This could really wind up screwing over those idiots at Genotek, or whatever their name is.
If they want to patent genes like they "made" them, that's fine by me.
I just keep thinking of the handsome settlement I'll be getting when I can prove in court that they "forced" their genes onto me, and I'm now stuck wearing glasses.
On the other hand, it's also a good thing that these companies have gotten ALL these patents on things they didn't create. Helps bring the current system down a little further.
Patenting a gene is kind of like patenting a color. Sure, you can claim that anyone using your color (cornflower for instance) has to pay you money. However, that is not to say that someone mixing Navy Blue (which is GPL'd) and a bit of Sun Yellow, and some Orange can't achieve the same effect.
Genetics works almost the same way. While they can own the patent on something all day long, they cannot enforce it on anyone who can reproduce the same effect purely by accident.
On the other hand, finding out who patented genes for sickle cell anemia would be pretty damn funny. Sue them twice. Once for being stupid.
"So, you are responsible for sickle cell anemia, which affects primarily black people."
"Well, we didn't actually create it, sir. We just kind of found it, and decided that we would patent it."
"So, you obtained a patent on something you didn't create, in order to be able to hold something over the black community?"
"No, we just wanted to patent the actual genes."
"So, you're trying to extract money from victims?"
"No, sir. We're trying to do research with our patented item."
"That you didn't create."
"Yes"
"That no one else now has access to but you."
"Yes."
"That affects primarily the black community."
"Yes, that is a statistical fact."
"So tell me, how are we to beleive that you first locate something in the black community, exploit it to gain a patent, to extract more money from other research on the same subject, then, file a patent claiming ownership, then turn around, and deny that you created your patented item, but only found it, and are somehow not responsible for these 4 million sickle cell anemia victims in front of you?"
Besides, if it's just to "play with" maybe, just maybe, people will look at the YABASIC inclusion the same way they look at both Playstation games, and other forms of Basic.
Fun to screw around with, but do not attempt to apply to real world situations.
Besides, what if this was just a test market? It's happened before. Maybe Sony is testing the waters with the inclusion of a small language to see what the feedback is on it. If it's good? Maybe they'll throw in more. If it sucks? Maybe you won't see anymore.
I guess it's time to brush off that Star Raiders code, and see if I can port it to an Analog Joystick with Feedback. THAT WOULD ROCK!!
You will more than likely see similar IP laws among most of the European Nations, as well as in Canada, and quite possibly Japan.
The reason for this (near as I can tell) is that these countries have undergone a switch from what I call "productionism" to "consumerism".
Basically, production based societies are oriented towards making goods to ship/export all over the world. Consumer based societies not only make and consume their own items, but that of other societies.
In countries with a low amount of consumerism (I.E. Saudi Arabia) IP laws exist, but are not enforced strongly. Countries that make goods based on so called "prior art" or are direct copies, generally tend to not consume those same items. (If they did, Habib A would be screaming bloody murder about Habib B stealing his work.)
In European countries (I.E. westernized) the trend goes in the opposite direction. For the most part, you will see high amounts of enforcement, and legal rights over Intellectual Property, and very little actual "balloon stealing."
This is because your consumer who wants a "Sony Walkman" is probably going to go buy a "Sony" Walkman, and not some re-skinned knock off.
Another thing that helps westernized nations in this is a significant increase in so called "Commercial Centers." The trend away from open air markets in small villages keeps knock offs, which are produced in a limited supply from gaining shelf space in your local shopping plaza.
IP laws are usually pretty fair the world over. Any developing nation probably has some law or another on the subject. The difference comes in how the consumer views the object being copied, or in how the object maker can sell his or her wares.
Underground Slashdot Report:
Tom Goldfunk held a press release 2 minutes ago detailing a plan to completely dialect out the entire C library. In his hastily prepared speech, he stated that "due to public concern over the ELITISM of programmers, the C language will now be written with the following dialects, so people from all walks of life will benefit."
Planned releases of so called DC++ packages are as follows.
Ebonics C++ phat style
Redneck C++ with side order of pork rinds
Pygmy C++ (version has audio tape of clicking sounds)
C++ for Siberian Huskies
Oriental C++ with side order of Siberian Husky C++
Australian Outback C++ complete with the "This makes the deadly computer FURIOUS ANGRY" dude VHS tape.
Ex-Commune Hippy and now wants to make money C++
Government Lingo C++
C++ Mexico version with forged documents for border crossings
Homeless persons C++ in a big brown box
The above versions are scheduled to be released by January of this year, with more to follow dependent on the successful sales of at least one copy of the above versions.
Tom Goldfunk announced today the release of the brand shiny new Super Duper Does it all, can cut a can in half, and still not make mush out of a tomato, Ginsu ++ language. This new revolutionary language, though completely the same as other languages, touts the unique ability to "Do the same thing all those other languages do, plus some more cool stuff." Of course, backwards compatibility is shaky, so most applications that run fine in C++ will have to be re-written in Ginsu++, but that's not really a problem, is it?
During his press release, Tom stated that "Ginsu++ is going to revolutionize the way we look at computers. A language that is useable across the spectrum of computers has really been lacking in the past millenium. This will change the way programmers work, since they'll now have to learn a new language on top of the ones they already know. And, to make it more intriguing, we've changed the way the language looks to one of those funky top to bottom "MATRIX" style readouts, which breathes new hope into those die hard monochromatic monitor folks in Zimbabwe."
Tim Goldfunk also used the public release of Ginsu++ to tout his company's next project, SuperGinsu+infinity, due out next summer. "That one," Tom promised, "Is going to rock!!"
Beleive it or not, the Civil Service sector came up with the perfect way to prevent frivelous call-ins for standby personnel. A minimum duration call in.
It works something like this. Joe B. has the standby pager, and is sitting at home. Suddenly he gets paged, with some secretaries email down. "Email is out all over!!!". Joe comes into work, kicks the exchange servers once or twice, and everything works fine. Actual time elapsed? 25 min. driving time, 15 min work time. Total= 40 minutes.
Joe B. would get paid for two hours worth of work at time and a half, however, because it was after hours, and because of the minimum call in.
This does one of two things. Bean counters hate losing beans to time and a half call ins. And, they hate seeing time cards that don't add up mathematically. This pisses them off, who complain up the chain.
Higher ups in the company suddenly notice that with all these time and a half call ins, you're making more money than them. Since you can now afford that expensive new car that they can't, they get pissed.
