This is just begging for someone to come up with a SheevaPlug-style jammer that dumps random onto your power lines.
Unfortunately, lots of household appliances already do that.
Looking at the above comments, I think a lot of readers are interpreting it as the 'spies' are using the power lines as antennas. It's more like coax. Like those baby monitors you plug in the receiver in the bedroom by the crib, and plug in the receiver in the kitchen/living room/bedroom, and set it to one of several provided channels, and it uses the power wires within your house to help carry the signal. This has the advantages of using very little power, providing very clean audio, and works anywhere in the house with no loss in power. And also doesn't radiate much.
But if a spy sticks a wall wart in an outlet in a room with a bug in it, it can transmit easily to several other houses in the neighborhood with a receiver plugged into the wall in the same way. There are also bugs like that which are integrated into the outlets themselves so you don't even see them from the outside. Traditional over-the-air bug sweepers have a harder time finding them because the transmissions are very low power, because the transmitter and receiver's antennas are basically touching.
It'd depend on the receiver being used, the frequency chosen, and a lot of other factors, as to just how much BBOPL interferes with such a device. I'm sure some wouldn't be affected while others would be rendered useless.
I would have found that hard to believe before having seen it in action myself.
My camera uses an SD card of course, but it can use that open source camera software too. But to use it, you have to write to to a new card, and then turn on the write protect switch or the camera won't boot it. Once thge new software is booted, it can save pictures to the card. Good proof that the write protect on the SD card is more of a "suggestion" than a "switch".
I first read about BitCoins on Slashdot a while ago and what intuition I have seems to wager there's a lot of Catch-22s with this pseudo-fiat currency. I mean the value is derived from scarcity but is also tied to what... computational complexity?
It's tied to scarcity by computational complexity. (it's also designed to evolve to keep up roughly with moore's law) Gold and diamonds are other examples of "currency" that's tied to scarcity / difficulty of production.
Diamonds are also a good example of such a medium that does not divide easily into small units, for those that are pointing out that bitcoins have a base resolution of around a dime. Similar to bitdust, gold dust used to be used for smaller units and was also less convenient, but it didn't stop people from using it.
Lets face it, currency differs from barter by the simple fact that it has value merely because people agree it has value, not because it has value.
1. "violate the common sense rights of everyone we can find a legal loophole for or write a new law to allow" 2. "also do anything else we think we can get away with"
I'd say 90% of the time, it's an operator error that causes something to break. I doubt anyone here would contradict me.
Depends on the platform. Some systems are just plain easier to break or require more attention from the user. The tech sitting across from me, for what he works on, I bet he would agree with that. But for me, it's approximately the other way around, I'd say about 90% of my repairs are failed components. (and no, that's not because the components are less reliable, they're roughly equal) What I work on just does a better job of maintaining itself and protecting the user from themselves.
"Apple has made it completely impossible for anyone but Apple to make a profit selling contemporary ebooks on any iOS device,"
So, Apple, being well, a business, stacked the deck with their own profit in mind, rather than yours. Then you got into the market with them whilst trying to use your old, incompatible publisher business model, and didn't do well? this surprises you?
Apple isn't in business to make you money, they're in business to make them (/shareholders) money. At their store, they write the rules. The rules favor them, but if you operate properly (and they do give you suggestions and help here) then you will get a share of the money. If you try instead to be greedy and do it your own way, while still bound by their end of the rules, you're going to tank. Look at it this way: their rules say "We get at least this much, and you can have what's left over". If you choose to ignore the margin Apple is giving you, and instead attempt to grab something specific that you're used to having working elsewhere, Apple happily takes what you're ignoring, (can you blame them?) and won't let you take what you already promised them. (or perhaps you blame them for that instead?)
do that, You Lose. Put the blame where it belongs.
Using energy stored as momentum would only allow for a temporary hop off the ground,
Though one of the requirements of the challenge is at some point in the flight to get 3M off the ground. Using inertia in the blades would be an excellent way to do that. Get the blades up to speed, lowering their angle as you increase their speed and maintain a hover, (thus storing energy in the blades' inertia) then suddenly pitch the blades up at the 55 second mark or so when the pilot is exhausted, and the craft should "hop" as the blade inertia is momentarily traded for lift, hopefully getting the craft up to 3M.
