I may be an insensitive clod, but I'm also a Canadian citizen living in Costa Rica. I really have nothing to do with the US, other than vacationing there occasionally. But you know... when in Rome...
they need to be as secure as possible for national security.
I assume that those "secure" machines are not connected to an external network in any way, require dongles, tokens or card swipes to operate, are in concrete buildings with shielding on everything from the walls and ceiling to the power cables the computer is hooked up to, so that no one can read the keypresses by scanning the power lines to the building (yes it can be done). Oh and I also assume that they're surrounded by quite a few armed guards. THOSE Windows machines?
Now count how many ways such a backdoor could bite Microsoft in the ass.
None. They'd just deny it. After all, it would just be one of tens of thousands more security vulnerabilities. It's not like there's a piece of code saying "NSA back door hook HERE". They'd patch it, create a different "vulnerability" with the patch, and pass that on to the NSA, and no one would be any wiser. Security by obscurity. Easy to do in multi-gigabyte resource hogging pigs of an OS.
Of course you can trust the government. I mean, this is the NSA we're talking about. They're on YOUR side.
And as for Microsoft, or any other multinational company for that matter, they have grown to the size that they are because they are 100% honest to goodness hard working souls that, when faced with a decision, will always take the ethically correct side. I mean that's how you get fantastically rich, isn't it? Ask our hard working friends at Goldman Sachs, for example!
I'm shocked that you could even consider that Microsoft could be lying. I mean, what happens if they get caught lying? Surely the "back door" would be right there in the source code for all to see, and they'd be found out right away. Oh, wait... sorry, you don't get to see the source code. But Microsoft apologized for violating the GPL, that makes them GOOD guys. You're not suggesting that if anyone ever DID find out some sort of way to control a Windows machine, all they'd have to do is call it a "security vulnerability" and issue a patch (with a different back door) for it, are you?
A storm front moving in that generates an alert has most likely already caused damage somewhere
And contrary to popular opinion, even gamers in their basements can look outside the window and know that something isn't right because it's darker/windier than usual. No alert necessary. Just like tornadoes, guess what - most people in tornado prone areas usually find a radio/tv to turn on.
However, the government sees itself, in the name of being the Great Protector, obliged to use a form of communication that was not meant to broadcast "emergency warnings" to try and do just that. Hey but why should I care, I'm not a US citizen, I don't live in the US, and it's not my tax dollars that are paying for it.
are, until proven otherwise, considered a human being worth notifying.
I'll try not to pretend that's a thinly veiled personal attack, and counter with a human being worthy of being a human being won't be so absolutely clueless as to need a warning system in his XBOX to tell him something is up with the weather.
The trend from the socialist parties (that is - self-described socialists) is still seeking a greater and greater degree of government involvement
This is a feature of government - ANY government. Not just socialist or communist ones. Heh, just look at the US. All you need is time, and the government will grow, and screw the people it's supposed to represent. Because a government is a parasite. It LIVES off the back of the people. And in the name of "the common good" it sucks out more and more blood, until "the people" die in an oppressive society that ends up being "liberated" by someone else or collapses under economic failure, or the "government" dies in a revolution. Then after a brief happy period of weak government, the whole cycle starts again.
This is no more an invasion then sending you email without permission is an invasion of your privacy.
And don't people just LOVE spam?
Wait - there are LAWS against spam. Yeah they're not enforced, because it's hard to enforce US law in Nigeria. But why are there laws against it, do you think?
Now look at it this way. You are going to check your email. You actively send a request to an email server to download your email. You receive email.
Oh, but look - you're playing a game. At no time did you request information from the state of New York that little Amanda disappeared, or that there's a storm front moving in, or that a plane just landed in the Hudson. When you signed up to frag others, or gold farm, or whatever, you didn't sign up to Big Brother's News Channel. Imagine if you got a "This Just In - Breaking News" while at the cinema? How about a policeman showing up at your door and reminding you to use a condom every time you're about to have sex? Where do you stop?
I fail to see how allowing emergency services to send you in-game messages is an "invasion of privacy".
