While I sympathise, I don't think you're being fair (or, possibly, are being too fair).
While it is true that the first computers were built by people who are now definitely "old", I don't think you'd disagree that computing was a niche occupation in those early days. The number of people in the world who had actually seen a computer up close in the 1940's could probably all fit in a reasonable-sized conference room. Right through the 70's and 80's, and into the 90's, computing remained the preoccupation of "geek culture", with little penetration into the mainstream. Compare with today, where even low-end budget TVs are reasonably advanced computers, and 99% of jobs involve using full-fledged computers in some capacity.
Anyone who retired more than a decade or two ago would have a pretty decent excuse for never having had to use a full desktop OS in their lives- and unless they're motivated to do so (and not everyone has to be or is), may never use one. The youth of today, in contrast, simply could not finish their compulsory schooling without having used computers an awful lot. And every single office job, industrial job, and indeed almost all jobs, now involve computers in some way.
Leave the police and the courts out of the equation for a moment (as we have to assume, these days, that the state is omnipotent in any case).
This whole controversy sprung up because some well-meaning developer released an app that could access the data. By extension, we could assume that all iOS developers- including malware developers- could work a similar trick, to less innocent ends. Malware/adware/spyware developers couldn't subpoena your details from your provider; this is the only method by which they could access this sort of data.
As such, you can look at it as a pretty big security hole that needn't exist.
Fixing a bug is at least an admission that it was a problem that needed fixing.
Since Apple/Google comparisons are all the rage, might I cast your mind back to the Street View / unsecured WiFi debacle. Google didn't do anything intentionally wrong (that anyone can tell)- instead they cocked up and ended up doing something they shouldn't have done, and have been dragged over the coals for it in various jurisdictions ever since. Negligence can still get you punished.
If Apple has been breaching privacy with their devices for a few years, all be it by accident, they could still feel the sharp end of legal stick. And admissions of large, privacy-breaking bugs are rarely good PR for the public either.
It strikes me as a remarkably tricky thing to start your own publicly-funded university. Much trickier than starting your own little tech sector business.
I would even go so far to say that starting your own university may be completely impossible for the vast majority of people employed as researchers for big universities.
You could keep a copy locally. Like, on your computer. Then you could read it whenever you like.
Sorry for being snide. I'm as anti-copyright as any/.er you care to mention, but that seems like the least of the problems to come from it. If I sell someone a newly crafted table and chairs, I can't go into their living room and look at it whenever I like- I "can't see my own fucking work". The furniture's new owner might not even have paid me; he might have paid a retailer who paid my employer who paid me- he "didn't do shit, didn't pay me shit".
I do agree in principal, though, that publicly funded work at publicly funded universities should be available to the public as a priority.
If they can't service those devices, they should stop bidding for "exclusive contracts" for them. No-one forced them to buy the rights to the iPhone or iPad.
If I owned a big company and started tendering for an ISP, I'd expect that the only ISPs that should be bidding for my business would be the ones who can actually do what I'm asking. If the local computer repair shop bids a really low price for it, wins it, signs me up, only to tell me that they "don't have the capacity" to deliver the service I paid for ("sorry about that"), I'd have good reason to break out the lawyers.
It's also fair to point out that some of the biggest attacks ever to take place on our airlines (for example, the three 9/11 attacks attacks) didn't involve any explosives or contraband substances that would have been picked up by TSA tactics.
It's also fair to point out that the biggest attack in the UK in recent years (7th July 2005) was on non-airline infrastructure, just as you point out (buses and Underground trains), as were all of the incidents related to The Troubles in Northern Ireland, ETA bombings in Spain, the 2008 Mumbai attacks, and most other terrorist attacks that come to mind.
Actually, short of the Lockerbie bombing, I can't think of a single successful terrorist involving a bomb on a plane. I'm sure there are others, but I just can't lay any to mind.
What if they just bought half the music industry, fixed it, then massacred the other half in the market place? That other half would soon change their ways to become competitive, given no other choice.
That, or Google would become the trend-setter among big "new media" companies, and their peers would soon follow suit to buy whatever's left (I'm sure Apple and Amazon would both like to play that game).
You still get charged for it. They're just spreading their infrastructure costs across all their customers, via a flat rate rather than scaled rates based on individual usage patterns. They'll still be making the same amount of money overall. If they need to raise their prices to cope with increased loads then they will, unlimited plan or no.
