A balloon would be protected by obscurity. It's hard to find on radar, it barely emits any heat. Through the big sky theory, it will be hard to shoot down. A balloon with a sensor package on board can probably be made much stealthier than an airplane. The U-2 didn't take a direct hit; the SAM exploded close-by and the wooden plane was knocked into pieces. If it were stealthier, the SAM wouldn't even be able to find it, much less get close to it.
I don't know if it's anti-Semitic to point out that two high-ranking members of AIPAC, a very strong pro-Israel lobbying group, stand accused of spying on America on Israel's behalf. Israel has a proud tradition of having a robust special forces capability. It is probably a fair assumption that they are doing a lot more spying on the United States than they have been caught doing. I mean, it's impossible that the US has caught every instance of Israeli spying.
The erotic services section in Craigslist is very clearly geared towards prostitution. Almost every ad offers "full service" and sets out rates as "donations." The photos are usually of nude or scantily clad women. The services they offer are usually vernacular for specific sex acts. The vast majority of the ads there are for prostitution or reviews of prostitutes.
In New York City, the government offers to settle a ticket for 50% if you just challenge the ticket. The company takes half of the value you save, so they probably make a killing telling everyone to challenge and pay the settlement.
The Terry Childs case reminds me of 24. A corrupt government analyst exerts pressure on a techie to give up a password, which is promptly used for illegal activity. Then the innocent techie gets fucked and Jack Bauered. Yeah. Give the password to any boss figure who asks. That cannot go wrong.
At some level, citizens have to submit to authority figures. I'm not saying that we have to blindly follow all edicts, but if a cop pulls you over, you should pull over instead of fleeing. If a student is texting during class, she should stop when asked. Lying about it and causing a kerfluffle about it ought to be punishable. The same would be true if she had been passing notes in class and caused a fuss about it.
The self-professed libertarians here who argue that she should be able to do whatever she wants are missing the fact that this is in class. The education of the class would be impossible if anyone could do whatever they wanted.
In other words, no one should worry because everything is working out for you and your wife. And how dare anyone take money from YOU to help the country get back on track!
Write a three page essay on why your theories, if applied to the entire country, would be disastrous.
The economy looks great! All it needs is time to figure itself out and we'll be back on the path to prosperity! No, really. What are you smoking? I want some.
It's sad that you are falling for an agenda and don't even know it. The Republicans are sabotaging the bailout. They want Obama to fail (per Newt Gingrich) so they can regain some seats in November 2010.
An airbag armor system would be effectively a Whipple Shield. The penetration of a projectile is blunted by multiple layers of a material separated by a small distance. The initial layers progressively shatter the projectile into smaller parts, each of which have less penetration capability into the next layer. The concept is used in spacecraft to defend against small space debris but it has also been used in tank armor.
You are not a lawyer. "Sure, the police found me next to a dead body with the murder weapon in my hands, but did anyone see me kill the victim?" Uh, no, but there is no reasonable doubt that you did it.
If your IP was linked to child porn, which was then found on your computer, there is no reasonable doubt that you are guilty unless you show that you did not do it. The burden of proof does not mean that the prosecution is the only party that has to prove anything, you know?
I would bet that there are far fewer than 170 discrete individuals. A few psychopaths with a grudge probably ran a few dozen pseudonyms to pretend there was a silent majority. The IP information will clear this up pretty soon.
The market cannot allow Intel to fall. No other company in the world can supply x86 processors with the reliability and volume that Intel does. AMD does not have the processor fabs to meet worldwide demand for x86 products. Even if Intel really screws things up, it still has significant market power.
The concept is also out of anyone's reach. As computers become more and more ubiquitous, a smaller percentage of computer users are specialized. The typical user nowadays expects a computer to just work like a TV or microwave. They just want to use the wonderful computer and do not have time to read instruction manuals or even prompts. But when computers do not work, they freak out and blame the computer.
No one is immune once you reach out to average users. As Apple starts to penetrate the market, you will see more and more trojans and spybots for OS X as well. I mean, even Linux users fall for phishing scams through the computer. It will only get worse as Linux gets onto netbooks and low cost computers.
I do not envy Microsoft's problem, but we ought to realize their problem will soon be ours.
This is a non-story. Google gives you the option of not using their software. It is not like they are trying to sneak it by you, and you can remove it if you realize that you do not like it.
I can understand why the updater runs on its own schedule. If the software updates itself when you aren't using it, then it will be ready to use when you want to use it! I hate it when software checks for an update when I run it, and then download and install the update. Google wants the software to be up to date and start when I use it. Makes sense to me, though I understand your concerns about the auto-update policy if you are concerned about bugs and regressions.
Or you could always block the updater's Internet access with your firewall.
