Should be easy. Or perhaps Slashdot can just include CACHE'd links from Google instead of the real URL?
They'd need to cache all linked images and video from the slashdotted page as well, since this typically happens
to pages whose main content is pictures of lego casemods
or whatever, and Google doesn't cache images.
Another solution might be to run a QoS proxy. So, if Slashdot is about to link to weaksite.org that can only handle 10 hits/sec, the link would be:
Giant Squid roaming the forests - Owhhh, C'mon! What possible advantage is there in it? They can get all the food they need, without the hassle of vertebrae, in the ocean.
They supposedly evolved from the earlier swamp-squids (the ones that were trying to avoid being stomped on by the megaturtles). After going to the trouble of evolving lungs, why crawl meekly back into the sea?
I'd like to hear what I should do if I had a warning that all the geeks in the world were going to hit my server in 1 hour.
And you're not going to get an hour's warning anyway.
What you need is a "choke" that prevents slashdotting.
You'd tell the choke your servers can handle N hits/second.
If requests start coming in faster than that, it only
lets N per second through, and sends a 503 ("slashdotted, come back later") error code to the others. The choke
itself could be designed to cheaply handle eBay-level
loads, since all it has to do is count incoming requests
and serve up a hardcoded error header for the blocked ones.
For all I know, Cisco may already sell something like this.
Well, I guess I can't price my widget at 9.99$US because some other retailer used that same price already. If I were to do so I would be in violation of copyright law. That can't be true. Say it ain't so. Say it ain't so. It's too stupid to be anything but a bad joke.
Again, IANAL, but I don't think you can copyright a single item price of $9.99, just like you can't copyright
the word "War" or "Peace". But according to the 9th Circuit
you CAN copyright a catalog with a whole bunch of prices,
like you can copyright the novel "War and Peace".
This is why FatWallet needs to keep pressing the charges of the 512(f) provision and not let Wal*Mart settle out of court.
The problem is that there is at least one court case
CDN vs. Kapes where the 9th Circuit ruled that lists of prices ARE copyrightable, because the merchant showed creativity in deciding their prices.
ObDisclaimer: IANAL, but WalMart's lawyers are, and with the above case as precedent, they could almost surely argue their takedown request was in good faith...
It's like sneaking into the campus movie theatre without paying
No, because you're taking up someone else's seat.
Suppose the theater was half-empty. Would that make it right to sneak in without paying? (IMHO, this is the essence of the "pirates wouldn't have bought it anyway" argument.)
The following are all examples of "avoiding paying for something that cost someone else money to provide". Are these theft of service as well?
Borrowing a book from the library
I'd say no, because they paid for that copy, and it can only be used by one borrower at a time. If they started handing out photocopies to everyone (like P2P), that'd be stealing from the author.
Going to a friend's house to watch a movie on pay per view instead of each of you ordering it yourself.
Again, no, because it's limited to his private circle of friends (as many as can fit in his living room). If he retransmitted it to everyone else's house in his city, IMHO it'd be stealing.
Reading about a sporting event in the paper instead of going to the game yourself
No, that's not stealing, because you didn't actually get to see the game. Reading about a Daft Punk album isn't stealing it either, but downloading it for free is.
It's like going into the campus library whenever you need to read a book, rather than going to the bookstore. Or borrowing the book from your friend.
No, it's like sneaking into the campus movie theatre or the amusement park without paying. Or jumping the turnstiles on the subway, so you can get a free ride without paying. It's about avoiding paying for something that cost someone else money to provide. How is that not theft of service, again?
It's the classic water leak problem...the RIAA is trying to bail out the extra water while what they should be doing is plugging the leak - ie. take out the root cause - expensive CDs.
Yes, but the RIAA member companies (Sony, Warner, Universal, etc.) are publicly-traded. Their shareholders (i.e. your parents and grandparents, maybe you too if you have a 401k) would be extremely unhappy if CD prices were drastically cut, say tenfold to $1.99, because at least in the short term, profits and dividends would also be drastically cut. The CEOs and board members responsible would probably be forced out of the companies, and their replacements would set prices back to "normal".
Sure, CDs cost too much, but the money isn't all going up greedy Hollywood noses; a lot of it is going into pension accounts and mutual funds for elderly retirees, who have never heard of a KaZaa and who will (quite understandably) band together to resist any corporate changes that affect the short-term profits of record companies they've invested in.
