This kind of article will always bring the knee-jerk concern for our 'civil liberties', but can anyone actually name one?
Sure. How about civil disobedience? That's widely considered one of the most important civil liberties we enjoy. I imagine it would have been a lot harder for civil-rights activists to peacefully assemble if a system like DARPA's had been in place in the '50s and '60s, constantly monitoring the "ringleaders" as they went about their business. Or imagine you lived during Prohibition, going out every night and in so doing quietly giving the finger to the 18th Amendment. When you leave your favorite speakeasy, would you rather take your chances with a cop happening upon you on the sidewalk, or a system of cameras recording your drunken stumblings to be used as evidence against you at a later date? I know what I'd rather put up with.
Unless you're doing something illegal, as the old saying goes, you have very little to worry about.
How about sharing a joint with your buddies on a week-long camping trip in the middle of a national forest? Not your thing? Not urban enough? Then how about enjoying a glass of wine one fine summer night in the park (open container of alcohol, a ticketable offense)? Still not your thing? OK, have you ever jaywalked in your life?
The concern is that the system described in the article would make it a lot harder to get away with these things. Yes, these acts are illegal, but I think most people value the wiggle room the law affords in such cases. Look up "reasonable expectation of privacy" on Google, and consider the ways it would be constricted if DARPA's urban surveillance system were turned on Americans.
And at the risk of sounding like one of those "knee-jerk" civil libertarians, I have to say that your argument could be used to excuse invasions of privacy I doubt even you would tolerate. For instance, if you're not performing any illegal acts in the bedroom with your S.O., why wouldn't you let the FBI install a camera in the ceiling fan to make sure? (Until last week, you are aware, certain expressions of sodomy, including oral sex, were against the law in certain states.)
I think my point got kind of lost somewhere in there, but hopefully you'll understand what I'm getting at.
You're missing the point, which is that Dad can do the latter by himself -- he knows his own name and email address, after all, and dragging the program file into the Applications folder is a hell of a lot more intuitive than typing an obscure command into the Terminal. (What's that you say? sudo and apt-get aren't obscure commands? Try living in reality someday, where people just want their computer to work without feeling like the kid from War Games.)
If you really want Dad to have to call you every time he installs something, you can do this even if he has a Mac. Just install fink on his machine; this way, you can have the pleasure of walking him through the command line, you masochist.
Or not -- he'd likely rather use his computer the way he's most comfortable with, which, in case you've stopped paying attention, is through the GUI and not the command line. It's possible he does prefer the command line, I'll grant you. But on his Mac, the choice will be his, and remember, it's choices that make us rich.
AFAIK, it's a violation of Apple's own Human Interface Guidelines to have several selectable items on the same line of a menu, such as in this picture, and this one too.
Not that I necessarily think these pictures are for real either, but note that the Human Interface Guidelines are only that -- guidelines. There's a reason they're not called the "Human Interface Commandments."
Apple's been known to violate the HIG before when it makes sense to do so -- think brushed metal -- and I'd argue having the label colors all on one line is probably one of these cases. As a general rule, Apple will sacrifice consistency for usability, and that's a good thing. (Contrast Windows and other GUIs.)
Also, I didn't know they were removing many of the stiples from the UI.
You mean the thing they had where every surface was infected with those cheap-looking plasticky lines? If you ask me, it's about damn time they got rid of those. On the hardware side of things, they've been abandoned since a generation or two ago.
Let me play devil's advocate for a moment, and pose you a question. Suppose the natural population of zebrafish happened to start glowing on their own one day -- i.e., the same mutation happened in nature as happened in the lab. Populations explode, other species of fish get crowded out, etc.
Now what, exactly, would be so bad about that? Is it only bad if humans are involved? Or would you argue that the glowing zebrafish must be eradicated, even though they arose by a natural mutation?
Hi. "These people" you so tactfully refer to already have medicine, clean drinking water, and a strong police force.* South Africa isn't Zimbabwe, you know. So get a goddamn clue before you post something so deliberately ignorant and seemingly verging on racist, will you?
* Pharmaceutical companies have a hard time selling retrovirals in South Africa, but that's neither here nor there.
Careful... I could be wrong, but I have a feeling SCO's share price might rise if some other company makes a move to buy it out. Would someone please explain why this is unlikely? Does SCO have anything worth buying?
Look, why exactly will the military be in trouble when they begin relying on GPS instead of paper maps? Presumably there's some advantage to all this newfangled technology over reading paper maps, else they wouldn't be training soldiers to use these GPS gizmos.
