I would teach them the differences between firing a virtual
bullet, and firing a real one,
A society that thinks that you can teach sex education and birth control in schools without legitimizing adolescent sex but at the same time thinks that teaching basic gun safety in schools would lead to more Columbines is too fekked up to ever think it should teach the difference.
And a culture that thinks that
30 second ads can change the way you behave, yet
watching 24 minutes of smart ass kids demeaning each other and every adult in the area won't change behavior
is really in denial, and is totally unable to rationally address any of the issues we raised here.
I could not find the story, but I am certain that RA Heinlein (one of the best) wrote a story that included the use of chimney-like structures to generate power. I thought that his system relied on high level air flow to create a "Bernoulli vacuum" driven airflow, where this system relies on a greenhouse effect collector at the surface with controlled upwelling through the chimney ensuring the wind is generating power efficiently.
Personally, I'd rather see one of these from 20 miles away than have a coal-fired plant there (invisible, but toxic).
So, if we are so good - why can't we help prevent this sort of stuff. The reply to the complaint "I am surrounded by turkeys!" is to ask how smart you can be if you let the turkeys surround you. A similar cry here - how stupid are we if we continue to let the "l33t cyber d00dz" spray paint our cathedrals of knowledge and commerce with their childish displays of (essentially) faceless anonymous power.
Or is it that we are just soooooo apathetic that we don't care (yup, that's probably where I fit in, though I, personally, do not have the OS and TCP skills to do anything anyway)?
Maybe we need to form a sort of "Starry Chamber" (say it fast) whose purpose is simple - massive (extra-legal) e-retaliation against any virus writers or other exploiters of the common good. Mutter mutter mutter, now where did I leave my e-hanging rope?
Not quite, do not forget electrical charge. In fact, electrical charge is how you set up to vibrate a black hole so you can create gravity waves as a carrier signal. Do not know why you want to use gravity as a carrier signal, but that is how you do so.
When I was working in AF as an analyst (mostly orbital mechanics stuff) they tested dropping a Minuteman booster (possibly just the first stage) out of the back of an airplane and bringing it vertical then igniting it.
Can't remember if the energy saved from the gain in altitude was enough to offset the other problems.
No - it is not wrong for Saudi Arabia to attempt to do this. It is not wrong for them to make their women into 3rd class citizens. It is not wrong for them to live in 800AD. It is wrong for them to export violence, it is wrong for them to deny emmigration (the final vote-with-your-feet available to let people leave). If the Saudi people want freedom they should earn it by building it themselves. (Of course, we may make it easier for them to do so if we bomb them back into the stone age, but they will ultimately have to want it badly enough to die for it like we have). There is really nothing wrong with a group of people wanting to keep to "them ol' fashioned ways", I mean, when's the last time you were pissed off at the Amish, fer chrissake? I rest my case.
As for Phillip Morris selling a dangerous product -- caveat fekking emptor.
I myself had converted an old shielded room (used in testing electronics) into a Tempest-safe computing center at the Air Force Institute of Technology. We had to file all sorts of paper-work, have tests run, etc., then were able to install a couple of old systems (well, they seem old now) including an Ultrix32 system that we used to run force mix studies on using classified data.
And I remember the spooks coming in and telling us they could read our old desktop terminals (not in that room) from a pretty good distance "see that van parked waaaaaaaaaay over there? Boo!".
Anybody who saw pictures of American B-52's using GPS-guided bombs to dramatically reduce collateral damage (compare with WWII) should understand why we did not want anyone else to be able to use GPS against us.
It would be imprudent of us to do other than encrypt the signal.
As for the Coasties having to develop a workaround, it would not surprise me to hear that that work-around was funded in part by the same services, who wanted to know what a work-around would look like and cost. And it would not be the last time that one branch kept information from another because they feared a security leak. And a bunch of whiney civilians living in a make-believe world complaining about it should get shot at a couple of times and see how they feel about security and keeping a secret.
Those who control the past,
control the future; Those who control the future, control the
present; Those who control the present, control the past.
So, if you control the present you can rewrite history, and from history we get our guidance on what we will make of the future (just think of all the people who die each year because in the past their ancestors were killing someone else's ancestors).
Does this mean that we (for example) should not kill terrorists today. No. Why not? Because they are a threat to the future. What is does mean is that we should not kill Egytians today because their ancestors were killing Romans. There is a difference, and if you cannot see that difference, then find some books and read until you are educated, then we can discuss it.
Imagine a world where all the really competent people have migrated to a new place where they can exchange ideas without a bunch of script kiddieZ, "IAALs" and A0L-troglidytes running amok through their peaceful domains. All is beauty and poetry. Thoughts flow like mountain streams, clear and fast, through meadows filled with flowers and beauty.
