When you use a Kalashnikov for crowd control, it gets posted all over the world and everyone is aware of oppression. In countries that have constitutions against that kind of thing, if a police shoots someone, there will be outcry. There will be lawsuits. There will be evidence.
Now, imagine having a weapon that causes pain, but has no evidence left behind. This is just calling for abuse from corrupt police.
Not only them, it can and probably will be used by criminals.
I agree. That's why I've turned off emoticons in MSN, so whenever anyone sends me something all I get is sexeh ASCII goodness.
Of course, custom emoticons become a nuisance, since all I get is strange character combinations that they type to use them...but after a while you can guess what they must mean.
And I tend to use =) and =P over:) and:P most of the time.
To write twelve 1000+ page books is simply amazing. His books were so complete...so many things happen at once, and it all works together perfectly. There's so many characters, events and places, and the detail he took to describe all of them was so complex, I struggled following it - even remembering major things.
For him to be able to have that much going in through his head, and still work so hard to finish it all...is amazing.
I decided to try out Mandriva a couple of years back, but stopped using it because I was not familiar with it, and therefore struggled with the normal functions I could do easily in Windows.
But I installed VMWare running a Mandriva installation - I found I could use Mandriva, and if I was doing a function that needed to be urgently done and I couldn't work out how to do it, I'd just ctrl+alt and get back to Windows to do it.
I'm still using Windows...but I found that a lot easier if you can't be stuffed dual booting.
I don't think the issue is a matter of privacy for the individuals, but rather privacy of the company.
Saying that because this guy caught a pedophile, it's fine for him to break the privacy of many others, is like that Chinese attitude during the Great Cultural Revolution - killing 99 innocents is worth it if 1 rightist is killed.
From an organisational heirachy point of view, the technicians who'd be looking at this kinda stuff are far from senior level.
On the other hand, what happens if a low-level technician has access to executive-level corporation secrets? He could easily pass that kinda information onto competitors and no one would be the wiser.
Sure, work is work - people shouldn't expect personal privacy there. But if people's data is gonna be checked for inappropriate files, there should at least be some checks and balances and procedures for that kinda stuff.
I don't think intelligence will necessarily mean it could design 'better things'.
I think intelligence is potential - as a race, we have huge potential. Doesn't mean we all use it. Doesn't mean every person is a super-genius, able to invent awesome things. It means physiologically, we have the ability to be intelligent. GIGO - we learn and do.
Now the question is, if you were to make a 'smarter-than-human' intelligence, would it necessarily be able to use all of its potential? Assuming that the only way for something to be 'intelligent' is for it to follow the same style of thought as a human...that is, sentience.
Chippy would interject "This is a lot for me to handle master. Can you not have me work so hard? It's getting hot in here!"
x = 1;
while (x == 1) {
echo "I will work harder";
}
Jack: Mr. Bush, multiplayer kill-simulators are training young children to become killers. Bush: Kill...simulators? Jack: Yes. An example would be Counter-strike, where a player can be counter-terrorist or terrorist- Bush: TERRORIST! Jack: Yes, yes. Terrorist. And they play over the internet- Bush: The internets? Do they use The Google? JacK: Uhh...I'm sure they do... Bush: So The Google and the Internets are related to terrorists! Jack: Well, no... Bush: Put me through to Homeland Security! Every person found using the Internets will be taken into custody! Jack: Not what I was looking for...but works either way.
True, but at the same time, is it really that hard to disable a lot of these annoying nuisances? Windows XP SP2 straight out the box is almost unusable for me - I can't stand it...but give me a couple of hours to a tweak it up, and I'm quite happy to use it.
Similarly, I'm sure a lot of these 'features' could easily be disabled, either through GUI or through registry.
We have to remember, most of the world isn't computer literate, nor interested in becoming computer literate. They want it to all be 'in front' of them - they want the computer to know exactly what they want to do, and do it for them.
I know people *my* age...that is, teenagers who have been using computers heaps since they were young kids and I'd *still* consider them computer illiterate. Becoming computer literate requires a certain 'mindset' and a *want* to learn. One of the two should suffice. My Dad for instance, doesn't particularly 'want' to learn, but when a problem arises, he can usually work it out (being an electrical engineer). He has the mindset. But most people don't have the mindset, nor the interest. =S
And computer literate? Like I said, it's not hard for us to customize it for our own needs.
Without trying to play the Devil's Advocate, if you really think about it, ignoring the 'anti-competition' issue, for complete newbies to computers, wouldn't it be easier for them to buy their PC, open IE and then be presented with everything a normal user would need.
