"Again, I'm hardly an expert on such things. But I can't help but think sensationalizing incidents is going to lead to more "copy-cat" behavior."
Absolutely it does.
Consider the school shootings in the U.S.... often there will be one, which then gets 24/7 wall-to-wall media coverage, and then like clockwork, there are more similar incidents in the weeks afterwards - ie. the recent Colorado school shooting and the Amish school shooting.
Technology is a double-edge sword... it provides allows news to be disseminated faster and more broadly than ever before, but that tends to lead to news information overload; leads one to believe things are worse, more novel, so different, etc than they really are...
The worst school massacre, by far with 3x the deaths of Columbine, in the U.S. was in 1927... yes, really!
It's well documented and yet virtually never mentioned in the mass news media - why is that?... fear gets ratings while sane discussion doesn't; FUD: Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt is a time proven method to get rapid attention of the populace; control them.
Whois Privacy works wonders for some people though is often pricey; several dollars per year per domain.
A more economical alternative is getting a post office box.
While neither approach above is full-proof, they tend to be good enough for many domain name registrants; primarily to reduce spam / junk calls.
Many whois privacy services will provide one's private details to others (talking individuals / business, etc) in various instances; getting court subpoena - even a forged one would probably work.
The street address, if one was provided, to which a PO Box (speaking of U.S.) is associated with is often available to others upon request.
One of course could provide bogus whois information and/or open a PO box using a bogus address, but even that is no guarantee of privacy for a person being aggressively targeted; IP address, handle, etc alone can sometimes be sufficient for others to narrow down one's location / identity.
Lesson to be gleamed from the news article is that discussing religion, especially when it gets to the level of debate, is often asking for trouble; safer to avoid such discussion to begin with.
On a related note... most all new housing, at least in where I live in PA, do not have mail slots in the door, but instead each has its own mail box outside either separately in front or increasingly as part of a mailbox cluster down the street.
Homes with mail slots in the door generally get to keep them, and occasionally some new homes will get them, assuming they are part of scattered development (ie a handful of homes or less; larger tracts typically won't get them even if homes nearby do), built within the same delivery area.
It's nice to get mail delivered right through the door - don't even have to go outside; many people would be upset if they had to switch to an outside mailbox, and many postal jobs would be lost... is the primary reason why there are still so many post offices and postal workers - it could be done with much less, but the U.S. mail system is a big part of Americana and not easily changed.
There are many around where I live, including some full-size phone booths; those with the original fold-in door attached are a rare sight, because often the door has long since been removed for security, maintenance, etc reasons.
Companies often stretch the truth in advertising, sometimes to the point of outright lying, since they know the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) will likely do nothing; when the FTC does act, penalties (if any) are usually very light; $100K or whatever fine is nothing to a company taking in billions.
On the bright side, Vonage is a big company too, and thus they can afford to play the deceptive ad game too... with that said, at the moment, Comcast holds the winning hand regardless, since it has its own networks and has the ability to prioritize VOIP unlike Vonage which is basically at the mercy of the telcos, cable companies, etc.
Old fashioned POTS (plain old telephone service) providers have Vonage beat, since POTS works even when the cable, internet, power, etc go out...
I'll bet, if this is implemented in the U.S., that credit reporting data will be a large part of the sentencing formula.
On an aside, one may order a consumer copy of their credit report from each of the three major credit bureaus free of charge per year at http://www.annualcreditreport.com/ (one tip is to order a report from a different credit bureau every 4 months)
Your name got added to the "suckers" list. And to make matters worse, charities are exempt from many of the rules - so basically the only way off is to file complaints with your state's attorney general office, etc and/or not buying anything else from telemarketers... after awhile they will remove your name from their "suckers" list.
I use the word "suckers", because "MN Fraternal Order of Police" (on a related note, some scammers will use the names of real charities as a pretext to defraud people) is likely a scam, or darn close to it in that telemarketers often get upwards of 85%+ leaving little left for the charity, which itself may likely be an outright sham as in doesn't exist, or more likely is registered, but does little or nothing for the police.
