I suppose the GNOME/KDE battle will cause it's share of political consideration in the group, and (as a Debian user) I'm thrilled to see their participation. However, they really don't fit in with the rest of the group, and (knowing how groups work) I wonder if they can really make the case for truly free software while being outnumbered 19 to 3 (assuming Gnome and Cygnus will also strongly advocate for the FSF. just concerned- ~luge
Good point about the continued existence, I suppose...:)
But as far as the campus-nazi jibe- look, it would be one thing if Linus weren't involved. At that point, the corporate types can get together and pontificate all they want. None of us have to listen, and they might even have some useful and non-self serving things to say. (Though I remain concerned about global warming as a result of corporate hot air.)
However, if Linus is lending his name, or more importantly his ears, then I am concerned that this group might have an undue level of influence with him and others. A group that claims to speak for all of us while actually only representing a small fraction of us is dangerous. It's not nazi-like to demand representation, if you recall your American history... ~luge
I mean, I hate to start that old flame war up again, but it'd be nice if there were more than one "free speech" advocate on the board- or even anyone with a political agenda at all. While I generally agree with RMS, this board (which seems mainly corporate) doesn't even have an OSI representative- so the politics of free software are likely to be completely swamped by making money, which is undeniably Corel's goal. Even if you don't agree about the politics, we must remember that there *are* politics to this- we *are* trying to change the way people think and do business, not just provide a new method by which the old forms can attempt to make profits. ~luge
If it is encrypted in "plain text," i.e., if you use standard ASCII characters (as the original post suggested with the 65536 word library) instead of in straight bits, as most encryption does, their computers will first look at it as text. This is what (presumably) would get their attention, since it would create hits in their Dictionary computer (which has been mentioned in earlier pieces about the Australian admission.) After they figured that out, the 7-bit encryption proposed would pose a nearly negligible challenge to their systems. It would be much more challenging (to them) if we ALL used words like assasination in our docs. That would strain the automated side of the system (the dictionary) requiring them to either use a human to read every email that used the word assasination (unlikely, if we all did it) or give up entirely. I think that would be the practical effects (if any) of the original proposal.
Practically speaking, if you want to make a difference, including phrases like assasination, Bill Clinton, and KKK (or NAACP!) in your.sig file, so that they are forced to expend precious time reading your (presumably harmless) mail, since their computers will have flagged it as "dangerous" because of the (context-free) words. ~luge
Hell, you wouldn't even need to use real encryption- you could just use "assasination" for a, "terrorism" for t, etc., so on, so forth. Much simpler to implement, and probably just as annoying (if the words are well chosen and randomized so that it can't pick up on those patterns.) ~luge
What I don't understand is why real (read: more than a handful of readers/viewers) news sources haven't picked up on this? Anyone out there with news contacts want to get the word out? Or explain why this isn't front page on CNN, which loves to complain about the CIA but never says much about the NSA? I really generally think conspiracy theory buffs are usually nuts, but this is the case that might finally push me to their side. ~luge
Most of my gaming friends (and by that I mean the Windows and Mac users, since there is yet no such thing as a gaming Linux user(which we both seem to agree is too bad)) never ever buy games at stores. They know you can get stuff cheaply and quickly on-line. Ordering online is not a geek thing- it's a "I care about how I spend my money" thing. Most of them would probably be offended that you've just labeled them a geek.
Frankly, i think retail is going to die a slow death as more and more people get on line, but that's for another thread.
If you'd read the website, it's quite clear that the game is available online. (Not to mention at LinuxExpo, which is where mine is from.) It is difficult to build up distribution channels for a small company, especially when most retailers are still scared of Linux products. Id is a big damn company with a solid reputation- it could package John Carmack's used toilet paper and have it on the shelf tomorrow. Smaller companies like Lokisoft need more time. Besides, if you can't be bothered to order it online, then it really shouldn't matter that much to you aynway.
