While the fear mongering and data collection is a bit worrisome, they might actually be on to something here.
It would be very useful to have crowd-sourced maps of cell coverage, speeds, dropped calls, etc... Would certainly make the choice of provider a much more informed decision, instead of relying on their own coverage maps.
Spyware like this can prove that someone did indeed commit acts of copyright infringement as alleged.
Having police officers break into someone's house at night, unannounced and without warrant, can prove that someone did indeed commit whatever crimes they're accused of. While they're in there, might just find a few more crimes to accuse them of.
We wouldn't for a second tolerate this level of intrusion in meat-space... why is it permissible on computers?
If these laws (or any like them) are allowed to pass, the explanation will be "we installed it because the law permits it, any further harassment by you will result in fines and jail time."
That's why it's important to spread the knowledge now, well in advance. That's why it was so important for sites like Wikipedia to stage the blackout in defiance of SOPA/PIPA last year. Raise awareness BEFORE the laws are passed. Because once they are, digging the hooks out will be an extremely painful process.
Money, my dear boy. (best spoken aloud with a posh British accent)
Why should the powers that be do anything logical, if logic dictates that they make less money? They'll gladly spend millions to ensure their archaic practices are retained as long as it takes to recoup the millions they spent... with interest.
I was going in the exact opposite direction with that. I would consider JJ a high percentage batter. Lots of base hits, very few strikeouts. Of the things I've seen, JJ produces perfectly serviceable works, with no colossal flops. Lost was pretty good. Started out a bit above average, imo, but suffered due to the writers strike and some making-shit-up-as-you-go. Super8 and Star Trek were both good movies. Nothing spectacular, but both enjoyable. Same thing with Mission Impossible: decent flick, while certainly not setting Hollywood ablaze. Cloverfield was a good premise, and really only suffered to due the shaky-cam...
Perhaps that's why he's so popular right now. Studios aren't willing to "swing for the fences." They want a steady hand that will ensure decent returns.
SoC: Nvidia Tegra 3 (T33)
CPU : 1.7 GHz Quad-Core ARM Cortex-A9
Storage : 8GB
RAM : 1GB
Look roughly in the same ballpark to me. If you want to benchmark the WiiU's tri-core Power processor vs Ouya's quad-core ARM... or if you have an Ouya, I'd be happy to learn what kind of overhead the OS takes... but to call the Ouya 2+ generations behind is simply incorrect
But the Ouya isn't trying to compete with PS and XBox. That's the point I'm trying to make. It's priced significantly lower than the *current* price for the nearly-decade-old XBox 360 and PS3.
Seriously... and that's the 4gb model... half the storage capacity of a Ouya, without the USB Stick expandability. Maybe being in a different market will relegate it to the "checkout line of best buy," but I kinda doubt it.
BTW, I have checked out the specs, and Ouya is roughly on par with the "base" level Wii U, while being 1/3 the price.
While I agree that Ouya probably won't set the gaming world on fire, it does have a few major benefits over the existing consoles : Price and release date
The current generation XBox and PS debuted in the $300 - 600 range. Rumors have the next gen starting around $400. Meanwhile, neither of those two have a set release date. Sony has a press conference in a few weeks, and XBox is said to be targeting a holiday release schedule. Given those two factors, the only real competition for the Ouya is the WiiU. Of the two, Ouya is still cheaper and won't be as gimmicky as Nintendo's consoles.
The only wild card here is the Steambox. But that, too, has no set price or release date... and it'll mostly be banking on people who have Steam libraries already setup, and just want to play in their living room
If nothing else, Ouya will be a nice toy to tinker with... their intent to keep it 100% mod friendly certainly sets it apart from the other players.
