Maybe anyone will be able to truely turn off this device. OK. It's nice then.... But what if I go to my employee and at main gate, they REQUIRE me to have it turned on in order to enter the building? Simply think about it... No more ID tags... so it's tempting for my superiors to install this, no?
Then, I have the few other concerns. Since not everyone is tracked all the time (or else, I'd be REALLY mad), then it's a probability that someone could impersonate me. Now why someone would do that except for doing heavy criminal activities?
Also, I guess everyone will start to get the hype of that thing... so gov'ts will want to make this the official ID card (let's say 128 bytes inside the chip), medical insurance is very useful (32 bytes), driver license (32 bytes), employer infos (256 bytes let's be rude), a set of personal IDs (32 places * 32 bytes), and so on and so on and so on. My point being: What about upgrades when this thingie will be a "thing of the past"? I don't want any visible plug "à la" Dune after all... But I don't want to go for my annual upgrade either.
<SNIP>We gave up some of the blood and gore that you might have in Braveheart for the rating.</SNIP>
... Hmmm... It's a good thing they did. I knew so many good games that started with noble intentions only to finish in a hack&slash monster killing frenzy due to bad players or bad DMs.;-) /ME is looking back at his good ol' AD&D characters.
More seriously, I wonder how it will compare to the Anime Record of Lodoss War and to the Ring trilogy's first movie.
Hmmmm... Well as a french canadian myself, I do not find myself really intolerant towards foreigners. Even more so, I do not find the GREAT MAJORITY of people intolerant to foreigners.
If you go by the history of Quebec (and pure&simple observation), you'll find that we've always been a very multicultural province. Of course, other countries, other ways of living and by that, we've named (and been named) many races with pejorative names. By that, I submit american people often said that Canadians were fascists because of the many many gov't paid social securities & services. It's only an example to say that by calling other peoples names, it's not always something very serious and shouldn't be considered so.
Also, to continue by that argument (and moving toward real racism), I personally find that there are two kind of (what's the latest politically correct thing?) "dark skin-complexion people", the blacks (which are nice and I have many very good friends of) and niggers (which are the ones I would put to jail), same thing as there's white ppl and white trash, or [insert other examples here]. And it's not because I'm using the term "nigger" that I'm racist, it's only the pejorative term for that race, as defined by our current society and if someone does something really really bad to me, sorry to use a pejorative term for that particular person! I don't include anyone else than that guy/girl.
To apply this to the current site, the terms used by the guy who wrote the site are pejorative, but it's also a satyrical and parody site so what do you expect? It's not meant to be mean. Even more so when you know that the inspiration for a few of the thing in the site came from the movie Elvis Gratton, a very big satyrical french movie.
OK, I'm almost going off topic so let's go back. Multiculturalism. Hmmm.. Yeah, it's not a big secret that many US movies have scenes taken in Montreal or Quebec. It's natural since there are many places that look exactly like their [insert europe country here] counterpart, but closer to the States.
About asian people, many many are studying at McGill university in here, there's a good community for Chinese and Japanese people, I know of a few Korean people, and so on.
Now, the language question... Aaah... The good ol' language question. It's always the same thing! When I go to the US, I don't even think ever so slightly about talking french there. Would I go to Japan, I would try to learn at least the basic skills of Japanese. Why do people coming here think that EVERYONE speaks a perfect english? It's not true. Same thing apply if you go to any of the other Canada's provinces - try to speak french and they'll laugh you out.
Sometimes, people are only able to speak a little bit of english, ever so slightly.
Finally, the facism question. Yeah. I admit the french tendancy is to be much more to the left with social democratic tendancies. But what do you expect in a world that is going completely crazy with money and industries, crushing the poor ol' people. I still prefer that to having to pay to breathe (laugh, but if it continues to go more and more in the extreme, I do think it would eventually happen).
It seems you confuse facism and all it's extremist violence with a moderated sense of social equity and services. -- To prove it, just think of the French Resistance. Yep, in France, they may vote for a "facist" group, but it's not for extremism, it's for what they have to offer to the general population.
