"As a matter of fact, most people didn't even believe us."
This. The two historians I DID talk to about it refused to believe me even after I gave them the exact directions I gave in my post. One straight up called me a liar. Go figure.
I also told them about a cabin in the woods made entirely of huge slabs of Redwood bark, complete with a river rock altar and built into the entrance of a burned out, but still alive, Redwood tree. You can tell it is from the same era as the tunnels since the living Redwood tree that it is built against has grown around it. Didn't believe me.
I also told them about an underground, two-room apartment built into a hillside in the Santa Cruz mountains that appeared to be built in the exact same fashion as these tunnels (pick marks and swing patterns matched exactly), one that stood less then 200 yards from the Redwood Bark Cabin. Didn't believe me.
I suspect that the person that built the 2-room apartment not only worked on the tunnel system, but also worked on the two railroad tunnels(less then a mile away) that were built around the same time as the tunnels. All have the same pick marks in them. Since the apartment is between the railroad tunnels and the city of Santa Cruz, I believe one of the workers simply built himself a temporary home.
Sometimes people simply refuse to understand, or believe, what is obviously real and true (kind of like the moron in another thread I responded to), for whatever reasons.
I've long since learned there is no point in trying to convince them otherwise (although I sometimes forget...like the moron in another thread I responded to). At some point, you just give up.
It is almost that easy with Revo. Yeah, I'm a fanboi, can ya tell?
For freeware, it is probably my favorite app next to Process Explorer, although it doesn't run on Vista. Big deal, I'm a XP-SP2 kinda guy 'nyways.
(Process Explorer,v. 10.20, anything after that has the stink of MS on it. They bought out sysinternals shortly after v.10.20 came out and any OS after XP-service pack 2 automatically hunts down and copies over v.10.20 with the newest version. I plugged a thumbdrive with v. 10.20 on it into a XP-service pack 3 laptop and the fucking laptop over-wrote my copy of v.10.20. Fuck you, MS, I still got my Chinese down-loaded copy!)
My point is that it is different from how it is done on Windows and that the "feel" of this difference is what drives typical Windows users away from Linux, among other differences.
Fear of the unknown, maybe, or maybe something like putting on somebody else's underwear. It just don't feel right, so they don't do it.
Humans are creatures of habit, and Linux developers need to take that into account.
In hindsight, I do know that Revo has what is called "Hunter Mode". It is basically a sub-routine that runs in the background watching for things that INSTALL in the background, screams bloody murder when it sees it, and puts the install on hold until you respond. Supposed to help prevent toolbar shit and the like from installing.
At least that is how I think it works. I've never used it, personally.
Has ANYONE used the "Add/Remove" function in Windows to INSTALL something? I never thought of that. I certainly haven't, as pretty much everything installs itself or makes the appropriate installer app calls automatically.
Does it even WORK in that sense?
I just looked around Revo for an option to install something, and it ain't there. Why would it be?
I damn near fell through the floorboards of a 92' Ford Escort that a customer of mine brought in for an alignment back when I was a mechanic. The guy weighed well over 400lbs. He literally cracked the floorpan and it decided to give on my test drive. Driver seat punched right through to the asphalt, sparks ahoy.
The really funny part was he wanted me to make the damn thing drive straight. The entire suspension on the left side of the vehicle was TOAST. Thing was NEVER going straight again. At least the seat falling through the floorboards saved me the embarrassment of telling him his abused car was never going straight again because he was TOO FAT.
Why a 400lb man would buy a Ford Escort, I'll never know.
Give me a fucking robot that can carry all my shit and will follow me around? I can use it as a decoy, hide behind the fucker(and all it's armor), load my shot up buddy on it and even give it a pretty name, like Tinkerbell.
Battery goes dead, I just take the important stuff and we are back on the road.
And another thing...Is anyone else trying to imagine some grunt trying to SNEAK up on somebody in one of these suits?
What about magnetic fields created by all the electronics and motors? How long before somebody figures out that the magnetic fields are perfect for triggering landmines or targeting RPGs specifically designed for such a purpose?
Jeesus, give me a few more minutes and I'll probably come up with another few reasons why this is probably a very bad idea (unless, of course, you just got the DARPA research contract. It doesn't have to work in order to spend that research money).
