"Now that this information is becoming public this will become an annual event because government can never admit it was wrong."
They don't have to admit they are wrong. All they have to do is find out which one of these companies actually released the virus in the wilds of Mexico.
It is against the law to profit from your crimes in this country.
"Let's see. Using a monopoly position in search to disrupt the web browser market which they also participate in. Methinks not."
Not if everyone moves to Firefox (a COMPETITOR of Google) instead of Google's Chrome.
That is exactly my point. The VAST majority of people switching would go to Firefox, NOT Chrome.
Therein lies the pure GENIUS of this idea. Built-in anti-trust protection.
Even if a suit was brought against them, and they lost, what would be the mandated fix? Support IE again? By the time that dragged through the courts, the loss of IE users to Firefox would already have happened. Once you leave IE (for anything!), you never go back.
The PDF linked in that story came from this ( http://www.infowars.com/ ) website. That same website is also running several headline articles about this very subject--Sunstein--and does so in a very dim light.
This is a smear job, folks.
If you look at the wikipedia entry for the "Fairness Doctrine", it states that Obama is against any revival of this doctrine. Oddly, the citation for that statement is from a FOX news article from a year ago.
Look at the wording. It is intentionally vague on the issue, to the point of simply asking more questions then it answers. It also attempts to make it look like Sen. Henry Waxman is on the same boat (in favor of a return of the Fairness Doctrine).
Short of a paper DISCUSSING the issue, I have to agree with PopeRatzo on this. Nowhere can I find a single statement that either Waxman, Obama or Sunstein actually endorse the revival of the Fairness Doctrine.
"Now you just plug in to the on-board diagnostic system, and 9 times out of 10 it'll tell you exactly what the problem is."
That sounds like the same thing I hear people say about automotive scanners. "Just plug it in and it tells you exactly what is wrong!" That is a bunch of hogwwash. Scanners simply give the tech diagnostic codes, and in some cases allow for viewing certain circuits and their current (or stored) values. It simply gives you a direction to look.
For example, a scanner might have found a stored code for an oxygen sensor fault that indicates the engine is running full rich at all times (and even show voltage values that reflect this) when the real problem is a fuel injector with it's pintle jammed open by a sliver of metal left in the fuel rail during manufacturing. There is NO way in hell that the scanner will know anything about that sliver of metal. BUT, a good mechanic will know what types of failures can cause a full rich condition and start ruling them out one at a time. The code is merely a starting point.
This device will not give a mechanic the sudden ability to know all the possible causes, nor will it always tell them the truth. False codes are a real problem that are usually ruled out BEFORE any further diagnosis occurs (usually by pulling codes followed by clearing them and seeing which ones come back).
There is not a device on this planet that can replace a good diagnostician simply because every possible failure is impossible to foresee.
There are Sooooo many people that don't know how to find anything on the web without using Google that if Google did stop supporting IE, many of those people would start using Firefox simply to use Google. And that would be a huge foot-in-the-groin for Microsoft, even if it doesn't DIRECTLY benefit Google.
Methinks it would avoid any anti-trust issues as well.
Considering the topic of this thread, it might actually help to prevent further Chinese highjinks.
"If you read what Sunstein writes, you'll see that he wrote that paper as a legal scholar, not a public official, and he's presenting the dilemma of how best to react to concerted efforts by extremist groups to undermine society and g...yada, yada."
As a mechanic/diagnostician myself, I can only see the usefulness of this tech for a certain type of mechanic, the sort that cannot really grasp what they are working on, or the kind that simply does not have diagnostic skills.
Let me explain.
There is simply WAY too much information to store in ones head regarding the intricacies of maintaining/repairing a modern vehicle. There are too many different systems, variations within those systems and, to be quite blunt, too many external variables such as the environment the vehicle is operating in.
That being said, the best approach is to learn how to quickly understand how a system works. You look at what the system is designed to do, then figure out how it does it. Once you understand how it does so, it is FAR easier to understand what is going wrong in that process. A good mechanic understands this and has developed the skills to do this rapidly and fairly accurately. It requires independent thought, a fairly good understanding of physics and a thorough understanding of the process of elimination. It also requires the ability to devise test procedures, i.e., the scientific process, to determine what the problem is (to test ones own theories on what may be the cause of the problem).
