I do believe that one could make that point. Comcast already has ways to throttle Bittorrent. If they are doing deep packet inspection, I would think that they would know down to the data block what files were being transferred.
Yikes - What I meant to say was that the Bush administration believes the Fourth Amendment does not apply to them and that they have the right/power to monitor and wiretap at will.
Also, another point about this is people have always said that users should understand that their activities on the Internet could be monitored by third parties. This, however, is different (at least to me) in that it is systematic snooping on the part of ISPs.
The situation has somewhat changed in another way, too. It used to be that there was no practical way to store or monitor all of the traffic. The technology just wasn't there. Now it is. The FBI has "Carnivore" and who knows what else. Storage is cheap and computers are now very fast. Everything people do can be stored, sifted, inspected, categorized, and given a score as to how likely the person is to be a terrorist, commit a crime, etc.
It is starting to get where people are putting themselves on the line just by posting to forums like these. Obviously that is a paranoid view, but it is also one that is now possible - if not probable - and all it takes is for the right (or wrong) person or organization to decide some site, person, or group should be monitored and it becomes reality.
In response to another article, I said that we should start encrypting all of our traffic and asked for programmers to start adding that functionality and making it the default so that even unsophisticated users' trafic would be encrypted.
But with the revelation the other day that the Bush administration believes the Fourth Amendment (right to privacy and protection from searches without cause), this becomes just another good reason to get cracking with all traffic encrypted.
I'm not all paranoid about it. I was just pointing out the downside to basically keeping nice, 3rd-party evidence of your driving habits, where you go, when, etc. That kind of information would be really interesting to anyone who had some reason to think they needed to investigate you.
And if you don't think that happens, go read how the Bush administration decided the Fourth Amendment did not apply to them and they could wiretap and eavesdrop all they wanted. http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/04/03/1219200
And if you don't know what the Fourth Amendment guarantees (or did until Bush decided to ignore it...):
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
From the way I read the article, Trapster monitors where you are all the time so that they can send you alerts relevant to your current location. In actuality it can't be continuous monitoring and they may extrapolate locations, but they will have periodic location fixes on you and your phone - regardless of whether you #1 or not.
All they need to do is time stamp those and any idiot can then figure out distance/time by taking the difference of two or more readings.
I don't know if they time stamp their records or not, but virtually everything computer is already time stamped, or it would be damn easy to put that in.
Mr. Whirly, I think what was meant was that when people do actually get busted for speeding, that history will possibly be used to show the defendant is a habitual offender.
"I'm sorry, judge, I don't normally speed."
"Not according to your Trapster history. It looks like you speed almost all the time. 90 days, Jerry! When you hot, you hot!"
Or if a victim wants to establish a pattern of reckless driving thereby increasing the payout and punitive damages.
I can easily imagine a courtroom scene where highway speed tests, speeding in residential areas, speeding in school zones, and pretty much anything of value would be paraded in front of a jury.
It might also persuade a judge to lock some people up for quite a long time, or impose much harsher punishments on people when they get busted.
This database will work both ways. I guarantee it.
No, dude - it's going to be endless manga and anime. I pity the poor high school teachers who will have to put up with that between classes and worse - during.
GIMP sure takes a beating for being unfriendly. I disagree with that label, though. I think GIMP is easy to use and does a great job. Plus it is free. It's a very capable and easy to use graphics editor.
I think the real issue is GIMPs interface is just different. It looks a lot like PaintShopPro at least used to. I was a PaintShopPro user for some time and switching to GIMP was easy.
I like the GIMP. Anyone interested in GIMP ought to just download it and try it out for themselves and see what they think. Give it some time. It always takes a while to learn a different interface. I think people would be pleasantly surprised if they would just try GIMP for a while instead of being turned off that its interface isn't the same as Photoshop's.
This whole world has basically gone to shit. All we get are news story after news story about how this person or that corporation did something for pure greed.
Gotta get mine -- especially if it makes me a billionaire -- regardless of what it does to anyone else, the environment, or even their own country.
