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Hackers, cyberpunks, and technophilosophy


fermentor666

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this stuff is very spooky,

part of me sees this as a potential for stopping un-necessary stuff from happening and preventing innocent people from harm, but another part of me knows that the people who's tenticles will be all over this technology do not always have the best interest of the people in mind. (to put it lightly).

 

 

I'm getting ready to do some flying soon, i'll try to put my cool as a cucumber vibes outfit on.

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this stuff is very spooky,

part of me sees this as a potential for stopping un-necessary stuff from happening and preventing innocent people from harm, but another part of me knows that the people who's tenticles will be all over this technology do not always have the best interest of the people in mind. (to put it lightly).

 

that is putting it very lightly dawood. have you heard about the passive mri's going into airports? it is a type of mind reading, so to speak. by analyzing the patterns in the brain, where neurons are firing at, they can tell if you're lying, hiding something, nervous, etc. it's all very scary stuff. way more scary than 1984.

 

 

 

What's completely unpractical about it would be in the case of many people here. The thought: "Oh man I'd love to put a bomb up on that bathroom mirror" (scrybe) would mean you'd have a security officer sticking his finger up your ass looking for the remote trigger. It'll be just as offensive and absurd as making a mother drink her own breastmilk at a checkpoint except they'll be able to claim it's "science" instead of ideology.

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"What's completely unpractical about it would be in the case of many people here. The thought: "Oh man I'd love to put a bomb up on that bathroom mirror" (scrybe) would mean you'd have a security officer sticking his finger up your ass looking for the remote trigger. It'll be just as offensive and absurd as making a mother drink her own breastmilk at a checkpoint except they'll be able to claim it's "science" instead of ideology."

 

 

HAHAHAHA its funny but very true.....sadly just like we don't choose our president, we don't choose gov't actions.

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This is a problem. AI is the next big wave of tech and there are going to be huge social and ethical implications going on. These algorithms fall into this catogory, as it is trying to predict human intelligence by studying human intelligence. Soon, dots will be connected and pieces will fall into place. I've been thinking that the biggest challenge for the hacking community right now would be to get there first.

 

The problem with this is the gov't has some of the best of our kind working for them...which means they have quite an upper hand not to mention they have the power to monitor and molest everyonr they are suspicious of with no questions ask....good call though...

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You said it, SOME of the best. The very best are still out there with us.

 

That said, there's no space for privacy in the future. Information about everything and everyone will be completely transparent. We can either accept this fact and open it up for everyone, or allow only select groups to do it. Both alternatives suck, but I'd rather it be the former.

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It's going to get ugly but there will be no way that the complete eradication of privacy boundaries will fly around the world in the long run unless some sort of mind-control device is invented. Of course, then it won't even be neccessary. Wait a minute, there IS that TELEVISION thing...

 

Seriously, though, they could pluck up a few dissenters in black bags and we'd never hear from them again, but it's the same thing they say about terrorist cells, for every one that is destroyed another 3 pop up. It could get so bad that an entire nation could be completely overrun and "placated", but they couldn't get the whole world.

 

Except for that whole global corporatization thing. Only five companies control the major American media outlets and over the years they have been making increasingly large sums of money off-shores. A couple of corporations have crept over here and are doing serious damage. We'll see some of these euro-companies (Bertelsmann, to name one) swallow up enough American companies that it will warrent a global merger with one of the big 5: Vivendi, News Corp (FOX), AOL Time Warner, Disney, and Viacom.

 

The DVD wars I made a thread about will hopefully take the air out of the sails for a bit, but once one wins then the losers will be swallowed up.

 

Here's a good account of what the big 5, plus Sony and Bertelsmann, own. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cool/giants/

 

Keep in mind that's only from 2001, those lists. Maybe there is a more current list out there. The News Corp section does not list Myspace, for instance, which they bought in 2004.

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Globally, too. The fact that the Bush family is a part of the Carlyle Group and see millions of dollars from corporate relations and TWO of them have been/are presidents of the USA as well as other family members in government, it reeks of corporate takeover. Because the men in government positions have direct influence over laws regulating things like the internet, crime, education, television, radio, etc.

 

I feel it directly relates to "cyberpunk" because Gibson predicted global conglomerates literally running the world in Neuromancer in 1984 and even earlier in his short stories, when he invented the phrase "cyberspace". Cyberspace, in his writings, was a digital network that ran across the globe that was dominated by a corporate landscape, where "cowboys" (hackers) either worked for corporations as guns-for-hire, worked against them, or took advantage of them all at great physical risk. There were basically two major corporations that were running everything including governments across the world. But, there was still a constant underclass and rampant crime both technological and non-tech, ie. drugs and guns.

 

The tech and time-period is far into the future but it's a feasible possibility with the way things are going. Not to bring this thread to conspiracy theory levels but the threat of global corporations is undeniable and not a cliche.

