Under the scheme you're talking about,I'd pay a tax on something from Mexico
I may be incorrect, but isn't this scheme already in place? I think that if you do mail order, it is taxed based on the home state of the vendor. If you go to mexico and buy a margarita on the beach, don't you pay mexican sales tax?
Total Agreement. It takes money to run the world, and it has to come from somewhere.
There is also the issue that banning net taxes could only benefit the techno-elite. What about all the people that do not have a net connection of any kind or maybe cannot afford one? Why should they get smacked with sales taxes while I don't?
If they do pass the net ban, then income taxes are going to sky rocket. Right now I live in Texas where there is no state income tax. How does the state get there money? High sales tax.
I know that I and the rest of my buddies would just love to jump up a tax bracket for the same income.
Does it matter though? Raster and Mandrake have said over and over again that they will add whatever features E needs in order to be the wm with the best options/configurability. For example, take the kde support in the dev 16 snapshots. Most E users really love E, and if a new desktop widget comes out that does not yet have E support, I'm sure that someone will step forward to code it.
Did anyone notice how they talk about embedded stuff, customization, and many devices per home (appliances in buzzspeak, which he avoided of course:) He also criticized the Nokia 9000 as not a convenient PDA and not a convenient cell-phone either.. That might help us close on what the heck transmeta is working on:)
Transmeta... maybe. Every other major corporation definitely. That's what I get paid for at least.
If you believe what Sun, microsoft, IBM etc... are saying by the time the upgrade crash occurs most of the infrastructure for web-based office suites/desktops will be in place for a massive shift away from desktop computing by the average user. (uh, if you're reading this you'r probably *not* an average user)
So you won't need to upgrade, just pay your monthly fee. Your provider will upgrade automatically (hardware, not just software) for you becuase he wants your business. Otherwise you may go skipping off to a competitor.
So in my opinion the upgrades will still occur. There will just be a shift in who is actually paying for them. The user's cost will stay constant year to year. The ASP would take the big $$ hit for upgrades.
Assuming the rumors about Star Portal being closed off by Sun actually come to fruition... All we need now is the "Apache" of web application servers. Is this in the works? is it already supported by Gnome or KOffice?
And how will this proposed upgrade crash affect something like the game industry? I'm much more willing to drop $30 on a new game or expansion set than for my word processor.
Nothing like that is even remotely possible as a result of cyberbattles.
I believe you are incorrect sir. Cyber warfare will allow attacks deep into enemey territory where conventional armed forces cannot go. What if a cracker does something as simple as shut down the traffic lights? Accidents will happen, people could be hurt, maimed, and killed.
What if they cross propaganda with sutting down the power grid, thus causing a riot? Destruction of property, beatings, deaths. The opposing country wold have to divert valuable resources against its own people, souring their confidence in their leadership and possibly turnign them against the war.
Right, so at the moment were dealing with progaganda type hacking attacks mainly seeming to be some sort of denial of service (rerouting email, blocking site access, etc).
What happens when these guys, or someone else, really starts to go at it?
The good cracker is much cheaper to outfit than a professional soldier.
What does a cracker need? A fast computer (around ~4000 for top of the line), a reasonably fast net connection, a bag of doritos, and storage in a cool dry place. What does a single foot soldier need? Weapons and Equipment, barracks, transportation, a support staff (cooks, medics, pot scrubbers...), artillary, aircraft...
Say the military has 20 good crackers. What would they do? Sit them all in a room and make sure they share all their secrets and skills, making each one of them that much more dangerous. I don't know much about network security. But I do know firewalls will not stop a military cracker. They will know all the tips and tricks by heart. If there is a security hole, these guys would be able to find it and abuse it with some serious Ninja-Like-Tactics.
Then toss in the whole concept of Nationalism. Remember that lecture back in World History? Possibly the most powerful force in history. A single soldier will look a man in the face and then pump him full of lead for his country, knowing that he may die in the process. Call it the Military Mindset if you will.
What would a cracker do, when he/she has the same Mindset and desire to serve his/her country, but all he/she sees is a digital world, and doesn't have to look that other soldier in the face? Doesn't have to worry about dying in battle? Would they have an issue to shuting down a power grid? Taking out communications? What if that power grid ran the ICU of a children's hospital? What if they hacked into a nuke plant and caused a melt down? Would they care? My point is that these would not be same type of cracker we all know and love. We're talkin' some serious Neuromancer type wackos.
