But of course, this is exactly how society functions - by imposing an agreed-upon set of rules of conduct on its members. Take away the rules and you have anarchy.
Well, I'm all for anarchy, but that's neither here nor there...
Funny how it only becomes "imposing their beliefs" when we don't agree with it. One never hears any objections to imposing our belief in, say, the wrongness of rape on other members of society.
Of course. If you agreed with it, they're not "imposing" anything. You'd folow that belief anyway, because it's your own, so what do you care?
One point is that those people clamoring for censorship are a MINORITY. A loud, annoying, vocal minority, but a minority nonetheless. Polls won't tell the story properly, because the majority of the polls done on the subject are biased in the questions. "Do you believe children should look at sick, gay, animalistic, heathen porn, or do you think there should be filtering software in place to protect the children from evil sick twisted sh*t like this?"
Ok, admittedly, that's a bit obvious, but it brings the point across. Most polls I've seen on the subject use questions no better than that.
The majority of the human race is non-christian. The fundies, deep down, believe that only x-tian beliefs matter, and then proceed to impose those beliefs on the "heathen few" that disagree. They can't live and let live. They insist on regulating that which should not be regulated. There's some areas (most areas in fact) that the law should not cross into, and ethics and morality are one of them. Rape is not an issue of ethics or morality. Rape is an issue of hurting another person. It's deemed incorrect by society to hurt another person against their will, so punishment insues. We do not jail rapist because their sense of morals are skewed. We jail them because they are a physical danger to other members of society.
One could equally ask at what point certain genres of photographs stopped being "harmful to minors". It all goes back to first principles. Those who believe that sex outside of a marital context is wrong will define material which teaches children otherwise as ipso facto harmful.
Oh? But what about those who believe that sex inside a marital context is wrong, who in point of fact believe that marriage itself is wrong?
Everyone's beliefs are their own. They should not be able to impose them on others.
the NSA can recover data 16 rewrites or formats deep on a HDD. I know firsthand of eight layers, while in the Navy we had a HDD with data from two crash investigations stolen by a contractor, who used it for 2 months before it was recovered. We sent it in (I was told later to the NSA labs), and the data was recovered through 8 format/rewrites. Has to do with track edges and the head mechanism not tracking perfectly every time.
Yes, that's a normal method. You can do it with diskettes too. Even broken ones (as in pieces).
However, give me half an hour with a disk that I want to be sure no-one will ever see, and it will never be seen by any means whatsoever. Could be as simple as running it thru an alternating magnetic flux (with a nice big coil and a lot of juice), depending on the disk. Might even have to build some minor circuts to do some wacky stuff with magnetic fields, but it's not hard to do, if you really really want to. And hell, there's always the rotary sander. Grind that sucker into dust. Let 'em try to read those pieces.:-)
Anyway, the point IS that anyone can remove electronically stored evidence if they want to remove it.
-DUNE was originally released to theatres at Christmas of 1984 in Todd-AO/70MM with a running time of 137 minutes.
-It is obvious that David Lynch shot a lot more footage than what we saw in the theatrical print. Lynch himself envisioned a four-hour epic film. Unfortunately, Universal wanted a running time that would be more accessible to its audience since three-hour- and four-hour-plus films were not currently popular in the 1980s. So the studio had Lynch re-edit the film to its 137-minute theatrical version.
-At one point in 1984, Lynch had announced he was going to release a legitimate "special edition director's cut" on home video, but decided to move on to other projects such as "Blue Velvet". Soon, word and rumor about the extra footage had spread everywhere, and by the time DUNE had finished its original cable run on HBO, Universal felt that the time had come to produce a "special edition" of their own, and the result was released to television in May of 1988.
-David Lynch was unhappy with what MCA TV had done and did not approve of this edition. So thus it was he successfully petitioned to take his name off the credits and replaced it with "Allen Smithee", the standard Directors Guild of America pseudonym for directors who do not want credit for their own work.
-This first TV version of DUNE, pieced together under the (mis)guiding hand of Harry Tapelman, Vice President of MCA TV Special Projects, was originally created for the Turner networks, but instead released to syndication in 1988 on the Universal Pictures Debut Network (which also was responsible for the slightly expanded version of "Legend", and the severely edited version of "Brazil"). Although Universal touted this as having "more than 50 minutes of never-before-seen footage", this actually contained 35 minutes of unseen footage. The remaining 15 contained the repeated main and end credits, a newly shot prologue, and so-called "new" scenes fabricated from outtake and test footage.
A complete list of the changes made is available at the web page I mentioned above.
It's funny how Jeff Bezos tries to make everyone happy by agreeing with everything they say, and then acting in totally opposite ways.
FACT: Amazon got the one-click patent and then SUED Barnes & Noble for violating it, even though Barnes and Noble had the same type of system before Amazon filed for the patent.
This is my belief even though the vast majority of our competitive advantage will continue to come not from patents, but from raising the bar on things like service, price, and selection -- and we will continue to raise that bar.
Then why, Jeff Bezos, is your company trying to hurt competitors via lawsuits over patent infringement, thereby reducing competition and hurting the consumer?
If your actions agreed with your words, I'd support you. As it stands, the boycott is still on, Jeff. I sure as hell don't believe this open letter of yours, because your companies actions speak much, much louder.
Oh, and Tim, about this: In the case of the Associates patent, what is being patented is not the broad idea of referral marketing, but instead a mechanism that allows individuals on the net to establish a little virtual bookstore on their site, with fulfillment by Amazon, entirely on their own, without having to negotiate a business deal with Amazon. In effect, Amazon created an API that allowed others to use Amazon as a service.
Now I await the lawsuit against vstore.com for violating this patent. What a crock.
>Am I the only one tired by titles of 'It's [whatever], stupid'? This always sounds to me like a somewhat veiled attempt from the author at placing themselves above the reader from the get-go, by claiming they have such a clever bit of information that the reader should feel 'stupid' for not knowing it.
I think you're reading WAY too much into the titles of articles. I mean, it's almost like you're trying to be (gasp) politically correct...
