Also, even if you use an "alternative" OS, you will probably still have to buy Palladium-ready hardware, which may or may not play nicely with your non-subscribed OS. And guess who might just be deciding whether it plays nicely or not...
I'm Sorry, the name "Skillet-Theif" contains a word that is owned by xyz co. You have not been authorized to use said word by xyz co. Our rabid lawyers have been notified.
Luckily, XYZ corp must not be up on their Palladium subscription, or they would have locked my keyboard when I tried to type that it. Who needs rabid lawyers anymore.
Which brings up a point... will the BSOD be the Palladium enforcer of the future?
I agree that it would be better if people were more aware of what is happening to their rights. They need to get past the idea of the computer being just a tool, and into the idea that the details of computer interoperability and the laws on intellectual property are going to determine the social fabric of tomorrow.
But as far as your comment goes:
It saddens me that some US people are spending all this time and energy protesting a war that hasn't happened yet
WTF?
A. It is hardly saddening, that the people are concerned about their gov't jumping into war.
B. Isn't smarter to protest before a war happens, than after?
From my experience with meta search engines, they end up taking up more of your time. Each query gives you the first 10 responses from each engine. That's fine if you are looking for something pretty easy to find (but then you probably don't need a meta engine anyway).
On the other hand, if you are looking for a needle in a haystack, as I seem to be usually, using a meta engine just means you have to wade through that many more pages before getting to the stuff you want. After a few months of using Dogpile, I ended up deciding that my time was better spent going deep into Google. YMMV, natch'.
I bought a refurbished Thinkpad from a little mom-n-pop used computer store. They actually bought the Windows licence back from me, for about $40, so they could put it on someone else's machine.
(Only problem with the Thinkpad 600 now is the battery issue, as previously discussed not so long ago on/. here.)
gov't censorship is an intrusion, one that triggers particularly strong emotions. I think if the gov't were to overstep their authority, the most certain response (particularly from a field of scientists) would be dissent and debate, and generally bring a lot more (unwanted) attention both to the government and to the information they were interested in suppressing.
Agreed that the scientific community is not an easy bunch to push around. This just seems like a step in the wrong direction, since unwritten rules often end up becoming written rules.
Self censorship sets a precedent for official, external censorship. That is obvious, but is a point that is not raised often enough.
Here's how it works:
After a calm period of self censorship (they all seem like happy campers to me), someone decides to break the silence for whatever reason. Then the powers that be, step in, saying they need to enforce this, because there might be other "rogue" scientists who will do the same. The official censorship gets passed off as just a way of helping the scientific community maintain its standards.
Yes, it is a bit of an odd approach: saying, ah, at last the book is here, now we get some up to date information! A HOWTO should be more up to date, or will be a few months from now. Books have this reputation of not being updated very often once they are published.
However, I agree that it is very refreshing to find the right O'Reilly book on any given subject, rather than flailing around the net looking for info. Books still have their place, I guess, even for geeks.
It is also about open, text-based file and interprocess formats. If people could see the advantages of not being locked into proprietary file formats, they might start to see the light. Despite the noise about Office going to XML, Micorsoft will always be fundamentally opposed to open formats, so this will always be a big difference, beyond just price.
The industry thinks that desktops are not the true consumer device and suspect they never will be! The true consumer general purpose computer is expected to be a console, it has to look right for the Stereo/VCR rack, it probably can't have a keyboard shipped with it because people fear the keyboard, but it will probably have to have a way to sneak one on (USB, etc).
I think that the industry is wrong about this, because they are ignoring one key point (or maybe several). The key point is this: every year, the average computer IQ of the general population goes up. Granted, the curve is pretty flat, but word processing and then the ma-&-pa internet have made it so that people have learned a few skills, even some involving the keyboard. The dumb stereorack PC/console will almost inevitably seem clunky to people who have, for the most part, already done more complicated stuff elsewhere. So this marketing ploy is actually going to go against the general demographic trend, as people become more and more competent and more and more demanding.
If this kind of thing has any success, I think it will be in the home entertainment domain, for people who already have a computer, but want a machine that integrates into the stereo system and the TV, sort of a mega-Tivo.
Why make something without a keyboard when everyone knows that e-mail is the killer ap of the internet!
It is interesting that any mainstream coverage of worms, virii etc. always uses metaphors of strength or power, whereas in the geek world one talks about system weaknesses, exploits etc. It's a way to put all the blame on the "Enemy", and not any on the "Good guys" (ie. your friendly software company). The same discourse is relayed by mainstream security companies like Norton. I don't know how it would have to happen, but it seems like good things would come along if we could get the public at large to think in terms of weak programs rather than bad viruses.
I guess I should mod myself down for not having noticed that the web page was already announced. I was so glad to see that this story had become "stuff that matters" that I posted too fast. Sorry about that.
Anyway, the stuff about the chip on the battery seems to be correct, and using paper to cut off the chip seems to work more or less well (better be using ext3 though, since you don't get any warning about when the battery is going to puke...)
