Why should I sympathize with artists who are willing to be complicit in such draconian measures to protect an outmoded form of creative expression? Isn't the whole point that artists are supposed to be creative?
It isn't very creative to desperately cling to a form of expression (photography in this instance) that is so efficiently transmitted through digital networks that it no longer is worth doing (financially speaking).
A great artist would want to give her craft to the world and would find satisfaction in the act of creating, not try to snipe people who they imagine are stealing their "one good idea." The people who don't have very many good ideas are the ones most worried about others "taking" them.
When you are on the phone with any company, there is always this message, "This call may be recorded for quality assurance." In the USA you can record these conversations without notifying the company, because the implicit agreement is that if one party is recording it, you have permission to also record.
The way people should be thinking about this issue is simlar to the way online poker is thought about. It is the same difference, people playing a game and "gambling" real money. Nobody feels bad for a retiree who goes to Atlantic City and loses a thousand bucks at a craps table, nobody feels bad for a college student who blows his loans on online poker, and nobody should feel back for people getting suckered on Second Life. The money was already gone as soon as you gave it to Linden. Because you lost your play money, one way or another, it is still part of the game. The hackers who "stole" your play money are still "playing." You getting robbed of your play money is still part of the game, its just not the fun part.
I Forgot My Administrator Password!
by Vic Ferri
This article is protected by Copyscape! DO NOT COPY without permission!
Skill rating level 4.
Can't Log On to Windows XP?
If that's your only problem, then you probably have nothing to worry about. As long as you have your Windows XP CD, you can get back into your system using a simple but effective method made possible by a little known access hole in Windows XP.
This method is easy enough for newbies to follow - it doesn't require using the Recovery Console or any complicated commands. And it's free - I mention that because you can pay two hundred dollars for an emergency download of Winternals ERD with Locksmith which is a utility for unlocking lost Windows passwords. See here http://www.winternals.com/products/repairandrecovery/locksmith.asp
ERD is an excellent multi purpose product, but you should know it is not a necessary one if you have a healthy system and your sole problem is the inability to logon to Windows due to a forgotten password. Not necessary because you can easily change or wipe out your Administrator password for free during a Windows XP Repair. Here's how with a step-by-step description of the initial Repair process included for newbie's.
1. Place your Windows XP CD in your cd-rom and start your computer (it's assumed here that your XP CD is bootable - as it should be - and that you have your bios set to boot from CD)
2. Keep your eye on the screen messages for booting to your cd Typically, it will be "Press any key to boot from cd"
3. Once you get in, the first screen will indicate that Setup is inspecting your system and loading files.
4. When you get to the Welcome to Setup screen, press ENTER to Setup Windows now
5. The Licensing Agreement comes next - Press F8 to accept it.
6. The next screen is the Setup screen which gives you the option to do a Repair.
It should read something like "If one of the following Windows XP installations is damaged, Setup can try to repair it"
Use the up and down arrow keys to select your XP installation (if you only have one, it should already be selected) and press R to begin the Repair process.
7. Let the Repair run. Setup will now check your disks and then start copying files which can take several minutes.
8. Shortly after the Copying Files stage, you will be required to reboot. (this will happen automatically - you will see a progress bar stating "Your computer will reboot in 15 seconds"
9. During the reboot, do not make the mistake of "pressing any key" to boot from the CD again! Setup will resume automatically with the standard billboard screens and you will notice Installing Windows is highlighted.
10. Keep your eye on the lower left hand side of the screen and when you see the Installing Devices progress bar, press SHIFT + F10. This is the security hole! A command console will now open up giving you the potential for wide access to your system.
11. At the prompt, type NUSRMGR.CPL and press Enter. Voila! You have just gained graphical access to your User Accounts in the Control Panel.
12. Now simply pick the account you need to change and remove or change your password as you prefer. If you want to log on without having to enter your new password, you can type control userpasswords2 at the prompt and choose to log on without being asked for password. After you've made your changes close the windows, exit the command box and continue on with the Repair (have your Product key handy).
13. Once the Repair is done, you will be able to log on with your new password (or without a password if you chose not to use one or if you chose not to be asked for a password). Your programs and personalized settings should remain intact.
