This is precisely why I love Slashdot. An insightful political statement that suddenly pulls a screaming left turn into a Star Trek analogy. It just brings tears of joy every time I see something so astute and yet jaw-droppingly nerdy. I love this place...
Only on Slashdot can I point out the hypocrisy of a bloated gasbag of a preacher and immediately get stomped by the modhammer. Meanwhile, the Michael Moore fart joke gets tagged as "insightful."
They're giving mod status to some reeeeally qualified people around here...
Yes, but it's a good rule of thumb that if the language has evolved at the hands of a business consultant, they're just trying to make an ordinary, everyday job description sound sexy and exciting through deliberate obfuscation and complication of syntax. "I've been tasked with getting a tiger team to think outside the box vis-a-vis their normal operational paradigm with regards to proactively seeking out new-media revenue generation through forward-thinking distribution channels" sounds a lot sexier to the average suit than "We need more money. What ideas do you internet nerds have?"
My jaw dropped, my brain froze, and my face melted. I don't know what kind of drugs that programmer was on, but he somehow managed to code it into an easily-portable brainsplosion.
Seriously. Go get that game NOW! It makes me pine for the old Williams shooter classics.
I'd love to think that there's some 8-year-old kid out there crouched in front of an old monochrome amber monitor yelling "XYZZY!" "PLUGH!" and "THESE TWISTY PASSAGES ARE ALL ALIKE!" instead of bitching about how all his friends have an XBox 360...
...one great strategy seems to be leaving all your tech "junk" in a conspicuous spot near the curb just before bed. Unless you're in an extremely quiet neighborhood, it seems there's *always* someone around who's interested in an old 486 tower or a Franklin Ace machine. I've used the same method a few times, and it seems that there's always some old-school hacker prowling the streets at 3AM hoping to score some vintage hardware or parts.
It's either that, or homeless people have learned how to eat 25-year-old 5 1/4" floppies of pirated Apple II games...
No, no, no... it's shaaaaaring! It's all about liberating intellectual property from the hands of the fascist bully-boys who insist on getting something in return when you want to partake of their work. Information wants to be free, man! Musicians want to eat, too, but FUCK THEM! If they want to make a buck then they should go out and tour or something.
meanwhile, back at the Slashcave...
HEY! YOU! Did you just unjustly use GPLed code?! CALL THE MOTHERFUCKING COPYRIGHT COPS!!
What, you think pandas are real? C'mon, man. Everybody knows a black bear dipped in bleach when they see one. That stuff is faaaaaaake, dude!
Re:Can Oscar's be given posthumously?
on
Batman Discussion
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
I second this. The Keaton / Nicholson films took place in a world that was Willy Wonka-esque. You had to just roll with it and say "oh, it's a movie!" to believe it. I unashamedly did, and I loved those movies for years (okay, the Burton ones.). Chris Nolan just took a flamethrower to the old ones and said "No. This is right here and right now." and created something insanely beautiful.
Jack was completely over the top and all "Look at me! Look at me!" and Ledger played it as "You look at me and I'll gut you..." His Joker is what I imagine it would be like to have a camera crew following Jeffrey Dahmer or J.W. Gacy around. He's just pure, undiluted id waiting for a chance to set you on fire and giggle as you scream.
Re:Can Oscar's be given posthumously?
on
Batman Discussion
·
· Score: 1
Sadly, Poitier came along right at the time that black actors were actually starting to get roles that stepped out of the buck/coon/minstrel/mammy* stereotypes. He was pretty much the first "proud black man" actor and got stuck there for life. He could have had a huge range of roles but everyone liked him so much as the proud black man that's pretty much all he ever got offered again. He's an icon, but his talent was never really allowed to be seen.
I don't know who you are, but you have quite a bit of nerve to come stampeding into a conversation you weren't involved in. Have you no manners? You act like you were born in a barn. I suggest you think before you post next time, lest you re-veal yourself to be more of a boor than you already have.
...O.J.'s "If I Did It, Which I Didn't, But Could Have, And Might Have, And Probably Did, But You Can't Prove It, And After All The Bitch Was Really Asking For It, But That's No Big Deal And I'm Going To Go Play Some Golf" manuscript.
No links, no research, no facts, just a gripping headline that has nothing to back it up other than claiming that "a certain web site" did something.