I've posted a few times in this thread in an entirely joking manner, but something I couldn't quite put my finger on has been bothering me about this whole thing. It finally struck me.
I occasionally do a little demonstration to show how the body responds to certain stimuli. You can try it yourself. Stand in a doorway, place the outside of your wrists against the sides of the doorjamb (the door has to be open, idiot), and apply steady, yet heavy pressure outwards with both arms, as if you are trying to do a jumping-jack, but the doorjamb is preventing your arms from going all the way up. Push hard. Hold it, still applying outward pressure, for a count of 60 seconds, then step out of the doorway and just relax, with your arms hanging at your sides. Weird, huh?
Your arms will almost immediately begin raising back into the previous position, outwards, without any intentional effort, almost as if you are in a zero-G environment.
Astronauts experience the exact opposite of this. They do not require much effort to move around, so that when they are suddenly back on Earth, it is very difficult for them to move around. I am not talking about muscle atrophy. That takes much longer to happen. As the previous exercise demonstrates, it takes a mere 60 seconds to condition the body to changes in the environment, yet it takes just as long for it to re-adapt.
Now imagine a soldier in the field. Blastin' away, running hither and yon, jumpin' jack flash, for hours on end, his movements amplified by this crazy borg suit. Suddenly he takes a hit in the powerpack, or it just runs outta juice in the middle of a fire-fight. So what does he do? He takes the fucking thing off, otherwise he is a deadman (or simply laying there like one).
Here is the problem. He is so conditioned to the suit, now it is off, it takes a long time to readjust. He is STILL a sitting duck, blundering around like a 40oz drunk because his muscles/brain are still expecting the suit to be doing most of the work.
This is a bad scenario. He is the Terminator while the battery lasts, and Erkle-the-Wonder-Geek with no body armor when it goes dead.
I think I'd rather hump the 80lb pack around and be able to dump it (and float like a butterfly) when the shit really hit the fan.
Heck, as a bonus, I'm sure they can be programmed to walk the dead soldier inside it back to base. Well, until the enemy starts lobbing EMP Grenades...
Look, I'm not trying make you look like a fool or anything like that.
I just linked you documentation that proves this technology is in the realm of "already doin' it" (the link below, Honeywell's patent).
Touchscreen that has the ability to take fingerprints, microphone that is used to do voice-print capture, camera to do iris-print capture, but the only thing that I couldn't figure out was the speaker. It has since occurred to me that with existing technology, the speaker could be used to produce echo-locative, 3-dimensional mapping of the surrounding area, either in conjunction with the microphone, or by using the speaker membrane itself as the sensor. Using very high frequency sound, it would all but undetectable to the human ear (ever listen to bats flying around when they are hunting insects? You can just barely hear them, not at all if your inner is ear is old enough). With proper programming, it could even do so beyond the range and angle that the camera is limited to.
Now, why, you might ask, would anyone put all this technology in a fucking eBook? Neither you or I know how much this tech costs, so it might actually be a rather cheap way of replacing billions and billions of dollars of OTHER technologies that are designed to do the same thing.
There was just recently an article here on/. that discussed the complete, remote hacking of Skype, but you didn't mention that. You've focused on one single aspect of my original post, that by itself doesn't make sense. But when you put them altogether, along with the link to Honeywell's patent on most of this technology, don't you think it is POSSIBLE?
"A data collection system having a touch screen and sensors behind the touch screen for obtaining biometric data about the user. While the user is making entries on the touch screen, one or more fingerprints of the user may be taken."
"You have an awfully pessimistic world view if you equate the maximization of your own success with the downfall of all others."
Unfortunately, we as a society encourage this whole-heartedly. Competitive sports are a good example. You can't win unless somebody loses. Scholarships are another. Somebody goes to school, the others flip burgers.
Don't get me wrong, competition can be good, but the do-or-die shit plain sucks.
I teach my kids that failure is simply an opportunity to do better. Once they start seeing it that way, even success becomes the same thing in their eyes--an opportunity to do better.
"Apt-get and the open source infrastructure is a heck of an improvement over Microsoft's "Add or remove programs" feature, in my opinion, to say nothing of the dog. Just one example."
