"I'm not really happy about the idea of "anything" being able to be shared on my computer. Kiddie Porn comes to mind as one thing I want nothing to do with"
Good idea. In a similar vein, I happen to disagree with GreenPeace, and I think their ideas should be censored out of existance. The fact that they're allowed to campaign is disgusting, and anybody hosting a freenet system allowing them to communicate should be shut down immediately.
We really ought to shut down these pro-democracy sites too. After all, if communist sites are bad, and nazi sites are bad, democratic sites must be really nasty. The ideas are dark and viral, and we ought to shut down the system that promotes them.
Christian sites too. KKK is bad and should be censored, scientology is bad and should be censored, then churches must be bad and should be censored too.
Block child porn? Why only children, why not block non-aryan porn? disgusting stuff y'know.
Get enough people together, each with different views, and each with a "free speech for those who agree with me" attitude, and you'll not end up with any sort of society you'd want to live in.
"A well thought out extension to the copyright terms could certainly have a positive effect on innovation"
A well thought-out anything would have a positive effect, trying to link that with copyright extensions is stupid.
By exactly the same argument, well thought out reduction in the copyright terms could certainly have a positive effect on innovation. Which is actually far more likely. But given that something is well thought-out, what are the chances that it'll increase the length of copyright?
"yes, I know, don't use IE, etc. work computer, don't have much of a choice"
Uhh, if a website can install Gator on your work computer just by looking at it, that should really worry your IT department. perhaps even to the extent that they install a real browser.
Dammit, just sue them for allowing pornographic popups. They're required to provide a good working environment, free of sexual harassement, and they've given you a browser which pushes porn onto your computer.
If scary corporate porn laws works for email-filtering vendors, it damn well ought to work for browser wars. Use the tools.
"Now convince your 60 year old father who runs a home office that he should do this to 3,000+ of his archived documents from projects dating back to the wordperfect 5.1 days, just so you can uninstall a piece of software he already owns, and you'll have an argument."
Does OpenOffice do batch-convert? Can you run "open.doc, save as.sxw" from the command line?
"If you make it possible for strangers to find your content and download it, then it will be possible for the RIAA to be one of those strangers."
Someone who requests a file from you still has no knowledge of whether you hosted the file, or whether you were one part in a line of people involved in sending the file.
When a file is identified only by it's hash, you also have no way of knowing the content, therefore it becomes impossible to ascertain whether any particular node is responsible with knowledge of the file-contents.
If you make a connection for each file, it's possible for a chain of ISPs to trace back connections to an originator. But if you keep an encrypted channel always-open to other nodes, and if you regularly send dummy traffic, then you can only find out the content-host to within a group of nodes which were connected at the time. When the size of this group starts to exceed a few thousand computers, the knowledge that one of them is hosting a certain file becomes less useful.
Perhaps the work already done on MixMaster could be reused in a file-share context, using email messages to pass around content-hash indices, and attached files.
End-to-end encryption is also mighty-useful, but the speed disadvantage is that none of the people who helped to pass you the file will know what they have, they'll be unable to share it, and they won't contribute to the speed of that file in future.
But then, end-to-end encryption is more useful in an instant-messenger context, such as CryptoHeaven; although that system was controlled by one company with an access-charge, we should start to see better, more distributed, free-software implementations of CryptoHeaven in the future.
"Weiss said the recording industry should lobby for special taxes on CD burners and Internet access"
Perhaps more usefully, we can lobby for a special tax on company earnings. From the number of companies who've committed fraud recently, it's obvious that anybody who runs a company intends to steal money. The only real way for the government to combat this evil is to take additional tax from the record-companies, on the assumptions that they will commit fraud.
While we're at it, perhaps we should consider a tax on blank paper and writing implements, to recover the cost of people writing articles unfavourable to various industries. We could put it as a tax on newspapers maybe. Or even on people who stop and chat in public.
"As we didn't have OS/2, BeOS and some others to teach us that no OS can win without popular applications."
Applications? Howabout just having all the little tools you expect, actually work.
For any given task on Windows, your toolkit options involve either paying $30 for shareware, writing it yourself, or ripping off the shareware author and copying it anyway.