The real problem is the Federal Court System is far too slow, expensive, and overpowered for suing an individual pirate. What good is it to sue "WzDood345" for pirating $500 worth of music, if it costs $500,000 in legal fees and he/she just files for bankruptcy anyway?
This isn't just a problem for the big media companies: it makes it impossible for indie content creators to sue pirates. Sony could in theory afford to waste $500,000 to make an example of a pirate. A garage band can't.
Instead of draconian laws or orwellian DRM hardware, I suggest we need a simplified Federal Small-Claims Copyright Court, where copyright infringents less than (insert $$) could be handled pro-se (without lawyers). Then you, or Lars Ulrich, or anyone else could fill out some paperwork, explain the case to the judge in plain english, and collect $500 from WzDood345 for pirating your stuff.
According to this CNN story (which I'm sure will be a Slashdot story by the time I finish typing), some company in Florida claims to have invented an amazing radiation-proof fabric that will stop alphas, betas, and gammas (!!).
Since they're seeking investors and I don't want to be sued, I will refrain from any comments about whether this is or isn't complete B.S. and fraud. Caveat emptor.
Gee, maybe I should buy a couple bolts of this stuff and learn to sew, so I can start selling radiation-proof pants...
Even if the FTC cared, the ISPs would simply start adding obDisclaimer: "Monthly traffic limits apply. Rate is for residential uses only. Federal copyright regulations apply. Offer void in states that have voids." etc. etc.
No [...] What you want is for application Foo to stop using resources on your system (or to use very little). Why not have this done automagically when you close the last document of the appropriate type? Then when you reopen that document, the app should automatically start up. Why have Word open at all if you have no open documents?
Fine, but you still need a "Close All" button to close
all the open documents. If doing this also causes the app
to shut down, it's functionally a "Quit" button, and your
app users will think of it as one.
Another thought: you could prevent "ditching" (cheaters who just return false without really doing the work) by occasionally handing out an inspection unit (for example, one of the known false positives, plus added random noise so a malicious client can't tell it's an inspection without doing the whole computation). If they fail a couple of these, mark all previous and future results from that client as bad.
No foolin'. Search Google for "edible gold leaf" and see.
It's mainly used for decorative garnish, on things like fancy cakes, exotic soups, gilded fruit or candies, etc.
It costs about US $0.20 per square inch.
Imagine...driving along and you decide you want a red car...or maybe a black car...or how about zebra stripes.
Remember the 1970's custom van craze, with elaborate Frazetta-looking airbrush murals? Now imagine the same
kitschy artwork, only animated. Are you having
flashbacks? No, the Greatful Dead skeleton on that guy's van really is waving at you.
Or instead of mere bumper stickers, SUVs could now sport political blogs that cover the entire side of the vehicle. Meme warfare on wheels!
Another application: imagine you break the posted speed limit, and not only does your onboard compliance-monitor signal the highway patrol, but your vehicle starts flashing bright ugly blue to let everyone else know what you did...
No, really! The OLEDs are supposedly nontoxic, and capable of being printed onto edible substrates, like rice paper or fruit leather. Edible gold foil could be used for the wiring. The battery and control chips would of course need to be in a separate module, clearly labelled "Do Not Eat."
Yesterday, when I attempted to moderate something as "Interesting", the confirmation page showed a moderation of "Overrated" instead. I'm pretty sure I selected the right value from the pulldown list, and suspect there may be a bug in the moderation system.
The sound of DVD-audio is comparable to that of SACDs, and the format offers bonus features similar to DVD videos. Listeners might watch videos, for example, or sing along to lyrics that flash on the TV screen.
That would make it worth upgrading from CDs, if RIAA was smart enough to offer the DVD version, with video and karaoke tracks, for the same price as the CD...
I see a grey rock and I want it painted white...
on
Tilting at Asteroids
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Xilman writes:
To be serious: I'm not convinced its either cheaper or easier. If the impactor is nothing but a solid lump of metal with some terminal guidance on board that is going to be a lot cheaper and simpler than
a robot big enough and smart enough to paint several square kilometers of asteroid surface. Admittedly, the observation probe has to be smarter and so more expensive.
