Taskbar program grouping takes care of one problem that tabbed-browsing solves, namely having easy access to any number of "windows". It does not, however, solve the "too many windows" problem. Open up 9 firefox Windows and see how unwieldy your desktop is. Furthermore, Alt+Tab also suffers from multiple windows, whereas with tabbed browsing, one Alt+Tab gets you to the browser window, then ctrl+tabs get you to the right tab.
But Gentoo, for example, just automates downloading and patching the source. Unless they were using patented tech in the patch, it would seem that this should fall under the umbrella.
You can use xev and xmodmap to assign just about any input action X expects to just about any key. If you've tried this and it's failing, it may be that you have Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
in your xorg/xf86 config file. I'm not 100% sure how that will interact with xmodmap, but I know it seems to force some mouse buttons to up/down.
Are you actually trying to say that trackballs have fewer moving parts than mice?
Optical mice should have even fewer moving parts than trackballs. And if you bring up the scroll-wheel, you have to consider that many modern trackballs include something similar (and that it's a non-essential component to both trackballs and mice).
For non-optical mice, I could see the mouse having more moving parts (they tend to have 3 wheels to track the ball), but I haven't used a trackball in so long that I don't know for sure how many wheels they actually use.
Re:Virtually Indestructable Keyboard
on
Blank Keyboard
·
· Score: 1
That looks pretty cool. I'd probably buy one if the '\' key were in the right place....
"innocent until proven guilty" hasn't changed. Read a few other Slashdot posts with an open mind. Try not to kneejerk. The point is that he was trying to hide what he was doing, which implies conspiracy and that he knew what he was doing was against the law--all things which change the degree and penalties for the crime.
No one said that PGP is a crime or that it makes someone more likely to be a criminal.
I can only imagine the nightmare this would cause.
While it would be a good way to keep things in check, it would bog down Congress more than they already are, and allow for riders to get in more easily and with less scrutiny. Just imagine:
Democrat: "Oh, looks like the 'murder is illegal' law is expiring. Better make a new one."
Republican: "What an opportunity! We can add a bill to remove freedom of speech while we're at it! And add addendums such that no court (except the Supreme Court, which is backlogged anyway) can overturn the law! And if the Dems vote against it, we'll claim they're murderers! Win/Win!"
This is not to mention the problems police officers would have with laws which could, at any point in time, be in a state of flux. Imagine the unlawful arrest suits when your local government lets jaywalking laws slip, for example.
Of course, the decryption process will watermark your biometric data into the stream, so they'll be able to track distributed copies by biomark. Then should you ever be picked up or suspected for any reason (say, they subpoena your ISP or something) they can prove you did it.
What patches do you recommend, anyway? I've used the Gentoo patchset before, but my machine requires a patch which conflicts with those, so I'm relegated to the vanilla kernel for now.
Depriving people of privacy is a crime? Wow. Didn't know that one.
My SSN is all over the fucking place. In the hands of my mortgage company, my bank, hell, the university where I attended school used it as our Student IDs, so they were all over professor's roll sheets which I/saw/ Profs toss in the trash. For a secret number, it's not so secret.
You want it? Give me your e-mail address. I'm much more afraid of giving that out than my SSN at this point. If you rack up a bunch of charges, I can get it revoked and take action to sue your ass. If I start getting thousands of spams a day, there's not much I can get in the way of retribution.
But you miss the point. You aren't STEALING anything. Stealing deprives them of it. Copying it does not. Not only is your analogy flawed, but there could be a use in copying it that is not unscrupulous.
It doesn't make it any more legal, but it certainly changes the connotation and is affected by the morals of the individual.
yes, theft is a crime, and they think they're immune to such punishment because they didn't do anything with the information. so i guess if i steal $1,000,000, and just keep it under my mattress, it'll be OK.
Same mentality as "stealing" IP. If you steal $1mil but don't do anything with it, you are still depriving someone of their $1mil. If you copy some SSNs, you are depriving no one of anything.
Forgot to address the new version of CSS bit... Yes, a new version of CSS would make things harder. Increasing the key size would make brute forcing it prohibitively difficult. Then they just have to keep tight(er) control over their player keys. Remember, the original DeCSS was written because some software DVD player left its player keys in memory. Once the player key was read, it was a simple matter to write a program to read the encrypted content, decrypt the disc key, decrypt the data, and write out unencrypted content.
