I, and no doubt many many others, use any browser BUT Internet Explorer. However, there are lots of pages, including banking sites, that refuse to load properly or let you continue, simply because your browser doesn't return MSIE 5 or 6 headers.
I myself use Opera, or Firebird, but I also have Proxomitron running in between to filter all the crap out before it ever gets to me. Part of this filtering includes sending a fake referrer header to make sites think I am using MSIE, since usually they work just fine with all browsers regardless of what they want me to use.
Incidentally, those "coders" who force a particular browser type to continue instead of using STANDARD HTML etc should be exposed a la spammers to show the wider community what crappy coders they are. They have no place coding for the World Wide Web.
My first point of computer education to most people is that MSIE and Outlook are the two best virus propagation mechanisms on the planet, and I always change them over to Mozilla or another free alternative. I'm sure many others do just the same thing. Most browsers by default are set to emulate the MSIE header however, so in the end I don't put much faith in stats showing MSIE to be the king of browsers when I know nearly every other browser masquerades as its nemesis.
Actually, you know, I haven't actually done a both directions test. You've got me thinking now!:)
I will test tomorrow (it's night time now here) and post my results here. You may end up being right that if the CALLER hangs up it stays hung up (I hope not of course!), but I can definitely say if I as the RECEIVER hang up and then pick up again it will still be connected.
Actually, this technique works in Australia (where I live). It means you can chat to someone, hang up your phone, move to another phone, pick it up, and resume conversation. Great for cordless.
Perhaps it doesn't work in the US the same way. It's actually beneficial for the reasons I mentioned to have it work this way.
I'd love someone from Telstra to pipe up and confirm this in a post....
One way to screw telemarketing companies is to simply leave your phone off the hook. This holds open the switch at the exchange so even when they hang up and pick the phone up again, it is still connected to your line. This is why you are told not to hang up if there is a bomb threat - it keeps the connection open so they cannot use the phone again, and allows the phone company/police to track the line even if it is spoofed.
It means that you've tied up that particular phone line until YOU decide to hang up. In my case, since I don't get many calls to my landline and people who know me call my mobile, I can leave it open a LOOOONNNGGG time!:)
If everyone did this, instead of the first reaction (to hang up), they would soon be immobilised.
"Besides, who wants the world's worst bureacracy, least effective and least meritocratic band of inept fools "endorsing" your work or "taking over" Internet governance and "recommending" your product or service?"
Just thought I'd point that out. Oh, and for all you TRUE videophiles, you should be buying your DVDs here for the 576 lines compared to 480 of NTSC. And they're cheaper....
Look up Jupiter Research some time. They will "research" anything and provide the response that the researchee is looking for.
Look for reports they have produced involving the RIAA, Microsoft and numerous others. They will trot out whatever "research" is needed to prove the story of the day to be true.
Di$ney wants nothing more than to have young children (who watch a Di$ney movie hundreds of times) pay each time they watch it.
This is like stupid, civil liberty destroying, laws. One system gets rejected; they are back six months later with the same concept, wrapped up in a new, more obfuscated package.
The whole thrust of Di$ney is to lock up their catalogue so they can feed it to you (and more importantly, your kids) in pay per view chunks, thus ensuring revenue for years to come. Micro$oft is no different. They will not rest until they have a system in place the public will swallow.
America's obsession with laziness just helps the system along even quicker. ("Wah, it's too hard to rent a movie AND take it back the next day!")
Recognise this for what it is and you will be able to reject it that much faster, and inform others of their real corporate goals of lifetime subscription models to ensure their payola for years to come.
"Our speculation is that these were done via a buffer overflow in Outlook's preview pane."
Just think, if they hadn't used Outlook to view their email, this whole leak may not have happened. Perhaps this needs to be more widely disseminated to teach people that Outlook = BAD.
Here in Australia (and lots of other countries) we use a Good and Services Tax, set at 10%. It means that goods bought in Australia automatically have 10% added in the price to be collected as tax from the merchant. The price is always listed at the GST inclusive price (mandated by law) so there is no confusion or dodgy dealings where merchants advertise one price but then hit you with GST when you go to pay. The GST is charged on everything except for basic food and some educational items, and people's personal income tax is reduced in tandem to even it back out. This means that those who are wealthier and buy more, pay more indirect tax as a result. The system is largely fair, and in the question to hand, would result in governments being able to reap tax from internet sales because the tax is already built into the cost of the item. The only thing that would prevent this being effective is if each state decided to implement their own rate, thus leading to searching for states with lower GST than others.
