We've had cryptography and steganography since back when messages were tattoed on the tops of soldiers head and run between camps. The public has been sending secret messages long before it was rendered legal for them to do it, and they will continue long after it is rendered illegal again.
Language has always had two purposes: 1. To aid in communication with those you like, and 2. To hinder communication with those you don't. Otherwise, we would probobly all be speaking in the same tongue or dialect. Even if these laws are passed, sending secret messages will always happen, and crypto/stego are too great a tool to be just thrown away by the people.
Use of GIF images to send secret messages is one obvious way to make your message invisible or even undetectable. Encrypting that message against any commercially available CD image would be even more useful. Any attempts to circumvent that encryption would result in extracting a CD image, and that's a DMCA violation.:)
Why not get the most uncomfortable part of mandatory airport security set up right now?
Rectal Probes
10% of the population will love that, and the rest will call it either a neccesary evil, or cite previous experience with rectal probing by aliens.
The colonic map is one of the most individual biometrics available, and at the same time you can keep fighting the war on drugs with a handy rod instead of a lubed up glove.
How wide a jurisdiction does the state of california have anyway? I mean, hell, if they can put a tax on satellites that are nowhere near their landmass, and which are moving by at thousands of kilometres per hour, how much longer till:
a) They move Washington DC down there so its grasp truly can exceed its reach, and
According to http://www.grc.com , Microsoft's networking and insecurities in the face of viruses, random strangers running arbitrary code, and all the security holes in XP and NT are either a deliberate attack against the Internet, or a criminally negligent source of problems for all.
Untrained Windows users are not very good network citizens, especially when they stick to out of the box default configurations. Untrained Linux and BSD users have simmilar problems, but with Windows the ignorance is much more apparent.
When SirCam was going around I kept getting the same bunch of people asking for my advice. They didn't believe me when I told them they had a virus, stating that their prot software didn't pick it up. Now an OS with even more holes, designed to be a merger between NT and Wintendo is going to be on the net, phoning home, sending out all kinds of privacy invading data, and making the 'net a little busier. Great.
Now even Linux users can enjoy the benefits of the Microsoft Virus Infection Layer in their otherwise high quality operating system.
This is a big step for Linux's acceptance as a Desktop operating system. We NEED more clueless newbies out there using Linux and saying "fuckit, I think there's a virus on your/my system. Time to reinstall KDE."
In a few months even Outlook will be available to Linux/Wine users, so too will be the full Universal Virus Infection suite of tools from Microsoft.
My only question is, how much longer until we have kernel-level support for VBA and Microsoft Scripting?
When you starrt the Java VM you have to compile bytecode for native operation for performance even close to fast. That's a complicated and time consuming process, and in the end you have to wait far too long on older machines before your applet is running.
If Java were just a bytecode compiled scripting language, or if it had a far less complicated VM (like, say, a 68k VM with memory management functions in the "rest" of the system, Sun could at least have native execution on some platforms, much smaller footprints for devices like Palm or Macintosh or PlayStation, and a much easier time convincing people to port pre-existing applications. Instead they made up a slow VM with a totally alien architecture, and spread some marketing around that said in this one instance a JIT was actually worth working with, in spite of all the imperical evidence in the past. This was just strange behavior.
Another option, instead of a 68k emulator, would be a tcl/tk system of some kind. There is a very large codebase for tcl/tk already, it offers decent speeds, fast download times, native widgets, and it seems to have a faster run/debug/develop cycle than Java. Unfortunately Sun couldn't take control of tcl, what with it being free software, so they made up their own crippled system as the base for a very large object tree.
Moving around in the image
on
Immersive HDTV
·
· Score: 1
Ok, this might sound a bit silly given the matrix style football footage they threw together recently, but is it really that easy to wander around in real time within a TV show? Where would the raw feeds from all the cameras be merged and transformed into a 3D image? Where would they be rendered?
The set top box could have only a couple of CPUs, and the best speed available is what? 60 gips from Chuck Moore's 25x? That's not enough for local real-time rendering at 30fps.
Doing the rendering at the cable provider would introduce a problem with scalability, because it'd have to send a custom image to well over 10,000 users. In real time. As they wander around.
