So you're saying that you, in good conscience, would be able to write software for securing a system, and not care if it actually does that? I suppose it depends on your definition of 'essential purpose.' Where I come from, it's not an unreasonable demand to expect software to do what the manufacturer says it will do. Correct me if I'm wrong, or argue with me anyway, but don't lie to me about what your product will do.
Speaking of all this, did anyone ever have an 'optical' mouse for the old Apple II/*? Not sure if it's the same technology...actually, I almost certain it isn't. It required a reflective mousepad, I think. Or maybe they just thought it looked cool, I don't know. Now that, my friends, was a real mouse. One button...practically no software that supported it...annoying, puzzling motion...ah, the memories.
True; there are a wide variety of defenses for combatting such biological agents. They're basically the same concept as other biological weapons, namely airborne microscopic weapons. It would be difficult to make them a successful military option, but they would be perfect for terrorism, which doesn't care who is the target. Besides, who wants to go around all the time with UV lamps everywhere, or spray bottles of bleach? Not me. I suppose everyone could be vaccinated with 'defensive' nanites, designed to seek and destroy only other invading nanites....interesting.
Remember, nobody gets injected with anything for an anthrax or botulism bio warfare attack...
Good article, I especially liked the silicon bubble thingy acting like a shield that the antibodies can't get through. Of course, they didn't bring up something I thought of instantly...
If you can build a synthetic, ultra-small device capable of getting past all immune defense and infiltrating the cell, that's used exclusively for health and medical purposes, great. Bring it on. But why would thousands of researchers be interested solely in healthy applications? Something that can just breeze its way into the body's cells and muck about with the genes has an utterly fantastic potential for carnage, the likes of which this world has never seen. Can you imagine? Even simple changes, like instructing the liver to produce extremely toxic things, are just plain dastardly. And that's without even a little imagination. Jeez.
I wanted meat, I wanted guts, I wanted science... and I got fluff.
Come on...if you noticed, it's the Sydney Morning Herald. Do you really think they're that interested in boring the majority of their readers into a coma? I'm not saying I wouldn't enjoy a chance to read some meat and guts in an interview with him, but try and be a little realistic. I seriously doubt that most Sydney residents would care about the details of theoretical physics, his forte. Be happy with what you get, ungrateful wretch.;-)
...I'd be well happy to have a device that automatically set my cruise control to whatever the current stupid speed limit is.
....
...I recall an Arthur C.Clarke story where it was illegal to drive a manually controlled car - only computer controlled/coordinated vehicles were allowed. Does that make the paranoid faction amongst the Slashdot crowd any happier about accepting this development?
If the point of driving cars was to get from point A to point B, points A and B being pre-defined, I might be inclined to agree with you. This is obviously not the case. When I get in my car, I think, ok, I'm driving here, and from then on, a thousand small variables influence how fast, what direction, etc., I choose to drive. Besides, surrendering control for safety is almost never the right answer. I usually end up misquoting people, but I think it was either Ben Franklin or Thomas Jefferson (one of those elder statesmen, anyway) who said something to the effect of "Anyone willing to trade freedom for security deserves neither."
Please remember that all court cases are determined by the judge examining the wallets of the opposing parties. The heavier wallet always wins.
I would like to hear why, then, in your opinion, the judge did not grant a TRO to the plaintiff. I for one find it hard to believe that 30 or so cleaned up local supporters complemented by two EFF lawyers could produce a wallet that outweighed that of the DVD CCA. Grass roots not a valid option?
Unless of course, you were making a funny. That's different.
P.S.- don't no cleaned up locals go get offended...that's my funny.;-)
How many of you really watch movies on your computer?...As someone pointed out yesterday: We could never watch VHS tapes on our computers... what is the huge deal!?
I watch movies on my computer. I happen to enjoy this, but that isn't the issue, nor is your point. The original point was, the technology exists to watch DVD movies on some widely used operating systems, and not on other widely used operating systems. Nor was there any indication that the 'authorized' producers of the decryption software were going to make one available for those unfortunates. So, a bunch of people who disagree that the wealthiest corporations (i.e., Microsoft, for a random example) should be given any more of an advantage, found a way to do a service for others like themselves, and decrypted the damn thing. I won't even go into the whole linking issue...anyway, I'm just saying that the fact that you don't watch DVDs on a computer is no reason to deny this to anyone else. Honestly.
