One way to use a unique password for each website: take the webiste's name and apply a non-trivial algorithm to it. For example you can 1337ize it then subtract 2 from all the digits or rot-n the remaining alphas.
This doesn't make the passwords uncrackable, but should be enough to dissuade the casual cracker. To be extra safe, use different algorithms for different categories of passwords (websites, work accounts, home accounts, etc).
"I have a question, would you all be as excited about yet another PVR, would this be newsworthy, if it ran Windows CE or anything other than linux?"
With linux, it might be easier to hack it up and add more functionality, especially from a legal standpoint.
"And why does it not bother anyone that the OSS community will get nothing out of this, like improved video capture drivers for your linux box?"
We can't expect every entity that uses OSS to give back to the community. But the more people/companies use OSS, the more chances are that we'll get some feedback.
On the other hand, if we pressure every single OSS user to give back, then less people will use it, we'll get less feedback and the community will lose.
Re:This is a GOOD patent.
on
Mighty Amazon
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· Score: 1
Let's say I had a real bookstore in Vermont selling new books, then I started a section selling used books, including books on consignment and a message board for sale and wanted ads. Some time after, a sports shop in California starts selling used items next to their new items, including used items on consignment and a message board...
With patent in hand, should I be able to stop the sports shop from opening their used item section? Should I be able to make them pay me royalties for using my idea?
If this is true, then the airlines are guilty of criminal negligence. If someone can accidently interfere with an airplane's operation, then you can be sure that a terrorist will interfere as well on purpose. If cell phones can bring down a plane, then either cell phones must be totally banned from airplanes, or those planes that may be affected must be grounded immediately.
If your scenario is really true, do you honestly think "I'll report you to the police" is going to stop a modern-day terrorist from turning on their cellphone during a landing and causing the plane to crash?
"Google didn't succeed by getting slashdot editors to post stories saying they are building the most useful search engine out there, they succeeded by actually building it."
Actually slashdot editors did post stories, quitea fewof them. Whether Slashdot played any part in Google's success is a different story.
But seriously, the part I don't get about Grub, why ask one computer to spider the sites on another computer, why not just ask each web server out there to run the Grub client on their own server and send the result back. All they have to do is put the word out to the webmasters (but not through spam please), "we'll soon be the search engine, if you want to be on it, run our client on your server and send us back the results."
Re:In socialist Canada, the card cashes you!
on
Cashless Society
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· Score: 1
Eh?! You're not breaking anything to me, I already know this. We mostly agree that, in its current format, the French system is not much more anonymous. But you're the one who said, and I quote: "The only benefits the french system has over Interac is anonymity"
And you seemed to downplay the importance of anonymity in these systems, and that's all I was arguing about.
Having said this... the French system has more potential to be truly anonymous. Right now the only point a card can be directly tied to someone is at the point of purchase, and that can be fixed in various ways (e.g. using middlemen). Whereas Interac is always tied to one's bank account.
Peace.
Re:In socialist Canada, the card cashes you!
on
Cashless Society
·
· Score: 1
"The only benefits the french system has over Interac is anonymity..."
Well, a lot of people think that is a huge difference. Yes, Interac works and is used all the time, and almost every modern country has an equivalent of it (even the US has debit/check cards), but they all keep track of your purchases. They're not private.
"...As for that, we do still have cash for that, or in the case of a true cashless society, just trade in precious minerals"
Well, yes... but that is the whole point of these new systems, they want to replace cash by something like debit cards but anonymous. So you see, it's not silly at all, at least not to those of us who don't want the government and large corporations to keep track of every purchase we make.
And if you say "well just use cash for that," I say "well just ride a horse to work."
If, for any reason, you feel compelled to get off the street and on to the sidewalk, you have every right to do so, but then you must get off your bike and walk it. Not ride slowly, not ride fast, not ride at all, walk, just like the last 4 letters of the word sidewalk. Hope this helps.