Just kidding there, but generally the "It's something_here, stupid" type of articles are mainly trying to point out the obvious, not the insightful or clever. That is, if you didn't already see this, you must be stupid.:-)
And if I can't look down at other, less-knowledgable people with disdain, then what's the point of being a computer guru?:-)
I'll agree there! Last June, when I was in Sydney, we took the ferry over to Manly Beach (just 'cause we liked the name), and it was well worth the trip. Some good pubs over in that area too.
One thing I recommend is going sailing in the harbor. We went out on a sailboat for a few hours, got utterly plastered, and generally had one hell of a good time. Immediately after we got back, we stumbled into the casino across the street and I won $200 AU in 10 minutes on a video poker machine. It was a good time.
Ol' Sourceforge had a compiler farm.. E- I/O I/O. And on this farm they had a cluster.. E- I/O I/O. With a make make here, And a make make there.. Make make make make everywhere! Ol' Sourceforge had a compiler farm.. E- I/O I/O.
That link is bad too.. Doesn't work for me anyway.
After a little searching, here's the post that you mentioned, and YES this way is a lot easier.
---Begin Crosspost--- Ok, I know this sounds crazy, it is. This is how you do it...(see link) http://www.geocities.com/promise_raid/
I know this is in danish and most of you don't understand anything of it.
Look at the pictures.
I'll translate for you guys, because I like you (LOL!)
Goals:
1: Update the card's BIOS 2: Solder a 100 Ohms resistor from pin 23 to ground, OR from pin 23 to 16. 3: Enjoy your new el-cheapo RAID system
IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU UPDATE YOUR BIOS BEFORE YOU SOLDER!!!
Things required:
A Promise UDMA66 controller
A 100 Ohms resistor
A soldering iron, soldering tin, and a screwdriver.
Detailed walk-through:
Buy a Promise UMDA66 controller
Buy a 100 Ohms resistor (color code: brown-black-brown)
Check if the card works as an UDMA66 controller
Format a 3 1/4 inch 1.44MB diskette, make it bootable (copy system files under windows format)
On this diskette you place the BIOS update program and the new BIOS, find the bios on: www.promise.com (it is the one for the RAID device you have to download)
Boot on this diskette
Start the BIOS program: A:\ptiflash.exe
FIRST TAKE A BACKUP OF YOUR CURRENT BIOS!!!
Choose option no.1 and choose where you want to save your current BIOS.
Flash your BIOS with the one you just downloaded, do this by selecting option no.2 and write the name of your new downloaded BIOS (normally A:\ft66b108.bin)
Restart your computer
When you restart, you will get an error when your computer begins to initialize the IDE-66 controller's BIOS.
Shut your computer down
Pull out the Controller card
Unscrew the metal plate from the controller. (this makes it easier to handle)
Solder the resistor on pin no. 23 (see the picture on the website I linked to, you will see it clearly)
BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN YOU SOLDER!! The bios is much sensitive to heat, so if your card has an IC socket they recommend you to remove it.
Now you can put back the metal plate, put the card back and power your computer on.
Hopefully it will work, and by pressing Ctrl-F you can go into a program where you can easily select which RAID mode you want to run.
Link to bios flash program and BIOS update http://www.geocities.com/promise_raid/FT66b108.Z IP
NOTE!!! I cannot be held responsible to any damage or failure of your system or the card itself or any living person walking around you, you are on your own!
------------------ Uffe Merrild ------------------------ editor at Hiphardware.com
Oh for crying out loud.. Everyone in this thread so far has been totally wrong.. argh..
Ok.. Here's reality, straight up, and bit of a history lesson to all.
Reality shows the year to be 365.24219878 days long.. more or less.
The Egyptians came up with the 365 day calendar. Using this calendar, after 754 years, they'd be 6 months off (December would be in the summer in the Northern Hemisphere and so on).
The Romans added the leap year concept to their calendar (although they weren't the first to come up with it). This correction makes the year 365.25 days long, on average. Using the Julian calendar, after 23377 years, they'd be 6 months off.
In 1582 the calendar was about ten days off, so Pope Gregory XIII modified the calendar again. It was pretty radical, as I believe he made a one time correction of chopping 10 days out of March that year. Anyway, his change was If the year is divisible by 100, it's not a leap year UNLESS it is also divisible by 400 where it IS a leap year. The Gregorian Calendar is still in use today. So, the average year length is 365.2425 days (over 400 years) which would take 606272 to get 6 months off.
Some suggest adding UNLESS it's divisible by 4000, where it's NOT a leap year. This would give an average year length of 365.24225 days, which would take 3565426 years to get 6 months off. Fortunately, we don't have to decide on that rule until the year 4000.
Oh for crying out loud.. Everyone in this thread so far has been totally wrong.. argh..
Ok.. Here's reality, straight up, and bit of a history lesson to all. <br><br> Reality shows the year to be 365.24219878 days long.. more or less. <br><br> The Egyptians came up with the 365 day calendar. Using this calendar, after 754 years, they'd be 6 months off (December would be in the summer in the Northern Hemisphere and so on). <br><br> The Romans added the leap year concept to their calendar (although they weren't the first to come up with it). This correction makes the year 365.25 days long, on average. Using the Julian calendar, after 23377 years, they'd be 6 months off. <br><br> In 1582 the calendar was about ten days off, so Pope Gregory XIII modified the calendar again. It was pretty radical, as I believe he made a one time correction of chopping 10 days out of March that year. Anyway, his change was <B>If the year is divisible by 100, it's not a leap year UNLESS it is also divisible by 400 where it IS a leap year.</B> The Gregorian Calendar is still in use today. So, the average year length is 365.2425 days (over 400 years) which would take 606272 to get 6 months off. <br><br> Some suggest adding <B>UNLESS it's divisible by 4000, where it's NOT a leap year</B>. This would give an average year length of 365.24225 days, which would take 3565426 years to get 6 months off. Fortunately, we don't have to decide on that rule until the year 4000. <br><br>
I checked each patent. Amazon only owns: -Internet-based customer referral system -Secure method for communicating credit card data when placing an order on a non-secure network -Refining search queries by the suggestion of correlated terms from prior searches -System and method for selecting rows from dimensional databases -Method and apparatus for producing sequenced queries -Method for data gathering around forms and search barriers -Secure method and system for communicating a list of credit card numbers over a non-secure network -Method and system for placing a purchase order via a communications network
Note that last one. It's the 1-click ordering patent.
