I am a Canadian lawyer, but I wouldn't practice in California
or New York State on a bet (and I have standing job offers in
both places).
If I am not mistaken, the Canadian
Charter of Rights doesn't only apply to the governments
(like the US constitution), but also private individuals, companies
and institutions, right?
You get the political and legal system you deserve. Better
a Canadian Supreme Court that I disagree with than a U.S.
Supreme Court for sale.
Oh sure, they have your standard rack and Iron Maiden (actually
an 18th century period-repro of the original), guillotene (sp?)
and thumbscrews. But there are other devices there - some reproductions,
some actual devices that were once used. All with descriptions
detailing how they were used, why (ie, the "crimes")
and when. The horrors one used to (and in some regions today,
still have to) have to endure just for being a woman, or being
a "fool" (or a loudmouth, or similar) are sobering,
to say the least.
And disgusting.
I entered into that exhibit with curiosity - I exited ashamed
of being human.
You would'nt if the devices were to be used on lawyers and
RIAA/MPAA people...
What is wrong with monopolies? Anglo-saxons seem to have a
rabid fear of monopolies, which can lead to extremes. In the last
century, for example, in England, train brakes were not standardized,
precisely for fear of monopolies. Cars which had to run on severail
railroad companies had to have two or more mutually incompatible
brake systems. Needless to say, this added unnecessary operating
complexity, useless extra-weight carried about and extra maintenance
costs. All because of an irrational fear of monopoly.
Monopolies, when properly regulated, can be very effective;
remember the old Bell system? Since the Bell system was broken-up
in baby bells, quality of service has gone down, and the cost
of local service has shot through the roof.
Only long-distance service has seen a decrease in cost, only
to the benefit of big croporations, which are heavy long-distance
users.
Logitech, who purchased the QuickCam from Connectix, packages
some software called Digital Radar which will record when the
view changes signficantly. This can be somewhat useful as long
as the motion of waves & such doesn't set it off. I believe
you can set the threshold for triggering the recording. Of course,
this doesn't do anything to really enable you to prevent the
theft.
That helped a friend of mine get even with his landlord. He
lives in a downtown hi-rise with a nazi manager. One small clause
in the lease is interpreted by the nazi that one can't use a portable
washing machine. But my friend does, and gets regular shit from
the bitch manager assistant.
So he said that he's not using the washing machine at all.
But we had some suspicion that the building management didn't
play cool, so I had him buy that very webcam because it had the
software and we set it up.
After a week of daily monitoring, we caught a janitor walking
in and having a look around, especially at the washing machine hidden
under a blanket (he lifted the blanket to make sure it was the
washing machine). He then left, showing he was only looking for that. Bingo!
We promptly called the nazi in (for good measure, we had a
laundry load running at the time), and showed him the movie, and
said that if we'd heard any other word about the washing machine,
we'd not only turn-in the janitor to the police (we din't do that, cause
the kid is really nice and helpful outside the nazi channels),
and himself for giving the order, but also file a harassment charge
with the rental board (up to $50,000 fine) and ask for a rent
rebatement for the diminution of quality of life.
As you can expect, my friend heard no more about it and didn't get a rent increase...
Be careful that whatever video hardware you're unsing's audio
(if any) isn't recording. If you record both their image and
audio, it's illegal (in the US) and the evidence will be stricken.
That would suck. Take whatever means you must to keep from recording
audio.
I thought that, in the US, illegal evidence wasn't admissible
ONLY when it was collected by a police force. So, the private
guy-collected evidence would definitely be admissible...
Nah. The standard rules of C++ could be amended to deal
with these new types. After all the +- operator already work
on:
char, short, int, long - all signed or unsigned and T* where
T is a type.
Other strongly typed languagesw such as Pascal already behave
in this way, so it is possible to make it work.
Isn't it funny that all the while C* programmers have been
tripping over themselves and shooting themselves in the foot with
C*'s easily obfuscated syntax, Pascal programmers have been able
to enjoy extensions to the language that effectively cancelled
all objections
given against Pascal?
So, you have a group of people still untangling their spaghetti-pointers
and memory leaks, whilst the other have been concentrating on
their *REAL* job, programming?
