OK, I have found some CDs which won't rip all tracks perfectly - old ones which are scratched or have genuine manufacturing defects (real defects, that is, not deliberate copy-protection type ones) but those CDs don't play properly on a straight audio CD player anyway.
I probably haven't come across any with the error-detection/correction deliberately messed up (I wouldn't buy them in the first place:) but the data-session type ones are a joke. I don't suppose it would be too difficult to mark the corrupt samples in an E-D/C job and interpolate the values just as an audio-mode player does though...
I haven't found any CDs that wouldn't happily rip with cdparanoia on Linux. Ergo DRM CDs are pointeless as it only takes on smartarse with a free OS to flood the P2P channels with decent quality rips.
A colleague had a couple of CDs, one being by the Beatles, which appeared to have a second data session containing compressed versions and some Windows/Mac driver type stuff on it. It wouldn't rip in his Mac, he claimed - I don't know if this was some rootkit type setup. No problem extracting the CDDA which I gave him on a data CD, and also gave him regular CD versions sans the annoying second session.
Screw you, The Man! Thanks for making it *more desirable* to have a *non-original copy* of a CD because it works *better than the original*. Where's the fricking added value in that?
Disclaimer: I work for a record label/studio/distributor - we're not all evil.
Heh, if you're the kind of anal-retentive who runs Debian then you'd probably have an problem with which version of Debian they installed. Then the kernel version, then the desktop environment... if you want to run Debian it is probably easier on everyone if you just install it yourself...
If someone walks by you while it is in your pocket, they can't read off the pertinent information physically written on it in order to decode the encrypted RFID data. I'm sure given enough CPU time it could eventually be cracked without that data, but there are other much easier ways of doing identity theft.
I *believe* that the RFID chip won't actually respond with the encrypted data unless presented with a request which has (some function of) the key information. Which means you can't just get in the info and brute force it later - you have to brute force the key *live* whilst the passport is there to get it to respond. And the RFID tag (deliberately) takes some time respond, making it rather difficult to get the info in any reasonable timeframe.
Anyway, that's the impression I got by doing some googling... it may be wrong. And I'm no apologist for these passports - I made sure I got mine renewed a year or so ago so that I got an old style one.
I did exactly the same thing - 2.5V bulb, crush glass in a vice, blob of superglue on the filament and dip it in the scraped off head of a match. Et voila - electronically operated rocket launcher on my bike.
But I was 14 at the time and a bit of a pyro.
An adult would be a fool to do this for a fireworks display - seek professional help.
It sounds like a hoax, but taking "Left Behind Games" and the "Left Behind" series of books at face value (according to Amazon book 1 has characters such as "Rayford Steele" and "Buck Williams" which is either a kitsch postmodern joke or the books really are going to be as bad as one would expect) I do believe that they are actually serious!
I heven't played any computer games since "Quake", but damn, this sounds fantastic, I want to play it!
Still I can't help wondering that someone, somewhere in the design of this approached it with a knowing wink and could barely stiffle their sniggering at the ham-fisted naffness of the whole concept. It certainly makes the idea that I've been kicking around for a while of a collectible card game based on Catholic Saints (categories like "miracles performed, "followers", "cathederals") seem a little pale in comparison...
I can't see much point in anything that is supposedly more "accurate" than by country. Using the demo site there I got either just "UK" or "UK, London" for a whole bunch of addresses dispersed around the UK. Seeing as most home users will be on some xDSL connection which is probably peered/registered in London/$MAJORCITY, but they are perhaps a few hundred miles away it doesn't seem very "accurate" just more precise (but wrong). Maybe for the US you'll at least get an idea of which time zone they might be in?
You can go get the Geo::IP database for nothing, so I think I'd be tempted to just use that.
I think the "verified" bit kind of indicates that he knows this - as does the "no surprise there" comment after your somewhat selective quote. I think this was more of "sanity test" than anything - making sure that all is as one would expect it to be.
And yes, you are right, you can MD5 sum a WAV, flac, unflac and achieve the exact same file, IF the original WAV has the same standard header and no other non-audio chunks in it that the flac command put on at the decompression stage. You could extract the raw PCM data from the source and destintation WAVs and check that if you want to make sure. FLAC maintans an MD5 checksum of the raw PCM data so that it can verify correct operation.
If I were SCO I would hypothetically stab myself in the face.
The I would stab Darl McBride in the face, then I would stab my lawyer, Lionel Hutz or whatever he is called, in the face.
The I would take my pitiful penny-stocks and wail and gnash and think about the old days when I used to make products instead of just making people sick.
And how, exactly is it far more insecure? If you can see a barcode you can read all of the information on it. If you are within n metres of an RFID tag you can read all the information on it. It is just a different method to read all of the information (usually just a long string of digits) on the tag. The scanning method is no more, or less secure.
Now depending on the context you might not want someone to be able to read the information unless they have some privileged status (border guard, checkout assistant) in which case having an RFID tag is rather like having a barcode printed on your forehead. I don't want a barcode printed on my forehead, so I probably don't want an RFID passport, but baggage which has an exposed barcode anyway - what's the difference?