The problem is that MANY mechanics lack these basic skills. They rely on flow charts and exact step-by-step procedures that are spelled out in technical manuals (Clymer repair manuals are a good example). If you take these away from them they are completely lost as they have no understanding of how the system actually works, and thus cannot determine WHY it doesn't work.
This is the difference between a good mechanic and a "parts changer".
This technology is for "parts changers", NOT mechanics. Now, understanding that this is primarily a military application, this is understandably a good technology for them as the military LIKES troops that don't think for themselves (Don't believe me? Then explain why they are spending billions trying to replace them with robotics). You can't have officers doing all the wrenching on vehicles.
Basically I foresee one GOOD mechanic in each vehicle pool that goes from vehicle to vehicle doing the diagnosis, then passing the actual repairs onto the other mechanics...all equipped with one of these things...essentially a fancy, very expensive Clymers repair manual.
Very often auto shops have exactly this setup. The "A" techs do the diagnosis and the "B" and "C" techs do the actual parts changing.
All this technology does is replace repair manuals and save the mechanic the trouble of going back and forth between a computer terminal (the current replacement for paper/book manuals) and the vehicle they are working on...and cost the taxpayers billions.
Putting all the paper manuals on eReaders and handing those out would achieve the same thing.
"If (Firstenberg) cannot obtain preliminary relief, he will be forced to continue to sleep in his car, enduring winter cold and discomfort, until this case can be heard."
Someone might want to point out to this moron (or better yet, the guy he is suing) that his car generates NUMEROUS magnetic fields.
Alternator, ignition coils, speed sensors, actuators, every inch of energized wiring...pretty much the entire car is enveloped in magnetic fields unless the battery is disconnected, and even then, all the magnets located in the many devices are still creating magnetic fields.
"Further, I hope it completely and utterly fails so we have some opportunity for a game that lives up to the Star Trek name."
Oh, man. I have this image of you flopping around on the floor, screaming and spitting, kicking your legs, pitching a fit like the best 1st grade fit-pitcher that ever lived.
Seriously, dude. You hope the game fails so they YOU get what YOU want?
Please, do us a favor. Go back to the Eve forums. Right now. Go log in. Please...you're in the wrong forum.
"When the fuck will either Netflix move away from Silverlight or Moonlight support the Netflix player? This is currently my single biggest gripe on Linux by far."
Not gunna happen. Microsoft and Netflix have a VERY cozy relationship. I believe one of the Microsoft board members is also on the Netflix board. Not sure who and the Wiki entry doesn't state who.
Until these two companies part ways, Microsoft is going to be making things difficult for SOMEONE.
You're not paying for a phone, you're paying for a status symbol.
My phone cost 59.99 6 years ago. Sure, it was subsidized, but I never paid more for it. I could have brought my own phone in, had them hook it up to their service and still had the service contract and I would have been charged 59.99 less.
My point is that you all seem to be bitching about paying for something that is SUPPOSED to be expensive. Otherwise, it wouldn't have that certain "bling" status as everyone would have one.
The automotive insurance industry loves this shit. It jacks up the cost of the premiums insuring all that tech crap in your cars.
But soon, the industry will start accumulating data that suggests the people using all this crap are FAR more subject to filing claims, and they will start charging people more if they have such tech in their cars.
So this tech is going to have a hidden cost in that sense.
Here is the fun part. They will deny claims based on the fact the driver was distracted and thus at fault.
The automakers sell more stuff with each car, the tech companies get sales, the insurance companies make more from premiums...all so you don't have to wait 15 mins to get home and use your PC.
And another thing. If anyone ran into me with all this shit in their car, you can rest assured my lawyer will be bringing it up in court. Your cellphone is on during the accident? You lose. Wireless connection active during accident? You lose.
This is simply a way to monetize something that was intended to be free.
Free or not, where there is a demand, the market will create itself and Google plans on being there first. I RTFA and it seems to me that they are just trying to "grade" a whitespace based on its physical location and the devices at that location. So and so coordinates, with yada-yada using it. Check. The database is simply to let those users know who is who, and where.
