Some construction union would intervene claiming substandard construction or what-not, code violations etc, etc just to protect their jobs.
The pipe-fitters unions did the same thing when PVC piping came out--they lobbied for code changes that required copper tubing, changes that ruled out Joe-Homeowner doing the work himself. Most building codes make it very hard for the do-it-your-selfers, sometimes requiring them to actually get a contractors license. There is no reason for this if the work passes inspection--it exists simply to protect the jobs of people that need to get with the times, adapt and get on with their lives rather then holding back the rest of humanity.
I was recently involved in a discussion about F2P game models...here is a an except from a post I made regarding some recent experiences with F2P games (DC Universe most closely resembles DDO in the examples I give).
""Google free to play MMORPG some time, and see what is out there."
I did that, and without exception, there was always some serious catch to the "free" part of the title. Paying wasn't much better.
The worst example is my last experience--Runes of Magic. Most of the in-game equivalents of such things as the items required to upgrade gear are severely gimped, making them almost useless in comparison to the items bought with RL cash from their store. To make matters worse, MANY of the items, both free in-game and item store purchased, have a chance, repeat, a chance of giving you exactly what you wanted--a purchase is often a bag that has a chance of having what you paid for in it. It is nothing more then gambling, only with payouts in virtual items. I asked in open chat how much people were paying, for item store purchases, each month in order to have access, gear-wise, to end-game content--the first person that responded stated he spent $600US the previous month on consumables alone. Needless to say this sort of brought chat to a standstill for a little bit. After that, a few chimed in, with clearly stated guilt, that they spent around $100-200 a month to play the game. It's a Casino disguised as an MMO.
Dungeons and Dragons Online was even more frustrating--you had to have a monthly account, or you had to purchase "modules" for dungeon/zone content. If your friends didn't have them you couldn't play with them in those areas. What really pissed me off was paying for the monthly account only to find out that some of the areas still had to be purchased from the "item store". It's a bait-and-switch.
Those two models are how all of the "free-to-play" games I tried worked. One plan, or the other--and each screwed over both paying and non-paying customers alike.
This video on a local news outlet shows some OLD footage of the Galloping Ghost (approx 2:20) and the pilot is CLEARLY visible in the canopy.
The only reason I can think of for a pilot not being visible in the canopy, as in the NYTimes image, is because they are hunched down--much as one would be if they were unconscious.
Answer me this--In that photo, where the fuck is the pilot?
All I see is an empty canopy. Unconscious and puddled in his seat? Wouldn't a harness hold him up enough that he would be visible in the canopy in that photo? That canopy didn't have a "mirrored" filter on it, did it? The next image in that series is obviously taken BEFORE the crash, so it is quite possible the image (#3) was taken earlier as well, but, if so, that would be pretty irresponsible of the NYTimes to caption the image the way it was.
I've seen a P-51 up close, with the pilot in the seat, and that pilot was quite visible. Again, in this photo, where the fuck is the pilot?
"What I don't understand is why there's not something commercial out there that does this."
There is no point.
The developers of malware, spyware, virii, etc. all use a base-pack of popular AV software as quality control filters--if anything in the pack catches what they just wrote, it's back to the drawing board until it DOES pass. Any commercial package would be used for the same purpose and would quickly be what AV is today--one step behind the bad guys. The reason I say all of them use such tactics is quite simple--it would be a huge waste of time to NOT do so, considering how easy it is to get the exact, updated-daily, quality assurance tools you need to do the job--most being free.
For those that care for references, one of the emails from the HBGary/Anon leak specifically mentioned HBGary doing exactly that--using existing AV as a QA filter for spyware development.
A related aside: I came across a version of this virus on a Dell laptop that I was trying to fix for someone--three years ago. It even evaded re-flashing the BIOS. The only reason that I noticed it was that there was a blank DOS-like window that briefly flashed across the screen during the BIOS boot, instead of the logo swap that the virus in the article used (slick!). That is the only time I have ever seen that happen on any machine and it immediately made me suspicious.It appears it has taken them sometime to fine-tune this virus.
As much as I hate the things, some of these virii are works of pure genius. Misguided, yes, but still genius.
