It seems to me that I recall from the few law courses I took that when an employee breaks a law during the faithful performance of his duties, his employer is equally culpable and thus open to criminal liability.
Now, whether he was going to be doing this in the faithful performance of his duties is a matter of some debate, but I can fully understand HP's nervousness in this matter.
A better (and more efficient if less symbolic) thing to do would be for Perens to convince HP to use their [considerable] legislative influence to get the DMCA modified. Companies lobbying against laws with which they disagree is a hallmark of the American corporate world.
It's all part of their evil plan, you see. They're going to issue "competitive" products, and then while the IBM and Linux worlds are bent double, laughing their asses off, they will come in and take over the world.
To the tune of "Don't Fear the Reaper" by the Blue Oyster Cult
All backups are done Here but now they're gone Servers don't fear the admin Nor do the disks, CAT-5 or LAN... we can be like they are Come on baby... don't fear the admin Baby take my resume... don't fear the admin We'll be able to work... don't fear the admin Baby I'm your geek...
Linux is gone Windows is on the run Network geeks and sysadmins Are so underappreciated... network geeks and sysadmins 40,000 men and women everyday... like network geeks and sysadmins 40,000 men and women everyday... recompiling kernels Another 40,000 coming everyday, we can be like they are Come on baby... don't fear the admin Baby take my resume... don't fear the admin We'll be able to work... don't fear the admin Baby I'm your geek...
Love the Net as one Sendmail is so fun [NOT!] Came the last night of budget And it was clear we couldn't work on Then the door was open and the jobs appeared The UPS blinked then disappeared The GUI flickered and then appeared... saying don't be afraid Come on geekoid... and she had no fear And she ran to it... then they started to code They looked backward and in passive mode... she had become like they are She sent her resume... she had become like they are Come on baby... don't fear the admin!
People are evacuating large buildings in droves in Los Angeles - Century City towers, downtown towers, all government buildings are closed to non-essential employees, and the Reagan Library is closed because no tourists were there and the two retired librarians wanted to go home.
People around here are all just evacuating to make themselves look important.
The ones that need to be challenged will be challenged, and the ones where nobody at the trademark holder cares enough to do so will not be challenged... this is not hard.
OTOH, I wonder if in a legal battle over trademark dilutions (not necessarily involving domains), would the fact that the trademark holder did not register $WHATEVER.biz and $WHATEVER.info be held against them?
Also, Mr. Andrews of the United Kingdom, I spit in the face of your alleged trademark of the word "the". THE THE THE THE THE. Nyah.
If they did this the "right way" as noted in earlier comments, I'd gain ownership of *.jonkatz and make a mint off of disgruntled Slashdotters...
First of all, let's just make clear that the scalability of this project will be a problem. Just because you make one little cloud disappear does not mean you get to take away hurricanes.
Next let's discuss the climate issues. Water is recycled on this planet. Any fourth grader can tell you about the rain cycle. Start mucking about with chemicals trying to absorb water and you will eventually muck about with the world's water. A better solution would be for people not to live in places very prone to hurricanes, or for people to adapt dwellings, etc. to withstand them.
Third, let's talk about the physical uselessness of this project. Hurricanes are extreme low-pressure areas. Anyone who's taken high school physics can tell you that the natural movement of anything (atoms, etc.) is from an area of high-pressure to an area of low-pressure (this is why champagne corks pop and why they tell you not to puncture aerosol cans). You may be able to withdraw the moisture from the atmosphere (see the second point above), but that will not necessarily remove the area of low-pressure. Water (in the form of clouds) will continue to gravitate toward the low-pressure, thus patching up all the "holes" that this ridiculous powder would be creating.
Fourth, the price of sporting events is high enough already without having to pay for cloud dispersal services.
Fifth, we already have something that absorbs water and moisture. It's called silica gel, it's horrendously poisonous, and it comes in packets in every box of electronics shipped on this planet.
Ya know, where I come from, "commingling" is what you do with various parts of a recycling system (tin, steel, aluminium, etc.) before putting it out with the trash to be collected.
