But this is actually a very promising sign. Like Intel before them (the processor serial number disaster) Microsoft has tried to do something really BAD, been taken to task for it, and actually backed off.
Is Microsoft actually considering getting responsive to its users? This could actually be a really good sign since this is the first time (that I can remember) that they have backed off of adding any new feature. Even a year ago I think they would have just gone ahead, arrogantly certain they can do no wrong.
We can at least hope. Maybe, eventually, they'll even get rid of Clippy.
Consider - the idea with Aimster is to share files *with people
you already know*. This is fundamentally different than
Napster. It is legal for me to lend a CD to a friend and let
him make a copy for his own use. However, it is not legal
for me to make a copy and give it to him - he has to actively
create the copy for himself. Given this, Aimster is perfectly
legal - it is allowing a friend of yours (since you are using
buddy lists) to make a copy of your music for his own use.
Since your friend is using Aimster, he is the active copier
and so can legally do so.
Am I wrong? Anyone (lawyers) out there confirm this?
If you just think about it, this should not be a shock. Small towns can have community because there are fewer people - you get to know them because you see them all the time.
Bigger town is more impersonal - more people, you see few of them more than once.
Now jump to NYC, LA, London, any huge metropolis. Very impersonal - you may not see the same people again in your LIFE, and you meet so many in the meantime that you wouldn't remember them even if you did.
The Internet stretches around the globe, including potentially Billions of people. Do you really think any part of it is going to be more like Maybury than NYC? Nope, more like magnifying NYC by a 1000.
This really shouldn't be a surprise, even to Jon.
This is one of the most retarded things I've heard of recently - what makes anyone think that the order will be registered while that same song is still playing on the radio? The average joe-user is going to do this, get the CD for whatever band was on AFTER the song they liked, and get pissed off.
The smart person who wants to break a secure smart card system would attack the weakest link - which, if done right, is not the smart card itself but the government system used to verify it. Once a system is put in place in any government, some level of corruption starts.
Very soon there will be the shady characters that can insert, delete, or change records - for a price of course. Viola! Smart cards broken.
This "article" must be a horrendous misquote. Hawking just isn't that stupid. Jeez, we could solve the Global Warming problem - with technology we have RIGHT NOW, within 5-10 years.
How? Place huge shades in orbit around Earth. The shades block the sun over small parts of the planet. Net effect? The Earth cools off. Granted that this would be construction on a huge scale, but we could cool ourselves into another Ice Age if we wanted to. We need to correct about 1 degree per decade - we can certainly handle that.
I'm getting sick of all this whining about Global Warming. Just friggin' FIX IT and move on.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to tell you that if something is getting too hot in the sun, then stick the damn thing in the shade.
Can anybody cite a single interesting or important idea or argument that's emerged from the months of campaigning in the current U.S. presidential race? Despite the millions spent on primaries, advertising, debates, press conferences, press-the-flesh tours, photo-ops? In the midst of a technological revolution, has anyone involved in this musty political ritual used technology in any imaginative or innovative way or invoked it, except as a (false) menace to children?
He was stating a fact - neither candidate is advocating radical change. The economy is doing well, the rest of the world is not about to invade us, crime is down, drug use is down, etc. NO ONE WANTS THINGS TO CHANGE. The public will only want *change* when things are in the toilet.
Both candidates are just "doing their job" - which is to piss off as few people as possible. People don't *for* a candidate, they vote *against* one. Neither one wants to be the one you vote against, so they stay in the middle of the road on everything. No big surprise there.
Me? I'm voting *against* both of them, so I'll probably vote for Ralph Nader. I encourage everyone to not "pick the winner", but make your vote send the message you want sent to Washington.
Extrapolating this to the nth degree, and we have the basis for the Star Trek universe tricorder. In it are a whole host of different DNA based conductive sensors. When one wants to make a scan, these DNA "masters" are duplicated using normal DNA copying. The copies are then exposed to the air or material to be scanned. The individual DNA sensors are then checked to see if they changed (i.e. detected what they were each designed to detect). Correlate the results and display to the user. Once scanning is complete, break down the DNA sensors into building blocks again, and add it to the "soup" used for making DNA copies.
Anyone have a spare patent application lying around? I think I've got a winner here. Oh, and can we get Congress to extend patent terms to lifetime + 70 years like copywrites? I need to protect my children's children's livelihood! They're going to make a mint off this 50 years from now when it's practical.
The idea that we could create an artificial organ that could produce drugs on demand is really intriguing. Taking some material from Steven R. Donaldson's SciFi quintilligy (five book trillogy) I could see where that would be quite useful.
Imaging such an organ under concious control of its host (via electrodes in the brain or some such mechanism). In a tough spot and need everything you can muster? Poof! Produce a ton of adrenelin and other support chemicals to maximize your speed/strength/etc. Injured? Poof! Dump endorphins into your bloodstream to keep you from passing out from the pain, so you can get yourself to a hospital. Cramming for the final or falling asleep on a long drive? Poof! Measured caffine to keep you alert.
