If they think that ".edu" network admins (who are often students themselves) will enforce stupid RIAA rules, they are, in effect, asking the foxes to guard the henhouse!
Seriously, I remember, at my old university [no names given, for obvious reasons] that the admins used to have close to 50+GB of mp3s archive... =)
This being said, this has also been the case in the past 3 companies I work with... Maybe this is the solution to piracy: ask that kind of admins to take care of the piracy problem... then, turn around and pretend the problem has been solved! Case closed! =)
We are the lawyers representing Amazon.com in its dealings with patent-infringing corporations.
As you are certainly aware, our client holds patent #1,555,986 and 1,555,987, covering multiple participants online discussions.
It has come to our attention that a web site operated by your company (http://www.slashdot.org) is in direct violation of the aforementioned patents.
Consequently, we'd like to request your company to pay to Amazon.com a lump sum for all patent violation, lump sum whose amount cannot be lower than ten million US dollars (US$ 10,000,000). Alternatively, our client requests that the aforementioned web site immediately cease alla activities.
In case of non-compliance within forty eight (48) hours following the reception of this mail, we'll be forced to intervene on our client's behalf.
IMHO, is the line that says: "for the past 25 years, AI specialists have been saying that all AI problems were going to be solved within 10 years" (or something like that).
This strikes me as true: for years and years and years, researchers have been promising AI was just around the corner... And what do we have right now? Nothing!
What is your favourite solution to the Spam problem?
small tactical nuke?
flamethrower?
booby-trapped letters?
slow torture by an oriental master?
cut head of fav' pet in bed?
all relevant personal information posted on a web site such as Slashdot?
All of the above?
Some other, equally horrible punishment?
(Disclaimer:of course, this is said firmly tongue in cheek, I don't approve or condone physical violence against spammers, etc. etc. yadda yadda yadda)... =)
what do you do with the other two Slackware systems?
One of them (Pentium 133) is a gateway/firewall, allowing all system to access the wider Internet. Yes, they are all networked together.
The other (K6-2 550) is a Samba/print/email/internal web server for my local intranet, as well as the station where I burn most of my CDs. It also allows my wife's crufty old laptop to use the shared laser printer.
Both are used to test various bits and pieces when I feel like it. I even toyed with the idea of using the K6-2 as a PKI/MP3 server.
I remember applying for a job at a now defunct company, who was designing specialized silicon for routers.
Said silicon -- based on a SPARC core -- was designed mainly on Sun workstation. But the managers I spoke with were quick to point out that all Sun workstations were going to be replaced by Intel boxes running Linux. Choice quote: "Frankly, Linux is good enough for all our needs, and it offer more tools than Solaris.".
That was way back in 1999 (4 years ago), when Linux was still considered by many as a toy. Now this company is gone, I have switched jobs not just once but twice and gotten married as well (how time flies!). Sun is, IMHO, still losing even more market share to cheap x86+GNU/Linux boxes.
So, yes, I think the article is pretty much on the money -- but Sun can still turn things around... Things move fast in computing.
Let's face it: an Intel Pentium4 or AMD Athlon are more than sufficient for 99% of all needs out there.
If you need more power than what a single CPU has to offer, buy an SMP machine. Or make a Beowulf cluster.
And no, this is not a joke: this is exactly what google has been doing: build a humongous cluster a split eveything between hundreds of machines, right?
Since Linux and the *BSDs have appeared, this means that pretty much every task can be managed by cheap, standardized machines. It's highly possible that, like the Red Herring article said, we'll see big chip makers 'go under' just because the research balloon out of control.
Very interesting articles. Moore's Law may end, not because it's impossible to build a better chip, but because it has become un-economical to build one.
I have a little bit of experience in organizing concerts, and I don't think that kind of thing is possible -- at least, not with an optimal quality.
Recording music is not easy, and recording (good) live music is twice as difficult. You have to contend with all kind of stuff that does not happen in a studio recording (audience noise, larsen possibilities, interferences, etc).
Sometimes, if the band is good and the audience having a good time, a concert can be interrupted for several minutes by applause and shouts -- things that are usually not very interesting to hear on a CD... =)
Most of these things are usually corrected once the concert is over by qualified sound engineers -- a process which can take several weeks, even with high-caliber people using good hardware -- but live music straight to CD? I don't think so.
Of course, I may be wrong, and I'll be interested in any and all rebuttals... =)
One possible solution to protect against smart dust would to create military buildings with a high internal atmospheric pressure: people who enter the building who create a draft directed at the outside, which should be enough to blow away "smart dust".