Thousands of hypertext links within the same site. Quotes. Images from other sources. 241 external references. Multiple contents blocks, and category blocks. Embedded audio. Literally dozens of individual links in some single sentences
Can that "smorphing" render all that in a way that doesn't become a horrendous mess? Will it go and retrieve the content from every one of those links/objects the moment I open the page? How many links deep does it need to go at first click before it could render it as ready for viewing? Could a reasonable normal computer do it without slowdown?
Even as a simple document reader (something akin to an Adobe Reader plugin), it's tricky to see what value it adds beyond simple quotation. If you need something to be a variable based on some central logic table, you can already do that- most other things you actually WANT to stay static.
If you use P2P, you'll be using both upload and download bandwidth. Your ISP could charge you (and all individuals) for both if they so wished. It'd be no different to them charging Netflix for their upload bandwidth.
Deeply unpleasant, but small fry compared to the devastating continent-wide wars fought regularly for most of history since the Romans. The Balkan states were also not, as far as I'm aware, part of the EU (somewhat proving the point about the EU's efficiency as a war preventer).
Forbid and suppress opposition (OK, so a little historical, but I don't think attitudes have changed THAT much since then): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mccarthyism Detention without trial (vis a vis Guantanamo) isn't a great sign either.
And I'm sure you're aware of that old jibe that the US is a single party system, considering how few policy differences there are between the Republicans and Democrats. The lack of any even remotely competitive third parties should be a bit of a warning too.
I'm not actually trying to argue the US is fascist, I'm just playing devil's advocate. But I'd say if fascism were part of a spectrum, the US is considerably further along that spectrum than is perhaps entirely comfortable.
Slashdot Mirror
While I sympathise, I don't think you're being fair (or, possibly, are being too fair).
While it is true that the first computers were built by people who are now definitely "old", I don't think you'd disagree that computing was a niche occupation in those early days. The number of people in the world who had actually seen a computer up close in the 1940's could probably all fit in a reasonable-sized conference room. Right through the 70's and 80's, and into the 90's, computing remained the preoccupation of "geek culture", with little penetration into the mainstream. Compare with today, where even low-end budget TVs are reasonably advanced computers, and 99% of jobs involve using full-fledged computers in some capacity.
Anyone who retired more than a decade or two ago would have a pretty decent excuse for never having had to use a full desktop OS in their lives- and unless they're motivated to do so (and not everyone has to be or is), may never use one. The youth of today, in contrast, simply could not finish their compulsory schooling without having used computers an awful lot. And every single office job, industrial job, and indeed almost all jobs, now involve computers in some way.
Leave the police and the courts out of the equation for a moment (as we have to assume, these days, that the state is omnipotent in any case).
This whole controversy sprung up because some well-meaning developer released an app that could access the data. By extension, we could assume that all iOS developers- including malware developers- could work a similar trick, to less innocent ends. Malware/adware/spyware developers couldn't subpoena your details from your provider; this is the only method by which they could access this sort of data.
As such, you can look at it as a pretty big security hole that needn't exist.
Fixing a bug is at least an admission that it was a problem that needed fixing.
Since Apple/Google comparisons are all the rage, might I cast your mind back to the Street View / unsecured WiFi debacle. Google didn't do anything intentionally wrong (that anyone can tell)- instead they cocked up and ended up doing something they shouldn't have done, and have been dragged over the coals for it in various jurisdictions ever since. Negligence can still get you punished.
If Apple has been breaching privacy with their devices for a few years, all be it by accident, they could still feel the sharp end of legal stick. And admissions of large, privacy-breaking bugs are rarely good PR for the public either.
It strikes me as a remarkably tricky thing to start your own publicly-funded university. Much trickier than starting your own little tech sector business.
I would even go so far to say that starting your own university may be completely impossible for the vast majority of people employed as researchers for big universities.
You could keep a copy locally. Like, on your computer. Then you could read it whenever you like.
Sorry for being snide. I'm as anti-copyright as any /.er you care to mention, but that seems like the least of the problems to come from it. If I sell someone a newly crafted table and chairs, I can't go into their living room and look at it whenever I like- I "can't see my own fucking work". The furniture's new owner might not even have paid me; he might have paid a retailer who paid my employer who paid me- he "didn't do shit, didn't pay me shit".
I do agree in principal, though, that publicly funded work at publicly funded universities should be available to the public as a priority.
Either way, they'll find out as soon as they upgrade to Win7 + Office 2010.
Seeing as the Linux GUIs are more or less completely configurable, I'm sure a decent "XP clone" could be put together to minimise the impact.
ASDA has been doing home delivery in the UK for ages- and they ARE Walmart.
