It's been known for a long, long time that M$ contributes nothing to society or the economy.
For instance, due to embarassingly exploitable loopholes in federal tax code, M$ pays ZERO fed tax dollars.
Due to retarded political bargaining with local officials, M$ pays ZERO state or city tax dollars. (though the local gov often pays for infrastructure to make it a more comfortable locale for M$)
The sum of M$'s charity efforts amounts to "free licenses" to various M$ products. Not only do they get to select arbitrary "values" for these licenses, but often they give them to various educational institutions, poisoning students so that they only know one product.
As a matter of fact, I can think of no positive way that they have contributed, unless you are campaigning for the senate.
Microsoft benefits paid to various segments of society...
Microsoft board execs : approx. $150 billion in the last 20 years
Politicians: approx. $75 million anually
You and me: negative $5 billion (conservatively)
Like your understanding of physics is so incredibly superior to his. I remember your sig URL from awhile back, which is unusual... only opinions and ideas so utterly ridiculous could make a lasting impression as did yours.
The truth of the matter, is that both you and he are wrong about time travel. You are so bigoted toward the idea, that you fail to realize the true implications of such a concept (though I am unsure as to why Hawking hasn't seen the truth to it).
If our universe were a simulation (and I leave it up to the reader to decide the truth of this, I use it only as an exmaple), and in this simulation a certain sim-person were to believe they built a time travel device and activated it, there is at least the possibility that it would behave as they might expect. Boom. All the sudden, the universe is as it was sim-years ago, with the notable exception of themselves. However, if the sim-person goes and murders his grandparents, does he pop out of existence? Dematerialize?
No.
He didn't really travel in time, rather the universe was "reset" to appear as if he had time traveled. The only consequences of his actions might be that a similar, but distinct sim-being isnt't born years in his relative future. In effect, he has either entered a seperate simulated universe remarkably similar to how his own was in its past, or he has drastically altered his own universe in a way that he interprets as time travel. No causality hocus-pocus is necessary (though other abracadabras might be needed). Big deal, either way, right?
And don't even get me started on why new age cretins who believe in reincarnation should be chopped up as fish bait.
In a related story, microbiologist Stanley Wellington has discovered a new breed of microbes present only in the craniums of US policitians. These microbes are believed to have co-devolved with public officeholders by metabolising ethereal common sense, and excreting it in a manner that protects a human brain from coming in contact with it. In a groundbreaking experiment, Dr. Wellington cultured the microbes, a feat in and of itself. "These bugs were particularly tricky, as many of my assistants and graduate students have above average IQ's", Dr. Wellington said. "Naturally, the microbes would thrive at a moderate proximity to the experimenters, but when we ventured too close, they would die suddenly. It turns out, that you can 'overfeed' them with intelligence, something that is unlikely to ever occur in their natural habitat. Working closely with leading animal trainers, we were able to train chimps to perform the various mundane functions necessary to culturing the microbes. The more complicated tasks had to be performed remotely, with very expensive robotic equipment..." After successfully culturing these primordial bacteris, he and his associates designed an elaborate experiment to more closely guage their activity. As it turns out, the very same chimp that assisted, could supply as much raw intelligence as 20 million politicians could over a 1000 year time span. Dr. Wellington states "We found this incredible. If you add up all local, state, and federal politicians, from the mayor of the smallest town, all the way up to Dubya, there are less than 8 million public office holders. Marty [the chimp] is clearly intelligent enough to perform all their duties simultaneously, and still provide better economic, defense, and social results." Dr. Emanuel Smith, of the St. Fredericks Bioscience Institute comments "Clearly this is the biological discovery of the millenia! I wouldn't be suprised if it were proven that these bacteria were infecting the voting population of the United states, as we've known for years that only retards believe their votes count in any significant way. For instance, this may be where the microbe prepares new hosts...". Asked if he believed a vaccine could be developed, Dr. Smith stated that hand grenades are far cheaper, off the shelf technology, and that you get to see the liars "splatter like rotten fruit".
The next phase of their research shall attempt to determine whether any other occupations are at risk from these brain-sucking microbes, such as grade school teachers, and NASA engineers.
Is this even in our jurisdiction? My understanding is, that even though he wrote the code, that the actual "crime" would have been committed in Russia, where it is legal to do so. Therefore, we have no right to prosecute. The very most we could do, would be to pressure the russian goverment through political channels, if that.
The problems with dynamic dns at this level, are several. As you said, only aTLDs can do this, for one. If they hose their own config, it does only hurt them... but there are other issues. Without a secure authentication method, it's possible to temporarily hijack domains. The good thing though, is they can only be stolen until you update them again. Also, with 20 million AOLers dynamically updating their dns server records on the TLD server, not only will you need a fat pipe, but a powerful cpu to keep up with it. TO be honest, I've only started to work out all the issues with this, and I'm hardly a DNS guru, by any standard.
And yes, I would have you run your own primary dns server for the domain, I see no reason to make it possible for you to host your own domain, only to have to pay someone else to resolve it. I can't over-emphasize the need to lock it down tight, but if you can install and run apache, then a dns daemon isn't that much tougher.
And on the last point, I agree. In our experiments, my friends and I have added the aTLDs to their named.conf. Each one as type forward, with our two "root/tld" servers as the forwarders, they continue to use the othrodox root for everything but these TLDs. Ideally, one of us will get around to modifying bind so that instead of listing every IP in the forwarder clause, we can simply do "file aTLD.cache;" and be done with it.
I will check into allying with OpenNIC, but the others I have already ruled out. ORSC sickened me, they already have so many aTLDs, that the whole point of TLDs will be lost. I think they are working toward one tld per domain, forgive the exaggeration.
When I said they should be advocating the use of BIND, that should have read "dns daemon of server software". I'm pretty much agnostic to which that happens to be, but there aren't many alternatives. Off the top of my head, I only know of 3, one of which is windows software (M$'s own, which has the taints of WINS).
