The legal problems with this are why the slashdot editors have never done this, it's well documented in the FAQ, and the subject has been beaten to death in the comment boards. The best solution that I can see is developing some sort of bittorrent system for it.
What liberties would you have to give up? The right to send mass unsolicited emails is all. If you do a lot of mass emailing for legitamite purposes, then you can simply include a checkbox (on paper or online) that gives the recipient's express consent to be emailed. Enforcement is easy, anytime someone recieves a spam, they can forward it to the FTC (as is already implemented). The FTC can then launch a case against the spammer. Even if the spammer disguises their identity, this can be revealed by bringing the advertised company into court and serving them a subpeona to reveal their financial records to see which spammer they hired. It would probably also be appropriate to serve the company some sort of punishment for hiring the spammer in the first place. If spammers spamvertise companies without their express consent, then the company could be free to pursue a civil suit against them for damages.
How this entire process infinges on you civil liberties is completely beyond me. This is NOT the patriot act or something. The ONLY problem that presents itself is the international nature of spam. However, if enough countries cooperate on this issue then other countries (e.g. Korea) will be forced to comply or else many people will simply block ALL email from that country.
Yes, I think the Earthlink measure is FAR too drastic, and whitelisting (with a holding folder), while it does solve many problems, is very inconvenient.
I am currently in the process of applying to universities as I am graduating this year. Many universities contact me by email. If I miss ONE important email from these universities, I am in danger of losing my application. Further, some emails that the universities send me are time sensitive, so that mandates checking my holding folder daily. Finally, many universities use auto-mailers to send out announcements and such that have an invalid return address, so confirmation emails don't have a hope in hell of getting through.
Combine all of this with the fact that many people at a university, with many different email address (sometimes in different domains even) may have to deal with my file and you can see my problem. Spam needs to be stopped at the source, not at my inbox because the consequences of even one false positive are just too high for me. Yes, this will mean that legislative measures will be required, not just technical measures. I realize that many slashdotters are not in favour of this, but this is the only way the spam problem will be solved IMHO.
1) There's a minimum amount which is hopefully larger than $1 2) Another poster pointed out the fact that you have to loan the other party the difference 3) We are talking civil cases here, not criminal.
Actually, it should techinically be the other way around. First World Countries = Capitalist (Western) Nations Second World Countries = Communist or Soviet-Bloc Nations Third World Countries = The rest of the world, which happens to be very poor
The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd world classification is an outdated system of classification that is left over from the cold war, and it really shouldn't be used in a modern context. It was initially meant to describe political structures, but it has come to be interpreted as an economic scale. The problem with that occurs when you try to classify countries like Cuba which could be considered either 2nd world or 3rd world. It is a pretty convenient structure otherwise, but one should know about its origins and keep that in mind.
I'm just glad that the CS is my certificate course and not on my diploma cuz i fucked up that dossier BAD (read: didn't start 'till the weekend before when i also had a bunch of other IAs due the next week...)
This is true, and a factor that many people overlook. It is especially relevant because though the water produced by hydrogen fuel cells is matched by the water broken down to obtain the hydrogen, it is released in a gaseous state (it came from a liquid state). HOWEVER, these problems are largely mitigated by the fact that (a) H2O is about 1/60th as effective as CO2 in the greenhouse gas department and (b) once present in significant concentrations it will naturally precipitate out. Nonetheless, people should be aware of these implications
I doubt it would be nearly as effective in that regard, as pirating mp3s is not something that the public seems to care about (let alone the fact that a large percentage partake). Spam, however, is something that really pisses people off and a little extra incentive might be all that's needed to get some technologically inclined bounty hunting groups to actively pursue spammers...
Or don't - it doesn't take much to see that almost everyone here is missing the point: it's not that terrorists can't use windows or any other OS, and it's not that they're equivicating OSS with terrorism, they're just saying that DARPA (which is, after all, a defense agency) is not comfortable putting funds into developing something that is freely available to anyone anywhere without any kind of distribution control whatsoever. Add to this the fact that with OSS, not only are they giving away the tools, but also the plans for making the tools (i.e. the source code and how they engineered certain protections into it).
When you look at it in this light, it really doesn't seem that unreasonable, does it? It seems quite logical that DARPA would rather keep the products of its funding secret - as with anything else be it satellite-imaging, propulsion, or any other kind of technology. I think slashdot is kind of overblowing this one...
