And then there are us louts who actually live in North Carolina, and who did not go through the hassle of anonymous purchases, and will have to deal with the Tax fallout from this bickering. We're the ones who will have to pay the cost for the taxing "at the highest possible rate." Im not trying to hide bdsm book purchase here, I just want to get my copy of the Dresden Files without too much hassle. Is that so wrong?
So Ive always read that quantum computers excel in parallel calculations like code-breaking and such, but if its probability calculations that it are it's bread and butter, would that extend to weather prediction modeling? I'd love for the Weather service to get as good as they were in Back to the Future II, weather predictions accurate to the second.
I wonder what level of chemical help he is allowed for this. Caffeine is one thing, but are coke or meth in the mix? There are probably some tweekers out there that could actually give the record a run for its money if Guinness isn't that picky.
Personally, Im going to wait and see what kinds of DRM etc they try before I make any blanket boycott statements. And even then just because I dont buy it doesn't mean I wont playit.
Anyone else miss the double unit production of the early SC2?
What possible application could this research be for? In what way does this benefit mankind, expand out understanding of the universe, or improve the Human Condition. And perhaps the most important question, what moron paid for this? Please tell me it wasn't taxpayer money, because then technically I am one of the morons, and I don't very much appreciate it!
For example, you get a bone marrow transplant and your blood type will change to that of the donor. Maybe they should start transplanting those rare blood-types to blood bank volunteers. I know a few homeless guys that would love to get a higher premium for their donation.
Actually, thats not a bad Idea. When it comes down to it a plane is a structurally sound sealed can of high-grade aluminum, a common and ideal material for heat sinks and dispersal. All youd have to do is gut any insulation inside and sink it in a nice cold lake, which any deep enough can be.
"At the moment NELL thinks that the First Amendment is a musical instrument, the Second Amendment is a 'hobby,' and is completely unwilling to admit to any knowledge of the fifth amendment at all. A bit like the recording industry and most lawmakers in the US."
Its not going to be perfect, or even all that smart. All its learning from us. What worries me more is that such mistakes apparently earn it a C average....
I dont think Id go so far as to become a mustache twisting supervillian bent on bank robberies and world domination. But thats not to say i would be a noble protector devoting my life to helping the downtrodden either, necessarily. Barring some emotional scarring like my uncle dying right when I got the powers, there is a high likelyhood that I would just use them for personal gain, monetary success, and whatever (legal) means i could find to capitalize on my powers to support myself and my own private little slice of geek heaven.
And besides, the study justified their statement by saying "The person gains an enhanced sense of their importance, and other people may regard them with greater respect as well as extend leniency toward their actions. That combination makes for an easy slide into corruption." That doesnt need eye lasers or flying, as that rationale applies to any celebrity, no matter what the source of their elevated social status. Are all actors, athletes, singers, high-end businessmen, models, inventors, noted scientists, politicians, and that guy in the you-tube video doomed to (super)villainy? Nope. They are still just people, with the same overall distribution of asshole to saint as any other sampling of humanity.
You found me out... I was using it to make a chain of roaming broadcast nodes to beam PETA propaganda directly to your fillings. I guess now I'll have to use twitter.
Its not the capabilities of Chemistry that we've exhausted, its the capabilities of manufacturing the fuels in a financially viable manner. Technologies exist, but when costs millions per ounce with current techniques, it might as well not exist. Thats not to say we wont figure out a way to streamline it later on. Just look at Carbon Nanotubes. Expensive as hell to manufacture, but then they found a bacteria that literally craps them out. Most of the most complex chemistry out there is organic (as are most fuels), and I think the infant field of Genetic Engineering will have lots to say on what is and isn't possible in the years to come.
PS When I say organic I mean organic compounds, not "Organic" as in the near meaningless label slapped on foods to dupe yuppies and triple the price.
Just like they will not punt a multi-million dollar telescope into orbit without testing the primary mirror? And they'd never shoot a $327 million Orbiter to mars without checking the math to make sure the units add up, right?
Face it, space agencies are run by people and governments. They are at least as prone to mistakes and financially driven shortcuts as any other element of human society.
So your saying that a more powerful internet will require more powerful internet security?!? Dear god, we cant have that, it would be too much like progress. Quick, everyone smash the magic box before it steals your soul through the webcam (to support terrorists)!!!
So it should “It should go without saying that NASA has no business cooperating with the Chinese regime on human spaceflight,” Wolf wrote. Despite the fact that the visit, along with the up coming visit of the NASA director's Chinese counterpart, were ordered and agreed upon last year by the White House.
