Normally I would joke about something like this, but... well, ok, I'll still joke about something like this.
Way to go, **AA. Hope you got bomb sniffing equipment outside your buildings. We all know what happens when you piss off the Palestinians. KA-BOOM!!!! That is one terrorist bombing I don't know that I'd feel angry about (as long as they didn't get any hapless civilians walking past outside or any protesters busy pissing on the doors in protest).
... if I lived in Cali. Not because I agree with all her stances or that she even realizes the sheer enormity of the pile of shit that state is in, but because I think we need to have less politicians in office. We need less old people that are out of touch. Less rich people that aren't like the common man. Hell, she could be a tree hugging hippie that wants to put FBI run security cams in every room in the country for all I care.
Getting her elected would scare the living tar out of every politician out there. To think that a bunch of 10/20/30something techies (some of you are older) on a globally read website could push a 20-something techie into office is worth it's weight in gold. It could very likely start the swing to take the power away from money and corporations and sway it back towards people.
Another way of putting that is that advertising changes the entire nature of the market; instead of producing goods for end use, they have to be produced for sale, which may or may not actually coincide with the needs of customers.
This is a common problem I had in college when I was studying to be an engineer. We designed new dashboards and console lay-out for Ford Motors. One of our ideas we had was based on complaints that people now-a-days listen to more varied music more in the car. A generation or 2 ago, your parents were most likely to put on a radio station or an 8-track tape and listen to the whole thing. Between mp3 players, 12 preset radio stations, XFM, CD players, etc... people today constantly change their music.
One thing we decided was to move the stereo out of the console and place it in-between the front seats where the emergancy brake normally is (it was moved to floor between the driver's seat and the door). This way everything was at the driver's fingertips. They didn't have to lean or look around a gear shift or drinks in the cup hoilders, etc. It was next to the media case (in the center armrest). Made perfect sense to us.
We submitted our ideas to our professor, complete with mock-ups, cost analysis, major design changes, possible design flaws, etc... We ended up getting the highest peer grade in our class which meant we got to submit the idea to Ford. The Ford rep took one look at it, said it was ingenious, but would never be used. I thought to myself, "yeah, cause we own the rights to the design as students, rather than your employees," but the reason he gave was, "It's not marketable. The general public that buys cars are not in the age range this is designed for. Older people (24+ in his mind) expect certain things to be in a certain place. This is more designed towards teenagers and college kids, who would not, for the most part, be buying brand new cars."
The greatest example of products produced for sale and not for needs of the customer are generic** goods. They are produced with the express purpose of being SOOO cheap that consumers say, "well, what do I have to lose. It's only $X" (where X is a relatively small number to the actual commercial product). As I assume we all know, generic items are often hit or miss. I have found many that are as good, if not better than, the commercial product they are compeating with. I have also found many that are just complete crap.
-Ab
** trivia tidbit for you trivia buffs out there. There was actually a company called "Generic" in the 1800s that used this philosophy of really cheap, really bland, no-advertisment production to sell goods. When it folded, the name stuck.
I like the idea, but it's not as feasible as you think, mainly because of the earth's 7 year "el nino" cycle. Where I live (central western PA), we get less days of direct sunlight than Seattle (known for it's dreary weather). So solar is not much of an option.
We have lots of rivers (See: Pittsburgh, Johnstown, Harrisburg, etc..), but routinely go through periods in the summer (several years in a row) where the 3 month total of rainfall is under 6". We were in a drought status for *4* years until this past June. Up until mid July, my county (centre) had more inches of rainfall this year, than ANY other county in the US. We also go through odd winters where 3 winters in a row we'll get minimal snow fall, followed by the next 2 years with multiple blizzards of 18" or more (up to 36" 0r 40"). This makes hydro power unattractive. Not to mention that the city most likely to benmefit from it (Johnstown) has had 3 major floods in it's history from damns breaking upstream, including the great flood of 1889 where 2100 died in under 15 minutes. Those people are hell bent against another damn being built because of the local geography and the random heavy rains (see above about this year's rainfall so far).
The entire landscape is rolling hills, lacking the necessary open terrain to sustain consistant winds necessary to run a wind farm.
Now, I understand the concept put forth is to cover for areas like us when we can't provide our own power, but we would go through MONTHS if not YEARS of a power deficit. Would neighboring areas in the grid want to cover "free-loaders" like us or even be able to for such an extended period of time?
We have several co-gen plants that run on coal, but scrub the air and send the heat to the surrounding towns/industrial areas. There are at least 8 nuclear towers that I know of in PA, and countless coal plants. We actually supply more power than we can use and sell it to neighboring states. During the black-out last week, we (most of PA) were the only area in the mid-atlantic/NE zone there that didn't lose power.
That all being said, I am all for alternative sources. I am planning on having my own home built in the next 5 years and I've already looked into getting solar panels to help off-set electricity costs. I'm not naive enough to believe at this point in time (nor even 5 years) that they'll be efficient enough to satiate all my power needs, but they'll help.
