If they keep track of every packet over the Internet, why do they need cookies?
These are the people who will figure it out when they are good and ready, meanwhile anyone rounded up will likely rot in jail while they deny the data they have proves nothing.
the main drawback of iTunes Music Store and the like today: many popular acts are simply not available. Good luck finding The Beatles or Metallica anywhere but at your local brick-and-mortar CD store, for instance.
Well, with Apple running a smooth retailing operation to accelerate the growth in iPod sales the numbers will exert pressure on music companines to finally make things available. As soon as the RIAA goons figure out that everyone they want to be in bed with has no real answers or competition for the iPod they'll have to give in. At the worst they'll still take a try or two at some horrendous marketing model which falls flat on its face, while delaying the inevitable.
What's next will be that software will come with your computer even if you don't need it or want it. You'll pay for it when you pay for the computer, even if you don't need it. Oh... wait, nevermind, Microsoft beat them to that one.
Maybe they'll pull one of those moves where an upgrade is necessary to buy the latest iTunes download and OOPS you can't use it on your old iPod so you'll need to get a new one. Good thing they make shopping so easy...
Actually this does happen. I used to be signed up with a BMG mail order music company. You had the opportunity to decline the favorite CD of the month or else they would automatically send it to you and charge you.
This is how Columbia House used to behave (they still may, but I haven't bought anything from them in ages.) You took all those little stamps in ads, 12 CD's for 1 cent, then agree to by 4 more over the next 2 years are regular prices, which were much higher than any local store would sell them for. Once a month you got the club selection in the mail and if you didn't send it back they charged you for it.
Eventually I picked out a few from a catalog and finished the deal and closed my account, or so I thought, until a bill for 23 cents arrived in the mail(!) I sent them a check.
'But the best part was that the Apple Geniuses behind the table had wireless gizmos for scanning credit cards, and Apple had worked out a totally wireless, paperless checkout process, called EasyPay. Once scanned, they advise you that the receipt will be in your inbox within an hour (since I'm already a registered Apple customer, they didn't even need to take my email or other information).
Whoa! What next? Anticipatory purchasing?
"Here's your iPod yocto, we knew you were going to buy it when we announced it."
Let's count the days until some skunk claims Apple's EasyPay violates their patent, shall we?
A cookie is pretty obvious, not exactly the high-end technology secret spy stuff. Erasing/blocking it is easy and done everyday. If you would go through all the trouble of having a "hidden agenda/top-secret", why have something that points directly to yourself, easily detected, well-known and is trival to defended against?
And yet one of the British Tube Bombers was traced to Italy by using an ordinary cell phone. Not every public enemy is brill enough to cover their tracks in advance, right?
And exactly what would they get out of it? You need to have a motive for doing things.
They'll accumulate it all and then haul it out when it can do the most damage. This is the government which is keeping terrabytes of data on everything and wants the ability to snoop and record every packet which goes over the internet. Did you forget already?
So you think the top trained NSA agents are wasting their time making websites and doing tech support? Its their website, I doubt they spent much time on it or use it much, they have better things to do than waste time with their public website. It doesnt really seem like you have a grasp on how company IT depts work.
Well, let's be insulting, shall we?
Doesn't sound like you've got an inkling of how NSA works outside what you read in editorial cartoons by Pat Oliphant. There are clear procedures and more double checking than you can shake a stick at and you know bloody well they've got their network secure. These are the people who released a secure Linux, fer chrissakes.
No, we're talking about a cookie. A device used by almost every website in existence. We're talking about some guy running the NSA website not being aware that a memo from the White House's Office of Management and Budget made a guideline (not a law) to not use a universally acceptable website statistical tracking device. I wouldnt even attribute this to stupidity. Just forgot about some silly guideline. Anyone making a big deal out of this is doing so out of total computer illiteracy or being intellectually dishonest as to their true motive for their outrage.
What we're talking about here, isn't stupidity or lack of seeing a memo. It's Strategic Stupidity
We all use it for minor things, like (I really didn't want to take out the trash so I conveniently forget) "Oh, I was supposed to take out the trash? Well, darn."
In the many years I've been following events in Washington, this is the most consistent use of the particular tactic I've seen since Ronald Reagan forgetting details of Iran-Contra.
NSA people are supposed to be top-notch, not some bunch of yahoos hanging out in the IT shop of Dunkin' Donuts. It's like that Plame leak, these people can't convincingly feign ignorance because they are the sharpest knives in the drawer and didn't get where they are by making casual errors. It's calculated. It's: "We'll leave the setting like it is until someone notices then beg forgiveness."
Never attribute malice to that which can be explained by stupidity.
