It's scary that what people seem to be missing is that the MPAA knew that people were sending text messages saying "this movie stinks." I don't remember seeing any disclaimer when I got my phone saying anything about logging of text messages. (I didn't see anything saying they wouldn't either though...)
Let's suppose for a second that the cellular companies have to log all text messages to comply with CALEA. (quite possible) It's one thing for the govt. to require them to keep this data. It's something else for them to share that information with organizations other than law enforcement.
The fact is, the MPAA shouldn't have had a clue that anyone sent a text message via any phone period. The fact that they do shows that cellular companies are freely sharing this data with 3rd parties. I'm no lawyer, but I'd be willing to bet that's illegal.
To tax only sci-fi products makes no sense. Sure, the space program is expensive, and desperately needs more funding, (and less of the 'faster, better, cheaper' crap if you ask me) but why should only sci-fi fans have to shoulder the burden of the space program? Everyone from people in IT, agriculture, engineering and many other fields, (not to mention consumers) benefits from the discoveries made in space, and the technology we develop to get there. There are a virtual plethora of technologies we wouldn't have today if it weren't for the pioneering efforts of scientists working for NASA. There's a reason this shouldn't be taken seriously, and it's not because they guy works in a grocery store!
In reading a section of the copyright law (17 U.S.C Section 114) there is a provision that would seem to exempt educational stations & public broadcasting stations from these fees.
"The exclusive rights of the owner of copyright in a sound recording under clauses (1), (2), and (3) of section 106 do not apply to sound recordings included in educational television and radio programs (as defined in section 397 of title 47) distributed or transmitted by or through public broadcasting entities (as defined by section 118(g)): Provided, That copies or phonorecords of said programs are not commercially distributed by or through public broadcasting entities to the general public."
This looks good. Perhaps as Mr. Hollings, (and others) saw our letters of protest pouring in, he figured, hey maybe I'd better not push this thing too hard. Hopefully it will die all together rather than the burning of the constitution that happened with ATA/USA/Patriot.. *bleck* |-P
Did you actually go to school in the U.S. or did you just sleep through history class from 6th through 12th grade? The colonies already had an army at the time they united to form a union. (ie: the colonial army, the one that fought the British.. are we starting to remember?)
The intent of the right to bear arms was just as others have said, ie: to form a militia that would supplement the existing military in the case of an invasion and to prevent the government from becoming too powerful by maintaining a balance of power. In other words, if the govt. became oppressive, the people have the right and the duty to defend themselves against such tyranny.
If you don't stand up for your rights they will be taken away one by one, until one day you wake up and you have no rights. Gun control is the popular thing these days because of the "everyone else is doing it so why shouldn't we?" attitude. After all, only criminals would carry guns right?
Wrong!
There are three results from gun control. A) The general public is disarmed leaving them vulnerable to attack. B) Real criminals, who don't care about the law anyway will still have their guns giving them an advantage. C) An emboldened law enforcement community which doesn't have to worry about armed resistance to their presence.
As long as there are criminals, law enforcement has an excuse to demand more laws that take away the rights of citizens. Unless we stand up to those who would take our rights away we lose our freedom. Once lost, it is very difficult to get back. Those who would trade their freedoms for a little piece of mind are fools and will have neither.
Hey there,
I recently completed a grant funded distance learning pilot program at my university. We chose the Polycom ViewStation. It's an integrated videoconferencing device capable of connecting over both Ethernet and ISDN. It's got lots of other cool features like support for uploading powerpoint presentations, and an auto pan/tilt camera that will track you as you speak and walk around the room.
We used the Polycom along with our existing video delivery network, to provide 2-way face-to-face audio & video in real time. The instructor for our course also incorporated a web-based component using WebCT. WebCT incorporates regular web pages as well as chat rooms, testing, and other materials created by the instructor through the web interface. Anyhow.. that's the quick and dirty.. hope it helps.:)
> Why on earth do I want the freedom to live in
> fear of loonies with firearms? I could do with
> a lot less of your "liberties".
It is because you don't have the freedom to bear arms as we do that you don't understand this U.S. Constitutional right. Freedom, like technology, is a double-edged sword. Yes, we have the right to bear arms, and yes that does mean that potential "loonies" can bear arms as well. The advantage to this right to bear arms is that our government can't simply persecute groups of people without expecting resistance. What this is designed to do is act as a balance of power between citizens and the state. (whether or not it actually works in practice is an argument I'd rather not get into.) If those in power abuse their power and begin persecuting people, the people have the right to defend themselves, with deadly force if neccessary. Thankfully our government has for the most part kept it's end of the bargain. (with some glaring exceptions: persecution of blacks during civil rights movement, the waco texas incident, etc.)
The UK has never been about protecting personal liberties. After all, that's the reason that the U.S. is an independant nation and not a British colony. I will admit that the UK has gotten a lot better in recent years, but your country still has a long way to go. (any country that can jail you for not giving up your e-mail encryption keys is not a place I'd want to live.)
