only to find out that 'clear' actually means 'That check looked okay to the idiot teller, so we told you it was clear.'
Why checks haven't gone away is what puzzles me most...but I guess the banks would hear far more grief if they stopped issuing them.
I have, in the past, been involved as a treasurer for an organization, and I never want the job ever again. Talk about denizens for fraud and villainy (and I am talking about the banks here.) We had a non-profit account at a bank, and would collect dues and deposit them in this account.
We'd have a person who would routinely write bad checks (checks that they knew they had no money in their account to cover.) Instead of going after the person kiting checks, they would reverse the deposit and charge us twenty dollars a pop for the bad check (even though it was no fault of our own.) We notified the authorities each time, and after the third time, we stopped collecting checks from this person and removed them from the organization. As far as I know, nothing was ever done by the authorities or the bank to punish the individual kiting checks.
The system only works if you trust everyone, and now-a-days, you can't trust everyone.
Re: Re: Re: NBC Universal - Nothing to see here...
british shows tend to be smarter and more controversial by american standards, american shows are more stylized and have better production.
I just wish we had access to all of the BBC here. When I travel to foreign countries, most of them have access to all of BBC, but not here in the states. We have the BBC channel, but it is the American BBC channel where they take the stuff that is more watered down than usual and throw it up for us. I like Dr. Who, but I wish I could see far more, especially The IT Crowd. I cannot stand 99% of what is on US channels, even on the channels I tend to watch (Discovery, History, etc.) because 99% of it consists of faux-reality or potty humor.
Or a far more personal example...in 2002, I released a vulnerability report on a particular printer manufacturer who routinely put unauthenticated back-doors in their products. I made sure to communicate with them ahead of time, notifying them that the organization I worked for was very upset with the vulnerability and wanted it fixed, and I was willing to work with them to make sure that a firmware update would be made available to fix the problem. They never responded, even though I sent the email directly to their support folks.
Three weeks later, I released the report, and within six months they were asking my employer to fire me and were asking for my head on a platter. Yet, they did nothing to fix the problem, and introduced new problems in newer versions of their printers. I discovered these newer problems, and contacted them directly, but received no response. I released another report on the newer problems, and they again were asking for my head on a platter. My boss at the time was quite pleased with me, and no one in the organization complied. They tried to buy me off to keep me quiet, but that didn't work either.
Finally, in another line of printers, I discovered the mother of all unauthenticated back-doors, which allowed direct access to the printer's memory, and allowed the attacker to read from and inject into the printer's memory directly. I again contacted them directly. This time, they decided to work with us instead of freaking out and shooting the messenger. They released a technote telling their customers to disable the web server and put all printers behind a firewall which limited access to the web server.
Unfortunately, they haven't fixed the problem, only covered it up since even their newest printers have the same flaw.
Sadly, I think you are right about this. It is likely the same reason why they haven't done anything about rampant identity theft (because their costs are externalized on their customers,) and credit card fraud in general. They could fix the problem but right now the fix is more expensive than their cost of the problem. They could stop sending out personalized forms for credit cards through the mail (which often get intercepted and then used for identity theft,) and some sort of single-use system for credit cards, but both would get in the way of them making the most money (legitimately or otherwise.)
Even try to explain what RED and BLACK mean in the encryption world ?
Sure, traditionally, red means plain-text and black means cypher-text in encryption networks, but red and black are also used in almost all models for security devices, where red is the area inside of control and black is the area outside of control of a security system. If you really don't understand the concept and are looking for help, the nice folks at Wikipedia have a nice discussion of it. Now, to your drivel...
Most encryption systems ARE transmitted freely everywhere, you are mistaken in your belief that they aren't. Sure, there is an occasional idiot that creates a super-secret encryption routine but those are usually easily broken. And even your beloved one-time symmetric key encryption is freely available (hint: everyone knows how to perform XOR cyphers...you aren't fooling anyone.) The keymat, may or may not be freely transmitted (there is a whole realm of encryption where part of it is transmitted freely,) and usually in the case of it being transmitted, it is encrypted itself.
As for VMS, it has a ton of meanings. VMS is traditionally used in the computer world when discussion Digital Equipment Corporations VAX/VMS operating system, which does mean Virtual Memory System, but just because it means that doesn't mean that DEC wrote their operating system to perform that way. If I can hack supervisor on your VMS system, I have control of your system and can do whatever I want on your system.
