Damn, $450 bucks? Better tie a string to that thing to re-use it.
I'm thinking a string won't be necessary...
Re:Maybe we haven't dug deep enough into Pi
on
Share The Pi!
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· Score: 2
This is really stupid. Pi describes as it is a perfect circle and that's true for the whole universe. So, Sagan wrote a book, about aliens, who found in Pi, the message of a perfect circle.
Ummm, no. Obviously we already know (as did Sagan!) how Pi is related to a circle. The ingenious part is that, according to his alien, there is a bitmap picture of a perfect circle encoded WITHIN Pi.
That would be a... uhhh... new development. Thanks.
What happened to our right to back up our own cds?
Please point out where this right is given to you? There is such a thing as fair-use. It is the legal copying of audio/video. However, nowhere does it state the manufacturers MUST enable you to copy that audio/video. So I have no problem whatsoever (legally-speaking) with the manufacturers releasing CD's under this technology.
Here's what should be pissing EVERYONE off to the point of massive letter-writing campaigns, protests, demonstrations, etc...
It is legal for companies to prevent fair-use with their technology, but now Congress has made it illegal for us to take back fair-use with our technology!
Re:Maybe we haven't dug deep enough into Pi
on
Share The Pi!
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· Score: 1
So according to Contact, embedded into the digits of Pi is the picture of a perfect symbol.
Err I mean "the picture of a perfect circle."
Maybe we haven't dug deep enough into Pi
on
Share The Pi!
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· Score: 2
Not being a troll, but I still don't see the big deal about one irrational number.
In Carl Sagan's book, Contact, there is an interesting revelation made to Ellie by the alien she visits light years away. It tells her that buried deep in Pi is an important message.
(Here's where my memory gets a little iffy.)
So when she returns home, she writes a program that searches for non-random data in Pi, in multiple bases, and sure enough she finds a message in base-11 composed of all 1's and 0's.
When laid out in rows of equal columns, a perfect circle is formed out of 1's, with 0's as the background.
So according to Contact, embedded into the digits of Pi is the picture of a perfect symbol. If this were true, it would be proof that the universe was created by intelligent life.
The coolest thing was, you just thought about a part of the equation and those lines marched down the wall to eye level.
I've been wanting to find the time for years to work on a touch-screen LCD whiteboard that people could write complex equations on, and have them solved automatically by an internal computer. I don't know a thing about OCR, so I requested the NIST's OCR software and never had a chance to work on it.
So it would seem that yet, they can still be tried criminally under the DMCA
Am I mistaken, or isn't this CDFS software the same exact VXD that's been out there for YEARS, used primarily to make it easier to rip to MP3, back when it was a lot easier to find WAV-2-MP3 converters rather than digital CD converters?
I remember using this software way back then.
Unless it's been changed specifically for the purpose of getting past SafeAudio, I do not see how they could possibly be arrested because of the DMCA.
But, if a hoarde of nanobots gets out of control, we do have a way of stopping them, an Electro Magnet Pulse wreaks havoc with pretty much every electronic device, and to shield the little buggers would be an act of utter stupidity.
Basically, if a destructive force of nanobots gets released, that can duplicate themselves, is immune to EMP, and is self sufficient. Well, we are quite screwed, you have to rely on the fact that no one in their right mind would design such a doomsday device.
Let's follow this (albeit extremely far-fetched, sci-fi, paranoid) idea to it's logical conclusion. What do you do when this "horde" redesigns itself to be shielded from EMP?
Incidentally... I would love to see some stats from Slashdot that display the breakdown of OS's that visit their site. I'd wager there are way more non-Linux people here than you think.
I think it's time to add one more/. section - news for Windows users. I would like to exclude such stories from my homepage. Why? Because I don't run Windows. I already know that installing closed-source software is like trusting your root password to Mr. CEO of MegaCorp, Inc. That's why I don't.
This is so ironic, because as a slashdot reader that does NOT use (or like) Linux, I have to wade through an amazing amount of Linux-related news that is mis-categorized. They generally like to put Linux articles in every category BUT the Linux category.
