Everybody's a sinner, pal, and if these fucking bastards have their way, everyone will be treated like the criminal they are -- with the exception, of course, of the "chosen few".
There's no such thing as a non-volatile storage medium. Vinyl scratches, warps, dries out and cracks, breaks easily, etc. CDs get scratched, degrade over several decades, can crack, be broken, etc. Magnetic tape is the same except it also can get erased. Hard drives die. NOTHING is 100% safe, and purely digital formats like MP3 and AAC can get LOST when the device or media it's on crashes, breaks, or dies. Better back all those up in three or more places, pal.
I just read this Business Week article that talks about a test program they did in Washington, where a change in line frequency was used to trigger appliances and air conditioners to shut off.
Personally, I'd never voluntarily participate in a 3rd party controlling my electric usage, and if it were forced on me I'd disable their ability to do so. If my house is too hot then I should be able to cool it down, or if I need clean clothes then I'm going to do what must be done, not be late getting to work or any other appointment because someone else decided to shut my dryer off.
If their fu is strong enough to get through all that security then how much of a leap is it for them to take control of any computer on the LAN and proxy through it or just do their dirty business through it?
As far as I'm concerned the real issue is whether the contents of the bible are historical fact, a less than factual account of historical events, or pure fiction (or some combination of all the above). If you want to look at that book from the perspective of how it's been used in the modern era, then it's the most completely worthless and potentially the most destructive printed work known to man, because every asshole and his brother spins the damned thing to mean anything they want it to so they can justify whatever crimes against humanity they're looking for an excuse to commit.
An entertaining idea, but seriously I think perhaps this scientist (and I use the word loosely here) read too much of Jack Chalker'sWell World novels when he was a kid.
1. If seti@home sparks your imagination, then use your computer to further that project's goals to your heart's content. It's your hardware, and your electric bill, to do with as you please. Naysayers can piss off.
2. I've seen one too many "it's a waste of time" posts. I suppose all you pinheads out there never take a chance on ANYthing, ever, your whole life? Bullshit, of course you do. If nobody ever took a chance on something that some people said was "pointless" then we WOULD still be living in caves, wearing untanned animal skins, etcetera. In any event, not your business to be telling others what they should and should not be doing with their time/energy/money.
3. If you're one of the Anonymous Coward naysayers: DO NOT WANT, kthnxbye.:p
I, and others I'm sure, leave their computers on 24/7 for other reasons, why not use that resource for something? Oh, so far as using it for medical research or somesuch: Is Big Pharma going to PAY me for my CPU time? If not then they can bite me, because that Cure for Cancer I'd theoretically be helping find, would come with a BIG price tag if I found myself in need of it, and you KNOW that.
I'm curious: Do you feel the same way about all space-based ventures? Are manned orbital missions and space probes also a waste of money in your opinion?
Probably true -- except that if there are other intelligent races out there, they've probably been unwittingly transmitting their equivalent of radio and television entertainment out into space for at least as long as we have, and the way things are going here it's very likely in that case that their entertainment is orders of magnitude higher in quality than what we've been turning out for the last few decades.;)
At least you had the guts to stand behind that statement by NOT posting it anonymously. I don't think the two things have to be mutually exclusive, though.
I don't know what's up with this so-called story, but the link provided in the story (along with the entire domain it comes from) is requiring username/password authentication, and in the fist 10 comments someone is alleging that the story is a complete fake to start with. WTF? Someone please take the story down until someone makes sense out of it?
So, by providing internet content that doesn't require the use of an alphabet or language that most Russians or Chinese don't master, Russia and China thereby "cut their populations off from the public internet." Good one.
Last time I checked, isn't China censoring the living daylights out of the internet already? Is it really that far of a reach to say that they'd like to create their very own version of the internet, that they 100% control? If you can accept that then is it that much further to go to believe that some other government might think about doing the same?
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"Fnord" indeed, sir!!!
Everybody's a sinner, pal, and if these fucking bastards have their way, everyone will be treated like the criminal they are -- with the exception, of course, of the "chosen few".
