As much as I hate me two posts, here's a 5th vote. Customer service is great, and they emphasize quality of service to the point of buying new hardware for my account rather than overloading servers on an existing customers. The discount for free software authors is really nice as well, and with that it doesnt cost much more than other providers - and for a uk provider they are very cheap anyway.
Does anybody know if there is a (cheap) Midi keyboard to USB converter that will work with a Powerbook? Having already got a MIDI keyboard I don't really want to go buying another.
While I agree with your comments, I don't understand how the group referred to in the story are playing 'bright lining games'.
If a person wants to give every customer who buys their song a license to make 2 backups for private use that is their perogative. They're not saying 'here, take these blank cd-rs and make some "legal" backup copies of all your metallica albums', they're not saying 'make a copy and distribute it to your friends'. They're saying that music they produce should be able to be backed up as per fair use, and they're giving people a helping hand doing it.
Perhaps I simply disagree with you that the spirit of copyright law should force those who have damaged media to have to pay twice. Or that the spirit of copyright law should forbid people to be able to transfer music between different media such as mp3/ogg/aac players. The extrapolation argument you said is okay, but nowhere do I see Eisbrecher advocating that people break the spirit of copyright law as you said.
As the FAQ says (the Why does one track bleed into another), streamripper uses a combination of metadata and silence detection (upon metadata track change, it searches for the most recent silent point and splits there). So even if the metadata is a few seconds late, there shouldnt be a problem. The problem is with stations that use crossfading, or some other technique that means there is no silence between tracks.
Also, I really don't see the problem with allowing people to rip streams however, except for the same arguments against recording radio or brodcast tv.
Happened to me a few years back for almost the same reason (except it was just chatting to a friend, not bulk messaging). It just motivated me to write a program that changed the name of the sender. They got confused when they tried to ban an empty computer from using the facilities.
Seriously though, while its not hacking, it is bulk messaging, which I'm sure they could suspend the kid over. And while 'Hey!' might not be a 'F*ck you all!!', if they let it slide, the problem will get out of hand until there are 2000 vulgar messages popping up every lunchtime.
Disabling the messenger service would solve the problem a lot easier though, assuming they didnt need it for printer notifications or something.
Ah.. I was under the impression that this would allow you to connect to a box that just listens on the network and acts as a logging machine, which would have just one interface without an ip address, and a console connection for administration - the benefit of not having an ip is there is no way for an attacker to connect remotely and modify the logs.
But I can see the use now.. methinks I may need to reread the article
or does this sort of defeat the whole point of having a box that you can't connect to over the network in the first place? Whats to stop an attacker connecting through the tunnel to the noip'd box?
And what happens when you move to winCE, or linux on the Zaurus, or MacOSX, or console *NIX? There probably are multi-im clients available for some of those OS's, but I suspect it would be a lot easier to find a jabber client, and simply eneter one set of account details - having the rest already stored for you. Repeatedly putting your info in for however many accounts you have on two computers isnt that much of a hardship, but scaling that up to 5 or 10, or more computers, or perhaps just using a friends computer to check to see if your contacts are online (I for one wouldnt like to go entering 5 different im details every time I used a friends computer) can quickly become tiresome. Add to that the ability of jabber for you to log in from more than one location without kicking you off every other location (Again, a feature they should somehow incorporte into the msn transport - perhaps multiplexing conversations between different jabber logins), and jabber could easily become my first choice of IM. Unfortunately, its not there yet, and from comments I've read (transports being a stopgap measure), may never be.
well the msn transport really, is the fact that the nickname only shows up as a custom away status, and not as the actual name in the contact list. Does anybody know of a way (or has anybody modified the transport and put it on their server) that will show a persons nickname in place of their email on the roster - I'm not talking a client side hack here that would replace the status, but something that would work regardless of the client.
