My only problem is that some TX congressman already talking about new legislation that is needed. Why? It seems the current system worked:
1. disturbing (but not yet proven illegal actually) practice exposed by media, 2. business reacted by pulling support, 3. Yahoo shut down service.
All seems to be ok. Please someone remind that congressman that there are real problems in his state which need immediate attention (like half of the children are without health insurance*) and work on something USEFUL.
Matyas
P.S. * Are not most of his constituents pro-life, actually? I thought that means that all life (all children) should be entitled to the protection of their health/life on their own right (against illness and death) even if their parents cannot or do not want to get health insurance for them.
I wondered what happens if someone is rich enough to: own their home (no mortgage and will never need one), they never need loans or pay credit card interest? A person like that should just make sure that the thief is not stealing from them and that does not seem to hard to do (e.g a credit card charge can be disputed and there will be no valid signature meaning that the merchant got cheated not you).
Will bad credit influance you in any other way but preventing getting loans mortgages? Will it really affect medical insurance, employment, school admission, your family?
Using Galois theory you can decide whether an actual polynomial can be solved using radicals (the 4 basic operations and root finding). There are actual polynomials of which roots cannot be expressed from the coefficients. I do not remember one exactly, but you can construct one as follows: take any 5th degree polynomial with 3 (different) real and 2 complex roots. The root permutations (Galois group equivalent) becomes S_5 the symmetric group of order 5 (take a 5-cycle and conjugation) which is an unsolvable group.
The chances are that the solder will never survive the incident to see the inside of a court room. The CO of the CO shot will probably execute him on the first opportunity. Note that I do not argue right or wrong, I just point out the most probable course of events.
I believe that (English) essay grading is harder than grading science exams based on problem solving (no bubbles please), at least if essays are about content and not just grammatical correct sentences.
I say this because there is an objective criteria for grading the solution to a physics or math problem: correctness. For essays I do not beleive that we (and the current state of AI) can come up with an exact criteria like that. You might determine whether an essay is too different from essays which were written by experts, but cannot a very different essay to be just as good?
To my knowledge the AI programs can solve physics problems which are limited to some well defined domain (for example: http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/novak/cgi/isaacdemo.cgi though that is from 1977...) I am not aware of programs grading physics problem solutions.
I will accept an essay grading program after they grade solutions to math and physics problems.
I conjecture that some writers would feel offended if their essay did well according to the program: they might think it means they are too conformist and conservative and not novel in their approach...
With regard to computers Neumann Janos (or John von Neumann as the German/English speakers call him) should be mentioned as well:
John von Neumann (Neumann János) (December 28, 1903 - February 8, 1957) was a Hungarian-American mathematician who made important contributions in quantum physics, set theory, computer science, economics and virtually all mathematical fields.
Read more at:
http://kosmoi.com/Computer/Architecture/von_Neum an n/
http://www.rit.edu/~drk4633/vonNeumann/
Note that the University of Budapest - where he got his PhD in math - is called the Eotvos Lorand Science University today. I got my math degree* there too! (* = Masters equivalent. There is no BS/MS distinction in Hungary.)
I have found BBC to be a good news outlet. So I emailed them to remind them to stick to their mission.
My email: *******
The story I referenced below hints that 'Linux users' are responsible for the MyDoom virus. I find it disturbing that a group is accused in such a manner. I believe that whoever planned this attack is not a Linux advocate and does not stand for the values as I - as a linux user - stand for.
You should have also mentioned in the article that news.bbc.co.uk uses Linux. Maybe you are responsible for the attack and are trying to cover your tracks this way. I am just guessing you know, like you did.
I have found BBC a very valuable news source in the past. It informed me about issues and provided a more balanced news coverage than what is generally accessible through the US news outlets (except PBS/NPR). (I am from Hungary working/living in the US.)
I also would like to point out the following factual errors in the article:
- There are no patent claims made by SCO in the case. - SCO did not claim copyright infringement in Linux in the court of law, they only talk about it in the media, go figure. - There is no court dispute between SCO and Linux users as of today. SCO is in legal battle with IBM, Red Hat and Novell. These are about: 1. a contract dispute between SCO and IBM 2. Red Hat sued SCO based on the Lenham Act and attempts to establish preemptively that Red Hat does not infringe SCO copyrights 3. SCO and Novell dispute who has the right to UNIX.
