In a country such as China, merely maintaining a Freenet server or collection of pads for this scheme would likely be declared a capital offense. And since the authorities are willing to monitor every drip of water that flows through the pipes, they will see when you send that PGP-signed message, and arrest you. Whether they can crack the message or not is in most cases irrelevant.
What is needed here is a form of encryption in plain sight that doesn't say, "look at me I'm a cypherpunk" when you use it. What about this-
1. Take a copy of an innocuous 8-10k JPEG file from some large public site. Say some cute little kitty-cat from Pets.com or that sort of thing.
2. Use a program that takes a small text message, maybe a few dozen words- "The police chief practices Falun Gong and will warn you if trouble is coming."- and embeds them into the JPEG file by, say, flipping a handful of color values around ever so slightly.
3. Send the munged image to the recipient in an innocuous email- "Isn't this kitty so cute!!!:-)" While indistinguishable to the naked eye, a simple comparison of the differences between the file sent and the publically-available image file would reveal differences.
4. The crypto here need not be so strong, because the point is to focus on making the sending of the message look as innocuous as possible, and to create plausible deniability for the receiver.
5. Now the only program is to get the decoding software installed where it needs to be. I don't know what the right answer here would be.
A brief history of mass media, and why the Net is so special, and why it won't end up like TV.
In the beginning, there was no writing, and information was transmitted orally, if it was transmitted at all. Talk about loss-ful transmission.
Then there was writing. Of course only a few people could read or write, and they were the kings and the priests. Books had to be copeied by hand, and were thus quite expensive. A single man could very possibly own a copy of every book in existence in the west, and read them all in his lifetime.
The printing press made "transmission" of information cheap enough for people less rich than kings and priests, and so reading and writing started becoming commonplace. Not coincidentally this was also the time of the Enlightenment and the birth of modern ideals of democracy and liberty.
Then came radio and TV, and transmission of information once again became the property of a privileged few. Now "the media" had always existed in the form of newspapers and pamphleteers (and town criers) but not since feudal times had this much power been concentrated in the hands of so few.
TV, meet cable. Same one -> many transmission model, but a lot more choices and a lot cheaper. And don't tell me there aren't choices: The Food Channel, the History Channel, the Discovery Channel, the Jesus channels- if there's enough demand, there's a channel.
And now, while good, innovative programs are popping up like mushrooms on cable, the Big Three are pumping out more and more desperate trash like "Survivor" and "Millionaire" to revive their old magic. Of course it wasn't magic, it was monopoly.
And finally, the Internet. Like the printing press, it's a publishing/transmission system open to anyone who can afford it. And due to technological advantages, it's so cheap that in many cases it's free.
And if there's one truth that the history of cable tells us, it's that people want targeted content, even if the quality is a little lower. Sure, network sitcoms had better actors and production values than a lot of the early cable stuff, but the cable programs connected with their audience better. The net takes both aspects of this to levels much higher- in many cases the quality is abysmal, but there's so much of it you can find what you need.
My only fear is that the AOLs of this new media world will try to control this ability to self-publish by making the process more difficult and expensive. But I think that people like the freedom of the 'net too much, and will leave services that limit what they can see too much. This won't happen overnight, but it will happen over a period of years. Have a little faith.
Revenue? I see psuedo-networks with voluntary micro-payments as one of many possibilities. Sites that can build good communities will eventually find ways to monetize this with sponsorships, merchandising tie-ins, and so on. It is now still a lot cheaper to run a website than it is a magazine, newspaper, or professional sports team, all of which, mind you, are supported by advertising dollars.
the story line suffers from some too-familar devices, including the overused theme of an evil multinational corporation as bogeyman.
-cwk.
Where were you in April?
on
Boo No More
·
· Score: 2
"Is this the beginning of the e-Commerce collapse?"
Judging by the stock market, that happened about a month ago. It's not that investors don't think e-commerce is going to be all that and a bag of chips, it's just that it's not clear whether or not consumers will be the only real beneficiary.
