Slashdot Mirror


User: bumski

bumski's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
48
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 48

  1. Re:United Police State of America on Examining the Search and Seizure of Electronics at Airports · · Score: 1

    Ah, so that's why it's called a boom box.

  2. Re:Verizon Covers Almost All of PA on What is the Current Status of WiMAX? · · Score: 1

    No need for sharing. If the service is available there, he can arrange for service to be installed in his name at a friend's house and close his personal last mile himself. That's how I'd do it if it were one of my bandwidth-hogging, porn-fiend friends who wanted to arrange for service at my house. But I'd look at leasing a bare pair, aka "alarm line", rather than wireless.

    Not that any of this matters to the OP, who probably has to drive an hour to get into an area with service.

  3. Re:Man... on Former CIA Head Calls for Limiting Access to the Internet · · Score: 1
    From that infamous article written by Robert Novak, noted left-wing hack and nutjob, who has long pretended to be cozy with the right, until the opporunity arose to frame the Bush administration by citing them as his source:

    Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. Two senior administration officials told me Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate the Italian report. The CIA says its counter-proliferation officials selected Wilson and asked his wife to contact him. "I will not answer any question about my wife," Wilson told me.

    Jumping Jebus, Novak himself says they were the source, and yet you believe it's some sort of left wing conspiracy?
  4. Re:Lucky ladies! on Two Women Found With HIV-Immune Mutant Gene · · Score: 5, Funny

    In my experience, a related condition, "marriage", seems to have a similar effect in reducing the frequency of sexual activity. So much so, in fact, that I begin to believe that those who oppose homosexual activity would be well served to endorse gay marriage as a preventative measure.

  5. Re:Irresponsibility on Coffee is Addictive · · Score: 5, Funny

    More importantly, does the light really go out?

  6. Re:Wrong Job on Patent Concerns Unlikely To Nix Munich Linux Plan · · Score: 5, Informative
    Seriously, if a MySQL developer is worried about the legality of running Linux then maybe he has the wrong job ;)
    More like a MySQL developer worried about the promulgation of bad patent law.
  7. Re:GPL is not a User license on IBM Moves To Enforce GPL By Summary Judgement · · Score: 1
    I disagree. The GPL is certainly much more than a simple EULA, but it is also that. It's the only thing that permits the end-user to use the software it covers:
    Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not covered by this License; they are outside its scope. The act of running the Program is not restricted...
    Yeah, the first line would seem to argue against me, but nonetheless, it's the second line that waives all restrictions on running the program. Without this, what gives you any right to use the software? If the GPL doesn't, then we have a problem, because although we can all trade and modify the source code for our gpl'd programs as much as we like, we can't actually run them.

    So, if you define end-user license agreement as the thing which gives the end user license to use the software, the GPL is an EULA. It's just a completely non-restrictive one.

  8. Re:ARGGG! GPL is not a EULA! on IBM Moves To Enforce GPL By Summary Judgement · · Score: 0

    The only thing that gives you, as an "end user", license to use most gnu-licensed software is the GPL, just as those click through thingies on commercial software purport to give you permission to use that software if you accept their restrictions.

    The fact that the GPL is much less restrictive than other licenses, going so far as to permit redistribution, doesn't prevent it from being the only license that the end user has. Neither does the fact that you've been conditioned to grunt EULA bad, GPL good, so GPL != EULA. Being strident doesn't make you correct.

  9. Re:Here comes a rant on Patriot Act Used to Enforce Copyright Law? · · Score: 1

    Cool. Let's just jail everyone then, guaranteeing that we catch all the bad people. Let's start with you. It's worth it.

  10. Re:Details of the case: on Court Says Customers May Take IPs Away From ISP · · Score: 1

    Pretty amazing, isn't it? I read the details too, and the TRO looks entirely reasonable. But damned if everything here isn't "Stupid judge has broken the internet." It looks more like stupid slashdot readers can't see past knee-jerk radius. Wake up, folks, this crap has nothing to do with number portability or permanent theft of IP space, and everything to do with the judge insisting that the ISP work reasonably with a customer toward migration. Thanks for letting me languish with ya.

  11. Re:Xfree86 on Criticizing Sun's Java Desktop System · · Score: 1

    The Xfree86 license is incompatible with the GPL specifically because of the GPL authors' informed decision to forego an advertising clause. If the authors of this software wanted to require users to advertise on their behalf, then they picked the wrong license under which to release. Assuming that Sun is otherwise complying with the terms of the license, then it's pretty childish to criticize them for insufficient ass-kissing and/or GPL proselytizing.

  12. Re:Sheesh! on TiVo Will Die · · Score: 1
    The cable companies see that they can eliminate the worthless expense that is Nielsen ratings if they can collect the data in real time from their subscribers
    Yeah, right, because you just know that advertising agencies are gonna line right up to pay rates set according to the cable industry's self-determined ratings. Nielsen is valuable largely because it's independent of the programmers, agencies, and advertisers.
  13. Re:Not entirely on Project Gutenberg 2 Raises Some Hackles · · Score: 3, Interesting
    In my humble opinion, this dilutes the Project Gutenberg name and idea, but it's Hart's to do with as he sees fit.
    What a shame, too. There ought to be a low-cost mechanism by which collaborators could be invested with some measure of formal ownership in projects like Gutenberg and CDDB so that their putative owners can't take advantage of the work of scores of volunteers and sell out in the end. Gutenberg shouldn't be owned by Hart, but rather by everyone who has contributed over the years.
  14. Re:I can't believe they aren't in jail yet... on Warspying in San Francisco · · Score: 1

    Here, for one. When you begin ranting, be sure to make much use of the author's family's reputation.

