People of Earth, stop stealing our photons!
on
Harm From The Hague
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· Score: 1
Seriously, all you people on earth have been stealing our photons for many millenia now. We've kept quiet about the issue because up to last century you really havn't known what a photon was, and frankly we dont have the time to explain it to you, but that's not the point! You dont have any laws that say people have to pay for photons!! They're just rolling around haphazardly, with people giving photons to their friends and selling them at movie theatres -- it's just rediculous! Dont you know that our people have to work very hard to make those photons? It takes significant investment for us to make all those photons and you've essentially devalued the currency by throwing them around willy nilly. Luckily there is an multidimensional treaty being proposed that will combat this photonic piracy and we expect the people of earth to sign it.
If you work in a factory, your line manager comes by, makes sure you are doing things properly and monitors your productivity. What does this mean? He makes sure you are meeting quotas, keeping up to pace with the rest of the employees. Why? Because then the owner of the factory can state with some level of certainty how much work he is getting for his dollar. Project managers are supposed to do something similar in software companies. They are supposed to ask for estimates, assign tasks, measure and record how long it takes to complete those tasks and monitor your productivity. This allows managers to make estimates with some level of certainty as to how much new work they can take on, when to set deadlines (instead of defering that to marketing) and work his budget for new hires, equipment, etc. It also means that me, as a code whore, can do my work with some sort of idea of how well I am performing, when I'm going to step out of this long dark coding tunnel and get to do something new, and have some sense of achievement when our deadlines are met. It also means that the responsibility to find work, lead the production schedule, evaluate feature requests, find out what the hell everyone else is doing and who I can/should colaborate with, etc, etc can be liften off my fragile shoulders and given to some who actually likes that kind of crap, and I can concentrate on coding.
But in the mean time, I'll just keep takin' your money, sucking back the free "soda" and posting random shit on Slashdot. All in a day's work.
Why I prefer Textfiles 2/27/87
- Jason Scott - Written during an illness.
Being the owner of one of the largest Textfile Clearinghouses in the US, I've
been asked a few times why I prefer textfiles over anything else for computers.
So, I decided to put my reasons into a textfile (Wraparound city) and exaplin
to you my reasons:
Textfiles won't erase yer Hard Drive, then print "HeyHey EATME!"
Textfiles don't require a joystick.
Textfiles don't make you rely on your hand-eye coordination at 3:00am.
Textfiles never have to worry about compatibility, or DOS versions.
Textfiles don't feature little green things on the screen named "Glorks".
Textfiles don't become "Old Warez" in 3 days.
You can change one byte in a textfile, and the computer won't crash.
Textfiles don't take up a whole disk every time.
Textfiles don't require 4-color advertising in COMPUTE!
Textfiles don't need programs, but most programs need textfiles.
Textfiles can be drastically changed in a matter of minutes.
Textfiles won't watch you log on, and copy your password to a secret file.
Textfiles are cheap, or free.
Textfiles won't do anything if you're not there.
Textfiles don't need to be compiled.
Textfiles don't can run at any speed you want.
You can tell how good or bad a textfile is, AS you're downloading.
Textfiles don't make sounds in the middle of the night, while your parents
are sleeping in the next room.
If you take your eyes away from a textfile, it won't go "GAME OVER".
Textfiles don't bring out hidden surprises.
You can bring textfiles to school, and the teacher won't accuse you of
being a pirate. [Usually. My old Computer Teacher took away some Blue Box
plans I was printing on the school computer. Fuck him.]
You can read textfiles during a blackout, with a flashlight.
You won't be accused of being a nerd if you have textfiles in your school
notebook [Unless you're Scott B. (Heh)]
$6.25 x 8 hours a day x 5 days a week x 8 weeks = $2000.. he's gettin' more than minimum wages (and that more than most people get because most people are part time and dont even get 40 hours work a week).
Mike Van Emmerik is still working on the project, as is 4 students. The project leader Cristina Cifuentes is currently doing research at Sun Labs on commercial extensions of this work. There will be an open source project at the end of the year apparently, the code has already been released under a BSD style license but it is not publically available as yet. The funding from Sun was a gift to Dr Cifuentes simply because they liked what she was doing. I was just a happy employee when I wrote that broken backend.
