--OK, my brane hurts now. I read the whole thread. Will someone please explain to a non isp admin level person WHAT exactly a single lone luser should do to "help out" and to also make it so their own surfing queries can be automagically parsed to IP numbers, thereby eliminating the "load" all this "looking up" business does? So far I see "name server". Note I *think* I understand it, but up to a dozen open pagesnow telling me I got to do this and that and every other word is an acronym. Or should I bother? My idea is I want my frequently accessed pages to be guaranteed to be in IP number form so that if/when/who knows something happens to the net I still got a chance to get from point A to B. The other part I get is "bind sucks", I have that on my redhat install, so what else should I do (use), with the caveat it has to be a simple as possible, and this is a dynamic connection on a modem.
Thanks in advance for any coherent non troll replies!
--these guys release their figures and are bemoaning "lost sales". What they leave out all the time is that the entire economy (very broadly speaking, there's a few exceptions obviously) is hurting. Many other industries have "lower sales" figures for 2001 and 2002. People are maxed out credit-wise, a lot of folks have lost their jobs and either still don't have jobs or are working for much less money. In the US the actual true unemployment figures are so dismal that the bureau of labor statistics stopped reporting a lot of the details claiming it was "too expensive" to include them in their reports. Well, that's obviously a political decision there.
People aren't buying as much music more from 1-it's just too expensive for what you get, and 2-less disposable income. Music on CDs is not a necessity like the home note, vehicle note, food and utilities are.
--burn the wedding pics and small vid clips right there at the wedding / reception and give out copies on cds. You can get the blank labels printed up now in advance so they are semi pro looking.
--yet again another car analogy. Remember when the transition from no pollution crap to totally space shuttled out plumbing on cars happened? Eventually within some time certain aspects of it became mandatory, then emissions tests, etc. It's now illegal to alter change or modify any of that stuff *technically* and some places are now considering retrofiting your cars as another mandate if they don't "pass" their inspections. I'll go out on a limb here and predict it (DRM STUFF)will become law all over sooner or later, nation wide, both in hardware and a lot of software. You certainly can't purchase new anything in the vehicle world that isn't a plumbing nightmare anymore, that's for sure. And the computer world moves a lot faster than the car world, that's just reality.
I am expecting the same with computers. DRM will become mandated, it's about inevitable. So, word to the wise, stock up on non crippled hardware if that's what you want, and send missives to the major manufacturers you won't be using their products and will "make do" with the older stuff. Here's a place that the "gamer community" (one of several examples but a large one demographically) can make an impact, if they would just stop buying "new and improved" once it's universally crippled, and let the chip makers and game developers know they intend to follow through with this so they need to be told "don't go there". Along with all that other normal activism lobbying. But will it happen, or will the lure of faster and faster and faster and more realistic 3-D blood and gore get these chips and software sold? yes, I know there's a lot more uses for faster and better, etc, just looking at where the general big interests are. the big companies that tote the note on buying mass quantitites of hardware will probably want 'security' features. the mass media guys obviously do. the games shippers want to make a buck or two, most of them anyway. So there ya go, the "golden rule" will result in "for the childrenz!" crippled hardware and software eventually, at least on most platforms, and even more likely mandated by various laws on "new" stuff.
--one of the better tools to fight bloated taxes from bloated budgets run by bloated goons with bloated agendas is to find out if your state or local municipality runs TWO sets of books or running any other "accounting" razzle dazzle on you. See if they are telling the truth on the state of their revenue. Some places they have the (more or less almost truthful)info available, other places they trot out utter enron-esque rubbish to show the rubes, so they can claim poverty and up your taxes. For more info on this, a basic primer, check out this comprehensive annual financial reports resource page, and feel free to google for more information.
a small paste from their intro page:
Simultaneous Budget Deficits/Shortfalls AND Financial Surpluses
This is the most deceiving topic that governments, politicians, and the news media have conveyed to the public about governmental financial matters. In realty, a government can simultaneously have a budget shortfall and a financial surplus of the taxpayers' money.
A budget is an estimate of the amount of money to be received and the amounts to be spent for various purposes in a given time. It is a planning and monitoring document. It matches revenues (income) and expenditures (expenses) for a given period of time which is usually one year for most governments. It does NOT demonstrate the financial condition of a government.
You continually hear the phrase "budget shortfall" or "budget deficit." What this means is that projected (planned) expenditures will probably exceed projected (planned) revenues. When this happens, governments immediately want to raise taxes and/or reduce services regardless of the financial condition of the government. It works every time.
--good luck, %*()^# the bastages, and remember, any government's first job is to perpetuate itself and it's human members as an organization. It's an "us versus them" situation, with those guys holding the cards and with their mercenaries who insist they are correct and you are wrong, in every case. There is NO incentive for any of them to do anything that will jeopardize their own check, at best that is electioneering rhetoric, and that's it. The "for the peepuls" nonsense is job 789 with them.
--there's no national law that exactly addresses your question beyond we have the born with "right" of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It gets incredibly complex after that of course.
