With the apparent momentum for 'security' initiatives at the expense of freedom, and the desensitization of society to such things as imbedded radio identification, ubiquitous biometrics and new other new technologies, and a vast blanket of secrecy descending over the executive branch - are we entering a new dark age, where nothing is private or free? Will a new 'American Inquisition' pervade our lives in the years to come?
This article sums up the argument against 'shared source' quite nicely. I've been trying to find the words to explain this to nontechnical types - to my satisfaction this popped up!
The only reason I could see forking over the dough for this is for research purposes. It always helps when arguing with suits to have solid examples of why certain things are blecherous and should be avoided.
George Orwell had it right - all except the title: Instead of '1984', he should have used '2004'.
Before long all newborns will be required to have a chip implanted - ostensibly for 'monetary' transactions, and census...
In reality we will just be so many cattle - branded and equiped with radio transmitters so we can be watched and herded as needed by the powers that be.
Remember the scene in the movie "Minority Report" where the team is searching for the hero - and drop the 'bugs' into the building - and everyone has to stop what they are doing and assume the postion to get scanned.
Its coming. When Federal Agents come knocking on your door because an electronic filter decides that your purchase of certain books, your web browsing propensities, and some people you met in passing at the coffee shop (caught on video) - adds up to something dangerous (to the state), and the agents don't need a search warrant to invade your privacy and tear apart your home in search of something that isn't there.
The NSA was profiling peace activists and human rights activists during the 60s and 70s - intercepting and analyzing their communications during the 1960s. During that time this was abused, and it was stopped for a reason. Now we are starting to do this again - civil rights will suffer. Witch hunts the likes of the communist scare of the 50s will happen in secret as people mysteriously disappear without habeus corpus rights. The government has been removing large amounts of information that was public knowledge a year ago. What else are they doing under the ospices of secret executive orders? Why do we have to give up our rights to protect this country? If something smells bad, it generally means it is bad; this smells bad.
We will probably wake up as a people when things get too unbearable. Hopefully it won't be too late (I have faith in the sense of democratic principles and right and reasonable government by the majority of people when push comes to shove). Just hope you are not one of the Minorities...
(the lameness filter broke on my caps above - it said:
"Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted! Reason: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING." - LOL...I was yelling! Stupid filter...:p
I think Governments and Corporations are looking for other ways to raise revenue, either that or a vast epidemic of rabies is spreading through the world.
Now the corporate law department is an actual revenue generating center in most corporations. Who'd have thought?
Charge $2 for the laminated version (plus shipping), and give away a free.PDF version so users can roll their own. The good will generated alone will bring in droves of hits to your website, and folks that spill coffee on their paper versions will buy your laminated version as an upgrade.
$9 is about a third of the cost of a decent book on C++ - you are not providing a third of the value of that - even if it is laminated.
Lets all make guesses as to why she did it...
on
Baked Apple
·
· Score: 1
I think it would be fitting and proper to let this thread degenerate into wild speculation as to why she did it...
I will start it off:
She hid the thing in the oven, planning on surprising her husband/kid/friend with the present of a computer at a later date. Several days later, she decides to bake something, and turns on the oven to let it heat up (you know how most recipies call for you to 'preheat the oven to 400 degrees' etc)...forgetting about the expensive 'apple pie' under the blowtorch.
I don't think this is an issue we need to really worry about.
1. My DSL provider sells routers for home use.
2. The issue of having more than one box on the same DSL line had to do with DHCP and idiots connecting those boxes to the net via a HUB; each and every one of those boxes requested and got an IP address from the ISP. This created a problem not in terms of bandwidth, but in terms of managing a limited poole of IP addresses. With the inseption of PPPOE standardization from the ISP this problem went away - and so too the need to track how many boxen we have riding on the other side of our DSL gateway.
Okay, I admit I got a bit worked up about this, until I opened my eyes and saw the truth behind this.
Now, I am not saying that all ISPs are as forward thinking as this - you may in fact be under contractual limitations on the number of devices you can connect to the DSL connection. However, I would worry more about a cracker analysing this information, rather than the ISP (unless you fall into that 1% who have a bogus ISP - in which case, time to find another ISP...)
Get some cardboard boxes and load all of your software and liscenses into them.
Mail the items back to the manufacturer with a nice cover letter similar to this:
Dear (name of your account manager),
This is my official notification of cancellation of liscenses and business with (name of software company), as stated in your EULA (if you do not agree with the terms of this EULA, cease using software and return same to company...blah blah blah).
