While that would certainly make for an entertaining news tidbit, you won't see it. Why? Because billionaires generally don't need to steal (oops, sorry, "take without paying for") their music. When you've got a billion dollars, you don't care about dropping $15 for the new N'Sync album (or heck, just calling them up and inviting them to perform at your bar-b-que).
Did you guys actually RTFA? First of all, it's on FOX news. That should raise a couple red flags right there. Secondly, the "article" has typos in it. "When reporters visited teh apartment last night, [...]" Thirdly, the headling is a bald-face lie: "12-Year-Old Sued for Music Downloading." The RIAA is not suing anyone for music downloading, they're suing them for music sharing. FOX couldn't even get that right.
And I love little gems like this one: "Brianna -- who her mom says is an honors student" LOL! I'll bet she does. Wouldn't a real journalist put forth at least the tiniest bit of effort to verify things in their stories? Couldn't they have asked to see a recent report card or something? Newsflash: EVERY parent will tell you their child is "an honors student."
This article is pure, emotional, irrational crap. Maybe if Mom was half as smart as her "honor roll" daughter, she'd have clued in that downloading music you didn't pay for was wrong, and maybe she should have paid more attention to what her genius (yet thieving) daughter was up to.
Could it have something to do with the fact that CDs are incredibly overpriced?
Baloney. CDs are not overpriced. As luxury items go, CDs are about as cheap as they come. Compare to say, a pro sporting event, the movies, the theatre, the ballet, the circus, a nice meal out, or virtually anything else, and CDs are incredibly cheap. Perfectly-mastered digital music you can listen to over and over, for thousands of hours of entertainment, and when you get bored, you can still sell it and get back half your money. That's a frickin' steal!
Actually, considering how much file-sharing increases the number of people buying CDs and the number of CDs they buy
Uhm.... WHAT??? While that would certainly be a nice thing, if it were true, there doesn't exist a single shred of evidence to support your ridiculous claim. Actually, there's a pile of (admitedly empirical) evidence suggesting the exact opposite.
My single biggest gripe is that $12 is still too much to take a chance on.
Oh gimmie a frickin' break. People, CDs are CHEAP. Quit complaining. Geez.
First of all, I don't know where all this "preview" and "I don't wanna take a chance" BS comes from. At my local CD shops, there is a listening bar where anyone is welcome to walk up, hand the attendant a CD from the shelf, and they'll pop it in for you to listen to for as long as you like. I think that's called "previewing" the album. If you don't like it, they shrinkwrap it and it goes back on the rack.
Secondly, are you people cheapskates, or what? $12 is too much for a CD? You own it, and can listen to it over and over and over, for as long as you want, forever. And when you get bored of it, you can sell it! So you get thousands of hours of entertainment for a few bucks.
Let's compare that to any pro sports game. $80 for a 2 hour game. If it sucked, too bad, it's over, you can't see it again. Ditto for the opera or theatre. Museum feature exhibits, also somewhat pricey, and if you want to see it again, you have to pay again. Hell, even movie ticket prices around here are $15, and you only get to see the movie once. If it sucked, too bad - no refunds. How about a nice dinner out? You're looking at $20, minimum, and if it sucked, too bad.
Geez people, get some perspective. Thousands of hours of entertainment for $12, and when I get bored of it, I can sell it? That's a steal.
2. Just buy the CD for ~$20.00 and hope it doesn't suck.
I do the same thing with movies. Movie ticket prices here are $15. That's an awful lot to pay for a sucky movie. So I just sneak into the theatre without paying. If I like the movie enough, I might go back the next weekend and actually buy a ticket (yeah, right!)
In case anyone isn't clear, I'm being sarcastic. I don't buy this guy's excuse. All major music stores I've been to in my area allow you to preview the CD before you buy it. If you don't like it, they re-shrinkwrap it and put it back on the shelf.
If you buy it and change your mind, sell it! Quit your bitchin'. What do you do if you pay to see a movie you don't like? Demand a refund? How's that work out for you?
"This is not a victimless crime; people are really suffering from the impact of peer-to-peer downloading," Sherman said.
You find me one person, just one person who's lost their job because of a drop in CD sales. Am I supposed to feel sorry for J. Lo or P. Diddy or whatever the hell their names are this week? Why, because they might have to downsize to a 12,000 square foot mansion with only 2 hottubs instead of the 18,000 palace they're in now? Is that suffering???
I'm sorry, I don't condone stealing, but this is just offensive. You're talking to a guy who was laid off from Nortel in the same year his wife was laid off from JDS, which also happened to be within 2 months of this newlywed couple buying their first house. Trying to make a mortgage payment when your chosen industry is crumbing around you is suffering. Having to sell one of your Escalades is NOT suffering.
