If the CDC is going to be investigating non-tangible diseases, it should first start with that of scapegoating, that is, finding surrogate explanations when the real one is unpalatable.
"Ummm..so using your logic if someone leaves there front door unlocked then that means it's okay for you to walk in and steal anything you want?"
Sure, if the owner leaves a sign on the door "feel free to use/take whatever's in here".
With WiFi it's even less-explicit than I described. The OS scans for open access points (as in, it says "hey, are you offering connections to anyone?" and the point replies "yes") and connects to one of those available.
"however if they don't and you connect to it then IMHO your machine is fair game"
You aren't getting this. Say I set up a wireless access point in my apartment. I move my laptop into the bedroom and it connects to it. If for some reason it finds another open signal there, it might choose it (it's made to do that so you can seamlessly hop from one point to another). You're saying that my PC is fair game because of this. If the person whose open access point is chose doesn't want anonymous users, he should secure it.
Theft will not compare because it's all a case of the host machine with the ability to restrict access, but configured to intentionally giving access and bandwidth to anonymous users. Unlike theft, the owner merely has to tell the host that he doesn't want this behavior, then it's enforced. It's not even a backdoor being exploited.
To sum all this up: if someone doesn't want anonymous connections, why the hell don't they restrict access by enabling access control features?
Someone looks into your car at night, then looks around as if to see if anyone's watching. Criminal? No. Suspicious behavior? Yes. Worth monitoring? Yes. Person guilty of anything damaging? No. If you can't act on probable actions, you can't do anything to prevent a crime. As long as you use suspicious behavior as a hint of possible plans, rather than evidence of wrongdoing. Problem is I know a lot of people who only look for confirming evidence and ignore all disconfirming evidence.
"I think it would be hilarious and a nice little piece of payback for those folks that thinks it's okay to piggyback off resources that someone else if paying for (with a little publicity might make people think twice about piggybacking)."
Sorry, if your access point is open, when my computer says "hey, can I connect?" your access point says "sure! let's begin...". If you don't want me connecting, the problem is at your end, not mine. You need to let your access point know that it shouldn't be giving permission to everyone.
I read the article summary and couldn't figure out what was real or imaginary. Real or virtual gold? Real or virtual $60? Sorry, I'm all confused with these virtual games.
"In fact, demonstrating that there truly really is only one code-path would be pretty damning too; that's evidence this is just pure PR with no grounding in tech at all."
What if the optimization was in choice of instructions, how they are scheduled, code alignment, and other things compatible with both processors but possibly faster one Intel? Not that I believe it, but at least that's an explanation that would be much more difficult to refute. You'd have to find the time-critical sections, disassemble them and analyze them, then show that they are optimal sequences for Intel and AMD processors, or at least no less optimal for AMD than Intel.
It's true. If they put an RCA composite video output jack, it could double as a "awful buzzing sound" audio output, so it wouldn't be truely dedicated. Now, if you require a special adapter, then it's truely dedicated to video output.
"Big 5v/12v power busses wouldn't even need to be insulated."
Nothing needs to be insulated, it's just very easy to short things out when they aren't. The insulation isn't just to prevent electrocution. It'd be quite a nice display of sparks if you dropped a metal case against these uninsulated gazillion amp 5/12V busses.
I agree with your correction, but I must point out that effect is also a verb, as in, "how search engines and original content are effecting a reduction of quality content on the web."
It's not a tax because AOL isn't the government. It's simply a change in the fees they charge for the services they provide. As a free customer, you can take your business elsewhere.
"There's nothing more irritating for a pilot than to be told that an airplane is going to fall out of the sky becuase somebody's using a cellphone. That's total BS!"
It may sound like BS, but that isn't an indicator of its (in)validity.
"I fly aircraft with advanced avionics regularly and I've never seen a single example where a mobile telephone left on will interfere with anything."
Perhaps you a) never noticed instrument malfunctions, b) noticed instrument malfunctions, but incorrectly attributed the cause, c) spent your time in the cabin flying the plane where you wouldn't see the use of mobile telephones and other devices, d) simply not flown enough to encounter an example, due to the low occurrence rate, or d) are correct.