The next step would be, in my mind, to strangle the supply of whitespace by camping as many geo-locations as possible. (wow, that actually sounds like fun...Pitch a tent and roast marshmallows!)
My first impulse(were I without a conscience) would be to lease/mount a transmitter on every cell tower out there, specifically to fill whitespace. It could simply broadcast old Jimmy Swaggart reruns or simply white-noise. Just keep it filled to claim priority. After all, the idea is to keep people from interfering with ANY other transmissions...even if it is someone simply camping the whitespace there. This is basically a Land-Rush on the whitespace, and the lawyers think that mapping it all will give them something to work with...some sort of claim of rights to that whitespace.
When you have most of it camped, you are then in a position to start making deals.
Market created.
The problem is eventually that "non-existent" market will drive use to the point it actually WOULD interfere with adjacent frequencies...exactly what was trying to be prevented by the creation of whitespaces.
Back to square one with Google making truckloads of cash in the process.
I see this as a perfect example of people trying to base a business model on trying to convince people they need your product rather then making a product they already want.
I will state this as clearly as possible.
Your enterprise was doomed to failure before you even got started.
And another thing. You are trying to enter a field where MOST of your competitors are CROOKS. Do you really want to be associated with such a label as a "Social Network Game Producer" when those that already are seem to be jumping ship in an attempt salvage what little reputation they retain now the cat is out of the bag regarding the less then savory business practices they've used?
Count your losses, learn from your mistakes and move on. Soon, people will realize how seriously they are being used, excuse me...FUCKED OVER, by social networking sites and start abandoning them for something else to keep them entertained. You want to be in a position where they move on to YOU. You do not want to be the guy they are leaving in the dust.
Start thinking about what comes AFTER Social Networking sites, then work towards THAT. Well, at least if you want to make money.
"These asinine restrictions on creativity are against human nature, and it is sad to see a father misunderstanding so completely the creative process and indicting, horribly, wrongly, his own daughter as non creative for doing what creative minds do: copying."
I was referring to her ability to make a LIVING doing so. You show me a place to sell her years of Sonic comics and I shall pass it on to her. Unless she uses her creativity to produce something that isn't simply regurgitation, I don't see her as being particularly creative.
Stirring the mashed potatoes counter-clockwise instead of clockwise does not make them anything other then mashed potatoes.
Don't get me wrong. I KNOW she is creative, she just doesn't use it because she caters to this tiny little crowd of close friends that have no apparent desire for anything new or stimulating. I am not "indicting, horribly, wrongly..." her creative skills, but rather her ridiculous expectations of being able to make a living making Sonic comics. Her artwork is MUCH better then 99% of the fan-art out there, but it is still fan-art, and thus very unlikely to produce a means to provide for oneself.
Personally, I think fan-art is reserved for those with little creative ability, but plenty of time and desire.
Every time I see fan-art, no matter how good, I end up asking myself "Why don't they just come up with their own works/stories/plots that don't rely on the creativity of others?". The only reason I can come up with is they are incapable.
My own daughter, a graphic artist, does the same thing. She spends hundreds of hours creating fan-art that has no possible monetary value, then complains that she can't find a job in graphics. Does that mean my daughter is not creative? To some extent, yes. But here is the difference. She CHOOSES not to be creative by not even trying to do something outside the franchises of others.
So, I guess the real question is whether or not people are doing it for "fun", or trying to make a living out of it.
Slashdot Mirror
"Now that this information is becoming public this will become an annual event because government can never admit it was wrong."
They don't have to admit they are wrong. All they have to do is find out which one of these companies actually released the virus in the wilds of Mexico.
It is against the law to profit from your crimes in this country.
"Let's see. Using a monopoly position in search to disrupt the web browser market which they also participate in. Methinks not."
Not if everyone moves to Firefox (a COMPETITOR of Google) instead of Google's Chrome.
That is exactly my point. The VAST majority of people switching would go to Firefox, NOT Chrome.
Therein lies the pure GENIUS of this idea. Built-in anti-trust protection.
Even if a suit was brought against them, and they lost, what would be the mandated fix? Support IE again? By the time that dragged through the courts, the loss of IE users to Firefox would already have happened. Once you leave IE (for anything!), you never go back.
"Fox News has a long "enemies list" of people it believes should be forced to resign from public life. This is how they work."