>I am just wondering if PCAnywhere (and other related NT admining tools) have encryption features comparable to ssh and friends?
pcAnywhere (version 8 at least) provides four types of encryption: Public Key encryption, Symmetric encryption, PcANYWHERE encryption, and No encryption.
The public-key is as good as Windows is. It uses the Microsoft CryptoAPI, and can do 128-bit is your Windows has 128 bit installed (say you installed 128-bit IE, for example).. I haven't set this up, but you need a certificate authority in order to do it, according to their helpfiles.
Symmetric: no information available. Presumably it doesn't send the symmetric key across, but maybe it does. If so, then it's pretty worthless. If not, then how does each side know what the key is? Got me.
pcAnywhere encryption: minimal encryption, according to their own helpfiles. Probably something really simple and easily broken.
None: None, obviously.
Just a little FYI.. ---
Who cares about DeCSS?
on
A New DeCSS
·
· Score: 2
The MPAA has blinded everyone by making them fight for this bit of code, IMHO.
DeCSS is out there. No amount of legal wrangling will ever get it all removed. The MPAA has assured that themselves by even bothering over the issue.
What's the defense again? "DeCSS was a necessary first step in producing a program for Linux that is capable of playing DVDs." Okay. Good. I agree. Now, where's the player?
Ok, ok, I realize there's work being done on it, but I still don't see even a beta of a fully functional player. Here's what I'd consider a fully functional player beta:
Can play video Can play sound Can do the DVD menu stuff (mostly.. problems will exist) Can do over 50% of the stuff in the player specs (as in branching, alternate audio tracks, etc)
Once a player exists, no-one will care about DeCSS anymore. Just don't use the EXACT code from DeCSS in the player. Hell, I'm not sure that you can, even. I need to read up more on the specs and try to grasp that DeCSS code I'm mirroring in 20 places:-)
But, if a player existed, all attention will shift to it. DeCSS will be a forgotten memory. Plus, and here's the bonus, the MPAA's major offensive CANNOT be used against a player. Their major strategy seems to be that DeCSS is a copying program. If you make a player, it's not a copying program. It's a player, obviously. Just don't put in a write to disk feature (Leave that for the first upgrade after you win the suit:-).
Ah well. I really just wanted to get it out there. If I'm incorrect, and there is a good functional player in existance, please tell me! Tell everyone. Tell the world. I know there are projects out there to do this, so lets give them some press attention.
Just another thought I had the other day. Correct me if I'm wrong, but DeCSS just uses the Xing key, correct? Well, how hard is it to crack all these keys? I mean, here's how I understand it:
The movie is encrypted using a "Key Prime". The Key Prime is encrypted using all the myriads of other keys, including Key Xing. DeCSS tells the DVD player Key Xing, gets Key Prime, and can decrypt the movie.
Well, then all you need to play a movie is Key Xing, or Key Sony, or whatever. Well, there's umm.. well, call it a thousand Keys on there, all of them encrypting Key Prime.
Since you can get Key Prime using Key Xing, how hard is it to get, say, Key Sony? You have the encrypted Key Prime using Key Sony, and you have Key Prime. Maybe you still must use a brute force attack, I don't know.
My thought was, why not get ALL the keys, and then spread them around? Look, the consortium could decide at any time that Key Xing has been compromised (which is true) and stop putting it on new disks. But, they can't add new keys, because they lose the market by removing all backwards compatibility with all existing players and disks. Also, they can't remove all keys because then it's free and clear for anyone.
So find those keys. Make your OSS player able to use ANY key, but it doesn't come with a key by default, it just reads it from say, key.txt:-) Then put all the different keys out there. Remember, once they're there, they're there forever.
I signed up to get one of those just after they started the program.. I got an e-mail to sign up again a couple of months ago, which I did.. Still never got the system... Oh well. Missed the boat.
Next month and the following, as all of the geeks that have to fill out a tax form more complicated than the EZ, I want you to take a look at who you're paying to do your taxes. If you're doing them solo, take a look at the time wasted and the frustration involved in this seemingly simple task. Why is this? Because the IRS feels about the tax codes like you do about the code behind Linux. Job security through obscurity?
Well, I'm not a huge Linux user. I've got one linux system running, mostly as a server, and to automate several tasks I don't want to always do manually. I still use Windows for most tasks, and I set up the linux box so long ago I've forgotten how I configured it. In any case, here's my thoughts:
"If you can't do your own damn taxes, you are an idiot."
The tax forms are not difficult. They are overwhelming, but the instructions are simple, clear, and concise, to anyone capable of reading and understanding plain English. I sat down and did mine two weeks ago, federal and state. Here's the forms I used:
The main one (1040), itemized deductions, moving expenses, misc income earnings (1099?), and two others the purpose of which I forget at the moment. Also the state form, another moving expenses form, and the state itemized deductions form. Not to mention all the "little" worksheets in the instructions that have to be done to find out what other worksheets you have to do.
Total time invested to do these? Two hours, tops.
It doesn't matter whether you can't grasp the instructions or simply can't do the math. Either way you an ignorant fool if you cannot do your own taxes.
Math is not a luxury, it is a requirement. Personally, I feel that knowledge of mathematics should be required for breeding rights, but most people wouldn't agree with me there.:-)
If you pay someone to do your taxes because you don't have time, well... okay.. I can (barely) see that. If you pay someone to do your taxes because you couldn't do it yourself, through ignorance or stupidity, you should be shot. Certainly you shouldn't even consider owning a computer.
I doubt they would try to stop a site like/. from using the apple logo.
First off, it's probably considered fair use, somehow. Using the apple logo to signify stories about Apple is hardly misuse of the logo. Otherwise IBM would sue the Wall Street Journal or something stupid like that. ---
Well, just looking at the screen shot of the theme link you posted (I've not tried the theme itself), there is both the MacOS face logo thingy, and the apple logo in the top bar of that theme.
Of course, the screen shot could be from the wrong theme, but hey..
Very nifty protocol. I wouldn't have thought of a random CD block check.
