In the summer of 2001, I purchased a two-year subscription to Salon, knowing full well that the subscription term might be longer than the company's existence.
I knew that Salon had not made perfect business decisions, but they were pioneers in the Internet space, and there was a chance that they had learned from their errors. If a dynamic, independent source of journalism had an opportunity to succeed, then I wanted to do my part to help.
But now, it is clear that the management team lacks either the skill or the will to make a profitable enterprise out of Salon. They have had nearly two years to balance their budget, and during that team they received another substantial VC infusion. But they are out of money again, and there is no reason to believe at this point that they can manage the company out of this.
I won't be sending any more bailout money to Salon, because the overwhelming evidence is that it will go directly into the severance packages of unsuccessful managers.
Wha wha wha? The yanked Microsoft article includes this cliffhanger ending:
*Editor's Note: Now that we've successfully converted our writer to a Windows PC, we will be working on getting her to try a Pocket PC. Stay tuned for more developments!
Gosh, do you think they'll be able to get Valerie to 'try' a Pocket PC? After she's been a FREAKING PROFESSIONAL CONSULTANT on the device? Too bad we'll never find out!
Want to engage in real-life Kompooter Forensics just like AP does? Follow these easy steps!
1) Go to Google's cache of the article, since it has now been pulled by Microsoft.
2) Now click on the link at the bottom of the cache page, which reads "Download the submission form in Word format." Whoops! Looks like those kid whizzes at Microsoft didn't actually remove everything!
3) Haven't made the switch to Microsoft yet? Word still new to you? No prob. Go to the 'File' Menu and select Properties while you are viewing the Microsoft Word document. Don't worry! No chmod here!
4) Peruse the tabs to uncover all of AP's 'personal data', including Valerie's zany new website. You go, girl!
Re:No need for free security consultants
on
WarTalking Arrest
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
Puffer had no permission to start cracking keys and browsing the microsoft shares (or whatever he did).
This is true. So why doesn't Harris County prosecute the case on these grounds? They seem to feel that their case is not strong enough without conjuring ludicrous claims that Mr. Puffer caused $5,000 in damages.
The claim of $5,000 arises entirely from the cost of taking down the network to secure it, not from any actual damage caused by Mr. Puffer. To say that Mr. Puffer caused $5,000 damages is to say that if it wasn't for him the Civil Courts Building could have left their 802.11 free and unsecured forever.
Worst of all, for all we know he did not do this to demonstrate anything.
You go, man! You're not afraid to tell it like it is! Now read the article. He accessed the network in a prearranged meeting with a newspaper reporter and a county official in the room. It's pretty safe to say he was taking part in a demonstration.
It's obvious that an indictment was not sought because of actual damages caused by the defendant. This case went to a grand jury because officials didn't want a newspaper story about how the Civil Courts Building decided to open their computer network to the whole world.
Broadcast flags will do absolutely nothing to deter the Internet trading of copyrighted broadcast video. Anybody interested in publishing recorded video will just use known hacks to extract video from their Tivo or other recording device.The flags may deter Joe Sixpack from copying a recorded video, but Joe is not the person who publishes original videostreams to filesharing networks anyway.
As with the RIAA, the MPAA is using filesharing as a pretense to make a big powergrab over their potential competitors.
They want to be recognized as the only legitimate video content publishers, thus locking out potential upstart competitors that may be empowered by new video distribution networks.
And they want to dictate all terms to consumer electronics manufacturers, who in many cases are their direct competitors. It becomes much easier to shut out electronics manufacturers that are not part of the MPAA when you are drafting the legislation that governs their rules of business.
Umm... there are places in the world that have access to the internet and *don't* have access to NBC broadcasts. Think globally.
I'm not sure I understand your point. I said that Movie88.com has balls because they are going to attract some extremely unwelcome attention from large, moneyed interests who can exercise more than their fair share of influence on the US government (and by extension, the Taiwanese goverment).
If you think this is changed by the fact that some people who are downloading "Friends" episodes don't get it on their local telly, you are extremely mistaken.
These guys definitely have gonads. Not only are they throwing a big "up yours" to the MPAA. but they are also charging for access to hit TV shows like "Friends."
Some of their pricing decisions seem a bit arbitrary, however. For example, you can view the 3h17m movie Magnolia for the price of a single download, but the similarly long Schindler's list is broken up into three streams that must be viewed separately.