I tested the above on Windows XP Pro with and without SP1 and also used this method in a real situation where someone could not remember their password and it worked like a charm to fix the problem. This security hole allows access to
Based on the amount of disagreement here I would guess that this would make a good lawsuit. Time is money, if this argument happened in a court with lawyers it would add up to about $2000 per comment (times 200 so far, do the math). I know that the Free Software Foundation has a legal team that enforces compliance with the GPL, which is good. Does Creative Commons offer any such service, or do they just leave it up to the artist, as they do with their licensing schema?
Without teeth and a good bit of enforcement, Creative Commons wont last in the long run, although I really would love to see it succeed.
The presumption of this article is that the employee doesn't have the right to do anything but task related things all day, which of course is false. Human needs are important, things such as emailing a spouse about picking up the kids, going to the bathroom, smoking, getting coffee, etc., are only considered an inconvenience by the business owners, who also think they own the employee.
Unfortunately for them, IT professionals have a large percentage of this little ugly thing called power, which is used by workers to assert their human rights in the workplace. Because we are so excellently talented, smart and have ways of connecting with others around the world who are of our ilk, the balance of power is a little more tilted in our favor. Obviously some greedy business owner isn't going to like this.
It is tug of war until somebody changes the rules of the game--and I think we are winning.
Ah yes, debating policies is killing Americans. My neighbor is really annoying and plays loud classical music at 7AM, I wonder when his number will come up--but before I go any further on that topic, what do people think about national security? Has it gone to far (1 American killed)? Why is domestic spying happening (2)? Is it more important (3) to be safe (4) or free (5,6,7)?
This kind of logic really gets me going. What is the point really of having an NSA at all, I mean if they think they are so fantas
Facebook and myspace won't want to implement openID because it would ruin their business model. The only reason people use a specific social networking site is because their friends are on it (ok, not the ONLY reason).
If you "give away" the exclusivity of "owning" that user's data, and controlling access to the data, you will have to think of a different way to make money because there is no leverage to keep a user at that site, when they can just go to another.
I don't use social networking sites (unless you count slashdot) for that very reason, I don't want someone changing the rules some time down the road and suddenly I find that I am having to wade through popups and interstitial ads to get to my friends messages.
Analyst firm Knowledge Networks has agreed to pay $300,000 to settle a complaint that it distributed news articles to its employees without permission of the copyright owners, a trade group announced Thursday. Free IT resource
The Knowledge Networks settlement is the first under the Software & Information Industry Association's Corporate Content Anti-Piracy Program, launched in October.
Knowledge Networks' marketing group had been distributing press packets to some employees on a regular basis, the SIIA said. Those packets contained articles under copyright and owned by SIIA members such as the Associated Press, United Press International, and publishing company Reed Elsevier, the trade group said.
SIIA litigation counsel Scott Bain called Knowledge Networks a "reputable company that made a very costly mistake." One of SIIA's goals for the settlement is to deter copyright infringement and educate other companies about the need for compliance programs, he said.
A Knowledge Networks spokesman declined to talk about the case in detail. "We are happy the matter has been resolved amicably," said spokesman Dave Stanton.
Knowledge Networks, based in Menlo Park, Calif., has agreed to take steps to avoid further problems, including sending its staff to an SIIA copyright course, SIIA said.
In a statement distributed by SIIA, Knowledge Networks said it regretted the actions.
"[We] disseminated copies of relevant newspaper and magazine articles in the good faith belief that it was lawful to do so," the company said in the statement. "We now understand that practice may violate the copyright rights of those publications. We regret that those violations may have occurred and we are pleased that this matter has now been resolved."
Asked if internal distribution of news articles was commonplace at many companies, SIIA's Bain disagreed. "Companies do not do this all the time," he said. "Some companies have compliance procedures in place to keep it from happening."
Compliance procedures include staff designated for licensing and compliance, sufficient budgets for the content licensing needs of the company, education programs for staff, deals with major content outlets, and strict policies and internal penalties for violatijng copyright, Bain said.
SIIA learned about the situation through a confidential tip, the trade group said. The person who reported Knowledge Networks will receive a $6,000 reward.
If the Internets have taught me anything it is that two is always better than one when it comes to load balancing, bandwidth allocation and processing large computational tasks.
The Internet itself is a decentralized, node based system. BitTorrent uses this approach to solve many problems. Why are we thinking about one quantum computer? It would be big, ugly and vulnerable, even if it wasn't running Windoze. Spreading the tasks over many computers in a decentralized manner would be a better use of the existing infrastructure, but I guess this sort of mirrors the different philosophies between the work the government has to do and the work that programmers like to do.
