Re:How long 'till they are illegal?
on
Lego Machine Gun
·
· Score: 1
Mister Jones quietly got up and moved towards the planes restroom, taking his briefcase with him. Closing and latching the door, he opened the case and withdrew the harmless lego spaceship within..... With a surgeons skills, he quickly broke down the miniture space craft and reassembled it into a deadly KarrLegaCannon and readed himself to take the cockpit..
The only way digital media can die is by uninventing alot of things.. We're only a few years into the game and look at the mess we've made already.. Some clever musician is teaming up with some clever web geeks right now somewhere, and they'll do a multi-diamond selling album without any physical media without ever getting a major involved... Imagine if Smells Like Children had been net-only.. Inside 10 years, someone will get it together and make some real fame and money off an MP3s.. The whole label system as we know it is toast.. Maybe the first whole industry to fall to the information age, but not the last for sure...
So the quest for space is a quest for the Mind?
on
On to Mars
·
· Score: 1
The point of this article seems to be that the (american) populas needs to start thinking space is cool again.. I agree.. Perhaps it's time to get more communication/media types(weasles) involved.. Given all the other crap people can be whipped into a frenzy over, you'd think space would be an easy sell..
Personally, if I was running NASAs media, I'd take steps to humanize the whole process alot more.. More heros, less robots.. Sell the danger, emphisis every little technical struggle.. It's a war, Us vs. Space..
NASA should look into hiring the agency that handled the gulf war for the military..
Indeed, and it's being won by a bunch of people I have no common language with.. Inside 10 years, only speaking english is probably going to make it extreamly hard to stay current.. Visions of a Snowcrashed west, this is the way.. The rest of the world could just leave our close-source-whoring asses behind..
I'm an athist, and will be first in line for the brain scanner, but...
If I have an AI copy of myself, do I have the right to turn it off?
If I have a copy of someone else, do I have the right to maniplate it's beliefs and alligences to my own ends? Say I got myself a copy of a prof well they wheren't looking, then screwed with the AIs mind to make it my perfect term paper writing slave.. Killer app or horrible mind control? Is the virtual pain of a perfect simulation of a human not the same as the biological pain of the original? Probably not, because a simulation isn't unique.. You can mind fuck your it all you want and when it finally cracks, just load another copy of the sane original, no harm done.. Still, doesn't seem 'right' either...
Technology like this requires alot more then technical advances.. It will require a major advance in the complexity of popular(western anyway) moral thinking.
I'll leave it to the rest of explain why viruses aren't a major problem to Linux.. I'll just(attemt to) say this.
If you log into a Linux box with the most powerful account you have and type rm -rf/* and press enter, will do as much damange to a linux box as any virus could. Recursivly Force Removal of all (/*) files. Account premissions make this kind of power controllable..
Using linux is not the same as using Windows, in fundimental ways. Any parallels that people draw are almost certain to be wrong if you talk to a real expert.
> The dangers posed by one of the few skeletons in existance vanishing into the home of some mega-wealthy moron who wouldn't know the difference between a dinosaur and a dog, are frightening.
Hey, I'm one of those mega-wealthy morons now (thank you IPO money!). Show some respect or my foot soldiers will destory you..:)
Seriously though, relax. It would take whole new levels of rich and moron to buy something like that for an conversation peice. You could get some serious fine art for 5.8 million and that stuff actually appreciates..
Mind you, if you hired some sculpture wiz, it could make a pretty rad throne.
> I held speeds well above 100mph until I got to the next exit a few miles down the road.
Couldn't just get off at the next ramp and drive up on surface streets, that wouldn't impress the lady.. Do that a few more times, you're luck will run out.. Granny merges off the sholder in her 74' LTD, you run up on her slow ass doing over twice the legal limit in the dark.. Ever done a full lockup(breaks to the floor) at 100mph? I hope so, cause the first time is the best..
I suggest you go and race some autocross in that supra before you go on about how safe it is and how you can drive like mario andrette in it..
Evil NSA people are going to track your cars every move and know all your car related secrets.. Personally, that's a big 'so what' for me.. My car will be unstealable and no one will be able to drive like a moron? That's pretty appealing..
Think 100 years down the road.. All cars (or whatever) will be on a universal automatic traffic control system.. It's the only logical way to do it. There is a privacy loss, but personally I think it's acceptable..