It will start a whole new branch of numerology dedicated to finding entire new holy books... the Book of the Damned, I Microsoft, II Microsoft, the letter of BOFH to the Great Unwashed, and, of course, the source code to Office (which will take up the space between 2^8 and 2^40906)...
You won't have to worry about it if you're an Adelphia customer... if they find you using KaZaa, they'll cut you off anyway and you won't have to worry about pop-up ads.
...but I *do* get to deal with this on a more-or-less daily basis these days.
According to the lawyer types I work with, it's more or less the same as if a fax went through to the wrong number. They are prohibited from disclosing the information if there is a legal blurb on the bottom of the page or wherever that says so.
I never thought I'd see the day when I'd welcome more legalese on documents... but any sensitive documents should really have that blurb, quoted (well, mostly) here:
The information contained in this document is proprietary and confidential and may not be transmitted to others in any form without the express written consent of $COMPANY. If you have received this document in error, please call $NAME at $PHONE and promptly destroy all copies.
In the case of financial documents, which is what I concern myself with, the use of them for gain is tantamount to insider trading and is a Bad Thing for He Who Gets Caught.
Are you sure he's been in jail for two weeks? I'm a little confused on that point.
To paraphrase Scott Adams, you've had a BLINDING FLASH OF THE OBVIOUS!
I don't know how to tell you this... but maybe if I shout way up into your ivory tower...the popular media aren't going to go running to Vegas and San Jose because this isn't the kind of news story that Joe AOL cares about.
Now quit ranting, strap your soapbox to your back, and go do something about it instead of ranting impotently. You're preaching to the choir here.
I don't know about Arizona, though I doubt it, but I know California was doing touch-screen voting at the registrar of voters' offices and some other random places (Riverside, Beverly Hills, etc.). Certainly not Internet voting.
Besides, don't you think you would have read about Internet voting in the U.S. on/.?
I know California did electronic (i.e., touchscreen) voting in several voting districts last year, but I'm fairly sure it was a closed-source project.
The only problem is... I do support. User support. Luser support, in fact. I have users who can't double-click because their reflexes, numbed by years of sitting in front of the television eating Sara Lee cheesecake, have slowed down to the point where inertia takes all their strength to overcome. These users are NOT computer literate. Yet they're supposed to be able to figure it out? Florida elections will become the low bar for new heights of stupidity.
Wait, let me be original! I'll make a joke about using apt-get during the vote!
In the Caesar cipher, every message is encoded simply by changing each letter of the original cleartext into the third letter after it in the alphabet. So, an A becomes a D, B becomes an E and so on. The word "security" becomes "vhfxulwb." Now, as soon as you know the algorithm you can reverse it, right? Just replace every letter with the letter of the alphabet that precedes it by 3. This is clearly a really weak system once you know the algorithm. The security of the system was only in the secrecy, or obscurity, of the algorithm.
You'd better watch out... the FBI might get you for violations of the DMCA there...
Now back on-topic... obviously there's no excuse for obscurity as the sole method of security, at least not for any sysadmin worthy of the title... but I would argue that security-by-obscurity is kind of a waste of time. Ideally, I'd want all my webservers, etc. to be just as impregnable at port 80 as on port 8000, so why bother hiding it?
No thanks. The energy crisis in California is bad enough without adding more stress to the lines.
OTOH, if it were set up so I could zap the living shinola out of those stupid 1337 5kR1p7 k1dd135 every time they do something, I'd pay through the nose and just go around taking out my stress on 13-year-olds.
Does this mean he's going to back in time and lobotomise Bill Gates? Zaphod B
Not just for illumination...
on
LED Flashlights
·
· Score: 3
I have several "photon lights" (which are just bright LED lights), but I don't use them for illumination as for dancing, particularly in rave clubs, which I would suspect is the most common current use for these things.
The blue is by far the brightest. The red is OK, but the white is disappointingly dim. Now if they could just have a purple one that didn't explode on first touch of current... it would be hopelessly dim but quite pretty:)
Hmm... at mouth of large waterway... destroyed by earthquake... hidden for millenia under water... statues of large people wearing women's clothing... maybe it's time to rethink that move to San Francisco.
I'll ignore the obvious troll here and just go for what little you actually said.
