And we aren't bickering about "2 accidents". We are bickering about a systemic lack of respect for safety or cost.
I don't know if you have read through the entire German report. It was scary. Very scary. Think of your average office pettiness. Now imagine that with lives at stake. Now imagine if reason did NOT prevail in the end. Management was playing legalise with the laws of nature.
Nature was not swayed by their arguments, and there are 7 dead people as a result. I think we can spare a year or two to weed those responsible for this mess out of positions of power.
It may look to the outside like knitpicking. But rights have to defended or they lack all meaning. And we seldom get to pick and choose our adversaries, or the time of battle.
Some simple math. Every pound you take with you is several more pounds of fuel that are needed to get you there.
How much of the space shuttle's "heavy lift" capability is wasted on the airframe and landing gear? A lot. Indeed, the SRB's are a giant fudge factor to get the whole mess off the ground.
The Scene: A police interrogation room. The stereotypical bare lightbulb, and good and bad cop are present. Two suspects in technician's outfits sit across from the officers. Enter the Sprint man...
First Suspect:You see, I told him to "Stop clowning and see to your work."
Second Suspect: But I thought he said to "Start downing the Cingular network."
No, no, it's the lawnmower man this time. The dumbass didn't quite realize that trying to ring all the phones in the world would be as complicated as it was...
Change then ending for the releases sent out to Screeners. Something signifigantly different that what the movie-goers would see.
In fact, distribute a couple of different endings just to confuse the living crap out of everybody. Hell, they do it already with Video and DVD's. (For the love of God, where can I get a NON director's cut of Blade Runner and Das Boot! The fluffing toy sub shots ruined the entire mood of the film.)
At the same time, folks would HAVE to go to the movies to find out how the movie actually end. They would also drain far more resources having to download multiple version of the film, and watch them all the way through, never sure what will change.
But in the grand scheme of things, Linus's chief role in Linux development is that of project head.
He does not code every new change himself. Indeed, peering through Gentoo's portage system, there are several competing versions of the Linux Kernel. Different factions develop different elements, and they eventually get folded back into the "Linus" branch:
AC - Alan Cox's Kernel
GRSec - GR Security
MM - Andrew Morton's Kernel
Mosix - Transparent Clustering
RSBac - Rule Set Based Access Control (RSBAC)
SELinux - The NSA's locked down Kernel
Usermode - The Kernel hacked with special usermode security
Sages do not display themselves, therefore they are illuminated. They do not define themselves, therefore they are distinguished. They do not make claims, therefore they are credited. They do not boast, therefore they advance. Since, indeed, they do not compete, the world cannot compete with them.
Not every great thinker is a Demagogue. Looking at the amount Linus has changed our world, can you think of anyone from 1991 that has had as big a sustained impact?
Some change comes from behind the scenes, by folks who are just happy to do. The puppies who need to be patted on the head and told how famous and important they are can kiss my behind.
Yes, but this problem is NOT computable. More DATA is not the same as more INFORMATION. A fact is only useful in context, and it takes the human brain decades to learn the subtle ways that data fits together. Assuming they learn at all.
Case in point. I wrote a workorder system to track exhibit repairs. The CEO gets wind of this, and focuses his attention on one number: the number of devices down. After a while we had to normalize the number as a percentage, because as traveling exhibits come and go, we take down old galleries, and erect new ones the number of exhibits changes.
There are times when the total number of devices in the building is artificially low, especially when a traveling exhibit has left. At these times, takeing a device down for repairs suddenly shreds the performance statistic. 20 device out of 400 looks a lot worse than 20 devices out of 600.
I get shit from the director of the exhibit repair department, who got shit from the CEO, because all of the sudden our numbers have plunged overnight. They blame the computer, but in fact it's the flawed counting method that is the problem.
I've devised more accurate ways to measure performance, but it's "too complicated" for the VP's to understand. They like their simple percentage.
Unfortunately for us all, most positions of authority, law enforcement included, like "simple percentages" too. That's why (despite countless studies proving otherwise) they insist on racial and ethnic profiling. They are looking for a way to generate a list of "usual suspects" to harass that would otherwise not come to the attention of the local gentry.
Instead of the color of your skin, or a funny accent, they will key in on your overdue library books and your trips to Atlantic City. None of this would be admissible in court, mind you, until they managed to catch you doing something based off of their "information."
The system brought the suspect to our attention after the credit card purchase of several Guinesses from one of our informants at an Irish Festival. The Festival is a known haven for IRA supporters and operatives. Further purchases connected him to the Polish branch of the Russian Mob, owing to his taste in stuffed cabbage and peirogies at a Polaski Day celebration.
The suspect then attemted to avoid detection by paying in cash for the Spanish-American festival, leading us to suspect some narcotics connection.
His residence, next to festival pier at Penn's Landing, leads us to think he is a middleman in an international terrorism scheme.
He regulary attends underground meetings with a loose-knit cell of computer hackers, known to frequent Slashdot.
