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476
Living Room / Re: Peer Review and the Scientific Process
« Last post by Renegade on April 26, 2015, 09:50 PM »
^ I think one of the problems is that the word "homeopathy" is often used to refer to naturopathy as well, and creates confusion as to what homeopathy proper actually is. But, as for homeopathy proper, I have no clue what would make anyone cling to that belief - it just doesn't make any sense.
477
Check #1 here:

https://www.paypal.c...ies-full?locale.x=GB

Intellectual Property
We are adding a new paragraph to section 1.3., which outlines the licence and rights that you give to us and to the PayPal Group (see paragraph 12 below for the definition of “PayPal Group”) to use content that you post for publication using the Services. A similar paragraph features in the Privacy Policy, which is removed by the addition of this paragraph to the User Agreement. The new paragraph at section 1.3 reads as follows:

“When providing us with content or posting content (in each case for publication, whether on- or off-line) using the Services, you grant the PayPal Group a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, sublicensable (through multiple tiers) right to exercise any and all copyright, publicity, trademarks, database rights and intellectual property rights you have in the content, in any media known now or in the future. Further, to the fullest extent permitted under applicable law, you waive your moral rights and promise not to assert such rights against the PayPal Group, its sublicensees or assignees. You represent and warrant that none of the following infringe any intellectual property right: your provision of content to us, your posting of content using the Services, and the PayPal Group’s use of such content (including of works derived from it) in connection with the Services.”

A few news outlets have picked it up:

https://www.cryptoco...ervice-take-content/

If you haven’t been following these developments, multi-national businesses are working with governments to take control of internet usage, regulations, and even local government utilities through international treaties like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The TPP is being secretly being constructed, without public or legislative consult, and is a massive outline of future controls by businesses on many aspects of your life. You aren;’t supposed to know what lies ahead with the TPP. Search online for more information on the TPP, and check WikiLeaks for more details on what little has been exposed to this attack on freedom. This is clearly a step along these growing lines of corporate fascism.

It looks like PayPal has joined the dark side, but freedom rings within the Bitcoin community, and this just underscores why Bitcoin is here and why it is the future of online technology and business. It’s all about control. Their control. See the link above about their plans for biometric control over your account. Paypal looks ready to confiscate your online content, and your business if you let them. Bitcoin brings power to the people. The choice is yours. Consider yourselves warned.

Is PayPal on a righteous path or are they on the wrong side of history? Do you like owning your content, or can PayPal take it, just because you use their payment service?

More at the link.

https://hax.5july.or...joins-the-dark-side/

PayPal joins the Dark Side
...
Whut!?!

And what is “content” supposed to be? PayPal is a payment service. So the only content there is, is the online stuff people and companies sell using PayPal as payment provider. Did PayPal just claim control over all of that?

Paul Joseph Watson chimes in here and here.

But this all seems strange as 15.5 in their current agreement is very similar:

https://www.paypal.c...a/useragreement-full

15.5 License Grant from You to PayPal; IP Warranties. Subject to section 15.6, when providing PayPal with content or posting content using PayPal Services, you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, transferable, and sublicensable (through multiple tiers) right to exercise any and all copyright, publicity, trademarks, database rights and intellectual property rights you have in the content, in any media known now or in the future. Further, to the fullest extent permitted under applicable law, you waive your moral rights and promise not to assert such rights against PayPal, its sublicensees or its assignees. You represent and warrant that none of the following infringe any intellectual property or publicity right: your provision of content to PayPal, your posting of content using the PayPal Services, and PayPal’s use of such content (including of works derived from it) in connection with the PayPal Services.”

Did PayPal just claim ownership in everything they help facilitate a sale for, or what?

478
Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"
« Last post by Renegade on April 25, 2015, 08:08 AM »
A drink with a severed human toe. In Canada. In the Yukon.



Cabin fever at its finest!
479
Living Room / Re: Programming/Coder humor
« Last post by Renegade on April 25, 2015, 12:07 AM »
^ That was cute />
480
^Darn! I'd forgotten about that! Thanks for the reminder. That's an excellent pic! :)
481
Living Room / Your Stuff Really Is Breaking Faster Than It Used To
« Last post by Renegade on April 23, 2015, 10:15 AM »
This article is an interesting jump point on how things are breaking sooner.

http://ifixit.org/bl...lanned-obsolescence/


You aren’t imagining it. Turns out, your stuff really is breaking down more quickly than before. A recent study by a European environmental agency just confirmed it: the lifespan of your electronic goods is—indeed—shrinking.

More at the link.

