I went with Informative and I realized that someone else had modded you Insightful. It is a sad thing.
You modded "Informative" thinking that the GP poster informed the Homeland Security. Maybe the modders already know the poster is working for HLS and their modding was an assessment of a "job well done"? Perhaps it's "Performance appraisal" time in Homeland Security?
From my perspective, NAND as RAM are already obsolete. Voting with my wallet, never going to buy as such (I ruined one of the first eeepc-es by installing a Linux and setting up a swap space. What I was thinking? 10 minutes later, I almost have a brick in my hands... salvaged only with an external SD card for storage).
Sure, not fool-proof, but seeing the source and being able to compile tends to raise the trust level.
And is this a good thing or a bad thing? It's a good thing if somebody actually does what you describe, but if some measure of trust is being awarded on an assumption of a possibility not actually occurring, it could be harmful.
Ok. Let's put it this way: if they'd release the app in open-source, I'm going to verify if it can be trusted and I may take the decision if I want to join - maybe bring some friends along. Without open-source, they lost at least a participant; so the question is: with closed-source, what did they gain instead?
They tell you the app tracks your every move already
TFA
[The app] uses virtually no data to operate and shares no personal data, Epitiro marketing manager Iain Wood assured eWEEK Europe.
The app only measures the presence or absence of signal, not its strength, and not the throughput achieved over it – but there could be evidence of places where the network is overloaded, if phones frequently fall back on 2G signal.
If one can be sure that shares no personal data, one might decide to join the crowd. Now, the only little question is: how can one be sure?
Except that this is, by its very nature, a tracking app, otherwise there wouldn't be much point in it.
Of course is a tracking application.
Except that it is meant to track the signal strength to location and nothing else - if so, what do you think the company can do with it other than a coverage map?
Now, IF I could make sure that indeed is tracking only signal/location, I might decide that this is worth participating. One can only hope that a good map of coverage is going to help on medium term... after all I donated (CPU x years) to search for extraterrestrial life (low probability and inconsequential for me), why not keeping my phone powered and the app running for a few weeks?
As a matter of curiosity, why do people assume that open source helps anything (regarding a situation like this)?
Because someone (and only one would be needed) may have the curiosity to compile the source and raise hell if the binary after the compilation doesn't match the binary available for download? Sure, not fool-proof, but seeing the source and being able to compile tends to raise the trust level.
I'm not convinced that even the BBC could be trusted tracking my every move while this app is installed.
BBC? BBC declines to take any responsibility for the application or data collection, pointing the finger to Epitiro. And on the epitiro site, I couldn't find any more specific info. In my opinion, the best way for epitiro credibility would be to release the app in open source - (but I guess it won't happen).
Excepts, so that you can't say you weren't warned:
2. You acknowledge that whilst this is a BBC Survey, the App belongs to a third party which is not in anyway connected to the BBC. The BBC does not endorse the App in anyway whatsoever.
...
4. We do not warrant that the functions contained in the App will be error-free, that defects will be corrected by Epitiro as the provider of the App or that any software within the App will be free of bugs and viruses.
...
7. We understand from Epitiro that they will not publish any personal information or collate any personal information from your use of the App. However, the underlying data will remain the property of Epitiro who may create their own map/site afterwards.
That article is way too long. Here's my observation: People pick passwords that are easy to remember, easy to type and or something they think is clever.
Last chart of the article reveals that 69% of the people are actually dumb in regards to picking their password.
The hackers also started to post email addresses and passwords they claimed were from Sun staff, and said to have accessed a mail server at now-defunct News of the World.".
Indeed. Funny thing, this requires judges and lawyers being woven into the fabric of internet - I don't like the idea.
And politicians.
I wasn't forgetting them... just that they seem to be already entangled in/with the internet - ever since the somebody "explained" them the internet is like a series of tubez. To date, on purpose or not, the confusion persists.
typical users lack the expertise to select a different DNS server
is definitely a true statement for the present.
FTFY.
