Why? Because alot of the megacorps have effectively become infrasturcture providers.
While I agree 100% that this is likely true (that this is a reason the govt turns a blind eye) - it's the moral equivalent of saying: "Gee, this company employs 80% of the people in this small rural town, so it doesn't make sense to shut them down for dumping poison into the river."
It's also the moral equivalent of the attempted Microsoft Astroturf campaign: "tell your representative to drop the case against Microsoft, because we're an important part of the economy and the prosecution of the case is wasting tons of taxpayer dollars."
That's right. No law means squat without enforcement.
And nobody is compelled to enforce in the current administration. They're too busy enforcing anti drug laws, etc. and spending billions to go after petty criminals or establishing a national organization to spy on our own citizens to take the time to look at a company's books and conclude that 2+2!=5.
Pitt is dirty, just as dirty as Cheney, Bush, and Ashcroft.
All of a sudden now, Osama bin Laden doesn't sound so crazy when he says that the US will be destroyed by it's own evil nature. Take that into account, and it makes the current administration seem like the corporate-wing of al Qaeda.
Okay, Science, In 10 billion years, take my DNA, clone me, and reconstruct my mind from a computer backup, and when the process is complete, let me know your final answers that you've hopefully really figured out by then:
Actual Speed of light, and whether it varies. Actual color of the universe. Actual age of the universe. Actual origin of the Earth's moon. Whether we're descended from apes. What's the nature of human consciousness. Whether God actually exists or not. Whether cholesterol is good or bad for you. Whether global warming is caused by humans. Whether gun control increases crime rates. Whether fair-use causes loss of revenue. Whether flouride causes or cures tooth decay. Whether there is an actual speed limit for the x86 architecture that isn't eventually overcome by some new hack. Whether security through obscurity really works. Whether phenomenology is bunk.
no kidding. For me, the Palm III is too large. I think something perhaps the size of a pager or smaller would be about the upper limit size-wise of something I'd want to carry around with me all the time. More ideally, the size of a credit card. Cramming an adequate UI into something that size is an exercise for the next engineer who wants my $500.
Just as it's also an interesting paradox that the slickest of marketing people are effictively designing software products for the high tech industry. These people are the most qualified and the least qualified at the same time.
That's absolutely not true. There's a totally reputable journal called "Journal of Consciousness Studies". It's topic is ongoing studies into the nature of human consciousness, including AI.
If that's all they taught you, someone didn't teach you very well. Let's look programming languages; there were dozens of Java-like languages before Java, but they were ignored and Java became a success, because of Sun. There were dozens of Java-like languages after Java, but they were ignored and C# is working on becoming a success, because of Microsoft. Even in the backyard of geeks, marketing mattered than quality.
Since then, I've learned that 99.999% of the business world has no knowledge of this law, and, in fact, puts most of it's effort into denying that it exists.
I would not be annoyed if McDonalds suddenly started charging $500 for a hamburger. I would just shake my head and laugh at the sheep who continue to go there and buy them, and I'd go to Burger King. Or maybe Taco Bell. Whatever.
Figuring out the level of annoyance people will put up with is a bullshit argument. 500,000 years ago, Ogg the Caveman figured that out when he was running through the woods trying to hunt down a wild boar, and he stepped on a sharp rock, severing a toe completely. "ouch!" said Ogg. "when I catch that fucking boar, I'm going to make me a nice pair of pigskin boots!"
And that's why we all like Mozilla with it's pop-up-blocking feature. It's the nicest pair of pigskin boots we've seen yet. The problem is, some fucker's out there intentionally leaving sharp rocks laying around in the forest - and when more people start wearing pigskin boots, they're going to make them sharp and hard enough to poke though the boots. Ogg wasn't smart enough to find the little fucker who was leaving the sharp rocks around, and choke the life out of him. I hope we've advanced in 500,000 years.
Recently, they've been sending them in these really nice tin CD cases. Of course, with the AOL logo plastered all over them. I took them downstairs to my workshop, and I ground off the logo on my bench grinder (with a wire-wheel). Now I have these incredibly useful, nice, free, tin CD cases - courtesy of AOL. Thanks, Steve! (never used your service, never will).