Each of the 50 seperate states has laws that address self defense of life and protection of property, and there are significant differences. Some places you have little to no "rights", you are actually required to retreat from your home, not interfere, and call some "authority person" to "assist you". Other places it's not a good idea to break in as it's a tad saner in what the victim can do. Usually it revolves around if the victim has a "reasonable expectation of bodily harm" from the attacker, so it's a case by case deal. Example, someone breaks in, they have a weapon, threaten you, bang he's history. The perp is in the house, the weapon is there,most likely you won't be charged with anything-but it's still a variable. That's the hard part without getting into a state by state breakdown of the laws. If on the other hand someone breaks in, you surprise them, they flee out the door and you pop them in the back as they are running away in the yard, nope, you'll most likely get charged at least with manslaughter if not murder. It also really makes a difference if you as the victim are a member of the "elite class" or not, chances are-say-you are a cop or judge or some other "priveleged one" that your buddies will cut you quite a bit of slack over say joe sixpack in the same exact situation. this is just "practical law reality" as opposed to "strict letter of the law".
The main basic differences are protecting property as opposed to protecting your (or someone else's) life. There's wildcards as well, here's an example. In a state that "allows" you your right to self defense by being armed, say you are carrying a handgun. If mr. badguy approaches you on the street in any mugging attempt, you may blast them, but you DANG well better be prepared to show that what you allege actually happened. If mr badguy doesn't have a weapon on him, and it doesn't look credible to the local prosecutor that you were threatened with harm and robbery and other bad stuff, you could very well be en-screwed. Same inside your home. Some states just the fact of the bad guy being inside your home is enough evidence that they were up to some serious "no good" and that's enough, other states it's nothing, the bad guys have most of the rights still. It (victims self defense and related issues) goes from very good and demonstrably effective-say vermont, to absurd and ineffective-NYC, for an example.
It's something that to me is really a huge gaping hole in the self defense and property rights areas, as supposedly our constitution in theory is supposed to insure across the board to everyone our basic born with "rights" as outlined in the constitution (article 4, section 2), in practice it's completely bastardized and obfuscated across all the states borders one state to the next, and even municipalities have differing laws/rules that might conflict with the state outlines.
A pretty good basic rule of thumb is, in areas of the country that are run and codified closer to the english language version of "gun rights" instead of commercial code lawyerese language version as per the original intent of your basic born-with right to be armed, the more likely you won't be seen as the badguy in a home invasion defense. The two parallel each other fairly well.
As to your network, no, I don't think so. With that said you are free to google for references to "louisville slugger" and "ski mask". Although that bios blasting trick (passwords.exe)outlined in another post seems like a pretty nifty trick to zap the badguy network intruder, at least the stoopider ones. It's too bad there isn't an anti-spam variant
Harrr-umph
note to anyone, not trying to sidetrack the thread or have this evolve into a "pro-anti" deal here with the self defense of property/home/person commentary.
--are you saying it's like a predatory-gluttonous browser? The server gets a request that includes *some kinda code* that bumps your request to the head of the line and causes any other requests and transfers going on to become degraded or stop until your's is completed?
A big investment bank sorta disagrees, at least on the linux aspect addressed here.
gnomeprm/"free" software
on
Ark Linux
·
· Score: 2
--redhat 7.1 had a good gnomerpm that all you needed was a right click to install an app. It was great, worked well, now it takes three different screens and a lot of clicking to do the same thing. So at one time it existed.
Coming from a mostly never ever touched a cli since the 80's on dos which I detested as just stoopid, I found (still find on 7.2) redhat to be quite easy to use as long as I stick to redhat brand rpms and not generic rpms, that one threw me for a loop "why" that was when the "non standard" rpm happened to me. Seems as a bit of courtesy that whomever took the label "rpm" and made an app that was labeled that would have followed the originator's standard in what file went where. If they didn't like iot they should have called it something else. To me that's like buying a non oem aftermarket alternator that is labeled "belchfire" but it won't bolt onto a belchfire. Sorta kinda dumb and rude there.
Free as in speech and in beer doesn't necessarily make the speech outstanding oratory or the brew outstanding beverage. So I agree, quality, consistency, ease of use. A few dozen apps that work well, not a few hundred that are so-so and require weeks of code wrangling. The main bitching I see here is "oh no, can't lose our elite tweaking ability". Who says you have to? Duh, any distro can add in the dang shell and console, but not being absolutely required to use it makes it or breaks it on "the masses" useability scale.
Another really off the wall side issue. Apps included in an officially released boxed set distro, and what you pay for the distro, there should be micropayments to the app maker guys to go with it, if they are releasing as begware. that will make what's included or not be a lot easier to sort out. If the apps aren't begware, and they are toting 100% of the note and don't care, swell, their bandwith and coding time. I don't mind begware and would like to support them (the apps I use and find useful obviously), but sending one dollar via online payment schedule to a zillion app orgs is just silly. And I think the clone copiers and resellers should send a buck per cd to the distros they are cloning. And here's another kicker sure to be controversial. the gpl says it has to be "free", swell, the information is free, the bandwith isn't. People should help pay the bandwith and associated costs for downloading ISO's. That bandwith is not the "source code" that is free, you still get the data, but those servers take wires and electricity and buildings, which costs money. It's just as much a real expense as it is to make cd copies and ship them, albeit less money, it adds up. Call it a "shipping and handling" charge for the "free" stuff you are receiving.