Of course, the main problem is backwards compatibility. Changing CSS would mean that new discs wouldn't work in old players. As complacent as we are, I don't think the public will stand for that without getting something in return. That something will be "improved" quality and larger disc sizes (read: blu-ray or HD-DVDs).
The fact is, unless a new format has no computer-readable equivalent (i.e. no blu-ray- or HD-DVD-ROMs) then the next DeCSS is a hacker away from being released. Even if the key isn't left plaintext in memory, it should be recoverable. The best way for the MPAA to secure their next format would be to require players that have to phone home to receive playback authority. The first few DDoS attacks on their servers should be more than enough to convince the public that this is a Bad Idea.
So have you successfully copied a DVD without removing the CSS encryption and then played it back in a DVD player? It's pretty shocking that that worked.
The encryption sequence works as you said. There is a disc key which is used to encrypt the data on the disc. It can be just about anything the RIAA wants. the disc key is encrypted with a player key, which every player in the world must have. The encrypted key is stored on the disc in an area which is non-writeable. As such, if you tried to perform a bit-for-bit copy of the disc, you would not have the encrypted key. Without the encrypted key, the player key is useless--it won't be able decrypt any of the data on the disc.
The main differences, in addition to recording wavelength, are that DVD-R(G) uses decrementing pre-pit addresses, a pre-stamped (version 1.0) or pre-recorded (version 1.1) control area, CPRM, and allows double-sided discs.
and
There are three kinds of DVD-RW discs. All are 4.7G capacity. Version 1.0 discs, rarely found outside of Japan, have an embossed lead-in (to prevent copying of CSS information), which causes compatibility problems. Version 1.1 discs have a pre-recorded lead-in that improves compatibility.
Unsure. I think $20/ep is a bit steep, though. Even for new content.
Currently, one of the highest cost TV shows is Star Trek. MSRP is $130 for season 1, 29 episodes. That's about $4.50 per episode. Season 2 runs the same price for 26 episodes, or $5 per episode. Same for Enterprise season 1. Babylon 5 has similar costs.
For comparison, Buffy: the Vampire Slayer's MSRP for a complete season (say, season 2) is $60 for 22 episodes, or about $2.75. Dead Like Me goes for about $4.25/ep, Penn and Teller's Bullshit goes for about $3, etc. Highest show I can find is $5/ep.
For new content? I'd expect maybe $10, tops. $20 would be far too expensive, as that's approaching the MSRP for a full length movie complete with features, etc.
The question will be whether die-hard fans will be the ONLY ones who see the show when it gets a wide release. The show pretty clearly had a huge fanbase (given the record sales on Amazon and pre-screenings that sell out before they're announced) but even if every fan sees the movie once, it won't be enough to warrant a sequel if no one else sees it.
I was lucky enough to attend one of the first 10 screenings. I think the film is good enough to make it on its own except for the character development. Firefly fans won't have a problem here, but with 9 characters to deal with, there just isn't enough time in a 2 hour movie to really introduce them all, much less give any real information about them which would let them shine. I hope this doesn't detract from the film for the general audience.
Universal currently has a contract to make (I believe) as many Firefly movies as they want (there are currently talks of having it be a trilogy). However no one can make a Firefly TV show for something like 3 years.. so maybe after that we'll see a revamp of the show, although Mutant Enemy would be fools to try to get it on Fox.
Re:Since when did time off cost anyone anything?
on
Star Wars Sickout
·
· Score: 1
I think it's got to be slightly incorrect to call it lost funds.
People who take a day off for any reason tend to do one of things: 1) Unpaid vacation--the company doesn't pay them, only loss is in productivity. How much does your company make because you're there? (consider that you'll probably have to make the work up, or have someone cover for you). 2) Paid vacation--The company gave them the option to take days off for whatever their heart desires--no loss of money or productivity that wasn't already built into the system. 3) Sick day--again, days that are built into the system, but the yearly rollover is likely different, as is the payout after termination. Could be that the company loses money here if they don't give an eventual payout and if the sick day wouldn't have eventually been used.
The only way a company loses money they wouldn't normally lose from having someone take a day off is if that time isn't built into the system. I don't know of any company for which this is the case.
Slashdot Mirror
Taskbar program grouping takes care of one problem that tabbed-browsing solves, namely having easy access to any number of "windows". It does not, however, solve the "too many windows" problem. Open up 9 firefox Windows and see how unwieldy your desktop is. Furthermore, Alt+Tab also suffers from multiple windows, whereas with tabbed browsing, one Alt+Tab gets you to the browser window, then ctrl+tabs get you to the right tab.
