"promises to address problems which have plagued other similar applications both legally and structurally."
The article cites Gnutella's centralized load problem. How will this differ on IRC? Aren't you just adding massive load to whatever network you utilize, be it Dalnet, Efnet or what have you?
The article also cites Napster's legal problems. How is utilizing IRC going to change this? People once thought Napster was untouchable, too. You'll just move the battle to IRC and the people who run IRC servers. Passing the problem on to someone else doesn't help. ---
seumas.com
Hm. I still have no idea what I want for Christmas
on
Gifts For Geeks
·
· Score: 1
Some of the things in that list sound interesting, but the majority would either grow tiring after a short period, have no functional use to start with, or I would be completely embarassed to ask someone to indulge in purchasing for me in the first place.
Then again, I'm one of those people who likes buying gifts for the holidays, but is embarassed when receiving them and will go out of his way to avoid receiving them.
And no, I don't think being agnostic has anything to do with being uninterested in gift-getting. I guess I just do not feel comfortable allowing other people to spend their hard-earned money on me just to convey a sense of warmth and friendship. ---
seumas.com
Sweet, it'll be able to excersize Intel errors five to ten times faster then today! (Unless anyone really thinks Intel will clean up its act in the next few years and display a little more quality control). ---
seumas.com
The important question is what are the odds of it hitting someone in a region where people are likely to sue (obviously if it hits some tribe in the middle of the Congo - chances are less than if it dropped on someone in Australia, the UK or North America).
Of course, if Iridium is technically owned/financed by the US government at this time (see the earlier Slashdot story this week) then I'm sure they'll just kill you or your family before you can make a public scene. ---
seumas.com
After reading the page on their site, I'm convinced this is a great endeavor. Unfortunately, I don't believe it will succeed. Obviously this protocol will only serve to mask those with something to hide such as child molestors, crackers and federal building bombers.
"For the sake of our children", use of this will probably be outlawed-- or it will in some way be crippled by legislation so that government and law enforcement will still be able to defeat the anonymity -- defeating the main goal of anonymity in the first place. ---
seumas.com
I've never seen a useful or user-friendly DMV, State Employment Division or almost any other governemnt owned website. In fact, it seems like most government sites are specifically designed to be as confusing and useless as possible by junior high school students with the specific intent to sink beneath mediocrity. ---
seumas.com
Patent their bugs, so that any other company that distributes software exhibiting behvaior similar to any Microsoft bugs will have to pay a fee.
Microsoft obviously has a massive example of 'prior art' in this arena and with all the past, present and future bugs in their code, they're likely to double their revenue. ---
seumas.com
I completely forgotten about BRE! I was addicted to that game more than any other. And Userpers! That vlew LORD away. And VGAPlanets was awesome (though a lot of sysops could never figure out how to configure it).
If I recall, there were two versions of BRE. One was the futuristic space oriented game and the other was a midieval one.
It's been so long since I've played, I really can't recall all the details -- but someone needs to get BRE up on a local system and work on reproducing it if there isn't an internet version out there.
Of course, the sweetest thing about BRE was that you competed in LEAGUES with OTHER BBS's. ---
seumas.com
Back in the early to mid 90's, I had a pretty popular website in the Portland (Oregon) area which had some of the old standards such as LORD, TW2K, Arena, PIT and a lot of others. Too bad the internet killed it.
Still, it is nice to see some of these games having clones ported to the web. Even if people can't completely regain the atmosphere of a BBS -- they can enjoy the atmosphere of the games that used to occupy so much time (remember when you tried to fit an entire game of TW2K or LORD before your account ran out of alotted time for the day?).
*Sigh*... I hate to wax nostalgic, but I wish I had been born 15 years early. Due to my youth (born in 1977), I really missed so many great things -- or caught them only at the end of their lifespan. ---
seumas.com
It's one thing to censor the material you let your children access or your employees. That is understandable. Using a filter to achieve this is sensible (you're not going to do it all manually!).
The disgusting thing is that these companies inflict their own political and religious agendas on their own customers and nobody is the wiser.
The problem is that these companies say "Hey, we'll regulate ourselves -- no need for government involvement!" But they are not just regulating themselves, they are regulating the public.
At least when I go to see a movie, I know that the R rating isn't unfairly applied because the lead actor is a prolific democrat or republic or even a $cientologist. The only way to force these companies to behave ethically in their generation of lists and filters is to take every oppertunity to confront them in the most public means necessary and possibly to undermind, reverse engineer and defeat each package as quickly as they put them on the market. ---
seumas.com
Re:I have a question...
on
New Crypto-OS
·
· Score: 2
Also, I wanted to mention that one of the things that disturbs me so much about this RIP act, is that I communicate with many people in the UK both personally and professionally and I don't like that communication to come at the cost of my personal privacy, by having my own data logged into Big Brother's records. ---
seumas.com
Re:I have a question...
on
New Crypto-OS
·
· Score: 3
Tell them that a wise man once said that a man who sacrifices his liberty for security deserves to have neither.
