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Gates and Security
An anonymous reader writes "Orwell was wrong about Big Brother! Microsoft founder and chairman Bill Gates told a homeland-security conference on Wednesday afternoon that Orwell's dystopian vision of the future, in which Big Brother used technology as a form of social control, 'didn't come true, and I don't believe it will.'" Other tidbits about this security conference: Gates had his own troubles with security (Drudge is copy-and-pasting from a subscriber-only Roll Call story). Gates is apparently trying to sell interoperability to HomeSec. Meanwhile, Microsoft viruses continue unchecked.
Gates are definitely a good first step for security, if additional security is required, I would also recommend a pirhana infested moat and barbed wire fences.
Slashdot, the site where everything's made up and the points don't matter
Put bars on Windows and locks on Gates.
Then I'll feel secure.
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Additionally, Mr. Gates is also expected to call upon renowned informaticist Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf to support his arguments.
Gates told the Homeland Security folks all about how Palladium and other 'secure computing' initiatives will actually prevent the kind of scenario presented in Orwell's classic.
When asked by Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge exactly how Palladium "relates to that one really neat Super Bowl commercial, the one with the running and throwing the hammer at the tv", Gates got a little red in the face and mumbled something about how that was the "wrong company."
Then why did he timestamp it?
Don't forget the freakin' sharks with freakin' laser beams attached to their freakin' heads. They've killed many an un-named henchmen.
Developers: We can use your help.
The gov asks Billy what is best for their PC's and Billy advises a substantial deposit into his bank account.
While I would hope that anyone advising the government would have our best interests at heart, I have to admit, if they were to ask me what was best, I would say that a substantial deposit into MY account would ensure national safety... hey, I'm only human!Just as irrigation is the lifeblood of the Southwest, lifeblood is the soup of cannibals. -- Jack Handy
...you just have to fill that backdoor, then, don't you? I hear that's Gates' specialty.
... but I hear that Ballmer does, all the time.
/rimshot
I don't get it....
sin(6cos(r)+5A)
"Ignorance is Strength" has already been adopted by the American people.
I once went to the white house with my wife and mother-in-law. My mother-in-law used her Citibank Visa with her photo on it as her picture ID. We got in. This is pre-911, of course, but still makes me laugh.
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
but I thought you said
That's right, everybody needs to be as smart as you right?
I think you'd be interested in an active government if somebody was trying to rob your house.
Or blow up your office building.
Or hack your bank account.
Or if you didn't have any freeways to drive on to get to work.
Or if your house was flooded.
Or if you lost your job and for some reason nobody seemed to realize how smart you were and give you a new one.
Or if you were a scientist and wanted to research something completely impractical.
Or if you had a smart child but couldn't afford to send them to college (where maybe they could become as smart as you).
By trivializing what the government is responsible for, you show your own ignorance (despite the fact that you are clearly smarter than "the masses.") I'm not defending any characteristic of the American government, but before you propose a solution, make sure you understand the problem.