Make it a federal tax, a nice even number like 10% (easy to calculate), and divide the money back to the states in the proportions it came in.
I am not an American, so there may already be this kind of system in place. But this is the best way I see of implementing tax across the internet.
Problem is Athlon 64 vs P4 2.4C
on
Athlon 64 Debuts
·
· Score: 1
I have literally just returned from the Australian launch of the Athlon 64/FX (thanks for the free lunch AMD!).
Here's the problem I see - all the benchmarks etc are focusing on comparisons between a 3.2GHz Pentium 4 and the new Athlon 64. Depending on the benchmark, both seem roughly equal in performance.
Now, the Pentium 4 3.2GHz is slightly cheaper than the new Athlon, but here's the kicker - the SLOWEST Athlon 64 CPU you can buy right now is equivalent to a 3.2GHz Pentium 4, but for MUCH LESS MONEY I can buy the 2.4C Pentium 4 and overclock it to 3.2GHz (giving the FSB a nice boost in the process). That's the real challenge I see the new Athlon coming up against - people who buy the 2.4C and overclock it to gain equivalent performance of a much more expensive chip of either flavour.
Not to mention the crazy decision to limit the plain jane Athlon 64 to single channel memory.... that is going to hurt bandwidth performance, and the alternative of buying the Athlon 64 FX-51 is a costly proposition given a 2.4GHz Pentium 4 can basically get the same performance and use dual channel memory.
Anyway, I hope they do succeed so that CPU performance continues to climb higher faster... bring on Dawn in a game environment already!!!:)
I'd like to see more people doing what the various news stations do occasionally and take all the relevant steps to build, say, a rocket launcher, or bomb etc, but not actually use it of course!
So you build your "bomb", buying parts etc you would need to actually put it together, then put it together in inert form and take it somewhere. Write a clear, concise notice of intent on the device, and before you begin the project, sign and seal a letter describing the same and give it to a solicitor to hold. Once you are in position, raise the "BANG!" flag and point out that the TIA system failed in its stated goal of preventing you doing exactly what you just did.
It would be interesting to see what percentage of people were caught, and what percentage got away with it.
The internet is the best global resource of communication and information ever devised by mankind.
More importantly though, it has allowed people to interact with cultures far removed physically from their own without needing to actually be there.
It allows me to communicate freely with all the people of the world in a manner free of racial prejudice, although that prejudice does of course exist on some racial hate sites.
It allows me to route around censorship of movies in my own country to see those movies regardless of what some censor working for the government deemed was unfit for me to view.
It allows me to express my opinions and thoughts to all that care to listen, but none that don't want to by their own choice.
It allows humanity to have a common sense of community, to educate them and teach them that we are all alike, that our small differences should be cherished and not persecuted.
It is the biggest enabler of true freedom the world has ever seen. Getting it to the world's disenfranchised peoples should be one of our biggest commitments, so that we may become a globally tolerant society instead of one bent on destruction.
I went Googling for the Dewey Decimal System, and since it was being slow, I decided to do some Hoovering because my house was dirty. All the dust it threw up made me sneeze so I reached for a Kleenex. After that I came back to my computer to find I had gotten a bunch more Spam in my email account.
Now sue me companies, first one gets full publicity on Slashdot!!:)
The lawyers sueing have obviously come from the 001.9 section of the library.... of the bottom feeding kind!
It's high time the world rid itself of IP. It's a cancer that threatens to destroy the progression of the arts and sciences forever.
The problem with GPS is that it is controlled by a single entity, the US government. Your argument is that one system is enough. That's like saying one OS is enough, the rest are just wasting time/money.
It comes down to control. The reason Galileo is going to be successful is that no one entity controls it, much like Linux. What that means is that the US government can no longer pull the plug on critical worldwide navigation systems in support of its latest occupation/liberation.
Lets face it, you don't need to rely on GPS to build a highly accurate missile in this day and age, and whilst the US armed forces may need GPS to navigate in the desert etc, I can guarantee you the locals don't need it to know where they are. It's their backyard, remember?
No, the US's problem is that they like to be in charge, so any competing technology that threatens to disrupt that notion has to be fought as being un-American and a "terrorist" enabler.
Newsflash America - the rest of the world is wising up to your control fetish, thanks to better global communication, and they are taking steps to ensure that in the future, you will not be able to single-handedly control critical global infrastructure the way you have in the past.
This is the problem right here - people are asking how they managed to get a VIDEO GAME!!! Who the hell cares?
