Not the amount of stuff but the way they may use it. Carnivore is not bad because it sniifs every possible packet. Man I also sometimes find INTERSTING things while sniffing my channels for technical reasons... But if I get the right to send one guy to Magadan (believe me, it's Bahamas^-30) then that's a problem. However if laws and courts state that such information can be used only under written order, then sorry pals, but I can trade nukes and you have NOTHING against me... Really do you think that things are s private? At state or high-politics levels, things are so transparent that it is no wonder people talk about "information bordels" while referring such circles. Remember Clinton and his lovely adventures... The only thing we didn't see were hidden camera shots...
Yeah Carnivore looks bad as it seems to knock our privacy to the ground. So get to the ground! Land on Earth! Carnivore is being used. And there are hundreds of tons of information running around about the likes and dislikes of people. We can get addresses, phones, private info about people and organisations. Internet turned everything into a village. So it is natural for FBI to want a bigger grip on the stuff. However two things come out. First who will pay for this. Let's imagine I'm an american citizen. Me? Hey hold on a moment, that's MY pocket and I want THAT money used for things more rational than this. Now I'm a foreign citizen. Hey what are you doing IN MY BORDER? Get out or I start taking the dust outta my nukes ok?
Second, does this helps catching criminals? Generally no. The amount of information is too big to gather and process in a rational way. If you wanna catch him then you should already gave something against him and know what you're looking for. Like any normal detective does...
Third, can anyone use this against me? Yes. But if this stuff comes up then sorry, scrap it ASAP. Or else the same state that supports it may get some very hard times to live. Believe me. I lived in two totalitarian regimes and I know how people get harassed like cats. The results were quite destructive for those who tried to build the Perfect State. Today I know that many people who overused their powers are in the corner of society or six feet under ground...
Today, too much sniffing causes very serious troubles to the one who does it. More than the harassments you may get. The only thing is that if you're afraid or fearful. Then they will get you. But here the problem is nothing but you...
Frankly I got used that people may harass me for something... For most people this may be stress, trauma, hard times. But frankly I consider it also a school. The next ones will have to step two floors more to try something on me. If people reacted this way then FBI would think TEN times before its next silly move. Don't bash Carnivore. Tell them let go but who'll pay it. And what really does (you HAVE the right to know this). And if something gets wrong ask how FBI will really justify it. In the end, FBI will find 100 justifications to not to act the way it does...
''It wasn't necessarily anything that was terribly disruptive, but it was more sort of the potential that it could have been worse,'' Rahn said of the outage Carnivore caused.
As many predictions told about... Sooner or later oversizing eavesdropping will cause such things...
People there is one small principle. If "Total Control" would be possible, then Egyptians would have already achieved this, Inquisition would only seek mutants and Hitler or Stalin didn't needed to make so many discourses and their police force would be 1000 times smaller... Humans are too complex to have a control system last more than a few years. And even 70 years could not break Russians of their anti-state character. As we perfectly know, any Europeoid will never trust the State, and will bash it in every possible chance. And no one of African origin will ever, ever humbly bound his neck without thinking about turning the neck of his master/boss/patron. And Asians will always say the State is needed while being member of sects, secret organisations or believing in things with a much more anarchist trend than anyone else. We humans are rebels and even working for the State we will ALWAYS defy it.
The only chance to change this is to lobotomize all of us... Or to extreminate everyone and clone monkeys in our place.
Sincerly I got aquainted to the fact that anyone may know things I wouldn't like to show. The Internet is a big school. But the fact that someone knows something more confidential or private about you does not mean that things may turn against you. On the contrary. the spell may turn against the wizard and he may get really hurt. And I have seen several examples of this...
Wanna read my mail? PLEASE! (300 mails a day) Wanna pick up my bookmarks. Cool. (4500 links) Wanna see my private life? Be my guest. (Ooooh myyyy... Get ready to live 32 hours a day) Sniff, crack, break, put cameras, do anything you may. (If you can get where I am and where I live) ANYWAY, YOU WILL NEVER KNOW WHO REALLY I AM. Without that any knowledge about me may turn dangerously against the perpetrator of my privacy.
"Now, I'm the Shadow of Night... The Phantom of Light... The Black Star... That shines on the Darkness of Space... I became a walker" Shantz Ektanoor
And so what? Don't you see how cool is to sniff on your E-mail, your friends E-mail, your downloads, the pics you see? This voyeur madness overcomes everything. That's a sickness with every E-policeman still carrying a fresh polished and shiny badge from running after street gangs, patrolling streets and midnight rides... Yeah the FBI is MORE than this. But it is still a police force in most of its nature. They see the power of the net, the hackers, the megatons of info running over the screens, the fantasy world TV and Holywood poisons them. And they wanna KNOW EVERYTHING! Well I understand them because when Internet came up with the Web, many of us also wanted the same thing.
The best remedy for this Carnivore stuff is to let them go. Really! In a year or two, they will have enough people in the psychos to get an idea that this was a stupid idea...
The only problem is that if they will try to force the net to slow down to cope with their work. That is a possible chance. But then they will be hitting hard on someone's pockets. And i believe that no security in the world costs enough to let this go...
Now How many Brittish subjects has The Matrix? One hundred thousand? More? Well let's pick one hundred thousand and 7 years.
Oooooohhhh myyyyyyyyy
>5,000 Terabytes.
Now let's pick up your filer. How much does it cost? Let's pick it up for US$100,000. Yeah things will cost lesser in time, but there is also maintenance, replacements and many things more. But let's just now consider that each unit will go this way as experience shows such huge systems getting up to such levels. Soooo...
We get only on ONE storage not less than 500 million greenies (oh btw I'm not american). That's a Hell of a Space project... Going to Cosmos?
Not exactly. Because whatever bill you may shot out of the Parliament, one should also consider the aspects of technology and resources. And that's the point where, no matter patriotic feel you may have for being Brittain (note the two tt's) a pioneer, the bill will fail in life. And no one in his good mind will try to overcome financial resources for a "ideal" scheme. Overweighting people with a resource a state needs for itself, may turn this same state into an outlaw. How many times overtaxing turned into revolutions and revolts? Or something even bigger? Let us remember the Boston Tea Party...
Now I'm not taking things just out of the hat. I'm telling facts. And the one fact is that doing such things overcomes every other possible expenses. And besides this does not mean 80% of what you pay now. Add more than a dollar to what you pay BY THE HOUR (local calculations, i don't know you prices in Brittain).
And on what concerns my spellings... Well you are Britts in our language. It may not be correct in english. But I can't remember all correct spellings among several languages in 5-6 seconds... I know you care for the correctness of your language. But some have been naming you this way for longer than you created english... So I think I also have a right to be "wrong".