There are always alternatives, it's just that some don't "feel" like MS stuff enough, so they fall by the wayside. I think this is the biggest hurdle that Linux has to leap before it can gain any serious traction on MS. Until it "feels" more like Windows, etc. the vast majority of average users out there won't use it.
Case in point, your example.
I use a program called Revo Uninstaller instead of MS's "Add/Remove Application" software. It is far more useful, actually uninstalls things and is free. It runs an application's built in uninstaller, then goes back afterwards and searches for leftover registry entries and files. It then allows you to manually remove them.
It is so accurate and downright honest about it, I actually use it to test an application for "trustworthyness". I will install an app, then immediately uninstall it with Revo and take note of how much the applications uninstaller left behind. You'd be amazed at how much crap some apps leave behind, most intentionally. Adobe is the worst. I uninstalled one of their apps (reader, I think) and the entire program was still on my hard drive. The Adobe uninstaller straight up fucking lied to me.
It must work because attempting to uninstall Adobe Flash Player gives you a message that says Adobe refuses to uninstall while Revo is running. Essentially, they want to leave shit on your HD and they KNOW Revo will subvert this.
Sounds great, right? So why doesn't everyone use it?
Simple. It doesn't "feel" like the "Add/Remove" app that people are used to. It is hard to convince people that the application they are using doesn't do what they want it to once they have been using it long enough, even if you have the evidence right on the screen in front of them. Some sort of mental block, I suppose. I don't understand it, but I certainly recognize it when I see it.
Please try and READ the text. I'm sorry, but it doesn't include pictures.
This isn't World of Warcraft, dude, so don't pull this "Screenshot, or it didn't happen." shit.
And by the way, this patent was applied for by Honeywell, a legitimate company that is known for biometrics work. If they applied for a patent, it is more then likely because they want to make some money from it. It is pretty hard to make money from non-existent technology, unless, of course, you are Nathan Myhrvold.
Wait...How did you read the article without a subscription(I didn't need one)? Don't tell me you subscribed just to TRY and prove me wrong.
As far the technology discussed in the article, did it occur to you that the information about the screen itself, combined with the sensor tech would do exactly what I stated? A little imagination, please.
Ok, lets try again, same Google search keywords. (touchscreen fingerprint analysis)
The fucking patent work for you, dude?
As a matter of discussion, this patent fits my original post TO A TEE. Screen, camera and microphone, all combined to provide damn near perfect biometric acquisition.
I suppose you could say we did the same thing. A club, that is. We just didn't advertise it, primarily because we didn't want all the access routes we discovered bricked over.
To date, my favorite is the turn-of-the-century storm drain system carved out of the sandstone underneath Santa Cruz, CA. Some of them tunnels actually led into the basements of houses (I suspect they were once used in the 20's for rum-running), some right up against the floorboards of houses (once heard a conversation right through them), and some into long-forgotten rooms that still had old bottles and such in them. One of these rooms had a desk and chair in it, even though the tunnel was too small for the desk to fit through. Crazy. Must have been assembled in situ.
These tunnels were all hand-carved (the pick-marks still visible), and more then one led to a dead end--the tunnel was filled with beach sand, obviously meaning they led to the ocean, yet we never found an entrance/exit tunnel near the beach. We found 4 different entrances, yet not a single mention of these tunnels were to be found in any historical documents I researched, nor could I find a soul that knew about them besides us. As a matter of fact, most people didn't even believe us.
As evidence, I usually gave up the location of ONE of these tunnels (Under the small bridge just below Ocean View park, there is a pipe hanging from the bridge. Crawl out along it, over the river, and you will see the entrance on the far side of the pipe). It is a really short tunnel and just a very small taste of what is actually under Santa Cruz. The rest go with me to the grave as they are most definitely NOT safe.
A word of caution. NEVER enter tunnels like this during high-tide, before or during a rain storm or if you have any common-sense(we seriously lacked in this dept. back then). They are ALL UN-reinforced, sandstone is quite unstable and we discovered several cave-ins.
Entering ANY storm-drain system before,during or even long after rain is just plain suicidal. Don't fucking do it.
A touch screen (finger-print analysis) A camera (visual surveillance) A microphone (audio surveillance) Skype calls (call tapping) A speaker (subliminal suggestion?)
