Second,while I prefer to be able to pick and choose tracks, I can see how a band might prefer that an album be sold as a complete "work" and not picked apart. I think the album that should be viewed as such is probably rare, however.
Then they should make the album one long track.
Or come up with some new terms.
"track" and "album" are archaic demarkation terms. It's much like how "page" is an archaic demarkation term when you deal with ebooks. Who cares which page its on? I want one document. Table of contents and indecies can hyperlink to the appropriate points in the document.
However, after I installed the card, Windows 2000 would crash with the following BSOD:
DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
*** STOP: 0X000000D1 (0X0191A400,0X00000002,0X00000001,0XF828B908)
*** NETR33X.SYS - Address F828B908 base at F827B000, Datestamp 3ecdaf93
Annoying as heck-- somewhat expected from a cheap network card.
I used to get that error all the time with my Windows 2000 machine. After a lot of looking around, I finally got a solution. It's a driver issue. The latest drivers suck. Downgrade by one driver revision. Can't remember the numbers, but just check to see what the latest 2000 drivers are, and go back by one.
I know why you're here, Neo. I know what you've been doing... why you hardly sleep, why you live alone, and why night after night, you sit by your computer. You're looking for him. I know because I was once looking for the same thing. And when he found me, he told me I wasn't really looking for him. I was looking for an answer.
So was Neo a manhunter, an obsessive, or just an omnivore?
After re-reading the above, I'd have to say pornhound.
If she calls a computer you built for her "a piece of crap", then forget it. She obviously doesn't respect you, or the work you're doing for her. Let her buy her own PC, and when it fails, let her take it to Best Buy and see how much they charge.
That should change her tune quickly. The only reason she's not learning how to manage a PC is that there are no consequences when she breaks it. She'll just get you to fix it. If she has to PAY for it, however, she'll learn quickly enough.
I have to admit, this worked for me. My sister is the prime example of taking support for granted. I built her a custom machine so that her husband's super-fancy sound card would work. Then she went and mucked up the machine with spyware. Then, rather than asking for some help, called me up to berrate me about the computer and my shoddy work. A quick "fuck off" and some strategic caller-id watching later, and she got the message. Her next computer came from Best Buy. She got what she paid for: a crap computer and an 800 number to take care of the crap computer.
In recent years, I've adopted a more "help yourself" strategy. If it's a new problem, or something truly bizzare, sure I'll be glad to help. But if it's spyware or accidently turning off the "FROM" column in their email client-- well, haven't I shown you how to fix this before? Yes, maybe you should fish that email I sent you six months ago out of the Trash Can.
Right now, my canned solution is to set friends/family up with a cheapy router with built in NAT and firewall, install Firefox and Thunderbird for them, and that usually solves everything. The remaining few problems are solved by rebooting or buying a new mouse.
I sorta kinda partially agree with you about the death occuring outside of the "user controlled" portion of the game. Mostly because of my cry-moment:
Phantasy Star II. Nei.
Officially, she died out of the user-controlled portion of the game, too. But not before a horrific battle in which you did control Nei. And that was the most frustrating part. The game is programmed to make Nei die regardless of what happens. It's a battle you can't win. But the game makes you play through it anyways. And when you don't know that the death is fated-- you try every thing you can to save her. Playing defensive-- then laying the healing magic on thick-- then at the desperate end, throwing everything you have at Nei-First.
But in the end, Nei dies. And you are completely powerless to save her, even though you tried, tried, tried. THEN there's the cut scene where you are told that she is injured beyond help, and she dies.
So take the frustration of a losing battle, and add in the death of a main character, and top it off with it being the first time a main character in an RPG that I had played DIED (gone forever, no takebacks)-- and that was sad.
Given enough time, some industrious hacker will find all the data for you.
Then, when you read the Slashdot article titled "[Name of Your Company] Leaks Private Data", you'll know exactly where the pertinent files are.
At that point you can take care of them. The pay out to the privacy lawsuites will probably end up being less than the cost in man hours to do the job semi-manually. In the end, you'll still come out on top. (Though there is the off-chance that your company and your replacement will come out on top...)
Am I the only one who feels like the fool when I'm PAYING twice for content? Once to download, and a second time to upload that same data to the next fool?
While it has already been pointed out by several other posters, this isn't exactly how BT works, there still is a point to be raised.
