Once again, JonKatz spouts off. Well, that's an editor's prerogative. And ours to flame:)
The original Luddites were afraid of change, and didn't like that their trade was being usurped by cheaper factory producers. They wanted things their way rather than change to own or build these new machines. Tough!
The current crop is no different. They are deathly afraid of change because they will lose the status and position they have built for themselves. Tough!
In every change there are winners and losers. The secret is to adapt so you are on the winning side. I have no sympathy for lazy whining losers. I do have some sympathy for those who try to change, but need help.
Please do not assume people's politics. SlashDot has a diverse membership. There may even be some Republicrats or Demoblicans here:)
Agreed "spam" is a loaded, derogatory word that has devolved from it's original meaning of "multiple excessive USENET postings" into "unsolicited commercial email". But the fact that it can be used to further commerce does not make it any less repugnant.
The difference between spam and advertising is that when I expose myself to advertising, I do so willingly because I receive some side benefit. Ads pay for free TV. Ads reduce the cost of newpapers and magazines by about half. Even the junk snail mail reduces my mailing costs.
But spam does absolutely nothing for me. It's like a telephone solicitors. They receive something valuable from me -- my time and attention -- but give me NOTHING at all in return unless I find their information useful.
IANAL, but I do not believe that current US Antitrust law includes imprisonment for induhvidual officers. Even less likely for the two sections Judge Jackson found MS guilty on.
Perhaps Gates, Ballmer et al should be imprisoned. But you cannot imprison them unless that was the penalty at the time they committed their crimes. The law would need to be changed, and then broken for new penalties to apply.
Or perhaps you believe in retroactive law??? Imprison Napster users maybe?
Perhaps it is because I was not educated in America, but I do not believe that justice is simply legal revenge for the victims. I deplore the emotional victim testimony during sentencing, and I'm deeply suspicious of the victim "pressing charges".
Justice only exists to protect society by discouraging illegal acts. "Innocent until proven guilty" is an important element in this. Punishment should be appropriate to deter the perp and others from similar crimes.
That said, you are absolutely right that the additional delay is highly advantageous to MS. I would expect the DoJ to request commensurately more severe penalties and remedies. If Appeals cannot increase sentencing, then deterrence is undone.
With an 8:1 landslide in favor of MS, it is scurrilious to impugn the impartiality of the Chief Justice.
Doubtless the Supremes had their reasons. First and foremost, there's a good reason for all the layers of appeal: you get different arguments and different thinking at each stage. Why not get that out on the table?
Even though I believe MS is guilty as sin, they do deserve all their days in Court. Can't have them claiming there was a rush to judgement.
If the Appeals overturns [as MS hopes], then the Supremes could reaffirm, and perhaps impose a different punishment! MS may yet rue the day it appealed.
Aren't all NSA employees bound by Government Secrecy laws and/or agreements? Wouldn't revealing backdoors violate these agreements? He could be hauled off to prison or sued.
OTOH, he may provably have no direct knowledge in which case he's just expressing an opinion like any other private citizen. Then why should we listen? Or it could be disinformation.
There is something in what Jon says, but the major and lasting difference from this Presidential election will be in the Judiciary.
There are at least 3 and probably 5 new Supreme Court appointments for the next President. Plus a bunch of Federal Judges. They will serve for ~20 years, heavily affecting the Courts.
Now you can say that the law is becoming increasingly irrelevant too [Napster], but just how lawless do you want society to become?
Ex post facto, it is easy to postulate conspiracies. And you cannot disprove intelligence based on them.
You have to look at other RIAA actions to measure intelligence. If they were intelligent, they would have beaten Napster to the punch. Some of their other blunders [work for hire legislation] are also indicators.
Conspiracy theories are all well and good, but it assumes malice, prescience and intelligence on the part of the conspirators.
The malice I will give you, but prescience and intelligence are manifestly absent. These dudes couldn't find their @sses with both hands! Agent-provocateur conspiracies can also seriously backfire.
Using their internal mirrored/cached hitcounts or those reported by their trojan are highly suspect.
How many people have even heard of Alexa. I bet it isn't in any true top 10 list.
A spider archiving the 'net I can understand. But How can he measure hitcounts? Does he just read and believe the countboxes? What of sites that don't have any?
Much as I like InfoTech, I don't like the Roman Empire analogy. Information can influence people, but it is NOT military power.