Cool, I wanna see what Brittish taxpayers will say when someone will try to implement such thing... Because only two thingies will come out of this. First it will be impossible, technically and humanly, to hold up, control, process and manipulate such level of information. A week on logging more than 2 thousand users is enough to overkill your best servers (I'm not talking about this iXXX trashcan arch), fill up the capacity of your disks (reaching a good 300 gigs) and turn every channel into a 2400 bps link in the end term. People did this and came into the conclusion it is MADNESS to try hunting everyone and everything.
But what is more funny is the financial part... Such surveillance eats up to 80% of communication costs in the end... And it will be VERY FUNNY to see Brittish users paying for such...
There are very few chances that the liquid is nothing but water. Water is an universal solvent. A similar one is amonnia but at temperatures much lower than it could be possible on Mars. Second we have data about some of the mineralogical compositions of Mars. Even considering just magmatic rocks we can be sure that we are dealing with water (water also has some important role on their formation). But we also have some sedimentary rocks on Pathfinder's place to show that water also participate in larger geologic processes. So we have a planet that clearly possessed a high temperature during formation, showing rocks with clear traces of water presence, and sedimentary rocks with clear hydrological properties. Who else should be then? Carbon Dioxide. First it is much less reactive. Second the thing is more volatile than water. Third I don't really see a goo presence of it on Mars rocks. In fact, here there seems to exist some sort of dessymetry between atmosphere and surface.
And note that Mars is not far from the Sun. While this is questionable in some points, some theories talk about the terodynamical layers of the solar system. For example most water is vapour in Mercury/Venus, liquid on Earth/Mars, solid on outer planets. Well, we have Europe showing that things may not be so simple. But still there is some sense on it.
You are not quite correct about the probes lifetimes. A few hours. And one seemed to have last nearly a day. Soviet Union sent nearly nearly 15 probes there.
While I agree with you on the order on how science news are published, I can't agree with you on this pecualiar one. Because I have noted that recently pressure started to mount about several things concerning Mars. And this press releas came JUST IN TIME...
On what concerns these conferences itself. You points are good. But that's not the way NASA has been acting recently. We all know that they speak a lot about "AMAZING", "EXTRAORDINARY", "WE ARE ALL EXCITED" in these things. And it does not sound science. It sounds much more as Marketing PR and people sniffing glue. And which causes serious glitches. Before getting offended pick up that some NASA conference. Like the one about "Life from Mars" and look and listen very well to it. You wanna tell me that these are professional answers? That people are talking in a qualified voice? That they are answering to what reporters ask them? To me it looks much like a press-conference done after a Watergate-like scandal...
Slashdot people may be too demending. But lots of Slashdotters have not seen one conference but many. And we know that sometimes the quantity of "amazings" and "excitements" of NASA's experts sound much more like "GIVE SOME MORE LSD TO BE MORE EXCITED". Because apart of babling a few facts, stating a pair of fuzzy photos, and presenting two three badly made diagrams, there is no real Science on it. Yeah, frankly. Not all NASA conferences look like this. But some, and SPECIALLY the ones on Mars may look to anything except Science...
Well on the specifics of the sediment "found" by Malin and is colleague I still know nothing. I have to see the frames so I can say it is an original discover or another official re-discovery. However I can tell you that a large section of Mars presents sedimentation that is much proper for sea basins rather than volcanic or dust. First let me note that the evidence of the old Ocean is messed up. The washover there destroyed most landscape and sealines to a level that formed a completely new landscape. However it is well seen some features that are proper of oceans and seas.
First - hills. And here Cydonia is one of the best places. These hills possess assymetrical erosion. They are eroded more in one direction than the other. No significative but still visible.
First II - hills again most hills seem to present a "mesa" morphology that is common by its height. This is probably the best evidence of how deep were Mars waters. The tops were cleaned out by rains and winds, while the base was protected by water.
Second - sedimentary layers. Dust sediments would not produce such a common and large sedimentary layering. Volcanic ones could have produced them but still there is the question that we are dealing with quite regular layers. And a very powerful deepness of sediments. For a volcanological explanation this would mean a constant periodic work for a very large period of time. Anyway not far from possible. Let's remember Io...
Third the river basins. In several places one can see large rivers that end in a surface much similar to sea basins. And there are very clear traces of the same sedimentary deposition rivers produce on Earth. Note that the form of this deposition is very peculiar. In the center of the depositions blanket, there are small valleys. As if the river continues to flow a little bit inside the sea. The way they form can only happen if they go inside water.
Fourth the "aftershock" sediments - After the huge water movements, water started to evaporate into space. Much like what you see on seaside, during low tide, there are several regions of Mars showing lines of sediments. In some places there are even evidence of the "last pools of water"
Fifth the "stairs" formations - some investigators, and even Malin noted this. Talked about hte fact that several places in Mars present a clear "stairs"" formation which is very common on Earth. On Earth, land tends to rise and fall into Ocean for very large periods of time. In some places you can see "stairs" (one such case is in California).
Sixth - the Water Layers - On Arabia Terra water is still flowing. And it seems to have a property of being trapped only in some specific layers. Much the same way as in Earth. For such thing to happen we should take into consideration that the history of these sediments is clearly differentiated. Some hold water others not. So what we have here is not only the demonstration that these sediments could not be formed by volcans or dust (here chemical differentations are mostly insignificant). What we have here is that not only water formed them but that they were formed on different physico-chemical conditions. And probably biological ones.
But this would also mean that what happened in Mars did not happen 100000000000000000000 years ago...
You would be correct if this were only Hoaglands, UFO searchers and paranoia-minded schizos knocking NASA's doors. However it is not the case. Since the very first Mariner's missions, several investigators pointed to SEVERAL frames where CLEARLY there were traces much similar to those seen on Earth's hydrological conditions. For some time there was even a 50/50 relationship of leaving both theories fighting against each other. But after around 1973 it seems that someone or something pushed NASA toward the "Dry Theory". And even after all evidence pouring from the Vikings, NASA kept its pace on these theories. They evolved even into a world where we already had chronologies, epochs, timeframes, full tectonic explanations and a whole bunch of theoretical trash. What spoiled this was the Mars Face... Because the talk went around one of the possible oceanic landscapes in Mars. And while no one could get his good scientific article to be edited on Science or Nature, the topic didn't die. Because the Mars Face allowed it to live in a parallel world. Any person with a scientific knowledge would note many features on Cydonia that strongly suggest a seaside landscape. So a curiosity about a stupid hill spoiled a lot of things in NASA...
They are now reviving the truth. And why? Because there are OTHER things they still don't want to talk about. About present water in Mars. About VERY POSSIBLE LIFE in Mars. Dr. Van Flandern seem to have found some strong evidences about this in the South Hemisphere. I think that there is also some good chances to find it on Arabia Terra. And I should tell that this is EXTRAORDINARY. Because it means that "they" survived the tragedy that dried the planet in very short time. And temperatures then were probably uch bigger then simple pasteurization...