What I meant about dyndns was this. The root server itself only points to a dns server authoratative for that domain (or to be more accurate, if I understand, points to a tld server, which points to the authoratative domain server). This is fine, when that domain's dns server has a static IP. The main trouble, is that those without a static IP, are often the same people for whom it's more difficult to afford hosting services, precisely the people I want to help the most. Obviously, as soon as they register and disconnect, that dns record means nothing. Why not allow them to update that record, as long as it doesn't kill the root server? Now, obviously, this becomes way too complicated, if they have both a primary and secondary dns record, but if they are dialup, this level of robustness is most likely wasted anyway. The trick is, a single dns record for them, with decent dynamic updating. The downside, is of course, the possibility that many less talented windows users with Personal Web Server and bind for windows, will be a big security booboo. I'd like to hear suggestions on this though.
The tripod/geocities thing is this (gee, I do tend to become less articulate as the post grows, don't I?). They are becoming particularly hostile to their own users, who often feel it to be the only free (beer) method of having a small site. It certainly isn't free (speech). Even to a tolerable point (illegal speech is certainly fine to prohibit, and maybe even those clearly obscene or beligerent). Not to mention that at times, they have attempted to lay claim to your intellectual property, while at the same time rabidly enforcing those rights on behalf of corporate america. Not that I believe in IP per se, but I do tend to grant people creative rights to their work, with few exceptions.
I don't agree with all your conclusions, but I welcome criticism such as this. Especially if you're just warming up to suggestions...
I agree also with the poster, but there isn't much to be done. You don't think, that if we all go back to dialup, and accept 2 hours per day connections, that they won't block servers there too? It's not that our activities are against the rules, or causing problems for them, it's that we're a small minority, and open to extortion. "You should be paying for a business account, if you want to do that!" I believe that no matter what it was, we were doing, as long as it is only a few of us, they'd be pulling this crap.
And since there is no realistic way to string a fiber optic cable between your house and mine, and certainly not between our houses, and every other geeks.... we are f*cked.
To be honest, I don't want to start another root system. I don't want you to either. I feel forced to do something though. I suppose you do also. This entire situation totally pisses me off, and I tend to lash out. We shouldn't have to do this. I don't expect goverments of any type to work well, but damn, they should at least be tolerable, even mediocre.
Also, I have concerns about creating new TLD's. Certainly more are needed, but ideally, I think that excluding ccTLD's, there need be no more than 70-80 TLD's. Any more than that, and they all lose meaning. Right now, as bad as ICANN is, often you can guess the TLD that you should end a site with, and if you can't guess, there are only a handful to try. I've already committed myself to not going above 12, and I'd really like to keep it at 8 or 9 aTLD's. (3 are definite, with 2 more probable candidates.) They just shouldn't be created at whim. It's all I can do, to persuade my friends that.warez or.mpz isn't appropriate, or slang of any kind. Or even jokes for that matter. If successful, these things might be used for decades, do we really want to choose retarded TLD's, that once used, can't be gotten rid of?
Also, apologies are in order. ORSC did the all.your.bases. thing. Sorry.
One other thing. You should be encouraging everyone to run BIND, and if security is a concern, mirror a copy of the chroot howto on your site. If that's enough to walk a fool like me through the procedure, then most lower primates should be able to do it also. Resolv.conf isn't the answer. Besides, if they are hosting their own domain, like they should be anyway (cable modem blocks on port 80 notwithstanding), they'll need to run it.
Also, I feel you are missing an opportunity, in not trying to implement dyndns from the ground up. Granted, there are major technical hurdles, but if someone wants a small website somewhere, that gets 5 hits per month, there is no reason they should pay $50 per month for webhosting, especially when most hosting companies are total bungholes. Those who don't want the hassle, they're still free to do that, but some people are low on the fundage side of life, but still want/need control over things. Let's design this so they have the freedom they need too. I can finally afford such myself, but I haven't forgotten what it's like.
I'm not a total communist. There is a place for money in such things, a large commercial site is an appropriate candidate. But when AT&T suggests that I should pay for a business account for using port 80, is wrong. Similarly, why should I pay for webhosting, if it's just a small dumb site? Geocities, tripod, etc... just another way to keep us all down. I'd really love to see them wither and die.
Besides, I like the idea of taking money out of the equation entirely. Every time a member signs up at my registry, that will be money sucked straight out of ICANN's wallet. Either directly, or indirectly when those web hosts can't pay icann taxes or bribes.
5 tld's, that's better than some. I've seen one with about 200 (was this open root server confed?). Oh wait... funny your root.cache shows more than 5 entries. And not one, but 2 porn TLD's!!! How bout that, one wasn't big enough, why not 2? And what's this, an affiliation of some sort with alternic? He couldn't find any more bind exploits to steal control over legit domains again?
The mainstream TLD's you came up with all suck. I have no idea why the ccTLD's are in there either. If this is your best effort at setting up an alternate root system, we're better off with ICANN. Even ME, the idiot I am, was able to come up with a better way, than "point your resolv.conf at us" or an 80k root.cache. Me, the guy who only really started playing with bind a few months ago.
Seriously though, I do believe that such might be possible, if it is true that certain video compression algorithms are incredibly efficient. The flip side, is of course, that you need a pVII 1200thz machine to decompress it in realtime. In other words, it may be possible soon, but isn't yet that way.
But it misses the whole point. Broadband isn't about sending the latest retarded sitcom to me over my modem! Don't we have that already, and it's called cable TV? Amazing that people who consider themselves technologically enlightened might say such things.
Half-asses. The same people who have "all.your.bases.are.belong.to.us" in the root.cache, even though they have no authority over dot us? I'm not even complaining that it's lame, but rather that they are breaking the old dns to make the new, something that is perfectly avoidable. Besides, who can respect an organization that creates as many (more?) tld's as they have members?
