I think the entire phone system could merge back into one company, and no one important will blink an eye. It's a different world. We now have various cellular companies offering phone service, not to mention hundreds (thousands?) of various sized VOIP internet companies.
For instance, in my household alone I use a cell phone and MagicJack each tied to a Google Voice number. We use Spectrum/TWC here. Landline company mergers won't even affect many of us.
While mergers could be a big problem for communities that are far from being served by cable or good cell service, it could be a nice incentive to start local internet co-ops.
Even if it is a real effect, I can't see a real use for it. For instance, someone said in another comment something to the effect that satellites could use it to maintain their orbits... except that the amount of thrust I see being mentioned likely wouldn't overcome atmospheric drag or solar wind.
However, it is science worth exploring. Either the thrust is eventually found to be some unaccounted for noise, or we eventually figure out the science behind it. If it's real, the new ideas could be expanded to become something useful, or the ideas could find a use in another area.
Parent isn't creating the executables, he's downloading them from "untrusted sources" and doing the (admirably) paranoid thing by opening them with WinRAR rather than trusting the executable.
If I remember correctly, auroras here on Earth are produced by charged particles being funneled into the atmosphere by our magnetic field, and the lights are produced by ionization of various elements in the process. However, I can't help but wonder if there would be any observable effects of a strong planetary magnetic field so close to the sun? In other words, would Mercury appear any different than it does now in our sky, viewed either against black space or as it traverses across the Sun?
If most of the ideas in the proposal pan out, you make it into the history books for all time. Most likely, the final plan would barely resemble anything that comes out of this, so it seems like more than a fair deal to me. This is just an example of a public private partnership in its simplest form. It'll save the government some time and money by jumpstarting the initial phase of designing a colony. And who better to lay out initial requirements than potential future colonists?
I wonder at what point they will move too far from their core mission and lose traction to some better service... and what will that new service look like?
Oh yeah, I also cut and pasted the verification link from the borked email (how many users would think to look at the raw source?), and healthcare.gov refused to verify using their own code they sent. WTF?
When is the government going to learn to fully test their sites before going public? I heard the user side of healthcare.gov is operational, so I went to check it out this morning. I create an account, get sent a verification email. I open the email using SeaMonkey's email client, and it's blank. I look at the raw source of the email, and the message content has a "Base64 decode error". Nowhere on the site is an option to resend, only a phone number to call (f*ck that). On a hunch, I do something I shouldn't be able to do, and create a second account with the same email address. It works (?!), and I receive a second email...with the same issue. Anyhow... I bring it up, because I go to check out this hot new site, and it's down with an internal server error. LOL
Rights can neither be granted, nor taken away. Basic rights are something that no one can give or take; they're more like ideas than actual things. Privileges are what most people think of today when they talk about rights. Guns are a good example: Let's say the Government finally decides citizens can't own pistols (for whatever reason). What's to stop me from owning one? I could own an unregistered pistol the rest of my life. Now, if I get caught with it, all kinds of nasty things may happen to me. Technically, my right to bear arms wouldn't have been infringed... I acted on my right. However, all sorts of other privileges may be taken away. But my basic human rights would still be there. If I wanted to arm myself, I could probably think of something to grab or use for protection, even if it's not a projectile weapon; I'd still be free to speak my mind however I choose; the list goes on. I may be doing all that from a jail cell, having lost most of my privileges of citizenship, but there's really not a lot government can do to actually "take away" rights except to make laws that scare you enough to not *exercise* those rights.
I believe the wallet itself was encrypted. I could be wrong -- I didn't pay much attention to the story at the time (Silk Road busted -- surprise, and Yet Another BitCoin Story), but I'm fairly certain I remember something about the founder having encrypted his wallet file. I'll go back and re-read the stories later, but my main point was that I find it interesting the government confiscates a bunch of bitcoins that are worth a decent penny, and now suddenly they're thinking of allowing bitcoin donations.
I find it very interesting that this news comes after the FBI shut down Silk Road, and obtained a rather large wallet. Anyone hear any news of that wallet being decrypted? If not, anyone know who's working on it? In any case, I'll be watching to see who ends up with a rather large amount of bitcoin donations...
There are rather effective ways to blacklist IP's that abuse ports. I think there's even a list out there. However, I've been running a BBS server for several years now, and I've rarely felt the need to do anything about any hammering on my ports. The one time I actually had to block anyone with IP rules was no matter what I did, I couldn't get Google to stop crawling FTP day and night. But other than that, I'll occasionally get one or two connects at a time sporadically thoughout the day from all over the world... not only on 23, but 22, 21, 80, you name it. As a parent poster commented, many older services still use 23, and blocking that port at the ISP level would put the hurt on end users to connect. I can certainly think of a few ways around it on older software, but it's nothing the casual end user would want to go through just to use a piece of software. If they're going to block more ports, they need to set up some flags for special businesses or industries. For instance, critical infrastructure businesses could have 23 blocked by default... but as a home user, I expect to pay for the full use of my Internet, not a crippled one. It boggles my mind that there are so many ISP's out there blocking 25; I'm fortunate to have an ISP that does not do that, and I'm able to receive my own email. I think everyone should be able to have that choice.
