He purchased local stuff while in USA, but paid with his debit card. The goods probably never had to cross the border; and why any Canadian would want to buy consumer stuff in US to use in Canada? The same goods are sold in Canada, and for CDN$ too.
You have the solution already. The voter also has to build the machine, from parts, himself - or to verify that all the important parts are what they seem to be. Otherwise some faulty hardware can introduce errors too (such as YES and NO buttons swapped, for example... the software will not be able to see that.)
Since this is obviously impossible, the only remaining way to assure the voter is to simplify the "machine" to the level that anyone can understand it in seconds - such as a piece of paper. Even that can be made confusing, but at least the actual mechanism of a paper ballot is transparent and any alterations can be noticed; just print it on a check paper with security features.
So basically no machine can be trusted, and the more complex the machine becomes the less trusted it will be.
IMO, PGP is difficult because of WOT (Web Of Trust). If you have just 10 people in the company, each has to generate his own key and to sign 9 other keys - in total it requires 100 signings. When another person gets the key, all 10 should sign his key... and so on. In a company with 10,000 employees WOT is not possible at all.
Of course, it is not necessary to have so many signatures on your key, but it all depends on who trusts who, and that you don't know. That's why it is valuable to collect signatures - you can't unfold the WOT for a given recipient and at a given time (past, present or future.)
PGP was designed as a grassroots tool which exists on its own and grows where needed. But businesses need some central authority who certifies that you are you and gives you the key. But then how much hassle (and money) that will take? Who will be managing these keys for 10,000 employees if many companies (MS) fail to even renew their domains once a year? That is one serious expense, with no apparent business gain.
So basically PGP is difficult because it requires more effort on part of the user than the user is willing to contribute. It is possible to force PGP on users, but some users will be very unhappy.
Indeed, and what's wrong with a laptop for a teenager? At this price tag you can buy a mighty good laptop if you want, or two average ones. I think it would be a great advantage for a highly mobile young person to have his/her/its computer nearby, such as at school or at friend's home.
Probably, portables and laptops were the first all-in-one computers that had LCD. I even saw one portable with a plasma screen. I think all notebooks, starting from monochrome ones, had LCD. It is not too great a leap of thought to nail the notebook to the desk.
What applications, other than games, you are talking about? And a modern game requires a lot of performance. I haven't seen Doom 3, but Halo on a PC is very, very demanding. In particular, if your video card is cheaper than $100, forget it. And my guess is that this computer has integrated video in the chipset (which is unusable for anything beyond Solitaire.)
Yes, this is possible. A rocket can get to 30G, and you don't need it to arrive anywhere - simply detach the unit under test after you are done, and it will descend on a parachute.
Still, a centrifuge would be cheaper, and you can rent time on them already. Common centrifuges used for training of military pilots are designed to about 20G (since getting past that point would surely kill the trainee). Centrifuges for experimental work, like this one can do up to 75G.
Added convenience of a centrifuge is that you do your experiments on the ground, surrounded by your test equipment, power sources, and whatever else you need. Compare that to a drop test where you have to build a completely standalone package.
So the designers of that Genesis probe only had to call UC Davis and arrange for some test time. That's what they haven't done, and that's what ultimately caused the failure.
The problem here is that there's no way to test something like this
It is trivial to do 30G. You don't even have to drop the thing. If you can't rent a centrifuge, build one - it will cost peanuts in a project of this scope. And with that controlled acceleration you can test, non-destructively, all you want.
What was missing there is the will to do things right.
Yes, but would you like to prove that your transactions are legal? $10K transfer today is not something extraordinary; if you are a programmer and get paid once in two months, then you can have more than that per check. You can send some money to your parents once in a while, or your parents can send you, a student, some money to help you along. Your friend can borrow from you and then return the money. Examples are numerous.
The point is that once you allow someone to monitor what you do, sooner or later you will be also forced to explain why you do this and that.
Banks are controlled by FDIC, not by IRS: This report may be of use. The linked document lists exemptions from a general rule, and you can see what this rule is (any transaction above $10K is to be reported, unless you are exempt) - and you can read yourself through how many loops you must jump to be exempt.
Indeed. The same reasoning exists (and is valid) against national ID cards.
If you are in a hospital, put a bracelet on your hand, and tie a paper tag to it, and WRITE there "I, John F. Smith, is here because of headache. No invasive procedures are authorized." And have your doctor sign off on this paper tag if you want something done; nobody but you can remove the bracelet. Simple and easy.
The law does not say they have to inject you with a rice-thing to verify you are you.
Not yet. That's the problem here. Banks didn't always report on you either, but here we are... "Only terr'ists have an identity to hide", for example. Good luck arguing that; you'd need even better luck to convince Congress.
This will only create a market for "used" RFID chips, and quite a few people will have some bloody surgery performed on them with rusty knives in dark alleys. Then thieves can roam free as someone else, with stolen chips under the wristwatch band, and with their own chips shielded. Who would know, as long as some chip responds?
