Same conflict exists in all the inspector type operations. We seem to do fine. Your job may be funded by Tyson Chicken, but your boss works for the USDA, and so do you. IG's make sure there's no shenanigans.
The other way to look at it is, the USGIS name database should have been contracted and paid for in say 10 year increments. Any funding disruption less than a full year should not impact them...
Plenty of other departments of the government are running just fine off user fees too. Not sure if USGIS required a fee to use, but why not ask for 10 bucks a year to cover their data hosting costs.
Sadly, we'll pay all the back-pay, so it's really just a free vacation for more federal workers.
The ones who have to stay on their jobs with no pay really get the short end of the stick. Should given them a 33% bonus, and if they do a good job, should fire the workers they made up for.
WILL SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN! And the Women! uhh.. AND THE INFANTS !
My god, WIC is a triple threat!
What's the difference by the way between a child and an infant. I wonder if some of these women aren't making double by labeling their child both a child and an infant.
Sounds like the NRC should be funded solely by fees paid by the companies they regulate.
I think we need to move the majority of government services to this concept. Sure, there are exceptions. But a lot of what the government does is necessary for commerce. And Commerce pays the government for those services. So let's take out the middle man, and allow entities like this to collect and manage their own funds. If they consistently go broke and come back to congress for more money, either OK a fee increase or fire the head and bring in a new one.
Another way to look at this, is that the NRC determined it only needs 10% of it's work force for 'essential' operations. Makes me wonder why we pay for the other 90%.
Also, it's amazing to go through the list of government services and see which shutdown and which remain open. Often the ones remaining open work off of 'user' fees. For example, certain meat packing plants pay for food and safety inspectors being on site. Passport fees will keep most passport operations flowing.
One wonders why that power plan companies don't simply pay the NRC directly, like food inspectors.
This fee system seems like an elegant way to run a business....
Personally, one of the things I hated the most in school was being used like this to "help the teacher manage the unruly ones". Way to go, teacher, rewarding the students who do a good job by (implicitly) giving them a crappy job.
Which goes to show that even without this technology it was already happening. Of course good teachers try to use student behavior as a force of good in the classroom. Adding technology which is akin to a Wedding Seating Chart planner ( trust me, you think gauging kid behavior and seating is difficult, try doing a large wedding....), doesn't evoke an Orwellian scene in my mind.
I could argue that allowing the teachers to base their seating on these recorded metrics, allows them to later determine that it was in fact a bad idea, and alter course. It's more difficult for an outside party to talk with a teacher that just did it based on her gut, and work out the flaw in her logic, then say being able to view the metrics see saw, and work out the flaw in the metrics, or her interpretation of them.
I see a lot of comments on Slashdot that presume because some value relating to a child's education is tracked and stored in a database, that it will forever be consider inviolable. Humans, teachers especially, are very good at taking data points and extrapolating ( for good or bad ). The immediately think from the point of view of the human condition. Is Bobby a red because of lack of attention and anger outburst? Does the teacher likely know Bobby's dad left his mom earlier in the year?
Computers will never take over that, and shouldn't. All this fear over software being so impersonal, cold, calculating when in the end it's the humans that take the data and make a decision with it.
This can apply to NSA, school technology reform, medical databases...etc.
A system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.
... and I was laughing at the posters on TechCrunch that read it as anything other than fiction. Including the people arguing over whether a private companies stock price could jump 10% in a day....
I made a mental note not to visit that website anymore, their users failed my mental Darwinian challenge.
Now I fire up Slashdot for my post coffee 'news' blitz, and I'm left with a bitter taste in my mouth that has nothing to do with over roasting of beans.
I'm having a sad nostalgia moment where I feel this community is the old guy talking about how he used to be the star athlete back in high school.... glory days.
Yes, but now they will know your driving habits and where you go each and every day. Still want to hand them this info?
I'd hand them that info.
They could pull my cell records and find out where I went with better accuracy. They could tail me. They could talk to my friends and find out where and what I did on a certain day. Honestly, even if they couldn't do any of that, I'd still hand over where I was and what I did on some day. They are trying to solve some crime, I'd help them to the best of my abilities and recollection. And if I had digital recollections, I'd pull those up as well. Why are we working "against" the police? Because we they give us traffic tickets?
I honestly don't fucking care. To me, if it makes police work easier, cheaper, and more efficient, then I'm all for it. I'm more angry at the criminal elements who like to take advantage of a society that bends over backwards to try and be understanding and open. Were's the outrage on the causal criminal that decides while driving by your house that they are going to grab your amazon boxes outside your door?
