MS may have killed Netscape, but only by pulling the trigger. Netscape had already shoved the gun barrel down it's own throat.
Yes, but I'm not talking about Netscape's death. I'm talking about MSIE's artificial domination of the market and their most stupid idea (created to "compete" with Netscape's plugins) in the world: ActiveX. The thing was a hacker's dream come true. I still remember the days where you could open an infected webpage, and a vbscript would be created on your harddrive, filling your computer with trash. I tested some of those vulnerabilities myself on a hacker webpage.
Netscape plugins worked JUST FINE, and they didn't give viruses to your computer. Microsoft's rendering engine was a great achievement, but they had to screw up with their proprietary ActiveX controls. And since they were a monopoly, they didn't have to worry about Netscape getting in the way.
But don't talk about Netscape's death so lightly. Netscape mail was the best mail program that was free at the moment (Eudora mail was shareware, it had an expiration date - i only decided to stop using NS Mail when the html mails screwed around with the html engine, and i moved to Yahoo).
And this leads us to another of Microsoft's mistakes: Outlook express, which was *BUNDLED* with Windows, too.
It seemed as if every bundled package in windows (Outlook express, MSIE, WMP, IIS) had a backdoor to be used by blackhats to mess around with our PC's.
If Microsoft didn't bundle internet explorer, both IE and Netscape would keep fighting to deliver better, more secure products. It's been 10 years since Windows 95 came out, and viruses have multiplied via internet explorer security flaws.
Ban the IP? Surely you wouldn't ban www.godseternallovechurchcharity.org, also hosted on server3.cheapasshostingsite.com?
In some 1337 hax0r research i did, a lot of different-themed porn sites shared the same IP range. In other words, the money from them went to the same fat pockets (porn mafia maybe?). Seems to me that they're using private servers for that. So the probability of having your church site on a shared porn server is minimal.
Also, on more research, typing the IP of one of such servers, gets you a blank empty page. They're domain-based virtual hosts, so if the kid types the URL usually he gets to a safe (but useless) site.
In my experience, the real danger for kids are those categorized porn search websites (with tons of links updated daily for each category), which are available for free.
The problem governments have with the.xxx domain is that, while it may make reguilation of porn easier (doubtful, by setting aside a domain for pornography, it _legitimatizes_ it.
Porn is ALREADY legitimized. Haven't you heard of USC 2257? Also known as "All models depicted or filmed in this website are 18 or older".
What's the point? Most pr0n trading is done on the p2p networks anyhoo
Okay, wise guy, WHERE DO YOU THINK the porn in P2P files comes from?
ALL the p2p porn comes from porn websites, some wise guy downloads it and shares it. PLUS, you fail to see something. Bittorrent trackers also have porn sections, so the announce would have to be in a.xxx domain, too. (Trackerless torrents are a separate matter). The same would have to go with bittorrent searchers.
Finally, p2p clients like shareaza have porn filters.
The real problem is that searching for porn on the web is TOO EASY (thanks google), and filtering websites is hard, not all porn sites use the ICRA filtering tags. The.xxx domain is the only reasonable solution.
And don't think migration is hard. It's quite easy to set up an additional domain for your porn site. (Have you realized porn sites have at least 5 different domains all going to the same site?) The hard part is websites which have the form website.com/~user, but those are the minority.
Have you realized that he CAN'T change the company from inside?
He says it, he LIKES working there, but he needs to point out the problems. If he tries to do something for a change in a draconian environment, he might as well be fired. IMHO you haven't read EVEN ONE of his blog entries. He LOVES Microsoft, and he WANTS to change it.
Do you think you REALLY can change a WHOLE WORK STRUCTURE in a company just by going to your boss and saying "we need to get rid of these problems"? Oh wait, this one's better. "Boss, we need you to get fired".
The real problem is that Ballmer is F**KING BLIND, he WON'T ACCEPT that there are problems in his company. Microsoft is a time bomb. You should be glad that we have Mini-MSFT to alert the shareholders about the precarious condition of the company.
