I actually have a hotmail account that I use exclusively when I think that giving an account address out will invite spam. The account gets a lot of spam.:)
Here's a fancy trick you can use if you have your own domain: Set up the domain's email so that mail sent to undefined addresses is forwarded to you. Then, when a site like this wants an email address, give them something like latimes@yourdomain.com. This way, they'll be able to contact you, they won't have your real email address, you will not have spent any more effort than you would had you given them your real email address, you'll be able to shut down the address if they spam it, and you will also be able to tell if they sell your address (if you start getting pr0n spam at latimes@yourdomain.com, that's a sign).
Another little tidbit. If anyone has ever dialed 911 on a phone its somewhat interesting. My motorolla v120 will sit in "emergency mode" and do a funny beep. You can't dial any other number until you reset the phone [e.g. power down].
Having called 911 on my cellphone (a Nokia 6120) before, they display "EMERGENCY xxx xxx xxxx" during a 911 call, where xxx xxx xxxx is your cellphone number. You also don't have to power the phone down to return it to normal...just hit the End key like you normally would.
Everything else being equal (or symmetric, with all combinations of programs being used) it is not too far fetched to assume that the faster machine wins on average
Or more accurately, the algorithm with the better implementation.
Really? I must not have heard about this one. The thing that irks me, though, is that if a private citizen had done this, they would have been slapped with perjury (and quite possibly contempt) charges very quickly. They would have to pay for what they did, but no, Microsoft doesn't.
To diffuse the inevitable skepticism, the Redmondites have begun educational briefings of industry groups, security experts, government agencies and civil-liberties watchdogs
An "educational briefing." Hrmph. Don't trust those. I'm reminded of the one Simpsons episode where the Movementarians are in town and everyone is being shown an "educational" film on The Leader. They supposedly allow people to leave whenever they want, but they pressure them enough that they don't. Eventually, they are brainwashed.
The point I'm trying to make here is that while it is certainly possible that Microsoft wants to do good here, it is also possible that, to them, "educational briefings" translates to "brainwashing sessions." And like most people on Slashdot, I hope that Microsoft wants to do the Right Thing here.
Instead of -- or perhaps in addition to, depending on how pissed off they are -- perhaps someone should start an open letter to the RIAA. Have enough community knowledge of and input on it, and it could easily get tens of thousands of (virtual) signatures. Then, maybe, just maybe they would start to give a shit.
If you think windows is buggy you should see windows with tons of inserted corrupted bytes
Corrupted bytes coming in from a CDRW drive shouldn't affect Windows. Unless there are serious problems on your motherboard that are causing bytes to be written to random places in memory, there is no reason why Windows should just crash like that if it used a proper design involving read buffers and the like. If IOCTLs or read commands are failing, fine, but even that shouldn't kill Windows. Windows crashing on faulty CDs or even a faulty CD drive is an example of really bad design.
As someone who has had his credit card number stolen from web sites before, I can say that it sure would help to be notified when a database containing my credit card numbers has been compromised. When it happened to me, I didn't find out until whoever got the numbers actually started trying to use them. And then, I only really found out because the web site they were trying to use my CC # on -- eBay -- notifies a credit card's owner whenever the card is used on their site. I don't know what site was hacked to get my credit card number, but had it not been for eBay's notifications, I may have lost a huge chunk of money.
When a corporation's profits decline, they should figure out ways to compete through better products, higher efficiency, simply better marketing.
You have a point, but I place some of the blame on the government here. The government is making it so that corporations don't have to compete, period. Through such things as ignoring anti-trust laws, giving mere wrist-slaps to known monopoly abusers (*ahem*Microsoft), permitting mergers between such already huge corporations as AOL and TW, etc., I am convinced that the government has all but given up on enforcing anything related to protecting the consumer. The way things are going right now, there will eventually be a small handful of corporations controlling a very large portion of our lives, and the government will have allowed this to happen.
But now do the math and sum up all the component needed to build your computer. Now look at the price for the same computer already mounted with the same parts AND Windows... TADA !!! Your hand mounted computer cost more than the mounted one with Windows...:((
If I'm interpreting what you said correctly, you're saying that it costs no less to hand-build a PC without Windows than to buy a prebuilt PC with Windows. Because of the MS tax and the labor charges you end up paying the PC manufacturer, this is almost never the case. From my experience building PCs, hand-built PCs generally cost about half as much as prebuilt ones.
Now, explain how much Bertelsmann's bank balance drops if I download a bunch of data that a given application on a given OS might interpret as a "song" by Britney Spears.
Their account balance will drop when they pay your psychiatrist bills after having to listen to Britney.
Why doesn't someone just register in the name of/., and we all use this to read the stories?
Or how about having NYT set up slashdot.nytimes.com, which/.ers could use instead of www.nytimes.com? This way, we wouldn't have to register and they would still know that/.ers were reading the site, so they could still target their ads. Both sides win.
What the University of Maryland has said is essentially, you have no rights and we will enforce any stupid law that is passed. See their Guidelines for the Acceptable Use of Computing Resources [umd.edu] and A Guide to the Legal and Ethical Use of Software for Members of the Academic Community [umd.edu] and judge for yourself. Both of the documents have a silly little circled C on them, so I'm not sure if I should even quote them.