Although the craft may then fall out of the sky like a rock. Hope the cockpit is over a padded surface.
...shipped with forge (level editor) and anvil (physics editor)
We has an absolute blast making our own levels, and there was a large community of level builders. A few projects (aleph one for example) actually built entirely new scenarios. There was also the ability to create custom weapons.
it should have. I posted in a recent related thread forecasting this exact same thing would happen. Really, is anyone surprised by this? Lately the law seems to be a lot more interested in finding ways to boost their revenue than to protect the public.
Tho I agree, playing devil's advocate I'd have to point out they are trying to remove the market for the kiddie porn. Remove the market and the producers will dramatically drop off. Only a minor percentage are paying for it, but there are also a lot more that are funding the producers/distributors indirectly with banner impressions and clicks, and with zip files of KP with botnet/spyware sprinkled in.
I'm not an expert on that law, but what I recall reading said they were required to provide notice of infringement, provide the receiver an opportunity to dispute it, and to stop any undisputed infringement.
How they go about this is entirely up to them. Some will send you an email, some will mail you a notice, some will implement three strikes, etc. My personal experience: the local cable company (Mediacom) mails infringement notices with instructions on appeal. If you have two unappealed notices on record and they receive a third notice, they suspend your service immediately (even before you receive the letter) for 10 days or until you appeal it. (and they refuse to credit you for the 1/3 of the month you aren't receiving service, which is probably illegal) If you already have three unappealed under your belt when they receive another notice, they disconnect your service permanently or until you appeal.
This response is somewhat standard among the bigger providers.
Agreed. The police already know where the dangerous locations are because accidents get reported there. All this data shows is where people are safely and routinely exceeding the posted limit.
In other words, the police already know where increased speed enforcement could be beneficial to the public, but they don't quite know where the speed limits are lower than they should be and are presenting an opportunity for revenue enhancement. Like the 4 lane divided road that goes over a bridge and has no intersections for a quarter mile, posted 35mph. (one of the local cops' favorite places around here to set up large scale speed traps)
I was just at a customer's house helping with computer issues and she told me that the local cable co unplugged her for DMCA takedown for torrenting movies, and she'd never used BT before. They walked her through setting up a password on her wifi after that.
Our local cable go is Gestapo on DMCA takedowns...
Just another example of innovate or die. They had a HUGE place in business servers years ago, and then they just sat down on their laurels, and never stood back up.
Was there even anything worth acquiring in this sale? even the name brings a musty smell to a conversation.
these automated algorithms are most distinctly not doing that since they are not sticking to a price at all.
This was a "positive feedback loop", meaning one or both parties were jacking up the price a little on their end, this was necessary for growth. So somewhere else the book is being listed at a similar price. And either there, at amazon, or both, they're set to "look at the other guy's price and add 2%" or something like that. Even if amazon's is set to undercut by say, 1%, if their reference site is jacking amazon's price by 5%, it'll grow upward on both sides.
So, the bottom line is, someone's greedy.;) This sort of problem is unlikely to happen unless all parties involved are auto-adjusting and looking at each other. That title is more than likely only available at amazon and one other place. So it's probably not too common of an issue, but it's going to happen from time to time when conditions are right.
USPO delivers sealed envelopes. It's hard to open, read, and seal physical envelopes. It's trivial to read email in flight assuming people don't use PGP.
I was just going to compare US mail with email+pgp. They know who you're communicating with, but can't easily read it. No difference really.
Besides, nowadays it's become painfully obvious how easy it is for any government to squeeze a copy of your emails out of any service provider on their soil. And just look at how efficiently blackberry has automated the process of the govt reading your email?
Anyone with any expectation of privacy in their email, from anywhere, from anything, through anyone, without PGP, is delusional.
We know the information is being sent to Apple, and we know the official reasons "why" too: for advertising purposes, and to build a competing location database for Skyhook. Essentially, iPhone users are being used to "war drive" for Wi-Fi points and provide GPS coordinates for them.
[citation needed]
From what I've read on this, the phone itself has location data and uses it for things like targeted advertising and some of its other location-based services, but is not sent to Apple. Can you provide us some links?
