AT&T is suffering major problems stemming from the breakup, and will likely never recover.
I've never been convinced that the breakup is responsible for any of AT&T's termoil. They've had plenty of time to "get over it" and any failure to do so since then has just been bad business execution.
If you are thinking "Well it was really just that way all along," you are fundamentally missing the coolness of Quantum Physics.
Or, if you are like some dimwits I know, you say "It was really just that way all along, there is no such thing as Quantum Physics, and the only people who believe in it are Scientists who want desperately to believe in god."
I hate that argument against Quantum Phyics.
It's apparently very hard for people that are supposedly "so smart" to admit just once that they don't really know a damned thing. It's almost as if they fear the ever important concept that everything they know is wrong!
This was not theft. Copyright infringement perhaps, unlawful computer access definately, but not theft.
You, are very wrong.
"Waa, waa, I can't be wrong, I'm 1337! Information wants to be free! He didn't take anything! It isn't theft! Waa!"
You are very wrong because he did in fact intend to permantly DEPRIVE the owner of something, and did so, in fact.
"Waa, waa, No, he didn't, I'm going to keep whining about how information waaaaaaa wants to be free! *sniffle*"
He's a theif. He stole their "sole possession" of proprietary code. Before he took it, they (and possibly others that they granted use of) were the only persons rightfully in possession of said code.
When he STOLE that sole possession, he devalued it's value to them as a sole possession (no matter how substantially so).
If he had sold it to other people, he would have been STEALING their ability to offer an exclusive service. If he had been USING it for his own gain, he would have been STEALING THEIR HARD WORK for his personal gain, essentially turning the situation into a case where they were unknowingly working for him, without pay.
It's theft. Any arguement to the contrary is bullshit.
I realize the example wasn't perfect, but it was just innocent and obscure enough to make my point.
I can think of lots of examples of encryption in video games, though none that I am aware of that is used to prevent online cheating. Most video game encryption is used to prevent the illegal dumping of ROMs or to prevent access to the game video or sound content outside of the game it's self.
Still, I was trying to illustrate a point that any innocent use of encryption could make someone a criminal just because it wasn't feasible for them to "play by the rules."
There's nothing stopping a small group of interelated individuals from writing their own scrambling technique which could qualify as "encryption", and if laws were passed requiring "back doors" or what-have-you, then any old "Little Orphan Annie Decoder Wheel" that the Government couldn't figure out would instantly make sensitive information (and the people who deal in it) illegal/criminals.
I'll cite an theoretical example.
Video Game Company X has a neat little game gaining great popularity, but due to various reasons they encrypt certain game data with proprietary methods, not at all to keep the government out, but to keep cheaters from snooping the data and exploiting the game. For the sake of argument, they use a clever, light-weight encryption scheme that nobody seems to be able to figure out and for which no back-door-method can feasibly be devised. After all, this is a game, not a spy communications device.
Since we know that they're doing it for gaming, and not espionage, we can consider it mostly harmless. But the laws some people want to pass would probably prohibit this very thing. And for what? Supposed terroist threat? Get real.
I don't even know why I'm rambling about this consider almost everyone here is likely going to agree with me that the trivial uses of encryption should be inalienable in one's rights to privacy. But I'm just frightened that someone might do something (such as the above example) and suddenly find themselves locked away for life just because they wanted a secure entertainment platform.
Here's a bit for you to munch on, troll... (I shouldn't be feeding you... but...)
Who said that was the only thing running on the Dreamcast? Not I. It does however make an excellent reason to own a Dreamcast.
I personally love the idea of taking up less entertainment center space by using my Dreamcast in place of my SNES and NES. I have many games I adore on those systems but as my console collection continues to grow space continues to become more precious, and having the Dreamcast take over the roll of older systems is a real blessing.
I'm not saying there aren't other great reasons to own a Dreamcast, but Linux and NetBSD don't impress me nearly as much as a CD full of my favorite SNES titles.
