For my part, I would have liked to have seen THG use a true electronic load for their testing. Something from Transistor Devices 'Dynaload' line would, I think, have been a much more accurate (if more expensive) choice than a box full of power resistors.
They should also have used a good O-scope to take a look at the power output waveforms while under load. I've seen a number of cases where a switching supply will look perfectly clean under low-to-medium loads, and then start to spike and freak out under higher loads. 'Tis a nasty thing to behold, and it can cause problems that can drive techs who don't know what to look for absolutely batty.
Also, others have mentioned that PC Power and Cooling was left out of the review for reasons unknown. I would guess that it was price. If so, all I can say is "How highly do you value your hardware?"
Clean and adequate power is the ONE factor that can cause more woes than any other. You can have the slickest quad-processor-super-Linux-cluster-RAID-whatever on the planet, and it won't do you one whit of good if you've got dirty power feeding it.
HF can propagate a heck of a lot farther than most VHF or UHF signals. All you have to get is one dirty transmitter, and Lord only knows how many ham, commercial marine, or aircraft HF frequencies it could mess up. Remember the 'Russian Woodpecker?'
Has anyone considered the question of interference to other services from this 'service?'
For that matter, has anyone considered the value of 'net connectivity as opposed to food, medical care, housing, and decent schools? Don't even get me started on the potential for cultural impact.
I'm curious about your views on a couple of 'hot-button' topics. First, spam and spammers: How would you choose to deal with the problems created by both, assuming you were in a position to dictate such policy?
Second, building on the first question: One of the positions taken by, apparently, many SysAdmins (myself included) is that the ability to send E-mail is a privilege, not a right (just like driving), and that said privilege is revocable on a per-network basis by the specific system's administrator(s) at any time, and for any reason, primarily because the vast majority of hosts that make up the Internet are privately owned and operated.
What is your take on this position? Valid? Invalid? Somewhere in between? Do you see the sending of E-mail being legislated into a "right" in times to come? (My belief is that, if this happens, the 'net will drown in spam in short order as blocklists become outlawed).
Seriously! This is right up his alley, considering all the stuff he's gotten to throw off the tops of buildings on past shows.
I can see it now: A Greyhound bus stuffed to the gills with watermelons, cantaloupes, honeydew, casaba, pumpkins, etc., plummeting to earth from multiples of 10K feet...
If nothing else, it would add new meaning to the term 'Fruit shake.'
No, you're not dumb. Just curious. Curious is a Good Thing.
Although all the *BSD's are based on the same branch of the Unix tree (Berkeley Systems Design, as you may already know), the difference between NetBSD, OpenBSD, and FreeBSD is, at least to my eyes, in the orientation of the particular system involved.
To clarify: NetBSD's orientation has always been to be runnable on as many different hardware architectures as possible, and to be a solid, general-purpose OS for servers and development. So, if your goal is to set up a free *nix OS on, say, a MicroVAX or older NEC RISC machine, NetBSD would be a good choice.
FreeBSD has always been oriented towards the PC platform, hardware-wise, and also seems to be among the more user-friendly of the BSD family. If you're just starting out with BSD, and you don't want to learn the ins and outs of non-PC hardware, FreeBSD is a good choice that will grow with you as you gain (programming) skills.
OpenBSD has always had one, single, simple focus: Security. Its aim is to be secure right out of the box. Default installations are locked down tight, port and service-wise, until you actually go in and enable what you want to enable. OpenBSD's other strength is that it is rapidly gaining on NetBSD where being able to run on many different hardware platforms is concerned.
If you're setting up a machine to be a firewall/router, or a -very- secure server, OpenBSD will do the trick.
Forging the 'From:' header is one of the most common spammer tactics known. If the guy's server responds to such a forgery by sending the forged message out to the world, then yes, he is indeed running an open relay EVEN IF it won't forward messages from, say, 'spammer@here.com.'
Any mail server worth its salt needs to look at more than just the 'From:' header. It needs to look at the originating IP address of the machine trying to send the message. If said address is not part of the mail server's local domain, the traffic should be rejected with extreme prejudice.
