User: Black Copter Control

Re:Next story:

On: S-11 Redux: (Channel) Surfing the Apocalypse

Do you not remember the terrorist act that was committed by Osama, who at that time was given refuge by the Taliban? Do you not remember us giving them several chances to turn him over, and them giving us the the middle finger?

You sound like Hitler explaining why he attacked poland, or Saddam explaining why Kuwait had to be subdued.

There's war, there'a the reason for war, and then there's the public excuse. Sometimes the last two are in agreement, sometimes not. If there were, as claimed, rumblings of war with Afghanistan before 9/11, then Ossama may have just been a very convenient excuse to do something the US government was hunting for an explanation for.
Afghanistan was the target, Osamma was an excuse so obvious that it took no explanation post 9/11. (This can be pushed as far as Conspiracy theories when you add in the fact that Osama was originally trained by the CIA. provided a well-timed excuse for invasion and hasn't been proven killed. In a conspiracy theory world, Bin Laden would be far more valuable to the US alive than dead).

The thought may not be true, but it's far from absurd.

Re:Very well produced.

On: S-11 Redux: (Channel) Surfing the Apocalypse

I'm sorry -- We've directed you to the wrong site. Try this site, instead.

Re:That site in your sig...

On: For Those Long Coding Sessions: The Food Patch

It's a bit off in the english. The IO system on the box is 64 bit John follows the Intel literature that seems to think that this makes the boxes 64 bit (not the CPU). Duatinums (sp?) have a 64bit external bus. I've suggested a minor wording change to make that more apparent. The SCSI drives are, in fact being run under RAID 10. (Hardware RAID refers to the controller, if you haven't figured that out). And yes, the box really has 6GB of ram. That's part of the reason why all of the peripherals are 64bit -- they can't address past 4GB with a 32bit bus. I kinda consider that a bit of overkill, but it means that anything recently used gets cached in RAM (makes for really fast kernel builds, the second time round), It means better response if/when a site ever gets slashdotted.

The first time we got one of these machines, we had to deal with some issues where Intel didn't have the memory available at their support center to test their machines with 6GB RAM... I would have found it funny if it wasn't for the fact that it delayed them giving us support, while we were paying the finance charges on the box (those beasts are expensive.
FWIW, memory has to be added in pairs for those boxes because of the 64 bit bus.

Been using it for 6 months.

On: For Those Long Coding Sessions: The Food Patch

It's great. Almost weaned from food.. Lost 145 pounds... feel great.

The boss figures that if we can get access to the low-sleep research as well, I'll be better than a robot.

It was more than that

On: Hard Drives Down To A Dollar A Gigabyte

This is truly an amazing milestone for those of us who once spent $500 for the fantastically large 10MB models.

When Radio Shack first released the Model 16 (one of the first 'mass-market' Unix (Zenix) boxes), their 8MB hard disk (with a 10" platter) cost something like $6000. That's why I got hired by one person who wanted to know if I could get a usable system to boot with two 1M (8") floppy disks instead of a hard disk.

Re:and the winner of uber geek 2002 is....

On: Slashback: Embed, Dougal, FireWire

Women? For flipping bits? You are strange.

I don't know about you, but my bits get flipped by attractive women on a regular basis.

Re:Lies, Damned lies, and Microsoft

On: Flaw Found iIn Ethernet Device Drivers

From the rapidity of MS's response (same day), I'm going to guess that they are few (if any) drivers actually made by Microsoft that were addressed by their response. I would also guess that there are many drivers that ship WITH current MS operating systems (2000, XP, CE) that are vulnerable, but many (most) people are going to presume from MSs response that this is not the case -- and MS knows this.

In other words, if I'm right, MS constructively lied in their declaration.

Lies, Damned lies, and Microsoft

On: Flaw Found iIn Ethernet Device Drivers

[ Microsoft] Vendor Statement
Microsoft does not ship any drivers that contain the vulnerability. However, we have found samples in our documentation that, when compiled without alteration, could yield a driver that could contain this issue. We have made corrections to the samples in our documentation, and will include tests for this issue in our certification process.

My reading: Microsoft doesn't make any vulnerable drivers (Microsoft doesn't make (m)any Ethernet drivers). Their sample code is vulnerable, and in the future they will be testing drivers for this bug before certifying them. -- Current MS certified drivers May be vulnerable -- especially if they used MS's suggested code snippet.

In short, YMMV.

Not a bigh shock

On: 'DVD Jon' Acquitted On All Counts in DeCSS Case

It kinda seemed to me that, doing this such a long time after the event, and with Jon having been so pleasantly recieved by the Norwegian parliment, one of the reasons to charge him might have been simply to get the friggin RIAA off of their backs.