However, since in your rants you do not seem to ever explain anything yourself beyond your popular science/people article reading of anything, I fail to see how anything you say is more than just pot calling kettle black. I choose not to post my credentials here, and as far as I've seen, you haven't either.
If it wasn't for the fact that Firefly was a pirate's favourite, and people actually paid to watch it, they wouldn't have cancelled Firefly. Blame the pirates.
Wow, not sure how a television show that played on Fox for 10 episodes, out of order, and was preempted a number of times by football and other events thus not giving it a chance to gain popularity despite a small but growing audience was cancelled because of pirates.
After all, everyone I know who loves Firefly (including myself) actually has two or three licensed copies of the show (one to keep, one to watch, and one to lend to others.) Speaking of which, I think someone borrowed my third copy and hasn't given it back yet...anyone here know where it went?
By your logic someone dhould post a sign on your windshield everytime you forget to lock you door?
I, for one, would welcome that. If it gets me to think about my own security, then good. The problem is that most people around here would just go through my stuff or steal my car (which is a painful, and far less desirable, but still a very effective way to get me to think about my own security.) At least with the sign I might see it and do something about it before someone else did. I wouldn't, however, ask the police to arrest the person who writes the sign, but hell, if you feel it is better to shoot the messenger for your mistake, knock yourself out.
Encryption is security by obscurity, does that work ? hell yes..
I don't know why I am feeding Darryl...but here it goes.
Darryl, security solely through obscurity doesn't work, not even in encryption. Encryption is a form of security through obscurity, only in the fact that the key and the message are secret, but the encryption routine and the cypher-text are not secret (in a matter of fact, they can be freely transmitted anywhere.) As someone who has researched encryption methods in the past, let me assure you that any encryption routine which is secret should never be trusted, under any circumstances. Sure, the key and message must remain secret, but this isn't security solely through obscurity at all...the encryption routine likely protects the message and key from exposure through the cypher-text because it relies on information which is extremely difficult to guess or brute-force, such as extremely large prime numbers or elliptical curves. You have access to most of them with a computer, but it would take you a really long time to try them all. Math is what secures encryption, not the algorithm.
As for VMS hacks, just because you aren't aware of any, doesn't mean that they don't exist. And if you believe that running VMS will save you from all attacks, feel free to publicize your DECnet address and we'll see how secure your system really is (hint: it isn't.)
Check also CA state laws (which are admittedly unclear) and local laws.
Please provide direct citations to any California Penal Code which covers the law you believe to be broken here.
I am very familiar with CA laws, and there is no such law (it is not clear because it doesn't exist.) There is no penal code in California to cover taking pictures at an airport, and the only code which could possibly be used here would be city municipal code for producing a motion picture for sale without a permit, and that would be a stretch.
Filming or taking pictures in an airport in CA is not prohibited by CA law, except where Federal laws prohibit it, such as in the Customs and Immigration area in the International Terminal. And even then, it is only really enforced at the incoming lanes at the customs stations, as I've seen tourists taking pictures at the baggage areas with no problems at all...they only really seem to care when you take pictures around the customs officials themselves, or around the places where they are examining your documentation.
One thing that really bugs me about the whole thing is they took his state issued license to carry a concealed weapon.
Unfortunately, California is a "may issue" state. As a result, the Sheriff can take away a CCW for any reason, including no reason. Thank the bleeding hearts who rather Californians are victims of crime and not able to fight back (because the criminals have rights too...?!?!) Every time they've tried to force "shall issue" through the law, the bleeding hearts shut them down. If it was up to them, the only people in California with guns would be the criminals.
For the most part, in California, when it comes to CCWs, the Sheriff can make up whatever rules they want, and fairly often a new Sheriff will come in and revoke CCWs issued by past Sheriff's with no rhyme or reason. Often it is done as a political tool, so this isn't far from the norm.