Where are the savings?
By using BT to distribute files, the studios are going to see a huge savings on their own bandwidth bill. Even if they are getting it cheap / MB, once you get into the multi-thousand TB range, those costs add up. And one would expect those bandwidth costs to be built into the cost of the download.
So, if they're going to be saving a respectable chunk on bandwidth, will the cost of the download be lowered by a respectable chunk? If it's costing them next to nothing to transfer the files, then the price of the downloads should be really low. 0.99 for older movies. 0.49 for fringe movies. 1.99 for new ones. Offer print-it-yourself DVD covers for an extra 0.49.
And, as I always say whenever I pitch an idea like this, I'll go back to smoking my dream-pipe in my own little fantasy world.
I'd much rather see some sort of fail-safe built into this vault. Humans have to periodically check in on the vault and press the button. If they don't press it after, say, 1,000 years, the vault goes into "reseed" mode. It assumes that:
a) Humans are dead, dying, or incapable of reaching the vault
b) Whatever knocked down the humans has dissapated over the last 1000 years, so it is safe for "human friendly" life.
Of course, the 1000 years is arbitrary. I'd let a team of nuke'n'germ warfare folks come up with a number that was greater than the life expectency of thier most powerful kabooms. You could also hook up a Geiger counter to the release switch for an extra layer of protection.
So, after the 1000 years is up, the vault springs into action. It barfs out whatever bacteria is needed to fertilize the land. The it starts shooting seeds-and-spores-and-stuff deployment packages across the globe. The SSS packages burst over land, raining seeds. This may have to be done in stages. Seed the keystone species of plants first, then once those have grown, fire off the strawberries and lilacs.
The objective is to load up the vault with enough human-friendly stuff as possible. Plants that put out oxygen. Trees that have leaves, fruit, roots that are edible by human. Environmental engineer species. If humans are alive, life will get better for them. If humans have been wiped out, the packages should recreate an environment condusive to human life once more. Sure, humans might not be a dominant species for hundreds or hundreds of thousands of years, but the scales would be tipped in their favour.
Heck, while we're at it, we might as well put as much data into the vault as possible. The complete history of humans in as many languages as possible (including all the screw-ups that lead to extinction). Put in as many Rosetta Stones as possible. Put frozen humans in there, too, so future generations (hopefully) don't think aliens seeded the planet.
Or until they mistake someone's designer shiny shirt for a thousand cameras, and blast them with a thousand beams of light, which all get reflected away... into everyone elses eyes.
Hrm, you know what. If they ever do deply this, I'm going to get myself a crapton of old digital cameras. Scoop out the lenses and glue them onto a shirt. Then wear a black coat over it until I'm nice and ready to become a disco ball!
Sure, PDF is great (rolls eyes), but they're completely neglecting all that could be done with the medium.
What I'd like to see is something like the AD&D Core Rules CD-ROM. It had every book and every rule. It was searchable (by topic, by keyword, by book, by anything). And it included a character generator.
It was miles above a PDF. Since it was all text (not scanned pages), it was easy to read, resize, and scroll through.
I'd love to see a product like this. Especially if they could tailor it for a PDA. I've got a couple hundred megs available on my 1GB flash. The entirety of AD&D2 takes up ~333 megs... and that's with all the character, map, dungeon and campaign generators. All the rules, along with a simple Character utility, would take up far less.
Heck, if it's on a PDA, you can even take advantage of the Beam feature. Want to transfer gold and equipment to another player? Beam it. The GM's handing out XP? Beam it. Want to send a secret message to another player telling them to stab the third player in the back. Beam it. =)
They COULD add in some sort of dice-rolling utility that broadcasts its results to the group (to avoid cheating, of course;) ), but I know I'd never use it. Nothing beats rolling the actual bones.
For a product like that, I'd gladly pay, like, $50. Though I'd probably be better off using that $50 to buy a pipe to smoke that dream with.
The book was Inside UFO 54-40. You get kidnapped off an airplane by a UFO (seen at co-ordinates 54-40), and have to try to escape.
The foreword to the book had a warning about the ending. All the CYOA had the usual "WARNING: Don't read in order". This one had:*
Special Warning!!!![sic]
While you are on board UFO 54-40, you may hear about Ultima, the planet of paradise, and you may wonder if one of your adventures will lead you there. Sad to say, mayn never reach Ultima, because no one can get there by maing choices or following instructions! There is a way to reach Ultima. Maybe you'll find it.