The problem with many DVD players that can't read CD-R's is due to the laser pickup. It all has to do with refelectance. Regular CD's are an almost perfect mirror with something like an 85-95% reflectance. CD-R's on the other hand, probably have something like 65% reflectance. CD-RW's have something around 35% reflectance which is why they won't play in all but the newest audio players.
I bought a Toshiba SD-1200 DVD player because of the fact that it was inexpensive, had a great picture and also had lots of nice features. I found out when I took it out of the box that it didn't support CD-R's. (even said so in the manual.)...Or so I thought.
Knowing that the problem was more than likely a laser pickup that needed a higher reflectance level on the disc, I tried a number of different brands of CD-R. Eventually I found a brand that worked. Would you belive it, it's a Sony! Sony's CDQ-74CN to be exact. Sony advertises these discs as having "Excellent Optical Technology" or XO. Give this a try.. you may find that it works.
Remember when, back in the late 80's, Sony created the TV Watch? It was also a "proof-of-concept" device. The purpose wasn't to get everyone to start watching TV on their wrists. (besides which, who really wants to squint at a one-inch B&W screen anyhow?) The purpose was to show-off what Sony's engineers were capable of. The thing actually works and is now part of the Smithsonian's American History Museum in Washington, D.C.
This smells of FUD. (Fear Uncertainty and Doubt) There is no description of what methods the supposed attacker used, no explanation of what systems were exploited. All they say is that a "hacker" overloaded one of their systems. That sounds like a DoS attack, but they don't elaborate. Without more information I'd say this is just NASA covering up one of their numerous blunders with some good sounding jargon. If there really was an attacker that was able to do this, why was NASA stupid enough to connect these systems to the internet. They shouldn't have any contact whatsoever with it! A few people have mentioned firewalls etc.. but the real solution is to disconnect these systems completely from the net. Firewalls can be compromised, disabled, or simply misconfigured by the administrator. They simply don't provide a reliable layer of security in a life-critical operating environment. Also, if a hacker/cracker (whatever) is able to so easily break into NASA's systems, it just goes to show that they aren't putting enough effort into maintaining information security.
Slashdot Mirror
It's scary that what people seem to be missing is that the MPAA knew that people were sending text messages saying "this movie stinks." I don't remember seeing any disclaimer when I got my phone saying anything about logging of text messages. (I didn't see anything saying they wouldn't either though...)
Let's suppose for a second that the cellular companies have to log all text messages to comply with CALEA. (quite possible) It's one thing for the govt. to require them to keep this data. It's something else for them to share that information with organizations other than law enforcement.
The fact is, the MPAA shouldn't have had a clue that anyone sent a text message via any phone period. The fact that they do shows that cellular companies are freely sharing this data with 3rd parties. I'm no lawyer, but I'd be willing to bet that's illegal.
-darkphyber-
Aparently this was all due to DNS hijacking. Plain and simple folks.. here's the discussion on iSONEWS.com:
8 26 f153aca799e283cc5b566361560c1&threadid=100834
http://www.isonews.com/forums/showthread.php?s=
To tax only sci-fi products makes no sense. Sure, the space program is expensive, and desperately needs more funding, (and less of the 'faster, better, cheaper' crap if you ask me) but why should only sci-fi fans have to shoulder the burden of the space program? Everyone from people in IT, agriculture, engineering and many other fields, (not to mention consumers) benefits from the discoveries made in space, and the technology we develop to get there. There are a virtual plethora of technologies we wouldn't have today if it weren't for the pioneering efforts of scientists working for NASA. There's a reason this shouldn't be taken seriously, and it's not because they guy works in a grocery store!
In reading a section of the copyright law (17 U.S.C Section 114) there is a provision that would seem to exempt educational stations & public broadcasting stations from these fees.
m l# 114
"The exclusive rights of the owner of copyright in a sound recording under clauses (1), (2), and (3) of section 106 do not apply to sound recordings included in educational television and radio programs (as defined in section 397 of title 47) distributed or transmitted by or through public broadcasting entities (as defined by section 118(g)): Provided, That copies or phonorecords of said programs are not commercially distributed by or through public broadcasting entities to the general public."
http://www.loc.gov/copyright/title17/92chap1.ht
It still doesn't help other stations, but at least it's a start..
This looks good. Perhaps as Mr. Hollings, (and others) saw our letters of protest pouring in, he figured, hey maybe I'd better not push this thing too hard. Hopefully it will die all together rather than the burning of the constitution that happened with ATA/USA/Patriot.. *bleck* |-P
Err.. hasn't all that been possible with the Alpha platform since it's creation?
Did you actually go to school in the U.S. or did you just sleep through history class from 6th through 12th grade? The colonies already had an army at the time they united to form a union. (ie: the colonial army, the one that fought the British.. are we starting to remember?)
The intent of the right to bear arms was just as others have said, ie: to form a militia that would supplement the existing military in the case of an invasion and to prevent the government from becoming too powerful by maintaining a balance of power. In other words, if the govt. became oppressive, the people have the right and the duty to defend themselves against such tyranny.
