Episode II - Dark, intricate, and action packed. Only bad(?) scene: the 'hearth' scene between Anakin and Amidala. I cringe just thinking about it. If Lucas goofed with the direction of that scene it shows! However, if he wanted to convey Anakin's awkwardness in a romantic situation, He and Hayden Christansen succeeded in spades!
Episode V - Ditto. Basically tied with Ep II. Won't reveal the (in)famous plot twist here as it is nearly as old and legendary as John Williams' sharkmotif from JAWS (1975).
Episode IV - Lucas (accidentally) redefines blockbuster and creates a memorable moviegoing experience--in spite of the minor intrinsic flaws in the original 1977 film. Yes, I know a major character did something important in the 1977 version that got revised 20 years later to the ire of 'madcore' SW fans everywhere, I'm just glad I finally got the 'Orignal Trilogy' on DVD allbeit their 1997 anniversary re-release versions. Fine, I suppose I could go out and get the bootleg DVD version sourced from the 1994 laserdisc versions of the original 1977/1980/1983 theatrical release of the 'Original Trilogy' if Lucasfilm hasn't shut down ALL (patently illegal) sources for this version....
Episode VI - The 'worst' of the 'Original Trilogy' Unfortunately, Lucas 'sells out' to the 'Dark Side' of merchandising with the inclusion of the Ewoks. Strangely enough, this conscession for cash doesn't detract all that much from the overall entertainment value of this installment.
Episode I - After a 16-year hiatus, STAR WARS is back on the big screen! Yawn.
Maybe that bootleg Phantom Edit I've heard about has more juice than Lucas' full-length 'uncut' version.
However, if the other four films in the saga that I have seen had not been made, it'd be rather entertaining up to a point in it's own right. Alas, this movie was only the $100+ million dollar keystone in the billion dollar deal Lucas struck with Pepsico for (some?/all?) the merchandising rights to the film. Anybody still remember 'Col. Sanders' waving a lightsaber about in the Pepsico TV ads for Episode I back in 1999? I still do somewhat....:shiver:....
Jar Jar Binks is only part of the problem of Episode I and not a fatal flaw of that film. I guess kids these days like pratfalls and scatalogical humor in the films they watch....:p
Currently waiting patiently to see Episode III on May 19th, 2005. Why couldn't it been the following Wednesday on the 25th? That way, the last(?) Episode could have premiered 'exactly' 28 years after the first one did....
Maybe one day, Lucas will relent to fan pressure and make the 'Original Trilogy' finally and officially available in their original theatrical forms on DVD someday....
Their index is filled with MILLIONS of pages from one particular e-commerce site alone!
If all sites were limited to ONE AND ONLY ONE webpage from a bona-fide unique web domain, Google would probably need only a fraction of the computer systems to store and process 4 billion webpages.
This would also get rid of all the e-commerce affiliates who have set up shop in some directory on some public hompage webserver and not paid for their own domain.
This would also improve the performance and search results given out by Google by not having to index and catalogue more than one page of an e-commerce site.
I heard a while back that the Beatles and Apple Computers came to an 'agreement' that essentially said that Apple Computers could use apple.com AS LONG AS they DO NOT start up/become a record label like -- you guessed it -- Apple Records.
Disclaimer: This post is an 'Advertorial' with a relevant, one line ad for myself at the very bottom of this post. If you hate ALL ads--even if preceded by GENUINELY, useful content--then read no further. By including this disclaimer, I expect this post to avoid downmods from readers who would feel 'hoodwinked' into reading ANY useful content that contains ANY form of advertising whatsoever.
has just been laid off from the Greenock plant, where he was involved in manufacturing for 20 or so years. He's now working in a call centre handling mortgage applications...:(
This pardigm shift happened decades ago in the USA--possibly around the time of the entrance of the IBM PC personal computer to the market (how ironic). Briefly, the US economy has moved away from making things (industrial economy) to playing with money (financial services) and bits (information technologies and telecommunications) with the instrumental help of mass computerization. As a result, most of the real jobs left in the USA are in the service and retail industries--infamous 'McJobs' at large, giant, impersonal, 'low-balling', retail and service/hospitality chains such as Wal-Mart, McDonald's, and Hilton.
Don't belive me?
Look at how the terrible events of 2001-09-11 in the USA crippled the financial services industry world wide and changed global air travel procedures for good. Note that just recently, billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian's offer to buy 5% of GM "sent GM shares and the Dow Jones industrial average flying Wednesday [2005-05-04]." according to a news article in the Kansas City Star. (Note: Registration may be required to view this article -- I saw it for free once via this Google link.)
There IS hope.
Thanks to the Internet, individuals can become full or part-time entrepreneurs by offering specialized goods and services for sale to others in small, niche markets not being serviced by large corporations because it is inefficient or outright unprofitable for them to do so. While the purists denouce the (over)commercialization of the Internet, this trend began as least as early as 1978
I am a part-time Internet entrepreneur, how about you?
AOL had a great process for getting whitelisted with them- they checked that you were legit, that your mail servers handled bounces correctly, and that your systems were rfc whatever compliant.
Remember when Achimedes said 'Give me a place to stand and I can lift the Earth.'? This all involved a lever and fulcrum system big enough to multiply the downward force applied by Archimedes into a strong enough upward force able to 'lift' the Earth.
