I mean, they are simply warning students that the RIAA has been watching the scene and they are attempting to compartmentalize the students from the greater network.....for the good of all file swappers too.
I think that the message is "be discrete about your swapping, use FTP, CD's and other media for the transfer...don't advertise and especially don't gloat that you are getting away with it."
Remember also, they don't want to get involved with policing everything on the net. That's the angle that all ISP's are taking against the RIAA/DMCA lawsuits now....pretty much "it's not our business what the customer has at their house, they don't have it on the server here, so it's none of our business." I think that the school is just attempting to give themselves a little "plausable deniability" in this matter.
As P2P goes, "advertising" all of the songs that you have at one location is dangerous. That's a known weakness. Perhaps this will get solved, so that donors do not have to have their IP's revealed...
Well...there's this one..... Again, we leave further analysis along that line to the experts, only appealing to them that time-reversal effects must also be considered.
And there's also this one...... under very precise conditions -- parts of the battery to perform as negative resistors. When that action occurs, the very notion of charge and discharge is reversed.
And of course...my personal favorite.... energize the Drude electrons!
Nobody EVER gets any money from software vendors in lawsuits, contract or EULA. By spreading that myth, you perpetuate the "stupid consumer" model of software.
I don't know how you grew up, but I've always been taught "Buyer beware" is the the best model, and the most aware buyer is one who can intelligently check out the product he/she is buying.
If I was paying somebody for a service, I'd want to at least be able to satisfy my own curiosity about how well it works, at least so that I'll sign off on the check. I would want to know, ESPECIALLY if it was controlling my precious satelite.
In fact, I'd BET that for commercial satelites, the people funding any launch have teams of outsiders checking the code.
I could also imagine that at NASA, there is a mixture of vendor written and in-house written.
But don't fall for the "who ya gonna sue" stupidity......there's nobody, they're already gone.
What kind of crack are these people at AOL smoking? There is not a single service that AOL provides that can't be gotten elsewhere. Sorry, even GAIM....I just don't use it enough to make it worth paying extra for....and some services (read parental controls/no-porn) I would pay NOT to have.
Are they thinking that somehow they will be able to "port" over the popular "must have" shows?.....I don't even watch HBO on television, still nothing for me...
The only way I could see this as positive is if somehow AOL and Comcast block Microsoft's attempt to own the content delivery. If AOL were to switch to some form of Linux too, that would keep delivery platform neutral....that's about the only good I could see from this.
First, what's more important in this situation....criminal charges against Zacarias M. or stopping the deaths of innocent people? I'd vote with stopping the attack. I'd rather have stopped the attack than have the evidence to put Zacarias M. in prison/death.
Here's my global take: If we HAD been practicing what we preach, Osama bin Laden would not have gotten arms from the US government while he was fighting the Soviets in Afganastan!...We would not have supported the Taliban during that time, and they would NEVER have had the power they possessed on 9/11. Our tacit approval of their actions makes us an accomplice in terror.
If we HAD been practicing what we preach, we would not have supported Iraq in it's war with Iran. As was in last weekend's NYT, American military planners KNEW about the gas attacks against Iranian troops during this war. We approved of their use! How can we look the other way during their use against Iranians, then take the moral high ground when they (nerve gasses) are used against the Kurds. American business should have had nothing to do with Saddam and should not have sold him anything! He increased his power through our short-sightedness.
If we HAD been practicing what we preach, we would not have been trading missiles with Iran either, nor would we have backed dictators in South America and Asia.
Through our actions, we alienate people around the world and build ill-will towards America. I agree that some of these people are simply jealous of what we have here. We as Americans lead pretty good lives overall. My point is simply that we should be exporting AND demonstrating the values that we pretend to uphold.
Here's a simple idea, how about we STOP shipping arms around the world? How many times have our own short-sighted interests come back to haunt us? How much money was made from Iraq before they became an "Axis of terror"? You see, when we support Iraq in it's war with Iran, we are building ill will on both sides! Our short term, quarterly profit based war machine has cost us in the long run.
I'm not by any means saying that I approve of Osama or Saddam, what I am saying though is that we are partly responsible for creating the environment that helps these and other wacko's thrive. Without that environment, Osama would have a harder time recruiting new members and people would be less likely to support his views.
Your response falls under the general "you have nothing to worry about if you've done nothing wrong" category. This type of thinking only works until they come for you....
While it may be true that you and most of the people here on Slashdot are not really interesting enough for the government to spy on, "Big Brother" has a tendency to single out cases not so much by merit, but by image. Our "Lawyer General" John Ashcroft is especially good at rounding up the "usual" suspects and framing everything as a "Terrorist" issue.......with all of Congress's pressure, it won't be too long before P2P users are going to be "Terrorists." What's driving this you ask? Re-election my friend, all of our congress critters are looking for photo-op's and any way to show that they are "tough on crime," that only they could solve the problem of terror/drugs/comunism/boogie-man.
Have you read the FBI memo? Zackarias M's laptop didn't get searched because the management at the FBI would not pass forward the search request. The management even changed/watered down the request, against the wishes of the field agent who was conducting the investigation! There was no need for new, more invasive laws, those (the managers at the FBI)people simply needed to do their jobs! Do yourself a favor and look up the FBI memo. Read it. What you will see is a picture of an agency that doesn't need more approval to wiretap, but an agency that needs to have all of the "careerists" fired.