Rather than searching and trying to work out how to find an email account somewhere, they are presented with it, all easily accessible in front of them. And its so integrated into the OS, this'd make it even more simple.
For someone who's never used a computer, think about how hard it is for them to try decipher how to find a free web-based email provider, then learning that they have to click 'register', and then they have to bookmark the site lest they never find it again...
And TV is easy to switch attention. Get bored of one program? Switch to another channel.
Getting a kid to do something constructive is another thing...if they are trying to engage in an interesting project, then if they 'switch off', it doesn't get done.
I know when I was younger, my parents would buy me heaps of kits and stuff, where you literally built stuff. Hell, even lego - while you're playing with Lego, if you go off and do something else suddenly, it isn't finished...
Nothing new. My school (in Melbourne) has backup servers with probably around 1TB for 1000 students.
~1GB per student, but there's no real limit. Each student gets a directory and they can upload their work there. Since not everyone uses it, and barely anyone uses more than 100MB, in reality, you get a lot more. But they do monitor it - if there's a guy who fills up 10GB, they'll definitely make sure its 'work' and not a bunch of other stuff.
On the other hand, many of the more 'underground' scenes - like many types of metal, are benefitting by all this. You look at older metal in early 90s mainly - in general, tends to be all quite similar and clones off older bands.
But internet has allowed so much unique stuff to be illegally or legally spread, meaning a smalltime, unique band who has no chance of joining a big label, gets a minor label, and then gets fame due to music being downloaded off Bittorrent.
I think if you look at metal (and I'm sure this applies to other scenes too), you'll find over recent years, so many new sub-genres and styles are popping up.
Say, 15 years ago there was "death metal". Now what, there's so many sub-genres of death metal, and more are coming out. (Of course, this does not stop big metal bands from being 'clones' as you described them - such as Swedish Melodic Death Metal (aka Grottanburg Sound) - which all tend to be the same, but I'm more talking the underground scene here).
You know...I used to go around correcting people whenever they used the term "hacker" in a negative context, crying "Hacker has only been demonized by the media!"
Now even though this is slashdot, if the name of the article was "Nmap from a hacker's point of view" - I'm sure a large number of people even from here, will think of a Black Hat Hacker. Even though they know what the term 'hacker' really means, they'll assume if the word hacker is being used, it's being used in the context that 99% of the world use it.
A more extreme parallel would be, 'kibibyte' vs 'kilobyte'. We know a kilobyte is 1000 bytes, and we know a kibibyte is the real term wanted - 2^10bytes, ie, 1024 bytes - however, even we will use the term kilobyte since that's what everyone else uses, and what other people (even other geeks) expect you to use.
Another example I just thought of would be India. Huge economy. So much industry goes through there, and there's a a big, professional middle class.
Yet, because there's no little government welfare directed at the poor, it remains a 'developing nation'.
Greater wealth in all areas of society leads to less crime, less money being spent on stopping crime, and puts the whole population in a smaller demographic. I'd like to bring in another example of the coming Australia Federal Elections. Labour vs Liberal. But if you really look at their policies, they don't aim too much at one extreme of the demographic - both parties try to satisfy rich and poor, because there's not a huge space between the two groups, it's easier.
And it's a domino affect - give welfare to one poor street urchin, he gets a job, he raises a family, that family gets good education, the kids go to university and that 'poor heritage' is gone.
That's actually a very interesting observation. Makes sense.
So the question could be, was the 'typical', full ninja outfit even used at all on missions (apart from the black training Gi used in well, training), or was it just another 'mystery' stolen from Japanese theater tech crews?
Slashdot Mirror
Well, if you've read suckdot:
http://www.suck.com/daily/99/12/13/daily.html
Suckdot, porn for nerds, stuff that *splatters*.
I can just see it now. On www.cracks.ru or something:
F/A_18_v_1.21_crack_[WORKS_ONLINE!].zip
Inside, it will have:
Porn_scanner.exe
Crack.exe
Installation.nfo
~Jarik
I'm currently logging onto slashdot *while* having sex!
Granted, my partner is my own hand, but that counts right?
~Jarik
When you use a Kalashnikov for crowd control, it gets posted all over the world and everyone is aware of oppression. In countries that have constitutions against that kind of thing, if a police shoots someone, there will be outcry. There will be lawsuits. There will be evidence.
Now, imagine having a weapon that causes pain, but has no evidence left behind. This is just calling for abuse from corrupt police.
