The project's goal is to be able to make many for a low per-unit price so their sponsors (or the foundation funded by those sponsors) will be able to buy many for distribution in the countries where they are needed. How much sense would it make to try to bootstrap an informed user community in these desperate lands if only a few could be distributed because of high cost?!
Several years ago, a company produced a PIM which was actually a disguised relational database -- the GUI included the usual pretty calendar, rolodex-style contact management, outliner, and notebook functions, etc. The same company (last aka was Net Management, I believe) produced a browser (for serial port connections, as well a telephone connections), FTP, and other useful products. Their PIM was called Ecco, and once you got the hang of how to use it (which didn't take long if you had the smarts, since you then began to use it to manage every other program and so were using it continually), it was wonderful. Then MS released its "free" calendaring program, and you know the result.
If you want to know how groupware should work, try to get hold of the manual for Ecco. If you do reproduce its functionality, I'm interested in your program. 'Til then, I'll just stick with Ecco, thanks.
Important: Don't leave out the part where I can set up project management/invoicing/expenses for my independent consulting, and shoot any data or combination of data as formatted ASCII to a template file prepared by my advanced WP program, using saved sets of instructions.
I was appalled to read that this nerve damage occurs in about 1 in 1000 births -- was this an error, or is this figure accurate? Does it occur primarily because of the use of forceps, or is it a result of the natural squeezing the baby goes through?
I agree that jails are merely almost isolated and very unhealthy social systems that reinforce the very worst behavior in both guards and prisoners. But isolation cannot teach anyone how to alter their behavior; it is used, sparingly, with children because a "time-out" gives them time to reflect rather than react. After childhood is over, the qualities of imagination and openness which make time-outs useful are almost always stunted, particularly in the types of persons who end up (justly or not) in prisons. I certainly would not want prisoners who had been held in complete isolation released into my society again after a "short" term!
We have learned a lot over the hundreds of years we have been locking up criminals, the insane, "delinquent" and "incorrigible" children, and other troublesome types. Unfortunately, we put almost nothing of what we collectively know into solving the problem of violent behavioral deviance. Why? The same reason we don't bother to raise children properly (at least paying attention!); nurse ill persons properly (that is, caring for them, trying to help them rest and sleep so their bodies can heal themselves); or teach properly: It's a lot of work! Hard work... work that requires love. (Love is an active, transitive verb -- seeking the good of the other; it's not some mushy emotion.)
Except in the case of violent offenders, the best technical solution for many crimes is probably an unbreakable monitoring bracelet and frequent supervision, with the offender remaining in touch with family, employment, etc. This is why the modern trend is to release prisoners into half-way houses before their sentence is completely over: They need routines, social contacts, a monitored transition into daily life.
You may or may not be correct about estimating the possibility of a false positive -- but the article centered on a case with PARTIAL prints of TWO fingers. Now, if the disputed evidence had been one partial print, I might have been swayed (were I on the jury) by lack of any corroborating evidence. But, as I'm sure you know, when we are talking about TWO partial prints, one must multiply together the odds of each being a false positive. Let's be very, very generous and say the odds of the false positive for one partial print are 1 in 10^5 (we don't really know, not least because we don't know how much of the full print was in evidence). Then the final odds of a false positive involving two similar partials would be 1 in 10^10. I'm not generally in favor of jailing non-violent persons, but that's good enough evidence of wrong-doing for me!
I think you must be pretty young. I remember a time (more than 30 years ago now) when I, too, believed the FBI, a governmental agency, was full of trustworthy, loyal agents just trying to protect ordinary citizens. In fact, there was a tv show, called _The FBI_, which showed these wonderful people struggling at great risk to their own lives to protect the innocent. Then I learned the FBI specializes in car theft rings because it's relatively simple and keeps their solve rate up so they can justify bigger budget, but they will fight being called in on kidnapping cases because those usually end badly and lower their solve rate... That's just one example, but it's probably enough.