My question is how the hell did they manage to get the GUNS used to ACTUALLY kill real people in the real world?! And who taught them to shoot those guns, load them etc etc?
Until America realises that gun ownership implies the most stringent responsibility to ensure that no children get hold of them unless properly taught and supervised, this sort of incident will continue to happen.
As usual though, the US citizen defaults to sueing the easiest target because that's where you'll get the most chance of a nice $$$ settlement.
As others have mentioned, the problem is that Valve embraced DirectX 9 as the only API they would use to run the game.
The stupid thing is, they couldn't even just say they would code pure DirectX 9, because Nvidia in their wisdom decided to implement DirectX 9 in their own proprietary way, thus leading to the current public spat with Valve saying they had to code separate paths to have Nvidia hardware work with the game anyway!!
It really is time that a game protocol is made that is truly able to be used as a cross-platform API. I mean, game developers must surely realise that if they were able to code in one API and have it compile under Windows, Linux, Xbox, PS2, GameCube etc, they would make way more money servicing all the market segments, not just one, and save on development costs to boot!
OpenGL 2 is touted as being all that DirectX 9 is and more, plus it is an open protocol, but game developers need to use it and help formulate it for it to be a success.
I use Windows because of the games. That's the ONLY reason. Linux is more than capable of being my primary OS for web browsing, email, office work etc. But without developers coding for Linux, it will never gain the crucial support of the younger generation whose first question will be "What games run on it?" And if you don't hook 'em while they're young, then you will lose another generation to Microsoft's grasp.
ATI and Nvidia both supply 3D drivers for their cards, so why aren't they trying to get developers on board to actually code or port GAMES for the Linux market???
Someone really needs to write a GameOS version of Linux, and basically give it away as open source. If one or two top games like Half Life 2 or Doom III were able to run on it, it would soon saturate the market and provide developers with a free alternative to developing purely for Microsoft. Heck, why doesn't Sun write it? It could be a whole new line for them and firmly establish them as a true competitor to Microsoft. Just make it an open source game protocol is all I ask.
Your comment is rather short sighted given that terrorists didn't use GPS to bring down two World Trade Centers, they used onboard inertial navigation systems along with standard US domestic navigational aids. Aside from which, even if you had shut down GPS and all the country's navaids, they could still have headed roughly towards New York City, then simply aimed by hand at the two tallest buildings they could see. Which is pretty much what they did, I'd say. Don't forget, the attackers were pilots trained in the US. Not to mention the fact you could have a normal aviation map of the US and simply follow big navigation features like roads, mountains etc to get to your destination.
My point is, your comment is ill researched because if you understood the nature of smart missiles etc, you'd realise that rarely if ever do they use GPS as their primary means of navigation/ targetting/ tracking. Only recently has the US started attaching GPS kits to dumb bombs to give them extra guidance in the final stage of ballistic flight. Items like Tomahawk use TERCOM mapping to "see" the terrain they fly over and match it to the programmed route and correct as necessary.
If someone has the motivation and money, all they need to do to build a smart missile is install an INS from any aircraft and they have a fully self-contained guidance system which cannot be jammed.
On a related note, all the hoopla over fitting IR jammers etc to commercial jets is a collosal waste of time and money, because once again, you don't need high technology weapons to bring down an airliner. Any old RPG-7 fired up at an aircraft on finals from below will likely cause catastrophic damage, not to mention there exist, wait for it, optically guided missiles!!:o
Look up the specs of an RBS-70 some day and try to work out how you can jam it.... then look up the Russian equivalent (this is your homework assignment Slashdotters!). Have you heard of the government saying anything about THEM? Of course not, because they can offer no quick fix "solution" to those threats and they know it.
Having better navigational accuracy the world over is far more beneficial than it would ever be harmful. Don't let the new paranoia of "terrorism is everywhere" cloud your rational thinking, because that is precisely how totalitarian governments take hold.
thanks for pointing out an interesting book to me. I've just done a quick search on it and found quite a bit of interesting stuff regarding her thoughts on the issues of children and sexuality.
It's interesting that she mentions the Netherlands as being quite open with sex, since I myself am half Dutch and spent several years of my youth living there. I wonder if my own liberal education in Europe has helped shape my perceptions on matters of sexuality, since I believe that Judith is spot on when she says children should be educated about sex in a positive and open way because it helps them become sexually mature adults (mentally as well as physically). It probably also helps that I am an atheist and so believe that humans are ultimately responsible for their own actions.
Glad to see I've made your friends list:)
You may want to look back through my older posts as well, you may enjoy some of my other views on various subjects. Sounds like we are of like mind anyway!
