One of the best prophecies in the film concerns life on Jupiter's moon Europa. In the movie, we were told about Life on Europa, with the warning: ALL THESE MOONS ARE YOURS EXCEPT EUROPA / ATTEMPT NO LANDINGS THERE.... Now scientists are speculating that Europa is the best prospect for extraterrestrial life in the solar system, because it contains a salty ocean beneath its icy surface, and that life fuelled by Europa's internal tidal heat may be present.
There will be many problems with implementing this calendar.
A lot of computer software needs to be rewritten to handle the new calendar, just like Y2K all over again.
Business such as banks, landlords and anyone else that accepts monthly payments for services will gouge their customers by not reducing their charges.
Thirteen is a prime number, so the year cannot be easily divided up into roughly equal parts. With 12 months, we can divide the year into two, three, four or six easily according to our needs.
Leap years cannot yet be handled by this system. For ideas on fixing this, I recommend that the creator of this calendar read "Lord of the Rings" and examine the Shire calendar. Leap years were handled by making the leap-day a special day of celebration (Overlithe).
Renaming the months will make a lot of our folklore based on month-names obsolete, and will therefore destroy a part of our culture. Such things as Armistice Day (the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month), One day in September (Grand Final Day in Australia), April Showers (song alluding to Northern hemisphere spring weather), and so on will all need to be converted.
Similarly, celebrating anniversaries of historical events could be difficult.
While the current calendar is difficult, reforming it will have to overcome so much social inertia that I don't believe it is possible. For the same reason, we still have Babylonian time units, despite many efforts to reform time with various metric innovations.
The other Slashdot article has a link to an article (http://rootprompt.org/article.php3?article=210) describing how honeypots are configured. Often they go through a firewall that allows anything in, but restricts traffic out. In this case, the firewall is protecting the Internet from the menace of the honeypot, rather than firewalling the honeypot from the menace of the Internet.
Banner ads contribute to my page download times, which is significant because a lot of my Internet access is over a 28.8K modem. This extra time is important because many ISP's still have time-based connection charges. A 25K animated GIF can take a significant amount of time to download.
The only ads I tolerate are the ones on Slashdot and the hunger site (http://www.thehungersite.com/). When you click a button that says "donate free food", you are taken to a page that displays between five and nine small, static banner ads. The advertisers on the hunger site pay for basic food to feed the hungry in poor countries. These ads load quickly and also seem to cache well.
Why not go all the way and use the sounds of vehicular traffic to represent the various kinds of net traffic? Imagine mapping these vehicles to common web traffic:
Incoming mail: small motorcycle, or whatever vehicle postal workers use where you live
Web page being served: car
Large file download: freight truck
Port scan or similar: harley motorcycle
Intrusion attempt: police car with siren
Network congestion: car horns
Packet collision: car crash
If your network is quiet, it will sound like a country road. If your network is busy, it will sound like a major highway in a major city. If you're getting a lot of script kiddies doing port scans, it will sound a bit like a Hell's Angels convention. And if you're hearing a lot of police sirens, you'd better go to the server room and get ready to hit the Big Red Switch!
The requirement that ISPs in New Zealand must provide a means of monitoring traffic for surveillance can be circumvented really easily.
Use a foreign ISP.
The price of international telephone calls has dropped dramatically in the last decade. Using a foreign ISP is now cost-effective, particularly if the only traffic is e-mails. A drug cartel that has $300 million of drugs to import won't care about a $3 international telephone call.
Circumventing decryption keys
To circumvent the requirement that a person sending a suspect e-mail divulge the key on demand is also simple. Separate the sender of the message from the author of the message, and have no direct contact between them. The sender could collect a message left on a floppy disk at a drop-point and send it, and even if questioned they would not have a decryption key to divulge.
Circumventing e-mail
The legisative presumption that a message is always sent via encrypted e-mail can also be used to send a message in an unusual way. For example, sound and image files can be used to send a message, as has been demonstrated in the past here on Slashdot where the DeCSS source code was encoded in this manner and posted to a web site.
By legislating in this manner, governments only make their job of law enforcement more difficult as various criminals find new ways of hiding their communications. What technology can reveal, technology can also hide.
The article focused on disasters likely to wipe out humans in the near future. But here's some more ways that the Earth will likely end, not soon, but likely:
Solar evolution
The sun is slowly growing hotter, and in about a billion years will be hot enough to start a runaway greenhouse effect on the Earth. The stratosphere will also become moist with water vapour. The water in the stratosphere will be broken up by solar radiation, and the hydrogen will be lost to space.
