Here's an idea: what's preventing us from writing a Firefox plugin that auto-indexes all sites that we visit (except when in privacy mode -- or perhaps only when in a new discovery mode?)? This local index will then be shared with other machines running the same plugin and virtually combined into a big global index. Since there's no site that won't be one day visited with such a search-enabled browser, the index will likely cover most of the Internet. This way, we get rid of Google and other centralized search engines; and therefore get rid of corporate censorship.
Speaking from experience: if you're interested in a computer science career, a good mastery of maths is absolutely necessary and definitely not optional. You can't do without in this field. Period. As a software (games?) developer, you may or may not need deep skills in math, depending on whether you want to be creative with new algorithms, or whether you want to be the kind of coding monkey that does some plumbing of pre-canned components and libraries without giving much thought on the underlying concepts and algorithms.
The most depressing Sci-Fi I've read is what History writes herself right now. Who would have thought a couple of decades ago that we would spend trillions not to build some huge projects that are beneficial for the human race, but on bailing out banks? BANKS?! Who would have thought just after 9/11 that we would support a radical Islamist takeover of Syria by Al Qaida and hteir ilk, just because we dislike the local dictator there? If that's not depressing fiction becoming true, I don't know what's more depressing than that.
Let's consider Freenet. Don't they store and retrieve data based on some cryptographic keys? Of course, data is distributed across all participants, and communications still piggy back on top of IP. But that's what I'd call content-centric networking. The content isn't located by location, but by its nature (hash/key/...).
I'm using it because of its big screen and native PDF support. It is good enough for me, most of the time. One big disadvantage to me is that it lacks the split-screen ability. You see, I read a lot of math articles, and I like to display a theorem and scroll through the proof at the same time. Kindle DX lacks this basic capability. But save for that, it's quite usable, IMHO.
Burglars don't give a fuck about my data, they want my hardware.
Unless the burglars are working for the competition, the government (domestic or foreign), etc... and are actually targeting your data. And just assuming that it was "merely" your hardware that was stolen, would mean living with a false sense of security.
You are confusing Copyright with Patents. Qt is GPLed only w.r.t. Copyright. If it contains patented code, and a patent troll acquires this, Qt won't be a viable option in the OSS world, even if it is GPLed.
You must be joking here. They're merely transitioning from an authoritarian nationalistic regime to an authoritarian religious regime. I fail to see freedom there, and Obama/Clinton are pushing for a repeat of this scenario in Syria as well. Freedom is something else, but not this travesty and head first jumping right into the abyss of darkness, IMHO.
It because a problem when some of the computers started getting viruses and trojans from the porn sites.
Nothing against porn sites, but it IS a huge problem if their workstations are able to connect that easily to the global Internet. That's NOT supposed to be allowed in this sensitive environment. Then again, we're talking about the whole MDA bureaucratic personnel, not about the few NORAD staffers.
Anyone should be free to set up DNS servers and anyone else free to use any they want.
The issue is with DNS itself. We need a fully distributed, and censorship-resilient name system, and not something that can be attacked at or near the root(s).
But all this DNS-talk is moot anyway: the REAL potential for censorship takes place at 1/ the Tier-1 backbones (withdrawing BGP route announcements), 2/ at international gateways (with selective access lists, e.g. the Chinese Firewall) and 3/ within corporate-owned mega-backbones, think Comcast and other big providers. This kind of censorship is distributed and doesn't depend on one single big central authority to enforce it.
Because the MAFIAA/IFPI-bought politicians in Europe are happy with the way the US censors^Wcontrols DNS already. In their minds: no further action needed. Copyright-based censorship is already in place, and they can blame the 800lb gorilla USA for enforcing it with domain seizures, so they don't have to take the heat for doing it themselves. It's the OTHER censorship, the political one, that the U.N. is trying to implement, in addition to the Copyright-based one.
The term "free" w.r.t. society and politics is overestimated. Widely overestimated. And mostly used in a demagogic way. At most, we could say to some societies are more free than others, but free societies per se don't exist. And w.r.t. western societies in general, they've become considerably less free in the wake of 9/11 (along with all other societies in the world). Most people may not notice a difference, but that's merely the frog being slowly boiled to death.
