The author's claim that it's very hard to break only means that THEY don't know how to break it. That's meaningless, because anyone and everyone can come up with a puzzle they don't know how to solve. That doesn't mean it's hard, just that they don't know how it's done.

A trivial example would be a kindergartener who might observe that if you encode a message by writing it with letters, they don't kow how to read that message. That's only because the kid doesn't know how to read. It in no way suggests that reading is impossible. For many Slashdot readers, compiling a message into a Windows resource file makes unreadable _to_them. Windows resource files are of course quite easy to read, if you know how. These researchers don't know how to read their own encoding. So what? That doesn't mean _I_ don't know how to read their stuff.

Their scheme does have one attribute that's good - it can generate long keys. So can a random number generator. They MAY have a good idea, but we won't know until alot of other people try to break their encryption and fail.

That would be interesting. I once licensed some software I wrote like that. My license specified it could be freely distributed by anyone other than Microsoft, their employees and affiliates.

Blender CAN sue for compensation. Maybe if the law specified treble damages for negligent filing the initial complaint, Sony might be more careful next time.

Under DMCA, the video or other content is supposed to be immediately restored if you respond, saying it's not infringing. The DMCA calls this a counterclaim. It stays up unless the claimant files suit in federal court.

The law should definitely be adjusted to reduce automated takedown notices, perhaps by strengthening the penalty for a reckless claim or requiring that the claimant investigate beyond "good faith belief". Other than that, the procedure defined in DMCA is actually pretty reasonable.

I submitted your email address, which I assume triggers their system to send you a link, or a real person from WGU will email you.

Full disclosure :You get the application fee waived , I get $20 credit for the school store, where I could get a WGU T-shirt or something if I wanted one. No thanks, I'll get a Texas Task Force One shirt from work. :)

That is a good point. Under simplified artificial conditions, the net value only cancels out if the queue is long enough that people forego the reward due to the wait. If the line is short enough that all interested parties get in line, it's a net positive, that's true.

I WAS thinking it was always true for the marginal value case of "leave now or leave later", but I think I had it backwards. The thereom always FALSE for getting in the Burning Man line at all, because it's ALWAYS better to get the reward at the end - getting out of the desert, even if you spent two weeks in line,. The alternative is to die of dehydration in the desert. Themarginal gain (or loss) of leaving at any specific time is more complex.

I'm thinking this through in writing, so tell me if I miss something.

In the ice cream example, the line gets to the threshold and stays there because if it's too long, people will skip the ice cream. They'll decide getting the ice cream is not worth the wait, just not get ice cream.

Getting home is not optional. People will not decide to skip getting home in order to avoid the line. The question is not "is it worth getting in line?" Rather, the question is the marginal utility of getting in line NOW vs hanging out another five minutes. So the options are:

A) Less time at festival, get home sooner, more/less time in line.
B) More time at festival, get home later, more/less time in line

That seems to be an altogether different calculation, with different results, and different number of variables than:

a) get in line and get reward
b) don't get in line

You could reduce the actual situation to simple scenario if "get reward" is defined as the marginal utility of now vs later. It's interesting that the difference between the two is:
(Home sooner) - (less time at festival) -+ (the line may be longer or shorter later)

The marginal utility, therefore, may be negative, the "reward" at the end of the line may be a punishment. In that case, no rational, sober person who studied the problem would leave at that time. Unless of course it was subjectively a positive _for_them_ to leave immediately because they have a chainsaw in their neck. Hmm, this is getting interesting.

Of course, we just assumed everyone at burning man is a rational, sober person who is carefully calculating their options. I'm not sure where to go from here, so let's bring back the ice cream, this time withmarginal utility. You have two lines, one for chocolate, one for vanilla. (A line to leave this morning vs a line to leave tonight). The student of game theory would point out that theory says the marginal utility of chocolate vs. vanilla must equal the extra waiting time for chocolate. The teacher of game theory would point out that some people don't like chocolate. Their kid will point out "free ice cream for everyone! Everyone pick your favorite flavor!"

Yes, just like the other state universities in Indiana, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas and Washington.
(WGU is a state university in those states).

https://www.google.com/search?...

BTW, you might want to read the first link in those search results for the search you posted. Quite obviously you didn't bother.
It sure is amazing that a school with only 43,000 students each year has a couple who were unhappy.
WGU graduates more students every year than Harvard, Princeton, and Yale put together. With that number, there's certainly going to be a few people who are unhappy that they didn't accept a certain class for transfer or whatever.

