Well it has to remain profitable or at the very least break even to make it worth the while of the electrical company. I'm sure a new nuclear facility would cost a great deal of money to erect, and unfortunately I don't have any recent American examples to give costs for since, well, we haven't built a new nuclear reactor in some time.
The company is selling you electricity at whatever it may cost them to bring it to you and yes that includes building of facilities, upkeep, line maintenence, etc. Given the forcasted demand on the new nuclear facility, it should hopefully have enough customers to support itself as well turn in a tidy profit. In case you just woke up from a long sleep, this is how companies work.
Now that I am thinking about it I can't even believe that I just answered such a retarded question.
People have been hacking cue cats for like what? 3-4 YEARS? Slashdot alone has had at least half a dozen articles on the cuecat.
In case you want one, you can find them on e-bay for rather cheap these days ($3-6 buy it now).
It is too bad they won't sell in lots lower than 500k. This could have been a great money making scheme considering how many geeks are still hacking and using these things.
Check one out. You need a ps/2 port for it to work and when you get one off of e-bay look for one that has been hacked already, otherwise you are gonna have to declaw the cat. Google will show you the way.
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Wireless access points are pretty easy to create a man in the middle attack. Want to know how? Create an access point that mimics a corporate wireless access point that will take a user log in and redirect them to the real access point they are trying to connect to and pass their MAC and login to the next access point. Most people won't check the authenticity of their access point so as long as they can log in and get to the network, they won't think a single thing is different.
You now have their login, approved MAC address, and their encryption key. I know this is a bit simplified, but let me say this, in no certain way should your wireless access points EVER be trusted. If you allow APs to get into your internal network, they are like hanging a bunch of open ethernet ports on the side of your building, regardless of how "secure" you may think they are.
I'm not saying people should not use wireless, but rather, that they should at least be aware of the security risks that it presents.
W32.Spybot.KEG is a worm that has distributed denial of service and back door capabilities. The worm spreads to network shares protected by weak passwords and by exploiting vulnerabilities.
technical details
When W32.Spybot.KEG is executed, it performs the following actions:
1. Creates the following copy of itself:
%System%\p6.exe
Sounds pretty sophisticated if you read all the details. Notice the line about how when it "is executed." Maybe we need to figure out how we can give everyone virus protection for free. Seriously. This kind of thing is far too easily prevented, especially at the corp level.
There are even freeware opensourced scanners these days that I hear are pretty good even if they do miss a few trojans here and there.
First of all shouldn't most IDS systems pick up on this worm if it has been announced enough to be named and is obviously now a known exploit? I don't know if Kerio picks up on this worm, but I'd imagine they would have some sort of security update in the near future, and I'm sure it has to be in some signature databases. Secondly, what exactly does this affect? Unpatched windows systems? I'm sure anyone running a network that knows what they are doing (tm) would have clear safeguards for this kind of thing. Hell, even Kerio personal firewall will not let anything execute that I know of, and for the rare times that websites try to pass on some sort of java virus, Norton usually detects it before it hits the cache.
Secondly is there any excuse anymore other than incompetence and companies that are operating on a small budget? Someone needs to make a firewall device that the windows network can be plugged into (think small company lan/w web and e-mail) that offers relatively little configuration and just basically works right out of the box. Even my cheap ass linksys router does some basic port forwarding and such.
Oh, it needs to be cheap and update itself with new security rules (IDS, firmware, etc) on a fairly constant basis, for a relatively low fee you could have it send security logs to the manufacturing company, which could say add rules or manipulate the box. Honestly, I think a well thought out firewall running on a fairly secure NOS would go an awfully long way in protecting their assets.
I think we are going to see some clever attacks in the future. I can think of so many ways that a network could be easily compromised and a trusted connection could be made. Think of all the business travelers that head out with their Cen-f'in-trino and connect to the nearest open hotspot then proceed to log right into a VPN session. Think of company wireless hotspot spoofing and imagine sending the visitor directly to the real network with their intercepted log in. How easy would something like that be? Hell you could even throw something like that in a backpack. How would they find *that*? I don't think that many companies have realized the gaping holes that they have left in their networks. Any company that thinks FedEx is secure enough to send unencrypted tapes is likely going to have a few more suprises along the way. I predict that the future is going to get worse for a lot of companies *cough*banks*cough before it gets better.
BTW, if this post is incoherent, my apologies. It *is* rather late. And to the FBI agent who may come across this message: Go find some real criminals. The last I heard, there are still plenty of real crimes still being committed on a daily basis. Murder, rape, child exploitation, etc. Why not devote some time on the big stuff?