From the application: "16. The method of claim 11, further comprising: turning off the one or more rocket engines after separating the payload from the booster stage; moving an aerodynamic control surface on the booster stage to at least partially control a flight path of the booster stage toward the platform based on platform positional information received from the platform; moving the aerodynamic control surface on the booster stage to at least partially reorient the booster stage from the nose-first orientation to a tail-first orientation; and after reorienting the booster stage, reigniting the one or more rocket engines positioned toward the aft end portion of the booster stage, wherein landing the booster stage includes performing a powered, vertical landing of the booster stage on the platform."
They DO realize it will require more fuel to land this thing then launch it, right? They will be launching a huge amount of fuel into near-orbit only to use it for slowing the craft?
What the fuck is wrong with a parachute?
Hell, they could use some sort of massive modified para-sail and even guide it to the landing platform. And why not just make the thing able to withstand water and land it directly in the water and simply load it up into a floating drydock? The Glomar Explorer would have been perfect, but it's out drilling for oil these days?
Seriously, guys. No need to patent everything that comes out of the Saturday night pot sessions.
"I can see this being used as evidence for not paying for treatments/surgeries etc."
Or a way to side-step responsibility for medical decisions in the context of malpractice suits. Or perhaps an "expert" witness...
"Ladies and Gentlemen, I will now prove, with the help of Dr. Watson, that Ms. Swinebottom was killed at the hands of..." "Excuse me. DOCTOR Watson? This box has a degree in medicine?" "Well, no. But it does have available to it the entire store of medical literature, and can make billions of calculations..." "So, it isn't a doctor?"
In the first link in the summary, there are two images of the satellite--one against a backdrop of Earth and attached to a Space Shuttle manipulation boom. The next image is labeled as being the same thing except against a backdrop of deep space.
If so, then why are there clearly a wall, window and door in the darkened background of the second image? It appears to be a mock-up, or even possibly a scale-model, held in the air by the boom.
Mislabeled image, or is this a "Capricorn One" moment?
Man, the fun we had with that thing. The absolute top was getting the thing to fire a spring-action Crossman BB pistol (taped to the top of the unit) by using the dump function of the optional dump-trailer and a piece of string to pull the trigger when programmed.
If that doesn't get kids excited about programming, I don't know what will.
Or you can just fall back on the "In the Old Days..." spiel and start with "Back when I was a kid, we had old ladies weaving code..."
"You don't really believe that utterly ridiculous conspiracy theory, do you?"
I do.
I also believe that 9/11 was perpetrated by the Bush administration and a cabal of corporate "Brothers".
I also believe that those 250,000+ diplomatic cables were initially released intentionally by the US government (They make others look far worse then the US. Where are all the other cables from those periods of time? Surely those cannot be ALL the cables during those years. Who selected these ones? Bradley? Were these the only ones "available"?) and that Wikileaks was in on it. Why? Because they both share what is essentially the same goal--global democracy. The US is game simply because they know that even democracy can be controlled, while Julian is just star-struck naive. Honorably motivated, but still naive.
I also believe that Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was killed in Tora Bora on August 15, 2007, and that the US "kept him alive" for numerous reasons (the prolonging of military/Intelligence expenditures, political currency), until such time that it became prudent to bury the whole situation at sea and cash-in politically.
I also believe that there has been a massive shift in policy within the US government--our goals can be more easily, and profitably, achieved by the use of high-value propaganda rather then conventional proxy wars. Go get 'em, Leon!
I also believe we are about to see the same things that have happened in the "Arab Spring" start in other traditionally non-democratic regions. I think someone just started that process in Cuba, kicked off with front-page CNN space. My guess is that Venezuela comes after Cuba., but hey, Democracy is good, no?
I also believe that pigs can fly, provided one possesses a good catapault.
It could be he simply realized there was more money in creating off-the-shelf technologies before the Navy does it themselves, and simply contracting out his little data-sniffers for huge sums.
"I would think that your refrigerator would be the highest priority. Is there a reason you don't mention that?"
Not needed.
