Now a lot of folk have commented that there's no real difference between source code and an algorithm described in natural language, except source code is a more easily executed version for a computer (pretty much my point of view too).
Does anyone on/. know of a natural language description of the DeCSS algorithm? I mean, no-one can complain about that, and if it's clear enough any newbie could have a blast at coding it. There'd be more implemetations of DeCSS than you could shake a stick at.
These MPAA guys are has-beens. They don't know it yet, but their form of coarse-grained media will only be increasingly marginalised in the future. They're trading for political favours on the remnants of their glory days, using the last of their glamour to embroil politicians in a fight with the intellectually progressive elements. They won't be thanked for this in the long run.
But, if the mining robots were smaller in scale and used smaller digging instruments, larger diamonds (like on the order of tennis ball size), rare as they may be, could have a chance of being recovered whole.
What use is a tennis ball sized diamond?
Nice to look at I suppose, but unless you're putting together a set of Crown Jewels (and most of those nasty regressive monarchies have already ripped off enough to have their own) what else can you do with them? Use 'em as big, heavy rocks to throw at folks' heads?
Gonna look bloody silly on an engagement ring too.
Uh, a huge anonymous storage system where no-one can interfere with each others stuff (mostly because you don't really know that that other person exists in the first place)? Sounds like those voicemail systems all the kids used to crack and exploit.
The problem with a system like this is that it is designed for adults with adults (and the self-restraint that maturity brings) in mind. I'd reckon its going to be next to impossible to regulate when the kids find out they have almost unlimited storage capacity, for a week or so until the system collapses under the weight of the kids' vast warez collections. If you think they are going to assemble their collections efficiently, then you need treatment. How likely is it that the kids will:
Search the public areas archive extensively to determine which parts of their collection are already stored
Identify the set of files in the current collection of thousands that are not already in the store
Segregate their collection and upload all these missing files
Create an index of their archive for distribution?
Unlikely. They are all just going to upload their entire collections en masse. Cognitive simplicity is a powerful decision maker.
Everybody is coming up with neat solutions for this and that, and saying how great it would be if we all had cryptography and online secure storage and stuff. How come no one ever thinks: what are the bastards likely to get up to with this neat new stuff, and how can I prevent them from doing this in the first place.
The world (and the net particularly) is not full of decent, unselfish, philanthropic people. It is full of slash-and-burn arseholes who will happily spoil everything for everybody (themselves included) as long as their short-term desires are met.
As I see it the difference between me and some ivory-tower do-gooder is that they have faith in humanity: they'll be diligent, noble, unselfish and charitable. I have faith in people: faith that they'll be lazy, screw up, not give a shit about the next guy, and doing this while complaining about how they are being shafted and that they are the victim in all this really.
But Pluto? Why?
For the money they would spend, we could find out a LOT more about the Ocean, information that would truley have a substantial impact on the quality of our lives and our ability to make educated decisions about how we choose to interact with our own planet.
Not only that, but if we want to look at alien life forms, then the bottom of the ocean is the easiest place to look. The creature that live there exist in an environment of high pressure and extreme cold, and they don't have the benefit of a food chain with photosynthesis except for what floats down from above). If we want to communicate with alien intelligences why search for them on frozen specks 38.5 AUs further out from the sun. What about the ones here? All we seem to do with cetaceans with a higher brain/body mass ratio than we have is imprison them and force them to jump through hoops for fish, all for the benefit of lazy arseholes who were looking for something else to do with their day off than go to the shopping mall.
We have aliens and alien environments on this planet. Let's save our money and explore those instead of wasting it on our (currently) romantic delusions of being Star Trek-style space explorers.
Slashdot Mirror
Does anyone on /. know of a natural language description of the DeCSS algorithm? I mean, no-one can complain about that, and if it's clear enough any newbie could have a blast at coding it. There'd be more implemetations of DeCSS than you could shake a stick at.
These MPAA guys are has-beens. They don't know it yet, but their form of coarse-grained media will only be increasingly marginalised in the future. They're trading for political favours on the remnants of their glory days, using the last of their glamour to embroil politicians in a fight with the intellectually progressive elements. They won't be thanked for this in the long run.
What use is a tennis ball sized diamond? Nice to look at I suppose, but unless you're putting together a set of Crown Jewels (and most of those nasty regressive monarchies have already ripped off enough to have their own) what else can you do with them? Use 'em as big, heavy rocks to throw at folks' heads?
Gonna look bloody silly on an engagement ring too.
The problem with a system like this is that it is designed for adults with adults (and the self-restraint that maturity brings) in mind. I'd reckon its going to be next to impossible to regulate when the kids find out they have almost unlimited storage capacity, for a week or so until the system collapses under the weight of the kids' vast warez collections. If you think they are going to assemble their collections efficiently, then you need treatment. How likely is it that the kids will:
Search the public areas archive extensively to determine which parts of their collection are already stored
Identify the set of files in the current collection of thousands that are not already in the store
Segregate their collection and upload all these missing files
Create an index of their archive for distribution?
Unlikely. They are all just going to upload their entire collections en masse. Cognitive simplicity is a powerful decision maker.
Everybody is coming up with neat solutions for this and that, and saying how great it would be if we all had cryptography and online secure storage and stuff. How come no one ever thinks: what are the bastards likely to get up to with this neat new stuff, and how can I prevent them from doing this in the first place.
The world (and the net particularly) is not full of decent, unselfish, philanthropic people. It is full of slash-and-burn arseholes who will happily spoil everything for everybody (themselves included) as long as their short-term desires are met.
As I see it the difference between me and some ivory-tower do-gooder is that they have faith in humanity: they'll be diligent, noble, unselfish and charitable. I have faith in people: faith that they'll be lazy, screw up, not give a shit about the next guy, and doing this while complaining about how they are being shafted and that they are the victim in all this really.
You know I'm right...
Gary
Not only that, but if we want to look at alien life forms, then the bottom of the ocean is the easiest place to look. The creature that live there exist in an environment of high pressure and extreme cold, and they don't have the benefit of a food chain with photosynthesis except for what floats down from above). If we want to communicate with alien intelligences why search for them on frozen specks 38.5 AUs further out from the sun. What about the ones here? All we seem to do with cetaceans with a higher brain/body mass ratio than we have is imprison them and force them to jump through hoops for fish, all for the benefit of lazy arseholes who were looking for something else to do with their day off than go to the shopping mall.
We have aliens and alien environments on this planet. Let's save our money and explore those instead of wasting it on our (currently) romantic delusions of being Star Trek-style space explorers.