Considering this is a year old (feel ashamed that I overlooked the date when I read the article), I apologize for overreacting. Age or no age, I'm still not happy about this policy, but the date of the article does certainly take some of the sting out. I don't buy into the whole idea of editors trolling, so I'm just going to attribute this to a mistake. I wish I could tone my earlier comment down, but I can't. I apologize and I hope Zonk feels sorry, too considering he also postedthis.
However, just as an update to the situation, the Automated Targeting System is still operating. I disagree with it, and I think it is a bad idea. It's just it's already had it's place on slashdot.
"We gather, collect information that is needed to protect the borders," Agen said. "We store the information we see as pertinent to keeping Americans safe."
It's sad but there are people that think this will result in tangible safety. They don't stop to think that just maybe people coming into the US through the proper means aren't the major threats. I've talked about this is in other posts, but this takes the cake. Every one is to be viewed as a threat. The government is forcing a paranoid world of survivalism on us. I hate being alarmist, and I hate ragging on the government for nothing, but this is serious. This a fundamental challenge to the idea of personal liberty, innocence until proven guilty, and pretty much every other tenet of the philosophical basis for our nation. This is a gross, paranoid, unrealistic power grab. After reading the article I don't have a whole lot of hope. It was a calm rational piece, which is normally what I would want, but this needs to be shown for what it is.
So to all newcomers... welcome to America where we aim to alienate and tread over any and everyone!
As a non-expert (see entire scope of knowledge about the field is based on wikipedia, cursory google search, and tv documentaries), is finding sources the major roadblock to widespread geothermal use? I would think so upon my basic knowledge.
a). It is eco-friendly, in that there are no toxic wastes or atmospheric wastes to speak of. Reduction in greenhouse gases is a plus. So there are no environmentalists protesting geothermal expansions like nuclear ones.
b). It is not as conditional as other eco-friendly power sources. With wind and tide power you are at the mercy of the conditions which is a major drawback considering the instancy with which grid fluctuations occur. Granted it is conditional upon the temperature of the earth, but geologic time scales are much more gradual than say meteorological time scales with wind.
c). Plants are fairly efficient. There is very little ancillary equipment needed, because the dynamo system usually runs off steam directly from the ground. Other forms of power, eg nuclear, coal, and oil, are ways of producing heat. With geothermal, the earth is already producing the heat for us. We are essentially utilizing energy that is produced no matter what, but would otherwise be lost.
I have come to see geothermal power as being a major possibility to easing our energy problems, especially upon news of this. I would be all too happy to see this overtake nuclear power as the solution to our energy problems. Now before I get a hundred posts about "if you're not serious about nuclear, then you aren't serious about energy reform," I understand nuclear's potential, vastly under-utilized potential, I think geothermal would be a much more optimal solution. Geothermal requires no mining, no relying on finite resources of naturally fissile material, and it produces no nasty radioactive waste.
I hope that this paves the way to a major increase in geothermal generation. I think it would be the most ideal solution we have available.
Disclaimer: I'm not an expert, and I do expect a ton of pro-nuclear flamage, which I hope I don't deserve, but I might.
When I submitted this I added that a lot of times the more I see in a search result, the more likely I am to hit that website. I know going in that the search engine is going to have the full story. It's a summary. That being said, I submitted this to point out the misstep I think publishers are taking. Search engines and aggregators drive their business, and usually they do it for free. I don't understand why anyone would think it would be a good idea to mess with that. Hopefully someone can explain this to me, as the stuff in the article led me to believe the publishers are making a big mistake.
I think being able to equip yourself like a character from an rpg will trump any health risks. In fact that's how I think they should market this. Optical HUD == +5 Productivity, never mind the increased value for a successful blindness roll, I'd wear one.
However on a serious note, it seems to me that other than than the point blank screens these appear to be pretty safe. They're are apparently made for use in some pretty electronics hostile environments (the upper atmosphere) which I would assume they are shielded very well and therefore present no greater radiation risk.
