Actually, your boss, boyfriend, parent or stalker *may* be able to triangulate you.
Over a *year* ago, I was shown a demo by some AT&T wireless folks trying to sell us a bunch of new stuff. In the demo, they did exactly that. Launched some software on a wireless PDA, told it, basically, "tell me where John's phone is," and it overlayed his location ( +/- a block or so. ) on a map.
They did explain that for someone to be able to "find" you, you had to expressly grant prior permission to their number/device, however. But, it's clear the stuff works, and has been working for some time.
This is fair. After all Kylie Minogue, Men at Work, and the remaining members of INXS (note to self: don't masturbate with a belt around your neck.) all need to eat, after all.
Given the choice between UN control and ICANN control, I gotta go with ICANN. They may be inept, shortsighted and unaccountable, but not to the degree that the UN is.
If Charles Darwin were alive today, he'd be rather pissed at all the holes the [insert cause here] bleeding hearts are putting in his whole Natural Selection thing.
Let's make games easy on the colorblind.
And when we're done that, let's make games easy on the really blind.
Listen up now people, and listen good. Your malfunction is not my reason for being. I'm sorry it's yours to deal with, but if I take into account everything that could be wrong with you when I'm doing something, I'll either never get anything done, or the end product will basically be *useless* to anyone.
This patent seems to kill the web -- or at least anything that uses user state information, and some sort of web application to personalize a web site for a visitor or user. And it _does_ kill it, quite nicely, as written.
One might argue that this may only entail a Passport-type system, a system that can feasible handle *every* web user with a unique ID. Or you might argue that any username that is unique within one particular system, be it represented as a GUID or as the username "fred123" *is* a unique ID.
And, yeah, it's a broad patent, and to me, a seemingly obvious one -- we've been storing user preferences in database for YEARS for one thing or another. But hey, if you gots money you takes Microsoft to court.
Me, I'm looking for loopholes, and I think I found some, and, ironically, the best solution, and the easiest to implement is the *same* loophole that Microsoft is using to get around a patent these days. If you have a couple thousand dollars and a time machine, I suggest you go back to 1995, file for a patent for these, and then do us all a favor and don't make us pay you to use the idea.
On first glance, the *same* solution that Microsoft itself recommends users take to get around the Eolas (is this the right company name?) can be used here to get around microsoft's patent on a web server returning *one* *single* *customized* *html* *page* for a user. Simply use separate javascript to go out and get *partial* documents for the personalized stuff (and don't use a cookie to ID the user in these cases, embed something *in* the URL. More on this below.), and document.write it into the page, and totally avoid the scope of this patent. And if Microsoft asks you any questions, remind them that if they make you pay them, they'll be paying lots more to some other company.
Or, use hidden form fields or URL-based tokens to store the user id, since this patent only seems to deal with the inclusion of a unique user ID in a cookie.
Or, don't pass user information in the cookie at all. Use a unique *session* identifying cookie, and store the *user* information strictly server-side.
Soooo as you can see, there's a couple ways around this, and I suggest you patent them really. REALLY. FUCKING. SOON.
Gee. I didn't know that the IRA and the ELF were muslim sects. *ahem*
Uh, excuse me, did I say that _all_ muslims are the source of the all our problems?
No.
Terrorist organizations (BIG Distinction) are the source of a lot of (real and percieved) hysteria, however. Terrorism is now used as the (real/percieved/viable) excuse for a lot of (near-)unconstitutional limitations of rights and liberty here in the U.S. and abroad, and that's going to continue until these various terrorist groups are eliminated, and, sadly, probably even then, for a considerable time.
...but I just love bringing up the fact that I'd thought up something similar, like, 4 years ago now, and every time my memory's jogged about it here on Slashdot, I like to post about it. Instead of hijacking existing services, however, I did create a new one, where a basically packets were flung from one machine to another (or many) around and around again -- each machine held on to a number of packets, but didn't keep them for too long. All traffic was encrypted, and no machine knew 1) where a packet started and 2) where a packet ended up, it just kept flinging packets around.
