I better start to refer to my automatic torrents-downloads as torrentcasting!
Actually, a lot of podcasts do that now, by making the audio file into a torrent and expecting the client to deal with it. Several clients do.
Showcasting!
I expect sometime soon that somebody will integrate bittorrent into MythTV for users to share their recorded shows online with other users. Might not be called "Showcasting", but the practice of sharing recorded stuff like that directly from the PVR will get some kind of buzzwordy name, I assure you. Maybe Tivocasting.:P
So people use RSS to do something traditional. Now we need a new word?
I think you're missing that this podcasting is not something traditional. It uses methods that may be classified as "traditional" (http, RSS, XML, etc), but the act itself (people producing their own radio shows and other people listening to them and this whole thing actually taking off in a big way, to millions and millions of people) is not traditional at all. Despite using old tech and old ideas, the fact that it's freakin' working is something new.
And really, what are you railing at here? The fucking name? Is that all you really have to complain about? The fact that people are calling a specific set of circumstances unlike any that existed before by a new name. Jesus, dude. Get over it. There's *way* more interesting stuff to rail at than new freakin' words.
And that RSS feed would make just how much of a difference, if I may ask?
It would allow my podcast receiving program to automatically check and download new episodes of their show on a regular basis, and put it onto my portable player automatically, whereupon I could play it at my leisure. Usually while driving in my car, in fact.
This isn't a podcast mainly because it's not a show. There's no episodes. It's a one shot thing.
As for RSS, are you seriously uncertain about the value of having common standards by which to transfer information?
I refer you to Maddox's...
Maddox is a fucking moron. He defines "podcast" as putting an audio file online, which in fact misses the whole point. NASA put this audio file online, but it ain't a podcast. That's what I *said* in the first place.
A podcast is a regularly produced show, like a radio show. The method of distribution, however, differs from radio. That's really all it is. It is difficult? No. It is special? Not really. Is it revolutionary? Yes, in point of fact it is. It doesn't have to be complex or groundbreaking to be important.
People are putting home-made radio shows (mostly talk shows) online and then using a format (RSS) which allows people to subscribe to these shows and thus receive/listen to them on a regular basis. It may not be particularly complicated to do, but that's part of why it's so popular, yeah?
Putting audio online is an old thing. People creating their own radio shows that millions of people download and listen to is not.
Yes, yes, streaming audio, but streaming audio never really took off, and it never really will. The bandwidth isn't there. The always on connectivity isn't there. The distribution model relies on using a public point to point packet based network to send broadcast type information in real time. Streaming audio just doesn't freakin' work.
I work in telecoms, and I've never seen a BT handsfree that didn't have to be expressly put into pairing mode.
Well, I don't work in telecoms, but I have yet to find one that *does* need that. Some need to be put in discoverable mode for your phone to see them, but they could still be paired with even outside that mode if you knew they were there.
And most headset units don't even need that, they're always discoverable all the time.
Nearly all current bluetooth headsets are vulnerable to this attack.
But seriously, where do you go that you see lots of people with BT headsets at Wal-Mart? Usually I see the freakin' dregs of humanity at Wal-Mart. People with taste are shopping elsewhere.:P
In the specific case of the Acura TL HandsFreeLink system, you tell the system what the code is for pairing. Therefore it doesn't have a "default" code, therefore it's not vulnerable to this attack.
Some other built BT systems I've seen display a code on the radio or let you enter one though some other method. Regardless, if it doesn't have an unchangeable pairing code, it's not vulnerable to this attack.
Okay, the way this works is basically that they scan for BT headsets and try to pair with them using default keys (like 0000 or 1234 or what have you). Once they make a connection, they can send audio to the thing.
So, are there any headsets or car units out there that are NOT susceptible to this?
In order to not be susceptible, you gotta have either : a) A non-constant PIN (meaning that it either has to be random every time or semi-unique to that device, like the manufacturer puts a different PIN in each unit), or b) Not available for pairing unless you hit a button on the thing (and this means really not available for pairing, not just "not discoverable", it has to actually deny the pairing attempt).