Agree completely. It took me a year just to get my basic information correct with 3 credit agencies. Basic shit like the spelling of my name, or even what my name is. According to Equifax, I had a completely different last name for a couple years. (for the record, I'm a guy... my last name tends to stay put)
It took that year, plus another year to clear off most of the blatantly wrong financial data. I had a fine levied against me (according to 2 of the 3 reports) for a speeding ticket that I never paid... on a car I never owned, in a state I neither lived in nor visited. The state apparently magic'ed the money into existence and slapped the bill on my credit report. That stuff, the errors that should be simple and obvious, took upwards of two years to rectify. I reported it as erroneous on the websites repeatedly, and sent dozens of letters both e-mail and snail-mail. I still haven't finished clearing some of the less-obvious blemishes... Heaven forbid someone who actually lives in my state, and has the same initials as me should skip out on their JCPenny credit card.
How many more anecdotes do we need before this becomes data?
I can't believe anybody is actually sticking up for this dickwad.
There are levels of "standing up for" that need to be taken into account
This guy is a creeper, and should be punished on par with peeping toms or other pervs. He does not deserve to be threatened with 100+ years of pound-you-in-the-ass jail time for being, as you so eloquently put, a dickwad. He's a dickwad pulling juvenile pranks, not a rapist, murderer, or some master criminal.
And also, lets be clear about what he did and didn't do. He didn't hack anything, he didn't break into secure vaults or anything even remotely technical. He went phishing, and duped people. This is nothing more complex than showing up at someone's doorstep wearing a hard hat and saying, "I'm with blah blah construction. I'm going to need you to leave the house for a few hours, and can you make sure everything is unlocked for me? Thanks." And people gave him what he asked for... people gave him their credentials to accounts with half naked photos on themselves. At some point, ignorance fails to be adequate justification for the actions of the victims here.
Again, to reiterate: I've never said this guy is free of guilt. He's a douche nozzle and deserves to be punished accordingly. I'd probably suggest fines, some community service, and a commuted prison sentence of no greater than 5 years. Bonus points if the community service involves teaching a class on "how to protect yourself from online predators." We can know this guy is guilty, want him punished, and still be disgusted by some overzealous DA piling on mountains of erroneous, if not outright falsified charges. These things aren't mutually exclusive.
If anything, your perceived social stigma from running comes not from potential thievery, or other wrongdoing, but lowered ability to maneuver and avoid collisions. If you're running down the grocery store aisles, you are much more likely to clip a display, knock over the sodas, or crash into an old lady as you turn a corner. Moving slowly, i.e. walking, gives you time to react and avoid those dangerous situations, and lowers the impact should you still manage to bump into someone. Plus, the wheels on shopping carts/trolleys aren't built to handle the RPM inherent in a full sprint. They barely handle a brisk walking pace.
Your "accepted running paths" are simply places with a good visibility of what's ahead, lower density of bystanders, and virtually no property that can be damaged if bumped.
The key here will be distribution and ease of setup.
This Open Wireless Movement would do well to develop and advertise firmware with a user-friendly interface to setup multiple SSIDs, and all the throttling, prioritizing, etc. Or, barring that, they should focus on distributing clear and concise instructions for setting up the above, for all major router brands' default firmware
IMO, this is all just a symptom of our puritan roots, as a country.
We're like a bunch of giggling school-boys "OMG BOOBIES. HAHAH I SAW BEWBS LOL. Meanwhile the girls are screaming because some icky boy saw their girly parts.
Seriously. We as a country need to get over the taboo of the human body. Anyone who wants to see them, easily can. It's just a google search away. (though my lawyer would like me to say that I would advise against such a search while at work)
I like where you're going, it's interesting to compare this case to potential existing situations that mirror intent and outcome. Let's pretend he had met these girls at a bar instead of online, bought them a few drinks (social engineering) and talked the girls into flashing the crowd.
Certainly a few bar patrons would have cell phone cameras ready, and the victims would get the same exposure (if not MORE) than what actually happened.
Would he be looking at 100+ years of jailtime for such shenanigans? Absolutely not. See : Girls Gone Wild. Plenty of women have tried to claim emotional distress due to coerced consent, and every case has fallen through (even in the case with an all-female jury.) The only one to gain any real traction was the case where a girl was underage when filmed, but that's a whole 'nother can of worms.
