WTF? When can anything be done regardless of the Constutition? I'll tell you: legally, NOT EVER. The Constitution trumps anything Congress might try to do. The Constitution is the guidelines by which Congress is able to pass laws. To quote the Supreme Court (sorry, I don't have the exact citation): "Anything repugnant to the Constitution is null and void."
That is of course, assuming people challenge it in court, and the courts have a sense of justice and haven't sold out. Maybe when the people realize what has happened to them, they will demand their rights, and feel free to use armed revolution if necessary. Unfortunately, the apathy of the average American (spoken as a young American who is disenchanted by the rights we have lost so far, and the rights we will come to liose) makes me fear the future.
Re:Still way outdated, Apple fanatics please read.
on
Apple Revises eMac
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
since when is a 2.4GHz celeron cutting edge?
Since people stopped caring about how much a large cache improves performance.
Actually, i am running XP SP2, and 90% of the patches I have downloaded don't require a restart. I was pleasantly surprised. I only had to restart when Microsoft convinced me to download an older version of my 9800Pro drivers. That was real fun to sort out and reinstall the up to date drivers.
A platform that will let you browse, email, and generally enjoy the Internet without risk of viruses, trojans, worms or spam.
.....If only such a platform existed. I would buy it. Unfortunately, not even Linux, BSD, or even OS X is capable of this. There is always risk. The point is to minimize the risk, but you can never eliminate it.
Someone will still be upset about the DRM and decide to crack it. Then again movies are harder to distribute then mp3s. At least high quality ones.....And cue the people who say it HAS to work on every platform, be completely open, and so on, ad infinitum. If you don't like it, you can vote with your wallet, and not buy it.
Re:I see nothing wrong with it
on
Weapons in Space
·
· Score: 1, Funny
You are correct sir. It is the wolf you don't see that you must fear.
Don't forget while you're there to only pay in plain cash. If you use a credit card or a check, then they'll know you were there either. Since this seems to only be used for events, many of the people will probably be buying things with their credit cards. In other words, I don't know that for most people, they'll be getting tracked more than they already are.
Yeah, but I think that the people who would be allowed to participate in the program will want to cooperate (for the most part). Thus, they will make a push to collect as much data as possible, as transparently as possible (like using your CC info instead of directly asking you). In addition, things like air travel require you to disclose your identity, and I wouldn't be surprised if they add to the list of things you are required to give up data for.
You have a good point, and it will probably not be totally trackable, but the technology is about to be in place to track everything you do. If the government manages to find a way to get information to store (through this program or others), there could be a huge threat to privacy.
I am not that worried about companies being able to find out who may be a terror threat. I don't think that the government will give them a dossier on whomever they ask for.
What I am worried about is the government collecting and keeping this data. They may just be using this program as a honeypot to get companies to give them data. They get to know your location on a precise time and date. They also may be able to do some basic hypothesising based on this data. For instance, people who are often found at the same events could be grouped together, and rudimentary sosical networks could be strung together. You could end up under investigation if you turn up at too many events that have "terrorist suspects" at them. Maybe even if they started collecting names of those at political rallies, and started adding those to the databases. Maybe the cities will say: You can have your protest, if you supply a list of names of people who will be there. And BAM! You have lost your privacy and freedom to associate.
Under the bill, any software that reports its users' online actions, sends personal data to other companies, or serves pop-up ads without permission is prohibited.
How hard is it to get permission? All you have to say is: "Do you want to be informed of the best deals in your area?", and %90 of people will say: "Sign me up!". Im sure it will be easy to get around this law if a company wants to. And given the profit motive, why wouldn't they?
They talk about journalistic integrity as in not changing reviews to get ad dollars, then go on to talk about the HardOCP deal. I am not going to get into that, because my comments get bitchslapped down whenever I support a company that is not in/.'s good graces.
They should have picked a more relevant example, like Tom's Hardware and the Intel P3 fiasco where the 1.13's had a critical error in them. It really seems like they were just trying to get mentioned on Slashdot, and seem like a really good review site.
Has the "privateer" race been done? It would be nice to see a privateer complete the challenge.
I think that even though they only got 7 miles into the course, thats still damn good engineering. Maybe next year they will have worked out what has gone wrong and figured out a way to flesh out an autonomous robot (Or hide a midget navigator somewhere!).
This reminds me that I need to vote and participate in the democratic process.
I am going into a computer engineering major at UMBC. I was approached by recruiters, and they wanted me to do ROTC. I didn't want to, because if I was going to a good college, I wasn't going to negate the benefits by being stuck in the military for 5 years afterwards. Now again, this could potentially ruin my plans for after school. I will have to vote for a candidate who will try to keep us out of any major wars that would require a draft.
Disclaimer: I am from a military family, I have nothing against the military, but I personnally don't want to join.
