An AC posts something *legitimately* anonymously (so as to not be held accountable) that says some incriminating things about company X.
Company X has a few employees and friends that happen to have moderator abilities on Slashdot. Those moderators "pretend" the comment is a trollish comment, knock it down, and expose the AC's IP address. The AC's hostname turns out to be, say, pc152.sales.companyx.com.
Ruh roh.
If we could eliminate this possibility, though (perhaps by involving SEVERAL moderators in the decision), it just might work, though if people started realizing their IP address was being recorded in this fashion, and it *was* possible for it to be exposed, true anonymity would be lost and we'd lose some potentially valuable postings and posters.
1. Not quite. As I understand it, the karma is simply the sum of all moderation done to your comments. If you keep posting comments that never get touched (up or down), your karma will remain constant. If you post a comment that gets bumped up a point, your karma increases by a point.
2. I agree with this, actually, though I find that I'm adding the +1 bonus to about half of the comments I post. *shrug*
3. I disagree with the concept of a waiting period *entirely*. I think rather quickly, and can easily make 2 or 3 posts inside of a half an hour that, IMO, are as well-thought-out as I can make them. A waiting period would not be likely to change my posting habits except to discourage me from posting. I'd post one comment, and in that half hour, I would probably get bored and go browse another web site entirely.
I'm still a bit unclear as to what this DECT DMAP base station is. It's basically a wireless base station "hub", yes?
In order for these pads to have Internet access, though, that hub will need to be connected to... a PC? Is the base station capable of doing networking on its own? Can you just plug in a phone line, ethernet cable, whatever, or does it have to rely on another device for connectivity?
Are any of these standards being implemented in telephones or networks in the US now?
Do you have any URL's on the standards or manufacturers that use them?
Look at our galaxy from the top (so it looks like a giant circle) and divide it into 4 pie slices. Each slice isn't two-dimensional, but it still ends up cutting the 3D galaxy into 4 manageable chunks. That's how they do it in the Star Trek universe.
Of course what *I* want to know is how they deal with moving borders. Our galaxy is hardly keeping still, with the outer edges moving slower than areas nearer to the core. After a few years (hundred years, thousand, whatever), the "quadrants" will start getting swirled around unless they keep re-adjusting the borders.
Of course, you say that now, but won't you feel dumb when we discover that time travel and parallel realities are all commonplace and our future is just a mish-mash of people and places and times.:)
I've read a few sci-fi books in my time and those that deal with this type of transportation invariably bring up those issues.
Though, from what I've read, in the Star Trek universe, the transporters capture every single bit of information about the matter that makes up the person as is possible, right down to the energy levels, *spins* of the particles, orientation of the molecules, etc. It then re-assembles everything *precisely* as it was before.
So I guess it all boils down to whether or not you believe a person has a "soul" or if they're just the sum of their component atoms and molecules and energy states.
Of course, it's all fiction anyways, but it's always fun to poke holes into it and try to patch them up again.
Haha.. I'd love to see that happen. Everyone's technology is always so 100% stable.. surely there are some races where the equivalent of Microsoft has taken over.
"Can you shut down the dampening field?"
"Hold on, their user interface is so archaic, I'm having trouble locating the control mechanism."
"Hurry, the structure's about to collapse!"
"Hmm.. What is an 'invalid page fault'? I think it's telling me the dampening field subsystem is shutting down because of it. Oh crap, the interface just froze up. I'm locked out! It must be some sort of security system!" *boom!!*
The general idea is that moderators are a relatively educated cross-section of slashdot posters. If the majority feel that a comment is unworthy of attention, you will tend to see that comment with a lower score. If a moderator notices a comment has a lower score than he/she feels it deserves, it's perfectly within their ability to moderate it up a point.
If a moderator is out on a vendetta against you, or someone is abusing their moderator privileges, E-MAIL ROB. Send him a link to the appropriate comment and explain the nature of the problem.
But I believe it's on a state-by-state basis. To the best of my knowledge, it's handled like this in most states: minors can drink with the consent and supervision of their parents.
This extends even to places like restaurants; the parent is free to buy the drink and give it to his kid.
On second thought, after reading some other comments, I'm inclined to say that a rating system seems to have worked great for movies. Why couldn't something similar work here?
If the posts were worth moderating UP, they probably would have been. The fact that they've been left at zero (presumably your default at the time) means nobody saw much value in them. *shrug*.
If your comments are either left alone or moderated DOWNWARD (and never up), that should say something about your posts.
IMO, they can't, really. Court decisions have tended to uphold the principle that "obscene" and "violent" are words that can only be defined at a community/local level, and never nationally. FCC rules are intentionally vague in this respect, giving local communities the ability to decide what is appropriate on their airwaves (well, to a certain point).
I personally don't have a problem with a mandatory rating system, but I don't really see how it can work unless you give the communities the ability to set the standards, and that's just impossible to do for widely distributed stuff like this.
