How much would you pay for a two digit telephone number? No area code, no "dial 1"... just dial 5,6 and wait a second... {{RING}} {{RING}} "Hello?" "This is bgarcia (33222)" "Hmmm 32?" "No, 33222"
> The biggest fear? Microsoft will use its desktop PC monopoly to charge Hollywood outrageous fees and basically own the movie industry. Microsoft refutes the accusations, saying that it's only interested in selling more copies of Windows and applications for its platform, and providing movie content would promote the platform.
This is FUD. Microsoft can't own the movie industry because the movie industry doesn't even own the movie industry. The customers own the movie industry and if Hollywood continues putting out crap films, studio execs will only have themselves to blame for the fall of Hollywood. Obviously Microsoft doesn't want that to happen. They want to keep doing business with Hollywood and Microsoft is afraid of Open Source, so Billy's army of one will only have to start competing with Open Source in a way that is fair and honest (not "Best Practice", True Practice), or Microsoft too will only have themselves to blame when the palace of cards comes tumbling down.
I see some parallelism here between Hollywood and Microsoft. Both are too big for their own good and it's about time they realize it and start acting like they have something to lose if they don't change their tactics.
I just saw a Canadian movie today called Shot in the Face (2001). Yes the fans at IMDB give it an under-rated 5.6/10, but to me the film had a unique plot, interesting characters and it was fun -- it was just low budget, but it still brought a smile to my face. Obviously not A-list by any stretch of the imagination. My point is that large organizations take something unique out of films, and they also take something unique out of software and operating systems. Polish sometimes ruins things, and both these industries have ruined their products by either having too much polish in all the wrong places, or by have not enough polish in the places that matter.
I intentionally set up my Ebay acct with my old/. nick because I did not want to mask the fact that this happened and which nick I used before this transaction.
I feel like I got a good deal on it. I was prepared to go higher than that price.
I've always been a huge fan of Slasdot, and I started coming here when UIDs were about in the 4 digit range, but I never registered then and only posted AC. I bought this acct for my birthday, as the ultimate geek present to myself. My wife looked at me like I was nuts! (She still does)
This acct was originally a beta tester's acct, so I think it's just a cool thing to have and I would never sell it. I'm not sure why anyone would sell their low UID for beer money.
If you look back at my comments, you will see that I have made good use of this acct, and contribute positively to this community. At least a troll didn't get it, right?
Totally. I think this is one of my foes just being themselves. This is actually the first flame I've read on the project thus far. Everyone else seems to be into it. Oh well, there's always one or two who enjoy spoiling fun, raining on parades, laughing at funerals, stopping weddings, etc.
> you're just another schmuck who hasn't read the damn article
I did RTFA, and I posted my response to it. The fact they are doing the test thing doesn't bother me. Google will likely make them change servers, so it's kind of a non-issue to me. Their product will move to whatever mechanism works. The fact they say you have to pay to be removed is likely a joke, but even if it isn't, I would rather know that kind of stuff *up front* rather than find out after I've installed something that it won't come off (like Gator). And it's the fact they have designed this project knowing full well that many people won't use it because it's ads, but yet they still branched the advertising medium into something else -- something moral -- I just feel like they deserve to get as many people supporting them as they can. Really, wouldn't you like to see the Internet advertising medium shift gears into something that doesn't hijack your computer? I certainly would.
I'm going to take a funny stance on this subject. Normally I would be annoyed by this sort of thing, but something occured to me when I read this/. article. Because Adbar is *not* spyware, I'm going to install it. I think people should support advertizing projects that take the high moral road. I'm going to reward these guys for staying legit and we'll see how it turns out. I wouldn't mind Google ads on pages I'm surfing, because there might be cool products or services I can buy related to the stuff I'm looking at. And, no, I'm not affiliated with this project in any way, shape or form, so don't ask!:-)
I'm sorry it's called a police budget. I'm a Canadian and I'm sick of the cops trying to weasel more and more money out of us taxpayers. They squander their budgets on police brutality and corruption cases, so it's not my fault they have fallen a tad short these days. And I'm not paying for it. This kind of cash grab always happens when the Liberals are in. It's worse when the Tories get in... they just hand the cops more money without asking. The Liberals always want to ask us for more money.