In my (very limited) freeciv experience, this only works with people you are tight with- not the anonymous trans-continental free-for-alls that Quake players are used to. You have to set aside a fixed amount of time each night (or weekend) and save every time. You just can't do it in a stretch, really... ~luge
More power to them for holding out until the patch works. I certainly wouldn't want to complain if that is the hold-up. However, considering how many nights of sleep I plan on losing to this game, I think they should lose a couple for my benefit:) ~luge P.S. It's also going to be the first piece of software I've actually bought in nearly three years. That should count for something, shouldn't it?
Does anyone else know when this is coming out? I haven't even bothered to play yet- the game is way too addictive for me to justify playing it until it is a social activity. (i.e., until my glibc 2.1 machine can communicate with my glibc 2.1 and windows friends.) ~luge
Dunno... do you know anyone who could turn down an offer from Transmeta? Besides, we all know that having Linux running on your platform from the day it is released is not 1/2 as important as running Quake in the office before release:)
After the moderation of the entire first Raster thread devolved into "if your name is known, we'll bump you up to a five," it's sort of ironic that a funny post by a well-known name not only doesn't get upgraded, but bumped down to a -1. Ahh, the vagaries of moderation. Wonder where this one will go? ~luge
I agree. I always browse at -1, but being ridiculously offtopic (or even substantially tasteless) is one thing, while obscenity of this level probably deserves to get completely bumped. I like the thought of letting only moderators see them. Rob???
... is that the official MIT web page has a link to this on their front page. I don't know about other schools, but Duke has a pole shoved so far up it's a** that if we pulled anything like that, not only would we be arrested, the school would do everything in their power to suppress the news. No way it would stay up for a day- much less make it to the school's front page. Argh... if only I could tolerate cold:) ~luge
It's the lights that really suck. They do it cause they have those really comfy "love seats" with raisable armrests, though. Those "snotty teenagers" would be all over each other if it weren't for the lights. Oh well... tradeoffs. I'll be catching it at the Wynnsong in Durham. ~luge
Uhuh. I love Debian, but a Pentium optimized version would be very nice (help me squeeze the last few drops out of my P166). It could take the form of an additional option in the Architecture field. Wouldn't be that hard to do, I don't think. But then again, that's probably why I only lurk on debian-policy:) ~luge
While this does look like a Good Thing(tm), the motivations behind it are not pure, and thus the details really ought to get a lot of scrutiny. The question others have asked ("are there lots of geeks in virginia?") is not the right question.
The question must be "are there rich, corporate geeks in Virginia?" The answer is yes- AOL. Under the terms of the bill, AOL gets a lot of benefits. The bill makes sure that it has full access to cable modems- who is going to pay for an ISP and AOL? It passes the buck on spam problems, making it the responsibility of the District Attorney instead of their tech staff (AOL just fired 1/2 their anti-spam staff. Coincidence?) Those are just the obvious benefits to AOL- I'm sure there are others to be found in a more detailed reading of the bill.
The bill does serve some important functions- but the devil is in the details. And if this is AOL's bill (which I'd guess it is) then the details are likely to favor AOL and not us. ~luge
Are you looking for the LDP? It's still there (along with the rest of sunsite) at http://metalab.unc.edu. Has never left, AFAIK:) ~luge (A frustrated Blue Devil who is constantly embittered that something as cool as metalab is at a place as lame as UNC-Chapel Hell:)
linuxperf is empty at the moment, but instead of just soliciting links (which is easy and will likely yield pretty useless results) they actually have a development model and have people working on creating docs specifically for them. It's true, very few of them are up yet, but with vastly different methods, they are going to take a little more time to get results. I think it'll be worth it. ~luge
Slashdot Mirror
I suppose the GNOME/KDE battle will cause it's share of political consideration in the group, and (as a Debian user) I'm thrilled to see their participation. However, they really don't fit in with the rest of the group, and (knowing how groups work) I wonder if they can really make the case for truly free software while being outnumbered 19 to 3 (assuming Gnome and Cygnus will also strongly advocate for the FSF.
just concerned-
~luge
Good point about the continued existence, I suppose... :)
But as far as the campus-nazi jibe- look, it would be one thing if Linus weren't involved. At that point, the corporate types can get together and pontificate all they want. None of us have to listen, and they might even have some useful and non-self serving things to say. (Though I remain concerned about global warming as a result of corporate hot air.)