"A modern jetliner has redundant GPS receivers, fuel systems, hydraulic systems, etc."
Redundancy won't help if it's a problem with the system. If a system fails due to the use of a cell phone, having two of those systems will mean two failed systems due to a cell phone.
"If a 767 can run out of fuel and the pilot land the aircraft safely using non-powered backup instruments and almost no hydraulic power, which has happened, then some bonehead leaving their cellphone on isn't going to pose much of a problem."
That's assuming that there's only one axis of problem severity, the one of how dramatic the incident is. What about problems which go undetected until it's too late, like incorrect altitude or location readings, when you have to trust them due to lack of visibility or something?
"Did I get a commendation for my cleverness? Did I get a write-up in USA Today? No. I got an F, despite there being no rules whatsoever prohibiting parachutes (although I hear they wrote in that rule the following year)."
At least you got an early education on the real purpose of school: to punish you for thinking outside the box. That's worth far more than temporary fame.
Re:Nintendo, the greatest thing...ever.
on
Flashback NES
·
· Score: 1
"I will admit something though, and this is very low of me, but I was so hooked on NES at the time, I started renting games and swapped out the board inside with my games. I had made a special tool to do this, after many "swaps" I finally got caught and had to pay for the game."
Bwahahahaha! We did that once with F-Zero X (N64), swapping the Japanese import board with the English version we rented.
"As I went into the 1990's, I started to get more involved in newer system, my first 16 bit system was a turbo-grafx 16 (I couldn't afford a Genesis) [...]"
The Turbo-Grafx used an 8-bit CPU (6520 I believe, similar to the 6502 used in the NES). Gotta love marketing lies.
Thanks for the stories.
Re:I never understood gaming...
on
Flashback NES
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
"I am old enough to remember the NES, Genesis, and SNES, but I even as a child I never understood the desire to sit in front of a television playing a video game or watching a show."
It wasn't a desire to sit in front of a TV, it was a desire to explore other worlds and find hidden things, be challenged with puzzles and challenging maneuvers, improve skill through practice, and (sometimes) play against friends in multiplayer games. It would be hard to desire this if you'd never experienced it, so perhaps it was just a matter of who was exposed to video games enough to get a glimpse of what it was.
That said, now I spend most of my time working on Nintendo emulation, rather than playing video games.
Apparently one of the recently decoded messages was an odd transcript between an anonymous captain and a group called "CATS". This is all they could decipher:
Captain : What happen? Mechanic: Someone set up us the bomb. Operator: We get signal. Captain : What ! Operator: Main screen turn on. Captain : It's you !! CATS : How are you gentlemen !! CATS : All your base are belong to us. CATS : You are on the way to destruction. Captain : What you say !! CATS : You have no chance to survive make your time. CATS : Ha Ha Ha Ha.... Operator: Captain !! Captain : Take off every 'Zig' !! Captain : You know what you doing. Captain : Move 'Zig'. Captain : For great justice.
"Within a day or two, they pulled my auctions and said "You can't sell burned CDs of any type on eBay.""
That's probably because it would be more costly for them to hire someone to check every single auction of a burned CD. If they allowed free software, people would have just found a way to covertly communicate what the software really was to the buyer, while claiming it was free software.
Next thing you know and they'll disable the fast-forward and skip buttons when you put in a DVD.
Oh, wait, they already do. Thank you, Digital Restrictions Management (DRM). <sarcasm>
Seriously, I don't give a fuck about what they want to impose on me. I'll use a restriction-free DVD player just so I can watch the damn movie when I insert it instead of having to wait a minute for all the mandatory crap to play.
Slashdot Mirror
"Has Your Credit Card been stolen?
Enter information and click OK to find out"
What an easy script to write:
printf( "Yes, your credit card number has just been stoeld!\n" );
If the CDC is going to be investigating non-tangible diseases, it should first start with that of scapegoating, that is, finding surrogate explanations when the real one is unpalatable.
"Um, I hate to break it to you but that was two sentences. "
Ummm, I hate to Break it to you, but Slashdot isn't bound by archaic Grammer Rules,,,
.