I seen somebody else mention that the transports are supposed to be a stopgap measure until you have convinced all your friends (and their friends and their friends and their........) to use jabber. Now as much as I'd like this to be true, there are some people (99% of my msn contact list, and 100% of their contacts I would guess) that wont ever change for some reasons of other (too hard, I like msn, blah blah). I really think that, as much as the jabber developers would want everyone to unite under one open IM protocol, they should realise that it isnt going to happen in the near future, and try to make the transports a little more polished, allowing jabber to be a direct replacement for the other IM's without any quirks, and allowing you to just log into the server from anywhere with any jabber client and start chatting to all your contacts regardless of IM.
Trillian is a nice idea too, but trying to solve the problem client side means that as soon as I move to a linux machine, I have to find a completely different client, with its own set of quirks, and set up each im account separately on both/all clients. If the problem was solved, and solved well serverside, then it would be a lot easier to migrate between computers/account/im systems.
This is what I would love to be able to use jabber for, but sadly, it just isnt up to scratch yet.
I've been thinking about it the past couple of days.. not had chance to have a look until after exams:(, but when you flash the zaurus rom (to say, openzaurus.. there are two files - a zImage (kernel), and an initrd.bin - the root filesystem (cramfs or jffs2).
At a guess, I'd say you could attempt to rename the kernel image to zImage, and build a root filesystem from whichever install sets you want (on the desktop), and put that filesystem as the initrd.bin), flash, and it would load. I doubt the IPAQ kernel would run thought without recompiling it for zaurus specifics. When I my exams are over, I plan to take a look at the differences between the familiar linux distribution (IPAQ) and opanzaurus (zaurus), and try to adapt that to NetBSD.
However, even after this works, the zaurus sd/mmc slot won't work because the only driver for it is a binary only linux module, and unless there is some way to write a wrapper to get it to work with netbsd, that would cause a huge problem:/
but I kinda missed going to all my lectures, my revision consisted of downloading the lecture slides off the web and skimming them. And my exam is in 5 hours time... I'll let you know after I've finished that:)
Umm.. cos then Mr cracker comes in, types the password 20 times, and now the original user cant get in.
And it would be a little pointless to only allow the past 20 _successful_ inputs, because they would all match the original fingerprint and no drift would occur.
I believe though that if you make the confirmation process more complicated, it will prove too troublesome for users to reply to. I'm talking widespread use of TDMA now, with non computer literate users who probably havent ever come across mailing lists and having to confirm subscriptions. And for the more technical users, there are a great many who use text based clients over SSH, with which viewing a jpeg would be troublesome to say the least. Other methods could be used as you mentioned, but I doubt there are that many that would cause minimum trouble for legitimate users while preventing spammers from being able to write some sort of heuristic algorithm to be able to get at least some confirmation replies correct (remember, they wont be bothered about getting every one through).
As to the reason spammers havent yet resorted to using valid email addresses is that they dont have to! Email confirmation currently isnt widespread for the spammers to go through the extra hassle. When it does get so widespread as to hinder spammers, then they will start using valid email addresses and autoresponders (or perhaps deliberately setting up email bounce replies to save them the hassle of writing replies).
Dont get me wrong, its a great idea, and I especially like the idea of being able to just create time delayed email addresses with nothing more than a program to work out the cryptographic hash (i.e. nothing needed server side). However, I think that if TDMA does become widespread enough for spammers, they will find some way around it, and combating what they do will become increasingly complex and time consuming for users. If I am proved wrong hoever, all the better. No more spam:)
sure, the spammer would consume more bandwidth, but sneding a blank email to the address with no extranous headers or content wont be a huge loss to the spammer, even for sending large amounts of replies.
And I dont see how much easier a spammer could be traced by using a valid email address if they provided false details to the isp providing the address. Even when using a false email address, a MTA will usually give the ip address of the original sender in the headers, and if it doesnt help now, then it wont help much having a valid email address.
Sure, it would add more work, but I doubt it would go so far as to stop spammers completely.
I doubt it would take up an amazing amount more, okay, so they would end up sending a reply for every email they sent out, but I doubt spammers resources would be streched that thin anyway.
My point is, if use of this became widespread, then the spammers would simply start using valid email addresses and auto responders. And considering that people who take the effort and expense to post junk mail and 'telemarket' seem to think its worthwhile, writing a few scripts and using a few cpu cycles wont seem like that much of a hardship to the spammers.