During our surveilance, we noted the suspect urinating on a light pole. We brought him in on suspician of spreading a biological weapon. Our tests so far are inconclusive.
Information gathering is not really the problem. Any fool with a large DB backend, a few Terrabytes, and an army of clerks could gather information.
What you REALLY need is exformation. Exformation is the process of reducing, fusing, and combining data to form a corpus. In essence what you have is not as important as what is left over after you throw away the irrelevant.
No one has a good way of sifting through information like that. We all do it everyday to compress data down to what the conciousness can manipulate. But we don't know how we do it. Theories are but speculation now. For that matter it seems that most people don't do it particularly well. (Think about the last time you had an argument with someone where they were clearly pulling facts out of their ass, or worse, someone else's.)
Trying to implement the TIA would be more challenging that designing a robot to pass the Turing test. It would have to know that you can't push string. It would have to know that dead people can't commit crimes anymore. It would have to learn that causation is a theory that often does not hold up under practice. It would have to know that all truths contradict themselves, and that events have to be absorbed in the context of the period of history in which they transpired.
In short, you would have to emulate not just a human brain, but the brain of an enlightened individual.
And if anyone understands Taoism, enlightenment cannot even be described. How on Earth would you code it? Machine code has an even stricter syntax than human speach.
Probably about as well as the Credit Reporting agencies. Read that, not very well. They have every financial incentive to keep their information accurate. Businesses want LOTS of people to loan money too, and NOBODY who defaults. They are just a case in point of Garbage-In, Garbage-Out.
Their records regarding my salary, jobs, prior residences, etc. are probably better than my own. It's the other events in life, like a Hospital sending a bill to a collection agency during a dispute with my Insurance company, or a subletter who didn't pay the phone bill that really erk me. Yes they happend, but in each case there is a perfectly rational explanation.
In the credit world they juggles my score up 100 points.
In a criminal case, that could completely eliminate me from a list of potential suspects. If a law enforcement officer does not question the data, they run the risk of persuing the wrong person. Or worse, they could apprehend me, and be publicly humiliated when I am exonerated during trial. Or FAR worse, they could go in guns blazing, take me out when the mistake an Ice-Cream scoop for a gun and THEN find out the guy they wanted lived next door. (It's happened.)
Re:Score one for the good guys?
on
TIA Project to End
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
But you see, it was NEVER a power of government.
Congresscritters are every bit as paranoid as the rest of us. The memories of J. Edgar Hoover, and a dossier of everyone of not in America are still a fresh memory.
Also for the record, the Black Budget does not exist. The last time someone pulled that crap was Iran-Contra, and oh wait, the was Pointdexter and he's now in charge of... damnit.
The Neocons have the day. But they overestimate the patience of the American people. We may be lazy, but when pissed off we are brutal.
Slashdot Mirror
And we aren't bickering about "2 accidents". We are bickering about a systemic lack of respect for safety or cost.
I don't know if you have read through the entire German report. It was scary. Very scary. Think of your average office pettiness. Now imagine that with lives at stake. Now imagine if reason did NOT prevail in the end. Management was playing legalise with the laws of nature.
Nature was not swayed by their arguments, and there are 7 dead people as a result. I think we can spare a year or two to weed those responsible for this mess out of positions of power.
It may look to the outside like knitpicking. But rights have to defended or they lack all meaning. And we seldom get to pick and choose our adversaries, or the time of battle.
All the polar bear thinks is: "Cattle Prod? No. Mmmm ... Meat popsicle ..."
Well two in the typing pool. The third has been traced back to the mailroom.
Biggs: Oh, nothing sir.
Headmaster: Oh do please share your little joke with the rest of us... I mean, obviously something frightfully funny is going on ...
Biggs: No, honestly, sir.
Headmaster: Well as it's so funny I think you'd better be selected to play for the boys' team in the rugby match against the masters this afternoon.
Biggs: (Horrified) Oh no, sir.
"Nobody worries about loosing to a droid."
"That's because droids don't pull your arms out of their sockets when they loose."
The naked truth.
How much of the space shuttle's "heavy lift" capability is wasted on the airframe and landing gear? A lot. Indeed, the SRB's are a giant fudge factor to get the whole mess off the ground.
About the same as finding ice water in hell.
First Suspect:You see, I told him to "Stop clowning and see to your work."
Second Suspect: But I thought he said to "Start downing the Cingular network."
Sprint guy just shakes his head.
No, no, it's the lawnmower man this time. The dumbass didn't quite realize that trying to ring all the phones in the world would be as complicated as it was...
In fact, distribute a couple of different endings just to confuse the living crap out of everybody. Hell, they do it already with Video and DVD's. (For the love of God, where can I get a NON director's cut of Blade Runner and Das Boot! The fluffing toy sub shots ruined the entire mood of the film.)
At the same time, folks would HAVE to go to the movies to find out how the movie actually end. They would also drain far more resources having to download multiple version of the film, and watch them all the way through, never sure what will change.
