I dunno about that. How many file types from the 1970's are you unable to open today? We don't need to completely reverse engineer MS Office to get the data contained in the files, after all. Linux and Open Office manages to read them reasonably well.
I suspect that.doc files will be accessible for quite a long while, and that they can be converted to other formats before they are entirely obsoleted, and the emulators forgotten. Those that aren't converted probably have very little value to anyone.
Face it - if I sit down and make one of those silly things for posterity, my great-great-great grandchildren aren't going to bother with it more than once in their lives. Only when they are forced to by their mothers, I expect. Now, the Chinese, who have a greater respect for their ancestors might do so. Here in America? Phhhttt. (Yes, I am aware that ancestor worship has lost a lot of ground in much of Asia - still they have the heritage that we lack in that respect.)
Outstanding link. It explains so much. And, it kinda helps me to understand why I find marketing so distasteful. The rat bastards are manipulating me with every advertisement. I hate being manipulated . . .
Take your average person. Let's choose a female person. This female person knows that people are looking at her, every day. In fact, most females go to great lengths to appear to people as they WISH to appear. Tons of money are spent on wardrobe, makeup, hair, beauty aids, so that she DOES appear as she wishes to appear. In short - the lady likes to be looked at, and goes to great lengths to ensure that she is pleasing to the looker.
Does that mean that she wants peeping toms looking in through her living room windows? Oh - that may not be to bad. She is clothed in the living room, and usually interacting with other people anyway.
How about her bedroom, or the bathroom?
Doesn't much matter how social a person you are - that goes beyond creepy. That goes beyond simple distaste. Yet, corporations are tracking you ALL THE TIME. Yes, they are in your bathroom. They are in your bedroom. People who make no attempt to block tracking at all, using credit cards for all purchases, are telling corporations every time they wipe their nether regions. What kind of soaps they prefer. Whether they use talc, and how much. Whether you're sexually active, and whether you're trying to prevent pregnancy.
The corporations can learn of your (underage or not) daughter's pregnancy before YOU know about it!
Uh-huh. AC posted a good reply to your post already.
My question is - what the heck are you doing on your employer's network? Are you browsing the web? Oh - wait - you still have cookies on your work account! It's possible that Google doesn't realize that msauve@employer.net is the same as msauve@gmail.com I wouldn't count on it though. You've never, ever checked your personal mail from your employer's work station? Alright - so just maybe you've tricked Google. Did you also fool every other marketer and researcher out there?
Your server. What are you doing from your server? Browse the web? Oh-oh - that server has it's own cookies, which may or may not already be correlated to your home PC and/or your employer's work station. If you're only accessing files on your server, then maybe you're good there.
I understand TANSTAAFL - the question is, whether I'm willing to pay the asking price for the services I use. Personally, I am not. So, I throw a monkey wrench into the marketing and tracking cogs every chance I get. THEY don't get a free lunch either.
BTW - I PAY for my internet. It's not free. It costs me about 5 hours labor, each and every month, to keep my internet connection open. No free lunch there, either.
How about social engineering, in it's older form. Supposedly, back in the late 1800's or early 1900's, corporations wanted to sell more breakfast cereal. Prior to that time, people typically ate meat, beans, and eggs for breakfast. Maybe fried corn cakes or hot cakes. Corporations wanted to sell cereal. So they advertised all the benefits of cereal, especially the vitamin content, blah blah blah.
And, corporations were successful in selling the American public on breakfast cereal.
The social engineering hasn't ended of course. We simply accept it as normal that corporations spend fortunes everyday, indoctrinating kids that they should be eating whichever brand and style of cereal the commercials tell them to eat.
So - what's next on the agenda? And, what happens to people who resist such engineering? Do we become some kind of outcast? Outlaws? Outright criminals, because we choose not to be manipulated?
You need to look at the best case scenario, as well as the worst case scenario, and try to figure out what might happen as compared to what will happen.
Tracking. Why should I permit people to track my actions, so that they can better indoctrinate me? I don't WANT to be brainwashed, thank you very much.
