> In your opinion it seems that the most heinous thing a terrost organization could do to a country would be to cause its cell phone network to be overloaded.
In case you didn't remember, during the September 11 attacks, cell networks were in chaos. Imagine if they attacked during outages or could cause outages.
It's not the network I'm worried about... it's people dying and unable to say they love their families before a ten ton cement block crushes their skulls. Or worse... what if they were buried and could tell the resuce guys where they are? They couldn't exactly do that if the networks were down, could they? Many people survived the World Trade centers *because* they had working cell phones, at least for a while.
If terrorists figure out the pattern of outages, they could attack during a peak collapsing the cell networks, and that would be bad, IMHO. Chaos would ensue. For once, I don't believe it, I'm in agreement with Homeland Security.
> I appreciate Somerville's (apparently) noble motivations and Odeon's non-compatibility is certainly a problem, but how can you argue with their logic?
No. I can't. That's why they own trademarks, so they can control content. Now if Odeon was smart, they would simply fire off an RSS feed and let the guy fucking well spider it. Am I right or what?
I've been saying we need to focus on software standards compliance for some time, and while my focus has been related to RPG games, it does apply to other software. Role Playing Games Standards Compliance (RPGSC) is something I think can help develop a core philosophy behind the way these games are developed, from paper, rough drafts, story boards, all the way to the final product. RPGSC is still in development, and we hope to encompass the possibilities for every RPG game, to get the final products performing the way the audience wants, and the developers hope for to save time and money.
Perhaps the answer is to set up a non-profit system for governing software standards? I think there are many archetypical rules that could be applied to any software package, without circumventing proprietary rights or stepping on any toes. But it takes teamwork, and the desire to produce quality at the industry level. This means side-stepping rigorous competition tendencies and focusing on the overall good of society -- something that hasn't happened quite yet. When corporations learn that this method leads to better profits and happier customers, we'll see a shift in that direction.
> Does he really have one? Great reference!!! I think if he doesn't really have one, then maybe he's not really the Attourney General, either. Maybe he's just a plantation worker who fell in the Coke vats? IEEEEEEEEEEYIEIEIEIEIE!!!
> Fred Flinstone, with infinite miles to the gallon.
Laugh if you will, but we'd all be a lot healthier if we followed Fred's example and ran to and from the office, instead of hit cruise control after rolling drive-thru.
Some folks were suspicious of PHP5, and being a longtime PHP programmer, I am very pleased with the changes and additions in PHP5. Can't wait to test it out. Personally, I'm not sure if I'll use *all* of the new stuff, yet I'm sure I'll have to play with the coolest additions for the hell of it, and sort out what I'll be using and what will remain vestigial in my scripts. I will add that some of the previous PHP version quirkiness seems to be fixed.
I am certain this is not the last we'll hear about PHP5 on Slashdot, yet I am only hoping that it's creative/cool stuff, and not security problem/exploit stuff.
I can't wait to see what kinds of changes I can make to my content management system that PHP5 will bring.
Okay I just downloaded Spybot and ran it with Tea Timer. Guess what? Over 2500 malware objects found and now cleaned. That's *after* running Ad Aware and Norton Antivirus. Jeeeeesus. Thanks for pointing to that software package!:-)/me is grateful!!!
This story comes at a perfect time for me. I'm a Mozilla diehard, and I just ran Ad Aware 6 to find that some malware bypassed security (even Norton Internet Security) to install itself. One of the progs I found was malware called Winfavorites, and although Symantec says this is detectable malware, I had run Norton Antivirus and it went undetected. Looks like it's smartest to run a combination of programs just in case!
I might add that I don't blame Mozilla for it. I blame the programmers who sell their soul for cash to these unscrupulous companies only looking to profit while hurting the systems they populate.
Somebody save e-voting... before it's too late. Looks like Florida is going to be in a worse position than in 2000. I know I keep saying this, but someone should create a good Internet voting mechanism, and keep it anonymous yet feasible. I'd like to be sure my vote was counted, and the only way to really do that is by the old fashioned SQL count() function.:-)
At least then I'd know that my vote is my say. Nowadays, you're either black, hispanic, poor, criminal, or you look like these groups so you're unable to vote. It's a crying shame, and in all its flaws, Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 actually does demonstrate the problems with the 2000 election quite intricately.
