Can anyone prove that a new continent has been formed in this lifetime? If not, I think plate tectonics lacks evidentiary proof and we should not teach it in schools.
>>How about adding a nominal anti-spam fee of 0.1$ to hotmail, gmail, ymail etc?
They already read my email and my cookies. The last thing I want to give them is any kind of financial information.
How about this: A paragraph or so story about how $NOUN1 $VERB with $NOUN2. At the end, the captcha asks
"what would be an appropriate title to this story?" -$NOUN1 $VERB with $NOUN2 -$NOUN1 nonsense nonsense $NOUN2 -$NOUN1 $VERB nonsense
You could have trillions of possible answers, the captcha would be accessible to screen readers, and you could disable the 'next' button for a minute or two; real people will be reading the story anyways.
It was my understanding that monster was referring not to the functional design of the RCA standard cable/terminations, but the design of the rubber/plastic termination moldings. I haven't seen Blue Jeans' cable terminations, but monster _could_ have a case here if the rubber moldings were very similar.
I'm not taking sides here, I'm just clarifying. Monster's case would be like Coca Cola going after some bottle maker for making a bottle in that special (trademarked) hourglass shape; that is different from Coca Cola going after a bottle maker for making generic bottles.
I'm confused. Can you clarify what you meant by using coax as audio cable? I'm picturing 80 ohm coax in my head, and I can't imagine that the central conductor would handle any major current. No offense, but are you maybe thinking instead about regular paired stranded wire?
>>I'm not sure, but I think you just compared the complexity/stability/reliability of a computer with that of a rivet gun:)
Yep. They both operate on relatively simple concepts to effect complex results. Riveting well takes quite a while to get the knack of; the skills are qualitative rather than quantitative as in computers, but I think the analogy works. I'm not really trying to compare computers and rivet guns per se, just the skills needed to use them effectively. A novice can start riveting on their first day, but the results will look like crap and they'll take forever.
All I'm saying is that it only takes a little bit of effort to translate into major increases in efficiency and effectiveness. These 'problem users' are very willfully refusing to learn to use the most important tool in their toolbox.
I agree with the gist of what you're saying, but I don't think it's correct to say that IT would be idiots in the place of other employees' jobs.
Computers are special. They are completely intuitive to me, and probably almost everyone here on slashdot, but not to other people. Maybe it's the levels of abstraction- I don't know- but people are more finicky about computers than they are about they way they drive or even their weight. It's a subject that can send reasonable people into foaming rage.
-
IT is there to support the employees' use of the technology- tech that they NEED to do their jobs. Me, I'm a jet mechanic. My job is to fix jets, and that's about it. I use tools like drills, rivet guns, hammers, snips, and other stuff. Now imagine a special "Rivet Gun Dept" or RGD whose reason for existing would be to set up, maintain, inventory, and train people on the use of rivet guns. Now as I said before, rivet guns play an important role in my job; without my mad rivet gun skills, I'd be pretty useless as a mechanic. So let's pretend that I no longer need to know anything about rivet guns other than if I sort of... prop it up... like this... and click this button... BAMBAMBAMBAMBAM It will shoot a rivet. Hooray for me, I'm mechanic. Uh oh, my rivet gun came unplugged from the airline! What should I do? Call the RGD? Doesn't that seem ridiculous?
-
IT are asked to be the RGD for a bunch of ostensible mechanics. People need to face the music: If you are a lawyer, your job requires a computer. If you are a secretary, your job requires a computer. If you work in data entry, your job requires a computer. And so on. Consider it a skill like driving that will pay big dividends in the long run.
To Users: PEOPLE! These magic boxes are your freakin' livelihood and yet you take absolutely no effort to get to know them, to understand at least what the "Blue E" program is CALLED! You are mechanics, and computers are your rivet guns, and you need to learn how to use them RIGHT NOW. You need to learn the difference between making a shortcut and copying a file. You need to stop sending me links to emails in your Yahoo inbox. You need to stop looking at pr0n with your Big Blue E program. You need to learn HOW TO TURN YOUR CAPS LOCK OFF. BEING OLD IS NO EXCUSE; TYPEWRITERS HAD A SHIFT BUTTON, TOO.
