Is a site that shares old Stevie Nicks, Frank Sinatra, and Ian Hunter live shows really that much of a threat to the music industry
To be fair, this site also hosted torrents concerning live shows from a wide variety of artists. From the submitter's offhand comment, this site is portrayed as only hosting older live sets and this is far from the truth. For example, NIN's latest shows (from the currently on going with teeth tour) were bootlegged and releasted on this site.
With that being said, I'm sad to see this site close as its user base was very dedicated to providing high quality live sets from a variety of bands.
I for one would love to see more 3rd party DSL operators/licensees in my area. A year ago, with SBC the only DSL company in town, the price was $49.95/mo.
Just two months ago, with the addition of the first 3rd party DSL provider, SBC dropped their price to $29.95/mo (which I was able to sign up for).
Granted, this wasn't due solely to the entrance of this 3rd party, but also high competition between Time Warner, the local cable modem supplier. The dramatic decrease in the pricing though just goes to show how good competition is for the consumer.
This is completely false. While Nielsen households are not a completely random sample of the viewing audience, they are accurate enough to represent the viewership audience per show within an acceptable margin of error. Random sampling/surveys are a scientifically sound method of obtaining an overview of the whole.
If the Nielsen ratings weren't accurate, stations, broadcasters, advertisers, etc would be screaming for a more accurate viewership measuring system. The accuracy of the Nielsen ratings is essential to the surviability of the NielsenMedia company. If the people that studied these ratings (advertisers, execs) didn't feel they were accurate, they would be looking for a new parter to monitor ratings.
And in a perfect world, there would also be no murder, rape, $rand_crime, etc.
The fact is that we've got to deal with the hand we've been dealt. In this case, it's getting Microsoft to start locking down all of the vulnerabilities in Outlook and implementing as many virus scanners in the mailhubs. While educating the users on not opening mail from unknown people, not opening attachments, etc is also desirable--it's just not feasible.
In short, we need to make the technology do the work for us--as much as that idea sucks. The reality is that it's easier to do that than educate the entire public.
"Anytime you have a virus that is not easily identifiable visually, it tends to linger," Rod Fewster, Australian representative for antiviral application NOD32, said. "SirCam and Klez both vary the subject lines of the e-mails they send, which makes it hard for the average user to spot."
Unfortunately, I'm sure the average user can't spot any e-mail viruses, let alone ones that change their subject line. While Outlook/Outlook Express greatly facilitates the spread of these viruses, a large part of the problem lies in the fact that too many people click on attachments and/or don't run proactive AntiVirus software on their system.
Around 20 states have "do not call" lists where telemarketers are required by state law to not call anyone on the said list. Furthermore, there has been a proposal to create a national do-not-call list. That page not only lists the details of the proposed national do-not-call list, but also the states that have their own do-not-call list. Check it out to see if your state has one.
Missouri (the state where I reside) has such a list and it is completely free to sign up (some states charge a nominal yearly fee to be on the list). Under Missouri law, any telemarketer calling someone one the no-call list is automatically subject to a $5,000 fine! Complaints against telemarketers can be filed online to the MO Attorney General, who has been very agressive in enforcing this law.
Let the FTC know that you are in support of the national do-not-call registry. Below is the information on how you can contact the FTC to let them know how you feel about a national list:
Submit your comments by sending an email to tsr@ftc.gov or by writing to the Office of the Secretary, Room 159, Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20580. Comments are due to the FTC by April 15, 2002.
As an aside, Missouri's Attorney General has also gone after the "Miss Cleo" psychic company for its calls to MO residents. Needless to say, I think our Attorney General is doing a pretty good job...even if they're making a mint off of these telemarketers.
Below are a few links to where you can buy some of Loki's games...
LinuxMall TuxGames
As a side note, did anyone else catch this in the article on Loki?
The biggest miscalculation came with Quake III Arena, originally published by id Software. Draeker thought that a "limited collector's edition" shipped in a tin box specially made in China would be just the ticket -- so he ordered 50,000 units, making it the least limited of all of Loki's editions. About 7,000 units sold; most would be unloaded on a liquidator later.