In Australia the national telephone company Telstra planned to detect data calls and charge outragous per minute rates. This would have effectively cripled fidonet. Thankfully someone managed to talk them out of it.
*ank* wrong. Unlike most people today the founding fathers were aware that governments eventually go to shit and that the only way to keep a government honest is by threatening to overthrow it if it doesn't meet your needs.
News Flash: You have no point. The actions of the US government is not the best place to start debating the ethics of war. Your government is lame, what are you trying to say? When AC's start questioning what the fuck you are on about it is time to stop replying.
All is fair in war no matter what your own beliefs are.
The only relevant thing you have posted before you went off on a tangent. What is your supporting evidence for this? Oh, the US doesn't respect the universally accepted laws of war (primarily that you dont attack indescriminately) so it must be alright. Was your argument about conspiracy and "world government" meant to support your case that the US should be the ethical model for the world or what?
The subject? I thought the "subject" was whether a (cyber)attack on a power grid was ethical or not. You're the one that has changed the subject to one of whether or not this is a big conspiracy manufactured by the government. My post simply states that there is no justification for taking down a civil power grid -- even if it is in war time. Go have your everyone is out to get me argument with someone else.
Alternatively we could just come to the often stated conclusion that the US is the sploiled brat of the world and doesn't know how to play fairly. After all, attacking civilians has never been a problem for your army. You should hang your head in shame, not stand up and say that is the way it should be.
you need to chill home boy. totally. read the paper I linked to, it quite clearly establishes that all is not fair in war, and that there have been rules in war for about the last 2000 years.
other than you being so geographically challenged that you think it is only the British isles that know how to spell, what makes you think I'm a limey? Assumption.
Everyone relies 100% on the firewall. My security consulting work goes to waste every time I recommend tightening up "internal security". They want me to break the firewall.
I'll tell you about suffering! One day I had to stand outside in the California sun waiting to bank my pay check cause they were only letting people into the bank two at a time (no power == no aircon) and when I did finally get inside they couldn't look up my account number cause they didn't even have a backup generator for their mission critical computer systems.
This is disturbing because even if China was at war with the US this would not be an honourable attack. From this paper:
Since a control system is the portion of the electrical grid most vulnerable to computer network attack, and since it disrupts the transmission and distribution systems serving all consumers, such an attack is indiscriminate except in one isolated, hypothetical case. If it were possible to disrupt only the electricity to those targets which are proper for iron bombs (e.g., military facilities and defense industry targets making only war materiel), then, and only then, would such an attack be discriminate. Until such a capability exists, however, one must assume that an attack on electrical power facilities is an attack on noncombatants, including facilities such as hospitals, specifically excluded from attack by numerous treaties.
The widespread effects of electrical grid attacks are so devastating to a modern society that they are neither humane nor proportional to the military effect achieved. Iraq's experience after the Gulf War is an example. Neither water treatment plants nor sewage treatment plants were operational due to the long-term electricity outages. These combined to produce a major health crisis. During the year after the Gulf War, some estimates linked as many as 70,000 to 90,000 Iraqi deaths to the higher-order effects of life without electricity.[26] In Iraq, the outages were long-term in nature because the large, obvious generator halls were a favorite target of allied airmen, and these are more time-consuming and expensive to repair than distribution yards.[27] The efficacy of these attacks also has been called into question because many, if not most, military targets have backup power from dedicated generators, making them independent from the public power utilities. Thus, evidence from past wars suggests that air attack of electricity grids produces only a limited effect on the outcome of a conflict.[28] In such a scenario the military advantage would not outweigh the harm to civilians from reduced hospital capacity, diminished agricultural capacity, and reduced medical refrigeration capability. Indeed, "customary law" protects foodstuffs, crops, and medicines during time of war.[29] Attacking the political stability of an enemy by cutting off his electricity clearly is devastating to the civilian population and thus bears no resemblance to a discriminate attack.
The fedz are right to call these punks "terrorists."
Slashdot Mirror
fucking werd.