I don't trust these people (Ashcroft, FISA, FBI/CIA) any farther than I can throw them. They are hypocrites. They are only seeking power and control. They are driven by the same motivations that all humans are, and that's exactly why I don't trust them.
I believe that this "Terror" issue would dissapear around the world if we as the USA simply started practicing what we preach. We push this idea of a "Moral and tolorant society, governed by law and fairness"....we would do better to start acting that way. We need to stop helping dictators around the world, and start promoting justice. Even if that means we don't make quite so much money.
Picking the "lesser of two evils" is still picking evil!
Is this how the difference between SACD and regular CD works?
Both photo's explain EXACTLY how the new system works. In fact, when I clicked on the first link, I fully expected to be sent to the second link!......Now that's truth in advertising!.
I especially like how Congress has started making the adoption of Digital Television and Broadband the stated goal of this legislation. This angle of the debate doesn't get talked about too much, and I think that this is more interesting than the simple "piracy" rant we hear daily out of the MPAA and RIAA. From the article:
Such protections, proponents say, would give Hollywood an incentive to offer more entertainment in digital format, thereby spurring consumers' adoption of such technologies as high-definition TV and broadband services.
WHY? Why should they give a f*%k if consumers are buying new digital televisions and getting broadband? What does that really have to do with the economy? The way they talk about it, it was as if this were THE ANSWER to all of our economic problems....yeah, I can just hear the fat bastards and their groveling, whiney lobbyists now....
"How can we turn the American public into even greater couch potatos and better consumers at the same time...we need to have a
fast pipe into their homes so that we can sell them even more "George Forman grills"! We need to make it so they CAN'T turn it off! We need an avenue to push even MORE commercials!"
But don't even think about creating your own content though...that's forbidden in the "Acceptable Use Policy" for most broadband providers (no servers, and if you post on their hosted machines, you give them all rights to the content). They only want you to consume, not compete. Most AUP's only allow information to travel ONE direction....from the marketeers to you.
But don't answer yet, if you liked broadband policies, you are gonna love "Digital Convergence"... when your computer is prevented from doing anything usefull (like running software that you wrote and/or compiled yourself) and is morphed into a constant movie trailer machine....that you can never fast forward through!
The way things are going now, I'm not going to be purchasing a "NEW DIGITAL TELEVISION" and I hope that others don't either! Keep your old set! Stay analog!
I don't see anywhere in the disclaimer that "by entering this information, you are claiming to be the person whose information this belongs to"....if there were, you may be right about the fraud/identity theft angle.
Sounds like just some simple data entry fields and the notice about "prosecuted to the fullest extent"...blah..blah...blah...no place where the person entering the information "claims" to be the person described by the entered information. It's pretty hard to claim fraud when the "hacker" hasn't claimed anything at all, other than "here's a valid SSN and it's associated with this name."
I seem to remember that Kevin Mitnik was "claiming" to be a phone company employee, claiming to be whoever during his social engineering, in an attempt to get the information that he wanted (passwords etc). That's fraud. If there's no deception or attempt at deception, how can there be fraud? Also, by obtaining the passwords through fraud, he's effectivly "sealing" the keys and opening a "locked" door, not simply opening an "unlocked" door.
O.K. you say...what about people who attempt multiple passwords then?....arn't they simply "trying the door" multiple times with different data?....well yes, but this starts to look like "lockpicking" after two or three times, doesn't it?....
Who knows how this "hacker" got the information. Some states sell their drivers liscense data, and you can find out people's SSN's legally too. There's no need to resort to theft to find out all you need to know about somebody.
If the information entry fields are simply asking questions which can be entered truthfully without requiring some other crime or claim to be that person, I don't see any theft angle.
I dont think that warning has any more legal weight than "no soliciting" signs on your front porch do.
I HAVE had the police come into my house "un-announced" throught the "open door" policy. Of course they wouldn't do it if it were illegal...would they? The law about entry of structures says that if the door is open, they (anyone) can come in. Even the television crime shows get this one right....try the doorknob to see if it's unlocked, if open, enter at will....
The best you could get on somebody who does come in through an open door is tresspassing. Ya' see, I got charged with tresspassing for entering a construction site through an "open door." And the best they could get me for was...you guessed it...tresspassing...they would have tried to get me for more too, if they could...but they had nothing!
In most situations, (read taxes, porn and crime) the government wants to make "cyberspace" the same as "meatspace." Why should this case be any different? Why should the laws for this kind of entry be different than the physical world?
In the physical world, people assume a certain level of culpability for their actions. Because there are so many people terrified of computers and technology though, we adopt special laws and give the government extra powers to ward off the demons....perhaps the Bush/Yale connection is the real reason for the "life sentences for hackers" bill...do you really feel that this was hacking?....or was it really more a situation of "hey you kids, get out of my yard!"
Don't you think that if Yale could do something about it, they would? The disclaimer is a bluff.
I agree with both points...the police are ALLOWED to open closed doors. They are just not allowed to open "locked" doors without a warrant or without visible signs of "something wrong"...which could be anything as far as the police go, but that's another story....
In any case, it's the "breaking" part of "breaking and entering" that's the problem.
Perhaps that's why nothing is really being done here in this situation, because technically this isn't a crime! This guy, the dean, and all their lawyers prob. know that too. Gauranteed off and big egg on Yale's face.
I say let the guy keep his job, he walked right in through an open door and caused no damage. If anyone should be fired, it's the sysadmin/page designer at Yale that set up this site! What he/she did qualifies as "gross negligence," "dereliction of duty," and violation of "generally accepted accounting/webdesign practices."
