> My second point is that Quake 3 is proprietary > software, and as such, you (the user) get > what you get,
You are right...but you miss one point, even though you touch on it earlier. You accidently left a backdoor in a program that was publicly released.
Ok yea, big mistake....heres a wrist slap, move on. However...what if you did it INTENTIONALY? Do you think a person who adds backdoors to software that are undocumented INTENTIONALLY and distributes them can be trusted?
The program is a game. If I download it and it does anything OTHER than be a game, if I buy it and it turns out to be a spreadsheet program, then the advertising LIED to me. That is a crime (its called fraud).
When I download a program, I expect it to do what it is told. I do NOT expect it to contact other people COVERTLY and tell them ANYTHING. It doing so is DISHONEST.
It does not matter WHAT it tells them, the fact that it contacts ANYONE and tells them ANYTHING in a COVERT way, makes it a trojan horse, and it makes it FLAGRANT FRAUD.
If I had used this software myself (I have not) I would most definitly NOT be posting this right now, as its not bright to talk about ongoing suits outside of court...and I would be sueing them.
Fortunatly for ID I have not used it...and unfortunaly for computer users in general, not many users are like me.
I have NO problem with running software that reports back to the owners with a little anonymous data like this. However... I should be told.
This is DELIBERATE and COVERT.
If they want to require that all users send back this info, fine. Just say in big letters in the docs and on the web page "If you run this it will send data back to us". Thats all.
Concealing the fact that this is happening is what is damning.
When I said that in the original post I guess it wasn't carried over to my request.
I have recieved several emails about it. YES I know how to reboot with rw init=/bin/sh (and even how to shutdown properly with it) however... I can't acess the console...basically...there is no monitor and I was too lazy to hook one up.
I supose I will fix that one day... but its in an awkward area...
Well.... I happen to have a firm belief in making information and toold freely available.
If I were a virus experimenter (im not...unless you count trying to learn to play core wars) then I would do just that...put up commented code with explanations and possibly binaries (binaries are really only a step away. Big deal it stopps those few script kiddies who can't assemble a program)
The point is...I have infomation...I am not going to be the judge of who is responsible enough to have the information. I am nobodies daddy and do not feel any responsibilty to go around saying "You are responsible...here is the code" "You are irresponsible please go grow up"
Its a little belief I have called "Personal Responsibility". Which means Ill be responsible for MY actions, you be responsible for yours.
Going after clueful ethical coders because some idiot could possibly misuse their tools amounts to little more than trying to childproof the world.
The ability to do a thing does not imply the right to do a thing, any more than becoming able to do something or making someone else able to do something IS doing the thing.
This is of course in the case of blindly giving things away. If it is given away with knowlede that the tool WILL in fact be used in this manner then that amounts to conspiracy. However...if its given away freely to anyone that wants it...then it becomes anonymous.
A) Isn't it one of the basic principals of Gun saftey.... Guns ARE inherently dangerous and thus MUST always be treated with care and respect.
B) whether ciggarrets ALWAYS do harm is debatable. Certainly with chronic use they are damaging to health etc...however... I would still argue that it is MY body and I have the right to decide what is harmfull to it and what isn't (to which end I have decided tobbacco products are harmfull and I wont ever use them...same for alcohol...not so for many others;) )
so if I find virus interesting. and I write them on my own systems, never putting one on someone elses system...then I would supose thats ok.
However if I Enjoy playing with them...and I write up a web page about them, and post some example code and binaries for people who also are interested and want to experiment... suddenly I have done something wrong?
I think terror *IS* the MOST effective means to achive political goals. You ever see "The Seige" ya know...if a few terrorists setup in NYC... things would go down much like the movie...with the exception that there would be no quick happy ending.
Personally I even extend "Terrorism" to describe the actins of the peopl ein power in the US. Which is a dirty mix of politicans and media whores.
Whenever there is something that they want to change...the media naturally focuses on what gets them ratings...and that is FEAR. They report whatever stories will most likely tap into peoples most basic fears. Murders, violence. The more random the better.
Congress works similarly. They recently have been working on an "Anti-Date Rape" act...named after a girl who suposedly died after being slipped a "Date Rape Drug" GHB.
The real cause of her death was later found to be quite differnt (I believe it was a previously unknown congenital heart defect but I do not remember). However congress keeps harping on. Forget that Date rape is already illegal...its not about that. Thats just what they want to use to scare people with...the only real "Date Rape Drug" is alcohol...and unlike some others...it is used EVERY DAY.