As for CO2 emissions, there are many scientists that debunk the Kyoto Protocol as feel-good myths. I know I'll hear "well, that's just American Scientists with oil money in their pockets," so here is a link to an austrailian site which includes Canadian scientists as well (2 countries know for there more environmentally sound stances than the US).
I got 436 hits this morning in 2 hrs for my compan's email (~500 employees). I already had *.pif files blocked (I'll give any of my users a free beer if they could even tell me what a *.pif files was used for, more or less why they should be receiving it). In 2hrs a dial-up ISP in california, the University of New Hampshire, the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Piglet.DisneyOnline.com, a verizon DSL node, and an adelphia cable modem node had all been shut down and cleaned. Soon as I recognized what was coming in, I traced the source IPs, called the contacts, and talked to their IT people. With the exception of Disney, all were quite co-operative, had their machines down with-in minutes of notification, and back up after cleaning the virus.
The nature of these Sobig virii/viruses are that they repeatedly hit the same addresses. Take a few seconds, look at the header, get the IP, look up the DNS, get the contact name, call and explain and you'll save yourself (and countless others) a lot of unnecessary hell.
-Ab
ps. that also explains why some of my posts this morning were a little bit... 'tart'
"Rape can be funny. I can prove to you that rape is funny. Picture Porky Pig raping Elmer Fudd. See hey, why do you think they call him Porky?" (George Carlin)
offensive: Causing anger, displeasure, resentment, or affront
No action is offensive in and of itself. One can only choose to take offense at that action. If the action itself was offensive, then all that experience it would be offended. I personally find child porn offensive. It offends me, but there are sick fscks out there that like it, so by definition, it does not cause them displeasure, resentment, or affront and therefore the act itself is not offensive.
Disclaimer: this is *NOT* a promotion for rape or child porn, just examples of the mis-use of actions and words by intolerant people who think they know what best for me (collective) than I (collective) do. Shut up and worry about your own life and let me worry about mine.
[RANT] Remember this gem? All the people that installed it had inoperable machines. It was so bad that it was recalled *6* hours after being posted. Then a week later came SP6a. I definitely do *NOT* want them pushing crap to my machines. I have no problem getting my own updates. Set up auto-update by default, but let those of us that know what we're doing be able to turn it off. I'm all for (l)users getting crap in general (not necessarily viruses/virii). Maybe that will get them off computers and leave them to the experts.
How come everyone and their brother is allowed to operate a computer at will, but I need a license to fish?
Step 1. Invite the spammer to a marketting meeting to pitch his sales ideas Step 2. pretend to listen and be interested (important to act the part) Step 3. Get his *REAL* business card and contact info (the one he gives out to clients that he thinks will actually buy his services) Step 4. Post the contact info (and a short blurb about who they are and what they do) to slashdot, K5, usenet, etc... Step 5. Sit back and watch as the spammer gets spammed. Step 5. ??? (obligatory) Step 6. Lack of profit
Honestly, I hear often that "This type of vigilanteism is bad and counter productive, etc..." but I disagree. It runs along the same principle many armies have used in the past: Why shoot your enemies when you can get them to shoot each other? I have no qualms with getting spammers spammed. (I do have a slight issue with sending obscene phone calls, though. Let's keep it as legit as possible.) Let the spammers kill each other off with their garbage with the collateral damage (i.e. us regular users) start to see some increased benefits.
So, we signed his email up the way ours get's screen scraped from websites. Spammers are fighting to keep everything opt-OUT rather than opt-IN. Well, he has the option to opt-out (of spamming) and he has.
The person who created this worm did so to show that Microsoft's software was insecure. Their methods are bad, but they've shown that no matter how good WinXP sounds compared with Win9.x, it is still made by Microsoft. If you don't want this kind of rubbish, don't use Microsoft.
Yes, and if you want to stop rape, women shouldn't grow tits, take baths, wear make-up, dance, etc... Back to burkas for them cause God forbid they tempt men.
It's philosophies like this that perpetuate the problem and put the onus on the victim, rather than pressing to stop the agressor. Don't blame people for using MicroSoft, many of which have no choice. Blame Microsoft for not being more secure with their systems... or in this case, for not being more forthcoming with the damage that this hole could cause. Even though they put the patch out, I know my parents had no idea. But, most of all, blame the fscker that made the worm. I hope the catch him in some 3rd world country where they can torture him to death by letting flesh burrowing worms slowly eat him from the inside out.
As to If you don't want this kind of rubbish, don't use Microsoft. comment, I've yet to find a good Architectural and/or Land Development CADD program for Mac or Linux. Nor Noise simulation modules, Motorola propegation simulators, Hydrology simulations, or many more of the specialized software we use for buidling design, airport/runway design, emergancy system management, wireless design, air quality analysis, or any of the other stuff we do at my company. One thing we do not do is software development, so if you want us to switch, start coding reasonable alternatives (in cost, ease, production, and output).
