User: TimFreeman

Where can I get the PNG of death?

On: Bug in zlib Affects Many Linux Programs

According to one of the provided links, the problem was originally discovered when an invalid PNG file caused libPNG to crash. I'd like to get this PNG file and throw it at a development server here at work before a script kiddie posing as a customer does. Any idea where I can get the PNG of death?

Bring a portable!

On: Chilean Monks Need Linux Help?

If you take a portable with you that has a functioning network interface, then your first step could be to hook your portable to their Internet connection and then you'll be able to search the Internet for help on the other issues you come across.

Human/animal hybrids might be mostly human?

On: Japan to Allow Human-Nonhuman Mixed Cloning

In the absence of a more detailed translation, it appears the law may have this loophole:

I'm sure you could give a human a mouse gene or two without making any important difference. You might arrange for the gene never to be expressed, for instance. Thus you could have a human/mouse hybrid that's indistinguishable from a human. Maybe they accidentally essentially legalized human reproductive cloning in Japan, or maybe there are some details there I missed.

Tee hee.

Do Germans have to use a DNS server in Germany?

On: Slashback: Regionalism, Rivalry, Zensur

I don't see how censorship-by-DNS could actually work. The user could point their machine at any DNS server in the world that will take them. Surely there is at least one such server, and it will have accurate DNS records for the banned sites. Why aren't Germans doing this if they want access to the banned sites?

Why Win2K instead of XP?

On: "Linux is *the* threat," Says Microsoft

Any guesses why they're pushing Windows 2000 as a substitute for Linux instead of Windows XP?

DMCA for these Cambridge guys?

On: IBM Crypto Up For Grabs?

So with the DMCA in the US and all, would these two Cambridge PhD students be at risk of being Skylaroved if they visit the US?

Principia Discordia, not Illuminatus

On: Jedi Knight Now (Not) Officially a Religion

But just because the Discordian religion probably appeared first in a fictional novel...

Discordianism probably appeared first in the Principia Discordia, which is too disorganized to be called a novel.

Veeck vs. City of Austin

On: Ask the W3C's RAND Point Man

I found a reference for "Veeck vs. City of Austin" at :

ADMINISTRATIVE LAW, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY VEECK v. S. BLDG CODE CONG. INT'L INC., No 99-40632 (5th Cir. February 02, 2001) Copyright may attach to regulatory codes that, although drafted by private industry groups, have subsequently been enacted into law.

There is more here. IANAL, but it looks to me like this case can lead to a situation where one is governed by laws that are copyrighted. This doesn't necessarily mean you can't find out what the laws are.

What is a response process?

On: Slashback: Snapshots, Amends, Bazaarity

Does anyone know what the PR guy was trying
to say here?

How long will it last?

On: Man-Made Black Holes Looming?

Does anyone have an idea how long the planned synthetic black hole should last before it evaporates?

Is there any hope of throwing in more mass before it evaporates?

An evaporating black hole converts mass to energy. If it could be stabilized, it would be very useful. Probably not the research you want to do on your only planet, though.

WTC destruction =~ 1 normal day's death

On: More Links And Reports On Terrorist Attacks

Let's say the life expectancy in the US is 80 years. That's 80 * 365 days. Say there are 250 million people in the US. Divide, so somewhere around 8600 die each day. Maybe that or twice that died in today's terrorist attacks in the US. So, to get the scope of the thing, imagine that you wasted one day of your life doing something completely useless, or maybe two, and scale that up to the whole country.

Not a significant amount of damage.

Son of Timothy?

On: More Links And Reports On Terrorist Attacks

Presuming it's not Son of Timothy, and the data IS rather indicative.

I can state categorically that my son was
at school all day and had nothing to do with all
this.

Seriously, who is this Son of Timothy group?

Re:optimized for Xtreme Programming? please.

On: Double-Whammy Look At The Pentium 4

The parent article appears to be a troll. I can't find any use of the word "Xtreme" in either cited article, and it's bizarre to claim that someone has optimized a processor to suit a software development methodology. There's a couple or three levels of abstraction inbetween. What's the possible connection?

One good thing is different from another

On: Why Linux Won't Ever Be Mainstream

I'm not at all surprised by what Cmdr Taco observed, but I used to be surprised by things like that. I expected that all "good" things come together. In this case, using Linux is one "good" thing, and having normal social interactions is another "good" thing, and the false expectation that "good" things come together lead Cmdr Taco to expect a Linux forum to have more normal social interactions than a random collection of people.

Well, it doesn't work that way. "Good" things don't come together that much. If a person is skilled at one thing, that doesn't imply that they're any good at an unrelated task.