The military never, ever has a problem filling billets for "knowledgeable" people to make "important" decisions with "authority" and "zeal."
The problem they do have, however, is that none of the people who actually understand and "live" for the work are ever the same as those "knowledgeable" people who make "important" decisions with "authority" and "zeal."
In other words, they have plenty of chiefs and no fucking indians. (that's not a pun at India, it's a phrase familiar to all sailors and many Marines.)
Smart and innovative people are frequently classed as troublemakers and misfits when they chaff at the idiocy of military stricture. It's hard to live with arbitrary rules that either have no rationale or lost whatever usefulness they had 50 years ago. You can't lure people in with glamour jobs where none exist. And most certainly not for less than a quarter of the pay. Military benefits have steadily eroded since the end of the Viet Nam war, and they sure as heel won't be getting any better.
I've been online in one fashion or another since the university of buffalo gave computer services to my school in the late 60's. It was only MIT basic that we accessed with a teletype terminal, but we could chat to others once you got past the OS. Things weren't near as secure as they are today, thankfully. I've sloughed off more than a dozen online identities and maintain four or five at any one time.
I went through the whole computer revolution as an alias. Any kid lacking the sense to keep their online and real lives separate will get what they deserve. It's social Darwinism. I can track myself back for almost 30 years. But I know who I was then. This is the oldest alias I've ever had and this is about the last place I use it.
If you want to have a private life, the first thing to learn is to keep it private, not publish it for the world to see.
Nine out of ten would be extremely happy to have FiOS over any of the cable offers I'm aware of; cable's best being 15Mpbs (shared throughout the neighborhood, so when the kids get out of school your BW drops dramatically).
I have a 25/25Mbps FiOS connection. I'm definitely not in favor of the cap. Three household users and a very active webserver run comfortably. My server averages about 8Mbps outbound with peaks to 28Mbps (as reported by the local bw app).
FiOS is a life changing experience for many people. Especially older adults who never used a 300bps modem, by that I mean the people who don't remember a download taking a couple hours to complete. For a new middle-aged or older adult, FiOS is perfect to start with. They generally lack the patience required to wait for a graphics-heavy website to load, or to wait more than a few minutes for a file download.
I think nothing at all of grabbing few linux ISO's to play with. I wouldn't have done that before FiOS. If I needed a new ISO, I'd kick it off and go to bed. Now I just go get some coffee and check my email and it's there in 15-20 minutes. I love FiOS.
I hope they don't cap it. I've been toying with getting a BD player with netflix capability...
It would be simple, too. I remember an old FM station, WYSL in Buffalo, NY. It was fantastic. It was rock and roll, but there wasn't a playlist, the DJ's made up their own lists and played what they liked and what the audience told them they liked.
A couple others that come to mind are KLOS in LA back in the 70's/80's and KDKB in Phoenix. Sadly, they're now cookie-cutters. WYSL went out of business as far as I know. There are not enough independent FM stations left now. You know, you need a breeding population for species survival.
All that's left now are great hulking growths of mould and fungii.
I haven't listed to the the radio in twenty years. Once I began buying CDs, Broadcast was dead to me.
Obnoxious DJs; idiots bantering about bullshit; absurd, over-loud, and offensive commercials; shit music played over and over according to who is on tour.
I've listened to XM and enjoyed it for a spell. I dumped them when they got stupid.
I have a slacker portable radio now. No DJ, no commercials, and I can pick the music.
Sure, I'm paying for a subscription, but I think that the cost is more than offset by my lowered blood pressure and no more radio rage when all five stations with halfway decent music are running the same bullshit set of commercials.
Broadcast began it's death march when the DJs became delusional enough to think that people listened the radio for their stellar personalities rather than for the music. Big broadcast conglomerates drove in the last nail when they bought up all the stations they could manage and turned them into cookie-cutter crap machines.
The RIAA is pissing into the wind. They can't re-bottle the genie. They couldn't stop people from recording FM to reel-to-reel back in the fifties and sixties, and they sure as hell won't be able to stop people from recording or copying music now. As long as recording devices exist, they may as well lobby against the sun and moon.
While it is probably not yet possible to create a breeding animal-human hybrid, the idea should be considered seriously. There are numerous implications for society as a whole. Would such a person be treated a sub-class without rights? What purpose would they have?
Science fiction writers, as is the norm, have dealt with such issues for many years, exploring various outcomes, both good and bad.
I suggest for your edification:
Human/animal hybrids created for combat - what happens after the war?
Yes, the stories are science fiction. However, science fiction isn't just test tubes and electronics. It is the interaction of people in a futuristic environment. Consider the fact that 30 years ago, no one thought it would be possible to create a replicating cell from scratch. 60 years ago, the double helix of DNA was unknown.
What is science fiction now, might be reality next week.
