yeah, your predictions are must more likely to be true.
"In fact, I suspect truly advanced entities do not operate in "societies" at all, but are more like the fictional representation of "dragons" in fantasy literature - more or less independent entities who only interact with others of their kind for specific reasons." just because you want to be a dragon that doesn't have to talk to anyone, except to get groceries doesn't mean everyone does...
The history of the universe in relation to the history of life on earth is practically infinite. If there is a relatively infinite number of places life can exist (planets water, the right heat, etc) then it stands to reason there should be an infinite number of civilizations out there, infinite older infinite younger. Infinite more advanced, infinite slobbering apes.
So, why hasn't one of these infinite more advanced societies sent some evidence our way?
1) They are sneaky (yeah, right) 2) It's impossible to inhabit other planets successfully (if there was one chance in one million, and infinite number of civilizations, then an infinite number of civilizations would have colonized the universe, or at least one) 3) They are still on their home planet, and they will never leave, but still exist. 4) They are extinct, and there is no possibility of any civilization surviving.
Basically, from the probability, the earth will follow either three or four. Tough luck folks, we're all gonna die. If there was a chance of us colonizing the universe, then someone else would have already done it.
That whole argument decays when you consider the universe is finite, and the big bang wasn't all that long ago. Replace all the "infinite's" with "finite" and you have a more accurate calculation, but you're probably going to get close to the same conclusion. We are all gonna die.
1) it's not a hard drive, it's flash. just hard enough to deter you if you are trying to steal a $100 OLPC, but maybe not hard enough if you are writing an underground rebel newspaper. 2) what happens if you put a password in your BIOS, and you can't flash the BIOS? it becomes a brick. I purchased a used laptop (sony) with a BIOS password, and there was no reasonable way to flash the BIOS, so I called them, they made me wait a while, send in a receipt, and then they sent me a huge code to type in the password area that was based on my serial number. Seems like this is going to be a similar thing.
I don't pretend to know how they are doing this, but I bet there is some rudimentary hardware that controls whether or not the computer boots. I'd also guess the flag gets set somewhere in this hardware get set higher up, which might be a security loophole. Anyway, this doesn't appear to be any sort of tracking measure. Just a one way (mothership to baby ship) communication that it will only send if it's on the OK list. There could be a possibility of tracking if the gov't said "install this tracker, or we'll shut you down" but even that seems far fetched. Who's running the servers? OLPC? then I don't see any reason to jump to conclusions. I wish my patop had a free kill switch in it, and a big freakin' sticker on it that let everyone know...
I really like the idea of the patent holder actually needing to do something with the patent. That seems obvious and incredibly useful.
I'd also like to add that I personally think the patent should be void if enough people are using it. Something that will basically say, if %10 of Americans already own this, then it's public domain. That might be a little too bias towards the little guy, but it seems like it would fix things like the Blackboard stuff.
When you move everyone's schedule ahead an hour, you are helping people make the decision to go to bed earlier, and burn less electricity lighting their houses at night. Like it or not, we are not a 24 hour society, except for maybe ten percent, and that's a stretch. This saves a ton of energy, and it really isn't that much of a nuisance.
I saw an article (I can't remember where, sorry for the hearsay) about someone modding their keyboard with an RFID reader, and he programmed it to the codes of the RFID he already had injected under his skin. This must be something different though, because he had two different types and they were both relatively inexpensive, nothing over $100.
I really don't see a problem with this so long as it's provided without persuasion. I don't want to have to get one with my costco membership or anything like that, and I don't want the gov't putting it in, but if it's just an easy injection (no surgery) and it would make my life easier (I wouldn't ever need my wallet) then I'd be all for it. It would be nice to be able to deactivate it, but that would sort of ruin it wouldn't it? I could probably ruin it by swinging my arm over the counter at Circuit city anyway.
I would like to point out what I would consider a flaw with your reasoning.
I don't think it's your right to advertise to me. It may be gmail's right to advertise to me, I'm getting a free service from them. It may be NBC's right to advertise to me, I watch the shows they pay for. But people advertising to my inbox, YOU have given me nothing! Why do you think you deserve any of my attention? I don't care if you're best buy, a nigerian prince, or a new startup company. If you want to advertise to me, give me something in return, not a coupon, or a deal, but something I ask for. Slashdot gives me a place to vent, for example. Slashdot, you're OK.
That's the same force, a lot more energy. Why isn't it destroying the projectiles?
Because this force is used differently. Specifically, it's being used to send the projectile out of the gun, instead on in on itself. So it doesn't shrink, it shoots.
but imagine being able to use voice or video chat (think iChat) while driving down the freeway
That would be AWESOME. I would love to tell someone what an idiot they were for cutting me off. Of course you'd have to worry about their gun.
Or what about chatting with that cute girl in the next car? Wouldn't that be nice. Although I would never have the guts anyway...too bad. Not for me.
