Volko says that the unlocking code was ripped 'almost verbatim' from a Windows DVD player. I assume that this is okay becasuse 1) he mentioned it and 2) it's just a plain ol' generic hardware unlocker that can only really be done one way (since it obviously wasn't written in perl). Or am I missing something? BTW: woohoo!
We're all laughing at another wacky us government decision. But like all the rest, it's a case of a law for the public good being stymied by the unforseen use of the internet. Supposing you had a private plane that you used in your spare time to fly all over america, co-incidentally stopping at every city where your favourite presidential candidate was speaking. If you were going anyway, where's the harm in offering him a lift? The net extra cost is zero. Same thing here. I'm not trying to defend the bill. Well, I am, but my point is that law these days is so complex that there will always be unforseen consequences. When these arise, the thing to do is inform the relevent parties. If nothing happens, then bitch and complain and post to slashdot. We're at the bitching and posting stage now, because legislators still haven't realised that the internet is unlike anything they've dealt with before. Give 'em time. Twenty years should be enough for them to cop on. Until then, let's all give thanks for the ACLU.
But... but... it sounds so Star Trekky (frantically racking brains) I can think of nothing trekonic about it. Honest. You know all those bits of frantic improvisation in The Warrior's Apprentice? Well, imagine the same sort of thing where everything goes wrong...
Re:Brin just a churner nowadays
on
Snow Crash
·
· Score: 1
I'm still waiting for the next book after komarr, it should be interesting. It's called A Civil Campaign and it's -- how do I put this -- great. Bleeding marvellous. There were about six pages where I began to suspect it wasn't going to be as good, but that silly feeling didn't last long. Rush out and buy. Amazon have it. You're not getting my copy.
last week some time, there was one of those instant poll thingies so beloved of us all on CNN. The question was which PDA OS do you use. The answer, overwhelmingly (at the time) was Palm. Microsoft do not dominate the PDA market. Anything they do, therefore, is solely to beat Palm. And I'm sure lots of geeks know about palm beating.
Several days after I bought a widescreen tv, a story appeared on/. A few days ago I bought the Droid Construction Kit, and this is the best news I could have. Tim O'reilly, I love you. I want to have your droids.
The Practise Effect is the nearest Brin has come to a comedic novel; it is quite funny. Generally, though, I suggest Glory Road, The Uplift War or The Postman (great book, shite, shite film).
where's the central repository for "Stuff to read" for your typical net.geek That's handy; a chance to plug my page. I'm working on such a thing at the moment. It gets added to every time I think of a cool book, and reviews of some/all will follow when I can be sufficiently arsed. For the moment, check out this.
Good ol' Neal seems to be flavour of the month around here; this is -- what? -- the third review in recent times? Not that that's a bad thing; back in my previous existence as an SF bookseller, Snow Crash was one I consistently recommended as the coolest of the cool (third only to David Brin and Lois McMaster Bujold). Just a resounding agreement: Snow Crash is cool. In fact, it's still my favourit Stephenson book.
Interesting point: because Linus isn't a brit, he wouldn't be a 'sir'; he'd be a Knight of the British Empire, and get the letters KBE after his name instead. Other interesting point: once upon a time all british woes were blamed on Swiss gnomes.
Taken individually, these don't amount to much; after all, KBE isn't anything to do with Linux. But taken together, and you've got a dread desktop conspiracy.
We've all been listening to people for years saying that the internet is the way of the future, but there's been little tangible evidence; the web has been viewed traditionally by businesses as a way of supplementing existing sales models rather than supplanting them.
"In the eyes of many people, this will mean that IBM is pretty much getting out of the consumer business" Possibly. But it'll be interesting to see if this view still holds this time next year. Certainly if I were buying a laptop, I'd do it over the web. I imagine I'm not the only one.
I've seen a fair few comments about the Register being biases against Intel and MS, but I've got to say that as far as I'm concerned their coverage of future chips and stuff is pretty accurate. If they say it's doubtful, I'd tend to believe them.
