Start madly flailing our arms in a haphazard way above our heads, screaming about how a CME will cause worldwide power outages, cause the end of civilization and generally revert us to either man eating cannibals, savages with funny tattoos and a general like of badly built all terrain vehicles slapped together out of junk...
I would like to add our brand new little 'stimulus' rural sewer company that cut the main, and ONLY, fiber line to our little M&P ISP's backbone while digging a hole. No internet for 2,500 people and businesses on "Main Street" (we actually have one of those) for about a day. Keep in mind the fiber is actually above ground here - and runs right past my house, which is not fun to think about when I pay the bill for my 12/2.5 MB line, but that's neither here nor there.
Then they cut it again, in the exact same spot a couple months later when they came back to fill the hole.
From a normal person's perspective, health insurance is setting aside a portion of today's current wages to protect greater losses from tomorrow's future wages. I realize I'm feeding the fire here, but the general ignorance of what insurance is and isn't sticks in my craw.
$9/$10 for your entire life is a lot better than $9/$10 for half of it and $0/$10 for the other half.... like say you're diagnosed with cancer at age 50, and can't afford to pay for treatment so your choices are to A) die, or, B) go bankrupt...and then die.
In summary. Insurance does guarantee minimum wealth via hedging current earnings against future returns. Insurance doesn't make you better - that's the job of hospitals for when you get sick, car dealerships for when your vehicle is stolen, and realtors for when your house burns down. Savy?
You don't need a time machine. Standing up and preventing your government from doing these stunts again and again would do.
You do need a time machine if you want to stop the real culprits who started this cyberwar in cyberspace with their cybermissile. No, I'm not talking about the United States, or Isreal, or Saudi Arabia or even Theodore Donald 'The Rat' Finch AKA Mr. "Hack the Planet." No, the real villan here is clearly the CYBERMAN!!!!
It is illegal and regulated by BATF to own unlicensed explosives, such as c4. It is, however, legal to own materials that do not explode but defligrate, such as black powder, so I suppose you could own a 'dirty' bomb that burns instead of exploding. But I know you are also not allowed to own unlicensed radioactive sources over a certain, minuscule, vasltly smaller than the critical mass of uranium or plutonium isotopes.
So without any citation of specific laws that reads "no person shall be allowed to own a nuclear weapon of mass destruction," you still can't own them since you can not own the materials that compose them. And I'm fairly sure a person can't own a weapon of mass destruction period.
Gimme a break. When I see a hacker kill off 100,000 people, then I'll take that statement seriously.
Jesus Christ, hyperbole is becoming the norm these days.
QFT! Last time I checked a DDOS isn't capable of evaporating several hundred square miles like an ICBM with 6x600kT warheads. I think our leaders and 'thinkers' need to play around with a google maps mashup here, and see some friggin' clarity!
I'm fairly sure this is a peering issue as has been stated many times. If Level3 is cut out of the private exchange, you'll still get Netflix, it will just take normal 'longer' transit routes to your house instead a shorter route at their private exchange(s).
Why should Comcast have to foot the bill for power and equipment and maintenance so Level3 can send traffic to you faster? It's not like these are $99 Linksys routers we're talking here. With a near 1:1 ratio that might make sense, but I'm kinda thinking Comcast is actually not the bad guy here.
Agreed. The difference between Do Not Call and most proposed No-Track headers is simple, "Freedom of Association". Google and WSJ.com aren't calling me, I'm calling them. Why am I allowed to selectively choose who calls me via vetting them, but "businesses" can't? Why am I allowed to choose who I associate with, but websites can't?
I have every right in the world to answer my phone and ask the caller for their name, address, eye color, IQ, and bust size before continuing the conversation (p.s, this is an effective anti political-caller tool since they are shrouded in an anti-do-not-call shield) If the caller doesn't like that, they can hang up... but don't forget who called whom. Word will spread that I'm a total pervert and people will stop calling. The same can be said for websites big and small, commercial and free.
Don't like cookies, turn them off. Do you like Facebook more than you hate cookies, whitelist their site? The only difference between an opt-in no-track header and a cookie white-list is that the opt-in regulates a business in a manner no private citizen would allow; that is telling the website a customer is allowed to use the services they choose regardless of how your business model works, even if the website is pretty explicit that their service entails collecting client usage statistics.
Just imagine how well people would take it if Uncle Sam said you are not allowed to choose who can enter your door however you please, whether it's twenty questions or 'welcome to the party have a beer'. How are websites that gather information about you any different than the Boy Scouts, Country Clubs, Akorn, PETA, Dancing with The Stars, and so on. Last time I checked, we CHOOSE to associate with them and agree to their rules, not the other way around. Granted in some of those cases the members choose the rules, but plenty of websites operate that way as well... again freedom of association
Let the free market work, all will be well. Hands off the Intertubes...
