I'll probably get moderated to oblivion but what the hell.
Reason why there are so many exploits for windows is due to the high # of linux zealots out to prove it's a big POS.
If Bill Gates one day told his staff,"Lets all focus on discredeting the linux O/S by revealing every exploit we can find for it"
Well this is what linux zealots have done to MS for years. Do you realize what kind of chaos the linux community has caused for the average IT guy?
Case in point, the nimba virus. I spent the better half of my day cleaning it from a friends machine. It was based on code red, which I think was american in origin. Yet the terrorist took the source code, did a few changes and released it. Had there not been 20,000 linux zealots out there looking for the exploit in the first place, none of this ever would have happened.
Just consider your penguin lovin butts lucky up until now, one of these days some MS zealots are gonna do to you what you've been doing to 90% of the computer using world.
Being smart is not a license to cause destruction.
[It is nice to have a real discussion everyonce in the while, isn't {grin}]
Ah yes, much better than the I 4m l337 i 0wn j00 that you see alot of on/.:)
Well, ok, you mention there should be policing on the net, but how would you implement it without invading privacy? It's really a double edged sword. We need policing, but implementing it will require some sort of system that intercepts and analyzes packets for contriband. Just like you said "However, police do not stop everyone at points in the highway system to check for contraband. Nor do they use any sort of electronic surveillance to search your car."
I dunno, it was a good debate but I think i'll concede on this one. I started thinking about this one start up I had worked for, the CEO lived in LA with his wife, but he had a concubine in our Alameda office. Someone from the executive team started dating her, the CEO told me a bunch of lies to get me to read their e-mail but I didn't because I knew the situation and despite being a concubine, she was one of the nicest people I ever met in my life.
Too bad that CEO was thinking about his flagpole to worry about the financials of the company, about a month after this all went down the company imploded and everyone got pink slips.
I guess I just mentioned that to prove your point. No matter what is done, it will allways be open to abuse by those in power. Seeing what I saw taught me that people in power are the same as you and me, same basic human emotions and desires as the rest of us.
Ok so from what I gatherered, you're saying "if the U.S. decides to radically increase survellance" you'll feel like USA is no longer a good place to live.
I don't want to see radicle changes myself, i'm just saying if there are checkpoints and security for our nations highway systems, why isn't there any for the information superhighway?
We could still to a point, retain people's privacy without taking away their freedom. How many top fuel dragsters do you see on your way to school on the freeways? None right? That's because we have laws in place limiting what the average person needs to get safely from point A to B as well as making sure their vehicle isn't a hazzard to other vehicles on the road. There is no reason why we shouldnt have these types of limitation and checks on other portions of our lives.
Liberty does not give you a license to put others in danger, i'll quote someone else i found, rather good point...
) Note the key word "temporary." If this security would be longlasting (which it conceivably could be), then this statement would become nullified.
AugstWest said while quoting Ben Franklin, "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. "
1. Ben Franklin flew kites in lighting storms not knowing what it was, hoping one would hit the kite so he could find out.
2. Weapons of armegeddic (made up word?) proportions were not availiable at the time. Would he feel the same today?
3. Blindly following what someone says from 200 years ago the way you do, without looking at the current situation is fanatical and dangerous. America is not a nation of fanatics, patriots yes, fanatics no.
I personally do not look forward to the counter attacks that are to come. It can be anything from a nuclear bomb, to a little anthrax in the local water supply, or worst yet, a DOS attack on/. We must be patriots and do whatever we can to prevent them for the common good of the nation.
Awe man your gonna make me open up a whole can of worms and links.
>>Terrorist = exacto knife
>>You = exacto knife
I'm talking about the armor wearing terrorist on the street, you don't think they
exist?
>>How many terrorists carry AK-47s in this country?
I couldn't find a link on it, but at each cell they have found in the US so far
(2 i think) there has been rumors (call em rumors cause i can't find the link)
rumors that weapons stashes have been found there including ak-47's. One
of the terrorist on the run now is supposedly armed and dangerous with a ak-47.
>>Well, the facts just don't back that up. In New York, the vast
majority of violent crimes (something like 90%) occur with guns purchased
completely legally in other states. Most of the rest occur with guns that were
originally purchased legally. It is extremely rare that a criminal gets a gun
through some secret ring of weapons dealers.
Where did you get your facts from? My facts
say 60 years of gun control in Australia have shown and I quote "Western
Australia is now one of the least safest places in the country." Well
I guess you can throw NY in there too now.
>>The truth is that gun control works. Encryption laws will work. They
won't be perfect, but they will help law enforcement do their jobs (do you
really think it hasn't occurred to the FBI or CIA that terrorists might still
use strong encryption?)
Well I just proved gun control hasn't worked, if there is a way
above/over/around a law, a criminal won't stop and anything to get there. You
got to remember, our original oppressors (the English) tried everything they
could to throw us back into the stone age from keeping the cotton gin from being
imported to gun control. It was our nature to find away around that and
eventually through our innovation, become stronger than them.
Going back to what I said in my original comment, encryption backdoors are
wrong, the criminals will find a way in somehow. Our best solution isn't
putting another door on the encryption fortress, its building a bigger badder
bomb to blow it up (more hardware, USAcrypto@home)
Terrorist = AK-47's
Me = I can't buy a clip for my.22 over 10 rounds in California
Terrorist = Russian Crypto scheme with no back door.
Me = Back door crypto program that the terrorist use to steal my credit card # and go buy more AK-47's.
I'm for invasion of privacy during wartime, but do it the American way, WITH BRUTE FORCE. I don't believe there is such a thing as unbreakable crypto if you throw enough hardware at it. Time for some lucky/.'er out there that wants 15 minutes of fame to write de-crypto@home for the US decryption efforts.
I was just mentioning the guns as a point, since terrorist are running around the country with ak-47's right now it is them with the brute force, not the citizens.
I've been real paranoid myself lately, I mentioned on one of my posts a few day's back that security around bay area watersheds has increased 6 fold.
It's really a shame the amount of/.'ers that have no idea what its like to live through a war. I was adopted by my grandparents at an early age, and heard all the stories from the depression and WWII.
