Purifying water (one of the lauded inventions) is a cool thing, very relevant to billions around the world, but doing it by distillation is just a joke.
There is a much simpler and just as effective way to purify water in tropical or desert countries: place it in a transparent plastic bottle in the sun for a day. The water heats to 80 degrees and after a few hours is totally sterilised. The mud and gunk settle to the bottom, and what's left is clean and drinkable.
I spent a few days on this once, trying to improve the process of separating the gunk from the water: the principle was to extract the gunk from the bottle which could then be closed and carried some distance. My design requires a straw and a bit of clay. But even that's not worth doing: to solve the problem of drinkable water in most of Africa, all one would need is to ship a billion or so used PET bottles.
Sigh. People like complex solutions to simple problems.
Hey, I do this at least once a month and the watch survives, believe me! I even think my MP3s sound better when the USB port has been washed a little.
Actually, and seriously the watch is 'water resistant', and because the USB port is basically dead if it's not connected, I suspect that it can get wet and not care so long as it's dried before use.
It's just somewhat easier than carrying a USB flash drive around with you, and sitting on one's wrist it's probably safer than hanging off a keychain or rattling around in a pocket.
Bluetooth would be sweet too... but I suspect it would have bad battery issues, which the USB watch does not.
Prior art is not enough, you need commercial interests that are large and strong enough to fight the battle.
I had prior art on my ex-wife but she still took half my fortune and the two schnauzers. So what?
And O'Reilly lost some credibility for going along with it. He should have called "shenanigans" and admitted that the patent circus is just a game designed to make life hard for the small entrepreneur.
Look, the absolutely coolest invention of 2003 is the USB wristwatch. My watch holds all the essential stuff I used to keep on a diskette. Nothing helps bonding like showing people that your watch can store porn. Or a PowerPoint presentation. Or your latest baby photos. Whatever they need: my watch has it.
I'm surprised no-one has thought through the logical conclusions of where we're going with spam.
Spam filters work only for those able to configure them. For the vast majority of Internet users, they are just a dream.
Spam blacklists are unsustainable in a world where most net connections come across DHCP, and most spam is/will be sent from owned home computers.
Spam merchants will continue to harness the 'dark side of the force', paying crackes and virus writers to create the networks of owned machines they need to operate from...... since there is nothing serious happening against any of these directions, the conclusion seems unavoidable. What I'd like to say is that the Net will split into two halves, an "infected" and a "clean" part, and every single transaction from the infected part will be treated with scrutiny and suspicion.
But this is impossible too.
Conclusion: the purity of the net is a thing of the past. We will come to understand that traffic is bad until demonstrated good. Emails will be 99.999% junk, virus, and trojan, and the art will come not from filtering out this junk but from detecting the signal within the noise.
Clearly, whitelists are part of the solution but they are limited since you can't form a network of whitelists, it's a one-to-one solution that does not scale.
I see only one solution that is scalable. Data clearing houses. You register with me, I'll vouch for all your data, and pass it on to those who need it, along with my signature. A trust network, if you like.
Data clearing houses will rate each other, creating a system of moderation in which data is never guaranteed good, but at least you get a measurable index of confidence.
This is totally off topic and I hope it gets modded as a troll or -1 Ignorant.
But... the Noos web site really pissed me off. The fronsay is no big deal, je le parle comme tout le monde. But what is the deal with the animated text, the little blinking lights saying 'clickez ici, you big dumb user you', the text highlighting gizmo, and that terrible, terrible logo that looks like a genetically-modified O with extra ears.
I mean... an ISP like that and you expect service? What the fuck?
OK, I had to say it. I'm feeling calmer now. You can mod me down, thanks.
Oh yeah, Terminator 2 was also just as good as Terminator 1.
I'm so glad that you educated me about the proper name for all the Alien movies. I actually watched them all, and even if I don't know shit about who directed them or even their proper names, at least my opinions are based on something more than the ability to spell "attribute".