At least I hope so... If you cross Total Information Awareness and smart dust you have one scary scenario... =(
And even "clean" (high internal pressure) buildings don't help military units in the fields...
The i386-based machines are seriously threatening Sun.
Linux, OpenBSD and other open-source OSs (NetBSD, FreeBSD) have already proven they can replace Solaris in most cases.
Admit it, Sun: your best bet for survival against the Microsoft Juggernaut is not just to pay lip service to Open Source. It is to be truly open. Otherwise, platforms such as the UltraSparc will be abandoned in favor of cheaper and more competitive architectures...
Release these docs, Sun. Prove to the Open Source community, and not just to Linux kernel hackers, that you are serious about supporting alternative Operating Systems.
So that's the biz plan of the RIAA (MPAA may be different):
Get DMCA or equivalent law passed. Sue the pants of everyone who tries to break down your protection scheme.
Insist on DRM for everybody. Having the ear of Microsoft helps (Think Palladium here, folks).
Pollute P2P networks with fake files. Sue the hell of them if you can.
Announce on-line sales of popular music, using advanced DRM architecture protected by the DMCA.
Spend an obscene amount of $$$ retaining the best lawyers and screw the "absurd" notion of public domain.
Survive the inevitable consumer backlash.
???
Profit!!
There is only a couple of problems with this plan: (a) selling... er... forcing sh!t down the throat of the average consumer, like Britney Spears, does not bring a lot of $$$ and (b) file-based protection will never work, unless (c) you also force people to use stuff like Palladium -- but that opens up another can of worms for both the RIAA and its allies.
Prognosis? Will work for 6 months top. Past these point, somebody will figure out a way to crack the system. He/She'll get his ass burned badly by the RIAA lawyers, but that will be the end of it.
Either that, or some enterprising company from Korea or Taiwan will figure out that there is a lot of $$$$ to be made selling non-Palladium compliant hardware to people who want it. Game Over.
A few years ago, JWZ used to say that using Linux was OK "as long as your time was worthless"... It's on his web site, you can actually look for it and it's probably there.
So he has made progress! Now he even admits to using Linux! =)
Slashdot Mirror
Wait a minute...
If they think that ".edu" network admins (who are often students themselves) will enforce stupid RIAA rules, they are, in effect, asking the foxes to guard the henhouse!
Seriously, I remember, at my old university [no names given, for obvious reasons] that the admins used to have close to 50+GB of mp3s archive... =)
This being said, this has also been the case in the past 3 companies I work with... Maybe this is the solution to piracy: ask that kind of admins to take care of the piracy problem... then, turn around and pretend the problem has been solved! Case closed! =)
IMHO, is the line that says: "for the past 25 years, AI specialists have been saying that all AI problems were going to be solved within 10 years" (or something like that).
This strikes me as true: for years and years and years, researchers have been promising AI was just around the corner... And what do we have right now? Nothing!
I want a Turing-class AI or my money back!! =)
(Disclaimer:of course, this is said firmly tongue in cheek, I don't approve or condone physical violence against spammers, etc. etc. yadda yadda yadda)... =)
I travel regularly between the USA and Europe!!
Who gave them the right to give my flight data to Ashcroft??!!
WANKERS!
what do you do with the other two Slackware systems?
One of them (Pentium 133) is a gateway/firewall, allowing all system to access the wider Internet. Yes, they are all networked together.
The other (K6-2 550) is a Samba/print/email/internal web server for my local intranet, as well as the station where I burn most of my CDs. It also allows my wife's crufty old laptop to use the shared laser printer.
Both are used to test various bits and pieces when I feel like it. I even toyed with the idea of using the K6-2 as a PKI/MP3 server.
You mean... somebody at google used to work for the dreaded NSA?!?!!
;)
Oh, the humanity...
That would be like, say, using Slashdot to post stories after stories that are highly critical of Microsoft.
Oh, wait... Never mind...
All of your machines have at least 128 MB of system RAM installed.
On the way to wisdom, you are, young padawan!
(Sorry, couldn't resist!)
Here is what I use at home:
I kid you not. =)
It's pathetic, I know.
Now, from the list above, can you guess:
Yep.
I remember applying for a job at a now defunct company, who was designing specialized silicon for routers.
Said silicon -- based on a SPARC core -- was designed mainly on Sun workstation. But the managers I spoke with were quick to point out that all Sun workstations were going to be replaced by Intel boxes running Linux. Choice quote: "Frankly, Linux is good enough for all our needs, and it offer more tools than Solaris.".
That was way back in 1999 (4 years ago), when Linux was still considered by many as a toy. Now this company is gone, I have switched jobs not just once but twice and gotten married as well (how time flies!). Sun is, IMHO, still losing even more market share to cheap x86+GNU/Linux boxes.