If your argument is that the military shouldn't rely on technology because technology is inherently unreliable, then you may have a point -- but do note that the Pentagon isn't stupid, at least not when it comes to training its soldiers, and it will have prepared them well for the eventuality of a technological failure. In fact, the article specifically mentions that soldiers are trained in how to read paper maps in case GPS fails.
Arguing that technology shouldn't be adopted because it causes basic skills to atrophy is like arguing that society should never have moved past the hunter-gatherer stage because today, in the age of specialization, hardly anyone knows anymore how to kill, skin and roast a beast with their bare hands.
May I also point out that even GPS mapping units require the user to know how to read a map.
Sure, but that's still a long time. I'm sure you recall the wise words of a Mr. Keynes: "In the long run, we are all dead."
An analogy: SARS is but a blip in the history of human disease, and it'll probably die out on its own anyway. Does that mean we shouldn't try to do anything to contain it?
Well, I asked the author of the article, Jonathan Rentzsch, what he thought, and he wrote back to clarify:
My basic theory turned out to be right, but I got some details wrong.
I've come to believe Apple does not get charged for authorizations, only
captures. Thus, Apple authorizes each transaction individually, but
batches multiple authorizations into one capture.
Furthormore, Apple has a dramtically smaller authorization window than is
possible, for whatever reason. I have reports ranging from 2 hours to 2
days, but never more than 48 hours.
The page you linked to with the credit card micropayments theory is interesting, but from what I can tell I don't think the iTunes Music Store works that way. I bought one track on the 29th and another on the 30th, and both are already showing up on my credit card statement as separate 99 transactions. So it would seem that Apple does in fact charge each micropayment seperately.
Is it possible Apple is getting a discount from credit card companies on transaction and capture costs? I imagine it wouldn't have been too hard to cut a deal, given the volume of transactions a service like this could expect to see. Of course, I'm no expert on the way the credit card system works, so I could be mistaken.
For chrissake, will you grow up? Stop hiding behind your hair-splitting terminology. Whatever you want to call it, we all know what we're talking about here. When you copy copyrighted music without permission, you're BREAKING THE LAW. It is illegal -- yes, the SAME WAY stealing is illegal, or piracy on the high seas is illegal.
You may have a point that unlicensed copying shouldn't be illegal. I might even agree with you. But when you imply you're taking the legal and moral high road just because you refuse to fucking call a duck a duck, you seriously hurt your argument.
As to your last point: fine, I'll agree. And if you don't want me to rape your daughter, then don't let her on my property.
yours
Re:No specs, they sound very good though
on
AAC vs. OGG vs. MP3
·
· Score: 1
AAC, yes, but it actually stands for "Advanced Audio Coding." Even Apple's website says so.
yours
Re:Ripping from the source a disadvantage? Huh?
on
AAC vs. OGG vs. MP3
·
· Score: 1
I suggest you re-read the parent...
Re:Anyone seen real specs for Apple's format?
on
AAC vs. OGG vs. MP3
·
· Score: 1
I copied some protected file from my friend... is going to take more work than just using the Finder...
Damn them. Damn them to hell for making it difficult to break the law. Those bastards.
It's still possible for triangles, equilateral ones included, to fall in if the lip isn't wide enough. Harder than a square, sure, but why risk it?
Aside from that, I would think round manhole covers are easier to fabricate than triangular ones. I mean, you might as well ask why Snapple bottles aren't triangular, or why bricks come in rectangles.
That's wonderful, but nobody gives a shit what music you "wouldn't listen to to save your life." The OP's point, which you seem to have willfully ignored in order to provide you with an excuse to spout your irrelevant moral masturbation for all the world to hear, was that Universal is the biggest selling record label.
I believe Universal is also the label with the widest range of jazz and blues artists, if that helps.
If you're going to be such a whiner, why don't you make your own list? You can start here. Have fun.
Why is Heinz ketchup and Kleenux brand tissues able to dominate markets where the goods being sold are commodity items... ?
It's because when I buy Kleenex, I can be reasonably sure I'm getting quality tissue. If I open my box of Kleenex and find sandpaper, the Kleenex brand is ruined for me -- I'll be unlikely to buy Kleenex again in the future. Clearly, then, Kimberly-Clark has an interest in making sure "Kleenex" brand tissue is as soft and fluffy as I expect it to be.
Furthermore, the fact that K-C is willing to invest mondo bucks on seemingly throwaway advertising indicates to me, Joe Consumer, that K-C doesn't plan on ruining the value of that investment by selling me sandpaper.