So, which devices are vulnerable and which are not? Near as I can tell, *all* bluetooth headsets are vulnerable, as are most carkits.
That code is only needed for the initial connection in the first place. After that, the two devices exchange info ("pairing"), and then they know each other and don't need the code anymore.
Having an easily guessed code means that somebody can "pair" to your headset and then take control of it, which is what the software in TFA does.
Yes, lots of headsets use 0000 or 1234. Stupid, no? And one with a simple solution too, if the manufacturers were not so lazy. If the thing has any kind of display, use a random code each time you pair. Simple. If it lacks a display, then simply give each unit a different code and print it on the thing or in the docs somewhere. If somebody can't guess the code easily, this trick won't work.
Anyway, I'm looking for BT headsets now, and I won't get one with a default code like this. Which kinda limits the field, since I have yet to find *any* BT headsets that don't use a default code. Anybody got any suggestions?
If you're using lots of bandwidth responding to peers, you need to limit the number of peers that you can connect to. Everybody's settings will be different because everybody's bandwidth is different. I find that for my cable connection, limiting it to about 400 total connections works pretty good, for me.
What's going to stop them from propagating those commercial links around the web? Arguably, I'd say that they need to force users to log into the tracker. That suddenly makes accessing those torrents more difficult.
Not good enough. Anybody who gets the files themselves can then make their own torrent on a different tracker. Or if you use Azureus, torrents can become trackerless automagically, if you're setup to use trackerless torrents. In fact, with Azureus's implementation, you don't even need the torrent file. Just the Kademilia link. You'll then get the torrent from a participating client.
No, for that, you'd need a DRM solution. While it's true that DRM doesn't work in the long run, in the short run, it'd work fine. Anything you sell will eventually be cracked and posted everywhere, but by that time you'd have made your cash from the people wanting it on a "first run" basis, assuming your prices were reasonable.
Commercialization of torrents won't work except in cases: a) where you're giving the content away for free anyway, b) where you use a DRM scheme to charge people to decrypt/view the content after they download it, or c) where the content contains advertising that is not annoying enough for people to remove it or integrated into the content itself (product placement).
For the most part, however, the idea will be to use the technology to reduce bandwidth costs of the company pushing their content. And for the most part it'll be free content, like patches to programs, or video of news stories, or whatever. A torrent in cases like this will always be at least as good as a straight http/ftp download for the simple reason that they have a constantly on seeder replacing the http/ftp download. So you're downloading from the main server just the case, but can also download from other peers.
People can be limited to joining the BitTorrent network by the tracker. So then it shifts the ownership of the BitTorrent network to THEM.
With the support for trackerless torrents in Azureus, any torrent can be made trackerless. It often is done automatically, when a tracker goes down. Works good for me, in fact. I've grabbed torrents before that wouldn't talk to a tracker (overloaded, tracker dead, whatever) and it nevertheless found a lot of peers. Just took a couple minutes longer was all.
Anyway, more to the point, every torrent is like a separate network. And with trackerless stuff starting to be supported (even though there's two different and incompatible versions of this), you cannot really be assured of having control over that network by mere virtue of owning the tracker.
That's funny, I always hear drugs measured in grams.
Harder drugs like cocaine and such, yes, you'll measure by the gram.
Pot is usually measured by the ounce. A "quarter bag" is usually a quarter ounce (although some people translate that as "$25 worth", but that's more rare.. Dime bags, however, are always $10 worth, sort of thing).
Although back when I smoked the stuff, many, many moons ago, my usual measurement was "pounds".:)
You might be able to tell me at what speed an object falls to the earth, but can you tell me why it falls? Something as simple as gravity? Science is observing events and trying to predict what will happen. Science does not purport to understand why something happens.
Actually, science is all about determining why just as much as how. Admittedly, how is usually the focus because until you really understand how, determining why is kind of tough.
All that Bush did was listen to his constituents, who said they don't want their tax dollars being spent on embryos that came from abortions.
Embryonic stem cells don't come from abortions. They've *NEVER* come from abortions. You stick your DNA into an egg cell, let it grow to a few hundred cells, and voila.