So I think you should be able to exclude Windows stories from your personalized slashdot page just as soon as I can exclude Linux stories from mine...
All I'm saying is that I can see an argument for making it illegal to post a statement which poses as being from someone when (a) it isn't and (b) it causes them harm. Whether I agree with that opinion I'm really not sure.
But that's just it -- there are already laws covering this. If someone says something that harms you, you can sue for slander and possibly defamation. If someone impersonates you without harm, then there is nothing you can do, which is how it should be.
So no, I can't see ANY argument for making this technology illegal as being anything other than totally absurd. The next step would obviously be to make Rich Little (and many other comedians) illegal...
So then why can't MS contact the VARs who sold/installed NT/2000 server and have them run through their customer list and advise them of this recall in the same fashion? Really, the only systems at risk should be the ones that are pirated.
Are you kidding? Yeah, pirated systems and every IIS system in use by a small business who does not buy "from a dealer." We bought our copies from places like Fry's. They don't know we have the software. How exactly would we be notified?
At every company I have worked at, there is no one single person responsible for "all things NT" and so as a result, it is very difficult to make sure that everyone is on top of the latest update and that it is pushed down to all the servers without interrupting production systems.
This is exactly why the current system is the best. The person that is in charge of keeping the NT systems secured would be on the Microsoft security alert list. That is the best way to reach the correct person.
The main problem is with people who don't have anyone maintaining their security. Chances are, though, that they too did not buy from a software dealer, but instead, from a regular software store.
Now, if some IT manager got a call warning them that their servers were vulnerable, he or she would issue the order and it would get done.
Where do you draw the line, then? Should Microsoft have to do these calls for EVERY patch or potential security problem that is found in Windows? What about if this flaw infected all versions of Windows, with or without IIS installed. Would it be plausible to call every person in the world that owns Windows, and let them know to patch their machine?
They are doing all that can reasonably be done on this one. Realize that 75% of all people have averate to below-average intelect. Worms take advantage of this fact.
Let's say someone wanted to make me say something in direct contradiction to my normal views, then publish that.
OK. They could either do what they've been doing for hundreds of years, use a person that is good at impersonating someone's voice, or they could possibly use this new software.
The, erm, other part of me says that this could cause some serious problems and harm for people, so shouldn't be allowed. Which do people think here?
Are you kidding me? Because something COULD cause harm, it should be illegal? That's called prior restraint. It ain't gonna happen.
Personally, I just want to hear this thing do Sean Connery. Oh, I can hear it now.
Connery: "I'll take The Rapishts for $500, Alex!"
Trebek: "That's THERAPISTS!"
Oh, the possibilities are endless. By all means, let's OUTLAW IT!
Nah, because then they can just put the open command inside any link on the page. So when you go to the main New York Times page from your bookmarks, you don't get any bookmarks. But each link has an onClick="open X10 window", so each time you read a story it pops up a new window.
Good point. However, I don't know how many sites would resort to this tactic. But if they did, I'm sure further changes could be made.:)
The only way to fix this is with Mozilla's solution -- block by site name.
That is a decent way of doing it, but it's not enough for me. It's flat-out impossible to block most of the pop-ups/unders I see that happen this way. That's because most of the ones I see are for sites I've never been to before, and probably never will see again.
I wish Mozilla was designed in such a way that people could write "security plugins," which others could download and install, without requiring an entirely different distribution of Moz...
Ummm, no? I use many sites which require javascript for very valid purposes (mostly those which javascript was intended for). I'm more interested in stopping the occasional mis-use of it.
and stop visiting sites that have popups and popunders.
That is not a good solution. First of all, most of the sites that I run into with this are first-time sites that I've never seen before. You might as well say, "stop browsing the web." Secondly, some of the sites that use this are crucial to my work, or have content which I like to read. I'd rather just turn off their annoying ads. (I don't mind non-animated banner ads.)
When those sites start losing traffic to the plain html sites, maybe they'll stop filling the sites with so much crap.
