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User: Robert+A.+Heinlein

Robert+A.+Heinlein's activity in the archive.

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  1. Re: Little People on Silicon Valley Has Learned to Love the Bust · · Score: 2, Funny
    I've always believed Heinlien had it right - you know that the economy is in danger when too many of the 'little people' get directly involved.

    I've never said that.

  2. Re:It is really that bad on Former Dot-Com Workers Crowd Homeless Shelters · · Score: 1
    During our second round of layoffs some workmates and I have a "dead pool", program managers and product managers lead on every list.

    I just wish they would get rid of some of the real middle-managers. They will probably use the chance to get rid of effective managers who give realistic dates and refuse to kiss ass.

  3. Re:Not GPL... on Another Free Operating System: NewOS · · Score: 2
    Looks like the license is based on the BSD. At least Stallman won't be coming around wanting to rename it GNU/NewOS. I'd hate to see version 2.0: New GNU/NewOS. And so on and so on...

    Gnu/Newspeak?

  4. Re:This is absurd! on The Lone Guns Against Spam · · Score: 1
    You forgot the 'I am a tard' tag.

    No whitespace in tagnames dipshit. That would be treated as an italics.

  5. Re:It's quite simple on The Lone Guns Against Spam · · Score: 1
    Unfortunately more than a couple of sites that offer you something for your email address will not accept addresses in the form

    bwientze-companytag@the-dma.org

    Spammers have some smarts and will often strip the tag meaning that bwientze@the-dma.org may receive spam.

    Of course since bwientze@the-dma.org considers spam to be free speech he probably enjoys reading it and would never try and use that djb-ware or simillar tricks to avoid it.

  6. Re:This is absurd! on The Lone Guns Against Spam · · Score: 1

    You forgot the sarcasm tag.

  7. Re:Reversing the privacy policy circle... on Hailstorm: Changing Society's Privacy Infrastructure · · Score: 1
    Great premise. The big problem is that this needs browser support before it gets support at the server.

    Browser support can be added to Mozilla easily, but I am unable to use a lot of webpages without IE4/5. Websites are obviously willing to ignore anyone not using Microsoft.

    Since Microsoft has an effective monopoly on web browsers why would they be willing to support an extension that limits their rights wrt your information? Even if something like this is added to the http standard MS does not have any market pressure to implement it.

    Good luck with this project.

  8. Re:OSCAR protocol work arounds. on AOL vs. Open Source AIM Clones · · Score: 1
    While we can't include the aim.exe with clients for legal reasons, I would doubt that the actual MD5 sums taken from that exe are protected under any copywright.

    This is the best idea I've seen. However this is still potentially an unauthorized use of the aim.exe file.

    AOL could just add a specific prohibition in the EULA against doing this (which they can get away with) and voila - you are breaking the law by producing the hashes to be used by clones.

    Just try and convince a non-computer person that doing this can not be considered reverse-engineering.

  9. Re:Dumbing up. on The Dark Side of "Me Media" · · Score: 1
    I'll grant that "Me Media" produces less conformity (whether this is a bad thing or not is a separate discussion). But one cannot deny that mass-media is a lot shallower.

    Maybe less conformity overall.

    Within this site opinion is so homogenous that many people will mod up trolls just to get some alternative viewpoints out where they will be read.

    How many people don't instantly recognize "Kiss the Blade", that "Lover's arrival" person, and Peredia as being trolling accounts (likely of a single person). They still get good mods because that is the only way we won't all just sit here nodding our heads and saying "Yeah".

    I love watching those posts zoom up to +4 or +5 before the cry of "Troll" brings them down to +2 or less.

  10. Re:It works for most people though on Unwanted Linking · · Score: 1
    Actually, I was thinking of a server side pass-through cgi proxying the request.

    Capture the client request header, change as appropriate, send new request to server, get response, send response to client.

    If you have netcat, socket, netpipes, etc. this can be done in a shell script. With the LWP perl module it can be done in a couple lines of non-obfuscated perl.

  11. Re:WotC's buyout of TSR. on Series on Wizard Of the Coast · · Score: 1
    Now that is cool.

    Shadowrun was my staple RPG in the late 80's, early 90's. I've been done with RPGs for years now, but waiting for a good computer game version forever (the NES and Genesis versions do not count).

    Shadowrun and Champions were responsible for my having massive collections of "gambling dice" round my apartment.

    Ahh, the weird old days. Kind of pathetic - but what the hell did we know.

  12. Re:Prohibiting linking on Unwanted Linking · · Score: 1
    You can deny access to a URL based on *referrer*.

    This is trivial to get around. You cannot trust anything sent by the client.

    Its like a bad flashback to those Matt Wright scripts from a few years ago - Insta-root, just add CGI!

  13. Re:I don't think the letter is real. on XBox Tidbits · · Score: 1
    Their truck have not even started to move!

    I hope this means I don't have to spend the next few screens knifing dogs.

    It's a secret to everyone.

    I'll go spend the money on Money Making Game.

  14. Re:Deadlines toss all your skills into the dumpste on Programmers for Scientific Research? · · Score: 1
    The big problem here is the fake-perfectionist. They pad schedules hard for trivia and act like anything non-trivial is anti-gravity.