The one quote I keep hearing is "Those that would give up essential freedom for liberty deserve neither freedom nor liberty", Well, the man that wrote that flew kites in the rain hoping lightning would hit them. Time's were different then, crypto was barely emerging, there was no weapons for mass destruction. No electricity or piped in water.
You can't really compare what Ben Franklin said then to what could happen today. It may have applied 200 years ago when USA was still a baby fighting the english, but we're all grown up now, part of being grown up is being responsible for your family. Would BF change his tune if he saw what a little anthax released into the local water can do?
I've seen a lot of anti.gov sentiment on/. since the WTC, and I wonder, what do those people against these new wiretapping bills have to hide? Instead of bitching about it on slashdot and saying poor me my goverment is stealing my rights, why don't you do something about it?
How about a de-crypto@home program that takes all our spare CPU cycles for US decryption efforts?
Considering america invented the IC, the PC and the TCP, we've basically invented the tools the terrorist used to communicate. We should start supporting our goverment in taking whatever steps needed to get em.
Here is the one debate I wouldn't mind getting from/.ers. Isn't the internet public? Like our roads and highways? Don't you think it's about time we had some speedtraps to catch terrorist, kiddie porn traders, and anyone else doing "bad" stuff? Would we really be giving up civil liberties? Now honestly ask yourself that. You only have to worry if your doing bad stuff yourself.
Terrorism is to us, what communism was to my grandparents generation. We need to pull together as american geeks to win the war of GenX.
I found this neat wrap
up of American Military Weaponry. They mention several military gagets that
I read about on slashdot a while back. Super-cavitating
torpedo's, the ABL
which is being jointly developed by TRW
and Boeing,
The Land warrior
System which gives our soldiers on the battlefield a counterstrike like HUD
with green for friends and red for enemies. It's warm fuzzies knowing that
none of this is possible without computer science.
I was watching CNN today when an alaskan reservist called in and mentioned anything we do over in afghanistan will be echo'd here. Then a politition on the panel mentioned that the second wave might be biological in nature.
I swear, when I drove by one of my local resivoirs, security was way beefed up.
I don't like the idea of having a human watch anything at this point. You can run checks, but can you trust them? A machine that neither sleeps, nor wants, nor cares about politics that can identify suspected terrorist and alert authorities if they are in the vicinity of a strike zone. I see nothing wrong with that.
I'd rather have camera's at the resivoirs watching out for me, sure I can't lie to the ranger about catching over my limit, but thats a small price to pay when you consider the consequences of not doing it.
You can buy bottled/filtered water all you want, run your thermostat high on your water heater to boil out biological threats, but what if your neighbor doesn't? What if they catch something really nasty and despite all your own precautions you ended up dying from flesh eating bacteria or anthrax?
What if your little cousin or brother or sister went swimming and got something?
This wouldn't be a quick death like the WTC planes, you would watch your loved one suffer over a matter of weeks.
I'm not just for putting face recognition in airports and borders, we also need it near the places where there are no people.
--toqer
Posted non-anonymously cause im not afraid of bad charma.
>>You fail to give reasons why you were fired. Were you fired for being on IRC? Were you fired for giving out company secrets? Were you fired for being a "script kiddie" yourself?
Now first of all, you completely took out of context what I said about the IRC stuff. I used it as an example of how much information we are capable of getting on anyone. Your argument is off topic to the example.
>>No, it is still bigotry, because this mythical relative didn't give any reasons WHY they shouldn't be let into the country, only that because they are "those people" (pick your favorite minority), they shouldn't be allowed in.
The magic word here was "unchecked" here im quoting what i said so you can read it again.
>>>>When you were growing up, did you ever have some relative, that would say things like "They shouldn't be letting all these people into the country unchecked" >It was blind faith in the government that allowed McCarthy to do the damage he did.
And it was blind faith that blew up the 2 WTC's.
Look your argument is a stupid argument disguised as a smart one because you quoted me. I'm sorry but it just came across as smart ass, not smart.
Anyways lemme give you some news.
In silicon valley today security was beefed up around calero resivoir. I drive past it every weekend on the way to my families ranch. My guess, the FBI and the.gov know that upon our first strike, they will counterstrike on our soil. These people and they're sympathizers WILL NOT STOP AT ANYTHING TO KILL US. Including poisining our water supplies. I counted 3 sherriff and 4 ranger trucks. Usually there is only 1 ranger truck. There was less people out waterskiing and wakeboarding today BUT MORE FRICKEN SECURITY. Explain that Mr smarty man.
I wanna get back to more ranting, so anyways, all you script kiddies out there, all you packet sniffers, all you people good at r00ting stuff, phreakin, breaking crypto whatever. America needs you right now, this is not a blind war we are going into, everyone had eyes that swelled with tears everytime they saw a new angle or picture from the disaster. Any IT person worth their salt knows a person that starts the job knowing vs otj training is going to fare out better.
Be smart, just get ready, thats all i'm sayin, use what we know to win this war. Give any and all ideas from that fat brain of yours to help USA win this.
Hell I got an idea, instead of wasting ammo to sight in a gun, why not make laser diodes small enough to fit into the barrel, shoot the beam straight out the barrel, ajust your crosshairs till they meet up with the beam. See how easy that was to give USA that? Uncle sam if you can hear me, that was geek, and this is what I can give as well as my money and blood.
That is geek, that is what we do, lets get ourselves ready to win.
I'm very surprised at slashdot, slashdot should be accused of treason right now.
Slashdot.. for the most part, is american programmed, and it's contents is made mostly by americans. Lets be real about that ok?
Why are you trying to rile the geeks up against the goverment right now? That's wrong.
When you were growing up, did you ever have some relative, that would say things like "They shouldn't be letting all these people into the country unchecked". For a time I thought that this was biggotry, but I have come to realize, this is the truth!
I've been victum from our own sides ability to track people down on the internet. Back in janurary some IRC kiddies tracked me down to my work, called the director of IT and I was fired, one week after closing escrow on my house.