That question is really good and have been debated by many philosophers. (And will continue to be)
For me, as a computer programmer, I try to keep my software bug-free. It is impossible of course to have such a thing as a bug-free software with all the variables taken in account while writing a code.
What I think is up to a legitimate line, a legit software can contain "bugs" and users must accept it so. A company that won't write patches/upgrades or have too many bugs could eventually be attacked in law.
As for purely evil codes (destructive viruses), I think it's both the user and the writer who have the responsability in that case. I wrote many viruses, some pretty destructive. But I never made them leave a particular floppy. I made them basically to learn more about viruses. I take full responsiblity for them since I keep them hidden.
<<In one line, my answer would be: Depends on the intended usage of the software.>>
What I REALLY fear is people creating false usages to protect themselves from their share of responsabilities. More or less like the software patents we have these days.
In SW patents, people will use twisted ways to get their software patented. "A device which permits to (Insert patent here)".
If a virus writer would like to protect himself, he could always say he was doing that particular "piece of software" (and not virus) to help system administrators learn about the different connections between employees of a company and the outside world. Who shares codes, who knows who in competition.
In these cases, it would (again) be the big companies that would be allowed to do anything. The small fry wouldn't use 2000 lawyers to create false pretenses.
Many people seem to forget that DOS means Disk Operating System. It is a subset of Operating System, which is whatever is required to make the system work, software-wise.
For that, the MS-DOS is a great DOS example. It doesn't manage memory, it doesn't do caching, it doesn't manage software (only to the extent of one tool).
In Windows, I'd guess the DOS section would be only the VFAT.VXD (if I remember well...).
If you want to compare physical space a DOS take, compare MS-DOS 6's COMMAND.COM, IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS to the Windows VFAT.*, IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS. Forget the COMMAND.COM, it can be bypassed completely (although really not recommended).
If you want user interaction, please add EXPLORER.* to that list since with only the driver, you couldn't do a lot of things.
In these cases, you can say that the Windows DOS is not too fat.
Now let's go more in depth with OS comparaison. A Operating System contains all the tools required to make the hardware work for you. So the barest components of Windows with the drivers are what you could say is a OS. A fair comparaison would be the Mac OS or a UNIX brand (only the kernel and drivers).
Everything else is candy. Sometimes, necessary candies but it's candy nonetheless and if it rot your Hard Disk's free space, it's not their problem.
And think about it, it's not to the advantage of Micro$oft to remove all the candy coatings from Windows. If they didn't put WordPad, people would be less enclined to buy the full version "Word". If they didn't put Outlook Express, users wouldn't get the habit of using their E-Mail technologies and they wouldn't buy Outlook (full)... not mentionning that it's ripping the competition off Netscape. Putting DOS for legacy support rips the other OSes businesses (for example DR-DOS which was quite nice) and even if they don't require it's base anymore as they could use a Win-NT like loader, they still keep it and make it virtually impossible to remove.
Their defense is to say "users asked for it". Yeah, you'd ask a user and he'd say "put everything you can fit inside for the same prize please".
... then with that way of thinking, I wonder why they don't integrate Office directly inside Windows for the same price. Weird huh? [$$$] Are they refusing something a user ask them?
It is my book of reference... I must agree that it's the best. But there are other good reasons for you to choose this book. (I wouldn't write a useless nodding comment:P )
- It explains a lot of the maths required. However I'd still suggest you shell out your good ol' matrix & calculus books... You really _really_ need a good background in maths to be able to make proper use of crypto. - Great examples... I fell in love with Eva.;-) no seriously, a lot of the commonly used situations are explained with all their pitfalls. - Not only that, but there's SOURCE CODE! Yeah! So if you're simply a copycat, you can grab the code at the end of the book and have fun with it. - If you're a cypherphreak, you can always look at the massive bibliography at the end. So this book is a really good "starting point" book.
