When I worked as Deputy Dir. of Space Operations (graduate program at AFIT) I often heard the launch vehicle people say "we want space travel to be so routine that a launch does not rate a headline".
They meant that they wanted the launch vehicles to be so safe that successful launches were like a 747 taking off (snore). Of course, these were guys (98%) who grew up driving to the local airport for Sunday picnics so they could watch the newfangled jets launch.
What they missed was that "space - the final frontier" was much more "fund-worthy (TM, (R),(C))" than "space - where we go to grow wierd new crystals that even a NewAger won't love".
I like the summary of the parent post (me to!) but their comment makes me wonder.
"You can get amazing production from people by just staying out of their hair and letting them prove whose dick is bigger."
Hmmmm. Is that why we have trouble getting young girls interested in programming - because becoming a master takes a testosterone-induced competitiveness? Would not surprise me to find out that this was the case.
Oooooh! Double dipping by posting a modable post to a post asking not to be modded. I'm impressed.
Of course, you could have posted anonymously, but that would have pushed your post into the bit bucket since I am running a client-side filter to remove all anonymous posts.
Now, if/. would add a button to the comment form to allow one to donate karma generated by a post to charity, then I could have believed your pleas to be unmodded.
Mod this one all you want - my daily morning die roll made my persona today a "+3 karma whore/elfin wizard".
First, it seems to me that any of us could quickly write a code and sleep it on a 28-day cycle to update the cookie file to make it seem like we had just re-visited the "no pup-under" page. This avoids the 365-days is too long, I'll ignore my own cookie counter-tactic."
Now, a question, how should a site announce it will be using pop-ups as a navigation tactic? For example, I am designing a site that uses a simple javascript pop-up to aid in user navigation - not popping up ads, but rather on-demand as a way to keep the reader grounded in the core of the site while providing little "footnote" like popups. I hate the "click here for pop-up definition" style of web page (they are soooo redundant).
"
In short, this article attributes far too much power to the media and far too little willpower to the audience. Just walk away."
Yeah, right.
Slashdotters seem to be in one of two states - (1) totally orgasmically self-satisfied because they are sooooo much smarter than the proles, or (2) blithly assuming everyone is like themselves.
In the case of people having the ability to filter out the McWorld, I fear that (1) applies, slashdotters may actually be 6-sigma deviations from the norm. Pause to pat self on back.
Remember you get as many votes as a subsidy sucking slacker - one. 51% of the voters pay only 4% of the taxes, if you are in the 96%-tax paying, 49% voting bracket, eventually the other 51% of the voting bracket will vote themselves your money. Pause to shoot self
The right answer is that as long as speeding is against the law, then things like GPS-based distance/time averaging are both proper and reasonableespecially when the ticket and fine are levied for and by the company that rented you the car ("you averaged 84 from LA to LV - here's your ticket, thank you for using Acme").
Just as with recreational drugs, the right answer is to change the fekking laws. Remember when Montana was "reasonable and prudent"? That meant two things: (1) it took a real person at the scene of the crime to make it a crime, and (2) your true status was a judgement call, and you had to show your judgement was better than the professionals.
States are too chicken-scat to use such a "judgement-based" law because the fekking lawyers can fight the judgement issue all day long. That's why we have zero-tolerance laws, because no one wants to use their judgement anymore.
Bottom line, don't dis the man for enforcing your legislatures laws, dis the legislature for passing them, then vote the mutha-fekkers out and get some real back in. Just flashing the intellectual property, knowwhatumsayin?
Hey, all you posters out there - (at least the ones that were moderated up) - my faith is renewed. Seems almost all of you recognize the fundamental dichotomy between treating your own (home) systems as free goods to be shared versus the systems you are tied to at the job.
However, this poster complained that another faceless bureaucrat might be clueless but right. Hey, one of the clue'd in crowd's biggest shortcomings is the inability to articulate technical issues so the bureaucrats can get it right. In this case, the 'crats must have a good IT in their corner, feeding them the right answers with a soothing but not condescending tone.
Geez, its just a game! When I play against humans I have a simple test, I just ask them "What cheats are we going to agree to use?" Then we play. If I thought they would use undisclosed cheats, I'd never play them.
That works because I find friends first, then we game together. Doing it the other way is like walking into a casino and sitting down to play poker. I love to play poker, but won't do it in a casino.
When we do spring cheats on each other, the game is to win quickly, then teach how we did it (e.g., if I find the BFG that is hidden under the floor).
