but they can haul your ass before a judge and ask you to disclose everything you know about your users and your system.
to say you can't remember, to say you can't recall, is likely land you in jail until your memory improves.
in this situation you are not the anonymous coward.
you are the guy up front, naked and exposed, when something goes wrong.
"the eighteen minute gap," the camera pointed in the wrong direction. nothing on record is likely to be quite so bad - and, in the long run, quite so damaging as what people will imagine.
I guess in the end, it is a fairly simply philosophical matter. A question on whether a person is willing to risk supporting something that's criminal in most parts of the world for other things the person believes in or not.
I see it more as a pragmatic question:
Freenet's security model depends ultimately on maintaining a critical mass of users and in particular a critical mass of super-users. Those willing to commit significant resources to the net.
Those willing to risk exposure.
If an absolutist position on free speech means that you never reach that threshold - than the entire scheme falls flat on its face.
A good rule of thumb; if Pedophiles can use a system with impunity, it's probably safe to talk about your boss ripping off the government.
It would also seem to be a good rule of thumb to assume that the system used by the most dangerous elements in society is the system that is going to be under systematic attack by the agencies most likely to have the resources to defeat it.
your Freenet node will only talk to other Freenet users that you trust
how solid a foundation is that in the real world? the relationships you build in face-to-face contact are fragile enough. as a darknet expands how do you maintain confidence that it is still secure?
Well, you know how it is - get them while they're young. Worked for the Hitler Youth with the current pope...
Congrats for the mod up of your Godwin post.
Microsoft has had a damn near thirty year run as the platform of choice for the middle class.
Millbrook is the quintessential middle class suburb. Population 10,000 - a young population with a lot of kids. 80% white. 17% black. The median household income is $50,000. Millbrook, Alabama
Microsoft was there when the parents and grandparents of these kids were making their first PC choices. Linux was not. Microsoft was there when their families first went online with dialup AOL in the early nineties. Linux was not.
Even a ten-year-old would see this as a perfect opportunity to move to Linux.
because the ten year old kid has infinite time to evaluate the alternatives to the school's current software and the power to persuade his elders to rebuild the school's state-mandated curricula around his new program.
though comments like "technical people must have 'integrity and character,' and should use their skills for beneficial, not malicious purposes" and "It's his job to fight the bad guys" make his parents sound a bit loony.
In one line you compress every stereotype of the Geek as an amoral "hacker" and get a mod up to +4, Interesting.
I should be thankful, I suppose, that it didn't earn a +5, Insightful.
There are times when I breathe a sigh of relief that Slashdot isn't well known outside the Geek community.
Amazon requires use to include EXTRA barcodes on+inside boxes shipped to them that contains information about the shipment.
the margins in retail demand efficiencies at every point. those extra bar codes are one of the reasons why amazon is willing to keep your product in stock.
I'm sure Jesse Lawrence, PhD, professor of seismology, hasn't thought of that!
can you link to a single prediction - or even a theoretical basis for prediction - that has stood up to critical examination? yielded the right time? the right place? the right magnitude?
That would be Texas Instruments; they told the geeks to go to hell when they wanted detailed information to write software for the TI-99/4 systems. Have you seen any computer systems from TI lately
The TI 99/4 was the first 16 bit machine to hit the home market with a CPU like no other.
TI used the same marketing model that was a big win for Nintendo. Quality control of the software product. A big cut in the revenue from software sales.
Slashdot readers alone probably account for a good sizable chunk of all your sales ever. Your company won't be the first to die in the flames of a hoard of angry geeks and you certainly won't be the last.
Like I said, MS has gotten their act together to a large degree in terms of security, and despite their problems they're still a huge company with a ton of resources, a ton of momentum, and the default OS for most computer manufacturers
I look at platform stats. I look at retail sales in the states.
I look at the - utterly fantastic - growth Microsoft is seeing world-wide...
I find nothing - nothing - to support the gleeful prophecies of doom posted daily on Slashdot.
Microsoft's SharePoint Server is on a billion-dollar quest to potentially become the next must-have technology, offering companies tools for building everything from collaborative applications to Internet sites and potentially handing Microsoft its next cash cow.