Hey, you're right, but just apply Sturgeon's Law: "90% of everything is crap". The chance of a good original is 10%. The chance of a good original plus good sequel is just 1%.
Highlander 2 was a traumatic experience, I'll grant you that. I didn't give Speed 2 a chance, the first one was already a diaper load.
Doing a little more research through my own video library, I found some more sequels that were as good as or better than the original:
- Robocop 2
- Gremlins 2
- Ghostbusters 2
- 24 Hours more
- La Verite Si Je Mens 2
- Legally Blonde 2*
- The Gods are Crazy 2
(*) The film was just as flimsy and fun as the first one. But - and this is no joke - the cinema was filled with blonde girls. Some kind of cult movie for blondies.
I think the original Star Wars trilogy was all equally well made.
Toy Story 2 was better than the original.
The James Bond movies went up and down in quality but generally delivered exactly the right kick each time.
Mad Max 2 was simply amazing.
The Godfather...... I mean, before making such generalizations, why not just think a little? 90% of all work stinks, as Theodore Sturgeon said, this includes many sequels, but it's hardly specific to sequels.
So, the article was specifically about virus writers as compared to the authors of worms, trojans, backdoors, etc.?
Hardly.
As Slashdot has commented before, the spam industry is probably the main commercial force behind the latest viruses/trojans/worms, not to mention large-scale and sophisticated DDOS attacks on anti-spam vendors.
You are part of the AV industry? And you think you're facing a bunch of teenage script kiddies? God help us all, we're in for real trouble then.
In any case, huge numbers of discarded GSMs are already being sold in Africa at fairly low prices. Here in Belgium most GSM shops let you trade or abandon your old phone when you upgrade, and these phones turn up in the markets in Lagos, Kinshassa, Kigali, Entebbe and so on. In today's world, there is very little that is actually truly "disposable".
Standard operating procedure for our sysadmin, installing Debian:
- install completely disconnected from the network
- get patches from another, secure system
- install patches
- then connect to the Net
But it's true that the standard user seems defeated even before he starts. There is simply no way that new PC is not going to be infected within an hour or two.
This problem seems so severe that I think it will be the death of Microsoft. No amount of money in the bank will save a business that people stop buying from. Remember IBM at the start of the 1980's? They controlled IT, and it took only about 5 years and the rise of Compaq and Microsoft before they were humbled.
Microsoft's easiest way out is simply to move to a Linux platform. I guess this is what will happen, sooner or later.
Yes, it will most probably be IBM, and most probably be a gentle affair based on a growing partnership and sense of common purpose.
IT has come to its middle-age crisis point where some parties have more to lose than to win through further change. It's a defining moment when a young revolutionary becomes a reactionary dictator, but we're here.
On the side of stability, we have Microsoft, Intel, and HPaq. On the side of change, we have IBM, Nocel/Suse and the unwashed foss hordes. And in the middle, watching, we have Sun and a host of other players who still make too much money off Microsoft to abandon ship, but who can see the tidal wave coming.
The outcome is inevitable and I have gained many "troll" points by boring the patient Slashdot readership with my view of it: change is inevitable, driven by ever-cheaper technology both hard and soft, and those who try to resist change will simply be drowned by it.
In this case, it will be Microsoft that either embraces change (meaning specifically Linux and all it represents) or dies fighting it.
Yes, businesses pay more taxes in California: obviously the money that is lost from some of the lowest property and sales taxes in the US has to come from somewhere.
My point is that the Californian citizenry has voted itself low taxes on the obvious things - property, purchases, and ignored the consequences of this: higher taxes on the most unstable sources, namely commerce which can easily move to other places that are gentler.
Sadly, the evidence points the other way. In every geographic area where government breaks down, violence rises. The opposite also happens: when government becomes more structured, vendettas become less frequent.
People are often naturally civil, yes, but the logic of competition leads to nasty behaviour. The hand of a superior power that punishes all wrongdoers according to predefined rules is one of the main reasons modern societies are generally much more peaceful than traditional societies.
