We will never get rid of spammers. We will never get rid of telemarketers.
Why not? The world of email and telephones existed without them for many years (hint: Sendmail is over 25 years old, spam is a very recent phenomenon)
These are two things that just harrass people.. if it were criminalized, then only criminals would do it.. (just like only criminals steal... by definition)
I don't put locks on my doors because I think it's OK for people to steal from others.. I put them on because I dont think it's OK - that there is a small amount of people who would steal from me (even though most won't)... it's not unreasonable to do this...
Now ask me if it's unreasonable to have to walk around packing sawed-off shotguns, wearing kevlar battlgear, and drive an armored car., because theft is so common that "if you're not armored, it's your own fault that those muggers killed you"..
You live in the world where you have to armor yourself - I don't..
People, I think, are more likely to find somebody's page via a search engine like Google than by typing in a name.
This is entirely true - but it misses the bigger point... and that is that domain names are designed so that people remember the URL easier.
Yes, people will find the site initially with a search engine, but what if they don't remember the exact search terms later on when they want to re-visit the page (or, if the search results have changed, or if it's eight or nine pages through the results?)...
If people want to speculate on their value, what's wrong with that?
Gee, and if scalpers want to buy up all the concert tickets, and sell them at 1000% (or higher) markup, what's wrong with that? Gee, why are there laws against it?
BECAUSE IT'S WRONG Domain name scalpers (I refuse to call them 'cybersquatters') are parasites.. they add nothing to the value of a domain, but increase it's price. This is contrary to common sense. Domain names have a fixed value.
Your comment about stocks is pretty short sighted.. if a stock price rises, it's because the stock is doing well - the person who holds the stock has put money into the company so that it can become more valuable - they are contributing. A scalper does nothing to contribute, in any way.
Two months later, I got a bill for the sum of $0.00 from NSI for said domain name
Since I've already paid for it, I ignore the bill, but receive another one a month later (again, for $0.00) threatening that they'll cut off the domain if the invoice isn't paid in full.
The bill says that I can pay online, and gives the URL - but when I go there, it says it's paid in full.
I email them about it, detailing the domain, the invoice number, and ask if the domain is really going to be cut off; I mention that their online payment system says that it's paid in full.
I receive an email from them saying that I can pay the invoice online, at the same URL that I told them I already visited.
I also conclude that they're a bunch of stupid bastards.
Because I don't pay for my email box so that someone can send me endless pyriamid scams or port offers. I pay for my email box to communicate with others, NOT to be a target for con men.
Because all spammers are con artists*, using a new medium where there are very little rules, and they can falsely cry "First Amendment" anytime someone tries to block them.
*Yes, they ALL are - if they weren't why do they try to hide their identity, or rape someone else's mail server? If they were on the up-and-up, they'd give us all their real email addresses, and use their ISP's mailservers in accordance with the ISP's AUP.
How come Klingons (and some Romulans) could talk in their native tounge, and the Universal translator wouldn't translate it? (Best example I can think of was "The Undiscovered Country") Does it have an option that allows a speaker to turn it off remotely?
It would be arrogance to say we know all the laws of physics, as it is arrogance to say we are the only ones out there, in the entire universe.
Exactly... have you ever listened to the SETI people? It's arrogance to think that aliens will have the exact same technology as us, and will want to contact us...
Science is the art of Arrogance.
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" - Arthur C. Clarke.
They need information about you. they always have. they always will.
Sorry, but the only person who _NEEDS_ information about me is my wife...
A company does not _NEED_ any information about you besides what's necessary to bill you for services you request... they might really like to have it (because they think they can use it to make money), but there is never any need.
I dont know why they didnt get ahold of Peter Newmann, Solar Designer (who is even a canadian), Elias Levy or Bruce Schneier for comments - guess they dont know who they are...
I don't know about the others, but according to Linden MacIntyre (the host of the show), they _did_ get ahold of Bruce Schneier - he just didn't appear on camera...