I'm sorry, but the same kids you see in the classroom every day are the ones who grow up to be the bosses, employees, police officers, and yes, even the FBI agents of the future. Those kids don't change much in the process.
Also, bank officers are not out to help you get loans so you will benefit from a good education, congressmen aren't really legislating to solve your problems, professors don't care much if you learn what they have to teach, grocers don't care if your food is irradiated (as long as it extends the shelf-life of their produce), mechanics don't love your car as much as you do... Okay? I'm sorry, but you might as well come to understand these things now rather than later. Just one last thing: realize that none of this means you yourself should give up your own passions or ideals. I haven't, and if you look around you'll find we have a lot of company.
The problem seems to be that mostly we play with some time controls (I like 10 minutes plus 5 seconds/move, for example). Chess is so complex that even if the opponent could very quickly enter the current position when he sees he's in trouble, the computer would still need a relatively long time to come up with a best move. So a player who sees he's losing can most easily cheat by "bumping" his opponent (perhaps "authoritatively" replacing a java file to tell it I'm no longer online, since I actually have *not* been disconnected when this happens!), rather than continuing to make any move.
The expression migrated to the U.S. from England; I know this because I am English but moved to the U.S. when I was 5 (almost 45 years ago, now!). My mother and father used this expression ALL THE TIME -- it's meant to be somewhat humorous, of course. (Wry anger, or anger mixed with British wit.) It's an English idiom (as in "fix dinner" versus "make dinner" versus the more literal "cook dinner").
Some months ago, somebody in an otherwise authoritative source (something like a national "news" magazine) wrote a column musing about how his mother used to say "you've got another 'thing' coming". I knew then that we were in for a long period of petty squabling over this. All I can say is, the columnist's mother was speaking from the west coast of the U.S., something like California -- they speak weird out there, and are not renowned for their diction! (-8
I love to play chess, but I usually have to play with guys (I'm not a guy). Playing f-t-f, I have learned that almost all guys HATE losing to me (or anyone else, for that matter!). They care more about winning than about the game; for me, the game is more of a joint construction of sequences of elegant combinations, with beauty in the timing and surprises that unfold.
Learning to play chess at a reasonable level requires a fairly large investment of smarts and time. Recently I found an online site (www.gamecolony.com) with a beautiful interface in which players can chat and play various games, including chess. It didn't take long before I realized that some players have apparently learned to hack the game to disconnect those of us focussed exclusively on chess, rather than the java programs that manage the game and other parts of the interface. (This site maintains a rating for all registered players. When I am disconnected, I lose automatically, and the opponent's rating increases as mine goes down!)
Now, chess is certainly involving. And the hackers who disconnect me don't do it when they're winning... So I have to disagree with your position. Apparently, to many guys, winning really is everything.
Btw, I recommend the above site for chess players despite the occasional hacker (if you don't care about your rating, it's still a great place to get a game, almost any time, day or night). For those of you who love chess but do care about the rating, try www.chessed.com, where the interface is not nearly as adaptable or intuitive, but I've never been forcibly disconnected!
You're absolutely correct there! So many American (and other) "repair" personnel have been told their time is worth more than the cost of the new component, they are taught to replace (usually) rather than repair almost everything. In other countries, those with repair skills or expertise (often self-taught, or taught by peers) actually do REPAIR parts. Their skills and knowledge are seen as very valuable, even if their wages (if any) don't reflect that value. (Then again, just having a source of regular income is valued by workers in many of the countries where used equipment ends up.)
I knew many persons in a global organization who used to take their laptops (wrapped in a towel) with them every time they went to any African country, and routinely left them there. (This was a nonprofit, private group.) Each member would simply buy a new laptop on arriving back home. Those laptops were valued extremely highly by the communities which received them, despite all the bother of getting them charged where electricity is intermittent, and keeping them repaired when few experts are around. Some schools in the poorest nations have only 2-3 ancient (PC jr., even!) machines for hundreds of eager students, donated by volunteers.
