Either our proxy is screwed up badly, or there's only been 3 or so comments posted on this so far. This surprises me, because I've always heard of Plan 9 as a system with some very revolutionary ways of doing things. Its release as open source is great for people like me who a) love playing, and b) are strongly principled on such things.
I plan to play with this soon, but I am curious. What exactly about Plan 9 is so special? I've heard things about its GUI, or something...
Things might even go further. When in a movie someone 'plays' the bad guy, we know this is only pretending on the part of the actor. How does playing a rapist reflect on the actor's character? Not badly I hope. And does this translate to someone playing a rapist in an online RPG?
Good question, and one I've wondered about for quite some time, especially after reading A Rape in Cyberspace.
I've noticed that online (not just in MUDs), the line between genuine interaction and roleplaying can get very easily blurred. Often, even though those involved may not realize it, a story is being played out. What if one of the players has a different story in mind than the others? Can they be charged with a crime if they "rape", "murder", or "discriminate against" another? It's just part of the story, right? Just words on a screen...
First, a quick one. Have you applied for your own top-level-domain (like.us,.uk, etc)? Do you plan to?
Secondly, how do you plan to handle "controversial" materials? There was a story on/. recently about someone who had their Web site removed because they expressed religious views some script kiddies disagreed with. How far are you willing to go to defend my right to say X on your servers, if that reduces your ability to serve pages?
Also, what about illegal material? Granted, you fall under Sealand's laws, but that won't help if all the major countries label you a terrorist or a con man or something. How will you respond to not-so-subtle pressure to remove certain sites, if it doesn't violate your AUP? If you stand up to them, do you have redundant Internet connections in case one of them is through a country that doesn't like you?
Seems way too vague on certain points. "I am an expert on, uh, stuff. I, er, hacked my way in." And the volume of logs, documents, etc seems a little high. Is this an attempt to smear a helpless company he doesn't like?
Of course, there are a number of ways he could have gotten a trojan onto her system. (Determining an IP address would be as simple as creating a little Java applet that "calls home" and get her to visit its Web page.) She seems quite gullible.
I've done that. PostScript can get kind of tricky though, especially if there's any kerning involved. So instead of having "(foobarbaz) show", you have "(f) show.3 0 rmoveto (oobarbaz) show" or similar. It makes the documents look pretty, but it's a pain to read. ps2tty and similar programs get screwed up by this too, but less often than I'd think.
The changes are almost all (except for voice and language translation) in what is practical. There are lots of things being done that weren't feasable back then. Lots of things that were discussed but then the prof would say "of course, you would never do this, because nobody could afford that much RAM/CPU time/Disk space".
Sadly, that isn't what it gets used for. Instead of, for example, handling bigger arrays easily, programmers just make their array code less efficient. Faster computer, slower code, same effect.
I never got around to installing GhostScript on this machine, and I'm too lazy to do it now. I'll have to read it when I get home.
Regarding Microsoft, though, I'm not so sure how they do "real innovation". Most of what I've seen is them taking an existing idea, sometimes in the prototype phase, and then hyping it real loud. Take the IntelliMouse Explorer. Great mouse; I use it myself. But on the box, Microsoft pretty much claims to have invented optical mice, the hot new thing. Give me a break.
From what I've heard, NT was originally quite similar to VMS. I'm not enough of an OS guru to make deep analyses of this kind of thing, but I read that the developers truly wanted to make it a "better UNIX than UNIX", but management kept getting in the way (similar to Windows... Bill Gates canceled some good ideas because he wanted "Mac on the PC").
In many cases, the problem with Microsoft is not the idea, but the implementation. I think if they slowed down and concentrated on perfecting their existing software instead of "innovating" every day, they could produce some great stuff. As it is, it's like they're always in beta.
I think he was saying in terms of dogma. He's right, too... Malcom X was much louder and harsher, if you will, with his message than MLK. RMS is much louder and harsher than ESR. This harshness is not a bad thing.
I think ESR means well, but that RMS is sadly right. Without things such as the copyleft, giantsoullesscorporations will steal anything that's not bolted down. It's a shame that people have to be forced into playing nice, but that's the way the world is.
First, RMS is right. The license is kind of screwy, and the whole situation is just the Open Group trying to salvage a toolkit that not many people care about any more.
However. Regardless of their motives, they're doing a Nice Thing by releasing their source. In their FAQ (which I can't get to right now; their site seems to be down), they actually state, "we'd like to release it more freely, but we have preexisting contracts." AFAIK, they want to release it under a freer license later.
It's important that people recognize the licensing issues, and it's true that at this point, it can't be used by free software. But RMS should at least acknowledge the fact that they're trying. Not everything is an evil conspiracy to undermine free software. A lot of things, but not everything. =)
Too bad they have a.com domain just like everybody else. I would really like to see them get their own TLD.
Come to think of it, that might not be a bad idea, haven-wise. Other TLDs are administered by governments or private companies, so sites could still be vulnerable. If there was a TLD for Sealand, that would be one less way to deny access.
