Yeah, I'm suddenly happy that my ISP (RoadRunner) was bought out by AOL (Who hasn't made any such asinine move, yet) (they hopefully realize that the broadband users would jump ship if we had go through AOhell ads and whatnot.
with a bit of a modification (reflecting the light back into the cuecat) they make passable party lights (they daisy chain nicely) for dark rooms.
I used one as a night-light for downstairs (I live in a loft)
These things are great! I got one from every Radio Shack in town, and a few from co-workers with Forbes and Wired subscriptions
I think the distribution numbers are a bit zany. I'd wager that a handful of geeks have 5-10 each from their non-geek friends and co-workers who got 'em in one of their subscriptions.
Exactly. I still harbor intense anger at Netscape for introducting Tables.
What insanity and bad design practice that has since unleashed.
(helf joking, half serious. I turned green at the gills the first time I saw a wysiwyg use tables for absolute positioning of text.)
Re:This makes a twisted sort of sense
on
Bert Is Evil
·
· Score: 2
I'd expect this out of the teletubbies, but Bert? I mean, sure, he's a sadistic bastard, but not really, er, mentally capable of mass terrorism. Those teletubbies, tho--they're just acting stupid.
WHAT? SURELY, you can't mean that if I can listen to something, I can record it? That's just crazytalk.
(I'm just waiting. I'll posit that within 10 years, all this 'copy protection' / 'Digital Rights Management' hooha will be seen for what it is--bullshit and lies, and the companies peddling it will fade out of business.
The FBI and CIA have been known to do turnabouts on hackers. Just ask Max Vision. The gov't fought long and hard to demonize and criminalize even the whitest hats of hacking, and Ashcroft's pushing to get them labeled as terrorist acts on top of that.
The DoD's had it's fair share of smudged histories. Be Alert. Keep your pistol handy.
Yes, you can be useful in combatting terrorism. Just make sure you know where the line is getting drawn and be on the correct side of it.
And realize that some of combatting terrorism may go against projects you've been supporting, like anonymous remailers, strong crypto for everyone, anti-censorship protections, and the elusive set of projects working to enable dissidents in countries such as China to safely communicate with the outside world. These and other tools can also be used by the bad guys, and will no doubt become targets.
True story. Employees are first on the list to get paid. As I understand it, this doesn't change even after the company goes under--if it somehow gets cash in, it still goes to the (ex) employees owed.
This is true, but people vote with their votes, corps vote with money. One actually gets you elected, the other just helps. If enough of his actual constituency gets riled up on this, he'll switch or lose his seat.
I was lazy and didn't snag refrences, so perhaps others can add to this:
I'm sure the SSSCA sounds like it only defends against rampant pirating of movies and other copyrighted material--but the slope is a very, very slippery one. The recording and movie industries are very paranoid about how their products are being used (without regard to their increasing--*not* decreasing--profits). Do you have the right to listen to your music however you'd like? Fair use tenets say yes (and you can even make a backup copy), but already technology is on the shelves that doesn't allow you to play the CD on your computer or high-end stereo systems and modern car CD players.
The question you should be asking yourself is whether you are on the Hill for your constituents--the consumers, whose rights are being infringed, or the corporations on this issue. Fair Use doctrines are being ignored by laws such as the DMCA and this draft of the SSSCA, and thought this will first impact the digerati who copy all their music to their computer for easy access, it will rapidly effect the average American who can no longer watch a movie with calling in to get permission from the studio (This happened with DivX, which failed miserably on the open market), or play their CDs at all in their car stereos.
If this is riding in after the recent "Code Red" attack as a solution against future problems, perhaps the answer lies in better regulation of security testing by developers (such as Microsoft, whose servers were the only ones effected by Code Red), rather than the consumer's home system, which didn't even participate in this attack.
In a lot of places, this is sadly true, thanks in large part to BN and Borders and the like pulling a Walmart on 'em (using big corporate pockets to undersell them and outstock them until they die, then regain the investment by raising prices and reducing stock variety to guaranteed sellers.)
Did you click on the Borders Bookstore link? It goes to Amazon, bub. so you can support them, or, support them! I suppose there's always barnes and nobles, but are they really any better? They just didn't think of this first.
Why not try building a relationship with a *local* bookstore that'll bend over backward to order or find books for you, and doesn't infringe on your rights? You might be surprised that the concept of customer support can involve friendly bookophiles who treat you respectfully. Might even help out your local economy by putting money back into it directly...