The good thing about SVG being XML
on
SVG On the Rise
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· Score: 1
Just wanted to make a couple of points about SVG being based on XML... This doesn't really provide much advantage now, but may provide lots in the future when browsers that fully support XML come out:
Imagine if a browser natively supported XHTML, SVG and XFORMS (my invention for a better XML version of HTML form elements). Then you could create a single document that contains well-defined text (XHTML), graphics (static or animated) (SVG) and interactive elements (XFORMS), and have them all interact with each other through DOM. Or you can put each part in a separate file and mix them together with <use> elements or whatever, and still have them interact with each other within the browser.
And the different elements need not be in their own separate boxes within your browser window, you could have an SVG graphics that embeds a chunk of XHTML in one corner, and XFORMS buttons in another corner and text fields somewhere else. Heck maybe even have some XHTML clipped within an SVG-defined oval.
And since it's all XML you can have the document interact more easily with the server through other well-defined protocols supporting XML, e.g. SOAP or XML-RPC.
As a contractor I've run into this many times. I actually went through the same exact process during Christmas. The problem is we're too passive about this. We let the companies come up with the initial contracts when it should be the other way around. I think the best solution to all this is to have really standard documents. This is what we should do:
Find a lawyer in each state.
Get the lawyers to write NDAs, non-competes, employee agreements, etc. that are fair to both employee and employer.
Publish these documents on the internet and other media.
Educate all hi-tech folks about these documents, start at colleges.
All hi-tech people should carry copies of these documents with them and should insist that companies accept and sign these standard documents and no other.
There is no need to create unions for this, we just need to make the majority of hi-tech folks use these documents and impose them on the hiring companies.
I usually play dumb when I report these problem. It's all a question of how you word your notice, try to sound as non-threatening as possible. Don't say: "your routers are open and I can telnet to any node on your network, you should close this up before somebody cracks you!" Instead say something like: "Um, I was trying to get to my friends web-site, and I forgot to type in 'www' before 'domain.com', and I got these weird text that I've pasted at the end of this email. Like, I think your computer's broken. Can you fix it please?" Just report the symptoms and let them figure it out.
Put it another way, it's like when you're having lunch with someone, and they get spinach stuck in their teeth. Unless you're very familiar with them, you don't just point and say: "Bud, you have spinach on your teeth, and also I've notice you don't chew your food enough." You just ignore it or try to make them aware of the problem in a more diplomatic way.
Put it yet another way, let's say you leave your apartment door unlocked and a distracted visitor or neighbour walks in by mistake. You expect them to walk out as soon as they find their mistake, and at most put a note on the door apologizing for their intrusion. You don't expect them to come in and find you in your bedroom and tell you "hey pal you better lock your door, look how easy it was for me to get in!"
This is nothing new. Before opensource really took off, the same problem existed/exists with shareware. Go to a shareware site and search for a text editor and you'll find tons of hits.
The solution is to get a short list from word of mouth, then jump in and pick one of those. It may not be the best but at least you know it'll be functional. And if turns out you don't like your first choice, you pick a new one and try to learn from the shortcomings of the first one.
This works even better in your case. Of course you don't want to pick only one console and learn from that. You want to pick a few, and learn from the good parts of some and the bad parts of others.
The good side of this is that the whole thing got settled without any lawsuits and lawyers. It was all done through public and media pressure. And the internet itself played a big part of it with, IIRC, the whole thing being first reported in a discussion group.
I think we should all be proud of ourselves for generating enough not-too-offensive noise about this that it made amazon react without a costly judicial order.
Oracle's PL/SQL is considered a 4GL, you can find all kinds of documentation on it at technet.oracle.com.
Also many years ago I did a lot of work with Ingres's OpenRoad which used to be called Windows4GL. It's basically a GUI-builder/runtime product that uses its own 4GL and a lot of OO concepts to implement client-server systems. I'm not sure what it's evolved into the past few years, but it's worth checkin out.
The point is that the browser regards all presentational information provided in your web page as hints only. You may ask the browser to display something in Italic Arial, but you should not count on it, you may ask the browser to display something in the color #fceb20 but you should not count on that either.
Also, browser are free to apply different rules to presentational hints in the HTML content versus color information provided in graphical files. The main beef of the article in question is that browsers treat BGCOLOR directives, an HTML presentational hint, differently from color info in GIFs, which is not surprising at all because the two are totally unrelated items. It is quite possible to view a well-made HTML page without rendering the images, while it is also easy to view a GIF without a web browser.