NOTE: Despite the user name, I am not currently, nor have I been, in the armed forces. So I could be completely wrong.
The company is called akamai and according to an article in wired, they serve content for ESPN, Paramount, and Apple amongst others. Sorry about not including the link before, but I could have sworn it was a slashdot post instead of being in Wired.
Keep in mind that, to the best of my knowledge, Dvorak has made his living commenting on the PC world, and probably is not a Linux User. As such he is biased. Even before I started using Linux, i would read his article in my dad's PC Mag and wonder what he was smoking on occasion.
It seems to me that he thinks Linux is a finished product, a permanent freeze on the source tree. But in reality Linux is constantly evolving.
He is correct that Linux is not ready for the "big time", where Big Time is high end high SMP servers. But we know this. There was an article on/. last month comparing NT and Linux to the high end servers. One example I remember is about Linux not being able to hot swap drives. (am I wrong on this?), and the SMP support is still in development. I believe that the high end servers Dvorak refers to have 16+ processors, the area where Solaris and its kin rule. And then there's that whoel SGI filesystem deal we've all been raving about... Evolution happens a little bit at a time.
Big systems on big loads? Excuse me. There is this MIT (I forget the name) company that has a patent for a web load balancing algorithm. There was a/. about it last month or so. They have hundreds of servers spread accross the world. Amoung thier clients are ESPN and I believe CNN. That is a major load. What to they run? Linux. Hacked to their specs, but still Linux. And old kernel rev too.
What about Beowulf and other clustering software? What about all the research centers running Beowulf clusters? Like NASA?
Linux often fails, simply because it isn't robust enough isn't this in contradiction to all the other beneficial press about Linux? It may not be the Honda of OS's. Buy if you tune your '69 mustang it'll purr like a kitten.
There are numerous GUI shells for the thing, and there's no reason the Linux community can't standardize one and stick with it
So? It isn't about standardization. There are so many shells because people compete against each other for the best solution. Which gives the best code. It's also about choice.
He is right about the VIC's though. Linux could be perfect for them, and as a thin client. But it could still be a powerful server. A server running the VIC's and thin clients.
This article, although incorrect on many points is good. Why? It pisses people off, who then go start developing on their own.
Does this really affect us at all in a negative way?
So in three years sun may drop linux development support. So? That's three years of full time employees working on the Linux system. So what if SGI does the same thing? The release of their journaling filesystem was a major enhancement to the kernel.
The best thing about the Linux/Open source development model is that it *evolves*. Star Office apparently is top notch right now. In three years KOffice and Gnome office could easilly compare to it.
So sun starts pushing thin clients. Big deal. As Amphigory stated in his post they have their place.
If it bothers you that much, go develop a Thin Client Linux distro. I believe that most of the system is already complete, you just have to figure out what options to use. Evolve your own aspect of Linux.
I think that I am taking a narrower view than most. Look at it this way.
Does the little guy truly believe in their code? Do they want to market their code in some way? Do they he/she feel that their code could have some effect on the world?
Then they should make the time to write a clear patent proposal. They should get the advice of someone who knows the field, maybe a patent lawyer, maybe a friend who has submitted patents before, to make sure their process is clear. Why? So that the patent will be blatantly obvious (obvious enough for copyright issues to apply,)
Now a massive majority of the code being written in basements today does not apply to what I have just described. I write all kinds of code for digital audio that won't come anywhere near the patent office.
But if someday I find something new, I will patent it. Maybe not becuase of money, but becuase it is mine and if I believe in it that much, then spending the time and money to get it properly patented is worthwhile.
Yes patents are mainly usefull to major companies. One day IBm walked up to Cray and said, "hey Cray. We want to make super computers. Can we license your technology?"
And Cray says,"No way!"
And so IBM says, "OK. And by the way we hold the patent to flip flops."
And Cray sez, "We'll have the license paperwork on your desk tomorrow morning."