They just work the media to instill fear in people because when people are in fear they are irrational so...then when congress passes a law...they seem like heros fighting the good fight, when in reality its usually new legislation that was already covered by old legislation or it just advances their own political agenda.
If you ask me...thats a form of terrorism...and its sickeningly effective.
until someone comes running to you "Help we lost the root password on our server and we can't bring it down for maintenance right now! Let us throw money at you to help!"
Since I mentioned it... anyone have a good few program recomendations for root-ing a Debian install (fairly standard install..no X) thats about 6 months old...never been upgraded?
Its my fathers box...I set it up for him and gave him the root password...all he uses it for is as a masquerading firewall...however we would like to setup SAMBA on it as a domain controller. ...and he lost the root password (I let him have it and told him to keep it safe...forgot to make myself a uid 0 acount before I left)
Isn't that liks saying the people who were suing gun manafacturers for "Making a dangerous product" have merit?
If an author writes a program that can crash windows machines...he has every right to do that. He has every right to crash every WIndows PC he owns with it and every one other people own and give him permission to crash.
Software is a tool. It is a mistake to hold the maker of a tool responsible for the outright misuse of the person who USES a tool.
If I buy a lock pick thats fine. If I pick my way into my house...thats fine. If I decide to use my lock pick(s) to get into someone elses house.. that is _MY_ fault not the person who made the lockpicks.
Hell even things like Winnuke HAVE been used legitimatly. One day I had a windows machine I left on and left some stupid program running that was doing things on the network I needed to stop (mostly it was an application whose server only allowed one session at time)....so... I winnuked it from a linux box (stupid microsoft mail anyways)
man im glad I don't work with windows antymore. As far as non-windows stuff....anyone else ever been faced with a machine you can't easily get phsyical acess to...hasn't been upgraded in a while...the owner has LOST the root password... and needs you to work on the system for him?
Sure...most people id just laugh at and tell to piss off under those circumstances but...at least once it happend and I had to try to root the box. Wasn't sucessfull....but its a legitamite use for such tools.
What you could try is this: 1) Post the code that you midified that is not directly from the distribution you use on the website. 2) contact another company (like cheapbytes) who already sells copies of CDs with GPL software, and thus already has to honor the GPL for stuff they are already selling.
You migh tbe able to get a mutually beneficial contract going where you refer customers to them to get the original distribution source code
Since you have a contract with them, they are providing it to your customers for you. As long as the price is nominal (which it is for some like cheapebytes) then it should still satisfy.
Since whoever is selling CDs already has to honor the GPL and provide the source for 3 years for their normal sales, I am sure that at least one of them would be willing to do it for you in exchange for the publicity they would generate (ie the offer would basically be advertising to all of your customers)
One thing that I am thinking now, almost as an afterthought of this now old discussion.... A person who is actually contemplating suicide is not in the same "State of Consciousness" as most people are in on a daily basis.
You can't reason easily from one state of thinking into another without understanding some things. Thinking of this I am drawing on my experiances as "Trip Sitter" for a friend who took some acid and became convinced he was going to die.
There is a phenominon known as the Negative thought loop. In this the mind gets caught in a loop it seemingly can not escape. It is common with both depression, "Bad Trips" and other situations.
THink of the situation like this. The person decides they can't go on with "The pain" (depression basically) so they need to end it. They realize that thgeir fammily does not understand and can not. They KNOW their decision will hurt the people that care for them. This makes them feel even worst. This brings them further into depression and makes the pain worst and even more unbearable.
This depression was summed up very humerously in "Office SPace" when the main character said "Each day is progressivly worst. So every day that you see me, it is the worst day of my life"
Anyone still interested in this subject or not sure what to think I would direct to : http://www.xanthia.com/ash this is the webpage for alt.suicide.holiday it is a group where several suicidal people regularly speak to eachother. They often speak of how they plan to kill themselves etc...yet at the same time...this talking is almost like a therapy. One has to wonder how many people did not kill themselves because of this group.
I would warn anyone vehimently against suicide that you are not welcome there. They are quite tired of people trying to "Sasve them" and tell them "How great they are". It just makes them more bitter and helps noone.