In case you all were wondering I cannot seem to find anything in google about lifegem being a scam. It DOES seem that the owner tried to get the diamonds certified and released such information in a press release, but the certification company distanced themselves. From a few news stories, it seems that they do indeed make diamonds, but according to at least one funeral director they are not exactly a perfect diamond. Considering the source material, I don't think that this tidbit would suprise anyone. The only actual pictures are from news articles that show very small diamonds with a lot of colour. Most of the pictures that show any closeups of the diamonds on the webpage are actually renderings, so it does appear that they don't really want people to know that it isn't exactly a perfect process. Very cool if they really do what they say they do and the market potential is HUUUUUGE. I couldn't find out if they had patented the process, but I really cannot see how they couldn't have. Perhaps the patent is still pending or something.
There you go. Googling for lifegem will give you a very small amount of information. I'm to lazy to post links. You can dig if you're any more interested than that.
So very true. I hope for your sake that you really enjoy sports games.
Not really. I personally prefer RPGs, strategy, and first person games. Don't know why I really like the shooters these days, but I guess perhaps I've been suckered in by the immersion of games like Deus Ex and System Shock 2. I really liked Half Life and Jedi Knight a whole lot too. Personally I like to play old games a whole lot, but every now and then there is a newer game that suprises me. I'd love to see some 2d gaming come back for a last hurrah. There is so much you could still do with art direction and with the capabilities of newer systems, you can easily have craziness like thousands of sprites at once or gigantic animated characthers and so on. I guess the future is probably lots games with cel shading making an attempt to look as anime as possible.
My take on consoles is that they should always just be exactly that, a gaming platform. What, with DVD players going on the ultra-cheap these days (though finding DivX players for cheap is not so easy), who the hell needs their gaming platform to play DVDs? Streaming MP3s is a whole other thing entirely and that my friends will bring a lot of usefulness, imagine selecting your background music from your selection of MP3s. Gran Turismo anyone? I know that the games are all getting stale and while in my heart I always feel that Nintendo has it right in a lot of ways, so much of what they do is unfortunately so boneheaded. It will certainly be interesting to have similar processors between the three consoles and I predict that a lot of big publishers *cough*EA*cough* will spend a lot of development money on porting between the three.
As much as I love the Gameboy SP and its clamshell I finally got to see someone actually playing a PSP the other day. It was 989's Baseball game and I'll not waste anytime talking about 989's games or baseball, but I was totally and completely stunned. If Sony just digs in and keeps the PSP around for five years until its price can get closer to $70-90 (the average cost of a Game Boy), people will buy it like there is no tommorow. I asked about battery life and he said 7-8 hours on average. That really isn't all that bad is it? I don't think I'll give up the GBA any time soon for a lot of reasons, but when the PSP ever gets to below $100, I'd certainly have to at least think about it. The DS is so gimicky, I mean the best they got coming is dog raising sim? That's pretty sad, and while I realize that the PSP has mostly puzzle games, there already seems to be stronger third party support for it. I hate to say it, but the gamers just want games and they will buy whatever console has the most games. In case you were born yesterday the third party developers have a firmer and firmer hand in deciding the "console wars."
My point is this. The new features would be nice, and with all the power in the next generation of consoles it really doesn't make sense to not make the box somewhat more multipurpose, but I doubt many people will care about such things and will end up buying the machine for what it is, a video games console.
Of course Microsoft and Sony want to be a part of your whole entertainment experience. The want to control the content you download, be it games, movies, tv shows. They don't want just a slice, they want the whole pie. They both see set top boxes that record what you watch and offer you services on demand as the future. I don't see everyone buying it personally, but with downloadable games and what not the future is certainly looking interesting. Look at it this way. Kids destroy video games all the time. Now there is no disc. No fuss. Having the Nintendo catalog on demand may cause a huge number of people to buy a Revolution, but quite honestly I can emulate a whole bunch of consoles on a computer as well as old DOS games and just about anything my retro heart desires. Hell, give us new Mario games or something original.
Like I said, gamers will always go where the games are.
Why oh why? Chances are if your staff is used to Blackboard there is no reason to switch and there is also the high likelihood that your management has never even considered an alternative for many reasons and probably has their mind made up. Anything you offer them is going to have to support blackboard modules or it will be a no brainer. Also blackboard is open source in that it is all written in Perl. If you really felt a need to modify the code it is all there in plaintext. Do some freaking homework the next time before you post to slashdot "I want an open source replacement for some essential tool because, well, open source is better." Is it?
Also keep in mind that many book publishers and test software companies create modules exclusively for Blackboard. Why on earth you would want to move away from Blackboard is beyond me considering the headache that any alternative system is going to cause your teachers. How would you feel if you were a teacher and all those tests you were going to use with Blackboard no longer were an option with the new system. And those test creators don't really work for you anymore. Blackboard support is a big deal now with college texts and it is easy to see why given the ease that teachers can deploy tests and get automatic results. My girlfriend is a college instructor and she uses blackboard quite a bit with test generators. She would be extremeley unhappy if she had to start writing test questions as she has little time to deal with even preparing for her classes.