Or when they start losing ad money because all of their ads are popups/unders instead of plain (non-annoying) banner ads, maybe they will switch back?
In particular, I'd like to only dissallow Window.open calls when they are hooked up to BODY's event handlers (mainly, ONLOAD, and ONUNLOAD, which are the main one's used to trigger those damn popups).
This wouldn't fix the problem though, because as soon as you do that, they'll just start putting the code in a regular JavaScript block on the page.
We need a way to disable window.open in any instance where it will be done without any action required. ONLOAD, ONUNLOAD, and any time it appears outside of a conditional block or function. I think that would do it?
Notice how Hemos still watches the ads on Cartoon network. Did you stop to wonder why he'll watch those ads, but not others? I've seen them before, and I'd gladly watch them again.... If they want our attention for 30 seconds at a time again, they're going to have to work for it by making commercials entertaining!
No. I'm pretty sure that if you poll everyone with a PVR, you will find out that the vast majority do not watch ANY ads. I surely don't wait at a commercial break and see if the ad is funny. And since TiVo only has FF, and no "30-second skip," there's no way in hell I'm stopping for any along the way. I hit FF, wait a second or so after I see the show come back, and hit play. No commercials at all.
The only time I see anything at all ad-related is if I press the play button too soon, and I catch the last second or so of the commercial break.
I think you're going to see more advertising within the program itself. Sporting events have the arenas, half-time shows, etc. with corporate names. Soccer matches have little ads next to the clock.
Pretty soon I expect to see a scene like this on West Wing:
President: Leo, have the generals come up with a plan of attack yet?
Leo: No, sir. They expect to have three to choose from within 5 hours.
President:(Checking watch.) Damnit! We're going to be here all night again! Charlie, would you go fetch me a Code Red?
Charlie: The internet worm, sir?
President: No! Mountain Dew Code Red, of course! The best drink on earth! The President of the United States always drinks Code Red when he's pulling an all-nighter!
In my opinion, someone should force MS to take responability for issuing a product recall...just like in any other industry. That means they much contact their dealers and their dealers must contact their customers and get it patched. Obviously this is serious enough to warrant that kind of attention and MS can surely afford it.
If your aim is really to stop this worm, and not to "punish Microsoft," then you're way off base.
How exactly would Microsoft be able to contact the sysadmins? They don't have everyone's number. (They don't have ours, and we run servers with NT4 and IIS4 at work.)
Instead, Microsoft has issued not only the original patch to their security alert list (which every real sysadmin is already subscribed to), but also another warning yesterday about the problem and how severe it is. They've also placed notices on their websites.
This is far more effective, and will reach far more sysadmin people, than trying to call all the companies that have registered NT/2000.
In addition, a simple formula discovered makes it possible to calculate the Nth binary digit of Pi without computing any of the first N-1 digits, and do the computation with very little computing power.
In light of this article, the obvious method is now:
srand(time); #random enough, thank you
$nth_digit = random();
I'm confused... So, you are telling me that bigamy is illegal everywhere in the world because it's illegal in US? And, anyone that has more than one wife will be arrested as soon as they visit USofA?
Of course it doesn't apply in Russia (or UK, Germany, Japan, for that matter)
Ummm, it was a joke. See, there's this case going on right now where a Russian hacker was arrested because of the DMCA for something he did in Russia.
Yeah like that damn HTML rendering engine that is so easy to be leveraged!
An HTML engine can be distributed without requiring that the entire browser be installed and running on the system at all times. Take a look at Mozilla if you need an example.
Those bastards, we need to go back to the good old days when programming was hard work. To hell with component based development!
The problem is not the component nature of MSIE, the problem is that Microsoft required people to install the entire browser to legally use the HTML renderer with their application.
Slashdot Mirror
Damn, $450 bucks? Better tie a string to that thing to re-use it.
I'm thinking a string won't be necessary...
This is really stupid. Pi describes as it is a perfect circle and that's true for the whole universe. So, Sagan wrote a book, about aliens, who found in Pi, the message of a perfect circle.