There'd be no point in getting stem cells from aborted fetuses, because those aren't *your* stem cells. They won't work in your body.
Bush just simply said that no government money will be spent on NEW embryos.
Which basically halts all government money for stem cell research. Those embryos will never do you or me a lick of good, because they're incompatible with both of us. Those were for *research*, not actual *use*.
The original XBox still has no generally applicable software-only crack for it, after several years in the field. Real security.
What about softmods? There's several of them around, designed for various purposes. Most of them are meant to be used to run XBMC, admittedly, but in theory they could be generalized to run Linux or something.
He's dead right, although perhaps not in the way he intended.
IM is trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist for quite a lot of people. Instant communication over the network is basically trying to replace: -Getting up to go talk to the guy (in office environments) -Calling him on the phone (how many people have cell phones again?)
So for a lot of people, myself included, IM is worthless. If I need instant communication, the phone is faster, simpler, and less hassle all around. Maybe if you lacked always-on connectivity and had to use dialup or something, then I could see the benefit.
But people talk much quicker than they type, on average. So if I need an instant answer, I call the guy instead. Simpler than using a 1 on 1 IM client.
Note that this doesn't apply to chat rooms or IRC or other multi-to-multi text messaging systems. That has some real benefit, solving a problem that doesn't have other good solutions. It's person to person IM that I'm talking about here.
Most workplaces where a lot of slashdot readers read their news from have now blocked nyud.net as a proxy/anonymizer. Worked great for a while, but sadly it's now dead.
I think your problem is that you're way overestimating just how much high traffic web sites care about you. Fact is, they probably dont.
Agreed, they probably don't. But they probably do store that data, and if, by chance, somebody with a reason wanted to mine that data and look for such details, then they could. I don't know who has access to that data. Which is the point, really, you don't *know* what will be done with it. Better to simply prevent the data collection in the first place than to try and get rid of it after the fact.
Besides, if they're trying to find out more about you, there are certainly better more efficient and effective ways than cookies,
Agreed. But eliminating cookies is a simple measure you can do yourself. Hell, it's built into the Firefox browser. Can be done in the settings easily.
and there are certainly plenty of 'evil' people out there trying to get your information who are not running websites.
Again, no doubt. This is not the only measure one should take to protect their privacy, just a rather simple one that anybody can do without any extra effort, really.
This works only for very narrow time windows. My DSL modem uses DHCP, so everytime it re-connects, odds are good I get a new IP address. I think it also gets a new address daily on its own.
For DSL where you connect and disconnect (possibly using PPPoE), you are correct. For Cable Modem users, or even for users who always leave their DSL connected (perhaps by using a home "router" which keeps the connection alive), their IP rarely changes, even though it is using DHCP and so forth.
Example: My DHCP lease time is 48 hours. My router, which obeys the DHCP standard, gets that IP then waits for 24 hours. Then it renews. I get the same IP and my time is extended for another 24 hours. This happens, basically, forever.
To get a new IP I have to: a) Turn off my router and wait for 24-48 hours + long enough for somebody else to claim my old IP, or b) Manually Release my IP, then wait for somebody else to claim it.
Otherwise, I get the IP back on a Renew.
A large number of cable modem users are basically along these lines. There's no dialing, there's no real period of time where I'm not connected. This is generally the way things are headed, so even with "dynamic" IP's, it's reasonable to assume that the IP doesn't change a lot for many users. In the days of dial-up, it was different. DSL is still kinda like dialup in that sense.
The purpose of fdisk is to partition your disk. Yes, it could be destructive, but it is also necessary. You have to be able to partition the disk. There's no real way around it.
This guy is collecting data tracking every users movements through his site, just to get aggregate information. Did it not occur to him that most all of this aggregate information he wants to see could be obtained without making his system capable of tracking every unique individual through the system and websites he advertises on?
Probably not, no. He didn't consider the users privacy, because he likely doesn't think of those users as people deserving of their privacy. It probably never occurred to him to examine what could be done with the data collection system he built. He simply took the most straightforward approach and built something by which he could track every little damned thing. And then he complains that users erase their cookies, thus fucking up his privacy-invading tracking machine.