Oh, okay, I understand what you're saying. Ads on web sites are just billboards - you don't have to be on the site to se the ads that are on the site. Just like a billboard, if Dice puts an ad on Slashdot, people on Techcrunch will see it. Obviously, that makes Techdirt readers unhappy, having their neighbor Slashdot putting up all of those billboards.

You're certainly right. It's not like you only see the ads on Slashdot if you come to Slashdot.

> the queue will still grow to the point where the convenience of getting out is just barely outweighed by the inconvenience of waiting in line.

True (sort of), but perhaps not as important as it first appears. The above statement is STILL true when the wait is 30 seconds. Yet, a 30 second wait is surely a success. Just because the two are theoretically balanced doesn't mean the plan wasn't a great success. Therefore it might make sense not to focus too much on that.

That does suggest a refinement, though. Announcing the winner of a contest would only take a couple of minutes, so yeah it only splits the group in two. Better would be something like a long performance or series of performances so that some people would stay an extra hour, some stay an extra two hours, etc. Maybe that could be combined with the volunteer issue, pack up / clean up thing. If you stay for the cleanup on Monday, you'll be there for _____ (good stuff, but not too good).

You're complaining about ads on "the internet". But "the internet" doesn't mean web pages.
So you're complaining about flyers stuffed into fiber conduits?

You're trying to defend the position that:
  "The internet is the place where people put ads are". "The internet is the fiber and routers".

See, you keep contradicting yourself. When that happens, you have several options. A) You can flee to ridiculous ad hominem, B) you can lose your mind struggling to find a way to make all of those contradictions make sense, or C) you be intellectually honest with yourself and recognizing that the position you had been advocating is clearly non-sensical and it's time to step back and see what actually makes sense.

PS - WGU students can refer potential students and send them a code that waives the $65 application fee.
Message me if you're interested in looking into it.

There is a way to get a bachelor's degree from a state university, and a bunch of well-known certifications at the same time, for only a few thousand dollars. I'm sort of doing what I'm about to describe, though I could have saved myself more money by planning ahead. I did earn six college credits this week, though, which cost me about $100.
Western Governor's University ( http://wgu.edu/ ) has IT programs in which most of computer related classes are based on passing a test.
Specifically, they use industry recognized certification tests from COMPTIA, Microsoft, etc. So passing one of these tests gets you both course credit and a certification.

At WGU, you don't pay per-class. Instead, tuition covers a six-month time semester. You can take and pass 20 classes if you want to. That allows for the following strategy:

Look at the list of certifications that make up a specific degree.
Study for those certifications using Professor Messer or other free resources.
When you're ready to take six certifications, register for WGU.
Take those six tests in the first two weeks of the term (24-32 college credits).
Take non-certification tests like Math, which I just took after a couple of days of study (6 college credits).
Begin studying for the next set and get those done in the remaining five months. (12 college credits).

In that way, you will have earned 48 college credits and received several certifications, while paying only $2,800 for the term.
Depending on your level of pre-existing knowledge and the amount of time you put in, you might well be able to complete a BS or BA in 18-24 months, paying $8,400 for your degree and certifications.

WGU is an accredited university founded by 19 governors that is considered a state university in many states. I just now took my math final on my lunch break, sitting at my desk at work. They use a webcam for proctoring to make sure I'm not cheating. It took me maybe three hours of study and one hour testing to pass the math class, which is 3 credits.

The license plate thing probably would reduce the wait. The wait could be more organically reduced by holding some event or two shortly after the time people are currently leaving, so that some people stick around a bit longer.

I don't know exactly what would be appropriate at what time, but let's say the traffic jam is really bad from 9AM-10AM. Schedule to announce the winner of the biggest bud contest at 10:00, and give away a ______ at 10:30. People staying for those two things would level out the traffic outflow.

> "The Internet" is a commons.

No, it's not. It's a collective term for a bunch of people's individual sites, what used to be called "home pages". I won't tell you what to put on your home page. If you want to make a site where you babble about your collectivist nonsense, go ahead. It's none of my business what you put on your site. Your shite is not a commons. Before you build your site, I'd SUGGEST that you first visit one of the many fine sites where you can learn what "commons" means, but it's really none of my business if you want to skip learning the vocabulary and just post gibberish on your site.