Pretty soon, memo's will be dispatched throughout the office dictating that the once deemed priority is no longer such a priority, and that anyone calling in a frivelous call will get strung from their genitals outside the third floor window.
-----------------------
Yet another item that may be of use to you comes from the military. (This is what I use...)
It's called a job priority assignment worksheet, and it's simple as hell to use.
First, type up all the system types you folks work on. (EG Workstation, Life Support, etc)
Assign it a priority status starting with 1 being the highest down to 3.
(At this point, the military also uses an alphabetical identifier. 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, etc...)
List all the equipment systems along with what you think is the appropriate priority. Then, assign those priorities "response times."
For instance, you'd have to drop all and run for a priority 1A outage, but anything 2B or lower can wait until the next shift. The extra numbers give a bit of lee-way in which jobs are higher on the scale than others.
If you get 2 calls in one night, and the first one is a 3B, and the second one is a 2B, you fix the 2B first the next day.
Oh, and you need someone high up in the company to hack off on this too, so it's not your ass when you tell a customer "tough".
A year and a half ago, the best video cards on the market were based more on the streamlining and design of the video cards, as opposed to seeing basically, who could stuff more things onto a board.
I own a G-Force Annhilator Pro, and I am quite happy with it. I was just as happy with my old card, a Viper 550. It worked great, until Quake III came along.
Unfortunately, the GPU on my Annhilator Pro doesn't seem to do half the job it claims it does. It's like I just went from a V550 to a V770. Sure, I get some more frames, but in the end, not *that* many more to justify the 300$ starting gate tag.
Now, it seems every card is trying to move up in the world of GPU's. (Remember when it used to be RAM?) One chip, two chips, red chips, blue chips.
It reminds me of the 60's era with Muscle Cars. Just stuff a bigger engine into it, and it'll go "faster". That's fine when you're driving in a straight line. After that played out, you started to see cars with finesse. Cleanly designed engines that went with body styles. Smaller, faster, (ok, not cheaper).
The main problem is the speed at which manufacturers are expected to act. They constantly throw current development out the window to embrace the "new" tech, which in turn, just starts getting hot, only to be thrown out again when something "new" comes along.
This is unsettling. While Video cards continue to get faster and faster, they seem to shrink away from what would be called a "legacy" design. Unfortunately for them, they seem to have lost the ability to completely use a design before trading it in for a new one.
THJ commented today on the state of DECSS, which is currently AWOL. "Things are really FUBAR," he said, "We had to go BTDB, and RTFM last night trying to track this UA down."
This is, of course, in response to the PDB who Hacked the website of HID INC. One of the hackers was KIA, after getting hit with the ISP's SBS, which they purchased from ISS.
"This is a RM", THJ continued, "Those DF's that did this had no idea of how hard it is to reload RPM's onto that IBM box, and that's exactly what we had to do to FTFM. Fortunately, we found a patch that not only fixes the potential problem, and ups the MTBF."
The truth of the matter is that that type of compliance, while dictated, constantly gets thrown out the window in the name of reliability.
For Instance... Utilizing a Linux box (running Debian) isn't "prescribed" by AFCERT (The Air Force Computer Emergency Response Team). For Network Control Centers, AFCERT guidelines are the defact bible of day to day operations.
But, those are "guidelines", and nothing more.
Linux has been used before by the military, both as a perl compiler, and as a DNS router. Want UNIX? HP Unix, Solaris, Free BSD, what... All these have been used in one way or another by the military to provide reliability.
Military Network Control Centers are not basic lego block modules that are just moved around from one place to another with big trucks. Since every base varies in size, and requirements, the equipment purchased will vary as well. Network Technicians with their own ideas of what is a good OS, and what is not will also place some changes in the system. In the end, the local commander has the ability, and the responsibility to balance regulations with performance. They are also responsible for the Network providing good performance.
Basically, in the end, it's their choice, and their ass. Most opt to let the professional techs decide what is best for the network.
Quite a few headlines spring to mind over this.
Fox TV announced that it was giving failed night show comedian Chevy Chase another tryout, this time, with the newly arrived, and Motorola sponsored game show, "Who wants to own an Iridium Sattelite?"
Motorola announced today, that it was going to enter the non-profit sector, with the release of their Iridium sattelites to the World Hunger Association. A spokesman for Motorola said that their endeavor was not to actually feed these people, but to allow them to either call out for pizza, or to call someone to let them know how hungry they are.
It seems to me that instead of motorola destroying the sattelites, (which will undoubtedly cost more money), they could either auction them off, or give them away. There has to be at least a few US based funders who would like to get their hands on such an item, even if it were for experimental reasons.
By destroying these sattelites, Motorola is giving the clear signal of "failure". Their reputation would be greatly improved by a simple act of generosity. Name one university that wouldn't appreciate being given the chance to own one of these puppies...
Hmmm.. Eidos is going to make "Thief III, and hand it off to Ion Storm.."
Lets see... Mentioned Eidos 6 times in post.
Ion Storm? Mentioned them 3 times.
So, exactly how off topic is it? Well, you're average "Prist Fost" article mentions Eidos and Ion Storm exactly "0" times.
You're usual 2 paragraph blurb (that gets an "Interesting" comment, and is, of course, about as interesting as watching two moderators shave each others backs.) Mentions Eidos Twice, and Ion Storm once.
Where did the latest string of Moderators come from? Ex-Nazi war criminals?
Freedom of Expression comes in Many forms, so I'd like to take this opportunity to Express myself, in my own way, over the current state of moderation.
KISS MY ASS, YOU SUCK.
How low can it go? -3? Come on... you can do better than that...
Online Voting vs. Online Shopping
on
Online Voting?
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· Score: 4
The context of Online voting came up a while ago, as soon as secure online shopping was a reality. The comparisons of the two are fairly similar to comparing apples to oranges (or, to the geeks, like comparing Crosswords to Sapphire encryption)
Online voting has the ability to be corrupted in several ways. First, and foremost, most people assume that a "one social, one time" style system could work, since anyone logging into an electronic voting booth would be required to give his/her voter info (some states have codes, others mimic SSN's) once a particular code, or SSN was given, and voting completed, that person would not be allowed to vote again.
There are a few major problems with this though. Quite a few Americans do not vote. While I am not going to go into the psychology, and ramifications of NOT voting, I will say that not participating is their right, and should not be violated. Electronic Voting "could" easily circumvent someones wishes simply because there are sites that have information on them that are more or less unsecure. I'm not saying someone with a couple kiddie scripts could do it, but a true cracker out to "change" the system would probably find it fairly easy.
