Your point about Spam Assasin removing legitimate emails is interesting. Let me give you an analogy.
I'm involved in a Model United Nations. We get along about 200 delegates to represent different countries, put them in committees together, and watch the result. For no apparent reason, they are allowed to pass notes to each other, delivered by a team of willing helpers. Passing notes is free - the only cost is in writing the note. You can quite easily send as many notes as you need. There's no penalty for that. This is where it begins to look like e-mail, except without the ability to send bulk messages for the same cost as normal ones. The problem is that messaging is disruptive - people are coming in and out of committee rooms all the time. People lose concentration. For the people carrying the messages, the load can sometimes get quite extreme.
So we have to look how to reduce that load. We've tried
reducing the frequency of delivery
telling people to stop
every other method that doesn't reduce reliability
Ultimately, none of these has worked. In the end, if you can't put economic costs on a service that works well, you have to cut its reliability so that fewer messages are sent. At the MUN, that means every so often, deleting messages in bulk from the system. On the internet, that means using things like SpamAssasin. That's really unfortunate, but there we are.
Don't worry - I just checked, and I've been sent e-mails with cl!c|, V!4gra and v1agr4. The filter would just mark it as unsure, and I'd delete it without training.
That's not because of what the people tell him. No game to my knowledge has properly implemented the way that most guns are calibrated to fire above their sight-point, in order to ensure that the firer can see the target. Vietcong does quite a good job of the aiming model, but on a computer game, when you have translucent cross-hairs, there is no need to muck around like that.
But too much realism would suck anyway - imagine having to spend time searching bodies, or manually reform clips, rather than just having "ammo" (DeusEx - Invisible War developers take note).
I once set that up using my own e-mail system - duplicate all the messages and try to filter out all the spam. Theoretically it shouldn't make a difference, but I couldn't ever get the accuracy above 85%. I reckon that this is actually more difficult - spam has a really limited vocabulary - viagra, porn, mortgage, refinance, pharmaceutical - but my real e-mail has fewer "killer" words (though any of MUN, c++, bio, flightgear should ensure safe passage!)
It has become clear to me that we probably need new IP laws for an age where copying is so easy. The current set were drafted when widespread copying was difficult, and accepted that certain infringements would happen. We can now copy so much so easily, and prevent copying so easily, that I think we should look again at the law, and see whether some small rights should accrue to the user. What's your view on this?
If a team leaves every 5 minutes, (and assuming the first few hundred yards is relatively easy going - you find that on most courses of any nature), then we are going to have an awful lot of bunching at the first point the vehicles start dropping below 25mph. Interestingly, the rules state that the team in front (i.e. being passed) has right of way, unless E-stopped.
Re:Use an NP-hard problem
on
Gates on Spam
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· Score: 1
The classic problem that is used is the square root. In terms of time, it is very easy to verify a square root given both the question and the answer, but rather more expensive to generate it. This is the kind of solution used by other organisations looking to deal with spam, like Camram. They are using a slightly different method involving hash collisions.
In other words, there will be an open source java implementation, but you can bet your bottom dollar there will be better tools and IDEs for the closed version initially.
Then there will be enough libre programmers to make decent libre IDEs etc, and the proprietary Java will wither away (and Sun with it).
Though I hope Sun doesn't die, because they can stand up against Microsoft.
Linux is driven by people who want to do what's right
By people who want to make more useful and more secure software, yes. But to say that Linux is driven by people who want to do what is right is being too kind - I doubt the main motive for most contributer's efforts is the morality of what they write.
I wait to be modded into oblivion for daring to criticise any part of the OSS ideals or development process.
They recently announced that automatic background updating would become standard from Win XP SP2 and "Windows Updates" would change to "Microsoft Updates" which would install silently without a reboot
To be fair, they also announced that all of these newer patches would be reversible.
As subjects of the Crown we do happen to have freedom of speech. The Human Rights Act 1999 incorporates freedom of speech and expression.
This freedom applies also to such expression like DeCSS algorithms, distribution of information and code relating to music copying. That's a whole lot more free than the country of USA PATRIOT and Camp Delta.
Re:Today only, free access courtesy of Slashdot
on
Orwellian Tech Support
·
· Score: 4, Informative
A punt is a boat used on the Thames and the Cam (at Oxford and Cambridge), propelled by a pole. Hence to "punt" is to push around. A punter now means a consumer, but previously meant gambler, especially horse racing.
They said his name was rtm, but as far as I recall that was just his username that people fingered when they tried to find out who had actually written it. I think he only started using it himself afterwards.
In the UK, you are taught always to keep your eyes on the road, and to check the blind spot with the wing mirrors. This is due to the inherent safety risk (outlined in the article) of looking over your shoulder. Most people, when they look over their shoulder instinctively brake - knowing they can't see what's in front of them - which causes even more accidents.
But then, the average traffic speed in the UK is 35mph (57 kph).
When I checked, the full article ran to 10 pages, but the google workround only got you the first one. If you want to karma-whore, please do it effectively.
