I mean, they were buying up security competitors as recently as Wednesday! Wouldn't that be a bit too blatant? Are they really trying to monopolize the desktop security market, or are they just trying to help cover costs in what is going to prove to be a very, very expensive area (once they start getting sued for having such a shoddy, insecure product)
Over the holidays I want to sit down and play with wxWidgets (formerly wxWindows) to try and make some cross platform GUIs. I believe wx compiles against GTK, though I haven't tried this yet myself. Anyone have experience with this? Do changes in GTK impact wx? (ideally they shouldn't)
More Christmas music? No thanks. I was hanging out at the liquor store yesterday (hooray for holiday wine) and was talking to some of the store employees. Although I insisted they shut off that fscking music, they said in fact it's piped in from head office. This seems to be the case with many stores these days; Christmas music is just piped in. Apparently it has a positive effect on sales, as people have been trained to associate Christmas music with opening their wallets.
Is this the Canadian government deliberately being contrary?
No, it's just that the WIPO lobbyists have not yet manipulated Canadian politicians sufficiently. But they are working on it, and soon Canada may ratify WIPO just like the US and EU have -- this is how DMCA-like laws come about. So it is important that citizens don't just sit by passively, but participate in our community for digital media rights, to help keep stupid digital copyright law overhauls out of Canada.
This is about one thing only: a recording industry with big $$ to spend, trying to convince politicians to take their side.
I entirely agree with Young (I've been saying this stuff for a decade) but my major concern is getting the people with power to make this happen.
I just don't see it happening, because people in power worldwide are in power because of mainly selfish reasons; they want power or influence. On top of that humans are notoriously handicapped when it comes to seeing the big picture -- polluting their own resource base, contaminating their own water, etc.
So there is this major psychological hurdle, or handicap for humankind as a whole. We have to do certain things if we collectively want to survive, but absolutely everyone will put mundane priorities -- passing their next exam, getting a raise, getting a friggin tax break well above ensuring that humankind as a whole will survive. Case in point: total lack of concern for environmental initiatives, perpetually trumped by financial greed.
Insanity?? Yes. Humans are not rational; we are very, very stupid animals. I guess we all deserve to die:(
They're trying to get the money from the wrong people. There are a whole bunch of spammers out there that create a world of problems for ICANN and domain registrars; by registering so many garbage domains, using fake contact information, costing support desks tons of money as angry anti-spammers make sure that spammer's domains are nuked, etc.
Maybe there's a way the money can be collected from spammers. Perhaps with some tougher contracts governing acceptable use of domains, giving ICANN recourse to sue those who misuse domain space in civil action.
Microsoft has purchased an anti-spyware company, so in fact Microsoft might simultaneously be entering the security market to compete with Symantec. This news is fresh, and might be depressing the market's enthusiasm about Symantec/Veritas.
Because then you are putting your nation's safety on the honor system, hoping the other country(..ies) are as optimistic as your are. Do you really want to roll the dice on that one?
Yes, because I have faith in humanity. I think that if countries maintain close ties (economic, social, and political) then there is little or no reason to be hostile to one another. If countries respect people in other countries, and don't exploit them, don't take advantage of them, then really where is the animosity going to come from?
Americans and Europeans are ignorant of their own history if they think they have treated the rest of the world respectfully and justly. American foreign policy for decades has been to exploit weaker countries, manipulate international politics to their advantage. This is documented; it was explicitly outlined by presidents.
England has spent most of its history conquering people, overthrowing cultures and screwing around in places they don't belong.
All people want to live in peace. Hostility does not appear out of thin air. Respect others, and they will respect you. Nobody wants violence. Do you think these are crazy ideas?
Contact the.to TLD techs from the university (as close to DJB's phone number as you can find) and inform them about a change to the nameservers for the domain yp.to. Just keep insisting you are DJB, and threaten them when they resist ("Do you know who I am?!"). Change his nameservers, great prank, and show that sometimes it doesn't matter how secure the daemons are.
You can test it for yourself, if you have a fresh disposable email address. Unsubscribe from the following (picked out of very fresh spam) and see if in a few months you start to get spam.
here, here, here, here
Ah, but it does hurt business... Consider this. If you devalue the property, you hurt the business
(Heh and why do you pro-recording industry people always post AC?) I disagree. I'm a software developer, and 100% of my income currently comes from sales of my own software. All intellectual property. Highly guarded copyrighted stuff, right?
