Aww, man - don't know how serious you are, but really. I'm not a movie watcher, and I almost never recommend a movie. Get Wild America and watch it. Short summary: 3 dopey teenage boys about 1955 living in Fort Smith Arkansas manage to con Mom and Dad into letting them go explore nature. They catch a lot of America's vanishing nature on film, they very nearly manage to get killed a couple times, and it's funnier than hell in several places. It's not your typical idiot Hollywood production. Hope you enjoy it! Wait til the middle of winter though. I'd hate to hear that the heat from the VCR and television caused your igloo to melt down.;^)
I'd pick a Rambler over a Lexus or Mercedes, any day. I guess you're pointing at the discrepancy in quality, so the Mac sales people are moving up to Microsoft? Am I right?
Meanwhile - I wait for the "Slow down Cowboy" message, and the advert asks if my music is having an identity crisis. I'd have to say that most music today is easy to identify. There are only two popular sounds - ghetto boys that can't sing, and whiny bitches that can't sing. It really is hard to identify any specific song. But, I won't bother with any software that offers to help identify it - I just won't listen to it.
I could point out that Canada is actually "Outback, America". But, to be honest, I really meant to type "Northwest Territory or Yukon" but got lost. Maybe I forgot how to spell it, I dunno.
I suppose you watched Wild America? I really am just LMAO. That Mama Moose was trying hard to help that youngest kid, wasn't she?
In the US, we sidestep silly restrictions such as your "Vermont syrup" example. Wisconsin cheese is constantly being trucked into California, taken out of the boxes, dropped into other boxes labeled "Packaged in California" with no hint of it's origins.
Well, did they learn about I2P, TOR, and Stealthnet while the web was working? I don't think that even the Jews can block all of that stuff yet. Not unless they've recovered the Ark of the Covenant, but I thought Indiana Jones had that all wrapped up.
"Slow Down Cowboy!" My apologies to all your girlfriends - I was trying to get to all of them, didn't really mean to leave any of them hanging.
Now I feel terrible. So depressed. Everyone assured me that the Jews were in charge. Now what? Anarchy? Hell, that's no better than what we have today, is it? DAMMIT MAN! DEVELOP A GOOD JEWISH CONSPIRACY NAOW!!! Reassure me, please!
Reading comprehension, much? More fairly, maybe, did you RTFA?
"The num8 watch costs £149.99 and is sold with a monthly subscription contract"
There's a middle man. You pay the fee, or it's cut off. If you were accessing GPS directly, there would be no subscription fee, most likely. Which brings me back to the original post: is there a service provider in the middle of Outback, Nowhere in Australia, or in Canada, or even some areas of the United States? I won't even TRY to guess what may be available on the African continent.
Yeah, it works great, globally. IF there is a service provider. John Q. Citizen isn't invited to purchase some hardware and tap into the system. How do those cell phones work with GPS, exactly?
Heh. Pretty good point there. Prior to my own divorce, I used to wonder about those guys who spent all their time "stalking" their ex. I learned first hand how ridiculous those claims can be. Despite the fact that I didn't even return to the COUNTY that my ex lived in for over a year, she saw me numerous times during that year. "You were sitting right down the road, in your car, watching the house!" Yeah, right. Get a grip, ya ditzy broad - I was chasing women everyplace between New Orleans and Toronto!
"How do you expect a 6 year old to take care of themselves if they wander off somewhere?"
In today's world? How many people live where a 6 year old can wander very far from SOME ADULT? Do you live in outback Australia, where the nearest neighbor is 30 miles away? If so, the GPS probably isn't available anyway.
But, back to the 6 years old thing. Notice my nick. At six years old, a kid may not have great judgement, but they CAN take care of themselves. At age six, I had explored almost all of the township that I lived in. By age 10 I had covered almost all of my county. Get a grip - children are more capable than a lot of people want to give them credit for. Toddlers are the ones most likely to benefit from this idea, but if a parent NEEDS GPS to track their toddler, they aren't very good parents.
"is it really going to harm them to wear one of these?"
As with most "think of the children" babbling, this is just a disguised indoctrination. Once it starts to catch on, it will be mandated for ALL children, ages ~3-15. Of course, once a child has worn the thing for 12 years, he'll be "used to it", the next step will be ALL MINOR CHILDREN. Justification will be a double whammy: "Think of the girls being victimized" along with "Male teens are responsible for 3/4 of all criminal acts, so we need to track them!" After the first generation of people who have been indoctrinated becomes voters, everyone will agree that ALL CITIZENS should wear such a device - and again, the double whammy. "Think of the helpless" right beside "We've got to track those dangerous males".