"I have not seen anything like this since the early days of [Lotus] Notes," says Mike Gotta, an analyst with the Burton Group. In those days, corporate users were enamored with a shiny new technology that seemed to have infinite uses. "The talk [around SharePoint] is getting strategic now, and people are talking about it as a middleware decision,"
MOSS (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server) 2007 is the fastest growing product in the company's history and seems to have as many uses as a Swiss Army knife. Its six focus areas are collaboration, portal, search, ECM (enterprise content management), business process management, and business intelligence.
Just last month, Microsoft added a hosted alternative to fuel adoption. There is a "perfect storm," observers say, around SharePoint in terms of the popularity of Web-based computing, demand for less-expensive ECM and portal tools, collaboration technology, and integration around Microsoft's Office suite.
The attention is a wake up call for competitors, especially IBM/Lotus, as SharePoint could pull customers to other Microsoft software because it is closely integrated with Microsoft's unified communications stack, its e-mail server, Office, and Office applications, including back-end file sharing repositories for Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.
Microsoft SharePoint taking business by storm
Actually, a 30 second warning is quite useful, but not to humans. There are such warning systems in California.
I was aware that this was being tried.
But has anything been proven in the real world? Has a 30 second warning ever stopped a train?
It's not much time to communicate anything useful to a system as mechanically constricted as a passenger elevator. You can't change speed or direction instantaneously. Level the cars. Open the doors.
There are quite simple cup-and ball solutions to shutting off the gas.
I think it has more to do with the fact that MS consistently shipped mediocre software, and that fact caught up with them in two ways
How do you explain these numbers?
Over two-thirds of the dollar volume growth in the U.S. retail PC software market in 2007 can be attributed to Microsoft Office. In other words, the ratio of Office dollar growth to total PC software growth is 67 percent. Office sales are so big, they make calculating broader PC software retail sales difficult. The "magnitude of Office sales relative to the rest of the PC software market" is phenomenal, "It's the massively huge tail wagging the dog.The Year of Office 2007
Vista is showing healthy growth in OS platform stats, while the *NIX platform has stagnated.
60% of Microsoft's revenues come from outside the U.S. It is seeing 30% growth - each quarter - in Asia and Africa, 20% in Europe, and 15% in the states. Microsoft Q2 2008 by the Numbers
Microsoft's client business, on sales of Windows Vista, was especially strong in the quarter, with $4.34 billion in revenue compared to $2.59 billion in revenue a year ago. According to Microsoft, its client business has grown 20 percent on average since Windows Vista was made available nearly a year ago... Microsoft beats forecasts for Q2
The W3Schools stats are kinder to Linux. But the trend lines are the same. 8% for Vista. 8% for OSX and Linux combined. It took OSX and Linux five years to get where Vista is now.
The gBook retains a toehold for now. But the dual core Vista Premium laptop starts at $550.
OS Platform Statistics
Linux is for sale at Dell and Walmart
The gPc has disappeared from Walmart.com [March 28]. You are redirected to the $278 Everex Impact Desktop PC. The same system upgraded to 1 GB RAM and Vista Home Basic.
The $400 VIA gBook hangs on for now. But the dual core Acer AMD laptop with Vista Premium is $550. Long-term, Walmart hasn't been able to sell OEM Linux at prices that significantly undercut Windows - and, lord knows, they have tried.
MS's income depends almost entirely on a government-granted monopoly
60% of Microsoft's revenues come from outside the US.
Microsoft is seeing 30% growth in sales in countries like China. 20% growth in the EU, 15% in the US - each quarter.
If you think the EU bureaucracy has been in Microsoft's pocket. I'll take some of whatever it is you have been smoking. Microsoft Q2 2008 by the Numbers
Slashdot Mirror
but they can haul your ass before a judge and ask you to disclose everything you know about your users and your system.
to say you can't remember, to say you can't recall, is likely land you in jail until your memory improves.
in this situation you are not the anonymous coward.
you are the guy up front, naked and exposed, when something goes wrong.