His recommendation at the bottom is for ISP's to start blocking port 23. I certainly hope that doesn't become a "solution". Many people like to host their own servers, and these default port blocks just make life horrible. The BBS hobby scene uses 23 quite a bit and would take a hit. Blocking ports is not an answer, and in fact I'd like to see the practice banned.
Unfortunately, until it's challenged and while the executive decides to follow through, it's law. We can petition the government for redress of our grievances, but that takes time and money, both of which are in short supply today. Or we can vote, but then again, the general public are too lazy and -- again -- don't have the time to follow and keep track of who's doing what to vote 'em out. It's a conundrum on how we're going to course correct things. Me? If I had the money, I'd run a huge nation wide compaign that features all the crazy stories of the last few years. Basically it'd be "Fuck the Dems, Fuck the Reps, Vote in the Libertarians". If within four years every single elected official in the federal government were voted out, along with ALL of BOTH parties...imagine the change. Yes, we can!
Have you read the Egyptian Constitution? I'm not surprised they didn't last long. One look at the Wikipedia article, which is just an outline of it, and I had enough.
I'm not rationalizing or dismissing anything, I'm simply making the point that this is what governments have been doing for the last couple thousand years. The last several hundred they've gotten better at it. Intelligence services were set up so that when military leaders need to take some actions, they have someone to turn to who has ready information at a moment's notice. A leader has someone to turn to when your ally has been accused of really bad things, when in fact nothing occurred. It's always been a rather nasty "industry", and was particularly gruesome in the Cold War years, but I don't see it going away. It's a part of the modern government now all across the world.
Actually, I think it's a good thing we're keeping tabs, because allegiances do change. Better to keep our guard up rather than let it down. This is what we pay them for. We're allies, working towards common goals, but NOT the same nation, and we'd damn sure want to keep these intelligence channels open in case something that's unthinkable now comes around tomorrow.
I agree with everything you just wrote. Ideally, I'd like to see the government reduced to the point we need no income tax. Some amount of taxation is required in order to fund any government, but it need not be income tax. Fees for governmental services and licenses, import/export taxes, and what have you. It worked for the first hundred years, no reason it can't work again. Let the states shoulder the burdens again, I say, and return from a large nation state to a nation of states.
This is one of the benefits of living in a large nation of states. We don't necessarily have to contribute to a large federal government in order to feel protected. We have brother states who can help us out. I'll give you an example. A large hurricane comes in and knocks down the southern half of Louisianna. Louisianna's resources are completely tapped out. Texas and Mississippi activate their state guard units and send them in. Actually, this is pretty much what happens now. Pretty much the only difference would be in the aftermath. Insurance takes care of the private citizenry (along with donations for those who don't have insurance). I'm not too sure what federal dollars usually take care of. I remember reading about how one local town didn't keep records of the thousands/millions it received and had to pay it back, so I would assume it's for rebuilding roads, purchasing replacement equipment, etc. The states can decide for themselves how much to put into a common pool. Texas, for instance, can afford to pay in a little more than California. Texans would not mind paying a slightly higher tax to help its neighbors. Texans do have a problem having that money taken without a good accounting, however, which is what's happening these days. Fucking PRISM. I wonder how much that costs, and we never knew about it. What else don't we know?
It should be pointed out that most libertarians aren't completely against taxation, they're against the amount of taxation that's currently ongoing. There's a general feeling right now that we aren't being completely represented appropriately. It's called taxation without representation, and is one of the things that led to the colonies desiring freedom. Of course, we're a little better off than they were, in that we are still represented by a vote... but it sucks that there's very few choices. A good example of a failed program sucking money is the entire Department of Education. It was founded to better the education of children. Politicians felt that by federalizing our education system, it could be done smarter and better. Here we are, thirty years later, and if anything we're worse off. Even the food is regulated, to boot. Every few years more money is thrown at it, and it becomes larger and more regulated, but scores don't change much. It should be done away with, and education given back to the states. With fifty states, the ones with the best system can get copied. Another program off the top of my head that can be done away with is the entire "war on drugs". It failed.
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I think the entire phone system could merge back into one company, and no one important will blink an eye. It's a different world. We now have various cellular companies offering phone service, not to mention hundreds (thousands?) of various sized VOIP internet companies.