The "web-safety" of the colors as defined by the article is only an issue when an author is trying to match the colors inside a GIF with those inside the remainder of a page. A more intelligent author would assume that GIFs and HTML may be rendered by two totally separate engines (perhaps even plugins) within the same browser, and therefore not expect anything other than the minimal spatial relationships between the two.
Well, from their Jobs page They're looking for a Risk Management Specialist and a Legal Counsel with international experience, so maybe that's holding them up.
Anyone notice the snail mail address on the demand letter: "2600 mindcrime Pkwy"? This is also the address the domain name is registered under, but it doesn't show up in any online maps, and the name sounds too weird to be true. Anybody in the Lowell/Boston area can verify this?
So suppose that instead of publishing an <a href...>, slashdot posted their URL as plain text. Most of us slashdot readers would have no problem copying and pasting the URL to go to their page anyway, still creating the slashdot effect without ever using an actual link.</wiseguy>
So suppose that instead of publishing an , slashdot posted their URL as plain text. Most of us slashdot readers would have no problem copying and pasting the URL to go to their page anyway, still creating the slashdot effect without ever using an actual link.
I totally agree with you. Slashdot just doesn't feel as nerdy anymore without the science articles. In fact, today's front-page looks a lot more like that of a political activist site than a news-for-nerd site.
On the bright side, the way it is now the science sites don't get slashdotted as often...
... For instance, clone armies require thousands/millions of host mothers plus ~20 years of education/training/maturation time.
I suppose one could clone/grow thousands of wombs and use these to clone armies without bothering with host mothers.
... (any organs grown in a host without a brain will be pretty unhealthy)...
Can you explain why? (i'm honestly asking) If this is so, again one could clone and grow hosts with genetically-engineered brains so that they are good enough to grow healthy organs but not intelligent enough to be regarded as humans. Then one can kill them without becoming a murderer.
Can you explain how this is supposed to work, though? If you create a bunch of additional top-level domains (let's say *.arts, *.firm, *.biz, *.dot, *.sucks) someone like Disney is going to want to register their trademarks in all those domains. Whether or not they're legally required to do so to protect their trademark, that's what they're going to want, just to make it easy for people to find them.
Let's say there is a new TLD.per reserved for personal web sites. Then if the Disney corporation registers disney.per, an individual with the last name of Disney should be able to take them to court and sue them for wrongfully and maliciously registering a domain name that they're not entitled to.
You don't need those transponders to be tracked. These days they have cameras that can shoot and record your license plate while you're getting a ticket/paying at the gate.
For instance, whenever I park in the long-term parking lot at the San Jose airport, on the way out, my receipt clearly states my license plate number.
Slashdot Mirror
One way to use a unique password for each website: take the webiste's name and apply a non-trivial algorithm to it. For example you can 1337ize it then subtract 2 from all the digits or rot-n the remaining alphas.
This doesn't make the passwords uncrackable, but should be enough to dissuade the casual cracker. To be extra safe, use different algorithms for different categories of passwords (websites, work accounts, home accounts, etc).
"I have a question, would you all be as excited about yet another PVR, would this be newsworthy, if it ran Windows CE or anything other than linux?"
With linux, it might be easier to hack it up and add more functionality, especially from a legal standpoint.
"And why does it not bother anyone that the OSS community will get nothing out of this, like improved video capture drivers for your linux box?"
We can't expect every entity that uses OSS to give back to the community. But the more people/companies use OSS, the more chances are that we'll get some feedback.
On the other hand, if we pressure every single OSS user to give back, then less people will use it, we'll get less feedback and the community will lose.
Let's say I had a real bookstore in Vermont selling new books, then I started a section selling used books, including books on consignment and a message board for sale and wanted ads. Some time after, a sports shop in California starts selling used items next to their new items, including used items on consignment and a message board...
With patent in hand, should I be able to stop the sports shop from opening their used item section? Should I be able to make them pay me royalties for using my idea?