I'm an Australian citizen, but sadly our country is headed the same way. We even have Cary Sherman on the news (all of them carrying the same press release story fed to them by ARIA, our RIAA) saying how they are getting screwed over by pirates.
I'm getting so sick of it all, I am tossing up whether or not to run for politics myself and try to introduce major copyright and digital rights reform.
I would use all current technology to promote the issues - bulletin boards so Australian citizens can comment on the issues (and I'd be there reading them and replying), I'd encourage email and not paper letters (save some trees) which I'd read as opposed to most politicians just ignoring email, and I'd advocate a return to a 14 year copyright, or even less in a world whose pace is ever increasing. I'd look seriously at completely abolishing copyright altogether, because I don't believe in maintaining artificial scarcity where it is no longer viable as a business model. If you can reproduce something (ie a song or movie) for no cost to the original maker (in reproduction costs), it no longer has real value. The value needs to come from other ways, such as paying for a cinema ticket to enjoy a 50 foot screen and a subwoofer that would be illegal to have at home because of noise laws. You get the idea.
Of course this sounds irrational, and you may say I have no hope of ever succeeding against entrenched interests. But you know what, if I try and then fail, at least I will have tried to do something about it. So be inspired, and run for politics yourself! If enough do it, some are bound to coalesce and actually make it all the way. From there you have a platform from which to begin real change in society.
"Then the content will migrate to a service like FREENET, where the information is decentralized and fully anonymous and guess what... you won't be able to take it down anymore."
I hate to break it to people, but Freenet already has kiddie porn on it, and snuff, and other stuff which is not socially acceptable to the wider community. However, as the premise of Freenet clearly states, if you are going to truly believe in the value of anonymity then you must accept that with the good comes the bad.
That means that you can openly discuss politics in a country that might otherwise kill you for speaking out, but it also means that you must accept that others whom you may not agree with can also speak out or peddle their wares.
Of course, the great thing about the internet and Freenet etc, is that it's ultimately up to you whether or not you choose to view materials online. As others have said, if you can block an IP range then surely you know who the perpetrators are. I suspect though that for all the posturing of so many organisations that say kiddie porn is everywhere, it's actually extremely hard to find on an open website, and since they've made it a crime even to look for it, it's kind of hard to prove otherwise isn't it?
Well done to those astute posters who realise that a disproportionate amount of time is spent decrying child pornographers whilst the incidents of child physical abuse (violent as opposed to sexual) are probably much more prevalent.
I think ultimately a lot of it comes down to posturing to benefit one's own status in the community as opposed to actually caring for the plight of children. After all, if people (and the church in particular) ACTUALLY CARED for children they would use their money to end world poverty and educate ALL children of the world. Education is what will help tomorrow's children avoid exploitation, not a bunch of do-gooders crying "save the children" whilst turning a blind eye to the real injustices of the world at large.
This list generator is a fake email creator to generate huge lists of non-existent emails, which it turns into a HTML file. You then put this HTML file online among your other pages, so that spam harvesters pick them up and pollute their own database with thousands of useless emails. If everyone had one page with a thousand bogus email links then spammers would find their job much harder.
Oh, and of course you can add the real emails of company individuals you hate, of course, or spammers themselves etc, or Darl McBride;)
Under the proposed legislation this program would be illegal in Australia....
Let me get this straight - the FBI's Carnivore program, which lets them intercept traffic on the internet in pursuit of a case, is deemed illegal because it is overly zealous and can catch innocent third parties in the net, yet the RIAA's software, which obviously does just the same thing, is legal?
Maybe this line of questioning should be pursued further in court as to how this set of facts can be reconciled.
Not to mention that the FBI no doubt had to provide some sort of chain of evidence to show that what they got was legally obtained. How does anyone know that the RIAA, a private lobbying group that represents the big five record labels, has maintained a proper, legal chain of evidence in logging your private IP info? Can they prove they didn't trample over innocent third parties' rights when gathering their evidence on supposed guilty parties?
Slashdot Mirror
I, and no doubt many many others, use any browser BUT Internet Explorer. However, there are lots of pages, including banking sites, that refuse to load properly or let you continue, simply because your browser doesn't return MSIE 5 or 6 headers.
I myself use Opera, or Firebird, but I also have Proxomitron running in between to filter all the crap out before it ever gets to me. Part of this filtering includes sending a fake referrer header to make sites think I am using MSIE, since usually they work just fine with all browsers regardless of what they want me to use.
