My question is, what's to prevent one person who owns a copy of "BandX Live" from comparing a direct rip off their CD to the downloaded version and just locating the watermark that way.
If the watermark is totally inaudible, what's to stop BandX from putting the SDMI watermark on the released studio album?
Multiplayer deathmatch games are too haphazard and uncoordinated, whereas tight storydriven games are too delicate.
I think that the best co-op I've played is System Shock 2. A lot of the problem with co-op comes from difficulty balancing - ultimately, a party of four in a co-op game can take four times the damage, carry four times as much stuff, etc...
If you could complete Doom on Ultra-Violent, then co-op on Nightmare. Given that people re-spawn when they die, it's impossible to lose... then again, in System Shock 2, you re-spawn in single player as well.
Ultimately, a game designed for co-op would need to have a dynamic difficulty, which made the game harder depending on the number of players. Facilities to split the party would be good, as these would heighten tension. When playing System Shock 2, my friends and I try to heighten the excitement by going as quickly as possible, often splitting into two or more groups to accomplish targets simultaneously. We're not forced to, but it makes the game so much more fun...
What we really need is a better portable storage medium -- floppy disks are obviously useless in an era of 10MB+ files, and the Zip drive just never caught on. Bigger hard drives and faster bandwidth would be nice, too:)
What about the LS120 drive? It's fast, compatiable and chunky enough to store most people's data. I know that they've been installed in a lot of PC labs in UK universities...
Unless you install something like WebWasher and get it to filter out 1x1 gifs. Of course, you lose a little functionality on sites which have a legitimate use for them, so you could always script up your own. I'd suggest filtering 1x1 gifs which (a) have an argument string or (b) come from a different domain.
...if implemented properly. I can't see an easy automagical way of doing it, but this could work:
You decide you want to make a credit purchase
You go to a nice secure link with Amex (128 bit SSL or higher), enter your credit details and receive a one-shot temporary number
At the webstore, you enter your details but use the temporary number instead of your CC number
The webstore talks to Amex and gives them the details you provided them, which is enough for Amex to identify you.
Amex transfers the money to the webstore and charges your card
If you think about it, it's not just the number that can be used to identify you - I wouldn't have a problem, from the point of view of not having my credit card number stolen, with giving my name with the one-shot number - but also the name, expiry date, etc.
Also, if Amex can do this, anyone can. Provided they have a decently secure system, obviously. Imagine this - I set up Anonymous Credit Transactions, Inc. You register with me, give me your real cc details. When you want to buy something, you do step (2) above, and receive a one-shot number, perhaps with false name etc. - after all, as long as ACT can identify you, and the webstore can bill ACT, it doesn't matter what info you give them.
When you buy something, the webstore contacts ACT, who charge your credit card and give the money to the webstore. As long as someone has sufficient security knowledge and money to set up an ACT Inc, there's no reason why you'd have to use Amex, or any provider who also gives you your credit card.
I don't get what Katz is trying to get at here. I'm no Katz-basher - I have better things to do - but this article provokes nothing but a big "Huh?".
Do roleplaying games feature quasi-occult minorities oppressed by the status quo? Sure. That theme is so widely used in society that restricting it to roleplaying games is ridiculous. Occasionally even, the status quo is shown in a good light for doing so (as an example, the oppression of Chaos cults in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, despite the point of view which states that not all Chaos is inherently evil).
Does Mage have a particularly well-developed, fantastic background? I agree, it's damn good, but a lot of games are comparably detailed, and others don't need to be - a lot of players prefer a game where you don't have to totally immerse yourself in someone else's game world, and read x million sourcebooks.
Are roleplaying games refuges for geeks fleeing the horrors of modern society? Not necessarily. I'm sure there are people (hell, I've met them) who use roleplaying as a form of escapism from a world where they don't fit in, but there are plenty of roleplayers (in my experience, the majority) who are "normal" people, actively social, and not particularly geeky - my own roleplaying circle features one geek (me), a philosopher, an architect, a sound engineer and a biologist.
