Or the bookstore could start having not more than one copy per book on display and printing a new copy when you buy one. (Which means more variety in the place where the pile of bestsellers used to be.) And if you can not find the book you are looking for -- wait a minute sir, I will make the book for you...
Actually you don't really have to physically destroy your harddisk, the following command deletes all the data reliably
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=65536
Interested German speaking people should check out c't Magazin 5/2003. They took harddisks with four deleted files and sent them to professional data recovery labs. The first file was overwritten with zeros, the second with a random bitpattern, the third three times with zeros and the fourth three times with complementary bitpatterns.
None of the labs was able to retrieve a single file. If you however try to burn, drown or hammer your drive, chances are good that the data stays intactand can be restored.
One interesting fact I came to learn recently: While capacity and rpm of harddisks increased significantly over the past years, seek time did not. If you manage a RAID System, you may find out that you will need twice as many spindles to get the same performance as 10 years ago.
What always struck me as odd is the enourmous length of the disclaimer that Project Gutenberg attaches to every text. To me it seems to be the most obvious sign of a law system that is ridiculously screwed. No book I ever read had a legal statement like this.
Quote:
LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
[1] the Project (and any other party you may receive this
etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims all
liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of
receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
time to the person you received it from. If you received it
on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
copy. If you received it electronically, such person may
choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
receive it electronically.
THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER
WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
may have other legal rights.
INDEMNITY
You will indemnify and hold the Project, its directors,
officers, members and agents harmless from all liability, cost
and expense, including legal fees, that arise directly or
indirectly from any of the following that you do or cause:
[1] distribution of this etext, [2] alteration, modification,
or addition to the etext, or [3] any Defect.
Re:Yes, it's Slashdotted.
on
Freecache
·
· Score: 1
If I were an ISP, I would prefer having a regular transparent cache proxy instead of a freecache. That way it is automatically ensured that only my customers access the cached files.
Only the website owner really benefits from Freecache.
I do not think the US Army is the largest, it was China the last time I checked.
Regarding the number of people, sure. Doesn't mean they have the strongest army though. Always keep in mind: The US military spending is higher than that of all other countries -- combined.
There is a little bit of truth in the claim that a lot of evil things happen in IRC. Not that it is specifically limited to IRC, it can be found in many corners of the Internet (I personally stopped using the usenet when people advocated against the removal of spam, it being against free speech and all). There is one big reason that supports the easy availability of spam, free Britney Spears Songs, pirated Hollywood Blockbusters, sexual harassments anf general idiocy: Lack of consequence.
If I behave rude on a IRC Channel, the worst that can happen is me being kicked or banned from the server. It's trivial to reenter with a new identity. Since annoying people do not have to face any consequences of their actions, they have no reason to behave more civilised. And that is why Chats are full of idiots.
A civilised system should have some of the following properties:
A reasonably high entry barrier, there should be some work involved in being able to connect to the system. Probably showing some authentication (like a GPG key)
Motivation to behave reasonably. For instance, new users might just be allowed to post to specially reservered Areas. Once they proofed worthy, they gradually get more rights.
Penalties for misbehaviour. There should be a dependable way to block misbehaving people for a limited time from the service. People being blocked must have the right to defend themselve.
I think this way we could end up with a much more cultured Internet society. A place where it is fun to interact with people.
Well, LDIF (RFC 2849) would be possible to start with. It is great for exchanging contact data. I am not sure if it supports scheduling information yet.
1. Person A registers a Trademark "Garblefizz" 2. Person B registers garblefizz.com at NSI 3. Person A sues NSI for Trademark violation (they own the domain, right?) 4. Person A and B share the money:)
A project to remove commercials from Video-recordings already exists. It has been a master thesis at the Fachhochschule Muenster in Germany. In issue 13/99 of the German Computermagazine c't they had an article about it.
The article came complete with instructions on how to build a device to control the VCR over infrared signals.
The software works by determining the logo that TV stations have to put on the screen. It is being switched off during the commercials, so you have a kind of indicator.
I was reading the article that anonymous coward was pointing to, because somehow I got the feeling from the discussion before that sun had been allowed to include Blackdowns code.
Now the article does not mention any *stealing*. It just talks about Blackdown not being mentioned in the press release. And then it's not even Blackdown members who are complaining.
(Since when are AC's allowed to post storied anyway?)
I think everyone should do the experiment: Unplug the mouse!
In a good UI it should be possible to use every program almost as effective as before. Of course many programs will not match this criteria. How about writing bug-reports (yes, missing software-ergonomy is a bug) or, if it is an open source program, adding a few code lines that keyboard-enable the program?