But if you add "that same thing, but with computers" to the crimes, suddenly we have a serious situation. It ties back to my earlier post, it's all about a lack of education. In a bar, women know not to take their shirts off, and understand the repercussions of such actions. Add computers, suddenly no one understands how to keep their clothes on, and it's the computer's fault.
While I was fortunate enough to never undergo NJP during my military career, I can see one major flaw with moving that system into the civilian sector : Chain of Command
In the Marines, my boss at work was also my boss overseeing my personal life (to a degree) and on up the chain. This gives us a vested interest in not crippling someone via monetary penalties or jail/brig time. I knew a few guys who got NJP'ed for a few things, and there was almost a family-type thought process in place. We'll take care of it in-house, punish the person for their stupidity, and get them back on their feet so they can keep working and stay combat ready.
A judge in civilian court doesn't know you, doesn't care if you're living on ramen noodles and sleeping in your car for the next year. That judge is never going into combat with you. You could literally step into traffic and die as soon as you leave the courthouse, and the judge would not be affected in the least. They just want to set an example of you, and bilk you for as much money as they can, because that money goes straight into the city coffers. Which brings up another major difference that hurts NJP in a civilian setting : Barracks and the Chow Hall (or BAH and comrats) No matter how much money you garnish from a Marine's paycheck, they will always have three square meals and a roof over their head.
I'd love to see some sanity instilled in the Justice system, and I think NJP might be a decent starting point... but it's going to need some serious revisions before it works outside of the military.
The court system could handle it, if we unfucked other areas. The time I got a red-light camera ticket, it took three different trips to the courthouse over a 6-month period, a few cumulative hours of the time of three different judges (and all associated personnel : court reporters, bailiffs, paperwork processing people, etc) And it quite clearly wasn't me or my car in the picture. This is something that a sane person could have looked at and resolved inside 30 seconds. Hell, it's something a local cop should be able to sign off for, and never touch the courts.
If we could eliminate some of the red tape choking the system, we might have time to actually try the serious stuff.
There is a serious lack of critical thinking skills among the vast populace today.
Why didn't the victims here immediately fight back? Have we grown into a culture of automatically following the rules and doing what we're told without question? If someone hacks into your FB account, your first reaction should be to change your FB password, change the secret questions. If you can't get into it, report the account as compromised. There are avenues in place to lessen the impact here... first and foremost, not sending nudie pics around, especially pics with your face in them (or tattoos or other obvious identification)
How about instead of getting to a place where we talk about blaming the victims or not... how about we educate the victims, BEFORE they become victims
And though it doesn't need to be said, I'll go ahead and say it. First and foremost blame needs to be directed at Karen Kazaryan, the alleged criminal here. But no matter how much we do to punish him, there will always be scuzzy people seeking to prey on anyone they can. The best way to counter that is to educate people on how to protect themselves.
Sounds like total losses across the board, not just for one guy.
One of the big selling points for EVE Online is that they fully allow real currency (yes, actual dollars) to purchase in-game goods and services. The general thought process being : in normal video games (specifically MMOs like WoW) people without jobs are at a distinct advantage because they can spend all day killing boars, leveling up, mining ore, etc. EVE balances that by letting employed individuals use the fruits of their daily activities in game. You spent all day farming in-game, I spent all day farming in the real world.
That being said, I'm not intimately familiar with the economy of EVE... but from the article, a single ship is worth upwards of $3,500. A lot of the smaller ships are worth a few hundred bucks at least. Multiply that across 3,000 people involved and, well... that's a lot of real money blown on virtual space ships.
Slashdot Mirror
While the fear mongering and data collection is a bit worrisome, they might actually be on to something here.
It would be very useful to have crowd-sourced maps of cell coverage, speeds, dropped calls, etc... Would certainly make the choice of provider a much more informed decision, instead of relying on their own coverage maps.
Spyware like this can prove that someone did indeed commit acts of copyright infringement as alleged.
Having police officers break into someone's house at night, unannounced and without warrant, can prove that someone did indeed commit whatever crimes they're accused of. While they're in there, might just find a few more crimes to accuse them of.
