Well, my friend, despite your flame, I took your advice seriously. It was something I was thinking about for awhile anyway. I like to believe that all non-ACs are fairly professional about technical issues so, in the future, just lower the temperature. I'll be happy to hear what you have to say.
Funny... I say the same thing about the Washington Post... how dare they decide that I don't want my tables taking up the entire browser in the most efficient way possible?... it boils down to layout choices... if you don't like it, there's not much I can say.
I'm sure that, with a little effort, I could pull up several/. articles advocating a webmaster's right to design his/her site in any way they please.
For Yahoo, yes, that's a problem. I'm thinking about smaller players though. It's unlikely that we can take out entire portals but how about that "Mark Joyner" dude from Mind Control Marketing and other spammers. They sell to bigger fish and making their data worthless would increase the cost.
These clowns rely on impulsive forms... they aren't going to add in authentication... not until they've been hit sufficiently hard. And if they do add authentication, the rate of new addresses will plummet.
I don't see authentication as a problem. I see it as a sign that they can't afford to expose themselves any longer and take the other Hobson's choice.
Then there's law but that's a very nontech solution and can _truly_ be used against us.
We know which companies sell their email listings, right?
More than a few of us can write a script...
A clandestine server running in an undisclosed location--perhaps a public wireless hotspot--can go forever properly filling out the forms of these companies with complete and total gibberish.
It won't crash servers... nobody will even know until it's pretty much too late and the offended databases are loaded with utter garbage.
My tech articles are geared to a nontech audience so don't give me crap if they sound lame. I don't preach to the choir except when hanging out at Slashdot.
That said, I don't see why this concept can't be expanded. They have no defense against form scripts.
Easily the best action game ever in my book... it's a Robotron psychedelic 2D shooter on a 3D engine... absolutely gorgeous... it was developed by PomPom Games in the UK.
I saw their first title, Space Tripper, in an old/. article about Linux Games but, IMO, Mutant Storm is much more deserving of some publicity.
I'm not advertising for the company so I won't mention the name. You can easily look it up at CNet.
Since ASP can be executed with Apache, the implicit complaint of "Windows" web pages is misplaced.
That said, you are completely correct. Posterity is a bit of a joke. Considering the relative staying power of jpeg and text, I believe that my particular system and many others will be viewable over time.
Text hasn't changed in a long, long, long time. Has it changed at all? The key here is server side execution. When was the last time that TCP/IP changed? When will it change? Seems pretty durable so far.
As I mentioned in the beginning, ASP can execute on a Linux server as well as a Windows server. Microsoft can die and the only way any particular online magazine would die is from administrator incompetence or simply moving on.
Actually, depending on how you program your site, you can distribute it on CD. I forget the name of the program but it serves ASP pages and compiles everything to an EXE. I can't afford the price at the moment but with the trial version, I was able to compile my online magazine to 35MB.
Not bad in my book if you want to make sure that copies of your stuff are drifting around in the world for posterity.
It probably wouldn't work for sites that allow unmoderated reader comments/submissions since there's no real way to predict database growth. Still, for any text site, 700 MB is a hell of a lot of space to work with.
Despite the accusation of one moderator calling me a troll, I remain in dissent about this article: the ideas were interesting but it was poorly written. He really needed an editor. The story really needed help.
It's interesting to run data on solid state components but it's not very practical. SCSI simply rules the roost in terms of speed and pragmatism and puts the solid state idea in the very distant future. Gigabytes are almost the same price as eggs on IDE and very affordable on SCSI.
Who wants a volatile drive? I'm really not sure what this guy was getting at and, quite frankly, neither was he.
If that makes me a troll then this moderator has abused his privilege to moderate.
The author starts out trying to convince the reader that hard drives suck, makes a weak attempt at defending the alternatives, and concludes that the alternatives are not yet feasible. He compounds the problem by littering the whole piece with annoying ticks like "well", "really" and nonexistent English usage like "that're."
He obviously knows his stuff but a few more drafts and an editor would have done wonders for this article.
