Well, since these DOS attacks would consume all of the cable provider's bandwidth, as well, I think that they'd have something to say about it. I mean, if half of their customers who AREN'T filesharing have no bandwidth because the RIAA has decided to DOS their neighbor, they would have a LOT of irate customers in a hurry, and I imagine that they would be inclined to sue the RIAA for stealing bandwidth.
(or, they'd just preemptively cut the connections of all the file traders. but somehow I doubt that it could be anything but economic bad news for cable companies if a large entity has authority to launch non-discriminatory DOS attacks on mere suspicion against a large portion of their users.)
Obviously, technology is our first line of defense when we can't count on the law to be on our side against the RIAA. That doesn't mean that what they are doing is right or okay just because they can, though. That kind of thinking is what makes people believe that "might makes right" and leads to abuses of the powerless in our society.
Also, waging a technological war on the RIAA will only be possible if we are afforded the same legal advantages they are, in order to make the playing field level. I can guarantee if you are caught r00ting the RIAA's site that you'll be branded a terrorist and thrown in jail.
These people are not about fairness and freedom, so we need to do everything we can to constrain them legally.
I think that we just need to look at the reasons WHY violent games are popular if we want to understand this question. Violent games sell well because many people think they are good entertainment. And the reason for this is that people are inherently aggressive.
Now, most people know when it's acceptable to be aggressive and when it's not. And playing violent games is a socially acceptable way of being aggressive, and a way that allows people who are usually at the receiving end of agression in real life to act out their agressive fantasies without any lasting effects.
In my opinion, violent games are simply a natural thing for humans to create given human nature. I don't think that they are going to change our nature one way or the other, because they are a reflection of the nature we already have.
Interestingly, it appears that the Army game uses Ogg Vorbis for sound... In the system folder of its directory I see the files vorbis.dll and vorbisfile.dll. If that's the case, I think it's pretty cool... Now if only they dropped the whole Windows thing:)
Here's what I don't get though - how can linking possibly be "infringement" of anything? It's obvious to anyone who checks where the link leads to who is really providing the content and if you don't recognize the site there are easy channels to follow to find out.
The whole point of the Web, at least orginally, was transparency between individual pages and files, not boxing people into the specific index and user interface provided by content owners.
IMHO if you don't allow deep linking the Web ceases to exist as a useful tool and becomes just something akin to interactive television, a tool for passive consumers.
I think that LFS is a good idea in that it allows you to customize everything to the nth degree and gives you total control over the build processes.
However, I think Gentoo is almost like a better LFS...you still get the control when you need it (You can pass custom compiler options and parameters with a simple syntax, for instance) but you don't have to deal with all the aggravating dependency issues just to get the more basic elements of the system up and running.
Plus, Gentoo can do things that would be a nightmare with LFS...like rebuild the entire system using new optimizations or even a new compiler version with a single command.
Re:Gentoo is great!!
on
Gentoo Linux 1.2
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
I totally agree, 100%. I'm quite enthusiastic about Gentoo and it shows in my praise of it. But yeah, I totally agree that it isn't for everyone and it isn't for all applications.
Linux offers so many choices and I think that it's great that there are so many distros out there, even if it sometimes is a hassle. The different distros have lots of different strengths:
Obviously, this is far from a complete list and just represents some ideas of mine. I'm 100% with ya on the diversity thing; the best part of Linux is indeed that you have so many option for making it just right for you.
Re:looks to be pretty cool
on
Gentoo Linux 1.2
·
· Score: 4, Informative
I think that Gentoo is reasonably secure "out of the box" because it doesn't automatically setup ANY network programs or daemons. Nothing is activated until you explicitly set it up. The problem comes when you start to set things up...Gentoo will not be secure for long if you don't do a good job of configuring everything. But then again that's going to be a problem with any Linux distro and at least Gentoo probably isn't quite as easy to root right after install as some other distros.
Well, it's possible, though not easy. You would have to boot from floppy and then get SSH or NFS or some such thing running to allow you to mount the install files over a network. From what I've heard it's not possible to install Gentoo from a floppy alone without the assistance of another machine on the network.