I very nearly made a similar comment, but you just put your email address down ad something like mivok-mailinglistname@yourdomain.com, set that address up with the TDMA, and use that instead. If you suddenly start getting spam to that address, simply revoke it and use a new one. Adding the address to the keyword address list might be difficult, but I'm sure a simple(ish) GUI could be built to manage that for those who were really bothered.
TDMA also has features such as time bomb email addresses, which stop working after a while, which I also like the idea of for one off uses.
I do agree wholehartedly about the automated response problem and spammers using the same trick, and digital signatures would be a pain to implement everywhere. But if ISPs provided a quick way for users to add/create keyword email addresses and date-stamped email addresses, (and not just some web form to modify addresses), it would help things somewhat.
Okay, so a lot of spam comes from forged email address, and having a whitelist+confirm would stop mail from those addresses, but what is to stop spammers using valid addresses (free ones maybe), and a script that automatically replies to any confirmation requests?
When confirming the test email address noted int he article, I just hit reply and send the email as is, and I'm sure a script could be written to automatically send a blank message to the Reply-To: address if this became widespread.
The spammers task would become harder, but far from impossble.
I can only see the cable method of pricing (multiple games, one price) hurting gameplay. Theres a lot of people who are dedicated so much to a single game partially because they pay for it (and of course the fact that the game is addictive). Having multiple games would make each player less enthusiastic about each individual game, and consequently the community wouldnt be anywhere near as thriving. As an example, imagine trying to play everquest, ultima online, sims online, a tale in the desert, and a few others all at once. (neglecting the fact that it is different companies and a flat fee wouldnt work too well).
Slashdot Mirror
Perhaps apple would be more likely to contribute to koffice instead, continuing what they started?
As much as I hate me two posts, here's a 5th vote.
Customer service is great, and they emphasize quality of service to the point of buying new hardware for my account rather than overloading servers on an existing customers.
The discount for free software authors is really nice as well, and with that it doesnt cost much more than other providers - and for a uk provider they are very cheap anyway.
Interestingly the other day I noticed a PS2 controller to Gamecube converter.
Does anybody know if there is a (cheap) Midi keyboard to USB converter that will work with a Powerbook? Having already got a MIDI keyboard I don't really want to go buying another.
While I agree with your comments, I don't understand how the group referred to in the story are playing 'bright lining games'.
If a person wants to give every customer who buys their song a license to make 2 backups for private use that is their perogative. They're not saying 'here, take these blank cd-rs and make some "legal" backup copies of all your metallica albums', they're not saying 'make a copy and distribute it to your friends'. They're saying that music they produce should be able to be backed up as per fair use, and they're giving people a helping hand doing it.
Perhaps I simply disagree with you that the spirit of copyright law should force those who have damaged media to have to pay twice. Or that the spirit of copyright law should forbid people to be able to transfer music between different media such as mp3/ogg/aac players. The extrapolation argument you said is okay, but nowhere do I see Eisbrecher advocating that people break the spirit of copyright law as you said.
As the FAQ says (the Why does one track bleed into another), streamripper uses a combination of metadata and silence detection (upon metadata track change, it searches for the most recent silent point and splits there). So even if the metadata is a few seconds late, there shouldnt be a problem. The problem is with stations that use crossfading, or some other technique that means there is no silence between tracks.
Also, I really don't see the problem with allowing people to rip streams however, except for the same arguments against recording radio or brodcast tv.
Happened to me a few years back for almost the same reason (except it was just chatting to a friend, not bulk messaging). It just motivated me to write a program that changed the name of the sender. They got confused when they tried to ban an empty computer from using the facilities.
Seriously though, while its not hacking, it is bulk messaging, which I'm sure they could suspend the kid over. And while 'Hey!' might not be a 'F*ck you all!!', if they let it slide, the problem will get out of hand until there are 2000 vulgar messages popping up every lunchtime.
Disabling the messenger service would solve the problem a lot easier though, assuming they didnt need it for printer notifications or something.
