Won't somebody think of the Children.
on
The Eyes Have It
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· Score: 1
First, we have a Terrorist. They do something terrible. The people are scared, they scream 'save us from this terror' to their leaders the politicians. The politicians must do something because the people demand something be done. Whatever the politicians do, must satisfy at least 51% of people who are responsible for them continuing their employment (the voters).
So, you tell the 51% that the only way for them to be safe is to oppress the other 49%, for it is amongst them that Terrorists lurk.
Now we have a thermal imaging system that detects fluctuations in blood flow around the eyes. If the blood around your eyes drifts to far from the centre of the bell curve that is perceived as 'normal', you must be a Terrorists or other danger to society.
The people are happy (well 51% of them) because their leaders have made the world safe again. The politicians are happy because the people (well 51% of them) have employed them for another term.
But how do we label the 49%. That's easy. They are part of what is now called 'Acceptable Collateral Damage'. So, we can call them 'Collaterals'.
Aahhhh democracy, what a great system to live under.
The problem is the technology itself. It isn't reliable enough to entrust peoples lives to it.
And if you think it is reliable enough, then I ask you to answer honestly, would you fly on an airliner that had microsoft software running on every computer system on the aircraft?
Remember when Airbus was raving about how safe there computer controlled fly by wire systems where, until a couple of A320's dropped out of the sky.
Of cource, the ones you can definatly rely on to work perfectly, will be the forged/false/fake ID cards used by terrorists/criminals/insurance salesmen.
Until the GIGO law of computing is rescinded, and some new form of computational mechanics is invented, using technology in the manner you describe, will not produce the desired results of security and peace of mind that you so desire.
But, wouldn't the 4GB Hard Disk needed to store the DNA information leave a big lump under your skin? And tell me, when (and I do mean when) the chip fails, will you be left strandard, unable to withdraw your money from the bank. Or unable to buy a subway ticket to get home because your chip has failed.
We don't have the technology now, nor are we ever likely to have such technology. The day Micro$oft can write software that doesn't crash, will be the day that this sort of technology will be reliable enough to trust in this sort of roll.
Not going to happen in our lifetimes (the reliablity bit, not the implants, that's a certainty).
But, by only making the discovery available to the cosmetic medical equipment maker, you create a monopoly, which have never been in the public interest. Buy making the discovery 'public', it would be available to all and sundry, thus avoiding the monopoly situation.
The best Sci-Fi since Mad Max (Road Warrior for you Yanks). Only problem is, we don't get to see it here. Season 1 is currently showing on Cable on the FoxKids channel, but that's it. It ran for about 4 weeks on free to air, on Channel 9, who incidentally are co-produces of the show, but they pulled it.
LEXX is becoming more popular here, but still is only shown on Cable. Again, it was on late Sunday nights on Free to Air on Channel 7 here, but only for the first season.
"We now know that Pakistan has agreed to every major request we've made, INCLUDING a staging area on Pakistani soil."
Just because the military government of Pakistan as agreed to co-operate (or else) with the American government, doesn't mean the people are going to. From what I've seen reported from the streets of Pakistan, I would say demonstrations against American forces at the least, are a cert.
And then what happens' when Pakistani radicals are shot by American soldiers while attempting to deliver a car bomb.
Remember, this isn't a war about land, or commodities, or resources, this is about good versus evil. And these people see America as the manifestation of Satan himself on earth.
Of course NASA tries to keep the public interested in space exploration. Without the support of the public, there would not be any space exploration.
Space tourists, life on Mars, etc., are the sort of thing that Joe Public wants to see. These are also the sort of stories that get covered in the media as well.
This is a necessary evil in this modern world of economic rationalism we have built.
How many years has this been going on for. It must be 15 or so years since I first started seeing copy protection of some form. I also remember that it didn't take long for a crack to turn up on the local BBS.
Still, companies invested money in trying to make a better copy protection system. And the cracks continued to turn up shortly after. Look at the money invested in CSS, and how long did that last.
So bring it on fellas, and we'll hack it, and crack it, and find a better use for it.
