What is it with governments and hubris? If they had just shipped all these laptops without any mention of "unhackableness", you know what would have happened?
1: 240,000 kids would have gotten reasonably secure systems with useful software on them
2: People would have noticed how secure and safe the systems were, and appreciated the low rate of problems they experienced
3: Eventually, some smart students would have figured out how to bypass all the security so they can play world of warcraft or something, but nobody would have cared and it wouldn't have gotten any press
Instead, some asshat announces to the world "Bow to our unhackable laptops! We are awesome! HAHAHA!", and now thousands of hackers and security researchers out there have made it their personal crusade to find a way to totally decimate all the security on the box. You're right... It's gonna take about 1 month for an exploit for these things to make it to the front page on slashdot. Fucking idiots.
Footnote:
Yes, I'm aware that security through obscurity is no security at all, but that's not the issue here. The issue is that instead of nobody caring or trying to break the reasonable security they've implemented, now they've got thousands of people working on it. THAT does matter.
Well yeah, sure, WE know that, but this reviewer is actually a time traveller from the past! A friend gave him Braid, he "couldn't wrap his head around it", and accidentally transported himself several months into the future. This is all new to him.
We don't know about you, but if someone else could read our email for three days, we wouldn't exactly call that 'prompt.'
Look, I think we can all agree that if there were some major security breach like this for which we were responsible and we sat around for 3 days before doing anything, then unilaterally suspended a bunch of accounts before finally fixing the problem, we'd be fired.
On the other hand, if I were the head of IT at some place and we've decided to migrate everything to some giant, well-liked third party with a reputation for excellence, it'd be really easy to say, "That's just how tech is, it's hard to do right even for Google, get used to it. Oh, and while you're looking for ways to prevent such a 'catastrophe' from ever happening again, consider boosting the IT budget, will ya?"
I'll bet that IT manager is pretty happy right now, student complaints aside.
Huh? I certainly hope they tested this on lawyers before they subject some poor virus to a potentially dangerous experiment. Is the ethics committee asleep at the wheel or something?
Not a case of fat fingers, a case of multitaskitis. You've never typed something too quickly and realized you didn't type what you thought you were typing? Don't remember what might have derailed my brain, but I definitely thought I typed 24% - didn't see it until it was posted. Preview is an inconvenience; I rarely need it, so I don't use it... in other words, it's my own dumb-ass fault. Still, it seems like it should be possible to edit or delete your own post for like 30 seconds after it's posted. Nothing worse than realizing an obvious typo or other brain-fart (hilariously and embarrassingly ironic in some cases) immediately after hitting submit.
I too have been in a situation similar to yours. I also didn't have an epiphany that saved me, but I can't claim to have been saved by random luck... for me, it was cowardice. I was ready, everything was all set, and I stood there for hours trying to shame myself into doing it, but I couldn't. Eventually, my dad called me out of the blue, and that was the end of that. I fell deeper into depression, realizing that I hated my life, but was unable to do anything about it. That lasted quite a long time. Eventually, I did have a bit of an epiphany of sorts, but it was actually the culmination of months (actually, a couple years) of soul-searching and deep, painful analysis of my own psyche... my life, my motivations, my values... the kinds of things I hope most people don't have to seriously consider.
From first-hand experience, I can attest to your statement that something like that completely alters one's outlook on life. When I was satisfied that I had exhausted my search for personal truth (to the extent that is possible at any given time), I too felt complete freedom, wanting nothing, unmoved by the trivialities of life, completely satisfied with whatever I had, and able to live comfortably with myself. Much of that remains. However, in the years since, I've also developed a renewed love of life and the people who have made it so special for me, and though I'm still free of many of my own demons and lusts, I've discovered a powerful devotion and sense of obligation to those who've given me so much.