You must remember, free speech does not come "free". You can't get away with posting flgrant lies about someone, and then claim "free speech". I am not saying this is what HardOCP did, but am using it as an example.
When I say they should have kept things quiet and let things slide, I meant a compromise reached by both sides. I don't mean that HardOCP (or Infinium Labs) should give up their fight. I like the idea of compromise a lot better than litigation. I will admit that Litigation is the main way of resolving conflicts here in the US, but that is another issue.
About the address, I was merely stating that they should have checked the date on the review, because it was 4 years old, and now the area of Maryland to look for me in has changed. Sorry.
I don't feel I deserved to get flamed for "speaking out against HardOCP". I didn't know that advocating a non-litigous solution was speaking out against them. Oh well, I know someone else will excercise their right to free speech and flame me some more. Go nuts.
Last night, I posted, and got flamed to a crisp for supporting Infinium Labs. People were posting my "Home Address" by looking at a review from 2000 and looking in the area for the name in my email address (BTW, way to go on noticing the date. You got the area of Maryland a little bit off because of that.). I know Infinium is a laughing stock among the Slashdot crowd, but here is what I have to say.
I think this has gone a little bit too far. HardOCP posted an article that was quite misleading. I don't think they they maliciously *lied*, but definitely misled it's readers. I personnally don't feel it warrants a Libel case, however, it goes without saying: I am not a lawyer! Infinium sent the letter saying that it didn't like the article and was going to sue, and then HardOCp decided to escalate by countersueing. I bet that HardOCP could have let the "lawsuit" slide and an out of court settlement would have happened, if anything. Now there WILL be a messy legal battle.
Additionally, I don't see how hard it is to believe in the Phantom's existence. It's just a small form factor PC tied to a VPN which is the only way to purchase games. Yes, it has VERY powerful DRM, and is Microsoft's TCPA wet-dream. If the back-end didn't come together, Infinium could still make a killing selling complete systems that compete in price with the Shuttle barebones kits. It's standard PC hardware, with a few custom add-ons to integrate the hardware&softwaresides of the DRM scheme.
[Disclaimer: Views expressed are my own and not necessarily representative of those of Infinium Labs]
No, Bacchus knocked the test back. The Member Admins (A few more priveleges than moderator) of the forum have full Dev kits, us lowly beta testers don't.
I know IHBT, but am still willing to respond: I think HardOCp did tell the truth for the most part, but did leave out some important facts that didn't fit with their anti-phantom bias. From my point of view, that is not libel, but IL thinks it is. I think it's poor journalism.
Reasons why IL has a case:
Look at the letter. The things that they accuse HardOCp of making "innuendo" about are factual. IL is not lying about those things.
I simply don't see how innuendo can really be used as a means to declare something is Libel.
[Disclaimer: The views posted this thread are my own, and not neccessarily representative of Infinium Labs.]
I am am Phantom suporter, as you can probably tell by my sig: [Disclaimer: I am a Phantom Beta Tester and Moderator at the Phantom Forums]. When the last article hit about the lawsuit, the trolls on the forum were saying how Infinium was going to get reamed even more by HardOCP. The "Phanboys", as they are called on the forum, were saying HardOCp was going to get sued into the ground. you do a good job of summing it up:
Infinium Labs has a pretty good case at some points. HardOCP has a few reasons why they would win. I however, think that HardOCP will win though, because I heard somewhere that Libel cases are hard to win (for a company facing a member of the press at least).
My grandfather knew someone who embezzled 5 millio dollars (that the courts knew about) he did 5 years, but did not have any money seized, because the money was all overseas by that time. He did have to make sure never to buy a house in America though. They can seize your assets. As for what the other guy said about losing your dignioty and what you put your family through, I wouldn't do that if I had a family. It wouldn't be worth the risk. You do it while you are single and young, and then you get everything out of the way.
But i would do a coupl years in prison if I recieved a couple million dollars, as long as I got to keep it when i got out. I would just write a book while in jail, and chill out. I would also lift weights, so no one would try to make me their bitch.
I am going to college this fal, and was thinking about putting together a huge RAID (200+Gb), and then putting up an anonymous FTP for anyone to create (no delete) of files. Anyone have any advice on that?
I mean, Microsoft is so lax with their security updates, I am not sure if they would create a false sense of security. Also, what if Microsoft detects illegal software? Is this a virus? Will we retain control? Is this a premonition of the TCPA?
IBM sells Maiframes, but really, Mainframe only refers to the operating system, not the size of the computer. You can get "mainframes" that fit under your desk.
Will Microsoft try to sabotage this by "upgrading" Office in future versions to things that are difficult to "emulate" or include a clause in the EULA that says "You may not run this with a compatibility wrapper" or Linux or anything else? I could see this happening.