This potentially makes it much more difficult to fake the response to the server, tricking it into thinking you have the CD when you don't. Also the hash of the block is computed on the server side for verification, rather than on the client side. Good. They don't trust the client at all.:-)
Now, of course, someone will just find a back door somewhere. Still, it shows that they didn't just whip the thing out, but put some thought into it.
It's still a stupid service without widespread broadband. But more of that is appearing every day.
Sigh... I've liked Jon's work in the past, but he really has lost it now.. Okay, time for Philsophy 101. Jon Katz to the principal's office for skipping please.
Here's some questions to mull in front of the screen: Why are we here? Where have the Gods all gone?
Perhaps they never existed in the first place.:)
Individual species, he wrote, may have tremendous potential for material and mental progress, but at the core they lack any direction beyond that in which their genetic and molecular architecture steer them.
Ahh, the fun old deterministic arguement. Not a proof, and no way to prove it. Besides that, it's been resolved as a problem with language, not with reality.
Wilson believes the human mind is constructed in a way that locks it onto this pre-ordained track and forces it to make choices on a purely biological basis. His notion is part of one of the oldest feuds in philosophy, science and the humanities - is there really free will, or are conscience and consciousness merely byproducts of electricity, impulses, genes and molecules?
Ahh.. I'm impressed. At least Jon knows this has been argued endlessly. Guess him and the author hadn't grasped the solution yet and were looking for better explanations.
All other functions of human consciousness - creativity, anger, exploration, adventure - exist either in support of this goal, or are inconsequential.
You forgot science and politics.
Yes, yes, we all know that part already. Let's skip down to the meat of this long winded article.
The reflective person... will in the end be certain of only one thing: helping to perpetuate the cycle that created him. Almost everything else is up in the air, one theory as good as another.
So you interpret the continuing growth of the sum of human knowledge as confirmation that life only exists to get it on? Well, as good a reason as any other I've heard.
If he's right, the dilemma is enormous: we have no particular place to go as a species. We lack a common or universal goal beyond our pre-determined biological nature.
And?
Lack of a clearly defined goal has not stopped our species before, Jon. No reason to think it might do so now. Perhaps the majority of the species will stop looking for things that simply don't exist. There is no "meaning of life". Monty Python excluded, of course.
That would bring the world a stable eco-system for the first time. But what then?
Well, I imagine I'd get a cola and reflect on it for about 3 minutes, then getting on with having a good time.
If this dilemma holds any interest for you, try reading "The Physics of Consciousness, The Quantum Mind and the Meaning of Life," by Evan Harris Walker, physicist and director of the Walker Cancer Institute.
So that's it? The book simply replaces religion with nothingness? It's basically an intro to existentalism then isn't it? Sheesh. What a long winded explanation for a book that could be summarized in 2 sentences.
The answer, says Walker, is in quantum and Newtonian physics. Using "Bell's Theorem" - the notion that one particle can instantly influence the behavior of another, Walker unveils his notions of the intricacies of electron tunneling in the brain.
Oh ho! So now we see what's going on.. Religion replaced by quantum physics! Woo Hoo! Einstein is rolling over in his grave.
"We want to ask, is there a God? Does my life have meaning and purpose? Science, we are told, says that even to ask about God is beyond its scope." But this, Walker argues, is not true. Either there is no such thing as God, or science - which embodies our ability to reason - must be able to frame the question and provide us with the answers.
Wrong.
Science can deal with facts, evidence, other phenomena. There is no evidence either for or against the existance of a deity. There is no solid evidence for or against existance of an afterlife. How can you frame a question if you don't have anything to question?
Walker takes us on an amazing journey into what he calls the "engines of the mind," from membranes of nerve cells which maintain electric fields, to the synapse, the junction between neurons, the site of what he calls "quantum choice" a major intersection of human consciousness. (Note: a bunch of other crap skipped)
Essentially, the rest of this says that he explains how neurons work, theorizes on how consciousness comes from that, then says that each consciousness lives in its own existance and is "god" of its universe. Where you actually meet another person can then be either where your universes intersect, or where you invent a person so you won't be so lonely (solipism).
Anyway, it sounds like a rehash of everything said before, only throwing quantum physics in to make it "fresh".
Sigh. It'd be nice if something original was created, just once in a while.
All events are unique. If the same event happened, it could not happen at the same time in the same place, exactly. Therefore, all events happen only once. This means there are no second chances, no undoing what has been done. Viewed from an outside viewpoint (or after the fact) no other event is possible. What happened, happened, and no amount of bickering changes it.
Free will is what you experience at the "now". Determinism is what you experience after the fact, or from an outside viewpoint (except that there are no outside viewpoints). Both exist, and the difference between them is semantic, not actual.
Well, the GPL works in a method that can be described as "viral".. You could say that an "open" patent is a good thing simply because of the fact that once somebody patents something, no one else can.
Of course, here you have to trust intentions of the person making the patent... I'd say give them all to the FSF or RMS, but RMS wouldn't allow free usage, he'd say you had to give all your patents away in order to use the "open" patents.:-)
Perhaps some of Tesla's more wacky inventions don't really merit the term "crackpot", but how about Tesla's ghost detector? Surely even you agree *that* is a crackpot invention, yes? Well, yes, or even the "death ray" that he kept trying to come up with because he thought everyone was spying on him.
No-one said he wasn't nuts. He was still a genius though.
I don't know about the rest of the world, but I was taught both Edison and Tesla in elementary school. I was taught how Tesla invented AC and saw its potential, beating Edison's DC method out.
In any case, this isn't really about that. The original article says that the Smithsonian is crediting Edison with Tesla's inventions. Which just ain't right.
Slashdot Mirror
But of course, this is exactly how society functions - by imposing an agreed-upon set of rules of conduct on its members. Take away the rules and you have anarchy.
Well, I'm all for anarchy, but that's neither here nor there...
Funny how it only becomes "imposing their beliefs" when we don't agree with it. One never hears any objections to imposing our belief in, say, the wrongness of rape on other members of society.
Of course. If you agreed with it, they're not "imposing" anything. You'd folow that belief anyway, because it's your own, so what do you care?
