You are a moron. Felix Baumgartner is an Austrian (you know, from Austria, in Europe). The company sponsoring the event, Red Bull, is also Austrian. So ah, I guess, fuck you.
Right. That's why dedicating books to people is such a stupid idea. You write a book that has fewer than 5000 copies sold, and is forgotten in a few years. Songs are even more likely to be forgotten.
No wait, that's wrong! It's not a horrible idea. If someone is good at something, dedicating something that you have made/written is fine. It's more meaningful than a plaque which just sits there.
And yes, software stops being used. And plaques rust. Whatever.
Personally, I would suggest putting some notes in the source code (perhaps HTML comments) with details, and in the About section and documentation put a small note, "Dedicated to the memory of Marigold Margret Smith 1935-2012". Nothing too complicated, simple is better.
He's on the ground. It was a successful jump, and the first person has come up to him. It looks like he has the world record, I think it was more than 39 000 meters!
Well done. But hell, bloody scary I'm sure. I'd love to do the parachute stage, but not the free fall.
<html><head><title>Crash MSIE</title></head> <body> <input type crash> <script>for(x in document.write){document.write(x);}</script> <script>for (x in open);</script> <style>*{position:relative}</style><table><input></table> </body></html>
That's like saying avoid keeping your money in Euros, USD or Yen, since the value of them could crash hard at any time, as has happened in the past. It may not happen as much for these government issued currencies. After all, the markets are much bigger, and the governments tend not to like it if their currencies collapse too much. (Not that it helped a large number of countries in the past, including Zimbabwe, Germany, Armenia and other former USSR states, a number of South American states, and many others.)
Personally I use Bitcoints as a labor store. I might do some work for people, get paid in Bitcoin. Conveniently, I can then turn around and donate that money to a charity of my choice. E.g. I gave some to the EFF when they still accepted them (and was disappointed with what they did with them), and I've given some to the FSF 1PC9aZC4hNX2rmmrt7uHTfYAS3hRbph4UN. I can also keep those Bitcoins and pay someone else to do something for me if I want.
I refuse to use Paypal, and the alternatives either don't work around the world, or are otherwise problematic. Bitcoin just works for all the purposes I want it for.
I don't know why anyone would trust exchanges or online wallets. At this time they aren't really regulated, and surely don't have insurance. It's too much of a risk. Instead, keep all your bitcoins in a wallet (an encypted one of course) on your own computer. And make sure you have a backup, 'cause backups are important.
If you are really paranoid, you have an offline wallet that is only on a USB stick or similar, and keep just a few coins in your 'online' (on your computer) wallet. But never keep any more than what you need to pay off in a real online account. Sort of like Paypal, you only keep the minimum in there (or not use Paypal at all, 'cause they are slimey bastards).
Personally, using Ubuntu 12.04, Gnome 3.something, and LibreOffice 3.5.4.2, I can copy from a screenshot directly into a LibreOffice table cell. I can also go to the file system and copy an image (ctrl-c) and paste (ctrl-v) that same image into a table cell. It just works for me.
As for shift and the arrow keys, for me, it has the much more useful function of selecting text. And it works in every application that I use (well, GUI applications with text areas anyway).
Also, I suspect you don't understand how many FLOSS and non-FLOSS applications are developed. You don't hear about bugs in proprietary software, not because people are perfecting them, but because the company doesn't let the world know if it can help it. FLOSS software is generally developed in an open fashion. Moreover, a lot of FLOSS software has a lot of people being paid to work on it. OOo was had people from Sun, and then (sorta) Oracle paid to work on it. LibreOffice incorporates a lot of bug fixes and patches from Novell and RedHat (among others). A lot of FLOSS applications do get commercial support and development.
And I use Bazaar (bzr) for my VC needs. It also just works.
People in the USA have no problem with LGBTQ people? Haha, good one. Yes there isn't systematic state oppression against gay people like there is in Iran. But Iran has much better treatment of transsexual people, including state sponsered sex change operations (all of this stemming from their crazy ideas about gay people, but still). In the USA (and many other countries), young gay people are still much more likely to be pushed to suicide by peers. A same-sex couple will still have a much harder time with acceptance from their family, the federal government, and most state governments, compared to a male-female couple. So, yes, no systematic state oppression, it's much more cultural and no giving the same rights to couples. It was only 2003 that two gay men could have sex in all of the USA without running afoul of local laws. And only 2011 that openly gay men and women could serve in the US armed forces. And there are still a heck of a lot of people who want to reverse those laws.