I know you're saying this as a joke, but if you realize, many of those Microsoft workers are already sending their resumes ELSEWHERE. They f***ing want to leave. Microsoft is becoming another EA, specially when new workers get paid more than existing workers. So it's more convenient if you leave MS, get another job, and later (IF later) you decide to go back.
IMHO, I'd rejoice the day Mini-MSFT became the Microsoft CEO. Of course, it will never happen.
Actually, dealing with beards is probably easier than you can imagine. If the person has a fixed beard style it won't change much between scans, plus, the beard doesn't cover ALL your face. Only the surroundings.
How are they going to deal with people who gain or loose a lot of weight since the biometrics were taken.
If you can recognize your brother after he has gained weight, I'm sure the biometrics can recognize him, too. This is why the algorithms are programmed to have a margin of error. Like "it's 80% probable that this picture belongs to the person in question".
What you're describing is essentially Morrowind. It uses text, but I didn't mind because the result was that sort of open-ended game world.
Exactly. This is something I've noticed in modern games. Before, all you required was a good imagination and programming knowledge. After all, we know how to draw a sad anime face, right? But now we need actors, a dedicated 3D team, and games are turned more into movies than games. There's little room left for the imagination. So, if we want to be able to do what we did with simplistic (even text) games, we need to update our tech.
I was only exploring the possibility of interactive storytelling. It is a VERY SPECIFIC kind of games. If you don't like it, well, you're welcome to contribute with your ideas.
The problem with interactive story telling is that to be broad, you need either a lot of well-thought voice recordings and renderings for each variation of the scene, or just strip the audio and keep text dialogs.
As I said before in another story, we need the technology to provide good voice synthesis, as to provide us with "virtual improvising actors" that will act differently depending on the circumstances.
An example I like to talk about is FF-X (not X-2, it sucked), a game I liked a lot. I loved the story, and the greatest motivation i had for going on with the game was wondering what happened next.
But in the end, it was just pre-recorded clips - inside a linear game. But what if we could have a non-linear game, with many different endings and different events happening? This would add a lot of replay value. I would like for example, to make the game change such that Tidus would fall in love with Rikku instead of Yuna, and Yuna would come to become a secondary character. What if Yuna and Rikku could chat about Tidus and what they think about him, or what about some emotional screw up that would split the party and open different possibilities in the game? (Like your quest is to travel thru the mountains so you could simply apologize to your loved one and go on with the quest - yeah, I know, it's crazy, but at least it'd be interesting to watch). Kinda like Silent Hill games where you can unlock different endings, but I want the character interactions and not mere key objects to do the unlocking.
I'm talking about AI. Not basic AI like intelligent enemies, but an "emotion" engine where characters could change their mood and give you different answers, or do different things. The problem is that with voice actors and pre-recorded audio) this would be either impossible or beyond budget/time. We've reached the point where innovation is IMPOSSIBLE with the current technology.
Game programmers need to stop relying on old formulas and start developing more tools for better games:
* a good emotion engine for character AI * efficient speech synthesis so that characters can express ideas and emotions without needing a voice actor to have every possibility recorded * perhaps a better script (as in camera, action) engine for cutscenes
Slashdot Mirror
MS may have killed Netscape, but only by pulling the trigger. Netscape had already shoved the gun barrel down it's own throat.
Yes, but I'm not talking about Netscape's death. I'm talking about MSIE's artificial domination of the market and their most stupid idea (created to "compete" with Netscape's plugins) in the world: ActiveX. The thing was a hacker's dream come true. I still remember the days where you could open an infected webpage, and a vbscript would be created on your harddrive, filling your computer with trash. I tested some of those vulnerabilities myself on a hacker webpage.
Netscape plugins worked JUST FINE, and they didn't give viruses to your computer. Microsoft's rendering engine was a great achievement, but they had to screw up with their proprietary ActiveX controls. And since they were a monopoly, they didn't have to worry about Netscape getting in the way.
But don't talk about Netscape's death so lightly. Netscape mail was the best mail program that was free at the moment (Eudora mail was shareware, it had an expiration date - i only decided to stop using NS Mail when the html mails screwed around with the html engine, and i moved to Yahoo).
And this leads us to another of Microsoft's mistakes: Outlook express, which was *BUNDLED* with Windows, too.
It seemed as if every bundled package in windows (Outlook express, MSIE, WMP, IIS) had a backdoor to be used by blackhats to mess around with our PC's.
what is so bad about bundling?
Maybe this can refresh your memory.
If Microsoft didn't bundle internet explorer, both IE and Netscape would keep fighting to deliver better, more secure products. It's been 10 years since Windows 95 came out, and viruses have multiplied via internet explorer security flaws.
I know this is Slashdot, but can we at least have our grammar Nazis spell "grammatically" correctly?
Next! On Slashdot!
Grammar Nazi vs. Spelling Nazi deathmatch!
Sponsored by Uwe Boll films, ltd.
Can I upload the log to bash.org? :P
Neural Networks should be the first indication to you that, frankly, machine learning algorithms are often only as good as their input.
Exactly, this is why having a 3D representation of a face is going to help a lot.
Ban the IP? Surely you wouldn't ban www.godseternallovechurchcharity.org, also hosted on server3.cheapasshostingsite.com?
In some 1337 hax0r research i did, a lot of different-themed porn sites shared the same IP range. In other words, the money from them went to the same fat pockets (porn mafia maybe?). Seems to me that they're using private servers for that. So the probability of having your church site on a shared porn server is minimal.
Also, on more research, typing the IP of one of such servers, gets you a blank empty page. They're domain-based virtual hosts, so if the kid types the URL usually he gets to a safe (but useless) site.
In my experience, the real danger for kids are those categorized porn search websites (with tons of links updated daily for each category), which are available for free.
What happens when the kid resolves .xxx, and types in the IP address?
.xxx in one of the domains?
On some websites, you get an error page. On the others, this can be worked around.
1. Get domain name for given IP
2. Is
3. Yes, ban the IP.
That's still much easier than analyzing the page content for keywords.
The problem governments have with the .xxx domain is that, while it may make reguilation of porn easier (doubtful, by setting aside a domain for pornography, it _legitimatizes_ it.
Porn is ALREADY legitimized. Haven't you heard of USC 2257? Also known as "All models depicted or filmed in this website are 18 or older".
Sorry, but I don't buy that legitimization crap.
What's the point? Most pr0n trading is done on the p2p networks anyhoo
.xxx domain, too. (Trackerless torrents are a separate matter). The same would have to go with bittorrent searchers.
.xxx domain is the only reasonable solution.
Okay, wise guy, WHERE DO YOU THINK the porn in P2P files comes from?
ALL the p2p porn comes from porn websites, some wise guy downloads it and shares it. PLUS, you fail to see something. Bittorrent trackers also have porn sections, so the announce would have to be in a
Finally, p2p clients like shareaza have porn filters.
The real problem is that searching for porn on the web is TOO EASY (thanks google), and filtering websites is hard, not all porn sites use the ICRA filtering tags. The
And don't think migration is hard. It's quite easy to set up an additional domain for your porn site. (Have you realized porn sites have at least 5 different domains all going to the same site?) The hard part is websites which have the form website.com/~user, but those are the minority.
You can't get into them unless you pay anyway.
Oh, I guess "tour" pictures, "demo clips" and "free porn search" sites are safe for children then?
Have you realized that he CAN'T change the company from inside?
He says it, he LIKES working there, but he needs to point out the problems. If he tries to do something for a change in a draconian environment, he might as well be fired. IMHO you haven't read EVEN ONE of his blog entries. He LOVES Microsoft, and he WANTS to change it.
Do you think you REALLY can change a WHOLE WORK STRUCTURE in a company just by going to your boss and saying "we need to get rid of these problems"? Oh wait, this one's better. "Boss, we need you to get fired".
The real problem is that Ballmer is F**KING BLIND, he WON'T ACCEPT that there are problems in his company. Microsoft is a time bomb. You should be glad that we have Mini-MSFT to alert the shareholders about the precarious condition of the company.
The time to send your resume is now.
I know you're saying this as a joke, but if you realize, many of those Microsoft workers are already sending their resumes ELSEWHERE. They f***ing want to leave. Microsoft is becoming another EA, specially when new workers get paid more than existing workers. So it's more convenient if you leave MS, get another job, and later (IF later) you decide to go back.