The privacy thing is really only an issue because a 'loss' in involved.. Compair it to telephones.. Phones have always been trackable.. 'They' can know who I call, when I call them, and what I say. Yet no one complains too much, and the legal system generally makes it all work out.. As long as as warrent is required to log any single trackers actions, I think I could live with this. If 'they' can convince a judge to tap my car, they could have just as easilly tapped my phone or installed their own bug. If they don't get a judge to sign off, it's not admissable and I walk on the whole deal most likely.
IMO, the payoff is worth the loss.. Lojack would be out of business though. They cost way more then 200 quid.
Besides, I'm totally sick of living in fear that someone in a $200 rust bucket driving like an idiot is going to trash my nice shiney car.. No more speeding teenagers, traffic management that really works, sounds great to me.. Hell, I'd make my car trackable on the web so people could figure out where I am and page me if someone steals it..
"Give me your car." "no." Punch in the face, pulled out, kicked down..
"Give me your car" "Okay." Call police, they track car, swarm with police and shut off the engine via remote... It's like lojacking every car in the country..
Besides, how many car jackings where there in the whole of the UK last year? Insanely few I bet.. How many gun touting car jackers are willing to chase you down and kill you in a car to car shoot out? Zero. How many people would car jack a car with an active satallite tracker and remote shutdown? Zero..
Well a gross privacy loss, this technology wouldn't be all bad by any means..
When it all comes crumbling down, the Gap will closed, permantly...
What are these things like?
on
CFP2000
·
· Score: 1
I've never gone to a privacy con before.. Trade shows(both sides of the booth), hacker cons, but never an academic thing like this.. It's tempting to fork over the bucks just to see Neal Stephenson..Basically, I'm wondering if there is fun to be had beyond sitting around listening to speakers.. What's the enviroment like? (festive, somber, alcoholic, etc)..
So every image that comes out a color laser printer, copier and soon ink jet will have this watermark.. As soon as someone breaks the "secret and proprietary algorithm" we'll be able to figure out what gear was used for every image anywhere; be it in web site or in a magazine... It would be like a whois database for color images..
You'll of course never read this reply to a flame to a lame comment, but since you where so nice and abusive..
I pretty much just assumed the FBI/NSA angle was just an excuse.. The EC is just reminding Intel of its muscle, playing some angle or other.. Do you really think some anyone at the EC really cares about, or even understands the issue? Unlikely.. Probably some political thing over imports or labor..
The displays always have crappy resolution AND are super expensive. If someone would start selling a 640x480x8bpp head mounted display for under $200, we'd be cooking with gas..
If this was say, Ericson or Alcatel instead of Intel, you can bet there would be no such talk.. The fact that Intel is american as apple pie is definitly a factor.. However, if the final outcome is Intel dropping the stupid serial numbers, good..
Mounting it initally stumped me, but it's easy.. Just put then thing on top of another get of free moving bearing with some more to stop it from moving physically in any direction.. The external bearings can stop any horizontal motion without adding too much more friction..
As for the enegry using moving the cover/bag around the corners, I have no idea.. Bearings can lower the amount of friction to almost nothing, but the force needed to streach the cover would stiff be a factor.. Mayeb clever shaope and materials cound fix it, maybe not..
A sphere covered in zillions of tiny bearing with a rubber cover would work perfectly, but as soon as you started flattening the top and bottom to save space it would become..
I wouldn't be surprised is someone out there was figured out a clever way to do a mesh metal belt that can bend at any angle.. That would be worth looking into..
A powerer assist/break in the form of a wheel on a coaster making contact with the cover on the outside is possible too.. Power can overcome stiff belts at the price of freedome of movement, but that's not the end of the world for video games..
I misread that initially as 'mesh ON bearing' which lead me to an idea I will now attempt to work though in a slashdot message.. woo..
Okay, you make a resonably sized floor of metal balls held in bearing packs. You should be able to stand on it and with some balancing or a hard support, walk normally. The friction break idea would help.. So, that gets you fairly free walking in 2d, but tracking that is still the problem. Enter the mesh..
