Slashback: Hollywood, Commons, Misidentification 162
Keeping America strong by making mislabeling the problem! It really isn't too late to avoid the worst of the Real-ID Act, and Bruce Scheier's essay on it should be required reading.
Needs more cowbell! c1one writes "In an update to the story Trent Reznor Challenges Music Norms, there has been an "Unofficial The Hand that Feeds Remix Contest." The contest has produced an extreme range of styles, from Hip-Hop to HeeHaw and even a few lounge versions, to name a few. The point though, is that after listening to almost 400 remixes, some of the tracks rival the level of professionalism and creativity found on some of the "official" halo releases. The contest deadline was 5/5/05 and voting by 20 appointed international judges ranging from a Berklee College of Music graduate and various studio engineers to a former Nothing Studio's intern has commenced. They will determine a top ten list using the "nine inch rating scale" that should be available to entertain and to vote on soon."
Graceful reactions are worth emulating. Author Will Iverson writes with a reaction to Simon Chappell's review of his book Apache Jakarta Commons :
"Hi Guys!
I would just like to respond regarding the Slashdot review as posted:
So... I don't know how negatively the review was influenced by the inclusion of the Apache material, but it is entirely above-board per the Apache license and essentially reciprocal - I'm giving the material in the book back to the community via a free license to download the material.
- The book itself is published under an open license - the material in the book will be available as a free electronic download in a few months.
- Yes, the last 125 pages *is* (for all intents and purposes) the printed javadoc. This was included at the request of the publisher, and it is valuable for some people.
Oh, and as an FYI, book writing is hardly a cash cow - I only wish. ;)
Cheers & best wishes,
Will Iverson
A classic case of Americans all looking alike. Of the post "German Robot Dogs Dominate 2005 RoboCup U.S. Open," Ethan Tira-Thompson writes "The linked article has it wrong -- the German team played CMU, not UT Austin. Major screwup on the AP's part, but they don't say who wrote the original article! "
Here's an excerpt from the team's CMU team's announcement:
From: Manuela Veloso Date: May 10, 2005 2:51:14 PM EDT To: scs-all@cs.cmu.edu Subject: US Open Champs :-)Hi,
We won the RoboCup US Open, in the AIBO league. We played UPenn in the final and won 2-1 in overtime. UPenn (Dan Lee) and UT Austin (Peter Stone) came second and third, playing very well and very close to us. They are great teams. Our team, CMDash'05 still has a long way to go to better prepare for the Internationl RoboCup in Japan in July :-)
Please congratulate the complete team for the USOpen victory:
Sonia Chernova, team leader, CSD PhD student, robot behaviors, motion learning Colin McMillen, CSD PhD student, teamwork, networking, goalie Paul Rybski, RI PostDoc, state estimation, multi-robot world modeling, behaviors Juan Fasola, CSD junior, vision, defender, behaviors, motion Felix vonHundelshausen, CSD PostDoc, vision Alex Trevor, CSD senior, vision Sabine Hauert, exchange CS Master student from Switzerland, localization, behaviors Raquel Ros Espinoza, visitor from Barcelona, behaviors, vision
and with the help at the Open of the veterans: Doug Vail, CSD PhD student, vision James Bruce, CSD PhD student, vision, motion"
Hey, they got most of it right. A Harvard Crimson story linked from a Slashdot post headlined "Mathematicians Become Hollywood Consultants" described Jonathan Farley, a math professor who co-founded a consulting agency to help Hollywood get mathematics right in movies an television shows. Farley wrote to point out that his neither a Harvard post-doctoral fellow nor a professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo, writing "I am not and never have been either. (I am a tenured professor elsewhere and have been for several years.) This was an incorrect statement initially made by poor reporters at the Harvard University student newspaper. " Farley points to this Boston Globe story which gets it right.
-1, REDUNDANT (Score:5, Funny)
WAY TO GO SLASHDOT!