So at one point during my software engineering course all those years ago, they brought in a Patent Lawyer who just happened to have a PhD in CS (apparently it is very common to be a patent lawyer and to also have at *least* a masters in your patent field of expertise.) And here's what I remember him saying about patents.
1) You can patent almost anything. 2) If your process is the same as another patented process, but has one aspect which is different, then it does not fall under the other patent.
What what?
Say JOe Mega Corp down the street has a patented process for making wedges. And their patented process uses a 1/2" brush to paint their wedges. You realize that you could make better wedges faster if you use a 2" brush. Bam. New process. New patent. It's called innovation. Then again, if the patented process uses a brush of un-described size, then you are in violation of the patent. So you change your process to use spray paint. So you open up a competing wedge business, and the other guy can't do squat about it.
How was this point illustrated to the class? Microsoft has a 4 step patent on spell checking documents. Why haven't they sued anyone? Because every other spell checking process is more evolved, with multiple differences in process.
Software patents are a necessity at this point in time. When used appropriately they help the little guy has to protect his work against the big bad corpoaration who want's to steal his idea. You just have to make sure that your patent description is strong enough to defend against all the guys out there with the 2" brushes hanging in their garages.
And maybe the NCR/Netscape battle is about netscapes enterprise servers? They do have more products than just a web browser...
If you do think you have a patent, first get your description/plans notorized. get a lawyer to help you out with the submittal. It may cost a little more, but your patent proposal will be that musch stronger when its done. Why the notary? There was this college kid to invented this thing called the laser within weeks of a college professor. The professor got his big corporate friends to help with the patent, so it was submitted and approved first. And so begins the lawsuits. The college kid eventually won becuase a) this process was better and b) the date his notes were notarized was a week before the the professor got his notarized.
Before Hackpcweek went down (uh, I think it's down, my proxy comes back with a "could not be loaded" error in a split second...) I had a look at their log page. Apparently they log all attacks on the NT box, linux box, and the main web server for the trial. The attack split was something like 15% against NT, 10 % against linux, and 75% against the main web server. And now it's down. Go figure.
I must say I like the test so far:
1) they're doing it over a month so they should be able to modify the test as it goes on. 2) they allow everyone to see the process of what's going on. 3) I have no knowledge of system security whatsoever. PR stunt aside, I think that this test will be very informative for myself, and others like me who are looking to learn about how this type of thing goes down. Not everything is contained in man and info pages.;)
As to #2: Therefore, if something bad happens to one of the servers, it'll get put up on/. Therefore, if the bad thing happened becuase of their setup (*cough*apachetest*cough*), so many people will complain that will hopefully be forced to fix the problem (see #1). Like this whole firewall arguement thats brewing.
QUESTION: Does this actually change anything?
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So, does this change anything? Lemme explain my statement.
As it is now, we are just entering into the digital age. Hence the FBI and FCC's desire to have some control of it.
Last week I rented The Siege, a movie about the FBI tracking down terrorists in New York. An ongoing joke was when the taxi driver from Wings kept asking why they (the FBI) didn't have microwave snooping gear on top of the stuff they were already using.
Wire taps are low level tech to these guys. They have radar, infrared, nightvision, directional microphones, bugs, not to mention those nifty lasers that can pick up sound by how a piece of glass vibrates. If they want to spy on you, they can do it *easilly*.
As it is, a massive majority of Americans go about their daily lives completely unaffected by this.
Honestly, how does being able to snoop digitally actually change anything?
Besides the fact that we can encrypt our digital communication a lot better than the FBI can decrypt it? To the best of my knowledge, they would need the NSA's help to decrypt stuff using 4096 bit keys. And if the NSA is after you...
And why is it so many of the AC's posting here are worrying about the FBI breaking down your door and coming after your weed? If they were, the nubmer of prisons in the US would have to be tripled.
Re:What about proxies?
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Yeah, but you still need to ship the data back and forth between the data farms and the corporation.
At some point it'll just sit on the company server overnight when the backups are made. Then you just supenona (sp?) the tapes...
Or it gets packet sniffed in transit...
Re:To tap, or not to tap
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Well, if someone is guilty, is this smal mangling of the law acceptible? I think it is.
Re:What about proxies?
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I can just smell the off-shore satiellite fed server farm now... Mmmmm... Ozone...
