DRM is going to be DMCAs little child of hell. Doesn't matter how bad DRM is security wise--it's the potential of hacking it and shoving DMCA down to any who does hack it--that makes it the scary part.
Sure, the c64 thing is silly... that's what it's intended to be... probably a coder just having some fun one day threw it in there as comic relief.
Actually the retro-idea is probably ripped off from GTA3 Vice City. This game has it part of its introduction cut-scenes(yes to get you feeling confortable with the 80s).
There's a lot of wisdom in those words. For example, it is well known that DOOM1's source code was delayed, because id needed time to remove the sound engine from the game(i.e. it was licensed from someone else AFAIK).
And people, don't get your panties in a bunch.
How the hell can we get the law tossed by the courts if we win at trial?
Everyone should start developing crack software and sell it on their websites with the sole intention of cracking software, whether you own software or not. DMCA will be after you a$$, you'll be sure to lose any course case. Even easier, to go to jail without collecting $200 hundred dollars, say "I'm guilty" to the judge.
When convicted fellon's lawyer came up to him and asked, "why did you create software with intention of cracking and why did you admit guilt?".
"Because", said the convicted fellon, "A bunch of I-ANAL people on slashdot said losing a court battle was the only way to combat DMCA, which will then somehow elevate to the Superior Highly Elevated Supreme Court".
Big guys wanna take out the small guys, but big guys need to spin doctor it enough so that small guys look bad, so no one really notices the big guys' work in the noise. Big guys get to keep high prices and big guys make big government very happy. Small guys not very good as they undercut prices of the 'goods'. Big government keeps 'save the children' people happy because they are getting rid of the small guys. Also big goverment labelled small guys as 'Terrorists or Funding Terrorists', so that big guys are even more happy.
All in all more drug trade profit == more money and "donations".
So let me get this straight. I can go buy a gun, with little or no background checking, and have the potential to kill dozens of children, and it isn't illegal. Or, I could make a program that could theoretically be used to pirate some stupid ebooks, and that's illegal.
Sadly there is a difference. Morality.
Companies don't give a shit about a dozen or a 100 humans dead -- as long as it doesn't affect their public image(i.e. Airline companies hate it when one of their plane goes down and many people die due to some technical glitch, as people would be afraid to use that airline).
But companies do everything in their damn power to make sure some 3l33t hax0r doesn't circumvent their unique patented encryption scheme where they spent "millions of dollars" to make a billion++ dollars.
Yes these companies are humans, but when it comes down to it, money is everything to filthy rich shareholders. From selling ivory tusks to killing the King to become the new King as Macbeth did...power and wealth are very powerful forces that transcend morality if not stopped.
However I managed to get into a good clan and THAT was where the fun began. We, and the people we played, were highly skilled and cooridnated. Teams were quick to adapt to new situations, exploit weaknesses and so on.
This is offtopic, but I also joined an awesome clan for Tribes2, and I tell you -- it sucks all of your time as you get higher into the ladder. If you're married(and want to stay that way) forget about joining a clan...
1) The player's favorite weapons. A common technique in games like Quake is to "control" the weapons. If you are playing against someone who is great with the rocket launcher, but not so hot with the other weapons, you can try to limit their access to that weapon. Bots don't pick up that you use the RL all the time, and thus don't really do a great job of stopping you from getting it.
In my experience human players are no different in Q3A, UT2k3 or BF1492 in those 32+player servers. I mean there are so many players like "3l33t-b0rg" or "lick my pu$$y"(no joke), that the focus is more on "I killed 'BFGFucker9000'!" than strategy that requires both team-work and (gasp) thinking.
Now if you're talking about clan games or one-on-one matches, then yes, humans move to a higher level of strategic thinking to block resources that give opponents advantages.
For an AI subsystem to perform this type of thinking requires lots of dynamic("oh shit he has a rocket launcher...time to sniper") and static analysis("grab rocket launcher so he doesn't kick my ass and own me").
Is it amazingly cool or amazingly sad that Mssrs. Shatner and Wheaton communicate through Ask Slashdot?