You are right, the USA doesn't have to be perfect, but it has to be better before I will say it is good. At most it is not bad. (Though, in this area, Iran is bad. The USA is better. That doesn't mean I can't criticize the USA.)
But, you were trying to paint the two countries as quite different, where I would say they have many similarities. In my opinion, the USA is worse for the world as a whole, and it would still be the case even if Iran had a couple of nukes. (It might not be so good for Israel, but as I said originally, Iran doesn't really matter outside that region.)
I.e. Even if I had installed this bad version of PhpMyAdmin, I would not have anything to worry about with regards that eval statement. So, security hey. It's hard, but not that hard.
Oh come now. It doesn't matter when the season finishes, I said he was a sportsperson. Anyway, what team did he play for again? I think it was one of the Victorian ones wasn't it...
The USA is a place where the people can elect the government. They only really have a choice between two parties, and from the outside they are very similar to each other on most major issues. (e.g. what's the difference between the two on foreign policy? The Republicans say "we are going to bomb you", and they do. The Democrats say "we are not going to bomb you", and they do.) While things like free speech are pretty good, to actually have a chance of reaching people with your speech, you are required to have lots of money.
In Iran, the people can also elect the government. Sure the candidates have to be vetted (but they do in the USA too, just vetted according to different standards -- you know how hard it is to get on the ballot as a third party in some states? impossibly hard), but you do normally have a range. Iran, from the outside, looks like a much more civilized country with regards foreign policy as well. They don't try exert influence outside their region, and haven't had a war since the 1980s (when the USA backed the oppressive Iraqi government in an attempt to get rid of the Iranian government).
As for " kills dissenters", well I'm pretty sure that while the USA doesn't do it that often, there is an awful lot of mistreatment. (Pepper spraying peaceful protesters who are sitting down and not doing anything is a recent example, and if you are willing to go back in time, you can find cases where dissenters were killed.) "Kidnaps foreign nationals near (but not within) their borders", which is debatable, and still better than kidnapping foreign nationals from various countries and sending them to third countries to be tortured (extraordinary rendition). "Mistreats minorities", what you mean like the way that non-white people in the USA still statistically are more likely to not be well educated, die earlier etc.? Or the way that in at least one state anyone can be detained until they can prove their citizenship, but it only seems to be hispanics targeted? Or, you know, the whole Jim Crow Laws thing?
Obviously in many ways the USA is far better than Iran. And I would rather live in the USA than Iran (though I would rather live in a third country of my choice than either). But, the USA is not a good country, and it has many problems. And pretending that it doesn't, or that it isn't a hypocritical country, doesn't help anyone. Why not instead fight your government and tell them to stop supporting dictators (Mubarak for over thirty years is a recent example, but there are so many more from around the world), stop interfering in things that don't concern them (almost everything), to open up elections to viable third parties (i.e. fix the really fucked up electoral laws), etc. Make the USA the place that you pretend it is, don't just pretend that it is a great place when it isn't.
Yeah, look. You can't just waltz in here and correct an article like that. We all know that primary sources (esp. if they are the person the article itself is about) are just not as reliable as good secondary sources. After all, you could go around you founded Apple or something if we didn't insist on good secondary sources.
Be a good fellow and actually get an journo to write a correction or something, and then we'll use that article as the source. Though I'm still a bit sceptical about some of the things you've said.
Things: Australia has (theoretically) compulsory enrolment and voting for both national and state elections (theoretical because it's possible to get around this, and after all that, the initial fine for not voting is about $20). There biggest left wing party in Australia are the Australian Greens, who are frankly sometimes a bit, well, crazy. The Labor party are centre-right, and the Liberal Party (not related to the USA idea of liberalism at all) is further right on many issues. So, the politics of the country is sometimes a bit fucked up. Mind, it can't be worse than the USA can it? (And is is surely better than many other so called "democratic" countries.) You get many of the advantages of citizenship just by being a permanent resident. And you don't have to know who Don Bradman was (he was this really racist sports-person). And you don't have to pledge to the queen, or to the laws (Australia has some bloody stupid laws). Only big disadvantage is that you can be deported easily compared to a citizen (who, well, can't be deported). One advantage of being a citizen is the passport. You can't beat that passport. But, you being rich could go and buy a passport in one of the small Caribbean nations if that's all you wanted citizenship for. I think it's about USD 100 000.
