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User: ahde

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Comments · 1,231

  1. Re:Why comment on Companies Abandon The Sinking Ship That Is SDMI · · Score: 1
    why do you need to make a plaintext analog? (make == distribute)

    Yes, if you want to use conventional equipement, you do, but SDMI isn't about that. Media and hardware makers haven't even tried to protect data yet. CSS was a joke, no more serious than a briefcase lock. Without even thinking, they could take something like DVD region codes and make a checksum that compares to the data. But that would be computation heavy--

    Hey, you could just encrypt a key sufficiently large enough to make a brute force analysis of the whole data too computationally intensive to be inconvenient

    Is this the difference between a code and a cipher to you:

    Code: Substitute A for B Cipher: Substitute (C+D)^E'%H for (F+G)^E''%H

  2. Re:Why comment on Companies Abandon The Sinking Ship That Is SDMI · · Score: 1

    but he's wrong now

  3. Re:Why comment on Companies Abandon The Sinking Ship That Is SDMI · · Score: 1

    Bruce would have ate his words thirty years ago when someone said you couldn't make a code that was uncrackable. And he probably would have said it too.

  4. Hooray on Companies Abandon The Sinking Ship That Is SDMI · · Score: 1
    Next time I am in France or Korea I might get some decent digital equipment. If it isn't confiscated at customs.

    Didn't loudeye go bankrupt?

  5. Re:Interesting side effect on Calendar: Code, Free Speech, Or Mathematics? · · Score: 1

    the links are always green

  6. Re:LIES and disinformation on The Reviewer Who Wasn't · · Score: 1

    that depends on what the meaning of the word is is

  7. I guess somebody at MSNBC got snubbed on The Reviewer Who Wasn't · · Score: 1

    out of a posh hotel or free tickets

  8. Re:Obvious Solution on Building Quieter Computers · · Score: 1

    yeah, all that lossy compression noise and static will cover any machine hum

  9. Re:Monopoly (by Parker Brothers) on AOL/Microsoft Talks Break Down · · Score: 1

    The way to win is to make bargains (payment plans on rents, loans, free rides, etc.) so the other players feel obligated to you, and even more important, pass go one more time so you can get their $200 when they land on Connecticut Ave.

  10. they can just pay OEMs to put it there on AOL/Microsoft Talks Break Down · · Score: 1

    like Netscape

  11. whose mission statement is find morons and newbies on AOL/Microsoft Talks Break Down · · Score: 1

    Yeah, if P.T. Barnum's analysis is right, that only gives them one customer a minute. (Assuming no one ever stays a sucker, or reverts to moron or newbie-hood)

  12. Re:Which two countries? on AOL/Microsoft Talks Break Down · · Score: 1
    I don't know about CNN, but it sounds exactly like Nazi Germany and Communist Russia. But this time, unlimited resources might not be enough. If you want to compare cash reserves, count the number of computers vs. TVs in the world. Then tell me which is which.

    If the internet is Poland and Eastern Europe, what is the West?

  13. ..make preload deals with the major manufacturers on AOL/Microsoft Talks Break Down · · Score: 1

    Netscape tried that. Remember Judge Jackson's "findings of fact"

  14. join forces with one of the baby bells... on AOL/Microsoft Talks Break Down · · Score: 1

    Which one? There's only three left. Plus AT&T. And MCI sold GTE to Verizon. Qwest is talking with Microsoft. Sprint and Cingular?

  15. Re:AOL stopped the talks on AOL/Microsoft Talks Break Down · · Score: 1

    Microsoft: "You must use Windows Media exclusively, and ban Real Audio."

    AOL: "We would like to use both"

    Microsoft: "Unacceptable. You must also allow us access to your Instant Messenger."

    AOL: "That's going too far"

    Microsoft: "If you do not, then we will be forced to exclude AOL from Windows XP"



    "We're disappointed that talks broke down"
    --Microsoft spokesman Jim Cullinan.

  16. Re: More than a prototype on On the Process of Creating a Game... · · Score: 1

    You should have a working demo.

    And I don't mean age of empires-like cinematography. Something that actually shows a game in progress. If you've ever gone to Pizza Hut (or the laundromat) and not had a quarter to your name, you know what I'm talking about.