The article reads very much like a whine from someone who doesn't know enough about how a mail server works (or is supposed to work) to be running one; "Those Evil Censorous (sp?) Anti-Spam Nazis forged my domain name and cracked into my system! How dare they?! Even though it's the same trick a spammer might pull, how dare they?!"
This guy needs to get a clue. Quickly. In fact, I'm going to make sure to block his server out of mine when I get in tonight.
...this will likely turn out to be for the used computer industry. All those older, but non-DRM'd, machines are probably going to be in great demand when this whole Palladium thing goes into effect.
Keep those old systems, OS's, and applications, folks. You may well end up being deeply thankful that you did!
If NASA's budget is hurting so badly, why not swallow a bit of pride and recruit help from fans of the space program who may also happen to be hardware and software engineers?
Perhaps the crew at, say, ham radio organizations like AMSAT, or other groups that already combine volunteer engineering effort with an interest in space exploration, would be happy to help out with modernizing the systems. I wonder if anyone's asked them?
NASA would, of course, keep enough engineering staff around to check the improvements out, but why limit themselves to paid labor if the resource to pay is drying up?
It's a lot more than that. I've lost count of how many spammer domains I've tried to trace, only to be stopped cold by bogus registration info that, despite such being clearly prohibited by NetSol's terms of service, they never do anything about.
I used to think ICANN wasn't good for anything more than demonstrating how political infighting and empire-building quickly take the place of serving the common interests (of the Internet's users). Now, though, I find myself actually amazed that they're doing something right.
The proof will be in the next whois lookup I do...
Now, I'm not afraid of gameboys. See, I've *met* Boeing safety engineers. Hell, I've quoted em, learned a bit from em. Paranoid doesn't begin to describe them. These guys imagine everything, and implying that they didn't budget for even a miniscule amount of shielding and noise resistance...it's almost insulting.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
I can go you one better than that. I've SEEN the innards and design of lots of the "Black Boxes" that make up the core of modern avionics. I've also seen how the wiring harnesses are put together, and what's being used material-wise.
If this UWB test scrambled something in the CAS or ILS, then either the test itself was seriously flawed or the UWB unit was spewing spurious signals. The avionics "black boxes" themselves are heavily shielded, and the cabling going to the antennas is a type that has two layers of shield braid. Don't even get me started on the grounding systems.
Banning laptops entirely would be far too extreme a measure, one that (as others have pointed out) would tend to piss off an airline's most critical customers. Assuming this test was actually valid, I would say train the flight crews to check for UWB devices and be done with it. Radio transmitters (and some types of receivers) are already prohibited for inflight use. Let's leave it at that.
...is the tightness of focus. There's a LOT more to RF than just digital wireless networking devices, cellphones, etc.
I would hope that the college will include solid background material in RF circuit basics (oscillators, modulation techniques for both digital and analog, power amps, basic antenna theory and practice, receivers and demodulation, etc.) as well as the material on networking.
Failing that, I would hope that they at least encourage the kids to get their ham radio tickets, and to be experimenters. That'll at least get them some hands-on.
(Yes, I'm biased, I admit it. Don't ask about my plate voltage).;-)
She probably made the mistake of trying one of the tricks from this list I wrote up a couple of years back.
TOP TEN WAYS TO ATTRACT AN ASTEROID
10). A horseshoe magnet about the size of the moon, hooked up to an equally large Tesla coil.
9). Find an asteroid slightly smaller than the one you want to attract. Equip it with bikini briefs, a good tan, and a wonder-bra that would turn Playtex green with envy. Place it in geostationary orbit above your desired target zone, and wait.
8). Lay down a trail of mineral-rich ice crystals from low orbit to the target spot. Hey, asteroids have to eat like anything else...
7). Locate an asteroid in a bad mood. Call it things like "half-rate pebble" and "quartz queer." Duck behind the far side of the planet, and wait.
6). Announce a casting call for the next Bruce Willis space movie.
5). Have at least three Nobel prize-winning scientists announce simultaneously that there's no way any asteroid will ever hit the planet directly. Murphy will do the rest.
4). We have whistles that only dogs can hear. How hard could asteroid whistles be to do?
3). Brew a fresh pot of Columbian Lava. Works every time, but don't tell Juan Valdez (or his burro).