  15. Re:What they'll be told: on Microsoft Sued for Defective Software · · Score: 1

    Yes, it's impractical to take an arbitrary program and attempt to prove its correctness, However, there is a school of software design that attempts to include the correctness proofs into the design process; the implementation becomes codification of algorithms already proven to be correct. In other words, the software is designed in a way that makes proving its correctness easier. In twenty years in the software development industry, I've never seen anyone attempt to use this method of development -- it's considered more cost effective to produce reasonably functional software quickly than nearly perfect software slowly. And of course, it's still possible to make mistakes in the proofs themselves, allowing bugs to remain in the software.

  16. Re:"Putting" the vuln in? on Microsoft Sued for Defective Software · · Score: 1

    What body standardized the BSD socket interface, anyway? I find it hard to believe that a standard exists for raw sockets in particular.

  17. Re:TiVo could make ads even better on Study Finds Tivo Less of a Threat to Advertisers · · Score: 1

    This will never, ever happen. No advertiser or commercial producer will ever place an easily identifiable marker in a commercial, as it would almost immediately be used to enable automatic commercial skip in VCRs and PVRs.

  18. Re:Could someone clear this up once and for all? on RMS Replies to "The Stallman Factor" · · Score: 1
    Hear, hear!

    Unfortunately for you and me, it seems that everyone outside of academia, including the /. community, has redefined "operating system" to include the crap that comes with the OS. I don't see how the same people can bitch when Microsoft claims that IE is part of the OS. In common parlance, "operating system" is now a less well-defined and useful phrase than it once was.

  19. Re:He's either a fruit that's a little nutty... on Time Travel · · Score: 1
    There would be government laws to control time travel, he believes

    Can we get Sen. Hollings on this?

    More likely, there'd be time travel to control government laws. Perhaps we can get Sen. Holling with this.

  20. Shoe's on the Wrong Foot on Fair Software Installation · · Score: 2, Insightful
    The author makes a lot of good points, but in the end, he's placing the responsibility for preventing unwanted, system-level changes on the wrong party.

    Installing or modifying "system-level" components such as drivers, services, and daemons shouldn't be possible for anyone without administrative privileges. If the operating system fails to distinguish between normal users and administrators, then it's the OS that needs to be fixed, rather than the practices of innumerable software suppliers.

    And if the user chooses to run always with administrative privileges, well, he deserves what he gets.

  21. Re:Telecommuting IS a Business activity... on VPN Clients Not Allowed On Residential Service · · Score: 1
    Charging more for VPN is a crude measurement, but the logic is if you're using a VPN, you're probably using more bandwidth.

    Frankly, I doubt that the intent is to use VPN as a bandwidth metric. Seems more akin to that airlines' "cheaper flights if you stay over a weekend" policy, which is designed to differentiate fares according to the customer's ability to pay, not the service provided. Corporations have deeper pockets, and this is just an attempt to identify customers who are using their service on the behalf of a company that might then be expected to cough up additional dollars.

  22. Re:What's the issue here ? on Online Journalism Same As Print/TV · · Score: 1
    What does confuse me: This was a dispute between a Mexican bank president and a Mexican journalist that the Mexican courts shitcanned at least once. How did it end up in New York's state courts?
    Al Giordano comments on this in the followup discussion of his Indypendent interview :
    Tony writes:

    My question is, does the fact that the judge dismissed the case based on your protection as a journalist mean that the venue of New York was in fact a valid venue for such a trial? Did you even bring up that issue with her? It seems that the judge, by dismissing the case, did in fact take jurisdiction, thereby setting a precedent that a Mexican newspaper and a website published from Mexico can be sued outside of Mexico (in the United States)?

    Al replies:

    Let me nip that rumor in the bud right away!

    The Court found NO JURISDICTION over my co-defendant, Mexican newspaper editor Mario Menendez. The Court found CONFLICTING FACTS from Banamex and from our side over whether there would be jurisdiction over Narco News or I over what was published on Narco News (she did, as I read it, find likely jurisdiction over me on one charge, the slander charge, over statements I made at Columbia University and on WBAI, but not on the Internet). Judge Omansky said that the question of juris over Narco News or I for my internet statements would have to be subject to further discovery, but that the fact that she determined that we had the same protections as commercial media meant that there didn't even need to be more discovery, that another set of issues then destroyed Banamex's case.

    He also goes on to note that the EFF has published the full text of the decision on their web site.
  23. Re:How many people does it take... on Dreamhack 2001 · · Score: 1

    Tolken ring? Ah, yes, one ring to bind them all...

  24. Re:Perfect Software on CIOs Band Together Against Paying For Software Bugs · · Score: 1
    Well, it certainly cannot be solved in polynomial-bounded time then, right? ;-)

    Cheers!

  25. Re:George Bush and the M$ case on Why The U.S. Surrendered To Microsoft · · Score: 1
    Because drivers are built into the kernel.
    And so is the browser, the vendor tells us. So is it really wise to base the defense of a multimiliion dollar ship on an OS which can be brought down by the web surfing of a bored sailor?

    I'm only half kidding.