I just bought a Wyse terminal the other day (new in the box) for precisely this purpose. Got a couple of RJ45-DB25 adapters and ran some cabling from my machine room to my living room.
The thing works great (though it's text only, and this one monochrome at that). It's basically a self-contained monitor unit with a keyboard. What was your objection to this type of setup?
You can get a cheapie serial terminal such as this for anywhere from $10 to $50 (check eBay).
He just said Debian gives away the CD masters totally free of charge and royalty. They're just trying to avoid confusing the general public and ensuring quality control by keeping people from labelling 2nd-hand copies as "official" copies.
What does any of this remotely have to do with free vs non-free software?
I bet they're (peacock maps) feeling pretty stupid that they designed their web site almost entirely using *images* of text instead of simply plain old text.
There's probably a legal line or two that would make duplicating (even mirroring) illegal... especially when you get into the fact that many of these sites generate revenue from banner ads. Are you going to duplicate the banner ad functionality too in your mirror?
It gets complex, and he certainly couldn't do it without their permission...
Though it's a great idea. Maybe we could all just use a common proxy.slashdot.org that proxies these things. I don't see a problem with that...
If you just keep your system up to date with patches and updates, it will take somebody with serious skills to get in.
Serious skills or an early release of whatever exploit-of-the-week that ends up getting developed. Quite a few of these advisories come out after an exploit has been written and demonstrated, or at the same time. There's always a window of vulnerability in these cases.
As far as firewalls go, all it takes is one exposed vulnerable service to allow a script kiddie to get behind it. At that point, machines ordinarily shielded by the firewall (thus more likely to have complacent admins) become easier targets.
But yah, I do agree that if you keep up with the latest patches and fixes it makes things significantly harder for script kiddies. That still doesn't mean the script kiddies should get off the hook, though.
Slashdot Mirror
One possible scenario I see is this:
An AC posts something *legitimately* anonymously (so as to not be held accountable) that says some incriminating things about company X.
Company X has a few employees and friends that happen to have moderator abilities on Slashdot. Those moderators "pretend" the comment is a trollish comment, knock it down, and expose the AC's IP address. The AC's hostname turns out to be, say, pc152.sales.companyx.com.
Ruh roh.
If we could eliminate this possibility, though (perhaps by involving SEVERAL moderators in the decision), it just might work, though if people started realizing their IP address was being recorded in this fashion, and it *was* possible for it to be exposed, true anonymity would be lost and we'd lose some potentially valuable postings and posters.
1. Not quite. As I understand it, the karma is simply the sum of all moderation done to your comments. If you keep posting comments that never get touched (up or down), your karma will remain constant. If you post a comment that gets bumped up a point, your karma increases by a point.
2. I agree with this, actually, though I find that I'm adding the +1 bonus to about half of the comments I post. *shrug*
3. I disagree with the concept of a waiting period *entirely*. I think rather quickly, and can easily make 2 or 3 posts inside of a half an hour that, IMO, are as well-thought-out as I can make them. A waiting period would not be likely to change my posting habits except to discourage me from posting. I'd post one comment, and in that half hour, I would probably get bored and go browse another web site entirely.
One "1 inch = 2.54cm" comment would have been sufficient. :) You guys DO read comment replies before posting your own, yes?
I'm still a bit unclear as to what this DECT DMAP base station is. It's basically a wireless base station "hub", yes?
In order for these pads to have Internet access, though, that hub will need to be connected to... a PC? Is the base station capable of doing networking on its own? Can you just plug in a phone line, ethernet cable, whatever, or does it have to rely on another device for connectivity?
Are any of these standards being implemented in telephones or networks in the US now?
Do you have any URL's on the standards or manufacturers that use them?
Look at our galaxy from the top (so it looks like a giant circle) and divide it into 4 pie slices. Each slice isn't two-dimensional, but it still ends up cutting the 3D galaxy into 4 manageable chunks. That's how they do it in the Star Trek universe.
Of course what *I* want to know is how they deal with moving borders. Our galaxy is hardly keeping still, with the outer edges moving slower than areas nearer to the core. After a few years (hundred years, thousand, whatever), the "quadrants" will start getting swirled around unless they keep re-adjusting the borders.
Of course, you say that now, but won't you feel dumb when we discover that time travel and parallel realities are all commonplace and our future is just a mish-mash of people and places and times. :)
Heh; agreed.
I've read a few sci-fi books in my time and those that deal with this type of transportation invariably bring up those issues.
Though, from what I've read, in the Star Trek universe, the transporters capture every single bit of information about the matter that makes up the person as is possible, right down to the energy levels, *spins* of the particles, orientation of the molecules, etc. It then re-assembles everything *precisely* as it was before.
So I guess it all boils down to whether or not you believe a person has a "soul" or if they're just the sum of their component atoms and molecules and energy states.