IMO (which I do not consider humble, by the way) Not voting is extremely stupid. I defend it, but I don't personally think it's right. I also firmly beleive that stealing someone elses vote is criminal, much worse than that person not voting at all.
While there are security items that can cure this, they are still a long way in coming. Retinal Scans, SSN's and hard encryption, along with fingerprint scanners are one way to go. They already exist, and are becoming more mainstream every day. These will make online voting a reality, and a secured one at that.
There will always be ways to circumvent a system. There always were, even in the old "click and pull the lever" systems. Forged Voters ID cards, fake documents, phony voters lists, and multiple voting are a few. The problem was that with these, 1. A person had to physically be there to vote, which took time. 2. Someone had to come up with a voters list, which took time. 3. Documents had to be forged, which took time.
By allowing electronic voting, you can speed up the above three things to damn near instantaneous. A small group of people playing over a large field could have a exponentially more significant impact on the final tally than before.
I would approach electronic voting with eyes open, alert, and fully concious of the ramifications of getting it wrong the first time. After all, the people we chose to lead, lead us to where THEY want to go; pray you chose someone you can stand to follow.
In a Congressional hearing today, Hemos, along with Cowboy Neil, and several representatives from Eidos explained exactly why the news site slashdot.org needed to be taken offline.
Hemos, when questioned by Congressman Nitwiddle, explained that through a previous deal, the editors of Slashdot agreed to double post any story by Eidos Interactive, particularly when containing ANY information about "Ion Storm".
Cowboy Neil went on to state that the deal was that Slashdot was to be given 1 case of lager beer every time this happened, and that by double posting, the editors not only hoped to split up negative comments on flops such as "Daikatana", but also manage to fulfill their lifelong dream of sitting in a jacuzzi filled with ale.
Eidos took the stand next, explaining that "no such deal existed in written, or oral form" and that by double posting stories of Eidos and Ion Storm, the potential for negative comments increased two fold.
Ken Williamson, a lawyer for the slashdot team, claimed that it simply was not a possibility, as there aren't that many "nerds" who honestly care about how badly Eidos is going to screw up an otherwise great game. He also went on to state that Eidos was in violation of the First Amendment.
Eidos countered, by stating that the First Amendment didn't count in areas that were specifically "free speech", and referred to the Supreme Court ruling of Metallica vs. the Offspring; a ruling that mandated that by selling T-Shirts that violated Metallica's money making endeavors, the Offspring gave up their First Amendment Rights, and should look towards their Fourth Amendment rights to rectify the situation. Judge Morely stated simply, "Just shoot em, it'll cost less."
Cowboy Neil and Hemos counterpointed that the negative comments were intermingled with good ones, and that if they were going to be sued for the negative ones, then they should be paid for the good ones.
Eidos stated firmly that it had not, nor would it ever deal with traitorous bastards who took their beer and drank it, too.
I don't honestly think that the "US" shutting down the internet is a valid point. Back when the idea behind the internet was spawned, the basic concept of it was for data packets to be able to route around "dead" spots. This means that if you're sending an email, or a file through the internet, each data packet has a fairly good chance of taking an entirely different route than the previous, or next one. IF security folks in the US decided to "pull the plug" on the internet, basically, the world would probably just route around it.
Now granted, there are some major corps in the states, who handle a lot of the internet traffic. Shutting down these guys would probably put some of your ISP's out of business, as they may actually have purchased time on say an MCI leased line over to a bigger ISP within the US, but that is something again, quickly routed around.
Another thing to take into consideration is the magnitude of what you're talking about. In order for the US to pull the plug on their internet, they'd basically have to, with certainty, shut down every fiber optic, copper, radio, microwave, and sattelite shot going out of the US. Such a thing has never been done before. The TransAtlantic cable, which was used to carry telephone conversations across the pond, was never taken off line during world war II. In fact, a german sub attempted to cut it on numerous occasions, and failed.
What the US could do is begin to monitor data packets. packet sniffing would slow the internet down a little bit, sure, but it "IS" feasible. The task would be daunting at best, though, since in essence, every single data packet makes it's own way, and quite possibly gets a different route. I don't see it happening any time soon.
And if it does come to that, ARPANET's little baby program will, hopefully prove itself worthy of the money and research put into it, and simply route everyone around that humongous "Dead Spot" that would be the US.
krystal_blade
Caffeine has it'sown MSDS too
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Caffeine Vault
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· Score: 5
Shock you're co-workers, satisfy your safety oriented boss. Download the CAFFEINE MSDS, and place it next to the office coffee pot!!
Caffeine Toxicity: Anhydrous: 192 mg/kg lethal dosage for human. Toxic dosage is 13 mg/kg oral man.
That equates to around 130 mg for a toxicity level in a 200 lb person. Females and males are so closely linked on lethality, and toxicicity level, posting both here would be a waste.
I don't think I've EVERY heard of someone reaching Lethal dosage...
Of course, I must warn against someone eating half a pound of chocolate covered espresso beans, unless they want to stay up for two days.
mummmummm-mmmuuuusssssssssssssssssssssssssssstttt gggegegetttttt mmmomo more kh kh kh off offf eeee!!!
Apple is PISSED because ATI released the info? They should be ecstatic!!! Think about it...
If they can't produce enough of these babies, lay the blame on an early press release.
If there's a glitch with it, blame it on an early press release...
Do not, however, turn around, and say "Well, since you gave us up, and Apple enthusiasts know now, we're going to punish BOTH of you by both not allowing you to put your cards in our machines, and not allowing our customers to ENJOY having a quality card in the PC."
Someone was so obsessed with pee pee smacking ATI, that they forgot exactly who it is that's going to suffer for this.
That damn near sounds like something all the anti microsoft folks around here tout...
What a lot of these people fail to realize is that BUSINESS, and REVENGE are like oil and water. Make money first.... Throw tantrum later, when at home sleeping on gold threaded sheets.
Anything else is just "you invited a journalist to your hideout - what did you expect!"
That's pure and utter rubbish... Journalism is ALL ABOUT getting those hard to get stories... Remember when 60 minutes did the bit on Yassir Arafat? BEFORE HE WAS A GOOD GUY? Governments had been looking for this schmoe for years, to no avail, and because of JOURNALISTIC INTEGRITY, they got the interview. What would society's opinion have been had 60 min showed up with a horde of delta force troopers at their back? Outrage, more than likely... Besides that, 60 min would have lost every ounce of credibility they had EVER earned. Think they would have cracked tobacco? Oh hell no... They probably would have went under.
