On most "login required" sites, someone has set up a "cypherpunks" login id, same password. On the NYT site, that used to work, they disabled it, but "cypherpunks01" (same for password) still works.
comparing the Free Software movement to the civil rights movement? That takes some serious nerve...
From the alt.atheism FAQ on constructing a logical argument:
The fallacy of the Extended Analogy often occurs when some suggested general rule is being argued over. The fallacy is to assume that mentioning two different situations, in an argument about a general rule, constitutes a claim that those situations are analogous to each other.
Here's real example from an online debate about anti-cryptography legislation:
"I believe it is always wrong to oppose the law by breaking it."
"Such a position is odious: it implies that you would not have supported Martin Luther King."
"Are you saying that cryptography legislation is as important as the struggle for Black liberation? How dare you!"
I remember reading about something similar to this in a psychologly class in 1988 or so. The idea was for people doing a door-to-door survey asking things like sexual behavior. There's important public health reasons to have the data, but also strong reluctance to give honest answers.
What they did was give the person being polled a spinner, like from a board game. (Remember those, oh you young/.ers? Maybe not...) It was divided in two parts, 2/3 would say "yes" and 1/3 would be "no". The questioner would ask if the person's answer to some yes/no question matched that shown on the spinner (which the questioner couldn't see). You couldn't know what any single person's answer was, but you could do the math and get how many had done what.
The commonly used term is "American", yes. As a/.er and presumed techie, though, you should be well aware that ambigutity in naming is to be frowned upon, and that using the same word to mean "of or pertaining to the United States of America" and "of or pertaining to the Americas" is non-optimal. For example, what are "American interests"?
Thus, many people who are thoughtful users of language are consciously trying to change the common usage. This is a natural part of the evolution of language. Get over it.:-)
How is a car that is 100% powered by gasoline considered an "alternative fuel" vehicle?
Because today's hybrids are going to help build infrastructure and consumer acceptance for tomorrow's really-alternative fuel vehicles.
A hybrid ain't nothin' but an electric car with a built-in generator. Once that basic model is established, you can start to play around with that generator portion - make it fueled by cleaner/renewable fuels, or replace it with power cells.
You don't have to plug it in? Make that, "You CAN'T plug it in!"
Actually, I belive that the Honda Insight can be plugged in to pre-charge up its batteries. I remember seieng some guy on the web who'd hooked up a windmill to his Insight. Of course, he was still mostly gas-powered.
On another note, if this hacker convention is so well publicized, why aren't there hordes of policemen preparing to descend upon the
unsuspecting hackers?
Because being interested in computer security is not (yet) a crime? The attitude may be different, but the content is really no different that what you'd get at a computer security conference.
Wish I could make it, but I've got a full weekend here.
on my Linux laptop. Hardware support isn't all that great for my laptop, but it's manageable.
Let someone else deal with the pain of laptop installation - you can buy pre-loaded Linux laptops from EmperorLinux. I'm typing this on a Sony Vaio w/ RH 7.2 that I bought from them. IMHO, it's worth the extra cost.
Linux on the desktop still needs some serious work before it can become mainstream.
I don't choose to use Linux on my desktop (and my laptop) because it is or isn't mainstream, or because it is or isn't prettier than Windoze or MacOS. I choose to use it because I value freedom.
I actually expand on this idea greatly and driving an older car is my preferred
answer.
I certainly plan to drive the Tercel into the ground, to get the greatest benefit out of the envirmomental cost of its creation. It's creeping up on 130k miles, but it still runs well, has given me very few problems over the past 7 years (and I don't even put in that much effort on maintence).
But I hope that it will be the last conventional gasoline internal-combustion car I own. When the Tercel gives up the ghost, I'll probably be looking for a used hybrid. (Though the TDI concept also sounds interesting and worth a look.)
Isn't there a fundamental problem with biomass fuels, that it would require a large increase in the amount of farmed land?
Since we've got a lot of farmland right now that we're paying people not to farm...and since crops for biomass fuel are generally easier on the soil than food crops...and since a lot of what would otherwise be waste can be converted to biodiesel...I don't think that's a problem.
If he sits there and looks at questions, then inputs his own canned responses to
those questions, is the bot really learning anything on its own?
But, isn't that similar to how a large amount of our conversational activity is learned? Children pick up the "canned" responses of adults.
His point seems to be that this accounts for a large amount of what we talk about every day.
What's the difference between a salesman calling you on the phone to sell you something and spam?
Well, both are evil, and perpitrators of both go to the same circle of hell. But they get different infernal ZIP codes, because spam usually involves fraud (faked headers); and the costs of spam fall more on the recipient than the sender.
