With Mozilla nearing 1.0 and Konqueror looking more awesome by the second, everyone should expect this type of 'ad warfare' to come to Linux/UNIX soon.
The truth is that I am *amazed* it has taken this long to happen. About 2.5 years ago I was working for a company that implemented this. It would have been a great ad revenue stream. Unfortunately the company was fucked and nothing ever happened.
The only way for companies to combat this is to deploy an 'electronic warfare' counter-attack against gator.
The sites would deploy a plugin which would detect gator modifications an remove them.
Of course this means that gator would detect it's detectors and remove them too.
The result would be an 'ad cold war' which would only leave users as victims.
This is similar to the toner wars from Diamond Age. If you don't abide by the rules expect to get into a fight...
- The version number. Yes. 0.0.1 actually does sound funny but we did not want to mislead anyone. Reptile will probably go through a few more iterations until 0.1.0 and then be released as 1.0. Note that the 0.0.1 version number does *not* reflect the level of progress we have made with Reptile. Reptile can be used *right now* if you want as most of the core features have been taken care of. Give us a month or two until 1.0.
- The oxymoron name of OpenPrivacy. That is *exactly* the point. It is supposed to be an oxymoron. Our privacy protection model only works if you are completely open. More information is available on the website.
- The stupid buzwords in the announcement. OK. We are Open Source so does anyone have another suggestion for an announcement that fits ALL of our technology into one sentence?
I realize that we have a lot of buzzwords in the announcement but I really see know other way of describing Reptile in one sentence.
Well... yes. I am replying to this on my Ricochet right now. My services is actually through WorldCOM so I don't know what is going to happen.
Not many people know this but the Ricochet can actually handle 256k. I have a patched Linux 2.4.5 kernel and run it over USB (serial can't handle > 128k) and I get 240 throughput often.
It would be a REAL shame if this goes away.
All this dotcom stuff is really going to set back technology. The stupid VC have invested in dump companies (Eazel) and inflated the economy and now smart/cool companies have to pay the price (Ricochet).
While I think it is great that Bob Young is interested in ensuring the future of Public Domain. It strikes me that his efforts would have a greater effect if he would just donate money or time to the EFF.
They are already doing a GREAT job and I think a diffusion of effort will just hurt our common goal - intellectual freedom.
Is there something wrong with the EFF that made Bob start centerpd.org?????
Also.. if you haven't already joined the EFF. Please do so! It is your future at stake!
Every time I go to an EFF meeting I give them ALL the money in my pocket. Usually I find an excuse to hit an ATM right before the meeting and accidentally take out a LOT of money...:)
Kevin
Not if we want security/privacy...
on
Smart Routers
·
· Score: 1
Sorry.
Next startup please!!!
So?... how do you expect to do this analyze packets and do smart routing when everything is encrypted? Huh? Thought so.
A lot of people in the cypherpunk community want a 100% encrypted network without the capability of wiretapping.
I think that it could be an interesting idea and I have thought about doing this for the last few years. The second you add encryption you can just throw the idea out the window.
I personally do think that Microsoft is an evil monopoly and deserves any
punishment it receives from the US government in their recent anti-trust case.
However, the really important thing to remember here is that every company that
is complaining about XP, is just a Microsoft wannabe! SUN, AOL, Oracle, Excite,
Yahoo, etc, if given the chance, wants to become Microsoft.
I speak from experience here. I personally have not worked on proprietary
software in years but have worked for companies that make closed software.
Actually a few big companies that you probably have heard about have hired me to
work on OSS within their ranks.
I don't think there is anything ethically wrong with working for a proprietary
company if *you personally* don't do anything wrong. If you are working on Free
Software and not hurting anyone there is nothing wrong here (they would use your
code anyway).
While there I took the initiative (at multiple companies) to push GNU/Linux,
Apache, etc as far as possible. The main problem is that they have no vision
and even if they did, they don't care. It all comes down to:
- They still think Linux is a toy.
- They don't understand community involvement
- If they can't screw the customer they aren't interested.