Report summary is here:

http://www.oeko.de/e...-check-obsolescence/

The report itself is only in German though. :(

Lightbulbs anyone?
482
Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"
« Last post by Renegade on April 23, 2015, 10:01 AM »
^ Hahahaaha! 8)
483
Developer's Corner / Re: [Puzzle] Can anyone explain this?
« Last post by Renegade on April 23, 2015, 10:00 AM »
It worked. And the code tags worked fine.
484
Developer's Corner / [Puzzle] Can anyone explain this?
« Last post by Renegade on April 23, 2015, 09:59 AM »
Ok, so I'm posting in another thread and I copy some text from a web page and bold the last line.

http://www.wired.com...t-nightmare-farmers/

This is what I get:


Aside from using it, there’s not much you can do with modern ag equipment. When it breaks or needs maintenance, farmers are dependent on dealers and manufacturer technicians—a hard pill to swallow for farmers, who have been maintaining their own equipment since the plow.

“[DIY repair] is cheaper than calling out the technician. But that information is just not out there,” Dave explained to me.

The cost and hassle of repairing modern tractors has soured a lot of farmers on computerized systems altogether. In a September issue of Farm Journal, farm auction expert Greg Peterson noted that demand for newer tractors was falling. Tellingly, the price of and demand for older tractors (without all the digital bells and whistles) has picked up. “As for the simplicity, you’ve all heard the chatter,” Machinery Pete wrote. “There’s an increasing number of farmers placing greater value on acquiring older simpler machines that don’t require a computer to fix.”

The problem is that farmers are essentially driving around a giant black box outfitted with harvesting blades. Only manufacturers have the keys to those boxes. Different connectors are needed from brand to brand, sometimes even from model to model—just to talk to the tECU. Modifications and troubleshooting require diagnostic software that farmers can’t have. Even if a farmer managed to get the right software, calibrations to the tECU sometimes require a factory password. No password, no changes—not without the permission of the manufacturer.

John Deere, in particular, has been incredibly effective at limiting access to its diagnostic software. Which is why I wouldn’t have been able to tweak the programming on Dave’s tractor, even if I had been able to hack together the right interface. John Deere doesn’t want me to. The dealer-repair game is just too lucrative for manufacturers to cede any control back to farmers.

Most of the text is gone.

This is where the text starts disappearing:

Code: HTML [Select]
  1. <p>“[DIY repair] is cheaper than calling out the technician. But that information is just not out there,” Dave explained to me.</p>

If you inspect the element, you'll see additional quotes there.

What is going on? Some kind of new non-printable character hack?

Using Opera 28.0.1750.51.

(I hope this works this time, otherwise I'll have to delete everything and ask for the thread to be deleted -- the preview works.)
485
more alarming than silly
 (see attachment in previous post)

Everyone has had that fantasy more than just a few times.
486
I know quite a few people here have worked on large software projects, but I'm curious -- Has anyone worked on projects with "kill dates" built into the project? I don't mean something like a campaign that runs for X days/weeks/months, but real kill dates where even while the project is being developed, the end of life is already known -- without that being communicated to users until a set date.

I suspect that there's likely some nastiness built into the software, and that if it were decompiled, organised, and understood, there would be some outcry.

I'll skip the conspiracy facts. ;)

Oh, heck. Let's roll with one. :P

Published in Wired:

http://www.wired.com...t-nightmare-farmers/

From here:

http://ifixit.org/bl...7007/farm-equipment/

And a snippet from there:

Aside from using it, there’s not much you can do with modern ag equipment. When it breaks or needs maintenance, farmers are dependent on dealers and manufacturer technicians—a hard pill to swallow for farmers, who have been maintaining their own equipment since the plow."

"[DIY repair] is cheaper than calling out the technician. But that information is just not out there," Dave explained to me.

The cost and hassle of repairing modern tractors has soured a lot of farmers on computerized systems altogether. In a September issue of Farm Journal, farm auction expert Greg Peterson noted that demand for newer tractors was falling. Tellingly, the price of and demand for older tractors (without all the digital bells and whistles) has picked up. “As for the simplicity, you’ve all heard the chatter,” Machinery Pete wrote. “There’s an increasing number of farmers placing greater value on acquiring older simpler machines that don’t require a computer to fix.”

The problem is that farmers are essentially driving around a giant black box outfitted with harvesting blades. Only manufacturers have the keys to those boxes. Different connectors are needed from brand to brand, sometimes even from model to model—just to talk to the tECU. Modifications and troubleshooting require diagnostic software that farmers can’t have. Even if a farmer managed to get the right software, calibrations to the tECU sometimes require a factory password. No password, no changes—not without the permission of the manufacturer.