What's even more cool and weird is that people babble amongst themselves through slashdot posts. Kinda like talking to yourself, but replying instead 'cause no one wants to reply to your loner posts;)
By playing the radio, you are "enhancing" the taxi ride experience
I know a few fast food restaurants like Taco Bell that play the radio while you munch away at your food. The music adds some soothing ambience while you eat(especially if you go out after work), but my food doesn't suddenly taste better because of it.
Now if they start charging me more for the food to offset the music-playing royalties, then that is just ridiculous. I mean it would be in the radio station's best interest to get as many people as possible to listen to radio station ads.
Not to sound ignorant, but I once heard that PGP was too good and because of this the "powers that be" decided some "back doors" should be added to the PGP algorithm. This way it would be easy for the gov't to break the encryption and limit "strong information" from being transmitted.
IANACE(I am not a crypto expert), but is what I heard true, or am I just babbling?
Well if they put an absolute cap on, then the matter becomes if you "did" or "did not" officially report it to PGP Corp according to them.
Meaning if you disclose a problem with PGP to the public after 60 days filing a report with no response from PGP Corp, they could give the excuse: "Our internal records show we did not recieve a report from you indicating the problem you now publically disclosed. Therefore the 60-day cap does not apply to you."
Next thing you know you get legal mail from PGP Corp. that you're being sued for millions of dollars for failure to abide by their agreement. And this is by no means exaggeration; companies love to give law-suits left, right and centre these days.
I'm suprised he didn't predict the fate of "Trusty Worthy Computing" as it's such a hot ticket item to discuss these days. Here are some questions I have on my mind:
- Is M$'s "Trust Worthy Computing" going to actually succeed or flunk? If it succeeds will there be a growing trend towards stringent enforcement v.s. those who openly and secretly defy Pallidium-style architectures? Will there be a new, strong underground movement of "black hat" hackers out to destroy any new tech trying to police content? Will DMCA become a "national priority"?
- Will the RIAA succeed in preventing all forms of "digital theft" using DRM + lotsa lawsuits, or will we still P2P file networks? Will the RIAA create a "new internet model" that would prevent individual artists from self-publishing their own works across the 'net?
- Will 64-bit CPUs be common, and AMD the one leading in this sector?
- Will Apple finally release OSX on x86 hardware?
- Finally the questions we all want answered:
Will Microsoft finally die as a huge behemoth?
Will it be killed by none other than Linux?
And...
Will Linux Desktop actually be easy to use?
Or will Linux(forgive me for saying this) become bloated crap by various distributions that must fit on 5 DVDs?
Or will Microsoft after dying release Windows source code under GPL in order to compete against Linux?(I can dream, can't I?)
Please follow up and add your own questions you are curious about!
IBM is probably one of the few companies who are well enough equipped to deal with Microsoft FUD, probably because they were heavily into the FUD business themselves. IBM is also a major consulting company, and for such a move, they are well equiped to help.
Offtopic, but I hope no one ever asks for "MS Consulting Services".
Buddy, all your points are good -- you seem to prefer/require a ACID dbms' for your needs. But you argue the wrong way as you belittle MySQL efforts without showing how it stacks up to the ACID databases.
MySQL on the other hand(you can read the FAQ and other docs for proof on MySQL's website) has taken the approach of removing features that aren't that worth while to the "mainstream person". Rather than tell you to RTFM, here's a quote directly from the horses mouth: 1.7 How Standards-compatible Is MySQL?
This section describes how MySQL relates to the ANSI SQL standards. MySQL Server has many extensions to the ANSI SQL standards, and here you will find out what they are and how to use them. You will also find information about functionality missing from MySQL Server, and how to work around some differences.
Our goal is to not, without a very good reason, restrict MySQL Server usability for any usage. Even if we don't have the resources to do development for every possible use, we are always willing to help and offer suggestions to people who are trying to use MySQL Server in new territories.
One of our main goals with the product is to continue to work toward ANSI 99 compliancy, but without sacrificing speed or reliability. We are not afraid to add extensions to SQL or support for non-SQL features if this greatly increases the usability of MySQL Server for a big part of our users. (The new HANDLER interface in MySQL Server 4.0 is an example of this strategy. See section 6.4.2 HANDLER Syntax.)