People who are building these more sophisticated cheats (e.g., the autoaim etc.) are really playing a different game titled "who's the best cheater", which is fine as long as they know it, their opponents know it, and we all go in with that knowledge. In a room full of strangers, I would always assume I was playing that meta-game, not the baseline game.
An old poker adage covers this very well,
When you sit down at the table, if you can't spot the designated "sucker", then you're it!
"This has got to be some type of conservative plot to restrict free-thinking attitudes," Plastic contributor Star Freed
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Leftist governments have created the most restrictive anti-free speech countries in the world. Russia and China both silenced (as measured in person-years of suppression) far more than any of the right-wing wackos ever have.
When I was a launch officer pulling alerts in Montana we talked about a site where the water table had flooded a Minuteman halfway up the missile. When they pulled it out, dried it out and took it to Vandenburg, it lit right off.
Course, if they had tried it in situ things might have been a lot different, the igniters were probably dry, but the throat and combustion chambers were filled.
You'd be surprised at the power of suggestion on a large group of people. Remember UFOs (1950's). Remember Nessie (the Loch Ness Monster)? Remember N'Sync? All examples of mass hysteria creating something out of nothing!
As boomers get older, I expect new hysterias to surface.
My son uses a $20,000 (when new) medical device that applies sound to his chest to help him clear his lungs. I had bought one of these game gizmos before I'd ever heard of the $20K version, thinking I might program a series of sounds that would help him with his 2-3 times daily chest percussion therapies.
It was an interesting experiment, but he was not interested in using it daily.
Damn! Here I am with no moderator points left. I'm glad this got moderated up.
This Frontline was one of the best ever, and I completely endorse this endorsement. True counterculture now must be in the hands of people who consciously, deliberately and effectively fight against the constant commercial bombardment we are exposed to.
One of the local "pop" radio stations advertises using a reverse psychology that says "old music is crap, listen to us to get the latest, newest, faddiest music". Garage bands are hunted and exploited like wild ginseng by people who have neither souls nor ethics. M&M (aka "Eminem" cause the dumb fek is a dumb fek) sells a carefully packaged "anti-establishment" message that is soooo carefully tailored by (guess who?) the Establishment. (Fek it-squared).
Lest we pat ourselves on the back too hard, do you really think that the Slashdotter's slavish devotion to using Hax0r-like, Tolkein-based naming conventions (e.g., W1ldWurm0V3r345y") is any less driven by a need to be leading edge cool.
An armed society is a polite society, and I'm the politest MF in this room.
Yeah, CDs are expensive - even used ones at the recycling store. And some songs are soooo hard to find. I want the music, but since it is sooooo expensive and sooooo obscure, I will liberate it from a download source.
Yeah, and BMWs are really expensive too, and rare where I live, and I want the BMW, so I'll just liberate it from the dealership in the city next time I'm there.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong
There is a whole world of musicians who have not bought into the commercial use of their music. They are "garage bands". They will post their music for you to download and you won't be stealing from anyone. Course, most of them suck, and there is no editorial process to help you find the good ones, but the price and process are both right and that should have some value.
Course, I don't think the commercialized force feeding of taste and style that pop music represents is a good editorial process, but that is a different rant.
The fact that we are not hearing about these abuses by Scientology in the mass media is the surest sign that there is something horribly wrong here.
This is one of the most interesting discussions here in a long time - possibly because the posters really seem quite rational and intense (even it is a topic a little out of the norm).
Why can't some of these script kiddies attack things like Scientology for a change? As for me, I'll see your first ammendment rights to be a whacked-out religion and raise you my second ammendment rights to be totally armed and dangerous just in case you come to my door.
Anonyminity lets you surf for pr0n, MP3, MPEG, post wild outrageous flamebait, use vile, violent fekking language, snoop into other people's sites, obtain information about your socially unacceptable behaviors, diseases you might rather not discuss in the open (gee, my hemmoroids act like seat cushions). You can discuss your whacked out goat.se.x-based religion, plot to overthrow the city council, learn to cook animals rather that just veggies, to grow your own food rather than live on the backs of others, study obscure forms of writing.
All without revealing who you are.
Some societies (e.g., Afghanistan) find this offensive. Others might too. Imagine that.
I think that the need for anonyminity is stupid, but recognize that in the face of large organizations, it is a necessary evil.
The following appeared in a
forum discussing free speech on a forum dedicated to Native American affairs. I think it suggests some reasons why a free-speech movement might be considered "cultural imperialism". Personally, I think free speech is a key factor in the rising dominance of Western culture, and apparently leaders of other cultures (China included) know this, and are fighting tooth, nail, AK-47 and C3 to stop it.