"the eighteen minute gap," the camera pointed in the wrong direction. nothing on record is likely to be quite so bad - and, in the long run, quite so damaging as what people will imagine.
the chances are good that you will keep a log.
I see it more as a pragmatic question:
Freenet's security model depends ultimately on maintaining a critical mass of users and in particular a critical mass of super-users. Those willing to commit significant resources to the net.
Those willing to risk exposure.
If an absolutist position on free speech means that you never reach that threshold - than the entire scheme falls flat on its face.
and the word of the anonymous coward is to be taken as gospel truth.
at least on Slashdot.
the geek who brings this attitude into court has two strikes against him even if can make the argument plausible in his own case.
It would also seem to be a good rule of thumb to assume that the system used by the most dangerous elements in society is the system that is going to be under systematic attack by the agencies most likely to have the resources to defeat it.
how solid a foundation is that in the real world? the relationships you build in face-to-face contact are fragile enough. as a darknet expands how do you maintain confidence that it is still secure?
Vista is poised to claim a 20% share of the market - and Linux can't be seen without a magnifying glass.
Top Operating System Share Trend for April, 2007 to February, 2008. Operating System Market Share for February, 2008
The school has 200 students and employs perhaps thirty people full and part time. Do you want the job at what they can afford to pay you?
Congrats for the mod up of your Godwin post.
Microsoft has had a damn near thirty year run as the platform of choice for the middle class.
Millbrook is the quintessential middle class suburb. Population 10,000 - a young population with a lot of kids. 80% white. 17% black. The median household income is $50,000. Millbrook, Alabama
Microsoft was there when the parents and grandparents of these kids were making their first PC choices. Linux was not. Microsoft was there when their families first went online with dialup AOL in the early nineties. Linux was not.
the geek assumes that every culture shares his own values.
perhaps that is why he is not the SA for a small Baptist church and school in Alabama.
because the ten year old kid has infinite time to evaluate the alternatives to the school's current software and the power to persuade his elders to rebuild the school's state-mandated curricula around his new program.
Victory Baptist School has about 150 students in the elementary grades,
60 in high school.
Thirty people on staff, full or part time.
You are looking at a small - closely knit - church and school in a middle class suburb northeast of Montgomery, population 10-15,000.
Families that have likely known each other for decades.
Because the free solutions are licensed for personal and not institutional use?
Because the commercial product with service and support is the better choice for a school with very little technical experience and resources?
In one line you compress every stereotype of the Geek as an amoral "hacker" and get a mod up to +4, Interesting.
I should be thankful, I suppose, that it didn't earn a +5, Insightful.
There are times when I breathe a sigh of relief that Slashdot isn't well known outside the Geek community.
This is one of them.
think again:
How Microsoft conquered China, Sanity check: How Microsoft beat Linux in China and what it means for freedom, justice, and the price of software
the margins in retail demand efficiencies at every point. those extra bar codes are one of the reasons why amazon is willing to keep your product in stock.
This is easy only if you are Tom Cruise and have overdosed on reruns of Mission: Impossible.
can you link to a single prediction - or even a theoretical basis for prediction - that has stood up to critical examination? yielded the right time? the right place? the right magnitude?
The TI 99/4 was the first 16 bit machine to hit the home market with a CPU like no other.
TI used the same marketing model that was a big win for Nintendo. Quality control of the software product. A big cut in the revenue from software sales.
The geek with an ego the size of the planet.
Top Operating System Share Trend for April, 2007 to February, 2008
I look at platform stats. I look at retail sales in the states.
I look at the - utterly fantastic - growth Microsoft is seeing world-wide...
I find nothing - nothing - to support the gleeful prophecies of doom posted daily on Slashdot.
Microsoft's SharePoint Server is on a billion-dollar quest to potentially become the next must-have technology, offering companies tools for building everything from collaborative applications to Internet sites and potentially handing Microsoft its next cash cow.