Australia has a lot going for it, but citizenship?
It isn't a contract unless I agree to it. Merely handing over money does not create agreement. Unless the museum explicitly draws attention to the contract, and makes you agree (and some how records that agreement), before you hand over money, then there is no contract. Moreover, if I go and buy three tickets, it doesn't matter whether I agree or not, if I hand those tickets over to a couple of friends. The friends haven't agreed to diddly squat. Moreover, what if a kid buys a ticket? They can't enter into contracts, so...
It can't be a breach of contract. I didn't agree to anything when I paid them money for the ticket. I certainly didn't agree to have conditions imposed on me after the sale. (I can't see a ticket until I pay money for it...) That's like, "by opening this package, you agree to the terms of the license enclosed". No, no I don't! Especially if I can't see the license until I pay money.
Also, how are they really going to enforce "no commercial use"? Let's say I take a picture with their permission under the no commercial use. I then turn around and give (not sell) the copyright to that picture to someone else. They can then use that picture commercially because there is no agreement forcing me to force any future copyright owner to agree to the conditions.
I'm sure the same argument would apply in national parks and similar, except that they are generally run by people with access to guns and prisons and such. Still, if I'm in country B, and I then return to my original country A, there isn't much the authorities in country B can do to stop me selling my pictures or using them for advertising or whatever.
So, do I get more money if I hide the wrapper in a Faraday cage so that they can't find me?
What happens if I open the bar in the street, and throw the wrapper? Will they track down the garbage?
The article is a bit light on the details...
And yes, this is quite creepy. The article talks about a similar promotion in Brazil. A country with a high crime rate. Turns out people were a bit suspicious of strangers knocking on their doors...
> Most people don't understand the difference between their web browser and the file manager.
Possibly because MS for many years tried hard to make sure that the two were about the same. Seriously, open up file manager in MS Windows (up until at least Windows Server 2003 with MS IE 6, no experience with anything later), and type in a web URL. That same window will turn into MS IE! Alternatively, you can type a local file address (c:\windows\ or c:\windows\notepad.exe or whatever), and that will open.
Also, KDE, last time I used KDE (2003 or there abouts I think), did the same thing!
The summery is poorly ordered, and so you all have missed the point. The point is not to protect the game backup, but rather, the game source code backup is the reason the person is thinking about this issue. A better summery could be:
With all the talk about solar flares and other such near-extinction events lately, I've been wondering: is it actually possible to store or protect data in such a way that if such an event occurred, data survives and is recoverable in a useful form? Optical and magnetic media would probably be rendered useless by a large enough solar flare, and storing source code/graphics in paper format would be impractical to recover, so Slashdot, short of building a Faraday cage 100 km below the surface of the Moon, how could you protect data to survive a modern day Carrington event? The thinking that lead to this question is, I run a small indie game company, and since source code is kind of our lifeblood, I'm pretty paranoid about backups. Every system has a local copy, servers run from a RAID 5 NAS, we have complete offsite backups, backup to keyrings/mobile phones, and cloud backups in other countries as well. Obviously I won't care in the event of a massive disaster situation, but the question is quite relevant for other types of data, including enough information to 'reboot' 'civilisation' if necessary.
It depends on what you want to store. Obviously paper and all these metallic discs with tiny engravings are not practical for version control (having to print/engrave even every week would rapidly get tiresome), but these are quite good for reboot info. In fact, The Long Now Foundation Rosetta Disk is the sort of thing you would think would be what would be wanted.
In fact, all these questions have already been answered, and/or are being answered by people like the Long Now Foundation.
---
If in fact I misunderstood (and everyone else didn't) and you want to back up games software so that you can access it again, that's different. Ignoring why (and saying, because it's an interesting bloody thought experiment): what's wrong with getting stuff onto multiple formats, storing the devices to read these formats (along with some electricity generators -- perhaps a bike generator), and instructions on paper -- that's one pack. Stick a pack in a fireproof safe, stick it in a mine-shaft. Stick others in multiple different places around the place. (Uluru is pretty good -- geographically stable, big landmark, hardly any people, etc.)
