could have been written at any point in Slashdot's life. I'm sure many people who visit this site have had the idea of auto-posting at one point. So why did it happen now?
Slashdot has gone the way of much of the "alternative" media of the 80's/90's generation. It's alternative until it makes money. Then, it becomes mainstream. People didn't care about taking risks before because there was nothing to lose. Now, stockholders and managers depend on "alternative" and they learn to stick with what works.
There's very little that's alternative about Slashdot now.
"News for Nerds?" -- Only if you define "nerd" as a Linux zealot prone to knee-jerk outrage against corporations and government.
"Stuff that matters" -- If your entire life revolves around computers and the internet.
Welcome to the mainstream, Slashdot. It was fun but now it's time to grow up.
"Modern facsism as a coherent ideology is the aggressive opposition to civil liberties combined with a blind adherence to corporatist ideology."
From where did this definition come?
Yep. I've seen it before. Slashdot burnout.
Too many Open-Source cheerleader stories. Too much psuedo-geek masturbation. Too many flames for people expressing opinions not SDC (SlashDot Correct).
Symptoms: Unmasked flaming, frustration with narrow-minded Linux zealots, not giving a flip about your "Karma" anymore.
Treatment: Abstain from Slashdot for a while. Take a vacation. Sharply limit future Slashdot visits. Let your old login die and create a new one with no traceable identifiers so you can flame freely. Post a well-crafted troll every now and then.
You've been reading Slashduh too long and too much, Foogle. The quality of the contributions around here is dropping. The good old days are over. Take a breather. When you come back, have some fun posting pure garbage with a default 2.
rellort -- President of Slashaholics Anonymous -- "Just because I use Linux doesn't mean I have to talk about it all damn day."
A friend recently asked me to visit the URL for her new company and comment on how cool the page was.
Totally Shockwave dependent. No text navigation, no image navigation, no "navigation" at all if you don't have the plug-in.
"Well, it's really cool. Our web developer is really proud of it. Can't you just get the plug-in?"
That's not really the point, it it? YOUR company is trying to sell something TO ME. Why should I have to go through a hassle just to view what amounts to a sales brochure?
Don't even get me started on someone who can't/won't provide a "dumb-browser" alternative calling himself a "web developer". Grrr....
What's really funny about this (to me, at least) is that the cutting-edge, latest-stuff web companies tend to be the WORST offenders. In their haste to prove they know stuff and have all sorts of flash (pun intended) they leave out all those boring INFORMATIVE parts.
"...but apparently I'm not old enough to understand what he's saying."
The truth is that you're old enough to realize he's saying nothing.
"Programmers are no longer technicians working on the margins, but are the principal designers of the world's most ascendant culture, the ones who will determine its future."
Get over yourself.
If I'm the principal designer of any new cultural, I'm going to make sure that patronizing, self-congratulating, self-important twinks are first against the wall.
It comes with the moderation points. Selected moderators get the following welcome message:
Greetings! You have moderator access and 5 points. You also have 5 rocks which you may choose to smoke at any time. Please review the moderator guidelines as well as the Crack Guidelines before you go smoking that 8-ball.
"Ford" was already taken.
"Prefect" sounds too close to "perfect" -- no way intel holds themself to THAT standard.
"Zaphod" and "Beeblebrox" are to hard to remember.
(Tomorrow I will look back on this post and say, "My God, what was I thinking?")
Yeah, whatever. The music stores are just FILLED with music from *really talented* people. Where would we be without Courtney Love's Hole and Jennifer Lopez?
Here's a clue -- talent has NOTHING to do with it. Producers and engineers can make a hit record out of a sample of your fighting cats. Put enough studio magic on there and everyone thinks it's innovative. Alanis Morrisette is not a better harmonica player than you (or anyone else), but her tuneless bleating was all over Jagged Little Pill.
It's about what sells. If the artist is cute, sexy, or shocking, the music is just a bonus.
Example: I'm not a fan of folk music, but I spent a Saturday night at a folk music festival. It didn't take me long to figure out that the musicians there had more talent than 90% of what gets on played on the radio. Of course, most of them will never get the $$BIG DEAL$$ because they look like the guy on the corner asking for a dollar (even the girls!).
(Goodness, cold medicine makes me grumpy!)
Dammit. I hate it when the reply is funnier than my original post.
That's right, you should not engage in promiscuous browsing on sites you hardly know. If you do, you should practice safe surfing and use an HTTProphylactic.
(Look ma! I can spell "prophylactic"! Can you believe the college man said I was dumb because I couldn't make a Lego robot?)
From the article:
Maybe I'm being overly cynical, but I've always had a problem with some of the ethics of an organization which not only defines a standard, but also sells pieces of the only implementation of the standard.
So I guess he's steering clear of Rational, UML, and most of The Object Management Group.
I believe that aptitude test should be devised using an "open source" methodology. Lest you think I'm just trying to drop the phrase "open source" for karma points, I'll explain:
Aptitude/intelligence tests are typically devised behind closed doors. A small committee gets together and creates questions. The questions are then tested on students. Questions with a high miss rate are considered "hard". Questions with a low miss rate are considered "easy".
This methodology has very real flaws. First of all, the elite group which gets to create the questions is too small. They are very rarely questioned. The fact is that SAT questions have been proven to contain questions which could be misunderstood. Sometimes, the "correct" answers are just wrong. Lawsuits have been filed over this and ETS (the company who creates the SAT) has been forced to change scores. This is kept quiet, of course. We can't have people questioning the almighty SAT.
Since the elite group is too small and closed to rule out the possibility of group error, we should open up the question-writing to everyone. Let educators from around the country create the questions. We have the technology to do this right now.
In fact, it should go beyond just the educators. The process should be open to students, as well. How about a pilot program where Slashdot members devise an aptitude test? I have no doubt that the combined intelligence of this site could produce a far more informative and perceptive test than anything in use today.
A little bit of grammer check (this really gets on my nerves) 'maths' is not necessarily proper grammer.
Ummm.... the word is spelled g-r-a-m-m-a-r.
(I'll pause now and let everyone savor the irony.)
I did not say that I couldn't keep track of my pointers. What I said was that programmers who make mistakes with pointers and memory management create buggy software. If you disagree with that then obviously you are not very well informed.
Are you seriously telling me that you have never goofed and used an uninitialized pointer or forgot to free allocated memory? If that's the case, I think you should quit programming and consider a career in either water-walking or faith healing. For most mortals, it is a pain.
Please spare me the "well, we just need better programmers". They aren't out there. When you find them, they cost too much. Most companies aren't looking to hire Alan Cox, Linus, or even vyesue. They want to grab some kid with a couple of years of CompSci undergrad work, pay him a dirt cheap intern's salary, and get him to write their high-traffic web portal. Perl is ideal for this.
Look at Slashdot, for crying out loud! It's a perfect example of this! Young guys hack together some scripts, make an interactive message site, and collect a few million from the IPO. That's what it's all about, man!
And, despite your snotty elitist comment, I don't see Rob and Co. pumping gas anywhere but at the self-service pump when their new gas-guzzling SUVs run dry.