I hate to contribute a 'mod this up!' post, but somebody please do so.
I've been with telcos that struggled to merely operate daily under the weight of their own poor record-keeping. I can't imagine trying to rebuild a facility like this without state-of-the-art, zealously maintained records. Electronic backups of all node configurations and datafill would be a good start, but the miles and miles of old cabling running through that building just gives me nightmares...
Oh, I remember that fire. I was working at a wireless provider at the time, and there was bedlam at our switch site... both our networks routed huge amounts of traffic via that ILEC CO and without it, our other routes were drowning.
In the grand scheme, everyone survived it rather well, with little more than inconvenience for most (massive downtown bank HQ's were a notable exception). It was a really interesting peek into the vulnerabilities of the usually stable network.
Well, the RIAA may not care about your pr0n, but the owners of those copyright images and movies may. Imagine waking up every few weeks to find that another sex site operator has broken into your computer, conducted a search and deleted some images it (summarily) decided infringed on its rights.
Imagine every few months waking up to find one of these sites screwed up and wiped your harddisk... and there's nothing you can do about it...
It was sold as Meccano in Canada too. My set included an electric motor and - best Xmas ever - I got a *working* steam engine!
It was amazing. Had a little boiler that held about 150cc's of water with heat supplied by burning rubbing alcohol in a tray under the boiler. Steam pumped out to a little piston that would *really* fly under pressure.
Damn that thing was dangerous! They'd never make a toy like that today! It was really quite powerful, there was always the danger of steam burns and the rubbing alcohol was almost invisible when it burned.
I'm gonna have to find that thing now that I have sons of my own;)
One point - when you control all aspects of distribution, there's no longer any need to innovate to benefit economically from copyright laws. You just need to produce "product" and choke out anything "too" innovative (read: too narrow market appeal).
If you had to innovate in order to benefit economically from copyright protection, TMBG would have a lot more money that N'Sync;)
heh... my first email account was assigned as part of my job with Forestry Canada in S. Ste Marie, ON (1989). I had my own (graphics-capable!) terminal on the VAX and everything.
Better yet - a buddy in Comp. Sci. back at campus told me about a Faculty of Science unix box through which I could gain access to the magical wonderland of Usenet. He coached me on how to ask for an account ("I'd like to learn Unix, please") and what NOT to say ("I'd like to hog bandwidth in my attempt to read everything ever posted to Usenet").
Sure 'nuff, the admin gave me a shell account and told me how to get a dialup account. Ahh, the world was at my fingertips. And my grades were somewhere around my shoes;)
Right. But in a wag-the-dog scenario, the entertainment industry (with huge lobbying budgets and relatively modest economic significance) is pushing through laws that will have huge effects on telecom, consumer electronics and high tech (with relatively modest lobbying budgets and massive economic significance).
The best we can hope for is an upswing in lobbying efforts by high-tech organizations. That *might* counter this bill, but just means more lobbying by groups defending their business.
What is really required is a massive, permanent lobbying effort by EFF and other civil rights organizations. Too bad it'll never be within their financial reach.
Exactly. Remember, the politicians who wrote the DMCA could collect their kudos from the industry by getting it passed, not by making it stick.
Congress is not afraid of passing an unconstitutional law, since there's always the Supreme Court to strike it down if necessary. Scary thought, isn't it? Especially when you consider that most sitting members of the Supremes were appointed by Reagan and Bush Sr. and at least two will retire in time for Dubya to replace them with new hand-picked right-wingers. This is your last defense against unconstitutional laws and it even costs *me* sleep, up here in Canada...
Explain it to your mom the same way you explained the chilling implications of the DMCA.
And unfortunately, you can expect to be just as effective in getting her excited about stopping the bill.
This is scary as hell - because these initiatives are difficult to explain to consumers, it may be impossible to stop them. Voter apathy has never had such potential to rot the country from the inside out. Soon, any business big enough to afford a good lobbyist can expect to have their business plan protected by law.
Of course, they could go for a 'Queer as Folk' slant and open up men's and women's decontamination chambers. The man-man action isn't my speed, but imagine the hot Vulcan-Human female scenes! Yowza!