Not only them, it can and probably will be used by criminals.
~Jarik
I agree. That's why I've turned off emoticons in MSN, so whenever anyone sends me something all I get is sexeh ASCII goodness.
:) and :P most of the time.
Of course, custom emoticons become a nuisance, since all I get is strange character combinations that they type to use them...but after a while you can guess what they must mean.
And I tend to use =) and =P over
~Jarik
Amazing author.
To write twelve 1000+ page books is simply amazing. His books were so complete...so many things happen at once, and it all works together perfectly. There's so many characters, events and places, and the detail he took to describe all of them was so complex, I struggled following it - even remembering major things.
For him to be able to have that much going in through his head, and still work so hard to finish it all...is amazing.
Amazing author, amazing series...
~Jarik
Virtual machines are also an option.
I decided to try out Mandriva a couple of years back, but stopped using it because I was not familiar with it, and therefore struggled with the normal functions I could do easily in Windows.
But I installed VMWare running a Mandriva installation - I found I could use Mandriva, and if I was doing a function that needed to be urgently done and I couldn't work out how to do it, I'd just ctrl+alt and get back to Windows to do it.
I'm still using Windows...but I found that a lot easier if you can't be stuffed dual booting.
~Jarik
I don't think the issue is a matter of privacy for the individuals, but rather privacy of the company.
Saying that because this guy caught a pedophile, it's fine for him to break the privacy of many others, is like that Chinese attitude during the Great Cultural Revolution - killing 99 innocents is worth it if 1 rightist is killed.
From an organisational heirachy point of view, the technicians who'd be looking at this kinda stuff are far from senior level.
On the other hand, what happens if a low-level technician has access to executive-level corporation secrets? He could easily pass that kinda information onto competitors and no one would be the wiser.
Sure, work is work - people shouldn't expect personal privacy there. But if people's data is gonna be checked for inappropriate files, there should at least be some checks and balances and procedures for that kinda stuff.
~Jarik
I don't think intelligence will necessarily mean it could design 'better things'.
I think intelligence is potential - as a race, we have huge potential. Doesn't mean we all use it. Doesn't mean every person is a super-genius, able to invent awesome things. It means physiologically, we have the ability to be intelligent. GIGO - we learn and do.
Now the question is, if you were to make a 'smarter-than-human' intelligence, would it necessarily be able to use all of its potential? Assuming that the only way for something to be 'intelligent' is for it to follow the same style of thought as a human...that is, sentience.
~Jarik
Some historiography people. A 'coup' is only the liberal side of the story. What about the claims that it was a 'communist revolution'!?
~Jarik
Nice work!
If it's a hit, I'm sure there'll be an article tomorrow about Google Earth and its rescue.
~Jarik
x = 1;
while (x == 1) {
echo "I will work harder";
}
Chippy: No Master! Noooooooooooooooooooooooo!
=O
Must be a new Starcraft 2 unit...
~Jarik
I wonder how this will play out...
Jack: Mr. Bush, multiplayer kill-simulators are training young children to become killers.
Bush: Kill...simulators?
Jack: Yes. An example would be Counter-strike, where a player can be counter-terrorist or terrorist-
Bush: TERRORIST!
Jack: Yes, yes. Terrorist. And they play over the internet-
Bush: The internets? Do they use The Google?
JacK: Uhh...I'm sure they do...
Bush: So The Google and the Internets are related to terrorists!
Jack: Well, no...
Bush: Put me through to Homeland Security! Every person found using the Internets will be taken into custody!
Jack: Not what I was looking for...but works either way.
~Jarik
True, but at the same time, is it really that hard to disable a lot of these annoying nuisances? Windows XP SP2 straight out the box is almost unusable for me - I can't stand it...but give me a couple of hours to a tweak it up, and I'm quite happy to use it.
Similarly, I'm sure a lot of these 'features' could easily be disabled, either through GUI or through registry.
We have to remember, most of the world isn't computer literate, nor interested in becoming computer literate. They want it to all be 'in front' of them - they want the computer to know exactly what they want to do, and do it for them.
I know people *my* age...that is, teenagers who have been using computers heaps since they were young kids and I'd *still* consider them computer illiterate. Becoming computer literate requires a certain 'mindset' and a *want* to learn. One of the two should suffice. My Dad for instance, doesn't particularly 'want' to learn, but when a problem arises, he can usually work it out (being an electrical engineer). He has the mindset. But most people don't have the mindset, nor the interest. =S
And computer literate? Like I said, it's not hard for us to customize it for our own needs.
