But TPB is located in Sweden, not the USA. Over in Europe, it's usually still possible to defend yourself in court when you're being sued even if you don't have the big bucks
sweden is socialistic.
if your rights are being trampled on; you are entitled to govt. support. in the case of something like this, it is normally a corportation against an individual, not the govt against an individual. as a swedish citizen you should get as good a legal service as if you had to pay for it yourself.
others have mentioned that there is a form of common sense in europe too; if a prosecuter see's that they may fail in actually pressing charges; they wont take it any further.
most people react to C&D letters; which is why they send them. when you have someone smart enough to quote paragraphs of the law back at you; you can at least say you made a chance. most companies live on fear; than fact.
in america, even if you are right; you can get your ass sued off - why? because its a business.
TPB may be very arrogant; but, they are acting solely within their rights. its just transfer of information; they are not providing the illegal content themselves. and, that is legal.
The person in charge of Pirate Bay (a major BitTorrent site) has been flaunting the fact that laws in the US/EU don't have any effect in Sweden
he isn't flaunting that US/EU laws have no effect; he is simply mentioning that bittorrents are not illegal. if bittorrents were illegal, then so would a http reference from slashdot. keep in mind a bittorrent only tells you how to get the files by providing information as to where the file is being tracked. its not the copyrighted file in question that he is hosting.
software piracy falls into the same group as prostitution. its illegal to perform the "act", but its not illegal to exist. if that makes sense.
for example, if a police office catches a prostitude selling services to a gentleman, a crime is being committed. however, prostitutes are legal citizens - and, even their tax is declared so.
the same goes for software piracy, if a company can say "hey, i downloaded this file from user X - which is a copyright violation" and the cops come and cease your computers and find the file in question - you will be convicted of sharing files illegally over the internet.
however, if you have 1TB of TV shows and DVDR images - yet they cannot find the file they have the injunction for; you are free to go. owning the files is legal, sharing them isn't.
there was a case with some direct connect users where a guy got busted by the cops for sharing files; however, he got his computer back with all his illegal files without any legal action been made because they could not find the file in question.
no cap limits, all for 399 SEK/month ($57 USD). my bandwidth utilization over a month is well over 1TB per month. capping sucks. if you have speed; you dont want to be restricted as to how much you can download.
Install XP to one partition, and then seamlessly have your "Documents and Settings" be on another partition? That way you get independence of OS from data for XP. I'd hope there was a way to do that as simply as "mount" on unix so that you don't have to fuss with Environment variables, and half the programs don't actually work correctly with D&S off the main drive.
while the system requires temp files to be in this area; there is no reason why you dont have shortcuts to other drives within these directories. i never store anything in this area of the drive; if i need to re-install anything, i double check that i can export the setting to a file and have the ability to re-import them.
if you are stuck with files in D&S, maybe its time to have a task running regular backups to another drive just to make sure *g*
as a sysadmin for many years; you learn very quickly NOT to put anything valuable on the same drive that boots/manages the operating system.
i use/hda for booting/system and/hdb for *data*. if something screws up on any of the/hda partitions - you *reinstall* (or, try to recover it). bottom line is that none of your data gets messed up, because its on a *seperate drive* (note: not just seperate partition).
i even take it one level further now by putting anything i need (especially development tools/kits) as vmware disc images. this way, i can easily move stuff between machines - and, i just need to install vmware to get started (beats installing everything again).
operating systems should be something you can swap in/out without putting any of your valuable data at risk. hell, if you wanted to use a bootable linux from CD, and rom everything from a ram drive - why shouldn't you?
i wasn't sure how to interpret this article. first, a guy who screws up his own systems; then tries to get acclaim on the "recovery stories". did anyone miss the guy wrote a book on this as well? seems like a publicity stunt.
what happened to the old linux slackware days where all you needed was a boot and root floppy disc and you were all hunky dorey. nothing like vi'ing/etc/ files *sigh, those were the days*
thats a nice and secure server if i must say myself. in one of the emails, he was specifically referring to being part of the esellerate affiliate program - if so, he should e using the esellerate e-commerce engine.. this guy smells danger everywhere, anyone who purchases software from this guy probably gets their credit card number stolen in addition to getting their email address added to the spamming lists (that he also sells)..