Well it just so happens that I have a private arrangement between myself, and the game provider. All of a sudden the government can come in, without my permission, and a) locate me, because presumably "emergency alerts" issued by the state of New York will ONLY be sent to people located in New York State, and b) interrupt my entertainment.
You know, I don't think it took too long for everyone to realize what was happening on 9-11. I was in Costa Rica in an intensive care unit, and I still "got the message" through family members and was tuned to CNN long before the second plane hit. I don't really see what kind of "emergency" can warrant notifying every single person in a STATE. If you're close enough to the disaster (tornado, flooding, hurricane, planes flying into buildings), you know what's happening. Other disasters either simply don't give enough time to react (earthquakes, volcanic eruptions (in NY?)) or frankly in the case of a nuclear strike, why the hell would I want to know?
So how does say warning a person in Albany about a gas main rupture in Queens work? Or do they plan on tracking you on a smaller scale? By zip code? By street address? This is where privacy comes into play. If the government needs to know where I live, they can call the people who have my address information: the people who gave my my license, passport, and other government documents. They have absolutely no right to oblige a "game provider" to release ANY information about me, my activities, where I live, when I log on, etc. Convicted criminals have to register. I am not a criminal.
That said, I'm glad I don't live in the US. Enjoy your "free" country, citizen. The fact that you can't even see that there is a problem here means you deserve to be monitored, tracked, numbered and processed. That way when they feel like rounding you up, they'll have enough to find some little law or other you've broken.
If you're talking typical theory, socialism is simply a transitionary stage towards communism.
Canada and Sweden prove you wrong. Both countries have very strong social values (incredibly high income tax, many other taxes, amazing benefits for the unemployed/unemployable, subsidized health care, education, etc). Neither country is on the verge of turning "communist" any time soon.
Is it just me, or does this sound like RISC fanboyism from the 1990s?
The good thing about fashion is that if you wait long enough, everything will be in vogue again. I'm just waiting for the day when my crates of punch cards will be in demand by everyone. My great grand-children will surely respect me THEN.
Whatever the pathways involved, say we discover some incredibly complex mechanism that regulates muscle mass; it still won't solve the basic problem. Being in free-fall or "zero g" for long enough causes involution of muscle and deteriorates bone strength. Now perhaps some pharmaceutical company can be persuaded to invest billions of dollars, one this pathway is discovered, to invent a drug that blocks it and thus lets astronaut keep their muscles. Then they will sell the pills to NASA and other space programs, at $1 million per pill.
Frankly wouldn't it be better to understand the relationship between gravity and muscle mass/bone density, and work on ways to simulate gravity instead? Methinks it would be far cheaper, AND resolve the situation.
Gee, thank you sir for debunking the "non scientific" study you fail to quote with - your gut feeling. I am enlightened.
On the other hand, as a doctor I can tell you that caffeine and taurine belong to the group of drugs called xanthines, whose pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic effects are very well known. Alcohol has also been studied intensively, to such a point where we know its myriad effects on the human body on a molecular level.
Now while we haven't actually asked for volunteers to submit themselves to studies where we try to kill them with a combination of xanthines and ethanol, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to look at the effects of both classes of drugs and see potential problems, especially in the areas of cardiac dysrhythmias, electrolyte imbalances, the dehydrating effect of both drugs, and the psychoactive effects of both drugs.
But I know that since you are incredibly wise, you have considered all the studies involved in all of the above, and have a pointed argument backed by clinically controlled trials to lay the foundation of your claims.
Correlation isn't causation, but do realize that when you have an avian that floats on water and quacks, you are probably observing a duck.
I also imagine that you think that short-sellers are criminals, right? Because heaven FORBID someone be allowed to profit when the value of a stock falls.
I can't really blame you, after all even banks whined to the government about short sellers last year, and the government temporarily banned short selling certain financial stocks. This is utterly stupid. A short seller by definition is the ONLY person in the stock market who HAS to buy. And they go and remove it. Well done. Oh, short selling is illegal in many Asian markets, yet they also plunged. Explain?