I guess these people will need to wait a few more years before letting users walk around in their favorite soap, but turning their head while watching from specific cameras isn't as big a leap. Oh well. Real-time effects like that WILL be cool WHEN the set top box has enough power, or when pre-recorded shows are pre-processed and broadcast in a more friendly format, like, say, polygons.
However, do you really watch TV to play video games?
Translating java bytecode back into source code is not very hard. LimeWire, being a java app, was halfway open source already.
Sure, the function, class and variable names would be lost, but unless they did some screwy compiling, a halfway decent decompiler would make it readable enough to debug, rewrite, port or repair.
"Normal search and siezure rules" are covered under the 5th ammendment, along with due process, a fair and speedy trial, and protection from warrantless searches. While the american people like to defend the *first* ammendment to the death, they don't even think about the (some say) more essential liberties that they are afforded by the 5th.
If this time wiretapping laws were changed, the next terrorist attack will make all the due process they are promising for their insecure cryptography legislation -- which can't be guaranteed in the first place, given the technical skillz in the real world -- disappear. They used to make it a big deal when an investigation ignored due process and had an illegal wiretap. I imagine the outcry will be diminished every time they do this, as long as you have some semblance of free speech and expression.
You can say as much as you want in a system that makes it impossible or illegal to act.
One thing that I've found eerie about this whole thing is George Bush's total lack of a coherent plan. During a time of war or crisis the citizens of free countries only have faith in tyrranical leaders. Winston Churchill in WWII, for example, or Pierre Trudeau through his entire career. Rather than spending their time keeping options open and hoping for the best, they keep charge of the situation with a clear cut strategy and updates to the people explaining why they are being dragged along.
Tyrranical leaders in republican systems treat their citizens as adults, and go domn in history with favorable reviews. Of course, they're also nowhere near as dumb as the current pres. down there, and know how to read or deliver a speech.
Its been a week and GWB has apparently committed massive troop deployment, breaking up thousands of families without any plan set for what to do with the people he's just moved into the mideast. The public is left to its own devices to wildly speculate what the plan is because the truth is, the President has no plan.
Its behavior like that which makes the idea of freedom in North America seem so distant from the hearts and minds of the elected representatives.
The 8085 was an old 8-bit intel chip that could get more work done per clock than the 8086. The Pentium 3 does less work per clock than a 486 DX, too. This is getting to be a silly trend. We are not paying these people for innovative clock speeds.
They think that politicians, who can't predict what will happen in the next few months, and scientists, who can't predict what will happen in the next few days, can forecast the weather for the next few thousand years just because one finances the other's uber-expensive simulation software.
Its amazing that the public never suspects this scam.
Should we have products that perform their stated function?
Of course not! says the American people. Most people will say yes to a poll question, which is why you have to ask the right questions in official surveys.
But in a few weeks and months we'll have a massive conventional war on our hands, with the tools for this "new kind of war" typically used on civilians at home.
It might take a while to reinstitute the draft, but did you notice the sharp increase of ads for joining the military during shows where they were not typically found at all before? I mean, how many potential army men would be watching Queer As Folk, anyway?
In the end this is going to be a long, drawn out land war against an entire region, not a short flash war against a single country or small group of countries. Bush keeps saying that the States is gonna get any country which harbours terrorists. I think that sums up the popular view of the mideast, and the region has a bunch of mutual defense treaties kicking around already.
While the public is being fuelled into bloodlust so strong that the majority is okay with the use of nuclear arms against a single country, GWB is playing word games. I think I liked it better when politicians didn't tell the truth.
Even though its easy enough to tell where your evolutionarily superior potato is (its purple for chrissakes) the Greenies of the world will continue to rant about its destructive effect on our ecosystem.
Aren't farms one of the most counter-evolutionary, artifical places out there? They are devoid of weeds, insects, small mammals, the animals that live on them could never survive in the wild, and the entire setup is maintained with a bath of poison.
In cases like these a genetically engineered potato might help out a bit.
But no easy solution. Our people are not well educated about the machinery by which the government is run. Instead of keeping tabs on proposed legislation, up and coming violation of our fundimental, Charter rights are ignored until it's too late.
