This really sounds like words coming from someone with a bias against macs in general. Everyone I know that has seriously considered such a machine is truly impressed. Give up 10% of your PC's performance, and gain the entire macintosh platform? Working with math like that how can you lose? And for those used to a low end PC.. say, a Dell, even BootCamp will be an upgrade. If you're trying to compare BC with an alienware or other multibuck PC of course it's not going to be a fair comparison
And since the car will be ignoring bogus codes (to avoid being fooled by other cars' remotes), you can pretty much send it crap until you hit the right value with impunity
That's not quite how it works. The transmitter sends a two part code. It's a bit like a credit card. It sends its unique number, plus what amounts to a PIN. The only car that listens to it is the one who has a matching unique code. Then it compares the pin. Five mismatched pins and it will go on the offense, usually ignoring all code attempts for the next 5 minutes or so. More aggressive systems might disable the system entirely, but that's a bit draconian since any twit could use a rigged remote to go around town killing cars. The PIN is either generated randomly at the factory, or (less securely) by using a formula based on the PIN. (systems that use formulas are much less secure)
More sophisticated systems (bmw'ish) use two way remotes that do challenge-response, so that it's not possible to "sniff" a code at short range and simply play it back tomorrow when they come to work and park in the same stall. The remote sends a "hello", the car replies with a randomly generated challenge. The remote generates a reply based on its private key and transmits it back to the car, which disarms it. (theoretically the remote never transmits the same code twice, and each time you try to disarm the car the car requires a different response) Some ignition key systems work this way also.
So you cannot simply park next to a car and try all the codes in a 20 minute run. Good remotes will have a large number of unique codes (so you have to sniff the code when the owner arms/disarms it) and will have a large number of possible PINs, as well as a reasonable disable time. If the PIN is only 3 digits, and the sleep period is 5 minutes after 5 failures, it will take on average eight hours break the code. You may be nondescript with a laptop in a car, but if you stay parked next to that BMW all day long sitting in your car, THAT will attract attention. (and the owner is likely to return by then anyway)
(ok that was odd, your post changed while I was previewing my reply... owell here it is anyway:P)
History has proven over and over again, it's not necessary to prossicute ALL offenders. The system cannot possibly catch and prossicute all offenders, so to say that the system must either prossicute all or prossicute none is equivelent to saying they cannot prossicute anyone.
Although anytime one group is prossicuted and another group, just as easily caught, is not prossicuted, then someone balls like a baby until the playing field gets leveled. It's an interesting social effect to watch a group complain that someone else is not being hurt as badly as they are, and demands "justice" in the form of hurting others just as badly.
You've got a good point. If the pricing model were variable, and you wanted to buy a few songs, you might get caught up looking for cheaper songs, and maybe cringe when one of the ten you were looking for was the $2 variety. Then you'd be upset. Also this would make you a lot more mindful about how much money you were spending since it involved more thought to buy, and the more you think about spending, the less you spend. Also, it's easier for people to be unhappy over a bad deal than it is for them to be pleased by a good deal. So it is to Apple's benefit to level the playing field to keep things simple and unbiased.
In my case I run my own mailserver, and I watch the logs. I keep an eye out for dictionary attacks, both on passwords and on account names. So far I have only seen some manual things hit, people poking around for accounts named "admin", etc. nothing automated so far. So I'm fairly certain where they came up with that email address at. This email address was an alphanumeric combination, making it far less likely to be randomly guessed.
A smart interviewer will know what skill level is required to pass what test. "MCSE" I have heard described as a "Minesweeper Consultant and Solitair Expert". Three people I know that have taken that test agree with that assessment.
Now try that stunt with CNE or Apple Technical Coordinator sometime. If you didn't study, you're not going to do better than random chance. If you studied, you might hit 55%. Better crack the books good if you want to pass those, and practical experience here can make the difference. Apple's tests are downright evil... "check all that apply" questions, mismark a single one of the five checks and you fail that question - you cannot BS or guess your way through that - final scores of 18% have been seen on that test.
Unless it's a Cxx hiring a CIO, you should expect your employer to know more than you do about I.T., and they should have the common knowledge to know what certs mean something and what certs are basically "pay us $100, take a simple test that any clown could pass, and here's your cert".
You're probably right... but what else can we do? bend over and take it? Not all problems have a "good" solution, and I suspect this is one such problem.
