I'll note that there are probably some differences between the UK, Oz, and the US.
Here in the US, those traffic cameras are owned and maintained by private companies. Those companies contract with the cities to operate those cameras. Those companies, of course, share revenues with the cities.
While I haven't "studied" or "researched" those cameras, I've been aware of them, and I've listened to the talk about them for quite a long while. Everything I've heard indicates that they have zero impact on the rate of collisions, injuries, or fatalities. They DO generate a lot more revenue, but again, that revenue is shared, so the city sees little if any net increase in revenue.
I, personally, am opposed to government suveillance of it's citizens. I'm even more opposed to corporate enforcement of laws, and or corporate management of prison systems. The only private interests involved in the judicial system should be lawyers - and we need fewer of those.
San Diego gets things right at least as often as they get things wrong.
Even if those red light cameras actually decreased the number of accidents by some small margin, I'm happy to see them go. The potential for abuse is that great.
Also - it's only fair to point out, that my router goes THROUGH my Linux box before it goes to the modem. One of my net analyzers would quickly allow me to verify that the person(s) using my WIFI were doing legitimate things, like checking email, browsing legitimate sites, etc - or if they were using my connection to grab torrented movies, etc. I would quickly shut down a TOR tunnel, connections to porn sites, things like that.
Someone who reads this will scream about CENSORSHIP! Whoop-ti-do - censorship. I'm offering a free connection for anyone who might find the damned thing out here in the middle of nowhere. The least they can do is to respect my need to avoid attention from RIAA and their ilk, or attention from the government for activity on child porn sites.
Some schools of thought seem to make me "responsible" for anything going in or out of my internet connection.
Not to mention, if they are torrenting, in might impact on my wife's ability to play Pogo games, then all hell would break loose!
Depends on time of day, and how long they were there. To be of any use, they would have to drive down our road, at least as far as the abandoned house my mother in law lived in. I check on anyone parked there, to see that they aren't vandalizing the place. If said occupant of car told me, "Hey, I found a free wifi, so I'm just checking my mail!" I'd say "Cool" and go about my business.
On the other hand, seeing half a dozen cars parked there around the clock would probably motivate me to disable the WIFI.
Having a web device doesn't take much. My son's favorite phone has cost him a grand total of eighteen bucks. Plus, a couple hours of working on it. Some silly little girl broke her phone, threw it in a corner, and my son asked her what the deal was. The "breakage" that she described was minor bullshit. My son picked the phone up, repaired it, put in a SIM card, ran cyanogen mods on it, and he has his "bestest phone evah!!"
In our throwaway society filled with spoiled children, you should never assume that a person with expensive tech toys actually had to pay for those toys.
I've an idea - let's everyone report everyone! I don't like your term "hissy-fit throwers" because it's so very unprofessional. Atheists should be professional, at all times, I say!
More seriously - what is this "role of the state". Only very recently, in historical terms, has the state had any role aside from keeping the masses under control, while rewarding the rich for being rich.
Ohh, what am I thinking? That still seems to be government's role.
At least as comfortable as I would be if the only place in town were Mickey D's. I mean - how much chance is there that the manager of Mickey D's will force the kid to eat a free Mac-whatchamacallit? And, how much chance is there that the local Imam will force the kids to bang their heads on the ground five times a day?
IT'S WIFI, for crying out loud. The kids don't have to ENTER either Mickey D's or the mosque.
Even if the Catholic Church enables WIFI, the kids don't have to go inside to be diddled by the choir director!
I run an open hotspot. Unfortunately - it sees no use. I guess it has something to do with the fact that my house is located 1/4 mile from a barren stretch of highway that runs between two little forgotten nowhere towns.
How many apps require your location in order to work?
Sure, if I have an app that will find a restaurant for me, maybe it needs to know at least my general location. I'm hungry, so I ask it where the restaurants are. The app should work. It's last known location for me was in Arkansas, so it gives me a map of Arkansas with hundreds of known good restaurants. I can narrow it down to southwest Arkansas, and it will zoom in some, giving me only a couple hundred restaurants. Or, I can tell it that I'm actually in Murphrysboro, at which point it will zoom, showing me the three to six restaurants in that town, and maybe flag another dozen of the better restaurants within a half hour drive.