In fact, if you're ever about to travel to such a country, please search the Web for pleas for those about to travel to act like a courier to take old used computers (already donated) with them: Just shipping them, without anyone on hand to shepherd them through customs, means they won't arrive at their destination!
This is great stuff, but completely off-topic... Surely you could find some other space for it. Aren't there other forums (probably not in/.) in which you could have dumped it?
I agree -- I'm another who's most productive early in the morning, but by around 3-4pm, I usually just barely manage to stay awake (if I have to). A second point is, flextime tends to mean (intrapersonally) "stay until the job is done, or this part of it; or until nothing more CAN be done on it," whereas inflexible scheduling tends to lead to clockwatching.
I used to tell a very low-level, barely trained, young clerical worker who served as librarian in my documentation department that he could leave early if all the work was done. He never misused that permission; sometimes, he would ask if he could leave early on a specific day although he was waiting to file papers he knew would arrive later, but he always said he'd be in early the next morning to do it.
Before this young man began to work for me, he had been in danger of being fired in the messenger department, where he was the clerk also. He turned into an exemplary employee, I believe, because I gave him every opportunity to feel he was in complete control over how he worked. He even took the initiative in setting up useful control systems, learning to use the PC's (which were new then), and making suggestions to benefit the documentation department or programmers.
My point is, flextime is just one of the many options managers can offer to encourage employees to take responsibility and initiative for their own work. "Core hours" which everyone puts in together, on certain days (weekly or as needed), or every day, should take care of any problems scheduling meetings, training, etc.
Do you think the alternative is any better? The alternative being, of course, ignorance....
We live, whether we wish to or not, in a global age -- global economy, global lusts for market/power by "multinational" corporations, global awareness (albeit often with very biased perceptions of what's out there). That is dangerous, in the sense that the same evil that has always walked among us has a much greater scope now. The potential for disaster is indeed greater than it ever was, if we measure the possible results in terms of numbers of persons/species/cultures destroyed.
The point is, we can't go backwards; can't pretend we don't have ways to know what's going on; can't mandate that technology be restricted or reduced. So what should we do?
How about, as a species, we start to grow up? Let's investigate what humans cross-culturally agree are traits or characteristics or basic assumptions related to maturity and wisdom. Let's overhaul our local education systems (starting with our own kids in the family; or those we know or can talk to in person, or in forums such as this) to present wisdom and maturity as the most desirable values (rather than greed and power). Then we must educate ourselves (as well as the young ones) both with "knowledge" and practical campaigns. We can start small... get some experience, learn how it feels when we're doing the right things. Then, connect the grass roots groups... eventually we should be able to take on large-scale wrong-headedness, by setting clearly attractive expectations of how to live together better.
We can probably muddle through another decade or so, but if we are to cease destroying our habitat and ourselves, we must learn wisdom. Our power over the environment is growing (though we'll never have full control), which means our power to do ourselves great harm is growing. So even if we don't destroy ourselves in these little "wars," the danger is very high. But we should be very clear that the danger stems from the same greed, lust, anger, pride, envy, etc. that have been the primary cause of danger to us since we started to live in settlements.
Btw, if you're interested in how to get along with others who differ from us (given that we can't return to ignorance that they exist), this is an actual academic discipline (or at least a branch of one!). Although he is EXTREMELY difficult to read, way back in the late 70's a fellow called Richard McKeon (sp?), at U. of Chicago, was writing about how to negotiate agreements between groups with conflicting values (hint: ignore/prohibit all talk about values, and talk only of highly specific acts/behavior that will and will not be acceptable to both sides). Many academic folks in my own discipline (human communication) claimed Kissinger's success in diplomacy was based on his following McKeon's "rules."
So far, it has pretty much also held true for "computing power" (doubling every 18 months). New kinds of killer apps become possible when really humungous amounts of storage -- without significant energy drain -- are available... For example, kids could routinely "scan" every school-related document. (Think how much more you might now understand if you were able, whenever you wished, to "intelligently search" everything you ever read -- or wrote!)