How about self-preservation? Detects the body has gotten too much anestesia during an operation - put out some stimulants. Need to fake your death? Have it out out measured amounts of curarae to simulate death.
And for spies, a suicide pill they can't take away from you.
The possibilities are endless.
Of course, whenever you use something like this you'll pay the price later (fatigue, twiches, withdrawl, migranes) - you never get something for nothing. But wouldn't it be great to have the choice?
Don't we have a solution for this "special OS" now? Linux and/or BSD allow you access to all the source code, and will accept modifications. All you do is code up the changes, add your "invisible" bit to the file access and change all related tools to handle it correctly. Then submit the patches - if it gets accepted into the next baseline you're done. The nice thing about Open Source stuff is that if something is a good idea, and helps *some* people, it will be adopted and available to ALL.
I would suggest that if ISPs and privacy minded individuals are really bothered by a Carnivore system - why not put our own filter in place upstream of the Carnivore box?
Filter out all but the packets that pertain to the subject under the warrant - the Carnivore system gets NO chance to exceed its legal bounds.
You could even get fancier and "expunge" the subject line from the mail header packets that are fed to Carnivore.
I doubt this would be more than a few weeks worth of work for the right hackers 8-) Maybe even be a "floppy" distribution like the one-floppy router project. Call it ZooKeeper (feeds the Carnivores and Omnivores).
The FBI can't really object - we can make the source code available for THEM to audit. It does exactly what they need, so a court should back up someone using it (i.e. they ARE cooperating fully).
FWIW, Credit cards have two items associated with each transaction (you buying something) - the authorization, and the settlement.
The authorization is done at card-swipe time (or one-clicking at Amazon). They check that you have a valid CC, and that the amount of the sale is under the credit limit for the account. The amount of the sale is "reserved" on the card - deducted from the total credit available for later purchases.
At settlement, the merchant validates that they did indeed get the merchandise (whatever form that takes - a UPS box, a download, etc) to you. At that time they actually transfer money. That shows up on your bill.
There has been a lot of talk here about the Escrow type payment system. It really is not needed. There is a built-in time limit, kept by the credit card companies, between authorization and settlement. Originally it was up to 30 days (though now is usually only a week or less).
If the CC companies can guarrantee that a certain kind of authorization is good for X days (say 10, 14, or 30 days), then an author can use that instead of an escrow system.
For example, if King announces his new novel will be published if X dollars are paid for it within a certain time frame, he can collect payments (in variable amounts, no less) for Y days (however long the time period is). If the total at the end is enough, he settles all the payments, everyone's CC get charged, and he puts his book out for free download. If not, he does nothing and all the CC authorizations expire, freeing up the credit on everyones account (whatever they had put in).
Simple. And the nice part is no one can know what the total paid so far has gotten to, so no one can look at the total so far and decide based on it whether to contribute.
"Your honor, this man not only spams, deals in pornography, and forges addresses to hide his identity, but he truely believes he has committed no crime. He is obviously insane and should be cared for, not caged like a criminal. I have here several psychologists who have would like to testify as to..."
I don't think this has the evil portents - I read the article and what I get is this:
Everyone on Excite has equal access to all sites (through the regular internet backbones) with some latency and bandwidth determined by that pipe.
Excite is getting companies to pay them for the privalege of hooking high-speed pipes directly from their servers to Excite's routers.
Request for them don't go to the internet backbone - they are routed over these new, direct lines. Faster performance to those sites (less latency, more data/sec., etc.)
Noone is given priority over another. No competitor's service is reduced - in fact it would also be enhanced, since some of the traffic is not going to that common backbone (at least a little).
Put away the pitchforks and torches for now.
Visa and MC already have started fixing this
on
A Matter Of Trust?
·
· Score: 5
Visa and MC now have some extra digits that are only written on the back of the CC, not embossed or shown on the front.
The idea is for internet companies to ask for these extra digits when people order stuff online, as a way to verify that you have physical possesion of the card.
American Express has their own solution - the "blue" card has an embedded chip, then with a reader hooked up to your PC you actually 'swipe' your own card.
Again, this is to prove you have the card in your hot little hands, not a carbon off a receipt.
Gentlemen, I have a solution, for Slashdot at least, for total anonymity of posters. The AC flag just does not cut it, but how about this?
Joe Random User. We create a slashdot account in the name of JRU (assuming it hasn't been taken yet), password the same, and anyone who wants to post anonymously just logs in as that person. With several hundred/thousand people using that account there is no way for anyone to PROVE who posted what under that psuedonym.
IP addresses? Wouldn't the account just have the LAST one used? Can Cmdr Taco fix it so that happens if it doesn't already? Does the Hollywood quote "I'm Sparticus!" mean anything to you?