Looking back on it, the actual event that tipped the scale and brought me close to the brink was pathetically trivial, and I'm rather embarrassed about the ridiculous words and actions I made in response to it, and the people I hurt in so doing. Still, I have a much better understanding of myself now, and that has helped me to make better decisions and work to be a better person. I am so happy that you were saved (not your life, your spirit) and can now experience life the way it was intended... you've been given a new life, where you can grow into the person you want to be, free from the burdens of your past. I wish you happiness and success in your new journey.
Your mother is truly a hero, as are the ones who love her and had to experience that nightmare together. I don't know anything about her specific situation, but I do know this: even when caught early and given a good prognosis, being diagnosed with cancer is probably the single scariest thing I can imagine happening to a person. Death is slow and painful, and its victims often feel humiliated and degraded by their own helplessness and the crippling effects it has on their bodies. Medical technology and new insights into palliative care and quality-of-life improvements are leading to more successful outcomes and happier, longer lives, but it's never a certainty, and the fear alone is one I'd never wish on my worst enemy, regardless of prognosis.
From what I've seen, going through that ordeal, regardless of some notion of "relative severity", universally brings out the best, most heroic aspects of any person. I'm so happy for you and your mother, and as traumatic as it must have been at the time, I think you are probably enjoying a love and togetherness with her that you might otherwise not have had. It's your story I find inspirational, and I can only hope that successes like this will become more frequent with better technologies and methods so more families will be able to enjoy and love each other the way you are able to now.
Rather than face the pain he knows, clinging to another few years, days, hours with loved ones, he instead walked headfirst into what could very well be worse pain and debilitation (think any religion's hell), yet clearly in a desire to avoid the pain and debilitation that he knew.
That's clear to you? I'm amazed at your total knowledge of the subject. Let me add a few additional considerations (of which you are obviously aware) for the rest of the readers without your gift.
My aunt died of breast cancer about ten years ago - I was in middle school at the time, and understandably ignorant of most aspects of the real world. She had been diagnosed maybe 7 or 8 years before that. The woman was incredible - driven, successful, brilliant, beautiful, and one of the most caring and compassionate people I've ever known.
Her family was wealthy, and with her own success and that of my uncle (got out of a high level position in AT&T at exactly the right time), she had the means to fight the disease better than most... and fight she did. She consulted with doctors all over the world, tried the most advanced treatments available, stuck strictly to regimens that many people give up on because of the pain, and never complained, cried, or once gave us reason to pity her beyond our knowledge of her disease (at least, not that I, my parents, or my grandparents ever witnessed... my uncle no doubt has a much different perspective on this).
She was incredibly strong - until the bitter end, she struggled to hide the horrors of the disease from everyone. Until the very end of her struggle, I was mostly unaware of any ill effects - she wore stylish hats to hide her hair loss, covered her pale complexion with make up, wore heavier clothes add bulk to her wasting body... everything possible just to make us happy and comfortable around her, despite the dizziness, nausea, pain, fear, despair, and everything else she was hiding behind her smile. She had a young daughter that she didn't want to traumatize, and friends and family who loved her dearly. She felt she had to present an optimistic, healthy, happy appearance to us so we wouldn't mourn her while she still fought her battle.
Why did she fight? I have no idea. Maybe she was afraid of death (somehow I doubt this was high on my aunt's list of priorities). Maybe she genuinely thought she might live to help raise her daughter (she was about 13 when she died - my aunt succeeded in seeing her grow to be a smart, beautiful young woman). Maybe there were financial (i.e. insurance, inheritance, whatever) reasons. Maybe she felt suicide would be too traumatic for us to deal with. Maybe she was afraid of whatever afterlife may await those who commit suicide (she was a good Catholic). Maybe she didn't want to let random luck and an evil disease decide her fate for her without at least fighting with all she had. Maybe it was all of these, or something else, or nothing at all. The point is, she chose to fight, and we supported her in that decision... to the degree she allowed anyone to support her, of course.
I still look up to her to this day... her dignity and strength in dealing with the disease, and the beauty of the life she led. I think she made her decision mostly out of love for her family, and I will never criticize her decision to cling to life, not just because I don't know all the factors that went into the decision process, but because I'm not qualified to judge those factors or the weights she assigned to them. I will add a few observations, however.