Why is it so bad that Joe AOL uses a computer? Just because you're able to write your own OS entirely in Motorola 68K does not mean that that should be the minimum knowledge (notice the word choice, since intelligence implies the ability to learn).
I can think of a hundred reasons off the top of my head as to why Joe AOL should be using a computer. I realise that you're not quite old enough to have experienced this yourself, but find someone who was working in offices before the PC revolution. Ask him or her to describe the productivity level. Now look at today's office, which (though far from the 'paperless office' trumpeted at us 7 to 10 years ago) are immeasurably more efficient and productive. Look at enterprises with more than one office, especially if they're spread out.
Joe AOL, or, if you like, Joe BusinessExec, does not care how computers work or what platform they run on, nor should he care. Joe BusinessExec's job is not to know computers inside and out, and Joe BusinessExec's job (trust me on this) takes up too much of his time already without having to worry about it.
I'm incredibly tired of hearing people whine about the intelligence level of users who use Windows, and I'm sick and tired of hearing how Joe BusinessExec should embrace being able to modify his own source code.
That, my friend, is why there are IT professionals. If you don't want people to use Microsoft, then get a job where you have influence over such things and then change it, damn it.
As for your aircraft carrier analogy, well, if aircraft carriers made the lives of the typical person so much easier that they would ever be in popular demand (ignoring the obvious defects of having millions of aircraft carriers anchored in navigable waters), then you would have two choices: (1) Have someone who knew the aircraft carrier inside-and-out attached to EVERY SINGLE AIRCRAFT CARRIER owner as an employee, or (2) dumb down the aircraft carrier. Which would be better? Probably 1, though it's improbable that that would ever happen. This leaves (2).
You want people to stop using MS products? Go start finding users and training them on other products. I mean it. Now! I'll be too busy doing the same to kill myself.
Slashdot Mirror
Gosh, I wonder what else lonely geeks will be developing robots for!
It seems to me that I recall from the few law courses I took that when an employee breaks a law during the faithful performance of his duties, his employer is equally culpable and thus open to criminal liability.
Now, whether he was going to be doing this in the faithful performance of his duties is a matter of some debate, but I can fully understand HP's nervousness in this matter.
A better (and more efficient if less symbolic) thing to do would be for Perens to convince HP to use their [considerable] legislative influence to get the DMCA modified. Companies lobbying against laws with which they disagree is a hallmark of the American corporate world.
It's all part of their evil plan, you see. They're going to issue "competitive" products, and then while the IBM and Linux worlds are bent double, laughing their asses off, they will come in and take over the world.
Wait, hasn't that already happened?
To the tune of "Don't Fear the Reaper" by the Blue Oyster Cult
All backups are done
Here but now they're gone
Servers don't fear the admin
Nor do the disks, CAT-5 or LAN... we can be like they are
Come on baby... don't fear the admin
Baby take my resume... don't fear the admin
We'll be able to work... don't fear the admin
Baby I'm your geek...
Linux is gone
Windows is on the run
Network geeks and sysadmins
Are so underappreciated... network geeks and sysadmins
40,000 men and women everyday... like network geeks and sysadmins
40,000 men and women everyday... recompiling kernels
Another 40,000 coming everyday, we can be like they are
Come on baby... don't fear the admin
Baby take my resume... don't fear the admin
We'll be able to work... don't fear the admin
Baby I'm your geek...
Love the Net as one
Sendmail is so fun [NOT!]
Came the last night of budget
And it was clear we couldn't work on
Then the door was open and the jobs appeared
The UPS blinked then disappeared
The GUI flickered and then appeared... saying don't be afraid
Come on geekoid... and she had no fear
And she ran to it... then they started to code
They looked backward and in passive mode... she had become like they are
She sent her resume... she had become like they are
Come on baby... don't fear the admin!
Hey, someone call the FBI, he's distributing modified hardware and violating the DMCA!
You mean Microsoft finally figured out that NFS was the way to go? Oh wait, we can't call it NFS... A,B,C,D..N,O! We'll call it OFS!
*snort*
This is just because people finally figured out their so-secret NTFS.
