I would argue that the police at any level don't enforce the law - they clean up the messes that happen when the law is broken. Nothing can change that, and every attempt to do so degrades us.
If you're worried about who's going to protect you, remember, looking out for your safety falls into the same category as defecating and love making - you can't have someone else do it for you.
The same things that protect my files from prying eyes on the networks I'm connected to right now. Firewalls, encryption, passwords, os/filesystem permissions, etc.
You have to remember the reasons why mass production is usually cheaper. A couple assupmtions may not be valid any more.
1: Tooling. Lots of things usually require specialized tooling to manufacture quickly and efficiently. The cost of tooling can only be effectivly amortized when you use it a lot. This doesn't necessarily hold true when you can get same result with cheaper, more flexible tools.
2: Time. When you want to build a whole lot of something it makes sense to split up the job and assign people to different parallel tasks. This allows you to make more efficient use of labor. But the cost of the hobbyist's time is nil. They do it for fun.
Take a look here. Although they try to sound neutral on the issue, it's my opinion that taking a neutral stance on a basic freedom is qualitativly the same as denying it altoether.
You should be aware that the ACLU takes the "collective right" interpretation of the second ammendment, which I can only see as undermining their sincerity in their supposed commitment to really protecting personal liberties.
This really isn't all as expensive as you might imagine. I work for a small electronics manufacturing company here in the US (The website is out of date, we currently have two Assembleon Opal XIIs and a seven zone BTU Pyramax oven). Among other things I program, set up, and maintain the Pick-and-Place machines. A simple production line capable of producing around 5-8000 motherboard sized boards a month may cost less than $750,000. A facility like the one shown in the article should cost well under $50 million. Interestingly, I expect a lot of this kind of manufacturing may move back to the US, since the cost of equipment is the same everywhere and the degree of automation makes labor costs nil.
We would have leap years regardless because we want our years to have an integer number of days in them. Our measures of days and years are based on astronomical reality because no one wants to end up with 12 PM to happening right at sunset or to get the fall equinox happening in June. This is why we have leap years and seconds - to keep our mathematical approximations in line with what's actually happening.
Actually I'm pretty sure a day is defined as how long it takes the earth to make one revolution on it's axis.
Re:Engineering within limits brings great results
on
Where's My 10 Ghz PC?
·
· Score: 1
It's "well regulated militia", meaning "properly equipped and practiced" by the phraseology of the late 1700's, not "managed and organized".
Re:Engineering within limits brings great results
on
Where's My 10 Ghz PC?
·
· Score: 1
If you had actually read through the document to the conclusion you would see that the second amendment secures an individual right to keep and bear arms. The militia clause is explanatory but without function with regard to how the right is applied. You don't have to be a member of the press to enjoy the protections of the first amendment, do you? Also you may note that the unorganized militia is legally composed of all able bodied adults.
Re:Engineering within limits brings great results
on
Where's My 10 Ghz PC?
·
· Score: 1
Official opinion on what the Second Ammendment to the US Constitution means, from the Office of Legal Counsel for the Attorney General of the the United States.
I think the numbers quoted work out to more like a 25000x gain. But if the inverse square law held perfectly true they could get about a 6100x increase in distance going from 40.6 microwatts to one watt.
Re:horrible aerodynamic drag on paddle-wheel tires
on
Reinventing the Wheel
·
· Score: 1
It looks very similar to the patterns used on many conventional wheels, I don't think that's going to be a big problem.
I'm not asking because I don't know. I'm asking because I want to hear what your (or anyone else's) answer is.
Government derives it's authority and legitimacy from the social contract. The legitimacy of the social contract (IMHO, and the opinion of some notable others) is contingient on the ability of individual members of the society to explicitly deny and/or renegotiate the contract. Most people don't think a contract should be binding if it is only agreed to under duress (and believe me, the government will put some serious duress down on you if you reject their contract and refuse to pay taxes).
I'm really not trying to be a shithead. But how legitimate is the consent of the people when it is obtained under threat of violence? Most people don't want any trouble so they'll tolerate quite a bit of thuggery before they decide somthing has to change. The Mafia and Government both obtain implicit consent for what they do by threat of retribution, and knowing not to squeeze quite too hard.