The first few days after a natural disaster, everyone is eating BBQ cooked over an open fire. Eat all the meat before it goes bad (and drink all the beer before it gets warm!). I know that sounds trailer-trash, but trust me, everyone is thinking the same thing when they get into such a situation.
After the Loma Prieta Earthquake, my whole street was pretty much a three-day block party. Most gas lines were broken, water was hard to come by, EVERYONE had a freezer of meat, no electricity for weeks and the weather was awesome. Nobody could get anywhere, including work. Lot of drinking, lot of good food and a lot of people in exactly the same boat as I. Earthquake aside (not to mention the demolished house), it was actually kind of nice.
Besides, which would you prefer to do--keep yourself comfortable, or a bunch of dead animals comfortable?
Look closely at the image linked--there are two almost perfect circles of forming cloud, as well as a few smaller ones near the western-most circle.
I've never seen clouds form like that. The one in the central Gulf almost seems to defy wind flow, as evidenced by the two "streaked" formations that go right over it. Perhaps the difference is simply altitude.
My wife's first random guess was oil-booms (oil on the surface altering reflection rates and water-surface temps). Anyone else?
Oh, and hey, there's a big hurricane headed toward you guys...
"It's much more profitable to adjust the traffic light timings so that people have to travel 5-10 mph over the speed limit to get the green lights on a long stretch of road (and make the red lights last a long time). Then you have a steady stream of speeders to ticket."
It's actually WORSE then that.
I live in Bellingham, WA where the city is currently about to put to a vote whether or not to allow Red-light/Speeding cameras.
The city has already signed a contract with a company called ATS to run the system, and the voters are pissed. As it turns out, ATS actually spells out in the contract how much the fines should be and how much of a cut they get from each ticket. ATS has, understandably, sued the city to stop the vote. A local judge told them to get bent.
It is not that the cameras invade our privacy so much as the distasteful aspect of this company making profits from each ticket--simply put, it PRIVATIZES the punishments meted out for speeding/running a red light. Such punishments should remain wholly within the jurisdiction of the justice system, not in the hands of some for-profit company. THAT is why voters here are pissed.
That being said, I think Bloomberg is getting kickbacks or simply has "friends" in the business. Want to know who? This might have something to do with it...
"MAYOR BLOOMBERG JOINS MAYORS AND BUSINESS LEADERS TO FORM PARTNERSHIP FOR A NEW AMERICAN ECONOMY
National Partnership Will Push for Immigration Reform to Fix Broken Borders and Keep America Open to the Best, Brightest and Hardest-Working People From Around the World
Mayor Bloomberg Announces Co-Chairs Mark Hurd, Chairman, CEO and President of Hewlett-Packard..."
Mark Hurd was CEO of Hewlett-Packard, the company that owns EDS, the contractors for the red-light system.
"Look at the list of the greatest algorithms in history [siam.org], as selected by SIAM (Society of Industrial and Applied Math) in 2000. Our lives would be completely different and worse without them."
Slashdot Mirror
This wouldn't fly in the US.
Some construction union would intervene claiming substandard construction or what-not, code violations etc, etc just to protect their jobs.
The pipe-fitters unions did the same thing when PVC piping came out--they lobbied for code changes that required copper tubing, changes that ruled out Joe-Homeowner doing the work himself. Most building codes make it very hard for the do-it-your-selfers, sometimes requiring them to actually get a contractors license. There is no reason for this if the work passes inspection--it exists simply to protect the jobs of people that need to get with the times, adapt and get on with their lives rather then holding back the rest of humanity.
I was recently involved in a discussion about F2P game models...here is a an except from a post I made regarding some recent experiences with F2P games (DC Universe most closely resembles DDO in the examples I give).
""Google free to play MMORPG some time, and see what is out there."
I did that, and without exception, there was always some serious catch to the "free" part of the title. Paying wasn't much better.
