This poster is claiming that articles about electronic tracking are FUD, and that RFID is wonderful, yet they post anonymously. Isn't there some irony in that?
Under the GPL, I could take the Linux kernel and re-write most of it and make my own OS and charge $699 (pun intended) for the software and source, which would be fine and dandy, because I'm still making the source available.
But since you sold it to me under the GPL, I just put the source code of that $699 copy on Kazaa for anybody to download for free (as in beer), and it's perfectly legal. I could even recoup my $699 by selling CD's for $10 each, within the GPL.
From section 1 of the GPL: "1. You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty; and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of this License along with the Program."
"Open-Source Hippies" don't want everything for free, they want publishers to follow the rules they agreed to when they started using GPL software. Why is that so hard to understand?
For me, this is the kind of stuff that bluetooth was made for.
Uh, no. Bluetooth was made to connect two devices in close proximity, like your phone to a keyboard, headset, another phone, a PDA, etc. It was never intended for wide-area broadcast. It won't work either; too little power and it's not really unicast.
Wi-Fi, on the other hand, was designed for just this kind of application: lots of bandwidth, unicast, reasonable range. They should make more phones with Wi-Fi!
But, the sad truth is that even wifi wasn't good enough. This system uses a radio signal at 200-odd megahertz. That guarantees maximum coverage with minimum power over an extended range.
The higher you go in frequency, the shorter the range and the harder to get around obstacles. Wi-Fi at 2400 MHz stops cold at a building or a tree. 200 Mhz goes right through. Remember, this system will be used by ROAD racers too, where you have to cover a huge area, like all the way to the toe of the "Boot" at Watkins Glenn.
In addition to live racing info, you could have stats on the racers, the car, their sponsors, etc. This could be something you had in every sport.
They already provide this information, and they are working on getting it into other sports.
how many folks want to buy a GBA and the card to use this way?
Getting the GBA is easy, and not a big part of the expense. Cards are like $150 retail, so 30-50 for a GBA ain't so bad. As a racer myself, I'm gladly going to pay the $200+ for the USB version so I can record and archive my lap times.
maybe I'm under estimating racing fans, it's not something I am interested in.
Understandable, but you definitely are. NASCAR fans (of which I am not one) routinely spend $200+ on headsets not even including the scanner to use them with, just so they can hear the crews banter with the drivers.
I've had personal contact with the principals at iCard in the last month, and they sounded open to the idea of helping the Open Source community build a Linux application for their USB version.
The USB version connects to a laptop for broader information display and the ability to archive lap times. This is really useful for club racers and pro racing teams. (I'm a club racer, and this information is invaluable for getting faster.)
There is currently only a Winders version, with no plans for Linux. They may be willing to share the protocol if we can present a serious development team.
Anybody interested? slashdot.org:at; stuart5;dit: com
Well, yes. Why do you need a license plate on a car?
If it's because somebody *might* commit a crime, then you are punishing the VAST majority of innocent people for the crimes of a few guilty people. Follow?
If it's to prove that you paid taxes and registration fees, then it's still presumption of guilt.
Please explain how you get from a tool whose only use is to kill things to a wireless access point. It seems reasonable that a loaded gun left lying around could hurt someone, but a wireless access point!
Leaving aside the false assertion that guns "only use is to kill things", I'll give it a try:
The whole problem here is the concept of people who've done nothing wrong being held responsible for the criminal actions of other people. That's never, ever right, but the politicians and safety-NAZI's found it easier to punish law-abiding citizens for actions that *might* allow a criminal to commit a crime. Makes it seem like they are fighting crime when in-fact they are merely eliminating rights.
And who's to say an access point isn't a dangerous weapon? How do you know the 9/11 highjackers didn't get the "go" order via email from an open AP? That would be at least 3000 deaths chalked up to wireless access points. I'd call that "dangerous".
MACHINES ARE NOT DANGEROUS, ONLY THE WAY PEOPLE USE THEM CAN MAKE THEM DANGEROUS.
and
DO NOT PUNISH THE INNOCENT FOR THE CRIMES OF THE GUILTY.