John Deere, in particular, has been incredibly effective at limiting access to its diagnostic software. Which is why I wouldn’t have been able to tweak the programming on Dave’s tractor, even if I had been able to hack together the right interface. John Deere doesn’t want me to. The dealer-repair game is just too lucrative for manufacturers to cede any control back to farmers.

Does anyone think consumer vehicles are much different?

Oh, what's that sound? The squirting of milk into a steel bucket? I think I hear some cackling as well...



I dunno, the control software of a car is a VERY exacting piece of kit which is the entire reason we have cars that can get 20+ miles to the gallon and still have decent horsepower.  It takes very brave (or stupid) people to think is a good idea to mess with that, and I'm not one of them.  I'd never support making modding illegal, but I don't blame the manufacturers getting upset about it.

Unfortunately, "improved fuel efficiency" in modern cars is a near total fabrication. Or at least in the US. Regulatory authorities actively work against the industry to create less fuel efficient cars, and then set idiotic emissions standards that are ineffective and that only create more emissions. You can't make this stuff up.

Check out Eric Peters for all kinds of crazy information on that. It's simply unbelievable, yet he has all the facts to back it up. Just nutty. You might have seen him on news programs - he covers the automotive industry (probably in too much depth for some people).

FAIR WARNING: If anyone actually checks out Eric Peters commentary on what happens in the industry, be prepared to start screaming, cursing, and breaking things. It will seriously piss you off, as in homicidal rage I just came to because I nearly drown in a pool of blood surrounded by uncountable dismembered bodies pissed off. And, for everyone else, he'll just piss you off period. :P

A fun exercise is to check identical models of cars in Europe and the US for mileage. It's silly. ::wallbash::

But, back to chips...

There are a few people out there creating mods and add-ons for vehicle computer systems. Many are actually outside of the system, but modify and control communications (and more) and then relay that to other systems in the vehicle to create improvements. The external devices are so far removed from any ability of the manufacturers to retaliate, that we won't see them retaliate for at least a couple more years. :P 8) Unless they want to go full retard MAFIAA. 8)

This issue is going to spill into a lot more areas and very quickly.
487
Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"
« Last post by Renegade on April 22, 2015, 11:30 PM »
A Defense of Comic Sans

488
A funny article about a town that's considering changing it's slogan because people no longer speak their own language sufficiently well enough to understand it.

http://metronews.ca/...pe-and-honey-slogan/

The mayor of a town in northern Saskatchewan sighs at the prospect of having to explain yet again what the community’s slogan really means.

Tisdale has been called the “Land of Rape and Honey” for nearly 60 years and its weathered welcome sign still sports the phrase.

Rape refers to rapeseed, a bright yellow crop that was a precursor to the modern canola and a key agriculture product of the area. But it offends people who think it means sexual assault.

 :wallbash: :wallbash: :wallbash: :wallbash: :wallbash:
489
Terrorists also use water, air, and brains. I propose we outlaw them all! :P 
490
Living Room / Re: Inquirers questionable business IT Tech nomination survey
« Last post by Renegade on April 22, 2015, 08:42 AM »
Oh man... I saw "Tech Hero" and figured I'd get to vote for Theodore Kaczynski. :P  :huh:
491
So, the copyright and IP bug has infected a new portion of the automakers' brains. Now they want to make it illegal for you to work on your car. Because copyright.

http://www.blacklist...552/0/38/38/Y/M.html

Car companies seek copyright restrictions to stop car enthusiasts, home mechanics

Claiming that modern vehicles are “too complex” for home mechanics to fix, automakers are seeking copyright restrictions to prevent gearheads from working on their own cars.



The Association of Global Automakers, a lobbying firm for 12 manufacturers, is asking the U.S. Copyright Office to prevent car owners from accessing “computer programs that control the functioning of a motorized land vehicle, including personal automobiles, commercial motor vehicles, and agricultural machinery, for purposes of lawful diagnosis and repair, or aftermarket personalization, modification, or other improvement.”

“In order to modify automotive software for the purpose of ‘diagnosis and repair, or aftermarket personalization, modification, or other improvement,’ the modifier must use a substantial amount of the copyrighted software – copying the software is at issue after all, not wholly replacing it,” the AGA claimed. “Because the ‘heart,’ if not the entirety, of the copyrighted work will remain in the modified copy, the amount and substantiality of the portion copied strongly indicates that the proposed uses are not fair.”

Auto Alliance, which also represents 12 automobile manufacturers, is also asking the agency to scrap exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that allow car enthusiasts to modify and tune their rides.