You assert that direct(junk) mail and telemarketing are not viable, and yet they exist. Paradox? Non!
The key is response rates- telemarketing is expensive indeed, but successful sells are comparatively common. Direct mail less so, but it is much less expensive (they use bulk rate and metered pre-sorted rate postage so it's actually less than 32 cents/item).
Spam OTOH might have insanely low response rates but it quite cheap, so it still works. This is why marketers get so juiced up over the idea of targeted opt-in mailing lists. These have lower costs than direct mail, but potentially with the response rates of phone jockeys.
And yes, it's terribly trivial. Wait until they start broadcasting custom digital TV and the ads you see on Friends are targeted just for your household. We've only seen the first 1% of the bleeding edge of truly personalized marketing. In 20 years' time we'll look back and long for the days of simple spam.
As far as I'm concerned, let the RIAA and MPAA make accessing their garbage content as difficult as possible. The harder it is for people to listen to Britney Spears' latest single the better off we all are.
GCP Writes: big legal departments out there that would be horrified to learn of NSI's legal claim, but I'm willing to bet that few of them know about this yet.
Sometimes I wonder if people here read nothing but Slashdot. The worldview of 3/4ths of the posters here are so divorced from reality that a tremendous amount of intellectual potential is really going to waste. It pains me to see so many otherwise smart people getting whipped up into such frenzies over non-issues like this.
NSI is not going to "lose" valuable domains and re-sell them just because it's in the subscription agreement that they own your domain. I love the fact that every other registrar under the sun uses almost the same exact language and yet people excuse it because "so-and-so's not NSI." I sympathize with dislike of Network Solutions, they're a typical pain-in-the-ass monopoly company, just like the phone company.
Try sometime reading the terms of your bank account, credit cards, brokerage account, driver's license, or AAA membership, and you will likely be "shocked." Everybody who writes agreements goes to their utmost length to insert such "Cover My Ass" statements so they have some legal recourse in extraordinary circumstances.
I will readily retract and apologize for these statements if NSI does start pulling systematic monkey business with domains, but I'm not afraid b/c it isn't going to happen. Spend some time outside of Slashdot, get some fresh air, and stop making mountains out of nothing.
I'm no great lover of Dell, but its fortunes shouldn't be based on (or ruined by) the ineptness of a monopolistic supplier.
It isn't.
Dell has never passed up an opportunity to trash-talk AMD chips. Their loyalty means they get almost as many CPUs as they want, while their competitors go begging. Athlon? Hey, I just bought one and am a shareholder, but any idiot can tell you AMD is at the 1% mark in the business arena where Dell is king.
Dell gets very preferential treatment for their loyalty, and they have chosen to keep it that way. If Michael Dell called up AMD tomorrow and asked to place an order, Jerry Sanders would load up a wheelbarrow full of whatever Dell wanted and wheel it over personally. So don't tell me Dell doesn't have a choice.
Interiot is missing the forest for the trees in this case. I do not particularly care what combination of legal instruments the RIAA used to justify their position, because it clearly infringes upon my property rights.
When I purchase a CD, I also purchase a license to use its contents for my personal use and enjoyment as I see fit, to the extent that my use does not infringe their rights as holder of the copyright. So long as it is for my personal use only, a copy which is derived from the original should be 100% legal.
It's the name of a French-made missile designed to destroy runways. It drops from a plane, uses a parachute to point the nose towards the ground, then fires a rocket to plunge it in good and deep. Then it goes kaboom, leaving a nice big crater to clean up.
According to their own survey, ~30% of people prefer Red Hat, while another ~20% prefer Mandrake, which is based on Red Hat. Next closest is Debian with ~17%.
So if you were a company just starting to play with Linux support, what would you do? Take the time to support everything, or just support the most uniform and common distribution?
I think society today shoves all people with drinking problems into one group, and labels them all alcoholics.
My first year and a half in college, I fit the description of an alcoholic as used today. Couple bottles of Beam a week, plus whatever else, I was a mess. Still got decent grades, though...