Show some sensitivity. Please. Oh, grow up. Is it a tragedy? Yes, of course it is. But this is 'news for nerds', not 'news for sensitive people who want to emote about every natural disaster that kills more than five people.' How many people die on this planet every day? Even if you exclude those that die from natural causes, you're still left with a major chunk./. doesn't cover them. If we're all going to be as sensitive as you suggest, then we should either
report on every death, or on every disaster where more than x people die (x to be decided in a poll). Some small discussion on how it affects the rest of is will be permitted but only after much hand-wringing about how shocking it is
Nothing that affects our lives can be reported on if anyone is hurt or killed in the process. Remember the Challenger disaster? We're not allowed mention how behind the original schedule the shuttle programme is.
How's this? When silicon valley falls into the sea (70% chance over next 30 years), I promise to be really sensitive, and to think of all the victims. I won't mention any global ramifications for at least a week.
Disclaimer: this is not intended to be flamebait. I'm just sick of the pious whinings of people who look on every tragedy as an opportunity to show how sensitive they are.
B&H still have the Royal Appointment seal of approval on their packets of cigarettes I wasn't sure about that. Prince charles has said that they're going to lose it, but I'm not sure when.
I can see the christmas speech now (I won't actually, but you know what I mean). One is pleased to use Linux as an operating system when one cruises down the information motorway for pr0n. One is at www.qe2.uk and if one's subjects wish to link to one's page, one would be happy to reciprocate. One uses Red Hat and is happy to endorse it. Although one also likes suse, which is made by our German cousins. But if they won't take our beef, we won't take their Linux. One is 31337.
Having a 'by royal appointment' logo on the Linux box would be quite cool. Given that -- until recently -- it appeared on cigarette boxes, it's a marque (is that the right word?) that's been devalued, but it still has a cachet that can only help Linux. A quote that should be used widely: "The Government Information Service systems manager Mick Morgan, says Linux was a "no brainer" choice."
So the queen is a surfer, eh? Rob: check the logs and see if anyone's real address is queen.elizabeth@monarchy.uk ; we should also probably check the back stories to see did any anonymous coward post a 'one has first post' comment.
Pretend there's a comment here about the connection between Diana and Windows.
This ridiculous process of patenting 'business methods' is closely related (IMO) to the 'frivolous lawsuit' business method, which AFAIK remains unpatented. In both cases individuals or companies are trying to get money for nothing. The only difference is that in the cases of patenting, the applicant maintains a veneer of respectability, leaving people with the impression that s/he is an innovator. Take a totally implausible example: say a company patents the process by which books are ordered by employing a single click. This is doubtless handy for those of us who order books that way, but is it patentable? Obviously it is. Patents are in place to give individuals and companies the -- pardon me -- freedom to innovate, and patenting one-click widget ordering does nothing to help anyone except Amazon's shareholders. About seven years ago, I ordered a book with a single click (so to speak). I phoned the bookshop, got cut off and (here's the good bit) hit (or 'clicked') redial. I then ordered the book, had my credit card charged, and waited for the book to arrive. I'm willing to testify to this if Forbidden Planet want to sue Amazon.
It seems to me that this setup -- Linux and Java2 -- is ideal for embedded systems and variegated non-computery apps. No mench was made of this in the report, though; so either the didn't bother or I'm deeply misinformed. Which is it, I wonder? I was also surprised by the anti-NT stance the story takes; it's and IDG story after all. Have I been misjudging them? Okay, so that was questions rather than statements. Sorry. Won't happen again.
Speaking as a bisexual female programmer I wouldn't mind a job programming bisexual females. Where do you work and are there any open- uh, employment opportunities?
The sad thing is that almost nobody who reads that magazine will actually understand the lies that have been fed to them Let's do something radical. I know it goes against the grain, but let's wait until next month. If ZD publish a full (and prominent) apology for the mistake, we'll chalk it up to the Shit Happens Fairy. If they don't, well...
In the first sentence, he apologises. For the rest of the paragraph he blames MTV. Wow. This reads like one huge, badly-spelt, ass-covering exercise. However true it (or most, or some of) it is, it does no credit to hackers or crackers. Script kiddies, maybe. MTV were to blame in the manner he suggests; they're just interested in sensationalist crap. For our hacking chum to pretend he wasn't aware of this is, let's say, interesting.
