Heh heh... yeah, I know the feeling. I've said I enjoy hiking because it allows my eyes to focus on things more than 24" in front of my face.
But can you imagine? You're gone a weekend, and your home automation software is now in a tizzy.
system: And where have you been all weekend?
me: Um... out.
system: You could have called to say you weren't coming home.
me: Oh, yeah.
system: [pouting] Fine, if that's the way you want it.
me: Want what?
system: Shakes head. Really, you never listen.
me: Huh? What did I do?
The day we add female personalities to our computers is the day we'll stop understanding them.
2. Denial of Service attacks from a single user are history....While it may be difficult to track you down to an exact location, you are still in a post 9/11/01 airport. They are on the lookout for strange behavior.
You're missing the big picture. Said DDoS hacker has his laptop in his bag, with a nice high-gain antenna so he gets more range. It automatically connects to the network, then begins scanning all connected machines for vulnerabilites. If it finds one, it dumps the trojan/DDoS client on it- he doesn't care about launching an attack there and then- the important thing is to hack the laptops. Once they're hacked, the software will automatically call home to the IRC channel to await commands. Of course, it'd be smart for the trojan to wait a few hours before trying to connect so the airport wirless doesn't lock onto the IRC traffic and notify the user.
Said DDoS hacker stands at the magazine rack for a while. Then heads to the food court. Maybe stare out the window at the planes, things everyone else is doing, while his laptop is busy finding insecurities. After a while, he moves on to the next terminal. How many machines do you think he can hack in a short time? How many could a small group in a short time? A concentrated effort by a large group at major airports across the country?
Hey, IANAL. As for drug trafficking, it's a bit different. If you have more than a certain amount of the drug, they arrest you for "intent to sell" (as well as posession). More than a certain amount, and you're charged with "trafficking" and "distributing". There is a difference- drug kingpins from columbia aren't charged with selling, but with distributing. They don't directly sell the products, so can't be charged with sales. The difference then between drugs and this case is that drug laws are very well defined by the courts.
Yes, you are probably right though, and it is probably why they chose to use the free speech argument instead of pursuing jurisdiction. However, it does remain that the DCMA is still vague. Perhaps this case will set a precedent in terms of jurisdiction in international commerce over the internet. Or maybe they'll just leave it for another day. At least, that's my layman's take on the whole thing.
Jurisdiction in this case is tricky. Elcomsoft never "sold" the product in the US. They did have a US company called Regnow sell keys, which the buyer would then use to unlock the software.
To determine jurisdiction, the courts will have to decide exactly how much of a connection there was between any alleged US buyer and Elcomsoft. The technicalities are beyond me, but that's the basic gist.
What's the point? A rough guess that 99% of/. readers believe this will do nothing to stop spam. I'm sure reading the article, most of you already knew what the responses would be. So why was the story submitted in the first place?
Who is SiliconLawyer anyway? Well, well, well, wouldn't you know, he's selling something on his website.
Internet users, on average, received 1,470 messages from spammers in 2001, according to the research firm Jupiter/Media Metrix.
That's only 4 spam a day. I get at least that much that slip through procmail filters on an address that's relatively unpublished. My public yahoo account gets about 20 a day. Really, where did they get 1470 on average? I have friends, who aren't so 'net saavy and post their address everywhere that get much more.
I'm kinda curious now to see how much I'm getting. Probably less than 20 a day since it's unpublished, but I wouldn't be surprised to see at least 10 a day.
I'm not against Linux on the desktop in a corporate environment. I'd love to switch our users here, just so I could post to the/. community that a major corporation with $$B has made the switch. But I can't, and won't for any forseeable future.
None of these "Linux on the Desktop" articles has pointed to any company that used more than standard desktop and backend server apps. Find me a story where a company that has a $100M invested into their custom accounting/billing solution has decided to throw it out and spend another $100M to rewrite the software for Linux. When that happens, let me know; then I'll say Linux is making inroads onto the corporate desktop.