Don't read Time - Don't watch CNN. I don't even watch Bugs Bunny cartoons anymore. Am I violating copyright every time I sing "kill da wabbit!" to myself?
3. Search engines with "placed" results. 4. Flash 5. Real/MediaPlayer/Quicktime - required media files. 6. "free" registration required. 7. UI's designed to "trap" the user rather than allow free navigation. 8. Basically any engineering decision made by a person with an MBA.
Yes - at an early age, I was schooled in the first most basic law of capitalism:
Build a better moustrap, and the world will beat a path to your door.
Since then, I've learned that 99.999% of the business world has no knowledge of this law, and, in fact, puts most of it's effort into denying that it exists.
I have two BIG problems with Yahoo's spam filters:
1. Using the new "beta" web mail browser, you can actually flag a mail in your inbox as spam, and "report" it. However, you must OPEN the message to report it as spam. That's sort of like, having to take a bite out of a shit sandwich to find out it's not ham and cheese. Why the fuck can't I flag an obvious spam without opening it?
2. I still maintain that Yahoo is taking money under the table to *allow* some spammers to "slip past" the filters. With some messages, especially from Link2Buy.com, I report them as spam, repeatedly, over and over and over and over and over, and they keep ending up in my inbox.
3. Why - oh - why is it, that when the spam filters are obviously failing, I can't filter out an entire domain? The filters don't seem to allow this in their web-based mail reader. And since you're only allowed to block 100 different addresses, that's completely useless. I can't REALLY filter spam.
4. Also - this has recently stopped, but I've had cronic problems with some legitimate mail, like the spaceweather.com mail list, and NASA Thursday's Classroom mail - ends up in my spam box a lot. So I have to go through my bulk mail folder and find the messages I wanted. So what's the point of the bulk mail folder, if I have to go through it? I report these mails over and over and over and over to Yahoo - that these are not spam. I'll get them back in my inbox for a week or two, then they end up getting diverted to my bulkmail folder again. Stupid stupid stupid yahoo.
So if this change is due to rising ocean, or earth is getting fatter at the equator, won't this affect a whole shitload of other things?:
earth's rotation -> length of day -> amount of axial wobble change -> seasonal azimuth -> earth climate?
And if gravity is higher at the equator - won't this affect time, since time slows down in a higher gravity field? I'm sure that these changes are all rather insignificant taken separately, but taken together, doesn't this have an impact on accuracy of scientific measurements? Will everything need to be recalibrated?
um - why don't we call a spade a spade here. Because the race issue IS important.
The current farmers happen to be white - people who have farmed this land for generations. Dutch and English colonists.
The people Mugabe is handing the land over to, are black natives. All in the name of "Kicking out the colonialist european white" people who have so obviously made Zimbabwe into the economic powerhouse it is today (well, 5-10 years ago, anyway).
This is racial payback for the civil wars that were fought decades ago, and attrocities supposedly committed by mercenaries hired by the white farmers at that time.
The problem is - you throw out the racial issue, and look at the situation rationally, Mugabe is getting rid of the country's most valuable resource - experienced farmers! Does it matter if they're black or white? I suppose it does to the black people, but these white farmers were born in Zimbabwe - their parents were born in Zimbabwe - it makes no sense to play the race card, or be jealous of the success of these people. But Mugabe is doing it, because his grip on power relies on paying the corrupt government that does his dirty work - in effect, he's not really in control, it's his cronies, who are happy to pay their henchman with stolen land.
There's actually a lot of really cool design built into this plane. It was designed for low altitude, risky missions. Killing tanks or other hardened targets.
It was designed with two engines, so if one got shot-off, it could still fly. Dual rudders, both for the same redundancy purpose, and also to block IR emissions from the engine's tailpipes as viewed from the side. It was also designed to be able to fly with half a wing blown off.
Also has the best payload options as far as armament goes in the whole US arsenal of warplanes. More hardpoints, more total carrying capacity.
Very tough planes. Never vary popular, because of their looks, compared to other planes - until they were proven in the Gulf War.
There is a lot of talk about when these planes are retired, that they could be very easily repurposed to fight forest fires, due to their incredible carrying capacity, and quick turnaround time on the ground.
Additionally, though the GAU-8/A's 30mm Depleted Uranium shells are easily capable of penetrating the side-armor of most tanks, it's most effective against the TOP armor, which is often thinner. Easily done from the air.