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Looks like the big guys are gearing up for another copyright war with the internet.

 

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060914/wr_nm/media_universalmusic_youtube_dc_1

 

Universal Music pressuring YouTube, MySpace

 

By Yinka Adegoke Wed Sep 13, 9:22 PM ET

 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Universal Music Group, the world's biggest record company, is stepping up pressure against popular online sites YouTube and MySpace, accusing them of infringing the copyrights of its artists' music videos.

ADVERTISEMENT

 

Universal chief executive Doug Morris described video site YouTube and News Corp.'s social networking site MySpace as "copyright infringers" during a Merrill Lynch investors' conference speech on Tuesday that was closed to the press.

 

"The poster child for (user-generated media) sites are MySpace and YouTube," said Morris, according to a transcript obtained by Reuters. "We believe these new businesses are copyright infringers and owe us tens of millions of dollars."

 

He added, "How we deal with these companies will be revealed shortly."

 

"His remarks strongly suggested the company was planning to take legal action in the near-term to either prevent the illegal use of their content on these Web sites or to ensure the company is compensated for the use of its content," Jessica Reif Cohen, analyst at Merrill Lynch, wrote in a note on Wednesday.

 

"This could be the first salvo from a content player against business models based on user-generated content, much of which relies on copyrighted material."

 

Universal, owned by French media group Vivendi, has been in negotiations with both YouTube and MySpace to offer its artists' music legally for a fee.

 

A spokeswoman for YouTube, a two-year-old start-up company that already boasts more than 100 million viewings of short videos uploaded by users, said, "It is our policy not to comment on our business negotiations."

 

MySpace declined to comment.

 

The runaway success of the free-to-view online video sites has raised the question of whether rights holders such as record companies and movie companies should be compensated, even if the clips are uploaded by the users.

 

To date, YouTube has said it will take down any copyrighted material illegally posted on the site once it has been alerted by the rights holder.

 

In February, YouTube was ordered by lawyers for General Electric Co.-owned television network NBC to remove illegally posted clips of some of its television shows, though in June the companies agreed to feature some of NBC's shows legally on the site.

 

Last month, YouTube told Reuters that it is in discussions with record companies to offer its users the ability to watch virtually every music video ever made, but had yet to settle on a business model to allow viewers to see the videos for free.

 

YouTube also announced later that month it would be testing a new advertising model with Warner Music Group featuring celebrity hotel heiress Paris Hilton.

 

Record companies are keen to avoid repeating the mistake they believe they made when Viacom Inc.'s MTV was set up 25 years ago -- allowing their artists' music to be aired for free.

 

Morris in his remarks to investors on Tuesday said MTV "built a multibillion-dollar company on our (music) ... for virtually nothing. We learned a hard lesson."

 

 

 

 

The thing that article neglects to mention is that Myspace is owned by News Corp. News Corp is one of the big 5 and could possible be participating in major copyright violations depending on how the courts decide. A possible backfire in Murdoch's master plan to control the youth? Either they lose shitloads of money or they alter the Myspace framework which is one of the things they "swore" they would never do.

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To me, Myspace is just another email address and an easy way to mess around with CSS. I don't talk about anything on there...some people do, and get burnt for it. Does that make it a bad thing? I guess it depends on two factors- what you're doing, and who wants to know. Also, fame/notoriety has proven time and again to be one of the best ways to lose your ability to move freely....anonymity has its perks.

 

But, for people who want to live in the spotlight, I always thought publicity was good, whether it was bad, or free, or unsolicited...it still gets the name out there. People have been sharing music ever since the dawn of time. It just started getting weird once some sharpie figured out a way to commodify it...and now that all bets are off thanks to p2p and video hosting sites, the media companies that learn how to adapt and accept losses will be better off than the ones that don't.

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Myspace gets your name out in bad ways. I know that any time I see a band on Myspace, I lose a bit of respect for them no matter what band it is. People are beginning to lose jobs and school offerings because of their Myspace pages. Fame is for suckers, notoriety comes from either doing something worthwhile or doing something really stupid. When you do nothing at all, it's narcissism.

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Vista is coming, nice little article:

 

 

T e c h n o f i l e

Buy a new Vista PC? Upgrade your current computer? Or is it time to switch?

 

Sept. 17, 2006

 

 

By Al Fasoldt

Copyright © 2006, Al Fasoldt

Copyright © 2006, The Post-Standard

 

Vista, Microsoft's new version of Windows, is almost ready to roll. You'll be able to purchase a Vista PC or an upgrade for your current Windows computer by the end of January. (Here's a report on how much Vista will cost and where you can order it ahead of time.)

Vista has a lot of advantages over Microsoft's current operating system, Windows XP. But the comparison with XP, which will be six years old when Vista is introduced, is misleading. XP is old -- very old, if you measure age in Internet time. A better comparison is OS X ("oh ess ten"), the operating system that powers Apple's new Macintosh computers.