My point is, the app should work with or without knowing my location. If it doesn't, then the app is not so much an "application" as it is a data harvesting tool.
Rand McNally Maps could locate restaurants for me a decade ago, with absolutely zero knowledge of where I was located at the time. RM Maps didn't have any mechanism by which it could communicate with RM headquarters, to inform them of my location.
Not only could RM locate restaurants, it could locate schools, churches, (handy for people planning hostage events?) parks, shopping centers, businesses, federal buildings (Timothy McVeigh?) and much much more. (I have little idea if RM Maps would have located bomb making facilities and supplies, or weapons dealers - I never thought to try it!)
Name an app that is actually necessary to day-to-day life, that actually NEEDS TO KNOW where I am, currently. I really can't imagine one.
Now, if I'm a stalker, or a predator, and I'm trying to keep tabs on my prey, then maybe such an app is truly useful. Say that maybe I've set my sights on 3 or 12 of the most beautiful little girls in my area, and I really want to know what they are wearing (if anything) where they are, and who they are with, then it would be very useful to me that the little idiots are blathering all those details to the world.
It is explained that on one world, you burn then crash - as opposed to crash and burn - and why it would happen in that order. And, on another world, you would crash, but not burn, and why.
This little "what if" is a reasonable explanation of conditions on other worlds, as we understand them, and how they would affect flight in a particular type and model of aircraft.
If the story teller were addressing an international physics conference, he might sound a bit stupid with this presentation. As he is addressing an audience of nerds, with the intent of amusing and possibly educating them - he's done an excellent job.
"It's not as if they would release 2 ipad versions in one year, completely killing the brand new tablet you bought 6 month earlier..."
The second version could do what, exactly, that the first version could not do? That statement stinks of "status symbol". I can't imagine that one version of iPad makes another so very obsolete, that you can't use it any longer. The only reason to buy the newer one, that I can see, is being able to flash it to people at the bar, at work, on the bus or train - even in the grocery store. "Ooohhhh, look at that guy! He has the newest little shiney! I want to be like him!"
"In certain types of music, like classical or jazz, we are condemning them to poverty if this is going to be the only way people consume music,' Ms. Keating said."
Well, geez, I'm terribly sorry that playing music that few people want to listen to is NOT LUCRATIVE. Terribly sorry. People vote with their feet. If you have a billion potential customers, and only a couple thousand stop to listen to your music, then maybe the problem is YOU? Just maybe?
Jazz is alright. Classical is alright. But, how many people LISTEN to it? I've said it many times, and I'll say it again: If you want to make a living by entertaining people, then ENTERTAIN THEM! If you're not very entertaining, then you won't make a living.
Who said, "The customer is always right."?? Stop trying to force feed the customers what they don't want. I really think that rap music sucks - but there is money in it. There are millions of customers who enjoy listening to rap. As much as it sucks, there is a market for it. I'd rather be forced to listen to jazz, classical and opera than to be forced to listen to rap - but that doesn't mean anything at all, if the CUSTOMERS want rap.
Produce what the listening audience wants to listen to, or find another line of work. We don't owe you a living just because YOU THINK that you're an artist.
Space heaters often have not thermostat on them. They are either off, or on, and they are either high or low setting. Thermostats are relatively expensive, especially a reliable thermostat. It's the first place cheap space heater manufacturers attempt to cut costs.
Tip over switches can fail. I've seen them fail enough times that I'll never rely on one. A little dirt, some lint, a couple years of corrosion, and magically, the damned switch just doesn't work.
Didn't the Librarian just pass a ruling, that cellphones are NOT free? Suddenly, it's against the law to "jailbreak" or "unlock" a cellphone. Android has more in common with Apple than with Linux, in the "freedom" arena.
An incompetent or negligent food inspector should be executed, though. He/she might have the lives of tens of thousands of people in his hands, but because he's bored, or hung over, or whatever, he doesn't see the slime growing under the conveyor belt, on which lies tons of raw meat. Slowly, ever so slowly, the slime advances, reaching out for that succulent chicken . . .