Your lowest common denominator consumer isn't going to be screwing with the system, so the fact that its open and not locked doesn't affect them, certainly it won't suddenly make their system unstable, remember most people don't hack around in these things You know, it's really rare that I say something like this around here, but your point is so obvious and insightful that I feel like I should apologize for being so blindingly obtuse in my original post. You made a great point and have changed my line of thinking on the issue.
Unfortunately, due to decades of contentious lawsuits and complaints from cranky customers, companies have been forced to lock down their hardware to make sure that there are really no variables that exist in the system that could disturb the lowest common denominator consumer. Yes, it would be nice if everything we bought was unlocked, open, hackable, and mod-able to the nth degree, but that also opens the door to the one thing that no mainstream consumer will accept - instability. The average person buying some sort of tech gizmo would run screaming for the hills if there was a sticker on the box that said "Now look, there is a *ton* of potential in your new Swankbox 32X, but occasionally it's going to go down when we try something new. You'll just have to deal with it, but we swear that when it comes back up it'll just be AWESOME!"
How bad would it be if someone hacked / modded your amazing new console / hdtv / gizmo and added a feature that made it the absolutely kick-ass, must-have item of the year... *but* there was a bit of legwork involved and a 10% chance that you could brick the unit. How many failures would it take before the bad press was enough to sink you?
The vast majority of the people out there buying stuff just want to pay, plug, and play. That means standards, simplicity, and - unfortunately - lockdown.
Actually, I did a lot of stupid stuff when I was young. And I got away with it. Over and over, until I finally found myself in front of a judge facing felony charges. If someone had held me accountable when I first showed myself to be a colossal fuckup, then maybe it wouldn't have led to me facing serious criminal charges that could have had me facing serious time. Twenty years later and much wiser, I wish someone had beat my ass the first time I pulled something that I skated away from because it was non-violent and "hey, he's just young and did something stupid."
So please pardon me if I say that yes, I think I do know an awful lot about this guy and am going to judge the hell out of him.
I'll ignore your embarrassing, frothing outrage, because I realize that I never got around to saying that I actually don't think he deserves prison. Jail? Probably, for a bit. Community service? Tons. And I'll stand by my point that no university should let him in without knowing what he did. Letting him sail into college without facing the consequences of such egregious academic conduct is spitting in the face of everyone who ever, y'know, studied.
And the fact that you think I should be murdered for saying that a serial criminal should at least be charged with his crimes is amusing, to say the least.
and who are all such sticklers for prosecuting lawbreakers, I'm sure you want to see this guy prosecuted too, right? Yes.
but it is inconsistent to claim you are all so concerned about the law being followed when it is a corporation trying to help out after 9/11 When you say "help out" I assume you mean that time the telcos let the government illegally strip-mine all of our conversations with no judicial oversight whatsoever, just because someone in the intel service said "no, no, it's cool. You're fighting terrorists."
Or did AT&T help a kitten out of a tree or something?
but when it is some hacker who is a lot more like you nerds than AT&T happens to be, will you be consistent? I don't even know what that's suppsed to mean.
After all, who else's grades did he snoop into? Twelve of his friends. Did you even read the article?
For the record, I think it is grossly excessive, and sad that young people can get 25+ years for doing things similar to what I did in high school when most of it wasn't illegal then. Breaking and entering, burglary, and falsification of public records wasn't illegal when you were in school?
I am for telecom immunity for companies that tried to help after 9/11 in good faith, and relied on the government's assurances that they would not face legal sanction. I'm sure you are.
I'd imagine that this hacker got no such assurances from authorities before he broke in! He's not a hacker. He's a common criminal and burglar who managed to see someone's password. Don't make him out to be anything else.
Ever since, whenever I've found a computer issue, I've kept my mouth shut, because it's not worth the trouble. What trouble? Two words - anonymous email. Write up a detailed list of their security holes, get an email account that can't be traced back to you, and send them a message that says "here are your problems. I'm not exploiting them but someday someone will. Fix it or don't, it's not my problem."
Voila. The ball's in their court. If they ignore it then they deserve to get owned. If they fix the issues you can drop them a note saying congratulations. If they haven't done anything in six months send copies of your correspondence to the local news and watch the fireworks fly as Link Beefingham and the WHAX Investigative Flying News Squad descend on your school for a live, in-depth report on how the administration refuses to protect Little Johnny and Susie from child pornography, Chinese military hackers, and internet jihadists.
"Principal Landingham! Principal Landingham! WHY DO YOU HATE AMERICA?"
