You jest, but the only room in my house where I can keep the themostat set at LOW all the time is in my computer dungeon - it's always toasty warm in there.
I run a three computers, but none P4 - Athlon 64, Athlon XP 2600+ and a Intel Pentium M (laptop).
On topic, I really want to get a box powered by this and run Linux on it...that'd be sweet. And to the guy who said there was no point in having a 4GHz Linux box because there were no "real" games: I hope you jest. There are *few* games, but they are *real* for sure: Doom3 and UT2004 come to mind, as well as Quake 3 and Neverwinter Nights. All can take more CPU cycles, expecially UT and Doom.
And heck, mprime could always use some extra cycles. =)
Wow, I read that post, and it made me kind of sad.
I use computers as a hobby and as a profession, and I love playing around with them, administering them, configuring them and hacking them. It's kind of like a game for me, and there's always something more to learn.
But when I read something like this, it's just sad. This guy wants to use his computer as a tool, and he doesn't understand what's going on. Someone probably told him "Macs are good, get a Mac." and so he did, without any idea of what he was getting into.
It's odd, because it highlights how different from any other household item a computer is: there so much going on underneath that is accessible to the end user, and yet general knowledge about how to fix problems that crop up is extremely low.
My dad used to say that he wished they would take time out in high school to teach classes dealing with how to make budgets, manage your time, invest, buy a car, etc. You know, things we all have to do, but are not ever necessarily taught. We'll, I'd like to see some mandatory classes on computing; a sort of In The Beginning Was The Command Line type treatment (cryptonomicon.com, for those that don't know it) for people, and *then* dive into usage of various applications. It's not just knowing how that's important, it's understanding your options.
I play UT2004 on my Gentoo AMD64 box all the time...super speedy, great graphics. They even have a binary just for 64 bit Linux.
Its your ATI card, dude. If you're using Linux, there is only one graphics card manufacturer: nVidia. I've only bought nVidia for a few years now (4?) and have never been unhappy with the performance and ease of use.
Err, the "design decision" affects everyone, everywhere. But it doesn't pose a problem for the VAST majoritry of users. Just read 10 sites that talk about it...they'll say that their personal PSPs don't have a problem, even though the design causes some units to malfunction.
You're making the argument that everyone is having an issue, but only 4,700 people were pissed of enough about it to send it in. That is simply NOT the case.
I realize there are counterarguments to what I'm about to say, but it's worth mentioning:
The "square button" problem affected 4,700 units, out of over 800,000 shipped. The chnaces are about 1/150 or so that you'll actually have an issue. While not Six Sigma, it's still not bad.
PSP features an unmatched 4.3-inch, 16:9 wide screen TFT LCD that displays full color (16.77 million colors) on a 480 x 272 pixel high-resolution screen. PSP also comes complete with built-in stereo speakers, exterior headphone connector and diverse input/output connectors such as USB 2.0, and 802.11b (Wi-Fi) wireless LAN, enabling users to connect to the Internet and play online via a wireless network. Up to 16 PSPs in the vicinity can also be connected to each other directly in ad-hoc mode, allowing for wireless head-to-head competition. In addition, wireless capabilities will allow software and data to be downloaded to a PSP and saved onto a Memory Stick Duo.
The PSP is all about good packaging. Maybe you don't like "buttons-on-the-sides-screen-in-the-center" format, but no matter how you slice it, this thing is sexy.
Maybe this is something you should reserve judgement on until you hold one. I, for one, really think Nintendo messed up in the packaging department far more than Sony did...the DS is just huge - effectively twice as big as a GBA SP. The "pocketability" of a system is key, and I think the PSP has it.
What NoData is alluding to, but not outright saying, is that he believes fundementally in the pubic good as a goal above and beyond pure profit.
You have bought into the idea that copyright is for-profit, inherently, and primarily. This is a relatively new notion, really. In fact, if you go back and read the prime mover behind copyright in the first place, it was all about something I mentioned above: the public good. Profit was strictly a secondary concern. Specifically, the primary concern was to incentivize artists to release their work so the public could enjoy it.
Many people know this in their heart, but haven't heard it expressed or read the relevant laws. But in essence what everyone wants is for the artists to make a living, and for tons of people to enjoy their music however they like. But somehow, we've moved past that into this realm where we want to defend an artist making a living, a middleman making millions of dollars, and limiting our audience to the music as much as possible (yes, I consider selling a $0.10 CD in a store for $18 a crime).