Get bent.
Sincerely,
(Your Name)
After that, load and use free software, and use the money you save to extend your business or pad the profit margin.
I would like to see them come to my door and say, "we show you have 4 computers attached to your network - pay up."
With all of my family on the network, I rarely if ever hit the top of the allotted bandwidth anyway.
Look at the cost from this perspective: once it hits the backbone its all the same plant - given normal user patterns overall bandwidth will be no different with 1 connection or 4 connections. Add to that the fact that the ISP doesn't have to build out another 3 DSL ports in the CO - and they actually have a cost savings provided by folks that use routers. So, on top of saving them money from a hardware standpoint, you want me to pay them extra money for the same amount of bandwidth utilized? Hell no. I would sooner drop the service, and go back to dialup - or get a cable modem before I submit to something so stupid.
This concept is greedy and stupid.
'nuff said.
Re:Please don't give 'Funny' comments to interview
on
Kevin Mitnick Answers
·
· Score: 1
I have to disagree. Why must everything be serious and informative? Humor in the proper doses is good for everyone (even you).
This antigravity device looks like it holds some promise. We just need to solve the problem of shrinking that 20 Kilovolt power supply down to the size of a walnut, providing a means of lateral thrust (maybe some of those devices mounted as thrusters on each side?), and providing an insulated cabin (so the crew doesn't get electrocuted when they use the full scale ship) as well as a more powerful power supply to provide effective payload lift.
The nice thing about this system is the lack of complexity (zero moving parts), and the ability to cheaply provide redundancy in the propulsion system.
You can order all the parts you need to build and test one yourself including the power supply at the website...might be an interesting little weekend project - if I can just keep the cat, dog, and kids away from the high voltage power supply...(my wife won't let me buy one because she is afraid I will electrocute myself - or the kids...)
The region occupied by a group of interacting organisms - that is the sense I use the word community. Since we are living in this cyberspace together and we interact - yes - we are a community. In fact I would say we are more of a community in here than we are outside in the 3D world (when is the last time you had a really frank discussion with anyone in your neighborhood? ["How is the weather?" doesn't count]).
Sharing is not mythical; as I said, I do it, plus I see other folks doing it.
I don't see what you are trying to get at - other than trying to bait me.
Your argument is specious. You are trolling; go back under your bridge please.
I was loading slackware on my 486 in 1994. When you see a good (right) thing you know it (or should if you aren't a rock).
And a comment on the 'Lament':
What a load of horsepucky. I build and release open source into the wild because, 1. I have something I want done that is not being done, or done well enough to satisfy my personal need, and 2. I have the hubris to think my solution may appeal to others, and so share. The writer of that article seems to think people are puppets of their desires, not knowing their true inner intentions. I also gathered that he is wearing some rose colored glasses when it comes to considering things outside of the realm of his own discourse.
I wouldn't pretend to know the complexity of any person's motivations, much less a whole community. He shouldn't either.
Chain yourself to a locomotive with tinfoil in a free fall environment. Now, back up (fire your engines) and you will move away from the locomotive and the tinfoil will break. The locomotive will not move.
It is entirely within the realm of possibility that either event could have taken place - depending on how 'attached' they were from the impact and how much mass is involved on either ship.
If the attachment of interconnecting metal was strong enough to move the mass of the Enterprise, then it would have remained attached. If, on the other hand, the interconnecting metal was not strong enough to move the mass of the Enterprise, it would break at some point - as we saw in the movie.
I would have linked to Eric S. Raymond's site, but he is apparently changing web hosting services, or renaming his machines - and all links point to a dead locale...:(
1. More games on OpenGL and other open graphics platforms - rather than proprietary MS platforms that force my selection of OS for my game machine (DirectX would be good if it was an open library able to run under multiple OSs - but its not, and some of us don't have the where-with-all to own more than one box, so if we want to play the most popular games we end up without a free choice for our OS (or dual booting - which equates to jumping through hoops in my book)).
2. More adoption of open file and media standards, instead of blecherous microsoft document standards that force me to perform expensive upgrades when backwards compatibility is broken, due to everyone in the friggin' world using MS standards - instead of open ones.
3. More and better solutions quicker. Programming native Windows regardless of language is akin to using Cobol in my book. There is a wide expanse of knowledge on simple solutions - including the built-in shell scripting capabilities - that is totally lacking in Windows out of the box.