Seeing as this has nothing to do with copyright violation, the DMCA is completely inapplicable. There are no laws against cracking encryption that is unrelated to copyright violation, even in the US.
You'd have had better luck if you'd suggested the PATRIOT act as a means to silence him, but even that would be very dubious.
Governments don't need to crack the signal. They can already listen in on the unencrypted conversation at the base station, or even central office. Vendors of cell equipment are required by law to provide these back doors to government and law enforcement. If they didn't, then they simply couldn't sell their equipment. I know - I used to work in the cell phone billing division of Nortel.
I'm obviously being trolled, but lest someone actually take this guy seriously, of course I don't have any child porn. The last comment in my post above was blatant sarcasm. Well, blatant to anyone with average reading comprehension levels. As for how you made the leap from "Amateur photographer" to "child pornographer," not even I can explain that leap. Whatever. As a Slashdot troll, I'd give you an 'F', but you actually managed to provoke a response from me, so that's gotta be worth at least a 'C'.
Now may be the time to update your illegal mp3 file MD5 hash sums.
I sincerely hope this is tongue-in-cheek. For all the self-righteous, pompous sabre-rattling that goes on in here about how good Slashdotters only possess MP3's that are ripped from personal collections, I would certainly hope that we wouldn't stoop so low as to blatantly and openly be trading tips on how to avoid getting caught doing illegal things.
What's next? A HOWTO on setting up an encrypted file system for our child porn?
$15-20? Did the price on those ever come down? No.
The price hasn't gone up, either. And that was what, 15 years ago? What other product do you buy that hasn't increased in price at all over the last decade and a half? Ever hear of inflation? CDs are cheap.
He argues that both companies control distribution of products in their respective markets with an iron fist, and by so doing can artificially raise prices.
I'm sorry, but I call BS. CDs have been $15 as long as I can remember. Over the past 10 years, my phone bill has gone up, my cable bill has gone up, and my electric bill has gone up. Even my salary has gone up. But CD prices have remained remarkably static. $15 buys you a new CD. It did 10 years ago, and it does today.
Interesting, since in Ontario it was decriminilized
Small nitpick: it hasn't been decriminalized yet, and it's a federal law being considered, not something exclusive to Ontario. It will likely be passed once the house resumes this fall, or next spring at the latest.
Not really. It's more the alcoholic beverages industry as well as pharma and medical that want marijuana outlawed because it could potentially really cut into their profits.
You're wrong. It'd most likely be the same companies that would be growing and selling pot if it were legalized. Plus, MJ, tobacco, and alcohol are not necessarily exclusive activities - people who do one usually do the others, too.
And finally, most of the people who want to smoke pot are already doing it anyway (at least, up here in Canada). If it were legalized, there wouldn't be a rush of people ditching booze and picking up joints. You'd simply be taking money from the criminal underground and instead sending it to legitimate organizations. The tax revenue could be used to fund treatment and recovery centers, as well as public service campaigns, similar to the ones already in place for alcohol and tobacco.
I don't think you understand exactly what a "shockwave" is. A shockwave is not a typical wave, analogous to sound. It travels much, much faster than sound. Think in the range of 16,000 feet per second. Note that the matter expanding out from the explosion will be slowing exponentially as the sphere of gas/matter expands; not fast enough to carry a shockwave.
Thus, if there is no atmosphere already present, there is nothing for that shockwave to travel through. And as any explosives expert will tell you, it's the shockwave that does the majority of the damage, due to its sheer massive speed and destructive force.
The first Matrix movie shows us that the simulation is based on late pre-2nd millenium Earth. That means that simulation contained the knowledge that humans do not make good batteries
You're wrong. While the simulation (The Matrix) was pre-21st-century, the "Real World" (where the human batteries existed) was several hundred years later; i.e., in the future, from now.
Note that in the construct scene, Morpheus explains the battery system as using humans' metabolisms, "combined with a form of fusion." That line is the key, because since it is said in the future (from our perspective, here and now), it is in fact possible that by the time Morpheus and his team are warring with the machines (200 years from now), a new form of fusion could exist that, combined with living organisms, generates power from matter (similar to cold fusion).
While this is the most commonly cited "plot hole" (and indeed, the only thing even close to a whole in the entire movie), it is in fact quite easily explained, when you note that he leaves himself an out with the "combined with a form of fusion" line, and the fact that it is in the future, and thus, this "form of fusion" might presently be unknown to us.