David M. asked "
The question then becomes, is free speech
deserving of protection? Do governments have the obligation
to protect our free speech?" which led Griff W. to ask how this
[issues of free speech] differed from other countries (e.g., China)
around the world.
Other countries do not have nearly as strong a committment to free
speech as is given by the Constitution. Examples of reactionary
responses to free-speech enhancing technologies abound, consider:
the USSR ban on faxes and personal computers, Chinese efforts to
control WWW access, French restrictions on fax paper ("don't
want people to be subverted by facts":-)). The reasons are many,
but certainly one of the strongest underlying reasons is the fear that
free speech leads to free people (liberation).
We assume (based primarily on our Euro-centric heritage) that free
speech is a good thing (I know I certainly do). However, free
speech can also lead to a dramatic shift of power from the rulers to
the ruled. If a culture's leaders believe that the essence of their
culture includes a respect for authority, an orderly transition of
power from the elders to the next generation through ritual,
attendance to custom and a general respect for tradition, then
perhaps restricting free speech becomes part of the price of
maintaining that culture.
I think that this is where the experience in other reactionary systems
(China, Iran, Afghanistan, France) diverges from the situation on
the reservation. The reservation leadership has the freedom to
experiment with their own cultural system without having to be
concerned that outside armies or internal (armed?) revolutionaries
will overthrow their system. They have this freedom precisely
because they have bought into letting the US provide protection
against these large-scale upheavals.
I also think that the Nations have a unique opportunity to develop
and maintain their culture IF they can convince their youth that their
way of life is preferred to the "off-reservation" ways. The problem
is how to keep the Native culture from becoming just a "hobby"
that is practiced only on feast days and during re-enactments for
visitors when you cannot close the borders and the lines of
communications the way other larger countries have tried. I hate to
say it, but this is just another "How 'ya gonna keep 'em down on
the farm after they've seen Paree?" (1919) problem.
Actually, you mean the pilot is the best deterrent. True.
It's the old "tripwire" idea. That's where you put thousands of marines in front of millions of North Koreans and Chinese and promise to "come a runnin" if anything develops. Theory is that live people represent a threshhold that will deter the invasion.
Course, if you put 200-300 marines in a stupid hotel, tie their hands (defensively, rules of engagement, etc.) and have a policy that just screams "we don't really want to be there", you should not be surprised when they get blown up.
So, poster was correct, there is little to keep someone from shooting down these goobers. Now, ask someone about US policy on national technical means, especially satellites.
"Could this be yet another attempt by the corporate power elite to keep the really good stuff away from the American masses? "
Only if you think that corporations deliberatly sell people what they will buy, rather than what the corporation thinks would be good for the masses. Oh, wait, corporations DO sell what people will buy (as determined by focus groups and targeted marketing).
Of course, Joe Sixpack (in-bred cousin of Jerry Springer), does tend to have an eclectic taste leaning towards kung-fooey movies (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) and away from anything that makes you think.
"Oddly enough, when I lived in the US I had to pay taxes for roads, schools, and the miltary, even though I had no car, no kids, and did not consider myself under threat from invasion. "
You paid for roads (in part) because you didn't want to have to walk to a local farmers market (23 miles) to buy food and clothing. You paid for schools (in part) because you wanted to have doctors and social workers available. You paid for military (in part) because you were too unsophisticated to realize that the reason you did not consider yourself under threat from invasion was because there was a military.
I'm not a doctor, I don't even play one on TV. Though I will play doctor
What about biometric encryption keys? These rely on biometrically identifying you and then use that identification to encrypt the content. Some simple anti-spoofing makes them quite secure against the usual key sniffer techniques. Of course, if you use (say) a fingerprint, then lose it in an accident, you may not be able to get at your own material unless you included a "backdoor" key methodology. (see biometric encryption defined)
Also, has anyone else heard about GIF-based encryption systems? Two approaches I have heard include (1) the GIF provides the key for a standard encryption system or (2) the GIF is the key to a masking technique (the message is embedded in the GIF by using a +1/+0 shift in the color bits for the pixels to hide the message in the GIF (sort of an electronic form of invisible ink). This latter was featured on a recent television program as a common technique for use in high schools. For more on this, visit steganography
Disclaimer: the company I work for develops biometric devices and algorithms
Yeah, blue collar my aching proboscis. I worked with a "blue collar" programmer and it doesn't fly. Programming tasks just don't fit the factory mold, and people who think you can use the factory model for building software are delusional.