Because the mafia doesn't build roads, provide infrastructure, provide for a justice system, set up fair trade laws, negotiate with foreign governments, and all the other things that are necessary for societies to function.
Actually there are numerous instances where the mafia (or other organized criminals) did do most of those things. Organized crime usually forms out of economic or social necessity, just like government. It also operates with the consent (obtained by knowing just how hard they can squeeze before people start shooting back) of the people under it's thumb, just like government
Oh yeah, and we're supposed to have a voice in that process, but with the Republicans in charge that's pretty much an anachronism. But if you don't like it, you can vote to change things. Just because you're a spoiled brat doesn't mean everyone is.
I regularly vote to change things. The fact that I have strong opinions that are different from your's doesn't make me a "spoiled brat". BTW, ever heard of the tyranny of the majority? Democracy is often two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch.
I pay my taxes willingly, thanks. I'll take your "you're an idiot" comment as already spoken. But I believe supporting your country means putting your money where your mouth is.
I agree with you that "supporting your country means putting your money where your mouth is", but I also think the opposite applies. In my opinion all taxes should be paid willingly, without the threat of violence and imprisonment. I'm glad that you feel good about the taxes you pay, but do you really think it's morally right to initiate violence against those who don't feel so good about giving their hard earned money to fund a system they don't belive in? I believe that if taxes were voluntary it would go a lot further towards making the voice of the people heard than voting alone. This would force more accountability and efficiency from government spending. I'm aware this would require additional checks and balances to prevent the very wealthy from "buying" the government (but how is that any different from what we have now?).
Hell, one of our embedded systems uses two 4MHz Z80s (no joke!). We have a newer replacement design that uses an AMD SC520 (486@133MHz), but we still manufacture and sell a few hundred of the Z80 based systems per year.
Re:What's a dead virus?
on
HIV Vaccine
·
· Score: 1
I'd assume that it's a virus that's "broken" enough to be no longer able to infect host cells.
Isn't it possible that the quality of work after some point is so bad that it actually takes as much or more time to fix it as it did to do it in the first place? If that's the case, it's not just diminishing returns - it's negative returns.
Slashdot Mirror
I would argue that the police at any level don't enforce the law - they clean up the messes that happen when the law is broken. Nothing can change that, and every attempt to do so degrades us.
If you're worried about who's going to protect you, remember, looking out for your safety falls into the same category as defecating and love making - you can't have someone else do it for you.
The same things that protect my files from prying eyes on the networks I'm connected to right now. Firewalls, encryption, passwords, os/filesystem permissions, etc.
You have to remember the reasons why mass production is usually cheaper. A couple assupmtions may not be valid any more.
1: Tooling. Lots of things usually require specialized tooling to manufacture quickly and efficiently. The cost of tooling can only be effectivly amortized when you use it a lot. This doesn't necessarily hold true when you can get same result with cheaper, more flexible tools.
2: Time. When you want to build a whole lot of something it makes sense to split up the job and assign people to different parallel tasks. This allows you to make more efficient use of labor. But the cost of the hobbyist's time is nil. They do it for fun.
Take a look here. Although they try to sound neutral on the issue, it's my opinion that taking a neutral stance on a basic freedom is qualitativly the same as denying it altoether.
You should be aware that the ACLU takes the "collective right" interpretation of the second ammendment, which I can only see as undermining their sincerity in their supposed commitment to really protecting personal liberties.
50,000 feet results in an extra 100 microsecond delay (round trip). I wouldn't worry about it.
This really isn't all as expensive as you might imagine. I work for a small electronics manufacturing company here in the US (The website is out of date, we currently have two Assembleon Opal XIIs and a seven zone BTU Pyramax oven). Among other things I program, set up, and maintain the Pick-and-Place machines. A simple production line capable of producing around 5-8000 motherboard sized boards a month may cost less than $750,000. A facility like the one shown in the article should cost well under $50 million. Interestingly, I expect a lot of this kind of manufacturing may move back to the US, since the cost of equipment is the same everywhere and the degree of automation makes labor costs nil.
not when it's accelerating. sort of.
