It's that kind of thinking that ended the hugely enjoyable Ancient Art of War series, not to mention the Sophwith Camel line of games. I am still bitter with all you innovators and really wish there was a 'stay the course' movement in software development. While some people may vote with their wallets, I vote with my 8088.
If this is for a DOD contractor, you have a security liason somewhere within your company who can requistion the requirements if he or she does not already have them.
If this is for a government agency, there is an Office of the Inspector General's office connected with that service / agency which can supply the requirements to you.
I have seen $500,000 non-returnable mistakes made relying on federal suppliers to ensure systems are secure.
It's nice when science can agree with the things we already know to be true. Music is a great way to overcome more than stalls in aircraft engines. The right song can bring you right back to the moment you first heard it, make time stand still and everything seem alright until the time it ends (and you want to hear it again).
The right song can melt a woman in your arms, make a bad date suddenly go right, turn a night of monotony into a night of romance. When I turn on that Barry White and the moment is just right, the lights go down and...
oh wait...
sorry, forgot this was Slashdot. This kind of talk has no place here.
Finally, a reason to block email to.ca domains! The risk of interception should be enough for my company to completely stop trying to communicate with those people. They might as well move back to snailmail for anything more important than spam.
I closely follow benchmarking reports comparing Linux to Windows, and often find that there are substantial differences within the environments being tested. For instance, in a commissioned report from 2004 (I can't find it atm), there was a comparison between Windows 2003 Server and a version of Red Hat from 1998.
The natural inclination is to think an older version of the OS was chosen for the sake of making Windows appear to be a more competitive product, but I was wondering what your take on this is.
I was unaware certain types of content could be taxed at a higher rate than others. Doesn't this raise a freedom of speech issue, in that taxing information puts certain types of speech out of the reach of those who cannot afford to pay? Kind of like a poll tax, but more Orwellian.
I would be all in favor of this if it lead to taxes on political commentary on television. Especially if that tax was levied on consumers themselves, to make them pay for the point of view they are having shoved down their throat.
Yes, if you combined the interfaces of Photoshop, Illustrator, Freehand, Fireworks and Painter, the Gimp's interface would be superior. The sheer number of windows, palettes, toolboxes, sliders and strange controls would be overwhelming.
Apart from that, each one of these programs has an interesting interface that is worth learning how to use.
The thing that annoys me about both Inkscape and the Gimp is that there are no floating palettes. This is irritating because each program is essentially a creative tool moreso than an office application. In the midst of a stream of thought, it is annoying to have to go up to a menu and have a properties dialog box pop up to do your work in. With Photoshop in particular, you can organize the interface in ways that work best for you. There are still some options (like the transform menu) that make you go through some motions, but this is still a small price to pay for the ability to work with tools at your own pace.
Here's my plan for how to overthrow the federal government.
Put doors in all government buildings leading to a 10 story drop. Buy some big arrows with pictures of Twinkie the Kid and the Kool Aid Man smiling and waving, and aim these arrows at the 10 story drops. Put the words '10 STORY FALL - DO NOT WALK THROUGH THIS DOOR' on each door in big neon letters.
A week later, round up the 8 surviving federal employees and put them to work drawing flags for the new empire. Give them ample amounts of finger paint, crayons and paste.
I have experience working with the U.S. Federal Government as an IT contractor in various capacities. While I find it completely possible Mr. McKinnon penetrated a system using a default password and was able to access various documents, I strongly doubt people's interpretations of what he saw.
This is based on several factors in his story, including the ease with which he was able to penetrate this system as well as the total lack of understanding of the English language common to people in positions of authority in the U.S. Federal government.
First off, I have had the displeasure of being party to audits by the Office of the Inspector General and am familiar with their standards for assessing IT policy based on the security level of content being housed on the server. They are fairly standard, highly regimented, and include every possible protection someone could have imagined 3 years ago.
While these requirements do not automatically extend to military networks, they are regarded as being less stringent than military networks (for instance, you will commonly see references to 'military grade standards' when receiving proposals from other contractors).
