Information that can be copied that easy can, in essence, be stolen that easy.
"A new virus is spreading around the internet using the very tricky concept of 'cut and paste'. It will delete all of your sensitive files from across the room. Stay tuned for further announcemen...bzzt"
The biggest problem with this is RPC over TCP-IP. Someone figures that out, then we can interface with anything from M$. Or did you mean the functionality of Outlook and Project?
Everything is a rip off of anything anymore.
Honeymooners->Flintstones->Jetsons
At least they picked good shows to rip off, instead of the absolute shite out there.
No, it relies on the fact that it is difficult to recreate the media, not create it. If you were to put a hologram of sorts in the media, and salt it, then it would work. Shoot the laser in one way, voila! It's you. Shoot the laser in at a different angle, then you have a completely different pattern. The media, however thin it is, is still 3 dimensional, and can hold lots of data.
The problem is that if it becomes that easy to produce, how hard would it be to reproduce? Putting your visage on the card, and then getting the background noise right, I would have to say damned difficult, especially if the lasers relied on bouncing through your picture.
Although it is a very simple concept, the complexity of creating a transportable medium was the limiting factor. This could not have been done 20 years ago, as the lasers then looked like flashlight beams compared to today. Computer processing power was also a limiting factor.
Intelligence is only a small part of the equation. It is difficult to come up with a very simple solution to a problem that uses technology and manufacturing processes that are years away. 20 years ago, this thing would have had to be about the size of a brick, as beam density, laser accuracy, and manufacturing processes were not advanced enough to create something portable. For other applications, the dream can drive technology. Weapons systems, space travel, and a utopian society are but a few things that can drive technology to create. A credit card that can't be copied is not a big enough dream to create technology, but it is big enough to take existing technology and innovate.
As for your second point, here's a thought.
The card currently would be useless to stop physical theft, right now. The scheme just relies on the frefraction of light to create patterns. Once you have the card, then Bam, you have the money. But what if you could arrange these flakes into such a pattern that when light is passed through at a predetermined angle, it provides a composite of the card holder, which will appear on the POS terminal screen. Match the picture with the cardholder, then go ahead. The weakest link falls to the clerk.
-This idea has been released under the GPL. It may be freely distributed or modified under said terms.
I wholehartedly agree. If they are trying to keep some form of order and control over their development cycle, then I say go for it! But if they don't make these sources available at the very instant that UL goes public, then nail their collective asses to the wall!
I think that the FSF should just hold off for a bit, but be ready to do a full code audit on everything that is released. It's a big job, but hey, they're our big lawyer buddies, aren't they?
I don't think that the RIAA is bleeding money at this point. Usually when a company does this, they either have a signifigant chance of losing the trial (a prior judgement in their favour would look really good for the actual court case) or they are planning something else and using this as a smokescreen.
But seriously, I agree wholehartedly. Office functionality has gotten way out of hand. If they were to release a Home, Business, and Editor version, with increasing features and price, they might be able to squeeze every dollar out of revalations like this.
I guess it breaks down to how many features the average user needs...
I think that the big question is will this get Big Iron back into the rendering farms, and what will be the effect?
With the major animation companies going to Linux server farms to save cost and get better performance, maybe moving back away from x86 architecture to these large machines may be beneficial cost/productivity wise.
Just out of curiosity, what was the average bandwidth utilization on that?
I find it really interesting that porn consistantly becomes either one of the early adopters of technology or one of the major reasons for development.
Where would Java be if it weren't a free(ish) alternative to a realmedia server?
Economic sanctions have proved real useful in the past. Cuba and Iraq are really bowing to the pressure. Economic sanctions and military pressure have had two results: the further impoverishment of the proletariate, and war. Ask the Germans about economic sanctions after WW1
I am not underplaying the death in China. I know of tiananmen square, spoke to classmates who had family there. I know of China's not-so-gentle naturalization of outlying provinces. And I know that China is not the only country to commit such atrocities.