OK, actually the question is not so interesting. But I still would have been more interested in people actually thinking about (mental masturbation or not) that them harping on about "more important things to worry about". It's like: yeah, I'm so prepared, it will take a nuke going of over my home to kill all my backups. And then I'll have more important things to worry about. Yeah. What if you are overseas when the nuke goes off? You'll be alive, and while you have more important things to worry about, having access to letters and documents etc. is still very important for your mental well being. And in the event that the nuke was a one off (i.e. a global war doesn't eventuate) you'll still want to carry on with your life. So fucking well prepare for more than just a nuke going off! Prepare for a anything.
I'm sure there is nothing to stop him suing. However, he isn't going to win. I've been advised (by good lawyers) before not to bother suing over illegal acts by the police, for the simple reason that I wouldn't win. OK, I grant that there are the occasional cases where people do in fact win suits against the police (where they aren't "just trying to do their job"). But, I'm confident (though I don't have anything to hand just now) that most suits in most countries where the police were acting "in good faith" (whatever that actually means....) are won by the police. And even when the police do lose, there is often not any real penalty against individuals to indicate that it would be a very bad idea for them to do such things again.
We'll see what happens here. I would be happy to be proved wrong and for Kim to win big time against the state (and the individuals involved) no matter how nasty he might be (refer the criminals made into hero's comment).
Except the WWW was created by an Englishman while at CERN (on the border of France and Switzerland). The domain system may well be controlled by the US Govt. (Dept. Commerce, -> ICANN) by the WWW is not. If that makes sense.
And it was hardly political either. Minitel lost out because they stopped innovating, because they were not truly global, and most importantly, because they were not open. To get a service on Minitel required approval, it was just another walled garden, like the various USA options which also died (though earlier). Minitel lost to openness, and the ability for anyone to join without approval from a monopoly corporation.
Not only does the "goverment has destroyed his business and siezed a bunch of his assets" (which government? please be clear), the damage done to his house, and the money spent in defence is all gone. He won't be compensated for damaged property, let alone mental anguish or similar.
The police in NZ really fucked it up, and nothing will happen. The cop in charge won't even get a blackmark, let alone the judge who signed off on the illegitimate search warrant.
It doesn't matter if this individual is the most foul and awful person ever, they deserve to be compensated (and not a mere pittance either, but damages plus extra) to discourage this sort of behaviour. And some of it should come out fo the pockets of those directly responsible.
But no, we can't have that, we can't have any sort of fetters on the ability of the police to fuck up livelihoods, nor can we possibly actually hold accountable those responsible.
(Most of the above post applies to all the world, not just NZ.)
Anyway, this indicates a major problem with the domain name system. One which could be solved by a simple, careful and widespread application of OpenPGP. That is, if everyone encrypted emails for recipients, people like this would not be able to read them.
Also, if I were this "security researcher" I would set up legitmate looking websites at the various domains. Perhaps giocondolaw.com could be a website for Grand International Operations. ConDoLaw., a website trying to put together a convention about law for lay peoples, run by GIO, an organisation setup by our hero... Or something. You know, it doesn't even have to be clever, just appear to actually have a real use for the domain name. In the case of the lockheedmartun.com website well, maybe a shell company called Lockhe, which makes an editor (ed) called Martun, Lockhe Ed Martun. Perhaps repackage and sell (for only $5000 a seat, this wonderful software, complete with source code, and what we won't tell you unless you buy it, is that it's just GNU EMACS or perhaps VIM (depending on what you hate the least).
No, it's the entire almost monopoly that is the biggest bug. Eliminate that, and then you the management would go. Either by the company collapsing, or the bad management being gotten rid of.
Personally I have great hopes for BitCoin, but think that the current gateways between the payment system and the external money are too insecure to trust putting any actual money into it.
True freedom would be using the do what the fuck you want to license, or creative commons zero or similar. BSD isn't true freedom because it requires you to keep the name of the original developer.
Ah, so the problem is Flash. Perhaps Flash + Firefox. I don't have a problem because I don't use Adobe Flash. Ever. (I use Gnash if I want to watch something, but it rarely works properly. I live.)
