With apologies to those responsible for Time Bandits
Why should we trust Microsoft to do anything for us at this point? They've already stated that their goal is to eradicate Linux, and they've already started lobbying against the entire idea of the GPL. They'd make this kind of thing illegal in a heartbeat, if they could.
What we really need is someone on the inside, someone to release the specs for how their version is to be implemented, without releasing the exact implementation. This way, we can build workalikes and not have to deal with Microsoft directly.
Actually, it doesn't. The original word, which has been misspelled as "foobar" is "fubar" which is Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition. It's a shame that almost no one uses the right spelling.
"Only good things can come from a tech visionary who purchases Old World infrastructure and is willing to run fiber to them."
I wouldn't call that an absolute. Look at the nightmare that Qwest Communications has caused. They're still using Pair Gain, in a city that is supposedly modern in design. We can't get DSL service in half of Phoenix that is within the copper distance needed to do it, and Phoenix was originally a US West Communications test city for the technology. I've had friends who couldn't get the phone company to install a copper circuit, and would not say who was responsible for Qwest's engineering decision to implement pair gain on every phone line.
So, I don't believe that companies usisng old-world, middle-world (not to be confused with middle-earth), or brand-new technologies are any better simply because of the tech. They have to actually provide service, not claim to be able to without delivering.
HA! we know you're not from LA! you would have referred to it as "LA", "Orange County", "San Jose", or any number of cities around the vicinity that no one in hell who isn't from LA could begin to locate geographically...
One thing to keep in mind is that when one is prosecuting a case, either in criminal terms or as a plaintiff, there are usually multiple angles to take when building one's argument. If the prosecutor chooses a different angle of attack in this new trial, it might bring new points that weren't stressed in the previous trial, which gives the defense more challenge in defending. Granted, in theory the bulk of available information should have been put forth in the previous trial, but information or points that the prosecution might have thought unnecessary could be brought to light. In the United States, the prosecution has to outline and show their case on paper before they can even begin to argue it in court, and the defense has to receive all that information, on witnesses and what they're probably going to say, on evidence, etc. I don't know if this is required in Norway or not. If it isn't, and if there are new bits and pieces of information that weren't used before, this could be a very bumpy road for the defense.
It's a damn shame that there isn't a practical way to force the hand of the prosecution. Between his age at the time he wrote DeCSS, the fact that he's already been acquited once, and the fact that this is a completely nonviolent offense that he has been accused of, I'd imagine that Norway's court would have a lot more important, and more success-likely cases to prosecute. Cases like murder, rape, even theft that are pushed back because of the state appeal of a case they already lost against a minor who simply wanted to use his computer as the new-age equivalent of a VCR, and enable others to do the same.
The brake power booster is a vacuum device that sits between the pedal action and the brake master cylinder. Cars have had boosters in them since the 50's. The booster is designed to assist the operator in adding extra pressure off of the vacuum to compress the brake master cylinder. When you apply the brakes, you're actually partially opening valves in the booster to let the car's vacuum system help you, else you probably wouldn't even be able to apply your car's brakes.
I won't claim to be a car expert, but having had to fix my own car's brake, steering, and throttle systems, I'm pretty sure that they specifically did this to wreck the Camry, rather than to demo the tech.
First thing that I would do, if I were going to build one of these for real/permanent, is that I would change how the braking and throttle systems work. The way a modern car pulls input from the driver isn't very effective unless you're putting that level of pressure on pedals and steering, as evidenced by their rig that was applying force to pedals. Brakes, for one, could be operated off of a very small solenoid if you changed the brake power booster, which are designed to accomodate the right resistance to a human foot. Change that, and things become simpler. You can switch to a tiny activation system rather than something that looks like it was used to tilt a dump truck.
From their video, I couldn't tell how they had worked the steering, if it was actually analog or if it was cheapo-RC "full left", vs "full right" steering. Analog would definitely be the way to go, but if one uses a really small control, it would be easy to oversteer, causing loss of control. Probably why they picked dirt (even assuming that there was the possibility of using pavement that was far enough away that no one would care).
