One thing I haven't seen mentioned here yet is how feasable this even is.
AT&T would have to be monitoring all of their customers web traffic to know if they were shopping or not (I certainly wouldn't be telling them voluntarily if they wanted to charge me) which would invariably lead to numerous privacy concerns relating to the tracking of web browsing habits (and of course AT&T would *never* sell this information because the customer *always* comes before profits ).
I just don't see this as a problem we have to face right now, though sometime in the future, most likely we will.
Really, I want my x86 binaries to be compatible with the other distributions
They are, why would a different version of gcc screw up ELF as to make it incompatible with everything else? From reading other/. posts it appears that the incompatibility is in the object files that haven't been linked (and I *always* make sure to download the object files and link them myself, so much more convenient than sources or binaries).
I've been using red hat 7.0 for several days now and am quite happy. I just chose the custom install option and set up my system like I wanted it and have had no problems, save for that buggy aoutmounter thing red hat has going as part of gnome (though I haven't seen any bug reports concerning it, so it may very well be my hardware).
I do agree with you on the point of kgcc though, my first install was the standard workstation option and there is no mention as far as I could tell concerning the use of kgcc to compile ther kernel.
Now the person who was looking for a nice LCD display might want to wait a few years and pick up one of these babies
No, he shouldn't. When buying technology goods you have to buy in the now, you can't wait for what is just around the corner because there will *always* be something better no matter how long you wait (and then you end up with a 486 and several thousand dollars waiting for the super great Transmeta based desktop with organic displays that also happens to repair the ozone hole, create world peace, and make money just by being on, but if you wait just one more year you can get an ever better version that powers itself through cold fusion). Personally, I find it better to buy the stuff that came out *last* month, as it has plenty of power to do 99% of what I want to do and is also cheap.
I'll believe that AOL will open up AIM to others once I can select the 'use oscar protocol' option in Gaim and not get kicked off 5 minutes later for not using an authorized client. I wouldn't care if they actually kept the toc server up all the time (like the oscar server is). It's quite suspicious to me, now that they've got a linux client (which btw, I've never gotten to work) why wouldn't they want me using it? I'm nearing the point at which I break and start pushing jabber on all the people I care to talk to.
Not everyone has a load of money to spend on computers, so the Duron provides a great chip for these people (like me). I got my 700 MHz Duron for $60 at Fry's, and it plays Quake II (don't have money for Quake III) quite nicely coupled with my voodoo 3. I'm getting at least 60 fps. Perhaps you should try one out before mouthing off.
If I'm reading this correctly, what they're talking about is the old "^H" and other such strings that people use to use to hide log entries with, etc... Yeah, this arce guy can read old archives and post stuff about them.
btw, what's up with people saying, "this vulnerability affects unix". Why don't people NAME the unix that it affects, or are they just too stupid to know that there's a difference.
I suppose you could call me a true Geek. I have 5 t-shirts I cycle every week and three of them are linux related from copyleft. I would use this, I enjoy playing with new systems, even buggy systems, just to kill time and learn stuff. I also wouldn't mind not having to su to root just to mount a CD. (Yes, I'm sure I could do it another way, but that's how I've been doing it since I started with linux in '96).
Although you think you have immense amounts of numbers (the outright reliance almost on the "Slashdot Effect" as scare-tactic), the 'rights / computer / lifestyle' crowd here composes such a tiny fraction of the music-buying public that it won't even be a drip on the RIAA's brow.
So, you imply that everyone who uses Napster also reads slashdot? I know a lot of people who are doing good to *turn on* a computer, and still manage to use Napster and think that it's the best thing ever (and they still buy loads of CDs). I think what were talking about is a little bigger than slashdot alone.