Imagine you have an intelligent assistant able to find any information you need, whenever and wherever.
Imagine a TERRORIST has an intelligent assistant able to find THE WHEREABOUTS OF EVERY SMALL AMERICAN CHILD, whenever and wherever, and that assistant will help them SET THE AMBER WAVES OF GRAIN ON FIRE WHILE DEFECATING ON AN AMERICAN FLAG.
blockquote> i>And, more specifically, if it is illegal, why this is supposedly pushing Congress towards net neutrality laws?/i>/blockquote>
For an overview check the wiki
Currently it is only violating net neutrality principles and is only a tort violation. So legality tends to depend on the judge. I come down on the side that is not QoS and patently violates net neutrality. So to me it is illegal and if I were a judge I would strike their actions. The reason it is pushing Congress is enough decent Congressmen like my beloved Rick Boucher (proud constituent of the 9th VA District) have decided to make this sort of thing statutory and not up to any fickle judge.
It's far more sinister. They are spoofing packets by impersonating a p2p node. They are illegally interfering with their customers' service and don't have the guts to do it outright themselves.
Re:Great show, decent movie
on
Futurama Returns!
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
Lela and Fry subplot are quite sweet
I say this with all seriousness! It is one of the greatest "romances" I can remember in any show, movie, what have you. The show actually made me care about a love subplot, and that never happens. It was so painful for the both of them, and as a typical nerd, I related to it so much. It was such a funny yet touching ride. I know this offtopic as opposed to the random show references (I'm guilty of doing that with the first post already), but I am completely serious. One of the best fictional "romances" ever! Period.
--the RIAA papers did not show that any infringing activity actually took place
The RIAA has consistently done(or not done?) this. Yet they still win in the courts. Can anyone explain to me how they have convinced judges that a). they have accrued damages against their constituent companies without hard data and b). what links do they provide at all to the courts? IP's? MAC addresses?
I don't want to count the chickens before they are hatched, but I think we are beginning to see a real change in the direction of this thing. Recall EMI wanting to stop funding the RIAA. There is real success happening here. Only good can come from this scrutiny. For far too long now they've been trolling the courts and beating up on the little guy. So I say Hooray for Oregon's Attorney-General.
(see comment about chickens before hatching)Although as I type this I recall the new restrictive copyright laws in Switzerland and Canada. This has tempered my optimism, but still I think things are finally changing.
Disclaimer: I don't see myself being an early adopter or anything of this service, but not because of privacy.
cash-cow model that could scan all your personal data for advertising keywords
What, like the "disaster" that Gmail is? I'm all for Internet privacy, but get some perspective. I trust this service in the hands of Google. They've done nothing to shake that trust, and to be frankly I have good faith that they won't. They're a data miner, sure, but they have always done in the least intrusive way as possible. Get this, I even like their ads sometimes! I know, unbelievable right! So thanks for being watchdogs and all, but as of right now, Google has my trust.
...put an end to the 'will they or won't they' debate...
I never saw any sound evidence put forth that they wouldn't bid on this spectrum. As far as I was concerned this was a sure thing. Here's to hoping they win the auction!
I think that it means the end of the arbitrarily compilation of an album. With digital dissemination artists can release music as they create it, and receive support as they create music. An artist no longer has to rely on marketing a compilation every year or so. The album dominated market is artificial scarcity. It tries to create a market where that is the only music you are told to expect from an artist for a long time. It simply doesn't happen like that. I know sometimes it helps to release songs together as they sometimes compliment each other. By and large however, albums are just another way to generate revenue for the distributor and not the artist. So I say good riddance to the album. Really, half the time albums are about 80% fluff just to pad the track numbers in order justify the price.
HTML 5 is strict in the formulation of HTML entities. In the past, some browsers have been too forgiving of malformed entities, exposing users to security exploits. Browsers should not perform heroics to try to make bad content displayable. Such heroics result in security vulnerabilities.
This will clearly have a negative effect on society. When the script kiddies can't "haxxor" anymore, the only alternative is DRUGS! AND DRUGS ARE EVIL!! CRIME WILL SKYROCKET!