Now, I know that Slashdot is trying very hard to not post constant unconfirmed updates on war; trying instead to focus on other news/geekishness, but if there's nothing to post, I'll be happy with nothing on the front page...
... Rick Berman, Executive Producer of the Star Trek(r)(tm)(c) franchise is announcing his retirement from creative control of Star Trek...
C'mon guys... It won't stop sucking until Berman is out of the driver's seat. He doesn't know how to do anything truly creative. He was Roddenberry's financials guy, for crissake, not the creative pillar behind the series.
Then in theory, we'd be able to see the same part of space from two vantage points, assuming that they're not farther away from us than the distance that light could have travelled since the universe came into being, assuming that one believes in the big bang theory.
So, would this mean that if we can't see one point from two directions now, that if we suddenly can, we've reached the halfway point of the life of the universe? Would we lose the redshift in favour of a green shift?
"Is it really possible to do "distributed computing" using computers that are constantly being turned on and off at irregular and unpredictable intervals?"
Yes, if your system is designed right. Remember, seti@home doesn't require extensive communication to work, it handles 250K packets which are handled over several hours or a day, and then returned, and new information is gathered. This keeps the master servers from being hammered to death. Also, they're redundantly assigned, to make sure of data integrity, and if a client never returns a result, another one with the same packet probably will. It's no good for small jobs, but big jobs, like weather modelling, key cracking, analyzing RF signals, etc, should be fine.
As a business model, I could come to respect this as a method, but I do have some concerns:
Nature of data processing - I'd for one like to know what they'd want to use my computer for. It's pretty clear what Distributed.net and Seti@home do, but businesses often don't have the best interests of consumers in mind, so this would be important.
Compensation - I'd like to know how they'd compensate me for the CPU time. Operating computers isn't free, and the electricity costs of running the machine (especially in a desert like Phoenix) could outweigh the benefit, to where it would be cheaper for us to go get CDs. Also, are they compensating us by the packet, giving us a certain download limit, or is simply being connected enough?
Malicious Users - If they are compensating by giving access based on how much data return or CPU time spent, I'd next be worried that they wouldn't do an adequate job enforcing proper use. Remember, Seti@home is plagued by individuals faking packet processing, simply to increase their stats artificially, and they're not even being compensated for their troubles. Additionally, the possibility of abuse, like some high school student running the process on the 30 computers in his or her lab exists, and that would cause all kinds of abuse of equipment problems, that could leave the school district with the feeling that the abuse was committed by the company who made the software, rather than simply by the student.
Barring these concerns, I would see this as possibly viable...
Spark plugs have not changed at all in at least 60 years, as far as the OEM styles go. They have been remarkably similar since their original designs, a graphite core surrounded by a ceramic insulator surrounded by a metallic threaded ring. Amazing.
"Let's say I steal a $500 stereo. The government might spend $10,000 investigating my crime and imprisoning me. By your argument, "the authorities and lawmakers" would be better off leaving me alone. "
first off, that's NOT what he's talking about. If I read his post correctly, he's talking about collateral damage. It'd be more like if there was a criminal in the house next door to yours, and the government bulldozing your house to erect a barrier around the criminal. Damage was done to others in the name of the investigation by the government. This is a problem. We haven't even gotten into what the investigation itself cost...
" You disgust me. IT'S A CRIME. While you may look at it as a fairly innocent, no harm done crime, it is the law that distributing copyrighted material without the owners permission is illegal. We don't get to choose which laws we obey. Before getting a warrant, police don't think 'I wonder what the negative consequences of this warrant will be?" They think "Someone is breaking the law. I should stop them.'"