For example. There is new legislation on the way that will allow the RCMP and CSIS (our law enforcement and intelligence agencies) to evict immigrants who they label as "suspected terrorists." This eviction would happen without due process, and they were brave enough to say so on the news a bunch of times.
Try explaining to someone that their right to a fair and speedy trial with an open exposition and gathering of evidence is a more valuable right than free expression and their eyes glaze over up here. They point out that we have no freedom of speech at best, and say that you're not angry enough about Bin Laden at worst.
In spite of our widely propegandized image of being the peacemakers of the world, Canadiasn are very racist angry people, no matter where you look. There are attacks against the men, children and especially easily identified women in Arab communities. Everyone you talk to is hungry for blood and wants to see Pakistan nuked or made into a parking lot by the United States. It is no surprise that our Prime Minister decided to state on camera a number of times that our military will stand behind that of the Americans when they DO finally decide to attack.
This sentiment is starting to make me suspect a big, drawn out ground war, and possibly the reintroduction of conscription onto the Canadian people.
I think VRML failed because it was not as easily understood by the mass market. Anyone and their dog can set up a HTML page, and they usually do, but to do a VRML page they have to use a computing metaphor that most consumers and even geeks can't understand.
Interior Decorating.
What is it? You can't ask a geek to make you a stylish personal home on the web. Its just not feasable because they spent their lives reclusively, with clutter all over the room and with clean elegance on the paper products they make. Sure there is an elite few who can make WAD files already, but they cannot easily pass this knowledge on to the masses.
Speaking of WADs, there is the difficulty in scripting events in VRML. You need a plug-in for a static language that doesn't even offer realistic doors or interaction with monsters. Where's the fun in a 10 meg download that doesn't even offer you a gun or sword or knife? VRML came out about the same time as games which for the first time offered Deathmatch mode, so it was sadly feature-poor for its size.
If they could re-make VRML as a familiar XML-style language with some support for java and javascript, then all you would need is a good Frontpage equivalent and free interior decorating or painting courses on the web.
Its been a few days already. How are they going to find signals from phones whose batteries are almost dead, through rock and other signal blockers?
Most peoples' phones work fine for a couple of days, but unless everyone down there has an extra battery pack or a working charger and plug, their cel phones won't do them much good at all.
He said shortly afterward that color is just his own method for distinguishing different types of code, that you can change the font or face to distinguish different colors too. But yeah, saying that blind people don't have to be programmers is mean:)
We need some kind of component framework that lets you string together application components like a prettyprint edit box, a HTML save/load system, and other simmilar components so the end user can make their own applications with the features and components that they need when they need them. A spreadsheet is a grid with a math plugin, a bunch of saving/loading features and wrapped in a toolbar. Why not make all of the components for an office suite with an interface so easy any moron can draw/glue one together the same way they make homepages in frontpage.
I envision a construction utility sike glade, only with links dangling off of the various widgets and "code resources", so the user can control some execution flow, group components for later reuse and quickly throw together new ones. These lines would be different colors for different function classes (red for naving/loading, black for execution, white for event triggers, etc.) The hard part is building wrappers for pre-existing widget libraries so they can be integrated into this system.
If you want an office suite to work like any other unix application, with small, versatile components but wish to make it easy to use and understand, integrated closer than Office allows, try it this way.
but trying to damage the environment is like trying to put a hole in the ocean. Sure, the air might get a bit warmer and people and animals alike might feel a little bit uncomfortable for a while, but freaky changes in climate and the food chain have happened many times in the past without "destroying the planet." Or even noticeably damaging it.
The rhetoric of environmentalism, as you said, always seems to be to cut out more and more of the frills like electricity, treated water, flushable toilets, all of which seem to make sense when you explain them the right way, but which in the end only serve to deterorate our quality of life.
And we take it in the bum every time:)
This article correctly points out that some new techniques that nobody would have thought up, had greenies not stepped in and started picketing and lobbying, would save money after all. I think its safer to call them Alternative, however.
Slashdot Mirror
We've had cryptography and steganography since back when messages were tattoed on the tops of soldiers head and run between camps. The public has been sending secret messages long before it was rendered legal for them to do it, and they will continue long after it is rendered illegal again.