We should wear our halloween mask all day this coming halloween, and visit popular retail stores (Borders, for example) or cities using facial recognition software. Mayhaps we can get The Alien loaded into national crime databases for jaywalking.
One of the most frightening things I ever saw was an interactive/online postive-ID system that pulled a credit report on you, and asks you questions about your mortgage, which bank it's through (as well as your SSN and bday). It'd be difficult to get the entire set of this information if you weren't the person, but at the same time, it scares the user to find out that there's so much information already known about them.
Lexis-Nexis has scary amounts of data, if you know where and how to look. Their combined P-Find search tool has rarely failed me in finding a person's current and previous addresses, phone number(s), living conditions (apt? small house? duplex?) and birthdate. If you go through tax records, you can find all their owned property, and let's not forget civil cases and felonies!
It's expensive, tho, so that at least somewhat limits its usage, i.e. only to really big companies that generally already have that info on you.
Actually, the FBI agents weren't trapped inside, they were just debating who would go to jail after one agent pointed out that another's fly was open. Was the person with the lazy zipper a sex offender, or was the person who pointed it out a peeping tom? By the time the firemen got there, the agents had all handcuffed each other to each other. Local police commented that this was obviously some arsonistic sex cult, and that the FBI agents' names should be listed on a public bulletin board. The NSA pointed out that this would unnecesarrily expose the agents, so the cops were arrested. The DoJ brought the case before the Supreme Court and thus was the entire american 'justice' system brought to a halt.
The firemen, having no one left accusing or prosecuting them, returned to life as usual, and the nation breathed a sigh of relief as good samaritanism was, if not legal, at least accepted again as there was no one to prosecute the cases left.
Well, IMHO, anyone using ROT-13 deserves to get hacked. They should know that modern techniques and good security practices require using at LEAST two rounds of ROT-13, or 4, if you're really that paranoid.
I guess my old.sig was more apocryphal than I'd hoped:
--
Under concerns of security and information privacy, the above message has been encrypted in an advanced version of a standard adopted over ten years ago for transmission of secure ASCII-based information over insecure, public newsgroups.
Please be advised that only text-based readers that can handle at least TWO CONSECUTIVE rounds of ROT-13 encryption will be able to correctly parse the information contained herein.
Any attempt to undermine the encryption methods employed will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Chapter 12.
IBM's Project eLiza technology, which Big Blue plans to release in batches over the next few years, is aimed at allowing large-capacity computer networks to run virtually unassisted.
The eLiza-enabled machines run background software that continuously monitors operations, sending warning messages to technicians when problems appear, said David Turek, vice president for deep computing at IBM's Somers, N.Y.-based Server Group.
...
"It sits and runs in the background and observes and draws conclusions," Turek said. "If medication doesn't work, it routes work around the ailing mechanism, then literally makes a phone call to the home of an employee and tells him the problem and the spare parts that are needed."
(From Wired
I can see it now:
*ring ring*
Tech: Hello?
eLiza: This is eLiza calling. The backup domain controller is reacting very slowly. I have determined that it is because of an Oedipal problem targetted at the tape backup server for the domain controller.
Tech: Call Joe, I cannot make it in
eLiza: Are you feeling inadequate? Tell me more about your father.
Tech: Look, the server's messing up, I can't come in, call Joe!
eLiza: There's no reason to get upset. How do you feel about call Joe?
Tech: Fine, I'll be there in half an hour. Reboot the backup domain controller in the meantime.
eLiza: rebooting the BDC will only delay your feelings of inadequacy towards Joe. Perhaps you'd like to tell me more about your half and hour?
Tech: *click*
ClueStick Owner: "Dude, it's not an 'art car' it's a Farraday cage protecting my car from being tracked with a mounted trafficcamera-flashing laser system and highly reflective paint coatings on the license plates to reduce resolution..."
Bystander: "huh?"
ClueStick Owner: "Here's a tin foil hat. Have fun."
Of course, the next round will be DirectTV's response, which if history is of any indicator, we'll have a lot of smolten Linux boxen (maybe this will help RedHat's bottom line even more?)
No one EVER learns, do they? Or maybe it's just all in fun. More power to both sides, it's been interesting from the sidelines from the get-go.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, I'm suddenly happy that my ISP (RoadRunner) was bought out by AOL (Who hasn't made any such asinine move, yet) (they hopefully realize that the broadband users would jump ship if we had go through AOhell ads and whatnot.
with a bit of a modification (reflecting the light back into the cuecat) they make passable party lights (they daisy chain nicely) for dark rooms.