The main goal of the service was to create a nice, neat, encrypted, secure messaging system where neither the origin or destination of a particular message could be detected, such that even if a message was intercepted and decoded, you still didn't know where it came from or where it was going. (This was envisioned about 2 days after the early reports of Carnivore.)
One of the nice side effects, however, is that you could use the service to basically store a message "on-the-wire" damn near indefinately, broken apart into tiny packets, distributed more or less randomly to every other participating host, with those hosts having absolutely no clue what it was, who put it there, or who's going to retrieve it.
The bandwidth usage was, in two words, potentially catastrophic. It could really hork a network. I mean, really, REALLY hork a network.
It was kinda cool. God only knows where that paper is today, though -- I removed it from the web about 2 years back when the Justice Department was considering considering such papers, ideas, services, devices as potential aids to terrorism, and fining/imprisoning the bright young minds who come up with such stuff. So, until either our government stops playing the "T" card, our citizens calm down, and/or we eradicate the likes of Hammas, Islamic Jihad, the IRA, the ELF, and many other like groups, I doubt I'll ever make it available again. *shrug*
Oh, the Chinese government are looking into Windows code for exploitable holes, and I've no doubt that they're looking to increase security for their own version, but don't count out the possibility that they're looking for those exploitable holes to launch electronic attacks at the US and other democratic, capitalist nations. China has a long history of using American technology to prevent the spread of ideas and democratic ideals -- for instance their custom-built -- by Cisco of all companies -- filter/firewall devices.
This should have been a red flag -- no pun intended -- to everyone the minute they bought the code.
(How exactly does one punish the largest software company in the world for treason?)
I didn't say they had to come ashore here. There's a nice nearly-bankrupt IT company in the north atlantic that would probably give 'em their oil rig for cheap.;)
Or the Brits could just make it a really *leaky* boat.
... hop in a boat, sail across the ocean, and declare their independence?
I thought I heard that story once. Maybe today's Brits need to do the same thing, only in reverse -- put their lawmakers on a boat and give 'em the old heave-ho.
----
That said, you know, I'd *really* like to disable the air bag's "black box" in my own car. Anyone know how to take one of these out of a Pontiac?
Except that you're counting on the American public from 18 to 98 to know how to properly a] read a scantron from and b] fill in the circle COMPLETELY with a No. 2 pencil.
If these people can't punch a hole with an arrow pointing to it, I'm not so sure that this will work, either.
[Boy, is THIS quote going to hurt me when I run for office.]
I would hope Representative Waxman would present examples from both sides of the fence regarding science being misrepresented for politicial gain. (*cough* Global Warming. *cough* AIDS.) But, being a politician himself, I highly doubt that will happen.
For better coverage of both science-for-political-gain AND the politics-OF-science, check out James P. Hogan's non-fiction books and his bulletin board for some very eye-opening insight into these types of things.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm going to register mizzlesizzle.com, and see if Microsoft, with help from Snoop Dogg, sues me for copyright infringement.
Actually, your boss, boyfriend, parent or stalker *may* be able to triangulate you.
Over a *year* ago, I was shown a demo by some AT&T wireless folks trying to sell us a bunch of new stuff. In the demo, they did exactly that. Launched some software on a wireless PDA, told it, basically, "tell me where John's phone is," and it overlayed his location ( +/- a block or so. ) on a map.
They did explain that for someone to be able to "find" you, you had to expressly grant prior permission to their number/device, however. But, it's clear the stuff works, and has been working for some time.
Okay, so they're developing a system that they'll release to open-source developers.... why not DEVELOP it in the open in the first place?
Yes, you probably already guessed that "M2A" *does* mean "Mouth-to-ass".
---
[Not that this capsule is new. One local health system had this device over a year ago.]
I know this is all in the name of science, but what's Hootie gonna do without the rest of the band?
