Re: Cryptonomicon called.
Cryptonomicon NEVER gets old.
16005 publicly visible posts • joined 3 Jun 2008
I'm not sure if this is Bad Ballmer Steve's "The Operation", in which he promises to beat people up if they pay him the protection money, or whether it already is "The Other Operation", in which he promises not to beat people up if they don't pay him the protection money.
(This is of course a Flying Circus reference)
> Still just an amazing demonstration of what the Advanced Projects Division could do with a small team of clueful engineers.
And infinite money. Mainly infinite money.
Industrial policy, wealth transfer, hidden taxation of the bonobos.
Sure you get a sleek looking craft out of it for a "Cold War" that was more fearmongering to biggen the brass than anything else. But still... it's like the mafia boss gives you a little duck after having collected the protection money.
Especially when you are a government fucking over the governees and disregarding any Elf and Safety because YOU CAN.
Sounds like some people feel that someone is being forced to work no dosh.
I don't see that.
Not all.
> Unpaid work, be it internships for young women or volunteer positions for older moms, is exploitive.
Oh noes, we can't have that!
Here is the idea though: If you are unskilled, working unpaid *can* be a plus. This concept goes right over the head of the social studies students.
> IP law has provisions to allow reverse engineering
I don't think there are "laws" as such, but there were lengthy lawsuits creating precedence that you may (generally) not prohibit the reverse engineering of APIs (exceptions apply, please consult your lawyer etc)
Why would you want to "prove that a dislike is rational"? Nobody has got to prove anything. Are you implying that disliking Windows 8 is non-politically correct, racist, possibly antisemitic?
Dislike of Windows 8: There ought to be a law against it!
Currencies are not "backed by armies".
They are either backed by commodities (gold, silver, coconuts) or else, in the case of fiat money, by some vague idea that the currency will be acceptable going forward and the the guys "in charge" decide to not print too much of it. Which of course never happens.
> If it's a pseudo-random number generator, then its output isn't random!
Imagine that ... I KNOW THAT. And the good thing is ... it doesn't matter.
> We won't need quantum computers to break encryption because we'll have cheap CUDA and Adapteva machines to try out absolute gobs of keys.
The former are needed for RSA breakage. Your classical parallel processing ain't useful for that. And here we are talking about symmetric crypto.
"when the lure of app stores and all manner of tightly controlled development encroaches on Linux from all sides"
The only thing that encroaches on Linux are the cancers of "IP" litigation: passive-aggressive muttering about "patents" and "I own everything" copyright wankjobs like Daryl's SCO. Ok, you also have the hegemonistic/opportunistic Marshmallow Man that is Oracle.
Mr. Plinkett, is that you?
Obligatory "decibel peak"
> Where is the SEC in all of this? Isn't the SEC supposed to protect the interests of shareholders against harmful individuals?
LOLNO. Is there a "harmful individual" detector that you can buy at Radio Shack?
The SEC is there make the smalltimers feel that there is someone to protect the interests of shareholders. The last 20 years of record should be proof enough of THAT.
Fact is:
1) YOU decide to become "shareholder"
2) You better protect your interests yourself.
Oh wait, the government decides that you become a shareholder via your pension scheme... SUCKS
Today in
"Victimless crimes", "White whines" and the modern belief in control: The ontological inadequacy of modern statist thought, we read:
> should be illegal really
Buying or selling shares then bragging about it should be illegal?
How about NOT buying or selling shares then bragging about it? Similar level of danger.
Let's just outlaw the law of demand and supply, and the marginal value theorem at the same time. Hell, let's outlaw being rich.
Which is just being stupid, drives up the cost of business and lengthens the dole queue. Or gives you "outsourcing" or "repetitive temp workers". Which the people who bemoan "unfair dismissals" then moan about.
It also means that the bureaucracy takes it upon itself to micromanage others' decisions. Certainly a formula for success.