My physics is a bit rusty, but wouldn't microwaves just smash these nano computers? Or at least knock them about? If they're smaller than the amplitude of the radio wave, then there's no way for it to interpret the wave, right? So communication will have to rely on individual or small groups of electrons passed between these nano-computers.
Maybe I have nothing to hide. But I encrypt my documents because I don't care that my personal business is seen by others.
There are issues which were "legitimate" at the time, but later came back to haunt them. GE and the PCBs in the upper Hudson is one. Corning and silicon breast implants are another. Abestos. Lead based paints. Did these companies wish they hadn't destroyed all those documents from scientists saying their products/actions were safe? Or did they end up destroying the "bad" evidence for plausible deniability?
Business destroy documents for lots of reasons. I think it's mostly so CEOs can take a stand and have "plausible deniability" to protect their asses. Luckily, there are always backups somewhere that will come back to haunt them.
Flamers and spammers have driven many underground, where we communicate in exclusive media more peacefully in peace, but with a less diverse and decidedly non-passionate group of people.
Maybe he thought he was posting to one of his more peaceful and less-passionate websites he moderates.
Obviously you don't have kids. If you had, you'd be all for backups. Yes, all my Final Fantasy Discs are in mint condition. Yes, all my classical CDs are in mint condition. However, looking at the kids CDs and kids discs, they're all pretty beat up.
Just recently, my 5yo snapped a PS2 disc trying to take it out of the case. OK, it was his fault, he was a little too eager, and I ate the $50 loss. But that's exactly why we should be allowed to create and use backups.
You can show a kid 500 times how to take it out of the case, and how to pop it in to the machine. But they're kids. Hand/eye coordination isn't fully developed. They're more enthusiastic than they are precise. Discs WILL get scratched. A parent cannot take the disc out and put it in every time, because it limits the growth of the child not to do things on their own.
No, it doesn't bother me that the disc got broken, as a parent you expect things to get broken. I felt bad for my son because he knows he did something wrong. What I was annoyed about was that I did not have a method of backing up PS2 games like I did with PS1 and PC games.
And no, my son doesn't sit around and play games all weekend nor does he watch much TV. Like me he spends most of his time outdoors. Which is why he broke the disc, he just hasn't gotten the hang of taking them out of the case yet.
Must be some babe killer device, that you pop into your babe magnet car. Using GPS, the device automatically points you to your next laison, while spitting out details like her name, what persona you used to get into her pants, any offspring you might have sired with her.
Not what I expected from Woz, but hey, it might be a big hit.
It's also extremely common that if you want some technology you just go out and buy it.
It's all speculation now. I mean, what if Sharman is actually a huge SPAM operation? They've just bought a huge client base. When you download their "new" software, it automatically uploads SPAM to your system, and then distributes it to all the other peers. There are plenty of RIAA conspiracy theories out there as well. Who knows.
Good Ol' Raisins (and) Peanuts. Calories and protein to get you through a hike. Well, I also toss in dried bananas, mango, pinapple, some walnuts and m&ms for color and variety, but raisins and peanuts will do the trick.
Well, think of it this way. The registry editor (two of them actually) live in Windows, but you don't have the masses actively going into it to tweak settings. Yeah, you hear some horror stories about people going into the device manager and mucking stuff up, but in general, most people turn on their computers, log into AOL, and surf. I don't see any reason why having a nice easy kernel editing program is any more an issue than having regedit or DELETE on a Windows system.
But I doubt it's going to make any difference to Aunt Tillie that she can compile her own kernel in choosing Linux over Windows. Either it runs AOL or it doesn't. Either it runs Master Cook or it doesn't. Either it runs Family Tree Maker or it doesn't. You can say until you're blue in the face that there are compatible programs, but all her friends use Master Cook and she "just can't swap recipies without it". Linux on a desktop? First you gotta get past Aunt Tillie and her recipies.