Ok i'm not proud of that, but I disclosed that to prove a point, we the geeks of the USA have that much power to screen people at the border, build technology for our troops, spend money where its needed and rally the people together. Anyone without a positive history, we turn them away. We do not want terrorist or murderors in this country. I know my family had pre-usa history no more than 100 years ago from Sicily. Believe me it was checked!
Instead of rallying everyone up to go anti.gov. Rally them up to support.gov and everything we needs to do in order to pull through this. Last night I was at a party for a marine reservist. Now people please be open minded to what we discussed.
Earlier in the day I took my anger out on some bin laden shooting targets. I told Jon (the reservist) that I was better off dialing in my aim now then waiting for a draft. He laughed and told me marines allready had saddam hussain targets. Also good idea to be ready.
I told him my mother in law was going to rally stocks tomorrow (monday) She used to trade on the floor in the late 70's. Everyone needs to buy FMC, TRW, Boeing, any and all american companies that are related to war. Put your money where your mouth is.
Finally, speak out against anyone riling up bullshit like slashdot is now. Look cmdtaco and rob and the rest of you. Are you not angry? Look at CNN and everywhere else. O'rielly factor is saying "Yes lets get those x-ray machines that can see under your clothes". You want to keep your journalistic integrety? Do the right thing.
Please don't mark me as troll or flaimbait, at least in sci-fi black holes can be used to go back and forth in time.
Would it be possible to go back and change the recent events? Imagine if we could avoid our own casulties from the WTC, I bet our.gov knows EXACTLY where all these people were at before the disaster.
Please if anyone knows about these time travel/black hole theories or laws of physics please post them.
I don't know the exact sales figures are on commercial jet-liners, but I would bet you anything that it is so few I got a better chance of being hit by lightning. Wise up smart ass, stop being the grasshopper and start being the ant. Prepare now for the future. Remember fight club you ass? This was exactly brad pitt's scheme for destroying the world economy. All the stock exchanges are close. CLOSED ARE YOU LISTENING? If shit goes down its gonna be chaos in the supermarkets. If you give a shit about your home, family, pets, anything you have ever loved or cared about, you need to get ready. Go ahead, spend 20 or 30 thousand on a black market SAM. I'd like to see any edible meat left on that bluejay you just shot down for food.
I'm not hoping a full scale invasion happens, but I'm glad my forefathers fought for our right to defend ourselves in our homes.
.22 is the best round to buy. Forget about everything they say about stopping power, you want something cheap because if something really bad does go down, expect to be hunting down cats and dogs for food as well as needing a shitton of ammo for cover fire.
I don't know about the rest of/. Right now i'm damn glad I live in a country where I can own and firearm and form militia's.
I know alot of other people feel the same way I do, I just bought 6 bricks of.22 ammo about 15 minutes ago, wasn't quite mayhem at big5, but there was about 8 people at the gun counter, when usually there is no-one there.
The silicon valley is going to be attacked. No doubt in my mind. I doubt any full scale invasion is going to happen, but from a tactical standpoint, we have several key targets.
Moffet Field, has lots of tracking hardware.
MAE West is a major Internet communication Hub.
Santa Clara county in general has tons of co-location servers, all juicy targets to whoever is doing this.
I just watch willie brown tell the bay area folks not to panic. Doesn't he know we're living in one of the major communication hubs of the world? Guess not.
Sorry to take so much bandwidth writing this, my mind is numb right now, so i'm just sorta letting this flow out. My wife has family in NY, so i'm really scared right now. I'm scared for them, my wife, my and her families and friends.
I'm sorry for the families of the victims. I pray the worst is over.
Maybe I should look at my 6 month post dot com layoff stint as a plus. I've learned to eat less, I got rid of my addiction free candy and soda courtesy of the dot-coms. I've been working in my backyard, getting healthier.
I'm sorry slash, go ahead and troll or flame my comment, my mind is numb and i'm too shocked to write anything usefull.
Have you ever heard of a "Game House"? They're really popular over in Asia, and are just starting to come here. Basically a high end PC running windows with counterstrike, quake, starcraft and diablo on them. Usually 30 or so per location, all networked together and recieving a internet connection from a T1 line. There is one that opened up in silicon valley, berryessa area called rivalution 1172 N capitol ave if you want to check it out. They charge 5 dollars an hour, and are making money hand over fist. I've spent a total of 72hours watching traffic in the place to confirm that on average they have 20 users per hour.
So the future of the arcade is going to be these game houses. Their popularity is simply because of the multiplayer capabilities of these games, the rising costs associated with system maintenence, the slowing economy, and the lack of home based lans with 10 or more pc's. Also for the most part, games are played by kids who don't have the money to shell out for a brand new video card (GF3 for 600 anyone?)
The arcade is dying because we got old boys like nolan in there who aren't willing to change with the times. Let's face it, the whole industry resembles nothing from the atari days. Today's arcade goers are smarter than we were, most kids today know that an arcade machine is probably not too much different than that PC or console they have at home. Back then arcade operators banked on that "magic box" appeal. Today's kids know what makes the magic.
Todays kids want so much more from gaming. They want a social atmosphere, where things like teamwork and comradere are what defines the game. Todays kids want to feel like they are a part of a larger community, which is something the arcades of past never offered.
So it's time you arcade operators evolved, I just told you what the kids want. Sell off your machines, break out early from your leases, maybe keep the street fighter and tekken machines, lease a bunch of PC's so you're not stuck with 80k @year to get new computers, and your off and running.
BTW i've been looking into station management software, does anyone know of any?
I know any.gov in the world just about has the potential to build nuke subs. So no worry about invasion there. What about drug cartels? This is the type of low tech that they *CAN* and probably *WILL* use to smuggle contriband across borders.
Yeah unemployment isn't that bad, I allways wanted to watch all of DBZ series (IM A 28 YEAR OLD CARTOON WATCHER DEAL WITH IT) and it's given me a chance to do that. I've been keeping afloat on that and some under the table consulting work for dirt cheap too.
Your too smart to have things candy coated, so let me give you some things to watch out for.
