So far today there have been articles on tactile mouse feedback, replicators, and browser spyware that records mouse movements. Of course, we already know that the porn industry will be the first to utilize these things to full effect, but can you imagine what it would be like to use all three? Imagine images the react to your mouse movement and give you tactile feedback, all while replicating on your desk!
It's surprising to see how anti-law enforcement the/. crowd really is. The only thing that's keeping you, your families and your property safe is a robust law enforcement system. Without law enforcement your precious computers and consoles would be stolen in no time.
Without law enforcement, I would be free to give the people who almost run me over on my bike every day exactly what they deserve... a slashed tire, cracked windshield, or sugared gas tank. Without law enforcement, I would be free to defend myself via whatever means I feel are adequate, rather than what the state allows me to defend myself with. Today my pocket knife was stolen by the Chicago Police Department. Since I can hear you saying "so what" let me explain that this knife had a lot of sentimental value. It was a gift from a friend of mine who lives in Hungary, it was handmade with a genuine ivory handle. There is no way I can possibly replace the knife, and even if I could, it wouldn't be the one Gergei gave me. It was taken because it was "longer than 2.25 inches". I was frisked after being stopped by police for kicking a car that veered in front of me while I was riding down the street. Have you ever been frisked? Publicly, on the side of a busy city street with your palms down on the trunk of an unmarked police car and your legs spread? Your opinion of law enforcement will be irrevocably degraded after you have, particularly when it happens under such dubious "reasonable suspicion".
Sounds like a place here in Chicago (possibly franchised... I'm not sure) called American Scientific and Surplus. I went there recently with a friend and we found two items in particular that made us both think "This is would make a great Battlebot". The items in question were 3cm diameter industrial drill bit and a 4000 RPM electric motor (12 vold DC).
Also of note (for buying used equipment, not selling) is the University of Michigan Property Disposion Facility. Check your local U. to see if they're got a similar deal, but basically everything and anything that the university is getting rid of, whether it's computers, dorm furniture, hospital beds, lab equipment, you get the idea... goes to Property Disposition. It's about an acre of used crap sold as is. I bought the computer I've been using as a router for the last two years there for $50. And 2 UPSes for $25 each.
There was a database server fuckup this afternoon that had some comments attached to the wrong articles. I bet that's when it happened. Everything seems to be back in order. Unfortunately, I'm left with an off-topic moderation. Oh well. There is more to life than Slashdot moderation.
Check your local geek clubs. UFO (Users of Free Operating Systems) Chicago has a list of its members' idle hardware. I sold an old SCSI drive and video card that I've been holding onto for a few years for just about market value to another UFO member.
In that case, security still degenerates into a feature of the administrator or some other relevantly involved human (i.e. PHB), since no competent administrator would choose to run such an insecurable operating system.
Hmmm... I've been moderated a troll. Perhaps I should rephrase myself...
Don't think FreeBSD is impervious to the sort of misconfigurations that you've cited as faults for Linux. A naive user installing any operating system is still a naive user. I have seen in my life exactly one FreeBSD system, and it was r00ted once about three years ago and once within the last year.
Security is not platform-dependent, it is admin-dependent.
Is this true? I thought one of the many horrible things about the DMCA is that it criminalizes copyright infringement for digital media
The DMCA adds some criminal provisions to copyright law and that's why I said mostly civil. However, the act of infringement is not now criminal, since the prohibition against it remains squarely in civil law. It is the act of selling a circumvention device that is a felony under Section 1204 of Title 17, U.S. Code.
People are arrested and spend days in jail before the matter of their guilt is resolved all the time.
In criminal cases. Copyright infringement is not a crime. Criminal law and civil law are different, and copyright law is mostly civil. Copyright infringements are civil infractions. Therefore they are not criminal and it is incorrect to call copyright infringement a crime or equate it with a crime, such as theft. This has been upheld in the Supreme Court.
Now, about being held in jail... When someone appears to have committed a crime, sure, hold them and go through due process and all that. When someone sues someone else and gets an injunction, sure, that's fine too, again, due process. There is no due process with the DMCA. If I told your ISP that you were infringing some copyright of mine, they would be law-bound to either face some liability of their own or shut you down. There's no judicial review of my request, no checking to be sure that it's valid... nothing. The DMCA is a big stick that designed to let copyright holders beat their slaves into submission, nothing more, nothing less.