After reading posts like this, I grab my "Dharma Bums" and remind myself that there are alternatives, that living in this world of technology is still a choice. A necessity, perhaps, if you want that $1M house on 20 acres and two benzs in the driveway.
But if your goals are to have enough spare change to buy two days worth of GORP and to walk the long trails, then you tend not to worry as much about what is going on back in "society".
Yeah, go ahead and troll this if you feel it necessary. I for one spend more hours outdoors than in the office, and sooner or later I'll get fed up enough to abandon it all and truly become a dharma bum.
The most reliable Mac I had was the Classic. I think it's still working
My faithful PowerBook 140. Mobo fixed once. Trackball replaced twice. Floppy dead. I was using it well into 1998, running off a ZIP drive. Haven't used it since.
My poor Performa 6205- publicized failure with the mobo, replaced under warranty. Hard drive failure (1st) replaced under warranty. When I called about the HD, their support tech had me troubleshoot the MONITOR to see if it was UNPLUGGED. How stupid did they think I was? Oh yea, I bought the Performa.
Hard drive failure (2nd) not covered by warranty. Mobo failure (2nd) not covered by warranty. Performa 6205 now sitting in my closet used as a step stool to reach the upper shelves. So in a year and a half, it'd gone from an expensive "designer" machine to a piece of junk.
[The Apple 15" MultiSync still works though. I have it hooked up to my Celeron/FreeBSD machine using a NEC adapter I found somewhere. Great little monitor.]
It was also around the time they decided to end the lifetime phone support. That's when I decided to jump off the Mac bandwagon. I don't think I'll ever jump back on, it's just not for me anymore. I don't have a desire to buy a BMW or Benz for that matter. BSD on my Tosh Portege works for me.
Not to say I don't agree that Katz is a moron, just that I was an mac diehard until 1997 and jumped ship due to the junk they were producing.
where a web-page is *read* (ie browsed) as the place of publication of its contents, regardless of where the page or the server serving it are located.
It seems to me that it is an action carried out by the person doing the surfing. Much like an American going to Canada and trying to come back across with Cuban cigars. Is it the fault of the guy trying to smuggle in the goods, or of the Candadian government for allowing its own citizens and and visitors to buy the cigars?
Not that I favor net censorship. Yes, there is some nasty stuff out there. But you don't have to surf to it. You don't have to expose yourself to it. If you do so and get offended, who's responsiblity is it? Yours. Not the governments, not the person who put up the website. It's not like a billboard, where you will see it if you look in a general direction.
Yes, searches sometimes turn up (possibly) objectionable results, but that just means the searcher needs to learn how to refine searches.
Translation: For you young aliens!
1. Cut along the edges.
2. Fold along lines.
3. Use Universal Bonding Strips to tape the edges together.
4. Enjoy your model Earth.
and a small bit that says:
Not suitable for aliens under the age of 1.7^19 cycles of Cs(133).
Corporations will have no problem. As soon as the user plugs the device in, the DMI software will automatically send an alert to management software saying "hey, I've detected an unauthorized device on computer 123456781. I've detected it as an Optical Mass Storage Device with serial number 933322331." We'll pop open the screen for that system, get the location of the machine and pay the user a friendly visit. Of course, it's possible the user has already gotten the data and is on his way out the door.
It's the smaller shops that don't use or can't afford the management software that will have problems with this, as well as the companies that have lax desktop security standards and useless AUPs. In those cases, I suggest two-part epoxy. Epoxy the keyboard and mouse cables in (and reduce theft!), and epoxy nice sturdy plastic over the rest of the ports. Voila! With a lot of work, you can probably remove the cover to add devices or replace the mouse and keyboard, although it's probably easier cutting the cable and splicing the new one in.
I'm going to end up buying a PS2 to play FFX, and after the 50 hours or so, it'll sit until FF XI comes along... or so I thought. Now, I gotta reconsider. Should I just give up on FF?
Why do I want to play Final Fantasy as a MMORPG? I can already do that in any number of ways, and a number of them are already eating up my time and money. Why throw FF into that fray?