I read it as "Vista capable" is instilling a false sense of confidence in customers, as in it misleads them into believing that Vista isn't the only os supported, rather just one that is.
I never upgrade until the widespread opinion is the product is mature...
Apple users expect Apple products to be mature immediately, which is impossible. There tends to be a much shorter memory about Apple's tribulations then there are with Windows, so it just becomes commonplace to expect maturity with betas and all. Remember the story about how everyone freaked over the bootcamp beta going haywire, after Apple had dropped support for it.
Perhaps One Cellphone Per Child is a more useful goal than OLPC? Much cheaper and likely far more useful.
I don't think this is what you meant by it, but cell phones are being used to jumpstart communications infrastructure in the third world. It's much cheaper to go wireless from the start than to build a grid. I would expect the ratio to jump tremendously in the coming decade. The greater part of Africa will probably be built upon a wireless paradigm in telephony.
If all scientists in the US... not just the NASA rocket scientists... stop working RIGHT NOW... the vast majority of the population won't know, and the majority of those who know, won't care.
They might not care now, but they would in the future. The Bush administration is wacked up, but I have just a little bit of faith that it won't come to that. America is a big, old, resilient creature. Society itself has developed enough to where there are protections to keep from a crazy administration getting rid of the core of the scientific community. Mod me flame bait for being the least bit optimistic, I don't care. There is enough sense in the government at large (ie not the white house) to prevent this from happening. This will be fought.
What do they want to do when no one signs this? Fire every scientist? Not going to happen.
Hopefully it will work out like you mapped it. However, the white house figures if they throw out enough fud, they'll be able to bust solidarity and get enough to cave and sign in order to make it effective. I would hope a group of the best scientists in the world would be able to stick this fight out.
All of this is done in the name of "protect[ing] personal privacy."
If that doesn't shed light on the fact that this is complete and utter nonsense, I don't know what will. As the article pointed out, that's Newspeak if I ever heard it.
I wouldn't be so sure. I did feel the ground get a bit cooler. As if something just froze over. However, it could just be my imagination.... Oh yeah, It's just my imagination!
Greenwald goes on to argue that the order should be leveled against Senators as well, to get a sense of who else is in Ma Bell's pocket.
And I'd like a pony that floated on rainbows and candy and secreted money instead of sweat! Geez! Can't you learn to be content!
Joking aside, that would be the next logical step. Of course having all lobbying be completely transparent has always been the logical next step to cleaning house, but now Washington doesn't run on logic does it?
This will work wonders for their advertising model. You are essentially telling them what you to see advertised right off the bat. I couldn't see why this is a bad idea. I know they say "it may never be fully released," but everything with google is always a beta. Another win-win provided from google. It just goes to show business people everywhere that actually providing a service (ie not harming your customers or trying to milk them) is an extremely effective model for business.
Slashdot Mirror
Considering this is a year old (feel ashamed that I overlooked the date when I read the article), I apologize for overreacting. Age or no age, I'm still not happy about this policy, but the date of the article does certainly take some of the sting out. I don't buy into the whole idea of editors trolling, so I'm just going to attribute this to a mistake. I wish I could tone my earlier comment down, but I can't. I apologize and I hope Zonk feels sorry, too considering he also postedthis.
However, just as an update to the situation, the Automated Targeting System is still operating. I disagree with it, and I think it is a bad idea. It's just it's already had it's place on slashdot.
"We gather, collect information that is needed to protect the borders," Agen said. "We store the information we see as pertinent to keeping Americans safe."
It's sad but there are people that think this will result in tangible safety. They don't stop to think that just maybe people coming into the US through the proper means aren't the major threats. I've talked about this is in other posts, but this takes the cake. Every one is to be viewed as a threat. The government is forcing a paranoid world of survivalism on us. I hate being alarmist, and I hate ragging on the government for nothing, but this is serious. This a fundamental challenge to the idea of personal liberty, innocence until proven guilty, and pretty much every other tenet of the philosophical basis for our nation. This is a gross, paranoid, unrealistic power grab. After reading the article I don't have a whole lot of hope. It was a calm rational piece, which is normally what I would want, but this needs to be shown for what it is.