Perhaps a better analogy would be to 400-1400 when the Popes and the Roman Catholic Church did hold a monopoly on religious information in the West. That ended with Gutenberg and the Reformation.
Look, I like high quality items just as much as the next geek. But once you consider the time-value of money (compound interest), excessive quality just isn't economically efficient.
Consider two items that basically do the same thing. One costs $200, and the other $100 because it's not as durable. Now if that $100 item lasts only a year, while the $200 item lasts forever, then I'm probably better off buying the quality item unless my personal interest rate is 100%pa.
For some people it is, or they just don't have the extra money.
Now change the numbers. The $100 item lasts two years, and you'll want to replace them both in 6 years for improved functionality. Now a 27% interest rate is the breakeven.
For a concrete example, look at houses. European houses are built to last -- tile roofs & floors, thru-brick walls inside & out. But they cost 3-4 times a N.American house which might not last more than 20-60 years (asphalt shingle roof, wood fram construction, siding.) and that with more maintenance. But to payout the higher quality, you have to have an unrealistically low rate of interest (1-2%).
I'm very depressed about this, but I cannot see any way out. Albert Einstein was right when he described the power of compound interest as miraculous.
I've taken apart monitors. Sometimes with high velocity lead:) [I live in Texas, where such things are highly approved of] Other than the customary wave soldered PC boards, I can see no metallic lead.
That cathode-ray tube (CRT) is _very_ heavy, especially the front face. My guess is they've mixed alot of Lead oxide into the glass to reduce radiation emissions from the monitor -- meet the specs. But AFAIK, this Lead oxide is totally immobile and insoluble except in strong mineral acids and alkalis. Shouldn't have any of those in a landfill:)
AFAIK, it's already done. Most of the inter-exchange trunking is already fiber. It's very easy to do since most cities have less than a dozen central offices, and you don't need to connect every CO to every other.
I can't speak for Japan, since I've never been there. But I have some ideas.
In the US, newer neighborhoods/subdivisions are being wired with satellite substations from the all-important "Central Office". The trunks connecting the Central office and the substations is FIBER. From the substation [or Central office itself in order areas] the wiring is all copper.
And so I expect it to stay. Rewiring to households is just too expensive, and fiber transceivers are still expensive. What you need to do is connect the central offices and satellites with fiber, and run copper from there.
What you also need to do is put good data compatible equipment inside the central offices and satellites. This is where the US falls down, at least in my case. I can only get 26.4 kbps and IDSL until SWBell fixes some equipment. The fiber is already there.
Ah I think I see -- you want to avoid the excuse of "It was a computer accident". A very credible defense.
I don't think there's a universal solution for watermarking -- all binaries have different formats. But there are solutions for each different file type. In an MS Word document, for instance, you could embed a hidden macro.
Then your proxy scans all outbound attachments and simply rejects & logs any that contain any one of a series of watermarks. Tags, really because watermarks are designed to be irremovable.
Everybody is warned that they need prior approval before transmitting data outbound, even to themselves attheir home ISP. There is a small chance of false positives with this system, that's why you log and evaluate before taking action on proxy rejects.
This article was very interesting since it is one of the very few that argue for reactive management. All the biz buzzwords these days are for proactive management, ie, prevention.
One this I didn't see in the article is a rational discussion of costs. There are the obvious costs of security (administration) and insecurity (theft and fraud). But there are also much less obvious costs from lost business. These can be several times greater.
Lost business costs can come from both excessive (preventative) security, and from insufficient security. Excessive security is a hassle, and deters customers. Perceived low security might also deter customers if they fear they will lose something valuable (credit card numbers? data).
I think in any business security discussion, ALL these costs must be considered, not just the easy, hard $.
Thanks again for the great data. 125Amps -- I seriously disappointed. I've had car alternators that approach this [only 14V though]:)
Lets work the budget: 30 kW total available. 5kW to two galleys (gotta have hot coffee), 2kW to the entertainment system, 1 kW to general lighting, and 3 kW to reading lights = 11 kW plus who knows how much for other minor items like instruments and servos:) I presume the fuel pumps and hydraulics are from shaft power.
So not too bad to run the laptops. Actually, what could be a bigger concern is the power factor. PC power supplies have notoriously horrible PFs around 0.55 . Laptops are probably worse. How will the electrical system deal with all that reactive power? Could it cause the DC rectifiers or something else problems?