Does it come with a free copy of of George Orwell's "1984"? Oh, right...thats been yanked already.
But seriously, this combination of tech in a fucking BOOK reader? Call me Tinfoil Tom, but doesn't this make any of you just a wee bit nervous?
Credit Card numbers are useless to even the DHS, if they are acquired under false pretenses.
A long time ago I read a book called "Hacksaw", about a long-time felon that had, at that time, held the record for the most prison/custody escapes.
The first thing he did when he escaped was to head to the nearest cemetery. He then began looking for headstones that had a birth date near to that of his own (but NOT the exact same), AND had a death date less then a year more recent then the birth date on the stone. In short, he looked for the gravestones of children that died shortly after birth. He wrote these names down, then did a little library research to determine if the child had died in same locale (newspaper obituaries). If they did, he discarded the name and researched the next.
What he was trying to do was find a child that had died in area DIFFERENT then where it had been born. He had figured out that unless BOTH the birth certificate and death certificate were on file in the same recording office, he could then apply for a new birth certificate in that child's name with almost zero chance of the recording office realizing the name was that of a dead child. Since the child was dead, and at such a young age, the chances the child had been issued a SS# were next to nil.
At this point he could apply for a birth certificate in that child's name, a VALID SS#, and from that point he had a new identity that was not stolen. It was now HIS, and it worked like a charm every single time he used this method. I see no reason to think that he could not start creating a decent credit profile with a clean record.
I have no idea how this would work these days (he was doing it back in the 70's), what with all the new-fangled techy stuff, but it goes to show that where there is a will, there is a way.
...devoted to the development of trained Hawks/Owls to take out the competition.
"In another IT development, local businesses are suffering data transmission losses at an unprecedented rate. One local health official (who asked to remain unidentified) attributed the losses to an increase in Avian Influenza in the region..."
When I was a kid, living in San Jose, CA., a friend and I discovered a storm drain that dumped into one of the numerous creeks in the area. It was rather large, large enough for a 12 yr old to walk upright in. It also had no grating on it at all. You could quite simply walk right into it. Being the adventurous kids we were, we did so, only to find that it went so far that we had to go back home and get flashlights in order to go any further. After about 3 hours of wandering around, we found a ladder that led to a small platform (no grues) and a door. An unlocked door. It led to a service room in the Eastridge Shopping Mall, bypassing all security measures the mall had in place. We wandered the mall (it was late at night) for a short time until we realized that there was a patrolling security guard on the premises.
This was the start of a long and interesting hobby of exploring any dark, and supposedly off-limits, entrances to the underworld. (Feel free to twist that statement to whatever your sick mind wishes...)
I recently received an email from Comcast that states that they are changing their so-called "Privacy Policy" to include data gathering from all of their internet service customers.
The problem (besides the obvious)?
The "opt-out" option doesn't work.
A couple of the 3rd party partners flat out refuse to allow opting out, and the rest ALL require you to keep a "blank cookie" on your machine to opt-out. The problem is that the vast majority of sites you visit don't work unless you allow a new cookie (including slashdot, it appears).
Here da links..Yeah, you have to dig a little as the obfuscation is pretty heavy-handed.
"Comcast may work with Comcast affiliates and trusted partners to provide tailored content and advertising based on non-personally identifiable information, but you may choose to opt-out of tailored advertising as described more fully in the Privacy Policy and FAQs."
Comcast is NOT in the business of providing Internet service, they are in the business of piping advertising to target demographics as well as defining those demographics.
One of the scariest parts of this is that Yahoo is on the list, which means MICROSOFT is on the list...joy.
Slashdot Mirror
"As a matter of fact, most people didn't even believe us."
This. The two historians I DID talk to about it refused to believe me even after I gave them the exact directions I gave in my post. One straight up called me a liar. Go figure.
I also told them about a cabin in the woods made entirely of huge slabs of Redwood bark, complete with a river rock altar and built into the entrance of a burned out, but still alive, Redwood tree. You can tell it is from the same era as the tunnels since the living Redwood tree that it is built against has grown around it. Didn't believe me.
I also told them about an underground, two-room apartment built into a hillside in the Santa Cruz mountains that appeared to be built in the exact same fashion as these tunnels (pick marks and swing patterns matched exactly), one that stood less then 200 yards from the Redwood Bark Cabin.