So to all newcomers... welcome to America where we aim to alienate and tread over any and everyone!
As a non-expert (see entire scope of knowledge about the field is based on wikipedia, cursory google search, and tv documentaries), is finding sources the major roadblock to widespread geothermal use? I would think so upon my basic knowledge.
a). It is eco-friendly, in that there are no toxic wastes or atmospheric wastes to speak of. Reduction in greenhouse gases is a plus. So there are no environmentalists protesting geothermal expansions like nuclear ones.
b). It is not as conditional as other eco-friendly power sources. With wind and tide power you are at the mercy of the conditions which is a major drawback considering the instancy with which grid fluctuations occur. Granted it is conditional upon the temperature of the earth, but geologic time scales are much more gradual than say meteorological time scales with wind.
c). Plants are fairly efficient. There is very little ancillary equipment needed, because the dynamo system usually runs off steam directly from the ground. Other forms of power, eg nuclear, coal, and oil, are ways of producing heat. With geothermal, the earth is already producing the heat for us. We are essentially utilizing energy that is produced no matter what, but would otherwise be lost.
I have come to see geothermal power as being a major possibility to easing our energy problems, especially upon news of this. I would be all too happy to see this overtake nuclear power as the solution to our energy problems. Now before I get a hundred posts about "if you're not serious about nuclear, then you aren't serious about energy reform," I understand nuclear's potential, vastly under-utilized potential, I think geothermal would be a much more optimal solution. Geothermal requires no mining, no relying on finite resources of naturally fissile material, and it produces no nasty radioactive waste.
I hope that this paves the way to a major increase in geothermal generation. I think it would be the most ideal solution we have available.
Disclaimer: I'm not an expert, and I do expect a ton of pro-nuclear flamage, which I hope I don't deserve, but I might.
When I submitted this I added that a lot of times the more I see in a search result, the more likely I am to hit that website. I know going in that the search engine is going to have the full story. It's a summary. That being said, I submitted this to point out the misstep I think publishers are taking. Search engines and aggregators drive their business, and usually they do it for free. I don't understand why anyone would think it would be a good idea to mess with that. Hopefully someone can explain this to me, as the stuff in the article led me to believe the publishers are making a big mistake.
I think being able to equip yourself like a character from an rpg will trump any health risks. In fact that's how I think they should market this. Optical HUD == +5 Productivity, never mind the increased value for a successful blindness roll, I'd wear one.
However on a serious note, it seems to me that other than than the point blank screens these appear to be pretty safe. They're are apparently made for use in some pretty electronics hostile environments (the upper atmosphere) which I would assume they are shielded very well and therefore present no greater radiation risk.
Imagine you have an intelligent assistant able to find any information you need, whenever and wherever.
Imagine a TERRORIST has an intelligent assistant able to find THE WHEREABOUTS OF EVERY SMALL AMERICAN CHILD, whenever and wherever, and that assistant will help them SET THE AMBER WAVES OF GRAIN ON FIRE WHILE DEFECATING ON AN AMERICAN FLAG.
blockquote> i>And, more specifically, if it is illegal, why this is supposedly pushing Congress towards net neutrality laws? /i> /blockquote>
For an overview check the wiki
Currently it is only violating net neutrality principles and is only a tort violation. So legality tends to depend on the judge. I come down on the side that is not QoS and patently violates net neutrality. So to me it is illegal and if I were a judge I would strike their actions. The reason it is pushing Congress is enough decent Congressmen like my beloved Rick Boucher (proud constituent of the 9th VA District) have decided to make this sort of thing statutory and not up to any fickle judge.
It's far more sinister. They are spoofing packets by impersonating a p2p node. They are illegally interfering with their customers' service and don't have the guts to do it outright themselves.
I'll just pirate my own copy with blackjack and hookers! In fact, forget the pirated movie!