There were no holes in either of the first two Matrix movies. You will realize this when, in the third movie, it is finally revealed that both the Matrix and the "Real World" are in fact, simulations. In "Revolutions," we will see the real "Real World," and thus any scientific inaaccuracies in the first two will be simply explained away as "that's what humans were led to believe inside the Matrix."
Actually, you could "hear" the explosion, when the shockwave gets to you
With no atmosphere, there is no shockwave. Sure, the debris from the explosion would eventually hit you, but no one would seriously try to call actual matter hitting you "sound."
I repeat: Explosions in space have no shockwaves. A nuke detonated 10 feet over the surface of the moon would amount to little more than a small dust cloud a few feet in diameter (if anything) when the remaining atoms slammed into the surface. It would be nothing compared to a similar detonation on Earth.
Keeping in mind that life began on Earth an estimated 4 billion years ago, and also remembering that Mars has its own weather system (including wind, and thus, wind erosion), and that the resolution of the MGS maxes out at 1 pixel per 5 feet, such a search with this tool would be useless. If the theory you mention were in fact correct, the "source" crater would have long since been completely eroded away, and replaced by more recent ones, plus the resolution of the cameras can't even find the Pathfinder lander, and we know fairly precisely where to look for that thing. What chance would it have to find 4 billion year-old fossils under a mile of dust?
If the network admins at gnu.org and this power plant had kept up to date with patches, then neither breach would have happened. EVERY OS has its vulnerabilities, and your network security is only as good as your Network Security Administrator. To blame the OS and prescribe a different one is an ignorant and short-sighted red-herring. The real problem is the attitude and the practices of the people in charge of the network.
Whatever happened to the classic style of problem-solving, whereby an actual proof was deduced, rather than simply employing brute-force to "count them all?" I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm glad that we finally have an answer to this pressing question (which I'm sure 95% of us had never heard of prior to reading this article), but does anyone else feel that these "brute-force" solutions are kind of cheating?
Slashdot Mirror
While that would certainly make for an entertaining news tidbit, you won't see it. Why? Because billionaires generally don't need to steal (oops, sorry, "take without paying for") their music. When you've got a billion dollars, you don't care about dropping $15 for the new N'Sync album (or heck, just calling them up and inviting them to perform at your bar-b-que).
Did you guys actually RTFA? First of all, it's on FOX news. That should raise a couple red flags right there. Secondly, the "article" has typos in it. "When reporters visited teh apartment last night, [...]" Thirdly, the headling is a bald-face lie: "12-Year-Old Sued for Music Downloading." The RIAA is not suing anyone for music downloading, they're suing them for music sharing. FOX couldn't even get that right.
And I love little gems like this one: "Brianna -- who her mom says is an honors student" LOL! I'll bet she does. Wouldn't a real journalist put forth at least the tiniest bit of effort to verify things in their stories? Couldn't they have asked to see a recent report card or something? Newsflash: EVERY parent will tell you their child is "an honors student."
This article is pure, emotional, irrational crap. Maybe if Mom was half as smart as her "honor roll" daughter, she'd have clued in that downloading music you didn't pay for was wrong, and maybe she should have paid more attention to what her genius (yet thieving) daughter was up to.
Could it have something to do with the fact that CDs are incredibly overpriced?
Baloney. CDs are not overpriced. As luxury items go, CDs are about as cheap as they come. Compare to say, a pro sporting event, the movies, the theatre, the ballet, the circus, a nice meal out, or virtually anything else, and CDs are incredibly cheap. Perfectly-mastered digital music you can listen to over and over, for thousands of hours of entertainment, and when you get bored, you can still sell it and get back half your money. That's a frickin' steal!
Actually, considering how much file-sharing increases the number of people buying CDs and the number of CDs they buy
Uhm.... WHAT??? While that would certainly be a nice thing, if it were true, there doesn't exist a single shred of evidence to support your ridiculous claim. Actually, there's a pile of (admitedly empirical) evidence suggesting the exact opposite.
However, with the current trends in ticket prices and film quality, I find myself buying less and less tickets all the time.
I'll bet you still download them though, doncha, thief. They're not good enough to pay for, but hell, they're still good enough to steal, eh?
Hypocrite.
My single biggest gripe is that $12 is still too much to take a chance on.
Oh gimmie a frickin' break. People, CDs are CHEAP. Quit complaining. Geez.
First of all, I don't know where all this "preview" and "I don't wanna take a chance" BS comes from. At my local CD shops, there is a listening bar where anyone is welcome to walk up, hand the attendant a CD from the shelf, and they'll pop it in for you to listen to for as long as you like. I think that's called "previewing" the album. If you don't like it, they shrinkwrap it and it goes back on the rack.