If they were *really* sick of Microsoft actions they would back GNU/Linux, hire
some Free Software developers to work on some projects and start shipping
appliances running GNU/Linux.
I think that AOL/Excite/Yahoo would be *very* smart to ship an appliance style
WebTV/Tivo style box that has all the functionality of the alternatives and then
deprecated the Windows code.
This would *really* screw Microsoft and all they are really charging for is the
service anyway.
However this isn't the point. What all these companies are really trying to do
is build up a monopoly and you can't do that with GNU/Linux and a services
model.
Good riddance to yet another bad business model!
on
Eazel Come, Eazel Go?
·
· Score: 4
I can't say I will ever miss Eazel. They had a terrible business model, and a terrible product,
VC: Let me get this straight. You want to build a company that makes a "really awesome" desktop.
Eazel: Yes. It will be awesome!
VC: How will you make money?
Eazel: We will integrate out technology and sell our backend services.
VC: So what makes you different than all the other companies that sell backend services?
Eazel: We will use the very hyped Open Source model and run on top of Linux. BTW. The founders are "geniuses" that wrote the original Apple UI.
VC: Wow... here is 11 million!
.... 1 year later and 11 million down the drain they only come up with bloated, and buggy file manager. What a waste of money. I could have done this myself for only $5 million:)
If I remember correctly KDE was developed with $0 and Konqueror is much nicer and faster than Nautilus.
Eazel was founded on Hype. OSS hype, Linux hype, services hype, and the hype that it's founders were geniuses. (obviously they are not)
The Internet hype that has been going on needs to die if we are going to move forward. As Internet professionals we need to prove that what we are creating is real! We need to prove that we aren't getting VC money based on hype but on a real idea which is economically responsible.
I think this is another nail in GNOME's coffin. When Qt was proprietary I was gung ho for GNOME to succeed. Now that Qt is Free Software and GNOME is technically inferior to KDE, the GNOME developers should start to move over to KDE.
Obviously this should be a responsible step by step sequence which keeps the GNOME code base but starts to migrate it into KDE. If not GNOME will just die because KDE has a superior code base and is moving much faster IMO.
I can't imagine that Nautilus will have the same level of support that it had when Eazel was a company with funding. I would imagine that only a percentage of the developers will continue working on Nautilus. This gives the GNOME
project the burden of supporting a thick code base (Nautilus).
KDE/Konqueror does not have this problem. I really see that this will allow them to leap-frog over GNOME by one generation.
What the article doesn't point out is that the new batteries are an adaptation of modern Japanese internal combustion engine design. The new batteries are a hybrid approach and have an internal gassoline generator which kicks in to drive the charge the batteries when the laptop is unusually busy.
The batteries are expected to sell very well in California due to the recent power crisis.
... at least that is what John C. Dvorak's sources have pointed out:)
I am in the process of working on a way to short circuit privacy policies on the Internet so it is the user is who is in control and not large companies like Microsoft. The DMCA and other US regulation now gives systems like Hailstorm rights to keep your information as a corporate asset. This would basically make systems like Hailstorm a wholesale violation of both the users rights on their *own* data and their privacy.
I have come up with a system so that the user who originates the request can maintain copyright on his data and so that the receiving site has a chance to either opt-out or accept and abide by the agreement. (of course all this will be Open Source).
Basically it works with the HTTP protocol and should support any server/browser combination. Right now I have hacked Mozilla 0.8.1 to support this.
The mechanism is *very* simple. Basically it add one more HTTP header *prior* to the request being transferred. A valid request would look like:
GET http://hailstorm.microsoft.com/ HTTP/1.0
User-Agent: GNU/Linux and Mozilla
User-License: All your base are belong to us!
The goal here is that the single click licenses that Amazon/Microsoft and every other site can also be used by users:
"By responding to this HTTP request, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Notice. You will not give my information out to other users and you understand that I maintain copyright" (this would have to be encoded so that it is an HTTP param)
Of course the above is not Lawyer talk but I am hoping that we can get some official licenses together. If anyone knows any lawyers who are interested in contributing please give them my e-mail (burton@openprivacy.org).