Sorry about that. I used to work in tech support for a smallish, localish ISP. It taught me some of the most important lessons in my life, like why I will never, ever, EVER work in customer service again.
>>As much as we love to believe that everyone would be an ideal user with just a little education, most people simply do not care about computers
I agree, and had to add: And most people are not _paid_ to futz around with computers. They are paid to do their job. IT's job is making computers work; everyone else uses them to do their jobs.
It was originally known not as the God particle but the "Oh my God" particle- As in "Oh my god, that single particle had the kinetic energy of a falling brick!"
Because air has some undeniable advantages over water:
-Free (both source and disposal) -Non-conductive -Non-corrosive -Lightweight -Will not undergo phase change under typical or emergency server conditions (think water>steam) -Cooling air does not need to be kept separate from breathing air, unlike water, which must be kept completely separate from potable water
Imagine the worst-case scenario concerning a coolant failure WRT water vs air: -Water: flood server room/short-circuit moboard or power backplane/cooling block must be replaced (labor) -Air: Cause processor to scale down clock speed
I don't think water/oil cooling is ready for mainstream data farm applications quite yet. I also think that future processors will use technology that isn't nearly as hot and wasteful as what we use now, making water cooling a moot point.
Well, look at is this way: You have suicide, and then the opposite of suicide, which is "going on living."
Most of us are familiar with the idea of 'going on living' and have no difficulty in breathing, eating, etc. All it takes to 'go on living' is to sit there and do nothing. It is not an interesting topic nor does it raise very many interesting discussions except for 1000-level philosophy courses.
Suicide, on the other hand, is an action with immediate and also long-lasting effects on the person (of course) and society. Suicide is something that has affected me very personally several times; I can tell you that even 5-10 years after the fact, the families and friends are still having a hard time coping. So it is clear that suicide is something that warrants a fair bit of attention.
As for the question of bias (pro- or anti-suicide) based on these web searches- I think about it this way. There are many websites out there that will tell you how to build a bomb, or repair a boat hull, or repoint masonry. A huge portion of the internet is devoted to graphic images of sex that most people find repulsive (furries...). I don't think that it's been shown that simply viewing and thinking about a subject makes a person more likely to partake in that subject, unless that person never had any exposure at all previously. Suicide is not a new band or a potato gun or a case mod. People know what suicide is from a very young age. Anyone who has every thought at all has thought about suicide before, even if only intellectually and not as a solution. It is a myth that bringing up suicide and discussing it will push depressed but stable people over the edge.
Depressed people and the people affected by depressed loved ones can find a tremendous amount of information and support on the internet. I'm not sure what the point of this slashdot article was, but I believe that any and all information about suicide ought to be public.
>>they may simply let infectious agents traverse their organ systems with impunity, without any resistance, and also without offering any safe harbor.
FTA-
"About three and a half years ago he tested alligator blood and pinpointed why these animals were so resistant to infection. Alligators and crocodiles, like humans, have a natural defence system against invading bacteria, viruses and fungi, which involves a group of proteins called the complement system. When Dr Merchant exposed the alligator blood to pathogens such as HIV, West Nile Virus and E Coli, it started to kill them. "It turns out that this complement system is much more effective than ours."
I think that the alligator blood may be more like your armed guard than anything.
>> Put the same person in front of any OS and they will get infected the same way they always did.
From my personal experience with users in person and in forums, the "same person's" linux install would look pristine even after months of use. Pristine, except for the dozens of downloaded.EXE's all over the desktop.
I think it's safe to say that the average person's linux install would be secure via 'security through stupidity'.
>>See, it's stuff like that which keeps me from owning a gun. Takes to long to get ready and if you have one ready, somebody's kid might shoot themselves.
See, it's stuff like that which keeps me from owning a: -swimming pool or hot tub -swingset -hammer -electrical outlet -car or truck -anything made out of glass -climbable tree -pet -knife -rope -paint or other chemical -soldering iron -aspirin or other OTC drugs -5-gallon bucket -charcoal grill -washing machine or dryer -large freezer -baseballs or bats -stairs -powerful magnets -matches
The number one killer for kids 5-14 is accidents (mostly vehicle accidents). Anything and everything that can possibly kill someone, HAS killed someone. 5-gallon buckets have that infant warning sticker on the side for a reason (also mandated by law). I understand the desire to childproof the home, but there is NO such thing as childproof. Haven't you people ever been 5-14 before? My 14-year-old cousin killed himself. I knew how to pick locks at that age. Some of my friends were already starting to experiment with drugs.