--I've got 12vdc run already, albeit it wasn't a big deal, we live in an RV. It had some 12 volt stuff already, but I added a lot more when we added solar pv to the power mix. My goal is to eventually have zero ac wiring "needs" anyplace, cut a big chunk out of the electric middleman of make dc, invert to ac, convert back to dc for the computer, which is the last actual needed ac appliance we have. Our lights are dc fluorescent, I can run one of the laptops dc cuz I got the gizmo, my radios are all dc, little fridge is propane or dc, vacuum is dc, last major ac appliance I use all the time is this desktop and monitor, which are serious juice hogs anyway. Your idea is kinda neat if you can get a large enough computer power supply that you can pull from for all your boxes in different rooms.
But ya, in a house, having the option of dc wiring is just another + to go along with running ethernet and coax. For low amperage, you actually could use an ac circuit that exists,pull it and put it in a sub panel, but you'd have to be careful with plugging stuff in (duh), and you'd still have to have dc voltage converters to get the 5 or 3.3 or whatever you need. To run all them you'd need a separate hot for each voltage, but they could share a ground I guess.
--I see the opposite with payphones around here, they are heavily used. Our county has increased in population about 25% in the past 3 years, almost all "recent arrivals" of questionable legality. They use the payphones for local stuff or with calling cards to call home with. About the only problems (that I have seen) with it are they try to use foreign coins and they get stuck in the coin boxes sometimes. I don't know if the phones are profitable anymore, but they keep them in, so I guess they are.
--as long as someone is modding their case, etc, whynot just remove the power supply to someplace else? Why does it have to be inside the case all the time? Resistance drops on dc wiring ain't all that bad within a reasonable distance, like inside a room to over yonder in the closet. And wires are cheap, and connectors can be cobbed. Put the power supply someplace away from where you are, add a larger low rpm quit fan, not have to worry about fitting in more stuff inside the case or concentrating the ambient noise, and having the power supply outside the case will have it run cooler just from not being so confined and next to the other heat sources like the drives and cpu and vid card.
I guess you could use it as a coffee warmer to disguise it as well if it was still inside the room. heh.
--been thinking about this. You know how some places when they are under a drought water restriction, they have odd/even days for watering? People with odd numbered addresses on one day, even the next, and so on. Keeps the water supply from getting slashdotted.
What would be nice is an honor system "when to click over to a hot new link" regimen.
Something like this, open for review and tweaking. You look at when the story was posted, note the time. Wait to the next full quarter hour before the onslaught begins. That's your start point. Here's how it gets divvied up. Now you take your real name-you only have to do this once, then remember the number-you do a normal letter/number substitution, first letter of first name, first letter of last name, transpose to the correct numbers, add them together, add again if double digits, until you have a single digit. Just a normal numerology deal there with the alphabet, 1 -26 numbers. That final added together digit is your permanent static name number, that you use with the "time" number to click over. Every 5 minute increment from the article post time start point full quarter hour, counts as a digit starting with 1, etc. When your static name number matches your honor system time-digit number for the article, then it's cool for you to click over.
This way it gets spread out better, instead of all at once when the article is posted. Voluntary non-anarchy, being polite to the server, and maybe everyone can actually get to the link without it crashing the server.
--I'm a consumer who spends cash money on releases (and various software), and have since way way back. I am not an IT person or a software coder, and last I looked that's not a prerequisite for posting on slashdot. I like technology, computers, etc, but that's it beyond assembling boxes and some hardware work. I buy my cds, and I have both boxed sets and clone copies I paid money for. I would buy all of them direct from the distro releasers, along my rough guidelines, if they had an inexpensive tryout one cd version, it doesn't have to have the kitchen sink on it, just a variety but not 1000 apps on several cds. That sort of release is fine, too, no reason they can't have a simpler cheaper one. It's called choice. I also happen to think there's more than enough "distros" out there and a lot of overlapping effort on various apps, but that's those folks choices to do that if they want to, just seems silly, but who cares?
To repeat, I am a CONSUMER who pays for peoples work and efforts, I'm not a leech like 90% of the people who use linux and just download OS versions forever and never buy anything but blank cd's. Consumers are allowed to point out what they might want to purchase, what features or manner they'd like to see something offered. I would rather have a slightly consolidated stripped down single cd offering to try different distros out, not gonna pop 20 to 60 dollars every few months PER release when there's dozens and dozens of them though. That's nuts unless you are rolling in dough, which I ain't.
And gee, wanting linux on the big pc manufacturers boxes, and wanting to see them on the shelf at the retail stores, guess that's politically incorrect as well. That's "bad" right, we don't want to see that?
If you got a problem with any of that,ya know what, tough crap, take it up with your momma, she's the only one that might care.
--was just looking at the picture of the device, not sure why it's called "not pretty". It seems more or less like any other modern device, it's not kludgy looking or anything.
It's pretty good and gets into some detail. He has some other videos as well, and a good mon-fri daily radio show. Also check on the site the link to the 9-11, government prior knowledge collection of articles.