The sad thing is that this does nothing to help security when grannies accidentally shut down airports at random because no one thought to detain her at the checkpoint until the results of a scan were communicated back to them (despite the fact that no grannie in the history of the universe, at least the history we are aware of, has ever had ill-will towards an airplane and would want to destroy it.) What kills me, is the last time I flew, a grannie walked on the plane carrying an oxygen bottle!!! If that grannie had ill-will towards the plane, she could have easily destroyed it with the 5lbs of pure oxygen she had in that bottle. Security Theater, just like California's "may issue" laws, designed to infuriate the general public while the criminals and terrorists laugh (since they likely know all this stuff already, without posting it up to youtube.)
You guys are retarded. The guy bought the shoes from an unauthorized website. If the price is to good to be true then it is!
I need your help...I bought Asics from a website that looks like a reputable website (Amazon.com), and I paid the same price I would for a pair of Asics at other websites. Can you tell me whether I bought the real ones or not? I mean, all the websites sure look the same, and they all seem to have a similar price. And most of them say something to the effect that they are authorized dealers of Asics...how am I to know that they just didn't slap the "authorized dealer" symbol on their site and charge me the same price for knock-off Asics?
Also, since you obviously seem to be more intelligent than the rest of us, can you also tell me whether I should trust Amazon.com and Apple iTunes to be authorized websites for music and movies? I really cannot tell, since they tend to look a lot like all the other unauthorized websites.
So the next time you hold a bit of lead in your hand you can say that element is older than the earth, and its older than the sun.
Darryl, you can hold just about any element on Earth in your hand (well, at least the ones that aren't gas, don't react with you or the air around you, and don't kill you with their neutrons or ionizing radiation,) and it would be older than the earth or the sun. Since all elements (except hydrogen, and to some what of an extent, helium) are formed in the interiors of suns or during novas/supernovas, and spread during novas/supernovas. Thus, most elements on Earth are older than the Earth. There are, however, some notable exceptions, one of which you mention here. Lead may be made during a supernova, but often lead is a result of radioactive decay of higher elements. That lead in your hand may not be older than the Earth, if it was uranium first and then decayed to lead.
As for silver/gold, I believe the chemist is absolutely correct, though I also agree that silver, while it tarnishes, makes excellent money. The reason gold is chosen as being more valuable than silver is because gold maintains its color and doesn't tarnish...which humans value more. Platinum is actually valued more than gold, partly because it also doesn't tarnish, but partly because it is rarer.) However, even though gold is valued more than silver, both were used for money throughout history.
Voting for people who are not your normal politician would be a better first step than breaking laws.
I tried...but the 1.1 million+ other people out there voted for the same normal politicians. I even wrote in a few candidates that I thought deserved to be on the ballot but weren't because they couldn't get one of the two parties to pick them up. Not a single person I voted for was elected into office.
Unfortunately, the voted for another group of the same normal politicians (all Democrats around here, and every Democrat incumbent was voted in another term too.)
Besides when dealing with things as intangible as copyright, do you think the average VOTER even understands the issues?
This is one thing that I think will cause people to change...maybe not right away, but at some point everyone, including "Anonymous" is going to have to agree that the Copyright Maximalists have just gone way too far. Which I, like most of you, hope will happen in my lifetime. Then change will happen over-night...hopefully at the ballot box and not at the tip of the spear.
When Isk values dropped by 50% many houses were taken over by the banks.
Wow, I am such a nerd. When I read this, I thought to myself...hell, when did ISK drop that much... Better log into Eve and start buying stuff since the prices are never gonna get that good ever again. Eve = yet another awesome product of Iceland.
I hate to respond to this a second time, and AC, don't take this as a response to what you said. I had time to think about this some more, and felt I should delve a little further here.
I responded with Goldman Sachs as an example to grandparent AC's comment that he needed citations for great-grandparent AC's comment about most IP maximalists being hypocrites. I was giving an example, which I still believe is an example of Goldman Sachs being a hypocrite. What Goldman Sachs did was legal, and I'd even argue, it was entirely ethical (based on the GPL.) But it doesn't make them any less of a hypocrite because they could have clean room developed the code instead of just borrowing it from open-source.
RMS is a smart man, and he believes (unlike most Copyright Maximalists,) that Copyright only restricts the distribution of software. GPL is based on that belief. Copyright Maximalists argue, however, that copyright means they can restrict how the software (or other artwork) is used, hence you see things like DVD Region Encoding, EULAs, and the such. Goldman Sachs believes that their own programmer should not be allowed to keep a copy of the code he worked on for them.
