But that's not exactly "ecash." Your little brother still has a Visa number that stays with him - correct? Therefore it's not "cash" but "debit." No, these are not terribly hard to come by, although if you have bad credit you still may not get one.
Debit cards are still not anonymous. When your little brother pays for something that purchase still can be traced to his home. When you pay cash for something, however, this isn't always so. That's why I said ecash and not debit; I was speaking of a card that was nothing but a number of an "account" with X dollars in it; you buy the card (maybe for X+$3 so the card issuer gets its service fee), and when the money in that "account" is spent you throw the card away - just like those phone cards you'll find littering any large city.
WTF doesn't he just setup a paypal/amazon payment link?
Sure would be nice if you could buy an ecash card in the checkout lane at wal-mart. If the phone company can do it I just don't understand why a banking company can't.
Fucking hell - even Hustler does it. Time for Visa to step out of the 70's.
I agree with you in spirit, but I vehemently disagree about making this mandatory. Providing a reliable way to verify someone's ID outside the (god-damned) banking system is a great service - but I disagree that anyone should be compelled, simply because of their nationality, from signing onto such a service.
If you want credit you accept that you have to share some amount of personal inormation with the banking authorities. This would provide an alternative means of identifying oneself without having to take that step - but no one is forcing me to get credit. No one should be forced to sign onto this, either.
From the paper it appears "mandatory" would be a very long way off, if ever. So far it's full of disclaimers ("if the service proves popular") which makes the concept of this serving as a national ID a fairly distant probability.
When it comes down to it any system of accountancy is open for abuse - and not just from the government. Unless one has violated just law, exposing oneself to that potential should always be a matter of choice.
So every cert can be cached locally - that still means one bigass database (50 million people? 100 Million?) feeding cached local certs to the mail server for every email. And what do you do if the person isn't from the US? How many ISPs would be willing to declare all international email "undesirable?"
I doubt this will become the way. To begin with it's US-centric and the internet definitely ain't. So is everyone in the world supposed to get a number?
The other failing is it would be trivial to simply lie about the number - that is, if a number is required (just as an IP is now) then spammers will simply make one up. In order for a "valid" number to be required to traverse mail then every email would have to be authenticated through a central database. Thus, it's completely impractical as a means of reducing spam anywhere except the end user's mailbox. And we already have plenty of ways of doing that.
It IS useful, however, if you and I want to enter into a transaction without having to use the banking system. You send me merchandise, I send you cash - and if either of us defaults there is a reliable means of tracking the individual and holding them responsible. It's almost like a nationwide ebay ID in that "bad traders" can be reliably tracked and, therefore, blacklisted. On THAT level it's quite practical and, from the POV of one who refuses to use plastic, a welcome alternative.
Just a few minutes ago it was Russia and China. Now it's germany? Aren't you getting your rhetoric confused?
I could have made the same comparisons to germany 8 years ago, under a completely different administration - in fact, many people were. Remember "V-chip" and Clipper? Remember all those PC rants about "those liberals in the whitehouse?"
But, as I said: it's possible to get the work without the watermark. If you hound the newsgroups you can likely even get the work without paying Corbis.
Ya know, I really get pissed off about the stuff going on in the USA, but then I see stuff like this and I get pissed off even more.
How many political dissidents are in US prisons? I mean besides the people who are there because they ingested drugs or because they don't have the huge sum of money to pay bail even 'tho it's a good chance they are innocent. I mean actual dissidents - like someone who goes online at a widely read journal and calls the president a parasite.
Russia's only non-government controlled TV network has been dissolvedby order of that government. In fact, Putin would like to have the head of the network "putin" jail despite the fact another court (outtside the jurisdiction of the kremlin) found he had commited no actual crime.
The other states are no longer part of the FSU, of course, but in other now "democratic" countries (like Ukraine) criticizng the government in the press may not even get you due process - instead you may be found hanging like a side of rotting beef. Or maybe even beaten to death in the street.