I suggest to read about the court cases at www.groklaw.net for an excellent coverage.
Since essentially SCO claims ownership of Linux (millons of lines matching bla-bla) and declared the GPL invalid it makes me wonder what rights related to the source code (Linux as 'owned by SCO) does the SCO license supposedly give to companies buying it?
Maybe someone hopes that this may be a way to use Linux source code in their proprietary OS circumventing the GPL? They need SCO to take the blame, and be able to say that they just bought a license and so their hands are clean.
There is one interesting property of music that I read about. This is in no way can classify music since the property shows up in other places but still it is interesting.
Music is 1/f noise. This means that if you plot the frequency distribution of a data stream the intensity of the f frequency appears to be 1/f. (This can be carried out by Fourier analysis or such.)
However many other interesting phenomenon produces this 1/f signature. These are the ones I remember:
* variations in the healthy heart beat rhytm. (The heart changes its rhytm 'randomly' to 'see' whether the faster/slower rate fits the environment better. People who have heart rates ticking always the same rhytm like a metronom have trouble sleeping or running up stairs.)
* if we plot the water level of the Nile on a daily/hourly(?) basis the sequence shows the same signature. (Some adjustment might be necessary because of the tide.)
* earthquake intensity and frequency shows the same 1/f signature for not huge earthquakes. (Huge earthquakes are more frequent than they would be expected by the formula. Oops.)
* if you put a sand pyramid on the platform of a scale and drop very small amount of sand on the top of it continously, then sand will slide off the scale on different amounts. (Every once in a while a landslide will happen.) If you take the scale reading during the experiment the sequence has 1/f signature.
It seems 1/f is present in the nature and is captured by humens through music as well.
The following tidbits were turned up by a little search on the web.
The FBI says that: "COMPUTER SPAMMER SENTENCED TO FEDERAL PRISON". Yes, they advertise the conviction of Bret McDanel as a spammer sent to jail: http://www.fbi.gov/fieldnews/march/la032503 .htm
The San-Diego union tribune(?) writes that: "Prosecutors allege that McDanel hacked into his former employer's server and sent thousands of e-mail messages at practically the same time, forcing the company to shut down its computer system in August and September 2000." Link: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business /200206 12-9999_1b12hacker.html
In the FBI note there was no mention of the security bug at all they said: "Additionally, the emails he sent contained a link to a web site he had created where he revealed confidential information about Tornado technology that McDanel had learned while employed there."
Now that is such a selective disclosure of information that I am inclined to equate it with telling an untruth. (Just like printing that some John Doe killed several people in 1967 in he is still not behind bars, omitting that he was acting in war...)
What alarms me that he was found guilty on spamming charges which damaged the mail server while that seems not to be the basis of his ex-employers discontent. I guess the prosecutor was not interested in bringing out the truth but rather just have a conviction based on the "Computer Fraud and Abuse Act" on his resume.
Note that the company (Tornado) went out of business.
The following tidbits were turned up by a little search on the web.
The FBI says that: "COMPUTER SPAMMER SENTENCED TO FEDERAL PRISON". Yes, they advertise the conviction of Bret McDanel as a spammer sent to jail: http://www.fbi.gov/fieldnews/march/la032503 .htm
The San-Diego union tribune(?) writes that: "Prosecutors allege that McDanel hacked into his former employer's server and sent thousands of e-mail messages at practically the same time, forcing the company to shut down its computer system in August and September 2000." Link: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business /200206 12-9999_1b12hacker.html
In the FBI note there was no mention of the security bug at all they said: "Additionally, the emails he sent contained a link to a web site he had created where he revealed confidential information about Tornado technology that McDanel had learned while employed there."
Now that is such a selective disclosure of information that I am inclined to equate it with telling an untruth. (Just like printing that some John Doe killed several people in 1967 in he is still not behind bars, omitting that he was acting in war...)