It's somewhat illegal to pirate roms of course, but if challenged to provide proof that I have rights to fair use I can always pull out my crate full of over 50 original SNES cartridges, and two broken SNES controllers.:-(
Totally subjective. I still consider the Saturn's NiGHTS controller the best controller in history.
And DVD movie playback?
Poor DVD playback. My Laptop makes a better DVD player.
awful, wretchedly designed controller
Again, subjective. I happen to love the Dreamcast controller. I don't I dislike the Playstation controller, mind you. But again, it's functionally not much better, though perhaps a quite a more ergonomic for some people (not me...)
It's games are fun.
Oh? I've seen few PS2 titles out yet that I've really been interested in. So far for me the PS2 is nothing more than an expensive Playstation 1 emulator. Not that I'm complaining too much about that, but it is sort of a shame that the best reasons to own a Playstation 2 are all Playstation 1 games.
And before anyone gets bent out of shape
I don't get bent out of shape on such things. I'm something of a realist so I stay level headed when discussing these things. Plus, I'm really a gaming whore. It's all good, and while I happen to find great merit in the PS2, I find it to be a great shame that Sony has displaced so much of Sega and Nintendo's market seeing as how they have little show in the way of first party efforts (though Grand Turismo is the lone exception.)
If I knew more about electronics I'd solder together some kind of adaptor for my PS dual shock controllers.
Perhaps you would be interested in either a Bleempad or Bleempod. The pad of course is a pad for the dreamcast modeled after the Playstation's. The Bleempod is a straight adapter. Unfortunately, they seem rather hard to come by.
I repeat, though, that controller preferences are subjective. I find that the Playstation controller is a wee bit too small for my hands, and the Dreamcast's just seems to fit better for me (as does the N64's) but I would no more force that opinion on anybody than I would force them to wear my shoes. Everyone's hands are different. I know of many controllers that I love that many people hate, including most of Microsoft's Sidewinder game pads. I personally consider the Sidewinders top-notch, esspecially teh Sindwinder Gamepad Pro. But that's subjective. Totally subjective.
It's not terrible, actually, but it isn't great, either.
Hardly important, though, considering the Dreamcast can be plugged into a VGA monitor.
With a Keybaord, a Mouse, and a couple of Gamepads, the Broadband adapter, and a VGA box, the only thing the Dreamcast was missing to take over as a cheap Internet gaming machine was some kind of Hard Drive with a self booting OS. The ZIP drive that was slated for it would have provided just that, but horrid Dreamcast sales put an end to all that.
So instead we get to see the Playstation 2 attempt to take that market, and if you ask me, the Playstation 2 isn't really a much better console and it costs much more than the Dreamcast. (I could go on and on about why the PS2 is a major disappointment but most people reading won't care, and those who do are fanatical Sony Fanboys who will flame me... so blah)
the GPS rollover, y2k, unix t_time going to 10 digits, various odd dates etc. we've managed to come through all remarkably unscathed.
...and just as we step out of the danger zone prancing gracefully, smiling big for our accomplishments, the earth is unexpectedly swallowed by the planet eating monster, Zelos.
We have them. Don't you get it? While all the religious people are back on Earth fighting and killing each other off towards extinction, all of the intelligent, thinking people of the world will have created means to leave and start a new, peacefull society without greed, hunger, poverty, or opression.
Hmm. I'm wondering how BIG those MPeg2 files are going to be.
It probably won't be too long before the Romz Warez folks are spreading those around...
Then of course I'm thinking there are probably some hardware rom images themselves which will probably need to be dumped (and in most cases, pirated...)
I actually have a Video Laserdisc player... this would certainly be a lot of fun to play with but unless I yoink the disc out of an arcade cabinet, I doubt I'll be able to get ahold of a legal copy of the Laserdisc. Unless someone knows someplace you can purchase them?
The significant advantage of doing raw digital audio extraction instead of playing the CD is that your wave data is (hopefully) pulled off exactly as it is on the disk, as opposed to just-good-enough-to-play-it-this-time.
As true as that certianly is -- using a direct digital conection of that type is one method of copying a CD that they will never be able to stop without making CD's imposible to listen to in the first place.