If you're talking about information being sent to Apple then it's a "no". But if you define it as recorded locally, then "yes".
My take on it is, the device is tracking me, but Apple is not. Anyone know the specifics on the CA/NY law regarding "tracking"? If these are truly "consumer protection laws", then they should be referring to Apple, not the product you've purchased and is in your possession. I don't need a law to protect me from my PHONE.
Slashdot Mirror
Unfortunately, lots of household appliances already do that.
Looking at the above comments, I think a lot of readers are interpreting it as the 'spies' are using the power lines as antennas. It's more like coax. Like those baby monitors you plug in the receiver in the bedroom by the crib, and plug in the receiver in the kitchen/living room/bedroom, and set it to one of several provided channels, and it uses the power wires within your house to help carry the signal. This has the advantages of using very little power, providing very clean audio, and works anywhere in the house with no loss in power. And also doesn't radiate much.
But if a spy sticks a wall wart in an outlet in a room with a bug in it, it can transmit easily to several other houses in the neighborhood with a receiver plugged into the wall in the same way. There are also bugs like that which are integrated into the outlets themselves so you don't even see them from the outside. Traditional over-the-air bug sweepers have a harder time finding them because the transmissions are very low power, because the transmitter and receiver's antennas are basically touching.
It'd depend on the receiver being used, the frequency chosen, and a lot of other factors, as to just how much BBOPL interferes with such a device. I'm sure some wouldn't be affected while others would be rendered useless.
What, did they think they could do that and get away with it?
"Well, YES."
ya, "secure digital" my ass. Secure for them maybe, not secure for me
I would have found that hard to believe before having seen it in action myself.
My camera uses an SD card of course, but it can use that open source camera software too. But to use it, you have to write to to a new card, and then turn on the write protect switch or the camera won't boot it. Once thge new software is booted, it can save pictures to the card. Good proof that the write protect on the SD card is more of a "suggestion" than a "switch".
It's tied to scarcity by computational complexity. (it's also designed to evolve to keep up roughly with moore's law) Gold and diamonds are other examples of "currency" that's tied to scarcity / difficulty of production.
Diamonds are also a good example of such a medium that does not divide easily into small units, for those that are pointing out that bitcoins have a base resolution of around a dime. Similar to bitdust, gold dust used to be used for smaller units and was also less convenient, but it didn't stop people from using it.
Lets face it, currency differs from barter by the simple fact that it has value merely because people agree it has value, not because it has value.
1. "violate the common sense rights of everyone we can find a legal loophole for or write a new law to allow"
2. "also do anything else we think we can get away with"
Macintosh. I try to avoid mentioning it because the trolls come out in force screaming "fanboy!" no matter what I say.
Depends on the platform. Some systems are just plain easier to break or require more attention from the user. The tech sitting across from me, for what he works on, I bet he would agree with that. But for me, it's approximately the other way around, I'd say about 90% of my repairs are failed components. (and no, that's not because the components are less reliable, they're roughly equal) What I work on just does a better job of maintaining itself and protecting the user from themselves.
So, Apple, being well, a business, stacked the deck with their own profit in mind, rather than yours. Then you got into the market with them whilst trying to use your old, incompatible publisher business model, and didn't do well? this surprises you?
Apple isn't in business to make you money, they're in business to make them (/shareholders) money. At their store, they write the rules. The rules favor them, but if you operate properly (and they do give you suggestions and help here) then you will get a share of the money. If you try instead to be greedy and do it your own way, while still bound by their end of the rules, you're going to tank. Look at it this way: their rules say "We get at least this much, and you can have what's left over". If you choose to ignore the margin Apple is giving you, and instead attempt to grab something specific that you're used to having working elsewhere, Apple happily takes what you're ignoring, (can you blame them?) and won't let you take what you already promised them. (or perhaps you blame them for that instead?)
do that, You Lose. Put the blame where it belongs.
Though one of the requirements of the challenge is at some point in the flight to get 3M off the ground. Using inertia in the blades would be an excellent way to do that. Get the blades up to speed, lowering their angle as you increase their speed and maintain a hover, (thus storing energy in the blades' inertia) then suddenly pitch the blades up at the 55 second mark or so when the pilot is exhausted, and the craft should "hop" as the blade inertia is momentarily traded for lift, hopefully getting the craft up to 3M.
