For the love of god people, disconnect once in a while. I'm all about tech, I do it for a living, but I'm still able to stand being away from my email, cell-phone, and CS long enough to drive from work to home. Heck, I've even been known to enjoy a vacation now and then.
I mean, I know something like this might be more for show than anything. "Oh yeah? Well I can check my email in my CAR sucka!" But, it's just a tad ridiculous.
There is no optimal solution
on
Port-A-Nuke
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· Score: 2, Interesting
It doesn't matter what solution you come up with, there is always going to be someone who can beat it, take advantage of it, destroy it, what-have-you. Take the copy-protection world, for instance.
The thing you have to think about is whether the potential damage is worth the potential gain. In this case, I'm casting my vote for "yes", but only if we carefully regulate where these things are going and assure that they're not being... well, stolen.
Of course, this also raises the issue of, how do we deal with nuclear waste in developing countries? We can't even deal with it in our own. That aside, I am a proponent of nuclear energy. It's the best we've got right now. (Don't even talk about environmentally friendly solutions. The only actual environment friendly solution is solar, and good luck with that one.)
By your argument, you are saying that guns are more than okay for eveyone to hold, since there are a *few* that use them for legit uses. However, if guns were to be outlawed outright, would you object???
*cough straw man cough*
A) I don't propose the outright ban of guns, just more stringent regulation and B) Come talk to me when a P2P application is used to kill someone.
You can? You understand it? Or you're willing to accept it? Or you just don't care? Because, I neither understand it nor am I willing to accept it. P2P has a myriad of legitimate uses, especially to someone running a *nix system.
See, the problem is that people go "Oh, well, they want to ban X? I don't use X, so that's alright." They don't think about the fact that it's X today, but hey, that just set a precedent for banning Y. Soon you're going "Aww crap, IM just got banned because it includes a file transfer feature. How did this happen?"
Re:How about supergun or space elevator?
on
China Goes Nuclear
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· Score: 0
The problem with sending things off planet is that you're permanently removing that resource from the planet. The planet is a great recycling engine, but that only works if the elements aren't being flung into a giant incinerator in space. Eventually, if this became the standard method of waste disposal, the loss of resources would have a serious negative effect on the planet.
I've often wondered why (more?) people don't use an adaptive system. It tracks the actions of a particular IP, and if it does too many things wrong (rapid requests, malformed packet, etc.) then the offending IP is either temporarily banned (as in, drop all communication from that IP) or throttled. Is there something I'm missing that would make this idea infeasible?
I would like to point out that "offline" can mean a number of things. If you mean offline as in meeting in person, as the website suggests, then sure, that's fine. But if you start doing this through the mail, then you enter the fun world of (say it with me) mail fraud. Wheeee!
How do we know ammonia doesn't last long on mars? Did we take some there and see how long it lasts?
That's one of the reasons we have scientists... to simulate situations which they can't get hands-on access to. Or, are you going to demand that they put a flashlight in a blackhole, just to be sure that light can't escape?
And the responses to this post will tell you exactly why they didn't publish the list of infected sites. It states, here's a site that will infect your machine if you are using IE, and yet still, people will go to check it out and get infected!
This may came as a surprise to you, but not everyone uses IE. If I had a list of infected sites, of COURSE the first thing I would do would be to jump over there and check them out...
The problem is that it gives big labels an effective monopoly on the music industry. Small artists or labels are being drowned out by radio stations full of *ahem* ads. Even if the ads are music. How would it be if all you saw on TV was hour long commercials? Oh wait, they have those, they're called infomercials.
So, if small bands and labels can't get heard on the radio, how do they make it big? Why, by selling out to bigger labels. Very few bands survive this with their integrity intact.
"A legal victory looks highly unlikely, and even if a decision went SCO's way, the probable remedy would not be money for SCO, but a rewrite for Linux, something the open-source community would accomplish in the blink of an eye."
Ken Keeler has a PhD in Applied Math and a Masters in Electrical Engineering.
David Cohen has a bachelors in Physics and a Masters in Computer Science.
Bill Odenkirk has a PhD in Inorganic Chemistry.
Jeff Westbrook has a PhD in Computer Science.
J. Burns has a bachelors in Mathematics.
That thinks Perl or PHP would be a good choice? As scripting languages, you don't have to worry about compile or link errors, but they're also relatively powerful.
They can start simple, and, I think, they're pretty intuitive languages.