Close passage of another star
Stars pass by each other all the time, but usually the distances are so great that it doesn't matter. But there is a small chance that a star will pass so close to the sun that it affects the orbits of the inner solar system and the Earth could be ejected from the solar system. Interestingly, this scenario will actually allow life - but not human life - to survive on the Earth longest. The oceans will freeze over but not freeze solid because of the Earth's internal heat. Life could continue around the deep ocean vents for many bilions of years. Earth would also have a small chance of being captured into a stable habitable orbit around the interloper star.
Supernova
A really close supernova (30 light years or closer) would have a similar effect to that described for gamma-ray bursts. The nearest star to Earth that will go supernova is Canopus, about 150 light years away, and that star is due to explode sometime in the next 5 million years.
The quality of the image is impressive when you consider that the distance between the probe and Jupiter at the time the image was taken was about 1/3 of the distance between the Earth and the Sun. It's about as good as the best Earth-based images of Jupiter. If that is a test image, then the real images could be even better.
It's pretty clear how completely distorted the thinking of these Microsoft marketing people is. From the article, a representative of Microsoft's customer support department is quoted as saying: "The e-mail you received was an invitation from MSN Explorer, sent on behalf of an existing user who changed their e-mail address and wants you to try MSN Explorer." (Emphasis is mine.)
It's pretty clear that Microsoft is intending to put words into the mouths of their users with statements like that.
The usual definition of "spam" I employ is "unwanted and unsolicited commercial or bulk e-mail". This alleged Microsoft product meets both of these definitions.
One problem with anti-spam laws is the way some anti-spam laws are worded. It would be the users that would be prosecuted and not Microsoft. But the good news is Microsoft could be prosecuted for making and trafficking a product that sends unsolicited commercial e-mail. It is clearly a trojan feature in their product.
I feel that Microsoft should get advice from their lawyers on anti-spam laws, other laws relating to unauthorised access to computer equipment and e-mail fraud before releasing this product. If they don't, they could be in for an interesting time in the courts later.
---
Disclaimer: IANAL. IDNLITUSA. (I am not a lawyer. I do not live in the U.S.A.)
The concern I have with these typo sites that frame Slashdot is that there is an ad in the frame. One must then ask the question - who is getting the revenue for the banner ad? You can bet it's not Slashdot.
In my opinion, this is plagiarism. They are plagiarising Slashdot to raise money for themselves or a content provider. If someone was doing this to a commercial website I owned, I would be seeing lawyers and issuing "Cease and Desist" notices very quickly.
I think the best way of thwarting it tho is through Javascript. Something like:
if (top.location != self.location) top.location = self.location;
One thing with EULAs - they are unlikely to be binding if you do not explicitly click "I agree" to accept the terms of the agreement - unless UTICA (may-it-rot-in-hell) or other legislation explicitly states otherwise. If you placed the CD in the drive, and simply copied the files without having the agreement presented to you, then it would be hard to say that you agreed with something you didn't get to read.
Some EULAs may have a clause that states something like "by using this software you agree". If you simply copy the files to your hard drive and started reverse-engineering without ever running the program, is that "using the software"?
It may even be possible to install the software normally without reading the user agreement. Most Windows software seems to install in pretty much the same way, despite the varying front-ends. If this is the case, you could write your own installation software that simply places the software on the hard drive without displaying the EULA. Most "Setup" programs run as a fairly standard wizard, and it is not hard to write your own Setup wizard using something like Delphi.
If such bypass software became commonplace, then the software companies may change their EULAs to prohibit their use. It would be nice if the companies instead made EULAs freely available to the customer before purchase, but companies that actively bribe^H^H^H^H^H^Hlobby lawmakers to pass UTICA would be unlikely to display this sort of honesty with their customers.
I find the idea of licence agreements that you have no opportunity to view before purchase to be patently dishonest. The sooner this practice is stamped out the better.
I can imagine what it must be like to program in Chinese. It might be quite interesting:
* Single-character variable names would be quite descriptive, because single characters in Chinese are often whole words. So you'd get single-character names like "index", "flag" and so forth.
* There would be less temptation to use obscure function names like "strncasecmp", even in the standard library. The Chinese equivalent of "strncasecmp" would probably be called "string number ignore case compare", in Chinese characters. You could probably work out what that function does without looking up a manual.
* You could write code with less comments. A grapefruit could probably tell you what the function "count characters in string" does.