If he simply wanted to obtain aggregate usage data, he doesn't need to use unique-ID persistant cookies. There are other ways that are not nearly as objectionable.
Well.. I mean, hey, it's anonymous. I throw any link I want to remember later up there.
I'm also pretty sure that there's some way to assign a keyboard shortcut to a bookmark. Maybe using an extension. In any case, it would be easy to make that bookmarklet quick to access if that were the case.
The really nice thing about using delicious for the bookmarks though is that when you're not at your own terminals, using some random web browser, you can just hop over to delicious and access your bookmarks there. No need to remember them or type in anything.
Have you considered using del.icio.us for your bookmark needs? I keep my bookmarks on there, with a keyword of (among several other things) "bookmark". Then by using the RSS link and Firefox's Live Bookmark functionality, my bookmarks are always the same across all my machines.
Actually, that's kinda oversimplifying my setup. I actually have several categories which I put stuff into, like News, General Bookmarks, Forums, etc. Each one gets a different keyword, and the RSS feed can be based on that keyword, so I have several Live Bookmarks as drop downs. I also have a "Post to del.icio.us" javascript bookmarklet for quickly bookmarking a new page.
The HD Tivos actually get their guide data over the satellite feed (they're all DirecTV units) and don't actually need a phone line, to my knowledge. I might be out of the loop on this, however.
Standalone units can use a USB ethernet device to talk over broadband connections, but all the DirecTV boxes have that disabled by default. I think it's possible to hack new software onto some of those units and thus enable the USB (along with a whole host of other stuff), but it's not a minor modification.
Slashdot Mirror
I better start to refer to my automatic torrents-downloads as torrentcasting!
:P
Actually, a lot of podcasts do that now, by making the audio file into a torrent and expecting the client to deal with it. Several clients do.
Showcasting!
I expect sometime soon that somebody will integrate bittorrent into MythTV for users to share their recorded shows online with other users. Might not be called "Showcasting", but the practice of sharing recorded stuff like that directly from the PVR will get some kind of buzzwordy name, I assure you. Maybe Tivocasting.
So people use RSS to do something traditional. Now we need a new word?
I think you're missing that this podcasting is not something traditional. It uses methods that may be classified as "traditional" (http, RSS, XML, etc), but the act itself (people producing their own radio shows and other people listening to them and this whole thing actually taking off in a big way, to millions and millions of people) is not traditional at all. Despite using old tech and old ideas, the fact that it's freakin' working is something new.
And really, what are you railing at here? The fucking name? Is that all you really have to complain about? The fact that people are calling a specific set of circumstances unlike any that existed before by a new name. Jesus, dude. Get over it. There's *way* more interesting stuff to rail at than new freakin' words.
And that RSS feed would make just how much of a difference, if I may ask?
It would allow my podcast receiving program to automatically check and download new episodes of their show on a regular basis, and put it onto my portable player automatically, whereupon I could play it at my leisure. Usually while driving in my car, in fact.
This isn't a podcast mainly because it's not a show. There's no episodes. It's a one shot thing.
As for RSS, are you seriously uncertain about the value of having common standards by which to transfer information?
I refer you to Maddox's...
Maddox is a fucking moron. He defines "podcast" as putting an audio file online, which in fact misses the whole point. NASA put this audio file online, but it ain't a podcast. That's what I *said* in the first place.
A podcast is a regularly produced show, like a radio show. The method of distribution, however, differs from radio. That's really all it is. It is difficult? No. It is special? Not really. Is it revolutionary? Yes, in point of fact it is. It doesn't have to be complex or groundbreaking to be important.
People are putting home-made radio shows (mostly talk shows) online and then using a format (RSS) which allows people to subscribe to these shows and thus receive/listen to them on a regular basis. It may not be particularly complicated to do, but that's part of why it's so popular, yeah?
Putting audio online is an old thing.
People creating their own radio shows that millions of people download and listen to is not.