Let's remember the heroes who died that day. I think it's very sad something like a little glue can cost lives in the blink of an eye. What a horrible mistake. There is an interesting article on the safety upgrades for the spring 2005 launch.
Well the above letter was kind of a joke. I mean, there were flames shooting out of the buildings!
But the seriousness of the insecure EAS could have been much more deadly. Like if a nuke was detonated and people were told that some city was safe to return to, even when in reality a bunch of nuclear fallout was starting to cling to everything within miles of the blast.
I'm not sure how effective hacking the EAS would be, but I am damn sure I wouldn't want to find out. I say, take it offline until they can secure it (and I don't mean by getting Diebold involved).
Dear FCC, Since you asked, I thought I would weigh in with my comments about The U.S. Emergency Alert System (EAS). I think it's appalling that anyone with a 14.4 could tap into this system and alter it for their own aims. The whole system could be crashed by terrorists during an attack, compounding the devastation of any terrorist attack by cutting off access to the system, or providing false and possibly deadly information. For example, during the 9/11 attacks the EAS could have directed people to return to their desks in the WTC, magnifying the losses suffered that day.
I suggest you rebuild the EAS and take it offline until such a time that it can be secure.
>... the EAS is designed to allow the President to interrupt television and radio programming and speak directly to the American people in the event of an impending nuclear war, or a similarly extreme national emergency.
With the audio capabilities available today, it would be quite possible to dupe the public into thinking they were listening to George Bush, when in fact they were listening to the words of Osama bin Laden. And with the stuff Bush has been saying lately, the public might actually believe it was Bush no matter how insane the babble was!
Somehow you would want to have a method for ensuring the audio was legit, encrypted and unaltered. I'm sure there are many ways to do this today, so I'm not really sure why you're asking me! Throw up a bunch of secure pipes and give the president access to them. Come up with a way to keep his message secure. Yeah, it's going to be expensive, but not as costly as 80,000 employees of the WTC returning to their offices because the EAS said it was "just a test".
JC hinted that this was the case in one of his recent comments on/. and I think that we may see the Trinity game they were looking at doing after Quake 2. That would totally rock!
Why has he supported Microsoft in his statements and abandoned them in the delivery mechanism? We can access them in a PDF (Adobe) or an Open Office document. Where's the MS Word version? How ironic.
The Governator should be applauded for his adoption of Open Source in the government. My only question is whether the Open Source solutions will have to be made in California, because it is my understanding that The Governator is against Hollywood productions saving money by filming up north in Canada. I think this is a *great* move to use Open Source in the government because it will help keep everything much more secure and stable than going with expensive closed source anti-solutions. I only wonder if this will mean that Allnold will be moderating his anti-Canadian rhetoric any time soon? A great deal of Open Source comes from Canada.
... but I think in this case, he *should* be made an example of. Virus writers need to *STOP*. Now.
On the other hand...
The fact that unscrupulous companies will bill in phantom damages just makes it worse. How are these kids supposed to have any role models when the establishment distances themselves from morality for profit? Phantom damages and those who issue them, ought be fined and sent off to jail with just as much enthusiasm as virus writers.
I know they're going with Kirk but wouldn't it be funny if he played the tyrant from Sea Quest DSV, instead of Kirk? Anyone who saw this episode will know what I mean... he was terrible in it with a fake accent and all the Shatner pomp and circumstance.
But seriously, I would much rather see Spock again.
> And that's were I'm going to end it for today. In the next part, I'll take a look at what happens as this chain of malware continues on it's merry way, and I'll also investigate what happens when I fire up IE the next time and visit my new home page.
Personally, I think you should examine ways to get even. Even-Stevens.
Up until this point, I've seen lots of anti-spyware put out that blocks spyware and protects your system from unjustified Reg entries etc., but it generally stops there. It's a shield when what we need is a shield and a sword.