Although the craft may then fall out of the sky like a rock. Hope the cockpit is over a padded surface.
...shipped with forge (level editor) and anvil (physics editor)
We has an absolute blast making our own levels, and there was a large community of level builders. A few projects (aleph one for example) actually built entirely new scenarios. There was also the ability to create custom weapons.
A group of soldiers pointing AK47's at you tends to elicit that response.
it should have. I posted in a recent related thread forecasting this exact same thing would happen. Really, is anyone surprised by this? Lately the law seems to be a lot more interested in finding ways to boost their revenue than to protect the public.
Tho I agree, playing devil's advocate I'd have to point out they are trying to remove the market for the kiddie porn. Remove the market and the producers will dramatically drop off. Only a minor percentage are paying for it, but there are also a lot more that are funding the producers/distributors indirectly with banner impressions and clicks, and with zip files of KP with botnet/spyware sprinkled in.
I'm not an expert on that law, but what I recall reading said they were required to provide notice of infringement, provide the receiver an opportunity to dispute it, and to stop any undisputed infringement.
How they go about this is entirely up to them. Some will send you an email, some will mail you a notice, some will implement three strikes, etc. My personal experience: the local cable company (Mediacom) mails infringement notices with instructions on appeal. If you have two unappealed notices on record and they receive a third notice, they suspend your service immediately (even before you receive the letter) for 10 days or until you appeal it. (and they refuse to credit you for the 1/3 of the month you aren't receiving service, which is probably illegal) If you already have three unappealed under your belt when they receive another notice, they disconnect your service permanently or until you appeal.
This response is somewhat standard among the bigger providers.
In other words, the police already know where increased speed enforcement could be beneficial to the public, but they don't quite know where the speed limits are lower than they should be and are presenting an opportunity for revenue enhancement. Like the 4 lane divided road that goes over a bridge and has no intersections for a quarter mile, posted 35mph. (one of the local cops' favorite places around here to set up large scale speed traps)
I was just at a customer's house helping with computer issues and she told me that the local cable co unplugged her for DMCA takedown for torrenting movies, and she'd never used BT before. They walked her through setting up a password on her wifi after that.
Our local cable go is Gestapo on DMCA takedowns...
It looks like Nintendo is blaming their customers for not understanding their product... isn't that their marketing department's responsibility?
Just another example of innovate or die. They had a HUGE place in business servers years ago, and then they just sat down on their laurels, and never stood back up.
Was there even anything worth acquiring in this sale? even the name brings a musty smell to a conversation.
But it's going to cost them a lot more to get it into orbit, y'know, with all the lead in everything...
This was a "positive feedback loop", meaning one or both parties were jacking up the price a little on their end, this was necessary for growth. So somewhere else the book is being listed at a similar price. And either there, at amazon, or both, they're set to "look at the other guy's price and add 2%" or something like that. Even if amazon's is set to undercut by say, 1%, if their reference site is jacking amazon's price by 5%, it'll grow upward on both sides.
So, the bottom line is, someone's greedy. ;) This sort of problem is unlikely to happen unless all parties involved are auto-adjusting and looking at each other. That title is more than likely only available at amazon and one other place. So it's probably not too common of an issue, but it's going to happen from time to time when conditions are right.
I was just going to compare US mail with email+pgp. They know who you're communicating with, but can't easily read it. No difference really.
Besides, nowadays it's become painfully obvious how easy it is for any government to squeeze a copy of your emails out of any service provider on their soil. And just look at how efficiently blackberry has automated the process of the govt reading your email?
Anyone with any expectation of privacy in their email, from anywhere, from anything, through anyone, without PGP, is delusional.
where did you see that?
[citation needed]
From what I've read on this, the phone itself has location data and uses it for things like targeted advertising and some of its other location-based services, but is not sent to Apple. Can you provide us some links?
If you're talking about information being sent to Apple then it's a "no". But if you define it as recorded locally, then "yes".
My take on it is, the device is tracking me, but Apple is not. Anyone know the specifics on the CA/NY law regarding "tracking"? If these are truly "consumer protection laws", then they should be referring to Apple, not the product you've purchased and is in your possession. I don't need a law to protect me from my PHONE.