Of course, if you choose the PHP route, you might want to start them off with HTML as was suggested.
Ryan
While I agree that this is pretty shitty, you don't have to show due diligence in enforcing patent rights.
However, I'm inclined to think that if/when this goes to court, the judge is likely to frown on the obvious underhanded tactic employed by the patent holder. The only reason that one would wait this long to enforce patents rights is
1) You didn't know your technology was being used. If they try and use this, I'll laugh, there's now way that anyone could not know how widespread JPEG is.
or 2) You wanted to maximize potential infringment in order to maximize possible lawsuit earnings. Very likely, and very shadey. I don't know if there is a mechanism in place to prevent this.
The patent that is quoted is really broad... it appears to not only cover JPEG, but any lossee image and video compression.
Let's say... you're transfering a song. This system compares the songs "fingerprint" to their database, seeking a match. So this implies that, theoretically, bitrate and file format don't matter.
How about instead, before a P2P program sends a chunk of data, it uses a random, lossless encoding that preserves the MP3 format. In this situation, you would have to exchange keys in clear text, presenting a possible problem, but maybe not.
Or why can't you make a P2P program that uses public-private key encryption over an unsecured connection?
Basically, what I'm getting at, is that, in order for this to work, they have to A) Have the song you're trading in their database and B) Be able to identify which song you're trading. Since changing A is hard, focus on B.
Slashdot Mirror
For the love of god people, disconnect once in a while. I'm all about tech, I do it for a living, but I'm still able to stand being away from my email, cell-phone, and CS long enough to drive from work to home. Heck, I've even been known to enjoy a vacation now and then.
I mean, I know something like this might be more for show than anything. "Oh yeah? Well I can check my email in my CAR sucka!" But, it's just a tad ridiculous.
It doesn't matter what solution you come up with, there is always going to be someone who can beat it, take advantage of it, destroy it, what-have-you. Take the copy-protection world, for instance.
The thing you have to think about is whether the potential damage is worth the potential gain. In this case, I'm casting my vote for "yes", but only if we carefully regulate where these things are going and assure that they're not being... well, stolen.
Of course, this also raises the issue of, how do we deal with nuclear waste in developing countries? We can't even deal with it in our own. That aside, I am a proponent of nuclear energy. It's the best we've got right now. (Don't even talk about environmentally friendly solutions. The only actual environment friendly solution is solar, and good luck with that one.)
By your argument, you are saying that guns are more than okay for eveyone to hold, since there are a *few* that use them for legit uses. However, if guns were to be outlawed outright, would you object???
*cough straw man cough*
A) I don't propose the outright ban of guns, just more stringent regulation and B) Come talk to me when a P2P application is used to kill someone.
I can understand the regs on p2p software
You can? You understand it? Or you're willing to accept it? Or you just don't care? Because, I neither understand it nor am I willing to accept it. P2P has a myriad of legitimate uses, especially to someone running a *nix system.
See, the problem is that people go "Oh, well, they want to ban X? I don't use X, so that's alright." They don't think about the fact that it's X today, but hey, that just set a precedent for banning Y. Soon you're going "Aww crap, IM just got banned because it includes a file transfer feature. How did this happen?"
The problem with sending things off planet is that you're permanently removing that resource from the planet. The planet is a great recycling engine, but that only works if the elements aren't being flung into a giant incinerator in space. Eventually, if this became the standard method of waste disposal, the loss of resources would have a serious negative effect on the planet.
I've often wondered why (more?) people don't use an adaptive system. It tracks the actions of a particular IP, and if it does too many things wrong (rapid requests, malformed packet, etc.) then the offending IP is either temporarily banned (as in, drop all communication from that IP) or throttled. Is there something I'm missing that would make this idea infeasible?
I would like to point out that "offline" can mean a number of things. If you mean offline as in meeting in person, as the website suggests, then sure, that's fine. But if you start doing this through the mail, then you enter the fun world of (say it with me) mail fraud. Wheeee!
The MPAA, recognizing the damage the advent of digital file-sharing did to the music industry, has waged an aggressive campaign against movie piracy.
Also: MPAA provides some actual proof of damages. Next on Fantasy News Network.
Just think - if you had a virtual girlfriend, maybe she could comfort you.
This reminds me of that episode of Futurama with Kidnappster and Lucy Liu.
Lucy: "Would you like to take a moment to register me?"
Fry: "Not right now."
Lucy: "Okay. Would you like to register me?"
Fry: "I said later!"