Now I am making no excuses for Aleynikov, what he did was 100% unethical, and entirely wrong especially since his stated intent was to use the code to get a better job with a competitor. However, I see this as the ultimate result of an organization that doesn't understand the implications of borrowing GPL, either without understanding what GPL means, or by taking the attitude that so long as they don't distribute GPL code in their product, they are safe. They may be legally allowed to borrow the code, but they are still being hypocritical by getting upset with Aleynikov for borrowing their code. I could play the same game as the copyright maximalists and claim that unless Aleynikov was developing the software directly on the server, he did distribute the software (but RMS would rightly not agree with this statement, and neither would I.)
I've worked in several closed source software projects and all but one of them were hypocritical when it came to borrowing code (they would freely borrow from someone else, but would not return the favor)...I worked shortly for one boss who believed that any code which was published was fair game for use in his project. "If they didn't want it copied, they shouldn't have published it in the first place." I didn't want to have anything to do with him after he told me this...he didn't want anyone else copying his code, but he'd freely copy anything that he came across.
On the other hand, I worked on a project where the project "got it." All submitted code had to contain documentation on what sources were used to develop the code (including what tech manuals/SDK we used,) and if anything was taken from open source or from any other restricted license, it had to be a clean room development of the open source project, and the clean room process and all participants had to be documented, or the code was rejected. I left the project to move on to better things (open source projects,) and haven't been back since.
I think the only way to develop closed source is to develop the way the second project did things. Certainly if the second project was sued for copyright infringement, they'd have an easy time in court. But they were also the only project that wasn't hypocritical about their use of borrowed code, they even documented when they borrowed code from themselves for other projects they worked on. Part of the duty of choosing closed source is that you have to be extremely careful about where it is coming from...far less of a problem with open source since everyone can see the submissions and bad code is usually caught immediately, and you can borrow code from other open source projects usually without running afoul of their licenses.
Wait... If Goldman Sachs never distributed their software, no clauses in the GPL trigger at all (you are free to use it all you want, even incorporate it in your own software, only that if you distribute it you have to do so also under the GPL).
Absolutely true, AC.. They didn't distribute the code. But neither did Aleynikov. He just made a copy of their code, and presumably planned on using that code to help him write a competitors code. GPL does not apply, but the question is that if they borrowed code from GPL, shouldn't Aleynikov be allowed to borrow the same code for the competitor (though I'd argue that they have every right to keep him from borrowing their code, I think the problem was that he was borrowing their code *and* GPL code. I know the jury ended up convicting him on borrowing their code...but how much code did he actually borrow that was theirs, and how much wasn't?
Only in your special mind. Did you ride the short bus to school today?
The only thing they have to do is not host illegal content.
Has anyone shown any proof in court that they were hosting illegal content? No, then thank you very much, Anonymous Coward for playing, you'll get your consolation prize at the door as you walk out.
What is being said here is that their rights given to them under the 4th, 6th, and 14th Amendments of the US Constitution have been violated. The fact that they have lost their website without being told why they lost their website, how can they now speak?
If you aren't, then please explain how the file Debian_5.0.5-x86-DVD.torrent is a crime? (Sure, Microsoft may consider not buying their software a crime, but no one else does. Except those misguided souls who believe a lost-sale for Microsoft should be a crime.) .torrent != .crime, depending on the license for the file the .torrent points to.
On the post: Shouldn't We Fix The Check Clearing Loophole That So Many Scammers Abuse?
Re: Re:
Why checks haven't gone away is what puzzles me most...but I guess the banks would hear far more grief if they stopped issuing them.
I have, in the past, been involved as a treasurer for an organization, and I never want the job ever again. Talk about denizens for fraud and villainy (and I am talking about the banks here.) We had a non-profit account at a bank, and would collect dues and deposit them in this account.
We'd have a person who would routinely write bad checks (checks that they knew they had no money in their account to cover.) Instead of going after the person kiting checks, they would reverse the deposit and charge us twenty dollars a pop for the bad check (even though it was no fault of our own.) We notified the authorities each time, and after the third time, we stopped collecting checks from this person and removed them from the organization. As far as I know, nothing was ever done by the authorities or the bank to punish the individual kiting checks.