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe anyone will be able to truely turn off this device. OK. It's nice then.... But what if I go to my employee and at main gate, they REQUIRE me to have it turned on in order to enter the building? Simply think about it... No more ID tags... so it's tempting for my superiors to install this, no?
Then, I have the few other concerns. Since not everyone is tracked all the time (or else, I'd be REALLY mad), then it's a probability that someone could impersonate me. Now why someone would do that except for doing heavy criminal activities?
Also, I guess everyone will start to get the hype of that thing... so gov'ts will want to make this the official ID card (let's say 128 bytes inside the chip), medical insurance is very useful (32 bytes), driver license (32 bytes), employer infos (256 bytes let's be rude), a set of personal IDs (32 places * 32 bytes), and so on and so on and so on. My point being: What about upgrades when this thingie will be a "thing of the past"? I don't want any visible plug "à la" Dune after all... But I don't want to go for my annual upgrade either.
Blah!
<SNIP>We gave up some of the blood and gore that you might have in Braveheart for the rating.</SNIP>
... Hmmm ... It's a good thing they did. I knew so many good games that started with noble intentions only to finish in a hack&slash monster killing frenzy due to bad players or bad DMs. ;-)
/ME is looking back at his good ol' AD&D characters.
More seriously, I wonder how it will compare to the Anime Record of Lodoss War and to the Ring trilogy's first movie.
Mike
Hmmmm... Well as a french canadian myself, I do not find myself really intolerant towards foreigners. Even more so, I do not find the GREAT MAJORITY of people intolerant to foreigners.
If you go by the history of Quebec (and pure&simple observation), you'll find that we've always been a very multicultural province. Of course, other countries, other ways of living and by that, we've named (and been named) many races with pejorative names. By that, I submit american people often said that Canadians were fascists because of the many many gov't paid social securities & services. It's only an example to say that by calling other peoples names, it's not always something very serious and shouldn't be considered so.
Also, to continue by that argument (and moving toward real racism), I personally find that there are two kind of (what's the latest politically correct thing?) "dark skin-complexion people", the blacks (which are nice and I have many very good friends of) and niggers (which are the ones I would put to jail), same thing as there's white ppl and white trash, or [insert other examples here]. And it's not because I'm using the term "nigger" that I'm racist, it's only the pejorative term for that race, as defined by our current society and if someone does something really really bad to me, sorry to use a pejorative term for that particular person! I don't include anyone else than that guy/girl.
To apply this to the current site, the terms used by the guy who wrote the site are pejorative, but it's also a satyrical and parody site so what do you expect? It's not meant to be mean. Even more so when you know that the inspiration for a few of the thing in the site came from the movie Elvis Gratton, a very big satyrical french movie.
OK, I'm almost going off topic so let's go back. Multiculturalism. Hmmm.. Yeah, it's not a big secret that many US movies have scenes taken in Montreal or Quebec. It's natural since there are many places that look exactly like their [insert europe country here] counterpart, but closer to the States.
About asian people, many many are studying at McGill university in here, there's a good community for Chinese and Japanese people, I know of a few Korean people, and so on.
Now, the language question... Aaah... The good ol' language question. It's always the same thing! When I go to the US, I don't even think ever so slightly about talking french there. Would I go to Japan, I would try to learn at least the basic skills of Japanese. Why do people coming here think that EVERYONE speaks a perfect english? It's not true. Same thing apply if you go to any of the other Canada's provinces - try to speak french and they'll laugh you out.
Sometimes, people are only able to speak a little bit of english, ever so slightly.
Finally, the facism question. Yeah. I admit the french tendancy is to be much more to the left with social democratic tendancies. But what do you expect in a world that is going completely crazy with money and industries, crushing the poor ol' people. I still prefer that to having to pay to breathe (laugh, but if it continues to go more and more in the extreme, I do think it would eventually happen).
It seems you confuse facism and all it's extremist violence with a moderated sense of social equity and services. -- To prove it, just think of the French Resistance. Yep, in France, they may vote for a "facist" group, but it's not for extremism, it's for what they have to offer to the general population.