However, in Canada, we sent back boatloads of Chinese refugees without consideration. We didn't even give them medical attention. How benevolant is that? Spending months at sea in cargo containers to escape a previous life, and getting turned back at the border, unsure if you can live the trip again. If my country starts bitching about everything going on in China and doesn't have the guts to even offer medical attention to these people, merely because it would be an inconvenience, I would call every one of us hippocrites!
Face it, the developed countries do not want economic prosperity in China. We are happy getting cheap goods from them. It is in a country's economic interest to hinder the development of other nations, because once we raise the standard of living to equal amounts throughout the world, we all live in a third world nation.
It's not illegal here. China doesn't follow the same rules.
Google has exactly the same effect as Napster does. Sure it may link to legal content, but it also links to illegal content.
Just stop thinking that your way is right for one minute, and make a rational judgement. You may disagree with the policy of China, but it is their policy. You can scream all you want, but unless you are willing to bring in one billion immigrants into your country, it's a very moot point. It's illegal content until the government says otherwise, and if it's that big of an issue to them, then the chinese proletariate should revolt.
As for government policy, at least they're only blocking content, rather than macarthy-esque witch hunts to bring down the capitolist dogs who would dare circumvent these controls.
It never ceases to amaze me how often economics impedes humanitarian issues. Why can't any country in the world do something completely benevolant? It's not that hard...
We tested these servers and they were in fact open relays. We did not take blocking domains lightly. And we still had upset customers. These were mostly high-school mail servers, small business servers, etc...
Even after talking to the admins and relaying mail to him from him, they simply believed that there was no chance and that we were lying. Our customers never even listened to us, they just wanted their mail. The people sending the mail didn't even read the error messages which we sent back (which we wrote in plain english, no techno-babble), and just call their friends and say "I can't send you e-mail"
People complain, and the less they know about something, the louder it gets. I personally changed several hundred e-mail addresses because they recieved too much spam, and even after explaining to the customer not to post their e-mail address on every single joke-list, free offer, and gimmick webpage, they'd call back in two months to have it changed again. Obviously nobody told them the "Free Lunch" cliche.
You would be in the minority. I used to work for a local ISP. The TCO made it his personal mandate to stop spam to our customers. So of course, we sign up for the RBL. Big mistake. For the next two weeks we were fielding phone calls from angry customers stating that their friends could not send them e-mail, and even after we explained what was going on and why we were blocking them (their friend's admin didn't know how to do his job), not only did the customers threaten to change ISP's, we also had to field calls from the admins stating that we didn't know what we were talking about. It was a travesty from the very first day.
ISP's are just that, internet service providers, and if their customers want mail from their friends, technically they have to let them have it.
It sounds like an ideal setup(aside from privacy concerns), but in a third world country, people probably wouldn't be able to read english, let alone the hundreds of other languages which exist. We are never going to stop spam completely. We just have to take measures to reduce the amount of spam that we do get to tolerable levels. RBL's, sane filter rules, and products like SpamAssasin (gratuitous plug) help. And don't be afraid to blackhole countries. I know absolutely nobody from China, Korea, the Netherlands, or a host of other countries, so I shut them down. I don't want emails describing hot asian teens, hardcore lesbians, or hot rear action (Thanks to Drew and Mike on 101 WRIF in Detroit for that term, listen to the webcast 6-10am EST), so I filter that. I make gratuitous use of aliases for published e-mail accounts, so when one starts filling up, I shut it down.
Spam is a consequence of the internet. Think of it as a badge of honor. The longer you're on, the higher your spam potential. Just don't let it reach critical mass.
Slashdot Mirror
Information that can be copied that easy can, in essence, be stolen that easy.
"A new virus is spreading around the internet using the very tricky concept of 'cut and paste'. It will delete all of your sensitive files from across the room. Stay tuned for further announcemen...bzzt"
The biggest problem with this is RPC over TCP-IP. Someone figures that out, then we can interface with anything from M$.
Or did you mean the functionality of Outlook and Project?
That's fine and good, but I refuse to have gigiabit wireless at the expense of the freedom to tape a show and watch it at my convienence.