We wouldn't for a second tolerate this level of intrusion in meat-space... why is it permissible on computers?
If these laws (or any like them) are allowed to pass, the explanation will be "we installed it because the law permits it, any further harassment by you will result in fines and jail time."
That's why it's important to spread the knowledge now, well in advance. That's why it was so important for sites like Wikipedia to stage the blackout in defiance of SOPA/PIPA last year. Raise awareness BEFORE the laws are passed. Because once they are, digging the hooks out will be an extremely painful process.
... without an immediate apology? Are you sure that you're Canadian?
Unless they're backed by law enforcement, at which point they'll be explaining nothing.
That's the point.
These agencies are trying to legalize computer-rape, so that when they bend you over, you've no recourse but to take it and pray for a reach around
Money, my dear boy. (best spoken aloud with a posh British accent)
Why should the powers that be do anything logical, if logic dictates that they make less money? They'll gladly spend millions to ensure their archaic practices are retained as long as it takes to recoup the millions they spent ... with interest.
Interesting...
I was going in the exact opposite direction with that. I would consider JJ a high percentage batter. Lots of base hits, very few strikeouts. Of the things I've seen, JJ produces perfectly serviceable works, with no colossal flops. Lost was pretty good. Started out a bit above average, imo, but suffered due to the writers strike and some making-shit-up-as-you-go. Super8 and Star Trek were both good movies. Nothing spectacular, but both enjoyable. Same thing with Mission Impossible: decent flick, while certainly not setting Hollywood ablaze. Cloverfield was a good premise, and really only suffered to due the shaky-cam...
Perhaps that's why he's so popular right now. Studios aren't willing to "swing for the fences." They want a steady hand that will ensure decent returns.
Even compared to the Wii U, this is still a toy.
WiiU
CPU : 1.24 GHz Tri-Core IBM PowerPC "Espresso"
GPU : AMD Radeon "Latte" @ 550 MHz.
Storage : 8GB / 32GB (depending on model)
RAM : 2 GB total (4x 512 MB DDR3-1600) 1GB reserved for OS.
Ouya
SoC: Nvidia Tegra 3 (T33)
CPU : 1.7 GHz Quad-Core ARM Cortex-A9
Storage : 8GB
RAM : 1GB
Look roughly in the same ballpark to me. If you want to benchmark the WiiU's tri-core Power processor vs Ouya's quad-core ARM ... or if you have an Ouya, I'd be happy to learn what kind of overhead the OS takes... but to call the Ouya 2+ generations behind is simply incorrect
But the Ouya isn't trying to compete with PS and XBox. That's the point I'm trying to make. It's priced significantly lower than the *current* price for the nearly-decade-old XBox 360 and PS3.
Seriously... and that's the 4gb model ... half the storage capacity of a Ouya, without the USB Stick expandability. Maybe being in a different market will relegate it to the "checkout line of best buy," but I kinda doubt it.
BTW, I have checked out the specs, and Ouya is roughly on par with the "base" level Wii U, while being 1/3 the price.
While I agree that Ouya probably won't set the gaming world on fire, it does have a few major benefits over the existing consoles : Price and release date
The current generation XBox and PS debuted in the $300 - 600 range. Rumors have the next gen starting around $400. Meanwhile, neither of those two have a set release date. Sony has a press conference in a few weeks, and XBox is said to be targeting a holiday release schedule. Given those two factors, the only real competition for the Ouya is the WiiU. Of the two, Ouya is still cheaper and won't be as gimmicky as Nintendo's consoles.
The only wild card here is the Steambox. But that, too, has no set price or release date... and it'll mostly be banking on people who have Steam libraries already setup, and just want to play in their living room
If nothing else, Ouya will be a nice toy to tinker with... their intent to keep it 100% mod friendly certainly sets it apart from the other players.
It's in the article. :)
Which perfectly explains why GP couldn't find it.