Re:Accountability is good - and inevitable
on
Hacker Crackdown?
·
· Score: 2
An interesting read, and I took the trouble to read your comment in full. That said, you have a slight flaw in your argument regarding the creator's liability with what other people do with their works.
Professional civil engineers are liable for the designs of their bridges. If the bridge falls down and it's shown to be a design flaw, then the engineer is responsible. This happened in Israel in 1997. A bridge built for the Maccabea (spelling is probably wrong) Jewish Games collapsed, and five members of the Australian team died as a result. An investigation into the incident revealed that the design of the bridge was poor, and the engineer responsible was charged.
Here in Melbourne Australia, we have a very high bridge here called the Westgate Bridge. It is a popular place for people to commit suicide by jumping off, and so many people do themselves in by jumping off this bridge that it is alleged that someone is employed fulltime to retrieve all the bodies.
In 1970, when the bridge was being built, a construction accident resulted in a span of the bridge collapsing, and 35 people were killed.
The engineer of the Westgate Bridge was not charged for the construction or suicide deaths. Why? Because people are liable only for their own actions. The engineers of the Israeli bridge were charged because the poor design was found to be the problem. The span collapse of the Westgate Bridge was a construction accident, not an engineering problem. People killing themselves by jumping off a convenient high structure is not an engineering problem.
To make designers and manufacturers for illegal uses of their products is just plain wrong, provided the product has a legal use.
Wrecking bars and jemmies are sometimes used to break into houses. Should I sue all the manufacturers of wrecking bars if their tools are used to gain illegal entry into my house? Should I sue the car manufacturer if their car is used to take away the stolen goods? Should I sue the manufacturer of a knife if the burglar stabs me with it during the burglary? Should I sue the fuel refiner for making the fuel that went into the car that was used to take my stolen goods away? Should I sue the manufacturers of the stolen goods for making it possible for the goods to be stolen?
If a product has a legal use, the manufacturers and designers should be protected from liability for the way other people use their products.
"... Advertisers who leave a message on this machine will be charged an access fee of $45. Leaving such a message indicates acceptance of these terms." This is best done with a single-tape answering machine with date, time, caller ID. Each time you get a message, take out the tape, seal it in a bag and write the name of the advertiser, and the date and time on the bag. It is now evidence. Keep it. If the ABC or any other advertiser gets into trouble with the FTC for this, you can turn it over to them. You can also use it yourself if you sue them for breach of contract. --- Or, you might like to try the following message: "Hello?... (pause)... No, there's nobody able to take your call at present, so please leave a message after the beep." This attempts to circumvent the answering-machine-detection technology. If the technology assumes that a pause on the other end means there's a human on the line, this will confound the technology. --- Another thing that may confound the technology is if it uses the quality of the signal as an indication of whether it is talking to a human or a machine. The signal quality of answering machine tapes is generally a lot worse than a live human on the line, so if you can somehow get a REALLY high-quality answering-machine message, you may flummox the technology enough to make it hang up. --- Wouldn't it be nice if you could firewall your phone? No caller ID? Reject the call. You may be able to do this at the exchange, but it could also make an interesting project for someone with knowledge of the phone system and time on their hands. --
I leave my computer on because it is a cheap way of heating my flat during winter (which it is at present in Australia). However, I switch off my monitor when I am not using my computer because computer monitors are a fire risk.
I might actually save money doing this, because I don't need to switch on my heater very often.
If I want to sell my computer time, I would need to take into account the following costs:
* Power consumption * The cost of my Internet connection * Depreciation on computer hardware * The cost of my labour in setting up and running the operation
I would then work out how much it costs to run my computer for 24 hours and add a 200% markup to calculate a reasonable selling price for my computer cycles. The wholesale cost could work out as high as Au$40 to Au$50 per month, assuming the computer does nothing else.
If you want to sell your computer time, remember that your costs could be higher than you think. And when selling anything to a multinational corporation, adopt a Ferengi attitude: always sell for a profit.
That map where it shows the penguins being tracked back home is pretty cool. I can imagine a new sport like pigeon racing where wild penguins are caught and then raced like homing pigeons.
I think the smart money in this two-penguin race is on Peter Penguin. Obviously, Pamela Penguin lost valuable race time when she strayed off-course.
Today, I attended an auction in Cheltenham (a suburb of Melbourne in Australia) at which a number of pinball machines were for sale. Judging by the turnout, I'd say that there's still a great interest in pinball machines. Prices realised today at the auction ranged from about A$100 or so for mounted backboards, to A$1000-A$4000 for machines.