“Allowing vehicle owners to add and remove [electronic control] programs at whim is highly likely to take vehicles out of compliance with [federal] requirements, rendering the operation or re-sale of the vehicle legally problematic,” Auto Alliance claimed in a statement. “The decision to employ access controls to hinder unauthorized ‘tinkering’ with these vital computer programs is necessary in order to protect the safety and security of drivers and passengers and to reduce the level of non-compliance with regulatory standards.”

But people have been working on their own cars since cars were invented.

“It’s not a new thing to be able to repair and modify cars,” a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Kit Walsh, said. “It’s actually a new thing to keep people from doing it.”

Interestingly, this attack on the do-it-yourself auto hobby coincides with the current push towards self-driving cars, and who do you think will resist autonomous cars the most?

Auto hobbyists, such as hot rodders, drag racers and home tuners.

“The biggest threat to our hobby is those people in powerful situations who’s idea of a great day out in their car is to spend it riding in the back seat while someone else handles the driving ‘chore’ for them,” a hot rodder said on the subject. “These are the same people who will ban ‘old junk’ from the roads, enforce ’50 miles per gallon’ standards on new, and then older vehicles, and eventually force everyone to drive ‘standardized’ cars that will fit precisely in parking spaces, take up the minimum space on public roads, and follow all the ‘environmentally friendly’ buzz words while boring real car drivers like us to death.”

And the first step to keep people from behind the steering wheel is to keep them from opening the hood.


Embedded links at the link. (6)

I'm wondering if we'll start seeing replacement GPL'd software for cars anytime soon. Certainly it can't be illegal to delete their precious software after all...

Do new cars come with a EULA and an "I agree" checkbox?

492
Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?
« Last post by Renegade on April 20, 2015, 10:17 PM »
I can just imagine the code for this:

Invest Bitcoins and get double of your investment after just five days!

Code: HTML [Select]
  1. <p>Invest Bitcoins and get double of your investment after just <? echo numberToWord($daysSinceStarted + 5); ?> days!

493
Living Room / Re: Sony's Pirates
« Last post by Renegade on April 20, 2015, 04:00 AM »
No, the Sony Server Hack DID NOT Reveal that Sony was Pirating eBooks About Hacking

Sign... there we go again... letting facts get in the way of a good narrative~! :P :D
494
Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"
« Last post by Renegade on April 18, 2015, 11:50 PM »
Google Handwriting Input Writes Text in Android the Old Fashioned Way

Thanks for this, it looks good at first try. I tried MyScript Stylus (Beta) for a while, and even Swype, but some issues always forced me back to the default keyboard, even though I'm an old (Palm) Graffiti fan and would like to use handwriting, if it's faster than typing.

Graffiti was beautiful! The comments in the article are a further testament to just how good it really was.

One comment linked here:

https://play.google....ess_company.graffiti
495
General Software Discussion / Re: free photo editing?
« Last post by Renegade on April 18, 2015, 11:46 PM »
Does Canon have any utilities to help?

IIRC, the RAW/NEF formats aren't open and vary by manufacturer (and possibly model), which has caused problems for 3rd party developers when creating tools to read them.
496
Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"
« Last post by Renegade on April 18, 2015, 11:25 AM »
And an interesting Vice article on the micronation:

http://www.vice.com/...n-eastern-europe-417

No quotes. It's worth checking/skimming at a minimum.
497
Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?
« Last post by Renegade on April 18, 2015, 10:53 AM »
Bitcoin hidden in a TV show in binary:

http://i.imgur.com/GF4GfMD.png



Producer... Mike Judge. 8)
498
Living Room / Re: TV shows thread
« Last post by Renegade on April 18, 2015, 10:42 AM »
Oh, ep 4 of Daredevil - the "date night" one - great late show to ending. :)

499
Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"
« Last post by Renegade on April 18, 2015, 09:51 AM »
A new country just started in Europe

Starting is easier than staying, it would seem.  :)

We shall see! 8)

But, you know darn well I'll be cheering for Liberland! :)  :up:
500
Living Room / Re: TV shows thread
« Last post by Renegade on April 18, 2015, 09:49 AM »
Daredevil is a lot about the effects of the larger world-shattering decisions on the little guy.  And there are no good/bad right/wrong dichotomies enforced by the writing.  At least, so far.  And the characterizations of most characters are really good, as is the actual cinematography.  In the second episode there is almost an honest to goodness one-shot that is utterly incredible.  Some people say they cheated in a couple of places... I don't know that from Adam.  But I do know that you don't see that level of quality on TV often.

Well, I've checked out a few episodes, and I will certainly agree that the script is good, but not the cinematography. It's too dark. It's hard to see everything when 90% of shots are at night with no lights. Even the daytime shots are dark. It's a bit much. In places the audio is muddled with background noise. But, that's just me complaining. The stories are good. The actors are good.
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