I agree, and I'm sure most computer engineers or programmers would agree as well.
We grew up playing with this new technology, and in the mind of a child, there's no bounds to the amount of time you have to explore, take things apart, put them back together, etc. And that's the mind of an engineer or programmer of computers. So "wasting" my time on my parent's 286 getting games to run from the command line ('cause there wasn't much in the way of GUI's back then) certainly got me hooked on computers, and made me smarter than the average Joe computer user because my games required the latest, greatest tech in the computer world. That made me learn what I needed, and why I needed it rather quickly, because without the different upgrades and tweaks applied to the computer I couldn't play my games to their fullest.
And look at those who design games now: people with Master's and PHD's in Math, Physics, etc. Not to mention the highly creative minds it takes to come up with some of the better games over the years, like Tetris, Super-Mario Bro.'s, the Civilization series, all those flight sims, etc.
This is just like I have said for the stupid RIAA/MPAA groups. If you don't want it to get out in the open, don't produce it in a copiable format. But, since that's prohibitively expensive, and NOT consumer friendly at all, they choose to go the cheaper, customer friendly route. Just don't be surprised when because people can make do with less (like cheaper, outdated patterns in this case) that they will. Your average consumer is smart, and cheap. Very cheap.
So make sure if you're gonna charge "too much" for your patterns, that you make sure they are disposed of properly, or else people will find a way to make them cheaper! Just like with mp3's and the like.
So you'd rather protect that select.5% of famous people (including political celebrities) over the rights of the 99.5% of us who are concerned when the.5% is dumping toxic waste off their back porch into our national seashores because they don't like all the aspects of being famous (i.e. stalkers and paparazzi)?
Granted, everyone is endowed with "inalianable rights by their creator" as defined by the Constitution, but that doesn't mean your life is without risk when you choose to put yourself into certain situations that necessitate a level of risk. (being famous can be a liability after all as EVERYONE knows who you are)
A coworker of mine has been completely fed up with the service, price, and general ill will that Verizon has shown him in his new home that only can get phone service through Verizon at this point in time. So he began looking into alternatives: wireless, calling cards, and finally, VoIP. He went with Vonage as his new VoIP phone service provider, and signed up for broadband from TimeWarner at the same time.
Having heard of Vonage before, as most of you have, I was interested to find out what his experience was like, and how it compared to the "dial-tone quality" of Verizon and all the other Baby Bell's. I was expecting a somewhat negative experience for him because although he's completely technically proficient with computers (he tests software), his wife and two kids are not *as* proficient, and might have had problems or major complaints with his uptake of this 'cutting edge' tech.
WOW! I was impressed! Not only did he say that installing Vonage was a pretty simple chore, but the clarity and quality of his long distance calls was BETTER than his old phone service through Verizon. (Actually I'm not too surprised at that, but impressed none-the-less).
His only complaint is that he can only have one phone hooked up to the 'appliance' that Vonage provides, and therefore it's not possible to have "multiple phone lines" throughout the house, nor have more than one phone to call out on.
I'm sure it would be trivial for some of us on/. to throw together a system that CAN run multiple phones throughout a house, or to use completely open source solutions to do VoIP, but he's happy with the Vonage solution, especially since he gets broadband internet AND phone service for only about $30/mth more than he was paying for Verizon's simple phone service (including dial-up internet connection), AND his wife doesn't find it difficult to use either which would be very important in my situation as well.;)
I know my wife will want VoIP as soon as it's possible to direct all the phone lines in the house to one central server handling the VoIP protocols for us in our new condo.
Re:What I think MS was up to...
on
Today's SCO News
·
· Score: 1
Well that's a pretty big claim, because too much of the world is already running Linux as a server base in a multitude of configurations, and indeed most moderately sized companies have some sort of mass conglomeration of Windows, Linux, S/390, UNIX, etc. machines all running and all very depended upon to run the business. I think if Microsoft actually were able to pull off such a stunt that there would be governments and militaries all over the world ready to descend on the US if the US government didn't reign in Microsoft and put an end to any such nonsense. Just remember, the US and it's companies are hardly powerful enough to just force the entire world to abide by their rules. That's why conspiracy theories don't usually pan out: there's just too much greed and pride at stake worldwide to lay down and take it from The Man all the time.