Having seen her deterioration in the last year of her life, and the impact it had on my family, I can say that her slow, agonizing death certainly WAS a traumatic experience for us, despite her heroic efforts to hide it. My uncle was a broken man (he's not nearly so strong as my aunt was) for the last few years, and the pain has never subsided (though he's gotten better at hiding it). The effect on the family might have been different had she chosen a different path, but
Don't know any details beyond what's presented in a few news articles and wikipedia, but he strikes me as a hardass Irish ex-Marine who didn't like to tiptoe around an issue. Not quite the "down a bottle of sleeping pills and a pint of alcohol then die in his sleep" type of guy.
When he decided it was time to take care of business, he sure as hell didn't want to die like a pussy. Which is more dignified to you? Does it matter? Go ahead and kill yourself however you want.
I know this thread is dead, but I'd like you to consider one more plank not mentioned by others:
-Interstate commerce shall be defined strictly as the actual sale and transport of goods, or the sale and performance of services, between two or more commercial actors in two or more different states.
Certainly there would need to be some amount of clarification and so forth, but the spirit must be upheld. It's deeply saddening that a case as ridiculous as this is considered a "monumental victory" for limiting the federal government's abuse of the commerce clause... and that it was the first such victory since the Great Depression.
All of the issues you raise are totally valid - when the person is a scientist. Scientific literacy does not require the use of the scientific method. It's good for the average person to be both skeptical and open minded, but I'd be happy if all the idiots out there who believe in homeopathy and magical $10k audio speaker wires would just learn some of the basics of the current state of human knowledge. Leave evaluating radical new theories to the scientists, give the average Joe an "A+" for just dismissing it out of hand until a consensus of scientists have deemed it to be the new law of the land.
Step 1: Create single-player video game where your goal is to construct a formal proof of whether P == NP
Step 2: Play game and activate "universal cheat" mechanism
Step 3: ?
Step 4: Profit
Does that count as cheating?
I like how everything can be specified programatically without any real-world considerations; I'd love to buy a table, program the maximum speed of my robots to be c + 1, and be the first human to break light speed! I wonder how they accomplished this amazing flexibility.
That brings up an interesting possibility; ignoring the obvious correlation != causation issue here, consider this possible reason why surfing the web at work might make people slightly more productive overall: whether you work for 40 of your 40 hours or 32 of your 40 hours, you'll only do enough to not get fired. Perhaps people who browse the web 20% of the time have more cause for concern about their productivity not being "just enough", so they overcompensate and actually work harder?
Also, time is a cube, so there are actually four simultaneous days which our Earth passes through as it rotates through a single 24 hour period.
Sorry, it's an interesting point you make but it just felt like the right thing to say.
Adam Riess of Johns Hopkins and the Space Telescope Science Institute, said: 'If this was a fox hunt and dark energy was the fox, I think they have closed off another escape route. But there is still a lot of terrain left for the fox, and we've seen little more than a glimmer of fur.'
Hmmm, not sure if I follow, someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like what he's saying is that if this were a highway chase and dark energy were a criminal's car, then they have placed a police car as a barracade in the way... but there's still a lot of exits around, and we've only seen a glimmer of chrome?
So even though this makes it clear that we do not even understand the fundamentals of the magnetosphere, we should stop wasting time trying to understand it and just focus all our energy on trying to change it...
Possible punch-lines:
Al Gore, is that you?
Let me go out on a limb here and say you drive a hybrid and think people who don't are "ignorant"...
Quick, everyone turn on all your electrical devices to help reinforce Earth's magnetic field!
Slashdot Mirror
What is it with governments and hubris? If they had just shipped all these laptops without any mention of "unhackableness", you know what would have happened?
