According to the Prime Pages (http://www.utm.edu/research/primes/), the speed limit in Trenton, Tennessee is 31 miles per hour. A fondness for prime numbers? No - 31 miles per hour is very close to 50 kilometres per hour.
===
Conversion between mph and km/h is simple when you know the trick.
1 mile = 1.609344 km Limit of ratio of successive terms in Fibonacci sequence ~= 1.618034
So for small numbers you can approximate by using the Fibonacci sequence: 5 miles is about 8 km, 8 miles is about 13 km, and so forth.
Yeeha... now we can throw a spanner in the works for all of those astrologists. If we suddenly give them three new planets or take one away, all of the astrologists are going to have real problems. Here's our chance to mess with astrologers' minds!
"Aries: The influence of Ceres says that today is not a good day to buy lottery tickets. Quaoar is in the sector of your chart pertaining to money and fortune, so don't back racehorses with funny names this week."
From the article: "But it would also... completely exempt Internet service providers..."
Here's how spammers can make this law completely useless.
All they have to do is get a computer and connect it to the Internet via some sort of broad-band cable Internet. Then the spammer could attach a modem to the computer, let 1 person connect to the Internet via that modem, and suddenly the spammer is an Internet service provider. Hellooooo, exemptions.
With a bit of hacking, a spammer can even make a dialup Internet account behave this way. If the spammer's PC acts as a store-and-forward e-mailing service, then the spammer can claim an exemption.
Wait a minute, that's what spammers DO. Right, that means we're all SCREWED.
This ISP exemption will therefore make the law completely useless if the spammer has a smart lawyer.
We are talking about something like a quarter-mile increase on a sphere with a radius of about 4000 miles. The "stretch factor" on the surface area and thickness is 0.0001.
Your figures are incorrect because the earth isn't stretching along with the atmosphere.
The approximate shape of the troposphere *isn't* a sphere. It's shape is more like a solid of revolution formed by a thin annulus being rotated about its centre. (I don't know the name of this shape. But think of what shape an eggshell is if there was no egg inside it.) The troposphere is about 15-20 miles thick so an increase in thickness of 650 feet is more like a 1% increase. That's still small, but bigger than you thought.
The parent post is one example of the way we can render "trusted" computing stillborn. Keep spreading the FUD. Remember that the only thing that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
By sending unsolicited advertisements, Yahoo! are breaking the c.1991 law that says it is illegal to send unsolicited advertisements to a mobile device.
IANAL. Check with a lawyer, but you'll probably find the following to be correct.
Legally, they CAN'T ignore such a bill that you choose to send them.
Under US law, it is ILLEGAL for Yahoo! to send unsolicited advertising messages to a mobile device, such as a pager and the like. You can bill them up to $500 for EACH MESSAGE. So if he sends them a bill, legally they MUST PAY.
Send them a message via certified snail mail, return receipt requested, explaining that the owner of the phone number has changed, and demanding immediate removal of your phone's details from the database. Tell them that failure to comply by a certain date will result in them paying penalties of up to $500 per message sent to your mobile device.
And if the messages don't stop, send them a bill for $350 for each message, with a warning that failure to pay by a certain will result in court action being taken against Yahoo! and $500 being payable for each message.
It's called hedging your bets. Intel really has no interest in what operating system you buy, as long as it runs on their hardware.
To get Linux running on a new processor, all that's needed is a new gcc, maybe a few modifications to the kernel, and within a week or two you have an operating system for your new processor. It may take longer, but with the full source code available you have a good chance.
To get a Microsoft OS running on a new processor would be much more difficult, nearly impossible. You can't do a direct source port, as Microsoft guards this like the Crown Jewels. You have emulation difficulty as well because Microsoft OSes have "undocumented" API calls. And of course emulation runs like a snail on Mogadon.
So it's no surprise to me that Intel would back Microsoft. If Linux wins, Intel loses a cosy monopoly as well.
The Romans had a good saying here - Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
I cannot trust someone I cannot see or don't know guarding my personal information. Chances are they will sell it to all willing to pay, including those whom I would prefer not to have it. Many ISP's already do this, and they will keep on doing it.
So who's keeping an eye on these silent watchers? Nobody. And this is wrong.
[The car company] has registered the domain name nissancomputer.com, and Dutcher said the company will give that Web address to Uzi Nissan if he's ordered to turn over his domains to the car company.
Looks like Nissan Motors are cybersquatting to me... what do you think?