I really think that Katz is scraping the barrel with this article, which is a shame, because I normally find his stuff fairly thought-provoking.
One of the provisions of the Bill is that it gives the police the power to demand that you hand over the decryption key to any message that they have, if they believe that you are in possession of it.
Actually, one of the amendments to the bill states that you can merely supply a plaintext decrypt of the information, rather than your own decrypt key.
While HavenCo. and Sealand must insist that they are a sovereign country/principality/whatever, a number of people expressed the opinion (which I tend to agree with) that Sealand's status is only uncertain because Britain hasn't yet felt compelled enough to push the issue (the shots fired off Sealand notwithstanding).
ISTR that the British Government, shortly after the foundation of HavenCo, issued a statement that Sealand is actually not an independent state, that their UDI (Universal Declaration of Independence) is invalid and they are still considered British territory... I haven't heard anything since.
Then again, UDIs are easy. Keele University once signed a UDI for a day (ratified by the Governer of Gibraltar) to levy border taxes for charity.
You don't think that licensing parents is a good idea? Most people in this world have no idea of the responsibilities involved in child-rearing and are financially and emotionally unequipped for it.
Personally, I'm in favour of reversible vasectomies at birth...
Genetic research is a good thing, but we have to be careful about the morality and ethics of applying that knowledge. Otherwise we'll all live in the brave new world of conformity.....
I think conformity should be the last of our worries - with this technology, we can leap upon all kinds of freaky things in the genome. People with devil-horns? Monkey tails? Albino hair? Bodyguards with chitinious armour? All these are possible, with any luck...
As a UK-resident, I agree that it's not that good a place... how about Ireland? ISTR that the Irish government have promised not to pass an RIP-like bill, so you should be safe there...
Hmm, most Neural Network models are based around a series of interconnected neurons. I wonder what impact this new discovery might have on them - maybe with glial cells modelled in software, and some hairy mathematics, our neural nets might become more powerful?
Wouldn't big progam houses be interested in getting their applications branded "Secure" by a likewise trusted authority? (think CERT)
However, setting up such an authority would be incredibly difficult. There are very few people in this world who understand enough Formal Methods and Predicate Calculus to be able to stringently examine and mathematically prove code.
Hence these people would be able to charge a fortune, putting the service out of the budget of all but the biggest companies. Even then, the sheer amount of time, even with computer-assisted methods, to examine the code of your average Microsoft bloatware would add months or even years to release dates. I can't see a company being interested in that.
In which case, it wouldn't stop other people's posts showing up on Deja with product linkage... I was assuming some form of UDP which would stop that from happening, which seems to be the major problem.
"Microsoft Employee GNUs Linus" would be more newsworthy, especially now we're working on the full human genome... can you imagine a cloneable, genetically customisable Linus Torvalds released under the GNU licence?
Nah, Linux should have GNUt Beer - an archive of beer recipies, with FAQs on brewing equipment and similar. You're free to download the recipie and brew your own, as long as you note on each bottle that it's brewed from a GNUt Beer recipie and don't try to pass it off as your own.
If you find a way to improve the beer, you can't copyright your own brand, but have to submit your new recipie back to the GNUt Beer project.
I personally could use an agent that would keep an eye on all the websites I frequent
The closest I can think of that's currently available is Opera, which allows you to open a directory full of bookmarks simultaneously. I keep all my online funnys in there and open about 10 browser windows with one click when I get to my desk...
At first, the MDI really annoyed me, but with the window bar in place, I soon found it far preferable to having hordes of IE windows on the Taskbar... at least all my web documents are in one place. Sure, if I want to flick around windows rapidly it might take me an extra click, but normally with IE I'd have so many windows open that I couldn't see the titles properly anyhow.
I don't see the worry... dumbass web designers will use all these wonderful M$ extensions, using crappy design tools like FrontPage, and I'll browse their sites using Opera and not see their sucky design and flaws My experience shows that web pages with useful content tend to be written by people with a clue about cross-browser interoperability, and that the only pages to use M$- or Nutscrape-specific features tend to be content-free wastes of bandwidth.