Re:The real purpose of DeCSS
on
DeCSS Update
·
· Score: 1
You say DeCSS makes it easy for home users to pirate DVDs. Have you ever tried copying a DVD? I have, once, and that was all it took to turn me off on the idea. First of all, it takes an incredible amount of hard drive space, 7 GB for the DVD I was trying to copy. Second, on my PII 400 MHz it took 9 hours to encoded 1 hour of video. In fact, I never finished copying it, just the first hour of it. To copy the whole thing would have taken 18 hours, just enough time to get it back to the movie store (I actually owned the DVD I was copying, but just for the sake of argument, lets say that I didn't). $3 for the 2 CDs it requires would be about right because the average user doesn't know how to find great deals. Assuming a $5 rental fee, that makes $8 plus the 18 hours that you can't use your computer, add that to the fact that *I* had trouble figuring out how to go from DVD->VCD, then I doubt your average home users won't be able to figure it out. Add that to the fact that you need an encoder (which isn't free) and it seems to me as if your average home user would have just a *little* trouble pirating a DVD (which you seem to think is so easy). I didn't even have to use DeCSS to copy the DVD, I could have done it straight off the disk, but then I would risk burning up my drive.
Oh, and your average home user doesn't have a DVD-RAM either seeing as they cost $$$$ and DVD-RAMs can't burn a true dual-layered DVD anyways.
Basically, DeCSS is useless for anything unless you have a couple of Ghz processors lying around and a hard drive that can keep up with it (and you also have to like watching all your movies on a monitor, unless you spring for that VCD player (which your 'average' person won't even know how to find (or what the heck it is)))
AFAIK, Texas hasn't passed UCITA (and I live here, so...). No one has seemed to pick up on this yet: Governing Law; Consent to Jurisdiction You agree that these Terms of Use are governed by the laws of the State of Texas and that proper and convenient venue lies exclusively with the courts of Dallas County, Texas. You agree to be subject to the personal jurisdiction of the State and federal courts sitting in Dallas County, Texas, U.S.A. or in the United States District Court by the Northern District of Texas in the event that any litigation results concerning any aspect arising out of these Terms of Use and Service. You agree that the statute of limitations for any claim against Apogee shall be brought within one year from when the claim arose, and any claims not brought within such period of time shall be deemed waived. I'm no lawyer, but this looks just a *little* bit illegal to me, that and the fact that there is no 'accept' button to actually agree.
Also, this apparently isn't a shrink-wrap license, but a license for usage of the website (one that you agree to by just reading it).
Well, if Apogee can do it, so can I. By reading this comment, you agree to be on favorable terms with the poster, to never take legal action against him, to give him $20 whenever you see him, and to not use vowels in any communications with him. You must also go cut down the mightiest tree in the forest with a trout. You must fully follow these terms in order to be in compliance, violaters will be prosecuted to the maximum extent of the law.
I thought that parodies were protected by law...hence the reason Wierd Al isn't getting sued by everybody. I'm sure the author wouldn't mind you paying the fee though:P.
Do you realize what you are saying? How about I hand over your wallet, keys to your care, thoughts, and hey, why not all your right to your organs when you die to the government? You say that in this day and age, government has found new, non-violent ways of enslaving us? Maybe they've enslaved you, but I never plan on being a slave to *anything*, not society, not technology, not corporations, and not government. I plan on owning a weapon to make sure this never happens. Yes, I have lived without technology or society for long periods of time, it was quite fun actually, it was at a little place in New Mexico up by Cimmarron called Philmont. You should try this some time and perhaps you will discover what I have...that nothing society or technology can offer is worth slavery to it. You sound like one who is all to ready to give up your rights, and you're welcome to do it whenever you please becuase that is the beauty of America, freedom for all to be active in government or just quit and let someone else run it for you. As for me though, I will choose to be active and guide America into what I believe it should be.