However, if Linus is lending his name, or more importantly his ears, then I am concerned that this group might have an undue level of influence with him and others. A group that claims to speak for all of us while actually only representing a small fraction of us is dangerous. It's not nazi-like to demand representation, if you recall your American history...
~luge
I mean, I hate to start that old flame war up again, but it'd be nice if there were more than one "free speech" advocate on the board- or even anyone with a political agenda at all. While I generally agree with RMS, this board (which seems mainly corporate) doesn't even have an OSI representative- so the politics of free software are likely to be completely swamped by making money, which is undeniably Corel's goal. Even if you don't agree about the politics, we must remember that there *are* politics to this- we *are* trying to change the way people think and do business, not just provide a new method by which the old forms can attempt to make profits.
~luge
RMS works out of santa fe? ye gads, the place is even cooler than I thought...
~luge
Actually, Katz is a former TV exec, IIRC... CBS, I think...
~luge
If it is encrypted in "plain text," i.e., if you use standard ASCII characters (as the original post suggested with the 65536 word library) instead of in straight bits, as most encryption does, their computers will first look at it as text. This is what (presumably) would get their attention, since it would create hits in their Dictionary computer (which has been mentioned in earlier pieces about the Australian admission.) After they figured that out, the 7-bit encryption proposed would pose a nearly negligible challenge to their systems. It would be much more challenging (to them) if we ALL used words like assasination in our docs. That would strain the automated side of the system (the dictionary) requiring them to either use a human to read every email that used the word assasination (unlikely, if we all did it) or give up entirely. I think that would be the practical effects (if any) of the original proposal.
.sig file, so that they are forced to expend precious time reading your (presumably harmless) mail, since their computers will have flagged it as "dangerous" because of the (context-free) words.
Practically speaking, if you want to make a difference, including phrases like assasination, Bill Clinton, and KKK (or NAACP!) in your
~luge
Hell, you wouldn't even need to use real encryption- you could just use "assasination" for a, "terrorism" for t, etc., so on, so forth. Much simpler to implement, and probably just as annoying (if the words are well chosen and randomized so that it can't pick up on those patterns.)
~luge
What I don't understand is why real (read: more than a handful of readers/viewers) news sources haven't picked up on this? Anyone out there with news contacts want to get the word out? Or explain why this isn't front page on CNN, which loves to complain about the CIA but never says much about the NSA? I really generally think conspiracy theory buffs are usually nuts, but this is the case that might finally push me to their side.
~luge
Glad to know I'm not the only one who remembers that horrible little line...
Most of my gaming friends (and by that I mean the Windows and Mac users, since there is yet no such thing as a gaming Linux user(which we both seem to agree is too bad)) never ever buy games at stores. They know you can get stuff cheaply and quickly on-line. Ordering online is not a geek thing- it's a "I care about how I spend my money" thing. Most of them would probably be offended that you've just labeled them a geek.
Frankly, i think retail is going to die a slow death as more and more people get on line, but that's for another thread.
If you'd read the website, it's quite clear that the game is available online. (Not to mention at LinuxExpo, which is where mine is from.) It is difficult to build up distribution channels for a small company, especially when most retailers are still scared of Linux products. Id is a big damn company with a solid reputation- it could package John Carmack's used toilet paper and have it on the shelf tomorrow. Smaller companies like Lokisoft need more time. Besides, if you can't be bothered to order it online, then it really shouldn't matter that much to you aynway.