Essentially, my position (I won't speak for NoData anymore) boils down to the argument that the artists has every right to make a living. But if the artist makes a living (even a modest one), the public should be able to enjoy the artist's work. For those that cannot afford the $18, there is no case of a lost sale, there is no money lost, there is only gain.
This is the system that should exist. The real querstion is: how do we get there from here? There may be no way, but one thing is certain in my mind: things are not OK the way they are. We live in a time where there are plenty of us to pay for CDs, and those that cannot can still enjoy the music.
Rush might have put it best:
Begin the day
With a friendly voice
A companion, unobtrusive
Plays that song that's so elusive
And the magic music makes your morning mood
Off on your way
Hit the open road
There is magic at your fingers
For the spirit ever lingers
Undemanding contact
In your happy solitude
Invisible airwaves
Crackle with life
Bright antennae bristle
With the energy
Emotional feedback
On a timeless wavelength
Bearing a gift beyond price ---
Almost free...
All this machinery
Making modern music
Can still be open-hearted
Not so coldly charted
It's really just a question
Of your honesty
One likes to believe
In the freedom of music
But glittering prizes
And endless compromises
Shatter the illusion
Of integrity
For the words of the profits
Are written on the studio wall,
Concert hall ---
Echoes with the sounds...
Of salesmen.
This was written in 1980, long before MP3's, the internet, or P2P. But all the ideas are there, and more. In fact, Neil even alludes to the two freedoms that we commonly mention in regards to free software; he talks of both free in price, but also freedom to be artistic in your music without "selling out". But his final stab, after verses about comprimising to make a buck, is that the whole industry, from the studios to the concert halls, is not about the artist, and it's not about the audience. It's all about the salesman.
Defend the system all you want, but it's broken, and it's been broken for 25 years, at least. It's time to move on and get something better, not take the latest crop of problems and blame them on peer to peer file sharing.
You ALWAYS have choice. It's purely a matter of willpower. You're taking the absurd position that the choice did not exist because someone didn't have the willpower to make the hard decision. Both my parents smoked for 15 years, and they both JUST QUIT when they decided they were going to have children. Because they understood something that you don't:
THEY understood that they had a choice. It was their future children that didn't have the choice about being born, or enduring a pregancy under constant assault from nictoine.
Just because you REALLY want something doesn't mean your decision making capacity is gone. Check yourself into a clinic. Get help. Or use good old-fashioned willpower and STOP. The choice is always there. In fact, you make a choice every time you do something that you know is wrong or bad. Your first statement says it all:
People need protection from themselves.
That runs contrary to everything I believe in and stand for. People NEVER need protection from themselves. People do not need to be coddled or protected. Even children, who do need to be guided and taught, make decisions and should be held accountable for them. Children are people, just like everyone else. They may need more guidance and have less experience, but they still have the ability to reason right from wrong, and understand consequences. Addicts are the same way. They don't get a free pass to do whatever they want because they're an addict. They are a person who can make decisions, and that cannot be taken away. The first step to giving people the respect that they deserve is to hold them accountable for what they do. Freedom and responsiblity go hand-in-hand, and by taking away one, you necessarily take away the other.
There are those in the world that want to find a way to shed personal responsiblity at every opportunity, and there are those who take charge of their lives and claim responsiblity. Which are you?
Neuros, on the other hand, are excellent. Windows and Linux support, open source syncing software, open source firmware, 20GB, 40GB, 60GB and 80GB USB 2.0 (High Speed) models available. Supports playback in ogg, wav and mp3, records from onboard mic or line in in wav or mp3.
Yes, but the real issue is that they don't usually RUN as root. So this means that in everyday life, if one of their programs has a security flaw that allows someone to execute arbitrary code as the *user running the program*, it won't bring down the system.
Contrast this with most home Windows installs.
The fact that they "happily" type in their password is less than ideal, but far more ideal than always running as a priveledged user. The case youn describe works on ANY system with ANY inexperienced/lazy user. The OS can only do so much to hold your hand, but what it can do can be quite useful.