Journalistic integrity extends beyond the borders of "hey, if you don't tell me anything, I won't give it." That works if you happen to work in World Weekley News, doing articles about a cross dressing Saddamm Hussein. If you want to move up on the scale, you've got to earn the trust to do face to face interviews. Even if it is with particularly nasty bastards. You earn that by not giving up sources, regardless of what crime they may have committed. And just because it may be under investigation, or considered a criminal act, remember that societies morality changes on a whim. Criminal today could very well be "Striking a blow for freedom" tomorrow. So, Reporters are right, and should be protected when they refuse to reveal truthfulness or sources. Especially when doing so hurts his/her reputation.
This is traditional journalistic integrity at it's best. The willingness for a reporter to lay it on the line as opposed to being used as an "agent" of the system. There have been several other journalists who refused to give up, reveal, or testify against their sources, and a few of them even went to jail over it.
This, my friends, is the best journalism we can ask for. America's Bill of Rights claims the right of the freedom of the press, and I firmly beleive this extends to protecting ANY source, regardless of any crimes or grimes they may have committed. Whether it's a high profile web site defacement, attempting to force a small web writer to reveal the source of a major crack, or protecting the source of a serial killer interview, the right to protect a source should not be violated. The failure of Justice to see this would spell the end for true to life, hardcore reporting. Who wants to speak out when their reporter could be forced to snitch on him/her?
I laud that reporters ideals. People like that are the ones who truly deserve medals and laurels in todays world.
Since I beleive Slashdot has a decent amount of journalistic integrity, I sincerely hope they give those on the shadier side of life the protection they deserve. And post their responses, so we can comment on them, and send neat little ascii character "F$-K YOU" signs to the bastards. (Maybe we can even re-route all the first post messages to THEIR website? HMM...)
Security Fanatic alert!!! There are several new products which have just come on the market that will assist you in ensuring that your data is safe from prying eyes...
1. Big Magnets... For only 19.95, we'll ship you a super powerful magnet capable of realigning the entire hard disk. This device takes some time, and is best used over a couple days. Please note that while large, and heavy, this is NOT a SPEAKER MAGNET!!!! We purchase ours before they ever reach the speaker manufacturer.
2. Thermite Charges... Yes folks, you now have the ability to not only corrupt every single peice of data on your hard-drive, with our magnesium hotmelt system, we can even guarantee you fragging the computer it is in!!! These hard drive modifications are somewhat difficult to accomplish, so please send your hard drive, along with 200.00 (non-refundable) to our own technical explosives specialist, three fingers McCoy.
3. Gravity/Kinetic Data sentry: 79.00... Our Data sentry gives it's best when and where it counts... Simply mount this item near your computer for a "just in case" emergency, and when the feds come pounding on your door, just begin actuating, and deactuating the Data Sentry to pulverize the hard disk. This Data Sentry, superior to others available, not only comes with a completely waterproof fiberglass handle, it also comes with an instruction manual. The solid core mettallic head has a patent on it for it's balled shape, which distributes tremendous kinetic energy into a very small location, (more PSI per use than comparable DATA SENTRIES!!!) Can also be used to hang pictures, pound nails, straightening metal, etc.
4. And finally, we would like to give you one of the finest data security measures we have to offer. The cost is 5.00 for the item, and 25.00 shipping and handling. This item utilizes new space age non-kilned ceramo-limestone material to create a heavy, yet durable and portable security measure. When the need is there, simply lift our destructo bloc about 4 feet in the air, and let it fall on your hard disk. This item guarantees hard disk breakage on the first impact, or your money back. (Shipping and handling costs not included). Item can also be thrown at incoming agents to buy time with the "DATA SENTRY". Caution: Do not drop on foot, on Glass, or on Pets. This product is in no way related to an ordinary concrete block, although you can disguise it as one if you think you are being watched!!!
Microsoft also countered the W3C, as it has in the past, by saying that it innovates by shipping products first and works to define standards that will be established later.
THAT is a most excellent idea!!! Let us just see what the headlines would look like if other people did the same thing...
The Army today finally released it's 2674 page causualty list from it's recent exercise training in South Carolina. Unfortunately for the Army, the think tank "innovating" new techniques forgot about the importance of digging in your troops AFTER advancing friendly tanks have stopped. They also failed to recognize the elusive threat of sending Airborne troops up without parachutes.
And here's another one from another Corporation
GM today announced the recall of over 36,000 light trucks that were built and sold as 2001 models, before the DOT established it's safety standards. GM's stock plummeted today as well, as a class action lawsuit against the company was filed in a circuit court. Seeing as how many of the deaths in GM light trucks were caused by either hypothermia, due to a lack of windows, or caused by carbon monoxide emissions in the cab of the truck. The exhaust was routed through the cab through a new GM innovation called exhaust heating. The lawsuit is expected to cripple GM.
And here's one from a utility company...
The entire National Power grid was taken down today unexpectedly as both the Detroit Edison, and Consumers Power switched over to a 500 hertz, 260 volt power system, innovated last week by the US Government. Although the system wasn't due to come online until 2015, Both Detroit Edison, and Consumers Power thought to get a jump on the market by converting their system early. Trillions of dollars are thought to be lost, and it is not known how long our batteries will....
krystal_blade, shooting first, then asking what sized bullet he should have used for that gun later.
The simple fact is that while SCO basically went under, that doesn't necessarily mean the end. Linux no doubt already offers competing (and free) variants to pretty much anything SCO has to offer. Other Unix flavors will probably try to incorporate *some* of their stuff, but in all honesty, most $$ companies take a bit of pride in doing their own work, and coming up with their own systems.
I think a lot of people are missing the beat. Regardless of what company picks up SCO, they might pull the rug out of people and decide to develop their *own* system again, delivering it to the masses. Seeing as SCO was involved in networking in the past, they might take a network security standpoint, and begin development on platform independent proxy servers, or even so called "all in wonder" programs... (tying together DNS, Proxy, and Firewall into one tight program.)
I'm not saying SCO is planning on throwing everyone for a loop; in fact, I'd be surprised if they did. I just think a lot of people are starting to make decisions based on shadowy rumors.
krystal_blade
Decentralization=Good, and Bad
on
Pirate DNS?