This is fair. After all Kylie Minogue, Men at Work, and the remaining members of INXS (note to self: don't masturbate with a belt around your neck.) all need to eat, after all.
Sheesh.
Given the choice between UN control and ICANN control, I gotta go with ICANN. They may be inept, shortsighted and unaccountable, but not to the degree that the UN is.
If Charles Darwin were alive today, he'd be rather pissed at all the holes the [insert cause here] bleeding hearts are putting in his whole Natural Selection thing.
Let's make games easy on the colorblind.
And when we're done that, let's make games easy on the really blind.
The quadraplegic.
The epileptic.
The incontinent.
The brain dead.
The stupid.
The blonde.
The redundant.
Death row inmates.
MBA's.
Lesbians.
Twins.
Exhibitionists.
Lesbian Twin Exhibitionists. (Please email me. Please?)
Immigrants.
Antibiotics.
Dust mites.
Lesbian dust mites.
Listen up now people, and listen good. Your malfunction is not my reason for being. I'm sorry it's yours to deal with, but if I take into account everything that could be wrong with you when I'm doing something, I'll either never get anything done, or the end product will basically be *useless* to anyone.
This patent seems to kill the web -- or at least anything that uses user state information, and some sort of web application to personalize a web site for a visitor or user. And it _does_ kill it, quite nicely, as written.
One might argue that this may only entail a Passport-type system, a system that can feasible handle *every* web user with a unique ID. Or you might argue that any username that is unique within one particular system, be it represented as a GUID or as the username "fred123" *is* a unique ID.
And, yeah, it's a broad patent, and to me, a seemingly obvious one -- we've been storing user preferences in database for YEARS for one thing or another. But hey, if you gots money you takes Microsoft to court.
Me, I'm looking for loopholes, and I think I found some, and, ironically, the best solution, and the easiest to implement is the *same* loophole that Microsoft is using to get around a patent these days. If you have a couple thousand dollars and a time machine, I suggest you go back to 1995, file for a patent for these, and then do us all a favor and don't make us pay you to use the idea.
On first glance, the *same* solution that Microsoft itself recommends users take to get around the Eolas (is this the right company name?) can be used here to get around microsoft's patent on a web server returning *one* *single* *customized* *html* *page* for a user. Simply use separate javascript to go out and get *partial* documents for the personalized stuff (and don't use a cookie to ID the user in these cases, embed something *in* the URL. More on this below.), and document.write it into the page, and totally avoid the scope of this patent. And if Microsoft asks you any questions, remind them that if they make you pay them, they'll be paying lots more to some other company.
Or, use hidden form fields or URL-based tokens to store the user id, since this patent only seems to deal with the inclusion of a unique user ID in a cookie.
Or, don't pass user information in the cookie at all. Use a unique *session* identifying cookie, and store the *user* information strictly server-side.
Soooo as you can see, there's a couple ways around this, and I suggest you patent them really. REALLY. FUCKING. SOON.
Easy -- flunk them, suspend them, expel them.
After they've been through 2 or 3 schools, maybe they'll start to get the picture.
Crap. Worked the first time for me, and then it didn't.
BUmmer.
Try it this way:
g or ies/47/index.html?p=sco%20linux
http://search.news.yahoo.com/usns/ynsearch/cate
Gee. I didn't know that the IRA and the ELF were muslim sects. *ahem*
Uh, excuse me, did I say that _all_ muslims are the source of the all our problems?
No.
Terrorist organizations (BIG Distinction) are the source of a lot of (real and percieved) hysteria, however. Terrorism is now used as the (real/percieved/viable) excuse for a lot of (near-)unconstitutional limitations of rights and liberty here in the U.S. and abroad, and that's going to continue until these various terrorist groups are eliminated, and, sadly, probably even then, for a considerable time.