i dont bother with music of movies - but, completing the complete series of a tv show and forever having it to view whenever you want is gold. with the groups now releasing HR HDTV, the quality isn't crappy VCD anymore. they can be 350mb or 700mb xvid files with near DVD quality.
the second reason is that sometimes shows ONLY air in the USA - and, they take up to a year to air over in europe. with bittorrents/direct connect - i can watch last nights episode, direct from CBS HDTV ripped into a 350mb xvid file. and, it isn't old news. the quality has just gotten much better over the years.:)
as an owner of the Treo 650 for a few months now (yes, i got it early) - it is definately the best phone/pda combination that exists; it gives users everything that the Treo 600 users have always been asking for.
as for this being a problem, its not.
palmone can get an update out for this to use the memory layout for its file system much more efficiently and then users can run a simple rom updater application (direct from SD card) to get the latest rom image flashed to the device.
if the device had mask rom, it would be an issue. but, i've been updating my treo 650 every week with new rom images. its a small issue, the developers should fix it quite quickly and then its just a matter of getting the flashable SD card image out to normal users to fix the problem.
another alternative = encrypted class files
on
Decompiling Java
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
in 1999 i wrote a paper on security in set-top boxes (one of my first papers); yay. but, one approach we had was to build a custom class loader that would actually load encrypted classes.
the details of the paper are:
1999 - Security in Set-Top boxes European Multimedia, Embedded Systems and Electronic Commerce EMMSEC '99, Stockholm, SWEDEN June 21-23, 1999
there was a lot of interest on this topic back in the time:) i had a number of successful prototypes built - but, unless you build the class loader into hardware (ie: cannot access the.class file), its just another hurdle, nothing more.
bredbandsbolaget just purchased bostream - the major competitor for providing > 10/1 mbit connections. there used to be two, now - there is one:) i just got connected with my 12/9 mbit connection today - never want to think about running with speeds like 512k ever again!
Starter Edition allows only three applications to be run concurrently. According to Microsoft, this limitation 'helps [users] stay organized and reduces confusion.'
trojan horse #1, #2, #3.. thats it! three applications!
You missed the point... the parent poster's company would own IP he created for two years AFTER HE LEFT the company, which is bullshit, to me.
if he signed a non-compete, there is normally a clause specifically to say how long for. if he hasn't signed a non-compete - he can work for whoever he wants.
now, if seagate dont want him working for WDC - then, the only way they can stop him is to compensate him. this means, he should get a salary from seagate to sit on his ass and do nothing for the period they dont want him working for the competitor.
these types of contracts are very common in sweden.
Australia follows English spelling (metre, colour, centre, etc) except for some strange reason the news media uses US spelling.
as a tech person, i've always spelled using american spelling. however, my english teacher used to always pick on my use of 'color' instead of 'colour'. he was a typical brit - end of story. not open to accepting the global sense of english.
you can spell it either way, 'color' or 'colour' - and, most people will understand what you mean. its the same with 'ised' vs 'ized' and of course the 're' vs 'er':)
btw: for the record, everyone knows that 1in = 2.54cm. 1m = 100/2.54 = 39.37 (accurate to 4dp). there is nothing wrong with the metric system, we all know how to count in base 10. imperial is actually more complex to deal with.
well - have you heard about custom software development? maybe create program that captures the picture and decodes it in the same application? when the info is available - THEN launch the web browser/content application?
as the replier to your post mentions, something like this for the Treo 600 would be great. hotlink it to an application button, viola.. done! as a developer for palmos/pocketpc/symbian - its possible to do all these quite easily for either platforms (given the integration of the camera + gprs/mobile telephony).
i question if taking the photo, decoding and opening is faster than just writing in the text manually:) i can see this as a cool 'tinyurl.com' type system. take photo, decode, open browser url.
i wonder how it handles mis-reading of the data (bad light, camera lenses). is there checksumming in place? also, how much can you store in that 2D bar code?
this i think will be an interesting debate - first, the patents can be flagged as suspicious; however, they do predate java (just):P i think that kodak has been spurred on from this due to the sun vs m$ settlement recently.
first things that come to my mind
- why wait nearly 10 years? (i started Java development in 1995, certified 1999) is there any reason why kodak didn't come forward when Java became public in 1995? they say they'll been trying to resolve it for 2-3 years, but that still marks it as 2001-2002 (6-7 years after creation).
