I'm not really sure I understand that. Surely Microsoft has the right to dish out documentation in whatever format they wish...isn't that their freedom?
No, Microsoft lost that freedom when they were convicted of an illegal Desktop OS monopoly. They are no longer permitted things that other individuals and corporations might be able to do in cases where it would leverage their Desktop OS monopoly in to a new market (document formats).
In addition to that, we are talking about documenation for a beta product, so if Microsoft piss all you people off by offering up documentation in this format (which BTW is open)
This format is open? Could you please provide a link to the RFC for the standard for this format? In addition, could you provide a link to either: the license granting me permission to create and distribute my own reader for this format, or a sworn statement by a Microsoft Attorney that MS possesses no patents or copyright claim to this format, and it is provided to the public domain?
Sure, you can point at artificial market constraints as a reason MS should play nice. But, at the end of the day, you either support freedom in the software marketplace, or you don't.
I support software freedom. As such, I must actively oppose companies who violate our laws and in doing so, actively attempt to prevent software freedom.
If you support free software (and individual freedoms), you have to believe that MS should be allowed to publish *their* documentation in whatever format they choose.
No, I don't. You see, Microsoft has been convicted of a crime; specifically, of predatory monopolistic practices designed to leverage their desktop OS monopoly to damage competitors in other areas. As such, in order to support free software, I must support positions that prevent them from performing this criminal act again. In this case, that means demanding documentation in an open format, or at least one not controlled by Microsoft.
Remember, by providing documentation in their own format, they are not removing your choice.
When they have an illegal Desktop OS monopoly; and use that to push their document format, then yes, they are removing my choice. To be more specific, by definition, their Desktop OS monopoly has removed my choices in that area. Documentation for that Desktop OS (that I didn't have a choice for) being necessary, if it requires that I use their special format, I didn't get a choice to not support their format.
I'm sorry, but you're wrong on a couple of points. The breakage being the main one -- record companies make extra profit due to this, not less. Which also leads directly in to their main reason for wanting the most obtuse DRM possible. Right now, record companies make money hand over fist on reprints of old music, both on new formats, and on replacements. Digital copies have neither of these problems, and present a problem that they're not equipped to deal with: Not being able to resell the same old shit. Given time, say 10 or 20 years, eventually everyone will have all the old music they want -- and in a format that they never need to replace. This is bad news bears, coupled with the fact that as you mentioned, only a few tracks per album are worth buying, seriously reduces how much actual product they will have in the future.
Okay, fine, for the sake of you getting past it: No more trillion dollar attackers. You're using
Would a thousand dollar attacker be more acceptable to you? Because that's what it takes to throw a signal 6 miles.
Guys are going 1/6th of that distance with $100 in parts at Radio Shack. The military can get some surplus military antennas and do 6 miles without even putting a mark on the budget.
Now is it a valid concern? Try your argument from an engineering/security perspective, rather than attacking an analogy you didn't like. I'll say it again, because you need it driven home: The "Trillion Dollar Attacker" doesn't exist; its a method of saying "Discuss the security/engineering aspects on our side, not what may or may not be 'affordable'." With that said, further attempts to derail the discussion by blathering on endlessly about whether you believe someone has a trillion dollars, are pointless. Do you have anything meaningful to contribute?
Heh, I deleted a paragraph I wrote about the trillion dollar attacker; mostly about how their existance need not be true, good security works or it doesn't, and doesn't depend on your enemy being foolish or underfunded. It's just a way of saying "factor your opponents resources out of the equation".
I gave you too much credit, I killed it because I thought it made my post too long and you wouldn't need that explained to you:). I was wrong.
You think you can hijack a plane cruising aroung 30,000ft that's using bluetooth, by jamming it's signal from the ground. When bluetooth has a range of - to understand - significantly less than that.
Some guys can build a 1 mile bluetooth rifle in their garage. You don't think we can get to 6 miles with real engineers and actual money involved?
