$49/Year. Almost instant (like 10 minute) issuance. Trusted by 99% or so of in-use browsers (IE>=5.0, Netscape>=4.x, AOL>=5, Opera>=5). Works great. Highly recommended.
Not entirely the point. Saying "wow, great, only $50 per year, we should use this on our nonprofit sites" is like saying "wow, only $100 per seat for a microsoft patent, we should use this in free software"
Most, if not all people here are running websites for free. Repeat: For Free. And they need encryption to stop ISPs spying on their visitors, not to prove that they're a verisign-approved-person (i.e. credit-card and american drivers' license)
So does OSDN have a root-CA? Does SourceForge have a root-CA? Does GNU have a root-CA? Does linux.org have a root-CA? Does google or DMOZ have a root-CA? No. The only root-CAs available are run by big american businesses for big american businesses, and this is exactly the problem we're discussing.
"Yet in a time when most of your customers use IE, and this tag appears to work for now, what can you do besides encourage your users to use other browsers?"
You're lucky that internet explorer allows your mozilla-reccomendation to be displayed, let alone allows you to link to mozilla.org.
"Anyone who supplies SA's with an encryption product.. this doesn't sound like a per-seat deal, just a registration of the fact that you are selling a crypto product in SA."
This type of law doesn't normally limit itself to commercial transactions: remember that the Californian courts will consider that you "do business in" california if someone from that state can access your website. In fact, you would also be "publishing" in california. Doesn't bother them that a user would have to post a request to your server in the UK, and retrieve a document created in the UK; as far as they're concerned, it's as good as living there and running a press.
It may be illogical, uninformed, and just plain wrong, but don't be surprised if courts take a weird interpretation of things. Is pgpi.org visible from South Africa?
Re:five years of lost discussions
on
Slashdot Turns 5
·
· Score: 2
"It's ironic, then, that old slashdot threads are all but lost"
"And when the Big Dig is finished, and Baltimore, D.C., Manhattan, Detroit, Chicago, London, Paris, Tokyo, etc. see how cool it is, they'll know how to do it because we'll show them how."
It's quite cool to have a city small enough to walk across during a strike on the underground trains.
All we need now is excellent train links to the rest of the country. Oh, wait!
Yep, you can take your car to London. Pretty strange idea though. Anyone who needs to get anywhere uses the underground, and anyone who really needs to get somewhere uses a bike or motorbike.
"Warner Music is cool. Wait... are they part of the RIAA? Argh"
Exactly.
Ever heard of a decoy? Someone to take the anger of consumers, someone who isn't recognisably the same as the Warner Music you might be considering buying a CD from?
Do the truth a favour: next time you want to critisize the RIAA, pick one of their member companies as your target instead.
"And Warner Brothers, who represent the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, are campaigning to make it legal to sabotage your computer in the name of 'compliance'"
W.T.F.?!? They're trying to create a more robust, secure network. Like, y'know, the internet itself. Or like the phone system. Or like the power grid. Or like the sewers. "No central point of failure"
What's that got to do with RIAA? Just because the police are allowed to batter down your door, doesn't mean you get sued for putting locks on it.
"Personally, if everyone violated the DMCA on small scale"
Important point: copying movies won't work; it need to be something that people can relate to.
A good example would be using Sklyarov's e-book reader to copy the digitally-protected ebook of Paradise Lost to text. People will ask why we're being arrested for copying something which is public-domain.
Copying CDs onto an MP3 player, or watching rented DVDs on a non-approved player would all be 'good' methods of protest, but if you can make it something which is clearly and obviously morally-right (such as copying Paradise Lost from its ebook) then you stand a greater chance of support than simply ripping star-wars.
"I don't believe most people with 'nothing to hide' will be convinced by this argument for privacy. So, can anyone come up with a concise line of reasoning that will work?"
Howabout intercepting their love-letters / job applications at network level, and post copies on the company noticeboard? After all, they've got 'nothing to hide', right?
TheOpenCD.org hasn't had any activity for months: I discovered them only through logfiles (they were linking to me) but by that time momentum on the project had already slowed.
It would have been good if this article could have referenced the project, so more work might get done. However, most people will just write back with "try mozilla" onto slashdot and help no further.
There are a couple of minor hurdles: notably source-distribution (18K moz binary, or fill the CD with source) but this project would seem a remarkably effort-efficient way to promote free-software.
I read somewhere (netcraft survey?) 80% of SSL-certificates are invalid? Most are expired, and only about 5% are self-signed.
I've never seen people so clueless about security as those who run web-shops. You sometimes can't think of a suitable answer to a webeditor who thinks their thwarte certificate will be a shiny new complete security solution to all possible ills.
Off-topic, but with a thousand responses I guess few will notice:
Can anyone call their programs GNU if they use the GNU-GPL license? Or can you only use the GNU name (or G-reference) if it's something available on gnu.org?
"Is it really useful to encourage more people to create more "forks" based on the gecko engine?"
Example: on TheOpenCD (CD of GNU applications for windows) this was discussed: do we include Mozilla?