I'm fairly sure no hospital administrator would attempt to use the things in any way if they just complicate the process
Not unless it is mandated by the law. Banks hate to report your business transactions too (it costs them time) but they do because otherwise they would be ex-banks.
It would be completely unnoticeable, since the chip can be inserted into the hole in the skull bone (not all the way through, I hope.) Regular skull surgeries use far larger holes. The bone then grows back, and the chip will be completely buried. The cut in the skin could be just a few millimeters, and it will be invisible after a few days if made with proper tools (which it will be.)
In fact, many years ago I read a science fiction story where a villain used to implant obedience-inducing hardware into his victims' skulls without them even knowing it. In the story, it only took 15 minutes to cut the skin, drill a little into the bone, insert the chip and cover the cut with a glue (the glue exists for decades, BTW, and is used in some surgeries.) The victim just woke up after some sort of confusion and didn't know any better until the device started working.
It can imply some sort of permission. For example, you may be denied to enter a mall or a store if you don't have the chip. For example, you already are not allowed to enter the airport departure area without a ticket, though there is no good reason why you can't help your elderly parents all the way to the gate.
This permission thing is not very plausible now, since businesses want your money, and they will always want your money. But if the cash is outlawed overnight due to (insert your favorite scare here), this becomes very much a possibility, since the government can override natural business instincts, and quite harshly at that too.
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One major reason why this won't fly with businesspeople is... size. All "sales engineers" and other travelling public out there give presentations with their laptops; sometimes the laptop is all they have (no projector.) So they want to have at least 15" screen, and 17" monsters are also of interest. I see no reason for them to carry a bloated cell phone, it's of no use to them. Besides, many middle-aged people don't see very well any more, and 5" screen would be of no use to them just because of that.
Another reason is compatibility. PHBs like things as they are; typically, a PHB has a notebook as his main computer (maybe with a docking station at the office.) Then they unplug it and take their work with them. They don't want to manage 2 or 3 computers and synchronize files and applications and whatnot between them. Weight and size do not matter; convenience and compatibility matter a lot. For about $2K you can have the lightest, the thinnest, and the fastest (not that is needed!) Sony Vaio (or comparable) notebook, and that would be completely standard, completely traditional device that would do everything as the PHB likes to do it.
For example, IBM Thinkpad 240 has 800x600 LCD, but it is larger; still, some people say it is "too small to read". I guess 800x480 with size twice as small would be just a vision killer. Also, Thinkpad 240 (which is about 6 year old by now) has 6 GB HDD (which is plenty for the purpose), about 192 MB RAM, and PCMCIA (where I usually keep a 802.11b card). All that, together, can be had today for about $200 on eBay. Even new, this notebook was less than $2K back then.
So indeed, I see no use for the device, not for myself and not for anyone I know. Most people would just reject it on screen size/resolution alone. And what can you do with this thing anyway?
What you just described is called "phased antenna array". These are directional antennas, if they are properly aligned. If not aligned, they can be awfully inefficient.
Generally speaking, you can not have multiple antennas emitting non-synchronous signals because then you will get a lot of low frequency interference (beating) between adjacent cells. And it would be fairly difficult to phase-lock all the oscillators, though it is possible (by locking to GPS timing signals, for example.) If you do that, then you have to assign the proper phases to all the nodes, and then you get the antenna diagram that you need. Too much work, and too difficult, if you ask me.
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He purchased local stuff while in USA, but paid with his debit card. The goods probably never had to cross the border; and why any Canadian would want to buy consumer stuff in US to use in Canada? The same goods are sold in Canada, and for CDN$ too.
Since this is obviously impossible, the only remaining way to assure the voter is to simplify the "machine" to the level that anyone can understand it in seconds - such as a piece of paper. Even that can be made confusing, but at least the actual mechanism of a paper ballot is transparent and any alterations can be noticed; just print it on a check paper with security features.
So basically no machine can be trusted, and the more complex the machine becomes the less trusted it will be.
Of course, it is not necessary to have so many signatures on your key, but it all depends on who trusts who, and that you don't know. That's why it is valuable to collect signatures - you can't unfold the WOT for a given recipient and at a given time (past, present or future.)
PGP was designed as a grassroots tool which exists on its own and grows where needed. But businesses need some central authority who certifies that you are you and gives you the key. But then how much hassle (and money) that will take? Who will be managing these keys for 10,000 employees if many companies (MS) fail to even renew their domains once a year? That is one serious expense, with no apparent business gain.
So basically PGP is difficult because it requires more effort on part of the user than the user is willing to contribute. It is possible to force PGP on users, but some users will be very unhappy.
Indeed, and what's wrong with a laptop for a teenager? At this price tag you can buy a mighty good laptop if you want, or two average ones. I think it would be a great advantage for a highly mobile young person to have his/her/its computer nearby, such as at school or at friend's home.