-Ab
Re:As a registered voter...rant
on
The "Techie" Vote?
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
I have that right and privilege as long as I protect it. Not with guns and violence, but by...
Actually, this is why the right to bear arms exists. So that if the Government becomes too corrupt and evil and starts to self-perpetuate it's own power, growing uncontrollably, the people can rise up and strike the gov't down. That is the beauty of the US constitution/bill of rights. It was a government that was designed to be overthrown.
This could be extrapolated to current times. I can just see it now, a big red button in a glass case in every home with sign that says, "In case of excessive government corrupt, break glass and push button."
It seems unfair that Davis needs a majority of votes to remain in office, but a replacement candidate could be selected by a plurality.
Pardon me if I'm wrong, but I was always under the understanding that plurality is when multiple candidates run for a position. When the vote is completed, if there is no MAJORITY winner, the candidate with the least amount of votes (multiple if tied) is eliminated and everyone re-votes. Repeate the process ad infinitum until a majority candidate is procured. The effect of having multiple elections to determine 1 position is the reason it's called "plurality" (from plural, meaning "more than one").
This election is a straight election, whoever gets the most votes wins.
I understand your point, but I do disagree with it. I would think that most hijackings are the end user's "fault" (notice the quotes). By "fault" I mean one of the following general cases:
1. They are running open proxies (intentionally or not)
2. They have not patched their systems from known security holes
3. They have contracted a virus, worm, or trojan by basically being not smart
I know this is kinda like saying "It's your fault you got robbed cause you don't lock your doors," but there is some amount of common sense that needs to be applied. I see the "collateral damage" done in a system like this as a potential good service. People being abused from any of the 3 things I listed will know quite quickly that there is something wrong with their system. The grind to a halt of there services will lead them to patching, fixing, or cleaning their systems, thereby eliminating one more conduits for spam. By eliminating these unsuspecting middle men, we put the onus back on the spammers.
This may sound a lot like vigilantism or mob rule, but as I hear on here all the time, "The internet should be policed by it's users and not the government." Paul has given a viable weapon to help combat spam here and hit the spammers where it hurts... where they make their money. His original Plan for Spam Bayesian filter was good, but not great, then he improved on it with the advanced filter. Now it is one of the most popular and successful spam defenses around. I am looking forward to when he refines this click flooding technique. I feel that a man of his brilliance will be successful in this battle against UBE/UCE.
Well, you obviously didn't bother to read the first part where I intimated that I try my damnedest to get out of non-smokers ways. If it's an actual cough (as you seem to be saying) then I usually apologize and move or just put it out. I was quite obvious when I said the FAKE *cough cough* noise that a lot of ignorant bastards use. If you're truly offended by it, more power to you, but if you and I are in an establishment that permits the behaviour, then you are just as capable of moving as I am. To use an analogy similar to your pissing in public one, "That's like going to a strip club, then complaining there is nudity there." If it's in public (which bars, restaraunts, etc... are NOT), then you have a valid argument.
We all know that smoking is highly addictive and if second hand smoke is so prevalent, why aren't there millions of people addicted to second hand smoke? There aren't.
I'll admit, I'm a smoker. I find second hand smoke annoying as all hell. If I'm around non-smokers, I make a concious effort to smoke down wind so my smoke doesn't blow in their face, to smoke elsewhere, or not to smoke at all. But the second anyone makes an smartassed comment like "smoking kills" or one of those fake *cough cough* sounds, I make it a point to stand beside them and blow as directly in their face as I can.
I try to be a polite smoker. I try, all I ask is some co-operation in return. People smoke when they drink... that's life. I've bummed thousands of cigs to "non-smokers" at bars. I'm not against non-smoking bars, but I think that should be the bar's option, not the gov't's. Prohibition has never worked. Not against alcohol, it's not working against drugs, and when they try it on tobacco, it won't work then, either.
I work for a company that does Phase-I/II** 911 Emergency Management Systems for states including PA, FL, ME, NY, VA, IN, LA, MS, NC and Washington DC. To properly figure out total coverage and signal strength, you need to know the lat/long/alt of every tower, as well as the antenna length, signal strength, and any local interference generators. You take all that info, and you plug it into a composite signal rendering program (such as SIGNAL by EDX. This will give you a "100% coverage" map. This assumes that all surrounding obstacles (trees, mountains, buildings, etc..) have 100% transparency with the carrier wave of the transmission. This is good to analyze the "best case" scenario.
After that, you get a topographic map (usually in.tif format from the state or federal gov't) and plug that in. Place the tower info on the map and run the software again. this will give you an "expected-case" scenario. Then repeat the process with known buildings, structures, etc... to get the worst-case scenario.