If there's one thing this argument needs, it's a catchy label. If copy-prevention on CD's get slapped with a 'downgrade' label, it'll be dead before it gets any momentum. Joe Sixpack will NEVER stand for it and the media will have a field day demonstrating car stereos and home computers balking at the latest N'Sync CD.
Interesting to see how that turns out. I mean, they're bastardizing a published standard and selling the product as compatible with that standard. Jeez, if they weren't all in the same bed, I'd expect Phillips to sue them;)
"It was a pilot episode after all, and it's going to take some time to mesh properly."
No kidding. Remember the pilot of TNG? Remember Jordi strolling onto the set and exclaiming "Hoooo-eee!" He only needed bib overalls and a stalk of hay in his mouth to complete the image.
Agonizing to look back upon, but the show improved drastically and quickly.
(Oh god - rereading this post, I've come to realize... I AM a geek!;)
Give Canada a little time to jerk that knee. Chretien's whole lower body is twitching... we need to be just as vigilant in the Great White North.
Ferinstance - the day of the attacks, the Liberals, the Tories and the Alliance were ALL talking war. The Opposition was goading the gov't into stronger and stronger words. Only the NDP urged caution, and recommended a criminal, rather than, warlike response. Food for thought.
Why is that 'enough said'? Can you name a *single* Linux-based virus?
It's been mentioned above, but I'll say it again - root exploits and worms are NOT viruses, and anti-virus software won't protect against them on any platform.
Slashdot Mirror
Heh... they're gonna wonder about the spike in traffic today...
I hate to contribute a 'mod this up!' post, but somebody please do so.
I've been with telcos that struggled to merely operate daily under the weight of their own poor record-keeping. I can't imagine trying to rebuild a facility like this without state-of-the-art, zealously maintained records. Electronic backups of all node configurations and datafill would be a good start, but the miles and miles of old cabling running through that building just gives me nightmares...
Oh, I remember that fire. I was working at a wireless provider at the time, and there was bedlam at our switch site... both our networks routed huge amounts of traffic via that ILEC CO and without it, our other routes were drowning.
In the grand scheme, everyone survived it rather well, with little more than inconvenience for most (massive downtown bank HQ's were a notable exception). It was a really interesting peek into the vulnerabilities of the usually stable network.
Well, the RIAA may not care about your pr0n, but the owners of those copyright images and movies may. Imagine waking up every few weeks to find that another sex site operator has broken into your computer, conducted a search and deleted some images it (summarily) decided infringed on its rights.
Imagine every few months waking up to find one of these sites screwed up and wiped your harddisk... and there's nothing you can do about it...
Well, that 300bps was what you could manage across an analogue telephone line with a commercially-available modem.
Telecom backbones, even 14 years ago, were waaay beyond 300bps. And this technology really is backbone stuff, not for us consumers *wistful sigh*
It was sold as Meccano in Canada too. My set included an electric motor and - best Xmas ever - I got a *working* steam engine!
;)
It was amazing. Had a little boiler that held about 150cc's of water with heat supplied by burning rubbing alcohol in a tray under the boiler. Steam pumped out to a little piston that would *really* fly under pressure.
Damn that thing was dangerous! They'd never make a toy like that today! It was really quite powerful, there was always the danger of steam burns and the rubbing alcohol was almost invisible when it burned.
I'm gonna have to find that thing now that I have sons of my own
I was deliberately abusing the Queen's English for humour ;)
I think it *is* intended to be ironical.
;)
Irregardless, it's not funny.
(Yes, I posted without the +1 bonus
Well put, Furd.
;)
One point - when you control all aspects of distribution, there's no longer any need to innovate to benefit economically from copyright laws. You just need to produce "product" and choke out anything "too" innovative (read: too narrow market appeal).
If you had to innovate in order to benefit economically from copyright protection, TMBG would have a lot more money that N'Sync
heh... my first email account was assigned as part of my job with Forestry Canada in S. Ste Marie, ON (1989). I had my own (graphics-capable!) terminal on the VAX and everything.