Side note: if you've used Mepis linux, you'll notice that it uses the same system as OS X, forcing you during install to supply a root password as well as a user account and password. KDE supports this through it's menu system and KDEsu where it will ask you for a password for root when you try to run a configuration/installation program. Pretty good, if you ask me. This utilizes sudo, AFAIK.
I love Macs, but don't own one. Thinking of picking up the new mini.
Main box is a 64 bit running Gentoo, and my laptop is intel (psuedo-centrino) running Mepis from Los Alamos Computers (laclinux.com). I've never loved erasers, but I found that if you disable the touchpad tap-to-click under linux, the whole thing becomes FAR more bearable.
I'm not sure exactly how to do that, though...I know SuSe does it by default, and I just put Mepis back on the laptop and have to remember what setting it was...
In any case, disabling that "feature" should help you endure the touchpad hell.
P2P isn't a protocol. It USES these other protocols (BitTorrent, for example, uses TCP and UDP). So your argument about ratios is a bit flawed. P2P cannot be reasonably separated from its underlying protocol in determining some kind of illegal/legal ratio. And I won't even get into the practical issues in doing so.
The reason I'm posting: "As used in this section, "peer-to-peer file sharing software" means software that once installed and launched, enables the user to connect his or her computer to a network of other computers on which the users of these computers have made available recording or audiovisual works for electronic dissemination to other users who are connected to the network. When a transaction is complete, the user has an identical copy of the file on his or her computer and may also then disseminate the file to other users connected to the network."
This leads me to believe that in order to qualify as P2P, ONE piece of software must be installed that will allow BOTH uploading and downloading of the entire file. I see the intent, and while I don't think Firefox qualifies (uploading a file? I don't think you can...maybe an extention?), certainly FTP qualifies, or more correctly, a piece of FTP software would qualify.
Interestingly, if you created two pieces of software that would interact, one to upload and one to download, then you would get around this law, based on its wording.
Also, it is clear WHO was pushing money for this: RI/MPAA. If you notice, nowhere in the bill do they simply say "Copyrighted works." Instead they go to great lengths to single out what turns out to be music, movies and video games. So if I develop P2P software that that only trades copies of Microsoft Office, or Quicken, well, it doesn't seem they'll be nabbing me under this law.
Again, I understand the intention, but there's always a way around. Another stipulation in the law is that the copy on your computer has to be the same as the copy that was sent. Wouldn't it be cool to have your own "key" in the program that did some for of weak encryption on the file (XOR) and stored all the file obtained with the software in that form? Then you have the program "decode" it on the fly and feed it to Xmms, mplayer, whatever. Might be a bit of a pain, but it would keep you clear from the law as well. Incidentally, as computers get faster, we could use not-so-trivial encryption with this method, making prosecution pretty damn hard (if you can't verify the data on the computer it makes it hard to show you downloaded anything to it.)
Or, we could just rely on our out-of-US and out-of-California friends to supply us with software. =) Thanks guys!
All Mac OS X users are willing to put up with an administrator account that is differentiated from their "normal" user account.
Though the public's needs are often catered to by tech companies, at some point the public needs to listen to the people who know what they're talking about. In the area of computer security, the excuse that "I never needed a password in DOS!" won't cut it anymore.
Clearly, The Right Thing is to have two distinct accounts, and almost all Linux users know this, and ALL OS X users use it, whether or not they understand the underlying principle.
Windows needs to catch up in this regard, whether or not the public will "put up" with it. It's best for them, and they'll get used to it.
Gosh, you beat me to it! I, too, was going to pipe up and say the same thing. As a graduate of Cornell Engineering myself, I can tell you from my own experience (and those of my friends from Cornell Engineering) that it was tough to get in, and it was VERY tough to do decently/graduate.
I think GP's comments are applicable in certain Ivy schools to varying extents depending on major, but my experience did not bear that out in Cornell Engineering *at all*.
I tried to get a degree in CS, but I got a D+ in a fourth semester Math class (Math 294), and CS wouldn't take that grade and kicked me out, end of story. It was the same semester I took CS 314 (the computer arhcitecture and organization class mentioned above) and I devoted all my time to designing that processor, and not much on the "stuff I didn't like", i.e. Math 294. Did well in CS 314 though. I still love computers and have managed to become a software engineer. Its awesome.
Anyway, I ended up graduating in the bottom half of my class with a degree in Operations Research, and had friends in MechE, EE, MatSci, and CS. They did OK/better than I, but it wasn't easy for any of us. And yes, we did have quite a few drop outs.