Meanwhile, IRL, the mundane crapheads are still running things, because there are always going to be more fans of the WWF Smackdown than of All Things Considered, and everybody gets one vote with no literacy tests or competetency tests to weed out the unfit, the uneducated and the superstitious.
My point is that things like Freenet are very dangerous indeed because they provide a sanctuary that lets people develop a false sense of how powerful they are. We know that family size decreases with education - does no one here understand the mathematics of dynamic systems? If the competent hide in a beautiful cyber-utopia, and generate great works, the rate of decay IRL will accelerate. And without new frontiers (e.g., the Americas in the 1600-1900s) to run to, the future looks pretty bleak.
passion is exactly right - music died when non-musicians realized they could make more money selling music than the musicians could. Very few have the talent to do both -- and a marketeer can bring lots of skills to the equation that give you not art, but rather sales.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
but I tend to listen to non-pop music so I am probably not the norm (since "pop" by definition is in the center +/- 2 sigma.
Seems to me that the question is similar to what happens if you have a safe in your basement. If the government thinks you've done something illegal, they get a search warrant and you open the safe or they do. A password encrypted file is different only in that they cannot open it without your cooperation. Failure to cooperate would be like having a tamper-proof safe (e.g., one that destroyed the contents if opened without the right combo).
Now, IANAL, but I bet these cases (physical safes) have already been confronted, and I bet that if these password cases show up in USA courts, the laws will be interpreted in a similar manner.
As for 5th ammendment issues, I would be interested in a knowledgeable person telling me if you can use this to keep the govt out of your diary, or other physical stuff you have produced. I think not, as the 5th is designed to keep the govt from torturing prisoners -- not protect the individual's right to commit crimes if they can be clever about hiding, encrypting or otherwise documenting their crime. Now, if the only way into your safe (or your file) requires violating the 5th ammendment (torturing you for your password), then can we suggest that refusing to reveal the password is prima facia evidence of obstructing justice -- which is a different crime than (perhaps) that covered by the original search warrant? Where are the/. lawyers (you know, the ones that can write "IAAL" when you need them?).
os2fan wrote "
It would only escape if the radial component was the escape velocity."
Hmmm, better check your Bate, Mueller, White (be sure you have the errata sheet as well) to see how orbital mechanics work -- by the way, I used to be a rocket scientist (well, actually I was a mathematician doing ballistic missile analyses and satellite orbital mechanics calculations).
I presume, without evidence to the contrary, that the rest of the refutations in the referenced post are equally without merit...;-)
Bravo! I wanted to quote the entire post, but in the interest of lowered redundancy, I'll just quote the part I want to extend:
I swear I am getter less sympathetic to corporations each day.
scoove had it right, but they* missed my favorite rant - people who think that branding destroys art. If the patrons of Renaisance art had wanted their names in the corners of the art they commissioned, we would see logos on the art. "Artistes" who fail to negotiate logo-free presentations of their "art" should fek off. People who do not pay for the shows they watch should do likewise. If you want logo-free art, either commission the works yourself (putting your money where your mouth is) or only consume art that is produced IP-free or at least, logo-free.
The big stupid here is that most modern TV, music, and other reproducible art (as opposed to live performance) are "works for hire", just as most programming is. Once the artist is done, they have no rights to the work. Even in industries with strong guildes, like TV and music, where the concept of residual rights has become the standard, I doubt the artist/producer can complain if the work is modified - remember the arguments over "colorization"?
So, I concur, fire the scum -- refuse to fill their coffers. Do not worry for them and the millions of people they support with their industry -- there are 100's of millions of folk out there who will consume whatever they are told they want, so these logo-infested products will continue with or without/. support.
* "they" is a gender neutral plural-as-singular pronoun that replaces the awkward "he/she" since "he/she" has been co-opted by another community.
That's right. I'd forgotten Sagan's wonderful bit of work (since I was already rational, I probably skimmed over the refutations).
Of course, recent articles describing how the moon (Luna) may have been pulled out of the earth are an interesting example of revisited theories. I remember reading stuff (1950-1960's) that claimed the Moon had come out of the Pacific basin 3+B years ago. Of course, Pangea/continental drift were ignored in that theory, I suppose. Perhaps one of the signature differences between pseudoscience and science is that discredited theorists pushing a Pacific-basin neonatany for the moon will not now point at these new theories and claim to have been right all along (at least, not seriously). Velokovski-supporters will claim (seriously) that this new theory validates their wacko claims.
