Say you're a student in Mississippi and you want to read "Huck Finn", but it has been banned by the Samuel Clemen's Memorial Library in your town . ..
But seriously, I don't buy the doom and gloom worst-case-scenario's that predict the future lockdown of technology. In order to get away with enforcing a global standard for rights managment, you would have to have the entire globe in bed with you. If just one company in the U.S. decides that they can make more money by stripping or bypassing rights management for users, they are going to jump on that opportunity. The only way to quash this rouge company would be through broad reaching legislation (similar to this "Customary Historic Use" crap). And as a previous poster noted, there are always going to be countries that are not willing to lock down piracy.
Additionally, I can not think of a single situation where a major manufacturer of technology is ahead of the public at large in innovation. In the battle to lock down information, corporations are simply outmatched. There are lots, lots more of us. Look at the Xbox 360 for example. It was developed to be the model of trusted computing and already we're seeing individuals that are figuring out how to hack it. Its only a matter of time.
I don't know if its necessarily true that information wants to be free, but I know for damn sure that WE want it to be free.
The problem is that, whether there are 100,000 or a 100 people killed in auto accidents a year, when it happens it happens to somebody you love or someone in a car with you, your major concern is WHY it happened. Imagine for yourself sitting the driver's seat of your autopiloted SUV after it had just driven you and your family off of the road and into oncoming traffic. Are you going to think, well, I guess we are just part of the.003% of people unfortunate enough to be killed by computer error this year. I don't think so. Amazingly, almost any person actually wants that responsibility on themselves. Its actually easier to except that your own faulty reactions caused an accident then it is to accept that a computer's faulty reactions caused it. A person can deal with the fact that they took responsibility for themselves, their loved ones and innocent strangers around them, they tried their best to avoid a situation and they failed. You CAN learn to accept a horrible situation like that. Even when a drunk driver wrongfully careens off the road and causes horrible tragic events, we have a justice system that deals with that and for all its faults, its better than thinking for the rest of your life, I trusted my life and others lives to a faulty computer. You would always wonder, had I been driving, could I have avoided it? When this faulty computer does kill someone who's liable? A car company, a programmer? That's unlikely. There is no sense of closure in a scenario like that. Driving is a risk that we all undertake all the time. We risk our lives for the convenience of travel and when we do it we understand what we could be liable for. In my opinion, you're a pussy. I can't understand someone who blindly puts faith in other's technology instead of wanting any kind of responsibility for their choices for themselves.
Mod Parent +1 Statistical Modeling Bitchslap. Thank you for setting the Grandparent straight. I get extrememly tired of people posting things that cannot research. Perhaps the most apt suggestion to the Grandparent would to be to Google Statistical + Analysis + Requirements.
I guess that's why I could quit my IT job and bring in twice the dough removing spyware from people's computers. Now I'm going to say something extremely controversial that many of you people here will not like. The cause of 97% of these spyware infections is surfing internet pr0n. It's true. We don't like to admit it, but somehow we just lose our regular reasoning senses when we start "surfing w/ one hand" if you know what I mean. You probably wouldn't click on that suspicious looking link, but damnit, you've never seen that done with a barnyard chicken before and you're curious! Additionally, no one is going to talk because no one wants to admit that they accidently installed a keylogger when they clicked on a link to "dirty lesbians lick each other's brown-rings". Therefore, all of our spyware becomes our dirty little secret of personal computing insecurity. Therefore, I say, ban ALL internet pr0n and the problem will take care of itself!
"I am an atheist, though see no particular problem with some God/Giant Squid/Super-Intelligent Shade of Blue setting off the Big Bang"
Then doesn't that make you an agnostic? Someone that believes there is probably or possibly some orginal creator but denys to congecture on what or who it is?
Thanks for deciding for everyone what is entertaining and fun. I guess its too bad you weren't able to completely foist your views of morality on the entire world. I guess we'll just have to live with the freedom of choice. Shucks.
P.S. That was sarcasm. And . . . you're kinda an asshole.
You would think that with the limited resources and high level of unemployment in Mexico they would have figured out by now that they could save a lot of the money they are spending on robotics by just substituting volunteers to be real patients.
Ghostbusters! I got it, if nobody else did. Fuckin' great.
Seems to me though, if it were such a prestigious and academic thing to be either an engineer or scientist, those who are wouldn't argue about it this on slashdot . . .