The same rationale is at work for FTL communications in this (ever so faintly) plausible scenario:
Imagine there was intelligent life on some planet in the Alpha Centari star system. This is about 4 light-years away. It would take light or some form of radio transmission FOUR YEARS to get there.
Now imagine you had 24 trillion mile long rod spanning the Earth to said planet. With this setup, one could send Morse Code to the other planet instantly by merely moving the rod back and forth with your hand.
This looks like true (though crude) FTL communications to me.
Of course, the above is all but likely impossible simply because the rod would have so much mass it'd likely collapse into a black hole the instant after it was created.
As a thought experiment, FTL travel/communications in this manner seems to be possible. In real life it is essentially impossible due to manufacturing problems and/or the laws physics concerned with gravitation.
9 years too long? i don't think so. on what grounds would they win? did the people who bought penis enlargement pills give good feedback? when the law takes effect has no merit, he was sending 10 mil emails a day. just multiply that by 2 weeks.
For the sticklers, the actual value is about 37.8 million people.
This is why spam WON'T go away because there is a small 4% market of people online who have (or will) buy stuff from spam.
Since the spammers won't stop and the hodgepodge of anti-spam laws in place aren't effective, I just simply block all the spam I get
While people continue to wring their hands over the spam problem here, I will be enjoying a spam-free email box. How about you?
Re:No.-Media 'pirates' *STILL* win if they want...
on
Should You Trust MAPS?
·
· Score: 1
They even block IRC Chat! Not just DCC, but you can't even chat. Now DCC has legitmate reasons to be blocked, but chatting? Let me tell you that you can get more info from IRC than you ever could from yahoo (which they allow).
Thanks to 'Classic' Napster and all the P2P applications and websites that sprang up since then, the media content industries (basically ALL the companies in the RIAA / MPAA organizations) have SUCCESSFULLY convinced ISPs that ANY sort P2P internet activity is (basically) breaking the law regardless of content being transferred (legal or not). Due to this ISPs 'nuckle under' and disable such possible activity.
IRC DCC broken?
No problem, they can 'chat' their files to each other using uuencoding or BASE64 coding (or yEnc if that is workable). It'll take longer, but all that was accomplished was an inconvenience in time for the two parties sharing file(s) -- THE FILE(S) WERE STILL SHARED!
The point is, the only way to truly stop 'media piracy' is to turn off the Internet.
Of course, it is highly unlikely that will happen. There is too much at stake already.
The best way to stamp out 'piracy' (really copyright infringement) is for the content industries to make their products too cheap to bootleg and readily available. The target market the content industries cater to have grown acustomed to low prices thanks to WAL-MART. It is in the content industries best interest to simply price their product low enough that they make their profit on high volume purchases by millions of people. They are big enough and have the infrastructure to do it. Otherwise, the current cat and mouse game between the content industry and the 'media pirates' will continue indefinitely.
The only ones this approach won't affect are the ultra hardcore 'media pirates' who wouldn't buy the stuff anyway and are content with their collection of purloined digital booty.
If the content industry REALLY wanted to make a difference, they should crack down on those who infringe their propery for a profit. Perhaps then, the noncommercial infringers might see their efforts and aid them by ACTUALLY going out and buying legitimate copies of the products being infringed to support them.
Don't nuclear weapons violate the 2nd law of thermodynamics?
Can any physicists explain any errors I've made in my reasoning (see below) WITHOUT getting into trouble with their governments by replying to this post.
Ok. Thanks to Albert Einstein's (in)famous E=MC^2 formula I know a little bit of matter contains A LOT of energy (which may be the key to possible errors in my reasoning).
The explosive force of the conventional explosives used to trigger the uncontrolled nuclear fission inside a fission based 'nuclear device' is, to me, MANY orders of magnitude LESS than the explosion it subsequently unleashed. It appears you got more energy out than you put in. You seem to get more (destructive) energy out than you put into such a device and, at face value, seem to be violating the 2nd law of thermodynamics.
My question is, what is wrong with this picture?
I am, like Einstein said of himself, passionately curious and wondered about this seeming conundrum just now.
-and flag as spam/autodelete any and all HTML email. That is how I deal with phishers. I got tired of dealing with their (ultimately pathetic) subterfuge which is OBVIOUS by simply comparing the domains in the bogus href link in the underlying HTML to the link text that is displayed to the user -- they aren't the 'same'.
As has been mentioned earlier: Do not click emailed links to sensitive websites--type the URLs to them into a new browser window instead.
Of course, if the HOSTS file gets 0wned by malware, the above advice is pointless....
---- from the.chm file with the webserver docs --- // Include necessary headers to compile #include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h>
// Start of the "main" function - used to tell the OS where // to start processing source code. int main(int argc, char **argv) { // Tells the computer to create a place _on the stack_ for // storage of a pointer to memory _on the heap_. char *str;
// This just tells the user how to use the program. // Not really important, but useful. if (argc < 2) { printf("Syntax: BadProgram TypeInAReallyLongString"); exit(1); }
// Allocate space for the exact number of places of memory needed _on the heap_. str = (char *)malloc(strlen(argv[1]) + 1); // Check to see if the memory was actually allocated properly. if (str == NULL) { printf("Error: Unable to allocate required amount of space. Out of memory."); exit(1); }
// This copies the data the _user_ specified into str. strcpy(str, argv[1]);
// This prints the contents of str. printf("%s\n", str);
// Delete the memory used on the heap. free(str);
return 0; }
This code won't technically ever crash from an application perspective and the stack is perfectly isolated from the user. If the OS or the compiler is faulty, then, unless the source is available, it will be difficult to fix the problem. For this reason, ProtoNova is only guaranteed that it is free from Buffer Overflow attacks on the stack at the application level.