Slashdot Mirror
WTF? When can anything be done regardless of the Constutition? I'll tell you: legally, NOT EVER. The Constitution trumps anything Congress might try to do. The Constitution is the guidelines by which Congress is able to pass laws. To quote the Supreme Court (sorry, I don't have the exact citation): "Anything repugnant to the Constitution is null and void."
That is of course, assuming people challenge it in court, and the courts have a sense of justice and haven't sold out. Maybe when the people realize what has happened to them, they will demand their rights, and feel free to use armed revolution if necessary. Unfortunately, the apathy of the average American (spoken as a young American who is disenchanted by the rights we have lost so far, and the rights we will come to liose) makes me fear the future.
since when is a 2.4GHz celeron cutting edge?
Since people stopped caring about how much a large cache improves performance.
There is a term for this tye of thing: PEBCAK
Problem Exists Between Chair And Keyboard
Actually, i am running XP SP2, and 90% of the patches I have downloaded don't require a restart. I was pleasantly surprised. I only had to restart when Microsoft convinced me to download an older version of my 9800Pro drivers. That was real fun to sort out and reinstall the up to date drivers.
A platform that will let you browse, email, and generally enjoy the Internet without risk of viruses, trojans, worms or spam.
.....If only such a platform existed. I would buy it. Unfortunately, not even Linux, BSD, or even OS X is capable of this. There is always risk. The point is to minimize the risk, but you can never eliminate it.
Someone will still be upset about the DRM and decide to crack it. Then again movies are harder to distribute then mp3s. At least high quality ones. ....And cue the people who say it HAS to work on every platform, be completely open, and so on, ad infinitum. If you don't like it, you can vote with your wallet, and not buy it.
You are correct sir. It is the wolf you don't see that you must fear.
Don't forget while you're there to only pay in plain cash. If you use a credit card or a check, then they'll know you were there either. Since this seems to only be used for events, many of the people will probably be buying things with their credit cards. In other words, I don't know that for most people, they'll be getting tracked more than they already are.
Yeah, but I think that the people who would be allowed to participate in the program will want to cooperate (for the most part). Thus, they will make a push to collect as much data as possible, as transparently as possible (like using your CC info instead of directly asking you). In addition, things like air travel require you to disclose your identity, and I wouldn't be surprised if they add to the list of things you are required to give up data for.
You have a good point, and it will probably not be totally trackable, but the technology is about to be in place to track everything you do. If the government manages to find a way to get information to store (through this program or others), there could be a huge threat to privacy.
I am not that worried about companies being able to find out who may be a terror threat. I don't think that the government will give them a dossier on whomever they ask for.
What I am worried about is the government collecting and keeping this data. They may just be using this program as a honeypot to get companies to give them data. They get to know your location on a precise time and date. They also may be able to do some basic hypothesising based on this data. For instance, people who are often found at the same events could be grouped together, and rudimentary sosical networks could be strung together. You could end up under investigation if you turn up at too many events that have "terrorist suspects" at them. Maybe even if they started collecting names of those at political rallies, and started adding those to the databases. Maybe the cities will say: You can have your protest, if you supply a list of names of people who will be there. And BAM! You have lost your privacy and freedom to associate.
I dont see a problem:
Under the bill, any software that reports its users' online actions, sends personal data to other companies, or serves pop-up ads without permission is prohibited.
How hard is it to get permission? All you have to say is: "Do you want to be informed of the best deals in your area?", and %90 of people will say: "Sign me up!". Im sure it will be easy to get around this law if a company wants to. And given the profit motive, why wouldn't they?
They talk about journalistic integrity as in not changing reviews to get ad dollars, then go on to talk about the HardOCP deal. I am not going to get into that, because my comments get bitchslapped down whenever I support a company that is not in /.'s good graces.
They should have picked a more relevant example, like Tom's Hardware and the Intel P3 fiasco where the 1.13's had a critical error in them. It really seems like they were just trying to get mentioned on Slashdot, and seem like a really good review site.
Has the "privateer" race been done? It would be nice to see a privateer complete the challenge.
I think that even though they only got 7 miles into the course, thats still damn good engineering. Maybe next year they will have worked out what has gone wrong and figured out a way to flesh out an autonomous robot (Or hide a midget navigator somewhere!).
This reminds me that I need to vote and participate in the democratic process.
I am going into a computer engineering major at UMBC. I was approached by recruiters, and they wanted me to do ROTC. I didn't want to, because if I was going to a good college, I wasn't going to negate the benefits by being stuck in the military for 5 years afterwards. Now again, this could potentially ruin my plans for after school. I will have to vote for a candidate who will try to keep us out of any major wars that would require a draft.
Disclaimer: I am from a military family, I have nothing against the military, but I personnally don't want to join.
You must remember, free speech does not come "free". You can't get away with posting flgrant lies about someone, and then claim "free speech". I am not saying this is what HardOCP did, but am using it as an example.