And it is so just because the DNS infrastructure worked by very unsophisticated rules - good enough for everybody - unsophistication which allowed the rules remain hidden. Break them and more people will start looking into how to mend them in their own way - one may not like some ways of mending.
Greetings and Salutations....
Why does this seem like one of those "feel good" laws that politicians pass to get brownie points with their followers, rather than to actually address and fix a problem?
I am more and more convinced that attempts to regulate the Net are a bad idea, and, any official that attempts to do this should be voted out of office or recalled.
Yes... but nothing new and it must not be restricted only to the Net.
But I have encountered difficulty in foreseeing a business model that would let people create high-production-value feature films and video games while feeding their families, apart from the non-free business models.
Patent law protects your right to do that because it would prevent anyone else from patenting your discovery because there'd be prior art.
Do I detect a bit of circular reasoning here? Isn't it like: the patent law is necessary to protect you from others that try to patent the same invention? (this is why I said: it's like claiming you saved someone from falling after you pushed that one?).
Now, imagine that there would be no patent laws: would I still need protection against patent laws?
However, once ConAgra gets their hands on your technology, considering their already monstrous size, it could raise their efficiency level to the point that you can no longer make a profit.
As I'm already saying: I'm already willing to share my invention with anyone free of charge I'd actually be happy for ConAgora to raise the efficiency. In the absence of the patent laws, maybe someone (possibly me?) is lucky/smart enough to reverse-engineer their methods - it happens quite frequent nowadays, you know? - and return the improved result to the society at lower cost (or even free again?).
I'm repeating myself here: "patents are useful in a society using the trade-secret excessively and with a very low power to invent.". Are you sure that the current state of society is still so?
Canon Powershot cameras (s2/s3 if my memory serve), cca 2005-2006. When exploring the shots already taken, images displayed on the LCD would switch between portrait/landscape based on the orientation of the camera. A good chance (though not sure about) that this was done with accelerometers, these cameras sported image stabilizers.
I had a Canon photo camera (very portable I assure you) which I bought late-2005 - a powershot s2 or s3, I can't remember.
Now... guess what? When exploring the shots already on the card on that little LCD the camera has, it switches the view between portrait/landscape, based on the way I hold the camera and scaling the image.
Hey, maybe Canon was ahead of time and didn't bother to tell the patent office... but I think its still qualifies as prior art. Or at least would still make the Apple patent as based on obvious adaptations.
I can't agree with this either. To me, it's like saying you saved an elder from falling down the staircase after you actually pushed her/him. Patents are useful in a society using the trade-secret excessively and with a very low power to invent. The way I see, they are harmful for a "gift economy" society or a society in which the rate of re-discovery is high. And I'd argue that we currently are more towards the later than the former.
However, it might not be a great idea if one of those farmers that you tell is ConAgra.
Assuming no patent laws exists, can you please tell me why? As I'm already willing to share my invention with anyone free of charge, how ConAgra can stop or harm me?
Somehow I don't see that happening if it had been invented in the US. Oh yeah, maybe a joke or two but not 10 out of 12. Pretty damn sad.
Well, yeah... Can't blame them, more than not being a US company, Acquamarine Power are going to steal some US waves. Even more, the US govt is an accomplice, granting them money for a feasibility study!
Slashdot Mirror
No offense meant, but why the hell did you do that?
No offence taken. As an excuse for a stupid thing... I was doing it at wee hours in the morning.
Anyway, I wrote off the money for the extra SD card as "tuition fees" (as in "lesson learnt").
No, we're moving toward awareness of the police state we are already living in.
I wish people would stop abusing the phrase "police state". There's so much more to an actual police state than "a bunch of cops are dicks".
True... except that you don't yet know there is already more than "a bunch of cops are dicks". Maybe there's no exaggeration at all?
I went with Informative and I realized that someone else had modded you Insightful. It is a sad thing.
You modded "Informative" thinking that the GP poster informed the Homeland Security. Maybe the modders already know the poster is working for HLS and their modding was an assessment of a "job well done"? Perhaps it's "Performance appraisal" time in Homeland Security?