- can you really due if no money is being made? sun doesn't sell Java, so, technically kodak is not losing money from the language itself. sure Sun gets side-effect benefits from Java (publicity et al). but, as the Java creator, its always been free - and, not a single dime has been made on the language itself. the sun vs' m$ was for anti-trust issues, not the language.
these type of things make me want to patent anything i can think of and then wait for an innocent company to make it a reality and then sue their asses off.
> Uses Secure Digital/MMC cards rather than Compact Flash, but looks very cool Yet another memory card format to contend with, ugh.
va? SD/MMC have been out for a LONG time - its not news that they are being used within handhelds or portable equipment. they have been in use in both palm and pocket pc devices for well over two years now - not to mention that there are many cameras, mp3 players that use this format as well. if your going to bitch about a new format, try bitching about XD:)
Re:How stupid do you have to be?
on
SCO Offline
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
> SCO had plenty of time to prepare for this
makes you wonder if they had anything to do with the virus itself? if someone was going to make a blatent attempt at SCO - why not make it a surprise. publicity stunt it may be, all being run on feb 1 (sunday, non business day) - its obviously worked. news all over the world has picked this up.
> I can go to Australia, meet Linus at a bar, and outdrink a peron of worldwide importance, in the nude! Schweet.
you know Linus is swedish/finnish dont you? you might have a hard time out drinking him:) ever since i moved to sweden from australia - my alcohol absorbtion abilities has increased ten fold.. i blame it on my buddies.
i could only recognise two that looked vaugly as women. #1 = front row, center, really bad dress sense. #2 = front row. photo looks like taken at university of western australia - damn, been such a long time since i have been there; well over 10 years now *g* if there was four chicks there, i must be going blind.. hell, sweden is EVIL - look what it is doing to my chick-radar.
how many times, before TiVO even existed have we all dreamed about fast forwarding through those darn commercials? they just made it a reality. no patent should exist for that, really... common sense proves prior art.
Most banks only require you to recite your SSN before you enter any transaction damn.. i love sweden. everyone has an identity card; no photo = no identity card. you cannot do anything without your identity card; everything is based around your personal number (like social security id), but, if you want to do anything serious/transaction/bank stuff/use credit card - you have to flash that lovely little bit of plastic.
What, you can't afford a DVD, but you can afford a computer and broadband internet access?
FIRST POINT: computer and broadband internet access is 100% tax deductable, as the have other usage as well (namely, home office/consulting)
Seriously, the relatively low price of a DVD, coupled the hassle of finding a quality rip of a movie I want to see and the nuisance of waiting hours (or days) to DL the rip is one of the reasons I continue to prefer buying DVDs and watch movies in theaters.
SECOND POINT: *days*? what are you smoking? in Sweden, with the internet connections available right now - you can download a full length DVD movie in just under 30 minutes. there are a number of companies offering very serious bandwidth (and, no caps):
www.bredbandsbolaget.se www.bostream.se
for those who dont understand swedish, you can get a 10Mbit up/down broad band connection for around 495Sek/month ~60USD. they are even going ot be offering 100Mbit connections soon.
as for the quality? the 'scene' is doing quite well lately - before, most illegal copies were CAM CORDER recordings; and, these suck. however, they are getting real better these days with the TELESYNC conversions:
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King http://www.vcdquality.com/image.php?id=21876
Master and Commander: Far side of the World http://www.vcdquality.com/image.php?id=2195 4
i actually watched LOTR in the cinema - and, i took my girlfriend along as well. my opinions? it cost me 240 Sek. a new DVD costs around 300 Sek. i could have downloaded the TELESYNC, watched it for free. then, instead of paying some idiots at the cinema for a 3 hour uncomfortable seat; i could have used that money to buy the real DVD when it becomes available - then, i have a pernament copy for myself.
i own well over 300 DVD's - and, i do exactly like i explained here. download a TELESYNC, watch it. enjoy it. save the money i would have spent on going to the cinemas - and, buy the DVD in stead. that way, it works best for me. the quality of TELESYNCS is sufficient these days that the argument that "the cinema is better" is a load of crap. at least i wont get popcorn thrown on my head when i watch it at home.