If you ever have the chance to look at some of these maps, you'll see a lot of interesting patterns. Many cell towers aren't located on the top of mountains (like radio and TV towers). Most are located in valleys on the roofs of larger buildings. This is because the signal from cell tower's requires much more power at 800Mzh than radio and TV at lower bands. This increased frequency gives it a smaller propagation distance. This is why you see towers in towns/cities and along major roadways. Most cell companies use mountains to shield signals from bleeding excessively into other cells (because of how it works, especially with billing). This is why you can have a full strength signal going up a hill, lose it at the top (where your radio signal is strongest) and gain cell phone coverage as you go down the other side.
-Ab
** 911 Phase-I is where the dispatchers know your address/location via a Geo-database if you are on a landline and can ship out aid regardless of the info you give them.
911 Phase-II is the same thing, but for cell/satellite phones.
Just do what I do... when they tell me 'Sir, you would have saved $15 on this purchase if you had used your discount card. Would you like me to give you one now that I'll use for this purchase.' I say 'sure.' They give you a temporary one that you then you are supposed to go over to the customer service desk to fill out the forms. I let her swipe it, then throw it in the trash below the register. Never use the same card twice... and don't forget your tinfoil hat... otherwise they'll scan your brain and know what you bought last time and put it all together.
Yep, this is one of the reasons I still use IRC and I don't use bots. I force anyone that wants anything from me to actually log into my server, where there is a legal disclaimer stating that only people with written permission may access my server and that it's express purpose is to act as a way for me to get files from work, home, friends' places, computer lab, etc... easily. Any unauthorized access is considered tresspass and downloading anything that you do not own the rights to is copyright infringement (and possibly theft depending on your definition). Any law enforcement agency or anyone acting on behalf of such an agency is required to present a warrant before entering.
This is one of the reasons IRC hasn't been hit so hard by the RIAA. That and I question if they're bright enough to figure out how to use it. Though, I have heard rumors that the dal.net DDoS attack last spring was possibly from the *AA's cause they couldn't bring it down legally. (just ask #movies-central on dal.net):)
Though sounding good in theory, this will never happen. I had my own computer hosting company for a while, and we kept METICULOUS records for legal reasons. I'll use a fake scenerio that doesn't involve P2P (cause it's been done to death) but can easily translate over:
Let's say I buy a large pipe off of a major trunk (let's say uunet). From that pipe, I sublet my bandwidth to various companies. 1 of those companies is a local ISP in East Bumblefsck, Iowa and they sell out lines to 50 customers. Now one of those customers decides to hack into the ReallyBigMissiles.gov. I am responsible for what happens on my lines unless I have legally binding contracts that transfer that responsibility onto my sub-renters. That's why they keep records. They have to not only prove it wasn't them, but have the logs to back it up.
It works the same way in the real world. If you lend a friend your car, he speeds, and you get a photo-radar ticket in the mail a week later, sucks to be you. Unless you can prove to the courts that your friend was driving, they're not gonna care. You are responsible for your property.
This would *NOT* hold up in court. IANAL, but I *STILL* know this wouldn't hold up. The original ToS/EULA is illegal. Contracts that require breaking of the law are not honored by the court system. When's the last time you've heard a mob-boss successfually sue a hit-man for not killing cousin Vito? Joe Distributor getting a court decision in his favor against Dan the Dealer for selling his stash and not giving Joe his cut? Hell, I can't even get the money from my ho's that way, that's why God invented the 'pimp-slap'.
In all reality, if you had a EULA like that, you'd get sued pretty much right away by the RIAA/MPAA/whoever. I can't imagine a *LEGITAMATE* use for this software to save it from being shut down.
I remember some talk about wireless power and I think Tessla had it figured out a long time ago, but it still boggles my mind:)
There are lots of everyday examples of wireless power to get energy from one place to another without physical contact. Sunlight, induction, convection, radiation, sound, etc... I believe these are planning to run on induction coils. Very similar to a crystal set radio (a very cheap radio receiver that boyscouts can choose to build for a badge). It can pick-up standard radio stations and uses the power from the radio wave to power the ear piece.
What difference does it make if your guilty and pay $100,000 in fines and $100,000 in legal fees or if you are innocent and pay $200,000 in legal fees? The RIAA's point is still made.
It's called counter-suing for legal fees and damages from false accusation. IANAL, but I'm pretty sure if you successfully defend a civil case, the accusers can be held liable for (some of?) your legal fees, lost wages, etc...
Slashdot Mirror
Normally I would joke about something like this, but ... well, ok, I'll still joke about something like this.
Way to go, **AA. Hope you got bomb sniffing equipment outside your buildings. We all know what happens when you piss off the Palestinians. KA-BOOM!!!! That is one terrorist bombing I don't know that I'd feel angry about (as long as they didn't get any hapless civilians walking past outside or any protesters busy pissing on the doors in protest).