You're really gonna find out who your friends are. A small minority of your freinds might turn their backs on you cause it's some primal survival instinct. They see you tackled by a bear they run the other way. Don't let it get you down if it happens, you can allways make new freinds, hell maybe we can go for a beer sometime.
Don't trust any temp aganecies. They're all in deep shit right now. Most of them took out payroll loans and are getting hurt now. They'll ask you to come down so they can do a brief 30 minute interview to check out your skills. Don't waste the gas money or time on them. Especially with these current prices. Instead go through the unemployment office, fax out to anything your qualified for in there. Also beware cause the temp agancies will try and trick you into coming down by pretending to be a real company. They just want to check and make sure you look normal, the companies their selling to do care about qualifications, but if you look like an ogre they probably wouldn't let that temp agent send anyone over there again.
Start weaning yourself off the money. I'm serious too!! From now on budget what you have left for paying rent, utilities, cut that fat!
Fax out to real companies using only real job postings, and don't spam every job a company has availiable either. Fax gives the HR person something real to hold on to, that they can pass aroud quickly without having to print it up. If they want soft copy they wil let you know. Don't get discouraged at this point if the interview process takes a long time. It can feel like your getting jerked around, but thats only cause someone is jerkin the hiring manager around on his staff budget.
Most important, don't get mad at your family for getting on your ass about a job if they do. They just care and do not understand the magnitude of the dot com crash. Instead of getting mad with words get mad with facts. Defend yourself with the truth. Merc news, sj chronical, ect all have many articles pertaining to just how many were laid off in the valley. Drive around with them in the afternoon (say 1ish) and say things like "gee look at all the people out on a work day!" and "wow every other house on this block is for sale!" because it's the truth. I see so many people out there everyday wandering like the walking dead. I joined those ranks myself trying to convince myself I was not fired. I went to fry's, shopped till I dropped, took the wife out to the expensive resturaunts. All the stupid stuff i'm telling you not to do now.
We should name this day national dot com mourning day, for all the brave soldiers that went out and bravely fought for the common good of geekdom.
--toq
20k from nortel
20k from cisco
20k from selectron
10k? from webvan
2k commerce one
---
72k people that I can count are now competing with me and each other for a job in the bay area. I'm not sure how many of the webvan people have seen the current job market, but it really sucks bad. Most companies are looking for a Knight in shining armor to save them from themselves, they want someone that can do the job of 6 people. I can't count how many interviews i've been on where the person interviewing me pretty much said "we're in deep shit and we're looking for someone to get us out of it."
Sorry to vent, but i've been jobless since January. It's been real tough, I got laid off a week after my house closed escrow and i'm allmost to the point of selling off my computers to keep my house. I just really feel for those people that just got the pinkslip.
I hate luddites with a passion. They're anti technology unjustified fear is plain lame.
Cinematography is an artform. You have to have set designers design the set, everything from the pattern of the curtains on the wall, the wallpaper, furniture ect. This helps set the mood for a given scene. Right amount of light......
There is many many elements that go into making a movie. So to many its considered an artform.
Movie=artwork
Shrek=movie
I don't think anyone at the academy will argue this point.
With computers, alot of what is considered art is done. It is done, it is marketed, it is researched and archived. If the images at the french louve is broadcasted over the internet, does that suddenly make it not art?
Perhaps, to them art is something that is one of a kind and cannot truly be reprouduced. Like having michaelgelo painting the sistine chaple today. He's dead, can't happen again so its art.
Yet it still doesn't invalidate the fact that its art when its presented on a computer.
In 3d, you set your scene up just like a movie. You build a set from props, add elements like lighting, add some voiceover actors and really talented animators to make the mouth look natural when it speaks. Or make the titantic sail again, bring us back to pearl harbor or go up against 100 foot waves.
This is my perspective on it. Thats why I consider it art. Your freind may have a different perspective, perspective is everything. Tell him all the stuff I just said, if he's reasonable, and can look at it from another perspective I think he'll be a little more ambient and less obtuse on the situation. Good luck!
I've already put 2000+ unpaid volunteer hours into the University, and they take away my work
Isn't both AOL and EA (uo division) being sued right now for not compensating volunteers? I would charge them 10 bucks@hour to be nice 10*2000=20,000 which would be a downpayment on a education at a more professional educational institution. Anyways you don't want to get caught between that raging mormon jehova witness war, "No my god is right, No my god is Right, No my god is right" All religions make me wanna throw up. All religions are the same.
People say these systems are outdated, slow, ect. Other's say the proper place for these relics from the 80's is the landfill. Hogwash!
These systems are the perfect development platform for embedded devices. As cool as palm is it would have been many many times cooler to have shrunk any 6502 80's computer into that format. That would have given them a head start on the amount of software availiable to them. Everything from productivity apps, games, programming languages, even terminal servers in the form of bbs's existed for these old machines. Imagine running a BBS on a palm sized commedore, you could probably fit 60 of them into just 1u of rack space if they used modern IC's.
With the sophistication of modern DSP's, PGA's and ASIC's there would be two roads to take to get one of these to fly, either
a. rewrite the O/S to take direct advantage of the new CPU calls.
b. Just run a emulator within the DSP's native o/s that would emulate one of these old systems.
The biggest roadblock to that goal however is the cost of the dev kits are still very high, even to the average hobbyist. A TI DSP devkit can cost as high as several thousand dollars. For that price i'd rather by a PC though.
Hopefully someday the chipmakers will wake up and realize there is a potentially huge market for these old computer platforms, and thus bring down the price of ther dev kits which will bring these "obselete" computer platforms back into a second generation of use. Remember the atari science kits with tempature and soil water content probes? At that time most farmers would have gotten their gun if you came walking onto their property hooking that thing up to their irrigation systems. Today though I don't know a farmer that wouldn't love to have it all automated. Society has changed alot in the last 20 years, and I think the public is perfectly ready to co-exist with technology in their lives.
Slashdot Mirror
I'll probably get moderated to oblivion but what the hell.
,"Lets all focus on discredeting the linux O/S by revealing every exploit we can find for it"
Reason why there are so many exploits for windows is due to the high # of linux zealots out to prove it's a big POS.
