> Well in that case, if you can get enough people transporting encoded paper 
> napkins full of gibberish, you can jam the unjust totalitarian system ;)

They will ban napkins, and cars and walking and throwing paper planes and 
...

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scott wrote:

> They will ban napkins, and cars and walking and throwing paper planes 
> and ...

This is starting to sound like that blog I read. Apparently America was 
planning to enact a law that makes it illegal to "facilitate copyright 
infringement". In other words, illegal to make things that can be used 
to copy stuff. The blog suggested that this would cause many things to 
become illegal - P2P software, backup software, CD-burners, cameras, the 
Internet, harddrives, computers, photocopiers, VCRs, set-top boxes, 
PDAs, mobile phones, carbon paper, pens, pencils, paper, slate, sharp 
sticks, rocks, ferbis, parrots, humans...

I have no idea if this act ever become law. ;-)

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"somebody" <x### [at] ycom> wrote:
> "Mueen Nawaz" <m.n### [at] ieeeorg> wrote in message
>
> > > I think you're going to need a huge car to smuggle a 256 byte program.
> :-)
>
> > Different color bb's can represent different bases. Problem solved.
>
> You just need one pellet with a carefully chosen colour.


1) I could do the math, but what would the number be for say a 650MB distro in a
world where SCO won the lawsuit?

2) The idea of color is fascinating.  I guess in the physics of color, there are
gobs (somewhere between dozens and zillions) of wavelengths, each with their own
% reflectivity.  But I guess that if you could design an object with a precise
color reflectivity across more than 3 or even 10 color bands, you might already
be so advanced as to blow the mind beyond mere software as we know it today.

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> 2) The idea of color is fascinating.  I guess in the physics of color, 
> there are
> gobs (somewhere between dozens and zillions) of wavelengths, each with 
> their own
> % reflectivity.  But I guess that if you could design an object with a 
> precise
> color reflectivity across more than 3 or even 10 color bands, you might 
> already
> be so advanced as to blow the mind beyond mere software as we know it 
> today.

Be careful though, if you want to visually distinguish between colours with 
your eye (or anything else that uses RGB) you only have 3 degrees of 
freedom.  Of course you could use spectrometers and then you could even make 
a load of "different" colours that look the same to eyes and 
cameras/scanners, but actually have different spectra.  That would be pretty 
cool.

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Darren New wrote:
> 
> I think you're going to need a huge car to smuggle a 256 byte program. :-)
> 

How much volume would 3.231700607131100730071487668867e+616 bb's fill? 
I'm thinking even bird shot would take up quite a bit of room....


-- 
~Mike

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Invisible wrote:

> Seriously - has the author *heard* of steganography? There are much more 
> plausible techniques available than this one! o_O

I have an exquisite print of the Mona Lisa to share with you. If you 
look at it the right way, you can see the source code to Windows Vista

Handle it with care.

-- 
~Mike

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gregjohn wrote:
> I heard on a math contest the fact that all programs are essentially just big
> numbers.  The compiled binary or even the ASCII for the source may ultimately
> be thought of as just some really big, unique number.  When you buy software,
> they tell you what the number is.
> 
> I was just imagining a scifi novel where The Man has complete control over
> people's computers and the only way to share software (legally/ illegally) is
> to load your car up with bb pellets.  The Man doesn't stop cars and doesn't
> think to check for bb's.   Once you get to the destination, you count bb's, and
> viola, sofware is shared.

The term "googol" comes to mind here.

Regards,
John

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>> Once you get to the destination, you count 
>> bb's, and
>> viola, sofware is shared.
> 
> The term "googol" comes to mind here.

Except that here, "googol is *not* your friend"! ;-)

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"gregjohn" <pte### [at] yahoocom> wrote in message
news:web.4979c212dff1dbe634d207310@news.povray.org...
> "somebody" <x### [at] ycom> wrote:
> > "Mueen Nawaz" <m.n### [at] ieeeorg> wrote in message
> >
> > > > I think you're going to need a huge car to smuggle a 256 byte
program.
> > :-)

> > > Different color bb's can represent different bases. Problem solved.

> > You just need one pellet with a carefully chosen colour.

> 1) I could do the math, but what would the number be for say a 650MB
distro in a
> world where SCO won the lawsuit?

On the order of 2^(650*(2^23))

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gregjohn escreveu:
> I heard on a math contest the fact that all programs are essentially just big
> numbers.  The compiled binary or even the ASCII for the source may ultimately
> be thought of as just some really big, unique number.  When you buy software,
> they tell you what the number is.

A computer is nothing but a calculator:  everything that goes through it 
is nothing but numbers, including the instructions that manipulate such 
numbers.  Everything has to be converted into numbers before being 
processed by a computer.  Sounds, images and textual information are 
codified/decodified just for convenience. :)

> I was just imagining a scifi novel where The Man has complete control over
> people's computers and the only way to share software (legally/ illegally) is
> to load your car up with bb pellets.  The Man doesn't stop cars and doesn't
> think to check for bb's.   Once you get to the destination, you count bb's, and
> viola, sofware is shared.

More likely The Man won't know any math anymore in the near future:

http://www.themathlab.com/writings/short%20stories/feeling.htm

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