Not exactly true. The damage caused when it's possible to disrupt a mine rather than detonate it is negligibly. The "dragon" disruptors burn the munition too fast for it to detonate. All that's is damaged is a bucket full of dirt where the slag fell out of the casing.
The USSR was the first to develop and deploy anti-clearance mines and the first to develop and deploy mines of that are almost entirely plastic. Not to mention the mines that look like pens and dolls.
It's probably not cost effective except for straight-line clearance operations (i.e., a road).
You wouldn't want to try and clear several acres of field with this system as it would totally destroy the field. The purpose built systems are better suited for mine clearing. There's a continuing effort underway for mine clearing systems with an eye to small cost and high effectiveness and safety.
It will be a hard go. Something positive needs to happen.
Free, private communications is a cornerstone of maintaining a free society. Without a secure method of communications, the possibility of eventually overthrowing a tyrant is very small.
Who would have thought that "de oppresso libre" could become that applied in the US?
Can anyone think of a single example where throwing the kill switch would be better than not throwing the kill switch?
I believe they're looking to shutdown specific sites. The best thing to do is start setting up darknet/freenet nodes all over the place. Once they begin nailing websites they don't like, they won't stop.
The BBS may be the solution. At least then you have to raid the office, and that still requires a warrant.
You are mistaken. Any number of "accidental catastrophes" could befall an operator. House fire, robbery, drive-by shooting, "random" murder during the commission of a robbery...
You are forgetting, they are the government. They can do whatever they want and lie because there is no oversight. It's easy to make a person disappear.
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No, actually I learned all of that from a couple decades of active duty. You'd be amazed at how many of your parent's generation are reading this rag.
The chance of tylenol (the substance inside the frozen mice) destroying the eco-system on Guam is so minuscule, as to be impossible.
On the other hand, the damned snakes _are_ destroying the eco-system.
I was stationed on Guam. I loved it. Great jungle, nice mountains, clear streams and beautiful beaches. But most of all, no damned snakes.
The only difference between Hawaii and Guam is that no one thought to get tough about preventing idiots from bringing snakes to Guam.
The military never, ever has a problem filling billets for "knowledgeable" people to make "important" decisions with "authority" and "zeal."
The problem they do have, however, is that none of the people who actually understand and "live" for the work are ever the same as those "knowledgeable" people who make "important" decisions with "authority" and "zeal."
In other words, they have plenty of chiefs and no fucking indians. (that's not a pun at India, it's a phrase familiar to all sailors and many Marines.)
Smart and innovative people are frequently classed as troublemakers and misfits when they chaff at the idiocy of military stricture. It's hard to live with arbitrary rules that either have no rationale or lost whatever usefulness they had 50 years ago. You can't lure people in with glamour jobs where none exist. And most certainly not for less than a quarter of the pay. Military benefits have steadily eroded since the end of the Viet Nam war, and they sure as heel won't be getting any better.
Good luck with that staffing issue, Al.
I do tend to agree with your idea.
I may still visit IMDB to learn about a film, but I will never ever purchase a movie from Amazon or any other selling site mentioned therein.
I doubt if I would like The Tunnel, but I will purchase a copy simply to help them and to tweak Amazon.
This is the solution:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvage_1
Henry Ford did that in 1941.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rgDyEO_8cI
I've been online in one fashion or another since the university of buffalo gave computer services to my school in the late 60's. It was only MIT basic that we accessed with a teletype terminal, but we could chat to others once you got past the OS. Things weren't near as secure as they are today, thankfully. I've sloughed off more than a dozen online identities and maintain four or five at any one time.
I went through the whole computer revolution as an alias. Any kid lacking the sense to keep their online and real lives separate will get what they deserve. It's social Darwinism. I can track myself back for almost 30 years. But I know who I was then. This is the oldest alias I've ever had and this is about the last place I use it.
If you want to have a private life, the first thing to learn is to keep it private, not publish it for the world to see.
Narcissism kills your future...
Nine out of ten would be extremely happy to have FiOS over any of the cable offers I'm aware of; cable's best being 15Mpbs (shared throughout the neighborhood, so when the kids get out of school your BW drops dramatically).
I have a 25/25Mbps FiOS connection. I'm definitely not in favor of the cap. Three household users and a very active webserver run comfortably. My server averages about 8Mbps outbound with peaks to 28Mbps (as reported by the local bw app).
FiOS is a life changing experience for many people. Especially older adults who never used a 300bps modem, by that I mean the people who don't remember a download taking a couple hours to complete. For a new middle-aged or older adult, FiOS is perfect to start with. They generally lack the patience required to wait for a graphics-heavy website to load, or to wait more than a few minutes for a file download.
I think nothing at all of grabbing few linux ISO's to play with. I wouldn't have done that before FiOS. If I needed a new ISO, I'd kick it off and go to bed. Now I just go get some coffee and check my email and it's there in 15-20 minutes. I love FiOS.
I hope they don't cap it. I've been toying with getting a BD player with netflix capability...