You get a nod, for seeming to know your stuff. I think you may actually be right, in some alternate reality.
The problem is, in this reality, only the unix-likes have ever been released with a functioning security model. The security on my computers, as installed and scripted by default, is time tested, and has been improved with time. The Windows security model mostly just sits in the backroom, next to an open door (or window) and collects fungus. Almost no one actually brings it out into the workspace, and uses it.
Yeah, the model is there, but like an old forgotten Revell model sitting in direct sunlight, it's been bent and warped while dust settles on it.
Android is not a "Linux variant". Android uses a Linux kernel, but it's not a Linux distro. It most certainly is not an established, trusted distro, such as Debian, Suse, or Redhat.
Various dope smoking fools, working for various companies have rolled their own flavors of Android, seldom consulting with real Linux enthusiasts. Each and every manufacturer rolls his own dope-soaked version of Android, then alters that dopey version to suit the whims of the telcos that are actually purchasing them.
If Android is a Linux distro, then BlackXP, available via torrent, is a valid Windows release.
(Note that I've actually used BlackXP inside of VM's - it's actually pretty solid, but it's damned sure not Microsoft!)
We gots us a malware thingy. The thingy acquires permissions to install itself. It's not quite clear that it is using "root" permissions, but it does have elevated permissions. Elevated enough to install software, at any rate. We've already bypassed everything on the phone, except possibly root, and probably BIOS.
Kindly explain WTF this "non-circumventable confirmation dialog" thingy might be. And, explain HOWTF it works. There's a special chip in the phone, that is anaccessible to root and/or user, that is going to always and forever question you regarding expensive calls?
Dude - the frigging app will dismiss the damned query before it ever registers on screen. Geeez, Louise. You just turned on your first ever computer last night, right?
Pasted below is the same advice from TFA. Question is - who the hell do you trust? Unfortunately, Android opened the doors to all sorts of idiots developing crap, and there are no "trusted repositories". I guess it's safer to trust the phone company than some random developer from some random site. But, I'm not one to trust a phone company!
To avoid becoming a victim, please follow common-sense guidelines for smartphone security:
1. Only download applications from trusted sources, reputable application stores, and markets, and be sure to check reviews, ratings and developer information before downloading.
2. Never accept application requests from unknown sources. Closely monitor permissions requested by any application; an application should not request permission to do more than what it offers in its official list of features.
3. Be alert for unusual behavior on the part of mobile phones and be sure to download a trusted security application that can scan the applications being downloaded onto your mobile device. NQ Mobile Security users are already fully protected from the Bill Shocker threat.
Mike Frett wins the prize. While some people have told us here, in the past, that some places on earth actually have a Microsoft-centric "computer science" curriculum - I've never seen it in grammar school, or high school. All that I have ever seen, are indoctrination courses, with zero "science".
Start early, and teach children that all they need to know about computers is, how to work a mouse, and how to navigate Microsoft approved menus. Format a hard drive? Hush now, that's arcane magic stuff that you need not worry about. It's all taken care of with the Installation Disk. Or, the Computer Guy at the store, who will charge you 75 Euros to install Windows for you, while saving the pictures of your kitty, your pony, and Grandma.
I've not seen video, no, but I've been following progress there.
From my post, "Either you were genuinely, openly invited to be there". In the case of France and all the African nations involved, they were indeed genuinely, and openly invited. They were invited to help repel the invaders. In the case of the jihadists, they are the invaders, and it seems that plenty of the locals hate them. Having a brother or an aunt executed for singing or dancing tends to make you hate the invaders pretty strongly.
Aren't SOME of those shots combined? Repeating what I said above, I don't believe any of my kids got more than three shots on the same day, when they were little.
Only place I ever got a half dozen shots on the same day, was in boot camp.
Slashdot Mirror
I'll note that there are probably some differences between the UK, Oz, and the US.
Here in the US, those traffic cameras are owned and maintained by private companies. Those companies contract with the cities to operate those cameras. Those companies, of course, share revenues with the cities.
While I haven't "studied" or "researched" those cameras, I've been aware of them, and I've listened to the talk about them for quite a long while. Everything I've heard indicates that they have zero impact on the rate of collisions, injuries, or fatalities. They DO generate a lot more revenue, but again, that revenue is shared, so the city sees little if any net increase in revenue.