Ummm, no. Obviously we already know (as did Sagan!) how Pi is related to a circle. The ingenious part is that, according to his alien, there is a bitmap picture of a perfect circle encoded WITHIN Pi.
That would be a... uhhh... new development. Thanks.
Devil's advocate time...
What happened to our right to back up our own cds?
Please point out where this right is given to you? There is such a thing as fair-use. It is the legal copying of audio/video. However, nowhere does it state the manufacturers MUST enable you to copy that audio/video. So I have no problem whatsoever (legally-speaking) with the manufacturers releasing CD's under this technology.
Here's what should be pissing EVERYONE off to the point of massive letter-writing campaigns, protests, demonstrations, etc...
It is legal for companies to prevent fair-use with their technology, but now Congress has made it illegal for us to take back fair-use with our technology!
So according to Contact, embedded into the digits of Pi is the picture of a perfect symbol.
Err I mean "the picture of a perfect circle."
Not being a troll, but I still don't see the big deal about one irrational number.
In Carl Sagan's book, Contact, there is an interesting revelation made to Ellie by the alien she visits light years away. It tells her that buried deep in Pi is an important message.
(Here's where my memory gets a little iffy.)
So when she returns home, she writes a program that searches for non-random data in Pi, in multiple bases, and sure enough she finds a message in base-11 composed of all 1's and 0's.
When laid out in rows of equal columns, a perfect circle is formed out of 1's, with 0's as the background.
So according to Contact, embedded into the digits of Pi is the picture of a perfect symbol. If this were true, it would be proof that the universe was created by intelligent life.
Or at least a real funny joke.
The coolest thing was, you just thought about a part of the equation and those lines marched down the wall to eye level.
I've been wanting to find the time for years to work on a touch-screen LCD whiteboard that people could write complex equations on, and have them solved automatically by an internal computer. I don't know a thing about OCR, so I requested the NIST's OCR software and never had a chance to work on it.
So it would seem that yet, they can still be tried criminally under the DMCA
Am I mistaken, or isn't this CDFS software the same exact VXD that's been out there for YEARS, used primarily to make it easier to rip to MP3, back when it was a lot easier to find WAV-2-MP3 converters rather than digital CD converters?
I remember using this software way back then.
Unless it's been changed specifically for the purpose of getting past SafeAudio, I do not see how they could possibly be arrested because of the DMCA.
But, if a hoarde of nanobots gets out of control, we do have a way of stopping them, an Electro Magnet Pulse wreaks havoc with pretty much every electronic device, and to shield the little buggers would be an act of utter stupidity.
Basically, if a destructive force of nanobots gets released, that can duplicate themselves, is immune to EMP, and is self sufficient. Well, we are quite screwed, you have to rely on the fact that no one in their right mind would design such a doomsday device.
Let's follow this (albeit extremely far-fetched, sci-fi, paranoid) idea to it's logical conclusion. What do you do when this "horde" redesigns itself to be shielded from EMP?
Incidentally... I would love to see some stats from Slashdot that display the breakdown of OS's that visit their site. I'd wager there are way more non-Linux people here than you think.
I think it's time to add one more /. section - news for Windows users. I would like to exclude such stories from my homepage. Why? Because I don't run Windows. I already know that installing closed-source software is like trusting your root password to Mr. CEO of MegaCorp, Inc. That's why I don't.
This is so ironic, because as a slashdot reader that does NOT use (or like) Linux, I have to wade through an amazing amount of Linux-related news that is mis-categorized. They generally like to put Linux articles in every category BUT the Linux category.
So I think you should be able to exclude Windows stories from your personalized slashdot page just as soon as I can exclude Linux stories from mine...
All I'm saying is that I can see an argument for making it illegal to post a statement which poses as being from someone when (a) it isn't and (b) it causes them harm. Whether I agree with that opinion I'm really not sure.
But that's just it -- there are already laws covering this. If someone says something that harms you, you can sue for slander and possibly defamation. If someone impersonates you without harm, then there is nothing you can do, which is how it should be.