I would recomend the FAQ. It has some very thought provoking portions. The methods file may not be for the weak of heart but...it has some dark humor that is just the kind of humor I like.
On the subject... I would LOVE any info on these "Squid sensors" I saw a documentary where someone had some... I would imagine they would not be hard to make for a person with a marginal background in electronics and the right equipment.
I wanted to experiment with them myself at home.. never found any info. Any documentation on how they work and would be setup would be great.
Well yea it would feel weird walking without feeling like walking"
The brain would get confused fast. It is giving signal to walk, it sees the motion of walking but...the inner ear isn't detecting motion.
When the inner ear and brain loose sync...the natural reaction is to begin "Stomac pump procedue".
I had an interesting discussion about this with someone onece. It apears that this may be an evolutionary "Defence mechanism". Loss of proper signal from the inner ear can often be caused by certain chemicals, say the chemicals in an amniata muscaria mushroom (big red caps) or something in the nightshade fammily (other than tomatoes)
Basically the idea goes that the brain stops getting the right signals from the inner ear so as a defence it induces vomitting so that if this was caused by some poison, it may stop absorbtion of the rest of it. (which is why nausea is very common with alot of drugs)
anyway...I would think that ALOT of people would react very badly to any such setup.
Well, it does depend ont he person and the circumstances. I have a freind who was arrested a few years ago for something stupid. However because a numbe ro fyears previous to this he had attempted suicide, the police decided he needed to be kept in a cell, alone, with no clothes or bed sheets (and a metal bed) all night.
I have also read several writtings by suicidal people and many have said that getting caught made their lives much worst.
Of course...there are billions of differnt people and everyone who does it has their own reasons. Some find the "recovery process" to be life inspireing, others just get more severely depressed.
> I don't believe you have outlined any suicides i would consider acceptable
Well I must say I wasn't trying to. All I ever said was "Mental Anguish" which, in my mind, covers everything from severe depression to Chronic pain with no cure.
However "Chronic pain with no cure" is a minority of real suicides. Most are to end a severe depression. Having felt depression at a point in my life, even if not so severe that suicide was even more than a passing thought, I can certainly empathise in that I can understand how a person could be depressed to the point where killing themselves seems like a "Viable solution" (interesting use of "viable" huh?)
Suicide definitly does have alot of both emotion and social taboo. Your not suposed to talk about it. It reminds me of the movie "Seven" where the serial killer says to the police officer "Its very comfortable for you to label me as insane."
While I can't say that I have lost a fammily member to suicide, I don't see it as quite so sad.
Those who commit suicide are dead because they want to be. They have gotten what they want, a final end to their mental suffering.
What is really sad is how our society treats suicide. Those who fail and are discovered are likely to live life much worst off than they were before. They get to live not only with their mental anguish, but with being constantly watched, their actions always questioned as they might be getting ready to try again.
The real sadness, is that because of this attitude most people who are thinking about suicide never come out and talk about their feelins, as they know there is no "safe" place to do that...doing it is almost surely going to take away their ability to commit suicide, as now people will be prepared to "intervene". Which in turn means that a useful outlet for working through their problems is effectively shut off...and thus they are more likely to "just do it".
I have always found suicide an interesting topic. Its interesting to ask yourself "Could I do it?" Most people say no but why? I bet many would answer that its out of love for this person or obligation for that... but I think its allot mor ebasic than that.
Actually taking the final step of pulling the trigger or swallowing the pill is not easy. Both from my own thoughts about the subject, and reading the writtings of people who actually are suicidal (I am not...I am just fascinated by the subject) it takes an extreme amount of mental will power to do it. Which of course makes me think that anyone who says people who commit suicide are weak, truely have no concept of what is really involved.
I for one couldn't do it. It takes alot of will power to force yourself to "catch the bus" and find out once and for all whether all those religious people who were thrusting pamphlets into your hands on the street corner were right. (I for one certainly hope not:)...else I shall have a quite warm eternity)
I currently work for a large University as a Sysadmin/Programer, and it seems every few weeks we get an email from the RIAA telling us that a student is running an MP3 site and that we need to shut them down.
On a personal level, it pisses me off. I see nothing morally wrong with what the kids are doing, and I know my collegues express the same feelings, but we shut them down anyway, even if it gives me a sick feeling in my stomac.
However, surprize inspections and cutting off computer access is way extreme. Here we ask the student to remove them. Then they are reported to someone or other. Basically, you do it, you get a slap on the wrist.