The machines sold today ranged from early 1950's machines of various designs (including one called simply "Pinball"), popular machines like "Playboy" and "Kiss", and a prototype "Dr Who", allegedly one of only 6 in the world that went for about A$3700.
If pinball's dead or dying, then I saw no sign of it today, if the turnout and spirited bidding was any guide.
IANAL. But I'm sure we can lengthen the list of charges a little.
Let's see what this criminal did:
* He sent mass e-mails using other people's computer facilities. That's theft, chattel trespass and - if the spams clogged their e-mail system - denial-of-service. The people who have to clean up the damage have to pay technical people large amounts of money. That's damage that can be recovered in a court of law. * He impersonated IBM. That's fraud. * He used IBM's trademark without authorisation. That's trademark infringement. * He sent pornographic spams. If any of the recipients were underage and the underage recipients then visited the web site, that's transmission of pornography to minors. * He violated his ISP's Acceptable Use Policy. That's breach of contract.
If the laws were up-to-scratch, then this perpetrator would be facing 3 years in jail, large lawsuits from IBM and the people from whom he stole e-mail facilities, and many small claims from the recipients.
And he wants us to believe that he's not a criminal? Yeah, right, and I'm the Swiss Navy on maneuvers in the southern Indian Ocean.
These bodies do not have the power to annul the 1st amendment of the constitution.
And the first admendment says, in full (emphasis mine, sorry for the caps):
CONGRESS SHALL MAKE NO LAWRESPECTING AN ESTABLISHMENT OF RELIGION, OR PROHIBITING THE FREE EXERCISE THEREOF; ORABRIDGING THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH, OR OF THE PRESS;OR THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE PEACEABLY TO ASSEMBLE, AND TO PETITION THE GOVERNMENT FOR A REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES.
If UCITA violates this US Constitutional restriction, and US states are not allowed to pass legislation that does this, then logically UCITA is unconstitutional and must be repealed.
---
Also, Apogee do not define their trademarks properly. A trademark is a formal ADJECTIVE, and as such should always be followed by the noun.
As such, you can use any Apogee trademarks in trademarks of your own, provided that the product is different. Duke Nukem is a game, but if you opened a Duke Nukem coffee shop and registered the trademark, Apogee cannot legally touch you as long as you are not exploiting their trademark to market your own.
Strange but true: microsoft is a brand of underwear in the UK. Here's a story from 1997. Even Microsoft (the computer company) knows they can't fight the trademark law here.
Another possible point is that Microsoft may have have a no resale clause in their EULA.
This is irrelevant if the box has not been opened. IANAL, but I understand that EULA's cannot stand up in court if you have never opened the box and have never been given an opportunity to read them. Even if you have read the EULA, if you have disagreed with the EULA, have never installed the software and can prove it, the EULA may still be unenforceable in a court. If EULA's were on firm ground legally, then why did Microsoft find it necessary to lobby for UTICA?
Oh, and one more thing on this: if Microsoft are asking eBay to pull Microsoft items that are being auctioned off the eBay website, and Microsoft have an auction website that allows users to sell Microsoft products (which they do: check out http://auctions.msn.com), then are Microsoft guilty of anticompetitive behaviour yet again?
There are a number of different issues here. Standard disclaimers: IANAL, IAN American.
Microsoft have a legitimate concern about software piracy. If someone installs Windows 98 on their computer and then sells the installation disk and opened box, then they have a legitimate claim to piracy. Auctions of opened boxes are suspect unless the seller can prove in some manner that no copies have been made, perhaps by some sort of sworn statement.
Microsoft do not have a legitimate claim where an unopened retail box is being resold.
If the unopened product is Windows 98 or earlier, then the seller can claim that UTICA does not apply because the product was manufactured before UTICA came into force.
In any case, unless UTICA specifically defines "software" as including the box it came in, then the seller can also claim that UTICA does not apply.
Because they have not opened the box, they can prove that they have not accepted the licence agreement.
By changing the feedback ratings, eBay is effectively changing the user content on their web site. By doing this - even ONCE - without a user request to do so, they forfeit any claims that they may make in the future that they are only common carriers, and that they do not control or modify content. It also sets a precedent on eBay where comments themselves are edited or deleted, if this is not occurring already. Thus, they may make themselves liable.
