The midiclorians may only be what allows a jedi to interact with the force. They may not be the force itself. There obviously has to be SOME reason why some people have jedi abilities and others don't. The force is still everything its always been explained to be.
WHAT IS THIS!!! You call this a Nuclear reactor?!?!? This is simply UNACCEPTABLE. Now go out there and find me a RESPECTABLE nuclear reactor, and don't come back here again until you do!
This is wonderful. A bill that actually doesn't take any rights away. It addresses the real problems with very simple solutions and doesn't hinder the rest of us in the process. I like. I really like.
Of course, I haven't read the whole law yet.. I suppose theres some riders in there that do more damage than I would prefer.
-Restil
Re:Please stop posting devel kernel releases.
on
Linux 2.3.2 Released
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· Score: 2
As I recall most, if not all of the 2.1 kernel releases were announced. There's at least a day, usually 2 or 3 between releases, so unless you have a LOT of headlines on your page, its unlikely you'll see more than one at a time.
As for newbies, I don't see this as a big deal. Assuming they're as unexperienced as you claim by the time they read enough documentation to get the kernel installed they should be able to understand that development releases are possibly unstable and potentially dangerous.
-Restil
Re:Please stop posting devel kernel releases.
on
Linux 2.3.2 Released
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· Score: 0
I disagree. Slashdot has always been linux oriented, and I think kernel releases are a justified topic for posting. Slashdot is my portal. I don't go to any other portal site, as the news from slashdot pretty much takes care of anything I'd be interested in reading about. I don't want to go monitoring the kernel releases on some other site, but its nice to know when a new one is released.
Its not a big deal. I can live with it. And if I'm not mistaken... you can filter it out if you want. Adding a separate category for linux kernel releases might be a nice addition tho if you want to filter them THAT badly.
12:01 show was sold out already, but all things considered, that didn't really surprise me, considering I didn't get my ticket until today. Me and lines just don't mix, and standing in line for a long time is just silly. I got there, NO lines, 2 cashiers at 2 different windows. One window had a sign: "This cashier cannot sell Star Wars tickets". The other window: "This cashier can ONLY sell Star Wars tickets", and leading up to that window was a very long cordoned off line (nobody in it of course).
The 12:01 showing was sold out, as were all of the prime time slots, but there were still several times available on Wednesday and all of Thursday (I got there right when they started selling those).
As for the surprise "I am your father" line, I like the way that it was kept secret until the first audience saw it in the theaters. Although, even though the director and Mark Hamill needed to know about it due to their lines, why wasn't James Earl Jones mentioned in that list as well? After all, HE SPOKE IT!:)
I simply couldn't wait, so I read the book already for TPM, but I'm certain that I won't be any less entertained by the movie. There aren't any shocking revealations in the story although there are a couple IF you knew nothing about the movie before hand, but simply knowing a list of the character names is enough to spoil those. I also realize that there will be elements of the movie that won't be in the book and parts of the book that won't be in the movie. That's just the way things work, and its also quite likely that the storyline the book was written from is several months old and theres a good chance that several plot elements of the movie could have been changed between then and now.
Doesn't matter. I'll be just as excited either way.
I personally have 16 ip addresses, and I'm planning to upgrade to a full class C in the near future, but I do a lot of serving, so its somewhat justified.
One of my IP addresses is allocated for my household appliances (yes, I'm not making this up). Currently it only has control of my doorbell, a lamp, the roter on my webcam, and my RC car. However, just this one computer has no problem controlling multiple devices.
Even if each appliance had a separate computer with its own IP address, there's no reason that those IP addresses would NEED to be internet IP addresses. They could just as easily use masquarading or some other internal network scheme and full control of those appliances could still be controlled from anywhere in the world with only a single dedicated IP address.
As for upgrading to IPv6, parts of the upgrade will be easy, parts will be difficult. The easy part will involve any type of generic operating system. Linux, any unix system, win95, win 3.1, all those types can be upgraded relatively painlessly. There will still be a lot of confusion, but it could probably be gradually upgraded so the new IPv6 network could temporarily mirror the IPv4 network so for a year or so, it would work both ways as if all computers still used IPv4.
The hard part will be the embedded systems that have IPv4 hard coded and would require a flash upgrade or worse, couldn't be upgraded without a hardware swap. However, for many of those systems, they could still be utilized to some extent, at least until people have a chance to upgrade. Things like X stations, port servers, and the like don't need physical internet addresses and could function equally well as an internal masquaraded network on IPv6 with a router or bouncer taking care of things in the middle. Its not as clean as we would like, but if we really have 25 years to work on it, it should be possible to have a smooth transition, without the Y2K variety of panic that comes with an imminent forced deadline.