Secondly, are you people cheapskates, or what? $12 is too much for a CD? You own it, and can listen to it over and over and over, for as long as you want, forever. And when you get bored of it, you can sell it! So you get thousands of hours of entertainment for a few bucks.
Let's compare that to any pro sports game. $80 for a 2 hour game. If it sucked, too bad, it's over, you can't see it again. Ditto for the opera or theatre. Museum feature exhibits, also somewhat pricey, and if you want to see it again, you have to pay again. Hell, even movie ticket prices around here are $15, and you only get to see the movie once. If it sucked, too bad - no refunds. How about a nice dinner out? You're looking at $20, minimum, and if it sucked, too bad.
Geez people, get some perspective. Thousands of hours of entertainment for $12, and when I get bored of it, I can sell it? That's a steal.
2. Just buy the CD for ~$20.00 and hope it doesn't suck.
I do the same thing with movies. Movie ticket prices here are $15. That's an awful lot to pay for a sucky movie. So I just sneak into the theatre without paying. If I like the movie enough, I might go back the next weekend and actually buy a ticket (yeah, right!)
In case anyone isn't clear, I'm being sarcastic. I don't buy this guy's excuse. All major music stores I've been to in my area allow you to preview the CD before you buy it. If you don't like it, they re-shrinkwrap it and put it back on the shelf.
If you buy it and change your mind, sell it! Quit your bitchin'. What do you do if you pay to see a movie you don't like? Demand a refund? How's that work out for you?
You don't own a radio?
Ever hear of a library?
Got any friends?
"This is not a victimless crime; people are really suffering from the impact of peer-to-peer downloading," Sherman said.
You find me one person, just one person who's lost their job because of a drop in CD sales. Am I supposed to feel sorry for J. Lo or P. Diddy or whatever the hell their names are this week? Why, because they might have to downsize to a 12,000 square foot mansion with only 2 hottubs instead of the 18,000 palace they're in now? Is that suffering???
I'm sorry, I don't condone stealing, but this is just offensive. You're talking to a guy who was laid off from Nortel in the same year his wife was laid off from JDS, which also happened to be within 2 months of this newlywed couple buying their first house. Trying to make a mortgage payment when your chosen industry is crumbing around you is suffering. Having to sell one of your Escalades is NOT suffering.
Seeing as this has nothing to do with copyright violation, the DMCA is completely inapplicable. There are no laws against cracking encryption that is unrelated to copyright violation, even in the US.
You'd have had better luck if you'd suggested the PATRIOT act as a means to silence him, but even that would be very dubious.
Governments don't need to crack the signal. They can already listen in on the unencrypted conversation at the base station, or even central office. Vendors of cell equipment are required by law to provide these back doors to government and law enforcement. If they didn't, then they simply couldn't sell their equipment. I know - I used to work in the cell phone billing division of Nortel.
I'm obviously being trolled, but lest someone actually take this guy seriously, of course I don't have any child porn. The last comment in my post above was blatant sarcasm. Well, blatant to anyone with average reading comprehension levels. As for how you made the leap from "Amateur photographer" to "child pornographer," not even I can explain that leap. Whatever. As a Slashdot troll, I'd give you an 'F', but you actually managed to provoke a response from me, so that's gotta be worth at least a 'C'.
Now may be the time to update your illegal mp3 file MD5 hash sums.
I sincerely hope this is tongue-in-cheek. For all the self-righteous, pompous sabre-rattling that goes on in here about how good Slashdotters only possess MP3's that are ripped from personal collections, I would certainly hope that we wouldn't stoop so low as to blatantly and openly be trading tips on how to avoid getting caught doing illegal things.
What's next? A HOWTO on setting up an encrypted file system for our child porn?
$15-20? Did the price on those ever come down? No.
The price hasn't gone up, either. And that was what, 15 years ago? What other product do you buy that hasn't increased in price at all over the last decade and a half? Ever hear of inflation? CDs are cheap.
He argues that both companies control distribution of products in their respective markets with an iron fist, and by so doing can artificially raise prices.
I'm sorry, but I call BS. CDs have been $15 as long as I can remember. Over the past 10 years, my phone bill has gone up, my cable bill has gone up, and my electric bill has gone up. Even my salary has gone up. But CD prices have remained remarkably static. $15 buys you a new CD. It did 10 years ago, and it does today.