;)
Better yet - a buddy in Comp. Sci. back at campus told me about a Faculty of Science unix box through which I could gain access to the magical wonderland of Usenet. He coached me on how to ask for an account ("I'd like to learn Unix, please") and what NOT to say ("I'd like to hog bandwidth in my attempt to read everything ever posted to Usenet").
Sure 'nuff, the admin gave me a shell account and told me how to get a dialup account. Ahh, the world was at my fingertips. And my grades were somewhere around my shoes
Right. But in a wag-the-dog scenario, the entertainment industry (with huge lobbying budgets and relatively modest economic significance) is pushing through laws that will have huge effects on telecom, consumer electronics and high tech (with relatively modest lobbying budgets and massive economic significance).
The best we can hope for is an upswing in lobbying efforts by high-tech organizations. That *might* counter this bill, but just means more lobbying by groups defending their business.
What is really required is a massive, permanent lobbying effort by EFF and other civil rights organizations. Too bad it'll never be within their financial reach.
Exactly. Remember, the politicians who wrote the DMCA could collect their kudos from the industry by getting it passed, not by making it stick.
Congress is not afraid of passing an unconstitutional law, since there's always the Supreme Court to strike it down if necessary. Scary thought, isn't it? Especially when you consider that most sitting members of the Supremes were appointed by Reagan and Bush Sr. and at least two will retire in time for Dubya to replace them with new hand-picked right-wingers. This is your last defense against unconstitutional laws and it even costs *me* sleep, up here in Canada...
Explain it to your mom the same way you explained the chilling implications of the DMCA.
And unfortunately, you can expect to be just as effective in getting her excited about stopping the bill.
This is scary as hell - because these initiatives are difficult to explain to consumers, it may be impossible to stop them. Voter apathy has never had such potential to rot the country from the inside out. Soon, any business big enough to afford a good lobbyist can expect to have their business plan protected by law.
*standing on my chair applauding*
Please, somebody mod this up...
Call me a karma whore, but if these worms were propagating through linux, you can bet we'd all (even /.'ers) be talking about linux worms.
Don't slam the soft porn! That Vulcan is hot ;)
;)
Of course, they could go for a 'Queer as Folk' slant and open up men's and women's decontamination chambers. The man-man action isn't my speed, but imagine the hot Vulcan-Human female scenes! Yowza!
(And yes, I posted without the +1 bonus
If there's one thing this argument needs, it's a catchy label. If copy-prevention on CD's get slapped with a 'downgrade' label, it'll be dead before it gets any momentum. Joe Sixpack will NEVER stand for it and the media will have a field day demonstrating car stereos and home computers balking at the latest N'Sync CD.
We should push this rhetoric HARD.
Interesting to see how that turns out. I mean, they're bastardizing a published standard and selling the product as compatible with that standard. Jeez, if they weren't all in the same bed, I'd expect Phillips to sue them ;)
Well put, my friend. Profound.
No kidding. Remember the pilot of TNG? Remember Jordi strolling onto the set and exclaiming "Hoooo-eee!" He only needed bib overalls and a stalk of hay in his mouth to complete the image.
Agonizing to look back upon, but the show improved drastically and quickly.
(Oh god - rereading this post, I've come to realize... I AM a geek! ;)
The reason why they use gold plating is because it doesn't rust or tarnish...
Right. Plus, gold is nice and soft and makes a good connection when inserted into a socket.
Give Canada a little time to jerk that knee. Chretien's whole lower body is twitching... we need to be just as vigilant in the Great White North.
Ferinstance - the day of the attacks, the Liberals, the Tories and the Alliance were ALL talking war. The Opposition was goading the gov't into stronger and stronger words. Only the NDP urged caution, and recommended a criminal, rather than, warlike response. Food for thought.
Why is that 'enough said'? Can you name a *single* Linux-based virus?
It's been mentioned above, but I'll say it again - root exploits and worms are NOT viruses, and anti-virus software won't protect against them on any platform.
Is the Xeon just a P6 core with a ton of cache ram on-die? It's 1-2MB, right?
Lemme see some ID, mister. You'd better have your papers in order...