I want to put my money where my mouth is and support socialism with the good old USD! Where can I buy one of these machines of The People? Link anyone?
The problem with social networking sites and many others is that they have the power to restrict access to your personal networks. If you make friends through facebook, or use the site to stay in touch, that relationship is owned by facebook. They have a leverage against you. If they decide to put interstitial ads or some other annoying thing on their site, you cant just migrate your friend network to myspace.
Mostly you can expect this not to happen, and if it does there is always the phone and e-mail, but a solution that is more node based and less reliant on all of your networks (social or physical) going through one company would be more like an actual social network, which grows organically and in a decentralized manner. Facebook, MySpace etc.. are more akin to an Elks Lodge or other association that is the singular source of social engagement for its members.
Which technologies exist now that operate outside of the single source model?
Agreed. There is no way anyone can predict 100 years into the future with any confidence. The most advanced science available today could not have been conceived of a few hundred years ago, and the acceleration of technological advancement has not yet hit its critical mass.
Tmobile also refuses to deactivate text messages for any reason. I receive a few unwanted text messages every month and never use text messages myself. They are only about ten cents each, but the fact that Tmobile refuses to turn off text messaging is annoying, but makes perfect sense.
Nickel and dime has a new meaning when you multiply that small fee times the number of subscribers they have globally. I know it is technologically possible, but they pretend that it isn't. Cingular was able to turn off text messages on my last plan.
Obviously they can only speak to the ones who were caught, you can't know if a sabateur is surly unless you know that they are a sabeteur. This is also incidentally true for dragqueens.
Eeek! This is the first time since I can remember that I have agreed with republicans! I don't think bloggers should have to register as lobbyists. Why do Democrats? WTF!?
There must be something that I am missing...
Slashdot Mirror
Why should I sympathize with artists who are willing to be complicit in such draconian measures to protect an outmoded form of creative expression? Isn't the whole point that artists are supposed to be creative?
It isn't very creative to desperately cling to a form of expression (photography in this instance) that is so efficiently transmitted through digital networks that it no longer is worth doing (financially speaking).
A great artist would want to give her craft to the world and would find satisfaction in the act of creating, not try to snipe people who they imagine are stealing their "one good idea." The people who don't have very many good ideas are the ones most worried about others "taking" them.
My superhero is St. Igignucius.
This message sponsored by GoDaddy.
When you are on the phone with any company, there is always this message, "This call may be recorded for quality assurance." In the USA you can record these conversations without notifying the company, because the implicit agreement is that if one party is recording it, you have permission to also record.
The way people should be thinking about this issue is simlar to the way online poker is thought about. It is the same difference, people playing a game and "gambling" real money. Nobody feels bad for a retiree who goes to Atlantic City and loses a thousand bucks at a craps table, nobody feels bad for a college student who blows his loans on online poker, and nobody should feel back for people getting suckered on Second Life. The money was already gone as soon as you gave it to Linden. Because you lost your play money, one way or another, it is still part of the game. The hackers who "stole" your play money are still "playing." You getting robbed of your play money is still part of the game, its just not the fun part.