Then I realized that I was pushing the envelope way too hard, and backed off. That was all it took for me. I continued to drink, but it doesn't cause me the problems it used to.
I think it comes down to where the addiction gets you- in the head, or in the body. I slowed down a lot and didn't miss being "Drinky the Drunk Guy" one bit, and haven't ever since then. But I don't doubt that there are many people physically addicted, and for them cold turkey may really be the only viable choice.
Who needs a printed manual? Go to the computer section of a good bookstore, and look around.
I much prefer printed docs to electronic ones, and I run two monitors. I think what most of the places turning to "e-manuals" really want to do is screw producing a serious manual altogether, and leace it to O'Reilly et. al., who will do better jobs anyway.
I still remember buying Autocad R10, it came with a hardcover manual the size of an encyclopedia and was about as info-packed. Now you spend $800 for Office 2kPro and all you get is a CD with a damn talking paperclip...
The Thunderbird will be produced in both Socket-A and Slot-A configurations, and should work on all existing Slot-A boards. Spitfire will be produced in Socket-A form factor only, b/c it is cheaper to make. Rumors say that it will not be pin-compatible with Slot-A, and thus no "slockets" will be available for it. -cwk.
Japanese gov't and business are tied together much more closely than in the US. This looks to me like a play by Sony to try and make sure not too many of the consoles make it out of Japan before the real release.
A small country just leased a piece of non-existent real estate for $50 million to a US-based startup, and you ask when the "Internet Revolution" will arrive?
Besides, it's not like they gave up rights to "the whole Internet," just to register names in their own domain.
However, this is just as dangerous as if they were able to get a new TLD.
What's so dangerous about this? I've been saying for a while that we need more TLDs, not tighter control over the existing three available ones.
$5000 a pop means that only commercial interests will be able to register domain names here
No, it means only interests able to spend more than $70 will be able to register. Just like office space on Madison Avenue, buddy. Nobody's stopping you or I from renting it.
it either has to be done by panel (ICANN) or the government.
Be careful what you wish for. If the government had known what the 'net would unleash, they might not have left it alone and let it spread so fast.
DotTV has a lot of power right now
PTTTTHBT! DotTV has a gimmick and hopes to sell some billboard space. This does not a strong, high-quality business make.
At best, they will help bring the issue of the need for new TLDs to the fore, and maybe spur some action.
The general public is not yet well aware of the direction in which forces like DMCA, UCITA, et. al. are going. When the British imposed the Tea Tax, every man and woman could feel the pressure immediately. Americans have a high tolerance for civil disobedience and mischief-makers if it appears they are working for some general good. Right now, however, the press looks at the DeCSS folks and their ilk as crackers out to do harm. While breaking bad software is fun and makes a momentary point, it is more important that we get the word out to the common man. Without him, we lose the fight. -cwk.
1. As a former fraternity brother 2. As an alumni of Tufts ('98) 3. As an ex-staffer of the Herald (those who know, know...) I say take the Globe, wrap its entire run up in fish, and burn it in a George Foreman Grilling Machine. If the Globe sucked any harder, it would create its own gravity. -cwk.
The same argument could be (and is) made of many sorts of software. Yes, but the difference here is that this keyboard/gizmo has no use that a non-law enforcement person should need it for. Monitoring usage of public systems is mostly concerned with web usage, and there are many easier, better solutions than this. Yet for someone with nefarious intent, the possibilites are endless. This thing is the computer equivalent of a lock pick, and should rightly be made illegal. -cwk.
Is there a natural right that you should be able to make a living as an artist?
Is there a natural right you should be able to make a living as a programmer? No, but you do have the right to demand a day's pay for a day's work.
If no one will pay for your music, perhaps you should get a day job?
Perhaps you should get a clue. Other than the few that get massive press (Backstreet Crap, Titney Spears), most artists work day jobs so they can do art at night and on weekends.
Perhaps it is possible to find a new way for artists to get paid, but what if it is not?
I think the greatest mistake people here make is in underestimating the willingness of government to fight this. Don't tempt it. Most people are sheep, and will cooperate with massive intrusions on their civil liberties, as they have with the war on drugs. I'm not saying this has any better chance of succeeding, but many people will get hurt in the process.