Jesus christ, didn't even the 1% of/. readers that normally read the article do so this time!?
The article is talking about research that has the potential to create a black hole right here on earth. We wouldn't have time to say "oops" before the entire earth and solar system was sucked in. How the hell can you protect against gravity? And how the hell can research into how to make your own black hole protect you from others' black holes? Other points that are common in this thread are about terrorists and rogue nations acquiring the ability to do this. Currently, it takes large particle accelerators and lots of funding and scientists to accomplish a situation which *may* cause a singularity to form. WE AREN'T TALKING ABOUT WEAPONS HERE PEOPLE!
The only similar technological development that has occured in human history was the development of the atomic bomb. Before the Trinity test (the first nuclear bomb detonation) there were several prominent scientists who thought that the nuclear reaction might not stop, and could turn the entire earth into one enourmous fission explosion. The Truman administration just crossed there fingers and hoped that wouldn't happen and detonated the bomb anyways. Lucky for mankind the never-ending-explosion theory was wrong.
All that said, there is a little part of me that says "who cares? it's not like anyone will care a split-second after the experiment goes wrong.":-)
NO! Do bounce the spam! Especially if it's a hotmail or othersuch account.
A new method of email adress harvesting come from brute forcing random strings "@hotmail.com". The spammers then take all the emails that didn't bounce and voila: a long list of valid email addresses. As for the victims of spammers, I figure that if someone's getting joe-jobbed, they probably stand a decent chance in the courts. Furthermore, if they take it to some of the newsgroups online that are used to help track down spammers who joe-job people those newsgroups can help make those spammers' lives hell.
I'd like to agree but, like the other poster, have to disagree - though for different reasons. The reason games and software aren't as popular on Kazaa is that they are executable, and Kazaa is a gread place to introduce trojans and virii to the web. Hence those that are foolish enough to use programs off of Kazaa usually have to reformat on a regular basis:-)
because this method is more interesting than actually doing the homework and it also serves as a statement of opposition. What's more, the student will probably learn more doing it this way. Any student that's smart enough to set up a system like this might also figure out how to make a client that automatically downloads about 1/10 of his real homework so he doesn't have to worry about updating it.
Beyond that, once the student has a viable system, put it on cd and sell it anonymously - he'll make more than the drug dealers...
Seriously though, what's wrong with all the current names for these people? It's not like "Computer Infrastructure Specialist" is less verbose, which is the only problem I see with the current designations. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
would be to use radioactive decay to generate random numbers. Very easy to implement using existeng technology, one of the few things that is completely random, and it's infinitely scalable to boot. A system I envision would simply moniter a radioactive sample for 1000 milli or micro seconds. Every sample time, it would record the number of fission events and if even, turn a bit on, if odd, turn the bit off. Then withing the space of a second you have a 1000 bit-long number that is COMPLETELY random.
With this system perhaps it's possible to emulate the electric fields that generate the random number. Admittedly, with any complexity at all (as in a chip) this becomes impractical to do, but hey, why go for almost random when you can have truly random?
Is windloading taken into account at all? I could understand if the entire thread was the thickness of a piece of paper in all dimensions, but if it's three feet wide the windloading would be HUGE! skyscraper architects already have huge problems with this, and they're not attempting anything in the order of 40,000 km (though I realize there isn't an atmosphere for a lot of that). How could they possibly hope to compensate for windloading without having an immense, impractical mass at the orbital end?
Slashdot Mirror
The legal problems with this are why the slashdot editors have never done this, it's well documented in the FAQ, and the subject has been beaten to death in the comment boards. The best solution that I can see is developing some sort of bittorrent system for it.
Bzzzzt! Wrong Answer.
Due to the intense G's, his pee actually flew across town before landing on the hot-dog stand.
What liberties would you have to give up? The right to send mass unsolicited emails is all. If you do a lot of mass emailing for legitamite purposes, then you can simply include a checkbox (on paper or online) that gives the recipient's express consent to be emailed. Enforcement is easy, anytime someone recieves a spam, they can forward it to the FTC (as is already implemented). The FTC can then launch a case against the spammer. Even if the spammer disguises their identity, this can be revealed by bringing the advertised company into court and serving them a subpeona to reveal their financial records to see which spammer they hired. It would probably also be appropriate to serve the company some sort of punishment for hiring the spammer in the first place. If spammers spamvertise companies without their express consent, then the company could be free to pursue a civil suit against them for damages.