I, personally, am opposed to government suveillance of it's citizens. I'm even more opposed to corporate enforcement of laws, and or corporate management of prison systems. The only private interests involved in the judicial system should be lawyers - and we need fewer of those.
San Diego gets things right at least as often as they get things wrong.
Even if those red light cameras actually decreased the number of accidents by some small margin, I'm happy to see them go. The potential for abuse is that great.
Also - it's only fair to point out, that my router goes THROUGH my Linux box before it goes to the modem. One of my net analyzers would quickly allow me to verify that the person(s) using my WIFI were doing legitimate things, like checking email, browsing legitimate sites, etc - or if they were using my connection to grab torrented movies, etc. I would quickly shut down a TOR tunnel, connections to porn sites, things like that.
Someone who reads this will scream about CENSORSHIP! Whoop-ti-do - censorship. I'm offering a free connection for anyone who might find the damned thing out here in the middle of nowhere. The least they can do is to respect my need to avoid attention from RIAA and their ilk, or attention from the government for activity on child porn sites.
Some schools of thought seem to make me "responsible" for anything going in or out of my internet connection.
Not to mention, if they are torrenting, in might impact on my wife's ability to play Pogo games, then all hell would break loose!
Depends on time of day, and how long they were there. To be of any use, they would have to drive down our road, at least as far as the abandoned house my mother in law lived in. I check on anyone parked there, to see that they aren't vandalizing the place. If said occupant of car told me, "Hey, I found a free wifi, so I'm just checking my mail!" I'd say "Cool" and go about my business.
On the other hand, seeing half a dozen cars parked there around the clock would probably motivate me to disable the WIFI.
Errr - yes and no.
Having a web device doesn't take much. My son's favorite phone has cost him a grand total of eighteen bucks. Plus, a couple hours of working on it. Some silly little girl broke her phone, threw it in a corner, and my son asked her what the deal was. The "breakage" that she described was minor bullshit. My son picked the phone up, repaired it, put in a SIM card, ran cyanogen mods on it, and he has his "bestest phone evah!!"
In our throwaway society filled with spoiled children, you should never assume that a person with expensive tech toys actually had to pay for those toys.
I've an idea - let's everyone report everyone! I don't like your term "hissy-fit throwers" because it's so very unprofessional. Atheists should be professional, at all times, I say!
More seriously - what is this "role of the state". Only very recently, in historical terms, has the state had any role aside from keeping the masses under control, while rewarding the rich for being rich.
Ohh, what am I thinking? That still seems to be government's role.
Wait - they have FOOD in mosques? Dang - why didn't anyone tell me? I'm checking Google Maps for the closest mosque with free wifi!
At least as comfortable as I would be if the only place in town were Mickey D's. I mean - how much chance is there that the manager of Mickey D's will force the kid to eat a free Mac-whatchamacallit? And, how much chance is there that the local Imam will force the kids to bang their heads on the ground five times a day?
IT'S WIFI, for crying out loud. The kids don't have to ENTER either Mickey D's or the mosque.
Even if the Catholic Church enables WIFI, the kids don't have to go inside to be diddled by the choir director!
It's a win-win situation, IMHO
I run an open hotspot. Unfortunately - it sees no use. I guess it has something to do with the fact that my house is located 1/4 mile from a barren stretch of highway that runs between two little forgotten nowhere towns.
Oh well - you can't say I didn't TRY!
How many apps require your location in order to work?
Sure, if I have an app that will find a restaurant for me, maybe it needs to know at least my general location. I'm hungry, so I ask it where the restaurants are. The app should work. It's last known location for me was in Arkansas, so it gives me a map of Arkansas with hundreds of known good restaurants. I can narrow it down to southwest Arkansas, and it will zoom in some, giving me only a couple hundred restaurants. Or, I can tell it that I'm actually in Murphrysboro, at which point it will zoom, showing me the three to six restaurants in that town, and maybe flag another dozen of the better restaurants within a half hour drive.
My point is, the app should work with or without knowing my location. If it doesn't, then the app is not so much an "application" as it is a data harvesting tool.