You have obviously no idea how the market works. I do not "leech" value out of the system. I merely assess the probable movement of the market in the next few minutes. If I'm right, I'm rewarded by a small profit. If I'm wrong, I have to take a loss.
Now when bank XYZ for some reason has a million shares of a company to get rid of, and I and a thousand other day traders take a 1000 share chunk out of that block of shares, aren't we doing that bank a FAVOR? If we weren't there, who would the bank sell stock to? No one, because there would be no one to buy it. Therefore the bank would either have to wait, until another bank comes along willing to pay the price they're asking - OR they can DROP the price to see if anyone is interested. Oh - wait, do you mean that day traders, and a greater number of traders, actually REDUCE volatility and help maintain price stability? Shocking, you've just been proved wrong.
Day trading actually adds value to the system because it increases the number of traders, and the amount of capital available for trading (liquidity) in the system. This leads to stability, and decreases huge fluctuations in price under normal situations.
Not to mention that on top of the money I make, I pay HUNDREDS of dollars in commission PER DAY to my broker (and I STILL make a profit). So I'm actually employing people, while making money. That broker pays staff, and those staff buy burgers at the Wal Mart you work at. So I'm actually helping YOU, too.
It's true that when I make money, someone somewhere is losing money. But hey, no one is forcing them to buy/sell stock. Just like no one is forcing me to. If they put a bid/ask on the market, they're awfully happy when a day trader like me snaps it up within a second or two.
Umm, it was the threat of litigation by the ACLU that worked. If you consider the ACLU as part of the "system", consider why there has to be an AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION in the first place. The "system" is erring ever more on the "side" of the government. Perhaps your just not old enough to remember what it USED to be like. But then again, I remember $0.25 cokes from vending machines, which is strange, considering the government claims only 2-3% inflation since the 80's... at 3% compounded, a can of coke should cost you $0.60 today. Yet strangely a 12-pack at the supermarket will set you back around $11 ($0.91/can) and at least $1 from a vending machine. Ahhh, how wonderful it is that people don't notice creeping things like inflation, or erosion of civil liberties, for that matter. Governments lie. Period. This is not new, Plato even justified it. Please do enjoy your "recovery" in the meantime.
Yep, here you go, breaking news if you didn't watch CNN last night. Instead of reading the article, you can watch the youtube video for this story here. Or you can read iReport and get the story here.
Either way, remember, slashdot is where you'll get yesterday's tabloid news today.
I had no idea GPL people were so like the RIAA that
It's called playing the Devil's advocate. What's good for the goose should be good for the gander. The only thing stopping me from making millions of copies of Windows 7 is copyright law, and Microsoft's EULA which adds it's own little nuances to our "implicit" agreement.
It's the same thing for the GPL. The code is COPYRIGHTED by the author. A copyright is not like a patent. You don't have to apply for it, and you don't have to defend it like a trademark. It's AUTOMATICALLY yours if you create something. Now if you license your work (through the GPL, or whatever), other parties MUST abide by the license. NOTHING in the GPL tries to nullify copyright law.
So, if I infringe "Big Corporation X's" rights, I will have an army of lawyers on my ass. If "Big Corporation" violates the GPL, all they have to do is say "sorry"? If you can't see the double standard you are either blind, or a troll.
How is talking trash fooling people into thinking your that site?
It's not. I made two separate points. But you're going to have a hard time getting sympathy from a judge if you're obviously antagonizing the other site owner.
If I infringe on someone's copyright by "accidentally" downloading a song or movie, I can just delete it from my hard drive and apologize to the movie/music studio?
I like the double standard here. When is Microsoft going to be crucified by this?
Slashdot Mirror
Now that's a US-centric view.
I may be an insensitive clod, but I'm also a Canadian citizen living in Costa Rica. I really have nothing to do with the US, other than vacationing there occasionally. But you know... when in Rome...
they need to be as secure as possible for national security.
I assume that those "secure" machines are not connected to an external network in any way, require dongles, tokens or card swipes to operate, are in concrete buildings with shielding on everything from the walls and ceiling to the power cables the computer is hooked up to, so that no one can read the keypresses by scanning the power lines to the building (yes it can be done). Oh and I also assume that they're surrounded by quite a few armed guards. THOSE Windows machines?