This technology has far more use than merely making phones not work in theatres, especially if the panels are cheap, reasonably light and can be cut to size with standard power tools.
If it was adapted for computer cases, then you would cut most of the electromagnetic interference originating from your case. It won't stop the interference from the cables, but there are other ways of shielding cables. Cable conduits could be made out of this stuff.
Aircraft could cover the interior of the cabins with this stuff, to keep the avionics from playing up because of someone's Gameboy.
biological systems... have a level of detail that is nearly (though not totally) impossible to replicate mechanically.
You are forgetting a fundamental point here. The level of detail of such biological features is irrelevant, because they are always read by equipment with a finite resolution. It is not necessary to replicate the detail to a microscopic resolution. All that is needed is to replicate the eye or other body part sufficiently well to fool a computer.
Spectrometers and thermometers are useful to thwart such attempts. However you need to remember that in the majority of cases, corporations will opt for the cheapest solution that gets the job done. Such a solution is unlikely to have all the ancillary equipment to verify that it is indeed an eye at the scanner and not a replica. Even these solutions are likely to fail if an unconscious victim is having their eye held open and forced against the scanner by an assailant.
Recommended viewing is the movie "Sneakers" if you haven't already seen it. It's a great movie, and also has some relevant lessons on the vulnerabilities of security systems.
I suspect most companies would just refuse to do business with you
If enough people use NDA's, then the company will lose market share unless they play ball. You have something they want - your money - and if one company won't agree, there's always others out there. Use the free market to your advantage!
You could always use the same tactics they do when they want you to sign a dodgy document. You could make it several pages long with lots of fine print, and hope they don't read it in full before signing.
There's also the technique I would use - when initiating a business relationship, ask them about their privacy policies, and ask them if they will sell your information to anyone else, and other similar questions. They may lie to you and say they won't when they will, but you can turn the lie against them. If they say they won't sell your information, you can hand them the NDA with a smile and say, "Then you won't mind signing this NDA, just to formalise this arrangement." Checkmate. They will have to admit the lie, sign the NDA, or lose your business.
Another fun thing to do is to write NDA's on the back of cheques (or checks in American spelling), with a line that says "By cashing this cheque, you agree to be bound by these terms... " Someone in Australia actually did something similar to this, and when they cashed the cheque and then breached the terms on the cheque, he won a court case against them for breach of contract.
Imagine a ball of glass with the right refractive index, an image of the retina on the back printed with a colour printer, and covered with an opaque covering with a small hole opposite the image of the retina.
Or perhaps the shape of the eye need not be replicated perfectly - a black plastic box with a small hole in one side and the retina image on the other would probably be good enough. An empty film canister would probably be good enough.
When asked for a retina scan, hold these up to the scanner.
Disclaimer: IANAL, but I do take the trouble to read all the fine print.
NDA means "Non-Disclosure Agreement". These are common when corporations do business with each other, but rarely used by individuals. So far. We should change that.
What you can put in it is an agreement where the corporation agrees that all your personal information - name, address, biometric info, the details of the business you choose to do with the corporation, the name of your dog, etc. - explicitly remains your property. You can also say that the corporation has no right to sell, trade or otherwise disclose this information to any third party without your prior written consent except where such disclosure is required by law.
So what happens if the corporation breaches this agreement? Here's where your lawyer can get really nasty. You can set penalties in the agreement. You can set the minimum amount of money they must pay you as damages - $10,000 to $25,000 is a good figure - and stipulate that if actual damages are higher they must pay the higher figure. You can require the corporation to undo the damage at their expense, with more penalties if they don't comply within a certain fixed time. You know how hard it is to get off a list once you're on it? Make it THEIR problem - they do the damage, they fix it.
Muhahaha.
To save on legal bills, get your lawyer to draft a single standard agreement that you can use everywhere - your employer, the bank, anywhere you do business. Take back control of your personal information.
Of course, there's no guarantee that this will work - corporations think they have the right to sell your personal information for whatever they can get for it - but there's no harm trying. You might even make some money off it.
the idea of the US going to Monopoly money You've got it backwards. The design for Monopoly money was based on US currency. I guess they added the colour to make the game easier for children to play.
... how many companies with online click-through agreements with harsh terms are placing the text of them in HTML text areas that are far too small? It sure makes it easy to bury the terms in a manner that is hard to read. I have found such use of text areas to be a sure sign that the company is trying to hide something.
Also notice how section 1E of the agreement refers to a website with the privacy policy, but the use of the text area convieniently makes it impossible to present the website as a clickable link?