Netscape isn't the only other browser on the market apart from IE, though... in terms of market share, they are the two dominant browsers, but what about the users of browsers like Opera, a new version of which was released... yesterday. Download it now. You know it makes sense.
Slashdot Mirror
If the watermark is totally inaudible, what's to stop BandX from putting the SDMI watermark on the released studio album?
Alex
I think that the best co-op I've played is System Shock 2. A lot of the problem with co-op comes from difficulty balancing - ultimately, a party of four in a co-op game can take four times the damage, carry four times as much stuff, etc...
If you could complete Doom on Ultra-Violent, then co-op on Nightmare. Given that people re-spawn when they die, it's impossible to lose... then again, in System Shock 2, you re-spawn in single player as well.
Ultimately, a game designed for co-op would need to have a dynamic difficulty, which made the game harder depending on the number of players. Facilities to split the party would be good, as these would heighten tension. When playing System Shock 2, my friends and I try to heighten the excitement by going as quickly as possible, often splitting into two or more groups to accomplish targets simultaneously. We're not forced to, but it makes the game so much more fun...
Alex
What about the LS120 drive? It's fast, compatiable and chunky enough to store most people's data. I know that they've been installed in a lot of PC labs in UK universities...
Yeah, I know it's offtopic, but... ;-)
You have to separate the company from the research team.
Isn't that what the DoJ are doing? ;-)
Now you can't even turn those off..
Unless you install something like WebWasher and get it to filter out 1x1 gifs. Of course, you lose a little functionality on sites which have a legitimate use for them, so you could always script up your own. I'd suggest filtering 1x1 gifs which (a) have an argument string or (b) come from a different domain.
...if implemented properly. I can't see an easy automagical way of doing it, but this could work:
You decide you want to make a credit purchase
You go to a nice secure link with Amex (128 bit SSL or higher), enter your credit details and receive a one-shot temporary number
At the webstore, you enter your details but use the temporary number instead of your CC number
The webstore talks to Amex and gives them the details you provided them, which is enough for Amex to identify you.
Amex transfers the money to the webstore and charges your card
If you think about it, it's not just the number that can be used to identify you - I wouldn't have a problem, from the point of view of not having my credit card number stolen, with giving my name with the one-shot number - but also the name, expiry date, etc.
Also, if Amex can do this, anyone can. Provided they have a decently secure system, obviously. Imagine this - I set up Anonymous Credit Transactions, Inc. You register with me, give me your real cc details. When you want to buy something, you do step (2) above, and receive a one-shot number, perhaps with false name etc. - after all, as long as ACT can identify you, and the webstore can bill ACT, it doesn't matter what info you give them.
When you buy something, the webstore contacts ACT, who charge your credit card and give the money to the webstore. As long as someone has sufficient security knowledge and money to set up an ACT Inc, there's no reason why you'd have to use Amex, or any provider who also gives you your credit card.
Alex
I don't get what Katz is trying to get at here. I'm no Katz-basher - I have better things to do - but this article provokes nothing but a big "Huh?".
Do roleplaying games feature quasi-occult minorities oppressed by the status quo? Sure. That theme is so widely used in society that restricting it to roleplaying games is ridiculous. Occasionally even, the status quo is shown in a good light for doing so (as an example, the oppression of Chaos cults in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, despite the point of view which states that not all Chaos is inherently evil).
Does Mage have a particularly well-developed, fantastic background? I agree, it's damn good, but a lot of games are comparably detailed, and others don't need to be - a lot of players prefer a game where you don't have to totally immerse yourself in someone else's game world, and read x million sourcebooks.
Are roleplaying games refuges for geeks fleeing the horrors of modern society? Not necessarily. I'm sure there are people (hell, I've met them) who use roleplaying as a form of escapism from a world where they don't fit in, but there are plenty of roleplayers (in my experience, the majority) who are "normal" people, actively social, and not particularly geeky - my own roleplaying circle features one geek (me), a philosopher, an architect, a sound engineer and a biologist.
I really think that Katz is scraping the barrel with this article, which is a shame, because I normally find his stuff fairly thought-provoking.