I tend to go against what critics say. If the critics absolutely adore a movie, I probably won't like it, because the movie will be too fake, trying to appease the critics and the marketing division, but not the end customer.
If they say its so-so, then I'll probably think its a wonderful movie. I question some critic's ability to look beyond the screen to see the art form that is being presented to them.
Now, the most important thing to remember here is that the average critic was disappointed when the Empire Strikes Back came out, as they were with starwars. However, when Jedi came out, and people were lining up a week in advance to see it, that tends to debunk the critic's ability to properly assess the public's response to a movie.
I think that critics look for the more superficial qualities. Is there adaquate environmental propganda in the movie? Is there a firm, yet subtle message about saving the whales? In the end, does everyone just learn to get along with each other?
Hell, as far as I'm concerned, I'm GLAD the critics didn't like it. That means there's just that many people I'm not going to have to fight to get a ticket on opening night.
When Star Wars was released, it was revolutionary, and did not conform to the generic way that movies were produced at the time. Some people couldn't immediately embrace that and mis-took that to believe that the movie wasn't so great, when in fact, the public had been starving for it all along.
In the end, only one thing matters. Do *I* like it. If I do, then I'm perfectly happy. And I'm sure that The Phantom Meanace will have a long theatre life and people will go back and see it again and again and again and it will win most of the academy awards and those same critics six months from now when TPM is still showing on half the screens in every theatre, they will release new critiques, this time telling the world how great it was, completely oblivious to their original assessment.
You'll see.
And when the sequel comes, they'll just be disappointed again.
Actually, for machines I use in a business environment, I DEMAND to put them together myself. Since I support those machines along with the operating systems running on them, I want to be familiar with the hardware. This helps because I can keep a standardized set of known working hardware and known working brands, and if there is need for a hardware replacement, I know EXACTLY what to get. Warranties are great and all if you don't want to open the machine up to fix it, but since I am used to putting every computer together myself, its no skin off my back.
I can also generally assemble the computers a lot cheaper by picking and choosing my own parts. And since I can buy them locally, I save the overhead on shipping charges as well.
Interesting that you would mention "Revenge of the Nerds". While by today's standards, I mostly see it as another corny 80's movie, but there was one line in the opening theme song which seems to ring so true right now:
"Go ahead and put us down, one of these days we'll turn it around"
I have always been against cable modems. Not because I have experienced bad service, but simply because I never believed in the philosophy behind them. There is something about "shared" access that has never quite appealed to me.
Like many theories with logic holes (pyramid schemes come to mind), the idea sounds great on paper when looked at from a limited perspecitive, but once you examine more factors, the idea quickly becomes a bad one. The idea of shared access is used at every node of the internet, but cable has warped the meaning of it.
When you use a dialup connection to your isp through a regular POTS modem, you get ulimited internet access for something around $10 a month. Now, the ISP knowing that the average customer on the service will be online for less than 1/10 of the day, therefore makes the assumption that only 1 modem for every 10 customers is necessary, and as long as nobody gets busy signals, it will be adaquate. If the capacity on the modems gets full, you simply add more modems the the pool. Some users might stay connected 24/7, some might only log in for 5 minutes to check email, but it will average out and its in the ISP's best interest to prevent problems.
Cable tries to work on this same concept, but with a tragic flaw. The simple fact of the matter is that people who want speed increases don't want it because they are impatitient with waiting for downloads, they simply want MORE, meaning that with the increase in speed, there will come an increase in bandwidth usage. Since all bandwidth is a trickle down cost, each customer pays for the average bandwidth used by the total customer base.
Nobody gets a cable modem so they can check their email, its not realistic. A regular dialup is more than effective for that. You simply don't have the bottom of the food chain using cable modems, you get all the bandwidth hungry users, and they're being charged rates which are far less than the average cost of the bandwidth they consume. This will eventually lead to a problem. Either the price of the service must go up, or the average bandwidth must be reduced. Eventually, you'll be lucky if your cable modem can achieve ISDN rates reliably.
Also, consider where you get your service from. When was the last time that a cable company was considered the creme de la creme of service providers? Do you really want to get internet access from a company that can't keep their services working during a thunderstorm?
In the end, you get exactly what you pay for. Nothing DSL or cable can provide will ever beat a nice T1, even though they may boast about it. Its simply not a viable economic option to offer something for less than the cost. Eventually, these companies will want to start making a profit, and that will be a sorry day indeed.
The computer you want will always cost a certain price, according to the law the writer referenced. The rule still applies, but not as the reader has quoted it. The top of the line CONSUMER machine still costs the same price as it has over the years.