1: 240,000 kids would have gotten reasonably secure systems with useful software on them
2: People would have noticed how secure and safe the systems were, and appreciated the low rate of problems they experienced
3: Eventually, some smart students would have figured out how to bypass all the security so they can play world of warcraft or something, but nobody would have cared and it wouldn't have gotten any press
Instead, some asshat announces to the world "Bow to our unhackable laptops! We are awesome! HAHAHA!", and now thousands of hackers and security researchers out there have made it their personal crusade to find a way to totally decimate all the security on the box. You're right... It's gonna take about 1 month for an exploit for these things to make it to the front page on slashdot. Fucking idiots.
Footnote:
Yes, I'm aware that security through obscurity is no security at all, but that's not the issue here. The issue is that instead of nobody caring or trying to break the reasonable security they've implemented, now they've got thousands of people working on it. THAT does matter.
Well yeah, sure, WE know that, but this reviewer is actually a time traveller from the past! A friend gave him Braid, he "couldn't wrap his head around it", and accidentally transported himself several months into the future. This is all new to him.
We don't know about you, but if someone else could read our email for three days, we wouldn't exactly call that 'prompt.'
Look, I think we can all agree that if there were some major security breach like this for which we were responsible and we sat around for 3 days before doing anything, then unilaterally suspended a bunch of accounts before finally fixing the problem, we'd be fired.
On the other hand, if I were the head of IT at some place and we've decided to migrate everything to some giant, well-liked third party with a reputation for excellence, it'd be really easy to say, "That's just how tech is, it's hard to do right even for Google, get used to it. Oh, and while you're looking for ways to prevent such a 'catastrophe' from ever happening again, consider boosting the IT budget, will ya?"
I'll bet that IT manager is pretty happy right now, student complaints aside.
the next step up from viruses are lawyers
Huh? I certainly hope they tested this on lawyers before they subject some poor virus to a potentially dangerous experiment. Is the ethics committee asleep at the wheel or something?
Not a case of fat fingers, a case of multitaskitis. You've never typed something too quickly and realized you didn't type what you thought you were typing? Don't remember what might have derailed my brain, but I definitely thought I typed 24% - didn't see it until it was posted. Preview is an inconvenience; I rarely need it, so I don't use it... in other words, it's my own dumb-ass fault. Still, it seems like it should be possible to edit or delete your own post for like 30 seconds after it's posted. Nothing worse than realizing an obvious typo or other brain-fart (hilariously and embarrassingly ironic in some cases) immediately after hitting submit.
If you were other nations, wouldn't you be begging Google to set up shop inside you? Sounds... inappropriate.
Lol, self-pwned - meant to type "exactly 24%". Nit-picking claims another victim.
~25%... or exactly 20%.
6 of one, ~3/5 dozen of another, I guess.
I too have been in a situation similar to yours. I also didn't have an epiphany that saved me, but I can't claim to have been saved by random luck... for me, it was cowardice. I was ready, everything was all set, and I stood there for hours trying to shame myself into doing it, but I couldn't. Eventually, my dad called me out of the blue, and that was the end of that. I fell deeper into depression, realizing that I hated my life, but was unable to do anything about it. That lasted quite a long time. Eventually, I did have a bit of an epiphany of sorts, but it was actually the culmination of months (actually, a couple years) of soul-searching and deep, painful analysis of my own psyche... my life, my motivations, my values... the kinds of things I hope most people don't have to seriously consider.
From first-hand experience, I can attest to your statement that something like that completely alters one's outlook on life. When I was satisfied that I had exhausted my search for personal truth (to the extent that is possible at any given time), I too felt complete freedom, wanting nothing, unmoved by the trivialities of life, completely satisfied with whatever I had, and able to live comfortably with myself. Much of that remains. However, in the years since, I've also developed a renewed love of life and the people who have made it so special for me, and though I'm still free of many of my own demons and lusts, I've discovered a powerful devotion and sense of obligation to those who've given me so much.
