Sure, there are trolls on slashdot. However, I keep my filter set to about 4, so the only time I see a troll is when someone has an awesomely crafted response to said troll.
Moderation may well be the worst method of troll suppression...except for all the other methods that have been tried from time to time.
I mean I completely agree, that if you remove the anonymity you'll remove a lot of the asshole factor online. People are much bigger pricks when they don't think it can come back to bite them. So it would remove a lot of that.
Yes, the posters would stop being as big of an asshole. But it's not the posters I would be worried about.
Now, the lurkers...you don't have their name, you don't even know they exist, but they know your name and after a quick google search they probably know where you live, too...
Protecting the forum at the expense of the posters will result in the forum dying.
Do you mean the Bluetooth USB modules used to add Bluetooth support to a PC that doesn't have it? Unfortunately, an embedded system doesn't have a desktop-class processor to run the Bluetooth stack.
Oh, and those el-cheap-o Bluetooth modules you're suggesting are probably very out-dated, which is why they're so cheap. That $3 module probably cost more when it was less than a year old and they weren't trying to dump the inventory that they can't sell at a higher price...
Mind you, this is a Class 1 (i.e. long range) transmitter, using BT 2.0 and not BT 2.1. Compare this to a standard RF transmitter and receiver, which is a couple bucks per chip...
Please take your "every instant there's a new crack" straw man back, because I was never arguing that they did. It's one thing to say Nintendo shouldn't pay their engineers to ensure compatibility with homebrew. It's a whole different thing to say Nintendo should pay their engineers to actively sabotage the things that *I* installed on *MY* Wii. I am arguing that they should leave homebrew alone because they should pay their engineers to ADD features to the Wii instead of wasting their time trying to stop the unstoppable.
I never implied any sense of immediacy regarding when Nintendo is pushing updates in relation to exploits. However, whenever they do release an update, it *actively* searches for known hacks to remove them. And quite often, it fails to plug the hole. They failed to plug the Twilight Hack multiple times. They failed to plug BannerBomb multiple times until this most recent update. I call that "repeatedly failing".
It's amusing to see you argue the Wii is "not a media center" when Nintendo has released a Netflix disc (not a System Update, just a disc). Face the facts, the hackers have done more to empower the Wii than Nintendo's own engineers. And that's just sad.
When you bought your Wii, you were actually buying a license to use Nintendo's hardware. You agreed to this license when you first powered the device on.
Chapter II: Unauthorized Software, Services, or Devices or Unlicensed Accessories
Your Wii Console and the Wii Network Service are not designed for use with unauthorized software, services, or devices or non-licensed accessories, and you may not use any of these with your Wii Console or the Wii Network Service. Such use may be illegal, voids any warranty, and is a breach of this agreement. Such use may also lead to injury to you or others or cause performance issues or damage to your Wii Console or the Wii Network Service. We (and our licensees and distributors) are not responsible for damage or loss caused by unauthorized software, services or devices or non-licensed accessories. We may take steps to disable or delete any unauthorized software, services or device installed in your Wii Console, for example, by detecting and disabling them through the Wii Network Service and/or game software. If we detect unauthorized software, services, or devices, your access to the Wii Network Service may be disabled and/or the Wii Console or games may be unplayable.
Chapter III: Updates/Changes
You understand that the Wii Console specifications and the Wii Network Service are constantly evolving and that we may update or change your Wii Console or the Wii Network Service in whole or in part, without notice to you. Such updates may be required for you to play new Wii games or continue to access the Wii Network Service. We may also upgrade, change, or terminate the Content or game software or may discontinue offering Products without notice to you.
1) You don't lose access to the shopping channel. You can still download and install all the updates *except* the System Menu.
2) Future first party titles? Homebrew game launching apps will check for a missing IOS and install it for you, without the System Menu update.
3) New functionality? Please explain to me what "new functionality" Nintendo has added to the Wii. The SD Card shortcut menu? Rearranging the order of channels on the System Menu? Updates to the Shop Channel?
None of that is compelling, especially compared to streaming media over WiFi and USB, playing DVDs, running apps that can apply patches on-the-fly so that you can add your own textures to the game...
Defending the System Menu updates by pointing to "new functionality" is like defending textbook companies that make minor revisions and then sell a whole new edition to colleges. It's a blatant farce.