Yes, yes, streaming audio, but streaming audio never really took off, and it never really will. The bandwidth isn't there. The always on connectivity isn't there. The distribution model relies on using a public point to point packet based network to send broadcast type information in real time. Streaming audio just doesn't freakin' work.
I don't see the link to the RSS feed anywhere on that page.
No RSS = not a podcast.
When you need something at 3 am, Wal-Mart is basically your only choice around here. And it's usually pretty packed at that time too.
I work in telecoms, and I've never seen a BT handsfree that didn't have to be expressly put into pairing mode.
Well, I don't work in telecoms, but I have yet to find one that *does* need that. Some need to be put in discoverable mode for your phone to see them, but they could still be paired with even outside that mode if you knew they were there.
And most headset units don't even need that, they're always discoverable all the time.
Nearly all current bluetooth headsets are vulnerable to this attack.
:P
But seriously, where do you go that you see lots of people with BT headsets at Wal-Mart? Usually I see the freakin' dregs of humanity at Wal-Mart. People with taste are shopping elsewhere.
In the specific case of the Acura TL HandsFreeLink system, you tell the system what the code is for pairing. Therefore it doesn't have a "default" code, therefore it's not vulnerable to this attack.
Some other built BT systems I've seen display a code on the radio or let you enter one though some other method. Regardless, if it doesn't have an unchangeable pairing code, it's not vulnerable to this attack.
Okay, the way this works is basically that they scan for BT headsets and try to pair with them using default keys (like 0000 or 1234 or what have you). Once they make a connection, they can send audio to the thing.
So, are there any headsets or car units out there that are NOT susceptible to this?
In order to not be susceptible, you gotta have either :
a) A non-constant PIN (meaning that it either has to be random every time or semi-unique to that device, like the manufacturer puts a different PIN in each unit), or
b) Not available for pairing unless you hit a button on the thing (and this means really not available for pairing, not just "not discoverable", it has to actually deny the pairing attempt).
So, which devices are vulnerable and which are not? Near as I can tell, *all* bluetooth headsets are vulnerable, as are most carkits.
That code is only needed for the initial connection in the first place. After that, the two devices exchange info ("pairing"), and then they know each other and don't need the code anymore.
Having an easily guessed code means that somebody can "pair" to your headset and then take control of it, which is what the software in TFA does.
Yes, lots of headsets use 0000 or 1234. Stupid, no? And one with a simple solution too, if the manufacturers were not so lazy. If the thing has any kind of display, use a random code each time you pair. Simple. If it lacks a display, then simply give each unit a different code and print it on the thing or in the docs somewhere. If somebody can't guess the code easily, this trick won't work.
Anyway, I'm looking for BT headsets now, and I won't get one with a default code like this. Which kinda limits the field, since I have yet to find *any* BT headsets that don't use a default code. Anybody got any suggestions?
If you're using lots of bandwidth responding to peers, you need to limit the number of peers that you can connect to. Everybody's settings will be different because everybody's bandwidth is different. I find that for my cable connection, limiting it to about 400 total connections works pretty good, for me.
What's going to stop them from propagating those commercial links around the web? Arguably, I'd say that they need to force users to log into the tracker. That suddenly makes accessing those torrents more difficult.
Not good enough. Anybody who gets the files themselves can then make their own torrent on a different tracker. Or if you use Azureus, torrents can become trackerless automagically, if you're setup to use trackerless torrents. In fact, with Azureus's implementation, you don't even need the torrent file. Just the Kademilia link. You'll then get the torrent from a participating client.
No, for that, you'd need a DRM solution. While it's true that DRM doesn't work in the long run, in the short run, it'd work fine. Anything you sell will eventually be cracked and posted everywhere, but by that time you'd have made your cash from the people wanting it on a "first run" basis, assuming your prices were reasonable.
Commercialization of torrents won't work except in cases:
a) where you're giving the content away for free anyway,
b) where you use a DRM scheme to charge people to decrypt/view the content after they download it, or
c) where the content contains advertising that is not annoying enough for people to remove it or integrated into the content itself (product placement).