[Obvious] In regards to the circled C...if they don't want people to be able to reproduce the guidelines, how the heck do they expect anybody to know what they are, much less follow them?
Hrm. I'm surprised that's not considered tying, which is illegal under the Sherman Act (aka - antitrust act)
Since many cable companies are given monopolies by the local governments, something tells me that this wouldn't necessarily be considered tying. Also, as much as I hate to say this, I doubt the government would do much even if it was illegal tying; ever since AOL-TW was allowed to go through, I have lost all faith in the government's enforcement of antitrust issues.
The SEC called off its investigation in exchange for Microsoft's promise that it will not break the rules in the future
You have got to be fucking kidding me. Microsoft is already a convicted criminal; calling off an investigation of them like this is no different than calling off all charges against a wanted criminal in exchange for their promise that they won't commit any more crimes in the future.
Am I the only weirdo that treats companies the way they treat me
Not by a long shot. Quite arguably, this same thing is going on between the RIAA and a hefty chunk of the p2p-using population. There is a chain reaction between the RIAA mistreating its customers and the customers thanking the RIAA by refusing to play by their rules, and this chain reaction is fueled by exactly what you mentioned. IANA Business Major (IAA EE Major), but even I know that one of the most fundamental principles of business is that your customers will treat you more or less the same way you treat them. Unfortunately, the RIAA doesn't seem to have grasped that concept yet.
Agreed. What will probably happen is that people will initially have to be trained to use these machines.
Initially, you're probably right. But in the future, a sweet advancement of these translators would be to include phrases like 'kicks ass' that aren't literally translated, but instead have a different connotation. This could get a little tricky though, because when translating back and forth you would have to decide whether to use formal translations (e.g. "It would please me for us to defeat the enemy") or informal ones (e.g. "Let's kick the enemy's fucking ass"). People who are bilingual may have already noticed this issue; I speak both Spanish and English, and I have noticed it myself when speaking with people who only speak Spanish.
Slashdot Mirror
I actually have a hotmail account that I use exclusively when I think that giving an account address out will invite spam. The account gets a lot of spam. :)
Here's a fancy trick you can use if you have your own domain: Set up the domain's email so that mail sent to undefined addresses is forwarded to you. Then, when a site like this wants an email address, give them something like latimes@yourdomain.com. This way, they'll be able to contact you, they won't have your real email address, you will not have spent any more effort than you would had you given them your real email address, you'll be able to shut down the address if they spam it, and you will also be able to tell if they sell your address (if you start getting pr0n spam at latimes@yourdomain.com, that's a sign).
Another little tidbit. If anyone has ever dialed 911 on a phone its somewhat interesting. My motorolla v120 will sit in "emergency mode" and do a funny beep. You can't dial any other number until you reset the phone [e.g. power down].
Having called 911 on my cellphone (a Nokia 6120) before, they display "EMERGENCY xxx xxx xxxx" during a 911 call, where xxx xxx xxxx is your cellphone number. You also don't have to power the phone down to return it to normal...just hit the End key like you normally would.
Everything else being equal (or symmetric, with all combinations of programs being used) it is not too far fetched to assume that the faster machine wins on average
Or more accurately, the algorithm with the better implementation.
And this says nothing about the legit filesharing that it'd potentially end.
Do you honestly think that the RIAA gives a shit about this?
How does downloading an MP3s of Hanson music constitute as terrorism
Playing these MP3s within anybody's earshot would certainly qualify as terrorism, I think.
doctored videotape in court
Really? I must not have heard about this one. The thing that irks me, though, is that if a private citizen had done this, they would have been slapped with perjury (and quite possibly contempt) charges very quickly. They would have to pay for what they did, but no, Microsoft doesn't.
To diffuse the inevitable skepticism, the Redmondites have begun educational briefings of industry groups, security experts, government agencies and civil-liberties watchdogs
An "educational briefing." Hrmph. Don't trust those. I'm reminded of the one Simpsons episode where the Movementarians are in town and everyone is being shown an "educational" film on The Leader. They supposedly allow people to leave whenever they want, but they pressure them enough that they don't. Eventually, they are brainwashed.
The point I'm trying to make here is that while it is certainly possible that Microsoft wants to do good here, it is also possible that, to them, "educational briefings" translates to "brainwashing sessions." And like most people on Slashdot, I hope that Microsoft wants to do the Right Thing here.
Best Buy's worst practices for data security
*Comic Book Guy* Worst practices ever!
http://www.riaa.org/Contact.cfm
Instead of -- or perhaps in addition to, depending on how pissed off they are -- perhaps someone should start an open letter to the RIAA. Have enough community knowledge of and input on it, and it could easily get tens of thousands of (virtual) signatures. Then, maybe, just maybe they would start to give a shit.
If media companies really think that their content is so precious and valuable, why don't they just raise the price
Past what they already have the price set at?