Pointing resolv.conf to them, gives them control over what you see, period.
The beauty of the net is like what I imagine the universe will be, should we ever invent FTL. Leave the fuckheads behind, and do your own thing, never to be bothered by them again...
I totally agree with you, on all your points. But remember this, it doesn't need to be this way. We don't have to try to fix this system, or wait for someone else to do so. Create a new one from scratch, and never look back, that's my motto. And if you'd like to join me, you're more than welcome. Besides, gives us a chance to fix some of the flaws that the old system would never be able to get rid of.
The 3 board seats they are removing, won't be the corporate members, will they? Ha ha.
Fuck ICANN. The AlterDNS Project beta is going well, and we'll have 3 broadband root servers before we go live. You'll run bind like you should be doing anyway, and we won't take over the entire "." root zone, like orsc or alternic does. As a matter of fact, you'll just as easily be able to add them, should you suddenly be struck dumb and tasteless. And our rules reflect our belief that DNS is a community resource, not a hostage that corporations hold over us.
Those rules are...
#1 No corporate registrations. Your trademarks are not recognized here.
#2 No reselling of domain names.
#3 No cybersquatting. All domains must be used within 2 weeks of registration
#4 No bulk registrations.
On top of that, we've managed to choose aTLDs that are somewhat meaningful, tasteful even. They're free, in every meaning of the word. So really, what's stopping you?
There is no undisturbed space. Microsoft's plan, is to own all the system software that runs on anything with a cpu. This should be obvious by now. Intel is busy killing off other cpu's, and while they aren't necessarily conspiring together, it is awful convenient for a company like M$, who finds it distasteful to write for more than one chip. Think about it...
PDA's
PC's
Home theater type equipment (think tivo lookalikes and game consoles, first with dreamcast and more blatantly with xbox)
Workstations, graphical and scientific
Lowend servers
Mid-range servers (no high end yet, but they sure are trying)
Embedded devices, industrial and otherwise
What type of computer is left for a company like Be ?
And since you aren't denying microsoft's actions, are you saying that they are even close to being legal? IMO you do have a right to assume that you won't be cheated anywhere near as badly as Be was. Sure, some dirty deals are to be expected, but these are little jabs, here and there. Not unprovoked nuclear strikes like microsoft is fond of.
It is entirely possible that Gassee might have flushed Be down the toilet. That isn't the issue, the issue is whether M$ should be allowed to make that choice for us.
Dude, you sound so knowledgable, at least to the cluless.
For instance...
MS's market, as far as MS is concerned, is everything digital, technological, or related to IP rights. Be would have to manufacture wooden shoes, to avoid the absuive monopoly that MS is.
Monopolies aren't allowed to determine whether "really good OS's, with good features and easy API's" will succeed or fail. Also, you fail to mention that MS didn't triumph over Be on merit, but rather through illegal hardware vendor coercion.
The systems you mention, are nearly irrelevant to the discussion.
Apple: a somewhat sucessful niche 'total system' vendor, which really only hangs on because they were pretty much the first personal computer maker out there. Barring time travel, Be couldn't have hoped to take the same road to semi-sucess as Apple did.
Amiga: a really small but highly innovative company that was almost immediately bought by Commodore, another of the first few pc makers. Survived shortly in a video editing niche, before poor management killed Commodore. Even had they been sucessful, they were wandering dangerously close to the workstation market. MS is attempting to annex that territory as we speak, so even had Be hid there, it would only have postponed the inevitable.
NeXT: took them several years to figure out that really cool computers still don't sell, when they cost $10,000. Workstation, personal computer, I never have figured out which... but had Be tried to follow this example, it would have ended even quicker than it had. And unlike Jobs, no one at Apple like Gassee enough to buy out his failing company.
AS400: IBM big iron, that even today really doesn't compete in the same market as MS garbage. Successful, but then there are no abusive monopolies nipping at IBM's heels in this arena. This is the example you want Be to follow? Building mid-to-upper range servers that cost anywhere from $30,000 to $150,000?
Only two of the companies you named are even still around today. The other two did/are doing what Be eventually did also. Nameley, becoming a software/OS only company. "Building their own hardware" wasn't an option, it would have been intentional suicide. Also, for the record, Be did manufacture a limited run of such machines, named the "BeBox". I have no doubt, that had Be somehow managed to license the design, and a vendor such as Gateway or Dell started making the machines, M$ would have ported NT or 9x to the dual PPC Be platform, and insisted on the "no dual boot" and "microsoft tax" provisions in their vendor licenses. Maybe even killing it before it hit store shelves.
Your post and attitude both smack of victim bashing. Do you also chastise rape victims for wearing slutty clothing? Or laugh at murder victims, who should have spent more free time learning self-defense? The truth is, no one or no entity is capable of playing on M$'s turf, and M$ tends to draw the borders around that turf so widely that there is no safe place. Be had a decent shot at deflecting and countering the regular dirty deals and nasty tricks you'll see in this industry, but no one is able to to stand up to the barrage that M$ will throw at anyone they consider threatening. It hurts both of us, and anyone else that comes into contact with technology on a regular basis. Laugh at their mistakes all you like, but laughing at the crimes that they have endured is low.
Three fourths of NASDAQ listed corporations announced single molecule revenues for the third quarter. Analysts insist that such predictions are hardly in good faith, and that the majority will be lucky to turn revenues amounting even to a single quark. Wall Street bravely marches on, into this blossoming nano-economy.
Almost agreed with you, until I got to the wiccan part. Then again, maybe there is nothing wrong with practicing a made-up religion. After all, the scientologists are certainly even more guilty of it than you, and I believe in their right to be retards too.
Then again, all religions are made up, it's just how long ago it was when that would be priest made up all the silly superstitions.
If there is a God, is his name God? Do you name your dog "Dog" also? (little hint: The fundamentalists worhsip a deity whose true unrevealed name is Hallelujah, god of gibbering and incest.)