There needs to be a real push into getting intelligence in educational software (for kids). Most of what I've seen is drek - while some of it is very slick and good-looking, it lacks real educational content. You either do not learn anything, or you learn it once and then repeat it endlessly.
Here's a challenge for your AI - adaptive educational software. Most software today requires the child to 'log in' so it can keep track of their saved games. Go further. Keep track of what the child does, how successful they are, and tailor the next experience accordingly.
Give rewards for progress. Reduce the rewards for continued success at the same level (gradually). Prod them into more difficult problems / puzzles / challenges. Eventually remove the lower, introductory, levels all together. Give different rewards.
Do all this while keeping it fun, and keeping them coming back for more. Pop quizes to keep them sharp - reward those accordingly. More advanced information (kind of like sidebars), when they are ready for it, can appear as options. Almost a tutor / friend relationship.
Teach the young how to learn - what could be more challenging for an AI project?
Maybe this is just Microsoft's way of fixing bugs in the Windoze operating systems? I can see it now - Microsoft Win2001 installs Linux, VMWare, and their OS. OS runs on VMWare, with the setting tricked out so it cannot corrupt itself into uselessness, and viola! It will be at least as stable as Windows 3.1 (I remember those days - it crashed often, but I never had to reinstall the OS).
Wouldn't that be a hoot? The system could also be "journaled" through VMWare so that the OS from before the last five software installs was accessable. Then you could "undo" a software install that fsck'd up the DLLs for other programs.
Hey, this could work....(Just my luck, trying to be funny and now I'm sitting here thinking seriously about it!).
P.S. I know VMWare does not do all that now. (Just to head off the knuckleheads that flame^H^H^H^H^Hreply without "getting" the humor).
I'm glad that someone at NASA thought of teaming up on observations. The results should be even more spectacular than NASA expects. When reviewing code, multiple reviewers going over the code at the same time produces an effect greater than the sum of their findings - stuff that one reviewer finds will spark a connection for another, and so on. They called it the "Phantom Reviewer" effect back when I was taught about formal reviews.
The same thing will happen for NASA - each of the probes will be gathering data in different spectrum, from different angles, at the same time. They expect to gain a lot from this, but I think it will exceed their expectations many times over. Though, the results will take a couple of years to be seen (it takes a long time to crunch a lot of data). I'm looking forward to seeing what the atrophysicists (sp?) can deduce from it all. We could be in for a few big surprises.
Congratulations to all of the volunteers out in Holland, MI. I am sincerly relieved that the measure got defeated.
I don't share the reports optimism though - 55% to 45%, while it is generally a "landslide" in a Presidential race, is not all that encouraging - 45% of the people can't see the big picture. Although it does speak volumes that clear headed reasoning can prevail even in the face of a marketting machine.
However, could we prevail upon the volunteers for just a bit longer? Can we get a copy of the presentation up on the Web somewhere permanently? Maybe one of the OSS free project repositories? While there would be no code involved, I'm sure that presentations, demonstration descriptions, leaflet samples, etc. would be allowed to be stored there.
A known resource for fighting future battles would be a godsend. The folks at Holland paved the way and we need to learn everything they did right and wrong, and have all the materials they created at hand.
The DeCSS events have shown that the battles will pop up when you least expect it, and generally (no pun intended) on very short notice. It would be great if we knew where to go to just grab leaflets and educational presentations, print them out, and respond *the same day*. It would make quite an impact, and at the least show how important people think the issue is. Just that will slow down the process - if officials know their constituency genuinely cares about an issue they will not rush it.
Perhaps the Minute Men will be needed once again (the Revolutionary War soldiers were called Minute Men - to be ready to grab their rifles and fight on a minutes notice. We need to do the same.).
I don't think Jon has gotten the right reasons for the decline of newspapers. In our home the reason is simple - time.
Both me and my wife work full time. There just isn't enough time in the day to futz around with a newspaper - the signal to noise ratio is just too high. It takes too much time to take in a daily paper (let alone the Sunday) when there is all the shopping, cooking, cleaning, and hobbying to attend to.
Small snippets of news inbetween TV shows, on-line stuff for me (even in a high-tech job there are always 1/2 minutes while I'm waiting for downloads or compiles or tests to finish etc.) snagged here and there, and that's it. We get our news already pre-digested 'cause that's all we have time for. It sucks, but that's life.
Oh, yeah. Jon forgot environmental conservation. Most people nowadays (especially the young) are a lot more concious of what they throw away. And a foot-high stack of newspapers every other week is not very appealing. Jeez, you could get together with a few neighbors, stack them all up together, and actually SEE the tree they cut down to make the paper.
No more newspapers for us - though we get at least a call a week trying to get us to subscribe.