What alarms me that he was found guilty on spamming charges which damaged the mail server while that seems not to be the basis of his ex-employers discontent. I guess the prosecutor was not interested in bringing out the truth but rather just have a conviction based on the "Computer Fraud and Abuse Act" on his resume.
Note that the company (Tornado) went out of business.
I suggest this: everyone should be liable who is SELLING BINARIES. This would not prevent anyone downloding the source or binaries for any project as they do today. However, when you buy a Linux distribution for example you buy service. I think they should be liable as any other company selling proprietary software.
It is a very likely scenario what you describe. However I feel that the product placements are already overwhelming, and the quality of the commercial TV cannot decline much further.
I think that only public supported media (NPR, PRI on the radio and PBS on TV) can have a chance to win my serious attention.
The last edition of The Long Term View(Dissatisfactions of American Democracy) has a good article about why US media and news coverage in particular became useless.
Matyas
The reason why entertainment sucks in commercial TV (CTV) has been mostly covered above. Add to it that CTV is better off producing cheap low quality programs because they provide more profit.
Albert Einstein - 19 times
Leonardo Da Vinci - 3 times
Mickey Mouse - 19 times
Bill Clinton - 61 times
George W. Bush - 5 times
George W.Bush - once, probably the real one!
Britney Spears - 35 times
Bill Gates - 31 times
John Doe - (the famous criminal) 161 times
Adolf Hitler - not signed up yet, I hope it is filtered out by the NASA guys!
What about not charging for the software at all,
just for the service itself, and even give the source away free. Oh wait, this is already happening now!
I work at IBM/Austin. Rarely I see people in suits, they must be on a business trip or they are prospective employees.
The software engineers, designers managers I see dress very casualy. Shorts and sandals are common as well as t-shirts. I wear hawaii style polo shirts, ibm t-shirts with chip logos on them, a linux fund t-shirt, t-shirt I got on the Cindarella ballet by Ballet Austin etc. There are two pool tables in our building in the cafeteria area, and there is a salsa/chips/coke/beer 'social meeting' on Fridays. It would be ackward playing pool and drinking beer in a stiff white shirt/suit isn't it!?
The work time is flexible. I am expected to call in if I do not get in by 10a.m. for some reason. (And I can work from home. While I am writing this I wait for a run to finish.)
But to be honest I have to add that these weeks there is a lot of work to be done (deadlines) and so I did not get to the recently installed pool tables yet.
We develop our software to run on linux as well. (Oh, and some of us thinks it is important to use >1 compilers for development and write portable (endiannes, 32/64 bit 'resistant') code. Beside xlC I normally use gcc with all warnings on and treated as errors, well, ok, since it is not enforced I forget this sometimes...:o)
I admit that I have a strong feeling against advertising, at least against what is going on under that name today. I think we are treated more and more as consumers only and people start finding enjoyment only in acquiring things or paying for luxury services that they would not need/like/care for normally. I think ads play a major role in this problem.
That said I did not say that using the ads is unethical. I said that I do not see ethics on the side of eBay in this dispute. That is I do not think that Bidder's Edge acted unethically. They tried to make money of their own and reading other comments it is not clear that eBay suffered or gained because of it. And even if eBay suffered then it might be justified by the consumers winning. For me this economical system (based on having property) is justified to the extent while it is beneficial to the society (mankind?) in its entirety. (I am aware that this is not the mainstream school of thought.)
Again, my only little point wanted to be that I am not sure that ethics should be dragged into this dispute to make a judgment, it looks to me that what happens is two companies fighting over profit/loss or rather suspected/potential profit/loss.
Slashdot Mirror
My only problem is that some TX congressman already talking about new legislation that is needed. Why? It seems the current system worked:
1. disturbing (but not yet proven illegal actually) practice exposed by media,
2. business reacted by pulling support,
3. Yahoo shut down service.
All seems to be ok. Please someone remind that congressman that there are real problems in his state which need immediate attention (like half of the children are without health insurance*) and work on something USEFUL.
Matyas
P.S. * Are not most of his constituents pro-life, actually? I thought that means that all life (all children) should be entitled to the protection of their health/life on their own right (against illness and death) even if their parents cannot or do not want to get health insurance for them.