As for mathematics being required - not so. BUT, the kind of logical thinking that programming requires usually is found in people who at least found math easy/natural.
"Criminals, of course, simply won't obey the law. Duh."
Gee, you sound like a big fan of the 2nd amendment. That's the refrain they sing when gov tries any gun control.
Of course, as with criminals and guns, the correct answer is not "Make encryption illegal", but rather, "kill terrorists - no excuses".
The question is - are international terrorists entitled to the protection of the US Constitution? I don't think so.
The Constitution is a covenant between Citizens of the USA and the government of the USA, the rest of the world feels it does not need to follow those rules (e.g., consider modern day slave trade in Europe, Africa and Southeast Asia), and they are correct to feel that way. On the other hand, they are not entitled to Article 4 (due process) protection either. As we arrogantly said in the 60's, apply 4-F status:
Slashdot Mirror
They meant that they wanted the launch vehicles to be so safe that successful launches were like a 747 taking off (snore). Of course, these were guys (98%) who grew up driving to the local airport for Sunday picnics so they could watch the newfangled jets launch.
What they missed was that "space - the final frontier" was much more "fund-worthy (TM, (R),(C))" than "space - where we go to grow wierd new crystals that even a NewAger won't love".
Of course, you could have posted anonymously, but that would have pushed your post into the bit bucket since I am running a client-side filter to remove all anonymous posts.
Now, if /. would add a button to the comment form to allow one to donate karma generated by a post to charity, then I could have believed your pleas to be unmodded.
Now, a question, how should a site announce it will be using pop-ups as a navigation tactic? For example, I am designing a site that uses a simple javascript pop-up to aid in user navigation - not popping up ads, but rather on-demand as a way to keep the reader grounded in the core of the site while providing little "footnote" like popups. I hate the "click here for pop-up definition" style of web page (they are soooo redundant).
Slashdotters seem to be in one of two states - (1) totally orgasmically self-satisfied because they are sooooo much smarter than the proles, or (2) blithly assuming everyone is like themselves.
In the case of people having the ability to filter out the McWorld, I fear that (1) applies, slashdotters may actually be 6-sigma deviations from the norm. Pause to pat self on back.
Remember you get as many votes as a subsidy sucking slacker - one. 51% of the voters pay only 4% of the taxes, if you are in the 96%-tax paying, 49% voting bracket, eventually the other 51% of the voting bracket will vote themselves your money. Pause to shoot self
Just as with recreational drugs, the right answer is to change the fekking laws. Remember when Montana was "reasonable and prudent"? That meant two things: (1) it took a real person at the scene of the crime to make it a crime, and (2) your true status was a judgement call, and you had to show your judgement was better than the professionals.
States are too chicken-scat to use such a "judgement-based" law because the fekking lawyers can fight the judgement issue all day long. That's why we have zero-tolerance laws, because no one wants to use their judgement anymore.
Bottom line, don't dis the man for enforcing your legislatures laws, dis the legislature for passing them, then vote the mutha-fekkers out and get some real back in. Just flashing the intellectual property, knowwhatumsayin?
However, this poster complained that another faceless bureaucrat might be clueless but right. Hey, one of the clue'd in crowd's biggest shortcomings is the inability to articulate technical issues so the bureaucrats can get it right. In this case, the 'crats must have a good IT in their corner, feeding them the right answers with a soothing but not condescending tone.
Remember, "We have met the enemy he is us!"
That works because I find friends first, then we game together. Doing it the other way is like walking into a casino and sitting down to play poker. I love to play poker, but won't do it in a casino.
When we do spring cheats on each other, the game is to win quickly, then teach how we did it (e.g., if I find the BFG that is hidden under the floor). People who are building these more sophisticated cheats (e.g., the autoaim etc.) are really playing a different game titled "who's the best cheater", which is fine as long as they know it, their opponents know it, and we all go in with that knowledge. In a room full of strangers, I would always assume I was playing that meta-game, not the baseline game.
An old poker adage covers this very well,
Course, if they had tried it in situ things might have been a lot different, the igniters were probably dry, but the throat and combustion chambers were filled.
Do not try this at home
As boomers get older, I expect new hysterias to surface.
It was an interesting experiment, but he was not interested in using it daily.
This Frontline was one of the best ever, and I completely endorse this endorsement. True counterculture now must be in the hands of people who consciously, deliberately and effectively fight against the constant commercial bombardment we are exposed to.