How can they change that? Maybe focusing on local news more, local geography and businesses (new restaurants, real comparasons - ie "if you like *this* restaurant's food, you are sure to like *that* one too", where to find stuff so that the shopping part of our lives is easier - not coupons as it just takes more time), classifieds on a commission basis rather than an ad rate - so that people don't have to put money up front to sell something. Oh, and how about newspaper collection as well as delivery. Just leave your old papers out and they get collected when the new ones arrive. Make sure they are recycled and use them again.
I'm glad to see that someone is starting to "get it" - what this is all about. Unfortunately, they are just a little bit shy of the whole picture.
DeCSS is not about piracy, but about compatability - we all know that by now. You can make the bit-wise copies by other means. The real thrust is controlling the medium - who can make and sell DVD movies.
We are talking about a <b>Motion Picure</b> consortium here. That's the big clue - they could give a $#@# whether we can watch DVDs on our Linux boxes. But to get there we needed to 1) decrypt the DVD movies, 2) store them locally, 3) work on the playback software to the point that the picture and sound look good , 4) put on-the-fly decryption in the player. 5) Done. DVD on Linux.
Step 4 is what has caused the witchhunt. If the OSS folks build a DVD player - do you seriously think they will make it play ONLY encrypted DVDs? Heck NO! It will play unencrypted movies and sound also.
And THAT's the "it". After DeCSS, it is trivial to make a player that will play encrypted and UNENCRYPTED DVDs. They are scared to death of having a DVD player S/W that plays both encrypted and unencrypted DVDs. Ever made a copy of a VHS movie for a friend? Not legal to do so, but hard to stop. If you wanted to do the same with your new spiffy DVD-R (fast forwarding a year) would you try to encrypt it? Heck NO!
Once there is an OSS DVD player application that plays both encrypted and unencrypted DVDs, the jig is up. Independent artists can make DVDs and distribute them without CSS encryption. Your DVD player won't play it? Here's the link - download the freeware player that does.
That Japanese DVD won't let you play it? The freeware DVD player will play ANY DVD, no matter where it came from.
Then we start hacking the "upgradable" console DVD players - so they can play unencrypted DVDs and break the region locking.
Follow the reprocussions to their logical conclusion and it's easy to see why the MPAA will throw everything including the kitchen sink into this fight. They have a whole new medium to lose (not to mention the $$ they spent designing it in the first place, plus the $$ spent on getting the DMCA legislated.)
One of the comments I'd seen so far observed that Jon might mount a good defense by himself - by treating it as an engineering problem and figuring out the logic to convince the judge. I'm not advocating that - Jon needs the best lawyers WE can afford him (I joined the EFF - seems the best way to help).
However, that got me to thinking... Could the EFF use some help in reviewing old cases/decisions that MIGHT be relevant? Could a junior legal researcher just throw up a few hundred case names that all of us (the 1,000 eyes) could "read up on" and try to distill the points in the case and the decision to a few paragraphs? Then rate that information as to how useful we *think* it might be? Would that help the EFF lawyers to pinpoint the cases they need to look at while forming their strategy for the DeCSS cases?
I hope a lawyer out there is reading this and can advise us all on how pratical (or useful) such a thing might be. Free/Open Source software has always prided itself on the idea that 1,000s of eyes on the source makes for better code. Why don't we use that same idea to place 1,000s of eyes on our own legal system to make it better?
I for one would be willing to look at a few hundred pages of case records, devote a weekend or two (or 10) in directed law research, if it will help. The MPAA will spend millions (conceivably) on legal fees, so a hundred lawyers can spend a 1,000 hours each on preparing its cases.
We can do them one better - 10,000 technically astute hackers putting in 100 hours each. Even if we are only 1/10th as effective, we'd match their efforts.
Is is possible to Open Source the Defense of DeCSS? Most of us are frustrated that we can't do anything directly to help besides mirroring the code. If the EFF can use a few thousand hands I think most of us are willing and able to lend them.
Sandia already has used ion-implantation techniques to create lightweight aluminum composites that are as strong and durable as the best steel available.
Translation: Super materials for next generation war machines.
Nanostructured semiconductor materials created at Sandia may enable highly efficient, low power lasers for high-speed optical communications.
Translation: High efficiency lasers to use for blinding / burning / igniting troops and vehicles on battlefields.
Biosensors that use molecular bundles similar to those found in living cells are being created that could warn people when traces of a chemical or biological warfare agent are detected. .
Translation: Mite-sized robots that detect humans coming near, and releasing nerve-toxins to disable or kill. Friendly troops are protected by an IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) pheromone.
Just a friendly reminder that any advance can be used for good or bad - and that advertised purposes do not necessarily mean the only motivation for researching them. (No offense to the Sandia Lab folks - I'm sure your intentions are pure).
What role do you see for computers in Physics, primarily in the future?
Have many recent furthering of Physics happened because of computers (modeling, data crunching, solving large series of equations, etc.) or by a sharp mind with a sharp pencil?
Do you think computers will ever solve any of the major mysteries of Physics by themselves (with major evolutions in AI)?