In Australia, we do not have any form of punitive punishment. All you are entitled to is your out of pocket expenses plus loss of earnings plus some compensation for pain and suffering. That's why we don't see these stupid million dollar payouts for finding a hair in a burger.
Judges also don't look to fondly on people who waste the courts time with frivolous actions. What we therefor get is only people with a legitimate gripe taking court action.
Success is largely dependent on how successful their marketing strategy is. Is the PS2 really the best games platform, or is it so because Sony's marketing blitz convinces enough punters that it is?
Just look at Microsoft, how good your software/product is, isn't nearly as important has how well it is marketed.
Well, look at it from the camera operators perspective. We're not talking about rocket scientists here. We're taking about a security guard who has to spend his 8 hour shift staring into half a dozen monitors.
One of the biggest problems is actually getting the people employed to watch the monitors. They tend to spend more time, reading, sleeping, yacking on the phone.
There is one case a little over 2 years ago when a women was attacked on a railway station. The person responsible at the monitors was 'distracted' and failed to call the police. The perpetrator was latter apprehended by being able to be identified by the video recordings. But there was still an outcry at the time because this system was about prevention and it had failed.
So, my understanding is, that the cameras are being used to monitor public areas and when trouble arises, the police are called.
What else can you do with them? What sort of abuse can you image could possible be done with them?
In Brisbane, where I live, we have quite a large network of cameras in the city centre that are monitored by police. There is also a network of cameras at all the train stations as well as on the trains.
They have overwhelmingly been accepted. They where installed as a deterrent to the 'rising crime rate', but, have proven to be very effective in reducing crime in the areas that are monitored . To date, that I know of, there hasn't been any abuse of the system.
Sometimes I do think that people can overreact when it comes to this type of surveillance. It's not like every monitor has some zealot steadfastly examining ever person looking for the slightest indiscretion. There is not much else you can do with this sort of monitoring other then watch out for the sort of crime your trying to stop.
....what is a 'stupid patent'? The Patent office perhaps? You mayby? Or how about Slashdot readers with karma > 50.
BTW, if you were to invent a wonderful wooden widget, does that entitle you to have patent protection against someone else inventing 'wooden widgets', 'all widgets, wood or otherwise', 'all wood, widgets or otherwise'? Where do you draw the line.
If you can't draw the line, then the law shouldn't be there in the first place.
Back in '98, another state (New South Wales) also passed laws to protect it citizens from dirty pictures. They even went so far as to ban dirty pictures travelling through their state. For example, if I were to email a dirty picture from my home in Queensland to my grandmother in Victoria, and that email travelled via NSW (which lies between Qld and Vic), then I would be breaking the law.
The point is, these are nonsense laws, designed to show the voters that the pollies are doing something. The police officers that are charged to enforce these laws haven't a clue what the Internet is about. While being questioned by a cop once, I was asked if my computer had 'one of those Internets' in it'.
Except of course, when by sheer chance they stumble across a case that they can prosecute, then they will make a big show of it. And pity the poor bastard who this happens to.
This is what happens in a country where not one single politician even knows who to use email.
If Curt's argument were correct, that would mean that there would have been very little development for Microsoft products until it's EULA had been tested in court.
Ignorance is the biggest hurdle for GPL based software that I can see. Capitalists generally have problems getting their heads around the idea of free anything, be that beer or speech.
Yes, but have you read the Patent? Does the Patent describe exactly the software technologies you worked on? A Patent that uses broad general terms in my mind is not about protecting intellectual property. Broad general terms are more suited to preventing competing technologies, and more recently, the profitable litigation path.
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First, we have a Terrorist. They do something terrible. The people are scared, they scream 'save us from this terror' to their leaders the politicians. The politicians must do something because the people demand something be done. Whatever the politicians do, must satisfy at least 51% of people who are responsible for them continuing their employment (the voters).
So, you tell the 51% that the only way for them to be safe is to oppress the other 49%, for it is amongst them that Terrorists lurk.
Now we have a thermal imaging system that detects fluctuations in blood flow around the eyes. If the blood around your eyes drifts to far from the centre of the bell curve that is perceived as 'normal', you must be a Terrorists or other danger to society.