Surround the bearing 'plate' with a strong flexable bag. So between your feet and the balls there is a thin layer of bag material.. I think that would result in a omnidirectional treadmill wouldn't it? Then print the bag some big dark spots and use camera watching the underside to track them.. The balls themselves are totally passive.. Walking on a ball method without the curved floor or having to have a huge ball in your office..
Problems that come to mind..
The bag/cover would have to be made of something strong, flexable and with a fair amount elasticisty, but I'm sure some substance exists..
The energy needed to move the bag around the plate would make each step require more force then normal.. Clever design could hopefully minimize this..
Seems cheap and uncomplex to me.. I'm sure someone has though of this before, but just in case, if anyone builds one, I want a ride (gross points would be nice too)..
There was kind of an extreme set of cirsumstances surrounding that I have heard..
They where basically selling (along with normal mix tapes) tapes that where basically just greatest hits comps. It's a fine line between fair use by some DJ and just setting up a playlist and hitting PLAY/REC.. Several people where actually charged with fruad in this case according to Exclaim.. It's not like these stores where militant about it.. All it would have taken is one phone call from a label lawyer and they would have pulled anything they where told.. It must have gone pretty far to have ended with a raid.
Besides, Play/Buy The Record in Toronto(store in question) has always struck me as kind of a scumhole anyway.. Good selection, but scummy managment.
I'm a (radio) DJ on a collage station here in Ottawa.. IMO, AVLA is one of those self-feeding groups that has very little impact on your average working DJ.. Off the top of my head, I can't think of anyone I know who is a memeber, but I've never asked.. It's like the relationship between the RIAA to your average garage band.. And there are even less rich DJs then rich rock stars.
This decision is just a way to score some ink and political fire for a otherwise tiny and powerless group.. Of course it's already legal to make comps out of CDs you already own, they know that..
They seem to be addressing hardcore 'single' type DJing, where downloading the super fresh singles of the moment off the net and licencing them would be useful.. Maybe in the clubs in london or dancehalls in jamacia, but in canada that scene just isn't much of a factor. Besides, that style of DJing pretty much requires vinyl..
Of course, you can just skip the fee and do it anyway.. The record companies want the exposure anyway, club plays lead to album sales.. That's why they make white labels (pre-releases for DJs).. Our station gets a boat load of free promo-only music every week.. They'd happly pay us $200 to download and play their song, but that's illigal.. Instead they have to give away free trips and prizes and crap.. "Win a trip to blah to see blah contest." Guess who pays for those I'm sure Chris Sheppards life is a non-stop orgy of record company financed sin.
Labels don't care about DJs stealing their hot new singles.. On the other hand, DJs building up a few hundred gigs of mp3s by ripping every CD they can get their hands on and then using that for gigs, that might be a little worrying.. But still, there just aren't enough DJs in Canada for it to matter in term of sales.. DJs have been doing record pools forever..
So basically, this is totally meaningless to everyone I can think of, but I will admit, a tiny step forward and that's still good..
Look for them, they're common at Future Shop here.
They look like your generic per-programmed universal, but past the $30 model, they aren't..
I have a quite old One-For-All Home Theater, cost me $60 CDN some years ago.. Out of the box, it's a fully macroable (any sequence you want, no pauses though), completely redefinable (any key to any code or macro), 6 mode remote..
At one point I mailed it back to All-For-One to get it upgraded for the codes for my obscure Sherwood amp, which they where very good about.. Even sent me a spare before I had to send them the remote.
Final perk, a little 4 pin port hidden inside the battery flap.. This has been hacked by the net now and allows you to make a little cable and interface it to windows or linux in a variety of ways, similar to one of those homebrew IR gizmos.
If you want more then that, I suggest doing the hacked Palm or HP48 thing.
neat hack, but why bother for 8 bit mono sound? Other then pointing at it and going 'neat' it's useless.. I'll listen to tapes before I go back to the Soundblaster8 days..
It's no big deal, and that was a nice letter.. Change the name and let them have their cookie..
As they said, they have a brand image and alot of time and money sunk into it..
It is pretty goofy as the list in question is about as low profile as possible, but how is some lawyer suppost to understand that.. Or some judge..
You've had your fun, add this as a chapter in the list FAQ, move on.. Call the list 'smart_host star wars mickey mouse barbie for sweat'n to the oldies'..