There's a lot of potential problems with using wireless as control system, but jamming from the ground is most certainly not one of them!
Anyone who knows me knows I hate the recent "blame everything on the terrorists" movement with a fiery passion. This point however, is a legitimate concern. Security needs to be measured against the "trillion dollar attacker". You'd have to really be missing the boat to think that a weapon that can take down a plane without physical contact in any form wouldn't be highly sought after by military programs all over the world.
Can security of this level be achieved? I expect so, yes. Signals can be encrypted, faraday cage type options -- I'm sure some very well paid engineers can solve these problems.
If Americans are willing to cede so much control to the gubmint and don't give a damn enough to see to it that the people who say "trust us" can actually be trustes then they deserve every single damn thing that happens to them
While the underinformed, apathetic voter is truely an epidemic in this country; the simple fact is at this point it doesn't matter. Even when people DO care, one way or another, whether its by free speech zone or supreme court decision; the powers that be will do what they must to remain in charge.
I realize you're joking, but do you even know what XOR is? Just how exactly do I perform an exclusive or conditional on data to get any results resembling cryptography in even the most distant ROT-13 sense?
There are solutions to this (e.g. the installation of MS Office on Mandriva Linux with the aid of Crossover Office), but then you loose some of the advantages of Mandriva Linus (price, a bit of security,...).
Everyone has their internet spelling nazi pet peeve, this one is mine. Drives me crazy because many otherwise intelligent people seem incapable of spelling lose.
While that is a fair point from certain views, in this case speaking purely of "business sense" -- those destroyed companies are making more money than they ever were before, and thus are a complete success from that perspective.
I will agree with you however, there are non-monetary costs involved which would make it not a good idea in general.
Yeah... so I can then spend 40 minutes driving and $5 in gas every week to go cash in the coupon at the nearest blockbuster store. Livig in the middle of nowhere is a really good reason to get either service, but I found that I just liked netflix a little better.
The purpose isn't to run to the store every week, but rather to keep the coupons ready for when you need them. When you and your friends want to watch a movie TONIGHT, the coupon is the way to go. With Netflix, you're still going to either a) pay for the movie or b) be disappointed and make other plans.
The coupon is the entire reason I switched from Netflix->Blockbuster Online; and it proves its worth every month.
Dam != closed system. If one where to use outside energy that wouldn't be captured efficently to create the heat required it might be usable. If one takes the classic "Ants vs. Magnifying Glass" approach to focus solar energy from a broad area into a small area and use it purely as a sorce of heat, perhaps it wouldn't be essential to face the limits of a closed system.
The only reason I would choose solar energy and not say... magma, is the abundance and the relative inefficency with which it can be employed to make power otherwise. The only implementations that I can see where you want a near closed loop damn would be places with few streams, no areas to build vast solar arrays, no wind to power turbines, a high enviromental aversion to any other conventional or atomic power solution. The requirement of gravity would rule out space. The steam escaping would rule out pratically any off-planet uses (maybe Europa), and the requirement of sunlight would eliminate underground uses.
So, the question shouldn't be, "Does this follow the rules of thermodynamics?", but "Is there anything at all that can make this efficent enough to be usefull?"
I'm guessing, yes.
I'm guessing, no.
See, its that damn 2nd Law again. The water system can't produce more energy than you put in to it, no matter what you do to it. Thus, the Wind Turbines or Solar Panels themselves will always be the better on their own, rather than cycling their produced power through the water system which will lose efficiency again. Gravity is in place on both sides of the Water equation, working for you on the way down, and against you on the way up, and thus factors itself out.
How about a self recycling dam? After the water creates energy going down you push it back up and do it again. Maybe even you can get some engery from moving it up. This is all assuming that you gain more energy than you're losing with this method.
Look up the Second Law of Thermodynamics and get back to me on that.
Please tell me you have concrete examples of this, and aren't just talking out your ass.
Whenever this comes up, someone says exactly what you just did. It's really starting to hurt me, so I will provide you with a concrete example:
Me. Yes, me, Rebecca, personally. No third hand relay.