What the aggrieved people should do now is file a complaint of some sort against eBay and Microsoft. They could either act separately and each file a complaint in a small claims court or tribunal, or join together for a class action against eBay and Microsoft. eBay does not have enough lawyers to fight a thousand simultaneous small claims suits. That's how you can win against a large corporation: you pull them to the ground with sheer force of numbers.
Slashdot Mirror
One of the best prophecies in the film concerns life on Jupiter's moon Europa. In the movie, we were told about Life on Europa, with the warning: ALL THESE MOONS ARE YOURS EXCEPT EUROPA / ATTEMPT NO LANDINGS THERE.... Now scientists are speculating that Europa is the best prospect for extraterrestrial life in the solar system, because it contains a salty ocean beneath its icy surface, and that life fuelled by Europa's internal tidal heat may be present.
--
There will be many problems with implementing this calendar.
A lot of computer software needs to be rewritten to handle the new calendar, just like Y2K all over again.
Business such as banks, landlords and anyone else that accepts monthly payments for services will gouge their customers by not reducing their charges.
Thirteen is a prime number, so the year cannot be easily divided up into roughly equal parts. With 12 months, we can divide the year into two, three, four or six easily according to our needs.
Leap years cannot yet be handled by this system. For ideas on fixing this, I recommend that the creator of this calendar read "Lord of the Rings" and examine the Shire calendar. Leap years were handled by making the leap-day a special day of celebration (Overlithe).
Renaming the months will make a lot of our folklore based on month-names obsolete, and will therefore destroy a part of our culture. Such things as Armistice Day (the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month), One day in September (Grand Final Day in Australia), April Showers (song alluding to Northern hemisphere spring weather), and so on will all need to be converted.
Similarly, celebrating anniversaries of historical events could be difficult.
While the current calendar is difficult, reforming it will have to overcome so much social inertia that I don't believe it is possible. For the same reason, we still have Babylonian time units, despite many efforts to reform time with various metric innovations.
--
The other Slashdot article has a link to an article (http://rootprompt.org/article.php3?article=210) describing how honeypots are configured. Often they go through a firewall that allows anything in, but restricts traffic out. In this case, the firewall is protecting the Internet from the menace of the honeypot, rather than firewalling the honeypot from the menace of the Internet.
--
Banner ads contribute to my page download times, which is significant because a lot of my Internet access is over a 28.8K modem. This extra time is important because many ISP's still have time-based connection charges. A 25K animated GIF can take a significant amount of time to download.
The only ads I tolerate are the ones on Slashdot and the hunger site (http://www.thehungersite.com/). When you click a button that says "donate free food", you are taken to a page that displays between five and nine small, static banner ads. The advertisers on the hunger site pay for basic food to feed the hungry in poor countries. These ads load quickly and also seem to cache well.
--
I just wanted to mention that I drive a car with personalised plates that say "FRODO".
... ;)
I wonder how much the plates will be worth once the movie comes out? I hope the movie goes well. Then the plates could be worth a bit
--
Why not go all the way and use the sounds of vehicular traffic to represent the various kinds of net traffic? Imagine mapping these vehicles to common web traffic:
If your network is quiet, it will sound like a country road. If your network is busy, it will sound like a major highway in a major city. If you're getting a lot of script kiddies doing port scans, it will sound a bit like a Hell's Angels convention. And if you're hearing a lot of police sirens, you'd better go to the server room and get ready to hit the Big Red Switch!
--
Circumventing ISP monitoring in NZ
The requirement that ISPs in New Zealand must provide a means of monitoring traffic for surveillance can be circumvented really easily.
Use a foreign ISP.
The price of international telephone calls has dropped dramatically in the last decade. Using a foreign ISP is now cost-effective, particularly if the only traffic is e-mails. A drug cartel that has $300 million of drugs to import won't care about a $3 international telephone call.
Circumventing decryption keys
To circumvent the requirement that a person sending a suspect e-mail divulge the key on demand is also simple. Separate the sender of the message from the author of the message, and have no direct contact between them. The sender could collect a message left on a floppy disk at a drop-point and send it, and even if questioned they would not have a decryption key to divulge.
Circumventing e-mail
The legisative presumption that a message is always sent via encrypted e-mail can also be used to send a message in an unusual way. For example, sound and image files can be used to send a message, as has been demonstrated in the past here on Slashdot where the DeCSS source code was encoded in this manner and posted to a web site.
By legislating in this manner, governments only make their job of law enforcement more difficult as various criminals find new ways of hiding their communications. What technology can reveal, technology can also hide.