Perhaps Firefox could handle shitty plugins in a better way. But you can't blame Firefox for a Flash memory leak.
Slashdot Mirror
You are a moron. Felix Baumgartner is an Austrian (you know, from Austria, in Europe). The company sponsoring the event, Red Bull, is also Austrian. So ah, I guess, fuck you.
Right. That's why dedicating books to people is such a stupid idea. You write a book that has fewer than 5000 copies sold, and is forgotten in a few years. Songs are even more likely to be forgotten.
No wait, that's wrong! It's not a horrible idea. If someone is good at something, dedicating something that you have made/written is fine. It's more meaningful than a plaque which just sits there.
And yes, software stops being used. And plaques rust. Whatever.
Personally, I would suggest putting some notes in the source code (perhaps HTML comments) with details, and in the About section and documentation put a small note, "Dedicated to the memory of Marigold Margret Smith 1935-2012". Nothing too complicated, simple is better.
Or, you know, if you use Firefox you can select the link and right click...
He's on the ground. It was a successful jump, and the first person has come up to him. It looks like he has the world record, I think it was more than 39 000 meters!
Well done. But hell, bloody scary I'm sure. I'd love to do the parachute stage, but not the free fall.
<html><head><title>Crash MSIE</title></head>
<body>
<input type crash>
<script>for(x in document.write){document.write(x);}</script>
<script>for (x in open);</script>
<style>*{position:relative}</style><table><input></table>
</body></html>
That's like saying avoid keeping your money in Euros, USD or Yen, since the value of them could crash hard at any time, as has happened in the past. It may not happen as much for these government issued currencies. After all, the markets are much bigger, and the governments tend not to like it if their currencies collapse too much. (Not that it helped a large number of countries in the past, including Zimbabwe, Germany, Armenia and other former USSR states, a number of South American states, and many others.)
Personally I use Bitcoints as a labor store. I might do some work for people, get paid in Bitcoin. Conveniently, I can then turn around and donate that money to a charity of my choice. E.g. I gave some to the EFF when they still accepted them (and was disappointed with what they did with them), and I've given some to the FSF 1PC9aZC4hNX2rmmrt7uHTfYAS3hRbph4UN. I can also keep those Bitcoins and pay someone else to do something for me if I want.
I refuse to use Paypal, and the alternatives either don't work around the world, or are otherwise problematic. Bitcoin just works for all the purposes I want it for.
I don't know why anyone would trust exchanges or online wallets. At this time they aren't really regulated, and surely don't have insurance. It's too much of a risk. Instead, keep all your bitcoins in a wallet (an encypted one of course) on your own computer. And make sure you have a backup, 'cause backups are important.
If you are really paranoid, you have an offline wallet that is only on a USB stick or similar, and keep just a few coins in your 'online' (on your computer) wallet. But never keep any more than what you need to pay off in a real online account. Sort of like Paypal, you only keep the minimum in there (or not use Paypal at all, 'cause they are slimey bastards).
Personally, using Ubuntu 12.04, Gnome 3.something, and LibreOffice 3.5.4.2, I can copy from a screenshot directly into a LibreOffice table cell. I can also go to the file system and copy an image (ctrl-c) and paste (ctrl-v) that same image into a table cell.
It just works for me.
As for shift and the arrow keys, for me, it has the much more useful function of selecting text. And it works in every application that I use (well, GUI applications with text areas anyway).
Also, I suspect you don't understand how many FLOSS and non-FLOSS applications are developed. You don't hear about bugs in proprietary software, not because people are perfecting them, but because the company doesn't let the world know if it can help it. FLOSS software is generally developed in an open fashion. Moreover, a lot of FLOSS software has a lot of people being paid to work on it. OOo was had people from Sun, and then (sorta) Oracle paid to work on it. LibreOffice incorporates a lot of bug fixes and patches from Novell and RedHat (among others). A lot of FLOSS applications do get commercial support and development.
And I use Bazaar (bzr) for my VC needs. It also just works.