In most jurisdictions (in the U.S., at least), you would be held legally liable for failing to properly store your firearm,
It was properly stored; it was in my private residence where nobody is allowed to go! You again are telling me I MUST ASSUME that somebody is going to break the law and I'm responsible for THEIR illegal actions. How can that be? That's very dangerous!
[gestapo voice] YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO HAVE THAT [insert anything] BECAUSE SOMEBODY *MIGHT* TAKE IT FROM YOU AND USE IT TO COMMIT A CRIME! [/gestapo voice] The abuses of that logic are endless! Where do they stop?
If you buy something dangerous like a gun, you should be expected to take precautions to prevent its misuse...
I also own a 10" über-sharp Wüsthof kitchen knife, which is "dangerous". If somebody takes it from my house and kills the President, should I go to jail? Do I have to lock up all my forks too? Where does it stop?
If you're so irresponsible as to neglect to install a fence to prevent trespassing neighborhood kids from falling in, then as far as I'm concerned, you have no business building a pool in the first place. Most municipal laws agree on this point as well.
What about the parents? Aren't THEY irresponsible for not preventing their kid from trespassing? Again, you are telling me I'm responsible for the consequences of SOMEBODY ELSE's illegal actions! That's not right!
(But I'll grant you I'd be nuts not to put a fence around a pool, but because it's the right thing to do, not because I'm responsible for the illegal actions of others.)
Why should I be? They are the ones breaking the law, not me. What you are telling me is I have to ASSUME that someone is going to break the law, and that I'm going to jail for not locking my front door. Doesn't that sound absurd? It should.
Shouldn't the police go to jail for failing to prevent the crime then too?
Id love to see his line rentals terms and conditions, they will amost certainly forbid what this guy is doing (intentionally sharing his connection with third parties).
No he's not. He's leaving the front door open. It is STILL trespassing if you enter without his permission. If you attach to his router without permission, your are trespassing and stealing service. The courts are pretty clear on this.
I think you're wrong. This is no different than leaving your front door unlocked. If someone enters you house without your permission and shoots somebody from inside it, you can not be held liable for "wreckless disregard".
In the USA you should be free to assume that somebody will not break the law. Assuming people will break the law is very, very dangerous, and has cost us many of our freedoms through "preemptive legislation" like license plates, inummerable searches without probable cause (travel lately?), and handgun registration.
If you have any "precision electric devices" that relies on clean power from the electric company, you have been deceived. Quality precision electronics will always provide plenty of filtering and regulation of their own.
This would be capitally stupid. Just like CAN-SPAM, it would legitimize spam! Once the spamming scumbags PAY for it, your ISP would not be allowed to block it!
So all those thousands of messages that are blocked now at the ISP level and higher would flow down to your poor little inbox. Suddenly your inbox is 99.6% spam, and most of your bandwidth is dedicated to downloading it. That would be the end of email.
BitTorrent is a give/take kinda thing, if you don't send much then you don't get much. Electronic communism for hippies like yourself.
*sigh* That's only true if there are not a lot of seeds. If there are enough seeds, your download should saturate more-or-less regardlesss of your upload.
As for sharing; I don't see how sharing for the benefit of all is a bad thing. You are here on Slashdot, so you either agree, or you are just a trolling coward.
Because they are the only broadband provider here. There are no other choices except dial-up.
Sucks to be you. Show some initiative and start your own broadband service.
So you get half my bandwidth for the same $30 a month... 0K... cuckoo cuckoo
No, I'm getting half your bandwidth for 1/3 the price, coward. Cowards always seem to be reading challenged... And don't whine "but your shared!". Your 3megs is probably cable, which means you are sharing with far more than 2 people. If it's DSL, then you're not sharing, but I'm still getting a better deal than you.
L0L, your response is what makes that priceless fucker
Easy to call people names when you are a coward, coward.
