And that is the really sad part of this. So much money is being siphoned out of just about everything to pay for the war in Iraq. We have bridges collapsing, overwhelmed health institutions, overwhelmed educational systems, money being "borrowed" from social security, etc.
The Bush administration is basically robbing this country blind to fund their war and even high-profile programs are falling victim.
And the really sad part of all this is that the draining of money out of everything is only just beginning. We have tens of thousands of veterans who will need expensive, long-term care and more joining those ranks every day. We have interest building on the money that has been borrowed so far, while we continue to borrow to fund the war. It's total madness.
Only a madman can stand at a podium, look America in the eye, and tell us that we are strong, our economy is strong, and we are winning some imaginary war on "terra".
Uh, actually temperature *is* heat. More correctly, it is a measure of heat.
What people are getting confused about is heat capacity. A plasma (in this case) can be extremely hot but not take that much energy to make it hot.
Think about your oven. How is it that you can set it to 400 degrees yet open the door and not get horribly burned? The air in the oven is 400 degrees. Why doesn't it burn skin like touching the racks, the walls, or the pans inside would? It's because the air has a much lower heat capacity than the the metal parts of the oven because it is a gas.
The capsule is also very small. The smaller amount of something you have to heat up, the less energy it takes to heat it to whatever temperature.
The Luxim bulbs are essentially little inductively-coupled plasmas. There are no electrode wires to conduct heat out so all there is is a gas in a glass tube and that gas can be pretty easily heated to very high temperatures.
In spite of all of the predictions of that convergence, I think it won't happen for many.
The reason is that PCs will always be good for doing actual work. For that, people will always want a desk, a nice monitor, and an upright chair. A gaming console just does not provide that experience.
I have a nice big screen TV in my living room, a comfy couch, a coffee table, and end tables. There is nothing about that setup conducive to writing reports, coding software, or doing graphics stuff. And I think it is that kind of environment that is best for consoles.
For the very few who only have a desk and monitor, that convergence thing might work.
No argument there, of course, but how does he think game consoles are dead/will die and regular computers will win back the gaming scene, if the savior OS for Windows is so dead in the water?
Something else he is missing is that game consoles have introduced lots of people who aren't computer savvy to gaming. I think they will tend to stick to consoles especially when consoles don't have all the problems with malware and viruses that PCs do.
And another nice feature was that there was no adware/bloatware installed. Just a demo version of their office program and I deleted that and installed Open Office.
There weren't already tens of icons on the desktop or autorun programs setup that all wanted me to pay more money to buy them.
Talking about sharp (or not) knives... If you buy a system pre-loaded with Windows and bloatware/crapware/etc, part of the process of firing it up the first time is a click-through that says that if you don't agree to the terms of the license, you can return Windows for a credit. They hate to honor it, and people have had to go to court to make them, but ultimately they will honor it.
So you buy whatever system with whatever built-in discount because of the bloatware and hang-on advertising, refuse to accept the license, return the unopened software packet to the vendor for credit, and then load your favorite brand of Linux. All of the benefits of adware/crapware bloating with none of the down side since it will soon be electromagnetic history when you reformat and install a real OS without all the junk.
You can fix a whole lot of that advertising by setting up your hosts file. It works on Windows, Linux, and MacOS. This site is just one of many that will tell you how to do it and get you started with a pretty long list of useless advertisers that you won't have to see any more...
As an aside, it can also help keep your computer from accidentally visiting sites that install crapware/spyware/adware on your system.
But the only computer that I have ever bought already built and loaded with software from the manufacturer is my Mac laptop. All of my other systems - both past and present - were built from parts and that is the only way I'll ever do it. There are no subsidies and no Windows preinstalled. I get to choose what parts I want, put my money into performance where it is important to me, and get parts that are compatible and interchangeable that don't tie me to some warehouse vendor.
I know that path isn't for everyone but it works very well for me. And if I was to ever buy some Windows-compatible laptop with stuff preinstalled for me, the first thing I would do is reformat it and install only what I want. If the company provides no way for me to do that (i.e. OS only provided on part of the disk partition and already preconfigured to include the crapware), I simply would not buy it.
Well, as Eliot Spitzer recently found out, bad things can happen to you when you manage to get caught up in some other investigation.