Slashdot Mirror
Mister Jones quietly got up and moved towards the planes restroom, taking his briefcase with him.
Closing and latching the door, he opened the case and withdrew the harmless lego spaceship within..... With a surgeons skills, he quickly broke down the miniture space craft and reassembled it into a deadly KarrLegaCannon and readed himself to take the cockpit..
Next Tom Clancy book?
> Who loses if digital media dies?
The only way digital media can die is by uninventing alot of things.. We're only a few years into the game and look at the mess we've made already.. Some clever musician is teaming up with some clever web geeks right now somewhere, and they'll do a multi-diamond selling album without any physical media without ever getting a major involved... Imagine if Smells Like Children had been net-only.. Inside 10 years, someone will get it together and make some real fame and money off an MP3s.. The whole label system as we know it is toast.. Maybe the first whole industry to fall to the information age, but not the last for sure...
The point of this article seems to be that the (american) populas needs to start thinking space is cool again.. I agree.. Perhaps it's time to get more communication/media types(weasles) involved.. Given all the other crap people can be whipped into a frenzy over, you'd think space would be an easy sell..
Personally, if I was running NASAs media, I'd take steps to humanize the whole process alot more.. More heros, less robots.. Sell the danger, emphisis every little technical struggle.. It's a war, Us vs. Space..
NASA should look into hiring the agency that handled the gulf war for the military..
Indeed, and it's being won by a bunch of people I have no common language with.. Inside 10 years, only speaking english is probably going to make it extreamly hard to stay current.. Visions of a Snowcrashed west, this is the way.. The rest of the world could just leave our close-source-whoring asses behind..
I'm an athist, and will be first in line for the brain scanner, but...
If I have an AI copy of myself, do I have the right to turn it off?
If I have a copy of someone else, do I have the right to maniplate it's beliefs and alligences to my own ends? Say I got myself a copy of a prof well they wheren't looking, then screwed with the AIs mind to make it my perfect term paper writing slave.. Killer app or horrible mind control? Is the virtual pain of a perfect simulation of a human not the same as the biological pain of the original? Probably not, because a simulation isn't unique.. You can mind fuck your it all you want and when it finally cracks, just load another copy of the sane original, no harm done.. Still, doesn't seem 'right' either...
Technology like this requires alot more then technical advances.. It will require a major advance in the complexity of popular(western anyway) moral thinking.
Canada has decent GSM coverage too (via Fido/Microcell). Poor CDMA USA.
If you log into a Linux box with the most powerful account you have and type rm -rf /* and press enter, will do as much damange to a linux box as any virus could. Recursivly Force Removal of all (/*) files. Account premissions make this kind of power controllable..
Using linux is not the same as using Windows, in fundimental ways. Any parallels that people draw are almost certain to be wrong if you talk to a real expert.
> The dangers posed by one of the few skeletons in existance vanishing into the home of some mega-wealthy moron who wouldn't know the difference between a dinosaur and a dog, are frightening.
:)
Hey, I'm one of those mega-wealthy morons now (thank you IPO money!). Show some respect or my foot soldiers will destory you..
Seriously though, relax. It would take whole new levels of rich and moron to buy something like that for an conversation peice. You could get some serious fine art for 5.8 million and that stuff actually appreciates..
Mind you, if you hired some sculpture wiz, it could make a pretty rad throne.
> I held speeds well above 100mph until I got to the next exit a few miles down the road.
Couldn't just get off at the next ramp and drive up on surface streets, that wouldn't impress the lady.. Do that a few more times, you're luck will run out.. Granny merges off the sholder in her 74' LTD, you run up on her slow ass doing over twice the legal limit in the dark.. Ever done a full lockup(breaks to the floor) at 100mph? I hope so, cause the first time is the best..
I suggest you go and race some autocross in that supra before you go on about how safe it is and how you can drive like mario andrette in it..
Evil NSA people are going to track your cars every move and know all your car related secrets.. Personally, that's a big 'so what' for me.. My car will be unstealable and no one will be able to drive like a moron? That's pretty appealing..
Think 100 years down the road.. All cars (or whatever) will be on a universal automatic traffic control system.. It's the only logical way to do it. There is a privacy loss, but personally I think it's acceptable..