And someone here may have some insight. When a probe like this lands:
1) How big are the antennas it uses to send (do they fold out?)
2) Where does it get the power to transmit? (Solar?)
3) Does NASA have some giant antenna array somewhere that receives this stuff? (That they're steaing time from SETI to do this stuff?)
4) How does it know which way Earth is, so it knows where to point the antena? It is celestial, like ICBMs?
Sorry - I don't usually post a bunch of questions, but I've read a couple of articles on this, and they haven't been talking about this kind of stuff. Google might have something, but knowing the crowd here, someone actually WORKS on this stuff... =) 2.2 billion miles is an awful long way...I'm kind of surprised the trasmissions make it so well.
Oh, and if radio travels at the speed of light, how long does it take does it take to get here?
2.2 billion miles = 2,200,000,000 c = ~186,000 miles/s 2,200,000,000/c = 11,828 secs = 197 min = 3.28 hours
I'm not sure about state laws, but I acted as a legal officer (as a side duty, rather than my main job) in the Navy for a few years.
In federal jurisdiction, searches are legal if you have probable cause. Not applicable here.
Now, if you keep a desk in space on a ship where you work, the legal folks on the ship (Master at Arms) are allowed to search that if they want, probable cause or not, because you have no reasonable expectation of privacy in a desk in a public space. This is not *private* property though. Although not much is, on a ship.
Whether to classify a GPS tracker as a search or as a wiretap is a tough one. Under a search mentaility, anything that doesn't have a "reasonable expectation of privacy" is pretty much up for grabs. I.e. email has no expectation of privacy, but telephone calls do. I always thought it was an odd distinction, even more so now in the days of VoIP. Anyway, the cops can read your email without ANY warrant.
They also don't need a warrant to tail you, or stake out your house (am I right on this last one? I'm pretty sure no permission is required simply to "watch" from the street.)
So you can look at this from a perspective of utility ("How is this being used? Oh, instead of tailing? Well, obviously you don't need a warrant!") or from a perspective of a technical act ("What did you do? Oh, you put a FRIGGIN BUG in a guy's car? Hell yeah you need a warrant!").
The physical act is exactly like bugging, and the utility is like tailing. It's true that your vehicle's location is publicly known (hell, this wouldn't be an issue if the headline was "Police Track Man's Car Using Sattelite Optical Recognition", though that would be cool, too). But it's also true they shouldn't be "planting" devices on personal property without a warrant.
All that is to say, well, I don't know. I can see both sides. I think maybe this is OK, but if it were anything OTHER than a simple GPS tracker, like a GPS tracker with a microphone, it wouldn't.
I am well aware of the differences, though from my own studies I believe that Zen embodies the teachings of Buddha more purely than the others. Before my trip to Thailand, I was excited to meet those who held Buddhism so dearly, and was dissappointed to find that Buddhism was frought with many the trappings and ceremony you find in other religions that I find less appealing.
I am drawn to buddhism out of a sense of purity; exactly because of a *lack* of the usual trappings of religion. Of the various buddhist sects, I find Zen to be the most appealing, pure, and in line with what Buddha himself taught.
I did not mean to make the two sound sysnonymous; they most certainly are not. However, in *no* buddhist belief system do the enlightened shun those who are not - it is not in the spirit or teachings of buddha.
Perhaps out of not ignorance, but carelessness, did I give the wrong impression. My apologies.
In all honesty, if someone has physical access to the box and wanted to exploit it, they could, no matter what it's running. So, while interesting, local exploits are no big deal. As the saying goes: "If your enemy has physical access to your hardware, you've already lost."
Oh, and whay is this different than MS? Because all their exploits are REMOTE.
News flash: Local exploit to gain root: a knoppix CD.
No, but that's the kind of person Apple wants to cater to.
Me? I just pick what I like the most, whatever that happens to be. If its popular, peachy. If not, oh well. I try to be influenced as little as possible by advertising and fashion, either negatively or positively.
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe he wasn't either.
Hey, bright one, you're out of firetorches.
You jest, but the only room in my house where I can keep the themostat set at LOW all the time is in my computer dungeon - it's always toasty warm in there.