No longer are duplicate stories enough. Nor are duplicate stories on the same day or within the same hour. No, NOW WE DUPLICATE THE STORY WITHIN ITSELF!
Congratulations!
Re:-1, REDUNDANT (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:-1, REDUNDANT (Score:1)
-dk
Re:-1, REDUNDANT (Score:5, Funny)
If they can keep the dupes down to a single post it's a start!
Re:-1, REDUNDANT (Score:3, Funny)
Re:-1, REDUNDANT (Score:2)
Re:-1, REDUNDANT (Score:5, Funny)
No, the answer is simpler than that. You see, they are running Linux, which runs X-Window. In X, you select some text and click the middle mouse button on another window to paste your selection. However, the mid-button is less used than the left one, so the contacts get dirty. When they clicked the mid button, the dirty contacts bounced and registered two clicks, so the selected text was pasted twice.
Re:-2, REDUNDANT (Score:3, Funny)
No, the answer is simpler than that. You see, they are running Linux, which runs X-Window. In X, you select some text and click the middle mouse button on another window to paste your selection. However, the mid-button is less used than the left one, so the contacts get dirty. When they clicked the mid button, the dirty contacts bounced and registered two clicks, so the selected text was pasted twice.
Occam's Razor to the rescue! (Score:2, Funny)
Actually, see, they pasted once, picked up the ringing telephone, and after they ended the conversation, they pasted again, thinking they didn't do it before.
Since it was already 6PM, they never minded checking the text after it was ready, because this Slashback is a lengthy, worksome article that gets little of the usual user input and ended with this unique paragraph-dupe specimen.
See? Occam's Razor! This doesn't require the intricacies of the middle-click-bounces-on-tennis-balls-which-bounce
Re:Hahaha. (Score:2)
Just a Comment (Score:5, Funny)
Just a comment. I wanted to say how much I enjoy reading the stories posted on Slashdot, and participating in the interesting discussions. People express lot of different points of view that I never would have thought of on my own.
Let me get this one... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:-1, REDUNDANT (Score:4, Insightful)
You're like the spazz kid at the movie who gets pissed cause his free movie pass was to Electra. Yes its shitty. Don't like it? Don't come here. Maybe if everyone shutup for once we could actually have some decent discussions.
All US base are... (Score:3, Insightful)
And by the way, I grow more fond of my sig at every posting.
Re:All US base are... (Score:2)
Which is why I've been stockpiling aluminum foil.
Re:All US base are... (Score:5, Interesting)
In the old days you would be asked for your papers and then told to move along, but now they can just tell you to move along, much more efficient.
Not Just Soviet Russia (Score:3, Informative)
The first was walking down the street in St. Petersburg - a pair of cops stopped me, and demanded "papers".
The second was as I was getting onto the St. Petersburg metro (I think the station was Moskovstaya). There were a whole bunch of OMON soldiers around, and a pair (and a cop) stopped me and asked for my papers.
The third was w
Re:Not Just Soviet Russia (Score:1)
WHY!? why can't we enjoy the security and peace of mind that Russia has??
Re:All US base are... (Score:3, Funny)
> to prevent reading will not be very popular with
> 'the man.'
An antistatic bag won't do the job. You really do need tinfoil.
Re:All US base are... (Score:3, Insightful)
It's the pulling you off into a dark alley to ask for your papers because they couldn't rf-scan you as you were walking down the street that will probably be the greatest pain.
-Rusty
Re:All US base are... (Score:2)
Oh great, so if I put this thing in my pocket, now I need timefoil pants.
At least they will match my hat...
Re:All US base are... (Score:2)
Re:All US base are... (Score:1)
Re:All US base are... (Score:4, Interesting)
Probably not. But they'll have to put up with it, for the same reason that they were forced to allow general use of encryption. RealID is an open invitation to identity theft, as is any ID based on RFID. It can be read without you knowing any time you get close to a hidden RFID reader.
Carrying a RealID card around unshielded makes about as much sense as sending your login/password across the Net in the clear. Anyone with any sense will shield the former, just as they encrypt the latter. No amount of intoning "National Security" will change this.