People in the USA have no problem with LGBTQ people? Haha, good one. Yes there isn't systematic state oppression against gay people like there is in Iran. But Iran has much better treatment of transsexual people, including state sponsered sex change operations (all of this stemming from their crazy ideas about gay people, but still). In the USA (and many other countries), young gay people are still much more likely to be pushed to suicide by peers. A same-sex couple will still have a much harder time with acceptance from their family, the federal government, and most state governments, compared to a male-female couple. So, yes, no systematic state oppression, it's much more cultural and no giving the same rights to couples. It was only 2003 that two gay men could have sex in all of the USA without running afoul of local laws. And only 2011 that openly gay men and women could serve in the US armed forces. And there are still a heck of a lot of people who want to reverse those laws.
You are right, the USA doesn't have to be perfect, but it has to be better before I will say it is good. At most it is not bad. (Though, in this area, Iran is bad. The USA is better. That doesn't mean I can't criticize the USA.)
But, you were trying to paint the two countries as quite different, where I would say they have many similarities.
In my opinion, the USA is worse for the world as a whole, and it would still be the case even if Iran had a couple of nukes. (It might not be so good for Israel, but as I said originally, Iran doesn't really matter outside that region.)
The backdoor was basically an eval that ran anything posted to it (according to the Ars article posted up thread). On my web host, Suhosin is enabled by default, and setup to block eval from ever running.
I.e. Even if I had installed this bad version of PhpMyAdmin, I would not have anything to worry about with regards that eval statement. So, security hey. It's hard, but not that hard.
Oh come now. It doesn't matter when the season finishes, I said he was a sportsperson. Anyway, what team did he play for again? I think it was one of the Victorian ones wasn't it...
Actually they are not so dissimilar.
The USA is a place where the people can elect the government. They only really have a choice between two parties, and from the outside they are very similar to each other on most major issues. (e.g. what's the difference between the two on foreign policy? The Republicans say "we are going to bomb you", and they do. The Democrats say "we are not going to bomb you", and they do.) While things like free speech are pretty good, to actually have a chance of reaching people with your speech, you are required to have lots of money.
In Iran, the people can also elect the government. Sure the candidates have to be vetted (but they do in the USA too, just vetted according to different standards -- you know how hard it is to get on the ballot as a third party in some states? impossibly hard), but you do normally have a range. Iran, from the outside, looks like a much more civilized country with regards foreign policy as well. They don't try exert influence outside their region, and haven't had a war since the 1980s (when the USA backed the oppressive Iraqi government in an attempt to get rid of the Iranian government).
As for " kills dissenters", well I'm pretty sure that while the USA doesn't do it that often, there is an awful lot of mistreatment. (Pepper spraying peaceful protesters who are sitting down and not doing anything is a recent example, and if you are willing to go back in time, you can find cases where dissenters were killed.)
"Kidnaps foreign nationals near (but not within) their borders", which is debatable, and still better than kidnapping foreign nationals from various countries and sending them to third countries to be tortured (extraordinary rendition).
"Mistreats minorities", what you mean like the way that non-white people in the USA still statistically are more likely to not be well educated, die earlier etc.? Or the way that in at least one state anyone can be detained until they can prove their citizenship, but it only seems to be hispanics targeted? Or, you know, the whole Jim Crow Laws thing?
Obviously in many ways the USA is far better than Iran. And I would rather live in the USA than Iran (though I would rather live in a third country of my choice than either). But, the USA is not a good country, and it has many problems. And pretending that it doesn't, or that it isn't a hypocritical country, doesn't help anyone. Why not instead fight your government and tell them to stop supporting dictators (Mubarak for over thirty years is a recent example, but there are so many more from around the world), stop interfering in things that don't concern them (almost everything), to open up elections to viable third parties (i.e. fix the really fucked up electoral laws), etc. Make the USA the place that you pretend it is, don't just pretend that it is a great place when it isn't.
Yeah, look. You can't just waltz in here and correct an article like that. We all know that primary sources (esp. if they are the person the article itself is about) are just not as reliable as good secondary sources. After all, you could go around you founded Apple or something if we didn't insist on good secondary sources.
Be a good fellow and actually get an journo to write a correction or something, and then we'll use that article as the source. Though I'm still a bit sceptical about some of the things you've said.
Things:
Australia has (theoretically) compulsory enrolment and voting for both national and state elections (theoretical because it's possible to get around this, and after all that, the initial fine for not voting is about $20).