One specific requirement of an OIG assessment is evidence of the enforcement of a password security. They check to see whether users are required to have passwords, how often passwords expire, how many characters should be in each password, the minimum number of characters that must be non-alphanumeric, etc.
The type of content Mr. McKinnon accessed surely would have been classified secret if it referred to a non-public military capability, and would probably be top secret if it referred to something of extraterrestial origin. 100% of servers containing secret documents are hardened against attack in public agencies, and I would assume the same is true with the military.
All this leads me to believe it is extremely unlikely Mr. McKinnon saw what he thinks he saw, or else he is probably not being truthful in his description of how he cracked the system. I prefer to think of this in the former, but cannot really render judgement without seeing the source materials.
The other reason I am extremely skeptical of the idea Mr. McKinnon understood what he was seeing is that people in positions of authority in the U.S. Government and in the military tend to be unable to understand English to the point they are bordering on illiterate. This is not an exaggeration, I know of several agencies that require all of their SES officers to attend remedial English classes as a requirement for employment. These people commonly use words with total disregard for their meaning, their memos often communicate instructions which are exactly the opposite of their intended message, and most importantly, they give names to things which are wholly inappropriate.
If Mr. McKinnon saw a memo referring to non-terrestrial officers, we can only guess at what that term may mean. My guess is that it refers to aerial or naval forces, but it really could be anything.
The mjor obstalce scientists have been able to overcome is, when you turn the knob up to 4, you do not experience the symptoms of butt frenzy commonly associated with earlier versions of the device.
I think it's too bad we can construct a rover that can charge around the landscape of Mars for months at a time but cannot get a Taureg or a Hummer to drive through the desert on it's own.
Different disciplines, I know, but still. It would just seem like someone should be able to put something together that could overcome any obstacle and proceed in a straight line from point to point in the race. Like a Bradley tank, maybe with some modifications that exchange armor for nitrous tanks or something.
I realize that's not really the point of the race, but still. What about a ballistic vehicle instead? Like an egg drop that just has to hit the target, maybe with some means of propulsion to correct it's course in flight. It could complete the track in minutes instead of hours.
It just fails to amaze me that we are trying to get trucks to drive on their own when we have perfectly good rockets that can do the job much faster.
If I have ever seen a thread designed to ignite a Troll War, this is it. I have been debating whether or not the moderators really do this sort of thing and just got my proof.
Everyone knows the real difference between Windows programmers and Unix programmers is volume labels. One group uses them and the other relies on other means. An analogy: 2 kids enter the kitchen and one dies from drinking a bottle with a big Mr. Yuck sticker on it. One kid knew what it meant, the other one thought green means lime taste.
You know, a karma whore like me should probably not be participating in any discussion involving Natalie Portman. At the same time, it will probably be about 5 years before I get another chance. So ere goes.
Far, far in teh future, in a petrified forest just outside the ruins of Philadelphia, stands a naked, marbelized corpse with an expression of fear and angst across it's face. Scientists of the day, doing research into the decline and fall of mankind hundreds and thousands of years earlier, use temporal analysis instruments to peer into the past and determine the what brought this poor, pathetic creature into these woods and how it came to be in such a state.
Upon a floating disk stands a large, translucent box, the outer covering of which disguises a number of gears and tubes which come to life as the scientists activate it's instruments. Within the large, green viewport, the scientists peer backwards into time, watching countless days and nights peel away like skins of an onion. As time comes back, so do glaciers of mineral deposits which once covered the entire area. For hours, the scientists stare into the viewport. 'This isn't going fast enough', mutters the chief scientist, twisting a knob to increase the rate of reversion.