--
The article focused on disasters likely to wipe out humans in the near future. But here's some more ways that the Earth will likely end, not soon, but likely:
Solar evolution
The sun is slowly growing hotter, and in about a billion years will be hot enough to start a runaway greenhouse effect on the Earth. The stratosphere will also become moist with water vapour. The water in the stratosphere will be broken up by solar radiation, and the hydrogen will be lost to space.
Close passage of another star
Stars pass by each other all the time, but usually the distances are so great that it doesn't matter. But there is a small chance that a star will pass so close to the sun that it affects the orbits of the inner solar system and the Earth could be ejected from the solar system. Interestingly, this scenario will actually allow life - but not human life - to survive on the Earth longest. The oceans will freeze over but not freeze solid because of the Earth's internal heat. Life could continue around the deep ocean vents for many bilions of years. Earth would also have a small chance of being captured into a stable habitable orbit around the interloper star.
Supernova
A really close supernova (30 light years or closer) would have a similar effect to that described for gamma-ray bursts. The nearest star to Earth that will go supernova is Canopus, about 150 light years away, and that star is due to explode sometime in the next 5 million years.
--
The quality of the image is impressive when you consider that the distance between the probe and Jupiter at the time the image was taken was about 1/3 of the distance between the Earth and the Sun. It's about as good as the best Earth-based images of Jupiter. If that is a test image, then the real images could be even better.
--
I tried it, and I got:
Couldn't find your Subscriber ID or Password. Please re-enter them.
Obviously, they want everyone to have a UNIQUE id so they every individual can be TRACKED! Where are the privacy advocates when you need them?
--
I agree completely.
It's pretty clear how completely distorted the thinking of these Microsoft marketing people is. From the article, a representative of Microsoft's customer support department is quoted as saying: "The e-mail you received was an invitation from MSN Explorer, sent on behalf of an existing user who changed their e-mail address and wants you to try MSN Explorer." (Emphasis is mine.)
It's pretty clear that Microsoft is intending to put words into the mouths of their users with statements like that.
The usual definition of "spam" I employ is "unwanted and unsolicited commercial or bulk e-mail". This alleged Microsoft product meets both of these definitions.
One problem with anti-spam laws is the way some anti-spam laws are worded. It would be the users that would be prosecuted and not Microsoft. But the good news is Microsoft could be prosecuted for making and trafficking a product that sends unsolicited commercial e-mail. It is clearly a trojan feature in their product.
I feel that Microsoft should get advice from their lawyers on anti-spam laws, other laws relating to unauthorised access to computer equipment and e-mail fraud before releasing this product. If they don't, they could be in for an interesting time in the courts later.
---
Disclaimer: IANAL. IDNLITUSA. (I am not a lawyer. I do not live in the U.S.A.)
--
The concern I have with these typo sites that frame Slashdot is that there is an ad in the frame. One must then ask the question - who is getting the revenue for the banner ad? You can bet it's not Slashdot.
In my opinion, this is plagiarism. They are plagiarising Slashdot to raise money for themselves or a content provider. If someone was doing this to a commercial website I owned, I would be seeing lawyers and issuing "Cease and Desist" notices very quickly.
I think the best way of thwarting it tho is through Javascript. Something like:
if (top.location != self.location) top.location = self.location;
--
IANAL.
One thing with EULAs - they are unlikely to be binding if you do not explicitly click "I agree" to accept the terms of the agreement - unless UTICA (may-it-rot-in-hell) or other legislation explicitly states otherwise. If you placed the CD in the drive, and simply copied the files without having the agreement presented to you, then it would be hard to say that you agreed with something you didn't get to read.
Some EULAs may have a clause that states something like "by using this software you agree". If you simply copy the files to your hard drive and started reverse-engineering without ever running the program, is that "using the software"?
It may even be possible to install the software normally without reading the user agreement. Most Windows software seems to install in pretty much the same way, despite the varying front-ends. If this is the case, you could write your own installation software that simply places the software on the hard drive without displaying the EULA. Most "Setup" programs run as a fairly standard wizard, and it is not hard to write your own Setup wizard using something like Delphi.
If such bypass software became commonplace, then the software companies may change their EULAs to prohibit their use. It would be nice if the companies instead made EULAs freely available to the customer before purchase, but companies that actively bribe^H^H^H^H^H^Hlobby lawmakers to pass UTICA would be unlikely to display this sort of honesty with their customers.
