I played this at MIT - the setting was as cool as the game. Go down an alley, into a freight elevator, up to the top floor, where the elevator opens into a computer room, and play at the console. It felt like the game was embedded in a James Bond movie.
I suspect that what was meant was that there is a Democratic push (by big D Democrats) to investigate HBGary. I haven't heard of any sit-ins over the issue, at least as yet.
I am not a lawyer, but I do not believe that H.264 is (or is purely) a software patent. I would note that MPEG-LA claims a number of UK (GB) patents in its pool for H.264 :
He hacked people's servers (including some belonging to the DOD) and went to jail for it. When I pointed out that my non-hacked DNS servers couldn't see the Alternic domains, he hacked those too.
For some reason, top level domains have the ability to bring out the crazies. It happened in the late 1990's, and it's happening again (e.g., with.music).
Delay / Disruption Tolerant Internet (DTN) is still at the Research Group stage. It's really more about replacing TCP than the Internet (UDP will work just fine in space), and has received some criticism (pdf download), ironically mostly centered around how it breaks the end-to-end principle.
While there is now an SIS-DTN green book (a necessary step for general deployment on space missions), and initial tests in space are positive, these things move so slowly that I think it's going to be a while before this is generally deployed in space.
If there isn't an active IETF Working Group on the subject, the chances of getting a "IPv6Next" (which I think might actually be IPv9) within the next decade are pretty small.
Sure, it's not hard to do, if you have a little knowledge and have enable to the right routers. Again
- the internet facing interfaces remained up and - BGP remained up.
I would expect if it were just threats (shut down tonight or else) different ISPs would do it different ways. This seems to reflect centralized planning to me.
Is anyone really surprised by this ? However, I don't think it was just as simple as sending over a bunch of goons - or even a "Brooks Brother's Riot."
The Egypt Internet cutoff was technically done by stopping the BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) announcement of most Egyptian address blocks. BGP itself was not taken down, and the circuits themselves did not alarm. This was most likely not achieved by cutting cords or unplugging routers (which would have downed BGP, at the least). Pulling the plug, any general can do, but most generals don't know anything about BGP.
My guess is that there was a contingency plan for this (maybe as a military defense measure), that that plan took some thought by a technically savvy person, but, having a plan, it probably wasn't much more than a few phone calls to execute it. This can be compared to Burma (which really did just pull the plug - the link light was lost at the other end).
Zipf's law (i.e., the power laws found in media choices) means that this won't work as well as a naive calculation might indicate. Yes, you can save some bandwidth by preloading the next "Harry Potter" movie or whatever, but people's tastes are sufficiently variable that you will never be able to pre-load everything that everyone wants to watch (or even that some individual wants to watch), and so you still need enough bandwidth to supply everyone as if there wasn't preloading. It may be worth doing, but it won't fundamentally change the costs of provisioning for "bandwidth bottlenecks."
These "holes" maybe let out 1 million atoms per cubic centimeter. That may sound like a lot, but on Earth this would be called a hard vacuum.
The Sun is also converting 6.2×10**11 kg of matter into energy per second and radiating it all away. One wonders that there is anything left after all of this time.
By what legal sophistry is this allowed under the Pen Registry Act ? These blatant end-runs around existing law are obnoxious and insulting. If they feel the law is too restrictive, I have no doubts that the Congress would be all too willing to oblige them, but I wish they would stop this BS.
I happen to know that H.264 was _also_ supposed to be royalty free, with certain patents being reverse-engineered around in the standards development. MPEG-LA had different ideas, and they may have different ideas about this new work as well.
The Curious Sofa, a "pornographic illustrated story about furniture," by Edward Gorey (writing as Ogdred Weary), goes into this. Let's just say that, like most Gorey stories, it doesn't end well.
Because this has nothing to do with keeping an open mind, and is in fact intended to do the exact opposite - to keep minds closed. Now, the chances of this bill becoming law are pretty small, but it is pernicious and will have a chilling effect. Representative Anderson should be ashamed of himself, but I suspect that he is nothing more than a conman without that ability.
Well, let' s get paranoid here. If their agitation gives the police the power to stop you, the police no longer have effective restraints on whether and how much they can search you, so mission accomplished !
I remember when Virginia MADD was agitating to make drinking anything in your car illegal (i.e., no more cans of coke or a Starbucks latte on your way to work), just because someone might put booze in a coke can. Anyone who can promote such tyranny is not to be trusted, in either motives or execution.
I flat-out mistrust MADD, which is always on the side of more police power. They are to the traffic police what child pornography is to Internet regulation.
IANAL, but emails have been subpoenable for a long time (except for lawyer-client and doctor-patient communications) and I see no reason why (say) Facebook posts would be any different. That doesn't mean that they are public, just that a judge can authorize lifting the veil.
Slashdot Mirror
I played this at MIT - the setting was as cool as the game. Go down an alley, into a freight elevator, up to the top floor, where the elevator opens into a computer room, and play at the console. It felt like the game was embedded in a James Bond movie.
I suspect that what was meant was that there is a Democratic push (by big D Democrats) to investigate HBGary. I haven't heard of any sit-ins over the issue, at least as yet.
I am not a lawyer, but I do not believe that H.264 is (or is purely) a software patent. I would note that MPEG-LA claims a number of UK (GB) patents in its pool for H.264 :
GB 564,597
GB 630,157
GB 1,467,491
GB 1,487,113
GB 1,550,219
GB 0460751
GB 2,003,899
GB 2,003,900
GB 2,009,927
GB 2,009,928
GB 2,015,585
(there are more, but you get the picture). If these patents are valid, they could certainly claim intellectual property rights in the UK.