I remind people of the theory, "People get the government that they deserve". Eventually, anyone who does something "out of character" as defined by a computer program designed to track them will be hauled in for questioning. "Why did you skip work today, then go to the beach? Are you a subversive? Are you a deviant? Were you looking at little girls?"
"I'm French and if my personal or professional email were to be made public, that would be one hell of unsatisfactory service."
Well, who do you think would want to read a Frenchman's mail, anyway?
More seriously, what does nationality have to do with privacy issues? You think that maybe a Ugandan needs more privacy than a Russian? Degrees of privacy are scaled from one nationality to another? Had you said something to the effect, "The Iranian government has grown really oppressive, so my mail being made public is a major threat to personal security", then your nationality and/or government might be a factor.
No, ~1% I think. Following the links in the links, you'll find that Brown University transferred 2000 accounts, not the 200 in the above summary. It seemed suspicious that a university was only transferring 200 accounts, to begin with. An individual small college would have that many accounts, or more.
Me too. It was an elective, and I took it to free myself from the burden of handwriting. I'll type anything by preference, rather than writing it. Yeah, I can use the pen and paper, when I need to, I can do longhand math, I can make graphs and I can even use a drafting table to make blueprints. But, I'll always prefer to use a typewriter, or a computer. Hand writing will always be a nuisance that rapidly turns into a royal pain in the ass.
Is that you, Mrs. Stevenson? Look, I still love you after all these decades, but I am NEVER going to learn how to hold that freaking pen like you want me to!!
I wonder though - have you ever field stripped and reassembled a Colt.45 in less than 2 minutes, BLINDFOLDED? I can. See, there's nothing "wrong" with me. I just can't do things YOUR WAY!
An "x" is still a legal signature, with the signature of a witness. But, if people really give up on handwriting, a thumbprint works just as well. You don't even need to be capable of picking up a pen to mark a paper or an electronic document with a thumbprint.
Silly boy. We want to make sure some poor bastard isn't buried alive, so we drain ALL of his blood!! Even vampires don't walk again once we've flushed their radiators with Drano!!
"I noted several times where the general ordering of the document was not terribly linear, they repeated themselves or used very confusing sentence structure."
Psst! Excuse me, Mr. Belthize? Please, trade me papers. You've got the encrypted copy, and that's "Top Sekritz". Thank you sir!!
*sigh* Yes, I did read your entire post. Since you started out with that flawed analogy, without considering the obvious answers to it, I kinda figured you might realize there are equally obvious answers to the rest of the post.
To date, I've not seen one of those warnings that look just like a genuine alert from any of my AV's. But, let's say they are out there - someone has tailored their warning to look just like AVG. Since I run Avast, I'm immediately going to scratch my head. "Something isn't right, here." Alright - a few days later I get one that looks just like Avast. Well - Avast doesn't ask me to click anything. The pop-up slides up from the toolbar to inform me that it has found and quarantined something nasty. In a few seconds, it slides away out of sight.
But - first, how did I get to such a site? In all likelihood, I've ignored some warning or other offered by Google safe search, I've turned off phishing protection in my browser, I have Javascript enabled for all sites - in short, I've disabled or ignored several protections.
Navigating the web with all protections turned off implies that I'm either accepting the risk, or I'm to ignorant to assess the risk. Those who are to ignorant to assess the risk shouldn't be on the web. And, THAT is the core of my argument.
Now, the fact is, I DO browse the internet almost naked. All of my Windows machines are inside of VirtualBox. Windows isn't installed on hardware anywhere in my house, except the son's laptop. (no version of Linux that we've tried will install on the blasted thing!) If I run into something really nasty, all I have to do is roll the machine back to a recent snapshot. It never fails.
Outside of the VM's, I don't even trust Linux to protect me entirely. I turn off Javascript, and turn on AdBlock Plus, with all subscriptions. I don't use any Phishing alert services - but before browsing to something like a banking site, I open a new instance of a different browser, where I use a bookmark to navigate to the bank site.
So - I still say that it's stupid to operate a piece of equipment which you are untrained and/or improperly trained to use.
