The real "smackdown" should be that most slashdot users should be able to craft a pretty nice blog out of php and mysql alone. This isn't difficult stuff to do. The best I can tell that's what most big sites like tech-recipes do.
Even if you are going to use one of these blogging tools, why limit yourself to the default code. You are the most geeky of the gurus! Hack the crap out of that code. These are in easy php code. Use their work as a building point... and rip out your own version of it.
The problem with web services is that they need for the internet to be completely secure and completely reliable. The internet of today is neither.
Physicians trying to use the internet to take care of critically ill patients are already experiencing this. Radiologists sitting home reading films are seeing this as well.
Is 100% on neccessary? Hell, VoIP is making money like crazy over this unstable network of ours.
My suggestion is to test with people that will understand the limitations of your service. Then get a little VC money to spread your servers out.
If ebooks are copied this easily without punishment, publishers have no reason to push forward.
Is DRM the answer? (Well, I can't even suggest that on slashdot, can I?)
I buy programming books like candy. I've noticed that recently the quality of the printed texts are going way, way down. More errors in code, more misspellings, cheaper paper, etc. When you combine the decreasing quality with real books along with ebooks features of easy storage and searching, it'll happen.
Google is just a search engine for the internet. The internet is full of warez, pirated files, and evil information... any search engine worth its salt should happily help me... err, the users find that information.
I would never have tried OSX except for this challenge. Obviously, it's not the most stable thing in the world... but it's mainly the challenge of hacking this little project together.
Is it practical? Only that people will explore OSX... and yes, some people will like it and switch. For me, however, it was just the challenge of showing my apple fan-boy buddies that I too can run OSx.
Many long-term users were troubled when people like MickeyMouse publically described the the recent duping cheat. I think many WoW users would like to know what steps the administration and code gurus took to correct the problem. Do you get a call from your pissed-off boss at 3 am in the morning?
As much as the WoW guys would like for us to believe it not to be true, the duping certainly exists. Guys like MickeyMouse describe the process in great detail. I know that he has buying/selling items for quite a while now to spread the money through the system to prevent getting tagged and booted. He sold several things to me. Heck, before this blew up, several other users reported people just handing them large amounts of money for no obvious reason (to hide the guilty among with innocent.)
I know WoW needs some good press to balance out the bad... but don't deny the problem exists.
The chinese connection is even odder... because most of them are FARMERS in WoW. Therefore, they are hurt the most by this dupe bug! These guys have been just working and working to farm-in cash... and others have been just getting the gold for free.
This may be enough to break my WoW addiction... if I don't get booted and banned first.
Who fault is this? Is it my responsibility not to leave my directories of music files open for the public to copy? Or is it my responsibility not to copy files from open directories?
Either way, google is the tool. As liberal as I am... guns do not kill without a person pulling the trigger.
Google (and MSN too) provide a service. It is not their fault if people use it for evil.
So you can move files off/on your iPod with this plug-in... you still can't play them any where else very easily!
Sure they are a few techniques out there that sometimes (depending on how quickly it is patched) allows you to copy the DRM protected files... but you are still locked in with evil DRM.
Copying the files around is not the problem, removing the DRM is the challenge.
Gesh people... this hack has been around forever. Just "Change Indexing Service Settings" in XP's search... and it will happily search through every file on your computer...
The default XP just expects people to always name their text files either *.txt, *.doc, or whatever. For the rest of us... you need to tell it to search everything:
If you name your text files with non-standard extensions (not *.txt), then the default search leaves them alone. Here's the hack one would need to get XP's default search to search all files...
Blogging anonymously is the only way to go. Hide your tracks. Say what you want.
However, nobody wants their personal infomation listed on the internet. I think we all agree that we wouldn't want that. Just posting somebody's email gets them spam.
I know that if somebody posted my son or daughter's picture, address, and phone number... I would want it removed. What if somebody posted your address and said, "They are always gone by 8:30 in the am."
We all want freedom... and that's why we hide ourselves on slashdot and in blogs. The things we say can hurt us. However, it can be used for evil too...
Napster did the same thing actually. If you remember the "winamp/napster free music hack", napster quietly stopped that hole. They have also closed the virtuosa hole without press nor fanfare.
Napster closed those holes efficently and quietly.
Nobody believes that Microsoft focuses on security. Nobody.
That is the reason that the passport system failed. The general computer using public is not really tech-knowledgable... however, they do know that credit card numbers are to be protected.