"Ummm..so using your logic if someone leaves there front door unlocked then that means it's okay for you to walk in and steal anything you want?"
Sure, if the owner leaves a sign on the door "feel free to use/take whatever's in here".
With WiFi it's even less-explicit than I described. The OS scans for open access points (as in, it says "hey, are you offering connections to anyone?" and the point replies "yes") and connects to one of those available.
"however if they don't and you connect to it then IMHO your machine is fair game"
You aren't getting this. Say I set up a wireless access point in my apartment. I move my laptop into the bedroom and it connects to it. If for some reason it finds another open signal there, it might choose it (it's made to do that so you can seamlessly hop from one point to another). You're saying that my PC is fair game because of this. If the person whose open access point is chose doesn't want anonymous users, he should secure it.
Theft will not compare because it's all a case of the host machine with the ability to restrict access, but configured to intentionally giving access and bandwidth to anonymous users. Unlike theft, the owner merely has to tell the host that he doesn't want this behavior, then it's enforced. It's not even a backdoor being exploited.
To sum all this up: if someone doesn't want anonymous connections, why the hell don't they restrict access by enabling access control features?
My program printed "false".
Someone looks into your car at night, then looks around as if to see if anyone's watching. Criminal? No. Suspicious behavior? Yes. Worth monitoring? Yes. Person guilty of anything damaging? No. If you can't act on probable actions, you can't do anything to prevent a crime. As long as you use suspicious behavior as a hint of possible plans, rather than evidence of wrongdoing. Problem is I know a lot of people who only look for confirming evidence and ignore all disconfirming evidence.
"I think it would be hilarious and a nice little piece of payback for those folks that thinks it's okay to piggyback off resources that someone else if paying for (with a little publicity might make people think twice about piggybacking)."
Sorry, if your access point is open, when my computer says "hey, can I connect?" your access point says "sure! let's begin...". If you don't want me connecting, the problem is at your end, not mine. You need to let your access point know that it shouldn't be giving permission to everyone.
I read the article summary and couldn't figure out what was real or imaginary. Real or virtual gold? Real or virtual $60? Sorry, I'm all confused with these virtual games.
It's like the T-1000, the little pieces melt and reform into a single entitiy again.
"In fact, demonstrating that there truly really is only one code-path would be pretty damning too; that's evidence this is just pure PR with no grounding in tech at all."
What if the optimization was in choice of instructions, how they are scheduled, code alignment, and other things compatible with both processors but possibly faster one Intel? Not that I believe it, but at least that's an explanation that would be much more difficult to refute. You'd have to find the time-critical sections, disassemble them and analyze them, then show that they are optimal sequences for Intel and AMD processors, or at least no less optimal for AMD than Intel.
It's true. If they put an RCA composite video output jack, it could double as a "awful buzzing sound" audio output, so it wouldn't be truely dedicated. Now, if you require a special adapter, then it's truely dedicated to video output.
"Big 5v/12v power busses wouldn't even need to be insulated."
Nothing needs to be insulated, it's just very easy to short things out when they aren't. The insulation isn't just to prevent electrocution. It'd be quite a nice display of sparks if you dropped a metal case against these uninsulated gazillion amp 5/12V busses.
"... legislation today that would prohibit Internet network operators from charging companies for faster delivery of their content to consumers ... "
Yay, does this mean that broadband won't cost more than dialup anymore?
</unserious>
Cue the Bladerunner jokes...
I agree with your correction, but I must point out that effect is also a verb, as in, "how search engines and original content are effecting a reduction of quality content on the web."
It's not a tax because AOL isn't the government. It's simply a change in the fees they charge for the services they provide. As a free customer, you can take your business elsewhere.
"There's nothing more irritating for a pilot than to be told that an airplane is going to fall out of the sky becuase somebody's using a cellphone. That's total BS!"
It may sound like BS, but that isn't an indicator of its (in)validity.
"I fly aircraft with advanced avionics regularly and I've never seen a single example where a mobile telephone left on will interfere with anything."