2). Install a 'rock'ing chair at the desired location. Asteroids need a place to rest after dashing all over the solar system.
And the number one asteroid attractant...
1). Boost forty-two thousand metric tons of dinosaur remains into orbit. Attach a large sign that says "HA! Missed the first time!"
Well! This is a most interesting discovery. Let's take a quick trip into the minds of various people in various cultures, and find out just what they've got knocking around in their gray matter.
From the mind of a somewhat suicidal insomniac in San Francisco: Van Halen's "Jump."
From that of a gay preacher in Biloxi, MS: Barry Manilow's "It's a Miracle."
From the neurons of the 3M rep for adhesive products in Irkutsk, Russia: Lionel Richie's "Stuck on you."
A cabbie on the run from Heathrow airport in London to the downtown hotels was found to have "You Picked a Fine Time to Leave me, Loose Wheel" rattling around in his skull (and lug nuts rattling around in his trunk -- pardon me, 'boot').
In Australia, a most sleepless LAN technician, one Arthur 'Sparks' McGill, was startled to find Icehouse's "Electric Blue" firmly embedded in his alpha waves.
Finally, back here in the States, Slashdot's owner, Rob "Commander Taco" Malda surprised no one by having that (in)famous filk track Mr. Compatibility stuck so firmly in his brain stem that not even a jackhammer was able to dislodge it.
That's all for now. Tune in again next week for another installment of "Spot the Looney!"
'Surface plasmonic polaritrons...' Nah, too long. Let's condense it down to something like this...
"Give your laundry that FRESH, SPARKLING, NEGATIVE REFRACTIVE INDEX with Maytag's NEW SURFACE PLASMONITRON!! Yes, you too can have your clothes looking like they got lost in a physics lab for a month, AND REVERSE THEIR POLARITY, all in three easy cycles!!!"
(Read all warning labels before use. Not recommended for cashmere, poodle fur, or llama wool. Batteries most definitely NOT included, minor assembly and Ph.d required. This product is not available in Pakistan).
...that just about every spammer, and many Internet users, tend to forget.
(1): Contrary to popular belief, the Internet is not now, nor has it been since its inception, truly "public domain." It remains today, as it was in its beginning, a vast network of privately-owned systems, data lines, network hardware, etc., the owners of which are gracious enough to allow others to use in exchange for monthly fees appropriate for the specific type of access in question.
(2): The ability to send E-mail is a PRIVILEGE, just like driving. It is not in any way a right, as many (mostly spammers) seem to believe. This privilege is subject to revocation, by ANY SysAdmin who chooses not to receive or pass E-mail traffic from any given sender for any reason.
(3): In the context of spamming, the content is 101% IRRELEVANT. The keyword is CONSENT. I don't care how much spin the political parties put on their spam; They're still selling something (themselves, specifically), and asking for your "payment" in terms of your vote, unless you explicitly asked them, in advance and with foreknowledge of what you were getting into, to receive their spew.
As others have pointed out, any "exceptions" made for political spam will likely set an awful precedent that could legitimize that which is illegitimate to begin with.
Oh, and I will add that any political party that tries to spam me will lose both my vote AND further access to my mail systems. Permanently.
At least it is in some older players. If you're fortunate enough to own a Pioneer DVL-505, 909, or a Pioneer player with similar electronics, Click here for a mod that shows how to make it region-switchable, and another that will kill the Macrovision output on the baseband video side.
I can agree in principle. It would be a Truly Great Thing, I think, if a lot more people learned at least the basics of working with electronics. However, I doubt we'll see hardware mods going "mainstream" any time soon.
Consider that almost any hardware mod done to a DVD player, or just about any other complex electronic device, requires; High-quality soldering equipment (and I'm NOT talking about the cheapie $15 irons at Radio Schaak -- You need a decent Weller or Edsyn soldering station, with a grounded tip and tight temperature control, if you don't want to fry the device you're working on); Knowledge of how to interpret photos of the device being modded; Knowledge of what the various components look like; Knowledge of how to read/interpret electronic schematics (in some cases); Appropriate hand tools (wire cutters, strippers, etc.); Wire-wrap or similar #30 wire; And the manual skill to effectively use all the above.