I've seen that statistic posted several times, but no one mentions anything about cost of recovery. Ore is (dirt) cheap and is non-toxic. The left-overs are somewhat toxic, due to the chemicals they add to extract the gold properly. With computers, the gold is in bigger chunks and is more highly concentrated, but it's not as easy to get out and produces a laundry list of nasty liquids, solids, and especially toxic vapors during the gold recovery process. Those products must be disposed of or filterd and disposed of, at cost. I wonder, which actually ends up with the greater net proffit? A ton of gold ore or a ton of computers?
It's difficult to save people from their own ignorance, and it's not practical to make the rest of the world responsible for protecting the ignorant from themselves. When I sell you a car, I don't teach you how to drive, and it's surely not someone else's fault if you run into a tree. If you don't want to run into a tree, either don't buy a car or go get some driving lessons, but leave me alone.
Even if we assume a large portion of the recycled product is disposed of, there are still some advantages to it. First off of course, is that a certain percentage IS recycled and reused. That alone should be incentive, Where recyclingg is concerned, "some" is better than "none". Second, in the process of recycling, they are breaking down the unit into smaller pieces. A good example would be cars... they take out the interiors, the engine block, tires, etc, sure there's a lot letf over. But then they crush it into a cube. It's still the same amount of waste, but it's in a smaller package now so it doesn't fill up the landfills as quickly.
I would imagine that it's harder to recycle a car than it is to recycle a computer. Though you probably get a lot more materials out of a car than out of a computer. Precious metals seem to be the only attraction in electronics, whereas cars have rubber, aluminum, steel, glass, and some plastics that can all be reused, and the pieces are in bigger chunks, making separation easier. Ever tried to take apart a capacitor to recycle it?;)
A lot of schools used to accept old computers from locals, but now that's changing. Too many people are using schools and soforth to dump 386 and mac classics on their doorstep. They're a school for god's sake. We want them to teach our children how to use computers that won't be obsolete when they graduate... let alone obsolete while they are still in school.
Most schools now don't accept anything below a certain point technology-wise. The limit on PCs seems to be P2 or higher. The limit on macs seems to be G3/G4 or later. Anything else quite frankly wastes their time and classroom space, and in the end they just have to throw it away themselves and you've done them a disservice by giving it to them. The school I work at has a storage room upstairs with about three dozen PowerMacs and 486's in it. The teachers from the kindergarden are the only ones that will touch them, because they still have acres of educational and kids games for software for those antiques. And if one breaks, won't boot, catches on fire, or looks funny, *shrug* throw it away, and haul another one down from storage. Quick and easy maintenance!
When legitimate businesses hire cockroaches to do their "dirty work" of spamming, the roaches aren't worth going after. You can stomp them all day and they just keep coming for the easy money. And they're hard to hit and they know it.
You have to go after the businesses that hire the scum.
I am trying that currently. In September I submitted an email address to Ford's "have a dealer in your area contact you about a Hybrid". I got several responses from dealers. Three weeks ago, that email address (which I made specially for that purpose) started receiving spam, one per day. I sent a nastygram to Ford and the dealers that responded to me asking who it was that sold my email address, in violation of their privacy policy as stated on their web site. One of the dealers replied, but the rest of the dealers AND Ford ignored my emails.
Since then I have tried other emails to two of Ford's complaint addresses. One was ignored, and the other bounced with a "relaying denied" error.
They know they are selling us out, and they really don't care. Businesses don't care about anything that doesn't cost them money, and if it MAKES them money, they care even less. Until it affects their wallet in the form of fines, legislation, and accountability, it won't stop.
In my case it actually looks like the company that Ford pays to run their "have a dealer contact you" page ("morpace.com") is actually the one that is harvesting the email addresses that Ford's customers enter on the web page.. they forward your requet to the dealers per their business arrangement with Ford, AND add your name to their own internal spam mailing list that activates a few months later so you don't suspect their client (Ford) of having sold you out. You'd think that if Ford found out about this they'd be pissed and that would hit someone in the wallet, but so far my complaints have fallen only on deaf ears. I'm going to try calling them on Monday to see if anyone cares, though I'm guessing "no".
It amazes me that Ford would risk pissing off a customer that is looking to buy a $28,000 product from them over maybe a quarter made by selling their email address to spammers.
I tend to go for the large capacity drives. Back in 2000 I picked up a 23gb behemoth for my powerbook. At the time it made it the fastest computer in the building where I worked, with more storage space than the fileservers. Bragging rights if nothing else. I always find myself saying "THIS will be the last word in hard drive space, I will never fill this". Then a year later I'm out of space and checking out the latest tech. I doubt this will ever change, and I would not be surprised in the least to have a 1tb laptop drive sometime in the next 10 years.