Have you looked at the music industry much? Popular musicians have albums go platinum and the industry, selling CDs for $17.95 each, says that the album isn't profitable and barely pays the musician anything. It's to the point that musicians like Moby are going on to talkshows on NPR and telling people that he'd rather them 'steal' his music and listen to it if they aren't going to pay the RIAA for it, rather than it go unheard. Others have come out and directly asked where the money is that the RIAA has asked Congress for regarding pirate-able media taxes, since the artists themselves haven't seen a dime from it, yet the RIAA said it was for the artists' benefit. The entire system is screwed to a pooch, and if the music industry in general isn't willing to adapt itself to meet new demands or new paradigms, it should die.
If you want to compenate a musician for their contribution to society, attend a concert of theirs, or send them a check for $20 or something as gratuity. Don't pay the RIAA any more for their stupid practices.
" A nice idea, but how many people actually DO this on the internet? Just about none. Do you run your own mail server or use the big box at your ISP? Does your ISP even allow you to run an outbound mail server? Many don't anymore."
My ISP allows me to lease IP addresses from them for pretty close to what they paid for them, for a residential grade DSL line. I could probably also obtain a static IP address on a dialup from them, if I was that masochistic. I run my own services. In fact, the only thing that I do from my ISP is Internet Relay Chat, since if someone decides to play 'punt the user', they'll have a helluva lot harder time knocking someone off who's on an OC-48 (with admins who actually read the logs) than they'll have knocking someone off of a 640Kb DSL circuit.
Why would someone committing computer-related illegal activities store anything on their ISP's servers? That's just begging for the systems administrator to find it themselves, and report you for something (assuming it violates their ethics code).
One of the strongest truths in anything that isn't necessarily legal, or could be interpretted as not legal, is that you don't leave any evidence that others can control. If you're really smart, you leave no evidence at all, period, but if you do leave something, make sure that it is in your control, and your control alone.
The other thing that I'm shuddering about is the possible downtime effects that this has on everyone else who uses the equipment for fully legitimate purposes. Suddenly, the possibility of server outages, network outages, and other miscellaneous service problems ensue, especially if a federal entity decides that equipment itself is to be confinscated as evidence, and they don't take care to properly handle what mess they leave behind.
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how to get this slackware 9 raid smp to work on my MAndrake?
Inspired by actual questions in #linux...
"I compiled kernels for use on IBM X series e-server SMP systems and ServeRaid (ips) or MTP Fusion Chipsets...plus sound card support"
Bah. Bigass systems, big disk arrays, whatever.
it's cool that you got the sound working though...
"It's evil! Don't touch it!"
With apologies to those responsible for Time Bandits
Why should we trust Microsoft to do anything for us at this point? They've already stated that their goal is to eradicate Linux, and they've already started lobbying against the entire idea of the GPL. They'd make this kind of thing illegal in a heartbeat, if they could.
What we really need is someone on the inside, someone to release the specs for how their version is to be implemented, without releasing the exact implementation. This way, we can build workalikes and not have to deal with Microsoft directly.
"Does foobar mean anything?"
Actually, it doesn't. The original word, which has been misspelled as "foobar" is "fubar" which is Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition. It's a shame that almost no one uses the right spelling.
Wasn't this pioneered years ago when the UNIX file system checking command was created?
"Only good things can come from a tech visionary who purchases Old World infrastructure and is willing to run fiber to them."
I wouldn't call that an absolute. Look at the nightmare that Qwest Communications has caused. They're still using Pair Gain, in a city that is supposedly modern in design. We can't get DSL service in half of Phoenix that is within the copper distance needed to do it, and Phoenix was originally a US West Communications test city for the technology. I've had friends who couldn't get the phone company to install a copper circuit, and would not say who was responsible for Qwest's engineering decision to implement pair gain on every phone line.
So, I don't believe that companies usisng old-world, middle-world (not to be confused with middle-earth), or brand-new technologies are any better simply because of the tech. They have to actually provide service, not claim to be able to without delivering.
"Ha! We know you're not from LA! Or California either! San Jose is ~500 miles from Los Angeles."
Damn straight! I'm glad to not be from California, too!
"I live in LA city..."
HA! we know you're not from LA! you would have referred to it as "LA", "Orange County", "San Jose", or any number of cities around the vicinity that no one in hell who isn't from LA could begin to locate geographically...
