Personally, I would think that the 9 year jail time is "proportional" punishment for a number of reasons:
1. How much time was spent deleting the emails that this guy sent - say it takes a cent an email, everytime he sends out 10M emails, this costs the economy $100,000. So taking that into acount, we can probably say that $50-$100 M is lost to the economy each year.
2. How much has been spent on Spam filters, installation and upgrades? How many billions of dollars per year are spent by businesses, individuals and governments? Let's be conservative and say $100M per year.
3. How much bandwidth has been stolen, proxies illegally set up? What is the cost to individuals, businesses, government - again being conservative let's say $50M per year.
4. I won't even guess at the amount of money that this guy's clients have taken from (dumb) people that respond to the emails.
So, looking at this from this prospective, this guy is a kingpin in a minimum $200M per year scam. It could probably be argued that this guy's contribution to the problem could cost society $200M per year. What do you think is an appropriate punishment for a crime of this magnitude?
Fines for this type of behavior don't work; the spammer will just declare bankrupcy after moving his money to a protected location.
The comparison to the time given to a rapist or murderer is not reasonable. I would expect that the spammer is going to end up in a minimum-security institution. Where a rapist or murderer will end up in a maximum security prison or better. On leaving prison, a rapist/murderer is normally required to register where they are living and will be regularly interviewed by police when there is a crime that is similar in nature to theirs - they can never leave this behind them.
The spammer, if he does change his ways, can lead a new life after prison with it just being remembered as a mistake that he didn't fully understand the consequences to - but at least he try to destroy somebody's life (as a violent criminal would have to live with).
This is a funny one that is really more of an urban legend. I don't know where it started, but it is false, the shuttle has never flown with core memory in it; they have always used Rad-Hardened TTL and CMOS SRAM.
I used to work with IBM FSD (and I've done Failure Analysis on Two AP101's memory cards that were on shuttle flights) so I can state this with some authority. I wouldn't be surprised if core memory has never been in space - it wasn't used in Apollo or Gemini (IBM SLT for the flip flops used in both spacecraft's on board computers and the Saturn 5 guidance ring).
Core memory is too heavy, requires too much power and is too fragile to be considered for spaceflight in general and in no way could it be qualified for use in a man-rated booster or spacecraft.
This sounds rather like core memory, which was abandoned rather a long while ago, due to storage devices vibrating accros rooms.
Core memory consisted of an array of small magnetic toroids in which data was stored as the direction of magnetism in each of the toroids. I used to have an IBM 16 kbit Core memory card that was the size of an A4/8.5" x 11" piece of paper. It was abandoned because solid state memory was a lot cheaper, denser and used much less power.
Core memory is completely motionless so I'm wondering how it could "vibrate across rooms". Maybe you could educate me on this?
For years I've heard stories about how New Jersey is trying to clean up its image as a mob run, violent state and here's the New Jersey Institute of Technology working at improving hand gun technology?
My first thought on seeing this news item is that I didn't even know there was a New Jersey Institute of Technology, but if anybody would be doing research into hand guns, this would be the outfit. It just seems like an easy topic for a Leno/Letterman monolog ("Why did they choose the New Jersey Institute of Technology for designing the gun? Because of the opportunities for real world testing! Because shipping costs would be so low!").
No, it will be more like the only gun he has access to is the one that is keyed to the 7 foot tall guy that kills people by twisting their heads off. While Bond is fighting this guy a security detail is coming to finish off Bond even if the big guy doesn't.
With seconds to spare, Bond knocks out the big guy, cuts off his hand and uses it with the gun to shoot the detail that has come to finish him off.
At the end of the movie, the big guy comes back with some wicked looking prothesis that is designed with the single purpose of eviserating Bond.
I've always asked that question, since I found out that Kevin is Darl's brother. It seems to me that no matter what happens, there's going to be a (large) supply of money in the family.
Personally, I always thought it was an incredible strategic mistake to have Darl's brother as a lead attorney in the case - it really damages the credibility of SCO's case and actions.
Personally, I think this is more important than the colour and what songs are pre-loaded and is really the topic that should be discussed here.