This author is claiming something not even remotely connected to Moore's Law, though. We cannot even teach robots to climb stairs yet (unless it's a set of stairs they already "know"), yet he thinks they will become able to "think" (not only move autonomously but also perceive, relate apparently uncorrelated storage items, solve non-algorithmic problems, etc.). I don't believe that is going to happen in any significant way within the next century, let alone the next decade. Didn't I just read something about how nanotechnology so far seems (in the lab) to be associated with ominously low energy input/output returns?
Being "out of date" here has nothing to do with it; the issues are based on what approach is used. Various approaches must be based on distinct underlying concepts behind privacy/encryption.
If you read the article -- especially towards the end, where the author discusses alternatives -- you learn that the danger discussed lies in the association of one specific ID to one specific person/entity. This is compounded by having keys held by single, hierarchical, authoritarian entities (thus available in principle to gov't agencies/commercial entities).
Rather than attempt to reduce risk by this approach, the author recommends a more realistic approach such as that implemented (however well or badly) by PGP: Use a "degree of risk" assessment, and facilitate multiple, decentralized assignments of person/entity to various semi-secure ID's.
The article makes me sad, because one of my battles in everyday life is to try to bring together the disparate aspects of my "self," but I fully understand why I probably should utilize multiple "nyms" if I want both to post stuff in forums like this, and be employed again at some future time! Until we live in a more trustworthy society, I am probably safer (i.e., more viable as an economic organism) with multiple identities. sigh....
Re: if so, author must be an incompetent writer!
on
Future Of Journalism
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· Score: 2
If the author of this lecture were employed as a journalist by the ABC (which I assume is Australian equivalent of BBC), he can have little hope of keeping his job once the new head of the ABC reads it! Within this piece, he accuses the new head of ABC of being entirely unqualified to make any decisions about its journalism, yet making sweeping changes regarding journalism in that organization. It certainly can't be an attempt at propaganda, assuming his goal is either to keep his job, or influence the new director (of the ABC)) regarding his programme (note the British spelling! (-8 ) for journalism by his organisation.
One point the speaker failed to make, btw, is that the Internet (esp. the Web) allows all connected persons, throughout the planet, essentially to become reporters. My own hope is that text-based Internet media (such as this forum) will benefit from an enormous growth in ubiquitous reporting -- once educational institutions (or more likely, teachers) realize youngsters need to learn to report accurately much as their grandparents needed to learn to write decent business letters... We have seen this only a couple times so far, and generally only with regard to video coverage: the Rodney King video is the prime example, of course.
Re:Um, excuse me. That potato needs an "e".
on
Embracing Insanity
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· Score: 2
...explaining it's significance as a business and social model for many kinds of institutions, and its profoundly non-technological promise
Along the same lines, let's all (even/. writers!) try to remember that "it's" is the contraction (meaning "it is") and "its" is a possessive pronoun (like his or hers -- not hi's or her's!). I try to be tolerant of this kind of typo, but it really gets to me when a single writer uses both forms within ONE SENTENCE to mean the same thing!!!
Judging from the Florida senate race, handily won by a Dem despite many independent candidates, Dade county Floridians were voting against Gore, rather than for Bush. I suspect inhabitants of the "home of the Miami relatives" couldn't hold their noses long enough....
If Bush has won the electoral college, grass roots organizing against the corporate agenda will have to speed up a bit. I don't believe it's possible for that spoiled little rich kid to win the election again (in 4 years), however, so I am not that worried about the Supreme Court. I am looking forward to a Dem. party forced to reevaluate its move to the center, though. (-8
Slashdot Mirror
The project's goal is to be able to make many for a low per-unit price so their sponsors (or the foundation funded by those sponsors) will be able to buy many for distribution in the countries where they are needed. How much sense would it make to try to bootstrap an informed user community in these desperate lands if only a few could be distributed because of high cost?!