Didn't believe me.
I suspect that the person that built the 2-room apartment not only worked on the tunnel system, but also worked on the two railroad tunnels(less then a mile away) that were built around the same time as the tunnels. All have the same pick marks in them. Since the apartment is between the railroad tunnels and the city of Santa Cruz, I believe one of the workers simply built himself a temporary home.
Sometimes people simply refuse to understand, or believe, what is obviously real and true (kind of like the moron in another thread I responded to), for whatever reasons.
I've long since learned there is no point in trying to convince them otherwise (although I sometimes forget...like the moron in another thread I responded to). At some point, you just give up.
How is it this is moron modded informative while I'm modded flamebait when he is quite WRONG?
The patent on the the technology: http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20080267456
Or did I get modded flamebait because somebody got their feelings hurt?
Stupid, useless mod system.
It is almost that easy with Revo. Yeah, I'm a fanboi, can ya tell?
For freeware, it is probably my favorite app next to Process Explorer, although it doesn't run on Vista. Big deal, I'm a XP-SP2 kinda guy 'nyways.
(Process Explorer,v. 10.20, anything after that has the stink of MS on it. They bought out sysinternals shortly after v.10.20 came out and any OS after XP-service pack 2 automatically hunts down and copies over v.10.20 with the newest version. I plugged a thumbdrive with v. 10.20 on it into a XP-service pack 3 laptop and the fucking laptop over-wrote my copy of v.10.20. Fuck you, MS, I still got my Chinese down-loaded copy!)
I understand how installing apps on Linux works.
My point is that it is different from how it is done on Windows and that the "feel" of this difference is what drives typical Windows users away from Linux, among other differences.
Fear of the unknown, maybe, or maybe something like putting on somebody else's underwear. It just don't feel right, so they don't do it.
Humans are creatures of habit, and Linux developers need to take that into account.
In hindsight, I do know that Revo has what is called "Hunter Mode". It is basically a sub-routine that runs in the background watching for things that INSTALL in the background, screams bloody murder when it sees it, and puts the install on hold until you respond. Supposed to help prevent toolbar shit and the like from installing.
At least that is how I think it works. I've never used it, personally.
You have a very good point.
Has ANYONE used the "Add/Remove" function in Windows to INSTALL something? I never thought of that. I certainly haven't, as pretty much everything installs itself or makes the appropriate installer app calls automatically.
Does it even WORK in that sense?
I just looked around Revo for an option to install something, and it ain't there. Why would it be?
Oh man, don't get me started.
I damn near fell through the floorboards of a 92' Ford Escort that a customer of mine brought in for an alignment back when I was a mechanic. The guy weighed well over 400lbs. He literally cracked the floorpan and it decided to give on my test drive. Driver seat punched right through to the asphalt, sparks ahoy.
The really funny part was he wanted me to make the damn thing drive straight. The entire suspension on the left side of the vehicle was TOAST. Thing was NEVER going straight again. At least the seat falling through the floorboards saved me the embarrassment of telling him his abused car was never going straight again because he was TOO FAT.
Why a 400lb man would buy a Ford Escort, I'll never know.
That might actually increase battery life too.
Better yet, how about this.
Give me a fucking robot that can carry all my shit and will follow me around? I can use it as a decoy, hide behind the fucker(and all it's armor), load my shot up buddy on it and even give it a pretty name, like Tinkerbell.
Battery goes dead, I just take the important stuff and we are back on the road.
And another thing...Is anyone else trying to imagine some grunt trying to SNEAK up on somebody in one of these suits?
What about magnetic fields created by all the electronics and motors? How long before somebody figures out that the magnetic fields are perfect for triggering landmines or targeting RPGs specifically designed for such a purpose?
Jeesus, give me a few more minutes and I'll probably come up with another few reasons why this is probably a very bad idea (unless, of course, you just got the DARPA research contract. It doesn't have to work in order to spend that research money).
I've posted a few times in this thread in an entirely joking manner, but something I couldn't quite put my finger on has been bothering me about this whole thing. It finally struck me.