It sounds like the author had a list of key/buzz words and tried to squeeze a payday out of it... it's an old term paper trick as well. How did this dreck find its place into a publication?
I agree that social norms are more powerful than laws in this situation. Shut down open relays and disconnect people that violate the acceptable use policy. Law, however, can be a good deterrent for rogue ISPs that insist on filling the "market void" and chew up everyone else's resources. Spam really is a theft of time, productivity and quantifiable computer resources. Hence, it is a criminal act.
Not in the US Congress... secretaries are college interns with no real clue about anything beyond what's important to keep their jobs... the real power in a congressman's office is the chief of staff.
From a purely Darwinian perspective, I'm all for repealing speeding laws for the interstate but not for surface streets... on the interstate, all the genes that think they can drive fast but can't will feel free to remove themselves from the pool... on surface streets, however, measuring the speed of oncoming cars to take a turn would become difficult and become an overly manic scenario. With the laws in place, some people actually respect them even though getting a speeding ticket is less likely than winning the lottery. This reduces the frequency of speeding and makes life easier on everybody... that's not a bad rationale for dealing with spam.
Considering that Russia and China have adopted both the "ban it" methodology and rely on kangaroo courts, they might get along with the Australians just fine.
but, sure as hell, Rees has no problem making them if they will sell a few books... I like some of the possibilities. I hope Hollywood implements some of them.
All apologies, brother. You got me. The beauty of ACs is that they so admirably demonstrate their true colors as the legitimate AC has done elsewhere in this thread.
To answer your question, I believe the only requirement of open source should be the operating system. Everything else is a matter of choice. If you want to write open source stuff, then God bless you. However, the real focus should be on the operating system and giving developers the environment to have a fair shot at producing outstanding software and getting paid for it. With Microsoft as the gatekeeper and windows as the kingdom, independent development eventually gets choked and/or never reaches an equal level of the company putting dollars in Microsoft coffers. Even the companies that bribe Microsoft don't get the same level of quality that Microsoft keeps for themselves.
The open source movement needs moderates calling the shots on ideology. Some may not like the concept but money must be made on Linux software. Everyone can agree that open operating systems are the only sure way to provide a truly competitive market. Abandon the dollar and you abandon potential sympathizers/supporters.
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You are an idiot. Windows and Macintosh versions are available. These guys just want to make good games, not get slandered by ACs.
I guess that's why neither you nor I will be starting the "Al-Email" organization to destroy the spamming infidels.
Sounds good. I hope a few people take that idea and run with it.
Well, my friend, despite your flame, I took your advice seriously. It was something I was thinking about for awhile anyway. I like to believe that all non-ACs are fairly professional about technical issues so, in the future, just lower the temperature. I'll be happy to hear what you have to say.
I'm sure that, with a little effort, I could pull up several /. articles advocating a webmaster's right to design his/her site in any way they please.
1. I have no intention of expanding my code or the concept to go filling forms with random crap but I'm not opposed to the idea.
2. It's highly unlikely that the enterprising young hacker that attempts this will end up crashing a public hotspot.
The person that has the skills to do this will also have the skills to cover their tracks.
These clowns rely on impulsive forms... they aren't going to add in authentication... not until they've been hit sufficiently hard. And if they do add authentication, the rate of new addresses will plummet.
I don't see authentication as a problem. I see it as a sign that they can't afford to expose themselves any longer and take the other Hobson's choice.
Then there's law but that's a very nontech solution and can _truly_ be used against us.
We know which companies sell their email listings, right?
More than a few of us can write a script...
A clandestine server running in an undisclosed location--perhaps a public wireless hotspot--can go forever properly filling out the forms of these companies with complete and total gibberish.
It won't crash servers... nobody will even know until it's pretty much too late and the offended databases are loaded with utter garbage.
Recently, I wrote about passively doing this to spambots. I keep the page on the server for good measure.
My tech articles are geared to a nontech audience so don't give me crap if they sound lame. I don't preach to the choir except when hanging out at Slashdot.