Looking back on it, the actual event that tipped the scale and brought me close to the brink was pathetically trivial, and I'm rather embarrassed about the ridiculous words and actions I made in response to it, and the people I hurt in so doing. Still, I have a much better understanding of myself now, and that has helped me to make better decisions and work to be a better person. I am so happy that you were saved (not your life, your spirit) and can now experience life the way it was intended... you've been given a new life, where you can grow into the person you want to be, free from the burdens of your past. I wish you happiness and success in your new journey.
Your mother is truly a hero, as are the ones who love her and had to experience that nightmare together. I don't know anything about her specific situation, but I do know this: even when caught early and given a good prognosis, being diagnosed with cancer is probably the single scariest thing I can imagine happening to a person. Death is slow and painful, and its victims often feel humiliated and degraded by their own helplessness and the crippling effects it has on their bodies. Medical technology and new insights into palliative care and quality-of-life improvements are leading to more successful outcomes and happier, longer lives, but it's never a certainty, and the fear alone is one I'd never wish on my worst enemy, regardless of prognosis.
From what I've seen, going through that ordeal, regardless of some notion of "relative severity", universally brings out the best, most heroic aspects of any person. I'm so happy for you and your mother, and as traumatic as it must have been at the time, I think you are probably enjoying a love and togetherness with her that you might otherwise not have had. It's your story I find inspirational, and I can only hope that successes like this will become more frequent with better technologies and methods so more families will be able to enjoy and love each other the way you are able to now.
Rather than face the pain he knows, clinging to another few years, days, hours with loved ones, he instead walked headfirst into what could very well be worse pain and debilitation (think any religion's hell), yet clearly in a desire to avoid the pain and debilitation that he knew.
That's clear to you? I'm amazed at your total knowledge of the subject. Let me add a few additional considerations (of which you are obviously aware) for the rest of the readers without your gift.
My aunt died of breast cancer about ten years ago - I was in middle school at the time, and understandably ignorant of most aspects of the real world. She had been diagnosed maybe 7 or 8 years before that. The woman was incredible - driven, successful, brilliant, beautiful, and one of the most caring and compassionate people I've ever known.
Her family was wealthy, and with her own success and that of my uncle (got out of a high level position in AT&T at exactly the right time), she had the means to fight the disease better than most... and fight she did. She consulted with doctors all over the world, tried the most advanced treatments available, stuck strictly to regimens that many people give up on because of the pain, and never complained, cried, or once gave us reason to pity her beyond our knowledge of her disease (at least, not that I, my parents, or my grandparents ever witnessed... my uncle no doubt has a much different perspective on this).
She was incredibly strong - until the bitter end, she struggled to hide the horrors of the disease from everyone. Until the very end of her struggle, I was mostly unaware of any ill effects - she wore stylish hats to hide her hair loss, covered her pale complexion with make up, wore heavier clothes add bulk to her wasting body... everything possible just to make us happy and comfortable around her, despite the dizziness, nausea, pain, fear, despair, and everything else she was hiding behind her smile. She had a young daughter that she didn't want to traumatize, and friends and family who loved her dearly. She felt she had to present an optimistic, healthy, happy appearance to us so we wouldn't mourn her while she still fought her battle.
Why did she fight? I have no idea. Maybe she was afraid of death (somehow I doubt this was high on my aunt's list of priorities). Maybe she genuinely thought she might live to help raise her daughter (she was about 13 when she died - my aunt succeeded in seeing her grow to be a smart, beautiful young woman). Maybe there were financial (i.e. insurance, inheritance, whatever) reasons. Maybe she felt suicide would be too traumatic for us to deal with. Maybe she was afraid of whatever afterlife may await those who commit suicide (she was a good Catholic). Maybe she didn't want to let random luck and an evil disease decide her fate for her without at least fighting with all she had. Maybe it was all of these, or something else, or nothing at all. The point is, she chose to fight, and we supported her in that decision... to the degree she allowed anyone to support her, of course.
I still look up to her to this day... her dignity and strength in dealing with the disease, and the beauty of the life she led. I think she made her decision mostly out of love for her family, and I will never criticize her decision to cling to life, not just because I don't know all the factors that went into the decision process, but because I'm not qualified to judge those factors or the weights she assigned to them. I will add a few observations, however.