-Ab
... if I lived in Cali. Not because I agree with all her stances or that she even realizes the sheer enormity of the pile of shit that state is in, but because I think we need to have less politicians in office. We need less old people that are out of touch. Less rich people that aren't like the common man. Hell, she could be a tree hugging hippie that wants to put FBI run security cams in every room in the country for all I care.
Getting her elected would scare the living tar out of every politician out there. To think that a bunch of 10/20/30something techies (some of you are older) on a globally read website could push a 20-something techie into office is worth it's weight in gold. It could very likely start the swing to take the power away from money and corporations and sway it back towards people.
-Ab
Another way of putting that is that advertising changes the entire nature of the market; instead of producing goods for end use, they have to be produced for sale, which may or may not actually coincide with the needs of customers.
... people today constantly change their music.
This is a common problem I had in college when I was studying to be an engineer. We designed new dashboards and console lay-out for Ford Motors. One of our ideas we had was based on complaints that people now-a-days listen to more varied music more in the car. A generation or 2 ago, your parents were most likely to put on a radio station or an 8-track tape and listen to the whole thing. Between mp3 players, 12 preset radio stations, XFM, CD players, etc
One thing we decided was to move the stereo out of the console and place it in-between the front seats where the emergancy brake normally is (it was moved to floor between the driver's seat and the door). This way everything was at the driver's fingertips. They didn't have to lean or look around a gear shift or drinks in the cup hoilders, etc. It was next to the media case (in the center armrest). Made perfect sense to us.
We submitted our ideas to our professor, complete with mock-ups, cost analysis, major design changes, possible design flaws, etc... We ended up getting the highest peer grade in our class which meant we got to submit the idea to Ford. The Ford rep took one look at it, said it was ingenious, but would never be used. I thought to myself, "yeah, cause we own the rights to the design as students, rather than your employees," but the reason he gave was, "It's not marketable. The general public that buys cars are not in the age range this is designed for. Older people (24+ in his mind) expect certain things to be in a certain place. This is more designed towards teenagers and college kids, who would not, for the most part, be buying brand new cars."
The greatest example of products produced for sale and not for needs of the customer are generic** goods. They are produced with the express purpose of being SOOO cheap that consumers say, "well, what do I have to lose. It's only $X" (where X is a relatively small number to the actual commercial product). As I assume we all know, generic items are often hit or miss. I have found many that are as good, if not better than, the commercial product they are compeating with. I have also found many that are just complete crap.
-Ab
** trivia tidbit for you trivia buffs out there. There was actually a company called "Generic" in the 1800s that used this philosophy of really cheap, really bland, no-advertisment production to sell goods. When it folded, the name stuck.
I like the idea, but it's not as feasible as you think, mainly because of the earth's 7 year "el nino" cycle. Where I live (central western PA), we get less days of direct sunlight than Seattle (known for it's dreary weather). So solar is not much of an option. ..), but routinely go through periods in the summer (several years in a row) where the 3 month total of rainfall is under 6". We were in a drought status for *4* years until this past June. Up until mid July, my county (centre) had more inches of rainfall this year, than ANY other county in the US. We also go through odd winters where 3 winters in a row we'll get minimal snow fall, followed by the next 2 years with multiple blizzards of 18" or more (up to 36" 0r 40"). This makes hydro power unattractive. Not to mention that the city most likely to benmefit from it (Johnstown) has had 3 major floods in it's history from damns breaking upstream, including the great flood of 1889 where 2100 died in under 15 minutes. Those people are hell bent against another damn being built because of the local geography and the random heavy rains (see above about this year's rainfall so far).
We have lots of rivers (See: Pittsburgh, Johnstown, Harrisburg, etc
The entire landscape is rolling hills, lacking the necessary open terrain to sustain consistant winds necessary to run a wind farm.
Now, I understand the concept put forth is to cover for areas like us when we can't provide our own power, but we would go through MONTHS if not YEARS of a power deficit. Would neighboring areas in the grid want to cover "free-loaders" like us or even be able to for such an extended period of time?
We have several co-gen plants that run on coal, but scrub the air and send the heat to the surrounding towns/industrial areas. There are at least 8 nuclear towers that I know of in PA, and countless coal plants. We actually supply more power than we can use and sell it to neighboring states. During the black-out last week, we (most of PA) were the only area in the mid-atlantic/NE zone there that didn't lose power.
That all being said, I am all for alternative sources. I am planning on having my own home built in the next 5 years and I've already looked into getting solar panels to help off-set electricity costs. I'm not naive enough to believe at this point in time (nor even 5 years) that they'll be efficient enough to satiate all my power needs, but they'll help.
As for CO2 emissions, there are many scientists that debunk the Kyoto Protocol as feel-good myths. I know I'll hear "well, that's just American Scientists with oil money in their pockets," so here is a link to an austrailian site which includes Canadian scientists as well (2 countries know for there more environmentally sound stances than the US).