The obvious solution to this agreement and the way it is presented is to get a minor to click on the "Agree" button. Muhahaha. That way, the agreement is not binding. (I.A.N.A.L.)
For extra fun, you could also pretend that you don't know how to use a scrollbar and claim that the agreement you agreed to was what you could read on the screen, namely:
REPLAYTV 4500 Digital Video Recorder Activation and Service Agreement
This Agreement applies to your use of the ReplayTV Service and is a legally binding agreement between you SONICblue Incorporated and its wholly owned subsidiary, ReplayTV Inc. (collectively "ReplayTV"). By clicking the button marked "I Agree" below or by otherwise communicating your acceptance to ReplayTV or by using the ReplayTV Service,
People have successfully sue McDonald's for not knowing that coffee is hot, so surely someone with a slick lawyer could pull this off in court sooner or later.
The music companies are quietly removing the CD logo from some of these controversial copy-protected CD's because they do not conform to the Red Book standard.
So here's a way we can fight back. When you are buying your CD's, always insist on CD's bearing the "Compact Disc Digital Audio" logo.
This does two things: * Any copy-protected disc that bears the CD logo may be in technical breach of some law, such as misleading and deceptive marketing, and you can possibly sue the store and record company on those grounds (IANAL) or make a formal complaint to some regulatory body such as the FTC.
* It lets the store know that there are people who prefer genuine CD's instead of that crippled copy-protected rubbish. Once you buy the CD, it's your right to do with it as you please, provided you do not infringe on the copyright owners' rights to redistribute the music.
Just to let you know... the software and its EULA is of very dubious legality at best, and at worst can land you in jail on criminal charges for a term comparable to that given for armed robbery. You intentionally damage other people's computer systems when you install the software. That is functionally equivalent to walking into someone's house and destroying their personal property. Just putting it in an EULA does not make it legal.
Slashdot Mirror
According to the Prime Pages (http://www.utm.edu/research/primes/), the speed limit in Trenton, Tennessee is 31 miles per hour. A fondness for prime numbers? No - 31 miles per hour is very close to 50 kilometres per hour.
===
Conversion between mph and km/h is simple when you know the trick.
1 mile = 1.609344 km
Limit of ratio of successive terms in Fibonacci sequence ~= 1.618034
So for small numbers you can approximate by using the Fibonacci sequence: 5 miles is about 8 km, 8 miles is about 13 km, and so forth.
Personally, I never click on huge flickering banners.
:)
Is that because you're convulsing on the floor?
Yeeha ... now we can throw a spanner in the works for all of those astrologists. If we suddenly give them three new planets or take one away, all of the astrologists are going to have real problems. Here's our chance to mess with astrologers' minds!
"Aries: The influence of Ceres says that today is not a good day to buy lottery tickets. Quaoar is in the sector of your chart pertaining to money and fortune, so don't back racehorses with funny names this week."
From the article: "But it would also ... completely exempt Internet service providers..."
Here's how spammers can make this law completely useless.
All they have to do is get a computer and connect it to the Internet via some sort of broad-band cable Internet. Then the spammer could attach a modem to the computer, let 1 person connect to the Internet via that modem, and suddenly the spammer is an Internet service provider. Hellooooo, exemptions.
With a bit of hacking, a spammer can even make a dialup Internet account behave this way. If the spammer's PC acts as a store-and-forward e-mailing service, then the spammer can claim an exemption.
Wait a minute, that's what spammers DO. Right, that means we're all SCREWED.
This ISP exemption will therefore make the law completely useless if the spammer has a smart lawyer.
These changes must be stopped. NOW.
But what happens to privacy when everything you buy can be tracked from store floor to door?
... and to what use do the NY Times put this information, we wonder?
"For full access to our site, please complete this simple registration form."
We are talking about something like a quarter-mile increase on a sphere with a radius of about 4000 miles. The "stretch factor" on the surface area and thickness is 0.0001.
Your figures are incorrect because the earth isn't stretching along with the atmosphere.
The approximate shape of the troposphere *isn't* a sphere. It's shape is more like a solid of revolution formed by a thin annulus being rotated about its centre. (I don't know the name of this shape. But think of what shape an eggshell is if there was no egg inside it.) The troposphere is about 15-20 miles thick so an increase in thickness of 650 feet is more like a 1% increase. That's still small, but bigger than you thought.
