And a pirated version of Solaris - on one CPU each, of course!;^D
For those who are interested, I downloaded the pirate version of Solaris from www.sun.com and the pirated version of Fedora Core from www.redhat.com. I get access to ALL the updates the two respective companies in question offer, as well as the benefits of worldwide support from literally millions of users such as myself!
It'll just give the Russian people a new spamster to deal with.
And I agree with the analyses present elsewhere in this thread which conclude that this gentleman wasn't slain by some irate spam recipient, but rather by the powerful and dangerous criminals in Russia who are finding the current the current political and social state of their country amenable to abuse.
That said, I will admit that I find it difficult to feel any great unhappiness at the fate this man has met.
Many household appliances (DVD players, TiVo, CD players, game consoles for example) are in fact single-purpose computers. They have CPU's, RAM, I/O devices, etc., but they operate with no fans (or at worst, one fairly quiet fan). Consumers accept these devices because they don't know that they are in fact computers.
PC users (those who know that they're buying a computer) accept the associated noise because that's how it's always been -- they (we?) don't know any better. If a vendor wanted to really pull off a coup, they'd start with something like a Media Edition PC and market it as consumer electronics, with a sly wink to the tech community that this thing is also a high-spec PC. I'm sure that plenty of users will complain that these machines aren't powerful enough for them; to them I would say "fine, you'd rather have a high-end machine, deal with the noise".
are SUN and HP's feeds -- along about 70% advertising ("white papers" about coming features such as SUN's ZFS, for example), but I still read them.
An excellent mechanism for getting me to read corporate propoganda as long as there's valid content present to engage and hold my attention.
Unfortunately, I'm here at work where draconian firewall administration combined with an insistence that IE is the only browser makes using RSS feeds a dangerous proposition at best (if an RSS feed triggers our web monitoring application, I could get written up or fired).
I mean, the "classic" periodic chart made several things clear at a glance (electronegativity, valence, etc). The new chart, while certainly eye-catching and possibly more intriguing to look at doesn't seem to convey nearly as much about the true nature of the elements being listed.
Then again, I think they should still teach students about the logarithmic slide rule!
You see, "fossil" fuels (as we all know by now) represent energy in the "slow" carbon cycle -- that carbon was gonna take millions of years to run back through the cycle. Since we take that energy out faster than it's replenished, it has to be exhausted some day.
"Biomass" fuels represent energy from the "fast" carbon cycle -- that carbon was going to be back in circulation in a century or less. Granted, the efficiency of distributing and releasing that energy seems moderately lower, but the rate at which that energy is produced can be made to meet or exceed our energy demands.
Bottom line: any energy source which is consumed faster than it can be produced is doomed to ultimate failure due to exhaustion of available resources. Energy sources which can be replenished at a greater rate than they are used will ultimately prove to be the only viable long-term solution regardless of the perceived lower efficiency (fossil fuels are in fact horribly inefficient; only the fact that they represent literally millenia of energy production available for relatively easy use preserves the illusion that they are more efficient somehow than the renewable energy resources available in the fast carbon cycle).
When you have any dealings with these people even in the interest of "baiting" them, you are dealing with criminals. That particular region of the world is fairly well-known for an almost "Wild West" style of lawlessness and violence. Do not provide any information which may be traced back to you and DO NOT GO TO [insert third-world nation's name here] FOR ANY REASON!!! There have been documented instances of people being kidnapped and/or murdered when the 4-1-9 scammers managed to get their hands on them!
To reiterate -- these are hardened criminals! Unless you feel competent to handle such (i.e., you're a real-life Rambo/Serpico/Superman), you're almost certainly risking far more than just money.
Or does anybody else see this as the first step in the devolution of the United States of America to a feudal form of government (feifdoms, kingdoms, serfs, etc.)?
Y'know, T. Paine would probably suggest that this is the perfect time for another revolution here.
Yes, yes, yes, I'm perfectly aware that this is not nanotech in the context of "self-replicating machines" (or even just self-replicating) -- rather, this is actually more in the line of molecular biology. *Yeesh*, where's your sense of humor?
Protesters of nanotechnology and science-friction pundits promised me grey goo. Where is the grey goo? I guess nanotechnology isn't living up to its promise -- we'll have to settle for it doing what we design it to do.;^D
I had to work with the technical support department of a printer manufacturing company (the names have been excluded to protect the un-innocent). Upon asking for specs so that I could write a ghostscript driver, the tech advised me that I could download such a driver for USD $9.95 -- after all, they make money selling software. When I responded that I had already fattened the company's coffers by buying the printer I received a "you wanna download the driver, or what?" kind of response. Thankfully, googling the printer manufacturer/model got me the information I needed for free (along with a ghostscript driver all ready to be built into ghostscript). Score: google,1 printer mfr.,0.