And, yes, ultimately, if you drive into the ditch, you are responsible. Tough luck that some kids from the 'hood came out, and moved that sign to the wrong side of the road.
And, finally - it seems that you think I'm bashing Microsoft? Not sure - it's just the feeling I get. Actually, my original post up at the top is bashing the USERS of Microsoft. Yeah, I most certainly feel that MS products are less secure than they could be, and I've witnessed some pretty crazy exploits being taken advantage of. But, ultimately, at LEAST 75% of all infections and exploits that I've ever seen were the result of operator stupidity. That loose nut on the keyboard screws things up more often than anything else.
"I have my license, so I am qualified to operate a vehicle. If I follow the sign that says "Stay Left" and it leads my into a ditch, was that MY fault for trusting a sign that should be protecting me?"
Unequivocally, YES!! You see the sign, the FIRST thing you should do is, not "keep left", but "slow down". Then "look", then "think". That is all part of driver's education. Mindlessly obeying a sign doesn't get you off the hook with Charles Darwin.
Are you trying to be an orc, or a balrog? (just kidding - it's your sig, after all)
Actually, Texas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma already make use of roadblocks and checkpoints. Other states do too, I'm sure, but since I don't travel as much these days, I can't say what they are doing. These checkpoints routinely target drunk drivers, bootleggers, and drug runners. They are almost always set up late at night.
Now, I don't approve of these things - but since they are in use anyway, why not put them to better use? If they are going to pull you over anyway, why not talk to the kids? Maybe you've missed the Garrido case in California? Two female cops were alerted by the unusual behaviour of Jaycee's daughters.
Put more women into cruisers, and let them talk to kids during a traffic stop or roadblock. Most of us guys are to damned dumb to pay attention to the kids, unless they are broken up and bleeding.
Slashdot Mirror
Aww, man - don't know how serious you are, but really. I'm not a movie watcher, and I almost never recommend a movie. Get Wild America and watch it. Short summary: 3 dopey teenage boys about 1955 living in Fort Smith Arkansas manage to con Mom and Dad into letting them go explore nature. They catch a lot of America's vanishing nature on film, they very nearly manage to get killed a couple times, and it's funnier than hell in several places. It's not your typical idiot Hollywood production. Hope you enjoy it! Wait til the middle of winter though. I'd hate to hear that the heat from the VCR and television caused your igloo to melt down. ;^)
I'd pick a Rambler over a Lexus or Mercedes, any day. I guess you're pointing at the discrepancy in quality, so the Mac sales people are moving up to Microsoft? Am I right?
Meanwhile - I wait for the "Slow down Cowboy" message, and the advert asks if my music is having an identity crisis. I'd have to say that most music today is easy to identify. There are only two popular sounds - ghetto boys that can't sing, and whiny bitches that can't sing. It really is hard to identify any specific song. But, I won't bother with any software that offers to help identify it - I just won't listen to it.
Who the hell is Madonna? What did she ever do for IT? Get off my lawn, ya little freak!
ROFLMAO
I could point out that Canada is actually "Outback, America". But, to be honest, I really meant to type "Northwest Territory or Yukon" but got lost. Maybe I forgot how to spell it, I dunno.
I suppose you watched Wild America? I really am just LMAO. That Mama Moose was trying hard to help that youngest kid, wasn't she?
Thanks for the laugh!
In the US, we sidestep silly restrictions such as your "Vermont syrup" example. Wisconsin cheese is constantly being trucked into California, taken out of the boxes, dropped into other boxes labeled "Packaged in California" with no hint of it's origins.
Customers are suckers, aren't they?
Well, did they learn about I2P, TOR, and Stealthnet while the web was working? I don't think that even the Jews can block all of that stuff yet. Not unless they've recovered the Ark of the Covenant, but I thought Indiana Jones had that all wrapped up.
"Slow Down Cowboy!"
My apologies to all your girlfriends - I was trying to get to all of them, didn't really mean to leave any of them hanging.
Now I feel terrible. So depressed. Everyone assured me that the Jews were in charge. Now what? Anarchy? Hell, that's no better than what we have today, is it? DAMMIT MAN! DEVELOP A GOOD JEWISH CONSPIRACY NAOW!!! Reassure me, please!
Reading comprehension, much? More fairly, maybe, did you RTFA?