Last month I upgraded the hard drive in my new powerbook, from a cramped 80gb to a cavernous 160gb. I could really care less about the hard drive speed, which was 4200rpm iirc. What matters to me is (1) how much free space will I have when the smoke clears, and (2) what's the warranty. I take it for granted that this seagate, with its comforting 5 year warranty, WILL DIE sometime before it's 5 years is up. Then I'll get a free replacement. The one that's in the laptop now is backed up weekly in preparation for the disaster that will come. Since this drive has only been out for a few months I don't expect them to have had the bugs worked out so it will probably last two years at most I figure.
I find it really bad news that the standard hard drive warranty has slipped from 3 years down to 1 year on many drives. Now some of those companies that used to ship with 3 yr standard warranty are now charging the same for their 1 year warranties, and then you can choose to buy thier "gold" (or whatever) line that has the 3 year warranty on it, for an extra charge of course. Seagate still sets the bar at 5 years for most of their drives, tho their MTBF seems to be slipping so I expect they are paying a lot for replacement drives. At five years, I figure by the time the warranty runs out I'll be shopping for a new, larger drive anyway.
I used to work 3rd shift, in at 8pm and out at 4:30am. Zero traffic, could practically make it from door to door without touching the brake. Also makes it very easy to do things like shop for groceries. Very few people in the supermarket at 5am, though you do have to dodge the restockers in every other isle.
Though with that schedule it's sometimes hard to get other things done that have to be taken care of in the light of day.
I think that in some cases, even the pedal-powered two wheelers would make better time. Will also keep you off the roads that tend to have the pile-ups anyway.
At least this time they let a few articles sneak in between the first and the dup. Do the editors read their own site, or just repost interesting things they've found on the sites they do read?
Does this mean they expect safari and firefox users to disable the popup blocker that's built into the web browser when browsing their extra content areas? (also... do you have to PAY to get into those "extra content" areas, where the ads are "required viewing"? That'd really stink)
As an organization that represents wealthy companies or groups, the CRIA is just doing what they believe they are being paid to do. They call it "protecting the rights of their members", but "protecting rights" actually translates to "maximizing proffits". They could realy care less about anyone's rights, their job is to make their members richer. There's really nothing wrong with that, it may not be a nice polite way to look at it, but that is their business model and that's ok.
The problem I have with it is how far they will go to further this goal. Most systems are designed to balance opposing groups under "normal" situations. But when you get huge corporations or groups of powerful businessmen with wads of money backing the cause, the human face gets taken off the actions and you end up with a merciless, ruthless drive. With a smaller group, if you try to pull some unfair crap on the public, you get caught, and you get burned. It hurts your reputation and ultimately hurts your cause. This is the limiting factor that makes up for the gaps in the laws and regulations. I suppose you could say the public shames the organization into behaving reasonably.
Large groups like the RIAA and CRIA are big enough that this does not affect them. Pissed off a few hundred thousand people, so what? Does it affect their funding? Not immediately anyway. They still get their dues from the big 20 or so, and the artists they represent, and who are funding them, simply cry "it wasn't ME!" and then cut them another check. Who do they think they're fooling? Unfortunately, that'd be US. And so the injustice just continues. The organization just tries a new trick next month and hopes for better luck sneaking something through. Theere is no effective deterrant, so it just repeats again and again.
The only way to break this cycle is for public awareness to improve. The people that are being affected by these groups needs to recognize that there is no face behind the CRIA, it merely represents the artists who fund it. If you have a problem with what the CRIA is doing, don't complain to or about the CRIA, it won't help. They don't care. Really, they don't. Complain to the artists, the CRIA's power base and support. Tell them how upset you are about what is happening to you, and tell them that you hold THEM responsible. Demand change from the people that can make it happen.
Slashdot Mirror
ok, how do I moderate this article -1 troll?