I find the idea of licence agreements that you have no opportunity to view before purchase to be patently dishonest. The sooner this practice is stamped out the better.
--
I can imagine what it must be like to program in Chinese. It might be quite interesting:
* Single-character variable names would be quite descriptive, because single characters in Chinese are often whole words. So you'd get single-character names like "index", "flag" and so forth.
* There would be less temptation to use obscure function names like "strncasecmp", even in the standard library. The Chinese equivalent of "strncasecmp" would probably be called "string number ignore case compare", in Chinese characters. You could probably work out what that function does without looking up a manual.
* You could write code with less comments. A grapefruit could probably tell you what the function "count characters in string" does.
--
Shouldn't that be "sticking to your gnus"?
--
An interesting read, and I took the trouble to read your comment in full. That said, you have a slight flaw in your argument regarding the creator's liability with what other people do with their works.
Professional civil engineers are liable for the designs of their bridges. If the bridge falls down and it's shown to be a design flaw, then the engineer is responsible. This happened in Israel in 1997. A bridge built for the Maccabea (spelling is probably wrong) Jewish Games collapsed, and five members of the Australian team died as a result. An investigation into the incident revealed that the design of the bridge was poor, and the engineer responsible was charged.
Here in Melbourne Australia, we have a very high bridge here called the Westgate Bridge. It is a popular place for people to commit suicide by jumping off, and so many people do themselves in by jumping off this bridge that it is alleged that someone is employed fulltime to retrieve all the bodies.
In 1970, when the bridge was being built, a construction accident resulted in a span of the bridge collapsing, and 35 people were killed.
The engineer of the Westgate Bridge was not charged for the construction or suicide deaths. Why? Because people are liable only for their own actions. The engineers of the Israeli bridge were charged because the poor design was found to be the problem. The span collapse of the Westgate Bridge was a construction accident, not an engineering problem. People killing themselves by jumping off a convenient high structure is not an engineering problem.
To make designers and manufacturers for illegal uses of their products is just plain wrong, provided the product has a legal use.
Wrecking bars and jemmies are sometimes used to break into houses. Should I sue all the manufacturers of wrecking bars if their tools are used to gain illegal entry into my house? Should I sue the car manufacturer if their car is used to take away the stolen goods? Should I sue the manufacturer of a knife if the burglar stabs me with it during the burglary? Should I sue the fuel refiner for making the fuel that went into the car that was used to take my stolen goods away? Should I sue the manufacturers of the stolen goods for making it possible for the goods to be stolen?
If a product has a legal use, the manufacturers and designers should be protected from liability for the way other people use their products.
Disclaimer: IANAL.
--
"... Advertisers who leave a message on this machine will be charged an access fee of $45. Leaving such a message indicates acceptance of these terms." This is best done with a single-tape answering machine with date, time, caller ID. Each time you get a message, take out the tape, seal it in a bag and write the name of the advertiser, and the date and time on the bag. It is now evidence. Keep it. If the ABC or any other advertiser gets into trouble with the FTC for this, you can turn it over to them. You can also use it yourself if you sue them for breach of contract. --- Or, you might like to try the following message: "Hello? ... (pause) ... No, there's nobody able to take your call at present, so please leave a message after the beep." This attempts to circumvent the answering-machine-detection technology. If the technology assumes that a pause on the other end means there's a human on the line, this will confound the technology. --- Another thing that may confound the technology is if it uses the quality of the signal as an indication of whether it is talking to a human or a machine. The signal quality of answering machine tapes is generally a lot worse than a live human on the line, so if you can somehow get a REALLY high-quality answering-machine message, you may flummox the technology enough to make it hang up. --- Wouldn't it be nice if you could firewall your phone? No caller ID? Reject the call. You may be able to do this at the exchange, but it could also make an interesting project for someone with knowledge of the phone system and time on their hands.
--
I leave my computer on because it is a cheap way of heating my flat during winter (which it is at present in Australia). However, I switch off my monitor when I am not using my computer because computer monitors are a fire risk.
I might actually save money doing this, because I don't need to switch on my heater very often.
If I want to sell my computer time, I would need to take into account the following costs:
* Power consumption
* The cost of my Internet connection
* Depreciation on computer hardware
* The cost of my labour in setting up and running the operation
I would then work out how much it costs to run my computer for 24 hours and add a 200% markup to calculate a reasonable selling price for my computer cycles. The wholesale cost could work out as high as Au$40 to Au$50 per month, assuming the computer does nothing else.