I run a three computers, but none P4 - Athlon 64, Athlon XP 2600+ and a Intel Pentium M (laptop).
On topic, I really want to get a box powered by this and run Linux on it...that'd be sweet. And to the guy who said there was no point in having a 4GHz Linux box because there were no "real" games: I hope you jest. There are *few* games, but they are *real* for sure: Doom3 and UT2004 come to mind, as well as Quake 3 and Neverwinter Nights. All can take more CPU cycles, expecially UT and Doom.
And heck, mprime could always use some extra cycles. =)
Wow, I read that post, and it made me kind of sad.
I use computers as a hobby and as a profession, and I love playing around with them, administering them, configuring them and hacking them. It's kind of like a game for me, and there's always something more to learn.
But when I read something like this, it's just sad. This guy wants to use his computer as a tool, and he doesn't understand what's going on. Someone probably told him "Macs are good, get a Mac." and so he did, without any idea of what he was getting into.
It's odd, because it highlights how different from any other household item a computer is: there so much going on underneath that is accessible to the end user, and yet general knowledge about how to fix problems that crop up is extremely low.
My dad used to say that he wished they would take time out in high school to teach classes dealing with how to make budgets, manage your time, invest, buy a car, etc. You know, things we all have to do, but are not ever necessarily taught. We'll, I'd like to see some mandatory classes on computing; a sort of In The Beginning Was The Command Line type treatment (cryptonomicon.com, for those that don't know it) for people, and *then* dive into usage of various applications. It's not just knowing how that's important, it's understanding your options.
I play UT2004 on my Gentoo AMD64 box all the time...super speedy, great graphics. They even have a binary just for 64 bit Linux.
Its your ATI card, dude. If you're using Linux, there is only one graphics card manufacturer: nVidia. I've only bought nVidia for a few years now (4?) and have never been unhappy with the performance and ease of use.
So hot!
Err, the "design decision" affects everyone, everywhere. But it doesn't pose a problem for the VAST majoritry of users. Just read 10 sites that talk about it...they'll say that their personal PSPs don't have a problem, even though the design causes some units to malfunction.
You're making the argument that everyone is having an issue, but only 4,700 people were pissed of enough about it to send it in. That is simply NOT the case.
I realize there are counterarguments to what I'm about to say, but it's worth mentioning:
The "square button" problem affected 4,700 units, out of over 800,000 shipped. The chnaces are about 1/150 or so that you'll actually have an issue. While not Six Sigma, it's still not bad.
As far as (2), from TFA:
PSP features an unmatched 4.3-inch, 16:9 wide screen TFT LCD that displays full color (16.77 million colors) on a 480 x 272 pixel high-resolution screen. PSP also comes complete with built-in stereo speakers, exterior headphone connector and diverse input/output connectors such as USB 2.0, and 802.11b (Wi-Fi) wireless LAN, enabling users to connect to the Internet and play online via a wireless network. Up to 16 PSPs in the vicinity can also be connected to each other directly in ad-hoc mode, allowing for wireless head-to-head competition. In addition, wireless capabilities will allow software and data to be downloaded to a PSP and saved onto a Memory Stick Duo.
What where you saying about wireless? =)
Maybe this is something you should reserve judgement on until you hold one. I, for one, really think Nintendo messed up in the packaging department far more than Sony did...the DS is just huge - effectively twice as big as a GBA SP. The "pocketability" of a system is key, and I think the PSP has it.
You have bought into the idea that copyright is for-profit, inherently, and primarily. This is a relatively new notion, really. In fact, if you go back and read the prime mover behind copyright in the first place, it was all about something I mentioned above: the public good. Profit was strictly a secondary concern. Specifically, the primary concern was to incentivize artists to release their work so the public could enjoy it.
Many people know this in their heart, but haven't heard it expressed or read the relevant laws. But in essence what everyone wants is for the artists to make a living, and for tons of people to enjoy their music however they like. But somehow, we've moved past that into this realm where we want to defend an artist making a living, a middleman making millions of dollars, and limiting our audience to the music as much as possible (yes, I consider selling a $0.10 CD in a store for $18 a crime).
Essentially, my position (I won't speak for NoData anymore) boils down to the argument that the artists has every right to make a living. But if the artist makes a living (even a modest one), the public should be able to enjoy the artist's work. For those that cannot afford the $18, there is no case of a lost sale, there is no money lost, there is only gain.
