There's a very simple reason people write fud articles like this - they're scared of what might happen if it's true! If Mozilla smashed IE to pieces and toppled the Great Microsoft Empire.. there'd be nothing left to write about.:)
... and the results from my perl paper-o-matic are in!
Hello, vis a vis, per say, imagine that! If you compare the logarithamic pseudo double sine could represent paradigm shift technology internet and if I dare say so myself ology scientific method methodology sine quo non...
It doesn't matter how the future turns out.. good, bad, whether aliens make first contact, whether Bill Gates becomes president, whether computer surpass humans in raw intelligence.
What matters is that we should strive to improve our world, build on each other's work, and make our dreams a reality. You want to make the world a better place, invent technologies beyond your wildest dreams, have peace on earth and good will towards men? It's easy - pickup a keyboard, a pencil, a phone, anything... and start changing the world.
Whoah. Back up there Microsoft. Linux users can have their patches in mere minutes after an exploit becomes public.. infact often the two are released together! Can you claim that your 'hot fixes' can be deployed in less than.. oh, a week?
Even then, due to the inherent instability in the operating system you market you often have to recall the fix because it breaks compatibility with some crucial service!
What's worse, virtually any user of an NT system (even WITH all the hotfixes) can 'root' the box in less time than it takes for me to compile "hello, world"! Atleast under linux I have a very well laid-out method of protecting users' programs from interfering with each other.
And I can download a state of the art firewall for free and have it up and running in minutes on any current linux distribution. That literally costs thousands to impliment on NT.
I believe I speak for everybody here when I say that in the next 10 minutes the ultimate Mindcraft Redux will take place as tens of thousands of geeks simultaniously smash those NT servers and start requesting dynamic content by way of the/. effect.
I think the best thing we could do is to keep doing what we're doing right now. We've all seen first-hand the results of this trial - during it Microsoft has been alot nicer to competition, Linux has been allowed to spread, and OEMs are beginning to use non-microsoft products. Best thing we can do is keep the ball rolling - keep MS under scrutiny. Give them a slap on the wrist and put them on a LONG probation during which fines can be assessed with impunity should they violate the terms of their 'parole' in the industry. Make sure the fines are stiff enough to hurt.. and you've basically tied up Goliath.
Yes, I am aware of my spelunk errers in the abuve text. I had to get up at 4:00am and go to work today, so my brain isn't exactly running smoothly. And by the looks of things, neither are the 200 or so lines of code I did before lunch.:(
Translated version: 3Com, who has been following the marketing model set by Intel, announced today that they are now selling a newer, faster model of the palm pilot. Intel officials are hopeful that the hordes of geeks will rush to upgrade to the 'latest and greatest' No Matter What. While 3Com could not be reached for comment before this went to press, a poster on dotslash indicated that the 'new' features are a better-looking stylus and a sexier case to make the iMac owners jealous.
I'm not bitching and moaning. I'm ridiculing your elected officials for wasting your tax dollars by trying to do the impossible. They'd likely have more success building a warp drive than stopping people from downloading pornography online!
As an official representative of The Rest Of The World, I would like to inform you that we don't give a hoot what the Industry likes, dislikes, wants, or desires. We Are The Customer, And The Customer Is Always Right.
Since when does the industry dictate to the rest of us what we will, and will not, see and do? This isn't television - there are no marketing directors and stuff to tell us what's 'hot and what's not'. We set the agenda. If we want porn, goddamnit, we're gonna have porn and there's not a thing you can do about it. And if you ask me, I think if these politicians got some more often they wouldn't be so damned stupid.:^)
Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated into the Collective.
This reality check brought to you by the makers of Reality, who choose to remain anonymous because the police are still looking for us....
No, if you read between the lines my arguement was that if you increase the 'noise' on networks to such a point that distinguishing the encrypted content from the red herring, the cost per search goes up - drastically.
Imagine if one in ten people crossing the mexican border decided to put little baggies of sugar in their car. Can you imagine the overhead required to seperate the 'fakes' from the real mccoy? It'd be astronomical! If only 1:1000 people actually transported drugs across the boarder, that would mean that only 1% of the people they searched would actually yield *real* drugs. The other 99% is a waste, so you increase the cost per search DRAMATICALLY. You get the idea - and if they decide to outlaw sugar-exportation out of the country, that's gonna piss off alot of sugar businesses. Or oregano exporters for that matter.:)
My point here is that if you make it sufficiently difficult to distinguish the real from the fake... a simple cost-benefit analysis yields that it is an ineffective way to prevent the problem. In effect, simply keep raising the stakes until they can no longer justify the expenditures being made to catch the few 'real' crypto users. Imagine if 30% of your tax dollars went to catch ~130 crypto users each year. Would you stand for it? Hell no!