It is, however, unpleasant that Norway has introduced a version of the DMCA. Perhaps Jon can work to keep it from being passed.

Re:Sting the bastards into oblivion

On: Lessig Wagers His Job On Anti-Spam Theory

Does CA refer to California or Canada here??? I believe that that's true in Canada.. In fact we just had a case in Canada this weekend where a 7 year old found a loaded semi-automatic pistol under her 20 year old brother's bed, thought it was a toy, and blew her 6 year old brother's brains out.

The 20 year old brother faces a litany of charges including Criminal negligence causing death.

In the case of firearms, you have a very dangerous weapon that (young/stupid) people who have a legal right to be there might come across and misuse. With spammers, a better analogy is someone wandering a parking lot looking for cars with their doors unlocked.
Yeah, it's a 40 year old trick and you might deserve a slap across the back of the head for leaving the car unlocked, but it's not illegal. On the other hand, is still illegal for the thief to swipe your stereo or steal your car.

What's in this (domain) name?

On: Slashback: Disputes, Clones, Audio

I think that it's goign to depend on the domain name and the use that the current registrant is putting the name to. If it's a wierd name (lipshit-concrete.com), and he's using it to scam people for your product, then you have a really good case. If the domain is something like Arrow, You've got arrow computing and he's selling bows and arrows, then you soulc be in for a nasty fight.

Re:No, America.

On: Lessig Wagers His Job On Anti-Spam Theory

Where bandwidth costs $6 a gig. At $6/gig for a Gigabyte, we're talking almost $3000/month at 1.5 megabits ($100/day). A spammer with a 100megabit pipe is going to be doing this to about 60-100 people at a time. That's large scale larceny. That's why I'm willing to use the anti-hacking laws to give these people a 5-10 year sentence. If this is what they're doing they deserve that kind of sentence.

These are the kinds of people that lawmakers said that they were aiming these laws at. Time to fire the bullet.

Re:Sting the bastards into oblivion

On: Lessig Wagers His Job On Anti-Spam Theory

Most big fish spammers purchase 10-100 Mbps of pipe to the core at a time and use all of it. They don't bum bandwidth off other people's relays.

What happens is that the spammers' IP address very quickly end up being RBLed by the major E-mail providers -- so what some of them will do is hunt for open and mis-configured proxies. It's script kiddie time. They'll use that 100MB pipe to slave 100 victims with the misconfigured proxies until they get added to the RBLs too -- then they'll go on to the next victim.

If my model is correct, we're talking Wholesale industrial hacking here. My single employer with the 1.5Mbit pipe is simply the symptom of the larger issue.

I went through my archive of 1500 spams. I collect them from a handfull of email addresses. Even though I sometimes get more than a dozen identical spams I've only got a small handfull of IP addresses (or even C blocks) that send me more then 2 or three spams. That and the experience at my employer are consistent with my theory of the industrial script kiddies. I'm now seeing proxy attempts in my webserver logs -- even on machines that don't have any meanignful DNS name.

Sting the bastards into oblivion

On: Lessig Wagers His Job On Anti-Spam Theory

Some time ago I found that spammers had managed to hijack the Windows proxy set up by one company that I worked for. When I found it, they were essentially using the full 1.5Megabit pipe to pump spam into the universe. Given that they were hijacking the computers for financial benefit, this was clearly illegal -- both in Canada (where I live) and in the US (where they were doing most of their business).

This leaves me thinking: shouldn't it be possible to use the ham-fisted anti-hacking laws against these bastares??? Not for spamming, but for hijacking peoples' computers to do the spamming with. I'd love to treat these bastards to 6-10 behind bars. Far better than a $100K fine that would be little more than a locense fee.

I tried to get an agreement with the company for the right to sue on their behalf in return for me helping to lock down their systems... They didn't go for it. My alternative approach is that I'd like to set up a similar system, wait for them to hack into it, and then do a hunt for the bastards running the scam. Any holes in this plan? (other than the probable difficulty in properly trackingg these people down?)

Re:Cut n Paste

On: Why IE Is So Fast ... Sometimes

If you accept MS's claims that IE is now inseperable from the OS as a whole, then you're getting pretty close to being in kernel land. Once you get there, it's pretty easy to just start putting special hooks that allow IE to randomly mess with how the TCP stack works.

Remember: the same company that wrote MSIE wrote MS-Windows. Just because most normal programs aren't able to mess with TCP sequences doesn't mean that IE's programmers don't know something that we don't.

Re:Isn' t that discriminatory?