You released B02K, which does essentially the same thing as microsoft's own software. Yours, however, is seen as a cracker tool, something you've railed against in the past. If you didn't want it to be seen as a cracker's tool, why did you release it at defcon?
every lawyer trying to make sure we truly understand each and every legal decision Lawyers working for the public good? Hahahahaha. Good one. But to a certain extent you're missing the point. This is done for free by/. users because they can't help giving opinions; I often wonder how many/.ers wander down the street correcting the spelling on the t-shirts of passers by. If it were to start happening regularly, however, most of us would get sick of it pretty quickly. Open Source Journalism isn't a panacea; it'll never amount to more than a tiny percentage. What it is is another tool, along with libraries, the web and personal sources, that can be used in research. Anyone who relies on/. to do their research is doomed to pillory, as inevitably they'll quote someone who's taking the piss. As with 'regular' journalism, the more sources, the better. Whether/. is one source or many is another matter.
"news" is still meant to inform, it's the delivery service that has become tainted I'm not sure what you're saying here. If you're saying that 'news' is some ephemeral entity that exists separately from the media, then I disagree. The medium may not be the message, but it's definitely a part of the message. If the medium is controlled by the 'media masters' it doesn't matter a damn what research process is used; anything contraversial or possibly offensive will be excised before transmission/publication.
SOP This ought to be standard procedure, not a bold move This makes a couple of (IMO) invalid assumptions: 1. News is intended to inform. It isn't; it's intended to get advertising. In the case of magazines such as Jane's, the best way of doing this is to have the best, most-informed articles. This is demonstrably not the case for newspapers, and don't get me started about TV news. In these media, you want something that's simplistic and won't offend anyone. Facts are used only as a last resort. 2. Another assumption is that everyone's thought of it and discarded it. Now that/. is a [pseudo-]respectable news source, I suspect we'll begin to see more of it. At first from people trying to cash in on the bandwagon (if you'll pardon my mixing a metaphor of a different colour), but eventually any article with aspirations to factuality will use an online community for research. Snide Katz-bashing I took this process farther when I began writing on Slashdot Was this before or after you invented the internet?
Slashdot Mirror
Volko says that the unlocking code was ripped 'almost verbatim' from a Windows DVD player. I assume that this is okay becasuse 1) he mentioned it and 2) it's just a plain ol' generic hardware unlocker that can only really be done one way (since it obviously wasn't written in perl).
Or am I missing something?
BTW: woohoo!
We're all laughing at another wacky us government decision. But like all the rest, it's a case of a law for the public good being stymied by the unforseen use of the internet.
Supposing you had a private plane that you used in your spare time to fly all over america, co-incidentally stopping at every city where your favourite presidential candidate was speaking. If you were going anyway, where's the harm in offering him a lift? The net extra cost is zero.
Same thing here.
I'm not trying to defend the bill. Well, I am, but my point is that law these days is so complex that there will always be unforseen consequences. When these arise, the thing to do is inform the relevent parties. If nothing happens, then bitch and complain and post to slashdot.
We're at the bitching and posting stage now, because legislators still haven't realised that the internet is unlike anything they've dealt with before.
Give 'em time. Twenty years should be enough for them to cop on.
Until then, let's all give thanks for the ACLU.
But... but... it sounds so Star Trekky
(frantically racking brains) I can think of nothing trekonic about it. Honest. You know all those bits of frantic improvisation in The Warrior's Apprentice? Well, imagine the same sort of thing where everything goes wrong...
I'm still waiting for the next book after komarr, it should be interesting.
It's called A Civil Campaign and it's -- how do I put this -- great. Bleeding marvellous. There were about six pages where I began to suspect it wasn't going to be as good, but that silly feeling didn't last long.
Rush out and buy. Amazon have it. You're not getting my copy.
last week some time, there was one of those instant poll thingies so beloved of us all on CNN. The question was which PDA OS do you use. The answer, overwhelmingly (at the time) was Palm.
Microsoft do not dominate the PDA market. Anything they do, therefore, is solely to beat Palm. And I'm sure lots of geeks know about palm beating.
Several days after I bought a widescreen tv, a story appeared on /.
A few days ago I bought the Droid Construction Kit, and this is the best news I could have.
Tim O'reilly, I love you. I want to have your droids.