On Linux, the tools are all there. And they all work. No searching for 20 minutes because you want something to do SSH or you want to nslookup a website's owner, or you want to convert a document, or you want to map a website, or a computer. The time you save by having a competant computer to help with whatever you're doing is immesurable.
Anything you don't have is an apt-get away, the linux equivalent of a star-trek captain's "make it so". If you see a program you like the look of and want to try, it's automatically downloaded, installed, and setup for you, so come back from doing something else and find your new program ready for use. It's also been tested to be non-malicious, which is more than you can say for most Windows programs.
Yes, there are must-have applications too. Apart from the people whose software is only available on linux (i.e. anything scientific or engineering related), there are plenty of programs with no equal in Windows. The most obvious examples are LyX and LaTeX, without which good-luck trying to write a dissertation!
Again, there are applications which require other systems. Illustrators and printers will need the software on a Mac, schools will need the software on a BBC-B, CAD users will need the software on Windows, and James Bond fans will need the software on Playstation2. But I don't think anyone with experience of the dark magic will be very productive without a unix box to login to for using the toolkit.
Just think of it as a professional-grade system. Toys and consumer kit can only get you so far.
"so he can drive over the same tracks in his wheat field every year (I'm not kidding, read the fine article) and compress as little of his soil as possible"
As opposed to following the stupidly obvious tyre-tracks, marked by a 3-foot dip in crop height along the places you've driven before?
C'mon, look at the photos and tell me you need a GPS to figure out where the last person drove their tractor?
"The rogue program does not affect the Apple Macintosh line of computers or computers running variants of the Unix operating system."
It also doesn't affect Linux, but printing that would have been too much for the New York Times to cope with.
"Your computer's pants-down attitude to security means you're hosting porn, and liable to be arrested for it. You could have solved all these problems by running GNU/Linux instead"
"Perhaps a bit of overstatement there, eh? I don't expect my shampoo bottle to safely connect to the internet and send email, but if I purchase an operating system that claims it does that."
I think the latest update to the Windows XP EULA removes the claim about being able to safely connect to the internet...
"Dude! This is better than PointCast **AND** Kazaa -- The stuff just shows up! It's like subscribing to the FBI files-you-shouldn't-have mailing list!"
Konspire2B - bringing pr0n to your computer as fast as the network allows.
"A neighbor, who typically runs Linux with no breaches of security, tried putting up an IIS server just once to see how it compared, and it was owned by hackers within 15 minutes."
Bummer. I occasionally try out some webservers, and it's spooky the number of requests you get for../../../winnt/system even on dial-up connections. You hear people say that IIS is still used, it's incredible; surely they jest.
"What were you going to do? Rip them off of some products you buy from there, then name your pets accordingly so it will show up on the scanner correctly?"
I always use my dog's name as a password. M/g1k-Ø3 hates the name.
"For the server-side, no GUI needed at all... we're just processing more or less straight numerical data, except for strings on names, account ID's etc."
Well, Perl was successfully used to power the sweedish pension systems on linux (among others), so there's plenty of pedigree for these types of applications.
"In keeping with new Linux system, japanese civil servants will be expected to work for free."
Uhh, right. And in keeping with the new Windows system, UK civil servants will provide their employers with a 16-page EELA giving them permission to ransack the government buildings. Those who do come into work will be expected to dress in gay bright colours, and respond... very... slowly... to anybody who asks them to do stuff.
Slashdot Mirror
"I'm not really happy about the idea of "anything" being able to be shared on my computer. Kiddie Porn comes to mind as one thing I want nothing to do with"
Good idea. In a similar vein, I happen to disagree with GreenPeace, and I think their ideas should be censored out of existance. The fact that they're allowed to campaign is disgusting, and anybody hosting a freenet system allowing them to communicate should be shut down immediately.
We really ought to shut down these pro-democracy sites too. After all, if communist sites are bad, and nazi sites are bad, democratic sites must be really nasty. The ideas are dark and viral, and we ought to shut down the system that promotes them.
Christian sites too. KKK is bad and should be censored, scientology is bad and should be censored, then churches must be bad and should be censored too.