I think in about five years you're finally going to find a bunch of millionaire geeks with nothing better to do with their money starting one up.
There may be piles of gold sitting in the jungle in Phillipines, but there's a lot of $$ sitting in random bank accounts collecting dust too.
To tap, or not to tap
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A couple of points.
1) Wire tapping has been of great service to law enforcemnt in the past, providing much needed evidence or information leading to much needed evidence. Say there's this kidnapper, and you don't know where he is. So you tap his girlfriend. The kidnapper, learning nothing from "Cop Shows 101" calls said girlfriend. Trace the call, find the kidnapper. Case solved.
2) Encryption Encryption Encryption. Wasn't there an arguement about 4096 bit on/. last week?
3) Why are you worried? are you a criminal? Do you associate with criminals? Do you have something to hide? Then why should they tap you?
It's this last point that is the real worry. It's not the ability to tap everything, it's the abuse of the ability that is the problem. So the question really is not, "hey, to tap or not to tap?" but rather "is the FBI mature enough to use their new power appropriately?"
Honestly, they could be sitting in plumbers van accross the street from you right now. Buy they're not, are they? They're probably parked at my house.
And isn't there some law about not being able to use information against you that was discovered while looking for something else?
Praise for the man that invented the preveiw button.
To the best of my knowledge trademarks and copyrights are *not* international. I know that patents are not. (I think that there is a commitee that meets evry other year or so to make them international, but they always end up arguing and quitting without any result)
You have to apply for trademarks, patents, etc in each country where you do business. Should someone else clain your trademark before you, you could be out of luck unless you have some kind of legal precedent. For example, say soemone registered the trademark coca-cola in their country. A couple of years later, the coca-cola company decides that they want to start selling coke in that country. So they Sue, and point out that they hold the trademark in every other country in the world. End of discussion.
The problem with this is that the Coca-cola co. would have the money to bring proper legal power to bear in case the country in question gets all uppity. To the best of my knowledge, Linux does not.
Very interesting, this whole shadow syndrome thing. It actually explains alot. I am a geek, and after reading the article, I feel that it describes a number of problems that I have had, although not as seriously. I have also met quite a number of people back in school who could be on the book's cover. It is really a disease if you're born with it?
Note, however, that these are "shadow" syndromes, whereas the real afflictions require drugs and other heavy treatments. Why is this important? Because it means that there is hope out there for all of us. Quite possibly a matter of environment. I knew a geek once who was a major klutz. But you get him on the soccer field and he'll run circles around you. His parents started him playing soccer when he was five. Environment change.
I have also known quite a few CS and ECEers that seemed perfectly normal. Before the shadow syndrome theory is applied to everyone, the first question should be, are these people geeks? Most of them would say no, and I am inclined to agree with them. The geek is a class of its own covering all areas of life, not a blanket grouping in one field or the other. There are the well known tech geeks, but there are also Art geeks, and history geeks, etc. And don't forget those much underpublized Frat Boy Geeks (I'm very guilty of that one).
Enough aside theorizing, back to the environment point. Kudos to MIT for their charm school course, forcing a change in the environment of their students. Personally, lucked out and ended up with some social freshman year roomates who became best friends of mine and made it a point to introduce me to girls. I learned pretty quick how to act properly, and one girl even took the time to teach me about the salad/dessert fork thing. Socially inept in high school, social in college. All a matter of environment.
If I hadn't had the roomates I did, I would have spent all my freetime hanging out with other geeks, (there were a couple down the hall. Great people. Fine human beings. No, I am *not* being sarcastic). Why? It was a comfort thing. Being with those like yourself is easier to deal with, be accepted. (I think that's also brought up in the article)
I apologize if it seems like I like talking about myself, but I am the best example I have with the greatest comprehension.
Considering that GnuPG was developed outside the US, and that people moving in and out of the country to work on encryption software was discussed last week on Ask Slashdot, has anyone actually left he US permanently in order to work on encryption software? Or is it all just theory?
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the scheme you're talking about,I'd pay a tax on something from Mexico
I may be incorrect, but isn't this scheme already in place? I think that if you do mail order, it is taxed based on the home state of the vendor. If you go to mexico and buy a margarita on the beach, don't you pay mexican sales tax?