IMHO, I'd rejoice the day Mini-MSFT became the Microsoft CEO. Of course, it will never happen.
OK children, we need to prepare for the celebration! The sooner,the better. Here goes... 1... 2... 3...
Ding dong, the witch is dead, which witch? The wicked witch, ding dong, the witch is dead!
I think you've watched a few too many hollywood movies.
;-)
Or studied Neural Networks in college
how does the system respond to these?
"Please take your glasses off, sir. Thank you."
Actually, dealing with beards is probably easier than you can imagine. If the person has a fixed beard style it won't change much between scans, plus, the beard doesn't cover ALL your face. Only the surroundings.
How are they going to deal with people who gain or loose a lot of weight since the biometrics were taken.
If you can recognize your brother after he has gained weight, I'm sure the biometrics can recognize him, too. This is why the algorithms are programmed to have a margin of error. Like "it's 80% probable that this picture belongs to the person in question".
Where are we going to put 45 million expatriot germans?
:)
Bienvenidos a Mexico! Disfruten su estancia
What you're describing is essentially Morrowind. It uses text, but I didn't mind because the result was that sort of open-ended game world.
Exactly. This is something I've noticed in modern games. Before, all you required was a good imagination and programming knowledge. After all, we know how to draw a sad anime face, right? But now we need actors, a dedicated 3D team, and games are turned more into movies than games. There's little room left for the imagination. So, if we want to be able to do what we did with simplistic (even text) games, we need to update our tech.
(not totally off-topic, well kinda)
Has anyone of you installed blue frog from bluesecurity? It takes the vigilante approach of "flodding the spammer's website". Any reviews?
I was only exploring the possibility of interactive storytelling. It is a VERY SPECIFIC kind of games. If you don't like it, well, you're welcome to contribute with your ideas.
The problem with interactive story telling is that to be broad, you need either a lot of well-thought voice recordings and renderings for each variation of the scene, or just strip the audio and keep text dialogs.
As I said before in another story, we need the technology to provide good voice synthesis, as to provide us with "virtual improvising actors" that will act differently depending on the circumstances.
An example I like to talk about is FF-X (not X-2, it sucked), a game I liked a lot. I loved the story, and the greatest motivation i had for going on with the game was wondering what happened next.
But in the end, it was just pre-recorded clips - inside a linear game. But what if we could have a non-linear game, with many different endings and different events happening? This would add a lot of replay value. I would like for example, to make the game change such that Tidus would fall in love with Rikku instead of Yuna, and Yuna would come to become a secondary character. What if Yuna and Rikku could chat about Tidus and what they think about him, or what about some emotional screw up that would split the party and open different possibilities in the game? (Like your quest is to travel thru the mountains so you could simply apologize to your loved one and go on with the quest - yeah, I know, it's crazy, but at least it'd be interesting to watch). Kinda like Silent Hill games where you can unlock different endings, but I want the character interactions and not mere key objects to do the unlocking.
I'm talking about AI. Not basic AI like intelligent enemies, but an "emotion" engine where characters could change their mood and give you different answers, or do different things.
The problem is that with voice actors and pre-recorded audio) this would be either impossible or beyond budget/time. We've reached the point where innovation is IMPOSSIBLE with the current technology.
Game programmers need to stop relying on old formulas and start developing more tools for better games:
* a good emotion engine for character AI
* efficient speech synthesis so that characters can express ideas and emotions without needing a voice actor to have every possibility recorded
* perhaps a better script (as in camera, action) engine for cutscenes
This would work at least with RPG's.
"Windows Vista -- A Powerful Combination Of Combined Powers"
A phrase which relates Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer and Captain Planet CANNOT POSSIBLY be any good.
All empires ...fall.
*ahem*
The Longhorn bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down...
Mini-MSFT wrote an extensive rant about why the Microsoft execs should be fired, and more interesting are the readers' responses.
Tell me an opensource solution which matches this as seamlessly.
Subversion (with TortoiseSVN client) + ANY forum software.
There ya go.
Why is it that people are OBSESSED with their office apps having EVERYTHING instead of using small apps that do ONE THING VERY WELL?