The author said his browser was identifiable because of his font and addon settings. i.e. He probably customized it.
But what about those of us who use "default" settings and customize virtually-nothing? Are we identifiable, or do we got lost in the crowd? I suspect the latter.
State governments are surrounded by the People they govern. If a state government misbehaves, it only takes a short while to rally your neighbors and drive the 1-2 hours from your home to the capitol & remind the leaders that they can be deposed if they don't obey the citizens.
It is wiser to put most of the governmental power close to home, where the leaders are surrounded by their neighbors, rather than thousands of miles away in the Cone of Silence we call Washington. (Example: Three-quarter of the people opposed the Banker Bailout Bill, but it passed anyway, because congress doesn't care what we think.)
but hate my government. "If it were possible, we would have no government. It is only for the protection of our rights that we resort to government at all." - Jefferson. Nowadays it seems the government is more interested in protecting the Non-human Corporations rather than the People.
Perhaps it is time to call a Constitutional Convention and revert to the Articles of Confederation again - a Union of States, rather than an out-of-control central authority that acts as if it has unbounded power.
It's definitely wrong to publish customers' records online. They should be erased immediately after being downloaded.
BUT I see it as morally correct to hack Sony, a corporation that is, in many respects, just as evil as RIAA or MPAA (hacking personal computers, charging grannies with million-dollar lawsuits, and bricking customers' $500 PS3s) The more damage we cause to Sony's managers, employees, and world reputation, the better it is for us. Maybe Sony can be driven out-of-business like Circuit Shitty was.
Re:I wonder if the hackers would stop..
on
Sony Compromised, Again
·
· Score: 3, Informative
>>>what has Sony really done that warrants this kind of behavior? Are they dumping toxic chemicals? Causing global warming? Killing babies?
Nothing that extreme, but they are still violating individual rights: - Selling PS3s with "other OS" capability, and then turning it off. AKA bait-and-switch aka false advertising. Also illegal in Europe (where customers can demand refunds) - Installing software from Music CD that killed customer's computers (made them unbootable) - Bricked PS3s that were modded to play emulators (like SNES or Atari-Stella) - Sued people for Millions of dollars, because they downloaded 5 songs. - Prosecuted a man who posted how to open-up your PS3 and mod it to play HD DVDs (and other stuff) - Used extradition to remove a customer from Europe to US, so they could sentence the customer to 20 years for hacking his console.
NOW do you understand why/.'rs hate Sony? And why we boycott them? Educate yourself about these corporations, and the evils they commit, rather than just blindly buying everything.
>>>In all honestly, Sony hasn't done anything to me personally that warrants a boycott
"First they came for the [CD Buyers with rootkits] but I didn't care, because it wasn't affecting me. "Then they came for the [Linux PS3 Owners] but I didn't care, because it wasn't affecting me. "Next they came for the [PSN customers by losing their credit information in public] but I didn't care, because it wasn't affecting me....."
Then they came for me by turning-off my PS3 because I played a downloaded CD-R on it. - And nobody cared about me either, because it's a self-centered narcisstic world.
>>>Dude, you're 11. Let the adults handle this, okay?
I am 11 in Mars years (or 3 in Jupiter years), but not earth years.
As for the comment about crack, if I have ownership of my body then I should be able to do anything I want to do to it. There is no justification for the government to disallow Drug use (or even suicide) unless the government claims ownership over you.
Yes extradition is a real threat in the EU. You can be accused of a crime in Poland, and the UK Judge has no choice, by law, but to deport you to that member state. Extradition to the US is more complicated, but still a danger.
Personally I think that's bullshit. "There's nothing I can do; I must comply with the law" has been used too many times by Judges, lawyers, police, et cetera. Yes there IS something you can do.
You can refuse to comply with unjust laws. It's called nullification - refuse to obey unconstitutional or unnatural laws.
>>>.....the fact that it is a felony. >>>Anyone else just getting tired of this crap?
I am well past "tired". I am angry.
Jefferson had the right idea when he proposed this amendment: "Monopolies may be allowed to persons for their own productions in literature, and their own inventions in the arts, for a term not exceeding ___ years, but for no longer term, and for no other purpose." He suggested "19" be inserted into the blank.
Well that's a first. I've never seen that appended to a message before. "Informative" and yet "-1" score at the same time. Hmmm. I guess I offended some Apple fan.
The truth is that I don't love Apple. Or Sony. Or Warner Records. Or any other company. Loving an inanimate building or corporate logo is just silly (IMHO) If they violate the law, reagrdless who they are, then they should be prosecuted like MicroSoft, the CD companies, and Paypal were prosecuted.