So no, I can't see ANY argument for making this technology illegal as being anything other than totally absurd. The next step would obviously be to make Rich Little (and many other comedians) illegal...
So then why can't MS contact the VARs who sold/installed NT/2000 server and have them run through their customer list and advise them of this recall in the same fashion? Really, the only systems at risk should be the ones that are pirated.
Are you kidding? Yeah, pirated systems and every IIS system in use by a small business who does not buy "from a dealer." We bought our copies from places like Fry's. They don't know we have the software. How exactly would we be notified?
At every company I have worked at, there is no one single person responsible for "all things NT" and so as a result, it is very difficult to make sure that everyone is on top of the latest update and that it is pushed down to all the servers without interrupting production systems.
This is exactly why the current system is the best. The person that is in charge of keeping the NT systems secured would be on the Microsoft security alert list. That is the best way to reach the correct person.
The main problem is with people who don't have anyone maintaining their security. Chances are, though, that they too did not buy from a software dealer, but instead, from a regular software store.
Now, if some IT manager got a call warning them that their servers were vulnerable, he or she would issue the order and it would get done.
Where do you draw the line, then? Should Microsoft have to do these calls for EVERY patch or potential security problem that is found in Windows? What about if this flaw infected all versions of Windows, with or without IIS installed. Would it be plausible to call every person in the world that owns Windows, and let them know to patch their machine?
They are doing all that can reasonably be done on this one. Realize that 75% of all people have averate to below-average intelect. Worms take advantage of this fact.
Let's say someone wanted to make me say something in direct contradiction to my normal views, then publish that.
OK. They could either do what they've been doing for hundreds of years, use a person that is good at impersonating someone's voice, or they could possibly use this new software.
The, erm, other part of me says that this could cause some serious problems and harm for people, so shouldn't be allowed. Which do people think here?
Are you kidding me? Because something COULD cause harm, it should be illegal? That's called prior restraint. It ain't gonna happen.
Personally, I just want to hear this thing do Sean Connery. Oh, I can hear it now.
Connery: "I'll take The Rapishts for $500, Alex!"
Trebek: "That's THERAPISTS!"
Oh, the possibilities are endless. By all means, let's OUTLAW IT!
Nah, because then they can just put the open command inside any link on the page. So when you go to the main New York Times page from your bookmarks, you don't get any bookmarks. But each link has an onClick="open X10 window", so each time you read a story it pops up a new window.
:)
Good point. However, I don't know how many sites would resort to this tactic. But if they did, I'm sure further changes could be made.
The only way to fix this is with Mozilla's solution -- block by site name.
That is a decent way of doing it, but it's not enough for me. It's flat-out impossible to block most of the pop-ups/unders I see that happen this way. That's because most of the ones I see are for sites I've never been to before, and probably never will see again.
I wish Mozilla was designed in such a way that people could write "security plugins," which others could download and install, without requiring an entirely different distribution of Moz...
Ummm, no? I use many sites which require javascript for very valid purposes (mostly those which javascript was intended for). I'm more interested in stopping the occasional mis-use of it.
and stop visiting sites that have popups and popunders.
That is not a good solution. First of all, most of the sites that I run into with this are first-time sites that I've never seen before. You might as well say, "stop browsing the web." Secondly, some of the sites that use this are crucial to my work, or have content which I like to read. I'd rather just turn off their annoying ads. (I don't mind non-animated banner ads.)
When those sites start losing traffic to the plain html sites, maybe they'll stop filling the sites with so much crap.
Or when they start losing ad money because all of their ads are popups/unders instead of plain (non-annoying) banner ads, maybe they will switch back?
In particular, I'd like to only dissallow Window.open calls when they are hooked up to BODY's event handlers (mainly, ONLOAD, and ONUNLOAD, which are the main one's used to trigger those damn popups).
This wouldn't fix the problem though, because as soon as you do that, they'll just start putting the code in a regular JavaScript block on the page.
We need a way to disable window.open in any instance where it will be done without any action required. ONLOAD, ONUNLOAD, and any time it appears outside of a conditional block or function. I think that would do it?