The Practise Effect is the nearest Brin has come to a comedic novel; it is quite funny. Generally, though, I suggest Glory Road, The Uplift War or The Postman (great book, shite, shite film).
where's the central repository for "Stuff to read" for your typical net.geek
That's handy; a chance to plug my page.
I'm working on such a thing at the moment. It gets added to every time I think of a cool book, and reviews of some/all will follow when I can be sufficiently arsed.
For the moment, check out this.
Good ol' Neal seems to be flavour of the month around here; this is -- what? -- the third review in recent times?
Not that that's a bad thing; back in my previous existence as an SF bookseller, Snow Crash was one I consistently recommended as the coolest of the cool (third only to David Brin and Lois McMaster Bujold).
Just a resounding agreement: Snow Crash is cool. In fact, it's still my favourit Stephenson book.
Interesting point: because Linus isn't a brit, he wouldn't be a 'sir'; he'd be a Knight of the British Empire, and get the letters KBE after his name instead.
Other interesting point: once upon a time all british woes were blamed on Swiss gnomes.
Taken individually, these don't amount to much; after all, KBE isn't anything to do with Linux. But taken together, and you've got a dread desktop conspiracy.
We've all been listening to people for years saying that the internet is the way of the future, but there's been little tangible evidence; the web has been viewed traditionally by businesses as a way of supplementing existing sales models rather than supplanting them.
"In the eyes of many people, this will mean that IBM is pretty much getting out of the consumer business"
Possibly. But it'll be interesting to see if this view still holds this time next year. Certainly if I were buying a laptop, I'd do it over the web. I imagine I'm not the only one.
I've seen a fair few comments about the Register being biases against Intel and MS, but I've got to say that as far as I'm concerned their coverage of future chips and stuff is pretty accurate. If they say it's doubtful, I'd tend to believe them.
Oh, grow up. Is it a tragedy? Yes, of course it is. But this is 'news for nerds', not 'news for sensitive people who want to emote about every natural disaster that kills more than five people.'
How many people die on this planet every day? Even if you exclude those that die from natural causes, you're still left with a major chunk.
report on every death, or on every disaster where more than x people die (x to be decided in a poll). Some small discussion on how it affects the rest of is will be permitted but only after much hand-wringing about how shocking it is
Nothing that affects our lives can be reported on if anyone is hurt or killed in the process. Remember the Challenger disaster? We're not allowed mention how behind the original schedule the shuttle programme is.
How's this? When silicon valley falls into the sea (70% chance over next 30 years), I promise to be really sensitive, and to think of all the victims. I won't mention any global ramifications for at least a week.
Disclaimer: this is not intended to be flamebait. I'm just sick of the pious whinings of people who look on every tragedy as an opportunity to show how sensitive they are.
B&H still have the Royal Appointment seal of approval on their packets of cigarettes
I wasn't sure about that. Prince charles has said that they're going to lose it, but I'm not sure when.
I can see the christmas speech now (I won't actually, but you know what I mean).
One is pleased to use Linux as an operating system when one cruises down the information motorway for pr0n. One is at www.qe2.uk and if one's subjects wish to link to one's page, one would be happy to reciprocate. One uses Red Hat and is happy to endorse it. Although one also likes suse, which is made by our German cousins. But if they won't take our beef, we won't take their Linux.
One is 31337.
Having a 'by royal appointment' logo on the Linux box would be quite cool. Given that -- until recently -- it appeared on cigarette boxes, it's a marque (is that the right word?) that's been devalued, but it still has a cachet that can only help Linux.
A quote that should be used widely:
"The Government Information Service systems manager Mick Morgan, says Linux was a "no brainer"
choice."
So the queen is a surfer, eh? Rob: check the logs and see if anyone's real address is queen.elizabeth@monarchy.uk ; we should also probably check the back stories to see did any anonymous coward post a 'one has first post' comment.
Pretend there's a comment here about the connection between Diana and Windows.
This ridiculous process of patenting 'business methods' is closely related (IMO) to the 'frivolous lawsuit' business method, which AFAIK remains unpatented. In both cases individuals or companies are trying to get money for nothing. The only difference is that in the cases of patenting, the applicant maintains a veneer of respectability, leaving people with the impression that s/he is an innovator.