The reason that low cost computers are possible today is partially because most people don't NEED the bleeding edge for today's applications which seem to center around web browsing, at least for the run of the mill consumer. The only software products that really require the bleeding edge are games. When using Microsoft products, it almost makes more sense to double the memory rather than doubling the processor speed.
When you can't use the system to its full potential, then its demand will go down. Low cost PC's are in higher demand, and that is the reason they exist. Supply and demand is a very simple economic theory that the writer has apparently missed.
Just because people are doing free work for a company which profits off of their efforts does not mean that those people are not adaquately compensated, but compensation can take other forms. Obviously, they get a free account. At one time that might have been worth more as the article states, but since they set a flat rate, the value of that account, and therefore the material compensation is significantly less.
HOWEVER, I will frequently do free work for companies. Granted, I don't do it for corporations, but for small businesses who have a computer related emergency and call me for the first time in a panic, I'll help them out, fix their problem, and if it doesn't take me too long, I'll usually not charge them for the visit, only request they call me in the future if they need any other work done and to pass my card out to others they know.
That free work will pay off for me in the future, even though there is no immidiate compensation. AOL may or may not recognize longtime volunteers as potential employees, but the position does offer experience, it gives you another line on your resume, and it DOES give you a sense of leadership in a community. These things may not have material value at the time you perform the work, but they can potentially pay off later.
But in the end, if you don't feel like you're being adaquately compensated for the services you render, you reserve the right to cease those services at any time, no questions asked, and nobody will stop you.
I'm really starting to wonder what the defintion of a dysfunctional family is. It seems that wherever you look nowadays, you find dysfuctional families. Everyone in school is from a dysfunctional family. Every criminal is from a dysfunctional family.
So what does it mean to be dysfunctional? Is it a requirement that you've been institutionalized, hostipalized, and robbed blind at the hands of family members, or is it something as simple as "my mommy spanked me when I was 5 because I threw the dog off the roof and I've never been the same since"
Script kiddies, which I consider to be more of a nuisense than those who actually know something about what they're doing, are likely not from dysfunctional families at all. They're just morons in need of a severe beating at the hands of someone they hacked to discourage further agressive behaviour at the keyboard.
As for breaking into the highly classified pentagon systems, I still have a hard time believing that. Secure systems like that would be next to impossible to breach, even by dedicated, sophisticated crackers who know what they're doing and have the equipment and training necessary. Even attempting to break into those systems is a federal crime, and I believe that might be what they're referring to.
There really is only one person to blame for this crime... the 14 year old who pulled the trigger. As far as I'm concerned, the blame ends there.
BUT.. if you want to blame someone else for it, lets look at some more likely choices.
His parents:
BasketBall Diary's is a rated R movie. You need to be 17 to watch this movie, and since its several years old now, he would have been around 11 when it came out (if I recall correctly on the release date of that movie). Movies are rated R for a reason. If parents choose to ignore those reasons, then Hollywood shouldn't be held accountable.
I've played doom and quake plenty of times. In fact, I've played them so much, I can pretty much assure you that I WILL gun down the next CyberDemon I see.
Interesting that while the parents blame Doom and Quake, ID isn't one of the listed defendants in the article (perhaps it was ommitted due to space or incompetant journalism).
I have never seen a porn site that didn't require a credit card number for a membership. They may exist, I don't personally spend a great deal of time searching for them. However, if these "violent sex acts" that this kid was able to witness came from porn sites, how did he get access without his own credit card? Either he stole his parents card to get access or his parents allowed him to have access. In any event, I don't see how sex acts compelled him to gun down his friends... (were they his friends? maybe he had other reasons)
He DID say he was mentally ill. Therefore if he WAS easily influenced as a result of media he witnessed, then he should never have been exposed to it in the first place. Regardless, games like doom don't make mentally healthy people gun down people at random.
Anyways. It's just another lawsuit. The broader the scope of the suit, the more likely it is to get thrown out. Its not legally viable to sue the entire world for the problems of one person.
So they've traced the author of the document by the ID numbers. This information CAN be forged, you know. There is a reason we don't allow random wiretaps in the US, beyond the whole privacy issue. Its because the simple discussion of a crime or thought of a crime is not in and of itself a crime, and therefore that can't be used against someone unless such a crime is committed.
However, if a crime IS committed, and such wiretaps were in place, any person who had recently mentioned something even remotely similar in innoncent conversation while tapped would be instantly suspect, and with such a "likely prospect" prosecution would focus on that individual and neglect other leads which would be more realistic.