Agree completely. It took me a year just to get my basic information correct with 3 credit agencies. Basic shit like the spelling of my name, or even what my name is. According to Equifax, I had a completely different last name for a couple years. (for the record, I'm a guy... my last name tends to stay put)
It took that year, plus another year to clear off most of the blatantly wrong financial data. I had a fine levied against me (according to 2 of the 3 reports) for a speeding ticket that I never paid ... on a car I never owned, in a state I neither lived in nor visited. The state apparently magic'ed the money into existence and slapped the bill on my credit report. That stuff, the errors that should be simple and obvious, took upwards of two years to rectify. I reported it as erroneous on the websites repeatedly, and sent dozens of letters both e-mail and snail-mail. I still haven't finished clearing some of the less-obvious blemishes... Heaven forbid someone who actually lives in my state, and has the same initials as me should skip out on their JCPenny credit card.
How many more anecdotes do we need before this becomes data?
I can't believe anybody is actually sticking up for this dickwad.
There are levels of "standing up for" that need to be taken into account
This guy is a creeper, and should be punished on par with peeping toms or other pervs. He does not deserve to be threatened with 100+ years of pound-you-in-the-ass jail time for being, as you so eloquently put, a dickwad. He's a dickwad pulling juvenile pranks, not a rapist, murderer, or some master criminal.
And also, lets be clear about what he did and didn't do. He didn't hack anything, he didn't break into secure vaults or anything even remotely technical. He went phishing, and duped people. This is nothing more complex than showing up at someone's doorstep wearing a hard hat and saying, "I'm with blah blah construction. I'm going to need you to leave the house for a few hours, and can you make sure everything is unlocked for me? Thanks." And people gave him what he asked for ... people gave him their credentials to accounts with half naked photos on themselves. At some point, ignorance fails to be adequate justification for the actions of the victims here.
Again, to reiterate: I've never said this guy is free of guilt. He's a douche nozzle and deserves to be punished accordingly. I'd probably suggest fines, some community service, and a commuted prison sentence of no greater than 5 years. Bonus points if the community service involves teaching a class on "how to protect yourself from online predators." We can know this guy is guilty, want him punished, and still be disgusted by some overzealous DA piling on mountains of erroneous, if not outright falsified charges. These things aren't mutually exclusive.
But it is the gvmnts job to ensure that monopolies and collusion do not hamper honest business practices.
If anything, your perceived social stigma from running comes not from potential thievery, or other wrongdoing, but lowered ability to maneuver and avoid collisions. If you're running down the grocery store aisles, you are much more likely to clip a display, knock over the sodas, or crash into an old lady as you turn a corner. Moving slowly, i.e. walking, gives you time to react and avoid those dangerous situations, and lowers the impact should you still manage to bump into someone. Plus, the wheels on shopping carts/trolleys aren't built to handle the RPM inherent in a full sprint. They barely handle a brisk walking pace.
Your "accepted running paths" are simply places with a good visibility of what's ahead, lower density of bystanders, and virtually no property that can be damaged if bumped.
The key here will be distribution and ease of setup.
This Open Wireless Movement would do well to develop and advertise firmware with a user-friendly interface to setup multiple SSIDs, and all the throttling, prioritizing, etc. Or, barring that, they should focus on distributing clear and concise instructions for setting up the above, for all major router brands' default firmware
I just assume you forgot the quotes around "genius".
I just assume you paid Apple royalties for use of the word "genius"
Glass Storefront is just the start. In a few years Apple will have invented glass!
On a long enough timeline, all energy is renewable.
Once the next comet hits and wipes out humanity, it'll only be another couple million years until our graveyards turn into the next oil deposits.
IMO, this is all just a symptom of our puritan roots, as a country.
We're like a bunch of giggling school-boys "OMG BOOBIES. HAHAH I SAW BEWBS LOL. Meanwhile the girls are screaming because some icky boy saw their girly parts.
Seriously. We as a country need to get over the taboo of the human body. Anyone who wants to see them, easily can. It's just a google search away. (though my lawyer would like me to say that I would advise against such a search while at work)
I like where you're going, it's interesting to compare this case to potential existing situations that mirror intent and outcome. Let's pretend he had met these girls at a bar instead of online, bought them a few drinks (social engineering) and talked the girls into flashing the crowd.