On: European Copyrights Expire; RIAA Nervous

his copyright lasts 160 years (100 - 10 + 70)
... She writes her first symphony at 46, lives to 50, and so her copyright only lasts 110 years.

My math gives me 50-46+70=74. I think you shifted a column in your addition.

So if all people are equal under the law, why does Person A get 160 years of protection, but the same law grants Person B only 2/3rds the same amount?

Less than half, by my math -- but once I'm dead, I don't care how much money I get. The rest of the money goes to whomever owns my copyright (often a corporation from day one). Besides, the discrimination against person #2 comes from God, not the statute. There's nothing in the law that says that she has to die after 4 years.

Re:All is as it should be in europe

On: European Copyrights Expire; RIAA Nervous

If they are simply notifying and *offering* additional service, that's good. OTOH, if they are *billing* additional service and the EULA and/or TOS requires you to accept the bill, that's bad.

If you don't authorize the payment, then you don't get charged. When I say I don't know, I mean that I don't know what happens to your site -- not your pocketbook.

Con$spiracy Theory

On: Should We Change the Weather Even If We Can?

In a typically foolhardy fashion, the worlds leaders and scientists deem it more economical to take the risk (what a risk!) and attempt to change the weather, rather than make attempts towards cleaning up their act.

It's the people who make the most money off of the activities that threaten our long-term climate that have the most to lose from changes. As an example, Canada's federal government is moving to ratify the Kyoto agreement (after a decade of shuffling our feet). The loudest complainers about this are the oil industry and the Premier of Alberta (Canada'a largest oil-producing province). The problem here is that they control a large amount of money, and a goodly number of jobs. When the medical officer of a regional health authority spoke in favour of Kyoto, he was fired. The uproar over this obvious case of censorship was enough to get him his job offered back to him, but by that time the message was out: Supporting Kyoto could put your career in jeopardy.

It's clear that Oil Company and Alberta government research funding, is going to flow towards those scientists who are willing to critize Kyoto and away from those who might. The silence is deafening.

There's a second reason for the favour of Intervention vs non-destruction: If the government is spending $10M to change the path of a hurricane, about 5% of that ($500K) is likely to end up as profit in the hands of the owners/shareholders of the company that provides the process. There's no obvious profit path for stopping the (over)use of petrolium products.

Trust me, there are people (scientists and politicians) who would love to put forward alternative approaches, but they have a bitch of a time finding someone willing to put forward the resources needed to get their message out and their research done.

Re:All is as it should be in europe

On: European Copyrights Expire; RIAA Nervous

($3.75 hosting [75-hosting.com])
Yuck. They don't cut you off if you exceed a hard transfer limit. Instead they try to bully you into buying more service.

I can't remember what happens if you refuse to pay for the extension -- but I'd rather get warned that I'm being slashdotted, and have the choice of extending my download capacity (and/or waiting until the slashers have gone on to newer articles before doing so).
Being silently shut down would just annoy me -- especially if getting the coverage that slashdot provides was something that I actually wanted for that site. On the other hand -- damned if I'm going to pay for slashdot volumes every month in the vague/vain hope that I will get slashdotted some day.

BTW: When this happens, the extension is for that month only. If you want your monthly volume increased, that's a separate process. The costs associated with having your monthly bandwidth too low are:

1. you don't get the volume discounts, and
2. the annoyance of having to manually authorize an extension that month.

The point here is freedom of choice.

Re:All is as it should be in europe

On: European Copyrights Expire; RIAA Nervous

Actually, copyright (and patents) derive their authority directly from Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, not any amendment.

Hmm.. I thought that it went in as part of the first amendment.
-- Forgive me, for I am a Canadian.

All is as it should be in europe

On: European Copyrights Expire; RIAA Nervous

This was the original intent of the Copyright ammendment to the constitution -- to ensure that works were made so that they could, after "a limited period of time", be passed into the public domain for all people to enjoy.

When those works were created in the '50s, it was with the understanding that their copyright would only continue for a couple of decades -- not for a couple of centuries. There appeared to be sufficient economic incentives to create them back then. Now that they're legitimitely PD in Europe, I think that that's a good thing.

It's the people who want to keep these recordings out of the public domain that are the real pirates.

Re:CRLF

On: Typewriter Keyboard Conversion

please remember that in *real* operating systems, "Enter" (newline) is *not* a carriage return, but a linefeed! ;-)

I Don't know what operating system you consider 'real', but for most systems, the 'enter' key usually sends a newline (ctrl-M). That is then converted to a newline for Unix internals, or a CR/LF pair for Dos (or printing on linux).

Even today, a control-M on most Unix/Linux terminal windows will give you the same result as hitting the 'enter' key.