Now count how many ways such a backdoor could bite Microsoft in the ass.
None. They'd just deny it. After all, it would just be one of tens of thousands more security vulnerabilities. It's not like there's a piece of code saying "NSA back door hook HERE". They'd patch it, create a different "vulnerability" with the patch, and pass that on to the NSA, and no one would be any wiser. Security by obscurity. Easy to do in multi-gigabyte resource hogging pigs of an OS.
Of course you can trust the government. I mean, this is the NSA we're talking about. They're on YOUR side.
And as for Microsoft, or any other multinational company for that matter, they have grown to the size that they are because they are 100% honest to goodness hard working souls that, when faced with a decision, will always take the ethically correct side. I mean that's how you get fantastically rich, isn't it? Ask our hard working friends at Goldman Sachs, for example!
I'm shocked that you could even consider that Microsoft could be lying. I mean, what happens if they get caught lying? Surely the "back door" would be right there in the source code for all to see, and they'd be found out right away. Oh, wait... sorry, you don't get to see the source code. But Microsoft apologized for violating the GPL, that makes them GOOD guys. You're not suggesting that if anyone ever DID find out some sort of way to control a Windows machine, all they'd have to do is call it a "security vulnerability" and issue a patch (with a different back door) for it, are you?
A storm front moving in that generates an alert has most likely already caused damage somewhere
And contrary to popular opinion, even gamers in their basements can look outside the window and know that something isn't right because it's darker/windier than usual. No alert necessary. Just like tornadoes, guess what - most people in tornado prone areas usually find a radio/tv to turn on.
However, the government sees itself, in the name of being the Great Protector, obliged to use a form of communication that was not meant to broadcast "emergency warnings" to try and do just that. Hey but why should I care, I'm not a US citizen, I don't live in the US, and it's not my tax dollars that are paying for it.
are, until proven otherwise, considered a human being worth notifying.
I'll try not to pretend that's a thinly veiled personal attack, and counter with a human being worthy of being a human being won't be so absolutely clueless as to need a warning system in his XBOX to tell him something is up with the weather.
The trend from the socialist parties (that is - self-described socialists) is still seeking a greater and greater degree of government involvement
This is a feature of government - ANY government. Not just socialist or communist ones. Heh, just look at the US. All you need is time, and the government will grow, and screw the people it's supposed to represent. Because a government is a parasite. It LIVES off the back of the people. And in the name of "the common good" it sucks out more and more blood, until "the people" die in an oppressive society that ends up being "liberated" by someone else or collapses under economic failure, or the "government" dies in a revolution. Then after a brief happy period of weak government, the whole cycle starts again.
This is no more an invasion then sending you email without permission is an invasion of your privacy.
And don't people just LOVE spam?
Wait - there are LAWS against spam. Yeah they're not enforced, because it's hard to enforce US law in Nigeria. But why are there laws against it, do you think?
Now look at it this way. You are going to check your email. You actively send a request to an email server to download your email. You receive email.
Oh, but look - you're playing a game. At no time did you request information from the state of New York that little Amanda disappeared, or that there's a storm front moving in, or that a plane just landed in the Hudson. When you signed up to frag others, or gold farm, or whatever, you didn't sign up to Big Brother's News Channel. Imagine if you got a "This Just In - Breaking News" while at the cinema? How about a policeman showing up at your door and reminding you to use a condom every time you're about to have sex? Where do you stop?
I fail to see how allowing emergency services to send you in-game messages is an "invasion of privacy".
Well it just so happens that I have a private arrangement between myself, and the game provider. All of a sudden the government can come in, without my permission, and a) locate me, because presumably "emergency alerts" issued by the state of New York will ONLY be sent to people located in New York State, and b) interrupt my entertainment.