Let's see 'em kill it there.
Y'know, the DeCSS code is still 1) widely available and 2) not too hard to understand (if you know any C). May I suggest politely that somebody else "step up to the plate" as it were and build an even better mousetrap?
I rather think I will. BRB, somebody's knocking on my door . . .
Hey, what're you doing with my computer? HEY, GET YOUR HANjapfo0[349q[g e.///.....
So-o-o-o . . . they'll be shutting down hotels, airports, coffee-houses, many public libraries, selected rest areas in Iowa and Missouri, my neighbor with the unencrypted wireless router -- anybody who provides free high-speed wireless internet access, right?
Alles in ordnung!
Star Wars, Episode II -- Attach of the Clones.
on
Camel-Riding Robots
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· Score: 1
Obi-Wan and Anaken have entered the (alien) sports-bar looking for the assassin. Look at the televisors in the background. 'Droids playing (American) football!
Apologies to the rest of the world, who know that "football" is really a game played only with the feet -- what we Americans call "soccer".
First, permit the OpenSource-minded folks of the world to write applications for a closed platform. Don't discourage development; just guard existing copyrights assiduously.
Second, when the demand is high enough, bring lawsuits to make the (previously) free applications the IP of Sony. Voila! Instant FREE R&D.
That (double entendre) said, I hear the US NRC is looking at reducing the amount of solar radiation striking the earth, due to the enormous health implications of exposing virtually the entire human race daily to the hard radiation emitted by the fusion of hydrogen into helium.
LCD/Plasma displays have the advantage of not having a "sync rate". They operate on what's called "electric slide" (no, not a Jock Jam). The sync rate on a CRT can cause eyestrain if set too low, but most CRT's nowadays can handle 72Hz or higher at working resolutions -- much better than television (60Hz in US, 50Hz for PAL/SECAM).
The radiative output from a CRT is still well below ambient exposure levels for sunlight, so I wouldn't suggest looking straight at the sun; straight at a CRT shouldn't hurt.
Research has shown that people who stare at a CRT for long periods (read: IT professionals) tend to blink far less often than those engaged in other activities -- I'm guessing that an LCD/Plasma display isn't going to help that. Contact lens wearers, take note.
The light (e.g., radiative) output from plasma/LCD displays is still considerably lower than that of a CRT, the sync rate is no longer an issue, and plasma displays are DROP DEAD SEXY. Try one when you have a chance, I think you'll like it.
If that is your opinion, you're entitled to it.
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Gmail's Birthday Presents
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· Score: 2, Insightful
But, ah, if that's the case, you should stick to the 'mailx' command. Y'know, Google isn't forcing people to use these new features (or GMail at all, for that matter), they're merely making them available.
<blink>Lots of things are available, but that doesn't mean we should use them</blink>.
Yeah -- once MS pwns OptInRealBig, they can continue it's business model. Look, another revenue stream for the boys from Redmond!
Of course, at that point we won't be looking at Microsoft security holes -- those'll be features.
Y'know, I got a kick out of reading Mr. Richter's claim to be a legitimate businessman running a successful business -- is this the same guy that has the $40M debt? ($50M - $10M = $40M)
I'm going to go check my mailserver configuration now, just to make sure I remain a neutral observer instead of an involuntary participant. Consider this an "opt out";^)
First -- what do RIAA and MPPA plan to do about individual coders who are working all the time on P2P programs such as LimeWire? After all, it seems that the "powers that be" are trying to uninvent P2P file sharing -- rather like the U.S. trying to stuff the nuclear genie back in the bottle after bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Second -- when will RIAA and MPPA go after the DVD and CD manufacturers for creating a digital medium with little-to-no effective protection against copying? After all, it seems to me that unencoded audio CD's and CSS encoded DVD's (being readily copied in both cases) are technologies which foster and encourage illegal copying.
And let's not forget television and radio broadcasters, who's offerings can be recorded and re-disseminated without any technical work on the part of the end-user (consumer?). Are they responsible for all of the (VHS,BetaMax) pirated content which they helped create? I still have the first three season's of Star Trek TNG on VHS (shredding tapes now to stave off assault by MPAA).
Okay, let's try again . . . ever since DARPA invented the internet (with considerable assistance from U.S. Government and non-government agencies BTW), the argument has persisted over who should administer it. Y'know, since the U.S. government was instrumental in creating the internet, it only seems logical that the U.S. government has had a large involvement in it's development and evolution.