If people are really so eager to save children (the battle-cry for EVERY cause in the world), then why don't they ban smoking, driving, sharp objects, divorce, low-paying-jobs, teasing, flammable materials, deep water and everything else that potentially damages children?
The answer? -- it's easier to take away another man's liberty than your own. ---
seumas.com
I can just see whipping out the PDA, whipping out the keyboard, unfolding the keyboard, plugging the PDA into it, and then writing down the phone number of that cute geek-girl you're talking to at a rave -- I'm sure it won't be awkward or cumbersome at all... ---
seumas.com
Actually, I don't expect much change in GUI's in general for the next decade. I see peripherals having a potentially vastly changing face in the next ten years.
Current GUI's are not all that awful. Sure, some of them are confusing -- but there are others that are not. I can't make heads or tails of a Mac interface (then again, I've never really tried) -- but sit me in front of a CDE or Windows or anything else and it's as comfortable as the command line.
Keyboards, mice and their current alternatives, however, suck much ass. Cramps, slow input, wilting eyesight . . . The few alternatives that exist today are just as likely to disappear from shelves tomorrow and even when they work, they are either expensive or difficult to operate. ---
seumas.com
Nah, they won't own any of my apps. I only need a single Windows box for playing games. If they want to lose lots of business due to a stupid zealous need to grasp the user by the scrotum and control every aspect of their computing -- it's just fine with me. ---
seumas.com
Too bad MSNBC's website won't allow me to even reach their website unless I turn my cookies on (you'll bounce between two of their servers indefinitely).
Happens with every MSNBC linked article. ---
seumas.com
What about the anxiety of wasting $72,000,000 tax dollars to satisify the minds of those who have watched a few too many made-for-television 'Asteroid' movies? ---
seumas.com
Actually, I work from home so neither my laptop nor any of my computers are ever out of my site other than the few hours per week that I'm out of the house.
Of course, another cool tool would be something that would generate random crap when your computer is idle so that when the little bug tries to upload data to its home -- all they get is about 80 words and 1,999,980 random keystrokes. ---
seumas.com
There has to be a way to implement some manner of encryption between the keyboard and the OS, in which the keyboard mapping is jumbled and re-constructed via a random mapping once it reaches the OS. I'm no hardware expert but I would think some sort of device could act as an interface which the keyboard plugs into. Add some software to the PC and there you go.
Just a thought. Maybe it's a dumb one. ---
seumas.com
Everyone should be using encryption for as much as they possibly can. When it is realized that 99.999 percent of decrypted information is fluff and noise, it'll be too much of an effort to process every bit of encrypted data. Otherwise, encrypting selectively is just like holding up a giant flag saying "read this!".
Of course, it's more difficult when 99 percent of the people you communicate with do not -- either because of lack of initiative, understanding or capability, use encryption and wouldn't know or care what to do with the encrypted information you send them. ---
seumas.com
We really need a legitimate alternative to the way music and video is purchased and distributed. It really angers me that we have to repeatedly spend money for content that we have already spent money for -- to replace damaged, aged and obsolete media . We do not own the content we pay to listen or view and you cannot get it replaced at a nominal fee if your media goes bad (so does that mean I'm paying for the media and not the content or the conent and not the media? Or am I paying for both even though I am given the rights to neither?).
I have a pretty hefty DVD collection, but when they go bad or become obsolete, they're going to make another few thousand bucks off me for content I've already purchased the right to view? -- Screw that. I'll go without video or music if it comes to this. These double-standard, back-stabbing, money-grubbing assholes make Hitler, Satan and Jerry Falwell look like swell guys. ---
seumas.com
Slashdot Mirror
The article cites Gnutella's centralized load problem. How will this differ on IRC? Aren't you just adding massive load to whatever network you utilize, be it Dalnet, Efnet or what have you?
The article also cites Napster's legal problems. How is utilizing IRC going to change this? People once thought Napster was untouchable, too. You'll just move the battle to IRC and the people who run IRC servers. Passing the problem on to someone else doesn't help.
---
seumas.com
Then again, I'm one of those people who likes buying gifts for the holidays, but is embarassed when receiving them and will go out of his way to avoid receiving them.
And no, I don't think being agnostic has anything to do with being uninterested in gift-getting. I guess I just do not feel comfortable allowing other people to spend their hard-earned money on me just to convey a sense of warmth and friendship.
---
seumas.com
Sweet, it'll be able to excersize Intel errors five to ten times faster then today! (Unless anyone really thinks Intel will clean up its act in the next few years and display a little more quality control).
---
seumas.com
Of course, if Iridium is technically owned/financed by the US government at this time (see the earlier Slashdot story this week) then I'm sure they'll just kill you or your family before you can make a public scene.
---
seumas.com
"For the sake of our children", use of this will probably be outlawed-- or it will in some way be crippled by legislation so that government and law enforcement will still be able to defeat the anonymity -- defeating the main goal of anonymity in the first place.
---
seumas.com
I've never seen a useful or user-friendly DMV, State Employment Division or almost any other governemnt owned website. In fact, it seems like most government sites are specifically designed to be as confusing and useless as possible by junior high school students with the specific intent to sink beneath mediocrity.
