"Sadly, the courses are not supported on any open source platforms or even any open source web browsers. More importantly, I'm curious how other universities will start making their courses available freely online."
People, people, people, open source is great. I run Linux on my home computer, surf the Web with Mozilla Firefox, IRC with X-chat and program with gcc.
But this open source veneration needs to be taken down a notch. It's pretty nice in a lot of areas, but we need to stop bitching out anybody who chooses not to open source or released under the GPL their materials.
Carnegie Mellon must obviously have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years to produce these materials and it's pretty hard to see what's in it for them and maybe even us if they make this "courseware" publicly available. Just think about this.
This is real. I know that I can't prove that, but you'll just have to trust that this isn't faked.
Log file opened at: 01/17/2004 5:30:42 AM
[5:00:00] ***: You have joined the channel
[5:00:15] ***: You are now known as CaptBDick
[... some irrelevant lines cut out...]
[5:07:13] AverageMan: I love the united states of america!
[5:07:20] AverageMan: NOT!!!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
[5:07:55] ***: AverageMan is now known as AbdullaH
[5:08:00] djspides: god who are these people:CowboyNeal: so if someone get's modded down enough times, they cant post above -1 even fi they improve their karma?
[... ASCII art and irrelevant lines cut out...]
[5:25:27] CowboyNeal: hey, I hate malda just as much as you guys. If it weren't for him making me work saturdays, I'd be with my gf right now.
[... ASCII art cut out...]
[5:25:39] CowboyNeal: yes
[... ASCII art cut out...]
[5:25:44] tirel: CowboyNeal: is she fat?
[5:25:46] CowboyNeal: stupid, I know, but that's the way it is
[5:25:51] CaptBDick: ->CowboyNeal: heh, i never knew that
[5:25:51] tirel: hElLo , sri ! xM NAME IS ABdullSH IHrAm MohAMMad bI5n ZuLar KroJAr TEhROHaM Kumr , I am A TErrorOSt . nY FaTHWR WAs On the FiRsT PLANE thaT cRaSHEd in thr woLrD TARDe ceNTEr . i GEz A bOnER everY TIME xNn plays thAR TApe . if YoU wISh tp hELP me nI NY quEst FiR WoR...D slaVEry , plaese pURchaSe A kAlaShNIkoV aT YouR NeARrST KAsAshNikOv StoRe
[5:25:54] Newcomer: CowboyNeal: have yuo seen this troll yet?
[5:25:56] Newcomer: HELLO! My name is Abdullah Kumr. I AM A TERRORIST. I WANT TO KILL ALL AMERICANS!! My father was on the plane that crashed in to the first building on 9/11, and I am very proud of him. Support Usama Bin Laden NOW!! Help me KILL ALL AMERICANS!!!!!
[5:25:58] tirel: heLlo,, sir ! mY Bame IS5 AbDullah IhRAm moHAmmAD Bin zuLAr kRokAr teHrOHAm kUMR,, I AM a TeRrORIsT . MY fAThER waS On tHE FIrsT plAN08E T1Ha
[5:25:59] Newcomer: It's very popular!
[5:26:05] Newcomer: tirel's is an adaptation
[5:26:06] tirel: HeLLO,08 sIr ! mY NamE IS A0bdULLAH IhrAm MoHaMmAd biN zuLaR KrOKaR teHrOham kUMR , I Am a TErROriSt.0 my faTHER EaA on tEh fIR6ST pLaNw Tgs5T CrasHes in thE WOrLD zaRfe Center . I geT s BOnER rveRY tIME CnN PkaY0s thaT tAPE . OF yOu WSIh tO
[5:26:07] CaptBDick: ->CowboyNeal: that does seem sort of unfair to me
[5:26:09] CowboyNeal: well she's no model, but she's still pretty hot
[5:26:11] timecop: Cowboyneels girlfriend, is it good or is it whack?
[5:26:29] Newcomer: #caoine. What's it all about?