One point is that those people clamoring for censorship are a MINORITY. A loud, annoying, vocal minority, but a minority nonetheless. Polls won't tell the story properly, because the majority of the polls done on the subject are biased in the questions. "Do you believe children should look at sick, gay, animalistic, heathen porn, or do you think there should be filtering software in place to protect the children from evil sick twisted sh*t like this?"
Ok, admittedly, that's a bit obvious, but it brings the point across. Most polls I've seen on the subject use questions no better than that.
The majority of the human race is non-christian. The fundies, deep down, believe that only x-tian beliefs matter, and then proceed to impose those beliefs on the "heathen few" that disagree. They can't live and let live. They insist on regulating that which should not be regulated. There's some areas (most areas in fact) that the law should not cross into, and ethics and morality are one of them. Rape is not an issue of ethics or morality. Rape is an issue of hurting another person. It's deemed incorrect by society to hurt another person against their will, so punishment insues. We do not jail rapist because their sense of morals are skewed. We jail them because they are a physical danger to other members of society.
---
One could equally ask at what point certain genres of photographs stopped being "harmful to minors".
It all goes back to first principles. Those who believe that sex outside of a marital context is wrong will define material which teaches children otherwise as ipso facto harmful.
Oh? But what about those who believe that sex inside a marital context is wrong, who in point of fact believe that marriage itself is wrong?
Everyone's beliefs are their own. They should not be able to impose them on others.
---
the NSA can recover data 16 rewrites or formats deep on a HDD. I know firsthand of eight layers, while in the Navy we had a HDD with data from two crash investigations stolen by a contractor, who used it for 2 months before it was recovered. We sent it in (I was told later to the NSA labs), and the data was recovered through 8 format/rewrites. Has to do with track edges and the head mechanism not tracking perfectly every time.
:-)
Yes, that's a normal method. You can do it with diskettes too. Even broken ones (as in pieces).
However, give me half an hour with a disk that I want to be sure no-one will ever see, and it will never be seen by any means whatsoever. Could be as simple as running it thru an alternating magnetic flux (with a nice big coil and a lot of juice), depending on the disk. Might even have to build some minor circuts to do some wacky stuff with magnetic fields, but it's not hard to do, if you really really want to. And hell, there's always the rotary sander. Grind that sucker into dust. Let 'em try to read those pieces.
Anyway, the point IS that anyone can remove electronically stored evidence if they want to remove it.
Ah well. I'm rambling now..
---
Here's a good page to get all the info:
http://pages.infinit.net/bonesnet/Smithee.htm
Here's a quick rundown:
-DUNE was originally released to theatres at Christmas of 1984 in Todd-AO/70MM with a running time of 137 minutes.
-It is obvious that David Lynch shot a lot more footage than what we saw in the theatrical print. Lynch himself envisioned a four-hour epic film. Unfortunately, Universal wanted a running time that would be more accessible to its audience since three-hour- and four-hour-plus films were not currently popular in the 1980s. So the studio had Lynch re-edit the film to its 137-minute theatrical version.
-At one point in 1984, Lynch had announced he was going to release a legitimate "special edition director's cut" on home video, but decided to move on to other projects such as "Blue Velvet". Soon, word and rumor about the extra footage had spread everywhere, and by the time DUNE had finished its original cable run on HBO, Universal felt that the time had come to produce a "special edition" of their own, and the result was released to television in May of 1988.
-David Lynch was unhappy with what MCA TV had done and did not approve of this edition. So thus it was he successfully petitioned to take his name off the credits and replaced it with "Allen Smithee", the standard Directors Guild of America pseudonym for directors who do not want credit for their own work.
-This first TV version of DUNE, pieced together under the (mis)guiding hand of Harry Tapelman, Vice President of MCA TV Special Projects, was originally created for the Turner networks, but instead released to syndication in 1988 on the Universal Pictures Debut Network (which also was responsible for the slightly expanded version of "Legend", and the severely edited version of "Brazil"). Although Universal touted this as having "more than 50 minutes of never-before-seen footage", this actually contained 35 minutes of unseen footage. The remaining 15 contained the repeated main and end credits, a newly shot prologue, and so-called "new" scenes fabricated from outtake and test footage.
A complete list of the changes made is available at the web page I mentioned above.
---
It's funny how Jeff Bezos tries to make everyone happy by agreeing with everything they say, and then acting in totally opposite ways.
FACT: Amazon got the one-click patent and then SUED Barnes & Noble for violating it, even though Barnes and Noble had the same type of system before Amazon filed for the patent.
This is my belief even though the vast majority of our competitive advantage will continue to come not from patents, but from raising the bar on things like service, price, and selection -- and we will continue to raise that bar.
Then why, Jeff Bezos, is your company trying to hurt competitors via lawsuits over patent infringement, thereby reducing competition and hurting the consumer?
If your actions agreed with your words, I'd support you. As it stands, the boycott is still on, Jeff. I sure as hell don't believe this open letter of yours, because your companies actions speak much, much louder.
Oh, and Tim, about this:
In the case of the Associates patent, what is being patented is not the broad idea of referral marketing, but instead a mechanism that allows individuals on the net to establish a little virtual bookstore on their site, with fulfillment by Amazon, entirely on their own, without having to negotiate a business deal with Amazon. In effect, Amazon created an API that allowed others to use Amazon as a service.
Now I await the lawsuit against vstore.com for violating this patent. What a crock.
---
>Am I the only one tired by titles of 'It's [whatever], stupid'? This always sounds to me like a somewhat veiled attempt from the author at placing themselves above the reader from the get-go, by claiming they have such a clever bit of information that the reader should feel 'stupid' for not knowing it.
:-)
:-)
I think you're reading WAY too much into the titles of articles. I mean, it's almost like you're trying to be (gasp) politically correct...
Just kidding there, but generally the "It's something_here, stupid" type of articles are mainly trying to point out the obvious, not the insightful or clever. That is, if you didn't already see this, you must be stupid.
And if I can't look down at other, less-knowledgable people with disdain, then what's the point of being a computer guru?
---
>Any boat or ferry trip on the Harbour.
I'll agree there! Last June, when I was in Sydney, we took the ferry over to Manly Beach (just 'cause we liked the name), and it was well worth the trip. Some good pubs over in that area too.