I would expect Microsoft/SCO to continue their pursuit of world domination by suing all the 'little guys' however, and that's what is truly scary. I.E. YAMT (Yet Another Monopoly Tactic)
I know of at least some lawyers in training (i.e. at law school currently) that would argue just as you do, which is good, because some future lawyers do not see DeCSS as a tool for piracy, simply a tool to let me watch a DVD on an OS that's not been "commissioned" by Hollywood (i.e. *BSD's, Linux, etc).
If the RIAA and MPAA don't want to let their movies and music get copied, then simply don't distribute it enmasse to untrusted sources via 8-track, cassette tape, LP, CD, CD-ROM, DVD, etc! It's as easy as that!
Oh, wait... no one wants to go spend $20 to take themselves and a significant other to the movie theatre for one showing of "The Hot Chick," but they'll rent it or buy it on DVD for the EXACT SAME PRICE for multiple viewings? Guess my idea of "customer value" should have been thrown out a long time ago along with my ideas that are counter-culture to the new socialism: Sue companies to get rich!
1992-3
Co-captain of Math Team, Stuyvesant High School
1992
1st place team, New York State Math League
Individual High Scorer
1992
Passed American Invitational Mathematics Exam (AIME)
So how often did you get wedgies at your school? Curious nerds NEED TO KNOW!!;)
Thank you for that synopsis of the article. For what it's worth, I won't even bother reading it, as it is about HR departments in big companies. That means it is an article about complete stupidity and laziness within the human race... i.e. HR.
I would have thought/.'ers were more than familiar with the sheer genius of HR departments in the many ways in which to cause a near infinite number of tech support headaches!
Well I'm so glad that we narrowed it down to oh, say, several million years ago give or take that we "evolved" and became slightly different than a chimpanzee. Shit, even a cow must somehow share a genetic link to us in the way back past, right? You know, just after the Big Bang (well, several billion years after it of course) when all was warm, and life got created in a single instance, spawning a plethora of life-forms.
So I guess we shouldn't be eating any more monkey brain, those damn African savages! The horror! Won't somebody PLEASE think of the children!!
Oh, by the way, put down that McDonald's hamburger, you're eating your relatives!!!
And don't think plants are exempt!! They're just another offshoot of "life", and we certainly wouldn't want to be extinguishing a life-form, now would we?
For those of you who actually RTFA, those who take breaks doing what they want to do during those breaks will be more prepared to tackle the chores in front of them back in "the real world." To which I agree. If I were able to play a little Civ3 here and there throughout the workday, I'd be a much happier camper than how it is now, where I go and BS with my coworkers (who, although I really like 'em, they're not as fun all the time as a non-emotional computer game).
Of course the obvious ability to abuse such a system exists, but when it is encouraged as a stress reliever for little breaks here and there, rather than discouraged completely, it becomes a VERY USEFUL "tool" in the workplace. IMHO, anyways...
"If only she had killer robot insurance. Most insurance policies don't cover attacks by killer robots. Robots are everywhere, and they eat old people's medicine for food.
Only Old Glory offers complete killer robot coverage.
Robots are everywhere, and when they grab you with their big metal claws there's no secape, because they're made of metal. And robots are strong.
Note: People denying the existence of killer robots may be robots themselves."
"do not these strange and wonderful beings deserve our respect and encouragement? is there no natural sanctuary of a subnet on which these beautiful beings can live out their imperative to reproduce? unburdened by the ill wishes of mankind?"
"A real dog is merely a chemical computer anyway, so in essence, the emotions that you perceive in it are programmed as well, we just don't have the documented source code to work with."
Can you imagine what would happen if we actually HAD the source code?! Within a couple of generations and "service packs", we'd have an insecure, unstable, unpredictable wolf-hound terrorizing 90% of dog owners!