BTW, I am a very defensive programmer. I have been programming in the style of the third demonstration for over four years now. This should tell you that I know exactly what I'm doing and the people over at Microsoft apparently don't.
The solution is to switch to a database that actually implements ACID (the second letter stands for "Consistency" and the last letter stands for "Durability" which is what failed here).
Which RDBMSes that you know are 100% ACID compliant? Please name any you know.
In response to this and this all I can say is that the spam menace necessitated integrating antispam code to cf13-smtp. Why not fight spam at the SMTP level and keep it out of the networks once and for all in the first place? As for the mailbox scanning, how else is the mailserver supposed to detect spamlike email?
With a bit of effort, cf13-smtp can be configured to act like a regular MTA. This is accomplished by sending all email/spam logging to the bit bucket and allowing all incoming mail with a SpamByte code of 255. But doing all that ultimately allows is the influx of spam to the networks it services and defeats the purpose for the program's existence....
A COMPLETE log of all the SQL statements that were applied to it IN the order they were used. This is obtained by the application logging the SQL statements to the SQL log file AFTER the SQL statement is succesfully executed.
When a data base failure occurs, stop everything, 'replay' the backed up SQL logfile (thats on a separate backup system) on a copy of the empty DB there. TADA! you are back in business back to the point of failure!
The downsides....
Redesigning the database will screw everything up unless the SQL statements used during the redesign are logged as well.
All sql requests must be funneld through 1 and only 1 db connection. Otherwise the sql statements in the logfile stand a chance of being recorded 'out of sequence'. Here is a brief example:
With one db connection, user 1 edits record x two separate times in succession then user 2 comes along behind user 1 and modifies the record with no problems. Without record locking or with indiscriminant multithreading, record x will be corrupted if user 2 edits record x between user 1's two consecutive edits. See the downside?
The SQL logfile gets corrupted due to storage media failure. The only way around this would be to copy the log file to a backup mirror system on a periodic basis and verify it is a good backup copy using a strong cryptographic hash such as SHA-512 or for the utterly anal and paranoid, a byte-for-byte comparison.
The EXTREME volume of data may/will make this approach unfeasable due to time constraints -- too much data to restore via 'replaying'. 'Checkpointing' from a known good database state will cut down the size of the SQL log file but introduces the possibility of database corruption by simply using the wrong checkpoint database when replaying the sql statements.
Speaking of 'tar' in the parent post, I 'cowrote' a simple, high-performance freeware Windows file archiver that combines file aggregation with data compression. If you want to try it out, it is here.
My approach simply tacks on '.txt' on the end of ALL email file attachments filenames. As a result, system compromise is IMPOSSIBLE this way provided Windows still associates.txt files with Notepad/Wordpad and those programs haven't been compromised.
In this manner the incoming file attachments can be safely scanned for viruses, deleted, quarantined, or renamed by removing the '.txt' at the end and put to use.
If you want to learn more and download my quality (but bland-looking) Windows freeware/shareware, visit now.
P.S. since July 2004, I've only gotten a handful of 'no content' email spam at iamcf13@hotpop.com. This technique is used by spammers to validate working email addresses that do not bounce. That is the only spam I recieve nowadays. All the rest is autodeleted by cf13-pop3.
However, I DO wish I could run my shareware mailserver cf13-smtp and avoid downloading the spam in the first place.
The only way we'll actually see a reduction in spam is to put true measures in the MTAs such that there is absolutely no way to mask the sender's address or host, and completely disallow any form of relaying.
While other antispam advocates here on slashdot hide behind obsfucated email addresses, I opted to use an unobsfucated one--just like the 'good old days' on the Internet before the spammers made email communications almost worthless....
Nowadays, the only spam I get is 'zero content spam' used to verify recipient email addresses. Lame and pathetic.
These search engines are just looking for words . Therefore spammed words.
The 'voting' approach and simple keyword approach (mentioning a keword more than once only counts 1 time--the rest are ignored) will keep 'normal' keyword spamming to a minimum. However, it won't do anything for typo-based keyword spamming.... =/
It is an all-in-one solution to unwanted email. The only spam it cannot stop is 'zero content email' which is pointless to send out other than to verify working email accounts (no bounces sent back to the sender).
Since I've been using the companion email client program I wrote along with the MTA, 'zero content email' is the *only* spam I get. All the other spam I get to iamcf13@hotpop.com is downloaded and automatically deleted. At the present time, I cannot use my own MTA to receive my email otherwise I wouldn't have to download the spam in the first place--my MTA could silently route it to the 'bit bucket' with the spammer none the wiser....
Analog is simply the best format for audiophiles like the AC and myself.
Just one problem.
Analog formats wear out!!!
Every time you play a analog recording, you destroy the fidelity of that recording 'bit by bit' due to 'wear and tear' inherent in all analog media.
Sometimes, you make the recording unplayable because you play it too damn much and the playback mechanism 'chews it up'!
That is exactly what happened to my cassette tape copy of John Williams' Oscar winning soundtrack to E.T. The Extraterrestrial (1982).
