Not unions. Enough people got electrocuted by shoddy wiring jobs that some politician noticed. Unfortunately for the gene pool it wasn't just the idiot cablers that were getting fried.
Not that I condone the nannying. If you compare Australian and New Zealand safety records, last I checked we Aussies were still losing badly despite our shiny pieces of paper. An independant set of eyeballs does a lot more to keep people alive.
It's interesting to compare the different regulatory approaches of the two governments to the software world - roughly "closed proprietary standard" for Aussies versus "open free standard" for Kiwis.
This all assumes that the government has popular support, or at least popular apathy. Which admittedly it does.
When it finally percolates into the general consciousness that the government (regardless of whoever they have "elected") has betrayed them, I do wonder if they will be so welcoming of martial law (although at that point it may be that the government will already have instituted it under some pretense).
Most of your scenarios also seem to assume the rebels will be amateurs or that they plan a lengthy campaign involving heavy weapons, in either case making unplanned civilian casualties practically inevitable. There are alternative scenarios not so easily resolved in the government's favour.
Hopefully fresh blood (of the unspilled variety) will enter the US government, and bring with it a renewal of democratic values, before any such horrors occur.
If you have American rebels attempting to overthrow the US government, then the government cannot afford to quit. Where can it go? It has to fight to win, and clean up the mess afterwards. That group of rebels would be facing the raw, unadulterated might of the American military machine, and it would not survive the encounter.
Nothing quite says "oppressive evil regime" like shelling your own citizens.
Seconded, though I prefer defence in depth. My suggestion:
Avast (Home Edition) + Spyware Doctor (Google Pack) + Threatfire.
Free for personal home use (read the fine print for anything else), they complement each other, have automatic updates, and play nice on XP and Vista. Tweak the settings to your (and user's) preference, remember to register Avast, and then you can pretty much forget about them.
Note: Threatfire 4 has only just been released; if you have problems I suggest trying 3.5.
Use the Windows default firewall if you're behind a router - I've yet to find a decent thirdparty firewall that doesn't bug users with annoying questions - but ditch Internet Explorer and instead use Firefox with Adblock Plus and the WOT or SiteAdvisor extensions (turn on search result highlighting). Likewise, ditch Outlook Express for Thunderbird; note that Adblock Plus works with it too!
Overkill? No. Defence in depth. Remember, your objective is to secure a computer for its non-technical user and then stay out of their way.
Just my opinion, salt to taste, mileage may vary, void where prohibited by physics.
But this isn't the first or even the second time Asus has slipped up recently. I've personally encountered their recovery dvds (on recent F8 models); add this and their preinstall/recovery people really need the cluestick applied.
The meat of the story, however is that (a) they're continuing to be monitored and recorded even after being found to be personal conversations between US citizens who aren't military, and (b) this isn't misbehaving field personnel but "my orders were to transcribe everything".
I was under the impression that (a) was where the whole illegal thing started rolling and (b) was where people should be noticing they're in a handbasket and asking where they're going.
An atheist on the other hand realises that killing a human being is the snuffing out of an individual and unique consciousness for all time.
Disbelieving in God's existence does not mandate that an atheist must disbelieve in an afterlife.
Your contention re Christian vs Atheist appreciation of the gravity of murder needs re-examination.
It appears I have an instinctive reaction to people who chop off the context of an article so they can get on the soapbox?
The OP is about a species unable to cope (at all) when their instincts demand two contradictory responses to their environment. They "lock up" until the contradiction is taken away. You on the other hand give two examples of human reactions wherein the humans are able to continue coping with the world.
Can you actually give any examples of humans experiencing indefinite contradictory instinct lock?
People who actually give a shit about individual rights don't seek power over others. By trying to become a politician, he's just another Boromir who thinks he can do good by taking the One Ring.
By that analogy, are you proposing we throw the government into an active volcano?
Thanks for the link. Actually saw my first Prius just a couple of weeks ago here in Australia. Not as nice as the one in your link, but still decent. I don't see why they're considered ugly. OTOH those Apteras will take some getting used to...
if one has TC installed then it's pretty obvious he wants to hide something.