And, beyond this, there is the "weird" world. not pyramids or anything like that. Well there are pyramids in Mars but there is a chance they are a BIG NATURAL weirdness of Mars. Done with the probable help of aliens but those only wanted some sunlight... There are things much weirder than this. As one hill sorrounded by a compact set of craters all around and having a strange inner "valley" sorrouding its center... War Games? Don't know, frankly. But it is data that should not be ignored by any means. Until we get deeper in the facts and analysis.
But about NASA. We surely have that they release information to not release other information. It is intersting to note that the issue of "there is water in Mars" started to rise and NASA releases the announcement about something JUST IN TIME! It does not talk about what or where. But if Sunday Times is right then they are keeping their old policy. Try to shut down one issue by releasing another one... Why they do this? It seems that they know they made a very slippery move back then. And now it is PAINFUL to recognise they were wrong.
Or maybe they really have some Master Plans beyond 7 locks? And by some reason they do not want to open all doors? If they do then sorry people. I really don't know what you'll get from this. As far as I know half-world already knows about what you're trying to hide...
On what concerns evidence of Oceans in Mars then NASA would be clearly loosing. About that tons of people talked about that. Even yesterday I noted that on this post : "...a planet that _possessed_ an ocean and _probably_ several seas..." For me and many investigators there are no doubts that the North Hemisphere was an oceanic basin. Personally I came into this conclusion in 1998, after seeing the powerful blowups in Acydalia Planitia where huge masses of water caved channels of a kilometer deep in short frames of time (aka scablands). And this phenomena is everywhere in Mars. As if suddenly, something provoked waters to move wildly all over the planet. Once I had a site talking about this...
What admires me is that after 30 years of several investigators showing and proving that water existed in Mars, after bashing all of them with Hoaglands and "Elvis leaves Mars stage" we seem to see old detractors claiming they found "oceans"... First I would like to see how many oceans they found... Second if they will dare to remember 30 years of investigations and people knoking NASA'a doors. And if they will remember their participation as main detractors of "water in Mars". Until June, Malin was known as Mr. Thirst, as he didn't believe about any water in Mars and any evidence on "Dry Mars" was immediately published in his site.
And frankly he continues this story... People, THERE IS water in Mars. 90% of it flew into Cosmos. Believe me. We still don't have the reason WHY it happened. For this we need a systematic and VERY detailed map of Mars and not Malin's slideshow. But we know most of HOW it happened. Mars lost its atmosphere and went into cooking mode for some years. When the mess cooled down, most water was already gone. But not all. And the remaining 5-10% are still there. And not in Malin's high latitudes... well... only (good boy Malin but you didn't do all homework). Water is still flowing on Mars. Right on the equator.
I mentioned this a few posts ago btw...
And they are only a fraction of the evidence. But, probably the best part. And about this and aliens. Mr. NASAoids, are we going to wait ANOTHER 30 years for some Dr. Tuckletacker FIND on YOUR name that there is water and aliens on Mars? Hey, hey, hey... Yeah, maybe I'm talking about those aliens that COULD have built the Face... But I think, we pretty well know WHAT aliens COULD have built such thing, correct? And WHAT LEVEL OF INTELLIGENCE these poor things had... And we pretty well know that that's not the first and last piece of evidence. The dark patches and mostly the dark dunes are also a good piece of evidence...
Oh these aliens.... Naaa their too insignificant to take time to write an article... What about bigger aliens? Well, if we wanna talk about the possibility of more serious aliens so we should go a little away from Cydonia... And we will not find pyramids and faces or even constructions but something else... Which does not fit on calculations... Oh yeah, send Hoagland bashing me and proving I'm talking about HyperSchyzics;)
Well, I probably get some people irrtated about this. But for some it may be quite interesting to see. Besides this is another region of Mars - Tharsis
http://ida.wr.usgs.gov/html/m07009/m0700934.html A probable "underground" river. Well I state it probable because I still didn't analysed it at full. Some may state this could be blown dark sands. However it is interesting to note that the subjacent channel at right shows a direction much similar to what a water flow would have. On the point of connection with the main channel it is even darker and possesses one clear dark patch much like the one seen before...
Besides note that the dark patches tend to the center of the channels. Also a good indication for a liquid flow...
http://ida.wr.usgs.gov/html/m07018/m0701863.html The "Wall of Falls". Well first we have to give some credit to the fact that the preview JPG images are "enhanced" probably in ways less scientific. But even looking at them one may note that the black patches are not "games of light and shadow" NASA loves so much to claim. They are real features of the surface. Besides, note that this place possesses clear indications that large quantities of water passed here in the past. Besides note how layered is the terrain.
In general there are four-five regions of Mars who may claim the large presence of water. Besides, there could be some chances that we see these regions because higher latitudes are too frozen to have such pockets under the surface. But what this means to life? Think, a planet that possessed an ocean and probably several seas. Well water went somewhere due to some large catasthrophe (that's right large one, the canyons in several places show clearly this). However not all water went away. It was kept underground and it is still in liquid form. Life? Well the chances now are not 1 in 100000000 but maybe 1 in 1000 or even 1 in 10...
Well on my previous post I forgot to state also a very interesting frame. It costs gold...
http://ida.wr.usgs.gov/html/m08076/m0807686.html
These things are not Hoagland's dreams. These are real things that careful analysis shows that they are no more than monthes or years old. But not millions or milliards as NASA claims. Some of them are "alive" now. I mean in chemical terms. The darkness of these spots shows that chemical reactions are acting now in that place. That's why they are dark. They absorb light to achieve a state o equilibrium. The question still is that whether they are only physico-chemical reactions or is life also acting on the play. But that's another question. What we have now is that Mars still possesses water. Not everywhere and in every place. The most important place is Arabia Terra. Funny? Yes the name of a Earth desertic region is the Martian Amazonia. Besides on the equator... So it seems that Nature is too ironic here...
Is there life or isn't life in Mars?
I think there is. Because there is water. Lots of water... And by some reason NASA doesn't wanna speak about it.
Wanna see some examples that water is still flowing in mars?:
http://ida.wr.usgs.gov/html/m00016/m0001654.html http://ida.wr.usgs.gov/html/m01000/m0100005.html http://ida.wr.usgs.gov/html/m01002/m0100228.html
Not convinced yet? Here it goes. Probably the most fantastic of all:
http://ida.wr.usgs.gov/html/m08061/m0806185.html
And this is not over... If you take as many years as me on looking at the hellish surface then you start wondering why some dark stuff loves to be in some places and not in others. And you really start to wonder if this stuff is nothing more than dark spots, sands or rocks. As one example:
http://ida.wr.usgs.gov/html/m02018/m0201821.html
Take a VERY CAREFUL look at the picture. If you look well, then you'll see something interesting on these white dunes and sands. They are always spread OPPOSITE to the direction of the winds. They hide behind dunes, hills, heights. And when they seem to be in open field their for loks as if wind blowed OPPOSITE. However the tons of white dunes and the erosion of the place show that the wind is not blowing that way.
