so we build a synapse, and then link to more, and more, and before you know it we have a "brain",
We could call it a Positronic Brain, sounds catchy, and marketable.
And we really should enforce some rules to prevent a 'skynet' occurrence, not too many rules though, I'm sure we could distill the logic down to three simple rules............
More than that... standardizing on a single spot for the cable would also require standardizing on certain dimensions for the phone itself
wrong The whole range of iPones/iPods are all different dimensions, and all of them work with all of the different docks etc, most cases you just pop out a plastic base and pop in a different one and your iDockwhatever will work with anything from a nano to an iPhone 4s
How hard would it be for the dock manufacturers to come up with a clip in baseplate with a standard interface model the same. in fact to take it further, the same dock could be used for iPhones and android phones by having a USB adaptor in the iPhone base (or visa versa)
Mod parent up. It really is a case of iPhone (model is irrelevant) versus "not iPhone" in the marketplace. If you buy an iPhone your are buying the latest software and it will be updated and upgraded over the normal life of the phone (yes i know that the early iPhones can't be upgraded to ios5, The majority of people replace their phones when their contract comes up, that is 2 years, so a 3 year life on the O/S is not important). Android does not have that reputation. If you buy an android phone, does it have the latest software ?, what is the latest version of android anyway ? will it be upgraded, or is it upgradable ? Android phones are being built to run the current version of android, and not much thought is being put into developing the ecosystem for pushing out the continuing upgrades and updates, after all, the manufacturer has your money, and if they upgrade your phone you won't want to buy the new version when it becomes available. So part of the debate becomes, do you want android and a phone that may not even be capable of running the newest version of O/S (which is what ?, the average person is unaware/confused) or do you want an iPhone which (to most peoples perception) will always be updated automatically to the 'latest and greatest' version. Apple sell an iPhone , 3 versions, but they are all the same phone, just more or less expensive, and 'more of that RAM stuff is good' so you buy the biggest one you can afford the plan for. The Android market is more fragmented, Android as a sales feature is a meaningless term except it means "not apple" to most people,many users do not even know there is a difference between android and windows mobile and don't care ! And when the salesmen start talking about which version of android each phone in the shop is running, most customers eyes glaze over. Unfortunately then some customers buy the cheaper phone (running an older version of android) which then tarnishes the whole android experience. the end result is that the android market is fragmented, and apple win (yes i know there are more android phones being sold, but as a manufacturer apple are outselling all other manufacturers)
but he will vote to protect the money he has invested in Microsoft, Apple, IBM, or whatever, and these companies will lobby the government (and privately 'financially reward' senators, public servants and/or anyone else who can advance their cause) to protect and expand their profits at all costs. Who do you think he will support when the police are called in (as they were in Australia), Wall st ?, or Occupy Wall St. ?
An Australian security company has developed and is selling to petrol stations and some other businesses a number plate recognition program that is capable (I have seen it in operation) of reading and identifying car number plates with reasonable (98% +) accuracy at a distance of about 50 Metres (Maybe more, but the one I saw was working at that distance) on cars driving on a normal suburban road (speed limit 60 Kmh). With larger numbers such as the display numbers on a race car, or the vest on a foot racer I don't think it would have any difficulty. And for the racers who 'forget' to change their numbers across multiple vehicles, well I am sure that they could live with their personal results being posted a little later after someone had checked the image generated as they crossed the line. In some events at the club level in rallying you are disqualified if you are not showing your numbers for the various judges and officials to easily identify you during the race (much as that goes against the general slashdot desire for privacy and anonymity at all times)
But one of their biggest problems is people recycling old hardware, Aunty joyce wants a computer so we buy an old one from an auction (say, for instance, an ex corporate machine that has been wiped),we install linux, and aunty joyce is happily on her way learning the joys of surfing the net, without us having to worry about cleaning her machine from all of those nasty windows infections every 6 months or so.
To the hardware manufacturers, this is a lost sale.
If the flood of second hand computer sales can be reduced to a trickle, then people will have to buy new, and, as a fringe benefit to Redmond, most people will buy computers with Windows because that is what they know, and it is the easy option.