128x64 pixel onboard LCD, possibly VGA or NTSC output in next version
I don't think so... Maybe the next version will appeal to those used to dedicated monitors, but they probably won't cost $50!
Several years ago, a company produced a PIM which was actually a disguised relational database -- the GUI included the usual pretty calendar, rolodex-style contact management, outliner, and notebook functions, etc. The same company (last aka was Net Management, I believe) produced a browser (for serial port connections, as well a telephone connections), FTP, and other useful products. Their PIM was called Ecco, and once you got the hang of how to use it (which didn't take long if you had the smarts, since you then began to use it to manage every other program and so were using it continually), it was wonderful. Then MS released its "free" calendaring program, and you know the result.
If you want to know how groupware should work, try to get hold of the manual for Ecco. If you do reproduce its functionality, I'm interested in your program. 'Til then, I'll just stick with Ecco, thanks.
Important: Don't leave out the part where I can set up project management/invoicing/expenses for my independent consulting, and shoot any data or combination of data as formatted ASCII to a template file prepared by my advanced WP program, using saved sets of instructions.
This one is actually on the local grid, contributing power. This is a really neat concept -- really, really "direct current!"
I was appalled to read that this nerve damage occurs in about 1 in 1000 births -- was this an error, or is this figure accurate? Does it occur primarily because of the use of forceps, or is it a result of the natural squeezing the baby goes through?
I agree that jails are merely almost isolated and very unhealthy social systems that reinforce the very worst behavior in both guards and prisoners. But isolation cannot teach anyone how to alter their behavior; it is used, sparingly, with children because a "time-out" gives them time to reflect rather than react. After childhood is over, the qualities of imagination and openness which make time-outs useful are almost always stunted, particularly in the types of persons who end up (justly or not) in prisons. I certainly would not want prisoners who had been held in complete isolation released into my society again after a "short" term!
We have learned a lot over the hundreds of years we have been locking up criminals, the insane, "delinquent" and "incorrigible" children, and other troublesome types. Unfortunately, we put almost nothing of what we collectively know into solving the problem of violent behavioral deviance. Why? The same reason we don't bother to raise children properly (at least paying attention!); nurse ill persons properly (that is, caring for them, trying to help them rest and sleep so their bodies can heal themselves); or teach properly: It's a lot of work! Hard work... work that requires love. (Love is an active, transitive verb -- seeking the good of the other; it's not some mushy emotion.)
Except in the case of violent offenders, the best technical solution for many crimes is probably an unbreakable monitoring bracelet and frequent supervision, with the offender remaining in touch with family, employment, etc. This is why the modern trend is to release prisoners into half-way houses before their sentence is completely over: They need routines, social contacts, a monitored transition into daily life.
Manor is a big house, the one the squire (or ladies and gentlemen) live in!
You may or may not be correct about estimating the possibility of a false positive -- but the article centered on a case with PARTIAL prints of TWO fingers. Now, if the disputed evidence had been one partial print, I might have been swayed (were I on the jury) by lack of any corroborating evidence. But, as I'm sure you know, when we are talking about TWO partial prints, one must multiply together the odds of each being a false positive. Let's be very, very generous and say the odds of the false positive for one partial print are 1 in 10^5 (we don't really know, not least because we don't know how much of the full print was in evidence). Then the final odds of a false positive involving two similar partials would be 1 in 10^10. I'm not generally in favor of jailing non-violent persons, but that's good enough evidence of wrong-doing for me!
My mother (from Norwich) uses it all the time; my father (from London) much less often. Does that help?
I think you must be pretty young. I remember a time (more than 30 years ago now) when I, too, believed the FBI, a governmental agency, was full of trustworthy, loyal agents just trying to protect ordinary citizens. In fact, there was a tv show, called _The FBI_, which showed these wonderful people struggling at great risk to their own lives to protect the innocent. Then I learned the FBI specializes in car theft rings because it's relatively simple and keeps their solve rate up so they can justify bigger budget, but they will fight being called in on kidnapping cases because those usually end badly and lower their solve rate... That's just one example, but it's probably enough.