How this entire process infinges on you civil liberties is completely beyond me. This is NOT the patriot act or something. The ONLY problem that presents itself is the international nature of spam. However, if enough countries cooperate on this issue then other countries (e.g. Korea) will be forced to comply or else many people will simply block ALL email from that country.
Yes, I think the Earthlink measure is FAR too drastic, and whitelisting (with a holding folder), while it does solve many problems, is very inconvenient.
I am currently in the process of applying to universities as I am graduating this year. Many universities contact me by email. If I miss ONE important email from these universities, I am in danger of losing my application. Further, some emails that the universities send me are time sensitive, so that mandates checking my holding folder daily. Finally, many universities use auto-mailers to send out announcements and such that have an invalid return address, so confirmation emails don't have a hope in hell of getting through.
Combine all of this with the fact that many people at a university, with many different email address (sometimes in different domains even) may have to deal with my file and you can see my problem. Spam needs to be stopped at the source, not at my inbox because the consequences of even one false positive are just too high for me. Yes, this will mean that legislative measures will be required, not just technical measures. I realize that many slashdotters are not in favour of this, but this is the only way the spam problem will be solved IMHO.
can I keep and bear nuclear weapons?
I actually agree with you, but i'm interested in hearing your opinion on where to draw the line.
Three problems:
1) There's a minimum amount which is hopefully larger than $1
2) Another poster pointed out the fact that you have to loan the other party the difference
3) We are talking civil cases here, not criminal.
Actually, it should techinically be the other way around.
First World Countries = Capitalist (Western) Nations
Second World Countries = Communist or Soviet-Bloc Nations
Third World Countries = The rest of the world, which happens to be very poor
The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd world classification is an outdated system of classification that is left over from the cold war, and it really shouldn't be used in a modern context. It was initially meant to describe political structures, but it has come to be interpreted as an economic scale. The problem with that occurs when you try to classify countries like Cuba which could be considered either 2nd world or 3rd world. It is a pretty convenient structure otherwise, but one should know about its origins and keep that in mind.
Anybody feel like doing some karmawhoring googling and coming up with some pictures of these? they sound pretty interesting...
Ya man, i take HL phys, chem and comp sci...
I'm just glad that the CS is my certificate course and not on my diploma cuz i fucked up that dossier BAD (read: didn't start 'till the weekend before when i also had a bunch of other IAs due the next week...)
That's the most imaginative way I've seen it done in a while:
1) Get what looks like a magic-eye image
2) tell people to stare at it
3) after about 30 secs switch it to the goatse.cx guy
So ya, don't click the above link. And mods - get to work...
This is true, and a factor that many people overlook. It is especially relevant because though the water produced by hydrogen fuel cells is matched by the water broken down to obtain the hydrogen, it is released in a gaseous state (it came from a liquid state). HOWEVER, these problems are largely mitigated by the fact that (a) H2O is about 1/60th as effective as CO2 in the greenhouse gas department and (b) once present in significant concentrations it will naturally precipitate out. Nonetheless, people should be aware of these implications
I doubt it would be nearly as effective in that regard, as pirating mp3s is not something that the public seems to care about (let alone the fact that a large percentage partake). Spam, however, is something that really pisses people off and a little extra incentive might be all that's needed to get some technologically inclined bounty hunting groups to actively pursue spammers...
Or don't - it doesn't take much to see that almost everyone here is missing the point: it's not that terrorists can't use windows or any other OS, and it's not that they're equivicating OSS with terrorism, they're just saying that DARPA (which is, after all, a defense agency) is not comfortable putting funds into developing something that is freely available to anyone anywhere without any kind of distribution control whatsoever. Add to this the fact that with OSS, not only are they giving away the tools, but also the plans for making the tools (i.e. the source code and how they engineered certain protections into it).
When you look at it in this light, it really doesn't seem that unreasonable, does it? It seems quite logical that DARPA would rather keep the products of its funding secret - as with anything else be it satellite-imaging, propulsion, or any other kind of technology. I think slashdot is kind of overblowing this one...