The system only works if you trust everyone, and now-a-days, you can't trust everyone.
On the post: NBC Universal & MPAA Get NYC To Run Propaganda 'Anti-Piracy' Ad Campaign
Re: Re: Re: NBC Universal - Nothing to see here...
I just wish we had access to all of the BBC here. When I travel to foreign countries, most of them have access to all of BBC, but not here in the states. We have the BBC channel, but it is the American BBC channel where they take the stuff that is more watered down than usual and throw it up for us. I like Dr. Who, but I wish I could see far more, especially The IT Crowd. I cannot stand 99% of what is on US channels, even on the channels I tend to watch (Discovery, History, etc.) because 99% of it consists of faux-reality or potty humor.
On the post: NBC Universal & MPAA Get NYC To Run Propaganda 'Anti-Piracy' Ad Campaign
Re: NBC Universal - Nothing to see here...
There is a precedent...the Office.
Of course, the American version sucks...just as much as the American version of Being Human will.
On the post: Financial Industry Favors Security Through Obscurity; Demands Cambridge Censor Paper Detailing Weaknesses
Re: Re: Re: oh, and the best part
Or a far more personal example...in 2002, I released a vulnerability report on a particular printer manufacturer who routinely put unauthenticated back-doors in their products. I made sure to communicate with them ahead of time, notifying them that the organization I worked for was very upset with the vulnerability and wanted it fixed, and I was willing to work with them to make sure that a firmware update would be made available to fix the problem. They never responded, even though I sent the email directly to their support folks.
Three weeks later, I released the report, and within six months they were asking my employer to fire me and were asking for my head on a platter. Yet, they did nothing to fix the problem, and introduced new problems in newer versions of their printers. I discovered these newer problems, and contacted them directly, but received no response. I released another report on the newer problems, and they again were asking for my head on a platter. My boss at the time was quite pleased with me, and no one in the organization complied. They tried to buy me off to keep me quiet, but that didn't work either.
Finally, in another line of printers, I discovered the mother of all unauthenticated back-doors, which allowed direct access to the printer's memory, and allowed the attacker to read from and inject into the printer's memory directly. I again contacted them directly. This time, they decided to work with us instead of freaking out and shooting the messenger. They released a technote telling their customers to disable the web server and put all printers behind a firewall which limited access to the web server.
Unfortunately, they haven't fixed the problem, only covered it up since even their newest printers have the same flaw.
On the post: Financial Industry Favors Security Through Obscurity; Demands Cambridge Censor Paper Detailing Weaknesses
Re: Maybe they already know...
Sadly, I think you are right about this. It is likely the same reason why they haven't done anything about rampant identity theft (because their costs are externalized on their customers,) and credit card fraud in general. They could fix the problem but right now the fix is more expensive than their cost of the problem. They could stop sending out personalized forms for credit cards through the mail (which often get intercepted and then used for identity theft,) and some sort of single-use system for credit cards, but both would get in the way of them making the most money (legitimately or otherwise.)
On the post: TSA Punishes Pilot For Videotaping Security Problems At Airports
Re: Re: Re: Re: Parallels the tech industry
Sure, traditionally, red means plain-text and black means cypher-text in encryption networks, but red and black are also used in almost all models for security devices, where red is the area inside of control and black is the area outside of control of a security system. If you really don't understand the concept and are looking for help, the nice folks at Wikipedia have a nice discussion of it. Now, to your drivel...
Most encryption systems ARE transmitted freely everywhere, you are mistaken in your belief that they aren't. Sure, there is an occasional idiot that creates a super-secret encryption routine but those are usually easily broken. And even your beloved one-time symmetric key encryption is freely available (hint: everyone knows how to perform XOR cyphers...you aren't fooling anyone.) The keymat, may or may not be freely transmitted (there is a whole realm of encryption where part of it is transmitted freely,) and usually in the case of it being transmitted, it is encrypted itself.
As for VMS, it has a ton of meanings. VMS is traditionally used in the computer world when discussion Digital Equipment Corporations VAX/VMS operating system, which does mean Virtual Memory System, but just because it means that doesn't mean that DEC wrote their operating system to perform that way. If I can hack supervisor on your VMS system, I have control of your system and can do whatever I want on your system.