I would just like to say this has got to be the worst idea I've heard in a while and while it is good to try and promote open sores (its a joke people!) software, this isn't something you can just replace and expect the same level of functionality from another product. Think of it this way, you have a bunch of engineers that get drafts in Autocad, how the hell would they feel if suddenly the idiotic management decided that they should be using GnuCAD which didn't support any autocad documents, because they decided that open source is "better." I'm sure it would make their lives so much better right?
I would just love to see your planning meeting.
Zealot: We should use this open source package, it won't cost us anything and we can stop licensing blackboard. PHB: Does it support blackboard modules? Zealot: Well, no. PHB: What benefits does it offer over blackboard? Zealot: Uh, uh, its free and open source! PHB: I could care less. Next.
Do yourself a favor and research this before you even think about proposing it.
In the second Dark Knight book the Green Lantern makes a comment about how only humans would point so many weapons from space at their own earth and mentions that is why the aliens left earth alone. Something along those lines. The space weapons were metal rods pointed at earth. Very interesting how Frank Miller & Co. predicted space weapons years before the military even began considering them. Even the technology is the same.
I can't wait for the new Batman and Robin comics from Miller. If his treatment on Batman's early years is any indications (Batman: Year One) we should be in for a serious treat!
There should be caps on this sort of thing anyways. Remember the kid who made a search engine for his University and when the RIAA found out that people were using it to search other people's shares for MP3s they sued the kid for $10,000 which he paid out of pocket from his college fund. Fortunately for him he has since recovered his money thanks to an internet fund raising drive, but $10,000 is an awful lot to sue for when someone has not caused you any sort of monetary damages directly. I could only imagine the world of hurt the poor kid would be in if he didn't have the funds to just simply settle.
This is chilling precedent. What's to stop the RIAA from one day hacking into my machines and finding some MP3s (actually, they will find a LOT) and deciding that I am distributing them or that I do not legally own all of them? Can I afford to pay some schmuck lawyer to help me defend myself against this tirade? I can't, as I am unemployed currently. Could I afford a $10,000 "fine"? Probably not. People put other people's lives at risk with drunk driving, but when they are caught, they face only a $3,000 fine here in good ole Pennsyltucky. Aparantly putting the lives of people in danger is only worth $3000 to the state, while saying that stealing some music from a corporation that owes a multitude of its artists money and does its best not to pay is ludicrous is worth $10,000 is totally ludicrous.
The government doesn't need to get involved in this sham either. Hasn't anyone read the news? Record sales have been up. I guess the piss poor economy has had a lot more to do with sales driving down than some college kids who wouldn't have bought the freaking album new anyways.
For the record, 90% of the albums I've ever bought were from the used bin. It would be safe to say that I never supported the artists in the first place. KRS-One has this great line about how "if you downloaded the album, come to the show." I'm sure he makes a lot more from ticket sales at shows than he does from his albums. Maybe more people need to get out and see shows and maybe more shows need to start costing less than $50 a seat!
Is Dave Matthews really worth $100 to go see with your girlfriend? (assuming one has one here)
Two days ago something happened that could have caused some major problems. It didn't. Oh and be sure to catch the auroras yesterday. They sure were great. Thanks for the heads up;)
Unfortunately the article summary is wrong. I wish I had MOD points because unfortunately you are already +5 funny (should be moronic) and at the top of the page. I guess all I can do is call you an idiot and really say that the joke is truly on you. Since I actually took the time to RTFAs with the first one starting out rather correctly:
NOAA ISSUES SPACE WEATHER WARNING Forecasters at the NOAA Space Environment Center in Boulder, Colo., observed a geomagnetic storm on Sunday, May 15
From the second article:
What caused the display? A coronal mass ejection (CME) hit Earth's magnetic field. Impact time: May 15th at 0230 UT.
Thought I'd like to point that out. In the printed world things typically take a day or so to at least come out.
On a side note the article summary is misleading and so full of hype that it oozes to be on the 11 o'clock news. Come on, can't you guys post better summaries, I mean geez, at least get the freakin date right or something!
Thanks for taking the time to reply. You are correct in that details were extremely thin on Friendster being hacked (or not hacked as the case seems to be). I remember a Slashdot story on the Wired article when this was going on, but like you, it was the only actual information I saw. Certainly no proof of concept or anything like that. Yeah, Wired cannot be totally trusted (nor should any printed medium) and it would suprise me little if the interviewer made up quotes or took them terribly out of context. I'd just like to take the time to say that while I don't personally have much need for friendster, I can definately see the benefits such a service offers and that you guys have certainly been doing something right given the popularity of the site.
Wish I had more details, but apparantly it just stops at the Wired story (I checked a bit). Thanks again for taking the time to respond and also thanks for putting in a good word for mySQL from someone that is using it in a very visible way. (Slashdot also uses mySQL) The FUD surrounding open source database projects need to die a quick death because Oracle isn't really the only game in town anymore and if you are looking for something that meets the database integrity of Oracle, you really don't have to look very far when you've got mySQL for sheer speed and Postgres for integrity and stored procedures from what I understand. I guess stored procedures is coming to MySQL soon and the opensource DB world is starting to get pretty interesting!