Even our limited "National ID" known as a Social Security number has been enough to ruin my life right now.
Long story short, my birth records were all kinds of fucked up. The state of Arizona heard my case, and I had a slew of people speaking up for me, from doctors to my bank manager and of course friends and family. The state agreed to correct my records, and issured a court order that amounts to "Do everything you have to to fix this.".
However, the Social Security department won't act without a federal order, saying they are not under the jurisdiction of the State of Arizona. Federal court won't hear my case, saying identification of citizens is a state issue. I can't get a job, because Social Security tells them my ID doesn't match and that they aren't allowed to hire me. I have no money, due to having no job, and cannot hire a lawyer. Despite my sincerest efforts, thus far, no lawyer wants my case on contingency. All this new anti Terrorism ID madness has them scared shitless and they aren't gonna touch a case like this for "free".
So yea, fuck national ID. Wait until YOURS is fucked up and come back and tell people they are talking out of their ass.
There are still many ways to bypass the block. Assuming one knows that the web page exists. Thanks to this "optimization", this is no longer the case.
Wouldn't one who lived in China know that censorship is taking place, and thus be able to use the aforementioned "bypass" methods to access GOOGLE.COM and get the uncensored results?
Do you see guilds/factions outright proclaming their heterosexualness out there?
All the time. They're the guys screaming "gay" "fags" etc every 10 seconds. The majority makes their declaration by demonstration.
Only minority groups have to make explicit declarations, in order to notify potential members that they are different from the masses. This works as both an advertisement and a warning.
Are they going to start tracking down everything you sell on Ebay to make sure you pay tax on it?
... Most EBay sales are after market sales, and would be exempt from both Sales and Income taxes on this point alone.
... The IRS doesn't give a shit about sales taxes, as those are a state deal.
... Most EBay transactions cross a state line, and therefore are exempt from Sales taxes on this point as well. But alas, the IRS doesn't care anyway.
The only time the IRS would be interested in anything that happens on EBay is when someone is selling first-sale product. Even then, they only care about your overall profits for the year, and not on individual sales.
You must be new here. 25% of the "articles" are press releases or blatent slashvertisements.
Sorry man, you missed this:
by Animats (122034)
Animats knocks you around on "must be new here" by about 440,000 users:) He just means that Firefox with good plugins neutralizes just about everything.
What options do I have if someone attacks me using martial arts unprovoked? Beyond contacting the police, can I go to his teacher or would that be bad form? I don't condone squeeling, but it is a topic of abuse of a highly respectable art form and a student who fails to respect the basis of his teachings.
Despite what appears in movies, most martial artists are really not going to be street thugs. There's a level of dedication and discipline that comes with it that pretty much ensures street thuggery is out.
Some punk that took 6 months of "Karate" so he could beat people up is less of a threat to someone trained than an untrained person. Untrained people are silly, and unpredicatable. There's a period where you're actually worse because you are starting to use the proper techniques, but you're predictable, telegraphing your moves, and prone to "repeat" attacks.
However, to answer your question: The same thing you against any other weapon. Only this time the weapons is Hands & Feet, but the premise is the same. Assess your ability to defend against such a weapon. If you aren't up to the task, try and run. Even the best martial artists are limited by how fast a human can run, and how far do you have to make it to get somewhere where an angry mob isn't going to join in should he pursue?
Slashdot Mirror
I'm not really sure I understand that. Surely Microsoft has the right to dish out documentation in whatever format they wish...isn't that their freedom?
No, Microsoft lost that freedom when they were convicted of an illegal Desktop OS monopoly. They are no longer permitted things that other individuals and corporations might be able to do in cases where it would leverage their Desktop OS monopoly in to a new market (document formats).
In addition to that, we are talking about documenation for a beta product, so if Microsoft piss all you people off by offering up documentation in this format (which BTW is open)
This format is open? Could you please provide a link to the RFC for the standard for this format? In addition, could you provide a link to either: the license granting me permission to create and distribute my own reader for this format, or a sworn statement by a Microsoft Attorney that MS possesses no patents or copyright claim to this format, and it is provided to the public domain?