You're the governor. The bureau of vital statistics and voting records, along with other documents indicate that you have x million legal residents who are *whatever*. But, your police forces routinely encounter ten or fifty times that many *whatever*. And, when your police forces encounter them, it's almost always due to law violations.
And, you're incapable of drawing any conclusions from those few, simple bits of data? Really?
The conclusions might be erroneous, the conclusions might be almost-right, the conclusions might be perfectly on target. But, OBVIOUSLY, someone needs to look at *whatever* people, make some attempt to determine which *whatever* people are legal, and which are not, which are law abiding, and which are not, and SHIP OUT THE ONES WHO DON'T BELONG!
Or, are you of the opinion that anyone and everyone in the world who wishes to "improve their lives" should just drop in, and expect the US to provide for them?
People who are incapable of distinguishing subtle details hear that "suspicion of brown-ness" sound byte, and assume that it is exactly the same as "driving while black". Yeah - they are somewhat similar. But, you might consider the fact that "driving while black" targets people who are perfectly legal, while "suspicion of brown-ness" targets illegal aliens, many of whom are breaking a lot more laws than just immigration.
One great source of white noise is a standard box fan. New, most of them are pretty quiet - get a used one that is a little noisy.
For the stereo, don't use music, instead get nature sounds. Ocean sounds, wind sounds, running water sounds, just about anything you can get.
Put your source of white noise between you and the wall through which the most noise comes into the room. Probably the doorway, but maybe not.
The tapestries and other ideas for the walls is also good, but it takes bulk to absorb sound. Posters printed on paper won't do much, thick heavy tapestries will do more, and those army/navy surplus blankets will do a bit more than most tapestries. But, it can take a lot of bulky blankets to block out a lot of noise. Those blankets aren't very visually appealing, so put the blankets up, then a tapestry, if you can afford them. If not - well - you'll have to make do with what you can afford.
Put your source of white noise between you and the wall through which the most noise comes into the room. Probably the doorway, but maybe not.
"A is free to even pay for armed groups to attack B without it rising to an act of war."
I was agreeing with you, until that sentence. Sorry, if I'm paying someone to invade someone's country, then that really is an "act of war". If/when that country learns what I'm doing, and if they have the capability, I fully expect that country to come after me. Actually paying armed forces to attack someone rises well above mere "aiding and abetting". Offering those forces humanitarian assistance might cross that line, as well.
I think the latest articles I read, suggested that they did mostly die out. The claim seems to be that we came on the scene late in their decline, and only found time to fornicate with a few of them before they were gone. Or, something like that.
Certainly not impossible. Basically, I was just checking - not everyone who has carried a weapon in the line of duty could have made those shots. They were tough shots. I ain't real sure that I could ever have made them. But, I've met a number of men who could.;^)
A lot of people are involved in accidents, through no fault of their own. A sober driver who practices defensive driving can, and often will, evade the fool who just ran the stop sign on the side road. The not-quite drunk guy has less of a chance of evading. The drunk? He won't even try to evade. In each case, the dummy who ran the stop sign is the cause of the accident or near-accident. The guys with their judgement impaired won't react as quickly or as properly.
Nahhh, they'll just subpeona Slashdot for the IP address, then decide who was most likely to be using that computer. Of course, when I posted, I proxied in through North Korea, Australia, Canada, Venezuela, Afghanistan, Mexico, and finally the UK. So, they'll be knocking on the door at Scotland Yard soon, trying to find me.
Oh. Yeah. That's a FEDERAL COURT! The judge can do that, can't he? I'm more accustomed to Podunk Hicktown court rooms. Extradition is only considered in murder cases and the like. Hmmmm - yes, that is very interesting!
"Any well-trained marksman would be able to make those shots."
I have my doubts. You might have to define "marksman". Long, long ago, in another century, when you could still find mastodons roaming - - - Well, maybe I'm overdoing it there.
Anyway, as a kid, I met some soldiers down at the creek where I routinely hunted. They wanted to see how good a shot I was, so they called off some targets for me to hit. Easy shots, but they all seemed amazed that I could make the shots. One of them asked to borrow my rifle, and he couldn't hit shit. That encounter stuck with me for years. Every one of them had marksman's ribbons. Each and every one. But they were amazed that a kid was hitting easy targets less than a hundred yards away, with a.22 rifle.