Certainly a few bar patrons would have cell phone cameras ready, and the victims would get the same exposure (if not MORE) than what actually happened.
Would he be looking at 100+ years of jailtime for such shenanigans? Absolutely not. See : Girls Gone Wild. Plenty of women have tried to claim emotional distress due to coerced consent, and every case has fallen through (even in the case with an all-female jury.) The only one to gain any real traction was the case where a girl was underage when filmed, but that's a whole 'nother can of worms.
But if you add "that same thing, but with computers" to the crimes, suddenly we have a serious situation. It ties back to my earlier post, it's all about a lack of education. In a bar, women know not to take their shirts off, and understand the repercussions of such actions. Add computers, suddenly no one understands how to keep their clothes on, and it's the computer's fault.
While I was fortunate enough to never undergo NJP during my military career, I can see one major flaw with moving that system into the civilian sector : Chain of Command
In the Marines, my boss at work was also my boss overseeing my personal life (to a degree) and on up the chain. This gives us a vested interest in not crippling someone via monetary penalties or jail/brig time. I knew a few guys who got NJP'ed for a few things, and there was almost a family-type thought process in place. We'll take care of it in-house, punish the person for their stupidity, and get them back on their feet so they can keep working and stay combat ready.
A judge in civilian court doesn't know you, doesn't care if you're living on ramen noodles and sleeping in your car for the next year. That judge is never going into combat with you. You could literally step into traffic and die as soon as you leave the courthouse, and the judge would not be affected in the least. They just want to set an example of you, and bilk you for as much money as they can, because that money goes straight into the city coffers. Which brings up another major difference that hurts NJP in a civilian setting : Barracks and the Chow Hall (or BAH and comrats) No matter how much money you garnish from a Marine's paycheck, they will always have three square meals and a roof over their head.
I'd love to see some sanity instilled in the Justice system, and I think NJP might be a decent starting point ... but it's going to need some serious revisions before it works outside of the military.
The court system could handle it, if we unfucked other areas. The time I got a red-light camera ticket, it took three different trips to the courthouse over a 6-month period, a few cumulative hours of the time of three different judges (and all associated personnel : court reporters, bailiffs, paperwork processing people, etc) And it quite clearly wasn't me or my car in the picture. This is something that a sane person could have looked at and resolved inside 30 seconds. Hell, it's something a local cop should be able to sign off for, and never touch the courts.
If we could eliminate some of the red tape choking the system, we might have time to actually try the serious stuff.
There is a serious lack of critical thinking skills among the vast populace today.
Why didn't the victims here immediately fight back? Have we grown into a culture of automatically following the rules and doing what we're told without question? If someone hacks into your FB account, your first reaction should be to change your FB password, change the secret questions. If you can't get into it, report the account as compromised. There are avenues in place to lessen the impact here... first and foremost, not sending nudie pics around, especially pics with your face in them (or tattoos or other obvious identification)
How about instead of getting to a place where we talk about blaming the victims or not ... how about we educate the victims, BEFORE they become victims
And though it doesn't need to be said, I'll go ahead and say it. First and foremost blame needs to be directed at Karen Kazaryan, the alleged criminal here. But no matter how much we do to punish him, there will always be scuzzy people seeking to prey on anyone they can. The best way to counter that is to educate people on how to protect themselves.
Sounds like total losses across the board, not just for one guy.
One of the big selling points for EVE Online is that they fully allow real currency (yes, actual dollars) to purchase in-game goods and services. The general thought process being : in normal video games (specifically MMOs like WoW) people without jobs are at a distinct advantage because they can spend all day killing boars, leveling up, mining ore, etc. EVE balances that by letting employed individuals use the fruits of their daily activities in game. You spent all day farming in-game, I spent all day farming in the real world.
That being said, I'm not intimately familiar with the economy of EVE... but from the article, a single ship is worth upwards of $3,500. A lot of the smaller ships are worth a few hundred bucks at least. Multiply that across 3,000 people involved and, well ... that's a lot of real money blown on virtual space ships.