This is the system that should exist. The real querstion is: how do we get there from here? There may be no way, but one thing is certain in my mind: things are not OK the way they are. We live in a time where there are plenty of us to pay for CDs, and those that cannot can still enjoy the music.
Rush might have put it best:
Begin the day
With a friendly voice
A companion, unobtrusive
Plays that song that's so elusive
And the magic music makes your morning mood
Off on your way
Hit the open road
There is magic at your fingers
For the spirit ever lingers
Undemanding contact
In your happy solitude
Invisible airwaves
Crackle with life
Bright antennae bristle
With the energy
Emotional feedback
On a timeless wavelength
Bearing a gift beyond price ---
Almost free...
All this machinery
Making modern music
Can still be open-hearted
Not so coldly charted
It's really just a question
Of your honesty
One likes to believe
In the freedom of music
But glittering prizes
And endless compromises
Shatter the illusion
Of integrity
For the words of the profits
Are written on the studio wall,
Concert hall ---
Echoes with the sounds...
Of salesmen.
This was written in 1980, long before MP3's, the internet, or P2P. But all the ideas are there, and more. In fact, Neil even alludes to the two freedoms that we commonly mention in regards to free software; he talks of both free in price, but also freedom to be artistic in your music without "selling out". But his final stab, after verses about comprimising to make a buck, is that the whole industry, from the studios to the concert halls, is not about the artist, and it's not about the audience. It's all about the salesman.
Defend the system all you want, but it's broken, and it's been broken for 25 years, at least. It's time to move on and get something better, not take the latest crop of problems and blame them on peer to peer file sharing.
I wish there were a -1 Absurd moderation.
You ALWAYS have choice. It's purely a matter of willpower. You're taking the absurd position that the choice did not exist because someone didn't have the willpower to make the hard decision. Both my parents smoked for 15 years, and they both JUST QUIT when they decided they were going to have children. Because they understood something that you don't:
THEY understood that they had a choice. It was their future children that didn't have the choice about being born, or enduring a pregancy under constant assault from nictoine.
Just because you REALLY want something doesn't mean your decision making capacity is gone. Check yourself into a clinic. Get help. Or use good old-fashioned willpower and STOP. The choice is always there. In fact, you make a choice every time you do something that you know is wrong or bad. Your first statement says it all:
People need protection from themselves.
That runs contrary to everything I believe in and stand for. People NEVER need protection from themselves. People do not need to be coddled or protected. Even children, who do need to be guided and taught, make decisions and should be held accountable for them. Children are people, just like everyone else. They may need more guidance and have less experience, but they still have the ability to reason right from wrong, and understand consequences. Addicts are the same way. They don't get a free pass to do whatever they want because they're an addict. They are a person who can make decisions, and that cannot be taken away. The first step to giving people the respect that they deserve is to hold them accountable for what they do. Freedom and responsiblity go hand-in-hand, and by taking away one, you necessarily take away the other.
There are those in the world that want to find a way to shed personal responsiblity at every opportunity, and there are those who take charge of their lives and claim responsiblity. Which are you?
Rio Karma players break. I own one, so I know.
Neuros, on the other hand, are excellent. Windows and Linux support, open source syncing software, open source firmware, 20GB, 40GB, 60GB and 80GB USB 2.0 (High Speed) models available. Supports playback in ogg, wav and mp3, records from onboard mic or line in in wav or mp3.
Have at it.
http://www.neurosaudio.com
I love mine. And no, I don't get a kickback. =)
Yes, but the real issue is that they don't usually RUN as root. So this means that in everyday life, if one of their programs has a security flaw that allows someone to execute arbitrary code as the *user running the program*, it won't bring down the system.
Contrast this with most home Windows installs.
The fact that they "happily" type in their password is less than ideal, but far more ideal than always running as a priveledged user. The case youn describe works on ANY system with ANY inexperienced/lazy user. The OS can only do so much to hold your hand, but what it can do can be quite useful.
Side note: if you've used Mepis linux, you'll notice that it uses the same system as OS X, forcing you during install to supply a root password as well as a user account and password. KDE supports this through it's menu system and KDEsu where it will ask you for a password for root when you try to run a configuration/installation program. Pretty good, if you ask me. This utilizes sudo, AFAIK.
