Speeding is one of the most preventable causes of accidents, though, up there with drink driving.
Really? How about the jackass I saw yesterday come up to a traffic light, then turn the wrong way on a one way street? Who then proceeded to drive for about 4 blocks.
How about the moron I was following on the highway last weekend who was trying to do.....something...and drifted onto the shoulder 3 times in a mile, immediately jerking back into their lane whenever they hit the rumble strip. Before immediately proceeding to do it again.
How about the idiot(s) who rear end transport trucks at the border, because they "didn't see them"? How are you a safe driver at any speed if you can't see a transport truck slowing down while you're doing 70MPH?
Speed doesn't cause accidents. Anybody with half a brain can see that.
Stupid people doing stupid things instead of driving cause accidents.
But in this case, the forensics expert isn't allowed to look at anything but music files.
So looking at this four byte header for every file on the computer is obviously looking at more than music files.
This isn't the FBI we're talking about. Sure, if they're looking for terrists, they'll look at everything on your drive, and damn whatever the court says.
But this is the RIAA's chosen forensic expert, who's been given strict orders to not look at anything other than music files.
If they can't tell if it's a music file without examining the file, then they're screwed.
If they're only allowed to examine music files, then what if:
You came up with your own file extension (eg..ffm - file for music) and renamed all your mp3's to.ffm.
Then, configure Windows to open.ffm files with WMP, Mediamonkey, or whatever.
A forensics expert isn't going to have the option of booting the Windows install on the HD, and since.ffm isn't a standard music file, and they can only examine music files, you've just completely hidden all your music from investigation.
Not secure, by any means, but I can't see how they'd get any evidence without breaking the court order. And then, you can prove they broke the court order, because everything they claim was an mp3 file was examined thinking it wasn't an mp3 file.
I could replace just about any part in my car that broke down.
I could also replace most parts in my house that might need repairs.
Then there's all the smaller stuff like my snowblower, lawnmower, and various other crap, all of which I do myself.
I don't get these people that do their job, and then pay for absolutely anything they own to be fixed, because they can't figure out how to do it themselves. Ok...so you might not want to do your car, because they can get complicated...but a lawnmower? Why the heck can't you figure out how to change your own @#%#$^% spark plug?!
The constitution was ratified in 1788, while photography didn't even get invented until 1820. How can the constitution really say anything about a technology that didn't exist at the time.
Because the constitution isn't a list of what you are allowed to do.
It's a list of what the government is allowed to do.
Anything that isn't in the constitution, they can bugger off about.
The point is, he went out of his way to take the picture. He even admitted to it.
And this is reason to be detained....why, exactly?
I go out of my way to take pictures all the time. If it's a cool thing to take a picture of, then I'll do what it takes, within reason, to get a picture of it.
And walking a couple of dozen feet across a store isn't exactly going a long way out of his way.
The whole lot of everybody involved need a good boot to the head. (naah naah!)
Blatantly obvious error messages that happened 100% of the time, and ceased operation of the app. My client spent multiple hours on the phone with the devs, and couldn't get anywhere with it. The devs couldn't even figure out where the error was coming from. Finally my client said screw it, and developed their own workaround.
8 months later, I come in to do some general networking and stuff in the office, and they ask me as an aside to take a look at this problem.
3 minutes later, I see what the problem is, where the error message is coming from, and have developed a better workaround that more closely mirrors the intended functionality of the app.
And that was without the source code. Hopefully, now that the devs have been handheld into the right place, they can figure it out for themselves....
An alternate suggestion would be, go after the spammers and the malware distributors. Malware is getting distributed because people are making money off of it. Follow the money, and shut it down, and malware will go back to being a hobby of a small community of nerds.
But if they did that, then the powers that be wouldn't have an excuse for regulating and censoring the Internet.
Would you want a game crash to require a hard reset of the computer....
Reminds me of the Atari 2600 when it had a dirty cartridge socket. Funky colour blocks all over the screen, and bizarre buzzing sounds from the speaker. Fun stuff.
But, you're right. It's not a good idea. But it was an idea. It was more an intellectual curiosity than an actual suggestion.
Then they decided to write their own game engine, uh, microkernel, from scratch.
That actually makes me wonder....