One thing I recommend is going sailing in the harbor. We went out on a sailboat for a few hours, got utterly plastered, and generally had one hell of a good time. Immediately after we got back, we stumbled into the casino across the street and I won $200 AU in 10 minutes on a video poker machine. It was a good time.
---
Ol' Sourceforge had a compiler farm..
E- I/O I/O.
And on this farm they had a cluster..
E- I/O I/O.
With a make make here,
And a make make there..
Make make make make everywhere!
Ol' Sourceforge had a compiler farm..
E- I/O I/O.
---
Here's a link to the actual contest rules and so forth.
http://www.sylloge.com/5k/---
That link is bad too.. Doesn't work for me anyway.
Z IP
After a little searching, here's the post that you mentioned, and YES this way is a lot easier.
---Begin Crosspost---
Ok, I know this sounds crazy, it is.
This is how you do it...(see link)
http://www.geocities.com/promise_raid/
I know this is in danish and most of you don't understand anything of it.
Look at the pictures.
I'll translate for you guys, because I like you (LOL!)
Goals:
1: Update the card's BIOS
2: Solder a 100 Ohms resistor from pin 23 to ground, OR from pin 23 to 16.
3: Enjoy your new el-cheapo RAID system
IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU UPDATE YOUR BIOS BEFORE YOU SOLDER!!!
Things required:
A Promise UDMA66 controller
A 100 Ohms resistor
A soldering iron, soldering tin, and a screwdriver.
Detailed walk-through:
Buy a Promise UMDA66 controller
Buy a 100 Ohms resistor (color code: brown-black-brown)
Check if the card works as an UDMA66 controller
Format a 3 1/4 inch 1.44MB diskette, make it bootable (copy system files under windows format)
On this diskette you place the BIOS update program and the new BIOS, find the bios on:
www.promise.com
(it is the one for the RAID device you have to download)
Boot on this diskette
Start the BIOS program:
A:\ptiflash.exe
FIRST TAKE A BACKUP OF YOUR CURRENT BIOS!!!
Choose option no.1 and choose where you want to save your current BIOS.
Flash your BIOS with the one you just downloaded, do this by selecting option no.2 and write the name of your new downloaded BIOS (normally A:\ft66b108.bin)
Restart your computer
When you restart, you will get an error when your computer begins to initialize the IDE-66 controller's BIOS.
Shut your computer down
Pull out the Controller card
Unscrew the metal plate from the controller. (this makes it easier to handle)
Solder the resistor on pin no. 23 (see the picture on the website I linked to, you will see it clearly)
BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN YOU SOLDER!! The bios is much sensitive to heat, so if your card has an IC socket they recommend you to remove it.
Now you can put back the metal plate, put the card back and power your computer on.
Hopefully it will work, and by pressing Ctrl-F you can go into a program where you can easily select which RAID mode you want to run.
Link to bios flash program and BIOS update
http://www.geocities.com/promise_raid/FT66b108.
NOTE!!! I cannot be held responsible to any damage or failure of your system or the card itself or any living person walking around you, you are on your own!
------------------
Uffe Merrild
------------------------
editor at Hiphardware.com
---End Crosspost---
---
Oh for crying out loud.. Everyone in this thread so far has been totally wrong.. argh..
Ok.. Here's reality, straight up, and bit of a history lesson to all.
Reality shows the year to be 365.24219878 days long.. more or less.
The Egyptians came up with the 365 day calendar. Using this calendar, after 754 years, they'd be 6 months off (December would be in the summer in the Northern Hemisphere and so on).
The Romans added the leap year concept to their calendar (although they weren't the first to come up with it). This correction makes the year 365.25 days long, on average. Using the Julian calendar, after 23377 years, they'd be 6 months off.
In 1582 the calendar was about ten days off, so Pope Gregory XIII modified the calendar again. It was pretty radical, as I believe he made a one time correction of chopping 10 days out of March that year. Anyway, his change was If the year is divisible by 100, it's not a leap year UNLESS it is also divisible by 400 where it IS a leap year. The Gregorian Calendar is still in use today. So, the average year length is 365.2425 days (over 400 years) which would take 606272 to get 6 months off.
Some suggest adding UNLESS it's divisible by 4000, where it's NOT a leap year. This would give an average year length of 365.24225 days, which would take 3565426 years to get 6 months off. Fortunately, we don't have to decide on that rule until the year 4000.
---
Oh for crying out loud.. Everyone in this thread so far has been totally wrong.. argh..
Ok.. Here's reality, straight up, and bit of a history lesson to all.
<br><br>
Reality shows the year to be 365.24219878 days long.. more or less.
<br><br>
The Egyptians came up with the 365 day calendar. Using this calendar, after 754 years, they'd be 6 months off (December would be in the summer in the Northern Hemisphere and so on).
<br><br>
The Romans added the leap year concept to their calendar (although they weren't the first to come up with it). This correction makes the year 365.25 days long, on average. Using the Julian calendar, after 23377 years, they'd be 6 months off.
<br><br>
In 1582 the calendar was about ten days off, so Pope Gregory XIII modified the calendar again. It was pretty radical, as I believe he made a one time correction of chopping 10 days out of March that year. Anyway, his change was <B>If the year is divisible by 100, it's not a leap year UNLESS it is also divisible by 400 where it IS a leap year.</B> The Gregorian Calendar is still in use today. So, the average year length is 365.2425 days (over 400 years) which would take 606272 to get 6 months off.
<br><br>
Some suggest adding <B>UNLESS it's divisible by 4000, where it's NOT a leap year</B>. This would give an average year length of 365.24225 days, which would take 3565426 years to get 6 months off. Fortunately, we don't have to decide on that rule until the year 4000.
<br><br>
---
I checked each patent. Amazon only owns:
-Internet-based customer referral system
-Secure method for communicating credit card data when placing an order on a non-secure network
-Refining search queries by the suggestion of correlated terms from prior searches
-System and method for selecting rows from dimensional databases
-Method and apparatus for producing sequenced queries
-Method for data gathering around forms and search barriers
-Secure method and system for communicating a list of credit card numbers over a non-secure network
-Method and system for placing a purchase order via a communications network
Note that last one. It's the 1-click ordering patent.