I Forgot My Administrator Password! by Vic Ferri This article is protected by Copyscape! DO NOT COPY without permission! Skill rating level 4. Can't Log On to Windows XP? If that's your only problem, then you probably have nothing to worry about. As long as you have your Windows XP CD, you can get back into your system using a simple but effective method made possible by a little known access hole in Windows XP. This method is easy enough for newbies to follow - it doesn't require using the Recovery Console or any complicated commands. And it's free - I mention that because you can pay two hundred dollars for an emergency download of Winternals ERD with Locksmith which is a utility for unlocking lost Windows passwords. See here http://www.winternals.com/products/repairandrecovery/locksmith.asp ERD is an excellent multi purpose product, but you should know it is not a necessary one if you have a healthy system and your sole problem is the inability to logon to Windows due to a forgotten password. Not necessary because you can easily change or wipe out your Administrator password for free during a Windows XP Repair. Here's how with a step-by-step description of the initial Repair process included for newbie's. 1. Place your Windows XP CD in your cd-rom and start your computer (it's assumed here that your XP CD is bootable - as it should be - and that you have your bios set to boot from CD) 2. Keep your eye on the screen messages for booting to your cd Typically, it will be "Press any key to boot from cd" 3. Once you get in, the first screen will indicate that Setup is inspecting your system and loading files. 4. When you get to the Welcome to Setup screen, press ENTER to Setup Windows now 5. The Licensing Agreement comes next - Press F8 to accept it. 6. The next screen is the Setup screen which gives you the option to do a Repair. It should read something like "If one of the following Windows XP installations is damaged, Setup can try to repair it" Use the up and down arrow keys to select your XP installation (if you only have one, it should already be selected) and press R to begin the Repair process. 7. Let the Repair run. Setup will now check your disks and then start copying files which can take several minutes. 8. Shortly after the Copying Files stage, you will be required to reboot. (this will happen automatically - you will see a progress bar stating "Your computer will reboot in 15 seconds" 9. During the reboot, do not make the mistake of "pressing any key" to boot from the CD again! Setup will resume automatically with the standard billboard screens and you will notice Installing Windows is highlighted. 10. Keep your eye on the lower left hand side of the screen and when you see the Installing Devices progress bar, press SHIFT + F10. This is the security hole! A command console will now open up giving you the potential for wide access to your system. 11. At the prompt, type NUSRMGR.CPL and press Enter. Voila! You have just gained graphical access to your User Accounts in the Control Panel. 12. Now simply pick the account you need to change and remove or change your password as you prefer. If you want to log on without having to enter your new password, you can type control userpasswords2 at the prompt and choose to log on without being asked for password. After you've made your changes close the windows, exit the command box and continue on with the Repair (have your Product key handy). 13. Once the Repair is done, you will be able to log on with your new password (or without a password if you chose not to use one or if you chose not to be asked for a password). Your programs and personalized settings should remain intact. I tested the above on Windows XP Pro with and without SP1 and also used this method in a real situation where someone could not remember their password and it worked like a charm to fix the problem. This security hole allows access to
I actually went into those directories and checked! *smacks forehead*
Based on the amount of disagreement here I would guess that this would make a good lawsuit. Time is money, if this argument happened in a court with lawyers it would add up to about $2000 per comment (times 200 so far, do the math). I know that the Free Software Foundation has a legal team that enforces compliance with the GPL, which is good. Does Creative Commons offer any such service, or do they just leave it up to the artist, as they do with their licensing schema?
Without teeth and a good bit of enforcement, Creative Commons wont last in the long run, although I really would love to see it succeed.
The presumption of this article is that the employee doesn't have the right to do anything but task related things all day, which of course is false. Human needs are important, things such as emailing a spouse about picking up the kids, going to the bathroom, smoking, getting coffee, etc., are only considered an inconvenience by the business owners, who also think they own the employee.
Unfortunately for them, IT professionals have a large percentage of this little ugly thing called power, which is used by workers to assert their human rights in the workplace. Because we are so excellently talented, smart and have ways of connecting with others around the world who are of our ilk, the balance of power is a little more tilted in our favor. Obviously some greedy business owner isn't going to like this.
It is tug of war until somebody changes the rules of the game--and I think we are winning.
Ah yes, debating policies is killing Americans. My neighbor is really annoying and plays loud classical music at 7AM, I wonder when his number will come up--but before I go any further on that topic, what do people think about national security? Has it gone to far (1 American killed)? Why is domestic spying happening (2)? Is it more important (3) to be safe (4) or free (5,6,7)?
This kind of logic really gets me going. What is the point really of having an NSA at all, I mean if they think they are so fantas
Facebook and myspace won't want to implement openID because it would ruin their business model. The only reason people use a specific social networking site is because their friends are on it (ok, not the ONLY reason).
If you "give away" the exclusivity of "owning" that user's data, and controlling access to the data, you will have to think of a different way to make money because there is no leverage to keep a user at that site, when they can just go to another.
I don't use social networking sites (unless you count slashdot) for that very reason, I don't want someone changing the rules some time down the road and suddenly I find that I am having to wade through popups and interstitial ads to get to my friends messages.
Just kidding, I don't have any friends.
If they want to relegate themselves into obscurity by blocking Firefox users, we will route around them like the non-functional damage that they are.
Analyst firm Knowledge Networks has agreed to pay $300,000 to settle a complaint that it distributed news articles to its employees without permission of the copyright owners, a trade group announced Thursday.