~Rebecca
Mod Parent (-1, Missed the Boat)
Sure, you can point at artificial market constraints as a reason MS should play nice. But, at the end of the day, you either support freedom in the software marketplace, or you don't.
I support software freedom. As such, I must actively oppose companies who violate our laws and in doing so, actively attempt to prevent software freedom.
If you support free software (and individual freedoms), you have to believe that MS should be allowed to publish *their* documentation in whatever format they choose.
No, I don't. You see, Microsoft has been convicted of a crime; specifically, of predatory monopolistic practices designed to leverage their desktop OS monopoly to damage competitors in other areas. As such, in order to support free software, I must support positions that prevent them from performing this criminal act again. In this case, that means demanding documentation in an open format, or at least one not controlled by Microsoft.
Remember, by providing documentation in their own format, they are not removing your choice.
When they have an illegal Desktop OS monopoly; and use that to push their document format, then yes, they are removing my choice. To be more specific, by definition, their Desktop OS monopoly has removed my choices in that area. Documentation for that Desktop OS (that I didn't have a choice for) being necessary, if it requires that I use their special format, I didn't get a choice to not support their format.
~Rebecca
I'm sorry, but you're wrong on a couple of points. The breakage being the main one -- record companies make extra profit due to this, not less. Which also leads directly in to their main reason for wanting the most obtuse DRM possible. Right now, record companies make money hand over fist on reprints of old music, both on new formats, and on replacements. Digital copies have neither of these problems, and present a problem that they're not equipped to deal with: Not being able to resell the same old shit. Given time, say 10 or 20 years, eventually everyone will have all the old music they want -- and in a format that they never need to replace. This is bad news bears, coupled with the fact that as you mentioned, only a few tracks per album are worth buying, seriously reduces how much actual product they will have in the future.
Or do they expect someone to come along and lock down everyones' computers for them in order to artificially prop up their business model?
Yes.
~Rebecca
Okay, fine, for the sake of you getting past it: No more trillion dollar attackers. You're using
Would a thousand dollar attacker be more acceptable to you? Because that's what it takes to throw a signal 6 miles.
Guys are going 1/6th of that distance with $100 in parts at Radio Shack. The military can get some surplus military antennas and do 6 miles without even putting a mark on the budget.
Now is it a valid concern? Try your argument from an engineering/security perspective, rather than attacking an analogy you didn't like. I'll say it again, because you need it driven home: The "Trillion Dollar Attacker" doesn't exist; its a method of saying "Discuss the security/engineering aspects on our side, not what may or may not be 'affordable'." With that said, further attempts to derail the discussion by blathering on endlessly about whether you believe someone has a trillion dollars, are pointless. Do you have anything meaningful to contribute?
~Rebecca
Heh, I deleted a paragraph I wrote about the trillion dollar attacker; mostly about how their existance need not be true, good security works or it doesn't, and doesn't depend on your enemy being foolish or underfunded. It's just a way of saying "factor your opponents resources out of the equation".
:). I was wrong.
I gave you too much credit, I killed it because I thought it made my post too long and you wouldn't need that explained to you
~Rebecca
You think you can hijack a plane cruising aroung 30,000ft that's using bluetooth, by jamming it's signal from the ground. When bluetooth has a range of - to understand - significantly less than that.
Some guys can build a 1 mile bluetooth rifle in their garage. You don't think we can get to 6 miles with real engineers and actual money involved?
There's a lot of potential problems with using wireless as control system, but jamming from the ground is most certainly not one of them!
Anyone who knows me knows I hate the recent "blame everything on the terrorists" movement with a fiery passion. This point however, is a legitimate concern. Security needs to be measured against the "trillion dollar attacker". You'd have to really be missing the boat to think that a weapon that can take down a plane without physical contact in any form wouldn't be highly sought after by military programs all over the world.