...but I noticed that "Handbook of Applied Cryptography" appeared conspicuously in the background of a couple of the interveiwees' shots... so he was there in spirit, if not in voice:o)
From the transcript of Robert Steel (one of the interviewees)
...it's a very erroneous impression to think of hackers as criminals, that's not the case, hackers are more like astronauts pushing the edge of the envelope. They have been telling us for over ten years that the emperor is naked. Hackers have been identifying major vulnerabilities in Microsoft products and Sun products and Dell products and all kinds of computer and communications products. And nobody has wanted to listen.
Mostly, I think this guy is a blowhard (he's got this misguided impression that you should require a license to write software, among other things,) however this quote is pretty good - it shows a little bit of cluefulness...
I did, and that's _not_ the impression I got at all..
It was a pretty good news coverage - they showed both sides pretty well, and there was an awful lot of (deserved) MS-bashing..:o)
About the only issue I had with it was the lack of response to some US DOJ officials comment about (white-hat) hackers and Burglars.. (It would have been nice to see a response that someone who doesn't steal isn't a burglar..)
"Taboo" words originally came about because they offend the church...
In most cultures, this means that taboo words are usually related to religion ("God!" "Jesus H. Christ!", "Damn!" are all examples of this for western people.) IIRC in Hebrew, God has a name, but it's not meant to be spoken aloud (although it's OK to write it in proper context, like religious tome)
In the west, words dealing with sex are taboo because the church has decided that sex is taboo (it's only use is procreation) - so words dealing with sex (Fuck, which comes from the word Fukar - "To Grow") are not allowed to be spoken. This has become less so, but (especially in the US, for example) sex is still considered something that shouldn't happen unless the goal is making babies (witness the criminalization of prostitution, for example.. or the fact that some states still have laws against oral/anal sex.)
What's really interesting about this is the fact that (generally) the west (therfore western religions) consider sex to be more important than god (because saying "Fuck" is considered worse than saying "God!")
Let's not forget Bob's wonderful security features (which seem to be an eerie precursor to MS's current approach to security..)
If you set up Bob to require a password, it would (of course) ask you for one before allowing you to use the system..
If you entered the wrong password three times in a row, Bob would assume that you'd forgotten it, and helpfully ask if you wanted to change it.
On a similar note: Email "Cloaking Device"
on
Spambot Poisoner
·
· Score: 2
There is a third party module for the Roxen webserver that's called the Email Address Cloaking Device.. I use it, and it works very well..
Before any content is served, it checks the User Agent; if it's a bot, it translates any MAILTO: links in the HTML into gibberish.. it eliminates the need to "spam-proof" your MAILTO: links.. (The only thing I'm worried about is spammers altering their bots to ID themselves as Mozilla, or something similar..)
"that earth creature just stole my plutonium 238 space modulator"
Shouldn't that be "Eludum Q-38 Space Modulator"?
You make me so very, very angry! (Another Marvin Quote.:)...
"Where's the Kaboom? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering 'Kaboom'!"
It's already happened!
on
MSN vs. MAPS
·
· Score: 1
This isn't the first time that MAPS has gone up against MS.
About two years ago, MS had a bunch of open relays, and got placed on the RBL. MS postured, and posed, sent threatening letters... and then backed down!
Yes, it is literally so. Here is the text from the bill (verbatim)
163.1 (1) In this section, "child pornography" means
(a) a photographic, film, video or other visual representation, whether or not it was made by electronic or mechanical means,
(i) that shows a person who is or is depicted as being under the age of eighteen years and is engaged in or is depicted as engaged in explicit sexual activity, or
(ii) the dominant characteristic of which is the depiction, for a sexual purpose, of a sexual organ or the anal region of a person under the age of eighteen years; or
(b) any written material or visual representation that advocates or counsels sexual activity with a person under the age of eighteen years that would be an offence under this Act.
How does the police document cases of abuse on children if they can not take pictures?
Presumably, the police wouldn't arrest themselves.:o)
This is just a bad law, plain and simple. The example of abuse documentation or medical training are just two examples of how poorly thought-out it is... the amazing thing is that the politicians who passed this piece of garbage were told that it needed to be fixed, but they passed it anyway.
why is it ok to have a jellyware CPU system with intuition, and not a hardware one ?
Simple answer: One has a soul, the other doesn't.
Current scientific "knowledge" refuses to believe the existence of the soul, because it can't prove that it exists. Until scientists can overcome that hurdle, computers will never be more than sophisticated adding machines.