Suddenly, there is a blazing flash of light, the deposits receed, and the scientists watch the last days of man with great interest. From their viewport, they stare over the city of Philadelphia and watch as the air defences fire upon opponents in the skies above. Massive sledges of steaming, boiling grits drop their payloads onto the city, and block by block the guns go silent. The scene on the horizon is choked by the sheer number of sledges, and the cackling of the sledgemasters can be heard through the audible amplification unit. The thousands of lenses of the scientists eyes focus all at once on the city limits, where fleeing citizens can be seen escaping a bubbling, oozing force as it emerges from all the buildings. Soon, the valley surrounding the city is becoming layered with grits running over from the city, and the skyline which was home to people for so many generations vanishes in a grey, chunky mess.
The scientists watch as survivors coming up the hill become trapped in the lava-like ooze and instantly burst into flames. By now, they can hear the screams of the last few runners who somehow managed to stay ahead of the grits which have filled the valley like chowder in a soup bowl. Finally, lights shine through the clouds above a massive sledge emerges from the heavens, larger than the city itself lying below. A thunderous beeping sound, like that of a thousand backloaders, begins echoing over the scene. In the viewport, the scientists watch with keen interest as 2 events take place: the last of the runners makes her way into the forest, towards higher grounds above and possibly salvation, and the bottom of the massive sledge gives way to megatons of steaming hot grits. In an instant, the runner is swept up in the massive outpouring of grits which quickly consume her. The viewport goes dark.
'Back up a few frames, I want to check something', says the lead scientist. The culinary officer complies, his cerci swinging back and forth excitedly as the group looks for clues to the identity of the runner. They stare closely into the viewport, when one of the scientists exlaims 'Stop! That badge seems to be a means of identification. T'jalfar, you know ancient human dialects, what does it say?'
T'jalfar adjusts his 4,000 lensed monacle. After a moment, he mutters, 'Port... Port... Portman! That is what it says, this one's name was Portman.'
'What does it mean?' asks one of the other scientists.
'Definitely kosher, my friends. By the name given on the badge, it is safe to say this one was definitely kosher' says T'jalfar.
An excited chatter rose amongst the crowd. The culinary officer ambled up to the marblized corpse, it's anntenae running all over to determine the best place to insert his instruments. Being the most advanced species on the planet, the cockroach scientists take great care to only seek out the finest meals and employ the most advanced technology to ensure the quality of their food.
Well, that depends on how you define major injury.
- he has recevied wounds that resulted in broken ribs and broken arms (for that matter he has fallen from great heights in such a way that the reader would assume much worse);
- he has occassionally suffered the effects of neurological toxins which rendered him incapable of normal function;
- he suffered from a disease similar to vampirism that made him incapable of being out in the light;
- he has drowned to the point of needing to be resuscitated;
- he has been impaled and flailed to the point where blood poured out of his costume;
Now, I am not enough of a comics geek to be able to point out issue / page numbers, but I fondly remember these events from the pages of the comics I read in my youth. I always thought he was the toughest superhero because of the predicaments in which he would be placed by writers.
I have an iPod and would not consider switching until a) the hardware costs of an Apple come down and b) they do something about 3rd party hardware. These items are key.
There is great joy for me in running down to the computer store, buying some new hardware and putting it together into a nice, beefy Linux box. Having a selection of products from different competitors that are adequately benchmarked and significantly improved from the 'old' model is exactly what makes me want a computer.
The idea that someone has taken all of the guesswork out of it and put together a box that I am just supposed to use is boring.
Due process should be exercised, then. People set the bar incredibly low for what they accept as treason when they have a political motivation to do so.
Word up. There is no such thing as Western style democracy, there is just democracy. Freedom of the press, freedom of religion, etc. are part of the package.
This is what Putin's supporters do not get. Wars of aggression do not have anything to do with this kind of government.
I have always admired Gary Kasparov and the things he has done for the chess world, I never really enjoyed playing through someone's else games until I saw his.
There was a time I really wanted to be a great chess player. I would go to bed at night and stay up thinking of moves from games I had played earlier in the day. It would frustrate me to see so clearly what I should have done in certain situations, and aggravate me that things became so obvious after the fact. Sometimes I would go to sleep and dream of games that never even happened, and was really having trouble with the role the game was playing in my life.