I'm sorry, but the same kids you see in the classroom every day are the ones who grow up to be the bosses, employees, police officers, and yes, even the FBI agents of the future. Those kids don't change much in the process.
Also, bank officers are not out to help you get loans so you will benefit from a good education, congressmen aren't really legislating to solve your problems, professors don't care much if you learn what they have to teach, grocers don't care if your food is irradiated (as long as it extends the shelf-life of their produce), mechanics don't love your car as much as you do... Okay? I'm sorry, but you might as well come to understand these things now rather than later. Just one last thing: realize that none of this means you yourself should give up your own passions or ideals. I haven't, and if you look around you'll find we have a lot of company.
The problem seems to be that mostly we play with some time controls (I like 10 minutes plus 5 seconds/move, for example). Chess is so complex that even if the opponent could very quickly enter the current position when he sees he's in trouble, the computer would still need a relatively long time to come up with a best move. So a player who sees he's losing can most easily cheat by "bumping" his opponent (perhaps "authoritatively" replacing a java file to tell it I'm no longer online, since I actually have *not* been disconnected when this happens!), rather than continuing to make any move.
The expression migrated to the U.S. from England; I know this because I am English but moved to the U.S. when I was 5 (almost 45 years ago, now!). My mother and father used this expression ALL THE TIME -- it's meant to be somewhat humorous, of course. (Wry anger, or anger mixed with British wit.) It's an English idiom (as in "fix dinner" versus "make dinner" versus the more literal "cook dinner").
Some months ago, somebody in an otherwise authoritative source (something like a national "news" magazine) wrote a column musing about how his mother used to say "you've got another 'thing' coming". I knew then that we were in for a long period of petty squabling over this. All I can say is, the columnist's mother was speaking from the west coast of the U.S., something like California -- they speak weird out there, and are not renowned for their diction! (-8
I love to play chess, but I usually have to play with guys (I'm not a guy). Playing f-t-f, I have learned that almost all guys HATE losing to me (or anyone else, for that matter!). They care more about winning than about the game; for me, the game is more of a joint construction of sequences of elegant combinations, with beauty in the timing and surprises that unfold.
Learning to play chess at a reasonable level requires a fairly large investment of smarts and time. Recently I found an online site (www.gamecolony.com) with a beautiful interface in which players can chat and play various games, including chess. It didn't take long before I realized that some players have apparently learned to hack the game to disconnect those of us focussed exclusively on chess, rather than the java programs that manage the game and other parts of the interface. (This site maintains a rating for all registered players. When I am disconnected, I lose automatically, and the opponent's rating increases as mine goes down!)
Now, chess is certainly involving. And the hackers who disconnect me don't do it when they're winning... So I have to disagree with your position. Apparently, to many guys, winning really is everything.
Btw, I recommend the above site for chess players despite the occasional hacker (if you don't care about your rating, it's still a great place to get a game, almost any time, day or night). For those of you who love chess but do care about the rating, try www.chessed.com, where the interface is not nearly as adaptable or intuitive, but I've never been forcibly disconnected!
You're absolutely correct there! So many American (and other) "repair" personnel have been told their time is worth more than the cost of the new component, they are taught to replace (usually) rather than repair almost everything. In other countries, those with repair skills or expertise (often self-taught, or taught by peers) actually do REPAIR parts. Their skills and knowledge are seen as very valuable, even if their wages (if any) don't reflect that value. (Then again, just having a source of regular income is valued by workers in many of the countries where used equipment ends up.)
I knew many persons in a global organization who used to take their laptops (wrapped in a towel) with them every time they went to any African country, and routinely left them there. (This was a nonprofit, private group.) Each member would simply buy a new laptop on arriving back home. Those laptops were valued extremely highly by the communities which received them, despite all the bother of getting them charged where electricity is intermittent, and keeping them repaired when few experts are around. Some schools in the poorest nations have only 2-3 ancient (PC jr., even!) machines for hundreds of eager students, donated by volunteers.