Sure, we'll hear lots of reassuring words. But all it'll take is a few reports of stolen RealID info, and reassuring words simply won't work.
We might note that there are already several RF-shielded wallets for sale in the US. I'll bet that sales will soon increase. And, y'know, my wallet is getting a bit old and worn
Re:All US base are... (Score:2)
I'm in that same boat and therefore actively shopping. Are you at liberty to quote a src or brand name? Prefereably for a truckers style wallet, one big enough to hold not only a rack of card windows, but your checkbook complete with the anti-carbon sheet you place between the check you are writing and the next one down so that you don't write 2 checks when they are NCR (no carbon required) checks.
I've been using a ladi
Re:All US base are... (Score:2)
This sort of product has been for sale for decades. There's nothing particularly secretive about it. Most of them were developed for electronics workers. If you work around electronic equipment, and have credit cards in your pocket, it can be sensible to shield them. If you're wearing a pacemaker, you might also be in the market for a sheilding t-shirt. And so on. The advent of RFID will probably increase the market.
I couldn't tell
Re:All US base are... (Score:3, Insightful)
But, this rfid thing, with its capability to read this crap while its still in my pocket, without my knowledge, strikes me as a serious invasion of privacy I would druther not have.
The possibility that someone with a portable reader could walk down a busy street and get all the data that would allow an i
Re:All US base are... (Score:2)
So we can easily track and post on a website in realtime:
o) every titty bar they go to
o) every adult store they rent goatpr0n from
o) every cheap motel they go to meet hookers in
o) every street corner they go to score crack at
o) every unrecorded vacation at taxpayer expense
o) use your imagination
Real ID + RFID cuts both ways. Ain't that a bitch, senator?
Re:All US base are... (Score:2)
Actually implementing it might be non-trivial. You'd have to get the readers installed in the appropriate bars, adult stores, cheap motels, etc. This would entail the cooperation of the management, many of whom would probably think it's a fun project. But still, it would mean a lot of one-on-one talks with managers. You'd have to install the equipment, check it out, and maintain the comm channels.
Actually, it sounds like something that both tabloid and muckraking news orgs might find i
Just Doing Their Job (Score:1, Insightful)
If the American military was serius about defending American freedom, they would hunt down Sensenbrenner, drag him into the street and shoot him through the lungs. Or, if they were serius about defending American safety then they would be stationed in American cities trained and equipped to deal with terrorist attacks.
Oh, but wait, that's not their job. The job of the American
Re:Just Doing Their Job (Score:1, Interesting)
Oh, but wait, that's not their job. The job of the American military is to defend Iraqi freedom.
Think boundary defense; if you want to protect a goal, do you let the goal-tender be the first line of defense? No, you try and keep the ball as far away from the goal as possible. The analogy is not spot on, but by placing American troops overseas, you g
Re:Just Doing Their Job (Score:2, Troll)
And there's another something about enemies both foreign and domestic.
So I guess shooting Sensenbrenner would be okay.
But technically, you'd have the National Guard shoot Sensenwhatacrappylastname.
All that said... Why in God's name is anyone from Wisconson worried about immigration? Too many Canadians jumping the border fence between us and Ontario?
Re:Just Doing Their Job (Score:2)
a hint to the clueless: loose talk about shooting congressmen does not win you friends on capital hill.
Real-ID Act (Score:2, Insightful)
how the ..? (Score:1)
Guess they should have used the preview button!
Re:how the ..? (Score:2)
Ya know, in an ironic sortof way.
Wait, who am I kidding, this is slashdot.
Around here, we do things like that on purpose.
Dammit. I didn't mean to do that.
Maybe I should've used the preview button.