[...] It all started last fall, when an advocacy group called the
Public Library of Science distributed an electronic open letter
urging scientific publishers to hand over all research articles
from their journals to public online archives for free within
six months of publication. [...] The authors of the letter feel they have every right to make
these demands. After all, it is the scientists who supply the
journals with their products--the manuscripts--for free.
[...]
I don't get it. If they send the articles **FOR FREE**
to the publishers, what's preventing them from **ALSO**
sending them to the "public online archives"???
Don't tell me that when you send **FOR FREE** a manuscript
to a publisher, you immediately forfeit all copyright to the article
to the publisher????
The US military discovered that a Japanese fishing trawler
was located offshore of Townsville. For unknown reasons, the
flight was mysteriously diverted to Edinburgh...
Do you miss the good 'ole times when it used to be russian
trawlers the yanks were weary of???
Funny, however, how many machos wouldn't be caught dead programming
with it???? Like if working with C was a sign of intelligence
(must be those PHBs who insist on it).
Surprisingly, dams are not clean energy sources. Many of
them produce a large amount of carbon dioxide http://www.newscientist.com/nl/0603/stink.html,
so they wouldn't help with global warming.
FAR from being "green", many hydroelectric power
schemes release more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than
large coal-fired power stations, because of the rotting vegetation
they contain. So says the World Commission on Dams, a group of
scientists, engineers and environmentalists supported by the
World Bank, the world's biggest funder of large dams.
This is total bunk. That carbon dioxide would be STILL released
in the atmosphere if the plants did rot on the ground, were burned
(duh?) or eaten (where do you think the carbon dioxyde
we exhale comes from?).
It's just fingerpointing by people who don't like dams.
--
Re:Killing two birds with one stone
on
Fission in a Box
·
· Score: 2
I wouldn't worry about meltdowns, though. Firstly, all
reactors built within the past two or three decades have doubly-
or triply-redundant systems that shut them down when they overheat.
That's as long there's no bunch of monkeys running around and
undoing by hand what the automatic control system does, like at
Three-Mile-Island...
It's funny that the proposal comes from South Africa, because
there were quite a few natural nuclear ractors nearby,
such as in Oklo,
in Gabon. (here is a more
technical article, and a cross-section
diagram, neatly labelled in Japanese). And, of course, you
can expect it to be threatened
by mining...
..is why most sites track the information in the first place.
For example does Slashdot dispose of all logging for anonymous
users within 24 hours, etc? The strange thing is that while many
organizations throw their arms up and claim that they're poor
victim of a legal system gone awry and they sure wish they could
hide the users better, the fact that they've logged away lots
of idenfitying information instantly betrays that.
Some 5 years ago, I connected the company of a friend of mine
to the Internet. He then re-offered full ISP-like connectivity
to neighbours in the building and later, to some of his clients.
Being the neato geek I am, I wrote neat scripts to carefully
automagically archive the system logs. When my friend saw that,
he went into hysteric fits and demanded that I SCRAP all
system logs every week Of course, I wondered why...
And why should they be forced to do this? From the perspective
of wealth creation, which is preferable? A handicapped employee
that is going to cost way too much to keep around (in terms of
special equipment, medical bills, etc.) or a normal employee
that does not require this type of special treatment? As a
businessman, I can shell out money for ergonomic keyboards and
furniture, or I can purchase normal furniture and employ normal
people and not have to worry about things like this.
As the State, representing it's Population, I tell you, mister
businessman, your skimming the cream is unfair to those you leave
behind, so I ORDER YOU, under penalty of LOSING YOUR
VALUABLE PRIVATE PROPERTY (which is the only thing you care
about), to enploy those you deem unemployable.
This is the WILL OF THE PEOPLE, and HOW DARE YOU
IGNORE IT, YOU FUCKING BASTARD? How about an tax audit? Or
two?