Slashdot Mirror
But this is actually a very promising sign. Like Intel before them (the processor serial number disaster) Microsoft has tried to do something really BAD, been taken to task for it, and actually backed off.
Is Microsoft actually considering getting responsive to its users? This could actually be a really good sign since this is the first time (that I can remember) that they have backed off of adding any new feature. Even a year ago I think they would have just gone ahead, arrogantly certain they can do no wrong.
We can at least hope. Maybe, eventually, they'll even get rid of Clippy.
it's the Sony Betamax case!
Consider - the idea with Aimster is to share files *with people
you already know*. This is fundamentally different than
Napster. It is legal for me to lend a CD to a friend and let
him make a copy for his own use. However, it is not legal
for me to make a copy and give it to him - he has to actively
create the copy for himself. Given this, Aimster is perfectly
legal - it is allowing a friend of yours (since you are using
buddy lists) to make a copy of your music for his own use.
Since your friend is using Aimster, he is the active copier
and so can legally do so.
Am I wrong? Anyone (lawyers) out there confirm this?
If you just think about it, this should not be a shock. Small towns can have community because there are fewer people - you get to know them because you see them all the time.
Bigger town is more impersonal - more people, you see few of them more than once.
Now jump to NYC, LA, London, any huge metropolis. Very impersonal - you may not see the same people again in your LIFE, and you meet so many in the meantime that you wouldn't remember them even if you did.
The Internet stretches around the globe, including potentially Billions of people. Do you really think any part of it is going to be more like Maybury than NYC? Nope, more like magnifying NYC by a 1000.
This really shouldn't be a surprise, even to Jon.
This is one of the most retarded things I've heard of recently - what makes anyone think that the order will be registered while that same song is still playing on the radio? The average joe-user is going to do this, get the CD for whatever band was on AFTER the song they liked, and get pissed off.
The smart person who wants to break a secure smart card system would attack the weakest link - which, if done right, is not the smart card itself but the government system used to verify it. Once a system is put in place in any government, some level of corruption starts.
Very soon there will be the shady characters that can insert, delete, or change records - for a price of course. Viola! Smart cards broken.
This "article" must be a horrendous misquote. Hawking just isn't that stupid. Jeez, we could solve the Global Warming problem - with technology we have RIGHT NOW, within 5-10 years.
How? Place huge shades in orbit around Earth. The shades block the sun over small parts of the planet. Net effect? The Earth cools off. Granted that this would be construction on a huge scale, but we could cool ourselves into another Ice Age if we wanted to. We need to correct about 1 degree per decade - we can certainly handle that.
I'm getting sick of all this whining about Global Warming. Just friggin' FIX IT and move on.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to tell you that if something is getting too hot in the sun, then stick the damn thing in the shade.
When JonKatz stated:
Can anybody cite a single interesting or important idea or argument that's emerged from the months of campaigning in the current U.S. presidential race? Despite the millions spent on primaries, advertising, debates, press conferences, press-the-flesh tours, photo-ops? In the midst of a technological revolution, has anyone involved in this musty political ritual used technology in any imaginative or innovative way or invoked it, except as a (false) menace to children?
He was stating a fact - neither candidate is advocating radical change. The economy is doing well, the rest of the world is not about to invade us, crime is down, drug use is down, etc. NO ONE WANTS THINGS TO CHANGE. The public will only want *change* when things are in the toilet.
Both candidates are just "doing their job" - which is to piss off as few people as possible. People don't *for* a candidate, they vote *against* one. Neither one wants to be the one you vote against, so they stay in the middle of the road on everything. No big surprise there.
Me? I'm voting *against* both of them, so I'll probably vote for Ralph Nader. I encourage everyone to not "pick the winner", but make your vote send the message you want sent to Washington.
Extrapolating this to the nth degree, and we have the basis for the Star Trek universe tricorder. In it are a whole host of different DNA based conductive sensors. When one wants to make a scan, these DNA "masters" are duplicated using normal DNA copying. The copies are then exposed to the air or material to be scanned. The individual DNA sensors are then checked to see if they changed (i.e. detected what they were each designed to detect). Correlate the results and display to the user. Once scanning is complete, break down the DNA sensors into building blocks again, and add it to the "soup" used for making DNA copies.
Anyone have a spare patent application lying around? I think I've got a winner here. Oh, and can we get Congress to extend patent terms to lifetime + 70 years like copywrites? I need to protect my children's children's livelihood! They're going to make a mint off this 50 years from now when it's practical.
The idea that we could create an artificial organ that could produce drugs on demand is really intriguing. Taking some material from Steven R. Donaldson's SciFi quintilligy (five book trillogy) I could see where that would be quite useful.
Imaging such an organ under concious control of its host (via electrodes in the brain or some such mechanism). In a tough spot and need everything you can muster? Poof! Produce a ton of adrenelin and other support chemicals to maximize your speed/strength/etc. Injured? Poof! Dump endorphins into your bloodstream to keep you from passing out from the pain, so you can get yourself to a hospital. Cramming for the final or falling asleep on a long drive? Poof! Measured caffine to keep you alert.