I think I see the problem with the Evoluent mouse: It's right-handed only. Right-wing, Enron-loving, right-handed Suits only use Windows. So I can see why this patented* mouse only works with Windows. (Yes, I know that's not true, but don't spoil the joke!)
Everybody knows Linux users are more left-wing, so we are, naturally, lefties...
*Another fine example of an obvious patent. I wonder if they patented the left-handed version? DIBS!
Ahhh. I love cowards who just spit vitriol when they have nothing useful to say.
I'm on a 3 mbit downlink (twice yours) and if I'm uploading at half rate that's 128 kbit upstream. That's not enough up to saturate the down.
Go back and reread what I wrote, coward. It's UPSTREAM that becomes saturated. When that happens, you won't get anything downstream. Your downstream will be coming in at less than your upstream. This is a function of TCP, and that it must acknowlege every incoming downstream packet. That saturates your upstream with ack's. The sender isn't getting your ack's, so it stops sending you data. Please go read-up on TCP/IP before you spout off again, coward.
Most people can't just dump their ISP. That's moronic.
Why not? Your the customer, you can do whatever you want. If you can't, that's your problem, not mine.
I get a 3 mbit connection for $30/mo. Beat that fucker.
That's a good deal, no question. I get 1.5 mbit for $10 month (splitting DSL with 2 non-techies). Tag! Your it!
Oh, and thanks for calling me "fucker". It improves my karma.
BitTorrent is a waste of time designed for stupid hippies like yourself.
Yes, that's why large corporations have been using it. It's clearly too complicated for cowards to use. (And I ain't no hippie, coward. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I just don't like Phish or the Dead...)
Go feed your lion some tofu.
What? That is the strangest attempt at an insult I've ever encountered. "A" for effort, coward.
"I've always found profanity to be refuge of the inarticulate motherfucker."
- Lord Byron as paraphrased by ry4an-slashdot@ry4an.org
You're a coward with a bad ISP and bad bittorrent settings.
Seriously; if your not pegging your downstream pipe with even a slow upload, your settings must be wrong. I routinely peg my 1.5m downstream while uploading is restricted to 56k (of 128k available). Assuming of course there are enough other people in the bittorrent, and that you have opened up your firewall, and waited long enough for your information to propogate.
What a lot of people with hugely asymmetric links (like 1.5m/128k) don't realize is that if your upstream link is saturated, your downstream will go to near zilch. I suspect this is what's happening to you, coward. Set your upload limit (via --max_upload_rate) to about half your upstream capacity, and your problems will likely go away. (Again, make sure your firewall has the right holes poked in it.)
Coward, would you care to tell us what country you think was the most innovative in the last century? I'm open to your evidence.Or do you just want to spout objections?
But really, who went to the moon? Who rules the commercial airline business? (at least until multi-government subsidized Airbus underbid us.) And for kickers, where did the Internet start? Not to mention the World Wide Web, Unix, Windows (sorry), the production line, the transistor, etc., etc., etc.
Every dog has it's day. The previous century belonged to the British. The next? Likely the Chinese, maybe the E.U. But there's little question the last century belonged to the U.S.A.
I'm trying hard not to become a Luddite here, but how can we save jobs if technology's main goal is to eliminate those jobs?
If that was true, the United States, arguably the leader in technological advances over the last 100 years, would be at the bottom of the pile, rather than the top. In truth, technology may eliminate some jobs, but it always creates MORE jobs. It merely moves them from one business to another.
When the automakers replaced humans with robots, the smart humans went to work for the companies that make the robots. Those companies and their suppliers employed more workers than were replaced by the robots. The serpent can not swallow it's own tail.
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This poster is claiming that articles about electronic tracking are FUD, and that RFID is wonderful, yet they post anonymously. Isn't there some irony in that?
Was the return address Redmond, WA?
It seems strange that at a time when preventing terrorism is a priority that they would be willing to let weapons such as these LEAVE circulation...
An armed citizen is a free citizen. An armed government is an oppressive government.
Under the GPL, I could take the Linux kernel and re-write most of it and make my own OS and charge $699 (pun intended) for the software and source, which would be fine and dandy, because I'm still making the source available.