Fortunately, I was able to get this treasured recording on CD as well as the two longer, subsequent CD 're-releases'
It sounds just like the cassette did--just as I remembered it! I could even hear the faint tape hiss of its analog origins!
I now own one of the best pieces of music I've ever heard in a format that doesn't degrade over time with each and every playback (barring playback unit malfunction).
The only drawback is that it is guestimated that 'store bought' CDs have a 'shelf life' of about 20 years or so before they deteriorate--all the more to make backup digital copies of these old, likely out-of-print CDs and protect one's investment.
To me, a music CD is more than an expensive piece of plastic, metal, and polymer laminate--it is a 'carrier unit' that enables me to appreciate and enjoy the music compositions of others such as:
John Williams: Superman, Star Wars, Jaws, Close Encounters
Jerry Goldsmith(R.I.P.): Supergirl, Star Trek (I), Total Recall, Air Force One, The Secret Of N.I.M.H.
James Horner: Titanic, Brainstorm, Krull, Battle Beyond The Stars, Glory
Basil Poledouris: Conan The Barbarian, Starship Troopers (DVD isolated score)
Trevor Jones: The Dark Crystal
John Debney: Cutthroat Island, Bruce Almighty
Lee Holdridge: Splash, The Mists Of Avalon
Wendy Carlos: TRON, A Clockwork Orange (as Walter Carlos)
John Barry: Dances With Wolves
Bill Conti: Masters Of The Universe, The Right Stuff, Rocky
Vangelis: Chariots Of Fire, 1492: Conquest Of Paradise
Tangerine Dream: Thief, Legend
Miklos Roza (R.I.P.): Time After Time
Alex North (R.I.P.): Cleopatra, Spartacus, Dragonslayer, 2001 ('rejected' score)
And foreign music soundtracks from such artists as:
Shoji Yamashiro: Akira
Koohei Tanaka: Gunbuster
Joe Hisaishi: Princess Mononoke, Kikujiro, Fireworks
Ralsky and the rest of his ilk are free to say whatever they want to say, but that does NOT include a right to use my computer/router/etc. to convey their message.
"Nothing in the Constitution compels us to listen to or view any unwanted communication, whatever its merit. We categorically reject the argument that a vendor has a right under the Constitution or otherwise to send unwanted material into the home of another. If this prohibition operates to impede the flow of even valid ideas, the answer is that no one has a right to press even 'good' ideas on an unwilling recipient. The asserted right of a mailer, we repeat, stops at the outer boundary of every person's domain." -- Chief Justice Warren Berger, U.S. Supreme Court
Too bad I can't use my mailserver program right now and delete the spam at the mailserver end instead of wasting time downloading it and deleting it automatically.... =/
As long as there is email, there will always be spam. As said earlier in the past, spam is a societal issue--technological solutions like mine and others of their ilk are only band-aids of varying degrees of effectiveness. Changing the email protocol will not ultimately solve the problem--spammers are sure to find a way around any new email protocol--even if they have to steal even more computing resources from unsuspecting users to get the job done!
It appears the only way to truly stop spam is to stop using email. If you can't do that, you'll have to use some type of filtering. All the anti-spam laws in the world will not stop spammers who reside outside their jurisdictions....
A lot depends on the manager of the store. A good manager, with good cashiers, will move more merchandise, and generate more $$$, than a store with a bunch of U-Scans.
This is so true.
I used to be a cashier, mostly with the pushbutton kind:( and then at the end briefly with the scanner type:)
It was like a game with the scanner type to me. I think the only hassle I had with it was with untagged or improperly tagged bulk items.
Alas, the bottleneck in this system is payment time with the customer. There is all sorts of delay possible including:
Verifying a check.
Not having their money ready.
Paying with a LOT of change.
Too talkative (what are you gonna do, tell them to shut up, pay up, and get out?).
etc, etc, etc....
However I think the REAL reason for all the U-Scans boils down to money: businesses get the U-Scans because they belive they will pay less over the long run for it than a human being cashier. If that was not the case, why get the U-Scans in the first place? If you have a counterarguement to this I'd like to hear it, seriously. I'm not trying to be a troll or something but trying to spark honest debate. For example, the Wal-Mart I've been to on a number of occasions does not have any U-Scans or their ilk. Do they have any of them at any of their stores at all? If not, then even Wal-Mart doesn't consider U-Scans to be 'a bargin'. Any other views on this issue?
Slashdot Mirror
That was entertaining to read.
:shiver:....
:p
To date, I rank the 'Episodes' thus:
Episode II - Dark, intricate, and action packed. Only bad(?) scene: the 'hearth' scene between Anakin and Amidala. I cringe just thinking about it. If Lucas goofed with the direction of that scene it shows! However, if he wanted to convey Anakin's awkwardness in a romantic situation, He and Hayden Christansen succeeded in spades!
Episode V - Ditto. Basically tied with Ep II. Won't reveal the (in)famous plot twist here as it is nearly as old and legendary as John Williams' sharkmotif from JAWS (1975).
Episode IV - Lucas (accidentally) redefines blockbuster and creates a memorable moviegoing experience--in spite of the minor intrinsic flaws in the original 1977 film. Yes, I know a major character did something important in the 1977 version that got revised 20 years later to the ire of 'madcore' SW fans everywhere, I'm just glad I finally got the 'Orignal Trilogy' on DVD allbeit their 1997 anniversary re-release versions. Fine, I suppose I could go out and get the bootleg DVD version sourced from the 1994 laserdisc versions of the original 1977/1980/1983 theatrical release of the 'Original Trilogy' if Lucasfilm hasn't shut down ALL (patently illegal) sources for this version....