However I also recognize that the more well known my product is, the more money I'm going to make in the long run. For this reason I am very liberal with the free demos I give out for my software. I also don't pursue, nor am I upset about what some might call "warez" versions of my software.
No, I know for sure that they don't help. For years I have been trying to get MORE spam. The main way I have done this has been unsubscribing from lists! In fact, I even "unsubscribe" an address that was never subscribed. Indeed, that new address is now getting plenty of spam.
Unsubscribing from spammer's sites will get you more spam. Unsubscribing from mailing lists will work, of course, but mailing lists != spam.
The industry needs to understand that P2P networks and the like are a tool to spread culture and product awareness
Too bad the industry is more like the horse carriage maker in the day of the automobile. Their approach is throwing lots of money at politicians and media, clinging to an old fashioned model that has simply been rendered obsolete.
stuck the word "illegal" in front of it hoping to cast an evil light when the people are pursuing something that really only pisses of the greedy but ultimately doing nothing wrong
I think that's right. There is nothing inherently wrong about copying media for your personal enjoyment. In Canada I even pay my blank recording media levvy, so I already know that all artists are being compensated -- I feel there is absolutely nothing wrong with downloading pictures, music, and videos.
The things I download are definitely NOT things I would go out and buy, even if I couldn't download them. For the small number of things I have downloaded and particularly liked, I have actually bought. If I didn't find them on the Internet I would have never been exposed to them.
The reality is, trading files, downloading media for personal entertainment does not really hurt business, it's within your rights under fair use of copyright law, and simply put does not violate any morality standards. The industry has tried to influence the societal standard by lobbying government to change copyright laws (WIPO in USA and EU) and has been successful.
Don't let them brainwash you. Keep downloading, swapping files because there is nothing wrong with what you are doing. They are fscking with the laws and the media to confuse society.
Maybe the law in Finland is quite different, by why would the police carry out such a raid? There are no criminal offences involved. There are no laws being broken, no crimes being committed right?
If the industry wants to sue someone that's civil action as I understand it.
Are the police becoming the henchmen for the corporations? Man, that would scare the shit out of me.
Maybe the cops should be, oh I dunno... stopping dangerous people, who carry out assault, rape, murder, abductions... nah, that's too easy right?
Perhaps some sort of competition to see who can measure out a gram blindfolded?
Some genius kid in my school tried to steal one of the microgram-accuracy digital scales from the chem lab. Haven't seen him in a while though; they don't let you out of jail to attend high school reunions.
As someone in Engineering who has been involved with highschool recruiting/outreach, I've got to point out -- don't forget about the girls. Often, science and technology types (usually guys) assume that only boys are going to be interested in things like computer science, physics, engineering, etc. As a result many high school career councilors don't even point out computer science or engineering as career paths for women, even though there are many scholarships available to students who go that route. Studying in engineering/technical areas can be very lucrative for bright young women.
There's a pretty good reason there aren't a lot of women in computer science, engineering and other technical fields! The girls get turned away, or are not encouraged when they are in high school. If you're looking for a good resource on this topic I suggest you contact IEEE Women in Engineering (your local branch) since this is right up their alley.
I think the problem is that there is far too much risk involved
Good point. I don't think it's a rip off per se, there is the potential for profit but it's very speculative. Maybe you could consider this to some sort of investment opportunity in the old wild west. There might be huge profits to be made, but there are no laws backing up the system, there are no safeties, and there is no government. So take your chances and you could become very rich, but I wouldn't take a risk that large.
zero protection against consumers, who, in the absence of copyright protections, are able to obtain and run the software by any means they see fit
First, corporate customers are always going to pay the required licensing fees anyway. Home or other small fry retail users are the ones who might grab a copy of software without paying. The question is, do they even matter?
Now take a look at all of Microsoft (or any other large software company's) business. Where do they generate revenue from?
Home/retail licensing
Corporate licensing
Technology licensing/royalties
Service
I'll bet that #1 is insignificant. Maybe even disposable, given all the trouble -- cost/benefit analysis here. If patents can be used to more strictly enforce technology licensing and guarantee the collection of royalties, I'd say this is a much more significant plus than some minor loss to home users who copy Windows CDs.