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· Score: 3
The Decentralization of Domains is a good thing, if you're talking about pulling NSI's charter away. However, if you're talking about creating a whole new DNS charter based on different ports, there are numerous problems you would face.
The first is that many protocols utilizing the DNS lookup function would not work, and would have to be re-configured. While this may seem a small task, remember that (unfortunately) many people rely on so called "point and click" functions of their servers, and have no knowledge base on re-stringing queries.
The second is the functionality behind the current DNS scheme. Domain names are handed out, and related to IP addresses, which works great. Your normal first timer can type in known addresses to get known companies. (.org and.net fall under this too) This easy familiarity makes surfing the internet a breeze, even if some people have to suffer for it.
Another thing is non, or misuse of a new DNS registry system. I don't beleive someone should be allowed to camp on a site that has an easily identifiable corporate name (Wal-Mart, for example) and use it to either coerce the company for money, or for other things, such as placing 600+ ad banners in an effort to get paid. Such misuse demotes the true intent of the internet, which is the free distribution of information. A good example of non-use is the so called "undernet" and "cobranet" that cloned the IRC a few years back. These clones, while functioning perfectly like the IRC, and perhaps even a little better than the IRC, were hardly ever used, and quite a number of them went defunct in a matter of a few months.
An alternate system I support is the "extension" of the current DNS configuration that was rumored to be in the works back around 1998. It involved pushing the extension barrier out a couple steps to include things like.bus (business).que (web queries or searches) and so on... Rumor has it that someone even came up with the idea of giving each state/local province their extension, (so North Carolina would have the extension of www.*****.ncs.us, and the venezia regional government of italy could have www.*****.vez.it
I firmly support pulling the dollar power away from NSI. I think the distribution of domain registries should incur a one time type in fee only, and that should basically be the cost of the man-hours required to make the changes to the system. Require domains to confirm that said domain is still in use once every month or quarter (and require it to be filled out in a predermined format so it can be parsed out by a PC updater) and that's that.
Slashdot Mirror
krystal_blade
www.sonofabit.ch (For frustrating things)
www.scrat.ch (Everyone's got an itch)
www.tou.ch (.org site for blind people)
www.beowulfcluster.ch (added for more karma)
www.thathurtou.ch (support site for blind people tou.ch-ing the lit stove.
www.cou.ch (For the potato in you)
www.icken.ch (Pig Latin site)
Oh well... Sure hope ke comes up soon.
krystal_blade
If they want to patent genes like they "made" them, that's fine by me.
I just keep thinking of the handsome settlement I'll be getting when I can prove in court that they "forced" their genes onto me, and I'm now stuck wearing glasses.
On the other hand, it's also a good thing that these companies have gotten ALL these patents on things they didn't create. Helps bring the current system down a little further.
Patenting a gene is kind of like patenting a color. Sure, you can claim that anyone using your color (cornflower for instance) has to pay you money. However, that is not to say that someone mixing Navy Blue (which is GPL'd) and a bit of Sun Yellow, and some Orange can't achieve the same effect.
Genetics works almost the same way. While they can own the patent on something all day long, they cannot enforce it on anyone who can reproduce the same effect purely by accident.
On the other hand, finding out who patented genes for sickle cell anemia would be pretty damn funny. Sue them twice. Once for being stupid.
"So, you are responsible for sickle cell anemia, which affects primarily black people."
"Well, we didn't actually create it, sir. We just kind of found it, and decided that we would patent it."
"So, you obtained a patent on something you didn't create, in order to be able to hold something over the black community?"
"No, we just wanted to patent the actual genes."
"So, you're trying to extract money from victims?"
"No, sir. We're trying to do research with our patented item."
"That you didn't create."
"Yes"
"That no one else now has access to but you."
"Yes."
"That affects primarily the black community."
"Yes, that is a statistical fact."
"So tell me, how are we to beleive that you first locate something in the black community, exploit it to gain a patent, to extract more money from other research on the same subject, then, file a patent claiming ownership, then turn around, and deny that you created your patented item, but only found it, and are somehow not responsible for these 4 million sickle cell anemia victims in front of you?"
krystal_blade
Kinda reminds me of the old Atari 800. But...
Atari 800 (circa mid 80's) cost---5-600 PSX2 cost---300
Besides, if it's just to "play with" maybe, just maybe, people will look at the YABASIC inclusion the same way they look at both Playstation games, and other forms of Basic.
Fun to screw around with, but do not attempt to apply to real world situations.
Besides, what if this was just a test market? It's happened before. Maybe Sony is testing the waters with the inclusion of a small language to see what the feedback is on it. If it's good? Maybe they'll throw in more. If it sucks? Maybe you won't see anymore.
I guess it's time to brush off that Star Raiders code, and see if I can port it to an Analog Joystick with Feedback. THAT WOULD ROCK!!
krystal_blade
The reason for this (near as I can tell) is that these countries have undergone a switch from what I call "productionism" to "consumerism".
Basically, production based societies are oriented towards making goods to ship/export all over the world. Consumer based societies not only make and consume their own items, but that of other societies.
In countries with a low amount of consumerism (I.E. Saudi Arabia) IP laws exist, but are not enforced strongly. Countries that make goods based on so called "prior art" or are direct copies, generally tend to not consume those same items. (If they did, Habib A would be screaming bloody murder about Habib B stealing his work.)
In European countries (I.E. westernized) the trend goes in the opposite direction. For the most part, you will see high amounts of enforcement, and legal rights over Intellectual Property, and very little actual "balloon stealing."
This is because your consumer who wants a "Sony Walkman" is probably going to go buy a "Sony" Walkman, and not some re-skinned knock off.
Another thing that helps westernized nations in this is a significant increase in so called "Commercial Centers." The trend away from open air markets in small villages keeps knock offs, which are produced in a limited supply from gaining shelf space in your local shopping plaza.
IP laws are usually pretty fair the world over. Any developing nation probably has some law or another on the subject. The difference comes in how the consumer views the object being copied, or in how the object maker can sell his or her wares.
krystal_blade
Ebonics C++ phat style
Redneck C++ with side order of pork rinds
Pygmy C++ (version has audio tape of clicking sounds)
C++ for Siberian Huskies
Oriental C++ with side order of Siberian Husky C++
Australian Outback C++ complete with the "This makes the deadly computer FURIOUS ANGRY" dude VHS tape.