>>>What the "CD Companies" were doing (and still are, with no real action from the DOJ) is nothing even VAGUELY comparable by any intelligent person to anything Apple is.
During the 90s they were guilty of price-fixing and restraint-of-trade amongst retailers/resellers ("Sell CDs for $12 minimum or we won't let you market our products Walmart, Kmart, Target, etc.") Apple is doing the same darn thing with their iGadgets.
Yeah so? Paypal was also slammed by the US DOJ (forced to refund almost 1 billion dollars back to their customers), and that was just one SINGLE company.
Breaking the law is breaking the law, whether it's multiple companies or just one. And right now, Apple is breaking the law and they will eventually be prosecuted (unless they wise up).
>>>seriously, "illegal cartel"? Do you even read the gibberish you post?).
I read, but apparently you do not. I didn't say Apple is an illegal cartel. I said the Record Companies were accused of forming a cartel (with one another) in order to prevent Discount retailers like Walmart from selling CDs below $12 retail (i.e. price-fixing). They got away with it throughout the 1990s, but in 2001 the US DOJ brought them to trial and forced them to refund approximately $30 to every customer.
As for Apple, they are not a cartel, but they ARE violating other aspects of Antitrust and Consumer Protection laws. They are not allowed to restrain trade amongst aftermarket sellers (i.e. you and me) or control the price we charge (forbidding transactions at $0.00 price).
And finally I don't "love" the free market. What I love is freedom to choose. i.e. I'm anti-monopoly.
Well that's a first. I've never seen that appended to a message before. "Informative" and yet "-1" score at the same time. Hmmm. I guess I offended some Apple fan because I dared to say Apple should be prosecuted just like every other corporation which gets prosecuted for breaking Antitrust and/or Consumer Protection Laws. Ooops. I'm so sorry. (Psych.)
The truth is that I don't love Apple. Or Microsoft. Or Warner Records. Or any other company. Loving an inanimate building or corporate logo is just silly (and possibly mental). In my opinion the more times the government steps-in and WHAPS these companies with legal prosecution, the better it is for everybody. I laughed when the CD Companies were sued, and laughed again when Paypal had their corporate ass...ets reemed by the justice department. We need more of that, not less.
>>>Now, if the CEO directly says to "Cut the costs, I don't care if one in a thousand will explode" after reading an email from an engineer who says that one in a thousand will explode, I can agree
That's pretty much what I was talking about. A deliberate case of making an inferior product, but deciding not to fix it, even though people are dying. Example: the Ford Pinto. The CEO, his managers, and accountants should have been brought-up for 2nd degree murder charges.
Instead: They got zero punishment because they have their Incorporation License to protect them. They are still rich, still have jobs, still continuing life as if the ~10,000 people they killed don't matter. That's just wrong.
>>>Why does utterly everything have to be someone else's fault?
Because that's how the world works. You think I can just go run someone over with my car and say, "ooops sorry," without consequences? No way. I should be held, by government, to compensate that person (or jailtime if the person is dead).
>>>Except they're now forcing businesses in other states to collect and remit taxes for items sold to Californians.
Which means it is unenforceable. California can no more tax a non-citizen (or business) than France can tax a guy living in Poland. You can't force non-citizens to comply with your fucked-up California laws. - No taxation without representation. - No juris diction beyond your borders.
Since 1910, governments have killed approximately 200 million of their OWN citizens, typically through planned genocide. (The number rises over 1 billion if you include non-citizens killed in war.) How many millions have corporations killed? (Essentially zero million.)
>>>Get rid of government
Libertarians are not anarchists. Libertarians support having a government in order to keep the corporations from treading on Citizens' Rights. In fact many libertarians, like me, would abolish corporations completely. Instead you would have direct-owned companies, were the CEO and his partners would be directly liable for their acts.
So for example if a car they built blew-up, they could be charged with manslaughter and thrown in jail. NO corporate shield. The corporate license wouldn't even exist. The No-Corporation libertarian world would actually be BETTER than the corporate-dominated world we have now.
>>we're not given any particularly efficient way to pay the taxes
Yes there is. It's located on your State Income Tax return under "use taxes". You are supposed to pay x% of every purchase that was imported from another state (typically equal to the sales tax).
>>>I have yet to get a virus of any kind on any of my personal machines
I don't believe you. Even back in the 68000 days, Boot Sector viruses existed. All you needed to do was copy a floppy from a friend and insert it into your drive. I got my first one in 1988 on my Commodore Amiga.