I wondered what happens if someone is rich enough to: own their home (no mortgage and will never need one), they never need loans or pay credit card interest? A person like that should just make sure that the thief is not stealing from them and that does not seem to hard to do (e.g a credit card charge can be disputed and there will be no valid signature meaning that the merchant got cheated not you).
Will bad credit influance you in any other way but preventing getting loans mortgages? Will it really affect medical insurance, employment, school admission, your family?
Using Galois theory you can decide whether an actual polynomial can be solved using radicals (the 4 basic operations and root finding). There are actual polynomials of which roots cannot be expressed from the coefficients. I do not remember one exactly, but you can construct one as follows: take any 5th degree polynomial with 3 (different) real and 2 complex roots. The root permutations (Galois group equivalent) becomes S_5 the symmetric group of order 5 (take a 5-cycle and conjugation) which is an unsolvable group.
The chances are that the solder will never survive the incident to see the inside of a court room. The CO of the CO shot will probably execute him on the first opportunity. Note that I do not argue right or wrong, I just point out the most probable course of events.
I believe that (English) essay grading is harder than grading science exams based on problem solving (no bubbles please), at least if essays are about content and not just grammatical correct sentences.
o .cgi though that is from 1977...) I am not aware of programs grading physics problem solutions.
I say this because there is an objective criteria for grading the solution to a physics or math problem: correctness. For essays I do not beleive that we (and the current state of AI) can come up with an exact criteria like that. You might determine whether an essay is too different from essays which were written by experts, but cannot a very different essay to be just as good?
To my knowledge the AI programs can solve physics problems which are limited to some well defined domain (for example: http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/novak/cgi/isaacdem
I will accept an essay grading program after they grade solutions to math and physics problems.
I conjecture that some writers would feel offended if their essay did well according to the program: they might think it means they are too conformist and conservative and not novel in their approach...
Matyas
With regard to computers Neumann Janos (or John von Neumann as the German/English speakers call him) should be mentioned as well:
m an n/
John von Neumann (Neumann János) (December 28, 1903 - February 8, 1957) was a Hungarian-American mathematician who made important contributions in quantum physics, set theory, computer science, economics and virtually all mathematical fields.
Read more at:
http://kosmoi.com/Computer/Architecture/von_Neu
http://www.rit.edu/~drk4633/vonNeumann/
Note that the University of Budapest - where he got his PhD in math - is called the Eotvos Lorand Science University today. I got my math degree* there too! (* = Masters equivalent. There is no BS/MS distinction in Hungary.)
Matyas
Why Apple does not hire this guy? (David Hammerton)
Appearently the current developers have no clue.
Matyas
I have found BBC to be a good news outlet. So I emailed them to remind them to stick to their mission.
My email:
*******
The story I referenced below hints that 'Linux users' are responsible for the MyDoom virus. I find it disturbing that a group is accused in such a manner. I believe that whoever planned this attack is not a Linux advocate and does not stand for the values as I - as a linux user - stand for.
You should have also mentioned in the article that news.bbc.co.uk uses Linux. Maybe you are responsible for the attack and are trying to cover your tracks this way. I am just guessing you know, like you did.
I have found BBC a very valuable news source in the past. It informed me about issues and provided a more balanced news coverage than what is generally accessible through the US news outlets (except PBS/NPR). (I am from Hungary working/living in the US.)
I also would like to point out the following factual errors in the article:
- There are no patent claims made by SCO in the case.
- SCO did not claim copyright infringement in Linux in the court of law, they only talk about it in the media, go figure.
- There is no court dispute between SCO and Linux users as of today. SCO is in legal battle with IBM, Red Hat and Novell. These are about:
1. a contract dispute between SCO and IBM
2. Red Hat sued SCO based on the Lenham Act and attempts to establish preemptively that Red Hat does not infringe SCO copyrights
3. SCO and Novell dispute who has the right to UNIX.
I suggest to read about the court cases at www.groklaw.net for an excellent coverage.
Good luck with your future endeavours.
(signed)
Since essentially SCO claims ownership of Linux (millons of lines matching bla-bla) and declared the GPL invalid it makes me wonder what rights related to the source code (Linux as 'owned by SCO) does the SCO license supposedly give to companies buying it?