Interesting, since in Ontario it was decriminilized
Small nitpick: it hasn't been decriminalized yet, and it's a federal law being considered, not something exclusive to Ontario. It will likely be passed once the house resumes this fall, or next spring at the latest.
Not really. It's more the alcoholic beverages industry as well as pharma and medical that want marijuana outlawed because it could potentially really cut into their profits.
You're wrong. It'd most likely be the same companies that would be growing and selling pot if it were legalized. Plus, MJ, tobacco, and alcohol are not necessarily exclusive activities - people who do one usually do the others, too.
And finally, most of the people who want to smoke pot are already doing it anyway (at least, up here in Canada). If it were legalized, there wouldn't be a rush of people ditching booze and picking up joints. You'd simply be taking money from the criminal underground and instead sending it to legitimate organizations. The tax revenue could be used to fund treatment and recovery centers, as well as public service campaigns, similar to the ones already in place for alcohol and tobacco.
I don't think you understand exactly what a "shockwave" is. A shockwave is not a typical wave, analogous to sound. It travels much, much faster than sound. Think in the range of 16,000 feet per second. Note that the matter expanding out from the explosion will be slowing exponentially as the sphere of gas/matter expands; not fast enough to carry a shockwave.
Thus, if there is no atmosphere already present, there is nothing for that shockwave to travel through. And as any explosives expert will tell you, it's the shockwave that does the majority of the damage, due to its sheer massive speed and destructive force.
The first Matrix movie shows us that the simulation is based on late pre-2nd millenium Earth. That means that simulation contained the knowledge that humans do not make good batteries
You're wrong. While the simulation (The Matrix) was pre-21st-century, the "Real World" (where the human batteries existed) was several hundred years later; i.e., in the future, from now.
Note that in the construct scene, Morpheus explains the battery system as using humans' metabolisms, "combined with a form of fusion." That line is the key, because since it is said in the future (from our perspective, here and now), it is in fact possible that by the time Morpheus and his team are warring with the machines (200 years from now), a new form of fusion could exist that, combined with living organisms, generates power from matter (similar to cold fusion).
While this is the most commonly cited "plot hole" (and indeed, the only thing even close to a whole in the entire movie), it is in fact quite easily explained, when you note that he leaves himself an out with the "combined with a form of fusion" line, and the fact that it is in the future, and thus, this "form of fusion" might presently be unknown to us.
There were no holes in either of the first two Matrix movies. You will realize this when, in the third movie, it is finally revealed that both the Matrix and the "Real World" are in fact, simulations. In "Revolutions," we will see the real "Real World," and thus any scientific inaaccuracies in the first two will be simply explained away as "that's what humans were led to believe inside the Matrix."
Actually, you could "hear" the explosion, when the shockwave gets to you
With no atmosphere, there is no shockwave. Sure, the debris from the explosion would eventually hit you, but no one would seriously try to call actual matter hitting you "sound."
I repeat: Explosions in space have no shockwaves. A nuke detonated 10 feet over the surface of the moon would amount to little more than a small dust cloud a few feet in diameter (if anything) when the remaining atoms slammed into the surface. It would be nothing compared to a similar detonation on Earth.
NASA asking the public for advice about planetary exploration is like, well, Nerds asking Slashdot for relationship advice.
Not even close. It's more like NBA forwards asking Slashdot for relationship advice.
Keeping in mind that life began on Earth an estimated 4 billion years ago, and also remembering that Mars has its own weather system (including wind, and thus, wind erosion), and that the resolution of the MGS maxes out at 1 pixel per 5 feet, such a search with this tool would be useless. If the theory you mention were in fact correct, the "source" crater would have long since been completely eroded away, and replaced by more recent ones, plus the resolution of the cameras can't even find the Pathfinder lander, and we know fairly precisely where to look for that thing. What chance would it have to find 4 billion year-old fossils under a mile of dust?
put it on a good old proven UNIX, solaris or something else that is used in the mission critical world.
Yeah, 'cause Linux could never be compromised in such a way.
If the network admins at gnu.org and this power plant had kept up to date with patches, then neither breach would have happened. EVERY OS has its vulnerabilities, and your network security is only as good as your Network Security Administrator. To blame the OS and prescribe a different one is an ignorant and short-sighted red-herring. The real problem is the attitude and the practices of the people in charge of the network.
Whatever happened to the classic style of problem-solving, whereby an actual proof was deduced, rather than simply employing brute-force to "count them all?" I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm glad that we finally have an answer to this pressing question (which I'm sure 95% of us had never heard of prior to reading this article), but does anyone else feel that these "brute-force" solutions are kind of cheating?