[5:26:29] CowboyNeal: me too, honestly
[5:26:36] CowboyNeal: but, not my site, just my job
[5:26:39] RandomGuy: SO WHO IS THIS ROB MALDA GUY?
[5:27:00] timecop: interesting.
[5:27:08] timecop: so what ARE you doing at "work" on saturday?
[5:27:26] timecop: writing more hsitcode?
[5:27:31] CowboyNeal: posting stories
[5:27:38] Newcomer: CowboyNeal: I have a serious question for you.
[5:27:42] timecop: CAN SOMEOME PLEASE FOR FUCKS SAKE REWRITE SLASHSHITCODE TO USE PROPER HTML AND CDSS
[5:27:44] timecop: er CSS
[5:27:46] Newcomer: Why do you have a webcam?
[5:27:52] Newcomer: Notice: CowboyNeal: One of the most revealing statements a passive racist can make is that "Some of his best friends" are of a certain ethnicity.You are a fat disgusting fucker.
[5:27:54] CowboyNeal: I don't, really
[5:28:01] CaptBDick: ->CowboyNeal: also, i was wondering, i wanted to try to implement slash on a site of mine. is the lameness filter open?
[5:28:03] CowboyNeal: it's just an iSight I take stills with
[5:28:21] CaptBDick: i have an isight too
[5:28:29] tirel: you guys are gay
[5:28:29] CaptBDick: it takes everything backwards
[5:28:31] CaptBDick: have you noticed that?
[5:28:38] Newcomer: CowboyNeal: You are a fat disgusting fucker. This is not conducive to having a webcam.
[5:28:48] Newcomer: It does not follow logic.
[5:28:56] Newcomer: I am seriously trying to figure this out.
[5:28:59] timecop: CaptBDick: next
Subjecting yourself to two slashdottings in a row - you're taking quite a bullet for science, huh? I'd be more impressed if you people could simulate turbulent fluid flow, huh?
And I mean, really, really old news. This has been done since 1997. How do I know? I remember downloading an Encarta Encyclopaedia 1998 yearbook update. One of its items concerned exactly this QE experiment. Unfortunately, I don't have Encarta installed any more, so I can't really copy-paste it...
...I'm not particularly excited about these "Scanlation Communities". It's just yet another example of the Internet doing what it does best: forming small, highly optimized communities devoted to one thing, like the workers at DP proofreading public domain texts or the people at archive.org committed to putting new materials into circulation. Just because it's anime/manga/Japanmiation doesn't make it particularly special, but I'm sure it's just useful as anything else. This is what the 'Net is for.
That was supposed to be a hot, up-to-the-minute broadband movie-on-demand service, but that didn't pan out. They still have Spiderman 1 trailers on there, for goodness sake! I don't think the film industry is really taking piracy enough to actually get off its arse and do something.
Maybe I'm just a sentimental fuddie-duddie;-) but I don't understand why there is such large excitement about wireless Internet access. Its range isn't generally much better than those of nonwireless methods and nor are access speeds. In my past experiences with wireless networking I've been plagued by random connection drops and noisy data transfer. I sure hope things have improved or else Austin could be in for a world of hurt.
If you had the two computers in a room together, they'd probably be able to communicate. If no one moved, turned the light on, opened a window, got up to get a cup of coffee. I learned about wireless networking as an expensive pipe dream where it's just too flaky to be a practical solution. Hopefully by standardizing protocols like this we'll be able to get reliable through-the-air services and anakin murders padme in episode three in a fit of rage. Having an edge of a few hotspots in coffeeshops or parks is not likely to provide as much of an advantage as if the same money was spent keeping homeless off the streets, say.
Still, Wi-Fi, 2.6GHz, 802.11b, whatever, does sound promising. If it works as well as I hear it does, it will lead to a revolution in telecommunications in Austin. Whereas in the past we'd be trailing cables and leads everywhere - people will be able to walk up and just share data. I look forward to being able to share power wirelessly! Won't that be great? Hey, maybe Pick and Drop will become commonplace! (I'll always remember Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V, though.)