The worst example is my last experience--Runes of Magic. Most of the in-game equivalents of such things as the items required to upgrade gear are severely gimped, making them almost useless in comparison to the items bought with RL cash from their store. To make matters worse, MANY of the items, both free in-game and item store purchased, have a chance, repeat, a chance of giving you exactly what you wanted--a purchase is often a bag that has a chance of having what you paid for in it. It is nothing more then gambling, only with payouts in virtual items. I asked in open chat how much people were paying, for item store purchases, each month in order to have access, gear-wise, to end-game content--the first person that responded stated he spent $600US the previous month on consumables alone. Needless to say this sort of brought chat to a standstill for a little bit. After that, a few chimed in, with clearly stated guilt, that they spent around $100-200 a month to play the game. It's a Casino disguised as an MMO.
Dungeons and Dragons Online was even more frustrating--you had to have a monthly account, or you had to purchase "modules" for dungeon/zone content. If your friends didn't have them you couldn't play with them in those areas. What really pissed me off was paying for the monthly account only to find out that some of the areas still had to be purchased from the "item store". It's a bait-and-switch.
Those two models are how all of the "free-to-play" games I tried worked. One plan, or the other--and each screwed over both paying and non-paying customers alike.
Thus, I am back to UO."
Addendum:
This video on a local news outlet shows some OLD footage of the Galloping Ghost (approx 2:20) and the pilot is CLEARLY visible in the canopy.
The only reason I can think of for a pilot not being visible in the canopy, as in the NYTimes image, is because they are hunched down--much as one would be if they were unconscious.
"The pilot was quite old--perhaps he experienced a heart attack or stroke..."
I think you might be right. Take a look at this photo from the NYTimes article--it is photo #3 in the series.
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2011/09/16/us/20110917_RENO-IPAD-3.html
Answer me this--In that photo, where the fuck is the pilot?
All I see is an empty canopy. Unconscious and puddled in his seat? Wouldn't a harness hold him up enough that he would be visible in the canopy in that photo? That canopy didn't have a "mirrored" filter on it, did it? The next image in that series is obviously taken BEFORE the crash, so it is quite possible the image (#3) was taken earlier as well, but, if so, that would be pretty irresponsible of the NYTimes to caption the image the way it was.
I've seen a P-51 up close, with the pilot in the seat, and that pilot was quite visible. Again, in this photo, where the fuck is the pilot?
"What I don't understand is why there's not something commercial out there that does this."
There is no point.
The developers of malware, spyware, virii, etc. all use a base-pack of popular AV software as quality control filters--if anything in the pack catches what they just wrote, it's back to the drawing board until it DOES pass. Any commercial package would be used for the same purpose and would quickly be what AV is today--one step behind the bad guys. The reason I say all of them use such tactics is quite simple--it would be a huge waste of time to NOT do so, considering how easy it is to get the exact, updated-daily, quality assurance tools you need to do the job--most being free.
For those that care for references, one of the emails from the HBGary/Anon leak specifically mentioned HBGary doing exactly that--using existing AV as a QA filter for spyware development.
A related aside: I came across a version of this virus on a Dell laptop that I was trying to fix for someone--three years ago. It even evaded re-flashing the BIOS. The only reason that I noticed it was that there was a blank DOS-like window that briefly flashed across the screen during the BIOS boot, instead of the logo swap that the virus in the article used (slick!). That is the only time I have ever seen that happen on any machine and it immediately made me suspicious.It appears it has taken them sometime to fine-tune this virus.
As much as I hate the things, some of these virii are works of pure genius. Misguided, yes, but still genius.
From the application:
"16. The method of claim 11, further comprising: turning off the one or more rocket engines after separating the payload from the booster stage; moving an aerodynamic control surface on the booster stage to at least partially control a flight path of the booster stage toward the platform based on platform positional information received from the platform; moving the aerodynamic control surface on the booster stage to at least partially reorient the booster stage from the nose-first orientation to a tail-first orientation; and after reorienting the booster stage, reigniting the one or more rocket engines positioned toward the aft end portion of the booster stage, wherein landing the booster stage includes performing a powered, vertical landing of the booster stage on the platform."
They DO realize it will require more fuel to land this thing then launch it, right? They will be launching a huge amount of fuel into near-orbit only to use it for slowing the craft?
What the fuck is wrong with a parachute?
Hell, they could use some sort of massive modified para-sail and even guide it to the landing platform. And why not just make the thing able to withstand water and land it directly in the water and simply load it up into a floating drydock? The Glomar Explorer would have been perfect, but it's out drilling for oil these days?