And windows licences are (technically) non transferrable, so here is an ideal way to enforce that.
After all, if you can't re install the system to sell it with a clean install, who wants to sell a computer with their personal details on it, even if it is just the name you have given to the computer ?
and once this is accepted as valid for court, it will be used again and again
Because if you have no reason to hide then you have nothing to fear right ?
so having your employer track your car 24/7 is acceptable to you ?
Maybe they could just download GPS data from your (company supplied) phone and thats okay because you have nothing to hide, and it is the next logical step from GPSing your car. And of course only the wrong-doers will have a problem with this.
One guy I know worked as a medical rep for a large multinational company, making very good money. He also used to work as a stripper on weekends, often earning double or triple the average weekly wage from his weekend work. Until his boss found out. He was told that, although there was no reason why he could not work as a stripper on weekends, the company took a dim view of it and if he continued, it would be considered a basis for dismissal (personal life of a representative besmirching the 'good' name of the company), so much for the 'as long as i turn up on time and do my job, what i do in my own time is my own business' argument. I might also add that at the time he was the best sales rep they had, often selling double or more against all the other reps for the state (and one of the top 3 in the country). I might add that his boss only found out, because of a friend of a friend on Facebook.........
Many people in Australia will be surprised to learn that this has been happening for a while.
Have you ever noticed the camera's mounted at service stations ? (petrol stations, gas stations choose the term that suits your nationality)
For the last 5 years or so most of those have been connected to a computer program that ID's the plates and often has a real time connection to a data base (Privately held I believe) containing a list of all the number plates of Vehicles that have driven off without paying for petrol, This Data base is shared with the police department and is updated in real time from all participating servo's (for drive offs), if a 'customer' drives off without paying, data is shared immediately with the local police division.
The database has (I have been informed) been updated lately to incorporate a section for stolen vehicles and other vehicles that are of interest to police ( all publicly available information ) as many of these vehicles are more likely to 'drive off', and, as a courtesy, if there is a match the police are informed....
The software was designed and written for a national security/locksmith company and has been rolled out across Australia, with no fuss, no noise, and in most cases installed without even informing the staff at the servo.
But then, if you have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear, right ?..............
One town council I used to deal with had its spam filter set in such a manner that many of the staff gave up on emails and just told all the contractors they dealt with to send them a fax. If your email contained an image, it was blocked. If it contained a link, it was blocked. If it was from a different address than the return address (gmail anyone ?), it was blocked. Even internal mails were sent to the main spam bin if they broke any of the rules, created the situation where the town planners had to drive from one building to another when they were discussing plans for the creation of a new disabled toilet for the town hall, because they couldn't send attachments from one computer to the other, and they were on the whitelist ! Mind you they have had very few virus(virii ?) there
Nearly all of the small businesses I know and deal with have an all in one machine, Printer, scanner (sheet fed), copier and Fax.
To send a fax, they load the document, dial the number, wait, and get a printed report, telling them that the document was received, which they staple to the document and file for legal proof (if required).
To email a document they load the document, back to their desk(in some cases on another floor of the building), activate scanning, scan into a file, go back to scanner, remove the document, back to desk, attach file to email, add notes to email, write notes on document recording email details etc. send, staple, file.
Its one trip to the Printer/scanner/fax not 2, (one particular luddite will then print his email to create a physical file, 3 trips to the printer every time for him).
And then of course, there is the fact that too many people make too much money from a war
Lets face it, There is much more money to be made from war than there is from a personal citizens VPN (I am sure corporate VPN's will be excepted, or, being pakistan, certain government officials will accept a small courtesy fee to not look at corporate VPN's)
In the interests of efficiency, most lights here in Melbourne have been converted to a triggered system.
The idea is that the main road (determined by some guru in a government department) has right of way and light changes are triggered by cars moving over sensors at the stop lines of the red lights, in some cases (though not all) they can detect 2 cars per lane. Of course the habit of many drivers to sit back a good car length from the stop lines often means that they do not get close enough to the coils in the road to properly trigger them and as a result you get a few drivers saying"to hell with it" and running through a red light after waiting for 10 minutes. It is really funny to then see the lights change a matter of moments after, in response to the car driving over the sense coils in the road.