I trust the police to carry lethal weapons and to intervene and start the justice process. As well as collect evidence and statements. That is their job.
The majority of the comments I've read here attack from a future where the posters are living in a dystopian society where "officials" are looking for reason to trap, blame, or frame someone who was innocent into a criminal.
I just don't get it. If they really are so evil, they don't need traffic cameras to frame you. They'll pull you over and put something illegal in your car. Gameoverman.
Proven oil reserves are on the decline. Oil shales and TAR sands may buy us another 15% added to the reserves, but that will come with increases production cost. It seems like the more oil we use and the rarer oil becomes, the higher the price of oil.
Invisible hand?
We'll, you can allude to that being your straw man mystic in the evil religion of capitalism, or we can simply call it common sense.
Burning oil for fuel does not have a future. What were seeing now is transitory mechanisms that become cost effective as the price of a barrel of oil rises. TAR and Oil sands wouldn't even be considered viable if we weren't consistently beating $80 a barrel. Adding taxes to try to force this correction sooner will fail because of the complexities of our market.
Despite all the hands in the pot (OPEC, EPA... ) the market is still self correcting. And it happens to be doing it on what you would likely consider a moral high ground.
Let's also not forget we have 50 contiguous US states, many of which are the size of the whole of UK ( Louisiana is probably closet ). Our 'symbol' of individual freedom is often times the means by which we visit family, go on vacation, and for some unlucky people commute for over an hour in to get into work. Then there's the people who work on the road, as well as the haulers.
I'm really glad some of you EU nations have managed to put up a full service light rail system connecting all your major cities, in an area about as large as the five boroughs of NYC.
Our lack of "petrol" tax has more to do with keeping our economy strong then remaining 'independent'.
Are we supposed to applaud this? It sounds like a boondoggle.
I read the article, and read the PDF produced by the Navajo 'IT' group. They spent the past 13 years soliciting funds from the state and federal level. This is also another E-Rate disaster ( FCC based 'broadband' initiative that also 'successfully' hooked up 9 schools in Puerto Rico for 150 million ).
Obama wants to not increase cell phone taxes to give E-Rate even more funding.....
If you are not willing to stand by your conviction and defend it with impassioned argument, then no, you probably shouldn't try to contribute.
This may be a unintended natural "Darwinian hurdle" that the kernel team has thrown up in front of new patches, and selection seems to be working well due to it.
I wanted to impress someone who looks up to me and on the other, I thought "break into the ICSE? This isn't Hollywood - you can't just hack into everything, kiddo"
And then an addendum in response to an article:
The article states "A 20-year-old Indian student from Cornell University hacked into the database... " This is technically incorrect. I did no such thing. I did not illegally access any database system. All I did was access information that was available to any person who entered a number into the website could access. I simply mined the data and then analyzed it to reveal some interesting and disturbing trends"
Yet he titled his post: Hacking into the Indian Education System
The phrase "You can't have your cake and eat it" comes to mind.
These script 'attacks' or 'queries' against websites fall into an odd grey area. Is it a hack? In a script kiddie kind of way, it is. That feels like an emotional characterization on my part.
Can you call yourself a hacker for doing this? No. At least, I think you'll find the majority of people who have skills in that area that exceed or meet your own will not consider you a hacker or this a hack.
Is it legally a hack? Maybe. We've seen people brute force their way into iPhone data using nothing more than GET queries and computer integers. But then later release private data and preened about it on IRC.
As with most laws, I think the devil is in the context. I routinely 'hack' GET methods, jumping to a higher Index id on xHamster w/o having to click the next page 25 times... I doubt i'm on the most wanted list. But if I manipulated a page to return information that I wasn't intended access too... well.. that's the line. At least in my book.
The key points missing from this summary is that this is the first Generation III+ reactor being built in the US. The only reason it was allowed to be built was it's an existing site, and had already planned reactor 3 and 4. There's still a general no build moratorium on new reactor sites in the US.
This is the AP1000 which is sort of the "So you want to run a nuclear reactor, For Dummies" type of reactor.
They are very difficult to break. Even if operators do nothing, the reactor will go through a set of procedures ( at times with explosive bolts) to disable the reaction and cool for 72 hours. After that, a helicopter will need to drop water on the top of the tank to keep the gravity well fed.