It seems as though timothy has seen what common sense should have been telling everyone all along. People who want to commit crime don't really care whether the guns they use are legal or not...by that time it doesn't really matter now does it? Less guns DOES NOT mean less crime. Perhaps you should look at Texas where I can legally carry a concealed weapon. Since this law took effect, violent crime has gone down. Then look at australia where guns have been outlawed. What did crime rates do there? They shot through the roof (I had heard 400%, but don't quote me on that). Many people who oppose guns (read the Clinton administration and the 'million moms') don't just want 'common sense' gun laws, they want complete abolishment. As it has been pointed out in previous posts, the constitution and Bill of Rights were not instituted for the good times, they were put in place by the founding fathers (who, regardless of background or anything else someone would have you think) were much smarter men than those in leadership today...they made the government and obviously did a damn good job of it seeing how well it has weathered the changes the American society has gone through. I believe that they knew there would be a time the right to gun ownership would be challenged, and it was for these very reasons that the second ammendment was instituted. What does a government have to fear from unarmed 'peasants'? Also, on the so called 'million moms' I would like you to ask yourself this...who *should* be responsible for their children? It seems as though even parents are now wanting to neglect the responsibility of having a child. The shootings that take place in schools were not caused by gun, video games, or the media (as much as I loathe them). No, these shootings were caused by parents who were not responsible and neglected the mental welfare of their children. True, some children do have genuine mental problem, but many do NOT, their problem is that they never learned respect, never were taught the value of human life, and thus felt as if they could do nothing wrong. No, banning guns is not the answer. This has already been shown. While I do not oppose measure to help keep guns out of the hands of criminals such as background checks, restrictions on gun shows, and safety features, these will not end the problem of gun violence. Strict punishment for *any* crime committed with a gun and, dare I say, a real family composed of the father and mother who both have believe in *some* religion that promotes the welfare of the human race and which can help teach a child values for life. This and only this will truly put an end to the violence.
It seems to me as though many people on this planet have forgottent the simple fact that we are all human -- that we are all of the same race of beings, inhabiting the same planet, which is flying around the same sun. We all depend on the sun to be here tomorrow when we awake. We depend on the fact that no foreign rock has hit us and brought our civilization to its knees...but yet many of us seem to forget these simple facts. It seems almost as if people believe money can make you more than human, but it can not -- money will not bring you back to life if you die, and that's the trick isn't it -- once you are dead it's over and nothing is left but your accomplishments...your life must speak for itself. What is money really? It is a medium for managing the finite resources of this planet which we all inhabit. The simple collection of this medium seems ridiculous in light of the fact that its only purpose is to manage resources. Money is an idea created by man to manage a world which does not care. Mr. Gates and Mr. Balmer, what is it that you really want out of life -- your life, your only life? Giving your riches away will not help you when the only thing left to speak for you are your accomplishments. People will know what your true goal was when they read of what you and your company tried to do to what will become the greatest creation of mankind, the Internet. Please consider in your handling of this and future affairs what is at stake, not the domination of your company, but the very dignity of the human race -- that one man in his quest for money was willing to try and smother the greatest medium of what ultimately sets Man apart from the animals -- the ability to speak, the ability to think, and the ability to do both with intelligence. I know that this will eventually run across the eyes of someone in your company, Mr. Gates, and I would plead with them to pass it on to you, not for to save the site many of us love from facing a damaging lawsuit, but to perhaps salvage what little dignity the human race has left. After centuries, millenia even, of war and hate...the quest for power over others, perhaps it is time we work together, to make the most of our short time on Earth, and to leave something for future generations that will be a marvel of ages to come. The Internet was built on openess and thrived on it, it is the greatest invention in the history of our race (OUR race, for you too Mr. Gates and Mr. Balmer are of the same race I am, and everyone else on this planet...that is something no amount of money can change) and I doubt that you would like your name to go down with a dark connotation as the men who tried to destroy it for profit...the quest for riches can eat a man's soul, or it can be overcome, and the latter are those who's lives will be remembered forever as the greatest men who ever walked the Earth.
You're right, DVD copying was made possible long before DeCSS.