Take a totally implausible example: say a company patents the process by which books are ordered by employing a single click. This is doubtless handy for those of us who order books that way, but is it patentable? Obviously it is.
Patents are in place to give individuals and companies the -- pardon me -- freedom to innovate, and patenting one-click widget ordering does nothing to help anyone except Amazon's shareholders.
About seven years ago, I ordered a book with a single click (so to speak). I phoned the bookshop, got cut off and (here's the good bit) hit (or 'clicked') redial. I then ordered the book, had my credit card charged, and waited for the book to arrive. I'm willing to testify to this if Forbidden Planet want to sue Amazon.
It seems to me that this setup -- Linux and Java2 -- is ideal for embedded systems and variegated non-computery apps. No mench was made of this in the report, though; so either the didn't bother or I'm deeply misinformed. Which is it, I wonder?
I was also surprised by the anti-NT stance the story takes; it's and IDG story after all. Have I been misjudging them?
Okay, so that was questions rather than statements. Sorry. Won't happen again.
Speaking as a bisexual female programmer
I wouldn't mind a job programming bisexual females. Where do you work and are there any open- uh, employment opportunities?
The sad thing is that almost nobody who reads that magazine will actually understand the lies that have been fed to them
Let's do something radical. I know it goes against the grain, but let's wait until next month. If ZD publish a full (and prominent) apology for the mistake, we'll chalk it up to the Shit Happens Fairy. If they don't, well...
Badly *spelled*, even.
Spell \Spell\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Spelledor Spelt; p. pr. & vb. n. Spelling.] -- Websters
In the first sentence, he apologises. For the rest of the paragraph he blames MTV. Wow.
This reads like one huge, badly-spelt, ass-covering exercise. However true it (or most, or some of) it is, it does no credit to hackers or crackers. Script kiddies, maybe.
MTV were to blame in the manner he suggests; they're just interested in sensationalist crap. For our hacking chum to pretend he wasn't aware of this is, let's say, interesting.
You released B02K, which does essentially the same thing as microsoft's own software. Yours, however, is seen as a cracker tool, something you've railed against in the past.
If you didn't want it to be seen as a cracker's tool, why did you release it at defcon?
every lawyer trying to make sure we truly understand each and every legal decision /. users because they can't help giving opinions; I often wonder how many /.ers wander down the street correcting the spelling on the t-shirts of passers by. If it were to start happening regularly, however, most of us would get sick of it pretty quickly. /. to do their research is doomed to pillory, as inevitably they'll quote someone who's taking the piss. As with 'regular' journalism, the more sources, the better. Whether /. is one source or many is another matter.
Lawyers working for the public good? Hahahahaha. Good one.
But to a certain extent you're missing the point. This is done for free by
Open Source Journalism isn't a panacea; it'll never amount to more than a tiny percentage. What it is is another tool, along with libraries, the web and personal sources, that can be used in research.
Anyone who relies on
"news" is still meant to inform, it's the delivery service that has become tainted
I'm not sure what you're saying here. If you're saying that 'news' is some ephemeral entity that exists separately from the media, then I disagree. The medium may not be the message, but it's definitely a part of the message.
If the medium is controlled by the 'media masters' it doesn't matter a damn what research process is used; anything contraversial or possibly offensive will be excised before transmission/publication.
SOP /. is a [pseudo-]respectable news source, I suspect we'll begin to see more of it. At first from people trying to cash in on the bandwagon (if you'll pardon my mixing a metaphor of a different colour), but eventually any article with aspirations to factuality will use an online community for research.
This ought to be standard procedure, not a bold move
This makes a couple of (IMO) invalid assumptions:
1. News is intended to inform. It isn't; it's intended to get advertising. In the case of magazines such as Jane's, the best way of doing this is to have the best, most-informed articles. This is demonstrably not the case for newspapers, and don't get me started about TV news. In these media, you want something that's simplistic and won't offend anyone. Facts are used only as a last resort.
2. Another assumption is that everyone's thought of it and discarded it. Now that
Snide Katz-bashing
I took this process farther when I began writing on Slashdot
Was this before or after you invented the internet?