If you want to sell your computer time, remember that your costs could be higher than you think. And when selling anything to a multinational corporation, adopt a Ferengi attitude: always sell for a profit.
--
With all the AOL users out there, creating the technology to allow parrots to use the Internet will raise the average IQ of the Internet community.
--
That map where it shows the penguins being tracked back home is pretty cool. I can imagine a new sport like pigeon racing where wild penguins are caught and then raced like homing pigeons.
I think the smart money in this two-penguin race is on Peter Penguin. Obviously, Pamela Penguin lost valuable race time when she strayed off-course.
--
Today, I attended an auction in Cheltenham (a suburb of Melbourne in Australia) at which a number of pinball machines were for sale. Judging by the turnout, I'd say that there's still a great interest in pinball machines. Prices realised today at the auction ranged from about A$100 or so for mounted backboards, to A$1000-A$4000 for machines.
The machines sold today ranged from early 1950's machines of various designs (including one called simply "Pinball"), popular machines like "Playboy" and "Kiss", and a prototype "Dr Who", allegedly one of only 6 in the world that went for about A$3700.
If pinball's dead or dying, then I saw no sign of it today, if the turnout and spirited bidding was any guide.
--
IANAL. But I'm sure we can lengthen the list of charges a little.
Let's see what this criminal did:
* He sent mass e-mails using other people's computer facilities. That's theft, chattel trespass and - if the spams clogged their e-mail system - denial-of-service. The people who have to clean up the damage have to pay technical people large amounts of money. That's damage that can be recovered in a court of law.
* He impersonated IBM. That's fraud.
* He used IBM's trademark without authorisation. That's trademark infringement.
* He sent pornographic spams. If any of the recipients were underage and the underage recipients then visited the web site, that's transmission of pornography to minors.
* He violated his ISP's Acceptable Use Policy. That's breach of contract.
If the laws were up-to-scratch, then this perpetrator would be facing 3 years in jail, large lawsuits from IBM and the people from whom he stole e-mail facilities, and many small claims from the recipients.
And he wants us to believe that he's not a criminal? Yeah, right, and I'm the Swiss Navy on maneuvers in the southern Indian Ocean.
--
Disclaimer: IANAL.
These bodies do not have the power to annul the 1st amendment of the constitution.
And the first admendment says, in full (emphasis mine, sorry for the caps):
CONGRESS SHALL MAKE NO LAW RESPECTING AN ESTABLISHMENT OF RELIGION, OR PROHIBITING THE FREE EXERCISE THEREOF; OR ABRIDGING THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH, OR OF THE PRESS; OR THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE PEACEABLY TO ASSEMBLE, AND TO PETITION THE GOVERNMENT FOR A REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES.
If UCITA violates this US Constitutional restriction, and US states are not allowed to pass legislation that does this, then logically UCITA is unconstitutional and must be repealed.
---
Also, Apogee do not define their trademarks properly. A trademark is a formal ADJECTIVE, and as such should always be followed by the noun.
As such, you can use any Apogee trademarks in trademarks of your own, provided that the product is different. Duke Nukem is a game, but if you opened a Duke Nukem coffee shop and registered the trademark, Apogee cannot legally touch you as long as you are not exploiting their trademark to market your own.
Strange but true: microsoft is a brand of underwear in the UK. Here's a story from 1997. Even Microsoft (the computer company) knows they can't fight the trademark law here.
--
Another possible point is that Microsoft may have have a no resale clause in their EULA.
This is irrelevant if the box has not been opened. IANAL, but I understand that EULA's cannot stand up in court if you have never opened the box and have never been given an opportunity to read them. Even if you have read the EULA, if you have disagreed with the EULA, have never installed the software and can prove it, the EULA may still be unenforceable in a court. If EULA's were on firm ground legally, then why did Microsoft find it necessary to lobby for UTICA?
Oh, and one more thing on this: if Microsoft are asking eBay to pull Microsoft items that are being auctioned off the eBay website, and Microsoft have an auction website that allows users to sell Microsoft products (which they do: check out http://auctions.msn.com), then are Microsoft guilty of anticompetitive behaviour yet again?
--
What the aggrieved people should do now is file a complaint of some sort against eBay and Microsoft. They could either act separately and each file a complaint in a small claims court or tribunal, or join together for a class action against eBay and Microsoft. eBay does not have enough lawyers to fight a thousand simultaneous small claims suits. That's how you can win against a large corporation: you pull them to the ground with sheer force of numbers.
--