Ah.. I was under the impression that this would allow you to connect to a box that just listens on the network and acts as a logging machine, which would have just one interface without an ip address, and a console connection for administration - the benefit of not having an ip is there is no way for an attacker to connect remotely and modify the logs.
But I can see the use now.. methinks I may need to reread the article
or does this sort of defeat the whole point of having a box that you can't connect to over the network in the first place? Whats to stop an attacker connecting through the tunnel to the noip'd box?
And what happens when you move to winCE, or linux on the Zaurus, or MacOSX, or console *NIX? There probably are multi-im clients available for some of those OS's, but I suspect it would be a lot easier to find a jabber client, and simply eneter one set of account details - having the rest already stored for you.
Repeatedly putting your info in for however many accounts you have on two computers isnt that much of a hardship, but scaling that up to 5 or 10, or more computers, or perhaps just using a friends computer to check to see if your contacts are online (I for one wouldnt like to go entering 5 different im details every time I used a friends computer) can quickly become tiresome.
Add to that the ability of jabber for you to log in from more than one location without kicking you off every other location (Again, a feature they should somehow incorporte into the msn transport - perhaps multiplexing conversations between different jabber logins), and jabber could easily become my first choice of IM. Unfortunately, its not there yet, and from comments I've read (transports being a stopgap measure), may never be.
well the msn transport really, is the fact that the nickname only shows up as a custom away status, and not as the actual name in the contact list. Does anybody know of a way (or has anybody modified the transport and put it on their server) that will show a persons nickname in place of their email on the roster - I'm not talking a client side hack here that would replace the status, but something that would work regardless of the client.
I seen somebody else mention that the transports are supposed to be a stopgap measure until you have convinced all your friends (and their friends and their friends and their........) to use jabber. Now as much as I'd like this to be true, there are some people (99% of my msn contact list, and 100% of their contacts I would guess) that wont ever change for some reasons of other (too hard, I like msn, blah blah). I really think that, as much as the jabber developers would want everyone to unite under one open IM protocol, they should realise that it isnt going to happen in the near future, and try to make the transports a little more polished, allowing jabber to be a direct replacement for the other IM's without any quirks, and allowing you to just log into the server from anywhere with any jabber client and start chatting to all your contacts regardless of IM.
Trillian is a nice idea too, but trying to solve the problem client side means that as soon as I move to a linux machine, I have to find a completely different client, with its own set of quirks, and set up each im account separately on both/all clients. If the problem was solved, and solved well serverside, then it would be a lot easier to migrate between computers/account/im systems.
This is what I would love to be able to use jabber for, but sadly, it just isnt up to scratch yet.
I'm curious.. did you google for that quote?
Oh wait.. google is a verb now.. damn!
I've been thinking about it the past couple of days.. not had chance to have a look until after exams :(, but when you flash the zaurus rom (to say, openzaurus.. there are two files - a zImage (kernel), and an initrd.bin - the root filesystem (cramfs or jffs2).
:/
At a guess, I'd say you could attempt to rename the kernel image to zImage, and build a root filesystem from whichever install sets you want (on the desktop), and put that filesystem as the initrd.bin), flash, and it would load. I doubt the IPAQ kernel would run thought without recompiling it for zaurus specifics. When I my exams are over, I plan to take a look at the differences between the familiar linux distribution (IPAQ) and opanzaurus (zaurus), and try to adapt that to NetBSD.
However, even after this works, the zaurus sd/mmc slot won't work because the only driver for it is a binary only linux module, and unless there is some way to write a wrapper to get it to work with netbsd, that would cause a huge problem
I'm curious.. has anybody tried porting this to the Sharp Zaurus (SL-5500g is what I have, but any model)? And if not.. how hard would it be?
but I kinda missed going to all my lectures, my revision consisted of downloading the lecture slides off the web and skimming them. And my exam is in 5 hours time... I'll let you know after I've finished that :)
Umm.. cos then Mr cracker comes in, types the password 20 times, and now the original user cant get in.
And it would be a little pointless to only allow the past 20 _successful_ inputs, because they would all match the original fingerprint and no drift would occur.
Power over ethernet over power over ethernet over power over ethernet over.....