Incidentally, those "coders" who force a particular browser type to continue instead of using STANDARD HTML etc should be exposed a la spammers to show the wider community what crappy coders they are. They have no place coding for the World Wide Web.
My first point of computer education to most people is that MSIE and Outlook are the two best virus propagation mechanisms on the planet, and I always change them over to Mozilla or another free alternative. I'm sure many others do just the same thing. Most browsers by default are set to emulate the MSIE header however, so in the end I don't put much faith in stats showing MSIE to be the king of browsers when I know nearly every other browser masquerades as its nemesis.
Quizo69
Actually, you know, I haven't actually done a both directions test. You've got me thinking now! :)
:)
I will test tomorrow (it's night time now here) and post my results here. You may end up being right that if the CALLER hangs up it stays hung up (I hope not of course!), but I can definitely say if I as the RECEIVER hang up and then pick up again it will still be connected.
To be continued!
Actually, this technique works in Australia (where I live). It means you can chat to someone, hang up your phone, move to another phone, pick it up, and resume conversation. Great for cordless.
Perhaps it doesn't work in the US the same way. It's actually beneficial for the reasons I mentioned to have it work this way.
I'd love someone from Telstra to pipe up and confirm this in a post....
One way to screw telemarketing companies is to simply leave your phone off the hook. This holds open the switch at the exchange so even when they hang up and pick the phone up again, it is still connected to your line. This is why you are told not to hang up if there is a bomb threat - it keeps the connection open so they cannot use the phone again, and allows the phone company/police to track the line even if it is spoofed.
:)
It means that you've tied up that particular phone line until YOU decide to hang up. In my case, since I don't get many calls to my landline and people who know me call my mobile, I can leave it open a LOOOONNNGGG time!
If everyone did this, instead of the first reaction (to hang up), they would soon be immobilised.
"Besides, who wants the world's worst bureacracy, least effective and least meritocratic band of inept fools "endorsing" your work or "taking over" Internet governance and "recommending" your product or service?"
You're an American, aren't you?
Just thought I'd point that out. Oh, and for all you TRUE videophiles, you should be buying your DVDs here for the 576 lines compared to 480 of NTSC. And they're cheaper....
Quizo69
Look up Jupiter Research some time. They will "research" anything and provide the response that the researchee is looking for.
Look for reports they have produced involving the RIAA, Microsoft and numerous others. They will trot out whatever "research" is needed to prove the story of the day to be true.
I'd say the same goes for Mercury "Research"....
Quizo69
Di$ney wants nothing more than to have young children (who watch a Di$ney movie hundreds of times) pay each time they watch it.
This is like stupid, civil liberty destroying, laws. One system gets rejected; they are back six months later with the same concept, wrapped up in a new, more obfuscated package.
The whole thrust of Di$ney is to lock up their catalogue so they can feed it to you (and more importantly, your kids) in pay per view chunks, thus ensuring revenue for years to come. Micro$oft is no different. They will not rest until they have a system in place the public will swallow.
America's obsession with laziness just helps the system along even quicker. ("Wah, it's too hard to rent a movie AND take it back the next day!")
Recognise this for what it is and you will be able to reject it that much faster, and inform others of their real corporate goals of lifetime subscription models to ensure their payola for years to come.
Quizo69
It's right there in the quoted response:
"Our speculation is that these were done via a buffer overflow in Outlook's preview pane."
Just think, if they hadn't used Outlook to view their email, this whole leak may not have happened. Perhaps this needs to be more widely disseminated to teach people that Outlook = BAD.
Quizo69
Here in Australia (and lots of other countries) we use a Good and Services Tax, set at 10%. It means that goods bought in Australia automatically have 10% added in the price to be collected as tax from the merchant. The price is always listed at the GST inclusive price (mandated by law) so there is no confusion or dodgy dealings where merchants advertise one price but then hit you with GST when you go to pay. The GST is charged on everything except for basic food and some educational items, and people's personal income tax is reduced in tandem to even it back out. This means that those who are wealthier and buy more, pay more indirect tax as a result. The system is largely fair, and in the question to hand, would result in governments being able to reap tax from internet sales because the tax is already built into the cost of the item. The only thing that would prevent this being effective is if each state decided to implement their own rate, thus leading to searching for states with lower GST than others.
Make it a federal tax, a nice even number like 10% (easy to calculate), and divide the money back to the states in the proportions it came in.
I am not an American, so there may already be this kind of system in place. But this is the best way I see of implementing tax across the internet.