When I say they should have kept things quiet and let things slide, I meant a compromise reached by both sides. I don't mean that HardOCP (or Infinium Labs) should give up their fight. I like the idea of compromise a lot better than litigation. I will admit that Litigation is the main way of resolving conflicts here in the US, but that is another issue.
About the address, I was merely stating that they should have checked the date on the review, because it was 4 years old, and now the area of Maryland to look for me in has changed. Sorry.
I don't feel I deserved to get flamed for "speaking out against HardOCP". I didn't know that advocating a non-litigous solution was speaking out against them. Oh well, I know someone else will excercise their right to free speech and flame me some more. Go nuts.
Last night, I posted, and got flamed to a crisp for supporting Infinium Labs. People were posting my "Home Address" by looking at a review from 2000 and looking in the area for the name in my email address (BTW, way to go on noticing the date. You got the area of Maryland a little bit off because of that.). I know Infinium is a laughing stock among the Slashdot crowd, but here is what I have to say.
I think this has gone a little bit too far. HardOCP posted an article that was quite misleading. I don't think they they maliciously *lied*, but definitely misled it's readers. I personnally don't feel it warrants a Libel case, however, it goes without saying: I am not a lawyer! Infinium sent the letter saying that it didn't like the article and was going to sue, and then HardOCp decided to escalate by countersueing. I bet that HardOCP could have let the "lawsuit" slide and an out of court settlement would have happened, if anything. Now there WILL be a messy legal battle.
Additionally, I don't see how hard it is to believe in the Phantom's existence. It's just a small form factor PC tied to a VPN which is the only way to purchase games. Yes, it has VERY powerful DRM, and is Microsoft's TCPA wet-dream. If the back-end didn't come together, Infinium could still make a killing selling complete systems that compete in price with the Shuttle barebones kits. It's standard PC hardware, with a few custom add-ons to integrate the hardware&softwaresides of the DRM scheme.
[Disclaimer: Views expressed are my own and not necessarily representative of those of Infinium Labs]
No, Bacchus knocked the test back. The Member Admins (A few more priveleges than moderator) of the forum have full Dev kits, us lowly beta testers don't.
I know IHBT, but am still willing to respond: I think HardOCp did tell the truth for the most part, but did leave out some important facts that didn't fit with their anti-phantom bias. From my point of view, that is not libel, but IL thinks it is. I think it's poor journalism.
Reasons why IL has a case:
Look at the letter. The things that they accuse HardOCp of making "innuendo" about are factual. IL is not lying about those things.
I simply don't see how innuendo can really be used as a means to declare something is Libel.
[Disclaimer: The views posted this thread are my own, and not neccessarily representative of Infinium Labs.]
I am am Phantom suporter, as you can probably tell by my sig: [Disclaimer: I am a Phantom Beta Tester and Moderator at the Phantom Forums]. When the last article hit about the lawsuit, the trolls on the forum were saying how Infinium was going to get reamed even more by HardOCP. The "Phanboys", as they are called on the forum, were saying HardOCp was going to get sued into the ground. you do a good job of summing it up:
Infinium Labs has a pretty good case at some points. HardOCP has a few reasons why they would win. I however, think that HardOCP will win though, because I heard somewhere that Libel cases are hard to win (for a company facing a member of the press at least).
My grandfather knew someone who embezzled 5 millio dollars (that the courts knew about) he did 5 years, but did not have any money seized, because the money was all overseas by that time. He did have to make sure never to buy a house in America though. They can seize your assets. As for what the other guy said about losing your dignioty and what you put your family through, I wouldn't do that if I had a family. It wouldn't be worth the risk. You do it while you are single and young, and then you get everything out of the way.
But i would do a coupl years in prison if I recieved a couple million dollars, as long as I got to keep it when i got out. I would just write a book while in jail, and chill out. I would also lift weights, so no one would try to make me their bitch.
Can you really get into legal trouble for operating an FTP?
I am going to college this fal, and was thinking about putting together a huge RAID (200+Gb), and then putting up an anonymous FTP for anyone to create (no delete) of files. Anyone have any advice on that?
What kind of viruses will the scanner delete?
Will we have the choice to turn theirs off?
I mean, Microsoft is so lax with their security updates, I am not sure if they would create a false sense of security. Also, what if Microsoft detects illegal software? Is this a virus? Will we retain control? Is this a premonition of the TCPA?
IBM sells Maiframes, but really, Mainframe only refers to the operating system, not the size of the computer. You can get "mainframes" that fit under your desk.
Will Microsoft try to sabotage this by "upgrading" Office in future versions to things that are difficult to "emulate" or include a clause in the EULA that says "You may not run this with a compatibility wrapper" or Linux or anything else? I could see this happening.