Oddly, that same quote is found here yet there is nothing of the sort on the DHS or ICE website. In fact this story didn't even make the ICE top 5. Source code has Google Analytics and Piwik scripts, something you'd think the FEDs would want to avoid in the case of a trial, seeing as how standard Google TOS claims all rights to the data. What would happen if one these guys went to trail, and you find out 33 children of powerful senators and congressman visited the site via a Google subpoena. Sticky sticky situation. You can even visit the Piwik management portal here, though only if your browser lets you trust unsigned certs... kind of sloppy if you ask me, and not at all like the often well executed ICE programs used to nab BILLIONS in real, tangible, counterfeit goods at our ports. These normal actions are real, as in actions against things actually sold and money actually changing hands. Those things are easy to bring criminal charges against and win. It's very difficult to bring criminal charges against intangible thefts, hence most IP theft takes place in civil court. You don't hear about a lot of DAs making headlines nabbing gangsta torrent pirates outside of Sweden.
Why the Goofy seizure notice with the goofy DHS Special agent badge that lacks a badge number yet is placed in a manner made to represent that specific agent in charge? In all my years I've never seen anything this flashy, and I've got a stack of notices from all kinds of federal and state departments for screwing up some minor thing on nearly every tax or compliance law you can imagine. Federal legal notices are usually quite plain form letters to comply with numerous legal statutes. This is designed to look like the FBI notices on videos, almost as if someone wanted to mislead a large group one way or the other. Besides, why would there even be a legal notice on the site?
Finally, when Operation In Our Sites was launched back in June there was plenty of notice, and plenty of pew-pew over physically taken assets, and seized bank accounts... which is what Title 18 is all about.
I would agree this seems fishy. However as stated in this Directive ICE has the authority to do some fairly clandestine stuff without any approval, such as registering 'fake' domains to poorly beguile terrorists, miscreants, and other groups found the oracle on high deems unworthy. I suppose this could extend to transferring DNS to a sleazy hosting outfit... however I bet this is a little bit closer to home, sleezy outfits seem to attract one another. I seriously doubt DHS and ICE have anything to do with copyright infringement despite claims to the contrary, especially considering at least of the the 'victims' seems to be up and running.
P.S, The FEDs usually fell entire forests when delivering mail informing you of tax violations, compliance violations, legal violations, and penalties. It's usually quite unambiguous.
To continue this point, SOP with China especially, and Asia in general, is to surrender IP via technology transfer agreements and consulting agreements. This is bad philosophically, but necessary practically as a business can get something for teaching and training, or nothing at all. Either way, you will have your IP stolen so most shops have decided to get what they can while they can. This was all tolerable before, but now that China is competing in primary markets with effectively stolen technology lots of industries are getting pissed, not just train builders.
The whole point behind patents is to encourage innovation by granting an inventor time-limited monopolies on their ideas so long as they teach their invention to the world. Using trains as en example, Siemens figures out how to build a better flim-flam widget inside the boffin-tube to make the ding-dang wheel spin faster... which somehow improves the Train. By agreeing to tell the world how it all works, they are allowed to prevent others from selling this thing to the world for a two decades. The idea being, Alstom researchers can use that knowledge to make an even smaller flim-flam that leads to an even better train.
What China is encouraging is businesses to no longer patent certain processes and methods, instead opting for the trade-secret route. While the/. population in general probably feels less patents are good, it isn't. Instead of teaching the world about flim-flams and boffin-tubes, Alstrom and Siemens will lock up their technology inside a vault as "Trade Secrets", jealously guard it from outsiders and even insiders who don't need to know. Innovations stumbles and we all suffer as a whole.
Similar nightmare for a project website started awhile back. We registered with the host, a VERY BIG host I'll add, and suddenly found our assigned IP addresses were all blocked. SORBS said it was the provider's fault, they gleefully hosted spam sites so must be punished. It would sure be nice to have group related e-mail for organizational purposes. Unless our host paid to play, it was game over. No big deal, we moved to an even BIGGER, more expensive, host (currently a publicly traded company with some big 'cloud' options) and yet again found our new IP addresses blocked, oddly though, only after our domain was updated with the new DNS addresses.
It boggled the mind how a brand new, never registered previously before domain for a research project related to a small scientific group studying x-ray deep surface x-ray diffraction could be the root cause of a huge criminal enterprise. One might think SORBS took offense to a previous email relaying certain concerns and blocked the domain out of spite. Fortunately when we relayed those fears SORBS corrected us, and proved with some very convincing records that 2 chemists and a physicist were really responsible for the downfall of humanity, and all it would take is a donation to their legal fund. (Oppenheimer eat your heart out).
The advantage of toiling for a university day and night is access to a rather sophisticated legal department that loves crushing tiny people like Kevin SORBOS playing Hercules. Needless to say, the SORBS legal defense fund suddenly looked like it was going to get a real workout, and magically, an error was found and corrected. We were unblocked.