The goal is that users would standardize on icenses, if sites ever violated the user policy then they would file a class action suit.
I have the code local if anyone wants a copy. It is really raw right now but I am trying to add a control panel in Mozilla so that users can nable/disable it and also set their license.
SGI will not win this lawsuit. Just offer to give the guy like $10000 for the domain. You will save a HUGE amount on lawyer costs and the domain owner (college student) will be happy.
I don't think that BeOS has enough momentum to justiy itself as a single entity. It is very hard to take a closed source base and open it. Witness the difficulty in Mozilla, Tomcat, etc. Not enough outside people are familiar with the source code and it has a strong chance that it will be full of holes and bloated (at least to some degree) even if the code base is rather excellent it still won't be at the same quality level to which we are accustomed.
... lets hope that it is GPL and Free Software so that we can at least integrate its technology into other areas (Linux, KDE). I think this would make much more sense. Take apart it's kernel and put relevant (and solid/stable) pieces into Linux. Add the GUI stuff to GNOME/KDE.
... you are bringing up a problem which already has a solution. You just deal with it. You will NEVER get 100% efficiency. Witness "software piracy".
A good Zen koan "The best way to control you flock is to let them roam free."
Your community will not donate at 100% but this is fine. The Free Software community has done JUST FINE withouth 100% code contributions, not everything is synchronous.
I think this is a great idea. This is based on tipping or micropayments and even has a strong historical precedent. The FSF received money selling GNU software on media. This supported Stallman for a long time.
I think that their implementation has some flaws though. It should not REQUIRED. This should be optional (what if I have already paid during a previous download). The amount of $ for a donation should also be optional.
If you really think about it... it IS the Internet and your download mechanism is very easy to circumvent. They are called mirrors.:)
For starters. Don't buy from Apple. They have very questionable business practices. Think different indeed. Don't give them any more $. I don't want to be sued.
That said. MacOSX is NOT Free Software. It does not matter. We still have a lot of work to do. It is also not Open Source. In this regard the most important thing is the community.
Why is KDE doing better than GNOME? Community. They have done a good job of not being corrupted as GNOME did with their Eazel/Helix cooperation.
I don't know why people are still focusing on PGP. This is a proprietary product. This article is tainted with the proprietary software industry.
I think it is great that OpenPGP exists so that Gnu Privacy Guard can exist without any patent violations. That said there is no reason for any other PGP implementation to exist. Without source code a crypto impl is not worth the paper it is printed on (considering it isn't printed... this isn't much). Even if Phill Z. himself went over the code for 7.x, NAI can still add a back door right before they ship and Phill will never know. The only crypto you should EVER trust is crypto which you compile yourself and has been audited and signed by experts.
I think the issue is that of money. Zimmerman wants to get paid to work on PGP but only the closed source people are currently willing to do that. Crypto and privacy people have always had revenue stream problems. Most people don't care about their privacy so they don't buy PGP. Crypto is a loosing leader for other markets and I think we should apply our focus there.
While I think it is great that is GNOME moving forward, are anti-aliased fonts that great?
I have been running Nautilus PR3 and they just don't do it for me. I would rather have the current font setup.
I think this is just a case of "we dont' have it so if must be really cool" or "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence". Microsoft has had aa-fonts for a long time and only uses them in about 20% of the time.
Slashdot Mirror
"32-digit number capacity, illuminated holographic display, multiple language choices"
What the heck is an 'illuminated holographic display'??? I am scared!
With Mozilla nearing 1.0 and Konqueror looking more awesome by the second, everyone should expect this type of 'ad warfare' to come to Linux/UNIX soon.
The truth is that I am *amazed* it has taken this long to happen. About 2.5 years ago I was working for a company that implemented this. It would have been a great ad revenue stream. Unfortunately the company was fucked and nothing ever happened.
The only way for companies to combat this is to deploy an 'electronic warfare' counter-attack against gator.
The sites would deploy a plugin which would detect gator modifications an remove them.
Of course this means that gator would detect it's detectors and remove them too.
The result would be an 'ad cold war' which would only leave users as victims.