You forgot to mention the artwork. I mean who in their right mind would put so many ugly people in one area...
I'd rather play tomb raider!
That's no big deal, I have one of those in the trunk of my car!
Yeah, him and the goatese.cx guy. Those anal probes are a killer!
Everything is a rip off of anything anymore.
Honeymooners->Flintstones->Jetsons
At least they picked good shows to rip off, instead of the absolute shite out there.
Incidentally, anyone see Star Hunter on TV?
Was that anything like the other Brit Sci-fi's? Y'know Dr. Who and Red Dwarf?
No, it relies on the fact that it is difficult to recreate the media, not create it. If you were to put a hologram of sorts in the media, and salt it, then it would work. Shoot the laser in one way, voila! It's you. Shoot the laser in at a different angle, then you have a completely different pattern. The media, however thin it is, is still 3 dimensional, and can hold lots of data.
The problem is that if it becomes that easy to produce, how hard would it be to reproduce? Putting your visage on the card, and then getting the background noise right, I would have to say damned difficult, especially if the lasers relied on bouncing through your picture.
Although it is a very simple concept, the complexity of creating a transportable medium was the limiting factor. This could not have been done 20 years ago, as the lasers then looked like flashlight beams compared to today. Computer processing power was also a limiting factor.
Intelligence is only a small part of the equation. It is difficult to come up with a very simple solution to a problem that uses technology and manufacturing processes that are years away.
20 years ago, this thing would have had to be about the size of a brick, as beam density, laser accuracy, and manufacturing processes were not advanced enough to create something portable.
For other applications, the dream can drive technology. Weapons systems, space travel, and a utopian society are but a few things that can drive technology to create. A credit card that can't be copied is not a big enough dream to create technology, but it is big enough to take existing technology and innovate.
As for your second point, here's a thought.
The card currently would be useless to stop physical theft, right now. The scheme just relies on the frefraction of light to create patterns. Once you have the card, then Bam, you have the money.
But what if you could arrange these flakes into such a pattern that when light is passed through at a predetermined angle, it provides a composite of the card holder, which will appear on the POS terminal screen. Match the picture with the cardholder, then go ahead. The weakest link falls to the clerk.
-This idea has been released under the GPL. It may be freely distributed or modified under said terms.
I wholehartedly agree. If they are trying to keep some form of order and control over their development cycle, then I say go for it! But if they don't make these sources available at the very instant that UL goes public, then nail their collective asses to the wall!
I think that the FSF should just hold off for a bit, but be ready to do a full code audit on everything that is released. It's a big job, but hey, they're our big lawyer buddies, aren't they?
It's pronounced "Nucular"...
--Homer Simpson
No it isn't every bit as reasonable. The Office Document readers are still platform dependant, and thus, not nearly as available as a pdf.
Yes, however all of those places do not have the same geographic structures. Getting Britain all wired is a fear. Getting Iowa wired is expected.
I don't think that the RIAA is bleeding money at this point. Usually when a company does this, they either have a signifigant chance of losing the trial (a prior judgement in their favour would look really good for the actual court case) or they are planning something else and using this as a smokescreen.
Ummm, so you don't get your files stolen...
But seriously, I agree wholehartedly. Office functionality has gotten way out of hand. If they were to release a Home, Business, and Editor version, with increasing features and price, they might be able to squeeze every dollar out of revalations like this.
I guess it breaks down to how many features the average user needs...
Either this is a troll or an uneducated response.
Simply cutting the TX wire will not "magically" configure switches, firewalls, etc. Read the article, they OBVOUSLY know a bit more than you.
Isn't that what Mono is for?
I think that the big question is will this get Big Iron back into the rendering farms, and what will be the effect?
With the major animation companies going to Linux server farms to save cost and get better performance, maybe moving back away from x86 architecture to these large machines may be beneficial cost/productivity wise.
Just out of curiosity, what was the average bandwidth utilization on that?
I find it really interesting that porn consistantly becomes either one of the early adopters of technology or one of the major reasons for development.
Where would Java be if it weren't a free(ish) alternative to a realmedia server?