In my (very limited) freeciv experience, this only works with people you are tight with- not the anonymous trans-continental free-for-alls that Quake players are used to. You have to set aside a fixed amount of time each night (or weekend) and save every time. You just can't do it in a stretch, really...
~luge
They didn't include autosave in the game? Not to knock on the original writers, but damn... even Civ I had autosave!
~luge
More power to them for holding out until the patch works. I certainly wouldn't want to complain if that is the hold-up. However, considering how many nights of sleep I plan on losing to this game, I think they should lose a couple for my benefit :)
~luge
P.S. It's also going to be the first piece of software I've actually bought in nearly three years. That should count for something, shouldn't it?
Does anyone else know when this is coming out? I haven't even bothered to play yet- the game is way too addictive for me to justify playing it until it is a social activity. (i.e., until my glibc 2.1 machine can communicate with my glibc 2.1 and windows friends.)
~luge
Let the newbies remain ignorant :) The rest of us know...
~luge
Dunno... do you know anyone who could turn down an offer from Transmeta? Besides, we all know that having Linux running on your platform from the day it is released is not 1/2 as important as running Quake in the office before release :)
After the moderation of the entire first Raster thread devolved into "if your name is known, we'll bump you up to a five," it's sort of ironic that a funny post by a well-known name not only doesn't get upgraded, but bumped down to a -1. Ahh, the vagaries of moderation. Wonder where this one will go?
~luge
I agree. I always browse at -1, but being ridiculously offtopic (or even substantially tasteless) is one thing, while obscenity of this level probably deserves to get completely bumped. I like the thought of letting only moderators see them. Rob???
... is that the official MIT web page has a link to this on their front page. I don't know about other schools, but Duke has a pole shoved so far up it's a** that if we pulled anything like that, not only would we be arrested, the school would do everything in their power to suppress the news. No way it would stay up for a day- much less make it to the school's front page. Argh... if only I could tolerate cold :)
~luge
It's the lights that really suck. They do it cause they have those really comfy "love seats" with raisable armrests, though. Those "snotty teenagers" would be all over each other if it weren't for the lights. Oh well... tradeoffs. I'll be catching it at the Wynnsong in Durham.
~luge
Uhuh. I love Debian, but a Pentium optimized version would be very nice (help me squeeze the last few drops out of my P166). It could take the form of an additional option in the Architecture field. Wouldn't be that hard to do, I don't think. But then again, that's probably why I only lurk on debian-policy :)
~luge
While this does look like a Good Thing(tm), the motivations behind it are not pure, and thus the details really ought to get a lot of scrutiny.
The question others have asked ("are there lots of geeks in virginia?") is not the right question.
The question must be "are there rich, corporate geeks in Virginia?" The answer is yes- AOL. Under the terms of the bill, AOL gets a lot of benefits. The bill makes sure that it has full access to cable modems- who is going to pay for an ISP and AOL? It passes the buck on spam problems, making it the responsibility of the District Attorney instead of their tech staff (AOL just fired 1/2 their anti-spam staff. Coincidence?) Those are just the obvious benefits to AOL- I'm sure there are others to be found in a more detailed reading of the bill.
The bill does serve some important functions- but the devil is in the details. And if this is AOL's bill (which I'd guess it is) then the details are likely to favor AOL and not us.
~luge
Are you looking for the LDP? It's still there (along with the rest of sunsite) at http://metalab.unc.edu. Has never left, AFAIK :) :)
~luge
(A frustrated Blue Devil who is constantly embittered that something as cool as metalab is at a place as lame as UNC-Chapel Hell
linuxperf is empty at the moment, but instead of just soliciting links (which is easy and will likely yield pretty useless results) they actually have a development model and have people working on creating docs specifically for them. It's true, very few of them are up yet, but with vastly different methods, they are going to take a little more time to get results. I think it'll be worth it.
~luge