Ex-Commune Hippy and now wants to make money C++
Government Lingo C++
C++ Mexico version with forged documents for border crossings
Homeless persons C++ in a big brown box
The above versions are scheduled to be released by January of this year, with more to follow dependent on the successful sales of at least one copy of the above versions.
krystal_blade
Tom Goldfunk announced today the release of the brand shiny new Super Duper Does it all, can cut a can in half, and still not make mush out of a tomato, Ginsu ++ language. This new revolutionary language, though completely the same as other languages, touts the unique ability to "Do the same thing all those other languages do, plus some more cool stuff." Of course, backwards compatibility is shaky, so most applications that run fine in C++ will have to be re-written in Ginsu++, but that's not really a problem, is it?
During his press release, Tom stated that "Ginsu++ is going to revolutionize the way we look at computers. A language that is useable across the spectrum of computers has really been lacking in the past millenium. This will change the way programmers work, since they'll now have to learn a new language on top of the ones they already know. And, to make it more intriguing, we've changed the way the language looks to one of those funky top to bottom "MATRIX" style readouts, which breathes new hope into those die hard monochromatic monitor folks in Zimbabwe."
Tim Goldfunk also used the public release of Ginsu++ to tout his company's next project, SuperGinsu+infinity, due out next summer. "That one," Tom promised, "Is going to rock!!"
Oh, I'm sorry... I forgot the Irony tabs...
krystal_blade
It works something like this. Joe B. has the standby pager, and is sitting at home. Suddenly he gets paged, with some secretaries email down. "Email is out all over!!!". Joe comes into work, kicks the exchange servers once or twice, and everything works fine. Actual time elapsed? 25 min. driving time, 15 min work time. Total= 40 minutes.
Joe B. would get paid for two hours worth of work at time and a half, however, because it was after hours, and because of the minimum call in.
This does one of two things. Bean counters hate losing beans to time and a half call ins. And, they hate seeing time cards that don't add up mathematically. This pisses them off, who complain up the chain.
Higher ups in the company suddenly notice that with all these time and a half call ins, you're making more money than them. Since you can now afford that expensive new car that they can't, they get pissed.
Pretty soon, memo's will be dispatched throughout the office dictating that the once deemed priority is no longer such a priority, and that anyone calling in a frivelous call will get strung from their genitals outside the third floor window.
-----------------------
Yet another item that may be of use to you comes from the military. (This is what I use...)
It's called a job priority assignment worksheet, and it's simple as hell to use.
First, type up all the system types you folks work on. (EG Workstation, Life Support, etc) Assign it a priority status starting with 1 being the highest down to 3. (At this point, the military also uses an alphabetical identifier. 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, etc...)
List all the equipment systems along with what you think is the appropriate priority. Then, assign those priorities "response times."
For instance, you'd have to drop all and run for a priority 1A outage, but anything 2B or lower can wait until the next shift. The extra numbers give a bit of lee-way in which jobs are higher on the scale than others.
If you get 2 calls in one night, and the first one is a 3B, and the second one is a 2B, you fix the 2B first the next day.
Oh, and you need someone high up in the company to hack off on this too, so it's not your ass when you tell a customer "tough".
Hope it helps.
krystal_blade
I own a G-Force Annhilator Pro, and I am quite happy with it. I was just as happy with my old card, a Viper 550. It worked great, until Quake III came along.
Unfortunately, the GPU on my Annhilator Pro doesn't seem to do half the job it claims it does. It's like I just went from a V550 to a V770. Sure, I get some more frames, but in the end, not *that* many more to justify the 300$ starting gate tag.
Now, it seems every card is trying to move up in the world of GPU's. (Remember when it used to be RAM?) One chip, two chips, red chips, blue chips.
It reminds me of the 60's era with Muscle Cars. Just stuff a bigger engine into it, and it'll go "faster". That's fine when you're driving in a straight line. After that played out, you started to see cars with finesse. Cleanly designed engines that went with body styles. Smaller, faster, (ok, not cheaper).
The main problem is the speed at which manufacturers are expected to act. They constantly throw current development out the window to embrace the "new" tech, which in turn, just starts getting hot, only to be thrown out again when something "new" comes along.
This is unsettling. While Video cards continue to get faster and faster, they seem to shrink away from what would be called a "legacy" design. Unfortunately for them, they seem to have lost the ability to completely use a design before trading it in for a new one.
krystal_blade
This is, of course, in response to the PDB who Hacked the website of HID INC. One of the hackers was KIA, after getting hit with the ISP's SBS, which they purchased from ISS.
"This is a RM", THJ continued, "Those DF's that did this had no idea of how hard it is to reload RPM's onto that IBM box, and that's exactly what we had to do to FTFM. Fortunately, we found a patch that not only fixes the potential problem, and ups the MTBF."
TRANSLATION
THJ Thomas Hartley Jones, A fake person
DECSS Don't be stupid
AWOL Absent Without Leave
FUBAR F****D Up Beyond All Recognition
BTDB Back To Drawing Board
RTFM Read The F***ing Manual
UA Unidentified Assailent
PDB Poor, Dumb Bastard
HID INC Home Internet Delivery, Inc.
KIA Killed In Action
ISP's Internet Service Provider
SBS Security Bagging System
ISS Internet Security Systems
RM Real Mess
DF Dumb F***s
RPM Don't be an idiot
IBM :)
FTFM Fix The F***ing Machines
MTBF Mean Time between Failure
AAAARGGGHHHH!!!! IHA. (I HATE ACRONYMS)
krystal_blade
For Instance... Utilizing a Linux box (running Debian) isn't "prescribed" by AFCERT (The Air Force Computer Emergency Response Team). For Network Control Centers, AFCERT guidelines are the defact bible of day to day operations.
But, those are "guidelines", and nothing more. Linux has been used before by the military, both as a perl compiler, and as a DNS router. Want UNIX? HP Unix, Solaris, Free BSD, what... All these have been used in one way or another by the military to provide reliability.
Military Network Control Centers are not basic lego block modules that are just moved around from one place to another with big trucks. Since every base varies in size, and requirements, the equipment purchased will vary as well. Network Technicians with their own ideas of what is a good OS, and what is not will also place some changes in the system. In the end, the local commander has the ability, and the responsibility to balance regulations with performance. They are also responsible for the Network providing good performance.