Alex
One of the provisions of the Bill is that it gives the police the power to demand that you hand over the decryption key to any message that they have, if they believe that you are in possession of it.
Actually, one of the amendments to the bill states that you can merely supply a plaintext decrypt of the information, rather than your own decrypt key.
What makes you so much more fit to judge who's a criminal and who's not than your government?
More to the point, what makes my government so much more fit to judge who's a criminal and who's not than me? They're all human beings too, y'know.
ISTR that the British Government, shortly after the foundation of HavenCo, issued a statement that Sealand is actually not an independent state, that their UDI (Universal Declaration of Independence) is invalid and they are still considered British territory... I haven't heard anything since.
Then again, UDIs are easy. Keele University once signed a UDI for a day (ratified by the Governer of Gibraltar) to levy border taxes for charity.
You don't think that licensing parents is a good idea? Most people in this world have no idea of the responsibilities involved in child-rearing and are financially and emotionally unequipped for it.
Personally, I'm in favour of reversible vasectomies at birth...
As a UK-resident, I agree that it's not that good a place... how about Ireland? ISTR that the Irish government have promised not to pass an RIP-like bill, so you should be safe there...
Hmm, most Neural Network models are based around a series of interconnected neurons. I wonder what impact this new discovery might have on them - maybe with glial cells modelled in software, and some hairy mathematics, our neural nets might become more powerful?
However, setting up such an authority would be incredibly difficult. There are very few people in this world who understand enough Formal Methods and Predicate Calculus to be able to stringently examine and mathematically prove code.
Hence these people would be able to charge a fortune, putting the service out of the budget of all but the biggest companies. Even then, the sheer amount of time, even with computer-assisted methods, to examine the code of your average Microsoft bloatware would add months or even years to release dates. I can't see a company being interested in that.
In which case, it wouldn't stop other people's posts showing up on Deja with product linkage... I was assuming some form of UDP which would stop that from happening, which seems to be the major problem.
If kuro5hin are complaining about /. censoring the story, are they going to complain about /. bringing down their servers with the Slashdot Effect?
"Microsoft Employee GNUs Linus" would be more newsworthy, especially now we're working on the full human genome... can you imagine a cloneable, genetically customisable Linus Torvalds released under the GNU licence?
Wouldn't that be counted as meta-browsing? See the recent Slashdot story for details...
And from the above URL:
Besides which, wouldn't a UDP, assuming it were enforced, rather spoil the other point of Deja, which is being a useful Usenet archive?
Nah, Linux should have GNUt Beer - an archive of beer recipies, with FAQs on brewing equipment and similar. You're free to download the recipie and brew your own, as long as you note on each bottle that it's brewed from a GNUt Beer recipie and don't try to pass it off as your own.
If you find a way to improve the beer, you can't copyright your own brand, but have to submit your new recipie back to the GNUt Beer project.
I personally could use an agent that would keep an eye on all the websites I frequent
The closest I can think of that's currently available is Opera, which allows you to open a directory full of bookmarks simultaneously. I keep all my online funnys in there and open about 10 browser windows with one click when I get to my desk...
Damnit, I'm plugging Opera again. Sorry!
At first, the MDI really annoyed me, but with the window bar in place, I soon found it far preferable to having hordes of IE windows on the Taskbar... at least all my web documents are in one place. Sure, if I want to flick around windows rapidly it might take me an extra click, but normally with IE I'd have so many windows open that I couldn't see the titles properly anyhow.
I don't see the worry... dumbass web designers will use all these wonderful M$ extensions, using crappy design tools like FrontPage, and I'll browse their sites using Opera and not see their sucky design and flaws My experience shows that web pages with useful content tend to be written by people with a clue about cross-browser interoperability, and that the only pages to use M$- or Nutscrape-specific features tend to be content-free wastes of bandwidth.
Netscape isn't the only other browser on the market apart from IE, though... in terms of market share, they are the two dominant browsers, but what about the users of browsers like Opera, a new version of which was released... yesterday. Download it now. You know it makes sense.