But since you sold it to me under the GPL, I just put the source code of that $699 copy on Kazaa for anybody to download for free (as in beer), and it's perfectly legal. I could even recoup my $699 by selling CD's for $10 each, within the GPL.
From section 1 of the GPL:
"1. You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty; and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of this License along with the Program."
"Open-Source Hippies" don't want everything for free, they want publishers to follow the rules they agreed to when they started using GPL software. Why is that so hard to understand?
Clearly Scientology doesn't work. If it did, you would be proudly posting under your own identity, rather than hiding as an Anonymous Coward.
For me, this is the kind of stuff that bluetooth was made for.
Uh, no. Bluetooth was made to connect two devices in close proximity, like your phone to a keyboard, headset, another phone, a PDA, etc. It was never intended for wide-area broadcast. It won't work either; too little power and it's not really unicast.
Wi-Fi, on the other hand, was designed for just this kind of application: lots of bandwidth, unicast, reasonable range. They should make more phones with Wi-Fi!
But, the sad truth is that even wifi wasn't good enough. This system uses a radio signal at 200-odd megahertz. That guarantees maximum coverage with minimum power over an extended range.
The higher you go in frequency, the shorter the range and the harder to get around obstacles. Wi-Fi at 2400 MHz stops cold at a building or a tree. 200 Mhz goes right through. Remember, this system will be used by ROAD racers too, where you have to cover a huge area, like all the way to the toe of the "Boot" at Watkins Glenn.
In addition to live racing info, you could have stats on the racers, the car, their sponsors, etc. This could be something you had in every sport.
They already provide this information, and they are working on getting it into other sports.
how many folks want to buy a GBA and the card to use this way?
Getting the GBA is easy, and not a big part of the expense. Cards are like $150 retail, so 30-50 for a GBA ain't so bad. As a racer myself, I'm gladly going to pay the $200+ for the USB version so I can record and archive my lap times.
maybe I'm under estimating racing fans, it's not something I am interested in.
Understandable, but you definitely are. NASCAR fans (of which I am not one) routinely spend $200+ on headsets not even including the scanner to use them with, just so they can hear the crews banter with the drivers.
I've had personal contact with the principals at iCard in the last month, and they sounded open to the idea of helping the Open Source community build a Linux application for their USB version.
:at; stuart5 ;dit: com
The USB version connects to a laptop for broader information display and the ability to archive lap times. This is really useful for club racers and pro racing teams. (I'm a club racer, and this information is invaluable for getting faster.)
There is currently only a Winders version, with no plans for Linux. They may be willing to share the protocol if we can present a serious development team.
Anybody interested? slashdot.org
Well, yes. Why do you need a license plate on a car?
If it's because somebody *might* commit a crime, then you are punishing the VAST majority of innocent people for the crimes of a few guilty people. Follow?
If it's to prove that you paid taxes and registration fees, then it's still presumption of guilt.
Why do you think we need license plates?
Please explain how you get from a tool whose only use is to kill things to a wireless access point. It seems reasonable that a loaded gun left lying around could hurt someone, but a wireless access point!
Leaving aside the false assertion that guns "only use is to kill things", I'll give it a try:
The whole problem here is the concept of people who've done nothing wrong being held responsible for the criminal actions of other people. That's never, ever right, but the politicians and safety-NAZI's found it easier to punish law-abiding citizens for actions that *might* allow a criminal to commit a crime. Makes it seem like they are fighting crime when in-fact they are merely eliminating rights.
And who's to say an access point isn't a dangerous weapon? How do you know the 9/11 highjackers didn't get the "go" order via email from an open AP? That would be at least 3000 deaths chalked up to wireless access points. I'd call that "dangerous".
MACHINES ARE NOT DANGEROUS, ONLY THE WAY PEOPLE USE THEM CAN MAKE THEM DANGEROUS.
and
DO NOT PUNISH THE INNOCENT FOR THE CRIMES OF THE GUILTY.
Hope that helps.