IMO, it is neither correct to say the US isn't or is authoritarian. Incidents occur, it's just a matter of scale and what the trends are. for example, here is an (randomly selected google reference) infamous example of obvious presidential abuse of power, ie "authoritarianism"
http://www.dailyrepublican.com/clintoninsulted.h tm l
Granted, relatively minor-but not for the victims. Reality and POV change once it ceases being a theory or opinion and becomes a fact that affects someone. I am sure there are any number of millions of similar examples, the vast majority of which are relatively unknown to anyone except the victims and their immediate friends and family. Hmm, the recent story about the lost wallet and the overreaction by armed police and a family dog is an example of "authoritarianism" carried to a harmful degree. Another, ask any relative of a kent state student shot and killed or wounded, their opinion will be different perhaps. It's scale and relativity to any "incident" that would make or break an "absolute" statement.
I would say that it is more correct to say that the US right now isn't "as bad" as those other named countries, not that "they are" and "we aren't", and that "status" can change on a political whim. Right now, codified into law and challenged and upheld in a "court", all of your US alleged "born with" civil rights may be abbrogated if the executive branch classifies you as an "enemy combatant" or as a "terrorist", with no other anything required but their say-so. A "terrorist" by codified definition (one definition) is anyone who destroys governmental property or a contract. That's a rather broad brush, but it's "de law" now. And once identified as such-again, just because "they say so"-you are rather en-screwed. It used to take either a grand jury indictment to do that, with some still remaining "rights", or being caught in the immediate commission of a crime by a sworn officer. This is no longer the case. That's a pretty good example of the "trends" lately into authoritariansim. There's another one I recall, there's a doctor associated with the investigations into the waco case, he's been held without charge for over 5 years now (IIRC), and been under forced drugging. The story is, he was developing and was about to release some rather embarassing evidence. So he (Charles Thomas Sell, D.D.S, just googled for his name) got snatched up a la the gulag with their historical "psychiatric" abuses for "dissidents". The US "court" has ruled this is perfectly "lawful".
hmmmmm
I guess it just depends on where you are standing at any given point in time, and who you are, and what's going on, what "authoritarianism" really is, and whether or not some "state" can be classified as such.
--I am not any sort of expert on this so I have a question I don't see addressed in the article. I can understand a large kinetic hit, the crater and debris field. Where does the "light" come from? Inside an atmosphere like ours we have an "oxidiser" allowing some burning, if I am understanding this correctly, how we see meteorites after they enter (saw a bolide hit the ocean before, very spectacular). But on the moon in a vacuum, how does one rock hitting another create the light? Flint hitting steel creates a spark because a piece of the steel is burning, and it's burning because there's O2 present. On the moon I just don't get it. I'm sure there's an answer, I just don't know what it is, lacking any sort of decent chemistry. Thanks in advance for anyone who can explain this simply.
---nice article, thanks for the link. He makes a few valid (to mostly ignorant me) points there.
It's almost like the tld's need a "master switch" they can throw to go from one set of "connects" to another almost instantly if/when a huge DDoS attack occurs. Similar in function and effect to an electrical power transfer switch.
--not so much afraid of a few kiddies, as much as large powerful "states" doing this, and I don't leave any nation off the potential abuser list. I am more than a bit concerned over a cyber "reichstagg" event being used for...bad stuff.. as much as a "rogue smaller nation" doing it as a prelude to general warfare.
--backup RF transceivers are a good thing as well, it's not exactly the "the good ole intarweb", but it has some redundant info gathering and disseminating qualities to it, even on a cheap and unsophisticated scale.
I liked his guaranted firewall, a 5 kg block of clay you stick your network cable in after cutting it into two pieces with sidecutters. I guess that would work.
Where's the dns in a box thing? I am blind I guess, not seeing it or is that another joke?
OK, roger that. I was surprised though over the one dollar figure for the oem OS inclusion, had no idea it was *that* cheap. One buck? That's all microsoft gets from you guys? Uh-mazing. Well, can't really argue all that hard against that price. I was thinking more like you had to pay them 30 to 50 bucks or something.
All right so what's the solution to giving people another choice? Just hold out and wait until one of the distros can actually cut the mustard better within your parameters? To be fair, because you as the box maker are picking the hardware, at least that part can be addressed in advance, all that stuff should work if you pick and choose carefully, and you could include a recommended hardware accessories list like "these printers and scanners and cams and doodads are known to work" list. Besides that as to tech support, don't know, what breaks and knowing that in advance is the hardest part, and what they can't figure out, the customers/end users I mean. Printed manual, you're gonna include one anyway (you do don't ya?), so that should be a wash. As a standalone distro product on the shelf, allright, make it 15 clams at entry "home surfer release" level, that should cover it,a cd plus manual.
hey man, good for you guys! That sounds pretty dang neat to me, and that market must be a hoot! Eventually it's gonna be that way here, as soon as we hit a critical mass level of awarness of what the heck linux, etc really is to most people and the computermakers give it a whack as an install. But like you saw, maybe the customers will just go ahead and stick a pirate copy of borg back in, but maybe not if they play with what's on there first and it works well.
