Let's see now, how many 5 1/4" floppies do I have in my closet? How can I read them without a 5 1/4" floppy drive? And what about that RLL encoded 30Mb hard disk with no working controller? And these are only 15 years old or so and already I can't read them.
Regular books are in it for the long haul.
E-anything is bound to be obsolete and inaccessible in a ridiculously short time. Well, publshers might even prefer it that way. But, for things which are to last a long time, electronic media is generall not hte way to go.
(albeit CDs seem to last a long time, and devices to play them don't seem to be disappearing.)
I've dealt with a well-known large aerospace company. Do you know how they long-term archive their design data? Microfilm. Because in 30 years, it will be relatively easy to get back. A microfilm viewer would still be easy to build, if there are none around. Put it on microfilm, and forget about it (OK, you think about it a little once in a while: "do we still have viewers and printers?").
They don't want to archive data in some application format, because in 30 years, they would have had to do constant maintenance on their archive, to ensure they could get the data back ("is Adobe Acrobat Reader 75.3 able to read our old pdf files?" "Nope." "Data migration!"). That is not the point of a long-term archive. You put it away, and if you need it in 15 years, you go over and get it.
There's a certain tactile sensation to a physical book. The turning of the pages (and the corresponding rustle), the physical weight (which to some extent implies the weight of the ideas. I doubt that this can be done electronically. Not to mention that you don't have to boot up a book to read it....
I have two consumerist rushes I experience. One is ripping shrink wrap off of something new and cool (that's rare, because I don't buy boxed software any more, and I haven't bought many CDs in a long time), and the other is my first full leafing through a book I've just bought (not like the superficial leafing in the bookstore). Maybe if they shrink-wrapped e-books I'd be OK, but I like the diversity of consumerist rush experiences I already have. Don't take that away from me.
Need to Network all the Chairs
on
License to Sit
·
· Score: 1
This is inspired by the fun we have popping up and quickly killing xclock (and other mischief) on our neighbors' X windows sessions; we're using exceed, and the default is xhost+ .
Can the device be hacked to make the spikes deploy and retract on demand?
Can we have a variant of xkill or kill?
(kill -9 deploys a 9-inch nail)
Is there a Wake-On-Lan feature to wake up dozing neighbors?
Re:A great idea for classes...
on
License to Sit
·
· Score: 1
Now if only Universities could buy these things to wake me up during those long boring lectures... I'd buy a blanket license, then!
I'd carry a sandbag with me to place on the seat first. Now _every_ class is a sandbag class.
Brilliant. And have you ever considered how much productivity is GAINED by having VBScript embeeded in email? My bet is that it would outweigh these silly 'viruses'.
You bet; I wrote a VB script that auto answers: "I have sent out some e-mails, and I am waiting for information." Keeps everybody off my back, and lets me get through all Slashdot threads. Now _there's_ a productivity tool!
As a network administrator for a government agency, here's my take. I support 125 computers. I make a point to check my mail and the net several times daily to make sure the latest virus is (or isn't) out there. I have to spend time educating and re-educating 230 users about opening attachments.
Goodness gracious, we have a virus loose in our office right _now_. (Not a big deal, we're mostly software and engineer geeks only a few, so it's under control). One fellow went over to the secretary's desk and put a note on her monitor not to open "AnnaKornoukova.jpg.vbs". First thing she does: she opens it!
I know an FBI special agent very well. I talked to him about Carnivore a while back, and he genuinely seemed to be puzzled at my concerns.
I suspect many of the rank and file law enforcement support things like Carnivore just because it makes their job easier. They know they would not abuse the system. And if they did bend the rules a bit, it would be only to catch someone who was really, really bad....
And somewhere in the FBI, distributed randomly, are people for whom the temptation of this new power would be irresistable. They are corrupt, and power would magnify their corruption and the amount of damage they could do. Lord Acton's proverb, "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely", is modifiable (IMO) to "Power entices the corrupt, and absolute power draws many corrupt men, whose capacity to harm is proportional to the amount of power they have." We have all dealt with the petty tyrants in various government bureacracies, who make life hard just because they can.
How long before a copy of Carnivore leaks and gets mirrored for public consumption?