It would be simple, too. I remember an old FM station, WYSL in Buffalo, NY. It was fantastic. It was rock and roll, but there wasn't a playlist, the DJ's made up their own lists and played what they liked and what the audience told them they liked.
A couple others that come to mind are KLOS in LA back in the 70's/80's and KDKB in Phoenix. Sadly, they're now cookie-cutters. WYSL went out of business as far as I know. There are not enough independent FM stations left now. You know, you need a breeding population for species survival.
All that's left now are great hulking growths of mould and fungii.
I haven't listed to the the radio in twenty years. Once I began buying CDs, Broadcast was dead to me.
Obnoxious DJs; idiots bantering about bullshit; absurd, over-loud, and offensive commercials; shit music played over and over according to who is on tour.
I've listened to XM and enjoyed it for a spell. I dumped them when they got stupid.
I have a slacker portable radio now. No DJ, no commercials, and I can pick the music.
Sure, I'm paying for a subscription, but I think that the cost is more than offset by my lowered blood pressure and no more radio rage when all five stations with halfway decent music are running the same bullshit set of commercials.
Broadcast began it's death march when the DJs became delusional enough to think that people listened the radio for their stellar personalities rather than for the music. Big broadcast conglomerates drove in the last nail when they bought up all the stations they could manage and turned them into cookie-cutter crap machines.
The RIAA is pissing into the wind. They can't re-bottle the genie. They couldn't stop people from recording FM to reel-to-reel back in the fifties and sixties, and they sure as hell won't be able to stop people from recording or copying music now. As long as recording devices exist, they may as well lobby against the sun and moon.
You beat me to it.
I imagine that this option will probably double the price ;-)
While it is probably not yet possible to create a breeding animal-human hybrid, the idea should be considered seriously. There are numerous implications for society as a whole. Would such a person be treated a sub-class without rights? What purpose would they have?
Science fiction writers, as is the norm, have dealt with such issues for many years, exploring various outcomes, both good and bad.
I suggest for your edification:
Human/animal hybrids created for combat - what happens after the war?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moreau_series
Gene-modified humans designed for work in zero gravity (four arms and no legs)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorkosigan_Saga#Falling_Free
Gene-modified humans designed to work on very high gravity worlds.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_Pirates_Series
Yes, the stories are science fiction. However, science fiction isn't just test tubes and electronics. It is the interaction of people in a futuristic environment. Consider the fact that 30 years ago, no one thought it would be possible to create a replicating cell from scratch. 60 years ago, the double helix of DNA was unknown.
What is science fiction now, might be reality next week.
Spoken like someone who has never been shot at.
Mines are primarily a defensive weapon, though their area denial function would be consider offensive. No one ever said a violent death was humane.
But you are whining at the wrong people. As long as it's necessary to send troops where they need mines for protection, then we need land mines.
If you have some silver bullet that'll make the world perfect, then by all means, pony up.
Not exactly true. The damage caused when it's possible to disrupt a mine rather than detonate it is negligibly. The "dragon" disruptors burn the munition too fast for it to detonate. All that's is damaged is a bucket full of dirt where the slag fell out of the casing.
Sorry, you're incorrect.
The USSR was the first to develop and deploy anti-clearance mines and the first to develop and deploy mines of that are almost entirely plastic. Not to mention the mines that look like pens and dolls.
It's probably not cost effective except for straight-line clearance operations (i.e., a road).
You wouldn't want to try and clear several acres of field with this system as it would totally destroy the field. The purpose built systems are better suited for mine clearing. There's a continuing effort underway for mine clearing systems with an eye to small cost and high effectiveness and safety.
Ugh. What is this thing, this "reboot" thing you speak of?
"Don't worry folks. The fire at Lawrence Livermore will burn itself out at the Mississippi."
LOL, good one, mate.
if you like cyberpunk, the book a good read.
It sounds very much like the sort of thing used in "The Long Run" by Daniel Keys Moran.
Sign me up!
It will be a hard go. Something positive needs to happen.
Free, private communications is a cornerstone of maintaining a free society. Without a secure method of communications, the possibility of eventually overthrowing a tyrant is very small.
Who would have thought that "de oppresso libre" could become that applied in the US?
True, true. Whatever did happen to Heidi?
I don't think that even the government would go that far! It's just beyond imagining.
Can anyone think of a single example where throwing the kill switch would be better than not throwing the kill switch?
I believe they're looking to shutdown specific sites. The best thing to do is start setting up darknet/freenet nodes all over the place. Once they begin nailing websites they don't like, they won't stop.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
I came here to say exactly that.
The BBS may be the solution. At least then you have to raid the office, and that still requires a warrant.
You are mistaken. Any number of "accidental catastrophes" could befall an operator. House fire, robbery, drive-by shooting, "random" murder during the commission of a robbery...
You are forgetting, they are the government. They can do whatever they want and lie because there is no oversight. It's easy to make a person disappear.