--the RIAA papers did not show that any infringing activity actually took place
The RIAA has consistently done(or not done?) this. Yet they still win in the courts. Can anyone explain to me how they have convinced judges that a). they have accrued damages against their constituent companies without hard data and b). what links do they provide at all to the courts? IP's? MAC addresses?
I don't want to count the chickens before they are hatched, but I think we are beginning to see a real change in the direction of this thing. Recall EMI wanting to stop funding the RIAA. There is real success happening here. Only good can come from this scrutiny. For far too long now they've been trolling the courts and beating up on the little guy. So I say Hooray for Oregon's Attorney-General.
(see comment about chickens before hatching)Although as I type this I recall the new restrictive copyright laws in Switzerland and Canada. This has tempered my optimism, but still I think things are finally changing.
Disclaimer: I don't see myself being an early adopter or anything of this service, but not because of privacy.
cash-cow model that could scan all your personal data for advertising keywords
What, like the "disaster" that Gmail is? I'm all for Internet privacy, but get some perspective. I trust this service in the hands of Google. They've done nothing to shake that trust, and to be frankly I have good faith that they won't. They're a data miner, sure, but they have always done in the least intrusive way as possible. Get this, I even like their ads sometimes! I know, unbelievable right! So thanks for being watchdogs and all, but as of right now, Google has my trust.
...put an end to the 'will they or won't they' debate...
I never saw any sound evidence put forth that they wouldn't bid on this spectrum. As far as I was concerned this was a sure thing. Here's to hoping they win the auction!
I think that it means the end of the arbitrarily compilation of an album. With digital dissemination artists can release music as they create it, and receive support as they create music. An artist no longer has to rely on marketing a compilation every year or so. The album dominated market is artificial scarcity. It tries to create a market where that is the only music you are told to expect from an artist for a long time. It simply doesn't happen like that. I know sometimes it helps to release songs together as they sometimes compliment each other. By and large however, albums are just another way to generate revenue for the distributor and not the artist. So I say good riddance to the album. Really, half the time albums are about 80% fluff just to pad the track numbers in order justify the price.
HTML 5 is strict in the formulation of HTML entities. In the past, some browsers have been too forgiving of malformed entities, exposing users to security exploits. Browsers should not perform heroics to try to make bad content displayable. Such heroics result in security vulnerabilities.
This will clearly have a negative effect on society. When the script kiddies can't "haxxor" anymore, the only alternative is DRUGS! AND DRUGS ARE EVIL!! CRIME WILL SKYROCKET!
I read it as "Vista capable" is instilling a false sense of confidence in customers, as in it misleads them into believing that Vista isn't the only os supported, rather just one that is.
Hopefully it will work out like you mapped it. However, the white house figures if they throw out enough fud, they'll be able to bust solidarity and get enough to cave and sign in order to make it effective. I would hope a group of the best scientists in the world would be able to stick this fight out.
All of this is done in the name of "protect[ing] personal privacy."
If that doesn't shed light on the fact that this is complete and utter nonsense, I don't know what will. As the article pointed out, that's Newspeak if I ever heard it.
I wouldn't be so sure. I did feel the ground get a bit cooler. As if something just froze over. However, it could just be my imagination. ... Oh yeah, It's just my imagination!
Greenwald goes on to argue that the order should be leveled against Senators as well, to get a sense of who else is in Ma Bell's pocket.
And I'd like a pony that floated on rainbows and candy and secreted money instead of sweat! Geez! Can't you learn to be content!
Joking aside, that would be the next logical step. Of course having all lobbying be completely transparent has always been the logical next step to cleaning house, but now Washington doesn't run on logic does it?
This will work wonders for their advertising model. You are essentially telling them what you to see advertised right off the bat. I couldn't see why this is a bad idea. I know they say "it may never be fully released," but everything with google is always a beta. Another win-win provided from google. It just goes to show business people everywhere that actually providing a service (ie not harming your customers or trying to milk them) is an extremely effective model for business.