I have not seen any reasonable attempt to refute Mr Velikovsky
Then you have not looked very hard. Asimov did some stuff on him hears ago. There are several signs of the crackpot - Velikovsky supporters exhibit many of them.
If you really want to understand why most serious scientist do not bother refuting these claims, just imagine how much time you could spend trying to convince a Mac fanatic that an open OS was better than a closed one. Different universes -- different rules -- different conclusions. Why would a credible scientist waste time trying?
Reminds me of an old Sci Am article that discussed the vectors that make a sailboat work, considered the advantages that iceboats have, and concluded that the ideal sailboat would have a kite for a sail, a sort of "underwater kite" for the keel, with the payload suspened above the water.
If memory serves me, the improvement gained by reducing the H2O drag offset the loss of suspending the bayload from the kite. Working models seem to have been built (see aerohydrofoil ).
Ooops, sorry. As a former instructor at a graduate school whose topics included Markov chains, I saw it as a fun exercise in mathematics. At the same time I was poking fun at the nearly mystic-like wrapper I found at the site.
Multiple personality disorder - benign, life enhancing version.
While I found the vMEME site to be the usual unsubstantiated drivel (Gaiea anyone?) - it does provide an interesting state diagram. Do you suppose anyone has created a Markov processes model of the 7 (color) states with some measurements of transitions? I postulate that the Green, Orange and Yellow states are strongly transient states (which means in the long run they disappear). The Blue state is the only absorbing state (so in the long run it is the only one that exists). The rest are fringe states that self start, grow and evaporate
Ooooh, the IRONY of it all ...
on
WipOut Contest
·
· Score: 1
First, a pat on the back to/. - this is really a good discussion. I hate to pollute it with such a simple thought...
Do you suppose I could visit the anti-IP site, read all the essays, then take the best and resubmit it as original work (hey, we don' need no stinkin' IP protection). If I picked right, and the original essay wins the prize (small as it may be), then I could claim my share...
Yeah, like people who are afraid of magnetic fields around high power lines are going to tolerate high-power masers (microwave analog to lasers) aimed at their houses to provide electricity.
Watering down our rights comes under the heading of tribute - tribute to the terrorists, tribute to the "peace at any price" crowd. We should engrave our rights on the foreheads of the terrorists as we kill them, the regimes that hide them, the regimes that fund them. 6,000 civilians in one day is the price of freedom for that day, 100 terrorists a day for the next 60 years may be what we buy for our millions for defense, and may be the price they pay for our freedoms. TFB.
At least with our rights intact we can die on our feet rather than live on our knees.
That said, this legislation probably will not stand the Constitutional tests that should follow, especially since the courts are (according to the alarmists) populated by a bunch of strict Constitutionalists as opposed to activists (who bend the Constitution to make law).
Slashdot Mirror
And a culture that thinks that
- 30 second ads can change the way you behave, yet
- watching 24 minutes of smart ass kids demeaning each other and every adult in the area won't change behavior
is really in denial, and is totally unable to rationally address any of the issues we raised here.Personally, I'd rather see one of these from 20 miles away than have a coal-fired plant there (invisible, but toxic).
Or is it that we are just soooooo apathetic that we don't care (yup, that's probably where I fit in, though I, personally, do not have the OS and TCP skills to do anything anyway)?
Maybe we need to form a sort of "Starry Chamber" (say it fast) whose purpose is simple - massive (extra-legal) e-retaliation against any virus writers or other exploiters of the common good. Mutter mutter mutter, now where did I leave my e-hanging rope?
Not quite, do not forget electrical charge. In fact, electrical charge is how you set up to vibrate a black hole so you can create gravity waves as a carrier signal. Do not know why you want to use gravity as a carrier signal, but that is how you do so.
Can't remember if the energy saved from the gain in altitude was enough to offset the other problems.
As for Phillip Morris selling a dangerous product -- caveat fekking emptor.
And I remember the spooks coming in and telling us they could read our old desktop terminals (not in that room) from a pretty good distance "see that van parked waaaaaaaaaay over there? Boo!".
As for the Coasties having to develop a workaround, it would not surprise me to hear that that work-around was funded in part by the same services, who wanted to know what a work-around would look like and cost. And it would not be the last time that one branch kept information from another because they feared a security leak. And a bunch of whiney civilians living in a make-believe world complaining about it should get shot at a couple of times and see how they feel about security and keeping a secret.
Does this mean that we (for example) should not kill terrorists today. No. Why not? Because they are a threat to the future. What is does mean is that we should not kill Egytians today because their ancestors were killing Romans. There is a difference, and if you cannot see that difference, then find some books and read until you are educated, then we can discuss it.