Whether they are really looking for you or not -- and in this discussion, at least initially, they would be looking for you thinking you were responsible for the piggybacker's traffic -- getting caught up in any investigation can be hazardous to your personal life, public life, pocketbook, etc.
I don't see why the parent was modded as flamebait. I think it is a valid observation or else Microsoft would have done better at interoperability.
Maybe it isn't arrogance that caused Microsoft to go this current route. It could be they are trying to force Linux out of their (presumed) territory. It could be an act of desperation as Microsoft watches the world move to open source operating systems and applications. These new Eee PC platforms that cost only a hundred bucks or so will be pulling the rug out from under Microsoft as they have to forgo profit just to stay in the game. And as finances in the USA tighten up, there will be even more pressure to leave the expensive proprietary closed source world behind in favor of the open and free siren song of Linux.
Priced Microsoft products recently? It's unbelievable -- especially when you can get most all functionality for free. And Linux is now much friendlier than it was before. While I am a Linux fan-boy, the facts are what they are and Microsoft is just as capable of seeing it as we are.
And any business setting that wants/needs to maintain some MS compatibility ought to look at Codeweaver's Crossover Office. I use it here and it lets me run Microsoft Office apps under Linux with no virtualization needed. They install and run fine. Same for a lot of other software that supposedly is Windows-only.
I can easily see scenarios where someone, anonymously, and using an unsecured router, might do things that get the owner of that router in trouble. Even if they are eventually found innocent, it will have been an unpleasant experience to say the least.
Through a few very simple steps, I have made it highly unlikely that such a thing will never happen to me. What is it to you?
If you want to open yourself up to whatever may come, be my guest. I sure as hell am not stopping you.
One thing you might want to keep in mind is that even people here admit to piggybacking and there are lots of others doing it as well. Maps of unsecured routers are circulated and you have no control over to whom. Anyone really intent on covering their tracks will possibly use such a map to find an open router. They might even find yours. As more people lock down their wireless routers, and as more are sold with encryption enabled by default, you will be a more likely target as you move into the minority.
And as the government gets more intrusive, you will be more likely to get caught up in whatever your anonymous piggybackers are doing.
Do whatever you want. But instead of thinking of me wearing a tinfoil hat, you might think of yourself as living recklessly and inviting problems you might not deserve.
I agree but this is not unlike the above discussion of securing wireless. If people don't do due diligence to protect their own computers, they are opening themselves up to having them misused. There have been rumblings about holding people liable for the evil deeds of their botnet-controlled computers.
I have to admit that you are correct for the cases where someone wants to have some way to deny their own illegal activity.
As boring as it may seem, however, I don't have any illegal activity to conceal and therefore do not need the background noise and plausible deniability.
The down side to anyone who follows this tactic of plausible deniability is that they better be sure to hide any evidence on their own computer since it will no doubt be examined closely.
One other issue is that anyone doing illegal things and leaving their wireless open so they can have plausible deniability also ought to realize that someone piggybacking and doing blatantly illegal things or things that would bring the wrath and investigative powers of the FBI, NSA, or other very real agencies, might get caught up in the investigation to find their piggybacker.
Meanwhile, the piggybacker is long gone and your equipment is being hauled off for examination and you are being hauled off for questioning.
Unlikely? Sure. Possible? Yes.
The last thing I would want if I were doing illegal things was someone else drawing attention to me.
I have no clue if it has happened before or not and I really don't care. I have my wireless locked down. I see that as extremely cheap insurance (i.e. free since mine came with it as all sold now do) to prevent me from having to worry about the many bad thing (TM) possibilities there are out there. I won't get equipment confiscated, I won't have legal fees, and I won't be falsely known as a child pornographer or whatever.
I have heard of issues with the RIAA accusing people with open routers, though, so I think there is some precedence. And with the way this government is monitoring everything, building connectivity maps, and trying to build links between people using any means possible, I think I will simply eliminate some person who has ill intent from piggybacking and somehow implicating me.
I just don't need or want the hassle and, as I said, it is simple and free to virtually eliminate the possibility.
If I was to run an open router, and let all sorts of any anonymous soul use it for whatever their intent - legal or not, I doubt seriously if even one of them would either give themselves up if I were accused of their actions, or help to cover the cost in real dollars that such an incident would cost.