I'm not a huge fan of Morrowind because of the rubbery graphics. Fallout 2 has a lower-end graphics setting that lets you imagine what things might look like, without painting too much of it for you. The snarky storyline was what made the game fun, not to mention the evil side of things. Like they had really funny cards that showed what your character was like. The funny cards didn't save Fallout Tactics from ruin, but maybe with a rich storyline in Fallout 3, we may see some improvements to the Fallout franchise. I only hope that they don't use the Morrowind engine for Fallout 3, because Fallout fans are very picky. They should use graphics like Temple of Elemental Evil, and that would be nice enough (sans bugs).
But I'm guessing Fallout 3 will use graphics much like Morrowind. Too bad.
This may be true, although I have a slightly different perspective. I think we just really like the people who make comics, because they are expressive people; these same people could do anything else and we would like it just as much. For example, take Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert. I have been holding out for the next Scott Adams novel (not comic, read: handbook). I was greatly amused, and felt better protected against the weasels in society, after reading "The Way of the Weasel." This was a fantastic read, filled with cynical, yet practical knowledge, to help combat the weasels ruining our workplaces and our private lives. Sure Dilbert comics make an appearances in TWotW, to illustrate concise points, but they only accent the rest of the book and support points raised with classic Dilbert humour. His writing is stunning -- and wholly useful. I can only hope he writes another one of these because I found it totally useful, as I'm sure many of you have.
You have to give them credit. These bits of dust were going 45,000 mph! You'd think they would have decimated that antenna, but I guess not? I would have to disagree, however. To the average non-PHD, this dust sounds like nothing more than some static mixed with klinking noises. To me it sounds like SPACE DUST!
Companies won't stop cell phone abuse because it means higher dollars for them. Plus it means they can sell services to block the abuse, which is generally a pattern from regular phone companies selling caller-id, call blocking... etc.
Strangely enough, somewhere.com offers anti-spam services as well as other consulting things. Could it be that they have set up someone@somewhere.com as a black hole to track spammers? That sure would rock. There is always some misuse when you post your email address online. Don't do it. Simply code a form for contacting you via email and let PHP or whatever send it to you behind the scenes. This halts any kind of email harvesting, and results in the use of faked email addresses, or obvious ones, like admin@DOMAIN.com or whatever. If you have a catchall, you should disable it and let them all bounce. When enough email bounces, someone somewhere will figure out something to solve the problem of spam, or run of the mill spammers will just give up.
Really when you think about it, Biometrics basically halts any kind of Social Engineering. You can't get around them without chopping off someone's hand and plucking out their eyes, but if you're going to go that far, you're criminal enough that it won't matter if you use Social Engineering or not. Let's face it, pretty soon we'll be heading toward the Biometric model for pretty much everything, and the privacy advocates are going to fight it all the way.
The quote at the top of the page is pretty damn funny; "Tricksy spammers, they'll stop at nothing to get my precious."
I have to ask; if you're going to classify spam as an organism, would you not also have to classify email as an organism? So if spam is predatory in nature, then regular email is not?
And so what if we do this? What guarantee do we have that spammers won't evolve past any thwarting mechanism developed? My thoughts are that you have to keep slowing it down, to the point where only the most experienced spammers can get past the armor. Make it so tough to start spamming that people can't just simply pick it up as a hobby. I can remember back in the early nineties when it was relatively easy to spam and there were quite a few people doing it. But nowadays it's not that easy to just start spamming. There's no guarantees that the email will get through, so while many people try to spam, many fail at it. There's no payoff, there's less people taking it up.
But at some point, we will have to deal with the moneybags supporting spam. Maybe legislation could make funding spam illegal? Fine the little old ladies who give their money to spammers, and you'll see many of that just stop. Cut off the revenue generated by spam, and you cut off the spam itself.
I normally don't reply to my own threads, but I will break with tradition on this one, because it's especially insightful.
> Only problem is, they'd just do every R.A. Salvatore book about the drow and Drizzt with the romulans and some new hero character yet to be introduced.
You are so correct that it's not even funny. I would not want to see this, either. I never liked Drizz't Do'Urden because he was unnatural. He should have been as wicked as the rest of the Drow. A better story would be that of a lone Drow assassin named Drizz't who crept up from the depths to kill ThickSkull and King Azun on a secret mission from Lolth herself. That would have been much more interesting than the story Salvatore tells, IMHO.
For me, a Romulan series about anything but the sheer evil of the Romulans would be heresy. What I want is the pure exacting nature of Romulan society, in a nutshell Roman society in space, but worse. I would want to see how they operate, in all their evil ways, and how they can remain stable doing so. A series like this, even using a bit of Sopranos humour, would be totally awesome.