Ah, and here is an important point! Patents are very easy to obtain for large companies. Tech companies flood the USPTO with patent filings; these cost a few thousand dollars each, plus all consultant work. It is easy for a large company, with all the expertise in the process and cash to pay those upfront costs, to acquire tons of patents. It is significantly harder for a small guy.
So let's say that software patents become quite common in the USA and Europe. It's the large companies who are going to be flooding the patent offices with filings for anything they can get their hands on. A small developer, even if they have a kick-ass technology, is much less likely to get a patent on it. There is a big hurdle (cost and administration) in front of them.
So the natural course is, the larger companies will get all kinds of legal rights to technologies, and smaller companies or individual developers won't be able to compete. I guess that's the big business plan for the 21st century; corporations are out of ideas and the last hope is to guarantee themselves some kind of royalty revenue stream, without innovating squat. And this is why, IMHO, the "west" will lose their innovative edge and pave their own road to obsolescence.
I took a look at his design wishlist, but how about the basics? Is it just assumed that these are required in any good browser?
Stability
Security, resistance to malice (especially remote)
Guarding privacy
Speed/performance
I tend to think about software on a Maslow's hierarchy model; you need those basics - so the software runs properly, and securely. Then work your way up to the nifty features.
Slashdot Mirror
- A couple laser pointers
- Mirrors and beam splitters
- Tin foil
- Liquid helium
- A ruler
- One large table compensated for zero micron vibrations
We rummaged through the dumpster behind CERN to find our phase splitters, but you can also make your own using cellophane and spraypaint.I mean, they were buying up security competitors as recently as Wednesday! Wouldn't that be a bit too blatant? Are they really trying to monopolize the desktop security market, or are they just trying to help cover costs in what is going to prove to be a very, very expensive area (once they start getting sued for having such a shoddy, insecure product)
Over the holidays I want to sit down and play with wxWidgets (formerly wxWindows) to try and make some cross platform GUIs. I believe wx compiles against GTK, though I haven't tried this yet myself. Anyone have experience with this? Do changes in GTK impact wx? (ideally they shouldn't)
but how can he post these?!? MP3s are illegal. mit's gonna have is ass. he should be ashamed for robbing profits from a desperate industry
More Christmas music? No thanks. I was hanging out at the liquor store yesterday (hooray for holiday wine) and was talking to some of the store employees. Although I insisted they shut off that fscking music, they said in fact it's piped in from head office. This seems to be the case with many stores these days; Christmas music is just piped in. Apparently it has a positive effect on sales, as people have been trained to associate Christmas music with opening their wallets.
It aint about religion, boy, it's about $$.
This is about one thing only: a recording industry with big $$ to spend, trying to convince politicians to take their side.
I entirely agree with Young (I've been saying this stuff for a decade) but my major concern is getting the people with power to make this happen.
:(
I just don't see it happening, because people in power worldwide are in power because of mainly selfish reasons; they want power or influence. On top of that humans are notoriously handicapped when it comes to seeing the big picture -- polluting their own resource base, contaminating their own water, etc.
So there is this major psychological hurdle, or handicap for humankind as a whole. We have to do certain things if we collectively want to survive, but absolutely everyone will put mundane priorities -- passing their next exam, getting a raise, getting a friggin tax break well above ensuring that humankind as a whole will survive. Case in point: total lack of concern for environmental initiatives, perpetually trumped by financial greed.
Insanity?? Yes. Humans are not rational; we are very, very stupid animals. I guess we all deserve to die
They're trying to get the money from the wrong people. There are a whole bunch of spammers out there that create a world of problems for ICANN and domain registrars; by registering so many garbage domains, using fake contact information, costing support desks tons of money as angry anti-spammers make sure that spammer's domains are nuked, etc. Maybe there's a way the money can be collected from spammers. Perhaps with some tougher contracts governing acceptable use of domains, giving ICANN recourse to sue those who misuse domain space in civil action.
Microsoft has purchased an anti-spyware company, so in fact Microsoft might simultaneously be entering the security market to compete with Symantec. This news is fresh, and might be depressing the market's enthusiasm about Symantec/Veritas.
Americans and Europeans are ignorant of their own history if they think they have treated the rest of the world respectfully and justly. American foreign policy for decades has been to exploit weaker countries, manipulate international politics to their advantage. This is documented; it was explicitly outlined by presidents.
England has spent most of its history conquering people, overthrowing cultures and screwing around in places they don't belong.