Ironically, I've been on the other end of that. Got stuck with a, I'm not kidding here, $0.28 bill and a threat of a late fee if I didn't pay. Problem was, it was for a VERY OLD deactivated account, and I couldn't pay either online, by phone, or in-store. I had no intention of paying, I just wanted to see if I could, and sure enough it would have been impossible to pay the bill of an account that no longer "existed" in except in some alternate universe.
Really gave truth the the phrase "the only salvation from the bureaucracy, is the bureaucracy."
Granted, I haven't really been only the whole HTML5 bandwagon, but why would any application want to store data on the client machine other then a session id, whether it's user information, preloaded application data, or buying habits? Last time I had anything to do with anything like this was a web based application to run some laboratory instruments where I work, and the only thing we kept on the client machine was a session cookie, which would be regenerated anytime tracking information (ip,browser info) didn't match, or after a 1/2 hour timeout. Making sure the browser didn't cache data was a friggin' nightmare if I remember correctly.
I mean, from an advertisers point of view, what's to stop a browser, either via plugin or natively, to supply random/or junk information to to the bucket. I know I'd be inclined to let facebook know that I currently reside somewhere in North Korea, drive a flying saucer to work and enjoy eating broken glass. If somebody's application relied on that information, that's their fault. By extension,I know I wouldn't enjoy my bank account, insurance account, loan account, or anything similar ever being stored on my machine.
I don't care what the encryption will be/if anything. In either scenario, it is an unsatisfactory method. How hard would it be for a malicious program to replace the data buckets for bank of stupidia with one that has a redesigned interface. If the software could replace the button that says "change address" with one that says "check statement," and respond to such a click by rapidly filling out the form and submitting the data, the user might not realize what's going until it's to late, if ever. To prevent this, the server-side checking is going to have to be grossly more sophisticated, all to save a paltry ammount of bandwidth!? I doubt the 5*10^9 MB of data is going to even be worth the cost of defending a single lawsuit.
Obviously a goofy example, but I think it makes the point. In science, we trust the user (our 5 senses) very little. In the inter-tubes, we should trust them even less!!!!
QFT. Crazy people always want their 15 minutes, he got his. Newsmakers want to make news, so they can sell ads.However, let me add that I have just returned from the Middle East, Dubai, and this guy was everywhere along with the New York Mosque. If you think it was overwhelming here, you have know idea. "Excuse me Mr. [redacted] but I just wanted to know if all Americans really hate Islam." -OR- "I don't understand why Americans hate us." -OR- "I used to believe in American ideals, but now I'm not so sure."
I didn't really know what was going on until I got back, but suffice it to say, all anyone wanted to talk about was why Americans preach one thing and do another. Arab TV seemed to be a 24hr America sitcom, news stories about what those crazy and wacky Americans are doing now. I probably said "Just you wait and see, I'll bet this guy will become untouchable and nobody will want anything to do with him except a few crazy followers," a hundred times that week.
Bottom line, Rackspace apparently felt this was a breach of contract so they declined to continue hosting/co-lo. They probably wanted an out, to protect their bottom line from the possibly many civil suits and canceled services by offended groups or persons, vs. keeping the bare-bones hosting plan this church probably had. This dude can sue them in court if he wants, but good luck buddy, you'll have a tough time proving Rackspace acted with difference towards you. All they have to do is show any number of other instances where they canceled plans for violating that part of their terms. This is like porn, you can't define it, but you know it when you see it.
I tend to agree. I'm a political junkie by nature, so take this with a grain of salt, but it seems to me that Judges do a good job of holding true to law. The big news going around about stem-cells has a lot of my peers -I work in a University- roiled, but let's face facts, if it's true that he ruled based on a 90s law that forbids stem cell research, then maybe it's time to change the law and not bend it? Same goes for this case, as it was for the big evolution case in PA where a conservative appointed judge ruled that evolution is a real scientific theory and intelligent design was a ploy to rename creationism and thus illigal to teach in public schools.
...and that once you know everybody's peculiar habits, it doesn't really matter anymore. Telling this generation to stop what they're doing or your future life will be over before it starts because of facebook status updates is something similar to tilting at drug induced windmills while riding a flying elephant. This generation will eventually be in charge, and they just aren't going to care.
So long as Mary comes to work on time, and Billy doesn't steal company secrets, nobody will give a fart if they like to party together and play "games." IMHO, they are probably going to bring about a level of independence greater than the sexual revolution of the 70s. Quite frankly, in 30 years, your dirty little secrets just aren't going to matter in a world where all skeletons are a simple Boolean search away. Imagine political elections about something other than who slept with who, or didn't sleep with who? Where frivolous issues don't blot the news about the latest teeny-bopper to have some kind of personal and embarrassing crisis?