In fact, if you're ever about to travel to such a country, please search the Web for pleas for those about to travel to act like a courier to take old used computers (already donated) with them: Just shipping them, without anyone on hand to shepherd them through customs, means they won't arrive at their destination!
Surely you meant paper and PEN, not pencil!
just by living, a cow wastes most of the energy stored in the sugar reserves of the plants it eats
Not from the point of view of the cow...
This is great stuff, but completely off-topic... Surely you could find some other space for it. Aren't there other forums (probably not in /.) in which you could have dumped it?
I agree -- I'm another who's most productive early in the morning, but by around 3-4pm, I usually just barely manage to stay awake (if I have to). A second point is, flextime tends to mean (intrapersonally) "stay until the job is done, or this part of it; or until nothing more CAN be done on it," whereas inflexible scheduling tends to lead to clockwatching.
I used to tell a very low-level, barely trained, young clerical worker who served as librarian in my documentation department that he could leave early if all the work was done. He never misused that permission; sometimes, he would ask if he could leave early on a specific day although he was waiting to file papers he knew would arrive later, but he always said he'd be in early the next morning to do it.
Before this young man began to work for me, he had been in danger of being fired in the messenger department, where he was the clerk also. He turned into an exemplary employee, I believe, because I gave him every opportunity to feel he was in complete control over how he worked. He even took the initiative in setting up useful control systems, learning to use the PC's (which were new then), and making suggestions to benefit the documentation department or programmers.
My point is, flextime is just one of the many options managers can offer to encourage employees to take responsibility and initiative for their own work. "Core hours" which everyone puts in together, on certain days (weekly or as needed), or every day, should take care of any problems scheduling meetings, training, etc.
Do you think the alternative is any better? The alternative being, of course, ignorance....
We live, whether we wish to or not, in a global age -- global economy, global lusts for market/power by "multinational" corporations, global awareness (albeit often with very biased perceptions of what's out there). That is dangerous, in the sense that the same evil that has always walked among us has a much greater scope now. The potential for disaster is indeed greater than it ever was, if we measure the possible results in terms of numbers of persons/species/cultures destroyed.
The point is, we can't go backwards; can't pretend we don't have ways to know what's going on; can't mandate that technology be restricted or reduced. So what should we do?
How about, as a species, we start to grow up? Let's investigate what humans cross-culturally agree are traits or characteristics or basic assumptions related to maturity and wisdom. Let's overhaul our local education systems (starting with our own kids in the family; or those we know or can talk to in person, or in forums such as this) to present wisdom and maturity as the most desirable values (rather than greed and power). Then we must educate ourselves (as well as the young ones) both with "knowledge" and practical campaigns. We can start small... get some experience, learn how it feels when we're doing the right things. Then, connect the grass roots groups... eventually we should be able to take on large-scale wrong-headedness, by setting clearly attractive expectations of how to live together better.
We can probably muddle through another decade or so, but if we are to cease destroying our habitat and ourselves, we must learn wisdom. Our power over the environment is growing (though we'll never have full control), which means our power to do ourselves great harm is growing. So even if we don't destroy ourselves in these little "wars," the danger is very high. But we should be very clear that the danger stems from the same greed, lust, anger, pride, envy, etc. that have been the primary cause of danger to us since we started to live in settlements.
Btw, if you're interested in how to get along with others who differ from us (given that we can't return to ignorance that they exist), this is an actual academic discipline (or at least a branch of one!). Although he is EXTREMELY difficult to read, way back in the late 70's a fellow called Richard McKeon (sp?), at U. of Chicago, was writing about how to negotiate agreements between groups with conflicting values (hint: ignore/prohibit all talk about values, and talk only of highly specific acts/behavior that will and will not be acceptable to both sides). Many academic folks in my own discipline (human communication) claimed Kissinger's success in diplomacy was based on his following McKeon's "rules."