-Ab
I got 436 hits this morning in 2 hrs for my compan's email (~500 employees). I already had *.pif files blocked (I'll give any of my users a free beer if they could even tell me what a *.pif files was used for, more or less why they should be receiving it). In 2hrs a dial-up ISP in california, the University of New Hampshire, the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Piglet.DisneyOnline.com, a verizon DSL node, and an adelphia cable modem node had all been shut down and cleaned. Soon as I recognized what was coming in, I traced the source IPs, called the contacts, and talked to their IT people. With the exception of Disney, all were quite co-operative, had their machines down with-in minutes of notification, and back up after cleaning the virus.
... 'tart'
The nature of these Sobig virii/viruses are that they repeatedly hit the same addresses. Take a few seconds, look at the header, get the IP, look up the DNS, get the contact name, call and explain and you'll save yourself (and countless others) a lot of unnecessary hell.
-Ab
ps. that also explains why some of my posts this morning were a little bit
"Rape can be funny. I can prove to you that rape is funny. Picture Porky Pig raping Elmer
Fudd. See hey, why do you think they call him Porky?" (George Carlin)
offensive: Causing anger, displeasure, resentment, or affront
No action is offensive in and of itself. One can only choose to take offense at that action. If the action itself was offensive, then all that experience it would be offended. I personally find child porn offensive. It offends me, but there are sick fscks out there that like it, so by definition, it does not cause them displeasure, resentment, or affront and therefore the act itself is not offensive.
Disclaimer: this is *NOT* a promotion for rape or child porn, just examples of the mis-use of actions and words by intolerant people who think they know what best for me (collective) than I (collective) do. Shut up and worry about your own life and let me worry about mine.
-Ab.
Windows NT service pack 6
[RANT]
Remember this gem? All the people that installed it had inoperable machines. It was so bad that it was recalled *6* hours after being posted. Then a week later came SP6a. I definitely do *NOT* want them pushing crap to my machines. I have no problem getting my own updates. Set up auto-update by default, but let those of us that know what we're doing be able to turn it off. I'm all for (l)users getting crap in general (not necessarily viruses/virii). Maybe that will get them off computers and leave them to the experts.
How come everyone and their brother is allowed to operate a computer at will, but I need a license to fish?
[/RANT]
-Ab
Step 1. Invite the spammer to a marketting meeting to pitch his sales ideas ...
..." but I disagree. It runs along the same principle many armies have used in the past: Why shoot your enemies when you can get them to shoot each other? I have no qualms with getting spammers spammed. (I do have a slight issue with sending obscene phone calls, though. Let's keep it as legit as possible.) Let the spammers kill each other off with their garbage with the collateral damage (i.e. us regular users) start to see some increased benefits.
Step 2. pretend to listen and be interested (important to act the part)
Step 3. Get his *REAL* business card and contact info (the one he gives out to clients that he thinks will actually buy his services)
Step 4. Post the contact info (and a short blurb about who they are and what they do) to slashdot, K5, usenet, etc
Step 5. Sit back and watch as the spammer gets spammed.
Step 5. ??? (obligatory)
Step 6. Lack of profit
Honestly, I hear often that "This type of vigilanteism is bad and counter productive, etc
So, we signed his email up the way ours get's screen scraped from websites. Spammers are fighting to keep everything opt-OUT rather than opt-IN. Well, he has the option to opt-out (of spamming) and he has.
-Ab
synopsis:
:)
Let's all become libertarians.
I like it
-Ab
Why wasn't this tidbit of info in the original post?
;)
What? A post which includes all sides of the story? You must be new.
What? You expected Slashdot readers to actually read the story? You must be new, too.
-Ab
The person who created this worm did so to show that Microsoft's software was insecure. Their methods are bad, but they've shown that no matter how good WinXP sounds compared with Win9.x, it is still made by Microsoft. If you don't want this kind of rubbish, don't use Microsoft.
... Back to burkas for them cause God forbid they tempt men.
... or in this case, for not being more forthcoming with the damage that this hole could cause. Even though they put the patch out, I know my parents had no idea. But, most of all, blame the fscker that made the worm. I hope the catch him in some 3rd world country where they can torture him to death by letting flesh burrowing worms slowly eat him from the inside out.
Yes, and if you want to stop rape, women shouldn't grow tits, take baths, wear make-up, dance, etc
It's philosophies like this that perpetuate the problem and put the onus on the victim, rather than pressing to stop the agressor. Don't blame people for using MicroSoft, many of which have no choice. Blame Microsoft for not being more secure with their systems
As to If you don't want this kind of rubbish, don't use Microsoft. comment, I've yet to find a good Architectural and/or Land Development CADD program for Mac or Linux. Nor Noise simulation modules, Motorola propegation simulators, Hydrology simulations, or many more of the specialized software we use for buidling design, airport/runway design, emergancy system management, wireless design, air quality analysis, or any of the other stuff we do at my company. One thing we do not do is software development, so if you want us to switch, start coding reasonable alternatives (in cost, ease, production, and output).