This is similar to the toner wars from Diamond Age. If you don't abide by the rules expect to get into a fight...
Kevin
We didn't find a conflicting name when we started the project. We may have to think about changing the name.
Of course my opinion is that no matter HOW hard you try you conflict with a copyright SOMEWHERE!
Kevin (burton@openprivacy.org)
OK... maybe *you* should try to come up with a sentence which contains all of our technology in one sentence which can be absorbed by Slashdot! :)
Kevin (burton@openprivacy.org)
Mod this up... I am the author.
There are a number of issues here.
- The version number. Yes. 0.0.1 actually does sound funny but we did not want to mislead anyone. Reptile will probably go through a few more iterations until 0.1.0 and then be released as 1.0. Note that the 0.0.1 version number does *not* reflect the level of progress we have made with Reptile. Reptile can be used *right now* if you want as most of the core features have been taken care of. Give us a month or two until 1.0.
- The oxymoron name of OpenPrivacy. That is *exactly* the point. It is supposed to be an oxymoron. Our privacy protection model only works if you are completely open. More information is available on the website.
- The stupid buzwords in the announcement. OK. We are Open Source so does anyone have another suggestion for an announcement that fits ALL of our technology into one sentence?
I realize that we have a lot of buzzwords in the announcement but I really see know other way of describing Reptile in one sentence.
Kevin (burton@openprivacy.org)
Well... yes. I am replying to this on my Ricochet right now. My services is actually through WorldCOM so I don't know what is going to happen.
Not many people know this but the Ricochet can actually handle 256k. I have a patched Linux 2.4.5 kernel and run it over USB (serial can't handle > 128k) and I get 240 throughput often.
It would be a REAL shame if this goes away.
All this dotcom stuff is really going to set back technology. The stupid VC have invested in dump companies (Eazel) and inflated the economy and now smart/cool companies have to pay the price (Ricochet).
ug.
While I think it is great that Bob Young is interested in ensuring the future of Public Domain. It strikes me that his efforts would have a greater effect if he would just donate money or time to the EFF.
:)
They are already doing a GREAT job and I think a diffusion of effort will just hurt our common goal - intellectual freedom.
Is there something wrong with the EFF that made Bob start centerpd.org?????
Also.. if you haven't already joined the EFF. Please do so! It is your future at stake!
Every time I go to an EFF meeting I give them ALL the money in my pocket. Usually I find an excuse to hit an ATM right before the meeting and accidentally take out a LOT of money...
Kevin
Sorry.
Next startup please!!!
So?... how do you expect to do this analyze packets and do smart routing when everything is encrypted? Huh? Thought so.
A lot of people in the cypherpunk community want a 100% encrypted network without the capability of wiretapping.
I think that it could be an interesting idea and I have thought about doing this for the last few years. The second you add encryption you can just throw the idea out the window.
Kevin
Just saw this site (powered by CollabNet)
http://www.ostdev.net
This is the main site for Nokia's new machine. Very interesting indeed!
- mod this up please -
I personally do think that Microsoft is an evil monopoly and deserves any
punishment it receives from the US government in their recent anti-trust case.
However, the really important thing to remember here is that every company that
is complaining about XP, is just a Microsoft wannabe! SUN, AOL, Oracle, Excite,
Yahoo, etc, if given the chance, wants to become Microsoft.
I speak from experience here. I personally have not worked on proprietary
software in years but have worked for companies that make closed software.
Actually a few big companies that you probably have heard about have hired me to
work on OSS within their ranks.
I don't think there is anything ethically wrong with working for a proprietary
company if *you personally* don't do anything wrong. If you are working on Free
Software and not hurting anyone there is nothing wrong here (they would use your
code anyway).
While there I took the initiative (at multiple companies) to push GNU/Linux,
Apache, etc as far as possible. The main problem is that they have no vision
and even if they did, they don't care. It all comes down to:
- They still think Linux is a toy.
- They don't understand community involvement
- If they can't screw the customer they aren't interested.
If they were *really* sick of Microsoft actions they would back GNU/Linux, hire
some Free Software developers to work on some projects and start shipping
appliances running GNU/Linux.