Having seen her deterioration in the last year of her life, and the impact it had on my family, I can say that her slow, agonizing death certainly WAS a traumatic experience for us, despite her heroic efforts to hide it. My uncle was a broken man (he's not nearly so strong as my aunt was) for the last few years, and the pain has never subsided (though he's gotten better at hiding it). The effect on the family might have been different had she chosen a different path, but
Don't know any details beyond what's presented in a few news articles and wikipedia, but he strikes me as a hardass Irish ex-Marine who didn't like to tiptoe around an issue. Not quite the "down a bottle of sleeping pills and a pint of alcohol then die in his sleep" type of guy. When he decided it was time to take care of business, he sure as hell didn't want to die like a pussy. Which is more dignified to you? Does it matter? Go ahead and kill yourself however you want.
I know this thread is dead, but I'd like you to consider one more plank not mentioned by others:
-Interstate commerce shall be defined strictly as the actual sale and transport of goods, or the sale and performance of services, between two or more commercial actors in two or more different states.
Certainly there would need to be some amount of clarification and so forth, but the spirit must be upheld. It's deeply saddening that a case as ridiculous as this is considered a "monumental victory" for limiting the federal government's abuse of the commerce clause... and that it was the first such victory since the Great Depression.
Anyone giving you BS for "exposing" your kids to mainstream media like quake or doom needs to get their head screwed on straight.
I seem to remember Duke Nukem 3D having a workable solution to this problem...
All of the issues you raise are totally valid - when the person is a scientist. Scientific literacy does not require the use of the scientific method. It's good for the average person to be both skeptical and open minded, but I'd be happy if all the idiots out there who believe in homeopathy and magical $10k audio speaker wires would just learn some of the basics of the current state of human knowledge. Leave evaluating radical new theories to the scientists, give the average Joe an "A+" for just dismissing it out of hand until a consensus of scientists have deemed it to be the new law of the land.
Step 1: Create single-player video game where your goal is to construct a formal proof of whether P == NP Step 2: Play game and activate "universal cheat" mechanism Step 3: ? Step 4: Profit Does that count as cheating?
I like how everything can be specified programatically without any real-world considerations; I'd love to buy a table, program the maximum speed of my robots to be c + 1, and be the first human to break light speed! I wonder how they accomplished this amazing flexibility.
That brings up an interesting possibility; ignoring the obvious correlation != causation issue here, consider this possible reason why surfing the web at work might make people slightly more productive overall: whether you work for 40 of your 40 hours or 32 of your 40 hours, you'll only do enough to not get fired. Perhaps people who browse the web 20% of the time have more cause for concern about their productivity not being "just enough", so they overcompensate and actually work harder?
Just mention "spam" and no jury would convict you. May not be entirely accurate, but how many average jurists would know?
it is far from the worst diagnosis you can get
Well of course... I would assume the worst diagnosis you could get would be somewhere along the lines of "He's dead, Jim".
Sorry, didn't see you already caught this. Where's that delete comment button...
Uninhabitable. See also inflammable.
Also, time is a cube, so there are actually four simultaneous days which our Earth passes through as it rotates through a single 24 hour period.
Sorry, it's an interesting point you make but it just felt like the right thing to say.
Hmmm, not sure if I follow, someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like what he's saying is that if this were a highway chase and dark energy were a criminal's car, then they have placed a police car as a barracade in the way... but there's still a lot of exits around, and we've only seen a glimmer of chrome?
So even though this makes it clear that we do not even understand the fundamentals of the magnetosphere, we should stop wasting time trying to understand it and just focus all our energy on trying to change it...
Possible punch-lines:
Al Gore, is that you?
Let me go out on a limb here and say you drive a hybrid and think people who don't are "ignorant"...
Quick, everyone turn on all your electrical devices to help reinforce Earth's magnetic field!