To those who keep citing "The Military" as if it's some kind of autonomous monstrosity...
In case you've forgotten...we work for you. Our boss is a civilian, and our chain of command all the way down the line is filled with civilians. Your neighbors, relatives, friends, acquaintances, etc.. And before you get the picture in your head of some rogue general on a power trip ala Hollywood, take a look at news footage of these guys talking to Congress. Ask a military member you know who works under a civilian. It's a far cry from, "Kill em all, and sort it out later." In fact, it's much more like, "Mother, may I please go in next door and get my ball back?" We do what we're told by you through your representatives. If you don't like it, fire them.
And, when it comes down to it, the members of the big, bad "The Military" are also your neigbors, relatives, friends, acquaintances, etc.. Yeah, we have a few nutjobs in our employ. But no more than any other corporation. And like you, we realize they're nutjobs and try to give them the harmless jobs as much as we can.
Now, if you want to point the finger at Bush...I can't talk about that in a public forum. But I can say that I find it easier to agree with arguments and evidence that point to conspiring individuals than an amorphous, unfeeling "Military".
Perhaps what I have to say is oversimplifying or ignorant. But I'm sure the nice people here at Slashdot will be more than willing to educate me.
The more I watch this issue, the more it seems clear to me that a losing battle is being fought. I picture an analogous world where, by default, houses are constructed with multiple doors that open to the outside world. And also by default, the doors are not locked. To make matters worse, the locks on the doors aren't visible. So even after a door has been secured, the owner can't be sure if it really is secure other than to try to open it. Isn't this the computing world we live in now?
I imagine that when the current mainstream operating systems were conceived the architects didn't imagine thousands of attackers, script kiddies and zombies knocking on their "doors". But that was a different time. It seems to me that the true solution to this issue, and many others, is a paradigm shift. It seems that we really need an OS that is built from the ground up with a stronger sense of security. Perhaps an OS that requires interaction from the user to enable communication with others.
By no means have I laid out a full plan for such a system. I don't know...I almost feel silly now that I see this in writing. But it seems to me that all we're doing now is applying band-aids to a design that didn't take our current computing environment into account.
It would seem you haven't spent any length of time browsing the web or reading the fanzines. If you had, you'd see that there's a marginal interest in the fan world for building the sets as they come. The larger interest is in building whatever comes to mind. (Brickshelf http://www.brickshelf.com/ is a good place to start)
I like to think of the pre-packaged sets as Lego's "Hello World". It only take a few seconds to think, "This car would be much cooler as an airplane."
...this gets discredited or buried in some way by big oil?
I will be surprised if this presents any real decrease in fuel prices if the oil companies have anything to say about it. And I'm sure they will
The sad thing is you're probably right. Bush or one of his 'genius' advisors will spin this in the opposite direction and use it as ammunition on their quasi-religious quest to eradicate anything and anyone of use.
I hope I'm wrong. I hope this has an effect similar to the election. It would be nice to see the Bush talking heads (any one of them) pop on screen touting the virtues of stem cell research in the fight against cancer.
1. This will probably make it through in a horribly mangled revision of the original proposal. Most likely it will take ten years to implement, will cost ten times as much as was proposed, and will be ten times less effective as a security measure than it already isn't.
2. To the conspiracy know-it-all types that are sure to flood this one, if you've ever worked in government intelligence for any length of time, you'd realize how much time you're wasting with the big brother fantasies. Google's the one to watch out for. Or, rather, they're the ones watching you.
Slashdot Mirror
To those who keep citing "The Military" as if it's some kind of autonomous monstrosity...
In case you've forgotten...we work for you. Our boss is a civilian, and our chain of command all the way down the line is filled with civilians. Your neighbors, relatives, friends, acquaintances, etc.. And before you get the picture in your head of some rogue general on a power trip ala Hollywood, take a look at news footage of these guys talking to Congress. Ask a military member you know who works under a civilian. It's a far cry from, "Kill em all, and sort it out later." In fact, it's much more like, "Mother, may I please go in next door and get my ball back?" We do what we're told by you through your representatives. If you don't like it, fire them.
And, when it comes down to it, the members of the big, bad "The Military" are also your neigbors, relatives, friends, acquaintances, etc.. Yeah, we have a few nutjobs in our employ. But no more than any other corporation. And like you, we realize they're nutjobs and try to give them the harmless jobs as much as we can.
Now, if you want to point the finger at Bush...I can't talk about that in a public forum. But I can say that I find it easier to agree with arguments and evidence that point to conspiring individuals than an amorphous, unfeeling "Military".
Perhaps what I have to say is oversimplifying or ignorant. But I'm sure the nice people here at Slashdot will be more than willing to educate me.
The more I watch this issue, the more it seems clear to me that a losing battle is being fought. I picture an analogous world where, by default, houses are constructed with multiple doors that open to the outside world. And also by default, the doors are not locked. To make matters worse, the locks on the doors aren't visible. So even after a door has been secured, the owner can't be sure if it really is secure other than to try to open it. Isn't this the computing world we live in now?
I imagine that when the current mainstream operating systems were conceived the architects didn't imagine thousands of attackers, script kiddies and zombies knocking on their "doors". But that was a different time. It seems to me that the true solution to this issue, and many others, is a paradigm shift. It seems that we really need an OS that is built from the ground up with a stronger sense of security. Perhaps an OS that requires interaction from the user to enable communication with others.
By no means have I laid out a full plan for such a system. I don't know...I almost feel silly now that I see this in writing. But it seems to me that all we're doing now is applying band-aids to a design that didn't take our current computing environment into account.
It would seem you haven't spent any length of time browsing the web or reading the fanzines. If you had, you'd see that there's a marginal interest in the fan world for building the sets as they come. The larger interest is in building whatever comes to mind. (Brickshelf http://www.brickshelf.com/ is a good place to start)
I like to think of the pre-packaged sets as Lego's "Hello World". It only take a few seconds to think, "This car would be much cooler as an airplane."
Been Done. http://www.brickartist.com/smaller-sculptures/iphone.html
You didn't know? That's Big Oil's biggest secret...gasoline IS people!!!
...this gets discredited or buried in some way by big oil? I will be surprised if this presents any real decrease in fuel prices if the oil companies have anything to say about it. And I'm sure they will
The sad thing is you're probably right. Bush or one of his 'genius' advisors will spin this in the opposite direction and use it as ammunition on their quasi-religious quest to eradicate anything and anyone of use.
I hope I'm wrong. I hope this has an effect similar to the election. It would be nice to see the Bush talking heads (any one of them) pop on screen touting the virtues of stem cell research in the fight against cancer.
Take a look at the online catalog...you should be happily surprised once you get past all the Bionicle crap. Technic is alive and well. (www.lego.com)
1. This will probably make it through in a horribly mangled revision of the original proposal. Most likely it will take ten years to implement, will cost ten times as much as was proposed, and will be ten times less effective as a security measure than it already isn't.
2. To the conspiracy know-it-all types that are sure to flood this one, if you've ever worked in government intelligence for any length of time, you'd realize how much time you're wasting with the big brother fantasies. Google's the one to watch out for. Or, rather, they're the ones watching you.