If you think windows is buggy you should see windows with tons of inserted corrupted bytes
Corrupted bytes coming in from a CDRW drive shouldn't affect Windows. Unless there are serious problems on your motherboard that are causing bytes to be written to random places in memory, there is no reason why Windows should just crash like that if it used a proper design involving read buffers and the like. If IOCTLs or read commands are failing, fine, but even that shouldn't kill Windows. Windows crashing on faulty CDs or even a faulty CD drive is an example of really bad design.
putting reporters and editors at risk of arrest if they go to Zimbabwe
Sounds almost like the Dmitry Sklyarov case...
As someone who has had his credit card number stolen from web sites before, I can say that it sure would help to be notified when a database containing my credit card numbers has been compromised. When it happened to me, I didn't find out until whoever got the numbers actually started trying to use them. And then, I only really found out because the web site they were trying to use my CC # on -- eBay -- notifies a credit card's owner whenever the card is used on their site. I don't know what site was hacked to get my credit card number, but had it not been for eBay's notifications, I may have lost a huge chunk of money.
Do you want mint condition cowshit or do you have mint condition CD's ?
Same thing. They're Britney CDs, remember.
When a corporation's profits decline, they should figure out ways to compete through better products, higher efficiency, simply better marketing.
You have a point, but I place some of the blame on the government here. The government is making it so that corporations don't have to compete, period. Through such things as ignoring anti-trust laws, giving mere wrist-slaps to known monopoly abusers (*ahem*Microsoft), permitting mergers between such already huge corporations as AOL and TW, etc., I am convinced that the government has all but given up on enforcing anything related to protecting the consumer. The way things are going right now, there will eventually be a small handful of corporations controlling a very large portion of our lives, and the government will have allowed this to happen.
But now do the math and sum up all the component needed to build your computer. Now look at the price for the same computer already mounted with the same parts AND Windows... TADA !!! Your hand mounted computer cost more than the mounted one with Windows... :((
If I'm interpreting what you said correctly, you're saying that it costs no less to hand-build a PC without Windows than to buy a prebuilt PC with Windows. Because of the MS tax and the labor charges you end up paying the PC manufacturer, this is almost never the case. From my experience building PCs, hand-built PCs generally cost about half as much as prebuilt ones.
Now, explain how much Bertelsmann's bank balance drops if I download a bunch of data that a given application on a given OS might interpret as a "song" by Britney Spears.
Their account balance will drop when they pay your psychiatrist bills after having to listen to Britney.
Why doesn't someone just register in the name of /., and we all use this to read the stories?
/.ers could use instead of www.nytimes.com? This way, we wouldn't have to register and they would still know that /.ers were reading the site, so they could still target their ads. Both sides win.
Or how about having NYT set up slashdot.nytimes.com, which
What the University of Maryland has said is essentially, you have no rights and we will enforce any stupid law that is passed. See their Guidelines for the Acceptable Use of Computing Resources [umd.edu] and A Guide to the Legal and Ethical Use of Software for Members of the Academic Community [umd.edu] and judge for yourself. Both of the documents have a silly little circled C on them, so I'm not sure if I should even quote them.
[Obvious] In regards to the circled C...if they don't want people to be able to reproduce the guidelines, how the heck do they expect anybody to know what they are, much less follow them?
Hrm. I'm surprised that's not considered tying, which is illegal under the Sherman Act (aka - antitrust act)
Since many cable companies are given monopolies by the local governments, something tells me that this wouldn't necessarily be considered tying. Also, as much as I hate to say this, I doubt the government would do much even if it was illegal tying; ever since AOL-TW was allowed to go through, I have lost all faith in the government's enforcement of antitrust issues.
The SEC called off its investigation in exchange for Microsoft's promise that it will not break the rules in the future
You have got to be fucking kidding me. Microsoft is already a convicted criminal; calling off an investigation of them like this is no different than calling off all charges against a wanted criminal in exchange for their promise that they won't commit any more crimes in the future.
Am I the only weirdo that treats companies the way they treat me
Not by a long shot. Quite arguably, this same thing is going on between the RIAA and a hefty chunk of the p2p-using population. There is a chain reaction between the RIAA mistreating its customers and the customers thanking the RIAA by refusing to play by their rules, and this chain reaction is fueled by exactly what you mentioned. IANA Business Major (IAA EE Major), but even I know that one of the most fundamental principles of business is that your customers will treat you more or less the same way you treat them. Unfortunately, the RIAA doesn't seem to have grasped that concept yet.
I may as well just _buy_ a degree
May I suggest the following outlet then?
U N I V E R S I T YD I P L O M A S
or maybe haXor to newbie
Google already does haXor, so maybe this isn't so far off.
Agreed. What will probably happen is that people will initially have to be trained to use these machines.
Initially, you're probably right. But in the future, a sweet advancement of these translators would be to include phrases like 'kicks ass' that aren't literally translated, but instead have a different connotation. This could get a little tricky though, because when translating back and forth you would have to decide whether to use formal translations (e.g. "It would please me for us to defeat the enemy") or informal ones (e.g. "Let's kick the enemy's fucking ass"). People who are bilingual may have already noticed this issue; I speak both Spanish and English, and I have noticed it myself when speaking with people who only speak Spanish.