As Paul Graham has pointed out, this only works if you use the 'ham' words from the corpus. Which are highly specific, clearly. Graham points out that if you send him mail with the word 'lisp' in it, it gets treated as ham, because no spammer is interested in programming.
He also points out that even if you put in a large number of neutral words (which are easier to guess), they won't outbalance the spammy words. For it is difficult to sell viagra without using the word 'viagra' - and the word 'vi@gra' is even more incriminating, as it will never occur in normal email.
I'll object to the 'civilian' part. The FBI defines it as the unlawful use of force against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population or any segment thereof, in the furtherance of political or social objectives
I'd say that most violent attacks (whether on the government or civilians) that are not part of a wider military objective are terrorist. Attacking the Pentagon was symbolic, rather than aiming to majorly disrupt US defence work. (Clearly, taking out part of the Pentagon will not affect the backups, reserve rooms, and missile silos in the Dakotas). Attacking the UK intelligence agency MI6 was terrorist - aiming to produce fear, but not an attack on civilians. Several palestinian suicide bombers have blown themselves up at IDF checkpoints, aiming to kill the soldiers - again creating fear.
The point of terrorism is more the symbolism and fear caused (and therefore the disruption in excess of the actual risk), rather than deliberate warlike attacks on government or army facilities.
As plenty of other \.'ers have looked at the 'Move to India' idea:
They usually make posts suggesting that two steps are necessary - Moving to India, and Profit. Firstly Moving to India is going to be difficult to do if you do not speak a local language, which will make it even harder to work in a team. Secondly, the Profit idea is the real fallacy. Why do IT companies outsource to India? Because wages there are several times less than in the West. That doesn't, to me, seem like profit, unless profit means a big cut in Quality of Life - even allowing for cheaper living there.
The major problem is that SCO can rush out FUD press releases about how this is an attack on their integrity caused by evil forces, a result of the open-source model, and that clearly those who write worms would not stop at stealing IP (1).
The OS community can respond - Linus could make a press release, but so could several others, all saying different things. There is no - there cannot be an - overall coordinated response by the community to this problem.
Under that scenario, likely SCO's release would get as much, if not more, coverage, as all the response releases put together. That makes Open Source look bad.
1) I make no claim that such a series of press releases has or will be made.
KLite's been off some time now, so you would have thought that Sharman would shut them out. If Sharman has realised that the major sharers use KLite they might realise they need to keep them on FastTrack.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm involved in a Model United Nations. We get along about 200 delegates to represent different countries, put them in committees together, and watch the result. For no apparent reason, they are allowed to pass notes to each other, delivered by a team of willing helpers.
Passing notes is free - the only cost is in writing the note. You can quite easily send as many notes as you need. There's no penalty for that.
This is where it begins to look like e-mail, except without the ability to send bulk messages for the same cost as normal ones.
The problem is that messaging is disruptive - people are coming in and out of committee rooms all the time. People lose concentration. For the people carrying the messages, the load can sometimes get quite extreme.
So we have to look how to reduce that load. We've tried
reducing the frequency of delivery
telling people to stop
every other method that doesn't reduce reliability
Ultimately, none of these has worked. In the end, if you can't put economic costs on a service that works well, you have to cut its reliability so that fewer messages are sent. At the MUN, that means every so often, deleting messages in bulk from the system. On the internet, that means using things like SpamAssasin. That's really unfortunate, but there we are.
Have you never heard of male and female plugs - hell, my printer has sex every day!
Don't worry - I just checked, and I've been sent e-mails with cl!c|, V!4gra and v1agr4. The filter would just mark it as unsure, and I'd delete it without training.
That's not because of what the people tell him. No game to my knowledge has properly implemented the way that most guns are calibrated to fire above their sight-point, in order to ensure that the firer can see the target. Vietcong does quite a good job of the aiming model, but on a computer game, when you have translucent cross-hairs, there is no need to muck around like that.
But too much realism would suck anyway - imagine having to spend time searching bodies, or manually reform clips, rather than just having "ammo" (DeusEx - Invisible War developers take note).
I once set that up using my own e-mail system - duplicate all the messages and try to filter out all the spam. Theoretically it shouldn't make a difference, but I couldn't ever get the accuracy above 85%. I reckon that this is actually more difficult - spam has a really limited vocabulary - viagra, porn, mortgage, refinance, pharmaceutical - but my real e-mail has fewer "killer" words (though any of MUN, c++, bio, flightgear should ensure safe passage!)
Two words: Trusted Computing
It won't be easily circumvented, and if it is, you can bet that it will be illegal. We need rights to stop this onslaught.
It has become clear to me that we probably need new IP laws for an age where copying is so easy. The current set were drafted when widespread copying was difficult, and accepted that certain infringements would happen. We can now copy so much so easily, and prevent copying so easily, that I think we should look again at the law, and see whether some small rights should accrue to the user. What's your view on this?
Of course, when I wrote this, I didn't think most of the vehicles would fail on the first few hundred yards.