Muhahahaha. I'm earning my Evil points tonight...
He does not code every new change himself. Indeed, peering through Gentoo's portage system, there are several competing versions of the Linux Kernel. Different factions develop different elements, and they eventually get folded back into the "Linus" branch:
Not every great thinker is a Demagogue. Looking at the amount Linus has changed our world, can you think of anyone from 1991 that has had as big a sustained impact?
Some change comes from behind the scenes, by folks who are just happy to do. The puppies who need to be patted on the head and told how famous and important they are can kiss my behind.
Um, in paternity suits isn't one usually trying to NOT come up positive?
I don't need your phone number baby, I'll just finger you later.
And we return again to World Domination...
So Grog, when you got the idea for domesticating cattle, were you thinking of the leveling of jungles to make pastureland?
Ug, Ug. (No, actually I was trying to come up with a way to not spend so much time hunting.)
Gug, Roo, Ug. (And maybe finally getting around to coding the kernel for an open source Unix workalike.)
Ug, Ug, Foo. (But, not having and experience with the C programming language, I had to settle for cave paintings.)
World domination takes away from the time that could be spent hacking.
Case in point. I wrote a workorder system to track exhibit repairs. The CEO gets wind of this, and focuses his attention on one number: the number of devices down. After a while we had to normalize the number as a percentage, because as traveling exhibits come and go, we take down old galleries, and erect new ones the number of exhibits changes.
There are times when the total number of devices in the building is artificially low, especially when a traveling exhibit has left. At these times, takeing a device down for repairs suddenly shreds the performance statistic. 20 device out of 400 looks a lot worse than 20 devices out of 600.
I get shit from the director of the exhibit repair department, who got shit from the CEO, because all of the sudden our numbers have plunged overnight. They blame the computer, but in fact it's the flawed counting method that is the problem.
I've devised more accurate ways to measure performance, but it's "too complicated" for the VP's to understand. They like their simple percentage.
Unfortunately for us all, most positions of authority, law enforcement included, like "simple percentages" too. That's why (despite countless studies proving otherwise) they insist on racial and ethnic profiling. They are looking for a way to generate a list of "usual suspects" to harass that would otherwise not come to the attention of the local gentry.
Instead of the color of your skin, or a funny accent, they will key in on your overdue library books and your trips to Atlantic City. None of this would be admissible in court, mind you, until they managed to catch you doing something based off of their "information."
What you REALLY need is exformation. Exformation is the process of reducing, fusing, and combining data to form a corpus. In essence what you have is not as important as what is left over after you throw away the irrelevant.
No one has a good way of sifting through information like that. We all do it everyday to compress data down to what the conciousness can manipulate. But we don't know how we do it. Theories are but speculation now. For that matter it seems that most people don't do it particularly well. (Think about the last time you had an argument with someone where they were clearly pulling facts out of their ass, or worse, someone else's.)
Trying to implement the TIA would be more challenging that designing a robot to pass the Turing test. It would have to know that you can't push string. It would have to know that dead people can't commit crimes anymore. It would have to learn that causation is a theory that often does not hold up under practice. It would have to know that all truths contradict themselves, and that events have to be absorbed in the context of the period of history in which they transpired.
In short, you would have to emulate not just a human brain, but the brain of an enlightened individual.
And if anyone understands Taoism, enlightenment cannot even be described. How on Earth would you code it? Machine code has an even stricter syntax than human speach.
I'm going to get you for completely ruining my Geno's experience you wretched little man.
Or just sprinkle the DOJ with holy water. No wait, seperation of Church and state...
Probably about as well as the Credit Reporting agencies. Read that, not very well. They have every financial incentive to keep their information accurate. Businesses want LOTS of people to loan money too, and NOBODY who defaults. They are just a case in point of Garbage-In, Garbage-Out.
Their records regarding my salary, jobs, prior residences, etc. are probably better than my own. It's the other events in life, like a Hospital sending a bill to a collection agency during a dispute with my Insurance company, or a subletter who didn't pay the phone bill that really erk me. Yes they happend, but in each case there is a perfectly rational explanation.
In the credit world they juggles my score up 100 points.
In a criminal case, that could completely eliminate me from a list of potential suspects. If a law enforcement officer does not question the data, they run the risk of persuing the wrong person. Or worse, they could apprehend me, and be publicly humiliated when I am exonerated during trial. Or FAR worse, they could go in guns blazing, take me out when the mistake an Ice-Cream scoop for a gun and THEN find out the guy they wanted lived next door. (It's happened.)
Congresscritters are every bit as paranoid as the rest of us. The memories of J. Edgar Hoover, and a dossier of everyone of not in America are still a fresh memory.
Also for the record, the Black Budget does not exist. The last time someone pulled that crap was Iran-Contra, and oh wait, the was Pointdexter and he's now in charge of ... damnit.
The Neocons have the day. But they overestimate the patience of the American people. We may be lazy, but when pissed off we are brutal.