Notice how Hemos still watches the ads on Cartoon network. Did you stop to wonder why he'll watch those ads, but not others? I've seen them before, and I'd gladly watch them again. ... If they want our attention for 30 seconds at a time again, they're going to have to work for it by making commercials entertaining!
No. I'm pretty sure that if you poll everyone with a PVR, you will find out that the vast majority do not watch ANY ads. I surely don't wait at a commercial break and see if the ad is funny. And since TiVo only has FF, and no "30-second skip," there's no way in hell I'm stopping for any along the way. I hit FF, wait a second or so after I see the show come back, and hit play. No commercials at all.
The only time I see anything at all ad-related is if I press the play button too soon, and I catch the last second or so of the commercial break.
I think you're going to see more advertising within the program itself. Sporting events have the arenas, half-time shows, etc. with corporate names. Soccer matches have little ads next to the clock.
Pretty soon I expect to see a scene like this on West Wing:
President: Leo, have the generals come up with a plan of attack yet?
Leo: No, sir. They expect to have three to choose from within 5 hours.
President: (Checking watch.) Damnit! We're going to be here all night again! Charlie, would you go fetch me a Code Red?
Charlie: The internet worm, sir?
President: No! Mountain Dew Code Red, of course! The best drink on earth! The President of the United States always drinks Code Red when he's pulling an all-nighter!
In my opinion, someone should force MS to take responability for issuing a product recall...just like in any other industry. That means they much contact their dealers and their dealers must contact their customers and get it patched. Obviously this is serious enough to warrant that kind of attention and MS can surely afford it.
If your aim is really to stop this worm, and not to "punish Microsoft," then you're way off base.
How exactly would Microsoft be able to contact the sysadmins? They don't have everyone's number. (They don't have ours, and we run servers with NT4 and IIS4 at work.)
Instead, Microsoft has issued not only the original patch to their security alert list (which every real sysadmin is already subscribed to), but also another warning yesterday about the problem and how severe it is. They've also placed notices on their websites.
This is far more effective, and will reach far more sysadmin people, than trying to call all the companies that have registered NT/2000.
At least it's better than Be's "close it up and then abandon it" approach to replacing X.
I think you're confusing that with Be's "we're trying to make some money and survive, so kiss our ass" approach.
But I could be wrong.
On another note
On sunny days, and on flat stretches of highway, the cars hit speeds as high as 110 kilometres an hour.
which is starting to be respectable.
They forgot to mention these flat stretches of highway were at a 75 degree angle.
In addition, a simple formula discovered makes it possible to calculate the Nth binary digit of Pi without computing any of the first N-1 digits, and do the computation with very little computing power.
In light of this article, the obvious method is now:
srand(time); #random enough, thank you
$nth_digit = random();
Duh!
These "tubes" accelerate electrons from a cathode the size of the entire screen through a grid of holes with magnets, one hole per pixel.
Don't you mean one hole per sub-pixel? It would take three of these to make up a pixel, right? (RGB)
I'm confused... So, you are telling me that bigamy is illegal everywhere in the world because it's illegal in US? And, anyone that has more than one wife will be arrested as soon as they visit USofA?
Of course it doesn't apply in Russia (or UK, Germany, Japan, for that matter)
Ummm, it was a joke. See, there's this case going on right now where a Russian hacker was arrested because of the DMCA for something he did in Russia.
Funny, huh kids?
2. Move somewhere that doesn't subscribe to DMCA or whatever idiotic agreement Adobe is using to justify this to the Federal Government.
... Canada !
Let me be the first to suggest
Yeah, next you're going to try and tell me the DMCA doesn't apply in Russia, either, right?
Yeah like that damn HTML rendering engine that is so easy to be leveraged!
An HTML engine can be distributed without requiring that the entire browser be installed and running on the system at all times. Take a look at Mozilla if you need an example.
Those bastards, we need to go back to the good old days when programming was hard work. To hell with component based development!
The problem is not the component nature of MSIE, the problem is that Microsoft required people to install the entire browser to legally use the HTML renderer with their application.