Either I really don't understand what's going on, or this really isn't much news. Sounds as if Sun has written a program that converts a Linux device driver from source form, to a Solaris binary. This reminds me most of DeCSS--it's a tool, not a violation in and of itself. You can use it on GPL'd code and distribute only the binary, and thus violate the GPL. You can do that with gcc as well. I don't see the point.
Depends on how it's done. If you intergrate it with the web browser properly, it might not be that bad. Have a "Dear God, NO!" button that backs you out of a domain and simultaneously marks it as distasteful. Good for if you happen to click a link to goatse.cx.
What if it didn't load the image, but instead did the spacing anyway? Use its own hardcoded 1x1 transparent gif instead of yours. Seems it would be a lot faster for the client, and wouldn't break spacing on sites (unless that 1x1 is some color other than transparent, which I would imagine is pretty rare).
I don't know about you, but once they find caffiene among the stars, I'll accept that extraterrestrial intelligence must exist. Until then, how can they stay up all night coding? I'm not even sure Terrestrial intelligence could continue without good-old 1,3,7-trimethylxanthine.
Maybe the Jabber clients you've tried have used GNOME, but it's certainly not required. One of the goals of the Jabber project, in fact, was to make writing a client as simple as possible. It should be MUCH easier to write a Jabber client than an ICQ client.
Incidentally, there's also svc_irc. Open an irc connection to irc.jabber.org:6667 and see what I mean.
Something like Freenet, but with moderation (actually more like annotation) and strong crypto builtin. Everything is digitally signed, altho you can always post anonymously by creating an ad hoc identity and destroying the keys once you're done.
For the annotations, they can do one of two things: rating and adding info. You could take any part of anything that's been posted, and rate it on any number of scales (accuracy, humour, interest, writing quality, creative use of grits), or you could add your own comments about what you think.
Of course, all of the annotations would be out there, but the decision of what to do with them would be entirely client side. Picture having an Advogato style web of trust, you trust certain identities more than others as far as useful ratings, and then being able to sort search engine results based on that.
Anyway, somewhat rambling, I know, but I think it would be neat.
How about a web browser that attempts to determine which link we're most likely to click next, and then goes out and caches that page for you. If you click that, it comes up FAST. If not, no big loss (kill that transfer instantly and begin a new one). I don't know how feasible it is to guess which links the user will access, but that's the AI part.
Second, this is not, I repeat, *not* years old. Its more like days old...
This depends a great deal on how you define the age of a bug (backdoor, feature, whatever), and brings up an important point. The entire Microsoft idea of security, security through obscurity, is that there is no bug or flaw until it's discovered, that systems are secure until until an exploit is found. The opposite model is to claim that a bug is a bug whether it's found or not, and that the goal of securing a system is to find all exploits that are there, and then track them down. The code has been there for four years; the fact that it was widely exposed only a few days ago does not make it a "new" problem.
The point isn't whether any of those particular allegations are true or not. The point is that with closed source software, you can't tell. If the source is open, and someone alleges that you have a secret backdoor that the NSA can use, it's really easy to demonstrate that either, yes, there is a backdoor, or no, there's not. With closed source you never know what's lying around in the background, waiting to be discovered years later.
Even though this feels like "poetic justice," I still hope Amazon wins. This sort of patent is the sort of thing that really deserves to be struck down. Anyway, perhaps now Bezos will really work on that patent reform he's been talking about.
I think eventually we'll see ads in bathroom stalls and other places like that.
I already have. There are a few public places that have gone to this model, and at school it's not uncommon to see a piece of paper in the restroom advertising some school function. Given how ppl tend to read in the bathroom, it really is a pretty natural extension. Now when they start collecting data about how many ppl use that restroom, and what they do there...I can just see the day when the bathroom monitors you, and if you visit more than x times in a day starts advertising Immodium, and if you spend longer than y minutes there, it starts telling you about laxatives.
Actually, I'm wondering whether that would even comply with the proposed law. It sounds to me like enforcing a policy restricting access to obscene material to minors. Does the law anywhere say the solution needs to be in software instead of wetware? I guess critics would say that the librarians might miss something, but given that every filter in existence will also fail, I think you'd actually get much better results (both in terms of fewer ligit sites blocked, and in terms of fewer "bad" sites allowed) than using a software solution.
Actually, it's better (worse?) than that. The CO law requires "ADV:" to be not just in the subject, but the very beginning. If some other state required "ADS:" to be the beginning of the subject, they'd be absolututely stuck. Mmmmm, fried spam, mmmmmm.
Rob said so. If Rob told you to jump off a bridge would you do it?
I wouldn't be able to get anywhere near it. It would be/.'d to capacity. A total of maybe a foot difference between the height of the bridge and the pile of geeks next to it.
I don't know about this system per se, but there are one handed (chorded) keyboards about. Look at the Twiddler (do a search on Google, I'm too lazy to find the URL for you).