I love Macs, but don't own one. Thinking of picking up the new mini.
Main box is a 64 bit running Gentoo, and my laptop is intel (psuedo-centrino) running Mepis from Los Alamos Computers (laclinux.com). I've never loved erasers, but I found that if you disable the touchpad tap-to-click under linux, the whole thing becomes FAR more bearable.
I'm not sure exactly how to do that, though...I know SuSe does it by default, and I just put Mepis back on the laptop and have to remember what setting it was...
In any case, disabling that "feature" should help you endure the touchpad hell.
P2P isn't a protocol. It USES these other protocols (BitTorrent, for example, uses TCP and UDP). So your argument about ratios is a bit flawed. P2P cannot be reasonably separated from its underlying protocol in determining some kind of illegal/legal ratio. And I won't even get into the practical issues in doing so.
The reason I'm posting:
"As used in this section, "peer-to-peer file sharing software" means software that once installed and launched, enables the user to connect his or her computer to a network of other computers on which the users of these computers have made available recording or audiovisual works for electronic dissemination to other users who are connected to the network. When a transaction is complete, the user has an identical copy of the file on his or her computer and may also then disseminate the file to other users connected to the network."
This leads me to believe that in order to qualify as P2P, ONE piece of software must be installed that will allow BOTH uploading and downloading of the entire file. I see the intent, and while I don't think Firefox qualifies (uploading a file? I don't think you can...maybe an extention?), certainly FTP qualifies, or more correctly, a piece of FTP software would qualify.
Interestingly, if you created two pieces of software that would interact, one to upload and one to download, then you would get around this law, based on its wording.
Also, it is clear WHO was pushing money for this: RI/MPAA. If you notice, nowhere in the bill do they simply say "Copyrighted works." Instead they go to great lengths to single out what turns out to be music, movies and video games. So if I develop P2P software that that only trades copies of Microsoft Office, or Quicken, well, it doesn't seem they'll be nabbing me under this law.
Again, I understand the intention, but there's always a way around. Another stipulation in the law is that the copy on your computer has to be the same as the copy that was sent. Wouldn't it be cool to have your own "key" in the program that did some for of weak encryption on the file (XOR) and stored all the file obtained with the software in that form? Then you have the program "decode" it on the fly and feed it to Xmms, mplayer, whatever. Might be a bit of a pain, but it would keep you clear from the law as well. Incidentally, as computers get faster, we could use not-so-trivial encryption with this method, making prosecution pretty damn hard (if you can't verify the data on the computer it makes it hard to show you downloaded anything to it.)
Or, we could just rely on our out-of-US and out-of-California friends to supply us with software. =) Thanks guys!
All Mac OS X users are willing to put up with an administrator account that is differentiated from their "normal" user account.
Though the public's needs are often catered to by tech companies, at some point the public needs to listen to the people who know what they're talking about. In the area of computer security, the excuse that "I never needed a password in DOS!" won't cut it anymore.
Clearly, The Right Thing is to have two distinct accounts, and almost all Linux users know this, and ALL OS X users use it, whether or not they understand the underlying principle.
Windows needs to catch up in this regard, whether or not the public will "put up" with it. It's best for them, and they'll get used to it.
Gosh, you beat me to it! I, too, was going to pipe up and say the same thing. As a graduate of Cornell Engineering myself, I can tell you from my own experience (and those of my friends from Cornell Engineering) that it was tough to get in, and it was VERY tough to do decently/graduate.
I think GP's comments are applicable in certain Ivy schools to varying extents depending on major, but my experience did not bear that out in Cornell Engineering *at all*.
I tried to get a degree in CS, but I got a D+ in a fourth semester Math class (Math 294), and CS wouldn't take that grade and kicked me out, end of story. It was the same semester I took CS 314 (the computer arhcitecture and organization class mentioned above) and I devoted all my time to designing that processor, and not much on the "stuff I didn't like", i.e. Math 294. Did well in CS 314 though. I still love computers and have managed to become a software engineer. Its awesome.
Anyway, I ended up graduating in the bottom half of my class with a degree in Operations Research, and had friends in MechE, EE, MatSci, and CS. They did OK/better than I, but it wasn't easy for any of us. And yes, we did have quite a few drop outs.
And someone here may have some insight. When a probe like this lands:
1) How big are the antennas it uses to send (do they fold out?)