The privacy thing is really only an issue because a 'loss' in involved.. Compair it to telephones.. Phones have always been trackable.. 'They' can know who I call, when I call them, and what I say. Yet no one complains too much, and the legal system generally makes it all work out.. As long as as warrent is required to log any single trackers actions, I think I could live with this. If 'they' can convince a judge to tap my car, they could have just as easilly tapped my phone or installed their own bug. If they don't get a judge to sign off, it's not admissable and I walk on the whole deal most likely.
IMO, the payoff is worth the loss.. Lojack would be out of business though. They cost way more then 200 quid.
Besides, I'm totally sick of living in fear that someone in a $200 rust bucket driving like an idiot is going to trash my nice shiney car.. No more speeding teenagers, traffic management that really works, sounds great to me.. Hell, I'd make my car trackable on the web so people could figure out where I am and page me if someone steals it..
Reality check..
"Give me your car."
"no." Punch in the face, pulled out, kicked down..
"Give me your car"
"Okay."
Call police, they track car, swarm with police and shut off the engine via remote... It's like lojacking every car in the country..
Besides, how many car jackings where there in the whole of the UK last year? Insanely few I bet.. How many gun touting car jackers are willing to chase you down and kill you in a car to car shoot out? Zero. How many people would car jack a car with an active satallite tracker and remote shutdown? Zero..
Well a gross privacy loss, this technology wouldn't be all bad by any means..
When it all comes crumbling down, the Gap will closed, permantly...
I've never gone to a privacy con before.. Trade shows(both sides of the booth), hacker cons, but never an academic thing like this.. It's tempting to fork over the bucks just to see Neal Stephenson..Basically, I'm wondering if there is fun to be had beyond sitting around listening to speakers.. What's the enviroment like? (festive, somber, alcoholic, etc)..
So every image that comes out a color laser printer, copier and soon ink jet will have this watermark.. As soon as someone breaks the "secret and proprietary algorithm" we'll be able to figure out what gear was used for every image anywhere; be it in web site or in a magazine... It would be like a whois database for color images..
The entertainment value from porn alone, oh my..
You'll of course never read this reply to a flame to a lame comment, but since you where so nice and abusive..
I pretty much just assumed the FBI/NSA angle was just an excuse.. The EC is just reminding Intel of its muscle, playing some angle or other.. Do you really think some anyone at the EC really cares about, or even understands the issue? Unlikely.. Probably some political thing over imports or labor..
The displays always have crappy resolution AND are super expensive. If someone would start selling a 640x480x8bpp head mounted display for under $200, we'd be cooking with gas..
If this was say, Ericson or Alcatel instead of Intel, you can bet there would be no such talk.. The fact that Intel is american as apple pie is definitly a factor.. However, if the final outcome is Intel dropping the stupid serial numbers, good..
Mounting it initally stumped me, but it's easy..
Just put then thing on top of another get of free moving bearing with some more to stop it from moving physically in any direction.. The external bearings can stop any horizontal motion without adding too much more friction..
As for the enegry using moving the cover/bag around the corners, I have no idea.. Bearings can lower the amount of friction to almost nothing, but the force needed to streach the cover would stiff be a factor.. Mayeb clever shaope and materials cound fix it, maybe not..
A sphere covered in zillions of tiny bearing with a rubber cover would work perfectly, but as soon as you started flattening the top and bottom to save space it would become..
I wouldn't be surprised is someone out there was figured out a clever way to do a mesh metal belt that can bend at any angle.. That would be worth looking into..
A powerer assist/break in the form of a wheel on a coaster making contact with the cover on the outside is possible too.. Power can overcome stiff belts at the price of freedome of movement, but that's not the end of the world for video games..
I misread that initially as 'mesh ON bearing' which lead me to an idea I will now attempt to work though in a slashdot message.. woo..
Okay, you make a resonably sized floor of metal balls held in bearing packs. You should be able to stand on it and with some balancing or a hard support, walk normally. The friction break idea would help.. So, that gets you fairly free walking in 2d, but tracking that is still the problem. Enter the mesh..
Surround the bearing 'plate' with a strong flexable bag. So between your feet and the balls there is a thin layer of bag material.. I think that would result in a omnidirectional treadmill wouldn't it? Then print the bag some big dark spots and use camera watching the underside to track them.. The balls themselves are totally passive.. Walking on a ball method without the curved floor or having to have a huge ball in your office..