Can security of this level be achieved? I expect so, yes. Signals can be encrypted, faraday cage type options -- I'm sure some very well paid engineers can solve these problems.
~Rebecca
If Americans are willing to cede so much control to the gubmint and don't give a damn enough to see to it that the people who say "trust us" can actually be trustes then they deserve every single damn thing that happens to them
While the underinformed, apathetic voter is truely an epidemic in this country; the simple fact is at this point it doesn't matter. Even when people DO care, one way or another, whether its by free speech zone or supreme court decision; the powers that be will do what they must to remain in charge.
~Rebecca
Haha, cute. Okay, I get it now. It seemed so silly to me I thought it was another 'Slashd0t d00d' trying to throw in something at random.
I realize you're joking, but do you even know what XOR is? Just how exactly do I perform an exclusive or conditional on data to get any results resembling cryptography in even the most distant ROT-13 sense?
~Rebecca
There are solutions to this (e.g. the installation of MS Office on Mandriva Linux with the aid of Crossover Office), but then you loose some of the advantages of Mandriva Linus (price, a bit of security,...).
Everyone has their internet spelling nazi pet peeve, this one is mine. Drives me crazy because many otherwise intelligent people seem incapable of spelling lose.
~Rebecca
While that is a fair point from certain views, in this case speaking purely of "business sense" -- those destroyed companies are making more money than they ever were before, and thus are a complete success from that perspective.
I will agree with you however, there are non-monetary costs involved which would make it not a good idea in general.
~Rebecca
Relying on one other business for yours is bad business sense.
Wal*Mart's suppliers would disagree with you.
~Rebecca
Yeah... so I can then spend 40 minutes driving and $5 in gas every week to go cash in the coupon at the nearest blockbuster store. Livig in the middle of nowhere is a really good reason to get either service, but I found that I just liked netflix a little better.
The purpose isn't to run to the store every week, but rather to keep the coupons ready for when you need them. When you and your friends want to watch a movie TONIGHT, the coupon is the way to go. With Netflix, you're still going to either a) pay for the movie or b) be disappointed and make other plans.
The coupon is the entire reason I switched from Netflix->Blockbuster Online; and it proves its worth every month.
~Rebecca
While the second law is certainly a fun law, it is the first law of thermodynamics that invalidates gaining more energy than you lose.
No, it isn't.
~Rebecca
Dam != closed system. If one where to use outside energy that wouldn't be captured efficently to create the heat required it might be usable. If one takes the classic "Ants vs. Magnifying Glass" approach to focus solar energy from a broad area into a small area and use it purely as a sorce of heat, perhaps it wouldn't be essential to face the limits of a closed system.
... magma, is the abundance and the relative inefficency with which it can be employed to make power otherwise. The only implementations that I can see where you want a near closed loop damn would be places with few streams, no areas to build vast solar arrays, no wind to power turbines, a high enviromental aversion to any other conventional or atomic power solution. The requirement of gravity would rule out space. The steam escaping would rule out pratically any off-planet uses (maybe Europa), and the requirement of sunlight would eliminate underground uses.
The only reason I would choose solar energy and not say
So, the question shouldn't be, "Does this follow the rules of thermodynamics?", but "Is there anything at all that can make this efficent enough to be usefull?"
I'm guessing, yes.
I'm guessing, no.
See, its that damn 2nd Law again. The water system can't produce more energy than you put in to it, no matter what you do to it. Thus, the Wind Turbines or Solar Panels themselves will always be the better on their own, rather than cycling their produced power through the water system which will lose efficiency again. Gravity is in place on both sides of the Water equation, working for you on the way down, and against you on the way up, and thus factors itself out.
~Rebecca
How about a self recycling dam? After the water creates energy going down you push it back up and do it again. Maybe even you can get some engery from moving it up. This is all assuming that you gain more energy than you're losing with this method.
Look up the Second Law of Thermodynamics and get back to me on that.