If Bill Gates one day told his staff
Well this is what linux zealots have done to MS for years. Do you realize what kind of chaos the linux community has caused for the average IT guy?
Case in point, the nimba virus. I spent the better half of my day cleaning it from a friends machine. It was based on code red, which I think was american in origin. Yet the terrorist took the source code, did a few changes and released it. Had there not been 20,000 linux zealots out there looking for the exploit in the first place, none of this ever would have happened.
Just consider your penguin lovin butts lucky up until now, one of these days some MS zealots are gonna do to you what you've been doing to 90% of the computer using world.
Being smart is not a license to cause destruction.
--toq
[It is nice to have a real discussion everyonce in the while, isn't {grin}]
/. :)
.gov does whats right.
Ah yes, much better than the I 4m l337 i 0wn j00 that you see alot of on
Well, ok, you mention there should be policing on the net, but how would you implement it without invading privacy? It's really a double edged sword. We need policing, but implementing it will require some sort of system that intercepts and analyzes packets for contriband. Just like you said "However, police do not stop everyone at points in the highway system to check for contraband. Nor do they use any sort of electronic surveillance to search your car."
I dunno, it was a good debate but I think i'll concede on this one. I started thinking about this one start up I had worked for, the CEO lived in LA with his wife, but he had a concubine in our Alameda office. Someone from the executive team started dating her, the CEO told me a bunch of lies to get me to read their e-mail but I didn't because I knew the situation and despite being a concubine, she was one of the nicest people I ever met in my life.
Too bad that CEO was thinking about his flagpole to worry about the financials of the company, about a month after this all went down the company imploded and everyone got pink slips.
I guess I just mentioned that to prove your point. No matter what is done, it will allways be open to abuse by those in power. Seeing what I saw taught me that people in power are the same as you and me, same basic human emotions and desires as the rest of us.
Well, lets just hope our
--toq
Hey WhiteWolf666,
/.
Finally, a possible nice debate with someone on
Ok so from what I gatherered, you're saying "if the U.S. decides to radically increase survellance" you'll feel like USA is no longer a good place to live.
I don't want to see radicle changes myself, i'm just saying if there are checkpoints and security for our nations highway systems, why isn't there any for the information superhighway?
We could still to a point, retain people's privacy without taking away their freedom. How many top fuel dragsters do you see on your way to school on the freeways? None right? That's because we have laws in place limiting what the average person needs to get safely from point A to B as well as making sure their vehicle isn't a hazzard to other vehicles on the road. There is no reason why we shouldnt have these types of limitation and checks on other portions of our lives.
Liberty does not give you a license to put others in danger, i'll quote someone else i found, rather good point...
) Note the key word "temporary." If this security would be longlasting (which it conceivably could be), then this statement would become nullified.
AugstWest said while quoting Ben Franklin, "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. "
/. We must be patriots and do whatever we can to prevent them for the common good of the nation.
1. Ben Franklin flew kites in lighting storms not knowing what it was, hoping one would hit the kite so he could find out.
2. Weapons of armegeddic (made up word?) proportions were not availiable at the time. Would he feel the same today?
3. Blindly following what someone says from 200 years ago the way you do, without looking at the current situation is fanatical and dangerous. America is not a nation of fanatics, patriots yes, fanatics no.
I personally do not look forward to the counter attacks that are to come. It can be anything from a nuclear bomb, to a little anthrax in the local water supply, or worst yet, a DOS attack on
--toq
Awe man your gonna make me open up a whole can of worms and links.
>>Terrorist = exacto knife
>>You = exacto knife
I'm talking about the armor wearing terrorist on the street, you don't think they exist?
>>How many terrorists carry AK-47s in this country?
I couldn't find a link on it, but at each cell they have found in the US so far (2 i think) there has been rumors (call em rumors cause i can't find the link) rumors that weapons stashes have been found there including ak-47's. One of the terrorist on the run now is supposedly armed and dangerous with a ak-47.
>>Well, the facts just don't back that up. In New York, the vast majority of violent crimes (something like 90%) occur with guns purchased completely legally in other states. Most of the rest occur with guns that were originally purchased legally. It is extremely rare that a criminal gets a gun through some secret ring of weapons dealers.
Where did you get your facts from? My facts say 60 years of gun control in Australia have shown and I quote "Western Australia is now one of the least safest places in the country." Well I guess you can throw NY in there too now.
>>The truth is that gun control works. Encryption laws will work. They won't be perfect, but they will help law enforcement do their jobs (do you really think it hasn't occurred to the FBI or CIA that terrorists might still use strong encryption?)
Well I just proved gun control hasn't worked, if there is a way above/over/around a law, a criminal won't stop and anything to get there. You got to remember, our original oppressors (the English) tried everything they could to throw us back into the stone age from keeping the cotton gin from being imported to gun control. It was our nature to find away around that and eventually through our innovation, become stronger than them.
Going back to what I said in my original comment, encryption backdoors are wrong, the criminals will find a way in somehow. Our best solution isn't putting another door on the encryption fortress, its building a bigger badder bomb to blow it up (more hardware, USAcrypto@home)
--toq
Terrorist = AK-47's .22 over 10 rounds in California
/.'er out there that wants 15 minutes of fame to write de-crypto@home for the US decryption efforts.
Me = I can't buy a clip for my
Terrorist = Russian Crypto scheme with no back door.
Me = Back door crypto program that the terrorist use to steal my credit card # and go buy more AK-47's.
I'm for invasion of privacy during wartime, but do it the American way, WITH BRUTE FORCE. I don't believe there is such a thing as unbreakable crypto if you throw enough hardware at it. Time for some lucky
I was just mentioning the guns as a point, since terrorist are running around the country with ak-47's right now it is them with the brute force, not the citizens.
--toq
I've been real paranoid myself lately, I mentioned on one of my posts a few day's back that security around bay area watersheds has increased 6 fold.
/.'ers that have no idea what its like to live through a war. I was adopted by my grandparents at an early age, and heard all the stories from the depression and WWII.