For the most part, however, the idea will be to use the technology to reduce bandwidth costs of the company pushing their content. And for the most part it'll be free content, like patches to programs, or video of news stories, or whatever. A torrent in cases like this will always be at least as good as a straight http/ftp download for the simple reason that they have a constantly on seeder replacing the http/ftp download. So you're downloading from the main server just the case, but can also download from other peers.
People can be limited to joining the BitTorrent network by the tracker. So then it shifts the ownership of the BitTorrent network to THEM.
With the support for trackerless torrents in Azureus, any torrent can be made trackerless. It often is done automatically, when a tracker goes down. Works good for me, in fact. I've grabbed torrents before that wouldn't talk to a tracker (overloaded, tracker dead, whatever) and it nevertheless found a lot of peers. Just took a couple minutes longer was all.
Anyway, more to the point, every torrent is like a separate network. And with trackerless stuff starting to be supported (even though there's two different and incompatible versions of this), you cannot really be assured of having control over that network by mere virtue of owning the tracker.
That's funny, I always hear drugs measured in grams.
:)
Harder drugs like cocaine and such, yes, you'll measure by the gram.
Pot is usually measured by the ounce. A "quarter bag" is usually a quarter ounce (although some people translate that as "$25 worth", but that's more rare.. Dime bags, however, are always $10 worth, sort of thing).
Although back when I smoked the stuff, many, many moons ago, my usual measurement was "pounds".
You might be able to tell me at what speed an object falls to the earth, but can you tell me why it falls? Something as simple as gravity? Science is observing events and trying to predict what will happen. Science does not purport to understand why something happens.
Actually, science is all about determining why just as much as how. Admittedly, how is usually the focus because until you really understand how, determining why is kind of tough.
All that Bush did was listen to his constituents, who said they don't want their tax dollars being spent on embryos that came from abortions.
Embryonic stem cells don't come from abortions. They've *NEVER* come from abortions. You stick your DNA into an egg cell, let it grow to a few hundred cells, and voila.
There'd be no point in getting stem cells from aborted fetuses, because those aren't *your* stem cells. They won't work in your body.
Bush just simply said that no government money will be spent on NEW embryos.
Which basically halts all government money for stem cell research. Those embryos will never do you or me a lick of good, because they're incompatible with both of us. Those were for *research*, not actual *use*.
The original XBox still has no generally applicable software-only crack for it, after several years in the field. Real security.
5 1
What about softmods? There's several of them around, designed for various purposes. Most of them are meant to be used to run XBMC, admittedly, but in theory they could be generalized to run Linux or something.
Check the various tutorials: http://www.xboxscene.net/tutorials.php?p=151%7C#1
He's dead right, although perhaps not in the way he intended.
IM is trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist for quite a lot of people. Instant communication over the network is basically trying to replace:
-Getting up to go talk to the guy (in office environments)
-Calling him on the phone (how many people have cell phones again?)
So for a lot of people, myself included, IM is worthless. If I need instant communication, the phone is faster, simpler, and less hassle all around. Maybe if you lacked always-on connectivity and had to use dialup or something, then I could see the benefit.
But people talk much quicker than they type, on average. So if I need an instant answer, I call the guy instead. Simpler than using a 1 on 1 IM client.
Note that this doesn't apply to chat rooms or IRC or other multi-to-multi text messaging systems. That has some real benefit, solving a problem that doesn't have other good solutions. It's person to person IM that I'm talking about here.
Most workplaces where a lot of slashdot readers read their news from have now blocked nyud.net as a proxy/anonymizer. Worked great for a while, but sadly it's now dead.
...why doesn't Led Zep get labeled "Nerd Rock" for "The Battle For Evermore".
:)
Because it's fucking Led Zeppelin, man.
Labeling Led Zeppelin as anything other than "Led Zeppelin" is just not right.
The idea is not to break their site, although that can be a fun way to spend an afternoon.
The idea is to use their site without allowing them to track you on any kind of meaningful basis. For that, this simple measure is effective.
I think your problem is that you're way overestimating just how much high traffic web sites care about you. Fact is, they probably dont.