I don't have an iPod, but my iRiver will not let me download MP3s (I can delete 'em tho), but this is not an issue because it assumes that if I uploaded the files, I have them somewhere else. How does the standard iPod handle this issue?
Along with this, what will the quality of the MP3s be? Will they be sampled at the highest possible bit rate (ideally have a CD image on the iPod's hard drive) or at the minimum to save space and minimize the likely hood of pirating the recordings?
Maybe a better question is, who is driving this promotion? If it's the band, will they be pushing for the consumer to get the best deal or if it's an RIAA weasel, will they try to give the absolute minimum (and even try to get the consumer to shell out for the CD as well)?
Rather than equate it to Nuclear Bombs, space shuttle tanks, etc. how about how long a gram of anti-matter could run a laptop?
I would expect that it's on the order of centuries which would make it very desireable, although having a potentially leaking anti-matter device on one's lap would make it very undesireable.
I know it's lame, but the first thing that came to my mind when I read the number of prints that could be stored in the laptop was that women don't have the 21 "digits" that men do...
I would say that it would be more accurate to say that SS1 reporduced the results of the X-15. What is interesting is that in terms of costs, both efforts cost the $25 Million.
If you assume that a 1960 dollar is worth 4x of what it is today, then SS1 cost 1/4 of the X-15.
Nice house that seems to reflect the owners tastes and desires without going overboard. Some might disagree due to the turret paying homage to the character that paid for it, but its nice to see a celebrity's home that doesn't try to match Aaron Spelling's mansion.
myke
It's not just the energy...
on
After the X Prize
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
The difficulty in reaching the ISS's orbit isn't only due to the energy involved, it is also due to trying to achieve the same orbital plane. You could say it's not a big deal because you just launch when the ISS is directly over you, but that doesn't happen very often... If you launch out of plane, then a lot of propellent (ie cargo) is lost getting into the plane and the problem returns to one of energy.
Conversly, redevousing with an object orbiting the equator from a launch point close to the equator is a lot easier with more available time slots and minimum fuel required (for maximum cargo).
In the last interview I saw with Burt Rutan, he said that he's at the same stage on an orbital vehicle as he was for SS1 a few years ago. I seem to remember that he said that he was expecting to start construction in 2008/2009.
What will be interesting to see if they can come up with a vehicle that could rendevous with the ISS; the orbit really was poorly chosen for jeverybody except for Russians.
Reaching ISS could seriously be the next challenge.
It's not like spammers are a class of people to be trusted. I always felt the opt-out requirement was joke and prime for abuse. By opting out, you are telling the spammer that you read every email that comes your way and they add it to their list of email addresses that actually respond to spam.
So what do they do with this list? If they follow the letter of the law, they will stop spamming - but, they have a list of high quality email IDs that they can sell to other spammers.
Users should always follow these simple instructions with regards to email spam:
1. Make sure you have an incoming mail spam filter, like SpamAsassin. 2. Delete any spam that gets through. 3. If you are interested in the product, do not contact the email (spam) source, reply to the email, click on "helpful" buttons. Find reputable mainstream vendors - if it's great then Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Circuit City, etc. will stock it.
Wouldn't it have been appropriate (not to mention eerily foreshadowing) if these telegrams were for passage on the most famous Cunard ship of them all - the "Titanic"?
When I read the Forbes' article, I was confused as to the reference that Apple was holding back the Beatles catalog - it is my understanding that the catalog is owned by the one gloved one. Regardless of the outcome, Apple records cannot offer the Beatles catalog to Apple computer simply because they don't own it.
This seems to be a simple trademark suit; Apple computer reached an agreement from Apple records stating that they could use the trademarked term "Apple" as long as they did not become involved with music production/distribution.
When Apple computer became involved in music distribution they were breaking the agreement with Apple records and now they've got to pay. I don't think they're going to get anything out of the deal (other than a board member that looks like a chipmunk).
How illegal would it to be to have systems with pirated serial numbers produce trashed output files? If the Echelon developer was really cruel, the Mpegs could be good for a few megabytes, so the preview would be okay (along with a quick check of the video).
I admit that deleting the root directory is too far and I would agree encrypting somebody's files but surely a program using a pirated serial number could not be expected to work properly?
Maybe they could even catch a few pirates that asked for support for the "defective" software!