Slashdot Mirror
This is precisely why I love Slashdot. An insightful political statement that suddenly pulls a screaming left turn into a Star Trek analogy. It just brings tears of joy every time I see something so astute and yet jaw-droppingly nerdy. I love this place...
"Flamebait?" Seriously?
Only on Slashdot can I point out the hypocrisy of a bloated gasbag of a preacher and immediately get stomped by the modhammer. Meanwhile, the Michael Moore fart joke gets tagged as "insightful."
They're giving mod status to some reeeeally qualified people around here...
Hurricanes are caused by homosexuals, apparently.
Or Republicans.
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/08/28/hagee-ministries-no-comment-on-tropical-storm-gustav/
Yes, but it's a good rule of thumb that if the language has evolved at the hands of a business consultant, they're just trying to make an ordinary, everyday job description sound sexy and exciting through deliberate obfuscation and complication of syntax. "I've been tasked with getting a tiger team to think outside the box vis-a-vis their normal operational paradigm with regards to proactively seeking out new-media revenue generation through forward-thinking distribution channels" sounds a lot sexier to the average suit than "We need more money. What ideas do you internet nerds have?"
What he said.
My jaw dropped, my brain froze, and my face melted. I don't know what kind of drugs that programmer was on, but he somehow managed to code it into an easily-portable brainsplosion.
Seriously. Go get that game NOW! It makes me pine for the old Williams shooter classics.
I'd love to think that there's some 8-year-old kid out there crouched in front of an old monochrome amber monitor yelling "XYZZY!" "PLUGH!" and "THESE TWISTY PASSAGES ARE ALL ALIKE!" instead of bitching about how all his friends have an XBox 360...
...one great strategy seems to be leaving all your tech "junk" in a conspicuous spot near the curb just before bed. Unless you're in an extremely quiet neighborhood, it seems there's *always* someone around who's interested in an old 486 tower or a Franklin Ace machine. I've used the same method a few times, and it seems that there's always some old-school hacker prowling the streets at 3AM hoping to score some vintage hardware or parts.
It's either that, or homeless people have learned how to eat 25-year-old 5 1/4" floppies of pirated Apple II games...
What's the problem? If you want to adhere to the Basil conventions, you send fawlty computers. I fail to see the issue here.
Oh yeah, copyright infringement is theft!
No, no, no... it's shaaaaaring! It's all about liberating intellectual property from the hands of the fascist bully-boys who insist on getting something in return when you want to partake of their work. Information wants to be free, man! Musicians want to eat, too, but FUCK THEM! If they want to make a buck then they should go out and tour or something.
meanwhile, back at the Slashcave...
HEY! YOU! Did you just unjustly use GPLed code?! CALL THE MOTHERFUCKING COPYRIGHT COPS!!
God only knows what goatse would do.
Talk about a gaping security hole...
"Except Batman doesn't inexplicably throw thousands of Robins at Catwoman after the Joker does something bad, while he sits back doing nothing"
Reposting non-Anon, just so people browsing above +0 will actually see this.
What, you think pandas are real? C'mon, man. Everybody knows a black bear dipped in bleach when they see one. That stuff is faaaaaaake, dude!
I second this. The Keaton / Nicholson films took place in a world that was Willy Wonka-esque. You had to just roll with it and say "oh, it's a movie!" to believe it. I unashamedly did, and I loved those movies for years (okay, the Burton ones.). Chris Nolan just took a flamethrower to the old ones and said "No. This is right here and right now." and created something insanely beautiful.
Jack was completely over the top and all "Look at me! Look at me!" and Ledger played it as "You look at me and I'll gut you..." His Joker is what I imagine it would be like to have a camera crew following Jeffrey Dahmer or J.W. Gacy around. He's just pure, undiluted id waiting for a chance to set you on fire and giggle as you scream.
Sadly, Poitier came along right at the time that black actors were actually starting to get roles that stepped out of the buck/coon/minstrel/mammy* stereotypes. He was pretty much the first "proud black man" actor and got stuck there for life. He could have had a huge range of roles but everyone liked him so much as the proud black man that's pretty much all he ever got offered again. He's an icon, but his talent was never really allowed to be seen.
http://www.amazon.com/Toms-Coons-Mulattoes-Mammies-Bucks/dp/082641267X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216662864&sr=8-1
Real men use tampons.
I don't know who you are, but you have quite a bit of nerve to come stampeding into a conversation you weren't involved in. Have you no manners? You act like you were born in a barn. I suggest you think before you post next time, lest you re-veal yourself to be more of a boor than you already have.