In MMORPGS, the other people are just like me. Yeah, sure a few might have some interesting stories. Sure you encounter some great RPGers, but mostly they're just as unimaginative as I am.
I buy FF because I want my fantasies scripted for me with characters I'd never dream up myself. I want a storyline that I can play a part of, but isn't necessarily about me (such as the Ultima series). I still go back now and then to play Lufia on the SNES since that was such a great story.
The movie was ok. When you think of FF characters in the past, how could they do such a poor job on the dialog and characters? I went to see it just to support their efforts, but I'm not sure if I'd buy it. If they sell the studio, then I won't waste my money.
Hmm. I can see some big shoe manufacturers buying into this. Your shoes gathering data like how much you wear them, how many G's they take while you walk, how the tread pattern is holding up. At night when you're sleeping, the shoes jack in and Big Shoe Company trolls the P2P network looking for data. Pretty soon, every shoe company is putting larger and larger chips into their shoes, sending up more and more data. Incredible bandwidth is sucked up by shoe data, and advertisers join in on the game. All too soon, it is unprofitable to do anything but shoe related networking. The process reaches the "Shoe Event Horizon", after which civilization collapses, and those with the right genetic makeup mutate into large vulture like birds... (my apologies to Mr. Adams).
To pay for the exploration, let people buy the bugs. We control them, give them commands on where to go, what to do. Like any online game, you build clans and alliances, then wage war on other armies. Ok, maybe it wouldn't be good to be able to PK (or BK) other bugs since it's not easy to replace them and I suppose they won't be too cheap. Have some sort of power modules dropped around where our bugs can automatically home in on when they're low on energy, or just drop them ahead of the advancing army of bugs.
I bet within a year we'd have all of Mars explored.
Slashdot Mirror
Heh heh... yeah, I know the feeling. I've said I enjoy hiking because it allows my eyes to focus on things more than 24" in front of my face.
But can you imagine? You're gone a weekend, and your home automation software is now in a tizzy.
system: And where have you been all weekend?
me: Um... out.
system: You could have called to say you weren't coming home.
me: Oh, yeah.
system: [pouting] Fine, if that's the way you want it.
me: Want what?
system: Shakes head. Really, you never listen.
me: Huh? What did I do?
The day we add female personalities to our computers is the day we'll stop understanding them.
2. Denial of Service attacks from a single user are history. ...While it may be difficult to track you down to an exact location, you are still in a post 9/11/01 airport. They are on the lookout for strange behavior.
You're missing the big picture. Said DDoS hacker has his laptop in his bag, with a nice high-gain antenna so he gets more range. It automatically connects to the network, then begins scanning all connected machines for vulnerabilites. If it finds one, it dumps the trojan/DDoS client on it- he doesn't care about launching an attack there and then- the important thing is to hack the laptops. Once they're hacked, the software will automatically call home to the IRC channel to await commands. Of course, it'd be smart for the trojan to wait a few hours before trying to connect so the airport wirless doesn't lock onto the IRC traffic and notify the user.
Said DDoS hacker stands at the magazine rack for a while. Then heads to the food court. Maybe stare out the window at the planes, things everyone else is doing, while his laptop is busy finding insecurities. After a while, he moves on to the next terminal. How many machines do you think he can hack in a short time? How many could a small group in a short time? A concentrated effort by a large group at major airports across the country?
Pretty scary if you ask me.
Hey, IANAL. As for drug trafficking, it's a bit different. If you have more than a certain amount of the drug, they arrest you for "intent to sell" (as well as posession). More than a certain amount, and you're charged with "trafficking" and "distributing". There is a difference- drug kingpins from columbia aren't charged with selling, but with distributing. They don't directly sell the products, so can't be charged with sales. The difference then between drugs and this case is that drug laws are very well defined by the courts.