Seems they (FOX News) have a friend. My guess is Alex Jones.
"megamerican", the submitter of this story, also submitted this ( http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/10/1320211 ) to Slashdot.
The PDF linked in that story came from this ( http://www.infowars.com/ ) website. That same website is also running several headline articles about this very subject--Sunstein--and does so in a very dim light.
This is a smear job, folks.
If you look at the wikipedia entry for the "Fairness Doctrine", it states that Obama is against any revival of this doctrine. Oddly, the citation for that statement is from a FOX news article from a year ago.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/02/18/white-house-obama-opposes-fairness-doctrine-revival/
Look at the wording. It is intentionally vague on the issue, to the point of simply asking more questions then it answers. It also attempts to make it look like Sen. Henry Waxman is on the same boat (in favor of a return of the Fairness Doctrine).
Short of a paper DISCUSSING the issue, I have to agree with PopeRatzo on this. Nowhere can I find a single statement that either Waxman, Obama or Sunstein actually endorse the revival of the Fairness Doctrine.
Again, this is a smear job, folks.
"(Disclaimer: I'm not a conspiracy theorist nut.)"
Thats good, otherwise the Government would already be deconstructing your Blogosphere presence.
I think we should all be posting with such a disclaimer.
"If everyone switched, it would certainly fall under heavier attack, and perhaps you'd then discover that it is even worse."
That same argument was used against Firefox. Turns out it wasn't the case.
"Now you just plug in to the on-board diagnostic system, and 9 times out of 10 it'll tell you exactly what the problem is."
That sounds like the same thing I hear people say about automotive scanners. "Just plug it in and it tells you exactly what is wrong!" That is a bunch of hogwwash. Scanners simply give the tech diagnostic codes, and in some cases allow for viewing certain circuits and their current (or stored) values. It simply gives you a direction to look.
For example, a scanner might have found a stored code for an oxygen sensor fault that indicates the engine is running full rich at all times (and even show voltage values that reflect this) when the real problem is a fuel injector with it's pintle jammed open by a sliver of metal left in the fuel rail during manufacturing. There is NO way in hell that the scanner will know anything about that sliver of metal. BUT, a good mechanic will know what types of failures can cause a full rich condition and start ruling them out one at a time. The code is merely a starting point.
This device will not give a mechanic the sudden ability to know all the possible causes, nor will it always tell them the truth. False codes are a real problem that are usually ruled out BEFORE any further diagnosis occurs (usually by pulling codes followed by clearing them and seeing which ones come back).
There is not a device on this planet that can replace a good diagnostician simply because every possible failure is impossible to foresee.
"Keeping Acrobat Reader fully patched and keeping your users alert and well-trained would probably stop a lot of it, but not all."
I can't help but wonder if Firefox AND Foxit would have prevented this.
That is pure genius.
There are Sooooo many people that don't know how to find anything on the web without using Google that if Google did stop supporting IE, many of those people would start using Firefox simply to use Google. And that would be a huge foot-in-the-groin for Microsoft, even if it doesn't DIRECTLY benefit Google.
Methinks it would avoid any anti-trust issues as well.
Considering the topic of this thread, it might actually help to prevent further Chinese highjinks.
"So. What would you call yourself in political terms?"
"I'm a Democratic Carlinist."
No wonder he was so bitter towards the end.
"If you read what Sunstein writes, you'll see that he wrote that paper as a legal scholar, not a public official, and he's presenting the dilemma of how best to react to concerted efforts by extremist groups to undermine society and g...yada, yada."
Shit. They already got started on it...
As a mechanic/diagnostician myself, I can only see the usefulness of this tech for a certain type of mechanic, the sort that cannot really grasp what they are working on, or the kind that simply does not have diagnostic skills.
Let me explain.
There is simply WAY too much information to store in ones head regarding the intricacies of maintaining/repairing a modern vehicle. There are too many different systems, variations within those systems and, to be quite blunt, too many external variables such as the environment the vehicle is operating in.