Episode VI - The 'worst' of the 'Original Trilogy' Unfortunately, Lucas 'sells out' to the 'Dark Side' of merchandising with the inclusion of the Ewoks. Strangely enough, this conscession for cash doesn't detract all that much from the overall entertainment value of this installment.
Episode I - After a 16-year hiatus, STAR WARS is back on the big screen! Yawn.
Maybe that bootleg Phantom Edit I've heard about has more juice than Lucas' full-length 'uncut' version.
However, if the other four films in the saga that I have seen had not been made, it'd be rather entertaining up to a point in it's own right. Alas, this movie was only the $100+ million dollar keystone in the billion dollar deal Lucas struck with Pepsico for (some?/all?) the merchandising rights to the film. Anybody still remember 'Col. Sanders' waving a lightsaber about in the Pepsico TV ads for Episode I back in 1999? I still do somewhat....
Jar Jar Binks is only part of the problem of Episode I and not a fatal flaw of that film. I guess kids these days like pratfalls and scatalogical humor in the films they watch....
Currently waiting patiently to see Episode III on May 19th, 2005. Why couldn't it been the following Wednesday on the 25th? That way, the last(?) Episode could have premiered 'exactly' 28 years after the first one did....
Maybe one day, Lucas will relent to fan pressure and make the 'Original Trilogy' finally and officially available in their original theatrical forms on DVD someday....
Their index is filled with MILLIONS of pages from one particular e-commerce site alone!
If all sites were limited to ONE AND ONLY ONE webpage from a bona-fide unique web domain, Google would probably need only a fraction of the computer systems to store and process 4 billion webpages.
This would also get rid of all the e-commerce affiliates who have set up shop in some directory on some public hompage webserver and not paid for their own domain.
This would also improve the performance and search results given out by Google by not having to index and catalogue more than one page of an e-commerce site.
I heard a while back that the Beatles and Apple Computers came to an 'agreement' that essentially said that Apple Computers could use apple.com AS LONG AS they DO NOT start up/become a record label like -- you guessed it -- Apple Records.
Disclaimer: This post is an 'Advertorial' with a relevant, one line ad for myself at the very bottom of this post. If you hate ALL ads--even if preceded by GENUINELY, useful content--then read no further. By including this disclaimer, I expect this post to avoid downmods from readers who would feel 'hoodwinked' into reading ANY useful content that contains ANY form of advertising whatsoever.
:(
has just been laid off from the Greenock plant, where he was involved in manufacturing for 20 or so years. He's now working in a call centre handling mortgage applications...
This pardigm shift happened decades ago in the USA--possibly around the time of the entrance of the IBM PC personal computer to the market (how ironic). Briefly, the US economy has moved away from making things (industrial economy) to playing with money (financial services) and bits (information technologies and telecommunications) with the instrumental help of mass computerization. As a result, most of the real jobs left in the USA are in the service and retail industries--infamous 'McJobs' at large, giant, impersonal, 'low-balling', retail and service/hospitality chains such as Wal-Mart, McDonald's, and Hilton.
Don't belive me?
Look at how the terrible events of 2001-09-11 in the USA crippled the financial services industry world wide and changed global air travel procedures for good. Note that just recently, billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian's offer to buy 5% of GM "sent GM shares and the Dow Jones industrial average flying Wednesday [2005-05-04]." according to a news article in the Kansas City Star. (Note: Registration may be required to view this article -- I saw it for free once via this Google link.)
There IS hope.
Thanks to the Internet, individuals can become full or part-time entrepreneurs by offering specialized goods and services for sale to others in small, niche markets not being serviced by large corporations because it is inefficient or outright unprofitable for them to do so. While the purists denouce the (over)commercialization of the Internet, this trend began as least as early as 1978
I am a part-time Internet entrepreneur, how about you?
AOL had a great process for getting whitelisted with them- they checked that you were legit, that your mail servers handled bounces correctly, and that your systems were rfc whatever compliant.
AOL is *STILL* RFC ignorant!
(Unless abuse@aol.com is working properly again like it should....)
Remember when Achimedes said 'Give me a place to stand and I can lift the Earth.'? This all involved a lever and fulcrum system big enough to multiply the downward force applied by Archimedes into a strong enough upward force able to 'lift' the Earth.
The same rationale is at work for FTL communications in this (ever so faintly) plausible scenario:
Imagine there was intelligent life on some planet in the Alpha Centari star system. This is about 4 light-years away. It would take light or some form of radio transmission FOUR YEARS to get there.
Now imagine you had 24 trillion mile long rod spanning the Earth to said planet. With this setup, one could send Morse Code to the other planet instantly by merely moving the rod back and forth with your hand.
This looks like true (though crude) FTL communications to me.
Of course, the above is all but likely impossible simply because the rod would have so much mass it'd likely collapse into a black hole the instant after it was created.
As a thought experiment, FTL travel/communications in this manner seems to be possible. In real life it is essentially impossible due to manufacturing problems and/or the laws physics concerned with gravitation.
Honestly they are on the roads for hours alone they cant drink so what else is left , smoking and porn.
They could also do several other constructive things like:
Learn a foreign language via audio.
Listen to an audiobook.
Listen to their favorite music for hours on end via mp3 based audio CD-Rs and players.