I give them five days before the US government threatens to give China the green light to annex unless the Taiwanese government cracks down on this site.
...Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 2 video-game console. Linux also runs the Sony product.
The Washington Post may not be a rumor site, but they are not exactly Scientific American, either. Playstation 2 is not run by Linux, of course, although some of their development tools are.
I find it very bizarre that the Majestic team attempts to vindicate their efforts by repeatedly referring to their game as "critically acclaimed."
Majestic got a lot of buzz and ink for being a novel concept, but in terms of actual critical reviews it was universally slammed by the gaming press. Since the Majestic team has such a short memory, they can find some reviews here and here.
Like the gaming press, I really wanted to like this game, but I could not be dragged into paying $120 a year for an elaborate "click here to continue the poorly acted movie" setup that lasts a few hours each month.
Look, Ballmer, if you are going to be spreading your FUD on Slashdot, at least have the balls to sign your real name.
As we all know Divx 3.11, or Divx;-), was a hacked binary. This means that neither Gej nor anyone else had access to the source code. It is not possible for the ProjectMayo team to engineer Divx 4.1 as a reworking of the Divx 3.11 source code.
If you wanted to insinuate IP problems, you could suggest that the ProjectMayo team had borrowed code from OpenDivx, but not from Divx 3.11. And frankly, I feel quite confident that DivXNetworks and their investors are completely prepared to prove in court that their code was engineered clean room, if necessary.
But we will continue to see cowardly Microsoft representatives feed this "DivX 4.1 is probably our code" bullshit to the press for years to come.
The FUD message is that the WM codec is aggressively licensed, Windows only, and the second-best video codec out there, but it is squeaky clean and corporate safe. Divx 4.1 is free-as-in-beer, multiplatform, and easily the best video codec, but it is created by the type of people we don't really trust who will bring down your website if they don't like you.
I can't believe you geeks are rallying in support of Dmitri Skylarov, of all people. I read about him in this morning's edition of USA Today.
I mean, come on, the guy butchers six people, including his own three-year-old son, and you are still going to defend his actions? No wonder you can't get mainstream support to overturn the DMCA.
From: Declan McCullagh
To: free-sklyarov@zork.net
Subject: [free-sklyarov] What Adobe says about Monday's meeting
I'm writing an article for Wired News tomorrow on this, but since it won't appear for over 12 hours, I thought I'd give you a sneak preview.
I spoke at some length just now with Holly Campbell, Adobe's senior manager for corporate PR and a very pleasant person. She confirmed the meeting would take place on Monday.
Campbell called it "a mutual frank discussion about some of these issues here. She said EFF wrote a letter to Adobe's corporate counsel that said EFF would be "happy to hold off on the protests" in exchange for a meeting. "What they did say in the letter to us is that they'll make their best efforts to discourage the protests. It sounds like they're holding up their end of the bargain," Campbell said.
I asked for a copy of the letter and she said she could not give it to me since she thought it might be "privileged."
I asked her if there's a chance the meeting will lead to Adobe withdrawing their complaint against Sklyarov. She replied: "I have no idea. On that I couldn't comment, nor would I even if I knew the
answer. The purpose of the discussions on Monday are just to have a frank discussion of what the current issues are."
I do not agree with Will's reasoning, but here is additional background information he supplied on the situation:
Adobe only agreed to meet with us if we would put
the Monday, July 23 protest on hold.
We would like to believe that Adobe will be
negotiating in earnest and it is not EFF's
style to engage in punitive protests when
there is hope of a negotiated solution.
If some folks go ahead and protest and antagonize
Adobe, that may escalate the situation,
preclude Adobe withdrawing their complaint,
and keep Dmitry in jail.
I think should treat this as a partial victory...
we have succeeded in getting to the table in
a big way with Adobe! Let's use that leverage
to get some concrete action. And if they don't
budge, we can still protest. Those who offered
the favors once hopefully did so because we
have an important cause here, and will likely
do so again.
I am glad to hear everyone's comments about
this and look forward to working together to
get Dmitry out of jail and end further unfair
DMCA prosecutions.