Problems regarding accounts or comment posting should be sent to CowboyNeal [mailto]
Weird maths (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
REAL ID (Score:5, Informative)
Yes, definitely! I really like the points he makes, such as that REAL ID is bad because:
- Real addresses on all cards, even for undercover police officers
- Insecure RFID technology allowing unauthorized access
- Machine readable = ATM > 7-11's Database > Choicepoint > Spammers and Identity Theifs
- Expensive ($120 million estimated per state!) and unfunded! The last thing we need are more deficits!
- Power grab by national government
And the best of all, besides it probably decreasing security:
- Polls overwhelmingly show no one wants it! And over 600 organizations oppose it!
Now, if that doesn't sound like a completely botched-up job, I don't know what is.
Re:REAL ID (Score:3, Insightful)
Tell me about it. I recently had to get cleared to work at a federal site. The first thing I get is an email request for Name, SSN, place of birth, etc. I told the guy I wasn't stupid enough to send that over plaintext email. I didn't bother to ask how many of my coworker's data had already been forwarded. Since then he has accumulated a huge stack of information on all of us, which will all be sent to someone, who will send it to someone else, who will do who knows
Re:REAL ID (Score:3, Interesting)
I suspect this is going to be a problem for repo and tow-truck guys. I have spoken with a few of them and they all say rule #1 is never give out your address. They put their PO Box on their license, but some don't even like to give that out. They do this because there are some crazy people who shoot at them and all sorts of stuff.
Re:REAL ID (Score:2)
Re:REAL ID (Score:2)
Re:REAL ID (Score:1)
I hate the REAL ID law. This is terrible. But it would be even more terrible if it allowed for multiple classes of citizens
Re:REAL ID (Score:1)
Re:REAL ID (Score:1)
Real addresses on all cards
I don't understand how that could be even considered. Are they going to change every card whenever you address changes? My Finnish driver's license certainly doesn't have any information that could change during the license's 52 year lifetime (apart from the photo and some medical conditions like glasses).
Cops can still find out my address through the social security number and their fancy databases.
We already do (Score:2)
Every time I move my state requires me to get a new license to reflect my new address. If I move out of state I have to turn over my old license and get one in the new state. (Generally they just mark the old license as invalid as a license, but still proof of ID, and give you papers that are proof of license - confusing but it works until you get the new license in about a month)
In most states licenses are only good for 4 years. Every 4 years I have to go get a new license, which includes a vision t
Re:We already do (Score:1)
Re:REAL ID (Score:5, Interesting)
My argument may not be obvious, but it's not hard to follow, either. It centers around the notion that security must be evaluated not based on how it works, but on how it fails.
It doesn't really matter how well an ID card works when used by the hundreds of millions of honest people that would carry it. What matters is how the system might fail when used by someone intent on subverting that system: how it fails naturally, how it can be made to fail, and how failures might be exploited.
I thought it was worth repeating.
Re:REAL ID (Score:2)
Machine readable = ATM > 7-11's Database > Choicepoint > Spammers and Identity Theifs
as
Machine readable = ATM > 7-11's Database > Checkpoint > Spammers and Identity Theifs
I wonder how far off I really am.
Schneider on REAL ID (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah, because everybody know that undercover police officers take their real ID papers with them under cover. [/sarcasm]
If there's a need to keep the address of judges and police officers secret, then allow them to list FAKE addresses, or rather an address that is re-routed through a mail screening service. Don't allow any Tom, Dick, and Harry to list their address as
Box 5, Jean Climax' Barber, Maildrop and Internet Café.
REAL ID also prohibits states from issuing driver's licenses to illegal aliens. This makes no sense, and will only result in these illegal aliens driving without licenses -- which isn't going to help anyone's security.
How does that make no sense? Like, knowing who people are before giving them identification? If they drive so horribly without a license, what would make them try to get one?
Re:Schneider on REAL ID (Score:2)
Re:Schneider on REAL ID (Score:1)
Re:Schneider on REAL ID (Score:1)
Re:Schneider on REAL ID (Score:1)
Still, why should I have to provide the goventment with information that can be used in incriminate me if some bozo steals my car or impresinates me in some other way.