Have a nice day
Mike
That question is really good and have been debated by many philosophers. (And will continue to be)
For me, as a computer programmer, I try to keep my software bug-free. It is impossible of course to have such a thing as a bug-free software with all the variables taken in account while writing a code.
What I think is up to a legitimate line, a legit software can contain "bugs" and users must accept it so. A company that won't write patches/upgrades or have too many bugs could eventually be attacked in law.
As for purely evil codes (destructive viruses), I think it's both the user and the writer who have the responsability in that case. I wrote many viruses, some pretty destructive. But I never made them leave a particular floppy. I made them basically to learn more about viruses. I take full responsiblity for them since I keep them hidden.
<<In one line, my answer would be: Depends on the intended usage of the software.>>
What I REALLY fear is people creating false usages to protect themselves from their share of responsabilities. More or less like the software patents we have these days.
In SW patents, people will use twisted ways to get their software patented. "A device which permits to (Insert patent here)".
If a virus writer would like to protect himself, he could always say he was doing that particular "piece of software" (and not virus) to help system administrators learn about the different connections between employees of a company and the outside world. Who shares codes, who knows who in competition.
In these cases, it would (again) be the big companies that would be allowed to do anything. The small fry wouldn't use 2000 lawyers to create false pretenses.
Many people seem to forget that DOS means Disk Operating System. It is a subset of Operating System, which is whatever is required to make the system work, software-wise.
For that, the MS-DOS is a great DOS example. It doesn't manage memory, it doesn't do caching, it doesn't manage software (only to the extent of one tool).
In Windows, I'd guess the DOS section would be only the VFAT.VXD (if I remember well...).
If you want to compare physical space a DOS take, compare MS-DOS 6's COMMAND.COM, IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS to the Windows VFAT.*, IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS. Forget the COMMAND.COM, it can be bypassed completely (although really not recommended).
If you want user interaction, please add EXPLORER.* to that list since with only the driver, you couldn't do a lot of things.
In these cases, you can say that the Windows DOS is not too fat.
Now let's go more in depth with OS comparaison. A Operating System contains all the tools required to make the hardware work for you. So the barest components of Windows with the drivers are what you could say is a OS. A fair comparaison would be the Mac OS or a UNIX brand (only the kernel and drivers).
Everything else is candy. Sometimes, necessary candies but it's candy nonetheless and if it rot your Hard Disk's free space, it's not their problem.
And think about it, it's not to the advantage of Micro$oft to remove all the candy coatings from Windows. If they didn't put WordPad, people would be less enclined to buy the full version "Word". If they didn't put Outlook Express, users wouldn't get the habit of using their E-Mail technologies and they wouldn't buy Outlook (full)... not mentionning that it's ripping the competition off Netscape. Putting DOS for legacy support rips the other OSes businesses (for example DR-DOS which was quite nice) and even if they don't require it's base anymore as they could use a Win-NT like loader, they still keep it and make it virtually impossible to remove.
Their defense is to say "users asked for it". Yeah, you'd ask a user and he'd say "put everything you can fit inside for the same prize please".
... then with that way of thinking, I wonder why they don't integrate Office directly inside Windows for the same price. Weird huh? [$$$] Are they refusing something a user ask them?
Have a nice day
Mike
It is my book of reference... I must agree that it's the best. But there are other good reasons for you to choose this book. (I wouldn't write a useless nodding comment :P )
;-) no seriously, a lot of the commonly used situations are explained with all their pitfalls.
- It explains a lot of the maths required. However I'd still suggest you shell out your good ol' matrix & calculus books... You really _really_ need a good background in maths to be able to make proper use of crypto.
- Great examples... I fell in love with Eva.
- Not only that, but there's SOURCE CODE! Yeah! So if you're simply a copycat, you can grab the code at the end of the book and have fun with it.
- If you're a cypherphreak, you can always look at the massive bibliography at the end. So this book is a really good "starting point" book.
Have fun!
Mike