All people want to live in peace. Hostility does not appear out of thin air. Respect others, and they will respect you. Nobody wants violence. Do you think these are crazy ideas?
Contact the .to TLD techs from the university (as close to DJB's phone number as you can find) and inform them about a change to the nameservers for the domain yp.to. Just keep insisting you are DJB, and threaten them when they resist ("Do you know who I am?!"). Change his nameservers, great prank, and show that sometimes it doesn't matter how secure the daemons are.
Find a hole in djbdns or an abusable infrastructure flaw in Internet Mail 2000... don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about.
You can test it for yourself, if you have a fresh disposable email address. Unsubscribe from the following (picked out of very fresh spam) and see if in a few months you start to get spam. here, here, here, here
However I also recognize that the more well known my product is, the more money I'm going to make in the long run. For this reason I am very liberal with the free demos I give out for my software. I also don't pursue, nor am I upset about what some might call "warez" versions of my software.
No, I know for sure that they don't help. For years I have been trying to get MORE spam. The main way I have done this has been unsubscribing from lists! In fact, I even "unsubscribe" an address that was never subscribed. Indeed, that new address is now getting plenty of spam.
Unsubscribing from spammer's sites will get you more spam. Unsubscribing from mailing lists will work, of course, but mailing lists != spam.
The things I download are definitely NOT things I would go out and buy, even if I couldn't download them. For the small number of things I have downloaded and particularly liked, I have actually bought. If I didn't find them on the Internet I would have never been exposed to them.
The reality is, trading files, downloading media for personal entertainment does not really hurt business, it's within your rights under fair use of copyright law, and simply put does not violate any morality standards. The industry has tried to influence the societal standard by lobbying government to change copyright laws (WIPO in USA and EU) and has been successful.
Don't let them brainwash you. Keep downloading, swapping files because there is nothing wrong with what you are doing. They are fscking with the laws and the media to confuse society.
Maybe the law in Finland is quite different, by why would the police carry out such a raid? There are no criminal offences involved. There are no laws being broken, no crimes being committed right?
If the industry wants to sue someone that's civil action as I understand it.
Are the police becoming the henchmen for the corporations? Man, that would scare the shit out of me.
Maybe the cops should be, oh I dunno... stopping dangerous people, who carry out assault, rape, murder, abductions... nah, that's too easy right?
Studying mathematics is often a sure-fire way to never get sex.
As someone in Engineering who has been involved with highschool recruiting/outreach, I've got to point out -- don't forget about the girls. Often, science and technology types (usually guys) assume that only boys are going to be interested in things like computer science, physics, engineering, etc. As a result many high school career councilors don't even point out computer science or engineering as career paths for women, even though there are many scholarships available to students who go that route. Studying in engineering/technical areas can be very lucrative for bright young women.
There's a pretty good reason there aren't a lot of women in computer science, engineering and other technical fields! The girls get turned away, or are not encouraged when they are in high school. If you're looking for a good resource on this topic I suggest you contact IEEE Women in Engineering (your local branch) since this is right up their alley.
Now take a look at all of Microsoft (or any other large software company's) business. Where do they generate revenue from?
- Home/retail licensing
- Corporate licensing
- Technology licensing/royalties
- Service
I'll bet that #1 is insignificant. Maybe even disposable, given all the trouble -- cost/benefit analysis here. If patents can be used to more strictly enforce technology licensing and guarantee the collection of royalties, I'd say this is a much more significant plus than some minor loss to home users who copy Windows CDs.So let's say that software patents become quite common in the USA and Europe. It's the large companies who are going to be flooding the patent offices with filings for anything they can get their hands on. A small developer, even if they have a kick-ass technology, is much less likely to get a patent on it. There is a big hurdle (cost and administration) in front of them.
So the natural course is, the larger companies will get all kinds of legal rights to technologies, and smaller companies or individual developers won't be able to compete. I guess that's the big business plan for the 21st century; corporations are out of ideas and the last hope is to guarantee themselves some kind of royalty revenue stream, without innovating squat. And this is why, IMHO, the "west" will lose their innovative edge and pave their own road to obsolescence.
- Stability
- Security, resistance to malice (especially remote)
- Guarding privacy
- Speed/performance
I tend to think about software on a Maslow's hierarchy model; you need those basics - so the software runs properly, and securely. Then work your way up to the nifty features.