" And gosh, if I lived closer to my office (16.5 miles away, and I'm unusually close for the Bay Area) then I wouldn't have to worry about the fact that there is no shower and no bicycle storage at the building."
Okay, we're just having cycle lockers put in at work, the argument being that if the company's spending thousands on parking spaces for cars, they can hardly comlain about the $700 of a bike-locker.
And any company with cycle-parking has to provide showers, it's UK law. If it's not law where you are, have a chat with someone about making it law.
If you are rich enough to live downtown or just a couple miles away from your work, then swell. But don't presume that everyone is in your fortunate position.
If you are rich enough to pay for a car, fuel, insurance, road tax, the gulf wars, and the tax cost of treating road casualties, whilst dismissing with a wave of your hand anything other than the car and "it's obviously impractical", then swell. But don't presume that everyone is in your fortunate position.
"Since the site in fact contains only links, either they lied in their affidavits, which would be both perjury and a fraud upon the court, or they didn't even bother to look at the site, which would be grossly negligent. Am I missing something, or are they in very deep legal trouble?"
You're missing the "perjury being bad" bit -- have you ever watched policemen testifying in court? Microsoft in court? The RIAA in court?
Gator is spyware, even though they say they aren't Gator is spyware, even though they deny it Gator is spyware, they sued someone for saying so Gator is spyware, gator is spyware Ask Google, Gator is spyware. Gator is spyware, once again for the record Gator is spyware, seventh time lucky for search-engine listing.
"I have a human verification engine that I use to "protect" web logs, email, and other public, but sensitive pages (like contact pages on my website)"
Okay, I've just had a look at this problem, and I can confirm that it takes less than an hour to implement in PHP, so no problems if people think they need something similar on their website.
I'm using a 4-digit number as the password, and it simply changes every hour, which means you don't have to store a list of "valid" passwords. If the number is correct, it "includes" the main file, which would otherwise be 403:prohibited.
Time to see how the "normal people" react to it...
"In order not to miss a light at the road I mentioned, you must go at least five miles over the limit. Then you make every light, and get to the end of the road about fifteen minutes faster than if you miss any of the early lights. Add that time out over a round trip, and it's definitely worthwhile."
Sounds like a goldmine to me... is anyone building speed cameras there?
"There are sensors on the top of traffic lights in the UK that respond to headlights. (all vehicles, not just ambulances, quite useful on dark country roads)"
In city areas, they use inductive loops to sense cars approaching, their speed etc. and use this to find out if anyone's waiting for the traffic lights.
Now, this all sounds good in theory, until you spend 10 minutes waiting on a red light because they're incapable of detecting a cyclist.
Nighttime red lights? Don't even see them anymore.
"So, we all know the GPL says "No warranty..." etc. However, I'm willing to be this is the first time that an actual distribution -- something with a real company behind it (non-profits don't count, so don't post "you forgot GNU/FSF" as a reply) -- has put actual hardware at risk"
Mandrake requires that you agree to an EULA before you're allowed to install it; you can't use Mandrake solely under the terms of the GPL without agreeing to an additional contract.
"So how do you propose putting firmware updates into CD-ROM drives, DVD drives, modems, etc.? Just about any peripheral which has flashable firmware can be rendered unusable by software."
A read-only switch would do. Preferably a hardware one, or a jumper, but I realise that some motherboard firmware have software control of their read-only settings.
C'mon, updating the firmware on your CD-ROM isn't exactly something you want to do by accident, and it shouldn't be something which can be done by any software without some explicit action by the user.
Anyone remember chernobyl the virus? Any non-write-protected hardware gets trashed. If a CD-rom comes without a jumper-switch to enable write access, it's only a matter of time before Adobe decides to kill it if you enter the wrong activation code for photoshop.
"M$ did a lot of marketing for the tablets. I keep seeing ads for them, and they have a big section on their web site."
Microsoft is the first google hit for "tablet PCs", and many of the other results are about WindowXP, rather than about tablets themselves, which is quite annoying if you're trying to buy one. Especially when you're trying to buy a tablet without MS-Windows, but that's another story.
They look nice for GIS applications, with moving maps and GPS, with touch-screen controls and a plug-in USB keyboard, but they're not cheap by any standards...
"Unfortunately, workalikes are going to make consistency difficult. By workalike I mean is built from the same source code base, customized. I guess my terminology isn't very good here."
For a long time, the Mozilla website was very much against the idea of people actually giving Mozilla to the general public: they asked that people should rebrand it first, so that whomever rebranded it would provide technical support.
That's changed recently, but Mozilla was left out of various CD compilations at this request of the development team. For example, theOpenCD included Beonex, which was hardly more than Mozilla with a new name, but unrecognisable.
It's good to see mozilla.org encouraging the use of its software by end-users: goodness knows it was bad enough for them having to put up with internet explorer.
"Tell Gator, instead of whining about it here Gator Contact Form I already sent them the url of the/. discussion.."
There's a perl module called LWP::Simple which can retrieve a page from the internet
There are several perl modules and functions to make it easy to split a slashdot HTML page into individual comments, and extract the text and moderation results from each.