I'm glad that there are some small subsidies being spent to enable local business to hop aboard. Being able to share inventory and computer usage tips will help them a great deal and I'll be watching Austin's statistics closely to see how well it copes with the proliferation of cheap computing and communications and networking for all.
...on the governmental software road. The simple fact is that proprietary systems gradually grow old, flaky, clunky, bloated and support is withdrawn from them (just witness the EOLs of various versions of Windows and Red Hat Linux we hear about here now and then). Open source software, on the other hand, can be hacked upon by anyone who wants to use it, any new functionality can be grafted on or removed, and the result can be redistributed for nothing? How can proprietary software complete? It's just that simple.
Given the past record of replacement formats, it's not likely. We look at the dozens of different media and formats from the past and notice that only two have been successful: the upgrade from wax cylinders to circular records and the subsequent upgrade from vinyl records to CDs: and there are STILL some who think LPs are better.
This is why I think they'll fail:
1. Existing technologies are "good enough"
The most dangerous technology is that which is "just good enough". CDs have filled a void perfectly and the average person is perfectly happy with the marginally inferior audio quality they provide as opposed to LPs.
2. $$$
It costs too much to switch to a new technology. Just think about how much CDs cost nowadays: up to twenty dollars! Imagine how much DVD-Audio and SACD cost, especially as they have to accommodate existing players and feature backwards compatibility. (The current projected cost is about $40 to $50! Who will pay that for a few hours worth of music?)
3. No noticeable improvement
Though it can be digitally demonstrated that CDs have a substantially higher audio quality than LPs, many audiophiles will still insist that LPs do better in the low end. The fact of the matter is that the sound of music is in the eye of the beholder. Why? Because the quality of recorded sound is now sufficiently good that any small incremental improvements will now not be noted.
4. People are fed up with the record industry
Considering how good existing audio solutions are already, how many people do you think are going to look on this with an uncynical eye and be glad that they're getting superior new formats?
Not many, that's for sure. We have to realise that your average person feels shafted by the record industry (not the "RIAA") and so is fed up of having to continually pay up over and over for new formats, which come ever faster. First the gap between new formats is 50 years - then 20 - now just half a decade or so. It's tragic, as it means that technological improvements in this won't help matters.
Ah, well. I'll be off to listen to Tarkus now. On remastered CD, naturally.
The PDA is failing for the same reason 3G technology has a slow uptake and is in danger of slipping into moribundency. It's just too much technology that's useless in such a small device while you're on the move. Who really wants to do wordprocessing with something half the size of a tissue box while they're sitting on the toilet? The tech just isn't feasible; it's cramped and the UI is poor. Costs are still ramped up, which doesn't help either.
Isn't finding a path from one location to another, taking into account terrain, changes in weather, means of locomotion and ease of travel a fairly difficult AI problem? I find it difficult to believe that a handy "Super Map" will solve the problem."
I know that the Earth's atmosphere is approximately 100 kilometres in thickness, but the idea of an object dissipating so much kinetic energy as heat is still amazing. Nonetheless, at that speed it's going at about the same speed as a bullet from a gun so I guess it's a good thing no one was there. Luckily, though, since kinetic energy is proportional to the square of velocity, it's a good thing it lost all but literally 0.2% of its speed.
...how about they start block ports 1080 and 2280? I often see horrific trolls invading the IRC networks and channels we inhabit, triggering mass K-lines by inviting people to juped channels, flooding, mass-noticing and trying to piss people off in general. And everytime I check these trolls' hostmasks, oh! - it's Comcast.
A lot of Comcast users seem to be running as SOCKS proxies for some reason.:-( Since SOCKS is also a generic relay protocol, it could be used for spamming too!
...down to -1, Offtopic because you can't handle criticism, michael, but you know what? I just don't care. This is the last straw. I used to wonder why all of the trolls would constantly take the piss out of you over all of the other editors. Sometimes you posted blurbs that had egregious spelling errors, blatant plugs for Apple products or just outright filled with false information. I always just put it down to misjudgement and figured that it wasn't so bad - Slashdot's standards are fairly high compared to other sites.