Someone "more qualified" (Read: Someone with a degree) got the job.
I'll keep applying. Until I get my degree, I'll likely continue being turned down.
This is why users at most companies hate IT, it's because IT at most companies SUCK.
One of the many reasons IT at most companies suck is because they think formal education is a proper replacement for real experience.
Incidently, I don't work for an internet based company. The internal network that keeps operations going isn't dependent on the internet at all, in fact. There is no reason a problem like this should have ever affected the company.
Unfortunately, they don't have people like me doing their computer work, they have poeple like the people they have, and from what I've seen the majority of them aren't worth a chit.
None of that is even related to my job. I was one of the few people who was able to keep on working.
They care because the traffic generated by infected systems can be costly in both cash value and time. Not to mention the fact that there could be liability issues if they knew of infected systems but did nothing about it.
Besides, if there are 3 vulnerable systems on a network, and 1 infected system, the responsible thing to do is to protect the 3 remaining uninfected systems.
(This is a bit off topic, but I figured I'd mention it here for those who think that viruses and worms don't cost anyone any real money...
Wednesday the 19th, my place of employment had to shut down entirely between the hours of about 7pm till around 10pm. Where I work, that kind of shut down costs tens of thousands of dollars. Not to mention all of the hourly workers who were sent home at 7pm. Since their shift ended at 11, they were literally out 4 hours of pay even though they don't actually work with the systems that were effected. Lost production. Lost sales. Lost wages. One tiny, preventable worm.)
Sure, a nicer tactic would be to disable low port numbers for infected users (my provider doesn't let them through in the first place) but this would likely just confuse users.
Confuse users? Bah! They get confused well enough on their own!
My major issue with blocking ports is that, well, no ISP should! An ISP provides internet connectivity, and that's what they should do.
Yes, I agree they should have some say so over what traffic comes and goes over their network (i.e. no spam, DoS attacks, etc), but I myself would not give any ISP my business if I knew they were making choices about which ports I can or can not use.
I think they are doing the right thing by booting infected users. It's certainly better than any form of port blocking.
It's already got "Write Once" run (almost) anywhere functionality. True, it costs money, but Amiga Inc. isn't aiming for tiny little BS apps with this thing, they're aiming for full scale commercial games and applications. They're trying more to compete with DirectX than they are Java virtual machines, though AmigaDE does Java, too... so it's all win-win.
We will continue to bring you new releases from both our FreeBSD-stable and FreeBSD-current branches, both as developer's snapshots and as regular full releases. The next scheduled release on the -stable branch will be FreeBSD 4.4 on September 15, 2001. The first release on what is now the -current branch will be FreeBSD 5.0, scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2002.
So it looks like FreeBSD 4.4 will be tomorrow... but I suppose a day early is possible.
Not ONLY should every Pilot be armed with a pistol and low-impact ammunition, but ALSO there should be one uniformed Air Marshall, and undisclosed number of undercover Air Marshalls (between 1 and 3, or more for larger flights), and an undercover 3rd Pilot.
It's an expensive crew for an Airplane, but how many people would be alive today if every commercial airliner was manned in such a fashion?
Slashdot Mirror
AT&T is suffering major problems stemming from the breakup, and will likely never recover.
I've never been convinced that the breakup is responsible for any of AT&T's termoil. They've had plenty of time to "get over it" and any failure to do so since then has just been bad business execution.
If you are thinking "Well it was really just that way all along," you are fundamentally missing the coolness of Quantum Physics.
Or, if you are like some dimwits I know, you say "It was really just that way all along, there is no such thing as Quantum Physics, and the only people who believe in it are Scientists who want desperately to believe in god."
I hate that argument against Quantum Phyics.
It's apparently very hard for people that are supposedly "so smart" to admit just once that they don't really know a damned thing. It's almost as if they fear the ever important concept that everything they know is wrong!
This was not theft. Copyright infringement perhaps, unlawful computer access definately, but not theft.
You, are very wrong.