Perhaps you a) never noticed instrument malfunctions, b) noticed instrument malfunctions, but incorrectly attributed the cause, c) spent your time in the cabin flying the plane where you wouldn't see the use of mobile telephones and other devices, d) simply not flown enough to encounter an example, due to the low occurrence rate, or d) are correct.
"A modern jetliner has redundant GPS receivers, fuel systems, hydraulic systems, etc."
Redundancy won't help if it's a problem with the system. If a system fails due to the use of a cell phone, having two of those systems will mean two failed systems due to a cell phone.
"If a 767 can run out of fuel and the pilot land the aircraft safely using non-powered backup instruments and almost no hydraulic power, which has happened, then some bonehead leaving their cellphone on isn't going to pose much of a problem."
That's assuming that there's only one axis of problem severity, the one of how dramatic the incident is. What about problems which go undetected until it's too late, like incorrect altitude or location readings, when you have to trust them due to lack of visibility or something?
"Did I get a commendation for my cleverness? Did I get a write-up in USA Today? No. I got an F, despite there being no rules whatsoever prohibiting parachutes (although I hear they wrote in that rule the following year)."
At least you got an early education on the real purpose of school: to punish you for thinking outside the box. That's worth far more than temporary fame.
Come on, this is Slashdot! What about Z0?
"I will admit something though, and this is very low of me, but I was so hooked on NES at the time, I started renting games and swapped out the board inside with my games. I had made a special tool to do this, after many "swaps" I finally got caught and had to pay for the game."
Bwahahahaha! We did that once with F-Zero X (N64), swapping the Japanese import board with the English version we rented.
"As I went into the 1990's, I started to get more involved in newer system, my first 16 bit system was a turbo-grafx 16 (I couldn't afford a Genesis) [...]"
The Turbo-Grafx used an 8-bit CPU (6520 I believe, similar to the 6502 used in the NES). Gotta love marketing lies.
Thanks for the stories.
"I am old enough to remember the NES, Genesis, and SNES, but I even as a child I never understood the desire to sit in front of a television playing a video game or watching a show."
It wasn't a desire to sit in front of a TV, it was a desire to explore other worlds and find hidden things, be challenged with puzzles and challenging maneuvers, improve skill through practice, and (sometimes) play against friends in multiplayer games. It would be hard to desire this if you'd never experienced it, so perhaps it was just a matter of who was exposed to video games enough to get a glimpse of what it was.
That said, now I spend most of my time working on Nintendo emulation, rather than playing video games.
Apparently one of the recently decoded messages was an odd transcript between an anonymous captain and a group called "CATS". This is all they could decipher:
....
Captain : What happen?
Mechanic: Someone set up us the bomb.
Operator: We get signal.
Captain : What !
Operator: Main screen turn on.
Captain : It's you !!
CATS : How are you gentlemen !!
CATS : All your base are belong to us.
CATS : You are on the way to destruction.
Captain : What you say !!
CATS : You have no chance to survive make your time.
CATS : Ha Ha Ha Ha
Operator: Captain !!
Captain : Take off every 'Zig' !!
Captain : You know what you doing.
Captain : Move 'Zig'.
Captain : For great justice.
Just imagine, web pages that can't do anything other than show content. A web without Flash, JavaScript and PDF is a breath of fresh air.
"Within a day or two, they pulled my auctions and said "You can't sell burned CDs of any type on eBay.""
That's probably because it would be more costly for them to hire someone to check every single auction of a burned CD. If they allowed free software, people would have just found a way to covertly communicate what the software really was to the buyer, while claiming it was free software.
"If some one wants to steal all you can do is make your stuff less attractive so they'll go on to the next person."
FINALLY SOMEONE UNDERSTANDS WHY I HAVE A 300 BAUD MODEM AND USE AN APPLE ][.
Next thing you know and they'll disable the fast-forward and skip buttons when you put in a DVD.
Oh, wait, they already do. Thank you, Digital Restrictions Management (DRM). <sarcasm>
Seriously, I don't give a fuck about what they want to impose on me. I'll use a restriction-free DVD player just so I can watch the damn movie when I insert it instead of having to wait a minute for all the mandatory crap to play.