We understand the technology, we should try and come up with a solution.
-cwk -cwk.
What about understanding???
on
Laptop Exams?
·
· Score: 2
why is it important to know how to do everything by hand if you know how to make a machine do it for you?
Because you need to know how to ask the machine the right question.
I would put up big money on the bet that kids who learn to do calculus on paper are much better at applying their knowledge than kids who learn using calculators.
At some point, if you're lucky, you realize that education isn't about learning the answer to every question- it's about learning how to answer the questions.
Slashdot Mirror
In a country such as China, merely maintaining a Freenet server or collection of pads for this scheme would likely be declared a capital offense. And since the authorities are willing to monitor every drip of water that flows through the pipes, they will see when you send that PGP-signed message, and arrest you. Whether they can crack the message or not is in most cases irrelevant.
What is needed here is a form of encryption in plain sight that doesn't say, "look at me I'm a cypherpunk" when you use it. What about this-
1. Take a copy of an innocuous 8-10k JPEG file from some large public site. Say some cute little kitty-cat from Pets.com or that sort of thing.
2. Use a program that takes a small text message, maybe a few dozen words- "The police chief practices Falun Gong and will warn you if trouble is coming."- and embeds them into the JPEG file by, say, flipping a handful of color values around ever so slightly.
3. Send the munged image to the recipient in an innocuous email- "Isn't this kitty so cute!!! :-)" While indistinguishable to the naked eye, a simple comparison of the differences between the file sent and the publically-available image file would reveal differences.
4. The crypto here need not be so strong, because the point is to focus on making the sending of the message look as innocuous as possible, and to create plausible deniability for the receiver.
5. Now the only program is to get the decoding software installed where it needs to be. I don't know what the right answer here would be.
Anyway, just my two cents. Take it FWIW.
-cwk.
In the beginning, there was no writing, and information was transmitted orally, if it was transmitted at all. Talk about loss-ful transmission.
Then there was writing. Of course only a few people could read or write, and they were the kings and the priests. Books had to be copeied by hand, and were thus quite expensive. A single man could very possibly own a copy of every book in existence in the west, and read them all in his lifetime.
The printing press made "transmission" of information cheap enough for people less rich than kings and priests, and so reading and writing started becoming commonplace. Not coincidentally this was also the time of the Enlightenment and the birth of modern ideals of democracy and liberty.
Then came radio and TV, and transmission of information once again became the property of a privileged few. Now "the media" had always existed in the form of newspapers and pamphleteers (and town criers) but not since feudal times had this much power been concentrated in the hands of so few.
TV, meet cable. Same one -> many transmission model, but a lot more choices and a lot cheaper. And don't tell me there aren't choices: The Food Channel, the History Channel, the Discovery Channel, the Jesus channels- if there's enough demand, there's a channel.
And now, while good, innovative programs are popping up like mushrooms on cable, the Big Three are pumping out more and more desperate trash like "Survivor" and "Millionaire" to revive their old magic. Of course it wasn't magic, it was monopoly.
And finally, the Internet. Like the printing press, it's a publishing/transmission system open to anyone who can afford it. And due to technological advantages, it's so cheap that in many cases it's free.
And if there's one truth that the history of cable tells us, it's that people want targeted content, even if the quality is a little lower. Sure, network sitcoms had better actors and production values than a lot of the early cable stuff, but the cable programs connected with their audience better. The net takes both aspects of this to levels much higher- in many cases the quality is abysmal, but there's so much of it you can find what you need.
My only fear is that the AOLs of this new media world will try to control this ability to self-publish by making the process more difficult and expensive. But I think that people like the freedom of the 'net too much, and will leave services that limit what they can see too much. This won't happen overnight, but it will happen over a period of years. Have a little faith.