You've let yourselves slide a little since the good 'ol college days, eh?:-)
"Hmmmm, this could be something to do: kitbashing a boot Linux distribution that would ferret-out all cache and temporary directories and nuke them."
Jesus Christ. What the hell are you talking about? I consider myself resonably well versed in computers and technology. Often times I am that friendly neighborhood technician that consumers bring their consumer pc's into to be fixed. We're talking about mom and pop here. You must really just love to hear yourself wax pseudo-intellectually about technology, huh?
To borrow Jerry Seinfelds take on the subject, I get it. Firefox has been downloaded a bunch of times. Good for Firefox. Can we stop counting now. It's like McDonalds. 500 Gazillion-fucking-billion served. Yeah, we get it.
The reason why we've conviently forgotten this fact is because it's not profitable for the U.S. arms industry nor the U.S. oil economy. We're not planning on going to war with China, hence the absence of media hype and government leaked disinformation plastered all over the major media drumming up support for invasion. (Invasion of China - it just looks silly in print, doesn't it).
Odd, my word to confirm I'm not a script is "troll".
See the picture at top right on the article and check out these nerds. Okay the first 3 or your every day run of the mill science nerds and then you get to the guy on the right, Andre Schirotzek. Isn't this guy a little attractive and built to be a scientist at MIT? No scientist that looks like that and creates a new form of matter can get away without becomming a superhero/villian through some bizarre mixup in an experiment.
"Part of that "unusual behavior" was no doubt a result of the employee trying to hit "alt-tab" fast enough to hide their screen when the boss walks by."
My boss is constantly giving me crap for alt-tabbing when he walks by, only in my case it usually because I'm trying to hide gmail or slash- [alt+tab]
Slashdot Mirror
Say you're a student in Mississippi and you want to read "Huck Finn", but it has been banned by the Samuel Clemen's Memorial Library in your town . . .
But seriously, I don't buy the doom and gloom worst-case-scenario's that predict the future lockdown of technology. In order to get away with enforcing a global standard for rights managment, you would have to have the entire globe in bed with you. If just one company in the U.S. decides that they can make more money by stripping or bypassing rights management for users, they are going to jump on that opportunity. The only way to quash this rouge company would be through broad reaching legislation (similar to this "Customary Historic Use" crap). And as a previous poster noted, there are always going to be countries that are not willing to lock down piracy.
Additionally, I can not think of a single situation where a major manufacturer of technology is ahead of the public at large in innovation. In the battle to lock down information, corporations are simply outmatched. There are lots, lots more of us. Look at the Xbox 360 for example. It was developed to be the model of trusted computing and already we're seeing individuals that are figuring out how to hack it. Its only a matter of time.
I don't know if its necessarily true that information wants to be free, but I know for damn sure that WE want it to be free.
Finally. The perfect copy protection scheme. Unplayable disks.
Mod parent up +1 Geekiest comment ever made on /.
The problem is that, whether there are 100,000 or a 100 people killed in auto accidents a year, when it happens it happens to somebody you love or someone in a car with you, your major concern is WHY it happened. Imagine for yourself sitting the driver's seat of your autopiloted SUV after it had just driven you and your family off of the road and into oncoming traffic. Are you going to think, well, I guess we are just part of the .003% of people unfortunate enough to be killed by computer error this year. I don't think so. Amazingly, almost any person actually wants that responsibility on themselves. Its actually easier to except that your own faulty reactions caused an accident then it is to accept that a computer's faulty reactions caused it. A person can deal with the fact that they took responsibility for themselves, their loved ones and innocent strangers around them, they tried their best to avoid a situation and they failed. You CAN learn to accept a horrible situation like that. Even when a drunk driver wrongfully careens off the road and causes horrible tragic events, we have a justice system that deals with that and for all its faults, its better than thinking for the rest of your life, I trusted my life and others lives to a faulty computer. You would always wonder, had I been driving, could I have avoided it? When this faulty computer does kill someone who's liable? A car company, a programmer? That's unlikely. There is no sense of closure in a scenario like that. Driving is a risk that we all undertake all the time. We risk our lives for the convenience of travel and when we do it we understand what we could be liable for. In my opinion, you're a pussy. I can't understand someone who blindly puts faith in other's technology instead of wanting any kind of responsibility for their choices for themselves.
Mod Parent +1 Statistical Modeling Bitchslap. Thank you for setting the Grandparent straight. I get extrememly tired of people posting things that cannot research. Perhaps the most apt suggestion to the Grandparent would to be to Google Statistical + Analysis + Requirements.