The moon landing was real, at least in my view... the U.S. had a do anything spirit up through the 1960s with some of that flowing over into the early 70s.
Major projects invisioned / started around the late 1950s / 1960s...
* World Trade Center Complex in NYC
* Supersonic Concord
* U.S. Interstate system
* The Internet
* The Space Shuttle
Much of what is holding back progress these days in the U.S. is the lack of will, not technology.
The next logical step in this evolution is custom self-modifying news articles based upon the reader's location, user preferences, user history, etc...
And many people would probably welcome this - they want to read the news they want to believe - ie. Iraq is going great, the economy is dandy, and... wait that sounds like FOX News already LOL!
Anyways, I'd like to see a website started somewhere that specifically archives news articles in their various forms; Archive.org doesn't do that the last I checked for numerous reasons, such as some news organizations not allowing spidering, etc.
As of now, for one doing on-line news research, they can't be certain that a particular news article they see (assuming it's even available anymore to the public) is the original one; more challenging problem when it comes to validating reposted news articles in other venues.
Many minors have credit cards; they alone can't be used to verify age... furthermore, the major credit card companies make clear that credit cards are NOT to be used for age verification purposes.
Verifying age solely on-line is darn near impossible...
A possible, but expensive, way MySpace could reliably verify age of new users is to open staffed registration centers (could be small staffed kiosks in malls, superstores, etc) throughout the U.S. and other various countries, in which new users would appear in person with a government photo ID / birth certificate, etc in hand along with a parent / guardian, if under the age of majority (gets a bit tricky, since "majority" can defined as something other than 18 in some jurisdictions; age 21 often works when in doubt)...
Bottom line is that verifying age solely on-line is a near impossibility - to do so reliably requires some form of off-line verification procedure, which will require much resources and money to do...
A simplier answer is for parents to take responsibility and be more aware of what their children do; educate kids so they make smarter, more informed choices about how they conduct themselves.
I rarely mention slashdot anymore to other people, and visit slashdot much less, and for less time, than I used to because of the lack of professionalism - how difficult is it to get story summeries right?
I'm not talking about simple typos, but story headlines / summeries which are just outright wrong.
Then there are the "dups"... it certainly appears that Slashdot purposedly posts duplicate articles to boost traffic. I'm sure the tactic works, but if greatly reduces the credibility of Slashdot.
And then to add insult to intelligence of visitors, the "slashvertisements" - sometimes coming in "dups" too; numerous article postings by the same "slashvertisement" submitters; does slashdot offer submissions in multipacks? -it sure seems that way.
In a nutshell, the points the parent raises are those that Slashdot should focus on way before worrying about tweaking the CSS or whatnot.
Sometimes the old, simple technologies are the answer...
Perhaps running a large series of snow making machines drawing water directly from the ocean, or more ideally a fresh water source that deposits into the ocean, 24/7 may be the answer to lower sea levels.
It wouldn't matter much where in the world this process is done, since water will find its level... the key is finding an area that's natually very cold to deposit the snow and, ideally, is located near fresh water.
Edit: Messed up the Drug Abuse Help link with drugabuse.com (the domain the site used to run on)... the correct domain / link is http://www.drugabusehelp.com/
Anyways, you may want to direct him to Drug Abuse Help http://www.drugabuse.com/... in particular the message board there - honest, non-biased discussion.
Since providers of internet based phone service have to adapt 911 into their business plans... it seems only fair that 911 should do the same and setup alternate ways of contacting 911 such as:
* Setting up the keyword 911 on all major ISPs that support various keyword schemes
* Setting up IM accounts under the name/number 911 on all the major IM providers
* Establishing a new TLD called 911 - that way one would only have to type in 911 (no extension needed) in their web browser; browsers would auto-map 911 entered in other windows, such as search, to the new 911 TLD by default
* Establishing a 911 channel on all major IRC servers
* Updating Windows and other major OSes to support a 911 hotkey by mapping Scroll-lock (or other key specified by user) to the 911 function; little 911 stickers would be mailed to users to stick on the designated hotkey for ease of use
In regards to tracing where the 911 request is coming from - for most folks on wideband, that's already simple to accomplish...