I have literally just returned from the Australian launch of the Athlon 64/FX (thanks for the free lunch AMD!).
:)
Here's the problem I see - all the benchmarks etc are focusing on comparisons between a 3.2GHz Pentium 4 and the new Athlon 64. Depending on the benchmark, both seem roughly equal in performance.
Now, the Pentium 4 3.2GHz is slightly cheaper than the new Athlon, but here's the kicker - the SLOWEST Athlon 64 CPU you can buy right now is equivalent to a 3.2GHz Pentium 4, but for MUCH LESS MONEY I can buy the 2.4C Pentium 4 and overclock it to 3.2GHz (giving the FSB a nice boost in the process). That's the real challenge I see the new Athlon coming up against - people who buy the 2.4C and overclock it to gain equivalent performance of a much more expensive chip of either flavour.
Not to mention the crazy decision to limit the plain jane Athlon 64 to single channel memory.... that is going to hurt bandwidth performance, and the alternative of buying the Athlon 64 FX-51 is a costly proposition given a 2.4GHz Pentium 4 can basically get the same performance and use dual channel memory.
Anyway, I hope they do succeed so that CPU performance continues to climb higher faster... bring on Dawn in a game environment already!!!
I'd like to see more people doing what the various news stations do occasionally and take all the relevant steps to build, say, a rocket launcher, or bomb etc, but not actually use it of course!
So you build your "bomb", buying parts etc you would need to actually put it together, then put it together in inert form and take it somewhere. Write a clear, concise notice of intent on the device, and before you begin the project, sign and seal a letter describing the same and give it to a solicitor to hold. Once you are in position, raise the "BANG!" flag and point out that the TIA system failed in its stated goal of preventing you doing exactly what you just did.
It would be interesting to see what percentage of people were caught, and what percentage got away with it.
The internet is the best global resource of communication and information ever devised by mankind.
More importantly though, it has allowed people to interact with cultures far removed physically from their own without needing to actually be there.
It allows me to communicate freely with all the people of the world in a manner free of racial prejudice, although that prejudice does of course exist on some racial hate sites.
It allows me to route around censorship of movies in my own country to see those movies regardless of what some censor working for the government deemed was unfit for me to view.
It allows me to express my opinions and thoughts to all that care to listen, but none that don't want to by their own choice.
It allows humanity to have a common sense of community, to educate them and teach them that we are all alike, that our small differences should be cherished and not persecuted.
It is the biggest enabler of true freedom the world has ever seen. Getting it to the world's disenfranchised peoples should be one of our biggest commitments, so that we may become a globally tolerant society instead of one bent on destruction.
I went Googling for the Dewey Decimal System, and since it was being slow, I decided to do some Hoovering because my house was dirty. All the dust it threw up made me sneeze so I reached for a Kleenex. After that I came back to my computer to find I had gotten a bunch more Spam in my email account.
:)
Now sue me companies, first one gets full publicity on Slashdot!!
The lawyers sueing have obviously come from the 001.9 section of the library.... of the bottom feeding kind!
It's high time the world rid itself of IP. It's a cancer that threatens to destroy the progression of the arts and sciences forever.
The problem with GPS is that it is controlled by a single entity, the US government. Your argument is that one system is enough. That's like saying one OS is enough, the rest are just wasting time/money.
It comes down to control. The reason Galileo is going to be successful is that no one entity controls it, much like Linux. What that means is that the US government can no longer pull the plug on critical worldwide navigation systems in support of its latest occupation/liberation.
Lets face it, you don't need to rely on GPS to build a highly accurate missile in this day and age, and whilst the US armed forces may need GPS to navigate in the desert etc, I can guarantee you the locals don't need it to know where they are. It's their backyard, remember?
No, the US's problem is that they like to be in charge, so any competing technology that threatens to disrupt that notion has to be fought as being un-American and a "terrorist" enabler.
Newsflash America - the rest of the world is wising up to your control fetish, thanks to better global communication, and they are taking steps to ensure that in the future, you will not be able to single-handedly control critical global infrastructure the way you have in the past.
Quizo69
This is the problem right here - people are asking how they managed to get a VIDEO GAME!!! Who the hell cares?
My question is how the hell did they manage to get the GUNS used to ACTUALLY kill real people in the real world?! And who taught them to shoot those guns, load them etc etc?
Until America realises that gun ownership implies the most stringent responsibility to ensure that no children get hold of them unless properly taught and supervised, this sort of incident will continue to happen.
As usual though, the US citizen defaults to sueing the easiest target because that's where you'll get the most chance of a nice $$$ settlement.