Could the lucky few who got to see that page dig through their caches and post some mirrors?
Jesus christ, didn't even the 1% of /. readers that normally read the article do so this time!?
:-)
The article is talking about research that has the potential to create a black hole right here on earth. We wouldn't have time to say "oops" before the entire earth and solar system was sucked in. How the hell can you protect against gravity? And how the hell can research into how to make your own black hole protect you from others' black holes? Other points that are common in this thread are about terrorists and rogue nations acquiring the ability to do this. Currently, it takes large particle accelerators and lots of funding and scientists to accomplish a situation which *may* cause a singularity to form. WE AREN'T TALKING ABOUT WEAPONS HERE PEOPLE!
The only similar technological development that has occured in human history was the development of the atomic bomb. Before the Trinity test (the first nuclear bomb detonation) there were several prominent scientists who thought that the nuclear reaction might not stop, and could turn the entire earth into one enourmous fission explosion. The Truman administration just crossed there fingers and hoped that wouldn't happen and detonated the bomb anyways. Lucky for mankind the never-ending-explosion theory was wrong.
All that said, there is a little part of me that says "who cares? it's not like anyone will care a split-second after the experiment goes wrong."
NO! Do bounce the spam! Especially if it's a hotmail or othersuch account.
A new method of email adress harvesting come from brute forcing random strings "@hotmail.com". The spammers then take all the emails that didn't bounce and voila: a long list of valid email addresses. As for the victims of spammers, I figure that if someone's getting joe-jobbed, they probably stand a decent chance in the courts. Furthermore, if they take it to some of the newsgroups online that are used to help track down spammers who joe-job people those newsgroups can help make those spammers' lives hell.
So yeah, DO bounce the email.
As long as YOUR logs aren't giving away the fact that there even is a colo, they won't even know to look for a colo and subpoena its logs...
I'd like to agree but, like the other poster, have to disagree - though for different reasons. The reason games and software aren't as popular on Kazaa is that they are executable, and Kazaa is a gread place to introduce trojans and virii to the web. Hence those that are foolish enough to use programs off of Kazaa usually have to reformat on a regular basis :-)
Q: what is the fucking difference between an audio CDR and a data CDR?!
A: NONE!
just another example of how legislators have their heads up their asses.
Who uses PVC!? ABS is vastly superior:
:-)
- it's black
- when it fails it doesn't shatter, it cracks
- it is a (very little) bit lighter
- it's just as strong
P.S. - I learned about the second benefit of ABS over PVC the hard way - when I was 15. SO GET OUT AND START LEARNING ABOUT MATERIAL SCIENCES
Why?
because this method is more interesting than actually doing the homework and it also serves as a statement of opposition. What's more, the student will probably learn more doing it this way. Any student that's smart enough to set up a system like this might also figure out how to make a client that automatically downloads about 1/10 of his real homework so he doesn't have to worry about updating it.
Beyond that, once the student has a viable system, put it on cd and sell it anonymously - he'll make more than the drug dealers...
Computer Techs?
Seriously though, what's wrong with all the current names for these people? It's not like "Computer Infrastructure Specialist" is less verbose, which is the only problem I see with the current designations. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
would be to use radioactive decay to generate random numbers. Very easy to implement using existeng technology, one of the few things that is completely random, and it's infinitely scalable to boot. A system I envision would simply moniter a radioactive sample for 1000 milli or micro seconds. Every sample time, it would record the number of fission events and if even, turn a bit on, if odd, turn the bit off. Then withing the space of a second you have a 1000 bit-long number that is COMPLETELY random.
With this system perhaps it's possible to emulate the electric fields that generate the random number. Admittedly, with any complexity at all (as in a chip) this becomes impractical to do, but hey, why go for almost random when you can have truly random?
Aha, but when do you define "sentience"? We already have robots with a limited ability to reprogram themselves...
Is windloading taken into account at all? I could understand if the entire thread was the thickness of a piece of paper in all dimensions, but if it's three feet wide the windloading would be HUGE! skyscraper architects already have huge problems with this, and they're not attempting anything in the order of 40,000 km (though I realize there isn't an atmosphere for a lot of that). How could they possibly hope to compensate for windloading without having an immense, impractical mass at the orbital end?