Given the typical level of DETAILED electronics knowledge and interest present in the consumer arena, and not even getting started on the (approximate) $200-$300 investment in the proper tools, I think you'd have a better chance convincing Joe/Jane Consumer that Osama Bin Laden is a great humanitarian before you'd see hardware mods going truly mainstream.
Even if this laughable bill doesn't become law, the very fact that the MPAA and RIAA are pushing for it is probably going to land the IP address ranges of both companies in an awful lot of locally-maintained E-mail and web proxy blacklists, just on principal alone.
As for their tactics; Any SysAdmin worth their salt can easily detect, isolate, and block a DoS attack at the router level. Such an attack has little effect if the attacking system gets no response whatsoever from the target IP.
In any case, that's really beside the point. The way I see it, this kind of crap has the potential to release a widespread public-relations and consumer backlash that the industry as a whole may never recover from.
Think of it this way: AOL made it a point, for the longest time (they may still be doing so), to plaster everyone they could think of with CDs via mail. There's no reason to assume Our Government would be any different.
In both cases, the solution is the same, and you don't even have to take the CD out of the mailer.
First, place the whole thing in a microwave oven and blast it for about three seconds. Next, mail it back to Lord Protector Ashcroft with a note explaining that you'd found a virus on the disc, and that it has been destroyed to prevent the further spread of such.
If nothing else, it'd be good for the amusement value.
Slashdot Mirror
...And watch the whole scheme blow up the millisecond you conflict with an existing MAC address?
For my part, I would have liked to have seen THG use a true electronic load for their testing. Something from Transistor Devices 'Dynaload' line would, I think, have been a much more accurate (if more expensive) choice than a box full of power resistors.
They should also have used a good O-scope to take a look at the power output waveforms while under load. I've seen a number of cases where a switching supply will look perfectly clean under low-to-medium loads, and then start to spike and freak out under higher loads. 'Tis a nasty thing to behold, and it can cause problems that can drive techs who don't know what to look for absolutely batty.
Also, others have mentioned that PC Power and Cooling was left out of the review for reasons unknown. I would guess that it was price. If so, all I can say is "How highly do you value your hardware?"
Clean and adequate power is the ONE factor that can cause more woes than any other. You can have the slickest quad-processor-super-Linux-cluster-RAID-whatever on the planet, and it won't do you one whit of good if you've got dirty power feeding it.
HF can propagate a heck of a lot farther than most VHF or UHF signals. All you have to get is one dirty transmitter, and Lord only knows how many ham, commercial marine, or aircraft HF frequencies it could mess up. Remember the 'Russian Woodpecker?'
Has anyone considered the question of interference to other services from this 'service?'
For that matter, has anyone considered the value of 'net connectivity as opposed to food, medical care, housing, and decent schools? Don't even get me started on the potential for cultural impact.
Dr. Cerf,
I'm curious about your views on a couple of 'hot-button' topics. First, spam and spammers: How would you choose to deal with the problems created by both, assuming you were in a position to dictate such policy?
Second, building on the first question: One of the positions taken by, apparently, many SysAdmins (myself included) is that the ability to send E-mail is a privilege, not a right (just like driving), and that said privilege is revocable on a per-network basis by the specific system's administrator(s) at any time, and for any reason, primarily because the vast majority of hosts that make up the Internet are privately owned and operated.
What is your take on this position? Valid? Invalid? Somewhere in between? Do you see the sending of E-mail being legislated into a "right" in times to come? (My belief is that, if this happens, the 'net will drown in spam in short order as blocklists become outlawed).
Thanks much.
So what happens if you get the embedded-software equivalent of a BSOD in the transmission controller while trying this stunt?
;-)
Hmmm... simultaneous launch of all four wheels in different directions, perhaps?
Loud complaints and cuss-words from the onboard speech synthesizer?
Noises that would make those in 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' seem reasonable?
Oh, the possibilities!
Seriously! This is right up his alley, considering all the stuff he's gotten to throw off the tops of buildings on past shows.
I can see it now: A Greyhound bus stuffed to the gills with watermelons, cantaloupes, honeydew, casaba, pumpkins, etc., plummeting to earth from multiples of 10K feet...