Also, the gun has such significant recoil, that it's hooked up to the plane's engines. When the gun fires, the engines fire up. Otherwise the plane would lose too much airspeed when it fires.
Also, the gun is very long - consider about HALF the length of the A-10 plane.
I don't see the GAU-8/A being put deployed in a land vehicle any time soon. Walker, wheeled, or tracked. Just wouldn't be half as effective.
Most likely, the first application of such a vehicle militarily would be to tear down Palestinian houses. The Israelis already have some fairly specialized vehicles designed for this purpose.
In fact, this would be a great combat engineering vehicle if you think about it.
Maneuverability is superior to track-driven tanks only in very bad terrain or close quarters. But out in the open, the tank's ability to go 50-60 mph would still be unmatched. Getting outmaneuvered or encircled is a bad thing.
So a "walker" tank would only be of benefit in areas where you're trying to flush out troops that have hidden someplace where tracked tanks can't go. (like the remote mountains of Afghanistan?)
If some shadetree mechanic is working on his buddie's Camaro, and finds a manufacturing defect that ought to prompt a safety recall - he goes to the manufacturer and most likely gets promptly ignored (for the sake of argument here). He can then go to something like Consumer Affairs, but he sure as hell doesn't have to. He can go straight to the press to warn people that their Camaros (or whatever) are going to fall apart at 88 miles per hour.
That is PRECISELY what the hackers are doing - they're going to the press. Respected, established, journalistic entities, specializing in the field of computer security. 2600 magazine, BugTraq, etc.
Not publishing a security hole, not being able to report something to the press, THAT is an abridgement of free speech. It's BULLSHIT that someone needs to be an "employed security professional" to have the right to work on computers and find bugs.
Slashdot Mirror
Why? Because alot of the megacorps have effectively become infrasturcture providers.
While I agree 100% that this is likely true (that this is a reason the govt turns a blind eye) - it's the moral equivalent of saying: "Gee, this company employs 80% of the people in this small rural town, so it doesn't make sense to shut them down for dumping poison into the river."
It's also the moral equivalent of the attempted Microsoft Astroturf campaign: "tell your representative to drop the case against Microsoft, because we're an important part of the economy and the prosecution of the case is wasting tons of taxpayer dollars."
That's right. No law means squat without enforcement.
And nobody is compelled to enforce in the current administration. They're too busy enforcing anti drug laws, etc. and spending billions to go after petty criminals or establishing a national organization to spy on our own citizens to take the time to look at a company's books and conclude that 2+2!=5.
Pitt is dirty, just as dirty as Cheney, Bush, and Ashcroft.
All of a sudden now, Osama bin Laden doesn't sound so crazy when he says that the US will be destroyed by it's own evil nature. Take that into account, and it makes the current administration seem like the corporate-wing of al Qaeda.
Well, at least they didn't pilfer MY savings. I got it all socked away in my McMansion.
Just wait until the bottom drops out of the housing market tho -
Okay, Science,
In 10 billion years, take my DNA, clone me, and reconstruct my mind from a computer backup, and when the process is complete, let me know your final answers that you've hopefully really figured out by then:
Actual Speed of light, and whether it varies.
Actual color of the universe.
Actual age of the universe.
Actual origin of the Earth's moon.
Whether we're descended from apes.
What's the nature of human consciousness.
Whether God actually exists or not.
Whether cholesterol is good or bad for you.
Whether global warming is caused by humans.
Whether gun control increases crime rates.
Whether fair-use causes loss of revenue.
Whether flouride causes or cures tooth decay.
Whether there is an actual speed limit for the x86 architecture that isn't eventually overcome by some new hack.
Whether security through obscurity really works.
Whether phenomenology is bunk.
(etc. ad nauseum)
Democratic ex-US-president.
Well, 9 is prime, of course it is. It just depends on what the definition of is is!
yes, technology is a funny thing indeed. I give your anti-anti-ad-blocking script about 6 months before another solution is found around that.
no kidding. For me, the Palm III is too large. I think something perhaps the size of a pager or smaller would be about the upper limit size-wise of something I'd want to carry around with me all the time. More ideally, the size of a credit card. Cramming an adequate UI into something that size is an exercise for the next engineer who wants my $500.