I think the only thing about peek-a-booty was that people were afraid it would open a pedophilia flood gate. This really pissed me off as obviously the juornalists behind these stories hadn't actually taken the time to investigate the actual software.
I don't understand why this would "piss you off." Any sort of p2p anonymizing software is bound to be exploited not only by political dissidents but by pedophiles and anyone else with an agenda that is reviled in the mainstream. Is there any specific mention on the site of "anti-pedophile" filtering in the program? Any built-in means of policing the users of one's own node? If so, then it's useless for its intended function because the government could simply operate a bunch of nodes and snoop the traffic (which they will probably do anyway if this ever become popular - which brings up a point about this needing at least two levels of encrypted redirection, but that's not my focus here).
So if it's secure, it's going to be used by pedophiles and probably lots of other people you wouldn't like - so what? Isn't the entire point of combatting censorship to give voice to everyone no matter if you agree with their agenda or not? I see no need to be defensive about someone pointing this out; if that is their argument then they obviously embrace censorship and are, therefore, among the very people this software is intended to help others overcome.
the "copy protection" is not "encryption." It's a big CORBIS watermark that can be removed in photoshop. Essentially "removing copy porotection" means, at worse, retouching the photos using any easily obtained, commercial or GPL'd, image editing application.
In this case I'm not even so sure of that since you can buy access to the corbis site for a relatively modest fee (it's a few hundred clams, intended for professionals). From there you can download the "unprotected" images in very large (~2000 x5000 pixels) format.
All batteries are 100% recycled - from the plastic casing to the cathode and anode, to the gelled electrolyte - everything.
Where the fuck do you come up with this nonsense? Jeezus fucking christ does NO ONE understand fact any more?
And yes, I do feel that people will be making special trips to the store to purchase these cartridges because they're all out of juice.
Ignoring your completely made up numbers this is still an absurdly stupid argument. Do you really think these laptops will be made to run only on methanol?
fucking eh... did your mother have any children that aren't retards?
I'm smart enough to know you cannot enter into a contract with someone else (and that is what you do when you use plastic no matter if it's online or not) without giving up a substantial amount of privacy and without completely giving up "anonymity." Are you going to give some anonymous person credit?
And I'm also smart enough to know you can never be sure where that information goes once it's shared.
Seems on both these counts that puts me well ahead of you. Ooof.
If you want your anonymity you don't share your personal info. If knowing this makes me a moron then you might wanna reconsider trusting that poor soul looking back at you from the mirror.
You people are/. readers. Are you really so stupid as to think renting a mailing list means transfering a physical (or even electronic) copy?
Duh. Here's how you rent a list: you set up a mail list server and your clients who "rent" your list know they can reach your customers by sending mail to that list.
You DO NOT "rent" data by giving it away. Even the RIAA (now) knows this... it's amazing so many allegedly techincally literate souls at/. apparently do not.
I just don't understand the bit about people insisting their online "anonymity" be preserved even when doing transactions that are inherently NOT "private" - simply because they rely on the existing banking structure and letters of credit. If you want to be anonymous go to wal-mart and pay cash; if you want convenience you're gonna have to give up a bit of that anonymity. Does it cost you money that B&N "sold" your taste in books to an advertiser? Does it threaten your security that doubleclick knows you like Erica Jong and Steven King? Do you really think doubleclick even cares that you like reading pulp novels? And do you think the police, if they wanted to, could not demand this information from B&N anyway?
I keep just about everything on my PC encrypted; I was hacked once and the prospect of some anonymous joe having not only my name and address, but my complete work history (aka my resume) and being able to pin that to all the other crap on my computer (ie old porn) made me uncomfortable enough to take the initiative of encrypting all my user data so if I were hacked again about all they would find is a desktop with lots of programs installed and lots of MP3s. Being hacked worries me because that presents a real life security issue; doubleclick having my tastes in TV and clothing does not present a real life security issue.