For instance, in my household alone I use a cell phone and MagicJack each tied to a Google Voice number. We use Spectrum/TWC here. Landline company mergers won't even affect many of us.
While mergers could be a big problem for communities that are far from being served by cable or good cell service, it could be a nice incentive to start local internet co-ops.
You know the joke...
"10"
"10 months?"
"...9...8...7..."
Even if it is a real effect, I can't see a real use for it. For instance, someone said in another comment something to the effect that satellites could use it to maintain their orbits... except that the amount of thrust I see being mentioned likely wouldn't overcome atmospheric drag or solar wind. However, it is science worth exploring. Either the thrust is eventually found to be some unaccounted for noise, or we eventually figure out the science behind it. If it's real, the new ideas could be expanded to become something useful, or the ideas could find a use in another area.
The apps' share a common codebase. The data is different.
Parent isn't creating the executables, he's downloading them from "untrusted sources" and doing the (admirably) paranoid thing by opening them with WinRAR rather than trusting the executable.
If I remember correctly, auroras here on Earth are produced by charged particles being funneled into the atmosphere by our magnetic field, and the lights are produced by ionization of various elements in the process. However, I can't help but wonder if there would be any observable effects of a strong planetary magnetic field so close to the sun? In other words, would Mercury appear any different than it does now in our sky, viewed either against black space or as it traverses across the Sun?
If most of the ideas in the proposal pan out, you make it into the history books for all time. Most likely, the final plan would barely resemble anything that comes out of this, so it seems like more than a fair deal to me. This is just an example of a public private partnership in its simplest form. It'll save the government some time and money by jumpstarting the initial phase of designing a colony. And who better to lay out initial requirements than potential future colonists?
Ok, so we may be looking at an impulse drive, perhaps?
I wonder at what point they will move too far from their core mission and lose traction to some better service... and what will that new service look like?
I wonder if maybe attaching a PATRIOT extension to the bill might have anything to do with it dying.
Oh yeah, I also cut and pasted the verification link from the borked email (how many users would think to look at the raw source?), and healthcare.gov refused to verify using their own code they sent. WTF?
When is the government going to learn to fully test their sites before going public? I heard the user side of healthcare.gov is operational, so I went to check it out this morning. I create an account, get sent a verification email. I open the email using SeaMonkey's email client, and it's blank. I look at the raw source of the email, and the message content has a "Base64 decode error". Nowhere on the site is an option to resend, only a phone number to call (f*ck that). On a hunch, I do something I shouldn't be able to do, and create a second account with the same email address. It works (?!), and I receive a second email...with the same issue. Anyhow... I bring it up, because I go to check out this hot new site, and it's down with an internal server error. LOL
Rights can neither be granted, nor taken away. Basic rights are something that no one can give or take; they're more like ideas than actual things. Privileges are what most people think of today when they talk about rights. Guns are a good example: Let's say the Government finally decides citizens can't own pistols (for whatever reason). What's to stop me from owning one? I could own an unregistered pistol the rest of my life. Now, if I get caught with it, all kinds of nasty things may happen to me. Technically, my right to bear arms wouldn't have been infringed... I acted on my right. However, all sorts of other privileges may be taken away. But my basic human rights would still be there. If I wanted to arm myself, I could probably think of something to grab or use for protection, even if it's not a projectile weapon; I'd still be free to speak my mind however I choose; the list goes on. I may be doing all that from a jail cell, having lost most of my privileges of citizenship, but there's really not a lot government can do to actually "take away" rights except to make laws that scare you enough to not *exercise* those rights.
I believe the wallet itself was encrypted. I could be wrong -- I didn't pay much attention to the story at the time (Silk Road busted -- surprise, and Yet Another BitCoin Story), but I'm fairly certain I remember something about the founder having encrypted his wallet file. I'll go back and re-read the stories later, but my main point was that I find it interesting the government confiscates a bunch of bitcoins that are worth a decent penny, and now suddenly they're thinking of allowing bitcoin donations.
I find it very interesting that this news comes after the FBI shut down Silk Road, and obtained a rather large wallet. Anyone hear any news of that wallet being decrypted? If not, anyone know who's working on it? In any case, I'll be watching to see who ends up with a rather large amount of bitcoin donations...
