Games like these are a drug, and as soon as I can come up with the most addictive, time-wasting, costly game, I'll be made for life. I've had a few game addictions in my time, there was allot of cable cutting and CD breaking involved, and now I just feel dirty when I sit down to play something, I feel like im wasting my life by spending an hour on something like that. Its good to keep people tied up in game-playing tho, it clears the board for me!
Ah, so you are saying that if you tried to click on this link: http://www.redcross.org/ there would be no way for you to make a donation? So how exactly does the red-cross get any donations if you pretty much can't link to them unless you say in the link 'do not donate to the read cross by clicking here'?
I think they should have all players registered to the owner^H^H^H^H^H user - it should be required to 'check in' through some kind of net connection or give the user a code every month that they can then give to the manufacturer to prove that the machine is still satisfied that it hasn't been tampered with. Any misuse or missing of a check-in will result in the player being recovered as per the contract, it will then be examined to determine if illegal use has occurred and appropriate legal action will be taken. Before you can play a disk in the machine you must have it registered - this will usually happen at the check-out where your driving license, credit card or other ID will be used to authorise your use of the disk on the central server, to play the disk the machine must contact the central server to check that you have indeed registered this disk - this will also have the added benefit of preventing un-authorised studios from producing disks without paying royalties. Of course each disk will be 'personalised' ie watermarked with a unique serial number in the video stream in such a way as to prevent more than a few seconds being recorded (either by video camera or cable) without the serial number present, this will also apply to the audio track. Any copies can be traced back to the individual who registered the disk - and signed the EULA waiving their legal rights. To begin with, players will be able to play on standard TV sets, however as time progresses, sale of these players will be limited and instead only specially designed TVs or monitors will be able to interface with the players - old players will be re-claimed and replaced under contract. The new TV screens will feature amongst other things, video cameras to monitor the audience for 'screen recording', you may be randomly monitored through the players net connection to ensure you are watching from the correct position and are not recording the screen, you may also be asked to remove items of clothing, lift cushions etc to further prove you have not hidden a camera. Failure to comply with these security measures will result in appropriate legal action as outlined in the EULA. The EULA must be 'accepted' each time a new disk is inserted, just before the mandatory adverts play.
Why is this such a big deal? Just because there's a natural disaster does not mean everyone can drop the guards on their businesses and for example assume no-one will be abusing paypal (just look at the looters). Why does he even need to set-up a paypal donation account when there are countless charities already set-up and waiting to take your donation? Why did he not just link to the Red Cross in the first place, they would get money faster and more people would trust them rather than an unknown web-master. Oh boo fucking whoo paypal are being careful, lets boycott them!
I can understand some of the things they do but raping people? getting violent with each other? shooting at rescue workers and helicopters? that's not poverty. its absolutely true, some cultures live in relative unity that can survive a loss of law and order, others live surrounded by lions cages and when something goes wrong with those cages all shit breaks loose.
i will hazard a guess that all those jamming systems in military radios (warlock?) are just being left on by default by GI-slows. It would be nice to think that this is a conspiracy as it would give the US government credit for being intelligent and organised - alas the reality is that they just didn't do their homework.
For anyone in a similar situation, remember to follow the simple 6 steps:
1. Is your content stolen are copyrighted by someone else itself? If so, tread carefully or use this as an excuse to say you were complying and removing copyrighted material from your site. Don't attempt to modify the content however
2. Is the hot-linker outside your country? This will add another layer of covering your ass, if not then be careful about what you put up
3. Is your website linked to your real identity? obviously if it is you want to bare that in mind, for your reputation and your legal protection.
4. Subtlety is good, if you can make it look like an accident then all the better, but if you want to put your own personal touch in so they know who they are dealing with. Shock tactics (goatse.cx) are great but remember that is likely to lead to legal action when one of their customers tries to sue them so be careful and follow step 5:
5. Use pop-ups if you want plausible deniability. Most people use IE and most IE users have pop-up infested machines anyway - you could always blame it on that and most non-technical people wont challenge it. BTW I said pop-ups, I didn't say how big they should be, take advantage.
