Yesterday's letter to alumni from MIT President Reif ________________________________________________________________ Dear MIT Alumni, This evening, I sent the following message to the campus MIT community. Because I know that you care very much about the welfare of our students, I thought you might be interested to see it, too. Sincerely, L. Rafael Reif __________________________________________________________________ To the members of the MIT community: I am writing to address a problem that a group of MIT students currently face but that concerns all of us, because it highlights issues central to sustaining the creative culture of MIT. The students in question are the creators of Tidbit, a proof-of-concept code for a novel Bitcoin-harvesting strategy. After Tidbit won the "most innovative" award in a recent hackathon, the State Attorney General of New Jersey demanded that the students turn over a sweeping set of documents, code and information--a surprising and difficult turn of events for the Tidbit team. I am grateful to all those who have written to me to express their concern about this situation, and I want to make it clear that the students who created Tidbit have the full and enthusiastic support of MIT. Chancellor Cindy Barnhart and Provost Marty Schmidt met with the students yesterday. They and General Counsel Greg Morgan also spoke with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which is providing to the students, pro bono, the independent legal representation that they need. We will remain in close coordination with the students and the EFF to offer assistance in the legal proceedings. Beyond this specific case, I believe we should provide our student inventors and entrepreneurs with a resource for independent legal advice, singularly devoted to their interests and rights. I have asked the Provost, Chancellor and General Counsel to develop and submit to me a specific proposal for creating such a resource, which will add an essential new strength to MIT's innovation ecosystem. When the MIT community works together, we spot problems, analyze them and solve them. Let's solve this one together. Sincerely, L. Rafael Reif
I hope that by novel he meant deceit and wasteful. Pure waste to be mining like that. If they had at least used a scrypt coin, that'd be a start. Information is too scarce to see if they managed GPU mining somehow. Although that'd produce it's own set of problems (see also what happened after blizzard had the starcraft menu not-vsynced). I don't see why the law would have to be involved though. What motivation is given for their research? Very hard to understand. Maybe it can be phrased as "stealing computer power"?
On 19/02/2014 01:11, Lodewijk andré de la porte wrote:
I hope that by novel he meant deceit and wasteful. Pure waste to be mining like that. If they had at least used a scrypt coin, that'd be a start.
Information is too scarce to see if they managed GPU mining somehow. Although that'd produce it's own set of problems (see also what happened after blizzard had the starcraft menu not-vsynced).
I don't see why the law would have to be involved though. What motivation is given for their research? Very hard to understand. Maybe it can be phrased as "stealing computer power"?
The motivation could be "make it possible for website authors to make a living without Google Adwords & other stupid ads" and that rocks, IMHO. Everything is wasteful you know. Buying things is mostly a waste of ressources. But at least let me decide what kind of waste I want to produce! Or just go the Zerzan way but then start by throwing away your computer and blowing up the nearest electricity poles. @cryptomars
On 2014-02-19, 01:11, Lodewijk andré de la porte wrote:
What motivation is given for their research?
I wasn't aware that motivation beyond "let's find out if we can make this shit work" (or "let's find out how this shit works" if you're doing pure research) is ever needed. Fun, Stephan
On Wed, Feb 19, 2014 at 7:06 AM, Stephan Neuhaus
On 2014-02-19, 01:11, Lodewijk andré de la porte wrote:
What motivation is given for their research?
I wasn't aware that motivation beyond "let's find out if we can make this shit work" (or "let's find out how this shit works" if you're doing pure research) is ever needed.
Fun,
Stephan
Exactly. Or "If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?" -- (attributed to) Albert Einstein.
From: Alfonso De Gregorio
On 2014-02-19, 01:11, Lodewijk andré de la porte wrote:
What motivation is given for their research? I wasn't aware that motivation beyond "let's find out if we can make this shit work" (or "let's find out how this shit works" if you're doing pure research) is ever needed. Fun, Stephan Exactly. Or "If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?" -- (attributed to) Albert Einstein.
Here's what Tom Lehrer had to say about "Research". (From the song, "Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky", circa 1964) "Be that as it may, some of you may have had occasion to run into mathematicians and to wonder therefore how they got that way, and here, in partial explanation perhaps, is the story of the great Russian mathematician Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky. Who made me the genius I am today, The mathematician that others all quote, Who's the professor that made me that way? The greatest that ever got chalk on his coat. One man deserves the credit, One man deserves the blame, And Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky is his name. Hi! Nicolai Ivanovich Lobach- I am never forget the day I first meet the great Lobachevsky. In one word he told me secret of success in mathematics: Plagiarize! Plagiarize, Let no one else's work evade your eyes, Remember why the good Lord made your eyes, So don't shade your eyes, But plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize - Only be sure always to call it please 'research'.
participants (6)
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Alfonso De Gregorio -
Cryptoparty Marseille -
dan＠geer.org -
jim bell -
Lodewijk andré de la porte -
Stephan Neuhaus