At one time, I believed that it would never happen, but recent advances in the open-mindedness of some scientists has made me believe that there could be hope some day.
At one time, it was considered scientific heresy to suggest that animals had emotions, creativity, or self-awareness - but some animal researchers are beginning to understand now.. and this is the beginning.
Age of consent for anal intercourse is 18. (Although this is being appealed as unconstitutional, apparently a guy thinks it discriminates against gay men)
Under bill C-128 (currently before the Supreme Court for being unconstitutional), the following is illegal:
Pictures of genital or anal region of any person under the age of 18.
written stories describing minors engaged in sexual acts, whether or not such stories are real or imagined
Pictures of genital or anal region of any person pretending to be a minor
The parts in bold are (supposedly) the reasons the laws are under appeal - in reality, the guy who took this to the supreme court got busted for real kiddie porn, but he's claiming that the law is unconstitutional (which it is), so he can't be charged under it.
There was a national cop convention last year, in which Chiefs of Police of various cities across the country said they are going to petition the government to raise the age of consent to 16 - whether they'll succeed or not is anyone's guess
I'm just a little bit far from you though - Alberta:o).. judging by some of the other posts I've read, there are a few/.'ers from my neck of the woods, so I guess you'll have to come out here to see our meetings:o)
Detention is pretty much the catch-all solution, just like jail time in the "real world"..
How much time you serve is determined by how bad your crime was..
There is a huge difference between detention and suspension though, and that is how it looks to prospective colleges... detention is pretty common, suspension isn't (in my school, I can only think of a handful of kids that didn't have detention at least once).. you got detention for smoking on school property - I can't imagine any college or university rejecting someone for that.
suspension was reserved for kids with serious discipline problems - your examples of offensiveness to teachers and bullying don't neccessarily have to mean suspension, unless other methods (such as detention) don't work.
Slashdot Mirror
"Manslaughter" is un-premeditated killing of someone else.
Sorry, wrong definition..
"Premeditated" means that you meant to kill them, and planed it out beforehand... That's first degree
"Un-premeditated" (if there is such a thing) would therefore mean that you meant to kill them, but didn't plan it out beforehand.
Manslaugther means that you didn't mean to kill them, but it's still your fault because you were neglegent.
We will never get rid of spammers. We will never get rid of telemarketers.
Why not? The world of email and telephones existed without them for many years (hint: Sendmail is over 25 years old, spam is a very recent phenomenon)
These are two things that just harrass people.. if it were criminalized, then only criminals would do it.. (just like only criminals steal... by definition)
I don't put locks on my doors because I think it's OK for people to steal from others.. I put them on because I dont think it's OK - that there is a small amount of people who would steal from me (even though most won't)... it's not unreasonable to do this...
Now ask me if it's unreasonable to have to walk around packing sawed-off shotguns, wearing kevlar battlgear, and drive an armored car., because theft is so common that "if you're not armored, it's your own fault that those muggers killed you"..
You live in the world where you have to armor yourself - I don't..
People, I think, are more likely to find somebody's page via a search engine like Google than by typing in a name.
This is entirely true - but it misses the bigger point... and that is that domain names are designed so that people remember the URL easier.
Yes, people will find the site initially with a search engine, but what if they don't remember the exact search terms later on when they want to re-visit the page (or, if the search results have changed, or if it's eight or nine pages through the results?)...
If people want to speculate on their value, what's wrong with that?
Gee, and if scalpers want to buy up all the concert tickets, and sell them at 1000% (or higher) markup, what's wrong with that? Gee, why are there laws against it?
BECAUSE IT'S WRONG Domain name scalpers (I refuse to call them 'cybersquatters') are parasites.. they add nothing to the value of a domain, but increase it's price. This is contrary to common sense. Domain names have a fixed value.
Your comment about stocks is pretty short sighted.. if a stock price rises, it's because the stock is doing well - the person who holds the stock has put money into the company so that it can become more valuable - they are contributing. A scalper does nothing to contribute, in any way.
it in no way makes me feel better that this mother f***er will be in jail for 7 years.