The LWP::Simple module allows you to make POST requests, such as those to a feedback form on a company's website. Alternatively, the "mail" program, and the many Net::SMTP modules allow you to send email directly from a program.
Has anyone considered sending each and every comment in this story to the Gator feedback form, or to the Gator execs' email addresses, or to the lawyers and comanies responsible for implementing this forced change of attitude?
"Malicious software" is a more recognisable phrase for most people, both because it accurately describes the intent of those who wrote the software, and because it's the language used in microsoft security bulletins, and the newspaper articles which quote them.
"SCO went big game hunting immediately either because it thought its case was rock solid, or because it wanted the publicity of taking on IBM (or both)."
"Still, I'm not sure I agree that the ISP is "profiting" from the hosting of copyrighted material on one of its user's homepages. It may be allowing it, but there's no commercial gain whatsoever."
Next up, suing the government for "profiting" (through taxes) from the hosting of terrorists...
"Sony today announced it's latest line of personal entertainment products that, miraculously, don't need batteries, ever. Say hello to the new Sony NukeMan."
"So how can Dan's version be funnier if its exactly the same thing!?"
It's funnier the first time you read it. And I read it first somewhere else. So it was funnier somewhere else. Q.E.D.
Alternatively, you could say I not so much glanced at the article before, seeing the awful HTML formatting, went back to slashdot instead. After all, I've already read a good article on destroying computers.
Alternative 2: DansData doesn't split his articles over 5 pages. So it's funnier because the joke's lost as you wait and wait for the next page to load...
Slashdot Mirror
" And gosh, if I lived closer to my office (16.5 miles away, and I'm unusually close for the Bay Area) then I wouldn't have to worry about the fact that there is no shower and no bicycle storage at the building."
Okay, we're just having cycle lockers put in at work, the argument being that if the company's spending thousands on parking spaces for cars, they can hardly comlain about the $700 of a bike-locker.
And any company with cycle-parking has to provide showers, it's UK law. If it's not law where you are, have a chat with someone about making it law.
If you are rich enough to live downtown or just a couple miles away from your work, then swell. But don't presume that everyone is in your fortunate position.
If you are rich enough to pay for a car, fuel, insurance, road tax, the gulf wars, and the tax cost of treating road casualties, whilst dismissing with a wave of your hand anything other than the car and "it's obviously impractical", then swell. But don't presume that everyone is in your fortunate position.
"They don't want to say, directly, that IBM is giving all theis technology to America's enemies, but they want people to join the dots."
As opposed to say, giving source code which risks national-security to the Chinese?
"Since the site in fact contains only links, either they lied in their affidavits, which would be both perjury and a fraud upon the court, or they didn't even bother to look at the site, which would be grossly negligent. Am I missing something, or are they in very deep legal trouble?"
You're missing the "perjury being bad" bit -- have you ever watched policemen testifying in court? Microsoft in court? The RIAA in court?
"Surely this is like hosting a list of places you can buy illicit drugs."
Or publishing a dossier of countries in which you can find illegal weapons?
Gator is spyware, even though they say they aren't
Gator is spyware, even though they deny it
Gator is spyware, they sued someone for saying so
Gator is spyware, gator is spyware
Ask Google, Gator is spyware.
Gator is spyware, once again for the record
Gator is spyware, seventh time lucky for search-engine listing.
Did I already mention Gator? As spyware?
"I have a human verification engine that I use to "protect" web logs, email, and other public, but sensitive pages (like contact pages on my website)"
Okay, I've just had a look at this problem, and I can confirm that it takes less than an hour to implement in PHP, so no problems if people think they need something similar on their website.
I'm using a 4-digit number as the password, and it simply changes every hour, which means you don't have to store a list of "valid" passwords. If the number is correct, it "includes" the main file, which would otherwise be 403:prohibited.
Time to see how the "normal people" react to it...
"Use the same type of human verification system that Yahoo uses when signing up for an e-mail account."
Create and use some SSAPP laws, and bankrupt the spammers.
(Strategic Spamming Against Public Participation)
"In order not to miss a light at the road I mentioned, you must go at least five miles over the limit. Then you make every light, and get to the end of the road about fifteen minutes faster than if you miss any of the early lights. Add that time out over a round trip, and it's definitely worthwhile."
Sounds like a goldmine to me... is anyone building speed cameras there?
"There are sensors on the top of traffic lights in the UK that respond to headlights. (all vehicles, not just ambulances, quite useful on dark country roads)"
In city areas, they use inductive loops to sense cars approaching, their speed etc. and use this to find out if anyone's waiting for the traffic lights.
Now, this all sounds good in theory, until you spend 10 minutes waiting on a red light because they're incapable of detecting a cyclist.
Nighttime red lights? Don't even see them anymore.
"You drive on the left side of the road, around them."
Don't try this in England...
"So, we all know the GPL says "No warranty..." etc. However, I'm willing to be this is the first time that an actual distribution -- something with a real company behind it (non-profits don't count, so don't post "you forgot GNU/FSF" as a reply) -- has put actual hardware at risk"
Mandrake requires that you agree to an EULA before you're allowed to install it; you can't use Mandrake solely under the terms of the GPL without agreeing to an additional contract.