My point is that we cannot surrender our every right and privilege in the name of protecting a demographic that has proven consistently to have no other aim in life besides getting hurt and disobeying simple commands. I feel absolutely terrible for any family that has had to work through the loss of a child (been there); however, it bugs me that on BOTH sides of the debate, guns are imbued with special powers and emotional baggage that turns them into semi-human enemies/saviors. They are pieces of metal, people. If violence scares you, then come to grips with violence, not guns. If violence turns you on, then you need to come to grips with that. Anyone with a fierce opinion in this debate needs to take a fearless inventory of their own emotional baggage and discern their real agenda. I'm not saying that one side is inherently more correct than the other.
For the record, I believe in waiting periods, gun registration, background checks, submitting factory fired bullets to law enforcement, etc. I believe that once those conditions are met, and safety standards are continued to be met, guns should be available to those who want them.
Of course I also think that kids shouldn't drive until they're 18, so whatever. My social contract would place a lot more responsibility on individuals than our current one.
As I mentioned much earlier, race of ultimately public info if you ever leave the house. Things like income, political affiliation, etc are all private until you make it public.
I started discussing this with the OP because every time the topic of the census comes up, he tells the same rant about not telling the gov't his race (and putting the gov't in its place in the process). This struck as either paranoid or short-sighted, as gross estimations of race (as I mentioned already) can be made in a public setting.
There is more to this, like what race has to do with social reform or poverty or other demographics, and that is way beyond the scope of the thread. If the OP had said that his income (for example) was private, I probably wouldn't have responded in the first place (it is private). Although, in the U.S., the gov't already knows exactly how much money you make. So I guess it's a moot point.
If you travel over the road quite a bit (in the U.S. at least), you'll notice people tapping their brake lights twice- that indicates a speed trap up ahead.
If someone (usually a truck or a large trailer) is passing you, it is customary to blink your highbeams when they are clear of you and can change back into your lane.
There are other signals that truckers use, but I don't know what they mean yet.
>>When you buy something at the store, you're standing in line with other members of the public, so your purchases are essentially public information, right?
Yes, they are. If it happens in public, then it is public.
>>When you take a book out of the library, your reading tastes are essentially public information, right?
Yes, they are, if someone sees what you checked out. You could be secretive about it (wear a dark jacket, use an alias, cover up the books with a bag), but if it's a secret, I'd recommend not using the PUBLIC library to do your reading.
>>When you visit a hospital or clinic and are sitting with strangers in a waiting room, your medical problems are essentially public information, right?
Oh for crying out loud, I knew this had to be a troll. Yes of course they are public. If you are coughing, they know you are coughing. If you are shitting yourself, they know you are incontinent. If you have AIDS and are just sitting there, then no, it's not public. Your medical problems are public the same way your eyeglasses are public. OMG people know I don't have 20/20 vision!
>>When you shop for groceries, your eating habits are essentially public information, right?
See above.
>>When you buy a present for that someone special to surprise them, your purchase is essentially public information, right?
Are you for real? Of course it is. Who the hell is going to keep track of your purchase in order to ruin the surprise? If you don't want Bob to know that you bought him a dialysis machine, then don't buy it in front of Bob's best friend. If Brenda sees it, and she doesn't know Bob, then who cares? If it's a secret, then buy it online (where the information is encrypted and NOT public).
>>So, where do you draw the line?
I draw the line at my front door. What I do in public is public. If I'm a bad driver, that's public info- I drive poorly on public roads. If I buy oatmeal at the store, that's public, too.
Medical RECORDS and legal matters are a special category that are not public; However, if you talk about them or demonstrate them in public (coughing, crapping yourself, going on TV to talk about it) then no, they are not private anymore.
>>So you would make it that aid to help people escape poverty should be targeted by skin colour, rather than need?
Another response to you already cleared this up eloquently.
Man, I think I just got trolled. Don't expect another response.
Why is that so upsetting to you? Gross estimations of your ethnicity can be made by simply looking at you; if you leave your house, your ethnicity is essentially public information, right?