One weekend I set off with the goal to transfer one of the DVDs that I owned to Video-CD (yes this is legal as it was for my personal use). It was reletively easy to do. With a quick google search I found oleg's site (which was shut down by the MPAA) and started creating the Video-CD. The only real problem was that it took 4 hours to encode 1 hour of DVD into Video-CD format. Basically, DeCSS was needless in the copying process other than keeping me from having to leave the DVD in my DVD-ROM drive while copying the movie.
The whole DeCSS case is a 'save face' for the MPAA, an attempt to keep themselves from looking dumb when they realized, "whoops, we forgot to protect this somehow". 2600 only got involved because of the magic word Hacker and its semantics making them an easy target for corporate greed.
While progress and research into space is beneficial to the human race, I have to wonder what the purpose is of taking more pictures of asteroids. There already exist many pictures of asteroids, and I don't see what further study would yield. I'm just wondering if there aren't better ways to spend governement money on space. Even if there were valuable resources to be gotten from the asteroid, they would be far to expensive to remove. The article states nothing of how we can benefit from this study. While it is cool that we have the technology to do this, I just can't see the point. Wouldn't it be even more interesting if probes were sent to Europa in search of life? A Europa probe would expand our knowledge of our solar system and perhaps uncover clues to the development of life, the NEAR probe will send us pictures (which look much like the moon, big surpise there) of a dead rock hurtling through space. This certainly doesn't make NASA look like they are doing anything productive. Don't get me wrong, I love space and believe in space exploration, but aren't there better activites to engage in than this?
Perhaps someone should read the moderator rules. I was cleary replying to the last line of the comment stating that AOL owning space would be bad. In fact, if you don't believe me, I will quote here:
Thought it would suck, admittedly, if AOL bought it out.
And also, I quote from the moderator guidelines:
If you can't be deep, be funny
I agree with your point on privatization of space. If no money is to be made then there will be no advancement, and NASA being a goverenment agency isn't out to make money. While there are many in NASA who would like to explore just for explorations sake (and I must say, some good advancements have come out of NASA), they must go to NASA to explore because they are the only place to go. Privatization of space would lead to greater interest as space started making more money and this would inspire more people to space as opposed to a corporate office.
I would go out and by this, but there is no evidence that it will improve my experience on the Internet. I refuse to buy either until they are fully optimized to work with my modem and immerse me in the Internet, accelerate java, and get instant downloads over a telephone line. Both cards are a definite no-buy without good solid marketing and a brain-washing ad campaign.
This would be a major leap if light based computers became feasable. Currently we are using electricity generated from fossil fuels who's energy originally came from the sun. Think about it, light comes to earth, plants absorb it, plants turn to oil, we burn oil for energy, and we use that energy for what...a light bulb. Too bad its not yet economical to wire houses with fiber optics for the lighting (and computing:-) ), with the light source being a collector mounted on the roof.
I think in a learning situation children should start with some sort of console and at least learn how to launch programs and work with files. My first experience with a console was the dos command line in which I learned how to type "cd c:\wolf3d" and then "dir" to make me look cool. Without that little bit of information, I would have never cared to go poking around with the computer.
NT started out as OS/2, jointly developed between IBM and MS. They split, MS took thier share of the code, IBM took thiers. I think (though I may be wrong) that OS/2 was intended as an end user desktop type thing with the option of being a server. So, NT was an accident and was originally intended as a dual purpose operating system. I'm not sure what this comment accomplished.
Does this mean that/. is no longer a couple of guys with a cool site. I sure hope not, even if there happen to be a couple thousand readers daily. Who says the media is never biased. Lets see, I know ABC isn't. That little commercial stating "tell me something good about guns in 10 seconds" sure isn't biased. Lets see, how about protection from people who got them illegaly and, oh yeah, that second ammendment thingy also. Sorry, I got a little off topic, but nobodies perfect, include CmdrTaco.