We're talking about a regime in the federal government which has made, "oops, well, the ends justify the means" a policy they depend upon.
I don't really think they'd gain much by putting cookies on the machines of web users. If terrorists do come to their site, their IP address will give them away far better than a cookie. Now if anyone finds an image on other sites pointing back to the NSA or CIA, then you may have found your smoking gun.
This is all rationalizing. The fact of the matter is they're using the "oo, i'm a baddd widdo boy =)" defense.
Turns out the researchers really meant to say they had used the Photoshop clone tool to copy the pictures of the cells. The next step would be to clone the actual cells instead of just the pictures. Small misunderstanding.
Actually, Cloning was determined to be Intelligent Design and tossed out by the courts.
It effectively attempts to curb Sony's console dominance by making Blu-Ray next to worthless. This is the sole reason they are doing it and by leveraging their weight against PC makers, etc to attempt to harm their competition in a completely different market is the worst of it all.
Sony certainly isn't toothless. As with the tiny dvd's for the PSP evidenced, they do have a large catalog of music and movie content they can release on their prefered media standard.
The question is, particularly after MS-NBC split, is the door now conveniently open for Microsoft to buy into Time/Warner or Disney/ABC to play the same leverage game? They've got the money.
There is also talk that the software giant may be planning to offer cash incentives -- in the form "coupons" -- to system vendors or retailers if they agree to support HD-DVD. Such coupons would provide "credits" or "memos" for each PC that is sold with HD-DVD inside.'"
I thought this was deemed illegal in the past. IIRC Microsoft was busted for kickback payments
to system vendors who did their bidding, i.e. wouldn't bundle competing products on Windows installed computers. A "Coupon" wouldn't make it any different, it's an
anti-competitive practice.
In October, when Microsoft and Intel Corp. announced their support for HD-DVD, Weber warned of "legal implications, if Microsoft is using its dominance in the operating system market -- virtually a monopoly -- to play favorites and hurt the competition" (see www.eet.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleI D=171202192).
With good reason.
Among familiar Microsoft tactics is to offer incentives -- promotions, discounts and credits -- to PC OEMs. If a certain percentage of an OEM's systems use Windows, Microsoft typically chips in on advertising campaigns and co-sponsors promotional events. When a PC manufacturer is living on a 3 percent margin, such market-development payments or volume-discount rebates can be make-or-break factors. Some industry observers have termed these in-kind subsidies from Microsoft "the heroin of the PC industry."
Vendors who have this incentive will not diminish their potential revenue by
giving consumers a choice.
This effectively puts Microsoft's foot firmly in the door on writing the DRM, too. Of course, with their track
record that means it'll be either easily cracked and/or your DVD player will become infested with worms and virii.
Expect it to go to court after it is fait accompli.
it's a new hope of return of the revenge of the menacing phantom clone empire striking back all over again.
"If I had time and a hammer, I'd track down every blue hd ray dvd and smash it"
Even if you're a Fortune 500 company with a 70-story building, you'd be surprised what a walkaround by the CTO can accomplish. Stick your head in a few cubes, say "what the shit is going on here?" and let the rumour mill work for you.
I'd say sack someone or put them on notice at the least and make sure the word gets around.
We're supposed to be on a secure network, but you should see the crap people keep emailing each other, with outside links to gawds knows what sites.
I know Dow Chemical had a Zero Tolerance policy, years ago, and gave a few people the sack.
IT people, though, can be much more clever about masking their activity. Who but an outsider could catch them at it?
This is very important to keep productivity up and to keep illegal music from being shared on the network. A lot of illegal filesharing occurs on the faster corprate networks instead of the slower home networks. This will also be a barrier against viruses, porn, etc.
In my experience a lot of p2p running inside corporate or educational facilities is an inside job. A good practice for any IT chief would be to contract an outside firm to quietly check for such traffic on their network without tipping off insiders who could easily switch it off if they got wind of it.
You have the right to pursuit of happiness, so long as you don't enjoy anything more "suspicious" than football and beer. And don't go making too much beer, either!
Then I'd probably best do something about the keg and CO2 cylinder I have up the upstairs closet, the boxes of dozens of empty Grolsch bottles, the 6.5 gallon brew kettle, the 5 gallon and 6 gallon carboys and all the yeast, barley and hops in the bottom drawer of the fridge.
It's a bet you don't advertise that. The county I live in has weights and measures people who come around and threaten large fines if the glasses don't hold a pint and the barowner says they do.
Is that like really, really fun science? You know, that kinda looks like a Calvin & Hobbes word. You didn't just get the boxed set for Christmas, did you?
Science is always fun. I always keep a few bits of my scientific past around the house. Beakers for drinking tea out of, gram scales for whatever may arise. Micrometer. The Rubber Bible. Etc.