This post, combined with the story yesterday about IT workers heading for restaurant jobs points out how important it is to be consistant.
The companies that are doing the best in the current.com slump are the one's which kept their bearings and didn't overspend. Likewise, heading too far in the non-IT direction will end up destroying a good number of companies which find out, only too late, that they can't keep up with their competition. Consistancy and keeping to a logical business plan is the key to a successfull business. Always.
I've heard this story in the comparison of Wal-Mart vs. K-mart....one spends consistantly on IT projects that result in overall savings (i.e. not boondoggle projects), the other simply flaps with the breeze. K-Mart is now trying to catch up with inventory/tracking/pricing/shipping software and improvements that take years to implement correctly. They are also on the brink of insolvency.....not exactly the time/place to be making lots of rushed and critical decisions....
Perhaps there will be a downtime for IT, but it will come back as soon as things start to break around the office....
The public becomes discusted with the direction that "entertainment" is heading. They discover that being entertained by the usual suspects is getting more and more expensive while they are getting less and less. They discover that they are prevented from doing the things that they want to do, like send a cool new song to a friend or share an interesting movie with their co-workers. They simply discover that the entertainment cartels are simply not "entertaining" any more!
As a result, they search out new forms of entertainment, they go to live theater for instance, they go out to see live music, they search out new and varied forms (small independent bands/labels), further fragmenting the entertainment industry's market. They stop buying new CD's from Tower and start shopping at their local used shops if they shop at all.
Next, the entertainment industry reacts by attempting to shut-off all alternative forms of entertainment and delivery which further alienates the consumer. They attempt to violate the "first sale" principle of copyright by getting a piece of every used CD and DVD sold too. They attempt to save their failed business model through legislation which forces themselves into the middle of every deal and gig. They hold back their "product" from the market until we accept their demands. But the "genius of capitalism" takes over and the consumer finds a way around their roadblocks. Fair or unfair, the rate of piracy in music and software is a response to the supply/demand/cost curve. Piracy is like smuggling, it will ALWAYS exist and can only be controlled by removing the incentive.
This is already starting to happen! People are seeking out alternatives right now! I only shop used CD's now. I'm on boycott for new CD's. I watch less TV than I used to (now down to less than 30 min/day and a total of 3 hrs/week. I'm spending more time reading and in front of my Linux box attempting to create rather than consume. I've only seen 2 movies this year (Goldmember and LOTR), I don't purchase products that have DRM or support DRM formats. I don't have a DVD player. I don't use "dongled" software. I bring this up because I don't think I'm that different from most people, I assume that there are many like me.
I'd also like to see what happens if the entertainment industry get their way too. It might provide the best "once-in-a-lifetime" entertainment event ever seen. Imagine the uproar, the hype, the bugs, the enormous lawsuits. Fortunes made and lost overnight. If all of the DRM and copyright enforcing mechanisms that the entertainment industry wants were put into place overnight, this might possibly be the "Greatest Show on Earth".....they'd loose almost all of their remaining customers! They would be killing the "Golden Goose" with their greed.
That too, would be "once-in-a-lifetime" entertainment.....that moment after the "Golden Goose" get's it's head chopped off, it running around helter-skelter, that moment would be spectacular!...no telling what kind of golden turds would drop out then!
I've always suspected that people in 1979 were smarter than today, and NOW I have proof!
Bug fix strategy for date roll-over...quoth message...
"First, I modified the daily demand deposit program with code that checked for the date and about mid-1979 started printed warnings on the console of what would happen come new year. Then the systems analyst and I got new jobs. This is known as stepwise interactive development."
It's funny to see that this problem was known at least 30 years before the Y2K hysteria....I hope that this is a lesson to all of you young programmers....
I really dislike the idea of the people starving, but if they accept this food, they are destined to become slaves to the "Intellectual Property" slave owners of this century....quoth the article...
"Some biotech advocates are criticizing the Zimbabwean government for balking at the humanitarian assistance, saying President Robert Mugabe seems to care more about his political independence than his citizens' lives."
Of course they're going to say that....they're shills for the biotech industry.....this same scenerio happens with software too (insert un-named company) donates so many liscenses to third world country A. Country A is now on the hook to make the payments for upgrades, keep other software out or be forced to return "gift"...we all know the drill.....on President Mugabe's part, it seems clear that he's interested in not having to make payments for this "product" into perpetuity....allowing something like this to start is equivalent to selling yourself into indentured servitude. So really, his choice isn't quite as clear, and it's not really about HIS independence as much as it is about the independence of Zimbabwe...if he accepts, his citizens become slaves to the west FOREVER...
I wouldn't be surprised if there is "diplomatic" pressure to accept the corn too, something like "...if you want us to approve your loan from the WMF, you'd better accept this generous offer." Nothing bothers the biotech people like customers that don't want their product....they give it a bad name....again, quoth the article...
"That response has fueled suspicion among some observers in the United States and Africa that Washington is using the food crisis to get U.S. gene-altered products established in a corner of the world that has largely resisted them."
EXACTLY RIGHT!....for two reasons, 1)get the public to accept a genetically modified product and break down their resistance to it and 2) to extend some level of "Intellectual Property" control over the continent of Africa! Remember the uproar over South Africa's plans to copy AIDS drugs without royalty? Handled by quiet dealings on the part of the drug companies, the issue got swept away by the lawyers...can't have anyone breaking step with "World Intellectual Property" laws....