Now if they don't do something stupid like including your name, address and vital statistics on the tag (which I'm sure they won't as it would cost much more for the increased capacity tag) then it really just means they don't need line of sight to read the tag so that dirty/crumpled/obscured tags won't foul things up. If it is the same information that an arbitrary person could get with a barcode reader as opposed to an RFID reader then it might just well be a better solution.
I smell an ulterior motive.
And what would that be? The airline already know *everything* about you which they can glean from your baggage by cross referencing the ID on the barcode with their database. Unless FRID tags can read your mind... </conspiracytheory>
All the searches for those domains will still start off from the root servers controlled by ICANN, so depending on policy/implementation the names could be refused as containing invalid characters. I hasten to add that I don't know if there is actually something that would cause them to be refused, just that the searches will still hit ICANN servers.
Stupid really, I'm sure the pirates can keep a few older drives (with various region coding) around in a ripping machine for copying arbitrary region DVDs, so the only person this hurts is the legitimate user.
Products which are designed not to work make baby Jesus cry:-(
Yeah. 3D is great for games and visualisation. Why are they trying to shoehorn all this stuff which has no real-world analogue into a model of the world? How does a Gantt chart work in this crazy place? Is it like some set of blocks which represent tasks which when I throw up into the air twists around like a Transformer toy into a diagram representing a critical path analysis?
Why have we spent the last 50(?, 60?) years getting away from the physical limitiations of meatspace just to reimpose arbitrary constraints on the much more useful abstract environment which we have created?
How do I tab-browse this world? How do I have multiple world-windows open at once? Won't my legs get tired from running around all day? What happens when I break stuff in my room from crashing into it whilst gesticulating?
Imagine how much more useful your computer experience would be if you were able to design a virtual office as large or complex as you needed, and reach anything in it without leaving your chair.
Slashdot Mirror
OK, I have found some CDs which won't rip all tracks perfectly - old ones which are scratched or have genuine manufacturing defects (real defects, that is, not deliberate copy-protection type ones) but those CDs don't play properly on a straight audio CD player anyway.
I probably haven't come across any with the error-detection/correction deliberately messed up (I wouldn't buy them in the first place
Maybe your borken CD was just badly made?
I haven't found any CDs that wouldn't happily rip with cdparanoia on Linux. Ergo DRM CDs are pointeless as it only takes on smartarse with a free OS to flood the P2P channels with decent quality rips.
A colleague had a couple of CDs, one being by the Beatles, which appeared to have a second data session containing compressed versions and some Windows/Mac driver type stuff on it. It wouldn't rip in his Mac, he claimed - I don't know if this was some rootkit type setup. No problem extracting the CDDA which I gave him on a data CD, and also gave him regular CD versions sans the annoying second session.
Screw you, The Man! Thanks for making it *more desirable* to have a *non-original copy* of a CD because it works *better than the original*. Where's the fricking added value in that?
Disclaimer: I work for a record label/studio/distributor - we're not all evil.
Heh, if you're the kind of anal-retentive who runs Debian then you'd probably have an problem with which version of Debian they installed. Then the kernel version, then the desktop environment ... if you want to run Debian it is probably easier on everyone if you just install it yourself ...
;-)
I run Debian
If someone walks by you while it is in your pocket, they can't read off the pertinent information physically written on it in order to decode the encrypted RFID data. I'm sure given enough CPU time it could eventually be cracked without that data, but there are other much easier ways of doing identity theft.
... it may be wrong. And I'm no apologist for these passports - I made sure I got mine renewed a year or so ago so that I got an old style one.
I *believe* that the RFID chip won't actually respond with the encrypted data unless presented with a request which has (some function of) the key information. Which means you can't just get in the info and brute force it later - you have to brute force the key *live* whilst the passport is there to get it to respond. And the RFID tag (deliberately) takes some time respond, making it rather difficult to get the info in any reasonable timeframe.
Anyway, that's the impression I got by doing some googling
I did exactly the same thing - 2.5V bulb, crush glass in a vice, blob of superglue on the filament and dip it in the scraped off head of a match. Et voila - electronically operated rocket launcher on my bike.
But I was 14 at the time and a bit of a pyro.
An adult would be a fool to do this for a fireworks display - seek professional help.
The President used to be an alcoholic, but now he is addicted to working out. The former is much worse of an addiction than the latter.
Working out? What, like working out which shoe goes on which foot? Working out how to totally f*ck up international relations?
To quote the innimitable Tristan A. Farnon: "My Pac-Man fever is now full-blown Pac-Man AIDS!"
Well I guess that excludes me, as I've been serious thought to coveting my neighbour's ox lately
Man, the ox is OK, but you should see her ass!
It sounds like a hoax, but taking "Left Behind Games" and the "Left Behind" series of books at face value (according to Amazon book 1 has characters such as "Rayford Steele" and "Buck Williams" which is either a kitsch postmodern joke or the books really are going to be as bad as one would expect) I do believe that they are actually serious!