Obvious answer: yes of course. Mix of NPL, MPL, GPL, so we could distribute it.
Later answer: no. The mozilla team consider it a technology-demo for tecchies only, and do not want to support lusers trying to use it. Their answer: "please don't distribute it without putting your own branding on, or use a derivative [netscape, k-meleon, beonix...]"
So a slashdot article to show people how to create such derivatives, with links to a book? Great.
"They[we] want uncompromising individual freedom and privacy, but at the same time expect the government to prevent bad stuff from happening to them."
Before you convince too many people of our hypocracy, most of us know the government can't stop "bad stuff" happening, and has no interest in doing so anyway
Given that, taking away freedom and privacy "to protect you" just adds insult to injury, as they implement policies (RIP, the terrorism bill) which stand no chance of protecting anyone, but take away the freedoms anyway.
cat common_sense | government
Re:currency tracking hardly needs rfids
on
Greenbacks No More
·
· Score: 2
Right. So we can't even use cash anonymously anymore?
Re:Yeah, we think highly of foreigners here.
on
Greenbacks No More
·
· Score: 2
"does the phonecian numbering system still present a problem for some corners of the earth?"
Well, actually the colours on a UK note mean that you can tell most fakes from several metres away just by recognising the shade of colour.
We also have different sized notes (so does the Euro) which means you can tell 'be feel' what's in your wallet without having to look carefully at the corner to read a number.
I believe that different notes are also made from different types of paper here, again letting you tell what a note is before it's left your pocket. This could just be an illusion though, as smaller notes feel more fragile because they've been handled more.
Re:What needs to happen...
on
ICANN Updates
·
· Score: 2
"The problem with this idea is that its completely impossible to implement. There are no reliable ways of making sure that one person=one vote, no way of guaranteeing even participation geographically, economically, or any other way"
The state-of-the-art in electronic voting is a whole lot more advanced than you might think by looking at government's "send your PIN in a text message" projects!
Slashdot Mirror
$49/Year.
Almost instant (like 10 minute) issuance.
Trusted by 99% or so of in-use browsers (IE>=5.0, Netscape>=4.x, AOL>=5, Opera>=5).
Works great. Highly recommended.
Not entirely the point. Saying "wow, great, only $50 per year, we should use this on our nonprofit sites" is like saying "wow, only $100 per seat for a microsoft patent, we should use this in free software"
Most, if not all people here are running websites for free. Repeat: For Free. And they need encryption to stop ISPs spying on their visitors, not to prove that they're a verisign-approved-person (i.e. credit-card and american drivers' license)
So does OSDN have a root-CA? Does SourceForge have a root-CA? Does GNU have a root-CA? Does linux.org have a root-CA? Does google or DMOZ have a root-CA? No. The only root-CAs available are run by big american businesses for big american businesses, and this is exactly the problem we're discussing.
Paying $50 per year is simply not relevant.
"Yet in a time when most of your customers use IE, and this tag appears to work for now, what can you do besides encourage your users to use other browsers?"
You're lucky that internet explorer allows your mozilla-reccomendation to be displayed, let alone allows you to link to mozilla.org.
Sad but true.
Damn confusing when people reply to a low-rated comment. anyway...
If you turn off the images in slashdot, you don't get any adverts, and as an added bonus, you don't need to worry about their flag anymore!
"Anyone who supplies SA's with an encryption product .. this doesn't sound like a per-seat deal, just a registration of the fact that you are selling a crypto product in SA."
This type of law doesn't normally limit itself to commercial transactions: remember that the Californian courts will consider that you "do business in" california if someone from that state can access your website. In fact, you would also be "publishing" in california. Doesn't bother them that a user would have to post a request to your server in the UK, and retrieve a document created in the UK; as far as they're concerned, it's as good as living there and running a press.
It may be illogical, uninformed, and just plain wrong, but don't be surprised if courts take a weird interpretation of things. Is pgpi.org visible from South Africa?
"It's ironic, then, that old slashdot threads are all but lost"
Try a google search on your ID or sig.
"And when the Big Dig is finished, and Baltimore, D.C., Manhattan, Detroit, Chicago, London, Paris, Tokyo, etc. see how cool it is, they'll know how to do it because we'll show them how."
It's quite cool to have a city small enough to walk across during a strike on the underground trains.
All we need now is excellent train links to the rest of the country. Oh, wait!
Yep, you can take your car to London. Pretty strange idea though. Anyone who needs to get anywhere uses the underground, and anyone who really needs to get somewhere uses a bike or motorbike.
I tried walking around US cities; they're no fun!
"I'm sure many people attend MIT based on the skill of their well-respected football team."
Their model-railway club, surely?
(ref: some hacker-history book...)
Sysadmin? Hacker writing style. Don't quote the period, don't capitalise a name, never use italic when you can _underscore_.
"I've seen requirements that specifically want 2+ years of experience using Visual Studio"
Yeah, but you haven't seen requirements asking for 5 years of experince in Office 2000 have you?
Just wait. It can only get more ridiculous!