Slashdot Mirror
One thing I haven't seen mentioned here yet is how feasable this even is.
AT&T would have to be monitoring all of their customers web traffic to know if they were shopping or not (I certainly wouldn't be telling them voluntarily if they wanted to charge me) which would invariably lead to numerous privacy concerns relating to the tracking of web browsing habits (and of course AT&T would *never* sell this information because the customer *always* comes before profits ).
I just don't see this as a problem we have to face right now, though sometime in the future, most likely we will.
Really, I want my x86 binaries to be compatible with the other distributions
/. posts it appears that the incompatibility is in the object files that haven't been linked (and I *always* make sure to download the object files and link them myself, so much more convenient than sources or binaries).
They are, why would a different version of gcc screw up ELF as to make it incompatible with everything else? From reading other
I've been using red hat 7.0 for several days now and am quite happy. I just chose the custom install option and set up my system like I wanted it and have had no problems, save for that buggy aoutmounter thing red hat has going as part of gnome (though I haven't seen any bug reports concerning it, so it may very well be my hardware).
I do agree with you on the point of kgcc though, my first install was the standard workstation option and there is no mention as far as I could tell concerning the use of kgcc to compile ther kernel.
Now the person who was looking for a nice LCD display might want to wait a few years and pick up one of these babies No, he shouldn't. When buying technology goods you have to buy in the now, you can't wait for what is just around the corner because there will *always* be something better no matter how long you wait (and then you end up with a 486 and several thousand dollars waiting for the super great Transmeta based desktop with organic displays that also happens to repair the ozone hole, create world peace, and make money just by being on, but if you wait just one more year you can get an ever better version that powers itself through cold fusion). Personally, I find it better to buy the stuff that came out *last* month, as it has plenty of power to do 99% of what I want to do and is also cheap.
I'll believe that AOL will open up AIM to others once I can select the 'use oscar protocol' option in Gaim and not get kicked off 5 minutes later for not using an authorized client. I wouldn't care if they actually kept the toc server up all the time (like the oscar server is). It's quite suspicious to me, now that they've got a linux client (which btw, I've never gotten to work) why wouldn't they want me using it? I'm nearing the point at which I break and start pushing jabber on all the people I care to talk to.
Not everyone has a load of money to spend on computers, so the Duron provides a great chip for these people (like me). I got my 700 MHz Duron for $60 at Fry's, and it plays Quake II (don't have money for Quake III) quite nicely coupled with my voodoo 3. I'm getting at least 60 fps. Perhaps you should try one out before mouthing off.
If I'm reading this correctly, what they're talking about is the old "^H" and other such strings that people use to use to hide log entries with, etc... Yeah, this arce guy can read old archives and post stuff about them. btw, what's up with people saying, "this vulnerability affects unix". Why don't people NAME the unix that it affects, or are they just too stupid to know that there's a difference.
I suppose you could call me a true Geek. I have 5 t-shirts I cycle every week and three of them are linux related from copyleft. I would use this, I enjoy playing with new systems, even buggy systems, just to kill time and learn stuff. I also wouldn't mind not having to su to root just to mount a CD. (Yes, I'm sure I could do it another way, but that's how I've been doing it since I started with linux in '96).
Although you think you have immense amounts of numbers (the outright reliance almost on the "Slashdot Effect" as scare-tactic), the 'rights / computer / lifestyle' crowd here composes such a tiny fraction of the music-buying public that it won't even be a drip on the RIAA's brow.
So, you imply that everyone who uses Napster also reads slashdot? I know a lot of people who are doing good to *turn on* a computer, and still manage to use Napster and think that it's the best thing ever (and they still buy loads of CDs). I think what were talking about is a little bigger than slashdot alone.