This really sounds like words coming from someone with a bias against macs in general. Everyone I know that has seriously considered such a machine is truly impressed. Give up 10% of your PC's performance, and gain the entire macintosh platform? Working with math like that how can you lose? And for those used to a low end PC.. say, a Dell, even BootCamp will be an upgrade. If you're trying to compare BC with an alienware or other multibuck PC of course it's not going to be a fair comparison
And since the car will be ignoring bogus codes (to avoid being fooled by other cars' remotes), you can pretty much send it crap until you hit the right value with impunity
:P)
That's not quite how it works. The transmitter sends a two part code. It's a bit like a credit card. It sends its unique number, plus what amounts to a PIN. The only car that listens to it is the one who has a matching unique code. Then it compares the pin. Five mismatched pins and it will go on the offense, usually ignoring all code attempts for the next 5 minutes or so. More aggressive systems might disable the system entirely, but that's a bit draconian since any twit could use a rigged remote to go around town killing cars. The PIN is either generated randomly at the factory, or (less securely) by using a formula based on the PIN. (systems that use formulas are much less secure)
More sophisticated systems (bmw'ish) use two way remotes that do challenge-response, so that it's not possible to "sniff" a code at short range and simply play it back tomorrow when they come to work and park in the same stall. The remote sends a "hello", the car replies with a randomly generated challenge. The remote generates a reply based on its private key and transmits it back to the car, which disarms it. (theoretically the remote never transmits the same code twice, and each time you try to disarm the car the car requires a different response) Some ignition key systems work this way also.
So you cannot simply park next to a car and try all the codes in a 20 minute run. Good remotes will have a large number of unique codes (so you have to sniff the code when the owner arms/disarms it) and will have a large number of possible PINs, as well as a reasonable disable time. If the PIN is only 3 digits, and the sleep period is 5 minutes after 5 failures, it will take on average eight hours break the code. You may be nondescript with a laptop in a car, but if you stay parked next to that BMW all day long sitting in your car, THAT will attract attention. (and the owner is likely to return by then anyway)
(ok that was odd, your post changed while I was previewing my reply... owell here it is anyway
History has proven over and over again, it's not necessary to prossicute ALL offenders. The system cannot possibly catch and prossicute all offenders, so to say that the system must either prossicute all or prossicute none is equivelent to saying they cannot prossicute anyone.
Although anytime one group is prossicuted and another group, just as easily caught, is not prossicuted, then someone balls like a baby until the playing field gets leveled. It's an interesting social effect to watch a group complain that someone else is not being hurt as badly as they are, and demands "justice" in the form of hurting others just as badly.
You've got a good point. If the pricing model were variable, and you wanted to buy a few songs, you might get caught up looking for cheaper songs, and maybe cringe when one of the ten you were looking for was the $2 variety. Then you'd be upset. Also this would make you a lot more mindful about how much money you were spending since it involved more thought to buy, and the more you think about spending, the less you spend. Also, it's easier for people to be unhappy over a bad deal than it is for them to be pleased by a good deal. So it is to Apple's benefit to level the playing field to keep things simple and unbiased.
In my case I run my own mailserver, and I watch the logs. I keep an eye out for dictionary attacks, both on passwords and on account names. So far I have only seen some manual things hit, people poking around for accounts named "admin", etc. nothing automated so far. So I'm fairly certain where they came up with that email address at. This email address was an alphanumeric combination, making it far less likely to be randomly guessed.
A smart interviewer will know what skill level is required to pass what test. "MCSE" I have heard described as a "Minesweeper Consultant and Solitair Expert". Three people I know that have taken that test agree with that assessment.
Now try that stunt with CNE or Apple Technical Coordinator sometime. If you didn't study, you're not going to do better than random chance. If you studied, you might hit 55%. Better crack the books good if you want to pass those, and practical experience here can make the difference. Apple's tests are downright evil... "check all that apply" questions, mismark a single one of the five checks and you fail that question - you cannot BS or guess your way through that - final scores of 18% have been seen on that test.
Unless it's a Cxx hiring a CIO, you should expect your employer to know more than you do about I.T., and they should have the common knowledge to know what certs mean something and what certs are basically "pay us $100, take a simple test that any clown could pass, and here's your cert".
I doubt you will get anywhere with this method.
You're probably right... but what else can we do? bend over and take it? Not all problems have a "good" solution, and I suspect this is one such problem.
cyanide or mercury
both, iirc, are the major two by-products of gold refining.
In many instances, these ad-filled pages appear when users mistype an Internet address, such as BistBuy.com.
"bistbuy.com" does not resolve. (or did we slashdot them? THAT would be justice) Appears to be parked but not assigned by verisign?