Tax based on the location of the source. If your order from mexico, pay mexican taxes. Buyfrom ohio, pay ohio sales tax.
Under this model, taxes should stay low. Companies already relocate/expand in the US based on where they can get the cheapest break.
Total Agreement. It takes money to run the world, and it has to come from somewhere.
There is also the issue that banning net taxes could only benefit the techno-elite. What about all the people that do not have a net connection of any kind or maybe cannot afford one? Why should they get smacked with sales taxes while I don't?
If they do pass the net ban, then income taxes are going to sky rocket. Right now I live in Texas where there is no state income tax. How does the state get there money? High sales tax.
I know that I and the rest of my buddies would just love to jump up a tax bracket for the same income.
I thought they already had. ;)
Does it matter though? Raster and Mandrake have said over and over again that they will add whatever features E needs in order to be the wm with the best options/configurability. For example, take the kde support in the dev 16 snapshots. Most E users really love E, and if a new desktop widget comes out that does not yet have E support, I'm sure that someone will step forward to code it.
Did anyone notice how they talk about embedded stuff, customization, and many devices per :) He also criticized the Nokia :)
home (appliances in buzzspeak, which he avoided of course
9000 as not a convenient PDA and not a convenient cell-phone either.. That might help us
close on what the heck transmeta is working on
Transmeta... maybe. Every other major corporation definitely. That's what I get paid for at least.
If you believe what Sun, microsoft, IBM etc... are saying by the time the upgrade crash occurs most of the infrastructure for web-based office suites/desktops will be in place for a massive shift away from desktop computing by the average user. (uh, if you're reading this you'r probably *not* an average user)
So you won't need to upgrade, just pay your monthly fee. Your provider will upgrade automatically (hardware, not just software) for you becuase he wants your business. Otherwise you may go skipping off to a competitor.
So in my opinion the upgrades will still occur. There will just be a shift in who is actually paying for them. The user's cost will stay constant year to year. The ASP would take the big $$ hit for upgrades.
Assuming the rumors about Star Portal being closed off by Sun actually come to fruition... All we need now is the "Apache" of web application servers. Is this in the works? is it already supported by Gnome or KOffice?
And how will this proposed upgrade crash affect something like the game industry? I'm much more willing to drop $30 on a new game or expansion set than for my word processor.
Nothing like that is even remotely possible as a result of cyberbattles.
I believe you are incorrect sir. Cyber warfare will allow attacks deep into enemey territory where conventional armed forces cannot go. What if a cracker does something as simple as shut down the traffic lights? Accidents will happen, people could be hurt, maimed, and killed.
What if they cross propaganda with sutting down the power grid, thus causing a riot? Destruction of property, beatings, deaths. The opposing country wold have to divert valuable resources against its own people, souring their confidence in their leadership and possibly turnign them against the war.
Right, so at the moment were dealing with progaganda type hacking attacks mainly seeming to be some sort of denial of service (rerouting email, blocking site access, etc).
What happens when these guys, or someone else, really starts to go at it?
The good cracker is much cheaper to outfit than a professional soldier.
What does a cracker need? A fast computer (around ~4000 for top of the line), a reasonably fast net connection, a bag of doritos, and storage in a cool dry place. What does a single foot soldier need? Weapons and Equipment, barracks, transportation, a support staff (cooks, medics, pot scrubbers...), artillary, aircraft...
Say the military has 20 good crackers. What would they do? Sit them all in a room and make sure they share all their secrets and skills, making each one of them that much more dangerous. I don't know much about network security. But I do know firewalls will not stop a military cracker. They will know all the tips and tricks by heart. If there is a security hole, these guys would be able to find it and abuse it with some serious Ninja-Like-Tactics.
Then toss in the whole concept of Nationalism. Remember that lecture back in World History? Possibly the most powerful force in history. A single soldier will look a man in the face and then pump him full of lead for his country, knowing that he may die in the process. Call it the Military Mindset if you will.