The result is that there is no correct speed to catch the green light because there is no direct coordination between lights.
Many years ago I started to use open office, and i could send and receive files in MSO formats,no problems then something changed when I emailed a file in doc format, sometimes it would get to its recipient as garbage, sometimes not. if I took the file direct to them on a floppy (pre USB), no problems so I started to send my files as PDF and no more problems, but i did some more investigating.
It seems that when my files were received as garbage, it was almost always that the person receiving them was using IE (6 or above), and it did not matter which office suite they were using.
However when the recipients of my files were using any other email program or if i took my files directly to them, that is to say, if I used any other delivery vector than IE, then, no problems.
Even to the extent that I was the sole person in a small office using OO up to the start of this year, any files I pushed around the office, or emailed to certain people (FF users) always worked fine, But the accounts person needed PDF's every time, (she used IE).
So I am starting to think that it is IE that is causing the doc files from OO (and maybe libre too ?)to be converted to garbage.
Now wouldn't that be interesting, so that if anyone accuses Micro$oft of playing unfair with their office suite by turning files from competitors office suites to garbage, they can say with their hands on their hearts, "no, our office suite will read Doc files from any and all other office suites", knowing all the time that as long as they have a good percentage of the browser market, they can make all other office suites instantly unusable.
Maybe this also applies to files pushed around an office by outlook exchanges, I don't know.
Slashdot Mirror
Are you seriously suggesting that Matt Smith was chosen for sex appeal?
but what about the bow tie ??, bow ties are cool, and sexy .........
problem is, its more likely to be Stephen Fry.
so we build a synapse, and then link to more, and more, and before you know it we have a "brain",
We could call it a Positronic Brain, sounds catchy, and marketable.
And we really should enforce some rules to prevent a 'skynet' occurrence, not too many rules though, ............
I'm sure we could distill the logic down to three simple rules
More than that... standardizing on a single spot for the cable would also require standardizing on certain dimensions for the phone itself
wrong
The whole range of iPones/iPods are all different dimensions, and all of them work with all of the different docks etc, most cases you just pop out a plastic base and pop in a different one and your iDockwhatever will work with anything from a nano to an iPhone 4s
How hard would it be for the dock manufacturers to come up with a clip in baseplate with a standard interface model the same.
in fact to take it further, the same dock could be used for iPhones and android phones by having a USB adaptor in the iPhone base (or visa versa)
Mod parent up.
It really is a case of iPhone (model is irrelevant) versus "not iPhone" in the marketplace.
If you buy an iPhone your are buying the latest software and it will be updated and upgraded over the normal life of the phone (yes i know that the early iPhones can't be upgraded to ios5, The majority of people replace their phones when their contract comes up, that is 2 years, so a 3 year life on the O/S is not important).
Android does not have that reputation. If you buy an android phone, does it have the latest software ?, what is the latest version of android anyway ? will it be upgraded, or is it upgradable ?
Android phones are being built to run the current version of android, and not much thought is being put into developing the ecosystem for pushing out the continuing upgrades and updates, after all, the manufacturer has your money, and if they upgrade your phone you won't want to buy the new version when it becomes available.
So part of the debate becomes, do you want android and a phone that may not even be capable of running the newest version of O/S (which is what ?, the average person is unaware/confused) or do you want an iPhone which (to most peoples perception) will always be updated automatically to the 'latest and greatest' version.
Apple sell an iPhone , 3 versions, but they are all the same phone, just more or less expensive, and 'more of that RAM stuff is good' so you buy the biggest one you can afford the plan for.
The Android market is more fragmented, Android as a sales feature is a meaningless term except it means "not apple" to most people,many users do not even know there is a difference between android and windows mobile and don't care !
And when the salesmen start talking about which version of android each phone in the shop is running, most customers eyes glaze over. Unfortunately then some customers buy the cheaper phone (running an older version of android) which then tarnishes the whole android experience. the end result is that the android market is fragmented, and apple win (yes i know there are more android phones being sold, but as a manufacturer apple are outselling all other manufacturers)
but he will vote to protect the money he has invested in Microsoft, Apple, IBM, or whatever, and these companies will lobby the government (and privately 'financially reward' senators, public servants and/or anyone else who can advance their cause) to protect and expand their profits at all costs.