You say DeCSS makes it easy for home users to pirate DVDs. Have you ever tried copying a DVD? I have, once, and that was all it took to turn me off on the idea. First of all, it takes an incredible amount of hard drive space, 7 GB for the DVD I was trying to copy. Second, on my PII 400 MHz it took 9 hours to encoded 1 hour of video. In fact, I never finished copying it, just the first hour of it. To copy the whole thing would have taken 18 hours, just enough time to get it back to the movie store (I actually owned the DVD I was copying, but just for the sake of argument, lets say that I didn't). $3 for the 2 CDs it requires would be about right because the average user doesn't know how to find great deals. Assuming a $5 rental fee, that makes $8 plus the 18 hours that you can't use your computer, add that to the fact that *I* had trouble figuring out how to go from DVD->VCD, then I doubt your average home users won't be able to figure it out. Add that to the fact that you need an encoder (which isn't free) and it seems to me as if your average home user would have just a *little* trouble pirating a DVD (which you seem to think is so easy). I didn't even have to use DeCSS to copy the DVD, I could have done it straight off the disk, but then I would risk burning up my drive.
Oh, and your average home user doesn't have a DVD-RAM either seeing as they cost $$$$ and DVD-RAMs can't burn a true dual-layered DVD anyways.
Basically, DeCSS is useless for anything unless you have a couple of Ghz processors lying around and a hard drive that can keep up with it (and you also have to like watching all your movies on a monitor, unless you spring for that VCD player (which your 'average' person won't even know how to find (or what the heck it is)))
AFAIK, Texas hasn't passed UCITA (and I live here, so...). No one has seemed to pick up on this yet:
Governing Law; Consent to Jurisdiction You agree that these Terms of Use are governed by the laws of the State of Texas and that proper and convenient venue lies exclusively with the courts of Dallas County, Texas. You agree to be subject to the personal jurisdiction of the State and federal courts sitting in Dallas County, Texas, U.S.A. or in the United States District Court by the Northern District of Texas in the event that any litigation results concerning any aspect arising out of these Terms of Use and Service. You agree that the statute of limitations for any claim against Apogee shall be brought within one year from when the claim arose, and any claims not brought within such period of time shall be deemed waived.
I'm no lawyer, but this looks just a *little* bit illegal to me, that and the fact that there is no 'accept' button to actually agree.
Also, this apparently isn't a shrink-wrap license, but a license for usage of the website (one that you agree to by just reading it).
Well, if Apogee can do it, so can I.
By reading this comment, you agree to be on favorable terms with the poster, to never take legal action against him, to give him $20 whenever you see him, and to not use vowels in any communications with him. You must also go cut down the mightiest tree in the forest with a trout. You must fully follow these terms in order to be in compliance, violaters will be prosecuted to the maximum extent of the law.
I thought that parodies were protected by law...hence the reason Wierd Al isn't getting sued by everybody. I'm sure the author wouldn't mind you paying the fee though :P.
Do you realize what you are saying? How about I hand over your wallet, keys to your care, thoughts, and hey, why not all your right to your organs when you die to the government? You say that in this day and age, government has found new, non-violent ways of enslaving us? Maybe they've enslaved you, but I never plan on being a slave to *anything*, not society, not technology, not corporations, and not government. I plan on owning a weapon to make sure this never happens. Yes, I have lived without technology or society for long periods of time, it was quite fun actually, it was at a little place in New Mexico up by Cimmarron called Philmont. You should try this some time and perhaps you will discover what I have...that nothing society or technology can offer is worth slavery to it. You sound like one who is all to ready to give up your rights, and you're welcome to do it whenever you please becuase that is the beauty of America, freedom for all to be active in government or just quit and let someone else run it for you. As for me though, I will choose to be active and guide America into what I believe it should be.
It seems as though timothy has seen what common sense should have been telling everyone all along. People who want to commit crime don't really care whether the guns they use are legal or not...by that time it doesn't really matter now does it? Less guns DOES NOT mean less crime. Perhaps you should look at Texas where I can legally carry a concealed weapon. Since this law took effect, violent crime has gone down. Then look at australia where guns have been outlawed. What did crime rates do there? They shot through the roof (I had heard 400%, but don't quote me on that). Many people who oppose guns (read the Clinton administration and the 'million moms') don't just want 'common sense' gun laws, they want complete abolishment. As it has been pointed out in previous posts, the constitution and Bill of Rights were not instituted for the good times, they were put in place by the founding fathers (who, regardless of background or anything else someone would have you think) were much smarter men than those in leadership today...they made the government and obviously did a damn good job of it seeing how well it has weathered the changes the American society has gone through. I believe that they knew there would be a time the right to gun ownership would be challenged, and it was for these very reasons that the second ammendment was instituted. What does a government have to fear from unarmed 'peasants'? Also, on the so called 'million moms' I would like you to ask yourself this...who *should* be responsible for their children? It seems as though even parents are now wanting to neglect the responsibility of having a child. The shootings that take place in schools were not caused by gun, video games, or the media (as much as I loathe them). No, these shootings were caused by parents who were not responsible and neglected the mental welfare of their children. True, some children do have genuine mental problem, but many do NOT, their problem is that they never learned respect, never were taught the value of human life, and thus felt as if they could do nothing wrong. No, banning guns is not the answer. This has already been shown. While I do not oppose measure to help keep guns out of the hands of criminals such as background checks, restrictions on gun shows, and safety features, these will not end the problem of gun violence. Strict punishment for *any* crime committed with a gun and, dare I say, a real family composed of the father and mother who both have believe in *some* religion that promotes the welfare of the human race and which can help teach a child values for life. This and only this will truly put an end to the violence.
It seems to me as though many people on this planet have forgottent the simple fact that we are all human -- that we are all of the same race of beings, inhabiting the same planet, which is flying around the same sun. We all depend on the sun to be here tomorrow when we awake. We depend on the fact that no foreign rock has hit us and brought our civilization to its knees...but yet many of us seem to forget these simple facts. It seems almost as if people believe money can make you more than human, but it can not -- money will not bring you back to life if you die, and that's the trick isn't it -- once you are dead it's over and nothing is left but your accomplishments...your life must speak for itself. What is money really? It is a medium for managing the finite resources of this planet which we all inhabit. The simple collection of this medium seems ridiculous in light of the fact that its only purpose is to manage resources. Money is an idea created by man to manage a world which does not care. Mr. Gates and Mr. Balmer, what is it that you really want out of life -- your life, your only life? Giving your riches away will not help you when the only thing left to speak for you are your accomplishments. People will know what your true goal was when they read of what you and your company tried to do to what will become the greatest creation of mankind, the Internet. Please consider in your handling of this and future affairs what is at stake, not the domination of your company, but the very dignity of the human race -- that one man in his quest for money was willing to try and smother the greatest medium of what ultimately sets Man apart from the animals -- the ability to speak, the ability to think, and the ability to do both with intelligence. I know that this will eventually run across the eyes of someone in your company, Mr. Gates, and I would plead with them to pass it on to you, not for to save the site many of us love from facing a damaging lawsuit, but to perhaps salvage what little dignity the human race has left. After centuries, millenia even, of war and hate...the quest for power over others, perhaps it is time we work together, to make the most of our short time on Earth, and to leave something for future generations that will be a marvel of ages to come. The Internet was built on openess and thrived on it, it is the greatest invention in the history of our race (OUR race, for you too Mr. Gates and Mr. Balmer are of the same race I am, and everyone else on this planet...that is something no amount of money can change) and I doubt that you would like your name to go down with a dark connotation as the men who tried to destroy it for profit...the quest for riches can eat a man's soul, or it can be overcome, and the latter are those who's lives will be remembered forever as the greatest men who ever walked the Earth.
You're right, DVD copying was made possible long before DeCSS.