So have all the other big grocers, incidentally. This seems like non news.
If they can't service those devices, they should stop bidding for "exclusive contracts" for them. No-one forced them to buy the rights to the iPhone or iPad.
If I owned a big company and started tendering for an ISP, I'd expect that the only ISPs that should be bidding for my business would be the ones who can actually do what I'm asking. If the local computer repair shop bids a really low price for it, wins it, signs me up, only to tell me that they "don't have the capacity" to deliver the service I paid for ("sorry about that"), I'd have good reason to break out the lawyers.
I must confess you caught me; I was aiming for a Funny, rather than an Insightful. Alas, there's no sneaking humour past some intellects.
If only there was some way to fix the whole thing to some wheels. Perhaps make it self-propelled in some way.
A man can dream.
If those "mistakes" involved breaking the law, yes. I'd be fired, and my details handed straight over to the police.
That's sort of how the law works.
It's a rectangle, with rounded corners. I challenge you to find a single bar-design phone on the market that doesn't fit that description.
Last I remembered, Russia still had a larger nuclear arsenal. MAD still applies.
Not that that's much comfort for the likes of us.
It depends who you ask, but:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiahu
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiahu_script
It's also fair to point out that some of the biggest attacks ever to take place on our airlines (for example, the three 9/11 attacks attacks) didn't involve any explosives or contraband substances that would have been picked up by TSA tactics.
It's also fair to point out that the biggest attack in the UK in recent years (7th July 2005) was on non-airline infrastructure, just as you point out (buses and Underground trains), as were all of the incidents related to The Troubles in Northern Ireland, ETA bombings in Spain, the 2008 Mumbai attacks, and most other terrorist attacks that come to mind.
Actually, short of the Lockerbie bombing, I can't think of a single successful terrorist involving a bomb on a plane. I'm sure there are others, but I just can't lay any to mind.
What I want to start is a non-profit BANK!
Building Societies
Credit Unions
Co-operative Banks
Already exists. Feel free to use them- supporting the non-bank method of banking is good for the soul.
What if they just bought half the music industry, fixed it, then massacred the other half in the market place? That other half would soon change their ways to become competitive, given no other choice.
That, or Google would become the trend-setter among big "new media" companies, and their peers would soon follow suit to buy whatever's left (I'm sure Apple and Amazon would both like to play that game).
You still get charged for it. They're just spreading their infrastructure costs across all their customers, via a flat rate rather than scaled rates based on individual usage patterns. They'll still be making the same amount of money overall. If they need to raise their prices to cope with increased loads then they will, unlimited plan or no.
Looks fun- with 8 pages and a handful of quotations/references. I'd like to see how it handles, say, this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia
Thousands of hypertext links within the same site. Quotes. Images from other sources. 241 external references. Multiple contents blocks, and category blocks. Embedded audio. Literally dozens of individual links in some single sentences
Can that "smorphing" render all that in a way that doesn't become a horrendous mess? Will it go and retrieve the content from every one of those links/objects the moment I open the page? How many links deep does it need to go at first click before it could render it as ready for viewing? Could a reasonable normal computer do it without slowdown?
Even as a simple document reader (something akin to an Adobe Reader plugin), it's tricky to see what value it adds beyond simple quotation. If you need something to be a variable based on some central logic table, you can already do that- most other things you actually WANT to stay static.
If you use P2P, you'll be using both upload and download bandwidth. Your ISP could charge you (and all individuals) for both if they so wished. It'd be no different to them charging Netflix for their upload bandwidth.
Deeply unpleasant, but small fry compared to the devastating continent-wide wars fought regularly for most of history since the Romans. The Balkan states were also not, as far as I'm aware, part of the EU (somewhat proving the point about the EU's efficiency as a war preventer).
Forbid and suppress opposition (OK, so a little historical, but I don't think attitudes have changed THAT much since then):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mccarthyism
Detention without trial (vis a vis Guantanamo) isn't a great sign either.
And I'm sure you're aware of that old jibe that the US is a single party system, considering how few policy differences there are between the Republicans and Democrats. The lack of any even remotely competitive third parties should be a bit of a warning too.
I'm not actually trying to argue the US is fascist, I'm just playing devil's advocate. But I'd say if fascism were part of a spectrum, the US is considerably further along that spectrum than is perhaps entirely comfortable.
Could this be The Year of the Open Source UAV Attack Drone?
12% is, to my mind, a very small investment.
I take it you'll be matching it, then?
Red undoubtedly refers to the little fellars' political allegiance, rather than their skin colour. This is DARPA, after all.