But for completeness, a push would be made to have all persons implanted with active RFID chips containing GPS capability (and/or able to communicate with ground-stations to obtain the coordinates)... the implanted RFID chip in the person seeking help (or anyone who happens to be nearby who has been chipped) would be automatically read by the computer's RFID reader, which would then relay the coordinates via IM, web, etc to 911.
Turned DEP on, shutdown/restarted, and still no good - the exploit (calculator comes up) still works:(
Perhaps hardware based DEP would make a difference, but again, for folks relying on software-based DEP, it's not effective - the exploit still works anyways.
Slashdot Mirror
Nice plan - I just registered fakeprint.com / fakeprints.com domains.
:)
I also own some related domains, including the high quality 6-figure domain http://fingerprinting.com/
Contact me if interested
Ron
"Again, I'm hardly an expert on such things. But I can't help but think sensationalizing incidents is going to lead to more "copy-cat" behavior."
... often there will be one, which then gets 24/7 wall-to-wall media coverage, and then like clockwork, there are more similar incidents in the weeks afterwards - ie. the recent Colorado school shooting and the Amish school shooting.
... it provides allows news to be disseminated faster and more broadly than ever before, but that tends to lead to news information overload; leads one to believe things are worse, more novel, so different, etc than they really are...
... yes, really!
... fear gets ratings while sane discussion doesn't; FUD: Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt is a time proven method to get rapid attention of the populace; control them.
Absolutely it does.
Consider the school shootings in the U.S.
Technology is a double-edge sword
The worst school massacre, by far with 3x the deaths of Columbine, in the U.S. was in 1927
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_School_disaster
It's well documented and yet virtually never mentioned in the mass news media - why is that?
Ron
Whois Privacy works wonders for some people though is often pricey; several dollars per year per domain.
A more economical alternative is getting a post office box.
While neither approach above is full-proof, they tend to be good enough for many domain name registrants; primarily to reduce spam / junk calls.
Many whois privacy services will provide one's private details to others (talking individuals / business, etc) in various instances; getting court subpoena - even a forged one would probably work.
The street address, if one was provided, to which a PO Box (speaking of U.S.) is associated with is often available to others upon request.
One of course could provide bogus whois information and/or open a PO box using a bogus address, but even that is no guarantee of privacy for a person being aggressively targeted; IP address, handle, etc alone can sometimes be sufficient for others to narrow down one's location / identity.
Lesson to be gleamed from the news article is that discussing religion, especially when it gets to the level of debate, is often asking for trouble; safer to avoid such discussion to begin with.
Ron
You may not be aware that the U.S. Postal Service has a free pickup service, and they also have a paid premium pickup service...
p age=schedulepickup
Check out their pickup options below:
http://www.usps.com/pickup/welcome.htm?from=home&
Ron
On a related note... most all new housing, at least in where I live in PA, do not have mail slots in the door, but instead each has its own mail box outside either separately in front or increasingly as part of a mailbox cluster down the street.
... is the primary reason why there are still so many post offices and postal workers - it could be done with much less, but the U.S. mail system is a big part of Americana and not easily changed.
Homes with mail slots in the door generally get to keep them, and occasionally some new homes will get them, assuming they are part of scattered development (ie a handful of homes or less; larger tracts typically won't get them even if homes nearby do), built within the same delivery area.
It's nice to get mail delivered right through the door - don't even have to go outside; many people would be upset if they had to switch to an outside mailbox, and many postal jobs would be lost
Ron
There are many around where I live, including some full-size phone booths; those with the original fold-in door attached are a rare sight, because often the door has long since been removed for security, maintenance, etc reasons.