I did ask for such a refund. They not only insisted that they would not do so, but that the only reason I would need the port open was if I were actually abusing their service.
They will come right out and tell you that the port block is permanent.
Fuck them. Port 8000, and as half-assed as the monkeys are that they pass off as techs, I doubt they'll ever notice. UDP 53 is more worrisome for me personally, since this isn't a service that is exactly relocatable.
As the founding member of the 56KKK, I'd like to warn you of this propaganda that they've been trying to brainwash you with. Modem users aren't like you or me, they are vile subhuman animals, and you shouldn't mix with them. As a nation, we need to segregate these modemmians from the rest of our otherwise wholesome nation, and take back what is ours. And if a few "0101101"s get burnt in their front yards, what's so wrong with that? They should know better than to mix with us normal people. Do you know that sinister modem users are taking the jobs away from broadband users like us? It's the modemmian conspiracy. They're to blame for the dotcom downturn, and they use their evil, devil-granted modemmian powers to place voodoo curses on you and I. Slashdot is obviously a front for the pro-modemmian group that is to blame for cattle mutilations, vandalism, and poisoning our nation's drinking water with dioxin. They'll enslave us all, unless we fight back, forcing us to use 9600 baud internet connections. Don't let it happen!
Joe Broadband
Grand Poobah of the Knights of the 56KKK
I hope I've offended no one, but this article was so dumb, I had to make fun of it some how. And if I got to spoof other hatemongers in the process, so much better. First-post-Nazi-guy, go to hell.
sigh* The DMCA. Designed to protect Hollywood from nasty evil hackers who, but for that wonderful law, would be going into video stores right now and giving Hollywood their money. Stupid gits.
While this seems fair and equitable to me, you are missing a not so obvious point. (Not that I blame you, it's not the most ethical of points either) While Hollywood and the associated industries can make a moderately nice sum of cash now, they are more than willing to forfeit that for now, in exchange for a future stranglehold on all "IP". From a strategic point of view, this is brilliant, as they stand to more than make up for current lost revenue in the long run. IMO this is more akin to raping and pillaging the enemy, even butchering their babies, just to win the war. Sure it works, but what more can be said? Barring a miracle, which is the majority of citizens waking up and have a clue or two, there isn't much that can be done.
Hell, if I can afford 3 dialup lines, I might as well go all out, and order a couple of T1's. That is, after all, what all the elitist asswipes were suggesting a few days back on the other broadband stories. And if you think I'm exaggerating, add it up.
3 new phone lines, for the circuit. $100 worth of fees, $60 monthly.
3 Dialup ISP accounts, with multilink access, $210 per month. (Not $60, because I'd need a 24/7 account, to be anything at all like what broadband is supposed to be)
A new linux server, with 3 hardware modems. Server $600-1000, modems $150-300.
As much as $1400 in startup costs, with a monthly of at least $250. Maybe not dual T1's, but I might manage a fractional for that.
Starband is somewhat better, but no southern exposure, certainly not with the ordinances around here. Even atop the house, I'd have to take out the neighbors trees.
There is DSL in this area, but I'm almost 2 miles too far from the CO.
AT&T can pretty much do whatever they want. Such as raise prices (they already have) or block ports (they already have), or be snotty on the phone with me, telling me that I'm not allowed to speak with their supervisor, or anyone else that might actually be able to resolve the problems (they already have). They can insinuate that I'm abusing their service, for just putting up a Code Red safe httpd.
I have no choices, and to be honest, I can't imagine regulation OR deregulation helping the least little bit. It takes big money to start a broadband ISP, and now that the Bells have killed off competition, deregulation will allow them to run roughshod over us. Similarly, they'll simply punish the consumers if regulated (because it will take at least 2-4 years to punish the legislators). Not that politicians are even close to being smart enough to regulate something like this.
Completely open and free markets only work, when corporations are hobbled by reasonable incorporation laws. In the late 1800's, the Supreme Court saw fit to rule that corporations were artificial citizens, with all the rights and privileges that entails (and a few more to boot). Since then, they have been able to do anything they want, and without regulations, they can kill competition with impunity. Anti-trust laws are apparently toothless anymore. Besides, even the minimally clever corporations know, that you don't have to have a literal trust, to accomplish the same effect.
Corporations are in actuality, groups of citizens banded together, in the attempt to increase the relative power of their constitutionally mandated rights. If they do illegal things, no one has any liability. This is the only thing that the goverment need regulate. Make every shareholder liable for all crimes committed. Make it illegal for corporations to lobby politicians, make it illegal for them to make campaign contributions. Every shareholder can do it on his own individually, or even discuss it with fellow shareholders, so they can coordinate. But allowing them to do so, through a corporation, tends to marginalize the rights of true citizens.
When all this is done, then we can do away with regulations.
You mean 9 of the 10 will bend over backwards to accomodate you. AT&T Broadband refuses to even give me contact info that I'd need to complaain about the block on port 80. I'd much rather deal with the goverment, at this point. Maybe the Public Utility Commission will show a little more concern.
Oh, your post was about competition?!? That must be it, since there is only AT&T Broadband here, of course it's going to be fucked...
Offtopic: Since when is distributing content, via your own small time webserver, a commercial action? Since AT&T says so, of course!
Normally, I think prostitution is morally repugnant. However, for a 27 yr old virgin, with no realistic prospects, I find it hard to not recommend it myself. Also, don't worry about getting caught, there's not a judge in the world that would find you guilty of solicitation, after hearing your story.
Also, try calling escort services first. You won't feel like everyone is staring at you, and they come to you, not vice versa. Just be sure to give mommy and daddy some extra spending money, and tell them to go to a movie or something.
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It's been known for a long, long time that M$ contributes nothing to society or the economy.