Does bob's baby world knowing the age of my child present a real life security issue? No. And if I don't want bob's baby world knowing my name and address there's no one twisting my arm to give them that info - and there are already laws on the books preventing "Hooked on Phonics" from giving bob that info. And if I should decide to let bob have my name and address, I think it's safe to say "bob" could easily discern the age and sex of my child simply by looking at what I purchased from him.
If you value your privacy and you shop using credit cards, you have some issues you need to resolve. It doesn't matter whether you shop online or not - do you really think a Sears or a JC Whitney doesn't share it's list with others? A few years back this became clear even in our small town - when everyone in this town of 200+ who subscribed to JC Whitney catalogs suddenly found Adam & Eve catalogs in their mailbox. This was way back when "the internet" was pretty much the exclusive domain of universities - before Playboy had even gone online. Merchants trading mailing lists is nothing new; the only difference is now they can "see" where you windowshop as well as where you buy. If that makes you uncomfortable then buy another computer and use it exclusively for all your shopping; Get a numnbered Swiss account and a debit card drawn against it. Or better still: support the small merchants in your community instead of heading to Amazon.com for every damn thing.
Is it still a boycott if I never read it in the first place?
Really, I don't get/. citing all these THG articles. If there is a any site on the net ten years past it's prime, it's that waste of bandwidth at Tom's House & Garden.
If your laptop doesn't work even with it plugged into your AC adapter, it has nothing to do with the battery. NOTHING. ALL laptops are powered directly by the DC power coming from the AC adapter.
I suggest you consult a few laptop manuals before casting such foolhardy generalizations. Many older laptops are absolutely NOT "powered directly by the DC power" - the DC adapter simply charges the battery, which THEN powers the laptop. The batteries are used as a glorified capacitor for a "brick" that is unable to supply the peak current needed to startup the computer. If the battery has a high ESR it will never be able to supply this current required by the laptop, which means it never even makes it to the boot screen.
This is not an uncommon problem. I suggest you ask a few people who have actually owned them - I'm sure you'll find more than a few who have had the same problem with their old laptops.
In fact, the waste will be MUCH greater than that produced by faulty or expired batteries caused by natural death.
I see your lips moving, but you don't seem to be saying much. Got anything at all to beef up this assertion? Given we are talking about systems that aren't even in production yet, you've got some real 'splainin' to do, Lucy.
Li-ion batteries ALSO fail. Sometimes they don't even last as long as nicads - but they have higher power density than nicads so everyone uses them. And a small plastic container in a landfill is a helluva lot more benign than he stuff in a battery.
What are you talking about? I've had at least three laptops become utterly useless because their batteries expired and new ones too expensive to justify replacement. That means not only did the laptops go to the landfill, their battery packs (including the extras bought when they were new) went with them.
Apparently you think rechargeable batteries last forever? I've sent three laptops that would still be in use today to the landfill because rechargeable batteries DON'T last and the computer won't work (even plugged into the wall) once the batteries badly degrade. And if these fuel cells prove to be rechargeable indefinitely (or long nough to justify maintenance) then they might actually be worth keeping even AFTER the appliance they power goes to the landfill.
I say "bring it on." the sooner MS makes this their "product focus" the sooner every foreign government in the world drops Windows from its desktops like an anthrax sandwich.
Does anyone believe for a minute the US will allow Microsoft to ship, worldwide, a truly secure "solution?" Of course not - even in the (very) unlikely event MS actually ships a Pall-Windows without cryptographic backdoors no one will believe it. All those foreign countries are gonna have to choose between adopting linux or being Bill's bitch, and they're gonna have to get motherboards and CPU chips from somewhere. And once they're running linux the only remaining half of the "wintel" brand has lost its grip on the market. If AMD and intel won't ship pal-free chips you can be sure there are other semiconductor companies just chomping at the bit to take their places. And in the meantime we just might make networked computing a bit more secure.
it's a step toward freeing us all from the grid. There are plenty of people in the US who have to generate their own power because they live halfway up a mountain or ten miles from the nearest grid connection. Once this evolves into a technology capable of supplying higher currents then we can be rid of internal combustion generators in off-grid applications.