Also, though using Gentoo to speed up those old machines does hold some appeal, it may not really be feasible to do since the compile time would be prohibitive. The best option if you really want Gentoo on those machines would probably be to install Gentoo on a faster machine, compile all the packages you want on that machine with "fake" installs, and then move the binaries over. IMHO it would be less trouble to just use a binary distro for machines that are old enough to not have a CD-ROM drive.
I've been using Gentoo for the last couple months and I have to say that Gentoo has really restored the sense of wonder I had when I set up my first install of Slackware years ago. I was skeptical at first but Gentoo has so totally won me over that I can't imagine going back to anything else. I think if Gentoo ever failed I would probably go to something like BSD now.
Gentoo probably isn't really a newbie distro since it has no automatic installation or setup, but then again I know some people have been able to manage it on only some limited experience from Redhat or Mandrake. It really makes you understand how your system is set up and works to a degree that most of the package based distros don't but also feels far "cleaner" than Slack (my previous favorite) or LFS. I've learned more about Linux in a couple months of Gentoo than in a year of Redhat, and I'm happier with my setup and customization than I ever have been before.
Also, Gentoo is FAST. I run it on a somewhat older laptop (Celery 500, 128 MB) and though the compiles do take quite some time for large packages like KDE and X, the system really does have a much faster "feel" to it than in other distros. I don't have any hard data on it but the speed increase was enough to be quite noticable going from Redhat.
Anyway, I've been 99% satisfied with Gentoo and I'd recommend it to anyone with a little Linux experience (though definitely not as a server distro) who wants to have fun with a desktop Linux setup. Now if I could only tear myself away from tinkering with my Gentoo and find time to work;)
I scrapped Hotmail a long time ago, the second that MS took over. Are there ANY decent webmail sites left out there anymore that don't charge for basic services like automatic forwarding? I'm just not going to pay for a webmail account that I only use as a disposable intermediary between all the info-greedy sites out there and my real account...
I wrote to my Senator, Senator Hollings himself, in October about the SSSCA nonsense. I just received a reply approximately 10 days ago. Here's the letter, if anyone's interested.
April 22, 2002
Dear Mr. *********:
Thank you for contacting me regarding the problem of digital piracy and consumer fair use of electronic devices. I recently introduced S. 2048, "The Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Act," which in draft form was titled the "Systems Security Standards and Certification Act." The purpose of this legislation is to increase the level of quality content on the Internet and other digital media by calling upon representatives of the content, consumer electronics and information technology industries to agree upon a standard technology solutions to the problem of digital piracy. I view government involvement as a last resort.
Every week a major magazine or newspaper reports on the thousands of illegal pirated works that are available for copying and redistribution online. Piracy is growing exponentially on college campuses and among tech savvy consumers. Such lawlessness contributes to the studios and record labels' reluctance to place their digital content on the Internet or over the airwaves. While industries are at odds as to how to solve these critical content protection problems, this bill will facilitate the means to finding a solution.
Specifically, this legislation requires the content, consumer electronics, and information technology industries to come together with representatives of consumer groups to develop standards, technologies, and encoding rules to safeguard digital content so that it will be made more readily available to consumers without being subject to piracy. The affected parties would have one year to reach an agreement. The technologies would then be incorporated into all digital media devices to ensure universal protection for digital content and universal access to such content for consumers. The deadline imposed on the industry would work in the following fashion: if they come together to solve these problems in private sector talks, we will empower government enforcement so that all consumer devices comply. If they don't, the government, in consultation with the private sector, will have to step in.
Finally, S. 2048 specifically requires that any standards agreed upon respect consumer's fair use of legally obtained merchandise such as videos and CDs. We live in an exciting technological age and I support and encourage people to utilize new innovative products to their fullest extent as they become available.
Again, thank you for sharing your views and concerns with me on this very important piece of legislation. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future with any questions you might have.
I didn't receive a response either, and I also sent a personal letter from South Carolina. I think this behavior is particularly egregious considering that he is ignoring his own constituents that actually work in the tech industry. Considering that the number of tech workers is likely small in this state, it seems particulary bad to me that he is totally ignoring informed criticism FROM A CONSTITUENT. If this bill doesn't die soon, I will be visiting his branch office in Charleston.