Agreed, they probably don't. But they probably do store that data, and if, by chance, somebody with a reason wanted to mine that data and look for such details, then they could. I don't know who has access to that data. Which is the point, really, you don't *know* what will be done with it. Better to simply prevent the data collection in the first place than to try and get rid of it after the fact.
Besides, if they're trying to find out more about you, there are certainly better more efficient and effective ways than cookies,
Agreed. But eliminating cookies is a simple measure you can do yourself. Hell, it's built into the Firefox browser. Can be done in the settings easily.
and there are certainly plenty of 'evil' people out there trying to get your information who are not running websites.
Again, no doubt. This is not the only measure one should take to protect their privacy, just a rather simple one that anybody can do without any extra effort, really.
This works only for very narrow time windows. My DSL modem uses DHCP, so everytime it re-connects, odds are good I get a new IP address. I think it also gets a new address daily on its own.
For DSL where you connect and disconnect (possibly using PPPoE), you are correct. For Cable Modem users, or even for users who always leave their DSL connected (perhaps by using a home "router" which keeps the connection alive), their IP rarely changes, even though it is using DHCP and so forth.
Example: My DHCP lease time is 48 hours. My router, which obeys the DHCP standard, gets that IP then waits for 24 hours. Then it renews. I get the same IP and my time is extended for another 24 hours. This happens, basically, forever.
To get a new IP I have to:
a) Turn off my router and wait for 24-48 hours + long enough for somebody else to claim my old IP, or
b) Manually Release my IP, then wait for somebody else to claim it.
Otherwise, I get the IP back on a Renew.
A large number of cable modem users are basically along these lines. There's no dialing, there's no real period of time where I'm not connected. This is generally the way things are headed, so even with "dynamic" IP's, it's reasonable to assume that the IP doesn't change a lot for many users. In the days of dial-up, it was different. DSL is still kinda like dialup in that sense.
The purpose of fdisk is to partition your disk. Yes, it could be destructive, but it is also necessary. You have to be able to partition the disk. There's no real way around it.
This guy is collecting data tracking every users movements through his site, just to get aggregate information. Did it not occur to him that most all of this aggregate information he wants to see could be obtained without making his system capable of tracking every unique individual through the system and websites he advertises on?
Probably not, no. He didn't consider the users privacy, because he likely doesn't think of those users as people deserving of their privacy. It probably never occurred to him to examine what could be done with the data collection system he built. He simply took the most straightforward approach and built something by which he could track every little damned thing. And then he complains that users erase their cookies, thus fucking up his privacy-invading tracking machine.
If he simply wanted to obtain aggregate usage data, he doesn't need to use unique-ID persistant cookies. There are other ways that are not nearly as objectionable.
Well.. I mean, hey, it's anonymous. I throw any link I want to remember later up there.
I'm also pretty sure that there's some way to assign a keyboard shortcut to a bookmark. Maybe using an extension. In any case, it would be easy to make that bookmarklet quick to access if that were the case.
The really nice thing about using delicious for the bookmarks though is that when you're not at your own terminals, using some random web browser, you can just hop over to delicious and access your bookmarks there. No need to remember them or type in anything.
Have you considered using del.icio.us for your bookmark needs? I keep my bookmarks on there, with a keyword of (among several other things) "bookmark". Then by using the RSS link and Firefox's Live Bookmark functionality, my bookmarks are always the same across all my machines.
Actually, that's kinda oversimplifying my setup. I actually have several categories which I put stuff into, like News, General Bookmarks, Forums, etc. Each one gets a different keyword, and the RSS feed can be based on that keyword, so I have several Live Bookmarks as drop downs. I also have a "Post to del.icio.us" javascript bookmarklet for quickly bookmarking a new page.
Works great, I highly suggest it.
The HD Tivos actually get their guide data over the satellite feed (they're all DirecTV units) and don't actually need a phone line, to my knowledge. I might be out of the loop on this, however.
Standalone units can use a USB ethernet device to talk over broadband connections, but all the DirecTV boxes have that disabled by default. I think it's possible to hack new software onto some of those units and thus enable the USB (along with a whole host of other stuff), but it's not a minor modification.