For instance, due to embarassingly exploitable loopholes in federal tax code, M$ pays ZERO fed tax dollars.
Due to retarded political bargaining with local officials, M$ pays ZERO state or city tax dollars. (though the local gov often pays for infrastructure to make it a more comfortable locale for M$)
The sum of M$'s charity efforts amounts to "free licenses" to various M$ products. Not only do they get to select arbitrary "values" for these licenses, but often they give them to various educational institutions, poisoning students so that they only know one product.
As a matter of fact, I can think of no positive way that they have contributed, unless you are campaigning for the senate.
Microsoft benefits paid to various segments of society...
Microsoft board execs : approx. $150 billion in the last 20 years
Politicians: approx. $75 million anually
You and me: negative $5 billion (conservatively)
Like your understanding of physics is so incredibly superior to his. I remember your sig URL from awhile back, which is unusual... only opinions and ideas so utterly ridiculous could make a lasting impression as did yours.
The truth of the matter, is that both you and he are wrong about time travel. You are so bigoted toward the idea, that you fail to realize the true implications of such a concept (though I am unsure as to why Hawking hasn't seen the truth to it).
If our universe were a simulation (and I leave it up to the reader to decide the truth of this, I use it only as an exmaple), and in this simulation a certain sim-person were to believe they built a time travel device and activated it, there is at least the possibility that it would behave as they might expect. Boom. All the sudden, the universe is as it was sim-years ago, with the notable exception of themselves. However, if the sim-person goes and murders his grandparents, does he pop out of existence? Dematerialize?
No.
He didn't really travel in time, rather the universe was "reset" to appear as if he had time traveled. The only consequences of his actions might be that a similar, but distinct sim-being isnt't born years in his relative future. In effect, he has either entered a seperate simulated universe remarkably similar to how his own was in its past, or he has drastically altered his own universe in a way that he interprets as time travel. No causality hocus-pocus is necessary (though other abracadabras might be needed). Big deal, either way, right?
And don't even get me started on why new age cretins who believe in reincarnation should be chopped up as fish bait.
In a related story, microbiologist Stanley Wellington has discovered a new breed of microbes present only in the craniums of US policitians. These microbes are believed to have co-devolved with public officeholders by metabolising ethereal common sense, and excreting it in a manner that protects a human brain from coming in contact with it. In a groundbreaking experiment, Dr. Wellington cultured the microbes, a feat in and of itself. "These bugs were particularly tricky, as many of my assistants and graduate students have above average IQ's", Dr. Wellington said. "Naturally, the microbes would thrive at a moderate proximity to the experimenters, but when we ventured too close, they would die suddenly. It turns out, that you can 'overfeed' them with intelligence, something that is unlikely to ever occur in their natural habitat. Working closely with leading animal trainers, we were able to train chimps to perform the various mundane functions necessary to culturing the microbes. The more complicated tasks had to be performed remotely, with very expensive robotic equipment..." After successfully culturing these primordial bacteris, he and his associates designed an elaborate experiment to more closely guage their activity. As it turns out, the very same chimp that assisted, could supply as much raw intelligence as 20 million politicians could over a 1000 year time span. Dr. Wellington states "We found this incredible. If you add up all local, state, and federal politicians, from the mayor of the smallest town, all the way up to Dubya, there are less than 8 million public office holders. Marty [the chimp] is clearly intelligent enough to perform all their duties simultaneously, and still provide better economic, defense, and social results." Dr. Emanuel Smith, of the St. Fredericks Bioscience Institute comments "Clearly this is the biological discovery of the millenia! I wouldn't be suprised if it were proven that these bacteria were infecting the voting population of the United states, as we've known for years that only retards believe their votes count in any significant way. For instance, this may be where the microbe prepares new hosts...". Asked if he believed a vaccine could be developed, Dr. Smith stated that hand grenades are far cheaper, off the shelf technology, and that you get to see the liars "splatter like rotten fruit".
The next phase of their research shall attempt to determine whether any other occupations are at risk from these brain-sucking microbes, such as grade school teachers, and NASA engineers.
Is this even in our jurisdiction? My understanding is, that even though he wrote the code, that the actual "crime" would have been committed in Russia, where it is legal to do so. Therefore, we have no right to prosecute. The very most we could do, would be to pressure the russian goverment through political channels, if that.
The problems with dynamic dns at this level, are several. As you said, only aTLDs can do this, for one. If they hose their own config, it does only hurt them... but there are other issues. Without a secure authentication method, it's possible to temporarily hijack domains. The good thing though, is they can only be stolen until you update them again. Also, with 20 million AOLers dynamically updating their dns server records on the TLD server, not only will you need a fat pipe, but a powerful cpu to keep up with it. TO be honest, I've only started to work out all the issues with this, and I'm hardly a DNS guru, by any standard.
And yes, I would have you run your own primary dns server for the domain, I see no reason to make it possible for you to host your own domain, only to have to pay someone else to resolve it. I can't over-emphasize the need to lock it down tight, but if you can install and run apache, then a dns daemon isn't that much tougher.
And on the last point, I agree. In our experiments, my friends and I have added the aTLDs to their named.conf. Each one as type forward, with our two "root/tld" servers as the forwarders, they continue to use the othrodox root for everything but these TLDs. Ideally, one of us will get around to modifying bind so that instead of listing every IP in the forwarder clause, we can simply do "file aTLD.cache;" and be done with it.
I will check into allying with OpenNIC, but the others I have already ruled out. ORSC sickened me, they already have so many aTLDs, that the whole point of TLDs will be lost. I think they are working toward one tld per domain, forgive the exaggeration.
When I said they should be advocating the use of BIND, that should have read "dns daemon of server software". I'm pretty much agnostic to which that happens to be, but there aren't many alternatives. Off the top of my head, I only know of 3, one of which is windows software (M$'s own, which has the taints of WINS).