Lots of people claim to be marksmen, and expert marksmen, even snipers. I'm always shickled teatless when I meet a REAL marksman.
And, yes, a real marksman could have made those shots. Some wannabe who worked hard to qualify for a badge couldn't do it, but a real marksman, yes.
Alright, I scrolled through Google's images of Orly, and the above is the only image of her that wouldn't scare me sober if she hit on me in a bar. Good God - I had no idea that a Jewish girl could be THAT homely!
They are getting closer to deployment. As I said, the guns are rather primitive, but working. They've tested about four different models, I think, and they actually plan to have them aboard the Zumwalt class ships. From what I read, it's probably going to be 32 megajoule, with a 64 meg to follow.
The young man I was talking to expects to see that weapon fire - maybe he knows something we civilians don't know, or maybe he was just blowing smoke.
Either way - it's coming, if Congress doesn't cut the money for it. I can see them scrapping a lot of things in the near future.
Ditto. Of course, I don't use Facebook for much of anything. Check on what the kids are doing from time to time, post an activist link or something - then I'm gone. Despite that, Facebook seems to have little idea who I am, or what I'm all about. The crap they think I might be interested in is so way off, it's just pathetic.
Google? I manage to trick them for the most part, but even so they manage to offer relevant stuff.
The most relevant advertisements that I see, are from Amazon, with Ebay following a close second. Of course, neither of those sites needs to track me, or infer much from the purchases that I have actually made.
Nukes. And, sharks with lasers. And guns. And missiles (or the lack thereof). Global Thermonuclear Warfare.
Not to mention, we like discussing douches, whether they are from SCO, Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, the US government, the UK government, or the North Korean government.
Ironically, I was looking at the Zumwalt class this morning, when a young sailor mentioned that he is scheduled to be assigned to it.
The Navy seems to be phasing out the old reliable 5"54, in favor of "rail guns". What I've read about them, makes them seem rather primitive, but still more effective than anything you can push through the tubes of an old 5" gun. Of course, the effectiveness may just by hype from the manufacturers. I'm certainly not impressed with Zumwalt's seaworthiness.
Back in the day, suggesting that ANY *nix variant might dominate ANY market other than servers would have had the whole world laughing at you.*
*cue the clueless who don't understand that Android is really a hacked Linux - yes, hacked, like it was meant to be. Need Linux to do something new and different? Just take it and make it do what you need!
Hacking together your system can be a pain - whether it's your desktop, your workstation, laptop, or phone. But, all the same, your sentence comes across as "I just want what I want, and I don't expect to put any work into it." Sadly, the carriers aren't going to give that to any of us. You take what they offer, or you hack away at it. Waiting for them to offer what you really want means you'll never get what you want.
And, I hope you're actively "hacking" Congress and the White House on phone issues. And, that silly Librarian of Congress. Tell them what we want - Everything that Europeans enjoy, and more, at half the price. Someone is snuggled up to your congress critter right now, whispering sweet nothings in his ear about Telco profits. You need to be screaming into his other ear, telling him that you won't stand for it!
That's interesting, and all, but still, the government is discouraging population growth - am I right, or wrong? And, it seems to have had an effect: the overall fertility rate of mainland China is close to 1.4 children per women.[42]
1.4 children per female is not a sustainable rate in the long run. Sustainable is a little more than two, as I recall.
Had the government not intervened, and set no policy, what would China's population be today? Assuredly, it would be higher than it is now, by possibly another 3/4 billion.
Slashdot Mirror
I dunno about that. How many file types from the 1970's are you unable to open today? We don't need to completely reverse engineer MS Office to get the data contained in the files, after all. Linux and Open Office manages to read them reasonably well.
I suspect that .doc files will be accessible for quite a long while, and that they can be converted to other formats before they are entirely obsoleted, and the emulators forgotten. Those that aren't converted probably have very little value to anyone.