In most jurisdictions (in the U.S., at least), you would be held legally liable for failing to properly store your firearm,
It was properly stored; it was in my private residence where nobody is allowed to go! You again are telling me I MUST ASSUME that somebody is going to break the law and I'm responsible for THEIR illegal actions. How can that be? That's very dangerous!
[gestapo voice] YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO HAVE THAT [insert anything] BECAUSE SOMEBODY *MIGHT* TAKE IT FROM YOU AND USE IT TO COMMIT A CRIME! [/gestapo voice] The abuses of that logic are endless! Where do they stop?
If you buy something dangerous like a gun, you should be expected to take precautions to prevent its misuse...
I also own a 10" über-sharp Wüsthof kitchen knife, which is "dangerous". If somebody takes it from my house and kills the President, should I go to jail? Do I have to lock up all my forks too? Where does it stop?
If you're so irresponsible as to neglect to install a fence to prevent trespassing neighborhood kids from falling in, then as far as I'm concerned, you have no business building a pool in the first place. Most municipal laws agree on this point as well.
What about the parents? Aren't THEY irresponsible for not preventing their kid from trespassing? Again, you are telling me I'm responsible for the consequences of SOMEBODY ELSE's illegal actions! That's not right!
(But I'll grant you I'd be nuts not to put a fence around a pool, but because it's the right thing to do, not because I'm responsible for the illegal actions of others.)
Why should I be? They are the ones breaking the law, not me. What you are telling me is I have to ASSUME that someone is going to break the law, and that I'm going to jail for not locking my front door. Doesn't that sound absurd? It should.
Shouldn't the police go to jail for failing to prevent the crime then too?
Id love to see his line rentals terms and conditions, they will amost certainly forbid what this guy is doing (intentionally sharing his connection with third parties).
No he's not. He's leaving the front door open. It is STILL trespassing if you enter without his permission. If you attach to his router without permission, your are trespassing and stealing service. The courts are pretty clear on this.
I think you're wrong. This is no different than leaving your front door unlocked. If someone enters you house without your permission and shoots somebody from inside it, you can not be held liable for "wreckless disregard".
In the USA you should be free to assume that somebody will not break the law. Assuming people will break the law is very, very dangerous, and has cost us many of our freedoms through "preemptive legislation" like license plates, inummerable searches without probable cause (travel lately?), and handgun registration.
You need proof?
If you have any "precision electric devices" that relies on clean power from the electric company, you have been deceived. Quality precision electronics will always provide plenty of filtering and regulation of their own.
This can potentially further clog the microwave/radio spectrum [...]
No it can't. The available radio spectrum is infinite. (And I should know; I'm an EE developing wireless comms.)
This would be capitally stupid. Just like CAN-SPAM, it would legitimize spam! Once the spamming scumbags PAY for it, your ISP would not be allowed to block it!
So all those thousands of messages that are blocked now at the ISP level and higher would flow down to your poor little inbox. Suddenly your inbox is 99.6% spam, and most of your bandwidth is dedicated to downloading it. That would be the end of email.
But what about Peanut M&M's?
BitTorrent is a give/take kinda thing, if you don't send much then you don't get much. Electronic communism for hippies like yourself.
*sigh* That's only true if there are not a lot of seeds. If there are enough seeds, your download should saturate more-or-less regardlesss of your upload.
As for sharing; I don't see how sharing for the benefit of all is a bad thing. You are here on Slashdot, so you either agree, or you are just a trolling coward.
Because they are the only broadband provider here. There are no other choices except dial-up.
Sucks to be you. Show some initiative and start your own broadband service.
So you get half my bandwidth for the same $30 a month... 0K... cuckoo cuckoo
No, I'm getting half your bandwidth for 1/3 the price, coward. Cowards always seem to be reading challenged... And don't whine "but your shared!". Your 3megs is probably cable, which means you are sharing with far more than 2 people. If it's DSL, then you're not sharing, but I'm still getting a better deal than you.
L0L, your response is what makes that priceless fucker
Easy to call people names when you are a coward, coward.