However, if wiretaps are common practice, a clever criminal will find a way to bypass them, or use them to broadcast false information, and end up implicating innocents of crimes they commit. Remember, the reason that wiretaps are effective now is that on the rare event that they are used, under court order, the suspect does not expect them and in many cases won't be prepared.
However, in the case of a court ordered wiretap, the police and/or prosecution already must have some probable cause to believe that the suspect is involved in a crime and that a wiretap would be beneficial to further evidence. Although this theory is pretty easy to get around, the police can get into serious civil trouble if too many "false alarms" are presented.
You occassionally hear about a search/seisure that went wrong. The wrong house was raided, torn apart and nothing was found which presents evidence of a crime. The victims of this false raid have rights to legal compensation for the intrusion. This simply won't happen too often under today's guidelines.
So if we come along and say that ID's are OK because we can trace criminals, we've gotten into the habit of invading the privacy of the innocent to weed out the guilty, even when no crime has taken place. If this can be attributed to a an "illegal wiretap", then the evidence which lead to the aol account and all evidence which followed up as a result of that could get thrown out of court by a clever lawyer.
The real solution isn't really tracking down the virus writers anyway. Virus will always be with us. There is ZERO way to eliminate them completely, or to completely prevent new ones from being developed. Besides, it is remarkably simple to prevent getting infected, even if you don't have a virus scanner. It all comes down to a matter of trust.
Almost all of this stuff starts because some idiot, and yes, I mean IDIOT downloads a virus from some complete stranger, and is compelled to spread this virus to all his friends. This is the same fool who time and again will forward hoaxes to everyone he knows just because since it came over the internet it MUST be for real. For this problem there are two solutions. Either discover the the problem trait and eliminate it from the gene pool, or determine which people you know are reliable and don't ever accept attachments from anyone else.
Don't send word documents in email. I get so annoyed when people send me a 4 meg word document which has 10k worth of text in it. Do you think I'm going to waste my time reading it? I don't even have an installed copy of word, so its hardly important to me. Anyone who automatically assumes I will have office9? installed is not someone I wish to do business with. Forget the fact that half the time I don't even know what format the document is in, and don't think I'm going to spend any amount of time figuring it out.
The only attachments I will ever look at are images. THATS IT. I consider email a method of transfering text. That's INFORMATION in a form I can easily desseminate and text is the lowest common denominator in size and has the highest compression rate. If I absolutely NEED to see some huge picture, just give me a link to it and I'll make the decision to waste the bandwidth on it.
I have made a policy of reacting violently (in a verbal way) to anyone who sends me trash like this. I make it very clear, in no uncertain terms, that if they send me such information again I will prevent them from sending me ANYTHING again. Its amazing how able people are to distingush between hoaxes and legitimate information once you've made it clear what you don't want. Why is it then that they send it to you in the first place?
Ok.. Here's my list of things to avoid. If you get it, delete it.
- ALL spam, spam of all colors, it tastes just as bad. Don't reply from a legit mail account to complain, just delete it and forget about it.
- ANY attachments other than very small pictures. Most email readers will decode pictures and display them automatically, while it will display a link for other attachments. Don't accept word documents,.exe files, or attachments of any form you're not familiar with (as they can be exe files in disguise)
- Don't accept programs from ANYONE over icq or IRC. It doesn't matter WHAT it is or WHO sent it to you. Even if they're not trying to screw you over, you have no idea where they got it from or what might have infected their system previously and therefore the file they're sending you. Even if they're your best friend, you really don't know for sure. Ask them where they got the file from and download it from that source yourself. If they received it from someone else and don't know the source, then its automatically suspect already.
Don't let anyone use your computer for ANY reason, with the exception of the system administrator if you're in a work environment. People who bring over a floppy disk, insert it in your computer and bring up a program or any other file could be infecting your computer. We have networks these days guys, you don't need to transfer files around on floppies anymore. Also, people who use your computer for chatting can also download and run programs, no matter how much effort you put into avoiding it.
Avoid microsoft products. They're the greatest threat to the security of any environment. If you must use them, consider them to be insecure. Don't trust them for any tasks which must be fail-safe, and assume you'll have to reboot often and reload occasionally.
Backup early, backup often, and keep your backups safe.
As for the rest, self promotion or otherwise, he's filling an important position in the open source community and I really think that he's saying "It was fun while it lasted, but I've had enough".
Read through his calender and I wonder when the guy sleeps. Traveling to a city in the US one day and showing up in Tokyo the next is not easy to handle, and since he does it for free, I don't really care if the real underlying motive is his own ego.
Slashdot Mirror
Grand Theft Auto.
The midiclorians may only be what allows a jedi to interact with the force. They may not be the force itself. There obviously has to be SOME reason why some people have jedi abilities and others don't. The force is still everything its always been explained to be.