---
>I am just wondering if PCAnywhere (and other related NT admining tools) have encryption features comparable to ssh and friends?
pcAnywhere (version 8 at least) provides four types of encryption: Public Key encryption, Symmetric encryption, PcANYWHERE encryption, and No encryption.
The public-key is as good as Windows is. It uses the Microsoft CryptoAPI, and can do 128-bit is your Windows has 128 bit installed (say you installed 128-bit IE, for example).. I haven't set this up, but you need a certificate authority in order to do it, according to their helpfiles.
Symmetric: no information available. Presumably it doesn't send the symmetric key across, but maybe it does. If so, then it's pretty worthless. If not, then how does each side know what the key is? Got me.
pcAnywhere encryption: minimal encryption, according to their own helpfiles. Probably something really simple and easily broken.
None: None, obviously.
Just a little FYI..
---
The MPAA has blinded everyone by making them fight for this bit of code, IMHO.
:-)
:-).
:-)
DeCSS is out there. No amount of legal wrangling will ever get it all removed. The MPAA has assured that themselves by even bothering over the issue.
What's the defense again? "DeCSS was a necessary first step in producing a program for Linux that is capable of playing DVDs." Okay. Good. I agree. Now, where's the player?
Ok, ok, I realize there's work being done on it, but I still don't see even a beta of a fully functional player. Here's what I'd consider a fully functional player beta:
Can play video
Can play sound
Can do the DVD menu stuff (mostly.. problems will exist)
Can do over 50% of the stuff in the player specs (as in branching, alternate audio tracks, etc)
Once a player exists, no-one will care about DeCSS anymore. Just don't use the EXACT code from DeCSS in the player. Hell, I'm not sure that you can, even. I need to read up more on the specs and try to grasp that DeCSS code I'm mirroring in 20 places
But, if a player existed, all attention will shift to it. DeCSS will be a forgotten memory. Plus, and here's the bonus, the MPAA's major offensive CANNOT be used against a player. Their major strategy seems to be that DeCSS is a copying program. If you make a player, it's not a copying program. It's a player, obviously. Just don't put in a write to disk feature (Leave that for the first upgrade after you win the suit
Ah well. I really just wanted to get it out there. If I'm incorrect, and there is a good functional player in existance, please tell me! Tell everyone. Tell the world. I know there are projects out there to do this, so lets give them some press attention.
Just another thought I had the other day. Correct me if I'm wrong, but DeCSS just uses the Xing key, correct? Well, how hard is it to crack all these keys? I mean, here's how I understand it:
The movie is encrypted using a "Key Prime".
The Key Prime is encrypted using all the myriads of other keys, including Key Xing.
DeCSS tells the DVD player Key Xing, gets Key Prime, and can decrypt the movie.
Well, then all you need to play a movie is Key Xing, or Key Sony, or whatever. Well, there's umm.. well, call it a thousand Keys on there, all of them encrypting Key Prime.
Since you can get Key Prime using Key Xing, how hard is it to get, say, Key Sony? You have the encrypted Key Prime using Key Sony, and you have Key Prime. Maybe you still must use a brute force attack, I don't know.
My thought was, why not get ALL the keys, and then spread them around? Look, the consortium could decide at any time that Key Xing has been compromised (which is true) and stop putting it on new disks. But, they can't add new keys, because they lose the market by removing all backwards compatibility with all existing players and disks. Also, they can't remove all keys because then it's free and clear for anyone.
So find those keys. Make your OSS player able to use ANY key, but it doesn't come with a key by default, it just reads it from say, key.txt
Then put all the different keys out there. Remember, once they're there, they're there forever.
Ahh well. Now I'm rambling.
---
I signed up to get one of those just after they started the program.. I got an e-mail to sign up again a couple of months ago, which I did.. Still never got the system... Oh well. Missed the boat.
---
Next month and the following, as all of the geeks that have to fill out a tax form more complicated than the EZ, I want you to take a look at who you're paying to do your taxes. If you're doing them solo, take a look at the time wasted and the frustration involved in this seemingly simple task. Why is this? Because the IRS feels about the tax codes like you do about the code behind Linux. Job security through obscurity?
:-)
Well, I'm not a huge Linux user. I've got one linux system running, mostly as a server, and to automate several tasks I don't want to always do manually. I still use Windows for most tasks, and I set up the linux box so long ago I've forgotten how I configured it. In any case, here's my thoughts:
"If you can't do your own damn taxes, you are an idiot."
The tax forms are not difficult. They are overwhelming, but the instructions are simple, clear, and concise, to anyone capable of reading and understanding plain English. I sat down and did mine two weeks ago, federal and state. Here's the forms I used:
The main one (1040), itemized deductions, moving expenses, misc income earnings (1099?), and two others the purpose of which I forget at the moment. Also the state form, another moving expenses form, and the state itemized deductions form. Not to mention all the "little" worksheets in the instructions that have to be done to find out what other worksheets you have to do.
Total time invested to do these? Two hours, tops.
It doesn't matter whether you can't grasp the instructions or simply can't do the math. Either way you an ignorant fool if you cannot do your own taxes.
Math is not a luxury, it is a requirement. Personally, I feel that knowledge of mathematics should be required for breeding rights, but most people wouldn't agree with me there.
If you pay someone to do your taxes because you don't have time, well... okay.. I can (barely) see that. If you pay someone to do your taxes because you couldn't do it yourself, through ignorance or stupidity, you should be shot. Certainly you shouldn't even consider owning a computer.
Just my $0.02.
---
I doubt they would try to stop a site like /. from using the apple logo.
First off, it's probably considered fair use, somehow. Using the apple logo to signify stories about Apple is hardly misuse of the logo. Otherwise IBM would sue the Wall Street Journal or something stupid like that.
---
Well, just looking at the screen shot of the theme link you posted (I've not tried the theme itself), there is both the MacOS face logo thingy, and the apple logo in the top bar of that theme.
Of course, the screen shot could be from the wrong theme, but hey..
---
Very nifty protocol. I wouldn't have thought of a random CD block check.