Guess that was just my cynical side talking;-). I'd certainly like to see Verisign go away, but they seem to be doing everything in their power to disallow other options. If they win, it'll be by playing political games rather than on merit. I was just kinda making a comment on how the biggest monopolies tend to get bigger while still offering mediocre service and operating in the grey areas of the law.
This strikes me as a similar, albeit different, tactic to what is known as "slamming" in the phone industry. It was once a common scam for the shadier long distance providers to change your carrier without your permission or consent; the practice was (I believe) outlawed in the 1996 Telcommunications Act (correct me if I'm wrong). This is slightly different because they are just being deceptive about gaining consent, but it does seem similar. Wonder if Congress will step in on this type of practice as well?
Not sure that's the best idea, but it will probably take Washington 10 years to notice this anyway and by then there won't be any players but Verisign left anyway.
It may be that the lower level high school programming courses were a joke to you, but that certainly would not be the case for everyone. My high school offered 4 levels of CS courses. The bottom 3 were not really worthwhile for anyone who had any experience with computers, but there were no prerequisites for entering any level. I'm sure that the lower computer courses were helpful for some students who hadn't had access to technology before, though....
Btw, I also took AP CS in my junior year of high school, 4 years ago. It really wasn't a bad course (it was taught in C++ at the time). I had had some exposure to programming previously in BASIC and C so it wasn't that big a leap for me, but the curriculum did include some really useful stuff like some of the basic STL containers and rudimentary algorithm analysis. The teacher sucked, but self paced students could still learn by taking some initiative to read books (I read the first book on data structures I ever read in that class, and the teacher let me work on my own projects when I finished projects that took most students a week in 30 minutes.)
I think that most CS classes in high school will display a very wide range in the abilities of the individual students. The best solution, in my opinion, is to be flexible in the curriculum so that students can pace themselves. Those who really are advanced will be able to engage in self-learning.
I do agree with your point in that I don't want ICANN playing policeman to the domains, but then again, I think that if someone doesn't do that, there is really no point in having seperate TLDs at all...
It doesn't have to be ICANN, they could give out the contract to run the TLD to a couple different registrars who would actually do the policing. Maybe we could simply move all the porn sites presently in.com into.xxx space. Something like that will have to happen if.com is going to return to any semblance of organization.
If ICANN doesn't want the job of policing for content, they should've done a better job in the past of preventing the situation we now have where everything commercial is all in one TLD.
And, I think that the porn sites would be more than willing to switch over (at least the legit ones). It could be a way for them to escape more onerous regulation and only serve their content to those customers who want it.
One of the things that has really bothered me during the whole SSSCA debate is the media coverage, or lack thereof. I live in South Carolina, and I've never even ONCE heard any mention of this issue from any SC-based media outlet. A quick search of some newspaper archives (Columbia's The State and Charleston's Post and Courier) confirms this. It seems that most of the state adores Hollings and most news stories present him in glowing fashion. I just find it sad that very few of the people actually responsible for putting and keeping this guy in office even hear about major policy he is spearheading. If that's not a breakdown of democracy, I don't know what is.
I DO live in South Carolina, though I go to school in NC...I wrote old Fritz an email on Wednesday regarding all this mess, and I tried to be nonargumentative and make my points reasonably on this stuff. I felt a small amount of duty in writing that letter, since maybe they'll be slightly more likely to listen to me since I'm a resident. I don't want the rest of the country to get screwed by my backwards state's politics and I was afraid few others in SC would be informed enough to do anything about it.
As of now I haven't heard anything back, not even a form letter...I'll post if I do have any more contact with them.
I don't think the idea of databases to hold config files is *necessarily* a bad idea. We all know how the Windows registry sucks, and the hell it can cause, but I think the general principle could be a good thing if we addressed some of the points you mentioned above. For instance, there could be seperate config databases for each user and for local system specific configuration. If enough attention was paid to security and reliability I think the idea could work well.