"The num8 watch costs £149.99 and is sold with a monthly subscription contract"
There's a middle man. You pay the fee, or it's cut off. If you were accessing GPS directly, there would be no subscription fee, most likely. Which brings me back to the original post: is there a service provider in the middle of Outback, Nowhere in Australia, or in Canada, or even some areas of the United States? I won't even TRY to guess what may be available on the African continent.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/04/warrantless_gps_tracking/print.html
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/05/no_warrant_requ.html
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/10/1549252
http://www.divorcenet.com/states/new_jersey/spying_on_your_spouse
We're already on the slippery slope. Google around, and see who can track you, with or without your permission, with or without a warrant.
Yeah, it works great, globally. IF there is a service provider. John Q. Citizen isn't invited to purchase some hardware and tap into the system. How do those cell phones work with GPS, exactly?
Heh. Pretty good point there. Prior to my own divorce, I used to wonder about those guys who spent all their time "stalking" their ex. I learned first hand how ridiculous those claims can be. Despite the fact that I didn't even return to the COUNTY that my ex lived in for over a year, she saw me numerous times during that year. "You were sitting right down the road, in your car, watching the house!" Yeah, right. Get a grip, ya ditzy broad - I was chasing women everyplace between New Orleans and Toronto!
"How do you expect a 6 year old to take care of themselves if they wander off somewhere?"
In today's world? How many people live where a 6 year old can wander very far from SOME ADULT? Do you live in outback Australia, where the nearest neighbor is 30 miles away? If so, the GPS probably isn't available anyway.
But, back to the 6 years old thing. Notice my nick. At six years old, a kid may not have great judgement, but they CAN take care of themselves. At age six, I had explored almost all of the township that I lived in. By age 10 I had covered almost all of my county. Get a grip - children are more capable than a lot of people want to give them credit for. Toddlers are the ones most likely to benefit from this idea, but if a parent NEEDS GPS to track their toddler, they aren't very good parents.
"is it really going to harm them to wear one of these?"
As with most "think of the children" babbling, this is just a disguised indoctrination. Once it starts to catch on, it will be mandated for ALL children, ages ~3-15. Of course, once a child has worn the thing for 12 years, he'll be "used to it", the next step will be ALL MINOR CHILDREN. Justification will be a double whammy: "Think of the girls being victimized" along with "Male teens are responsible for 3/4 of all criminal acts, so we need to track them!" After the first generation of people who have been indoctrinated becomes voters, everyone will agree that ALL CITIZENS should wear such a device - and again, the double whammy. "Think of the helpless" right beside "We've got to track those dangerous males".
I remind people of the theory, "People get the government that they deserve". Eventually, anyone who does something "out of character" as defined by a computer program designed to track them will be hauled in for questioning. "Why did you skip work today, then go to the beach? Are you a subversive? Are you a deviant? Were you looking at little girls?"
Meanwhile, AC has 387 invites from new friends who have discovered his bestiality photos, most of which involve German Shepard males and stud ponies.
"I'm French and if my personal or professional email were to be made public, that would be one hell of unsatisfactory service."
Well, who do you think would want to read a Frenchman's mail, anyway?
More seriously, what does nationality have to do with privacy issues? You think that maybe a Ugandan needs more privacy than a Russian? Degrees of privacy are scaled from one nationality to another? Had you said something to the effect, "The Iranian government has grown really oppressive, so my mail being made public is a major threat to personal security", then your nationality and/or government might be a factor.
"11 % of users were affected"
No, ~1% I think. Following the links in the links, you'll find that Brown University transferred 2000 accounts, not the 200 in the above summary. It seemed suspicious that a university was only transferring 200 accounts, to begin with. An individual small college would have that many accounts, or more.
"Typing I learned in high school."
Me too. It was an elective, and I took it to free myself from the burden of handwriting. I'll type anything by preference, rather than writing it. Yeah, I can use the pen and paper, when I need to, I can do longhand math, I can make graphs and I can even use a drafting table to make blueprints. But, I'll always prefer to use a typewriter, or a computer. Hand writing will always be a nuisance that rapidly turns into a royal pain in the ass.
Is that you, Mrs. Stevenson? Look, I still love you after all these decades, but I am NEVER going to learn how to hold that freaking pen like you want me to!!
I wonder though - have you ever field stripped and reassembled a Colt .45 in less than 2 minutes, BLINDFOLDED? I can. See, there's nothing "wrong" with me. I just can't do things YOUR WAY!
