thinking bad thoughts...

[kancer at kancer.978.org (Kris)]

I think this is Way far fetched. This guy is a bit paranoid first off and
second off big deal. People can and will always reverse engineer hardware,
its in their instincts too -then clone it and manufacture hardware
compatible with it.

If a new drive standard comes out that only dell will sell and only M$
win* can drive it then some little linux geek will figure out some code to
drive it for linux.
The article brings up Tivo for instance. You can do a ton of stuff with
Tivo, you can add drives you can make your own listings server there are
Tons of little hardware hacks for this piece of hardware.
Techies are always afraid of this and in most situations don't let
proprietary systems in their infastructures/enterprises(I hope your
not..). We learned that lesson years ago.

I have recently been playing with a great box that I can IRC from, generate
SSH keys, etc and I got it for $99*.
http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/dreamcast/
Just an example of what you can do with one of these entertainment
industry type boxes.
*$99 for console +$59.99 for the "broadband" adaptor/nic



 -Kris


On Fri, 9 Mar 2001, Chuck Young wrote:

> I was referred to http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/2/17419.html by an
> internal mailing list and am passing the link on.
>
> It's an interesting discussion about a negative utopia where the
> entertainment industry usurps open PC hardware and software with proprietary
> devices/software through the politics of big money by killing off open
> architecture, hardware vendors and the software that powers all of it in the
> name of protecting their copyrights.  I wonder how the free software
> movement and grassroots users will respond to such a darkening age, if it
> comes.
>
> Maybe it's far-fetched; maybe not.  You decide.
>
> ----------------------
> Chuck Young
> Internet Systems Engineer,
> New England Region
> Genuity, Inc.
> ----------------------
>
> -
> Subcription/unsubscription/info requests: send e-mail with
> "subscribe", "unsubscribe", or "info" on the first line of the
> message body to discuss-request at blu.org (Subject line is ignored).
>

-- 


Kris Loranger
kris at kancer.978.org
IRC:undernet,#978,Kancer AIM:KancerKris
"If you're going to sell out, sell out ethically" -Moby

-
Subcription/unsubscription/info requests: send e-mail with
"subscribe", "unsubscribe", or "info" on the first line of the
message body to discuss-request at blu.org (Subject line is ignored).