I occasionally do a little demonstration to show how the body responds to certain stimuli. You can try it yourself. Stand in a doorway, place the outside of your wrists against the sides of the doorjamb (the door has to be open, idiot), and apply steady, yet heavy pressure outwards with both arms, as if you are trying to do a jumping-jack, but the doorjamb is preventing your arms from going all the way up. Push hard. Hold it, still applying outward pressure, for a count of 60 seconds, then step out of the doorway and just relax, with your arms hanging at your sides. Weird, huh?
Your arms will almost immediately begin raising back into the previous position, outwards, without any intentional effort, almost as if you are in a zero-G environment.
Astronauts experience the exact opposite of this. They do not require much effort to move around, so that when they are suddenly back on Earth, it is very difficult for them to move around. I am not talking about muscle atrophy. That takes much longer to happen. As the previous exercise demonstrates, it takes a mere 60 seconds to condition the body to changes in the environment, yet it takes just as long for it to re-adapt.
Now imagine a soldier in the field. Blastin' away, running hither and yon, jumpin' jack flash, for hours on end, his movements amplified by this crazy borg suit. Suddenly he takes a hit in the powerpack, or it just runs outta juice in the middle of a fire-fight. So what does he do? He takes the fucking thing off, otherwise he is a deadman (or simply laying there like one).
Here is the problem. He is so conditioned to the suit, now it is off, it takes a long time to readjust. He is STILL a sitting duck, blundering around like a 40oz drunk because his muscles/brain are still expecting the suit to be doing most of the work.
This is a bad scenario. He is the Terminator while the battery lasts, and Erkle-the-Wonder-Geek with no body armor when it goes dead.
I think I'd rather hump the 80lb pack around and be able to dump it (and float like a butterfly) when the shit really hit the fan.
Heck, as a bonus, I'm sure they can be programmed to walk the dead soldier inside it back to base. Well, until the enemy starts lobbing EMP Grenades...
You got a good point there, man.
What happens when one of the Special Ops boys falls out of the Zodiac?
"Hey Sarge, why does everyone in the platoon call Pvt.Sanders "Boat Anchor"?"
With the decrease in actual exercise performed while wearing one of these suits, soon everyone will be too fucking FAT to fit into them.
And another thing...
"Developing story! Epileptic in HAL suit has seizure on subway...18 reported dead. More at 11!"
Look, I'm not trying make you look like a fool or anything like that.
I just linked you documentation that proves this technology is in the realm of "already doin' it" (the link below, Honeywell's patent).
Touchscreen that has the ability to take fingerprints, microphone that is used to do voice-print capture, camera to do iris-print capture, but the only thing that I couldn't figure out was the speaker. It has since occurred to me that with existing technology, the speaker could be used to produce echo-locative, 3-dimensional mapping of the surrounding area, either in conjunction with the microphone, or by using the speaker membrane itself as the sensor. Using very high frequency sound, it would all but undetectable to the human ear (ever listen to bats flying around when they are hunting insects? You can just barely hear them, not at all if your inner is ear is old enough). With proper programming, it could even do so beyond the range and angle that the camera is limited to.
Now, why, you might ask, would anyone put all this technology in a fucking eBook? Neither you or I know how much this tech costs, so it might actually be a rather cheap way of replacing billions and billions of dollars of OTHER technologies that are designed to do the same thing.
There was just recently an article here on /. that discussed the complete, remote hacking of Skype, but you didn't mention that. You've focused on one single aspect of my original post, that by itself doesn't make sense. But when you put them altogether, along with the link to Honeywell's patent on most of this technology, don't you think it is POSSIBLE?
FIRST line in the abstract:
"A data collection system having a touch screen and sensors behind the touch screen for obtaining biometric data about the user. While the user is making entries on the touch screen, one or more fingerprints of the user may be taken."
You can go now.
"You have an awfully pessimistic world view if you equate the maximization of your own success with the downfall of all others."
Unfortunately, we as a society encourage this whole-heartedly. Competitive sports are a good example. You can't win unless somebody loses. Scholarships are another. Somebody goes to school, the others flip burgers.
Don't get me wrong, competition can be good, but the do-or-die shit plain sucks.
I teach my kids that failure is simply an opportunity to do better. Once they start seeing it that way, even success becomes the same thing in their eyes--an opportunity to do better.