Of course, if the catalyst isn't capable of being "cleaned" or efficiently replaced then it's all just so much more useless crap...
The fuel cell outputs current, ergo "transforming it" takes a switching power supply - just like the laptop already has. And even a switcher for a home PC doesn't weigh more than a few pounds; take it out of the box and it's not likely to weigh more than a pound or two. And that's for a home unit.
Nice to see products finally coming about. I wonder how many tons of old batteries go into landfills every year from stuff like portable music players and flashlights? Or camcorders and laptops? The future is getting greener all the time.
These rules apply to the US system. No other countries necessarily follow this (broken) system
Duh. this is why we have treaties. And if a country doesn't recognize a treaty and the business there does not do business in the US, then you have no recourse no matter WHAT magic incantations you recite.
If you are not officially filed, then the patent office won't even look at your invention when they consider prior art. They only check filed patents. Even then, descriptive language that is sufficiently different can defeat the search.
Irrelevant. When challenging the validity of a patent in court, prior art does not merely constitute existing patents. There are patents that have been lost because of prior art that existed in lab books.
If you doubt the efficacy of the creative commons project I'll leave it to you to argue why these studied lawyers participating in the project are wrong.
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Debit cards are still not anonymous. When your little brother pays for something that purchase still can be traced to his home. When you pay cash for something, however, this isn't always so. That's why I said ecash and not debit; I was speaking of a card that was nothing but a number of an "account" with X dollars in it; you buy the card (maybe for X+$3 so the card issuer gets its service fee), and when the money in that "account" is spent you throw the card away - just like those phone cards you'll find littering any large city.
Sure would be nice if you could buy an ecash card in the checkout lane at wal-mart. If the phone company can do it I just don't understand why a banking company can't.
Fucking hell - even Hustler does it. Time for Visa to step out of the 70's.
If you want credit you accept that you have to share some amount of personal inormation with the banking authorities. This would provide an alternative means of identifying oneself without having to take that step - but no one is forcing me to get credit. No one should be forced to sign onto this, either.
From the paper it appears "mandatory" would be a very long way off, if ever. So far it's full of disclaimers ("if the service proves popular") which makes the concept of this serving as a national ID a fairly distant probability.
When it comes down to it any system of accountancy is open for abuse - and not just from the government. Unless one has violated just law, exposing oneself to that potential should always be a matter of choice.
So every cert can be cached locally - that still means one bigass database (50 million people? 100 Million?) feeding cached local certs to the mail server for every email. And what do you do if the person isn't from the US? How many ISPs would be willing to declare all international email "undesirable?"
The other failing is it would be trivial to simply lie about the number - that is, if a number is required (just as an IP is now) then spammers will simply make one up. In order for a "valid" number to be required to traverse mail then every email would have to be authenticated through a central database. Thus, it's completely impractical as a means of reducing spam anywhere except the end user's mailbox. And we already have plenty of ways of doing that.
It IS useful, however, if you and I want to enter into a transaction without having to use the banking system. You send me merchandise, I send you cash - and if either of us defaults there is a reliable means of tracking the individual and holding them responsible. It's almost like a nationwide ebay ID in that "bad traders" can be reliably tracked and, therefore, blacklisted. On THAT level it's quite practical and, from the POV of one who refuses to use plastic, a welcome alternative.
Try actually reading the post before you reply to it and you'll be able to keep up.
I could have made the same comparisons to germany 8 years ago, under a completely different administration - in fact, many people were. Remember "V-chip" and Clipper? Remember all those PC rants about "those liberals in the whitehouse?"