Block child porn? Why only children, why not block non-aryan porn? disgusting stuff y'know.
Get enough people together, each with different views, and each with a "free speech for those who agree with me" attitude, and you'll not end up with any sort of society you'd want to live in.
"A well thought out extension to the copyright terms could certainly have a positive effect on innovation"
A well thought-out anything would have a positive effect, trying to link that with copyright extensions is stupid.
By exactly the same argument, well thought out reduction in the copyright terms could certainly have a positive effect on innovation. Which is actually far more likely. But given that something is well thought-out, what are the chances that it'll increase the length of copyright?
"yes, I know, don't use IE, etc. work computer, don't have much of a choice"
Uhh, if a website can install Gator on your work computer just by looking at it, that should really worry your IT department. perhaps even to the extent that they install a real browser.
Dammit, just sue them for allowing pornographic popups. They're required to provide a good working environment, free of sexual harassement, and they've given you a browser which pushes porn onto your computer.
If scary corporate porn laws works for email-filtering vendors, it damn well ought to work for browser wars. Use the tools.
"Move the tests to southern Mexico, or even further south."
Yeah, howabout Cuba. They've got a missile-research history.
"Now convince your 60 year old father who runs a home office that he should do this to 3,000+ of his archived documents from projects dating back to the wordperfect 5.1 days, just so you can uninstall a piece of software he already owns, and you'll have an argument."
.doc, save as .sxw" from the command line?
Does OpenOffice do batch-convert? Can you run "open
"If you make it possible for strangers to find your content and download it, then it will be possible for the RIAA to be one of those strangers."
Someone who requests a file from you still has no knowledge of whether you hosted the file, or whether you were one part in a line of people involved in sending the file.
When a file is identified only by it's hash, you also have no way of knowing the content, therefore it becomes impossible to ascertain whether any particular node is responsible with knowledge of the file-contents.
If you make a connection for each file, it's possible for a chain of ISPs to trace back connections to an originator. But if you keep an encrypted channel always-open to other nodes, and if you regularly send dummy traffic, then you can only find out the content-host to within a group of nodes which were connected at the time. When the size of this group starts to exceed a few thousand computers, the knowledge that one of them is hosting a certain file becomes less useful.
Perhaps the work already done on MixMaster could be reused in a file-share context, using email messages to pass around content-hash indices, and attached files.
End-to-end encryption is also mighty-useful, but the speed disadvantage is that none of the people who helped to pass you the file will know what they have, they'll be unable to share it, and they won't contribute to the speed of that file in future.
But then, end-to-end encryption is more useful in an instant-messenger context, such as CryptoHeaven; although that system was controlled by one company with an access-charge, we should start to see better, more distributed, free-software implementations of CryptoHeaven in the future.
"Weiss said the recording industry should lobby for special taxes on CD burners and Internet access"
Perhaps more usefully, we can lobby for a special tax on company earnings. From the number of companies who've committed fraud recently, it's obvious that anybody who runs a company intends to steal money. The only real way for the government to combat this evil is to take additional tax from the record-companies, on the assumptions that they will commit fraud.
While we're at it, perhaps we should consider a tax on blank paper and writing implements, to recover the cost of people writing articles unfavourable to various industries. We could put it as a tax on newspapers maybe. Or even on people who stop and chat in public.
"As we didn't have OS/2, BeOS and some others to teach us that no OS can win without popular applications."
Applications? Howabout just having all the little tools you expect, actually work.
For any given task on Windows, your toolkit options involve either paying $30 for shareware, writing it yourself, or ripping off the shareware author and copying it anyway.
On Linux, the tools are all there. And they all work. No searching for 20 minutes because you want something to do SSH or you want to nslookup a website's owner, or you want to convert a document, or you want to map a website, or a computer. The time you save by having a competant computer to help with whatever you're doing is immesurable.
Anything you don't have is an apt-get away, the linux equivalent of a star-trek captain's "make it so". If you see a program you like the look of and want to try, it's automatically downloaded, installed, and setup for you, so come back from doing something else and find your new program ready for use. It's also been tested to be non-malicious, which is more than you can say for most Windows programs.