There is regulation (at least in the U.S.) of telephone harassment^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hsales calls; they can only be made during certain hours, and the callers have to put you on their "do not call" list upon your request.
There are also legitimate anti-door-to-door soliciting laws - if you put up a "no soliciting" sign, the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Fuller Brush man, and people doing door-to-door political campaining have to stay away. (Hmm, I ought to put one up.) So there is precedent for anti-spam regulation.
What do you think the difference between the two is?
I feel like I'm repeating myself, but...
Mores are strongly held social norms. They are a matter of study for sociologists and cultural anthropologists and the like. They may or may not involve ethically relevent matters. They are associated with a culture. Example: "In 1950s America, interracial dating was outside of cultural mores. In contemporary America, it is generally not (although there are regional and sub-cultural differences)."
Morals are principals of behavior derived from philosophical thought. There are many different ethical systems; as with all matters of philosophy, all claim to be based on sound reasoning, but some are and some aren't. Examples would be Kantian rationalism, supernaturalism ("God says..."), and utilitarianism.
If I had to choose between the life of my child and a life of a complete stranger, then I would sacrifice the stranger to save my child. Find a parent that wouldn't.
Um, that would be any sane one?
If your kid needed a heart transplant, I hope you wouldn't go and kill an innocent child who was a tissue match.
Now, if these two kids were trapped in a burning building and you could only save one, yes, I'd expect that you'd save your kid.
There'a a huge difference between "failing to save" and "sacrificing". We are all, right now, failing to save lives - anyone who's reading this could be giving more to charity, etcetera. But hopefully none of us is right now taking a life.
but in desperate situation, everyone's morals and beliefs would change.
If your ethical system changes when you're in a desperate situation, then you have failed to develop a good ethical system. The whole point of ethics is to ask the question "in what manner shall we live" - if you've failed to take into account that living is sometimes a difficult business, then you haven't considered the question very well at all.
There's this thing called the "food chain". I have the absolute, natural, moral right to eat meat.
If you're going to base your ethical choices on what's "natural", then you have to conclude that theft, warfare, and murder are all perfectly moral, since they occur in nature. If you're going to justify your actions towards non-human animals by "the law of the jungle", you have no room to complain if other humans base their actions towards you based on the same principle.
The distinction between humans and animals comes down to self-aware intelligence, and that's why we put more value on human life than other life.
Other animals display some degree of self-awareness, and not all humans possess it.
A tool to track a spanning tree across network backbones would not be hard to write; the broadcaster is simply the root of the tree.
Please describe the operation of such a tool. Given encrypted communication between nodes, how do you determine from the outside whether any given node is a relay or source?
ISPs (who have the right to
know how you're using their property)
No more so than telephone companies have the "right" to eavesdrop on your conversations, or the post office to read your mail.
...the theft of intellectual property...
Copying is not theft.
fundamentally sound societies have strong processes to ensure their values are respected across all aspects of life
"Fundamentally sound" societies are those that recongize a diversity of values. "Fundamentally sound" societies recognize that sharing information is what makes us human. "Fundamentally sound" societies are not operated for the benefit of media conglomerates.
It is the duty of the most powerful nation to protect its own interests as well as the interests of
If so, then how do we get to start doing that, instead of protecting the interested of the ruling corporations, and actively opposing freedom and democracy?
Slashdot Mirror
On most "login required" sites, someone has set up a "cypherpunks" login id, same password. On the NYT site, that used to work, they disabled it, but "cypherpunks01" (same for password) still works.
I remember reading about something similar to this in a psychologly class in 1988 or so. The idea was for people doing a door-to-door survey asking things like sexual behavior. There's important public health reasons to have the data, but also strong reluctance to give honest answers.
What they did was give the person being polled a spinner, like from a board game. (Remember those, oh you young /.ers? Maybe not...) It was divided in two parts, 2/3 would say "yes" and 1/3 would be "no". The questioner would ask if the person's answer to some yes/no question matched that shown on the spinner (which the questioner couldn't see). You couldn't know what any single person's answer was, but you could do the math and get how many had done what.
And a little creative sabotage is an excellent way to do that.
The commonly used term is "American", yes. As a /.er and presumed techie, though, you should be well aware that ambigutity in naming is to be frowned upon, and that using the same word to mean "of or pertaining to the United States of America" and "of or pertaining to the Americas" is non-optimal. For example, what are "American interests"?
Thus, many people who are thoughtful users of language are consciously trying to change the common usage. This is a natural part of the evolution of language. Get over it. :-)
Maybe not save money, but if the power goes out to your house, being able to run a line out to the car and restore full power would be way cool.