But, as I said: it's possible to get the work without the watermark. If you hound the newsgroups you can likely even get the work without paying Corbis.
How many political dissidents are in US prisons? I mean besides the people who are there because they ingested drugs or because they don't have the huge sum of money to pay bail even 'tho it's a good chance they are innocent. I mean actual dissidents - like someone who goes online at a widely read journal and calls the president a parasite.
Russia's only non-government controlled TV network has been dissolved by order of that government. In fact, Putin would like to have the head of the network "putin" jail despite the fact another court (outtside the jurisdiction of the kremlin) found he had commited no actual crime.
The other states are no longer part of the FSU, of course, but in other now "democratic" countries (like Ukraine) criticizng the government in the press may not even get you due process - instead you may be found hanging like a side of rotting beef. Or maybe even beaten to death in the street.
It's getting bad... but it's not nearly as bad here as it could get.
I don't understand why this would "piss you off." Any sort of p2p anonymizing software is bound to be exploited not only by political dissidents but by pedophiles and anyone else with an agenda that is reviled in the mainstream. Is there any specific mention on the site of "anti-pedophile" filtering in the program? Any built-in means of policing the users of one's own node? If so, then it's useless for its intended function because the government could simply operate a bunch of nodes and snoop the traffic (which they will probably do anyway if this ever become popular - which brings up a point about this needing at least two levels of encrypted redirection, but that's not my focus here).
So if it's secure, it's going to be used by pedophiles and probably lots of other people you wouldn't like - so what? Isn't the entire point of combatting censorship to give voice to everyone no matter if you agree with their agenda or not? I see no need to be defensive about someone pointing this out; if that is their argument then they obviously embrace censorship and are, therefore, among the very people this software is intended to help others overcome.
In this case I'm not even so sure of that since you can buy access to the corbis site for a relatively modest fee (it's a few hundred clams, intended for professionals). From there you can download the "unprotected" images in very large (~2000 x5000 pixels) format.
Where the fuck do you come up with this nonsense? Jeezus fucking christ does NO ONE understand fact any more?
And yes, I do feel that people will be making special trips to the store to purchase these cartridges because they're all out of juice.
Ignoring your completely made up numbers this is still an absurdly stupid argument. Do you really think these laptops will be made to run only on methanol?
fucking eh... did your mother have any children that aren't retards?
You got a link for that "miles" part?
I'm smart enough to know you cannot enter into a contract with someone else (and that is what you do when you use plastic no matter if it's online or not) without giving up a substantial amount of privacy and without completely giving up "anonymity." Are you going to give some anonymous person credit?
And I'm also smart enough to know you can never be sure where that information goes once it's shared.
Seems on both these counts that puts me well ahead of you. Ooof.
If you want your anonymity you don't share your personal info. If knowing this makes me a moron then you might wanna reconsider trusting that poor soul looking back at you from the mirror.
DSSS is designed to support lots of nodes. Even nodes on the same frequency. That's one of the reasons it's become so popular.
Duh. Here's how you rent a list: you set up a mail list server and your clients who "rent" your list know they can reach your customers by sending mail to that list.
You DO NOT "rent" data by giving it away. Even the RIAA (now) knows this... it's amazing so many allegedly techincally literate souls at /. apparently do not.
I keep just about everything on my PC encrypted; I was hacked once and the prospect of some anonymous joe having not only my name and address, but my complete work history (aka my resume) and being able to pin that to all the other crap on my computer (ie old porn) made me uncomfortable enough to take the initiative of encrypting all my user data so if I were hacked again about all they would find is a desktop with lots of programs installed and lots of MP3s. Being hacked worries me because that presents a real life security issue; doubleclick having my tastes in TV and clothing does not present a real life security issue.