6. Don't abuse the target pages copyrighted material, logos etc, don't use javascript to attack their page in any way outside of the given construct of the hot-link, that might be seen as breaking in somehow
I think the most effective thing would have been to replace the game with a single image of a burger being made with a turd.
Most browsers use Adobe Acrobat to display PDF's, its just luck that you have it installed. But the case where other people want to _edit_ documents poses a problem, other people might be from other states or departments etc that don't use OpenOffice. Saying you will only use open formats is one thing, but you absolutely must make sure you have a fully functional way to convert documents between most popular formats and then back again without sacrificing anything.
Erm the film industry has been doing this for the best part of a century with no sign of stopping. Fight scenes, car chases, guns, sex, its all generic and everyone laps it up. Watch 99.99% of film trailers and you will see the exact same formula used every time! random cuts, music building up tempo and intensity, action sequence with loud choir chanting style or fast orchestral as the action gets faster or more intense, the same voice over, the same cliche scenes of people shouting 'noooo' and 'we WILL save xyz' the same 'desparation' the same 'life affirming realisation' - the same climax moment and the same post-climatic smart remark eye-brow acting followed by 'coming soon'.
Im sure in reality they would have an automatic HTML-publishing system. but you can so tell there will be confused people trying to open OpenOffice documents in Word and not understanding why it wont work, and I can't really blame them. There should be a policy to use OO docs internally but always have systems to convert easily for those that want other formats.
A: Hi im trying to read these documents but they wont open on my computer?
B: Well sir you see we here at the Massachusetts IT office have been leading the way to ensure that your tax dollars go to open formats as opposed to restrictive and expensive formats such as those offered by Microsoft.
A: Right... well im using a Windows PC, can I open these?
B: Yes of course, being open and well supported formats you can read them on almost any platform, unlike closed formats that are owned and maintained by companies who will not release tools to view them on alternative systems such as Linux.
A: Ok.. so.. how do I do that?
B: Let me refer you to this website where you can download OpenOffice entirely free of charge sir.
A: Erm right, I really just wanted to open and print these, is this going to take long?
B: Not at all, as long as you have a broadband connection you can download OpenOffice in a few minutes.
A: Isn't there an easier way? Is there no way to open them in Office Vista 2006?
B: Im not sure you are quite following me - these documents are in an open format, they don't work with Microsoft products, you could always download our PDF versions.
A: PDF?
B: Or even our plain-text files, those are missing some tables and diagrams however.
A: Erm I need the tables and diagrams, Is there no way you could 'make' some Office format versions if you have lots of versions anyway?
B: Absolutely not sir, the state of Massachusetts has a strict policy regarding the use of closed-source software and formats.
I think we should spam China with lots of politically sensitive things - basically give their firewall a run for its money and shake things up a bit. But not in a nasty way, make sure all the spam is interesting at least.
yes - they should have produced a dossier first but the officer who was meant to be filming the guy leaving his house so that he could be identified was 'relieving himself' (we're still not sure if that meant taking a piss or something else)
its far more civilised than the alternative approach 'ruffing everyone in the room up until you find the goods and then beating them to within an inch of their lives'
This doesn't actually mean anything except that there are more bimbos than jocks - and that's probably because the jocks have a higher death rate (car crashes, military service etc). A dumb but pretty girl can get further in the world than a dumb but pretty boy which also reduces the incentive.
I think this could ruin any chance of toothing taking off - people will just get sick of the adverts and turn off bluetooth, that and the perceived risk of getting a virus.
You do find so many people who leave their bluetooth on and it can't be by accident - they go to the trouble of naming their access point. Just sit on the bus or train and there will be a few around. The problem is the battery hit and the paranoia - people are reluctant to accept anything incase its a 'virus'. Just start sending out goatse with some big company names printed over it as your very own brand of 'advertising' - i have a feeling that might catch on a bit more.