If they really wanted to give a "gift," they would also lift the IP restrictions on this corn...forever...so the people of Zimbabwe would not have to worry about this....then they could just eat in peace.
--"it's a trap! it's a trap!..that's MY individual fruit pie!"--Benny Hill
There are a lot of interesting conformal coatings out there....I was doing some research on it for one of my employer's products. Lots of military applications are documented....look on Google. I seem to remember some US Army truck radio board that was rated for something like 7 years in corrosive environment without damage to the electronics. Cooling of the componants could be difficult though, the coating would gum up the fans you know....All cooling would have to be passive, or perhaps liquid cooled processor?
Or for those with a really low budget, simply dunk your PC tower in a really high temp. wax! (of course, not above the damage point for IC's...perhaps 150 deg. C).....
Last but not least....I've had really good luck with using hot-glue as a potting compound. You can melt it off if you need to get at stuff, but at room temp, it acts like a hard rubber.
Digital/online music is all about making it easy for people to do the right thing!
No way would I sign up for some service where all my music could vanish if I miss a monthly payment! Neither would I sign up for some service which locked the music ONLY in my laptop and ONLY allowed me to play it under cirumstances that the RIAA deems acceptable!
The reason that online music has not fullfilled on it's promise so far is not because of the software isn't good enough or because no company has been managed well enough, it's because of greed on the part of the studio's. I'ts intimated in the story too....
As a consumer, I want lower prices overall, and I want more of the percentage going to the artist. I'm fed up with paying $15.99 for CD's while the RIAA gripes that they are being "ripped off". They are the one's ripping the artists off. I'd double again their percentage ( from $0.50 per CD to $1.50) if the industry produced a $9.99 CD. I'd pay $9.99 if it ment that I could download once and have rights to burn a spare for my car. The RIAA would save A BUNDLE under such a model, no physical media until my house, so RIAA pays almost nothing for distribution. I'd pay it because it's the right thing and because it's easier than driving over to the music store...
Problem is, they want more.....MUCH more!....RIAA want's to control HOW you listen...how often you listen, what equipment you listen on...they want to turn music into a "Pay-per-hear" system...(pay for home, pay again for car...pay again for friends house...pay each time you listen...etc)....Like the DVD, they also want to control what country you can listen in....I'm fundamently opposed to such a system, once I pay...it's mine to listen anywhere I am....I have lifetime rights to listen.....
Then there's the issue of "first sale" and RIAA's desire to get in on the used CD market.....charge twice for the same product...you no longer have rights that you would have with books....
I'm guessing that businesses like this (pressplay, music-net, etc) will exist only in the "shadow" for a while yet....the Record industry is not ready to turn anyone with a real business model loose yet....they are too busy hedging their bets right now.....I'm guessing that this outfit doesn't even have a long term contract to the music that they do stock for download. I'm guessing that it could be revoked in an instant if the studios wanted to...then they'd be out of business....and I've paid money for DRM with a company that doesn't exist anymore and rights which are not going to be honored by anyone....
I'll keep ripping and burning my own until the RIAA/Labels give me an alternative that I can accept....if not a better value, at least one that keeps the status-quo...
...Of course, that's the best way...you know, you don't want all of the PR flacks from MS having a chance to spin this in the wrong direction.....or give them a bunch of time to start blackmailing you over license violations....
Remember all the fuss about the German government?....How about Peru? Making such a decision without letting the sales force get involved is prob. a good thing. I imagine that they (MS) would dig up every thing they could find in order to keep everyone in "lock-step" with their goals.....
I hope that this does get played up....now that the decision is made, let the chips fall where they may. I expect that there will be a lot of "surprise" defections and I imagine that they will happen pretty fast.
This just seems to be the most sensible extension of current patent/copyright law. These things (iris profile, genetic code, personality, interests, hobbies) are all an outgrowth of my initial programming (genitic), a certain ammount of random chance and the environment within which I was raised. My body's code is it's own!....The artistic pattern of my blue eyes is my own!...any trading of that information should be at my discression.
Considering that copyright has been extended automaticly to the artist of almost anything else(without necessarily having to label something directly as such), I deserve to hold these rights on my body too.
If I choose to "auction" off this information, that should be my legal right, but the default state should be "protected."
Moving away from this simply shows the hypocritical nature of "Intellectual Property." Seems that enforcing this right for the individual would help all those IP flakes make their claims consistant.
Either it applies to everyone, or they gotta come up with a better claim for why I shouldn't be swapping their information.
....And I've got the "prior art" to proove it! I was using these genes for years before anyone knew what they did. And I've sold myself for money too, as much as I could...
There is simply no legitimate reason why anyone should be granted a patent on a gene....perhaps they COULD get a patent on a particular piece of equipment, for the purpose of making a particular set of proteins. That's a legit patent, you know, "equipment/process for doing something novel" and "for the advancement of the usfull arts" kinda stuff...either way, it's NOT for something that's either an idea or just simply a fact of nature.
Yeah, I've heard the drug companies arguments too..."we spent sooooo much money finding out what this gene does...", blah..blah...blah...it's still bullshit unless you found some cool way of making "special protein sequence #27(tm)." You cannot get a patent for simply proving it's existance and/function in nature. That's the patent rule..
I say these other "bio-pirate" companies should absolutely PLUNDER these stupid "patent holders"...