But they'll never do it because they're stupid. That's not a troll, because there's plenty of evidence to support the fact that B&B are stupid. They never even watched TOS! DUH!!
In other news, a New Zealand man, possibly Bruce Simpson, was found dead by neighbours this afternoon. Officials present stated that Mr. Simpson died from an apparent tooth brushing incident, rendering his neck severed due to an accidental slip/fall, caused when a shampoo bottle fell over and mixed with some dripped shower water on the floor. Sadly, Mr. Simpson's efforts to provide cruise missiles to Iran and North Korea are all but a distant memory. New Zealand investigating officials have ruled out any foul play, and have ruled it an accidental death. Iranian and North Korean officials had no comment.
> One way to handle this would be to work the plot out so that Romulans are actually seen by Terrans and/or allies, but that those who see them are either a) all killed or b) that it's all hushed up (I like this latter option, as there are all kinds of cool foreshadowin things which could be done).
For me, I think it comes down to motive. Why would a government want to include in history the fact that Romulans were never seen by a human? Let's face it, they look an awful lot like the Vulcans, and in fact are related to them. You remember how racist TOS was when it came to Klingons? Maybe the higher ups were afraid that people, captains, would want to turn against the Vulcans if they ever knew what Romulans looked like.
I think it'd be easy for this information to be marked classified, and be done with it. If anyone ever saw a Romulan, they were usually about to die anyway, or be hauled off to Remus to do dillithium mining...
The thing I always wanted to see from Trek, that likely wouldn't ever happen, is a series about Roumulus. Just follow Captain Sula around on all her truly dark and mysterious missions. That'd actually be too dark for prime time, but the Sopranos has shown that even the darkest series can work and be huge success stories.
I would love to see Roumulans in a series about Romulans. Wouldn't it rock? Show it from their side of things, with their dark and mysterious logic. It'd be cool as hell.
Slashdot Mirror
> In your opinion it seems that the most heinous thing a terrost organization could do to a country would be to cause its cell phone network to be overloaded.
In case you didn't remember, during the September 11 attacks, cell networks were in chaos. Imagine if they attacked during outages or could cause outages.
It's not the network I'm worried about... it's people dying and unable to say they love their families before a ten ton cement block crushes their skulls. Or worse... what if they were buried and could tell the resuce guys where they are? They couldn't exactly do that if the networks were down, could they? Many people survived the World Trade centers *because* they had working cell phones, at least for a while.
> Are you afraid to leave the house during a storm because you might get struck by lightning?
This is Slashdot. Welcome. We rarely leave our parents' basement. So, yes, I am afraid to leave my house.
If terrorists figure out the pattern of outages, they could attack during a peak collapsing the cell networks, and that would be bad, IMHO. Chaos would ensue. For once, I don't believe it, I'm in agreement with Homeland Security.
> I appreciate Somerville's (apparently) noble motivations and Odeon's non-compatibility is certainly a problem, but how can you argue with their logic?
No. I can't. That's why they own trademarks, so they can control content. Now if Odeon was smart, they would simply fire off an RSS feed and let the guy fucking well spider it. Am I right or what?
Just in time for Catwoman! Now she can have a true nemesis to do battle against!! (Robocat)
I've been saying we need to focus on software standards compliance for some time, and while my focus has been related to RPG games, it does apply to other software. Role Playing Games Standards Compliance (RPGSC) is something I think can help develop a core philosophy behind the way these games are developed, from paper, rough drafts, story boards, all the way to the final product. RPGSC is still in development, and we hope to encompass the possibilities for every RPG game, to get the final products performing the way the audience wants, and the developers hope for to save time and money.
Perhaps the answer is to set up a non-profit system for governing software standards? I think there are many archetypical rules that could be applied to any software package, without circumventing proprietary rights or stepping on any toes. But it takes teamwork, and the desire to produce quality at the industry level. This means side-stepping rigorous competition tendencies and focusing on the overall good of society -- something that hasn't happened quite yet. When corporations learn that this method leads to better profits and happier customers, we'll see a shift in that direction.
> Does he really have one?
Great reference!!! I think if he doesn't really have one, then maybe he's not really the Attourney General, either. Maybe he's just a plantation worker who fell in the Coke vats? IEEEEEEEEEEYIEIEIEIEIE!!!
> Fred Flinstone, with infinite miles to the gallon.
Laugh if you will, but we'd all be a lot healthier if we followed Fred's example and ran to and from the office, instead of hit cruise control after rolling drive-thru.