The impactor could be flimsy drums of titanium oxide powder, with some terminal guidance on board and a self-destruct charge. A few hours before the probe hits the asteroid, ground control detonates the probe and turns it into a big cloud of white dust. This keeps going and hits the asteroid, coating the surface with reflective pigment.
Slashdot Mirror
They'd need to cache all linked images and video from the slashdotted page as well, since this typically happens to pages whose main content is pictures of lego casemods or whatever, and Google doesn't cache images.
Another solution might be to run a QoS proxy. So, if Slashdot is about to link to weaksite.org that can only handle 10 hits/sec, the link would be:
They supposedly evolved from the earlier swamp-squids (the ones that were trying to avoid being stomped on by the megaturtles). After going to the trouble of evolving lungs, why crawl meekly back into the sea?
And you're not going to get an hour's warning anyway.
What you need is a "choke" that prevents slashdotting. You'd tell the choke your servers can handle N hits/second. If requests start coming in faster than that, it only lets N per second through, and sends a 503 ("slashdotted, come back later") error code to the others. The choke itself could be designed to cheaply handle eBay-level loads, since all it has to do is count incoming requests and serve up a hardcoded error header for the blocked ones.
For all I know, Cisco may already sell something like this.
Again, IANAL, but I don't think you can copyright a single item price of $9.99, just like you can't copyright the word "War" or "Peace". But according to the 9th Circuit you CAN copyright a catalog with a whole bunch of prices, like you can copyright the novel "War and Peace".
The problem is that there is at least one court case CDN vs. Kapes where the 9th Circuit ruled that lists of prices ARE copyrightable, because the merchant showed creativity in deciding their prices.
ObDisclaimer: IANAL, but WalMart's lawyers are, and with the above case as precedent, they could almost surely argue their takedown request was in good faith...
Or (even more unhappy) unmetered downloads and expensive uploads.
Not only would that stop P2P, it'd stop you from hosting your own content
(which is just as much of a threat to the media companies as piracy).
Suppose the theater was half-empty. Would that make it right to sneak in without paying? (IMHO, this is the essence of the "pirates wouldn't have bought it anyway" argument.)
I'd say no, because they paid for that copy, and it can only be used by one borrower at a time. If they started handing out photocopies to everyone (like P2P), that'd be stealing from the author.
Again, no, because it's limited to his private circle of friends (as many as can fit in his living room). If he retransmitted it to everyone else's house in his city, IMHO it'd be stealing.
No, that's not stealing, because you didn't actually get to see the game. Reading about a Daft Punk album isn't stealing it either, but downloading it for free is.
No, it's like sneaking into the campus movie theatre or the amusement park without paying. Or jumping the turnstiles on the subway, so you can get a free ride without paying. It's about avoiding paying for something that cost someone else money to provide. How is that not theft of service, again?
Yes, but the RIAA member companies (Sony, Warner, Universal, etc.) are publicly-traded. Their shareholders (i.e. your parents and grandparents, maybe you too if you have a 401k) would be extremely unhappy if CD prices were drastically cut, say tenfold to $1.99, because at least in the short term, profits and dividends would also be drastically cut. The CEOs and board members responsible would probably be forced out of the companies, and their replacements would set prices back to "normal".
Sure, CDs cost too much, but the money isn't all going up greedy Hollywood noses; a lot of it is going into pension accounts and mutual funds for elderly retirees, who have never heard of a KaZaa and who will (quite understandably) band together to resist any corporate changes that affect the short-term profits of record companies they've invested in.
>;KCouldn't this be done without a PDA, just a cellphone
capable of instant messaging (can you recieve those
at the same time you're on a voice call)?
The real problem is the Federal Court System
is far too slow, expensive, and overpowered
for suing an individual pirate. What good is
it to sue "WzDood345" for pirating $500 worth
of music, if it costs $500,000 in legal fees
and he/she just files for bankruptcy anyway?
This isn't just a problem for the big media
companies: it makes it impossible for indie
content creators to sue pirates. Sony could
in theory afford to waste $500,000 to make
an example of a pirate. A garage band can't.
Instead of draconian laws or orwellian DRM
hardware, I suggest we need a simplified
Federal Small-Claims Copyright Court, where
copyright infringents less than (insert $$)
could be handled pro-se (without lawyers).