But this is a highly controversial subject, many people prefer the myth of the 'noble savage', despite all the evidence.
Like it or not, taxation is the basis for a stable society. No tax, no government. No government, no authority. No authority, breakdown of civil society.
Although citizens naturally prefer low-tax regimes, sometimes it's just silly: look at California's budget to see what "low tax at any price" does.
The internet is so significant, and carries so much trade, that taxation is inevitable and so long as it's sensible and not punitive, why not?
Part of an email from a friend who is on a small boat somewhere in PNG:
Among other adventures, the boat was broken into while I was alone on board. Not much stolen, but my MP3 collection was immersed in sea water before being recovered and I was most disappointed to find that many of the CDs didn't like the experience. It looks like water got in between the layers of laminate and dissolved the ink. TDK CDs were the worst.
Wow, Plone has that much buzzword compliance? Must try it right away. Can't wait to test the PLIP process on my 24-character mobile phone display!! 5w337!
Clearly even 10c profit per download is good business, and Jobs probably does not want the market filled with dozens of competitors. This is his way of trying to avoid a dot-music bubble. Won't work though, because the iTunes figures are just so much better than anyone expected.
Slashdot Mirror
Purifying water (one of the lauded inventions) is a cool thing, very relevant to billions around the world, but doing it by distillation is just a joke.
There is a much simpler and just as effective way to purify water in tropical or desert countries: place it in a transparent plastic bottle in the sun for a day. The water heats to 80 degrees and after a few hours is totally sterilised. The mud and gunk settle to the bottom, and what's left is clean and drinkable.
I spent a few days on this once, trying to improve the process of separating the gunk from the water: the principle was to extract the gunk from the bottle which could then be closed and carried some distance. My design requires a straw and a bit of clay. But even that's not worth doing: to solve the problem of drinkable water in most of Africa, all one would need is to ship a billion or so used PET bottles.
Sigh. People like complex solutions to simple problems.
Hey, I do this at least once a month and the watch survives, believe me! I even think my MP3s sound better when the USB port has been washed a little.
Actually, and seriously the watch is 'water resistant', and because the USB port is basically dead if it's not connected, I suspect that it can get wet and not care so long as it's dried before use.
It's just somewhat easier than carrying a USB flash drive around with you, and sitting on one's wrist it's probably safer than hanging off a keychain or rattling around in a pocket.
Bluetooth would be sweet too... but I suspect it would have bad battery issues, which the USB watch does not.
Prior art is not enough, you need commercial interests that are large and strong enough to fight the battle.
I had prior art on my ex-wife but she still took half my fortune and the two schnauzers. So what?
And O'Reilly lost some credibility for going along with it. He should have called "shenanigans" and admitted that the patent circus is just a game designed to make life hard for the small entrepreneur.
This counts as an "invention"?
Look, the absolutely coolest invention of 2003 is the USB wristwatch. My watch holds all the essential stuff I used to keep on a diskette. Nothing helps bonding like showing people that your watch can store porn. Or a PowerPoint presentation. Or your latest baby photos. Whatever they need: my watch has it.
But iTunes? I can't carry it on my wrist.
I'm surprised no-one has thought through the logical conclusions of where we're going with spam.
... since there is nothing serious happening against any of these directions, the conclusion seems unavoidable. What I'd like to say is that
Spam filters work only for those able to configure them. For the vast majority of Internet users, they are just a dream.
Spam blacklists are unsustainable in a world where most net connections come across DHCP, and most spam is/will be sent from owned home computers.
Spam merchants will continue to harness the 'dark side of the force', paying crackes and virus writers to create the networks of owned machines they need to operate from...
the Net will split into two halves, an "infected" and a "clean" part, and every single transaction from the infected part will be treated with scrutiny and suspicion.
But this is impossible too.