Why do I say this? Simple, experience. Anybody whose done confidential-type work and needed a clearance knows full well that the whole process is designed to discover your secrets so nothing your/their enemies come up with can be used to turn you. For example, if you used to sell drugs and like to wear ladies underwear, the FEDs want you to know that they know, so now you have no reason to try and hide that secret. Well, if we got not secrets, you can't exactly be embarrassed and used... society can finally move on!
Yea, totally agree. To bad THAT Internet isn't THIS Internet. What this proposal really should say is, based off the scrib press release: Google and Verizon have decided to pre-legislate an open Internet that prohibits discrimination of traffic and services on PORT 80 or 8080. But you know, feel free to discriminate all you want on any other "lawful content or services," 'cuz we don't want none of those guys hosting e-mail or something that compets with our Gmail and Docs. And, please go ahead and bundle some other services with your package, and damn anyone who tries to create some kind of competing IP TV service that may make your silly FIOS or DirecTV partnership a little less lucrative.
Seriously, the problem is the merging of all our typical Internet services with the Web. Now everybody thinks e-mail = Internet Explorer, file storage = Internet Explorer, shopping = Internet Explorer, and now world processing = Internet Explorer. These guys don't want us to have a system of dumb pipes that carries the traffic, but rather want the pipes to be "smart," and only carry the traffic they want.
As of this moment, I've banned Google from my business, straight up. Right now, I'm the only guy with access in the office. Everyone else is redicrected to Yahoo, may change that later. Maybe I'm just a small with 30 employees, but I'll be damn sure to let every other owner in my community know about this, possible ramifications, and alternatives.
I seriously hope Schmidt remembers that little company called AltaVista. Can't wait for the pendulum to swing.
Once again 2.5 cents, but here we go. Your strongest claim, what we call the "best mode," is usually your first claim. That's the bread and butter. If claim one is a joke, such as obvious claim or prior art or vague, that patent isn't worth the $25 grand it costs to file it. When you file your patent, you'll often get a preliminary search from a patent agent that is often a large list of related patents. A "y" next to them means something related, possibly invalidated, and "x" means 'good-luck-chuck.' Usually this list is limited to post 1978 electronic records, which is probably fine for software patents, butcha' never know
The PTO is way overworked, and the current industry trend is to file as soon as possible, and hope the assigned agent stupidly uses the list generated by your patent agent. This is the main cause for obfuscated and prior art patents getting through.
Now, as far as the patent goes. In order to have that 'best mode,' you have to tell exactly how to do what it is your doing. If it's a composition patent, you need to show how to make it. If it's a device patent, you need to show how it works. If it's a method patent, you need to give your best EXAMPLE of how it works. These three kinds of patents fall under the utility patent, which is the best kind of patent to have. The others, design and plant patents, I won't get into.
In this case, Apple showed their best mode for tracking data and automatically acting on it after the completion of a device OFF to On cycle by using an application from their iStore (or whatever it's called, not an iPod user here). For what it's worth, I don't know squat about software patents, that's not my thing. But, as far as patents go, it seems novel enough from the standpoint of what I do know method patents. So, Apple has a best mode that compromises tracking a person's flight schedule and reporting to preassigned contacts the arrival status of a user whose phone has be turned on. In that sense, it's a valid patent.
I wont get into the quality of this patent, or software patents in general, but I will say this. The industry I'm familiar with just had a big case where a patent whose best mode was anything thicker than a certain amount had the claim strickened, and basically de-teethed that entire patent. Take that for what it's worth.
As part of the deal, Verizon would agree not to selectively throttle Internet traffic through its pipes. That would not, however, apply to data traveling over its wireless network for mobile phones, the report says.
Second, this has nothing to do with evil mutual fund and pension fund managers. While your right, these big guys would like nothing more than to control the company, that's juts not possible now. Google's major voting powers are held by Bring and Page via their Class B stock, that only transforms into a class A when they choose to sell it, or when they die, whichever comes first. Reports are that they plan to sell some of their Class B, which then becomes class A, over the next few years. Even still, they will still control more than anyone else, making it likely their vote counts more. This is completely ignoring their CEO, which is lock-step in sync with the owners.
Confirmed. Non-default password here, firmware 'magically' updated periodically. Modem web-server recently updated to display "westell" instead of "Verizon" as the logo following the Verizon to Frontier transfer in my area.
Unless all these geniuses can figure out how to put their modem behind a firewall, I don't think you can keep Verizon out. And if you did, I wouldn't be surprised if Verizon helped you on their end by blocking port 80, 8080, 25, 22,exec... until you let them back in.
Still kinda scary, but I'd hope Verizon has things protected by a good hash, and not just a super secret admin account.
Slashdot Mirror
Start madly flailing our arms in a haphazard way above our heads, screaming about how a CME will cause worldwide power outages, cause the end of civilization and generally revert us to either man eating cannibals, savages with funny tattoos and a general like of badly built all terrain vehicles slapped together out of junk...