I think that AOL/Excite/Yahoo would be *very* smart to ship an appliance style
WebTV/Tivo style box that has all the functionality of the alternatives and then
deprecated the Windows code.
This would *really* screw Microsoft and all they are really charging for is the
service anyway.
However this isn't the point. What all these companies are really trying to do
is build up a monopoly and you can't do that with GNU/Linux and a services
model.
I can't say I will ever miss Eazel. They had a terrible business model, and a terrible product,
VC: Let me get this straight. You want to build a company that makes a "really awesome" desktop.
Eazel: Yes. It will be awesome!
VC: How will you make money?
Eazel: We will integrate out technology and sell our backend services.
VC: So what makes you different than all the other companies that sell backend services?
Eazel: We will use the very hyped Open Source model and run on top of Linux. BTW. The founders are "geniuses" that wrote the original Apple UI.
VC: Wow... here is 11 million!
.... 1 year later and 11 million down the drain they only come up with bloated, and buggy file manager. What a waste of money. I could have done this myself for only $5 million
If I remember correctly KDE was developed with $0 and Konqueror is much nicer and faster than Nautilus.
Eazel was founded on Hype. OSS hype, Linux hype, services hype, and the hype that it's founders were geniuses. (obviously they are not)
The Internet hype that has been going on needs to die if we are going to move forward. As Internet professionals we need to prove that what we are creating is real! We need to prove that we aren't getting VC money based on hype but on a real idea which is economically responsible.
I think this is another nail in GNOME's coffin. When Qt was proprietary I was gung ho for GNOME to succeed. Now that Qt is Free Software and GNOME is technically inferior to KDE, the GNOME developers should start to move over to KDE.
Obviously this should be a responsible step by step sequence which keeps the GNOME code base but starts to migrate it into KDE. If not GNOME will just die because KDE has a superior code base and is moving much faster IMO.
I can't imagine that Nautilus will have the same level of support that it had when Eazel was a company with funding. I would imagine that only a percentage of the developers will continue working on Nautilus. This gives the GNOME
project the burden of supporting a thick code base (Nautilus).
KDE/Konqueror does not have this problem. I really see that this will allow them to leap-frog over GNOME by one generation.
Kevin
This just in. Microsoft doesn't like one if its competitors. It says that all the work they do is a threat to it's ability to innovate. More at 11:00.
What the article doesn't point out is that the new batteries are an adaptation of modern Japanese internal combustion engine design. The new batteries are a hybrid approach and have an internal gassoline generator which kicks in to drive the charge the batteries when the laptop is unusually busy.
:)
The batteries are expected to sell very well in California due to the recent power crisis.
... at least that is what John C. Dvorak's sources have pointed out
I already have a Java proxy that does this. I think the Mozilla addition will make a bigger difference though.
... all of this is easy to implement. It is just a matter of doing it.
I am in the process of working on a way to short circuit privacy policies on the Internet so it is the user is who is in control and not large companies like Microsoft. The DMCA and other US regulation now gives systems like Hailstorm rights to keep your information as a corporate asset. This would basically make systems like Hailstorm a wholesale violation of both the users rights on their *own* data and their privacy.
I have come up with a system so that the user who originates the request can maintain copyright on his data and so that the receiving site has a chance to either opt-out or accept and abide by the agreement. (of course all this will be Open Source).
Basically it works with the HTTP protocol and should support any server/browser combination. Right now I have hacked Mozilla 0.8.1 to support this.
The mechanism is *very* simple. Basically it add one more HTTP header *prior* to the request being transferred. A valid request would look like:
GET http://hailstorm.microsoft.com/ HTTP/1.0
User-Agent: GNU/Linux and Mozilla
User-License: All your base are belong to us!
The goal here is that the single click licenses that Amazon/Microsoft and every other site can also be used by users:
"By responding to this HTTP request, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Notice. You will not give my information out to other users and you understand that I maintain copyright" (this would have to be encoded so that it is an HTTP param)
Of course the above is not Lawyer talk but I am hoping that we can get some official licenses together. If anyone knows any lawyers who are interested in contributing please give them my e-mail (burton@openprivacy.org).