I think that in progressive societies (societies w/o genocide, for example), understanding population characteristics, race included, could be a very useful thing. For example, finding out that one county's minority population is 13% below the poverty line, while another county's rate is only 5%. It would be useful to know that situation even exists; then, you can try to find out what the difference is and try to help the situation.
There is a happy medium between affirmative-action-type policies and nothing. It is useful for sociologists to have this kind of information.
Unless you're the tinfoil-hat type, in which case I just wasted 5 minutes. Then OK, yes, they're out to get you.
>>as far as im aware a blackhole would just suck our planet (our moon, maybe Mars, and the entire soral system with it) outright and instantly
Not true.
A black hole formed from the matter composing our planet would retain the same mass as our planet. The black hole would retain the same orbit as the original planet; if the moon wasn't annihilated by the radiation caused by the implosion of Earth, it would continue to orbit the singularity.
The black hole wouldn't collide with any other planets unless we were already on a collision course with them, which is not the case.
Orbits are determined by mass and velocity, and those would not change if the earth was swallowed by a locally-produced black hole.
Slashdot Mirror
Or-
Can anyone prove that a new continent has been formed in this lifetime? If not, I think plate tectonics lacks evidentiary proof and we should not teach it in schools.
-b
Here are a few samples. I don't know why the researchers published them this way, but then I'm not a scientist.
http://digg.com/odd_stuff/Boy_gets_butter_knife_stuck_in_head
http://www.youtube.com/comment_servlet?all_comments&v=5i01M_JMaoE&fromurl=/watch%3Fv%3D5i01M_JMaoE%26feature%3Drelated
-b
>>How about adding a nominal anti-spam fee of 0.1$ to hotmail, gmail, ymail etc?
They already read my email and my cookies. The last thing I want to give them is any kind of financial information.
How about this: A paragraph or so story about how $NOUN1 $VERB with $NOUN2. At the end, the captcha asks
"what would be an appropriate title to this story?"
-$NOUN1 $VERB with $NOUN2
-$NOUN1 nonsense nonsense $NOUN2
-$NOUN1 $VERB nonsense
You could have trillions of possible answers, the captcha would be accessible to screen readers, and you could disable the 'next' button for a minute or two; real people will be reading the story anyways.
I know it's not perfect, but hey.
-b
>>Where do you buy 80 ohm coax? I've heard of 75Ohm, but not 80.
http://www.electrospec.com/alpha/product_detail.asp?item=9840+BK001
http://www.meci.com/product_info.php/products_id/6302327?osCsid=9575d379ece2e7a4a29cd750b9338529
I did mean to say 75 ohm, but I've been working on an 80 ohm dipole antenna lately, so my numbers were mixed up.
-b
It was my understanding that monster was referring not to the functional design of the RCA standard cable/terminations, but the design of the rubber/plastic termination moldings. I haven't seen Blue Jeans' cable terminations, but monster _could_ have a case here if the rubber moldings were very similar.
I'm not taking sides here, I'm just clarifying. Monster's case would be like Coca Cola going after some bottle maker for making a bottle in that special (trademarked) hourglass shape; that is different from Coca Cola going after a bottle maker for making generic bottles.
-b
I'm confused. Can you clarify what you meant by using coax as audio cable? I'm picturing 80 ohm coax in my head, and I can't imagine that the central conductor would handle any major current. No offense, but are you maybe thinking instead about regular paired stranded wire?
-b
>>I'm not sure, but I think you just compared the complexity/stability/reliability of a computer with that of a rivet gun :)
Yep. They both operate on relatively simple concepts to effect complex results. Riveting well takes quite a while to get the knack of; the skills are qualitative rather than quantitative as in computers, but I think the analogy works. I'm not really trying to compare computers and rivet guns per se, just the skills needed to use them effectively. A novice can start riveting on their first day, but the results will look like crap and they'll take forever.
All I'm saying is that it only takes a little bit of effort to translate into major increases in efficiency and effectiveness. These 'problem users' are very willfully refusing to learn to use the most important tool in their toolbox.
-b
I agree with the gist of what you're saying, but I don't think it's correct to say that IT would be idiots in the place of other employees' jobs.