2) Where does it get the power to transmit? (Solar?)
3) Does NASA have some giant antenna array somewhere that receives this stuff? (That they're steaing time from SETI to do this stuff?)
4) How does it know which way Earth is, so it knows where to point the antena? It is celestial, like ICBMs?
Sorry - I don't usually post a bunch of questions, but I've read a couple of articles on this, and they haven't been talking about this kind of stuff. Google might have something, but knowing the crowd here, someone actually WORKS on this stuff... =) 2.2 billion miles is an awful long way...I'm kind of surprised the trasmissions make it so well.
Oh, and if radio travels at the speed of light, how long does it take does it take to get here?
2.2 billion miles = 2,200,000,000
c = ~186,000 miles/s
2,200,000,000/c = 11,828 secs = 197 min = 3.28 hours
Wow!
Hey moderators! Why don't you try READING what the guy posted before you mark it as redundant?
I'm not sure about state laws, but I acted as a legal officer (as a side duty, rather than my main job) in the Navy for a few years.
In federal jurisdiction, searches are legal if you have probable cause. Not applicable here.
Now, if you keep a desk in space on a ship where you work, the legal folks on the ship (Master at Arms) are allowed to search that if they want, probable cause or not, because you have no reasonable expectation of privacy in a desk in a public space. This is not *private* property though. Although not much is, on a ship.
Whether to classify a GPS tracker as a search or as a wiretap is a tough one. Under a search mentaility, anything that doesn't have a "reasonable expectation of privacy" is pretty much up for grabs. I.e. email has no expectation of privacy, but telephone calls do. I always thought it was an odd distinction, even more so now in the days of VoIP. Anyway, the cops can read your email without ANY warrant.
They also don't need a warrant to tail you, or stake out your house (am I right on this last one? I'm pretty sure no permission is required simply to "watch" from the street.)
So you can look at this from a perspective of utility ("How is this being used? Oh, instead of tailing? Well, obviously you don't need a warrant!") or from a perspective of a technical act ("What did you do? Oh, you put a FRIGGIN BUG in a guy's car? Hell yeah you need a warrant!").
The physical act is exactly like bugging, and the utility is like tailing. It's true that your vehicle's location is publicly known (hell, this wouldn't be an issue if the headline was "Police Track Man's Car Using Sattelite Optical Recognition", though that would be cool, too). But it's also true they shouldn't be "planting" devices on personal property without a warrant.
All that is to say, well, I don't know. I can see both sides. I think maybe this is OK, but if it were anything OTHER than a simple GPS tracker, like a GPS tracker with a microphone, it wouldn't.
I am well aware of the differences, though from my own studies I believe that Zen embodies the teachings of Buddha more purely than the others. Before my trip to Thailand, I was excited to meet those who held Buddhism so dearly, and was dissappointed to find that Buddhism was frought with many the trappings and ceremony you find in other religions that I find less appealing.
I am drawn to buddhism out of a sense of purity; exactly because of a *lack* of the usual trappings of religion. Of the various buddhist sects, I find Zen to be the most appealing, pure, and in line with what Buddha himself taught.
I did not mean to make the two sound sysnonymous; they most certainly are not. However, in *no* buddhist belief system do the enlightened shun those who are not - it is not in the spirit or teachings of buddha.
Perhaps out of not ignorance, but carelessness, did I give the wrong impression. My apologies.
You sir, know nothing about Buddhism.
In Zen, the primary goal of one who is enlightened is to teach others, so that they too may become enlightened.
Indeed, look to Buddha himself, and what he did after he attained enlightenment.
Well met...I was under the impression local meant local physical access.
I got it now, thanks.
Now, what's the address for that patch again? =)
Not to take the bait, but...
In all honesty, if someone has physical access to the box and wanted to exploit it, they could, no matter what it's running. So, while interesting, local exploits are no big deal. As the saying goes: "If your enemy has physical access to your hardware, you've already lost."
Oh, and whay is this different than MS? Because all their exploits are REMOTE.
News flash:
Local exploit to gain root: a knoppix CD.
No, but that's the kind of person Apple wants to cater to.
Me? I just pick what I like the most, whatever that happens to be. If its popular, peachy. If not, oh well. I try to be influenced as little as possible by advertising and fashion, either negatively or positively.