It could be argued that it would be even easier to impersonate you if all the bozo has to say to take your identity is saying "I'm Christopher N, from X." Of course, getting a credit card with that information is as hard
Re:Schneider on REAL ID (Score:1)
Let's see now... according to whitepages.com, there's this person with a randonly-chosen surname:
Jones, Patrick J
18900 175th St
Audubon, MN
Then there's this one:
Smith, Alan & Jennie
17012 S Big Cormorant Rd
Audubon, MN
And these good folks:
Miller, Jesse & Bridget
15212 Hillview Ln
Audubon, MN
They all look like street addresses in Audubon to me!
Not in town (Score:2)
I don't know about Audubon itself. I do think that it used to be common to not give farmers street addresses. I grew up on a Rural route. My street address was:
Rural Route 2, Box 155b
Buffalo, MN, 55362
They gave us street addresses about 15 years ago. I know plenty of people in rural areas who still have the rural route address.
Note that this is a rural route, box address. This is different from a P.O. box, contrary to what the grandparent post claimed. From a rural route box there is no way t
Re:Schneider on REAL ID (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Schneider on REAL ID (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Schneider on REAL ID (Score:2)
Re:Schneider on REAL ID (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Schneider on REAL ID (Score:2)
Now that is truly "insightful." I'd give this a +1 if I weren't blacklisted from moderating.
Not that I think REAL ID is a great idea, but... (Score:1, Interesting)
You can adduce a couple hundred examples without expending much effort. Enabling law enforcement to do its job in this kind of way is not going to make anything "falls aparts".
Re:Schneider on REAL ID (Score:1)
Exactly. Whatever "extra rights" to privacy there are, are measures to protect them from organized crime, and {are|should be} extended to protected vitnesses.
Re:Schneider on REAL ID (Score:2)
Re:Schneider on REAL ID (Score:2)
You won't be able to in the future if this gets implemented.
Re:Schneider on REAL ID (Score:2)
Re:Schneider on REAL ID (Score:2)
I can see that the ID would also have eyeball compatible info, and probably a mag stripe or barcode, but you'd need physical
File list for the contest... (Score:1)
wget -i files.txt
Re:File list for the contest... (Score:2)
Incorrect reporting (Score:3, Funny)
Which is why one should never assume anything from a student newspaper (or Slashdot) is fact.
Re:Incorrect reporting (Score:1)
Is there an echo in here? (Score:1)
REAL ID (Score:4, Insightful)
See, I have a problem with that. Driving is a privilege and not a right. If you don't want to participate, just don't get a license and don't drive. However, existing is not an option and to do anything (get a library card, bank account, internet access, rent an apartment, get a job) you have to have an identification card.
So the only way to avoid the requirements of this REAL ID thing is to remove yourself entirely from the technological, social and economic grids. You won't be able to live anywhere, buy anything or work anywhere. So as long as you can do without that, you'll be okay.
Re:REAL ID (Score:2)
Re:REAL ID (Score:1)
However, driving is a "privilege" as far as the government is concerned. That's why they can suspend or completely revoke that privilege whenever they want. That's why they can subject you to searches that would otherwise not be possible. And that's why they can force you to take a breathalizer (by a
hacking REAL ID (Score:1)
OK, the the real ID bill has passed and been signed.
Let's say you are in the state agency which would be forced to implement it. What can you do to comply with the letter of the law, while making it not work in practice?
Conversely, how co
Re:REAL ID (Score:2)
Getting back on topic though, this ID would be required to receive almost any
Ye Old Driver's License (Score:2)
Whatever information the license contained, you could read it.
Then someone came up with the bright idea of adding a magnetic strip.
If you live in a state/country that still uses magstrips,
beat the hell out of it with a hammer so it won't be machine readable anymore.
Nowadays, the latest and greatest IDs use "3D" barcodes.
Instead of your up and down stripes, imagine a low rez snowstorm.