Slashdot Mirror
sweden is socialistic.
if your rights are being trampled on; you are entitled to govt. support. in the case of something like this, it is normally a corportation against an individual, not the govt against an individual. as a swedish citizen you should get as good a legal service as if you had to pay for it yourself.
others have mentioned that there is a form of common sense in europe too; if a prosecuter see's that they may fail in actually pressing charges; they wont take it any further.
most people react to C&D letters; which is why they send them. when you have someone smart enough to quote paragraphs of the law back at you; you can at least say you made a chance. most companies live on fear; than fact.
in america, even if you are right; you can get your ass sued off - why? because its a business.
TPB may be very arrogant; but, they are acting solely within their rights. its just transfer of information; they are not providing the illegal content themselves. and, that is legal.
he isn't flaunting that US/EU laws have no effect; he is simply mentioning that bittorrents are not illegal. if bittorrents were illegal, then so would a http reference from slashdot. keep in mind a bittorrent only tells you how to get the files by providing information as to where the file is being tracked. its not the copyrighted file in question that he is hosting.
hence, its perfectly legal.
swedish law is messed up.
:)
software piracy falls into the same group as prostitution. its illegal to perform the "act", but its not illegal to exist. if that makes sense.
for example, if a police office catches a prostitude selling services to a gentleman, a crime is being committed. however, prostitutes are legal citizens - and, even their tax is declared so.
the same goes for software piracy, if a company can say "hey, i downloaded this file from user X - which is a copyright violation" and the cops come and cease your computers and find the file in question - you will be convicted of sharing files illegally over the internet.
however, if you have 1TB of TV shows and DVDR images - yet they cannot find the file they have the injunction for; you are free to go. owning the files is legal, sharing them isn't.
there was a case with some direct connect users where a guy got busted by the cops for sharing files; however, he got his computer back with all his illegal files without any legal action been made because they could not find the file in question.
interesting
BBB / Stockholm (SE) / 12 / 9
no cap limits, all for 399 SEK/month ($57 USD). my bandwidth utilization over a month is well over 1TB per month. capping sucks. if you have speed; you dont want to be restricted as to how much you can download.
while the system requires temp files to be in this area; there is no reason why you dont have shortcuts to other drives within these directories. i never store anything in this area of the drive; if i need to re-install anything, i double check that i can export the setting to a file and have the ability to re-import them.
if you are stuck with files in D&S, maybe its time to have a task running regular backups to another drive just to make sure *g*
as a sysadmin for many years; you learn very quickly NOT to put anything valuable on the same drive that boots/manages the operating system.
/hda for booting/system and /hdb for *data*. if something screws up on any of the /hda partitions - you *reinstall* (or, try to recover it). bottom line is that none of your data gets messed up, because its on a *seperate drive* (note: not just seperate partition).
/etc/ files *sigh, those were the days*
i use
i even take it one level further now by putting anything i need (especially development tools/kits) as vmware disc images. this way, i can easily move stuff between machines - and, i just need to install vmware to get started (beats installing everything again).
operating systems should be something you can swap in/out without putting any of your valuable data at risk. hell, if you wanted to use a bootable linux from CD, and rom everything from a ram drive - why shouldn't you?
i wasn't sure how to interpret this article. first, a guy who screws up his own systems; then tries to get acclaim on the "recovery stories". did anyone miss the guy wrote a book on this as well? seems like a publicity stunt.
what happened to the old linux slackware days where all you needed was a boot and root floppy disc and you were all hunky dorey. nothing like vi'ing
http://www.e-buyonline.com/mk.php
thats a nice and secure server if i must say myself. in one of the emails, he was specifically referring to being part of the esellerate affiliate program - if so, he should e using the esellerate e-commerce engine.. this guy smells danger everywhere, anyone who purchases software from this guy probably gets their credit card number stolen in addition to getting their email address added to the spamming lists (that he also sells)..
fun!
i have over 700gb of my favourite TV shows.