IFPI, RIAA or MPAA are just front ends of our Copyright Taliban. Attacking them is absolutely pointless, because nothing prevents the enemy from acting independently of the *AAs: everywhere there's a Court, they can sue; everywhere there's a politician, they can bribe; everywhere there's an ISP, they can blackmail; and everywhere there's a 85 years old granny without computer, they will sue nonetheless.
To fight this hydra, we need to change the laws that it crafted and that it keeps abusing. That's where the real fight ought to be: right into the field of politics. E.g. expose Obama and his president of vice Biden as the puppets of the MAFIAA (that they are), and do the same for the politicos of the other side where appropriate as well. Publicly shame them for their shameless buying into corporatocracy. It may not help much, but at least, that's where the fight belongs.
This is just a funny little and harmless joke. Actually, Easter eggs are quite common in IT. Let's take the playboy bunny etched in silicone as an example. That's less hazardous to health than silicone implanted within a playboy bunny, isn't it? But I guess the former is more objectionable to some puritans and people without any sense of humor than the latter.
The average temperature is rising, but that just puts more energy into the global weather system and can lead to swings in temperature either way at a local level.
Interestingly, a raise in global warming may also be just what we need to increase the yield of all those new wind turbine power plants.
If you've spent some time in a Maghreb country like Morocco, you'll have noticed that most North African Arabs are just as light skinned as Lebanese, Syrians and Palestinians. Not to confuse them with the Berbers, who are more diverse (from very dark up to blonde with blue/green eyes).
Isn't it interesting how the narrative changes with the global policy? Not long ago, the Talibans were the epitome of evil, but now that western countries support the islamists to overthrow Assad, the Talibans are suddenly innocent and the good guys? This change of narrative is rather puzzling, if we take news making with more than just a grain of salt.
Well, regarding Assad, they are just pushing for an islamist regime that will censor Syrians's Internet access just as or even worse than Assad's regime.
The UN is much larger than the little group of Western countries (!) that pushed hard for ACTA. The real enemies of the Internet aren't Samoa, the Philippines, Chile, and so on; they are aright in our midst: the US, UK, France, etc. Sorry, but that's the way it is.
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Here's an idea: what's preventing us from writing a Firefox plugin that auto-indexes all sites that we visit (except when in privacy mode -- or perhaps only when in a new discovery mode?)? This local index will then be shared with other machines running the same plugin and virtually combined into a big global index. Since there's no site that won't be one day visited with such a search-enabled browser, the index will likely cover most of the Internet. This way, we get rid of Google and other centralized search engines; and therefore get rid of corporate censorship.
Speaking from experience: if you're interested in a computer science career, a good mastery of maths is absolutely necessary and definitely not optional. You can't do without in this field. Period. As a software (games?) developer, you may or may not need deep skills in math, depending on whether you want to be creative with new algorithms, or whether you want to be the kind of coding monkey that does some plumbing of pre-canned components and libraries without giving much thought on the underlying concepts and algorithms.
Imagine using a retinal scan after some time, and being denied access.
The most depressing Sci-Fi I've read is what History writes herself right now. Who would have thought a couple of decades ago that we would spend trillions not to build some huge projects that are beneficial for the human race, but on bailing out banks? BANKS?! Who would have thought just after 9/11 that we would support a radical Islamist takeover of Syria by Al Qaida and hteir ilk, just because we dislike the local dictator there? If that's not depressing fiction becoming true, I don't know what's more depressing than that.
There are other manufacturers of big eInk screen readers. It was just more easy/convenient for me to get a Kindle DX here, but the others should provide similar functionality.
Let's consider Freenet. Don't they store and retrieve data based on some cryptographic keys? Of course, data is distributed across all participants, and communications still piggy back on top of IP. But that's what I'd call content-centric networking. The content isn't located by location, but by its nature (hash/key/...).
I'm using it because of its big screen and native PDF support. It is good enough for me, most of the time. One big disadvantage to me is that it lacks the split-screen ability. You see, I read a lot of math articles, and I like to display a theorem and scroll through the proof at the same time. Kindle DX lacks this basic capability. But save for that, it's quite usable, IMHO.