"Anybody who doesn't believe in evolution, can't believe in dogs -- if humans could breed so many different types of dog from a wolf in a few thousand years, it's obviously possible that far larger changes can take over billions of years."
But therein lies the primary problem I have with evolution being the beginning of everything; you're equating a human-engineered process (breeding dogs) with a completely random process of true evolution of a species from basic elements of the universe. Keep in mind, no where in my original post did I say evolution was a non-occurring process. I simply said where's the answer to the question: "Who/What caused this process (the process of life) to begin?" The point being that NO ONE can prove/disprove that question, ultimately, and that ultimately we all pick a side of the fence to be on in regards to whether it was pure random chance that generated that beginning to life, or whether it was engineered by an all-powerful God.
I always find it funny when I post these types of ideas on Slashdot and the atheists, evolutionists, and Christian/Jew-haters freak all the way out and go on a rampage. Dude, believe what you want, but don't treat me like a moron because I believe differently. My approach to other scientific endeavours like computers, genetic engineering, physics, etc. are probably every bit the same as yours apart from our beliefs on these tough questions.
"...when a "Creation Scientist" maintains that it is "possible" the Earth is only thousands of years old..."
But you have to ask yourself: Is it true science when a scientist is postulating on what formed the Earth and the universe millions (if not billions) of years ago when he or she has absolutely 0 methods of testing certain hypotheses like "the Big Bang" theory, the "evolutionary" theory, etc? Likewise, a "Creation Scientist" as you put it, is merely using scientific methods to preach his view on where everything comes from every bit as much as the "Evolution Scientist" is using those same methods. And since there is no way to test either hypothesis through the scientific method, it's all still just conjecture, scientifically speaking.
Be careful, young grasshopper, for you never know how what you say may later come back to haunt you as an extraordinarily embarrassing moment in your life.
Isn't it interesting how very few (if anyone) reading Slashdot is at all surprised by this? And yet the MPAA and RIAA continue to fight the digital revolution! Well, it may not be a true revolution, but it is a major change in how people access entertainment these days. Just like how the VCR drastically changed the movie industry by making it EVEN MORE money than it was showing a few movies per theatre.
And yet, I'm perplexed that the whole of the music industry exec's can actually be so incredibly blind to the fact that they should be embracing technology rather than shying away from it. IIRC, they were also afraid of the CD back in the day. Then again, we are talking about "Hollywood" and music types, and if history shows us anything, they're not exactly the brightest kids on the block. Maybe they should read that story on slashdot yesterday about not taking care of your environment.;)
What's our "population"? Criminals (and from the looks of that report, primarily drug dealers.
What are we trying to answer? Whether computer encryption is easily breakable by government wiretapping and other mechanisms.
What info do we know?
1) Criminals are generally stupid (why else would they be breaking the law so blatantly to require an investigation that cost >$50k?!)
2) The government wiretaps did not encounter any problem with encryptions that prevented a wiretap from being successful
The primary problem with most of you is that you're making a mountain out of a statistical molehill. Considering 95% or more of all criminals are complete morons, why would you assume any of them would be using secure 128-bit encryption, steganography, and other such encryption tools to encode their communications? They're usually more interested in how they're gonna whack that jerkoff down the street for lookin' at their girl the wrong way.
I pay approximately $50/mth for my Cable modem. That's a whole hell of a lot of bandwidth and money down the tube if I'm not getting any entertainment value out of it! You would think by now the **AA's would have convinced companies like AOL/Time Warner, Earthlink, et el. to share some profits with them while they turn the other cheek to P2P file swapping of entertainment. I guess you don't need a sales department when you've got one foot on the customer's throat though, huh?
Does anyone remember anymore that although we live in a more and more decentralized nation, and 'community' is beginning to no longer be defined geographically, but ideologically; that our government still is voted into office via geographical means? Senator Hollings really could care less if Billy Buttcheese, techno-geek from Alaska, opposes his bills or not. All he's worried about is how much money can he get for his re-election campaigns, and are his constituents in his state happy with his performance, at least enough to get him re-elected. You guys and gals in other states aren't going to get this guy booted our of office. Only if you inform his constituents about what a bad job he is doing for our country, will you get him out of political office and off the techie hitlist of most hated political officials.