That being said, the best approach is to learn how to quickly understand how a system works. You look at what the system is designed to do, then figure out how it does it. Once you understand how it does so, it is FAR easier to understand what is going wrong in that process. A good mechanic understands this and has developed the skills to do this rapidly and fairly accurately. It requires independent thought, a fairly good understanding of physics and a thorough understanding of the process of elimination. It also requires the ability to devise test procedures, i.e., the scientific process, to determine what the problem is (to test ones own theories on what may be the cause of the problem).
The problem is that MANY mechanics lack these basic skills. They rely on flow charts and exact step-by-step procedures that are spelled out in technical manuals (Clymer repair manuals are a good example). If you take these away from them they are completely lost as they have no understanding of how the system actually works, and thus cannot determine WHY it doesn't work.
This is the difference between a good mechanic and a "parts changer".
This technology is for "parts changers", NOT mechanics. Now, understanding that this is primarily a military application, this is understandably a good technology for them as the military LIKES troops that don't think for themselves (Don't believe me? Then explain why they are spending billions trying to replace them with robotics). You can't have officers doing all the wrenching on vehicles.
Basically I foresee one GOOD mechanic in each vehicle pool that goes from vehicle to vehicle doing the diagnosis, then passing the actual repairs onto the other mechanics...all equipped with one of these things...essentially a fancy, very expensive Clymers repair manual.
Very often auto shops have exactly this setup. The "A" techs do the diagnosis and the "B" and "C" techs do the actual parts changing.
All this technology does is replace repair manuals and save the mechanic the trouble of going back and forth between a computer terminal (the current replacement for paper/book manuals) and the vehicle they are working on...and cost the taxpayers billions.
Putting all the paper manuals on eReaders and handing those out would achieve the same thing.
"If (Firstenberg) cannot obtain preliminary relief, he will be forced to continue to sleep in his car, enduring winter cold and discomfort, until this case can be heard."
Someone might want to point out to this moron (or better yet, the guy he is suing) that his car generates NUMEROUS magnetic fields.
Alternator, ignition coils, speed sensors, actuators, every inch of energized wiring...pretty much the entire car is enveloped in magnetic fields unless the battery is disconnected, and even then, all the magnets located in the many devices are still creating magnetic fields.
Ah! I see the lawyers at Bank Julius Baer are still hard at work.
If every single registered /. member donated ONE dollar, they would be back in business.
C'mon, folks. Give it up.
"I'll see your extortion and raise you a blackmail."
"I'll see your blackmail and raise you illegal detention and torture."
"Fold. Can I get a fucking drink in this place or do I have to go to Taiwan for that too?"
"Further, I hope it completely and utterly fails so we have some opportunity for a game that lives up to the Star Trek name."
Oh, man. I have this image of you flopping around on the floor, screaming and spitting, kicking your legs, pitching a fit like the best 1st grade fit-pitcher that ever lived.
Seriously, dude. You hope the game fails so they YOU get what YOU want?
Please, do us a favor. Go back to the Eve forums. Right now. Go log in. Please...you're in the wrong forum.
"When the fuck will either Netflix move away from Silverlight or Moonlight support the Netflix player? This is currently my single biggest gripe on Linux by far."
Not gunna happen. Microsoft and Netflix have a VERY cozy relationship. I believe one of the Microsoft board members is also on the Netflix board. Not sure who and the Wiki entry doesn't state who.
Until these two companies part ways, Microsoft is going to be making things difficult for SOMEONE.
You're not paying for a phone, you're paying for a status symbol.
My phone cost 59.99 6 years ago. Sure, it was subsidized, but I never paid more for it. I could have brought my own phone in, had them hook it up to their service and still had the service contract and I would have been charged 59.99 less.
My point is that you all seem to be bitching about paying for something that is SUPPOSED to be expensive. Otherwise, it wouldn't have that certain "bling" status as everyone would have one.
It is a PHONE for fucks sake. /sigh
The automotive insurance industry loves this shit. It jacks up the cost of the premiums insuring all that tech crap in your cars.
But soon, the industry will start accumulating data that suggests the people using all this crap are FAR more subject to filing claims, and they will start charging people more if they have such tech in their cars.
So this tech is going to have a hidden cost in that sense.
Here is the fun part. They will deny claims based on the fact the driver was distracted and thus at fault.
The automakers sell more stuff with each car, the tech companies get sales, the insurance companies make more from premiums...all so you don't have to wait 15 mins to get home and use your PC.