Lets say you rent an apartment, you have access to the building but if you enter any other apartment than your own you're trespassing. These people attempted to access another apartment in their 'building' (which wasn't their property), it doesn't matter if the password was taped on the back, hell it doesn't matter if the password was saved in the login box, they authorised that user account without permission which is a criminal offence and has been judged by countless clueless courts for so many years that its now precedent. These kids are going to spend time in a pound-me-in-the-ass jail and will now be scarred for life because of what they did. It doesn't matter that their actions caused absolutely no harm and that 9/10 geeks would do the same, the law doesn't see it that way, because the law is insane, what are they going to do about it? nothing, that's what. If i was one of these kids facing several years in jail for absolutely no crime id fucking hang myself, at least that might wake up the legislators.
The precedent has already been set countless times over the last 20 years: Computers are like physical property - if you enter without permission you are breaking and entering no matter if the key is in the door, under the carpet or dangling from a piece of string. Computers are also all multi-million dollar bank and government systems which either control the government or play with billions of dollars a minute - all computers are like this in the eyes of the law it doesn't matter if you are using an iBook, a sidekick or someone's desktop its still a threat to national security or potential theft of millions. Computers are like people: if you access without permission it is rape or assault. All codes and secrets stored on computers are always nuclear codes or corporate secrets that are worth billions, if you attempt in any way to copy, 'crack' or view any such data you are the biggest thief on the planet by default.
These are the precedents that have been set, i don't like them either, just make sure you don't totally fuck over your life by becoming the next legal guinnie pig.
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Games like these are a drug, and as soon as I can come up with the most addictive, time-wasting, costly game, I'll be made for life. I've had a few game addictions in my time, there was allot of cable cutting and CD breaking involved, and now I just feel dirty when I sit down to play something, I feel like im wasting my life by spending an hour on something like that. Its good to keep people tied up in game-playing tho, it clears the board for me!
Ah, so you are saying that if you tried to click on this link: http://www.redcross.org/ there would be no way for you to make a donation? So how exactly does the red-cross get any donations if you pretty much can't link to them unless you say in the link 'do not donate to the read cross by clicking here'?
I think your new DVD player will see no reason to play DVDs in that case. Face it, the public will buy this and you will be left in the dark.
I think they should have all players registered to the owner^H^H^H^H^H user - it should be required to 'check in' through some kind of net connection or give the user a code every month that they can then give to the manufacturer to prove that the machine is still satisfied that it hasn't been tampered with. Any misuse or missing of a check-in will result in the player being recovered as per the contract, it will then be examined to determine if illegal use has occurred and appropriate legal action will be taken. Before you can play a disk in the machine you must have it registered - this will usually happen at the check-out where your driving license, credit card or other ID will be used to authorise your use of the disk on the central server, to play the disk the machine must contact the central server to check that you have indeed registered this disk - this will also have the added benefit of preventing un-authorised studios from producing disks without paying royalties. Of course each disk will be 'personalised' ie watermarked with a unique serial number in the video stream in such a way as to prevent more than a few seconds being recorded (either by video camera or cable) without the serial number present, this will also apply to the audio track. Any copies can be traced back to the individual who registered the disk - and signed the EULA waiving their legal rights. To begin with, players will be able to play on standard TV sets, however as time progresses, sale of these players will be limited and instead only specially designed TVs or monitors will be able to interface with the players - old players will be re-claimed and replaced under contract. The new TV screens will feature amongst other things, video cameras to monitor the audience for 'screen recording', you may be randomly monitored through the players net connection to ensure you are watching from the correct position and are not recording the screen, you may also be asked to remove items of clothing, lift cushions etc to further prove you have not hidden a camera. Failure to comply with these security measures will result in appropriate legal action as outlined in the EULA. The EULA must be 'accepted' each time a new disk is inserted, just before the mandatory adverts play.