Unlike forcing you to yield to them entering your house, nobody can force you to let them into your data. That's the wonderful part about computers, and part of the reason I guard my pc at home so vigorously.
They can simply subdue you if you refuse the warrant - but what are they gonna do to your computer? Inject it with truth serum? Ha! Good luck. It'll be a long, long time before the government can crack the security I have available at my fingertips right now.
Personally, I've given up on law enforcement - they've made too many mistakes for me to trust them to "serve and protect" anymore. I have decided that I will not cooperate with government or law in any fashion until they can prove (to MY satisfaction) their motives and intent. They're simply too untrustworthy - I would trust a bum on a street corner more readily than our so-called justice system.
It's a sad state of affairs - and the only long-term solution I can see is to return the power to the average citizen, rather than allow a corrupt few to share it amongst themselves. We need to bring back the right to bear arms, we need to create a public-review (NOT peer review) system that officers are subject to, and we need them to be tried for their crimes. In short, we need accountability. And privacy would be nice too.
When they realize that the frightening thing is that they'd probably like to respond like Britian just did, and say that you have to decrypt anything they want you too. Never mind how illogical this is.
Or illegal. It violates the 5th amendment protections of the constitution. Somehow I sincerely doubt that any law enforcement agency has the necessary clout to push through the removal of that amendment.
Let the legal system dance and run to and fro like a chicken with it's head cut off. It won't be too long before the futility of the situation dawns on them. In this respect, think of them as the ominous "Management" - claims credit for the rain, saying that it controls the weather.. but not for the subsequent drought, which it blames on the 'criminal element'.
A thought just occurred to me - even if they outlaw crypto.. how to you define what cryptography is?
Foo Blargle Me Noitzen!
What did I just say? It could have been non-sense... or it could have been a one-time cipher I'm using between me and a friend of mine to tell him I want his mp3 collection.
If you outlaw crypto.. the crypto experts will simply design a new system that doesn't *look* like crypto. Steganography(sp?) anyone? No officer, that REALLY IS a jpeg of pamela lee I posted to my friend... it REALLY DOESN'T contain the nuke codes for all the missle installations in North Dakota.:^)
The way I see it - this'll turn into another 'war on drugs' - with the only losers being the common citizen. We'll lose what (very little) civil rights we have remaining.. and will have gained nothing for it.
Crypto is outlawed. Given the current state of law enforcement, I don't really think we have anything to worry about - they can't even keep track of the script kiddies right now. Later on, provided they do get their act together, anybody wishing to practice civil disobedience can send "look-alike" PGP messages. Just cat the output of/dev/urandom to uuencode, strip off some of the header and footer info, and put "-- BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE --" at the top of yours. Looks authentic.. but it isn't crypto.
Here's the other problem with outlawing crypto - do 'ya think the DoJ is gonna convince the 230 some odd countries around the world to agree with them and do the same? Not likely. So all you need to do is route network traffic through one of the countries that DOES allow crypto.
Let's assume now they DO allow crypto. US companies rejoyce, e-commerce in this country gets a shot in the arm, and the stock market people are happy. Do 'ya think the DoJ is stupid enough not to realize they're gonna piss off *ALOT* of companies and investors by outlawing cryptography? Yeah.. my thoughts exactly.
*sniffle* Offtopic? Hrmph. He said "a product that shall remain nameless". Seems like an open invitation to humor a certain MS offering. Alas.. some moderators have had their humour surgically removed.
:^) Yeah, it's a joke. No, I don't have a link offhand. There's something about mediaone being owned by a parent organization "the mediaone group", and they in turn are a consortium of these companies.. or something equally dark and misty. I may be wrong - I might have read it all wrong.. it just isn't important enough for me to research out...
Super idea. Very simple to impliment infact (ignore the soothsayers and ACs) - allow anybody to nominate themselves for "moderator" access. Provided n additional people nominate that person/group as well, that group is then allowed to submit opinions into the system.
The key is, of course, allowing the user to filter ratings from any person/group they disapprove of.. or also allow composite scores from several groups (say, for example, you want Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich to edit content for you... Rush rates 'Hot Sexy Babe Website' absolute filth, while Newt maybe only rates it 'indecent'. Composite score: 'Worth a Visit').
The key here is to allow the user maximum flexibility with the system while ensuring that only people who are going to make an honest effort in the system gain access. Nominations are a time-tested method because it simply relies on peer pressure ("I nominated you - don't embarrass me now by acting like an ass!").
So there. Oh, and Rob.. if you're listening... how about we make that long-awaited revision to the current moderation system and open it up alittle (like the suggestion above?)... it's time to try something new...
ADVISORY: There is an Extremely Small but NonZero Chance that, through a Process Known as "Tunneling," this Post May Spontaneously Disappear from its Present Location and Reappear at any Random Place in the Universe, Including your Neighbor's Domicile. The Poster will Not Be Responsible for any Damages or Inconvenience that May Result.