And today it's even easier, since javascripts often download payloads via advertising. You probably have a virus right now, and don't even realize it. Try running AdAware or Spybot. I'm sure they'll find at least one malicious program on your machine.
"Everyone" bought Apples? According to ars technica, the program visicalc was released in 1979 and the number one selling computer for the following years was NOT Apple.
In fact Apple wasn't even close: 1979 - TRS-80 (#2 was Atari #3 Commodore PET #4 Apple) 1980 - TRS80 again 1981 - 1982 = Atari 400/800 was #1 1983 - 1986 - C64 1987 - IBM PC clones
Apple II and its variants never rose higher than 3rd place in sales volume. So rather than saying "everyone" ran-out to buy an Apple, it's more like one-tenth of the population bought an apple. The rest were buying TRS, Atari, Commodore, or IBM.
>>>A copyright owner can be reclusive up until the moment that the copyright owner is ready to sue.
That certainly sounds like a valid excuse. NOW - What excuse do you have for Canadian RIAA not paying artists like Celine Dion, Alanis Morisette, Sarah McLachlan, and so on? The truth is that RIAA didn't pay because they didn't want to pay. They wanted to use these songs on "Greatest Hits" and other compilation albums for free, rather than pay the wages due.
i.e. They are the very "thieves" they accuse us and piratebay of being. RIAA=record execs==Hypocritical bastards.
For those who don't know how to follow a post-reply thread, I was responding to this post:
"There is certainly a connection here [to killer tornadoes]. There are now hundreds of people that have been killed due to the climate change resulting from carbon emission from fossil fuel burning." This is obviously bullshit. You can't reach the conclusion this Anonymous Coward claims, and that's what I was responding to.
For those who don't know how to follow a post-reply thread, I was responding to this post (below). This is obviously bullshit. You can't reach the conclusion this Anonymous Coward claims.
"There is certainly a connection here [to killer tornadoes]. There are now hundreds of people that have been killed due to the climate change resulting from carbon emission from fossil fuel burning."
So if tornadoes are a "certain connection" to global warming, how come I'm freezing my ass off in New England? (And not just this year, but also the last 3 winters.) Summer has also been cooler than normal.
Slashdot Mirror
>>>You, and 99% of the people who neither know nor care about privacy,
This is an incorrect conclusion.
The author said his browser was identifiable because of his font and addon settings. i.e. He probably customized it.
But what about those of us who use "default" settings and customize virtually-nothing? Are we identifiable, or do we got lost in the crowd? I suspect the latter.
State governments are surrounded by the People they govern. If a state government misbehaves, it only takes a short while to rally your neighbors and drive the 1-2 hours from your home to the capitol & remind the leaders that they can be deposed if they don't obey the citizens.
It is wiser to put most of the governmental power close to home, where the leaders are surrounded by their neighbors, rather than thousands of miles away in the Cone of Silence we call Washington. (Example: Three-quarter of the people opposed the Banker Bailout Bill, but it passed anyway, because congress doesn't care what we think.)
but hate my government. "If it were possible, we would have no government. It is only for the protection of our rights that we resort to government at all." - Jefferson. Nowadays it seems the government is more interested in protecting the Non-human Corporations rather than the People.
Perhaps it is time to call a Constitutional Convention and revert to the Articles of Confederation again - a Union of States, rather than an out-of-control central authority that acts as if it has unbounded power.
It's definitely wrong to publish customers' records online. They should be erased immediately after being downloaded.
BUT I see it as morally correct to hack Sony, a corporation that is, in many respects, just as evil as RIAA or MPAA (hacking personal computers, charging grannies with million-dollar lawsuits, and bricking customers' $500 PS3s) The more damage we cause to Sony's managers, employees, and world reputation, the better it is for us. Maybe Sony can be driven out-of-business like Circuit Shitty was.
>>>what has Sony really done that warrants this kind of behavior? Are they dumping toxic chemicals? Causing global warming? Killing babies?
Nothing that extreme, but they are still violating individual rights:
- Selling PS3s with "other OS" capability, and then turning it off. AKA bait-and-switch aka false advertising. Also illegal in Europe (where customers can demand refunds)
- Installing software from Music CD that killed customer's computers (made them unbootable)
- Bricked PS3s that were modded to play emulators (like SNES or Atari-Stella)
- Sued people for Millions of dollars, because they downloaded 5 songs.
- Prosecuted a man who posted how to open-up your PS3 and mod it to play HD DVDs (and other stuff)
- Used extradition to remove a customer from Europe to US, so they could sentence the customer to 20 years for hacking his console.