I hate to piss off Slashdotters, but having an operating system monopoly probably hurried up the penetration of personal computing. There weren't standard APIs that there would not have been but for Microsoft. Programmers could hit the whole market by programming for MS. Hardware vendors would not be able to have economies of scale if there were different hardware platforms.
It is unlikely for there to have been cross-platform interoperability if MS did not become dominant. Just look at all the different variants of Linux. There is KDE, Gnome, etc. Getting software to work on all versions of Linux is tricky (package managers, windows managers, etc.) and that is only one kernel.
The current situation would be cell phones. In the US, there has not been a monopoly in that field so there are tons of different networks and vendors that have stopped cell phone penetration and high-speed wireless Internet. The government could step in and regulate but it has failed to do so because its decision would bankrupt the losing side. Also compare it to Blu-Ray versus HD-DVD.
It is admirable that you want to follow the law, but it is not your decision to make. First, decide if you are willing to go down to the mat on this issue. You may antagonize your superiors and be retaliated against. The threshold question is whether the risk of losing your job or getting your career stalled is acceptable to you. It's perfectly fine to let the matter lie if you feel your job may be at risk in this economy.
Whatever you decide to do, you should cover your ass. Write a formal memo detailing the foreign office's inability to demonstrate that its software is all legit. Call it to the attention of the Beijing folks and a US-based superior. But do not admit that the software is illegal. You do not know if it is. More to the point, it does not violate American law, which is mostly territorial. (The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act covers bribes, not copyright infringement but don't hold me to this.) Just say that you cannot prove the software is legitimate and leave it at that unless you have proof that it is illegal. File a copy of the memo away in a safe place and keep on trucking.
Should you decide to go on the warpath, make sure you have adequate backing. You do not want to be left alone, or be the problem-maker. Work up the numbers and see how much it would cost to go legit. See if you can use this as a selling point: "All our software is legit; the competitors use stolen software that may have trojans or be incompatible." Work on a consensus with your colleagues and superiors.
Lastly, be nice and tactful. Avoid being that douchebag who thinks he is better than everyone else. You cannot be effective if you are that dude. Be chill and try to make a win-win situation.
But if the company management is utterly unwilling to fix the problem, let it drop. Document your suspicions (and say that it is only a suspicion, not proof), send it to the Beijing folks, and save a copy of the memo.
A five-hundred dollar, three pound netbook with a ten inch screen, over five hours of battery life, and an integrated 3G wireless card would make regular laptops obsolete for most consumers. You can check your e-mail and word process, and edit photos. That is what most people need.
I currently have a Dell Mini 9 I bought for $265. It has a four hour battery life and is really snappy with Ubuntu 8.10. I use it to check my e-mail. The only downside is the weak graphics, but the new Intel chipset supposedly processes HD video on board.
I cannot wait to get one of the second gen netbooks.
Windows Vista x64 runs all 32-bit Windows applications in Windows On Windows (WOW), which looks like a sandbox to me. The x64 instruction set includes a disable execution bit that is supposed to increase security but who knows how that works.
Linux open source purists want special treatment from manufacturers, and it makes no sense. ATI opens specs but their Linux drivers suck. nVidia has great Linux desktop support that advances the state of the art for Linux, as you admit, but they didn't release an open-source driver so you knock them for that.
But nVidia does not release the source code for Windows, either. They are treating all the operating systems exactly the same. Why would a non-zealot go with ATI when nVidia's closed source driver is far superior?
The "faster on older hardware" feature is pretty damn important for those of us delaying upgrade cycles due to the economy. Windows 7 is faster than Windows XP in some cases because Windows 7 uses memory more effectively. The star bar looks pretty cool, and there are lots of small user interface tricks that add up to be a significant feature.
Putin's rhetoric is pretty empty considering that Russia cannot make its own consumer desktop microprocessors and has no domestic operating system. Russia cannot make it own hard drives or RAM, or many other basic computer components. Dell doesn't make those either, but accusing others of idiocy when you cannot even make a x86 CPU is pretty dumb.
Flywheels will be used to store energy at industrial solar parks. Batteries are useful only for smaller installations or mobile use. A heavy flywheel mounted on magnetically-suspended bearings spinning in a vacuum is much more efficient than charging and discharging a battery, lasts for a longer time, and is probably much cheaper.
Courts have recently held that American patent law does not allow an inventor to claim mental processes that were not tied to machines or other physical entities. For the longest time, courts have said that American patent law could be used to claim anything under the sun made by man. But courts have now held that mental processes cannot be patented. You cannot patent a process for adjudicating disputes using human insight.
In this kind of an environment, it does not hurt to be overly cautious and say that this Apple patent only claims a method implemented on a computer or a machine and not be overly broad by covering sign language.