We're fighting a war for, and on behalf of, oil companies. American manufacturers have shipped jobs and technology overseas. The car companies made giant cars knowing full well that they wasted energy and contributed to global warming. Now we have a whole economic sector in crisis due to making loans that people couldn't pay and it is spilling into the rest of the economy.
Why? Because someone could make a buck off it somehow regardless of what it meant for the long-term health of this country, its citizens, and our economy. Even the world.
I don't know why I expected anything different from Amazon.
The Manhattan Project was actually run by the University of California. It's the only way Oppenheimer would accept running the program. He told the military that the only way he would be able to get the people he needed was if it was an academic institution running it.
UC not only ran the Manhattan Project start to finish, it also ran the Los Alamos and Livermore laboratories until the last couple of years.
Operating in an academic environment, I could very easily see that the researchers would be valued and their welfare looked out for by finding ways for them to "document" their contributions without releasing the information to the world through regular publishing channels.
Another reason why there might be patents would be simply for the benefit of the researchers involved.
The members of the Manhattan Project were all research scientists and engineers. Technically, what they accomplished was nothing short of amazing. They went from brand new basic physics and science discoveries to deployable weapons in just a few years. And while the principal players were already working in the physics world, they weren't able to publish the results of their work because it was top secret stuff.
It is only speculation, but it could be that the scientists and engineers were allowed to publish their work through patents that wouldn't see the light of day and could be kept under lock and key. They get to add numerous patents to their CVs and account for their years of work without revealing the inner workings of the weapons to the world. At least that could have been the intent. A few spies managed to compromise a lot of the information and the USSR exploded their own, copycat weapon shortly after the end of WWII.
Actually, it's more than just whether a signal is AC/RF. It also depends on the power level and the frequency.
There continue to be links between cell phone use and brain tumors and, though I haven't heard anything recently about power lines, I would not buy a house near high voltage lines.
On the other hand, I think the wireless signals are at a level that they shouldn't be much, if any, issue. I don't hold my computer next to my head and the base station power level just isn't that high - nor is it mounted right next to my bed.
But there are some signals that there is enough evidence of harm that people ought to be careful.
We might still be screwed but certainly not to the extent that we are now. Estimates of what this war will end up costing - if it is ended soon with a complete withdrawal of US forces - are in the $3 Trillion dollar range. That used to be over half of our National debt.
No more. The US National debt is now $9.4 Trillion. Our debt is increasing by $1.6 Billion dollars every single day. http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
The National debt was around $5 Trillion when Bush took office. As noted above, it's now approaching $10 Trillion. He has basically doubled it during his two terms. So, yeah, we would still be screwed without the war but we are especially screwed with it.
And 4,000 Americans are really screwed - they're dead. And another 30-40,000 suffer from various levels of injuries up to missing limbs, missing eyes, missing parts of their brains, extreme disfigurement, etc.
A long time ago I wrote to the IRS and NASA and proposed that a box be added to the tax return forms that would allow people to donate directly to NASA. It wouldn't come out of their taxes - it would just be a convenient way to donate.
I never heard from either of them.
States have similar programs to donate to various wildlife and other programs. I think if there was a way for people to donate to NASA, there would be a real boost to NASA funding.
Slashdot Mirror
I do believe that one could make that point. Comcast already has ways to throttle Bittorrent. If they are doing deep packet inspection, I would think that they would know down to the data block what files were being transferred.
Yikes - What I meant to say was that the Bush administration believes the Fourth Amendment does not apply to them and that they have the right/power to monitor and wiretap at will.
Also, another point about this is people have always said that users should understand that their activities on the Internet could be monitored by third parties. This, however, is different (at least to me) in that it is systematic snooping on the part of ISPs.
The situation has somewhat changed in another way, too. It used to be that there was no practical way to store or monitor all of the traffic. The technology just wasn't there. Now it is. The FBI has "Carnivore" and who knows what else. Storage is cheap and computers are now very fast. Everything people do can be stored, sifted, inspected, categorized, and given a score as to how likely the person is to be a terrorist, commit a crime, etc.