People are evacuating large buildings in droves in Los Angeles - Century City towers, downtown towers, all government buildings are closed to non-essential employees, and the Reagan Library is closed because no tourists were there and the two retired librarians wanted to go home.
People around here are all just evacuating to make themselves look important.
The ones that need to be challenged will be challenged, and the ones where nobody at the trademark holder cares enough to do so will not be challenged... this is not hard.
OTOH, I wonder if in a legal battle over trademark dilutions (not necessarily involving domains), would the fact that the trademark holder did not register $WHATEVER.biz and $WHATEVER.info be held against them?
Also, Mr. Andrews of the United Kingdom, I spit in the face of your alleged trademark of the word "the". THE THE THE THE THE. Nyah.
If they did this the "right way" as noted in earlier comments, I'd gain ownership of *.jonkatz and make a mint off of disgruntled Slashdotters...
... I usually prefer pepperoni or sausage on my pizza, not wires... but to each [his|her] own, I suppose. They eat some weird things in Malaysia...
Zaphod B
First of all, let's just make clear that the scalability of this project will be a problem. Just because you make one little cloud disappear does not mean you get to take away hurricanes.
Next let's discuss the climate issues. Water is recycled on this planet. Any fourth grader can tell you about the rain cycle. Start mucking about with chemicals trying to absorb water and you will eventually muck about with the world's water. A better solution would be for people not to live in places very prone to hurricanes, or for people to adapt dwellings, etc. to withstand them.
Third, let's talk about the physical uselessness of this project. Hurricanes are extreme low-pressure areas. Anyone who's taken high school physics can tell you that the natural movement of anything (atoms, etc.) is from an area of high-pressure to an area of low-pressure (this is why champagne corks pop and why they tell you not to puncture aerosol cans). You may be able to withdraw the moisture from the atmosphere (see the second point above), but that will not necessarily remove the area of low-pressure. Water (in the form of clouds) will continue to gravitate toward the low-pressure, thus patching up all the "holes" that this ridiculous powder would be creating.
Fourth, the price of sporting events is high enough already without having to pay for cloud dispersal services.
Fifth, we already have something that absorbs water and moisture. It's called silica gel, it's horrendously poisonous, and it comes in packets in every box of electronics shipped on this planet.
Zaphod B
Ya know, where I come from, "commingling" is what you do with various parts of a recycling system (tin, steel, aluminium, etc.) before putting it out with the trash to be collected.
Now that I think about it...
Zaphod B
It will start a whole new branch of numerology dedicated to finding entire new holy books... the Book of the Damned, I Microsoft, II Microsoft, the letter of BOFH to the Great Unwashed, and, of course, the source code to Office (which will take up the space between 2^8 and 2^40906) ...
Zaphod B
Except that on the Internet Text page, they have a link to "download TopText".
Would not a Limburger by any other name smell as stank?
Zaphod B
You won't have to worry about it if you're an Adelphia customer... if they find you using KaZaa, they'll cut you off anyway and you won't have to worry about pop-up ads.
Zaphod B
...but I *do* get to deal with this on a more-or-less daily basis these days.
According to the lawyer types I work with, it's more or less the same as if a fax went through to the wrong number. They are prohibited from disclosing the information if there is a legal blurb on the bottom of the page or wherever that says so.
I never thought I'd see the day when I'd welcome more legalese on documents... but any sensitive documents should really have that blurb, quoted (well, mostly) here:
In the case of financial documents, which is what I concern myself with, the use of them for gain is tantamount to insider trading and is a Bad Thing for He Who Gets Caught.
Zaphod B
Um. Last I checked, Dmitri Sklyarov wasn't a citizen of the United States, unless he managed to marry Mama Louise in the Big House...
Zaphod B
Are you sure he's been in jail for two weeks? I'm a little confused on that point.
To paraphrase Scott Adams, you've had a BLINDING FLASH OF THE OBVIOUS!
I don't know how to tell you this... but maybe if I shout way up into your ivory tower...the popular media aren't going to go running to Vegas and San Jose because this isn't the kind of news story that Joe AOL cares about.
Now quit ranting, strap your soapbox to your back, and go do something about it instead of ranting impotently. You're preaching to the choir here.