We will continue to support transactional and non-transactional databases to satisfy both heavy web/logging usage and mission-critical 24/7 usage.
MySQL Server was designed from the start to work with medium size databases (10-100 million rows, or about 100 MB per table) on small computer systems. We will continue to extend MySQL Server to work even better with terabyte-size databases, as well as to make it possible to compile a reduced MySQL version that is more suitable for hand-held devices and embedded usage. The compact design of the MySQL server makes both of these directions possible without any conflicts in the source tree.
I don't consider MySQL a toy database, thats akin to calling Linux a toy operating system, where the real companies use AIX,Solaris, HP-UX, etc.
Plus, a lot of people with mission-critical servers don't upgrade the kernels -- they have a "If it ain't broken, fix it." There's no reason to reboot your webserver raking in big bucks just so you're running the latest, shiniest, kernel. Of course, the people who ignore the big security issues and just don't want to ruin their 500+ day uptimes... are idiots.:)
This is why a microkernel architecture is much better where the OS has well defined interfaces to other subsystems. If one subsystem is screwed up, you fix it without affecting other parts.
Case in point: system-space v.s. user-space with syscall interface. When did you last see a user-space program broken because of a kernel update in Linux?
This doesn't mean that a monolithic approach that Linux takes is bad; they can theoretically achieve the same feat as microkernels(as they have dynamic module support already). For example, take the NFS modules in 2.2 and throw them into 2.4.
Slashdot Mirror
You could also use snprintf snprintf(buf,bufsize,"%s", big_ass_string);
DRM is going to be DMCAs little child of hell. Doesn't matter how bad DRM is security wise--it's the potential of hacking it and shoving DMCA down to any who does hack it--that makes it the scary part.
Sure, the c64 thing is silly... that's what it's intended to be... probably a coder just having some fun one day threw it in there as comic relief.
Actually the retro-idea is probably ripped off from GTA3 Vice City. This game has it part of its introduction cut-scenes(yes to get you feeling confortable with the 80s).
There's a lot of wisdom in those words. For example, it is well known that DOOM1's source code was delayed, because id needed time to remove the sound engine from the game(i.e. it was licensed from someone else AFAIK). And people, don't get your panties in a bunch.
How the hell can we get the law tossed by the courts if we win at trial?
Everyone should start developing crack software and sell it on their websites with the sole intention of cracking software, whether you own software or not. DMCA will be after you a$$, you'll be sure to lose any course case. Even easier, to go to jail without collecting $200 hundred dollars, say "I'm guilty" to the judge.
When convicted fellon's lawyer came up to him and asked, "why did you create software with intention of cracking and why did you admit guilt?".
"Because", said the convicted fellon, "A bunch of I-ANAL people on slashdot said losing a court battle was the only way to combat DMCA, which will then somehow elevate to the Superior Highly Elevated Supreme Court".
Looks like you've been playing too much of GTA3.
There are a lot of wisdom in those words.
Big guys wanna take out the small guys, but big guys need to spin doctor it enough so that small guys look bad, so no one really notices the big guys' work in the noise. Big guys get to keep high prices and big guys make big government very happy. Small guys not very good as they undercut prices of the 'goods'. Big government keeps 'save the children' people happy because they are getting rid of the small guys. Also big goverment labelled small guys as 'Terrorists or Funding Terrorists', so that big guys are even more happy.
All in all more drug trade profit == more money and "donations".
'nuff said.
Paint on some cuts, bruises and put a bunch of blood around the neck like he was decapitated.
Only if 'voodoo dolls' were true...
This is the book to give to a n00b if they are really interested in Linux/UNIX "methodology".
Which thus concludes Microsoft will never write software for Linux as long as they want to make $$$ from their OS.
To think it of another way, MS Applications are the 'value-added' portion of the Windows OS.
So let me get this straight. I can go buy a gun, with little or no background checking, and have the potential to kill dozens of children, and it isn't illegal. Or, I could make a program that could theoretically be used to pirate some stupid ebooks, and that's illegal.
Sadly there is a difference. Morality.