-Restil
Yes, I did. And it was awesome. :)
WHAT IS THIS!!! You call this a Nuclear reactor?!?!? This is simply UNACCEPTABLE. Now go out there and find me a RESPECTABLE nuclear reactor, and don't come back here again until you do!
:)
-Restil
This is wonderful. A bill that actually doesn't take any rights away. It addresses the real problems with very simple solutions and doesn't hinder the rest of us in the process. I like.
I really like.
Of course, I haven't read the whole law yet.. I suppose theres some riders in there that do more damage than I would prefer.
-Restil
As I recall most, if not all of the 2.1 kernel releases were announced. There's at least a day, usually 2 or 3 between releases, so unless you have a LOT of headlines on your page, its unlikely you'll see more than one at a time.
As for newbies, I don't see this as a big deal. Assuming they're as unexperienced as you claim by the time they read enough documentation to get the kernel installed they should be able to understand that development releases are possibly unstable and potentially dangerous.
-Restil
I disagree. Slashdot has always been linux oriented, and I think kernel releases are a justified topic for posting. Slashdot is my portal. I don't go to any other portal site, as the news from slashdot pretty much takes care of anything I'd be interested in reading about. I don't want to go monitoring the kernel releases on some other site, but its nice to know when a new one is released.
Its not a big deal. I can live with it. And if I'm not mistaken... you can filter it out if you want. Adding a separate category for linux kernel releases might be a nice addition tho if you want to filter them THAT badly.
-Restil
12:01 show was sold out already, but all things considered, that didn't really surprise me, considering I didn't get my ticket until today. Me and lines just don't mix, and standing in line for a long time is just silly. I got there, NO lines, 2 cashiers at 2 different windows. One window had a sign: "This cashier cannot sell Star Wars tickets". The other window: "This cashier can ONLY sell Star Wars tickets", and leading up to that window was a very long cordoned off line (nobody in it of course).
:)
:)
The 12:01 showing was sold out, as were all of the prime time slots, but there were still several times available on Wednesday and all of Thursday (I got there right when they started selling those).
As for the surprise "I am your father" line, I like the way that it was kept secret until the first audience saw it in the theaters. Although, even though the director and Mark Hamill needed to know about it due to their lines, why wasn't James Earl Jones mentioned in that list as well? After all, HE SPOKE IT!
I simply couldn't wait, so I read the book already for TPM, but I'm certain that I won't be any less entertained by the movie. There aren't any shocking revealations in the story although there are a couple IF you knew nothing about the movie before hand, but simply knowing a list of the character names is enough to spoil those. I also realize that there will be elements of the movie that won't be in the book and parts of the book that won't be in the movie. That's just the way things work, and its also quite likely that the storyline the book was written from is several months old and theres a good chance that several plot elements of the movie could have been changed between then and now.
Doesn't matter. I'll be just as excited either way.
hell, I'm excited already.
-Restil
I personally have 16 ip addresses, and I'm planning to upgrade to a full class C in the near future, but I do a lot of serving, so its somewhat justified.
One of my IP addresses is allocated for my household appliances (yes, I'm not making this up). Currently it only has control of my doorbell, a lamp, the roter on my webcam, and my RC car. However, just this one computer has no problem controlling multiple devices.
Even if each appliance had a separate computer with its own IP address, there's no reason that those IP addresses would NEED to be internet IP addresses. They could just as easily use masquarading or some other internal network scheme and full control of those appliances could still be controlled from anywhere in the world with only a single dedicated IP address.
As for upgrading to IPv6, parts of the upgrade will be easy, parts will be difficult. The easy part will involve any type of generic operating system. Linux, any unix system, win95, win 3.1, all those types can be upgraded relatively painlessly. There will still be a lot of confusion, but it could probably be gradually upgraded so the new IPv6 network could temporarily mirror the IPv4 network so for a year or so, it would work both ways as if all computers still used IPv4.
The hard part will be the embedded systems that have IPv4 hard coded and would require a flash upgrade or worse, couldn't be upgraded without a hardware swap. However, for many of those systems, they could still be utilized to some extent, at least until people have a chance to upgrade. Things like X stations, port servers, and the like don't need physical internet addresses and could function equally well as an internal masquaraded network on IPv6 with a router or bouncer taking care of things in the middle.
Its not as clean as we would like, but if we really have 25 years to work on it, it should be possible to have a smooth transition, without the Y2K variety of panic that comes with an imminent forced deadline.
-Restil
restil@alignment.net
I tend to go against what critics say. If the critics absolutely adore a movie, I probably won't like it, because the movie will be too fake, trying to appease the critics and the marketing division, but not the end customer.