You know, I don't think it took too long for everyone to realize what was happening on 9-11. I was in Costa Rica in an intensive care unit, and I still "got the message" through family members and was tuned to CNN long before the second plane hit. I don't really see what kind of "emergency" can warrant notifying every single person in a STATE. If you're close enough to the disaster (tornado, flooding, hurricane, planes flying into buildings), you know what's happening. Other disasters either simply don't give enough time to react (earthquakes, volcanic eruptions (in NY?)) or frankly in the case of a nuclear strike, why the hell would I want to know?
So how does say warning a person in Albany about a gas main rupture in Queens work? Or do they plan on tracking you on a smaller scale? By zip code? By street address? This is where privacy comes into play. If the government needs to know where I live, they can call the people who have my address information: the people who gave my my license, passport, and other government documents. They have absolutely no right to oblige a "game provider" to release ANY information about me, my activities, where I live, when I log on, etc. Convicted criminals have to register. I am not a criminal.
That said, I'm glad I don't live in the US. Enjoy your "free" country, citizen. The fact that you can't even see that there is a problem here means you deserve to be monitored, tracked, numbered and processed. That way when they feel like rounding you up, they'll have enough to find some little law or other you've broken.
If you're talking typical theory, socialism is simply a transitionary stage towards communism.
Canada and Sweden prove you wrong. Both countries have very strong social values (incredibly high income tax, many other taxes, amazing benefits for the unemployed/unemployable, subsidized health care, education, etc). Neither country is on the verge of turning "communist" any time soon.
Is it just me, or does this sound like RISC fanboyism from the 1990s?
The good thing about fashion is that if you wait long enough, everything will be in vogue again. I'm just waiting for the day when my crates of punch cards will be in demand by everyone. My great grand-children will surely respect me THEN.
I think it's great that the UK is going to dedicate a whole branch of government to fight something as important as piracy off the coast of Somalia...
Oh wait, what?
Whatever the pathways involved, say we discover some incredibly complex mechanism that regulates muscle mass; it still won't solve the basic problem. Being in free-fall or "zero g" for long enough causes involution of muscle and deteriorates bone strength. Now perhaps some pharmaceutical company can be persuaded to invest billions of dollars, one this pathway is discovered, to invent a drug that blocks it and thus lets astronaut keep their muscles. Then they will sell the pills to NASA and other space programs, at $1 million per pill.
Frankly wouldn't it be better to understand the relationship between gravity and muscle mass/bone density, and work on ways to simulate gravity instead? Methinks it would be far cheaper, AND resolve the situation.
What does hard drives have to do with "SYSTEM MEMORY"?
Storage capacity is not equal to RAM. Good luck on waiting for your 144TB swap file to load.
Actually it sounds more like as if they installed Windows.
Can it catch a mouse?
What do you mean? Computers have been capturing mouse input for years!
Thou shalt not brute-force cooking.
REAL chefs will have no interest in your stupid book.
Correlation is not causation! Wake up!!
Gee, thank you sir for debunking the "non scientific" study you fail to quote with - your gut feeling. I am enlightened.
On the other hand, as a doctor I can tell you that caffeine and taurine belong to the group of drugs called xanthines, whose pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic effects are very well known. Alcohol has also been studied intensively, to such a point where we know its myriad effects on the human body on a molecular level.
Now while we haven't actually asked for volunteers to submit themselves to studies where we try to kill them with a combination of xanthines and ethanol, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to look at the effects of both classes of drugs and see potential problems, especially in the areas of cardiac dysrhythmias, electrolyte imbalances, the dehydrating effect of both drugs, and the psychoactive effects of both drugs.
But I know that since you are incredibly wise, you have considered all the studies involved in all of the above, and have a pointed argument backed by clinically controlled trials to lay the foundation of your claims.
Correlation isn't causation, but do realize that when you have an avian that floats on water and quacks, you are probably observing a duck.
It leaches real value out of the whole system.
I also imagine that you think that short-sellers are criminals, right? Because heaven FORBID someone be allowed to profit when the value of a stock falls.
I can't really blame you, after all even banks whined to the government about short sellers last year, and the government temporarily banned short selling certain financial stocks. This is utterly stupid. A short seller by definition is the ONLY person in the stock market who HAS to buy. And they go and remove it. Well done. Oh, short selling is illegal in many Asian markets, yet they also plunged. Explain?