From what I could gather, reading the pPC site (which you should probably read), they're not interested in snapping up cheap CPUs and RAM, at least not the sort you're talking about. Even some old Intel chip with a little low end RAM would be overkill for what this is. And besides, the 'specs' call for it to be the width of three regular pieces of paper, glued together. Not that I'm advancing any ideas to how it would work, but for its intended purposes, it sounds enticing.
I wonder if the MTV execs know that they're evil and manipulative? Or maybe they actually mean well, and it all just falls to pieces, like a romantic comedy. Or maybe they're not actually human at all (in the Socratic sense), and are merely intelligent animals with no sense of moral value.
Jeez, either way I end up wetting myself from fear of the media.
"Did you ever get the feeling that you're being followed?
Are you not familiar with the Book of Revelations of St. John, the final book of the Bible prophesying the apocalypse? It forced everyone to receive a mark on his right hand, or on his forehead, so that no one shall be able to buy, or sell, unless he has the mark, which is the name of the Beast, or the number of his name, and the number of the Beast is '666'. What can such a specific prophecy mean? What is the mark? Well, the mark is the barcode, the ubiquitous barcode that you'll find on every...[product]... and every barcode is divided into two parts by three markers, and those three markers are always represented by the number '6666'. Now, what does it say, no one shall be able to buy, or sell, without that mark! And now, what they're planning to do in order to eradicate all credit card fraud and in order to precipitate a totally cashless society, what they're planning to do, what they've already tested on the american troops, they're going to subcutaneously laser tattoo that mark onto your right hand, or onto your forehead, they're going to replace plastic with flesh! Fact!"
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, yeah, mousepads, shirts, hats, whatever. They're missing out on an incredibly lucrative line of products -
picture, if you will, the Rubber Bandit (tm) condom, proudly adorning the genitalia of engineer/criminal men worldwide.
I love it.
------------------------
The article in a nutshell
-------------------------
Lynne Hale : please fsck off and die.
------------------------
So you're saying that you, in good conscience, would be able to write software for securing a system, and not care if it actually does that? I suppose it depends on your definition of 'essential purpose.' Where I come from, it's not an unreasonable demand to expect software to do what the manufacturer says it will do. Correct me if I'm wrong, or argue with me anyway, but don't lie to me about what your product will do.
Speaking of all this, did anyone ever have an 'optical' mouse for the old Apple II/*? Not sure if it's the same technology...actually, I almost certain it isn't. It required a reflective mousepad, I think. Or maybe they just thought it looked cool, I don't know. Now that, my friends, was a real mouse. One button...practically no software that supported it...annoying, puzzling motion...ah, the memories.
True; there are a wide variety of defenses for combatting such biological agents. They're basically the same concept as other biological weapons, namely airborne microscopic weapons. It would be difficult to make them a successful military option, but they would be perfect for terrorism, which doesn't care who is the target. Besides, who wants to go around all the time with UV lamps everywhere, or spray bottles of bleach? Not me. I suppose everyone could be vaccinated with 'defensive' nanites, designed to seek and destroy only other invading nanites....interesting.
Remember, nobody gets injected with anything for an anthrax or botulism bio warfare attack...
Good article, I especially liked the silicon bubble thingy acting like a shield that the antibodies can't get through. Of course, they didn't bring up something I thought of instantly...
If you can build a synthetic, ultra-small device capable of getting past all immune defense and infiltrating the cell, that's used exclusively for health and medical purposes, great. Bring it on. But why would thousands of researchers be interested solely in healthy applications? Something that can just breeze its way into the body's cells and muck about with the genes has an utterly fantastic potential for carnage, the likes of which this world has never seen. Can you imagine? Even simple changes, like instructing the liver to produce extremely toxic things, are just plain dastardly. And that's without even a little imagination. Jeez.
I wanted meat, I wanted guts, I wanted science... and I got fluff.