However, since in your rants you do not seem to ever explain anything yourself beyond your popular science/people article reading of anything, I fail to see how anything you say is more than just pot calling kettle black. I choose not to post my credentials here, and as far as I've seen, you haven't either.
On the post: Anyone Notice That Sites Don't Have To Rely On Google So Much For Traffic Any More?
Re: Re:
Firefly was cancelled because the morons at Fox were pants.
FIFY, Your welcome.
On the post: Anyone Notice That Sites Don't Have To Rely On Google So Much For Traffic Any More?
Re: Re: If only it wasn't for piracy
Wow, not sure how a television show that played on Fox for 10 episodes, out of order, and was preempted a number of times by football and other events thus not giving it a chance to gain popularity despite a small but growing audience was cancelled because of pirates.
After all, everyone I know who loves Firefly (including myself) actually has two or three licensed copies of the show (one to keep, one to watch, and one to lend to others.) Speaking of which, I think someone borrowed my third copy and hasn't given it back yet...anyone here know where it went?
Or did I miss the sarcasm tag?
On the post: TSA Punishes Pilot For Videotaping Security Problems At Airports
Re: Re:
I, for one, would welcome that. If it gets me to think about my own security, then good. The problem is that most people around here would just go through my stuff or steal my car (which is a painful, and far less desirable, but still a very effective way to get me to think about my own security.) At least with the sign I might see it and do something about it before someone else did. I wouldn't, however, ask the police to arrest the person who writes the sign, but hell, if you feel it is better to shoot the messenger for your mistake, knock yourself out.
On the post: TSA Punishes Pilot For Videotaping Security Problems At Airports
Re: Re: Parallels the tech industry
I don't know why I am feeding Darryl...but here it goes.
Darryl, security solely through obscurity doesn't work, not even in encryption. Encryption is a form of security through obscurity, only in the fact that the key and the message are secret, but the encryption routine and the cypher-text are not secret (in a matter of fact, they can be freely transmitted anywhere.) As someone who has researched encryption methods in the past, let me assure you that any encryption routine which is secret should never be trusted, under any circumstances. Sure, the key and message must remain secret, but this isn't security solely through obscurity at all...the encryption routine likely protects the message and key from exposure through the cypher-text because it relies on information which is extremely difficult to guess or brute-force, such as extremely large prime numbers or elliptical curves. You have access to most of them with a computer, but it would take you a really long time to try them all. Math is what secures encryption, not the algorithm.
As for VMS hacks, just because you aren't aware of any, doesn't mean that they don't exist. And if you believe that running VMS will save you from all attacks, feel free to publicize your DECnet address and we'll see how secure your system really is (hint: it isn't.)
On the post: TSA Punishes Pilot For Videotaping Security Problems At Airports
Re: Re: Re: Still Not Legal
Please provide direct citations to any California Penal Code which covers the law you believe to be broken here.
I am very familiar with CA laws, and there is no such law (it is not clear because it doesn't exist.) There is no penal code in California to cover taking pictures at an airport, and the only code which could possibly be used here would be city municipal code for producing a motion picture for sale without a permit, and that would be a stretch.
Filming or taking pictures in an airport in CA is not prohibited by CA law, except where Federal laws prohibit it, such as in the Customs and Immigration area in the International Terminal. And even then, it is only really enforced at the incoming lanes at the customs stations, as I've seen tourists taking pictures at the baggage areas with no problems at all...they only really seem to care when you take pictures around the customs officials themselves, or around the places where they are examining your documentation.
On the post: TSA Punishes Pilot For Videotaping Security Problems At Airports
Re: Re: This kinda BS
Unfortunately, California is a "may issue" state. As a result, the Sheriff can take away a CCW for any reason, including no reason. Thank the bleeding hearts who rather Californians are victims of crime and not able to fight back (because the criminals have rights too...?!?!) Every time they've tried to force "shall issue" through the law, the bleeding hearts shut them down. If it was up to them, the only people in California with guns would be the criminals.
For the most part, in California, when it comes to CCWs, the Sheriff can make up whatever rules they want, and fairly often a new Sheriff will come in and revoke CCWs issued by past Sheriff's with no rhyme or reason. Often it is done as a political tool, so this isn't far from the norm.