Slashdot Mirror
--OK, my brane hurts now. I read the whole thread. Will someone please explain to a non isp admin level person WHAT exactly a single lone luser should do to "help out" and to also make it so their own surfing queries can be automagically parsed to IP numbers, thereby eliminating the "load" all this "looking up" business does? So far I see "name server". Note I *think* I understand it, but up to a dozen open pagesnow telling me I got to do this and that and every other word is an acronym. Or should I bother? My idea is I want my frequently accessed pages to be guaranteed to be in IP number form so that if/when/who knows something happens to the net I still got a chance to get from point A to B. The other part I get is "bind sucks", I have that on my redhat install, so what else should I do (use), with the caveat it has to be a simple as possible, and this is a dynamic connection on a modem.
Thanks in advance for any coherent non troll replies!
--these guys release their figures and are bemoaning "lost sales". What they leave out all the time is that the entire economy (very broadly speaking, there's a few exceptions obviously) is hurting. Many other industries have "lower sales" figures for 2001 and 2002. People are maxed out credit-wise, a lot of folks have lost their jobs and either still don't have jobs or are working for much less money. In the US the actual true unemployment figures are so dismal that the bureau of labor statistics stopped reporting a lot of the details claiming it was "too expensive" to include them in their reports. Well, that's obviously a political decision there.
People aren't buying as much music more from 1-it's just too expensive for what you get, and 2-less disposable income. Music on CDs is not a necessity like the home note, vehicle note, food and utilities are.
--burn the wedding pics and small vid clips right there at the wedding / reception and give out copies on cds. You can get the blank labels printed up now in advance so they are semi pro looking.
nationwide segway lanes! With wireless nodes!
Honest, could he do a WORSE job than the bent one or the nose picker?
--yet again another car analogy. Remember when the transition from no pollution crap to totally space shuttled out plumbing on cars happened? Eventually within some time certain aspects of it became mandatory, then emissions tests, etc. It's now illegal to alter change or modify any of that stuff *technically* and some places are now considering retrofiting your cars as another mandate if they don't "pass" their inspections. I'll go out on a limb here and predict it (DRM STUFF)will become law all over sooner or later, nation wide, both in hardware and a lot of software. You certainly can't purchase new anything in the vehicle world that isn't a plumbing nightmare anymore, that's for sure. And the computer world moves a lot faster than the car world, that's just reality.
I am expecting the same with computers. DRM will become mandated, it's about inevitable. So, word to the wise, stock up on non crippled hardware if that's what you want, and send missives to the major manufacturers you won't be using their products and will "make do" with the older stuff. Here's a place that the "gamer community" (one of several examples but a large one demographically) can make an impact, if they would just stop buying "new and improved" once it's universally crippled, and let the chip makers and game developers know they intend to follow through with this so they need to be told "don't go there". Along with all that other normal activism lobbying. But will it happen, or will the lure of faster and faster and faster and more realistic 3-D blood and gore get these chips and software sold? yes, I know there's a lot more uses for faster and better, etc, just looking at where the general big interests are. the big companies that tote the note on buying mass quantitites of hardware will probably want 'security' features. the mass media guys obviously do. the games shippers want to make a buck or two, most of them anyway. So there ya go, the "golden rule" will result in "for the childrenz!" crippled hardware and software eventually, at least on most platforms, and even more likely mandated by various laws on "new" stuff.
wall>handwriting
a small paste from their intro page:
Simultaneous Budget Deficits/Shortfalls AND Financial Surpluses
This is the most deceiving topic that governments, politicians, and the news media have conveyed to the public about governmental financial matters. In realty, a government can simultaneously have a budget shortfall and a financial surplus of the taxpayers' money.
A budget is an estimate of the amount of money to be received and the amounts to be spent for various purposes in a given time. It is a planning and monitoring document. It matches revenues (income) and expenditures (expenses) for a given period of time which is usually one year for most governments. It does NOT demonstrate the financial condition of a government.
You continually hear the phrase "budget shortfall" or "budget deficit." What this means is that projected (planned) expenditures will probably exceed projected (planned) revenues. When this happens, governments immediately want to raise taxes and/or reduce services regardless of the financial condition of the government. It works every time.
--good luck, %*()^# the bastages, and remember, any government's first job is to perpetuate itself and it's human members as an organization. It's an "us versus them" situation, with those guys holding the cards and with their mercenaries who insist they are correct and you are wrong, in every case. There is NO incentive for any of them to do anything that will jeopardize their own check, at best that is electioneering rhetoric, and that's it. The "for the peepuls" nonsense is job 789 with them.
--there's no national law that exactly addresses your question beyond we have the born with "right" of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It gets incredibly complex after that of course.