Companies don't give a shit about a dozen or a 100 humans dead -- as long as it doesn't affect their public image(i.e. Airline companies hate it when one of their plane goes down and many people die due to some technical glitch, as people would be afraid to use that airline).
But companies do everything in their damn power to make sure some 3l33t hax0r doesn't circumvent their unique patented encryption scheme where they spent "millions of dollars" to make a billion++ dollars.
Yes these companies are humans, but when it comes down to it, money is everything to filthy rich shareholders. From selling ivory tusks to killing the King to become the new King as Macbeth did...power and wealth are very powerful forces that transcend morality if not stopped.
The sad thing is that you felt compelled, and justifiably so, to post that insightful yet "Anti-Amarikin" remark as an AC
So a person who stands up to the gov't is automatically classified as an "anti-american", and thus a labelled as a "terrorist"?
How convenient for the gov't and their media goons. It just makes anyone they want to take down so much easier as a "terrorist".
Rational is a case tool for OO. You can sell case tools for $$$. Who would buy something, then later give it away for free(as in beer)?
However I managed to get into a good clan and THAT was where the fun began. We, and the people we played, were highly skilled and cooridnated. Teams were quick to adapt to new situations, exploit weaknesses and so on. This is offtopic, but I also joined an awesome clan for Tribes2, and I tell you -- it sucks all of your time as you get higher into the ladder. If you're married(and want to stay that way) forget about joining a clan...
1) The player's favorite weapons.
A common technique in games like Quake is to "control" the weapons. If you are playing against someone who is great with the rocket launcher, but not so hot with the other weapons, you can try to limit their access to that weapon. Bots don't pick up that you use the RL all the time, and thus don't really do a great job of stopping you from getting it.
In my experience human players are no different in Q3A, UT2k3 or BF1492 in those 32+player servers. I mean there are so many players like "3l33t-b0rg" or "lick my pu$$y"(no joke), that the focus is more on "I killed 'BFGFucker9000'!" than strategy that requires both team-work and (gasp) thinking.
Now if you're talking about clan games or one-on-one matches, then yes, humans move to a higher level of strategic thinking to block resources that give opponents advantages.
For an AI subsystem to perform this type of thinking requires lots of dynamic("oh shit he has a rocket launcher...time to sniper") and static analysis("grab rocket launcher so he doesn't kick my ass and own me").
My biggest problem with it was that it tended to be a bit on the verbose side.
You mean like COBOL(*ducks*)?
Is it amazingly cool or amazingly sad that Mssrs. Shatner and Wheaton communicate through Ask Slashdot?
What's even more cool and weird is that people babble amongst themselves through slashdot posts. Kinda like talking to yourself, but replying instead 'cause no one wants to reply to your loner posts;)
By playing the radio, you are "enhancing" the taxi ride experience
I know a few fast food restaurants like Taco Bell that play the radio while you munch away at your food. The music adds some soothing ambience while you eat(especially if you go out after work), but my food doesn't suddenly taste better because of it.
Now if they start charging me more for the food to offset the music-playing royalties, then that is just ridiculous. I mean it would be in the radio station's best interest to get as many people as possible to listen to radio station ads.
Not to sound ignorant, but I once heard that PGP was too good and because of this the "powers that be" decided some "back doors" should be added to the PGP algorithm. This way it would be easy for the gov't to break the encryption and limit "strong information" from being transmitted. IANACE(I am not a crypto expert), but is what I heard true, or am I just babbling?
Well if they put an absolute cap on, then the matter becomes if you "did" or "did not" officially report it to PGP Corp according to them.
Meaning if you disclose a problem with PGP to the public after 60 days filing a report with no response from PGP Corp, they could give the excuse: "Our internal records show we did not recieve a report from you indicating the problem you now publically disclosed. Therefore the 60-day cap does not apply to you."
Next thing you know you get legal mail from PGP Corp. that you're being sued for millions of dollars for failure to abide by their agreement. And this is by no means exaggeration; companies love to give law-suits left, right and centre these days.