Basically, in the end, it's their choice, and their ass. Most opt to let the professional techs decide what is best for the network.
krystal_blade
Motorola announced today, that it was going to enter the non-profit sector, with the release of their Iridium sattelites to the World Hunger Association. A spokesman for Motorola said that their endeavor was not to actually feed these people, but to allow them to either call out for pizza, or to call someone to let them know how hungry they are.
krystal_blade
By destroying these sattelites, Motorola is giving the clear signal of "failure". Their reputation would be greatly improved by a simple act of generosity. Name one university that wouldn't appreciate being given the chance to own one of these puppies...
krystal_blade
Hmmm.. Eidos is going to make "Thief III, and hand it off to Ion Storm.."
Lets see... Mentioned Eidos 6 times in post.
Ion Storm? Mentioned them 3 times.
So, exactly how off topic is it? Well, you're average "Prist Fost" article mentions Eidos and Ion Storm exactly "0" times.
You're usual 2 paragraph blurb (that gets an "Interesting" comment, and is, of course, about as interesting as watching two moderators shave each others backs.) Mentions Eidos Twice, and Ion Storm once.
Where did the latest string of Moderators come from? Ex-Nazi war criminals?
Freedom of Expression comes in Many forms, so I'd like to take this opportunity to Express myself, in my own way, over the current state of moderation.
KISS MY ASS, YOU SUCK. How low can it go? -3? Come on... you can do better than that...
Online voting has the ability to be corrupted in several ways. First, and foremost, most people assume that a "one social, one time" style system could work, since anyone logging into an electronic voting booth would be required to give his/her voter info (some states have codes, others mimic SSN's) once a particular code, or SSN was given, and voting completed, that person would not be allowed to vote again.
There are a few major problems with this though. Quite a few Americans do not vote. While I am not going to go into the psychology, and ramifications of NOT voting, I will say that not participating is their right, and should not be violated. Electronic Voting "could" easily circumvent someones wishes simply because there are sites that have information on them that are more or less unsecure. I'm not saying someone with a couple kiddie scripts could do it, but a true cracker out to "change" the system would probably find it fairly easy.
IMO (which I do not consider humble, by the way) Not voting is extremely stupid. I defend it, but I don't personally think it's right. I also firmly beleive that stealing someone elses vote is criminal, much worse than that person not voting at all.
While there are security items that can cure this, they are still a long way in coming. Retinal Scans, SSN's and hard encryption, along with fingerprint scanners are one way to go. They already exist, and are becoming more mainstream every day. These will make online voting a reality, and a secured one at that.
There will always be ways to circumvent a system. There always were, even in the old "click and pull the lever" systems. Forged Voters ID cards, fake documents, phony voters lists, and multiple voting are a few. The problem was that with these, 1. A person had to physically be there to vote, which took time. 2. Someone had to come up with a voters list, which took time. 3. Documents had to be forged, which took time.
By allowing electronic voting, you can speed up the above three things to damn near instantaneous. A small group of people playing over a large field could have a exponentially more significant impact on the final tally than before.
I would approach electronic voting with eyes open, alert, and fully concious of the ramifications of getting it wrong the first time. After all, the people we chose to lead, lead us to where THEY want to go; pray you chose someone you can stand to follow.
krystal_blade
Hemos, when questioned by Congressman Nitwiddle, explained that through a previous deal, the editors of Slashdot agreed to double post any story by Eidos Interactive, particularly when containing ANY information about "Ion Storm".
Cowboy Neil went on to state that the deal was that Slashdot was to be given 1 case of lager beer every time this happened, and that by double posting, the editors not only hoped to split up negative comments on flops such as "Daikatana", but also manage to fulfill their lifelong dream of sitting in a jacuzzi filled with ale.
Eidos took the stand next, explaining that "no such deal existed in written, or oral form" and that by double posting stories of Eidos and Ion Storm, the potential for negative comments increased two fold.
Ken Williamson, a lawyer for the slashdot team, claimed that it simply was not a possibility, as there aren't that many "nerds" who honestly care about how badly Eidos is going to screw up an otherwise great game. He also went on to state that Eidos was in violation of the First Amendment.
Eidos countered, by stating that the First Amendment didn't count in areas that were specifically "free speech", and referred to the Supreme Court ruling of Metallica vs. the Offspring; a ruling that mandated that by selling T-Shirts that violated Metallica's money making endeavors, the Offspring gave up their First Amendment Rights, and should look towards their Fourth Amendment rights to rectify the situation. Judge Morely stated simply, "Just shoot em, it'll cost less."
Cowboy Neil and Hemos counterpointed that the negative comments were intermingled with good ones, and that if they were going to be sued for the negative ones, then they should be paid for the good ones.
Eidos stated firmly that it had not, nor would it ever deal with traitorous bastards who took their beer and drank it, too.
krystal_blade
Now granted, there are some major corps in the states, who handle a lot of the internet traffic. Shutting down these guys would probably put some of your ISP's out of business, as they may actually have purchased time on say an MCI leased line over to a bigger ISP within the US, but that is something again, quickly routed around.
Another thing to take into consideration is the magnitude of what you're talking about. In order for the US to pull the plug on their internet, they'd basically have to, with certainty, shut down every fiber optic, copper, radio, microwave, and sattelite shot going out of the US. Such a thing has never been done before. The TransAtlantic cable, which was used to carry telephone conversations across the pond, was never taken off line during world war II. In fact, a german sub attempted to cut it on numerous occasions, and failed.
What the US could do is begin to monitor data packets. packet sniffing would slow the internet down a little bit, sure, but it "IS" feasible. The task would be daunting at best, though, since in essence, every single data packet makes it's own way, and quite possibly gets a different route. I don't see it happening any time soon.
And if it does come to that, ARPANET's little baby program will, hopefully prove itself worthy of the money and research put into it, and simply route everyone around that humongous "Dead Spot" that would be the US.
krystal_blade
http://erowid.org/chemicals/caffeine/caffeine_data _sheets.shtml
Caffeine Toxicity: Anhydrous: 192 mg/kg lethal dosage for human. Toxic dosage is 13 mg/kg oral man.
That equates to around 130 mg for a toxicity level in a 200 lb person. Females and males are so closely linked on lethality, and toxicicity level, posting both here would be a waste.
I don't think I've EVERY heard of someone reaching Lethal dosage...
Of course, I must warn against someone eating half a pound of chocolate covered espresso beans, unless they want to stay up for two days.
mummmummm-mmmuuuusssssssssssssssssssssssssssstttt gggegegetttttt mmmomo more kh kh kh off offf eeee!!!
krystal_blade
If they can't produce enough of these babies, lay the blame on an early press release.