Another place I've seen extreme microfilaments mentioned was in Orson Scott Card's Wyrms . The protagonist, a 15-year old heiress trained as an assassin, kept a very thin (i.e., molecules wide...) cord in her hair for strangling herself if necessary. Wyrms is a great book, BTW. Very strange in places but flows extremely well.
Whoa, cool! I just found you can read Chapter 1 of all his stories at his official site. And it turns out she's 13. The "loop" is mentioned in the preview chapter.
The idea of extremely thin weapons isn't unique (haven't read Stephenson yet BTW but really need to...). I've seen it mentioned in at least one Star Trek book. In the story, a net of molecule-wide cords was stretched between several ships, who then flew by their enemy. The other ship disintegrated within seconds.
Another place I've seen extreme microfilaments mentioned was in Orson Scott Card's Wyrms. The protagonist, a 15-year old heiress trained as an assassin, kept a very thin (i.e., molecules wide...) cord in her hair for strangling herself if necessary. Wyrms is a great book, BTW. Very strange in places but flows extremely well.
Except that they all produce crap HTML. Word's output gives me nightmares, and I just looked at a document produced by StarOffice. Sadly, it was even worse.
HTML can really only be written by a person who understands the format, its advantages, and its limitations. A tool that produces good HTML could help them, but is useless in the hands of an idiot.
LaTeX2HTML is nice because it assumes you know how to write elegant LaTeX documents, and translates those into relatively elegant HTML documents.
The timing on this could not have been worse. Although 350MB is still ridiculously large, this will lend credence to the claims that DeCSS is aiding piracy.
On a more technical note, assuming you decrypted a DVD and re-encoded it with the new format, how much shrinkage would occur? Could you burn a DVD onto a CD? Or, more possibly, onto several CDs?
Now that I think about it, this could aid the fight against the MPAA. What if I want to buy a DVD, but don't have a player? Could I get a friend to copy my brand-new, legal DVD onto several CDs for me, so I could watch them at home? Copying for portability or backups is legal, remember...
This actual purpose of the mirror is to reflect laser attacks.
I wasn't talking about simply bouncing attacks back; that is perfectly fair. I was talking about systems that automatically take further intentional action to disable the attacker.
As those who were involved know, the brief was a lot shorter than it could have been, for good tactical reasons. But I was fairly well amazed at the depth and quality of legal arguments which the non-lawyer participants came up with on their own, backed up by legal research they had never done before.
It was also extremely classy that they used a link to a First Amendment ruling in the example of how HTML works. Great work, people, and keep it up!
The MPAA has some serious arrogance going on here. In their own brief, they cite a number of emails, most of which are not threatening and simply state the senders' dissatisfaction with the MPAA. Some are obscene, but a number are not. If they don't want feedback, they shouldn't have email. Plain and simple.
And what is this?!?!
8. On May 24, 2000, a country manager for the MPAA in Malaysia was returning home from dinner with a female friend when the two were confronted by a man who brutally slashed the friend's face, inflicting a wound which required 22 stitches to close. Again, while I do not suggest that defendants were responsible for this attack, I believe, based on the circumstances known to me, that the attacker intended to hurt the MPAA representative, rather than her companion, because the MPAA representative had received threats recently as the result of her anti-piracy work, and that this deplorable incident reflects the very real danger faced by MPAA personnel and others who work to fight piracy in an increasingly contentious atmosphere. Similar incidents have occurred in the past.
He is blaming DVD activists for the attacks of a street thug. The sheer gall amazes me.
If you have an automated defense system, I don't see as how that is "taking the law into your own hands," you are just protecting your system against intuders and ensuring they won't come back.
The key here is the word "automated". If you personally go after an attacker, you can justify it by taking appropriate measures not to hurt innocent bystanders. Automating the system is similar to mounting a motion-tracking laser-guided machine gun on your front porch. Sure, it'll get the burglars, but what about salespeople, Girl Scouts, and friends you forgot to turn the gun off for?
... and rip off of everyone else who wrote the Jargon File before ESR even knew what the hell a computer was?
Touché. But at least he didn't pull an "embrace and extend", selling it in paper form and then disallowing its redistribution. I'm pretty sure he credits the appropriate people in the foreward, and it's not a bad thing to have it available for the general public. Although I had basically learned the hacker ethic by myself, finding this book in my local library was my first introduction to the larger community. I still browse it online from time to time.
Before ESR, it was Guy Steele, who you might know as the author of both CLtL2 and the JLS (or some Java book, I forget which).
Slashdot Mirror
Windows does not allow competence.
I plan to play with this soon, but I am curious. What exactly about Plan 9 is so special? I've heard things about its GUI, or something...
I hope CNet sues DoubleClick now.
Good question, and one I've wondered about for quite some time, especially after reading A Rape in Cyberspace.
I've noticed that online (not just in MUDs), the line between genuine interaction and roleplaying can get very easily blurred. Often, even though those involved may not realize it, a story is being played out. What if one of the players has a different story in mind than the others? Can they be charged with a crime if they "rape", "murder", or "discriminate against" another? It's just part of the story, right? Just words on a screen...
You guys should run a big FreeNet node.