“In fact" He says, "several recent NASA authorization bills have explicitly sought to place strict limitations on coordination with China.”
Sought being the key word there, which means tried and failed...by him. He was the top Republican of the Appropriations Committee that wrangled for so long over NASA's budget early this year, the one that was stuck in limbo for months like a hung jury with some idiot hold-out. In actuality, the provision to bar space cooperation with China was defeated by a 4-9 vote on the grounds that there are many areas we can cooperate with China, and fear of military complications should not keep us from cooperating in scientific and humanitarian pursuits. Wolf is banking on the laziness of the media consumer to make is sound like this defeated motion of his is somehow still viable and/or supported policy.
That might make sense for things like the Energy Industry (which is better prepared supposedly) but not so much for Communications, since their business IS the internet. Sometimes total quarantine just isn't an option. And many of the so-called "critical infrastructure" industries are legally required to be on monitoring networks, so that if one site etc goes down others can pick up the slack (again Energy fits this as the national power grid needs such redundancy). Now you could say that they just make a isolated intranet for such things, but lets be realistic. These are measures legislatively imposed, and the US government is far too bureaucratic to shell out the cash or even approve the necessity of providing such a thing (at least within any useful time-line), and the individual companies are not in a position to accomplish it themselves, even if they were motivated to do anything beyond the legal minimum. Keep in mind we are mostly talking corporations, which are actually legally required to do whatever they can to maximize the bottom line earnings. Above-and-Beyond spending just doesnt happen unless somebody can prove a hidden earing (usually PR or the like)
So yes, in a perfect world each critical industry would only network through dedicated lines, using a unique and secure OS build to confuse and foil would-be attackers, on computers with no USB, and operated by employees that never get disgruntled, overly curious, or lazy. If you believe that's possible Ive got a bridge to sell you.
Yes, because they view this particular piece of hardware as a terminal for their proprietary iTunes and AppStore venue. That is the where a majority of the revenue comes from, why they are willing to so carefully walk the thin line of monopoly to attempt to keep competing software out of their draconian store, why they lied for so long about how it was illegal to jailbreak, why they then instituted code to report/disable jail-broken hardware (to the extent that said monopoly laws allow), why iPods can no longer do things like file transfer outside of iTunes, and a host of other measures they've taken. All this with the singular goal of keeping their online pay service as the sole means of access to these revolutionary new hardware platforms.
Its not that they dont care whether you run other software, its that they can only legally go so far. The very last thing they want is for you to be able to install 3rd party apps without their approval, or worse yet, an entirely new OS that bypasses all their control measures. The only leg they've had to stand on so far is the claim that such things (jail-breaking, non-itunes accepted apps, alternate OS's) create instability for the hardware. But even that has to stand up to a good bit of scrutiny, lest they be caught intentionally creating this instability, as both they and Microsoft have been seen doing in the past. As long as they can claim that their software is really the only safe solution, they can keep the reins. What happens when somebody comes along and proves that another solution, and worse a fully supported competitor's solution, is equally viable?
Yes, Apple did a good thing making the MacBook run multiple OS's, but that was a far different situation, and more of the exception than the rule. In that case they had already lost the market share, as the majority of users had for years decided they'd rather deal with lesser hardware (which until the whole Macbook thing was not widely believed or demonstrated) on a more open and common OS than deal with Apples imposed limitations on software diversity. They were clawing from the bottom, not looking down from the top. Now they are the kings of the mountain, with a solid and dominant grip on this emerging market. They will fight tooth and nail to preserve that position, and nothing will erode it faster than Options.
So if they shut off the connection, then how is the average person (without multiple boxes etc) supposed to access the tools and information they would need to clean it? And what happens when a bot gets loose that doesn't yet have a public fix? Then you just black out large swaths of the internet until somebody gets around to fixing it (again without internet access)?
At that point the ISPs are doing the work of the hackers themselves. Now you don't need a sophisticated attack to shut down huge chunks of the internet, just a good looking threat. Soon we will see attacks that do nothing more than mimic a botnet enough trigger whatever automated shut-off the IPS's implement.
Like Communism, this is an idea that looks great on paper, but is doomed to not only fail, but make everything worse in the process.
How is it that nobody is suing Microsoft? I mean...its Microsoft: Digital Evil since 1985. They've constantly been in one form of litigation or another for decades.