But godammnit, michael, how hard would it have been to actually read the fucking article and realise - "Hey! This is a couple of years old! Maybe this isn't worth posting!" - and this is also a dupe. Isn't that what an editor's supposed to do? Check the leads people give them to make sure they're not bullshit? You get paid to do this, for God's sake, and you're just not taking it seriously. Not at all. And as soon as anyone points it out you bitchslap them to shut them up. Who the hell do you think you are?
By the time you read this my subscription will have been cancelled. I'm fed up, michael. I'm not subsidising this site so you can post this trash.
...from what I see, this doesn't so much sound like news as background material on life in the 19th century. While I'm very greatful for this information to be made public, why can't we have so much more made public, like supposedly-publicly-accessible government documents? Heck, I'd be happy to get some decent 21st Century News!
"Linux-based" does not, I'm afraid, imply the use of open source software/firmware. I enjoy open source software as much as the next Slashdot user, but given the past track record of hardware media players, it's not likely to be "open" or "hackable", much as you and I would enjoy this. Nonetheless, this does sound like a really cool product. Now all we need is a software media player that handles all those formats and actually works without segfaulting a la mplayer.
And there was me thinking that maybe, just maybe, the corruptive rot of politics hadn't sunk through to supposed grassroots groups like this. Guess I should've thought better and realised that astroturfing like this is doable after all. How much power do these groups hold? With the money they're being backhanded by Diebold, they might be able to exert some unwanted influence on the issue.:/ -- GNAA
Slashdot Mirror
"Sadly, the courses are not supported on any open source platforms or even any open source web browsers. More importantly, I'm curious how other universities will start making their courses available freely online."
People, people, people, open source is great. I run Linux on my home computer, surf the Web with Mozilla Firefox, IRC with X-chat and program with gcc.
But this open source veneration needs to be taken down a notch. It's pretty nice in a lot of areas, but we need to stop bitching out anybody who chooses not to open source or released under the GPL their materials.
Carnegie Mellon must obviously have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years to produce these materials and it's pretty hard to see what's in it for them and maybe even us if they make this "courseware" publicly available. Just think about this.
This is real. I know that I can't prove that, but you'll just have to trust that this isn't faked. Log file opened at: 01/17/2004 5:30:42 AM [5:00:00] ***: You have joined the channel [5:00:15] ***: You are now known as CaptBDick [... some irrelevant lines cut out ...]
[5:07:13] AverageMan: I love the united states of america!
[5:07:20] AverageMan: NOT!!!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
[5:07:55] ***: AverageMan is now known as AbdullaH
[5:08:00] djspides: god who are these people :CowboyNeal: so if someone get's modded down enough times, they cant post above -1 even fi they improve their karma?
[... ASCII art and irrelevant lines cut out ...]
[5:25:27] CowboyNeal: hey, I hate malda just as much as you guys. If it weren't for him making me work saturdays, I'd be with my gf right now.
[... ASCII art cut out ...]
[5:25:39] CowboyNeal: yes
[... ASCII art cut out ...]
[5:25:44] tirel: CowboyNeal: is she fat?
[5:25:46] CowboyNeal: stupid, I know, but that's the way it is
[5:25:51] CaptBDick: ->CowboyNeal: heh, i never knew that
[5:25:51] tirel: hElLo , sri ! xM NAME IS ABdullSH IHrAm MohAMMad bI5n ZuLar KroJAr TEhROHaM Kumr , I am A TErrorOSt . nY FaTHWR WAs On the FiRsT PLANE thaT cRaSHEd in thr woLrD TARDe ceNTEr . i GEz A bOnER everY TIME xNn plays thAR TApe . if YoU wISh tp hELP me nI NY quEst FiR WoR...D slaVEry , plaese pURchaSe A kAlaShNIkoV aT YouR NeARrST KAsAshNikOv StoRe
[5:25:54] Newcomer: CowboyNeal: have yuo seen this troll yet?
[5:25:56] Newcomer: HELLO! My name is Abdullah Kumr. I AM A TERRORIST. I WANT TO KILL ALL AMERICANS!! My father was on the plane that crashed in to the first building on 9/11, and I am very proud of him. Support Usama Bin Laden NOW!! Help me KILL ALL AMERICANS!!!!!
[5:25:58] tirel: heLlo ,, sir ! mY Bame IS5 AbDullah IhRAm moHAmmAD Bin zuLAr kRokAr teHrOHAm kUMR ,, I AM a TeRrORIsT . MY fAThER waS On tHE FIrsT plAN08E T1Ha
[5:25:59] Newcomer: It's very popular!
[5:26:05] Newcomer: tirel's is an adaptation
[5:26:06] tirel: HeLLO ,08 sIr ! mY NamE IS A0bdULLAH IhrAm MoHaMmAd biN zuLaR KrOKaR teHrOham kUMR , I Am a TErROriSt .0 my faTHER EaA on tEh fIR6ST pLaNw Tgs5T CrasHes in thE WOrLD zaRfe Center . I geT s BOnER rveRY tIME CnN PkaY0s thaT tAPE . OF yOu WSIh tO
[5:26:07] CaptBDick: ->CowboyNeal: that does seem sort of unfair to me
[5:26:09] CowboyNeal: well she's no model, but she's still pretty hot
[5:26:11] timecop: Cowboyneels girlfriend, is it good or is it whack?
[5:26:29] Newcomer: #caoine. What's it all about?
[5:26:29] CowboyNeal: me too, honestly
[5:26:36] CowboyNeal: but, not my site, just my job
[5:26:39] RandomGuy: SO WHO IS THIS ROB MALDA GUY?
[5:27:00] timecop: interesting.
[5:27:08] timecop: so what ARE you doing at "work" on saturday?
[5:27:26] timecop: writing more hsitcode?
[5:27:31] CowboyNeal: posting stories
[5:27:38] Newcomer: CowboyNeal: I have a serious question for you.
[5:27:42] timecop: CAN SOMEOME PLEASE FOR FUCKS SAKE REWRITE SLASHSHITCODE TO USE PROPER HTML AND CDSS
[5:27:44] timecop: er CSS
[5:27:46] Newcomer: Why do you have a webcam?
[5:27:52] Newcomer: Notice: CowboyNeal: One of the most revealing statements a passive racist can make is that "Some of his best friends" are of a certain ethnicity.You are a fat disgusting fucker.
[5:27:54] CowboyNeal: I don't, really
[5:28:01] CaptBDick: ->CowboyNeal: also, i was wondering, i wanted to try to implement slash on a site of mine. is the lameness filter open?
[5:28:03] CowboyNeal: it's just an iSight I take stills with
[5:28:21] CaptBDick: i have an isight too
[5:28:29] tirel: you guys are gay
[5:28:29] CaptBDick: it takes everything backwards
[5:28:31] CaptBDick: have you noticed that?
[5:28:38] Newcomer: CowboyNeal: You are a fat disgusting fucker. This is not conducive to having a webcam.
[5:28:48] Newcomer: It does not follow logic.
[5:28:56] Newcomer: I am seriously trying to figure this out.
[5:28:59] timecop: CaptBDick: next
GNAA irc.gnaa.us #gnaa
propz to rolloffle
Subjecting yourself to two slashdottings in a row - you're taking quite a bullet for science, huh? I'd be more impressed if you people could simulate turbulent fluid flow, huh?
GNAA
'the discs, by themselves, cannot be hacked.'
Yes...but what about the DVD players?
And I mean, really, really old news. This has been done since 1997. How do I know? I remember downloading an Encarta Encyclopaedia 1998 yearbook update. One of its items concerned exactly this QE experiment. Unfortunately, I don't have Encarta installed any more, so I can't really copy-paste it...
Seems more and more people are turning against blogs. :-(
Kinda reminds me of this Kuro5hin article.