The parent post is one example of the way we can render "trusted" computing stillborn. Keep spreading the FUD. Remember that the only thing that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
It's even easier than that.
IANAL.
By sending unsolicited advertisements, Yahoo! are breaking the c.1991 law that says it is illegal to send unsolicited advertisements to a mobile device.
A mobile phone is a mobile device.
And you can make them pay up to $500 per message.
I'm sure Yahoo! would happily ignore your bill
IANAL. Check with a lawyer, but you'll probably find the following to be correct.
Legally, they CAN'T ignore such a bill that you choose to send them.
Under US law, it is ILLEGAL for Yahoo! to send unsolicited advertising messages to a mobile device, such as a pager and the like. You can bill them up to $500 for EACH MESSAGE. So if he sends them a bill, legally they MUST PAY.
Send them a message via certified snail mail, return receipt requested, explaining that the owner of the phone number has changed, and demanding immediate removal of your phone's details from the database. Tell them that failure to comply by a certain date will result in them paying penalties of up to $500 per message sent to your mobile device.
And if the messages don't stop, send them a bill for $350 for each message, with a warning that failure to pay by a certain will result in court action being taken against Yahoo! and $500 being payable for each message.
It's called hedging your bets. Intel really has no interest in what operating system you buy, as long as it runs on their hardware.
To get Linux running on a new processor, all that's needed is a new gcc, maybe a few modifications to the kernel, and within a week or two you have an operating system for your new processor. It may take longer, but with the full source code available you have a good chance.
To get a Microsoft OS running on a new processor would be much more difficult, nearly impossible. You can't do a direct source port, as Microsoft guards this like the Crown Jewels. You have emulation difficulty as well because Microsoft OSes have "undocumented" API calls. And of course emulation runs like a snail on Mogadon.
So it's no surprise to me that Intel would back Microsoft. If Linux wins, Intel loses a cosy monopoly as well.
http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Cyberia/NumRel/BlackH oles.html
t ml
t ml
http://cosmology.berkeley.edu/Education/BHfaq.h
http://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry/ask/abholes.h
The Romans had a good saying here - Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
I cannot trust someone I cannot see or don't know guarding my personal information. Chances are they will sell it to all willing to pay, including those whom I would prefer not to have it. Many ISP's already do this, and they will keep on doing it.
So who's keeping an eye on these silent watchers? Nobody. And this is wrong.
From the article:
... what do you think?
[The car company] has registered the domain name nissancomputer.com, and Dutcher said the company will give that Web address to Uzi Nissan if he's ordered to turn over his domains to the car company.
Looks like Nissan Motors are cybersquatting to me
This technology has far more use than merely making phones not work in theatres, especially if the panels are cheap, reasonably light and can be cut to size with standard power tools.
If it was adapted for computer cases, then you would cut most of the electromagnetic interference originating from your case. It won't stop the interference from the cables, but there are other ways of shielding cables. Cable conduits could be made out of this stuff.
Aircraft could cover the interior of the cabins with this stuff, to keep the avionics from playing up because of someone's Gameboy.
biological systems ... have a level of detail that is nearly (though not totally) impossible to replicate mechanically.
You are forgetting a fundamental point here. The level of detail of such biological features is irrelevant, because they are always read by equipment with a finite resolution. It is not necessary to replicate the detail to a microscopic resolution. All that is needed is to replicate the eye or other body part sufficiently well to fool a computer.
Spectrometers and thermometers are useful to thwart such attempts. However you need to remember that in the majority of cases, corporations will opt for the cheapest solution that gets the job done. Such a solution is unlikely to have all the ancillary equipment to verify that it is indeed an eye at the scanner and not a replica. Even these solutions are likely to fail if an unconscious victim is having their eye held open and forced against the scanner by an assailant.
Recommended viewing is the movie "Sneakers" if you haven't already seen it. It's a great movie, and also has some relevant lessons on the vulnerabilities of security systems.
I suspect most companies would just refuse to do business with you
... " Someone in Australia actually did something similar to this, and when they cashed the cheque and then breached the terms on the cheque, he won a court case against them for breach of contract.
If enough people use NDA's, then the company will lose market share unless they play ball. You have something they want - your money - and if one company won't agree, there's always others out there. Use the free market to your advantage!
You could always use the same tactics they do when they want you to sign a dodgy document. You could make it several pages long with lots of fine print, and hope they don't read it in full before signing.