I'd say it's unlikely. I'm sure the code is classified, and breaches of security are treated very seriously. Plus the folks involved have gone through extensive security checks and tend to believe in the 'mission.' It's not impossible (witness the Pentagon Papers), but the probability of finding a rogue programmer willing to risk prison to leak the code is low, IMO.
Hey, the programmer's are all just hard-working, punctual, meticulous engineers, the guy two doors down who keeps his yard well-trimmed. And two doors down from that, is a guy who, under the right circumstances, would join the secret police and relentlessly grill and torture interogees (is that a real word?) and come home after work and play with his children.
>Depending on where you go in the country a hogie is a grinder is a submarine. But it is all still lunch!(A very good lunch too - ham and Swiss- sooo goood!) Just because the name changes doesnt mean the actual substance changes.
This reminds me of a riddle Lincoln would ask:
Q: If you call a tail a leg, how many legs does a dog have?
A: Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg.
I guess I was flying out there in some ideal world. You are right; inalienable rights _shouldn't_ be taken, but often are. That's why one of the inalienable rights is self-defense. You don't _have_ to exercise it, but you are justified if you do. And if you don't, you haven't given up that right; you can pick it up any time, if you have the means and the will.
>That you have a right to free speech doesn't mean you can't bargain it away.
Any inalienable right cannot be bargained away. They are part of the nature of things (dare I say "God-given"?), and it's not for you to negotiate them away for yourself or others. Of course, that doesn't mean "saying anything, anytime" is an inalienable right...
When they impelment this, how will we legally experience the pure rush of acceleration? Of blowing the doors off of some slow-driving weenie? Laughing crazily into the wind?
>>I think that having to punch your car above the legal speed limit to avoid a collision is a dicey prospect at best. If you're already in a risky situation, adding more speed to the mix would probably hurt at least as often as it helped. Why not learn to reflexively hit the brakes, instead?
What about for motorcycles? will they try to implement it there? I have some motorcyclist friends (Hell's Angels, all of them, so don't even try to mod me down!). They say a motorcycle's quick acceleration is it's best defense--they can get out of trouble in a _hurry_. If they don't they're dead. (These friends are still alive, BTW).
I say crank up the speed limit to 100+ mph, and all the weenie incompetents will finally be too scared to go out there. As it is now, at 55mph they are a threat--each car is a self contained terrorist organisation!
>my question is: in a situation like this, where pretty much everyone (IMHO) is against something like this--how can they find engineers to design something like that? Is everyone so immoral that they will sell out the freedom of a country for a decent sum of cash?
>
>
Yup. I recall reading about one of the old Nazis who had been extradited to Israel for trial for war crimes. A commentator (famous, but his name escapes me...) wrote how he looked at him, and saw himself. Not because he was such a horrible man himself, but because the Nazi had once been an average guy (let's not get into defining what average is, ok?) who had done these horrible things. What scared the commentator was that he knew that, given the right circumstances, he might do the same.
So yeah, there are lots of engineers who do because they can, not because they should. "Should we?" is not often asked. "Can we?" is, and when the answer is "yes" everyone breathlessly forges ahead.
Re:Let your feet do the walking ...
on
Juno And Privacy
·
· Score: 1
I guess the absurdity of forced "volunteer" work escaped you...it's just a form of slavery.
Re:Where are the free (as in speech) ISPs?
on
Juno And Privacy
·
· Score: 1
> don't know any major national ISP that allows the above. You can usually get local access if you know someone at an ISP, but you know that that friend leaving is likely to be the end of that option. I came across one DSL operator that offers all of the above and they don't operate in my area.
How about a bunch of us/.-ers doing this? Surely this is an untapped goldmine! Maybe we could do an IPO soon? Surely there are lots of investors whom we could show that our proposal is an unstoppable money maker!
Better yet, let's get the government to make it happen. Why not get the government to do the dirty work (coercive taxes) of funding to let us do our noble task of wiring the world to the internet. That will vastly improve everyone's life, they can order water and food online using PayPal! (or a gov't version of PayPal, where they get welfare credits) And why should some redneck spend that money going bowling. What a loser sport! Better they "voluntarily" pay that money to my noble cause.
(OK, sorry for the ranting, why are so many people so ignorant of the market, is that why we have so many socialists and Marxists? For a real education in economics, go to http://www.mises.org)
BTW, the reason the service a few of us want (run services, big bandwidth [not related to big bands]) is so expensive is that it's a pain for companies to do that nationally for a small market. You _can_ get this (T1+), but you pay the bucks. You have to play to the market to make money, and we are a pitiable minority.