Students HAVE lost all computer access over it, but only the ones who openly ignored us and continued their activities. I think pulling any network acess from a first time violator is extremely harsh (even if it is just "Home Access")
I certainly hope these students complain and are heard. "Surprize inspections" are just wrong. (Then again...so is using University computers for MP3 distribution...keep it on your own machine god damnit)
Then again...I supose the upside is that when I get the RIAA notice, I can check the site to see if they have anything good before they get shut down (I am not in charge of shutting them down myself...im mostly just a programer)
I MSNBC one was the worst. It was based almost entirly on a few slashdot comments, very little original thought. Big deal, they can take random comments from people who don't necissarily have any credentials. Its basically a Man on the street opionon without leaving your cushy office.
II The wired article had a stupid title, but was the most substance of the 3. The title was something to the effect of "Judge says linux wont last". No. He said linux is not going to be a threat to windows in the short term. This is true. There are not so many people migrating to linux that its going to hurt MS anytime soon. However...the future is open.
III The judge was stating fact as it is now and has been for years. There is nothing to say that sanctions against microsoft wont change this and give linux a boost (afterall, isn;t the poin tof this antitrust stuff to break the monopoly stranglehold on competition?)
IV The 3rd article was almost as bad as the MS article. It seems this author was more interested with peoples comments on the trial and how juvenile people can be (which isn't bad... I like juvenile as much as th enetx guy). Big deal...there is a general dislike of Microsoft in this community...we are rejoycing at their bad fortune (which they brough on themselves).
They do not produce "Lightning", they can NOT be used for "Lightning suceptability tests".
Lightning is STATIC electricity Discharge from clouds. Lightning CAN be simulated by a Van De Graff Generator.
Tesla coils put out discharges of High Frequency Alternating Current. There are some MAJOR differences.
Alternating current exhibits a skin effect. You can put your hand in the discharge of a tesla coil (assuming its built right). The energy is of such a high frequency that it goes AROUND your skin, and does not penetrate the body deeply enough to activate pain receptors, much less stop your heart.
If the power output of the Tesla coil is high enough, it still wont stop your heart...instead it will cause RF burns (kind of equivalent to sticking your hand in a microwave).
Static electricity on the other hand will never give you and RF burn. It will however also not exhibit a skin effect, and will happliy travel through your pain receptors, heart, and wherever else it damned well pleases.
This is not to say that their facility will be useless. It certainly could be used to test aircrafts suceptability to high energey, high frequency energy discharges.
Afterall, these things CAN transmit real power. (There is a story of a person who was working on a tesla coil in his basement...and a coat hanger upstairs turned out to make a nice antena, and a weater ont he hanger started to smolder, luckily someone upsteairs smelled it and caught it in time).
hmm... I have to wonder... With a Tesla coil, capable of creating husge plasma discharges...an laser... I wonder if a small laser could ionize the air enough to get the tesla coil to do the rest of the work of turning it into a conducting path....and then a van de graf or taser to send a disabling pulse....
Goto Home Depot near Boston... Thats where I met the guy who MADE the Tesla coils at the MOS (one of them)...got to go to his basement and see some of his cool stuff. (Half wave coil, tube coils he was working on, an Electical pole transformer....)
Slashdot Mirror
> My second point is that Quake 3 is proprietary
> software, and as such, you (the user) get
> what you get,
You are right...but you miss one point, even
though you touch on it earlier. You accidently
left a backdoor in a program that was publicly
released.
Ok yea, big mistake....heres a wrist slap, move
on. However...what if you did it INTENTIONALY?
Do you think a person who adds backdoors to
software that are undocumented INTENTIONALLY
and distributes them can be trusted?
The program is a game. If I download it and it
does anything OTHER than be a game, if I buy it
and it turns out to be a spreadsheet program,
then the advertising LIED to me. That is a crime
(its called fraud).
When I download a program, I expect it to do
what it is told. I do NOT expect it to contact
other people COVERTLY and tell them ANYTHING.
It doing so is DISHONEST.
It does not matter WHAT it tells them, the fact
that it contacts ANYONE and tells them ANYTHING
in a COVERT way, makes it a trojan horse, and it
makes it FLAGRANT FRAUD.
If I had used this software myself (I have not)
I would most definitly NOT be posting this right
now, as its not bright to talk about ongoing
suits outside of court...and I would be sueing
them.