Rand McNally Maps could locate restaurants for me a decade ago, with absolutely zero knowledge of where I was located at the time. RM Maps didn't have any mechanism by which it could communicate with RM headquarters, to inform them of my location.
Not only could RM locate restaurants, it could locate schools, churches, (handy for people planning hostage events?) parks, shopping centers, businesses, federal buildings (Timothy McVeigh?) and much much more. (I have little idea if RM Maps would have located bomb making facilities and supplies, or weapons dealers - I never thought to try it!)
Name an app that is actually necessary to day-to-day life, that actually NEEDS TO KNOW where I am, currently. I really can't imagine one.
Now, if I'm a stalker, or a predator, and I'm trying to keep tabs on my prey, then maybe such an app is truly useful. Say that maybe I've set my sights on 3 or 12 of the most beautiful little girls in my area, and I really want to know what they are wearing (if anything) where they are, and who they are with, then it would be very useful to me that the little idiots are blathering all those details to the world.
http://blog.laptopmag.com/look-whos-stalking-10-creepiest-apps-for-phones-facebook-more
It is explained that on one world, you burn then crash - as opposed to crash and burn - and why it would happen in that order. And, on another world, you would crash, but not burn, and why.
This little "what if" is a reasonable explanation of conditions on other worlds, as we understand them, and how they would affect flight in a particular type and model of aircraft.
If the story teller were addressing an international physics conference, he might sound a bit stupid with this presentation. As he is addressing an audience of nerds, with the intent of amusing and possibly educating them - he's done an excellent job.
"It's not as if they would release 2 ipad versions in one year, completely killing the brand new tablet you bought 6 month earlier..."
The second version could do what, exactly, that the first version could not do? That statement stinks of "status symbol". I can't imagine that one version of iPad makes another so very obsolete, that you can't use it any longer. The only reason to buy the newer one, that I can see, is being able to flash it to people at the bar, at work, on the bus or train - even in the grocery store. "Ooohhhh, look at that guy! He has the newest little shiney! I want to be like him!"
"In certain types of music, like classical or jazz, we are condemning them to poverty if this is going to be the only way people consume music,' Ms. Keating said."
Well, geez, I'm terribly sorry that playing music that few people want to listen to is NOT LUCRATIVE. Terribly sorry. People vote with their feet. If you have a billion potential customers, and only a couple thousand stop to listen to your music, then maybe the problem is YOU? Just maybe?
Jazz is alright. Classical is alright. But, how many people LISTEN to it? I've said it many times, and I'll say it again: If you want to make a living by entertaining people, then ENTERTAIN THEM! If you're not very entertaining, then you won't make a living.
Who said, "The customer is always right."?? Stop trying to force feed the customers what they don't want. I really think that rap music sucks - but there is money in it. There are millions of customers who enjoy listening to rap. As much as it sucks, there is a market for it. I'd rather be forced to listen to jazz, classical and opera than to be forced to listen to rap - but that doesn't mean anything at all, if the CUSTOMERS want rap.
Produce what the listening audience wants to listen to, or find another line of work. We don't owe you a living just because YOU THINK that you're an artist.
Stop sniveling.
Why not? When a fix is fixed, it should be released! Whether I apply the fix is then my decision, and the consequences are mine to deal with.
Space heaters often have not thermostat on them. They are either off, or on, and they are either high or low setting. Thermostats are relatively expensive, especially a reliable thermostat. It's the first place cheap space heater manufacturers attempt to cut costs.
Tip over switches can fail. I've seen them fail enough times that I'll never rely on one. A little dirt, some lint, a couple years of corrosion, and magically, the damned switch just doesn't work.
Didn't the Librarian just pass a ruling, that cellphones are NOT free? Suddenly, it's against the law to "jailbreak" or "unlock" a cellphone. Android has more in common with Apple than with Linux, in the "freedom" arena.
That made me laugh. I stopped chuckling when I realized that a gubbermint revenooer could say that with a perfectly straight face. Now, it's scary!
Do you work for gubbermint?