Revenue? I see psuedo-networks with voluntary micro-payments as one of many possibilities. Sites that can build good communities will eventually find ways to monetize this with sponsorships, merchandising tie-ins, and so on. It is now still a lot cheaper to run a website than it is a magazine, newspaper, or professional sports team, all of which, mind you, are supported by advertising dollars.
-cwk.
-cwk.
Judging by the stock market, that happened about a month ago. It's not that investors don't think e-commerce is going to be all that and a bag of chips, it's just that it's not clear whether or not consumers will be the only real beneficiary.
-cwk.
The key is response rates- telemarketing is expensive indeed, but successful sells are comparatively common. Direct mail less so, but it is much less expensive (they use bulk rate and metered pre-sorted rate postage so it's actually less than 32 cents/item).
Spam OTOH might have insanely low response rates but it quite cheap, so it still works. This is why marketers get so juiced up over the idea of targeted opt-in mailing lists. These have lower costs than direct mail, but potentially with the response rates of phone jockeys.
And yes, it's terribly trivial. Wait until they start broadcasting custom digital TV and the ads you see on Friends are targeted just for your household. We've only seen the first 1% of the bleeding edge of truly personalized marketing. In 20 years' time we'll look back and long for the days of simple spam.
-cwk.
-cwk.
Sometimes I wonder if people here read nothing but Slashdot. The worldview of 3/4ths of the posters here are so divorced from reality that a tremendous amount of intellectual potential is really going to waste. It pains me to see so many otherwise smart people getting whipped up into such frenzies over non-issues like this.
NSI is not going to "lose" valuable domains and re-sell them just because it's in the subscription agreement that they own your domain. I love the fact that every other registrar under the sun uses almost the same exact language and yet people excuse it because "so-and-so's not NSI." I sympathize with dislike of Network Solutions, they're a typical pain-in-the-ass monopoly company, just like the phone company.
Try sometime reading the terms of your bank account, credit cards, brokerage account, driver's license, or AAA membership, and you will likely be "shocked." Everybody who writes agreements goes to their utmost length to insert such "Cover My Ass" statements so they have some legal recourse in extraordinary circumstances.
I will readily retract and apologize for these statements if NSI does start pulling systematic monkey business with domains, but I'm not afraid b/c it isn't going to happen. Spend some time outside of Slashdot, get some fresh air, and stop making mountains out of nothing.
-cwk.
It is now quite clear to me that the arrogance of this company knows absolutely no bounds, and deserves whatever it gets.
-cwk.
That's why long distance costs less than 10 cents/minute here in the US, right?
I don't care how greedy the corporations are, so long as there are enough of them. Competition among greedy telecoms = DSL to my house for $40/month.
-cwk.
It isn't.
Dell has never passed up an opportunity to trash-talk AMD chips. Their loyalty means they get almost as many CPUs as they want, while their competitors go begging. Athlon? Hey, I just bought one and am a shareholder, but any idiot can tell you AMD is at the 1% mark in the business arena where Dell is king.
Dell gets very preferential treatment for their loyalty, and they have chosen to keep it that way. If Michael Dell called up AMD tomorrow and asked to place an order, Jerry Sanders would load up a wheelbarrow full of whatever Dell wanted and wheel it over personally. So don't tell me Dell doesn't have a choice.
-cwk.
When I purchase a CD, I also purchase a license to use its contents for my personal use and enjoyment as I see fit, to the extent that my use does not infringe their rights as holder of the copyright. So long as it is for my personal use only, a copy which is derived from the original should be 100% legal.
-cwk.
Follow this link for more.
-cwk.
-cwk.
So if you were a company just starting to play with Linux support, what would you do? Take the time to support everything, or just support the most uniform and common distribution?
-cwk.
My first year and a half in college, I fit the description of an alcoholic as used today. Couple bottles of Beam a week, plus whatever else, I was a mess. Still got decent grades, though...
Then I realized that I was pushing the envelope way too hard, and backed off. That was all it took for me. I continued to drink, but it doesn't cause me the problems it used to.
I think it comes down to where the addiction gets you- in the head, or in the body. I slowed down a lot and didn't miss being "Drinky the Drunk Guy" one bit, and haven't ever since then. But I don't doubt that there are many people physically addicted, and for them cold turkey may really be the only viable choice.