Free IT resource
The Knowledge Networks settlement is the first under the Software & Information Industry Association's Corporate Content Anti-Piracy Program, launched in October.
Knowledge Networks' marketing group had been distributing press packets to some employees on a regular basis, the SIIA said. Those packets contained articles under copyright and owned by SIIA members such as the Associated Press, United Press International, and publishing company Reed Elsevier, the trade group said.
SIIA litigation counsel Scott Bain called Knowledge Networks a "reputable company that made a very costly mistake." One of SIIA's goals for the settlement is to deter copyright infringement and educate other companies about the need for compliance programs, he said.
A Knowledge Networks spokesman declined to talk about the case in detail. "We are happy the matter has been resolved amicably," said spokesman Dave Stanton.
Knowledge Networks, based in Menlo Park, Calif., has agreed to take steps to avoid further problems, including sending its staff to an SIIA copyright course, SIIA said.
In a statement distributed by SIIA, Knowledge Networks said it regretted the actions.
"[We] disseminated copies of relevant newspaper and magazine articles in the good faith belief that it was lawful to do so," the company said in the statement. "We now understand that practice may violate the copyright rights of those publications. We regret that those violations may have occurred and we are pleased that this matter has now been resolved."
Asked if internal distribution of news articles was commonplace at many companies, SIIA's Bain disagreed. "Companies do not do this all the time," he said. "Some companies have compliance procedures in place to keep it from happening."
Compliance procedures include staff designated for licensing and compliance, sufficient budgets for the content licensing needs of the company, education programs for staff, deals with major content outlets, and strict policies and internal penalties for violatijng copyright, Bain said.
SIIA learned about the situation through a confidential tip, the trade group said. The person who reported Knowledge Networks will receive a $6,000 reward.
If the Internets have taught me anything it is that two is always better than one when it comes to load balancing, bandwidth allocation and processing large computational tasks.
The Internet itself is a decentralized, node based system. BitTorrent uses this approach to solve many problems. Why are we thinking about one quantum computer? It would be big, ugly and vulnerable, even if it wasn't running Windoze. Spreading the tasks over many computers in a decentralized manner would be a better use of the existing infrastructure, but I guess this sort of mirrors the different philosophies between the work the government has to do and the work that programmers like to do.
Once again, Skynet is going to strike back.
I want to put my money where my mouth is and support socialism with the good old USD! Where can I buy one of these machines of The People? Link anyone?
The problem with social networking sites and many others is that they have the power to restrict access to your personal networks. If you make friends through facebook, or use the site to stay in touch, that relationship is owned by facebook. They have a leverage against you. If they decide to put interstitial ads or some other annoying thing on their site, you cant just migrate your friend network to myspace.
Mostly you can expect this not to happen, and if it does there is always the phone and e-mail, but a solution that is more node based and less reliant on all of your networks (social or physical) going through one company would be more like an actual social network, which grows organically and in a decentralized manner. Facebook, MySpace etc.. are more akin to an Elks Lodge or other association that is the singular source of social engagement for its members.
Which technologies exist now that operate outside of the single source model?
Agreed. There is no way anyone can predict 100 years into the future with any confidence. The most advanced science available today could not have been conceived of a few hundred years ago, and the acceleration of technological advancement has not yet hit its critical mass.
Tmobile also refuses to deactivate text messages for any reason. I receive a few unwanted text messages every month and never use text messages myself. They are only about ten cents each, but the fact that Tmobile refuses to turn off text messaging is annoying, but makes perfect sense.
Nickel and dime has a new meaning when you multiply that small fee times the number of subscribers they have globally. I know it is technologically possible, but they pretend that it isn't. Cingular was able to turn off text messages on my last plan.
You beat your kids, don't you?
If - The (US) government belongs to the people.
And - The government owns the Internet.
Than - The people own the Internet.
This is kinda difficult to understand, but its not rocket science.
Obviously they can only speak to the ones who were caught, you can't know if a sabateur is surly unless you know that they are a sabeteur. This is also incidentally true for dragqueens.
That they come with windows pre-installed.
Brown...and brown?
Eeek! This is the first time since I can remember that I have agreed with republicans! I don't think bloggers should have to register as lobbyists. Why do Democrats? WTF!? There must be something that I am missing...