The sad thing is that this does nothing to help security when grannies accidentally shut down airports at random because no one thought to detain her at the checkpoint until the results of a scan were communicated back to them (despite the fact that no grannie in the history of the universe, at least the history we are aware of, has ever had ill-will towards an airplane and would want to destroy it.) What kills me, is the last time I flew, a grannie walked on the plane carrying an oxygen bottle!!! If that grannie had ill-will towards the plane, she could have easily destroyed it with the 5lbs of pure oxygen she had in that bottle. Security Theater, just like California's "may issue" laws, designed to infuriate the general public while the criminals and terrorists laugh (since they likely know all this stuff already, without posting it up to youtube.)
On the post: Nike Sues Guy Who Ordered Single Pair Of Counterfeit Sneakers Over The Internet
Re:
I need your help...I bought Asics from a website that looks like a reputable website (Amazon.com), and I paid the same price I would for a pair of Asics at other websites. Can you tell me whether I bought the real ones or not? I mean, all the websites sure look the same, and they all seem to have a similar price. And most of them say something to the effect that they are authorized dealers of Asics...how am I to know that they just didn't slap the "authorized dealer" symbol on their site and charge me the same price for knock-off Asics?
Also, since you obviously seem to be more intelligent than the rest of us, can you also tell me whether I should trust Amazon.com and Apple iTunes to be authorized websites for music and movies? I really cannot tell, since they tend to look a lot like all the other unauthorized websites.
On the post: DailyDirt: Better Living Via Chemistry... Just Got A Bit More Complicated
Re: Yes another science lesson needed..
Darryl, you can hold just about any element on Earth in your hand (well, at least the ones that aren't gas, don't react with you or the air around you, and don't kill you with their neutrons or ionizing radiation,) and it would be older than the earth or the sun. Since all elements (except hydrogen, and to some what of an extent, helium) are formed in the interiors of suns or during novas/supernovas, and spread during novas/supernovas. Thus, most elements on Earth are older than the Earth. There are, however, some notable exceptions, one of which you mention here. Lead may be made during a supernova, but often lead is a result of radioactive decay of higher elements. That lead in your hand may not be older than the Earth, if it was uranium first and then decayed to lead.
As for silver/gold, I believe the chemist is absolutely correct, though I also agree that silver, while it tarnishes, makes excellent money. The reason gold is chosen as being more valuable than silver is because gold maintains its color and doesn't tarnish...which humans value more. Platinum is actually valued more than gold, partly because it also doesn't tarnish, but partly because it is rarer.) However, even though gold is valued more than silver, both were used for money throughout history.
On the post: MPAA, Pharma Demanding US Push Other Countries To Have Significantly More Draconian IP Laws Than The US
Re: Re: Something has to give.
I tried...but the 1.1 million+ other people out there voted for the same normal politicians. I even wrote in a few candidates that I thought deserved to be on the ballot but weren't because they couldn't get one of the two parties to pick them up. Not a single person I voted for was elected into office.
Unfortunately, the voted for another group of the same normal politicians (all Democrats around here, and every Democrat incumbent was voted in another term too.)
Besides when dealing with things as intangible as copyright, do you think the average VOTER even understands the issues?
This is one thing that I think will cause people to change...maybe not right away, but at some point everyone, including "Anonymous" is going to have to agree that the Copyright Maximalists have just gone way too far. Which I, like most of you, hope will happen in my lifetime. Then change will happen over-night...hopefully at the ballot box and not at the tip of the spear.
On the post: Iceland Considers Revoking Visa/MasterCard Licenses For Wikileaks Ban
Re: Iceland is not part of the EU
Wow, I am such a nerd. When I read this, I thought to myself...hell, when did ISK drop that much... Better log into Eve and start buying stuff since the prices are never gonna get that good ever again. Eve = yet another awesome product of Iceland.
Oh, Isk = Icelandic Krona... Hehe.