Listen to commercial-free satellite radio.
Or, they can listen to standard, ad-clogged commercial radio or (relatively ad free) public radio.
Then I supposed they could watch TV if somebody perfects a suitable 'Heads-Up display' for it....
9 years too long? i don't think so. on what grounds would they win? did the people who bought penis enlargement pills give good feedback? when the law takes effect has no merit, he was sending 10 mil emails a day. just multiply that by 2 weeks.
i cs/article.php/5911_151151).
38 million people worldwide have (or will) buy stuff from email spam -- about 5 million of that figure in the USA alone (http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/ntrs/NTRS_2004.pdf).
The 38 million figure is extrapolated from the 4% value in the above report and applying it to the world online population is estimated to be 945 million (http://www.clickz.com/stats/big_picture/geograph
For the sticklers, the actual value is about 37.8 million people.
This is why spam WON'T go away because there is a small 4% market of people online who have (or will) buy stuff from spam.
Since the spammers won't stop and the hodgepodge of anti-spam laws in place aren't effective, I just simply block all the spam I get
While people continue to wring their hands over the spam problem here, I will be enjoying a spam-free email box. How about you?
They even block IRC Chat! Not just DCC, but you can't even chat. Now DCC has legitmate reasons to be blocked, but chatting? Let me tell you that you can get more info from IRC than you ever could from yahoo (which they allow).
Thanks to 'Classic' Napster and all the P2P applications and websites that sprang up since then, the media content industries (basically ALL the companies in the RIAA / MPAA organizations) have SUCCESSFULLY convinced ISPs that ANY sort P2P internet activity is (basically) breaking the law regardless of content being transferred (legal or not). Due to this ISPs 'nuckle under' and disable such possible activity.
IRC DCC broken?
No problem, they can 'chat' their files to each other using uuencoding or BASE64 coding (or yEnc if that is workable). It'll take longer, but all that was accomplished was an inconvenience in time for the two parties sharing file(s) -- THE FILE(S) WERE STILL SHARED!
The point is, the only way to truly stop 'media piracy' is to turn off the Internet.
Of course, it is highly unlikely that will happen. There is too much at stake already.
The best way to stamp out 'piracy' (really copyright infringement) is for the content industries to make their products too cheap to bootleg and readily available. The target market the content industries cater to have grown acustomed to low prices thanks to WAL-MART. It is in the content industries best interest to simply price their product low enough that they make their profit on high volume purchases by millions of people. They are big enough and have the infrastructure to do it. Otherwise, the current cat and mouse game between the content industry and the 'media pirates' will continue indefinitely.
The only ones this approach won't affect are the ultra hardcore 'media pirates' who wouldn't buy the stuff anyway and are content with their collection of purloined digital booty.
If the content industry REALLY wanted to make a difference, they should crack down on those who infringe their propery for a profit. Perhaps then, the noncommercial infringers might see their efforts and aid them by ACTUALLY going out and buying legitimate copies of the products being infringed to support them.
Related, but off-topic....
Parent poster mentions 2nd law of thermodynamics.
I just thought:
Don't nuclear weapons violate the 2nd law of thermodynamics?
Can any physicists explain any errors I've made in my reasoning (see below) WITHOUT getting into trouble with their governments by replying to this post.
Ok. Thanks to Albert Einstein's (in)famous E=MC^2 formula I know a little bit of matter contains A LOT of energy (which may be the key to possible errors in my reasoning).
The explosive force of the conventional explosives used to trigger the uncontrolled nuclear fission inside a fission based 'nuclear device' is, to me, MANY orders of magnitude LESS than the explosion it subsequently unleashed. It appears you got more energy out than you put in. You seem to get more (destructive) energy out than you put into such a device and, at face value, seem to be violating the 2nd law of thermodynamics.
My question is, what is wrong with this picture?
I am, like Einstein said of himself, passionately curious and wondered about this seeming conundrum just now.
-and flag as spam/autodelete any and all HTML email. That is how I deal with phishers. I got tired of dealing with their (ultimately pathetic) subterfuge which is OBVIOUS by simply comparing the domains in the bogus href link in the underlying HTML to the link text that is displayed to the user -- they aren't the 'same'.
As has been mentioned earlier: Do not click emailed links to sensitive websites--type the URLs to them into a new browser window instead.
Of course, if the HOSTS file gets 0wned by malware, the above advice is pointless....
Nebu: You never know, Wordpad might have a as-of-yet undiscovered buffer overflow vulnerability in there somewhere.
.chm file with the webserver docs ---
// Tells the computer to create a place _on the stack_ for
// storage of a pointer to memory _on the heap_.
// This just tells the user how to use the program.
// Not really important, but useful.
// Allocate space for the exact number of places of memory needed _on the heap_.
// Check to see if the memory was actually allocated properly.
// This copies the data the _user_ specified into str.
// This prints the contents of str.
// Delete the memory used on the heap.
Here's how the guy that wrote the ProtoNova webserver at
http://www.slproweb.com/products/ProtoNova.h tml (ProtoNova.html)
handles potential buffer overflows on the stack:
---- from the
// Include necessary headers to compile
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
// Start of the "main" function - used to tell the OS where
// to start processing source code.