Cheers,
~Rebecca
Please tell me you have concrete examples of this, and aren't just talking out your ass.
Whenever this comes up, someone says exactly what you just did. It's really starting to hurt me, so I will provide you with a concrete example:
Me. Yes, me, Rebecca, personally. No third hand relay.
Even our limited "National ID" known as a Social Security number has been enough to ruin my life right now. Long story short, my birth records were all kinds of fucked up. The state of Arizona heard my case, and I had a slew of people speaking up for me, from doctors to my bank manager and of course friends and family. The state agreed to correct my records, and issured a court order that amounts to "Do everything you have to to fix this.".
However, the Social Security department won't act without a federal order, saying they are not under the jurisdiction of the State of Arizona. Federal court won't hear my case, saying identification of citizens is a state issue. I can't get a job, because Social Security tells them my ID doesn't match and that they aren't allowed to hire me. I have no money, due to having no job, and cannot hire a lawyer. Despite my sincerest efforts, thus far, no lawyer wants my case on contingency. All this new anti Terrorism ID madness has them scared shitless and they aren't gonna touch a case like this for "free".
So yea, fuck national ID. Wait until YOURS is fucked up and come back and tell people they are talking out of their ass.
~Rebecca
Thank you for my new sig. :)
I only wish you were not AC so I could mod you up too.
~Rebecca
There are still many ways to bypass the block. Assuming one knows that the web page exists. Thanks to this "optimization", this is no longer the case.
Wouldn't one who lived in China know that censorship is taking place, and thus be able to use the aforementioned "bypass" methods to access GOOGLE.COM and get the uncensored results?
~Rebecca
I belive there are plenty of rootkits avaliable for Linux cause thats where root comes from.
:)
HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
That line belongs on bash.org
~Rebecca
Do you see guilds/factions outright proclaming their heterosexualness out there?
All the time. They're the guys screaming "gay" "fags" etc every 10 seconds. The majority makes their declaration by demonstration.
Only minority groups have to make explicit declarations, in order to notify potential members that they are different from the masses. This works as both an advertisement and a warning.
~Rebecca
Are they going to start tracking down everything you sell on Ebay to make sure you pay tax on it?
... Most EBay sales are after market sales, and would be exempt from both Sales and Income taxes on this point alone.
... The IRS doesn't give a shit about sales taxes, as those are a state deal.
... Most EBay transactions cross a state line, and therefore are exempt from Sales taxes on this point as well. But alas, the IRS doesn't care anyway.
The only time the IRS would be interested in anything that happens on EBay is when someone is selling first-sale product. Even then, they only care about your overall profits for the year, and not on individual sales.
~Rebecca
You must be new here. 25% of the "articles" are press releases or blatent slashvertisements.
:) He just means that Firefox with good plugins neutralizes just about everything.
Sorry man, you missed this:
by Animats (122034)
Animats knocks you around on "must be new here" by about 440,000 users
~Rebecca
What options do I have if someone attacks me using martial arts unprovoked? Beyond contacting the police, can I go to his teacher or would that be bad form? I don't condone squeeling, but it is a topic of abuse of a highly respectable art form and a student who fails to respect the basis of his teachings.
Despite what appears in movies, most martial artists are really not going to be street thugs. There's a level of dedication and discipline that comes with it that pretty much ensures street thuggery is out.
Some punk that took 6 months of "Karate" so he could beat people up is less of a threat to someone trained than an untrained person. Untrained people are silly, and unpredicatable. There's a period where you're actually worse because you are starting to use the proper techniques, but you're predictable, telegraphing your moves, and prone to "repeat" attacks.
However, to answer your question: The same thing you against any other weapon. Only this time the weapons is Hands & Feet, but the premise is the same. Assess your ability to defend against such a weapon. If you aren't up to the task, try and run. Even the best martial artists are limited by how fast a human can run, and how far do you have to make it to get somewhere where an angry mob isn't going to join in should he pursue?
~Rebecca