"Apt-get and the open source infrastructure is a heck of an improvement over Microsoft's "Add or remove programs" feature, in my opinion, to say nothing of the dog. Just one example."
There are always alternatives, it's just that some don't "feel" like MS stuff enough, so they fall by the wayside. I think this is the biggest hurdle that Linux has to leap before it can gain any serious traction on MS. Until it "feels" more like Windows, etc. the vast majority of average users out there won't use it.
Case in point, your example.
I use a program called Revo Uninstaller instead of MS's "Add/Remove Application" software. It is far more useful, actually uninstalls things and is free. It runs an application's built in uninstaller, then goes back afterwards and searches for leftover registry entries and files. It then allows you to manually remove them.
It is so accurate and downright honest about it, I actually use it to test an application for "trustworthyness". I will install an app, then immediately uninstall it with Revo and take note of how much the applications uninstaller left behind. You'd be amazed at how much crap some apps leave behind, most intentionally. Adobe is the worst. I uninstalled one of their apps (reader, I think) and the entire program was still on my hard drive. The Adobe uninstaller straight up fucking lied to me.
It must work because attempting to uninstall Adobe Flash Player gives you a message that says Adobe refuses to uninstall while Revo is running. Essentially, they want to leave shit on your HD and they KNOW Revo will subvert this.
Sounds great, right? So why doesn't everyone use it?
Simple. It doesn't "feel" like the "Add/Remove" app that people are used to. It is hard to convince people that the application they are using doesn't do what they want it to once they have been using it long enough, even if you have the evidence right on the screen in front of them. Some sort of mental block, I suppose. I don't understand it, but I certainly recognize it when I see it.
Okay, I'll try again...
http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20080267456
Please try and READ the text. I'm sorry, but it doesn't include pictures.
This isn't World of Warcraft, dude, so don't pull this "Screenshot, or it didn't happen." shit.
And by the way, this patent was applied for by Honeywell, a legitimate company that is known for biometrics work. If they applied for a patent, it is more then likely because they want to make some money from it. It is pretty hard to make money from non-existent technology, unless, of course, you are Nathan Myhrvold.
Wait...How did you read the article without a subscription(I didn't need one)? Don't tell me you subscribed just to TRY and prove me wrong.
As far the technology discussed in the article, did it occur to you that the information about the screen itself, combined with the sensor tech would do exactly what I stated? A little imagination, please.
Ok, lets try again, same Google search keywords. (touchscreen fingerprint analysis)
The fucking patent work for you, dude?
As a matter of discussion, this patent fits my original post TO A TEE. Screen, camera and microphone, all combined to provide damn near perfect biometric acquisition.
http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20080267456
Sheesh.
I suppose you could say we did the same thing. A club, that is. We just didn't advertise it, primarily because we didn't want all the access routes we discovered bricked over.
To date, my favorite is the turn-of-the-century storm drain system carved out of the sandstone underneath Santa Cruz, CA. Some of them tunnels actually led into the basements of houses (I suspect they were once used in the 20's for rum-running), some right up against the floorboards of houses (once heard a conversation right through them), and some into long-forgotten rooms that still had old bottles and such in them. One of these rooms had a desk and chair in it, even though the tunnel was too small for the desk to fit through. Crazy. Must have been assembled in situ.
These tunnels were all hand-carved (the pick-marks still visible), and more then one led to a dead end--the tunnel was filled with beach sand, obviously meaning they led to the ocean, yet we never found an entrance/exit tunnel near the beach. We found 4 different entrances, yet not a single mention of these tunnels were to be found in any historical documents I researched, nor could I find a soul that knew about them besides us. As a matter of fact, most people didn't even believe us.
As evidence, I usually gave up the location of ONE of these tunnels (Under the small bridge just below Ocean View park, there is a pipe hanging from the bridge. Crawl out along it, over the river, and you will see the entrance on the far side of the pipe). It is a really short tunnel and just a very small taste of what is actually under Santa Cruz. The rest go with me to the grave as they are most definitely NOT safe.
A word of caution. NEVER enter tunnels like this during high-tide, before or during a rain storm or if you have any common-sense(we seriously lacked in this dept. back then). They are ALL UN-reinforced, sandstone is quite unstable and we discovered several cave-ins.