Meanwhile, IRL, the mundane crapheads are still running things, because there are always going to be more fans of the WWF Smackdown than of All Things Considered, and everybody gets one vote with no literacy tests or competetency tests to weed out the unfit, the uneducated and the superstitious.
My point is that things like Freenet are very dangerous indeed because they provide a sanctuary that lets people develop a false sense of how powerful they are. We know that family size decreases with education - does no one here understand the mathematics of dynamic systems? If the competent hide in a beautiful cyber-utopia, and generate great works, the rate of decay IRL will accelerate. And without new frontiers (e.g., the Americas in the 1600-1900s) to run to, the future looks pretty bleak.
I agree, saw my first "fuzzy" meteor - threw off a lot of side stuff, not just a single streak, looked almost like a sparkler. Way cool. Friday night.
Now, IANAL, but I bet these cases (physical safes) have already been confronted, and I bet that if these password cases show up in USA courts, the laws will be interpreted in a similar manner.
As for 5th ammendment issues, I would be interested in a knowledgeable person telling me if you can use this to keep the govt out of your diary, or other physical stuff you have produced. I think not, as the 5th is designed to keep the govt from torturing prisoners -- not protect the individual's right to commit crimes if they can be clever about hiding, encrypting or otherwise documenting their crime. Now, if the only way into your safe (or your file) requires violating the 5th ammendment (torturing you for your password), then can we suggest that refusing to reveal the password is prima facia evidence of obstructing justice -- which is a different crime than (perhaps) that covered by the original search warrant? Where are the /. lawyers (you know, the ones that can write "IAAL" when you need them?).
Hmmm, better check your Bate, Mueller, White (be sure you have the errata sheet as well) to see how orbital mechanics work -- by the way, I used to be a rocket scientist (well, actually I was a mathematician doing ballistic missile analyses and satellite orbital mechanics calculations).
I presume, without evidence to the contrary, that the rest of the refutations in the referenced post are equally without merit ... ;-)
The big stupid here is that most modern TV, music, and other reproducible art (as opposed to live performance) are "works for hire", just as most programming is. Once the artist is done, they have no rights to the work. Even in industries with strong guildes, like TV and music, where the concept of residual rights has become the standard, I doubt the artist/producer can complain if the work is modified - remember the arguments over "colorization"?
So, I concur, fire the scum -- refuse to fill their coffers. Do not worry for them and the millions of people they support with their industry -- there are 100's of millions of folk out there who will consume whatever they are told they want, so these logo-infested products will continue with or without /. support.
Of course, recent articles describing how the moon (Luna) may have been pulled out of the earth are an interesting example of revisited theories. I remember reading stuff (1950-1960's) that claimed the Moon had come out of the Pacific basin 3+B years ago. Of course, Pangea/continental drift were ignored in that theory, I suppose. Perhaps one of the signature differences between pseudoscience and science is that discredited theorists pushing a Pacific-basin neonatany for the moon will not now point at these new theories and claim to have been right all along (at least, not seriously). Velokovski-supporters will claim (seriously) that this new theory validates their wacko claims.
If you really want to understand why most serious scientist do not bother refuting these claims, just imagine how much time you could spend trying to convince a Mac fanatic that an open OS was better than a closed one. Different universes -- different rules -- different conclusions. Why would a credible scientist waste time trying?
If memory serves me, the improvement gained by reducing the H2O drag offset the loss of suspending the bayload from the kite. Working models seem to have been built (see aerohydrofoil ).
Myself, I stored all my early photos on punch cards -- anyone got a functioning 029 punch-to-smartmedia interface out there in OSS-land?
Multiple personality disorder - benign, life enhancing version.
While I found the vMEME site to be the usual unsubstantiated drivel (Gaiea anyone?) - it does provide an interesting state diagram. Do you suppose anyone has created a Markov processes model of the 7 (color) states with some measurements of transitions? I postulate that the Green, Orange and Yellow states are strongly transient states (which means in the long run they disappear). The Blue state is the only absorbing state (so in the long run it is the only one that exists). The rest are fringe states that self start, grow and evaporate
Do you suppose I could visit the anti-IP site, read all the essays, then take the best and resubmit it as original work (hey, we don' need no stinkin' IP protection). If I picked right, and the original essay wins the prize (small as it may be), then I could claim my share ...
Yeah, like people who are afraid of magnetic fields around high power lines are going to tolerate high-power masers (microwave analog to lasers) aimed at their houses to provide electricity.
At least with our rights intact we can die on our feet rather than live on our knees.
That said, this legislation probably will not stand the Constitutional tests that should follow, especially since the courts are (according to the alarmists) populated by a bunch of strict Constitutionalists as opposed to activists (who bend the Constitution to make law).