Does bob's baby world knowing the age of my child present a real life security issue? No. And if I don't want bob's baby world knowing my name and address there's no one twisting my arm to give them that info - and there are already laws on the books preventing "Hooked on Phonics" from giving bob that info. And if I should decide to let bob have my name and address, I think it's safe to say "bob" could easily discern the age and sex of my child simply by looking at what I purchased from him.
If you value your privacy and you shop using credit cards, you have some issues you need to resolve. It doesn't matter whether you shop online or not - do you really think a Sears or a JC Whitney doesn't share it's list with others? A few years back this became clear even in our small town - when everyone in this town of 200+ who subscribed to JC Whitney catalogs suddenly found Adam & Eve catalogs in their mailbox. This was way back when "the internet" was pretty much the exclusive domain of universities - before Playboy had even gone online. Merchants trading mailing lists is nothing new; the only difference is now they can "see" where you windowshop as well as where you buy. If that makes you uncomfortable then buy another computer and use it exclusively for all your shopping; Get a numnbered Swiss account and a debit card drawn against it. Or better still: support the small merchants in your community instead of heading to Amazon.com for every damn thing.
Really, I don't get /. citing all these THG articles. If there is a any site on the net ten years past it's prime, it's that waste of bandwidth at Tom's House & Garden.
I suggest you consult a few laptop manuals before casting such foolhardy generalizations. Many older laptops are absolutely NOT "powered directly by the DC power" - the DC adapter simply charges the battery, which THEN powers the laptop. The batteries are used as a glorified capacitor for a "brick" that is unable to supply the peak current needed to startup the computer. If the battery has a high ESR it will never be able to supply this current required by the laptop, which means it never even makes it to the boot screen.
This is not an uncommon problem. I suggest you ask a few people who have actually owned them - I'm sure you'll find more than a few who have had the same problem with their old laptops.
In fact, the waste will be MUCH greater than that produced by faulty or expired batteries caused by natural death.
I see your lips moving, but you don't seem to be saying much. Got anything at all to beef up this assertion? Given we are talking about systems that aren't even in production yet, you've got some real 'splainin' to do, Lucy.
Li-ion batteries ALSO fail. Sometimes they don't even last as long as nicads - but they have higher power density than nicads so everyone uses them. And a small plastic container in a landfill is a helluva lot more benign than he stuff in a battery.
Apparently you think rechargeable batteries last forever? I've sent three laptops that would still be in use today to the landfill because rechargeable batteries DON'T last and the computer won't work (even plugged into the wall) once the batteries badly degrade. And if these fuel cells prove to be rechargeable indefinitely (or long nough to justify maintenance) then they might actually be worth keeping even AFTER the appliance they power goes to the landfill.
Does anyone believe for a minute the US will allow Microsoft to ship, worldwide, a truly secure "solution?" Of course not - even in the (very) unlikely event MS actually ships a Pall-Windows without cryptographic backdoors no one will believe it. All those foreign countries are gonna have to choose between adopting linux or being Bill's bitch, and they're gonna have to get motherboards and CPU chips from somewhere. And once they're running linux the only remaining half of the "wintel" brand has lost its grip on the market. If AMD and intel won't ship pal-free chips you can be sure there are other semiconductor companies just chomping at the bit to take their places. And in the meantime we just might make networked computing a bit more secure.
Of course, if the catalyst isn't capable of being "cleaned" or efficiently replaced then it's all just so much more useless crap...
Duh. this is why we have treaties. And if a country doesn't recognize a treaty and the business there does not do business in the US, then you have no recourse no matter WHAT magic incantations you recite.
If you are not officially filed, then the patent office won't even look at your invention when they consider prior art. They only check filed patents. Even then, descriptive language that is sufficiently different can defeat the search.
Irrelevant. When challenging the validity of a patent in court, prior art does not merely constitute existing patents. There are patents that have been lost because of prior art that existed in lab books.
If you doubt the efficacy of the creative commons project I'll leave it to you to argue why these studied lawyers participating in the project are wrong.
Good luck with that.