Covenants, without the sword, are but words, and of no strength to secure a man at all -Hobbes
What I would like to see is anti-malware that bites back, hard.
We had this site going a while back that was going to test anti-trolling methods, like by taking a troll user and stuffing them in their own world. All their posts would be modded up and their view of the site was totally different than the users who were not trolls. Of course in tests it was easy enough for them to spoof their IP to get past this, but many of them didn't realize how to do it.
But for malware sites, what if we came up with a solution that would detect it and let it believe it was working, but generated the data needed to put these goofs in jail. I think the SETI distributed computing model could be slightly altered to work to this end.
Yes but would a Beowulf cluster of CFCs harm the environment? Yes, the Compact Flash Computer has the unlikely acronym CFC. I move that we change that acronym to CFCC[Compact Flash Card Computer] in hopes the ozone doesn't sue.
Also there is less recognition for shots in pool because strategies are different compared to where you play. The base rules system is easier than chess, but you have near-infinite possibilities for aligning shots, taking shots and winning. If you're playing someone who can sink the table on a streak, the robot had better be able to do the same. Plus there's breaking... does the bot know how to break a rack and sink a couple each time? If not, it's not a very good pool bot, whereas it doesn't take much these days to create a chess bot that is *amazing* at chess by even pro standards. They have all the stats from previous games to go by. Stats won't help a robot with billiards, as there are no coordinates recorded to base new calulations on. Perhaps there *should* be? I think it would be fairly easy to record coords from each pro game from this day forward and the billiards industry should invent a table that does it. That would be awesome for so many reasons.
Slashdot Mirror
What specifically about Open Source is so attractive to governments? It can't be just cost that makes Open Source so awesome. What is it?
How much would you pay for a two digit telephone number? No area code, no "dial 1"... just dial 5,6 and wait a second... {{RING}} {{RING}} "Hello?" "This is bgarcia (33222)" "Hmmm 32?" "No, 33222"
"Never heard of ya." {{CLICK}}
> The biggest fear? Microsoft will use its desktop PC monopoly to charge Hollywood outrageous fees and basically own the movie industry. Microsoft refutes the accusations, saying that it's only interested in selling more copies of Windows and applications for its platform, and providing movie content would promote the platform.
This is FUD. Microsoft can't own the movie industry because the movie industry doesn't even own the movie industry. The customers own the movie industry and if Hollywood continues putting out crap films, studio execs will only have themselves to blame for the fall of Hollywood. Obviously Microsoft doesn't want that to happen. They want to keep doing business with Hollywood and Microsoft is afraid of Open Source, so Billy's army of one will only have to start competing with Open Source in a way that is fair and honest (not "Best Practice", True Practice), or Microsoft too will only have themselves to blame when the palace of cards comes tumbling down.
I see some parallelism here between Hollywood and Microsoft. Both are too big for their own good and it's about time they realize it and start acting like they have something to lose if they don't change their tactics.
I just saw a Canadian movie today called Shot in the Face (2001). Yes the fans at IMDB give it an under-rated 5.6/10, but to me the film had a unique plot, interesting characters and it was fun -- it was just low budget, but it still brought a smile to my face. Obviously not A-list by any stretch of the imagination. My point is that large organizations take something unique out of films, and they also take something unique out of software and operating systems. Polish sometimes ruins things, and both these industries have ruined their products by either having too much polish in all the wrong places, or by have not enough polish in the places that matter.
I intentionally set up my Ebay acct with my old /. nick because I did not want to mask the fact that this happened and which nick I used before this transaction.
I feel like I got a good deal on it. I was prepared to go higher than that price.
I've always been a huge fan of Slasdot, and I started coming here when UIDs were about in the 4 digit range, but I never registered then and only posted AC. I bought this acct for my birthday, as the ultimate geek present to myself. My wife looked at me like I was nuts! (She still does)
This acct was originally a beta tester's acct, so I think it's just a cool thing to have and I would never sell it. I'm not sure why anyone would sell their low UID for beer money.