Just as it's also an interesting paradox that the slickest of marketing people are effictively designing software products for the high tech industry. These people are the most qualified and the least qualified at the same time.
That's absolutely not true. There's a totally reputable journal called "Journal of Consciousness Studies". It's topic is ongoing studies into the nature of human consciousness, including AI.
http://www.imprint.co.uk/jcs_6_11-12.html
If that's all they taught you, someone didn't teach you very well. Let's look programming languages; there were dozens of Java-like languages before Java, but they were ignored and Java became a success, because of Sun. There were dozens of Java-like languages after Java, but they were ignored and C# is working on becoming a success, because of Microsoft. Even in the backyard of geeks, marketing mattered than quality.
Since then, I've learned that 99.999% of the business world has no knowledge of this law, and, in fact, puts most of it's effort into denying that it exists.
Billy G has yet to order anyone killed.
. . . that we know of. . .
Evian is Naive backwards.
I would not be annoyed if McDonalds suddenly started charging $500 for a hamburger. I would just shake my head and laugh at the sheep who continue to go there and buy them, and I'd go to Burger King. Or maybe Taco Bell. Whatever.
Figuring out the level of annoyance people will put up with is a bullshit argument. 500,000 years ago, Ogg the Caveman figured that out when he was running through the woods trying to hunt down a wild boar, and he stepped on a sharp rock, severing a toe completely.
"ouch!" said Ogg. "when I catch that fucking boar, I'm going to make me a nice pair of pigskin boots!"
And that's why we all like Mozilla with it's pop-up-blocking feature. It's the nicest pair of pigskin boots we've seen yet. The problem is, some fucker's out there intentionally leaving sharp rocks laying around in the forest - and when more people start wearing pigskin boots, they're going to make them sharp and hard enough to poke though the boots.
Ogg wasn't smart enough to find the little fucker who was leaving the sharp rocks around, and choke the life out of him.
I hope we've advanced in 500,000 years.
Recently, they've been sending them in these really nice tin CD cases. Of course, with the AOL logo plastered all over them. I took them downstairs to my workshop, and I ground off the logo on my bench grinder (with a wire-wheel). Now I have these incredibly useful, nice, free, tin CD cases - courtesy of AOL. Thanks, Steve!
(never used your service, never will).
Don't read Time - Don't watch CNN. I don't even watch Bugs Bunny cartoons anymore. Am I violating copyright every time I sing "kill da wabbit!" to myself?
3. Search engines with "placed" results.
4. Flash
5. Real/MediaPlayer/Quicktime - required media files.
6. "free" registration required.
7. UI's designed to "trap" the user rather than allow free navigation.
8. Basically any engineering decision made by a person with an MBA.
Yes - at an early age, I was schooled in the first most basic law of capitalism:
Build a better moustrap, and the world will beat a path to your door.
Since then, I've learned that 99.999% of the business world has no knowledge of this law, and, in fact, puts most of it's effort into denying that it exists.
I have two BIG problems with Yahoo's spam filters:
1. Using the new "beta" web mail browser, you can actually flag a mail in your inbox as spam, and "report" it. However, you must OPEN the message to report it as spam. That's sort of like, having to take a bite out of a shit sandwich to find out it's not ham and cheese. Why the fuck can't I flag an obvious spam without opening it?
2. I still maintain that Yahoo is taking money under the table to *allow* some spammers to "slip past" the filters. With some messages, especially from Link2Buy.com, I report them as spam, repeatedly, over and over and over and over and over, and they keep ending up in my inbox.
3. Why - oh - why is it, that when the spam filters are obviously failing, I can't filter out an entire domain? The filters don't seem to allow this in their web-based mail reader. And since you're only allowed to block 100 different addresses, that's completely useless. I can't REALLY filter spam.
4. Also - this has recently stopped, but I've had cronic problems with some legitimate mail, like the spaceweather.com mail list, and NASA Thursday's Classroom mail - ends up in my spam box a lot. So I have to go through my bulk mail folder and find the messages I wanted. So what's the point of the bulk mail folder, if I have to go through it? I report these mails over and over and over and over to Yahoo - that these are not spam. I'll get them back in my inbox for a week or two, then they end up getting diverted to my bulkmail folder again. Stupid stupid stupid yahoo.
