Visit the Polling Station, even if you don't vote
on
Should You Vote?
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· Score: 1
Any person who claims that they have not voted because there wasn't a suitable candidate is as guilty as the person who does not vote because they couldn't be bothered to get to a ballot box.
If you really feel that you cannot vote for one of the candidates at an election, then go along and write "This ballot paper is spoilt" accross your voting slip.
Of course, when we have widespread electronic voting, it might be harder to do this. Hopefully they will always provide the option of abstaining.
You are welcome to ban the Grateful Dead, one of the best bands ever to grace the face of the earth. We DeadHeads don't trade any material without permission and we know that mp3s are below us.
With legal, sanctioned transfer of concert recordings we are able to go that one step further and now have a large collection of high quality concerts for our listening pleasure.
For instance the etree (www.etree.org) and deadshow.com, not to mention sugarmegs and the other networks make my life that little bit better without those terrible pangs of guilt.
Would you like to see the next generation of mobile phones have easy access to a (slightly) frivolous version of the more serious travel guides we are sure to see?
If you live in one of the first roll out areas this is great. Problem is of course that only 10% of the population do, and some of them won't see anything for another year or two.
The rest of us will have to wait that long just to see when we might expect to get a connection. Couple that with the sparsity of Cable Modem providers and the general lack (or low quality) of free modem access and you find that the uk remains a technological backwater.
The government in all its wisdom wants us all to use the internet and make the uk a leader in e-commerce, but forgets that no one will help them unless they can enjoy the sort of access all you lucky people get in the US.
Anyhow, the Times has this introduction to ADSL in case you haven't heard of it and you can register with BT to be told when they have decided to roll out to your area over here.
Hopefully, the patent office will treat this like they treat applications for patents on perpetual motion machines
You are more correct than you think. I shall try to explain why...
In making his special theory of relativity, Einstein first stated the following two assumptions:
The speed of light is constant and will be measured to have the same value by any observer.
The laws of physics will be the same for any observer
Everything else you have ever heard about relativity is a logical consequence of these two statements. This is the beauty of the theory.
It is the second one which we are interested in here. If this device did work, energy would be transported from one point to another faster than light would take to do the same thing. Now, the observer who activates the machine will see some energy disappear into his machine, then some time later, see it reappear at the other end.
An observer at the other end of the machine, will first see some energy appear at his end of the machine, then later see some disappear from the other end. This would violate the law of conservation of energy for the second observer and is thus a no-no.
All my files are safe from intrusion. My computer will protect my privacy and products released by Microsoft will be free of bugs, at least after a couple of service packs.
Fact:
"Internet Explorer Security Update, February 9, 2000 1125 KB/ Download Time: 1 min Installing this security update will eliminate the "Image Source Redirect" vulnerability found in Internet Explorer. Without this update, a malicious Web site operator could read (but not add, change, or delete) certain types of files on your computer."
---Source, Microsoft Windows Update, the horses mouth, if you will...
On a more serious note, this is highly annoying and opens the way for law enforcement authorities to make up evidence. If you don't want to give them a key then you give them free reign to make up a XOR key of their choice.
Coupled with the recent changes in the right to jury trial, I almost begin to wish I lived in a country where I had an inalienable right to be shot by all and sundry.
On a random historical note though, Mary Queen of Scots was caught and sucessfully tried for treason by Queen Elizabeth I after one of her advisors was able to break the simple substitution cypher she was using to communicate with her coconspirators on the continent. This sort of thing is clearly not new, but now moves into a different sphere of influence, you and me (or just me, if you live in an enlightened country).
If only those silly employees had used something sensible like PGP, then agreed amongst themselves not to give out their keys (or more importantly, passphrases) to anyone else. Then the company can search their computers to their heart's content.
Of course, that would be using PGP to carry out an illegal action so if they had done the sensible thing the publicity from this case would easily have turned into a massive 'encryption is evil' media bun-fight. It could also have provided a way for law enforcement to bring key escrow issues back to the forefront.
The moral of the story... don't pull a sickie then leave evidence lying around (isn't a phone call just as good??).
Orion Publishing have recently issued a reprint of some classic works which I am reading through at the moment. I have not yet go to the end of the list but have not been disappointed by anything I have picked from it yet, my only fear is that they will go back out of print before I can buy them all!