Slashdot Mirror
A balloon would be protected by obscurity. It's hard to find on radar, it barely emits any heat. Through the big sky theory, it will be hard to shoot down. A balloon with a sensor package on board can probably be made much stealthier than an airplane. The U-2 didn't take a direct hit; the SAM exploded close-by and the wooden plane was knocked into pieces. If it were stealthier, the SAM wouldn't even be able to find it, much less get close to it.
I don't know if it's anti-Semitic to point out that two high-ranking members of AIPAC, a very strong pro-Israel lobbying group, stand accused of spying on America on Israel's behalf. Israel has a proud tradition of having a robust special forces capability. It is probably a fair assumption that they are doing a lot more spying on the United States than they have been caught doing. I mean, it's impossible that the US has caught every instance of Israeli spying.
The erotic services section in Craigslist is very clearly geared towards prostitution. Almost every ad offers "full service" and sets out rates as "donations." The photos are usually of nude or scantily clad women. The services they offer are usually vernacular for specific sex acts. The vast majority of the ads there are for prostitution or reviews of prostitutes.
In New York City, the government offers to settle a ticket for 50% if you just challenge the ticket. The company takes half of the value you save, so they probably make a killing telling everyone to challenge and pay the settlement.
It's the American way!
Or you can tape record the buffoons threatening to give you an unwarranted bad reference if doing so is legal in your state.
The Terry Childs case reminds me of 24. A corrupt government analyst exerts pressure on a techie to give up a password, which is promptly used for illegal activity. Then the innocent techie gets fucked and Jack Bauered. Yeah. Give the password to any boss figure who asks. That cannot go wrong.
At some level, citizens have to submit to authority figures. I'm not saying that we have to blindly follow all edicts, but if a cop pulls you over, you should pull over instead of fleeing. If a student is texting during class, she should stop when asked. Lying about it and causing a kerfluffle about it ought to be punishable. The same would be true if she had been passing notes in class and caused a fuss about it.
The self-professed libertarians here who argue that she should be able to do whatever she wants are missing the fact that this is in class. The education of the class would be impossible if anyone could do whatever they wanted.
In other words, no one should worry because everything is working out for you and your wife. And how dare anyone take money from YOU to help the country get back on track!
Write a three page essay on why your theories, if applied to the entire country, would be disastrous.
The economy looks great! All it needs is time to figure itself out and we'll be back on the path to prosperity! No, really. What are you smoking? I want some.
It's sad that you are falling for an agenda and don't even know it. The Republicans are sabotaging the bailout. They want Obama to fail (per Newt Gingrich) so they can regain some seats in November 2010.
An airbag armor system would be effectively a Whipple Shield. The penetration of a projectile is blunted by multiple layers of a material separated by a small distance. The initial layers progressively shatter the projectile into smaller parts, each of which have less penetration capability into the next layer. The concept is used in spacecraft to defend against small space debris but it has also been used in tank armor.
You are not a lawyer. "Sure, the police found me next to a dead body with the murder weapon in my hands, but did anyone see me kill the victim?" Uh, no, but there is no reasonable doubt that you did it.
If your IP was linked to child porn, which was then found on your computer, there is no reasonable doubt that you are guilty unless you show that you did not do it. The burden of proof does not mean that the prosecution is the only party that has to prove anything, you know?
I would bet that there are far fewer than 170 discrete individuals. A few psychopaths with a grudge probably ran a few dozen pseudonyms to pretend there was a silent majority. The IP information will clear this up pretty soon.
CableCARD? I have no idea what else to think.
The market cannot allow Intel to fall. No other company in the world can supply x86 processors with the reliability and volume that Intel does. AMD does not have the processor fabs to meet worldwide demand for x86 products. Even if Intel really screws things up, it still has significant market power.
The concept is also out of anyone's reach. As computers become more and more ubiquitous, a smaller percentage of computer users are specialized. The typical user nowadays expects a computer to just work like a TV or microwave. They just want to use the wonderful computer and do not have time to read instruction manuals or even prompts. But when computers do not work, they freak out and blame the computer.
No one is immune once you reach out to average users. As Apple starts to penetrate the market, you will see more and more trojans and spybots for OS X as well. I mean, even Linux users fall for phishing scams through the computer. It will only get worse as Linux gets onto netbooks and low cost computers.
I do not envy Microsoft's problem, but we ought to realize their problem will soon be ours.
This is a non-story. Google gives you the option of not using their software. It is not like they are trying to sneak it by you, and you can remove it if you realize that you do not like it.
I can understand why the updater runs on its own schedule. If the software updates itself when you aren't using it, then it will be ready to use when you want to use it! I hate it when software checks for an update when I run it, and then download and install the update. Google wants the software to be up to date and start when I use it. Makes sense to me, though I understand your concerns about the auto-update policy if you are concerned about bugs and regressions.