Computers are special. They are completely intuitive to me, and probably almost everyone here on slashdot, but not to other people. Maybe it's the levels of abstraction- I don't know- but people are more finicky about computers than they are about they way they drive or even their weight. It's a subject that can send reasonable people into foaming rage.
-
IT is there to support the employees' use of the technology- tech that they NEED to do their jobs. Me, I'm a jet mechanic. My job is to fix jets, and that's about it. I use tools like drills, rivet guns, hammers, snips, and other stuff. Now imagine a special "Rivet Gun Dept" or RGD whose reason for existing would be to set up, maintain, inventory, and train people on the use of rivet guns. Now as I said before, rivet guns play an important role in my job; without my mad rivet gun skills, I'd be pretty useless as a mechanic. So let's pretend that I no longer need to know anything about rivet guns other than if I sort of... prop it up... like this... and click this button... BAMBAMBAMBAMBAM It will shoot a rivet. Hooray for me, I'm mechanic. Uh oh, my rivet gun came unplugged from the airline! What should I do? Call the RGD? Doesn't that seem ridiculous?
-
IT are asked to be the RGD for a bunch of ostensible mechanics. People need to face the music: If you are a lawyer, your job requires a computer. If you are a secretary, your job requires a computer. If you work in data entry, your job requires a computer. And so on. Consider it a skill like driving that will pay big dividends in the long run.
To Users:
PEOPLE! These magic boxes are your freakin' livelihood and yet you take absolutely no effort to get to know them, to understand at least what the "Blue E" program is CALLED! You are mechanics, and computers are your rivet guns, and you need to learn how to use them RIGHT NOW. You need to learn the difference between making a shortcut and copying a file. You need to stop sending me links to emails in your Yahoo inbox. You need to stop looking at pr0n with your Big Blue E program. You need to learn HOW TO TURN YOUR CAPS LOCK OFF. BEING OLD IS NO EXCUSE; TYPEWRITERS HAD A SHIFT BUTTON, TOO.
Sorry about that. I used to work in tech support for a smallish, localish ISP. It taught me some of the most important lessons in my life, like why I will never, ever, EVER work in customer service again.
-b
>>As much as we love to believe that everyone would be an ideal user with just a little education, most people simply do not care about computers
I agree, and had to add: And most people are not _paid_ to futz around with computers. They are paid to do their job. IT's job is making computers work; everyone else uses them to do their jobs.
-b
It was originally known not as the God particle but the "Oh my God" particle- As in "Oh my god, that single particle had the kinetic energy of a falling brick!"
More here-
https://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/OhMyGodParticle/
-b
Because air has some undeniable advantages over water:
-Free (both source and disposal)
-Non-conductive
-Non-corrosive
-Lightweight
-Will not undergo phase change under typical or emergency server conditions (think water>steam)
-Cooling air does not need to be kept separate from breathing air, unlike water, which must be kept completely separate from potable water
Imagine the worst-case scenario concerning a coolant failure WRT water vs air:
-Water: flood server room/short-circuit moboard or power backplane/cooling block must be replaced (labor)
-Air: Cause processor to scale down clock speed
I don't think water/oil cooling is ready for mainstream data farm applications quite yet. I also think that future processors will use technology that isn't nearly as hot and wasteful as what we use now, making water cooling a moot point.
-b
Well, look at is this way: You have suicide, and then the opposite of suicide, which is "going on living."
Most of us are familiar with the idea of 'going on living' and have no difficulty in breathing, eating, etc. All it takes to 'go on living' is to sit there and do nothing. It is not an interesting topic nor does it raise very many interesting discussions except for 1000-level philosophy courses.
Suicide, on the other hand, is an action with immediate and also long-lasting effects on the person (of course) and society. Suicide is something that has affected me very personally several times; I can tell you that even 5-10 years after the fact, the families and friends are still having a hard time coping. So it is clear that suicide is something that warrants a fair bit of attention.
As for the question of bias (pro- or anti-suicide) based on these web searches- I think about it this way.
There are many websites out there that will tell you how to build a bomb, or repair a boat hull, or repoint masonry. A huge portion of the internet is devoted to graphic images of sex that most people find repulsive (furries...). I don't think that it's been shown that simply viewing and thinking about a subject makes a person more likely to partake in that subject, unless that person never had any exposure at all previously. Suicide is not a new band or a potato gun or a case mod. People know what suicide is from a very young age. Anyone who has every thought at all has thought about suicide before, even if only intellectually and not as a solution. It is a myth that bringing up suicide and discussing it will push depressed but stable people over the edge.