(Note : in the UK patent search system - the "REGISTER ENTRY FOR GB2003899" is
Title POLYMERS CONTAINING IMIDYL GROUPS AND SILYL GROUPS
which is curious, to say the least. I wonder how closely MPEG-LA double-checks and copy-edits the claims submitted to them.)
He hacked people's servers (including some belonging to the DOD) and went to jail for it. When I pointed out that my non-hacked DNS servers couldn't see the Alternic domains, he hacked those too.
For some reason, top level domains have the ability to bring out the crazies. It happened in the late 1990's, and it's happening again (e.g., with .music).
Yes, of course. To be blunt, the deniers at this stage are either tools or fools.
You have an odd notion of what voluntary means.
More evidence that the copyright term is much too long.
Delay / Disruption Tolerant Internet (DTN) is still at the Research Group stage. It's really more about replacing TCP than the Internet (UDP will work just fine in space), and has received some criticism (pdf download), ironically mostly centered around how it breaks the end-to-end principle.
While there is now an SIS-DTN green book (a necessary step for general deployment on space missions), and initial tests in space are positive, these things move so slowly that I think it's going to be a while before this is generally deployed in space.
You don't need Vint Cerf to conclude this.
If there isn't an active IETF Working Group on the subject, the chances of getting a "IPv6Next" (which I think might actually be IPv9) within the next decade are pretty small.
Sure, it's not hard to do, if you have a little knowledge and have enable to the right routers. Again
- the internet facing interfaces remained up and
- BGP remained up.
I would expect if it were just threats (shut down tonight or else) different ISPs would do it different ways. This seems to reflect centralized planning to me.
Is anyone really surprised by this ? However, I don't think it was just as simple as sending over a bunch of goons - or even a "Brooks Brother's Riot."
The Egypt Internet cutoff was technically done by stopping the BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) announcement of most Egyptian address blocks. BGP itself was not taken down, and the circuits themselves did not alarm. This was most likely not achieved by cutting cords or unplugging routers (which would have downed BGP, at the least). Pulling the plug, any general can do, but most generals don't know anything about BGP.
My guess is that there was a contingency plan for this (maybe as a military defense measure), that that plan took some thought by a technically savvy person, but, having a plan, it probably wasn't much more than a few phone calls to execute it. This can be compared to Burma (which really did just pull the plug - the link light was lost at the other end).
Zipf's law (i.e., the power laws found in media choices) means that this won't work as well as a naive calculation might indicate. Yes, you can save some bandwidth by preloading the next "Harry Potter" movie or whatever, but people's tastes are sufficiently variable that you will never be able to pre-load everything that everyone wants to watch (or even that some individual wants to watch), and so you still need enough bandwidth to supply everyone as if there wasn't preloading. It may be worth doing, but it won't fundamentally change the costs of provisioning for "bandwidth bottlenecks."
These "holes" maybe let out 1 million atoms per cubic centimeter. That may sound like a lot, but on Earth this would be called a hard vacuum.
The Sun is also converting 6.2×10**11 kg of matter into energy per second and radiating it all away. One wonders that there is anything left after all of this time.
The consensus in the networking community is that the Internet to / from Algeria has not been shut down. See the Renesys blog for more details.
The situation with regards to social media is more uncertain, with reports of both blockage and routine service.
By what legal sophistry is this allowed under the Pen Registry Act ? These blatant end-runs around existing law are obnoxious and insulting. If they feel the law is too restrictive, I have no doubts that the Congress would be all too willing to oblige them, but I wish they would stop this BS.
I would pay a premium for that.
I happen to know that H.264 was _also_ supposed to be royalty free, with certain patents being reverse-engineered around in the standards development. MPEG-LA had different ideas, and they may have different ideas about this new work as well.
The normally sober and sometimes accurate Wall Street Journal
Must not read the editorial page much.
The Curious Sofa, a "pornographic illustrated story about furniture," by Edward Gorey (writing as Ogdred Weary), goes into this. Let's just say that, like most Gorey stories, it doesn't end well.
Because this has nothing to do with keeping an open mind, and is in fact intended to do the exact opposite - to keep minds closed. Now, the chances of this bill becoming law are pretty small, but it is pernicious and will have a chilling effect. Representative Anderson should be ashamed of himself, but I suspect that he is nothing more than a conman without that ability.
IANAL, but if emails are discoverable (and they are) I don't see why Facebook posts wouldn't be either.
Well, let' s get paranoid here. If their agitation gives the police the power to stop you, the police no longer have effective restraints on whether and how much they can search you, so mission accomplished !
I remember when Virginia MADD was agitating to make drinking anything in your car illegal (i.e., no more cans of coke or a Starbucks latte on your way to work), just because someone might put booze in a coke can. Anyone who can promote such tyranny is not to be trusted, in either motives or execution.
I flat-out mistrust MADD, which is always on the side of more police power. They are to the traffic police what child pornography is to Internet regulation.
Standards always tend to be dominated by the people and companies that show up.
IANAL, but emails have been subpoenable for a long time (except for lawyer-client and doctor-patient communications) and I see no reason why (say) Facebook posts would be any different. That doesn't mean that they are public, just that a judge can authorize lifting the veil.