Re:Spelling the end of free inernet access?
on
Juno And Privacy
·
· Score: 1
>One by one, we have watched free ISP services dry up and blow away. Now we are getting onerous usage agreements. Folks, I expect that this is the death knell for the free ISP.
>
The market works by the free exchange of goods and services, that are mutually beneficial. If one side doesn't like their part of the deal, they don't make it. The free ISP model is: the ISP gives you access and service; you give something. Supposedly, both parties benefit. Too bad for the ISPs, what they ask from users, the users have hated to give, or what they got from users wasn't worth anything. The only way to survive is to ask users to give something that's worth something to somebody, and the users don't hate giving it.
1) eyeballs looking at seizure-inducing banner ads? Didn't work, users hate it and it's not worth squat.
2) CPU cycles for distributed computation? I don't think it will work, I hate the idea of dialups in the middle of the night and who knows what info they're collecting?
What would you give that's worth something to the ISP, that most people don't hate to give? I'll tell you what: a small amount of cash (~$20/month), and that model is what is working, with ISPs you pay for.
Re:Let your feet do the walking ...
on
Juno And Privacy
·
· Score: 1
>There ought to be a law!! Get the FCC or someone to rule that ANY ISP must support ANY operating system, AND at the SAME price. (The one I use now has a much lower priced version than what I'm paying, but it's another damn Windoze-only ad-based version!)
>
So you say they ought to provide something for nothing, by law, eh?
Yeah, and they ought to pass a law that everyone should do 10+ hours of volunteer work at a local charity. Think of the good _that_ would do!
>The problem with this is not the initial application, but how it progresses.
We lose our rights by a thousand little slices. Fingerprinting was only for criminals, now we get fingerprinted for drivers licenses. Metal detectors were only for airports and high schools that had riots. Now, it's for any government building.
Absolutely; some people say, "we are still free." But what about the rate of change towards enslavement to the state? (I'm at a loss to describe the opposite of liberty any other way, at this late hour).
In fact, in China, our new demon/enemy du jour, their progress is _towards_ liberty. They're not there at all in many ways, but the progress over time will add up.
You must not live in the USA, for I summarized the level and quality of communication that goes on here now. You wouldn't believe how bad it's become here.
>You know, a cool history prof of mine said that one of the signs of a Rennaissance is a basic concern w/ language: the actual meaning and use of words, etc.
Wow, between you and I, it's kinda like, you know, really cool!
Slashdot Mirror
Regular books are in it for the long haul.
E-anything is bound to be obsolete and inaccessible in a ridiculously short time. Well, publshers might even prefer it that way. But, for things which are to last a long time, electronic media is generall not hte way to go.
(albeit CDs seem to last a long time, and devices to play them don't seem to be disappearing.)
I've dealt with a well-known large aerospace company. Do you know how they long-term archive their design data? Microfilm. Because in 30 years, it will be relatively easy to get back. A microfilm viewer would still be easy to build, if there are none around. Put it on microfilm, and forget about it (OK, you think about it a little once in a while: "do we still have viewers and printers?").
They don't want to archive data in some application format, because in 30 years, they would have had to do constant maintenance on their archive, to ensure they could get the data back ("is Adobe Acrobat Reader 75.3 able to read our old pdf files?" "Nope." "Data migration!"). That is not the point of a long-term archive. You put it away, and if you need it in 15 years, you go over and get it.
I have two consumerist rushes I experience. One is ripping shrink wrap off of something new and cool (that's rare, because I don't buy boxed software any more, and I haven't bought many CDs in a long time), and the other is my first full leafing through a book I've just bought (not like the superficial leafing in the bookstore). Maybe if they shrink-wrapped e-books I'd be OK, but I like the diversity of consumerist rush experiences I already have. Don't take that away from me.
This is inspired by the fun we have popping up and quickly killing xclock (and other mischief) on our neighbors' X windows sessions; we're using exceed, and the default is xhost+ .
Can the device be hacked to make the spikes deploy and retract on demand?
Can we have a variant of xkill or kill?