How about self-preservation? Detects the body has gotten too much anestesia during an operation - put out some stimulants. Need to fake your death? Have it out out measured amounts of curarae to simulate death.
And for spies, a suicide pill they can't take away from you.
The possibilities are endless.
Of course, whenever you use something like this you'll pay the price later (fatigue, twiches, withdrawl, migranes) - you never get something for nothing. But wouldn't it be great to have the choice?
Don't we have a solution for this "special OS" now? Linux and/or BSD allow you access to all the source code, and will accept modifications. All you do is code up the changes, add your "invisible" bit to the file access and change all related tools to handle it correctly. Then submit the patches - if it gets accepted into the next baseline you're done. The nice thing about Open Source stuff is that if something is a good idea, and helps *some* people, it will be adopted and available to ALL.
I would suggest that if ISPs and privacy minded individuals are really bothered by a Carnivore system - why not put our own filter in place upstream of the Carnivore box?
Filter out all but the packets that pertain to the subject under the warrant - the Carnivore system gets NO chance to exceed its legal bounds.
You could even get fancier and "expunge" the subject line from the mail header packets that are fed to Carnivore.
I doubt this would be more than a few weeks worth of work for the right hackers 8-) Maybe even be a "floppy" distribution like the one-floppy router project. Call it ZooKeeper (feeds the Carnivores and Omnivores).
The FBI can't really object - we can make the source code available for THEM to audit. It does exactly what they need, so a court should back up someone using it (i.e. they ARE cooperating fully).
Any takers?
FWIW, Credit cards have two items associated with each transaction (you buying something) - the authorization, and the settlement.
The authorization is done at card-swipe time (or one-clicking at Amazon). They check that you have a valid CC, and that the amount of the sale is under the credit limit for the account. The amount of the sale is "reserved" on the card - deducted from the total credit available for later purchases.
At settlement, the merchant validates that they did indeed get the merchandise (whatever form that takes - a UPS box, a download, etc) to you. At that time they actually transfer money. That shows up on your bill.
There has been a lot of talk here about the Escrow type payment system. It really is not needed. There is a built-in time limit, kept by the credit card companies, between authorization and settlement. Originally it was up to 30 days (though now is usually only a week or less).
If the CC companies can guarrantee that a certain kind of authorization is good for X days (say 10, 14, or 30 days), then an author can use that instead of an escrow system.
For example, if King announces his new novel will be published if X dollars are paid for it within a certain time frame, he can collect payments (in variable amounts, no less) for Y days (however long the time period is). If the total at the end is enough, he settles all the payments, everyone's CC get charged, and he puts his book out for free download. If not, he does nothing and all the CC authorizations expire, freeing up the credit on everyones account (whatever they had put in).
Simple. And the nice part is no one can know what the total paid so far has gotten to, so no one can look at the total so far and decide based on it whether to contribute.
Who needs escrows?
An insanity defense!
"Your honor, this man not only spams, deals in pornography, and forges addresses to hide his identity, but he truely believes he has committed no crime. He is obviously insane and should be cared for, not caged like a criminal. I have here several psychologists who have would like to testify as to..."
I don't think this has the evil portents - I read the article and what I get is this:
Everyone on Excite has equal access to all sites (through the regular internet backbones) with some latency and bandwidth determined by that pipe.
Excite is getting companies to pay them for the privalege of hooking high-speed pipes directly from their servers to Excite's routers.
Request for them don't go to the internet backbone - they are routed over these new, direct lines. Faster performance to those sites (less latency, more data/sec., etc.)
Noone is given priority over another. No competitor's service is reduced - in fact it would also be enhanced, since some of the traffic is not going to that common backbone (at least a little).
Put away the pitchforks and torches for now.
Visa and MC now have some extra digits that are only written on the back of the CC, not embossed or shown on the front.
The idea is for internet companies to ask for these extra digits when people order stuff online, as a way to verify that you have physical possesion of the card.
American Express has their own solution - the "blue" card has an embedded chip, then with a reader hooked up to your PC you actually 'swipe' your own card.
Again, this is to prove you have the card in your hot little hands, not a carbon off a receipt.
Gentlemen, I have a solution, for Slashdot at least, for total anonymity of posters. The AC flag just does not cut it, but how about this?
Joe Random User. We create a slashdot account in the name of JRU (assuming it hasn't been taken yet), password the same, and anyone who wants to post anonymously just logs in as that person. With several hundred/thousand people using that account there is no way for anyone to PROVE who posted what under that psuedonym.
IP addresses? Wouldn't the account just have the LAST one used? Can Cmdr Taco fix it so that happens if it doesn't already? Does the Hollywood quote "I'm Sparticus!" mean anything to you?