What would a cracker do, when he/she has the same Mindset and desire to serve his/her country, but all he/she sees is a digital world, and doesn't have to look that other soldier in the face? Doesn't have to worry about dying in battle? Would they have an issue to shuting down a power grid? Taking out communications? What if that power grid ran the ICU of a children's hospital? What if they hacked into a nuke plant and caused a melt down? Would they care? My point is that these would not be same type of cracker we all know and love. We're talkin' some serious Neuromancer type wackos.
NOTE: Despite the user name, I am not currently, nor have I been, in the armed forces. So I could be completely wrong.
The company is called akamai and according to an article in wired, they serve content for ESPN, Paramount, and Apple amongst others. Sorry about not including the link before, but I could have sworn it was a slashdot post instead of being in Wired.
Dude. I run a fine dual celeron box. But when you get up to sixteen plus prcessors, there are better options currently. note the currently part.
Keep in mind that, to the best of my knowledge, Dvorak has made his living commenting on the PC world, and probably is not a Linux User. As such he is biased. Even before I started using Linux, i would read his article in my dad's PC Mag and wonder what he was smoking on occasion.
/. last month comparing NT and Linux to the high end servers. One example I remember is about Linux not being able to hot swap drives. (am I wrong on this?), and the SMP support is still in development. I believe that the high end servers Dvorak refers to have 16+ processors, the area where Solaris and its kin rule. And then there's that whoel SGI filesystem deal we've all been raving about... Evolution happens a little bit at a time.
/. about it last month or so. They have hundreds of servers spread accross the world. Amoung thier clients are ESPN and I believe CNN. That is a major load. What to they run? Linux. Hacked to their specs, but still Linux. And old kernel rev too.
It seems to me that he thinks Linux is a finished product, a permanent freeze on the source tree. But in reality Linux is constantly evolving.
He is correct that Linux is not ready for the "big time", where Big Time is high end high SMP servers. But we know this. There was an article on
Big systems on big loads? Excuse me. There is this MIT (I forget the name) company that has a patent for a web load balancing algorithm. There was a
What about Beowulf and other clustering software? What about all the research centers running Beowulf clusters? Like NASA?
Linux often fails, simply because it isn't robust enough isn't this in contradiction to all the other beneficial press about Linux? It may not be the Honda of OS's. Buy if you tune your '69 mustang it'll purr like a kitten.
There are numerous GUI shells for the thing, and there's no reason the Linux community can't standardize one and stick with it
So? It isn't about standardization. There are so many shells because people compete against each other for the best solution. Which gives the best code. It's also about choice.
He is right about the VIC's though. Linux could be perfect for them, and as a thin client. But it could still be a powerful server. A server running the VIC's and thin clients.
This article, although incorrect on many points is good. Why? It pisses people off, who then go start developing on their own.
Does this really affect us at all in a negative way?
So in three years sun may drop linux development support. So? That's three years of full time employees working on the Linux system. So what if SGI does the same thing? The release of their journaling filesystem was a major enhancement to the kernel.
The best thing about the Linux/Open source development model is that it *evolves*. Star Office apparently is top notch right now. In three years KOffice and Gnome office could easilly compare to it.
So sun starts pushing thin clients. Big deal. As Amphigory stated in his post they have their place.
If it bothers you that much, go develop a Thin Client Linux distro. I believe that most of the system is already complete, you just have to figure out what options to use. Evolve your own aspect of Linux.
I think that I am taking a narrower view than most. Look at it this way.
Does the little guy truly believe in their code? Do they want to market their code in some way? Do they he/she feel that their code could have some effect on the world?
Then they should make the time to write a clear patent proposal. They should get the advice of someone who knows the field, maybe a patent lawyer, maybe a friend who has submitted patents before, to make sure their process is clear. Why? So that the patent will be blatantly obvious (obvious enough for copyright issues to apply,)
Now a massive majority of the code being written in basements today does not apply to what I have just described. I write all kinds of code for digital audio that won't come anywhere near the patent office.
But if someday I find something new, I will patent it. Maybe not becuase of money, but becuase it is mine and if I believe in it that much, then spending the time and money to get it properly patented is worthwhile.
Yes patents are mainly usefull to major companies. One day IBm walked up to Cray and said, "hey Cray. We want to make super computers. Can we license your technology?"
And Cray says,"No way!"
And so IBM says, "OK. And by the way we hold the patent to flip flops."