You geeks can hate him all you want, but it won't change a thing until you can get his voting constituents hating him too.
We don't care. You're so hypocrytical. You want to maintain a monopoly on being able to bitch-slap everyday users who are posting a lot and contributing articles to your "news-links" website like we're playing some MUDD game. You guys have this policy of "oh we're so open source and FREE!" and yet you have a job solely because of the work of others. All you do is collate and staple together (sometimes quite poorly too) the work and reading done by others.
Yes, I have karma to burn because like your FAQ says, it's useless. And yes, I just finished moderating up a bunch of posts containing off-topic Katz bashes to his ultra-redundant and buzzword filled rant today. Haha!
I use Mandrake 8.2 at home now on a dual-boot, Linux/Win2k machine. I was incredibly impressed with the ease of installation and support for all of my hardware that came with this latest distribution from Mandrake. It was a big leap from 8.1. It is not 100% perfect, but then again, I have to download and configure drivers for Win2k also to get it working to its optimum level of performance too. I may be a Linux geek, but not by a whole lot. I certainly don't love the command line for a lot of things. I'm a visual person, and for me, the GUI is where it's at, but Mandrake has both worlds of Linux covered very well in my opinion.
I've seen, and tried to install, other Linux distributions, but I keep coming back to Mandrake's product. Right now, if it weren't for all of the great games in Windows, I'd be using Linux exclusively at home. Mozilla runs great, XMMS is up to par, sound, networking, video, graphics - they all exist on Linux, and from my experience, when configured correctly, run twice as fast as the Windows bloatware. Even my "Word" documents saved in the OpenOffice 641 format are 2-5 times smaller in size than the actual MS Word format!
You may ask, well what has it *actually* cost you to learn and run Linux? - Answer: A lot of time reading How-To's (which I love to do), a lot of time configuring the OS (which I love to do), and a cable broadband connection @ $44.95/mth (which I'd be using in Windows anyways). Free? Not exactly. Fun? For me, absolutely.
Well, between posting flamebait and acting intelligent, I've found it's usually more enjoyable to start flame wars here on slashdot. It certainly gets more responses than actual intelligent posts. Besides, as one troll has in his.sig: "Reading Slashdot is like picking peanuts out of sh*t." And I tend to agree at this point. Once in a while you find a great link to something you've been looking for on the Internet forever, but usually it's 17yr olds trying to appear intelligent, or old farts like myself crapflooding just for laughs while waiting for that developer to send you the damn specs already!;)
Slashdot is a good daily "revolving favorite links" website for me, but not much else. Besides, nothing can be more fun than annoying someone who gets more annoyed and grumpy with every silly flame you throw at them.
Slashdot Mirror
I agree, and I'm sure most computer engineers or programmers would agree as well.
We grew up playing with this new technology, and in the mind of a child, there's no bounds to the amount of time you have to explore, take things apart, put them back together, etc. And that's the mind of an engineer or programmer of computers. So "wasting" my time on my parent's 286 getting games to run from the command line ('cause there wasn't much in the way of GUI's back then) certainly got me hooked on computers, and made me smarter than the average Joe computer user because my games required the latest, greatest tech in the computer world. That made me learn what I needed, and why I needed it rather quickly, because without the different upgrades and tweaks applied to the computer I couldn't play my games to their fullest.
And look at those who design games now: people with Master's and PHD's in Math, Physics, etc. Not to mention the highly creative minds it takes to come up with some of the better games over the years, like Tetris, Super-Mario Bro.'s, the Civilization series, all those flight sims, etc.