A quick and dirty and probably somewhat inaccurate description of the way AACS works is that each disc is encrypted with a single 'disc key' and then that key is encrypted once with every known 'player key,' and each of those is stored on the disc. So, if you have an authorized player, it will find the version of the disc key that it knows how to decrypt and then use that to decrypt the disc for playback.
Doesn't it seem like if you had one player key, and you then know the 'disc key', that you could figure out the othe 'player keys' because you knew exactly what the key was like before and after the 'player encryption'?
Seems to me that they are only making the problem as difficult as making my dad not want to try it. If pyracy was really a huge loss, they would just reduce the costs of the discs to increase sales. It's obviously not as big a concern as they are making it seem if the encoding they use sucks this much.
>The problem is, those watchers are normal people - they're going to be stupid, irrational, selfish, bad-tempered, uneducated, >unreasonable, bigoted, sexist. They're going to be paid minimum wage for doing a really dull job. These people are the people who >are *setting and enforcing* the standards by which you will live.
That won't necessarily be the demographic of camera watchers much longer. Work is being done where I work (in the US) to build software to decipher video and decide which, if any of the people in the video are doing something suspicious.
I know what you're thinking, everyone immediatly asks when the automated turrets are going to be put in place, but in reality, The computers are just filtering 99% of the video so they can pay a lot fewer people a bit more money, and have some checks an balances in the system for less money.
In addition, just because they might make poor decisions, doesn't mean that they will have any power. Just the ability to yell at you, or call in the already accepted stupid, irrational, selfish, bad-tempered, uneducated, unreasonable, bigoted, sexist cops.
In schools, if you are trying to research breast cancer walks and can't access one page, then go ask your teacher. They can either log in and reveiw the website for you, or ask their IT to add it to the OK list. Problem solved, and in less time then it takes to get a bathroom pass.
In Libraries, ok, maybe you don't want the librarian to know exactly what you're doing online and you feel embarrassed asking for a site to be removed. But wait, why are you looking at sites at a public library if you don't want the librarian to know about it?
The only problem I can see is the case where blocking software company gets a huge contract with Budwieser to start blocking places that advertise Coors.
Actually, the situation is much more complicated, the situation can't be that simple, because I'm procarastinating at work, and I need something to cry about.
Slashdot Mirror
yeah, your predictions are must more likely to be true.
"In fact, I suspect truly advanced entities do not operate in "societies" at all, but are more like the fictional representation of "dragons" in fantasy literature - more or less independent entities who only interact with others of their kind for specific reasons."
just because you want to be a dragon that doesn't have to talk to anyone, except to get groceries doesn't mean everyone does...
The history of the universe in relation to the history of life on earth is practically infinite. If there is a relatively infinite number of places life can exist (planets water, the right heat, etc) then it stands to reason there should be an infinite number of civilizations out there, infinite older infinite younger. Infinite more advanced, infinite slobbering apes.
So, why hasn't one of these infinite more advanced societies sent some evidence our way?
1) They are sneaky (yeah, right)
2) It's impossible to inhabit other planets successfully (if there was one chance in one million, and infinite number of civilizations, then an infinite number of civilizations would have colonized the universe, or at least one)
3) They are still on their home planet, and they will never leave, but still exist.
4) They are extinct, and there is no possibility of any civilization surviving.
Basically, from the probability, the earth will follow either three or four. Tough luck folks, we're all gonna die. If there was a chance of us colonizing the universe, then someone else would have already done it.
That whole argument decays when you consider the universe is finite, and the big bang wasn't all that long ago. Replace all the "infinite's" with "finite" and you have a more accurate calculation, but you're probably going to get close to the same conclusion. We are all gonna die.
mmm...no.
1) it's not a hard drive, it's flash. just hard enough to deter you if you are trying to steal a $100 OLPC, but maybe not hard enough if you are writing an underground rebel newspaper.
2) what happens if you put a password in your BIOS, and you can't flash the BIOS? it becomes a brick. I purchased a used laptop (sony) with a BIOS password, and there was no reasonable way to flash the BIOS, so I called them, they made me wait a while, send in a receipt, and then they sent me a huge code to type in the password area that was based on my serial number. Seems like this is going to be a similar thing.
I don't pretend to know how they are doing this, but I bet there is some rudimentary hardware that controls whether or not the computer boots. I'd also guess the flag gets set somewhere in this hardware get set higher up, which might be a security loophole. Anyway, this doesn't appear to be any sort of tracking measure. Just a one way (mothership to baby ship) communication that it will only send if it's on the OK list. There could be a possibility of tracking if the gov't said "install this tracker, or we'll shut you down" but even that seems far fetched. Who's running the servers? OLPC? then I don't see any reason to jump to conclusions. I wish my patop had a free kill switch in it, and a big freakin' sticker on it that let everyone know...