Using Kindle DX here for PDFs. Works fine.
It will happen. The DMCA will be repealed... and replaced with an even more draconian law.
Unless the burglars are working for the competition, the government (domestic or foreign), etc... and are actually targeting your data. And just assuming that it was "merely" your hardware that was stolen, would mean living with a false sense of security.
You are confusing Copyright with Patents. Qt is GPLed only w.r.t. Copyright. If it contains patented code, and a patent troll acquires this, Qt won't be a viable option in the OSS world, even if it is GPLed.
Right, I've missed it (obviously, I don't qualify for watching incoming missiles...). :)
You must be joking here. They're merely transitioning from an authoritarian nationalistic regime to an authoritarian religious regime. I fail to see freedom there, and Obama/Clinton are pushing for a repeat of this scenario in Syria as well. Freedom is something else, but not this travesty and head first jumping right into the abyss of darkness, IMHO.
Wrong assumption. They could as well run Solaris/SPARC with Firefox, and getting infested with XSS and JavaScript viruses.
Nothing against porn sites, but it IS a huge problem if their workstations are able to connect that easily to the global Internet. That's NOT supposed to be allowed in this sensitive environment. Then again, we're talking about the whole MDA bureaucratic personnel, not about the few NORAD staffers.
The issue is with DNS itself. We need a fully distributed, and censorship-resilient name system, and not something that can be attacked at or near the root(s).
But all this DNS-talk is moot anyway: the REAL potential for censorship takes place at 1/ the Tier-1 backbones (withdrawing BGP route announcements), 2/ at international gateways (with selective access lists, e.g. the Chinese Firewall) and 3/ within corporate-owned mega-backbones, think Comcast and other big providers. This kind of censorship is distributed and doesn't depend on one single big central authority to enforce it.
Because the MAFIAA/IFPI-bought politicians in Europe are happy with the way the US censors^Wcontrols DNS already. In their minds: no further action needed. Copyright-based censorship is already in place, and they can blame the 800lb gorilla USA for enforcing it with domain seizures, so they don't have to take the heat for doing it themselves. It's the OTHER censorship, the political one, that the U.N. is trying to implement, in addition to the Copyright-based one.
The term "free" w.r.t. society and politics is overestimated. Widely overestimated. And mostly used in a demagogic way. At most, we could say to some societies are more free than others, but free societies per se don't exist. And w.r.t. western societies in general, they've become considerably less free in the wake of 9/11 (along with all other societies in the world). Most people may not notice a difference, but that's merely the frog being slowly boiled to death.
To fight this hydra, we need to change the laws that it crafted and that it keeps abusing. That's where the real fight ought to be: right into the field of politics. E.g. expose Obama and his president of vice Biden as the puppets of the MAFIAA (that they are), and do the same for the politicos of the other side where appropriate as well. Publicly shame them for their shameless buying into corporatocracy. It may not help much, but at least, that's where the fight belongs.
This is just a funny little and harmless joke. Actually, Easter eggs are quite common in IT. Let's take the playboy bunny etched in silicone as an example. That's less hazardous to health than silicone implanted within a playboy bunny, isn't it? But I guess the former is more objectionable to some puritans and people without any sense of humor than the latter.
Interestingly, a raise in global warming may also be just what we need to increase the yield of all those new wind turbine power plants.
If you've spent some time in a Maghreb country like Morocco, you'll have noticed that most North African Arabs are just as light skinned as Lebanese, Syrians and Palestinians. Not to confuse them with the Berbers, who are more diverse (from very dark up to blonde with blue/green eyes).
Isn't it interesting how the narrative changes with the global policy? Not long ago, the Talibans were the epitome of evil, but now that western countries support the islamists to overthrow Assad, the Talibans are suddenly innocent and the good guys? This change of narrative is rather puzzling, if we take news making with more than just a grain of salt.
Well, regarding Assad, they are just pushing for an islamist regime that will censor Syrians's Internet access just as or even worse than Assad's regime.
The UN is much larger than the little group of Western countries (!) that pushed hard for ACTA. The real enemies of the Internet aren't Samoa, the Philippines, Chile, and so on; they are aright in our midst: the US, UK, France, etc. Sorry, but that's the way it is.