And a long time ago?
Where are you finding Netgear routers for $0.02?!?
But Gentoo, for example, just automates downloading and patching the source. Unless they were using patented tech in the patch, it would seem that this should fall under the umbrella.
How are you trying to assign it?
You can use xev and xmodmap to assign just about any input action X expects to just about any key. If you've tried this and it's failing, it may be that you have Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
in your xorg/xf86 config file. I'm not 100% sure how that will interact with xmodmap, but I know it seems to force some mouse buttons to up/down.
Are you actually trying to say that trackballs have fewer moving parts than mice?
Optical mice should have even fewer moving parts than trackballs. And if you bring up the scroll-wheel, you have to consider that many modern trackballs include something similar (and that it's a non-essential component to both trackballs and mice).
For non-optical mice, I could see the mouse having more moving parts (they tend to have 3 wheels to track the ball), but I haven't used a trackball in so long that I don't know for sure how many wheels they actually use.
That looks pretty cool. I'd probably buy one if the '\' key were in the right place....
"innocent until proven guilty" hasn't changed. Read a few other Slashdot posts with an open mind. Try not to kneejerk. The point is that he was trying to hide what he was doing, which implies conspiracy and that he knew what he was doing was against the law--all things which change the degree and penalties for the crime.
No one said that PGP is a crime or that it makes someone more likely to be a criminal.
I can only imagine the nightmare this would cause.
While it would be a good way to keep things in check, it would bog down Congress more than they already are, and allow for riders to get in more easily and with less scrutiny. Just imagine:
Democrat: "Oh, looks like the 'murder is illegal' law is expiring. Better make a new one."
Republican: "What an opportunity! We can add a bill to remove freedom of speech while we're at it! And add addendums such that no court (except the Supreme Court, which is backlogged anyway) can overturn the law! And if the Dems vote against it, we'll claim they're murderers! Win/Win!"
This is not to mention the problems police officers would have with laws which could, at any point in time, be in a state of flux. Imagine the unlawful arrest suits when your local government lets jaywalking laws slip, for example.
Of course, the decryption process will watermark your biometric data into the stream, so they'll be able to track distributed copies by biomark. Then should you ever be picked up or suspected for any reason (say, they subpoena your ISP or something) they can prove you did it.
What patches do you recommend, anyway? I've used the Gentoo patchset before, but my machine requires a patch which conflicts with those, so I'm relegated to the vanilla kernel for now.
Precisely. Finally, one reasonablly intelligent poster.
If I posted a name and SSN, would you really believe it was mine? My guess? You'd figure I was faking it and you'd still claim I was full of shit.
Depriving people of privacy is a crime? Wow. Didn't know that one.
/saw/ Profs toss in the trash. For a secret number, it's not so secret.
My SSN is all over the fucking place. In the hands of my mortgage company, my bank, hell, the university where I attended school used it as our Student IDs, so they were all over professor's roll sheets which I
You want it? Give me your e-mail address. I'm much more afraid of giving that out than my SSN at this point. If you rack up a bunch of charges, I can get it revoked and take action to sue your ass. If I start getting thousands of spams a day, there's not much I can get in the way of retribution.
But you miss the point. You aren't STEALING anything. Stealing deprives them of it. Copying it does not. Not only is your analogy flawed, but there could be a use in copying it that is not unscrupulous.
It doesn't make it any more legal, but it certainly changes the connotation and is affected by the morals of the individual.
yes, theft is a crime, and they think they're immune to such punishment because they didn't do anything with the information. so i guess if i steal $1,000,000, and just keep it under my mattress, it'll be OK.
Same mentality as "stealing" IP. If you steal $1mil but don't do anything with it, you are still depriving someone of their $1mil. If you copy some SSNs, you are depriving no one of anything.
Forgot to address the new version of CSS bit...
Yes, a new version of CSS would make things harder. Increasing the key size would make brute forcing it prohibitively difficult. Then they just have to keep tight(er) control over their player keys. Remember, the original DeCSS was written because some software DVD player left its player keys in memory. Once the player key was read, it was a simple matter to write a program to read the encrypted content, decrypt the disc key, decrypt the data, and write out unencrypted content.