The primary benefit of these sites is not in organizing (as in administration) such movements, but in organizing (as is bringing together) large numbers of like-minded individuals. Of course a rudderless anarchistic model would not last year long campaigns; any "organization" that is left as a disorganized amorphous blob will collapse as soon as the initial catalystic spark dies off. On the other hand, if those same Montgomery bus boycotters had a Facebook presence available to them, the movement could have gone national or beyond. These modern tools are just that: Tools. A serious movement would still need serious leadership.
I was involved in the project designing them, so I have to bring your attention to the wheels, which are adapted from Michelin's Tweel design, using metals rather than rubbers which cannot take the vast temperature ranges seen on the lunar surface. Its a spoke based system that is unique in that it accomplishes a uniform pressure on the contact area without the need for any sort of pressurization or air. And while the wire coil wheels used on the original lunar rover had a service life of weeks, these are intended to last years, so that the Athlete's can just roam around the moon, meeting manned missions at whatever landing site they'll be using.
The Exploratorium is well worth the travel. Ive taken some students from NC out there to compete in a Martial Arts tournament a few times, and every time they said the Exploratorium was still the highlight of their trip.
Attendees of the Burning Man face widespread difficulties with undercover law enforcement and other do to the widespread and public drug use at the event. Widespread documentation of this being on the internet could likely be used as ammunition to shut the event down completely. This might simple give them a legal fallback to remove incriminating evidence as soon as they can. An optimistic view I realize, but valid.
Ultima. The giant unified maps and quest completion style game would fit nicely into today's GTA or WoW type systems, and could capitalize greatly on the increase in modern graphics.
The only logical outcome is such a ruling were upheld on the international stage would be to segregate the Internet and seal the borders. If one nations privacy laws can be so easily circumvented by any other country, then such protections are meaningless, and the internet cannot be maintained as global community.
No, skill in this instance is something you must practice. The basic line is drawn where you can gain skill by reading a FAQ. In a level or build based game you can become dominant by simply copying a build or equiping the correct items. In a skill based game (fighting, FTP) you have to have actual dexterous skill. Knowing the map in a FPS is a big thing at higher skill levels, but you still need to have good aim and mobility etc. And in fighting games, you can get all the moves off a FAQ or often the game itself, but you need to build the personal skill to actually pull them off. RTS's IMO are less about personal skill than they are personal strategy. Responsiveness plays a factor, but no more so than in WoW raiding.
Slashdot Mirror
And then there are us louts who actually live in North Carolina, and who did not go through the hassle of anonymous purchases, and will have to deal with the Tax fallout from this bickering. We're the ones who will have to pay the cost for the taxing "at the highest possible rate." Im not trying to hide bdsm book purchase here, I just want to get my copy of the Dresden Files without too much hassle. Is that so wrong?
So Ive always read that quantum computers excel in parallel calculations like code-breaking and such, but if its probability calculations that it are it's bread and butter, would that extend to weather prediction modeling? I'd love for the Weather service to get as good as they were in Back to the Future II, weather predictions accurate to the second.
I wonder what level of chemical help he is allowed for this. Caffeine is one thing, but are coke or meth in the mix? There are probably some tweekers out there that could actually give the record a run for its money if Guinness isn't that picky.
Personally, Im going to wait and see what kinds of DRM etc they try before I make any blanket boycott statements. And even then just because I dont buy it doesn't mean I wont playit.
Anyone else miss the double unit production of the early SC2?
What possible application could this research be for? In what way does this benefit mankind, expand out understanding of the universe, or improve the Human Condition. And perhaps the most important question, what moron paid for this? Please tell me it wasn't taxpayer money, because then technically I am one of the morons, and I don't very much appreciate it!
For example, you get a bone marrow transplant and your blood type will change to that of the donor. Maybe they should start transplanting those rare blood-types to blood bank volunteers. I know a few homeless guys that would love to get a higher premium for their donation.
Actually, thats not a bad Idea. When it comes down to it a plane is a structurally sound sealed can of high-grade aluminum, a common and ideal material for heat sinks and dispersal. All youd have to do is gut any insulation inside and sink it in a nice cold lake, which any deep enough can be.
"At the moment NELL thinks that the First Amendment is a musical instrument, the Second Amendment is a 'hobby,' and is completely unwilling to admit to any knowledge of the fifth amendment at all. A bit like the recording industry and most lawmakers in the US."
Its not going to be perfect, or even all that smart. All its learning from us. What worries me more is that such mistakes apparently earn it a C average....