A question. Is NASA telling us everything about that planet? My ideas about dark dunes may still be considered hypotetical. But this does not concerns water. Water is there and only an idiot will not see it. Specially if he has some knowledge on geology. And if water is so abundant as it seems then there is a big chance that life is still there. I mean that. Still there.
PS: NASA has blown yesterday some news about a major discovery. It will announce it on Thursday. Maybe this? It will be very interesting to know... Time is in syncho with us. The announcement came just a day after some interesting news here.
It seems Katz has been lately seeing too much doomsday films. in this point, he's as much as impressive as the people he talks about. Nock, nock Katz. Reality here.. And reality shows you olympics, greek theaters, religious processions, coliseums, duels, sports, again olympics, radio, tv, computers, Internet, etc., etc., etc. Katz humans need games and here there is no "generation's conflict", "mass matrixization" or whatever. Yes, there could be excesses, much like TV on the 50's and 60's or, to be more impressive, roman circus. Today some people fear the "Matrix".
Games are here for nearly 30 years. And a good part of the fathers of today's gamers had their good time on the first electronic games. And I really don't see the fearful "zombies" some mass-media talked about then. Where are they? I only see the new-era profets echoing in a new form this same story.
And what they will get with this? The Bad Boys List? Another base for Katz to write "Voices on Hellmouth, Part X"? Most script kiddies who do large scans are what they are - KIDS! So I don't see the line, except that this will be another base to harass teenagers who may later turn into something or somebody, but who are put in the corner right from start... Most of these kiddies are people eager to learn something and to get into the computer farmland. However, they go the script buzz harassment because of the mass media, Holywood and the urban legends poisoning their brains and telling them that being underground is the way for the hacker. And while there is some truth on this, it does not mean that script kiddie should harass 10000 users to reach illumination. On the contrary. But it is not this way that we will help kiddies to understand the wrong sides of playing scannings, exploits and other stuff. We will only marginalize them. Put them in a black list. It will look much like those black lists in the 30's, 50's, where very intelligent people was marginalized because it had some schizo on leftist ideas. That's what will happen.
We know how the hacker community was born. We know that we are not saints, but our sins do not give the right to someone to outlaw people, because there were/are mistakes being made. I myself broke/crack/hacked things 15 years ago, much the same way these kids play now. I know that some of my best colleagues and friends were among the darkest crackers at the beginning of the 90's. To be sincere with you people, I also passed a good time, somewhere in this world, as some "The BlackStar" on the dark underground of the hacker community (Hey I'm not hijacking names, I know that there are a few BlackStars and some are much more notorious and thougher than me, but I choose the name originally. In fact, I still use it but in other translation). Frankly to the script kiddies I would say one thing. Yeah it is great to scan and crack things. But that's child's play. Frankly people didn't worry too much about such kind of things. The worse is not when you destroy but when you build. Because it is much harder to do it. And the worst of all when you show that you're damn good at buidling something. That was the moment when bullets started to fly around, because for some people it is better to live on the swamp of ignorance and mischief. Cracking and breaking programs gives some knowledge, but you don't get far with it. Wanna be a hacker? A damn good hacker? Stop harassing your neighbour as he has ten other kiddies to deal with. Build something, help people. But beware, that's the time when other will start to really envy you and be scared of you... Knowledge is a dangerous weapon to live with.
I would act this way. Meanwhile, such lists, are only ground for a new "geek jerks" generation. buy a mug with a penguin, install Linux (after tenth attempt with some help from the side), and say you're in the community...
I would take a more careful and detailed look at such rumours...
PS: Btw I submitted this thing to Slashdot some days ago, but, as usual "rejected"...
I really don't get it...
on
Nvidia's NV20
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· Score: 1
The article claims that, in simple 3D graphics, the chip will be just two times faster then GeForce. And it claims it will be faster as graphics get more complex...
Frankly I may understand that this may happen as GeForce does not have enough processing power to hold up more complex models. But that the new chip will get 7 times faster? If it is just 2 times faster on simple models, how does it get faster several times more, on complex models? The basics of the model don't change, wether it is less or more complex in details. The basics will be processed by the same channels and by the same math of the chip. Or am I missing something?
So onece again we receive the ultimate proof on what benchmarks count for... Whatever independent or dependent the testers are, they can fall into crass errors, if they risk their final word without weighting all factors. And even doing that does not save them from getting burned by some nightrunning hacker, a last minute adding or a dumb tool.
Sincerly I think that we have enough of these benchmark judgements. Playing the game of "the judge" is what benchamark tests should get rid of. Frankly only after a set of benchmarks is run for some time and all levels tested/contacted/patched/retested, then people should take judgement. Until then no benchmark can be taken as a veredict. So, everytime someone tells about things like Linux suxx and everything else rulez, first check if the penguin horde shrinks, then read for a month ZDNet without missing a day, then check the mass media, benchmark sites, testers, then check if freshmeat's submissions lowered, then check what your friends/colleagues/neighbors say. If everyone says that Linux still suxx then you may take for granted the first benchmark. If not then the guys have gotten a check from M$. But until then don't forget to recompile the kernel so that it fits what you really have on your comp. That's the best test benchmark you may do for yourself...
Saying that someone got down those probes is telling only half of the story. But telling that something took them down is as good as telling the first half. However, the Martians are no longer near... But Earthlings are not nearer as they think...
Meanwhile, Truth is out there... Waiting for the next probe...
This does sound as bad journalism because not one single evidence was shown in the article. "They are so different" is mass-media boom, nothing else. However I should note you that it will be VERY HARD to see a natural silicon-based lifeform on Earth. As this poor thing will need a refrigerator to survive. Well, at some levels of atmosphere we have such chance but that's a fraction of all upper atmosphere. And a silicon being, a natural one, would need, theoretically less than -100 centigrades to survive.
One point of a bacteria being alien. Its DNA turns opposite to ours... Or its DNA sequence is completely different for manything on Earth. Or it is based in a protein not known on Earth. Or it is silicon-based and as two nano-diods on it...:)
Slashdot Mirror
Not the amount of stuff but the way they may use it. Carnivore is not bad because it sniifs every possible packet. Man I also sometimes find INTERSTING things while sniffing my channels for technical reasons... But if I get the right to send one guy to Magadan (believe me, it's Bahamas^-30) then that's a problem. However if laws and courts state that such information can be used only under written order, then sorry pals, but I can trade nukes and you have NOTHING against me... Really do you think that things are s private? At state or high-politics levels, things are so transparent that it is no wonder people talk about "information bordels" while referring such circles. Remember Clinton and his lovely adventures... The only thing we didn't see were hidden camera shots...
