By reporting continuing developments, Katz is keeping this important issue alive. If instead of following up, he did what the rest of the media does-- drop day-old news like a dead rodent-- those of us who aren't in highschool would not realize what is going on.
It's a little annoying to hear the same stuff over and over again. But the kind of social problems that get solved are the ones where someone crusades to keep them visible. Squeaky wheel gets the grease kind of thing...
My lawyer informs me that non-compete are enforcable in Massachusetts, so I negotiate them out of contracts whenever possible.
Many high-tech employment agreements take away your rights because they can-- a lot of fresh out of school people are willing to sign anything with at $90k salary & stock options attached, and they'll sign if you don't. So non-compete, total assignment of intellectual property rights, non-disclosure, etc. become industry standards. If enough people say "this is ridiculous," it will stop. Unfortunately, we lack a union or trade group, and tend to be a cuthroat bunch...
Seriously, next time you're talking to an employer, don't swallow whatever they give you. Talk to a lawyer, and tell your new company that you want them to take out certain clauses. Odds are, they will. Corporate lawyers put in all kinds of stuff that they know they won't be able to get away with, but they assume you're going to be too naive to negotiate the contract. They back off as soon as you make it clear that you think those clauses are unfair.
OSC posted the first bit of the script on his webpage six months ago. I read it, and have to say that despite sharing all of your concerns, it was great. He managed to capture the essence of the book in a movie script very well.
-m
The websites were at http://www.salemnhpolice.org and http://www.salemnhpolice.com that criticized the police (it looks like someone has since redirected the first to a commercial porn site and the second to a church site).
I just got off the phone with Chris Hemmah (who is very excited to be on Slashdot, despite the circumstances). He says that all he did was post a website at http://www.salemnhpolice.org that criticized the police. He didn't do any hacking.
Chris is a sophomore majoring in CS and is interested in security. He told me the "hacking materials" sized from his house were seven computers and computer parts, a Linux manual, some security books, and a GPS. He was officially charged with a NH law regarding electronic copyright infringement, not with hacking, and has not been accused of libel.
I'm in direct contact with the family. Please e-mail me at morgan@druids.org if you'd like to help. I won't tell anyone else your name or e-mail, just e-mail you back when the family has requests for ways we can support them.
Please read this post if you want to do something about this.
In the wake of Columbine and the anti-geek teen backlash that followed, Slashdot rose to a high level of journalistic integrity by carrying the story the regular media would not.
Many of the posts in this thread are detailed, technical arguments of the type we are good at. But we're arguing with ourselves. A discussion at an online site about whether the Salem police's actions are legal is not helping a 19 year old who's just scored a black mark on his permanent legal record, lost his personal property, and possibly facing jail time (not to mention being pissed off and scared out of his mind, probably).
It's time to do something about the way our constitutional rights are ignored because of the public's fears of "hackers."
I talked to Chris Hemmah's family tonight. They aren't sure how we can help yet, but when they are ready for it, let's be there for them. It takes initiative and it's scary to stand up for what we believe in... but somebody's got to make sure that Chris Hemmah's rights are respected in what will come. His family will need moral support, donations to a legal fund, advice, and possibly court witnesses.
If you are willing to help ensure that the laws of the United States are respected in this case, e-mail me at morgan@druids.org with Chris Hemmah in the subject line. I'll continue to talk to the family and e-mail out when they have decided how we can help. I will not give your e-mail address to anyone else, I won't spam you, etc. I'm not a lawyer or a cop, and I'm not related to the Hemmahs or involved in the case. I'm just a nerd who's had enough... and I hope you are too.
For most projects, your changes will be reviewed, and you'll communicate with other authors. This means that you don't need to be overly worried about "screwing up" a project-- others will check your work and talk to you about it. Start out with a small project, where you can get to know the other developers and discuss things with them. Diving into Linux kernel development is a bit like being thrown to the wolves, but nibbling on a small piece of the Gimp or even a 2-3 developer project is a good way to learn. There are thousands of open source projects going, it's not too hard to find one that will be a good fit.
Remember, you don't have to start as a coder. There is a lot of overhead in running a project. Documentation, code cleanup, test writing, and resource development (sound, graphics) are all areas where you can start, then move on to coding as you become more familiar with the project. Many great projects go unused because they aren't sufficiently documented or the distributions are too hard to install.