Found a book of translated interviews with grandmasters at a used bookstore and it straightened me out. Rosendo Balinas was a prude and never struck me as a real human being. Bobby Fisher was just indominatable and I had trouble relating to him. Kasparov, on the other hand, was kind of a playboy. He had real interests outside the game and saw the relation between what he was doing on the table and what political organizations did throughout the world. He talked about the 'chessbrain' syndrome and how he learned to turn it on to new things.
Long story short: I read about Kasparov, studied Kasparov, tried to walk and talk like Kasparov. Doing so helped me become an easier person to be around. Eventually got laid, had a kid, took an interest in things outside chess.
Another way to think about TV media downloads is this:
The big networks, right now, devote a huge percentage of broadcast time to commercials. In some cases, shows themselves are the commercial with embedded advertisements and product placement.
What if the broadcast medium was the advertising for the shows to be downloaded? I mean, letting people download shows means giving up the right to control the sequence and timing of content (people can skip through commercials without watching them) which means there is no reliable channel for marketing new programming.
Let the broadcast stations stay on the way they are, and bring in the revenue for shows through online subscription services. That way you have a channel for promoting new shows and a revenue stream for something people are going to do for free otherwise.
Can't say whether this is the way the networks are thinking, but it stands to reason this is the way to go. No one can bring their DVR with them (by no one, I mean no average person) and there will be places where broadcast television is the only option.
Slashdot Mirror
'Innovate or get out of the way'
It's that kind of thinking that ended the hugely enjoyable Ancient Art of War series, not to mention the Sophwith Camel line of games. I am still bitter with all you innovators and really wish there was a 'stay the course' movement in software development. While some people may vote with their wallets, I vote with my 8088.
M
Build it yourself.
If this is for a DOD contractor, you have a security liason somewhere within your company who can requistion the requirements if he or she does not already have them.
If this is for a government agency, there is an Office of the Inspector General's office connected with that service / agency which can supply the requirements to you.
I have seen $500,000 non-returnable mistakes made relying on federal suppliers to ensure systems are secure.
M
It's nice when science can agree with the things we already know to be true. Music is a great way to overcome more than stalls in aircraft engines. The right song can bring you right back to the moment you first heard it, make time stand still and everything seem alright until the time it ends (and you want to hear it again).
The right song can melt a woman in your arms, make a bad date suddenly go right, turn a night of monotony into a night of romance. When I turn on that Barry White and the moment is just right, the lights go down and...
oh wait...
sorry, forgot this was Slashdot. This kind of talk has no place here.
*ducking*
M
Finally, a reason to block email to .ca domains! The risk of interception should be enough for my company to completely stop trying to communicate with those people. They might as well move back to snailmail for anything more important than spam.
M
Does you lab commonly engage in benchmarking?
I closely follow benchmarking reports comparing Linux to Windows, and often find that there are substantial differences within the environments being tested. For instance, in a commissioned report from 2004 (I can't find it atm), there was a comparison between Windows 2003 Server and a version of Red Hat from 1998.
The natural inclination is to think an older version of the OS was chosen for the sake of making Windows appear to be a more competitive product, but I was wondering what your take on this is.
M
I was unaware certain types of content could be taxed at a higher rate than others. Doesn't this raise a freedom of speech issue, in that taxing information puts certain types of speech out of the reach of those who cannot afford to pay? Kind of like a poll tax, but more Orwellian.
I would be all in favor of this if it lead to taxes on political commentary on television. Especially if that tax was levied on consumers themselves, to make them pay for the point of view they are having shoved down their throat.
M
Yes, if you combined the interfaces of Photoshop, Illustrator, Freehand, Fireworks and Painter, the Gimp's interface would be superior. The sheer number of windows, palettes, toolboxes, sliders and strange controls would be overwhelming.
Apart from that, each one of these programs has an interesting interface that is worth learning how to use.