It is starting to get where people are putting themselves on the line just by posting to forums like these. Obviously that is a paranoid view, but it is also one that is now possible - if not probable - and all it takes is for the right (or wrong) person or organization to decide some site, person, or group should be monitored and it becomes reality.
In response to another article, I said that we should start encrypting all of our traffic and asked for programmers to start adding that functionality and making it the default so that even unsophisticated users' trafic would be encrypted.
But with the revelation the other day that the Bush administration believes the Fourth Amendment (right to privacy and protection from searches without cause), this becomes just another good reason to get cracking with all traffic encrypted.
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/04/03/1219200
I'm not all paranoid about it. I was just pointing out the downside to basically keeping nice, 3rd-party evidence of your driving habits, where you go, when, etc. That kind of information would be really interesting to anyone who had some reason to think they needed to investigate you.
And if you don't think that happens, go read how the Bush administration decided the Fourth Amendment did not apply to them and they could wiretap and eavesdrop all they wanted. http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/04/03/1219200
And if you don't know what the Fourth Amendment guarantees (or did until Bush decided to ignore it...):
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
http://www.hotwheels.com/coolstuff/radargun.aspx
;-)
It's a Mattel Hot Wheels radar gun, runs on 4 AAA batteries, operates on the X band, and sells for about $30 at Wal-Mart and other fine retailers.
Not a bad idea screwing with the morons driving dangerously.
Oh, and Mr. Whirly, distance / time = speed.
You don't by chance work for Trapster, do you?
From the way I read the article, Trapster monitors where you are all the time so that they can send you alerts relevant to your current location. In actuality it can't be continuous monitoring and they may extrapolate locations, but they will have periodic location fixes on you and your phone - regardless of whether you #1 or not.
All they need to do is time stamp those and any idiot can then figure out distance/time by taking the difference of two or more readings.
I don't know if they time stamp their records or not, but virtually everything computer is already time stamped, or it would be damn easy to put that in.
If you want false positives - or just want to screw with radar detector equipped speeders, buy yourself one of these:
http://www.hotwheels.com/coolstuff/radargun.aspx
It's a Mattel Hot Wheels 10.25 GHz radar gun that runs off 4 AA batteries. They cost about $30 retail.
Have fun!
Mr. Whirly, I think what was meant was that when people do actually get busted for speeding, that history will possibly be used to show the defendant is a habitual offender.
"I'm sorry, judge, I don't normally speed."
"Not according to your Trapster history. It looks like you speed almost all the time. 90 days, Jerry! When you hot, you hot!"
Or if a victim wants to establish a pattern of reckless driving thereby increasing the payout and punitive damages.
I can easily imagine a courtroom scene where highway speed tests, speeding in residential areas, speeding in school zones, and pretty much anything of value would be paraded in front of a jury.
It might also persuade a judge to lock some people up for quite a long time, or impose much harsher punishments on people when they get busted.
This database will work both ways. I guarantee it.
What you will also get are discounts on your insurance because of a safe driving record. Over the years that adds up to quite a bit.
I have a photon gun that shoots out lots and lots of photons!
Just one photon? That's got to be dim as hell.
Who needs propaganda bloggers when you have fools like Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, and Bill O'Reilly?
Hey, I went faster than the speed of light tomorrow.
Now I just have to wait for all of the rest of the world to catch up.
No, dude - it's going to be endless manga and anime. I pity the poor high school teachers who will have to put up with that between classes and worse - during.
Ohhh! The Tummy Projector (TM) !!!
;-)
And with appropriate image processing/stretching, you could have a normal image appear when it is projected on a form with, er, uh, protuberances!
Just key in her measurements instead of trying to adjust keystone and everyone has a great time!
I'm thinking something like that would sell...
GIMP sure takes a beating for being unfriendly. I disagree with that label, though. I think GIMP is easy to use and does a great job. Plus it is free. It's a very capable and easy to use graphics editor.
I think the real issue is GIMPs interface is just different. It looks a lot like PaintShopPro at least used to. I was a PaintShopPro user for some time and switching to GIMP was easy.