Of course, it's all fiction anyways, but it's always fun to poke holes into it and try to patch them up again.
Haha.. I'd love to see that happen. Everyone's technology is always so 100% stable.. surely there are some races where the equivalent of Microsoft has taken over.
"Can you shut down the dampening field?"
"Hold on, their user interface is so archaic, I'm having trouble locating the control mechanism."
"Hurry, the structure's about to collapse!"
"Hmm.. What is an 'invalid page fault'? I think it's telling me the dampening field subsystem is shutting down because of it. Oh crap, the interface just froze up. I'm locked out! It must be some sort of security system!" *boom!!*
So if you're a moderator, moderate it back up.
The general idea is that moderators are a relatively educated cross-section of slashdot posters. If the majority feel that a comment is unworthy of attention, you will tend to see that comment with a lower score. If a moderator notices a comment has a lower score than he/she feels it deserves, it's perfectly within their ability to moderate it up a point.
If a moderator is out on a vendetta against you, or someone is abusing their moderator privileges, E-MAIL ROB. Send him a link to the appropriate comment and explain the nature of the problem.
Like it says on the side-bar (or wherever), e-mail instances of moderator abuse to Rob (malda@slashdot.org).
But I believe it's on a state-by-state basis. To the best of my knowledge, it's handled like this in most states: minors can drink with the consent and supervision of their parents.
This extends even to places like restaurants; the parent is free to buy the drink and give it to his kid.
On second thought, after reading some other comments, I'm inclined to say that a rating system seems to have worked great for movies. Why couldn't something similar work here?
If the posts were worth moderating UP, they probably would have been. The fact that they've been left at zero (presumably your default at the time) means nobody saw much value in them. *shrug*.
If your comments are either left alone or moderated DOWNWARD (and never up), that should say something about your posts.
IMO, they can't, really. Court decisions have tended to uphold the principle that "obscene" and "violent" are words that can only be defined at a community/local level, and never nationally. FCC rules are intentionally vague in this respect, giving local communities the ability to decide what is appropriate on their airwaves (well, to a certain point).
I personally don't have a problem with a mandatory rating system, but I don't really see how it can work unless you give the communities the ability to set the standards, and that's just impossible to do for widely distributed stuff like this.
Wow, I really thought your post was rather rational and clearly written, right up until that last word.
The day that the slashdot kiddies figure out that they can make a valid point without resorting to name-calling will be a pleasant day indeed.
So post some worthwhile stuff every once in a while and maybe a moderator will up the score, thus reducing the 'troll' factor.
And yes, we *can* see your post history: http://slashdot.org/users.pl?op =userinfo&nick=DAVEO Looks like you've been on a downward spiral for quite some time.
I dunno; I think the system's working fine.
To be honest, moderators tend to knock useless stuff like this down enough, IMO.
So get an account, post a few good posts, get yourself moderator status, and let your moderation policies be heard.
Except for me, it's the NSA backdoor article.
I just bought a Wyse terminal the other day (new in the box) for precisely this purpose. Got a couple of RJ45-DB25 adapters and ran some cabling from my machine room to my living room.
The thing works great (though it's text only, and this one monochrome at that). It's basically a self-contained monitor unit with a keyboard. What was your objection to this type of setup?
You can get a cheapie serial terminal such as this for anywhere from $10 to $50 (check eBay).
Now if I can just get used to the keyboard...
So you're saying you ARE redistributing MetroX on your CD's?
You know, not everything in the Official RedHat box set is GPL'd software...
He just said Debian gives away the CD masters totally free of charge and royalty. They're just trying to avoid confusing the general public and ensuring quality control by keeping people from labelling 2nd-hand copies as "official" copies.
What does any of this remotely have to do with free vs non-free software?
I bet they're (peacock maps) feeling pretty stupid that they designed their web site almost entirely using *images* of text instead of simply plain old text.
There's probably a legal line or two that would make duplicating (even mirroring) illegal... especially when you get into the fact that many of these sites generate revenue from banner ads. Are you going to duplicate the banner ad functionality too in your mirror?
It gets complex, and he certainly couldn't do it without their permission...
Though it's a great idea. Maybe we could all just use a common proxy.slashdot.org that proxies these things. I don't see a problem with that...
If you just keep your system up to date with patches and updates, it will take somebody with serious skills to get in.
Serious skills or an early release of whatever exploit-of-the-week that ends up getting developed. Quite a few of these advisories come out after an exploit has been written and demonstrated, or at the same time. There's always a window of vulnerability in these cases.
As far as firewalls go, all it takes is one exposed vulnerable service to allow a script kiddie to get behind it. At that point, machines ordinarily shielded by the firewall (thus more likely to have complacent admins) become easier targets.
But yah, I do agree that if you keep up with the latest patches and fixes it makes things significantly harder for script kiddies. That still doesn't mean the script kiddies should get off the hook, though.