The point is, the popularity of brand-name commodity items isn't just because consumers are easily brainwashed by advertising dollars. A brand can serve as a guarantee of quality.
As for Heinz, I actually don't buy that stuff, because I fucking hate ketchup. Down with condiments.
Slashdot Mirror
Are you trolling? I know two blind people, and they both use email to communicate, unassisted.
Actually, now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure you're trolling.
Sure. How about civil disobedience? That's widely considered one of the most important civil liberties we enjoy. I imagine it would have been a lot harder for civil-rights activists to peacefully assemble if a system like DARPA's had been in place in the '50s and '60s, constantly monitoring the "ringleaders" as they went about their business. Or imagine you lived during Prohibition, going out every night and in so doing quietly giving the finger to the 18th Amendment. When you leave your favorite speakeasy, would you rather take your chances with a cop happening upon you on the sidewalk, or a system of cameras recording your drunken stumblings to be used as evidence against you at a later date? I know what I'd rather put up with.
How about sharing a joint with your buddies on a week-long camping trip in the middle of a national forest? Not your thing? Not urban enough? Then how about enjoying a glass of wine one fine summer night in the park (open container of alcohol, a ticketable offense)? Still not your thing? OK, have you ever jaywalked in your life?
The concern is that the system described in the article would make it a lot harder to get away with these things. Yes, these acts are illegal, but I think most people value the wiggle room the law affords in such cases. Look up "reasonable expectation of privacy" on Google, and consider the ways it would be constricted if DARPA's urban surveillance system were turned on Americans.
And at the risk of sounding like one of those "knee-jerk" civil libertarians, I have to say that your argument could be used to excuse invasions of privacy I doubt even you would tolerate. For instance, if you're not performing any illegal acts in the bedroom with your S.O., why wouldn't you let the FBI install a camera in the ceiling fan to make sure? (Until last week, you are aware, certain expressions of sodomy, including oral sex, were against the law in certain states.)
I think my point got kind of lost somewhere in there, but hopefully you'll understand what I'm getting at.
yours
I'll bite.
You're missing the point, which is that Dad can do the latter by himself -- he knows his own name and email address, after all, and dragging the program file into the Applications folder is a hell of a lot more intuitive than typing an obscure command into the Terminal. (What's that you say? sudo and apt-get aren't obscure commands? Try living in reality someday, where people just want their computer to work without feeling like the kid from War Games.)
If you really want Dad to have to call you every time he installs something, you can do this even if he has a Mac. Just install fink on his machine; this way, you can have the pleasure of walking him through the command line, you masochist.
Or not -- he'd likely rather use his computer the way he's most comfortable with, which, in case you've stopped paying attention, is through the GUI and not the command line. It's possible he does prefer the command line, I'll grant you. But on his Mac, the choice will be his, and remember, it's choices that make us rich.
yours
Not that I necessarily think these pictures are for real either, but note that the Human Interface Guidelines are only that -- guidelines. There's a reason they're not called the "Human Interface Commandments."
Apple's been known to violate the HIG before when it makes sense to do so -- think brushed metal -- and I'd argue having the label colors all on one line is probably one of these cases. As a general rule, Apple will sacrifice consistency for usability, and that's a good thing. (Contrast Windows and other GUIs.)
You mean the thing they had where every surface was infected with those cheap-looking plasticky lines? If you ask me, it's about damn time they got rid of those. On the hardware side of things, they've been abandoned since a generation or two ago.
yours
Let me play devil's advocate for a moment, and pose you a question. Suppose the natural population of zebrafish happened to start glowing on their own one day -- i.e., the same mutation happened in nature as happened in the lab. Populations explode, other species of fish get crowded out, etc.
Now what, exactly, would be so bad about that? Is it only bad if humans are involved? Or would you argue that the glowing zebrafish must be eradicated, even though they arose by a natural mutation?
Hi. "These people" you so tactfully refer to already have medicine, clean drinking water, and a strong police force.* South Africa isn't Zimbabwe, you know. So get a goddamn clue before you post something so deliberately ignorant and seemingly verging on racist, will you?
* Pharmaceutical companies have a hard time selling retrovirals in South Africa, but that's neither here nor there.
Careful... I could be wrong, but I have a feeling SCO's share price might rise if some other company makes a move to buy it out. Would someone please explain why this is unlikely? Does SCO have anything worth buying?
yours
Look, why exactly will the military be in trouble when they begin relying on GPS instead of paper maps? Presumably there's some advantage to all this newfangled technology over reading paper maps, else they wouldn't be training soldiers to use these GPS gizmos.