Ron
.US bans various domains too for similar reasons, such as FuckCensorship.US
r ship.us&TYPE=DOMAIN
For the timebeing, along with others, it's in perpetual limbo:
http://www.whois.us/whois.cgi?TLD=us&dn=fuckcenso
Ron
Companies often stretch the truth in advertising, sometimes to the point of outright lying, since they know the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) will likely do nothing; when the FTC does act, penalties (if any) are usually very light; $100K or whatever fine is nothing to a company taking in billions.
... with that said, at the moment, Comcast holds the winning hand regardless, since it has its own networks and has the ability to prioritize VOIP unlike Vonage which is basically at the mercy of the telcos, cable companies, etc.
...
On the bright side, Vonage is a big company too, and thus they can afford to play the deceptive ad game too
Old fashioned POTS (plain old telephone service) providers have Vonage beat, since POTS works even when the cable, internet, power, etc go out
Ron
Wondering the same thing too...
From what I've read, it appears that Sony puts more battery charging safeguards into to their branded notebooks than Dell, Apple, etc do?
Ron
Adding microphones is the next logical step...
The authorities will claim they need a way to get a response from those they are shouting to over the loudspeakers.
Ron
I'll bet, if this is implemented in the U.S., that credit reporting data will be a large part of the sentencing formula.
On an aside, one may order a consumer copy of their credit report from each of the three major credit bureaus free of charge per year at http://www.annualcreditreport.com/ (one tip is to order a report from a different credit bureau every 4 months)
Ron
Your name got added to the "suckers" list. And to make matters worse, charities are exempt from many of the rules - so basically the only way off is to file complaints with your state's attorney general office, etc and/or not buying anything else from telemarketers ... after awhile they will remove your name from their "suckers" list.
I use the word "suckers", because "MN Fraternal Order of Police" (on a related note, some scammers will use the names of real charities as a pretext to defraud people) is likely a scam, or darn close to it in that telemarketers often get upwards of 85%+ leaving little left for the charity, which itself may likely be an outright sham as in doesn't exist, or more likely is registered, but does little or nothing for the police.
Ron
Interesting end time ... 4:19? Another sign of the "420" culture at Microsoft? LOL!
Ron
The moon landing was real, at least in my view ... the U.S. had a do anything spirit up through the 1960s with some of that flowing over into the early 70s.
Major projects invisioned / started around the late 1950s / 1960s...
* World Trade Center Complex in NYC
* Supersonic Concord
* U.S. Interstate system
* The Internet
* The Space Shuttle
Much of what is holding back progress these days in the U.S. is the lack of will, not technology.
Ron
Some are holding out for the highly desired 1 MB (MiB; mebibyte) user id number of 1,048,576.
Ron
The next logical step in this evolution is custom self-modifying news articles based upon the reader's location, user preferences, user history, etc...
... wait that sounds like FOX News already LOL!
And many people would probably welcome this - they want to read the news they want to believe - ie. Iraq is going great, the economy is dandy, and
Anyways, I'd like to see a website started somewhere that specifically archives news articles in their various forms; Archive.org doesn't do that the last I checked for numerous reasons, such as some news organizations not allowing spidering, etc.
As of now, for one doing on-line news research, they can't be certain that a particular news article they see (assuming it's even available anymore to the public) is the original one; more challenging problem when it comes to validating reposted news articles in other venues.
Ron
Many minors have credit cards; they alone can't be used to verify age ... furthermore, the major credit card companies make clear that credit cards are NOT to be used for age verification purposes.
...
...
Verifying age solely on-line is darn near impossible
A possible, but expensive, way MySpace could reliably verify age of new users is to open staffed registration centers (could be small staffed kiosks in malls, superstores, etc) throughout the U.S. and other various countries, in which new users would appear in person with a government photo ID / birth certificate, etc in hand along with a parent / guardian, if under the age of majority (gets a bit tricky, since "majority" can defined as something other than 18 in some jurisdictions; age 21 often works when in doubt)...