That's all beside the point. This guy didn't do anything (so it would seem from the article) and yet, as an innocent net user, his time and effort were wasted on behalf of the MPAA.
Harkening back to that interesting, if wierd, article by ESR: DMCA violates flerbage. Innocent parties had the time wasted, perhaps in this guy's case, his money wasted.
I've heard some noises about how stupid the word 'flerbage' is, but you know what? I sure is a good concept to single out. It sure puts the true effects of law into perspective.
Whoops, I guess that would make a couple of waters and need more oxygen. Oh well, it wasn't really the point anyway...
do you really think Gates and Stallman will share the same lawyer? Or is 'O' in this case an indication of N Lawyers
I was thinking more along the lines of N Lawyers. With Gates and Stallman joined by lawyers, I figured that would mean they'd find some reason to sue each other and forget about software. Who knows, it could happen!
Any line one tries to draw in the sand is an arbitrary one. Your line has the GUI on "non-operating system" side of the line. It that true of Windows? No, the GUI is built into the kernel, putting it on the OS side. Is that true of Linux? Moreso, but the DRI drivers and the framebuffer stuff is in the kernel, too. TCP/IP is the other way around. It is built into the Linux kernel, but it is a library on Windows (and an add-on library, at that).
Freedom of speech includes the freedom to complain loudly about other's speech.
Yes, that's correct, but you've missed the point. The point was the irony of the situation. Here we have this man who for decades has been drumming support for freer licensing, all the while claiming to represent some ultimate form of freedom in software development and usage. As it turns out, this same individual is very upset that so many people have the freedom to disregard him and his attempts to take control. Sure, he's free to complain, but so are we free to point out how ironic his current actions are against the backdrop of twenty years of rhetoric.
I've heard the comparison before, I forget where but perhaps it was with ESR, between the sociosphere of software development and an acetylene molecule. Basically, acetylene is two carbon atoms with a triple bond between them, each of which has a hydrogen atom single bonded off the opposite side. Like so: H-C#C-H (pretend the # is a triple bond).
Here's the comparison: Stallman and Gates are the hydrogen atoms, the little guys at the opposite ends of the molecule. House Open Source and House Proprietary are the carbon atoms, triple bonded to each other and single bonded to their respective zealots.
The vast majority of the energy in an acetylene molecule is in that triple bond between the carbon atoms. So it would seem that the vast majority of the energy in the software universe is in the bond between open source and proprietary camps, that is, in the individual developers who might work for the proprietary side and go home to the open source side. The hydrogen atoms really don't have much of an impact on the molecule until one or both goes flying off in some other direction. At that point, the molecule has to rearrange itself and usually ends up dispensing with all that energy in the triple bond in the form of an explosion. With Gates espousing Shared Source and Stallman making a power grab, I guess that explosion is due any day now.
When acetylene combusts, two acetylene molecules ideally combine with three oxygen molecules to form two carbon dioxide molecules and one water. Let's assume that oxygen, in this little chemical analogy, represents lawyers....
Forget the headphones! Bring in a big shelf stereo. Let everyone know ahead of time and explain that if they don't like what you're playing, they can ask you to play whatever they want...
This is actually a true story from a dorm. A guy moved in to the "quiet floor" of U. Hall at Depaul University a few years ago with a rack system and about 1400 watts of amplified speakers. He made the above offer at the first mandatory residents' meeting and never had a problem... even when he made full use of all that wattage.
Slashdot Mirror
So far today there have been articles on tactile mouse feedback, replicators, and browser spyware that records mouse movements. Of course, we already know that the porn industry will be the first to utilize these things to full effect, but can you imagine what it would be like to use all three? Imagine images the react to your mouse movement and give you tactile feedback, all while replicating on your desk!
It's surprising to see how anti-law enforcement the /. crowd really is. The only thing that's keeping you, your families and your property safe is a robust law enforcement system. Without law enforcement your precious computers and consoles would be stolen in no time.