Dude, stop spoiling the new Lady Gaga Video(s)!!!
I would like to add our brand new little 'stimulus' rural sewer company that cut the main, and ONLY, fiber line to our little M&P ISP's backbone while digging a hole. No internet for 2,500 people and businesses on "Main Street" (we actually have one of those) for about a day. Keep in mind the fiber is actually above ground here - and runs right past my house, which is not fun to think about when I pay the bill for my 12/2.5 MB line, but that's neither here nor there.
Then they cut it again, in the exact same spot a couple months later when they came back to fill the hole.
[correction] ...is a lot better than $10/$10 for half of it and $0/$10 for the other half.
From a normal person's perspective, health insurance is setting aside a portion of today's current wages to protect greater losses from tomorrow's future wages. I realize I'm feeding the fire here, but the general ignorance of what insurance is and isn't sticks in my craw.
$9/$10 for your entire life is a lot better than $9/$10 for half of it and $0/$10 for the other half.... like say you're diagnosed with cancer at age 50, and can't afford to pay for treatment so your choices are to A) die, or, B) go bankrupt...and then die.
In summary. Insurance does guarantee minimum wealth via hedging current earnings against future returns. Insurance doesn't make you better - that's the job of hospitals for when you get sick, car dealerships for when your vehicle is stolen, and realtors for when your house burns down. Savy?
You don't need a time machine. Standing up and preventing your government from doing these stunts again and again would do.
You do need a time machine if you want to stop the real culprits who started this cyberwar in cyberspace with their cybermissile. No, I'm not talking about the United States, or Isreal, or Saudi Arabia or even Theodore Donald 'The Rat' Finch AKA Mr. "Hack the Planet." No, the real villan here is clearly the CYBERMAN !!!!
It is illegal and regulated by BATF to own unlicensed explosives, such as c4. It is, however, legal to own materials that do not explode but defligrate, such as black powder, so I suppose you could own a 'dirty' bomb that burns instead of exploding. But I know you are also not allowed to own unlicensed radioactive sources over a certain, minuscule, vasltly smaller than the critical mass of uranium or plutonium isotopes.
So without any citation of specific laws that reads "no person shall be allowed to own a nuclear weapon of mass destruction," you still can't own them since you can not own the materials that compose them. And I'm fairly sure a person can't own a weapon of mass destruction period.
Gimme a break. When I see a hacker kill off 100,000 people, then I'll take that statement seriously.
Jesus Christ, hyperbole is becoming the norm these days.
QFT! Last time I checked a DDOS isn't capable of evaporating several hundred square miles like an ICBM with 6x600kT warheads. I think our leaders and 'thinkers' need to play around with a google maps mashup here, and see some friggin' clarity!
I'm fairly sure this is a peering issue as has been stated many times. If Level3 is cut out of the private exchange, you'll still get Netflix, it will just take normal 'longer' transit routes to your house instead a shorter route at their private exchange(s).
Why should Comcast have to foot the bill for power and equipment and maintenance so Level3 can send traffic to you faster? It's not like these are $99 Linksys routers we're talking here. With a near 1:1 ratio that might make sense, but I'm kinda thinking Comcast is actually not the bad guy here.
Odd that this link says otherwise. Not saying that maybe the 32-bit download for xp doesn't work very well, but it is available.
Agreed. The difference between Do Not Call and most proposed No-Track headers is simple, "Freedom of Association". Google and WSJ.com aren't calling me, I'm calling them. Why am I allowed to selectively choose who calls me via vetting them, but "businesses" can't? Why am I allowed to choose who I associate with, but websites can't?
I have every right in the world to answer my phone and ask the caller for their name, address, eye color, IQ, and bust size before continuing the conversation (p.s, this is an effective anti political-caller tool since they are shrouded in an anti-do-not-call shield) If the caller doesn't like that, they can hang up... but don't forget who called whom. Word will spread that I'm a total pervert and people will stop calling. The same can be said for websites big and small, commercial and free.
Don't like cookies, turn them off. Do you like Facebook more than you hate cookies, whitelist their site? The only difference between an opt-in no-track header and a cookie white-list is that the opt-in regulates a business in a manner no private citizen would allow; that is telling the website a customer is allowed to use the services they choose regardless of how your business model works, even if the website is pretty explicit that their service entails collecting client usage statistics.
Just imagine how well people would take it if Uncle Sam said you are not allowed to choose who can enter your door however you please, whether it's twenty questions or 'welcome to the party have a beer'. How are websites that gather information about you any different than the Boy Scouts, Country Clubs, Akorn, PETA, Dancing with The Stars, and so on. Last time I checked, we CHOOSE to associate with them and agree to their rules, not the other way around. Granted in some of those cases the members choose the rules, but plenty of websites operate that way as well... again freedom of association
Let the free market work, all will be well. Hands off the Intertubes...