"...companies losing valuable employee time to deleting spam..."
/.ed, here:3
Maybe they should be working on a Slashdot-Firewall. Damn, I really should get back to work.
Oh, and since the linked article got
http://www.uq.edu.au/news/index.phtml?article=583
You know who else enforced advertising in a militaristic fashion? And preferred Coke above all other liquid refreshment? That's right, HITLER!
Do I win?
She'll issue the ticket without a second thought, unless she were a complete imbecile.
An imbecile? Working in the airline business? It boggles the mind.
article is up for 10 minutes and no posts? Everyone still laughing at their keyboards or what?
Frothing at the mouth and convulsing is more likely. Good thing I'm so apathetic.
So do what I did. Email them and tell them you won't buy this DVD set. Tell them you'll wait until the originals are released on DVD. And mean it.
It's damn hard to find email addresses for people remotely related, I found:
askfox@foxinc.com, businessinquiries@lucasfilm.com, marlene.saritzky@lucasfilm.com
Feel free to add any others you find.
Calypso
How do we know ammonia doesn't last long on mars? Did we take some there and see how long it lasts?
That's one of the reasons we have scientists... to simulate situations which they can't get hands-on access to. Or, are you going to demand that they put a flashlight in a blackhole, just to be sure that light can't escape?
You don't "file a case" to defeat a patent. You release a product that uses the patented work, and wait for them to come to you.
Of course you can, you petition for an ex parte reexamination.
If bill is passed, please INDUCE vomitting.
And the responses to this post will tell you exactly why they didn't publish the list of infected sites. It states, here's a site that will infect your machine if you are using IE, and yet still, people will go to check it out and get infected!
This may came as a surprise to you, but not everyone uses IE. If I had a list of infected sites, of COURSE the first thing I would do would be to jump over there and check them out...
The problem is that it gives big labels an effective monopoly on the music industry. Small artists or labels are being drowned out by radio stations full of *ahem* ads. Even if the ads are music. How would it be if all you saw on TV was hour long commercials? Oh wait, they have those, they're called infomercials.
So, if small bands and labels can't get heard on the radio, how do they make it big? Why, by selling out to bigger labels. Very few bands survive this with their integrity intact.
Ryan
My favorite quote from the article was:
"A legal victory looks highly unlikely, and even if a decision went SCO's way, the probable remedy would not be money for SCO, but a rewrite for Linux, something the open-source community would accomplish in the blink of an eye."
Ryan
Ken Keeler has a PhD in Applied Math and a Masters in Electrical Engineering.
David Cohen has a bachelors in Physics and a Masters in Computer Science.
Bill Odenkirk has a PhD in Inorganic Chemistry.
Jeff Westbrook has a PhD in Computer Science.
J. Burns has a bachelors in Mathematics.
Ryan
That thinks Perl or PHP would be a good choice? As scripting languages, you don't have to worry about compile or link errors, but they're also relatively powerful. They can start simple, and, I think, they're pretty intuitive languages. Of course, if you choose the PHP route, you might want to start them off with HTML as was suggested. Ryan
While I agree that this is pretty shitty, you don't have to show due diligence in enforcing patent rights.
However, I'm inclined to think that if/when this goes to court, the judge is likely to frown on the obvious underhanded tactic employed by the patent holder. The only reason that one would wait this long to enforce patents rights is
1) You didn't know your technology was being used. If they try and use this, I'll laugh, there's now way that anyone could not know how widespread JPEG is.
or 2) You wanted to maximize potential infringment in order to maximize possible lawsuit earnings. Very likely, and very shadey. I don't know if there is a mechanism in place to prevent this.
The patent that is quoted is really broad... it appears to not only cover JPEG, but any lossee image and video compression.
Ryan
Let's say... you're transfering a song. This system compares the songs "fingerprint" to their database, seeking a match. So this implies that, theoretically, bitrate and file format don't matter. How about instead, before a P2P program sends a chunk of data, it uses a random, lossless encoding that preserves the MP3 format. In this situation, you would have to exchange keys in clear text, presenting a possible problem, but maybe not. Or why can't you make a P2P program that uses public-private key encryption over an unsecured connection? Basically, what I'm getting at, is that, in order for this to work, they have to A) Have the song you're trading in their database and B) Be able to identify which song you're trading. Since changing A is hard, focus on B.
For those of you that haven't seen it... So I'm inclined to subscribe to the "taking you all for a ride" theorem. Ryan