Some folks were suspicious of PHP5, and being a longtime PHP programmer, I am very pleased with the changes and additions in PHP5. Can't wait to test it out. Personally, I'm not sure if I'll use *all* of the new stuff, yet I'm sure I'll have to play with the coolest additions for the hell of it, and sort out what I'll be using and what will remain vestigial in my scripts. I will add that some of the previous PHP version quirkiness seems to be fixed.
I am certain this is not the last we'll hear about PHP5 on Slashdot, yet I am only hoping that it's creative/cool stuff, and not security problem/exploit stuff.
I can't wait to see what kinds of changes I can make to my content management system that PHP5 will bring.
I want to join too. Maybe we should get a website together? It can be our very own -419 cult. :-)
"Now you have to drink this koolaid we're shipping to you and sing around a fire." (too subtle?)
Okay I just downloaded Spybot and ran it with Tea Timer. Guess what? Over 2500 malware objects found and now cleaned. That's *after* running Ad Aware and Norton Antivirus. Jeeeeesus. Thanks for pointing to that software package! :-) /me is grateful!!!
This story comes at a perfect time for me. I'm a Mozilla diehard, and I just ran Ad Aware 6 to find that some malware bypassed security (even Norton Internet Security) to install itself. One of the progs I found was malware called Winfavorites, and although Symantec says this is detectable malware, I had run Norton Antivirus and it went undetected. Looks like it's smartest to run a combination of programs just in case!
I might add that I don't blame Mozilla for it. I blame the programmers who sell their soul for cash to these unscrupulous companies only looking to profit while hurting the systems they populate.
Erratum:
Microsoft Expects 1 Billion Windows Users by 2010
Should read: Microsoft Expects 1 Billion Dissatisfied Windows Users by 2010
Diebold == Dieslow.
:-)
Somebody save e-voting... before it's too late. Looks like Florida is going to be in a worse position than in 2000. I know I keep saying this, but someone should create a good Internet voting mechanism, and keep it anonymous yet feasible. I'd like to be sure my vote was counted, and the only way to really do that is by the old fashioned SQL count() function.
At least then I'd know that my vote is my say. Nowadays, you're either black, hispanic, poor, criminal, or you look like these groups so you're unable to vote. It's a crying shame, and in all its flaws, Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 actually does demonstrate the problems with the 2000 election quite intricately.
I'm not a huge fan of Morrowind because of the rubbery graphics. Fallout 2 has a lower-end graphics setting that lets you imagine what things might look like, without painting too much of it for you. The snarky storyline was what made the game fun, not to mention the evil side of things. Like they had really funny cards that showed what your character was like. The funny cards didn't save Fallout Tactics from ruin, but maybe with a rich storyline in Fallout 3, we may see some improvements to the Fallout franchise. I only hope that they don't use the Morrowind engine for Fallout 3, because Fallout fans are very picky. They should use graphics like Temple of Elemental Evil, and that would be nice enough (sans bugs).
But I'm guessing Fallout 3 will use graphics much like Morrowind. Too bad.
Please mod your Tron suit for Laser tag.
> Are Comics The New Mainstream Novels?
This may be true, although I have a slightly different perspective. I think we just really like the people who make comics, because they are expressive people; these same people could do anything else and we would like it just as much. For example, take Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert. I have been holding out for the next Scott Adams novel (not comic, read: handbook). I was greatly amused, and felt better protected against the weasels in society, after reading "The Way of the Weasel." This was a fantastic read, filled with cynical, yet practical knowledge, to help combat the weasels ruining our workplaces and our private lives. Sure Dilbert comics make an appearances in TWotW, to illustrate concise points, but they only accent the rest of the book and support points raised with classic Dilbert humour. His writing is stunning -- and wholly useful. I can only hope he writes another one of these because I found it totally useful, as I'm sure many of you have.
>No damage was done, but it sounded exciting.
You have to give them credit. These bits of dust were going 45,000 mph! You'd think they would have decimated that antenna, but I guess not? I would have to disagree, however. To the average non-PHD, this dust sounds like nothing more than some static mixed with klinking noises. To me it sounds like SPACE DUST!
Companies won't stop cell phone abuse because it means higher dollars for them. Plus it means they can sell services to block the abuse, which is generally a pattern from regular phone companies selling caller-id, call blocking... etc.
Wherever there's money, there's abuse of power.