Now you have no clue what information your license contains
The next
Re:Ye Old Driver's License (Score:1)
Once they have your fingerprints, social security number, full name, address,
Re:REAL ID (rights and priveleges) (Score:2)
Quite the contrary, one has the right to the quiet enjoyment of one's property. Everyone has a right to use a public road, and it can only be taken away if
"Driving is a privilege and not a right" is an urban legend. If it wasn't a right,
Schneier (Score:3, Interesting)
It's really, ultimately, taxpayer dollars, right? Or can someone school me on the point, preferrable in an Alan Greenspan mumble?
Re:Schneier (Score:3, Informative)
Yes, states and the federal government are both funded by taxes, but they are different pools of money from different sources. The federal tax base consists primarily of funds collected via the federal income tax, with small amounts coming from import tariffs and the like. States each choose how to raise money and usually have their own income taxes, but those are usually much lower and supplemented by sales taxes and possibly property taxes (although property tax tends to go to municipalities, at least it
Re:Schneier (Score:3, Insightful)
Couldn't states just give the bird to the feds on this? If no consequence is spelled out in the bill, no consequence can be pushed on the state. If the feds pass this, I can see a lot of states passing their own legislation declaring their ID "good enough" (similar to Utah's reaction to "No child left behind").
Re:Schneier (Score:2)
I fantasize about locking these twits in a room, and telling them they get no soup until the tax code fits on one side of one sheet of paper, in a legible font.
Remember not to vote for me!
I'm Bizarro-Harvard! (Score:2, Interesting)
From the post:
Farley wrote to point out that his[sic] neither a Harvard post-doctoral fellow nor a professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo, writing "I am not and never have been either. (I am a tenured professor elsewhere and have been for several years.)
FTA:
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Harvard professor Jonathan Farley is an award-winning scholar, but he wouldn't mind being known as a Hollywood mathematician.
So I thought to myself, couldn't he just c
In principle is national ID a bad idea? (Score:2)
In particular while I agree that using one ID system introduces a common point of high value failure it also economiclly feasible to invest a great deal more in the ID system. If one ID replaces n IDs you can make t
Re:In principle is national ID a bad idea? (Score:3, Interesting)
Huh? (Score:4, Funny)
The dupes just keep getting closer together, don't they? The dupes just keep getting closer together, don't they?
YOU CAN STILL FIGHT THE REAL ID (Score:4, Informative)
Holy crap. (Score:3, Funny)
"his" is not short for "he is" (Score:2)
NIN - Trent Reznor (Score:2)
I personally think the new single that's been getting excessive amounts of airtime sucks
If you read that again, you'll realize I said the single sucks.
Not Nine Inch Nails, not Trent Reznor, just the new single.
I haven't heard the rest of the album. I'm sure I will eventually
But if that one song reflects the new sound NIN is aiming for...
I'll most likely be underwhelmed.
I like their older work.
I hope this CD isn't like Metallica & their craptacular last album
Ch
only in america (Score:1)
Re:only in america (Score:2)
RealID: another reason it should have been stopped (Score:2)
Senate Gives Dept. Homeland Security Power to Waive All Laws
By ROBERT SHULL [counterpunch.org]
In passing the Iraq War Supplemental yesterday, the Senate also gave the Secretary of Homeland Security the power to waive any and all law in the course of building roads and barriers along the U.S. borders -- without limit and with no checks and balances. The measure is part of the "REAL ID Act of 2005," the controversial immigration bill attached by the House as a rider to the Iraq war suppleme
music norms? (Score:2)
Trent Reznor hasn't challenged anything, instead, he's jumped on the bandwagon. Bands, including ones on major labels too, have been distrubuting remix packs for years now. Just because Reznor is using Garageband and prior artists used Acid packs, that doesn't make Reznor's offering any more "open to the common user". You could even argue the opposite.
Re:wow (Score:1, Funny)
Re:PEOPLE WITH MOD POINTS: CALL FOR HELP (Score:1)
Re:ATTENTION SLASHDOT MODS! (Score:2)