I like the GIMP. Anyone interested in GIMP ought to just download it and try it out for themselves and see what they think. Give it some time. It always takes a while to learn a different interface. I think people would be pleasantly surprised if they would just try GIMP for a while instead of being turned off that its interface isn't the same as Photoshop's.
This whole world has basically gone to shit. All we get are news story after news story about how this person or that corporation did something for pure greed.
Gotta get mine -- especially if it makes me a billionaire -- regardless of what it does to anyone else, the environment, or even their own country.
We're fighting a war for, and on behalf of, oil companies. American manufacturers have shipped jobs and technology overseas. The car companies made giant cars knowing full well that they wasted energy and contributed to global warming. Now we have a whole economic sector in crisis due to making loans that people couldn't pay and it is spilling into the rest of the economy.
Why? Because someone could make a buck off it somehow regardless of what it meant for the long-term health of this country, its citizens, and our economy. Even the world.
I don't know why I expected anything different from Amazon.
The Manhattan Project was actually run by the University of California. It's the only way Oppenheimer would accept running the program. He told the military that the only way he would be able to get the people he needed was if it was an academic institution running it.
UC not only ran the Manhattan Project start to finish, it also ran the Los Alamos and Livermore laboratories until the last couple of years.
Operating in an academic environment, I could very easily see that the researchers would be valued and their welfare looked out for by finding ways for them to "document" their contributions without releasing the information to the world through regular publishing channels.
I wonder how many will get this... ;-)
POE... EOP... OPE... EPO... PEO... OEP...
Heck, a fella could have a pretty good time in Vegas with all this...
Another reason why there might be patents would be simply for the benefit of the researchers involved.
The members of the Manhattan Project were all research scientists and engineers. Technically, what they accomplished was nothing short of amazing. They went from brand new basic physics and science discoveries to deployable weapons in just a few years. And while the principal players were already working in the physics world, they weren't able to publish the results of their work because it was top secret stuff.
It is only speculation, but it could be that the scientists and engineers were allowed to publish their work through patents that wouldn't see the light of day and could be kept under lock and key. They get to add numerous patents to their CVs and account for their years of work without revealing the inner workings of the weapons to the world. At least that could have been the intent. A few spies managed to compromise a lot of the information and the USSR exploded their own, copycat weapon shortly after the end of WWII.
Where called girls?
;-)
You pizza-faced, four-eyed bad speller!
If you are a professional troll, I hope you don't charge much...
Actually, it's more than just whether a signal is AC/RF. It also depends on the power level and the frequency.
There continue to be links between cell phone use and brain tumors and, though I haven't heard anything recently about power lines, I would not buy a house near high voltage lines.
On the other hand, I think the wireless signals are at a level that they shouldn't be much, if any, issue. I don't hold my computer next to my head and the base station power level just isn't that high - nor is it mounted right next to my bed.
But there are some signals that there is enough evidence of harm that people ought to be careful.
We might still be screwed but certainly not to the extent that we are now. Estimates of what this war will end up costing - if it is ended soon with a complete withdrawal of US forces - are in the $3 Trillion dollar range. That used to be over half of our National debt.
No more. The US National debt is now $9.4 Trillion. Our debt is increasing by $1.6 Billion dollars every single day. http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
The National debt was around $5 Trillion when Bush took office. As noted above, it's now approaching $10 Trillion. He has basically doubled it during his two terms. So, yeah, we would still be screwed without the war but we are especially screwed with it.
And 4,000 Americans are really screwed - they're dead. And another 30-40,000 suffer from various levels of injuries up to missing limbs, missing eyes, missing parts of their brains, extreme disfigurement, etc.
Any other comments are superfluous.
A long time ago I wrote to the IRS and NASA and proposed that a box be added to the tax return forms that would allow people to donate directly to NASA. It wouldn't come out of their taxes - it would just be a convenient way to donate.
I never heard from either of them.
States have similar programs to donate to various wildlife and other programs. I think if there was a way for people to donate to NASA, there would be a real boost to NASA funding.