Yeah Carnivore looks bad as it seems to knock our privacy to the ground. So get to the ground! Land on Earth! Carnivore is being used. And there are hundreds of tons of information running around about the likes and dislikes of people. We can get addresses, phones, private info about people and organisations. Internet turned everything into a village. So it is natural for FBI to want a bigger grip on the stuff. However two things come out. First who will pay for this. Let's imagine I'm an american citizen. Me? Hey hold on a moment, that's MY pocket and I want THAT money used for things more rational than this. Now I'm a foreign citizen. Hey what are you doing IN MY BORDER? Get out or I start taking the dust outta my nukes ok?
Second, does this helps catching criminals? Generally no. The amount of information is too big to gather and process in a rational way. If you wanna catch him then you should already gave something against him and know what you're looking for. Like any normal detective does...
Third, can anyone use this against me? Yes. But if this stuff comes up then sorry, scrap it ASAP. Or else the same state that supports it may get some very hard times to live. Believe me. I lived in two totalitarian regimes and I know how people get harassed like cats. The results were quite destructive for those who tried to build the Perfect State. Today I know that many people who overused their powers are in the corner of society or six feet under ground...
Today, too much sniffing causes very serious troubles to the one who does it. More than the harassments you may get. The only thing is that if you're afraid or fearful. Then they will get you. But here the problem is nothing but you...
Frankly I got used that people may harass me for something... For most people this may be stress, trauma, hard times. But frankly I consider it also a school. The next ones will have to step two floors more to try something on me. If people reacted this way then FBI would think TEN times before its next silly move. Don't bash Carnivore. Tell them let go but who'll pay it. And what really does (you HAVE the right to know this). And if something gets wrong ask how FBI will really justify it. In the end, FBI will find 100 justifications to not to act the way it does...
''It wasn't necessarily anything that was terribly disruptive, but it was more sort of the potential that it could have been worse,'' Rahn said of the outage Carnivore caused.
As many predictions told about... Sooner or later oversizing eavesdropping will cause such things...
People there is one small principle. If "Total Control" would be possible, then Egyptians would have already achieved this, Inquisition would only seek mutants and Hitler or Stalin didn't needed to make so many discourses and their police force would be 1000 times smaller... Humans are too complex to have a control system last more than a few years. And even 70 years could not break Russians of their anti-state character. As we perfectly know, any Europeoid will never trust the State, and will bash it in every possible chance. And no one of African origin will ever, ever humbly bound his neck without thinking about turning the neck of his master/boss/patron. And Asians will always say the State is needed while being member of sects, secret organisations or believing in things with a much more anarchist trend than anyone else. We humans are rebels and even working for the State we will ALWAYS defy it.
The only chance to change this is to lobotomize all of us... Or to extreminate everyone and clone monkeys in our place.
Sincerly I got aquainted to the fact that anyone may know things I wouldn't like to show. The Internet is a big school. But the fact that someone knows something more confidential or private about you does not mean that things may turn against you. On the contrary. the spell may turn against the wizard and he may get really hurt. And I have seen several examples of this...
Wanna read my mail? PLEASE! (300 mails a day) Wanna pick up my bookmarks. Cool. (4500 links) Wanna see my private life? Be my guest. (Ooooh myyyy... Get ready to live 32 hours a day) Sniff, crack, break, put cameras, do anything you may. (If you can get where I am and where I live) ANYWAY, YOU WILL NEVER KNOW WHO REALLY I AM. Without that any knowledge about me may turn dangerously against the perpetrator of my privacy.
"Now, I'm the Shadow of Night... The Phantom of Light... The Black Star... That shines on the Darkness of Space... I became a walker"
Shantz Ektanoor
And so what? Don't you see how cool is to sniff on your E-mail, your friends E-mail, your downloads, the pics you see? This voyeur madness overcomes everything. That's a sickness with every E-policeman still carrying a fresh polished and shiny badge from running after street gangs, patrolling streets and midnight rides... Yeah the FBI is MORE than this. But it is still a police force in most of its nature. They see the power of the net, the hackers, the megatons of info running over the screens, the fantasy world TV and Holywood poisons them. And they wanna KNOW EVERYTHING! Well I understand them because when Internet came up with the Web, many of us also wanted the same thing.
The best remedy for this Carnivore stuff is to let them go. Really! In a year or two, they will have enough people in the psychos to get an idea that this was a stupid idea...
The only problem is that if they will try to force the net to slow down to cope with their work. That is a possible chance. But then they will be hitting hard on someone's pockets. And i believe that no security in the world costs enough to let this go...
Anyway Hemos is already straighting his position as Bush's next campaign manager...
But he must be careful now, as Gore may now sue him for giving too much Slashdot effects on "And the winner is Bush"...
~50 million - damn my speed typing
300Gb/2000users=0.15Gb/person
0.15Gb/7days=0.02Gb/dayperson
Now How many Brittish subjects has The Matrix? One hundred thousand? More? Well let's pick one hundred thousand and 7 years.
Oooooohhhh myyyyyyyyy
>5,000 Terabytes.
Now let's pick up your filer. How much does it cost? Let's pick it up for US$100,000. Yeah things will cost lesser in time, but there is also maintenance, replacements and many things more. But let's just now consider that each unit will go this way as experience shows such huge systems getting up to such levels. Soooo...
We get only on ONE storage not less than 500 million greenies (oh btw I'm not american). That's a Hell of a Space project... Going to Cosmos?
Not exactly. Because whatever bill you may shot out of the Parliament, one should also consider the aspects of technology and resources. And that's the point where, no matter patriotic feel you may have for being Brittain (note the two tt's) a pioneer, the bill will fail in life. And no one in his good mind will try to overcome financial resources for a "ideal" scheme. Overweighting people with a resource a state needs for itself, may turn this same state into an outlaw. How many times overtaxing turned into revolutions and revolts? Or something even bigger? Let us remember the Boston Tea Party...
Now I'm not taking things just out of the hat. I'm telling facts. And the one fact is that doing such things overcomes every other possible expenses. And besides this does not mean 80% of what you pay now. Add more than a dollar to what you pay BY THE HOUR (local calculations, i don't know you prices in Brittain).
And on what concerns my spellings... Well you are Britts in our language. It may not be correct in english. But I can't remember all correct spellings among several languages in 5-6 seconds... I know you care for the correctness of your language. But some have been naming you this way for longer than you created english... So I think I also have a right to be "wrong".
Cool, I wanna see what Brittish taxpayers will say when someone will try to implement such thing... Because only two thingies will come out of this. First it will be impossible, technically and humanly, to hold up, control, process and manipulate such level of information. A week on logging more than 2 thousand users is enough to overkill your best servers (I'm not talking about this iXXX trashcan arch), fill up the capacity of your disks (reaching a good 300 gigs) and turn every channel into a 2400 bps link in the end term. People did this and came into the conclusion it is MADNESS to try hunting everyone and everything.