Check out SourceForge to find a project appropriate to your skill level.
Actually, like many of his quotes, he got it from the Bible. It is fun to note that almost every Heinlein title is also a Metallica song and a Twilight Zone episode, since they draw from the same source.
Stranger in a Strange Land and Starship Troopers were written simultaneously and released the same year. I think they are beyond doubt his two most important books.
Critics of Stranger called him a dangerous liberal, obsessed with free love and radical ideas. Ironically, critics of Starship Troopers called him fascist and ultra-conservative. To understand Heinlein, you need to read both. These underly most modern science fiction. They also exceed most other science fiction-- more than anyone else, Heinlein was the sci fi author who merged human issues, sexuality, and hard core sci fi/sci fantasy into a compelling mix. He's not afraid of anything and puts out his own self consistent morality as a potential model-- or debate piece-- for his readers.
Stranger is too touchy-feely for you? Think about Starship Troopers and ponder what this guy was trying to get across while writing them at the same time. He has strong ideas about love vs. sex, responsibility, citizenship, religion, and how people treat each other. Despite this high philosophy, the guy himself was shameless about making a quick buck and never failed to spin a good story.
Heinlein is the Hemingway of sci fi (apologies to Hemingway). Anyone who writes off Stranger in a Strange Land as a hard-core writer gone soft and annoying is missing a lot. Go back and read the book again (try the excellent, unedited 'Author's Cut' version released a few years ago). There's a reason this is a staple of science fiction.
This is a really good suggestion. You should send it in directly; I'm sure the editors don't actually read all of the comments and I wouldn't want them to miss this.
-m
Some kind of record has to be kept
on
eLection '04
·
· Score: 4
Sounds like a great idea!
Two quick notes. You have to keep track of who voted (so people don't vote twice). This doesn't mean keeping full logs of every transaction, but it isn't possible to not keep any logs at all as the article initially states.
I'm increasingly disturbed with government and other agencies assuming that they can put critical information and services on the internet and expect that information to be reliably available. For example, my college insists on a 100% on-line course registration system. If your net connection goes down, you're screwed-- the registration day will be over before you can sort through the beauracracy or fix the connection. Any kind of electronic voting system needs to have a completely failsafe backup (like punch cards). A simple DoS attack on a voting machine shouldn't disenfranchise hundreds of voters.
I tried to find more information, but there doesn't seem to be much on the net. Professor Stewart doesn't have anything on his homepage and Harvard has no further details.
The best I could dig up was his e-mail address:
hins@maths.warwick.ac.uk. The really curious might want to e-mail him.
The reason 3rd party candidates don't appear in debates is the debate commision's policy, where the restricting statement is:
3. Indicators of Electoral Support
The CPD's third criterion requires that the candidate have a level of support of at least 15% (fifteen percent) of the national electorate as determined by five selected national public opinion polling organizations, using the average of those organizations' most recent publicly reported results at the time of the determination.
This keeps the debates from having zillions of people in them. It also keeps minority candidates from ever getting out of minority status. For example, Ralph Nader is on the ballot in almost every state, yet he can't participate in the debates because he doesn't have 15% popularity in the polls. In theory, this doesn't even mean that he doesn't have a chance of winning, however.
A minority of eligible voters actually register and vote. If the reason they aren't voting is because of disgust with politics (i.e. they don't think either major candidate will make a difference, or find them homogeneous), this means that these people might vote for a 3rd party candidate if they knew more about them. A 3rd party candidate who can carry the currently undecided/uninterested voters could win by a large majority. No president in recent history has actually been elected by a majority of eligible voters, just by a slim majority of participating voters.
One of the things the GIMP taught me to appreciate was how excellent Adobe is at creating user interfaces. While many programmers find it a bit awkward, I've discovered that artists are perfectly at home in PhotoShop. Many of PhotoShop's features don't need any manual to figure out how to use (provided you think like an artist).
Texts on open source projects are great; they are a way for some people to generate revenue, and support the wider user base who doesn't want to have to work on the project to understand how to
use it.
There is a tension that is not (as) present in commerical software, however: selling support and manuals vs. improving the interface to the product.
Adobe sells PhotoShop for $600-$900. They'd rather keep the software ideal and not sell you a manual.