;-)
Come on...if you noticed, it's the Sydney Morning Herald. Do you really think they're that interested in boring the majority of their readers into a coma? I'm not saying I wouldn't enjoy a chance to read some meat and guts in an interview with him, but try and be a little realistic. I seriously doubt that most Sydney residents would care about the details of theoretical physics, his forte. Be happy with what you get, ungrateful wretch.
...I'd be well happy to have a device that automatically set my cruise control to whatever the current stupid speed limit is.
...I recall an Arthur C.Clarke story where it was illegal to drive a manually controlled car - only computer controlled/coordinated vehicles were allowed. Does that make the paranoid faction amongst the Slashdot crowd any happier about accepting this development?
....
If the point of driving cars was to get from point A to point B, points A and B being pre-defined, I might be inclined to agree with you. This is obviously not the case. When I get in my car, I think, ok, I'm driving here, and from then on, a thousand small variables influence how fast, what direction, etc., I choose to drive. Besides, surrendering control for safety is almost never the right answer. I usually end up misquoting people, but I think it was either Ben Franklin or Thomas Jefferson (one of those elder statesmen, anyway) who said something to the effect of "Anyone willing to trade freedom for security deserves neither."
Please remember that all court cases are determined by the judge examining the wallets of the opposing parties. The heavier wallet always wins.
;-)
I would like to hear why, then, in your opinion, the judge did not grant a TRO to the plaintiff. I for one find it hard to believe that 30 or so cleaned up local supporters complemented by two EFF lawyers could produce a wallet that outweighed that of the DVD CCA. Grass roots not a valid option?
Unless of course, you were making a funny. That's different.
P.S.- don't no cleaned up locals go get offended...that's my funny.
How many of you really watch movies on your computer?...As someone pointed out yesterday: We could never watch VHS tapes on our computers... what is the huge deal!?
I watch movies on my computer. I happen to enjoy this, but that isn't the issue, nor is your point. The original point was, the technology exists to watch DVD movies on some widely used operating systems, and not on other widely used operating systems. Nor was there any indication that the 'authorized' producers of the decryption software were going to make one available for those unfortunates. So, a bunch of people who disagree that the wealthiest corporations (i.e., Microsoft, for a random example) should be given any more of an advantage, found a way to do a service for others like themselves, and decrypted the damn thing. I won't even go into the whole linking issue...anyway, I'm just saying that the fact that you don't watch DVDs on a computer is no reason to deny this to anyone else. Honestly.
From what I could gather, reading the pPC site (which you should probably read), they're not interested in snapping up cheap CPUs and RAM, at least not the sort you're talking about. Even some old Intel chip with a little low end RAM would be overkill for what this is. And besides, the 'specs' call for it to be the width of three regular pieces of paper, glued together. Not that I'm advancing any ideas to how it would work, but for its intended purposes, it sounds enticing.
I wonder if the MTV execs know that they're evil and manipulative? Or maybe they actually mean well, and it all just falls to pieces, like a romantic comedy. Or maybe they're not actually human at all (in the Socratic sense), and are merely intelligent animals with no sense of moral value.
Jeez, either way I end up wetting myself from fear of the media.
"Did you ever get the feeling that you're being followed?
...[product]... and every barcode is divided into two parts by three markers, and those three markers are always represented by the number '6666'. Now, what does it say, no one shall be able to buy, or sell, without that mark! And now, what they're planning to do in order to eradicate all credit card fraud and in order to precipitate a totally cashless society, what they're planning to do, what they've already tested on the american troops, they're going to subcutaneously laser tattoo that mark onto your right hand, or onto your forehead, they're going to replace plastic with flesh! Fact!"
Are you not familiar with the Book of Revelations of St. John, the final book of the Bible
prophesying the apocalypse? It forced everyone to receive a mark on his right hand, or on his forehead, so that no one shall be able to buy, or sell, unless he has the mark, which is the name of the Beast, or the number of his name, and the number of the Beast is '666'. What can such a specific prophecy mean? What is the mark? Well, the mark is the barcode, the ubiquitous barcode that you'll find on every
Thanks to the Orb!