If there's a glitch with it, blame it on an early press release...
Do not, however, turn around, and say "Well, since you gave us up, and Apple enthusiasts know now, we're going to punish BOTH of you by both not allowing you to put your cards in our machines, and not allowing our customers to ENJOY having a quality card in the PC."
Someone was so obsessed with pee pee smacking ATI, that they forgot exactly who it is that's going to suffer for this.
That damn near sounds like something all the anti microsoft folks around here tout...
What a lot of these people fail to realize is that BUSINESS, and REVENGE are like oil and water. Make money first.... Throw tantrum later, when at home sleeping on gold threaded sheets.
krystal_blade
That's pure and utter rubbish... Journalism is ALL ABOUT getting those hard to get stories... Remember when 60 minutes did the bit on Yassir Arafat? BEFORE HE WAS A GOOD GUY? Governments had been looking for this schmoe for years, to no avail, and because of JOURNALISTIC INTEGRITY, they got the interview. What would society's opinion have been had 60 min showed up with a horde of delta force troopers at their back? Outrage, more than likely... Besides that, 60 min would have lost every ounce of credibility they had EVER earned. Think they would have cracked tobacco? Oh hell no... They probably would have went under.
Journalistic integrity extends beyond the borders of "hey, if you don't tell me anything, I won't give it." That works if you happen to work in World Weekley News, doing articles about a cross dressing Saddamm Hussein. If you want to move up on the scale, you've got to earn the trust to do face to face interviews. Even if it is with particularly nasty bastards. You earn that by not giving up sources, regardless of what crime they may have committed. And just because it may be under investigation, or considered a criminal act, remember that societies morality changes on a whim. Criminal today could very well be "Striking a blow for freedom" tomorrow. So, Reporters are right, and should be protected when they refuse to reveal truthfulness or sources. Especially when doing so hurts his/her reputation.
krystal_blade
This, my friends, is the best journalism we can ask for. America's Bill of Rights claims the right of the freedom of the press, and I firmly beleive this extends to protecting ANY source, regardless of any crimes or grimes they may have committed. Whether it's a high profile web site defacement, attempting to force a small web writer to reveal the source of a major crack, or protecting the source of a serial killer interview, the right to protect a source should not be violated. The failure of Justice to see this would spell the end for true to life, hardcore reporting. Who wants to speak out when their reporter could be forced to snitch on him/her?
I laud that reporters ideals. People like that are the ones who truly deserve medals and laurels in todays world.
Since I beleive Slashdot has a decent amount of journalistic integrity, I sincerely hope they give those on the shadier side of life the protection they deserve. And post their responses, so we can comment on them, and send neat little ascii character "F$-K YOU" signs to the bastards. (Maybe we can even re-route all the first post messages to THEIR website? HMM...)
krystal_blade
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krystal_blade
THAT is a most excellent idea!!! Let us just see what the headlines would look like if other people did the same thing...
The Army today finally released it's 2674 page causualty list from it's recent exercise training in South Carolina. Unfortunately for the Army, the think tank "innovating" new techniques forgot about the importance of digging in your troops AFTER advancing friendly tanks have stopped. They also failed to recognize the elusive threat of sending Airborne troops up without parachutes.
And here's another one from another Corporation
GM today announced the recall of over 36,000 light trucks that were built and sold as 2001 models, before the DOT established it's safety standards. GM's stock plummeted today as well, as a class action lawsuit against the company was filed in a circuit court. Seeing as how many of the deaths in GM light trucks were caused by either hypothermia, due to a lack of windows, or caused by carbon monoxide emissions in the cab of the truck. The exhaust was routed through the cab through a new GM innovation called exhaust heating. The lawsuit is expected to cripple GM.
And here's one from a utility company...
The entire National Power grid was taken down today unexpectedly as both the Detroit Edison, and Consumers Power switched over to a 500 hertz, 260 volt power system, innovated last week by the US Government. Although the system wasn't due to come online until 2015, Both Detroit Edison, and Consumers Power thought to get a jump on the market by converting their system early. Trillions of dollars are thought to be lost, and it is not known how long our batteries will....
krystal_blade, shooting first, then asking what sized bullet he should have used for that gun later.
I think a lot of people are missing the beat. Regardless of what company picks up SCO, they might pull the rug out of people and decide to develop their *own* system again, delivering it to the masses. Seeing as SCO was involved in networking in the past, they might take a network security standpoint, and begin development on platform independent proxy servers, or even so called "all in wonder" programs... (tying together DNS, Proxy, and Firewall into one tight program.)
I'm not saying SCO is planning on throwing everyone for a loop; in fact, I'd be surprised if they did. I just think a lot of people are starting to make decisions based on shadowy rumors.
krystal_blade
The first is that many protocols utilizing the DNS lookup function would not work, and would have to be re-configured. While this may seem a small task, remember that (unfortunately) many people rely on so called "point and click" functions of their servers, and have no knowledge base on re-stringing queries.
The second is the functionality behind the current DNS scheme. Domain names are handed out, and related to IP addresses, which works great. Your normal first timer can type in known addresses to get known companies. (.org and .net fall under this too) This easy familiarity makes surfing the internet a breeze, even if some people have to suffer for it.
Another thing is non, or misuse of a new DNS registry system. I don't beleive someone should be allowed to camp on a site that has an easily identifiable corporate name (Wal-Mart, for example) and use it to either coerce the company for money, or for other things, such as placing 600+ ad banners in an effort to get paid. Such misuse demotes the true intent of the internet, which is the free distribution of information. A good example of non-use is the so called "undernet" and "cobranet" that cloned the IRC a few years back. These clones, while functioning perfectly like the IRC, and perhaps even a little better than the IRC, were hardly ever used, and quite a number of them went defunct in a matter of a few months.
An alternate system I support is the "extension" of the current DNS configuration that was rumored to be in the works back around 1998. It involved pushing the extension barrier out a couple steps to include things like .bus (business) .que (web queries or searches) and so on... Rumor has it that someone even came up with the idea of giving each state/local province their extension, (so North Carolina would have the extension of www.*****.ncs.us, and the venezia regional government of italy could have www.*****.vez.it
I firmly support pulling the dollar power away from NSI. I think the distribution of domain registries should incur a one time type in fee only, and that should basically be the cost of the man-hours required to make the changes to the system. Require domains to confirm that said domain is still in use once every month or quarter (and require it to be filled out in a predermined format so it can be parsed out by a PC updater) and that's that.
krystal_blade