Free Dmitry,
Will Doherty
Online Activist / Media Relations
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
Web http://www.eff.org
EFF has not cancelled the protests. EFF has asked that the protests be cancelled. The majority of the community appears ready to proceed with the protests independently of the EFF.
It is extremely disempowering for Slashdot to posts a misleading "Protests Cancelled" (or proests, or however you spell it) when organizers are working so hard at this.
It is the viral nature of the Microsoft IE code which extends its tendrils into all other parts of the operating system.
Microsoft should consider licensing its IE code under LGPL so that the community can help to better enforce a clear distinction between the browser libraries and the applications which use them.
...DRM technologies like CPRM and SDMI. He tries to portray them as separable from Free Software issues, when in reality, they are not.
Err... actually, Handy draws distinctions between DRM technologies and Open Source software. And does so quite convincingly, in my opinion.
Are DRM technologies at odds with the principles of Free Software? Sure, that's an easy argument to make. But it's completely off-topic, because it has nothing to do with what Handy said.
"I think Passport...should simply be an open standard," Perens said.
Why in the world would we want Microsoft's idiosyncratic authentication mechanism to become a defacto standard for web services directories? Certainly not because of any demonstrated technical superority of said "standard" -- the Passport service has been down for the last couple of days. Sorry, MSDN subscribers!
It seems that developers who are truly interested in standards should colloborate on creating an authentication interface for SOAP. Of course, the standard would support pluggable implementations, and if people want to provide a Passport implementation of the interface, that is their business.
I look forward to seeing Ximian's piece. Right now, my favorite implementations of the ".NET" technologies are as follows:
Slashdot Mirror
In the summer of 2001, I purchased a two-year subscription to Salon, knowing full well that the subscription term might be longer than the company's existence.
I knew that Salon had not made perfect business decisions, but they were pioneers in the Internet space, and there was a chance that they had learned from their errors. If a dynamic, independent source of journalism had an opportunity to succeed, then I wanted to do my part to help.
But now, it is clear that the management team lacks either the skill or the will to make a profitable enterprise out of Salon. They have had nearly two years to balance their budget, and during that team they received another substantial VC infusion. But they are out of money again, and there is no reason to believe at this point that they can manage the company out of this.
I won't be sending any more bailout money to Salon, because the overwhelming evidence is that it will go directly into the severance packages of unsuccessful managers.
...Jon Bon Jovi for the eyes and ears of P2P users. On top of that, it gives us a bad name.
I hear you, dude. It's almost like Bon Jovi's been shot in the heart, and you're to blame.
Wha wha wha? The yanked Microsoft article includes this cliffhanger ending:
*Editor's Note: Now that we've successfully converted our writer to a Windows PC, we will be working on getting her to try a Pocket PC. Stay tuned for more developments!
Gosh, do you think they'll be able to get Valerie to 'try' a Pocket PC? After she's been a FREAKING PROFESSIONAL CONSULTANT on the device? Too bad we'll never find out!
Hey kids!
Want to engage in real-life Kompooter Forensics just like AP does? Follow these easy steps!
1) Go to Google's cache of the article, since it has now been pulled by Microsoft.
2) Now click on the link at the bottom of the cache page, which reads "Download the submission form in Word format." Whoops! Looks like those kid whizzes at Microsoft didn't actually remove everything!
3) Haven't made the switch to Microsoft yet? Word still new to you? No prob. Go to the 'File' Menu and select Properties while you are viewing the Microsoft Word document. Don't worry! No chmod here!
4) Peruse the tabs to uncover all of AP's 'personal data', including Valerie's zany new website. You go, girl!
Puffer had no permission to start cracking keys and browsing the microsoft shares (or whatever he did).
This is true. So why doesn't Harris County prosecute the case on these grounds? They seem to feel that their case is not strong enough without conjuring ludicrous claims that Mr. Puffer caused $5,000 in damages.
The claim of $5,000 arises entirely from the cost of taking down the network to secure it, not from any actual damage caused by Mr. Puffer. To say that Mr. Puffer caused $5,000 damages is to say that if it wasn't for him the Civil Courts Building could have left their 802.11 free and unsecured forever.
Worst of all, for all we know he did not do this to demonstrate anything.
You go, man! You're not afraid to tell it like it is! Now read the article. He accessed the network in a prearranged meeting with a newspaper reporter and a county official in the room. It's pretty safe to say he was taking part in a demonstration.