If you look back at my comments, you will see that I have made good use of this acct, and contribute positively to this community. At least a troll didn't get it, right?
> Only with the balls of an anonymous coward.
Totally. I think this is one of my foes just being themselves. This is actually the first flame I've read on the project thus far. Everyone else seems to be into it. Oh well, there's always one or two who enjoy spoiling fun, raining on parades, laughing at funerals, stopping weddings, etc.
And I was going to the trouble of getting out my magic marker and drawing on the download!
> you're just another schmuck who hasn't read the damn article
I did RTFA, and I posted my response to it. The fact they are doing the test thing doesn't bother me. Google will likely make them change servers, so it's kind of a non-issue to me. Their product will move to whatever mechanism works. The fact they say you have to pay to be removed is likely a joke, but even if it isn't, I would rather know that kind of stuff *up front* rather than find out after I've installed something that it won't come off (like Gator). And it's the fact they have designed this project knowing full well that many people won't use it because it's ads, but yet they still branched the advertising medium into something else -- something moral -- I just feel like they deserve to get as many people supporting them as they can. Really, wouldn't you like to see the Internet advertising medium shift gears into something that doesn't hijack your computer? I certainly would.
I'm going to take a funny stance on this subject. Normally I would be annoyed by this sort of thing, but something occured to me when I read this /. article. Because Adbar is *not* spyware, I'm going to install it. I think people should support advertizing projects that take the high moral road. I'm going to reward these guys for staying legit and we'll see how it turns out. I wouldn't mind Google ads on pages I'm surfing, because there might be cool products or services I can buy related to the stuff I'm looking at. And, no, I'm not affiliated with this project in any way, shape or form, so don't ask! :-)
I'm sorry it's called a police budget. I'm a Canadian and I'm sick of the cops trying to weasel more and more money out of us taxpayers. They squander their budgets on police brutality and corruption cases, so it's not my fault they have fallen a tad short these days. And I'm not paying for it. This kind of cash grab always happens when the Liberals are in. It's worse when the Tories get in... they just hand the cops more money without asking. The Liberals always want to ask us for more money.
Let's remember the heroes who died that day. I think it's very sad something like a little glue can cost lives in the blink of an eye. What a horrible mistake. There is an interesting article on the safety upgrades for the spring 2005 launch.
Well the above letter was kind of a joke. I mean, there were flames shooting out of the buildings!
But the seriousness of the insecure EAS could have been much more deadly. Like if a nuke was detonated and people were told that some city was safe to return to, even when in reality a bunch of nuclear fallout was starting to cling to everything within miles of the blast.
I'm not sure how effective hacking the EAS would be, but I am damn sure I wouldn't want to find out. I say, take it offline until they can secure it (and I don't mean by getting Diebold involved).
Dear FCC,
Since you asked, I thought I would weigh in with my comments about The U.S. Emergency Alert System (EAS). I think it's appalling that anyone with a 14.4 could tap into this system and alter it for their own aims. The whole system could be crashed by terrorists during an attack, compounding the devastation of any terrorist attack by cutting off access to the system, or providing false and possibly deadly information. For example, during the 9/11 attacks the EAS could have directed people to return to their desks in the WTC, magnifying the losses suffered that day.
I suggest you rebuild the EAS and take it offline until such a time that it can be secure.
>... the EAS is designed to allow the President to interrupt television and radio programming and speak directly to the American people in the event of an impending nuclear war, or a similarly extreme national emergency.
With the audio capabilities available today, it would be quite possible to dupe the public into thinking they were listening to George Bush, when in fact they were listening to the words of Osama bin Laden. And with the stuff Bush has been saying lately, the public might actually believe it was Bush no matter how insane the babble was!
Somehow you would want to have a method for ensuring the audio was legit, encrypted and unaltered. I'm sure there are many ways to do this today, so I'm not really sure why you're asking me! Throw up a bunch of secure pipes and give the president access to them. Come up with a way to keep his message secure. Yeah, it's going to be expensive, but not as costly as 80,000 employees of the WTC returning to their offices because the EAS said it was "just a test".