Face it - if I sit down and make one of those silly things for posterity, my great-great-great grandchildren aren't going to bother with it more than once in their lives. Only when they are forced to by their mothers, I expect. Now, the Chinese, who have a greater respect for their ancestors might do so. Here in America? Phhhttt. (Yes, I am aware that ancestor worship has lost a lot of ground in much of Asia - still they have the heritage that we lack in that respect.)
Outstanding link. It explains so much. And, it kinda helps me to understand why I find marketing so distasteful. The rat bastards are manipulating me with every advertisement. I hate being manipulated . . .
Alarmist?
Take your average person. Let's choose a female person. This female person knows that people are looking at her, every day. In fact, most females go to great lengths to appear to people as they WISH to appear. Tons of money are spent on wardrobe, makeup, hair, beauty aids, so that she DOES appear as she wishes to appear. In short - the lady likes to be looked at, and goes to great lengths to ensure that she is pleasing to the looker.
Does that mean that she wants peeping toms looking in through her living room windows? Oh - that may not be to bad. She is clothed in the living room, and usually interacting with other people anyway.
How about her bedroom, or the bathroom?
Doesn't much matter how social a person you are - that goes beyond creepy. That goes beyond simple distaste. Yet, corporations are tracking you ALL THE TIME. Yes, they are in your bathroom. They are in your bedroom. People who make no attempt to block tracking at all, using credit cards for all purchases, are telling corporations every time they wipe their nether regions. What kind of soaps they prefer. Whether they use talc, and how much. Whether you're sexually active, and whether you're trying to prevent pregnancy.
The corporations can learn of your (underage or not) daughter's pregnancy before YOU know about it!
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/
Uh-huh. AC posted a good reply to your post already.
My question is - what the heck are you doing on your employer's network? Are you browsing the web? Oh - wait - you still have cookies on your work account! It's possible that Google doesn't realize that msauve@employer.net is the same as msauve@gmail.com I wouldn't count on it though. You've never, ever checked your personal mail from your employer's work station? Alright - so just maybe you've tricked Google. Did you also fool every other marketer and researcher out there?
Your server. What are you doing from your server? Browse the web? Oh-oh - that server has it's own cookies, which may or may not already be correlated to your home PC and/or your employer's work station. If you're only accessing files on your server, then maybe you're good there.
I understand TANSTAAFL - the question is, whether I'm willing to pay the asking price for the services I use. Personally, I am not. So, I throw a monkey wrench into the marketing and tracking cogs every chance I get. THEY don't get a free lunch either.
BTW - I PAY for my internet. It's not free. It costs me about 5 hours labor, each and every month, to keep my internet connection open. No free lunch there, either.
How about social engineering, in it's older form. Supposedly, back in the late 1800's or early 1900's, corporations wanted to sell more breakfast cereal. Prior to that time, people typically ate meat, beans, and eggs for breakfast. Maybe fried corn cakes or hot cakes. Corporations wanted to sell cereal. So they advertised all the benefits of cereal, especially the vitamin content, blah blah blah.
And, corporations were successful in selling the American public on breakfast cereal.
The social engineering hasn't ended of course. We simply accept it as normal that corporations spend fortunes everyday, indoctrinating kids that they should be eating whichever brand and style of cereal the commercials tell them to eat.
So - what's next on the agenda? And, what happens to people who resist such engineering? Do we become some kind of outcast? Outlaws? Outright criminals, because we choose not to be manipulated?
You need to look at the best case scenario, as well as the worst case scenario, and try to figure out what might happen as compared to what will happen.
Tracking. Why should I permit people to track my actions, so that they can better indoctrinate me? I don't WANT to be brainwashed, thank you very much.
""on suspicion of brown-ness.""
You're the governor. The bureau of vital statistics and voting records, along with other documents indicate that you have x million legal residents who are *whatever*. But, your police forces routinely encounter ten or fifty times that many *whatever*. And, when your police forces encounter them, it's almost always due to law violations.
And, you're incapable of drawing any conclusions from those few, simple bits of data? Really?