The thing that annoys me about both Inkscape and the Gimp is that there are no floating palettes. This is irritating because each program is essentially a creative tool moreso than an office application. In the midst of a stream of thought, it is annoying to have to go up to a menu and have a properties dialog box pop up to do your work in. With Photoshop in particular, you can organize the interface in ways that work best for you. There are still some options (like the transform menu) that make you go through some motions, but this is still a small price to pay for the ability to work with tools at your own pace.
M
Here's my plan for how to overthrow the federal government.
Put doors in all government buildings leading to a 10 story drop. Buy some big arrows with pictures of Twinkie the Kid and the Kool Aid Man smiling and waving, and aim these arrows at the 10 story drops. Put the words '10 STORY FALL - DO NOT WALK THROUGH THIS DOOR' on each door in big neon letters.
A week later, round up the 8 surviving federal employees and put them to work drawing flags for the new empire. Give them ample amounts of finger paint, crayons and paste.
M
I have experience working with the U.S. Federal Government as an IT contractor in various capacities. While I find it completely possible Mr. McKinnon penetrated a system using a default password and was able to access various documents, I strongly doubt people's interpretations of what he saw.
This is based on several factors in his story, including the ease with which he was able to penetrate this system as well as the total lack of understanding of the English language common to people in positions of authority in the U.S. Federal government.
First off, I have had the displeasure of being party to audits by the Office of the Inspector General and am familiar with their standards for assessing IT policy based on the security level of content being housed on the server. They are fairly standard, highly regimented, and include every possible protection someone could have imagined 3 years ago.
While these requirements do not automatically extend to military networks, they are regarded as being less stringent than military networks (for instance, you will commonly see references to 'military grade standards' when receiving proposals from other contractors).
One specific requirement of an OIG assessment is evidence of the enforcement of a password security. They check to see whether users are required to have passwords, how often passwords expire, how many characters should be in each password, the minimum number of characters that must be non-alphanumeric, etc.
The type of content Mr. McKinnon accessed surely would have been classified secret if it referred to a non-public military capability, and would probably be top secret if it referred to something of extraterrestial origin. 100% of servers containing secret documents are hardened against attack in public agencies, and I would assume the same is true with the military.
All this leads me to believe it is extremely unlikely Mr. McKinnon saw what he thinks he saw, or else he is probably not being truthful in his description of how he cracked the system. I prefer to think of this in the former, but cannot really render judgement without seeing the source materials.
The other reason I am extremely skeptical of the idea Mr. McKinnon understood what he was seeing is that people in positions of authority in the U.S. Government and in the military tend to be unable to understand English to the point they are bordering on illiterate. This is not an exaggeration, I know of several agencies that require all of their SES officers to attend remedial English classes as a requirement for employment. These people commonly use words with total disregard for their meaning, their memos often communicate instructions which are exactly the opposite of their intended message, and most importantly, they give names to things which are wholly inappropriate.
If Mr. McKinnon saw a memo referring to non-terrestrial officers, we can only guess at what that term may mean. My guess is that it refers to aerial or naval forces, but it really could be anything.
M
Well, remember though, that 900,000 U.S. dollars is really only about 32 GBP.
M
Alright, I will explain.
In Judge Dredd, there is a dude with a dial on his head that controls how violent he is.
When the dial is turned up to 4, he goes into butt frenzy mode. Which means he goes around head butting everything in his path.
This story made me think of that.
M
This is a new version of a much older device.
The mjor obstalce scientists have been able to overcome is, when you turn the knob up to 4, you do not experience the symptoms of butt frenzy commonly associated with earlier versions of the device.
M
I think it's too bad we can construct a rover that can charge around the landscape of Mars for months at a time but cannot get a Taureg or a Hummer to drive through the desert on it's own.
Different disciplines, I know, but still. It would just seem like someone should be able to put something together that could overcome any obstacle and proceed in a straight line from point to point in the race. Like a Bradley tank, maybe with some modifications that exchange armor for nitrous tanks or something.