Yes, there are must-have applications too. Apart from the people whose software is only available on linux (i.e. anything scientific or engineering related), there are plenty of programs with no equal in Windows. The most obvious examples are LyX and LaTeX, without which good-luck trying to write a dissertation!
Again, there are applications which require other systems. Illustrators and printers will need the software on a Mac, schools will need the software on a BBC-B, CAD users will need the software on Windows, and James Bond fans will need the software on Playstation2. But I don't think anyone with experience of the dark magic will be very productive without a unix box to login to for using the toolkit.
Just think of it as a professional-grade system. Toys and consumer kit can only get you so far.
"That is why whenever you see a spammer you need to shout (so you can be heard clearly)
"He's Coming Right For Us!""
How about "we have concrete evidence that he has weapons of mass destruction"?
"so he can drive over the same tracks in his wheat field every year (I'm not kidding, read the fine article) and compress as little of his soil as possible"
As opposed to following the stupidly obvious tyre-tracks, marked by a 3-foot dip in crop height along the places you've driven before?
C'mon, look at the photos and tell me you need a GPS to figure out where the last person drove their tractor?
"Personally I wouldn't mind seeing B-"
Howabout B#
"dude, the ^ operator is for XOR, not X^Y"
Okay, so what's logical XOR?
and #define xor(a,b) ((a)&&(^b)||(^a)&&(b)) doesn't count, unless you're a secret BASIC admirer
"Nah, it should become C double plus good..."
Full speed C or high speed C?
The USS Bill Clinton submarine...
Long, hard, and full of seamen?
"The rogue program does not affect the Apple Macintosh line of computers or computers running variants of the Unix operating system."
It also doesn't affect Linux, but printing that would have been too much for the New York Times to cope with.
"Your computer's pants-down attitude to security means you're hosting porn, and liable to be arrested for it. You could have solved all these problems by running GNU/Linux instead"
"Perhaps a bit of overstatement there, eh? I don't expect my shampoo bottle to safely connect to the internet and send email, but if I purchase an operating system that claims it does that."
I think the latest update to the Windows XP EULA removes the claim about being able to safely connect to the internet...
"Dude! This is better than PointCast **AND** Kazaa -- The stuff just shows up! It's like subscribing to the FBI files-you-shouldn't-have mailing list!"
Konspire2B - bringing pr0n to your computer as fast as the network allows.
"A neighbor, who typically runs Linux with no breaches of security, tried putting up an IIS server just once to see how it compared, and it was owned by hackers within 15 minutes."
../../../winnt/system even on dial-up connections. You hear people say that IIS is still used, it's incredible; surely they jest.
Bummer. I occasionally try out some webservers, and it's spooky the number of requests you get for
"Yeah, but at least I didn't post as an Anonymous Coward."
What's the difference? It's not like anyone here is using mixmaster or cypherpunk to post messages
"Assume the trucks drive bumper-to-bumper, at 60 MPH"
Where do you live, so that I can avoid the area?
"Modern (digital) cellphones cannot be tapped with a radio."
Err, bullshit. Modern (digital) cellphones can easily be tapped, with a modified phone.
"It kind of concerns me that the encryption isn't hardwired into the phone"
And in whose financial interests would that be? Phones aren't open-source, and nobody but the manufacturers is writing software for them.
"What were you going to do? Rip them off of some products you buy from there, then name your pets accordingly so it will show up on the scanner correctly?"
I always use my dog's name as a password. M/g1k-Ø3 hates the name.
"For the server-side, no GUI needed at all... we're just processing more or less straight numerical data, except for strings on names, account ID's etc."
Well, Perl was successfully used to power the sweedish pension systems on linux (among others), so there's plenty of pedigree for these types of applications.
"In keeping with new Linux system, japanese civil servants will be expected to work for free."
Uhh, right. And in keeping with the new Windows system, UK civil servants will provide their employers with a 16-page EELA giving them permission to ransack the government buildings. Those who do come into work will be expected to dress in gay bright colours, and respond... very... slowly... to anybody who asks them to do stuff.