The conclusions might be erroneous, the conclusions might be almost-right, the conclusions might be perfectly on target. But, OBVIOUSLY, someone needs to look at *whatever* people, make some attempt to determine which *whatever* people are legal, and which are not, which are law abiding, and which are not, and SHIP OUT THE ONES WHO DON'T BELONG!
Or, are you of the opinion that anyone and everyone in the world who wishes to "improve their lives" should just drop in, and expect the US to provide for them?
People who are incapable of distinguishing subtle details hear that "suspicion of brown-ness" sound byte, and assume that it is exactly the same as "driving while black". Yeah - they are somewhat similar. But, you might consider the fact that "driving while black" targets people who are perfectly legal, while "suspicion of brown-ness" targets illegal aliens, many of whom are breaking a lot more laws than just immigration.
Best answer so far.
One great source of white noise is a standard box fan. New, most of them are pretty quiet - get a used one that is a little noisy.
For the stereo, don't use music, instead get nature sounds. Ocean sounds, wind sounds, running water sounds, just about anything you can get.
Put your source of white noise between you and the wall through which the most noise comes into the room. Probably the doorway, but maybe not.
The tapestries and other ideas for the walls is also good, but it takes bulk to absorb sound. Posters printed on paper won't do much, thick heavy tapestries will do more, and those army/navy surplus blankets will do a bit more than most tapestries. But, it can take a lot of bulky blankets to block out a lot of noise. Those blankets aren't very visually appealing, so put the blankets up, then a tapestry, if you can afford them. If not - well - you'll have to make do with what you can afford.
Put your source of white noise between you and the wall through which the most noise comes into the room. Probably the doorway, but maybe not.
"A is free to even pay for armed groups to attack B without it rising to an act of war."
I was agreeing with you, until that sentence. Sorry, if I'm paying someone to invade someone's country, then that really is an "act of war". If/when that country learns what I'm doing, and if they have the capability, I fully expect that country to come after me. Actually paying armed forces to attack someone rises well above mere "aiding and abetting". Offering those forces humanitarian assistance might cross that line, as well.
I think the latest articles I read, suggested that they did mostly die out. The claim seems to be that we came on the scene late in their decline, and only found time to fornicate with a few of them before they were gone. Or, something like that.
Certainly not impossible. Basically, I was just checking - not everyone who has carried a weapon in the line of duty could have made those shots. They were tough shots. I ain't real sure that I could ever have made them. But, I've met a number of men who could. ;^)
A lot of people are involved in accidents, through no fault of their own. A sober driver who practices defensive driving can, and often will, evade the fool who just ran the stop sign on the side road. The not-quite drunk guy has less of a chance of evading. The drunk? He won't even try to evade. In each case, the dummy who ran the stop sign is the cause of the accident or near-accident. The guys with their judgement impaired won't react as quickly or as properly.
Nahhh, they'll just subpeona Slashdot for the IP address, then decide who was most likely to be using that computer. Of course, when I posted, I proxied in through North Korea, Australia, Canada, Venezuela, Afghanistan, Mexico, and finally the UK. So, they'll be knocking on the door at Scotland Yard soon, trying to find me.
Oh. Yeah. That's a FEDERAL COURT! The judge can do that, can't he? I'm more accustomed to Podunk Hicktown court rooms. Extradition is only considered in murder cases and the like. Hmmmm - yes, that is very interesting!
"Any well-trained marksman would be able to make those shots."
I have my doubts. You might have to define "marksman". Long, long ago, in another century, when you could still find mastodons roaming - - - Well, maybe I'm overdoing it there.
Anyway, as a kid, I met some soldiers down at the creek where I routinely hunted. They wanted to see how good a shot I was, so they called off some targets for me to hit. Easy shots, but they all seemed amazed that I could make the shots. One of them asked to borrow my rifle, and he couldn't hit shit. That encounter stuck with me for years. Every one of them had marksman's ribbons. Each and every one. But they were amazed that a kid was hitting easy targets less than a hundred yards away, with a .22 rifle.
Lots of people claim to be marksmen, and expert marksmen, even snipers. I'm always shickled teatless when I meet a REAL marksman.
And, yes, a real marksman could have made those shots. Some wannabe who worked hard to qualify for a badge couldn't do it, but a real marksman, yes.