I read a while back that somebody had taken large portions of the Samba codebase and inserted them right into the Linux kernel. The result, of course, was unbeatable fileserver performance.
Is there any technical reason why you couldn't do the same with a game engine? Could you take the source code for one of these engines, hack it right into the kernel itself, and then just pull data files in, depending on what game you wanted to play?
I'm not a C programmer, so this is an honest question. It might very well be more effort than it's worth, for the performance. But it would still be a cool project for somebody, I would think....
Seriously, we in the west want to get all high horsed about our "free media" and point fingers at places like North Korea where the news is state run. Personally, I say clean up our own back yard before complaining about the mess next door.
Exactly. And at the same time, all the newspapers are claiming that the Internet is putting them out of business due to blogs and such, but that "citizen journalism" cannot compete with the quality of traditional journalism due to the costs of putting reporters on the ground in various newsbreaking places around the world.
Then they go and pull a stupid stunt like this. If that "citizen journalism" that they complain about so much is so bad, why the hell are you using it for your sources? I don't care whether it's a single source or multiple. It simply says that they don't believe their own propaganda.
Slashdot Mirror
No. You're not.
You're just the 28,415 person to suggest it.
We have these things called "engineers" who can anticipate problems.
And we have these things called "politicians" who can't.
And when you're talking about passing laws requiring something like this, the politicians always win.
No kidding.
I remember seeing an accident report a year or so ago where a guy ran a stop sign and t-boned another car.
According to the police report, excessive speed was a factor.
Excuse me? WTF?
Speeding is one of the most preventable causes of accidents, though, up there with drink driving.
Really? How about the jackass I saw yesterday come up to a traffic light, then turn the wrong way on a one way street? Who then proceeded to drive for about 4 blocks.
How about the moron I was following on the highway last weekend who was trying to do.....something...and drifted onto the shoulder 3 times in a mile, immediately jerking back into their lane whenever they hit the rumble strip. Before immediately proceeding to do it again.
How about the idiot(s) who rear end transport trucks at the border, because they "didn't see them"? How are you a safe driver at any speed if you can't see a transport truck slowing down while you're doing 70MPH?
Speed doesn't cause accidents. Anybody with half a brain can see that.
Stupid people doing stupid things instead of driving cause accidents.
So if you want to improve road safety, you have two options:
1. reduce the consequences of an accident by reducing speed.
2. eliminate the accident by removing morons from the road.
The government, and apparently yourself, would rather do the first.
Myself? I think the second is a much better long-term solution.
When you consider the economic damage accidents - even non-fatal ones - cause, there's no reason at all to keep these twits on the road.
Other than the government making lots of money from traffic fines, of course....
Until the MPAA comes looking..... :)
No, but C:\Data\Customer\BTL\SP\LSWD.ffm sure as hell doesn't look like it.
But the file command examines the file.
If it's a music file, they're fine.
If it turns out it's not a music file, they've violated the court order.
But using Linux would violate the court order, because it would examine every file on the machine, rather than just music files.
But in this case, the forensics expert isn't allowed to look at anything but music files.
So looking at this four byte header for every file on the computer is obviously looking at more than music files.
This isn't the FBI we're talking about. Sure, if they're looking for terrists, they'll look at everything on your drive, and damn whatever the court says.
But this is the RIAA's chosen forensic expert, who's been given strict orders to not look at anything other than music files.
If they can't tell if it's a music file without examining the file, then they're screwed.
No kidding.
CALs, anyone?
If they're only allowed to examine music files, then what if:
You came up with your own file extension (eg. .ffm - file for music) and renamed all your mp3's to .ffm.
Then, configure Windows to open .ffm files with WMP, Mediamonkey, or whatever.
A forensics expert isn't going to have the option of booting the Windows install on the HD, and since .ffm isn't a standard music file, and they can only examine music files, you've just completely hidden all your music from investigation.
Not secure, by any means, but I can't see how they'd get any evidence without breaking the court order.
And then, you can prove they broke the court order, because everything they claim was an mp3 file was examined thinking it wasn't an mp3 file.
Interesting, no?
I'm in the computer industry.
I could replace just about any part in my car that broke down.
I could also replace most parts in my house that might need repairs.