But what is more funny is the financial part... Such surveillance eats up to 80% of communication costs in the end... And it will be VERY FUNNY to see Brittish users paying for such...
There are very few chances that the liquid is nothing but water. Water is an universal solvent. A similar one is amonnia but at temperatures much lower than it could be possible on Mars. Second we have data about some of the mineralogical compositions of Mars. Even considering just magmatic rocks we can be sure that we are dealing with water (water also has some important role on their formation). But we also have some sedimentary rocks on Pathfinder's place to show that water also participate in larger geologic processes. So we have a planet that clearly possessed a high temperature during formation, showing rocks with clear traces of water presence, and sedimentary rocks with clear hydrological properties. Who else should be then? Carbon Dioxide. First it is much less reactive. Second the thing is more volatile than water. Third I don't really see a goo presence of it on Mars rocks. In fact, here there seems to exist some sort of dessymetry between atmosphere and surface.
And note that Mars is not far from the Sun. While this is questionable in some points, some theories talk about the terodynamical layers of the solar system. For example most water is vapour in Mercury/Venus, liquid on Earth/Mars, solid on outer planets. Well, we have Europe showing that things may not be so simple. But still there is some sense on it.
You are not quite correct about the probes lifetimes. A few hours. And one seemed to have last nearly a day. Soviet Union sent nearly nearly 15 probes there.
While I agree with you on the order on how science news are published, I can't agree with you on this pecualiar one. Because I have noted that recently pressure started to mount about several things concerning Mars. And this press releas came JUST IN TIME...
On what concerns these conferences itself. You points are good. But that's not the way NASA has been acting recently. We all know that they speak a lot about "AMAZING", "EXTRAORDINARY", "WE ARE ALL EXCITED" in these things. And it does not sound science. It sounds much more as Marketing PR and people sniffing glue. And which causes serious glitches. Before getting offended pick up that some NASA conference. Like the one about "Life from Mars" and look and listen very well to it. You wanna tell me that these are professional answers? That people are talking in a qualified voice? That they are answering to what reporters ask them? To me it looks much like a press-conference done after a Watergate-like scandal...
Slashdot people may be too demending. But lots of Slashdotters have not seen one conference but many. And we know that sometimes the quantity of "amazings" and "excitements" of NASA's experts sound much more like "GIVE SOME MORE LSD TO BE MORE EXCITED". Because apart of babling a few facts, stating a pair of fuzzy photos, and presenting two three badly made diagrams, there is no real Science on it. Yeah, frankly. Not all NASA conferences look like this. But some, and SPECIALLY the ones on Mars may look to anything except Science...
Well on the specifics of the sediment "found" by Malin and is colleague I still know nothing. I have to see the frames so I can say it is an original discover or another official re-discovery. However I can tell you that a large section of Mars presents sedimentation that is much proper for sea basins rather than volcanic or dust. First let me note that the evidence of the old Ocean is messed up. The washover there destroyed most landscape and sealines to a level that formed a completely new landscape. However it is well seen some features that are proper of oceans and seas.
First - hills. And here Cydonia is one of the best places. These hills possess assymetrical erosion. They are eroded more in one direction than the other. No significative but still visible.
First II - hills again most hills seem to present a "mesa" morphology that is common by its height. This is probably the best evidence of how deep were Mars waters. The tops were cleaned out by rains and winds, while the base was protected by water.
Second - sedimentary layers. Dust sediments would not produce such a common and large sedimentary layering. Volcanic ones could have produced them but still there is the question that we are dealing with quite regular layers. And a very powerful deepness of sediments. For a volcanological explanation this would mean a constant periodic work for a very large period of time. Anyway not far from possible. Let's remember Io...
Third the river basins. In several places one can see large rivers that end in a surface much similar to sea basins. And there are very clear traces of the same sedimentary deposition rivers produce on Earth. Note that the form of this deposition is very peculiar. In the center of the depositions blanket, there are small valleys. As if the river continues to flow a little bit inside the sea. The way they form can only happen if they go inside water.
Fourth the "aftershock" sediments - After the huge water movements, water started to evaporate into space. Much like what you see on seaside, during low tide, there are several regions of Mars showing lines of sediments. In some places there are even evidence of the "last pools of water"
Fifth the "stairs" formations - some investigators, and even Malin noted this. Talked about hte fact that several places in Mars present a clear "stairs"" formation which is very common on Earth. On Earth, land tends to rise and fall into Ocean for very large periods of time. In some places you can see "stairs" (one such case is in California).
Sixth - the Water Layers - On Arabia Terra water is still flowing. And it seems to have a property of being trapped only in some specific layers. Much the same way as in Earth. For such thing to happen we should take into consideration that the history of these sediments is clearly differentiated. Some hold water others not. So what we have here is not only the demonstration that these sediments could not be formed by volcans or dust (here chemical differentations are mostly insignificant). What we have here is that not only water formed them but that they were formed on different physico-chemical conditions. And probably biological ones.
But this would also mean that what happened in Mars did not happen 100000000000000000000 years ago...
You would be correct if this were only Hoaglands, UFO searchers and paranoia-minded schizos knocking NASA's doors. However it is not the case. Since the very first Mariner's missions, several investigators pointed to SEVERAL frames where CLEARLY there were traces much similar to those seen on Earth's hydrological conditions. For some time there was even a 50/50 relationship of leaving both theories fighting against each other. But after around 1973 it seems that someone or something pushed NASA toward the "Dry Theory". And even after all evidence pouring from the Vikings, NASA kept its pace on these theories. They evolved even into a world where we already had chronologies, epochs, timeframes, full tectonic explanations and a whole bunch of theoretical trash. What spoiled this was the Mars Face... Because the talk went around one of the possible oceanic landscapes in Mars. And while no one could get his good scientific article to be edited on Science or Nature, the topic didn't die. Because the Mars Face allowed it to live in a parallel world. Any person with a scientific knowledge would note many features on Cydonia that strongly suggest a seaside landscape. So a curiosity about a stupid hill spoiled a lot of things in NASA...
They are now reviving the truth. And why? Because there are OTHER things they still don't want to talk about. About present water in Mars. About VERY POSSIBLE LIFE in Mars. Dr. Van Flandern seem to have found some strong evidences about this in the South Hemisphere. I think that there is also some good chances to find it on Arabia Terra. And I should tell that this is EXTRAORDINARY. Because it means that "they" survived the tragedy that dried the planet in very short time. And temperatures then were probably uch bigger then simple pasteurization...