-cwk.
I much prefer printed docs to electronic ones, and I run two monitors. I think what most of the places turning to "e-manuals" really want to do is screw producing a serious manual altogether, and leace it to O'Reilly et. al., who will do better jobs anyway.
I still remember buying Autocad R10, it came with a hardcover manual the size of an encyclopedia and was about as info-packed. Now you spend $800 for Office 2kPro and all you get is a CD with a damn talking paperclip...
-cwk.
The Thunderbird will be produced in both Socket-A and Slot-A configurations, and should work on all existing Slot-A boards. Spitfire will be produced in Socket-A form factor only, b/c it is cheaper to make. Rumors say that it will not be pin-compatible with Slot-A, and thus no "slockets" will be available for it. -cwk.
Japanese gov't and business are tied together much more closely than in the US. This looks to me like a play by Sony to try and make sure not too many of the consoles make it out of Japan before the real release.
Besides, it's not like they gave up rights to "the whole Internet," just to register names in their own domain.
-cwk.
What's so dangerous about this? I've been saying for a while that we need more TLDs, not tighter control over the existing three available ones.
$5000 a pop means that only commercial interests will be able to register domain names here
No, it means only interests able to spend more than $70 will be able to register. Just like office space on Madison Avenue, buddy. Nobody's stopping you or I from renting it.
it either has to be done by panel (ICANN) or the government.
Be careful what you wish for. If the government had known what the 'net would unleash, they might not have left it alone and let it spread so fast.
DotTV has a lot of power right now
PTTTTHBT! DotTV has a gimmick and hopes to sell some billboard space. This does not a strong, high-quality business make.
At best, they will help bring the issue of the need for new TLDs to the fore, and maybe spur some action.
-cwk.
The general public is not yet well aware of the direction in which forces like DMCA, UCITA, et. al. are going. When the British imposed the Tea Tax, every man and woman could feel the pressure immediately. Americans have a high tolerance for civil disobedience and mischief-makers if it appears they are working for some general good. Right now, however, the press looks at the DeCSS folks and their ilk as crackers out to do harm. While breaking bad software is fun and makes a momentary point, it is more important that we get the word out to the common man. Without him, we lose the fight. -cwk.
1. As a former fraternity brother 2. As an alumni of Tufts ('98) 3. As an ex-staffer of the Herald (those who know, know...) I say take the Globe, wrap its entire run up in fish, and burn it in a George Foreman Grilling Machine. If the Globe sucked any harder, it would create its own gravity. -cwk.
The same argument could be (and is) made of many sorts of software. Yes, but the difference here is that this keyboard/gizmo has no use that a non-law enforcement person should need it for. Monitoring usage of public systems is mostly concerned with web usage, and there are many easier, better solutions than this. Yet for someone with nefarious intent, the possibilites are endless. This thing is the computer equivalent of a lock pick, and should rightly be made illegal. -cwk.
Is there a natural right you should be able to make a living as a programmer? No, but you do have the right to demand a day's pay for a day's work.
If no one will pay for your music, perhaps you should get a day job?
Perhaps you should get a clue. Other than the few that get massive press (Backstreet Crap, Titney Spears), most artists work day jobs so they can do art at night and on weekends.
Perhaps it is possible to find a new way for artists to get paid, but what if it is not?
I think the greatest mistake people here make is in underestimating the willingness of government to fight this. Don't tempt it. Most people are sheep, and will cooperate with massive intrusions on their civil liberties, as they have with the war on drugs. I'm not saying this has any better chance of succeeding, but many people will get hurt in the process.
We understand the technology, we should try and come up with a solution.
-cwk -cwk.
Because you need to know how to ask the machine the right question.
I would put up big money on the bet that kids who learn to do calculus on paper are much better at applying their knowledge than kids who learn using calculators.
At some point, if you're lucky, you realize that education isn't about learning the answer to every question- it's about learning how to answer the questions.
-cwk.