Or you could always block the updater's Internet access with your firewall.
I hate to piss off Slashdotters, but having an operating system monopoly probably hurried up the penetration of personal computing. There weren't standard APIs that there would not have been but for Microsoft. Programmers could hit the whole market by programming for MS. Hardware vendors would not be able to have economies of scale if there were different hardware platforms.
It is unlikely for there to have been cross-platform interoperability if MS did not become dominant. Just look at all the different variants of Linux. There is KDE, Gnome, etc. Getting software to work on all versions of Linux is tricky (package managers, windows managers, etc.) and that is only one kernel.
The current situation would be cell phones. In the US, there has not been a monopoly in that field so there are tons of different networks and vendors that have stopped cell phone penetration and high-speed wireless Internet. The government could step in and regulate but it has failed to do so because its decision would bankrupt the losing side. Also compare it to Blu-Ray versus HD-DVD.
It is admirable that you want to follow the law, but it is not your decision to make. First, decide if you are willing to go down to the mat on this issue. You may antagonize your superiors and be retaliated against. The threshold question is whether the risk of losing your job or getting your career stalled is acceptable to you. It's perfectly fine to let the matter lie if you feel your job may be at risk in this economy.
Whatever you decide to do, you should cover your ass. Write a formal memo detailing the foreign office's inability to demonstrate that its software is all legit. Call it to the attention of the Beijing folks and a US-based superior. But do not admit that the software is illegal. You do not know if it is. More to the point, it does not violate American law, which is mostly territorial. (The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act covers bribes, not copyright infringement but don't hold me to this.) Just say that you cannot prove the software is legitimate and leave it at that unless you have proof that it is illegal. File a copy of the memo away in a safe place and keep on trucking.
Should you decide to go on the warpath, make sure you have adequate backing. You do not want to be left alone, or be the problem-maker. Work up the numbers and see how much it would cost to go legit. See if you can use this as a selling point: "All our software is legit; the competitors use stolen software that may have trojans or be incompatible." Work on a consensus with your colleagues and superiors.
Lastly, be nice and tactful. Avoid being that douchebag who thinks he is better than everyone else. You cannot be effective if you are that dude. Be chill and try to make a win-win situation.
But if the company management is utterly unwilling to fix the problem, let it drop. Document your suspicions (and say that it is only a suspicion, not proof), send it to the Beijing folks, and save a copy of the memo.
A five-hundred dollar, three pound netbook with a ten inch screen, over five hours of battery life, and an integrated 3G wireless card would make regular laptops obsolete for most consumers. You can check your e-mail and word process, and edit photos. That is what most people need.
I currently have a Dell Mini 9 I bought for $265. It has a four hour battery life and is really snappy with Ubuntu 8.10. I use it to check my e-mail. The only downside is the weak graphics, but the new Intel chipset supposedly processes HD video on board.
I cannot wait to get one of the second gen netbooks.
Windows Vista x64 runs all 32-bit Windows applications in Windows On Windows (WOW), which looks like a sandbox to me. The x64 instruction set includes a disable execution bit that is supposed to increase security but who knows how that works.
Linux open source purists want special treatment from manufacturers, and it makes no sense. ATI opens specs but their Linux drivers suck. nVidia has great Linux desktop support that advances the state of the art for Linux, as you admit, but they didn't release an open-source driver so you knock them for that.
But nVidia does not release the source code for Windows, either. They are treating all the operating systems exactly the same. Why would a non-zealot go with ATI when nVidia's closed source driver is far superior?
The "faster on older hardware" feature is pretty damn important for those of us delaying upgrade cycles due to the economy. Windows 7 is faster than Windows XP in some cases because Windows 7 uses memory more effectively. The star bar looks pretty cool, and there are lots of small user interface tricks that add up to be a significant feature.
Putin's rhetoric is pretty empty considering that Russia cannot make its own consumer desktop microprocessors and has no domestic operating system. Russia cannot make it own hard drives or RAM, or many other basic computer components. Dell doesn't make those either, but accusing others of idiocy when you cannot even make a x86 CPU is pretty dumb.
Flywheels will be used to store energy at industrial solar parks. Batteries are useful only for smaller installations or mobile use. A heavy flywheel mounted on magnetically-suspended bearings spinning in a vacuum is much more efficient than charging and discharging a battery, lasts for a longer time, and is probably much cheaper.
Courts have recently held that American patent law does not allow an inventor to claim mental processes that were not tied to machines or other physical entities. For the longest time, courts have said that American patent law could be used to claim anything under the sun made by man. But courts have now held that mental processes cannot be patented. You cannot patent a process for adjudicating disputes using human insight.
In this kind of an environment, it does not hurt to be overly cautious and say that this Apple patent only claims a method implemented on a computer or a machine and not be overly broad by covering sign language.