Slashdot Mirror
Either I really don't understand what's going on, or this really isn't much news. Sounds as if Sun has written a program that converts a Linux device driver from source form, to a Solaris binary. This reminds me most of DeCSS--it's a tool, not a violation in and of itself. You can use it on GPL'd code and distribute only the binary, and thus violate the GPL. You can do that with gcc as well. I don't see the point.
Plato wasn't saying there was no absolute objective reality. Far from it, he was saying that there is one, but we don't correctly perceive it.
I got it. Wish I had mod points for you, too. :)
If you can get there. I was comment #2, and it was /.'d then. Besides, if this company is scum, do we really want to be feeding their banner ads?
Does anyone have any detail/background/anything? I have NO idea what this article is about.
Depends on how it's done. If you intergrate it with the web browser properly, it might not be that bad. Have a "Dear God, NO!" button that backs you out of a domain and simultaneously marks it as distasteful. Good for if you happen to click a link to goatse.cx.
What if it didn't load the image, but instead did the spacing anyway? Use its own hardcoded 1x1 transparent gif instead of yours. Seems it would be a lot faster for the client, and wouldn't break spacing on sites (unless that 1x1 is some color other than transparent, which I would imagine is pretty rare).
Lucky! We're still using punchcards and homing pigeons.
I don't know about you, but once they find caffiene among the stars, I'll accept that extraterrestrial intelligence must exist. Until then, how can they stay up all night coding? I'm not even sure Terrestrial intelligence could continue without good-old 1,3,7-trimethylxanthine.
Seriously, wouldn't encrypting the swap space take a serious toll on speed?
Incidentally, there's also svc_irc. Open an irc connection to irc.jabber.org:6667 and see what I mean.
Mmmmmm, total world domination, mmmmmm
For the annotations, they can do one of two things: rating and adding info. You could take any part of anything that's been posted, and rate it on any number of scales (accuracy, humour, interest, writing quality, creative use of grits), or you could add your own comments about what you think.
Of course, all of the annotations would be out there, but the decision of what to do with them would be entirely client side. Picture having an Advogato style web of trust, you trust certain identities more than others as far as useful ratings, and then being able to sort search engine results based on that.
Anyway, somewhat rambling, I know, but I think it would be neat.
How about a web browser that attempts to determine which link we're most likely to click next, and then goes out and caches that page for you. If you click that, it comes up FAST. If not, no big loss (kill that transfer instantly and begin a new one). I don't know how feasible it is to guess which links the user will access, but that's the AI part.
This depends a great deal on how you define the age of a bug (backdoor, feature, whatever), and brings up an important point. The entire Microsoft idea of security, security through obscurity, is that there is no bug or flaw until it's discovered, that systems are secure until until an exploit is found. The opposite model is to claim that a bug is a bug whether it's found or not, and that the goal of securing a system is to find all exploits that are there, and then track them down. The code has been there for four years; the fact that it was widely exposed only a few days ago does not make it a "new" problem.
The point isn't whether any of those particular allegations are true or not. The point is that with closed source software, you can't tell. If the source is open, and someone alleges that you have a secret backdoor that the NSA can use, it's really easy to demonstrate that either, yes, there is a backdoor, or no, there's not. With closed source you never know what's lying around in the background, waiting to be discovered years later.
Even though this feels like "poetic justice," I still hope Amazon wins. This sort of patent is the sort of thing that really deserves to be struck down. Anyway, perhaps now Bezos will really work on that patent reform he's been talking about.
I already have. There are a few public places that have gone to this model, and at school it's not uncommon to see a piece of paper in the restroom advertising some school function. Given how ppl tend to read in the bathroom, it really is a pretty natural extension. Now when they start collecting data about how many ppl use that restroom, and what they do there...I can just see the day when the bathroom monitors you, and if you visit more than x times in a day starts advertising Immodium, and if you spend longer than y minutes there, it starts telling you about laxatives.
Actually, I'm wondering whether that would even comply with the proposed law. It sounds to me like enforcing a policy restricting access to obscene material to minors. Does the law anywhere say the solution needs to be in software instead of wetware? I guess critics would say that the librarians might miss something, but given that every filter in existence will also fail, I think you'd actually get much better results (both in terms of fewer ligit sites blocked, and in terms of fewer "bad" sites allowed) than using a software solution.
Actually, it's better (worse?) than that. The CO law requires "ADV:" to be not just in the subject, but the very beginning. If some other state required "ADS:" to be the beginning of the subject, they'd be absolututely stuck. Mmmmm, fried spam, mmmmmm.
I wouldn't be able to get anywhere near it. It would be /.'d to capacity. A total of maybe a foot difference between the height of the bridge and the pile of geeks next to it.
Just an idea.
I don't know about this system per se, but there are one handed (chorded) keyboards about. Look at the Twiddler (do a search on Google, I'm too lazy to find the URL for you).
"We're geeks, we're weak, let's get hacking"? Sorry, unfair stereotype there, and it brings back the whole (cr|h)acker debate.
First-class action suit? I wouldn't describe any of Microsoft's actions as first-class.
(Don't say you weren't warned.)