One laptop is surely not a problem. But stick 100 on and you'd have 5 kW load and maybe 2 kVAR.
Excellent informative post. Of course I want to know the genset ratings. Good point about the split bus, those gensets would fight terribly.
Constant Speed Drive? Revolting! Unless it's hydrodynamic, there are too many things to break. I sorta want the engines to be reliable:) I'd use a simple worm drive and let the frequency fluctuate 200-600 Hz. Let the appliances deal with it. Or put in a rectifier/inverter set. In fairness, though these weren't very good when the B737 was designed (lates 1970s?)
But IIRC the APU on the B737 is a tiny thing, not like the engine on the B727. How can it produce enough compressed air to start the big boys? You'd have to run a 2" line clear to the expanders, and use it as a storage vessel.
Interesting about the oil shiekh, I will check that out with my buddy who was on the FAA investigation team.
As for power, it's unfortunate that we often use the same word for engine power and electrical power. I meant aircraft are limited by the available electrical power. Sorry for the imprecision.
I'd want to know how power budgeting is done. If the galley, inflight entertain, all reading lights and all laptop outlets are all full on, does the genset make it? Or is the airline counting on some "load factor" of some things being off?
Granted the engines are _very_ powerful. But that power isn't produced in the form of electrical power, it all goes into THRUST. Electrical power comes from an auxiliary shaft to a small alternator. In some aircraft (B727?), there's an auxiliaries engine.
You can bet to conserve weight (as you correctly emphasise) that these auxiliaries have been made as small as possible without much extra. Uprating them is likely to require complete engine redesign and/or at least recertification. Easier to conserve cabin power.
What I don't know is if instrument and cabin power are automatically isolated by a low-voltage trip. There are lots of different voltages on aircraft, and I would expect breakers to isolate critical systems. But TWA800 747 was brought down by a disgusting electrical fault, so I'm not sure.
Slashdot Mirror
Once again, JonKatz spouts off. Well, that's an editor's prerogative. And ours to flame :)
The original Luddites were afraid of change, and didn't like that their trade was being usurped by cheaper factory producers. They wanted things their way rather than change to own or build these new machines. Tough!
The current crop is no different. They are deathly afraid of change because they will lose the status and position they have built for themselves. Tough!
In every change there are winners and losers. The secret is to adapt so you are on the winning side. I have no sympathy for lazy whining losers. I do have some sympathy for those who try to change, but need help.
I don't think this is a troll, so I'll bite too:
:)
Please do not assume people's politics. SlashDot has a diverse membership. There may even be some Republicrats or Demoblicans here
Agreed "spam" is a loaded, derogatory word that has devolved from it's original meaning of "multiple excessive USENET postings" into "unsolicited commercial email". But the fact that it can be used to further commerce does not make it any less repugnant.
The difference between spam and advertising is that when I expose myself to advertising, I do so willingly because I receive some side benefit. Ads pay for free TV. Ads reduce the cost of newpapers and magazines by about half. Even the junk snail mail reduces my mailing costs.
But spam does absolutely nothing for me. It's like a telephone solicitors. They receive something valuable from me -- my time and attention -- but give me NOTHING at all in return unless I find their information useful.
In this sense, spam is akin to theft or assault.
IANAL, but I do not believe that current US Antitrust law includes imprisonment for induhvidual officers. Even less likely for the two sections Judge Jackson found MS guilty on.
Perhaps Gates, Ballmer et al should be imprisoned. But you cannot imprison them unless that was the penalty at the time they committed their crimes. The law would need to be changed, and then broken for new penalties to apply.
Or perhaps you believe in retroactive law??? Imprison Napster users maybe?
Perhaps it is because I was not educated in America, but I do not believe that justice is simply legal revenge for the victims. I deplore the emotional victim testimony during sentencing, and I'm deeply suspicious of the victim "pressing charges".
Justice only exists to protect society by discouraging illegal acts. "Innocent until proven guilty" is an important element in this. Punishment should be appropriate to deter the perp and others from similar crimes.
That said, you are absolutely right that the additional delay is highly advantageous to MS. I would expect the DoJ to request commensurately more severe penalties and remedies. If Appeals cannot increase sentencing, then deterrence is undone.
With an 8:1 landslide in favor of MS, it is scurrilious to impugn the impartiality of the Chief Justice.