Seriously, all you people on earth have been stealing our photons for many millenia now. We've kept quiet about the issue because up to last century you really havn't known what a photon was, and frankly we dont have the time to explain it to you, but that's not the point! You dont have any laws that say people have to pay for photons!! They're just rolling around haphazardly, with people giving photons to their friends and selling them at movie theatres -- it's just rediculous! Dont you know that our people have to work very hard to make those photons? It takes significant investment for us to make all those photons and you've essentially devalued the currency by throwing them around willy nilly. Luckily there is an multidimensional treaty being proposed that will combat this photonic piracy and we expect the people of earth to sign it.
If you work in a factory, your line manager comes by, makes sure you are doing things properly and monitors your productivity. What does this mean? He makes sure you are meeting quotas, keeping up to pace with the rest of the employees. Why? Because then the owner of the factory can state with some level of certainty how much work he is getting for his dollar. Project managers are supposed to do something similar in software companies. They are supposed to ask for estimates, assign tasks, measure and record how long it takes to complete those tasks and monitor your productivity. This allows managers to make estimates with some level of certainty as to how much new work they can take on, when to set deadlines (instead of defering that to marketing) and work his budget for new hires, equipment, etc. It also means that me, as a code whore, can do my work with some sort of idea of how well I am performing, when I'm going to step out of this long dark coding tunnel and get to do something new, and have some sense of achievement when our deadlines are met. It also means that the responsibility to find work, lead the production schedule, evaluate feature requests, find out what the hell everyone else is doing and who I can/should colaborate with, etc, etc can be liften off my fragile shoulders and given to some who actually likes that kind of crap, and I can concentrate on coding.
But in the mean time, I'll just keep takin' your money, sucking back the free "soda" and posting random shit on Slashdot. All in a day's work.
Why I prefer Textfiles 2/27/87
- Jason Scott - Written during an illness.
Being the owner of one of the largest Textfile Clearinghouses in the US, I've
been asked a few times why I prefer textfiles over anything else for computers.
So, I decided to put my reasons into a textfile (Wraparound city) and exaplin
to you my reasons:
Textfiles won't erase yer Hard Drive, then print "HeyHey EATME!"
Textfiles don't require a joystick.
Textfiles don't make you rely on your hand-eye coordination at 3:00am.
Textfiles never have to worry about compatibility, or DOS versions.
Textfiles don't feature little green things on the screen named "Glorks".
Textfiles don't become "Old Warez" in 3 days.
You can change one byte in a textfile, and the computer won't crash.
Textfiles don't take up a whole disk every time.
Textfiles don't require 4-color advertising in COMPUTE!
Textfiles don't need programs, but most programs need textfiles.
Textfiles can be drastically changed in a matter of minutes.
Textfiles won't watch you log on, and copy your password to a secret file.
Textfiles are cheap, or free.
Textfiles won't do anything if you're not there.
Textfiles don't need to be compiled.
Textfiles don't can run at any speed you want.
You can tell how good or bad a textfile is, AS you're downloading.
Textfiles don't make sounds in the middle of the night, while your parents
are sleeping in the next room.
If you take your eyes away from a textfile, it won't go "GAME OVER".
Textfiles don't bring out hidden surprises.
You can bring textfiles to school, and the teacher won't accuse you of
being a pirate. [Usually. My old Computer Teacher took away some Blue Box
plans I was printing on the school computer. Fuck him.]
You can read textfiles during a blackout, with a flashlight.
You won't be accused of being a nerd if you have textfiles in your school
notebook [Unless you're Scott B. (Heh)]
Everyone can use a textfile on the first try.
Ahhh.. it takes me back. My small contribution.
$6.25 x 8 hours a day x 5 days a week x 8 weeks = $2000.. he's gettin' more than minimum wages (and that more than most people get because most people are part time and dont even get 40 hours work a week).
Mike Van Emmerik is still working on the project, as is 4 students. The project leader Cristina Cifuentes is currently doing research at Sun Labs on commercial extensions of this work. There will be an open source project at the end of the year apparently, the code has already been released under a BSD style license but it is not publically available as yet. The funding from Sun was a gift to Dr Cifuentes simply because they liked what she was doing. I was just a happy employee when I wrote that broken backend.
In Australia the national telephone company Telstra planned to detect data calls and charge outragous per minute rates. This would have effectively cripled fidonet. Thankfully someone managed to talk them out of it.
you mean like those crazy guys over at gnutella?