I heven't played any computer games since "Quake", but damn, this sounds fantastic, I want to play it!
Still I can't help wondering that someone, somewhere in the design of this approached it with a knowing wink and could barely stiffle their sniggering at the ham-fisted naffness of the whole concept. It certainly makes the idea that I've been kicking around for a while of a collectible card game based on Catholic Saints (categories like "miracles performed, "followers", "cathederals") seem a little pale in comparison
I can't see much point in anything that is supposedly more "accurate" than by country. Using the demo site there I got either just "UK" or "UK, London" for a whole bunch of addresses dispersed around the UK. Seeing as most home users will be on some xDSL connection which is probably peered/registered in London/$MAJORCITY, but they are perhaps a few hundred miles away it doesn't seem very "accurate" just more precise (but wrong). Maybe for the US you'll at least get an idea of which time zone they might be in?
You can go get the Geo::IP database for nothing, so I think I'd be tempted to just use that.
In the future, "Wired" will not suck.
I think I still have some early vintage copies from when it first got published in the UK (~1995?). Any takers?
No, thought not.
340 Swiss Francs! Boo hoo :( I thought it was free!
</irony>
I think the "verified" bit kind of indicates that he knows this - as does the "no surprise there" comment after your somewhat selective quote. I think this was more of "sanity test" than anything - making sure that all is as one would expect it to be.
And yes, you are right, you can MD5 sum a WAV, flac, unflac and achieve the exact same file, IF the original WAV has the same standard header and no other non-audio chunks in it that the flac command put on at the decompression stage. You could extract the raw PCM data from the source and destintation WAVs and check that if you want to make sure. FLAC maintans an MD5 checksum of the raw PCM data so that it can verify correct operation.
FLAC rocks.
Total hypo, but what if you were SCO?
If I were SCO I would hypothetically stab myself in the face.
The I would stab Darl McBride in the face, then I would stab my lawyer, Lionel Hutz or whatever he is called, in the face.
The I would take my pitiful penny-stocks and wail and gnash and think about the old days when I used to make products instead of just making people sick.
And how, exactly is it far more insecure? If you can see a barcode you can read all of the information on it. If you are within n metres of an RFID tag you can read all the information on it. It is just a different method to read all of the information (usually just a long string of digits) on the tag. The scanning method is no more, or less secure.
... </conspiracytheory>
Now depending on the context you might not want someone to be able to read the information unless they have some privileged status (border guard, checkout assistant) in which case having an RFID tag is rather like having a barcode printed on your forehead. I don't want a barcode printed on my forehead, so I probably don't want an RFID passport, but baggage which has an exposed barcode anyway - what's the difference?
Now if they don't do something stupid like including your name, address and vital statistics on the tag (which I'm sure they won't as it would cost much more for the increased capacity tag) then it really just means they don't need line of sight to read the tag so that dirty/crumpled/obscured tags won't foul things up. If it is the same information that an arbitrary person could get with a barcode reader as opposed to an RFID reader then it might just well be a better solution.
I smell an ulterior motive.
And what would that be? The airline already know *everything* about you which they can glean from your baggage by cross referencing the ID on the barcode with their database. Unless FRID tags can read your mind
you'd stake claim to one of the cells,
I'll bet no-one actually hammers in a stake to claim anything any more.
<sigh>, that's progress.
At the risk of sounding like an itsatrap tag abuser that situation sounds like entrapment to me!
All the searches for those domains will still start off from the root servers controlled by ICANN, so depending on policy/implementation the names could be refused as containing invalid characters. I hasten to add that I don't know if there is actually something that would cause them to be refused, just that the searches will still hit ICANN servers.
Quite simple really. He was the bar manager and the performer.
Stealing from poor, hardworking, underpaid, struggling artists like mulit-multi-millionaire Sir Paul.
The comparison to media control to control of The Pipes is an apt comparison.
Is Slashdot being edited by Dr Seuss now?
Or should that be Questions are the new statements?
Stupid really, I'm sure the pirates can keep a few older drives (with various region coding) around in a ripping machine for copying arbitrary region DVDs, so the only person this hurts is the legitimate user.
Products which are designed not to work make baby Jesus cry
Yeah. 3D is great for games and visualisation. Why are they trying to shoehorn all this stuff which has no real-world analogue into a model of the world? How does a Gantt chart work in this crazy place? Is it like some set of blocks which represent tasks which when I throw up into the air twists around like a Transformer toy into a diagram representing a critical path analysis?
Why have we spent the last 50(?, 60?) years getting away from the physical limitiations of meatspace just to reimpose arbitrary constraints on the much more useful abstract environment which we have created?
How do I tab-browse this world? How do I have multiple world-windows open at once? Won't my legs get tired from running around all day? What happens when I break stuff in my room from crashing into it whilst gesticulating?
Imagine how much more useful your computer experience would be if you were able to design a virtual office as large or complex as you needed, and reach anything in it without leaving your chair.
My God! They have invented Microsoft Bob!
Patrick Cox should stick to making shoes.