If this is true, then the airlines are guilty of criminal negligence. If someone can accidently interfere with an airplane's operation, then you can be sure that a terrorist will interfere as well on purpose. If cell phones can bring down a plane, then either cell phones must be totally banned from airplanes, or those planes that may be affected must be grounded immediately.
If your scenario is really true, do you honestly think "I'll report you to the police" is going to stop a modern-day terrorist from turning on their cellphone during a landing and causing the plane to crash?
"Google didn't succeed by getting slashdot editors to post stories saying they are building the most useful search engine out there, they succeeded by actually building it."
Actually slashdot editors did post stories, quite a few of them. Whether Slashdot played any part in Google's success is a different story.
But seriously, the part I don't get about Grub, why ask one computer to spider the sites on another computer, why not just ask each web server out there to run the Grub client on their own server and send the result back. All they have to do is put the word out to the webmasters (but not through spam please), "we'll soon be the search engine, if you want to be on it, run our client on your server and send us back the results."
Eh?! You're not breaking anything to me, I already know this. We mostly agree that, in its current format, the French system is not much more anonymous. But you're the one who said, and I quote: "The only benefits the french system has over Interac is anonymity"
And you seemed to downplay the importance of anonymity in these systems, and that's all I was arguing about.
Having said this... the French system has more potential to be truly anonymous. Right now the only point a card can be directly tied to someone is at the point of purchase, and that can be fixed in various ways (e.g. using middlemen). Whereas Interac is always tied to one's bank account.
Peace.
Well, a lot of people think that is a huge difference. Yes, Interac works and is used all the time, and almost every modern country has an equivalent of it (even the US has debit/check cards), but they all keep track of your purchases. They're not private.
"...As for that, we do still have cash for that, or in the case of a true cashless society, just trade in precious minerals"
Well, yes... but that is the whole point of these new systems, they want to replace cash by something like debit cards but anonymous. So you see, it's not silly at all, at least not to those of us who don't want the government and large corporations to keep track of every purchase we make.
And if you say "well just use cash for that," I say "well just ride a horse to work."
If, for any reason, you feel compelled to get off the street and on to the sidewalk, you have every right to do so, but then you must get off your bike and walk it. Not ride slowly, not ride fast, not ride at all, walk, just like the last 4 letters of the word sidewalk. Hope this helps.
Just wanted to make a couple of points about SVG being based on XML... This doesn't really provide much advantage now, but may provide lots in the future when browsers that fully support XML come out:
Imagine if a browser natively supported XHTML, SVG and XFORMS (my invention for a better XML version of HTML form elements). Then you could create a single document that contains well-defined text (XHTML), graphics (static or animated) (SVG) and interactive elements (XFORMS), and have them all interact with each other through DOM. Or you can put each part in a separate file and mix them together with <use> elements or whatever, and still have them interact with each other within the browser.
And the different elements need not be in their own separate boxes within your browser window, you could have an SVG graphics that embeds a chunk of XHTML in one corner, and XFORMS buttons in another corner and text fields somewhere else. Heck maybe even have some XHTML clipped within an SVG-defined oval.
And since it's all XML you can have the document interact more easily with the server through other well-defined protocols supporting XML, e.g. SOAP or XML-RPC.
- Find a lawyer in each state.
- Get the lawyers to write NDAs, non-competes, employee agreements, etc. that are fair to both employee and employer.
- Publish these documents on the internet and other media.
- Educate all hi-tech folks about these documents, start at colleges.
- All hi-tech people should carry copies of these documents with them and should insist that companies accept and sign these standard documents and no other.
There is no need to create unions for this, we just need to make the majority of hi-tech folks use these documents and impose them on the hiring companies.Put it another way, it's like when you're having lunch with someone, and they get spinach stuck in their teeth. Unless you're very familiar with them, you don't just point and say: "Bud, you have spinach on your teeth, and also I've notice you don't chew your food enough." You just ignore it or try to make them aware of the problem in a more diplomatic way.
Put it yet another way, let's say you leave your apartment door unlocked and a distracted visitor or neighbour walks in by mistake. You expect them to walk out as soon as they find their mistake, and at most put a note on the door apologizing for their intrusion. You don't expect them to come in and find you in your bedroom and tell you "hey pal you better lock your door, look how easy it was for me to get in!"