Re:That was Brazil

On: Typewriter Keyboard Conversion

I just checked, and the link is working fine, right now.

Boycott Dow??

On: Dow vs. Parody

Dow is a Corporation. As such, they don't really respond to moral issues -- only financial issues that fall out of moral upsets. Saying "oh, Dow are nasty people" won't do much to get their attention. Cutting Dow purchases by 10%, on the other hand, would.

If you want to get Dow's attention, tell people to stop buying their produ cts, and tell them why. At the end of Dow's 2001 financial report, they have a partial list of Dow and associated company trademarks.

I peeled out that data, paired it with the company name, and then sorted the result.. If you want to boycott Dow products, these names would probably be a good start.

I'll also place a copy of this list on my website ( http://www.bcgreen.com/dow/trademarks.html) where I can update it as necessary. (147 references so far).
damn lameness filters force reformatting.

Affinity :: The Dow Chemical Company | | Amerchol :: Union Carbide Corporation, & subsidiaries
Amplify :: The Dow Chemical Company | | Aspun :: The Dow Chemical Company
Attane :: The Dow Chemical Company | | Betabrace :: Essex Specialty Products, Inc.
Betadamp :: Essex Specialty Products, Inc. | | Betafoam :: Essex Specialty Products, Inc.
Betaguard :: Essex Specialty Products, Inc. | | Betamate :: Essex Specialty Products, Inc.
Betaseal :: Essex Specialty Products, Inc. | | Blox :: The Dow Chemical Company
Calibre :: The Dow Chemical Company | | Carbowax :: Union Carbide Corporation, & subsidiaries
Cellosize :: Union Carbide Corporation, & subsidiaries | | Confirm :: Dow AgroSciences LLC
Covelle :: The Dow Chemical Company | | Cyracure :: Union Carbide Corporation, & subsidiaries
D.E.H. :: The Dow Chemical Company | | D.E.N. :: The Dow Chemical Company
D.E.R. :: The Dow Chemical Company | | Daxad :: Hampshire Chemical Corp.
Derakane :: The Dow Chemical Company | | Derakane Momentum :: The Dow Chemical Company
Dithane :: Dow AgroSciences LLC | | Dow :: The Dow Chemical Company
Dowex :: The Dow Chemical Company | | Dowfax :: The Dow Chemical Company
Dowflake :: The Dow Chemical Company | | Dowlex :: The Dow Chemical Company
Dowper :: The Dow Chemical Company | | Dowtherm :: The Dow Chemical Company
Drytech :: The Dow Chemical Company | | Dursban :: Dow AgroSciences LLC
Elite :: The Dow Chemical Company | | Emerge :: The Dow Chemical Company
Envision :: The Dow Chemical Company | | Ethafoam :: The Dow Chemical Company
Ethocel :: The Dow Chemical Company | | FilmTec :: FilmTec Corporation
FirstRate :: Dow AgroSciences LLC | | Flexomer :: Union Carbide Corporation, & subsidiaries
Fortress :: Dow AgroSciences LLC | | Fulcrum :: The Dow Chemical Company
Garlon :: Dow AgroSciences LLC | | Gas/Spec :: INEOS plc
Glyphomax :: Dow AgroSciences LLC | | Goal :: Dow AgroSciences LLC
Grandstand :: Dow AgroSciences LLC | | Great Stuff :: Flexible Products Company
Hamposyl :: Hampshire Chemical Corp. | | Immotus :: The Dow Chemical Company
Insite :: The Dow Chemical Company | | Inspire :: The Dow Chemical Company
Insta-stik :: Flexible Products Company | | Instill :: The Dow Chemical Company
Intacta :: The Dow Chemical Company | | Integral :: The Dow Chemical Company
Intrepid :: Dow AgroSciences LLC | | Isonate :: The Dow Chemical Company
Isoplast :: The Dow Chemical Company | | LP Oxo :: Union Carbide Corporation, & subsidiaries
Lamdex :: The Dow Chemical Company | | Lifespan :: The Dow Chemical Company
Liquidow :: The Dow Chemical Company | | Lontrel :: Dow AgroSciences LLC
Lorsban :: Dow AgroSciences LLC | | Magnum :: The Dow Chemical Company
Maxicheck :: The Dow Chemical Company | | Maxistab :: The Dow Chemical Company
Meteor :: Union Carbide Corporation, & subsidiaries | | Methocel :: The Dow Chemical Company
Mimic :: Dow AgroSciences LLC | | Mustang :: Dow AgroSciences LLC
Mycogen :: Mycogen Corporation | | Neocar :: Union Carbide Corporation, & subsidiaries
Opticite :: The Dow Chemical Company | | Optim :: The Dow Chemical Company