I dont think Id go so far as to become a mustache twisting supervillian bent on bank robberies and world domination. But thats not to say i would be a noble protector devoting my life to helping the downtrodden either, necessarily. Barring some emotional scarring like my uncle dying right when I got the powers, there is a high likelyhood that I would just use them for personal gain, monetary success, and whatever (legal) means i could find to capitalize on my powers to support myself and my own private little slice of geek heaven.
And besides, the study justified their statement by saying "The person gains an enhanced sense of their importance, and other people may regard them with greater respect as well as extend leniency toward their actions. That combination makes for an easy slide into corruption." That doesnt need eye lasers or flying, as that rationale applies to any celebrity, no matter what the source of their elevated social status. Are all actors, athletes, singers, high-end businessmen, models, inventors, noted scientists, politicians, and that guy in the you-tube video doomed to (super)villainy? Nope. They are still just people, with the same overall distribution of asshole to saint as any other sampling of humanity.
You found me out... I was using it to make a chain of roaming broadcast nodes to beam PETA propaganda directly to your fillings. I guess now I'll have to use twitter.
Its not the capabilities of Chemistry that we've exhausted, its the capabilities of manufacturing the fuels in a financially viable manner. Technologies exist, but when costs millions per ounce with current techniques, it might as well not exist. Thats not to say we wont figure out a way to streamline it later on. Just look at Carbon Nanotubes. Expensive as hell to manufacture, but then they found a bacteria that literally craps them out. Most of the most complex chemistry out there is organic (as are most fuels), and I think the infant field of Genetic Engineering will have lots to say on what is and isn't possible in the years to come.
PS When I say organic I mean organic compounds, not "Organic" as in the near meaningless label slapped on foods to dupe yuppies and triple the price.
Just like they will not punt a multi-million dollar telescope into orbit without testing the primary mirror? And they'd never shoot a $327 million Orbiter to mars without checking the math to make sure the units add up, right?
Face it, space agencies are run by people and governments. They are at least as prone to mistakes and financially driven shortcuts as any other element of human society.
So your saying that a more powerful internet will require more powerful internet security?!? Dear god, we cant have that, it would be too much like progress. Quick, everyone smash the magic box before it steals your soul through the webcam (to support terrorists)!!!
So it should “It should go without saying that NASA has no business cooperating with the Chinese regime on human spaceflight,” Wolf wrote. Despite the fact that the visit, along with the up coming visit of the NASA director's Chinese counterpart, were ordered and agreed upon last year by the White House.
“In fact" He says, "several recent NASA authorization bills have explicitly sought to place strict limitations on coordination with China.”
Sought being the key word there, which means tried and failed...by him. He was the top Republican of the Appropriations Committee that wrangled for so long over NASA's budget early this year, the one that was stuck in limbo for months like a hung jury with some idiot hold-out. In actuality, the provision to bar space cooperation with China was defeated by a 4-9 vote on the grounds that there are many areas we can cooperate with China, and fear of military complications should not keep us from cooperating in scientific and humanitarian pursuits. Wolf is banking on the laziness of the media consumer to make is sound like this defeated motion of his is somehow still viable and/or supported policy.
That might make sense for things like the Energy Industry (which is better prepared supposedly) but not so much for Communications, since their business IS the internet. Sometimes total quarantine just isn't an option. And many of the so-called "critical infrastructure" industries are legally required to be on monitoring networks, so that if one site etc goes down others can pick up the slack (again Energy fits this as the national power grid needs such redundancy). Now you could say that they just make a isolated intranet for such things, but lets be realistic. These are measures legislatively imposed, and the US government is far too bureaucratic to shell out the cash or even approve the necessity of providing such a thing (at least within any useful time-line), and the individual companies are not in a position to accomplish it themselves, even if they were motivated to do anything beyond the legal minimum. Keep in mind we are mostly talking corporations, which are actually legally required to do whatever they can to maximize the bottom line earnings. Above-and-Beyond spending just doesnt happen unless somebody can prove a hidden earing (usually PR or the like)
So yes, in a perfect world each critical industry would only network through dedicated lines, using a unique and secure OS build to confuse and foil would-be attackers, on computers with no USB, and operated by employees that never get disgruntled, overly curious, or lazy. If you believe that's possible Ive got a bridge to sell you.
Yes, because they view this particular piece of hardware as a terminal for their proprietary iTunes and AppStore venue. That is the where a majority of the revenue comes from, why they are willing to so carefully walk the thin line of monopoly to attempt to keep competing software out of their draconian store, why they lied for so long about how it was illegal to jailbreak, why they then instituted code to report/disable jail-broken hardware (to the extent that said monopoly laws allow), why iPods can no longer do things like file transfer outside of iTunes, and a host of other measures they've taken. All this with the singular goal of keeping their online pay service as the sole means of access to these revolutionary new hardware platforms.