With all them layers, you press the light switch and, after 5 seconds (unless you're a low ping b******), it finally turns on.
I believe though that if you make the confirmation process more complicated, it will prove too troublesome for users to reply to.
:)
I'm talking widespread use of TDMA now, with non computer literate users who probably havent ever come across mailing lists and having to confirm subscriptions. And for the more technical users, there are a great many who use text based clients over SSH, with which viewing a jpeg would be troublesome to say the least. Other methods could be used as you mentioned, but I doubt there are that many that would cause minimum trouble for legitimate users while preventing spammers from being able to write some sort of heuristic algorithm to be able to get at least some confirmation replies correct (remember, they wont be bothered about getting every one through).
As to the reason spammers havent yet resorted to using valid email addresses is that they dont have to! Email confirmation currently isnt widespread for the spammers to go through the extra hassle. When it does get so widespread as to hinder spammers, then they will start using valid email addresses and autoresponders (or perhaps deliberately setting up email bounce replies to save them the hassle of writing replies).
Dont get me wrong, its a great idea, and I especially like the idea of being able to just create time delayed email addresses with nothing more than a program to work out the cryptographic hash (i.e. nothing needed server side). However, I think that if TDMA does become widespread enough for spammers, they will find some way around it, and combating what they do will become increasingly complex and time consuming for users. If I am proved wrong hoever, all the better. No more spam
sure, the spammer would consume more bandwidth, but sneding a blank email to the address with no extranous headers or content wont be a huge loss to the spammer, even for sending large amounts of replies.
And I dont see how much easier a spammer could be traced by using a valid email address if they provided false details to the isp providing the address. Even when using a false email address, a MTA will usually give the ip address of the original sender in the headers, and if it doesnt help now, then it wont help much having a valid email address.
Sure, it would add more work, but I doubt it would go so far as to stop spammers completely.
I doubt it would take up an amazing amount more, okay, so they would end up sending a reply for every email they sent out, but I doubt spammers resources would be streched that thin anyway.
My point is, if use of this became widespread, then the spammers would simply start using valid email addresses and auto responders. And considering that people who take the effort and expense to post junk mail and 'telemarket' seem to think its worthwhile, writing a few scripts and using a few cpu cycles wont seem like that much of a hardship to the spammers.
Or, to paraphrase.
but tmda allows *spammers* to deal with "false positives." and they only need to do it once per address (in a sane tmda config)
The other features such a temporary email addresses are nice though.
I very nearly made a similar comment, but you just put your email address down ad something like mivok-mailinglistname@yourdomain.com, set that address up with the TDMA, and use that instead. If you suddenly start getting spam to that address, simply revoke it and use a new one. Adding the address to the keyword address list might be difficult, but I'm sure a simple(ish) GUI could be built to manage that for those who were really bothered.
TDMA also has features such as time bomb email addresses, which stop working after a while, which I also like the idea of for one off uses.
I do agree wholehartedly about the automated response problem and spammers using the same trick, and digital signatures would be a pain to implement everywhere. But if ISPs provided a quick way for users to add/create keyword email addresses and date-stamped email addresses, (and not just some web form to modify addresses), it would help things somewhat.
Okay, so a lot of spam comes from forged email address, and having a whitelist+confirm would stop mail from those addresses, but what is to stop spammers using valid addresses (free ones maybe), and a script that automatically replies to any confirmation requests?
When confirming the test email address noted int he article, I just hit reply and send the email as is, and I'm sure a script could be written to automatically send a blank message to the Reply-To: address if this became widespread.
The spammers task would become harder, but far from impossble.
I can only see the cable method of pricing (multiple games, one price) hurting gameplay. Theres a lot of people who are dedicated so much to a single game partially because they pay for it (and of course the fact that the game is addictive). Having multiple games would make each player less enthusiastic about each individual game, and consequently the community wouldnt be anywhere near as thriving.
As an example, imagine trying to play everquest, ultima online, sims online, a tale in the desert, and a few others all at once. (neglecting the fact that it is different companies and a flat fee wouldnt work too well).
what about the computer with the longest uptime ever (both still running and longest that isnt still running)?