Fortunatly for ID I have not used it...and
unfortunaly for computer users in general, not
many users are like me.
This, to me, is a slap in the face.
I have NO problem with running software that
reports back to the owners with a little
anonymous data like this. However...
I should be told.
This is DELIBERATE and COVERT.
If they want to require that all users send
back this info, fine. Just say in big letters
in the docs and on the web page "If you run this
it will send data back to us". Thats all.
Concealing the fact that this is happening is
what is damning.
When I said that in the original post I guess it
wasn't carried over to my request.
I have recieved several emails about it.
YES I know how to reboot with rw init=/bin/sh
(and even how to shutdown properly with it)
however...
I can't acess the console...basically...there
is no monitor and I was too lazy to hook one
up.
I supose I will fix that one day... but its in
an awkward area...
Well....
I happen to have a firm belief in making
information and toold freely available.
If I were a virus experimenter (im not...unless
you count trying to learn to play core wars) then
I would do just that...put up commented code
with explanations and possibly binaries
(binaries are really only a step away. Big deal
it stopps those few script kiddies who can't
assemble a program)
The point is...I have infomation...I am not going
to be the judge of who is responsible enough to
have the information. I am nobodies daddy and do
not feel any responsibilty to go around saying
"You are responsible...here is the code"
"You are irresponsible please go grow up"
Its a little belief I have called "Personal
Responsibility". Which means Ill be responsible
for MY actions, you be responsible for yours.
Going after clueful ethical coders because some
idiot could possibly misuse their tools amounts
to little more than trying to childproof the
world.
The ability to do a thing does not imply the
right to do a thing, any more than becoming able
to do something or making someone else able to
do something IS doing the thing.
This is of course in the case of blindly giving
things away. If it is given away with knowlede
that the tool WILL in fact be used in this manner
then that amounts to conspiracy. However...if its
given away freely to anyone that wants it...then
it becomes anonymous.
A) Isn't it one of the basic principals of
;) )
Gun saftey....
Guns ARE inherently dangerous and thus MUST always
be treated with care and respect.
B) whether ciggarrets ALWAYS do harm is debatable.
Certainly with chronic use they are damaging to
health etc...however...
I would still argue that it is MY body and I have
the right to decide what is harmfull to it and
what isn't
(to which end I have decided tobbacco products
are harmfull and I wont ever use them...same for
alcohol...not so for many others
so if I find virus interesting. and I write them
on my own systems, never putting one on someone
elses system...then I would supose thats ok.
However if I Enjoy playing with them...and I
write up a web page about them, and post some
example code and binaries for people who also
are interested and want to experiment...
suddenly I have done something wrong?
How is it wrong?
I think terror *IS* the MOST effective means to
achive political goals. You ever see "The Seige"
ya know...if a few terrorists setup in NYC...
things would go down much like the movie...with
the exception that there would be no quick happy
ending.
Personally I even extend "Terrorism" to describe
the actins of the peopl ein power in the US. Which
is a dirty mix of politicans and media whores.
Whenever there is something that they want to
change...the media naturally focuses on what gets
them ratings...and that is FEAR. They report
whatever stories will most likely tap into peoples
most basic fears. Murders, violence. The more
random the better.
Congress works similarly. They recently have been
working on an "Anti-Date Rape" act...named after
a girl who suposedly died after being slipped a
"Date Rape Drug" GHB.
The real cause of her death was later found to be
quite differnt (I believe it was a previously
unknown congenital heart defect but I do not
remember). However congress keeps harping on.
Forget that Date rape is already illegal...its
not about that. Thats just what they want to use
to scare people with...the only real "Date Rape Drug" is alcohol...and unlike some others...it is
used EVERY DAY.
They just work the media to instill fear in people
because when people are in fear they are irrational
so...then when congress passes a law...they seem
like heros fighting the good fight, when in reality
its usually new legislation that was already
covered by old legislation or it just advances
their own political agenda.
If you ask me...thats a form of terrorism...and
its sickeningly effective.
until someone comes running to you "Help we lost
the root password on our server and we can't
bring it down for maintenance right now! Let
us throw money at you to help!"
Since I mentioned it...
anyone have a good few program recomendations
for root-ing a Debian install (fairly standard
install..no X) thats about 6 months old...never
been upgraded?