Slashdot Mirror
Same conflict exists in all the inspector type operations. We seem to do fine. Your job may be funded by Tyson Chicken, but your boss works for the USDA, and so do you. IG's make sure there's no shenanigans.
Also this: http://www.geonames.org/
That's one way to look at it.
The other way to look at it is, the USGIS name database should have been contracted and paid for in say 10 year increments. Any funding disruption less than a full year should not impact them...
Plenty of other departments of the government are running just fine off user fees too. Not sure if USGIS required a fee to use, but why not ask for 10 bucks a year to cover their data hosting costs.
EPA kept 6% on staff.... probably enough to sign a piece of paper talking about some endangered owl on the future plant site....
Sadly, we'll pay all the back-pay, so it's really just a free vacation for more federal workers.
The ones who have to stay on their jobs with no pay really get the short end of the stick. Should given them a 33% bonus, and if they do a good job, should fire the workers they made up for.
WILL SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!
And the Women!
uhh.. AND THE INFANTS !
My god, WIC is a triple threat!
What's the difference by the way between a child and an infant. I wonder if some of these women aren't making double by labeling their child both a child and an infant.
There should be an investigation!
I think we need to move the majority of government services to this concept. Sure, there are exceptions. But a lot of what the government does is necessary for commerce. And Commerce pays the government for those services. So let's take out the middle man, and allow entities like this to collect and manage their own funds. If they consistently go broke and come back to congress for more money, either OK a fee increase or fire the head and bring in a new one.
Another way to look at this, is that the NRC determined it only needs 10% of it's work force for 'essential' operations. Makes me wonder why we pay for the other 90%.
Also, it's amazing to go through the list of government services and see which shutdown and which remain open. Often the ones remaining open work off of 'user' fees. For example, certain meat packing plants pay for food and safety inspectors being on site. Passport fees will keep most passport operations flowing.
One wonders why that power plan companies don't simply pay the NRC directly, like food inspectors.
This fee system seems like an elegant way to run a business....
If small gods were real, the internet would have spawned a god of hyperbole just for post like this....
Which goes to show that even without this technology it was already happening. Of course good teachers try to use student behavior as a force of good in the classroom. Adding technology which is akin to a Wedding Seating Chart planner ( trust me, you think gauging kid behavior and seating is difficult, try doing a large wedding....), doesn't evoke an Orwellian scene in my mind.
I could argue that allowing the teachers to base their seating on these recorded metrics, allows them to later determine that it was in fact a bad idea, and alter course. It's more difficult for an outside party to talk with a teacher that just did it based on her gut, and work out the flaw in her logic, then say being able to view the metrics see saw, and work out the flaw in the metrics, or her interpretation of them.
I see a lot of comments on Slashdot that presume because some value relating to a child's education is tracked and stored in a database, that it will forever be consider inviolable. Humans, teachers especially, are very good at taking data points and extrapolating ( for good or bad ). The immediately think from the point of view of the human condition. Is Bobby a red because of lack of attention and anger outburst? Does the teacher likely know Bobby's dad left his mom earlier in the year?
Computers will never take over that, and shouldn't. All this fear over software being so impersonal, cold, calculating when in the end it's the humans that take the data and make a decision with it.
This can apply to NSA, school technology reform, medical databases...etc.
Ineptocracy
A system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.As a non-journalist, what is the difference?
Anyone know how this works? Is the content encrypted in such a way that there are millions of secret keys that can unlock the secure payload?
*whooosh*
You sir are wrong. I'll just direct your to this introduction of the 'Auto Pilot' feature on the new 1958 Imperials
Specifically, this section:
... and I was laughing at the posters on TechCrunch that read it as anything other than fiction. Including the people arguing over whether a private companies stock price could jump 10% in a day....
I made a mental note not to visit that website anymore, their users failed my mental Darwinian challenge.
Now I fire up Slashdot for my post coffee 'news' blitz, and I'm left with a bitter taste in my mouth that has nothing to do with over roasting of beans.
I'm having a sad nostalgia moment where I feel this community is the old guy talking about how he used to be the star athlete back in high school.... glory days.
I'd hand them that info.
They could pull my cell records and find out where I went with better accuracy. They could tail me. They could talk to my friends and find out where and what I did on a certain day. Honestly, even if they couldn't do any of that, I'd still hand over where I was and what I did on some day. They are trying to solve some crime, I'd help them to the best of my abilities and recollection. And if I had digital recollections, I'd pull those up as well. Why are we working "against" the police? Because we they give us traffic tickets?