Yes, you are probably right though, and it is probably why they chose to use the free speech argument instead of pursuing jurisdiction. However, it does remain that the DCMA is still vague. Perhaps this case will set a precedent in terms of jurisdiction in international commerce over the internet. Or maybe they'll just leave it for another day. At least, that's my layman's take on the whole thing.
Jurisdiction in this case is tricky. Elcomsoft never "sold" the product in the US. They did have a US company called Regnow sell keys, which the buyer would then use to unlock the software.
To determine jurisdiction, the courts will have to decide exactly how much of a connection there was between any alleged US buyer and Elcomsoft. The technicalities are beyond me, but that's the basic gist.
More info here..
What's the point? A rough guess that 99% of /. readers believe this will do nothing to stop spam. I'm sure reading the article, most of you already knew what the responses would be. So why was the story submitted in the first place?
Who is SiliconLawyer anyway? Well, well, well, wouldn't you know, he's selling something on his website.
Internet users, on average, received 1,470 messages from spammers in 2001, according to the research firm Jupiter/Media Metrix.
That's only 4 spam a day. I get at least that much that slip through procmail filters on an address that's relatively unpublished. My public yahoo account gets about 20 a day. Really, where did they get 1470 on average? I have friends, who aren't so 'net saavy and post their address everywhere that get much more.
I'm kinda curious now to see how much I'm getting. Probably less than 20 a day since it's unpublished, but I wouldn't be surprised to see at least 10 a day.
I'm not against Linux on the desktop in a corporate environment. I'd love to switch our users here, just so I could post to the /. community that a major corporation with $$B has made the switch. But I can't, and won't for any forseeable future.
None of these "Linux on the Desktop" articles has pointed to any company that used more than standard desktop and backend server apps. Find me a story where a company that has a $100M invested into their custom accounting/billing solution has decided to throw it out and spend another $100M to rewrite the software for Linux. When that happens, let me know; then I'll say Linux is making inroads onto the corporate desktop.
My physics is a bit rusty, but wouldn't microwaves just smash these nano computers? Or at least knock them about? If they're smaller than the amplitude of the radio wave, then there's no way for it to interpret the wave, right? So communication will have to rely on individual or small groups of electrons passed between these nano-computers.
Maybe I have nothing to hide. But I encrypt my documents because I don't care that my personal business is seen by others.
There are issues which were "legitimate" at the time, but later came back to haunt them. GE and the PCBs in the upper Hudson is one. Corning and silicon breast implants are another. Abestos. Lead based paints. Did these companies wish they hadn't destroyed all those documents from scientists saying their products/actions were safe? Or did they end up destroying the "bad" evidence for plausible deniability?
Business destroy documents for lots of reasons. I think it's mostly so CEOs can take a stand and have "plausible deniability" to protect their asses. Luckily, there are always backups somewhere that will come back to haunt them.
Flamers and spammers have driven many underground, where we communicate in exclusive media more peacefully in peace, but with a less diverse and decidedly non-passionate group of people. Maybe he thought he was posting to one of his more peaceful and less-passionate websites he moderates.
Obviously you don't have kids. If you had, you'd be all for backups. Yes, all my Final Fantasy Discs are in mint condition. Yes, all my classical CDs are in mint condition. However, looking at the kids CDs and kids discs, they're all pretty beat up.
Just recently, my 5yo snapped a PS2 disc trying to take it out of the case. OK, it was his fault, he was a little too eager, and I ate the $50 loss. But that's exactly why we should be allowed to create and use backups.
You can show a kid 500 times how to take it out of the case, and how to pop it in to the machine. But they're kids. Hand/eye coordination isn't fully developed. They're more enthusiastic than they are precise. Discs WILL get scratched. A parent cannot take the disc out and put it in every time, because it limits the growth of the child not to do things on their own.
No, it doesn't bother me that the disc got broken, as a parent you expect things to get broken. I felt bad for my son because he knows he did something wrong. What I was annoyed about was that I did not have a method of backing up PS2 games like I did with PS1 and PC games.