It's obvious that an indictment was not sought because of actual damages caused by the defendant. This case went to a grand jury because officials didn't want a newspaper story about how the Civil Courts Building decided to open their computer network to the whole world.
Broadcast flags will do absolutely nothing to deter the Internet trading of copyrighted broadcast video. Anybody interested in publishing recorded video will just use known hacks to extract video from their Tivo or other recording device.The flags may deter Joe Sixpack from copying a recorded video, but Joe is not the person who publishes original videostreams to filesharing networks anyway.
As with the RIAA, the MPAA is using filesharing as a pretense to make a big powergrab over their potential competitors.
They want to be recognized as the only legitimate video content publishers, thus locking out potential upstart competitors that may be empowered by new video distribution networks.
And they want to dictate all terms to consumer electronics manufacturers, who in many cases are their direct competitors. It becomes much easier to shut out electronics manufacturers that are not part of the MPAA when you are drafting the legislation that governs their rules of business.
Yes, Professor Romero will make you his bitch.
Well, Sun swears that their operating system source code is worth exactly $80 million.
That might not work out to be more on a per-byte basis than the Everquest account, but try amassing 80,000 Everquest accounts worth one grand apiece.
At the point where I am reading this thread there are 55 replies. Of that, only ONE comments on the EULA...
Yes, but three of the replies have goatse.cx links.
It's hard to describe just how flexible and sophisticated this toolset is.
There's a wonderful thread here which shows what people have built in the first 24 hours after the tool was released.
However, these screenshots don't convey the depth of the scripting language that you can use to customize just about anything in the game world.
I'd hate to see what the junket was like for Grand Theft Auto 3...
Man, and I was wondering why all of the game reviewers kept obsessing about that "pick the hooker up in the car" trick.
Umm... there are places in the world that have access to the internet and *don't* have access to NBC broadcasts. Think globally.
I'm not sure I understand your point. I said that Movie88.com has balls because they are going to attract some extremely unwelcome attention from large, moneyed interests who can exercise more than their fair share of influence on the US government (and by extension, the Taiwanese goverment).
If you think this is changed by the fact that some people who are downloading "Friends" episodes don't get it on their local telly, you are extremely mistaken.
These guys definitely have gonads. Not only are they throwing a big "up yours" to the MPAA. but they are also charging for access to hit TV shows like "Friends."
Some of their pricing decisions seem a bit arbitrary, however. For example, you can view the 3h17m movie Magnolia for the price of a single download, but the similarly long Schindler's list is broken up into three streams that must be viewed separately.
I give them five days before the US government threatens to give China the green light to annex unless the Taiwanese government cracks down on this site.
...Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 2 video-game console. Linux also runs the Sony product.
The Washington Post may not be a rumor site, but they are not exactly Scientific American, either. Playstation 2 is not run by Linux, of course, although some of their development tools are.
I find it very bizarre that the Majestic team attempts to vindicate their efforts by repeatedly referring to their game as "critically acclaimed."
Majestic got a lot of buzz and ink for being a novel concept, but in terms of actual critical reviews it was universally slammed by the gaming press. Since the Majestic team has such a short memory, they can find some reviews here and here.
Like the gaming press, I really wanted to like this game, but I could not be dragged into paying $120 a year for an elaborate "click here to continue the poorly acted movie" setup that lasts a few hours each month.
The hyperlink in the story to the overview of the Schwartz case is responding, "User over daily limit".
Use the mirror here.
Look, Ballmer, if you are going to be spreading your FUD on Slashdot, at least have the balls to sign your real name.
;-), was a hacked binary. This means that neither Gej nor anyone else had access to the source code. It is not possible for the ProjectMayo team to engineer Divx 4.1 as a reworking of the Divx 3.11 source code.
As we all know Divx 3.11, or Divx
If you wanted to insinuate IP problems, you could suggest that the ProjectMayo team had borrowed code from OpenDivx, but not from Divx 3.11. And frankly, I feel quite confident that DivXNetworks and their investors are completely prepared to prove in court that their code was engineered clean room, if necessary.
But we will continue to see cowardly Microsoft representatives feed this "DivX 4.1 is probably our code" bullshit to the press for years to come.