:o)
Really? It makes me feel better... just imagine the look on his face when he meets Bruno, his 250Lbs cellmate who thinks spam-boy has a nice ass...
Why does everyone get so damn pissed off at spam?
Because I don't pay for my email box so that someone can send me endless pyriamid scams or port offers. I pay for my email box to communicate with others, NOT to be a target for con men.
Because all spammers are con artists*, using a new medium where there are very little rules, and they can falsely cry "First Amendment" anytime someone tries to block them.
*Yes, they ALL are - if they weren't why do they try to hide their identity, or rape someone else's mail server? If they were on the up-and-up, they'd give us all their real email addresses, and use their ISP's mailservers in accordance with the ISP's AUP.
How come Klingons (and some Romulans) could talk in their native tounge, and the Universal translator wouldn't translate it? (Best example I can think of was "The Undiscovered Country") Does it have an option that allows a speaker to turn it off remotely?
It would be arrogance to say we know all the laws of physics, as it is arrogance to say we are the only ones out there, in the entire universe.
Exactly... have you ever listened to the SETI people? It's arrogance to think that aliens will have the exact same technology as us, and will want to contact us...
Science is the art of Arrogance.
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" - Arthur C. Clarke.
They need information about you. they always have. they always will.
Sorry, but the only person who _NEEDS_ information about me is my wife...
A company does not _NEED_ any information about you besides what's necessary to bill you for services you request... they might really like to have it (because they think they can use it to make money), but there is never any need.
I dont know why they didnt get ahold of Peter Newmann, Solar Designer (who is even a canadian), Elias Levy or Bruce Schneier for comments - guess they dont know who they are...
:o)
I don't know about the others, but according to Linden MacIntyre (the host of the show), they _did_ get ahold of Bruce Schneier - he just didn't appear on camera...
...but I noticed that "Handbook of Applied Cryptography" appeared conspicuously in the background of a couple of the interveiwees' shots... so he was there in spirit, if not in voice
From the transcript of Robert Steel (one of the interviewees)
...it's a very erroneous impression to think of hackers as criminals, that's not the case, hackers are more like astronauts pushing the edge of the envelope. They have been telling us for over ten years that the emperor is naked. Hackers have been identifying major vulnerabilities in Microsoft products and Sun products and Dell products and all kinds of computer and communications products. And nobody has wanted to listen.
Mostly, I think this guy is a blowhard (he's got this misguided impression that you should require a license to write software, among other things,) however this quote is pretty good - it shows a little bit of cluefulness...
Did you watch the program?
:o)
I did, and that's _not_ the impression I got at all..
It was a pretty good news coverage - they showed both sides pretty well, and there was an awful lot of (deserved) MS-bashing..
About the only issue I had with it was the lack of response to some US DOJ officials comment about (white-hat) hackers and Burglars.. (It would have been nice to see a response that someone who doesn't steal isn't a burglar..)
How could they have solved it without having the original writer verify it, or at least the answer to verify it
It's a correct translation..
I held a seance to channel the spirit of Poe, and he told me so himself..
"Taboo" words originally came about because they offend the church...
In most cultures, this means that taboo words are usually related to religion ("God!" "Jesus H. Christ!", "Damn!" are all examples of this for western people.) IIRC in Hebrew, God has a name, but it's not meant to be spoken aloud (although it's OK to write it in proper context, like religious tome)
In the west, words dealing with sex are taboo because the church has decided that sex is taboo (it's only use is procreation) - so words dealing with sex (Fuck, which comes from the word Fukar - "To Grow") are not allowed to be spoken. This has become less so, but (especially in the US, for example) sex is still considered something that shouldn't happen unless the goal is making babies (witness the criminalization of prostitution, for example.. or the fact that some states still have laws against oral/anal sex.)
What's really interesting about this is the fact that (generally) the west (therfore western religions) consider sex to be more important than god (because saying "Fuck" is considered worse than saying "God!")
Let's not forget Bob's wonderful security features (which seem to be an eerie precursor to MS's current approach to security..)
If you set up Bob to require a password, it would (of course) ask you for one before allowing you to use the system..
If you entered the wrong password three times in a row, Bob would assume that you'd forgotten it, and helpfully ask if you wanted to change it.