If your argument is that the military shouldn't rely on technology because technology is inherently unreliable, then you may have a point -- but do note that the Pentagon isn't stupid, at least not when it comes to training its soldiers, and it will have prepared them well for the eventuality of a technological failure. In fact, the article specifically mentions that soldiers are trained in how to read paper maps in case GPS fails.
Arguing that technology shouldn't be adopted because it causes basic skills to atrophy is like arguing that society should never have moved past the hunter-gatherer stage because today, in the age of specialization, hardly anyone knows anymore how to kill, skin and roast a beast with their bare hands.
May I also point out that even GPS mapping units require the user to know how to read a map.
humbly yours
Sure, but that's still a long time. I'm sure you recall the wise words of a Mr. Keynes: "In the long run, we are all dead."
An analogy: SARS is but a blip in the history of human disease, and it'll probably die out on its own anyway. Does that mean we shouldn't try to do anything to contain it?
If you have the money to buy a Mac, then surely you have the additional cash to buy a decent mouse? Like, between your couch cushions?
yours
Who said strippers have to be women? Or could it be that you're the sexist asshole here?
Well, I asked the author of the article, Jonathan Rentzsch, what he thought, and he wrote back to clarify:
So there you have it. Interesting stuff, I guess.
yours
The page you linked to with the credit card micropayments theory is interesting, but from what I can tell I don't think the iTunes Music Store works that way. I bought one track on the 29th and another on the 30th, and both are already showing up on my credit card statement as separate 99 transactions. So it would seem that Apple does in fact charge each micropayment seperately.
Is it possible Apple is getting a discount from credit card companies on transaction and capture costs? I imagine it wouldn't have been too hard to cut a deal, given the volume of transactions a service like this could expect to see. Of course, I'm no expert on the way the credit card system works, so I could be mistaken.
yours
I agree.
For chrissake, will you grow up? Stop hiding behind your hair-splitting terminology. Whatever you want to call it, we all know what we're talking about here. When you copy copyrighted music without permission, you're BREAKING THE LAW. It is illegal -- yes, the SAME WAY stealing is illegal, or piracy on the high seas is illegal.
You may have a point that unlicensed copying shouldn't be illegal. I might even agree with you. But when you imply you're taking the legal and moral high road just because you refuse to fucking call a duck a duck, you seriously hurt your argument.
As to your last point: fine, I'll agree. And if you don't want me to rape your daughter, then don't let her on my property.
yours
AAC, yes, but it actually stands for "Advanced Audio Coding." Even Apple's website says so.
yours
I suggest you re-read the parent...
Damn them. Damn them to hell for making it difficult to break the law. Those bastards.
It's still possible for triangles, equilateral ones included, to fall in if the lip isn't wide enough. Harder than a square, sure, but why risk it?
Aside from that, I would think round manhole covers are easier to fabricate than triangular ones. I mean, you might as well ask why Snapple bottles aren't triangular, or why bricks come in rectangles.
yours
There's actually two "they"s in that sentence; the OP was referring to the second one.
Oh. My bad.
Subliminal.
Damn straight.
That's wonderful, but nobody gives a shit what music you "wouldn't listen to to save your life." The OP's point, which you seem to have willfully ignored in order to provide you with an excuse to spout your irrelevant moral masturbation for all the world to hear, was that Universal is the biggest selling record label.
I believe Universal is also the label with the widest range of jazz and blues artists, if that helps.
If you're going to be such a whiner, why don't you make your own list? You can start here. Have fun.
yours
It's because when I buy Kleenex, I can be reasonably sure I'm getting quality tissue. If I open my box of Kleenex and find sandpaper, the Kleenex brand is ruined for me -- I'll be unlikely to buy Kleenex again in the future. Clearly, then, Kimberly-Clark has an interest in making sure "Kleenex" brand tissue is as soft and fluffy as I expect it to be.
Furthermore, the fact that K-C is willing to invest mondo bucks on seemingly throwaway advertising indicates to me, Joe Consumer, that K-C doesn't plan on ruining the value of that investment by selling me sandpaper.
The point is, the popularity of brand-name commodity items isn't just because consumers are easily brainwashed by advertising dollars. A brand can serve as a guarantee of quality.
As for Heinz, I actually don't buy that stuff, because I fucking hate ketchup. Down with condiments.
yours