And Cray sez, "We'll have the license paperwork on your desk tomorrow morning."
By not allowing you to use the most efficient way to solve a problem?
Or maybe it forces you to find a different and better way to solve the problem.
So at one point during my software engineering course all those years ago, they brought in a Patent Lawyer who just happened to have a PhD in CS (apparently it is very common to be a patent lawyer and to also have at *least* a masters in your patent field of expertise.) And here's what I remember him saying about patents.
1) You can patent almost anything.
2) If your process is the same as another patented process, but has one aspect which is different, then it does not fall under the other patent.
What what?
Say JOe Mega Corp down the street has a patented process for making wedges. And their patented process uses a 1/2" brush to paint their wedges. You realize that you could make better wedges faster if you use a 2" brush. Bam. New process. New patent. It's called innovation. Then again, if the patented process uses a brush of un-described size, then you are in violation of the patent. So you change your process to use spray paint. So you open up a competing wedge business, and the other guy can't do squat about it.
How was this point illustrated to the class? Microsoft has a 4 step patent on spell checking documents. Why haven't they sued anyone? Because every other spell checking process is more evolved, with multiple differences in process.
Software patents are a necessity at this point in time. When used appropriately they help the little guy has to protect his work against the big bad corpoaration who want's to steal his idea. You just have to make sure that your patent description is strong enough to defend against all the guys out there with the 2" brushes hanging in their garages.
And maybe the NCR/Netscape battle is about netscapes enterprise servers? They do have more products than just a web browser...
If you do think you have a patent, first get your description/plans notorized. get a lawyer to help you out with the submittal. It may cost a little more, but your patent proposal will be that musch stronger when its done. Why the notary? There was this college kid to invented this thing called the laser within weeks of a college professor. The professor got his big corporate friends to help with the patent, so it was submitted and approved first. And so begins the lawsuits. The college kid eventually won becuase a) this process was better and b) the date his notes were notarized was a week before the the professor got his notarized.
Before Hackpcweek went down (uh, I think it's down, my proxy comes back with a "could not be loaded" error in a split second...) I had a look at their log page. Apparently they log all attacks on the NT box, linux box, and the main web server for the trial. The attack split was something like 15% against NT, 10 % against linux, and 75% against the main web server. And now it's down. Go figure.
;)
/. Therefore, if the bad thing happened becuase of their setup (*cough*apachetest*cough*), so many people will complain that will hopefully be forced to fix the problem (see #1). Like this whole firewall arguement thats brewing.
I must say I like the test so far:
1) they're doing it over a month so they should be able to modify the test as it goes on.
2) they allow everyone to see the process of what's going on.
3) I have no knowledge of system security whatsoever. PR stunt aside, I think that this test will be very informative for myself, and others like me who are looking to learn about how this type of thing goes down. Not everything is contained in man and info pages.
As to #2: Therefore, if something bad happens to one of the servers, it'll get put up on
So, does this change anything? Lemme explain my statement.
As it is now, we are just entering into the digital age. Hence the FBI and FCC's desire to have some control of it.
Last week I rented The Siege, a movie about the FBI tracking down terrorists in New York. An ongoing joke was when the taxi driver from Wings kept asking why they (the FBI) didn't have microwave snooping gear on top of the stuff they were already using.
Wire taps are low level tech to these guys. They have radar, infrared, nightvision, directional microphones, bugs, not to mention those nifty lasers that can pick up sound by how a piece of glass vibrates. If they want to spy on you, they can do it *easilly*.
As it is, a massive majority of Americans go about their daily lives completely unaffected by this.
Honestly, how does being able to snoop digitally actually change anything?
Besides the fact that we can encrypt our digital communication a lot better than the FBI can decrypt it? To the best of my knowledge, they would need the NSA's help to decrypt stuff using 4096 bit keys. And if the NSA is after you...
And why is it so many of the AC's posting here are worrying about the FBI breaking down your door and coming after your weed? If they were, the nubmer of prisons in the US would have to be tripled.
Yeah, but you still need to ship the data back and forth between the data farms and the corporation.
At some point it'll just sit on the company server overnight when the backups are made. Then you just supenona (sp?) the tapes...
Or it gets packet sniffed in transit...