This is just like I have said for the stupid RIAA/MPAA groups. If you don't want it to get out in the open, don't produce it in a copiable format. But, since that's prohibitively expensive, and NOT consumer friendly at all, they choose to go the cheaper, customer friendly route. Just don't be surprised when because people can make do with less (like cheaper, outdated patterns in this case) that they will. Your average consumer is smart, and cheap. Very cheap.
So make sure if you're gonna charge "too much" for your patterns, that you make sure they are disposed of properly, or else people will find a way to make them cheaper! Just like with mp3's and the like.
'Nuf said.
So you'd rather protect that select .5% of famous people (including political celebrities) over the rights of the 99.5% of us who are concerned when the .5% is dumping toxic waste off their back porch into our national seashores because they don't like all the aspects of being famous (i.e. stalkers and paparazzi)?
Granted, everyone is endowed with "inalianable rights by their creator" as defined by the Constitution, but that doesn't mean your life is without risk when you choose to put yourself into certain situations that necessitate a level of risk. (being famous can be a liability after all as EVERYONE knows who you are)
A coworker of mine has been completely fed up with the service, price, and general ill will that Verizon has shown him in his new home that only can get phone service through Verizon at this point in time. So he began looking into alternatives: wireless, calling cards, and finally, VoIP. He went with Vonage as his new VoIP phone service provider, and signed up for broadband from TimeWarner at the same time.
/. to throw together a system that CAN run multiple phones throughout a house, or to use completely open source solutions to do VoIP, but he's happy with the Vonage solution, especially since he gets broadband internet AND phone service for only about $30/mth more than he was paying for Verizon's simple phone service (including dial-up internet connection), AND his wife doesn't find it difficult to use either which would be very important in my situation as well. ;)
Having heard of Vonage before, as most of you have, I was interested to find out what his experience was like, and how it compared to the "dial-tone quality" of Verizon and all the other Baby Bell's. I was expecting a somewhat negative experience for him because although he's completely technically proficient with computers (he tests software), his wife and two kids are not *as* proficient, and might have had problems or major complaints with his uptake of this 'cutting edge' tech.
WOW! I was impressed! Not only did he say that installing Vonage was a pretty simple chore, but the clarity and quality of his long distance calls was BETTER than his old phone service through Verizon. (Actually I'm not too surprised at that, but impressed none-the-less).
His only complaint is that he can only have one phone hooked up to the 'appliance' that Vonage provides, and therefore it's not possible to have "multiple phone lines" throughout the house, nor have more than one phone to call out on.
I'm sure it would be trivial for some of us on
I know my wife will want VoIP as soon as it's possible to direct all the phone lines in the house to one central server handling the VoIP protocols for us in our new condo.
Well that's a pretty big claim, because too much of the world is already running Linux as a server base in a multitude of configurations, and indeed most moderately sized companies have some sort of mass conglomeration of Windows, Linux, S/390, UNIX, etc. machines all running and all very depended upon to run the business. I think if Microsoft actually were able to pull off such a stunt that there would be governments and militaries all over the world ready to descend on the US if the US government didn't reign in Microsoft and put an end to any such nonsense. Just remember, the US and it's companies are hardly powerful enough to just force the entire world to abide by their rules. That's why conspiracy theories don't usually pan out: there's just too much greed and pride at stake worldwide to lay down and take it from The Man all the time.
I would expect Microsoft/SCO to continue their pursuit of world domination by suing all the 'little guys' however, and that's what is truly scary. I.E. YAMT (Yet Another Monopoly Tactic)
So, instead of clacking away on a keyboard all day I can basically feel up boobies while I work?
Is there a downside to this?
Force feedback.
You know, when the keyboard slaps your hands away because "it's tired tonight."
I know of at least some lawyers in training (i.e. at law school currently) that would argue just as you do, which is good, because some future lawyers do not see DeCSS as a tool for piracy, simply a tool to let me watch a DVD on an OS that's not been "commissioned" by Hollywood (i.e. *BSD's, Linux, etc).
If the RIAA and MPAA don't want to let their movies and music get copied, then simply don't distribute it enmasse to untrusted sources via 8-track, cassette tape, LP, CD, CD-ROM, DVD, etc! It's as easy as that!