Related thoughts:
Wouldn't it be nice to have a kind of command-line at the bottom of the screen that I can use to control programs? (By typing something like gimp.file.open "foobar.png")
Wouldn't it be nice to have all those toolbars disappear when I don't use a pointing device?
Can you tell me how it would be for the admin much different from the current ASCII-hacking state if you have an option to export/import XML-based data?
You would still be able to hack the configuration with vi, but furthermore you could:
- force applications to provide a list of entries it wants to be able to edit - have all possible options documented - write programs that let you edit the current configuration and that check your changes for saneness before applying
Let me fantasize a bit:
With every program you would get an XML-file foo.xml that provides: - the changes needed for installation (you can read it in advance if you don't trust it) and default values for its keys - documentation for every new key/value pair it introduces and a definition of valid values
Then: config --set foo.xml will set/reset the values config --remove foo will undo whatever foo did to your registry config --extract bar.xml prints the current configuration of foo into bar.xml (with comments) config --set bar.xml applies your changes into the registry config --undo removes your changes
I believe this scenario is superior to what we have right now. I can't think of anything that keeps bad scripts from messing up my/etc/* in the current situation.
A registry is not a bad idea just because Microsoft screwed it up once.
A configuration database will always be faster, more reliable and easier to maintain than the current bunch of ASCII-files, given that it:
* implements access restrictions * uses logging so that you can - undo all the changes done by a particular user/program - or restore the state at a given point of time * has an easy to read input/output format (e.g. XML) * can be accessed from the command line
The Windows95 registry was a step in the right direction, but I guess whoever implemented it did not get enough time to think about making it really secure against being messed up.
The best English<->German Online Dictionary I know is at leo.org. I consider it open, because you can contribute to it and they promised to provide a download in future (when they finished the cleanup).
I have to agree: Starting programs when the user (or root for that matter) didn't explicitly ask for it is definitely a bad idea. Especially on systems that can be more than a single user home computer.
On the other hand, the functionality is nice.
What would be a compromise? When you look at Windows AUTORUN.EXE programs you will notice that they mostly provide the same functionality: present a nice graphic and some buttons to click.
So the best solution would be to have a program that gets started after a CD is mounted and reads a textfile from the CD with the Information about which image to load and to put which buttons where.
Now if only we could get people agree on a standard...
Slashdot Mirror
Cool.
Until this project is finished, may I recommend Portal: The Flash Game ?
I do sincerely hope your girlfriend knows about this. Does she?
Before you reply, please read the patent file.
Or the bookstore could start having not more than one copy per book on display and printing a new copy when you buy one. (Which means more variety in the place where the pile of bestsellers used to be.) And if you can not find the book you are looking for -- wait a minute sir, I will make the book for you...
(Pilot Transcript:)
"Damn Spaceship! Bring me home already! This is never going to work! Help! Why didn't I learn something useful? Mummy!"
Interested German speaking people should check out c't Magazin 5/2003. They took harddisks with four deleted files and sent them to professional data recovery labs. The first file was overwritten with zeros, the second with a random bitpattern, the third three times with zeros and the fourth three times with complementary bitpatterns.
None of the labs was able to retrieve a single file. If you however try to burn, drown or hammer your drive, chances are good that the data stays intactand can be restored.
One interesting fact I came to learn recently: While capacity and rpm of harddisks increased significantly over the past years, seek time did not. If you manage a RAID System, you may find out that you will need twice as many spindles to get the same performance as 10 years ago.
Quote:
If I were an ISP, I would prefer having a regular transparent cache proxy instead of a freecache. That way it is automatically ensured that only my customers access the cached files.
Only the website owner really benefits from Freecache.
Regarding the number of people, sure. Doesn't mean they have the strongest army though. Always keep in mind: The US military spending is higher than that of all other countries -- combined.
If I behave rude on a IRC Channel, the worst that can happen is me being kicked or banned from the server. It's trivial to reenter with a new identity. Since annoying people do not have to face any consequences of their actions, they have no reason to behave more civilised. And that is why Chats are full of idiots.
A civilised system should have some of the following properties:
- A reasonably high entry barrier, there should be some work involved in being able to connect to the system. Probably showing some authentication (like a GPG key)
- Motivation to behave reasonably. For instance, new users might just be allowed to post to specially reservered Areas. Once they proofed worthy, they gradually get more rights.
- Penalties for misbehaviour. There should be a dependable way to block misbehaving people for a limited time from the service. People being blocked must have the right to defend themselve.
