> For example, check out what www.google.com resolves to from different > countries or even at different times - depending on where you look it up from > and what network links are up, you will get a different set of IPs.
According to Google I spent the last two weeks of October jumping around between Japan, France, Spain, and Britain.
I never left Wisconsin. And no, I was not using Tor or a VPN or any such thing.
> Technically, anyone that buys equipment like that can't legally use it at all > because they don't have a valid license for the OS.
Not true in the USA. Copyright law explicitly grants the owner of a legitimate copy of any piece of software the right to use it: permission of the copyright owner is not required. When you purchase a piece of equipment with software installed on it you are buying a copy of the software (a copy in copyright law is a physical, tangible object: in this case some sort of nonvolatile storage such as a hard disk). Cisco might have a breach of contract case against the first owner, but subsequent owners are not parties to the contract.
Cisco's only out would be to prove that either the sold copy was not legitimate (not likely as they probably installed it themselves and then sold the machine) or that the the copy (and therefor the machine) was not sold but only rented. Even less likely.
> Does anyone know what the cross section of a lightning bolt looks like? I've > always wondered if forces akin to the skin-effect are trying to spread out > the electrons while it's constrained in a tube of plasma.
Other way around. The magnetic field generated by the current pinches it.
No. These observations were made with a telescope. That means that they know what direction the gamma rays came from. Cosmic rays don't come up out of the Earth.
> I've never heard of such deleterious effects of a bird dropping anything on > outdoor power station switchgear... what kind of vulnerable kit is this > anyways?
Ordinary outdoor power switchgear. This comes to us from the Register via something called "Popsci". Take that into consideration.
...for identifying people who are frightened of being identified as being frightened.
>...especially the fear in relation to criminal acts...
Bullshit. Someone whos is afraid that customs will catch him smuggling lizards will smell no different from someone who is afraid of flying (the lizards might, though).
> Yeah... Do they log IP address for their searches ?
I don't have the same IP number I had yesterday. There is no way to predict which one I will have tomorrow. My ISP is unlikely to be willing to share its logs with them as doing so could get them into serious legal trouble.
> Wouldn't it be illegal for them NOT to do it according to some stupid > antiterrorist law ?
Slashdot Mirror
> ...so how come nobody tests it?
Most likely because they don't have a big enough marketing budget.
They forcing you to use their servers?
> For example, check out what www.google.com resolves to from different
> countries or even at different times - depending on where you look it up from
> and what network links are up, you will get a different set of IPs.
According to Google I spent the last two weeks of October jumping around between Japan, France, Spain, and Britain.
I never left Wisconsin. And no, I was not using Tor or a VPN or any such thing.
> Technically, anyone that buys equipment like that can't legally use it at all
> because they don't have a valid license for the OS.
Not true in the USA. Copyright law explicitly grants the owner of a legitimate copy of any piece of software the right to use it: permission of the copyright owner is not required. When you purchase a piece of equipment with software installed on it you are buying a copy of the software (a copy in copyright law is a physical, tangible object: in this case some sort of nonvolatile storage such as a hard disk). Cisco might have a breach of contract case against the first owner, but subsequent owners are not parties to the contract.
Cisco's only out would be to prove that either the sold copy was not legitimate (not likely as they probably installed it themselves and then sold the machine) or that the the copy (and therefor the machine) was not sold but only rented. Even less likely.
In that positrons are subatomic particles.
> Does anyone know what the cross section of a lightning bolt looks like? I've
> always wondered if forces akin to the skin-effect are trying to spread out
> the electrons while it's constrained in a tube of plasma.
Other way around. The magnetic field generated by the current pinches it.
A positron "decays" by mutual annihilation with an electron. This results is the emission of two 511KeV photons.
> Did you forget about DeCSS?
No. The subject is interoperability. Nothing to do with DVDs.
No. These observations were made with a telescope. That means that they know what direction the gamma rays came from. Cosmic rays don't come up out of the Earth.
> You have the DMCA and copyright advocates on one side, who have made
> overriding vendor lock-in by creating interoperability illegal...
Wrong. The DMCA explicitly permits "reverse engineering" for the purpose of interoperability.
Fusion reactions seem more likely.
> The article isn't clear about what they say they've detected.
Nuclear fusion reactions in the lightning produce positrons which then react with electrons to produce the observed gamma rays.
> ISP have to keep logs and will share them on a court injunction.
You think that Google is going to get an injunction to force my ISP to give them their logs so that Google can track me for advertising purposes?
> Here in EU ISP says that international treaties with USA makes it mandatory
> for them to log IPs. I am a bit surprised.
Google is not an ISP. Web site operators are not required to log IP numbers (or anything else).
> Instances of women getting pregnant is rare
They are? I had the impression it happened several hundred thousand times a day.
..which makes it quite clear that nothing of import actually happened.
> ...anyone'd think they invented the internet or something...
Well, you might. The rest of us know that they invented the Web.
> I've never heard of such deleterious effects of a bird dropping anything on ... what kind of vulnerable kit is this
> outdoor power station switchgear
> anyways?
Ordinary outdoor power switchgear. This comes to us from the Register via something called "Popsci". Take that into consideration.
...for identifying people who are frightened of being identified as being frightened.
> ...especially the fear in relation to criminal acts...
Bullshit. Someone whos is afraid that customs will catch him smuggling lizards will smell no different from someone who is afraid of flying (the lizards might, though).
> Properly done, it's clear, that this should be opt-in at the creation of the
> account.
Creating the account is "opting in". It's voluntary. You don't have to do it. It won't happen unless you deliberately do it.
> Yeah... Do they log IP address for their searches ?
I don't have the same IP number I had yesterday. There is no way to predict which one I will have tomorrow. My ISP is unlikely to be willing to share its logs with them as doing so could get them into serious legal trouble.
> Wouldn't it be illegal for them NOT to do it according to some stupid
> antiterrorist law ?
Not in the USA.
How do you use Google without choosing to use Google?
> There are these new-fangled things called 'cookies', which get sent to Google > every time you view one of their ads...
Why would I do that?
> ...which are on roughly 99.99% of web pages these days unless you block
> access to those servers.
Blocked.
> What about Google ads(or any other tracking mechanism)...
I block all ads, all Google cookies, and most other cookies. I rarely permit Javascript or Flash to run.
> ...or when Google buys a company that you used to use instead of Google?
What company would that be?
> It's not as simple as not using their products, unfortunately.
It's as simple as understanding that nothing you put on a server run by someone with whom you do not have an NDA is secret.
Read the article.
What they really mean by "cutting off your Internet access" is "terminating your residential ISP account".