You'll know it was too much when you wake up with a hangover and the headache of pulling your life back together while paging the jailer to give you the phone to call someone up to bail you out.
A friend got busted within 300 feet of his house, after driving 25 miles, over winding, twisting mountain roads (all alike.)
WARNING: The Bartender General has determined that beverage container appearances may be deceiving. It is recommended you use this to your maximum advantage with regard to the opposite sex.
Seriously, some putz at the local pub insisted the Pint glasses there were only 14 fluid ounces. Having a few of same at home I whipped out my trusty graduated cylinder and measured the volume with
great precision. The result was close to 16.5 fluid ounces. I keep waiting for an opportunity to make a $100 bet, but keep leaving the scienterrific equipment home.
Wall thickness of glass containers can certainly be deceptive. For pint glasses it's usually about 3mm for the sides and as much as 1cm for the base. Notice how tiny a 16.9 oz. (500mL) water plastic bottle looks compared to a 12 oz. (355mL) bottle. Shape may account for some, but wall thickness is actually a considerable amount of volume within outer perimeter.
In any event I'll be keeping it safe and sane this New Year's Eve by only drinking very expensive champagne. As soon as the money runs out I'll be on water, which should be about 1 hour and 3 hours before midnight.
Maybe if Pioneer sold enough of them, there'd be such an uproar when the DRM'd players come out that they'd be rejected completely by consumers. Or, at least, it would wake up more people to the dangers of DRM.
I'm sure they would love to, but they probably can't budge an inch because of agreement by contractual obligations.
Slashdot Mirror
These are the people who will figure it out when they are good and ready, meanwhile anyone rounded up will likely rot in jail while they deny the data they have proves nothing.
Well, with Apple running a smooth retailing operation to accelerate the growth in iPod sales the numbers will exert pressure on music companines to finally make things available. As soon as the RIAA goons figure out that everyone they want to be in bed with has no real answers or competition for the iPod they'll have to give in. At the worst they'll still take a try or two at some horrendous marketing model which falls flat on its face, while delaying the inevitable.
Maybe they'll pull one of those moves where an upgrade is necessary to buy the latest iTunes download and OOPS you can't use it on your old iPod so you'll need to get a new one. Good thing they make shopping so easy...
This is how Columbia House used to behave (they still may, but I haven't bought anything from them in ages.) You took all those little stamps in ads, 12 CD's for 1 cent, then agree to by 4 more over the next 2 years are regular prices, which were much higher than any local store would sell them for. Once a month you got the club selection in the mail and if you didn't send it back they charged you for it.
Eventually I picked out a few from a catalog and finished the deal and closed my account, or so I thought, until a bill for 23 cents arrived in the mail(!) I sent them a check.
Whoa! What next? Anticipatory purchasing?
"Here's your iPod yocto, we knew you were going to buy it when we announced it."
Let's count the days until some skunk claims Apple's EasyPay violates their patent, shall we?
And yet one of the British Tube Bombers was traced to Italy by using an ordinary cell phone. Not every public enemy is brill enough to cover their tracks in advance, right?
And exactly what would they get out of it? You need to have a motive for doing things.
They'll accumulate it all and then haul it out when it can do the most damage. This is the government which is keeping terrabytes of data on everything and wants the ability to snoop and record every packet which goes over the internet. Did you forget already?
Well, let's be insulting, shall we?
Doesn't sound like you've got an inkling of how NSA works outside what you read in editorial cartoons by Pat Oliphant. There are clear procedures and more double checking than you can shake a stick at and you know bloody well they've got their network secure. These are the people who released a secure Linux, fer chrissakes.
What we're talking about here, isn't stupidity or lack of seeing a memo. It's Strategic Stupidity
We all use it for minor things, like (I really didn't want to take out the trash so I conveniently forget) "Oh, I was supposed to take out the trash? Well, darn."
In the many years I've been following events in Washington, this is the most consistent use of the particular tactic I've seen since Ronald Reagan forgetting details of Iran-Contra.
NSA people are supposed to be top-notch, not some bunch of yahoos hanging out in the IT shop of Dunkin' Donuts. It's like that Plame leak, these people can't convincingly feign ignorance because they are the sharpest knives in the drawer and didn't get where they are by making casual errors. It's calculated. It's: "We'll leave the setting like it is until someone notices then beg forgiveness."
We're talking about a regime in the federal government which has made, "oops, well, the ends justify the means" a policy they depend upon.
I don't really think they'd gain much by putting cookies on the machines of web users. If terrorists do come to their site, their IP address will give them away far better than a cookie. Now if anyone finds an image on other sites pointing back to the NSA or CIA, then you may have found your smoking gun.