I'm suprised he didn't predict the fate of "Trusty Worthy Computing" as it's such a hot ticket item to discuss these days. Here are some questions I have on my mind:
- Is M$'s "Trust Worthy Computing" going to actually succeed or flunk? If it succeeds will there be a growing trend towards stringent enforcement v.s. those who openly and secretly defy Pallidium-style architectures? Will there be a new, strong underground movement of "black hat" hackers out to destroy any new tech trying to police content? Will DMCA become a "national priority"?
- Will the RIAA succeed in preventing all forms of "digital theft" using DRM + lotsa lawsuits, or will we still P2P file networks? Will the RIAA create a "new internet model" that would prevent individual artists from self-publishing their own works across the 'net?
- Will 64-bit CPUs be common, and AMD the one leading in this sector?
- Will Apple finally release OSX on x86 hardware?
- Finally the questions we all want answered:
Will Microsoft finally die as a huge behemoth?
Will it be killed by none other than Linux?
And...
Will Linux Desktop actually be easy to use?
Or will Linux(forgive me for saying this) become bloated crap by various distributions that must fit on 5 DVDs?
Or will Microsoft after dying release Windows source code under GPL in order to compete against Linux?(I can dream, can't I?)
Please follow up and add your own questions you are curious about!
IBM is probably one of the few companies who are well enough equipped to deal with Microsoft FUD, probably because they were heavily into the FUD business themselves. IBM is also a major consulting company, and for such a move, they are well equiped to help.
Offtopic, but I hope no one ever asks for "MS Consulting Services".
Dear Mr Employee #115932,
You have been fired as under the Company Act Section #3.4 "Don't tell your boss what to do".
Sincerely,
Your Boss.
Buddy, all your points are good -- you seem to prefer/require a ACID dbms' for your needs. But you argue the wrong way as you belittle MySQL efforts without showing how it stacks up to the ACID databases.
MySQL on the other hand(you can read the FAQ and other docs for proof on MySQL's website) has taken the approach of removing features that aren't that worth while to the "mainstream person". Rather than tell you to RTFM, here's a quote directly from the horses mouth:
1.7 How Standards-compatible Is MySQL?
This section describes how MySQL relates to the ANSI SQL standards. MySQL Server has many extensions to the ANSI SQL standards, and here you will find out what they are and how to use them. You will also find information about functionality missing from MySQL Server, and how to work around some differences.
Our goal is to not, without a very good reason, restrict MySQL Server usability for any usage. Even if we don't have the resources to do development for every possible use, we are always willing to help and offer suggestions to people who are trying to use MySQL Server in new territories.
One of our main goals with the product is to continue to work toward ANSI 99 compliancy, but without sacrificing speed or reliability. We are not afraid to add extensions to SQL or support for non-SQL features if this greatly increases the usability of MySQL Server for a big part of our users. (The new HANDLER interface in MySQL Server 4.0 is an example of this strategy. See section 6.4.2 HANDLER Syntax.)
We will continue to support transactional and non-transactional databases to satisfy both heavy web/logging usage and mission-critical 24/7 usage.
MySQL Server was designed from the start to work with medium size databases (10-100 million rows, or about 100 MB per table) on small computer systems. We will continue to extend MySQL Server to work even better with terabyte-size databases, as well as to make it possible to compile a reduced MySQL version that is more suitable for hand-held devices and embedded usage. The compact design of the MySQL server makes both of these directions possible without any conflicts in the source tree.
I don't consider MySQL a toy database, thats akin to calling Linux a toy operating system, where the real companies use AIX,Solaris, HP-UX, etc.
Plus, a lot of people with mission-critical servers don't upgrade the kernels -- they have a "If it ain't broken, fix it." There's no reason to reboot your webserver raking in big bucks just so you're running the latest, shiniest, kernel. Of course, the people who ignore the big security issues and just don't want to ruin their 500+ day uptimes... are idiots. :)
This is why a microkernel architecture is much better where the OS has well defined interfaces to other subsystems. If one subsystem is screwed up, you fix it without affecting other parts.
Case in point: system-space v.s. user-space with syscall interface. When did you last see a user-space program broken because of a kernel update in Linux?
This doesn't mean that a monolithic approach that Linux takes is bad; they can theoretically achieve the same feat as microkernels(as they have dynamic module support already). For example, take the NFS modules in 2.2 and throw them into 2.4.