PAX System :: Michelin North America, Inc. | | Papi :: The Dow Chemical Company
Peladow :: The Dow Chemical Company | | Pellethane :: The Dow Chemical Company
PhytoGen :: PhytoGen Seed Company | | Polyox :: Union Carbide Corporation, & subsidiaries
Polyphobe :: Union Carbide Corporation, & subsidiaries | | Prevail :: The Dow Chemical Company
Primacor :: The Dow Chemical Company | | Procite :: The Dow Chemical Company
Pulse :: The Dow Chemical Company | | Quash :: The Dow Chemical Company
Questra :: The Dow Chemical Company | | Redi-Link :: Union Carbide Corporation, & subsidiaries
Responsible Care :: American Chemistry Council | | Retain :: The Dow Chemical Company
Safe- Tainer :: The Dow Chemical Company | | Saran :: The Dow Chemical Company
Saranex :: The Dow Chemical Company | | Sentricon :: Dow AgroSciences LLC
Shac :: Union Carbide Corporation, & subsidiaries | | Si-Link :: Union Carbide Corporation, & subsidiaries
SiLK :: The Dow Chemical Company | | Spectrim :: The Dow Chemical Company
Spider :: Dow AgroSciences LLC | | Starane :: Dow AgroSciences LLC
Stinger :: Dow AgroSciences LLC | | Strandfoam :: The Dow Chemical Company
Strongarm :: Dow AgroSciences LLC | | Styrofoam :: The Dow Chemical Company
Styron :: The Dow Chemical Company | | Styron A-Tech :: The Dow Chemical Company
Syltherm :: Dow Corning Corporation | | Synergy :: The Dow Chemical Company
Syntegra :: The Dow Chemical Company | | Tanklite :: The Dow Chemical Company
Telone :: Dow AgroSciences LLC | | Tergitol :: Union Carbide Corporation, & subsidiaries
The Enhancer :: The Dow Chemical Company | | Thermax :: The Dow Chemical Company
Tone :: Union Carbide Corporation, & subsidiaries | | Tordon :: Dow AgroSciences LLC
Tracer Naturalyte :: Dow AgroSciences LLC | | Treflan :: Dow AgroSciences LLC
Trenchcoat :: The Dow Chemical Company | | Triton :: Union Carbide Corporation, & subsidiaries
Trycite :: The Dow Chemical Company | | Trymer :: The Dow Chemical Company
Tuflin :: Union Carbide Corporation, & subsidiaries | | Tyril :: The Dow Chemical Company
UCAR :: Union Carbide Corporation, & subsidiaries | | UCAT :: Union Carbide Corporation, & subsidiaries
UCON :: Union Carbide Corporation, & subsidiaries | | Ucartherm :: Union Carbide Corporation, & subsidiaries
Unigard :: Union Carbide Corporation, & subsidiaries | | Unipol :: Union Carbide Corporation, & subsidiaries
Unipurge :: Union Carbide Corporation, & subsidiaries | | Unival :: Union Carbide Corporation, & subsidiaries
Versene :: The Dow Chemical Company | | Vikane :: Dow AgroSciences LLC
Voracor :: The Dow Chemical Company | | Voralast :: The Dow Chemical Company
Voralux :: The Dow Chemical Company | | Voranate :: The Dow Chemical Company
Voranol :: The Dow Chemical Company | | Voranol Voractiv :: The Dow Chemical Company
Vydyne :: Solutia Inc. | | Woodstalk :: Dow BioProducts Ltd.
Zetabon :: The Dow Chemical Company

Re:Didja all catch...

On: Dow vs. Parody

3> Dow Chemical CEO should pe bunished for the accident.
What are you smoking to get that conclusion from the first two events?
Yes, its horrible that people were injured and died as a result of the industrial accident. Its pretty rotten to sue the victims and their families for disrupting work......

First of all: The victims didn't disrupt work .. other than for the one employee who came out to talk to them (his choice).

It's not the accident that I consider Dow to be responsible for: It's their continuing refusal to scoop the poo resulting from their industrial 'accident'. People are still dying by the chemicals released at Bhopal. Dow inherited responsibility for those continuing deaths. In suing the survivers, they are now wilfully adding to the woes of the victims of Bhopal.

I am not my dog, but if my dog dumps shit on my neighbour's property, and I refuse to pick it up, then I'm the one who's going to get the ticket, not my dog.

Union Carbide refused to clean up their mess. Dow, in merging with UC, also absorbed UC's responsibility. The CEO of Dow gets millions of dollars a year to take responsibility for the actions of the company. It's time for him to earn his keep.