Maybe it's just me, but the Farsite diagram at the bottom of the article really reminded me of how I understand Freenet to work...Is MS attempting to create a DRM-enabled variation of this same idea?
I don't imagine that Farsite has the same goals as the Freenet project, but there is enough similar in the underlying technology that I was struck by it. Maybe MS is recognizing the value of the architecture, if not some of it's potential uses?
I thought that looking at these two articles provided an interesting comparison. Mundie's idea of "trustworthy computing" is a world in which people don't think about the technology that makes their computing devices work. This seems to me to be pretty much the same philosophy that Microsoft has followed for a while now, ie lowering the level of knowledge required to operate computers.
By constrast, in the Schneir article, the viewpoint expressed seems to me to advocate people getting involved in the operation of technology. More configurability, plus more modular components, more transparent auditing/logging of OS functions etc. In the author's view, users should be aware of what their computer is doing.
This is the fundamental problem with Microsoft's view of security. Their focus on making things transparent to the lowest common denominator is at the root of all the architectural problems from lack of logging to Outlook viruses arising from scriptable email. They need to change their view that people should just view their computers as mysterious black boxes before their security record will ever improve.
I've never understood exactly how you would contain antimatter until it is used...Is it contained in some kind of electromagnetic field, or is this all still theoretical? I thought that antimatter was immediatly annilihated due to its inherently volatile nature when it is produced.
Anyone know any more details on how one would actually build up a gram of isolated antimatter?
Well, even though traditional uses of Unix systems don't really require these features, they are necessary for all the new and exciting things going on with Linux. Take games, for instance. 3D games on Linux should not be as painful to install as X causes them to be...not to mention the fact that until the whole DRI thing they were even worse.
I'm not saying that you have a need for these new things, but other people do and these are the things that help move people over to the platform. That's the exciting part about Linux to me; the combination of traditional Unix uses and new and exciting technologies.
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Well, since these DOS attacks would consume all of the cable provider's bandwidth, as well, I think that they'd have something to say about it. I mean, if half of their customers who AREN'T filesharing have no bandwidth because the RIAA has decided to DOS their neighbor, they would have a LOT of irate customers in a hurry, and I imagine that they would be inclined to sue the RIAA for stealing bandwidth.
(or, they'd just preemptively cut the connections of all the file traders. but somehow I doubt that it could be anything but economic bad news for cable companies if a large entity has authority to launch non-discriminatory DOS attacks on mere suspicion against a large portion of their users.)
Obviously, technology is our first line of defense when we can't count on the law to be on our side against the RIAA. That doesn't mean that what they are doing is right or okay just because they can, though. That kind of thinking is what makes people believe that "might makes right" and leads to abuses of the powerless in our society.
Also, waging a technological war on the RIAA will only be possible if we are afforded the same legal advantages they are, in order to make the playing field level. I can guarantee if you are caught r00ting the RIAA's site that you'll be branded a terrorist and thrown in jail.
These people are not about fairness and freedom, so we need to do everything we can to constrain them legally.
They don't really have a moral right at all, legal or not. I'll be damned if they hack me "incidentally" to checking for copyrighted material.
I think that we just need to look at the reasons WHY violent games are popular if we want to understand this question. Violent games sell well because many people think they are good entertainment. And the reason for this is that people are inherently aggressive.
Now, most people know when it's acceptable to be aggressive and when it's not. And playing violent games is a socially acceptable way of being aggressive, and a way that allows people who are usually at the receiving end of agression in real life to act out their agressive fantasies without any lasting effects.
In my opinion, violent games are simply a natural thing for humans to create given human nature. I don't think that they are going to change our nature one way or the other, because they are a reflection of the nature we already have.
Interestingly, it appears that the Army game uses Ogg Vorbis for sound... :)
In the system folder of its directory I see the files vorbis.dll and vorbisfile.dll.
If that's the case, I think it's pretty cool...
Now if only they dropped the whole Windows thing
Here's what I don't get though - how can linking possibly be "infringement" of anything? It's obvious to anyone who checks where the link leads to who is really providing the content and if you don't recognize the site there are easy channels to follow to find out.