And another thing. If anyone ran into me with all this shit in their car, you can rest assured my lawyer will be bringing it up in court. Your cellphone is on during the accident? You lose. Wireless connection active during accident? You lose.
Whoosh?
I was attempting to illustrate the apparent similarities between this article and advertising.
Fucking stupid, meaningless numbers used to hype a product. Need there be more similarities to actually call this article advertising?
This is simply a way to monetize something that was intended to be free.
Free or not, where there is a demand, the market will create itself and Google plans on being there first. I RTFA and it seems to me that they are just trying to "grade" a whitespace based on its physical location and the devices at that location. So and so coordinates, with yada-yada using it. Check. The database is simply to let those users know who is who, and where.
The next step would be, in my mind, to strangle the supply of whitespace by camping as many geo-locations as possible.
(wow, that actually sounds like fun...Pitch a tent and roast marshmallows!)
My first impulse(were I without a conscience) would be to lease/mount a transmitter on every cell tower out there, specifically to fill whitespace. It could simply broadcast old Jimmy Swaggart reruns or simply white-noise. Just keep it filled to claim priority. After all, the idea is to keep people from interfering with ANY other transmissions...even if it is someone simply camping the whitespace there. This is basically a Land-Rush on the whitespace, and the lawyers think that mapping it all will give them something to work with...some sort of claim of rights to that whitespace.
When you have most of it camped, you are then in a position to start making deals.
Market created.
The problem is eventually that "non-existent" market will drive use to the point it actually WOULD interfere with adjacent frequencies...exactly what was trying to be prevented by the creation of whitespaces.
Back to square one with Google making truckloads of cash in the process.
Has there been a recent patch to AdBlocker Plus?
It seems to be broken.
I see this as a perfect example of people trying to base a business model on trying to convince people they need your product rather then making a product they already want.
I will state this as clearly as possible.
Your enterprise was doomed to failure before you even got started.
And another thing. You are trying to enter a field where MOST of your competitors are CROOKS. Do you really want to be associated with such a label as a "Social Network Game Producer" when those that already are seem to be jumping ship in an attempt salvage what little reputation they retain now the cat is out of the bag regarding the less then savory business practices they've used?
Count your losses, learn from your mistakes and move on. Soon, people will realize how seriously they are being used, excuse me...FUCKED OVER, by social networking sites and start abandoning them for something else to keep them entertained. You want to be in a position where they move on to YOU. You do not want to be the guy they are leaving in the dust.
Start thinking about what comes AFTER Social Networking sites, then work towards THAT. Well, at least if you want to make money.
"These asinine restrictions on creativity are against human nature, and it is sad to see a father misunderstanding so completely the creative process and indicting, horribly, wrongly, his own daughter as non creative for doing what creative minds do: copying."
I was referring to her ability to make a LIVING doing so. You show me a place to sell her years of Sonic comics and I shall pass it on to her. Unless she uses her creativity to produce something that isn't simply regurgitation, I don't see her as being particularly creative.
Stirring the mashed potatoes counter-clockwise instead of clockwise does not make them anything other then mashed potatoes.
Don't get me wrong. I KNOW she is creative, she just doesn't use it because she caters to this tiny little crowd of close friends that have no apparent desire for anything new or stimulating. I am not "indicting, horribly, wrongly..." her creative skills, but rather her ridiculous expectations of being able to make a living making Sonic comics. Her artwork is MUCH better then 99% of the fan-art out there, but it is still fan-art, and thus very unlikely to produce a means to provide for oneself.
Personally, I think fan-art is reserved for those with little creative ability, but plenty of time and desire.
Every time I see fan-art, no matter how good, I end up asking myself "Why don't they just come up with their own works/stories/plots that don't rely on the creativity of others?". The only reason I can come up with is they are incapable.
My own daughter, a graphic artist, does the same thing. She spends hundreds of hours creating fan-art that has no possible monetary value, then complains that she can't find a job in graphics.
Does that mean my daughter is not creative? To some extent, yes. But here is the difference. She CHOOSES not to be creative by not even trying to do something outside the franchises of others.
So, I guess the real question is whether or not people are doing it for "fun", or trying to make a living out of it.