Who do you think he will support when the police are called in (as they were in Australia), Wall st ?, or Occupy Wall St. ?
"Walk you unpatriotic, small-dicked paranoid liberal!"
Fixed it for you
America, Land of the free ......... for now
An Australian security company has developed and is selling to petrol stations and some other businesses a number plate recognition program that is capable (I have seen it in operation) of reading and identifying car number plates with reasonable (98% +) accuracy at a distance of about 50 Metres (Maybe more, but the one I saw was working at that distance) on cars driving on a normal suburban road (speed limit 60 Kmh).
With larger numbers such as the display numbers on a race car, or the vest on a foot racer I don't think it would have any difficulty. And for the racers who 'forget' to change their numbers across multiple vehicles, well I am sure that they could live with their personal results being posted a little later after someone had checked the image generated as they crossed the line.
In some events at the club level in rallying you are disqualified if you are not showing your numbers for the various judges and officials to easily identify you during the race (much as that goes against the general slashdot desire for privacy and anonymity at all times)
Just wait a little while. ..........
Now that the need has been demonstrated and the idea is planted.
before you know it.
there will be an app for that
Surely by now there is an app for that ?
Buy seriously. I am sad to see him go. Whether you liked him or not, no one can deny that he changed the world as we knew it.
On the contrary.
The hardware makers want to sell hardware, yes.
But one of their biggest problems is people recycling old hardware, Aunty joyce wants a computer so we buy an old one from an auction (say, for instance, an ex corporate machine that has been wiped),we install linux, and aunty joyce is happily on her way learning the joys of surfing the net, without us having to worry about cleaning her machine from all of those nasty windows infections every 6 months or so.
To the hardware manufacturers, this is a lost sale.
If the flood of second hand computer sales can be reduced to a trickle, then people will have to buy new, and, as a fringe benefit to Redmond, most people will buy computers with Windows because that is what they know, and it is the easy option.
And windows licences are (technically) non transferrable, so here is an ideal way to enforce that.
After all, if you can't re install the system to sell it with a clean install, who wants to sell a computer with their personal details on it, even if it is just the name you have given to the computer ?
and once this is accepted as valid for court, it will be used again and again
Because if you have no reason to hide then you have nothing to fear right ?
so having your employer track your car 24/7 is acceptable to you ?
Maybe they could just download GPS data from your (company supplied) phone and thats okay because you have nothing to hide, and it is the next logical step from GPSing your car. And of course only the wrong-doers will have a problem with this.
One guy I know worked as a medical rep for a large multinational company, making very good money. He also used to work as a stripper on weekends, often earning double or triple the average weekly wage from his weekend work.
Until his boss found out.
He was told that, although there was no reason why he could not work as a stripper on weekends, the company took a dim view of it and if he continued, it would be considered a basis for dismissal (personal life of a representative besmirching the 'good' name of the company), so much for the 'as long as i turn up on time and do my job, what i do in my own time is my own business' argument.
I might also add that at the time he was the best sales rep they had, often selling double or more against all the other reps for the state (and one of the top 3 in the country).
I might add that his boss only found out, because of a friend of a friend on Facebook.........
Running Windows 8 .......
Many people in Australia will be surprised to learn that this has been happening for a while.
Have you ever noticed the camera's mounted at service stations ? (petrol stations, gas stations choose the term that suits your nationality)
For the last 5 years or so most of those have been connected to a computer program that ID's the plates and often has a real time connection to a data base (Privately held I believe) containing a list of all the number plates of Vehicles that have driven off without paying for petrol, This Data base is shared with the police department and is updated in real time from all participating servo's (for drive offs), if a 'customer' drives off without paying, data is shared immediately with the local police division.
The database has (I have been informed) been updated lately to incorporate a section for stolen vehicles and other vehicles that are of interest to police ( all publicly available information ) as many of these vehicles are more likely to 'drive off', and, as a courtesy, if there is a match the police are informed....