"Warner Music is cool. Wait... are they part of the RIAA? Argh"
Exactly.
Ever heard of a decoy? Someone to take the anger of consumers, someone who isn't recognisably the same as the Warner Music you might be considering buying a CD from?
Do the truth a favour: next time you want to critisize the RIAA, pick one of their member companies as your target instead.
"And Warner Brothers, who represent the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, are campaigning to make it legal to sabotage your computer in the name of 'compliance'"
"The RIAA won't stand for this."
W.T.F.?!? They're trying to create a more robust, secure network. Like, y'know, the internet itself. Or like the phone system. Or like the power grid. Or like the sewers. "No central point of failure"
What's that got to do with RIAA? Just because the police are allowed to batter down your door, doesn't mean you get sued for putting locks on it.
"Personally, if everyone violated the DMCA on small scale"
Important point: copying movies won't work; it need to be something that people can relate to.
A good example would be using Sklyarov's e-book reader to copy the digitally-protected ebook of Paradise Lost to text. People will ask why we're being arrested for copying something which is public-domain.
Copying CDs onto an MP3 player, or watching rented DVDs on a non-approved player would all be 'good' methods of protest, but if you can make it something which is clearly and obviously morally-right (such as copying Paradise Lost from its ebook) then you stand a greater chance of support than simply ripping star-wars.
"I don't believe most people with 'nothing to hide' will be convinced by this argument for privacy. So, can anyone come up with a concise line of reasoning that will work?"
Howabout intercepting their love-letters / job applications at network level, and post copies on the company noticeboard? After all, they've got 'nothing to hide', right?
"Theres also a filter for JonKatz if anyone out there doesn't already have it checked."
Yep, it's built right into Mozilla 1.2, alongside the flash-filtering and doubleclick blocking...
All I need now is someone to remove all the microsoft-apologiser articles from Computing magazine... isn't The Beast dead yet?
TheOpenCD.org hasn't had any activity for months: I discovered them only through logfiles (they were linking to me) but by that time momentum on the project had already slowed.
It would have been good if this article could have referenced the project, so more work might get done. However, most people will just write back with "try mozilla" onto slashdot and help no further.
There are a couple of minor hurdles: notably source-distribution (18K moz binary, or fill the CD with source) but this project would seem a remarkably effort-efficient way to promote free-software.
I read somewhere (netcraft survey?) 80% of SSL-certificates are invalid? Most are expired, and only about 5% are self-signed.
I've never seen people so clueless about security as those who run web-shops. You sometimes can't think of a suitable answer to a webeditor who thinks their thwarte certificate will be a shiny new complete security solution to all possible ills.
Off-topic, but with a thousand responses I guess few will notice:
Can anyone call their programs GNU if they use the GNU-GPL license? Or can you only use the GNU name (or G-reference) if it's something available on gnu.org?
"Is it really useful to encourage more people to create more "forks" based on the gecko engine?"
Example: on TheOpenCD (CD of GNU applications for windows) this was discussed: do we include Mozilla?
Obvious answer: yes of course. Mix of NPL, MPL, GPL, so we could distribute it.
Later answer: no. The mozilla team consider it a technology-demo for tecchies only, and do not want to support lusers trying to use it. Their answer: "please don't distribute it without putting your own branding on, or use a derivative [netscape, k-meleon, beonix...]"
So a slashdot article to show people how to create such derivatives, with links to a book? Great.
"My main gripe is that it doesn't look or act like my other Windows applications"
F.F.S., get the IE skin, it's not that hard
Okay, own up, who else just filled in a 'link request' form for frivolous reasons with no intention of actually linking.
"Link (to:) your privacy policy (from:) slashdot.org (maintained by:) pretty much everyone (main activity:) linking"
"the ultimate in spam, everywhere you go"
Right. Now imagine introducing someone from as little as 50 years ago to modern television... "you must watch the adverts, it's in the contract"
Before you convince too many people of our hypocracy, most of us know the government can't stop "bad stuff" happening, and has no interest in doing so anyway
Given that, taking away freedom and privacy "to protect you" just adds insult to injury, as they implement policies (RIP, the terrorism bill) which stand no chance of protecting anyone, but take away the freedoms anyway.
Right. So we can't even use cash anonymously anymore?
The Guild
"does the phonecian numbering system still present a problem for some corners of the earth?"
Well, actually the colours on a UK note mean that you can tell most fakes from several metres away just by recognising the shade of colour.
We also have different sized notes (so does the Euro) which means you can tell 'be feel' what's in your wallet without having to look carefully at the corner to read a number.
I believe that different notes are also made from different types of paper here, again letting you tell what a note is before it's left your pocket. This could just be an illusion though, as smaller notes feel more fragile because they've been handled more.
"The problem with this idea is that its completely impossible to implement. There are no reliable ways of making sure that one person=one vote, no way of guaranteeing even participation geographically, economically, or any other way"
Need I direct you to the Free democracy project?
The state-of-the-art in electronic voting is a whole lot more advanced than you might think by looking at government's "send your PIN in a text message" projects!