Its not that they dont care whether you run other software, its that they can only legally go so far. The very last thing they want is for you to be able to install 3rd party apps without their approval, or worse yet, an entirely new OS that bypasses all their control measures. The only leg they've had to stand on so far is the claim that such things (jail-breaking, non-itunes accepted apps, alternate OS's) create instability for the hardware. But even that has to stand up to a good bit of scrutiny, lest they be caught intentionally creating this instability, as both they and Microsoft have been seen doing in the past. As long as they can claim that their software is really the only safe solution, they can keep the reins. What happens when somebody comes along and proves that another solution, and worse a fully supported competitor's solution, is equally viable?
Yes, Apple did a good thing making the MacBook run multiple OS's, but that was a far different situation, and more of the exception than the rule. In that case they had already lost the market share, as the majority of users had for years decided they'd rather deal with lesser hardware (which until the whole Macbook thing was not widely believed or demonstrated) on a more open and common OS than deal with Apples imposed limitations on software diversity. They were clawing from the bottom, not looking down from the top. Now they are the kings of the mountain, with a solid and dominant grip on this emerging market. They will fight tooth and nail to preserve that position, and nothing will erode it faster than Options.
So if they shut off the connection, then how is the average person (without multiple boxes etc) supposed to access the tools and information they would need to clean it? And what happens when a bot gets loose that doesn't yet have a public fix? Then you just black out large swaths of the internet until somebody gets around to fixing it (again without internet access)?
At that point the ISPs are doing the work of the hackers themselves. Now you don't need a sophisticated attack to shut down huge chunks of the internet, just a good looking threat. Soon we will see attacks that do nothing more than mimic a botnet enough trigger whatever automated shut-off the IPS's implement.
Like Communism, this is an idea that looks great on paper, but is doomed to not only fail, but make everything worse in the process.
How is it that nobody is suing Microsoft? I mean...its Microsoft: Digital Evil since 1985. They've constantly been in one form of litigation or another for decades.
The primary benefit of these sites is not in organizing (as in administration) such movements, but in organizing (as is bringing together) large numbers of like-minded individuals. Of course a rudderless anarchistic model would not last year long campaigns; any "organization" that is left as a disorganized amorphous blob will collapse as soon as the initial catalystic spark dies off. On the other hand, if those same Montgomery bus boycotters had a Facebook presence available to them, the movement could have gone national or beyond. These modern tools are just that: Tools. A serious movement would still need serious leadership.
I was involved in the project designing them, so I have to bring your attention to the wheels, which are adapted from Michelin's Tweel design, using metals rather than rubbers which cannot take the vast temperature ranges seen on the lunar surface. Its a spoke based system that is unique in that it accomplishes a uniform pressure on the contact area without the need for any sort of pressurization or air. And while the wire coil wheels used on the original lunar rover had a service life of weeks, these are intended to last years, so that the Athlete's can just roam around the moon, meeting manned missions at whatever landing site they'll be using.
The Exploratorium is well worth the travel. Ive taken some students from NC out there to compete in a Martial Arts tournament a few times, and every time they said the Exploratorium was still the highlight of their trip.
Attendees of the Burning Man face widespread difficulties with undercover law enforcement and other do to the widespread and public drug use at the event. Widespread documentation of this being on the internet could likely be used as ammunition to shut the event down completely. This might simple give them a legal fallback to remove incriminating evidence as soon as they can. An optimistic view I realize, but valid.
Ultima. The giant unified maps and quest completion style game would fit nicely into today's GTA or WoW type systems, and could capitalize greatly on the increase in modern graphics.
The only logical outcome is such a ruling were upheld on the international stage would be to segregate the Internet and seal the borders. If one nations privacy laws can be so easily circumvented by any other country, then such protections are meaningless, and the internet cannot be maintained as global community.
No, skill in this instance is something you must practice. The basic line is drawn where you can gain skill by reading a FAQ. In a level or build based game you can become dominant by simply copying a build or equiping the correct items. In a skill based game (fighting, FTP) you have to have actual dexterous skill. Knowing the map in a FPS is a big thing at higher skill levels, but you still need to have good aim and mobility etc. And in fighting games, you can get all the moves off a FAQ or often the game itself, but you need to build the personal skill to actually pull them off. RTS's IMO are less about personal skill than they are personal strategy. Responsiveness plays a factor, but no more so than in WoW raiding.