We would have leap years regardless because we want our years to have an integer number of days in them. Our measures of days and years are based on astronomical reality because no one wants to end up with 12 PM to happening right at sunset or to get the fall equinox happening in June. This is why we have leap years and seconds - to keep our mathematical approximations in line with what's actually happening.
Actually I'm pretty sure a day is defined as how long it takes the earth to make one revolution on it's axis.
It's "well regulated militia", meaning "properly equipped and practiced" by the phraseology of the late 1700's, not "managed and organized".
If you had actually read through the document to the conclusion you would see that the second amendment secures an individual right to keep and bear arms. The militia clause is explanatory but without function with regard to how the right is applied. You don't have to be a member of the press to enjoy the protections of the first amendment, do you? Also you may note that the unorganized militia is legally composed of all able bodied adults.
Official opinion on what the Second Ammendment to the US Constitution means, from the Office of Legal Counsel for the Attorney General of the the United States.
www.usdoj.gov/olc/secondamendment2.htm
I think the numbers quoted work out to more like a 25000x gain. But if the inverse square law held perfectly true they could get about a 6100x increase in distance going from 40.6 microwatts to one watt.
It looks very similar to the patterns used on many conventional wheels, I don't think that's going to be a big problem.
Just FYI for people that may respond to point #3:
http://www.usdoj.gov/olc/secondamendment2.htm
Yeah! it worked for drugs, didn't it?
The real "only real way" to stop spam is to make it unprofitable. Don't ask me how though.
You say that like it's a bad thing. If the people want somthing bad enough they'll ante up for it, if not, it probably wasn't that important anyway.
I'm not asking because I don't know. I'm asking because I want to hear what your (or anyone else's) answer is.
Government derives it's authority and legitimacy from the social contract. The legitimacy of the social contract (IMHO, and the opinion of some notable others) is contingient on the ability of individual members of the society to explicitly deny and/or renegotiate the contract. Most people don't think a contract should be binding if it is only agreed to under duress (and believe me, the government will put some serious duress down on you if you reject their contract and refuse to pay taxes).
I'm really not trying to be a shithead. But how legitimate is the consent of the people when it is obtained under threat of violence? Most people don't want any trouble so they'll tolerate quite a bit of thuggery before they decide somthing has to change. The Mafia and Government both obtain implicit consent for what they do by threat of retribution, and knowing not to squeeze quite too hard.
Actually there are numerous instances where the mafia (or other organized criminals) did do most of those things. Organized crime usually forms out of economic or social necessity, just like government. It also operates with the consent (obtained by knowing just how hard they can squeeze before people start shooting back) of the people under it's thumb, just like government
I regularly vote to change things. The fact that I have strong opinions that are different from your's doesn't make me a "spoiled brat". BTW, ever heard of the tyranny of the majority? Democracy is often two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch.
I agree with you that "supporting your country means putting your money where your mouth is", but I also think the opposite applies. In my opinion all taxes should be paid willingly, without the threat of violence and imprisonment. I'm glad that you feel good about the taxes you pay, but do you really think it's morally right to initiate violence against those who don't feel so good about giving their hard earned money to fund a system they don't belive in? I believe that if taxes were voluntary it would go a lot further towards making the voice of the people heard than voting alone. This would force more accountability and efficiency from government spending. I'm aware this would require additional checks and balances to prevent the very wealthy from "buying" the government (but how is that any different from what we have now?).
So explain how government taxation is different from the mafia forcing you to pay "protection" money, or demanding a cut of your business.
Hint: It's not
Hell, one of our embedded systems uses two 4MHz Z80s (no joke!). We have a newer replacement design that uses an AMD SC520 (486@133MHz), but we still manufacture and sell a few hundred of the Z80 based systems per year.
I'd assume that it's a virus that's "broken" enough to be no longer able to infect host cells.
Isn't it possible that the quality of work after some point is so bad that it actually takes as much or more time to fix it as it did to do it in the first place? If that's the case, it's not just diminishing returns - it's negative returns.