I used one as a night-light for downstairs (I live in a loft)
These things are great! I got one from every Radio Shack in town, and a few from co-workers with Forbes and Wired subscriptions
I think the distribution numbers are a bit zany. I'd wager that a handful of geeks have 5-10 each from their non-geek friends and co-workers who got 'em in one of their subscriptions.
Exactly. I still harbor intense anger at Netscape for introducting Tables.
What insanity and bad design practice that has since unleashed.
(helf joking, half serious. I turned green at the gills the first time I saw a wysiwyg use tables for absolute positioning of text.)
I'd expect this out of the teletubbies, but Bert? I mean, sure, he's a sadistic bastard, but not really, er, mentally capable of mass terrorism. Those teletubbies, tho--they're just acting stupid.
WHAT? SURELY, you can't mean that if I can listen to something, I can record it? That's just crazytalk.
(I'm just waiting. I'll posit that within 10 years, all this 'copy protection' / 'Digital Rights Management' hooha will be seen for what it is--bullshit and lies, and the companies peddling it will fade out of business.
I think that might be our duty, not theirs.
I needs to hit the supply closet to snag some label sheets.
The FBI and CIA have been known to do turnabouts on hackers. Just ask Max Vision. The gov't fought long and hard to demonize and criminalize even the whitest hats of hacking, and Ashcroft's pushing to get them labeled as terrorist acts on top of that.
The DoD's had it's fair share of smudged histories. Be Alert. Keep your pistol handy.
Yes, you can be useful in combatting terrorism. Just make sure you know where the line is getting drawn and be on the correct side of it.
And realize that some of combatting terrorism may go against projects you've been supporting, like anonymous remailers, strong crypto for everyone, anti-censorship protections, and the elusive set of projects working to enable dissidents in countries such as China to safely communicate with the outside world. These and other tools can also be used by the bad guys, and will no doubt become targets.
Yep, I'm in Texas ;)
Strong employee state, surprisingly. And another state where vocal agreements are binding, as are letters of intent.
True story. Employees are first on the list to get paid. As I understand it, this doesn't change even after the company goes under--if it somehow gets cash in, it still goes to the (ex) employees owed.
This is true, but people vote with their votes, corps vote with money. One actually gets you elected, the other just helps. If enough of his actual constituency gets riled up on this, he'll switch or lose his seat.
I was lazy and didn't snag refrences, so perhaps others can add to this:
I'm sure the SSSCA sounds like it only defends against rampant pirating of movies and other copyrighted material--but the slope is a very, very slippery one. The recording and movie industries are very paranoid about how their products are being used (without regard to their increasing--*not* decreasing--profits). Do you have the right to listen to your music however you'd like? Fair use tenets say yes (and you can even make a backup copy), but already technology is on the shelves that doesn't allow you to play the CD on your computer or high-end stereo systems and modern car CD players.
The question you should be asking yourself is whether you are on the Hill for your constituents--the consumers, whose rights are being infringed, or the corporations on this issue. Fair Use doctrines are being ignored by laws such as the DMCA and this draft of the SSSCA, and thought this will first impact the digerati who copy all their music to their computer for easy access, it will rapidly effect the average American who can no longer watch a movie with calling in to get permission from the studio (This happened with DivX, which failed miserably on the open market), or play their CDs at all in their car stereos.
If this is riding in after the recent "Code Red" attack as a solution against future problems, perhaps the answer lies in better regulation of security testing by developers (such as Microsoft, whose servers were the only ones effected by Code Red), rather than the consumer's home system, which didn't even participate in this attack.
In a lot of places, this is sadly true, thanks in large part to BN and Borders and the like pulling a Walmart on 'em (using big corporate pockets to undersell them and outstock them until they die, then regain the investment by raising prices and reducing stock variety to guaranteed sellers.)
But not all are gone (At least in Austin)
Did you click on the Borders Bookstore link? It goes to Amazon, bub. so you can support them, or, support them! I suppose there's always barnes and nobles, but are they really any better? They just didn't think of this first.
Why not try building a relationship with a *local* bookstore that'll bend over backward to order or find books for you, and doesn't infringe on your rights? You might be surprised that the concept of customer support can involve friendly bookophiles who treat you respectfully. Might even help out your local economy by putting money back into it directly...