An "x" is still a legal signature, with the signature of a witness. But, if people really give up on handwriting, a thumbprint works just as well. You don't even need to be capable of picking up a pen to mark a paper or an electronic document with a thumbprint.
*sigh*
Silly boy. We want to make sure some poor bastard isn't buried alive, so we drain ALL of his blood!! Even vampires don't walk again once we've flushed their radiators with Drano!!
"seems needlessly complicated to me."
Occam, is that you? I still want my razor back!! I didn't GIVE it to you, I only LOANED IT!! Why does the whole world think that it's YOUR RAZOR?????
"I noted several times where the general ordering of the document was not terribly linear, they repeated themselves or used very confusing sentence structure."
Psst! Excuse me, Mr. Belthize? Please, trade me papers. You've got the encrypted copy, and that's "Top Sekritz". Thank you sir!!
*sigh* Yes, I did read your entire post. Since you started out with that flawed analogy, without considering the obvious answers to it, I kinda figured you might realize there are equally obvious answers to the rest of the post.
To date, I've not seen one of those warnings that look just like a genuine alert from any of my AV's. But, let's say they are out there - someone has tailored their warning to look just like AVG. Since I run Avast, I'm immediately going to scratch my head. "Something isn't right, here." Alright - a few days later I get one that looks just like Avast. Well - Avast doesn't ask me to click anything. The pop-up slides up from the toolbar to inform me that it has found and quarantined something nasty. In a few seconds, it slides away out of sight.
But - first, how did I get to such a site? In all likelihood, I've ignored some warning or other offered by Google safe search, I've turned off phishing protection in my browser, I have Javascript enabled for all sites - in short, I've disabled or ignored several protections.
Navigating the web with all protections turned off implies that I'm either accepting the risk, or I'm to ignorant to assess the risk. Those who are to ignorant to assess the risk shouldn't be on the web. And, THAT is the core of my argument.
Now, the fact is, I DO browse the internet almost naked. All of my Windows machines are inside of VirtualBox. Windows isn't installed on hardware anywhere in my house, except the son's laptop. (no version of Linux that we've tried will install on the blasted thing!) If I run into something really nasty, all I have to do is roll the machine back to a recent snapshot. It never fails.
Outside of the VM's, I don't even trust Linux to protect me entirely. I turn off Javascript, and turn on AdBlock Plus, with all subscriptions. I don't use any Phishing alert services - but before browsing to something like a banking site, I open a new instance of a different browser, where I use a bookmark to navigate to the bank site.
So - I still say that it's stupid to operate a piece of equipment which you are untrained and/or improperly trained to use.
And, yes, ultimately, if you drive into the ditch, you are responsible. Tough luck that some kids from the 'hood came out, and moved that sign to the wrong side of the road.
And, finally - it seems that you think I'm bashing Microsoft? Not sure - it's just the feeling I get. Actually, my original post up at the top is bashing the USERS of Microsoft. Yeah, I most certainly feel that MS products are less secure than they could be, and I've witnessed some pretty crazy exploits being taken advantage of. But, ultimately, at LEAST 75% of all infections and exploits that I've ever seen were the result of operator stupidity. That loose nut on the keyboard screws things up more often than anything else.
Remove the loose nuts.
"I have my license, so I am qualified to operate a vehicle. If I follow the sign that says "Stay Left" and it leads my into a ditch, was that MY fault for trusting a sign that should be protecting me?"
Unequivocally, YES!! You see the sign, the FIRST thing you should do is, not "keep left", but "slow down". Then "look", then "think". That is all part of driver's education. Mindlessly obeying a sign doesn't get you off the hook with Charles Darwin.
Are you trying to be an orc, or a balrog? (just kidding - it's your sig, after all)
Actually, Texas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma already make use of roadblocks and checkpoints. Other states do too, I'm sure, but since I don't travel as much these days, I can't say what they are doing. These checkpoints routinely target drunk drivers, bootleggers, and drug runners. They are almost always set up late at night.
Now, I don't approve of these things - but since they are in use anyway, why not put them to better use? If they are going to pull you over anyway, why not talk to the kids? Maybe you've missed the Garrido case in California? Two female cops were alerted by the unusual behaviour of Jaycee's daughters.
Put more women into cruisers, and let them talk to kids during a traffic stop or roadblock. Most of us guys are to damned dumb to pay attention to the kids, unless they are broken up and bleeding.