"So how do you propose putting firmware updates into CD-ROM drives, DVD drives, modems, etc.? Just about any peripheral which has flashable firmware can be rendered unusable by software."
A read-only switch would do. Preferably a hardware one, or a jumper, but I realise that some motherboard firmware have software control of their read-only settings.
C'mon, updating the firmware on your CD-ROM isn't exactly something you want to do by accident, and it shouldn't be something which can be done by any software without some explicit action by the user.
Anyone remember chernobyl the virus? Any non-write-protected hardware gets trashed. If a CD-rom comes without a jumper-switch to enable write access, it's only a matter of time before Adobe decides to kill it if you enter the wrong activation code for photoshop.
"They also estimate Aurora to reach very far south in the next couple of weeks."
Spy-plane jokes aside, this sounds like a heads-up for people to drive into the country sometime and see the northern lights for yourself.
"In my humble opinion, migrating from Windows to Linux is bad for economy."
(a) jobs gain for linux experts to do the transition
(b) productivity gain from using reliable software
(c) reduction in worms and viruses, which are routinely quoted as costing billions of dollars to the economy
It's not just about box-prices, and as to the people running around fixing Windows systems, that's wasted time, not productive time.
"M$ did a lot of marketing for the tablets. I keep seeing ads for them, and they have a big section on their web site."
Microsoft is the first google hit for "tablet PCs", and many of the other results are about WindowXP, rather than about tablets themselves, which is quite annoying if you're trying to buy one. Especially when you're trying to buy a tablet without MS-Windows, but that's another story.
They look nice for GIS applications, with moving maps and GPS, with touch-screen controls and a plug-in USB keyboard, but they're not cheap by any standards...
"Unfortunately, workalikes are going to make consistency difficult. By workalike I mean is built from the same source code base, customized. I guess my terminology isn't very good here."
For a long time, the Mozilla website was very much against the idea of people actually giving Mozilla to the general public: they asked that people should rebrand it first, so that whomever rebranded it would provide technical support.
That's changed recently, but Mozilla was left out of various CD compilations at this request of the development team. For example, theOpenCD included Beonex, which was hardly more than Mozilla with a new name, but unrecognisable.
It's good to see mozilla.org encouraging the use of its software by end-users: goodness knows it was bad enough for them having to put up with internet explorer.
"According to dictionary.com..."
According to the Wiktionary, there is no definition yet for spyware, nor is Gator listed in the Wikipedia
Of course, both reference sites allow you to edit the definition of any of their entries...
"Tell Gator, instead of whining about it here Gator Contact Form I already sent them the url of the /. discussion.."
There's a perl module called LWP::Simple which can retrieve a page from the internet
There are several perl modules and functions to make it easy to split a slashdot HTML page into individual comments, and extract the text and moderation results from each.
The LWP::Simple module allows you to make POST requests, such as those to a feedback form on a company's website. Alternatively, the "mail" program, and the many Net::SMTP modules allow you to send email directly from a program.
Has anyone considered sending each and every comment in this story to the Gator feedback form, or to the Gator execs' email addresses, or to the lawyers and comanies responsible for implementing this forced change of attitude?
"Malware", people. Covers a lotta crap."
"Malicious software" is a more recognisable phrase for most people, both because it accurately describes the intent of those who wrote the software, and because it's the language used in microsoft security bulletins, and the newspaper articles which quote them.
"$699 is probably less than you pay your legal department for an hour of sitting around on retainer."
Well if they're working for you anyway, why not have them spend that hour filing a stock-fraud complaint against SCO?
"SCO went big game hunting immediately either because it thought its case was rock solid, or because it wanted the publicity of taking on IBM (or both)."
I think you missed out the insanity option.
"x10.com seems to sell webcams mostly to people who hope to catch hot chicks on camera."
And receivers to people who like to drive around watching people's "private" wireless cameras...
(yeah I know, you use a TV-equipped scanner and not an X10 receiver...)
"Secure your house and protect your family! Install CCTV cameras everywhere, then transmit unencrypted!"
"Still, I'm not sure I agree that the ISP is "profiting" from the hosting of copyrighted material on one of its user's homepages. It may be allowing it, but there's no commercial gain whatsoever."
Next up, suing the government for "profiting" (through taxes) from the hosting of terrorists...
"Sony today announced it's latest line of personal entertainment products that, miraculously, don't need batteries, ever. Say hello to the new Sony NukeMan."
Welcome back Pitr
"So how can Dan's version be funnier if its exactly the same thing!?"
It's funnier the first time you read it. And I read it first somewhere else. So it was funnier somewhere else. Q.E.D.
Alternatively, you could say I not so much glanced at the article before, seeing the awful HTML formatting, went back to slashdot instead. After all, I've already read a good article on destroying computers.
Alternative 2: DansData doesn't split his articles over 5 pages. So it's funnier because the joke's lost as you wait and wait for the next page to load...