Without law enforcement, I would be free to give the people who almost run me over on my bike every day exactly what they deserve... a slashed tire, cracked windshield, or sugared gas tank. Without law enforcement, I would be free to defend myself via whatever means I feel are adequate, rather than what the state allows me to defend myself with. Today my pocket knife was stolen by the Chicago Police Department. Since I can hear you saying "so what" let me explain that this knife had a lot of sentimental value. It was a gift from a friend of mine who lives in Hungary, it was handmade with a genuine ivory handle. There is no way I can possibly replace the knife, and even if I could, it wouldn't be the one Gergei gave me. It was taken because it was "longer than 2.25 inches". I was frisked after being stopped by police for kicking a car that veered in front of me while I was riding down the street. Have you ever been frisked? Publicly, on the side of a busy city street with your palms down on the trunk of an unmarked police car and your legs spread? Your opinion of law enforcement will be irrevocably degraded after you have, particularly when it happens under such dubious "reasonable suspicion".
Does anyone have the user agent strings that this spider uses?
Sounds like a place here in Chicago (possibly franchised... I'm not sure) called American Scientific and Surplus. I went there recently with a friend and we found two items in particular that made us both think "This is would make a great Battlebot". The items in question were 3cm diameter industrial drill bit and a 4000 RPM electric motor (12 vold DC).
Also of note (for buying used equipment, not selling) is the University of Michigan Property Disposion Facility. Check your local U. to see if they're got a similar deal, but basically everything and anything that the university is getting rid of, whether it's computers, dorm furniture, hospital beds, lab equipment, you get the idea... goes to Property Disposition. It's about an acre of used crap sold as is. I bought the computer I've been using as a router for the last two years there for $50. And 2 UPSes for $25 each.
There was a database server fuckup this afternoon that had some comments attached to the wrong articles. I bet that's when it happened. Everything seems to be back in order. Unfortunately, I'm left with an off-topic moderation. Oh well. There is more to life than Slashdot moderation.
why do open source software developers devote their time and talents to something they give away?
Often, it is because they need the software they are writing.
Often, it is because they are curious about a particular technology and "just playing".
Often, it is because of a principled decision to shun proprietary software.
Often, it is because a particular piece of software would fetch no money in a commercial market.
Often, it is to impress chicks.
Check your local geek clubs. UFO (Users of Free Operating Systems) Chicago has a list of its members' idle hardware. I sold an old SCSI drive and video card that I've been holding onto for a few years for just about market value to another UFO member.
Also in Chicago, IL and Ann Arbor, MI. Unfortunately, each individual store seems to have its own website.
Odd, that.
Hey, at least it's not as bad as one of those cross-bred lowercase e/at sign thingies IBM likes to plaster all over their ads.
..an electronic kilogram...
Sorry, the acronym EKG is already taken. Please try again.
In that case, security still degenerates into a feature of the administrator or some other relevantly involved human (i.e. PHB), since no competent administrator would choose to run such an insecurable operating system.
Hmmm... I've been moderated a troll. Perhaps I should rephrase myself...
Don't think FreeBSD is impervious to the sort of misconfigurations that you've cited as faults for Linux. A naive user installing any operating system is still a naive user. I have seen in my life exactly one FreeBSD system, and it was r00ted once about three years ago and once within the last year.
Security is not platform-dependent, it is admin-dependent.
The only FreeBSD box I've ever actually seen has been r00ted on two occassions.
School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Perhaps you've heard of it?
If not, perhaps you've heard of the Art Institute of Chicago?
I've got some pretty big gripes with the DMCA and what how it can be abused, but slavery? Come on.
Is this true? I thought one of the many horrible things about the DMCA is that it criminalizes copyright infringement for digital media
The DMCA adds some criminal provisions to copyright law and that's why I said mostly civil. However, the act of infringement is not now criminal, since the prohibition against it remains squarely in civil law. It is the act of selling a circumvention device that is a felony under Section 1204 of Title 17, U.S. Code.
People are arrested and spend days in jail before the matter of their guilt is resolved all the time.
In criminal cases. Copyright infringement is not a crime. Criminal law and civil law are different, and copyright law is mostly civil. Copyright infringements are civil infractions. Therefore they are not criminal and it is incorrect to call copyright infringement a crime or equate it with a crime, such as theft. This has been upheld in the Supreme Court.