Maybe someone hopes that this may be a way to use Linux source code in their proprietary OS circumventing the GPL? They need SCO to take the blame, and be able to say that they just bought a license and so their hands are clean.
Matyas
There is one interesting property of music that I read about. This is in no way can classify music since the property shows up in other places but still it is interesting.
Music is 1/f noise. This means that if you plot the frequency distribution of a data stream the intensity of the f frequency appears to be 1/f. (This can be carried out by Fourier analysis or such.)
However many other interesting phenomenon produces this 1/f signature. These are the ones I remember:
* variations in the healthy heart beat rhytm. (The heart changes its rhytm 'randomly' to 'see' whether the faster/slower rate fits the environment better. People who have heart rates ticking always the same rhytm like a metronom have trouble sleeping or running up stairs.)
* if we plot the water level of the Nile on a daily/hourly(?) basis the sequence shows the same signature. (Some adjustment might be necessary because of the tide.)
* earthquake intensity and frequency shows the same 1/f signature for not huge earthquakes. (Huge earthquakes are more frequent than they would be expected by the formula. Oops.)
* if you put a sand pyramid on the platform of a scale and drop very small amount of sand on the top of it continously, then sand will slide off the scale on different amounts. (Every once in a while a landslide will happen.) If you take the scale reading during the experiment the sequence has 1/f signature.
It seems 1/f is present in the nature and is captured by humens through music as well.
The following tidbits were turned up by a little search on the web.
3 .htm
s /200206 12-9999_1b12hacker.html
The FBI says that: "COMPUTER SPAMMER SENTENCED TO FEDERAL PRISON". Yes, they advertise the conviction of Bret McDanel as a spammer sent to jail:
http://www.fbi.gov/fieldnews/march/la03250
The San-Diego union tribune(?) writes that:
"Prosecutors allege that McDanel hacked into his former employer's server and sent thousands of e-mail messages at practically the same time, forcing the company to shut down its computer system in August and September 2000." Link:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/busines
In the FBI note there was no mention of the security bug at all they said:
"Additionally, the emails he sent contained a link to a web site he had created where he revealed confidential information about Tornado technology that McDanel had learned while employed there."
Now that is such a selective disclosure of information that I am inclined to equate it with telling an untruth. (Just like printing that some John Doe killed several people in 1967 in he is still not behind bars, omitting that he was acting in war...)
What alarms me that he was found guilty on spamming charges which damaged the mail server while that seems not to be the basis of his ex-employers discontent. I guess the prosecutor was not interested in bringing out the truth but rather just have a conviction based on the "Computer Fraud and Abuse Act" on his resume.
Note that the company (Tornado) went out of business.
The following tidbits were turned up by a little search on the web.
3 .htm
s /200206 12-9999_1b12hacker.html
The FBI says that: "COMPUTER SPAMMER SENTENCED TO FEDERAL PRISON". Yes, they advertise the conviction of Bret McDanel as a spammer sent to jail:
http://www.fbi.gov/fieldnews/march/la03250
The San-Diego union tribune(?) writes that:
"Prosecutors allege that McDanel hacked into his former employer's server and sent thousands of e-mail messages at practically the same time, forcing the company to shut down its computer system in August and September 2000." Link:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/busines
In the FBI note there was no mention of the security bug at all they said:
"Additionally, the emails he sent contained a link to a web site he had created where he revealed confidential information about Tornado technology that McDanel had learned while employed there."
Now that is such a selective disclosure of information that I am inclined to equate it with telling an untruth. (Just like printing that some John Doe killed several people in 1967 in he is still not behind bars, omitting that he was acting in war...)
What alarms me that he was found guilty on spamming charges which damaged the mail server while that seems not to be the basis of his ex-employers discontent. I guess the prosecutor was not interested in bringing out the truth but rather just have a conviction based on the "Computer Fraud and Abuse Act" on his resume.
Note that the company (Tornado) went out of business.
The domain nowhere.com is registered but obviously not ot the BSA.
Let me get this straight: You paid money for a DVD and it still had ads on it?