One of the local "pop" radio stations advertises using a reverse psychology that says "old music is crap, listen to us to get the latest, newest, faddiest music". Garage bands are hunted and exploited like wild ginseng by people who have neither souls nor ethics. M&M (aka "Eminem" cause the dumb fek is a dumb fek) sells a carefully packaged "anti-establishment" message that is soooo carefully tailored by (guess who?) the Establishment. (Fek it-squared).
Lest we pat ourselves on the back too hard, do you really think that the Slashdotter's slavish devotion to using Hax0r-like, Tolkein-based naming conventions (e.g., W1ldWurm0V3r345y") is any less driven by a need to be leading edge cool.
Yeah, and BMWs are really expensive too, and rare where I live, and I want the BMW, so I'll just liberate it from the dealership in the city next time I'm there.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong
There is a whole world of musicians who have not bought into the commercial use of their music. They are "garage bands". They will post their music for you to download and you won't be stealing from anyone. Course, most of them suck, and there is no editorial process to help you find the good ones, but the price and process are both right and that should have some value.
Sorry, in a forum like this it is imperative that the reader check the facts for themselves.
The fact that we are not hearing about these abuses by Scientology in the mass media is the surest sign that there is something horribly wrong here. This is one of the most interesting discussions here in a long time - possibly because the posters really seem quite rational and intense (even it is a topic a little out of the norm). Why can't some of these script kiddies attack things like Scientology for a change? As for me, I'll see your first ammendment rights to be a whacked-out religion and raise you my second ammendment rights to be totally armed and dangerous just in case you come to my door.
Anonyminity lets you surf for pr0n, MP3, MPEG, post wild outrageous flamebait, use vile, violent fekking language, snoop into other people's sites, obtain information about your socially unacceptable behaviors, diseases you might rather not discuss in the open (gee, my hemmoroids act like seat cushions). You can discuss your whacked out goat.se.x-based religion, plot to overthrow the city council, learn to cook animals rather that just veggies, to grow your own food rather than live on the backs of others, study obscure forms of writing. All without revealing who you are. Some societies (e.g., Afghanistan) find this offensive. Others might too. Imagine that. I think that the need for anonyminity is stupid, but recognize that in the face of large organizations, it is a necessary evil.
It's the old "tripwire" idea. That's where you put thousands of marines in front of millions of North Koreans and Chinese and promise to "come a runnin" if anything develops. Theory is that live people represent a threshhold that will deter the invasion.
Course, if you put 200-300 marines in a stupid hotel, tie their hands (defensively, rules of engagement, etc.) and have a policy that just screams "we don't really want to be there", you should not be surprised when they get blown up.
So, poster was correct, there is little to keep someone from shooting down these goobers. Now, ask someone about US policy on national technical means, especially satellites.
Only if you think that corporations deliberatly sell people what they will buy, rather than what the corporation thinks would be good for the masses. Oh, wait, corporations DO sell what people will buy (as determined by focus groups and targeted marketing).
Of course, Joe Sixpack (in-bred cousin of Jerry Springer), does tend to have an eclectic taste leaning towards kung-fooey movies (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) and away from anything that makes you think.
You paid for roads (in part) because you didn't want to have to walk to a local farmers market (23 miles) to buy food and clothing. You paid for schools (in part) because you wanted to have doctors and social workers available. You paid for military (in part) because you were too unsophisticated to realize that the reason you did not consider yourself under threat from invasion was because there was a military.
I'm not a doctor, I don't even play one on TV. Though I will play doctor
Also, has anyone else heard about GIF-based encryption systems? Two approaches I have heard include (1) the GIF provides the key for a standard encryption system or (2) the GIF is the key to a masking technique (the message is embedded in the GIF by using a +1/+0 shift in the color bits for the pixels to hide the message in the GIF (sort of an electronic form of invisible ink). This latter was featured on a recent television program as a common technique for use in high schools. For more on this, visit steganography
Disclaimer: the company I work for develops biometric devices and algorithms
As for mathematics being required - not so. BUT, the kind of logical thinking that programming requires usually is found in people who at least found math easy/natural.
Gee, you sound like a big fan of the 2nd amendment. That's the refrain they sing when gov tries any gun control.
Of course, as with criminals and guns, the correct answer is not "Make encryption illegal", but rather, "kill terrorists - no excuses". The question is - are international terrorists entitled to the protection of the US Constitution? I don't think so.
The Constitution is a covenant between Citizens of the USA and the government of the USA, the rest of the world feels it does not need to follow those rules (e.g., consider modern day slave trade in Europe, Africa and Southeast Asia), and they are correct to feel that way. On the other hand, they are not entitled to Article 4 (due process) protection either. As we arrogantly said in the 60's, apply 4-F status: