Secure images before sharing them -- Photoshop now offers complete support for Acrobat 5.0 security settings, allowing you to add passwords and other protections to Photoshop PDF files before sharing them with others online or adding them to Adobe PDF workflows.
That last thing we need is more "security" on content. This "feature" only serves as more nonsense from Adobe to prevent users from gaining access to content they otherwise ought to have. I'm sure it's nothing at all sturdy either... just a thing that Adobe, its parterns, and special interests can use to brandish the DMCA.
I have always loved Photoshop. It's still got a big one-up over Gimp and other free and non-free alternatives. However, I incist that products that include content protection must NOT gain any support from anyone. This is without regard to the other features in a package. I'm sure 99.9% of Photoshop users can do with version 7 that they can do with 5.5 just as easily... without giving up little chips of freedom.
If a content house wants to keep images/documents secure, there's plenty of software to do it (encrypted filesystems, secure OSes, etc.). Encrypting/password-protecting documents with proprietary software is not the answer and must not be acceptable.
Every hammer and every nail are made up of atoms. So why not just put the atoms in place a more delicate way. I suppose we'd need colliders to break iron atoms off existing nails (one at a time of course). Maybe we could get the guys over at IBM to let us use their scanning-tunneling electron microscope so we can see exactly where we're placing the atoms. I suppose that after about 5 years of work, we could not only drive a whole nail, but also have it bonded quite nicely to the materials being assembled.
Pfft. No. The hammer is an abstraction of the solution. The nail is the abstraction of the problem. We create these abstractions because it's easier to work with larger elements than all the atoms in a system. We *could* code everything in assembly, but why would we do that? We could NOT code everything in Pure Lisp, for example. That's a programming language. Can is solve every problem? Absolutely not. Maybe with some hacking...
What it comes down to, using the wrong tool for the wrong job may still result in a solution. BUT, it will almost always take longer. If I want to add two numbers, I should probably not think about multiplying the two and then dividing by another number such that it produces the result of the addition.
That's a good point, but I did not want to elaborate on the issue that far. I just wanted to keep to the stereotypical best uses for particular languages to make my point.
Your other comment "at least on current archs" is interesting. I have spent time day-dreaming about a system where Lisp is the "native" language. An architecture where recursion is somehow done naturally and, of course, as are lists. Though, I am not exactly sure how'd it be done or what advantages would exist...
What if Immersion wins this court case and receives full recognition for holding this patent? Does that mean all the kids who played their PS2's and Xboxes too long will be able to sue them for the damage to their wrists as well?
"When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail."
It's just plain silly to ask "what's the best programming language." That's like asking: "which is better, a hammer or a screw driver?" The reverse of the proverb is also true. If you have a diverse toolkit, and nothing but screws to drive, then everything in your kit looks like a screw driver.
It comes down to using the right tool for the right job. It's not a simple question to ask, mind you, but your question is too vague to be answered at all. If you are doing text processing, use Perl (ignoring the argument that Perl does everything, of course) or some type of stream editor. If you are writing an operating system, use C. If you are doing artificial intelligence, use Lisp or Prolog. If you're writing a document, use HT/SG/XML or LaTeX. Building a GUI app *really* fast? Use Tcl+Tk.
Let me rephrase your question with more specifics. "Which is the best programming language: Perl, C++, LaTeX, CSS, Japanese, or ASM?" That's nonsense (although everyone knows that Perl is better;).
It still baffles me how such stupid questions get posted as Ask Slashdot topics. The editors are genuinely retarded.
Because if something is posted as a story to the front page, then I expect it to have a certain degree of depth. I expect it to be somewhat profound. Not just some silly message board post. The reason I looked, with that in mind, is because matters regarding Palms interests me. My first impression was that I was going to read something about the integrity and quality of Palm hardware. Not, "hey look at this jackass did." Flamebait.
This is really pathetic. I am sorry, but I want to point this out that there are literally thousands of sites out there with pictures and stories of ruined hardware. Why is this one worthy of a spot on the front page? I'm sure a large majority of us have submitted what we considered valuable, informative, or interesting stories, only to get rejected less than 30 seconds after submission.
Now, here's a guy who was a total numbnut who got his Palm fried.
Big deal.
From now on, if you want to get your story posted on/.'s front page, all you have to do is take an axe to some hardware, photograph it, and be like "whoops, I was chopping wood when my PC accidently slid under the blade."
Wake up, editors.
There's something else...
on
Heart of the Net
·
· Score: 5, Funny
Can we ALSO please stop comparing the Net to orgasm. Seriously. Everybody seems to have this hard-on for the Net and the technological utopia it will bring us. Teslatug is right. It's MEDIUM OF COMMUNICATION. It's not Christ. It's a tool for accomplishing a variety of tasks. What we do with it in the next 50 years will be a big deal. But anyway you slice it, the Net is a means to an ends.
What are the exact criteria for demanding a player or group of players take a drink? Does everyone take a drink if your search produces pr0n? Does a person making a wrong guess take a drink? Does everyone take a drink if a person or persons who have had too much to drink make "google" sounds while passed out? Give us some details!
Here's a cool use. Ever find the feds knocking at your door with a search warrant? Don't want them to get at your hard drive? No problem! In Case of FBI Raid: BREAK GLASS. Then trash the platters! Simple as that! Hope you didn't have hard copy lying around.;)
I was wondering along these lines too. Either the editors changed the value to eliminate some publicity or Slashdot's database setup is so fucked... well, I think you're right. There is probably a rollover taking place here. But I think I'd much rather blame the editors.:)
I encourage all who experience this phenomenon to continuously download and install the latest versions of all software so that the next version will become immediately available. Please note that the slower the connection you use, the more likely you'll successfully push out new versions. Imagine how you could help in accellerating open source development! Keep the developers on their toes in their quest to keep your software obsolete!
Why do you differentiate between our ability to jack a computer into our brains, and a chimps ability to use a saliva-coated stick to get more termites?
My theory is that human beings have evolved to a point where our purpose is to create new technologies. It is through these technologies that we then evolve by ways of integration and extention of our abilities. Let me elaborate.
Human existence has been saturated with invention. We invent technologies for the purpose of accomplishing various tasks (as some other animals have evolved to do). From the very first drum to the human genome project, we have been dedicated to creating things to enhance our lives.
As technology increases, we will slowly integrate it more and more with ourselves. We've already begun to witness this trend. Computers, once placed in huge rooms are now held in our back pockets. Now we're looking towards wearable computers and systems that act as personal assistants. Our media looks to a future where technology is actually a part of a human being. Brain jacks? Cybernetic enhancements? These things are shown with cons, obviously, but also with pros (brain augmentation in GitS, mass storage in Johny Mnemonic, instantenous learning in the Matrix, etc...).
In light of this, I would not say that human evolution has ceased. On the contrary, I would say it is rapidly increasing. We've been slowly abandoning biological evolution in favor of something that we can control and manipulate. We have been evolving through our technology and this pace will only increase. Probably in a manor very similar to Clarke's vision in the 2001-3001 series (eventually evolving our minds away from physical bodies) and probably not unlike the Borg (note we already replace human parts with mechanical parts - hips, hearts...). I remember even a story posted on/. about 2 years ago of a psychologist who believed we would eventually become fully mental beings, placing our bodies in containers that only supported life functions as a back up.
Really, I still do not understand what the point of patch-release announcements are on/.! This what freshmeat.net is for. This is not major news - this is trivial for everyone except those who are experimenting with the new kernel or developing for it. That's a very tiny subset of the/. population. If you're having a slow night, try posting one of the dozens if not hundreds of valuable stories that are rejected every day!
This is just the next logical step in form of a set of more powerful technologies (some of which have been around for a while... QuickTime is traditionally solid). The Macintosh has always been a terrific game development platform (well, except in the really early days when it only had black and white;). The software and the hardware are remarkably consistent and homogenous respectively. How could develops expect MacOS X to be any different? Developing games for the Mac is almost as smooth as developing games for a console.
From a law enforcement point of view, a few thousand bucks on eBay is small potatoes. There's all sorts of scammers who are going around selling roofing jobs to senile old ladys for tens of thousands of dollars or running basement call-centers to phonescam thousands of people.
First of all, it's not a few thousand dollars, period. It's a few thousand dollars per person. That's tens of thousands (1500$-4000$ x 60) of dollars at stake. Another point is what if an issurrance company was conned out of just a few thousand bux? It'd become a HUGE issue then. The FBI would go ape shit all over it. Heads roll in those cases. Here we've got a group of people who just want justice and will get it no other way than to deal with the matter themselves... and they will be punished for doing what ought to be rightfully done.
Let's not forget that in doing this, they save tax dollars by doing the investigation on their own time. Then they hand the information over to law enforcement who sends thugs to handcuff the guy and his girl.
You could start a web-based community of geeks which sit around all day discussing nerdy topics while the cash flows in from ad banners. After it gets really big, you spend yourself doing more interesting things, occassionally breaking yourself away from your anime tenticle rape to get involved with the community by bitchsla-
Well of course it is better to contact law enforcement agencies! They really know how to get the job done!
Of course that's all bullshit. I wish the article had elaborated on legal action the AZ DA might take against the vigilantes. That will probably pan out to a prosecution. Ever notice how law enforcement will frequently go after people for criminal charges when they were victimized, but not really make an effort towards the original perpetrators?
Look at this situation. These people were told to fill out some forms, and wait 30 days to complain to eBay and maybe get about 200$ (a fraction of what all of them were scammed). Law enforcement agents simply do not know how to handle cybercrime. They would have sat on their asses, wondering how they were going to find this guy who committed fraud... and after a short while of not making any progress, move it off to the back burner.
Now of course, they have a big, huge, easy to nail target in the form of this group of people demanding justice. It's nonsense.
I think it's silly that provisions aren't in place that allow people to non-violently pursue people who screw them over. This was not always something that made sense in the "real world" because people address people face to face. They make deals with handshakes, and if someone is screwed over IRL, they probably had some physical interaction.
The Internet however, a place where a great deal of anonyminity may be gained, where law enforcement is apathetic towards real criminals, people should be allowed to take a few steps over the line. So long as there is a clear motive as to why they're digging on the wire that multiple people can attest to. Why shouldn't this group's behavior be legal?
I haven't read the review yet. But... Due to the fact the editor didn't put a biased, suggestive opinion at the end of story post... Well, I figured that must mean it's not too good since it doesn't have the typical Slashdot HURRAH! Saved some time.
Slashdot Mirror
I have always loved Photoshop. It's still got a big one-up over Gimp and other free and non-free alternatives. However, I incist that products that include content protection must NOT gain any support from anyone. This is without regard to the other features in a package. I'm sure 99.9% of Photoshop users can do with version 7 that they can do with 5.5 just as easily... without giving up little chips of freedom.
If a content house wants to keep images/documents secure, there's plenty of software to do it (encrypted filesystems, secure OSes, etc.). Encrypting/password-protecting documents with proprietary software is not the answer and must not be acceptable.
He is not a troll... this needs moderated to -1, retard, stupid, or idiot.
KDE/GNOME blows ass. Any fuckwads using KDE/GNOME should switch over to GNOME/KDE. Why do they even bother developing KDE/GNOME anymore anyway?
"Obviously since SF is owned by the same parent company as Slashdot, I'm biased and corrupt and you should ignore my opinions on the subject"
At last, CmdrTaco finally admits he has a problem!
But at least he's given us good advice on how to deal with it.
Every hammer and every nail are made up of atoms. So why not just put the atoms in place a more delicate way. I suppose we'd need colliders to break iron atoms off existing nails (one at a time of course). Maybe we could get the guys over at IBM to let us use their scanning-tunneling electron microscope so we can see exactly where we're placing the atoms. I suppose that after about 5 years of work, we could not only drive a whole nail, but also have it bonded quite nicely to the materials being assembled.
Pfft. No. The hammer is an abstraction of the solution. The nail is the abstraction of the problem. We create these abstractions because it's easier to work with larger elements than all the atoms in a system. We *could* code everything in assembly, but why would we do that? We could NOT code everything in Pure Lisp, for example. That's a programming language. Can is solve every problem? Absolutely not. Maybe with some hacking...
What it comes down to, using the wrong tool for the wrong job may still result in a solution. BUT, it will almost always take longer. If I want to add two numbers, I should probably not think about multiplying the two and then dividing by another number such that it produces the result of the addition.
That's a good point, but I did not want to elaborate on the issue that far. I just wanted to keep to the stereotypical best uses for particular languages to make my point.
Your other comment "at least on current archs" is interesting. I have spent time day-dreaming about a system where Lisp is the "native" language. An architecture where recursion is somehow done naturally and, of course, as are lists. Though, I am not exactly sure how'd it be done or what advantages would exist...
What if Immersion wins this court case and receives full recognition for holding this patent? Does that mean all the kids who played their PS2's and Xboxes too long will be able to sue them for the damage to their wrists as well?
"When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail."
;).
It's just plain silly to ask "what's the best programming language." That's like asking: "which is better, a hammer or a screw driver?" The reverse of the proverb is also true. If you have a diverse toolkit, and nothing but screws to drive, then everything in your kit looks like a screw driver.
It comes down to using the right tool for the right job. It's not a simple question to ask, mind you, but your question is too vague to be answered at all. If you are doing text processing, use Perl (ignoring the argument that Perl does everything, of course) or some type of stream editor. If you are writing an operating system, use C. If you are doing artificial intelligence, use Lisp or Prolog. If you're writing a document, use HT/SG/XML or LaTeX. Building a GUI app *really* fast? Use Tcl+Tk.
Let me rephrase your question with more specifics. "Which is the best programming language: Perl, C++, LaTeX, CSS, Japanese, or ASM?" That's nonsense (although everyone knows that Perl is better
It still baffles me how such stupid questions get posted as Ask Slashdot topics. The editors are genuinely retarded.
Because if something is posted as a story to the front page, then I expect it to have a certain degree of depth. I expect it to be somewhat profound. Not just some silly message board post. The reason I looked, with that in mind, is because matters regarding Palms interests me. My first impression was that I was going to read something about the integrity and quality of Palm hardware. Not, "hey look at this jackass did." Flamebait.
This is really pathetic. I am sorry, but I want to point this out that there are literally thousands of sites out there with pictures and stories of ruined hardware. Why is this one worthy of a spot on the front page? I'm sure a large majority of us have submitted what we considered valuable, informative, or interesting stories, only to get rejected less than 30 seconds after submission.
/.'s front page, all you have to do is take an axe to some hardware, photograph it, and be like "whoops, I was chopping wood when my PC accidently slid under the blade."
Now, here's a guy who was a total numbnut who got his Palm fried.
Big deal.
From now on, if you want to get your story posted on
Wake up, editors.
Can we ALSO please stop comparing the Net to orgasm. Seriously. Everybody seems to have this hard-on for the Net and the technological utopia it will bring us. Teslatug is right. It's MEDIUM OF COMMUNICATION. It's not Christ. It's a tool for accomplishing a variety of tasks. What we do with it in the next 50 years will be a big deal. But anyway you slice it, the Net is a means to an ends.
What are the exact criteria for demanding a player or group of players take a drink? Does everyone take a drink if your search produces pr0n? Does a person making a wrong guess take a drink? Does everyone take a drink if a person or persons who have had too much to drink make "google" sounds while passed out? Give us some details!
Here's a cool use. Ever find the feds knocking at your door with a search warrant? Don't want them to get at your hard drive? No problem! In Case of FBI Raid: BREAK GLASS. Then trash the platters! Simple as that! Hope you didn't have hard copy lying around. ;)
I was wondering along these lines too. Either the editors changed the value to eliminate some publicity or Slashdot's database setup is so fucked... well, I think you're right. There is probably a rollover taking place here. But I think I'd much rather blame the editors. :)
I encourage all who experience this phenomenon to continuously download and install the latest versions of all software so that the next version will become immediately available. Please note that the slower the connection you use, the more likely you'll successfully push out new versions. Imagine how you could help in accellerating open source development! Keep the developers on their toes in their quest to keep your software obsolete!
Why do you differentiate between our ability to jack a computer into our brains, and a chimps ability to use a saliva-coated stick to get more termites?
I don't.
My theory is that human beings have evolved to a point where our purpose is to create new technologies. It is through these technologies that we then evolve by ways of integration and extention of our abilities. Let me elaborate.
/. about 2 years ago of a psychologist who believed we would eventually become fully mental beings, placing our bodies in containers that only supported life functions as a back up.
Human existence has been saturated with invention. We invent technologies for the purpose of accomplishing various tasks (as some other animals have evolved to do). From the very first drum to the human genome project, we have been dedicated to creating things to enhance our lives.
As technology increases, we will slowly integrate it more and more with ourselves. We've already begun to witness this trend. Computers, once placed in huge rooms are now held in our back pockets. Now we're looking towards wearable computers and systems that act as personal assistants. Our media looks to a future where technology is actually a part of a human being. Brain jacks? Cybernetic enhancements? These things are shown with cons, obviously, but also with pros (brain augmentation in GitS, mass storage in Johny Mnemonic, instantenous learning in the Matrix, etc...).
In light of this, I would not say that human evolution has ceased. On the contrary, I would say it is rapidly increasing. We've been slowly abandoning biological evolution in favor of something that we can control and manipulate. We have been evolving through our technology and this pace will only increase. Probably in a manor very similar to Clarke's vision in the 2001-3001 series (eventually evolving our minds away from physical bodies) and probably not unlike the Borg (note we already replace human parts with mechanical parts - hips, hearts...). I remember even a story posted on
Thoughts? Ideas? Disagreements?
Really, I still do not understand what the point of patch-release announcements are on /.! This what freshmeat.net is for. This is not major news - this is trivial for everyone except those who are experimenting with the new kernel or developing for it. That's a very tiny subset of the /. population. If you're having a slow night, try posting one of the dozens if not hundreds of valuable stories that are rejected every day!
This is just the next logical step in form of a set of more powerful technologies (some of which have been around for a while... QuickTime is traditionally solid). The Macintosh has always been a terrific game development platform (well, except in the really early days when it only had black and white ;). The software and the hardware are remarkably consistent and homogenous respectively. How could develops expect MacOS X to be any different? Developing games for the Mac is almost as smooth as developing games for a console.
It was supposed to be funny. Not accurrate. :)
From a law enforcement point of view, a few thousand bucks on eBay is small potatoes. There's all sorts of scammers who are going around selling roofing jobs to senile old ladys for tens of thousands of dollars or running basement call-centers to phonescam thousands of people.
First of all, it's not a few thousand dollars, period. It's a few thousand dollars per person. That's tens of thousands (1500$-4000$ x 60) of dollars at stake. Another point is what if an issurrance company was conned out of just a few thousand bux? It'd become a HUGE issue then. The FBI would go ape shit all over it. Heads roll in those cases. Here we've got a group of people who just want justice and will get it no other way than to deal with the matter themselves... and they will be punished for doing what ought to be rightfully done.
Let's not forget that in doing this, they save tax dollars by doing the investigation on their own time. Then they hand the information over to law enforcement who sends thugs to handcuff the guy and his girl.
You could start a web-based community of geeks which sit around all day discussing nerdy topics while the cash flows in from ad banners. After it gets really big, you spend yourself doing more interesting things, occassionally breaking yourself away from your anime tenticle rape to get involved with the community by bitchsla-
Wait a minute...
Shit. Nevermind.
Well of course it is better to contact law enforcement agencies! They really know how to get the job done!
Of course that's all bullshit. I wish the article had elaborated on legal action the AZ DA might take against the vigilantes. That will probably pan out to a prosecution. Ever notice how law enforcement will frequently go after people for criminal charges when they were victimized, but not really make an effort towards the original perpetrators?
Look at this situation. These people were told to fill out some forms, and wait 30 days to complain to eBay and maybe get about 200$ (a fraction of what all of them were scammed). Law enforcement agents simply do not know how to handle cybercrime. They would have sat on their asses, wondering how they were going to find this guy who committed fraud... and after a short while of not making any progress, move it off to the back burner.
Now of course, they have a big, huge, easy to nail target in the form of this group of people demanding justice. It's nonsense.
I think it's silly that provisions aren't in place that allow people to non-violently pursue people who screw them over. This was not always something that made sense in the "real world" because people address people face to face. They make deals with handshakes, and if someone is screwed over IRL, they probably had some physical interaction.
The Internet however, a place where a great deal of anonyminity may be gained, where law enforcement is apathetic towards real criminals, people should be allowed to take a few steps over the line. So long as there is a clear motive as to why they're digging on the wire that multiple people can attest to. Why shouldn't this group's behavior be legal?
...will never, ever have sex.
"Hey baby, come up to my bed room and see my, uh, Lego set."
I haven't read the review yet. But... Due to the fact the editor didn't put a biased, suggestive opinion at the end of story post... Well, I figured that must mean it's not too good since it doesn't have the typical Slashdot HURRAH! Saved some time.