A business whose profits and wealth creation potential
rely on having employees who do not have CTS has a way to determine
who will and will not be likely to get it. And this is supposed
to be bad? This actually benefits both sides. The business (in
this case Burlington Northern) can go after other potential employees
that are more likely to create the greatest amount of wealth
at the lowest possible liability. The CTS-prone person, on
the other hand, now has enough information about his genetic
makeup to consult with a doctor and plan for a lifestyle that
will not result in painful problems years down the road.
Well, then it's certainly not the croporation's duty to see
to that, but the employee's. And, being a private medical matter,
the croporation certainly has no business sticking it's nose in
there. Since when croporations look after the welfare of it's
employees? It's like the rancher taking good care of his herd!!!
Phrased a different way: how is this type of a scenario
any less objectionable than the "lemon laws" that used
automobile dealers are forced to comply with? If I sell you a
junk automobile, in the long run you are not liable for the car's
upkeep, even though you could have researched the car's physical
condition before you bought it. But if I hire a junk employee,
I'm stuck paying medical benefits and hospital bills for the
rest of that employee's life? Ask yourself: is that fair?
That's fucking unfair, indeed. Why should YOU pay for
it? But fortunately, in the rest of the industrialized world,
where Socialism can bestow untold benefits to the population (fuck
the rich), there is no such bullshit happenning, because the State
pays for health-care, so NO ONE IS DEPRIVED OF IT, NOR OF LIVELIHOOD
BECAUSE OF PROBABLE EVENTUAL HEALTH ISSUES.
If you types with only-the-bottom-line-in-your-mind would care
to take out your heads from your asses once in a while, and smell
the coffee, you'd see that SOCIALISM CAN BENEFIT YOUR FUCKING
HOLY-ABOVE-THE-REST ECONOMY, TOO. Hong-Kong, where the real-estate
(used to be) the most expensive in the world (or nearly) HAD
VERY STRICT un-FREE-MARKET RENT CONTROLS.
Why? Because it prevented workers from going on strike to ask
for pay raises to pay for increasing rents. And this was at the
request of the employers (who had more political weight than landlords).
Slashdot Mirror
And the men from U.N.C.L.E. (Illiazd Kuriakin & Napoléon Solo) their pen phones...
--
If I am not mistaken, the Canadian Charter of Rights doesn't only apply to the governments (like the US constitution), but also private individuals, companies and institutions, right?
This supreme court???
--
You would'nt if the devices were to be used on lawyers and RIAA/MPAA people...
--
That's, as would my bank say, you're insolyent.
--
--
What is wrong with monopolies? Anglo-saxons seem to have a rabid fear of monopolies, which can lead to extremes. In the last century, for example, in England, train brakes were not standardized, precisely for fear of monopolies. Cars which had to run on severail railroad companies had to have two or more mutually incompatible brake systems. Needless to say, this added unnecessary operating complexity, useless extra-weight carried about and extra maintenance costs. All because of an irrational fear of monopoly.
Monopolies, when properly regulated, can be very effective; remember the old Bell system? Since the Bell system was broken-up in baby bells, quality of service has gone down, and the cost of local service has shot through the roof.
Only long-distance service has seen a decrease in cost, only to the benefit of big croporations, which are heavy long-distance users.
--
Now I see why Windoze machines always break: they're CRAWLING WITH BUGS!!!!
--
That helped a friend of mine get even with his landlord. He lives in a downtown hi-rise with a nazi manager. One small clause in the lease is interpreted by the nazi that one can't use a portable washing machine. But my friend does, and gets regular shit from the bitch manager assistant.
So he said that he's not using the washing machine at all.
But we had some suspicion that the building management didn't play cool, so I had him buy that very webcam because it had the software and we set it up.
After a week of daily monitoring, we caught a janitor walking in and having a look around, especially at the washing machine hidden under a blanket (he lifted the blanket to make sure it was the washing machine). He then left, showing he was only looking for that. Bingo!
We promptly called the nazi in (for good measure, we had a laundry load running at the time), and showed him the movie, and said that if we'd heard any other word about the washing machine, we'd not only turn-in the janitor to the police (we din't do that, cause the kid is really nice and helpful outside the nazi channels), and himself for giving the order, but also file a harassment charge with the rental board (up to $50,000 fine) and ask for a rent rebatement for the diminution of quality of life.