NOW do you understand why /.'rs hate Sony?
And why we boycott them?
Educate yourself about these corporations, and the evils they commit, rather than just blindly buying everything.
>>>In all honestly, Sony hasn't done anything to me personally that warrants a boycott
"First they came for the [CD Buyers with rootkits] but I didn't care, because it wasn't affecting me.
"Then they came for the [Linux PS3 Owners] but I didn't care, because it wasn't affecting me.
"Next they came for the [PSN customers by losing their credit information in public] but I didn't care, because it wasn't affecting me....."
Then they came for me by turning-off my PS3 because I played a downloaded CD-R on it.
- And nobody cared about me either, because it's a self-centered narcisstic world.
>>>Dude, you're 11. Let the adults handle this, okay?
I am 11 in Mars years (or 3 in Jupiter years), but not earth years.
As for the comment about crack, if I have ownership of my body then I should be able to do anything I want to do to it. There is no justification for the government to disallow Drug use (or even suicide) unless the government claims ownership over you.
Yes extradition is a real threat in the EU. You can be accused of a crime in Poland, and the UK Judge has no choice, by law, but to deport you to that member state. Extradition to the US is more complicated, but still a danger.
Personally I think that's bullshit. "There's nothing I can do; I must comply with the law" has been used too many times by Judges, lawyers, police, et cetera. Yes there IS something you can do.
You can refuse to comply with unjust laws.
It's called nullification -
refuse to obey unconstitutional or unnatural laws.
>>>.....the fact that it is a felony.
>>>Anyone else just getting tired of this crap?
I am well past "tired".
I am angry.
Jefferson had the right idea when he proposed this amendment: "Monopolies may be allowed to persons for their own productions in literature, and their own inventions in the arts, for a term not exceeding ___ years, but for no longer term, and for no other purpose." He suggested "19" be inserted into the blank.
(Score:-1, Informative)
Well that's a first. I've never seen that appended to a message before. "Informative" and yet "-1" score at the same time. Hmmm. I guess I offended some Apple fan.
The truth is that I don't love Apple. Or Sony. Or Warner Records. Or any other company. Loving an inanimate building or corporate logo is just silly (IMHO) If they violate the law, reagrdless who they are, then they should be prosecuted like MicroSoft, the CD companies, and Paypal were prosecuted.
>>>What the "CD Companies" were doing (and still are, with no real action from the DOJ) is nothing even VAGUELY comparable by any intelligent person to anything Apple is.
During the 90s they were guilty of price-fixing and restraint-of-trade amongst retailers/resellers ("Sell CDs for $12 minimum or we won't let you market our products Walmart, Kmart, Target, etc.")
Apple is doing the same darn thing with their iGadgets.
>>>COMPANIES. Plural.
Yeah so? Paypal was also slammed by the US DOJ (forced to refund almost 1 billion dollars back to their customers), and that was just one SINGLE company.
Breaking the law is breaking the law, whether it's multiple companies or just one. And right now, Apple is breaking the law and they will eventually be prosecuted (unless they wise up).
>>>seriously, "illegal cartel"? Do you even read the gibberish you post?).
I read, but apparently you do not.
I didn't say Apple is an illegal cartel.
I said the Record Companies were accused of forming a cartel (with one another) in order to prevent Discount retailers like Walmart from selling CDs below $12 retail (i.e. price-fixing). They got away with it throughout the 1990s, but in 2001 the US DOJ brought them to trial and forced them to refund approximately $30 to every customer.
As for Apple, they are not a cartel, but they ARE violating other aspects of Antitrust and Consumer Protection laws. They are not allowed to restrain trade amongst aftermarket sellers (i.e. you and me) or control the price we charge (forbidding transactions at $0.00 price).
And finally I don't "love" the free market.
What I love is freedom to choose.
i.e. I'm anti-monopoly.
(Score:-1, Informative)
Well that's a first. I've never seen that appended to a message before. "Informative" and yet "-1" score at the same time.
Hmmm. I guess I offended some Apple fan because I dared to say Apple should be prosecuted just like every other corporation which gets prosecuted for breaking Antitrust and/or Consumer Protection Laws. Ooops. I'm so sorry. (Psych.)
The truth is that I don't love Apple. Or Microsoft. Or Warner Records. Or any other company. Loving an inanimate building or corporate logo is just silly (and possibly mental). In my opinion the more times the government steps-in and WHAPS these companies with legal prosecution, the better it is for everybody. I laughed when the CD Companies were sued, and laughed again when Paypal had their corporate ass...ets reemed by the justice department. We need more of that, not less.