What I meant about dyndns was this. The root server itself only points to a dns server authoratative for that domain (or to be more accurate, if I understand, points to a tld server, which points to the authoratative domain server). This is fine, when that domain's dns server has a static IP. The main trouble, is that those without a static IP, are often the same people for whom it's more difficult to afford hosting services, precisely the people I want to help the most. Obviously, as soon as they register and disconnect, that dns record means nothing. Why not allow them to update that record, as long as it doesn't kill the root server? Now, obviously, this becomes way too complicated, if they have both a primary and secondary dns record, but if they are dialup, this level of robustness is most likely wasted anyway. The trick is, a single dns record for them, with decent dynamic updating. The downside, is of course, the possibility that many less talented windows users with Personal Web Server and bind for windows, will be a big security booboo. I'd like to hear suggestions on this though.
The tripod/geocities thing is this (gee, I do tend to become less articulate as the post grows, don't I?). They are becoming particularly hostile to their own users, who often feel it to be the only free (beer) method of having a small site. It certainly isn't free (speech). Even to a tolerable point (illegal speech is certainly fine to prohibit, and maybe even those clearly obscene or beligerent). Not to mention that at times, they have attempted to lay claim to your intellectual property, while at the same time rabidly enforcing those rights on behalf of corporate america. Not that I believe in IP per se, but I do tend to grant people creative rights to their work, with few exceptions.
I don't agree with all your conclusions, but I welcome criticism such as this. Especially if you're just warming up to suggestions...
Simple. You don't.
I agree also with the poster, but there isn't much to be done. You don't think, that if we all go back to dialup, and accept 2 hours per day connections, that they won't block servers there too? It's not that our activities are against the rules, or causing problems for them, it's that we're a small minority, and open to extortion. "You should be paying for a business account, if you want to do that!" I believe that no matter what it was, we were doing, as long as it is only a few of us, they'd be pulling this crap.
And since there is no realistic way to string a fiber optic cable between your house and mine, and certainly not between our houses, and every other geeks.... we are f*cked.
To be honest, I don't want to start another root system. I don't want you to either. I feel forced to do something though. I suppose you do also. This entire situation totally pisses me off, and I tend to lash out. We shouldn't have to do this. I don't expect goverments of any type to work well, but damn, they should at least be tolerable, even mediocre.
.warez or .mpz isn't appropriate, or slang of any kind. Or even jokes for that matter. If successful, these things might be used for decades, do we really want to choose retarded TLD's, that once used, can't be gotten rid of?
Also, I have concerns about creating new TLD's. Certainly more are needed, but ideally, I think that excluding ccTLD's, there need be no more than 70-80 TLD's. Any more than that, and they all lose meaning. Right now, as bad as ICANN is, often you can guess the TLD that you should end a site with, and if you can't guess, there are only a handful to try. I've already committed myself to not going above 12, and I'd really like to keep it at 8 or 9 aTLD's. (3 are definite, with 2 more probable candidates.) They just shouldn't be created at whim. It's all I can do, to persuade my friends that
Also, apologies are in order. ORSC did the all.your.bases. thing. Sorry.
One other thing. You should be encouraging everyone to run BIND, and if security is a concern, mirror a copy of the chroot howto on your site. If that's enough to walk a fool like me through the procedure, then most lower primates should be able to do it also. Resolv.conf isn't the answer. Besides, if they are hosting their own domain, like they should be anyway (cable modem blocks on port 80 notwithstanding), they'll need to run it.
Also, I feel you are missing an opportunity, in not trying to implement dyndns from the ground up. Granted, there are major technical hurdles, but if someone wants a small website somewhere, that gets 5 hits per month, there is no reason they should pay $50 per month for webhosting, especially when most hosting companies are total bungholes. Those who don't want the hassle, they're still free to do that, but some people are low on the fundage side of life, but still want/need control over things. Let's design this so they have the freedom they need too. I can finally afford such myself, but I haven't forgotten what it's like.
I'm not a total communist. There is a place for money in such things, a large commercial site is an appropriate candidate. But when AT&T suggests that I should pay for a business account for using port 80, is wrong. Similarly, why should I pay for webhosting, if it's just a small dumb site? Geocities, tripod, etc... just another way to keep us all down. I'd really love to see them wither and die.
Besides, I like the idea of taking money out of the equation entirely. Every time a member signs up at my registry, that will be money sucked straight out of ICANN's wallet. Either directly, or indirectly when those web hosts can't pay icann taxes or bribes.
Well, Soooooorrrrrry!
5 tld's, that's better than some. I've seen one with about 200 (was this open root server confed?). Oh wait... funny your root.cache shows more than 5 entries. And not one, but 2 porn TLD's!!! How bout that, one wasn't big enough, why not 2? And what's this, an affiliation of some sort with alternic? He couldn't find any more bind exploits to steal control over legit domains again?
The mainstream TLD's you came up with all suck. I have no idea why the ccTLD's are in there either. If this is your best effort at setting up an alternate root system, we're better off with ICANN. Even ME, the idiot I am, was able to come up with a better way, than "point your resolv.conf at us" or an 80k root.cache. Me, the guy who only really started playing with bind a few months ago.
Gee, do i want dot null, or a dot oss?
Crack smoking, or corporate idiocy, you decide!
Seriously though, I do believe that such might be possible, if it is true that certain video compression algorithms are incredibly efficient. The flip side, is of course, that you need a pVII 1200thz machine to decompress it in realtime. In other words, it may be possible soon, but isn't yet that way.
But it misses the whole point. Broadband isn't about sending the latest retarded sitcom to me over my modem! Don't we have that already, and it's called cable TV? Amazing that people who consider themselves technologically enlightened might say such things.
Half-asses. The same people who have "all.your.bases.are.belong.to.us" in the root.cache, even though they have no authority over dot us? I'm not even complaining that it's lame, but rather that they are breaking the old dns to make the new, something that is perfectly avoidable. Besides, who can respect an organization that creates as many (more?) tld's as they have members?