This is all rationalizing. The fact of the matter is they're using the "oo, i'm a baddd widdo boy =)" defense.
In other news Endgame for Bush and Rove?
Actually, Cloning was determined to be Intelligent Design and tossed out by the courts.
Didn't you get the memo?
Sony certainly isn't toothless. As with the tiny dvd's for the PSP evidenced, they do have a large catalog of music and movie content they can release on their prefered media standard.
The question is, particularly after MS-NBC split, is the door now conveniently open for Microsoft to buy into Time/Warner or Disney/ABC to play the same leverage game? They've got the money.
There is also talk that the software giant may be planning to offer cash incentives -- in the form "coupons" -- to system vendors or retailers if they agree to support HD-DVD. Such coupons would provide "credits" or "memos" for each PC that is sold with HD-DVD inside.'"
I thought this was deemed illegal in the past. IIRC Microsoft was busted for kickback payments to system vendors who did their bidding, i.e. wouldn't bundle competing products on Windows installed computers. A "Coupon" wouldn't make it any different, it's an anti-competitive practice.
With good reason. Vendors who have this incentive will not diminish their potential revenue by giving consumers a choice.This effectively puts Microsoft's foot firmly in the door on writing the DRM, too. Of course, with their track record that means it'll be either easily cracked and/or your DVD player will become infested with worms and virii.
Expect it to go to court after it is fait accompli.
it's a new hope of return of the revenge of the menacing phantom clone empire striking back all over again.
"If I had time and a hammer, I'd track down every blue hd ray dvd and smash it"
Even if you're a Fortune 500 company with a 70-story building, you'd be surprised what a walkaround by the CTO can accomplish. Stick your head in a few cubes, say "what the shit is going on here?" and let the rumour mill work for you.
I'd say sack someone or put them on notice at the least and make sure the word gets around.
We're supposed to be on a secure network, but you should see the crap people keep emailing each other, with outside links to gawds knows what sites.
I know Dow Chemical had a Zero Tolerance policy, years ago, and gave a few people the sack.
IT people, though, can be much more clever about masking their activity. Who but an outsider could catch them at it?
In my experience a lot of p2p running inside corporate or educational facilities is an inside job. A good practice for any IT chief would be to contract an outside firm to quietly check for such traffic on their network without tipping off insiders who could easily switch it off if they got wind of it.
BTW first post
Not quite...
Hey! Are you calling me stupid?
I've been wondering about all those dents in the flagpole, about 5.5 feet above the ground...
that ringing, an angel just got it's wings!
No, wait, it's that guy running into the flagpole again...
Then I'd probably best do something about the keg and CO2 cylinder I have up the upstairs closet, the boxes of dozens of empty Grolsch bottles, the 6.5 gallon brew kettle, the 5 gallon and 6 gallon carboys and all the yeast, barley and hops in the bottom drawer of the fridge.
Glad you warned me!
An optimist sees a glass that's half full.
A pessimist sees a glass that's half empty.
An alcoholic sees a glass with room for more.
It's a bet you don't advertise that. The county I live in has weights and measures people who come around and threaten large fines if the glasses don't hold a pint and the barowner says they do.
Science is always fun. I always keep a few bits of my scientific past around the house. Beakers for drinking tea out of, gram scales for whatever may arise. Micrometer. The Rubber Bible. Etc.
You'll know it was too much when you wake up with a hangover and the headache of pulling your life back together while paging the jailer to give you the phone to call someone up to bail you out.
A friend got busted within 300 feet of his house, after driving 25 miles, over winding, twisting mountain roads (all alike.)
Seriously, some putz at the local pub insisted the Pint glasses there were only 14 fluid ounces. Having a few of same at home I whipped out my trusty graduated cylinder and measured the volume with great precision. The result was close to 16.5 fluid ounces. I keep waiting for an opportunity to make a $100 bet, but keep leaving the scienterrific equipment home.
Wall thickness of glass containers can certainly be deceptive. For pint glasses it's usually about 3mm for the sides and as much as 1cm for the base. Notice how tiny a 16.9 oz. (500mL) water plastic bottle looks compared to a 12 oz. (355mL) bottle. Shape may account for some, but wall thickness is actually a considerable amount of volume within outer perimeter.
In any event I'll be keeping it safe and sane this New Year's Eve by only drinking very expensive champagne. As soon as the money runs out I'll be on water, which should be about 1 hour and 3 hours before midnight.
I'm sure they would love to, but they probably can't budge an inch because of agreement by contractual obligations.
The mafia must be totally in awe of these people.
I'd like to see something like it come out, but take the time to do it correctly. i.e. NO DRM!