Each of the 50 seperate states has laws that address self defense of life and protection of property, and there are significant differences. Some places you have little to no "rights", you are actually required to retreat from your home, not interfere, and call some "authority person" to "assist you". Other places it's not a good idea to break in as it's a tad saner in what the victim can do. Usually it revolves around if the victim has a "reasonable expectation of bodily harm" from the attacker, so it's a case by case deal. Example, someone breaks in, they have a weapon, threaten you, bang he's history. The perp is in the house, the weapon is there,most likely you won't be charged with anything-but it's still a variable. That's the hard part without getting into a state by state breakdown of the laws. If on the other hand someone breaks in, you surprise them, they flee out the door and you pop them in the back as they are running away in the yard, nope, you'll most likely get charged at least with manslaughter if not murder. It also really makes a difference if you as the victim are a member of the "elite class" or not, chances are-say-you are a cop or judge or some other "priveleged one" that your buddies will cut you quite a bit of slack over say joe sixpack in the same exact situation. this is just "practical law reality" as opposed to "strict letter of the law".
The main basic differences are protecting property as opposed to protecting your (or someone else's) life. There's wildcards as well, here's an example. In a state that "allows" you your right to self defense by being armed, say you are carrying a handgun. If mr. badguy approaches you on the street in any mugging attempt, you may blast them, but you DANG well better be prepared to show that what you allege actually happened. If mr badguy doesn't have a weapon on him, and it doesn't look credible to the local prosecutor that you were threatened with harm and robbery and other bad stuff, you could very well be en-screwed. Same inside your home. Some states just the fact of the bad guy being inside your home is enough evidence that they were up to some serious "no good" and that's enough, other states it's nothing, the bad guys have most of the rights still. It (victims self defense and related issues) goes from very good and demonstrably effective-say vermont, to absurd and ineffective-NYC, for an example.
It's something that to me is really a huge gaping hole in the self defense and property rights areas, as supposedly our constitution in theory is supposed to insure across the board to everyone our basic born with "rights" as outlined in the constitution (article 4, section 2), in practice it's completely bastardized and obfuscated across all the states borders one state to the next, and even municipalities have differing laws/rules that might conflict with the state outlines.
A pretty good basic rule of thumb is, in areas of the country that are run and codified closer to the english language version of "gun rights" instead of commercial code lawyerese language version as per the original intent of your basic born-with right to be armed, the more likely you won't be seen as the badguy in a home invasion defense. The two parallel each other fairly well.
As to your network, no, I don't think so. With that said you are free to google for references to "louisville slugger" and "ski mask". Although that bios blasting trick (passwords.exe)outlined in another post seems like a pretty nifty trick to zap the badguy network intruder, at least the stoopider ones. It's too bad there isn't an anti-spam variant
Harrr-umph
note to anyone, not trying to sidetrack the thread or have this evolve into a "pro-anti" deal here with the self defense of property/home/person commentary.
--are you saying it's like a predatory-gluttonous browser? The server gets a request that includes *some kinda code* that bumps your request to the head of the line and causes any other requests and transfers going on to become degraded or stop until your's is completed?
--was just reading an article on this very subject.
A big investment bank sorta disagrees, at least on the linux aspect addressed here.
--redhat 7.1 had a good gnomerpm that all you needed was a right click to install an app. It was great, worked well, now it takes three different screens and a lot of clicking to do the same thing. So at one time it existed.
Coming from a mostly never ever touched a cli since the 80's on dos which I detested as just stoopid, I found (still find on 7.2) redhat to be quite easy to use as long as I stick to redhat brand rpms and not generic rpms, that one threw me for a loop "why" that was when the "non standard" rpm happened to me. Seems as a bit of courtesy that whomever took the label "rpm" and made an app that was labeled that would have followed the originator's standard in what file went where. If they didn't like iot they should have called it something else. To me that's like buying a non oem aftermarket alternator that is labeled "belchfire" but it won't bolt onto a belchfire. Sorta kinda dumb and rude there.
Free as in speech and in beer doesn't necessarily make the speech outstanding oratory or the brew outstanding beverage. So I agree, quality, consistency, ease of use. A few dozen apps that work well, not a few hundred that are so-so and require weeks of code wrangling. The main bitching I see here is "oh no, can't lose our elite tweaking ability". Who says you have to? Duh, any distro can add in the dang shell and console, but not being absolutely required to use it makes it or breaks it on "the masses" useability scale.
Another really off the wall side issue. Apps included in an officially released boxed set distro, and what you pay for the distro, there should be micropayments to the app maker guys to go with it, if they are releasing as begware. that will make what's included or not be a lot easier to sort out. If the apps aren't begware, and they are toting 100% of the note and don't care, swell, their bandwith and coding time. I don't mind begware and would like to support them (the apps I use and find useful obviously), but sending one dollar via online payment schedule to a zillion app orgs is just silly. And I think the clone copiers and resellers should send a buck per cd to the distros they are cloning. And here's another kicker sure to be controversial. the gpl says it has to be "free", swell, the information is free, the bandwith isn't. People should help pay the bandwith and associated costs for downloading ISO's. That bandwith is not the "source code" that is free, you still get the data, but those servers take wires and electricity and buildings, which costs money. It's just as much a real expense as it is to make cd copies and ship them, albeit less money, it adds up. Call it a "shipping and handling" charge for the "free" stuff you are receiving.