The problem is that these batteries aren't failing because of the batteries themselves, but because of a bug in the little processor on the battery that is supposed to manage the battery "intelligently". There is a great website that explains all this for frustrated TP owners here
Someone came up with the solution of putting a piece of paper over two of the 4 contacts on the battery. When I did this, I got 45 minutes more use from a battery that APM was telling me was dead. (The TP is beeping telling me I have 3% batt power left. I suspend to disk, put the paper on, start up again and work for another 45 min.)
The problem is not the physical batteries! It might be a problem with a BIOS update. In any event, I have quit buying new batteries and am waiting for IBM to come up with a solution.
Simply, if a whole bunch of people get killed on the ship, then there are still enough left to run it. This is not insignifigant, after all who wants to have an undermanned ship after 1/4-1/2 the crew dies?
Or when the smurf attack occurs in the middle of the lightning storm, during the "battle" (if you can still use the term in modern naval warfare, where there usually aren't even any enemy ships involved). When you are on a boat, there are so many things that can go wrong, all at the same time usually, I'm not sure you want to have to count on your laptop and your wireless setup to survive.
The fact that one might suppose that there could be some kind of benefit from passing any kind of information from a screen, to a camera, into a second computer, even word-processing task, suggests the need for some kind of computerized, inter-process, inter-platform lingua-franca . Obviously video output is almost universal -- so why not use it? But wouldn't it be a lot simpler to use ASCII text and perl scripts, like someone already suggested?
What I'm saying is that this suggests the need, but I am pretty damn sure that going through video -- and the atmosphere, for crissakes! -- is not the solution, except in a gaming context, possibly.
Re:Benefactor of mankind--thank you!
on
Tetris AI System
·
· Score: 2, Funny
No, you forgot that on computer #3 there is/. Computer #4 is reading, modding and replying via webcam #2, you are working on computer #5!
I was going to make the same point, until I saw your post, and realized the difference between liking the GPL and not liking anti-P2P legislation. Technically, you are right: if we don't respect copyrights, then there is no reason to respect the GPL any more than anything else. But I don't think that is exactly the real issue.
Here is the deal: the GPL is about sharing; it is the opposite of a restrictive copyright law. It empowers individual and not some central entity. It helps spread creativity and not stifle it.
So obviously we need some kind of copyright to protect intellectual property, to keep creative work from being ripped off. But the copyright system, and its enforcement, can't just be set up to protect the big corporations. See endless comments about business models, etc.
Every time in these reports (wire services included), Microsoft shows up as the heroes that are going fix everything: "You all just go get your patches, and everything will be fine. We're too busy taking care of this problem to talk about why it might have happened to our great product".
I think the problem is that the news services treat these viruses like they were tornadoes or floods or something. (They would like to have pictures of endless lines of cars heading for higher ground to escape the horrible virus.)
A worm is actually an act of God, we are all just victims.
Slashdot Mirror
But seriously, I believe those Al-Quaida boys do often participate in CC fraud. Don't know if it's over the net or not tho.
Also, even if you use an "alternative" OS, you will probably still have to buy Palladium-ready hardware, which may or may not play nicely with your non-subscribed OS. And guess who might just be deciding whether it plays nicely or not...
Luckily, XYZ corp must not be up on their Palladium subscription, or they would have locked my keyboard when I tried to type that it. Who needs rabid lawyers anymore.
Which brings up a point... will the BSOD be the Palladium enforcer of the future?
Or they would think so, if they knew what Palladium and Slammer were.
But as far as your comment goes :
WTF?A. It is hardly saddening, that the people are concerned about their gov't jumping into war.
B. Isn't smarter to protest before a war happens, than after?
From my experience with meta search engines, they end up taking up more of your time. Each query gives you the first 10 responses from each engine. That's fine if you are looking for something pretty easy to find (but then you probably don't need a meta engine anyway).
On the other hand, if you are looking for a needle in a haystack, as I seem to be usually, using a meta engine just means you have to wade through that many more pages before getting to the stuff you want. After a few months of using Dogpile, I ended up deciding that my time was better spent going deep into Google. YMMV, natch'.
Try reading your sig again a few times before posting again...
I bought a refurbished Thinkpad from a little mom-n-pop used computer store. They actually bought the Windows licence back from me, for about $40, so they could put it on someone else's machine.
/. here.)
(Only problem with the Thinkpad 600 now is the battery issue, as previously discussed not so long ago on
Agreed that the scientific community is not an easy bunch to push around. This just seems like a step in the wrong direction, since unwritten rules often end up becoming written rules.
Here's how it works:
After a calm period of self censorship (they all seem like happy campers to me), someone decides to break the silence for whatever reason. Then the powers that be, step in, saying they need to enforce this, because there might be other "rogue" scientists who will do the same. The official censorship gets passed off as just a way of helping the scientific community maintain its standards.
This sounds bad to me.