Depressed people and the people affected by depressed loved ones can find a tremendous amount of information and support on the internet. I'm not sure what the point of this slashdot article was, but I believe that any and all information about suicide ought to be public.
-b
>>and the downtown terminus being a completely ODOT-botched interchange with 405 that requires you to be in the proper lane a mile in advance
At last, traffic jams can be explained by error codes: "Error 405, route not allowed"
-b
>>they may simply let infectious agents traverse their organ systems with impunity, without any resistance, and also without offering any safe harbor.
FTA-
"About three and a half years ago he tested alligator blood and pinpointed why these animals were so resistant to infection. Alligators and crocodiles, like humans, have a natural defence system against invading bacteria, viruses and fungi, which involves a group of proteins called the complement system. When Dr Merchant exposed the alligator blood to pathogens such as HIV, West Nile Virus and E Coli, it started to kill them. "It turns out that this complement system is much more effective than ours."
I think that the alligator blood may be more like your armed guard than anything.
-b
>> Put the same person in front of any OS and they will get infected the same way they always did.
.EXE's all over the desktop.
From my personal experience with users in person and in forums, the "same person's" linux install would look pristine even after months of use. Pristine, except for the dozens of downloaded
I think it's safe to say that the average person's linux install would be secure via 'security through stupidity'.
-b
>>(I'm more of a Si,
You're silicon? That would explain the glassy stare...
-b
>>See, it's stuff like that which keeps me from owning a gun. Takes to long to get ready and if you have one ready, somebody's kid might shoot themselves.
See, it's stuff like that which keeps me from owning a:
-swimming pool or hot tub
-swingset
-hammer
-electrical outlet
-car or truck
-anything made out of glass
-climbable tree
-pet
-knife
-rope
-paint or other chemical
-soldering iron
-aspirin or other OTC drugs
-5-gallon bucket
-charcoal grill
-washing machine or dryer
-large freezer
-baseballs or bats
-stairs
-powerful magnets
-matches
The number one killer for kids 5-14 is accidents (mostly vehicle accidents). Anything and everything that can possibly kill someone, HAS killed someone. 5-gallon buckets have that infant warning sticker on the side for a reason (also mandated by law). I understand the desire to childproof the home, but there is NO such thing as childproof. Haven't you people ever been 5-14 before? My 14-year-old cousin killed himself. I knew how to pick locks at that age. Some of my friends were already starting to experiment with drugs.
My point is that we cannot surrender our every right and privilege in the name of protecting a demographic that has proven consistently to have no other aim in life besides getting hurt and disobeying simple commands. I feel absolutely terrible for any family that has had to work through the loss of a child (been there); however, it bugs me that on BOTH sides of the debate, guns are imbued with special powers and emotional baggage that turns them into semi-human enemies/saviors. They are pieces of metal, people. If violence scares you, then come to grips with violence, not guns. If violence turns you on, then you need to come to grips with that. Anyone with a fierce opinion in this debate needs to take a fearless inventory of their own emotional baggage and discern their real agenda. I'm not saying that one side is inherently more correct than the other.
For the record, I believe in waiting periods, gun registration, background checks, submitting factory fired bullets to law enforcement, etc. I believe that once those conditions are met, and safety standards are continued to be met, guns should be available to those who want them.
Of course I also think that kids shouldn't drive until they're 18, so whatever. My social contract would place a lot more responsibility on individuals than our current one.
-b
>>if it doesn't fail in the first year, it's likely to last as long as you are likely to be using it.
:)
For anyone not familiar with this concept, it's known as a bathtub curve:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathtub_curve
This applies as much to hard drives as it does to cars, buildings, etc.
God I love data that can represented on curves...
-b
As I mentioned much earlier, race of ultimately public info if you ever leave the house. Things like income, political affiliation, etc are all private until you make it public.
I started discussing this with the OP because every time the topic of the census comes up, he tells the same rant about not telling the gov't his race (and putting the gov't in its place in the process). This struck as either paranoid or short-sighted, as gross estimations of race (as I mentioned already) can be made in a public setting.