You have obviously no idea how the market works. I do not "leech" value out of the system. I merely assess the probable movement of the market in the next few minutes. If I'm right, I'm rewarded by a small profit. If I'm wrong, I have to take a loss.
Now when bank XYZ for some reason has a million shares of a company to get rid of, and I and a thousand other day traders take a 1000 share chunk out of that block of shares, aren't we doing that bank a FAVOR? If we weren't there, who would the bank sell stock to? No one, because there would be no one to buy it. Therefore the bank would either have to wait, until another bank comes along willing to pay the price they're asking - OR they can DROP the price to see if anyone is interested. Oh - wait, do you mean that day traders, and a greater number of traders, actually REDUCE volatility and help maintain price stability? Shocking, you've just been proved wrong.
Day trading actually adds value to the system because it increases the number of traders, and the amount of capital available for trading (liquidity) in the system. This leads to stability, and decreases huge fluctuations in price under normal situations.
Not to mention that on top of the money I make, I pay HUNDREDS of dollars in commission PER DAY to my broker (and I STILL make a profit). So I'm actually employing people, while making money. That broker pays staff, and those staff buy burgers at the Wal Mart you work at. So I'm actually helping YOU, too.
It's true that when I make money, someone somewhere is losing money. But hey, no one is forcing them to buy/sell stock. Just like no one is forcing me to. If they put a bid/ask on the market, they're awfully happy when a day trader like me snaps it up within a second or two.
The system basically worked here
Umm, it was the threat of litigation by the ACLU that worked. If you consider the ACLU as part of the "system", consider why there has to be an AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION in the first place. The "system" is erring ever more on the "side" of the government. Perhaps your just not old enough to remember what it USED to be like. But then again, I remember $0.25 cokes from vending machines, which is strange, considering the government claims only 2-3% inflation since the 80's... at 3% compounded, a can of coke should cost you $0.60 today. Yet strangely a 12-pack at the supermarket will set you back around $11 ($0.91/can) and at least $1 from a vending machine. Ahhh, how wonderful it is that people don't notice creeping things like inflation, or erosion of civil liberties, for that matter. Governments lie. Period. This is not new, Plato even justified it. Please do enjoy your "recovery" in the meantime.
Actually if you look at my user number - 464142, I think it's YOU who doesn't understand what /. WAS, and what it has become.
Yep, here you go, breaking news if you didn't watch CNN last night. Instead of reading the article, you can watch the youtube video for this story here. Or you can read iReport and get the story here.
Either way, remember, slashdot is where you'll get yesterday's tabloid news today.
In the meantime, the company took in a cool $15 million in payments from consumers, who don't appear to have received anything in return.
Well, they received a lot of advertising, didn't they?
I had no idea GPL people were so like the RIAA that
It's called playing the Devil's advocate. What's good for the goose should be good for the gander. The only thing stopping me from making millions of copies of Windows 7 is copyright law, and Microsoft's EULA which adds it's own little nuances to our "implicit" agreement.
It's the same thing for the GPL. The code is COPYRIGHTED by the author. A copyright is not like a patent. You don't have to apply for it, and you don't have to defend it like a trademark. It's AUTOMATICALLY yours if you create something. Now if you license your work (through the GPL, or whatever), other parties MUST abide by the license. NOTHING in the GPL tries to nullify copyright law.
So, if I infringe "Big Corporation X's" rights, I will have an army of lawyers on my ass. If "Big Corporation" violates the GPL, all they have to do is say "sorry"? If you can't see the double standard you are either blind, or a troll.
How is talking trash fooling people into thinking your that site?
It's not. I made two separate points. But you're going to have a hard time getting sympathy from a judge if you're obviously antagonizing the other site owner.
If I infringe on someone's copyright by "accidentally" downloading a song or movie, I can just delete it from my hard drive and apologize to the movie/music studio?
I like the double standard here. When is Microsoft going to be crucified by this?