I'm a big Niven/Ringworld fan and I've read (and re-read all the books). I would say Ringworld's Children is somewhere in the middle of the books - although there is a plot point that really pissed me off.
The book is probably is the best thing that Niven has written in years (take what you will from this) but it's nowhere as good as the original "Ringworld" or his other early/mid '70s novels like "Protector" or "A gift from Earth".
The story does move reasonably well although I found that with this story Niven got a bit too deep in the minutia of the engineering of the Ringworld and what happens when it is punctured.
Cryptic Spoiler Warning: What I considered to be the logical continuation in the story arc did happen but Niven wimped out and changed things back to the way they were. If you are a fan of Ringworld and Niven's "Known Space" series, you can probably guess what I'm talking about.
This reversal killed the book for me; up to this point the story progressed nicely (although a little flat due to the technical descriptions) and I was looking forward to future books with the change.
If you're a big Niven fan and have read all the Ringworld books, then it is probably worth buying the paperback.
Through his and SCO's efforts he has helped explain what Open Source Software is as well as help quantify its value. Thanks to the various lawsuits, I have seen a perception within my company (Celestica) of Open Source from being "Free" (as in beer) to a collaborative effort by many individuals working on the same goal.
I would think that a want ad posted on/. would be the worst case scenario for any HR department. Instead of looking at three or four people that do have the requisite knowledge and skills, Apple is going to be so overwhelmed with thousands of people claiming to have experience in all the areas ("hey, I hooked up my own WiFi network at home, can plug in USB flash disk keys and I can almost always transfer my digital videos") that they are going to go nuts vetting and responding.
A more interesting story might be is hearing how Apple worked through all the applications this piece generated.
Slashdot Mirror
Personally, I would think that the 9 year jail time is "proportional" punishment for a number of reasons:
1. How much time was spent deleting the emails that this guy sent - say it takes a cent an email, everytime he sends out 10M emails, this costs the economy $100,000. So taking that into acount, we can probably say that $50-$100 M is lost to the economy each year.
2. How much has been spent on Spam filters, installation and upgrades? How many billions of dollars per year are spent by businesses, individuals and governments? Let's be conservative and say $100M per year.
3. How much bandwidth has been stolen, proxies illegally set up? What is the cost to individuals, businesses, government - again being conservative let's say $50M per year.
4. I won't even guess at the amount of money that this guy's clients have taken from (dumb) people that respond to the emails.
So, looking at this from this prospective, this guy is a kingpin in a minimum $200M per year scam. It could probably be argued that this guy's contribution to the problem could cost society $200M per year. What do you think is an appropriate punishment for a crime of this magnitude?
Fines for this type of behavior don't work; the spammer will just declare bankrupcy after moving his money to a protected location.
The comparison to the time given to a rapist or murderer is not reasonable. I would expect that the spammer is going to end up in a minimum-security institution. Where a rapist or murderer will end up in a maximum security prison or better. On leaving prison, a rapist/murderer is normally required to register where they are living and will be regularly interviewed by police when there is a crime that is similar in nature to theirs - they can never leave this behind them.
The spammer, if he does change his ways, can lead a new life after prison with it just being remembered as a mistake that he didn't fully understand the consequences to - but at least he try to destroy somebody's life (as a violent criminal would have to live with).
myke
This is a funny one that is really more of an urban legend. I don't know where it started, but it is false, the shuttle has never flown with core memory in it; they have always used Rad-Hardened TTL and CMOS SRAM.
I used to work with IBM FSD (and I've done Failure Analysis on Two AP101's memory cards that were on shuttle flights) so I can state this with some authority. I wouldn't be surprised if core memory has never been in space - it wasn't used in Apollo or Gemini (IBM SLT for the flip flops used in both spacecraft's on board computers and the Saturn 5 guidance ring).
Core memory is too heavy, requires too much power and is too fragile to be considered for spaceflight in general and in no way could it be qualified for use in a man-rated booster or spacecraft.
myke
This sounds rather like core memory, which was abandoned rather a long while ago, due to storage devices vibrating accros rooms.