Conclusion: the purity of the net is a thing of the past. We will come to understand that traffic is bad until demonstrated good. Emails will be 99.999% junk, virus, and trojan, and the art will come not from filtering out this junk but from detecting the signal within the noise.
Clearly, whitelists are part of the solution but they are limited since you can't form a network of whitelists, it's a one-to-one solution that does not scale.
I see only one solution that is scalable. Data clearing houses. You register with me, I'll vouch for all your data, and pass it on to those who need it, along with my signature. A trust network, if you like.
Data clearing houses will rate each other, creating a system of moderation in which data is never guaranteed good, but at least you get a measurable index of confidence.
Oh, no, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure II was just awesome, dude!
And you cannot be serious about Robocop 2, it had one of the highest body counts ever.
Oops, forgot one more: Tomb Raider II - actually better than the original.
Sigh, OK, I admit it, most sequels stink.
This is totally off topic and I hope it gets modded as a troll or -1 Ignorant.
But... the Noos web site really pissed me off. The fronsay is no big deal, je le parle comme tout le monde. But what is the deal with the animated text, the little blinking lights saying 'clickez ici, you big dumb user you', the text highlighting gizmo, and that terrible, terrible logo that looks like a genetically-modified O with extra ears.
I mean... an ISP like that and you expect service? What the fuck?
OK, I had to say it. I'm feeling calmer now. You can mod me down, thanks.
Oh yeah, Terminator 2 was also just as good as Terminator 1.
I'm so glad that you educated me about the proper name for all the Alien movies. I actually watched them all, and even if I don't know shit about who directed them or even their proper names, at least my opinions are based on something more than the ability to spell "attribute".
T'es con.
You saw "La Verite Si Je Mens 2"? I'm impressed. It's a pity you found it a stinker.
And "Aliens"... a stinker? I don't remember ever seeing a better composed piece of horror-sci-fi.
Well, I don't give a flying fuck what the critics say, and I often find that the movies I like most of all are box office flops.
Hey, you're right, but just apply Sturgeon's Law: "90% of everything is crap". The chance of a good original is 10%. The chance of a good original plus good sequel is just 1%.
Highlander 2 was a traumatic experience, I'll grant you that. I didn't give Speed 2 a chance, the first one was already a diaper load.
Doing a little more research through my own video library, I found some more sequels that were as good as or better than the original:
- Robocop 2
- Gremlins 2
- Ghostbusters 2
- 24 Hours more
- La Verite Si Je Mens 2
- Legally Blonde 2*
- The Gods are Crazy 2
(*) The film was just as flimsy and fun as the first one. But - and this is no joke - the cinema was filled with blonde girls. Some kind of cult movie for blondies.
Aliens 2 and 3 were superb.
... I mean, before making such generalizations, why not just think a little? 90% of all work stinks, as Theodore Sturgeon said, this includes many sequels, but it's hardly specific to sequels.
I think the original Star Wars trilogy was all equally well made.
Toy Story 2 was better than the original.
The James Bond movies went up and down in quality but generally delivered exactly the right kick each time.
Mad Max 2 was simply amazing.
The Godfather...
So, the article was specifically about virus writers as compared to the authors of worms, trojans, backdoors, etc.?
Hardly.
As Slashdot has commented before, the spam industry is probably the main commercial force behind the latest viruses/trojans/worms, not to mention large-scale and sophisticated DDOS attacks on anti-spam vendors.
You are part of the AV industry? And you think you're facing a bunch of teenage script kiddies? God help us all, we're in for real trouble then.
In any case, huge numbers of discarded GSMs are already being sold in Africa at fairly low prices. Here in Belgium most GSM shops let you trade or abandon your old phone when you upgrade, and these phones turn up in the markets in Lagos, Kinshassa, Kigali, Entebbe and so on.
In today's world, there is very little that is actually truly "disposable".