There is a third party module for the Roxen webserver that's called the Email Address Cloaking Device.. I use it, and it works very well..
Before any content is served, it checks the User Agent; if it's a bot, it translates any MAILTO: links in the HTML into gibberish.. it eliminates the need to "spam-proof" your MAILTO: links.. (The only thing I'm worried about is spammers altering their bots to ID themselves as Mozilla, or something similar..)
I tend to classify everything that can be found in a pet shop as a "hamster"
:O)
Don't tell me - they're Siberian Hamsters.. and you sold one to a guy named Manuel, who was from Barcelona?
(John Cleese reference
"that earth creature just stole my plutonium 238 space modulator"
:)...
Shouldn't that be "Eludum Q-38 Space Modulator"?
You make me so very, very angry! (Another Marvin Quote.
"Where's the Kaboom? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering 'Kaboom'!"
This isn't the first time that MAPS has gone up against MS.
About two years ago, MS had a bunch of open relays, and got placed on the RBL. MS postured, and posed, sent threatening letters... and then backed down!
It's already happened.
Yes, it is literally so. Here is the text from the bill (verbatim)
:o)
163.1 (1) In this section, "child pornography" means
(a) a photographic, film, video or other visual representation, whether or not it was made by electronic or mechanical means,
(i) that shows a person who is or is depicted as being under the age of eighteen years and is engaged in or is depicted as engaged in explicit sexual activity, or
(ii) the dominant characteristic of which is the depiction, for a sexual purpose, of a sexual organ or the anal region of a person under the age of eighteen years; or
(b) any written material or visual representation that advocates or counsels sexual activity with a person under the age of eighteen years that would be an offence under this Act.
How does the police document cases of abuse on children if they can not take pictures?
Presumably, the police wouldn't arrest themselves.
This is just a bad law, plain and simple. The example of abuse documentation or medical training are just two examples of how poorly thought-out it is... the amazing thing is that the politicians who passed this piece of garbage were told that it needed to be fixed, but they passed it anyway.
why is it ok to have a jellyware CPU system with intuition, and not a hardware one ?
Simple answer: One has a soul, the other doesn't.
Current scientific "knowledge" refuses to believe the existence of the soul, because it can't prove that it exists. Until scientists can overcome that hurdle, computers will never be more than sophisticated adding machines.
At one time, I believed that it would never happen, but recent advances in the open-mindedness of some scientists has made me believe that there could be hope some day.
At one time, it was considered scientific heresy to suggest that animals had emotions, creativity, or self-awareness - but some animal researchers are beginning to understand now.. and this is the beginning.
Nope.
You're still PAYING for it, because you don't get it unless you pay the price.
You're paying less for the cereal.
You think the boxes are free too?
Age of consent for vaginal intercourse is 14.
Age of consent for anal intercourse is 18. (Although this is being appealed as unconstitutional, apparently a guy thinks it discriminates against gay men)
Under bill C-128 (currently before the Supreme Court for being unconstitutional), the following is illegal:
The parts in bold are (supposedly) the reasons the laws are under appeal - in reality, the guy who took this to the supreme court got busted for real kiddie porn, but he's claiming that the law is unconstitutional (which it is), so he can't be charged under it.
There was a national cop convention last year, in which Chiefs of Police of various cities across the country said they are going to petition the government to raise the age of consent to 16 - whether they'll succeed or not is anyone's guess
I'm in Canada too...
:o) .. judging by some of the other posts I've read, there are a few /.'ers from my neck of the woods, so I guess you'll have to come out here to see our meetings :o)
I'm just a little bit far from you though - Alberta
Detention is pretty much the catch-all solution, just like jail time in the "real world"..
How much time you serve is determined by how bad your crime was..
There is a huge difference between detention and suspension though, and that is how it looks to prospective colleges... detention is pretty common, suspension isn't (in my school, I can only think of a handful of kids that didn't have detention at least once).. you got detention for smoking on school property - I can't imagine any college or university rejecting someone for that.
suspension was reserved for kids with serious discipline problems - your examples of offensiveness to teachers and bullying don't neccessarily have to mean suspension, unless other methods (such as detention) don't work.