As others have mentioned, the problem is that Valve embraced DirectX 9 as the only API they would use to run the game.
The stupid thing is, they couldn't even just say they would code pure DirectX 9, because Nvidia in their wisdom decided to implement DirectX 9 in their own proprietary way, thus leading to the current public spat with Valve saying they had to code separate paths to have Nvidia hardware work with the game anyway!!
It really is time that a game protocol is made that is truly able to be used as a cross-platform API. I mean, game developers must surely realise that if they were able to code in one API and have it compile under Windows, Linux, Xbox, PS2, GameCube etc, they would make way more money servicing all the market segments, not just one, and save on development costs to boot!
OpenGL 2 is touted as being all that DirectX 9 is and more, plus it is an open protocol, but game developers need to use it and help formulate it for it to be a success.
I use Windows because of the games. That's the ONLY reason. Linux is more than capable of being my primary OS for web browsing, email, office work etc. But without developers coding for Linux, it will never gain the crucial support of the younger generation whose first question will be "What games run on it?" And if you don't hook 'em while they're young, then you will lose another generation to Microsoft's grasp.
ATI and Nvidia both supply 3D drivers for their cards, so why aren't they trying to get developers on board to actually code or port GAMES for the Linux market???
Someone really needs to write a GameOS version of Linux, and basically give it away as open source. If one or two top games like Half Life 2 or Doom III were able to run on it, it would soon saturate the market and provide developers with a free alternative to developing purely for Microsoft. Heck, why doesn't Sun write it? It could be a whole new line for them and firmly establish them as a true competitor to Microsoft. Just make it an open source game protocol is all I ask.
Your comment is rather short sighted given that terrorists didn't use GPS to bring down two World Trade Centers, they used onboard inertial navigation systems along with standard US domestic navigational aids. Aside from which, even if you had shut down GPS and all the country's navaids, they could still have headed roughly towards New York City, then simply aimed by hand at the two tallest buildings they could see. Which is pretty much what they did, I'd say. Don't forget, the attackers were pilots trained in the US. Not to mention the fact you could have a normal aviation map of the US and simply follow big navigation features like roads, mountains etc to get to your destination.
:o
My point is, your comment is ill researched because if you understood the nature of smart missiles etc, you'd realise that rarely if ever do they use GPS as their primary means of navigation/ targetting/ tracking. Only recently has the US started attaching GPS kits to dumb bombs to give them extra guidance in the final stage of ballistic flight. Items like Tomahawk use TERCOM mapping to "see" the terrain they fly over and match it to the programmed route and correct as necessary.
If someone has the motivation and money, all they need to do to build a smart missile is install an INS from any aircraft and they have a fully self-contained guidance system which cannot be jammed.
On a related note, all the hoopla over fitting IR jammers etc to commercial jets is a collosal waste of time and money, because once again, you don't need high technology weapons to bring down an airliner. Any old RPG-7 fired up at an aircraft on finals from below will likely cause catastrophic damage, not to mention there exist, wait for it, optically guided missiles!!
Look up the specs of an RBS-70 some day and try to work out how you can jam it.... then look up the Russian equivalent (this is your homework assignment Slashdotters!). Have you heard of the government saying anything about THEM? Of course not, because they can offer no quick fix "solution" to those threats and they know it.
Having better navigational accuracy the world over is far more beneficial than it would ever be harmful. Don't let the new paranoia of "terrorism is everywhere" cloud your rational thinking, because that is precisely how totalitarian governments take hold.
Stewey,
:)
thanks for pointing out an interesting book to me. I've just done a quick search on it and found quite a bit of interesting stuff regarding her thoughts on the issues of children and sexuality.
It's interesting that she mentions the Netherlands as being quite open with sex, since I myself am half Dutch and spent several years of my youth living there. I wonder if my own liberal education in Europe has helped shape my perceptions on matters of sexuality, since I believe that Judith is spot on when she says children should be educated about sex in a positive and open way because it helps them become sexually mature adults (mentally as well as physically). It probably also helps that I am an atheist and so believe that humans are ultimately responsible for their own actions.
Glad to see I've made your friends list
You may want to look back through my older posts as well, you may enjoy some of my other views on various subjects. Sounds like we are of like mind anyway!
Quizo69
I'm an Australian citizen, but sadly our country is headed the same way. We even have Cary Sherman on the news (all of them carrying the same press release story fed to them by ARIA, our RIAA) saying how they are getting screwed over by pirates.