Secondly, how do you plan to handle "controversial" materials? There was a story on /. recently about someone who had their Web site removed because they expressed religious views some script kiddies disagreed with. How far are you willing to go to defend my right to say X on your servers, if that reduces your ability to serve pages?
Also, what about illegal material? Granted, you fall under Sealand's laws, but that won't help if all the major countries label you a terrorist or a con man or something. How will you respond to not-so-subtle pressure to remove certain sites, if it doesn't violate your AUP? If you stand up to them, do you have redundant Internet connections in case one of them is through a country that doesn't like you?
Of course, there are a number of ways he could have gotten a trojan onto her system. (Determining an IP address would be as simple as creating a little Java applet that "calls home" and get her to visit its Web page.) She seems quite gullible.
I've done that. PostScript can get kind of tricky though, especially if there's any kerning involved. So instead of having "(foobarbaz) show", you have "(f) show .3 0 rmoveto (oobarbaz) show" or similar. It makes the documents look pretty, but it's a pain to read. ps2tty and similar programs get screwed up by this too, but less often than I'd think.
Sadly, that isn't what it gets used for. Instead of, for example, handling bigger arrays easily, programmers just make their array code less efficient. Faster computer, slower code, same effect.
Regarding Microsoft, though, I'm not so sure how they do "real innovation". Most of what I've seen is them taking an existing idea, sometimes in the prototype phase, and then hyping it real loud. Take the IntelliMouse Explorer. Great mouse; I use it myself. But on the box, Microsoft pretty much claims to have invented optical mice, the hot new thing. Give me a break.
From what I've heard, NT was originally quite similar to VMS. I'm not enough of an OS guru to make deep analyses of this kind of thing, but I read that the developers truly wanted to make it a "better UNIX than UNIX", but management kept getting in the way (similar to Windows... Bill Gates canceled some good ideas because he wanted "Mac on the PC").
In many cases, the problem with Microsoft is not the idea, but the implementation. I think if they slowed down and concentrated on perfecting their existing software instead of "innovating" every day, they could produce some great stuff. As it is, it's like they're always in beta.
Oops... Pretty funny too. =)
I wrote a Java class to convert dates automatically...
I think ESR means well, but that RMS is sadly right. Without things such as the copyleft, giant soulless corporations will steal anything that's not bolted down. It's a shame that people have to be forced into playing nice, but that's the way the world is.
However. Regardless of their motives, they're doing a Nice Thing by releasing their source. In their FAQ (which I can't get to right now; their site seems to be down), they actually state, "we'd like to release it more freely, but we have preexisting contracts." AFAIK, they want to release it under a freer license later.
It's important that people recognize the licensing issues, and it's true that at this point, it can't be used by free software. But RMS should at least acknowledge the fact that they're trying. Not everything is an evil conspiracy to undermine free software. A lot of things, but not everything. =)
Come to think of it, that might not be a bad idea, haven-wise. Other TLDs are administered by governments or private companies, so sites could still be vulnerable. If there was a TLD for Sealand, that would be one less way to deny access.
Whoa, cool! I just found you can read Chapter 1 of all his stories at his official site. And it turns out she's 13. The "loop" is mentioned in the preview chapter.
Another place I've seen extreme microfilaments mentioned was in Orson Scott Card's Wyrms . The protagonist, a 15-year old heiress trained as an assassin, kept a very thin (i.e., molecules wide...) cord in her hair for strangling herself if necessary. Wyrms is a great book, BTW. Very strange in places but flows extremely well.
HTML can really only be written by a person who understands the format, its advantages, and its limitations. A tool that produces good HTML could help them, but is useless in the hands of an idiot.
LaTeX2HTML is nice because it assumes you know how to write elegant LaTeX documents, and translates those into relatively elegant HTML documents.
On a more technical note, assuming you decrypted a DVD and re-encoded it with the new format, how much shrinkage would occur? Could you burn a DVD onto a CD? Or, more possibly, onto several CDs?
Now that I think about it, this could aid the fight against the MPAA. What if I want to buy a DVD, but don't have a player? Could I get a friend to copy my brand-new, legal DVD onto several CDs for me, so I could watch them at home? Copying for portability or backups is legal, remember...
I wasn't talking about simply bouncing attacks back; that is perfectly fair. I was talking about systems that automatically take further intentional action to disable the attacker.
And what is this?!?!
He is blaming DVD activists for the attacks of a street thug. The sheer gall amazes me.
Another neat one is:
The key here is the word "automated". If you personally go after an attacker, you can justify it by taking appropriate measures not to hurt innocent bystanders. Automating the system is similar to mounting a motion-tracking laser-guided machine gun on your front porch. Sure, it'll get the burglars, but what about salespeople, Girl Scouts, and friends you forgot to turn the gun off for?
Touché. But at least he didn't pull an "embrace and extend", selling it in paper form and then disallowing its redistribution. I'm pretty sure he credits the appropriate people in the foreward, and it's not a bad thing to have it available for the general public. Although I had basically learned the hacker ethic by myself, finding this book in my local library was my first introduction to the larger community. I still browse it online from time to time.
All bow to the great Quux!