--I've got 12vdc run already, albeit it wasn't a big deal, we live in an RV. It had some 12 volt stuff already, but I added a lot more when we added solar pv to the power mix. My goal is to eventually have zero ac wiring "needs" anyplace, cut a big chunk out of the electric middleman of make dc, invert to ac, convert back to dc for the computer, which is the last actual needed ac appliance we have. Our lights are dc fluorescent, I can run one of the laptops dc cuz I got the gizmo, my radios are all dc, little fridge is propane or dc, vacuum is dc, last major ac appliance I use all the time is this desktop and monitor, which are serious juice hogs anyway. Your idea is kinda neat if you can get a large enough computer power supply that you can pull from for all your boxes in different rooms.
But ya, in a house, having the option of dc wiring is just another + to go along with running ethernet and coax. For low amperage, you actually could use an ac circuit that exists,pull it and put it in a sub panel, but you'd have to be careful with plugging stuff in (duh), and you'd still have to have dc voltage converters to get the 5 or 3.3 or whatever you need. To run all them you'd need a separate hot for each voltage, but they could share a ground I guess.
--I see the opposite with payphones around here, they are heavily used. Our county has increased in population about 25% in the past 3 years, almost all "recent arrivals" of questionable legality. They use the payphones for local stuff or with calling cards to call home with. About the only problems (that I have seen) with it are they try to use foreign coins and they get stuck in the coin boxes sometimes. I don't know if the phones are profitable anymore, but they keep them in, so I guess they are.
--as long as someone is modding their case, etc, whynot just remove the power supply to someplace else? Why does it have to be inside the case all the time? Resistance drops on dc wiring ain't all that bad within a reasonable distance, like inside a room to over yonder in the closet. And wires are cheap, and connectors can be cobbed. Put the power supply someplace away from where you are, add a larger low rpm quit fan, not have to worry about fitting in more stuff inside the case or concentrating the ambient noise, and having the power supply outside the case will have it run cooler just from not being so confined and next to the other heat sources like the drives and cpu and vid card.
I guess you could use it as a coffee warmer to disguise it as well if it was still inside the room. heh.
--been thinking about this. You know how some places when they are under a drought water restriction, they have odd/even days for watering? People with odd numbered addresses on one day, even the next, and so on. Keeps the water supply from getting slashdotted.
What would be nice is an honor system "when to click over to a hot new link" regimen.
Something like this, open for review and tweaking. You look at when the story was posted, note the time. Wait to the next full quarter hour before the onslaught begins. That's your start point. Here's how it gets divvied up. Now you take your real name-you only have to do this once, then remember the number-you do a normal letter/number substitution, first letter of first name, first letter of last name, transpose to the correct numbers, add them together, add again if double digits, until you have a single digit. Just a normal numerology deal there with the alphabet, 1 -26 numbers. That final added together digit is your permanent static name number, that you use with the "time" number to click over. Every 5 minute increment from the article post time start point full quarter hour, counts as a digit starting with 1, etc. When your static name number matches your honor system time-digit number for the article, then it's cool for you to click over.
This way it gets spread out better, instead of all at once when the article is posted. Voluntary non-anarchy, being polite to the server, and maybe everyone can actually get to the link without it crashing the server.
--I'm a consumer who spends cash money on releases (and various software), and have since way way back. I am not an IT person or a software coder, and last I looked that's not a prerequisite for posting on slashdot. I like technology, computers, etc, but that's it beyond assembling boxes and some hardware work. I buy my cds, and I have both boxed sets and clone copies I paid money for. I would buy all of them direct from the distro releasers, along my rough guidelines, if they had an inexpensive tryout one cd version, it doesn't have to have the kitchen sink on it, just a variety but not 1000 apps on several cds. That sort of release is fine, too, no reason they can't have a simpler cheaper one. It's called choice. I also happen to think there's more than enough "distros" out there and a lot of overlapping effort on various apps, but that's those folks choices to do that if they want to, just seems silly, but who cares?
To repeat, I am a CONSUMER who pays for peoples work and efforts, I'm not a leech like 90% of the people who use linux and just download OS versions forever and never buy anything but blank cd's. Consumers are allowed to point out what they might want to purchase, what features or manner they'd like to see something offered. I would rather have a slightly consolidated stripped down single cd offering to try different distros out, not gonna pop 20 to 60 dollars every few months PER release when there's dozens and dozens of them though. That's nuts unless you are rolling in dough, which I ain't.
And gee, wanting linux on the big pc manufacturers boxes, and wanting to see them on the shelf at the retail stores, guess that's politically incorrect as well. That's "bad" right, we don't want to see that?
If you got a problem with any of that,ya know what, tough crap, take it up with your momma, she's the only one that might care.
--was just looking at the picture of the device, not sure why it's called "not pretty". It seems more or less like any other modern device, it's not kludgy looking or anything.
It's pretty good and gets into some detail. He has some other videos as well, and a good mon-fri daily radio show. Also check on the site the link to the 9-11, government prior knowledge collection of articles.
--thanks, to you and the other replier.
Must be why redheads named "joulie" are considered "red hot". A lot of kinetic energy gets used. heh.