Exactly what they want. Planned obsolescence.
From my perspective, NAND as RAM are already obsolete. Voting with my wallet, never going to buy as such (I ruined one of the first eeepc-es by installing a Linux and setting up a swap space. What I was thinking? 10 minutes later, I almost have a brick in my hands... salvaged only with an external SD card for storage).
so do humans.
Wake me up when NAND has a life-time 10% of an average human and we'll talk.
And is this a good thing or a bad thing? It's a good thing if somebody actually does what you describe, but if some measure of trust is being awarded on an assumption of a possibility not actually occurring, it could be harmful.
Ok. Let's put it this way: if they'd release the app in open-source, I'm going to verify if it can be trusted and I may take the decision if I want to join - maybe bring some friends along. Without open-source, they lost at least a participant; so the question is: with closed-source, what did they gain instead?
Open source? Seriously?
They tell you the app tracks your every move already
TFA
[The app] uses virtually no data to operate and shares no personal data, Epitiro marketing manager Iain Wood assured eWEEK Europe.
The app only measures the presence or absence of signal, not its strength, and not the throughput achieved over it – but there could be evidence of places where the network is overloaded, if phones frequently fall back on 2G signal.
If one can be sure that shares no personal data, one might decide to join the crowd. Now, the only little question is: how can one be sure?
Except that this is, by its very nature, a tracking app, otherwise there wouldn't be much point in it.
Of course is a tracking application.
Except that it is meant to track the signal strength to location and nothing else - if so, what do you think the company can do with it other than a coverage map?
Now, IF I could make sure that indeed is tracking only signal/location, I might decide that this is worth participating. One can only hope that a good map of coverage is going to help on medium term... after all I donated (CPU x years) to search for extraterrestrial life (low probability and inconsequential for me), why not keeping my phone powered and the app running for a few weeks?
As a matter of curiosity, why do people assume that open source helps anything (regarding a situation like this)?
Because someone (and only one would be needed) may have the curiosity to compile the source and raise hell if the binary after the compilation doesn't match the binary available for download?
Sure, not fool-proof, but seeing the source and being able to compile tends to raise the trust level.
I'm not convinced that even the BBC could be trusted tracking my every move while this app is installed.
BBC? BBC declines to take any responsibility for the application or data collection, pointing the finger to Epitiro. And on the epitiro site, I couldn't find any more specific info. In my opinion, the best way for epitiro credibility would be to release the app in open source - (but I guess it won't happen).
Excepts, so that you can't say you weren't warned:
2. You acknowledge that whilst this is a BBC Survey, the App belongs to a third party which is not in anyway connected to the BBC. The BBC does not endorse the App in anyway whatsoever.
...
4. We do not warrant that the functions contained in the App will be error-free, that defects will be corrected by Epitiro as the provider of the App or that any software within the App will be free of bugs and viruses.
...
7. We understand from Epitiro that they will not publish any personal information or collate any personal information from your use of the App. However, the underlying data will remain the property of Epitiro who may create their own map/site afterwards.
That article is way too long. Here's my observation: People pick passwords that are easy to remember, easy to type and or something they think is clever.
Last chart of the article reveals that 69% of the people are actually dumb in regards to picking their password.
Is it wrong that I'm amused to see this?
TFS quote:
The hackers also started to post email addresses and passwords they claimed were from Sun staff, and said to have accessed a mail server at now-defunct News of the World.".
Necrophilia... Can't be good.
Indeed. Funny thing, this requires judges and lawyers being woven into the fabric of internet - I don't like the idea.
And politicians.
I wasn't forgetting them... just that they seem to be already entangled in/with the internet - ever since the somebody "explained" them the internet is like a series of tubez. To date, on purpose or not, the confusion persists.
The judges and lawyers would be new additions.
typical users lack the expertise to select a different DNS server
is definitely a true statement for the present.
FTFY.
And it is so just because the DNS infrastructure worked by very unsophisticated rules - good enough for everybody - unsophistication which allowed the rules remain hidden. Break them and more people will start looking into how to mend them in their own way - one may not like some ways of mending.