What I and my customers want is to hide personal and business data from thieves. Which is why I use TrueCrypt and why I install it for my customers, because it's the best tool I know of for the job.
Asteroid mining to supply earth with materials is, and always will be, a ridiculous proposal. It is simply a question of how much energy involved, and once again that is a matter of physics.
"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible." -- Lord Kelvin, President of the Royal Society, 1895
"Space travel is bunk." -- Sir Harold Spencer Jones, Astronomer Royal of Britain, 1957
"Man will never reach the moon regardless of all future scientific advances." -- Dr. Lee De Forest, inventor of the Audion tube and a father of radio, 1967
If copyright were abolished, it would be legally OK if I took the source code to Firefox, created and released a derivative web browser, and refused to release any of the modified source to anyone.
It would also then be legally OK for one of the other six billion people on our world to write their own, better, version of your work and add it to the Firefox tree.
Copyright was supposed to promote progress. Whether it did or not, now that we literally have (carl sagan voice) billions and billions (/sagan) of minds available to work on problems, it's a hindrance. Phase it out.
Except time and hassle. I just got a new Thawte certificate. It's NOT a one-click process. Log in, add email addy, ping email addy, respond to ping, wait for cert to be generated, convert cert, import cert... BLARGH. Anyone expecting Joe Ordinary to do this needs their head examined!
Which is why I don't understand the absence of third party choice in the USA Maybe I'm being too cynical, but perhaps your first two parties prefer it that way?
Slashdot Mirror
As languages go, English is the nicest abomination I ever met.
Not unions. Enough people got electrocuted by shoddy wiring jobs that some politician noticed. Unfortunately for the gene pool it wasn't just the idiot cablers that were getting fried.
Not that I condone the nannying. If you compare Australian and New Zealand safety records, last I checked we Aussies were still losing badly despite our shiny pieces of paper. An independant set of eyeballs does a lot more to keep people alive.
It's interesting to compare the different regulatory approaches of the two governments to the software world - roughly "closed proprietary standard" for Aussies versus "open free standard" for Kiwis.
Which only goes to show that the courts can come to seemingly quite logical yet still totally wrong conclusions.
Sure, the government didn't directly prosecute the action, but it certainly enforced the ability of the plaintiff to do the suing.
(I also wonder if the damages awarded are considered taxable income?)
This all assumes that the government has popular support, or at least popular apathy. Which admittedly it does.
When it finally percolates into the general consciousness that the government (regardless of whoever they have "elected") has betrayed them, I do wonder if they will be so welcoming of martial law (although at that point it may be that the government will already have instituted it under some pretense).
Most of your scenarios also seem to assume the rebels will be amateurs or that they plan a lengthy campaign involving heavy weapons, in either case making unplanned civilian casualties practically inevitable. There are alternative scenarios not so easily resolved in the government's favour.
Hopefully fresh blood (of the unspilled variety) will enter the US government, and bring with it a renewal of democratic values, before any such horrors occur.
If you have American rebels attempting to overthrow the US government, then the government cannot afford to quit. Where can it go? It has to fight to win, and clean up the mess afterwards. That group of rebels would be facing the raw, unadulterated might of the American military machine, and it would not survive the encounter.
Nothing quite says "oppressive evil regime" like shelling your own citizens.
Seconded, though I prefer defence in depth. My suggestion:
Avast (Home Edition) + Spyware Doctor (Google Pack) + Threatfire.
Free for personal home use (read the fine print for anything else), they complement each other, have automatic updates, and play nice on XP and Vista. Tweak the settings to your (and user's) preference, remember to register Avast, and then you can pretty much forget about them.
Note: Threatfire 4 has only just been released; if you have problems I suggest trying 3.5.
Use the Windows default firewall if you're behind a router - I've yet to find a decent thirdparty firewall that doesn't bug users with annoying questions - but ditch Internet Explorer and instead use Firefox with Adblock Plus and the WOT or SiteAdvisor extensions (turn on search result highlighting). Likewise, ditch Outlook Express for Thunderbird; note that Adblock Plus works with it too!
Overkill? No. Defence in depth. Remember, your objective is to secure a computer for its non-technical user and then stay out of their way.
Just my opinion, salt to taste, mileage may vary, void where prohibited by physics.
