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Comment: Re:DRM is Necessary (Score 1) 399

by mrsbrisby (#35261792) Attached to: Will Google Oppose DRM On HTML5 Video?

DRM isn't evil, people.

DRM is about removing your ability to use your computer in certain ways, including ways that violate your fifth amendment rights.

DRM is software on your computer that you can't remove, can't inspect, can't trust, that deletes your shit and rats you out to the police if they think you're wrong. It might also give away all of your personal information to the bad guys because the people writing that DRM are just as stupid as any other programmer (Google the Sony BMG Rootkit scandal; especially the bits about all the security holes, if you've got a short memory).

People don't understand this. If you described DRM like a police-supplied GPS put in your car that faxes you a ticket whenever you go one mile-per-hour over, or like a camera in your skull that gives away all your secrets, people would understand how evil DRM is. I would hope that even you would be compelled to admit DRM is evil.

Note, I don't accept any other part of your statement; that it is inevitable, or unavoidable, and etc. It's plain to see that you're wrong: Amazon sells mp3s without DRM and the world didn't come to an end. This is auxiliary to the main point about the morality of DRM.

Comment: Re:More Flash? (Score 1) 399

by mrsbrisby (#35261632) Attached to: Will Google Oppose DRM On HTML5 Video?

If we want content providers and sites to use HTML5, we need to provide the tools they need. No matter how much you hate it, DRM is one of them.

I think you've got this exactly backwards. I think Content providers know full well there's a game of chicken here and they're scared shitless. That's why they are poisoning the well asking seemingly innocuous questions like "how will we deliver our video if you don't help us protect our rights?" They know they will fold and offer DRM-free delivery when DRM is impossible- Amazon already sells me DRM-free music, and Justin Bieber is still making great music. I see no reason to believe Netflix won't similarly capitulate.


Measuring the Speed of Light With Valentine's Day Chocolate 126 Screenshot-sm

Posted by samzenpus
from the speed-of-the-sound-of-loneliness dept.

+ - Microsoft warns of TLS/SSL flaw in Windows->

Submitted by Rish


Link to Original Source

Treading the Fuzzy Line Between Game Cloning and Theft 235

Posted by Soulskill
from the welcome-to-the-world-of-policeactioncraft dept.
eldavojohn writes "Ars analyzes some knockoffs and near-knockoffs in the gaming world that led to problems with the original developers. Jenova Chen, creator of Flower and flOw, discusses how he feels about the clones made of his games. Chen reveals his true feelings about the takedown of Aquatica (a flOw knockoff): 'What bothers me the most is that because of my own overreaction, I might have created a lot of inconvenience to the creator of Aquatica and interrupted his game-making. He is clearly talented, and certainly a fan of flOw. I hope he can continue creating video games, but with his own design.' The article also notes the apparent similarities between Zynga's Cafe World and Playfish's Restaurant City (the two most popular Facebook games). Is that cloning or theft? Should clones be welcomed or abhorred?"

Comment: Re:Buy a Pre (Score 2, Interesting) 684

by mrsbrisby (#29416513) Attached to: IPhone 3.1 Update Disables Tethering

T-Mobile eventually intentionally put a stop to unsigned clients

Rubbish. I don't know what you're doing wrong, but I use an AT&T-branded Blackberry 8310 with my T-mobile account. T-mobile doesn't have a 8310, so I can assure you that T-mobile not only allows "unsigned clients" (whatever the fuck that means; unlocked? different vendor-id?), but their telephone support helped me do it.

Comment: Re:dunno exactly (Score 1) 173

by mrsbrisby (#27015165) Attached to: High Performance Linux Kernel Project &mdash; LinuxDNA

LLVM can (and is) used to subvert the GCC's GPL by making it possible to "compile" C code into closed-source proprietary bytecodes. See "Alchemy" for an example of Adobe being an immoral slimeball.

I'd like to add a slimeball exception to software I've written, preventing Adobe from benefitting, and yet I can't bring myself to be immoral just to combat immorality.

Comment: Re:Portability.. (Score 1) 173

by mrsbrisby (#27015015) Attached to: High Performance Linux Kernel Project &mdash; LinuxDNA

But you are advocating if I am reading you correctly 'to hell with other compilers use gcc4 it is the rocking best one out there'.

Then work on your reading comprehension. I said no such thing.

I said it isn't obvious that supporting other compilers was a good thing, and that it seemed obvious that actively supporting other compilers (i.e. "more work") had some serious costs that were being underepresented.

Re-read my post. Nowhere did I suggest anyone stop doing what they were doing.

Comment: Re:Portability.. (Score 4, Insightful) 173

by mrsbrisby (#27006227) Attached to: High Performance Linux Kernel Project &mdash; LinuxDNA

GCC is a great compiler, but relying on it excessively is a bad thing for the quality of kernel code ... it is simply healthy for the kernel to be compilable across more compilers.

Prove it.

The opposite (relying on GCC is a good thing for code quality) seems obvious to me. The intersection of GCC and ICC is smaller than GCC, so I would assume that targetting something big would afford greater flexibility in expression. As a result, the code would be cleaner, and easier to read.

Targetting only the intersection of ICC and GCC may result in compromises that confuse or complicate certain algorithms.

Some examples from the linked application include:

  • removing static from definitions
  • disabling a lot of branch prediction optimizations
  • statically linking closed-source code
  • tainting the kernel making debugging harder

I cannot fathom why anyone would think these things are "good" or "healthy", and hope you can defend this non-obvious and unsubstantiated claim.

(some of us still remember the gcc->pgcc->egcs->gcc debarcle).

When pgcc showed up, it caused lots of stability problems, and there were major distribution releases that made operating a stable Linux system very difficult: 2.96 sucked badly.

The fact that gcc2 still outperforms gcc4 in a wide variety of scenarios is evidence this wasn't good for technical reasons, and llvm may prove RMS's "political" hesitations right after all.

I'm not saying gcc4 isn't better overall, and I'm not saying we're not better for being here. I'm saying it's not as clear as you suggest.


Belkin's President Apologizes For Faked Reviews 137

Posted by kdawson
from the genuine-naugahyde dept.
remove office writes "After I wrote about how Belkin's Amazon.com sales rep Mike Bayard had been paying for fake reviews of his company's products using Mechanical Turk, hundreds of readers across the Web expressed their outrage. As a result of the online outcry, Belkin's president Mark Reynoso has issued a statement apologizing and saying that 'this is an isolated incident' and that 'Belkin does not participate in, nor does it endorse, unethical practices like this.' Amazon moved swiftly to remove several reviews on Belkin products it believed were fraudulent. But now fresh evidence of astroturfing has surfaced, by the same Belkin executive."

Comment: Re:So you think RSA is broken? (Score 1) 179

by mrsbrisby (#26218653) Attached to: DNSSEC Advances in gTLDs; Bernstein Intros DNSCurve

Oh, you actually want to read them? I thought you just wanted me to prove my cred.

I didn't doubt you went to school, or were completing a graduate level program on cryptography.

I doubted your competence, because you missed something I thought was obvious, and I am not a cryptographer.

That said, you mentioned you were working on identity systems, and I am interested in that. I want to say I do not seriously assume that your lack of experience with a particular kind of vulnerability assessment translates to a lack of competence in other things, and I apologize for my statement to the contrary on that subject.

I look forward to reading these papers after the holidays...