I have no sympathy for the millions of short sighted decisions that got us here in the first place. From my perspective, if MS falls it will only be an imperceptable ripple as we wipe all of our machines and install Linux. The added bonus would be the file formats and APIs would be locked in to one format - which would make conversion much easier than trying to hit the live moving target that the present Microsoft represents.
Of course this means that 90% of the population who don't know any better will go out and buy more MS products - once again locking them in as desktop leader.
What we need to see happen is a healthy acquisition of Linux for desktop users by a good number of major corporations. Once the ball gets rolling it will be hard to stop.
The real drag slowing down the process is our IT desktop support people who have gone from troubleshooting problems down to the expansion card level - and editing the registry (yuck I said the 'R' word) or manipulating configurations, to managing vendors; Once a problem occurs the kneejerk reaction is to remirror the machine, instead of fix it. These institutional changes to the job makes adoption of Linux difficult at best in large corporations.
The Government now has a moderately difficult time locating you. Additionally, irresponsible members of the government would have a difficult time framing you - if they so desired.
With DNA, and other biometric data at the fingertips of 'BIG BROTHER' abuses would be much easier - and I would imagine more prevalent than today.
Case in point: With new DNA identification technology available, prosecutors resist every way possible to have this applied to death row inmates in the U.S. Are these people worried about truth, or maintaining thier conviction counts? I wonder how these prosecutors can sleep at night, knowing they sent innocent people to the death chamber? More importantly, do we want this mentality in charge of our biometric data?
Obviously it had value for Apple - as all reports indicate they eagerly grabbed up the technology - knowing its potential.
Making Apple Computers look pure as the driven snow is just as irresponsible as not being honest when you have the chance. Be honest with yourself, if nothing else: most corporate decisions are not weighed to consider the moral implications. Money and lawyers drive most decisions - and if something is immoral, yet legal - you can bet it will get implemented if it benefits the business.
I work in a large company. I see it every day. Don't try to feed me manure and call it a Tbone steak.
Slashdot Mirror
Sir,
With the apparent momentum for 'security' initiatives at the expense of freedom, and the desensitization of society to such things as imbedded radio identification, ubiquitous biometrics and new other new technologies, and a vast blanket of secrecy descending over the executive branch - are we entering a new dark age, where nothing is private or free? Will a new 'American Inquisition' pervade our lives in the years to come?
This article sums up the argument against 'shared source' quite nicely. I've been trying to find the words to explain this to nontechnical types - to my satisfaction this popped up!
Thanks,
The only reason I could see forking over the dough for this is for research purposes. It always helps when arguing with suits to have solid examples of why certain things are blecherous and should be avoided.
George Orwell had it right - all except the title: Instead of '1984', he should have used '2004'.
Before long all newborns will be required to have a chip implanted - ostensibly for 'monetary' transactions, and census...
In reality we will just be so many cattle - branded and equiped with radio transmitters so we can be watched and herded as needed by the powers that be.
Doesn't anyone see the problem with this system?
Remember the scene in the movie "Minority Report" where the team is searching for the hero - and drop the 'bugs' into the building - and everyone has to stop what they are doing and assume the postion to get scanned.
Its coming. When Federal Agents come knocking on your door because an electronic filter decides that your purchase of certain books, your web browsing propensities, and some people you met in passing at the coffee shop (caught on video) - adds up to something dangerous (to the state), and the agents don't need a search warrant to invade your privacy and tear apart your home in search of something that isn't there.
The NSA was profiling peace activists and human rights activists during the 60s and 70s - intercepting and analyzing their communications during the 1960s. During that time this was abused, and it was stopped for a reason. Now we are starting to do this again - civil rights will suffer. Witch hunts the likes of the communist scare of the 50s will happen in secret as people mysteriously disappear without habeus corpus rights. The government has been removing large amounts of information that was public knowledge a year ago. What else are they doing under the ospices of secret executive orders? Why do we have to give up our rights to protect this country? If something smells bad, it generally means it is bad; this smells bad.
We will probably wake up as a people when things get too unbearable. Hopefully it won't be too late (I have faith in the sense of democratic principles and right and reasonable government by the majority of people when push comes to shove). Just hope you are not one of the Minorities...
They broke Opera....
:p
THOSE BA*TARDS!
(the lameness filter broke on my caps above - it said:
"Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted! Reason: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING." - LOL...I was yelling! Stupid filter...