    Wolfenstein 3-D was the ultimate demo. If you don't know what that is, then you don't have an idea for a game. 95% of all games these days are no more than weak attempts at porting Wolfenstein to newer video hardware.

    And you should also have limited functionality actually working. If you were developing mario bros, being able to move around with the joystick and jump and smash blocks to give a feel for gameplay.

    Oh, and connections.

  17. Many forms of microbial life would be able to surv on Panel Recommends Mars Samples Be Quarantined · · Score: 1
    Many forms of microbial life would be able to survive such a journey."

    Where does this come from?

    I'll tell you. There was a rock found in Antarctica that had microscopic traces within it that look similar to those known to be left by Earthly viruses (like a microscopic fossillized footprint.) The rock was from what is believed to be an asteroid that was a part of Mars something like 10,000,000 years ago.

    While very cool, there is no evidence that any viruses actually survived the journey, much less reentry, and it is fairly well argued that the virus footprints are probably earthly in origin. The rock has been here a long time.

    There has been speculation that viruses could survive in space (I think notably by Jerry Pournelle) but I'm not aware of even short term tests by NASA or any other space agency. I've heard anecdotes about moonwalk equipment and sattelites, but nothing substatiated.

  18. Re:kill the redcoats on Stallman To Respond To Mundie Tuesday · · Score: 1

    just how many Americans do you think are not of the upper middle class (or higher)?

  19. Re:Open source Myst? on Myst III: Exile Review · · Score: 1
    Actually, because so much more than code has been invested in games like this, it is a perfect candidate for open source. If it is anything like the original Myst, game play isn't the secret to success. The artwork, concept, and plot are the real value.

    Van Gogh didn't use patents 3113134 (applying colored medium directly from a collapsible metal tube to a surface), 52865 (storing oil based medium in a collapsible metal tube), 1234567 (combining brightly colored pigment with a plant-derived liquid fixative), 213400000000000 (rendering an image inexactly to increase expressiveness), and trademark copyrights "Impressionist", "Impression", "Imressionist" to give value to Starry Night, but then, he didn't make too much money off of it either

  20. Re:Not suprising. Privacy ain't the half of it. on Security - Logitech Wireless Mice & Keyboards Can Be Sniffed · · Score: 1

    No, Verisign is doing so well because they have a monopoly on the little padlock icon in your browser window, among other things.

  21. Re:Conduits on Security - Logitech Wireless Mice & Keyboards Can Be Sniffed · · Score: 1

    I think you've got it!

  22. Re: If Jack Ryan has one, it must be real on Security - Logitech Wireless Mice & Keyboards Can Be Sniffed · · Score: 1
    and I'd like to get me one of them Dick Tracy watches, too

    Wait a minute... those really do exist, and they run linux

  23. The paranoid ignorant on Security - Logitech Wireless Mice & Keyboards Can Be Sniffed · · Score: 1
    Scary indeed! Having just purchased one of these, and finding them immensely conveinient such news is disheartening. Are there easy ways in which Logitech might be able harden any new models against this? How difficult are these things to sniff, and what kind of hardware would one need to do so? Obvious security tip: if you have these keyboards attached to machines that may access secure data, consider moving them back to the wired standbys until a more secure wireless options present itself.

    I bet you bought a Fisher Price baby monitor and trembled in fear the day the exploit was uncovered that let kidnappers and federal agents tune into your RADIO TRANSMISSIONS! and tell when junior wakes up.

  24. Banner for Linuxgram? on Interplanetary Internet (IPN) · · Score: 1
    This morning I see a banner for Linuxgram "News that means business" or something like that. I click it and discover a slash-knockoff site that looks a little out of date. I think to myself, how does someone's homepage afford banners on Slashdot? Then I see a sidebar that says "beginning June 1st, LinuxGram will be available only by subscription - $100 per year (£70 in Europe)." I notice a VA banner at the top, and at the bottom; sourceforge on the side. Back at Slashdot I now see a VA banner.

    *Click*

    I will leave the whois paper trail as an exercise for the reader.

  25. Re:If The Answer is.... on The Presidents Technical Advisor · · Score: 1

    If the answer is Canada, you're asking the wrong question.