Bottom line is that verifying age solely on-line is a near impossibility - to do so reliably requires some form of off-line verification procedure, which will require much resources and money to do
A simplier answer is for parents to take responsibility and be more aware of what their children do; educate kids so they make smarter, more informed choices about how they conduct themselves.
Ron
This parent is spot-on...
... it certainly appears that Slashdot purposedly posts duplicate articles to boost traffic. I'm sure the tactic works, but if greatly reduces the credibility of Slashdot.
I rarely mention slashdot anymore to other people, and visit slashdot much less, and for less time, than I used to because of the lack of professionalism - how difficult is it to get story summeries right?
I'm not talking about simple typos, but story headlines / summeries which are just outright wrong.
Then there are the "dups"
And then to add insult to intelligence of visitors, the "slashvertisements" - sometimes coming in "dups" too; numerous article postings by the same "slashvertisement" submitters; does slashdot offer submissions in multipacks? -it sure seems that way.
In a nutshell, the points the parent raises are those that Slashdot should focus on way before worrying about tweaking the CSS or whatnot.
Ron
The next step in the evolution is the extinction of the Netflix Envelope ...
Once Video-On-Demand (VoD) becomes more common and affordable, services that snail mail DVDs will seem quaint...
Ron
Sometimes the old, simple technologies are the answer ...
... the key is finding an area that's natually very cold to deposit the snow and, ideally, is located near fresh water.
Perhaps running a large series of snow making machines drawing water directly from the ocean, or more ideally a fresh water source that deposits into the ocean, 24/7 may be the answer to lower sea levels.
It wouldn't matter much where in the world this process is done, since water will find its level
Ron
I'm in the very small minority who believe that global cooling is the more likely possibility in the near future; warming won't continue much longer.
...
:)
So relax and enjoy the warmth while it lasts
I know I will be today with temperatures over 20F above normal with the high temp expected to be around 60F in the Reading, Pennsylvania area
Ron
Edit: Messed up the Drug Abuse Help link with drugabuse.com (the domain the site used to run on) ... the correct domain / link is http://www.drugabusehelp.com/
Ron
I wonder if he has a "profile" at any of the cannabis / marijuana websites like http://overgrow.com/ marijuana.com, http://cannabis.com/ (shortcut url: http://cann.com/ ) too?
... in particular the message board there - honest, non-biased discussion.
Anyways, you may want to direct him to Drug Abuse Help http://www.drugabuse.com/
Ron
Since providers of internet based phone service have to adapt 911 into their business plans ... it seems only fair that 911 should do the same and setup alternate ways of contacting 911 such as:
...
... the implanted RFID chip in the person seeking help (or anyone who happens to be nearby who has been chipped) would be automatically read by the computer's RFID reader, which would then relay the coordinates via IM, web, etc to 911.
* Setting up the keyword 911 on all major ISPs that support various keyword schemes
* Setting up IM accounts under the name/number 911 on all the major IM providers
* Establishing a new TLD called 911 - that way one would only have to type in 911 (no extension needed) in their web browser; browsers would auto-map 911 entered in other windows, such as search, to the new 911 TLD by default
* Establishing a 911 channel on all major IRC servers
* Updating Windows and other major OSes to support a 911 hotkey by mapping Scroll-lock (or other key specified by user) to the 911 function; little 911 stickers would be mailed to users to stick on the designated hotkey for ease of use
In regards to tracing where the 911 request is coming from - for most folks on wideband, that's already simple to accomplish
But for completeness, a push would be made to have all persons implanted with active RFID chips containing GPS capability (and/or able to communicate with ground-stations to obtain the coordinates)
Ron
Turned DEP on, shutdown/restarted, and still no good - the exploit (calculator comes up) still works :(
Perhaps hardware based DEP would make a difference, but again, for folks relying on software-based DEP, it's not effective - the exploit still works anyways.
Ron