The people are happy (well 51% of them) because their leaders have made the world safe again. The politicians are happy because the people (well 51% of them) have employed them for another term.
But how do we label the 49%. That's easy. They are part of what is now called 'Acceptable Collateral Damage'. So, we can call them 'Collaterals'.
Aahhhh democracy, what a great system to live under.
Uummm, isn't Austria part of Europe. Maybe you meant OzTralya.
The problem is the technology itself. It isn't reliable enough to entrust peoples lives to it.
And if you think it is reliable enough, then I ask you to answer honestly, would you fly on an airliner that had microsoft software running on every computer system on the aircraft?
Remember when Airbus was raving about how safe there computer controlled fly by wire systems where, until a couple of A320's dropped out of the sky.
Of cource, the ones you can definatly rely on to work perfectly, will be the forged/false/fake ID cards used by terrorists/criminals/insurance salesmen.
Until the GIGO law of computing is rescinded, and some new form of computational mechanics is invented, using technology in the manner you describe, will not produce the desired results of security and peace of mind that you so desire.
But, wouldn't the 4GB Hard Disk needed to store the DNA information leave a big lump under your skin? And tell me, when (and I do mean when) the chip fails, will you be left strandard, unable to withdraw your money from the bank. Or unable to buy a subway ticket to get home because your chip has failed.
We don't have the technology now, nor are we ever likely to have such technology. The day Micro$oft can write software that doesn't crash, will be the day that this sort of technology will be reliable enough to trust in this sort of roll.
Not going to happen in our lifetimes (the reliablity bit, not the implants, that's a certainty).
But, by only making the discovery available to the cosmetic medical equipment maker, you create a monopoly, which have never been in the public interest. Buy making the discovery 'public', it would be available to all and sundry, thus avoiding the monopoly situation.
Why was this modded as offtopic? Perhaps the moderator forgot what the topic was.
Oh, and I admit that abuse was probably a bit harsh.
The best Sci-Fi since Mad Max (Road Warrior for you Yanks). Only problem is, we don't get to see it here. Season 1 is currently showing on Cable on the FoxKids channel, but that's it. It ran for about 4 weeks on free to air, on Channel 9, who incidentally are co-produces of the show, but they pulled it.
LEXX is becoming more popular here, but still is only shown on Cable. Again, it was on late Sunday nights on Free to Air on Channel 7 here, but only for the first season.
"We now know that Pakistan has agreed to every major request we've made, INCLUDING a staging area on Pakistani soil."
Just because the military government of Pakistan as agreed to co-operate (or else) with the American government, doesn't mean the people are going to. From what I've seen reported from the streets of Pakistan, I would say demonstrations against American forces at the least, are a cert.
And then what happens' when Pakistani radicals are shot by American soldiers while attempting to deliver a car bomb.
Remember, this isn't a war about land, or commodities, or resources, this is about good versus evil. And these people see America as the manifestation of Satan himself on earth.
Any more then a computer can play poker. And I'm not talking about playing for matches.
Backgammon, like poker, is a gambling game. It makes a very big difference when it is your hard earned bucks on the table.
When you play Backgammon properly (for money), it almost never plays out to the end.
Check with your ISP. The route that is taken depends on who your ISP's upstream provider is.
I'm with Optus Cable who do use the Souther Cross Cable (when it works).
----------------
As any of the alien life forms that have visited our planet will tell you, the only true way to test for life is with an Anal Probe.
Of course NASA tries to keep the public interested in space exploration. Without the support of the public, there would not be any space exploration.
Space tourists, life on Mars, etc., are the sort of thing that Joe Public wants to see. These are also the sort of stories that get covered in the media as well.
This is a necessary evil in this modern world of economic rationalism we have built.
How 'bout we have a /. pool to see who can guess how many US G-MEN will be in attendance.
Each person pays $1 and the person who guesses the correct number of G-MEN in attendance gets the money.
How many years has this been going on for. It must be 15 or so years since I first started seeing copy protection of some form. I also remember that it didn't take long for a crack to turn up on the local BBS.