We should wear our halloween mask all day this coming halloween, and visit popular retail stores (Borders, for example) or cities using facial recognition software. Mayhaps we can get The Alien loaded into national crime databases for jaywalking.
I'm only half kidding about this.
I wouldn't be surprised.
One of the most frightening things I ever saw was an interactive/online postive-ID system that pulled a credit report on you, and asks you questions about your mortgage, which bank it's through (as well as your SSN and bday). It'd be difficult to get the entire set of this information if you weren't the person, but at the same time, it scares the user to find out that there's so much information already known about them.
Lexis-Nexis has scary amounts of data, if you know where and how to look. Their combined P-Find search tool has rarely failed me in finding a person's current and previous addresses, phone number(s), living conditions (apt? small house? duplex?) and birthdate. If you go through tax records, you can find all their owned property, and let's not forget civil cases and felonies!
It's expensive, tho, so that at least somewhat limits its usage, i.e. only to really big companies that generally already have that info on you.
Anyone else find it ironic that the Salem witchhunt and the Red Scare both occurred here in Amerik^Hca?
I hear Mars is wonderfully chilly this time of year. It's time for a new nation to be founded.
Actually, the FBI agents weren't trapped inside, they were just debating who would go to jail after one agent pointed out that another's fly was open. Was the person with the lazy zipper a sex offender, or was the person who pointed it out a peeping tom? By the time the firemen got there, the agents had all handcuffed each other to each other. Local police commented that this was obviously some arsonistic sex cult, and that the FBI agents' names should be listed on a public bulletin board. The NSA pointed out that this would unnecesarrily expose the agents, so the cops were arrested. The DoJ brought the case before the Supreme Court and thus was the entire american 'justice' system brought to a halt.
The firemen, having no one left accusing or prosecuting them, returned to life as usual, and the nation breathed a sigh of relief as good samaritanism was, if not legal, at least accepted again as there was no one to prosecute the cases left.
No, it's OK. it'll cause an infinite loop and crash either MS or the PR firm. It's all good!
Haven't had my coffee yet, dude.
Is available currently for download at:
www.download.ru/defcon.ppt
It doesn't seem that incriminating. Oh, wait, this is the DMCA we're talking about...
Well, IMHO, anyone using ROT-13 deserves to get hacked. They should know that modern techniques and good security practices require using at LEAST two rounds of ROT-13, or 4, if you're really that paranoid.
.sig was more apocryphal than I'd hoped:
I guess my old
--
Under concerns of security and information privacy, the above message has been encrypted in an advanced version of a standard adopted over ten years ago for transmission of secure ASCII-based information over insecure, public newsgroups.
Please be advised that only text-based readers that can handle at least TWO CONSECUTIVE rounds of ROT-13 encryption will be able to correctly parse the information contained herein.
Any attempt to undermine the encryption methods employed will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Chapter 12.
I can see it now:
*ring ring*
Tech: Hello?
eLiza: This is eLiza calling. The backup domain controller is reacting very slowly. I have determined that it is because of an Oedipal problem targetted at the tape backup server for the domain controller.
Tech: Call Joe, I cannot make it in
eLiza: Are you feeling inadequate? Tell me more about your father.
Tech: Look, the server's messing up, I can't come in, call Joe!
eLiza: There's no reason to get upset. How do you feel about call Joe?
Tech: Fine, I'll be there in half an hour. Reboot the backup domain controller in the meantime.
eLiza: rebooting the BDC will only delay your feelings of inadequacy towards Joe. Perhaps you'd like to tell me more about your half and hour?
Tech: *click*
Bystander: "Cool art car!"
ClueStick Owner: "Dude, it's not an 'art car' it's a Farraday cage protecting my car from being tracked with a mounted trafficcamera-flashing laser system and highly reflective paint coatings on the license plates to reduce resolution..."
Bystander: "huh?"
ClueStick Owner: "Here's a tin foil hat. Have fun."
Porn will undoubtedly lead the consumer charge into space. I'm sure the 'studios' will be padded and watertight (or at least spongy (ew))
People will make millions upon millions off of zero-g porn, I guarantee you.
Of course, the next round will be DirectTV's response, which if history is of any indicator, we'll have a lot of smolten Linux boxen (maybe this will help RedHat's bottom line even more?)
No one EVER learns, do they? Or maybe it's just all in fun. More power to both sides, it's been interesting from the sidelines from the get-go.