I know this is terribly offtopic, but did Friendster ever figure out the security issues they were having in the past with people getting access to other people's account? I think I remember the CEO stating something to the effect that they didn't have any security issues even though people were posting friendster exploits on the web.
Sorry for the intrusion, I'll be happy to move along.
Nah. That is probably what they used. Remember that SMB3 was released in 1988 or so in Japan and that they had been working on it for two years. You wouldn't need a very powerful development platform to code for a 1.7mhz machine with like 16k onboard.
They look like some old IBM PCs or something. Hell, since they were Japanese they were probably using MSXs at the time.
Why does slashdot insist on posting such obvious trolls? This whole article and slashdot story should be modded -99 TROLL! The submitter obviously was hoping to start a flame war with the OSS free-software *coughstallmancough* zealots and the people who know better currently have the highest modded posts on this forum. There is no Java trap. As long as Java's source lays out in the open people will implement their own JVMs and compilers and the world will move on. If Sun goes down the drain then well, I guess by gosh those OSS zealots that are whining need to get their act together to implement all of those open sourced "hidden features."
With the world all going to hell, you'd think that people could find better things to argue about. Java is obviously a well used toolbox in the open source and to say that it will have negative consequences is truly sad. Why do people use Java even though people bitch and moan about how slow and slow it is and how it lacks certain primitives (and it does), it is because it just works on nearly any operating system. When you only want to devote the time to develop for one platform, but at the same time allow just about anyone with a computer to run your code, what are you going to use?
Azureus, Slimserver's MP3 player, a bunch of emulators, and a whole slew of other projects that can be found on Sourceforge, amongst other places, were all built on Java.
Who knows, Java may live up to its promises as a platform for embedded devices one day. Given how many Universities teach Java right from the start and how many teachers are right now telling people that Java is likely to be the next big language, I wouldn't exactly say that Java is going anywhere anytime soon. Microsoft is now wishing they had come up with a similar idea and.Net has a long ways to catch up. Can't we find better things to argue over? That Java is even open sourced says multitudes about the effect of Free Software.
We need to form a front on the feds that are encroaching our rights. Fortunately for us Americans (for those that are still worthy of being called that) we have a legal way and the tried and true illegal way. Both fronts are approachable, though the last should be exactly that, a last resort. Seriously, we need to act. I'd be willing to pay with my life to make this country a better place and I'll be damned if I slowly rot and watch this sheer misery without at least taking a stand. The Federal RFID-enabled trackable ID encroaches on state rights on so many fronts. Want to know why the MATRIX (think they picked that name on purpose) failed? Only a handful of states decided to cooperate, the rest preferred to keep their constituents information private.We might as well start signing waivers of rights at age 18 to gain an ID and other "priveledges" at this rate.
I hereby declare that we as citizens need to get involved and also get other citizens involved because this is affecting us all in so many pervasive ways that the slippery slope is starting to look like a cliff we have all just potentially jumped off. You may say to yourself, well, that doesn't affect me, everything I do is legal, but wait until you are sued because you are caught with some illegal mp3s or worse thrown in jail. Wait until you find out that you should have no rights to medical privacy according to the federal government and John Ashcroft. Where does it begin and more importantly, where does it end?
Our rights are gone and in many places we cannot even arm or defend ourselves even in spite of the threat of deadly force. What freedoms do we have left with potentially now the ability for the local, state, and federal governments to all easily monitor our whereabouts and travels?
Please read my last post on the last story about the Real ID. We need to respond with at least *something*. We need to take the stand. I'm sure that if half of the americans really knew what was going on in their congress (or even cared to know) those that are holding power would certainly not keep getting reelected. I know that there are not really many easy solutions in the sheer complexity that is modern society, however this has become a reflection of what should not be implemented in a national government and we still have the power to effect change.
Come on Slashdot! Create a Slashdot effect on the feds for chrissakes! You all echo in a chorus that what we are doing is dangerous and potentially has drastically negative consequences. You all seem to hate patent law, industry regulation, war, the DMCA, the Patriot Act, the FCC, the broadcast flag, and this truly sad piece of legislation.
Seriously, can't we just play nice for a day and decide to do something about this trite? Is it that hard? We could have Liberty Day and get together in our cities and towns and meet, geek to geek. Surely the geeks are at least smarter than anyone else, right? Can't we brainstorm some better ideas while where at it and figure out how to wrestle control away from two political parties? Revolution Day?
THE REVOLUTION WILL BE TELEVISED
Let us hope there is some sanity left in this world, right?
Slashdot Mirror
That's funny.
Well it has to remain profitable or at the very least break even to make it worth the while of the electrical company. I'm sure a new nuclear facility would cost a great deal of money to erect, and unfortunately I don't have any recent American examples to give costs for since, well, we haven't built a new nuclear reactor in some time. The company is selling you electricity at whatever it may cost them to bring it to you and yes that includes building of facilities, upkeep, line maintenence, etc. Given the forcasted demand on the new nuclear facility, it should hopefully have enough customers to support itself as well turn in a tidy profit. In case you just woke up from a long sleep, this is how companies work. Now that I am thinking about it I can't even believe that I just answered such a retarded question.
What rock have you been living under?
People have been hacking cue cats for like what? 3-4 YEARS? Slashdot alone has had at least half a dozen articles on the cuecat.
In case you want one, you can find them on e-bay for rather cheap these days ($3-6 buy it now).
It is too bad they won't sell in lots lower than 500k. This could have been a great money making scheme considering how many geeks are still hacking and using these things.
Check one out. You need a ps/2 port for it to work and when you get one off of e-bay look for one that has been hacked already, otherwise you are gonna have to declaw the cat. Google will show you the way.
Happy hacking!
This has been a cry of impotence.
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NO CARRIER
Wireless access points are pretty easy to create a man in the middle attack. Want to know how? Create an access point that mimics a corporate wireless access point that will take a user log in and redirect them to the real access point they are trying to connect to and pass their MAC and login to the next access point. Most people won't check the authenticity of their access point so as long as they can log in and get to the network, they won't think a single thing is different.
You now have their login, approved MAC address, and their encryption key. I know this is a bit simplified, but let me say this, in no certain way should your wireless access points EVER be trusted. If you allow APs to get into your internal network, they are like hanging a bunch of open ethernet ports on the side of your building, regardless of how "secure" you may think they are.
I'm not saying people should not use wireless, but rather, that they should at least be aware of the security risks that it presents.
W32.Spybot.KEG is a worm that has distributed denial of service and back door capabilities. The worm spreads to network shares protected by weak passwords and by exploiting vulnerabilities.
technical details
When W32.Spybot.KEG is executed, it performs the following actions:
1. Creates the following copy of itself:
%System%\p6.exe
Sounds pretty sophisticated if you read all the details. Notice the line about how when it "is executed." Maybe we need to figure out how we can give everyone virus protection for free. Seriously. This kind of thing is far too easily prevented, especially at the corp level.
There are even freeware opensourced scanners these days that I hear are pretty good even if they do miss a few trojans here and there.
First of all shouldn't most IDS systems pick up on this worm if it has been announced enough to be named and is obviously now a known exploit? I don't know if Kerio picks up on this worm, but I'd imagine they would have some sort of security update in the near future, and I'm sure it has to be in some signature databases. Secondly, what exactly does this affect? Unpatched windows systems? I'm sure anyone running a network that knows what they are doing (tm) would have clear safeguards for this kind of thing. Hell, even Kerio personal firewall will not let anything execute that I know of, and for the rare times that websites try to pass on some sort of java virus, Norton usually detects it before it hits the cache.
/w web and e-mail) that offers relatively little configuration and just basically works right out of the box. Even my cheap ass linksys router does some basic port forwarding and such.
Secondly is there any excuse anymore other than incompetence and companies that are operating on a small budget? Someone needs to make a firewall device that the windows network can be plugged into (think small company lan
Oh, it needs to be cheap and update itself with new security rules (IDS, firmware, etc) on a fairly constant basis, for a relatively low fee you could have it send security logs to the manufacturing company, which could say add rules or manipulate the box. Honestly, I think a well thought out firewall running on a fairly secure NOS would go an awfully long way in protecting their assets.
I think we are going to see some clever attacks in the future. I can think of so many ways that a network could be easily compromised and a trusted connection could be made. Think of all the business travelers that head out with their Cen-f'in-trino and connect to the nearest open hotspot then proceed to log right into a VPN session. Think of company wireless hotspot spoofing and imagine sending the visitor directly to the real network with their intercepted log in. How easy would something like that be? Hell you could even throw something like that in a backpack. How would they find *that*? I don't think that many companies have realized the gaping holes that they have left in their networks. Any company that thinks FedEx is secure enough to send unencrypted tapes is likely going to have a few more suprises along the way. I predict that the future is going to get worse for a lot of companies *cough*banks*cough before it gets better.
BTW, if this post is incoherent, my apologies. It *is* rather late. And to the FBI agent who may come across this message: Go find some real criminals. The last I heard, there are still plenty of real crimes still being committed on a daily basis. Murder, rape, child exploitation, etc. Why not devote some time on the big stuff?
In case you all were wondering I cannot seem to find anything in google about lifegem being a scam. It DOES seem that the owner tried to get the diamonds certified and released such information in a press release, but the certification company distanced themselves. From a few news stories, it seems that they do indeed make diamonds, but according to at least one funeral director they are not exactly a perfect diamond. Considering the source material, I don't think that this tidbit would suprise anyone. The only actual pictures are from news articles that show very small diamonds with a lot of colour. Most of the pictures that show any closeups of the diamonds on the webpage are actually renderings, so it does appear that they don't really want people to know that it isn't exactly a perfect process. Very cool if they really do what they say they do and the market potential is HUUUUUGE.
I couldn't find out if they had patented the process, but I really cannot see how they couldn't have. Perhaps the patent is still pending or something.
There you go. Googling for lifegem will give you a very small amount of information. I'm to lazy to post links. You can dig if you're any more interested than that.
And this is news for nerds how?
Hey. Get your own founding father quote! :P
So very true. I hope for your sake that you really enjoy sports games.
Not really. I personally prefer RPGs, strategy, and first person games. Don't know why I really like the shooters these days, but I guess perhaps I've been suckered in by the immersion of games like Deus Ex and System Shock 2. I really liked Half Life and Jedi Knight a whole lot too. Personally I like to play old games a whole lot, but every now and then there is a newer game that suprises me. I'd love to see some 2d gaming come back for a last hurrah. There is so much you could still do with art direction and with the capabilities of newer systems, you can easily have craziness like thousands of sprites at once or gigantic animated characthers and so on. I guess the future is probably lots games with cel shading making an attempt to look as anime as possible.
My take on consoles is that they should always just be exactly that, a gaming platform. What, with DVD players going on the ultra-cheap these days (though finding DivX players for cheap is not so easy), who the hell needs their gaming platform to play DVDs? Streaming MP3s is a whole other thing entirely and that my friends will bring a lot of usefulness, imagine selecting your background music from your selection of MP3s. Gran Turismo anyone? I know that the games are all getting stale and while in my heart I always feel that Nintendo has it right in a lot of ways, so much of what they do is unfortunately so boneheaded. It will certainly be interesting to have similar processors between the three consoles and I predict that a lot of big publishers *cough*EA*cough* will spend a lot of development money on porting between the three.
As much as I love the Gameboy SP and its clamshell I finally got to see someone actually playing a PSP the other day. It was 989's Baseball game and I'll not waste anytime talking about 989's games or baseball, but I was totally and completely stunned. If Sony just digs in and keeps the PSP around for five years until its price can get closer to $70-90 (the average cost of a Game Boy), people will buy it like there is no tommorow. I asked about battery life and he said 7-8 hours on average. That really isn't all that bad is it? I don't think I'll give up the GBA any time soon for a lot of reasons, but when the PSP ever gets to below $100, I'd certainly have to at least think about it. The DS is so gimicky, I mean the best they got coming is dog raising sim? That's pretty sad, and while I realize that the PSP has mostly puzzle games, there already seems to be stronger third party support for it. I hate to say it, but the gamers just want games and they will buy whatever console has the most games. In case you were born yesterday the third party developers have a firmer and firmer hand in deciding the "console wars."
My point is this. The new features would be nice, and with all the power in the next generation of consoles it really doesn't make sense to not make the box somewhat more multipurpose, but I doubt many people will care about such things and will end up buying the machine for what it is, a video games console.
Of course Microsoft and Sony want to be a part of your whole entertainment experience. The want to control the content you download, be it games, movies, tv shows. They don't want just a slice, they want the whole pie. They both see set top boxes that record what you watch and offer you services on demand as the future. I don't see everyone buying it personally, but with downloadable games and what not the future is certainly looking interesting. Look at it this way. Kids destroy video games all the time. Now there is no disc. No fuss. Having the Nintendo catalog on demand may cause a huge number of people to buy a Revolution, but quite honestly I can emulate a whole bunch of consoles on a computer as well as old DOS games and just about anything my retro heart desires. Hell, give us new Mario games or something original.
Like I said, gamers will always go where the games are.
Worst. Pun. Ever.
Why oh why? Chances are if your staff is used to Blackboard there is no reason to switch and there is also the high likelihood that your management has never even considered an alternative for many reasons and probably has their mind made up. Anything you offer them is going to have to support blackboard modules or it will be a no brainer. Also blackboard is open source in that it is all written in Perl. If you really felt a need to modify the code it is all there in plaintext. Do some freaking homework the next time before you post to slashdot "I want an open source replacement for some essential tool because, well, open source is better." Is it?
Also keep in mind that many book publishers and test software companies create modules exclusively for Blackboard. Why on earth you would want to move away from Blackboard is beyond me considering the headache that any alternative system is going to cause your teachers. How would you feel if you were a teacher and all those tests you were going to use with Blackboard no longer were an option with the new system. And those test creators don't really work for you anymore. Blackboard support is a big deal now with college texts and it is easy to see why given the ease that teachers can deploy tests and get automatic results. My girlfriend is a college instructor and she uses blackboard quite a bit with test generators. She would be extremeley unhappy if she had to start writing test questions as she has little time to deal with even preparing for her classes.
I would just like to say this has got to be the worst idea I've heard in a while and while it is good to try and promote open sores (its a joke people!) software, this isn't something you can just replace and expect the same level of functionality from another product. Think of it this way, you have a bunch of engineers that get drafts in Autocad, how the hell would they feel if suddenly the idiotic management decided that they should be using GnuCAD which didn't support any autocad documents, because they decided that open source is "better." I'm sure it would make their lives so much better right?
I would just love to see your planning meeting.
Zealot: We should use this open source package, it won't cost us anything and we can stop licensing blackboard.
PHB: Does it support blackboard modules?
Zealot: Well, no.
PHB: What benefits does it offer over blackboard?
Zealot: Uh, uh, its free and open source!
PHB: I could care less. Next.
Do yourself a favor and research this before you even think about proposing it.
In the second Dark Knight book the Green Lantern makes a comment about how only humans would point so many weapons from space at their own earth and mentions that is why the aliens left earth alone. Something along those lines. The space weapons were metal rods pointed at earth. Very interesting how Frank Miller & Co. predicted space weapons years before the military even began considering them. Even the technology is the same.
I can't wait for the new Batman and Robin comics from Miller. If his treatment on Batman's early years is any indications (Batman: Year One) we should be in for a serious treat!
Uhh, I hope that you would be doing some downloading the in the bathroom instead of uploading. Doesn't sound too healthy to me!
There should be caps on this sort of thing anyways. Remember the kid who made a search engine for his University and when the RIAA found out that people were using it to search other people's shares for MP3s they sued the kid for $10,000 which he paid out of pocket from his college fund. Fortunately for him he has since recovered his money thanks to an internet fund raising drive, but $10,000 is an awful lot to sue for when someone has not caused you any sort of monetary damages directly. I could only imagine the world of hurt the poor kid would be in if he didn't have the funds to just simply settle.
This is chilling precedent. What's to stop the RIAA from one day hacking into my machines and finding some MP3s (actually, they will find a LOT) and deciding that I am distributing them or that I do not legally own all of them? Can I afford to pay some schmuck lawyer to help me defend myself against this tirade? I can't, as I am unemployed currently. Could I afford a $10,000 "fine"? Probably not. People put other people's lives at risk with drunk driving, but when they are caught, they face only a $3,000 fine here in good ole Pennsyltucky. Aparantly putting the lives of people in danger is only worth $3000 to the state, while saying that stealing some music from a corporation that owes a multitude of its artists money and does its best not to pay is ludicrous is worth $10,000 is totally ludicrous.
The government doesn't need to get involved in this sham either. Hasn't anyone read the news? Record sales have been up. I guess the piss poor economy has had a lot more to do with sales driving down than some college kids who wouldn't have bought the freaking album new anyways.
For the record, 90% of the albums I've ever bought were from the used bin. It would be safe to say that I never supported the artists in the first place. KRS-One has this great line about how "if you downloaded the album, come to the show." I'm sure he makes a lot more from ticket sales at shows than he does from his albums. Maybe more people need to get out and see shows and maybe more shows need to start costing less than $50 a seat!
Is Dave Matthews really worth $100 to go see with your girlfriend? (assuming one has one here)
Didn't you get the memo?
WINE == Wine Is Not an Emulator.
Two days ago something happened that could have caused some major problems. It didn't. Oh and be sure to catch the auroras yesterday. They sure were great. Thanks for the heads up ;)
Unfortunately the article summary is wrong. I wish I had MOD points because unfortunately you are already +5 funny (should be moronic) and at the top of the page. I guess all I can do is call you an idiot and really say that the joke is truly on you. Since I actually took the time to RTFAs with the first one starting out rather correctly:
NOAA ISSUES SPACE WEATHER WARNING
Forecasters at the NOAA Space Environment Center in Boulder, Colo., observed a geomagnetic storm on Sunday, May 15
From the second article:
What caused the display? A coronal mass ejection (CME) hit Earth's magnetic field. Impact time: May 15th at 0230 UT.
Thought I'd like to point that out. In the printed world things typically take a day or so to at least come out.
On a side note the article summary is misleading and so full of hype that it oozes to be on the 11 o'clock news. Come on, can't you guys post better summaries, I mean geez, at least get the freakin date right or something!
Yeah, you heard him! Mutt users unite! All three of you!
Thanks for taking the time to reply. You are correct in that details were extremely thin on Friendster being hacked (or not hacked as the case seems to be). I remember a Slashdot story on the Wired article when this was going on, but like you, it was the only actual information I saw. Certainly no proof of concept or anything like that. Yeah, Wired cannot be totally trusted (nor should any printed medium) and it would suprise me little if the interviewer made up quotes or took them terribly out of context. I'd just like to take the time to say that while I don't personally have much need for friendster, I can definately see the benefits such a service offers and that you guys have certainly been doing something right given the popularity of the site.
Wish I had more details, but apparantly it just stops at the Wired story (I checked a bit). Thanks again for taking the time to respond and also thanks for putting in a good word for mySQL from someone that is using it in a very visible way. (Slashdot also uses mySQL) The FUD surrounding open source database projects need to die a quick death because Oracle isn't really the only game in town anymore and if you are looking for something that meets the database integrity of Oracle, you really don't have to look very far when you've got mySQL for sheer speed and Postgres for integrity and stored procedures from what I understand. I guess stored procedures is coming to MySQL soon and the opensource DB world is starting to get pretty interesting!
I'll quit rambling for now.....
I know this is terribly offtopic, but did Friendster ever figure out the security issues they were having in the past with people getting access to other people's account? I think I remember the CEO stating something to the effect that they didn't have any security issues even though people were posting friendster exploits on the web.
Sorry for the intrusion, I'll be happy to move along.
Nah. That is probably what they used. Remember that SMB3 was released in 1988 or so in Japan and that they had been working on it for two years. You wouldn't need a very powerful development platform to code for a 1.7mhz machine with like 16k onboard.
They look like some old IBM PCs or something. Hell, since they were Japanese they were probably using MSXs at the time.
Why does slashdot insist on posting such obvious trolls? This whole article and slashdot story should be modded -99 TROLL! The submitter obviously was hoping to start a flame war with the OSS free-software *coughstallmancough* zealots and the people who know better currently have the highest modded posts on this forum. There is no Java trap. As long as Java's source lays out in the open people will implement their own JVMs and compilers and the world will move on. If Sun goes down the drain then well, I guess by gosh those OSS zealots that are whining need to get their act together to implement all of those open sourced "hidden features."
.Net has a long ways to catch up. Can't we find better things to argue over? That Java is even open sourced says multitudes about the effect of Free Software.
With the world all going to hell, you'd think that people could find better things to argue about. Java is obviously a well used toolbox in the open source and to say that it will have negative consequences is truly sad. Why do people use Java even though people bitch and moan about how slow and slow it is and how it lacks certain primitives (and it does), it is because it just works on nearly any operating system. When you only want to devote the time to develop for one platform, but at the same time allow just about anyone with a computer to run your code, what are you going to use?
Azureus, Slimserver's MP3 player, a bunch of emulators, and a whole slew of other projects that can be found on Sourceforge, amongst other places, were all built on Java.
Who knows, Java may live up to its promises as a platform for embedded devices one day. Given how many Universities teach Java right from the start and how many teachers are right now telling people that Java is likely to be the next big language, I wouldn't exactly say that Java is going anywhere anytime soon. Microsoft is now wishing they had come up with a similar idea and
Next troll/story please!
We need to form a front on the feds that are encroaching our rights. Fortunately for us Americans (for those that are still worthy of being called that) we have a legal way and the tried and true illegal way. Both fronts are approachable, though the last should be exactly that, a last resort. Seriously, we need to act. I'd be willing to pay with my life to make this country a better place and I'll be damned if I slowly rot and watch this sheer misery without at least taking a stand. The Federal RFID-enabled trackable ID encroaches on state rights on so many fronts. Want to know why the MATRIX (think they picked that name on purpose) failed? Only a handful of states decided to cooperate, the rest preferred to keep their constituents information private.We might as well start signing waivers of rights at age 18 to gain an ID and other "priveledges" at this rate.
I hereby declare that we as citizens need to get involved and also get other citizens involved because this is affecting us all in so many pervasive ways that the slippery slope is starting to look like a cliff we have all just potentially jumped off. You may say to yourself, well, that doesn't affect me, everything I do is legal, but wait until you are sued because you are caught with some illegal mp3s or worse thrown in jail. Wait until you find out that you should have no rights to medical privacy according to the federal government and John Ashcroft. Where does it begin and more importantly, where does it end?
Our rights are gone and in many places we cannot even arm or defend ourselves even in spite of the threat of deadly force. What freedoms do we have left with potentially now the ability for the local, state, and federal governments to all easily monitor our whereabouts and travels?
Please read my last post on the last story about the Real ID. We need to respond with at least *something*. We need to take the stand. I'm sure that if half of the americans really knew what was going on in their congress (or even cared to know) those that are holding power would certainly not keep getting reelected. I know that there are not really many easy solutions in the sheer complexity that is modern society, however this has become a reflection of what should not be implemented in a national government and we still have the power to effect change.
Come on Slashdot! Create a Slashdot effect on the feds for chrissakes! You all echo in a chorus that what we are doing is dangerous and potentially has drastically negative consequences. You all seem to hate patent law, industry regulation, war, the DMCA, the Patriot Act, the FCC, the broadcast flag, and this truly sad piece of legislation.
Seriously, can't we just play nice for a day and decide to do something about this trite? Is it that hard? We could have Liberty Day and get together in our cities and towns and meet, geek to geek. Surely the geeks are at least smarter than anyone else, right? Can't we brainstorm some better ideas while where at it and figure out how to wrestle control away from two political parties? Revolution Day?
THE REVOLUTION WILL BE TELEVISED
Let us hope there is some sanity left in this world, right?