And, beyond this, there is the "weird" world. not pyramids or anything like that. Well there are pyramids in Mars but there is a chance they are a BIG NATURAL weirdness of Mars. Done with the probable help of aliens but those only wanted some sunlight... There are things much weirder than this. As one hill sorrounded by a compact set of craters all around and having a strange inner "valley" sorrouding its center... War Games? Don't know, frankly. But it is data that should not be ignored by any means. Until we get deeper in the facts and analysis.
But about NASA. We surely have that they release information to not release other information. It is intersting to note that the issue of "there is water in Mars" started to rise and NASA releases the announcement about something JUST IN TIME! It does not talk about what or where. But if Sunday Times is right then they are keeping their old policy. Try to shut down one issue by releasing another one... Why they do this? It seems that they know they made a very slippery move back then. And now it is PAINFUL to recognise they were wrong.
Or maybe they really have some Master Plans beyond 7 locks? And by some reason they do not want to open all doors? If they do then sorry people. I really don't know what you'll get from this. As far as I know half-world already knows about what you're trying to hide...
On what concerns evidence of Oceans in Mars then NASA would be clearly loosing. About that tons of people talked about that. Even yesterday I noted that on this post : "...a planet that _possessed_ an ocean and _probably_ several seas..." For me and many investigators there are no doubts that the North Hemisphere was an oceanic basin. Personally I came into this conclusion in 1998, after seeing the powerful blowups in Acydalia Planitia where huge masses of water caved channels of a kilometer deep in short frames of time (aka scablands). And this phenomena is everywhere in Mars. As if suddenly, something provoked waters to move wildly all over the planet. Once I had a site talking about this...
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What admires me is that after 30 years of several investigators showing and proving that water existed in Mars, after bashing all of them with Hoaglands and "Elvis leaves Mars stage" we seem to see old detractors claiming they found "oceans"... First I would like to see how many oceans they found... Second if they will dare to remember 30 years of investigations and people knoking NASA'a doors. And if they will remember their participation as main detractors of "water in Mars". Until June, Malin was known as Mr. Thirst, as he didn't believe about any water in Mars and any evidence on "Dry Mars" was immediately published in his site.
And frankly he continues this story... People, THERE IS water in Mars. 90% of it flew into Cosmos. Believe me. We still don't have the reason WHY it happened. For this we need a systematic and VERY detailed map of Mars and not Malin's slideshow. But we know most of HOW it happened. Mars lost its atmosphere and went into cooking mode for some years. When the mess cooled down, most water was already gone. But not all. And the remaining 5-10% are still there. And not in Malin's high latitudes... well... only (good boy Malin but you didn't do all homework). Water is still flowing on Mars. Right on the equator.
Look:
http://ida.wr.usgs.gov/html/m08061/m0806185.htm
http://ida.wr.usgs.gov/html/m04018/m0401877.htm
http://ida.wr.usgs.gov/html/m04492/m0449202.htm
http://ida.wr.usgs.gov/html/m08059/m0805951.htm
http://ida.wr.usgs.gov/html/m08076/m0807686.htm
I mentioned this a few posts ago btw...
And they are only a fraction of the evidence. But, probably the best part. And about this and aliens. Mr. NASAoids, are we going to wait ANOTHER 30 years for some Dr. Tuckletacker FIND on YOUR name that there is water and aliens on Mars? Hey, hey, hey... Yeah, maybe I'm talking about those aliens that COULD have built the Face... But I think, we pretty well know WHAT aliens COULD have built such thing, correct? And WHAT LEVEL OF INTELLIGENCE these poor things had... And we pretty well know that that's not the first and last piece of evidence. The dark patches and mostly the dark dunes are also a good piece of evidence...
Oh these aliens.... Naaa their too insignificant to take time to write an article... What about bigger aliens? Well, if we wanna talk about the possibility of more serious aliens so we should go a little away from Cydonia... And we will not find pyramids and faces or even constructions but something else... Which does not fit on calculations... Oh yeah, send Hoagland bashing me and proving I'm talking about HyperSchyzics
Well, I probably get some people irrtated about this. But for some it may be quite interesting to see. Besides this is another region of Mars - Tharsis
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http://ida.wr.usgs.gov/html/m07009/m0700934.htm
A probable "underground" river. Well I state it probable because I still didn't analysed it at full. Some may state this could be blown dark sands. However it is interesting to note that the subjacent channel at right shows a direction much similar to what a water flow would have. On the point of connection with the main channel it is even darker and possesses one clear dark patch much like the one seen before...
Besides note that the dark patches tend to the center of the channels. Also a good indication for a liquid flow...
http://ida.wr.usgs.gov/html/m07018/m0701863.htm
The "Wall of Falls". Well first we have to give some credit to the fact that the preview JPG images are "enhanced" probably in ways less scientific. But even looking at them one may note that the black patches are not "games of light and shadow" NASA loves so much to claim. They are real features of the surface. Besides, note that this place possesses clear indications that large quantities of water passed here in the past. Besides note how layered is the terrain.
In general there are four-five regions of Mars who may claim the large presence of water. Besides, there could be some chances that we see these regions because higher latitudes are too frozen to have such pockets under the surface. But what this means to life? Think, a planet that possessed an ocean and probably several seas. Well water went somewhere due to some large catasthrophe (that's right large one, the canyons in several places show clearly this). However not all water went away. It was kept underground and it is still in liquid form. Life? Well the chances now are not 1 in 100000000 but maybe 1 in 1000 or even 1 in 10...
Well on my previous post I forgot to state also a very interesting frame. It costs gold...
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http://ida.wr.usgs.gov/html/m08076/m0807686.htm
These things are not Hoagland's dreams. These are real things that careful analysis shows that they are no more than monthes or years old. But not millions or milliards as NASA claims. Some of them are "alive" now. I mean in chemical terms. The darkness of these spots shows that chemical reactions are acting now in that place. That's why they are dark. They absorb light to achieve a state o equilibrium. The question still is that whether they are only physico-chemical reactions or is life also acting on the play. But that's another question. What we have now is that Mars still possesses water. Not everywhere and in every place. The most important place is Arabia Terra. Funny? Yes the name of a Earth desertic region is the Martian Amazonia. Besides on the equator... So it seems that Nature is too ironic here...
Is there life or isn't life in Mars?
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I think there is. Because there is water. Lots of water... And by some reason NASA doesn't wanna speak about it.