Of course, most people didn't see the special warning. We were all used to skipping over the newbie "don't read in order" warning.
Inside UFO 54-40 was always my favourite of the series. UFO abduction, telepathic alien kidnappers, secrets of the universe, a hidden ending, and some truly disturbing "deaths". The two that always resonated with me were:
P 40:Miscalculating a jump through a transporation portal, and being sliced in half.
Several endings: Being "discovered" by the ship's computer, and put into cryo sleep for a billion years.
The former because it was, well, shudder. The latter because a) When you're young, trying to think about a billion years is kinda mindblowing, and b) It was the first time I really thought about how stupid cryo sleep was as a punishment. Sure, the world is different when you wake up, but really, what's the big deal? You were asleep. You didn't notice any time go by. You close your eyes, then open them again, and you're free.
FYI: The secret ending is on pages 101-104, complete with a double-paged illustration of Ultima.
* Note: yes, I did pull out my CYOA to make this post. =P
This whole nanny ideal where technology or the government needs to watch out for us in every little way is stupid
While I totally agree with you, I also feel that we can use the same technology to suppliment our lives rather than run it.
Rather than locking out the account for an hour, the system should just start sending in game-messages. Friendly reminders. "You've been playing for 2 hours. Why not camp for a few minutes and take a walk. You'll feel better."
The game wouldn't force or nanny a player to do anything. I mean, it is easy to lose track of time while in a game like WoW. I'd have a problem with manditory lock outs. I wouldn't have a problem with a message to help counteract the time-sucking.
Do you have any suggestions for an alternative? Should the authorities simply ignore claims of copyright infringement?
Yes, they basically should. Copyright infringment without profit is a civil offense. It's all about contracts and lawsuits. The "authorities" shouldn't be involved any more than they should be called if someone reneges on a contract.
The only time it becomes a criminal offense is when people are selling or renting the material. At that point, the RIAA should do what any other citizen does when they see a crime occuring: Call the police, give a statement, then fuck off and let the police investigate. The RIAA shouldn't be in any position to do an investigation on their own, and then demand the police kick in the door of a citizen on their (the RIAA)'s word.
Can you imagine what would happen if you ran into a police station, waved about some papers, claimed your neighbour was a drug dealer, and demand that they immediately be arrested and jailed on your word alone? And then you did that every single day for five years?
Cry wolf?
So yes, the police force should ignore the claims. If the cases are civil in origin, the police should direct the RIAA folk to the claims court down the hall, where they can file a lawsuit. If The RIAA folk claim something criminal is going on, then they should fill out a form like the rest of us, and that form will be attended to in good time.
And then the crimes should be handled in a triage manner. Rapist on the loose? Priority. Hold up at the 7-11? Priority. Anything going on that can actually cause harm to the public? Priority? Once all that has been taken care of, then they can investigate the claims made by the RIAA. If their fair and balanced investigation warrants a warrent, then they can go knocking on doors.
The problem here is that if you don't have a central authority controlling what gets hit the someone will sooner or later abuse the P2P DDoS machine that you've effectively just created.
That is why you make sure there is a central authority in charge of the attacks. Let the users "nominate" spammers to be attacked (by providing information from their spam box, as you suggested). Then, when one spammer reaches a certain threshold, it pops up an alert to the central controller(s). That person (or persons) then manually check out the spammer, to make sure that it is a legit target. If so, they all log into the system at the same time, and enter their launch codes. THEN the system attacks (either for a set amount of time, or until the controllers call it off, or until the spammer goes away).
It's important to make sure that it takes more than one person to launch, and that each person's code is changed after each counterattack. That way it is much harder for a single person to abuse the system (either a wayward controller, or someone trying to hijack the system)
It's also important to set a high enough threshold for nomination. Make it high enough so that one single person can't fudge the numbers in their favor (by signing up for a ton of accounts on a University's LAN or something like that). Even if someone manages to zombie enough legit user's machines to send a false nomination, the threshold should be set high enough so that, if someone were to bother trying to control that many legits, they might as well just launch their own DDoS.
And then, even if someone did manage to nominate a false-positive, the human controllers should be able to tell that a non-spammer has been targetted, and they wouldn't launch.