>>>Now, if the CEO directly says to "Cut the costs, I don't care if one in a thousand will explode" after reading an email from an engineer who says that one in a thousand will explode, I can agree
That's pretty much what I was talking about. A deliberate case of making an inferior product, but deciding not to fix it, even though people are dying. Example: the Ford Pinto. The CEO, his managers, and accountants should have been brought-up for 2nd degree murder charges.
Instead: They got zero punishment because they have their Incorporation License to protect them. They are still rich, still have jobs, still continuing life as if the ~10,000 people they killed don't matter. That's just wrong.
>>>Why does utterly everything have to be someone else's fault?
Because that's how the world works. You think I can just go run someone over with my car and say, "ooops sorry," without consequences? No way. I should be held, by government, to compensate that person (or jailtime if the person is dead).
>>>Except they're now forcing businesses in other states to collect and remit taxes for items sold to Californians.
Which means it is unenforceable. California can no more tax a non-citizen (or business) than France can tax a guy living in Poland. You can't force non-citizens to comply with your fucked-up California laws. - No taxation without representation. - No juris diction beyond your borders.
Since 1910, governments have killed approximately 200 million of their OWN citizens, typically through planned genocide. (The number rises over 1 billion if you include non-citizens killed in war.) How many millions have corporations killed? (Essentially zero million.)
>>>Get rid of government
Libertarians are not anarchists. Libertarians support having a government in order to keep the corporations from treading on Citizens' Rights. In fact many libertarians, like me, would abolish corporations completely. Instead you would have direct-owned companies, were the CEO and his partners would be directly liable for their acts.
So for example if a car they built blew-up, they could be charged with manslaughter and thrown in jail. NO corporate shield. The corporate license wouldn't even exist. The No-Corporation libertarian world would actually be BETTER than the corporate-dominated world we have now.
>>we're not given any particularly efficient way to pay the taxes
Yes there is. It's located on your State Income Tax return under "use taxes". You are supposed to pay x% of every purchase that was imported from another state (typically equal to the sales tax).
>>>I have yet to get a virus of any kind on any of my personal machines
I don't believe you. Even back in the 68000 days, Boot Sector viruses existed. All you needed to do was copy a floppy from a friend and insert it into your drive. I got my first one in 1988 on my Commodore Amiga.
And today it's even easier, since javascripts often download payloads via advertising. You probably have a virus right now, and don't even realize it. Try running AdAware or Spybot. I'm sure they'll find at least one malicious program on your machine.
"Everyone" bought Apples? According to ars technica, the program visicalc was released in 1979 and the number one selling computer for the following years was NOT Apple.
In fact Apple wasn't even close:
1979 - TRS-80 (#2 was Atari #3 Commodore PET #4 Apple)
1980 - TRS80 again
1981 - 1982 = Atari 400/800 was #1
1983 - 1986 - C64
1987 - IBM PC clones
Apple II and its variants never rose higher than 3rd place in sales volume. So rather than saying "everyone" ran-out to buy an Apple, it's more like one-tenth of the population bought an apple. The rest were buying TRS, Atari, Commodore, or IBM.
>>>A copyright owner can be reclusive up until the moment that the copyright owner is ready to sue.
That certainly sounds like a valid excuse. NOW - What excuse do you have for Canadian RIAA not paying artists like Celine Dion, Alanis Morisette, Sarah McLachlan, and so on? The truth is that RIAA didn't pay because they didn't want to pay. They wanted to use these songs on "Greatest Hits" and other compilation albums for free, rather than pay the wages due.
i.e. They are the very "thieves" they accuse us and piratebay of being. RIAA=record execs==Hypocritical bastards.
For those who don't know how to follow a post-reply thread, I was responding to this post:
"There is certainly a connection here [to killer tornadoes]. There are now hundreds of people that have been killed due to the climate change resulting from carbon emission from fossil fuel burning." This is obviously bullshit. You can't reach the conclusion this Anonymous Coward claims, and that's what I was responding to.
For those who don't know how to follow a post-reply thread, I was responding to this post (below). This is obviously bullshit. You can't reach the conclusion this Anonymous Coward claims.
"There is certainly a connection here [to killer tornadoes]. There are now hundreds of people that have been killed due to the climate change resulting from carbon emission from fossil fuel burning."
So if tornadoes are a "certain connection" to global warming, how come I'm freezing my ass off in New England? (And not just this year, but also the last 3 winters.) Summer has also been cooler than normal.