If nothing else, it would add new meaning to the term 'Fruit shake.'
Keep the peace(es).
No, you're not dumb. Just curious. Curious is a Good Thing.
Although all the *BSD's are based on the same branch of the Unix tree (Berkeley Systems Design, as you may already know), the difference between NetBSD, OpenBSD, and FreeBSD is, at least to my eyes, in the orientation of the particular system involved.
To clarify: NetBSD's orientation has always been to be runnable on as many different hardware architectures as possible, and to be a solid, general-purpose OS for servers and development. So, if your goal is to set up a free *nix OS on, say, a MicroVAX or older NEC RISC machine, NetBSD would be a good choice.
FreeBSD has always been oriented towards the PC platform, hardware-wise, and also seems to be among the more user-friendly of the BSD family. If you're just starting out with BSD, and you don't want to learn the ins and outs of non-PC hardware, FreeBSD is a good choice that will grow with you as you gain (programming) skills.
OpenBSD has always had one, single, simple focus: Security. Its aim is to be secure right out of the box. Default installations are locked down tight, port and service-wise, until you actually go in and enable what you want to enable. OpenBSD's other strength is that it is rapidly gaining on NetBSD where being able to run on many different hardware platforms is concerned.
If you're setting up a machine to be a firewall/router, or a -very- secure server, OpenBSD will do the trick.
Hope that helps. Keep the peace(es).
Forging the 'From:' header is one of the most common spammer tactics known. If the guy's server responds to such a forgery by sending the forged message out to the world, then yes, he is indeed running an open relay EVEN IF it won't forward messages from, say, 'spammer@here.com.'
Any mail server worth its salt needs to look at more than just the 'From:' header. It needs to look at the originating IP address of the machine trying to send the message. If said address is not part of the mail server's local domain, the traffic should be rejected with extreme prejudice.
The article reads very much like a whine from someone who doesn't know enough about how a mail server works (or is supposed to work) to be running one; "Those Evil Censorous (sp?) Anti-Spam Nazis forged my domain name and cracked into my system! How dare they?! Even though it's the same trick a spammer might pull, how dare they?!"
This guy needs to get a clue. Quickly. In fact, I'm going to make sure to block his server out of mine when I get in tonight.
...this will likely turn out to be for the used computer industry. All those older, but non-DRM'd, machines are probably going to be in great demand when this whole Palladium thing goes into effect.
Keep those old systems, OS's, and applications, folks. You may well end up being deeply thankful that you did!
If NASA's budget is hurting so badly, why not swallow a bit of pride and recruit help from fans of the space program who may also happen to be hardware and software engineers?
Perhaps the crew at, say, ham radio organizations like AMSAT, or other groups that already combine volunteer engineering effort with an interest in space exploration, would be happy to help out with modernizing the systems. I wonder if anyone's asked them?
NASA would, of course, keep enough engineering staff around to check the improvements out, but why limit themselves to paid labor if the resource to pay is drying up?
It's a lot more than that. I've lost count of how many spammer domains I've tried to trace, only to be stopped cold by bogus registration info that, despite such being clearly prohibited by NetSol's terms of service, they never do anything about.
I used to think ICANN wasn't good for anything more than demonstrating how political infighting and empire-building quickly take the place of serving the common interests (of the Internet's users). Now, though, I find myself actually amazed that they're doing something right.
The proof will be in the next whois lookup I do...
Dan Kaminsky writes...
Now, I'm not afraid of gameboys. See, I've *met* Boeing safety engineers. Hell, I've quoted em, learned a bit from em. Paranoid doesn't begin to describe them. These guys imagine everything, and implying that they didn't budget for even a miniscule amount of shielding and noise resistance...it's almost insulting.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
I can go you one better than that. I've SEEN the innards and design of lots of the "Black Boxes" that make up the core of modern avionics. I've also seen how the wiring harnesses are put together, and what's being used material-wise.
If this UWB test scrambled something in the CAS or ILS, then either the test itself was seriously flawed or the UWB unit was spewing spurious signals. The avionics "black boxes" themselves are heavily shielded, and the cabling going to the antennas is a type that has two layers of shield braid. Don't even get me started on the grounding systems.