I honestly don't fucking care. To me, if it makes police work easier, cheaper, and more efficient, then I'm all for it. I'm more angry at the criminal elements who like to take advantage of a society that bends over backwards to try and be understanding and open. Were's the outrage on the causal criminal that decides while driving by your house that they are going to grab your amazon boxes outside your door?
I trust the police to carry lethal weapons and to intervene and start the justice process. As well as collect evidence and statements. That is their job.
The majority of the comments I've read here attack from a future where the posters are living in a dystopian society where "officials" are looking for reason to trap, blame, or frame someone who was innocent into a criminal.
I just don't get it. If they really are so evil, they don't need traffic cameras to frame you. They'll pull you over and put something illegal in your car. Gameoverman.
Proven oil reserves are on the decline. Oil shales and TAR sands may buy us another 15% added to the reserves, but that will come with increases production cost. It seems like the more oil we use and the rarer oil becomes, the higher the price of oil.
Invisible hand?
We'll, you can allude to that being your straw man mystic in the evil religion of capitalism, or we can simply call it common sense.
Burning oil for fuel does not have a future. What were seeing now is transitory mechanisms that become cost effective as the price of a barrel of oil rises. TAR and Oil sands wouldn't even be considered viable if we weren't consistently beating $80 a barrel. Adding taxes to try to force this correction sooner will fail because of the complexities of our market.
Despite all the hands in the pot (OPEC, EPA... ) the market is still self correcting. And it happens to be doing it on what you would likely consider a moral high ground.
Let's also not forget we have 50 contiguous US states, many of which are the size of the whole of UK ( Louisiana is probably closet ). Our 'symbol' of individual freedom is often times the means by which we visit family, go on vacation, and for some unlucky people commute for over an hour in to get into work. Then there's the people who work on the road, as well as the haulers.
I'm really glad some of you EU nations have managed to put up a full service light rail system connecting all your major cities, in an area about as large as the five boroughs of NYC.
Our lack of "petrol" tax has more to do with keeping our economy strong then remaining 'independent'.
Are we supposed to applaud this? It sounds like a boondoggle.
I read the article, and read the PDF produced by the Navajo 'IT' group. They spent the past 13 years soliciting funds from the state and federal level. This is also another E-Rate disaster ( FCC based 'broadband' initiative that also 'successfully' hooked up 9 schools in Puerto Rico for 150 million ).
Obama wants to not increase cell phone taxes to give E-Rate even more funding.....
I remember reading about this a long time ago. Also, there was a short film about it on WIMP. Neat story, but definitely not new news.
Is it just me, or is this movie being promoted through tons of tech sites/blogs?
If you are not willing to stand by your conviction and defend it with impassioned argument, then no, you probably shouldn't try to contribute.
This may be a unintended natural "Darwinian hurdle" that the kernel team has thrown up in front of new patches, and selection seems to be working well due to it.
From his article:
And then an addendum in response to an article:
Yet he titled his post:
Hacking into the Indian Education System
The phrase "You can't have your cake and eat it" comes to mind.
These script 'attacks' or 'queries' against websites fall into an odd grey area. Is it a hack? In a script kiddie kind of way, it is. That feels like an emotional characterization on my part.
Can you call yourself a hacker for doing this? No. At least, I think you'll find the majority of people who have skills in that area that exceed or meet your own will not consider you a hacker or this a hack.
Is it legally a hack? Maybe. We've seen people brute force their way into iPhone data using nothing more than GET queries and computer integers. But then later release private data and preened about it on IRC.
As with most laws, I think the devil is in the context. I routinely 'hack' GET methods, jumping to a higher Index id on xHamster w/o having to click the next page 25 times... I doubt i'm on the most wanted list. But if I manipulated a page to return information that I wasn't intended access too... well.. that's the line. At least in my book.
The key points missing from this summary is that this is the first Generation III+ reactor being built in the US. The only reason it was allowed to be built was it's an existing site, and had already planned reactor 3 and 4. There's still a general no build moratorium on new reactor sites in the US.
This is the AP1000 which is sort of the "So you want to run a nuclear reactor, For Dummies" type of reactor.
They are very difficult to break. Even if operators do nothing, the reactor will go through a set of procedures ( at times with explosive bolts) to disable the reaction and cool for 72 hours. After that, a helicopter will need to drop water on the top of the tank to keep the gravity well fed.
See more info here on wiki .