An incompetent or negligent food inspector should be executed, though. He/she might have the lives of tens of thousands of people in his hands, but because he's bored, or hung over, or whatever, he doesn't see the slime growing under the conveyor belt, on which lies tons of raw meat. Slowly, ever so slowly, the slime advances, reaching out for that succulent chicken . . .
You get a nod, for seeming to know your stuff. I think you may actually be right, in some alternate reality.
The problem is, in this reality, only the unix-likes have ever been released with a functioning security model. The security on my computers, as installed and scripted by default, is time tested, and has been improved with time. The Windows security model mostly just sits in the backroom, next to an open door (or window) and collects fungus. Almost no one actually brings it out into the workspace, and uses it.
Yeah, the model is there, but like an old forgotten Revell model sitting in direct sunlight, it's been bent and warped while dust settles on it.
Android is not a "Linux variant". Android uses a Linux kernel, but it's not a Linux distro. It most certainly is not an established, trusted distro, such as Debian, Suse, or Redhat.
Various dope smoking fools, working for various companies have rolled their own flavors of Android, seldom consulting with real Linux enthusiasts. Each and every manufacturer rolls his own dope-soaked version of Android, then alters that dopey version to suit the whims of the telcos that are actually purchasing them.
If Android is a Linux distro, then BlackXP, available via torrent, is a valid Windows release.
(Note that I've actually used BlackXP inside of VM's - it's actually pretty solid, but it's damned sure not Microsoft!)
Wait, wait, wait. Let me get this straight.
We gots us a malware thingy. The thingy acquires permissions to install itself. It's not quite clear that it is using "root" permissions, but it does have elevated permissions. Elevated enough to install software, at any rate. We've already bypassed everything on the phone, except possibly root, and probably BIOS.
Kindly explain WTF this "non-circumventable confirmation dialog" thingy might be. And, explain HOWTF it works. There's a special chip in the phone, that is anaccessible to root and/or user, that is going to always and forever question you regarding expensive calls?
Dude - the frigging app will dismiss the damned query before it ever registers on screen. Geeez, Louise. You just turned on your first ever computer last night, right?
Pasted below is the same advice from TFA. Question is - who the hell do you trust? Unfortunately, Android opened the doors to all sorts of idiots developing crap, and there are no "trusted repositories". I guess it's safer to trust the phone company than some random developer from some random site. But, I'm not one to trust a phone company!
To avoid becoming a victim, please follow common-sense guidelines for smartphone security:
1. Only download applications from trusted sources, reputable application stores, and markets, and be sure to check reviews, ratings and developer information before downloading.
2. Never accept application requests from unknown sources. Closely monitor permissions requested by any application; an application should not request permission to do more than what it offers in its official list of features.
3. Be alert for unusual behavior on the part of mobile phones and be sure to download a trusted security application that can scan the applications being downloaded onto your mobile device. NQ Mobile Security users are already fully protected from the Bill Shocker threat.
Mike Frett wins the prize. While some people have told us here, in the past, that some places on earth actually have a Microsoft-centric "computer science" curriculum - I've never seen it in grammar school, or high school. All that I have ever seen, are indoctrination courses, with zero "science".
Start early, and teach children that all they need to know about computers is, how to work a mouse, and how to navigate Microsoft approved menus. Format a hard drive? Hush now, that's arcane magic stuff that you need not worry about. It's all taken care of with the Installation Disk. Or, the Computer Guy at the store, who will charge you 75 Euros to install Windows for you, while saving the pictures of your kitty, your pony, and Grandma.
I've not seen video, no, but I've been following progress there.
From my post, "Either you were genuinely, openly invited to be there". In the case of France and all the African nations involved, they were indeed genuinely, and openly invited. They were invited to help repel the invaders. In the case of the jihadists, they are the invaders, and it seems that plenty of the locals hate them. Having a brother or an aunt executed for singing or dancing tends to make you hate the invaders pretty strongly.
But - wait now!
Aren't SOME of those shots combined? Repeating what I said above, I don't believe any of my kids got more than three shots on the same day, when they were little.
Only place I ever got a half dozen shots on the same day, was in boot camp.
I dissolve my mutated viruses in a DMSO and aloe vera blend, then use a mister to apply it at music festivals.
(waits for DHS to kick the door down)