Then you, or Lars Ulrich, or anyone else
could fill out some paperwork, explain the
case to the judge in plain english, and
collect $500 from WzDood345 for pirating
your stuff.
According to this CNN story (which I'm sure will be a Slashdot story by the time I finish typing), some company in Florida claims to have invented an amazing radiation-proof fabric that will stop alphas, betas, and gammas (!!).
Since they're seeking investors and I don't want to be sued, I will refrain from any comments about whether this is or isn't complete B.S. and fraud. Caveat emptor.
Gee, maybe I should buy a couple bolts of this stuff and learn to sew, so I can start selling radiation-proof pants...
Even if the FTC cared, the ISPs would simply
start adding obDisclaimer: "Monthly traffic
limits apply. Rate is for residential uses
only. Federal copyright regulations apply.
Offer void in states that have voids." etc.
etc.
No [...] What you want is for application Foo to stop using resources on your system (or to use very little). Why not have this done automagically when you close the last document of the appropriate type? Then when you reopen that document, the app should automatically start up. Why have Word open at all if you have no open documents?
Fine, but you still need a "Close All" button to close all the open documents. If doing this also causes the app to shut down, it's functionally a "Quit" button, and your app users will think of it as one.
>K
[...] keep an eye out for a background character in The Two Towers who, in the middle of the battle, seems to take a call on his cellphone.
Is it the giant-phone guy from "Trigger-Happy TV"?
[ring] "HELLO?!!"
(Orc runs past with sword sticking out of its face...)
"I'M IN A BATTLE SCENE!"
(Massive cavalry charge past phone guy)
"A *BATTLE* SCENE! FOR SOME RUBBISH MOVIE!"
"WOT?!! NO, DON'T CHANGE ANYTHING TILL I GET BACK!"
"ALRIGHT THEN!! CIAO!"
>;K
The idea is a lot older than that:
Hugo Gernsback wrote about such a system
(between New York and Brest, France) in
his 1925 novel "Ralph 124C41+".
>;K
Good point.
Another thought: you could prevent "ditching"
(cheaters who just return false without really
doing the work) by occasionally handing out an
inspection unit (for example, one of the known
false positives, plus added random noise so a
malicious client can't tell it's an inspection
without doing the whole computation). If they
fail a couple of these, mark all previous and
future results from that client as bad.
>;K
wowbagger wrote:
This would allow anonymous losers to request a new work unit, then deliberately submit bad units for ID's 0 .. n-1, just to DOS everyone else.
>;K
No foolin'. Search Google for "edible gold leaf" and see.
It's mainly used for decorative garnish, on things like fancy cakes, exotic soups, gilded fruit or candies, etc. It costs about US $0.20 per square inch.
Here's a newspaper article about it:
Let Them Eat Gold
>;K
Remember the 1970's custom van craze, with elaborate Frazetta-looking airbrush murals? Now imagine the same kitschy artwork, only animated. Are you having flashbacks? No, the Greatful Dead skeleton on that guy's van really is waving at you.
Or instead of mere bumper stickers, SUVs could now sport political blogs that cover the entire side of the vehicle. Meme warfare on wheels!
Another application: imagine you break the posted speed limit, and not only does your onboard compliance-monitor signal the highway patrol, but your vehicle starts flashing bright ugly blue to let everyone else know what you did...
>;K
No, really! The OLEDs are supposedly nontoxic, and capable of being printed onto edible substrates, like rice
paper or fruit leather. Edible gold foil could be used for the wiring. The battery and control chips would of course need to be in a separate module, clearly labelled "Do Not Eat."
<;K
Yesterday, when I attempted to moderate something as "Interesting", the confirmation page showed a
moderation of "Overrated" instead. I'm pretty sure
I selected the right value from the pulldown list,
and suspect there may be a bug in the moderation system.
From the article:
That would make it worth upgrading from CDs, if RIAA was smart enough to offer the DVD version, with video and karaoke tracks, for the same price as the CD...
Xilman writes:
The impactor could be flimsy drums of titanium oxide powder, with some terminal guidance on board and a self-destruct charge. A few hours before the probe hits the asteroid, ground control detonates the probe and turns it into a big cloud of white dust. This keeps going and hits the asteroid, coating the surface with reflective pigment.
>:K