I guess that's why I could quit my IT job and bring in twice the dough removing spyware from people's computers. Now I'm going to say something extremely controversial that many of you people here will not like. The cause of 97% of these spyware infections is surfing internet pr0n. It's true. We don't like to admit it, but somehow we just lose our regular reasoning senses when we start "surfing w/ one hand" if you know what I mean. You probably wouldn't click on that suspicious looking link, but damnit, you've never seen that done with a barnyard chicken before and you're curious! Additionally, no one is going to talk because no one wants to admit that they accidently installed a keylogger when they clicked on a link to "dirty lesbians lick each other's brown-rings". Therefore, all of our spyware becomes our dirty little secret of personal computing insecurity. Therefore, I say, ban ALL internet pr0n and the problem will take care of itself!
"I am an atheist, though see no particular problem with some God/Giant Squid/Super-Intelligent Shade of Blue setting off the Big Bang"
Then doesn't that make you an agnostic? Someone that believes there is probably or possibly some orginal creator but denys to congecture on what or who it is?
Thanks for deciding for everyone what is entertaining and fun. I guess its too bad you weren't able to completely foist your views of morality on the entire world. I guess we'll just have to live with the freedom of choice. Shucks.
P.S. That was sarcasm. And . . . you're kinda an asshole.
You would think that with the limited resources and high level of unemployment in Mexico they would have figured out by now that they could save a lot of the money they are spending on robotics by just substituting volunteers to be real patients.
That should be "too", genius.
Sincerely, your Democratic friend in grammar.
Are you happy now?
Take your hands off your bawls and go to sleep. You just answered someone's question in code.
"Back off man, I'm a scientist."
:-)
Ghostbusters! I got it, if nobody else did. Fuckin' great.
Seems to me though, if it were such a prestigious and academic thing to be either an engineer or scientist, those who are wouldn't argue about it this on slashdot . . .
You've let yourselves slide a little since the good 'ol college days, eh?
"Hmmmm, this could be something to do: kitbashing a boot Linux distribution that would ferret-out all cache and temporary directories and nuke them."
Jesus Christ. What the hell are you talking about? I consider myself resonably well versed in computers and technology. Often times I am that friendly neighborhood technician that consumers bring their consumer pc's into to be fixed. We're talking about mom and pop here. You must really just love to hear yourself wax pseudo-intellectually about technology, huh?
To borrow Jerry Seinfelds take on the subject, I get it. Firefox has been downloaded a bunch of times. Good for Firefox. Can we stop counting now. It's like McDonalds. 500 Gazillion-fucking-billion served. Yeah, we get it.
Is there a lawyer in the house
First of all, you're new here aren't you?
Secondly, no. There are no lawyers. But there are about 600,000 geeks that think they are.
You have way to much fucking money.
Mod parent up (+1, hilarious Animal House reference)
No, no, no. Austin. Austin Massachusetts.
You mean Boston?
Yeah, what'd I say?
to confirm I'm not a script
I don't buy it. I think you are a script.
The reason why we've conviently forgotten this fact is because it's not profitable for the U.S. arms industry nor the U.S. oil economy. We're not planning on going to war with China, hence the absence of media hype and government leaked disinformation plastered all over the major media drumming up support for invasion. (Invasion of China - it just looks silly in print, doesn't it).
Odd, my word to confirm I'm not a script is "troll".
News at 11:00!!!!
/. and that's saying something.
This is probably the lamest most non-news worthy post I've even encountered on
Maybe someday we can even start reading the articles as opposed to just looking at the pretty pictures.
See the picture at top right on the article and check out these nerds. Okay the first 3 or your every day run of the mill science nerds and then you get to the guy on the right, Andre Schirotzek. Isn't this guy a little attractive and built to be a scientist at MIT? No scientist that looks like that and creates a new form of matter can get away without becomming a superhero/villian through some bizarre mixup in an experiment.
"if anyone went to a management convention and started outright insulting random managers... dunno, I don't think I'd find that funny either.
Holy shit, that's the best comedy idea I have heard in years. Somebody tell Leno about this, it needs to be done!
"Part of that "unusual behavior" was no doubt a result of the employee trying to hit "alt-tab" fast enough to hide their screen when the boss walks by."
My boss is constantly giving me crap for alt-tabbing when he walks by, only in my case it usually because I'm trying to hide gmail or slash- [alt+tab]
. . . session timeout.