Even by pun standards, that's udderly horrible. I have quite a beef with you, my friend.
...O.J.'s "If I Did It, Which I Didn't, But Could Have, And Might Have, And Probably Did, But You Can't Prove It, And After All The Bitch Was Really Asking For It, But That's No Big Deal And I'm Going To Go Play Some Golf" manuscript.
No links, no research, no facts, just a gripping headline that has nothing to back it up other than claiming that "a certain web site" did something.
That's some great detective work, Lou...
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=591317&cid=23896693
It applies to you as well.
Unfortunately, due to decades of contentious lawsuits and complaints from cranky customers, companies have been forced to lock down their hardware to make sure that there are really no variables that exist in the system that could disturb the lowest common denominator consumer. Yes, it would be nice if everything we bought was unlocked, open, hackable, and mod-able to the nth degree, but that also opens the door to the one thing that no mainstream consumer will accept - instability. The average person buying some sort of tech gizmo would run screaming for the hills if there was a sticker on the box that said "Now look, there is a *ton* of potential in your new Swankbox 32X, but occasionally it's going to go down when we try something new. You'll just have to deal with it, but we swear that when it comes back up it'll just be AWESOME!"
How bad would it be if someone hacked / modded your amazing new console / hdtv / gizmo and added a feature that made it the absolutely kick-ass, must-have item of the year... *but* there was a bit of legwork involved and a 10% chance that you could brick the unit. How many failures would it take before the bad press was enough to sink you?
The vast majority of the people out there buying stuff just want to pay, plug, and play. That means standards, simplicity, and - unfortunately - lockdown.
Actually, I did a lot of stupid stuff when I was young. And I got away with it. Over and over, until I finally found myself in front of a judge facing felony charges. If someone had held me accountable when I first showed myself to be a colossal fuckup, then maybe it wouldn't have led to me facing serious criminal charges that could have had me facing serious time. Twenty years later and much wiser, I wish someone had beat my ass the first time I pulled something that I skated away from because it was non-violent and "hey, he's just young and did something stupid."
So please pardon me if I say that yes, I think I do know an awful lot about this guy and am going to judge the hell out of him.
I'll ignore your embarrassing, frothing outrage, because I realize that I never got around to saying that I actually don't think he deserves prison. Jail? Probably, for a bit. Community service? Tons. And I'll stand by my point that no university should let him in without knowing what he did. Letting him sail into college without facing the consequences of such egregious academic conduct is spitting in the face of everyone who ever, y'know, studied.
And the fact that you think I should be murdered for saying that a serial criminal should at least be charged with his crimes is amusing, to say the least.
Okay, let me try to parse this one out.
and who are all such sticklers for prosecuting lawbreakers, I'm sure you want to see this guy prosecuted too, right? Yes. but it is inconsistent to claim you are all so concerned about the law being followed when it is a corporation trying to help out after 9/11 When you say "help out" I assume you mean that time the telcos let the government illegally strip-mine all of our conversations with no judicial oversight whatsoever, just because someone in the intel service said "no, no, it's cool. You're fighting terrorists."Or did AT&T help a kitten out of a tree or something?
but when it is some hacker who is a lot more like you nerds than AT&T happens to be, will you be consistent? I don't even know what that's suppsed to mean. After all, who else's grades did he snoop into? Twelve of his friends. Did you even read the article? For the record, I think it is grossly excessive, and sad that young people can get 25+ years for doing things similar to what I did in high school when most of it wasn't illegal then. Breaking and entering, burglary, and falsification of public records wasn't illegal when you were in school? I am for telecom immunity for companies that tried to help after 9/11 in good faith, and relied on the government's assurances that they would not face legal sanction. I'm sure you are. I'd imagine that this hacker got no such assurances from authorities before he broke in! He's not a hacker. He's a common criminal and burglar who managed to see someone's password. Don't make him out to be anything else.Voila. The ball's in their court. If they ignore it then they deserve to get owned. If they fix the issues you can drop them a note saying congratulations. If they haven't done anything in six months send copies of your correspondence to the local news and watch the fireworks fly as Link Beefingham and the WHAX Investigative Flying News Squad descend on your school for a live, in-depth report on how the administration refuses to protect Little Johnny and Susie from child pornography, Chinese military hackers, and internet jihadists.
"Principal Landingham! Principal Landingham! WHY DO YOU HATE AMERICA?"