Entering ANY storm-drain system before,during or even long after rain is just plain suicidal. Don't fucking do it.
15 seconds and Google. You might want to try it some time.
http://www.eetasia.com/ART_8800424319_499495_NT_3378d9fd.HTM
A touch screen (finger-print analysis)
A camera (visual surveillance)
A microphone (audio surveillance)
Skype calls (call tapping)
A speaker (subliminal suggestion?)
Does it come with a free copy of of George Orwell's "1984"?
Oh, right...thats been yanked already.
But seriously, this combination of tech in a fucking BOOK reader? Call me Tinfoil Tom, but doesn't this make any of you just a wee bit nervous?
Credit Card numbers are useless to even the DHS, if they are acquired under false pretenses.
A long time ago I read a book called "Hacksaw", about a long-time felon that had, at that time, held the record for the most prison/custody escapes.
The first thing he did when he escaped was to head to the nearest cemetery. He then began looking for headstones that had a birth date near to that of his own (but NOT the exact same), AND had a death date less then a year more recent then the birth date on the stone. In short, he looked for the gravestones of children that died shortly after birth. He wrote these names down, then did a little library research to determine if the child had died in same locale (newspaper obituaries). If they did, he discarded the name and researched the next.
What he was trying to do was find a child that had died in area DIFFERENT then where it had been born. He had figured out that unless BOTH the birth certificate and death certificate were on file in the same recording office, he could then apply for a new birth certificate in that child's name with almost zero chance of the recording office realizing the name was that of a dead child. Since the child was dead, and at such a young age, the chances the child had been issued a SS# were next to nil.
At this point he could apply for a birth certificate in that child's name, a VALID SS#, and from that point he had a new identity that was not stolen. It was now HIS, and it worked like a charm every single time he used this method. I see no reason to think that he could not start creating a decent credit profile with a clean record.
I have no idea how this would work these days (he was doing it back in the 70's), what with all the new-fangled techy stuff, but it goes to show that where there is a will, there is a way.
Security Theatre, indeed.
...devoted to the development of trained Hawks/Owls to take out the competition.
"In another IT development, local businesses are suffering data transmission losses at an unprecedented rate. One local health official (who asked to remain unidentified) attributed the losses to an increase in Avian Influenza in the region..."
Boy, that brings back memories.
When I was a kid, living in San Jose, CA., a friend and I discovered a storm drain that dumped into one of the numerous creeks in the area. It was rather large, large enough for a 12 yr old to walk upright in. It also had no grating on it at all. You could quite simply walk right into it. Being the adventurous kids we were, we did so, only to find that it went so far that we had to go back home and get flashlights in order to go any further. After about 3 hours of wandering around, we found a ladder that led to a small platform (no grues) and a door. An unlocked door. It led to a service room in the Eastridge Shopping Mall, bypassing all security measures the mall had in place. We wandered the mall (it was late at night) for a short time until we realized that there was a patrolling security guard on the premises.
This was the start of a long and interesting hobby of exploring any dark, and supposedly off-limits, entrances to the underworld. (Feel free to twist that statement to whatever your sick mind wishes...)
I recently received an email from Comcast that states that they are changing their so-called "Privacy Policy" to include data gathering from all of their internet service customers.
The problem (besides the obvious)?
The "opt-out" option doesn't work.
A couple of the 3rd party partners flat out refuse to allow opting out, and the rest ALL require you to keep a "blank cookie" on your machine to opt-out. The problem is that the vast majority of sites you visit don't work unless you allow a new cookie (including slashdot, it appears).
Here da links..Yeah, you have to dig a little as the obfuscation is pretty heavy-handed.
"Comcast may work with Comcast affiliates and trusted partners to provide tailored content and advertising based on non-personally identifiable information, but you may choose to opt-out of tailored advertising as described more fully in the Privacy Policy and FAQs."
http://customer.comcast.com/Pages/FAQViewer.aspx?Guid=dfcbf43e-91b2-4444-a04d-8d7c68fcb356
The list:
http://www.comcast.net/privacy/2009-10/#partners
Comcast is NOT in the business of providing Internet service, they are in the business of piping advertising to target demographics as well as defining those demographics.
One of the scariest parts of this is that Yahoo is on the list, which means MICROSOFT is on the list...joy.