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
char *str;
if (argc < 2)
{
printf("Syntax: BadProgram TypeInAReallyLongString");
exit(1);
}
str = (char *)malloc(strlen(argv[1]) + 1);
if (str == NULL)
{
printf("Error: Unable to allocate required amount of space. Out of memory.");
exit(1);
}
strcpy(str, argv[1]);
printf("%s\n", str);
free(str);
return 0;
}
This code won't technically ever crash from an application perspective and the stack is perfectly isolated from the user. If the OS or the compiler is faulty, then, unless the source is available, it will be difficult to fix the problem. For this reason, ProtoNova is only guaranteed that it is free from Buffer Overflow attacks on the stack at the application level.
BTW, I am a very defensive programmer. I have been programming in the style of the third demonstration for over four years now. This should tell you that I know exactly what I'm doing and the people over at Microsoft apparently don't.
The solution is to switch to a database that actually implements ACID (the second letter stands for "Consistency" and the last letter stands for "Durability" which is what failed here).
Which RDBMSes that you know are 100% ACID compliant? Please name any you know.
In response to this and this all I can say is that the spam menace necessitated integrating antispam code to cf13-smtp. Why not fight spam at the SMTP level and keep it out of the networks once and for all in the first place? As for the mailbox scanning, how else is the mailserver supposed to detect spamlike email?
With a bit of effort, cf13-smtp can be configured to act like a regular MTA. This is accomplished by sending all email/spam logging to the bit bucket and allowing all incoming mail with a SpamByte code of 255. But doing all that ultimately allows is the influx of spam to the networks it services and defeats the purpose for the program's existence....
Here are the ingredients to this solution:
A completely designed, 100% empty database.
A COMPLETE log of all the SQL statements that were applied to it IN the order they were used. This is obtained by the application logging the SQL statements to the SQL log file AFTER the SQL statement is succesfully executed.
When a data base failure occurs, stop everything, 'replay' the backed up SQL logfile (thats on a separate backup system) on a copy of the empty DB there. TADA! you are back in business back to the point of failure!
The downsides....
Redesigning the database will screw everything up unless the SQL statements used during the redesign are logged as well.
All sql requests must be funneld through 1 and only 1 db connection. Otherwise the sql statements in the logfile stand a chance of being recorded 'out of sequence'. Here is a brief example:
With one db connection, user 1 edits record x two separate times in succession then user 2 comes along behind user 1 and modifies the record with no problems. Without record locking or with indiscriminant multithreading, record x will be corrupted if user 2 edits record x between user 1's two consecutive edits. See the downside?
The SQL logfile gets corrupted due to storage media failure. The only way around this would be to copy the log file to a backup mirror system on a periodic basis and verify it is a good backup copy using a strong cryptographic hash such as SHA-512 or for the utterly anal and paranoid, a byte-for-byte comparison.
The EXTREME volume of data may/will make this approach unfeasable due to time constraints -- too much data to restore via 'replaying'. 'Checkpointing' from a known good database state will cut down the size of the SQL log file but introduces the possibility of database corruption by simply using the wrong checkpoint database when replaying the sql statements.
Speaking of 'tar' in the parent post, I 'cowrote' a simple, high-performance freeware Windows file archiver that combines file aggregation with data compression. If you want to try it out, it is here.
My approach simply tacks on '.txt' on the end of ALL email file attachments filenames. As a result, system compromise is IMPOSSIBLE this way provided Windows still associates .txt files with Notepad/Wordpad and those programs haven't been compromised.
In this manner the incoming file attachments can be safely scanned for viruses, deleted, quarantined, or renamed by removing the '.txt' at the end and put to use.
If you want to learn more and download my quality (but bland-looking) Windows freeware/shareware, visit now.
P.S. since July 2004, I've only gotten a handful of 'no content' email spam at iamcf13@hotpop.com. This technique is used by spammers to validate working email addresses that do not bounce. That is the only spam I recieve nowadays. All the rest is autodeleted by cf13-pop3.
However, I DO wish I could run my shareware mailserver cf13-smtp and avoid downloading the spam in the first place.
The only way we'll actually see a reduction in spam is to put true measures in the MTAs such that there is absolutely no way to mask the sender's address or host, and completely disallow any form of relaying.
Done. Give it a try....
My approach simply filters out all email containing stuff spammers/crackers use in email to do their dirty work.
Interested? Complete details here.
While other antispam advocates here on slashdot hide behind obsfucated email addresses, I opted to use an unobsfucated one--just like the 'good old days' on the Internet before the spammers made email communications almost worthless....
Nowadays, the only spam I get is 'zero content spam' used to verify recipient email addresses. Lame and pathetic.
These search engines are just looking for words . Therefore spammed words.
The 'voting' approach and simple keyword approach (mentioning a keword more than once only counts 1 time--the rest are ignored) will keep 'normal' keyword spamming to a minimum. However, it won't do anything for typo-based keyword spamming.... =/
My new search engine in a nutshell:
1.One domain (*NO* subdomains) - one webpage. No exceptions!
2. Allow users to 'vote up' useful pages with IP address-based safeguards to avoid/reduce fraud.
3. Simple 'keyword' system via page content. No more keword 'weighting' via HTML context.
As a result:
1. No more 'free home pages' (unless a domain points to it).
2. No more 'spamdexing' by big commercial-driven sites -- see rule/feature 1 above
3. Spammers cannot 'game the system' via 'pagerank' but have to 0wn/use *MANY* different IP-addresses to 'vote up' their spamhausen.
Any comments on this approach?