I realize that's not really the point of the race, but still. What about a ballistic vehicle instead? Like an egg drop that just has to hit the target, maybe with some means of propulsion to correct it's course in flight. It could complete the track in minutes instead of hours.
It just fails to amaze me that we are trying to get trucks to drive on their own when we have perfectly good rockets that can do the job much faster.
- Werner vB.
If I have ever seen a thread designed to ignite a Troll War, this is it. I have been debating whether or not the moderators really do this sort of thing and just got my proof.
Everyone knows the real difference between Windows programmers and Unix programmers is volume labels. One group uses them and the other relies on other means. An analogy: 2 kids enter the kitchen and one dies from drinking a bottle with a big Mr. Yuck sticker on it. One kid knew what it meant, the other one thought green means lime taste.
Know what I mean?
M
You know, a karma whore like me should probably not be participating in any discussion involving Natalie Portman. At the same time, it will probably be about 5 years before I get another chance. So ere goes.
Far, far in teh future, in a petrified forest just outside the ruins of Philadelphia, stands a naked, marbelized corpse with an expression of fear and angst across it's face. Scientists of the day, doing research into the decline and fall of mankind hundreds and thousands of years earlier, use temporal analysis instruments to peer into the past and determine the what brought this poor, pathetic creature into these woods and how it came to be in such a state.
Upon a floating disk stands a large, translucent box, the outer covering of which disguises a number of gears and tubes which come to life as the scientists activate it's instruments. Within the large, green viewport, the scientists peer backwards into time, watching countless days and nights peel away like skins of an onion. As time comes back, so do glaciers of mineral deposits which once covered the entire area. For hours, the scientists stare into the viewport. 'This isn't going fast enough', mutters the chief scientist, twisting a knob to increase the rate of reversion.
Suddenly, there is a blazing flash of light, the deposits receed, and the scientists watch the last days of man with great interest. From their viewport, they stare over the city of Philadelphia and watch as the air defences fire upon opponents in the skies above. Massive sledges of steaming, boiling grits drop their payloads onto the city, and block by block the guns go silent. The scene on the horizon is choked by the sheer number of sledges, and the cackling of the sledgemasters can be heard through the audible amplification unit. The thousands of lenses of the scientists eyes focus all at once on the city limits, where fleeing citizens can be seen escaping a bubbling, oozing force as it emerges from all the buildings. Soon, the valley surrounding the city is becoming layered with grits running over from the city, and the skyline which was home to people for so many generations vanishes in a grey, chunky mess.
The scientists watch as survivors coming up the hill become trapped in the lava-like ooze and instantly burst into flames. By now, they can hear the screams of the last few runners who somehow managed to stay ahead of the grits which have filled the valley like chowder in a soup bowl. Finally, lights shine through the clouds above a massive sledge emerges from the heavens, larger than the city itself lying below. A thunderous beeping sound, like that of a thousand backloaders, begins echoing over the scene. In the viewport, the scientists watch with keen interest as 2 events take place: the last of the runners makes her way into the forest, towards higher grounds above and possibly salvation, and the bottom of the massive sledge gives way to megatons of steaming hot grits. In an instant, the runner is swept up in the massive outpouring of grits which quickly consume her. The viewport goes dark.
'Back up a few frames, I want to check something', says the lead scientist. The culinary officer complies, his cerci swinging back and forth excitedly as the group looks for clues to the identity of the runner. They stare closely into the viewport, when one of the scientists exlaims 'Stop! That badge seems to be a means of identification. T'jalfar, you know ancient human dialects, what does it say?'
T'jalfar adjusts his 4,000 lensed monacle. After a moment, he mutters, 'Port... Port... Portman! That is what it says, this one's name was Portman.'
'What does it mean?' asks one of the other scientists.
'Definitely kosher, my friends. By the name given on the badge, it is safe to say this one was definitely kosher' says T'jalfar.