First it was RIAA rabid piracy enforcement.
Next rabid patent enforcement.
Now rabid tax enforcement.
I think Governments and Corporations are looking for other ways to raise revenue, either that or a vast epidemic of rabies is spreading through the world.
Now the corporate law department is an actual revenue generating center in most corporations. Who'd have thought?
Charge $2 for the laminated version (plus shipping), and give away a free .PDF version so users can roll their own. The good will generated alone will bring in droves of hits to your website, and folks that spill coffee on their paper versions will buy your laminated version as an upgrade.
$9 is about a third of the cost of a decent book on C++ - you are not providing a third of the value of that - even if it is laminated.
I think it would be fitting and proper to let this thread degenerate into wild speculation as to why she did it...
I will start it off:
She hid the thing in the oven, planning on surprising her husband/kid/friend with the present of a computer at a later date. Several days later, she decides to bake something, and turns on the oven to let it heat up (you know how most recipies call for you to 'preheat the oven to 400 degrees' etc)...forgetting about the expensive 'apple pie' under the blowtorch.
Mystery solved...
Now, post your speculations!
I don't think this is an issue we need to really worry about.
1. My DSL provider sells routers for home use.
2. The issue of having more than one box on the same DSL line had to do with DHCP and idiots connecting those boxes to the net via a HUB; each and every one of those boxes requested and got an IP address from the ISP. This created a problem not in terms of bandwidth, but in terms of managing a limited poole of IP addresses. With the inseption of PPPOE standardization from the ISP this problem went away - and so too the need to track how many boxen we have riding on the other side of our DSL gateway.
Okay, I admit I got a bit worked up about this, until I opened my eyes and saw the truth behind this.
Now, I am not saying that all ISPs are as forward thinking as this - you may in fact be under contractual limitations on the number of devices you can connect to the DSL connection. However, I would worry more about a cracker analysing this information, rather than the ISP (unless you fall into that 1% who have a bogus ISP - in which case, time to find another ISP...)
Get some cardboard boxes and load all of your software and liscenses into them.
Mail the items back to the manufacturer with a nice cover letter similar to this:
Dear (name of your account manager),
This is my official notification of cancellation of liscenses and business with (name of software company), as stated in your EULA (if you do not agree with the terms of this EULA, cease using software and return same to company...blah blah blah).
Get bent.
Sincerely,
(Your Name)
After that, load and use free software, and use the money you save to extend your business or pad the profit margin.
I would like to see them come to my door and say, "we show you have 4 computers attached to your network - pay up."
With all of my family on the network, I rarely if ever hit the top of the allotted bandwidth anyway.
Look at the cost from this perspective: once it hits the backbone its all the same plant - given normal user patterns overall bandwidth will be no different with 1 connection or 4 connections. Add to that the fact that the ISP doesn't have to build out another 3 DSL ports in the CO - and they actually have a cost savings provided by folks that use routers. So, on top of saving them money from a hardware standpoint, you want me to pay them extra money for the same amount of bandwidth utilized? Hell no. I would sooner drop the service, and go back to dialup - or get a cable modem before I submit to something so stupid.
This concept is greedy and stupid.
'nuff said.
I have to disagree. Why must everything be serious and informative? Humor in the proper doses is good for everyone (even you).
This antigravity device looks like it holds some promise. We just need to solve the problem of shrinking that 20 Kilovolt power supply down to the size of a walnut, providing a means of lateral thrust (maybe some of those devices mounted as thrusters on each side?), and providing an insulated cabin (so the crew doesn't get electrocuted when they use the full scale ship) as well as a more powerful power supply to provide effective payload lift.
The nice thing about this system is the lack of complexity (zero moving parts), and the ability to cheaply provide redundancy in the propulsion system.
You can order all the parts you need to build and test one yourself including the power supply at the website...might be an interesting little weekend project - if I can just keep the cat, dog, and kids away from the high voltage power supply...(my wife won't let me buy one because she is afraid I will electrocute myself - or the kids...)
The region occupied by a group of interacting organisms - that is the sense I use the word community. Since we are living in this cyberspace together and we interact - yes - we are a community. In fact I would say we are more of a community in here than we are outside in the 3D world (when is the last time you had a really frank discussion with anyone in your neighborhood? ["How is the weather?" doesn't count]).
Sharing is not mythical; as I said, I do it, plus I see other folks doing it.
I don't see what you are trying to get at - other than trying to bait me.