You know, it makes perfect sense that a classic master like Beethoven would be fucking Britney Spears. After all, he was deaf, wasn't he?
Now get off my lawn.
I just read this Business Week article that talks about a test program they did in Washington, where a change in line frequency was used to trigger appliances and air conditioners to shut off. Personally, I'd never voluntarily participate in a 3rd party controlling my electric usage, and if it were forced on me I'd disable their ability to do so. If my house is too hot then I should be able to cool it down, or if I need clean clothes then I'm going to do what must be done, not be late getting to work or any other appointment because someone else decided to shut my dryer off.
I wouldn't at all be surprised if the main fallout from this stupid, purile prank, is that the manufacturer of TV-B-GONE gets in trouble over it.
What about going from digital to analog and then back to digital?
*shrug* I'll bet you that it'll take a whole day for someone to come out with a piece of software that filters out any watermarking scheme they use.
But, the RIAA will likely be going away soon, so no worries there ;)
Anybody have any information on how energy from the ethanol from fermenting this grass compares to using the same acreage for solar power generation?
Batteries don't cut it yet is what you should be saying. Battery technology has not yet reached it's pinnacle.
If their fu is strong enough to get through all that security then how much of a leap is it for them to take control of any computer on the LAN and proxy through it or just do their dirty business through it?
As far as I'm concerned the real issue is whether the contents of the bible are historical fact, a less than factual account of historical events, or pure fiction (or some combination of all the above). If you want to look at that book from the perspective of how it's been used in the modern era, then it's the most completely worthless and potentially the most destructive printed work known to man, because every asshole and his brother spins the damned thing to mean anything they want it to so they can justify whatever crimes against humanity they're looking for an excuse to commit.
No effing way I'd ever use something like that. It's bad enough that I allow myself to store email addresses of people I know online.
An entertaining idea, but seriously I think perhaps this scientist (and I use the word loosely here) read too much of Jack Chalker's Well World novels when he was a kid.
Screw Microsoft. If I were to start up my very own server farm, I'd use LAMP.
They can shove an asteroid up their intergalactic ass -- just like our terrestrial counterparts can. ;)
2. I've seen one too many "it's a waste of time" posts. I suppose all you pinheads out there never take a chance on ANYthing, ever, your whole life? Bullshit, of course you do. If nobody ever took a chance on something that some people said was "pointless" then we WOULD still be living in caves, wearing untanned animal skins, etcetera. In any event, not your business to be telling others what they should and should not be doing with their time/energy/money.
3. If you're one of the Anonymous Coward naysayers: DO NOT WANT, kthnxbye. :p
I, and others I'm sure, leave their computers on 24/7 for other reasons, why not use that resource for something? Oh, so far as using it for medical research or somesuch: Is Big Pharma going to PAY me for my CPU time? If not then they can bite me, because that Cure for Cancer I'd theoretically be helping find, would come with a BIG price tag if I found myself in need of it, and you KNOW that.
I'm curious: Do you feel the same way about all space-based ventures? Are manned orbital missions and space probes also a waste of money in your opinion?
Probably true -- except that if there are other intelligent races out there, they've probably been unwittingly transmitting their equivalent of radio and television entertainment out into space for at least as long as we have, and the way things are going here it's very likely in that case that their entertainment is orders of magnitude higher in quality than what we've been turning out for the last few decades. ;)
At least you had the guts to stand behind that statement by NOT posting it anonymously. I don't think the two things have to be mutually exclusive, though.
I don't know what's up with this so-called story, but the link provided in the story (along with the entire domain it comes from) is requiring username/password authentication, and in the fist 10 comments someone is alleging that the story is a complete fake to start with. WTF? Someone please take the story down until someone makes sense out of it?
Last time I checked, isn't China censoring the living daylights out of the internet already? Is it really that far of a reach to say that they'd like to create their very own version of the internet, that they 100% control? If you can accept that then is it that much further to go to believe that some other government might think about doing the same?
'nuff said. Talk about capitalism gone bad! I hope they get the crap sued out of them over this.