On the post: Author Slams 'Piracy,' Then Admits To A Huge 'Pirated' Music Collection And Counterfeit Purses
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
I responded with Goldman Sachs as an example to grandparent AC's comment that he needed citations for great-grandparent AC's comment about most IP maximalists being hypocrites. I was giving an example, which I still believe is an example of Goldman Sachs being a hypocrite. What Goldman Sachs did was legal, and I'd even argue, it was entirely ethical (based on the GPL.) But it doesn't make them any less of a hypocrite because they could have clean room developed the code instead of just borrowing it from open-source.
RMS is a smart man, and he believes (unlike most Copyright Maximalists,) that Copyright only restricts the distribution of software. GPL is based on that belief. Copyright Maximalists argue, however, that copyright means they can restrict how the software (or other artwork) is used, hence you see things like DVD Region Encoding, EULAs, and the such. Goldman Sachs believes that their own programmer should not be allowed to keep a copy of the code he worked on for them.
Now I am making no excuses for Aleynikov, what he did was 100% unethical, and entirely wrong especially since his stated intent was to use the code to get a better job with a competitor. However, I see this as the ultimate result of an organization that doesn't understand the implications of borrowing GPL, either without understanding what GPL means, or by taking the attitude that so long as they don't distribute GPL code in their product, they are safe. They may be legally allowed to borrow the code, but they are still being hypocritical by getting upset with Aleynikov for borrowing their code. I could play the same game as the copyright maximalists and claim that unless Aleynikov was developing the software directly on the server, he did distribute the software (but RMS would rightly not agree with this statement, and neither would I.)
I've worked in several closed source software projects and all but one of them were hypocritical when it came to borrowing code (they would freely borrow from someone else, but would not return the favor)...I worked shortly for one boss who believed that any code which was published was fair game for use in his project. "If they didn't want it copied, they shouldn't have published it in the first place." I didn't want to have anything to do with him after he told me this...he didn't want anyone else copying his code, but he'd freely copy anything that he came across.
On the other hand, I worked on a project where the project "got it." All submitted code had to contain documentation on what sources were used to develop the code (including what tech manuals/SDK we used,) and if anything was taken from open source or from any other restricted license, it had to be a clean room development of the open source project, and the clean room process and all participants had to be documented, or the code was rejected. I left the project to move on to better things (open source projects,) and haven't been back since.
I think the only way to develop closed source is to develop the way the second project did things. Certainly if the second project was sued for copyright infringement, they'd have an easy time in court. But they were also the only project that wasn't hypocritical about their use of borrowed code, they even documented when they borrowed code from themselves for other projects they worked on. Part of the duty of choosing closed source is that you have to be extremely careful about where it is coming from...far less of a problem with open source since everyone can see the submissions and bad code is usually caught immediately, and you can borrow code from other open source projects usually without running afoul of their licenses.
On the post: Author Slams 'Piracy,' Then Admits To A Huge 'Pirated' Music Collection And Counterfeit Purses
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Absolutely true, AC.. They didn't distribute the code. But neither did Aleynikov. He just made a copy of their code, and presumably planned on using that code to help him write a competitors code. GPL does not apply, but the question is that if they borrowed code from GPL, shouldn't Aleynikov be allowed to borrow the same code for the competitor (though I'd argue that they have every right to keep him from borrowing their code, I think the problem was that he was borrowing their code *and* GPL code. I know the jury ended up convicting him on borrowing their code...but how much code did he actually borrow that was theirs, and how much wasn't?
On the post: Owners Of Hiphop Blogs Seized By Homeland Security Still Haven't Been Told Why
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Only in your special mind. Did you ride the short bus to school today?
The only thing they have to do is not host illegal content.
Has anyone shown any proof in court that they were hosting illegal content? No, then thank you very much, Anonymous Coward for playing, you'll get your consolation prize at the door as you walk out.
What is being said here is that their rights given to them under the 4th, 6th, and 14th Amendments of the US Constitution have been violated. The fact that they have lost their website without being told why they lost their website, how can they now speak?
On the post: Owners Of Hiphop Blogs Seized By Homeland Security Still Haven't Been Told Why
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Think you are missing the sarcasm tags there.
If you aren't, then please explain how the file Debian_5.0.5-x86-DVD.torrent is a crime? (Sure, Microsoft may consider not buying their software a crime, but no one else does. Except those misguided souls who believe a lost-sale for Microsoft should be a crime.) .torrent != .crime, depending on the license for the file the .torrent points to.
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