Core memory consisted of an array of small magnetic toroids in which data was stored as the direction of magnetism in each of the toroids. I used to have an IBM 16 kbit Core memory card that was the size of an A4/8.5" x 11" piece of paper. It was abandoned because solid state memory was a lot cheaper, denser and used much less power.
Core memory is completely motionless so I'm wondering how it could "vibrate across rooms". Maybe you could educate me on this?
myke
For years I've heard stories about how New Jersey is trying to clean up its image as a mob run, violent state and here's the New Jersey Institute of Technology working at improving hand gun technology?
My first thought on seeing this news item is that I didn't even know there was a New Jersey Institute of Technology, but if anybody would be doing research into hand guns, this would be the outfit. It just seems like an easy topic for a Leno/Letterman monolog ("Why did they choose the New Jersey Institute of Technology for designing the gun? Because of the opportunities for real world testing! Because shipping costs would be so low!").
myke
No, it will be more like the only gun he has access to is the one that is keyed to the 7 foot tall guy that kills people by twisting their heads off. While Bond is fighting this guy a security detail is coming to finish off Bond even if the big guy doesn't.
With seconds to spare, Bond knocks out the big guy, cuts off his hand and uses it with the gun to shoot the detail that has come to finish him off.
At the end of the movie, the big guy comes back with some wicked looking prothesis that is designed with the single purpose of eviserating Bond.
Hmmm... Maybe I've watched too many movies.
myke
I've always asked that question, since I found out that Kevin is Darl's brother. It seems to me that no matter what happens, there's going to be a (large) supply of money in the family.
Personally, I always thought it was an incredible strategic mistake to have Darl's brother as a lead attorney in the case - it really damages the credibility of SCO's case and actions.
myke
and it comes with a volume control that goes up to 11!
myke
Personally, I think this is more important than the colour and what songs are pre-loaded and is really the topic that should be discussed here.
I don't have an iPod, but my iRiver will not let me download MP3s (I can delete 'em tho), but this is not an issue because it assumes that if I uploaded the files, I have them somewhere else. How does the standard iPod handle this issue?
Along with this, what will the quality of the MP3s be? Will they be sampled at the highest possible bit rate (ideally have a CD image on the iPod's hard drive) or at the minimum to save space and minimize the likely hood of pirating the recordings?
Maybe a better question is, who is driving this promotion? If it's the band, will they be pushing for the consumer to get the best deal or if it's an RIAA weasel, will they try to give the absolute minimum (and even try to get the consumer to shell out for the CD as well)?
myke
is positioning for the role of "Robber Baron".
Somebody should tell him that Bill Gates has that job sewed up.
myke
Rather than equate it to Nuclear Bombs, space shuttle tanks, etc. how about how long a gram of anti-matter could run a laptop?
I would expect that it's on the order of centuries which would make it very desireable, although having a potentially leaking anti-matter device on one's lap would make it very undesireable.
myke
I know it's lame, but the first thing that came to my mind when I read the number of prints that could be stored in the laptop was that women don't have the 21 "digits" that men do...
Weird on a Monday,
myke
I would say that it would be more accurate to say that SS1 reporduced the results of the X-15. What is interesting is that in terms of costs, both efforts cost the $25 Million.
If you assume that a 1960 dollar is worth 4x of what it is today, then SS1 cost 1/4 of the X-15.
Well done Scaled!
myke
Nice house that seems to reflect the owners tastes and desires without going overboard. Some might disagree due to the turret paying homage to the character that paid for it, but its nice to see a celebrity's home that doesn't try to match Aaron Spelling's mansion.
myke
The difficulty in reaching the ISS's orbit isn't only due to the energy involved, it is also due to trying to achieve the same orbital plane. You could say it's not a big deal because you just launch when the ISS is directly over you, but that doesn't happen very often... If you launch out of plane, then a lot of propellent (ie cargo) is lost getting into the plane and the problem returns to one of energy.
Conversly, redevousing with an object orbiting the equator from a launch point close to the equator is a lot easier with more available time slots and minimum fuel required (for maximum cargo).
myke
In the last interview I saw with Burt Rutan, he said that he's at the same stage on an orbital vehicle as he was for SS1 a few years ago. I seem to remember that he said that he was expecting to start construction in 2008/2009.