When was the Internet anything other than a "lawless wild west"?
The internet is the wild west, but it is far from lawless... it just so happens that there are very few laws.
One of those laws is the trustworthiness of DNS. The proposal at hand is actually one that makes the internet MORE lawless...
Indeed. Funny thing, this requires judges and lawyers being woven into the fabric of internet - I don't like the idea.
Freedom - I may not agree with what you say, but I respect your right to be punished for it.
Liberty - the price of freedom keeps going up, but the quality keeps deteriorating.
The typical users will quickly learn how to set their DNS providers if this comes to pass.
One good reason to actually go ahead and try to screw the net. For this very reason, I wonder if it wouldn't actually worth encouraging them to do it.
Greetings and Salutations....
Why does this seem like one of those "feel good" laws that politicians pass to get brownie points with their followers, rather than to actually address and fix a problem?
This is by design
I am more and more convinced that attempts to regulate the Net are a bad idea, and, any official that attempts to do this should be voted out of office or recalled.
Yes... but nothing new and it must not be restricted only to the Net.
But I have encountered difficulty in foreseeing a business model that would let people create high-production-value feature films and video games while feeding their families, apart from the non-free business models.
Signs exists, though.
Patent law protects your right to do that because it would prevent anyone else from patenting your discovery because there'd be prior art.
Do I detect a bit of circular reasoning here?
Isn't it like: the patent law is necessary to protect you from others that try to patent the same invention? (this is why I said: it's like claiming you saved someone from falling after you pushed that one?).
Now, imagine that there would be no patent laws: would I still need protection against patent laws?
However, once ConAgra gets their hands on your technology, considering their already monstrous size, it could raise their efficiency level to the point that you can no longer make a profit.
As I'm already saying: I'm already willing to share my invention with anyone free of charge I'd actually be happy for ConAgora to raise the efficiency. In the absence of the patent laws, maybe someone (possibly me?) is lucky/smart enough to reverse-engineer their methods - it happens quite frequent nowadays, you know? - and return the improved result to the society at lower cost (or even free again?).
I'm repeating myself here: "patents are useful in a society using the trade-secret excessively and with a very low power to invent.". Are you sure that the current state of society is still so?
I claim that there are some kinds of software that can never be free under this system of things.
Never say never. The games, for example.
You wrote (and I emphasized):
and the authors of high-quality other components still haven't adopted free culture motives to the same extent as programmers.
There is no warranty that for the future this will still hold true.
Canon Powershot cameras (s2/s3 if my memory serve), cca 2005-2006. When exploring the shots already taken, images displayed on the LCD would switch between portrait/landscape based on the orientation of the camera. A good chance (though not sure about) that this was done with accelerometers, these cameras sported image stabilizers.
Now... guess what? When exploring the shots already on the card on that little LCD the camera has, it switches the view between portrait/landscape, based on the way I hold the camera and scaling the image.
Hey, maybe Canon was ahead of time and didn't bother to tell the patent office... but I think its still qualifies as prior art. Or at least would still make the Apple patent as based on obvious adaptations.
But patent law protects your right to do that!
I can't agree with this either. To me, it's like saying you saved an elder from falling down the staircase after you actually pushed her/him. Patents are useful in a society using the trade-secret excessively and with a very low power to invent. The way I see, they are harmful for a "gift economy" society or a society in which the rate of re-discovery is high. And I'd argue that we currently are more towards the later than the former.
However, it might not be a great idea if one of those farmers that you tell is ConAgra.
Assuming no patent laws exists, can you please tell me why? As I'm already willing to share my invention with anyone free of charge, how ConAgra can stop or harm me?
Somehow I don't see that happening if it had been invented in the US. Oh yeah, maybe a joke or two but not 10 out of 12. Pretty damn sad.
Well, yeah... Can't blame them, more than not being a US company, Acquamarine Power are going to steal some US waves. Even more, the US govt is an accomplice, granting them money for a feasibility study!