But this isn't the first or even the second time Asus has slipped up recently. I've personally encountered their recovery dvds (on recent F8 models); add this and their preinstall/recovery people really need the cluestick applied.
The meat of the story, however is that (a) they're continuing to be monitored and recorded even after being found to be personal conversations between US citizens who aren't military, and (b) this isn't misbehaving field personnel but "my orders were to transcribe everything".
I was under the impression that (a) was where the whole illegal thing started rolling and (b) was where people should be noticing they're in a handbasket and asking where they're going.
Bush is NOT hiding under you bed.
He doesn't need to. Executive Order 1984: The NSA shall hide under everyone's bed.
An atheist on the other hand realises that killing a human being is the snuffing out of an individual and unique consciousness for all time.
Disbelieving in God's existence does not mandate that an atheist must disbelieve in an afterlife. Your contention re Christian vs Atheist appreciation of the gravity of murder needs re-examination.
Unfair laws make criminals of everyone.
If they make criminals of EVERYONE, then they ARE fair.
I worry about the grasp on logic of those who modded you Insightful. Funny, yes, Insightful, no.
If they make criminals of everyone, then they're still unfair, merely equally so.
It appears I have an instinctive reaction to people who chop off the context of an article so they can get on the soapbox?
The OP is about a species unable to cope (at all) when their instincts demand two contradictory responses to their environment. They "lock up" until the contradiction is taken away. You on the other hand give two examples of human reactions wherein the humans are able to continue coping with the world.
Can you actually give any examples of humans experiencing indefinite contradictory instinct lock?
And what we humans do may be dwarfed by the natural cycles.
This from a species with nuclear weapons, currently researching antimatter production.
And this is different from the security situation with Windows today in what way?
The difference is magnitude.
People who actually give a shit about individual rights don't seek power over others. By trying to become a politician, he's just another Boromir who thinks he can do good by taking the One Ring.
By that analogy, are you proposing we throw the government into an active volcano?
Because I don't think that will help.
It's easy to keep secrets when nobody believes those who try to reveal them.
Thanks for the link. Actually saw my first Prius just a couple of weeks ago here in Australia. Not as nice as the one in your link, but still decent. I don't see why they're considered ugly. OTOH those Apteras will take some getting used to...
Surely at some point Congress will notice that software patents no longer (if ever) "promote the progress of science and useful arts"?
I was under the impression that's the requirement for Congress to grant them...
Noticed an "Aesir" corporate logo at 0:55 into the trailer.
if one has TC installed then it's pretty obvious he wants to hide something.
What I and my customers want is to hide personal and business data from thieves. Which is why I use TrueCrypt and why I install it for my customers, because it's the best tool I know of for the job.
Asteroid mining to supply earth with materials is, and always will be, a ridiculous proposal. It is simply a question of how much energy involved, and once again that is a matter of physics.
"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible." -- Lord Kelvin, President of the Royal Society, 1895
"Space travel is bunk." -- Sir Harold Spencer Jones, Astronomer Royal of Britain, 1957
"Man will never reach the moon regardless of all future scientific advances." -- Dr. Lee De Forest, inventor of the Audion tube and a father of radio, 1967
Wanna bet?
(thanks to http://www.etni.org.il/quotes/predictions.htm)
If copyright were abolished, it would be legally OK if I took the source code to Firefox, created and released a derivative web browser, and refused to release any of the modified source to anyone.
It would also then be legally OK for one of the other six billion people on our world to write their own, better, version of your work and add it to the Firefox tree.
Copyright was supposed to promote progress. Whether it did or not, now that we literally have (carl sagan voice) billions and billions (/sagan) of minds available to work on problems, it's a hindrance. Phase it out.
All we need is an aimbot, a wallhack, and some sort of enemy radar device.
You're modded Funny, and I laughed too, yet those three technologies are available already; all that's left is miniaturization and integration.
Except time and hassle. I just got a new Thawte certificate. It's NOT a one-click process. Log in, add email addy, ping email addy, respond to ping, wait for cert to be generated, convert cert, import cert... BLARGH. Anyone expecting Joe Ordinary to do this needs their head examined!