:)
i dont bother with music of movies - but, completing the complete series of a tv show and forever having it to view whenever you want is gold. with the groups now releasing HR HDTV, the quality isn't crappy VCD anymore. they can be 350mb or 700mb xvid files with near DVD quality.
the second reason is that sometimes shows ONLY air in the USA - and, they take up to a year to air over in europe. with bittorrents/direct connect - i can watch last nights episode, direct from CBS HDTV ripped into a 350mb xvid file. and, it isn't old news. the quality has just gotten much better over the years.
as an owner of the Treo 650 for a few months now (yes, i got it early) - it is definately the best phone/pda combination that exists; it gives users everything that the Treo 600 users have always been asking for.
as for this being a problem, its not.
palmone can get an update out for this to use the memory layout for its file system much more efficiently and then users can run a simple rom updater application (direct from SD card) to get the latest rom image flashed to the device.
if the device had mask rom, it would be an issue. but, i've been updating my treo 650 every week with new rom images. its a small issue, the developers should fix it quite quickly and then its just a matter of getting the flashable SD card image out to normal users to fix the problem.
in 1999 i wrote a paper on security in set-top boxes (one of my first papers); yay. but, one approach we had was to build a custom class loader that would actually load encrypted classes.
9 .pdf
:) i had a number of successful prototypes built - but, unless you build the class loader into hardware (ie: cannot access the .class file), its just another hurdle, nothing more.
the details of the paper are:
1999 - Security in Set-Top boxes
European Multimedia, Embedded Systems and Electronic Commerce
EMMSEC '99, Stockholm, SWEDEN
June 21-23, 1999
COPY: (pdf)
http://www.ardiri.com/publications/emmsec9
there was a lot of interest on this topic back in the time
bredbandsbolaget just purchased bostream - the major competitor for providing > 10/1 mbit connections. there used to be two, now - there is one :) i just got connected with my 12/9 mbit connection today - never want to think about running with speeds like 512k ever again!
Starter Edition allows only three applications to be run concurrently. According to Microsoft, this limitation 'helps [users] stay organized and reduces confusion.'
trojan horse #1, #2, #3.. thats it! three applications!
You missed the point... the parent poster's company would own IP he created for two years AFTER HE LEFT the company, which is bullshit, to me.
if he signed a non-compete, there is normally a clause specifically to say how long for. if he hasn't signed a non-compete - he can work for whoever he wants.
now, if seagate dont want him working for WDC - then, the only way they can stop him is to compensate him. this means, he should get a salary from seagate to sit on his ass and do nothing for the period they dont want him working for the competitor.
these types of contracts are very common in sweden.
Australia follows English spelling (metre, colour, centre, etc) except for some strange reason the news media uses US spelling.
:)
as a tech person, i've always spelled using american spelling. however, my english teacher used to always pick on my use of 'color' instead of 'colour'. he was a typical brit - end of story. not open to accepting the global sense of english.
you can spell it either way, 'color' or 'colour' - and, most people will understand what you mean. its the same with 'ised' vs 'ized' and of course the 're' vs 'er'
btw: for the record, everyone knows that 1in = 2.54cm. 1m = 100/2.54 = 39.37 (accurate to 4dp). there is nothing wrong with the metric system, we all know how to count in base 10. imperial is actually more complex to deal with.
well - have you heard about custom software development? maybe create program that captures the picture and decodes it in the same application? when the info is available - THEN launch the web browser/content application?
as the replier to your post mentions, something like this for the Treo 600 would be great. hotlink it to an application button, viola.. done! as a developer for palmos/pocketpc/symbian - its possible to do all these quite easily for either platforms (given the integration of the camera + gprs/mobile telephony).
could be a great idea.
i question if taking the photo, decoding and opening is faster than just writing in the text manually :) i can see this as a cool 'tinyurl.com' type system. take photo, decode, open browser url.
i wonder how it handles mis-reading of the data (bad light, camera lenses). is there checksumming in place? also, how much can you store in that 2D bar code?
this i think will be an interesting debate - first, the patents can be flagged as suspicious; however, they do predate java (just) :P i think that kodak has been spurred on from this due to the sun vs m$ settlement recently.
first things that come to my mind
- why wait nearly 10 years?
(i started Java development in 1995, certified 1999)
is there any reason why kodak didn't come forward when Java became public in 1995? they say they'll been trying to resolve it for 2-3 years, but that still marks it as 2001-2002 (6-7 years after creation).