...You can't own the ideas in this conceptual land rush, you just gotta fill you brain up fast as you can and stay on your feet....
Slashdot Mirror
I mean, they are simply warning students that the RIAA has been watching the scene and they are attempting to compartmentalize the students from the greater network.....for the good of all file swappers too.
I think that the message is "be discrete about your swapping, use FTP, CD's and other media for the transfer...don't advertise and especially don't gloat that you are getting away with it."
Remember also, they don't want to get involved with policing everything on the net. That's the angle that all ISP's are taking against the RIAA/DMCA lawsuits now....pretty much "it's not our business what the customer has at their house, they don't have it on the server here, so it's none of our business." I think that the school is just attempting to give themselves a little "plausable deniability" in this matter.
As P2P goes, "advertising" all of the songs that you have at one location is dangerous. That's a known weakness. Perhaps this will get solved, so that donors do not have to have their IP's revealed...
Well...there's this one.....
Again, we leave further analysis along that line to the experts, only appealing to them that time-reversal effects must also be considered.
And there's also this one......
under very precise conditions -- parts of the battery to perform as negative resistors. When that action occurs, the very notion of charge and discharge is reversed.
And of course...my personal favorite....
energize the Drude electrons!
Nobody EVER gets any money from software vendors in lawsuits, contract or EULA. By spreading that myth, you perpetuate the "stupid consumer" model of software.
I don't know how you grew up, but I've always been taught "Buyer beware" is the the best model, and the most aware buyer is one who can intelligently check out the product he/she is buying.
If I was paying somebody for a service, I'd want to at least be able to satisfy my own curiosity about how well it works, at least so that I'll sign off on the check. I would want to know, ESPECIALLY if it was controlling my precious satelite.
In fact, I'd BET that for commercial satelites, the people funding any launch have teams of outsiders checking the code.
I could also imagine that at NASA, there is a mixture of vendor written and in-house written.
But don't fall for the "who ya gonna sue" stupidity......there's nobody, they're already gone.
Sorry....I use XMMS!...and I still can't think of a reason for AOL.
Are they thinking that somehow they will be able to "port" over the popular "must have" shows?.....I don't even watch HBO on television, still nothing for me...
The only way I could see this as positive is if somehow AOL and Comcast block Microsoft's attempt to own the content delivery. If AOL were to switch to some form of Linux too, that would keep delivery platform neutral....that's about the only good I could see from this.
OK, I'll bite back on all of your replies....
First, what's more important in this situation....criminal charges against Zacarias M. or stopping the deaths of innocent people? I'd vote with stopping the attack. I'd rather have stopped the attack than have the evidence to put Zacarias M. in prison/death.
Here's my global take: If we HAD been practicing what we preach, Osama bin Laden would not have gotten arms from the US government while he was fighting the Soviets in Afganastan!...We would not have supported the Taliban during that time, and they would NEVER have had the power they possessed on 9/11. Our tacit approval of their actions makes us an accomplice in terror.
If we HAD been practicing what we preach, we would not have supported Iraq in it's war with Iran. As was in last weekend's NYT, American military planners KNEW about the gas attacks against Iranian troops during this war. We approved of their use! How can we look the other way during their use against Iranians, then take the moral high ground when they (nerve gasses) are used against the Kurds. American business should have had nothing to do with Saddam and should not have sold him anything! He increased his power through our short-sightedness.
If we HAD been practicing what we preach, we would not have been trading missiles with Iran either, nor would we have backed dictators in South America and Asia.
Through our actions, we alienate people around the world and build ill-will towards America. I agree that some of these people are simply jealous of what we have here. We as Americans lead pretty good lives overall. My point is simply that we should be exporting AND demonstrating the values that we pretend to uphold.
Here's a simple idea, how about we STOP shipping arms around the world? How many times have our own short-sighted interests come back to haunt us? How much money was made from Iraq before they became an "Axis of terror"? You see, when we support Iraq in it's war with Iran, we are building ill will on both sides! Our short term, quarterly profit based war machine has cost us in the long run.
I'm not by any means saying that I approve of Osama or Saddam, what I am saying though is that we are partly responsible for creating the environment that helps these and other wacko's thrive. Without that environment, Osama would have a harder time recruiting new members and people would be less likely to support his views.
Your response falls under the general "you have nothing to worry about if you've done nothing wrong" category. This type of thinking only works until they come for you....
While it may be true that you and most of the people here on Slashdot are not really interesting enough for the government to spy on, "Big Brother" has a tendency to single out cases not so much by merit, but by image. Our "Lawyer General" John Ashcroft is especially good at rounding up the "usual" suspects and framing everything as a "Terrorist" issue.......with all of Congress's pressure, it won't be too long before P2P users are going to be "Terrorists." What's driving this you ask? Re-election my friend, all of our congress critters are looking for photo-op's and any way to show that they are "tough on crime," that only they could solve the problem of terror/drugs/comunism/boogie-man.
Have you read the FBI memo? Zackarias M's laptop didn't get searched because the management at the FBI would not pass forward the search request. The management even changed/watered down the request, against the wishes of the field agent who was conducting the investigation! There was no need for new, more invasive laws, those (the managers at the FBI)people simply needed to do their jobs! Do yourself a favor and look up the FBI memo. Read it. What you will see is a picture of an agency that doesn't need more approval to wiretap, but an agency that needs to have all of the "careerists" fired.