If you don't stand up for your rights they will be taken away one by one, until one day you wake up and you have no rights. Gun control is the popular thing these days because of the "everyone else is doing it so why shouldn't we?" attitude. After all, only criminals would carry guns right? Wrong!
There are three results from gun control. A) The general public is disarmed leaving them vulnerable to attack. B) Real criminals, who don't care about the law anyway will still have their guns giving them an advantage. C) An emboldened law enforcement community which doesn't have to worry about armed resistance to their presence.
As long as there are criminals, law enforcement has an excuse to demand more laws that take away the rights of citizens. Unless we stand up to those who would take our rights away we lose our freedom. Once lost, it is very difficult to get back. Those who would trade their freedoms for a little piece of mind are fools and will have neither.
-=darkphyber=-
Hey there, :)
I recently completed a grant funded distance learning pilot program at my university. We chose the Polycom ViewStation. It's an integrated videoconferencing device capable of connecting over both Ethernet and ISDN. It's got lots of other cool features like support for uploading powerpoint presentations, and an auto pan/tilt camera that will track you as you speak and walk around the room.
We used the Polycom along with our existing video delivery network, to provide 2-way face-to-face audio & video in real time. The instructor for our course also incorporated a web-based component using WebCT. WebCT incorporates regular web pages as well as chat rooms, testing, and other materials created by the instructor through the web interface. Anyhow.. that's the quick and dirty.. hope it helps.
> Why on earth do I want the freedom to live in > fear of loonies with firearms? I could do with > a lot less of your "liberties". It is because you don't have the freedom to bear arms as we do that you don't understand this U.S. Constitutional right. Freedom, like technology, is a double-edged sword. Yes, we have the right to bear arms, and yes that does mean that potential "loonies" can bear arms as well. The advantage to this right to bear arms is that our government can't simply persecute groups of people without expecting resistance. What this is designed to do is act as a balance of power between citizens and the state. (whether or not it actually works in practice is an argument I'd rather not get into.) If those in power abuse their power and begin persecuting people, the people have the right to defend themselves, with deadly force if neccessary. Thankfully our government has for the most part kept it's end of the bargain. (with some glaring exceptions: persecution of blacks during civil rights movement, the waco texas incident, etc.) The UK has never been about protecting personal liberties. After all, that's the reason that the U.S. is an independant nation and not a British colony. I will admit that the UK has gotten a lot better in recent years, but your country still has a long way to go. (any country that can jail you for not giving up your e-mail encryption keys is not a place I'd want to live.)
The problem with many DVD players that can't read CD-R's is due to the laser pickup. It all has to do with refelectance. Regular CD's are an almost perfect mirror with something like an 85-95% reflectance. CD-R's on the other hand, probably have something like 65% reflectance. CD-RW's have something around 35% reflectance which is why they won't play in all but the newest audio players. I bought a Toshiba SD-1200 DVD player because of the fact that it was inexpensive, had a great picture and also had lots of nice features. I found out when I took it out of the box that it didn't support CD-R's. (even said so in the manual.) ...Or so I thought.
Knowing that the problem was more than likely a laser pickup that needed a higher reflectance level on the disc, I tried a number of different brands of CD-R. Eventually I found a brand that worked. Would you belive it, it's a Sony! Sony's CDQ-74CN to be exact. Sony advertises these discs as having "Excellent Optical Technology" or XO. Give this a try.. you may find that it works.
Remember when, back in the late 80's, Sony created the TV Watch? It was also a "proof-of-concept" device. The purpose wasn't to get everyone to start watching TV on their wrists. (besides which, who really wants to squint at a one-inch B&W screen anyhow?) The purpose was to show-off what Sony's engineers were capable of. The thing actually works and is now part of the Smithsonian's American History Museum in Washington, D.C.
Now if they would only invent a Linux clinet that allowed me to administor my Win32 box remotely...
There is. It's called Back Orifice. Or you could use NetBus. Take your pick.
c:\> Error in USER.EXE. Replace user and restart.
This smells of FUD. (Fear Uncertainty and Doubt) There is no description of what methods the supposed attacker used, no explanation of what systems were exploited. All they say is that a "hacker" overloaded one of their systems. That sounds like a DoS attack, but they don't elaborate. Without more information I'd say this is just NASA covering up one of their numerous blunders with some good sounding jargon. If there really was an attacker that was able to do this, why was NASA stupid enough to connect these systems to the internet. They shouldn't have any contact whatsoever with it! A few people have mentioned firewalls etc.. but the real solution is to disconnect these systems completely from the net. Firewalls can be compromised, disabled, or simply misconfigured by the administrator. They simply don't provide a reliable layer of security in a life-critical operating environment. Also, if a hacker/cracker (whatever) is able to so easily break into NASA's systems, it just goes to show that they aren't putting enough effort into maintaining information security.