I stick with sendmail out of inertia more than anything else. Frankly, it's about time I explored other MTAs
Consider my Windows-based software MTA that I wrote back in July, 2004 if you can use it.
It is an all-in-one solution to unwanted email. The only spam it cannot stop is 'zero content email' which is pointless to send out other than to verify working email accounts (no bounces sent back to the sender).
Since I've been using the companion email client program I wrote along with the MTA, 'zero content email' is the *only* spam I get. All the other spam I get to iamcf13@hotpop.com is downloaded and automatically deleted. At the present time, I cannot use my own MTA to receive my email otherwise I wouldn't have to download the spam in the first place--my MTA could silently route it to the 'bit bucket' with the spammer none the wiser....
First things first.
Analog is simply the best format for audiophiles like the AC and myself.
Just one problem.
Analog formats wear out!!!
Every time you play a analog recording, you destroy the fidelity of that recording 'bit by bit' due to 'wear and tear' inherent in all analog media.
Sometimes, you make the recording unplayable because you play it too damn much and the playback mechanism 'chews it up'!
That is exactly what happened to my cassette tape copy of John Williams' Oscar winning soundtrack to E.T. The Extraterrestrial (1982).
Fortunately, I was able to get this treasured recording on CD as well as the two longer, subsequent CD 're-releases'
It sounds just like the cassette did--just as I remembered it! I could even hear the faint tape hiss of its analog origins!
I now own one of the best pieces of music I've ever heard in a format that doesn't degrade over time with each and every playback (barring playback unit malfunction).
The only drawback is that it is guestimated that 'store bought' CDs have a 'shelf life' of about 20 years or so before they deteriorate--all the more to make backup digital copies of these old, likely out-of-print CDs and protect one's investment.
To me, a music CD is more than an expensive piece of plastic, metal, and polymer laminate--it is a 'carrier unit' that enables me to appreciate and enjoy the music compositions of others such as:
John Williams: Superman, Star Wars, Jaws, Close Encounters
Jerry Goldsmith(R.I.P.): Supergirl, Star Trek (I), Total Recall, Air Force One, The Secret Of N.I.M.H.
James Horner: Titanic, Brainstorm, Krull, Battle Beyond The Stars, Glory
Basil Poledouris: Conan The Barbarian, Starship Troopers (DVD isolated score)
Trevor Jones: The Dark Crystal
John Debney: Cutthroat Island, Bruce Almighty
Lee Holdridge: Splash, The Mists Of Avalon
Wendy Carlos: TRON, A Clockwork Orange (as Walter Carlos)
John Barry: Dances With Wolves
Bill Conti: Masters Of The Universe, The Right Stuff, Rocky
Vangelis: Chariots Of Fire, 1492: Conquest Of Paradise
Tangerine Dream: Thief, Legend
Miklos Roza (R.I.P.): Time After Time
Alex North (R.I.P.): Cleopatra, Spartacus, Dragonslayer, 2001 ('rejected' score)
And foreign music soundtracks from such artists as:
Shoji Yamashiro: Akira
Koohei Tanaka: Gunbuster
Joe Hisaishi: Princess Mononoke, Kikujiro, Fireworks
Michiru Oshima: Godzilla VS. Megaguirus
And many others....
Fine.
Filter 'em out like I do with my own software and kwitchyerbellyaching!
(Quote obtained from UXN Spam Combat.)
Too bad I can't use my mailserver program right now and delete the spam at the mailserver end instead of wasting time downloading it and deleting it automatically.... =/
As long as there is email, there will always be spam. As said earlier in the past, spam is a societal issue--technological solutions like mine and others of their ilk are only band-aids of varying degrees of effectiveness. Changing the email protocol will not ultimately solve the problem--spammers are sure to find a way around any new email protocol--even if they have to steal even more computing resources from unsuspecting users to get the job done!
It appears the only way to truly stop spam is to stop using email. If you can't do that, you'll have to use some type of filtering. All the anti-spam laws in the world will not stop spammers who reside outside their jurisdictions....
Easy fix for Google,
Insert a CAPTCHA between the AdSense ad and the advertiser's site.
It will stop fraudulent clicking by 'bots but wont stop fraudulent clicking by humans. It will also drive up Google's bandwith expenses.
Anybody has a better solution than this?
A lot depends on the manager of the store. A good manager, with good cashiers, will move more merchandise, and generate more $$$, than a store with a bunch of U-Scans.
:( and then at the end briefly with the scanner type :)
This is so true.
I used to be a cashier, mostly with the pushbutton kind
It was like a game with the scanner type to me. I think the only hassle I had with it was with untagged or improperly tagged bulk items.
Alas, the bottleneck in this system is payment time with the customer. There is all sorts of delay possible including:
Verifying a check.
Not having their money ready.
Paying with a LOT of change.
Too talkative (what are you gonna do, tell them to shut up, pay up, and get out?).
etc, etc, etc....
However I think the REAL reason for all the U-Scans boils down to money: businesses get the U-Scans because they belive they will pay less over the long run for it than a human being cashier. If that was not the case, why get the U-Scans in the first place? If you have a counterarguement to this I'd like to hear it, seriously. I'm not trying to be a troll or something but trying to spark honest debate. For example, the Wal-Mart I've been to on a number of occasions does not have any U-Scans or their ilk. Do they have any of them at any of their stores at all? If not, then even Wal-Mart doesn't consider U-Scans to be 'a bargin'. Any other views on this issue?