.gov sentiment on /. since the WTC, and I wonder, what do those people against these new wiretapping bills have to hide? Instead of bitching about it on slashdot and saying poor me my goverment is stealing my rights, why don't you do something about it?
/.ers. Isn't the internet public? Like our roads and highways? Don't you think it's about time we had some speedtraps to catch terrorist, kiddie porn traders, and anyone else doing "bad" stuff? Would we really be giving up civil liberties? Now honestly ask yourself that. You only have to worry if your doing bad stuff yourself.
It's really a shame the amount of
The one quote I keep hearing is "Those that would give up essential freedom for liberty deserve neither freedom nor liberty", Well, the man that wrote that flew kites in the rain hoping lightning would hit them. Time's were different then, crypto was barely emerging, there was no weapons for mass destruction. No electricity or piped in water.
You can't really compare what Ben Franklin said then to what could happen today. It may have applied 200 years ago when USA was still a baby fighting the english, but we're all grown up now, part of being grown up is being responsible for your family. Would BF change his tune if he saw what a little anthax released into the local water can do?
I've seen a lot of anti
How about a de-crypto@home program that takes all our spare CPU cycles for US decryption efforts?
Considering america invented the IC, the PC and the TCP, we've basically invented the tools the terrorist used to communicate. We should start supporting our goverment in taking whatever steps needed to get em.
Here is the one debate I wouldn't mind getting from
Terrorism is to us, what communism was to my grandparents generation. We need to pull together as american geeks to win the war of GenX.
--toq
I found this neat wrap up of American Military Weaponry. They mention several military gagets that I read about on slashdot a while back. Super-cavitating torpedo's, the ABL which is being jointly developed by TRW and Boeing, The Land warrior System which gives our soldiers on the battlefield a counterstrike like HUD with green for friends and red for enemies. It's warm fuzzies knowing that none of this is possible without computer science.
I was watching CNN today when an alaskan reservist called in and mentioned anything we do over in afghanistan will be echo'd here. Then a politition on the panel mentioned that the second wave might be biological in nature.
I swear, when I drove by one of my local resivoirs, security was way beefed up.
I don't like the idea of having a human watch anything at this point. You can run checks, but can you trust them? A machine that neither sleeps, nor wants, nor cares about politics that can identify suspected terrorist and alert authorities if they are in the vicinity of a strike zone. I see nothing wrong with that.
I'd rather have camera's at the resivoirs watching out for me, sure I can't lie to the ranger about catching over my limit, but thats a small price to pay when you consider the consequences of not doing it.
You can buy bottled/filtered water all you want, run your thermostat high on your water heater to boil out biological threats, but what if your neighbor doesn't? What if they catch something really nasty and despite all your own precautions you ended up dying from flesh eating bacteria or anthrax?
What if your little cousin or brother or sister went swimming and got something?
This wouldn't be a quick death like the WTC planes, you would watch your loved one suffer over a matter of weeks.
I'm not just for putting face recognition in airports and borders, we also need it near the places where there are no people.
--toqer
Posted non-anonymously cause im not afraid of bad charma.
Fixer,
.gov know that upon our first strike, they will counterstrike on our soil. These people and they're sympathizers WILL NOT STOP AT ANYTHING TO KILL US. Including poisining our water supplies. I counted 3 sherriff and 4 ranger trucks. Usually there is only 1 ranger truck. There was less people out waterskiing and wakeboarding today BUT MORE FRICKEN SECURITY. Explain that Mr smarty man.
>>You fail to give reasons why you were fired. Were you fired for being on IRC? Were you fired for giving out company secrets? Were you fired for being a "script kiddie" yourself?
Now first of all, you completely took out of context what I said about the IRC stuff. I used it as an example of how much information we are capable of getting on anyone. Your argument is off topic to the example.
>>No, it is still bigotry, because this mythical relative didn't give any reasons WHY they shouldn't be let into the country, only that because they are "those people" (pick your favorite minority), they shouldn't be allowed in.
The magic word here was "unchecked" here im quoting what i said so you can read it again.
>>>>When you were growing up, did you ever have some relative, that would say things like "They shouldn't be letting all these people into the country unchecked" >It was blind faith in the government that allowed McCarthy to do the damage he did.
And it was blind faith that blew up the 2 WTC's.
Look your argument is a stupid argument disguised as a smart one because you quoted me. I'm sorry but it just came across as smart ass, not smart.
Anyways lemme give you some news.
In silicon valley today security was beefed up around calero resivoir. I drive past it every weekend on the way to my families ranch. My guess, the FBI and the
I wanna get back to more ranting, so anyways, all you script kiddies out there, all you packet sniffers, all you people good at r00ting stuff, phreakin, breaking crypto whatever. America needs you right now, this is not a blind war we are going into, everyone had eyes that swelled with tears everytime they saw a new angle or picture from the disaster. Any IT person worth their salt knows a person that starts the job knowing vs otj training is going to fare out better.
Be smart, just get ready, thats all i'm sayin, use what we know to win this war. Give any and all ideas from that fat brain of yours to help USA win this.
Hell I got an idea, instead of wasting ammo to sight in a gun, why not make laser diodes small enough to fit into the barrel, shoot the beam straight out the barrel, ajust your crosshairs till they meet up with the beam. See how easy that was to give USA that? Uncle sam if you can hear me, that was geek, and this is what I can give as well as my money and blood.
That is geek, that is what we do, lets get ourselves ready to win.
--toq
I'm very surprised at slashdot, slashdot should be accused of treason right now.
.gov. Rally them up to support .gov and everything we needs to do in order to pull through this. Last night I was at a party for a marine reservist. Now people please be open minded to what we discussed.
Slashdot.. for the most part, is american programmed, and it's contents is made mostly by americans. Lets be real about that ok?
Why are you trying to rile the geeks up against the goverment right now? That's wrong.
When you were growing up, did you ever have some relative, that would say things like "They shouldn't be letting all these people into the country unchecked". For a time I thought that this was biggotry, but I have come to realize, this is the truth!
I've been victum from our own sides ability to track people down on the internet. Back in janurary some IRC kiddies tracked me down to my work, called the director of IT and I was fired, one week after closing escrow on my house.