Banning laptops entirely would be far too extreme a measure, one that (as others have pointed out) would tend to piss off an airline's most critical customers. Assuming this test was actually valid, I would say train the flight crews to check for UWB devices and be done with it. Radio transmitters (and some types of receivers) are already prohibited for inflight use. Let's leave it at that.
...is the tightness of focus. There's a LOT more to RF than just digital wireless networking devices, cellphones, etc.
;-)
I would hope that the college will include solid background material in RF circuit basics (oscillators, modulation techniques for both digital and analog, power amps, basic antenna theory and practice, receivers and demodulation, etc.) as well as the material on networking.
Failing that, I would hope that they at least encourage the kids to get their ham radio tickets, and to be experimenters. That'll at least get them some hands-on.
(Yes, I'm biased, I admit it. Don't ask about my plate voltage).
Why do you think I had trouble taking the report seriously? ;-)
She probably made the mistake of trying one of the tricks from this list I wrote up a couple of years back.
TOP TEN WAYS TO ATTRACT AN ASTEROID
10). A horseshoe magnet about the size of the moon, hooked up to an equally large Tesla coil.
9). Find an asteroid slightly smaller than the one you want to attract. Equip it with bikini briefs, a good tan, and a wonder-bra that would turn Playtex green with envy. Place it in geostationary orbit above your desired target zone, and wait.
8). Lay down a trail of mineral-rich ice crystals from low orbit to the target spot. Hey, asteroids have to eat like anything else...
7). Locate an asteroid in a bad mood. Call it things like "half-rate pebble" and "quartz queer." Duck behind the far side of the planet, and wait.
6). Announce a casting call for the next Bruce Willis space movie.
5). Have at least three Nobel prize-winning scientists announce simultaneously that there's no way any asteroid will ever hit the planet directly. Murphy will do the rest.
4). We have whistles that only dogs can hear. How hard could asteroid whistles be to do?
3). Brew a fresh pot of Columbian Lava. Works every time, but don't tell Juan Valdez (or his burro).
2). Install a 'rock'ing chair at the desired location. Asteroids need a place to rest after dashing all over the solar system.
And the number one asteroid attractant...
1). Boost forty-two thousand metric tons of dinosaur remains into orbit. Attach a large sign that says "HA! Missed the first time!"
(There go my karma points...)
Well! This is a most interesting discovery. Let's take a quick trip into the minds of various people in various cultures, and find out just what they've got knocking around in their gray matter.
From the mind of a somewhat suicidal insomniac in San Francisco: Van Halen's "Jump."
From that of a gay preacher in Biloxi, MS: Barry Manilow's "It's a Miracle."
From the neurons of the 3M rep for adhesive products in Irkutsk, Russia: Lionel Richie's "Stuck on you."
A cabbie on the run from Heathrow airport in London to the downtown hotels was found to have "You Picked a Fine Time to Leave me, Loose Wheel" rattling around in his skull (and lug nuts rattling around in his trunk -- pardon me, 'boot').
In Australia, a most sleepless LAN technician, one Arthur 'Sparks' McGill, was startled to find Icehouse's "Electric Blue" firmly embedded in his alpha waves.
Finally, back here in the States, Slashdot's owner, Rob "Commander Taco" Malda surprised no one by having that (in)famous filk track Mr. Compatibility stuck so firmly in his brain stem that not even a jackhammer was able to dislodge it.
That's all for now. Tune in again next week for another installment of "Spot the Looney!"
Geez, guy, take a chill-pill. The answer is even simpler than you thought.
God CREATED the process of Evolution, along with the rest of the MULTIverse.
Criminys, some people...
Ha! New words to play with. Let's see here...
;-)
'Surface plasmonic polaritrons...' Nah, too long. Let's condense it down to something like this...
"Give your laundry that FRESH, SPARKLING, NEGATIVE REFRACTIVE INDEX with Maytag's NEW SURFACE PLASMONITRON!! Yes, you too can have your clothes looking like they got lost in a physics lab for a month, AND REVERSE THEIR POLARITY, all in three easy cycles!!!"