If they say its so-so, then I'll probably think its a wonderful movie. I question some critic's ability to look beyond the screen to see the art form that is being presented to them.
Now, the most important thing to remember here is that the average critic was disappointed when the Empire Strikes Back came out, as they were with starwars. However, when Jedi came out, and people were lining up a week in advance to see it, that tends to debunk the critic's ability to properly assess the public's response to a movie.
I think that critics look for the more superficial qualities. Is there adaquate environmental propganda in the movie? Is there a firm, yet subtle message about saving the whales? In the end, does everyone just learn to get along with each other?
Hell, as far as I'm concerned, I'm GLAD the critics didn't like it. That means there's just that many people I'm not going to have to fight to get a ticket on opening night.
When Star Wars was released, it was revolutionary, and did not conform to the generic way that movies were produced at the time. Some people couldn't immediately embrace that and mis-took that to believe that the movie wasn't so great, when in fact, the public had been starving for it all along.
In the end, only one thing matters. Do *I* like it. If I do, then I'm perfectly happy. And I'm sure that The Phantom Meanace will have a long theatre life and people will go back and see it again and again and again and it will win most of the academy awards and those same critics six months from now when TPM is still showing on half the screens in every theatre, they will release new critiques, this time telling the world how great it was, completely oblivious to their original assessment.
You'll see.
And when the sequel comes, they'll just be disappointed again.
-Restil
restil@alignment.net
Actually, for machines I use in a business environment, I DEMAND to put them together myself.
Since I support those machines along with the operating systems running on them, I want to be familiar with the hardware. This helps because I can keep a standardized set of known working hardware and known working brands, and if there is need for a hardware replacement, I know EXACTLY what to get. Warranties are great and all if you don't want to open the machine up to fix it, but since I am used to putting every computer together myself, its no skin off my back.
I can also generally assemble the computers a lot cheaper by picking and choosing my own parts. And since I can buy them locally, I save the overhead on shipping charges as well.
Just my opinion, for what its worth.
-Restil
Interesting that you would mention "Revenge of the Nerds". While by today's standards, I mostly see it as another corny 80's movie, but there was one line in the opening theme song which seems to ring so true right now:
"Go ahead and put us down, one of these days we'll turn it around"
Almost chilling if you think about it.
-Restil
I have always been against cable modems. Not because I have experienced bad service, but simply because I never believed in the philosophy behind them. There is something about "shared" access that has never quite appealed to me.
Like many theories with logic holes (pyramid schemes come to mind), the idea sounds great on paper when looked at from a limited perspecitive, but once you examine more factors, the idea quickly becomes a bad one. The idea of shared access is used at every node of the internet, but cable has warped the meaning of it.
When you use a dialup connection to your isp through a regular POTS modem, you get ulimited internet access for something around $10 a month. Now, the ISP knowing that the average customer on the service will be online for less than 1/10 of the day, therefore makes the assumption that only 1 modem for every 10 customers is necessary, and as long as nobody gets busy signals, it will be adaquate. If the capacity on the modems gets full, you simply add more modems the the pool.
Some users might stay connected 24/7, some might only log in for 5 minutes to check email, but it will average out and its in the ISP's best interest to prevent problems.
Cable tries to work on this same concept, but with a tragic flaw. The simple fact of the matter is that people who want speed increases don't want it because they are impatitient with waiting for downloads, they simply want MORE, meaning that with the increase in speed, there will come an increase in bandwidth usage. Since all bandwidth is a trickle down cost, each customer pays for the average bandwidth used by the total customer base.
Nobody gets a cable modem so they can check their email, its not realistic. A regular dialup is more than effective for that. You simply don't have the bottom of the food chain using cable modems, you get all the bandwidth hungry users, and they're being charged rates which are far less than the average cost of the bandwidth they consume. This will eventually lead to a problem. Either the price of the service must go up, or the average bandwidth must be reduced. Eventually, you'll be lucky if your cable modem can achieve ISDN rates reliably.
Also, consider where you get your service from. When was the last time that a cable company was considered the creme de la creme of service providers? Do you really want to get internet access from a company that can't keep their services working during a thunderstorm?
In the end, you get exactly what you pay for. Nothing DSL or cable can provide will ever beat a nice T1, even though they may boast about it. Its simply not a viable economic option to offer something for less than the cost. Eventually, these companies will want to start making a profit, and that will be a sorry day indeed.
-Restil
The computer you want will always cost a certain price, according to the law the writer referenced.
The rule still applies, but not as the reader has quoted it. The top of the line CONSUMER machine still costs the same price as it has over the years.