"Waa, waa, I can't be wrong, I'm 1337! Information wants to be free! He didn't take anything! It isn't theft! Waa!"
You are very wrong because he did in fact intend to permantly DEPRIVE the owner of something, and did so, in fact.
"Waa, waa, No, he didn't, I'm going to keep whining about how information waaaaaaa wants to be free! *sniffle*"
He's a theif. He stole their "sole possession" of proprietary code. Before he took it, they (and possibly others that they granted use of) were the only persons rightfully in possession of said code.
When he STOLE that sole possession, he devalued it's value to them as a sole possession (no matter how substantially so).
If he had sold it to other people, he would have been STEALING their ability to offer an exclusive service. If he had been USING it for his own gain, he would have been STEALING THEIR HARD WORK for his personal gain, essentially turning the situation into a case where they were unknowingly working for him, without pay.
It's theft. Any arguement to the contrary is bullshit.
I realize the example wasn't perfect, but it was just innocent and obscure enough to make my point.
I can think of lots of examples of encryption in video games, though none that I am aware of that is used to prevent online cheating. Most video game encryption is used to prevent the illegal dumping of ROMs or to prevent access to the game video or sound content outside of the game it's self.
Still, I was trying to illustrate a point that any innocent use of encryption could make someone a criminal just because it wasn't feasible for them to "play by the rules."
The amazing thing is that no matter where I use my GBA it's too dark...
...except at work.
The lighting conditions are just perfect in my work-cell and it seems that's the only place I'm able to get any quality GBA time in.
"...but boss! I just can't see the screen at home or in the break room!"
There's nothing stopping a small group of interelated individuals from writing their own scrambling technique which could qualify as "encryption", and if laws were passed requiring "back doors" or what-have-you, then any old "Little Orphan Annie Decoder Wheel" that the Government couldn't figure out would instantly make sensitive information (and the people who deal in it) illegal/criminals.
I'll cite an theoretical example.
Video Game Company X has a neat little game gaining great popularity, but due to various reasons they encrypt certain game data with proprietary methods, not at all to keep the government out, but to keep cheaters from snooping the data and exploiting the game. For the sake of argument, they use a clever, light-weight encryption scheme that nobody seems to be able to figure out and for which no back-door-method can feasibly be devised. After all, this is a game, not a spy communications device.
Since we know that they're doing it for gaming, and not espionage, we can consider it mostly harmless. But the laws some people want to pass would probably prohibit this very thing. And for what? Supposed terroist threat? Get real.
I don't even know why I'm rambling about this consider almost everyone here is likely going to agree with me that the trivial uses of encryption should be inalienable in one's rights to privacy. But I'm just frightened that someone might do something (such as the above example) and suddenly find themselves locked away for life just because they wanted a secure entertainment platform.
Lock up the clowns?
Here's a bit for you to munch on, troll... (I shouldn't be feeding you... but...)
:-(
Who said that was the only thing running on the Dreamcast? Not I. It does however make an excellent reason to own a Dreamcast.
I personally love the idea of taking up less entertainment center space by using my Dreamcast in place of my SNES and NES. I have many games I adore on those systems but as my console collection continues to grow space continues to become more precious, and having the Dreamcast take over the roll of older systems is a real blessing.
I'm not saying there aren't other great reasons to own a Dreamcast, but Linux and NetBSD don't impress me nearly as much as a CD full of my favorite SNES titles.
It's somewhat illegal to pirate roms of course, but if challenged to provide proof that I have rights to fair use I can always pull out my crate full of over 50 original SNES cartridges, and two broken SNES controllers.
And the best controller in console gaming history
Totally subjective. I still consider the Saturn's NiGHTS controller the best controller in history.
And DVD movie playback?
Poor DVD playback. My Laptop makes a better DVD player.
awful, wretchedly designed controller
Again, subjective. I happen to love the Dreamcast controller. I don't I dislike the Playstation controller, mind you. But again, it's functionally not much better, though perhaps a quite a more ergonomic for some people (not me...)
It's games are fun.