(kill -9 deploys a 9-inch nail)
Is there a Wake-On-Lan feature to wake up dozing neighbors?
I'd carry a sandbag with me to place on the seat first. Now _every_ class is a sandbag class.
How is this offtopic? Windows is a graphical shell on a boot virus.
You bet; I wrote a VB script that auto answers: "I have sent out some e-mails, and I am waiting for information." Keeps everybody off my back, and lets me get through all Slashdot threads. Now _there's_ a productivity tool!
As a network administrator for a government agency, here's my take. I support 125 computers. I make a point to check my mail and the net several times daily to make sure the latest virus is (or isn't) out there. I have to spend time educating and re-educating 230 users about opening attachments.
Goodness gracious, we have a virus loose in our office right _now_. (Not a big deal, we're mostly software and engineer geeks only a few, so it's under control). One fellow went over to the secretary's desk and put a note on her monitor not to open "AnnaKornoukova.jpg.vbs". First thing she does: she opens it!
I suspect many of the rank and file law enforcement support things like Carnivore just because it makes their job easier. They know they would not abuse the system. And if they did bend the rules a bit, it would be only to catch someone who was really, really bad....
And somewhere in the FBI, distributed randomly, are people for whom the temptation of this new power would be irresistable. They are corrupt, and power would magnify their corruption and the amount of damage they could do. Lord Acton's proverb, "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely", is modifiable (IMO) to "Power entices the corrupt, and absolute power draws many corrupt men, whose capacity to harm is proportional to the amount of power they have." We have all dealt with the petty tyrants in various government bureacracies, who make life hard just because they can.
I'd say it's unlikely. I'm sure the code is classified, and breaches of security are treated very seriously. Plus the folks involved have gone through extensive security checks and tend to believe in the 'mission.' It's not impossible (witness the Pentagon Papers), but the probability of finding a rogue programmer willing to risk prison to leak the code is low, IMO.
Hey, the programmer's are all just hard-working, punctual, meticulous engineers, the guy two doors down who keeps his yard well-trimmed. And two doors down from that, is a guy who, under the right circumstances, would join the secret police and relentlessly grill and torture interogees (is that a real word?) and come home after work and play with his children.
Heck, any of us might be that way.
P-38: 1938 purge in the USSR, aka The Great Terror; causing great enthusiam from confused WWII aviation buffs.
>Depending on where you go in the country a hogie is a grinder is a submarine. But it is all still lunch!(A very good lunch too - ham and Swiss- sooo goood!) Just because the name changes doesnt mean the actual substance changes.
This reminds me of a riddle Lincoln would ask:
Q: If you call a tail a leg, how many legs does a dog have?
A: Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg.
>Holy Crap!
>I hadn't even noticed that!
>
>That has to be the single scariest thing I've
>seen all day.
>
>Ho-hum.
You are obviously filtering out JonKatz articles; a JonKatz article is akin to Durin's Bane.
I guess I was flying out there in some ideal world. You are right; inalienable rights _shouldn't_ be taken, but often are. That's why one of the inalienable rights is self-defense. You don't _have_ to exercise it, but you are justified if you do. And if you don't, you haven't given up that right; you can pick it up any time, if you have the means and the will.
>That you have a right to free speech doesn't mean you can't bargain it away.
Any inalienable right cannot be bargained away. They are part of the nature of things (dare I say "God-given"?), and it's not for you to negotiate them away for yourself or others. Of course, that doesn't mean "saying anything, anytime" is an inalienable right...
When they impelment this, how will we legally experience the pure rush of acceleration? Of blowing the doors off of some slow-driving weenie? Laughing crazily into the wind?
>>I think that having to punch your car above the legal speed limit to avoid a collision is a dicey prospect at best. If you're already in a risky situation, adding more speed to the mix would probably hurt at least as often as it helped. Why not learn to reflexively hit the brakes, instead?
What about for motorcycles? will they try to implement it there? I have some motorcyclist friends (Hell's Angels, all of them, so don't even try to mod me down!). They say a motorcycle's quick acceleration is it's best defense--they can get out of trouble in a _hurry_. If they don't they're dead. (These friends are still alive, BTW).
I say crank up the speed limit to 100+ mph, and all the weenie incompetents will finally be too scared to go out there. As it is now, at 55mph they are a threat--each car is a self contained terrorist organisation!