Doubtless the Supremes had their reasons. First and foremost, there's a good reason for all the layers of appeal: you get different arguments and different thinking at each stage. Why not get that out on the table?
Even though I believe MS is guilty as sin, they do deserve all their days in Court. Can't have them claiming there was a rush to judgement.
If the Appeals overturns [as MS hopes], then the Supremes could reaffirm, and perhaps impose a different punishment! MS may yet rue the day it appealed.
Aren't all NSA employees bound by Government Secrecy laws and/or agreements? Wouldn't revealing backdoors violate these agreements? He could be hauled off to prison or sued.
OTOH, he may provably have no direct knowledge in which case he's just expressing an opinion like any other private citizen. Then why should we listen? Or it could be disinformation.
There is something in what Jon says, but the major and lasting difference from this Presidential election will be in the Judiciary.
There are at least 3 and probably 5 new Supreme Court appointments for the next President. Plus a bunch of Federal Judges. They will serve for ~20 years, heavily affecting the Courts.
Now you can say that the law is becoming increasingly irrelevant too [Napster], but just how lawless do you want society to become?
Oh, just like the CIA and other TLAs who want you to underestimate their capabilities. The problem is, they're self-fulfilling! [Fall of Communism]
Ex post facto, it is easy to postulate conspiracies. And you cannot disprove intelligence based on them.
You have to look at other RIAA actions to measure intelligence. If they were intelligent, they would have beaten Napster to the punch. Some of their other blunders [work for hire legislation] are also indicators.
Conspiracy theories are all well and good, but it assumes malice, prescience and intelligence on the part of the conspirators.
The malice I will give you, but prescience and intelligence are manifestly absent. These dudes couldn't find their @sses with both hands! Agent-provocateur conspiracies can also seriously backfire.
Using their internal mirrored/cached hitcounts or those reported by their trojan are highly suspect.
How many people have even heard of Alexa. I bet it isn't in any true top 10 list.
A spider archiving the 'net I can understand. But How can he measure hitcounts? Does he just read and believe the countboxes? What of sites that don't have any?
Still, traffic distribution is interesting.
How does Alexa avoid violating copyright? Linking is one thing, mirroring another.
Much as I like InfoTech, I don't like the Roman Empire analogy. Information can influence people, but it is NOT military power.
Perhaps a better analogy would be to 400-1400 when the Popes and the Roman Catholic Church did hold a monopoly on religious information in the West. That ended with Gutenberg and the Reformation.
Look, I like high quality items just as much as the next geek. But once you consider the time-value of money (compound interest), excessive quality just isn't economically efficient.
Consider two items that basically do the same thing. One costs $200, and the other $100 because it's not as durable. Now if that $100 item lasts only a year, while the $200 item lasts forever, then I'm probably better off buying the quality item unless my personal interest rate is 100%pa.
For some people it is, or they just don't have the extra money.
Now change the numbers. The $100 item lasts two years, and you'll want to replace them both in 6 years for improved functionality. Now a 27% interest rate is the breakeven.
For a concrete example, look at houses. European houses are built to last -- tile roofs & floors, thru-brick walls inside & out. But they cost 3-4 times a N.American house which might not last more than 20-60 years (asphalt shingle roof, wood fram construction, siding.) and that with more maintenance. But to payout the higher quality, you have to have an unrealistically low rate of interest (1-2%).
I'm very depressed about this, but I cannot see any way out. Albert Einstein was right when he described the power of compound interest as miraculous.
I've taken apart monitors. Sometimes with high velocity lead :) [I live in Texas, where such things are highly approved of] Other than the customary wave soldered PC boards, I can see no metallic lead.
:)
That cathode-ray tube (CRT) is _very_ heavy, especially the front face. My guess is they've mixed alot of Lead oxide into the glass to reduce radiation emissions from the monitor -- meet the specs. But AFAIK, this Lead oxide is totally immobile and insoluble except in strong mineral acids and alkalis. Shouldn't have any of those in a landfill
AFAIK, it's already done. Most of the inter-exchange trunking is already fiber. It's very easy to do since most cities have less than a dozen central offices, and you don't need to connect every CO to every other.
I can't speak for Japan, since I've never been there. But I have some ideas.
In the US, newer neighborhoods/subdivisions are being wired with satellite substations from the all-important "Central Office". The trunks connecting the Central office and the substations is FIBER. From the substation [or Central office itself in order areas] the wiring is all copper.