That's kinda scary. Take a look at her. She has two eyes, a nose, a mouth, two arms, two breasts - I presume there are two legs supporting her. She looks rather normal, if aging and weatherbeaten. Why don't nutcases look - well - NUTS? Hell, she looks almost attractive in this pic: http://api.ning.com/files/aOwvTWeocChEvVtCkbqfW6Uo45XBuD57L8oP1qFoQ1VghmM*TDK5dv3uBytUBnjlWB6IQzYzZMP2zaS4kGkSZib6LNzoUSzA/Taitz2.jpg
Alright, I scrolled through Google's images of Orly, and the above is the only image of her that wouldn't scare me sober if she hit on me in a bar. Good God - I had no idea that a Jewish girl could be THAT homely!
They are getting closer to deployment. As I said, the guns are rather primitive, but working. They've tested about four different models, I think, and they actually plan to have them aboard the Zumwalt class ships. From what I read, it's probably going to be 32 megajoule, with a 64 meg to follow.
The young man I was talking to expects to see that weapon fire - maybe he knows something we civilians don't know, or maybe he was just blowing smoke.
Either way - it's coming, if Congress doesn't cut the money for it. I can see them scrapping a lot of things in the near future.
Ditto. Of course, I don't use Facebook for much of anything. Check on what the kids are doing from time to time, post an activist link or something - then I'm gone. Despite that, Facebook seems to have little idea who I am, or what I'm all about. The crap they think I might be interested in is so way off, it's just pathetic.
Google? I manage to trick them for the most part, but even so they manage to offer relevant stuff.
The most relevant advertisements that I see, are from Amazon, with Ebay following a close second. Of course, neither of those sites needs to track me, or infer much from the purchases that I have actually made.
Nukes. And, sharks with lasers. And guns. And missiles (or the lack thereof). Global Thermonuclear Warfare.
Not to mention, we like discussing douches, whether they are from SCO, Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, the US government, the UK government, or the North Korean government.
Ironically, I was looking at the Zumwalt class this morning, when a young sailor mentioned that he is scheduled to be assigned to it.
The Navy seems to be phasing out the old reliable 5"54, in favor of "rail guns". What I've read about them, makes them seem rather primitive, but still more effective than anything you can push through the tubes of an old 5" gun. Of course, the effectiveness may just by hype from the manufacturers. I'm certainly not impressed with Zumwalt's seaworthiness.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tumblehome is some controversial bullshit, IMO.
I'm smug, thank you.
Back in the day, suggesting that ANY *nix variant might dominate ANY market other than servers would have had the whole world laughing at you.*
*cue the clueless who don't understand that Android is really a hacked Linux - yes, hacked, like it was meant to be. Need Linux to do something new and different? Just take it and make it do what you need!
That's little better than goatse, dude. Jeeezus!
"Last thing I want to do is hack my phone,"
Hacking together your system can be a pain - whether it's your desktop, your workstation, laptop, or phone. But, all the same, your sentence comes across as "I just want what I want, and I don't expect to put any work into it." Sadly, the carriers aren't going to give that to any of us. You take what they offer, or you hack away at it. Waiting for them to offer what you really want means you'll never get what you want.
And, I hope you're actively "hacking" Congress and the White House on phone issues. And, that silly Librarian of Congress. Tell them what we want - Everything that Europeans enjoy, and more, at half the price. Someone is snuggled up to your congress critter right now, whispering sweet nothings in his ear about Telco profits. You need to be screaming into his other ear, telling him that you won't stand for it!
Apple and SCO should join forces. Or, Apple should hire all of SCO's legal representatives. They need experience!
Oh - a link for you:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fertility_rate
That's interesting, and all, but still, the government is discouraging population growth - am I right, or wrong? And, it seems to have had an effect: the overall fertility rate of mainland China is close to 1.4 children per women.[42]
1.4 children per female is not a sustainable rate in the long run. Sustainable is a little more than two, as I recall.
Had the government not intervened, and set no policy, what would China's population be today? Assuredly, it would be higher than it is now, by possibly another 3/4 billion.