What will be interesting to see if they can come up with a vehicle that could rendevous with the ISS; the orbit really was poorly chosen for jeverybody except for Russians.
Reaching ISS could seriously be the next challenge.
myke
It sounds exciting working for the NRA.
Hmmm, how many other organizations start with "N" and end in "A" that have nothing to do with computers?
myke
If that's true then the answer's "no".
If it was like hiring Hannible Lecter, then I would probably say go for it, he has some great stories not to mention a few interesting recipes.
Of course, it would be important to keep your "petty torments" to a minimum.
myke
Seriously.
It's not like spammers are a class of people to be trusted. I always felt the opt-out requirement was joke and prime for abuse. By opting out, you are telling the spammer that you read every email that comes your way and they add it to their list of email addresses that actually respond to spam.
So what do they do with this list? If they follow the letter of the law, they will stop spamming - but, they have a list of high quality email IDs that they can sell to other spammers.
Users should always follow these simple instructions with regards to email spam:
1. Make sure you have an incoming mail spam filter, like SpamAsassin.
2. Delete any spam that gets through.
3. If you are interested in the product, do not contact the email (spam) source, reply to the email, click on "helpful" buttons. Find reputable mainstream vendors - if it's great then Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Circuit City, etc. will stock it.
myke
Wouldn't it have been appropriate (not to mention eerily foreshadowing) if these telegrams were for passage on the most famous Cunard ship of them all - the "Titanic"?
myke
When I read the Forbes' article, I was confused as to the reference that Apple was holding back the Beatles catalog - it is my understanding that the catalog is owned by the one gloved one. Regardless of the outcome, Apple records cannot offer the Beatles catalog to Apple computer simply because they don't own it.
This seems to be a simple trademark suit; Apple computer reached an agreement from Apple records stating that they could use the trademarked term "Apple" as long as they did not become involved with music production/distribution.
When Apple computer became involved in music distribution they were breaking the agreement with Apple records and now they've got to pay. I don't think they're going to get anything out of the deal (other than a board member that looks like a chipmunk).
myke
How illegal would it to be to have systems with pirated serial numbers produce trashed output files? If the Echelon developer was really cruel, the Mpegs could be good for a few megabytes, so the preview would be okay (along with a quick check of the video).
I admit that deleting the root directory is too far and I would agree encrypting somebody's files but surely a program using a pirated serial number could not be expected to work properly?
Maybe they could even catch a few pirates that asked for support for the "defective" software!
myke
I'm a big Niven/Ringworld fan and I've read (and re-read all the books). I would say Ringworld's Children is somewhere in the middle of the books - although there is a plot point that really pissed me off.
The book is probably is the best thing that Niven has written in years (take what you will from this) but it's nowhere as good as the original "Ringworld" or his other early/mid '70s novels like "Protector" or "A gift from Earth".
The story does move reasonably well although I found that with this story Niven got a bit too deep in the minutia of the engineering of the Ringworld and what happens when it is punctured.
Cryptic Spoiler Warning: What I considered to be the logical continuation in the story arc did happen but Niven wimped out and changed things back to the way they were. If you are a fan of Ringworld and Niven's "Known Space" series, you can probably guess what I'm talking about.
This reversal killed the book for me; up to this point the story progressed nicely (although a little flat due to the technical descriptions) and I was looking forward to future books with the change.
If you're a big Niven fan and have read all the Ringworld books, then it is probably worth buying the paperback.
myke
Through his and SCO's efforts he has helped explain what Open Source Software is as well as help quantify its value. Thanks to the various lawsuits, I have seen a perception within my company (Celestica) of Open Source from being "Free" (as in beer) to a collaborative effort by many individuals working on the same goal.
myke
Along with a fire truck full of "Head and Shoulders".
myke
I would think that a want ad posted on /. would be the worst case scenario for any HR department. Instead of looking at three or four people that do have the requisite knowledge and skills, Apple is going to be so overwhelmed with thousands of people claiming to have experience in all the areas ("hey, I hooked up my own WiFi network at home, can plug in USB flash disk keys and I can almost always transfer my digital videos") that they are going to go nuts vetting and responding.
A more interesting story might be is hearing how Apple worked through all the applications this piece generated.
myke