A GIMP expert has to choose between "giving away" improvements that make GIMP better by patching the UI, or writing a book and making a quick buck.
Visit www.votenader.com/issues.html if you'd like to know what Nader's Green party's position is on important issues. He is very clear about is positions and solutions, not filled with "vague pragmatism" as this article suggests.
Yes. Although the article points out that this increases "voting power" for the individual, it elides over two important issues. One is that voting power is not equal for people of all states because the number electoral votes for a state must be an integer and is 2 + population *k, not population * k. The second, as Woundweavr points out, is that variance within states is more significant than variance between states.
Following the logic of the article, it makes more sense to redivide voting districts based on geographic area and some other factor that is correlated with political position; e.g. local population density. Farmers from two midwestern states would be in the same district, then, but a farmer and a city worker would be in different districts. Annual income might be another good factor.
If there isn't some politicized way of drawing up the districts (i.e. they don't reflect existing political factions), then the electoral process adds error, not voter power. The original assumption was that state divisions correlated with political factions. Now that that is decreasing, we need a new way of creating districts.
Fortunately, no human would ever be locked in a small box or maze with electronic equipment all around.
Oh wait... what exactly is the difference between a rat in a lab and working in a cubicle under flourescent lights surrounded by monitors, phones, power lines, and CPU's?
Slashdot Mirror
I'm a big fan of keeping parts of a system small and isolated, so they can be completely rewritten when needed without bringing the product down.
-m
It's a little annoying to hear the same stuff over and over again. But the kind of social problems that get solved are the ones where someone crusades to keep them visible. Squeaky wheel gets the grease kind of thing...
-m
-m
Also, check out CNN's article on http://www.cnn.com/2000/CAREER/trends/11/20/contra ct/ contracts and non-competes today.
-m
Many high-tech employment agreements take away your rights because they can-- a lot of fresh out of school people are willing to sign anything with at $90k salary & stock options attached, and they'll sign if you don't. So non-compete, total assignment of intellectual property rights, non-disclosure, etc. become industry standards. If enough people say "this is ridiculous," it will stop. Unfortunately, we lack a union or trade group, and tend to be a cuthroat bunch...
Seriously, next time you're talking to an employer, don't swallow whatever they give you. Talk to a lawyer, and tell your new company that you want them to take out certain clauses. Odds are, they will. Corporate lawyers put in all kinds of stuff that they know they won't be able to get away with, but they assume you're going to be too naive to negotiate the contract. They back off as soon as you make it clear that you think those clauses are unfair.
-m
OSC posted the first bit of the script on his webpage six months ago. I read it, and have to say that despite sharing all of your concerns, it was great. He managed to capture the essence of the book in a movie script very well. -m
The websites were at http://www.salemnhpolice.org and http://www.salemnhpolice.com that criticized the police (it looks like someone has since redirected the first to a commercial porn site and the second to a church site).
Chris is a sophomore majoring in CS and is interested in security. He told me the "hacking materials" sized from his house were seven computers and computer parts, a Linux manual, some security books, and a GPS. He was officially charged with a NH law regarding electronic copyright infringement, not with hacking, and has not been accused of libel.
I'm in direct contact with the family. Please e-mail me at morgan@druids.org if you'd like to help. I won't tell anyone else your name or e-mail, just e-mail you back when the family has requests for ways we can support them.
-magic
In the wake of Columbine and the anti-geek teen backlash that followed, Slashdot rose to a high level of journalistic integrity by carrying the story the regular media would not.
Many of the posts in this thread are detailed, technical arguments of the type we are good at. But we're arguing with ourselves. A discussion at an online site about whether the Salem police's actions are legal is not helping a 19 year old who's just scored a black mark on his permanent legal record, lost his personal property, and possibly facing jail time (not to mention being pissed off and scared out of his mind, probably).
It's time to do something about the way our constitutional rights are ignored because of the public's fears of "hackers."
I talked to Chris Hemmah's family tonight. They aren't sure how we can help yet, but when they are ready for it, let's be there for them. It takes initiative and it's scary to stand up for what we believe in... but somebody's got to make sure that Chris Hemmah's rights are respected in what will come. His family will need moral support, donations to a legal fund, advice, and possibly court witnesses.