Then there's all the smaller stuff like my snowblower, lawnmower, and various other crap, all of which I do myself.
I don't get these people that do their job, and then pay for absolutely anything they own to be fixed, because they can't figure out how to do it themselves.
Ok...so you might not want to do your car, because they can get complicated...but a lawnmower? Why the heck can't you figure out how to change your own @#%#$^% spark plug?!
We were?
When the hell was that?
The constitution was ratified in 1788, while photography didn't even get invented until 1820. How can the constitution really say anything about a technology that didn't exist at the time.
Because the constitution isn't a list of what you are allowed to do.
It's a list of what the government is allowed to do.
Anything that isn't in the constitution, they can bugger off about.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boot_to_the_head
Has anyone ever wondered how people are supposed to verify the accuracy of these records?
Simple. Ask the hackers if they're accurate......
you are one simple son of a bitch. you just fucking read the other side of the story!
Where did GP say he hadn't read the other side of the story? I didn't see that claim anywhere.
what has happened to the reading comprehension level of slashdot? it seems to have gone to shit lately.
Take a look in the mirror, dillweed....
The point is, he went out of his way to take the picture. He even admitted to it.
And this is reason to be detained....why, exactly?
I go out of my way to take pictures all the time. If it's a cool thing to take a picture of, then I'll do what it takes, within reason, to get a picture of it.
And walking a couple of dozen feet across a store isn't exactly going a long way out of his way.
The whole lot of everybody involved need a good boot to the head. (naah naah!)
I've had the same thing.
Blatantly obvious error messages that happened 100% of the time, and ceased operation of the app. My client spent multiple hours on the phone with the devs, and couldn't get anywhere with it. The devs couldn't even figure out where the error was coming from.
Finally my client said screw it, and developed their own workaround.
8 months later, I come in to do some general networking and stuff in the office, and they ask me as an aside to take a look at this problem.
3 minutes later, I see what the problem is, where the error message is coming from, and have developed a better workaround that more closely mirrors the intended functionality of the app.
And that was without the source code.
Hopefully, now that the devs have been handheld into the right place, they can figure it out for themselves....
An alternate suggestion would be, go after the spammers and the malware distributors. Malware is getting distributed because people are making money off of it. Follow the money, and shut it down, and malware will go back to being a hobby of a small community of nerds.
But if they did that, then the powers that be wouldn't have an excuse for regulating and censoring the Internet.
Would you want a game crash to require a hard reset of the computer....
Reminds me of the Atari 2600 when it had a dirty cartridge socket.
Funky colour blocks all over the screen, and bizarre buzzing sounds from the speaker. Fun stuff.
But, you're right. It's not a good idea. But it was an idea.
It was more an intellectual curiosity than an actual suggestion.
....and potentially write nonsense all over your hard drive.
But since most people use Windows for gaming, aren't they already at this point, anyway? :)
Ok...I hadn't really thought it through, and hadn't figured out what actually slowed down network performance in userspace apps.
I suppose you're right, that it would make marginal speed differences in this case.
Still an interesting intellectual exercise, though...
Then they decided to write their own game engine, uh, microkernel, from scratch.
That actually makes me wonder....
I read a while back that somebody had taken large portions of the Samba codebase and inserted them right into the Linux kernel.
The result, of course, was unbeatable fileserver performance.
Is there any technical reason why you couldn't do the same with a game engine?
Could you take the source code for one of these engines, hack it right into the kernel itself, and then just pull data files in, depending on what game you wanted to play?
I'm not a C programmer, so this is an honest question. It might very well be more effort than it's worth, for the performance. But it would still be a cool project for somebody, I would think....
Seriously, we in the west want to get all high horsed about our "free media" and point fingers at places like North Korea where the news is state run. Personally, I say clean up our own back yard before complaining about the mess next door.
Exactly. And at the same time, all the newspapers are claiming that the Internet is putting them out of business due to blogs and such, but that "citizen journalism" cannot compete with the quality of traditional journalism due to the costs of putting reporters on the ground in various newsbreaking places around the world.
Then they go and pull a stupid stunt like this.
If that "citizen journalism" that they complain about so much is so bad, why the hell are you using it for your sources?
I don't care whether it's a single source or multiple. It simply says that they don't believe their own propaganda.