And so I expect it to stay. Rewiring to households is just too expensive, and fiber transceivers are still expensive. What you need to do is connect the central offices and satellites with fiber, and run copper from there.
What you also need to do is put good data compatible equipment inside the central offices and satellites. This is where the US falls down, at least in my case. I can only get 26.4 kbps and IDSL until SWBell fixes some equipment. The fiber is already there.
Ah I think I see -- you want to avoid the excuse of "It was a computer accident". A very credible defense.
I don't think there's a universal solution for watermarking -- all binaries have different formats. But there are solutions for each different file type. In an MS Word document, for instance, you could embed a hidden macro.
Then your proxy scans all outbound attachments and simply rejects & logs any that contain any one of a series of watermarks. Tags, really because watermarks are designed to be irremovable.
Everybody is warned that they need prior approval before transmitting data outbound, even to themselves attheir home ISP. There is a small chance of false positives with this system, that's why you log and evaluate before taking action on proxy rejects.
This article was very interesting since it is one of the very few that argue for reactive management. All the biz buzzwords these days are for proactive management, ie, prevention.
One this I didn't see in the article is a rational discussion of costs. There are the obvious costs of security (administration) and insecurity (theft and fraud). But there are also much less obvious costs from lost business. These can be several times greater.
Lost business costs can come from both excessive (preventative) security, and from insufficient security. Excessive security is a hassle, and deters customers. Perceived low security might also deter customers if they fear they will lose something valuable (credit card numbers? data).
I think in any business security discussion, ALL these costs must be considered, not just the easy, hard $.
Thanks again for the great data. 125Amps -- I seriously disappointed. I've had car alternators that approach this [only 14V though] :)
:) I presume the fuel pumps and hydraulics are from shaft power.
Lets work the budget: 30 kW total available. 5kW to two galleys (gotta have hot coffee), 2kW to the entertainment system, 1 kW to general lighting, and 3 kW to reading lights = 11 kW plus who knows how much for other minor items like instruments and servos
So not too bad to run the laptops. Actually, what could be a bigger concern is the power factor. PC power supplies have notoriously horrible PFs around 0.55 . Laptops are probably worse. How will the electrical system deal with all that reactive power? Could it cause the DC rectifiers or something else problems?
One laptop is surely not a problem. But stick 100 on and you'd have 5 kW load and maybe 2 kVAR.
Excellent informative post. Of course I want to know the genset ratings. Good point about the split bus, those gensets would fight terribly.
:) I'd use a simple worm drive and let the frequency fluctuate 200-600 Hz. Let the appliances deal with it. Or put in a rectifier/inverter set. In fairness, though these weren't very good when the B737 was designed (lates 1970s?)
Constant Speed Drive? Revolting! Unless it's hydrodynamic, there are too many things to break. I sorta want the engines to be reliable
But IIRC the APU on the B737 is a tiny thing, not like the engine on the B727. How can it produce enough compressed air to start the big boys? You'd have to run a 2" line clear to the expanders, and use it as a storage vessel.
So add NEC to the list of Toshiba, Hitachi and Oki of cowards who have no interest in protecting their customers from rapacious IP firms.
I for one will not be buying _ANY_ of their memory products. Why should I support them if they won't support me?
Interesting about the oil shiekh, I will check that out with my buddy who was on the FAA investigation team.
As for power, it's unfortunate that we often use the same word for engine power and electrical power. I meant aircraft are limited by the available electrical power. Sorry for the imprecision.
I'd want to know how power budgeting is done. If the galley, inflight entertain, all reading lights and all laptop outlets are all full on, does the genset make it? Or is the airline counting on some "load factor" of some things being off?
Granted the engines are _very_ powerful. But that power isn't produced in the form of electrical power, it all goes into THRUST. Electrical power comes from an auxiliary shaft to a small alternator. In some aircraft (B727?), there's an auxiliaries engine.
You can bet to conserve weight (as you correctly emphasise) that these auxiliaries have been made as small as possible without much extra. Uprating them is likely to require complete engine redesign and/or at least recertification. Easier to conserve cabin power.
What I don't know is if instrument and cabin power are automatically isolated by a low-voltage trip. There are lots of different voltages on aircraft, and I would expect breakers to isolate critical systems. But TWA800 747 was brought down by a disgusting electrical fault, so I'm not sure.