Yes, it is a bit of an odd approach: saying, ah, at last the book is here, now we get some up to date information! A HOWTO should be more up to date, or will be a few months from now. Books have this reputation of not being updated very often once they are published.
However, I agree that it is very refreshing to find the right O'Reilly book on any given subject, rather than flailing around the net looking for info. Books still have their place, I guess, even for geeks.
It is also about open, text-based file and interprocess formats. If people could see the advantages of not being locked into proprietary file formats, they might start to see the light. Despite the noise about Office going to XML, Micorsoft will always be fundamentally opposed to open formats, so this will always be a big difference, beyond just price.
I think that the industry is wrong about this, because they are ignoring one key point (or maybe several). The key point is this: every year, the average computer IQ of the general population goes up. Granted, the curve is pretty flat, but word processing and then the ma-&-pa internet have made it so that people have learned a few skills, even some involving the keyboard. The dumb stereorack PC/console will almost inevitably seem clunky to people who have, for the most part, already done more complicated stuff elsewhere. So this marketing ploy is actually going to go against the general demographic trend, as people become more and more competent and more and more demanding.
If this kind of thing has any success, I think it will be in the home entertainment domain, for people who already have a computer, but want a machine that integrates into the stereo system and the TV, sort of a mega-Tivo.
Why make something without a keyboard when everyone knows that e-mail is the killer ap of the internet!
It is interesting that any mainstream coverage of worms, virii etc. always uses metaphors of strength or power, whereas in the geek world one talks about system weaknesses, exploits etc. It's a way to put all the blame on the "Enemy", and not any on the "Good guys" (ie. your friendly software company). The same discourse is relayed by mainstream security companies like Norton. I don't know how it would have to happen, but it seems like good things would come along if we could get the public at large to think in terms of weak programs rather than bad viruses.
I guess I should mod myself down for not having noticed that the web page was already announced. I was so glad to see that this story had become "stuff that matters" that I posted too fast. Sorry about that.
Anyway, the stuff about the chip on the battery seems to be correct, and using paper to cut off the chip seems to work more or less well (better be using ext3 though, since you don't get any warning about when the battery is going to puke...)
The problem is that these batteries aren't failing because of the batteries themselves, but because of a bug in the little processor on the battery that is supposed to manage the battery "intelligently". There is a great website that explains all this for frustrated TP owners here
Someone came up with the solution of putting a piece of paper over two of the 4 contacts on the battery. When I did this, I got 45 minutes more use from a battery that APM was telling me was dead. (The TP is beeping telling me I have 3% batt power left. I suspend to disk, put the paper on, start up again and work for another 45 min.)
The problem is not the physical batteries! It might be a problem with a BIOS update. In any event, I have quit buying new batteries and am waiting for IBM to come up with a solution.
They don't have seargents in the Navy. But the rest seems realistic.
Or when the smurf attack occurs in the middle of the lightning storm, during the "battle" (if you can still use the term in modern naval warfare, where there usually aren't even any enemy ships involved). When you are on a boat, there are so many things that can go wrong, all at the same time usually, I'm not sure you want to have to count on your laptop and your wireless setup to survive.
The fact that one might suppose that there could be some kind of benefit from passing any kind of information from a screen, to a camera, into a second computer, even word-processing task, suggests the need for some kind of computerized, inter-process, inter-platform lingua-franca . Obviously video output is almost universal -- so why not use it? But wouldn't it be a lot simpler to use ASCII text and perl scripts, like someone already suggested?
What I'm saying is that this suggests the need, but I am pretty damn sure that going through video -- and the atmosphere, for crissakes! -- is not the solution, except in a gaming context, possibly.
No, you forgot that on computer #3 there is /. Computer #4 is reading, modding and replying via webcam #2, you are working on computer #5!
I was going to make the same point, until I saw your post, and realized the difference between liking the GPL and not liking anti-P2P legislation. Technically, you are right: if we don't respect copyrights, then there is no reason to respect the GPL any more than anything else. But I don't think that is exactly the real issue.
Here is the deal: the GPL is about sharing; it is the opposite of a restrictive copyright law. It empowers individual and not some central entity. It helps spread creativity and not stifle it.
So obviously we need some kind of copyright to protect intellectual property, to keep creative work from being ripped off. But the copyright system, and its enforcement, can't just be set up to protect the big corporations. See endless comments about business models, etc.
This guy really needs to get a life!
Do you think Bin Laden would be tree or event?
Every time in these reports (wire services included), Microsoft shows up as the heroes that are going fix everything: "You all just go get your patches, and everything will be fine. We're too busy taking care of this problem to talk about why it might have happened to our great product".
I think the problem is that the news services treat these viruses like they were tornadoes or floods or something. (They would like to have pictures of endless lines of cars heading for higher ground to escape the horrible virus.)
A worm is actually an act of God, we are all just victims.
I'm in France. I have 1434 in my logs all morning, but nothing since about 11:30 greenwich. The source IP's are about half and half Europe/US.
A few things are down over here, like my university's network, but haven't noticed any major crashing.