:)
Language has always had two purposes: 1. To aid in communication with those you like, and 2. To hinder communication with those you don't. Otherwise, we would probobly all be speaking in the same tongue or dialect. Even if these laws are passed, sending secret messages will always happen, and crypto/stego are too great a tool to be just thrown away by the people.
Use of GIF images to send secret messages is one obvious way to make your message invisible or even undetectable. Encrypting that message against any commercially available CD image would be even more useful. Any attempts to circumvent that encryption would result in extracting a CD image, and that's a DMCA violation.
Why not get the most uncomfortable part of mandatory airport security set up right now?
Rectal Probes
10% of the population will love that, and the rest will call it either a neccesary evil, or cite previous experience with rectal probing by aliens.
The colonic map is one of the most individual biometrics available, and at the same time you can keep fighting the war on drugs with a handy rod instead of a lubed up glove.
How wide a jurisdiction does the state of california have anyway? I mean, hell, if they can put a tax on satellites that are nowhere near their landmass, and which are moving by at thousands of kilometres per hour, how much longer till:
a) They move Washington DC down there so its grasp truly can exceed its reach, and
b) They start taxing tour busses and airplanes.
According to http://www.grc.com , Microsoft's networking and insecurities in the face of viruses, random strangers running arbitrary code, and all the security holes in XP and NT are either a deliberate attack against the Internet, or a criminally negligent source of problems for all.
Untrained Windows users are not very good network citizens, especially when they stick to out of the box default configurations. Untrained Linux and BSD users have simmilar problems, but with Windows the ignorance is much more apparent.
When SirCam was going around I kept getting the same bunch of people asking for my advice. They didn't believe me when I told them they had a virus, stating that their prot software didn't pick it up. Now an OS with even more holes, designed to be a merger between NT and Wintendo is going to be on the net, phoning home, sending out all kinds of privacy invading data, and making the 'net a little busier. Great.
Now even Linux users can enjoy the benefits of the Microsoft Virus Infection Layer in their otherwise high quality operating system.
This is a big step for Linux's acceptance as a Desktop operating system. We NEED more clueless newbies out there using Linux and saying "fuckit, I think there's a virus on your/my system. Time to reinstall KDE."
In a few months even Outlook will be available to Linux/Wine users, so too will be the full Universal Virus Infection suite of tools from Microsoft.
My only question is, how much longer until we have kernel-level support for VBA and Microsoft Scripting?
When you starrt the Java VM you have to compile bytecode for native operation for performance even close to fast. That's a complicated and time consuming process, and in the end you have to wait far too long on older machines before your applet is running.
If Java were just a bytecode compiled scripting language, or if it had a far less complicated VM (like, say, a 68k VM with memory management functions in the "rest" of the system, Sun could at least have native execution on some platforms, much smaller footprints for devices like Palm or Macintosh or PlayStation, and a much easier time convincing people to port pre-existing applications. Instead they made up a slow VM with a totally alien architecture, and spread some marketing around that said in this one instance a JIT was actually worth working with, in spite of all the imperical evidence in the past. This was just strange behavior.
Another option, instead of a 68k emulator, would be a tcl/tk system of some kind. There is a very large codebase for tcl/tk already, it offers decent speeds, fast download times, native widgets, and it seems to have a faster run/debug/develop cycle than Java. Unfortunately Sun couldn't take control of tcl, what with it being free software, so they made up their own crippled system as the base for a very large object tree.
Ok, this might sound a bit silly given the matrix style football footage they threw together recently, but is it really that easy to wander around in real time within a TV show? Where would the raw feeds from all the cameras be merged and transformed into a 3D image? Where would they be rendered?
The set top box could have only a couple of CPUs, and the best speed available is what? 60 gips from Chuck Moore's 25x? That's not enough for local real-time rendering at 30fps.
Doing the rendering at the cable provider would introduce a problem with scalability, because it'd have to send a custom image to well over 10,000 users. In real time. As they wander around.
I guess these people will need to wait a few more years before letting users walk around in their favorite soap, but turning their head while watching from specific cameras isn't as big a leap. Oh well. Real-time effects like that WILL be cool WHEN the set top box has enough power, or when pre-recorded shows are pre-processed and broadcast in a more friendly format, like, say, polygons.
However, do you really watch TV to play video games?
Translating java bytecode back into source code is not very hard. LimeWire, being a java app, was halfway open source already.
Sure, the function, class and variable names would be lost, but unless they did some screwy compiling, a halfway decent decompiler would make it readable enough to debug, rewrite, port or repair.
"Normal search and siezure rules" are covered under the 5th ammendment, along with due process, a fair and speedy trial, and protection from warrantless searches. While the american people like to defend the *first* ammendment to the death, they don't even think about the (some say) more essential liberties that they are afforded by the 5th.
If this time wiretapping laws were changed, the next terrorist attack will make all the due process they are promising for their insecure cryptography legislation -- which can't be guaranteed in the first place, given the technical skillz in the real world -- disappear. They used to make it a big deal when an investigation ignored due process and had an illegal wiretap. I imagine the outcry will be diminished every time they do this, as long as you have some semblance of free speech and expression.
You can say as much as you want in a system that makes it impossible or illegal to act.
are doomed to watch others repeat it.
The abstract sounds like an endorsement for a Forth based OS, with networking words.
Introducing Microsoft Wheel 3.66, now with PackAnimal support.
One thing that I've found eerie about this whole thing is George Bush's total lack of a coherent plan. During a time of war or crisis the citizens of free countries only have faith in tyrranical leaders. Winston Churchill in WWII, for example, or Pierre Trudeau through his entire career. Rather than spending their time keeping options open and hoping for the best, they keep charge of the situation with a clear cut strategy and updates to the people explaining why they are being dragged along.
Tyrranical leaders in republican systems treat their citizens as adults, and go domn in history with favorable reviews. Of course, they're also nowhere near as dumb as the current pres. down there, and know how to read or deliver a speech.
Its been a week and GWB has apparently committed massive troop deployment, breaking up thousands of families without any plan set for what to do with the people he's just moved into the mideast. The public is left to its own devices to wildly speculate what the plan is because the truth is, the President has no plan.
Its behavior like that which makes the idea of freedom in North America seem so distant from the hearts and minds of the elected representatives.
The 8085 was an old 8-bit intel chip that could get more work done per clock than the 8086. The Pentium 3 does less work per clock than a 486 DX, too. This is getting to be a silly trend. We are not paying these people for innovative clock speeds.
They think that politicians, who can't predict what will happen in the next few months, and scientists, who can't predict what will happen in the next few days, can forecast the weather for the next few thousand years just because one finances the other's uber-expensive simulation software.
Its amazing that the public never suspects this scam.
Should we have products that perform their stated function?
Of course not! says the American people. Most people will say yes to a poll question, which is why you have to ask the right questions in official surveys.
But in a few weeks and months we'll have a massive conventional war on our hands, with the tools for this "new kind of war" typically used on civilians at home.
It might take a while to reinstitute the draft, but did you notice the sharp increase of ads for joining the military during shows where they were not typically found at all before? I mean, how many potential army men would be watching Queer As Folk, anyway?
In the end this is going to be a long, drawn out land war against an entire region, not a short flash war against a single country or small group of countries. Bush keeps saying that the States is gonna get any country which harbours terrorists. I think that sums up the popular view of the mideast, and the region has a bunch of mutual defense treaties kicking around already.
While the public is being fuelled into bloodlust so strong that the majority is okay with the use of nuclear arms against a single country, GWB is playing word games. I think I liked it better when politicians didn't tell the truth.
Even though its easy enough to tell where your evolutionarily superior potato is (its purple for chrissakes) the Greenies of the world will continue to rant about its destructive effect on our ecosystem.
Aren't farms one of the most counter-evolutionary, artifical places out there? They are devoid of weeds, insects, small mammals, the animals that live on them could never survive in the wild, and the entire setup is maintained with a bath of poison.
In cases like these a genetically engineered potato might help out a bit.
But no easy solution. Our people are not well educated about the machinery by which the government is run. Instead of keeping tabs on proposed legislation, up and coming violation of our fundimental, Charter rights are ignored until it's too late.