Oh? I've seen few PS2 titles out yet that I've really been interested in. So far for me the PS2 is nothing more than an expensive Playstation 1 emulator. Not that I'm complaining too much about that, but it is sort of a shame that the best reasons to own a Playstation 2 are all Playstation 1 games.
And before anyone gets bent out of shape
I don't get bent out of shape on such things. I'm something of a realist so I stay level headed when discussing these things. Plus, I'm really a gaming whore. It's all good, and while I happen to find great merit in the PS2, I find it to be a great shame that Sony has displaced so much of Sega and Nintendo's market seeing as how they have little show in the way of first party efforts (though Grand Turismo is the lone exception.)
If I knew more about electronics I'd solder together some kind of adaptor for my PS dual shock controllers.
Perhaps you would be interested in either a Bleempad or Bleempod. The pad of course is a pad for the dreamcast modeled after the Playstation's. The Bleempod is a straight adapter. Unfortunately, they seem rather hard to come by.
I repeat, though, that controller preferences are subjective. I find that the Playstation controller is a wee bit too small for my hands, and the Dreamcast's just seems to fit better for me (as does the N64's) but I would no more force that opinion on anybody than I would force them to wear my shoes. Everyone's hands are different. I know of many controllers that I love that many people hate, including most of Microsoft's Sidewinder game pads. I personally consider the Sidewinders top-notch, esspecially teh Sindwinder Gamepad Pro. But that's subjective. Totally subjective.
Actually...
Many emulators already exist in a self booting stand alone form for the Dreamcast.
One could say that the Dreamcast does not need Linux at all, but that somewhat defeats the whole "Doing it for the sake of doing it" spirit.
Still, This Site is dedicated to Dreamcast specific emulators.
A TV screen isn't any good to display text.
It's not terrible, actually, but it isn't great, either.
Hardly important, though, considering the Dreamcast can be plugged into a VGA monitor.
With a Keybaord, a Mouse, and a couple of Gamepads, the Broadband adapter, and a VGA box, the only thing the Dreamcast was missing to take over as a cheap Internet gaming machine was some kind of Hard Drive with a self booting OS. The ZIP drive that was slated for it would have provided just that, but horrid Dreamcast sales put an end to all that.
So instead we get to see the Playstation 2 attempt to take that market, and if you ask me, the Playstation 2 isn't really a much better console and it costs much more than the Dreamcast. (I could go on and on about why the PS2 is a major disappointment but most people reading won't care, and those who do are fanatical Sony Fanboys who will flame me... so blah)
For shame.
the GPS rollover, y2k, unix t_time going to 10 digits, various odd dates etc. we've managed to come through all remarkably unscathed.
...and just as we step out of the danger zone prancing gracefully, smiling big for our accomplishments, the earth is unexpectedly swallowed by the planet eating monster, Zelos.
MY GOD, PEOPLE! GET SOME BLOODY PRIORITIES!
We have them. Don't you get it? While all the religious people are back on Earth fighting and killing each other off towards extinction, all of the intelligent, thinking people of the world will have created means to leave and start a new, peacefull society without greed, hunger, poverty, or opression.
And we will have done it all with Science.
First step was a footprint.
Second step is a business card.
Third step is a Wal-Mart.
Actually right after I posted that I looked on EBay and found this.
Apparently it's the PCB from a Dragon's Lair arcade cabinet, but it doesn't mention anything about the Laserdisc. Hmm...
Hmm. I'm wondering how BIG those MPeg2 files are going to be.
It probably won't be too long before the Romz Warez folks are spreading those around...
Then of course I'm thinking there are probably some hardware rom images themselves which will probably need to be dumped (and in most cases, pirated...)
I actually have a Video Laserdisc player... this would certainly be a lot of fun to play with but unless I yoink the disc out of an arcade cabinet, I doubt I'll be able to get ahold of a legal copy of the Laserdisc. Unless someone knows someplace you can purchase them?
The significant advantage of doing raw digital audio extraction instead of playing the CD is that your wave data is (hopefully) pulled off exactly as it is on the disk, as opposed to just-good-enough-to-play-it-this-time.