The whole point of the Web, at least orginally, was transparency between individual pages and files, not boxing people into the specific index and user interface provided by content owners.
IMHO if you don't allow deep linking the Web ceases to exist as a useful tool and becomes just something akin to interactive television, a tool for passive consumers.
I think that LFS is a good idea in that it allows you to customize everything to the nth degree and gives you total control over the build processes.
However, I think Gentoo is almost like a better LFS...you still get the control when you need it (You can pass custom compiler options and parameters with a simple syntax, for instance) but you don't have to deal with all the aggravating dependency issues just to get the more basic elements of the system up and running.
Plus, Gentoo can do things that would be a nightmare with LFS...like rebuild the entire system using new optimizations or even a new compiler version with a single command.
I totally agree, 100%. I'm quite enthusiastic about Gentoo and it shows in my praise of it. But yeah, I totally agree that it isn't for everyone and it isn't for all applications.
Linux offers so many choices and I think that it's great that there are so many distros out there, even if it sometimes is a hassle. The different distros have lots of different strengths:
Support/Documentation: Debian, Redhat, SuSE, Mandrake
Stability: Debian, Slack
Desktop use (normal users, newbies): Redhat, Mandrake, Debian etc.
Desktop use/Bleeding edge (tinkerers, experimenters): Gentoo, Source Mage, Slack, LFS
Obviously, this is far from a complete list and just represents some ideas of mine. I'm 100% with ya on the diversity thing; the best part of Linux is indeed that you have so many option for making it just right for you.
I think that Gentoo is reasonably secure "out of the box" because it doesn't automatically setup ANY network programs or daemons. Nothing is activated until you explicitly set it up. The problem comes when you start to set things up...Gentoo will not be secure for long if you don't do a good job of configuring everything. But then again that's going to be a problem with any Linux distro and at least Gentoo probably isn't quite as easy to root right after install as some other distros.
Well, it's possible, though not easy. You would have to boot from floppy and then get SSH or NFS or some such thing running to allow you to mount the install files over a network. From what I've heard it's not possible to install Gentoo from a floppy alone without the assistance of another machine on the network.
Also, though using Gentoo to speed up those old machines does hold some appeal, it may not really be feasible to do since the compile time would be prohibitive. The best option if you really want Gentoo on those machines would probably be to install Gentoo on a faster machine, compile all the packages you want on that machine with "fake" installs, and then move the binaries over. IMHO it would be less trouble to just use a binary distro for machines that are old enough to not have a CD-ROM drive.
I've been using Gentoo for the last couple months and I have to say that Gentoo has really restored the sense of wonder I had when I set up my first install of Slackware years ago. I was skeptical at first but Gentoo has so totally won me over that I can't imagine going back to anything else. I think if Gentoo ever failed I would probably go to something like BSD now.
Gentoo probably isn't really a newbie distro since it has no automatic installation or setup, but then again I know some people have been able to manage it on only some limited experience from Redhat or Mandrake. It really makes you understand how your system is set up and works to a degree that most of the package based distros don't but also feels far "cleaner" than Slack (my previous favorite) or LFS. I've learned more about Linux in a couple months of Gentoo than in a year of Redhat, and I'm happier with my setup and customization than I ever have been before.
Also, Gentoo is FAST. I run it on a somewhat older laptop (Celery 500, 128 MB) and though the compiles do take quite some time for large packages like KDE and X, the system really does have a much faster "feel" to it than in other distros. I don't have any hard data on it but the speed increase was enough to be quite noticable going from Redhat.
Anyway, I've been 99% satisfied with Gentoo and I'd recommend it to anyone with a little Linux experience (though definitely not as a server distro) who wants to have fun with a desktop Linux setup. Now if I could only tear myself away from tinkering with my Gentoo and find time to work ;)
I scrapped Hotmail a long time ago, the second that MS took over. Are there ANY decent webmail sites left out there anymore that don't charge for basic services like automatic forwarding? I'm just not going to pay for a webmail account that I only use as a disposable intermediary between all the info-greedy sites out there and my real account...