Why is this such a big deal? Just because there's a natural disaster does not mean everyone can drop the guards on their businesses and for example assume no-one will be abusing paypal (just look at the looters). Why does he even need to set-up a paypal donation account when there are countless charities already set-up and waiting to take your donation? Why did he not just link to the Red Cross in the first place, they would get money faster and more people would trust them rather than an unknown web-master. Oh boo fucking whoo paypal are being careful, lets boycott them!
I can understand some of the things they do but raping people? getting violent with each other? shooting at rescue workers and helicopters? that's not poverty. its absolutely true, some cultures live in relative unity that can survive a loss of law and order, others live surrounded by lions cages and when something goes wrong with those cages all shit breaks loose.
i will hazard a guess that all those jamming systems in military radios (warlock?) are just being left on by default by GI-slows. It would be nice to think that this is a conspiracy as it would give the US government credit for being intelligent and organised - alas the reality is that they just didn't do their homework.
For anyone in a similar situation, remember to follow the simple 6 steps:
1. Is your content stolen are copyrighted by someone else itself? If so, tread carefully or use this as an excuse to say you were complying and removing copyrighted material from your site. Don't attempt to modify the content however
2. Is the hot-linker outside your country? This will add another layer of covering your ass, if not then be careful about what you put up
3. Is your website linked to your real identity? obviously if it is you want to bare that in mind, for your reputation and your legal protection.
4. Subtlety is good, if you can make it look like an accident then all the better, but if you want to put your own personal touch in so they know who they are dealing with. Shock tactics (goatse.cx) are great but remember that is likely to lead to legal action when one of their customers tries to sue them so be careful and follow step 5:
5. Use pop-ups if you want plausible deniability. Most people use IE and most IE users have pop-up infested machines anyway - you could always blame it on that and most non-technical people wont challenge it. BTW I said pop-ups, I didn't say how big they should be, take advantage.
6. Don't abuse the target pages copyrighted material, logos etc, don't use javascript to attack their page in any way outside of the given construct of the hot-link, that might be seen as breaking in somehow
I think the most effective thing would have been to replace the game with a single image of a burger being made with a turd.
Your kids know the F word, get over it.
I would have linked it to goatse.cx - its the only way to really make a lasting impact.
Most browsers use Adobe Acrobat to display PDF's, its just luck that you have it installed. But the case where other people want to _edit_ documents poses a problem, other people might be from other states or departments etc that don't use OpenOffice.
Saying you will only use open formats is one thing, but you absolutely must make sure you have a fully functional way to convert documents between most popular formats and then back again without sacrificing anything.
Erm the film industry has been doing this for the best part of a century with no sign of stopping. Fight scenes, car chases, guns, sex, its all generic and everyone laps it up. Watch 99.99% of film trailers and you will see the exact same formula used every time! random cuts, music building up tempo and intensity, action sequence with loud choir chanting style or fast orchestral as the action gets faster or more intense, the same voice over, the same cliche scenes of people shouting 'noooo' and 'we WILL save xyz' the same 'desparation' the same 'life affirming realisation' - the same climax moment and the same post-climatic smart remark eye-brow acting followed by 'coming soon'.
Im sure in reality they would have an automatic HTML-publishing system. but you can so tell there will be confused people trying to open OpenOffice documents in Word and not understanding why it wont work, and I can't really blame them. There should be a policy to use OO docs internally but always have systems to convert easily for those that want other formats.
A: Hi im trying to read these documents but they wont open on my computer?
B: Well sir you see we here at the Massachusetts IT office have been leading the way to ensure that your tax dollars go to open formats as opposed to restrictive and expensive formats such as those offered by Microsoft.
A: Right... well im using a Windows PC, can I open these?