And then, even if someone did manage to nominate a false-positive AND hacked enough controller accounts AND their rotating launch codes, the damage would be minimal at best. A DDoS would be launched, and each human controller would be notified (email, IM, SMS, cell phone...). They could instantly call off the attack, change their codes, and put the target on a secret "no launch" list.
If built properly, the system could be nearly foolproof (though I always give the fools the benefit of the doubt).
The system would have to be the tool to use when the law fails. It's one thing to make anti-spam laws in one country (some of which have actually prosecuted offenders, hurrah!)... but it's another when the spammer is operating from a country without the laws (or the inclination to enforce them). That's when you smash the crap out of their server. (Oh, and be sure to target the servers of whoever they are advertising for. Smash the crap out of them, too.)
Remember, the goal is to prosecute those who can be... deny service to those who can't... and make the cost of a company hiring a spammer be greater (through downtime and bandwidth) than the income they'll gain from the spams.
It's simple. Don't ask stupid questions on a forum populated by a good chunk of people who consider BOHF to be non-fiction (and a training manual, to boot).
This article is exactly what Slashdot needs. Because now, whenever some asshat throws around the term Libel without knowing its definition, you can point to TFA as a proof-of-concept!
but slashdot is not the best place for high-quality, industrial grade advice that you should hang your hat, job, and other people's money on.
Phsaw! Ignore him. I'll get you a good deal on the thumb drives. They're 1GB ones, but they're bulk discounted because the label on the front (and Windows) misreports the size as 16MB. (Since G and 6 are so similar, the isolinear pro-recgonization dll don't properly link). To get the biometric security working, you just need to download additional drivers. I can't remember the website off hand, but it ends with.fl It adds on an additional level of security by co-hashing the thumbprint recogniztion with a non-alpha numerator string of indetermened length. For the best security, you should use a long number, and one that isn't known outside of the upper echelons of your company. Your expense account credit card number should do.
Oh, and if your IT guys start spouting off nonsense about "remote access of datadrive contents", you can tell them what's really going on. The thumb drives (courtesy of the additional drivers) use sporatic cross-referenced data layer technology. Whenever the drive is connected to an internet-capable machine, it automatically hides parts of its data throughout the Internet for safe keeping. After all, if the thumbdrive gets lost, you don't want all the data to be gone, too? It's an additional security feature. (And your IT guys SHOULD know that, shouldn't they? I mean, they are supposed to be knowledged professionals. Unless they lied on their resumes. Better check that out...)
Naaah, the only way to stop it is to make it sufficiently unattractive to spam. Like by nailing their balls to the wall. And, most importantly, doing the same to the people who have their products spamvertised.
AND you also have to sieze the spammer's client list. Not their spam list (ie: everyone they've sent an email to), but their actual, real live CLIENT list. Everyone they've sold stuff to.
Then you track down those people, and nail them to walls as well.
That way you've eliminated (or at least terrorized into submission) the spammers, their suppliers, and their clients. All areas of revenue are cut off. No one will buy from a spammer because their either dead or afraid of being dead. No one will hire a spammer to sell stuff for them because they are dead or afraid of being dead. And no one will spam their own stuff because, well, you get the picture.
It may be harsh, but I think this world's gene pool could stand a massive cleaning. Just get the client list, and send cyanide capsules shaped like blue pills sent to everyone on it. "Teh fre3 medz!!!1"
Windows users are prepared for viruses and the reason Linux users do not sweat them much is not because linux viruses do not exist; it is because system design makes their impact minimal.
Yes and no. It isn't so much that Linux is a more secure operating system (an argument I won't touch with a 1010 foot pole). It is more that Linux is a more diverse operating system.
If I run Windows XP (perish the thought), and 1000 other people run Windows XP, we are all running the same operating system. Except for a patch or two, we are running the same code with the same holes. A virus that hits one hits us all.
Now, if I run Linux, and 1000 other people run Linux-- well, we aren't all running exactly the same OS. Red Hat, SuSe, live CDs, home brews-- each and every one is slightly different. Top that off with different modules, services, etc running-- and you effectivly have a large number of different operating systems. If a malware exists that uses an explot to propogate, chances are that it isn't going to hit all 1000 of us.
And yes, I know there's a distinction between a virus, a trojan horse, and a worm. But for the sake of argument, the malware I'm talking about is self-propogating and self-executing in some way. Anyone can write a shell script that does rm -rf / and trick at least a couple people into running it.