Your argument is specious. You are trolling; go back under your bridge please.
I was loading slackware on my 486 in 1994. When you see a good (right) thing you know it (or should if you aren't a rock).
And a comment on the 'Lament':
What a load of horsepucky. I build and release open source into the wild because, 1. I have something I want done that is not being done, or done well enough to satisfy my personal need, and 2. I have the hubris to think my solution may appeal to others, and so share. The writer of that article seems to think people are puppets of their desires, not knowing their true inner intentions. I also gathered that he is wearing some rose colored glasses when it comes to considering things outside of the realm of his own discourse.
I wouldn't pretend to know the complexity of any person's motivations, much less a whole community. He shouldn't either.
You are wrong - and right...
Try this little experiment:
Chain yourself to a locomotive with tinfoil in a free fall environment. Now, back up (fire your engines) and you will move away from the locomotive and the tinfoil will break. The locomotive will not move.
It is entirely within the realm of possibility that either event could have taken place - depending on how 'attached' they were from the impact and how much mass is involved on either ship.
If the attachment of interconnecting metal was strong enough to move the mass of the Enterprise, then it would have remained attached. If, on the other hand, the interconnecting metal was not strong enough to move the mass of the Enterprise, it would break at some point - as we saw in the movie.
When I was reading this, it came across sounding like Hank Hill's father...
If you really want efficiency, use text.
How about this site?
:(
I would have linked to Eric S. Raymond's site, but he is apparently changing web hosting services, or renaming his machines - and all links point to a dead locale...
I can tell you what it would mean:
1. More games on OpenGL and other open graphics platforms - rather than proprietary MS platforms that force my selection of OS for my game machine (DirectX would be good if it was an open library able to run under multiple OSs - but its not, and some of us don't have the where-with-all to own more than one box, so if we want to play the most popular games we end up without a free choice for our OS (or dual booting - which equates to jumping through hoops in my book)).
2. More adoption of open file and media standards, instead of blecherous microsoft document standards that force me to perform expensive upgrades when backwards compatibility is broken, due to everyone in the friggin' world using MS standards - instead of open ones.
3. More and better solutions quicker. Programming native Windows regardless of language is akin to using Cobol in my book. There is a wide expanse of knowledge on simple solutions - including the built-in shell scripting capabilities - that is totally lacking in Windows out of the box.
I have no sympathy for the millions of short sighted decisions that got us here in the first place. From my perspective, if MS falls it will only be an imperceptable ripple as we wipe all of our machines and install Linux. The added bonus would be the file formats and APIs would be locked in to one format - which would make conversion much easier than trying to hit the live moving target that the present Microsoft represents.
The Monopoly routine was getting a bit old.
Of course this means that 90% of the population who don't know any better will go out and buy more MS products - once again locking them in as desktop leader.
What we need to see happen is a healthy acquisition of Linux for desktop users by a good number of major corporations. Once the ball gets rolling it will be hard to stop.
The real drag slowing down the process is our IT desktop support people who have gone from troubleshooting problems down to the expansion card level - and editing the registry (yuck I said the 'R' word) or manipulating configurations, to managing vendors; Once a problem occurs the kneejerk reaction is to remirror the machine, instead of fix it. These institutional changes to the job makes adoption of Linux difficult at best in large corporations.
The Government now has a moderately difficult time locating you. Additionally, irresponsible members of the government would have a difficult time framing you - if they so desired.
With DNA, and other biometric data at the fingertips of 'BIG BROTHER' abuses would be much easier - and I would imagine more prevalent than today.
Case in point: With new DNA identification technology available, prosecutors resist every way possible to have this applied to death row inmates in the U.S. Are these people worried about truth, or maintaining thier conviction counts? I wonder how these prosecutors can sleep at night, knowing they sent innocent people to the death chamber? More importantly, do we want this mentality in charge of our biometric data?
Obviously it had value for Apple - as all reports indicate they eagerly grabbed up the technology - knowing its potential.
Making Apple Computers look pure as the driven snow is just as irresponsible as not being honest when you have the chance. Be honest with yourself, if nothing else: most corporate decisions are not weighed to consider the moral implications. Money and lawyers drive most decisions - and if something is immoral, yet legal - you can bet it will get implemented if it benefits the business.
I work in a large company. I see it every day. Don't try to feed me manure and call it a Tbone steak.
Perhaps Linux needs a 'certified for use in outerspace' logo. I'd slap one of those on my redhat box.