I don't know about you, but I'll be keeping my eye out for the liquidation company that will be selling these tins--I'll be happy to pick up a few games cheap. Amazon.com has the Quake 3 tin for $10, but its currently "unavailable".
A very engrossing read can be found at Steve Gibson's homepage of his account of the DDoS attack grc.com was subjected to earlier this year.
In effect, Gibson tracked down the 13 year-old attacker by dissecting the zombie program (aka, trojan bot) used in the attacks and created his own version of the undercover bot to monitor the hacker's IRC channels and conversations. As I said before, an extremely interesting read. It really brings out the urgency of Gibson's alerts as to the future of DDoS attacks.
Slashdot Mirror
To be fair, this site also hosted torrents concerning live shows from a wide variety of artists. From the submitter's offhand comment, this site is portrayed as only hosting older live sets and this is far from the truth. For example, NIN's latest shows (from the currently on going with teeth tour) were bootlegged and releasted on this site.
With that being said, I'm sad to see this site close as its user base was very dedicated to providing high quality live sets from a variety of bands.
Just two months ago, with the addition of the first 3rd party DSL provider, SBC dropped their price to $29.95/mo (which I was able to sign up for).
Granted, this wasn't due solely to the entrance of this 3rd party, but also high competition between Time Warner, the local cable modem supplier. The dramatic decrease in the pricing though just goes to show how good competition is for the consumer.
This is completely false. While Nielsen households are not a completely random sample of the viewing audience, they are accurate enough to represent the viewership audience per show within an acceptable margin of error. Random sampling/surveys are a scientifically sound method of obtaining an overview of the whole.
If the Nielsen ratings weren't accurate, stations, broadcasters, advertisers, etc would be screaming for a more accurate viewership measuring system. The accuracy of the Nielsen ratings is essential to the surviability of the NielsenMedia company. If the people that studied these ratings (advertisers, execs) didn't feel they were accurate, they would be looking for a new parter to monitor ratings.
And in a perfect world, there would also be no murder, rape, $rand_crime, etc.
The fact is that we've got to deal with the hand we've been dealt. In this case, it's getting Microsoft to start locking down all of the vulnerabilities in Outlook and implementing as many virus scanners in the mailhubs. While educating the users on not opening mail from unknown people, not opening attachments, etc is also desirable--it's just not feasible.
In short, we need to make the technology do the work for us--as much as that idea sucks. The reality is that it's easier to do that than educate the entire public.
Hey, CmdrTaco, how about a spoiler warning?
Maybe some of us wanted to be surprised when the cyber attack comes? Geez....
Missouri (the state where I reside) has such a list and it is completely free to sign up (some states charge a nominal yearly fee to be on the list). Under Missouri law, any telemarketer calling someone one the no-call list is automatically subject to a $5,000 fine! Complaints against telemarketers can be filed online to the MO Attorney General, who has been very agressive in enforcing this law.
Let the FTC know that you are in support of the national do-not-call registry. Below is the information on how you can contact the FTC to let them know how you feel about a national list:
As an aside, Missouri's Attorney General has also gone after the "Miss Cleo" psychic company for its calls to MO residents. Needless to say, I think our Attorney General is doing a pretty good job...even if they're making a mint off of these telemarketers.
This guy's (Ben Livingston) website. He discusses all of his cases, including settlement, backstory, etc. Very informative.
LinuxMall
TuxGames
As a side note, did anyone else catch this in the article on Loki?
I don't know about you, but I'll be keeping my eye out for the liquidation company that will be selling these tins--I'll be happy to pick up a few games cheap. Amazon.com has the Quake 3 tin for $10, but its currently "unavailable".
Ben Livingston is a WA man that rountinely takes spammers to small claims court...and, get this...actually wins consistenly.
Check out his site that includes court documents, a FAQ on how to successfully sue spammers, and his past/current cases.
A very engrossing read can be found at Steve Gibson's homepage of his account of the DDoS attack grc.com was subjected to earlier this year.
In effect, Gibson tracked down the 13 year-old attacker by dissecting the zombie program (aka, trojan bot) used in the attacks and created his own version of the undercover bot to monitor the hacker's IRC channels and conversations. As I said before, an extremely interesting read. It really brings out the urgency of Gibson's alerts as to the future of DDoS attacks.