Seriously, guys. No need to patent everything that comes out of the Saturday night pot sessions.
"3rd Rule for the Digital Age: If you don't digitize it it will turn to dust."
But, by then I will have too.
1st Rule for the Digital Age: The moment you digitize something, you stand to lose control of it.
2nd Rule for the Digital Age: Don't digitize something you don't want to lose control over.
"I can see this being used as evidence for not paying for treatments/surgeries etc."
Or a way to side-step responsibility for medical decisions in the context of malpractice suits. Or perhaps an "expert" witness...
"Ladies and Gentlemen, I will now prove, with the help of Dr. Watson, that Ms. Swinebottom was killed at the hands of..."
"Excuse me. DOCTOR Watson? This box has a degree in medicine?"
"Well, no. But it does have available to it the entire store of medical literature, and can make billions of calculations..."
"So, it isn't a doctor?"
"No, but it costs almost as much as one."
In the first link in the summary, there are two images of the satellite--one against a backdrop of Earth and attached to a Space Shuttle manipulation boom. The next image is labeled as being the same thing except against a backdrop of deep space.
If so, then why are there clearly a wall, window and door in the darkened background of the second image? It appears to be a mock-up, or even possibly a scale-model, held in the air by the boom.
Mislabeled image, or is this a "Capricorn One" moment?
Image:
http://i.space.com/images/i/11938/i02/uars-satellite-deployment.jpg?1315422763
"So the next question is: How would someone go about mining a star?"
Are you suggesting that we go mine it for Helium, or suggesting that some other race has already been there and pretty much cleaned the place out?
Just think back to when you were a kid. What got YOU interested?
For my cousin and I, it was this badboy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Trak
Man, the fun we had with that thing. The absolute top was getting the thing to fire a spring-action Crossman BB pistol (taped to the top of the unit) by using the dump function of the optional dump-trailer and a piece of string to pull the trigger when programmed.
If that doesn't get kids excited about programming, I don't know what will.
Or you can just fall back on the "In the Old Days..." spiel and start with "Back when I was a kid, we had old ladies weaving code..."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LOL_memory
Maybe they can send it over to dust off the solar panels of "Spirit" and winch it outta the dust it is stuck in.
But then again, by the time it gets there "Spirit" will probably have been stolen by metal thieves and sold to the Jawa.
"You don't really believe that utterly ridiculous conspiracy theory, do you?"
I do.
I also believe that 9/11 was perpetrated by the Bush administration and a cabal of corporate "Brothers".
I also believe that those 250,000+ diplomatic cables were initially released intentionally by the US government (They make others look far worse then the US. Where are all the other cables from those periods of time? Surely those cannot be ALL the cables during those years. Who selected these ones? Bradley? Were these the only ones "available"?) and that Wikileaks was in on it. Why? Because they both share what is essentially the same goal--global democracy. The US is game simply because they know that even democracy can be controlled, while Julian is just star-struck naive. Honorably motivated, but still naive.
I also believe that Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was killed in Tora Bora on August 15, 2007, and that the US "kept him alive" for numerous reasons (the prolonging of military/Intelligence expenditures, political currency), until such time that it became prudent to bury the whole situation at sea and cash-in politically.
I also believe that there has been a massive shift in policy within the US government--our goals can be more easily, and profitably, achieved by the use of high-value propaganda rather then conventional proxy wars. Go get 'em, Leon!
I also believe we are about to see the same things that have happened in the "Arab Spring" start in other traditionally non-democratic regions. I think someone just started that process in Cuba, kicked off with front-page CNN space. My guess is that Venezuela comes after Cuba., but hey, Democracy is good, no?
I also believe that pigs can fly, provided one possesses a good catapault.
A candid look at the inner-circle of Anonymous leadership...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLsg0EvZozI
4-Chan? Really? (1:45)
It could be he simply realized there was more money in creating off-the-shelf technologies before the Navy does it themselves, and simply contracting out his little data-sniffers for huge sums.
UAVs(Unmanned Aquatic Vehicle), anyone?