Damn, this internet thing is scary. :)
...but I just love bringing up the fact that I'd thought up something similar, like, 4 years ago now, and every time my memory's jogged about it here on Slashdot, I like to post about it. Instead of hijacking existing services, however, I did create a new one, where a basically packets were flung from one machine to another (or many) around and around again -- each machine held on to a number of packets, but didn't keep them for too long. All traffic was encrypted, and no machine knew 1) where a packet started and 2) where a packet ended up, it just kept flinging packets around.
The main goal of the service was to create a nice, neat, encrypted, secure messaging system where neither the origin or destination of a particular message could be detected, such that even if a message was intercepted and decoded, you still didn't know where it came from or where it was going. (This was envisioned about 2 days after the early reports of Carnivore.)
One of the nice side effects, however, is that you could use the service to basically store a message "on-the-wire" damn near indefinately, broken apart into tiny packets, distributed more or less randomly to every other participating host, with those hosts having absolutely no clue what it was, who put it there, or who's going to retrieve it.
The bandwidth usage was, in two words, potentially catastrophic. It could really hork a network. I mean, really, REALLY hork a network.
It was kinda cool. God only knows where that paper is today, though -- I removed it from the web about 2 years back when the Justice Department was considering considering such papers, ideas, services, devices as potential aids to terrorism, and fining/imprisoning the bright young minds who come up with such stuff. So, until either our government stops playing the "T" card, our citizens calm down, and/or we eradicate the likes of Hammas, Islamic Jihad, the IRA, the ELF, and many other like groups, I doubt I'll ever make it available again. *shrug*
What company do you work for?
I'd really like to sell my stock in it, if I have any, if this is what you're doing with *my* investment.
Oh, the Chinese government are looking into Windows code for exploitable holes, and I've no doubt that they're looking to increase security for their own version, but don't count out the possibility that they're looking for those exploitable holes to launch electronic attacks at the US and other democratic, capitalist nations. China has a long history of using American technology to prevent the spread of ideas and democratic ideals -- for instance their custom-built -- by Cisco of all companies -- filter/firewall devices.
This should have been a red flag -- no pun intended -- to everyone the minute they bought the code.
(How exactly does one punish the largest software company in the world for treason?)
You can test other fun scientific conjectures at home, free, fun, and easy:
... and much, much more!
1. Heisenberg's uncertainty principle:
"Where the F*ck are my F*cking car keys!?!?!?"
2. Schrodinger's classic experiment on Superposition:
"Heeeeere kitty kitty kitty..."
3. Tycho Brahe's INCREDIBLE exploding bladder!
I didn't say they had to come ashore here. There's a nice nearly-bankrupt IT company in the north atlantic that would probably give 'em their oil rig for cheap. ;)
Or the Brits could just make it a really *leaky* boat.
... hop in a boat, sail across the ocean, and declare their independence?
I thought I heard that story once. Maybe today's Brits need to do the same thing, only in reverse -- put their lawmakers on a boat and give 'em the old heave-ho.
----
That said, you know, I'd *really* like to disable the air bag's "black box" in my own car. Anyone know how to take one of these out of a Pontiac?
Except that you're counting on the American public from 18 to 98 to know how to properly a] read a scantron from and b] fill in the circle COMPLETELY with a No. 2 pencil.
If these people can't punch a hole with an arrow pointing to it, I'm not so sure that this will work, either.
[Boy, is THIS quote going to hurt me when I run for office.]
Darn, I thought maybe they'd go with RedPalm.
Or, because of the buyback/out/up of Handspring, call it PalmSprings. That'd be cool.
You apparently didn't read anything while you were checking it out, apparently. There's a great deal of facts behind the points he makes.
I would hope Representative Waxman would present examples from both sides of the fence regarding science being misrepresented for politicial gain. (*cough* Global Warming. *cough* AIDS.) But, being a politician himself, I highly doubt that will happen.
For better coverage of both science-for-political-gain AND the politics-OF-science, check out James P. Hogan's non-fiction books and his bulletin board for some very eye-opening insight into these types of things.
Just buy the $@#%@#^%! album, you $@#$#$@#ers!
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