I wrote to my Senator, Senator Hollings himself, in October about the SSSCA nonsense. I just received a reply approximately 10 days ago. Here's the letter, if anyone's interested.
April 22, 2002
Dear Mr. *********:
Thank you for contacting me regarding the problem of digital piracy and consumer fair use of electronic devices. I recently introduced S. 2048, "The Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Act," which in draft form was titled the "Systems Security Standards and Certification Act." The purpose of this legislation is to increase the level of quality content on the Internet and other digital media by calling upon representatives of the content, consumer electronics and information technology industries to agree upon a standard technology solutions to the problem of digital piracy. I view government involvement as a last resort.
Every week a major magazine or newspaper reports on the thousands of illegal pirated works that are available for copying and redistribution online. Piracy is growing exponentially on college campuses and among tech savvy consumers. Such lawlessness contributes to the studios and record labels' reluctance to place their digital content on the Internet or over the airwaves. While industries are at odds as to how to solve these critical content protection problems, this bill will facilitate the means to finding a solution.
Specifically, this legislation requires the content, consumer electronics, and information technology industries to come together with representatives of consumer groups to develop standards, technologies, and encoding rules to safeguard digital content so that it will be made more readily available to consumers without being subject to piracy. The affected parties would have one year to reach an agreement. The technologies would then be incorporated into all digital media devices to ensure universal protection for digital content and universal access to such content for consumers. The deadline imposed on the industry would work in the following fashion: if they come together to solve these problems in private sector talks, we will empower government enforcement so that all consumer devices comply. If they don't, the government, in consultation with the private sector, will have to step in.
Finally, S. 2048 specifically requires that any standards agreed upon respect consumer's fair use of legally obtained merchandise such as videos and CDs. We live in an exciting technological age and I support and encourage people to utilize new innovative products to their fullest extent as they become available.
Again, thank you for sharing your views and concerns with me on this very important piece of legislation. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future with any questions you might have.
With kindest regards, I am
Sincerely,
Ernest F. Hollings
United States Senator
I didn't receive a response either, and I also sent a personal letter from South Carolina. I think this behavior is particularly egregious considering that he is ignoring his own constituents that actually work in the tech industry. Considering that the number of tech workers is likely small in this state, it seems particulary bad to me that he is totally ignoring informed criticism FROM A CONSTITUENT. If this bill doesn't die soon, I will be visiting his branch office in Charleston.
Guess that was just my cynical side talking ;-). I'd certainly like to see Verisign go away, but they seem to be doing everything in their power to disallow other options. If they win, it'll be by playing political games rather than on merit. I was just kinda making a comment on how the biggest monopolies tend to get bigger while still offering mediocre service and operating in the grey areas of the law.
This strikes me as a similar, albeit different, tactic to what is known as "slamming" in the phone industry. It was once a common scam for the shadier long distance providers to change your carrier without your permission or consent; the practice was (I believe) outlawed in the 1996 Telcommunications Act (correct me if I'm wrong). This is slightly different because they are just being deceptive about gaining consent, but it does seem similar. Wonder if Congress will step in on this type of practice as well?
Not sure that's the best idea, but it will probably take Washington 10 years to notice this anyway and by then there won't be any players but Verisign left anyway.
It may be that the lower level high school programming courses were a joke to you, but that certainly would not be the case for everyone. My high school offered 4 levels of CS courses. The bottom 3 were not really worthwhile for anyone who had any experience with computers, but there were no prerequisites for entering any level. I'm sure that the lower computer courses were helpful for some students who hadn't had access to technology before, though....
Btw, I also took AP CS in my junior year of high school, 4 years ago. It really wasn't a bad course (it was taught in C++ at the time). I had had some exposure to programming previously in BASIC and C so it wasn't that big a leap for me, but the curriculum did include some really useful stuff like some of the basic STL containers and rudimentary algorithm analysis. The teacher sucked, but self paced students could still learn by taking some initiative to read books (I read the first book on data structures I ever read in that class, and the teacher let me work on my own projects when I finished projects that took most students a week in 30 minutes.)