(Of course, they don't realize that all of this spyware s!ht they have installed could grab their numbers just as easily.)
Hopefully, Microsoft will turn off that damn reminder balloon now.
Well, I am not sure how great we are at predicting the weather now.
A kid at my son's school collected and analyzied common RSS weather feeds for a science project.
He collected the data and used it to judge how accurate the weatherman's predictions were.
Within 5 degrees and 25% chance of rain, he gave them credit. They got credit 50ish percent of the time.
He then analyzied other ways of predicting the weather.
By just saying that the weather today will be the same as the weather yesterday, he got credit 50ish percent of the time.
I don't say this to belittle the weather people. I do this to say that the techniques we use now are not the greatest in the world. If we need those frequencies because they are the only ones that work, then maybe the gov't should buy them back. However, if those frequencies are used because that's the old school way of doing it, well, they aren't working at that great now.
Slashdot Mirror
The real "smackdown" should be that most slashdot users should be able to craft a pretty nice blog out of php and mysql alone. This isn't difficult stuff to do. The best I can tell that's what most big sites like tech-recipes do.
Even if you are going to use one of these blogging tools, why limit yourself to the default code. You are the most geeky of the gurus! Hack the crap out of that code. These are in easy php code. Use their work as a building point... and rip out your own version of it.
What the heck has slashdot come to?
ATB
The problem with web services is that they need for the internet to be completely secure and completely reliable. The internet of today is neither.
Physicians trying to use the internet to take care of critically ill patients are already experiencing this. Radiologists sitting home reading films are seeing this as well.
Is 100% on neccessary? Hell, VoIP is making money like crazy over this unstable network of ours.
My suggestion is to test with people that will understand the limitations of your service. Then get a little VC money to spread your servers out.
When will ebooks become mainstream?
Publishers will more quickly adopt ebooks once someone can not find almost every ebook ever released by forming a proper ebook google search.
If ebooks are copied this easily without punishment, publishers have no reason to push forward.
Is DRM the answer? (Well, I can't even suggest that on slashdot, can I?)
I buy programming books like candy. I've noticed that recently the quality of the printed texts are going way, way down. More errors in code, more misspellings, cheaper paper, etc. When you combine the decreasing quality with real books along with ebooks features of easy storage and searching, it'll happen.
Piracy? Google makes it easy to search for directories filled with unprotected music files or ebooks or whatever...
Google is just a search engine for the internet. The internet is full of warez, pirated files, and evil information... any search engine worth its salt should happily help me... err, the users find that information.
I am not a huge privacy kind of guy, but google is getting a little crazy with what they save about you now.
They are now recording click-throughs on their search pages. Why do they need this information? It wasn't too long ago that links on google.com went straight to the link... not back through the google servers...
Just remember to clean out your google desktop index history.
Is our privacy now worth more than free software?
(Tin-foil hat mode off)
Here are the instructions I used to get it running on my USB drive in my Intel system.
I would never have tried OSX except for this challenge. Obviously, it's not the most stable thing in the world... but it's mainly the challenge of hacking this little project together.
Is it practical? Only that people will explore OSX... and yes, some people will like it and switch. For me, however, it was just the challenge of showing my apple fan-boy buddies that I too can run OSx.
Many long-term users were troubled when people like MickeyMouse publically described the the recent duping cheat. I think many WoW users would like to know what steps the administration and code gurus took to correct the problem. Do you get a call from your pissed-off boss at 3 am in the morning?
At least give me credit, when you report my hack. :)
Use Google to Find Free MP3s, WMAs, OGGs, and Other Music Files
Useless without pics from the game as well.
Also... if you don't trust the original picture, how you can trust these "new" pictures... which have obviously been photoshopped!
I don't know what to believe anymore...
Head spinning. (grin)
As much as the WoW guys would like for us to believe it not to be true, the duping certainly exists. Guys like MickeyMouse describe the process in great detail. I know that he has buying/selling items for quite a while now to spread the money through the system to prevent getting tagged and booted. He sold several things to me. Heck, before this blew up, several other users reported people just handing them large amounts of money for no obvious reason (to hide the guilty among with innocent.)
Screenshots show this as well.
I know WoW needs some good press to balance out the bad... but don't deny the problem exists.
The chinese connection is even odder... because most of them are FARMERS in WoW. Therefore, they are hurt the most by this dupe bug! These guys have been just working and working to farm-in cash... and others have been just getting the gold for free.