%^)
IMO, it is neither correct to say the US isn't or is authoritarian. Incidents occur, it's just a matter of scale and what the trends are. for example, here is an (randomly selected google reference) infamous example of obvious presidential abuse of power, ie "authoritarianism"
h tm l
http://www.dailyrepublican.com/clintoninsulted.
Granted, relatively minor-but not for the victims. Reality and POV change once it ceases being a theory or opinion and becomes a fact that affects someone. I am sure there are any number of millions of similar examples, the vast majority of which are relatively unknown to anyone except the victims and their immediate friends and family. Hmm, the recent story about the lost wallet and the overreaction by armed police and a family dog is an example of "authoritarianism" carried to a harmful degree. Another, ask any relative of a kent state student shot and killed or wounded, their opinion will be different perhaps. It's scale and relativity to any "incident" that would make or break an "absolute" statement.
I would say that it is more correct to say that the US right now isn't "as bad" as those other named countries, not that "they are" and "we aren't", and that "status" can change on a political whim. Right now, codified into law and challenged and upheld in a "court", all of your US alleged "born with" civil rights may be abbrogated if the executive branch classifies you as an "enemy combatant" or as a "terrorist", with no other anything required but their say-so. A "terrorist" by codified definition (one definition) is anyone who destroys governmental property or a contract. That's a rather broad brush, but it's "de law" now. And once identified as such-again, just because "they say so"-you are rather en-screwed. It used to take either a grand jury indictment to do that, with some still remaining "rights", or being caught in the immediate commission of a crime by a sworn officer. This is no longer the case. That's a pretty good example of the "trends" lately into authoritariansim. There's another one I recall, there's a doctor associated with the investigations into the waco case, he's been held without charge for over 5 years now (IIRC), and been under forced drugging. The story is, he was developing and was about to release some rather embarassing evidence. So he (Charles Thomas Sell, D.D.S, just googled for his name) got snatched up a la the gulag with their historical "psychiatric" abuses for "dissidents". The US "court" has ruled this is perfectly "lawful".
hmmmmm
I guess it just depends on where you are standing at any given point in time, and who you are, and what's going on, what "authoritarianism" really is, and whether or not some "state" can be classified as such.
--okey doke, thanks. I "spaced" out on the lightbulb filament reference angle. Makes more sense now to me.
--I am not any sort of expert on this so I have a question I don't see addressed in the article. I can understand a large kinetic hit, the crater and debris field. Where does the "light" come from? Inside an atmosphere like ours we have an "oxidiser" allowing some burning, if I am understanding this correctly, how we see meteorites after they enter (saw a bolide hit the ocean before, very spectacular). But on the moon in a vacuum, how does one rock hitting another create the light? Flint hitting steel creates a spark because a piece of the steel is burning, and it's burning because there's O2 present. On the moon I just don't get it. I'm sure there's an answer, I just don't know what it is, lacking any sort of decent chemistry. Thanks in advance for anyone who can explain this simply.
---nice article, thanks for the link. He makes a few valid (to mostly ignorant me) points there.
It's almost like the tld's need a "master switch" they can throw to go from one set of "connects" to another almost instantly if/when a huge DDoS attack occurs. Similar in function and effect to an electrical power transfer switch.
--not so much afraid of a few kiddies, as much as large powerful "states" doing this, and I don't leave any nation off the potential abuser list. I am more than a bit concerned over a cyber "reichstagg" event being used for...bad stuff.. as much as a "rogue smaller nation" doing it as a prelude to general warfare.
--backup RF transceivers are a good thing as well, it's not exactly the "the good ole intarweb", but it has some redundant info gathering and disseminating qualities to it, even on a cheap and unsophisticated scale.
I liked his guaranted firewall, a 5 kg block of clay you stick your network cable in after cutting it into two pieces with sidecutters. I guess that would work.
Where's the dns in a box thing? I am blind I guess, not seeing it or is that another joke?
OK, roger that. I was surprised though over the one dollar figure for the oem OS inclusion, had no idea it was *that* cheap. One buck? That's all microsoft gets from you guys? Uh-mazing. Well, can't really argue all that hard against that price. I was thinking more like you had to pay them 30 to 50 bucks or something.
All right so what's the solution to giving people another choice? Just hold out and wait until one of the distros can actually cut the mustard better within your parameters? To be fair, because you as the box maker are picking the hardware, at least that part can be addressed in advance, all that stuff should work if you pick and choose carefully, and you could include a recommended hardware accessories list like "these printers and scanners and cams and doodads are known to work" list. Besides that as to tech support, don't know, what breaks and knowing that in advance is the hardest part, and what they can't figure out, the customers/end users I mean. Printed manual, you're gonna include one anyway (you do don't ya?), so that should be a wash. As a standalone distro product on the shelf, allright, make it 15 clams at entry "home surfer release" level, that should cover it,a cd plus manual.
hey man, good for you guys! That sounds pretty dang neat to me, and that market must be a hoot! Eventually it's gonna be that way here, as soon as we hit a critical mass level of awarness of what the heck linux, etc really is to most people and the computermakers give it a whack as an install. But like you saw, maybe the customers will just go ahead and stick a pirate copy of borg back in, but maybe not if they play with what's on there first and it works well.