People will always pirate things. Hackers will always break protection schemes. Their numbers are miniscule when compared to the full customer base. System Menu 4.3 is not going to change any of this. It will fail to stop pirates and hackers. The "sold at a loss" is a red herring anyway, because by the time they are plugging security holes, many consoles have *already* been sold at a loss...and the Wii isn't sold at a loss anyway.
It really emphasizes Nintendo's priorities. On the one hand, they could pay their engineers to develop new and compelling features for the Wii so that they can entice those who might actually become paying customers. On the other hand...they can pay their engineers to repeatedly fail at stopping the pirates (who were weren't, aren't, and never will be paying customers) and hackers (most of whom actually are paying customers).
You know what's the saddest part, though? The homebrew community has actually expanded the capabilities of the Wii more since its release than Nintendo has. It can now play streaming media over WiFi and USB, and it can play DVDs (something Nintendo claimed the Wii could never do!). What has Nintendo invested their time and money into? A shortcut to the SD card menu, the ability to rearrange the order of channels on the System Menu, and updates to the built-in channels like the Wii Shop channel. And multiple failed attempts to stop homebrew.
I agree wholeheartedly on having a major problem with the 160 character limitation, because I can think of several sentences that require more than 160 characters in order to construct a coherent statement...like this sentence right here.
I just recently saw an apartment that I was going to rent. But the windows were storm windows - no primary window at all. Talk about poor insulation! And this is in the US, too.
Did you read the same article I read? It is not unbiased (most of Glenn Greenwald's work is slightly biased, quite often with a pinch of venomous rhetoric, usually towards those who deserve it)
Greenwald believes Manning is probably a heroic whistle blower, not a criminal.
The reason this story matters so much -- aside from the fact that it may be the case that a truly heroic, 22-year-old whistle-blower is facing an extremely lengthy prison term
He also believes Lamo was doing it for the attention.
Making Lamo's conduct even worse is that it appears he reported Manning for no reason other than a desire for some trivial media attention. Jacob Appelbaum, a well-known hacker of the Tor Project who has known Lamo for years, said that Lamo's "only concern" has always been "getting publicity for Adrian." Indeed, Lamo's modus operandi as a hacker was primitive hacking aimed at high-profile companies that he'd then use Poulsen to publicize. As Appelbaum put it: "if this situation really fell into Adrian's lap, his first and only thought would have been: how can I turn this to my advantage? He basically destroyed a 22-year-old's life in order to get his name mentioned on the Wired.com blog."
I don't know if they'd quickly arrest him. What if he had some arrangement by which the cables are released to the public if he is taken into custody? It's quite possible they would arrest him, because once in custody it's still pretty stupid to have your people release something, but it's possible. If they're that concerned about those cables getting out, there's a good chance they would think twice.
This has nothing to do with ICS. If a client is connected to the AP, then sooner or later it is sending signals to and receiving signals from the AP. Anyone within range will be able to see these signals regardless of whether the AP broadcasts its SSID.
Imagine an invisible friend. Nobody can see them but you. If you aren't around, then no one has any way of knowing that your invisible friend is around. However, if someone sees you talking to your invisible friend, they will be able to infer the existence of the alternate party, even if they cannot see them.
Here's a youtube vid of someone not only discovering an AP with a hidden SSID, but also unhiding the SSID by de-authing a connected client.
Point in fact, you do not have to even broadcast your SSID! It can be kept hidden, so that only you and people you inform of can even find it.
Actually, it's pretty easy to find a "hidden" SSID. While the AP does not advertise its existence, any connected clients will reveal traffic going to and coming from "somewhere". Also, when a client initially connects to the AP, it will reveal the hidden SSID.
What do you do when you go up to an ATM? There's a security camera taking pictures of you.
What about if you're walking past someone who is at the ATM and it takes a picture of you?
I'm not saying that you should want your picture taken in public. But I am saying that it isn't illegal. I'm sure there are lots of celebrities who wish it was.
If you're in a public park, you have no expectation of privacy. If you talk about MP3s and a 3rd party hears it, that is your fault for not taking measures to ensure your privacy, like talking in your own house.
Your ISP is providing a service to you. Just like a phone provider, they are not allowed to just randomly walk in on your transmission. Landlords are also not allowed to just walk right in on you whenever they want (excluding exigent circumstances), even though they own the place.