And no, my son doesn't sit around and play games all weekend nor does he watch much TV. Like me he spends most of his time outdoors. Which is why he broke the disc, he just hasn't gotten the hang of taking them out of the case yet.
Hmm... Why Wheels Of Zeus?
Must be some babe killer device, that you pop into your babe magnet car. Using GPS, the device automatically points you to your next laison, while spitting out details like her name, what persona you used to get into her pants, any offspring you might have sired with her.
Not what I expected from Woz, but hey, it might be a big hit.
It's also extremely common that if you want some technology you just go out and buy it.
It's all speculation now. I mean, what if Sharman is actually a huge SPAM operation? They've just bought a huge client base. When you download their "new" software, it automatically uploads SPAM to your system, and then distributes it to all the other peers. There are plenty of RIAA conspiracy theories out there as well. Who knows.
Good Ol' Raisins (and) Peanuts. Calories and protein to get you through a hike. Well, I also toss in dried bananas, mango, pinapple, some walnuts and m&ms for color and variety, but raisins and peanuts will do the trick.
Well, think of it this way. The registry editor (two of them actually) live in Windows, but you don't have the masses actively going into it to tweak settings. Yeah, you hear some horror stories about people going into the device manager and mucking stuff up, but in general, most people turn on their computers, log into AOL, and surf. I don't see any reason why having a nice easy kernel editing program is any more an issue than having regedit or DELETE on a Windows system.
But I doubt it's going to make any difference to Aunt Tillie that she can compile her own kernel in choosing Linux over Windows. Either it runs AOL or it doesn't. Either it runs Master Cook or it doesn't. Either it runs Family Tree Maker or it doesn't. You can say until you're blue in the face that there are compatible programs, but all her friends use Master Cook and she "just can't swap recipies without it". Linux on a desktop? First you gotta get past Aunt Tillie and her recipies.
After reading posts like this, I grab my "Dharma Bums" and remind myself that there are alternatives, that living in this world of technology is still a choice. A necessity, perhaps, if you want that $1M house on 20 acres and two benzs in the driveway.
But if your goals are to have enough spare change to buy two days worth of GORP and to walk the long trails, then you tend not to worry as much about what is going on back in "society".
Yeah, go ahead and troll this if you feel it necessary. I for one spend more hours outdoors than in the office, and sooner or later I'll get fed up enough to abandon it all and truly become a dharma bum.
The most reliable Mac I had was the Classic. I think it's still working
My faithful PowerBook 140. Mobo fixed once. Trackball replaced twice. Floppy dead. I was using it well into 1998, running off a ZIP drive. Haven't used it since.
My poor Performa 6205- publicized failure with the mobo, replaced under warranty. Hard drive failure (1st) replaced under warranty. When I called about the HD, their support tech had me troubleshoot the MONITOR to see if it was UNPLUGGED. How stupid did they think I was? Oh yea, I bought the Performa.
Hard drive failure (2nd) not covered by warranty. Mobo failure (2nd) not covered by warranty. Performa 6205 now sitting in my closet used as a step stool to reach the upper shelves. So in a year and a half, it'd gone from an expensive "designer" machine to a piece of junk. [The Apple 15" MultiSync still works though. I have it hooked up to my Celeron/FreeBSD machine using a NEC adapter I found somewhere. Great little monitor.]
It was also around the time they decided to end the lifetime phone support. That's when I decided to jump off the Mac bandwagon. I don't think I'll ever jump back on, it's just not for me anymore. I don't have a desire to buy a BMW or Benz for that matter. BSD on my Tosh Portege works for me.
Not to say I don't agree that Katz is a moron, just that I was an mac diehard until 1997 and jumped ship due to the junk they were producing.
The original script had a huge tsunami raging across the atlantic, but as soon as they located themselves the wave collapsed.
where a web-page is *read* (ie browsed) as the place of publication of its contents, regardless of where the page or the server serving it are located.