Strangely enough, somewhere.com offers anti-spam services as well as other consulting things. Could it be that they have set up someone@somewhere.com as a black hole to track spammers? That sure would rock. There is always some misuse when you post your email address online. Don't do it. Simply code a form for contacting you via email and let PHP or whatever send it to you behind the scenes. This halts any kind of email harvesting, and results in the use of faked email addresses, or obvious ones, like admin@DOMAIN.com or whatever. If you have a catchall, you should disable it and let them all bounce. When enough email bounces, someone somewhere will figure out something to solve the problem of spam, or run of the mill spammers will just give up.
Really when you think about it, Biometrics basically halts any kind of Social Engineering. You can't get around them without chopping off someone's hand and plucking out their eyes, but if you're going to go that far, you're criminal enough that it won't matter if you use Social Engineering or not. Let's face it, pretty soon we'll be heading toward the Biometric model for pretty much everything, and the privacy advocates are going to fight it all the way.
FUD, apply, lather, rinse, repeat.
The quote at the top of the page is pretty damn funny; "Tricksy spammers, they'll stop at nothing to get my precious."
I have to ask; if you're going to classify spam as an organism, would you not also have to classify email as an organism? So if spam is predatory in nature, then regular email is not?
And so what if we do this? What guarantee do we have that spammers won't evolve past any thwarting mechanism developed? My thoughts are that you have to keep slowing it down, to the point where only the most experienced spammers can get past the armor. Make it so tough to start spamming that people can't just simply pick it up as a hobby. I can remember back in the early nineties when it was relatively easy to spam and there were quite a few people doing it. But nowadays it's not that easy to just start spamming. There's no guarantees that the email will get through, so while many people try to spam, many fail at it. There's no payoff, there's less people taking it up.
But at some point, we will have to deal with the moneybags supporting spam. Maybe legislation could make funding spam illegal? Fine the little old ladies who give their money to spammers, and you'll see many of that just stop. Cut off the revenue generated by spam, and you cut off the spam itself.
I normally don't reply to my own threads, but I will break with tradition on this one, because it's especially insightful.
> Only problem is, they'd just do every R.A. Salvatore book about the drow and Drizzt with the romulans and some new hero character yet to be introduced.
You are so correct that it's not even funny. I would not want to see this, either. I never liked Drizz't Do'Urden because he was unnatural. He should have been as wicked as the rest of the Drow. A better story would be that of a lone Drow assassin named Drizz't who crept up from the depths to kill ThickSkull and King Azun on a secret mission from Lolth herself. That would have been much more interesting than the story Salvatore tells, IMHO.
For me, a Romulan series about anything but the sheer evil of the Romulans would be heresy. What I want is the pure exacting nature of Romulan society, in a nutshell Roman society in space, but worse. I would want to see how they operate, in all their evil ways, and how they can remain stable doing so. A series like this, even using a bit of Sopranos humour, would be totally awesome.
But they'll never do it because they're stupid. That's not a troll, because there's plenty of evidence to support the fact that B&B are stupid. They never even watched TOS! DUH!!
In other news, a New Zealand man, possibly Bruce Simpson, was found dead by neighbours this afternoon. Officials present stated that Mr. Simpson died from an apparent tooth brushing incident, rendering his neck severed due to an accidental slip/fall, caused when a shampoo bottle fell over and mixed with some dripped shower water on the floor. Sadly, Mr. Simpson's efforts to provide cruise missiles to Iran and North Korea are all but a distant memory. New Zealand investigating officials have ruled out any foul play, and have ruled it an accidental death. Iranian and North Korean officials had no comment.
> One way to handle this would be to work the plot out so that Romulans are actually seen by Terrans and/or allies, but that those who see them are either a) all killed or b) that it's all hushed up (I like this latter option, as there are all kinds of cool foreshadowin things which could be done).
For me, I think it comes down to motive. Why would a government want to include in history the fact that Romulans were never seen by a human? Let's face it, they look an awful lot like the Vulcans, and in fact are related to them. You remember how racist TOS was when it came to Klingons? Maybe the higher ups were afraid that people, captains, would want to turn against the Vulcans if they ever knew what Romulans looked like.
I think it'd be easy for this information to be marked classified, and be done with it. If anyone ever saw a Romulan, they were usually about to die anyway, or be hauled off to Remus to do dillithium mining...
The thing I always wanted to see from Trek, that likely wouldn't ever happen, is a series about Roumulus. Just follow Captain Sula around on all her truly dark and mysterious missions. That'd actually be too dark for prime time, but the Sopranos has shown that even the darkest series can work and be huge success stories.
I would love to see Roumulans in a series about Romulans. Wouldn't it rock? Show it from their side of things, with their dark and mysterious logic. It'd be cool as hell.