What really gets me, though, is the completely ludicrous idea that anything on facebook could ever be private. Are you just trolling?
I really, really wish that someone would finally answer this question for me. If you are standing in front of your living room window with the blinds open, and I drive past on a public street with a camcorder which briefly captures your image, is that a privacy violation?
There's a whole dialect of English involving oil well problems, with "blow outs" and "kicks", etc, so this is not unexpected. There is a process for testing wells, involving negative and positive pressure tests, which will alert the oil rig engineers as to the impending danger. As others have stated, there are ways to stop a blow out - several, actually - but BP was cutting corners, ignoring broken fail-safes and disregarding bad test results.
It is possible to do offshore drilling safely. However, if you do it unsafely, it is almost impossible to fix. That is why we need effective regulation; private business is incapable of looking out for the public welfare, because by definition private business is seeking to extract as much wealth from the public as it can bear.
I'll never understand arm-chair petroleum engineers. How easy do you think it is to drive a multi-ton robotic submersible a mile underwater using cameras that don't provide good depth perception to plug a hole spewing oil with a pressure exceeding 5,000 PSI? It can take days just to get the necessary materials down to that depth, let alone the many hours it takes to painstakingly navigate the machinery into place, and that's assuming you don't get too close to the ocean floor because the thrusters will stir up the mud and then you'll have to wait for it to settle so that you can see what you're doing...
Last I checked, Obama doesn't have an engineering degree, and most of the people who do have experience with this kind of thing aren't employed by the Federal government. So I don't understand this desire for a nanny-state government that takes care of everything. If you have a stroke, do you want some Federal bureaucrat doing the brain surgery, or would you rather have a qualified and skilled doctor who has spent his whole life doing brain surgery?
That's not to say that the Feds should just ignore the problem. But there's little more that they can do aside from telling the doctor that he has to perform the surgery. The Feds could buy the equipment to help out, but everyone is so insistent on BP footing the bill. So tell me, exactly what do you expect Obama to do? Wiggle his nose like he's some Genie?
I dunno...maybe if it was aircrack or even wireshark, I would be worried, but I don't see the big deal about Kismet. After all, they were looking for SSIDs/MACs.
I still don't see the big deal about this. If someone photographed you standing in front of your living room window, would you scream "invasion of privacy!!!!!!111eleven" or would you just close the blinds?
Even better analogy...if someone aimed a camcorder out of their window and drove past while aiming it around and saw you for a couple of seconds through your window, would you scream "invasion of privacy"?
Probably the same way I was given my speeding ticket, long after radar guns were invented. Have you ever seen two lines painted across the road, separated by some distance of maybe a few hundred feet? The officer is parked off to the side of the road, and uses a stopwatch to measure how long it takes you to pass between the two lines. If you look at the ticket, it will list the distance and speed.
CEOs "earning" their paycheck. Some of them do, but I'm willing to bet that a lot don't earn their paycheck, or have severely distorted definitions for the word "earn".
Anti-counterfeiting and anti-assassination are good, yeah. Killing Remote Wipe helps more than just the Secret Service, though. Just because we trust the Secret Service does not mean that other three-letter agencies are trustworthy.
The SS thing is a red herring. So what, they're one small part of the government. They only have a two-letter acronym!
What about the FBI? NSA? CIA? Trust the SS all you want. The other three-letter agencies? I don't trust them, and it's their own fault. Had they not repeatedly abused the public trust for the past several decades, I might feel differently.
Okay, so I was off by one order of magnitude. There's still at least six more orders to go before you get enough energy per photon to ionize a DNA bond.
And the Sun does not care about our rights or dignity. It has been bombarding us with all kinds of radiation, including mm-wavelength, for billions of years. Our atmosphere does not stop all of it. Life has evolved under selective pressures that account for exposure to this kind of low-energy radiation.
As well, there are other posters who pointed out that flying at that altitude for a few hours results in more radiation exposure than the scanner would give you.
Slashdot Mirror
Do not let perfect be the enemy of good.
Sure, there are trolls on slashdot. However, I keep my filter set to about 4, so the only time I see a troll is when someone has an awesomely crafted response to said troll.
Moderation may well be the worst method of troll suppression...except for all the other methods that have been tried from time to time.
