MySQL? Isn't the integrity and correctness of elections kind of important?
Well, acording to the article, it will only be used for the preliminary results. If anything goes wrong here, we will still have the correct results a few day afterwards (which is still faster than the US;-)).
Great, that means I can't listen to my music, DVDs, use my software when I am on holidays, on a business trip or at my second home?
Of course not. The music industry is loosing several billion dollars per year due to the the unauthorized use of purchased media in secondary locations. The second edition of the DCMA will provide legal measures against that.
A GPL product can always get away with it, because any addition to the product is a derived work, and all derived works belong to the author of the original work,...
This is plain wrong. A derieved work is copyrighted by the author of the original and the author of the derivation. As a result, the orginal author needs the derivation's author's permission to distribute the derivation and vice-versa. If it wasn't like that, most Hollywood companies would not own their movies because they are derivations of the novel adapted...
While the flood fill routing was a good scheme when NNTP was developed and the number of nodes was small it is needlessly wasteful now that we have hundreds of thousands of NNTP servers, it is just not necessary to have that level of redundancy to route arround censorship.
I believe this is no longer true for binary Usenet. There are a few hosts that carry binary newsgroups in a usable way (having some 100MB is not useful). Most servers can't handle the traffic induced by binary newsgroups.
Re:Counterpoints to all of Jeremy Nixon's main poi
on
Usenet Encoding: yEnc
·
· Score: 2
There is no reason to despise magic strings. They work, and cannot ever occur in the user data. All yEnc magic strings start with =y, = being the escape character. Ctrl-Y does not need to be encoded, so yEnc is free to use =y for it's own purposes (e.g. =ybegin, =yend). Jeremy Nixon continues his misled rant...
Nowhere does the yEnc spec talk about "Ctrl-Y" (octet value 25). It does talk about "=y", being the equal sign (ASCII 61) and the Latin small letter y (ASCII 121). This character sequence, of course, can appear in any text message.
Garbled source code is no longer what the GPL defines as "source code": The GPL defines source code as the form preferred for making changes. A pseudo-source isn't that.
If I can get a 47% performance improvement by recompiling some of my applications, terrific. Replacing the server...
The average server does not do heavy number-crunching. First, the impact of CPU speed is very low for most server tasks; often the CPU just waits for harddisk, network interface, etc. Then, only "numerically intense CPU performance improved by 47%" (quote from original article). For applications other than number-crunching, such as normal user applications or daemons, you won't get such big improvements... if you'd get improvements at all.
Today, the real dynamic and successful projects are mostly non-GNU: KDE, Apache, Linux, Wine, etc.
Well, although the Linux kernel is not a GNU project, most of the userland programmes that make up the OS are. Without GNU, Linux would just be useless. (This is also why it should really be called GNU/Linux.)
You'd think THEY would be the ones to release a compiler into open source so they could get the rest of the world looking at how to do even more optimizations for their chips.
No. As of now, their CPUs are the only ones that profit from their optimizations. If they released the source code, the same optimization techniques might be introduced into compilers for other platforms. (On the other hand, their optimizations heavily rely on features only present in their CPUs.)
Apparently there was no creative work done before the advent of IP law. Nobody wrote songs, wrote books, told stories, wrote plays or anything before IP was invented.
Historically, the invention of copyright came briefly after the invention of printing. I don't think that was coincidence.
You may have purchased a copy of the software, but you have not purchased the right to use that copy. [...] Insane? Absolutely.
This is why it is only true in (pardon the pun) absolutely insane legal systems. The EU Copyright Directive uses a completly different approach: If you buy a copy, you may use it. Period. The Directive does not say what to do with shrinkwrap licenses but in Germany, for example, it has no legal siginifcance at all. (This is not due to lack of consideration, a concept alien to Continental European law. It's simply because the user can not be said to have concluded an agreement just by clicking on a button to use the software s/he already has paid for.) Then there are strong laws that nullify clauses of a contract that a surprising or unreasonable. This, however, has not yet been noticed by lawyers of US-centric software companies; they simply translate the licenses to produce a "foreign version".