Still, companies invested money in trying to make a better copy protection system. And the cracks continued to turn up shortly after. Look at the money invested in CSS, and how long did that last.
So bring it on fellas, and we'll hack it, and crack it, and find a better use for it.
If McBurger fails to follow the relevant health and safty codes, then they will be closed down.
This is a much greater deterent then any fine or form of punitive damages.
In Australia, we do not have any form of punitive punishment. All you are entitled to is your out of pocket expenses plus loss of earnings plus some compensation for pain and suffering.
That's why we don't see these stupid million dollar payouts for finding a hair in a burger.
Judges also don't look to fondly on people who waste the courts time with frivolous actions. What we therefor get is only people with a legitimate gripe taking court action.
Success is largely dependent on how successful their marketing strategy is. Is the PS2 really the best games platform, or is it so because Sony's marketing blitz convinces enough punters that it is?
Just look at Microsoft, how good your software/product is, isn't nearly as important has how well it is marketed.
Well, look at it from the camera operators perspective. We're not talking about rocket scientists here. We're taking about a security guard who has to spend his 8 hour shift staring into half a dozen monitors.
One of the biggest problems is actually getting the people employed to watch the monitors. They tend to spend more time, reading, sleeping, yacking on the phone.
There is one case a little over 2 years ago when a women was attacked on a railway station. The person responsible at the monitors was 'distracted' and failed to call the police. The perpetrator was latter apprehended by being able to be identified by the video recordings. But there was still an outcry at the time because this system was about prevention and it had failed.
So, my understanding is, that the cameras are being used to monitor public areas and when trouble arises, the police are called. What else can you do with them? What sort of abuse can you image could possible be done with them?
In Brisbane, where I live, we have quite a large network of cameras in the city centre that are monitored by police. There is also a network of cameras at all the train stations as well as on the trains.
They have overwhelmingly been accepted. They where installed as a deterrent to the 'rising crime rate', but, have proven to be very effective in reducing crime in the areas that are monitored . To date, that I know of, there hasn't been any abuse of the system.
Sometimes I do think that people can overreact when it comes to this type of surveillance. It's not like every monitor has some zealot steadfastly examining ever person looking for the slightest indiscretion. There is not much else you can do with this sort of monitoring other then watch out for the sort of crime your trying to stop.
Seems like an ok system to me.
....what is a 'stupid patent'? The Patent office perhaps? You mayby? Or how about Slashdot readers with karma > 50. BTW, if you were to invent a wonderful wooden widget, does that entitle you to have patent protection against someone else inventing 'wooden widgets', 'all widgets, wood or otherwise', 'all wood, widgets or otherwise'? Where do you draw the line. If you can't draw the line, then the law shouldn't be there in the first place.
...and, Americans' drive on the opisite side of the road to the British.
....if they used bells as well.
But really, we are simply talking about conditioning, not communicating here. This is no more then a wet version of Pavlov's experiments with his dog.
Back in '98, another state (New South Wales) also passed laws to protect it citizens from dirty pictures. They even went so far as to ban dirty pictures travelling through their state. For example, if I were to email a dirty picture from my home in Queensland to my grandmother in Victoria, and that email travelled via NSW (which lies between Qld and Vic), then I would be breaking the law.
The point is, these are nonsense laws, designed to show the voters that the pollies are doing something. The police officers that are charged to enforce these laws haven't a clue what the Internet is about. While being questioned by a cop once, I was asked if my computer had 'one of those Internets' in it'.
Except of course, when by sheer chance they stumble across a case that they can prosecute, then they will make a big show of it. And pity the poor bastard who this happens to.
This is what happens in a country where not one single politician even knows who to use email.
If Curt's argument were correct, that would mean that there would have been very little development for Microsoft products until it's EULA had been tested in court.
Ignorance is the biggest hurdle for GPL based software that I can see. Capitalists generally have problems getting their heads around the idea of free anything, be that beer or speech.
Yes, but have you read the Patent? Does the Patent describe exactly the software technologies you worked on? A Patent that uses broad general terms in my mind is not about protecting intellectual property. Broad general terms are more suited to preventing competing technologies, and more recently, the profitable litigation path.