I mean I completely agree, that if you remove the anonymity you'll remove a lot of the asshole factor online. People are much bigger pricks when they don't think it can come back to bite them. So it would remove a lot of that.
Yes, the posters would stop being as big of an asshole. But it's not the posters I would be worried about.
Now, the lurkers...you don't have their name, you don't even know they exist, but they know your name and after a quick google search they probably know where you live, too...
Protecting the forum at the expense of the posters will result in the forum dying.
Do you mean the Bluetooth USB modules used to add Bluetooth support to a PC that doesn't have it? Unfortunately, an embedded system doesn't have a desktop-class processor to run the Bluetooth stack.
Oh, and those el-cheap-o Bluetooth modules you're suggesting are probably very out-dated, which is why they're so cheap. That $3 module probably cost more when it was less than a year old and they weren't trying to dump the inventory that they can't sell at a higher price...
Whereas your average Arduino board is about $20-30 or so, an Arduino board with Bluetooth costs about $150.
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/tutorial_info.php?tutorials_id=148
Yes, Bluetooth is that expensive. The ArduinoBT board uses an off-the-shelf BlueGiga WT11. Newark sells those for about $60.
http://www.newark.com/bluegiga/wt11-a-ai/class-1-bluetooth-2-0-edr-module/dp/15P4005
Mind you, this is a Class 1 (i.e. long range) transmitter, using BT 2.0 and not BT 2.1. Compare this to a standard RF transmitter and receiver, which is a couple bucks per chip...
...then why is it that this is the first time so many people are experiencing this problem?
Please take your "every instant there's a new crack" straw man back, because I was never arguing that they did. It's one thing to say Nintendo shouldn't pay their engineers to ensure compatibility with homebrew. It's a whole different thing to say Nintendo should pay their engineers to actively sabotage the things that *I* installed on *MY* Wii. I am arguing that they should leave homebrew alone because they should pay their engineers to ADD features to the Wii instead of wasting their time trying to stop the unstoppable.
I never implied any sense of immediacy regarding when Nintendo is pushing updates in relation to exploits. However, whenever they do release an update, it *actively* searches for known hacks to remove them. And quite often, it fails to plug the hole. They failed to plug the Twilight Hack multiple times. They failed to plug BannerBomb multiple times until this most recent update. I call that "repeatedly failing".
It's amusing to see you argue the Wii is "not a media center" when Nintendo has released a Netflix disc (not a System Update, just a disc). Face the facts, the hackers have done more to empower the Wii than Nintendo's own engineers. And that's just sad.
When you bought your Wii, you were actually buying a license to use Nintendo's hardware. You agreed to this license when you first powered the device on.
From the EULA
Chapter II: Unauthorized Software, Services, or Devices or Unlicensed Accessories
Your Wii Console and the Wii Network Service are not designed for use with unauthorized software, services, or devices or non-licensed accessories, and you may not use any of these with your Wii Console or the Wii Network Service. Such use may be illegal, voids any warranty, and is a breach of this agreement. Such use may also lead to injury to you or others or cause performance issues or damage to your Wii Console or the Wii Network Service. We (and our licensees and distributors) are not responsible for damage or loss caused by unauthorized software, services or devices or non-licensed accessories. We may take steps to disable or delete any unauthorized software, services or device installed in your Wii Console, for example, by detecting and disabling them through the Wii Network Service and/or game software. If we detect unauthorized software, services, or devices, your access to the Wii Network Service may be disabled and/or the Wii Console or games may be unplayable.
Chapter III: Updates/Changes
You understand that the Wii Console specifications and the Wii Network Service are constantly evolving and that we may update or change your Wii Console or the Wii Network Service in whole or in part, without notice to you. Such updates may be required for you to play new Wii games or continue to access the Wii Network Service. We may also upgrade, change, or terminate the Content or game software or may discontinue offering Products without notice to you.
1) You don't lose access to the shopping channel. You can still download and install all the updates *except* the System Menu.
2) Future first party titles? Homebrew game launching apps will check for a missing IOS and install it for you, without the System Menu update.
3) New functionality? Please explain to me what "new functionality" Nintendo has added to the Wii. The SD Card shortcut menu? Rearranging the order of channels on the System Menu? Updates to the Shop Channel?