Oddly, that same quote is found here yet there is nothing of the sort on the DHS or ICE website. In fact this story didn't even make the ICE top 5. Source code has Google Analytics and Piwik scripts, something you'd think the FEDs would want to avoid in the case of a trial, seeing as how standard Google TOS claims all rights to the data. What would happen if one these guys went to trail, and you find out 33 children of powerful senators and congressman visited the site via a Google subpoena. Sticky sticky situation. You can even visit the Piwik management portal here, though only if your browser lets you trust unsigned certs... kind of sloppy if you ask me, and not at all like the often well executed ICE programs used to nab BILLIONS in real, tangible, counterfeit goods at our ports. These normal actions are real, as in actions against things actually sold and money actually changing hands. Those things are easy to bring criminal charges against and win. It's very difficult to bring criminal charges against intangible thefts, hence most IP theft takes place in civil court. You don't hear about a lot of DAs making headlines nabbing gangsta torrent pirates outside of Sweden.
Why the Goofy seizure notice with the goofy DHS Special agent badge that lacks a badge number yet is placed in a manner made to represent that specific agent in charge? In all my years I've never seen anything this flashy, and I've got a stack of notices from all kinds of federal and state departments for screwing up some minor thing on nearly every tax or compliance law you can imagine. Federal legal notices are usually quite plain form letters to comply with numerous legal statutes. This is designed to look like the FBI notices on videos, almost as if someone wanted to mislead a large group one way or the other. Besides, why would there even be a legal notice on the site?
Finally, when Operation In Our Sites was launched back in June there was plenty of notice, and plenty of pew-pew over physically taken assets, and seized bank accounts... which is what Title 18 is all about.
I would agree this seems fishy. However as stated in this Directive ICE has the authority to do some fairly clandestine stuff without any approval, such as registering 'fake' domains to poorly beguile terrorists, miscreants, and other groups found the oracle on high deems unworthy. I suppose this could extend to transferring DNS to a sleazy hosting outfit... however I bet this is a little bit closer to home, sleezy outfits seem to attract one another. I seriously doubt DHS and ICE have anything to do with copyright infringement despite claims to the contrary, especially considering at least of the the 'victims' seems to be up and running.
P.S, The FEDs usually fell entire forests when delivering mail informing you of tax violations, compliance violations, legal violations, and penalties. It's usually quite unambiguous.
To continue this point, SOP with China especially, and Asia in general, is to surrender IP via technology transfer agreements and consulting agreements. This is bad philosophically, but necessary practically as a business can get something for teaching and training, or nothing at all. Either way, you will have your IP stolen so most shops have decided to get what they can while they can. This was all tolerable before, but now that China is competing in primary markets with effectively stolen technology lots of industries are getting pissed, not just train builders.
The whole point behind patents is to encourage innovation by granting an inventor time-limited monopolies on their ideas so long as they teach their invention to the world. Using trains as en example, Siemens figures out how to build a better flim-flam widget inside the boffin-tube to make the ding-dang wheel spin faster... which somehow improves the Train. By agreeing to tell the world how it all works, they are allowed to prevent others from selling this thing to the world for a two decades. The idea being, Alstom researchers can use that knowledge to make an even smaller flim-flam that leads to an even better train.
What China is encouraging is businesses to no longer patent certain processes and methods, instead opting for the trade-secret route. While the /. population in general probably feels less patents are good, it isn't. Instead of teaching the world about flim-flams and boffin-tubes, Alstrom and Siemens will lock up their technology inside a vault as "Trade Secrets", jealously guard it from outsiders and even insiders who don't need to know. Innovations stumbles and we all suffer as a whole.
Or you can threaten to blow up Apple after having a bad day...
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/414/right-to-remain-silent
http://www.joelipari.com/
Similar nightmare for a project website started awhile back. We registered with the host, a VERY BIG host I'll add, and suddenly found our assigned IP addresses were all blocked. SORBS said it was the provider's fault, they gleefully hosted spam sites so must be punished. It would sure be nice to have group related e-mail for organizational purposes. Unless our host paid to play, it was game over. No big deal, we moved to an even BIGGER, more expensive, host (currently a publicly traded company with some big 'cloud' options) and yet again found our new IP addresses blocked, oddly though, only after our domain was updated with the new DNS addresses.
It boggled the mind how a brand new, never registered previously before domain for a research project related to a small scientific group studying x-ray deep surface x-ray diffraction could be the root cause of a huge criminal enterprise. One might think SORBS took offense to a previous email relaying certain concerns and blocked the domain out of spite. Fortunately when we relayed those fears SORBS corrected us, and proved with some very convincing records that 2 chemists and a physicist were really responsible for the downfall of humanity, and all it would take is a donation to their legal fund. (Oppenheimer eat your heart out).