Its my fathers box...I set it up for him and gave
him the root password...all he uses it for is
as a masquerading firewall...however we would like
to setup SAMBA on it as a domain controller.
...and he lost the root password (I let him have
it and told him to keep it safe...forgot to make
myself a uid 0 acount before I left)
Isn't that liks saying the people who were suing
gun manafacturers for "Making a dangerous product"
have merit?
If an author writes a program that can crash
windows machines...he has every right to do that.
He has every right to crash every WIndows PC he
owns with it and every one other people own and
give him permission to crash.
Software is a tool. It is a mistake to hold the
maker of a tool responsible for the outright
misuse of the person who USES a tool.
If I buy a lock pick thats fine. If I pick my way
into my house...thats fine. If I decide to use my
lock pick(s) to get into someone elses house..
that is _MY_ fault not the person who made the
lockpicks.
Hell even things like Winnuke HAVE been used
legitimatly. One day I had a windows machine I left on and left some stupid program running
that was doing things on the network I needed
to stop (mostly it was an application whose server
only allowed one session at time)....so...
I winnuked it from a linux box (stupid microsoft mail anyways)
man im glad I don't work with windows antymore.
As far as non-windows stuff....anyone else ever
been faced with a machine you can't easily get
phsyical acess to...hasn't been upgraded in a
while...the owner has LOST the root password...
and needs you to work on the system for him?
Sure...most people id just laugh at and tell to
piss off under those circumstances but...at least
once it happend and I had to try to root the box.
Wasn't sucessfull....but its a legitamite use for
such tools.
What you could try is this:
1) Post the code that you midified that is not
directly from the distribution you use on the
website.
2) contact another company (like cheapbytes) who
already sells copies of CDs with GPL software,
and thus already has to honor the GPL for stuff
they are already selling.
You migh tbe able to get a mutually beneficial
contract going where you refer customers to them
to get the original distribution source code
Since you have a contract with them, they are
providing it to your customers for you. As long
as the price is nominal (which it is for
some like cheapebytes) then it should still
satisfy.
Since whoever is selling CDs already has to honor
the GPL and provide the source for 3 years for
their normal sales, I am sure that at least one of
them would be willing to do it for you in exchange
for the publicity they would generate
(ie the offer would basically be advertising
to all of your customers)
just a thought
One thing that I am thinking now, almost as an
afterthought of this now old discussion....
A person who is actually contemplating suicide
is not in the same "State of Consciousness" as
most people are in on a daily basis.
You can't reason easily from one state of thinking
into another without understanding some things.
Thinking of this I am drawing on my experiances
as "Trip Sitter" for a friend who took some acid
and became convinced he was going to die.
There is a phenominon known as the Negative
thought loop. In this the mind gets caught in
a loop it seemingly can not escape. It is common
with both depression, "Bad Trips" and other
situations.
THink of the situation like this. The person
decides they can't go on with "The pain"
(depression basically) so they need to end it.
They realize that thgeir fammily does not
understand and can not. They KNOW their decision
will hurt the people that care for them. This
makes them feel even worst. This brings them
further into depression and makes the pain worst
and even more unbearable.
This depression was summed up very humerously
in "Office SPace" when the main character
said "Each day is progressivly worst. So every
day that you see me, it is the worst day of my
life"
Anyone still interested in this subject or not
sure what to think I would direct to :
http://www.xanthia.com/ash
this is the webpage for alt.suicide.holiday
it is a group where several suicidal people
regularly speak to eachother. They often speak
of how they plan to kill themselves etc...yet
at the same time...this talking is almost like
a therapy. One has to wonder how many people did
not kill themselves because of this group.
I would warn anyone vehimently against suicide
that you are not welcome there. They are quite
tired of people trying to "Sasve them" and tell
them "How great they are". It just makes them more
bitter and helps noone.
I would recomend the FAQ. It has some very thought
provoking portions. The methods file may not be
for the weak of heart but...it has some dark
humor that is just the kind of humor I like.
On the subject...
I would LOVE any info on these "Squid sensors"
I saw a documentary where someone had some...
I would imagine they would not be hard to make
for a person with a marginal background in
electronics and the right equipment.
I wanted to experiment with them myself at home..
never found any info. Any documentation on how
they work and would be setup would be great.
Well yea it would feel weird walking without
feeling like walking"
The brain would get confused fast. It is giving
signal to walk, it sees the motion of walking
but...the inner ear isn't detecting motion.