This may be enough to break my WoW addiction... if I don't get booted and banned first.
Everybody's too busy looking for mirrored instructions.
Here are some while they last...
Tutorial: (WoW) World of Warcraft Duping Bug and Cheat
Who knows what will happen to all this gold tomorrow?
Gogling for DRM-free music files or e-books is a well known way for people to copy files.
Who fault is this? Is it my responsibility not to leave my directories of music files open for the public to copy? Or is it my responsibility not to copy files from open directories?
Either way, google is the tool. As liberal as I am... guns do not kill without a person pulling the trigger.
Google (and MSN too) provide a service. It is not their fault if people use it for evil.
So you can move files off/on your iPod with this plug-in... you still can't play them any where else very easily!
Sure they are a few techniques out there that sometimes (depending on how quickly it is patched) allows you to copy the DRM protected files... but you are still locked in with evil DRM.
Copying the files around is not the problem, removing the DRM is the challenge.
Gesh people... this hack has been around forever. Just "Change Indexing Service Settings" in XP's search... and it will happily search through every file on your computer...
The default XP just expects people to always name their text files either *.txt, *.doc, or whatever. For the rest of us... you need to tell it to search everything:
XP: Have Windows Perform Word or Phrase Searches within Unknown Filetypes
If you name your text files with non-standard extensions (not *.txt), then the default search leaves them alone. Here's the hack one would need to get XP's default search to search all files...
XP: Have Windows Perform Word or Phrase Searches within Unknown Filetypes
Blogging anonymously is the only way to go. Hide your tracks. Say what you want.
However, nobody wants their personal infomation listed on the internet. I think we all agree that we wouldn't want that. Just posting somebody's email gets them spam.
I know that if somebody posted my son or daughter's picture, address, and phone number... I would want it removed. What if somebody posted your address and said, "They are always gone by 8:30 in the am."
We all want freedom... and that's why we hide ourselves on slashdot and in blogs. The things we say can hurt us. However, it can be used for evil too...
Kinda like everything else in life.
Would you rather know how to use google to find...
Free Music Files
or
free e-books?
Enjoy!
Napster did the same thing actually. If you remember the "winamp/napster free music hack", napster quietly stopped that hole. They have also closed the virtuosa hole without press nor fanfare.
Napster closed those holes efficently and quietly.
Does it really matter?
You can always bring everything down to *.wav and then convert it to whatever you wish.
Converting DRM protected WMA files to WAV (and MP3s)
Tech-recipes has had a good list for a while as well.
Google: Search for Public Online Cameras and Video Feeds
AlexTheBeast
Wah, wah, wah.
You could say the same thing for cell phones in general.
I had to "work-off" my long distance phone bills in the BBS days...
You set the limits as a parent... and if the kid goes over it, he/she pays.
It's called growing up.
This is just scary:
1. Release buggy browser
2. Sell antispyware software
3. Profit?
Direct and indirect download links
Nobody believes that Microsoft focuses on security. Nobody.
That is the reason that the passport system failed. The general computer using public is not
really tech-knowledgable... however, they do know that credit card numbers are to be protected.
(Of course, they don't realize that all of this spyware s!ht they have installed could
grab their numbers just as easily.)
Hopefully, Microsoft will turn off
that damn reminder balloon now.
The service will be free in the five Texas parks for three months; then TengoInternet, the wireless provider, will charge about $15 a day.
Err... doesn't exactly sound all that "free" to me.
"Hence, in order to have good coverage, you need to put antennas all over the park."
Just to prevent the future fires that the spelling police will start.
Antennas is correct when talking electronics.
Antennae is correct when talking biology.
- Source
AlexTheBeast
--
Tech-Recipes - Leave Your Computer Knowledge for Future Generations
Well, I am not sure how great we are at predicting the weather now.
A kid at my son's school collected and analyzied common RSS weather feeds for a science project.
He collected the data and used it to judge how accurate the weatherman's predictions were.
Within 5 degrees and 25% chance of rain, he gave them credit. They got credit 50ish percent of the time.
He then analyzied other ways of predicting the weather.
By just saying that the weather today will be the same as the weather yesterday, he got credit 50ish percent of the time.
I don't say this to belittle the weather people. I do this to say that the techniques we use now are not the greatest in the world. If we need those frequencies because they are the only ones that work, then maybe the gov't should buy them back. However, if those frequencies are used because that's the old school way of doing it, well, they aren't working at that great now.