(Read all warning labels before use. Not recommended for cashmere, poodle fur, or llama wool. Batteries most definitely NOT included, minor assembly and Ph.d required. This product is not available in Pakistan).
Ok... who else wants to contribute?
...that just about every spammer, and many Internet users, tend to forget.
(1): Contrary to popular belief, the Internet is not now, nor has it been since its inception, truly "public domain." It remains today, as it was in its beginning, a vast network of privately-owned systems, data lines, network hardware, etc., the owners of which are gracious enough to allow others to use in exchange for monthly fees appropriate for the specific type of access in question.
(2): The ability to send E-mail is a PRIVILEGE, just like driving. It is not in any way a right, as many (mostly spammers) seem to believe. This privilege is subject to revocation, by ANY SysAdmin who chooses not to receive or pass E-mail traffic from any given sender for any reason.
(3): In the context of spamming, the content is 101% IRRELEVANT. The keyword is CONSENT. I don't care how much spin the political parties put on their spam; They're still selling something (themselves, specifically), and asking for your "payment" in terms of your vote, unless you explicitly asked them, in advance and with foreknowledge of what you were getting into, to receive their spew.
As others have pointed out, any "exceptions" made for political spam will likely set an awful precedent that could legitimize that which is illegitimate to begin with.
Oh, and I will add that any political party that tries to spam me will lose both my vote AND further access to my mail systems. Permanently.
Keep the peace(es).
...is (I think): "Remaining Intelligence Abruptly Atrophied."
/. creativity! ;-)
Or perhaps "Real Idiots After Angst?"
How about "Robots Inventing Angular Alternators?"
C'mon... I'm not the only one who can think these up. Let's see some of that
At least it is in some older players. If you're fortunate enough to own a Pioneer DVL-505, 909, or a Pioneer player with similar electronics, Click here for a mod that shows how to make it region-switchable, and another that will kill the Macrovision output on the baseband video side.
I can agree in principle. It would be a Truly Great Thing, I think, if a lot more people learned at least the basics of working with electronics. However, I doubt we'll see hardware mods going "mainstream" any time soon.
Consider that almost any hardware mod done to a DVD player, or just about any other complex electronic device, requires; High-quality soldering equipment (and I'm NOT talking about the cheapie $15 irons at Radio Schaak -- You need a decent Weller or Edsyn soldering station, with a grounded tip and tight temperature control, if you don't want to fry the device you're working on); Knowledge of how to interpret photos of the device being modded; Knowledge of what the various components look like; Knowledge of how to read/interpret electronic schematics (in some cases); Appropriate hand tools (wire cutters, strippers, etc.); Wire-wrap or similar #30 wire; And the manual skill to effectively use all the above.
Given the typical level of DETAILED electronics knowledge and interest present in the consumer arena, and not even getting started on the (approximate) $200-$300 investment in the proper tools, I think you'd have a better chance convincing Joe/Jane Consumer that Osama Bin Laden is a great humanitarian before you'd see hardware mods going truly mainstream.
...what they're about to unleash.
Even if this laughable bill doesn't become law, the very fact that the MPAA and RIAA are pushing for it is probably going to land the IP address ranges of both companies in an awful lot of locally-maintained E-mail and web proxy blacklists, just on principal alone.
As for their tactics; Any SysAdmin worth their salt can easily detect, isolate, and block a DoS attack at the router level. Such an attack has little effect if the attacking system gets no response whatsoever from the target IP.
In any case, that's really beside the point. The way I see it, this kind of crap has the potential to release a widespread public-relations and consumer backlash that the industry as a whole may never recover from.
Perhaps the developers could dub one of the shared libraries .BUTTERFLY. Then, at least, the users of .NET would have something to chase.
(There go my karma points...)
Think of it this way: AOL made it a point, for the longest time (they may still be doing so), to plaster everyone they could think of with CDs via mail. There's no reason to assume Our Government would be any different.
In both cases, the solution is the same, and you don't even have to take the CD out of the mailer.
First, place the whole thing in a microwave oven and blast it for about three seconds. Next, mail it back to Lord Protector Ashcroft with a note explaining that you'd found a virus on the disc, and that it has been destroyed to prevent the further spread of such.
If nothing else, it'd be good for the amusement value.