There needs to be a real push into getting intelligence in educational software (for kids). Most of what I've seen is drek - while some of it is very slick and good-looking, it lacks real educational content. You either do not learn anything, or you learn it once and then repeat it endlessly.
Here's a challenge for your AI - adaptive educational software. Most software today requires the child to 'log in' so it can keep track of their saved games. Go further. Keep track of what the child does, how successful they are, and tailor the next experience accordingly.
Give rewards for progress. Reduce the rewards for continued success at the same level (gradually). Prod them into more difficult problems / puzzles / challenges. Eventually remove the lower, introductory, levels all together. Give different rewards.
Do all this while keeping it fun, and keeping them coming back for more. Pop quizes to keep them sharp - reward those accordingly. More advanced information (kind of like sidebars), when they are ready for it, can appear as options. Almost a tutor / friend relationship.
Teach the young how to learn - what could be more challenging for an AI project?
Maybe this is just Microsoft's way of fixing bugs in the Windoze operating systems? I can see it now - Microsoft Win2001 installs Linux, VMWare, and their OS. OS runs on VMWare, with the setting tricked out so it cannot corrupt itself into uselessness, and viola! It will be at least as stable as Windows 3.1 (I remember those days - it crashed often, but I never had to reinstall the OS).
Wouldn't that be a hoot? The system could also be "journaled" through VMWare so that the OS from before the last five software installs was accessable. Then you could "undo" a software install that fsck'd up the DLLs for other programs.
Hey, this could work....(Just my luck, trying to be funny and now I'm sitting here thinking seriously about it!).
P.S. I know VMWare does not do all that now. (Just to head off the knuckleheads that flame^H^H^H^H^Hreply without "getting" the humor).
Dang clever these Earthings...
I'm glad that someone at NASA thought of teaming up on observations. The results should be even more spectacular than NASA expects. When reviewing code, multiple reviewers going over the code at the same time produces an effect greater than the sum of their findings - stuff that one reviewer finds will spark a connection for another, and so on. They called it the "Phantom Reviewer" effect back when I was taught about formal reviews.
The same thing will happen for NASA - each of the probes will be gathering data in different spectrum, from different angles, at the same time. They expect to gain a lot from this, but I think it will exceed their expectations many times over. Though, the results will take a couple of years to be seen (it takes a long time to crunch a lot of data). I'm looking forward to seeing what the atrophysicists (sp?) can deduce from it all. We could be in for a few big surprises.
Congratulations to all of the volunteers out in Holland, MI. I am sincerly relieved that the measure got defeated.
I don't share the reports optimism though - 55% to 45%, while it is generally a "landslide" in a Presidential race, is not all that encouraging - 45% of the people can't see the big picture. Although it does speak volumes that clear headed reasoning can prevail even in the face of a marketting machine.
However, could we prevail upon the volunteers for just a bit longer? Can we get a copy of the presentation up on the Web somewhere permanently? Maybe one of the OSS free project repositories? While there would be no code involved, I'm sure that presentations, demonstration descriptions, leaflet samples, etc. would be allowed to be stored there.
A known resource for fighting future battles would be a godsend. The folks at Holland paved the way and we need to learn everything they did right and wrong, and have all the materials they created at hand.
The DeCSS events have shown that the battles will pop up when you least expect it, and generally (no pun intended) on very short notice. It would be great if we knew where to go to just grab leaflets and educational presentations, print them out, and respond *the same day*. It would make quite an impact, and at the least show how important people think the issue is. Just that will slow down the process - if officials know their constituency genuinely cares about an issue they will not rush it.
Perhaps the Minute Men will be needed once again (the Revolutionary War soldiers were called Minute Men - to be ready to grab their rifles and fight on a minutes notice. We need to do the same.).
I don't think Jon has gotten the right reasons for the decline of newspapers. In our home the reason is simple - time.
Both me and my wife work full time. There just isn't enough time in the day to futz around with a newspaper - the signal to noise ratio is just too high. It takes too much time to take in a daily paper (let alone the Sunday) when there is all the shopping, cooking, cleaning, and hobbying to attend to.
Small snippets of news inbetween TV shows, on-line stuff for me (even in a high-tech job there are always 1/2 minutes while I'm waiting for downloads or compiles or tests to finish etc.) snagged here and there, and that's it. We get our news already pre-digested 'cause that's all we have time for. It sucks, but that's life.
Oh, yeah. Jon forgot environmental conservation. Most people nowadays (especially the young) are a lot more concious of what they throw away. And a foot-high stack of newspapers every other week is not very appealing. Jeez, you could get together with a few neighbors, stack them all up together, and actually SEE the tree they cut down to make the paper.
No more newspapers for us - though we get at least a call a week trying to get us to subscribe.
How can they change that? Maybe focusing on local news more, local geography and businesses (new restaurants, real comparasons - ie "if you like *this* restaurant's food, you are sure to like *that* one too", where to find stuff so that the shopping part of our lives is easier - not coupons as it just takes more time), classifieds on a commission basis rather than an ad rate - so that people don't have to put money up front to sell something.