As you can expect, my friend heard no more about it and didn't get a rent increase...
--
I thought that, in the US, illegal evidence wasn't admissible ONLY when it was collected by a police force. So, the private guy-collected evidence would definitely be admissible...
--
Oooo, that's very shellfish of you not to invite your friends!!!!
--
Isn't it funny that all the while C* programmers have been tripping over themselves and shooting themselves in the foot with C*'s easily obfuscated syntax, Pascal programmers have been able to enjoy extensions to the language that effectively cancelled all objections given against Pascal?
So, you have a group of people still untangling their spaghetti-pointers and memory leaks, whilst the other have been concentrating on their *REAL* job, programming?
--
Oh, you mean like Pons & Fleischmann's work???
--
From the article:
I don't get it. If they send the articles **FOR FREE** to the publishers, what's preventing them from **ALSO** sending them to the " public online archives "??? Don't tell me that when you send **FOR FREE** a manuscript to a publisher, you immediately forfeit all copyright to the article to the publisher????
--
Do you miss the good 'ole times when it used to be russian trawlers the yanks were weary of???
--
Overload, dear, overload.
--
Like this one???
Funny, however, how many machos wouldn't be caught dead programming with it???? Like if working with C was a sign of intelligence (must be those PHBs who insist on it).
--
--
This is total bunk. That carbon dioxide would be STILL released in the atmosphere if the plants did rot on the ground, were burned (duh?) or eaten (where do you think the carbon dioxyde we exhale comes from?).
It's just fingerpointing by people who don't like dams.
--
That's as long there's no bunch of monkeys running around and undoing by hand what the automatic control system does, like at Three-Mile-Island...
--
It's funny that the proposal comes from South Africa, because there were quite a few natural nuclear ractors nearby, such as in Oklo , in Gabon. (here is a more technical article, and a cross-section diagram, neatly labelled in Japanese). And, of course, you can expect it to be threatened by mining...
(Here is my google search for the stuff).
--
Sure! Here is my copy!
--
Some 5 years ago, I connected the company of a friend of mine to the Internet. He then re-offered full ISP-like connectivity to neighbours in the building and later, to some of his clients.
Being the neato geek I am, I wrote neat scripts to carefully automagically archive the system logs. When my friend saw that, he went into hysteric fits and demanded that I SCRAP all system logs every week Of course, I wondered why...
IANAL, but my friend's wife is...
--
It's not intuitive. It's instinctive. ***BIG*** difference.
--
As the State, representing it's Population, I tell you, mister businessman, your skimming the cream is unfair to those you leave behind, so I ORDER YOU, under penalty of LOSING YOUR VALUABLE PRIVATE PROPERTY (which is the only thing you care about), to enploy those you deem unemployable.
This is the WILL OF THE PEOPLE, and HOW DARE YOU IGNORE IT, YOU FUCKING BASTARD? How about an tax audit? Or two?
--
Well, then it's certainly not the croporation's duty to see to that, but the employee's. And, being a private medical matter, the croporation certainly has no business sticking it's nose in there. Since when croporations look after the welfare of it's employees? It's like the rancher taking good care of his herd!!!
That's fucking unfair, indeed. Why should YOU pay for it? But fortunately, in the rest of the industrialized world, where Socialism can bestow untold benefits to the population (fuck the rich), there is no such bullshit happenning, because the State pays for health-care, so NO ONE IS DEPRIVED OF IT, NOR OF LIVELIHOOD BECAUSE OF PROBABLE EVENTUAL HEALTH ISSUES.
If you types with only-the-bottom-line-in-your-mind would care to take out your heads from your asses once in a while, and smell the coffee, you'd see that SOCIALISM CAN BENEFIT YOUR FUCKING HOLY-ABOVE-THE-REST ECONOMY, TOO. Hong-Kong, where the real-estate (used to be) the most expensive in the world (or nearly) HAD VERY STRICT un-FREE-MARKET RENT CONTROLS.
Why? Because it prevented workers from going on strike to ask for pay raises to pay for increasing rents. And this was at the request of the employers (who had more political weight than landlords).
--