There biggest left wing party in Australia are the Australian Greens, who are frankly sometimes a bit, well, crazy. The Labor party are centre-right, and the Liberal Party (not related to the USA idea of liberalism at all) is further right on many issues.
So, the politics of the country is sometimes a bit fucked up. Mind, it can't be worse than the USA can it? (And is is surely better than many other so called "democratic" countries.)
You get many of the advantages of citizenship just by being a permanent resident. And you don't have to know who Don Bradman was (he was this really racist sports-person). And you don't have to pledge to the queen, or to the laws (Australia has some bloody stupid laws). Only big disadvantage is that you can be deported easily compared to a citizen (who, well, can't be deported).
One advantage of being a citizen is the passport. You can't beat that passport. But, you being rich could go and buy a passport in one of the small Caribbean nations if that's all you wanted citizenship for. I think it's about USD 100 000.
Australia has a lot going for it, but citizenship?
Cheers,
mm.
It isn't a contract unless I agree to it. Merely handing over money does not create agreement. Unless the museum explicitly draws attention to the contract, and makes you agree (and some how records that agreement), before you hand over money, then there is no contract. Moreover, if I go and buy three tickets, it doesn't matter whether I agree or not, if I hand those tickets over to a couple of friends. The friends haven't agreed to diddly squat. Moreover, what if a kid buys a ticket? They can't enter into contracts, so...
It can't be a breach of contract. I didn't agree to anything when I paid them money for the ticket. I certainly didn't agree to have conditions imposed on me after the sale. (I can't see a ticket until I pay money for it...) That's like, "by opening this package, you agree to the terms of the license enclosed". No, no I don't! Especially if I can't see the license until I pay money.
Also, how are they really going to enforce "no commercial use"? Let's say I take a picture with their permission under the no commercial use. I then turn around and give (not sell) the copyright to that picture to someone else. They can then use that picture commercially because there is no agreement forcing me to force any future copyright owner to agree to the conditions.
I'm sure the same argument would apply in national parks and similar, except that they are generally run by people with access to guns and prisons and such. Still, if I'm in country B, and I then return to my original country A, there isn't much the authorities in country B can do to stop me selling my pictures or using them for advertising or whatever.
So, do I get more money if I hide the wrapper in a Faraday cage so that they can't find me?
What happens if I open the bar in the street, and throw the wrapper? Will they track down the garbage?
The article is a bit light on the details...
And yes, this is quite creepy. The article talks about a similar promotion in Brazil. A country with a high crime rate. Turns out people were a bit suspicious of strangers knocking on their doors...
> Most people don't understand the difference between their web browser and the file manager.
Possibly because MS for many years tried hard to make sure that the two were about the same. Seriously, open up file manager in MS Windows (up until at least Windows Server 2003 with MS IE 6, no experience with anything later), and type in a web URL. That same window will turn into MS IE! Alternatively, you can type a local file address (c:\windows\ or c:\windows\notepad.exe or whatever), and that will open.
Also, KDE, last time I used KDE (2003 or there abouts I think), did the same thing!
The summery is poorly ordered, and so you all have missed the point. The point is not to protect the game backup, but rather, the game source code backup is the reason the person is thinking about this issue. A better summery could be:
It depends on what you want to store. Obviously paper and all these metallic discs with tiny engravings are not practical for version control (having to print/engrave even every week would rapidly get tiresome), but these are quite good for reboot info. In fact, The Long Now Foundation Rosetta Disk is the sort of thing you would think would be what would be wanted.
In fact, all these questions have already been answered, and/or are being answered by people like the Long Now Foundation.
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If in fact I misunderstood (and everyone else didn't) and you want to back up games software so that you can access it again, that's different. Ignoring why (and saying, because it's an interesting bloody thought experiment): what's wrong with getting stuff onto multiple formats, storing the devices to read these formats (along with some electricity generators -- perhaps a bike generator), and instructions on paper -- that's one pack. Stick a pack in a fireproof safe, stick it in a mine-shaft. Stick others in multiple different places around the place. (Uluru is pretty good -- geographically stable, big landmark, hardly any people, etc.)