Matyas
I suggest this: everyone should be liable who is SELLING BINARIES. This would not prevent anyone downloding the source or binaries for any project as they do today. However, when you buy a Linux distribution for example you buy service. I think they should be liable as any other company selling proprietary software.
Matyas
[offtopic]
It is a very likely scenario what you describe. However I feel that the product placements are already overwhelming, and the quality of the commercial TV cannot decline much further.
I think that only public supported media (NPR, PRI on the radio and PBS on TV) can have a chance to win my serious attention.
The last edition of The Long Term View(Dissatisfactions of American Democracy) has a good article about why US media and news coverage in particular became useless.
Matyas
The reason why entertainment sucks in commercial TV (CTV) has been mostly covered above. Add to it that CTV is better off producing cheap low quality programs because they provide more profit.
The BBC have a report; go to news and search for Skylarov which gives:d _1 454000/1454489.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsi
Matyas
Thanks for the link.
It is a pity that you did not get moderated up.
Matyas
Albert Einstein - 19 times
Leonardo Da Vinci - 3 times
Mickey Mouse - 19 times
Bill Clinton - 61 times
George W. Bush - 5 times
George W.Bush - once, probably the real one!
Britney Spears - 35 times
Bill Gates - 31 times
John Doe - (the famous criminal) 161 times
Adolf Hitler - not signed up yet, I hope it is filtered out by the NASA guys!
Matyas
Funny that "remember" is mistyped in both comments: "remem ber".
Matyas
> Why do we always assume that rich people are
> unhappy?
On the contrary. I think that money can make people happy. However it seems it cannot make them satisfied.
(I have heard this too: money cannot buy love but
it can rent a lot of sex.)
Matyas
>That should be 1000000/24/60/60 and that comes >out to 11.57 hits a second.
The math is correct here but you divided 10^6 instead of 10^5.
>Also you only did 100,000/60/24/24 so if that was >the break down it'd be 28.93 hits per second.
100000/60/24/24 = 2.893 as he claimed.
Matyas
"A society can be judged by the ways it entartains itself."
What about not charging for the software at all,
just for the service itself, and even give the source away free. Oh wait, this is already happening now!
Matyas
I work at IBM/Austin. Rarely I see people in suits, they must be on a business trip or they are prospective employees.
:o)
The software engineers, designers managers I see dress very casualy. Shorts and sandals are common as well as t-shirts. I wear hawaii style polo shirts, ibm t-shirts with chip logos on them, a linux fund t-shirt, t-shirt I got on the Cindarella ballet by Ballet Austin etc. There are two pool tables in our building in the cafeteria area, and there is a salsa/chips/coke/beer 'social meeting' on Fridays. It would be ackward playing pool and drinking beer in a stiff white shirt/suit isn't it!?
The work time is flexible. I am expected to call in if I do not get in by 10a.m. for some reason.
(And I can work from home. While I am writing this I wait for a run to finish.)
But to be honest I have to add that these weeks there is a lot of work to be done (deadlines) and so I did not get to the recently installed pool tables yet.
We develop our software to run on linux as well. (Oh, and some of us thinks it is important to use >1 compilers for development and write portable (endiannes, 32/64 bit 'resistant') code. Beside xlC I normally use gcc with all warnings on and treated as errors, well, ok, since it is not enforced I forget this sometimes...
Matyas
I admit that I have a strong feeling against advertising, at least against what is going on under that name today. I think we are treated more and more as consumers only and people start finding enjoyment only in acquiring things or paying for luxury services that they would not need/like/care for normally. I think ads play a major role in this problem.
That said I did not say that using the ads is unethical. I said that I do not see ethics on the side of eBay in this dispute. That is I do not think that Bidder's Edge acted unethically. They tried to make money of their own and reading other comments it is not clear that eBay suffered or gained because of it. And even if eBay suffered then it might be justified by the consumers winning. For me this economical system (based on having property) is justified to the extent while it is beneficial to the society (mankind?) in its entirety. (I am aware that this is not the mainstream school of thought.)
Again, my only little point wanted to be that I am not sure that ethics should be dragged into this dispute to make a judgment, it looks to me that what happens is two companies fighting over profit/loss or rather suspected/potential profit/loss.
Matyas