You go right ahead and do the altruistic thing, and while you're at it, open yourself to huge legal and financial burdens. Me? I'll keep my wireless encrypted and closed.
I wonder how many people don't realize the trouble they can get into if someone is piggybacking on their internet connection and doing illegal things.
You would hope that innocent people would eventually be found innocent after their computer(s) had been ransacked, copied, examined, etc., but there is also the chance that the logs alone would be deemed sufficient.
People need to understand what kind of liability they open themselves up to by not securing their wireless. Or they need to know that they had better keep excellent logs themselves in order to prove their own innocence, but then that can be turned against them as well if they don't monitor and police for illegal activity.
The best and easiest way to protect yourself is to lock it up.
I agree. I would also bet that, at least while not so many people are encrypting their e-mail, encrypting e-mail would tend to bubble it up to a higher profile and make you more likely to be monitored in general.
That's just guesswork on my part but I wouldn't bet against it being true.
I don't know that much about the details of low-level packets and such, but if people moved encrypted e-mail over to https ports and made it look more like https traffic, maybe that would help to obfuscate things?
I guess you would be a good example of the kind of "intellectuals" you describe.
The dang problem with all those pesky intellectuals is that they are frequently educated. This country has traditionally valued an education that provided a broad foundation of knowledge. Even if one of those know-it-alls specialized in, say, particle physics of some sort, they would also have had quite a few upper level classes in other subjects such as literature, biology, scientific method, history, etc.
The education systems most likely to produce "experts" with lots of knowledge in one area and little in most others are the vocational-technical systems because they take people out of the broad educational programs and focus them down to just what they need to in order to do whatever kind of job they are training people to do.
The plain fact is that many "intellectuals" do indeed know a fair amount about other issues. They are frequently avid readers and self-educate themselves about many other areas simply because they are curious about the world around them. One of the things a higher education does is teach people how to teach themselves. It's just how it works. And being jealous of them for whatever reason doesn't change that on average, intellectuals do in fact know quite a bit about lots of different things.
I think the biggest prejudice against so-called "intellectuals" has been waged by the "intelligent design" morons just because most "intellectuals" think intelligent design is utter crap. I'll go out on a limb here, MikeRT, and guess that you are religious and possibly even an intelligent design proponent and that is why you are so anti-intellectual. This is just a guess but it does seem to fit in with your tirade against anyone who is "intellectual".
The Internet is being monitored left and right. The USA is doing it big time as part of Bush's "patriot act". The Chinese are doing it big time for censorship and suppression of anything anti-Chinese communist. And the Russians are doing it too.
In fact, just about every government is at least monitoring it. Some are actively censoring it. Some use the information the glean to arrest, detain, and question citizens.
Governments even set up shill TOR sites so they can monitor traffic in and out of anonymizing services like TOR.
In short, your personal messages are not personal. And they are being read by an agency somewhere. And archived. They probably aren't being read by a human unless you managed to pique someone's interest, but they are at least being scanned by programs that look for key words and patterns and that are addressed to other persons of interest that might identify you as some kind of person of interest.
OK, all you government workers - especially those in the military, CIA, or NSA that are running Windows on open networks.
Compose a few Microsoft Word documents about a planned nuclear attack on Beijing on the opening day of their olympics. Make it sound nice and juicy, say a few things about ICBMs, nuclear submarines just off their coastline. Mention the proposed megatons and expected damage. Talk about a free Taiwan
I'd like to see Osama bin Laden try to hook up a bunch of PS3's in his Pakistan/Afghanistan cave, try to figure out the physics and write the codes, and then try to design a reliable implosion device.
Hell, the fucker doesn't even have electricity.
Not to underestimate them, but have you seen the YouTube videos of them blowing themselves up or even riding around on their motorcycles? Nothing about them exudes any confidence they could handle making a real nuclear device. Thankfully.
Slashdot Mirror
And that is the really sad part of this. So much money is being siphoned out of just about everything to pay for the war in Iraq. We have bridges collapsing, overwhelmed health institutions, overwhelmed educational systems, money being "borrowed" from social security, etc.
The Bush administration is basically robbing this country blind to fund their war and even high-profile programs are falling victim.