~Jarik
Yeah, definitely true. Also, lack of competition generally yields less quality...
I mean hell, look at Intel and AMD, or ATI and nVidia - competition has been the pure reason for the cheap prices and performance - not really need.
Why am I contradicting my previous comment? =P
~Jarik
(-1 Flamebait)
Without trying to play the Devil's Advocate, if you really think about it, ignoring the 'anti-competition' issue, for complete newbies to computers, wouldn't it be easier for them to buy their PC, open IE and then be presented with everything a normal user would need.
Rather than searching and trying to work out how to find an email account somewhere, they are presented with it, all easily accessible in front of them. And its so integrated into the OS, this'd make it even more simple.
For someone who's never used a computer, think about how hard it is for them to try decipher how to find a free web-based email provider, then learning that they have to click 'register', and then they have to bookmark the site lest they never find it again...
~Jarik
Exactly.
And TV is easy to switch attention. Get bored of one program? Switch to another channel.
Getting a kid to do something constructive is another thing...if they are trying to engage in an interesting project, then if they 'switch off', it doesn't get done.
I know when I was younger, my parents would buy me heaps of kits and stuff, where you literally built stuff. Hell, even lego - while you're playing with Lego, if you go off and do something else suddenly, it isn't finished...
~Jarik
No email? But here's one instance where "Cheap viagra" spam would reach an interested demographic!
Nothing new. My school (in Melbourne) has backup servers with probably around 1TB for 1000 students.
~1GB per student, but there's no real limit. Each student gets a directory and they can upload their work there. Since not everyone uses it, and barely anyone uses more than 100MB, in reality, you get a lot more. But they do monitor it - if there's a guy who fills up 10GB, they'll definitely make sure its 'work' and not a bunch of other stuff.
~Jarik
Load up MS-DOS and get them to telnet on port 80 and browse like that. =)
~Jarik
On the other hand, many of the more 'underground' scenes - like many types of metal, are benefitting by all this. You look at older metal in early 90s mainly - in general, tends to be all quite similar and clones off older bands.
But internet has allowed so much unique stuff to be illegally or legally spread, meaning a smalltime, unique band who has no chance of joining a big label, gets a minor label, and then gets fame due to music being downloaded off Bittorrent.
I think if you look at metal (and I'm sure this applies to other scenes too), you'll find over recent years, so many new sub-genres and styles are popping up.
Say, 15 years ago there was "death metal". Now what, there's so many sub-genres of death metal, and more are coming out. (Of course, this does not stop big metal bands from being 'clones' as you described them - such as Swedish Melodic Death Metal (aka Grottanburg Sound) - which all tend to be the same, but I'm more talking the underground scene here).
~Jarik
You know...I used to go around correcting people whenever they used the term "hacker" in a negative context, crying "Hacker has only been demonized by the media!"
Now even though this is slashdot, if the name of the article was "Nmap from a hacker's point of view" - I'm sure a large number of people even from here, will think of a Black Hat Hacker. Even though they know what the term 'hacker' really means, they'll assume if the word hacker is being used, it's being used in the context that 99% of the world use it.
A more extreme parallel would be, 'kibibyte' vs 'kilobyte'. We know a kilobyte is 1000 bytes, and we know a kibibyte is the real term wanted - 2^10bytes, ie, 1024 bytes - however, even we will use the term kilobyte since that's what everyone else uses, and what other people (even other geeks) expect you to use.
~Jarik
Yeah.
Another example I just thought of would be India. Huge economy. So much industry goes through there, and there's a a big, professional middle class.
Yet, because there's no little government welfare directed at the poor, it remains a 'developing nation'.
Greater wealth in all areas of society leads to less crime, less money being spent on stopping crime, and puts the whole population in a smaller demographic. I'd like to bring in another example of the coming Australia Federal Elections. Labour vs Liberal. But if you really look at their policies, they don't aim too much at one extreme of the demographic - both parties try to satisfy rich and poor, because there's not a huge space between the two groups, it's easier.
And it's a domino affect - give welfare to one poor street urchin, he gets a job, he raises a family, that family gets good education, the kids go to university and that 'poor heritage' is gone.
~Jarik
That's actually a very interesting observation. Makes sense.
So the question could be, was the 'typical', full ninja outfit even used at all on missions (apart from the black training Gi used in well, training), or was it just another 'mystery' stolen from Japanese theater tech crews?
~Jarik