You know, if you look behind the 'inventors' of this technology in the picture... you can see what looks startlingly like the random scribblings my two year old sister makes.
Of course, I could be mistaken, and that drawing is really a graphical representation of the most sophisticated neural net ever made. *g*
*cough* Ummm... RoadRuiner is owned by Time Warner, yes? NotHome is owned by.... you guessed it - Time Warner! Soooo... logical conclusion? NotHome = RoadRuiner = MediaNone.
Eh... looked it up on the BOB (Broadband Report) newsletter. . .
I don't get it. Merger mania has hit the broadband scene hard... and our so-called regulators (public utilities commissioner, FCC) have turned a blind eye to the matter.
This is not good for consumers! Competition is close to non-existant as is.. and the FCC who was supposed to encourage competition is naively allowing these mergers - which put us back in the same #$@! position we are right now with cable companies - one company per region! AAAggggghhh! It's enough to make me scream.
And ever since MediaNone merged with NotHome, my service has been creeping steadily downhill - it's impossible to play quake2 after 16:00 because the latency and packet loss is so bad it makes me want to cry.;(
Come on! Write to the FCC, write to your local PUC... please please please don't let this happen!
Slashdot Mirror
There's a very simple reason people write fud articles like this - they're scared of what might happen if it's true! If Mozilla smashed IE to pieces and toppled the Great Microsoft Empire.. there'd be nothing left to write about. :)
--
Hello, vis a vis, per say, imagine that! If you compare the logarithamic pseudo double sine could represent paradigm shift technology internet and if I dare say so myself ology scientific method methodology sine quo non ...
Result: You get an A!
--
What matters is that we should strive to improve our world, build on each other's work, and make our dreams a reality. You want to make the world a better place, invent technologies beyond your wildest dreams, have peace on earth and good will towards men? It's easy - pickup a keyboard, a pencil, a phone, anything... and start changing the world.
--
Even then, due to the inherent instability in the operating system you market you often have to recall the fix because it breaks compatibility with some crucial service!
What's worse, virtually any user of an NT system (even WITH all the hotfixes) can 'root' the box in less time than it takes for me to compile "hello, world"! Atleast under linux I have a very well laid-out method of protecting users' programs from interfering with each other.
And I can download a state of the art firewall for free and have it up and running in minutes on any current linux distribution. That literally costs thousands to impliment on NT.
Linux is insecure? Better go recheck your data...
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Ah, the sweet irony.
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Sometimes the simple solutions are the best ones.
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Can we please move on now?
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Yes, I am aware of my spelunk errers in the abuve text. I had to get up at 4:00am and go to work today, so my brain isn't exactly running smoothly. And by the looks of things, neither are the 200 or so lines of code I did before lunch. :(
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I'm not bitching and moaning. I'm ridiculing your elected officials for wasting your tax dollars by trying to do the impossible. They'd likely have more success building a warp drive than stopping people from downloading pornography online!
--
Since when does the industry dictate to the rest of us what we will, and will not, see and do? This isn't television - there are no marketing directors and stuff to tell us what's 'hot and what's not'. We set the agenda. If we want porn, goddamnit, we're gonna have porn and there's not a thing you can do about it. And if you ask me, I think if these politicians got some more often they wouldn't be so damned stupid. :^)
Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated into the Collective.
This reality check brought to you by the makers of Reality, who choose to remain anonymous because the police are still looking for us....
--
Imagine if one in ten people crossing the mexican border decided to put little baggies of sugar in their car. Can you imagine the overhead required to seperate the 'fakes' from the real mccoy? It'd be astronomical! If only 1:1000 people actually transported drugs across the boarder, that would mean that only 1% of the people they searched would actually yield *real* drugs. The other 99% is a waste, so you increase the cost per search DRAMATICALLY. You get the idea - and if they decide to outlaw sugar-exportation out of the country, that's gonna piss off alot of sugar businesses. Or oregano exporters for that matter. :)
My point here is that if you make it sufficiently difficult to distinguish the real from the fake... a simple cost-benefit analysis yields that it is an ineffective way to prevent the problem. In effect, simply keep raising the stakes until they can no longer justify the expenditures being made to catch the few 'real' crypto users. Imagine if 30% of your tax dollars went to catch ~130 crypto users each year. Would you stand for it? Hell no!
--
They can simply subdue you if you refuse the warrant - but what are they gonna do to your computer? Inject it with truth serum? Ha! Good luck. It'll be a long, long time before the government can crack the security I have available at my fingertips right now.
Personally, I've given up on law enforcement - they've made too many mistakes for me to trust them to "serve and protect" anymore. I have decided that I will not cooperate with government or law in any fashion until they can prove (to MY satisfaction) their motives and intent. They're simply too untrustworthy - I would trust a bum on a street corner more readily than our so-called justice system.