...I'm not particularly excited about these "Scanlation Communities". It's just yet another example of the Internet doing what it does best: forming small, highly optimized communities devoted to one thing, like the workers at DP proofreading public domain texts or the people at archive.org committed to putting new materials into circulation. Just because it's anime/manga/Japanmiation doesn't make it particularly special, but I'm sure it's just useful as anything else. This is what the 'Net is for.
"...the more people who know about present-day Java performance, the better."
This person will never know how right they were!
It's more convenient than Web interface and has no arbitrary limits...it's a quantum computing module for Perl! There's also libquantum for C users, and QCF for Matlabbers.
That was supposed to be a hot, up-to-the-minute broadband movie-on-demand service, but that didn't pan out. They still have Spiderman 1 trailers on there, for goodness sake! I don't think the film industry is really taking piracy enough to actually get off its arse and do something.
Maybe I'm just a sentimental fuddie-duddie ;-) but I don't understand why there is such large excitement about wireless Internet access. Its range isn't generally much better than those of nonwireless methods and nor are access speeds. In my past experiences with wireless networking I've been plagued by random connection drops and noisy data transfer. I sure hope things have improved or else Austin could be in for a world of hurt.
If you had the two computers in a room together, they'd probably be able to communicate. If no one moved, turned the light on, opened a window, got up to get a cup of coffee. I learned about wireless networking as an expensive pipe dream where it's just too flaky to be a practical solution. Hopefully by standardizing protocols like this we'll be able to get reliable through-the-air services and anakin murders padme in episode three in a fit of rage. Having an edge of a few hotspots in coffeeshops or parks is not likely to provide as much of an advantage as if the same money was spent keeping homeless off the streets, say.
Still, Wi-Fi, 2.6GHz, 802.11b, whatever, does sound promising. If it works as well as I hear it does, it will lead to a revolution in telecommunications in Austin. Whereas in the past we'd be trailing cables and leads everywhere - people will be able to walk up and just share data. I look forward to being able to share power wirelessly! Won't that be great? Hey, maybe Pick and Drop will become commonplace! (I'll always remember Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V, though.)
I'm glad that there are some small subsidies being spent to enable local business to hop aboard. Being able to share inventory and computer usage tips will help them a great deal and I'll be watching Austin's statistics closely to see how well it copes with the proliferation of cheap computing and communications and networking for all.
--
GNAA
...and it works for you, why do you need still more?
--
GNAA
...was that in that hefty 30 line writeup, nowhere is the cost of all of this stuff mentioned. I bet it's still all out of my price range. :-(
--
GNAA
...on the governmental software road. The simple fact is that proprietary systems gradually grow old, flaky, clunky, bloated and support is withdrawn from them (just witness the EOLs of various versions of Windows and Red Hat Linux we hear about here now and then). Open source software, on the other hand, can be hacked upon by anyone who wants to use it, any new functionality can be grafted on or removed, and the result can be redistributed for nothing? How can proprietary software complete? It's just that simple.
Given the past record of replacement formats, it's not likely. We look at the dozens of different media and formats from the past and notice that only two have been successful: the upgrade from wax cylinders to circular records and the subsequent upgrade from vinyl records to CDs: and there are STILL some who think LPs are better.
This is why I think they'll fail:
1. Existing technologies are "good enough"
The most dangerous technology is that which is "just good enough". CDs have filled a void perfectly and the average person is perfectly happy with the marginally inferior audio quality they provide as opposed to LPs.
2. $$$
It costs too much to switch to a new technology. Just think about how much CDs cost nowadays: up to twenty dollars! Imagine how much DVD-Audio and SACD cost, especially as they have to accommodate existing players and feature backwards compatibility. (The current projected cost is about $40 to $50! Who will pay that for a few hours worth of music?)
3. No noticeable improvement
Though it can be digitally demonstrated that CDs have a substantially higher audio quality than LPs, many audiophiles will still insist that LPs do better in the low end. The fact of the matter is that the sound of music is in the eye of the beholder. Why? Because the quality of recorded sound is now sufficiently good that any small incremental improvements will now not be noted.