The solution is to get a short list from word of mouth, then jump in and pick one of those. It may not be the best but at least you know it'll be functional. And if turns out you don't like your first choice, you pick a new one and try to learn from the shortcomings of the first one.
This works even better in your case. Of course you don't want to pick only one console and learn from that. You want to pick a few, and learn from the good parts of some and the bad parts of others.
I think we should all be proud of ourselves for generating enough not-too-offensive noise about this that it made amazon react without a costly judicial order.
Also many years ago I did a lot of work with Ingres's OpenRoad which used to be called Windows4GL. It's basically a GUI-builder/runtime product that uses its own 4GL and a lot of OO concepts to implement client-server systems. I'm not sure what it's evolved into the past few years, but it's worth checkin out.
Also, browser are free to apply different rules to presentational hints in the HTML content versus color information provided in graphical files. The main beef of the article in question is that browsers treat BGCOLOR directives, an HTML presentational hint, differently from color info in GIFs, which is not surprising at all because the two are totally unrelated items. It is quite possible to view a well-made HTML page without rendering the images, while it is also easy to view a GIF without a web browser.
The "web-safety" of the colors as defined by the article is only an issue when an author is trying to match the colors inside a GIF with those inside the remainder of a page. A more intelligent author would assume that GIFs and HTML may be rendered by two totally separate engines (perhaps even plugins) within the same browser, and therefore not expect anything other than the minimal spatial relationships between the two.
Well, from their Jobs page They're looking for a Risk Management Specialist and a Legal Counsel with international experience, so maybe that's holding them up.
Anyone notice the snail mail address on the demand letter: "2600 mindcrime Pkwy"? This is also the address the domain name is registered under, but it doesn't show up in any online maps, and the name sounds too weird to be true. Anybody in the Lowell/Boston area can verify this?
[Buggy software ate my encodings...]
So suppose that instead of publishing an <a href...>, slashdot posted their URL as plain text. Most of us slashdot readers would have no problem copying and pasting the URL to go to their page anyway, still creating the slashdot effect without ever using an actual link.</wiseguy>
So suppose that instead of publishing an , slashdot posted their URL as plain text. Most of us slashdot readers would have no problem copying and pasting the URL to go to their page anyway, still creating the slashdot effect without ever using an actual link.
I totally agree with you. Slashdot just doesn't feel as nerdy anymore without the science articles. In fact, today's front-page looks a lot more like that of a political activist site than a news-for-nerd site.
On the bright side, the way it is now the science sites don't get slashdotted as often...
Well, our favorite Patent Office lists 149 trademarks on ACME.
Interstingly enough acme.com seems to be owned by yet another nerd from Berkley, who has an interesting solution to the domain-name disputes.
... For instance, clone armies require thousands/millions of host mothers plus ~20 years of education/training/maturation time.
... (any organs grown in a host without a brain will be pretty unhealthy)...
I suppose one could clone/grow thousands of wombs and use these to clone armies without bothering with host mothers.
Can you explain why? (i'm honestly asking) If this is so, again one could clone and grow hosts with genetically-engineered brains so that they are good enough to grow healthy organs but not intelligent enough to be regarded as humans. Then one can kill them without becoming a murderer.
I've had day jobs that I'd swear happened in Moebius space...
Can you explain how this is supposed to work, though? If you create a bunch of additional top-level domains (let's say *.arts, *.firm, *.biz, *.dot, *.sucks) someone like Disney is going to want to register their trademarks in all those domains. Whether or not they're legally required to do so to protect their trademark, that's what they're going to want, just to make it easy for people to find them.
.per reserved for personal web sites. Then if the Disney corporation registers disney.per, an individual with the last name of Disney should be able to take them to court and sue them for wrongfully and maliciously registering a domain name that they're not entitled to.
Let's say there is a new TLD
You don't need those transponders to be tracked. These days they have cameras that can shoot and record your license plate while you're getting a ticket/paying at the gate.
For instance, whenever I park in the long-term parking lot at the San Jose airport, on the way out, my receipt clearly states my license plate number.