Wanna see some examples that water is still flowing in mars?:
http://ida.wr.usgs.gov/html/m00016/m0001654.htm
http://ida.wr.usgs.gov/html/m01000/m0100005.htm
http://ida.wr.usgs.gov/html/m01002/m0100228.htm
Not convinced? Well, some of the most scandalous:
http://ida.wr.usgs.gov/html/m04018/m0401877.htm
http://ida.wr.usgs.gov/html/m04492/m0449202.htm
http://ida.wr.usgs.gov/html/m08059/m0805951.htm
Not convinced yet? Here it goes. Probably the most fantastic of all:
http://ida.wr.usgs.gov/html/m08061/m0806185.htm
And this is not over... If you take as many years as me on looking at the hellish surface then you start wondering why some dark stuff loves to be in some places and not in others. And you really start to wonder if this stuff is nothing more than dark spots, sands or rocks. As one example:
http://ida.wr.usgs.gov/html/m02018/m0201821.htm
Take a VERY CAREFUL look at the picture. If you look well, then you'll see something interesting on these white dunes and sands. They are always spread OPPOSITE to the direction of the winds. They hide behind dunes, hills, heights. And when they seem to be in open field their for loks as if wind blowed OPPOSITE. However the tons of white dunes and the erosion of the place show that the wind is not blowing that way.
A question. Is NASA telling us everything about that planet? My ideas about dark dunes may still be considered hypotetical. But this does not concerns water. Water is there and only an idiot will not see it. Specially if he has some knowledge on geology. And if water is so abundant as it seems then there is a big chance that life is still there. I mean that. Still there.
PS: NASA has blown yesterday some news about a major discovery. It will announce it on Thursday. Maybe this? It will be very interesting to know... Time is in syncho with us. The announcement came just a day after some interesting news here.
Sleep well humans...
It seems Katz has been lately seeing too much doomsday films. in this point, he's as much as impressive as the people he talks about. Nock, nock Katz. Reality here.. And reality shows you olympics, greek theaters, religious processions, coliseums, duels, sports, again olympics, radio, tv, computers, Internet, etc., etc., etc. Katz humans need games and here there is no "generation's conflict", "mass matrixization" or whatever. Yes, there could be excesses, much like TV on the 50's and 60's or, to be more impressive, roman circus. Today some people fear the "Matrix".
Games are here for nearly 30 years. And a good part of the fathers of today's gamers had their good time on the first electronic games. And I really don't see the fearful "zombies" some mass-media talked about then. Where are they? I only see the new-era profets echoing in a new form this same story.
And what they will get with this? The Bad Boys List? Another base for Katz to write "Voices on Hellmouth, Part X"? Most script kiddies who do large scans are what they are - KIDS! So I don't see the line, except that this will be another base to harass teenagers who may later turn into something or somebody, but who are put in the corner right from start... Most of these kiddies are people eager to learn something and to get into the computer farmland. However, they go the script buzz harassment because of the mass media, Holywood and the urban legends poisoning their brains and telling them that being underground is the way for the hacker. And while there is some truth on this, it does not mean that script kiddie should harass 10000 users to reach illumination. On the contrary. But it is not this way that we will help kiddies to understand the wrong sides of playing scannings, exploits and other stuff. We will only marginalize them. Put them in a black list. It will look much like those black lists in the 30's, 50's, where very intelligent people was marginalized because it had some schizo on leftist ideas. That's what will happen.
We know how the hacker community was born. We know that we are not saints, but our sins do not give the right to someone to outlaw people, because there were/are mistakes being made. I myself broke/crack/hacked things 15 years ago, much the same way these kids play now. I know that some of my best colleagues and friends were among the darkest crackers at the beginning of the 90's. To be sincere with you people, I also passed a good time, somewhere in this world, as some "The BlackStar" on the dark underground of the hacker community (Hey I'm not hijacking names, I know that there are a few BlackStars and some are much more notorious and thougher than me, but I choose the name originally. In fact, I still use it but in other translation). Frankly to the script kiddies I would say one thing. Yeah it is great to scan and crack things. But that's child's play. Frankly people didn't worry too much about such kind of things. The worse is not when you destroy but when you build. Because it is much harder to do it. And the worst of all when you show that you're damn good at buidling something. That was the moment when bullets started to fly around, because for some people it is better to live on the swamp of ignorance and mischief. Cracking and breaking programs gives some knowledge, but you don't get far with it. Wanna be a hacker? A damn good hacker? Stop harassing your neighbour as he has ten other kiddies to deal with. Build something, help people. But beware, that's the time when other will start to really envy you and be scared of you... Knowledge is a dangerous weapon to live with.
I would act this way. Meanwhile, such lists, are only ground for a new "geek jerks" generation. buy a mug with a penguin, install Linux (after tenth attempt with some help from the side), and say you're in the community...
Well this may sound crap at first moment. FUD, crap and yellow journalistics. Penguins at wild...
But...
In the light of such things like this on (READ IT!): Microsoft honours Linux programmer with patent gong
I would take a more careful and detailed look at such rumours...
PS: Btw I submitted this thing to Slashdot some days ago, but, as usual "rejected"...
The article claims that, in simple 3D graphics, the chip will be just two times faster then GeForce. And it claims it will be faster as graphics get more complex...
Frankly I may understand that this may happen as GeForce does not have enough processing power to hold up more complex models. But that the new chip will get 7 times faster? If it is just 2 times faster on simple models, how does it get faster several times more, on complex models? The basics of the model don't change, wether it is less or more complex in details. The basics will be processed by the same channels and by the same math of the chip. Or am I missing something?
So onece again we receive the ultimate proof on what benchmarks count for... Whatever independent or dependent the testers are, they can fall into crass errors, if they risk their final word without weighting all factors. And even doing that does not save them from getting burned by some nightrunning hacker, a last minute adding or a dumb tool.
Sincerly I think that we have enough of these benchmark judgements. Playing the game of "the judge" is what benchamark tests should get rid of. Frankly only after a set of benchmarks is run for some time and all levels tested/contacted/patched/retested, then people should take judgement. Until then no benchmark can be taken as a veredict. So, everytime someone tells about things like Linux suxx and everything else rulez, first check if the penguin horde shrinks, then read for a month ZDNet without missing a day, then check the mass media, benchmark sites, testers, then check if freshmeat's submissions lowered, then check what your friends/colleagues/neighbors say. If everyone says that Linux still suxx then you may take for granted the first benchmark. If not then the guys have gotten a check from M$. But until then don't forget to recompile the kernel so that it fits what you really have on your comp. That's the best test benchmark you may do for yourself...
Saying that someone got down those probes is telling only half of the story. But telling that something took them down is as good as telling the first half. However, the Martians are no longer near... But Earthlings are not nearer as they think...
Meanwhile, Truth is out there... Waiting for the next probe...
This does sound as bad journalism because not one single evidence was shown in the article. "They are so different" is mass-media boom, nothing else. However I should note you that it will be VERY HARD to see a natural silicon-based lifeform on Earth. As this poor thing will need a refrigerator to survive. Well, at some levels of atmosphere we have such chance but that's a fraction of all upper atmosphere. And a silicon being, a natural one, would need, theoretically less than -100 centigrades to survive.
:)
One point of a bacteria being alien. Its DNA turns opposite to ours... Or its DNA sequence is completely different for manything on Earth. Or it is based in a protein not known on Earth. Or it is silicon-based and as two nano-diods on it...