Isaac Asimov wrote an excellent short story about scientists who committed suicide for no good reason, comparing it to bacteria that try to escape their part of the petri dish or something.
That's what I think about when I think about this.
Re:Not just biometrics-- corporations too
on
National Biometric IDs
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· Score: 2, Informative
California already requires a thumbprint when getting a driver's license. Driving is a privilege, not a right, so if you don't want to give them your thumb print, you don't get your driver's license.
Yes, using any encryption is a violation. Using authentication is not a violation. PGP signing is okay, PGP encrypting is not.
It's not practical for most users. It *is* practical for people who want to set up a network of repeaters -- think of multiple repeaters on different mountaintops linked together by Pringles can antennas and 802.11b-ish devices. One base station to link them to the internet, and you've got an awesome wide-area i-gate for APRS.
Go to this link for yesterday's legislative activities and click on "obtain a list of all bills introduced yesterday", and it's number 11 of 63. The bill's number is S.2048.
Only a fool would use their government-issued public/private key for anything.
If they handed you the private key, they have a copy of it themselves. If you use that key and it becomes associated with you, then they can use that key and claim you used it. That's enough of a deterrent for me, thanks.
I've been online for more than half my life, and well over half my relationships have been with women I've known from online. Sometimes it's stuff like IRC or MU*'s, sometimes it's Usenet, sometimes it's the web. The most important thing, though, regardless of how you meet someone online, is to be yourself.
If you're a geek in real life, be a geek online. While some women might be impressed with those Lord Byron quotes you snagged off the web, it's more likely that you'll have better luck finding a compatible woman if you remind her that Shakespeare sounds better in the original Klingon -- that is, if you're into Star Trek. Finding ways to describe yourself and the things you like and find interesting without saying "I" is challenging, but often helps begin the process of communication. Talk to her. Listen to her. Ask questions if you don't understand. Ask questions if you _do_ understand. Communicate about interesting things as well as trivia. The more you learn about her, the more likely it is that you'll realize whether she's good for you -- and vice versa, of course.
The added bonus of this approach is that you've quite possibly made a friend, regardless of where the romance leads. And for most geeks (like me), those friends are valuable, and few and far between.
I name my computers after Disney characters -- the Unix machines traditionally get named after heroines, and the Windows machines after heros.
But that doesn't mean I can't use this naming scheme to describe the functions of the machine at the same time.
Here's a list of names and their explanations: belle - the machine with the prettiest screen duchess - the server machine mulan - the firewall bianca - the offsite Unix box bernard - the offsite windows box toulouse, berloiz, marie - workstations jasmine - the machine that never can stay up (it always goes down) esmerelda - the machine with two large removable disks stacked on top
Yes, the last two are pretty bad. But I know exactly which machines they all are, and most anyone who comes over can guess more than half the names.
Jack. (why yes, I do have a big electric bill -- why do you ask?)
Slashdot Mirror
I own a collection of ancient computers made by AT&T, and a few years ago I drafted a bequest to fund the porting of a free version of Unix to them.
Nice to see someone doing this for the Xbox, but it's a shame that NetBSD isn't an option.
Isaac Asimov wrote an excellent short story about
scientists who committed suicide for no good reason, comparing it to bacteria that try to escape their part of the petri dish or something.
That's what I think about when I think about this.
California already requires a thumbprint when getting a driver's license. Driving is a privilege, not a right, so if you don't want to give them your thumb print, you don't get your driver's license.
It may be too late in some ways in some places.
Yes, using any encryption is a violation. Using authentication is not a violation. PGP signing is okay, PGP encrypting is not.
It's not practical for most users. It *is* practical for people who want to set up a network of repeaters -- think of multiple repeaters on different mountaintops linked together by Pringles can antennas and 802.11b-ish devices. One base station to link them to the internet, and you've got an awesome wide-area i-gate for APRS.
Go to this link for yesterday's legislative activities and click on "obtain a list of all bills introduced yesterday", and it's number 11 of 63. The bill's number is S.2048.
Only a fool would use their government-issued public/private key for anything.
If they handed you the private key, they have a copy of it themselves. If you use that key and it becomes associated with you, then they can use that key and claim you used it. That's enough of a deterrent for me, thanks.
And I'm not even the most paranoid of my friends.
That'd solve the pesky "key escrow" problem, as yet another added bonus.
Yes, but now you're depending on people to play solitaire well.
Not the sort of thing I'd rely on in a business plan.
So when will some museum build one of these things
out of tinkertoys?
I've been online for more than half my life, and well over half my relationships have been with women I've known from online. Sometimes it's stuff like IRC or MU*'s, sometimes it's Usenet, sometimes it's the web. The most important thing, though, regardless of how you meet someone online, is to be yourself.
If you're a geek in real life, be a geek online. While some women might be impressed with those Lord Byron quotes you snagged off the web, it's more likely that you'll have better luck finding a compatible woman if you remind her that Shakespeare sounds better in the original Klingon -- that is, if you're into Star Trek. Finding ways to describe yourself and the things you like and find interesting without saying "I" is challenging, but often helps begin the process of communication. Talk to her. Listen to her. Ask questions if you don't understand. Ask questions if you _do_ understand. Communicate about interesting things as well as trivia. The more you learn about her, the more likely it is that you'll realize whether she's good for you -- and vice versa, of course.
The added bonus of this approach is that you've quite possibly made a friend, regardless of where the romance leads. And for most geeks (like me), those friends are valuable, and few and far between.
I name my computers after Disney characters -- the Unix machines traditionally get named after heroines, and the Windows machines after heros.
But that doesn't mean I can't use this naming scheme to describe the functions of the machine at the same time.
Here's a list of names and their explanations:
belle - the machine with the prettiest screen
duchess - the server machine
mulan - the firewall
bianca - the offsite Unix box
bernard - the offsite windows box
toulouse, berloiz, marie - workstations
jasmine - the machine that never can stay up (it always goes down)
esmerelda - the machine with two large removable disks stacked on top
Yes, the last two are pretty bad. But I know exactly which machines they all are, and most anyone who comes over can guess more than half the names.
Jack.
(why yes, I do have a big electric bill -- why do you ask?)