The real vector that should be a concern for Linux users are cross-platform shares. Let's say you make your Linux box as secure as possible. No holes in any of the services, etc. Well, if you are on a mixed-OS network, and you Samba a Windows drive that is infected-- then you run the risk of being infected. Linux is just as vulnerable as Windows to malware once it has already been executed. So it is much easier to buffer overload the Windows box, and hope the virus gets Samba'd over to a Linux box.
Either that, or we all unplug from the net, power down, and encase our boxes in cement. 100% virus protection (though it would classify as a denial of service...)
What is more likely is that Mr. Donofrio suffers from failure of the imagination. Usually, when someone make a claim this outsized and this ludicrous, the next big thing is literally right around the corner. Mr. Donofrio can't see it - maybe none of us can.
But I've already invented the next big thing, and it's perfect for Mr. Donofrio. It's this really cool device that takes sour grapes, and turns them into an easy to digest humble pie. =)
Slashdot Mirror
Then they should make the album one long track.
Or come up with some new terms.
"track" and "album" are archaic demarkation terms. It's much like how "page" is an archaic demarkation term when you deal with ebooks. Who cares which page its on? I want one document. Table of contents and indecies can hyperlink to the appropriate points in the document.
I used to get that error all the time with my Windows 2000 machine. After a lot of looking around, I finally got a solution. It's a driver issue. The latest drivers suck. Downgrade by one driver revision. Can't remember the numbers, but just check to see what the latest 2000 drivers are, and go back by one.
So was Neo a manhunter, an obsessive, or just an omnivore?
After re-reading the above, I'd have to say pornhound.
That should change her tune quickly. The only reason she's not learning how to manage a PC is that there are no consequences when she breaks it. She'll just get you to fix it. If she has to PAY for it, however, she'll learn quickly enough.
I have to admit, this worked for me. My sister is the prime example of taking support for granted. I built her a custom machine so that her husband's super-fancy sound card would work. Then she went and mucked up the machine with spyware. Then, rather than asking for some help, called me up to berrate me about the computer and my shoddy work. A quick "fuck off" and some strategic caller-id watching later, and she got the message. Her next computer came from Best Buy. She got what she paid for: a crap computer and an 800 number to take care of the crap computer.
In recent years, I've adopted a more "help yourself" strategy. If it's a new problem, or something truly bizzare, sure I'll be glad to help. But if it's spyware or accidently turning off the "FROM" column in their email client-- well, haven't I shown you how to fix this before? Yes, maybe you should fish that email I sent you six months ago out of the Trash Can.
Right now, my canned solution is to set friends/family up with a cheapy router with built in NAT and firewall, install Firefox and Thunderbird for them, and that usually solves everything. The remaining few problems are solved by rebooting or buying a new mouse.
If he's really concerned about his privacy, he should move far, far away from the city.
Heck, he could move into the country. Then he could eat him alot of peaches.
Millions of peaches... peaches for free!
Phantasy Star II. Nei.
Officially, she died out of the user-controlled portion of the game, too. But not before a horrific battle in which you did control Nei. And that was the most frustrating part. The game is programmed to make Nei die regardless of what happens. It's a battle you can't win. But the game makes you play through it anyways. And when you don't know that the death is fated-- you try every thing you can to save her. Playing defensive-- then laying the healing magic on thick-- then at the desperate end, throwing everything you have at Nei-First.
But in the end, Nei dies. And you are completely powerless to save her, even though you tried, tried, tried. THEN there's the cut scene where you are told that she is injured beyond help, and she dies.
So take the frustration of a losing battle, and add in the death of a main character, and top it off with it being the first time a main character in an RPG that I had played DIED (gone forever, no takebacks)-- and that was sad.
Given enough time, some industrious hacker will find all the data for you.
Then, when you read the Slashdot article titled "[Name of Your Company] Leaks Private Data", you'll know exactly where the pertinent files are.
At that point you can take care of them. The pay out to the privacy lawsuites will probably end up being less than the cost in man hours to do the job semi-manually. In the end, you'll still come out on top. (Though there is the off-chance that your company and your replacement will come out on top...)
While it has already been pointed out by several other posters, this isn't exactly how BT works, there still is a point to be raised.
Where are the savings?