Storage!
So far, it has pretty much also held true for "computing power" (doubling every 18 months). New kinds of killer apps become possible when really humungous amounts of storage -- without significant energy drain -- are available... For example, kids could routinely "scan" every school-related document. (Think how much more you might now understand if you were able, whenever you wished, to "intelligently search" everything you ever read -- or wrote!)
This author is claiming something not even remotely connected to Moore's Law, though. We cannot even teach robots to climb stairs yet (unless it's a set of stairs they already "know"), yet he thinks they will become able to "think" (not only move autonomously but also perceive, relate apparently uncorrelated storage items, solve non-algorithmic problems, etc.). I don't believe that is going to happen in any significant way within the next century, let alone the next decade. Didn't I just read something about how nanotechnology so far seems (in the lab) to be associated with ominously low energy input/output returns?
Being "out of date" here has nothing to do with it; the issues are based on what approach is used. Various approaches must be based on distinct underlying concepts behind privacy/encryption.
If you read the article -- especially towards the end, where the author discusses alternatives -- you learn that the danger discussed lies in the association of one specific ID to one specific person/entity. This is compounded by having keys held by single, hierarchical, authoritarian entities (thus available in principle to gov't agencies/commercial entities).
Rather than attempt to reduce risk by this approach, the author recommends a more realistic approach such as that implemented (however well or badly) by PGP: Use a "degree of risk" assessment, and facilitate multiple, decentralized assignments of person/entity to various semi-secure ID's.
The article makes me sad, because one of my battles in everyday life is to try to bring together the disparate aspects of my "self," but I fully understand why I probably should utilize multiple "nyms" if I want both to post stuff in forums like this, and be employed again at some future time! Until we live in a more trustworthy society, I am probably safer (i.e., more viable as an economic organism) with multiple identities. sigh....
If the author of this lecture were employed as a journalist by the ABC (which I assume is Australian equivalent of BBC), he can have little hope of keeping his job once the new head of the ABC reads it! Within this piece, he accuses the new head of ABC of being entirely unqualified to make any decisions about its journalism, yet making sweeping changes regarding journalism in that organization. It certainly can't be an attempt at propaganda, assuming his goal is either to keep his job, or influence the new director (of the ABC)) regarding his programme (note the British spelling! (-8 ) for journalism by his organisation.
One point the speaker failed to make, btw, is that the Internet (esp. the Web) allows all connected persons, throughout the planet, essentially to become reporters. My own hope is that text-based Internet media (such as this forum) will benefit from an enormous growth in ubiquitous reporting -- once educational institutions (or more likely, teachers) realize youngsters need to learn to report accurately much as their grandparents needed to learn to write decent business letters... We have seen this only a couple times so far, and generally only with regard to video coverage: the Rodney King video is the prime example, of course.
Along the same lines, let's all (even /. writers!) try to remember that "it's" is the contraction (meaning "it is") and "its" is a possessive pronoun (like his or hers -- not hi's or her's!). I try to be tolerant of this kind of typo, but it really gets to me when a single writer uses both forms within ONE SENTENCE to mean the same thing!!!
That is a good point. Will access to all excellent recordable mega-giga-storage devices be indefinitely delayed by those entertainment bozo's?
Elian Gonzalez.
Judging from the Florida senate race, handily won by a Dem despite many independent candidates, Dade county Floridians were voting against Gore, rather than for Bush. I suspect inhabitants of the "home of the Miami relatives" couldn't hold their noses long enough....
If Bush has won the electoral college, grass roots organizing against the corporate agenda will have to speed up a bit. I don't believe it's possible for that spoiled little rich kid to win the election again (in 4 years), however, so I am not that worried about the Supreme Court. I am looking forward to a Dem. party forced to reevaluate its move to the center, though. (-8