The goal is that users would standardize on icenses, if sites ever violated the user policy then they would file a class action suit.
I have the code local if anyone wants a copy. It is really raw right now but I am trying to add a control panel in Mozilla so that users can nable/disable it and also set their license.
Kevin
I don't know if this means anything.
Collab.net still might be doing well. They were an ApacheCon sponsor so that at least takes some $.
However there were no collab.net employees (a lot are Apache developers) anywhere to be found. At least I didn't see any.
OK.
SGI will not win this lawsuit. Just offer to give the guy like $10000 for the domain. You will save a HUGE amount on lawyer costs and the domain owner (college student) will be happy.
Next problem.
I don't think that BeOS has enough momentum to justiy itself as a single entity. It is very hard to take a closed source base and open it. Witness the difficulty in Mozilla, Tomcat, etc. Not enough outside people are familiar with the source code and it has a strong chance that it will be full of holes and bloated (at least to some degree) even if the code base is rather excellent it still won't be at the same quality level to which we are accustomed.
... lets hope that it is GPL and Free Software so that we can at least integrate its technology into other areas (Linux, KDE). I think this would make much more sense. Take apart it's kernel and put relevant (and solid/stable) pieces into Linux. Add the GUI stuff to GNOME/KDE.
Gasp!
Another amazing - change the world - technology was posted to Slashdot! OK. Time to hold my breath.
... you are bringing up a problem which already has a solution. You just deal with it. You will NEVER get 100% efficiency. Witness "software piracy".
A good Zen koan "The best way to control you flock is to let them roam free."
Your community will not donate at 100% but this is fine. The Free Software community has done JUST FINE withouth 100% code contributions, not everything is synchronous.
Kevin
I think this is a great idea. This is based on tipping or micropayments and even has a strong historical precedent. The FSF received money selling GNU software on media. This supported Stallman for a long time.
:)
I think that their implementation has some flaws though. It should not REQUIRED. This should be optional (what if I have already paid during a previous download). The amount of $ for a donation should also be optional.
If you really think about it... it IS the Internet and your download mechanism is very easy to circumvent. They are called mirrors.
Kevin
Don't forget bawug.org (Bay Area Wireless Users Group).
BTW. My NAP is fully open. Anyone on my block can use it if they want. If you live in the Inner Sunset SF drop me a line!
For starters. Don't buy from Apple. They have very questionable business practices. Think different indeed. Don't give them any more $. I don't want to be sued.
That said. MacOSX is NOT Free Software. It does not matter. We still have a lot of work to do. It is also not Open Source. In this regard the most important thing is the community.
Why is KDE doing better than GNOME? Community. They have done a good job of not being corrupted as GNOME did with their Eazel/Helix cooperation.
I don't know why people are still focusing on PGP. This is a proprietary product. This article is tainted with the proprietary software industry.
I think it is great that OpenPGP exists so that Gnu Privacy Guard can exist without any patent violations. That said there is no reason for any other PGP implementation to exist. Without source code a crypto impl is not worth the paper it is printed on (considering it isn't printed... this isn't much). Even if Phill Z. himself went over the code for 7.x, NAI can still add a back door right before they ship and Phill will never know. The only crypto you should EVER trust is crypto which you compile yourself and has been audited and signed by experts.
I think the issue is that of money. Zimmerman wants to get paid to work on PGP but only the closed source people are currently willing to do that. Crypto and privacy people have always had revenue stream problems. Most people don't care about their privacy so they don't buy PGP. Crypto is a loosing leader for other markets and I think we should apply our focus there.
Kevin
While I think it is great that is GNOME moving forward, are anti-aliased fonts that great?
:(
I have been running Nautilus PR3 and they just don't do it for me. I would rather have the current font setup.
I think this is just a case of "we dont' have it so if must be really cool" or "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence". Microsoft has had aa-fonts for a long time and only uses them in about 20% of the time.
Slashdot with aa-fonts didn't look too hot
Kevin