Interesting, but I'd like to see articles where someone doing this has won cases with the utility company. Apparently, according to the following URL, the utility company can, and has, detected this directly. http://www.industrytap.com/electromagnetic-harvesters-free-lunch-or-theft/1805
There are rather effective ways to blacklist IP's that abuse ports. I think there's even a list out there. However, I've been running a BBS server for several years now, and I've rarely felt the need to do anything about any hammering on my ports. The one time I actually had to block anyone with IP rules was no matter what I did, I couldn't get Google to stop crawling FTP day and night. But other than that, I'll occasionally get one or two connects at a time sporadically thoughout the day from all over the world... not only on 23, but 22, 21, 80, you name it. As a parent poster commented, many older services still use 23, and blocking that port at the ISP level would put the hurt on end users to connect. I can certainly think of a few ways around it on older software, but it's nothing the casual end user would want to go through just to use a piece of software. If they're going to block more ports, they need to set up some flags for special businesses or industries. For instance, critical infrastructure businesses could have 23 blocked by default... but as a home user, I expect to pay for the full use of my Internet, not a crippled one. It boggles my mind that there are so many ISP's out there blocking 25; I'm fortunate to have an ISP that does not do that, and I'm able to receive my own email. I think everyone should be able to have that choice.
His recommendation at the bottom is for ISP's to start blocking port 23. I certainly hope that doesn't become a "solution". Many people like to host their own servers, and these default port blocks just make life horrible. The BBS hobby scene uses 23 quite a bit and would take a hit. Blocking ports is not an answer, and in fact I'd like to see the practice banned.
Unfortunately, until it's challenged and while the executive decides to follow through, it's law. We can petition the government for redress of our grievances, but that takes time and money, both of which are in short supply today. Or we can vote, but then again, the general public are too lazy and -- again -- don't have the time to follow and keep track of who's doing what to vote 'em out. It's a conundrum on how we're going to course correct things. Me? If I had the money, I'd run a huge nation wide compaign that features all the crazy stories of the last few years. Basically it'd be "Fuck the Dems, Fuck the Reps, Vote in the Libertarians". If within four years every single elected official in the federal government were voted out, along with ALL of BOTH parties...imagine the change. Yes, we can!
Have you read the Egyptian Constitution? I'm not surprised they didn't last long. One look at the Wikipedia article, which is just an outline of it, and I had enough.
I'm not rationalizing or dismissing anything, I'm simply making the point that this is what governments have been doing for the last couple thousand years. The last several hundred they've gotten better at it. Intelligence services were set up so that when military leaders need to take some actions, they have someone to turn to who has ready information at a moment's notice. A leader has someone to turn to when your ally has been accused of really bad things, when in fact nothing occurred. It's always been a rather nasty "industry", and was particularly gruesome in the Cold War years, but I don't see it going away. It's a part of the modern government now all across the world.
Actually, I think it's a good thing we're keeping tabs, because allegiances do change. Better to keep our guard up rather than let it down. This is what we pay them for. We're allies, working towards common goals, but NOT the same nation, and we'd damn sure want to keep these intelligence channels open in case something that's unthinkable now comes around tomorrow.
I agree with everything you just wrote. Ideally, I'd like to see the government reduced to the point we need no income tax. Some amount of taxation is required in order to fund any government, but it need not be income tax. Fees for governmental services and licenses, import/export taxes, and what have you. It worked for the first hundred years, no reason it can't work again. Let the states shoulder the burdens again, I say, and return from a large nation state to a nation of states.
This is one of the benefits of living in a large nation of states. We don't necessarily have to contribute to a large federal government in order to feel protected. We have brother states who can help us out. I'll give you an example. A large hurricane comes in and knocks down the southern half of Louisianna. Louisianna's resources are completely tapped out. Texas and Mississippi activate their state guard units and send them in. Actually, this is pretty much what happens now. Pretty much the only difference would be in the aftermath. Insurance takes care of the private citizenry (along with donations for those who don't have insurance). I'm not too sure what federal dollars usually take care of. I remember reading about how one local town didn't keep records of the thousands/millions it received and had to pay it back, so I would assume it's for rebuilding roads, purchasing replacement equipment, etc. The states can decide for themselves how much to put into a common pool. Texas, for instance, can afford to pay in a little more than California. Texans would not mind paying a slightly higher tax to help its neighbors. Texans do have a problem having that money taken without a good accounting, however, which is what's happening these days. Fucking PRISM. I wonder how much that costs, and we never knew about it. What else don't we know?
It should be pointed out that most libertarians aren't completely against taxation, they're against the amount of taxation that's currently ongoing. There's a general feeling right now that we aren't being completely represented appropriately. It's called taxation without representation, and is one of the things that led to the colonies desiring freedom. Of course, we're a little better off than they were, in that we are still represented by a vote... but it sucks that there's very few choices. A good example of a failed program sucking money is the entire Department of Education. It was founded to better the education of children. Politicians felt that by federalizing our education system, it could be done smarter and better. Here we are, thirty years later, and if anything we're worse off. Even the food is regulated, to boot. Every few years more money is thrown at it, and it becomes larger and more regulated, but scores don't change much. It should be done away with, and education given back to the states. With fifty states, the ones with the best system can get copied. Another program off the top of my head that can be done away with is the entire "war on drugs". It failed.