There's U.S. Government involvement with ICANN? As it should be! Should we change this? Only if we can find a more trustworthy agency to handle what is obviously a world-changing technology. While I'll admit to a native distrust of my country's government, I am also forced to admit that so far they seem to have done a pretty good job of working with the consortia which are currently managing the internet's infrastructure.
To bastardize an old expression, "if it's broke, don't fix it until you have the parts and tools!". With its history of leadership by concensus, do we really want the U.N. taking charge of the internet? What do we do when big nations with veto powers (like the U.S. or China, say) refuse to permit the U.N. to enact global changes because there will be local conditions those governments don't want to see implemented?
Bad enough to let the U.S. government have that kind of control -- to hand off to the U.N. only promises to expand geometrically the number of obstacles to progress which the internet already faces. If one government's involvement seems distasteful, imagine the heinous conditions when MANY GOVERNMENTS WITH OPPOSING AGENDAS are given the reins of power!
The data which the police will be maintaining is a "fingerprint" of the DNA -- NOT, the actual DNA sample, with its genetic data.
Okay, so the police will have a new kind of "fingerprint" to keep track of. What of it? They already routinely fingerprint suspects, as well as gathering suspect fingerprints (and bodily fluids) from unpriveledged sources ("Oh, let me take care of that empty soda can for you.", "We found it in the trash which was out at the curb.").
The kind of detailed data which will show, say, a predisposition to cancer or heart disease might be useful to an unscrupulous insurance company, but the P.D. won't have that -- just the results of electrophoresis. They can prove that it's HIS/HER DNA, but whether or not he/she carries Tay-Sachs disease, well . . . you'll need another DNA sample and a vastly more detailed (and more specific and more expensive) test for that.
Slashdot Mirror
For those who are interested, I downloaded the pirate version of Solaris from www.sun.com and the pirated version of Fedora Core from www.redhat.com. I get access to ALL the updates the two respective companies in question offer, as well as the benefits of worldwide support from literally millions of users such as myself!
Sorry - too disingenuous of me?
And I agree with the analyses present elsewhere in this thread which conclude that this gentleman wasn't slain by some irate spam recipient, but rather by the powerful and dangerous criminals in Russia who are finding the current the current political and social state of their country amenable to abuse.
That said, I will admit that I find it difficult to feel any great unhappiness at the fate this man has met.
My cell phone can correctly predict the lottery for me.
PC users (those who know that they're buying a computer) accept the associated noise because that's how it's always been -- they (we?) don't know any better. If a vendor wanted to really pull off a coup, they'd start with something like a Media Edition PC and market it as consumer electronics, with a sly wink to the tech community that this thing is also a high-spec PC. I'm sure that plenty of users will complain that these machines aren't powerful enough for them; to them I would say "fine, you'd rather have a high-end machine, deal with the noise".
An excellent mechanism for getting me to read corporate propoganda as long as there's valid content present to engage and hold my attention.
Unfortunately, I'm here at work where draconian firewall administration combined with an insistence that IE is the only browser makes using RSS feeds a dangerous proposition at best (if an RSS feed triggers our web monitoring application, I could get written up or fired).
Then again, I think they should still teach students about the logarithmic slide rule!
(Mr. Scott): "Engineering"
(Turbolift Computer voice): "Thank you"
(Mr. Scott): " Up your shaft! "
"Biomass" fuels represent energy from the "fast" carbon cycle -- that carbon was going to be back in circulation in a century or less. Granted, the efficiency of distributing and releasing that energy seems moderately lower, but the rate at which that energy is produced can be made to meet or exceed our energy demands.
Bottom line: any energy source which is consumed faster than it can be produced is doomed to ultimate failure due to exhaustion of available resources. Energy sources which can be replenished at a greater rate than they are used will ultimately prove to be the only viable long-term solution regardless of the perceived lower efficiency (fossil fuels are in fact horribly inefficient; only the fact that they represent literally millenia of energy production available for relatively easy use preserves the illusion that they are more efficient somehow than the renewable energy resources available in the fast carbon cycle).
To reiterate -- these are hardened criminals! Unless you feel competent to handle such (i.e., you're a real-life Rambo/Serpico/Superman), you're almost certainly risking far more than just money.
Build a ring around 93,000,000 miles in radius, 1000 miles thick with walls 150 miles high at either edge of the ring . . .
Y'know, T. Paine would probably suggest that this is the perfect time for another revolution here.
And . . . where's the grey goo?