B: Yes of course, being open and well supported formats you can read them on almost any platform, unlike closed formats that are owned and maintained by companies who will not release tools to view them on alternative systems such as Linux.
A: Ok.. so.. how do I do that?
B: Let me refer you to this website where you can download OpenOffice entirely free of charge sir.
A: Erm right, I really just wanted to open and print these, is this going to take long?
B: Not at all, as long as you have a broadband connection you can download OpenOffice in a few minutes.
A: Isn't there an easier way? Is there no way to open them in Office Vista 2006?
B: Im not sure you are quite following me - these documents are in an open format, they don't work with Microsoft products, you could always download our PDF versions.
A: PDF?
B: Or even our plain-text files, those are missing some tables and diagrams however.
A: Erm I need the tables and diagrams, Is there no way you could 'make' some Office format versions if you have lots of versions anyway?
B: Absolutely not sir, the state of Massachusetts has a strict policy regarding the use of closed-source software and formats.
A: Hm maybe i'll move to Texas..
I think we should spam China with lots of politically sensitive things - basically give their firewall a run for its money and shake things up a bit. But not in a nasty way, make sure all the spam is interesting at least.
Yes but apple is different, if their phone is white and stylish like their other products, it will sell.
It depends who has the most money to defend their claim in court...
yes - they should have produced a dossier first but the officer who was meant to be filming the guy leaving his house so that he could be identified was 'relieving himself' (we're still not sure if that meant taking a piss or something else)
its far more civilised than the alternative approach 'ruffing everyone in the room up until you find the goods and then beating them to within an inch of their lives'
Didn't you get the memo? that only applies to content that no-one gives a shit about, like old versions of pong?
This doesn't actually mean anything except that there are more bimbos than jocks - and that's probably because the jocks have a higher death rate (car crashes, military service etc). A dumb but pretty girl can get further in the world than a dumb but pretty boy which also reduces the incentive.
I think this could ruin any chance of toothing taking off - people will just get sick of the adverts and turn off bluetooth, that and the perceived risk of getting a virus.
You do find so many people who leave their bluetooth on and it can't be by accident - they go to the trouble of naming their access point. Just sit on the bus or train and there will be a few around. The problem is the battery hit and the paranoia - people are reluctant to accept anything incase its a 'virus'. Just start sending out goatse with some big company names printed over it as your very own brand of 'advertising' - i have a feeling that might catch on a bit more.
Lets say you rent an apartment, you have access to the building but if you enter any other apartment than your own you're trespassing. These people attempted to access another apartment in their 'building' (which wasn't their property), it doesn't matter if the password was taped on the back, hell it doesn't matter if the password was saved in the login box, they authorised that user account without permission which is a criminal offence and has been judged by countless clueless courts for so many years that its now precedent. These kids are going to spend time in a pound-me-in-the-ass jail and will now be scarred for life because of what they did. It doesn't matter that their actions caused absolutely no harm and that 9/10 geeks would do the same, the law doesn't see it that way, because the law is insane, what are they going to do about it? nothing, that's what. If i was one of these kids facing several years in jail for absolutely no crime id fucking hang myself, at least that might wake up the legislators.
The precedent has already been set countless times over the last 20 years: Computers are like physical property - if you enter without permission you are breaking and entering no matter if the key is in the door, under the carpet or dangling from a piece of string. Computers are also all multi-million dollar bank and government systems which either control the government or play with billions of dollars a minute - all computers are like this in the eyes of the law it doesn't matter if you are using an iBook, a sidekick or someone's desktop its still a threat to national security or potential theft of millions. Computers are like people: if you access without permission it is rape or assault. All codes and secrets stored on computers are always nuclear codes or corporate secrets that are worth billions, if you attempt in any way to copy, 'crack' or view any such data you are the biggest thief on the planet by default.
These are the precedents that have been set, i don't like them either, just make sure you don't totally fuck over your life by becoming the next legal guinnie pig.