I've used the Asirra Project for about a year now on my site with fantastic results. I've had absolutely 0 bot registrations, when I was getting 10-20 a week with the old CAPTCHA. Given all the press CAPTCHA's have been getting lately, it makes me wonder why more people aren't implementing something of this nature.
While I usually check both (/. for more the tech news, and Digg out of pure boredom), I think that the most humorous part of this whole thing is that this key was released February 7th. It took almost 3 months for it to explode...that just seems very slow...
Just seems like Digg got taken over with by 12 year olds that are posting the key just because they were told not to. What'd be nice is somebody with an actual understanding of AES to write a fully functional libaacs for this. Doom9 has some primitive tools up and running. I'd do it, but I don't have an HDDVD or BluRay player...anybody willing to donate?
The funniest part is that if the MPAA hadn't sent a DMCA notice at all in the first place, this would've just stayed on the Doom9 forums for a while and been a fringe thing...but now it's all over the place. Behold, the power of you, Diggers. Now stop being morons about the whole thing.
I had my Gateway laptop keyboard replaced no questions asked. I just told them that my 'A' key had worn and broken due to standard wear and tear, and they sent me a new keyboard and I sent the old one back. I don't remember if we discussed me using Linux, though.
...just because it's alternative. Ethanol has the only advantages that it's not oil and that it's renewable. Environmentally and financially it's foolish, as a previous poster pointed out. But one shouldn't be all that surprised to find us Libertarians aligned with anybody. It's the Party of Principle for a reason: Libertarians do their best to stay out of partisan politics and make public policy about what's actually best (gasp!).
In this case, Libertarians are against any and all forms of government subsidies, and it's rather obvious why if we're absolutely pro-free market. Nobody should read this article and say, "Wow, that's surprising that they're working together!" Rather, they should read it and really wonder why these different groups oppose subsidies for ethanol and whether or not ethanol is a viable choice for an alternative fuel.
I'm not a zealot by any means when it comes to free software. I just want to use Linux and I also want to watch stuff on YouTube or browse around Dane Cook's site or whatever. Flash isn't my favorite program in the world, but not all of us are "TEH OMGZZZ FLASH SUXORZ AND IT SHOULD DIE!111!!!1111!" Some people like to use their computers for more reasons than to simply make a statement or a point.
On that note, done some limited testing and it works very well. Woohoo!
Microsoft should stick with the WGA to be validated only during updates. Otherwise, if someone hacks it and rerouts that message, they can grab all sorts of good authentication information that can be used to further more piracy. It seems to me that WGA is a very needed tool for Microsoft (given the amount of piracy outside the US), but they implemented it very poorly.
Validation should occur on an as-needed and secure basis _only_, and not however often Microsoft would like. It's practices like these today that leave bigger security holes for tomorrow.
I've done a bit of research on this, and plan on expanding it in the very near future, but preliminary research shows that OSS continually increases gross margins while decreasing R&D costs without anything but positive effects on revenue and/or profits.
Unfortunately, I can't post my research since it's mid-research and not ready for release, but it's something to think about (and easily seen if you can read financial statements).
Is the argument oversimplified? Absolutely. But the author still has a rather decent point: People aren't educated about Open Source Software. Unfortunately, what we see is an automatic "It's too hard to install" since it's not preinstalled. Most OSS ports for Windows require downloading 1 file and installing it. Okay, fine, the GIMP requires 2.
The point is this: There have been huge strides in terms of ease-of-use for installation and usability all throughout FOSS. Ubuntu is very easy to install, yes, but it is free, so you need to install the codecs. Luckily there are easy to install/run programs out there that do these all for you built by the community. And if you don't like that, Mepis is there, or Xandros, or whatever else you'd like.
The problem isn't that FOSS is hard to use, it's that people are afraid to use it. They don't go into Best Buy and purchase it and bring it home and can call a number on the back of the box when they need help. They're afraid they're getting scammed by "free" software. Seriously. I offered somebody Linux once and he went into this whole tirade about how somebody must be making money off of it and he's not going to be the victim of identity theft or a source of adware, which is what it must be, since it's free. It quite simply comes down to the fact that people just don't understand FOSS. The real challenge is to put FOSS into a very, very, very simple argument that outlines what it is, but doesn't delve into the intricacies of it. By doing so, you'll connect with more people...but only if you promulgate that message.
Slashdot Mirror
I've used the Asirra Project for about a year now on my site with fantastic results. I've had absolutely 0 bot registrations, when I was getting 10-20 a week with the old CAPTCHA. Given all the press CAPTCHA's have been getting lately, it makes me wonder why more people aren't implementing something of this nature.