My favourites from this list are:
The Stars My Destination - Alfred Bester
Behold the Man - Michael Moorcock
Star Maker - Olaf Stapledon
The Drowned World - JG Ballad
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep - Philip K Dick
We can Remember it for you Wholesale - Philip K Dick (in fact, any Philip K Dick is great)
I am Legend - Richard Matheson
Gateway - Frederick Pohl
The Fifth Head of Cerberus - Gene Wolfe
Time and the Gods - Lord Dunsany
I would also suggest any amount of HG Wells, there is a good set of his SF in two Omnibus editions. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy cannot be missed and it is always nice to stray into the fertile fields of fantasy writing (Tolkein always a good one to begin with). I have always been disappointed by series tie-ins like Star Trek and Star Wars books, they end up being far too formulaic and lack the real beauty of good Sci-Fi.
Always try to remember that the best thing about Sci-Fi is not the inclusion of high tech wizardry or new life forms but some big idea, a slight difference in the universe to the one we live in and a journey of discovery by the author and the reader to find what that difference might entail.
This robot is a little pathetic really, all that's new is that you can control it from a distance using a mobile phone link so you still need your resident slave to operate for you. Otherwise this is just the same as all the military bomb disposal robots but with less armour.
Could have great potential for new internet 'dodgy old man' services but until they can make a robot which can control itself this just isn't worth it.
Of course, if a robot could scratch your back, would you be obliged to scratch its back too?
You might like to do a search on google for "evil is the best" and hit the "I'm feeling Lucky" button. You'll never guess which borg cube you end up at....
Much more importantly than asking if the internet is in anyway alive, it would be sounder to ask if it could die.
The only way in which you could apply any form of evolutionary theory to a man made construct such as the internet is if it exists within an environment of competitors. Almost all software is like this, *nix fights it out with win*, each occupying a niche within the user base and each able to move into the others territory if improved to a sufficient degree. Open sourced software is even more evolutionary in the way that many programmers will suggest improvements but only the best will end up surviving into the next release. Of course these parallels should not be taken too far, programmers do not suggest random changes to code (or at least avoid doing so) which might have good or bad results, which is how nature works.
There is only one internet though, and nothing for it to fight against (ie nothing to kill it). Whenever any new technology is introduced it is carefully merged into the existing fabric so that those who do not adopt the new 'improvements' can continue to use the system (in theory..). Also, the costs involved in creating a whole new internet-like system are phenomenal and will stand in the way of any potential successor.
Can the internet die any other way? Parts of the internet die off every day when someone pulls a page from a server, a startup business goes bust or a malevolent hacker gets into somewhere he shouldn't. Other parts of the internet are more permanent, the physical apparatus behind the internet, computers, cables and fibres, will last for as long as they are maintained correctly and can easily be changed or updated as capacity is required (the internet getting poorly). What really makes the internet though are the people who use it,/. would be nothing if no one posted messages so the internet will continue to 'live' for as long as people use it.
This is not near to biological life though. The internet does not make any decisions for itself, never has to hunt for its dinner and will not have to search for a mate, it is cared for 24/7 by dedicated teams of professionals and has nice (if misinformed) things said about all over the media. In fact, I think I might try to become an internet myself....
Slashdot Mirror
Any person who claims that they have not voted because there wasn't a suitable candidate is as guilty as the person who does not vote because they couldn't be bothered to get to a ballot box.
If you really feel that you cannot vote for one of the candidates at an election, then go along and write "This ballot paper is spoilt" accross your voting slip.
Of course, when we have widespread electronic voting, it might be harder to do this. Hopefully they will always provide the option of abstaining.
Not voting is no protest. Make you apathy heard!
You are welcome to ban the Grateful Dead, one of the best bands ever to grace the face of the earth. We DeadHeads don't trade any material without permission and we know that mp3s are below us.
With legal, sanctioned transfer of concert recordings we are able to go that one step further and now have a large collection of high quality concerts for our listening pleasure.
For instance the etree (www.etree.org) and deadshow.com, not to mention sugarmegs and the other networks make my life that little bit better without those terrible pangs of guilt.
How flattered are you by the appearance of tribute versions of the guide?
http://www.h2g2.com/ - H2G2
http://www.galactic-guide.com - Project Galactic Guide
Would you like to see the next generation of mobile phones have easy access to a (slightly) frivolous version of the more serious travel guides we are sure to see?