Problems that come to mind..
The bag/cover would have to be made of something strong, flexable and with a fair amount elasticisty, but I'm sure some substance exists..
The energy needed to move the bag around the plate would make each step require more force then normal.. Clever design could hopefully minimize this..
Seems cheap and uncomplex to me.. I'm sure someone has though of this before, but just in case, if anyone builds one, I want a ride (gross points would be nice too)..
Real DJs are souless robots who play what people want to hear.. Cool DJs use vinyl, but not exclusivly... Unless they have a dub plate cutter..
There was kind of an extreme set of cirsumstances surrounding that I have heard..
They where basically selling (along with normal mix tapes) tapes that where basically just greatest hits comps. It's a fine line between fair use by some DJ and just setting up a playlist and hitting PLAY/REC.. Several people where actually charged with fruad in this case according to Exclaim.. It's not like these stores where militant about it.. All it would have taken is one phone call from a label lawyer and they would have pulled anything they where told.. It must have gone pretty far to have ended with a raid.
Besides, Play/Buy The Record in Toronto(store in question) has always struck me as kind of a scumhole anyway.. Good selection, but scummy managment.
I'm a (radio) DJ on a collage station here in Ottawa.. IMO, AVLA is one of those self-feeding groups that has very little impact on your average working DJ.. Off the top of my head, I can't think of anyone I know who is a memeber, but I've never asked.. It's like the relationship between the RIAA to your average garage band.. And there are even less rich DJs then rich rock stars.
This decision is just a way to score some ink and political fire for a otherwise tiny and powerless group.. Of course it's already legal to make comps out of CDs you already own, they know that..
They seem to be addressing hardcore 'single' type DJing, where downloading the super fresh singles of the moment off the net and licencing them would be useful.. Maybe in the clubs in london or dancehalls in jamacia, but in canada that scene just isn't much of a factor. Besides, that style of DJing pretty much requires vinyl..
Of course, you can just skip the fee and do it anyway.. The record companies want the exposure anyway, club plays lead to album sales.. That's why they make white labels (pre-releases for DJs).. Our station gets a boat load of free promo-only music every week.. They'd happly pay us $200 to download and play their song, but that's illigal.. Instead they have to give away free trips and prizes and crap.. "Win a trip to blah to see blah contest." Guess who pays for those I'm sure Chris Sheppards life is a non-stop orgy of record company financed sin.
Labels don't care about DJs stealing their hot new singles.. On the other hand, DJs building up a few hundred gigs of mp3s by ripping every CD they can get their hands on and then using that for gigs, that might be a little worrying.. But still, there just aren't enough DJs in Canada for it to matter in term of sales.. DJs have been doing record pools forever..
So basically, this is totally meaningless to everyone I can think of, but I will admit, a tiny step forward and that's still good..
Look for them, they're common at Future Shop here.
They look like your generic per-programmed universal, but past the $30 model, they aren't..
I have a quite old One-For-All Home Theater, cost me $60 CDN some years ago.. Out of the box, it's a fully macroable (any sequence you want, no pauses though), completely redefinable (any key to any code or macro), 6 mode remote..
At one point I mailed it back to All-For-One to get it upgraded for the codes for my obscure Sherwood amp, which they where very good about.. Even sent me a spare before I had to send them the remote.
Final perk, a little 4 pin port hidden inside the battery flap.. This has been hacked by the net now and allows you to make a little cable and interface it to windows or linux in a variety of ways, similar to one of those homebrew IR gizmos.
If you want more then that, I suggest doing the hacked Palm or HP48 thing.
neat hack, but why bother for 8 bit mono sound?
Other then pointing at it and going 'neat' it's useless.. I'll listen to tapes before I go back to the Soundblaster8 days..
It's no big deal, and that was a nice letter.. Change the name and let them have their cookie..
As they said, they have a brand image and alot of time and money sunk into it..
It is pretty goofy as the list in question is about as low profile as possible, but how is some lawyer suppost to understand that.. Or some judge..
You've had your fun, add this as a chapter in the list FAQ, move on.. Call the list 'smart_host star wars mickey mouse barbie for sweat'n to the oldies'..