- can you really due if no money is being made?
sun doesn't sell Java, so, technically kodak is not losing money from the language itself. sure Sun gets side-effect benefits from Java (publicity et al). but, as the Java creator, its always been free - and, not a single dime has been made on the language itself. the sun vs' m$ was for anti-trust issues, not the language.
these type of things make me want to patent anything i can think of and then wait for an innocent company to make it a reality and then sue their asses off.
how about using a bandwidth throttling application to only allow the application to only send 1 byte per minute?
> Uses Secure Digital/MMC cards rather than Compact Flash, but looks very cool
:)
Yet another memory card format to contend with, ugh.
va? SD/MMC have been out for a LONG time - its not news that they are being used within handhelds or portable equipment. they have been in use in both palm and pocket pc devices for well over two years now - not to mention that there are many cameras, mp3 players that use this format as well. if your going to bitch about a new format, try bitching about XD
> SCO had plenty of time to prepare for this
makes you wonder if they had anything to do with the virus itself? if someone was going to make a blatent attempt at SCO - why not make it a surprise. publicity stunt it may be, all being run on feb 1 (sunday, non business day) - its obviously worked. news all over the world has picked this up.
> I can go to Australia, meet Linus at a bar, and outdrink a peron of worldwide importance, in the nude! Schweet.
:) ever since i moved to sweden from australia - my alcohol absorbtion abilities has increased ten fold.. i blame it on my buddies.
you know Linus is swedish/finnish dont you? you might have a hard time out drinking him
> Well, if the one in Perth was anything to go by, I count.. well. four?
s -t ogether-800-501.jpg
http://www.linux.org.au/conf/2003/media/Speaker
i could only recognise two that looked vaugly as women. #1 = front row, center, really bad dress sense. #2 = front row. photo looks like taken at university of western australia - damn, been such a long time since i have been there; well over 10 years now *g* if there was four chicks there, i must be going blind.. hell, sweden is EVIL - look what it is doing to my chick-radar.
surely, the patent is on the idea.
how many times, before TiVO even existed have we all dreamed about fast forwarding through those darn commercials? they just made it a reality. no patent should exist for that, really... common sense proves prior art.
Most banks only require you to recite your SSN before you enter any transaction
damn.. i love sweden. everyone has an identity card; no photo = no identity card. you cannot do anything without your identity card; everything is based around your personal number (like social security id), but, if you want to do anything serious/transaction/bank stuff/use credit card - you have to flash that lovely little bit of plastic.
no problems with identity theft here. oh well.
What, you can't afford a DVD, but you can afford a computer and broadband internet access?
6
5 4
FIRST POINT:
computer and broadband internet access is 100% tax deductable, as the have other usage as well (namely, home office/consulting)
Seriously, the relatively low price of a DVD, coupled the hassle of finding a quality rip of a movie I want to see and the nuisance of waiting hours (or days) to DL the rip is one of the reasons I continue to prefer buying DVDs and watch movies in theaters.
SECOND POINT:
*days*? what are you smoking? in Sweden, with the internet connections available right now - you can download a full length DVD movie in just under 30 minutes. there are a number of companies offering very serious bandwidth (and, no caps):
www.bredbandsbolaget.se
www.bostream.se
for those who dont understand swedish, you can get a 10Mbit up/down broad band connection for around 495Sek/month ~60USD. they are even going ot be offering 100Mbit connections soon.
as for the quality? the 'scene' is doing quite well lately - before, most illegal copies were CAM CORDER recordings; and, these suck. however, they are getting real better these days with the TELESYNC conversions:
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
http://www.vcdquality.com/image.php?id=2187
Master and Commander: Far side of the World
http://www.vcdquality.com/image.php?id=219
i actually watched LOTR in the cinema - and, i took my girlfriend along as well. my opinions? it cost me 240 Sek. a new DVD costs around 300 Sek. i could have downloaded the TELESYNC, watched it for free. then, instead of paying some idiots at the cinema for a 3 hour uncomfortable seat; i could have used that money to buy the real DVD when it becomes available - then, i have a pernament copy for myself.
i own well over 300 DVD's - and, i do exactly like i explained here. download a TELESYNC, watch it. enjoy it. save the money i would have spent on going to the cinemas - and, buy the DVD in stead. that way, it works best for me. the quality of TELESYNCS is sufficient these days that the argument that "the cinema is better" is a load of crap. at least i wont get popcorn thrown on my head when i watch it at home.