If you are willing to help ensure that the laws of the United States are respected in this case, e-mail me at morgan@druids.org with Chris Hemmah in the subject line. I'll continue to talk to the family and e-mail out when they have decided how we can help. I will not give your e-mail address to anyone else, I won't spam you, etc. I'm not a lawyer or a cop, and I'm not related to the Hemmahs or involved in the case. I'm just a nerd who's had enough... and I hope you are too.
-magic
I'm color blind :)
-m
Since 1976, anything created in the United States is automatically copyrighted to the author, regardless of registration. -m
Remember, you don't have to start as a coder. There is a lot of overhead in running a project. Documentation, code cleanup, test writing, and resource development (sound, graphics) are all areas where you can start, then move on to coding as you become more familiar with the project. Many great projects go unused because they aren't sufficiently documented or the distributions are too hard to install.
Check out SourceForge to find a project appropriate to your skill level.
-m
-m
-m
-m
Critics of Stranger called him a dangerous liberal, obsessed with free love and radical ideas. Ironically, critics of Starship Troopers called him fascist and ultra-conservative. To understand Heinlein, you need to read both. These underly most modern science fiction. They also exceed most other science fiction-- more than anyone else, Heinlein was the sci fi author who merged human issues, sexuality, and hard core sci fi/sci fantasy into a compelling mix. He's not afraid of anything and puts out his own self consistent morality as a potential model-- or debate piece-- for his readers.
Stranger is too touchy-feely for you? Think about Starship Troopers and ponder what this guy was trying to get across while writing them at the same time. He has strong ideas about love vs. sex, responsibility, citizenship, religion, and how people treat each other. Despite this high philosophy, the guy himself was shameless about making a quick buck and never failed to spin a good story.
Heinlein is the Hemingway of sci fi (apologies to Hemingway). Anyone who writes off Stranger in a Strange Land as a hard-core writer gone soft and annoying is missing a lot. Go back and read the book again (try the excellent, unedited 'Author's Cut' version released a few years ago). There's a reason this is a staple of science fiction.
-m
-m
Two quick notes. You have to keep track of who voted (so people don't vote twice). This doesn't mean keeping full logs of every transaction, but it isn't possible to not keep any logs at all as the article initially states.
I'm increasingly disturbed with government and other agencies assuming that they can put critical information and services on the internet and expect that information to be reliably available. For example, my college insists on a 100% on-line course registration system. If your net connection goes down, you're screwed-- the registration day will be over before you can sort through the beauracracy or fix the connection. Any kind of electronic voting system needs to have a completely failsafe backup (like punch cards). A simple DoS attack on a voting machine shouldn't disenfranchise hundreds of voters.
-m
The best I could dig up was his e-mail address: hins@maths.warwick.ac.uk. The really curious might want to e-mail him.
-m
A minority of eligible voters actually register and vote. If the reason they aren't voting is because of disgust with politics (i.e. they don't think either major candidate will make a difference, or find them homogeneous), this means that these people might vote for a 3rd party candidate if they knew more about them. A 3rd party candidate who can carry the currently undecided/uninterested voters could win by a large majority. No president in recent history has actually been elected by a majority of eligible voters, just by a slim majority of participating voters.
-m
Texts on open source projects are great; they are a way for some people to generate revenue, and support the wider user base who doesn't want to have to work on the project to understand how to use it.
There is a tension that is not (as) present in commerical software, however: selling support and manuals vs. improving the interface to the product. Adobe sells PhotoShop for $600-$900. They'd rather keep the software ideal and not sell you a manual.
A GIMP expert has to choose between "giving away" improvements that make GIMP better by patching the UI, or writing a book and making a quick buck.
-m
Scientific papers (with specs) at: http://www.cs.unc.edu/Research/stc/teleimmersion/p ubs.html
-m
-m
Following the logic of the article, it makes more sense to redivide voting districts based on geographic area and some other factor that is correlated with political position; e.g. local population density. Farmers from two midwestern states would be in the same district, then, but a farmer and a city worker would be in different districts. Annual income might be another good factor.
If there isn't some politicized way of drawing up the districts (i.e. they don't reflect existing political factions), then the electoral process adds error, not voter power. The original assumption was that state divisions correlated with political factions. Now that that is decreasing, we need a new way of creating districts.
-m
Oh wait... what exactly is the difference between a rat in a lab and working in a cubicle under flourescent lights surrounded by monitors, phones, power lines, and CPU's?
-m