Two, the US government reverse engineers Windows themselves, rewrites it to their satisfaction and creates a competing product. Oops... reverse engineering isn't allowed under the DMCA. Oh well... just dissolve that act and let's get on with our lives.
*blink*
So replacing Windows with a government issued "United States Federal Operating System" is a good thing?
That's what worries me most about this MS case. All the rhetoric comparing Microsoft/Bill Gates to the Borg/Satan/Hitler is causing folks to lose touch with reality.
While in the process of working on MPEG-2, MPEG requested another work item to cover high-definition television standards. However, when MPEG-2 was finished, it was found to satisfy the requirements and MPEG-3 was cancelled.
I agree that "other confidential information" is too vague, but holding users responsible for their privileged passwords is a good idea. Everyone here knows that the general public often treats computers like toys, no matter how important they are. If a bank employee writes down his password and tapes it to his monitor, and the bank then loses millions of dollars due to his negligence, that should be treated as criminal negligence. (Assuming that his employers provided a reasonable amount of education and warnings about security.)
I'm too lazy to verify this information, but I read up on it a few months ago for another Slashdot MP3 debate:
Unlike many current MP3 encoders, bladeenc does use the Fraunhofer MP3 implementation. The author claimed that it wasn't a problem, because the patent isn't valid where he lives. (Sweden, maybe?)
That struck me as a pretty arrogant position at the time, although it may or may not be legally correct. I guess the Fraunhofer people weren't impressed either.
I seem to remember hearing that most of the ice on the polar caps is CO2 not H2O.
Now that you mention it, I think I missed a step. I seem to recall that the sunlight absorbed by the algae is actually supposed to melt the frozen CO2, which creates a greenhouse effect, which would eventually warm Mars enough to allow liquid H2O to exist.
Some sort of genetically engineered plant or algae would be more realistic for planetary alterations, although mass water supplies would be likely required for this type of operation.
I'm not sure where I heard this, but I believe that the solution to the water problem is to plant algae right on Mars' ice caps. The algae is dark, so it absorbs more sunlight, which melts the ice, which provides water, which feeds more algae, which absorb more sunlight, etc.
Those in the know all say that it would take an awful long time, though.
I had a friend (who may very well read this, and want to speak for himself,) who worked on a research ship in the Pacific a year or two ago. Whenever they needed net access, they just dropped a cable down and plugged into the trans-oceanic lines that sit on the ocean floor. Nice and fast, if you don't mind being tethered to one place.
No, this is not a terribly useful suggestion for most people. And yes, it is possible that this guy was putting me on, although he swore he was serious.
All one has to do is realize that the pads numbers can not be purely random.
Why can't they be? Sure, it's possible that they'd use an algorithm out of laziness, but there's no reason why they couldn't roll dice, or even use a "quantum noise" number generator.
D'oh! IANACE either, but I was looking forward to showing off my limited knowledge of this topic by pointing that out first. You beat me to it.
I agree, it seems very likely that these stations are using one-time-pad encryption, particularly since the messages are so short, and (presumably) intended to be decoded by hand. I thought that was pretty common knowledge. It makes me wonder why they'd even bother... Although a thought just occurred to me: with a little imagination, I'm sure you could "decode" these broadcasts and find messages about alien abductions, government conspiracies, terrorist plots, or anything else. It's just like the "Bible Code"... a modern-day Rorsarch test.
Until you get them out of the cycle of having more kids than they (or you) can support, you make no progress.
People don't have more kids than they can support. At least, not in the average case... temporary perturbations eventually smooth out. You should read about r-strategy versus K-strategy reproduction.
Unfortunately, I can't find any good links about the model, but the basic idea is that organisms tend to have fewer offspring (and dedicate more resources to them) when their children's future prospects are relatively predictable (K-strategy). When the future is unpredictable, it's easier just to focus on quantity (r-strategy).
For example, in the U.S., a college education, or rather a college diploma, has a big impact on your future success, so middle- and upper-class Americans tend to have few kids and pour lots of money into them. In less developed countries, a well-educated child is just as likely to starve or die of disease or be eaten by a lion as an uneducated child, so r-strategy prevails.
There's no question that this model applies on the level of species... insects versus mammals, for example. It hasn't been proven that it applies within species as well, although it seems obvious that it would.
Incidentally, even though what we consider "birth control" has only been around for a few thousand years, humans have always had other ways to control their reproduction. I had a professor who would illustrate this point with wisecracks about Monica Lewinsky... You can fill in those blanks yourself, if you must.