I think that most CS classes in high school will display a very wide range in the abilities of the individual students. The best solution, in my opinion, is to be flexible in the curriculum so that students can pace themselves. Those who really are advanced will be able to engage in self-learning.
I do agree with your point in that I don't want ICANN playing policeman to the domains, but then again, I think that if someone doesn't do that, there is really no point in having seperate TLDs at all...
It doesn't have to be ICANN, they could give out the contract to run the TLD to a couple different registrars who would actually do the policing. Maybe we could simply move all the porn sites presently in .com into .xxx space. Something like that will have to happen if .com is going to return to any semblance of organization.
If ICANN doesn't want the job of policing for content, they should've done a better job in the past of preventing the situation we now have where everything commercial is all in one TLD.
And, I think that the porn sites would be more than willing to switch over (at least the legit ones). It could be a way for them to escape more onerous regulation and only serve their content to those customers who want it.
One of the things that has really bothered me during the whole SSSCA debate is the media coverage, or lack thereof. I live in South Carolina, and I've never even ONCE heard any mention of this issue from any SC-based media outlet. A quick search of some newspaper archives (Columbia's The State and Charleston's Post and Courier) confirms this. It seems that most of the state adores Hollings and most news stories present him in glowing fashion. I just find it sad that very few of the people actually responsible for putting and keeping this guy in office even hear about major policy he is spearheading. If that's not a breakdown of democracy, I don't know what is.
I DO live in South Carolina, though I go to school in NC...I wrote old Fritz an email on Wednesday regarding all this mess, and I tried to be nonargumentative and make my points reasonably on this stuff. I felt a small amount of duty in writing that letter, since maybe they'll be slightly more likely to listen to me since I'm a resident. I don't want the rest of the country to get screwed by my backwards state's politics and I was afraid few others in SC would be informed enough to do anything about it.
As of now I haven't heard anything back, not even a form letter...I'll post if I do have any more contact with them.
I don't think the idea of databases to hold config files is *necessarily* a bad idea. We all know how the Windows registry sucks, and the hell it can cause, but I think the general principle could be a good thing if we addressed some of the points you mentioned above. For instance, there could be seperate config databases for each user and for local system specific configuration. If enough attention was paid to security and reliability I think the idea could work well.
Maybe it's just me, but the Farsite diagram at the bottom of the article really reminded me of how I understand Freenet to work...Is MS attempting to create a DRM-enabled variation of this same idea?
I don't imagine that Farsite has the same goals as the Freenet project, but there is enough similar in the underlying technology that I was struck by it. Maybe MS is recognizing the value of the architecture, if not some of it's potential uses?
I thought that looking at these two articles provided an interesting comparison. Mundie's idea of "trustworthy computing" is a world in which people don't think about the technology that makes their computing devices work. This seems to me to be pretty much the same philosophy that Microsoft has followed for a while now, ie lowering the level of knowledge required to operate computers.
By constrast, in the Schneir article, the viewpoint expressed seems to me to advocate people getting involved in the operation of technology. More configurability, plus more modular components, more transparent auditing/logging of OS functions etc. In the author's view, users should be aware of what their computer is doing.
This is the fundamental problem with Microsoft's view of security. Their focus on making things transparent to the lowest common denominator is at the root of all the architectural problems from lack of logging to Outlook viruses arising from scriptable email. They need to change their view that people should just view their computers as mysterious black boxes before their security record will ever improve.
I've never understood exactly how you would contain antimatter until it is used...Is it contained in some kind of electromagnetic field, or is this all still theoretical? I thought that antimatter was immediatly annilihated due to its inherently volatile nature when it is produced.
Anyone know any more details on how one would actually build up a gram of isolated antimatter?
Well, even though traditional uses of Unix systems don't really require these features, they are necessary for all the new and exciting things going on with Linux. Take games, for instance. 3D games on Linux should not be as painful to install as X causes them to be...not to mention the fact that until the whole DRI thing they were even worse.
I'm not saying that you have a need for these new things, but other people do and these are the things that help move people over to the platform. That's the exciting part about Linux to me; the combination of traditional Unix uses and new and exciting technologies.