Schwarzenegger's love child?
I really like the idea of the patent holder actually needing to do something with the patent. That seems obvious and incredibly useful.
I'd also like to add that I personally think the patent should be void if enough people are using it. Something that will basically say, if %10 of Americans already own this, then it's public domain. That might be a little too bias towards the little guy, but it seems like it would fix things like the Blackboard stuff.
When you move everyone's schedule ahead an hour, you are helping people make the decision to go to bed earlier, and burn less electricity lighting their houses at night. Like it or not, we are not a 24 hour society, except for maybe ten percent, and that's a stretch. This saves a ton of energy, and it really isn't that much of a nuisance.
I saw an article (I can't remember where, sorry for the hearsay) about someone modding their keyboard with an RFID reader, and he programmed it to the codes of the RFID he already had injected under his skin. This must be something different though, because he had two different types and they were both relatively inexpensive, nothing over $100.
I really don't see a problem with this so long as it's provided without persuasion. I don't want to have to get one with my costco membership or anything like that, and I don't want the gov't putting it in, but if it's just an easy injection (no surgery) and it would make my life easier (I wouldn't ever need my wallet) then I'd be all for it. It would be nice to be able to deactivate it, but that would sort of ruin it wouldn't it? I could probably ruin it by swinging my arm over the counter at Circuit city anyway.
I would like to point out what I would consider a flaw with your reasoning.
I don't think it's your right to advertise to me. It may be gmail's right to advertise to me, I'm getting a free service from them. It may be NBC's right to advertise to me, I watch the shows they pay for. But people advertising to my inbox, YOU have given me nothing! Why do you think you deserve any of my attention? I don't care if you're best buy, a nigerian prince, or a new startup company. If you want to advertise to me, give me something in return, not a coupon, or a deal, but something I ask for. Slashdot gives me a place to vent, for example. Slashdot, you're OK.
"Jeff's autobiographical epitaph brought to you by Miracle whip! Don't forget that tangy zip!"
That's the same force, a lot more energy. Why isn't it destroying the projectiles? Because this force is used differently. Specifically, it's being used to send the projectile out of the gun, instead on in on itself. So it doesn't shrink, it shoots.
Soon we will have even faster, smaller prototype use graphics calculators with horrible user interfaces! SWEET.
Word of mouth advertising is the Best promotion of a product, and what is going to cause more conversation than this idea?
That would be AWESOME. I would love to tell someone what an idiot they were for cutting me off. Of course you'd have to worry about their gun.
Or what about chatting with that cute girl in the next car? Wouldn't that be nice. Although I would never have the guts anyway...too bad. Not for me.
Doesn't it seem like if you had one player key, and you then know the 'disc key', that you could figure out the othe 'player keys' because you knew exactly what the key was like before and after the 'player encryption'?
Seems to me that they are only making the problem as difficult as making my dad not want to try it. If pyracy was really a huge loss, they would just reduce the costs of the discs to increase sales. It's obviously not as big a concern as they are making it seem if the encoding they use sucks this much.
>The problem is, those watchers are normal people - they're going to be stupid, irrational, selfish, bad-tempered, uneducated,
>unreasonable, bigoted, sexist. They're going to be paid minimum wage for doing a really dull job. These people are the people who
>are *setting and enforcing* the standards by which you will live.
That won't necessarily be the demographic of camera watchers much longer. Work is being done where I work (in the US) to build software to decipher video and decide which, if any of the people in the video are doing something suspicious.
I know what you're thinking, everyone immediatly asks when the automated turrets are going to be put in place, but in reality, The computers are just filtering 99% of the video so they can pay a lot fewer people a bit more money, and have some checks an balances in the system for less money.
In addition, just because they might make poor decisions, doesn't mean that they will have any power. Just the ability to yell at you, or call in the already accepted stupid, irrational, selfish, bad-tempered, uneducated, unreasonable, bigoted, sexist cops.
I'm all for the IPTV, but what I really need is HDTV Sports. Specifically hockey. As soon as Someone offers that, sign me up!
I agree, it's horrible. Puting tracking devices on sharks is totally invading their privacy.
In schools, if you are trying to research breast cancer walks and can't access one page, then go ask your teacher. They can either log in and reveiw the website for you, or ask their IT to add it to the OK list. Problem solved, and in less time then it takes to get a bathroom pass. In Libraries, ok, maybe you don't want the librarian to know exactly what you're doing online and you feel embarrassed asking for a site to be removed. But wait, why are you looking at sites at a public library if you don't want the librarian to know about it? The only problem I can see is the case where blocking software company gets a huge contract with Budwieser to start blocking places that advertise Coors. Actually, the situation is much more complicated, the situation can't be that simple, because I'm procarastinating at work, and I need something to cry about.