---
seumas.com
Microsoft obviously has a massive example of 'prior art' in this arena and with all the past, present and future bugs in their code, they're likely to double their revenue.
---
seumas.com
Gah. Once again, I've underestimated the important of caffeine BEFORE posting to Slashdot in bed. ;)
---
seumas.com
I completely forgotten about BRE! I was addicted to that game more than any other. And Userpers! That vlew LORD away. And VGAPlanets was awesome (though a lot of sysops could never figure out how to configure it).
If I recall, there were two versions of BRE. One was the futuristic space oriented game and the other was a midieval one.
It's been so long since I've played, I really can't recall all the details -- but someone needs to get BRE up on a local system and work on reproducing it if there isn't an internet version out there.
Of course, the sweetest thing about BRE was that you competed in LEAGUES with OTHER BBS's.
---
seumas.com
Still, it is nice to see some of these games having clones ported to the web. Even if people can't completely regain the atmosphere of a BBS -- they can enjoy the atmosphere of the games that used to occupy so much time (remember when you tried to fit an entire game of TW2K or LORD before your account ran out of alotted time for the day?).
*Sigh*... I hate to wax nostalgic, but I wish I had been born 15 years early. Due to my youth (born in 1977), I really missed so many great things -- or caught them only at the end of their lifespan.
---
seumas.com
The disgusting thing is that these companies inflict their own political and religious agendas on their own customers and nobody is the wiser.
The problem is that these companies say "Hey, we'll regulate ourselves -- no need for government involvement!" But they are not just regulating themselves, they are regulating the public.
At least when I go to see a movie, I know that the R rating isn't unfairly applied because the lead actor is a prolific democrat or republic or even a $cientologist. The only way to force these companies to behave ethically in their generation of lists and filters is to take every oppertunity to confront them in the most public means necessary and possibly to undermind, reverse engineer and defeat each package as quickly as they put them on the market.
---
seumas.com
Also, I wanted to mention that one of the things that disturbs me so much about this RIP act, is that I communicate with many people in the UK both personally and professionally and I don't like that communication to come at the cost of my personal privacy, by having my own data logged into Big Brother's records.
---
seumas.com
If people are really so eager to save children (the battle-cry for EVERY cause in the world), then why don't they ban smoking, driving, sharp objects, divorce, low-paying-jobs, teasing, flammable materials, deep water and everything else that potentially damages children?
The answer? -- it's easier to take away another man's liberty than your own.
---
seumas.com
I can just see whipping out the PDA, whipping out the keyboard, unfolding the keyboard, plugging the PDA into it, and then writing down the phone number of that cute geek-girl you're talking to at a rave -- I'm sure it won't be awkward or cumbersome at all...
---
seumas.com
Actually, I use Solaris, being that I work for Sun.
---
seumas.com
Current GUI's are not all that awful. Sure, some of them are confusing -- but there are others that are not. I can't make heads or tails of a Mac interface (then again, I've never really tried) -- but sit me in front of a CDE or Windows or anything else and it's as comfortable as the command line.
Keyboards, mice and their current alternatives, however, suck much ass. Cramps, slow input, wilting eyesight . . . The few alternatives that exist today are just as likely to disappear from shelves tomorrow and even when they work, they are either expensive or difficult to operate.
---
seumas.com
Nah, they won't own any of my apps. I only need a single Windows box for playing games. If they want to lose lots of business due to a stupid zealous need to grasp the user by the scrotum and control every aspect of their computing -- it's just fine with me.
---
seumas.com
Happens with every MSNBC linked article.
---
seumas.com
What about the anxiety of wasting $72,000,000 tax dollars to satisify the minds of those who have watched a few too many made-for-television 'Asteroid' movies?
---
seumas.com
But I've encased the interior of my apartment in lead, and I never leave without putting on my foil suit! ;)
---
seumas.com
Of course, another cool tool would be something that would generate random crap when your computer is idle so that when the little bug tries to upload data to its home -- all they get is about 80 words and 1,999,980 random keystrokes.
---
seumas.com
Just a thought. Maybe it's a dumb one.
---
seumas.com
Of course, it's more difficult when 99 percent of the people you communicate with do not -- either because of lack of initiative, understanding or capability, use encryption and wouldn't know or care what to do with the encrypted information you send them.
---
seumas.com
From my experiences with representatives of major record labels? -- YES, it's VERY accurate! ;)
---
seumas.com
We really need a legitimate alternative to the way music and video is purchased and distributed. It really angers me that we have to repeatedly spend money for content that we have already spent money for -- to replace damaged, aged and obsolete media . We do not own the content we pay to listen or view and you cannot get it replaced at a nominal fee if your media goes bad (so does that mean I'm paying for the media and not the content or the conent and not the media? Or am I paying for both even though I am given the rights to neither?).
I have a pretty hefty DVD collection, but when they go bad or become obsolete, they're going to make another few thousand bucks off me for content I've already purchased the right to view? -- Screw that. I'll go without video or music if it comes to this. These double-standard, back-stabbing, money-grubbing assholes make Hitler, Satan and Jerry Falwell look like swell guys.
---
seumas.com