OK, actually the question is not so interesting. But I still would have been more interested in people actually thinking about (mental masturbation or not) that them harping on about "more important things to worry about". It's like: yeah, I'm so prepared, it will take a nuke going of over my home to kill all my backups. And then I'll have more important things to worry about. Yeah. What if you are overseas when the nuke goes off? You'll be alive, and while you have more important things to worry about, having access to letters and documents etc. is still very important for your mental well being. And in the event that the nuke was a one off (i.e. a global war doesn't eventuate) you'll still want to carry on with your life. So fucking well prepare for more than just a nuke going off! Prepare for a anything.
I'm sure there is nothing to stop him suing. However, he isn't going to win. I've been advised (by good lawyers) before not to bother suing over illegal acts by the police, for the simple reason that I wouldn't win. OK, I grant that there are the occasional cases where people do in fact win suits against the police (where they aren't "just trying to do their job"). But, I'm confident (though I don't have anything to hand just now) that most suits in most countries where the police were acting "in good faith" (whatever that actually means....) are won by the police. And even when the police do lose, there is often not any real penalty against individuals to indicate that it would be a very bad idea for them to do such things again.
We'll see what happens here. I would be happy to be proved wrong and for Kim to win big time against the state (and the individuals involved) no matter how nasty he might be (refer the criminals made into hero's comment).
Except the WWW was created by an Englishman while at CERN (on the border of France and Switzerland). The domain system may well be controlled by the US Govt. (Dept. Commerce, -> ICANN) by the WWW is not. If that makes sense.
And it was hardly political either. Minitel lost out because they stopped innovating, because they were not truly global, and most importantly, because they were not open. To get a service on Minitel required approval, it was just another walled garden, like the various USA options which also died (though earlier). Minitel lost to openness, and the ability for anyone to join without approval from a monopoly corporation.
Not only does the "goverment has destroyed his business and siezed a bunch of his assets" (which government? please be clear), the damage done to his house, and the money spent in defence is all gone. He won't be compensated for damaged property, let alone mental anguish or similar.
The police in NZ really fucked it up, and nothing will happen. The cop in charge won't even get a blackmark, let alone the judge who signed off on the illegitimate search warrant.
It doesn't matter if this individual is the most foul and awful person ever, they deserve to be compensated (and not a mere pittance either, but damages plus extra) to discourage this sort of behaviour. And some of it should come out fo the pockets of those directly responsible.
But no, we can't have that, we can't have any sort of fetters on the ability of the police to fuck up livelihoods, nor can we possibly actually hold accountable those responsible.
(Most of the above post applies to all the world, not just NZ.)
For those of you, like me, who weren't sure what UDRP meant, it means Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy and ICANN has a page on it.
Anyway, this indicates a major problem with the domain name system. One which could be solved by a simple, careful and widespread application of OpenPGP. That is, if everyone encrypted emails for recipients, people like this would not be able to read them.
Also, if I were this "security researcher" I would set up legitmate looking websites at the various domains. Perhaps giocondolaw.com could be a website for Grand International Operations. ConDoLaw., a website trying to put together a convention about law for lay peoples, run by GIO, an organisation setup by our hero... Or something. You know, it doesn't even have to be clever, just appear to actually have a real use for the domain name. In the case of the lockheedmartun.com website well, maybe a shell company called Lockhe, which makes an editor (ed) called Martun, Lockhe Ed Martun. Perhaps repackage and sell (for only $5000 a seat, this wonderful software, complete with source code, and what we won't tell you unless you buy it, is that it's just GNU EMACS or perhaps VIM (depending on what you hate the least).
No, it's the entire almost monopoly that is the biggest bug. Eliminate that, and then you the management would go. Either by the company collapsing, or the bad management being gotten rid of.
Personally I have great hopes for BitCoin, but think that the current gateways between the payment system and the external money are too insecure to trust putting any actual money into it.
True freedom would be using the do what the fuck you want to license, or creative commons zero or similar.
BSD isn't true freedom because it requires you to keep the name of the original developer.
Ah, so the problem is Flash. Perhaps Flash + Firefox. I don't have a problem because I don't use Adobe Flash. Ever. (I use Gnash if I want to watch something, but it rarely works properly. I live.)
Perhaps Firefox could handle shitty plugins in a better way. But you can't blame Firefox for a Flash memory leak.