As true as that certianly is -- using a direct digital conection of that type is one method of copying a CD that they will never be able to stop without making CD's imposible to listen to in the first place.
I'd think a higher priority would be to patch the vulnerable systems rather than play whack-a-mole with already infected systems.
I agree, actually. But in this example we know that they can't very well fix the infected systems so best to just pull the link.
Oh, and didn't the ISP try to contact the system owners before pulling the link, though?
So, why didn't you prevent it?
I could have and I would have.
I applied for that position years ago.
Someone "more qualified" (Read: Someone with a degree) got the job.
I'll keep applying. Until I get my degree, I'll likely continue being turned down.
This is why users at most companies hate IT, it's because IT at most companies SUCK.
One of the many reasons IT at most companies suck is because they think formal education is a proper replacement for real experience.
Incidently, I don't work for an internet based company. The internal network that keeps operations going isn't dependent on the internet at all, in fact. There is no reason a problem like this should have ever affected the company.
Unfortunately, they don't have people like me doing their computer work, they have poeple like the people they have, and from what I've seen the majority of them aren't worth a chit.
None of that is even related to my job. I was one of the few people who was able to keep on working.
They are just packets and that should be that.
They care because the traffic generated by infected systems can be costly in both cash value and time. Not to mention the fact that there could be liability issues if they knew of infected systems but did nothing about it.
Besides, if there are 3 vulnerable systems on a network, and 1 infected system, the responsible thing to do is to protect the 3 remaining uninfected systems.
(This is a bit off topic, but I figured I'd mention it here for those who think that viruses and worms don't cost anyone any real money...
Wednesday the 19th, my place of employment had to shut down entirely between the hours of about 7pm till around 10pm. Where I work, that kind of shut down costs tens of thousands of dollars. Not to mention all of the hourly workers who were sent home at 7pm. Since their shift ended at 11, they were literally out 4 hours of pay even though they don't actually work with the systems that were effected. Lost production. Lost sales. Lost wages. One tiny, preventable worm.)
Sure, a nicer tactic would be to disable low port numbers for infected users (my provider doesn't let them through in the first place) but this would likely just confuse users.
Confuse users? Bah! They get confused well enough on their own!
My major issue with blocking ports is that, well, no ISP should! An ISP provides internet connectivity, and that's what they should do.
Yes, I agree they should have some say so over what traffic comes and goes over their network (i.e. no spam, DoS attacks, etc), but I myself would not give any ISP my business if I knew they were making choices about which ports I can or can not use.
I think they are doing the right thing by booting infected users. It's certainly better than any form of port blocking.
I have friends
You might, but judging by how well The Sims sold, apparently there are a lot of people who do not.
What about AmigaDE?
:-/
It's already got "Write Once" run (almost) anywhere functionality. True, it costs money, but Amiga Inc. isn't aiming for tiny little BS apps with this thing, they're aiming for full scale commercial games and applications. They're trying more to compete with DirectX than they are Java virtual machines, though AmigaDE does Java, too... so it's all win-win.
Sorry, someone had to say it.
From the FREEBSD.ORG site...
We will continue to bring you new releases from both our FreeBSD-stable and FreeBSD-current branches, both as developer's snapshots and as regular full releases. The next scheduled release on the -stable branch will be FreeBSD 4.4 on September 15, 2001. The first release on what is now the -current branch will be FreeBSD 5.0, scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2002.
So it looks like FreeBSD 4.4 will be tomorrow... but I suppose a day early is possible.
I've got the 8 Port Linksys.
Works excellent for me.
My two round slugs of copper.
So you're saying that the Horadric Cube is a washing machine?
Not ONLY should every Pilot be armed with a pistol and low-impact ammunition, but ALSO there should be one uniformed Air Marshall, and undisclosed number of undercover Air Marshalls (between 1 and 3, or more for larger flights), and an undercover 3rd Pilot.
It's an expensive crew for an Airplane, but how many people would be alive today if every commercial airliner was manned in such a fashion?