And the really sad part of all this is that the draining of money out of everything is only just beginning. We have tens of thousands of veterans who will need expensive, long-term care and more joining those ranks every day. We have interest building on the money that has been borrowed so far, while we continue to borrow to fund the war. It's total madness.
Only a madman can stand at a podium, look America in the eye, and tell us that we are strong, our economy is strong, and we are winning some imaginary war on "terra".
Uh, actually temperature *is* heat. More correctly, it is a measure of heat.
What people are getting confused about is heat capacity. A plasma (in this case) can be extremely hot but not take that much energy to make it hot.
Think about your oven. How is it that you can set it to 400 degrees yet open the door and not get horribly burned? The air in the oven is 400 degrees. Why doesn't it burn skin like touching the racks, the walls, or the pans inside would? It's because the air has a much lower heat capacity than the the metal parts of the oven because it is a gas.
The capsule is also very small. The smaller amount of something you have to heat up, the less energy it takes to heat it to whatever temperature.
The Luxim bulbs are essentially little inductively-coupled plasmas. There are no electrode wires to conduct heat out so all there is is a gas in a glass tube and that gas can be pretty easily heated to very high temperatures.
We should call them "Departments of Precrime" because essentially, that's what they are.
In spite of all of the predictions of that convergence, I think it won't happen for many.
The reason is that PCs will always be good for doing actual work. For that, people will always want a desk, a nice monitor, and an upright chair. A gaming console just does not provide that experience.
I have a nice big screen TV in my living room, a comfy couch, a coffee table, and end tables. There is nothing about that setup conducive to writing reports, coding software, or doing graphics stuff. And I think it is that kind of environment that is best for consoles.
For the very few who only have a desk and monitor, that convergence thing might work.
No argument there, of course, but how does he think game consoles are dead/will die and regular computers will win back the gaming scene, if the savior OS for Windows is so dead in the water?
Something else he is missing is that game consoles have introduced lots of people who aren't computer savvy to gaming. I think they will tend to stick to consoles especially when consoles don't have all the problems with malware and viruses that PCs do.
And another nice feature was that there was no adware/bloatware installed. Just a demo version of their office program and I deleted that and installed Open Office.
There weren't already tens of icons on the desktop or autorun programs setup that all wanted me to pay more money to buy them.
Very much more respectful and civilized.
Talking about sharp (or not) knives... If you buy a system pre-loaded with Windows and bloatware/crapware/etc, part of the process of firing it up the first time is a click-through that says that if you don't agree to the terms of the license, you can return Windows for a credit. They hate to honor it, and people have had to go to court to make them, but ultimately they will honor it.
So you buy whatever system with whatever built-in discount because of the bloatware and hang-on advertising, refuse to accept the license, return the unopened software packet to the vendor for credit, and then load your favorite brand of Linux. All of the benefits of adware/crapware bloating with none of the down side since it will soon be electromagnetic history when you reformat and install a real OS without all the junk.
You can fix a whole lot of that advertising by setting up your hosts file. It works on Windows, Linux, and MacOS. This site is just one of many that will tell you how to do it and get you started with a pretty long list of useless advertisers that you won't have to see any more...
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm
As an aside, it can also help keep your computer from accidentally visiting sites that install crapware/spyware/adware on your system.
But the only computer that I have ever bought already built and loaded with software from the manufacturer is my Mac laptop. All of my other systems - both past and present - were built from parts and that is the only way I'll ever do it. There are no subsidies and no Windows preinstalled. I get to choose what parts I want, put my money into performance where it is important to me, and get parts that are compatible and interchangeable that don't tie me to some warehouse vendor.
I know that path isn't for everyone but it works very well for me. And if I was to ever buy some Windows-compatible laptop with stuff preinstalled for me, the first thing I would do is reformat it and install only what I want. If the company provides no way for me to do that (i.e. OS only provided on part of the disk partition and already preconfigured to include the crapware), I simply would not buy it.
Well, as Eliot Spitzer recently found out, bad things can happen to you when you manage to get caught up in some other investigation.
Whether they are really looking for you or not -- and in this discussion, at least initially, they would be looking for you thinking you were responsible for the piggybacker's traffic -- getting caught up in any investigation can be hazardous to your personal life, public life, pocketbook, etc.