Standard operating procedure for our sysadmin, installing Debian:
- install completely disconnected from the network
- get patches from another, secure system
- install patches
- then connect to the Net
But it's true that the standard user seems defeated even before he starts. There is simply no way that new PC is not going to be infected within an hour or two.
This problem seems so severe that I think it will be the death of Microsoft. No amount of money in the bank will save a business that people stop buying from. Remember IBM at the start of the 1980's? They controlled IT, and it took only about 5 years and the rise of Compaq and Microsoft before they were humbled.
Microsoft's easiest way out is simply to move to a Linux platform. I guess this is what will happen, sooner or later.
Yes, it will most probably be IBM, and most probably be a gentle affair based on a growing partnership and sense of common purpose.
IT has come to its middle-age crisis point where some parties have more to lose than to win through further change. It's a defining moment when a young revolutionary becomes a reactionary dictator, but we're here.
On the side of stability, we have Microsoft, Intel, and HPaq. On the side of change, we have IBM, Nocel/Suse and the unwashed foss hordes. And in the middle, watching, we have Sun and a host of other players who still make too much money off Microsoft to abandon ship, but who can see the tidal wave coming.
The outcome is inevitable and I have gained many "troll" points by boring the patient Slashdot readership with my view of it: change is inevitable, driven by ever-cheaper technology both hard and soft, and those who try to resist change will simply be drowned by it.
In this case, it will be Microsoft that either embraces change (meaning specifically Linux and all it represents) or dies fighting it.
It is a defining moment in modern history. Enjoy!
Because it's good business, when you're being paid by spammers to create huge networks of compliant computers.
The kids who learnt how to do this 5-10 years ago are now living off it. For the really good virus writers, it's become a career.
Daniel Lyons - what is he getting out of this?
Although, Hollywood should know all about hacks being paid to write propaganda.
Darly Mcbird, playfully challenging an anonymous coward to fistucuffs?
Bwahahahaha.
Is just a mess.
Look at Albania, Africa,... an armed citizenry is an accident waiting to happen.
LOL, Heinlein had some interesting POVs but did not look closely around at his own planet.
Yes, businesses pay more taxes in California: obviously the money that is lost from some of the lowest property and sales taxes in the US has to come from somewhere.
My point is that the Californian citizenry has voted itself low taxes on the obvious things - property, purchases, and ignored the consequences of this: higher taxes on the most unstable sources, namely commerce which can easily move to other places that are gentler.
Sadly, the evidence points the other way. In every geographic area where government breaks down, violence rises. The opposite also happens: when government becomes more structured, vendettas become less frequent.
People are often naturally civil, yes, but the logic of competition leads to nasty behaviour. The hand of a superior power that punishes all wrongdoers according to predefined rules is one of the main reasons modern societies are generally much more peaceful than traditional societies.
But this is a highly controversial subject, many people prefer the myth of the 'noble savage', despite all the evidence.
Like it or not, taxation is the basis for a stable society. No tax, no government. No government, no authority. No authority, breakdown of civil society.
Although citizens naturally prefer low-tax regimes, sometimes it's just silly: look at California's budget to see what "low tax at any price" does.
The internet is so significant, and carries so much trade, that taxation is inevitable and so long as it's sensible and not punitive, why not?
Part of an email from a friend who is on a small boat somewhere in PNG:
Among other adventures, the boat was broken into while I was alone on
board. Not much stolen, but my MP3 collection was immersed in sea water
before being recovered and I was most disappointed to find that many of
the CDs didn't like the experience. It looks like water got in between
the layers of laminate and dissolved the ink. TDK CDs were the worst.
Now you know.
It is Section 508 and W3C WAI compliant...
Wow, Plone has that much buzzword compliance? Must try it right away. Can't wait to test the PLIP process on my 24-character mobile phone display!! 5w337!
Clearly even 10c profit per download is good business, and Jobs probably does not want the market filled with dozens of competitors. This is his way of trying to avoid a dot-music bubble. Won't work though, because the iTunes figures are just so much better than anyone expected.