Pointing resolv.conf to them, gives them control over what you see, period.
The beauty of the net is like what I imagine the universe will be, should we ever invent FTL. Leave the fuckheads behind, and do your own thing, never to be bothered by them again...
I totally agree with you, on all your points. But remember this, it doesn't need to be this way. We don't have to try to fix this system, or wait for someone else to do so. Create a new one from scratch, and never look back, that's my motto. And if you'd like to join me, you're more than welcome. Besides, gives us a chance to fix some of the flaws that the old system would never be able to get rid of.
The 3 board seats they are removing, won't be the corporate members, will they? Ha ha.
Fuck ICANN. The AlterDNS Project beta is going well, and we'll have 3 broadband root servers before we go live. You'll run bind like you should be doing anyway, and we won't take over the entire "." root zone, like orsc or alternic does. As a matter of fact, you'll just as easily be able to add them, should you suddenly be struck dumb and tasteless. And our rules reflect our belief that DNS is a community resource, not a hostage that corporations hold over us.
Those rules are...
#1 No corporate registrations. Your trademarks are not recognized here.
#2 No reselling of domain names.
#3 No cybersquatting. All domains must be used within 2 weeks of registration
#4 No bulk registrations.
On top of that, we've managed to choose aTLDs that are somewhat meaningful, tasteful even. They're free, in every meaning of the word. So really, what's stopping you?
There is no undisturbed space. Microsoft's plan, is to own all the system software that runs on anything with a cpu. This should be obvious by now. Intel is busy killing off other cpu's, and while they aren't necessarily conspiring together, it is awful convenient for a company like M$, who finds it distasteful to write for more than one chip. Think about it...
PDA's
PC's
Home theater type equipment (think tivo lookalikes and game consoles, first with dreamcast and more blatantly with xbox)
Workstations, graphical and scientific
Lowend servers
Mid-range servers (no high end yet, but they sure are trying)
Embedded devices, industrial and otherwise
What type of computer is left for a company like Be ?
And since you aren't denying microsoft's actions, are you saying that they are even close to being legal? IMO you do have a right to assume that you won't be cheated anywhere near as badly as Be was. Sure, some dirty deals are to be expected, but these are little jabs, here and there. Not unprovoked nuclear strikes like microsoft is fond of.
It is entirely possible that Gassee might have flushed Be down the toilet. That isn't the issue, the issue is whether M$ should be allowed to make that choice for us.
Dude, you sound so knowledgable, at least to the cluless.
For instance...
MS's market, as far as MS is concerned, is everything digital, technological, or related to IP rights. Be would have to manufacture wooden shoes, to avoid the absuive monopoly that MS is.
Monopolies aren't allowed to determine whether "really good OS's, with good features and easy API's" will succeed or fail. Also, you fail to mention that MS didn't triumph over Be on merit, but rather through illegal hardware vendor coercion.
The systems you mention, are nearly irrelevant to the discussion.
Apple: a somewhat sucessful niche 'total system' vendor, which really only hangs on because they were pretty much the first personal computer maker out there. Barring time travel, Be couldn't have hoped to take the same road to semi-sucess as Apple did.
Amiga: a really small but highly innovative company that was almost immediately bought by Commodore, another of the first few pc makers. Survived shortly in a video editing niche, before poor management killed Commodore. Even had they been sucessful, they were wandering dangerously close to the workstation market. MS is attempting to annex that territory as we speak, so even had Be hid there, it would only have postponed the inevitable.
NeXT: took them several years to figure out that really cool computers still don't sell, when they cost $10,000. Workstation, personal computer, I never have figured out which... but had Be tried to follow this example, it would have ended even quicker than it had. And unlike Jobs, no one at Apple like Gassee enough to buy out his failing company.
AS400: IBM big iron, that even today really doesn't compete in the same market as MS garbage. Successful, but then there are no abusive monopolies nipping at IBM's heels in this arena. This is the example you want Be to follow? Building mid-to-upper range servers that cost anywhere from $30,000 to $150,000?
Only two of the companies you named are even still around today. The other two did/are doing what Be eventually did also. Nameley, becoming a software/OS only company. "Building their own hardware" wasn't an option, it would have been intentional suicide. Also, for the record, Be did manufacture a limited run of such machines, named the "BeBox". I have no doubt, that had Be somehow managed to license the design, and a vendor such as Gateway or Dell started making the machines, M$ would have ported NT or 9x to the dual PPC Be platform, and insisted on the "no dual boot" and "microsoft tax" provisions in their vendor licenses. Maybe even killing it before it hit store shelves.
Your post and attitude both smack of victim bashing. Do you also chastise rape victims for wearing slutty clothing? Or laugh at murder victims, who should have spent more free time learning self-defense? The truth is, no one or no entity is capable of playing on M$'s turf, and M$ tends to draw the borders around that turf so widely that there is no safe place. Be had a decent shot at deflecting and countering the regular dirty deals and nasty tricks you'll see in this industry, but no one is able to to stand up to the barrage that M$ will throw at anyone they consider threatening. It hurts both of us, and anyone else that comes into contact with technology on a regular basis. Laugh at their mistakes all you like, but laughing at the crimes that they have endured is low.
Three fourths of NASDAQ listed corporations announced single molecule revenues for the third quarter. Analysts insist that such predictions are hardly in good faith, and that the majority will be lucky to turn revenues amounting even to a single quark. Wall Street bravely marches on, into this blossoming nano-economy.
Almost agreed with you, until I got to the wiccan part. Then again, maybe there is nothing wrong with practicing a made-up religion. After all, the scientologists are certainly even more guilty of it than you, and I believe in their right to be retards too.
Then again, all religions are made up, it's just how long ago it was when that would be priest made up all the silly superstitions.