-Ab
I have that right and privilege as long as I protect it. Not with guns and violence, but by ...
Actually, this is why the right to bear arms exists. So that if the Government becomes too corrupt and evil and starts to self-perpetuate it's own power, growing uncontrollably, the people can rise up and strike the gov't down. That is the beauty of the US constitution/bill of rights. It was a government that was designed to be overthrown.
This could be extrapolated to current times. I can just see it now, a big red button in a glass case in every home with sign that says, "In case of excessive government corrupt, break glass and push button."
-Ab
It seems unfair that Davis needs a majority of votes to remain in office, but a replacement candidate could be selected by a plurality.
Pardon me if I'm wrong, but I was always under the understanding that plurality is when multiple candidates run for a position. When the vote is completed, if there is no MAJORITY winner, the candidate with the least amount of votes (multiple if tied) is eliminated and everyone re-votes. Repeate the process ad infinitum until a majority candidate is procured. The effect of having multiple elections to determine 1 position is the reason it's called "plurality" (from plural, meaning "more than one").
This election is a straight election, whoever gets the most votes wins.
-Ab
I understand your point, but I do disagree with it. I would think that most hijackings are the end user's "fault" (notice the quotes). By "fault" I mean one of the following general cases:
... where they make their money. His original Plan for Spam Bayesian filter was good, but not great, then he improved on it with the advanced filter. Now it is one of the most popular and successful spam defenses around. I am looking forward to when he refines this click flooding technique. I feel that a man of his brilliance will be successful in this battle against UBE/UCE.
... Thank You.
1. They are running open proxies (intentionally or not)
2. They have not patched their systems from known security holes
3. They have contracted a virus, worm, or trojan by basically being not smart
I know this is kinda like saying "It's your fault you got robbed cause you don't lock your doors," but there is some amount of common sense that needs to be applied. I see the "collateral damage" done in a system like this as a potential good service. People being abused from any of the 3 things I listed will know quite quickly that there is something wrong with their system. The grind to a halt of there services will lead them to patching, fixing, or cleaning their systems, thereby eliminating one more conduits for spam. By eliminating these unsuspecting middle men, we put the onus back on the spammers.
This may sound a lot like vigilantism or mob rule, but as I hear on here all the time, "The internet should be policed by it's users and not the government." Paul has given a viable weapon to help combat spam here and hit the spammers where it hurts
-Ab
ps. If you read this Paul
once again, it's "Tu madre es una puta!" It's gringo's like you that give the rest a bad name.
-Ab
Well, you obviously didn't bother to read the first part where I intimated that I try my damnedest to get out of non-smokers ways. If it's an actual cough (as you seem to be saying) then I usually apologize and move or just put it out. I was quite obvious when I said the FAKE *cough cough* noise that a lot of ignorant bastards use. If you're truly offended by it, more power to you, but if you and I are in an establishment that permits the behaviour, then you are just as capable of moving as I am. To use an analogy similar to your pissing in public one, "That's like going to a strip club, then complaining there is nudity there." If it's in public (which bars, restaraunts, etc ... are NOT), then you have a valid argument.
-Ab
If you are going to try and appear hispanic and "in 'da hood", at least spell pendejo correctly. Por otro lado, aperaces tanto.
Hasta luego,
-Ab
Waaaaaaa ... go cry about it ...
... that's life. I've bummed thousands of cigs to "non-smokers" at bars. I'm not against non-smoking bars, but I think that should be the bar's option, not the gov't's. Prohibition has never worked. Not against alcohol, it's not working against drugs, and when they try it on tobacco, it won't work then, either.
We all know that smoking is highly addictive and if second hand smoke is so prevalent, why aren't there millions of people addicted to second hand smoke? There aren't.
I'll admit, I'm a smoker. I find second hand smoke annoying as all hell. If I'm around non-smokers, I make a concious effort to smoke down wind so my smoke doesn't blow in their face, to smoke elsewhere, or not to smoke at all. But the second anyone makes an smartassed comment like "smoking kills" or one of those fake *cough cough* sounds, I make it a point to stand beside them and blow as directly in their face as I can.
I try to be a polite smoker. I try, all I ask is some co-operation in return. People smoke when they drink
-Ab
I work for a company that does Phase-I/II** 911 Emergency Management Systems for states including PA, FL, ME, NY, VA, IN, LA, MS, NC and Washington DC. To properly figure out total coverage and signal strength, you need to know the lat/long/alt of every tower, as well as the antenna length, signal strength, and any local interference generators. You take all that info, and you plug it into a composite signal rendering program (such as SIGNAL by EDX. This will give you a "100% coverage" map. This assumes that all surrounding obstacles (trees, mountains, buildings, etc..) have 100% transparency with the carrier wave of the transmission. This is good to analyze the "best case" scenario.