Of course, the main problem is backwards compatibility. Changing CSS would mean that new discs wouldn't work in old players. As complacent as we are, I don't think the public will stand for that without getting something in return. That something will be "improved" quality and larger disc sizes (read: blu-ray or HD-DVDs).
The fact is, unless a new format has no computer-readable equivalent (i.e. no blu-ray- or HD-DVD-ROMs) then the next DeCSS is a hacker away from being released. Even if the key isn't left plaintext in memory, it should be recoverable. The best way for the MPAA to secure their next format would be to require players that have to phone home to receive playback authority. The first few DDoS attacks on their servers should be more than enough to convince the public that this is a Bad Idea.
So have you successfully copied a DVD without removing the CSS encryption and then played it back in a DVD player? It's pretty shocking that that worked.
t m
The encryption sequence works as you said. There is a disc key which is used to encrypt the data on the disc. It can be just about anything the RIAA wants. the disc key is encrypted with a player key, which every player in the world must have. The encrypted key is stored on the disc in an area which is non-writeable. As such, if you tried to perform a bit-for-bit copy of the disc, you would not have the encrypted key. Without the encrypted key, the player key is useless--it won't be able decrypt any of the data on the disc.
This link supports my statement about the CSS area not being writeable:
http://www.proactionmedia.com/dvd_media_formats.h
The main differences, in addition to recording wavelength, are that DVD-R(G) uses decrementing pre-pit addresses, a pre-stamped (version 1.0) or pre-recorded (version 1.1) control area, CPRM, and allows double-sided discs.
and
There are three kinds of DVD-RW discs. All are 4.7G capacity. Version 1.0 discs, rarely found outside of Japan, have an embossed lead-in (to prevent copying of CSS information), which causes compatibility problems. Version 1.1 discs have a pre-recorded lead-in that improves compatibility.
Yup. To the one.
Ass.
Unsure. I think $20/ep is a bit steep, though. Even for new content.
Currently, one of the highest cost TV shows is Star Trek. MSRP is $130 for season 1, 29 episodes. That's about $4.50 per episode. Season 2 runs the same price for 26 episodes, or $5 per episode. Same for Enterprise season 1. Babylon 5 has similar costs.
For comparison, Buffy: the Vampire Slayer's MSRP for a complete season (say, season 2) is $60 for 22 episodes, or about $2.75. Dead Like Me goes for about $4.25/ep, Penn and Teller's Bullshit goes for about $3, etc. Highest show I can find is $5/ep.
For new content? I'd expect maybe $10, tops. $20 would be far too expensive, as that's approaching the MSRP for a full length movie complete with features, etc.
Interesting. I'm pretty sure it was Nathan Fillian who quoted 3 years (at one of the screenings), but don't quote me on that.
The question will be whether die-hard fans will be the ONLY ones who see the show when it gets a wide release. The show pretty clearly had a huge fanbase (given the record sales on Amazon and pre-screenings that sell out before they're announced) but even if every fan sees the movie once, it won't be enough to warrant a sequel if no one else sees it.
I was lucky enough to attend one of the first 10 screenings. I think the film is good enough to make it on its own except for the character development. Firefly fans won't have a problem here, but with 9 characters to deal with, there just isn't enough time in a 2 hour movie to really introduce them all, much less give any real information about them which would let them shine. I hope this doesn't detract from the film for the general audience.
Universal currently has a contract to make (I believe) as many Firefly movies as they want (there are currently talks of having it be a trilogy). However no one can make a Firefly TV show for something like 3 years.. so maybe after that we'll see a revamp of the show, although Mutant Enemy would be fools to try to get it on Fox.
I think it's got to be slightly incorrect to call it lost funds.
People who take a day off for any reason tend to do one of things:
1) Unpaid vacation--the company doesn't pay them, only loss is in productivity. How much does your company make because you're there? (consider that you'll probably have to make the work up, or have someone cover for you).
2) Paid vacation--The company gave them the option to take days off for whatever their heart desires--no loss of money or productivity that wasn't already built into the system.
3) Sick day--again, days that are built into the system, but the yearly rollover is likely different, as is the payout after termination. Could be that the company loses money here if they don't give an eventual payout and if the sick day wouldn't have eventually been used.
The only way a company loses money they wouldn't normally lose from having someone take a day off is if that time isn't built into the system. I don't know of any company for which this is the case.
I don't understand your meaning, precisely. Could you elaborate?