I've seen that statistic posted several times, but no one mentions anything about cost of recovery. Ore is (dirt) cheap and is non-toxic. The left-overs are somewhat toxic, due to the chemicals they add to extract the gold properly. With computers, the gold is in bigger chunks and is more highly concentrated, but it's not as easy to get out and produces a laundry list of nasty liquids, solids, and especially toxic vapors during the gold recovery process. Those products must be disposed of or filterd and disposed of, at cost. I wonder, which actually ends up with the greater net proffit? A ton of gold ore or a ton of computers?
Does this also apply to LCDs? All macs (except eMacs, shortly to be discontinued) now come with flatscreens.
It's difficult to save people from their own ignorance, and it's not practical to make the rest of the world responsible for protecting the ignorant from themselves. When I sell you a car, I don't teach you how to drive, and it's surely not someone else's fault if you run into a tree. If you don't want to run into a tree, either don't buy a car or go get some driving lessons, but leave me alone.
Even if we assume a large portion of the recycled product is disposed of, there are still some advantages to it. First off of course, is that a certain percentage IS recycled and reused. That alone should be incentive, Where recyclingg is concerned, "some" is better than "none". Second, in the process of recycling, they are breaking down the unit into smaller pieces. A good example would be cars... they take out the interiors, the engine block, tires, etc, sure there's a lot letf over. But then they crush it into a cube. It's still the same amount of waste, but it's in a smaller package now so it doesn't fill up the landfills as quickly.
I would imagine that it's harder to recycle a car than it is to recycle a computer. Though you probably get a lot more materials out of a car than out of a computer. Precious metals seem to be the only attraction in electronics, whereas cars have rubber, aluminum, steel, glass, and some plastics that can all be reused, and the pieces are in bigger chunks, making separation easier. Ever tried to take apart a capacitor to recycle it? ;)
A lot of schools used to accept old computers from locals, but now that's changing. Too many people are using schools and soforth to dump 386 and mac classics on their doorstep. They're a school for god's sake. We want them to teach our children how to use computers that won't be obsolete when they graduate... let alone obsolete while they are still in school.
Most schools now don't accept anything below a certain point technology-wise. The limit on PCs seems to be P2 or higher. The limit on macs seems to be G3/G4 or later. Anything else quite frankly wastes their time and classroom space, and in the end they just have to throw it away themselves and you've done them a disservice by giving it to them. The school I work at has a storage room upstairs with about three dozen PowerMacs and 486's in it. The teachers from the kindergarden are the only ones that will touch them, because they still have acres of educational and kids games for software for those antiques. And if one breaks, won't boot, catches on fire, or looks funny, *shrug* throw it away, and haul another one down from storage. Quick and easy maintenance!
When legitimate businesses hire cockroaches to do their "dirty work" of spamming, the roaches aren't worth going after. You can stomp them all day and they just keep coming for the easy money. And they're hard to hit and they know it.
You have to go after the businesses that hire the scum.
I am trying that currently. In September I submitted an email address to Ford's "have a dealer in your area contact you about a Hybrid". I got several responses from dealers. Three weeks ago, that email address (which I made specially for that purpose) started receiving spam, one per day. I sent a nastygram to Ford and the dealers that responded to me asking who it was that sold my email address, in violation of their privacy policy as stated on their web site. One of the dealers replied, but the rest of the dealers AND Ford ignored my emails.
Since then I have tried other emails to two of Ford's complaint addresses. One was ignored, and the other bounced with a "relaying denied" error.
They know they are selling us out, and they really don't care. Businesses don't care about anything that doesn't cost them money, and if it MAKES them money, they care even less. Until it affects their wallet in the form of fines, legislation, and accountability, it won't stop.
In my case it actually looks like the company that Ford pays to run their "have a dealer contact you" page ("morpace.com") is actually the one that is harvesting the email addresses that Ford's customers enter on the web page.. they forward your requet to the dealers per their business arrangement with Ford, AND add your name to their own internal spam mailing list that activates a few months later so you don't suspect their client (Ford) of having sold you out. You'd think that if Ford found out about this they'd be pissed and that would hit someone in the wallet, but so far my complaints have fallen only on deaf ears. I'm going to try calling them on Monday to see if anyone cares, though I'm guessing "no".
It amazes me that Ford would risk pissing off a customer that is looking to buy a $28,000 product from them over maybe a quarter made by selling their email address to spammers.
Well it could be worse... it could have been the very next story rather than at least letting one story slip in between...