One thing to keep in mind is that when one is prosecuting a case, either in criminal terms or as a plaintiff, there are usually multiple angles to take when building one's argument. If the prosecutor chooses a different angle of attack in this new trial, it might bring new points that weren't stressed in the previous trial, which gives the defense more challenge in defending. Granted, in theory the bulk of available information should have been put forth in the previous trial, but information or points that the prosecution might have thought unnecessary could be brought to light. In the United States, the prosecution has to outline and show their case on paper before they can even begin to argue it in court, and the defense has to receive all that information, on witnesses and what they're probably going to say, on evidence, etc. I don't know if this is required in Norway or not. If it isn't, and if there are new bits and pieces of information that weren't used before, this could be a very bumpy road for the defense.
It's a damn shame that there isn't a practical way to force the hand of the prosecution. Between his age at the time he wrote DeCSS, the fact that he's already been acquited once, and the fact that this is a completely nonviolent offense that he has been accused of, I'd imagine that Norway's court would have a lot more important, and more success-likely cases to prosecute. Cases like murder, rape, even theft that are pushed back because of the state appeal of a case they already lost against a minor who simply wanted to use his computer as the new-age equivalent of a VCR, and enable others to do the same.
The brake power booster is a vacuum device that sits between the pedal action and the brake master cylinder. Cars have had boosters in them since the 50's. The booster is designed to assist the operator in adding extra pressure off of the vacuum to compress the brake master cylinder. When you apply the brakes, you're actually partially opening valves in the booster to let the car's vacuum system help you, else you probably wouldn't even be able to apply your car's brakes.
I won't claim to be a car expert, but having had to fix my own car's brake, steering, and throttle systems, I'm pretty sure that they specifically did this to wreck the Camry, rather than to demo the tech.
First thing that I would do, if I were going to build one of these for real/permanent, is that I would change how the braking and throttle systems work. The way a modern car pulls input from the driver isn't very effective unless you're putting that level of pressure on pedals and steering, as evidenced by their rig that was applying force to pedals. Brakes, for one, could be operated off of a very small solenoid if you changed the brake power booster, which are designed to accomodate the right resistance to a human foot. Change that, and things become simpler. You can switch to a tiny activation system rather than something that looks like it was used to tilt a dump truck.
From their video, I couldn't tell how they had worked the steering, if it was actually analog or if it was cheapo-RC "full left", vs "full right" steering. Analog would definitely be the way to go, but if one uses a really small control, it would be easy to oversteer, causing loss of control. Probably why they picked dirt (even assuming that there was the possibility of using pavement that was far enough away that no one would care).
"...even if you didn't enjoy his work, there's no denying his contributions to popular culture. Truly an American icon."
Wait... We're talking about the Computer guy, right, not the pop/metal/goth singer, right?
Now, I know that Slashdot is trying very hard to not post constant unconfirmed updates on war; trying instead to focus on other news/geekishness, but if there's nothing to post, I'll be happy with nothing on the front page...
*sigh*
...but I didn't even know they were Catholic!
... Rick Berman, Executive Producer of the Star Trek(r)(tm)(c) franchise is announcing his retirement from creative control of Star Trek...
C'mon guys... It won't stop sucking until Berman is out of the driver's seat. He doesn't know how to do anything truly creative. He was Roddenberry's financials guy, for crissake, not the creative pillar behind the series.
"This post won't be abused... no. Carry on."
Too late... if only I'd gotten my comment in before yours...
Usually I try to avoid being afflicted by glowing cyber balls, myself.
You know you need to get laid if "Hey baby, wanna cyber?" gets your balls glowing...
Then in theory, we'd be able to see the same part of space from two vantage points, assuming that they're not farther away from us than the distance that light could have travelled since the universe came into being, assuming that one believes in the big bang theory.
So, would this mean that if we can't see one point from two directions now, that if we suddenly can, we've reached the halfway point of the life of the universe? Would we lose the redshift in favour of a green shift?