Now, about being held in jail... When someone appears to have committed a crime, sure, hold them and go through due process and all that. When someone sues someone else and gets an injunction, sure, that's fine too, again, due process. There is no due process with the DMCA. If I told your ISP that you were infringing some copyright of mine, they would be law-bound to either face some liability of their own or shut you down. There's no judicial review of my request, no checking to be sure that it's valid... nothing. The DMCA is a big stick that designed to let copyright holders beat their slaves into submission, nothing more, nothing less.
That's all beside the point. This guy didn't do anything (so it would seem from the article) and yet, as an innocent net user, his time and effort were wasted on behalf of the MPAA.
Harkening back to that interesting, if wierd, article by ESR: DMCA violates flerbage. Innocent parties had the time wasted, perhaps in this guy's case, his money wasted.
I've heard some noises about how stupid the word 'flerbage' is, but you know what? I sure is a good concept to single out. It sure puts the true effects of law into perspective.
Whoops, I guess that would make a couple of waters and need more oxygen. Oh well, it wasn't really the point anyway...
do you really think Gates and Stallman will share the same lawyer? Or is 'O' in this case an indication of N Lawyers
I was thinking more along the lines of N Lawyers. With Gates and Stallman joined by lawyers, I figured that would mean they'd find some reason to sue each other and forget about software. Who knows, it could happen!
Okay, lets set this straight once and for all.
Any line one tries to draw in the sand is an arbitrary one. Your line has the GUI on "non-operating system" side of the line. It that true of Windows? No, the GUI is built into the kernel, putting it on the OS side. Is that true of Linux? Moreso, but the DRI drivers and the framebuffer stuff is in the kernel, too. TCP/IP is the other way around. It is built into the Linux kernel, but it is a library on Windows (and an add-on library, at that).
Freedom of speech includes the freedom to complain loudly about other's speech.
Yes, that's correct, but you've missed the point. The point was the irony of the situation. Here we have this man who for decades has been drumming support for freer licensing, all the while claiming to represent some ultimate form of freedom in software development and usage. As it turns out, this same individual is very upset that so many people have the freedom to disregard him and his attempts to take control. Sure, he's free to complain, but so are we free to point out how ironic his current actions are against the backdrop of twenty years of rhetoric.
I've heard the comparison before, I forget where but perhaps it was with ESR, between the sociosphere of software development and an acetylene molecule. Basically, acetylene is two carbon atoms with a triple bond between them, each of which has a hydrogen atom single bonded off the opposite side. Like so: H-C#C-H (pretend the # is a triple bond).
Here's the comparison: Stallman and Gates are the hydrogen atoms, the little guys at the opposite ends of the molecule. House Open Source and House Proprietary are the carbon atoms, triple bonded to each other and single bonded to their respective zealots.
The vast majority of the energy in an acetylene molecule is in that triple bond between the carbon atoms. So it would seem that the vast majority of the energy in the software universe is in the bond between open source and proprietary camps, that is, in the individual developers who might work for the proprietary side and go home to the open source side. The hydrogen atoms really don't have much of an impact on the molecule until one or both goes flying off in some other direction. At that point, the molecule has to rearrange itself and usually ends up dispensing with all that energy in the triple bond in the form of an explosion. With Gates espousing Shared Source and Stallman making a power grab, I guess that explosion is due any day now.
When acetylene combusts, two acetylene molecules ideally combine with three oxygen molecules to form two carbon dioxide molecules and one water. Let's assume that oxygen, in this little chemical analogy, represents lawyers....
I'm sure you can take it from there.
Music and good headphones.
Forget the headphones! Bring in a big shelf stereo. Let everyone know ahead of time and explain that if they don't like what you're playing, they can ask you to play whatever they want...
This is actually a true story from a dorm. A guy moved in to the "quiet floor" of U. Hall at Depaul University a few years ago with a rack system and about 1400 watts of amplified speakers. He made the above offer at the first mandatory residents' meeting and never had a problem... even when he made full use of all that wattage.
you're allowed to decrypt a DVD, as long as you do it by hand.
Precisely, therefore it's not illegal to make any attempt, just any practical attempt. Unfortunately, practicality is not addressed anywhere.