I tend to go for the large capacity drives. Back in 2000 I picked up a 23gb behemoth for my powerbook. At the time it made it the fastest computer in the building where I worked, with more storage space than the fileservers. Bragging rights if nothing else. I always find myself saying "THIS will be the last word in hard drive space, I will never fill this". Then a year later I'm out of space and checking out the latest tech. I doubt this will ever change, and I would not be surprised in the least to have a 1tb laptop drive sometime in the next 10 years.
Last month I upgraded the hard drive in my new powerbook, from a cramped 80gb to a cavernous 160gb. I could really care less about the hard drive speed, which was 4200rpm iirc. What matters to me is (1) how much free space will I have when the smoke clears, and (2) what's the warranty. I take it for granted that this seagate, with its comforting 5 year warranty, WILL DIE sometime before it's 5 years is up. Then I'll get a free replacement. The one that's in the laptop now is backed up weekly in preparation for the disaster that will come. Since this drive has only been out for a few months I don't expect them to have had the bugs worked out so it will probably last two years at most I figure.
I find it really bad news that the standard hard drive warranty has slipped from 3 years down to 1 year on many drives. Now some of those companies that used to ship with 3 yr standard warranty are now charging the same for their 1 year warranties, and then you can choose to buy thier "gold" (or whatever) line that has the 3 year warranty on it, for an extra charge of course. Seagate still sets the bar at 5 years for most of their drives, tho their MTBF seems to be slipping so I expect they are paying a lot for replacement drives. At five years, I figure by the time the warranty runs out I'll be shopping for a new, larger drive anyway.
I used to work 3rd shift, in at 8pm and out at 4:30am. Zero traffic, could practically make it from door to door without touching the brake. Also makes it very easy to do things like shop for groceries. Very few people in the supermarket at 5am, though you do have to dodge the restockers in every other isle.
Though with that schedule it's sometimes hard to get other things done that have to be taken care of in the light of day.
I think that in some cases, even the pedal-powered two wheelers would make better time. Will also keep you off the roads that tend to have the pile-ups anyway.
This is a dupe from one week ago.
At least this time they let a few articles sneak in between the first and the dup. Do the editors read their own site, or just repost interesting things they've found on the sites they do read?
Does this mean they expect safari and firefox users to disable the popup blocker that's built into the web browser when browsing their extra content areas? (also... do you have to PAY to get into those "extra content" areas, where the ads are "required viewing"? That'd really stink)
As an organization that represents wealthy companies or groups, the CRIA is just doing what they believe they are being paid to do. They call it "protecting the rights of their members", but "protecting rights" actually translates to "maximizing proffits". They could realy care less about anyone's rights, their job is to make their members richer. There's really nothing wrong with that, it may not be a nice polite way to look at it, but that is their business model and that's ok.
The problem I have with it is how far they will go to further this goal. Most systems are designed to balance opposing groups under "normal" situations. But when you get huge corporations or groups of powerful businessmen with wads of money backing the cause, the human face gets taken off the actions and you end up with a merciless, ruthless drive. With a smaller group, if you try to pull some unfair crap on the public, you get caught, and you get burned. It hurts your reputation and ultimately hurts your cause. This is the limiting factor that makes up for the gaps in the laws and regulations. I suppose you could say the public shames the organization into behaving reasonably.
Large groups like the RIAA and CRIA are big enough that this does not affect them. Pissed off a few hundred thousand people, so what? Does it affect their funding? Not immediately anyway. They still get their dues from the big 20 or so, and the artists they represent, and who are funding them, simply cry "it wasn't ME!" and then cut them another check. Who do they think they're fooling? Unfortunately, that'd be US. And so the injustice just continues. The organization just tries a new trick next month and hopes for better luck sneaking something through. Theere is no effective deterrant, so it just repeats again and again.
The only way to break this cycle is for public awareness to improve. The people that are being affected by these groups needs to recognize that there is no face behind the CRIA, it merely represents the artists who fund it. If you have a problem with what the CRIA is doing, don't complain to or about the CRIA, it won't help. They don't care. Really, they don't. Complain to the artists, the CRIA's power base and support. Tell them how upset you are about what is happening to you, and tell them that you hold THEM responsible. Demand change from the people that can make it happen.
Just start a lottery, where the winner gets to beat the piss out of the guy who thought of "forced advertisement".
A sure winner.
1) open source makes creating root kits easier (for the kiddies)
2) closed source makes finding/removing root kits more difficult (for the admins)
I'll deal with 1 before I'll face off against 2. Making life easier for the kiddies is a lot less hassel than making MY life more difficult.