4. People are fed up with the record industry
Considering how good existing audio solutions are already, how many people do you think are going to look on this with an uncynical eye and be glad that they're getting superior new formats?
Not many, that's for sure. We have to realise that your average person feels shafted by the record industry (not the "RIAA") and so is fed up of having to continually pay up over and over for new formats, which come ever faster. First the gap between new formats is 50 years - then 20 - now just half a decade or so. It's tragic, as it means that technological improvements in this won't help matters.
Ah, well. I'll be off to listen to Tarkus now. On remastered CD, naturally.
The PDA is failing for the same reason 3G technology has a slow uptake and is in danger of slipping into moribundency. It's just too much technology that's useless in such a small device while you're on the move. Who really wants to do wordprocessing with something half the size of a tissue box while they're sitting on the toilet? The tech just isn't feasible; it's cramped and the UI is poor. Costs are still ramped up, which doesn't help either.
Isn't finding a path from one location to another, taking into account terrain, changes in weather, means of locomotion and ease of travel a fairly difficult AI problem? I find it difficult to believe that a handy "Super Map" will solve the problem."
I know that the Earth's atmosphere is approximately 100 kilometres in thickness, but the idea of an object dissipating so much kinetic energy as heat is still amazing. Nonetheless, at that speed it's going at about the same speed as a bullet from a gun so I guess it's a good thing no one was there. Luckily, though, since kinetic energy is proportional to the square of velocity, it's a good thing it lost all but literally 0.2% of its speed.
...how about they start block ports 1080 and 2280? I often see horrific trolls invading the IRC networks and channels we inhabit, triggering mass K-lines by inviting people to juped channels, flooding, mass-noticing and trying to piss people off in general. And everytime I check these trolls' hostmasks, oh! - it's Comcast.
:-( Since SOCKS is also a generic relay protocol, it could be used for spamming too!
A lot of Comcast users seem to be running as SOCKS proxies for some reason.
...down to -1, Offtopic because you can't handle criticism, michael, but you know what? I just don't care. This is the last straw. I used to wonder why all of the trolls would constantly take the piss out of you over all of the other editors. Sometimes you posted blurbs that had egregious spelling errors, blatant plugs for Apple products or just outright filled with false information. I always just put it down to misjudgement and figured that it wasn't so bad - Slashdot's standards are fairly high compared to other sites.
But godammnit, michael, how hard would it have been to actually read the fucking article and realise - "Hey! This is a couple of years old! Maybe this isn't worth posting!" - and this is also a dupe . Isn't that what an editor's supposed to do? Check the leads people give them to make sure they're not bullshit ? You get paid to do this, for God's sake, and you're just not taking it seriously. Not at all. And as soon as anyone points it out you bitchslap them to shut them up. Who the hell do you think you are?
By the time you read this my subscription will have been cancelled. I'm fed up, michael. I'm not subsidising this site so you can post this trash.
...from what I see, this doesn't so much sound like news as background material on life in the 19th century. While I'm very greatful for this information to be made public, why can't we have so much more made public, like supposedly-publicly-accessible government documents? Heck, I'd be happy to get some decent 21st Century News!
--
GNAA
...I have only two questions.
1. What are the odds of this actually being pulled off?
2. How much will this effect me, a regular dialup and telephone user of British Telecom?
"Linux-based" does not, I'm afraid, imply the use of open source software/firmware. I enjoy open source software as much as the next Slashdot user, but given the past track record of hardware media players, it's not likely to be "open" or "hackable", much as you and I would enjoy this. Nonetheless, this does sound like a really cool product. Now all we need is a software media player that handles all those formats and actually works without segfaulting a la mplayer.
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GNAA
And there was me thinking that maybe, just maybe, the corruptive rot of politics hadn't sunk through to supposed grassroots groups like this. Guess I should've thought better and realised that astroturfing like this is doable after all. How much power do these groups hold? With the money they're being backhanded by Diebold, they might be able to exert some unwanted influence on the issue. :/
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GNAA