When the inner ear and brain loose sync...the
natural reaction is to begin "Stomac pump
procedue".
I had an interesting discussion about this with
someone onece. It apears that this may be an
evolutionary "Defence mechanism". Loss of
proper signal from the inner ear can often be
caused by certain chemicals, say the chemicals
in an amniata muscaria mushroom (big red caps)
or something in the nightshade fammily (other
than tomatoes)
Basically the idea goes that the brain stops
getting the right signals from the inner ear
so as a defence it induces vomitting so that if
this was caused by some poison, it may stop
absorbtion of the rest of it.
(which is why nausea is very common with alot of
drugs)
anyway...I would think that ALOT of people would
react very badly to any such setup.
Well, it does depend ont he person and the
circumstances. I have a freind who was arrested
a few years ago for something stupid. However
because a numbe ro fyears previous to this he
had attempted suicide, the police decided he
needed to be kept in a cell, alone, with no
clothes or bed sheets (and a metal bed) all night.
I have also read several writtings by suicidal
people and many have said that getting caught
made their lives much worst.
Of course...there are billions of differnt people
and everyone who does it has their own reasons.
Some find the "recovery process" to be life
inspireing, others just get more severely
depressed.
> I don't believe you have outlined any suicides i would consider acceptable
Well I must say I wasn't trying to. All I ever
said was "Mental Anguish" which, in my mind,
covers everything from severe depression to
Chronic pain with no cure.
However "Chronic pain with no cure" is a minority
of real suicides. Most are to end a severe
depression. Having felt depression at a point in
my life, even if not so severe that suicide was
even more than a passing thought, I can certainly
empathise in that I can understand how a person
could be depressed to the point where killing
themselves seems like a "Viable solution"
(interesting use of "viable" huh?)
Suicide definitly does have alot of both emotion
and social taboo. Your not suposed to talk about
it. It reminds me of the movie "Seven" where the
serial killer says to the police officer
"Its very comfortable for you to label me as insane."
While I can't say that I have lost a fammily
:) ...else I shall
member to suicide, I don't see it as quite
so sad.
Those who commit suicide are dead because they
want to be. They have gotten what they want, a
final end to their mental suffering.
What is really sad is how our society treats
suicide. Those who fail and are discovered are
likely to live life much worst off than they were
before. They get to live not only with their
mental anguish, but with being constantly watched,
their actions always questioned as they might be
getting ready to try again.
The real sadness, is that because of this attitude
most people who are thinking about suicide never
come out and talk about their feelins, as they
know there is no "safe" place to do that...doing
it is almost surely going to take away their
ability to commit suicide, as now people will be
prepared to "intervene". Which in turn means that
a useful outlet for working through their problems
is effectively shut off...and thus they are more
likely to "just do it".
I have always found suicide an interesting topic.
Its interesting to ask yourself "Could I do it?"
Most people say no but why?
I bet many would answer that its out of love for
this person or obligation for that... but I think
its allot mor ebasic than that.
Actually taking the final step of pulling the
trigger or swallowing the pill is not easy.
Both from my own thoughts about the subject, and
reading the writtings of people who actually
are suicidal (I am not...I am just fascinated by
the subject) it takes an extreme amount of mental
will power to do it. Which of course makes me
think that anyone who says people who commit suicide are weak, truely have no concept of what
is really involved.
I for one couldn't do it. It takes alot of will
power to force yourself to "catch the bus" and
find out once and for all whether all those
religious people who were thrusting pamphlets into
your hands on the street corner were right.
(I for one certainly hope not
have a quite warm eternity)
is basically, YOU don't like it, so you want to
see everyone elses fun taken away.
Please do not forget, you have the option to
NOT watch it.
Your words convey the idea that perhaps you suffer
from the paranoid fear that someone, somewhere
might be having fun.
Under US law there is no such thing as
"Intellectual Property"
Its COpywrite law that you mean. IP is a term
invented by lawyers of big companies to make
it sound like they have more rights than they do.
anyone looking for further comment on the subject
should check out www.gnu.org
I currently work for a large University as
a Sysadmin/Programer, and it seems every few
weeks we get an email from the RIAA telling us
that a student is running an MP3 site and that
we need to shut them down.
On a personal level, it pisses me off. I see
nothing morally wrong with what the kids are
doing, and I know my collegues express the same
feelings, but we shut them down anyway, even if
it gives me a sick feeling in my stomac.