The FUD message is that the WM codec is aggressively licensed, Windows only, and the second-best video codec out there, but it is squeaky clean and corporate safe. Divx 4.1 is free-as-in-beer, multiplatform, and easily the best video codec, but it is created by the type of people we don't really trust who will bring down your website if they don't like you.
I can't believe you geeks are rallying in support of Dmitri Skylarov, of all people. I read about him in this morning's edition of USA Today.
I mean, come on, the guy butchers six people, including his own three-year-old son, and you are still going to defend his actions? No wonder you can't get mainstream support to overturn the DMCA.
Interesting feedback from an Adobe exec:
From: Declan McCullagh
To: free-sklyarov@zork.net
Subject: [free-sklyarov] What Adobe says about Monday's meeting
I'm writing an article for Wired News tomorrow on this, but since it won't appear for over 12 hours, I thought I'd give you a sneak preview.
I spoke at some length just now with Holly Campbell, Adobe's senior manager for corporate PR and a very pleasant person. She confirmed the meeting would take place on Monday.
Campbell called it "a mutual frank discussion about some of these issues here. She said EFF wrote a letter to Adobe's corporate counsel that said EFF would be "happy to hold off on the protests" in exchange for a meeting. "What they did say in the letter to us is that they'll make their best efforts to discourage the protests. It sounds like they're holding up their end of the bargain," Campbell said.
I asked for a copy of the letter and she said she could not give it to me since she thought it might be "privileged."
I asked her if there's a chance the meeting will lead to Adobe withdrawing their complaint against Sklyarov. She replied: "I have no idea. On that I couldn't comment, nor would I even if I knew the answer. The purpose of the discussions on Monday are just to have a frank discussion of what the current issues are."
-Declan
I do not agree with Will's reasoning, but here is additional background information he supplied on the situation:
Adobe only agreed to meet with us if we would put the Monday, July 23 protest on hold.
We would like to believe that Adobe will be negotiating in earnest and it is not EFF's style to engage in punitive protests when there is hope of a negotiated solution.
If some folks go ahead and protest and antagonize Adobe, that may escalate the situation, preclude Adobe withdrawing their complaint, and keep Dmitry in jail.
I think should treat this as a partial victory... we have succeeded in getting to the table in a big way with Adobe! Let's use that leverage to get some concrete action. And if they don't budge, we can still protest. Those who offered the favors once hopefully did so because we have an important cause here, and will likely do so again.
I am glad to hear everyone's comments about this and look forward to working together to get Dmitry out of jail and end further unfair DMCA prosecutions.
Free Dmitry,
Will Doherty
Online Activist / Media Relations
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
Web http://www.eff.org
EFF has not cancelled the protests. EFF has asked that the protests be cancelled. The majority of the community appears ready to proceed with the protests independently of the EFF.
It is extremely disempowering for Slashdot to posts a misleading "Protests Cancelled" (or proests, or however you spell it) when organizers are working so hard at this.
Closer, danov, but that's not a JRE. This is the JRE link
It is the viral nature of the Microsoft IE code which extends its tendrils into all other parts of the operating system.
Microsoft should consider licensing its IE code under LGPL so that the community can help to better enforce a clear distinction between the browser libraries and the applications which use them.
...DRM technologies like CPRM and SDMI. He tries to portray them as separable from Free Software issues, when in reality, they are not.
Err... actually, Handy draws distinctions between DRM technologies and Open Source software. And does so quite convincingly, in my opinion.
Are DRM technologies at odds with the principles of Free Software? Sure, that's an easy argument to make. But it's completely off-topic, because it has nothing to do with what Handy said.
"I think Passport...should simply be an open standard," Perens said.
Why in the world would we want Microsoft's idiosyncratic authentication mechanism to become a defacto standard for web services directories? Certainly not because of any demonstrated technical superority of said "standard" -- the Passport service has been down for the last couple of days. Sorry, MSDN subscribers!
It seems that developers who are truly interested in standards should colloborate on creating an authentication interface for SOAP. Of course, the standard would support pluggable implementations, and if people want to provide a Passport implementation of the interface, that is their business.
I look forward to seeing Ximian's piece. Right now, my favorite implementations of the ".NET" technologies are as follows:
SOAP: Apache toolkit
WDSL: Alphaworks toolkit
Sun will have their own implementation as well, but it is still very early stage.