If a team leaves every 5 minutes, (and assuming the first few hundred yards is relatively easy going - you find that on most courses of any nature), then we are going to have an awful lot of bunching at the first point the vehicles start dropping below 25mph. Interestingly, the rules state that the team in front (i.e. being passed) has right of way, unless E-stopped.
The classic problem that is used is the square root. In terms of time, it is very easy to verify a square root given both the question and the answer, but rather more expensive to generate it. This is the kind of solution used by other organisations looking to deal with spam, like Camram. They are using a slightly different method involving hash collisions.
In other words, there will be an open source java implementation, but you can bet your bottom dollar there will be better tools and IDEs for the closed version initially.
Then there will be enough libre programmers to make decent libre IDEs etc, and the proprietary Java will wither away (and Sun with it).
Though I hope Sun doesn't die, because they can stand up against Microsoft.
Linux is driven by people who want to do what's right
By people who want to make more useful and more secure software, yes. But to say that Linux is driven by people who want to do what is right is being too kind - I doubt the main motive for most contributer's efforts is the morality of what they write.
I wait to be modded into oblivion for daring to criticise any part of the OSS ideals or development process.
They recently announced that automatic background updating would become standard from Win XP SP2 and "Windows Updates" would change to "Microsoft Updates" which would install silently without a reboot
To be fair, they also announced that all of these newer patches would be reversible.
As subjects of the Crown we do happen to have freedom of speech. The Human Rights Act 1999 incorporates freedom of speech and expression.
This freedom applies also to such expression like DeCSS algorithms, distribution of information and code relating to music copying. That's a whole lot more free than the country of USA PATRIOT and Camp Delta.
A punt is a boat used on the Thames and the Cam (at Oxford and Cambridge), propelled by a pole. Hence to "punt" is to push around.
A punter now means a consumer, but previously meant gambler, especially horse racing.
Or has anyone else noticed that Google's front page still says Searching 4,285,199,774 web pages
Doesn't sound like 6 billion to me
They said his name was rtm, but as far as I recall that was just his username that people fingered when they tried to find out who had actually written it. I think he only started using it himself afterwards.
But I wasn't in computing at the time.
In the UK, you are taught always to keep your eyes on the road, and to check the blind spot with the wing mirrors. This is due to the inherent safety risk (outlined in the article) of looking over your shoulder. Most people, when they look over their shoulder instinctively brake - knowing they can't see what's in front of them - which causes even more accidents.
But then, the average traffic speed in the UK is 35mph (57 kph).
When I checked, the full article ran to 10 pages, but the google workround only got you the first one. If you want to karma-whore, please do it effectively.
As Paul Graham has pointed out, this only works if you use the 'ham' words from the corpus. Which are highly specific, clearly. Graham points out that if you send him mail with the word 'lisp' in it, it gets treated as ham, because no spammer is interested in programming.
He also points out that even if you put in a large number of neutral words (which are easier to guess), they won't outbalance the spammy words. For it is difficult to sell viagra without using the word 'viagra' - and the word 'vi@gra' is even more incriminating, as it will never occur in normal email.
lest their IP traffic be blocked at the border
While it's perfectly permissible to charge for the transfer of information, the first amendment is hardly likely to allow blocking. IANAL. IANAA
I'll object to the 'civilian' part. The FBI defines it as the unlawful use of force against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population or any segment thereof, in the furtherance of political or social objectives
I'd say that most violent attacks (whether on the government or civilians) that are not part of a wider military objective are terrorist. Attacking the Pentagon was symbolic, rather than aiming to majorly disrupt US defence work. (Clearly, taking out part of the Pentagon will not affect the backups, reserve rooms, and missile silos in the Dakotas). Attacking the UK intelligence agency MI6 was terrorist - aiming to produce fear, but not an attack on civilians. Several palestinian suicide bombers have blown themselves up at IDF checkpoints, aiming to kill the soldiers - again creating fear.
The point of terrorism is more the symbolism and fear caused (and therefore the disruption in excess of the actual risk), rather than deliberate warlike attacks on government or army facilities.
As plenty of other \.'ers have looked at the 'Move to India' idea:
They usually make posts suggesting that two steps are necessary - Moving to India, and Profit. Firstly Moving to India is going to be difficult to do if you do not speak a local language, which will make it even harder to work in a team. Secondly, the Profit idea is the real fallacy. Why do IT companies outsource to India? Because wages there are several times less than in the West. That doesn't, to me, seem like profit, unless profit means a big cut in Quality of Life - even allowing for cheaper living there.
The major problem is that SCO can rush out FUD press releases about how this is an attack on their integrity caused by evil forces, a result of the open-source model, and that clearly those who write worms would not stop at stealing IP (1).
The OS community can respond - Linus could make a press release, but so could several others, all saying different things. There is no - there cannot be an - overall coordinated response by the community to this problem.
Under that scenario, likely SCO's release would get as much, if not more, coverage, as all the response releases put together. That makes Open Source look bad.
1) I make no claim that such a series of press releases has or will be made.
KLite's been off some time now, so you would have thought that Sharman would shut them out. If Sharman has realised that the major sharers use KLite they might realise they need to keep them on FastTrack.