There is more to this, like what race has to do with social reform or poverty or other demographics, and that is way beyond the scope of the thread. If the OP had said that his income (for example) was private, I probably wouldn't have responded in the first place (it is private). Although, in the U.S., the gov't already knows exactly how much money you make. So I guess it's a moot point.
-b
If you travel over the road quite a bit (in the U.S. at least), you'll notice people tapping their brake lights twice- that indicates a speed trap up ahead.
If someone (usually a truck or a large trailer) is passing you, it is customary to blink your highbeams when they are clear of you and can change back into your lane.
There are other signals that truckers use, but I don't know what they mean yet.
-b
>>When you buy something at the store, you're standing in line with other members of the public, so your purchases are essentially public information, right?
Yes, they are. If it happens in public, then it is public.
>>When you take a book out of the library, your reading tastes are essentially public information, right?
Yes, they are, if someone sees what you checked out. You could be secretive about it (wear a dark jacket, use an alias, cover up the books with a bag), but if it's a secret, I'd recommend not using the PUBLIC library to do your reading.
>>When you visit a hospital or clinic and are sitting with strangers in a waiting room, your medical problems are essentially public information, right?
Oh for crying out loud, I knew this had to be a troll. Yes of course they are public. If you are coughing, they know you are coughing. If you are shitting yourself, they know you are incontinent. If you have AIDS and are just sitting there, then no, it's not public. Your medical problems are public the same way your eyeglasses are public. OMG people know I don't have 20/20 vision!
>>When you shop for groceries, your eating habits are essentially public information, right?
See above.
>>When you buy a present for that someone special to surprise them, your purchase is essentially public information, right?
Are you for real? Of course it is. Who the hell is going to keep track of your purchase in order to ruin the surprise? If you don't want Bob to know that you bought him a dialysis machine, then don't buy it in front of Bob's best friend. If Brenda sees it, and she doesn't know Bob, then who cares? If it's a secret, then buy it online (where the information is encrypted and NOT public).
>>So, where do you draw the line?
I draw the line at my front door. What I do in public is public. If I'm a bad driver, that's public info- I drive poorly on public roads. If I buy oatmeal at the store, that's public, too.
Medical RECORDS and legal matters are a special category that are not public; However, if you talk about them or demonstrate them in public (coughing, crapping yourself, going on TV to talk about it) then no, they are not private anymore.
>>So you would make it that aid to help people escape poverty should be targeted by skin colour, rather than need?
Another response to you already cleared this up eloquently.
Man, I think I just got trolled. Don't expect another response.
-b
Why is that so upsetting to you? Gross estimations of your ethnicity can be made by simply looking at you; if you leave your house, your ethnicity is essentially public information, right?
I think that in progressive societies (societies w/o genocide, for example), understanding population characteristics, race included, could be a very useful thing. For example, finding out that one county's minority population is 13% below the poverty line, while another county's rate is only 5%. It would be useful to know that situation even exists; then, you can try to find out what the difference is and try to help the situation.
There is a happy medium between affirmative-action-type policies and nothing. It is useful for sociologists to have this kind of information.
Unless you're the tinfoil-hat type, in which case I just wasted 5 minutes. Then OK, yes, they're out to get you.
-b
>>as far as im aware a blackhole would just suck our planet (our moon, maybe Mars, and the entire soral system with it) outright and instantly
Not true.
A black hole formed from the matter composing our planet would retain the same mass as our planet. The black hole would retain the same orbit as the original planet; if the moon wasn't annihilated by the radiation caused by the implosion of Earth, it would continue to orbit the singularity.
The black hole wouldn't collide with any other planets unless we were already on a collision course with them, which is not the case.
Orbits are determined by mass and velocity, and those would not change if the earth was swallowed by a locally-produced black hole.
-b
>>From more than 600 blocks, they have identified nearly 360 fossil animals
I'm sure the people in the 600 city blocks between the x-ray machine and the amber weren't too happy...
-b
>>Of course, anything faster than 16ms is absolutely pointless since you're dealing with a 60Hz signal
I'm not really up to date with video standards, but I thought that we were moving towards faster signals. HDMI I know reaches 340 MHz.
Are there any other standards besides vga and dvi that are faster than 60 Hz?
Sorry if this is way off base.
-b