By using BT to distribute files, the studios are going to see a huge savings on their own bandwidth bill. Even if they are getting it cheap / MB, once you get into the multi-thousand TB range, those costs add up. And one would expect those bandwidth costs to be built into the cost of the download.
So, if they're going to be saving a respectable chunk on bandwidth, will the cost of the download be lowered by a respectable chunk? If it's costing them next to nothing to transfer the files, then the price of the downloads should be really low. 0.99 for older movies. 0.49 for fringe movies. 1.99 for new ones. Offer print-it-yourself DVD covers for an extra 0.49.
And, as I always say whenever I pitch an idea like this, I'll go back to smoking my dream-pipe in my own little fantasy world.
a) Humans are dead, dying, or incapable of reaching the vault
b) Whatever knocked down the humans has dissapated over the last 1000 years, so it is safe for "human friendly" life.
Of course, the 1000 years is arbitrary. I'd let a team of nuke'n'germ warfare folks come up with a number that was greater than the life expectency of thier most powerful kabooms. You could also hook up a Geiger counter to the release switch for an extra layer of protection.
So, after the 1000 years is up, the vault springs into action. It barfs out whatever bacteria is needed to fertilize the land. The it starts shooting seeds-and-spores-and-stuff deployment packages across the globe. The SSS packages burst over land, raining seeds. This may have to be done in stages. Seed the keystone species of plants first, then once those have grown, fire off the strawberries and lilacs.
The objective is to load up the vault with enough human-friendly stuff as possible. Plants that put out oxygen. Trees that have leaves, fruit, roots that are edible by human. Environmental engineer species. If humans are alive, life will get better for them. If humans have been wiped out, the packages should recreate an environment condusive to human life once more. Sure, humans might not be a dominant species for hundreds or hundreds of thousands of years, but the scales would be tipped in their favour.
Heck, while we're at it, we might as well put as much data into the vault as possible. The complete history of humans in as many languages as possible (including all the screw-ups that lead to extinction). Put in as many Rosetta Stones as possible. Put frozen humans in there, too, so future generations (hopefully) don't think aliens seeded the planet.
Or until they mistake someone's designer shiny shirt for a thousand cameras, and blast them with a thousand beams of light, which all get reflected away... into everyone elses eyes.
Hrm, you know what. If they ever do deply this, I'm going to get myself a crapton of old digital cameras. Scoop out the lenses and glue them onto a shirt. Then wear a black coat over it until I'm nice and ready to become a disco ball!
What I'd like to see is something like the AD&D Core Rules CD-ROM. It had every book and every rule. It was searchable (by topic, by keyword, by book, by anything). And it included a character generator.
It was miles above a PDF. Since it was all text (not scanned pages), it was easy to read, resize, and scroll through.
I'd love to see a product like this. Especially if they could tailor it for a PDA. I've got a couple hundred megs available on my 1GB flash. The entirety of AD&D2 takes up ~333 megs... and that's with all the character, map, dungeon and campaign generators. All the rules, along with a simple Character utility, would take up far less.
Heck, if it's on a PDA, you can even take advantage of the Beam feature. Want to transfer gold and equipment to another player? Beam it. The GM's handing out XP? Beam it. Want to send a secret message to another player telling them to stab the third player in the back. Beam it. =)
They COULD add in some sort of dice-rolling utility that broadcasts its results to the group (to avoid cheating, of course ;) ), but I know I'd never use it. Nothing beats rolling the actual bones.
For a product like that, I'd gladly pay, like, $50. Though I'd probably be better off using that $50 to buy a pipe to smoke that dream with.
Amateur Hammond Organ Recital Hero!
Okay, take it away, skutters!
The book was Inside UFO 54-40. You get kidnapped off an airplane by a UFO (seen at co-ordinates 54-40), and have to try to escape.
The foreword to the book had a warning about the ending. All the CYOA had the usual "WARNING: Don't read in order". This one had:*
Of course, most people didn't see the special warning. We were all used to skipping over the newbie "don't read in order" warning.
Inside UFO 54-40 was always my favourite of the series. UFO abduction, telepathic alien kidnappers, secrets of the universe, a hidden ending, and some truly disturbing "deaths". The two that always resonated with me were:
P 40:Miscalculating a jump through a transporation portal, and being sliced in half.