It's a sad state of affairs - and the only long-term solution I can see is to return the power to the average citizen, rather than allow a corrupt few to share it amongst themselves. We need to bring back the right to bear arms, we need to create a public-review (NOT peer review) system that officers are subject to, and we need them to be tried for their crimes. In short, we need accountability. And privacy would be nice too.
--
Or illegal. It violates the 5th amendment protections of the constitution. Somehow I sincerely doubt that any law enforcement agency has the necessary clout to push through the removal of that amendment.
Let the legal system dance and run to and fro like a chicken with it's head cut off. It won't be too long before the futility of the situation dawns on them. In this respect, think of them as the ominous "Management" - claims credit for the rain, saying that it controls the weather.. but not for the subsequent drought, which it blames on the 'criminal element'.
--
Cute. I wish I had a few moderator points, I'd knock that up a point. :D
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Foo Blargle Me Noitzen!
What did I just say? It could have been non-sense... or it could have been a one-time cipher I'm using between me and a friend of mine to tell him I want his mp3 collection.
If you outlaw crypto.. the crypto experts will simply design a new system that doesn't *look* like crypto. Steganography(sp?) anyone? No officer, that REALLY IS a jpeg of pamela lee I posted to my friend... it REALLY DOESN'T contain the nuke codes for all the missle installations in North Dakota. :^)
The way I see it - this'll turn into another 'war on drugs' - with the only losers being the common citizen. We'll lose what (very little) civil rights we have remaining.. and will have gained nothing for it.
--
Crypto is outlawed. Given the current state of law enforcement, I don't really think we have anything to worry about - they can't even keep track of the script kiddies right now. Later on, provided they do get their act together, anybody wishing to practice civil disobedience can send "look-alike" PGP messages. Just cat the output of /dev/urandom to uuencode, strip off some of the header and footer info, and put "-- BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE --" at the top of yours. Looks authentic.. but it isn't crypto.
Here's the other problem with outlawing crypto - do 'ya think the DoJ is gonna convince the 230 some odd countries around the world to agree with them and do the same? Not likely. So all you need to do is route network traffic through one of the countries that DOES allow crypto.
Let's assume now they DO allow crypto. US companies rejoyce, e-commerce in this country gets a shot in the arm, and the stock market people are happy. Do 'ya think the DoJ is stupid enough not to realize they're gonna piss off *ALOT* of companies and investors by outlawing cryptography? Yeah.. my thoughts exactly.
--
*sniffle* Offtopic? Hrmph. He said "a product that shall remain nameless". Seems like an open invitation to humor a certain MS offering. Alas.. some moderators have had their humour surgically removed.
--
:^) Yeah, it's a joke. No, I don't have a link offhand. There's something about mediaone being owned by a parent organization "the mediaone group", and they in turn are a consortium of these companies.. or something equally dark and misty. I may be wrong - I might have read it all wrong.. it just isn't important enough for me to research out...
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... Could it be ASP pages?
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The key is, of course, allowing the user to filter ratings from any person/group they disapprove of.. or also allow composite scores from several groups (say, for example, you want Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich to edit content for you... Rush rates 'Hot Sexy Babe Website' absolute filth, while Newt maybe only rates it 'indecent'. Composite score: 'Worth a Visit').
The key here is to allow the user maximum flexibility with the system while ensuring that only people who are going to make an honest effort in the system gain access. Nominations are a time-tested method because it simply relies on peer pressure ("I nominated you - don't embarrass me now by acting like an ass!").
So there. Oh, and Rob.. if you're listening... how about we make that long-awaited revision to the current moderation system and open it up alittle (like the suggestion above?)... it's time to try something new...
--
ADVISORY: There is an Extremely Small but NonZero Chance that, through a Process Known as "Tunneling," this Post May Spontaneously Disappear from its Present Location and Reappear at any Random Place in the Universe, Including your Neighbor's Domicile. The Poster will Not Be Responsible for any Damages or Inconvenience that May Result.
--
Of course, I could be mistaken, and that drawing is really a graphical representation of the most sophisticated neural net ever made. *g*
--
Eh... looked it up on the BOB (Broadband Report) newsletter. . .
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This is not good for consumers! Competition is close to non-existant as is.. and the FCC who was supposed to encourage competition is naively allowing these mergers - which put us back in the same #$@! position we are right now with cable companies - one company per region! AAAggggghhh! It's enough to make me scream.
And ever since MediaNone merged with NotHome, my service has been creeping steadily downhill - it's impossible to play quake2 after 16:00 because the latency and packet loss is so bad it makes me want to cry. ;(
Come on! Write to the FCC, write to your local PUC... please please please don't let this happen!
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