There's also the technique I would use - when initiating a business relationship, ask them about their privacy policies, and ask them if they will sell your information to anyone else, and other similar questions. They may lie to you and say they won't when they will, but you can turn the lie against them. If they say they won't sell your information, you can hand them the NDA with a smile and say, "Then you won't mind signing this NDA, just to formalise this arrangement." Checkmate. They will have to admit the lie, sign the NDA, or lose your business.
Another fun thing to do is to write NDA's on the back of cheques (or checks in American spelling), with a line that says "By cashing this cheque, you agree to be bound by these terms
you can't fake an eyeball!
Can't be done? I think it can.
Imagine a ball of glass with the right refractive index, an image of the retina on the back printed with a colour printer, and covered with an opaque covering with a small hole opposite the image of the retina.
Or perhaps the shape of the eye need not be replicated perfectly - a black plastic box with a small hole in one side and the retina image on the other would probably be good enough. An empty film canister would probably be good enough.
When asked for a retina scan, hold these up to the scanner.
Scary.
Disclaimer: IANAL, but I do take the trouble to read all the fine print.
NDA means "Non-Disclosure Agreement". These are common when corporations do business with each other, but rarely used by individuals. So far. We should change that.
What you can put in it is an agreement where the corporation agrees that all your personal information - name, address, biometric info, the details of the business you choose to do with the corporation, the name of your dog, etc. - explicitly remains your property. You can also say that the corporation has no right to sell, trade or otherwise disclose this information to any third party without your prior written consent except where such disclosure is required by law.
So what happens if the corporation breaches this agreement? Here's where your lawyer can get really nasty. You can set penalties in the agreement. You can set the minimum amount of money they must pay you as damages - $10,000 to $25,000 is a good figure - and stipulate that if actual damages are higher they must pay the higher figure. You can require the corporation to undo the damage at their expense, with more penalties if they don't comply within a certain fixed time. You know how hard it is to get off a list once you're on it? Make it THEIR problem - they do the damage, they fix it.
Muhahaha.
To save on legal bills, get your lawyer to draft a single standard agreement that you can use everywhere - your employer, the bank, anywhere you do business. Take back control of your personal information.
Of course, there's no guarantee that this will work - corporations think they have the right to sell your personal information for whatever they can get for it - but there's no harm trying. You might even make some money off it.
the idea of the US going to Monopoly money
You've got it backwards. The design for Monopoly money was based on US currency. I guess they added the colour to make the game easier for children to play.
From the article:
...
Analysts suspect that Warner left the release unprotected, to investigate whether this would have a significant impact on sales.
Let's increase the sales figures for the non-protected DVD by buying it. Then we can convince the company that Macrovision actually hurts sales
Also notice how section 1E of the agreement refers to a website with the privacy policy, but the use of the text area convieniently makes it impossible to present the website as a clickable link?
The obvious solution to this agreement and the way it is presented is to get a minor to click on the "Agree" button. Muhahaha. That way, the agreement is not binding. (I.A.N.A.L.)
For extra fun, you could also pretend that you don't know how to use a scrollbar and claim that the agreement you agreed to was what you could read on the screen, namely:
People have successfully sue McDonald's for not knowing that coffee is hot, so surely someone with a slick lawyer could pull this off in court sooner or later.
This sure adds a whole new perspective when considering whether Microsoft should be split in half. Eww.
The music companies are quietly removing the CD logo from some of these controversial copy-protected CD's because they do not conform to the Red Book standard.
So here's a way we can fight back. When you are buying your CD's, always insist on CD's bearing the "Compact Disc Digital Audio" logo.
This does two things:
* Any copy-protected disc that bears the CD logo may be in technical breach of some law, such as misleading and deceptive marketing, and you can possibly sue the store and record company on those grounds (IANAL) or make a formal complaint to some regulatory body such as the FTC.
* It lets the store know that there are people who prefer genuine CD's instead of that crippled copy-protected rubbish. Once you buy the CD, it's your right to do with it as you please, provided you do not infringe on the copyright owners' rights to redistribute the music.
IANAL
... the software and its EULA is of very dubious legality at best, and at worst can land you in jail on criminal charges for a term comparable to that given for armed robbery. You intentionally damage other people's computer systems when you install the software. That is functionally equivalent to walking into someone's house and destroying their personal property. Just putting it in an EULA does not make it legal.
Just to let you know
More typically, software makers are simply using the downloads to distribute legitimate products.
Legitimate products don't automatically download onto my computer without my concent.
Legitimate is clearly used in the same sense here as "legitimate businessmen's club" describing the Mafia.