Several endings: Being "discovered" by the ship's computer, and put into cryo sleep for a billion years.
The former because it was, well, shudder. The latter because a) When you're young, trying to think about a billion years is kinda mindblowing, and b) It was the first time I really thought about how stupid cryo sleep was as a punishment. Sure, the world is different when you wake up, but really, what's the big deal? You were asleep. You didn't notice any time go by. You close your eyes, then open them again, and you're free.
FYI: The secret ending is on pages 101-104, complete with a double-paged illustration of Ultima.
* Note: yes, I did pull out my CYOA to make this post. =P
While I totally agree with you, I also feel that we can use the same technology to suppliment our lives rather than run it.
Rather than locking out the account for an hour, the system should just start sending in game-messages. Friendly reminders. "You've been playing for 2 hours. Why not camp for a few minutes and take a walk. You'll feel better."
The game wouldn't force or nanny a player to do anything. I mean, it is easy to lose track of time while in a game like WoW. I'd have a problem with manditory lock outs. I wouldn't have a problem with a message to help counteract the time-sucking.
Yes, they basically should. Copyright infringment without profit is a civil offense. It's all about contracts and lawsuits. The "authorities" shouldn't be involved any more than they should be called if someone reneges on a contract.
The only time it becomes a criminal offense is when people are selling or renting the material. At that point, the RIAA should do what any other citizen does when they see a crime occuring: Call the police, give a statement, then fuck off and let the police investigate. The RIAA shouldn't be in any position to do an investigation on their own, and then demand the police kick in the door of a citizen on their (the RIAA)'s word.
Can you imagine what would happen if you ran into a police station, waved about some papers, claimed your neighbour was a drug dealer, and demand that they immediately be arrested and jailed on your word alone? And then you did that every single day for five years?
Cry wolf?
So yes, the police force should ignore the claims. If the cases are civil in origin, the police should direct the RIAA folk to the claims court down the hall, where they can file a lawsuit. If The RIAA folk claim something criminal is going on, then they should fill out a form like the rest of us, and that form will be attended to in good time.
And then the crimes should be handled in a triage manner. Rapist on the loose? Priority. Hold up at the 7-11? Priority. Anything going on that can actually cause harm to the public? Priority? Once all that has been taken care of, then they can investigate the claims made by the RIAA. If their fair and balanced investigation warrants a warrent, then they can go knocking on doors.
That is why you make sure there is a central authority in charge of the attacks. Let the users "nominate" spammers to be attacked (by providing information from their spam box, as you suggested). Then, when one spammer reaches a certain threshold, it pops up an alert to the central controller(s). That person (or persons) then manually check out the spammer, to make sure that it is a legit target. If so, they all log into the system at the same time, and enter their launch codes. THEN the system attacks (either for a set amount of time, or until the controllers call it off, or until the spammer goes away).
It's important to make sure that it takes more than one person to launch, and that each person's code is changed after each counterattack. That way it is much harder for a single person to abuse the system (either a wayward controller, or someone trying to hijack the system)
It's also important to set a high enough threshold for nomination. Make it high enough so that one single person can't fudge the numbers in their favor (by signing up for a ton of accounts on a University's LAN or something like that). Even if someone manages to zombie enough legit user's machines to send a false nomination, the threshold should be set high enough so that, if someone were to bother trying to control that many legits, they might as well just launch their own DDoS.
And then, even if someone did manage to nominate a false-positive, the human controllers should be able to tell that a non-spammer has been targetted, and they wouldn't launch.
And then, even if someone did manage to nominate a false-positive AND hacked enough controller accounts AND their rotating launch codes, the damage would be minimal at best. A DDoS would be launched, and each human controller would be notified (email, IM, SMS, cell phone...). They could instantly call off the attack, change their codes, and put the target on a secret "no launch" list.
If built properly, the system could be nearly foolproof (though I always give the fools the benefit of the doubt).
The system would have to be the tool to use when the law fails. It's one thing to make anti-spam laws in one country (some of which have actually prosecuted offenders, hurrah!)... but it's another when the spammer is operating from a country without the laws (or the inclination to enforce them). That's when you smash the crap out of their server. (Oh, and be sure to target the servers of whoever they are advertising for. Smash the crap out of them, too.)
Remember, the goal is to prosecute those who can be... deny service to those who can't... and make the cost of a company hiring a spammer be greater (through downtime and bandwidth) than the income they'll gain from the spams.