I don't trust these people (Ashcroft, FISA, FBI/CIA) any farther than I can throw them. They are hypocrites. They are only seeking power and control. They are driven by the same motivations that all humans are, and that's exactly why I don't trust them.
I believe that this "Terror" issue would dissapear around the world if we as the USA simply started practicing what we preach. We push this idea of a "Moral and tolorant society, governed by law and fairness"....we would do better to start acting that way. We need to stop helping dictators around the world, and start promoting justice. Even if that means we don't make quite so much money.
Picking the "lesser of two evils" is still picking evil!
Both photo's explain EXACTLY how the new system works. In fact, when I clicked on the first link, I fully expected to be sent to the second link!......Now that's truth in advertising!.
WHY? Why should they give a f*%k if consumers are buying new digital televisions and getting broadband? What does that really have to do with the economy? The way they talk about it, it was as if this were THE ANSWER to all of our economic problems....yeah, I can just hear the fat bastards and their groveling, whiney lobbyists now....
But don't even think about creating your own content though...that's forbidden in the "Acceptable Use Policy" for most broadband providers (no servers, and if you post on their hosted machines, you give them all rights to the content). They only want you to consume, not compete. Most AUP's only allow information to travel ONE direction....from the marketeers to you.
But don't answer yet, if you liked broadband policies, you are gonna love "Digital Convergence"... when your computer is prevented from doing anything usefull (like running software that you wrote and/or compiled yourself) and is morphed into a constant movie trailer machine....that you can never fast forward through!
The way things are going now, I'm not going to be purchasing a "NEW DIGITAL TELEVISION" and I hope that others don't either! Keep your old set! Stay analog!
I don't see anywhere in the disclaimer that "by entering this information, you are claiming to be the person whose information this belongs to"....if there were, you may be right about the fraud/identity theft angle.
Sounds like just some simple data entry fields and the notice about "prosecuted to the fullest extent"...blah..blah...blah...no place where the person entering the information "claims" to be the person described by the entered information. It's pretty hard to claim fraud when the "hacker" hasn't claimed anything at all, other than "here's a valid SSN and it's associated with this name."
I seem to remember that Kevin Mitnik was "claiming" to be a phone company employee, claiming to be whoever during his social engineering, in an attempt to get the information that he wanted (passwords etc). That's fraud. If there's no deception or attempt at deception, how can there be fraud? Also, by obtaining the passwords through fraud, he's effectivly "sealing" the keys and opening a "locked" door, not simply opening an "unlocked" door.
O.K. you say...what about people who attempt multiple passwords then?....arn't they simply "trying the door" multiple times with different data?....well yes, but this starts to look like "lockpicking" after two or three times, doesn't it?....
Who knows how this "hacker" got the information. Some states sell their drivers liscense data, and you can find out people's SSN's legally too. There's no need to resort to theft to find out all you need to know about somebody.
If the information entry fields are simply asking questions which can be entered truthfully without requiring some other crime or claim to be that person, I don't see any theft angle.
I HAVE had the police come into my house "un-announced" throught the "open door" policy. Of course they wouldn't do it if it were illegal...would they? The law about entry of structures says that if the door is open, they (anyone) can come in. Even the television crime shows get this one right....try the doorknob to see if it's unlocked, if open, enter at will....
The best you could get on somebody who does come in through an open door is tresspassing. Ya' see, I got charged with tresspassing for entering a construction site through an "open door." And the best they could get me for was...you guessed it...tresspassing...they would have tried to get me for more too, if they could...but they had nothing!
In most situations, (read taxes, porn and crime) the government wants to make "cyberspace" the same as "meatspace." Why should this case be any different? Why should the laws for this kind of entry be different than the physical world?
In the physical world, people assume a certain level of culpability for their actions. Because there are so many people terrified of computers and technology though, we adopt special laws and give the government extra powers to ward off the demons....perhaps the Bush/Yale connection is the real reason for the "life sentences for hackers" bill...do you really feel that this was hacking?....or was it really more a situation of "hey you kids, get out of my yard!"
Don't you think that if Yale could do something about it, they would? The disclaimer is a bluff.
I agree with both points...the police are ALLOWED to open closed doors. They are just not allowed to open "locked" doors without a warrant or without visible signs of "something wrong"...which could be anything as far as the police go, but that's another story....
In any case, it's the "breaking" part of "breaking and entering" that's the problem.
Perhaps that's why nothing is really being done here in this situation, because technically this isn't a crime! This guy, the dean, and all their lawyers prob. know that too. Gauranteed off and big egg on Yale's face.
I say let the guy keep his job, he walked right in through an open door and caused no damage. If anyone should be fired, it's the sysadmin/page designer at Yale that set up this site! What he/she did qualifies as "gross negligence," "dereliction of duty," and violation of "generally accepted accounting/webdesign practices."
This post, combined with the story yesterday about IT workers heading for restaurant jobs points out how important it is to be consistant.
.com slump are the one's which kept their bearings and didn't overspend. Likewise, heading too far in the non-IT direction will end up destroying a good number of companies which find out, only too late, that they can't keep up with their competition. Consistancy and keeping to a logical business plan is the key to a successfull business. Always.
The companies that are doing the best in the current
I've heard this story in the comparison of Wal-Mart vs. K-mart....one spends consistantly on IT projects that result in overall savings (i.e. not boondoggle projects), the other simply flaps with the breeze. K-Mart is now trying to catch up with inventory/tracking/pricing/shipping software and improvements that take years to implement correctly. They are also on the brink of insolvency.....not exactly the time/place to be making lots of rushed and critical decisions....