While I usually check both (/. for more the tech news, and Digg out of pure boredom), I think that the most humorous part of this whole thing is that this key was released February 7th. It took almost 3 months for it to explode...that just seems very slow...
Just seems like Digg got taken over with by 12 year olds that are posting the key just because they were told not to. What'd be nice is somebody with an actual understanding of AES to write a fully functional libaacs for this. Doom9 has some primitive tools up and running. I'd do it, but I don't have an HDDVD or BluRay player...anybody willing to donate?
The funniest part is that if the MPAA hadn't sent a DMCA notice at all in the first place, this would've just stayed on the Doom9 forums for a while and been a fringe thing...but now it's all over the place. Behold, the power of you, Diggers. Now stop being morons about the whole thing.
I had my Gateway laptop keyboard replaced no questions asked. I just told them that my 'A' key had worn and broken due to standard wear and tear, and they sent me a new keyboard and I sent the old one back. I don't remember if we discussed me using Linux, though.
...just because it's alternative. Ethanol has the only advantages that it's not oil and that it's renewable. Environmentally and financially it's foolish, as a previous poster pointed out. But one shouldn't be all that surprised to find us Libertarians aligned with anybody. It's the Party of Principle for a reason: Libertarians do their best to stay out of partisan politics and make public policy about what's actually best (gasp!).
In this case, Libertarians are against any and all forms of government subsidies, and it's rather obvious why if we're absolutely pro-free market. Nobody should read this article and say, "Wow, that's surprising that they're working together!" Rather, they should read it and really wonder why these different groups oppose subsidies for ethanol and whether or not ethanol is a viable choice for an alternative fuel.
After all, alternative != better.
Brian Regan also does the joke about being the dumb kid in school.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=yvGtkodKltU
Moosen! I saw a flock of moosen in the woods! In the woodsen! In the woodsenes!
I'm not a zealot by any means when it comes to free software. I just want to use Linux and I also want to watch stuff on YouTube or browse around Dane Cook's site or whatever. Flash isn't my favorite program in the world, but not all of us are "TEH OMGZZZ FLASH SUXORZ AND IT SHOULD DIE!111!!!1111!" Some people like to use their computers for more reasons than to simply make a statement or a point. On that note, done some limited testing and it works very well. Woohoo!
Microsoft should stick with the WGA to be validated only during updates. Otherwise, if someone hacks it and rerouts that message, they can grab all sorts of good authentication information that can be used to further more piracy. It seems to me that WGA is a very needed tool for Microsoft (given the amount of piracy outside the US), but they implemented it very poorly.
Validation should occur on an as-needed and secure basis _only_, and not however often Microsoft would like. It's practices like these today that leave bigger security holes for tomorrow.
I've done a bit of research on this, and plan on expanding it in the very near future, but preliminary research shows that OSS continually increases gross margins while decreasing R&D costs without anything but positive effects on revenue and/or profits. Unfortunately, I can't post my research since it's mid-research and not ready for release, but it's something to think about (and easily seen if you can read financial statements).
Is the argument oversimplified? Absolutely. But the author still has a rather decent point: People aren't educated about Open Source Software. Unfortunately, what we see is an automatic "It's too hard to install" since it's not preinstalled. Most OSS ports for Windows require downloading 1 file and installing it. Okay, fine, the GIMP requires 2.
4 /18/1941251&tid=78&tid=26.
The point is this: There have been huge strides in terms of ease-of-use for installation and usability all throughout FOSS. Ubuntu is very easy to install, yes, but it is free, so you need to install the codecs. Luckily there are easy to install/run programs out there that do these all for you built by the community. And if you don't like that, Mepis is there, or Xandros, or whatever else you'd like.
The problem isn't that FOSS is hard to use, it's that people are afraid to use it. They don't go into Best Buy and purchase it and bring it home and can call a number on the back of the box when they need help. They're afraid they're getting scammed by "free" software. Seriously. I offered somebody Linux once and he went into this whole tirade about how somebody must be making money off of it and he's not going to be the victim of identity theft or a source of adware, which is what it must be, since it's free. It quite simply comes down to the fact that people just don't understand FOSS. The real challenge is to put FOSS into a very, very, very simple argument that outlines what it is, but doesn't delve into the intricacies of it. By doing so, you'll connect with more people...but only if you promulgate that message.
Let's just hope that there's not a bug in the kernel that will keep it from spreading - http://software.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=06/0