Oh, you mean like http does?
What, are these evil hackers from the future rooting boxen through a temporal Wingate?
removing the need for a professional army
*ank* wrong. Unlike most people today the founding fathers were aware that governments eventually go to shit and that the only way to keep a government honest is by threatening to overthrow it if it doesn't meet your needs.
Arnt worth much to americans. Which is what we were arguing about (apparently, it's hard to tell with this cocksucker).
Didn't that happen last thursday?
News Flash: You have no point. The actions of the US government is not the best place to start debating the ethics of war. Your government is lame, what are you trying to say? When AC's start questioning what the fuck you are on about it is time to stop replying.
All is fair in war no matter what your own beliefs are.
The only relevant thing you have posted before you went off on a tangent. What is your supporting evidence for this? Oh, the US doesn't respect the universally accepted laws of war (primarily that you dont attack indescriminately) so it must be alright. Was your argument about conspiracy and "world government" meant to support your case that the US should be the ethical model for the world or what?
The subject? I thought the "subject" was whether a (cyber)attack on a power grid was ethical or not. You're the one that has changed the subject to one of whether or not this is a big conspiracy manufactured by the government. My post simply states that there is no justification for taking down a civil power grid -- even if it is in war time. Go have your everyone is out to get me argument with someone else.
Alternatively we could just come to the often stated conclusion that the US is the sploiled brat of the world and doesn't know how to play fairly. After all, attacking civilians has never been a problem for your army. You should hang your head in shame, not stand up and say that is the way it should be.
you need to chill home boy. totally. read the paper I linked to, it quite clearly establishes that all is not fair in war, and that there have been rules in war for about the last 2000 years.
other than you being so geographically challenged that you think it is only the British isles that know how to spell, what makes you think I'm a limey? Assumption.
Everyone relies 100% on the firewall. My security consulting work goes to waste every time I recommend tightening up "internal security". They want me to break the firewall.
or hell, mandate that banks have backup power generators.. like every other country on earth!
I'll tell you about suffering! One day I had to stand outside in the California sun waiting to bank my pay check cause they were only letting people into the bank two at a time (no power == no aircon) and when I did finally get inside they couldn't look up my account number cause they didn't even have a backup generator for their mission critical computer systems.
If you read the article you will see that they came in off machines in Santa Clara.
This is disturbing because even if China was at war with the US this would not be an honourable attack. From this paper:
Since a control system is the portion of the electrical grid most vulnerable to computer network attack, and since it disrupts the transmission and distribution systems serving all consumers, such an attack is indiscriminate except in one isolated, hypothetical case. If it were possible to disrupt only the electricity to those targets which are proper for iron bombs (e.g., military facilities and defense industry targets making only war materiel), then, and only then, would such an attack be discriminate. Until such a capability exists, however, one must assume that an attack on electrical power facilities is an attack on noncombatants, including facilities such as hospitals, specifically excluded from attack by numerous treaties.
The widespread effects of electrical grid attacks are so devastating to a modern society that they are neither humane nor proportional to the military effect achieved. Iraq's experience after the Gulf War is an example. Neither water treatment plants nor sewage treatment plants were operational due to the long-term electricity outages. These combined to produce a major health crisis. During the year after the Gulf War, some estimates linked as many as 70,000 to 90,000 Iraqi deaths to the higher-order effects of life without electricity.[26] In Iraq, the outages were long-term in nature because the large, obvious generator halls were a favorite target of allied airmen, and these are more time-consuming and expensive to repair than distribution yards.[27] The efficacy of these attacks also has been called into question because many, if not most, military targets have backup power from dedicated generators, making them independent from the public power utilities. Thus, evidence from past wars suggests that air attack of electricity grids produces only a limited effect on the outcome of a conflict.[28] In such a scenario the military advantage would not outweigh the harm to civilians from reduced hospital capacity, diminished agricultural capacity, and reduced medical refrigeration capability. Indeed, "customary law" protects foodstuffs, crops, and medicines during time of war.[29] Attacking the political stability of an enemy by cutting off his electricity clearly is devastating to the civilian population and thus bears no resemblance to a discriminate attack.
The fedz are right to call these punks "terrorists."
has no concept of vowels or good humour.. must be an american.