You can always look at it from a "glass half-full" perspective--Encryption Bans Pakistan.
"I would think that your refrigerator would be the highest priority. Is there a reason you don't mention that?"
Not needed.
The first few days after a natural disaster, everyone is eating BBQ cooked over an open fire. Eat all the meat before it goes bad (and drink all the beer before it gets warm!). I know that sounds trailer-trash, but trust me, everyone is thinking the same thing when they get into such a situation.
After the Loma Prieta Earthquake, my whole street was pretty much a three-day block party. Most gas lines were broken, water was hard to come by, EVERYONE had a freezer of meat, no electricity for weeks and the weather was awesome. Nobody could get anywhere, including work. Lot of drinking, lot of good food and a lot of people in exactly the same boat as I. Earthquake aside (not to mention the demolished house), it was actually kind of nice.
Besides, which would you prefer to do--keep yourself comfortable, or a bunch of dead animals comfortable?
"I'm still scared-- stockpiling on water and going to bunker down in my basement..."
Dude. Flood. Basement. Dig?
Should've mentioned which image (2nd image--GOES 13). Sorry.
Did anyone else notice the two large circular cloud formations out over the central and western Gulf of Mexico visible in the summary link "Irene is Big"?
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hurricanes/archives/2011/h2011_Irene.html
Look closely at the image linked--there are two almost perfect circles of forming cloud, as well as a few smaller ones near the western-most circle.
I've never seen clouds form like that. The one in the central Gulf almost seems to defy wind flow, as evidenced by the two "streaked" formations that go right over it. Perhaps the difference is simply altitude.
My wife's first random guess was oil-booms (oil on the surface altering reflection rates and water-surface temps). Anyone else?
Oh, and hey, there's a big hurricane headed toward you guys...
"The result was a wiped ipod, as apple does not want me to own my data. Lession leaned."
Don't suppose you accidentally deleted the data while drunk, do you?
"It's much more profitable to adjust the traffic light timings so that people have to travel 5-10 mph over the speed limit to get the green lights on a long stretch of road (and make the red lights last a long time). Then you have a steady stream of speeders to ticket."
It's actually WORSE then that.
I live in Bellingham, WA where the city is currently about to put to a vote whether or not to allow Red-light/Speeding cameras.
The city has already signed a contract with a company called ATS to run the system, and the voters are pissed. As it turns out, ATS actually spells out in the contract how much the fines should be and how much of a cut they get from each ticket. ATS has, understandably, sued the city to stop the vote. A local judge told them to get bent.
It is not that the cameras invade our privacy so much as the distasteful aspect of this company making profits from each ticket--simply put, it PRIVATIZES the punishments meted out for speeding/running a red light. Such punishments should remain wholly within the jurisdiction of the justice system, not in the hands of some for-profit company. THAT is why voters here are pissed.
That being said, I think Bloomberg is getting kickbacks or simply has "friends" in the business. Want to know who? This might have something to do with it...
"MAYOR BLOOMBERG JOINS MAYORS AND BUSINESS LEADERS TO FORM PARTNERSHIP FOR A NEW AMERICAN ECONOMY
National Partnership Will Push for Immigration Reform to Fix Broken Borders and Keep America Open to the Best, Brightest and Hardest-Working People From Around the World
Mayor Bloomberg Announces Co-Chairs Mark Hurd, Chairman, CEO and President of Hewlett-Packard..."
Mark Hurd was CEO of Hewlett-Packard, the company that owns EDS, the contractors for the red-light system.
Here is the press release I quoted from:
http://home.nyc.gov/html/om/html/2010a/pr287-10.html
There are some other interesting names in that press release, as well.
These scumbags are trying to figure out how to monetize the entire justice system, one sector at a time. "New American Economy", indeed.
"Look at the list of the greatest algorithms in history [siam.org], as selected by SIAM (Society of Industrial and Applied Math) in 2000. Our lives would be completely different and worse without them."
I always get that list confused with this one...
http://kcbx.net/~tellswor/algorism.htm
Dude, you're supposed to replace the URL with a DIFFERENT one.
You're not going to earn any Wasted Moderation Points unless you display a little more creativity.