"Is it really possible to do "distributed computing" using computers that are constantly being turned on and off at irregular and unpredictable intervals?"
Yes, if your system is designed right. Remember, seti@home doesn't require extensive communication to work, it handles 250K packets which are handled over several hours or a day, and then returned, and new information is gathered. This keeps the master servers from being hammered to death. Also, they're redundantly assigned, to make sure of data integrity, and if a client never returns a result, another one with the same packet probably will. It's no good for small jobs, but big jobs, like weather modelling, key cracking, analyzing RF signals, etc, should be fine.
Barring these concerns, I would see this as possibly viable...
I won't be happy until "images.google.com/porn" (or pr0n, for all you l33t h4xx0rs out there) works properly...
... the spark plug.
Spark plugs have not changed at all in at least 60 years, as far as the OEM styles go. They have been remarkably similar since their original designs, a graphite core surrounded by a ceramic insulator surrounded by a metallic threaded ring. Amazing.
"Let's say I steal a $500 stereo. The government might spend $10,000 investigating my crime and imprisoning me. By your argument, "the authorities and lawmakers" would be better off leaving me alone. "
first off, that's NOT what he's talking about. If I read his post correctly, he's talking about collateral damage. It'd be more like if there was a criminal in the house next door to yours, and the government bulldozing your house to erect a barrier around the criminal. Damage was done to others in the name of the investigation by the government. This is a problem. We haven't even gotten into what the investigation itself cost...
" You disgust me. IT'S A CRIME. While you may look at it as a fairly innocent, no harm done crime, it is the law that distributing copyrighted material without the owners permission is illegal. We don't get to choose which laws we obey. Before getting a warrant, police don't think 'I wonder what the negative consequences of this warrant will be?" They think "Someone is breaking the law. I should stop them.'"
Have you looked at the music industry much? Popular musicians have albums go platinum and the industry, selling CDs for $17.95 each, says that the album isn't profitable and barely pays the musician anything. It's to the point that musicians like Moby are going on to talkshows on NPR and telling people that he'd rather them 'steal' his music and listen to it if they aren't going to pay the RIAA for it, rather than it go unheard. Others have come out and directly asked where the money is that the RIAA has asked Congress for regarding pirate-able media taxes, since the artists themselves haven't seen a dime from it, yet the RIAA said it was for the artists' benefit. The entire system is screwed to a pooch, and if the music industry in general isn't willing to adapt itself to meet new demands or new paradigms, it should die.
If you want to compenate a musician for their contribution to society, attend a concert of theirs, or send them a check for $20 or something as gratuity. Don't pay the RIAA any more for their stupid practices.
" A nice idea, but how many people actually DO this on the internet? Just about none. Do you run your own mail server or use the big box at your ISP? Does your ISP even allow you to run an outbound mail server? Many don't anymore."
My ISP allows me to lease IP addresses from them for pretty close to what they paid for them, for a residential grade DSL line. I could probably also obtain a static IP address on a dialup from them, if I was that masochistic. I run my own services. In fact, the only thing that I do from my ISP is Internet Relay Chat, since if someone decides to play 'punt the user', they'll have a helluva lot harder time knocking someone off who's on an OC-48 (with admins who actually read the logs) than they'll have knocking someone off of a 640Kb DSL circuit.
Why would someone committing computer-related illegal activities store anything on their ISP's servers? That's just begging for the systems administrator to find it themselves, and report you for something (assuming it violates their ethics code).
One of the strongest truths in anything that isn't necessarily legal, or could be interpretted as not legal, is that you don't leave any evidence that others can control. If you're really smart, you leave no evidence at all, period, but if you do leave something, make sure that it is in your control, and your control alone.
The other thing that I'm shuddering about is the possible downtime effects that this has on everyone else who uses the equipment for fully legitimate purposes. Suddenly, the possibility of server outages, network outages, and other miscellaneous service problems ensue, especially if a federal entity decides that equipment itself is to be confinscated as evidence, and they don't take care to properly handle what mess they leave behind.