Well, if someone is guilty, is this smal mangling of the law acceptible? I think it is.
I can just smell the off-shore satiellite fed server farm now... Mmmmm... Ozone...
I think in about five years you're finally going to find a bunch of millionaire geeks with nothing better to do with their money starting one up.
There may be piles of gold sitting in the jungle in Phillipines, but there's a lot of $$ sitting in random bank accounts collecting dust too.
A couple of points.
/. last week?
1) Wire tapping has been of great service to law enforcemnt in the past, providing much needed evidence or information leading to much needed evidence. Say there's this kidnapper, and you don't know where he is. So you tap his girlfriend. The kidnapper, learning nothing from "Cop Shows 101" calls said girlfriend. Trace the call, find the kidnapper. Case solved.
2) Encryption Encryption Encryption. Wasn't there an arguement about 4096 bit on
3) Why are you worried? are you a criminal? Do you associate with criminals? Do you have something to hide? Then why should they tap you?
It's this last point that is the real worry. It's not the ability to tap everything, it's the abuse of the ability that is the problem. So the question really is not, "hey, to tap or not to tap?" but rather "is the FBI mature enough to use their new power appropriately?"
Honestly, they could be sitting in plumbers van accross the street from you right now. Buy they're not, are they? They're probably parked at my house.
And isn't there some law about not being able to use information against you that was discovered while looking for something else?
Praise for the man that invented the preveiw button.
To the best of my knowledge trademarks and copyrights are *not* international. I know that patents are not. (I think that there is a commitee that meets evry other year or so to make them international, but they always end up arguing and quitting without any result)
You have to apply for trademarks, patents, etc in each country where you do business. Should someone else clain your trademark before you, you could be out of luck unless you have some kind of legal precedent. For example, say soemone registered the trademark coca-cola in their country. A couple of years later, the coca-cola company decides that they want to start selling coke in that country. So they Sue, and point out that they hold the trademark in every other country in the world. End of discussion.
The problem with this is that the Coca-cola co. would have the money to bring proper legal power to bear in case the country in question gets all uppity. To the best of my knowledge, Linux does not.
Very interesting, this whole shadow syndrome thing. It actually explains alot. I am a geek, and after reading the article, I feel that it describes a number of problems that I have had, although not as seriously. I have also met quite a number of people back in school who could be on the book's cover. It is really a disease if you're born with it?
Note, however, that these are "shadow" syndromes, whereas the real afflictions require drugs and other heavy treatments. Why is this important? Because it means that there is hope out there for all of us. Quite possibly a matter of environment. I knew a geek once who was a major klutz. But you get him on the soccer field and he'll run circles around you. His parents started him playing soccer when he was five. Environment change.
I have also known quite a few CS and ECEers that seemed perfectly normal. Before the shadow syndrome theory is applied to everyone, the first question should be, are these people geeks? Most of them would say no, and I am inclined to agree with them. The geek is a class of its own covering all areas of life, not a blanket grouping in one field or the other. There are the well known tech geeks, but there are also Art geeks, and history geeks, etc. And don't forget those much underpublized Frat Boy Geeks (I'm very guilty of that one).
Enough aside theorizing, back to the environment point. Kudos to MIT for their charm school course, forcing a change in the environment of their students. Personally, lucked out and ended up with some social freshman year roomates who became best friends of mine and made it a point to introduce me to girls. I learned pretty quick how to act properly, and one girl even took the time to teach me about the salad/dessert fork thing. Socially inept in high school, social in college. All a matter of environment.
If I hadn't had the roomates I did, I would have spent all my freetime hanging out with other geeks, (there were a couple down the hall. Great people. Fine human beings. No, I am *not* being sarcastic). Why? It was a comfort thing. Being with those like yourself is easier to deal with, be accepted. (I think that's also brought up in the article)
I apologize if it seems like I like talking about myself, but I am the best example I have with the greatest comprehension.
Considering that GnuPG was developed outside the US, and that people moving in and out of the country to work on encryption software was discussed last week on Ask Slashdot, has anyone actually left he US permanently in order to work on encryption software? Or is it all just theory?
The algorithms course I took changed my life. Honestly now. Why? It changed *how*I*think* about and approach software design.