None of that is compelling, especially compared to streaming media over WiFi and USB, playing DVDs, running apps that can apply patches on-the-fly so that you can add your own textures to the game...
Defending the System Menu updates by pointing to "new functionality" is like defending textbook companies that make minor revisions and then sell a whole new edition to colleges. It's a blatant farce.
People will always pirate things. Hackers will always break protection schemes. Their numbers are miniscule when compared to the full customer base. System Menu 4.3 is not going to change any of this. It will fail to stop pirates and hackers. The "sold at a loss" is a red herring anyway, because by the time they are plugging security holes, many consoles have *already* been sold at a loss...and the Wii isn't sold at a loss anyway.
It really emphasizes Nintendo's priorities. On the one hand, they could pay their engineers to develop new and compelling features for the Wii so that they can entice those who might actually become paying customers. On the other hand...they can pay their engineers to repeatedly fail at stopping the pirates (who were weren't, aren't, and never will be paying customers) and hackers (most of whom actually are paying customers).
You know what's the saddest part, though? The homebrew community has actually expanded the capabilities of the Wii more since its release than Nintendo has. It can now play streaming media over WiFi and USB, and it can play DVDs (something Nintendo claimed the Wii could never do!). What has Nintendo invested their time and money into? A shortcut to the SD card menu, the ability to rearrange the order of channels on the System Menu, and updates to the built-in channels like the Wii Shop channel. And multiple failed attempts to stop homebrew.
I agree wholeheartedly on having a major problem with the 160 character limitation, because I can think of several sentences that require more than 160 characters in order to construct a coherent statement...like this sentence right here.
I just recently saw an apartment that I was going to rent. But the windows were storm windows - no primary window at all. Talk about poor insulation! And this is in the US, too.
Did you read the same article I read? It is not unbiased (most of Glenn Greenwald's work is slightly biased, quite often with a pinch of venomous rhetoric, usually towards those who deserve it)
Greenwald believes Manning is probably a heroic whistle blower, not a criminal.
The reason this story matters so much -- aside from the fact that it may be the case that a truly heroic, 22-year-old whistle-blower is facing an extremely lengthy prison term
He also believes Lamo was doing it for the attention.
Making Lamo's conduct even worse is that it appears he reported Manning for no reason other than a desire for some trivial media attention. Jacob Appelbaum, a well-known hacker of the Tor Project who has known Lamo for years, said that Lamo's "only concern" has always been "getting publicity for Adrian." Indeed, Lamo's modus operandi as a hacker was primitive hacking aimed at high-profile companies that he'd then use Poulsen to publicize. As Appelbaum put it: "if this situation really fell into Adrian's lap, his first and only thought would have been: how can I turn this to my advantage? He basically destroyed a 22-year-old's life in order to get his name mentioned on the Wired.com blog."
I don't know if they'd quickly arrest him. What if he had some arrangement by which the cables are released to the public if he is taken into custody? It's quite possible they would arrest him, because once in custody it's still pretty stupid to have your people release something, but it's possible. If they're that concerned about those cables getting out, there's a good chance they would think twice.
This has nothing to do with ICS. If a client is connected to the AP, then sooner or later it is sending signals to and receiving signals from the AP. Anyone within range will be able to see these signals regardless of whether the AP broadcasts its SSID.
Imagine an invisible friend. Nobody can see them but you. If you aren't around, then no one has any way of knowing that your invisible friend is around. However, if someone sees you talking to your invisible friend, they will be able to infer the existence of the alternate party, even if they cannot see them.
Here's a youtube vid of someone not only discovering an AP with a hidden SSID, but also unhiding the SSID by de-authing a connected client.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGYy1F1fhjc
Point in fact, you do not have to even broadcast your SSID! It can be kept hidden, so that only you and people you inform of can even find it.
Actually, it's pretty easy to find a "hidden" SSID. While the AP does not advertise its existence, any connected clients will reveal traffic going to and coming from "somewhere". Also, when a client initially connects to the AP, it will reveal the hidden SSID.
What do you do when you go up to an ATM? There's a security camera taking pictures of you.
What about if you're walking past someone who is at the ATM and it takes a picture of you?
I'm not saying that you should want your picture taken in public. But I am saying that it isn't illegal. I'm sure there are lots of celebrities who wish it was.