Zaphod B
I don't know about Arizona, though I doubt it, but I know California was doing touch-screen voting at the registrar of voters' offices and some other random places (Riverside, Beverly Hills, etc.). Certainly not Internet voting.
Besides, don't you think you would have read about Internet voting in the U.S. on /.?
Zaphod B
I know California did electronic (i.e., touchscreen) voting in several voting districts last year, but I'm fairly sure it was a closed-source project.
The only problem is... I do support. User support. Luser support, in fact. I have users who can't double-click because their reflexes, numbed by years of sitting in front of the television eating Sara Lee cheesecake, have slowed down to the point where inertia takes all their strength to overcome. These users are NOT computer literate. Yet they're supposed to be able to figure it out? Florida elections will become the low bar for new heights of stupidity.
Wait, let me be original! I'll make a joke about using apt-get during the vote!
Zaphod B
You'd better watch out... the FBI might get you for violations of the DMCA there...
Now back on-topic... obviously there's no excuse for obscurity as the sole method of security, at least not for any sysadmin worthy of the title... but I would argue that security-by-obscurity is kind of a waste of time. Ideally, I'd want all my webservers, etc. to be just as impregnable at port 80 as on port 8000, so why bother hiding it?
Zaphod B
No thanks. The energy crisis in California is bad enough without adding more stress to the lines.
OTOH, if it were set up so I could zap the living shinola out of those stupid 1337 5kR1p7 k1dd135 every time they do something, I'd pay through the nose and just go around taking out my stress on 13-year-olds.
I wonder if e-Lectrocute.com is taken yet...
Zaphod B
Does this mean he's going to back in time and lobotomise Bill Gates?
Zaphod B
I have several "photon lights" (which are just bright LED lights), but I don't use them for illumination as for dancing, particularly in rave clubs, which I would suspect is the most common current use for these things.
The blue is by far the brightest. The red is OK, but the white is disappointingly dim. Now if they could just have a purple one that didn't explode on first touch of current... it would be hopelessly dim but quite pretty :)
Zaphod B
Hmm... at mouth of large waterway... destroyed by earthquake... hidden for millenia under water... statues of large people wearing women's clothing... maybe it's time to rethink that move to San Francisco.
Zaphod B
I'll ignore the obvious troll here and just go for what little you actually said.
Why is it so bad that Joe AOL uses a computer? Just because you're able to write your own OS entirely in Motorola 68K does not mean that that should be the minimum knowledge (notice the word choice, since intelligence implies the ability to learn).
I can think of a hundred reasons off the top of my head as to why Joe AOL should be using a computer. I realise that you're not quite old enough to have experienced this yourself, but find someone who was working in offices before the PC revolution. Ask him or her to describe the productivity level. Now look at today's office, which (though far from the 'paperless office' trumpeted at us 7 to 10 years ago) are immeasurably more efficient and productive. Look at enterprises with more than one office, especially if they're spread out.
Joe AOL, or, if you like, Joe BusinessExec, does not care how computers work or what platform they run on, nor should he care. Joe BusinessExec's job is not to know computers inside and out, and Joe BusinessExec's job (trust me on this) takes up too much of his time already without having to worry about it.
I'm incredibly tired of hearing people whine about the intelligence level of users who use Windows, and I'm sick and tired of hearing how Joe BusinessExec should embrace being able to modify his own source code.
That, my friend, is why there are IT professionals. If you don't want people to use Microsoft, then get a job where you have influence over such things and then change it, damn it.
As for your aircraft carrier analogy, well, if aircraft carriers made the lives of the typical person so much easier that they would ever be in popular demand (ignoring the obvious defects of having millions of aircraft carriers anchored in navigable waters), then you would have two choices: (1) Have someone who knew the aircraft carrier inside-and-out attached to EVERY SINGLE AIRCRAFT CARRIER owner as an employee, or (2) dumb down the aircraft carrier. Which would be better? Probably 1, though it's improbable that that would ever happen. This leaves (2).
You want people to stop using MS products? Go start finding users and training them on other products. I mean it. Now! I'll be too busy doing the same to kill myself.
Zaphod B