:-)
This potentially makes it much more difficult to fake the response to the server, tricking it into thinking you have the CD when you don't. Also the hash of the block is computed on the server side for verification, rather than on the client side. Good. They don't trust the client at all.
Now, of course, someone will just find a back door somewhere. Still, it shows that they didn't just whip the thing out, but put some thought into it.
It's still a stupid service without widespread broadband. But more of that is appearing every day.
---
Here's what I got when I just loaded the page:
Daily News
Solaris and Linux Vulnerable To Hack
By Sherman Fridman, Newsbytes.
February 11, 2000
Due to flagrant inaccuracies this article has been pulled and is being re-written.
Occasionally one of these slips through the editorial process. Computer Currents regrets the error.
February 11,2000 11:17:00 AM PST
Well, I'd like to have read the original story.. The site was slashdotted all morning.. oh well.
---
Sigh... I've liked Jon's work in the past, but he really has lost it now.. Okay, time for Philsophy 101. Jon Katz to the principal's office for skipping please.
:)
... will in the end be certain of only one thing: helping to perpetuate the cycle that created him. Almost everything else is up in the air, one theory as good as another.
Here's some questions to mull in front of the screen: Why are we here? Where have the Gods all gone?
Perhaps they never existed in the first place.
Individual species, he wrote, may have tremendous potential for material and mental progress, but at the core they lack any direction beyond that in which their genetic and molecular architecture steer them.
Ahh, the fun old deterministic arguement. Not a proof, and no way to prove it. Besides that, it's been resolved as a problem with language, not with reality.
Wilson believes the human mind is constructed in a way that locks it onto this pre-ordained track and forces it to make choices on a purely biological basis. His notion is part of one of the oldest feuds in philosophy, science and the humanities - is there really free will, or are conscience and consciousness merely byproducts of electricity, impulses, genes and molecules?
Ahh.. I'm impressed. At least Jon knows this has been argued endlessly. Guess him and the author hadn't grasped the solution yet and were looking for better explanations.
All other functions of human consciousness - creativity, anger, exploration, adventure - exist either in support of this goal, or are inconsequential.
You forgot science and politics.
Yes, yes, we all know that part already. Let's skip down to the meat of this long winded article.
The reflective person
So you interpret the continuing growth of the sum of human knowledge as confirmation that life only exists to get it on? Well, as good a reason as any other I've heard.
If he's right, the dilemma is enormous: we have no particular place to go as a species. We lack a common or universal goal beyond our pre-determined biological nature.
And?
Lack of a clearly defined goal has not stopped our species before, Jon. No reason to think it might do so now. Perhaps the majority of the species will stop looking for things that simply don't exist. There is no "meaning of life". Monty Python excluded, of course.
That would bring the world a stable eco-system for the first time. But what then?
Well, I imagine I'd get a cola and reflect on it for about 3 minutes, then getting on with having a good time.
If this dilemma holds any interest for you, try reading "The Physics of Consciousness, The Quantum Mind and the Meaning of Life," by Evan Harris Walker, physicist and director of the Walker Cancer Institute.
So that's it? The book simply replaces religion with nothingness? It's basically an intro to existentalism then isn't it? Sheesh. What a long winded explanation for a book that could be summarized in 2 sentences.
The answer, says Walker, is in quantum and Newtonian physics. Using "Bell's Theorem" - the notion that one particle can instantly influence the behavior of another, Walker unveils his notions of the intricacies of electron tunneling in the brain.
Oh ho! So now we see what's going on.. Religion replaced by quantum physics! Woo Hoo! Einstein is rolling over in his grave.
"We want to ask, is there a God? Does my life have meaning and purpose? Science, we are told, says that even to ask about God is beyond its scope." But this, Walker argues, is not true. Either there is no such thing as God, or science - which embodies our ability to reason - must be able to frame the question and provide us with the answers.
Wrong.
Science can deal with facts, evidence, other phenomena. There is no evidence either for or against the existance of a deity. There is no solid evidence for or against existance of an afterlife. How can you frame a question if you don't have anything to question?
Walker takes us on an amazing journey into what he calls the "engines of the mind," from membranes of nerve cells which maintain electric fields, to the synapse, the junction between neurons, the site of what he calls "quantum choice" a major intersection of human consciousness. (Note: a bunch of other crap skipped)
Essentially, the rest of this says that he explains how neurons work, theorizes on how consciousness comes from that, then says that each consciousness lives in its own existance and is "god" of its universe. Where you actually meet another person can then be either where your universes intersect, or where you invent a person so you won't be so lonely (solipism).
Anyway, it sounds like a rehash of everything said before, only throwing quantum physics in to make it "fresh".
Sigh. It'd be nice if something original was created, just once in a while.
---
The main problem is, as always, viewpoint.
All events are unique. If the same event happened, it could not happen at the same time in the same place, exactly. Therefore, all events happen only once. This means there are no second chances, no undoing what has been done. Viewed from an outside viewpoint (or after the fact) no other event is possible. What happened, happened, and no amount of bickering changes it.
Free will is what you experience at the "now". Determinism is what you experience after the fact, or from an outside viewpoint (except that there are no outside viewpoints). Both exist, and the difference between them is semantic, not actual.
---
Well, the GPL works in a method that can be described as "viral".. You could say that an "open" patent is a good thing simply because of the fact that once somebody patents something, no one else can.
:-)
Of course, here you have to trust intentions of the person making the patent... I'd say give them all to the FSF or RMS, but RMS wouldn't allow free usage, he'd say you had to give all your patents away in order to use the "open" patents.
---
Perhaps some of Tesla's more wacky inventions don't really merit the term "crackpot", but how about Tesla's ghost detector? Surely even you agree *that* is a crackpot invention, yes? Well, yes, or even the "death ray" that he kept trying to come up with because he thought everyone was spying on him.
No-one said he wasn't nuts. He was still a genius though.
I don't know about the rest of the world, but I was taught both Edison and Tesla in elementary school. I was taught how Tesla invented AC and saw its potential, beating Edison's DC method out.
In any case, this isn't really about that. The original article says that the Smithsonian is crediting Edison with Tesla's inventions. Which just ain't right.
---