However, surprize inspections and cutting off
computer access is way extreme. Here we ask the
student to remove them. Then they are reported to
someone or other. Basically, you do it, you get a
slap on the wrist.
Students HAVE lost all computer access over it,
but only the ones who openly ignored us and
continued their activities. I think pulling
any network acess from a first time violator is
extremely harsh (even if it is just "Home Access")
I certainly hope these students complain and are
heard. "Surprize inspections" are just wrong.
(Then again...so is using University computers for
MP3 distribution...keep it on your own machine
god damnit)
Then again...I supose the upside is that when I
get the RIAA notice, I can check the site to see
if they have anything good before they get shut
down (I am not in charge of shutting them down
myself...im mostly just a programer)
After readint the 3 articles
I MSNBC one was the worst. It was based almost
entirly on a few slashdot comments, very little
original thought. Big deal, they can take random
comments from people who don't necissarily have
any credentials. Its basically a Man on the street
opionon without leaving your cushy office.
II The wired article had a stupid title, but was
the most substance of the 3. The title was
something to the effect of "Judge says linux wont
last". No. He said linux is not going to be a
threat to windows in the short term.
This is true. There are not so many people
migrating to linux that its going to hurt MS
anytime soon. However...the future is open.
III The judge was stating fact as it is now and
has been for years. There is nothing to say that
sanctions against microsoft wont change this
and give linux a boost (afterall, isn;t the
poin tof this antitrust stuff to break the
monopoly stranglehold on competition?)
IV The 3rd article was almost as bad as the
MS article. It seems this author was more
interested with peoples comments on the trial
and how juvenile people can be (which isn't bad...
I like juvenile as much as th enetx guy).
Big deal...there is a general dislike of Microsoft
in this community...we are rejoycing at their bad
fortune (which they brough on themselves).
hmmmm buy red meat and goto the police and confess
you could already do that...
Your brain produces DMT naturally. DMT is a
schedual 1 hallucinogen. Thus, you are not only
in posession of DMT, you are manafacturing it.
Many states already make GHB posession illegal...
GHB is what is found in meat..and again
already in your brain.
If I were you, I would go turn myself in now.
I love Tesla Coils...however...
They do not produce "Lightning", they can NOT be
used for "Lightning suceptability tests".
Lightning is STATIC electricity Discharge from clouds. Lightning CAN be simulated by a Van De
Graff Generator.
Tesla coils put out discharges of High Frequency
Alternating Current. There are some MAJOR differences.
Alternating current exhibits a skin effect.
You can put your hand in the discharge of a tesla
coil (assuming its built right). The energy is of
such a high frequency that it goes AROUND your
skin, and does not penetrate the body deeply
enough to activate pain receptors, much less
stop your heart.
If the power output of the Tesla coil is high
enough, it still wont stop your heart...instead
it will cause RF burns (kind of equivalent to
sticking your hand in a microwave).
Static electricity on the other hand will never
give you and RF burn. It will however also not
exhibit a skin effect, and will happliy travel
through your pain receptors, heart, and wherever
else it damned well pleases.
This is not to say that their facility will be useless. It certainly could be used to test
aircrafts suceptability to high energey, high
frequency energy discharges.
Afterall, these things CAN transmit real power.
(There is a story of a person who was working on
a tesla coil in his basement...and a coat hanger
upstairs turned out to make a nice antena, and a
weater ont he hanger started to smolder, luckily
someone upsteairs smelled it and caught it in
time).
hmm... I have to wonder...
With a Tesla coil, capable of creating husge plasma discharges...an laser... I wonder if a
small laser could ionize the air enough to get
the tesla coil to do the rest of the work of
turning it into a conducting path....and then
a van de graf or taser to send a disabling
pulse....
Goto Home Depot near Boston...
Thats where I met the guy who MADE the Tesla coils
at the MOS (one of them)...got to go to his
basement and see some of his cool stuff.
(Half wave coil, tube coils he was working on,
an Electical pole transformer....)
Hurting civilian populations is how a war is won.
You make the war so hard on the people, that they
can no longer suport their countries war effort.
The only REAL advantage of cracking machines is to gain strategic information or to disrupt communications.
Taking out a power plant is silly, they can get it
back online too easy. Much better to bomb it to
rubble.