The reason that low cost computers are possible today is partially because most people don't NEED the bleeding edge for today's applications which seem to center around web browsing, at least for the run of the mill consumer. The only software products that really require the bleeding edge are games. When using Microsoft products, it almost makes more sense to double the memory rather than doubling the processor speed.
When you can't use the system to its full potential, then its demand will go down. Low cost PC's are in higher demand, and that is the reason they exist. Supply and demand is a very simple economic theory that the writer has apparently missed.
Just because people are doing free work for a company which profits off of their efforts does not mean that those people are not adaquately compensated, but compensation can take other forms. Obviously, they get a free account. At one time that might have been worth more as the article states, but since they set a flat rate, the value of that account, and therefore the material compensation is significantly less.
HOWEVER, I will frequently do free work for companies. Granted, I don't do it for corporations, but for small businesses who have a computer related emergency and call me for the first time in a panic, I'll help them out, fix their problem, and if it doesn't take me too long, I'll usually not charge them for the visit, only request they call me in the future if they need any other work done and to pass my card out to
others they know.
That free work will pay off for me in the future, even though there is no immidiate compensation. AOL may or may not recognize longtime volunteers as potential employees, but the position does offer experience, it gives you another line on your resume, and it DOES give you a sense of leadership in a community. These things may not have material value at the time you perform the work, but they can potentially pay off later.
But in the end, if you don't feel like you're being adaquately compensated for the services you render, you reserve the right to cease those services at any time, no questions asked, and nobody will stop you.
-Restil
restil@alignment.net
I'm really starting to wonder what the defintion of a dysfunctional family is. It seems that wherever you look nowadays, you find dysfuctional families. Everyone in school is from a dysfunctional family. Every criminal is from a dysfunctional family.
So what does it mean to be dysfunctional? Is it a requirement that you've been institutionalized, hostipalized, and robbed blind at the hands of family members, or is it something as simple as "my mommy spanked me when I was 5 because I threw the dog off the roof and I've never been the same since"
Script kiddies, which I consider to be more of a nuisense than those who actually know something about what they're doing, are likely not from dysfunctional families at all. They're just morons in need of a severe beating at the hands of someone they hacked to discourage further agressive behaviour at the keyboard.
As for breaking into the highly classified pentagon systems, I still have a hard time believing that. Secure systems like that would be next to impossible to breach, even by dedicated, sophisticated crackers who know what they're doing and have the equipment and training necessary. Even attempting to break into those systems is a federal crime, and I believe that might be what they're referring to.
-Restil
restil@alignment.net
There really is only one person to blame for this crime... the 14 year old who pulled the trigger. As far as I'm concerned, the blame ends there.
BUT.. if you want to blame someone else for it, lets look at some more likely choices.
His parents:
BasketBall Diary's is a rated R movie. You need to be 17 to watch this movie, and since its several years old now, he would have been around 11 when it came out (if I recall correctly on the release date of that movie). Movies are rated R for a reason. If parents choose to ignore those reasons, then Hollywood shouldn't be held accountable.
I've played doom and quake plenty of times. In fact, I've played them so much, I can pretty much assure you that I WILL gun down the next CyberDemon I see.
Interesting that while the parents blame Doom and Quake, ID isn't one of the listed defendants in the article (perhaps it was ommitted due to space or incompetant journalism).
I have never seen a porn site that didn't require a credit card number for a membership. They may exist, I don't personally spend a great deal of time searching for them. However, if these "violent sex acts" that this kid was able to witness came from porn sites, how did he get access without his own credit card? Either he stole his parents card to get access or his parents allowed him to have access. In any event, I don't see how sex acts compelled him to gun down his friends... (were they his friends? maybe he had other reasons)
He DID say he was mentally ill. Therefore if he WAS easily influenced as a result of media he witnessed, then he should never have been exposed to it in the first place. Regardless, games like doom don't make mentally healthy people gun down people at random.
Anyways. It's just another lawsuit. The broader the scope of the suit, the more likely it is to get thrown out. Its not legally viable to sue the entire world for the problems of one person.
-Restil
restil@alignment.net
So they've traced the author of the document by the ID numbers. This information CAN be forged, you know. There is a reason we don't allow random wiretaps in the US, beyond the whole privacy issue. Its because the simple discussion of a crime or thought of a crime is not in and of itself a crime, and therefore that can't be used against someone unless such a crime is committed.
.exe files, or attachments of any form you're not familiar with (as they can be exe files in disguise)
However, if a crime IS committed, and such wiretaps were in place, any person who had recently mentioned something even remotely similar in innoncent conversation while tapped would be instantly suspect, and with such a "likely prospect" prosecution would focus on that individual and neglect other leads which would be more realistic.