Think about it... Every time you use your credit card, or ATM card, or "shopper card", the (hypothetical?) central database knows that you were at some fixed location at that time. My debit card bill already gives a pretty good history of my travels. It doesn't tell you everywhere I've been, only the places where my card got swiped... but then, that's really what advertisers are interested in, anyway.
the Pilot Pen versus Pilot PDA issue? one's a pen, one's an electronic organizer
That's why Pilot didn't complain until they decided to produce an "electronic notepad" gizmo. It was a conventional paper notepad with a digitizer under it, IIRC. Not surprisingly, I can't find any reference to that ill-conceived idea today, but I doubt Palm wants to go through the hassle of switching back to the old name.
VB is an excellent language for teaching, as long as it's taught right... which, unfortunately, it almost never is. VB courses always seem to get hung up on windows and widgets, and hip technologies like ADO and web front-ends. Object-oriented concepts often don't come up at all, even though VB is about 80% as object-oriented as Java (and the next version will supposedly be 100%.)
Maybe the solution is to use VB, but forbid anything "visual" until the students are comfortable with programming. MS has a library floating around somewhere that lets you do console I/O using COM (I think it's part of the WSH,) so it's not too hard to write a full-fledged console-only app in VB.
give users the ability to remove their own comments
There's a better solution than this, I think, which I've advocated for a while: Let users apply negative moderation to their own posts, whenever they want to, with no karma penalty. Presumably this could be done from the "user info" page.
This way, nobody would be able to actually "erase" a comment, but foolish or accidental posts could be painlessly swatted down by their authors.
The third company should have more then just internet explorer.
The third company would also have MSN. Which means that the two most popular web browsers would both be owned by companies which are primarily content providers. So much for the Internet.
That's why MPAA is so worked up. They aren't afraid of people using DeCSS to decrypt DVD's; they're afraid of people doing the opposite: making their own DVD's. Without going through them.
This is a common misconception... DVDs don't have to be encrypted. If you've got a problem with the MPAA, you're free to produce any unencrypted DVD you want (assuming you can afford all the mastering equipment.) Actually, most low-budget DVDs (i.e. porn) are neither encrypted nor region-coded.
Your basic point is correct, of course -- the MPAA does want to control the movie biz. But DVD encryption isn't part of that plan.
People want an organizer, not a mp3 player/cell phone/pager/web browser/camera/portable campfire.
Speak for yourself. Personally, I want an organizer/email client/web browser/word processor/spreadsheet/MP3 player/cell phone/portable TV. My WinCE machine handles the first five pretty well, and makes a decent effort at the sixth (CF cards still aren't quite big enough.) I'm sure there are at least a few other people out there with a similar list. (And even if you don't want all that, there's very little reason not to get it, other than anti-Microsoft zeal.) Isn't there room for diversity in the market?
Not quite completely off-topic: Why isn't there a CF TV tuner card for my PDA? Is there some technical limitation I don't know about? It doesn't seem that difficult.
Every time DMCA issues come up on Slashdot, some wiseass points out that it only applies in the U.S. Technically, that's true. But the DMCA is just the U.S. version of the WIPO Treaty, which has been adopted by pretty much all of the "civilized" world. Unfortunately, I can't find a list of signatories, but it's a pretty safe bet that Britain is one. Any country that signs the treaty is obligated to adopt a law essentially identical to the DMCA.
Having said that, I don't see your particular point in the WIPO Treaty, so that provision might actually be an American twist. Even still, I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was in the British version as well.
The other day, I sent out a few spam complaints to ISPs. I don't usually bother, but this spam was unusually obnoxious. ("Type remove if you wish to be removed")
Of course, I forwarded a copy of the message (as inline text,) and Outlook added "FW:" to the subject line. At least one of the complaints has already bounced. Maybe I'm being paranoid, but is it possible that some clueless ISPs have started filtering out all mail with "FW:" in the subject? (To protect against the "new love bug"?)
Slashdot Mirror
Ugh. Please be gentle when you moderate the above comment into oblivion.
:-/
This item appeared yesterday on the frequently-linked-to Brunching Shuttlecocks:
Napster of Puppets
So replacing Windows with a government issued "United States Federal Operating System" is a good thing?
That's what worries me most about this MS case. All the rhetoric comparing Microsoft/Bill Gates to the Borg/Satan/Hitler is causing folks to lose touch with reality.
I agree that "other confidential information" is too vague, but holding users responsible for their privileged passwords is a good idea. Everyone here knows that the general public often treats computers like toys, no matter how important they are. If a bank employee writes down his password and tapes it to his monitor, and the bank then loses millions of dollars due to his negligence, that should be treated as criminal negligence. (Assuming that his employers provided a reasonable amount of education and warnings about security.)