When held up against OS X, Vista at first seems little more than an attempt at flattery. It has see-through windows and dialog boxes (something OS X has had since 2001), secure user accounts (in OS X from the beginning), a safer Web browser (an OS X feature for many years), a built-in calendar (part of OS X, likewise) and dozens of other features Apple users have enjoyed for five years.

But whether Microsoft copied Apple's operating system or simply came up with similar ideas, Vista obviously is not the only choice for Windows users who want to ditch XP for something safer. And switching to an Apple Macintosh computer is not the only alternative, either. You might find your best choice is to stay with what you have.

Here are four possible scenarios you might consider, with the advantages (the good stuff) and disadvantages (the bad stuff, of course) of each. I'll have more to say about each of these choices in weeks to come, too.

1. Full speed ahead. Your Windows PC is too old and slow to upgrade and you're not about to switch to another kind of computer. Choice: Buy a new Vista PC. Good stuff: Faster and somewhat safer computing; your old software will still work. Bad stuff: Viruses and spyware will go after Windows Vista PCs just as they do older PCs. Tough stuff: You have to pay the cost of a new PC.

2. Lower the lifeboats. Your Windows PC is driving you crazy with Windows updates that don't work and viruses that can't be stopped. Spyware is turning you into a closet CIA agent. Choice: Buy an Apple Macintosh with OS X. Good stuff: No spyware and no Windows viruses, a faster and much safer computer and built-in DVD movie making. Not to mention all that cool iTunes stuff. Good stuff, continued: Your Windows software will still run on your new Mac when you install Windows on it. (That ability is built in.) Bad stuff: You have to pay the cost of a new PC.

3. Catch the wave. Your Windows PC is only a few years old and it's a hot performer, with gobs of disk space and memory. You're not bothered much by viruses and spyware. Choice: Upgrade to Vista. Good stuff: Cheaper than a new Windows or Mac PC. Easy changeover. Faster and somewhat safer. Bad stuff: Unless you are really sure your current PC is fast enough and has enough disk space and RAM, you might have to add memory and a newer disk drive once you start working with Vista. It's a glutton for that stuff.

4. Wake me when it's over. You're not about to make the world's richest software company any wealthier, and you have no intention of jumping ship. So you stick with what you've got, leaks and all. You might be interested in ways to make your current PC safer if you could do it cheaply. Good stuff: It's a five-letter word that starts with "C" and ends with "P." Bad stuff: You will have an old Windows PC.

(Tom Andrews sensed that I left Linux out, so he proposed the next option, in his own words.)

5. Take on a challenge. You're tired of viruses and other malware, but you want to keep your old hardware. You have a few programs that have no counterpart outside of Windows, but your life won't be over if you no longer have them. You like fooling around with your computer and learning new things. You fancy yourself a computer hobbyist, so you give Linux a try. Good stuff: Most Linux distributions ("distros") are free for the downloading and come with a huge variety of application software packages, including things like office suites and graphic editing software. Linux is immune to all Windows malware, as immune as Mac's OS X. Several Windows programs can be run from within Linux by using a program called "WINE." Linux gives the administrative user the power to change the machine's software configuration to suit himself. Bad stuff: Linux gives the administrative user the power to screw everything up if he isn't careful. Many pieces of hardware will operate "out of the box," some will work someday in the future, and some will never work. Some things will need "tweaking" before they'll work, and that will often require research and education, the "hobbyist" part of the above description. Linux always has a work-in-progress feel, because that's exactly what it is; always under development with significant updates/upgrades issued on an annual or semiannual basis for some distros.

 

http://www.technofileonline.com/texts/tec091706.html

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Who knows anything about DAT drives? Normally, I'd ask in the tech thread, but....

 

This thread is a good parallel to the computer thread, because it seems like some of the older hackers who would be familiar with junk like this hang out here.

 

It's an old Seagate DAT drive I found at the flea market. I guess mostly what I want to know is if there's drivers for it, and what the typical data capacity of a DAT would be.

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  • 2 weeks later...

shit i was about to start a 2600 thread then i realized there was this..

I just got the summer issue of 2600 havent read it since 2001 ish. fucking great issue, great statement to open up on the first 2 pages.. and they are still going strong.. for those that don't know check them out..

http://www.2600.com/

check out the live broadcast tommorow..

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shit i was about to start a 2600 thread then i realized there was this..

I just got the summer issue of 2600 havent read it since 2001 ish. fucking great issue, great statement to open up on the first 2 pages.. and they are still going strong.. for those that don't know check them out..

http://www.2600.com/

check out the live broadcast tommorow..

 

hey buttmonkey! you can downlaod some issues of 2600 from torrent sites.

it would be more awesome if you bought the actual hardcopy, but if you can't......

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