"I have not seen anything like this since the early days of [Lotus] Notes," says Mike Gotta, an analyst with the Burton Group. In those days, corporate users were enamored with a shiny new technology that seemed to have infinite uses. "The talk [around SharePoint] is getting strategic now, and people are talking about it as a middleware decision,"
MOSS (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server) 2007 is the fastest growing product in the company's history and seems to have as many uses as a Swiss Army knife. Its six focus areas are collaboration, portal, search, ECM (enterprise content management), business process management, and business intelligence.
Just last month, Microsoft added a hosted alternative to fuel adoption. There is a "perfect storm," observers say, around SharePoint in terms of the popularity of Web-based computing, demand for less-expensive ECM and portal tools, collaboration technology, and integration around Microsoft's Office suite.
The attention is a wake up call for competitors, especially IBM/Lotus, as SharePoint could pull customers to other Microsoft software because it is closely integrated with Microsoft's unified communications stack, its e-mail server, Office, and Office applications, including back-end file sharing repositories for Excel, Word, and PowerPoint. Microsoft SharePoint taking business by storm
I was aware that this was being tried.
But has anything been proven in the real world? Has a 30 second warning ever stopped a train?
It's not much time to communicate anything useful to a system as mechanically constricted as a passenger elevator. You can't change speed or direction instantaneously. Level the cars. Open the doors.
There are quite simple cup-and ball solutions to shutting off the gas.
and the scientific basis for prediction is what, exactly?
a meaningful prediction has to be precise in location and in time.
time is the enemy:
the thirty second warning is little better than "duck and cover" if it cannot be communicated effectively.
How do you explain these numbers?
Over two-thirds of the dollar volume growth in the U.S. retail PC software market in 2007 can be attributed to Microsoft Office. In other words, the ratio of Office dollar growth to total PC software growth is 67 percent. Office sales are so big, they make calculating broader PC software retail sales difficult. The "magnitude of Office sales relative to the rest of the PC software market" is phenomenal, "It's the massively huge tail wagging the dog. The Year of Office 2007
Vista is showing healthy growth in OS platform stats, while the *NIX platform has stagnated.
Top Operating System Share Trend for April, 2007 to February, 2008, Operating System Market Share for February, 2008
OS Platform Statistics February 2008
60% of Microsoft's revenues come from outside the U.S. It is seeing 30% growth - each quarter - in Asia and Africa, 20% in Europe, and 15% in the states. Microsoft Q2 2008 by the Numbers
Microsoft's client business, on sales of Windows Vista, was especially strong in the quarter, with $4.34 billion in revenue compared to $2.59 billion in revenue a year ago. According to Microsoft, its client business has grown 20 percent on average since Windows Vista was made available nearly a year ago... Microsoft beats forecasts for Q2
The choice they are making is for Vista:
Top Operating System Share Trend for April, 2007 to February, 2008
In the Net Applications stats Vista is the only OS showing significant growth - or, for that matter, any growth at all.
What the Mac platform loses the MacIntel platform wins, and, as for Linux it remains precisely where the Intel exec would place it, at 0.65%.
Operating System Market Share for February, 2008
The W3Schools stats are kinder to Linux. But the trend lines are the same. 8% for Vista. 8% for OSX and Linux combined. It took OSX and Linux five years to get where Vista is now.
The gBook retains a toehold for now. But the dual core Vista Premium laptop starts at $550. OS Platform Statistics
Linux is for sale at Dell and Walmart
The gPc has disappeared from Walmart.com [March 28]. You are redirected to the $278 Everex Impact Desktop PC. The same system upgraded to 1 GB RAM and Vista Home Basic.
The $400 VIA gBook hangs on for now. But the dual core Acer AMD laptop with Vista Premium is $550. Long-term, Walmart hasn't been able to sell OEM Linux at prices that significantly undercut Windows - and, lord knows, they have tried.
60% of Microsoft's revenues come from outside the US.
Microsoft is seeing 30% growth in sales in countries like China. 20% growth in the EU, 15% in the US - each quarter.
If you think the EU bureaucracy has been in Microsoft's pocket. I'll take some of whatever it is you have been smoking. Microsoft Q2 2008 by the Numbers