Protesters of nanotechnology and science-friction pundits promised me grey goo. Where is the grey goo? I guess nanotechnology isn't living up to its promise -- we'll have to settle for it doing what we design it to do. ;^D
I had to work with the technical support department of a printer manufacturing company (the names have been excluded to protect the un-innocent). Upon asking for specs so that I could write a ghostscript driver, the tech advised me that I could download such a driver for USD $9.95 -- after all, they make money selling software. When I responded that I had already fattened the company's coffers by buying the printer I received a "you wanna download the driver, or what?" kind of response. Thankfully, googling the printer manufacturer/model got me the information I needed for free (along with a ghostscript driver all ready to be built into ghostscript). Score: google,1 printer mfr.,0.
Alles in ordnung!
Apologies to the rest of the world, who know that "football" is really a game played only with the feet -- what we Americans call "soccer".
Second, when the demand is high enough, bring lawsuits to make the (previously) free applications the IP of Sony. Voila! Instant FREE R&D.
Works for me!
That (double entendre) said, I hear the US NRC is looking at reducing the amount of solar radiation striking the earth, due to the enormous health implications of exposing virtually the entire human race daily to the hard radiation emitted by the fusion of hydrogen into helium.
LCD/Plasma displays have the advantage of not having a "sync rate". They operate on what's called "electric slide" (no, not a Jock Jam). The sync rate on a CRT can cause eyestrain if set too low, but most CRT's nowadays can handle 72Hz or higher at working resolutions -- much better than television (60Hz in US, 50Hz for PAL/SECAM).
The radiative output from a CRT is still well below ambient exposure levels for sunlight, so I wouldn't suggest looking straight at the sun; straight at a CRT shouldn't hurt.
Research has shown that people who stare at a CRT for long periods (read: IT professionals) tend to blink far less often than those engaged in other activities -- I'm guessing that an LCD/Plasma display isn't going to help that. Contact lens wearers, take note.
The light (e.g., radiative) output from plasma/LCD displays is still considerably lower than that of a CRT, the sync rate is no longer an issue, and plasma displays are DROP DEAD SEXY. Try one when you have a chance, I think you'll like it.
Of course, at that point we won't be looking at Microsoft security holes -- those'll be features.
Y'know, I got a kick out of reading Mr. Richter's claim to be a legitimate businessman running a successful business -- is this the same guy that has the $40M debt? ($50M - $10M = $40M)
I'm going to go check my mailserver configuration now, just to make sure I remain a neutral observer instead of an involuntary participant. Consider this an "opt out" ;^)
Second -- when will RIAA and MPPA go after the DVD and CD manufacturers for creating a digital medium with little-to-no effective protection against copying? After all, it seems to me that unencoded audio CD's and CSS encoded DVD's (being readily copied in both cases) are technologies which foster and encourage illegal copying.
And let's not forget television and radio broadcasters, who's offerings can be recorded and re-disseminated without any technical work on the part of the end-user (consumer?). Are they responsible for all of the (VHS,BetaMax) pirated content which they helped create? I still have the first three season's of Star Trek TNG on VHS (shredding tapes now to stave off assault by MPAA).
There's U.S. Government involvement with ICANN? As it should be! Should we change this? Only if we can find a more trustworthy agency to handle what is obviously a world-changing technology. While I'll admit to a native distrust of my country's government, I am also forced to admit that so far they seem to have done a pretty good job of working with the consortia which are currently managing the internet's infrastructure.
To bastardize an old expression, "if it's broke, don't fix it until you have the parts and tools!". With its history of leadership by concensus, do we really want the U.N. taking charge of the internet? What do we do when big nations with veto powers (like the U.S. or China, say) refuse to permit the U.N. to enact global changes because there will be local conditions those governments don't want to see implemented?
Bad enough to let the U.S. government have that kind of control -- to hand off to the U.N. only promises to expand geometrically the number of obstacles to progress which the internet already faces. If one government's involvement seems distasteful, imagine the heinous conditions when MANY GOVERNMENTS WITH OPPOSING AGENDAS are given the reins of power!
I didn't even know there was a toolbar (well, yes I did -- I saw it mentioned in the license when I installed Acro7).
Okay, so the police will have a new kind of "fingerprint" to keep track of. What of it? They already routinely fingerprint suspects, as well as gathering suspect fingerprints (and bodily fluids) from unpriveledged sources ("Oh, let me take care of that empty soda can for you.", "We found it in the trash which was out at the curb.").
The kind of detailed data which will show, say, a predisposition to cancer or heart disease might be useful to an unscrupulous insurance company, but the P.D. won't have that -- just the results of electrophoresis. They can prove that it's HIS/HER DNA, but whether or not he/she carries Tay-Sachs disease, well . . . you'll need another DNA sample and a vastly more detailed (and more specific and more expensive) test for that.
Putting my tinfoil hat back on now . . .
Oh, my God, what have I said?