The advantage of toiling for a university day and night is access to a rather sophisticated legal department that loves crushing tiny people like Kevin SORBOS playing Hercules. Needless to say, the SORBS legal defense fund suddenly looked like it was going to get a real workout, and magically, an error was found and corrected. We were unblocked.
Let me say it one more time...Nightmere.
Ironically, I've been on the other end of that. Got stuck with a, I'm not kidding here, $0.28 bill and a threat of a late fee if I didn't pay. Problem was, it was for a VERY OLD deactivated account, and I couldn't pay either online, by phone, or in-store. I had no intention of paying, I just wanted to see if I could, and sure enough it would have been impossible to pay the bill of an account that no longer "existed" in except in some alternate universe.
Really gave truth the the phrase "the only salvation from the bureaucracy, is the bureaucracy."
Granted, I haven't really been only the whole HTML5 bandwagon, but why would any application want to store data on the client machine other then a session id, whether it's user information, preloaded application data, or buying habits? Last time I had anything to do with anything like this was a web based application to run some laboratory instruments where I work, and the only thing we kept on the client machine was a session cookie, which would be regenerated anytime tracking information (ip,browser info) didn't match, or after a 1/2 hour timeout. Making sure the browser didn't cache data was a friggin' nightmare if I remember correctly.
I mean, from an advertisers point of view, what's to stop a browser, either via plugin or natively, to supply random/or junk information to to the bucket. I know I'd be inclined to let facebook know that I currently reside somewhere in North Korea, drive a flying saucer to work and enjoy eating broken glass. If somebody's application relied on that information, that's their fault. By extension,I know I wouldn't enjoy my bank account, insurance account, loan account, or anything similar ever being stored on my machine.
I don't care what the encryption will be/if anything. In either scenario, it is an unsatisfactory method. How hard would it be for a malicious program to replace the data buckets for bank of stupidia with one that has a redesigned interface. If the software could replace the button that says "change address" with one that says "check statement," and respond to such a click by rapidly filling out the form and submitting the data, the user might not realize what's going until it's to late, if ever. To prevent this, the server-side checking is going to have to be grossly more sophisticated, all to save a paltry ammount of bandwidth!? I doubt the 5*10^9 MB of data is going to even be worth the cost of defending a single lawsuit.
Obviously a goofy example, but I think it makes the point. In science, we trust the user (our 5 senses) very little. In the inter-tubes, we should trust them even less!!!!
QFT. Crazy people always want their 15 minutes, he got his. Newsmakers want to make news, so they can sell ads.However, let me add that I have just returned from the Middle East, Dubai, and this guy was everywhere along with the New York Mosque. If you think it was overwhelming here, you have know idea. "Excuse me Mr. [redacted] but I just wanted to know if all Americans really hate Islam." -OR- "I don't understand why Americans hate us." -OR- "I used to believe in American ideals, but now I'm not so sure."
I didn't really know what was going on until I got back, but suffice it to say, all anyone wanted to talk about was why Americans preach one thing and do another. Arab TV seemed to be a 24hr America sitcom, news stories about what those crazy and wacky Americans are doing now. I probably said "Just you wait and see, I'll bet this guy will become untouchable and nobody will want anything to do with him except a few crazy followers," a hundred times that week.
Bottom line, Rackspace apparently felt this was a breach of contract so they declined to continue hosting/co-lo. They probably wanted an out, to protect their bottom line from the possibly many civil suits and canceled services by offended groups or persons, vs. keeping the bare-bones hosting plan this church probably had. This dude can sue them in court if he wants, but good luck buddy, you'll have a tough time proving Rackspace acted with difference towards you. All they have to do is show any number of other instances where they canceled plans for violating that part of their terms. This is like porn, you can't define it, but you know it when you see it.
I tend to agree. I'm a political junkie by nature, so take this with a grain of salt, but it seems to me that Judges do a good job of holding true to law. The big news going around about stem-cells has a lot of my peers -I work in a University- roiled, but let's face facts, if it's true that he ruled based on a 90s law that forbids stem cell research, then maybe it's time to change the law and not bend it? Same goes for this case, as it was for the big evolution case in PA where a conservative appointed judge ruled that evolution is a real scientific theory and intelligent design was a ploy to rename creationism and thus illigal to teach in public schools.
2.5 cents.
...and that once you know everybody's peculiar habits, it doesn't really matter anymore. Telling this generation to stop what they're doing or your future life will be over before it starts because of facebook status updates is something similar to tilting at drug induced windmills while riding a flying elephant. This generation will eventually be in charge, and they just aren't going to care.
So long as Mary comes to work on time, and Billy doesn't steal company secrets, nobody will give a fart if they like to party together and play "games." IMHO, they are probably going to bring about a level of independence greater than the sexual revolution of the 70s. Quite frankly, in 30 years, your dirty little secrets just aren't going to matter in a world where all skeletons are a simple Boolean search away. Imagine political elections about something other than who slept with who, or didn't sleep with who? Where frivolous issues don't blot the news about the latest teeny-bopper to have some kind of personal and embarrassing crisis?