So, yes, I think the article is pretty much on the money -- but Sun can still turn things around... Things move fast in computing.
Let's face it: an Intel Pentium4 or AMD Athlon are more than sufficient for 99% of all needs out there.
If you need more power than what a single CPU has to offer, buy an SMP machine. Or make a Beowulf cluster.
And no, this is not a joke: this is exactly what google has been doing: build a humongous cluster a split eveything between hundreds of machines, right?
Since Linux and the *BSDs have appeared, this means that pretty much every task can be managed by cheap, standardized machines. It's highly possible that, like the Red Herring article said, we'll see big chip makers 'go under' just because the research balloon out of control.
Very interesting articles. Moore's Law may end, not because it's impossible to build a better chip, but because it has become un-economical to build one.
OK, have you contacted Castle Technologies about their alleged GPL violation?
If that's the case, you are probably not free to comment on the current proceedings, so a simple "yes" or "no" would be more than enough...
I have a little bit of experience in organizing concerts, and I don't think that kind of thing is possible -- at least, not with an optimal quality.
Recording music is not easy, and recording (good) live music is twice as difficult. You have to contend with all kind of stuff that does not happen in a studio recording (audience noise, larsen possibilities, interferences, etc).
Sometimes, if the band is good and the audience having a good time, a concert can be interrupted for several minutes by applause and shouts -- things that are usually not very interesting to hear on a CD... =)
Most of these things are usually corrected once the concert is over by qualified sound engineers -- a process which can take several weeks, even with high-caliber people using good hardware -- but live music straight to CD? I don't think so.
Of course, I may be wrong, and I'll be interested in any and all rebuttals... =)
It looks good.
But I value raw power more than looks, which is why my next computer will be an ugly beige tower with an AMD Athlon 2000+ under the hood.
Besides, if someone wants convenience and a "small"-ish computer, they are probably better off buying a laptop...
Too bad I can't go to Brussels... =(
Any chance that they'll post transcripts of the speeches on their web site?
I can see it now... if this exists, somewhere in the NetBSD ports collection, it means we can actually create WinNT/Alpha applications... =)
Mac or PC?
Linux or Windows?
Opera announced a 220% increase in the number of downloads.
Seriously, though, if you have to use Windows at work (which is my case -- *sigh*), try Opera 7... You'll never look back on IE again.
At least that's what I did -- Opera 7 for windows is schweeeeet! =)
Australian ski resort
.
Emphasis on Australian
Does anyone else also think this is a contradiction in terms??
One possible solution to protect against smart dust would to create military buildings with a high internal atmospheric pressure: people who enter the building who create a draft directed at the outside, which should be enough to blow away "smart dust".
At least I hope so... If you cross Total Information Awareness and smart dust you have one scary scenario... =(
And even "clean" (high internal pressure) buildings don't help military units in the fields...
The i386-based machines are seriously threatening Sun.
Linux, OpenBSD and other open-source OSs (NetBSD, FreeBSD) have already proven they can replace Solaris in most cases.
Admit it, Sun: your best bet for survival against the Microsoft Juggernaut is not just to pay lip service to Open Source. It is to be truly open. Otherwise, platforms such as the UltraSparc will be abandoned in favor of cheaper and more competitive architectures...
Release these docs, Sun. Prove to the Open Source community, and not just to Linux kernel hackers, that you are serious about supporting alternative Operating Systems.
So that's the biz plan of the RIAA (MPAA may be different):
There is only a couple of problems with this plan: (a) selling... er... forcing sh!t down the throat of the average consumer, like Britney Spears, does not bring a lot of $$$ and (b) file-based protection will never work, unless (c) you also force people to use stuff like Palladium -- but that opens up another can of worms for both the RIAA and its allies.
Prognosis? Will work for 6 months top. Past these point, somebody will figure out a way to crack the system. He/She'll get his ass burned badly by the RIAA lawyers, but that will be the end of it.
Either that, or some enterprising company from Korea or Taiwan will figure out that there is a lot of $$$$ to be made selling non-Palladium compliant hardware to people who want it. Game Over.
Too little, too late. Sorry, RIAA.
A few years ago, JWZ used to say that using Linux was OK "as long as your time was worthless"... It's on his web site, you can actually look for it and it's probably there.
So he has made progress! Now he even admits to using Linux! =)
First, they ignore you.
Then, they laugh at you.
Then, they fight you.
Then you win.
It's not as funny as:
Step 1. Create Gcc.
Step 2. Create Linux kernel.
Step 3. ???
Step 4. World Domination!!