Oh, and how about newspaper collection as well as delivery. Just leave your old papers out and they get collected when the new ones arrive. Make sure they are recycled and use them again.
I'm glad to see that someone is starting to "get it" - what this is all about. Unfortunately, they are just a little bit shy of the whole picture.
DeCSS is not about piracy, but about compatability - we all know that by now. You can make the bit-wise copies by other means. The real thrust is controlling the medium - who can make and sell DVD movies.
We are talking about a <b>Motion Picure</b> consortium here. That's the big clue - they could give a $#@# whether we can watch DVDs on our Linux boxes. But to get there we needed to 1) decrypt the DVD movies, 2) store them locally, 3) work on the playback software to the point that the picture and sound look good , 4) put on-the-fly decryption in the player. 5) Done. DVD on Linux.
Step 4 is what has caused the witchhunt. If the OSS folks build a DVD player - do you seriously think they will make it play ONLY encrypted DVDs? Heck NO! It will play unencrypted movies and sound also.
And THAT's the "it". After DeCSS, it is trivial to make a player that will play encrypted and UNENCRYPTED DVDs. They are scared to death of having a DVD player S/W that plays both encrypted and unencrypted DVDs. Ever made a copy of a VHS movie for a friend? Not legal to do so, but hard to stop. If you wanted to do the same with your new spiffy DVD-R (fast forwarding a year) would you try to encrypt it? Heck NO!
Once there is an OSS DVD player application that plays both encrypted and unencrypted DVDs, the jig is up. Independent artists can make DVDs and distribute them without CSS encryption. Your DVD player won't play it? Here's the link - download the freeware player that does.
That Japanese DVD won't let you play it? The freeware DVD player will play ANY DVD, no matter where it came from.
Then we start hacking the "upgradable" console DVD players - so they can play unencrypted DVDs and break the region locking.
Follow the reprocussions to their logical conclusion and it's easy to see why the MPAA will throw everything including the kitchen sink into this fight. They have a whole new medium to lose (not to mention the $$ they spent designing it in the first place, plus the $$ spent on getting the DMCA legislated.)
One of the comments I'd seen so far observed that Jon might mount a good defense by himself - by treating it as an engineering problem and figuring out the logic to convince the judge. I'm not advocating that - Jon needs the best lawyers WE can afford him (I joined the EFF - seems the best way to help).
However, that got me to thinking... Could the EFF use some help in reviewing old cases/decisions that MIGHT be relevant? Could a junior legal researcher just throw up a few hundred case names that all of us (the 1,000 eyes) could "read up on" and try to distill the points in the case and the decision to a few paragraphs? Then rate that information as to how useful we *think* it might be? Would that help the EFF lawyers to pinpoint the cases they need to look at while forming their strategy for the DeCSS cases?
I hope a lawyer out there is reading this and can advise us all on how pratical (or useful) such a thing might be. Free/Open Source software has always prided itself on the idea that 1,000s of eyes on the source makes for better code. Why don't we use that same idea to place 1,000s of eyes on our own legal system to make it better?
I for one would be willing to look at a few hundred pages of case records, devote a weekend or two (or 10) in directed law research, if it will help. The MPAA will spend millions (conceivably) on legal fees, so a hundred lawyers can spend a 1,000 hours each on preparing its cases.
We can do them one better - 10,000 technically astute hackers putting in 100 hours each. Even if we are only 1/10th as effective, we'd match their efforts.
Is is possible to Open Source the Defense of DeCSS? Most of us are frustrated that we can't do anything directly to help besides mirroring the code. If the EFF can use a few thousand hands I think most of us are willing and able to lend them.
Sandia already has used ion-implantation techniques to create lightweight aluminum composites that are as strong and durable as the best steel available.
Translation: Super materials for next generation war machines.
Nanostructured semiconductor materials created at Sandia may enable highly efficient, low power lasers for high-speed optical communications.
Translation: High efficiency lasers to use for blinding / burning / igniting troops and vehicles on battlefields.
Biosensors that use molecular bundles similar to those found in living cells are being created that could warn people when traces of a chemical or biological warfare agent are detected. .
Translation: Mite-sized robots that detect humans coming near, and releasing nerve-toxins to disable or kill. Friendly troops are protected by an IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) pheromone.
Just a friendly reminder that any advance can be used for good or bad - and that advertised purposes do not necessarily mean the only motivation for researching them. (No offense to the Sandia Lab folks - I'm sure your intentions are pure).
What role do you see for computers in Physics, primarily in the future?
Have many recent furthering of Physics happened because of computers (modeling, data crunching, solving large series of equations, etc.) or by a sharp mind with a sharp pencil?
Do you think computers will ever solve any of the major mysteries of Physics by themselves (with major evolutions in AI)?