If you live in one of the first roll out areas this is great. Problem is of course that only 10% of the population do, and some of them won't see anything for another year or two.
The rest of us will have to wait that long just to see when we might expect to get a connection. Couple that with the sparsity of Cable Modem providers and the general lack (or low quality) of free modem access and you find that the uk remains a technological backwater.
The government in all its wisdom wants us all to use the internet and make the uk a leader in e-commerce, but forgets that no one will help them unless they can enjoy the sort of access all you lucky people get in the US.
Anyhow, the Times has this introduction to ADSL in case you haven't heard of it and you can register with BT to be told when they have decided to roll out to your area over here.
Hopefully, the patent office will treat this like they treat applications for patents on perpetual motion machines
You are more correct than you think. I shall try to explain why...
In making his special theory of relativity, Einstein first stated the following two assumptions:
Everything else you have ever heard about relativity is a logical consequence of these two statements. This is the beauty of the theory.
It is the second one which we are interested in here. If this device did work, energy would be transported from one point to another faster than light would take to do the same thing. Now, the observer who activates the machine will see some energy disappear into his machine, then some time later, see it reappear at the other end.
An observer at the other end of the machine, will first see some energy appear at his end of the machine, then later see some disappear from the other end. This would violate the law of conservation of energy for the second observer and is thus a no-no.
Fiction:
All my files are safe from intrusion. My computer will protect my privacy and products released by Microsoft will be free of bugs, at least after a couple of service packs.
Fact:
"Internet Explorer Security Update, February 9, 2000
1125 KB/ Download Time: 1 min
Installing this security update will eliminate the "Image Source Redirect" vulnerability found in Internet Explorer. Without this update, a malicious Web site operator could read (but not add, change, or delete) certain types of files on your computer."
---Source, Microsoft Windows Update, the horses mouth, if you will...
this is an illegal item of information and has been used to plan and commit a range of crimes:
7 cNjIgG2OpDtOBDZn j Flq8LxwzCCblHTs1 y f1lKshnva7und+Az B jLBsGZ7sqz7rY6Ib N FzcsSbzEocdTI6hp U CADg05wgyiY2jOxZ 9 h0oviJuDcsFT3q3W 7 DbhKPu6hiNHhbCu4 o +sS0AaspPWYTF2qw Z VKj3SJd//tCHqVIU 9 zlSgsVSVdH4xZSEN N WyBa6Vh6Y6GhQBT9 i 5qCkpoqKd4iABNbl 7 grnm4nIHBOJ4gtIx U IwdZr/mGFH/bQHMf
-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----
Version: PGPfreeware 6.0.2i
qANQR1DBwU4DPy7LL9KP0KEQCACdkb1OXbizR+pJ9frwI9Z
eMG/uNIJQe+C0By+WNSqBHnMnTCD0aFgZQR6UMo/qzF+EtH
Vu9bFlg5usmPFh2v409hiFwxJNDTVEw5AjMj/gnNSi+Rt5u
WfePdqcqVlGANn7EjnpEzGKAr2cW58IBFTEJQOusu88MYIu
BxoRHIpD255CTNK0jWGZ9Lx0O6dWv0qDs04SnUkUoFjMED2
nCGviqTQ3n3RHMqZbtaYdP0hAs04h+rfaokDGGoESGYLMM2
WKN+4smT0Yp2W5z01BeXPfWPKGQi56FaskcWXcJQeFeST5y
3h3kT648MLUE9qbhOYTTsHMcYIpQivItQkz/YQ5Hy2gcxNG
YSWaeYkn8J6aY16k75jICZ6vbaFT9a5Y8zzdZZE5sDyDGud
EmZmhAqmLMIMhuD1BAK+ZD1IvGhpB1LLC7ABmX6U+3PATvO
cro2MUnhipXmLuP0Lf40uyQR2gKl1Zz/cOos/k26dxTJb4y
Q1kaKsgLycAHHwD2cM/dmadx2hmbxlQV6dcZJsmvM2jK0ik
wZi+U5I/DSIwNLCcKjnXAfHKRfyXsF7KswtkZ3UH/0/murB
/rOWSiiGYilGnyzqIiA0VjNLI7Atbj+1xSw/Cug9S9yTo2I
m2oaOgVrwajLR2X0K14lSAmcMyE9GWNisUFI4aJ5Cs4HrTH
kLpUHsBpGoJFPcqvH10J6g==
=bJG/
-----END PGP MESSAGE-----
On a more serious note, this is highly annoying and opens the way for law enforcement authorities to make up evidence. If you don't want to give them a key then you give them free reign to make up a XOR key of their choice.