Perhaps there will be a downtime for IT, but it will come back as soon as things start to break around the office....
Here's an alternate scenario.......
The public becomes discusted with the direction that "entertainment" is heading. They discover that being entertained by the usual suspects is getting more and more expensive while they are getting less and less. They discover that they are prevented from doing the things that they want to do, like send a cool new song to a friend or share an interesting movie with their co-workers. They simply discover that the entertainment cartels are simply not "entertaining" any more!
As a result, they search out new forms of entertainment, they go to live theater for instance, they go out to see live music, they search out new and varied forms (small independent bands/labels), further fragmenting the entertainment industry's market. They stop buying new CD's from Tower and start shopping at their local used shops if they shop at all.
Next, the entertainment industry reacts by attempting to shut-off all alternative forms of entertainment and delivery which further alienates the consumer. They attempt to violate the "first sale" principle of copyright by getting a piece of every used CD and DVD sold too. They attempt to save their failed business model through legislation which forces themselves into the middle of every deal and gig. They hold back their "product" from the market until we accept their demands. But the "genius of capitalism" takes over and the consumer finds a way around their roadblocks. Fair or unfair, the rate of piracy in music and software is a response to the supply/demand/cost curve. Piracy is like smuggling, it will ALWAYS exist and can only be controlled by removing the incentive.
This is already starting to happen! People are seeking out alternatives right now! I only shop used CD's now. I'm on boycott for new CD's. I watch less TV than I used to (now down to less than 30 min/day and a total of 3 hrs/week. I'm spending more time reading and in front of my Linux box attempting to create rather than consume. I've only seen 2 movies this year (Goldmember and LOTR), I don't purchase products that have DRM or support DRM formats. I don't have a DVD player. I don't use "dongled" software. I bring this up because I don't think I'm that different from most people, I assume that there are many like me.
I'd also like to see what happens if the entertainment industry get their way too. It might provide the best "once-in-a-lifetime" entertainment event ever seen. Imagine the uproar, the hype, the bugs, the enormous lawsuits. Fortunes made and lost overnight. If all of the DRM and copyright enforcing mechanisms that the entertainment industry wants were put into place overnight, this might possibly be the "Greatest Show on Earth".....they'd loose almost all of their remaining customers! They would be killing the "Golden Goose" with their greed.
That too, would be "once-in-a-lifetime" entertainment.....that moment after the "Golden Goose" get's it's head chopped off, it running around helter-skelter, that moment would be spectacular!...no telling what kind of golden turds would drop out then!
I've always suspected that people in 1979 were smarter than today, and NOW I have proof!
Bug fix strategy for date roll-over...quoth message...
"First, I modified the daily demand deposit program with code that checked for the date and about mid-1979 started printed warnings on the console of what would happen come new year. Then the systems analyst and I got new jobs. This is known as stepwise interactive development."
It's funny to see that this problem was known at least 30 years before the Y2K hysteria....I hope that this is a lesson to all of you young programmers....
"run away!...run away!..." Holy Grail...
I really dislike the idea of the people starving, but if they accept this food, they are destined to become slaves to the "Intellectual Property" slave owners of this century....quoth the article...
"Some biotech advocates are criticizing the Zimbabwean government for balking at the humanitarian assistance, saying President Robert Mugabe seems to care more about his political independence than his citizens' lives."
Of course they're going to say that....they're shills for the biotech industry.....this same scenerio happens with software too (insert un-named company) donates so many liscenses to third world country A. Country A is now on the hook to make the payments for upgrades, keep other software out or be forced to return "gift"...we all know the drill.....on President Mugabe's part, it seems clear that he's interested in not having to make payments for this "product" into perpetuity....allowing something like this to start is equivalent to selling yourself into indentured servitude. So really, his choice isn't quite as clear, and it's not really about HIS independence as much as it is about the independence of Zimbabwe...if he accepts, his citizens become slaves to the west FOREVER...
I wouldn't be surprised if there is "diplomatic" pressure to accept the corn too, something like "...if you want us to approve your loan from the WMF, you'd better accept this generous offer." Nothing bothers the biotech people like customers that don't want their product....they give it a bad name....again, quoth the article...
"That response has fueled suspicion among some observers in the United States and Africa that Washington is using the food crisis to get U.S. gene-altered products established in a corner of the world that has largely resisted them."
EXACTLY RIGHT!....for two reasons, 1)get the public to accept a genetically modified product and break down their resistance to it and 2) to extend some level of "Intellectual Property" control over the continent of Africa! Remember the uproar over South Africa's plans to copy AIDS drugs without royalty? Handled by quiet dealings on the part of the drug companies, the issue got swept away by the lawyers...can't have anyone breaking step with "World Intellectual Property" laws....
If they really wanted to give a "gift," they would also lift the IP restrictions on this corn...forever...so the people of Zimbabwe would not have to worry about this....then they could just eat in peace.
--"it's a trap! it's a trap!..that's MY individual fruit pie!"--Benny Hill
There are a lot of interesting conformal coatings out there....I was doing some research on it for one of my employer's products. Lots of military applications are documented....look on Google. I seem to remember some US Army truck radio board that was rated for something like 7 years in corrosive environment without damage to the electronics. Cooling of the componants could be difficult though, the coating would gum up the fans you know....All cooling would have to be passive, or perhaps liquid cooled processor?