Because today's hybrids are going to help build infrastructure and consumer acceptance for tomorrow's really-alternative fuel vehicles.
A hybrid ain't nothin' but an electric car with a built-in generator. Once that basic model is established, you can start to play around with that generator portion - make it fueled by cleaner/renewable fuels, or replace it with power cells.
Actually, I belive that the Honda Insight can be plugged in to pre-charge up its batteries. I remember seieng some guy on the web who'd hooked up a windmill to his Insight. Of course, he was still mostly gas-powered.Because being interested in computer security is not (yet) a crime? The attitude may be different, but the content is really no different that what you'd get at a computer security conference.
Wish I could make it, but I've got a full weekend here.
Let someone else deal with the pain of laptop installation - you can buy pre-loaded Linux laptops from EmperorLinux. I'm typing this on a Sony Vaio w/ RH 7.2 that I bought from them. IMHO, it's worth the extra cost.
I certainly plan to drive the Tercel into the ground, to get the greatest benefit out of the envirmomental cost of its creation. It's creeping up on 130k miles, but it still runs well, has given me very few problems over the past 7 years (and I don't even put in that much effort on maintence).
But I hope that it will be the last conventional gasoline internal-combustion car I own. When the Tercel gives up the ghost, I'll probably be looking for a used hybrid. (Though the TDI concept also sounds interesting and worth a look.)
I can get 35mpg (combined city and highway) from my 1995 Toyota Tercel! Much cheaper, roomier, and safer too.
But, isn't that similar to how a large amount of our conversational activity is learned? Children pick up the "canned" responses of adults. His point seems to be that this accounts for a large amount of what we talk about every day.
Try to get the average chat user to discuss existential philosophy. I'd say there's a more than even chance you'll get better results from the AI.
Well, both are evil, and perpitrators of both go to the same circle of hell. But they get different infernal ZIP codes, because spam usually involves fraud (faked headers); and the costs of spam fall more on the recipient than the sender.
There is regulation (at least in the U.S.) of telephone harassment^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hsales calls; they can only be made during certain hours, and the callers have to put you on their "do not call" list upon your request.
There are also legitimate anti-door-to-door soliciting laws - if you put up a "no soliciting" sign, the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Fuller Brush man, and people doing door-to-door political campaining have to stay away. (Hmm, I ought to put one up.) So there is precedent for anti-spam regulation.
I feel like I'm repeating myself, but...
Mores are strongly held social norms. They are a matter of study for sociologists and cultural anthropologists and the like. They may or may not involve ethically relevent matters. They are associated with a culture. Example: "In 1950s America, interracial dating was outside of cultural mores. In contemporary America, it is generally not (although there are regional and sub-cultural differences)."
Morals are principals of behavior derived from philosophical thought. There are many different ethical systems; as with all matters of philosophy, all claim to be based on sound reasoning, but some are and some aren't. Examples would be Kantian rationalism, supernaturalism ("God says..."), and utilitarianism.
Um, that would be any sane one?
If your kid needed a heart transplant, I hope you wouldn't go and kill an innocent child who was a tissue match.
Now, if these two kids were trapped in a burning building and you could only save one, yes, I'd expect that you'd save your kid.
There'a a huge difference between "failing to save" and "sacrificing". We are all, right now, failing to save lives - anyone who's reading this could be giving more to charity, etcetera. But hopefully none of us is right now taking a life.
If your ethical system changes when you're in a desperate situation, then you have failed to develop a good ethical system. The whole point of ethics is to ask the question "in what manner shall we live" - if you've failed to take into account that living is sometimes a difficult business, then you haven't considered the question very well at all.If you're going to base your ethical choices on what's "natural", then you have to conclude that theft, warfare, and murder are all perfectly moral, since they occur in nature. If you're going to justify your actions towards non-human animals by "the law of the jungle", you have no room to complain if other humans base their actions towards you based on the same principle.
Other animals display some degree of self-awareness, and not all humans possess it.Please describe the operation of such a tool. Given encrypted communication between nodes, how do you determine from the outside whether any given node is a relay or source?
No more so than telephone companies have the "right" to eavesdrop on your conversations, or the post office to read your mail. Copying is not theft."Fundamentally sound" societies are those that recongize a diversity of values. "Fundamentally sound" societies recognize that sharing information is what makes us human. "Fundamentally sound" societies are not operated for the benefit of media conglomerates.
If so, then how do we get to start doing that, instead of protecting the interested of the ruling corporations, and actively opposing freedom and democracy?