I think this way we could end up with a much more cultured Internet society. A place where it is fun to interact with people.Well, LDIF (RFC 2849) would be possible to start with. It is great for exchanging contact data. I am not sure if it supports scheduling information yet.
I would definitely like to try out this scheme:
:)
1. Person A registers a Trademark "Garblefizz"
2. Person B registers garblefizz.com at NSI
3. Person A sues NSI for Trademark violation (they own the domain, right?)
4. Person A and B share the money
Anybody wants to help?
A project to remove commercials from Video-recordings already exists. It has been a master thesis at the Fachhochschule Muenster in Germany. In issue 13/99 of the German Computermagazine c't they had an article about it.
The article came complete with instructions on how to build a device to control the VCR over infrared signals.
The software works by determining the logo that TV stations have to put on the screen. It is being switched off during the commercials, so you have a kind of indicator.
You can get the GPL'd sourcecode for Windows 95 and Linux from their webpage: http://www.ktet.Fh-Muenster.DE/ina/
Unfortunately, you have to know German.
I was reading the article that anonymous coward was pointing to, because somehow I got the feeling from the discussion before that sun had been allowed to include Blackdowns code.
Now the article does not mention any *stealing*. It just talks about Blackdown not being mentioned in the press release. And then it's not even Blackdown members who are complaining.
(Since when are AC's allowed to post storied anyway?)
In a good UI it should be possible to use every program almost as effective as before. Of course many programs will not match this criteria. How about writing bug-reports (yes, missing software-ergonomy is a bug) or, if it is an open source program, adding a few code lines that keyboard-enable the program?
Related thoughts:
Wouldn't it be nice to have a kind of command-line at the bottom of the screen that I can use to control programs?
(By typing something like gimp.file.open "foobar.png")
Wouldn't it be nice to have all those toolbars disappear when I don't use a pointing device?
Do we really need mice/trackballs etc.?
The article contains some more details:
- Diskkeeper has of course access to the full harddisk.
- c't could find no obvious hints that the software is spying.
- Of course you can only be sure when you have the source.
- Microsoft, it seems, has the code.
- Microsoft's Recommendation (to uninstall Diskkeeper) is not working. The files will be restored by the `System File Protection' (SFP).
It will be worth to wait for the translation. It will contain some more background information.Can you tell me how it would be for the admin much different from the current ASCII-hacking state if you have an option to export/import XML-based data?
You would still be able to hack the configuration with vi, but furthermore you could:
- force applications to provide a list of entries it wants to be able to edit
- have all possible options documented
- write programs that let you edit the current configuration and that check your changes for saneness before applying
Let me fantasize a bit:
With every program you would get an XML-file foo.xml that provides:
- the changes needed for installation (you can read it in advance if you don't trust it) and default values for its keys
- documentation for every new key/value pair it introduces and a definition of valid values
Then:
config --set foo.xml will set/reset the values
config --remove foo will undo whatever foo did to your registry
config --extract bar.xml prints the current configuration of foo into bar.xml (with comments)
config --set bar.xml applies your changes into the registry
config --undo removes your changes
I believe this scenario is superior to what we have right now. I can't think of anything that keeps bad scripts from messing up my /etc/* in the current situation.
It's offtopic but it had to be said
Oh yes, I can imagine this:
"Sorry for all these crappy laws, but we were busy reading Linux documentation for half of the legislative period."
A registry is not a bad idea just because Microsoft screwed it up once.
A configuration database will always be faster, more reliable and easier to maintain than the current bunch of ASCII-files, given that it:
* implements access restrictions
* uses logging so that you can
- undo all the changes done by a particular user/program
- or restore the state at a given point of time
* has an easy to read input/output format (e.g. XML)
* can be accessed from the command line
The Windows95 registry was a step in the right direction, but I guess whoever implemented it did not get enough time to think about making it really secure against being messed up.
The best English<->German Online Dictionary I know is at leo.org. I consider it open, because you can contribute to it and they promised to provide a download in future (when they finished the cleanup).
They also have a list of other online dictionaries.
On the other hand, the functionality is nice.
What would be a compromise?
When you look at Windows AUTORUN.EXE programs you will notice that they mostly provide the same functionality: present a nice graphic and some buttons to click.
So the best solution would be to have a program that gets started after a CD is mounted and reads a textfile from the CD with the Information about which image to load and to put which buttons where.
Now if only we could get people agree on a standard...
I don't think that will be ever of any practical use, since you can have the same effect by having a microchip injected under your skin.
That said:Top 5 reasons to have a barcode tatoo anyway
Amiga is not dead, but it is smelling very funny.
If you want to compare, look at this Top-20 List of Benchmark results. The results we are talking about are listed on Rank 12.