Today was a great day. I finally reformatted my house's hard drive and installed Linux on it, so the toaster, blender, television and vibrating easy chair are finally working again. I'm still having some trouble getting X Windows installed in the bathroom, but I think it's because all the BSODs from the old operating system still have the toilet clogged up.
I took my car in to the mechanic today. He said that the problem with my windshield wipers was that I had Perl in/usr/bin/perl18 instead of/usr/bin/perl. Well, duh! I swear, I was never cut out to be a mechanic.
Anyway, I have to go get ready for work. My shoes take a while to boot up, so I must be going now.
They probably realized that this wasn't exactly going to help their court cases. We should probably hit them up now for anything else we want, because in a desperate attempt to be a "kinder, gentler Microsoft" they might actually do it (all in the name of "innovation" of course).
I think this would be a great book for many people out there who are somewhat new to the scene. *nix isn't just about memorizing commands; The real power is when you understand what goes on when you type the commands, so that you can put them together in strange and wonderous ways.
Given that the resources of the US Government (and other world equivalents) are much greater than those of the average programming project team, it seems inevitable that there will be ways to disable even peer-to-peer networks such as this. Any idea how they could work? If Microsoft gets the court's permission to have freenet://microsoft.foo or whatever removed from the network, how could the authorities go about doing it? Are there possible hacks the software that would allow them to control it with force?
Also, it seems to me that any network in which a specific document can eventually be tracked to a single IP address is insecure. While it can never be shut down, per se, anyone who is doing anything that make *make* someone want to shut it down can still be found (at least until the mibs knock at their door).
You know, in the real world, most companies violate our ideal of having everything we want be free. It's the way of things. Palm has spent a lot of money developing this product; Why shouldn't they charge a few bucks for it? If you can't afford it, you can still use the old one; And if you buy a new Palm, then it'll already be installed.
It seems as though peer-to-peer communication is a quickly-growing trend in computer software. Does the popularity of virtual systems like this (even if only in concept for now) mean that there are going to be any sort of significant changes in the way the internet is used? i.e., is peer-to-peer communication going to revolutionize the internet, or is it just a fad?
I just flew to Europe and back, and each of the four planes I took had a facility by which I could hook my laptop up and browse the web, read e-mail, etc.; For now it's obviously expensive and inconvenient (you have to have your own computer), but it does exist.
As is typical of MSNBC, they're taking old news and presenting it as a dramatic new development. I was surprised not to see exclamation points in this article.
Based on how everything else in Russia works, you probably just have to do a little lubrication of the machinery. I've never been a big fan of bribery, and I don't necessarily recommend it unless you know what you're doing, but that may be what is required to get that package through.
The word "hacker" will probably now acquire a legal definition, which is just going to make life difficult for the programmers, beta testers, overclockers and other misfits such as ourselves. I think that the law should use the world "1337 h4x0r" instead.
There is now a precedent for busting low-level crackers. This means that the little guys have to watch out, because the law isn't going to ignore them as much as they have in the past (when only 1337est had to worry).
What counts as unauthorized access to a computer? Technically speaking, if you falsify your name or address when setting up a Hotmail account, you are providing fraudulent information and you could technically be busted for unauthorized access to the Hotmail servers. They got Al Capone for taxes; How are they going to get you?
This reminds me of a parody of the Matrix I read a long time back (I think it was originally posted on/.). It's the "free your mind" part, where Neo has to jump off the side of a building:
"Rocket Jump. Okay, No problem. Fire, then jump. Yeah right..."
You know, the whole IM wars thing is getting pretty silly. I stopped IMing (w/ ICQ, the breakfast of champions) a few months ago, and haven't really missed it. Sure, it's more convenient for some people, but dammit is e-mail *really* so hard that you can't just shoot of a message?
I think it's the whole "chat" mentality that the Internet is still trying to outgrow. Once people start using the net for communication instead of "Hi" "Hi" "How are you?" "Fine. You?" "Great." "Well....see ya!", the world will start to change.
It always comes down to the human element, though, which is the part that the 1337 h@x0rz and skr1p7 k1dd13z never quite figure out. The great crackers went beyond mundane knowledge of how to open a box to use creativity, psychology, and human nature to get people to give up the goods. I've been made a fool once or twice, but each time I let myself get talked into it. A box is only as secure as its administrator is paranoid.
I've always been fascinated by the idea of applying the concepts of a movement to a medium for which they were not originally intended. The Open Source idea could be applied in useful ways not only to software, but also to politics, education, etc.; Imagine an Open Source religion!
I wonder what would happen, though, if Zen programming were created. Or perhaps Expressionist network design. Or Republican computer repair....
I hope the editors actually read the comments that are posted to stories like this. We all love/. or we wouldn't be here, but sometimes we have to keep these guys in check so that our beloved news source doesn't degenerate into a gossip rag or crack journalism showcase. The editors of Slashdot have a huge influence on the Open Source community (and geek community in general), and while it's fun to have that one-man website feel, I think that they have a certain responsibility to the community. It comes with fame.
To the wonderful folks of/. : Please please please do a little investigating before posting stuff like this! Even the National Enquirer probably calls Brad Pitt once in a while before posting a story about him having a love child with G. W. Bush.
Slashdot Mirror
Today was a great day. I finally reformatted my house's hard drive and installed Linux on it, so the toaster, blender, television and vibrating easy chair are finally working again. I'm still having some trouble getting X Windows installed in the bathroom, but I think it's because all the BSODs from the old operating system still have the toilet clogged up.
I took my car in to the mechanic today. He said that the problem with my windshield wipers was that I had Perl in /usr/bin/perl18 instead of /usr/bin/perl. Well, duh! I swear, I was never cut out to be a mechanic.
Anyway, I have to go get ready for work. My shoes take a while to boot up, so I must be going now.
ZPengo
Also, it seems to me that any network in which a specific document can eventually be tracked to a single IP address is insecure. While it can never be shut down, per se, anyone who is doing anything that make *make* someone want to shut it down can still be found (at least until the mibs knock at their door).
As is typical of MSNBC, they're taking old news and presenting it as a dramatic new development. I was surprised not to see exclamation points in this article.
Seriously, though, I have a question: If robots.txt was there, how did Google index the site at all (instead of just poorly)?
Perhaps we have just grown up in the past few decades and not realized it, while computers have gotten proportionally smaller.
Just an idea...
"Rocket Jump. Okay, No problem. Fire, then jump. Yeah right..."
I cleaned my own just now, and here's what I found:
- Dog hair
- Crumbs from various snacks
- Sticky syrup from when I spilled Jones into it.
- Human hair
- Dust
- Lint
- A pea (i have *no* idea)
- A piece of nacho
Now, if I just had the guts to look under my sofa cushions....Customized cases for the telephones that you use to call in to your Palm?
I think it's the whole "chat" mentality that the Internet is still trying to outgrow. Once people start using the net for communication instead of "Hi" "Hi" "How are you?" "Fine. You?" "Great." "Well....see ya!", the world will start to change.
I'll admit, though -- for the AOL crowd, Google is certainly the way to go.
I wonder what would happen, though, if Zen programming were created. Or perhaps Expressionist network design. Or Republican computer repair....
To the wonderful folks of /. : Please please please do a little investigating before posting stuff like this! Even the National Enquirer probably calls Brad Pitt once in a while before posting a story about him having a love child with G. W. Bush.