I don't see why the parent was modded as flamebait. I think it is a valid observation or else Microsoft would have done better at interoperability.
Maybe it isn't arrogance that caused Microsoft to go this current route. It could be they are trying to force Linux out of their (presumed) territory. It could be an act of desperation as Microsoft watches the world move to open source operating systems and applications. These new Eee PC platforms that cost only a hundred bucks or so will be pulling the rug out from under Microsoft as they have to forgo profit just to stay in the game. And as finances in the USA tighten up, there will be even more pressure to leave the expensive proprietary closed source world behind in favor of the open and free siren song of Linux.
Priced Microsoft products recently? It's unbelievable -- especially when you can get most all functionality for free. And Linux is now much friendlier than it was before. While I am a Linux fan-boy, the facts are what they are and Microsoft is just as capable of seeing it as we are.
And any business setting that wants/needs to maintain some MS compatibility ought to look at Codeweaver's Crossover Office. I use it here and it lets me run Microsoft Office apps under Linux with no virtualization needed. They install and run fine. Same for a lot of other software that supposedly is Windows-only.
I choose to lock down my wireless and you do not.
I can easily see scenarios where someone, anonymously, and using an unsecured router, might do things that get the owner of that router in trouble. Even if they are eventually found innocent, it will have been an unpleasant experience to say the least.
Through a few very simple steps, I have made it highly unlikely that such a thing will never happen to me. What is it to you?
If you want to open yourself up to whatever may come, be my guest. I sure as hell am not stopping you.
One thing you might want to keep in mind is that even people here admit to piggybacking and there are lots of others doing it as well. Maps of unsecured routers are circulated and you have no control over to whom. Anyone really intent on covering their tracks will possibly use such a map to find an open router. They might even find yours. As more people lock down their wireless routers, and as more are sold with encryption enabled by default, you will be a more likely target as you move into the minority.
And as the government gets more intrusive, you will be more likely to get caught up in whatever your anonymous piggybackers are doing.
Do whatever you want. But instead of thinking of me wearing a tinfoil hat, you might think of yourself as living recklessly and inviting problems you might not deserve.
I agree but this is not unlike the above discussion of securing wireless. If people don't do due diligence to protect their own computers, they are opening themselves up to having them misused. There have been rumblings about holding people liable for the evil deeds of their botnet-controlled computers.
I have to admit that you are correct for the cases where someone wants to have some way to deny their own illegal activity.
As boring as it may seem, however, I don't have any illegal activity to conceal and therefore do not need the background noise and plausible deniability.
The down side to anyone who follows this tactic of plausible deniability is that they better be sure to hide any evidence on their own computer since it will no doubt be examined closely.
One other issue is that anyone doing illegal things and leaving their wireless open so they can have plausible deniability also ought to realize that someone piggybacking and doing blatantly illegal things or things that would bring the wrath and investigative powers of the FBI, NSA, or other very real agencies, might get caught up in the investigation to find their piggybacker.
Meanwhile, the piggybacker is long gone and your equipment is being hauled off for examination and you are being hauled off for questioning.
Unlikely? Sure. Possible? Yes.
The last thing I would want if I were doing illegal things was someone else drawing attention to me.
I have no clue if it has happened before or not and I really don't care. I have my wireless locked down. I see that as extremely cheap insurance (i.e. free since mine came with it as all sold now do) to prevent me from having to worry about the many bad thing (TM) possibilities there are out there. I won't get equipment confiscated, I won't have legal fees, and I won't be falsely known as a child pornographer or whatever.
I have heard of issues with the RIAA accusing people with open routers, though, so I think there is some precedence. And with the way this government is monitoring everything, building connectivity maps, and trying to build links between people using any means possible, I think I will simply eliminate some person who has ill intent from piggybacking and somehow implicating me.
I just don't need or want the hassle and, as I said, it is simple and free to virtually eliminate the possibility.
If I was to run an open router, and let all sorts of any anonymous soul use it for whatever their intent - legal or not, I doubt seriously if even one of them would either give themselves up if I were accused of their actions, or help to cover the cost in real dollars that such an incident would cost.
You go right ahead and do the altruistic thing, and while you're at it, open yourself to huge legal and financial burdens. Me? I'll keep my wireless encrypted and closed.