The software was designed and written for a national security/locksmith company and has been rolled out across Australia, with no fuss, no noise, and in most cases installed without even informing the staff at the servo.
But then, if you have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear, right ?..............
One town council I used to deal with had its spam filter set in such a manner that many of the staff gave up on emails and just told all the contractors they dealt with to send them a fax.
If your email contained an image, it was blocked.
If it contained a link, it was blocked.
If it was from a different address than the return address (gmail anyone ?), it was blocked.
Even internal mails were sent to the main spam bin if they broke any of the rules, created the situation where the town planners had to drive from one building to another when they were discussing plans for the creation of a new disabled toilet for the town hall, because they couldn't send attachments from one computer to the other, and they were on the whitelist !
Mind you they have had very few virus(virii ?) there
Funny
Nearly all of the small businesses I know and deal with have an all in one machine, Printer, scanner (sheet fed), copier and Fax.
To send a fax, they load the document, dial the number, wait, and get a printed report, telling them that the document was received, which they staple to the document and file for legal proof (if required).
To email a document they load the document, back to their desk(in some cases on another floor of the building), activate scanning, scan into a file, go back to scanner, remove the document, back to desk, attach file to email, add notes to email, write notes on document recording email details etc. send, staple, file.
Its one trip to the Printer/scanner/fax not 2, (one particular luddite will then print his email to create a physical file, 3 trips to the printer every time for him).
Moo
BOOM !
"US Government Contracting: Selling useless crap at highly inflated prices to uniformed people for over 200 years."
Fixed it for you
this wouldn't happen if they just stuck to cool aid .........
And then of course, there is the fact that too many people make too much money from a war
Lets face it, There is much more money to be made from war than there is from a personal citizens VPN (I am sure corporate VPN's will be excepted, or, being pakistan, certain government officials will accept a small courtesy fee to not look at corporate VPN's)
In the interests of efficiency, most lights here in Melbourne have been converted to a triggered system.
The idea is that the main road (determined by some guru in a government department) has right of way and light changes are triggered by cars moving over sensors at the stop lines of the red lights, in some cases (though not all) they can detect 2 cars per lane. Of course the habit of many drivers to sit back a good car length from the stop lines often means that they do not get close enough to the coils in the road to properly trigger them and as a result you get a few drivers saying"to hell with it" and running through a red light after waiting for 10 minutes. It is really funny to then see the lights change a matter of moments after, in response to the car driving over the sense coils in the road.
The result is that there is no correct speed to catch the green light because there is no direct coordination between lights.
And one core to rule them all .......
no, wait, wrong story ........
Linux on the desktop ............
here is an interesting point
Many years ago I started to use open office, and i could send and receive files in MSO formats ,no problems
then something changed
when I emailed a file in doc format, sometimes it would get to its recipient as garbage, sometimes not.
if I took the file direct to them on a floppy (pre USB), no problems
so I started to send my files as PDF and no more problems, but i did some more investigating.
It seems that when my files were received as garbage, it was almost always that the person receiving them was using IE (6 or above), and it did not matter which office suite they were using.
However when the recipients of my files were using any other email program or if i took my files directly to them, that is to say, if I used any other delivery vector than IE, then, no problems.
Even to the extent that I was the sole person in a small office using OO up to the start of this year, any files I pushed around the office, or emailed to certain people (FF users) always worked fine, But the accounts person needed PDF's every time, (she used IE).
So I am starting to think that it is IE that is causing the doc files from OO (and maybe libre too ?)to be converted to garbage.
Now wouldn't that be interesting, so that if anyone accuses Micro$oft of playing unfair with their office suite by turning files from competitors office suites to garbage, they can say with their hands on their hearts, "no, our office suite will read Doc files from any and all other office suites", knowing all the time that as long as they have a good percentage of the browser market, they can make all other office suites instantly unusable.
Maybe this also applies to files pushed around an office by outlook exchanges, I don't know.
throwing Bruce Willis at an asteroid is no good
He doesn't have enough mass to deflect it sufficiently to make any difference, I don't care how 'larger than life' his characters are ..........