For example. There is new legislation on the way that will allow the RCMP and CSIS (our law enforcement and intelligence agencies) to evict immigrants who they label as "suspected terrorists." This eviction would happen without due process, and they were brave enough to say so on the news a bunch of times.
Try explaining to someone that their right to a fair and speedy trial with an open exposition and gathering of evidence is a more valuable right than free expression and their eyes glaze over up here. They point out that we have no freedom of speech at best, and say that you're not angry enough about Bin Laden at worst.
In spite of our widely propegandized image of being the peacemakers of the world, Canadiasn are very racist angry people, no matter where you look. There are attacks against the men, children and especially easily identified women in Arab communities. Everyone you talk to is hungry for blood and wants to see Pakistan nuked or made into a parking lot by the United States. It is no surprise that our Prime Minister decided to state on camera a number of times that our military will stand behind that of the Americans when they DO finally decide to attack.
This sentiment is starting to make me suspect a big, drawn out ground war, and possibly the reintroduction of conscription onto the Canadian people.
I think VRML failed because it was not as easily understood by the mass market. Anyone and their dog can set up a HTML page, and they usually do, but to do a VRML page they have to use a computing metaphor that most consumers and even geeks can't understand.
Interior Decorating.
What is it? You can't ask a geek to make you a stylish personal home on the web. Its just not feasable because they spent their lives reclusively, with clutter all over the room and with clean elegance on the paper products they make. Sure there is an elite few who can make WAD files already, but they cannot easily pass this knowledge on to the masses.
Speaking of WADs, there is the difficulty in scripting events in VRML. You need a plug-in for a static language that doesn't even offer realistic doors or interaction with monsters. Where's the fun in a 10 meg download that doesn't even offer you a gun or sword or knife? VRML came out about the same time as games which for the first time offered Deathmatch mode, so it was sadly feature-poor for its size.
If they could re-make VRML as a familiar XML-style language with some support for java and javascript, then all you would need is a good Frontpage equivalent and free interior decorating or painting courses on the web.
Its been a few days already. How are they going to find signals from phones whose batteries are almost dead, through rock and other signal blockers?
Most peoples' phones work fine for a couple of days, but unless everyone down there has an extra battery pack or a working charger and plug, their cel phones won't do them much good at all.
He said shortly afterward that color is just his own method for distinguishing different types of code, that you can change the font or face to distinguish different colors too. But yeah, saying that blind people don't have to be programmers is mean :)
We need some kind of component framework that lets you string together application components like a prettyprint edit box, a HTML save/load system, and other simmilar components so the end user can make their own applications with the features and components that they need when they need them. A spreadsheet is a grid with a math plugin, a bunch of saving/loading features and wrapped in a toolbar. Why not make all of the components for an office suite with an interface so easy any moron can draw/glue one together the same way they make homepages in frontpage.
I envision a construction utility sike glade, only with links dangling off of the various widgets and "code resources", so the user can control some execution flow, group components for later reuse and quickly throw together new ones. These lines would be different colors for different function classes (red for naving/loading, black for execution, white for event triggers, etc.) The hard part is building wrappers for pre-existing widget libraries so they can be integrated into this system.
If you want an office suite to work like any other unix application, with small, versatile components but wish to make it easy to use and understand, integrated closer than Office allows, try it this way.
Microsoft Wheel 3.6 for Pack Horses
Someone actually *complaining* about code reuse!
but trying to damage the environment is like trying to put a hole in the ocean. Sure, the air might get a bit warmer and people and animals alike might feel a little bit uncomfortable for a while, but freaky changes in climate and the food chain have happened many times in the past without "destroying the planet." Or even noticeably damaging it.
:)
The rhetoric of environmentalism, as you said, always seems to be to cut out more and more of the frills like electricity, treated water, flushable toilets, all of which seem to make sense when you explain them the right way, but which in the end only serve to deterorate our quality of life.
And we take it in the bum every time
This article correctly points out that some new techniques that nobody would have thought up, had greenies not stepped in and started picketing and lobbying, would save money after all. I think its safer to call them Alternative, however.