Kind Regards,
Scott
JC hinted that this was the case in one of his recent comments on /. and I think that we may see the Trinity game they were looking at doing after Quake 2. That would totally rock!
>A 189 KB PDF file...
Why has he supported Microsoft in his statements and abandoned them in the delivery mechanism? We can access them in a PDF (Adobe) or an Open Office document. Where's the MS Word version? How ironic.
The Governator should be applauded for his adoption of Open Source in the government. My only question is whether the Open Source solutions will have to be made in California, because it is my understanding that The Governator is against Hollywood productions saving money by filming up north in Canada. I think this is a *great* move to use Open Source in the government because it will help keep everything much more secure and stable than going with expensive closed source anti-solutions. I only wonder if this will mean that Allnold will be moderating his anti-Canadian rhetoric any time soon? A great deal of Open Source comes from Canada.
See?
... but I think in this case, he *should* be made an example of. Virus writers need to *STOP*. Now.
On the other hand...
The fact that unscrupulous companies will bill in phantom damages just makes it worse. How are these kids supposed to have any role models when the establishment distances themselves from morality for profit? Phantom damages and those who issue them, ought be fined and sent off to jail with just as much enthusiasm as virus writers.
I know they're going with Kirk but wouldn't it be funny if he played the tyrant from Sea Quest DSV, instead of Kirk? Anyone who saw this episode will know what I mean... he was terrible in it with a fake accent and all the Shatner pomp and circumstance.
But seriously, I would much rather see Spock again.
> And that's were I'm going to end it for today. In the next part, I'll take a look at what happens as this chain of malware continues on it's merry way, and I'll also investigate what happens when I fire up IE the next time and visit my new home page.
Personally, I think you should examine ways to get even. Even-Stevens.
Up until this point, I've seen lots of anti-spyware put out that blocks spyware and protects your system from unjustified Reg entries etc., but it generally stops there. It's a shield when what we need is a shield and a sword.
Covenants, without the sword, are but words, and of no strength to secure a man at all -Hobbes
What I would like to see is anti-malware that bites back, hard.
We had this site going a while back that was going to test anti-trolling methods, like by taking a troll user and stuffing them in their own world. All their posts would be modded up and their view of the site was totally different than the users who were not trolls. Of course in tests it was easy enough for them to spoof their IP to get past this, but many of them didn't realize how to do it.
But for malware sites, what if we came up with a solution that would detect it and let it believe it was working, but generated the data needed to put these goofs in jail. I think the SETI distributed computing model could be slightly altered to work to this end.
Then we could get Even-Stevens.
Yes but would a Beowulf cluster of CFCs harm the environment? Yes, the Compact Flash Computer has the unlikely acronym CFC. I move that we change that acronym to CFCC [Compact Flash Card Computer] in hopes the ozone doesn't sue.
> how clean your balls are
Mine are pretty clean. How about yours?
Also there is less recognition for shots in pool because strategies are different compared to where you play. The base rules system is easier than chess, but you have near-infinite possibilities for aligning shots, taking shots and winning. If you're playing someone who can sink the table on a streak, the robot had better be able to do the same. Plus there's breaking... does the bot know how to break a rack and sink a couple each time? If not, it's not a very good pool bot, whereas it doesn't take much these days to create a chess bot that is *amazing* at chess by even pro standards. They have all the stats from previous games to go by. Stats won't help a robot with billiards, as there are no coordinates recorded to base new calulations on. Perhaps there *should* be? I think it would be fairly easy to record coords from each pro game from this day forward and the billiards industry should invent a table that does it. That would be awesome for so many reasons.
From the URL you linked: "This combination offers tremendous synergies as GameSpy and IGN have very complementary strengths"
Dilbert Translation:
This combination offers tremendous GOLF TIME FOR ALL THE EXECUTIVES, as GameSpy and IGN have great combined GOLF SCORES.
Hey Mr. Duct Tape modder, if you want to get into a wicked Doom 3 project, why not help us out?
Yaba-Daba-Dooooo!!!!! ~~~~~*Sppppppplat*