Probably, portables and laptops were the first all-in-one computers that had LCD. I even saw one portable with a plasma screen. I think all notebooks, starting from monochrome ones, had LCD. It is not too great a leap of thought to nail the notebook to the desk.
What applications, other than games, you are talking about? And a modern game requires a lot of performance. I haven't seen Doom 3, but Halo on a PC is very, very demanding. In particular, if your video card is cheaper than $100, forget it. And my guess is that this computer has integrated video in the chipset (which is unusable for anything beyond Solitaire.)
Maybe; but this thing probably won't run any of modern games (above 1 fps, that is.)
Still, a centrifuge would be cheaper, and you can rent time on them already. Common centrifuges used for training of military pilots are designed to about 20G (since getting past that point would surely kill the trainee). Centrifuges for experimental work, like this one can do up to 75G.
Added convenience of a centrifuge is that you do your experiments on the ground, surrounded by your test equipment, power sources, and whatever else you need. Compare that to a drop test where you have to build a completely standalone package.
So the designers of that Genesis probe only had to call UC Davis and arrange for some test time. That's what they haven't done, and that's what ultimately caused the failure.
Use Konqueror and delete the files into trash.
That's a fairy tale. Besides, who could possibly keep "in his head" millions of highly detailed and constantly changing drawings?
It is trivial to do 30G. You don't even have to drop the thing. If you can't rent a centrifuge, build one - it will cost peanuts in a project of this scope. And with that controlled acceleration you can test, non-destructively, all you want.
What was missing there is the will to do things right.
The point is that once you allow someone to monitor what you do, sooner or later you will be also forced to explain why you do this and that.
Banks are controlled by FDIC, not by IRS: This report may be of use. The linked document lists exemptions from a general rule, and you can see what this rule is (any transaction above $10K is to be reported, unless you are exempt) - and you can read yourself through how many loops you must jump to be exempt.
If you are in a hospital, put a bracelet on your hand, and tie a paper tag to it, and WRITE there "I, John F. Smith, is here because of headache. No invasive procedures are authorized." And have your doctor sign off on this paper tag if you want something done; nobody but you can remove the bracelet. Simple and easy.
Not yet. That's the problem here. Banks didn't always report on you either, but here we are... "Only terr'ists have an identity to hide", for example. Good luck arguing that; you'd need even better luck to convince Congress.
This will only create a market for "used" RFID chips, and quite a few people will have some bloody surgery performed on them with rusty knives in dark alleys. Then thieves can roam free as someone else, with stolen chips under the wristwatch band, and with their own chips shielded. Who would know, as long as some chip responds?
Not unless it is mandated by the law. Banks hate to report your business transactions too (it costs them time) but they do because otherwise they would be ex-banks.
In fact, many years ago I read a science fiction story where a villain used to implant obedience-inducing hardware into his victims' skulls without them even knowing it. In the story, it only took 15 minutes to cut the skin, drill a little into the bone, insert the chip and cover the cut with a glue (the glue exists for decades, BTW, and is used in some surgeries.) The victim just woke up after some sort of confusion and didn't know any better until the device started working.
This permission thing is not very plausible now, since businesses want your money, and they will always want your money. But if the cash is outlawed overnight due to (insert your favorite scare here), this becomes very much a possibility, since the government can override natural business instincts, and quite harshly at that too.
Another reason is compatibility. PHBs like things as they are; typically, a PHB has a notebook as his main computer (maybe with a docking station at the office.) Then they unplug it and take their work with them. They don't want to manage 2 or 3 computers and synchronize files and applications and whatnot between them. Weight and size do not matter; convenience and compatibility matter a lot. For about $2K you can have the lightest, the thinnest, and the fastest (not that is needed!) Sony Vaio (or comparable) notebook, and that would be completely standard, completely traditional device that would do everything as the PHB likes to do it.
So indeed, I see no use for the device, not for myself and not for anyone I know. Most people would just reject it on screen size/resolution alone. And what can you do with this thing anyway?
Well, even assuming that the cigar dude is too dumb to think on his own, why couldn't he ask the Japanese physics genius to make some fire? :-)
Everybody knows that Jinx is a planet: Jinx is also home to the mysterious Bandersnatchi, gigantic creatures who could not have evolved here
Because they steal notebooks. A thief with a brain, who reads Sun Tzu, steals millions, and nobody even notices.
Generally speaking, you can not have multiple antennas emitting non-synchronous signals because then you will get a lot of low frequency interference (beating) between adjacent cells. And it would be fairly difficult to phase-lock all the oscillators, though it is possible (by locking to GPS timing signals, for example.) If you do that, then you have to assign the proper phases to all the nodes, and then you get the antenna diagram that you need. Too much work, and too difficult, if you ask me.