Ok i'm not proud of that, but I disclosed that to prove a point, we the geeks of the USA have that much power to screen people at the border, build technology for our troops, spend money where its needed and rally the people together. Anyone without a positive history, we turn them away. We do not want terrorist or murderors in this country. I know my family had pre-usa history no more than 100 years ago from Sicily. Believe me it was checked!
Instead of rallying everyone up to go anti
Earlier in the day I took my anger out on some bin laden shooting targets. I told Jon (the reservist) that I was better off dialing in my aim now then waiting for a draft. He laughed and told me marines allready had saddam hussain targets. Also good idea to be ready.
I told him my mother in law was going to rally stocks tomorrow (monday) She used to trade on the floor in the late 70's. Everyone needs to buy FMC, TRW, Boeing, any and all american companies that are related to war. Put your money where your mouth is.
Finally, speak out against anyone riling up bullshit like slashdot is now. Look cmdtaco and rob and the rest of you. Are you not angry? Look at CNN and everywhere else. O'rielly factor is saying "Yes lets get those x-ray machines that can see under your clothes". You want to keep your journalistic integrety? Do the right thing.
Please don't mark me as troll or flaimbait, at least in sci-fi black holes can be used to go back and forth in time.
.gov knows EXACTLY where all these people were at before the disaster.
Would it be possible to go back and change the recent events? Imagine if we could avoid our own casulties from the WTC, I bet our
Please if anyone knows about these time travel/black hole theories or laws of physics please post them.
--toq
WTC Destroyed
All Exchanges Closed
Scary isn't it?
--toq
I don't know the exact sales figures are on commercial jet-liners, but I would bet you anything that it is so few I got a better chance of being hit by lightning. Wise up smart ass, stop being the grasshopper and start being the ant. Prepare now for the future. Remember fight club you ass? This was exactly brad pitt's scheme for destroying the world economy. All the stock exchanges are close. CLOSED ARE YOU LISTENING? If shit goes down its gonna be chaos in the supermarkets. If you give a shit about your home, family, pets, anything you have ever loved or cared about, you need to get ready. Go ahead, spend 20 or 30 thousand on a black market SAM. I'd like to see any edible meat left on that bluejay you just shot down for food.
I'm off to buy more ammo.
--toq
I'm not hoping a full scale invasion happens, but I'm glad my forefathers fought for our right to defend ourselves in our homes.
.22 is the best round to buy. Forget about everything they say about stopping power, you want something cheap because if something really bad does go down, expect to be hunting down cats and dogs for food as well as needing a shitton of ammo for cover fire.
--toq
I don't know about the rest of /. Right now i'm damn glad I live in a country where I can own and firearm and form militia's.
.22 ammo about 15 minutes ago, wasn't quite mayhem at big5, but there was about 8 people at the gun counter, when usually there is no-one there.
I know alot of other people feel the same way I do, I just bought 6 bricks of
The silicon valley is going to be attacked. No doubt in my mind. I doubt any full scale invasion is going to happen, but from a tactical standpoint, we have several key targets.
Moffet Field, has lots of tracking hardware.
MAE West is a major Internet communication Hub.
Santa Clara county in general has tons of co-location servers, all juicy targets to whoever is doing this.
I just watch willie brown tell the bay area folks not to panic. Doesn't he know we're living in one of the major communication hubs of the world? Guess not.
Sorry to take so much bandwidth writing this, my mind is numb right now, so i'm just sorta letting this flow out. My wife has family in NY, so i'm really scared right now. I'm scared for them, my wife, my and her families and friends.
I'm sorry for the families of the victims. I pray the worst is over.
Maybe I should look at my 6 month post dot com layoff stint as a plus. I've learned to eat less, I got rid of my addiction free candy and soda courtesy of the dot-coms. I've been working in my backyard, getting healthier.
I'm sorry slash, go ahead and troll or flame my comment, my mind is numb and i'm too shocked to write anything usefull.
--toq
Have you ever heard of a "Game House"? They're really popular over in Asia, and are just starting to come here. Basically a high end PC running windows with counterstrike, quake, starcraft and diablo on them. Usually 30 or so per location, all networked together and recieving a internet connection from a T1 line. There is one that opened up in silicon valley, berryessa area called rivalution 1172 N capitol ave if you want to check it out. They charge 5 dollars an hour, and are making money hand over fist. I've spent a total of 72hours watching traffic in the place to confirm that on average they have 20 users per hour.
So the future of the arcade is going to be these game houses. Their popularity is simply because of the multiplayer capabilities of these games, the rising costs associated with system maintenence, the slowing economy, and the lack of home based lans with 10 or more pc's. Also for the most part, games are played by kids who don't have the money to shell out for a brand new video card (GF3 for 600 anyone?)
The arcade is dying because we got old boys like nolan in there who aren't willing to change with the times. Let's face it, the whole industry resembles nothing from the atari days. Today's arcade goers are smarter than we were, most kids today know that an arcade machine is probably not too much different than that PC or console they have at home. Back then arcade operators banked on that "magic box" appeal. Today's kids know what makes the magic.
Todays kids want so much more from gaming. They want a social atmosphere, where things like teamwork and comradere are what defines the game. Todays kids want to feel like they are a part of a larger community, which is something the arcades of past never offered.
So it's time you arcade operators evolved, I just told you what the kids want. Sell off your machines, break out early from your leases, maybe keep the street fighter and tekken machines, lease a bunch of PC's so you're not stuck with 80k @year to get new computers, and your off and running.
BTW i've been looking into station management software, does anyone know of any?
--toq
Hands.
.gov in the world just about has the potential to build nuke subs. So no worry about invasion there. What about drug cartels? This is the type of low tech that they *CAN* and probably *WILL* use to smuggle contriband across borders.
I know any
Cool, I hope gas bud goes away!
--toq
Yeah unemployment isn't that bad, I allways wanted to watch all of DBZ series (IM A 28 YEAR OLD CARTOON WATCHER DEAL WITH IT) and it's given me a chance to do that. I've been keeping afloat on that and some under the table consulting work for dirt cheap too. Your too smart to have things candy coated, so let me give you some things to watch out for. You're really gonna find out who your friends are. A small minority of your freinds might turn their backs on you cause it's some primal survival instinct. They see you tackled by a bear they run the other way. Don't let it get you down if it happens, you can allways make new freinds, hell maybe we can go for a beer sometime. Don't trust any temp aganecies. They're all in deep shit right now. Most of them took out payroll loans and are getting hurt now. They'll ask you to come down so they can do a brief 30 minute interview to check out your skills. Don't waste the gas money or time on them. Especially with these current prices. Instead go through the unemployment office, fax out to anything your qualified for in there. Also beware cause the temp agancies will try and trick you into coming down by pretending to be a real company. They just want to check and make sure you look normal, the companies their selling to do care about qualifications, but if you look like an ogre they probably wouldn't let that temp agent send anyone over there again. Start weaning yourself off the money. I'm serious too!! From now on budget what you have left for paying rent, utilities, cut that fat! Fax out to real companies using only real job postings, and don't spam every job a company has availiable either. Fax gives the HR person something real to hold on to, that they can pass aroud quickly without having to print it up. If they want soft copy they wil let you know. Don't get discouraged at this point if the interview process takes a long time. It can feel like your getting jerked around, but thats only cause someone is jerkin the hiring manager around on his staff budget. Most important, don't get mad at your family for getting on your ass about a job if they do. They just care and do not understand the magnitude of the dot com crash. Instead of getting mad with words get mad with facts. Defend yourself with the truth. Merc news, sj chronical, ect all have many articles pertaining to just how many were laid off in the valley. Drive around with them in the afternoon (say 1ish) and say things like "gee look at all the people out on a work day!" and "wow every other house on this block is for sale!" because it's the truth. I see so many people out there everyday wandering like the walking dead. I joined those ranks myself trying to convince myself I was not fired. I went to fry's, shopped till I dropped, took the wife out to the expensive resturaunts. All the stupid stuff i'm telling you not to do now. We should name this day national dot com mourning day, for all the brave soldiers that went out and bravely fought for the common good of geekdom. --toq
20k from nortel
20k from cisco
20k from selectron
10k? from webvan
2k commerce one
---
72k people that I can count are now competing with me and each other for a job in the bay area. I'm not sure how many of the webvan people have seen the current job market, but it really sucks bad. Most companies are looking for a Knight in shining armor to save them from themselves, they want someone that can do the job of 6 people. I can't count how many interviews i've been on where the person interviewing me pretty much said "we're in deep shit and we're looking for someone to get us out of it."
Sorry to vent, but i've been jobless since January. It's been real tough, I got laid off a week after my house closed escrow and i'm allmost to the point of selling off my computers to keep my house. I just really feel for those people that just got the pinkslip.
--toq
I see M$ lawers getting johnny the GI JOE with the kung-fu grip with that most excellent christmas bonus.
--toq
I hate luddites with a passion. They're anti technology unjustified fear is plain lame.
Cinematography is an artform. You have to have set designers design the set, everything from the pattern of the curtains on the wall, the wallpaper, furniture ect. This helps set the mood for a given scene. Right amount of light......
There is many many elements that go into making a movie. So to many its considered an artform.
Movie=artwork
Shrek=movie
I don't think anyone at the academy will argue this point.
With computers, alot of what is considered art is done. It is done, it is marketed, it is researched and archived. If the images at the french louve is broadcasted over the internet, does that suddenly make it not art?
Perhaps, to them art is something that is one of a kind and cannot truly be reprouduced. Like having michaelgelo painting the sistine chaple today. He's dead, can't happen again so its art.
Yet it still doesn't invalidate the fact that its art when its presented on a computer.
In 3d, you set your scene up just like a movie. You build a set from props, add elements like lighting, add some voiceover actors and really talented animators to make the mouth look natural when it speaks. Or make the titantic sail again, bring us back to pearl harbor or go up against 100 foot waves.
This is my perspective on it. Thats why I consider it art. Your freind may have a different perspective, perspective is everything. Tell him all the stuff I just said, if he's reasonable, and can look at it from another perspective I think he'll be a little more ambient and less obtuse on the situation. Good luck!
--toq
Isn't both AOL and EA (uo division) being sued right now for not compensating volunteers? I would charge them 10 bucks@hour to be nice 10*2000=20,000 which would be a downpayment on a education at a more professional educational institution. Anyways you don't want to get caught between that raging mormon jehova witness war, "No my god is right, No my god is Right, No my god is right" All religions make me wanna throw up. All religions are the same.
People say these systems are outdated, slow, ect. Other's say the proper place for these relics from the 80's is the landfill. Hogwash!
These systems are the perfect development platform for embedded devices. As cool as palm is it would have been many many times cooler to have shrunk any 6502 80's computer into that format. That would have given them a head start on the amount of software availiable to them. Everything from productivity apps, games, programming languages, even terminal servers in the form of bbs's existed for these old machines. Imagine running a BBS on a palm sized commedore, you could probably fit 60 of them into just 1u of rack space if they used modern IC's.
With the sophistication of modern DSP's, PGA's and ASIC's there would be two roads to take to get one of these to fly, either
a. rewrite the O/S to take direct advantage of the new CPU calls.
b. Just run a emulator within the DSP's native o/s that would emulate one of these old systems.
The biggest roadblock to that goal however is the cost of the dev kits are still very high, even to the average hobbyist. A TI DSP devkit can cost as high as several thousand dollars. For that price i'd rather by a PC though.
Hopefully someday the chipmakers will wake up and realize there is a potentially huge market for these old computer platforms, and thus bring down the price of ther dev kits which will bring these "obselete" computer platforms back into a second generation of use. Remember the atari science kits with tempature and soil water content probes? At that time most farmers would have gotten their gun if you came walking onto their property hooking that thing up to their irrigation systems. Today though I don't know a farmer that wouldn't love to have it all automated. Society has changed alot in the last 20 years, and I think the public is perfectly ready to co-exist with technology in their lives.
--toq
They changed alot, we have some american servers running now, which makes it alot easier to find good pings :)