Why do I say this? Simple, experience. Anybody whose done confidential-type work and needed a clearance knows full well that the whole process is designed to discover your secrets so nothing your/their enemies come up with can be used to turn you. For example, if you used to sell drugs and like to wear ladies underwear, the FEDs want you to know that they know, so now you have no reason to try and hide that secret. Well, if we got not secrets, you can't exactly be embarrassed and used... society can finally move on!
Yea, totally agree. To bad THAT Internet isn't THIS Internet. What this proposal really should say is, based off the scrib press release: Google and Verizon have decided to pre-legislate an open Internet that prohibits discrimination of traffic and services on PORT 80 or 8080. But you know, feel free to discriminate all you want on any other "lawful content or services," 'cuz we don't want none of those guys hosting e-mail or something that compets with our Gmail and Docs. And, please go ahead and bundle some other services with your package, and damn anyone who tries to create some kind of competing IP TV service that may make your silly FIOS or DirecTV partnership a little less lucrative.
Seriously, the problem is the merging of all our typical Internet services with the Web. Now everybody thinks e-mail = Internet Explorer, file storage = Internet Explorer, shopping = Internet Explorer, and now world processing = Internet Explorer. These guys don't want us to have a system of dumb pipes that carries the traffic, but rather want the pipes to be "smart," and only carry the traffic they want.
As of this moment, I've banned Google from my business, straight up. Right now, I'm the only guy with access in the office. Everyone else is redicrected to Yahoo, may change that later. Maybe I'm just a small with 30 employees, but I'll be damn sure to let every other owner in my community know about this, possible ramifications, and alternatives.
I seriously hope Schmidt remembers that little company called AltaVista. Can't wait for the pendulum to swing.
I figure if someone is willing to run a cracker till the sun burns out they can have my data...
Or at least until the the bit rot sets in.. apparently either can happen soon.
Once again 2.5 cents, but here we go. Your strongest claim, what we call the "best mode," is usually your first claim. That's the bread and butter. If claim one is a joke, such as obvious claim or prior art or vague, that patent isn't worth the $25 grand it costs to file it. When you file your patent, you'll often get a preliminary search from a patent agent that is often a large list of related patents. A "y" next to them means something related, possibly invalidated, and "x" means 'good-luck-chuck.' Usually this list is limited to post 1978 electronic records, which is probably fine for software patents, butcha' never know
The PTO is way overworked, and the current industry trend is to file as soon as possible, and hope the assigned agent stupidly uses the list generated by your patent agent. This is the main cause for obfuscated and prior art patents getting through.
Now, as far as the patent goes. In order to have that 'best mode,' you have to tell exactly how to do what it is your doing. If it's a composition patent, you need to show how to make it. If it's a device patent, you need to show how it works. If it's a method patent, you need to give your best EXAMPLE of how it works. These three kinds of patents fall under the utility patent, which is the best kind of patent to have. The others, design and plant patents, I won't get into.
In this case, Apple showed their best mode for tracking data and automatically acting on it after the completion of a device OFF to On cycle by using an application from their iStore (or whatever it's called, not an iPod user here). For what it's worth, I don't know squat about software patents, that's not my thing. But, as far as patents go, it seems novel enough from the standpoint of what I do know method patents. So, Apple has a best mode that compromises tracking a person's flight schedule and reporting to preassigned contacts the arrival status of a user whose phone has be turned on. In that sense, it's a valid patent.
I wont get into the quality of this patent, or software patents in general, but I will say this. The industry I'm familiar with just had a big case where a patent whose best mode was anything thicker than a certain amount had the claim strickened, and basically de-teethed that entire patent. Take that for what it's worth.
Story is FUDas a poster from above said.
Actually, NYT got this story very wrong, according to cnet:
Second, this has nothing to do with evil mutual fund and pension fund managers. While your right, these big guys would like nothing more than to control the company, that's juts not possible now. Google's major voting powers are held by Bring and Page via their Class B stock, that only transforms into a class A when they choose to sell it, or when they die, whichever comes first. Reports are that they plan to sell some of their Class B, which then becomes class A, over the next few years. Even still, they will still control more than anyone else, making it likely their vote counts more. This is completely ignoring their CEO, which is lock-step in sync with the owners.
Confirmed. Non-default password here, firmware 'magically' updated periodically. Modem web-server recently updated to display "westell" instead of "Verizon" as the logo following the Verizon to Frontier transfer in my area.
Unless all these geniuses can figure out how to put their modem behind a firewall, I don't think you can keep Verizon out. And if you did, I wouldn't be surprised if Verizon helped you on their end by blocking port 80, 8080, 25, 22,exec... until you let them back in.
Still kinda scary, but I'd hope Verizon has things protected by a good hash, and not just a super secret admin account.