I'm getting so sick of it all, I am tossing up whether or not to run for politics myself and try to introduce major copyright and digital rights reform.
I would use all current technology to promote the issues - bulletin boards so Australian citizens can comment on the issues (and I'd be there reading them and replying), I'd encourage email and not paper letters (save some trees) which I'd read as opposed to most politicians just ignoring email, and I'd advocate a return to a 14 year copyright, or even less in a world whose pace is ever increasing. I'd look seriously at completely abolishing copyright altogether, because I don't believe in maintaining artificial scarcity where it is no longer viable as a business model. If you can reproduce something (ie a song or movie) for no cost to the original maker (in reproduction costs), it no longer has real value. The value needs to come from other ways, such as paying for a cinema ticket to enjoy a 50 foot screen and a subwoofer that would be illegal to have at home because of noise laws. You get the idea.
Of course this sounds irrational, and you may say I have no hope of ever succeeding against entrenched interests. But you know what, if I try and then fail, at least I will have tried to do something about it. So be inspired, and run for politics yourself! If enough do it, some are bound to coalesce and actually make it all the way. From there you have a platform from which to begin real change in society.
"Then the content will migrate to a service like FREENET, where the information is decentralized and fully anonymous and guess what... you won't be able to take it down anymore."
I hate to break it to people, but Freenet already has kiddie porn on it, and snuff, and other stuff which is not socially acceptable to the wider community. However, as the premise of Freenet clearly states, if you are going to truly believe in the value of anonymity then you must accept that with the good comes the bad.
That means that you can openly discuss politics in a country that might otherwise kill you for speaking out, but it also means that you must accept that others whom you may not agree with can also speak out or peddle their wares.
Of course, the great thing about the internet and Freenet etc, is that it's ultimately up to you whether or not you choose to view materials online. As others have said, if you can block an IP range then surely you know who the perpetrators are. I suspect though that for all the posturing of so many organisations that say kiddie porn is everywhere, it's actually extremely hard to find on an open website, and since they've made it a crime even to look for it, it's kind of hard to prove otherwise isn't it?
Well done to those astute posters who realise that a disproportionate amount of time is spent decrying child pornographers whilst the incidents of child physical abuse (violent as opposed to sexual) are probably much more prevalent.
I think ultimately a lot of it comes down to posturing to benefit one's own status in the community as opposed to actually caring for the plight of children. After all, if people (and the church in particular) ACTUALLY CARED for children they would use their money to end world poverty and educate ALL children of the world. Education is what will help tomorrow's children avoid exploitation, not a bunch of do-gooders crying "save the children" whilst turning a blind eye to the real injustices of the world at large.
http://home.earthlink.net/~tm120176050/fec.html
;)
This list generator is a fake email creator to generate huge lists of non-existent emails, which it turns into a HTML file. You then put this HTML file online among your other pages, so that spam harvesters pick them up and pollute their own database with thousands of useless emails. If everyone had one page with a thousand bogus email links then spammers would find their job much harder.
Oh, and of course you can add the real emails of company individuals you hate, of course, or spammers themselves etc, or Darl McBride
Under the proposed legislation this program would be illegal in Australia....
Quizo69
Let me get this straight - the FBI's Carnivore program, which lets them intercept traffic on the internet in pursuit of a case, is deemed illegal because it is overly zealous and can catch innocent third parties in the net, yet the RIAA's software, which obviously does just the same thing, is legal?
Maybe this line of questioning should be pursued further in court as to how this set of facts can be reconciled.
Not to mention that the FBI no doubt had to provide some sort of chain of evidence to show that what they got was legally obtained. How does anyone know that the RIAA, a private lobbying group that represents the big five record labels, has maintained a proper, legal chain of evidence in logging your private IP info? Can they prove they didn't trample over innocent third parties' rights when gathering their evidence on supposed guilty parties?
Some thorny questions I'd say....
Quizo69
http://www.proxomitron.info/ - The Proxomitron (popup, banner, webbug, everything bad on the net killer)
http://security.kolla.de/ - Spybot Search & Destroy (spyware/keylogger/trojan killer)
http://www.free-av.com/ - AntiVir (virus scanner)
http://www.zonelabs.com/ - ZoneAlarm (firewall)
http://methlabs.org/methlabs.htm - PeerGuardian (anti-RIAA blocklist)
Start with those, clear your own systems and then most importantly, EDUCATE others to use them and understand why they need them.
Quizo69
Of course, you have to be slightly crazy to see him....
Now who is going to get Project Mayhem underway to stop these bastards? Rubber band a few Senators perhaps?