One weekend I set off with the goal to transfer one of the DVDs that I owned to Video-CD (yes this is legal as it was for my personal use). It was reletively easy to do. With a quick google search I found oleg's site (which was shut down by the MPAA) and started creating the Video-CD. The only real problem was that it took 4 hours to encode 1 hour of DVD into Video-CD format. Basically, DeCSS was needless in the copying process other than keeping me from having to leave the DVD in my DVD-ROM drive while copying the movie.
The whole DeCSS case is a 'save face' for the MPAA, an attempt to keep themselves from looking dumb when they realized, "whoops, we forgot to protect this somehow". 2600 only got involved because of the magic word Hacker and its semantics making them an easy target for corporate greed.
I see your point that there haven't been many missions to asteroids, but three pictures is plent when they're all the same.
While progress and research into space is beneficial to the human race, I have to wonder what the purpose is of taking more pictures of asteroids. There already exist many pictures of asteroids, and I don't see what further study would yield. I'm just wondering if there aren't better ways to spend governement money on space. Even if there were valuable resources to be gotten from the asteroid, they would be far to expensive to remove. The article states nothing of how we can benefit from this study. While it is cool that we have the technology to do this, I just can't see the point. Wouldn't it be even more interesting if probes were sent to Europa in search of life? A Europa probe would expand our knowledge of our solar system and perhaps uncover clues to the development of life, the NEAR probe will send us pictures (which look much like the moon, big surpise there) of a dead rock hurtling through space. This certainly doesn't make NASA look like they are doing anything productive. Don't get me wrong, I love space and believe in space exploration, but aren't there better activites to engage in than this?
Perhaps someone should read the moderator rules. I was cleary replying to the last line of the comment stating that AOL owning space would be bad. In fact, if you don't believe me, I will quote here: Thought it would suck, admittedly, if AOL bought it out. And also, I quote from the moderator guidelines: If you can't be deep, be funny
I agree with your point on privatization of space. If no money is to be made then there will be no advancement, and NASA being a goverenment agency isn't out to make money. While there are many in NASA who would like to explore just for explorations sake (and I must say, some good advancements have come out of NASA), they must go to NASA to explore because they are the only place to go. Privatization of space would lead to greater interest as space started making more money and this would inspire more people to space as opposed to a corporate office.
I would go out and by this, but there is no evidence that it will improve my experience on the Internet. I refuse to buy either until they are fully optimized to work with my modem and immerse me in the Internet, accelerate java, and get instant downloads over a telephone line. Both cards are a definite no-buy without good solid marketing and a brain-washing ad campaign.
This would be a major leap if light based computers became feasable. Currently we are using electricity generated from fossil fuels who's energy originally came from the sun. Think about it, light comes to earth, plants absorb it, plants turn to oil, we burn oil for energy, and we use that energy for what...a light bulb. Too bad its not yet economical to wire houses with fiber optics for the lighting (and computing :-) ), with the light source being a collector mounted on the roof.
I think in a learning situation children should start with some sort of console and at least learn how to launch programs and work with files. My first experience with a console was the dos command line in which I learned how to type "cd c:\wolf3d" and then "dir" to make me look cool. Without that little bit of information, I would have never cared to go poking around with the computer.
Wow, those are awesome. Period.
NT started out as OS/2, jointly developed between IBM and MS. They split, MS took thier share of the code, IBM took thiers. I think (though I may be wrong) that OS/2 was intended as an end user desktop type thing with the option of being a server. So, NT was an accident and was originally intended as a dual purpose operating system. I'm not sure what this comment accomplished.
Does this mean that /. is no longer a couple of guys with a cool site. I sure hope not, even if there happen to be a couple thousand readers daily. Who says the media is never biased. Lets see, I know ABC isn't. That little commercial stating "tell me something good about guns in 10 seconds" sure isn't biased. Lets see, how about protection from people who got them illegaly and, oh yeah, that second ammendment thingy also. Sorry, I got a little off topic, but nobodies perfect, include CmdrTaco.