Coupled with the recent changes in the right to jury trial, I almost begin to wish I lived in a country where I had an inalienable right to be shot by all and sundry.
On a random historical note though, Mary Queen of Scots was caught and sucessfully tried for treason by Queen Elizabeth I after one of her advisors was able to break the simple substitution cypher she was using to communicate with her coconspirators on the continent. This sort of thing is clearly not new, but now moves into a different sphere of influence, you and me (or just me, if you live in an enlightened country).
If only those silly employees had used something sensible like PGP, then agreed amongst themselves not to give out their keys (or more importantly, passphrases) to anyone else. Then the company can search their computers to their heart's content.
Of course, that would be using PGP to carry out an illegal action so if they had done the sensible thing the publicity from this case would easily have turned into a massive 'encryption is evil' media bun-fight. It could also have provided a way for law enforcement to bring key escrow issues back to the forefront.
The moral of the story... don't pull a sickie then leave evidence lying around (isn't a phone call just as good??).
PGPi is available from www.pgpi.org
Orion Publishing have recently issued a reprint of some classic works which I am reading through at the moment. I have not yet go to the end of the list but have not been disappointed by anything I have picked from it yet, my only fear is that they will go back out of print before I can buy them all!
My favourites from this list are:
(in fact, any Philip K Dick is great)
I would also suggest any amount of HG Wells, there is a good set of his SF in two Omnibus editions. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy cannot be missed and it is always nice to stray into the fertile fields of fantasy writing (Tolkein always a good one to begin with). I have always been disappointed by series tie-ins like Star Trek and Star Wars books, they end up being far too formulaic and lack the real beauty of good Sci-Fi.
Always try to remember that the best thing about Sci-Fi is not the inclusion of high tech wizardry or new life forms but some big idea, a slight difference in the universe to the one we live in and a journey of discovery by the author and the reader to find what that difference might entail.
This robot is a little pathetic really, all that's new is that you can control it from a distance using a mobile phone link so you still need your resident slave to operate for you. Otherwise this is just the same as all the military bomb disposal robots but with less armour.
Could have great potential for new internet 'dodgy old man' services but until they can make a robot which can control itself this just isn't worth it.
Of course, if a robot could scratch your back, would you be obliged to scratch its back too?
Well, slightly off topic but:
You might like to do a search on google for "evil is the best" and hit the "I'm feeling Lucky" button. You'll never guess which borg cube you end up at....
Much more importantly than asking if the internet is in anyway alive, it would be sounder to ask if it could die.
/. would be nothing if no one posted messages so the internet will continue to 'live' for as long as people use it.
The only way in which you could apply any form of evolutionary theory to a man made construct such as the internet is if it exists within an environment of competitors. Almost all software is like this, *nix fights it out with win*, each occupying a niche within the user base and each able to move into the others territory if improved to a sufficient degree. Open sourced software is even more evolutionary in the way that many programmers will suggest improvements but only the best will end up surviving into the next release. Of course these parallels should not be taken too far, programmers do not suggest random changes to code (or at least avoid doing so) which might have good or bad results, which is how nature works.
There is only one internet though, and nothing for it to fight against (ie nothing to kill it). Whenever any new technology is introduced it is carefully merged into the existing fabric so that those who do not adopt the new 'improvements' can continue to use the system (in theory..). Also, the costs involved in creating a whole new internet-like system are phenomenal and will stand in the way of any potential successor.
Can the internet die any other way? Parts of the internet die off every day when someone pulls a page from a server, a startup business goes bust or a malevolent hacker gets into somewhere he shouldn't. Other parts of the internet are more permanent, the physical apparatus behind the internet, computers, cables and fibres, will last for as long as they are maintained correctly and can easily be changed or updated as capacity is required (the internet getting poorly). What really makes the internet though are the people who use it,
This is not near to biological life though. The internet does not make any decisions for itself, never has to hunt for its dinner and will not have to search for a mate, it is cared for 24/7 by dedicated teams of professionals and has nice (if misinformed) things said about all over the media. In fact, I think I might try to become an internet myself....