However, if wiretaps are common practice, a clever criminal will find a way to bypass them, or use them to broadcast false information, and end up implicating innocents of crimes they commit. Remember, the reason that wiretaps are effective now is that on the rare event that they are used, under court order, the suspect does not expect them and in many cases won't be prepared.
However, in the case of a court ordered wiretap, the police and/or prosecution already must have some probable cause to believe that the suspect is involved in a crime and that a wiretap would be beneficial to further evidence. Although this theory is pretty easy to get around, the police can get into serious civil trouble if too many "false alarms" are presented.
You occassionally hear about a search/seisure that went wrong. The wrong house was raided, torn apart and nothing was found which presents evidence of a crime. The victims of this false raid have rights to legal compensation for the intrusion. This simply won't happen too often under today's guidelines.
So if we come along and say that ID's are OK because we can trace criminals, we've gotten into the habit of invading the privacy of the innocent to weed out the guilty, even when no crime has taken place. If this can be attributed to a an
"illegal wiretap", then the evidence which lead to the aol account and all evidence which followed up as a result of that could get thrown out of court by a clever lawyer.
The real solution isn't really tracking down the virus writers anyway. Virus will always be with us. There is ZERO way to eliminate them completely, or to completely prevent new ones from being developed. Besides, it is remarkably simple to prevent getting infected, even if you don't have a virus scanner. It all comes down to a matter of trust.
Almost all of this stuff starts because some idiot, and yes, I mean IDIOT downloads a virus from some complete stranger, and is compelled to spread this virus to all his friends. This is the same fool who time and again will forward hoaxes to everyone he knows just because since it came over the internet it MUST be for real. For this problem there are two solutions. Either discover the the problem trait and eliminate it from the gene pool, or determine which people you know are reliable and don't ever accept attachments from anyone else.
Don't send word documents in email. I get so annoyed when people send me a 4 meg word document which has 10k worth of text in it. Do you think I'm going to waste my time reading it? I don't even have an installed copy of word, so its hardly important to me. Anyone who automatically assumes I will have office9? installed is not someone I wish to do business with. Forget the fact that half the time I don't even know what format the document is in, and don't think I'm going to spend any amount of time figuring it out.
The only attachments I will ever look at are images. THATS IT. I consider email a method of transfering text. That's INFORMATION in a form I can easily desseminate and text is the lowest common denominator in size and has the highest compression rate. If I absolutely NEED to see some huge picture, just give me a link to it and I'll make the decision to waste the bandwidth on it.
I have made a policy of reacting violently (in a verbal way) to anyone who sends me trash like this. I make it very clear, in no uncertain terms, that if they send me such information again I will prevent them from sending me ANYTHING again. Its amazing how able people are to distingush between hoaxes and legitimate information once you've made it clear what you don't want. Why is it then that they send it to you in the first place?
Ok.. Here's my list of things to avoid. If you get it, delete it.
- ALL spam, spam of all colors, it tastes just as bad. Don't reply from a legit mail account to complain, just delete it and forget about it.
- ANY attachments other than very small pictures. Most email readers will decode pictures and display them automatically, while it will display a link for other attachments. Don't accept word documents,
- Don't accept programs from ANYONE over icq or IRC. It doesn't matter WHAT it is or WHO sent it to you. Even if they're not trying to screw you over, you have no idea where they got it from or what might have infected their system previously and therefore the file they're sending you. Even if they're your best friend, you really don't know for sure. Ask them where they got the file from and download it from that source yourself. If they received it from someone else and don't know the source, then its automatically suspect already.
Don't let anyone use your computer for ANY reason, with the exception of the system administrator if you're in a work environment. People who bring over a floppy disk, insert it in your computer and bring up a program or any other file could be infecting your computer. We have networks these days guys, you don't need to transfer files around on floppies anymore. Also, people who use your computer for chatting can also download and run programs, no matter how much effort you put into avoiding it.
Avoid microsoft products. They're the greatest threat to the security of any environment. If you must use them, consider them to be insecure. Don't trust them for any tasks which must be fail-safe, and assume you'll have to reboot often and reload occasionally.
Backup early, backup often, and keep your backups safe.
-Restil
restil@alignment.net
The groupies comment was priceless.
As for the rest, self promotion or otherwise, he's filling an important position in the open source community and I really think that he's saying "It was fun while it lasted, but I've had enough".
Read through his calender and I wonder when the guy sleeps. Traveling to a city in the US one day and showing up in Tokyo the next is not easy to handle, and since he does it for free, I don't really care if the real underlying motive is his own ego.
-Restil
restil@alignment.net