I think I see the problem with the Evoluent mouse: It's right-handed only. Right-wing, Enron-loving, right-handed Suits only use Windows. So I can see why this patented* mouse only works with Windows. (Yes, I know that's not true, but don't spoil the joke!)
Everybody knows Linux users are more left-wing, so we are, naturally, lefties...
*Another fine example of an obvious patent. I wonder if they patented the left-handed version? DIBS!
Ahhh. I love cowards who just spit vitriol when they have nothing useful to say.
I'm on a 3 mbit downlink (twice yours) and if I'm uploading at half rate that's 128 kbit upstream. That's not enough up to saturate the down.
Go back and reread what I wrote, coward. It's UPSTREAM that becomes saturated. When that happens, you won't get anything downstream. Your downstream will be coming in at less than your upstream. This is a function of TCP, and that it must acknowlege every incoming downstream packet. That saturates your upstream with ack's. The sender isn't getting your ack's, so it stops sending you data. Please go read-up on TCP/IP before you spout off again, coward.
Most people can't just dump their ISP. That's moronic.
Why not? Your the customer, you can do whatever you want. If you can't, that's your problem, not mine.
I get a 3 mbit connection for $30/mo. Beat that fucker.
That's a good deal, no question. I get 1.5 mbit for $10 month (splitting DSL with 2 non-techies). Tag! Your it!
Oh, and thanks for calling me "fucker". It improves my karma.
BitTorrent is a waste of time designed for stupid hippies like yourself.
Yes, that's why large corporations have been using it. It's clearly too complicated for cowards to use. (And I ain't no hippie, coward. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I just don't like Phish or the Dead...)
Go feed your lion some tofu.
What? That is the strangest attempt at an insult I've ever encountered. "A" for effort, coward.
"I've always found profanity to be refuge of the inarticulate motherfucker."
- Lord Byron as paraphrased by ry4an-slashdot@ry4an.org
You're a coward with a bad ISP and bad bittorrent settings.
Seriously; if your not pegging your downstream pipe with even a slow upload, your settings must be wrong. I routinely peg my 1.5m downstream while uploading is restricted to 56k (of 128k available). Assuming of course there are enough other people in the bittorrent, and that you have opened up your firewall, and waited long enough for your information to propogate.
What a lot of people with hugely asymmetric links (like 1.5m/128k) don't realize is that if your upstream link is saturated, your downstream will go to near zilch. I suspect this is what's happening to you, coward. Set your upload limit (via --max_upload_rate) to about half your upstream capacity, and your problems will likely go away. (Again, make sure your firewall has the right holes poked in it.)
That is, as long as you dump that crappy ISP!
Coward, would you care to tell us what country you think was the most innovative in the last century? I'm open to your evidence.Or do you just want to spout objections?
But really, who went to the moon? Who rules the commercial airline business? (at least until multi-government subsidized Airbus underbid us.) And for kickers, where did the Internet start? Not to mention the World Wide Web, Unix, Windows (sorry), the production line, the transistor, etc., etc., etc.
Every dog has it's day. The previous century belonged to the British. The next? Likely the Chinese, maybe the E.U. But there's little question the last century belonged to the U.S.A.
I'm trying hard not to become a Luddite here, but how can we save jobs if technology's main goal is to eliminate those jobs?
If that was true, the United States, arguably the leader in technological advances over the last 100 years, would be at the bottom of the pile, rather than the top. In truth, technology may eliminate some jobs, but it always creates MORE jobs. It merely moves them from one business to another.
When the automakers replaced humans with robots, the smart humans went to work for the companies that make the robots. Those companies and their suppliers employed more workers than were replaced by the robots. The serpent can not swallow it's own tail.
Does this mean that laptops are now becoming fashion accesories more than tools?
Yes, just like cell phones have.
I also wonder if this is a bad thing or a good thing?
IMHO, bad. Phones are now overpriced, unreliable, feature-happy, hard-to-use, and almost useless as phones. They used to just be overpriced.