Oh, wait... no one wants to go spend $20 to take themselves and a significant other to the movie theatre for one showing of "The Hot Chick," but they'll rent it or buy it on DVD for the EXACT SAME PRICE for multiple viewings? Guess my idea of "customer value" should have been thrown out a long time ago along with my ideas that are counter-culture to the new socialism: Sue companies to get rich!
Silly me.
Bram Cohen
;)
Extracurricular activities:
1992-3
Co-captain of Math Team, Stuyvesant High School
1992
1st place team, New York State Math League
Individual High Scorer
1992
Passed American Invitational Mathematics Exam (AIME)
So how often did you get wedgies at your school? Curious nerds NEED TO KNOW!!
Thank you for that synopsis of the article. For what it's worth, I won't even bother reading it, as it is about HR departments in big companies. That means it is an article about complete stupidity and laziness within the human race... i.e. HR.
/.'ers were more than familiar with the sheer genius of HR departments in the many ways in which to cause a near infinite number of tech support headaches!
I would have thought
Well I'm so glad that we narrowed it down to oh, say, several million years ago give or take that we "evolved" and became slightly different than a chimpanzee. Shit, even a cow must somehow share a genetic link to us in the way back past, right? You know, just after the Big Bang (well, several billion years after it of course) when all was warm, and life got created in a single instance, spawning a plethora of life-forms.
So I guess we shouldn't be eating any more monkey brain, those damn African savages! The horror! Won't somebody PLEASE think of the children!!
Oh, by the way, put down that McDonald's hamburger, you're eating your relatives!!!
And don't think plants are exempt!! They're just another offshoot of "life", and we certainly wouldn't want to be extinguishing a life-form, now would we?
For those of you who actually RTFA, those who take breaks doing what they want to do during those breaks will be more prepared to tackle the chores in front of them back in "the real world." To which I agree. If I were able to play a little Civ3 here and there throughout the workday, I'd be a much happier camper than how it is now, where I go and BS with my coworkers (who, although I really like 'em, they're not as fun all the time as a non-emotional computer game).
Of course the obvious ability to abuse such a system exists, but when it is encouraged as a stress reliever for little breaks here and there, rather than discouraged completely, it becomes a VERY USEFUL "tool" in the workplace. IMHO, anyways...
"If only she had killer robot insurance. Most insurance policies don't cover attacks by killer robots.
Robots are everywhere, and they eat old people's medicine for food.
Only Old Glory offers complete killer robot coverage.
Robots are everywhere, and when they grab you with their big metal claws there's no secape, because they're made of metal. And robots are strong.
Note: People denying the existence of killer robots may be robots themselves."
"do not these strange and wonderful beings deserve our respect and encouragement? is there no natural sanctuary of a subnet on which these beautiful beings can live out their imperative to reproduce? unburdened by the ill wishes of mankind?"
You're from PETA, aren't you?
Can you imagine what would happen if we actually HAD the source code?! Within a couple of generations and "service packs", we'd have an insecure, unstable, unpredictable wolf-hound terrorizing 90% of dog owners!
"Anybody who doesn't believe in evolution, can't believe in dogs -- if humans could breed so many different types of dog from a wolf in a few thousand years, it's obviously possible that far larger changes can take over billions of years."
But therein lies the primary problem I have with evolution being the beginning of everything; you're equating a human-engineered process (breeding dogs) with a completely random process of true evolution of a species from basic elements of the universe. Keep in mind, no where in my original post did I say evolution was a non-occurring process. I simply said where's the answer to the question: "Who/What caused this process (the process of life) to begin?" The point being that NO ONE can prove/disprove that question, ultimately, and that ultimately we all pick a side of the fence to be on in regards to whether it was pure random chance that generated that beginning to life, or whether it was engineered by an all-powerful God.
I always find it funny when I post these types of ideas on Slashdot and the atheists, evolutionists, and Christian/Jew-haters freak all the way out and go on a rampage. Dude, believe what you want, but don't treat me like a moron because I believe differently. My approach to other scientific endeavours like computers, genetic engineering, physics, etc. are probably every bit the same as yours apart from our beliefs on these tough questions.