It's simple. Don't ask stupid questions on a forum populated by a good chunk of people who consider BOHF to be non-fiction (and a training manual, to boot).
This article is exactly what Slashdot needs. Because now, whenever some asshat throws around the term Libel without knowing its definition, you can point to TFA as a proof-of-concept!
Phsaw! Ignore him. I'll get you a good deal on the thumb drives. They're 1GB ones, but they're bulk discounted because the label on the front (and Windows) misreports the size as 16MB. (Since G and 6 are so similar, the isolinear pro-recgonization dll don't properly link). To get the biometric security working, you just need to download additional drivers. I can't remember the website off hand, but it ends with .fl It adds on an additional level of security by co-hashing the thumbprint recogniztion with a non-alpha numerator string of indetermened length. For the best security, you should use a long number, and one that isn't known outside of the upper echelons of your company. Your expense account credit card number should do.
Oh, and if your IT guys start spouting off nonsense about "remote access of datadrive contents", you can tell them what's really going on. The thumb drives (courtesy of the additional drivers) use sporatic cross-referenced data layer technology. Whenever the drive is connected to an internet-capable machine, it automatically hides parts of its data throughout the Internet for safe keeping. After all, if the thumbdrive gets lost, you don't want all the data to be gone, too? It's an additional security feature. (And your IT guys SHOULD know that, shouldn't they? I mean, they are supposed to be knowledged professionals. Unless they lied on their resumes. Better check that out...)
Actually, I was hoping for a sequel. I'm still wondering what's to happen next after the last zoom-out from "In The Prickening".
He strives for advancement.
"You know what this meteor could mean to science. It could mean actual advances in the field of science!"
Yet he knows in his scientist heart that there's more to the world around him.
"As a scientist I just wish I could appreciate more things like cabins... bicycles..."
Would be to send a slideshow of The Best Of Goatse Add a Sony Rootkit for extra fun.
AND you also have to sieze the spammer's client list. Not their spam list (ie: everyone they've sent an email to), but their actual, real live CLIENT list. Everyone they've sold stuff to.
Then you track down those people, and nail them to walls as well.
That way you've eliminated (or at least terrorized into submission) the spammers, their suppliers, and their clients. All areas of revenue are cut off. No one will buy from a spammer because their either dead or afraid of being dead. No one will hire a spammer to sell stuff for them because they are dead or afraid of being dead. And no one will spam their own stuff because, well, you get the picture.
It may be harsh, but I think this world's gene pool could stand a massive cleaning. Just get the client list, and send cyanide capsules shaped like blue pills sent to everyone on it. "Teh fre3 medz!!!1"
Yes and no. It isn't so much that Linux is a more secure operating system (an argument I won't touch with a 1010 foot pole). It is more that Linux is a more diverse operating system.
If I run Windows XP (perish the thought), and 1000 other people run Windows XP, we are all running the same operating system. Except for a patch or two, we are running the same code with the same holes. A virus that hits one hits us all.
Now, if I run Linux, and 1000 other people run Linux-- well, we aren't all running exactly the same OS. Red Hat, SuSe, live CDs, home brews-- each and every one is slightly different. Top that off with different modules, services, etc running-- and you effectivly have a large number of different operating systems. If a malware exists that uses an explot to propogate, chances are that it isn't going to hit all 1000 of us.
And yes, I know there's a distinction between a virus, a trojan horse, and a worm. But for the sake of argument, the malware I'm talking about is self-propogating and self-executing in some way. Anyone can write a shell script that does rm -rf / and trick at least a couple people into running it.
The real vector that should be a concern for Linux users are cross-platform shares. Let's say you make your Linux box as secure as possible. No holes in any of the services, etc. Well, if you are on a mixed-OS network, and you Samba a Windows drive that is infected-- then you run the risk of being infected. Linux is just as vulnerable as Windows to malware once it has already been executed. So it is much easier to buffer overload the Windows box, and hope the virus gets Samba'd over to a Linux box.
Either that, or we all unplug from the net, power down, and encase our boxes in cement. 100% virus protection (though it would classify as a denial of service...)
But I've already invented the next big thing, and it's perfect for Mr. Donofrio. It's this really cool device that takes sour grapes, and turns them into an easy to digest humble pie. =)