.tif format from the state or federal gov't) and plug that in. Place the tower info on the map and run the software again. this will give you an "expected-case" scenario. Then repeat the process with known buildings, structures, etc ... to get the worst-case scenario.
After that, you get a topographic map (usually in
If you ever have the chance to look at some of these maps, you'll see a lot of interesting patterns. Many cell towers aren't located on the top of mountains (like radio and TV towers). Most are located in valleys on the roofs of larger buildings. This is because the signal from cell tower's requires much more power at 800Mzh than radio and TV at lower bands. This increased frequency gives it a smaller propagation distance. This is why you see towers in towns/cities and along major roadways. Most cell companies use mountains to shield signals from bleeding excessively into other cells (because of how it works, especially with billing). This is why you can have a full strength signal going up a hill, lose it at the top (where your radio signal is strongest) and gain cell phone coverage as you go down the other side.
-Ab
** 911 Phase-I is where the dispatchers know your address/location via a Geo-database if you are on a landline and can ship out aid regardless of the info you give them.
911 Phase-II is the same thing, but for cell/satellite phones.
Just do what I do ... when they tell me 'Sir, you would have saved $15 on this purchase if you had used your discount card. Would you like me to give you one now that I'll use for this purchase.' I say 'sure.' They give you a temporary one that you then you are supposed to go over to the customer service desk to fill out the forms. I let her swipe it, then throw it in the trash below the register. Never use the same card twice ... and don't forget your tinfoil hat ... otherwise they'll scan your brain and know what you bought last time and put it all together.
-Ab.
Yep, this is one of the reasons I still use IRC and I don't use bots. I force anyone that wants anything from me to actually log into my server, where there is a legal disclaimer stating that only people with written permission may access my server and that it's express purpose is to act as a way for me to get files from work, home, friends' places, computer lab, etc ... easily. Any unauthorized access is considered tresspass and downloading anything that you do not own the rights to is copyright infringement (and possibly theft depending on your definition). Any law enforcement agency or anyone acting on behalf of such an agency is required to present a warrant before entering.
:)
This is one of the reasons IRC hasn't been hit so hard by the RIAA. That and I question if they're bright enough to figure out how to use it. Though, I have heard rumors that the dal.net DDoS attack last spring was possibly from the *AA's cause they couldn't bring it down legally. (just ask #movies-central on dal.net)
-Ab
Though sounding good in theory, this will never happen. I had my own computer hosting company for a while, and we kept METICULOUS records for legal reasons. I'll use a fake scenerio that doesn't involve P2P (cause it's been done to death) but can easily translate over:
Let's say I buy a large pipe off of a major trunk (let's say uunet). From that pipe, I sublet my bandwidth to various companies. 1 of those companies is a local ISP in East Bumblefsck, Iowa and they sell out lines to 50 customers. Now one of those customers decides to hack into the ReallyBigMissiles.gov. I am responsible for what happens on my lines unless I have legally binding contracts that transfer that responsibility onto my sub-renters. That's why they keep records. They have to not only prove it wasn't them, but have the logs to back it up.
It works the same way in the real world. If you lend a friend your car, he speeds, and you get a photo-radar ticket in the mail a week later, sucks to be you. Unless you can prove to the courts that your friend was driving, they're not gonna care. You are responsible for your property.
-Ab
This would *NOT* hold up in court. IANAL, but I *STILL* know this wouldn't hold up. The original ToS/EULA is illegal. Contracts that require breaking of the law are not honored by the court system. When's the last time you've heard a mob-boss successfually sue a hit-man for not killing cousin Vito? Joe Distributor getting a court decision in his favor against Dan the Dealer for selling his stash and not giving Joe his cut? Hell, I can't even get the money from my ho's that way, that's why God invented the 'pimp-slap'.
:)
In all reality, if you had a EULA like that, you'd get sued pretty much right away by the RIAA/MPAA/whoever. I can't imagine a *LEGITAMATE* use for this software to save it from being shut down.
-Ab
ps. Screw the RIAA and nice trolling with ya
I remember some talk about wireless power and I think Tessla had it figured out a long time ago, but it still boggles my mind :)
There are lots of everyday examples of wireless power to get energy from one place to another without physical contact. Sunlight, induction, convection, radiation, sound, etc... I believe these are planning to run on induction coils. Very similar to a crystal set radio (a very cheap radio receiver that boyscouts can choose to build for a badge). It can pick-up standard radio stations and uses the power from the radio wave to power the ear piece.
-Ab
What difference does it make if your guilty and pay $100,000 in fines and $100,000 in legal fees or if you are innocent and pay $200,000 in legal fees? The RIAA's point is still made.
...
It's called counter-suing for legal fees and damages from false accusation. IANAL, but I'm pretty sure if you successfully defend a civil case, the accusers can be held liable for (some of?) your legal fees, lost wages, etc
Can someone who is a lawyer confirm?
-Ab