An excited chatter rose amongst the crowd. The culinary officer ambled up to the marblized corpse, it's anntenae running all over to determine the best place to insert his instruments. Being the most advanced species on the planet, the cockroach scientists take great care to only seek out the finest meals and employ the most advanced technology to ensure the quality of their food.
M
With the group of cowards bombing innocents on a train, we finally have a group event the GNAA can look down upon.
Stay Strong London,
M
Well, that depends on how you define major injury.
- he has recevied wounds that resulted in broken ribs and broken arms (for that matter he has fallen from great heights in such a way that the reader would assume much worse);
- he has occassionally suffered the effects of neurological toxins which rendered him incapable of normal function;
- he suffered from a disease similar to vampirism that made him incapable of being out in the light;
- he has drowned to the point of needing to be resuscitated;
- he has been impaled and flailed to the point where blood poured out of his costume;
Now, I am not enough of a comics geek to be able to point out issue / page numbers, but I fondly remember these events from the pages of the comics I read in my youth. I always thought he was the toughest superhero because of the predicaments in which he would be placed by writers.
M
Maybe Lucas could refocus his energies on becoming a universal first poster to Slashdot forums.
M
Yeah yeah yeah, wooden boxes, 8k processors, DC power, gerbils.
That's why I won't buy a Mac.
M
Just have it work... riiiiiight.
Love those extens B-tree errors I used to get every time I touched a Mac in college.
Loved appletalk and how it just worked.
M
I have an iPod and would not consider switching until a) the hardware costs of an Apple come down and b) they do something about 3rd party hardware. These items are key.
There is great joy for me in running down to the computer store, buying some new hardware and putting it together into a nice, beefy Linux box. Having a selection of products from different competitors that are adequately benchmarked and significantly improved from the 'old' model is exactly what makes me want a computer.
The idea that someone has taken all of the guesswork out of it and put together a box that I am just supposed to use is boring.
M
Due process should be exercised, then. People set the bar incredibly low for what they accept as treason when they have a political motivation to do so.
M
Word up. There is no such thing as Western style democracy, there is just democracy. Freedom of the press, freedom of religion, etc. are part of the package.
This is what Putin's supporters do not get. Wars of aggression do not have anything to do with this kind of government.
M
I have always admired Gary Kasparov and the things he has done for the chess world, I never really enjoyed playing through someone's else games until I saw his.
There was a time I really wanted to be a great chess player. I would go to bed at night and stay up thinking of moves from games I had played earlier in the day. It would frustrate me to see so clearly what I should have done in certain situations, and aggravate me that things became so obvious after the fact. Sometimes I would go to sleep and dream of games that never even happened, and was really having trouble with the role the game was playing in my life.
Found a book of translated interviews with grandmasters at a used bookstore and it straightened me out. Rosendo Balinas was a prude and never struck me as a real human being. Bobby Fisher was just indominatable and I had trouble relating to him. Kasparov, on the other hand, was kind of a playboy. He had real interests outside the game and saw the relation between what he was doing on the table and what political organizations did throughout the world. He talked about the 'chessbrain' syndrome and how he learned to turn it on to new things.
Long story short: I read about Kasparov, studied Kasparov, tried to walk and talk like Kasparov. Doing so helped me become an easier person to be around. Eventually got laid, had a kid, took an interest in things outside chess.
M
Another way to think about TV media downloads is this:
The big networks, right now, devote a huge percentage of broadcast time to commercials. In some cases, shows themselves are the commercial with embedded advertisements and product placement.
What if the broadcast medium was the advertising for the shows to be downloaded? I mean, letting people download shows means giving up the right to control the sequence and timing of content (people can skip through commercials without watching them) which means there is no reliable channel for marketing new programming.
Let the broadcast stations stay on the way they are, and bring in the revenue for shows through online subscription services. That way you have a channel for promoting new shows and a revenue stream for something people are going to do for free otherwise.
Can't say whether this is the way the networks are thinking, but it stands to reason this is the way to go. No one can bring their DVR with them (by no one, I mean no average person) and there will be places where broadcast television is the only option.
M