So if this change is due to rising ocean, or earth is getting fatter at the equator, won't this affect a whole shitload of other things?:
earth's rotation -> length of day -> amount of axial wobble change -> seasonal azimuth -> earth climate?
And if gravity is higher at the equator - won't this affect time, since time slows down in a higher gravity field?
I'm sure that these changes are all rather insignificant taken separately, but taken together, doesn't this have an impact on accuracy of scientific measurements? Will everything need to be recalibrated?
um - why don't we call a spade a spade here. Because the race issue IS important.
The current farmers happen to be white - people who have farmed this land for generations. Dutch and English colonists.
The people Mugabe is handing the land over to, are black natives. All in the name of "Kicking out the colonialist european white" people who have so obviously made Zimbabwe into the economic powerhouse it is today (well, 5-10 years ago, anyway).
This is racial payback for the civil wars that were fought decades ago, and attrocities supposedly committed by mercenaries hired by the white farmers at that time.
The problem is - you throw out the racial issue, and look at the situation rationally, Mugabe is getting rid of the country's most valuable resource - experienced farmers! Does it matter if they're black or white? I suppose it does to the black people, but these white farmers were born in Zimbabwe - their parents were born in Zimbabwe - it makes no sense to play the race card, or be jealous of the success of these people. But Mugabe is doing it, because his grip on power relies on paying the corrupt government that does his dirty work - in effect, he's not really in control, it's his cronies, who are happy to pay their henchman with stolen land.
Hell, just talking about it violates the DCMA. Call the cops!
There's actually a lot of really cool design built into this plane.
It was designed for low altitude, risky missions. Killing tanks or other hardened targets.
It was designed with two engines, so if one got shot-off, it could still fly. Dual rudders, both for the same redundancy purpose, and also to block IR emissions from the engine's tailpipes as viewed from the side. It was also designed to be able to fly with half a wing blown off.
Also has the best payload options as far as armament goes in the whole US arsenal of warplanes. More hardpoints, more total carrying capacity.
Very tough planes. Never vary popular, because of their looks, compared to other planes - until they were proven in the Gulf War.
There is a lot of talk about when these planes are retired, that they could be very easily repurposed to fight forest fires, due to their incredible carrying capacity, and quick turnaround time on the ground.
Additionally, though the GAU-8/A's 30mm Depleted Uranium shells are easily capable of penetrating the side-armor of most tanks, it's most effective against the TOP armor, which is often thinner. Easily done from the air.
Also, the gun has such significant recoil, that it's hooked up to the plane's engines. When the gun fires, the engines fire up. Otherwise the plane would lose too much airspeed when it fires.
Also, the gun is very long - consider about HALF the length of the A-10 plane.
I don't see the GAU-8/A being put deployed in a land vehicle any time soon. Walker, wheeled, or tracked. Just wouldn't be half as effective.
Most likely, the first application of such a vehicle militarily would be to tear down Palestinian houses. The Israelis already have some fairly specialized vehicles designed for this purpose.
In fact, this would be a great combat engineering vehicle if you think about it.
Maneuverability is superior to track-driven tanks only in very bad terrain or close quarters. But out in the open, the tank's ability to go 50-60 mph would still be unmatched. Getting outmaneuvered or encircled is a bad thing.
So a "walker" tank would only be of benefit in areas where you're trying to flush out troops that have hidden someplace where tracked tanks can't go. (like the remote mountains of Afghanistan?)
That's bullshit.
If some shadetree mechanic is working on his buddie's Camaro, and finds a manufacturing defect that ought to prompt a safety recall - he goes to the manufacturer and most likely gets promptly ignored (for the sake of argument here). He can then go to something like Consumer Affairs, but he sure as hell doesn't have to. He can go straight to the press to warn people that their Camaros (or whatever) are going to fall apart at 88 miles per hour.
That is PRECISELY what the hackers are doing - they're going to the press.
Respected, established, journalistic entities, specializing in the field of computer security. 2600 magazine, BugTraq, etc.
Not publishing a security hole, not being able to report something to the press, THAT is an abridgement of free speech. It's BULLSHIT that someone needs to be an "employed security professional" to have the right to work on computers and find bugs.