Comment Re:Most impressive and important pattern? (Score 1) 241
...and you just proved that it is, in fact, "arguable".
Comment Re:Quantum kittens. (Score 1) 321
(But I'm not a quantum mechanic. Perhaps a qualified physicist can vet that statement.)
Gotta love any problem that involves quantum mechanics, physicists, and veterinarians.
Comment Re:No, Clearly a Horrible Anti-Fair Use Ruling (Score 2, Interesting) 407
What if the tool is made outside the US? As far as I know, production and distribution of such a tool is still legal here in Canada. When you say there is no law against obtaining the tool, does that cover importing it?
Comment Re:Google needs to improve their product (Score 1) 111
Well, that was around the time of all the media hype about kids learning to make bombs online from the Terrorist's Handbook, right?
Comment Re:What about Norton Antivirus? (Score 1) 161
Moderators didn't get the joke
Maybe Symantec would pay them not to do this, and then they could afford real Windows licenses.
Comment Re:I've got an easier way (Score 1) 161
If that's what you care about, study it. Why rely on botnet authors to code some arbitrary botnet spreading code when you can write your own and study various different scenarios at will?
First, the obvious: why would you design and study a proxy when you have full access to the real thing, isolated where it can do no harm? But there's more to it than that.
The whole point is to study what real botnets do; to discover the large-scale emergent behaviour that cannot be predicted by looking at the code. I think you're still having trouble accepting that it might not be possible to fully predict behaviour by examining an algorithm, but I'm not here to educate you in logic and math; it's true whether you accept it or not. How can you design a proxy algorithm that will exhibit the same emergent behaviour as some other algorithm, without knowing in advance what that behaviour is, let alone understanding how it arises? It's impossible by definition.
Submission + - RIAA: Don't Expect DRMed Music To Work Forever (arstechnica.com)
Oracle Goddess writes: "Buying DRMed content, then having that content stop working later is fair writes Steven Metalitz, the lawyer who represents the MPAA, RIAA in a letter to the top legal advisor at the Copyright Office. "We reject the view that copyright owners and their licensees are required to provide consumers with perpetual access to creative works." In other words, if it stops working, too bad. Not surprisingly, Metalitz also strongly opposes any exemption that would allow users to legally strip DRM from content if a store goes dark and takes down its authentication servers."
Comment Re:Aphasia (Score 1) 230
I'll admit to being a prude where profanity is concerned, but I don't expect people around me to change their behaviour. It's kind of a running gag in our office that my coworkers swear for me when I get upset. It cracks me up and relieves the tension.
Comment Re:I actually DO fMRI research (Score 1) 59
doing one experiment and claiming you "found the love [or insert whatever emotion/though] center is irresponsible and should be correlated with other studies and hopefully monkey studies as well.
This would also allow us to use the term "monkey love" in a future Slashdot headline.
Comment Re:My statistics (Score 1) 575
If the ad blocker does not allow the browser to issue an HTTP request to the analytics system at all, then the user agent is irrelevant. The ad-blocked browser is non-existent, as far as the analytics system is concerned, and therefore underreported.
Comment Re:Homomorphism (Score 1) 199
That's an excellent explanation. Thank you.
Submission + - Microsoft 'offers' $10k to IE users (ostatic.com)
ruphus13 writes: In the latest attempt to battle the declining share of Internet Explorer, Microsoft is dipping into its huge cash reserves to provide 'incentives' to people to switch to IE. In a new move, Microsoft is offering $10,000 in prize money that is 'buried' somewhere on the Internet, but can only be retrieved by using IE. Of course, several people will use IE, and a few will hopefully continue to do so even after 'discovery'. From the post, "How desperate is Microsoft to woo users to its Internet Explorer version 8 browser? Mozilla Chair Mitchell Baker points out in a blog post that Microsoft is now offering $10,000 in prize money "buried somewhere on the Internet" which you can only find if you use Internet Explorer. Come on Microsoft, Internet Explorer needs a lot more than this marketing campaign to shore up its prospects...Until Microsoft fosters the kind of free, open extensibility for its browser that Firefox has, it remains doomed to watch Internet Explorer continue to lose market share."
Comment Re:Gnashing my Teeth (Score 1) 500
No, I don't think it does. Regardless of whether you micromanaged your updates or trusted Microsoft to handle it, there was no mention of the Firefox extension in the original update release notes. Users were not given any opportunity to evaluate whether the update's behaviour was acceptable to them.
Comment This story gives me hope (Score 1) 165
It's proof positive that anyone can get a story posted on /.
Comment Re:What you need is mass (Score 1) 142
And don't forget a very long extension cord for the fridge.