Economic sanctions have proved real useful in the past. Cuba and Iraq are really bowing to the pressure. Economic sanctions and military pressure have had two results: the further impoverishment of the proletariate, and war. Ask the Germans about economic sanctions after WW1
I am not underplaying the death in China. I know of tiananmen square, spoke to classmates who had family there. I know of China's not-so-gentle naturalization of outlying provinces. And I know that China is not the only country to commit such atrocities.
However, in Canada, we sent back boatloads of Chinese refugees without consideration. We didn't even give them medical attention. How benevolant is that? Spending months at sea in cargo containers to escape a previous life, and getting turned back at the border, unsure if you can live the trip again. If my country starts bitching about everything going on in China and doesn't have the guts to even offer medical attention to these people, merely because it would be an inconvenience, I would call every one of us hippocrites!
Face it, the developed countries do not want economic prosperity in China. We are happy getting cheap goods from them. It is in a country's economic interest to hinder the development of other nations, because once we raise the standard of living to equal amounts throughout the world, we all live in a third world nation.
It's not illegal here. China doesn't follow the same rules.
Google has exactly the same effect as Napster does. Sure it may link to legal content, but it also links to illegal content.
Just stop thinking that your way is right for one minute, and make a rational judgement. You may disagree with the policy of China, but it is their policy. You can scream all you want, but unless you are willing to bring in one billion immigrants into your country, it's a very moot point. It's illegal content until the government says otherwise, and if it's that big of an issue to them, then the chinese proletariate should revolt.
As for government policy, at least they're only blocking content, rather than macarthy-esque witch hunts to bring down the capitolist dogs who would dare circumvent these controls.
It never ceases to amaze me how often economics impedes humanitarian issues. Why can't any country in the world do something completely benevolant? It's not that hard...
We tested these servers and they were in fact open relays. We did not take blocking domains lightly. And we still had upset customers. These were mostly high-school mail servers, small business servers, etc...
Even after talking to the admins and relaying mail to him from him, they simply believed that there was no chance and that we were lying. Our customers never even listened to us, they just wanted their mail. The people sending the mail didn't even read the error messages which we sent back (which we wrote in plain english, no techno-babble), and just call their friends and say "I can't send you e-mail"
People complain, and the less they know about something, the louder it gets. I personally changed several hundred e-mail addresses because they recieved too much spam, and even after explaining to the customer not to post their e-mail address on every single joke-list, free offer, and gimmick webpage, they'd call back in two months to have it changed again. Obviously nobody told them the "Free Lunch" cliche.
You would be in the minority. I used to work for a local ISP. The TCO made it his personal mandate to stop spam to our customers. So of course, we sign up for the RBL. Big mistake. For the next two weeks we were fielding phone calls from angry customers stating that their friends could not send them e-mail, and even after we explained what was going on and why we were blocking them (their friend's admin didn't know how to do his job), not only did the customers threaten to change ISP's, we also had to field calls from the admins stating that we didn't know what we were talking about. It was a travesty from the very first day.
ISP's are just that, internet service providers, and if their customers want mail from their friends, technically they have to let them have it.
In a word: yes
In two words : damn skippy!
It sounds like an ideal setup(aside from privacy concerns), but in a third world country, people probably wouldn't be able to read english, let alone the hundreds of other languages which exist.
We are never going to stop spam completely. We just have to take measures to reduce the amount of spam that we do get to tolerable levels. RBL's, sane filter rules, and products like SpamAssasin (gratuitous plug) help. And don't be afraid to blackhole countries. I know absolutely nobody from China, Korea, the Netherlands, or a host of other countries, so I shut them down. I don't want emails describing hot asian teens, hardcore lesbians, or hot rear action (Thanks to Drew and Mike on 101 WRIF in Detroit for that term, listen to the webcast 6-10am EST), so I filter that. I make gratuitous use of aliases for published e-mail accounts, so when one starts filling up, I shut it down.
Spam is a consequence of the internet. Think of it as a badge of honor. The longer you're on, the higher your spam potential. Just don't let it reach critical mass.