>my question is: in a situation like this, where pretty much everyone (IMHO) is against something like this--how can they find engineers to design something like that? Is everyone so immoral that they will sell out the freedom of a country for a decent sum of cash?
>
>
Yup. I recall reading about one of the old Nazis who had been extradited to Israel for trial for war crimes. A commentator (famous, but his name escapes me...) wrote how he looked at him, and saw himself. Not because he was such a horrible man himself, but because the Nazi had once been an average guy (let's not get into defining what average is, ok?) who had done these horrible things. What scared the commentator was that he knew that, given the right circumstances, he might do the same.
So yeah, there are lots of engineers who do because they can, not because they should. "Should we?" is not often asked. "Can we?" is, and when the answer is "yes" everyone breathlessly forges ahead.
I guess the absurdity of forced "volunteer" work escaped you...it's just a form of slavery.
> don't know any major national ISP that allows the above. You can usually get local access if you know someone at an ISP, but you know that that friend leaving is likely to be the end of that option. I came across one DSL operator that offers all of the above and they don't operate in my area.
/.-ers doing this? Surely this is an untapped goldmine! Maybe we could do an IPO soon? Surely there are lots of investors whom we could show that our proposal is an unstoppable money maker!
How about a bunch of us
Better yet, let's get the government to make it happen. Why not get the government to do the dirty work (coercive taxes) of funding to let us do our noble task of wiring the world to the internet. That will vastly improve everyone's life, they can order water and food online using PayPal! (or a gov't version of PayPal, where they get welfare credits) And why should some redneck spend that money going bowling. What a loser sport! Better they "voluntarily" pay that money to my noble cause.
(OK, sorry for the ranting, why are so many people so ignorant of the market, is that why we have so many socialists and Marxists? For a real education in economics, go to http://www.mises.org)
BTW, the reason the service a few of us want (run services, big bandwidth [not related to big bands]) is so expensive is that it's a pain for companies to do that nationally for a small market. You _can_ get this (T1+), but you pay the bucks. You have to play to the market to make money, and we are a pitiable minority.
>One by one, we have watched free ISP services dry up and blow away. Now we are getting onerous usage agreements. Folks, I expect that this is the death knell for the free ISP.
>
The market works by the free exchange of goods and services, that are mutually beneficial. If one side doesn't like their part of the deal, they don't make it. The free ISP model is: the ISP gives you access and service; you give something. Supposedly, both parties benefit. Too bad for the ISPs, what they ask from users, the users have hated to give, or what they got from users wasn't worth anything. The only way to survive is to ask users to give something that's worth something to somebody, and the users don't hate giving it.
1) eyeballs looking at seizure-inducing banner ads? Didn't work, users hate it and it's not worth squat.
2) CPU cycles for distributed computation? I don't think it will work, I hate the idea of dialups in the middle of the night and who knows what info they're collecting?
What would you give that's worth something to the ISP, that most people don't hate to give? I'll tell you what: a small amount of cash (~$20/month), and that model is what is working, with ISPs you pay for.
>There ought to be a law!! Get the FCC or someone to rule that ANY ISP must support ANY operating system, AND at the SAME price. (The one I use now has a much lower priced version than what I'm paying, but it's another damn Windoze-only ad-based version!)
>
So you say they ought to provide something for nothing, by law, eh?
Yeah, and they ought to pass a law that everyone should do 10+ hours of volunteer work at a local charity. Think of the good _that_ would do!
>The problem with this is not the initial application, but how it progresses.
We lose our rights by a thousand little slices. Fingerprinting was only for criminals, now we get fingerprinted for drivers licenses. Metal detectors were only for airports and high schools that had riots. Now, it's for any government building.
Absolutely; some people say, "we are still free." But what about the rate of change towards enslavement to the state? (I'm at a loss to describe the opposite of liberty any other way, at this late hour).
In fact, in China, our new demon/enemy du jour, their progress is _towards_ liberty. They're not there at all in many ways, but the progress over time will add up.
You must not live in the USA, for I summarized the level and quality of communication that goes on here now. You wouldn't believe how bad it's become here.
>You know, a cool history prof of mine said that one of the signs of a Rennaissance is a basic concern w/ language: the actual meaning and use of words, etc.
Wow, between you and I, it's kinda like, you know, really cool!