It seems to me that it is an action carried out by the person doing the surfing. Much like an American going to Canada and trying to come back across with Cuban cigars. Is it the fault of the guy trying to smuggle in the goods, or of the Candadian government for allowing its own citizens and and visitors to buy the cigars?
Not that I favor net censorship. Yes, there is some nasty stuff out there. But you don't have to surf to it. You don't have to expose yourself to it. If you do so and get offended, who's responsiblity is it? Yours. Not the governments, not the person who put up the website. It's not like a billboard, where you will see it if you look in a general direction.
Yes, searches sometimes turn up (possibly) objectionable results, but that just means the searcher needs to learn how to refine searches.
Education, not restrictions.
Translation: For you young aliens!
1. Cut along the edges.
2. Fold along lines.
3. Use Universal Bonding Strips to tape the edges together.
4. Enjoy your model Earth.
and a small bit that says: Not suitable for aliens under the age of 1.7^19 cycles of Cs(133).
Come on, it's only one feat, so you get one (1) bragging right, no more.
Corporations will have no problem. As soon as the user plugs the device in, the DMI software will automatically send an alert to management software saying "hey, I've detected an unauthorized device on computer 123456781. I've detected it as an Optical Mass Storage Device with serial number 933322331." We'll pop open the screen for that system, get the location of the machine and pay the user a friendly visit. Of course, it's possible the user has already gotten the data and is on his way out the door.
It's the smaller shops that don't use or can't afford the management software that will have problems with this, as well as the companies that have lax desktop security standards and useless AUPs. In those cases, I suggest two-part epoxy. Epoxy the keyboard and mouse cables in (and reduce theft!), and epoxy nice sturdy plastic over the rest of the ports. Voila! With a lot of work, you can probably remove the cover to add devices or replace the mouse and keyboard, although it's probably easier cutting the cable and splicing the new one in.
I'm going to end up buying a PS2 to play FFX, and after the 50 hours or so, it'll sit until FF XI comes along... or so I thought. Now, I gotta reconsider. Should I just give up on FF?
Why do I want to play Final Fantasy as a MMORPG? I can already do that in any number of ways, and a number of them are already eating up my time and money. Why throw FF into that fray?
In MMORPGS, the other people are just like me. Yeah, sure a few might have some interesting stories. Sure you encounter some great RPGers, but mostly they're just as unimaginative as I am.
I buy FF because I want my fantasies scripted for me with characters I'd never dream up myself. I want a storyline that I can play a part of, but isn't necessarily about me (such as the Ultima series). I still go back now and then to play Lufia on the SNES since that was such a great story.
The movie was ok. When you think of FF characters in the past, how could they do such a poor job on the dialog and characters? I went to see it just to support their efforts, but I'm not sure if I'd buy it. If they sell the studio, then I won't waste my money.
Hmm. I can see some big shoe manufacturers buying into this. Your shoes gathering data like how much you wear them, how many G's they take while you walk, how the tread pattern is holding up. At night when you're sleeping, the shoes jack in and Big Shoe Company trolls the P2P network looking for data. Pretty soon, every shoe company is putting larger and larger chips into their shoes, sending up more and more data. Incredible bandwidth is sucked up by shoe data, and advertisers join in on the game. All too soon, it is unprofitable to do anything but shoe related networking. The process reaches the "Shoe Event Horizon", after which civilization collapses, and those with the right genetic makeup mutate into large vulture like birds... (my apologies to Mr. Adams).
We're used to lag... so what's 15 minutes?
To pay for the exploration, let people buy the bugs. We control them, give them commands on where to go, what to do. Like any online game, you build clans and alliances, then wage war on other armies. Ok, maybe it wouldn't be good to be able to PK (or BK) other bugs since it's not easy to replace them and I suppose they won't be too cheap. Have some sort of power modules dropped around where our bugs can automatically home in on when they're low on energy, or just drop them ahead of the advancing army of bugs.
I bet within a year we'd have all of Mars explored.