If you're in a public park, you have no expectation of privacy. If you talk about MP3s and a 3rd party hears it, that is your fault for not taking measures to ensure your privacy, like talking in your own house.
Your ISP is providing a service to you. Just like a phone provider, they are not allowed to just randomly walk in on your transmission. Landlords are also not allowed to just walk right in on you whenever they want (excluding exigent circumstances), even though they own the place.
What really gets me, though, is the completely ludicrous idea that anything on facebook could ever be private. Are you just trolling?
I really, really wish that someone would finally answer this question for me. If you are standing in front of your living room window with the blinds open, and I drive past on a public street with a camcorder which briefly captures your image, is that a privacy violation?
There's a whole dialect of English involving oil well problems, with "blow outs" and "kicks", etc, so this is not unexpected. There is a process for testing wells, involving negative and positive pressure tests, which will alert the oil rig engineers as to the impending danger. As others have stated, there are ways to stop a blow out - several, actually - but BP was cutting corners, ignoring broken fail-safes and disregarding bad test results.
It is possible to do offshore drilling safely. However, if you do it unsafely, it is almost impossible to fix. That is why we need effective regulation; private business is incapable of looking out for the public welfare, because by definition private business is seeking to extract as much wealth from the public as it can bear.
I'll never understand arm-chair petroleum engineers. How easy do you think it is to drive a multi-ton robotic submersible a mile underwater using cameras that don't provide good depth perception to plug a hole spewing oil with a pressure exceeding 5,000 PSI? It can take days just to get the necessary materials down to that depth, let alone the many hours it takes to painstakingly navigate the machinery into place, and that's assuming you don't get too close to the ocean floor because the thrusters will stir up the mud and then you'll have to wait for it to settle so that you can see what you're doing...
Last I checked, Obama doesn't have an engineering degree, and most of the people who do have experience with this kind of thing aren't employed by the Federal government. So I don't understand this desire for a nanny-state government that takes care of everything. If you have a stroke, do you want some Federal bureaucrat doing the brain surgery, or would you rather have a qualified and skilled doctor who has spent his whole life doing brain surgery?
That's not to say that the Feds should just ignore the problem. But there's little more that they can do aside from telling the doctor that he has to perform the surgery. The Feds could buy the equipment to help out, but everyone is so insistent on BP footing the bill. So tell me, exactly what do you expect Obama to do? Wiggle his nose like he's some Genie?
I dunno...maybe if it was aircrack or even wireshark, I would be worried, but I don't see the big deal about Kismet. After all, they were looking for SSIDs/MACs.
I still don't see the big deal about this. If someone photographed you standing in front of your living room window, would you scream "invasion of privacy!!!!!!111eleven" or would you just close the blinds?
Even better analogy...if someone aimed a camcorder out of their window and drove past while aiming it around and saw you for a couple of seconds through your window, would you scream "invasion of privacy"?
Probably the same way I was given my speeding ticket, long after radar guns were invented. Have you ever seen two lines painted across the road, separated by some distance of maybe a few hundred feet? The officer is parked off to the side of the road, and uses a stopwatch to measure how long it takes you to pass between the two lines. If you look at the ticket, it will list the distance and speed.
CEOs "earning" their paycheck. Some of them do, but I'm willing to bet that a lot don't earn their paycheck, or have severely distorted definitions for the word "earn".
Anti-counterfeiting and anti-assassination are good, yeah. Killing Remote Wipe helps more than just the Secret Service, though. Just because we trust the Secret Service does not mean that other three-letter agencies are trustworthy.
The SS thing is a red herring. So what, they're one small part of the government. They only have a two-letter acronym!
What about the FBI? NSA? CIA? Trust the SS all you want. The other three-letter agencies? I don't trust them, and it's their own fault. Had they not repeatedly abused the public trust for the past several decades, I might feel differently.
Okay, so I was off by one order of magnitude. There's still at least six more orders to go before you get enough energy per photon to ionize a DNA bond.
And the Sun does not care about our rights or dignity. It has been bombarding us with all kinds of radiation, including mm-wavelength, for billions of years. Our atmosphere does not stop all of it. Life has evolved under selective pressures that account for exposure to this kind of low-energy radiation.
As well, there are other posters who pointed out that flying at that altitude for a few hours results in more radiation exposure than the scanner would give you.