That said, I don't see why this concept can't be expanded. They have no defense against form scripts.
The subject is commercial games.
I'm amused by trolls when they are clever. Guess that counts this AC out.
I saw their first title, Space Tripper, in an old /. article about Linux Games but, IMO, Mutant Storm is much more deserving of some publicity.
Since ASP can be executed with Apache, the implicit complaint of "Windows" web pages is misplaced.
That said, you are completely correct. Posterity is a bit of a joke. Considering the relative staying power of jpeg and text, I believe that my particular system and many others will be viewable over time.
Text hasn't changed in a long, long, long time. Has it changed at all? The key here is server side execution. When was the last time that TCP/IP changed? When will it change? Seems pretty durable so far.
As I mentioned in the beginning, ASP can execute on a Linux server as well as a Windows server. Microsoft can die and the only way any particular online magazine would die is from administrator incompetence or simply moving on.
What is worth keeping will be kept.
Not bad in my book if you want to make sure that copies of your stuff are drifting around in the world for posterity.
It probably wouldn't work for sites that allow unmoderated reader comments/submissions since there's no real way to predict database growth. Still, for any text site, 700 MB is a hell of a lot of space to work with.
It's interesting to run data on solid state components but it's not very practical. SCSI simply rules the roost in terms of speed and pragmatism and puts the solid state idea in the very distant future. Gigabytes are almost the same price as eggs on IDE and very affordable on SCSI.
Who wants a volatile drive? I'm really not sure what this guy was getting at and, quite frankly, neither was he.
If that makes me a troll then this moderator has abused his privilege to moderate.
He obviously knows his stuff but a few more drafts and an editor would have done wonders for this article.
It sounds like the author had a list of key/buzz words and tried to squeeze a payday out of it... it's an old term paper trick as well. How did this dreck find its place into a publication?
That's still a pretty good climb... the Internet is maturing. Non-users will be assimilated.
I agree that social norms are more powerful than laws in this situation. Shut down open relays and disconnect people that violate the acceptable use policy. Law, however, can be a good deterrent for rogue ISPs that insist on filling the "market void" and chew up everyone else's resources. Spam really is a theft of time, productivity and quantifiable computer resources. Hence, it is a criminal act.
Not in the US Congress... secretaries are college interns with no real clue about anything beyond what's important to keep their jobs... the real power in a congressman's office is the chief of staff.
From a purely Darwinian perspective, I'm all for repealing speeding laws for the interstate but not for surface streets... on the interstate, all the genes that think they can drive fast but can't will feel free to remove themselves from the pool... on surface streets, however, measuring the speed of oncoming cars to take a turn would become difficult and become an overly manic scenario. With the laws in place, some people actually respect them even though getting a speeding ticket is less likely than winning the lottery. This reduces the frequency of speeding and makes life easier on everybody... that's not a bad rationale for dealing with spam.
Considering that Russia and China have adopted both the "ban it" methodology and rely on kangaroo courts, they might get along with the Australians just fine.
but, sure as hell, Rees has no problem making them if they will sell a few books... I like some of the possibilities. I hope Hollywood implements some of them.
Tell me more about these comments on Slashdot.
Mod parent funny... obviously, the moderator didn't get it... if I Metamoderate soon, I'm looking to mark this as "unfair."
To answer your question, I believe the only requirement of open source should be the operating system. Everything else is a matter of choice. If you want to write open source stuff, then God bless you. However, the real focus should be on the operating system and giving developers the environment to have a fair shot at producing outstanding software and getting paid for it. With Microsoft as the gatekeeper and windows as the kingdom, independent development eventually gets choked and/or never reaches an equal level of the company putting dollars in Microsoft coffers. Even the companies that bribe Microsoft don't get the same level of quality that Microsoft keeps for themselves.
The open source movement needs moderates calling the shots on ideology. Some may not like the concept but money must be made on Linux software. Everyone can agree that open operating systems are the only sure way to provide a truly competitive market. Abandon the dollar and you abandon potential sympathizers/supporters.
Then don't post AC and somebody might answer.