But you have to ask yourself: Is it true science when a scientist is postulating on what formed the Earth and the universe millions (if not billions) of years ago when he or she has absolutely 0 methods of testing certain hypotheses like "the Big Bang" theory, the "evolutionary" theory, etc? Likewise, a "Creation Scientist" as you put it, is merely using scientific methods to preach his view on where everything comes from every bit as much as the "Evolution Scientist" is using those same methods. And since there is no way to test either hypothesis through the scientific method, it's all still just conjecture, scientifically speaking.
Be careful, young grasshopper, for you never know how what you say may later come back to haunt you as an extraordinarily embarrassing moment in your life.
Isn't it interesting how very few (if anyone) reading Slashdot is at all surprised by this? And yet the MPAA and RIAA continue to fight the digital revolution! Well, it may not be a true revolution, but it is a major change in how people access entertainment these days. Just like how the VCR drastically changed the movie industry by making it EVEN MORE money than it was showing a few movies per theatre.
;)
And yet, I'm perplexed that the whole of the music industry exec's can actually be so incredibly blind to the fact that they should be embracing technology rather than shying away from it. IIRC, they were also afraid of the CD back in the day. Then again, we are talking about "Hollywood" and music types, and if history shows us anything, they're not exactly the brightest kids on the block. Maybe they should read that story on slashdot yesterday about not taking care of your environment.
- What's our "population"? Criminals (and from the looks of that report, primarily drug dealers.
- What are we trying to answer? Whether computer encryption is easily breakable by government wiretapping and other mechanisms.
- What info do we know?
- 1) Criminals are generally stupid (why else would they be breaking the law so blatantly to require an investigation that cost >$50k?!)
- 2) The government wiretaps did not encounter any problem with encryptions that prevented a wiretap from being successful
The primary problem with most of you is that you're making a mountain out of a statistical molehill. Considering 95% or more of all criminals are complete morons, why would you assume any of them would be using secure 128-bit encryption, steganography, and other such encryption tools to encode their communications? They're usually more interested in how they're gonna whack that jerkoff down the street for lookin' at their girl the wrong way.Heh, loved your sig. Finally, someone made me interested in learning what Lisp is all about. ;)
I pay approximately $50/mth for my Cable modem. That's a whole hell of a lot of bandwidth and money down the tube if I'm not getting any entertainment value out of it! You would think by now the **AA's would have convinced companies like AOL/Time Warner, Earthlink, et el. to share some profits with them while they turn the other cheek to P2P file swapping of entertainment. I guess you don't need a sales department when you've got one foot on the customer's throat though, huh?
You geeks can hate him all you want, but it won't change a thing until you can get his voting constituents hating him too.
Yes, I have karma to burn because like your FAQ says, it's useless. And yes, I just finished moderating up a bunch of posts containing off-topic Katz bashes to his ultra-redundant and buzzword filled rant today. Haha!
I've seen, and tried to install, other Linux distributions, but I keep coming back to Mandrake's product. Right now, if it weren't for all of the great games in Windows, I'd be using Linux exclusively at home. Mozilla runs great, XMMS is up to par, sound, networking, video, graphics - they all exist on Linux, and from my experience, when configured correctly, run twice as fast as the Windows bloatware. Even my "Word" documents saved in the OpenOffice 641 format are 2-5 times smaller in size than the actual MS Word format!
You may ask, well what has it *actually* cost you to learn and run Linux? - Answer: A lot of time reading How-To's (which I love to do), a lot of time configuring the OS (which I love to do), and a cable broadband connection @ $44.95/mth (which I'd be using in Windows anyways). Free? Not exactly. Fun? For me, absolutely.
Slashdot is a good daily "revolving favorite links" website for me, but not much else. Besides, nothing can be more fun than annoying someone who gets more annoyed and grumpy with every silly flame you throw at them.