The problem with the SmoothWall developers is that they completly fail to understand that security is always only a probability. A complex product can never have 100% security. Every part of the system has a (hopefully low) propability to be successfully hacked. The more barriers you have, the securer your system is.
It's also worth nothing that the only interactive account is root. There are daemons running under different user ids (I assume in favor of the SW team). As with every remote exploit, these daemons are the entry gates. Also note that remote exploits by definition don't relate to any interactive accounts!
Now, if one service has been hacked, the whole system is already compromised because there are no shadow passwords, files have the wrong permissions, etc. You can argue about the passwort files for remote connections. You can't argue about not using shadow passwords, that's just plain stupid.
It's like leaving your safe unlocked because there is already the locked front door...
That does not matter because we don't know how to do it better and still want to sell our product you ignored the fact that the CGI interface is already password protected.
... c't publishes an article that completly pans a very hyped product. Of course, the author/vendor/manufacturer then loudly complains and quotes several articles from other respectec computer magazines that say his product is OK and c't is wrong.
In most of these cases, c't is right. I think we can expect an exploit very soon...;-)
The Hauge Convention is not the WIPO Copyright Treaty.
The WIPO Copyright Treaty is the next step in a series of international IP treatys, besides a lot of sane stuff it also includes the no circumvention devices clause. I'm not sure whether the DMCA implements the WIPO CT in the US or the WIPO CT was influenced by the DMCA (or drafts thereof).
The Hague Conventions makes cross-border litigation easier. That is, for example, if someone sends you a mail bomb from abroad, you can sue him in your country, which is actually a good idea. The only problem is with broadcast mediums such as Internet: Here it means that you can be sued everywhere where your posted stuff can be received. (Please note that many countries already have bilateral treaties like the HC, including the US and most of Europe. It's only that the majority people don't make use of it even if it was possible.)
Yes, this seems to be a big problem which is currently underestimated.
The international criminal law of most countries tends to be mostly concerned about how to catch "criminals" that act from abroad. So usually every offense that has the slightest relation to a country can be brought in action at courts of this country. The same problem exists with international private law: In the case of torts or IP infringment one can go to the courts of the own country and the applicable law is the law of that country.
This of course is very unfortunate: If you want to publish something on the WWW, Usenet, etc. you would have to check the laws of every country you plan to visit (or have extradition or long-arm treaties with such countries). In my opinion, we need international treaty that establish a principle of country of origin for all material posted on international networks (even personal email). So one would only have to check the laws of the country one is in, maybe the country of the ISP/webspace provider/... (if different).
Hmm...you think that has something to do with the fact that the prices for the Euro in the currencies of participating countries were set three years ago?
The Euro has actually been fluctuating since 1999. Only the cash had strange denominations.
MacOSX is based on a BSD/Mach Kernel. But that doesnt make it Unix.
Yes, it does make it a Unix.
It does not make it X11 or even KDE, GNOME, etc.
Unfortunatly, the GUI is the part that requires the biggest effort to port a programme, especially if you want to conform to conventions of a desktop environment. All other differences between operating environments are more or less trivial.
Sorry, not true, you don't own that currency, it is the property of the federal government. I don't like it either but that's the way it is.
At least for Germany (which is in the Euro zone), this is plain wrong. The money is owned by whoever owns it. There are only some rights the government still has (such as copyright).
Slashdot Mirror
I wonder if adding NS records for the bogous in-addr.arpa domains would help, i.e.:
168.192.in-addr.arpa NS 192.168.1.1
10.in-addr.arpa NS 10.0.0.1
...
If it wasn't like that, most Hollywood companies would not own their movies because they are derivations of the novel adapted...
This character sequence, of course, can appear in any text message.
Inform yourself before propagating such nonsense!
Yeah, and the hole is an error in doing it manually instead of leaving it to the compiler...
Garbled source code is no longer what the GPL defines as "source code": The GPL defines source code as the form preferred for making changes. A pseudo-source isn't that.