I'm too lazy to verify this information, but I read up on it a few months ago for another Slashdot MP3 debate:
Unlike many current MP3 encoders, bladeenc does use the Fraunhofer MP3 implementation. The author claimed that it wasn't a problem, because the patent isn't valid where he lives. (Sweden, maybe?)
That struck me as a pretty arrogant position at the time, although it may or may not be legally correct. I guess the Fraunhofer people weren't impressed either.
Those in the know all say that it would take an awful long time, though.
I had a friend (who may very well read this, and want to speak for himself,) who worked on a research ship in the Pacific a year or two ago. Whenever they needed net access, they just dropped a cable down and plugged into the trans-oceanic lines that sit on the ocean floor. Nice and fast, if you don't mind being tethered to one place.
No, this is not a terribly useful suggestion for most people. And yes, it is possible that this guy was putting me on, although he swore he was serious.
We're getting there, though. Give it a year or two.
Erm, I actually meant to link here. Damn frames. I'm sure everyone figured it out anyway.
This article makes a lot more sense when you realize that Seagrams doesn't just make seltzer anymore. I don't know if that's common knowledge...
D'oh! IANACE either, but I was looking forward to showing off my limited knowledge of this topic by pointing that out first. You beat me to it.
I agree, it seems very likely that these stations are using one-time-pad encryption, particularly since the messages are so short, and (presumably) intended to be decoded by hand. I thought that was pretty common knowledge. It makes me wonder why they'd even bother... Although a thought just occurred to me: with a little imagination, I'm sure you could "decode" these broadcasts and find messages about alien abductions, government conspiracies, terrorist plots, or anything else. It's just like the "Bible Code"... a modern-day Rorsarch test.
Unfortunately, I can't find any good links about the model, but the basic idea is that organisms tend to have fewer offspring (and dedicate more resources to them) when their children's future prospects are relatively predictable (K-strategy). When the future is unpredictable, it's easier just to focus on quantity (r-strategy).
For example, in the U.S., a college education, or rather a college diploma, has a big impact on your future success, so middle- and upper-class Americans tend to have few kids and pour lots of money into them. In less developed countries, a well-educated child is just as likely to starve or die of disease or be eaten by a lion as an uneducated child, so r-strategy prevails.
There's no question that this model applies on the level of species... insects versus mammals, for example. It hasn't been proven that it applies within species as well, although it seems obvious that it would.
Incidentally, even though what we consider "birth control" has only been around for a few thousand years, humans have always had other ways to control their reproduction. I had a professor who would illustrate this point with wisecracks about Monica Lewinsky... You can fill in those blanks yourself, if you must.
Think about it... Every time you use your credit card, or ATM card, or "shopper card", the (hypothetical?) central database knows that you were at some fixed location at that time. My debit card bill already gives a pretty good history of my travels. It doesn't tell you everywhere I've been, only the places where my card got swiped... but then, that's really what advertisers are interested in, anyway.
VB is an excellent language for teaching, as long as it's taught right... which, unfortunately, it almost never is. VB courses always seem to get hung up on windows and widgets, and hip technologies like ADO and web front-ends. Object-oriented concepts often don't come up at all, even though VB is about 80% as object-oriented as Java (and the next version will supposedly be 100%.)
Maybe the solution is to use VB, but forbid anything "visual" until the students are comfortable with programming. MS has a library floating around somewhere that lets you do console I/O using COM (I think it's part of the WSH,) so it's not too hard to write a full-fledged console-only app in VB.
This way, nobody would be able to actually "erase" a comment, but foolish or accidental posts could be painlessly swatted down by their authors.
Your basic point is correct, of course -- the MPAA does want to control the movie biz. But DVD encryption isn't part of that plan.
Not quite completely off-topic: Why isn't there a CF TV tuner card for my PDA? Is there some technical limitation I don't know about? It doesn't seem that difficult.
Having said that, I don't see your particular point in the WIPO Treaty, so that provision might actually be an American twist. Even still, I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was in the British version as well.
The other day, I sent out a few spam complaints to ISPs. I don't usually bother, but this spam was unusually obnoxious. ("Type remove if you wish to be removed")
Of course, I forwarded a copy of the message (as inline text,) and Outlook added "FW:" to the subject line. At least one of the complaints has already bounced. Maybe I'm being paranoid, but is it possible that some clueless ISPs have started filtering out all mail with "FW:" in the subject? (To protect against the "new love bug"?)