Or for those with a really low budget, simply dunk your PC tower in a really high temp. wax! (of course, not above the damage point for IC's...perhaps 150 deg. C).....
Last but not least....I've had really good luck with using hot-glue as a potting compound. You can melt it off if you need to get at stuff, but at room temp, it acts like a hard rubber.
That's my favorite LAN party drink by far....the Red get's you up while the vodka makes the killing oooooh so easy.....
Real Networks today.....MS tommorrow......this can only mean that "end times" are upon us......
Digital/online music is all about making it easy for people to do the right thing!
No way would I sign up for some service where all my music could vanish if I miss a monthly payment! Neither would I sign up for some service which locked the music ONLY in my laptop and ONLY allowed me to play it under cirumstances that the RIAA deems acceptable!
The reason that online music has not fullfilled on it's promise so far is not because of the software isn't good enough or because no company has been managed well enough, it's because of greed on the part of the studio's. I'ts intimated in the story too....
As a consumer, I want lower prices overall, and I want more of the percentage going to the artist. I'm fed up with paying $15.99 for CD's while the RIAA gripes that they are being "ripped off". They are the one's ripping the artists off. I'd double again their percentage ( from $0.50 per CD to $1.50) if the industry produced a $9.99 CD. I'd pay $9.99 if it ment that I could download once and have rights to burn a spare for my car. The RIAA would save A BUNDLE under such a model, no physical media until my house, so RIAA pays almost nothing for distribution. I'd pay it because it's the right thing and because it's easier than driving over to the music store...
Problem is, they want more.....MUCH more!....RIAA want's to control HOW you listen...how often you listen, what equipment you listen on...they want to turn music into a "Pay-per-hear" system...(pay for home, pay again for car...pay again for friends house...pay each time you listen...etc)....Like the DVD, they also want to control what country you can listen in....I'm fundamently opposed to such a system, once I pay...it's mine to listen anywhere I am....I have lifetime rights to listen.....
Then there's the issue of "first sale" and RIAA's desire to get in on the used CD market.....charge twice for the same product...you no longer have rights that you would have with books....
I'm guessing that businesses like this (pressplay, music-net, etc) will exist only in the "shadow" for a while yet....the Record industry is not ready to turn anyone with a real business model loose yet....they are too busy hedging their bets right now.....I'm guessing that this outfit doesn't even have a long term contract to the music that they do stock for download. I'm guessing that it could be revoked in an instant if the studios wanted to...then they'd be out of business....and I've paid money for DRM with a company that doesn't exist anymore and rights which are not going to be honored by anyone....
I'll keep ripping and burning my own until the RIAA/Labels give me an alternative that I can accept....if not a better value, at least one that keeps the status-quo...
...Of course, that's the best way...you know, you don't want all of the PR flacks from MS having a chance to spin this in the wrong direction.....or give them a bunch of time to start blackmailing you over license violations....
Remember all the fuss about the German government?....How about Peru? Making such a decision without letting the sales force get involved is prob. a good thing. I imagine that they (MS) would dig up every thing they could find in order to keep everyone in "lock-step" with their goals.....
I hope that this does get played up....now that the decision is made, let the chips fall where they may. I expect that there will be a lot of "surprise" defections and I imagine that they will happen pretty fast.
...and the number one pick-up line.....
"My joystick's been 'ruggedized' for exceptional durability and long lasting play!"
I've got a few questions.....
How are you raising funds for this adventure?
How much time each day do you devote to rocket and launchpad design/construction?
Do you have a staff?
What are you doing for ground control?
Are the rocket designs GPL'd?
What would a Beowolf-cluster of rockets look like?
This just seems to be the most sensible extension of current patent/copyright law. These things (iris profile, genetic code, personality, interests, hobbies) are all an outgrowth of my initial programming (genitic), a certain ammount of random chance and the environment within which I was raised. My body's code is it's own!....The artistic pattern of my blue eyes is my own!...any trading of that information should be at my discression.
Considering that copyright has been extended automaticly to the artist of almost anything else(without necessarily having to label something directly as such), I deserve to hold these rights on my body too.
If I choose to "auction" off this information, that should be my legal right, but the default state should be "protected."
Moving away from this simply shows the hypocritical nature of "Intellectual Property." Seems that enforcing this right for the individual would help all those IP flakes make their claims consistant.
Either it applies to everyone, or they gotta come up with a better claim for why I shouldn't be swapping their information.
....And I've got the "prior art" to proove it! I was using these genes for years before anyone knew what they did. And I've sold myself for money too, as much as I could...
..
There is simply no legitimate reason why anyone should be granted a patent on a gene....perhaps they COULD get a patent on a particular piece of equipment, for the purpose of making a particular set of proteins. That's a legit patent, you know,
"equipment/process for doing something novel" and "for the advancement of the usfull arts" kinda stuff...either way, it's NOT for something that's either an idea or just simply a fact of nature.
Yeah, I've heard the drug companies arguments too..."we spent sooooo much money finding out what this gene does...", blah..blah...blah...it's still bullshit unless you found some cool way of making "special protein sequence #27(tm)." You cannot get a patent for simply proving it's existance and/function in nature. That's the patent rule..
I say these other "bio-pirate" companies should absolutely PLUNDER these stupid "patent holders"...
...You can't own the ideas in this conceptual land rush, you just gotta fill you brain up fast as you can and stay on your feet....