I wonder how many people don't realize the trouble they can get into if someone is piggybacking on their internet connection and doing illegal things.
You would hope that innocent people would eventually be found innocent after their computer(s) had been ransacked, copied, examined, etc., but there is also the chance that the logs alone would be deemed sufficient.
People need to understand what kind of liability they open themselves up to by not securing their wireless. Or they need to know that they had better keep excellent logs themselves in order to prove their own innocence, but then that can be turned against them as well if they don't monitor and police for illegal activity.
The best and easiest way to protect yourself is to lock it up.
Karl Rove?
The Peter Boyle version, of course!
I agree. I would also bet that, at least while not so many people are encrypting their e-mail, encrypting e-mail would tend to bubble it up to a higher profile and make you more likely to be monitored in general.
That's just guesswork on my part but I wouldn't bet against it being true.
I don't know that much about the details of low-level packets and such, but if people moved encrypted e-mail over to https ports and made it look more like https traffic, maybe that would help to obfuscate things?
I guess you would be a good example of the kind of "intellectuals" you describe.
The dang problem with all those pesky intellectuals is that they are frequently educated. This country has traditionally valued an education that provided a broad foundation of knowledge. Even if one of those know-it-alls specialized in, say, particle physics of some sort, they would also have had quite a few upper level classes in other subjects such as literature, biology, scientific method, history, etc.
The education systems most likely to produce "experts" with lots of knowledge in one area and little in most others are the vocational-technical systems because they take people out of the broad educational programs and focus them down to just what they need to in order to do whatever kind of job they are training people to do.
The plain fact is that many "intellectuals" do indeed know a fair amount about other issues. They are frequently avid readers and self-educate themselves about many other areas simply because they are curious about the world around them. One of the things a higher education does is teach people how to teach themselves. It's just how it works. And being jealous of them for whatever reason doesn't change that on average, intellectuals do in fact know quite a bit about lots of different things.
I think the biggest prejudice against so-called "intellectuals" has been waged by the "intelligent design" morons just because most "intellectuals" think intelligent design is utter crap. I'll go out on a limb here, MikeRT, and guess that you are religious and possibly even an intelligent design proponent and that is why you are so anti-intellectual. This is just a guess but it does seem to fit in with your tirade against anyone who is "intellectual".
The Internet is being monitored left and right. The USA is doing it big time as part of Bush's "patriot act". The Chinese are doing it big time for censorship and suppression of anything anti-Chinese communist. And the Russians are doing it too.
In fact, just about every government is at least monitoring it. Some are actively censoring it. Some use the information the glean to arrest, detain, and question citizens.
Governments even set up shill TOR sites so they can monitor traffic in and out of anonymizing services like TOR.
In short, your personal messages are not personal. And they are being read by an agency somewhere. And archived. They probably aren't being read by a human unless you managed to pique someone's interest, but they are at least being scanned by programs that look for key words and patterns and that are addressed to other persons of interest that might identify you as some kind of person of interest.
It is real and it's happening now.
I think it's more likely that G.W. doesn't use e-mail because he can't find the "sendification" button.
OK, all you government workers - especially those in the military, CIA, or NSA that are running Windows on open networks.
Compose a few Microsoft Word documents about a planned nuclear attack on Beijing on the opening day of their olympics. Make it sound nice and juicy, say a few things about ICBMs, nuclear submarines just off their coastline. Mention the proposed megatons and expected damage. Talk about a free Taiwan
Let them chew on that.
It's to the point that you would think Microsoft itself would take an interest just for patriotic reasons.
It's also apparently to the point that the US government ought to consider dropping Windows entirely.
That, or maybe we should all just set our login names to Bejing and the password to China. Just let them have the run of anything we have of value.
Running Windows just slows them down a little. A very little.
I'd like to see Osama bin Laden try to hook up a bunch of PS3's in his Pakistan/Afghanistan cave, try to figure out the physics and write the codes, and then try to design a reliable implosion device.
Hell, the fucker doesn't even have electricity.
Not to underestimate them, but have you seen the YouTube videos of them blowing themselves up or even riding around on their motorcycles? Nothing about them exudes any confidence they could handle making a real nuclear device. Thankfully.
It might also be stored near the odd looking cryo container that holds Mel Gibson in suspended animation since he was frozen back in 1945.