Then, only "numerically intense CPU performance improved by 47%" (quote from original article). For applications other than number-crunching, such as normal user applications or daemons, you won't get such big improvements
Well, although the Linux kernel is not a GNU project, most of the userland programmes that make up the OS are. Without GNU, Linux would just be useless. (This is also why it should really be called GNU/Linux.)
(On the other hand, their optimizations heavily rely on features only present in their CPUs.)
Historically, the invention of copyright came briefly after the invention of printing. I don't think that was coincidence.
This is why it is only true in (pardon the pun) absolutely insane legal systems. The EU Copyright Directive uses a completly different approach: If you buy a copy, you may use it. Period. The Directive does not say what to do with shrinkwrap licenses but in Germany, for example, it has no legal siginifcance at all. (This is not due to lack of consideration, a concept alien to Continental European law. It's simply because the user can not be said to have concluded an agreement just by clicking on a button to use the software s/he already has paid for.)
Then there are strong laws that nullify clauses of a contract that a surprising or unreasonable.
This, however, has not yet been noticed by lawyers of US-centric software companies; they simply translate the licenses to produce a "foreign version".
Every part of the system has a (hopefully low) propability to be successfully hacked. The more barriers you have, the securer your system is.
It's also worth nothing that the only interactive account is root. There are daemons running under different user ids (I assume in favor of the SW team). As with every remote exploit, these daemons are the entry gates. Also note that remote exploits by definition don't relate to any interactive accounts!
Now, if one service has been hacked, the whole system is already compromised because there are no shadow passwords, files have the wrong permissions, etc.
You can argue about the passwort files for remote connections. You can't argue about not using shadow passwords, that's just plain stupid.
It's like leaving your safe unlocked because there is already the locked front door...
That does not matter because we don't know how to do it better and still want to sell our product you ignored the fact that the CGI interface is already password protected.
In most of these cases, c't is right. I think we can expect an exploit very soon... ;-)
The Hauge Convention is not the WIPO Copyright Treaty.
The WIPO Copyright Treaty is the next step in a series of international IP treatys, besides a lot of sane stuff it also includes the no circumvention devices clause. I'm not sure whether the DMCA implements the WIPO CT in the US or the WIPO CT was influenced by the DMCA (or drafts thereof).
The Hague Conventions makes cross-border litigation easier. That is, for example, if someone sends you a mail bomb from abroad, you can sue him in your country, which is actually a good idea. The only problem is with broadcast mediums such as Internet: Here it means that you can be sued everywhere where your posted stuff can be received. (Please note that many countries already have bilateral treaties like the HC, including the US and most of Europe. It's only that the majority people don't make use of it even if it was possible.)
... or just wait until she/he sets her/his foot on domestic ground.
Yes, this seems to be a big problem which is currently underestimated.
The international criminal law of most countries tends to be mostly concerned about how to catch "criminals" that act from abroad. So usually every offense that has the slightest relation to a country can be brought in action at courts of this country. The same problem exists with international private law: In the case of torts or IP infringment one can go to the courts of the own country and the applicable law is the law of that country.
This of course is very unfortunate: If you want to publish something on the WWW, Usenet, etc. you would have to check the laws of every country you plan to visit (or have extradition or long-arm treaties with such countries). In my opinion, we need international treaty that establish a principle of country of origin for all material posted on international networks (even personal email). So one would only have to check the laws of the country one is in, maybe the country of the ISP/webspace provider/... (if different).
The Euro has actually been fluctuating since 1999. Only the cash had strange denominations.
Yes, it does make it a Unix.
It does not make it X11 or even KDE, GNOME, etc.
Unfortunatly, the GUI is the part that requires the biggest effort to port a programme, especially if you want to conform to conventions of a desktop environment. All other differences between operating environments are more or less trivial.
Well, all you need then is a programme loader and you don't need to port the apps at all.
At least for Germany (which is in the Euro zone), this is plain wrong. The money is owned by whoever owns it. There are only some rights the government still has (such as copyright).