If there is a God, is his name God? Do you name your dog "Dog" also? (little hint: The fundamentalists worhsip a deity whose true unrevealed name is Hallelujah, god of gibbering and incest.)
I did ask for such a refund. They not only insisted that they would not do so, but that the only reason I would need the port open was if I were actually abusing their service.
They will come right out and tell you that the port block is permanent.
Fuck them. Port 8000, and as half-assed as the monkeys are that they pass off as techs, I doubt they'll ever notice. UDP 53 is more worrisome for me personally, since this isn't a service that is exactly relocatable.
As the founding member of the 56KKK, I'd like to warn you of this propaganda that they've been trying to brainwash you with. Modem users aren't like you or me, they are vile subhuman animals, and you shouldn't mix with them. As a nation, we need to segregate these modemmians from the rest of our otherwise wholesome nation, and take back what is ours. And if a few "0101101"s get burnt in their front yards, what's so wrong with that? They should know better than to mix with us normal people. Do you know that sinister modem users are taking the jobs away from broadband users like us? It's the modemmian conspiracy. They're to blame for the dotcom downturn, and they use their evil, devil-granted modemmian powers to place voodoo curses on you and I. Slashdot is obviously a front for the pro-modemmian group that is to blame for cattle mutilations, vandalism, and poisoning our nation's drinking water with dioxin. They'll enslave us all, unless we fight back, forcing us to use 9600 baud internet connections. Don't let it happen!
Joe Broadband
Grand Poobah of the Knights of the 56KKK
I hope I've offended no one, but this article was so dumb, I had to make fun of it some how. And if I got to spoof other hatemongers in the process, so much better. First-post-Nazi-guy, go to hell.
sigh* The DMCA. Designed to protect Hollywood from nasty evil hackers who, but for that wonderful law, would be going into video stores right now and giving Hollywood their money. Stupid gits.
While this seems fair and equitable to me, you are missing a not so obvious point. (Not that I blame you, it's not the most ethical of points either) While Hollywood and the associated industries can make a moderately nice sum of cash now, they are more than willing to forfeit that for now, in exchange for a future stranglehold on all "IP". From a strategic point of view, this is brilliant, as they stand to more than make up for current lost revenue in the long run. IMO this is more akin to raping and pillaging the enemy, even butchering their babies, just to win the war. Sure it works, but what more can be said? Barring a miracle, which is the majority of citizens waking up and have a clue or two, there isn't much that can be done.
Hell, if I can afford 3 dialup lines, I might as well go all out, and order a couple of T1's. That is, after all, what all the elitist asswipes were suggesting a few days back on the other broadband stories. And if you think I'm exaggerating, add it up.
3 new phone lines, for the circuit. $100 worth of fees, $60 monthly.
3 Dialup ISP accounts, with multilink access, $210 per month. (Not $60, because I'd need a 24/7 account, to be anything at all like what broadband is supposed to be)
A new linux server, with 3 hardware modems. Server $600-1000, modems $150-300.
As much as $1400 in startup costs, with a monthly of at least $250. Maybe not dual T1's, but I might manage a fractional for that.
Starband is somewhat better, but no southern exposure, certainly not with the ordinances around here. Even atop the house, I'd have to take out the neighbors trees.
There is DSL in this area, but I'm almost 2 miles too far from the CO.
AT&T can pretty much do whatever they want. Such as raise prices (they already have) or block ports (they already have), or be snotty on the phone with me, telling me that I'm not allowed to speak with their supervisor, or anyone else that might actually be able to resolve the problems (they already have). They can insinuate that I'm abusing their service, for just putting up a Code Red safe httpd.
I have no choices, and to be honest, I can't imagine regulation OR deregulation helping the least little bit. It takes big money to start a broadband ISP, and now that the Bells have killed off competition, deregulation will allow them to run roughshod over us. Similarly, they'll simply punish the consumers if regulated (because it will take at least 2-4 years to punish the legislators). Not that politicians are even close to being smart enough to regulate something like this.
Uh...
"since there is only AT&T here"...
Yeh.
Completely open and free markets only work, when corporations are hobbled by reasonable incorporation laws. In the late 1800's, the Supreme Court saw fit to rule that corporations were artificial citizens, with all the rights and privileges that entails (and a few more to boot). Since then, they have been able to do anything they want, and without regulations, they can kill competition with impunity. Anti-trust laws are apparently toothless anymore. Besides, even the minimally clever corporations know, that you don't have to have a literal trust, to accomplish the same effect.
Corporations are in actuality, groups of citizens banded together, in the attempt to increase the relative power of their constitutionally mandated rights. If they do illegal things, no one has any liability. This is the only thing that the goverment need regulate. Make every shareholder liable for all crimes committed. Make it illegal for corporations to lobby politicians, make it illegal for them to make campaign contributions. Every shareholder can do it on his own individually, or even discuss it with fellow shareholders, so they can coordinate. But allowing them to do so, through a corporation, tends to marginalize the rights of true citizens.
When all this is done, then we can do away with regulations.
You mean 9 of the 10 will bend over backwards to accomodate you. AT&T Broadband refuses to even give me contact info that I'd need to complaain about the block on port 80. I'd much rather deal with the goverment, at this point. Maybe the Public Utility Commission will show a little more concern.
Oh, your post was about competition?!? That must be it, since there is only AT&T Broadband here, of course it's going to be fucked...
Offtopic: Since when is distributing content, via your own small time webserver, a commercial action? Since AT&T says so, of course!
Normally, I think prostitution is morally repugnant. However, for a 27 yr old virgin, with no realistic prospects, I find it hard to not recommend it myself. Also, don't worry about getting caught, there's not a judge in the world that would find you guilty of solicitation, after hearing your story.
Also, try calling escort services first. You won't feel like everyone is staring at you, and they come to you, not vice versa. Just be sure to give mommy and daddy some extra spending money, and tell them to go to a movie or something.