    I'm just the domain knowledge expert (not a programmer) at my job ,but I have seen a failure to start cause more problems than starting to code without design.

  15. Re:And what world is it that you live in? on Court of Appeals Overturns Indiana Video Game Ordinance · · Score: 1
    Regarding shielding being silly and opposing this type of ban: Agreed. Laws such as these are dishonest and wrong.

    I was making the comment that video games (and fantasy in general) do not "equip children to deal with the world as we know it".

  16. And what world is it that you live in? on Court of Appeals Overturns Indiana Video Game Ordinance · · Score: 1
    it would leave them unequipped to cope with the world as we know it.

    I am oh so happy that I spent my formative years as an arcade rat/nintendo nazi. Yeah, that did a lot to prepare me for the real world.

  17. Re:I really doubt there's a back door in this vers on NSA Inside? · · Score: 1

    /* Back door code, added 4-1-2001 by MIB */

    NSA_bd_Key = "MIB_r0x!";
    NSA_data_t *pStolenData = NSA_bd_decrypt (
    &hidden_data,
    NSA_bd_key
    );
    NSA_bd_transmit ( pStolenData );

    /* End of back door code */

    Somehow I doubt the NSA would have code a backdoor
    like the above. But many of the posters here seem
    assume that it will be this obvious.

    What about using inocuous "extra" data as an
    accumulator and data dependant bugs to cause that
    data to be sent?

    How about code that makes ISN more predictable,
    code that makes random seeds a bit more
    predictable, etc. Unintentional bugs of this
    nature have slipped through.

    Why can't the NSA use code accretion to slip such
    features in? The first two generations do the
    first half of data theft/storage/sending, the
    next two generations do the rest.

    Don't assume Open Source means complete safety.


  18. So how did a class 3 get out? on Don't Trust Code Signed by 'Microsoft Corporation' · · Score: 3
    Take a look at the requirements to get a Class 3 cert:

    http://www.verisign.com/repository/CPS/CPSCH2.HTM# _toc361806948

    http://www.verisign.com/products/asb/faq.html

    Especially interseting is the Assurance level that comes with this cert.

    Even if these certiciates are never used, there will be some pretty heavy US govt. involvement as a result of this.

    Anyone know if this has happened with any companies less visible than MS? A quick search did not turn anything up, but if Versign's procedures could let something like this slip through...

  19. Re:Same situation with the BSA on Sophomore Uses List Context; Cops Interrogate · · Score: 1
    The act of choosing to limit membership in an organization is not a protected freedom, but it should be. The position of the US government has been that displays of prejudice by private businesses are a "barrier to interstate commerce" and gets the Feds involved.

    No joke.

  20. Jordi to the bridge on Wearable Internet Appliance · · Score: 1

    Maybe they should include opaque contacts to increase sales.

  21. Usenet Killer on New York ISP Held Liable For Newsgroup Content · · Score: 1
    Looks as though the often prophesied death of Usenet is finally at hand.

    The newsgroup in question was alt.binaries.pictures.pre-teen, not an information service specific to the service provided by buffnet or dreamscape. Common carrier for ISPs loses.

    I wonder what the response from Supernews and Earthlink (or any other ISP providing access to alt.*) will be.

  22. Permission might go into medical release forms on Who Owns Your Body? · · Score: 1
    If this became an Issue of the Week I imagine that consent to use of your genetic material could become part of the standard barrage of paperwork during medical procedures.

    The most likely groups to "give consent" for this would be the mentally-ill or retarted with guardianship handled by state or group-home employees.

    It might be that signing an organ donor card could be considered implied consent to this. Looks like there may be plenty of opportunities for genetic trolling.

  23. Bad cli considered harmful (Re: Sigh) on The Debian Telemetry Box · · Score: 1
    Yep, we all love good a good CLI. But the vast majority of them are foul and evil things I would not wish on my worst enemy.

    You get a few winners (JuniperOS, IOS) - but the vast majority of network device CLIs are like the TNT or Portmaster or PowerRail or anything from Netgear or... There is some excellent equipment out there limited by a bad (or barely adequate) CLI.

    The direction we've taken on our in-house software is to have an internal set of management functions and add interfaces as needed. That way snmp, cgi, cli, and any buzzword enabled technology that may come up, will be consistent.

    Our first tier NOC folks seem to love the web interfaces we have available. I can't stand them myself, but my job does not involve sitting around waiting for things to break.

  24. Ancient History on Pride Before The Fall · · Score: 4
    Published 12/2000 and obviously written before that. The author bet on Gore to win.

    The new administration will quickly return to a policy of ignoring Microsoft's little shortcomings, and may try to correct the anti-business judgement pushed through by the prior administration.

  25. 1972 Liability Convention on Launch Your Own Picosatellite · · Score: 3
    Any bets on why they had to use Russian launch facilities?

    http://www.islandone.org/Treaties/BH595.html

    http://www.ila-hq.org/pdf/SpaceLaw.pdf

    http://www.seas.columbia.edu/~ah297/un-esa/paper-w inkler.html

    The basic gist of all this is that the launching State is responsible for any damage caused by space vehicles or satellites.